Ice Age: Collision Course (2016) – Review

ICE AGE collision course review

Ice Age, made by Blue Skies Studios is in some regards comparable to Carl Douglas. This artist scored a hit in 1974 with the song Kung Fu Fighting. After that he kept making songs with the same theme, hoping he would be able to have the same success as he had with the original. A couple of years ago I saw a documentary where he was saying he was making a new remix, still trying to make money on that one good idea he once had during pop history. When you look at Ice Age, the first movie was successful both financially as critically. And although the sequels still made enough money, the scores on Rotten Tomatoes tell another story how critics received it. The original had a score of 77%, but the sequels that followed scored 57%, 45% and 37%. Of course Blue Skies has made other movies besides Ice Age (Rio, Epic and the Peanuts movie), but would it be better that the studio faces reality and let these prehistoric animals go extinct? Continue reading

Minions (2015) – Review

Review Minions

It’s funny to see how certain characters in entertainment become so popular that they are actually more popular than the main characters themselves. This was the case with the Rabbits in the Rayman games where the funny, but also very stupid bunnies eventually got their own games and TV show. In the Despicable Me movies the minions were responsible for comic relief and those were the moments that were often the most fun. A spinoff with just these funny yellow figures was bound to happen (just like a flood of merchandise from dolls to “fart guns”). However, are these characters entertaining enough to fill an entire movie? Continue reading

Ooops! Noah is Gone… (2015)

Beestenboot recensie

As a father and movielover there are moments I have been looking forward to for a while. When your children are growing up you want to teach them a lot of things and sharing my passion for movies definitely is one of them. I already started doing that at home by showing the youngest one movies like Dumbo, Ponyo and Fantasia, but I was waiting for the moment that my four-year old was ready to go to the cinema for the first time. I waited a while because I didn’t want to do it too early as the experience could be too overwhelming and resulting in her not willing to go anymore for a couple of years. But earlier this year I felt that the moment was there to try when she saw the posters for this film and told me she wanted to see it. After a quick check online to see if it was a movie that was right for her, it was time to head to the cinema. Continue reading

World of Tomorrow (2015)

Review World of Tomorrow

Ever since I saw the hilarious/absurd/shocking, Oscar-nominated Rejected (you can check it out on Youtube) by Don Hertzfeldt, I was a fan of both his animation style and his humour. When I heard earlier this year that he had made a new short I was curious about it. His drawings might be considered simple, but he always succeeds in getting his intention across. For this short, it’s 17 minutes, he recorded conversations he had with his 4-year-old niece, Winona Mae and used these for a story about an impressive journey to the future. Continue reading

The Wind Rises (2013)

Review The Wind Rises

When it comes to the field of animation Hayao Miyazaki is a living legend. He co-founded Studio Ghibli, an animation studio known for its high quality animated films, including My Neighbour Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away. Miyazaki has been working in the industry for more than 60 years and thus it was inevitable for him to announce his retirement. Before he did do that though he has worked on his The Wind Rises, which will be his last movie. Continue reading

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013)

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2 review

Thanks to its huge load of successful jokes, an original story and beautifully rendered, delicious food, the first Cloud with a Chance of Meatballs was an unexpected success. The story about how inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) designs a machine that can change water into food, the FLDSMDFR, which broke and made it rain food was very entertaining. When animated movies are a success you can always expect a second movie to be made, which is now available on DVD and Blu Ray. The FLDSMDFR, which seemed to have been disabled in the first movie, seems to still be working. Instead of influencing the weather it now creates something else: Living food, foodimals. Continue reading

Monsters Inc. (2001)

After recently watching Monsters University I just had to revisit the movie which made me fall in love with its world, Monsters Inc. Although I remembered most of the story it was good to see it again and at the same time see if the two movies are consistent (the quick answer: not entirely) Continue reading

Delgo (2008)

Review of the animated movie Delgo

If it wasn’t for the its reputation, I would have never known about Delgo. Chances are you have never heard of it either, but it’s a movie known as one of the biggest wide-screen release flops of all time. This 40 million dollar animated movie opened in over 2000 screens and only made around 500,000 dollars in its first weekend. Now I’m not someone who cares much for numbers, because they don’t say a thing about quality, but for this movie I was intrigued. Why were they so bad, was it badly marketed, a movie released at the wrong time or just a really bad movie? Continue reading

Steamboy (2004)

Steamboy (2004) review

Steam. You might think the good old days when it was used to propel trains and boats are over and that it’s a technology of the past, but you’d be mistaken as it’s still used in nuclear powerplants to get the generators going. To me it’s amazing to think that such an old idea is still in use today. Steamboy is an anime in which steam is seen as the future and can be used for progress. Continue reading

Mary and Max (2009)

Looking at the screenshot above you might not know what to think of this movie. I probably would not have giving this movie a chance if I hadn’t seen it in the IMDB top 250. It made me curious about it, but didn’t get around to ordering it (usually buy my movies online). As I strolled through town I saw it in the window of a small record store and immediately went in to buy it. So is it any good? Continue reading