Oscar Volley: Animated Feature Film

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Abe Friedtanzer and Juan Carlos Ojano.

ABE: It's always a pleasure to talk awards with you, and I'm excited to dive in to the Animated Feature race this year. While I wish that we could have been discussing out-of-the-box choices like Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, Eternal Spring, or Little Nicholas, Happy as Can Be or even mainstream fare that for some reason didn't click like Lightyear and The Bad Guys, there are five worthwhile nominees that did make the cut. I know that I had to seek out The Sea Beast once nominations were announced since I hadn't yet streamed that title, while the other four didn't come as much of a surprise. Going into this race, it feels like Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio is the clear favorite. But it didn't net any other Oscar nominations, which many thought it would. Neither did any of the other nominees, however, so maybe we're back to square one...

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley: "Naatu Naatu" vs Pop Divas for Best Original Song

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category in the lead up to the ceremony. Here's Baby Clyde and Chris James to talk Costume Design.

CHRIS: A round of APPLAUSE for my volley co-host, Baby Clyde. Now, let's Tell It Like A Pundit - what is going on with the Original Song race? On the surface, it seems like "Naatu Naatu" has this category in the bag after winning this prize at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. RRR's grand dance number is one of the most memorable scenes of the year and would make for a worthy winner. However, one can't forget that it is against some heavy hitters, such as Rihanna and Lady Gaga, both for films that made over a billion dollars at the box office. Are we underestimating them?

And do you have any favourites that weren't nominated?...

Click to read more ...

Baker's Dozen: Best Screen Animals of 2022

by Nathaniel R

One of the underdiscussed joys of cinema, at least if you're an animal lover, are the non-human creatures that swim, gallop, slither, hop, and play across the screens. Debates continue about the use of non-human actors onscreen, but animal characters can be as memorable as their human scene partners whether they're computer generated, stop motion puppets, or furry or feathered actors. 2022's cinema gave us the full menagerie. Among the most memorable "real" animals, for better and worse, were Empire of Light's wounded pigeon, A Man Called Otto's feral yet easily domesticated cat, Everything Everywhere All At Once's weaponized pom, the homicidal chimp and lion of Nope and Beast, respectively, and Babylon's diarrhetic elephant. If you prefer fantastical beasties, the titular animated characters from The Sea Beast, My Father's Dragon, and DC League of Super Pets had their charms while "Socks" the robot cat of Lightyear was that misjudged film's MVP.

Speaking of fantastic, the following list is dedicated to Meilin in Turning Red for embracing her inner red panda, even if she isn't technically eligible being an all-too relatable teenage human girl person... 

Click to read more ...

Tweetweek

It's funny because it's true.

one of the craziest parts of hollywood is learning that most celebrity’s email addresses are like, cateblanchett @ gmail . com

— Johnny LaZebnik (@jlazebnik) March 21, 2022

 a couple minutes of amusing distraction for you via curated tweets awaits after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Review: the relatable, surreal 'Turning Red'

by Lynn Lee

All images in this post are from Turning Red © Disney/Pixar

Here are some things I never thought I’d see in a Disney animated movie:

-unleashed adolescent female desire, front and center (here metaphorically represented by a red panda)

-matter-of-fact references to menstruation (even though it’s also metaphorically represented, or rather superseded, by the red panda)

-a boy band and Tamagotchis (remember those?) as major plot drivers...

Click to read more ...