When animation went digital, a terrible trade-off occurred. Digital technology may have made the inert photo-realistic; yet at its heart, animation isn’t about realism, it’s about style. Whether it’s pen to paper, brush to cel, or fingers to clay, [...]
"7 Faces of Dr. Lao, " George Pal’s compassionate adaption of Charles Finney’s 1935 cult novel about a mystical circus and its effect on a small Western town, has always been my favorite George Pal film. The story cuts just enough to make [...]
"Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived. I would bare my head and kneel at his grave." – Beethoven Handel was a German immigrant to England who never became fluent in the language of his adoptive country. Thankfully, this didn’t [...]
Viewing Warner Home Video’s radiant DVD of the almost lost 1954 musical version of "A Star Is Born" sparked mixed emotions. Warner’s first foray into DVD-18 territory is an out and out winner, promising good things to come with future Warner [...]
In our high-tech world, it is very easy for things to become obsolete. Your computer, appliances, home-theater system may be the cutting edge of technology one day, and totally incompatible the next. The same goes for DVDs as well. There is a long history [...]
From Broadway in the Twenties came the ’college musical, ’ a genre unto itself. "Good News" (1927) was a prime example of it. The plot posed two burning questions: will the home football team win? and will the paths of true love run smooth? [...]
Recently, we’ve reached a point where there don’t seem to be many true independent films anymore. Independent films are so vogue that they play at the local multiplex and scarf up awards right and left. And I know that there is an over-generalization [...]
The quality of sequels is always questionable, but none are more hit or miss than Disney’s animated sequels. They’ve had successes such as "Lion King II" and "Pocahontas II", but of which are enjoyable and watchable. But, they’ve [...]
Four years after "Jurassic Park" first hit theaters and wowed audiences, Steven Spielberg returned to direct the sequel to the first blockbuster, also based on a novel by Michael Crichton. As a matter of fact the entire creative team behind [...]
On one hand it is truly surprising that a film like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" enjoys the following and success it has 25 years after its theatrical release, but on the other hand it is not really that surprising, after all. The film is a [...]
