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Few working directors display the versatility of Richard Linklater. Equally comfortable making high-concept art films, experimental outings designed for mass consumption, and multiplex-friendly fare, Linklater has brought to the screen projects as...

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...

I have made my peace with an unsavory truth: the Hollywood of today is going to continue crafting live-action remakes of the animated films of yesteryear until they run out of material. Why? Because audiences like them – more often than not, the...

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...

Fourteen years after the release of The Bourne Identity, the Bourne movies have deviated so drastically from Robert Ludlum’s source novels that, like James Bond, the film character exists separately from his written inspiration. Over the course...