Reviews Archive for Ben Simon

One Hundred And One Dalmatians: Limited Issue

Walt Disney’s canine caper gets its first walk around the park on DVD and, even in a bare-bones vanilla edition, gains fine pedigree marks for a solid presentation.

Mickey Mouse: The Black And White Years

The Toon Review‘s LaserDisc Archives travel back to the pioneering days Mickey Mouse for this treasure trove of early appearances.

Osmosis Jones

The Brothers Warner and Farrelly attempt a big animated gross-out comedy, but even with Bill Murray’s involvement it turns out to be just a gooey, if slightly amusing, mess…

Walt Disney Treasures: Behind The Scenes At The Walt Disney Studios

Go behind the scenes at the world’s premiere animation film factory in its heyday with this terrific tour through the ages!

Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron

Ben Simon takes a look at DreamWorks’ mature western adventure and finds it perfunctory if not spectacular entertainment that’s a little bogged down in sand.

Bugs Bunny Superstar

What’s up, Doc? The LaserDisc Archives spins this retrospective on da wabbit’s early career for Toon Review.

Sleeping Beauty Deluxe Edition

The LaserDisc Archives opens up the CAV boxset for the Toon Review, and asks just how better could this set get on DVD?

Chuck Jones: Extremes And Inbetweens, A Life In Animation

Chuck Jones’ life and career is reviewed in this wonderful tribute to the man himself.

Beauty And The Beast

The Toon Review‘s LaserDisc Archives looks at the theatrical and work in progress releases of this classic on LD.

A Goofy Movie

The LaserDisc Archives pull out the widescreen LD edition of this very goofy movie for Toon Review!

Cats Don’t Dance

The Toon Review‘s LaserDisc Archives looks up Mark Dindal’s 1997 feature, in widescreen on LD.

The Incredible Mr Limpet

Ben Simon finds his fins with Don Knotts’ classic animation and live-action combination comedy.

DisneyMania

15 Disney classics get the modern day treatment from some of today’s brightest artists, and the results are bubblegum pop you might just have fun with!

Monsters, Inc.: 2-Disc Collectors Edition

Disney/Pixar’s monstrous hit makes it to DVD in a monster of a package!

LaserDisc Archives: A Primer On The LD Format

The first in our LaserDisc Archives feature for Toon Review looks back on the original movie-disc format and teases some titles that have still not been outshone by their DVD “upgrades”.

Mad Monster Party

The original stop-motion musical frightfest comes to disc with a spookily sharp transfer and a mini-monster selection of spooktacular video and printed supplements.

Peter Pan: Return To Never-Land

This DTV effort was upgraded to theatrical status with good reason, and though by no means an essential or needed addition to the Disney library, this belated follow-up is much better than it has any right to be!

The Rescuers Down Under: Gold Classic Collection

Bernard and Bianca are back in Disney’s all-action, exciting adventure sequel packed with groundbreaking, stunning computer assisted scenes.

The Quest For Camelot: Special Edition

Warner Bros. sets out to find the magic that made Disney animation so successful in the 1990s, but this Quest ends without much hope.

The Great Mouse Detective

The much requested kick-starter to Disney’s animation renaissance finds itself on DVD without a clue when it comes to bonus features!

The Black Cauldron: Gold Classic Collection

Disney’s darkest feature gets a welcome but barren DVD showing.

Fun And Fancy Free: Gold Classic Collection

Lots of fun to be had in this 1940s Disney “Package Feature” that combines the stories of Mickey And The Beanstalk with the circus-themed Bongo.

Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

A surprise entry in the Best Animated Feature stakes turns out to be well worth its nomination.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs: Platinum Edition

Walt Disney’s “one that started it all” comes to DVD in a lavish set that also kicks off the prestigious Platinum Edition deluxe DVD line in style!

The Prince Of Egypt: Signature Selection

DreamWorks takes on epic themes in their debut animated feature: the story of Moses.