Tag: Animation

Who’s Ready for The Casagrandes Movie During March Spring Break?

It’s about time for Ronnie Anne to shine in The Casagrandes Movie, which promises to bring in some local folklore to make this Mexican adventure shine.

The Casagrandes MovieComing to Netflix March 22, 2024

Ronnie Anne is going to have one heck of a party in The Casagrandes Movie. Whether she’ll be any wiser while in Mexico, that’ll depend on many things. Will she be able to deal with a demigod, and is she up on her folklore? Probably not, but I get the feeling the film will take a stab at what makes the Legend Quest series great. 

Just how much of this fantasy element will factor into this work speaks for itself in the trailer. Although the art and animation style is very different from the television series, only the long-time viewer will notice. While it’s sad the Nickelodeon show is no more, as reported by Axios, thankfully the characters get moments to shine in the Loud House series, and if the film does well enough, perhaps more one-offs.

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Transformers Earthspark, A Brand New Era and Next Season News

Anyone enjoying Transformers Earthspark will be glad to hear more episodes are being made, and in the meantime, we offer a full series review now that the entire series is available on home video.

Transformers Earthspark Episodes 11-26Spoiler Alert

Transformers Earthspark is like Rescue Bots at times, because of how everyone treats each other like a tight family. Just when I thought the home release might offer material to explain the similarity, this bare-bones release doesn’t delve into the development. I’m curious about why Quintus Prime finds it vital to seed other planets with Emberstone. This artifact can create new life, and while this Primus allowed this planet to run its natural course, why would this artfact remain? Since it was placed on a pedestal, there’s a lingering question of who worshipped it?

Maybe one day, I can meet the creators and ask about this new direction for the franchise. Aside from seeing Nicole Dubuc‘s name–who has helped produce the series for a long time–the others involved in the development are not as familiar. As long as she’s leading the charge, I’m okay with this update.

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The Tiger’s Apprentice Gets Ready to Roar in Feb!

Anyone outside of the USA and UK will just have to wait a bit longer for The Tiger’s Apprentice release. But in the meantime, we got this guide:

The Tiger's Apprentice Movie PosterComing to Paramount+

The Tiger’s Apprentice is ready to entertain come Feb 2 in select markets, and it will further its reach at a later date. That is, this animation will be made available in other countries perhaps as early as next month. But for now, this streaming service is geolocking this film by Raman Hui subscribers located in the USA and UK.

From the Press Release:

This star-studded animated action-adventure film stars Henry Golding (The Old Guard 2), Brandon Soo Hoo (Mech Cadets) and Lucy Liu (Shazam: Fury of the Gods) with Golden Globe winner Sandra Oh (Quiz Lady) and Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once).

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High Flying Adventure is in Store for Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds

The world one finds in High Flying Adventure is in Store for Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds will look somewhat familiar. I can’t help but be reminded of Studio Ghibli’s The Cat Returns.

Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds Movie Poster
Animation First 2024
Playing Jan 26, 7pm
FIAF Florence Gould Hall, NYC

Anyone who loves anthropomorphic cats will adore what Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds has in store for them. Although the character designs are reminiscent of Hayop Ka! thankfully the narrative here is more family friendly and nurturing.

Here, we’re introduced to a writer (voiced by Géraldine Asselin) who suddenly has to babysit Carmen (Maryne Bertieaux) and her younger sister Juliette (Loïse Charpentier). But in order to prepare for their stay, she decides to let them play by themselves whilst she naps. Pretty soon, they are whisked away into a far off adventure!

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The Best Five Genre Films to See at the Victoria Film Festival’s 30th Anniversary

Not every milestone year can be perfect, but I try to be fair about what the Victoria Film Festival offers, especially when the 25th didn’t live up to my expectations.

Victoria Film Festival Current LogoWhile there aren’t enough movies to make a top ten picks of nerdy films playing at the Victoria Film Festival‘s 30th year, that’s only because I’m selecting works that I haven’t seen before and am truly interested in. My expectations after experiencing their 20th are hard to top and what I’ve witnessed over the decade is like a sine wave. Their 25th showed them trying to include new venues and making sure there’s works that’ll appeal to non film buffs.

I’m surprised that even now, they and Tsukino Con (the Uvic Anime Club) haven’t decided to partner up. This anime event takes place after the festival, and to work together to offer up the latest Japanese animated film feels like a missed opportunity to help each other out.

It’s tough to offer an movie event celebration that has a bit of everything to cater to all levels of tastes and genres. There was even a year where the organisers experimented with the next wave–with the use of virtual reality–but now there’s little interest in choosing your own adventure storytelling; at least this show is adaptive. As for being a place to find niche genre works, it’s tough to call dibs not to get those films that matter–which I’ve seen elsewhere.

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Instead of Ten, There’s Twelve Animated Films To Be Excited for in 2024

There’s plenty of animated films to feast upon this year, but to say which are essentials boils down to this list that considers films from Japan too!

Justice League- Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One - Animated FilmsInstead of focusing on the output from the major studios, what I offer in this list of animated films to be excited for includes two Asian picks making my top slots! Here, it’s not just about theatrical releases, but also direct to video, and streaming too.

But to be fair, I must say Chris Sanders, co-director of How to Train Your Dragon, return to DreamWorks to helm The Wild Robot, is a bit of a surprise. I thought he cut his ties with them, but it’s nice to see there’s no hard feelings between what led to his departure, since he was never fully involved in how the classics continued except by credit. While it’s great that this studio is hard at work outputting a ton of product, the big question I have is will Orion and the Dark be good? This film is headed to streaming, and with those two said, I begin my list with:

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part 1 (Jan 8)

Hopefully, this animated adaptation of the comic book will do a better job than TheCW‘s Arrowverse version. This saga spanned several comic books back when it was first published, and it concerned the Anti-Monitor who wanted to start destroying alternate Earths where variations of DC’s most famous heroes existed. However, when readers were getting confused about what’s happening on Earth-Prime or not, what Marv Wolfman and George Pérez did was to clean up the mess. That didn’t stop the comic book company from creating Elseworlds, but at least fans know what’s fashioned there are meant to be one-shots!

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