The NeverEnding Story: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - There were movies that I watched while growing up and then there are movies that I grew up with, and The NeverEnding Story was one of the latter. It was with me for as long as I can remember. My family and I used to watch the VHS copy that my grandma owned many of the times that we visited. I still remember my fascination with the opening title sequence as that catchy title song started playing and we were shown visuals of mysterious clouds. As it was released just two years before I was born, there was never a time when I didn't know The NeverEnding Story. But I do believe that I can give a fairly objective review and I will share with you some of the things that worked well for me as a kid and what still works well for me as an adult.

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Wreck-It Ralph: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - In my memory, I distinctively remember the day when my family bought our first personal computer. I was about five years old, I believe, and I remember having been at a family friend's house several weeks previous and they had showed us kids the computer games that could be played on such systems. Several years later, I was first introduced to Pac-Man on an arcade system at church. From a young age, video games have played a large role in expanding my imagination. In more recent years, however, there simply hasn't been enough time to fiddle around with them any more, plus with how realistic and graphic many of them are today, they no longer provide for a brief moment of immersive escapism as they once did. I always appreciated the clear distinction between reality and fantasy, which has been blurred so much in video games today. Nevertheless, when I first heard about Wreck-It Ralph earlier this year and saw the promotional trailer featuring many of the villains of an era of gaming gone by, it immediately struck the nostalgia nerve in my heart.

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Ice Age: Continental Drift: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - When I first saw Ice Age back in 2002, I would never have guess that 10 years down the road, we'd be on the 4th instalment of the series. Apparently everybody loved these movies and I didn't know it. The third film is even in the list of the top 10 highest grossing animated movies list, which was a surprise to me, though with that knowledge it is no surprise that there they have made a fourth. I guess it makes sense, since this is Blue Sky Studios' bread and butter and their only main franchise that can compete with the likes of Pixar and Dreamworks, even though their movie Rio was a big hit last year too, apparently. I'm glad that another studio is in the race though; it makes for a more even playing field.

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Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - With Pixar films regularly blowing audiences away with cutting edge graphics, tight writing, and touching characterizations, it can be really easy to overlook other CG cartoon features. Even Disney’s own CG releases have been pretty forgettable. DreamWorks’s Madagascar series was no exception. Sure, it made oodles of money, but I found the first movie to be okay at best, and the second movie to be mediocre (and that animated series is hardly a gem). So my expectations weren’t high for this, the third installment in the movie franchise.

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Explorers: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Recently, I had a walk down memory lane from someone posting a clip from 1985's Return to Oz, a childhood favourite of mine. Yet, I haven't seen this film in about 15-18 years. It brought to memory a whole host of other films that I had watched far too many times to count, yet tried my best to forget about as I deemed them somewhat childish. One that came to mind was also from 1985, Explorers. I had the chance to re-watch it and in the interest of bringing attention to this likely forgotten gem, I decided to write a review. Often, it is difficult to try to analyze something for which we have nostalgic feelings, but I feel confident saying that enough time has passed since my previous viewing of this film to say that I could give it a fair and objective take.

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