Posted in Animation, Children's films, Reviews on Jan 9th, 2008 No Comments »
Like many of my generation, Martin Rosen’s Watership Down (1978) remains an indelible part of my formative years, second only to birth and pubescence in terms of its impact on my psyche.
It’s difficult to pin down exactly what elevates a cartoon about rabbits to one of the best children’s films even made, and what must […]
Posted in Adaptations, Animation on Nov 14th, 2007 No Comments »
Last Friday, I was lucky enough to see Beowulf in 3D at the BFI Imax in London’s South Bank. Now, I have long been a fan of Beowulf ever since I came across a picture of Grendel in an illustrated book of monsters when I was a child.
It was, I can reveal, the scariest creature […]
Posted in Animation, Children's films, Reviews on Oct 23rd, 2007 4 Comments »
People often come up to me and ask, “Milo, how is it you have such good taste?”.
Wearing my pinstriped cummerbund and orange jodhpurs, I look down at them through my pink tortoiseshell spectacles and reply,
“It’s a gift”.
One way or another, the Pixar films are all about gifted people, so I identified with them instantly.
Of course, […]
Posted in Animation, Children's films on Aug 7th, 2007 2 Comments »
I was hunched over my desk a few days ago, when I was disturbed by a sudden commotion.
I soon discovered the frenzied baying from my colleagues heralded the arrival of a complete set of the Studio Ghibli Collection at MovieMail Towers.
Ten minutes later, I emerged from the scrum, my clothes bloody and torn, my shirt […]
Posted in Animation, Reviews on May 30th, 2007 9 Comments »
Over the grey bank holiday weekend I watched Arthur and the Invisibles, Luc Besson’s part-animated children’s film, released in France as Arthur et les Minimoys. I think Minimoy sounds a lot cuter than Invisible, but that’s not the only part of the French version I wish they had carried over.
The story is pretty straightforward - […]
Posted in Adaptations, Animation on May 16th, 2007 No Comments »
When I was growing up, my eager young mind was fertilised by two sets of books - Goscinny and Uderzo’s Asterix, and Herge’s Adventures of Tintin. My father had a habit of scouring local libraries for books that were withdrawn for being dogeared, chewed, crayoned or drooled upon, and I soon greedily amassed an near-complete […]