Movies with music written by John Powell

When the invasion of Iraq transpired in 2003, assurances came down from on high that this act was necessary to remove the clear and present danger represented by Sadaam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (this is when the acronym WMD entered the...

Hancock is a hodgepodge of intriguing ideas that, if developed further or presented as more than throw-ins to a confused production, might have made for a unique superhero film. The resulting movie, however, shows all the signs of studio interfere...

Happy Feet is a weird movie. No one can accuse director George Miller and his co-writers of playing it safe, but there are some genres - such as family-friendly animation - where adherence to conventions can be viewed as a positive trait. 75 minu...

Admittedly, it's been about 35 years since I was reader of Dr. Seuss, but my memories of his books are that they're short and economical with words. Neither of those descriptions applies to this theatrical version of Horton Hears a Who!, which has...

Seen in standard digital 3-D. When Dreamworks released Shrek in 2001, it appeared the company was ready to challenge Disney/Pixar in the family film arena. Since then, however, Dreamworks' animated efforts have been made more with kids in mind ...

It's an axiom of the filmmaking industry that any time an animated movie shows a profit, it instantly becomes the foundation for a franchise. Unfortunately, when money drives creative decisions, it's like the cart pulling the horse. Take away the f...

The third (and likely final) installment of the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, The Hidden World, continues a trend that started with the previous film: muting adult-friendly content in favor of material with a greater appeal to kids. Althoug...

With the Ice Age movies, you get what you expect. This is the fourth installment of a franchise that has been around since 2002. (In this case, it was decided against recasting all the voices and re-telling the first story with only a few cosmetic ...

With each release, Pixar explores new themes and ideas. Meanwhile, animation studios like Fox retread tired "franchises" like Ice Age. Never representative of more than mediocrity from a technical or story-based standpoint, the Ice Age series has...

Despite its popularity with children, Ice Age represented, at the time, a nadir for digital animation. Although entertaining, the film couldn't stand toe-to-toe with its Pixar and Dreamworks competitors. Ice Age: The Meltdown represents a further...