Celebrating twenty years since its release, we’re talking about the Brad Bird animated classic. How does it fare both before and after the big superhero movie boom and what about it still resonates? Turns out, more than you might think. Episode #157
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What better follow-up to a biblical epic is the existential implications of object permanence set to Randy Newman? Episode #121
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The latest film in the Pixar pantheon has been abuzz with conversation since its Christmas release, but what do we think about it? Turns out, there’s a lot of feelings. Episode #57
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I was nine years old when the original Kingdom Hearts released for the PlayStation 2. I was already brought up on RPGs, particularly eastern varietals and the nutty idea of a Squaresoft (now SquareEnix) and Disney crossover of all things, while odd, captured my imagination in a way no other game had at that point. I often gravitated towards RPGs […]
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Rather than a great moment, I wanted to look at an incredible moment in cinema. That’s why I decided to focus on a sequence that is great not because it provides some deep insight into the themes of the film, or serves as a sort of complete story that stands on its own (though I would argue that it does […]
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Dear Journal, Today I learned that gingers are people too, just tiny, pixilated people. So we have a movie-tie-in game for a children’s movie on the DS here. Now, you’re saying to yourself that you shouldn’t expect much from it, after all, that is like the be-all end-all list of bad signs for a game going in. You’d be mostly […]
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Dear Journal, Today I drove around in cars that are self aware, which is kind of creepy if you think about it too much. Cars 2 is another “kart style racer” in the spirit of Mario Kart (not the first one to be reviewed during Backlog Quest). Though obviously, rather than “go-karts” the characters are themselves the cars this time […]
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Okay, I know you probably read the headline above and thought to yourself, “What the hell is this guy smoking?”, but hear me out. I can explain. See, when I started writing this column, one of the things I wanted to do was to try and find connections between movies that didn’t seem all that similar on the surface, but […]
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Brave is not a bad movie. It is far, far, far away from anything resembling bad. It’s gorgeously animated, wonderfully voiced, and contains some terrific setpieces. The worst can be said about the film is that it’s sort of blandly forgettable. But since it didn’t live up to all the potential it had, I still want to talk about it. Sure, […]
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In my last column, I discussed how cinema is essentially a medium that is built upon its own history, with countless directors using their own films as excuses to pay homage to those that inspired them. Whether it come in the form of lifting a particular bit of technical flair like a camera movement or editing choice, or the outright […]
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