Wow, am I behind in my reviews. It seems like I saw this an eternity ago, or at least while summer was still fresh, and after all the other summer films have come and gone, this remains my favorite film not about Batman. Pixar knocked one out of the park with Wall•E. The film is absolutely gorgeous, the animation is luscious, their attention to detail is second to none. Wall•E's rust alone, the photo-realism of it, makes me want to cream in my pants in digital bliss.

Besides the obvious superior animation skills of Pixar, they plain understand how to tell a story. Wall•E is at once, the most romantic movie and the best sci-fi film of the year. For the first 30 minutes of the film there are no human character, and no talking, but the love that grows between Wall•E and EVE is a beautiful thing. These two robots, brought to life by, Star Wars sound designer, Ben Burt's beeps and boops, have more humanity in them and present more well rounded characters than 99% of the films coming out of Hollywood.

It's easy to say that I fell in love with the character of Wall•E, he's an amazing little guy. After the world is long destroyed by the humans, and all his robot brothers have decayed into nothingness, Wall•E continues his mission of cleaning up the planet, one tiny, crushed cube at a time. After many millennium, Wall•E has developed a personality; possibly from processing all our leftover junk, he's relentlessly curious about what's been left behind. The moment he reveals his collection is geek heaven. When EVE arrives on Earth for her important mission, Wall•E is lovestruck by her beauty, fascinated by her advanced robotics, and down-right infatuated, simply because he has no one else to connect with. When he follows her off Earth, he discovers what has become of the human race.

I'd love to spend some time writing in detail about this beautiful film, but there has been enough dissections of this near masterpiece, that mine will only become another small piece of the noise. Instead I'll post a few of my favorite Persepolis clips in hopes that these tastes will be enough to convince anyone, that hasn't seen this film, to seek it out.

Honestly when I saw the first previews for this film, I thought I’d skip it all together. It didn’t look good, didn’t seem fresh in any way. But my son hadn’t seen a movie in theaters in a few months, so we we’re dying to take him to anything. Maybe it was my low expectations, but I found myself truly enjoying Kung Fu Panda from beginning to end and actually came away thinking the film was a minor animation classic. It’s as good as, or better than some of the lesser Pixar films, and way better made than the Shrek or Ice Age films.

The film quickly brings you into this completely unique world, where all animal species live together in relative harmony. Where a duck raises a panda and that panda, named Po, dreams of becoming a kung-fu master. The animal kingdom lends itself well to the kung-fu styles, making the tiger, crane, snake, praying-mantis and monkey characters masters of each style named after them. Together they are the Furious Five. It is them that Po looks up and has dreams of one day joining. His father’s profession as a noodle maker, has no appeal. During a ceremony naming who will become the Dragon Master, Po stumbles his way into the path of the master Tortoise Oogway and is named the one who will unite the group, even though his kung-fu skills are extremely limited. It’s up to their leader Shifu to train Po to become a kung-fu master. Making things even more precarious, is a ferocious Panther, Tai Lung, who has just escaped the ultimate prison and is on his way to claim the title Dragon Master.

The scene where Tai Lung escapes the prison makes the film worth seeing on its own, he is such an incredible bad-ass that he has a prison all to himself, buried miles under the ground, surrounded by thousands of armed rhinos. His fight to get out, is some of the most impressive kung-fu ever brought to screen. The film is chalk full of wonderful fight scenes, that will impress the most die-hard of kung-fu fans, yet are gentle enough for little ones to enjoy. Although they may come away punching and kicking the air. The world the filmmakers have built is extremely gorgeous, modeled after ancient China. The most satisfying thing about the film, is that it's completely its own world, there are no pop-culture references to bring you out of the story, it’s a story that will remain timeless.

The one thing that may be a deal breaker for some people is Jack Black, he voices Po, who is in 95% of the film, with his character and humor being very much Jack Black. I for one enjoy his comedy stylings, so I really liked the character, but others might not. The voice work of the other characters is very well done, I especially like Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu and Ian McShane as Tai Lung. The rest of the Furious Five are recognizable voices, including Angelina Jolie as Tigress, but none are distracting, falling easily into character. Kung Fu Panda is an extremely well put together film, for an animated family film or not, it’s got elements for everyone and at the same time doesn’t stoop to making tasteless jokes that only adults will get. The film has a nice message about finding and believing in yourself, while also kicking some serious butt. – Grade: A- (Seen on 6/21/08)

I watched four animated films one week early in June. Well, one technically isn't an animated film, but Speed Racer besides the actors, is probably over 50% computer graphics, it's pretty much a live action cartoon. It was actually the 2nd time I'd seen the film, making me one of the few who paid to see it twice in theaters. My son was begging to see it again, and hell, I was so impressed the first time around, that I was willing to see it again. Read my full review on this completely underrated, way-before-its-time film.

(Seen on 6/4/08) I'd been wanting to show my son the animated Transformers: The Movie, for a while, but didn't think my wife would let him watch all the violence. But after taking him to see Speed Racer twice, I figured he could handle it. He ended up loving the film, and has probably watched it at least 10 times since then. He knew about the Transformers before I ever showed him the movie. It's amazing how pop culture invades the minds of kids. He knows about Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, etc.; he and his friends have the funniest conversations about Darth Vader, when they haven't seen a frame of these films.

Since I was little, I've always dug the Transformers movie. They took a cheesy show, that I loved as a kid, and made a fairly sophisticated film out of it. Suddenly there were circumstances to all those laser blasts. Robots are dying all over the place, including the most famous and powerful of them all, Optimus Prime. It was incredible as a kid to see the hero of the film die within the first 30 minutes; in my opinion, they killed him off too soon, it would have been more powerful to see him die towards the end, after we had a chance to get to know him better.

The film is nicely animated, there's good detail and a lot of movement, it's way beyond the TV show, which looking back now, was one of the better animated shows of the 80's. The film has great voice work by Leonard Nimoy, Judd Nelson, Eric Idle, and most amazingly, film legend Orson Welles, as Unicron the planet eating robot. The film is only dated by the music. Its soundtrack is chock full of a cheesy 80's pop-rock songs, and that's the only thing that really bugs me about the film now. It holds up pretty damn well for an 80's movie based on a toy line; I remain impressed by the quality of this film. - Grade: B

(Seen on 6/1/08) I bought Atlantis: The Lost Empire, with a couple other recent Disney films; Brother Bear was the first film we watched. And my son had already watched Atlantis without me, but since I had never seen it, I made him watch it again, which he didn't seem to excited about. For a Walt Disney film, it's incredibly underwhelming. It has their typical animation style, which is always welcome, but the story is boring and the characters forgettable.

Milo Hatch, played by Michael J. Fox, who I really miss as an actor, has a lifetime dream of finding Atlantis. His chance comes when a well funded exploration group asks to him to lead them. Luckily his grandfather left him a book, that only he can translate, which leads them directly there. After taking a huge submarine through the depths of the ocean, than a convoy of military vehicles deep into the center of the earth, they find the lost empire Atlantis. There, Milo meets a beautiful princess, whose society is crumbling around her. The military guys, have alternative motives for wanting to find Atlantis, and they steal everything not tied down. Milo, the princess, and a motley group of explorers he's befriended along the way, take it upon themselves to stop them.

(Seen on 6/3/08) The last animated movie was something I couldn't watch with my son, the anime film Paprika. My knowledge of anime is very limited, it's pretty much Akira and Hayao Miyazaki's films. (Who my son totally adores.) I've seen 10 to 20 other random anime films, but nothing I can fully remember, half of them involving a monster with a lot of tentacles attacking Japanese school-girls, most of them pretty bad. It's a genre that I've always meant to explore more, but I haven't been compelled to beyond Miyazaki's masterpieces. I'd read some raving reviews for Paprika and when I went to put it in my queue, Netflix had a page full of 5 star reviews, so I hesitantly put it towards the top of my rather long list.

Which is really too bad, because I'm going to take another break from anime. Here's a film that was raved upon by film buffs, a subject that is very near to my heart, beautiful hand-drawn animation, something I deeply miss, and I was bored to tears. The opening five minutes (which I've posted below) really grabbed my attention, but the characters take forever to move beyond that, they keep exploring that same dream over and over. I did dig the idea of somebody using this dream device to take over the world, by attacking people's unconscious minds, but it seemed secondary, and by the time there was a huge battle between gigantic dream gods in the middle of Tokyo, I didn't care. Obviously the film works for some people, I wish it had for me, but it didn't. - Grade: C-

(Seen on 5/18/08) I bought a batch of the last few hand-drawn, animated Disney films for my son’s birthday; Home on the Range, Atlantis, Treasure Planet and Brother Bear. Mostly as some new films to watch together, but also because I miss this quickly disappearing art form. As they all came long after I’d grown up, the only one I’d seen before was Home on the Range, but I found each for a couple bucks each, so I figured “why not?” Brother Bear was the first of the bunch he wanted to watch.

It’s certainly nowhere near the quality of some of Disney’s earlier animated films, but it’s a worthwhile distraction for both adults and children. The only thing I truly didn’t like about the film, were two cheesy Phil Collins ballads. The animation is beautifully realistic, they manage to capture some of the majesty of the North American forest, long before we started to clear-cut much of it out of existence. It’s sad to think that American studios have given up on this style completely.

It’s great to watch as the young Indian cub Kenai and his brothers explore the woods and live life with their tribe. It’s Kenai’s coming-of-age night, and he’s about to be given his spirit guide by the tribe’s leader. He doesn’t understand when she tells him that love will lead his life. Soon he discovers that, due to his own negligence, a bear has stolen the fish he and his brother’s have just caught.

Mostly out of anger due to his misunderstanding of his spirit guide, he chases after the bear, getting himself into grave danger. When his older brother comes to his rescue, he loses his life in the process,and now Kenai’s even angrier. (The loss of a key family member is a standard turning point in a Disney characters life.) Now he’s determined to kill the bear, and when he manages to, the spirits overtake him and turn him into a bear himself. The middle brother, who was trying to dissuade Kenai, now believes he’s lost two brothers to the same bear is hunting him. Kenai learns some valuable life lessons about what life’s like from the other side. Along the way he befriends a young, lost bear and helps him find the way to the fishing grounds. Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis add some good humor as a couple of Canadian moose; and throw around some Strange Brew jokes, one of my favorite guilty pleasure comedies.

This being a Disney film, everything about the film is completely predictable to those who know their films; which is everybody. There are the usual family film messages about learning who you really are, and what your place should be in the world. The film is nicely made though; not beating us over the head with the messages, the characters never break into song and are well voiced by Joaquin Phoenix, D.B. Sweeny, Jeremy Suarez and others. But it’s the failure of this and a few other Disney films to evolve beyond these clichés, their disappointing takes at the Box Office and obviously the rise of Pixar and computer animation, that lead to the death of traditional animation or at least it’s ghettoizing to straight-to-video. Brother Bear, isn’t going to bring back the memories of the Disney greats, but it’s a decent family film, with a good heart. – Grade: C+

I'm a huge Seinfeld fan, in my book, it goes The Simpsons, then Seinfeld as my all-time favorite TV shows. So I was a little excited when I heard he was finally creating something new, even if it was another computer-animated family film about insects. The film does have some of that Seinfeld humor, but it also has a lot of standard, family style jokes that don't really stand out. The film is the same way, a few stand out moments, a lot of average, forgettable bits. It has the standard kid movie plot of a character figuring out who they are.

Seinfeld plays Barry B. Benson, who has just graduated from Bee college, and is about to go into the only business available to him, Honex, where they make honey. He gets only one real choice in life, which job he wants; he can stir the honey, clean the honey, take care of the drips, and a hundred other things, all revolving around honey. After he makes that decision, he's stuck with it until he dies. While it's nothing for every bee around him, for some reason he can't bring himself to make the choice. He wants to try live more first, but mostly he wants out of the hive, to see the world.

His chance comes, when some of the pollen jocks take a liking to him and decide to take him out with them. After some close calls with a tennis ball, rain and a boot, his whole world changes when he meets a human woman Vanessa, ho after the initial shock of talking to a bee, they form a fast friendship. Through her, he learns about the world conspiracy of humans stealing bee's honey for their own use. He discovers what he believes is his life's mission, to take back what is rightfully theirs; and he sues the entire human race to get the honey back. Of course there is more too it than that, and through it he discovers the true meaning of his life and begins to value his bee community.

Bee Movie has a nice message about finding yourself and your place in the world, without beating you over the head with it. What they do beat to death is the bee jokes, they're constantly throwing them at you, everything from Barry's name, to his wardrobe, to the constant honey references. It's the obvious thing to do, and instead of using them in the right situation to get the biggest laughs out of them, the use them up within 5 minutes and after that get very tired, very quickly. The Seinfeld humor, the simple observations of everyday life, are the best thing about the film, but there's not enough of it; I was disappointed in his script, the film doesn't feel fresh, uses way too many old or obvious jokes that have been seen a hundred times before.

The animation is good enough, it doesn't distract you, but doesn't blow you away either. The voice work by Jerry Seinfeld is fun, Rene Zellweger is fine as Vanessa, though I don't think she's done anything totally worthwhile since the first Bridget Jones Diary. Chris Rock does some really funny work as a crazy mosquito, Patrick Warburton and his deep voice, shows up in about his 10th animated film in as many years, and does his typical reliable thing. There's a few cameo's that work and don't, did we really need another Larry King appearance, might as well have had Jay Leno show up again, the Ray Liotta cameo was a bit more inspired, but the joke will fly over any kid's head, since they won't have a clue who he is in real life.

Bee Movie might be worth checking out if you have kids, just to see something new, and it's not too bad of a film, and a lot of the humor is aimed at the adults. But it's not very good either, if you don't have kids, and aren't a big Seinfeld fan or animation buff, I can't see a reason to bother with it. - Grade: C+

I've said in the past that I miss Disney's traditional 2D hand drawn animation. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's making a comeback anytime soon, so Enchanted is probably the closest thing we're going to get. I'll also admit that I enjoy the mixture of animation of live-action, a surreal quality that I've yet to get over. Those qualities and the good reviews that it received, I was somewhat excited to see this film aimed at 10-year-old girls. I was also hoping that my son might enjoy it, and as always he was my excuse to watch it.

The first 15 minutes is a bit of a send-up of Disney's classic damsel in distress, waiting for her prince to rescue her storyline, Cinderella and Snow White are the most obvious inspirations, but you'll notice touches from a lot of their films. The animation is nicely done, but seems kind of soft, it doesn't have the crispness of their prior films; I'm guessing they were going for a girlie kind of look. That's the main problem I had with the film, it's way too girlie. I know that's pretty much the point, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if they'd reigned in the sappiness.

I liked a lot of the story, it's completely predictable that Gisele will learn and grow as a person, from her blind happily ever after persona, to a more real life woman. It's also obvious as to who she's going to end up with, exactly when and how. But this is a film for little girls, so I wasn't expecting any surprises. I was hoping for a little more spark to it all, any time Dempsey shows up, he seems to suck all the energy out of the film.

Enchanted is a cute and fairly well made film. It starts off very inspired with the great spoof of Disney classics; I especially liked the Happy Working Song, where Gisele uses her magical voice to get the animals of New York, rats, pigeons and cockroaches to help her clean Dempsey's apartment. But somewhere in the 2nd act, it becomes a fairly typical romantic comedy, with a bit of fantasy twist, and the songs become a lot lamer. I did think the dragon at the end was fairly cool to watch, and there was a slight twist in who goes after it. If you have a young girl in the house, this is very likely already a favorite; for the boys, I think I enjoyed it more than my son, and we won't bother buying it for him. - Grade: C+

Since anybody who would bother to read this site has a 99.9% chance of already seeing Dumbo, I won't bother with a review. I'll simply post a few clips.

The first is the original 1941 trailer. Amazing, simply for how different they used to advertise films.

My favorite scene in the film, "Pink Elephants on Parade". Again amazing, for how times have changed. You could never get away with a scene of a drunk character, that turns out to be this trippy in a G rated film these days. Gorgeously hand animated, they simply don't make them like this anymore.

My 2nd favorite scene, which might be considered racist by some, and I can understand their point of view, but I choose not to see it that way, and simply enjoy it as a wonderful musical number. I love most of the music in these classic Disney films, they're entertaining and move the plot along. The later Disney films, once the characters start singing, it brings the whole movie to a stop. Enjoy, "When I See an Elephant Fly."

I didn't think too much of the trailer for Horton Hears A Who, it didn't make it look like a particularly good film. And I abhor the uber-celebrity casting for these animated films, it usually ends up being more distracting than anything, as I always imagine these stars behind the mic, instead of getting involved in their characters. I honestly haven't been that impressed with the latest crop of computer-animated films outside of Pixar's work and the inspired Surf's Up; the magic has worn off, and most of them have become as bland as any standard Hollywood production. But it had been a few months since anything kid friendly had been released, and we wanted to take our son to see something, and this was the only thing that fit the bill.

Like every American kid I grew up on Dr. Suess books, I love everything about them and still do; they are my favorite thing to read to my son. Sadly we haven't had a good Dr. Suess film adaptation, since the original animated Christmas classic, How the Grinch Who Stole Christmas; the two live action adaptations, The Grinch and The Cat and the Hat both landed somewhere between slightly bearable and putrid. So I didn't have great expectations for Horton Hears A Who, but as soon as the first scene started to roll, they started to rise. The film gorgeously creates the great adventure of a drop of dew rolling and falling through the entire jungle of Nool, before it knocks loose a tiny speck, that is in fact the world of Whoville.

The speck is sent floating by Horton, a happy, go-lucky elephant, who is swimming in a nearby stream. With his huge ears, Horton is able to hear the quiet screams of the Who's as their tiny world goes floating by; he manages to save them, just before they're dunked in the water. Jim Carrey is really wonderful as Horton, I thought he might get to crazy with the role, but the filmmakers keep him mostly reigned in and in character. Steve Carrell is also good as the Mayor of Whoville, who Horton communicates with, and promises to save their world by placing their speck on a protected flower at the top of the tallest mountain in Nool. Carol Burnett plays Kangaroo, a cranky WASP of woman, who doesn't like Horton's large heart and imagination influencing the jungle's children. Unable to keep her prejudices to herself, she sicks a nasty Vulture on Horton; and then to really make sure he doesn't complete his quest, organizes a huge rally of animals, by playing with their fears.

I was really surprised by how caught up in it all that I got. The way they present this children's story, translates so well to so many aspects of our real life issues, that it took it to a whole new level. I guess the anti-abortionists have grabbed on to Horton's saying "A person 's a person, no matter how small they are."; which fits for their purposes, but I took it to mean, that a person is a person, no matter the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, their religion, whether they have disabilities or not; meaning that no one should be discriminated against, no matter what, and that's a wonderful message to convey to kids, and it's done in a very entertaining way.

The film is beautifully animated, the opening scene as they fly through the jungle is so luscious that it looks more real than real; all the characters are very nicely created and done in a true Suess style. The narrator reading lines directly from the book, is a very nice touch. They don't ham up the story with all kinds of pop-culture references, keeping it timeless. I felt there was only one small misstep in the entire film; when the characters all break into song for a few minutes, but it was brief, mostly the film stays very classic. If every Dr. Suess book could be as faithfully adapted as Horton Hears A Who, I'd tell Hollywood to bring on as many as they can make. Unfortunately I don't think that's realistic. - Grade: B+

I didn't love or hate Meet the Robinsons, it's a fairly bland and harmless film. The animation isn't particularly beautiful or well done, but it's not bad either. The story is pretty fun, some of the characters are great, I really liked the "bowler hat guy" as the bad guy, he's hilariously inept in his efforts to foil the hero's plans; I especially dug when he brings the dinosaur to the future to help him, funny stuff.

Young Lewis is an orphan, who is a genius at science, is constantly inventing amazing gadgets. He's desperate to find out who his family is, and invents a machine that will dig deep into his subconscious and find out who is mother is. Before he's able to use it, a kid from the future, comes to find him, because he needs his science expertise. Once in the future, Lewis meets the boy's family and falls in love. It's fairly obvious what's going to happen, and who they really are. I was able to figure it out from the trailer; but for a kid, it's a nice story. The one surprising thing is who the villain really is; and what happens when they succeed in their dastardly plans.

If you're sick of watching the same kid movies over and over, the way I am, this is a decent film for a young one. But it's probably not going to become a family favorite. - Grade: C

In the first moments of my first viewing of the trailer for this film, my thought was, "exactly what the world doesn't need, another computer animated film about penguins." But the trailer began to grow on me, it seemed like something I might enjoy. Sometimes it's good to have a kid for exactly that reason. I probably would have felt a slight twinge of embarrassment buying tickets for this on my own, but with a three-year-old in tow, it was no problem; and in the end I think I enjoyed the film more than him. When we bought the DVD, I was happy for another chance to watch the film, and glad to have something well made for my son to watch a hundred times.

What I like most about Surf's Up is the documentary aspect. From a style perspective, Hollywood computer animated films are about as safe a genre as you can find. You don't often see someone trying to push the envelope; everything is pretty much straight forward, letting the ideas drive the film, instead of reaching for any kind of new artistry. As a fan of surfing documentaries; from Endless Summer to Riding Giants; I love that they pull those aesthetics into the crisp clean world of CGI. In telling the story of Cody Maverick, the film goes through scratchy Super-8 footage, old washed-out photos, TV coverage of surfing events, hand-held cameras, and they even have the filmmakers talking to the subjects from off-screen. Fairly gutsy stuff for a family film about talking penguins.

They did an impeccable job in casting as well; I love Shia LaBeouf as Cody, he gives the character a good mix of cockiness and self-doubt, plus he just sounds like a surfer. And you couldn't do any better than Jeff "The Dude" Bridges as the old surf guru Big Z. Zooey Deschanel has been a personal favorite of mine since Almost Famous, she's fine here as Cody's love interest, but she honestly isn't that memorable. Jon Heder is good, as he does his typical goofy thing as Chicken Joe, he gets in some good one liners. Diedrich Bader is a highlight as Tank Evans, Cody's nemesis, he's hilarious throughout the film. Even though the film is full of "names", the celebrity casting for this film isn't as obnoxious as something like the Shrek sequels; the filmmakers actually seem to be focusing on what's good for the character, instead of another name for the poster.

The story is fairly straight-forward. Cody Maverick grew up a bit different, he's the only surfer in his small "town" in Antarctica. His family doesn't understand him, and they try to squash his dream. When a surfing scout shows up, on the back of a whale, Cody forces his way on board, and takes a trip to Hawaii for the Big Z Open. Big Z is Cody's hero, who everyone believes died ten years before; Cody discovers him living in hiding, having given up surfing long ago. The two become friends, through each other they rediscover the joy of life and surfing, Tank gets his comeuppance and everything ends happily for everyone else. It's a kids movie.

Directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck, they have created a nice little gem. It has a very sweet spirit to it, a soul hidden beneath it's commercial facade. I enjoyed the documentary style, which they stick to fairly faithfully, except for one scene where they go riding through some lava tubes. I appreciated that the humor didn't rely on pokes at pop-culture, so the film will remain fairly timeless. If Brad Bird and the geniuses at Pixar hadn't created the wonderful Ratatouille, I would have considered Surf's Up the best animated film of 2007. It's far better than the other animated penguin movie Happy Feet; it has a nice message to it, but doesn't cram it down your throat like that film. I think that it would make a nice addition to any family's DVD collection; and that even childless film buffs can enjoy it from a filmmaking perspective. - Grade: B+

Normally our family doesn't go anywhere near any of the animated Disney sequels. I've never watched one in it's entirety, but from the trailers and small peaks I've seen, they look completely awful. Total bastardizations of the classics that preceded them. So when we saw the trailer for the sequel to Lilo & Stitch on one of our 50 Disney DVDs, it actually looked like it was well animated, that they'd maybe put a smidgen of care into it. Always on the lookout for new animated films for our son, especially of the hand-drawn variety, I thought I'd give it a chance.

While not nearly as good as the original film, Stitch has a Glitch is a decent follow-up. The film takes up right where the last one left off. Stitch is living with his new family, Lilo and her big sister Nani, also moving in are the odd couple aliens Jumba and Pleakley. Everything has turned out okay and the family has moved on to a somewhat normal life. The big event in Lilo's life is a hula contest she wants to enter with Stitch's help. They get some inspiration from their idol, Elvis.

The problem comes when Stitch starts to go a little wacko. Back when Dr. Jumba was making him, Stitch didn't get fully charged up, he is now losing power, reverting to his core programming, with outbursts of destruction, which of course hit at the least opportune moments. Stitch, not wanting to hurt his new family, decides to leave the planet for the safety of everyone. The family tries to stop him, and the film comes to a surprisingly touching ending.

While the main story of Stitch going bad again is satisfying, the rest of the film feels like filler, nothing of note really happens. But the film runs a short 70 minutes, so there's not a ton to complain about. Thankfully all the original voices return, with the exception of Lilo, who is now played by I'm-everywhere-girl Dakota Fanning. I'm not sure why they decided to change, her famous voice is kind of distracting, but the little ones won't notice. If you liked the original film, Stitch has a Glitch is a worthy sequel. The truth came, when my son asked to watch it again the following morning, which means he liked it.

Watched this with my son. Great Disney classic. Beautifully animated. I love how it plays almost as a silent film at times. The death of Bambi's mother was especially painful now that I'm a parent. But I don't feel like taking the time to write a review.

I won't even bother with posting the trailer, so you'll find the brilliant Bambi vs. Godzilla short instead.

My aunt got out an old VHS tape of The Snowman for the kids to watch a few nights before Christmas. (Yes, I'm very behind on my reviews.) Her jaw dropped when she heard I hadn't seen it. I'm not quite sure how I made it through my childhood without ever seeing this film. Adapted from a famous children's book of the same name, this television film came out in 1982, the peak of my childhood.

The story is basic but beautiful. One night a child brings the snowman he made to life and they share the wonders of the world together. The boy shows the snowman his home, and the snowman takes flight with the boy and they visit with all the other magical snowmen of the North Pole and Santa himself.

The film is beautifully animated, it looks just like a children's book. It's far simpler and much more magical, than most of the traditional children's Christmas shows. I'm sad that I missed it during my childhood, but I'll make sure to make it a tradition for my son.

View the entire film below.

I was a huge fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a kid; I watched the cartoon, all the films, played the awesome video game, and played with the action figures. So I was a little excited when I saw they were updating the characters with a CGI film. I didn't expect much. But I hoped that it would be good enough to entertain me and my 3-year-old son for 90 minutes. He sort of lost interest pretty quickly, but I had an okay time with it. Enough to maybe try to get him to watch it again in a few years. Not a bad entry into the lexicon, not as good as the first film, but better than the sequels.