I love Claymation films. There’s something supernatural about the way things move in these programs, and each character is usually rendered with a soft and organic feel endearing them to us. I discovered The Trap Door completely by accident one day when I was searching for Danger Mouse. When I was growing up, Nickelodeon was…
Felidae (1994)
If you were to take a classic “whodunit” and replace all the major players with cats, you’d probably end up with something like Felidae. Hailing from our friends in Germany, Felidae carries the distinction of being the most expensive German animated feature film ever produced costing in excess of 10 million marks (about $7,453,381.23). However,…
Watership Down (1978)
My fascination with the darker aspects of animated features has led me to review Watership Down. Based on the book of the same name by Richard Adams, Watership Down centers around a group of rabbits who must embark on a perilous exodus or risk being slaughtered by, you guessed it, humans. Unlike The Plague Dogs,…
The Plague Dogs (1982)
I’m always amazed when I re-watch cartoons from my younger years. Ren & Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life, even Rugrats to some degree all had little kernels of adult humor I only now get. Rugrats had a very cerebral vibe with a lot of the background characters parodying many different roles from adult television shows (NYPD…
Animal Farm (1954)
I was surprised when I found out there was a cartoon adaption to one of George Orwell’s most celebrated novels. Not because I didn’t think it deserved the honor of being immortalized through animation, but simply because I wasn’t sure kids were going to be able to digest this kind of story. The novel was…
La Planete Sauvage (1973)
The idea of a distant planet, no a universe, teeming with alien life has always fascinated me. I attribute this largely to the fact that such thinking was unofficially forbidden by my father. Even to this day, I’m not entirely sure why he was so against the idea of life existing on other worlds. Maybe…
The Story of Srebrenica
The Story of Srebrenica tries to be a heartwarming children’s tale, but ultimately becomes a disturbing tale of parental loss and eating rats. Srebrenica was loved by her parents who named her after a place that just sounded nice. They gave her a home and a blanket; what else could a parent do better. But…
Dead Leaves (2004)
‘Ope, an anime review. It’s all going downhill from here. Or is it? Nah, probably not. Dead Leaves is what I would imagine Blues Brothers would be like as a cartoon with more violence and a shot of acid. The story revolves around a woman named Pandy, because of a red dot around her right…