April and the Extraordinary World (2016; Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes Pure enjoyment, but then I’ve always been in the bag for humanist sci-fi, lizards wearing robot armor, unusual and meticulous production design, and adventure stories where one of the heroes is a […]
Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet (2015; Roger Allers et al.) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes An animated passion project shepherded to the screen by Salma Hayek, the hugely promising Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet arrives in theaters as a decidedly mixed bag. Gorgeous sequences of highly individualized, hand-drawn animation from […]
When Marnie Was There (2015; Hiromasa Yonebayashi) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes Hand-drawn animation stalwarts Studio Ghibli shut down production late August following the retirement of guiding light Hiyao Miyazaki. Therefore, When Marnie Was There may be the last feature film we see under the Ghibli label in […]
Cheatin’ (2015; Bill Plympton) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes In a genre overwhelmingly dominated by major studios, nine-digit budgets, digital animation, wisecracking animals, A-list voice casts, and costly pop song licensing rights, animator Bill Plympton remains an iconoclast. Cheatin’, which premiered at Slamdance 2014 but is only now […]
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014; Dean DeBlois) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes “Decreased Stakes” Perhaps it is unfair to hold a film sequel up to the light of its predecessor, but How to Train Your Dragon 2 fairly groans with the strain of stretching a cute concept […]
