Animated Movies

The box office battle for first place… really wasn’t much of a battle. After a disappointing $34 million debut for DreamWorks’ Puss in Boots last week – which was at least partially attributed to opening the movie on Halloween weekend – the Antonio Banderas-starring family film bounced back in a big way, earning $33 million from 259 fewer theaters. The cute-but-dangerous cat dropped only 3% from last weekend, bringing its overall total to a more respectable $75 million, based on estimates.

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Lightning McQueen and Mater are back, for better or worse, threatening to bore audiences in Cars 2, the critically panned sequel to the worst Pixar movie ever made. After the dull brainsucker that was the original Cars, many Pixar fans – especially of the adult variety – scoffed at the idea that Pixar was overlooking other sequel-worthy properties, such as The Incredibles, to make yet another movie about talking cars reflecting on the simple things in life. Cars 2 also represents the first obvious cash grab for the studio that can [almost] do no wrong.

Read FilmJabber’s full Cars 2 movie review.

The animated movie Rio comes to DVD and Blu-Ray this week. Starring the voice of Jessie Eisenberg (The Social Network) as a socially awkward and flightless parrot who finds himself on the run from exotic bird smugglers in Brazil, Rio will appeal to kids but offers nothing new among the barrage of CGI films released in recent years.

Read FilmJabber’s full Rio movie review.

An aging French illusionist finds his prospects dwindling as rock bands and electronics go mainstream in the Oscar-nominated French animated film L’illusionniste – known to us non-Frenchmen as The Illusionist. The movie is an alluring and richly animated drama-comedy, but its low key storytelling fails to hold attention the way the filmmaker’s last production, the incredible Triplets of Belleville, did.

Read FilmJabber’s full The Illusionist movie review.

The second animated film of 2010 to feature a goofy super villain as the protagonist, Megamind‘s fall release appeared to be too little, too late, despite starring the voices of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey and Brad Pitt. Thankfully, the DreamWorks Animation comedy is significantly different than Despicable Me, much closer to The Incredibles in tone and delivery.

Read FilmJabber’s full MegaMind movie review.

The Oscar-nominated The Illusionist will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray on Tuesday, May 10th, 2011.

From the Director of the Oscar®-nominated classic The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist is a story about two paths that cross. While touring concert halls, theaters and pubs, an aging, down-on-his-luck magician encounters a young girl at the start of her life’s journey…

Enter to win the Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack for The Illusionist!

In the dawning age of Blu-Ray and high definition, one studio that benefits more than most is Disney-Pixar. Not only do their Blu-Ray releases give us an excuse to relive the great movies they’ve produced over the last two decades, but Pixar films look absolutely great in high definition. The Incredibles, recently released to Blu-Ray, is no different.

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After more than 10 years away from theaters, the Scream franchise returned in the form of Scream 4, reuniting stars Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette with director Wes Craven and a new lineup of young pretty things to be splattered, gutted and witticismed to a spot six feet underground.

Box office winner, right?

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Given that my own hair is thinning, it gives me no great pleasure to introduce Tangled, Disney’s Oscar-nominated animated retelling of the tale of Rapunzel, which showcases more hair than a Siberian woman in the winter. The surprise hit received rave reviews when it was released theatrically, and is now being released on DVD and Blu-Ray this week.

Read FilmJabber’s full Tangled movie review.