But that’s not college — that’s high school. Whatever it is, Monsters University, which opens Friday, certainly isn’t the overachiever that its predecessor was. While not on the failure level of, say, Cars 2, this disappointing effort is mildly redeemed by an involving third act — at just about the time pint-sized viewers are apt […]
cartoon
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Frankenweenie
A film of stop-motion animation, it is a feature-length version of a charming but unremarkable live-action short he made for Disney in 1984, about a kid who revives his beloved dead dog via lightning bolts. The House of Mouse found the end result so odd and macabre that it shelved plans to send it to […]
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Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1
Christopher Nolan’s recent trilogy, concluding with this summer’s The Dark Knight Rises, owes more to Miller than Tim Burton’s two versions did, and on Rises’ boot heels comes an animated adaptation of Miller’s source material in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1, directed by Jay Oliva (Green Lantern: Emerald Knights). At an hour and […]
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Mad Monster Party?
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 […]
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Blade Anime
Therefore, I should love Blade Anime. And yet, even going in with no expectations to do just that, I don’t. Worse, I didn’t even like it. Collecting all 12 episodes — each about 20 minutes — the Japanese series offers strong visuals throughout, as it uses Blade’s origin as a diving board to tell an […]
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The Raid: Redemption
About to hit — and I do mean hit — Blu-ray and DVD after a limited but lauded theatrical release in April, the film carries the barest of plots. For 10 years, a much-feared mobster in a 15th-floor compound has ruled over a decrepit apartment building housing not only his narcotic enterprise, but also the dregs […]
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Clowning around
The aliens in Aliens with Extraordinary Skills aren’t extraterrestrials; they’re two illegal immigrants from the former USSR constituents of Moldova and Russia trying to make it in the good ol’ U.S. of A. And that’s about the most interesting thing in this play by Saviana Stanescu, directed by Rhonda Clark. Professional clowns Nadia (Gwendolyn Evans) […]