It’s easy to imagine the thought processes of the studio bosses.  Here’s a book about a 12 year old with a difficult home life and some special powers…so let’s sign up that Chris Columbus fellow who directed the first two Harry Potter films. So yes, the the film of (take a deep breath) Percy Jackson…

It is said that James Cameron spent about ten years waiting for the technology he needed to make Avatar.  You’d think that he might have spent a tiny fraction of that time going to the cinema to watch a Pixar movie or two, just to see how computer animation can be combined with engaging characters…

Up is a perfectly decent movie – very good in parts – and Pixar maintain their tradition of well-developed characters and interesting storylines, whereas others in the digital animation world settle for far less (yes, this means you, Dreamworks). The bad news is that it is in 3D.  That means you have to pay more…

I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I didn’t hate this film anything like as much as I had expected. In part, I think it was because my expectations were very low.  Not just because the TV series seems to be aimed at 6 year olds, but because the previous feature film (simply called…

I blame Pixar.  Nowadays every movie studio wants to have its own computer animation, but whilst they invest millions in the latest technology they seem to neglect basic stuff like storylines and characters.  The result is terrible old tosh like Polar Express, Madagascar and Chicken Little.  Monster House was therefore a pleasant surprise.  They seem to have decided that it might be better to start…

I suppose they’re trying to be helpful (from The Guardian) In 1993, Jurassic Park became the first film to be released with a warning line. It scraped past the British Board of Film Classification with a PG rating because the distributors agreed to admit that it might be "unsuitable for young children". Four years later,…

Disney’s recent track record with animated films is not at all good.  Pixar, on the other hand, have turned out a long string of highly impressive offerings in the best tradition of Walt Disney – the two Toy Story films undoubtedly belong up there with the classic Disney cartoons of the past, and every one…

I see that Mr Fumier and Mr Harbour have both been to watch this movie recently.  Me too.  As you may be aware there seem to be two schools of thought on this one, or maybe three if you include Fumier’s perspective: Criticism has also been made of the crappy dialogue, historical inaccuracies, failure to…

As for Chicken Little, it’s rubbish, and certainly not worthing braving the appalling AMC booking system. Disney haven’t had a hit for years, and most of their recent efforts have been panned by the critics. Not exactly true, of course – Disney have had several hits in the last 10 years, but all of them…