Second Chance Productions’ Gracie & Pedro: Pets to the Rescue is an animated road movie for the kiddies that doesn’t pooch the audience on a good time. Prim-and-proper pup Gracie (voiced by Claire Alan) and feisty feline Pedro (voiced by Cory Doran) embark on their family’s big move to Salt Lake City, but the trip doesn’t go smoothly. The animals topple off-track in their shared carrier before boarding their plane and end up missing their flight. Realizing…
After some minor big screen stints and continuing with its long-running success on television, PAW Patrol makes a flawless leap to feature-length with PAW Patrol: The Movie – essentially cobbling together four missions into an entertaining movie for families.
Showing different perspectives from the streets of Istanbul, filmmaker Elizabeth Lo explores the day-to-day lifestyle of stray dog Zeytin in Stray. There are brief transitions to other viewpoints provided by fellow pooches or human beings, but Zeytin is certainly the star of the show.
Illumination Entertainment’s featherlight The Secret Life of Pets will surely entertain families. The vibrant animals and the large-scale chases will delight youngsters, and adults – who may already be prepared to count down the minutes – will find strange gratification from hearing R-rated comedians lend their vocals to cute animals.
One of the most exciting voices of contemporary cinema has hit that point in his career where he needs to make his first English language feature. Thankfully, unlike countless others before him, Yorgos Lanthimos managed to avoid the usual pitfalls of the “first English feature” and results in The Lobster, a film as weird and brilliant as his previous features Dogtooth and ALPS.
By: Addison Wylie Drafthouse Films’ track record is uneven, but you have to give them credit for being able to uncover bizarrely profound work. As for their current experiment, they’re giving Roar – an outrageously irresponsible survival film – a second chance. Knowing the production company, they see cult potential in Noel Marshall’s dangerous film. Roar was littered with problems during production including multiple injuries to the cast and crew, as well as natural disasters…
By: Addison Wylie A tiny gem entering the mainstream circuit is Dogs on the Inside. The documentary features rescued dogs and prison inmates who look after them. Massachusetts’ Don’t Throw Us Away program gives both inmates and mistreated pups a second chance, as man and animal identify with each other. In other words: good luck trying to frown towards this film. Dogs on the Inside is a heartwarming documentary, showing the audience just how easy…
By: Addison Wylie I’ve had to alter my evaluating criteria for DisneyNature. It’s clear the sub-studio has no interest returning to the quality of earlier docs like Earth and Oceans anytime soon. Instead, families receive a cutesy story set to live action B-roll of animals in their natural habitats. As someone who appreciates the importance of these wildlife documentaries, I find it tough to embrace this type of manufactured product. DisneyNature’s African Cats left me…
By: Addison Wylie If you thought the big screen world of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs couldn’t get any stranger, you obviously haven’t visited a world full of live, hybrid leftovers. Directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn (the latter having some involvement with the film’s predecessor) are fully aware as to how Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs won audiences over with its wild visuals and bizarre sense of humour. That’s why there’s even…
By: Addison Wylie According to The Ghosts in our Machine, it’s easier for photographer Jo-Anne McArthur to go unseen in factory farms than it is to be seen in major publications. McArthur has dedicated her life to capturing the life of unkempt animals through her lens to spread the word of inhumane treatment aimed towards animals to garner material goods. Whether she’s tagging along with other passionate individuals or executing guerrilla missions as we saw…