Category: Animation
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The Cat in the Hat (2026): There’s More Than One Way to Write a Cat
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. The Cat in the Hat (2026) Erica Rivinoja, Alessandro Carloni After a few days at home to rest (and to, you know, go to my day job), I was back at the theater tonight to take in another string of new releases! Did I feel a little silly going into my opening night showing of The Cat in the Hat in my local Regal’s biggest auditorium…
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Wildwood: Magic, Maturity, and More Where This Came From, Please
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Wildwood (2026) Travis Knight With the heightened levels of teacher exhaustion that I’ve been feeling over the last month or two, I’ve fallen into a new method of watching, logging, and reviewing movies. Usually, I’ll watch a movie one night and write my review the next day, and occasionally, I’ll write a few notes down for me to include in my review. That’s exactly what I…
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Forgotten Island: Can I Get a Wapoosh?
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Forgotten Island (2026) Januel Mercado, Joel Crawford Was back-to-back press screenings in Dallas on school nights the best idea I’ve ever had? Definitely not. But did I want to see Forgotten Island really bad and couldn’t pass up the opportunity? For sure! With Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado attached to direct (after the success of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish), Forgotten Island was sure to…
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Coyote vs. Acme: In Defense of Trying and Failing and Trying Again
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Coyote vs. Acme (2026) Dave Green It’s here! It’s finally here! I understand I’ve said this about a couple movies in the past, but it applies most truly here: I have been waiting for Coyote vs. Acme for years. Since it began filming back in 2022, I’ve followed this film’s tough journey from being shelved by Warner Brothers to being freed by a mob of Looney Tunes lovers…
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Minions & Monsters: An Ode to Cinema, Good and Bad
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Minions & Monsters (2026) Pierre Coffin When Despicable Me 4 was about to come out two years ago, I rewatched all of the Despicable Me movies and unfortunately realized that the franchise has only gotten worse over the years. In my opinion, Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 are the only good movies in the larger Despicable Me universe—once the girls got phased out and the minions phased in, the quality cratered. I’m really not a…
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Toy Story 5: Holding On and Letting Go (for Kids!)
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Toy Story 5 (2026) Andrew Stanton The Toy Story franchise has been one of my favorites for as long as I can remember—Sammy and I had Woody and Buzz toys as kids—and I’d also confidently say the original Toy Story trilogy is one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time. My feelings on Toy Story 4 had teetered between “great but unnecessary” and “antithetical to Woody as a character” since it…
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I Am Frankelda: A Storybook Stop-Motion Roller Coaster
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. I Am Frankelda (2025) Arturo Ambriz, Roy Ambriz As I’ve become more of a cinephile, I’ve wandered deeper into the movie world and watched some pretty obscure stuff. That has sometimes led to great success—like with Hundreds of Beavers, which is admittedly not that niche anymore—and sometimes it’s been terrible, like with Boys Go to Jupiter. Fortunately, today’s find was a good one, though I Am Frankelda—Mexico’s first independent…
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Swapped: Freaky Fly-Day is a Win for Skydance
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Swapped (2026) Nathan Greno Animation fans have been blessed over the last decade. I hate to simplify too much and give all the credit to the Spider-Verse films, but since Into the Spider-Verse came out in 2018, animation has been the medium of creative risk and experimentation. Though it feels like every major animation studio has been pushing the envelope for the last ten years, there are a few whose…
