Science and animation are tied together like a moon to a planet. While they exist on distant planes and their connection is invisible, to animate is to have a fundamental understanding of science and movement. The job of both an animator and a scientist is to understand the building blocks …
Read More »'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' Is Pure Superhero-Movie Bliss
Every world gets the Spider-Man it deserves. And here on Earth-1610, our webslinger is one Miles Morales: a half-Black, half-Puerto Rican teen who loves graffiti, Air Jordans, and quantum physics. Like most Spider-Folk, he was bit by a radioactive arachnid, developed the ability to crawl up walls and sense oncoming …
Read More »The 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' Score Even Features a Goose
Brooklyn’s best – Spider-Man himself – returns to theaters on June 2 with the release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The sequel to the critically adored animated film Into the Spider-Verse, the new film once again follows the Miles Morales version of the webhead as he deals with the trials …
Read More »'Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai' Is Enchanting and Terribly Cute
In 1984 a promising director named Joe Dante unleashed Gremlins. It was a horror-comedy that played like a polished-up version of something he might have worked on for his mentor, B-movie king Roger Corman, who shepherded Dante’s first solo feature, Piranha, in 1978. Dante already had The Howling to his …
Read More »The Beauty of 'Suzume': A Stunning Anime Epic About Grieving Tragedy
Hollywood doesn’t make movies like Suzume, anime auteur Makoto Shinkai’s latest, about a teen girl who traverses Japan to prevent a series of natural disasters. We get stories about young people saving the world all of the time, sure, but the protagonists are usually dressed in spandex rather than school …
Read More »'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' Is Not Ruined by Chris Pratt's Mario
It’s strange to think of Mario as an underdog. Although he’s been depicted as vaguely blue-collar since his first appearance over 40 years ago, Nintendo’s mascot has always been decidedly super. And despite having had more professions than Johnny Sins, his most notable role is also his simplest: he’s a …
Read More »How 'Spirited Away's' Oscar Win Exposed the Academy
The early years of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature promised a future that never came to pass. Its current state as a depressingly predictable category dominated by whatever Disney released that year is one that feels limited through intention rather than ignorance, and it was 2003’s awarding of …
Read More »Netflix's 'My Dad the Bounty Hunter' Is an Afrofuturist Marvel
From Beyoncé’s Black Is King and the Hulu adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Kindred to the Black Panther films, Black science fiction — what scholars have coined Black Speculative Thought or Afrofuturism — has seen a steady rise over the past few decades. The latest entry, Netflix’s new animated series My …
Read More »'Harley Quinn' Gifts Us a Beautifully Twisted Valentine's Day Special
You may have heard that both HBO Max and DC’s film and television properties are in a state of major turmoil. Projects are being canceled even after they’ve completed production, other series are being dropped from the streamer altogether — the proper term for this is, I believe, “Zaslaving” — …
Read More »'Paradise PD' Creators Explain Why They Went After 'Asshole' Elon Musk
It’s not all that common to come across a show on Netflix that’s so unbelievably crass it makes you question whether cancel culture even exists. Paradise PD, which often occupied the streamer’s Top 10 TV Shows list in 23 countries, is one of those titles. First debuting on the platform …
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