By John Corrado The main appeal of Charlie the Wonderdog, the first animated feature from British Colombia’s ICON Creative Studio, is getting to hear Owen Wilson voice an aging dog who gets a new lease on life. Wilson brings his usual laid-back charm to his portrayal of the titular “wonderdog,” so it’s no wonder (pun… Read More Movie Review: Charlie the Wonderdog
By John Corrado All You Need is Kill is an anime adaptation of Japanese author Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s graphic novel of the same name, which already provided the basis for Doug Liman’s 2014 time loop action film Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Where as Sakurazaka’s book and Liman’s film (also referred to… Read More Movie Review: All You Need is Kill
By John Corrado When Zootopia came out in 2016, it took a lot of people by surprise (myself included) with how sharp and relevant it was. Set in an anthropomorphic world of talking animals designed like a bustling metropolis, the Disney film delivered a timely message about stereotypes and discrimination between “predators” and “prey,” told… Read More Movie Review: Zootopia 2
By John Corrado Disney has just released the new trailer (and poster) for Hoppers, Pixar’s next original movie opening next year. This one follows a girl who has her consciousness put into a robotic beaver, to infiltrate the animal kingdom. The full cast list has also been unveiled, including Meryl Streep, making her Pixar debut!… Read More New Trailer for Pixar’s Hoppers!
By John Corrado Disney has just released the first teaser trailer (and a new poster) for Pixar’s Toy Story 5, the fifth film in the series that is set to arrive next summer. I’m guessing this teaser will play before Disney’s Zootopia 2 in a few weeks. Set to INXS’s “Never Tear Us Apart,” this… Read More First Teaser Trailer for Pixar’s Toy Story 5!
By John Corrado The titular “Bad Guys” are back in The Bad Guys 2, only now they are trying to be the Good Guys after doing time and swearing off a life of crime. This sequel to the 2022 DreamWorks Animation film finds the ragtag animal crew being pulled back in to do one last… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Bad Guys 2 (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado Disney has just released the new, full-length trailer for Zootopia 2. This is the highly anticipated sequel to the 2016 smash hit Zootopia, seeing the return of bunny cop Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), now working together as official law enforcement partners. This trailer gives us a… Read More New Trailer for Disney’s Zootopia 2
By John Corrado A prequel to his 2017 stop-motion film Junk Head, which was in turn based on a 2014 short, Junk World finds Japanese filmmaker Takahide Hori playing around on an even larger canvass. Hori’s film is set in a world of people and clones (called “Mulligans”), who rise up against the humans, leading… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Junk World (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado The feature directorial debut of French animators Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is a gorgeous animated film that lets us view the world through a child’s eyes. The film is based on The Character of Rain, a short novel by Belgian author Amélie Nothomb, which… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (Centrepiece)
By John Corrado Ne Zha II is the Chinese blockbuster that became the highest grossing animated film of all time, beating the record previously set by Inside Out 2 just last year, almost entirely from what it grossed in China alone. The film had previously been released in North American theatres earlier this year, and now we… Read More Movie Review: Ne Zha II
By John Corrado Disney’s Zootopia was a wonderful surprise back in 2016, and it’s become a fan favourite over the years, so a sequel was inevitable. Now we are finally getting one nearly a decade later with Zootopia 2, and the studio has just put out a brand new trailer for the film. This sequel… Read More New Trailer for Disney’s Zootopia 2!
By John Corrado Pixar has just put out the first teaser trailer for Hoppers, the animation studio’s next original movie. This one is directed by Daniel Chong, who is best known for the popular cartoon series We Bare Bears. The story follows a girl who transfers her mind into a robotic beaver body, allowing her… Read More Teaser Trailer for Pixar’s Hoppers
By John Corrado Elio, the very sweet new animated film from Pixar, uses the age old question of “are we alone in the universe?” to explore the very real topic of loneliness, namely that of the titular Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab). Elio is a space-obsessed kid who has been left living on a military… Read More Movie Review: Elio
By John Corrado The animated documentary Endless Cookie, which won the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs, offers a quirky portrait of half-brothers Seth and Pete Scriver. Seth is a white animator living in Toronto, using a government grant to make a film about his Indigenous half-brother Pete, who lives in… Read More Movie Review: Endless Cookie
By John Corrado Disney has just released the first teaser trailer for Zootopia 2 (which will likely play in front of Lilo & Stitch this weekend). This teaser, which is set to music, doesn’t show us much. But it does give us a glimpse at some of the new worlds that our heroes Nick Wilde… Read More First Teaser for Zootopia 2
By John Corrado DreamWorks Animation has always had two modes, which is what allows the studio to balance prestige animated films with more cartoony efforts. So for every How to Train Your Dragon, there’s a Boss Baby. This is why the studio is able to so effortlessly follow up a great film like last year’s… Read More Blu-ray Review: Dog Man (Collector’s Edition 2000)
By John Corrado Disney has just released the brand new “official” trailer for Pixar’s upcoming film Elio. This trailer shows off a lot more of the plot behind this animated sci-fi action comedy, including the friendship between the titular Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) and an alien named Glordon (Remy Edgerly). Set to Queen’s “Don’t… Read More New Trailer for Disney and Pixar’s Elio
By John Corrado In their thirty years of feature films, Pixar Animation Studios has been known for their innovative and imaginative storytelling. Now they’ve adapted that to a serialized format in Win or Lose, the new Disney Plus streaming series from co-creators, co-directors and co-writers Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates. It’s an ambitious gambit from… Read More Review: Win or Lose – Episodes 1-4 (Disney+)
By John Corrado The British inventor and his pantomime dog return in Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, the second feature-length outing for the characters following 2005’s Oscar-winning The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Co-directed by series creator Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham, this charming and funny new adventure for the stop-motion man and dog… Read More Movie Review: Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix)
By John Corrado It’s the final day of 2024, which means that another year has come to an end. The preambles to these lists are always hard to write, so I’m going to keep this one short. I saw a lot of movies in 2024, and liked quite a few of them. It’s been assessed… Read More The Best Movies of 2024
The Joy of Movies 