animation
Kung Fu Panda 2Tuesday, 07 June 2011
The appeal of fat, foolish, good-hearted panda Po (Jack Black) as a cartoon action hero is predictably diluted in this sequel. A fully trained and socially accepted martial arts master by the original’s end, he offers Kung Fu Panda 2 less pathos and... Read more... |
DVD: Jan Švankmajer's AliceTuesday, 31 May 2011
This remarkable 1988 adaptation of Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland opens with Alice addressing the audience. “This is a story for children,” she tells us, before adding a teasing note: “Perhaps.” And that “perhaps” is worth noting, for... Read more... |
Wonderland: The Trouble with Love and Sex, BBC TwoWednesday, 11 May 2011
Ian, who is having problems with erectile dysfunction, is freezing his wife out. Susan thinks she may be frigid which, understandably, her husband has taken personally. They’re all a lot better off than Dave, mind. He is in love with a woman who is... Read more... |
CD: Gorillaz - The FallTuesday, 12 April 2011
Record Store Day this Saturday, 16 April, will give vinyl a small boost. Many artists are creating special limited editions. Bands love all that. It reminds them of when people cared about music as more than "content". The Fall was originally... Read more... |
DVD: The IllusionistMonday, 14 February 2011
Sylvain Chomet’s hand-drawn animation of a previously unproduced Jacques Tati story is a delight in every way, in which the French film-maker pays homage to the great man by making him the illusionist of the title. He is unmistakably Tati - all... Read more... |
2010: A Film OdysseyMonday, 27 December 2010
2010 will go down as the year I fell out of love with Johnny Depp. And not just because of his cringe-making Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, an over-produced farrago which reduced Lewis Carroll's dark Victorian whimsy to a dull computer gamelike... Read more... |
The 10 Best Christmas MoviesTuesday, 21 December 2010
A nostalgified panacea of pine, tinsel, and tintinnabulation? Or a black hole of loneliness, bitterness and melancholy? Films about Christmas, wholly or partially, have straddled both polarities over the years, producing a surprising number of... Read more... |
The Animals and Children Took to the Streets, 1927, Battersea Arts CentreFriday, 10 December 2010
Welcome to the stinking, sprawling Bayou Mansions – the thorn in a prosperous city’s side, the “short-and-curly hair in the mouthful of sponge cake”. So cramped there isn’t even room to swing a rat (and there are plenty), so corrosive that... Read more... |
Philippe Parreno, Serpentine GalleryThursday, 25 November 2010
Lovers of the beautiful game may already be familiar with the name Philippe Parreno, or at least with his best-known work. In 2006 he collaborated with artist Douglas Gordon (24-hour Psycho) on Zidane: A 21st-Century Portrait, a film that trained 17... Read more... |
Chico and RitaWednesday, 17 November 2010
On-screen kissing rarely works; even the sexiest, most practised Hollywood couples usually can’t manage it. But when the eponymous Chico and Rita turn to each other against smoochy strains of “Besame Mucho” and their lips touch for the first time,... Read more... |
Gorillaz, O2 ArenaMonday, 15 November 2010
Then there was the succession of guest artists, among them Neneh Cherry, De La Soul and Mark E Smith (who looked as if he had just nipped across the road from a session in the pub), who passed across the stage. Oh, and the endlessly inventive Jamie... Read more... |
Banksy Runs Riot in SpringfieldMonday, 11 October 2010The elusive street artist Banksy was invited by Matt Groening to script an opening sequence for The Simpsons. "MoneyBart", the episode it fronted, was broadcast in America yesterday, and comes to the UK on 21 October. The sequence is inspired by... Read more... |
