Despite its talented staff, the Van Beuren Studio, which existed from 1928 to 1936, never rose above the level of a "B" cartoon house. Their talking version of Felix the Cat, who appears in "Bold King Cole" (1936) and "The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg" (1936), has none of zest of the silent character animated by Otto Messmer. Their original characters, Molly Moo-Cow and Cubby Bear, are a…
Ub Iwerks was one of the greatest animators of the silent and early sound eras: he animated "Steamboat Willie" and other early Disney shorts virtually by himself. But the films he produced at his own studio after breaking with Walt Disney in 1930 lack the vitality of his earlier work. During the '30s, the animators with Disney, the Fleischers, Warner Bros., and MGM developed a new style of …
From director Brad Silberling and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment comes a live-action fun house ride filled with laughter, excitement and ghostly surprises. "Ghost therapist" Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman) and his daughter Kat (Christina Ricci) arrive at drafty, old Whipstaff Manor. Its greedy owner, Carrigan Crittendon (Cathy Moriarty), has hired Dr. Harvey to exorcise the house's app…
Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro) achieved his first international hit with this delightful 1979 adventure yarn. Quick-paced, high-spirited, and loaded with wit, Cagliostro is a dandy throwback to the caper pictures of the '60s. International man of mystery Lupin III stumbles back into the picturesque European duchy of Cagliostro with his faithful and gruff sidekick, Jige…
The Academy Award-nominated A CAT IN PARIS is a beautifully hand-drawn caper set in the shadow-drenched alleyways of Paris. Dino is a cat that leads a double life. By day he lives with Zoe, a little girl whose mother is a detective in the Parisian police force. But at night Dino sneaks out the window to work with Nico a slinky cat burglar with a big heart, whose fluid movements are poetry in mo…
Cats Don't Dance is typical fare: a dancing cat who wants to be a Hollywood star circa 1939. Of course, animals only play animal roles in the movies, but our hero Danny (a cat) won't accept that as an answer. Plenty of big laughs for adults here, but there are also some wonderful characters including the bratty baby starlet Darla Dimple (Shirley Temple meets Baby Herman) and her Schwarzenegger-…
Features include: •MPAA Rating: G •Format: DVD•Runtime: 94 minutes