The Slipshod Boss Baby Only Show Flashes Of Creativity In Some Of Its Visuals

DreamWorks Animation used to have some real ambition as a studio, or, at least, the promise of ambition. If the radically different tones and aesthetics of their first two films (Antz and The Prince Of Egypt) suggested a studio that could create a wide variety of animated motion pictures, well, they've been inconsistent in fulfilling that promise over the course of the next two decades. For every Shrek (only the first two!), How To Train Your Dragon or Kung Fu Panda that showed real imagination and artistic promise, you also had stuff like The Road To El Dorado, Bee Movie and Trolls that had them chasing other popular animated family movies for quick and easy profits. When it comes to creating worthwhile cinema, ya win some, ya lose some in the world of DreamWorks Animation.

Home Review

Home (But Not So) Alone

The world of sci-fi animaton is surprisingly sparse of huge successes, despite the presence of huge hits like WALL-E and Big Hero 6. Some of the biggest box office bombs of modern animation, whether they be deserved (Mars Needs Moms and Planet 51) or unwarranted (Titan A.E.) can be found here, and while early box office returns suggest Home will easily find it's way into the former category, it's also got more than enough flaws to come up as lacking entry in this subgenre of the animation medium.

It's A New Trailer For Your New Movie Charlie Brown!

The forthcoming The Peanuts Movie should be an abomination. It should be a film that takes certain beloved cartoon characters and turns them into freaky, overly realistic CGI concoctions solely to make a buck and spew fart gags (think of those hideous Scooby-Doo movies from 2002 and 2004). Instead though, it actually looks great. The characters have been translated to CGI animation in a successful manner that retains their distinctive hand-drawn look, creating a new kind of style I've never seen in a CGI-animated feature.

The Minions Are Getting Their Own Movie. Enjoy The First Trailer For It.

I don't wanna sound like that guy, but I'm gonna do it anyway; I miss the Minions of old. In the first Despicable Me, a charming and fun adventure, they were a humorous bunch who did a good job being lovable supporting characters for the main plot. But in the extremely underwhelming Despicable Me 2, the plot revolved around them instead of the other way around. They had some funny moments, don't get me wrong, but at some point it felt tiring instead of humorous.

The Book Of Life Review

Guillermo Del Toro has lent his name to a vast amount of projects since he became a household name with the Hellboy features and Pans Labyrinth. Since the second Hellboy, he's only directed one feature (last years beautifully exciting Pacific Rim), but has produced several more than that. His most recent endeavor as a producer is The Book Of Life, an animated feature from Reel FX and director Jorge R. Gutierrez. Gutierrez makes his debut as a director of a feature length film with this production, his previous defining work being the Nickelodeon program El Tigre.

First Footage From The Upcoming CGI Popeye Movie Is Here

In the pantheon of American animation studios, Sony Pictures Animation Studios is somewhere near the bottom of the barrel. The first Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs film is fun, and both of the Aardman movies they helped distribute were fantastic, but the rest of their output (namely The Smurfs) isn't so good. At least they're giving consistent employment to animation titan Genndy Tartakovsky, the man who helmed the harmless but forgettable Hotel Transylvania and is now in charge of a new CGI Popeye feature. A video containing some test footage for the feature and some thoughts from Tartakovsky is now online. Check the video and my thoughts on it below.

Franchise Frenzy: Ice Age

Welcome to Franchise Frenzy! Every other week I post a column analyzing the quality and pop culture impact of a certain Hollywood franchise. This week, I put on a winter coat in July in order to make my way through the Ice Age franchise.

In 2002, CGI animated films were scarce, with DreamWorks only having released two of them at that point, Disney Animation doing only one and even PIXAR only having four of them under their belt at that point. Aside from the occasional Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, the landscape for CGI animated features was vacant. Enter Blue Sky Studios, whose first feature Ice Age became the cornerstone of the company. They've very rarely stepped outside of that franchise comfort zone (pity too, as aside from Rio, their other non-Ice Age movies range from diverting to endlessly charming), but if every single entry in this series was as strong as the original, I doubt any of us would complain. 

The List!!!: Five Great Things The Cars Franchise Brought Us

In The List!!!, I do a list that just reeks of being click-bait, analyzing a particular topic or subject that pertains to something major occurring in pop-culture. This week, in honor of Planes: Fire And Rescue, I look at five great things PIXAR's Cars franchise brought us.

 Let me just say it now; Planes: Fire And Rescue isn't a PIXAR movie. Neither was Planes. Those are made by DisneyToon studios, the fine folks responsible for such cinematic highs as Cinderella 2. PIXAR isn't involved in them aside from John Lasseter bewilderingly producing both movies. My hopes aren't high for the second Planes feature, and the first one was the absolute worst movie of 2013, and Cars 2 was a mess, but that doesn't mean this series of transportation movies has never created something interesting. Behold, five great things the Cars franchise has bestowed upon us!