November 27, 2013 Sisters…Sisters…There were never such devoted sisters… This sentiment of Irving Berlin’s lyric from an older Christmas classic is what is at the heart of the new Disney movie being released just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday. Frozen, which is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s 1854 tale, “The Snow Queen”, gambles by …
Animation
‘Despicable Me 2’: More Minions + More Gru = More Family Fun
July 2, 2013 As satisfaction at the movies goes, nothing makes Cinema Siren happier than a really great animated feature. After some mediocre offerings earlier in the year, finally this holiday weekend something really great arrives, and just in time for families looking for cinematic fun. The quirky heart of the original is kept intact, …
Monsters U, Much Ado and Zombies Too! Cinema Siren reviews!
June 20, 2013 This weekend at the movies, there’s something for everyone, with a broad spectrum of subjects and targeted audiences in the offing. Zombies are bringing about the apocalypse in director Marc Forster’s World War Z, starring Brad Pitt. Monsters University is a new release by the magicians over at Pixar who seem able, …
Animated Film “Epic”: Epic Fail
May 25, 2013 To be fair, director Chris Wedge (of Ice Age and Rio) has created a nature-based fantasy engaging enough that it will find an audience, but when one changes the name of a movie from Leaf Men to Epic, one better come with one’s A+ game, no? Epic qualifies for a solid C, …
Cinema Siren’s Top Movie Trends and Takeaways of 2012
January 6, 2013 The box office receipts didn’t automatically match studio expectations in 2012. For once, some of the most lauded movies took money away from the mediocre ones. This year we saw superheroes, grown-up movies, genre mash-ups and cartoons scoring places at the top of the box office. Much was made about big flops, …
Finding Nemo 3D — Fresh Fish
Saturday, September 15, 2012 If Cinema Siren had a dime for every time a perfectly down-to-earth average adult said Finding Nemo is one of their favorite movies, I might have a yacht as big as Steven Spielberg’s. The Siren knows animation. Alter ego Leslie Combemale owns a gallery that has specialized in animation and film …
Beauty and the Beast 3D – Tale as Old as Time Made New Again
Friday, January 13, 2012 Beauty and the Beast, as the song says, may be “A Tale as Old As Time,” but the story as told in Disney’s 1991 film, was one of the movies to usher in the new golden age of animation for the studio. Beauty and the Beast came just after Roger Rabbit …
Chuck Jones’ 100th Birthday: Top 10 Characters Created by the Master Animator
Monday, November 7, 2011 “The name ‘Chuck Jones,’ according to my uncle, limited my choice of profession to second baseman or cartoonist”…This is what Chuck Jones said about himself. We cartoon lovers are all supremely grateful for his choice of career! Now his fans and family are preparing to celebrate his centennial birthday with …
Puss In Boots: These Boots are made for watchin’
Friday, October 28, 2011 When Frank Sinatra’s progeny Nancy finally made good for herself and created her own success with the iconic pop tune These Boots Were Made For Walkin,’ she showed she might not be the chairman of the board, but she had enough of her own panache to make a name for herself. …
Rango: How a Lizard Out of Water Can Play the Hero and Create a Western Classic
Saturday, March 5, 2011 Imagine, if you will, some guys staying up all hours on a bong and highball fueled night talking their way through a marathon of classic Westerns. As they plow a deep crevasse through Western film history, they start hatching an idea for a genre bending, hilarious mash-up of computer animated comedy …