Review: “The Incredibles 2”

4 out of 5 stars. Pixar’s “The Incredibles” was released 14 years ago.  Think about that.  Fourteen years.  The long-awaited sequel to the animated film that follows a family of superheroes is finally in theaters, and it picks up at the exact moment that its predecessor left off, the familiar characters springing into action as […]

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Review: “Isle of Dogs”

4 out of 5 stars. “Whatever happened to man’s best friend?”  That’s the question posed by Professor Watanabe to Kobayashi—the cat-loving mayor of Megasaki City on the Japanese coast—just before he signs a decree requiring all the city’s dogs to be sent to the neighboring Trash Island in the wake of a dog flu virus […]

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Review: “Coco”

5 out of 5 stars. I’m sure that, as I was watching “Coco,” a minor issue or two regarding the plot pinged in the back of my head, but honestly, I can’t remember now what those issues might have been.  That’s because “Coco,” the latest animated feature from Pixar, is about as close to perfect […]

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Review: “Despicable Me 3”

3.5 out of 5 stars. The “Despicable Me” films have always been rather all over the place—that’s not a bad thing in this case though, and for the record I really do like the first two movies.  But despite all the colorful gadgets and cartoonish supervillains and yellow sidekicks, at their heart they’ve always been […]

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Review: “Cars 3”

3 out of 5 stars. I realize that I am in the minority when I say that I really like “Cars.”  The 2006 animated Pixar film about a cocky racecar who changes his way after he is waylaid in a sleepy town off Route 66 was an instant hit with audience but met with mediocre […]

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Review: “Moana”

4.5 out of 5 stars. Walt Disney Feature Animation has had a remarkable past several years, turning out amazing film after amazing film, from the cultural phenomenon “Frozen” to the record-breaking hit of this spring, “Zootopia.”  But even among such illustrious titles, “Moana” may be the studio’s crowning achievement of this era. “Moana,” which is […]

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Review: “Kubo and the Two Strings”

4 out of 5 stars. “Kubo and the Two Strings” is Laika’s most complex and ambitious work to date — and that’s saying a lot for the stop-motion animation studio, whose previous credits include “Coraline” and “ParaNorman.” “Kubo,” which is directed as well as co-produced Travis Knight, draws on the rich Japanese tradition of storytelling to craft […]

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