Kubo And The Two Strings Is A Majestic And Beautiful Adventure

Boy, if you're a movie loving youngster right now, or someone that just likes good cinema, you've basically hit the jackpot this month. Each of the first three weeks of this month have managed to deliver a noteworthy family film that's managed to not treat younger audiences like morons and has decided that families deserve strong storytelling too. The presence of such films makes the existence of Nine Lives (which was also released this month) somewhat more tolerable, I guess. The newest motion picture in this trend of high-quality August 2016 family movies is Kubo And The Two Strings which also happens to be the newest film from animation studio LAIKA, the place where Coraline and ParaNorman originated.

Hooray For The 10th Anniversary Of LAIKA!

While Illumination Entertainment prides itself on endless Minion marketing extensions sequels, Blue Sky Studios is sucking the already dead Ice Age franchise beyond dry and even PIXAR can't escape the allure of Toy Story 4 and Cars 3, there really is something kind of incredible about LAIKA,the Hillsboro, Oregon based animation studio responsible for Coraline, ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls. Founded 10 years ago this month, the studio released their first feature, Coraline, in February 2009 to huge critical acclaim and surprisingly strong box office and have followed that up with two features that don't the scale the box office heights of Despicable Me, but consistently get great reviews and awards nominations (all of the studios films have been nominated for Best Animated Feature).

What Happened To 3D?

If history has taught us one thing, it's that there's one tactic Hollywood knows how to do perfectly; run something well-liked into the ground.  This doesn't always happen to elements audiences take a shine to, but boy howdy did it ever happen to 3D. A novelty in 2009 has morphed into an everyday part of 2015 moviegoing. Not a beloved part per se, but it's certainly there, if only because international audiences love the format. We credit Avatar for bringing 3D into the mainstream, and that's true, but it actually wasn't the first film to utilize the format. Far from it.

Box Office Predictions: The Equalizer Should Stabilize The Box Office

Man, everyone was early with their box office predictions yesterday. Normally, everyone does 'em Thursday night, but nope, Hollywood Reporter and Box Office Mojo had their predictions up last night. Guess I'm a bit of a Tardy Thomas with my predictions this weekend, but better late than never right?