Stomping out their usual cuteness and carbon copying Disney's grand animation style to a T, directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman (An American Tail) create a successful musical comedy from the story of the lost Russian princess. Adapting the story of imperialism and revolution is tricky, and subsequently the film's opening is weak. Once Anya (voiced by Meg Ryan, sung by Liz Callaway) is a teena…
Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra teamed up for their first of three musical comedies in this frothy confection of sailors on leave in Hollywood, with gawky, shy young Sinatra tagging along with his worldly buddy Kelly, who promises to show him the ropes. Overlong at more than two hours, this meandering production is light on story, and more than a little sentimental, but full of first-rate entertai…
SOUNDTRACK LANGUAGE(S): RUSSIAN, ENGLISH. SUBTITLES: ENGLISH. From 1924 to perestroika the USSR produced more than 4 dozen animated propaganda films. They weren't for export. Their target was the new nation and their goal was to win over the hearts and minds of the Soviet people. Anti-American, Anti-British, Anti-German, Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Fascist, some of these films are as artistically bea…
Animation Block Party Mix-Tape includes talent from all over the USA and Europe, exhibiting films from classically trained animators such as Don Duga while balancing the palette with works from international talents like Fin Film from the Netherlands. The lineup is as follows: Fred's Box - Aaron Hughes Boop Beep - Howard Beckerman Fan - Lori Samsel Synthesis (Sin-Thesis) - Matt Sheridan …
Animation Block Party presents Volume Two in their excellent mix-tape series. This DVD features diverse genre shorts from animation talents across the map. The lineup showcases ABP student winner, Marvelous Keen Loony Bin from Lizzi Akana, audience award winner Binge and Purge from Ben Meinhardt. Extras focus on filmmaker interviews and animatic exploration. Other films on the DVD include Tug o…
For most of the '70s and '80's, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) was the center of international creativity in animation. Artists from all over the world came to experiment with new styles, media, techniques, and content. The results were not only intriguing and challenging but often very funny, as this exceptional collection demonstrates. Richard Condie's Oscar-nominated "The Big Snit" …
It's very rare indeed for a single DVD to function as pure entertainment and a valuable archive of animation history, but this award-winning Lumivision disc offers all that and more. Once hailed as "America's Greatest Cartoonist," Winsor McCay (1869-1934) was a master draftsman and illustrator who began his career as a newspaper illustration artist and editorial cartoonist in the late 1890s and…