Tag Archives: animated films

Put a Kitty in your mouth! — A review of Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie and Jay and Silent Bob Get Old


super groovySo a little while back, my mother bought me tickets to see Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes record their weekly podcast and the North Carolina premiere of Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie.  Originally, the show was supposed to be in June. I’ll get back to that point later.

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If I Had Just Ran a Little Faster: A Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox Review


flashpointsYou guys know what this is, right? Then you know how annoyed with me you will be when I finish this review.  In any case, if you were not aware (and if you aren’t, you haven’t been paying attention),  The Flash is my favorite DC superhero.  I love everything about him, and I am still working on my collection of all of his comic books from his inception to today.  That is why when I heard they were making a Flashpoint movie, I hardcore geeked out (It was not attractive). (Editor’s note: it wasn’t.)  And now here it is finally! Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. Continue reading

Thoroughly Animated: DC Animated Films Retrospective Part 3


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Welcome again to the long awaited (or not) third part of my glorious retrospective on DC’s the Direct to DVD animated films.  When we last left our hero he had been gushing over Batman: Under the Red Hood and praising  All-Star Superman.  What movie will he do next? Continue reading

Thoroughly Animated: A DC Animated Movies Retrospective-Part 2


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Alright, we are pretty much up to the years where I started legitimately watching and buying these films regularly. Boy, were these fun films, I loved most of them and even the ones I didn’t totally love, I still really liked. It was also around this time that DC started attaching animated short films to their DVD and Blu Ray releases. These were called DC Showcase, they ranged from really small relatively unknown characters like The Spectre to very well known characters like Catwoman. These shorts normally last for ten minutes and it is a really cool way to see an animated version of characters who otherwise would not have a shot at their own animated feature.  DC Showcase also came out with a short film called Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam.  This was significantly longer than the previous showcase shorts, with a running time of 25 minutes. The other things that appeared on this Blu Ray were the previous short films from the other movies, making at least the length of a normal release. The Superman/Shazam short is one of the best, it is essentially the origin story for the character Shazam and I think they pulled it off wonderfully. I did not know much about the character until I had seen this, and it made me a fan of the character. On some DVDs and Blu Rays they also put out two to four episodes of Batman the Animated Series, Superman the Animated Series or Justice League. The episode will normally parallel what is in the movie, or at least have a similar character in there. Continue reading

Animating Joss: A Look at the Pre-Vampire films of a Master


There are two really fantastic animated films, not counting Toy Story, that Joss Whedon worked on. Like most of Whedon’s work, up until this past summer, the “mainstream” media either didn’t care, or didn’t like the films. Both films, though, have cult followings, and it’s worth noting that they’re quite in the vein of Whedon films – albeit in different ways than the vampire stories we’re more used to.

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Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 Review


dkr2Even though this film is not yet available on DVD, Warner Brothers released the film for digital download on Amazon.com, and being the crazy fanboy I am, I had to get it. Boy am I glad I did. I don’t think I could have waited another few weeks for the Blu-Ray release. This, along with Part One, has to be the seminal Batman film, live action or animated and that’s saying a lot. Continue reading

Thoroughly Animated: A DC Animated Films Retrospective- Part 1


DCWhen it comes to live action films, Marvel has dominated, now more than ever. Unfortunately, DC has only managed to release a few good films, mainly consisting of Batman films, with an okay Superman flick.  Other than that, no other character in their mainstream universe seems to work well on screen (or they just refuse to put them up there). However, DC does have a one-up on Marvel when it comes to animation. And for the past six years, they have been releasing quality animated films. Continue reading

Legends Unite: A Rise of the Guardians Review


Rise of the Guardians is based on a book series by William Joyce called “The Guardians of Childhood,” and guard our childhoods these mythic characters do. DreamWorks is an interesting animation studio, to say the least. It is one studio that is usually hit hard by “the nostalgia effect” as my roommate Kellie likes to call it. The Nostalgia Effect is when you remember a film from your childhood as being absolutely amazing, but when you go back to rewatch it as a teenager or an adult, it just doesn’t quite hold up. They’ve been working to change that, though, and a few film franchises have come out of DreamWorks that are just as good as we remember from the first watch. Rise of the Guardians, and the sequels I bet will follow, are probably going to fall under the How to Train Your Dragon and Shrek category. (For those of you playing at home, that’s the category to be under.)

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I’m Gonna Wreck It: A Wreck-It Ralph Review


2012 has been a very interesting year for Disney. The release of the box office bomb, John Carter, the box office marvel (Ha!), The Avengers, along with Brave, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, and Frankenweenie. While I thoroughly enjoyed The Avengers and Brave was just a lot of fun, I was eagerly waiting another movie from Walt Disney Animation Studios that showed much promise from the very first teaser trailer. That movie is Wreck-It Ralph.

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Batman: The Dark Night Returns Part 1


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Over the past 5 years, Warner Brothers has been making animated features based on characters in the DC universe. The original intent was to adapt famous stories from this universe.  Due to budget restraints, many of these adaptations had to be shortened in order to fit the hour and fifteen-minute time frame. With this time restraint, they have had to condense many popular stories such as The Death of Superman into something that barely resembles the original piece.  However, when tackling The Dark Knight Returns, Warner Brothers did the smart thing by splitting it up into two films. The Dark Knight Returns is such a complex graphic novel that by cutting it down to an hour and fifteen minutes would be disrespectful, both to Frank Miller and fans of the original piece.

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