By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Adapting the popular game to the screen, The Angry Birds Movie centres on Red (Jason Sudeikas), an ornery avian who lives on an island where everyone is supposed to be happy, and is sentenced to anger management classes after having a tantrum. There, Red meets the hyperactive Chuck (Josh Gad) and the explosive… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Angry Birds Movie
By John Corrado The third film in the popular series, Kung Fu Panda 3 follows Dragon Warrior Po (Jack Black) as he reunites with his birth father (Bryan Cranston), and has to save their panda village from the otherworldly villain Kai (J.K. Simmons). Boasting beautifully rendered animation, and enough heartfelt themes to make it resonate… Read More Blu-ray Release: Kung Fu Panda 3
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) An animal-focused adventure from Illumination Entertainment, the same studio behind the Despicable Me franchise, The Secret Life of Pets is an enjoyable caper that injects cute characters into a familiar formula to offer a fast-paced and easily likeable diversion. The prologue introduces us to Max (Louis C.K.), an adorable… Read More Review: The Secret Life of Pets
Finding Dory Review By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Arriving thirteen years after the huge success of Finding Nemo, Finding Dory joins the ranks of rare sequels that we didn’t think we needed, but turn out to be emotionally resonant continuations of the stories set in motion by their predecessors. Pixar has a long history… Read More Three Views: Finding Dory
By John Corrado It’s hard to believe that it has been fifteen years since Shrek was released. I was a kid when the film came out in 2001, and my first experience with it was on a VHS tape. Now things have come full circle with a brand new Blu-ray to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of this… Read More Blu-ray Release: Shrek: Anniversary Edition
By John Corrado My favourite movie of the year so far, Zootopia takes place in a seemingly utopic mammal metropolis where animals start mysteriously going missing, forcing newly recruited bunny police officer Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) to work with the smooth con artist fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) to solve the case, uncovering deep rooted fear… Read More Blu-ray Release: Zootopia
By John Corrado A unique and critically acclaimed animated film from co-directors Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, Anomalisa follows Michael (David Thewlis), a depressed and lonely customer service expert who has a chance encounter with Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a shy woman who is seemingly not like everyone else, at a hotel in Cincinnatti. Watching Anomalisa again,… Read More Blu-ray Release: Anomalisa
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) “Growing up isn’t the problem, forgetting is.” Although not a direct quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s original book, this message perfectly encapsulates the enduring resonance of his story and is one of the most poignant lines of dialogue that has been added to The Little Prince. Directed by Mark Osborne, this… Read More Review: The Little Prince
By John Corrado A few weeks back, the animated special Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade was released on iTunes. When the eggs that Sid (John Leguizamo) is supposed to be watching are taken by a pirate bunny (Seth Green), it’s up to the rest of the gang to find them, thus creating a new Easter tradition. Very… Read More Digital Release: Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade
Zootopia Review By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) For a film intent on subverting stereotypes, Zootopia slyly upends our expectations of animated animal entertainment, using its all-mammal metropolis to explore timely and thought provoking themes of racism and cultural prejudices, through a plot rich with mature and surprisingly resonant political allegories. Following hits like Big Hero… Read More Three Views: Zootopia
By John Corrado Today, Disney•Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur is being released on Blu-ray. The film imagines a world where dinosaurs never went extinct and follows Arlo (Raymond Ochoa), a scared young apatosaurus who becomes separated from his family when tragedy strikes, and forms a bond with a feral human child named Spot (Jack Bright), as they… Read More Blu-ray Release: The Good Dinosaur
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Today, Disney Junior is releasing The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar on DVD. A TV special that aired last fall to kick off the new animated series, the story follows Simba (Rob Lowe) and Nala’s (Gabrielle Union) second born son Kion (Max Charles), who is assigned to lead the Lion… Read More DVD Review: The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest tale in DreamWorks Animation’s surprisingly engaging saga, Kung Fu Panda 3 finds unlikely Dragon Warrior Po (Jack Black) reunited with his birth father (Bryan Cranston), and taken back to the secret panda village where he was born. But all of China is being threatened by the… Read More Review: Kung Fu Panda 3
By John Corrado Today, Disney is releasing their beloved 1937 classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on Blu-ray, to kick off their new Signature Collection series. Famously voiced by Adriana Caselotti, Snow White is a charming princess who escapes the clutches of the evil Queen (Lucilla La Verne), and finds herself in the forest… Read More Blu-ray Release: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Signature Collection
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Today, Sony Pictures is releasing last year’s popular sequel Hotel Transylvania 2 on Blu-ray. The film opens with the plucky vampire Mavis (Selena Gomez) and human Jonny (Andy Samberg) getting married at the monster hotel. This leads to the birth of their son Dennis, a half-human, half-vampire child that… Read More Blu-ray Review: Hotel Transylvania 2
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) The latest from visionary screenwriter and co-director Charlie Kaufman, Anomalisa is a moving and strikingly unique love story, that uses innovative stop motion animation to put an inventive and poignant twist on the usual romance between strangers plot. The main character is Michael Stone (David Thewlis), a middle… Read More Review: Anomalisa
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) A deeply resonant and visually breathtaking journey through the wide open frontier, The Good Dinosaur utilizes a high concept to explore the prehistoric friendship between a talking dinosaur and underevolved little boy. The greatest threat facing this latest film from the geniuses at Pixar is not extinction, but rather comparisons to their own masterpiece… Read More Review: The Good Dinosaur
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) As a lifelong fan of Charles Schulz’s simple yet profound hand drawn comics and classic holiday specials, I’m happy to say that I adored The Peanuts Movie, a modern animated adventure from the folks at Blue Sky Studios that does justice to the original material in a genuine and truly special… Read More Review: The Peanuts Movie
By John Corrado Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Richard Kind, a character actor who has delivered brilliant supporting work in excellent films like A Serious Man and Obvious Child. But the basis for our interview was to discuss his unforgettable vocal performance as everybody’s favourite imaginary friend in Pixar’s Inside Out, which… Read More Interview: Richard Kind on Voicing Bing Bong in Pixar’s Inside Out
By John Corrado Today, Disney is releasing Inside Out on Blu-ray, the latest and perhaps greatest from Pixar Animation Studios. When Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) goes through a stressful move to San Francisco, the emotions inside her young mind struggle to keep her from falling into depression, after Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) get lost in Long… Read More Blu-ray Release: Inside Out
The Joy of Movies 