Pinocchio: Walt Disney Signature Collection
Walt Disney’s epic masterpiece joins the Signature line, with a typically light treatment where the (lack of new) supplements can’t hold a candle to the brilliant feature. |
Adventure Time: Islands
The event mini-series fulfills its promise of revealing the answers to a few of the hit series’ greatest mysteries, as Finn, Jake, and Susan Stong sail off on a journey to find more humans and the secrets to their pasts. |
Lego Star Wars – The Freemaker Adventures: Complete Season One
This slick and exciting Lucasfilm show earns a surprising amount of credit for crafting a credible Star Wars story, even if it is told in a humorous fashion. |
Pete’s Dragon
One of Disney’s biggest surprises of the year is this wonderfully good-natured gem, a mighty fine family film that stands out from all the other talking animals and fish currently out there. Just lovely. |
The BFG
Spielberg directs a rare misfire that draws on Roald Dahl’s book, Amblin production values and Disney magic, but disappointingly fails to deliver on all lackluster counts. |
The Secret Life Of Pets
Illumination’s latest finally breaks away from those Minions, with a less distinctive movie that still delivers laughs even if it gets close to being lost in the animal comedy fray. |
Kubo And The Two Strings
Laika steps up stop-motion, and largely western animation in general, with this beautiful and deeply heartfelt tale, nicely showcased on this disc. |
Moana
Disney knows their way around princess movies. But while Moana is very beautiful and very entertaining, who knows how far they could have gone if they’d taken a few more risks instead of playing it safe. |
Finding Dory
Pixar’s Nemo sequel is a movie in search of a plot and, despite huge audience approval, one just doesn’t get the feeling the filmmakers were really invested in what amounts to being a major creative disappointment. |
Trolls
Its hairy heroes and pop tunes won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but for those in the mood for cheery fun, Trolls provides plenty of charms. |
The Venture Bros.: The Complete Sixth Season
The Ventures relocate to NYC, The Monarch takes on a bold new identity as his wife also takes a new job, and this very funny show finds its best rhythm yet. |
Adventure Time: The Complete Sixth Season
Finn finds his newly found father to be a crushing disappointment, Gunter gets an origin, and lots of crazy stuff happens in the latest run of Cartoon Network’s insane hit. |
Back In Time
Back In Time strives to entertain with stories of making Back To The Future and the fan community that has built up around the trilogy, but you’ll end up using your remote to travel forward and save a few minutes. |
All Things Must Pass: The Rise And Fall Of Tower Records
It used to be the place to buy your LaserDiscs and soundtracks, remembered fondly in this entertainingly celebrational retrospective. |
Beauty And The Beast: 25th Anniversary Walt Disney Signature Collection
As with Snow White, this second Signature disc is perfectly fine, but loses everything that made past editions must-haves. |
Trolls Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Lacking context due to its early release, one Can’t Stop the Feeling! that the Trolls soundtrack has an identity crisis and could affect the film’s enjoyment. |
Storks
Storks is the kind of movie you’ll want to watch over and over. With great animation, top-notch voice talent, an engaging story, and incredible humor, this film delivers. |
Star Wars – Rebels: Complete Season Two
All the excitement of Star Wars is present in Rebels, with solid specs and the addition of great bonus features in this second season set. |
The Walt Disney Studios: A Lot To Remember
Becky Cline and Steven Clark prove there is a lot to remember about the Walt Disney Studios, and all of it worthy of discovering or revisiting in this lavish new book. |
The Jungle Book
A terrific audio-visual presentation, commentary and documentary bolster this disc debut for Disney’s triumphant re-do, though it feels more might come in a promised 3D edition. |
Raiders! The Story Of The Greatest Fan Film Ever Made
A terrific extras package makes up for a slight lack of focus in the main feature itself, which tells of a bunch of kids remaking Indy’s first screen adventure. |
April And The Extraordinary World
GKids gives us yet another slick international feature, this time an exciting steampunk adventure that utilizes the conceptual skills of cartoonist Jacques Tardi. |
Kubo and the Two Strings
A beautiful looking film with a unique plot, some surprising turns, bold choices, and an emotional core, Kubo and the Two Strings is magical storytelling. |
Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV
Kingsglaive boasts the most impressive, photo realistic animation to date. But the narrative doesn’t live up to the storytelling standards of the video game franchise it is based in. |
DC Superhero Girls: Hero of the Year
Cute, spunky, and light on its feet, DC Superhero Girls: Hero of the Year should be super fun for its target audience. |
Sausage Party
Sausage Party is irreverent, pornographic, sacrilegious, bigoted… and pretty funny! The story is weak but if raunchy humor and seeing touchy topics get ridiculed is something you’re hungry for, then this film will hit the spot! |
Ice Age: Collision Course
It may be a stale pun to make but it’s still funnier than almost everything in Ice Age: Collision Course: hopefully this franchise is now extinct. |
Only Yesterday
A young woman from Tokyo reflects back to her life at age ten, leading to a re-evaluation of who she is now. The final theatrical Studio Ghibli film to make it to disc in North America is now here. |
The Secret Life of Pets
Secret Life barely checks the boxes for what it needs to do and never excels at any of them. A young studio like Illumination should aspire to more; hopefully they’ll learn some new tricks before they get too set in their ways. |
Anomalisa
Not for everyone, and certainly not for kids, Anomalisa reminds us that animation is a medium, not a genre, and can be used to tell all kinds of stories, from the fantastical to the mundane…in a fantastical fashion. |