Filmed in “Animagic” and with characters designed and a script by two Mad magazine giants — Jack Davis and Harvey Kurtzman, respectively — the movie got beloved horror icon Boris Karloff to voice mad scientist Dr. Frankenstein, who looks just like the actor. The doc has invited all of moviedom’s monsters — y’know, Dracula, the […]
animation
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Zombie A-Hole
I wish I could say the live-action Zombie A-Hole matched those felt-based shenanigans of Massacre; instead, I must admit being disappointed. While it exhibits flashes of Mills’ indie-minded manic brilliance, three things killed it for me: • amateurish acting, • nudity just for the sake of nudity (to a ridiculously exploitative degree), and • a […]
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ParaNorman
But while Coraline sustained a masterful level of Grimm-like creepiness, ParaNorman is only fitfully brilliant. The premise is promising. Eleven-year-old Norman Babcock (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee, Let Me In) has a familiar problem: He sees dead people. Lots of ’em, actually, which makes him something of a pariah in the hamlet of Blithe Hollow, Mass. […]
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Vault of Walt
Many big names can be found in the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in Norman: van Gogh, Monet, Piglet. Wait … Piglet? The Winnie the Pooh character and his popped balloon are the focus of just one animation cel among 83 that constitute the venue’s latest exhibition, A Century of Magic: The Animation of […]
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Nine Nation Animation
Now that CGI is no longer a novelty, but something our eyes take for granted, the opportunity for true cinematic artistry falls to the kind that rarely unspools onto the big screen: the animated short. As the feature-length anthology “Nine Nation Animation” demonstrates, there’s no global shortage of experimentation in the field. Equipped with a […]
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Rio
There are songs, double entendres and the seemingly requisite 3-D effects to ensure ticket prices eat up a small fortune. It is utterly forgettable. Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”) is the voice of Blu, a macaw who is poached shortly after birth in the jungle and winds up in small-town Minnesota. As the pet of […]