Does anyone helpfully inform a family member that they are going “out” anymore? Maybe not, but Just an Illusion remembers when that was all the detail a parent required. This French movie about the run up to a boy’s bar mitzvah is the kind of gentle, low-stakes story the entire …
The algorithm recently recommended that I watch the third The Cutting Edge movie, Chasing the Dream. It’s a little strange to suggest a deep cut like that, but since I’m on my umpteenth rewatch of Timeless (starring Matt Lanter, among others) and recently finished Off-Campus, it’s a little less crazy. …
While the Girl Scouts of America do plenty to build up young women, they are best known for their cookies. Which makes sense, given that they are an $800 million industry. In her documentary Cookie Queens, currently in theaters, Alysa Nahmias examines this business through the eyes of four young …
Who knew 2026 would involve so many family movies about flocks of British sheep solving crimes? If this is a trend I hope it lasts forever because The Sheep Detectives was adorable and Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is even more so. A stop-motion animated film with …
Now why might a work of art about a group of – well, not people, but cute protagonists – whose lives have been damaged by a major corporation’s terrible products strike a nerve? Coyote vs. Acme is a howl against how everything is getting worse all the time, and how …
“Cozy murder” is a thing because it’s an easy way for our society to reassure itself that justice will be done. What’s more, we all fear the reaper, and working out how to manage our inevitable end is one of the most important things we do, individually and collectively. This …
Children under age seven, in Japanese culture, are considered “of the gods,” which means they have the purest connection with the divine, until they inevitably transition into the mortal realm, taking their first few steps into adulthood. Such is the case for the titular protagonist of Little Amélie or the …
It may come as a surprise but SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the most successful cartoons of all-time in terms of popularity and longevity. While it doesn’t boast the same quality as cartoons like fellow Nickelodeon juggernaut Avatar: The Last Airbender, its frivolous humour and eccentric-to-a-fault characters are hard not …
Starting with Toy Story 2 in 1999, each new entry in the franchise was accompanied by a teaser trailer that had little to do with the actual movie. Toy Story 2’s teaser was released in June of 1999, featuring Little Green Men staring at a crane, revealing the film’s logo, …
This November, Pixar’s Toy Story turns 30. That number feels impossible to me. Released on November 22, 1995, just twelve days before I was born, the film became a fixture of my childhood, then my adolescence, and, honestly, my entire life. For years, I watched it nearly every day. It …
From John McPhail, the Glaswegian director behind cult favourite Anna and the Apocalypse, comes Grow, a delightfully daft and incredibly charming family film that follows Charlie (newcomer Priya-Rose Brookwell), a young girl with an almost supernatural instinct for horticulture on a mission to grow the world’s biggest pumpkin. After some …
KPop Demon Hunters, the latest musical adventure from Sony Pictures Animation, is, in many respects, a global hit. Released in mid-June, the title is officially the most-watched animated movie of all time on Netflix, its distributor. Currently, the film sits comfortably at No. 2 on the streaming service’s Global Top …
If you have children of a certain age, you’ve probably heard of the Zombies franchise. The newest installment in the series was out last week on streaming, having premiered on the Disney Channel the day before. Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires is entertaining, with catchy music and a positive …
The director, Erich Cannon, presents a family film about grief in Braving Rapids. It tells the story of a family that recently lost its patriarch to an unnamed illness. The mother, Stevie (Megan Heaps), is trying to raise her three kids, Jake (Nate Morley), Chance (Thomas Carroll), and Gracie (Amy …
There is a certain charm in looking back at a film that you watched as a kid. 1995’s A Kid in King Arthur’s Court, from director Michael Gottlieb and writers Michael Part and Robert L. Levy, was an easy choice for family movie night. It stars Thomas Ian Nicholas as …
It’s inevitable. With every new live-action remake released by Disney, the same cycle of controversy, ridiculous boycotts, and deafening noise from hate groups and internet users who can’t handle any deviation from the established norm repeats itself – even if that “norm” is just their highly romanticized childhood memories. Casting …
Marking its final adventure, the third season of Apple TV+’s acclaimed Jane premiered last week. I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with two of the key creative forces behind this environmentally conscious children’s series. The seasoned duo of J. J. Johnson and Matt Bishop (best known – at least …
While it is to be praised that so many dads are making movies for children these days, it does rather mean the dads are centering themselves in the movies, instead of the children for whom the movies are supposedly made. This is very frustrating, not least when it’s clear that …
The theme of “artificial intelligence,” particularly in cinema and television, has been one of the most intense, controversial debates in recent years. As with most polarizing topics, opinions tend to be extreme and lack depth, creating opposing views of “AI is good” versus “AI is bad,” as if all uses …
Despicable Me 4 sees Gru and the family take on a different dynamic. Instead of trying to achieve world domination as a villain, the Gru crew has to accomplish the most challenging mission they have ever faced. Somehow, they must achieve the impossible feat of “blending in.” On the surface, …