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Gladiators Of Rome
Lazy storytelling, uneven comedy and questionable subject matter combine in this Italian animation; somehow both bizarre and generic at the same time. Zero extras and mediocre audio tempt a big thumbs down. |
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Big Hero 6
It’s Frozen for the boys as Disney strikes back with their take on lesser-known characters from the pages of Marvel Comics for another, freshly Academy Award-winning blockbuster! |
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One Hundred And One Dalmatians: Diamond Edition
Walt Disney’s fantastic animated thriller makes a solid return to disc, here in an HD transfer that hits the spot and with a fairly robust package of old and new extras. |
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The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
While Sponge has the humor and style kids expect, it never reaches the amazing highs the show achieved in its glory days — this is one sponge who should’ve stayed underwater. |
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The Kingdom Of Dreams And Madness
This wonderful documentary grants a fascinating glimpse at how Studio Ghibli functioned in its final year with master director Hayao Miyazaki. |
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The Boxtrolls
Laika returns with another slightly oddball release, where the film’s strong villain isn’t quite matched by such a solid storyline, even if the hand-crafted animation is as exquisite as ever. |
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Strange Magic
Want a head start to making a great movie? It’s no secret. You just need a good solid story. Otherwise you’ll have to resort to cheap tricks and strange magic. |
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Uncle Grandpa: Tiger Trails
This fairly new Cartoon Network series gets its first DVD, without any special features to speak of. But the show itself ends up being hilarious, with a cast of fun, wacky characters and an enjoyably zany nature behind it all. |
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Toy Story That Time Forgot
The latest adventure starring everyone’s favorite toys proves to be a fun one, with cool new characters and great jokes. Just don’t expect it to feel like a Christmas special. |
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Penguins of Madagascar
Penguins of Madagascar is not Pixar, but it’s not trying to be either. It compares much more favorably with the Looney Tunes cartoons of the past — zany, silly fun for fun’s sake. And, Hoover Dam, does it succeed! |
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The Wind Rises
The final Miyazaki is a fictional account of the life of a major figure in Japanese history. It’s a tricky and even controversial subject, leading to conflicted viewer reactions, but the filmmaker’s craft has never been stronger. |
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Kiki’s Delivery Service
This charming Studio Ghibli film about a good little witch lands on Blu-ray with improved picture, and all of the improtant DVD features. |
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Princess Mononoke
The Studio Ghibli masterpiece finally comes to Blu-ray, sporting a vastly improved picture and new-to-disc supplements, but dropping the literal translation subtitle track. |
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Phineas And Ferb Star Wars
Disney allows its hit TV show to cross over with its newly bought Lucasfilm franchise, and the result is a fun celebration of both. |
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Star Wars – The Clone Wars: The Lost Missions
The post-cancellation episodes of the excellent Star Wars program push the mythology further, and accomplish the task of making the prequels better, simply by giving them context. |
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Big Hero 6
Big Hero 6 is yet another winner from Disney — with an assist from Marvel! Despite some nit-picking criticisms of the story, audiences will be more than satisfied with their film. |
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Maleficent
Angelina Jolie is excellent as Disney’s iconic villain, here given the backstory treatment in a visual feast of a film, though this new Blu-ray disappoints with a lack of any magnificent extras. |
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Planes: Fire & Rescue
Dusty is back again with the second in the Planes franchise (and fourth film set in the world of Cars), this time joining a band of air firefighters for a lightweight diversion. |
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Toy Story Of Terror!
With Halloween upon us, we take a look at the Blu-ray release of the Toy Story gang’s creepy stay at a roadside motel, now on disc with a terrifyingly great package of extras! |
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Adventure Time: The Complete Fourth Season
Cable television’s most popular show reins in the craziness just enough to produce a season’s worth of charming stories that are about as insane as ever, but are becoming more cohesive, heartfelt, and often even poignant. |
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The Book of Life
Story, as the saying goes, may be king. But a weak story doesn’t have to be the death of a film when, like The Book of Life, the animation, music, humor, acting, and everything else is so heavenly. |
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Jack And The Cuckoo-Clock Heart
The astounding clock-punk rock opera masterpiece from Europe comes to North America. Read the review to find out more about one of the year’s best releases. |
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Thunder And The House Of Magic
Shout! Factory brings us a wonderful animated movie from Europe that may not transcend the family film genre, but it does provide quality entertainment, while also providing one of the best 3D experiences out there. |
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The Boxtrolls
The Boxtrolls isn’t necessarily bad. And it tries very hard not to be. But it takes more than crazy characters in a cardboard cutout story to make a really good movie. |
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Planes: Fire & Rescue
With a more interesting subject and setting, and a wider canvas, Planes: Fire & Rescue is better than its predecessor — but it isn’t quite a first-class upgrade. |
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How To Train Your Dragon 2
Though it doesn’t quite reach the same heights, How To Train Your Dragon 2 is a worthy followup to the original. And it makes us yearn for DreamWorks to stop coasting and train themselves to fly higher. |
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Son Of Batman
Talia al Ghul has a surprise for Batman, in the form of an arrogant but accomplished ten-year-old. It’s a great premise, but the presentation has some problems in terms of believability and basic taste. |
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Green Lantern: The Animated Series
The film was a bust, but it did lead to the production of what turned out to be a very fine cartoon show. Sleek CGI animation, strong scripts, and intriguing characters add to an already great sci-fi concept, and make the show impressive. |
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The Pirate Fairy
This fun family film keeps up the quality of the Fairies franchise, serving as a clever prequel to Peter Pan, while in some ways almost being a super-hero film for little girls. |
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Rio 2
Rio 2 is the type of film that needs to become an endangered species in Hollywood — a vapid, unoriginal movie that will appeal only to young children who aren’t familiar with all the cliches and stereotypes. |
