Cel Mates: Waltz with Bashir Conor Morgan March 13, 2015 CEL Mates, Features, Independent Waltz with Bashir is a 2008 Oscar-nominated Israeli animated documentary written and directed by Ari Folman. The film follows the director in his search to clarify to himself his role during the 1982 Lebanon...
Short of the Week – Le Gouffre Cameron Ward February 23, 2015 Features, Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/118471437 Having graduated just 3 years prior to their formation, small Canadian animation group Lightning Boy Studio has been working independently for 2 full years to create their...
Short of the Week – Caldera Cameron Ward December 15, 2014 Features, Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/62596239 Evan Vierra’s ethereal 2012 piece, Caldera, expertly explores the seemingly unliveable space between fantasy and actuality. Having witnessed firsthand his father’s own...
Short of the Week – Between Bears Cameron Ward December 8, 2014 Features, Independent, Short of the Week http://vimeo.com/13776542 Eran Hilleli's graduation film from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design is said to be 'a debt to my childhood, and other lives I hoped I lived.' Hilleli's clean, simple, and...
CEL Mates: It’s Such a Beautiful Day Nick Evan-Cook November 28, 2014 CEL Mates, Features, Independent 1 Comment Consisting of three 20-minute animated shorts, animator Don Hertzfeldt’s 2012 masterpiece It’s Such a Beautiful Day packs more pathos and melancholy into its one-hour tale of a stick man than most films...
CEL Mates: The Secret of Kells Conor Morgan November 19, 2014 CEL Mates, Features, Independent The Secret of Kells is a 2009 Irish-French-Belgian animated film starring Brendan Gleeson, Evan McGuire and Christen Mooney, directed by first-time Irish director Tomm Moore, for which he received an Academy...
The Book of Life – Review Tom Bond October 26, 2014 Reviews The Book of Life makes an intriguing attempt at exploring gender stereotypes, but often ends up reinforcing them. Maria (Saldana) ticks a few painfully clichéd feminist heroine boxes, but mostly she is never...
CEL Mates: Sita Sings The Blues Conor Morgan August 31, 2014 CEL Mates, Features, Independent Sita Sings the Blues is a 2008 film written, produced and directed by Nina Paley, who also features in the film. In a rather unorthodox fashion, the entire film is created using the Adobe animation program...
Adults and Animation – The Growing Acceptance of Animation Amongst Grown Ups Conor Morgan August 3, 2014 CEL Mates, Features, Independent Without a doubt, you will have heard the song Let It Go from Disney's animated film Frozen in the past few months. If you're saying you haven't, then you're lying - since its release in December, it's been...
The House of Magic (3D) – Review Cameron Ward July 22, 2014 Reviews Featuring near every children's tale trope, The House of Magic possesses little imagination beyond a slight fusion of Toy Story and Over the Hedge. Sassy chihuahuas emit crude one-liners, fat people fall...
CEL Mates: The Animatrix Conor Morgan July 15, 2014 CEL Mates, Features, Independent The Animatrix is a 2003 animated portmanteau film set in the Matrix universe. Released directly to video to coincide with the theatrical release of The Matrix Reloaded, it is comprised of nine individual short...
Win The LEGO® Movie On DVD! David Brake July 4, 2014 Competitions 2 Comments To celebrate the release of THE LEGO® MOVIE, AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL HD FROM JULY 7TH AND 3D, BLU-RAY AND DVD ON JULY 21ST, we've got a competition for five lucky people to win a copy of THE LEGO®...
How To Train Your Dragon 2 – Review Christopher Preston July 3, 2014 Reviews Dragons really are the myth du jour. Daenerys Targaryen’s beastly brood continues to incinerate all of HBO’s competition, while Smaug, Tolkien’s monstrous kleptomaniac, is looking to drag another $1bn of...
CEL Mates: A Town Called Panic Conor Morgan June 9, 2014 CEL Mates, Features, Independent Created by animators Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, A Town Called Panic is a 2009 Belgian stop-motion film that, whilst only 75 minutes long, is totally bonkers for every single one of them. The first...
CEL Mates: Mary and Max Conor Morgan May 28, 2014 CEL Mates, Features, Independent 1 Comment “Mary Dinkle’s eyes were the colour of muddy puddles. Her birthmark, the colour of poo.” These are the opening lines of Mary and Max, read in the lovely warm voice of Australian national treasure...