harvey @ deneroff.com

The Oscar for Best Animated Feature went to Brad Bird’s Ratatouille from Pixar, beating out Persepolis, which was my favorite. In so doing, the members of the Academy went against the trend to honor smaller independent films in the Best Picture category, as opposed to blockbusters like Ratatouille.
The Best Animated Short Film went to […]

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The package of Academy Award-nominated short films distributed by Magnolia Pictures, had a brief run in Atlanta and I managed to catch the program of animated films.  Overall, an excellent program, though one film does stand out and would be my choice. Here are some first impressions:

Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse’s Même les pigeons […]

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Persepolis, directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud based on Satrapi’s series of four autobiographical graphic novels, has just opened here in Atlanta after earning considerable praise elsewhere. These include nominations for Best Animated Feature Oscar and Annie Award, a Special Jury Prize at Cannes, and being the official French entry for the […]

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The posting of this first still from Disney’s The Princess and the Frog (due out in 2009) on ComingSoon.net has created a mild buzz on the net, with fawning headlines such as “Can Disney recapture the magic of its classic musicals?”  (Hexus.Lifestyle). The fact that it is a musical and marks the company’s return to […]

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The eagerly-awaited American debut of Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Parannaud’s Persepolis reminds us that Europe is not a casual producer of animated movies. (I will save my comments on the film until after it opens in Atlanta in February.)  In fact, Europe has long been very active in this area for many years, though only […]

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India’s Yash Raj Films, a producer of live-action films,  has teamed up with Walt Disney Pictures to produce  Roadside Romeo, a computer animated feature due out next year. This story of a dog lost in the streets of Mumbai is being written directed by actor Jugal Hansraj. Yash Raj Films is subcontracting out the actual […]

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Enchanted, the new Disney live action/animated musical is the latest post-modern pastiche that depends too much on inside jokes rather than genuine emotion. It’s the type of film one wants to work, but despite some delightful moments, soon becomes tiresome.
The story begins in Andalasia, an ersatz 1950s cel animated, fairytale country, where the handsome […]

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Sidney Lumet has not been a director whose films I usually rush out to see, though this is something that I need to correct. For it is films like his Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead that serve to remind me of how good movies can be.  And here, as with Dog Day Afternoon, Lumet  […]

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Seeing Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf, I was reminded of the time when director John Frankenheimer came down to the University of Southern California in 1962 to show All Fall Down. During the Q&A session which followed, a student asked why he had used an elaborate tracking shot in the opening sequence. Frankenheimer […]

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