With the news that founder and animator/director Travis Knight will be taking the reigns for the next installment of the Transformers franchise, one can’t help but speculate about the future of Laika and whether it will continue to exist. Kubo and The Two Strings failed to win an Oscar, but it did receive plenty of […]
Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category
Who Will Win the Oscar? It Depends on Who You Ask
February 17th, 2017 
Charles Kenny The Academy Awards are just over a week away and with speculation reaching a fever pitch on who will take home the coveted prizes, the feature animation race is starting to look slightly more competitive than in recent years. Who will win? It depends on who you ask. Reliability is the byword for the Oscars […]
There’s One Award that Kubo Does Deserve to Win
February 3rd, 2017 Charles Kenny Not withstanding Variety’s opinion that Kubo and the Two Strings is the film that justifies giving an Oscar to Laika, there’s another award that the film is nominated for that would produce a large boost for the studio in a unique way. Very very few animated films earn a nomination for the Costume Designers Guild […]
Setting a New Standard with “Hanazuki: Full of Treasures”
January 27th, 2017 Charles Kenny The traditional methods used to get animated content made and broadcast are evaporating in front of our eyes. So far, no particular replacement is obvious, but more than a few industry heavyweights are placing their chips on the table. One of those is Hasbro, and one of its chips is Hanazuki: Full of Treasures. It’s […]
Posted in Commentary 
Tags: Hanazuki: Full of Treasures, Hanneke Metselaar, Hasbro, Niko Stumpo 
No Comments » When Was the Last Time a Western Animated Film Explored Interpersonal Relationships?
January 13th, 2017 Charles Kenny This just popped into my head earlier today: Western films tend to reflect the struggle of the individual. Eastern films in contrast are more likely to use interpersonal relationships as a foundation for the story. There’s a marked difference, and its one that could really enliven western animated filmmaking. There’s no doubt that many western […]
Charles Solomon’s Animation Year End Review 2016
December 27th, 2016 Charles Solomon Although he wrote them in 1859, Charles Dickens might have been thinking of animation in 2016 when he penned the celebrated lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the […]
Diversity in Animation: It’s A Tough Concept to Nail Down
December 16th, 2016 Charles Kenny This week’s animation roundtable in The Hollywood Reporter sparked some online ire for featuring both a group that is decidedly homogeneous (read: white and male) and for discussing the concept of diversity in animated films. There’s just one problem though: diversity in animation as a concept is incredibly difficult to define and covers far more […]
A Lack of Cultural Impact is What Holds Animated Films Back
December 6th, 2016 Charles Kenny Gone With the Wind, The Godfather, Star Wars, and The Dark Knight; live-action films lauded far and wide with critical acclaim, financial success and cultural importance. In the west (and the US in particular) films are looked to as cultural barometers that can signify which way the winds are blowing, and more importantly, the direction […]
Original Animated Films Aren’t Dead After All!
November 18th, 2016 Charles Kenny FOX is doubling-down on animated films, but the really interesting part is that many of those proposed are original adaptations of books! Such news is stunning for its notability if not for the regrettable nature for it being so. The feature segment of the animation industry has had a bad case of sequalitis for a […]
The Shocking Number of This Year’s Animated Features That I’ve Seen
November 11th, 2016 Charles Kenny The answer may surprise you. None. The answer is none. Not a single film in Variety’s list of those currently eligible for the Oscar’s so much as made it within viewing distance of my eyeballs. This isn’t necessarily a comment on the quality of this year’s films. Certainly there are some very well-received among the […]
Frederator Networks Sale Underscores the Challenges of Distributing Animation on the Internet
October 28th, 2016 Charles Kenny This week saw the announcement that Frederator Networks has been bought by Rainmaker Entertainment in a deal that combines it with Ezrin Hirsh Entertainment to create a new company called WOW! Unlimited Media. While it’s a welcome affirmation that web animation has a future, it nonetheless underscores the uphill struggle that animated content has faced […]
Is Space Jam so Bad it’s Actually Good?
October 19th, 2016 Charles Kenny Space Jam occupies an unusual place in the lexicon of hybrid animated/live-action films. Not nearly as expensive (or as polished) as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, it nonetheless became massively successful thanks mainly to its animated cast. As a kid, Space Jam was downright awesome for many reasons, yet as an adult (and fan of animation,) […]
Instant Release Animation
October 7th, 2016 Charles Kenny The general consensus is that music leads they way in adapting to radical changes in how entertainment is consumed. If this is true, and the music industry does provide an example of where we’re headed, will animation be able to adapt, or even survive? It really is hard to believe that Napster came about 17 […]
Kubo’s Box Office Performance Hides Bigger Troubles
September 2nd, 2016 Charles Kenny Coming from a studio with an established track record in making uniquely crafted stop-motion films, and with a story this is much more interesting than most of the other summer fare, Kubo and the Two Strings ought to be a home run of a film. Its failure to become a smash hit however hides bigger […]
Should We Be Upset of Coco’s Similarity to ‘The Book of Life’?
Pixar dropped the trailer for their next film Coco; the latest, twisting turn in the film’s long development. Long noted for its similarities to the 2014 Jorge Gutierrez film, The Book of Life, the trailer for Coco hasn’t assuaged fears that its a rip-off. Should we be upset at the similarity between the films or […]