Watched in the cinema (188th visit in 2024)
Fans of "The Lord of the Rings" can't really complain about a lack of new content. The second season of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" has just been released, which conjured up the fantasy world created by J. R. R. Tolkien on home screens at great expense. Two new live-action cinema films are currently in the works and are scheduled for release from 2026. Until then, "The Lord…
Watched in the cinema (182nd visit in 2024)
"You're Welcome" is not only the biggest hit from "Moana", but also the attitude with which Disney dropped a bombshell in February 2024. Instead of exploring the Polynesian world again in an announced Disney+ series, the studio surprised everyone at a shareholders' meeting by announcing a proper sequel - and this was directly dated for the end of the year. But behind this bright appearance lies a well-calculated, pragmatic move: the originally…
Watched on 3D Blu-Ray
After hitting rock bottom in the 00s, Disney's animation studios have recently regained their former strength with a series of big hits. In 2016, they were even able to prove with two films that they are still a force to be reckoned with and, in the opinion of many, have even surpassed their in-house subsidiary Pixar. However, "Zootopia" and "Moana" could hardly be more different. While the animal adventure has an astonishingly contemporary story to tell…
Watched in the cinema (153rd visit in 2024)
In 2007, director Michael Bay brought "Transformers" to cinemas and was able to rub his hands with glee at the almost 800 million dollar worldwide box office takings. Among the sequels were "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" and "Transformers: Age of Extinction", both of which even broke the billion-dollar barrier. After that, things went downhill again for the robots from toy manufacturer Hasbro's range. Now, however, the machines are back as animated…
Watched in the cinema (149th visit in 2024)
It seems as if the success of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" in 2018 has encouraged the big Hollywood animation studios to leave the perfect recreation of reality to one side for a while and instead go all out artistically again. The makers behind "The Wild Robot" are also following this trend in their adaptation of Peter Brown's three-part children's book series, with the backgrounds in particular being inspired by Impressionism. As the…
Watched on Netflix
"I died on September 21, 1945."
Garishly colorful, completely over-the-top superhero stories for children - according to an old cliché, this is what most anime looks like. "Grave of the Fireflies" is none of these things. Although the animated film is theoretically rated for ages six and up, the dark war story is not really suitable for a younger audience. How could it be, when the main character dies right at the beginning of the film? A…
Watched in the cinema (117th visit in 2024)
It may sound unbelievable, but it's true: although the Looney Tunes have been around since 1930, "The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie" is the first full-length animated feature film with the characters from Warner Brothers. Previously, only short film compilations and real/animated film hybrids such as "Space Jam" made it to the cinema.
Admittedly, a Looney Tunes film is no easy undertaking, as the characters work best in…
Watched in the cinema (108th visit in 2024)
"Despicable Me 4" is bonkers. What could be taken as an insult is, in this case, more of a compliment. Because the way the two directors Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage and the screenwriters Mike White and Ken Daurio disregard the norms of storytelling is almost admirable.
The sheer number of subplots alone is wild. A good half of these have zero impact on the outcome of the criminal-wants-to-get-rich plot. A Minion…
Watched in the cinema (94th visit in 2024)
"Mom and Dad are proud of me. I'm strong, I'm a really good friend. I'm a winner. I'm a good person." These are Riley's beliefs before puberty, but during puberty the alarm bells literally ring and all the wonderful emotions and beliefs that Riley had are torn down and flattened, because a whole new emotion takes over and this time it's doubt. This new dominant emotion also brings with it other emotions,…
Watched on Blu-Ray
2015 was Pixar's last big year, with "Inside Out" proving to be the biggest and best film in Pixar history alongside "Toy Story 3", "The Incredibles" and "Ratatouille". Nothing that came afterwards hit me as much.
Technically, the studio, which was bought by Walt Disney for 7.4 billion US dollars in 2006, proved about 9 years ago that they were among the best at the time. The technical perfection of the animation, the handling of shapes and…
Watched on Amazon Prime Video
Well-known and completely gaga at the same time - that was the recipe for success of "Despicable Me" right from the start. A sweet, predictable story about a curmudgeon and three little girls was combined with absolutely stupid heist moments, topped off by the appearance of the actual stars: the Minions. To this day, we don't really know what they are supposed to be or what they are babbling about. But that didn't matter. If…
Watched in the cinema (80th visit in 2024)
In the heartfelt animated film "Robot Dreams" about friendship, closeness, distance and loneliness, director Pablo Berger explores the question of what it means to be alone, to feel lonely, to have no one, in a world that is tailored to couples. Being alone has negative connotations and is devalued in many places.
This is exactly what the main character in "Robot Dreams" experiences. His neighbors are cuddling on the sofa, couples with…