Charles Solomon

Editor

Internationally known animation historian and critic, Charles Solomon has written over 15 books books including Enchanted Drawings: The History Of Animation, The Art of Disney’s Frozen, The Making of Peanuts Animation, and Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Disney Beauty and the Beast .

Articles By Charles Solomon

Travis Knight’s Japanese-influenced Kubo and the Two Strings ranks as the best film the artists at the Portland-based Laika Studio have made, with a strong story, assured direction and strikingly original designs. One-eyed Kubo (voiced by a very appealing Art Parkinson) is a street performer in a seaside village, supporting himself and his widowed mother […]

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Independent

Fourteen years ago (!), the original Ice Age premiered. It had clearly been made on a limited budget that forced the artists to use their imaginations. The designs were simplified but appealing; the textures were less elaborately rendered; the backgrounds were often reduced to little more than a white field. But the film felt fresh […]

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Anime

When Chiyo Sakura (Juliet Simmons), the heroine of the broadcast series Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun (2014), awkwardly tries to confess her love to classmate Umetaro Nozaki (Ty Mahany), she mistakenly says “I’m your fan!”–and he responds by giving her an autograph from a special pad. Nozaki is tall, handsome and terminally clueless; he’s also the creator […]

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Anime

Although he had worked as an animator and director on numerous TV series and three “Digimon” features, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was the first film to showcase Mamoru Hosoda’s talent as a director. If you were to ask her, Makoto Konno (Emily Hirst) would say she regards herself as a normal high school […]

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Anime

The Japanese pop music industry is famous–or infamous–for manufacturing pop groups that become the flavor of the month, then quickly fade from view. Shonen Hollywood: Holly Stage for 49 (2014) offers a mildly upbeat look at the phenomenon.

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More From Animation Scoop

BOOK REVIEW: “The Art of The Boy and the Heron”

“The Art of The Boy and the Heron” opens with director Hayao Miyazaki’s self-deprecating Project Memo: “Isn’t it proof that you are aging when you imagine you’re still capable, but in fact you have memory loss due to senility? I would say yes.” Audiences who saw the Oscar-winning film would say “no.” The Japanese title […]