Billy’s Balloon (1998)
Filmmaker(s): Don Hertzfeldt
A balloon wraps itself around a young child's hand, bringing him higher and higher, much to the child's delight, but a sinister truth begins to unravel.
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2022)
A journey, in search of home.
Filmmaker(s): Peter Baynton, Charlie Mackesy
The unlikely friendship of a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse traveling together in the boy’s search for home.
06 Aug The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2022)
Ensnared The affirmative platitudes that anchor this are inescapable, and since they are relatively true, you may as well embrace them. My tween boys did, and I’m glad for it. But why I am recommending this is the art and animation. I have to admit...
27 Jul Betty Boop’s Hallowe’en Party (1933)
Underaware I really like some of these Betty Boop cartoons. Many of the early ones deal with the overlap of evil, sex and hallucinogens, often mixed with jazz and Black men. This is one of the tamer ones in terms of the evil tone: she’s...
Perfect Blue (1997)
The color of illusion is Perfect Blue.
Filmmaker(s): Satoshi Kon, Kou Matsuo
Encouraged by her managers, rising pop star Mima takes on a recurring role on a popular TV show, when suddenly her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered.
06 Jul Perfect Blue (1997)
Great Double Reality Until the End I get nearly all my movie recommendations from IMDb readers of my comments. I’m a student of “folding,” which often exhibits as a mix of reality, a movie within the movie, or an imagined reality. Here we have all...
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
It's how you wear the mask that matters.
After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters the Spider Society, a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the Multiverse’s very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must set out on his own to save those he loves most.
29 Jun Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Chapter and Verse Lest I sound overly critical below, let me say up front that this is an important film if only because it extends the vocabulary. I’m excited by it and what we may expect. However, I recently commented on ‘Fast X’ and noted...
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)
Coming to a screen bigger than your TV.
Filmmaker(s): Mike Judge
Slacker duo Beavis and Butt-Head wake to discover their TV has been stolen. Their search for a new one takes them on a clueless adventure across America, during which they manage to accidentally become America's most wanted.
21 May Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)
Missed Baywatch I’m constantly amazed at how quickly some fresh, edgy cinematic ideas go stale. This was strange enough it its time to be noticed: the placement of the narrative stance within the sixth grade. Having played its small role in advancing the scope of...
Aladdin (1992)
Imagine if you had three wishes, three hopes, three dreams and they all could come true.
Filmmaker(s): Ron Clements, John Musker
Princess Jasmine grows tired of being forced to remain in the palace, so she sneaks out into the marketplace, in disguise, where she meets street urchin Aladdin. The couple falls in love, although Jasmine may only marry a prince. After being thrown in jail, Aladdin becomes embroiled in a plot to find a mysterious lamp, with which the evil Jafar hopes to rule the land.
21 May Aladdin (1992)
Sweet Arabian Skins This, to my mind, is a terrific concoction. It has no story to speak of. Oh, there’s some motion and noise but they are only there to give us something to look at while the three main notions unfurl, all of which...
Barbie as the Island Princess (2007)
Filmmaker(s): Greg Richardson
Shipwrecked as a child, Rosella (Barbie) grows up on the island under the watchful eyes of her loving animal friends. The arrival of Prince Antonio leads Rosella and her furry pals to explore civilization and ultimately save the kingdom by uncovering a secret plot.
16 May Barbie as the Island Princess (2007)
Singable I came to this because I had a bad experience watching the Disney “Cinderella,” and wondered at what passed for acceptable these days. I chose what I thought would be the gene with the lowest standards. I picked wrong. I should have gone with...
Aqua Teen Hunger Force (2000-2015)
Dancing is forbidden!
Filmmaker(s): Jerry Zucker
The surreal adventures of three anthropomorphic fast food items: Master Shake, Frylock and Meatwad, and their human nextdoor neighbor, Carl Brutananadilewski.
01 May Aqua Teen Hunger Force (2000-2015)
Abstraction Along the Folds The game of animation is in large measure a matter of moving further and further into abstract universes. The game of modern movies is a matter of folding along self-referential dimensions. The rate of abstraction has been pushed pretty far, from...
The Aminatrix (2003)
Free your mind.
Filmmaker(s): Koji Morimoto, Peter Chung, Andrew R. Jones, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Takeshi Koike, Mahiro Maeda, Shinichiro Watanabe
Straight from the creators of the groundbreaking Matrix trilogy, this collection of short animated films from the world's leading anime directors fuses computer graphics and Japanese anime to provide the background of the Matrix universe and the conflict between man and machines. The shorts include Final Flight of the Osiris, The Second Renaissance, Kid's Story, Program, World Record, Beyond, A Detective Story and Matriculated.
