We all remember that 27 years ago, a boy named Andy received a futuristic spaceman action figure as a gift. As he was known, Buzz Lightyear joined a coterie of toys, completing the main cast of Pixar’s Toy Story franchise. Although Buzz seemed to come complete with a background story as a stalwart Space Ranger, […]

While DreamWorks may not be able to summon the financial and technical resources that you-know-who possesses, that does not mean that they cannot produce a good film, and with their latest effort, The Bad Guys, they mostly succeed. Though the world-building is weird, and some character reversals are rather facile, this is one entertaining flick […]

When it comes to dragons, there’s no stopping DreamWorks Animation. Based on the best-selling How to Train Your Dragon novels by Cressida Cowell, the franchise has so far spawned three feature films with a combined box-office take of $1.6 billion worldwide, five short films, a “Snoggletog Log” video and a 118-episode TV series collectively titled […]

Hideaki Anno’s Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), which ranks among the most popular, influential and controversial series in anime history, is finally appearing on Blu-ray in two multi-disc sets from GKIDS and Shout Factory! featuring a new dub and script. A complex, compelling saga that juxtaposes mecha battles with apocalyptic Christian symbolism, Jewish mysticism and teenage […]

Although many graphic novels and manga focus on LGBTQ kids, the complex characters and exceptional draftsmanship set Kaito’s “Blue Flag” above the tepid Western fantasies and run-of-the-mill BL (“Boy’s Love”) manga. (It was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel.) Sadly, the publication of Volume #8 marks the end of Blue […]

Kenji Iwaisawa’s offbeat On-Gaku: Our Sound (2019) has attracted a loyal following in the US; it even earned an Annie nomination for Independent feature. Although it’s based on a self-published manga by Hiroyuki Ohashi, Iwaisawa wrote the screenplay, directed the film and animated it almost single-handedly. He simply couldn’t afford professional animators; the film’s shoestring […]