Awkward and long-winded translation of the 1961 Disney animated feature (and anti-furrier fable) into live-action. The dogs are adorable, even eloquent, but hardly as obedient as their cartoon forebears; and Glenn Close's dognapping offenses seem mild next to her overacting. With Jeff Daniels and Joely Richardson; directed by Stephen Herek.
The drawing is a little meager compared to the finest work of the Disney animators; also is afflicted with a bad case of the cutes. But the storyline picks up conspicuously when it moves beyond a couple of frightfully bourgeois dalmatians and introduces several different breeds of dog, as well …
Plus assorted other breeds, plus one loquacious parrot, plus a rehabilitated (not for long) Cruella De Vil ("Please, call me Ella"). A higgledy-piggledy incoherent mess, busy enough and loud enough to distract the little ones, and dismay the bigger. Glenn Close, Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Evans, Gerard Depardieu; directed by Kevin …
Much of its reputation comes from exposing the masses to special effects that had been done much more excitingly, not to mention economically, in experimental shorts. Only where money really counts -- the finicky construction of model spaceships -- does it move into new territory. Kubrick's paranoid spoofs on modern …
Much of its reputation comes from exposing the masses to special effects that had been done much more excitingly, not to mention economically, in experimental shorts. Only where money really counts -- the finicky construction of model spaceships -- does it move into new territory. Kubrick's paranoid spoofs on modern …
Much of its reputation comes from exposing the masses to special effects that had been done much more excitingly, not to mention economically, in experimental shorts. Only where money really counts -- the finicky construction of model spaceships -- does it move into new territory. Kubrick's paranoid spoofs on modern …
ABBA: The Movie dances back into movie theaters for a special two-day fan event celebrating 50 years since the Swedish pop sensation was formed and 45 years since the film's original release. The mockumentary comedy-drama film is about the Swedish pop group Australian tour.
Among them, a battle with river rapids, a pinch from a crab, the defense of a chicken egg against an inquisitive hedgehog, and a ride on the back of a turtle. Milo, you understand, is a cat, Otis a dog. The biggest hardship either of them faces is a superslick …
Another animated mouse from the Disney studio, in fact a whole society of them underneath (and a perfect mirror image of) the London of 1897. They have their own mouse queen beneath Buckingham Palace, who coincidentally happens to be celebrating her own Diamond Jubilee. And they have a portly medical …
Documentary about cheetahs and lions living wild on the savannah. Expect some carnage. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.
Disney's animated Arabian Nights tale, with politically enlightened Mediterranean noses and tawny complexions as well as a feministically flattered heroine. The obligatory songs sound even more dashed-off than the ones in the preceding year's Beauty and the Beast ("Riffraff! Street rat! I don't buy that!/ If only they'd look closer …
Animated animal tale, about a flea-bitten mutt short-changed on devotion to humans, and embroiled in a turf war with a no-good cur. The canine protagonist's beyond-and-back experience, after being "rubbed out" by his rival, is decently inventive: he snatches his assigned time-piece from an administrator in the celestial Hall of …
It’s possible that the eight- to ten-year-old set has not been sufficiently exposed to Lady Gaga. This should fix that. It’s also possible that comedian David Cross was not yet bereft of human dignity. This should fix that, too. And in case you’d forgotten how much you loved Tom Hanks …
In America, little Fievel Mousekewitz learns while growing up in Russia in 1885, "there are no cats. And the streets are paved with cheese." This establishes, immediately and neverendingly, the monotonous pattern of rodentized clichés and stereotypes: especially ethnic clichés and stereotypes, Jewish, Irish, French, Italian. There has been no …