Reviews

REVIEW: Sony Pictures Animation “Goat”

February 16th, 2026

Despite very odd character designs, the animation is wonderful. The film's action sequences are an animated equivalent of jazz fusion translated to the screen. Layout, perspective, and movement are so fluid that the film flows, rather than projects, on the audience's eyes.

REVIEW: Dreamworks “The Bad Guys 2”

Martin Goodman|

August 4th, 2025

“It’s not the action, it’s the distraction.” Animated movie buffs will find a joyful surfeit of both in the new DreamWorks flick The Bad Guys 2, a sequel to the 2002 hit that surpasses it in almost every way. Every primary and a few secondary characters return in a snappy heist film that has enough […]

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

Charles Solomon|

July 7th, 2025

“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 […]

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Charles Solomon Reviews: “Kubo And The Two Strings”

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 […]

Charles Solomon|August 15, 2016

ANIME REVIEW: “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”

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 […]

Charles Solomon|June 29, 2016

“Assassination Classroom: Season One Part One”

Based on the manga by Yusei Matsui, the series Assassination Classroom has a premise that’s bizarre, even by the freewheeling standards of anime. An alien destroys 70% of the moon, leaving just a permanent crescent. He threatens to do the same to the Earth unless certain conditions are met. The creature insists on being made […]

Charles Solomon|June 6, 2016

Charles Solomon Reviews “The Angry Birds Movie”

Laboriously unfunny, tasteless and derivative, The Angry Birds Movie feels both unwelcome and overdue—like an obnoxious cousin who shows up for your parents’ 50th anniversary party a week late. Created by the Finnish company Rovio, the Angry Birds game debuted in 2009, became a huge fad, then, inevitably, faded. (How long ago was 2009 in […]

Charles Solomon|May 19, 2016

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