Reel Deep Dive

This is the second film adaptation of Sheila Burnford's classic children's novel, but the first where the trio of animal protagonists have their thoughts conveyed to us through celebrity voice actors (Michael J. Fox, Sally Field, and Don Ameche). Like in the book and in the 1963 movie, we center on two dogs and a cat going on a perilous quest through the mountains in order to return to the...

Filmed on a shoestring budget and released with modest expectations for box office success, A Hard Day's Night is a fluffy, goofy, and deeply unserious film that happened to capture one of the 20th century's most beloved cultural institutions at the apex of their popularity. The movie's approachable charm left a lasting influence on the marketing of pop musicians going forward; a very...

Originally intended as a light, comedic riff on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball soon outgrew that modest ambition and became one of the most popular action-adventure serials in modern storytelling. Soon expanding into a multimedia franchise, the Dragon Ball saga was spun off into at least twenty theatrically-released anime films; Ryan and Latisha dis...

Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation earns the esoteric distinction of being the first original animated movie to be released direct to video in the United States. That sounds like a minor fact (and it is), but the movie's commercial success paved the way for a cottage industry of similar projects to flood department stores and video rental establishments for decades to come. It's...

The smash success of Universal's 1931 Frankenstein adaptation made a sequel practically mandatory. Director James Whale felt that it'd be impossible to top the first film and was therefore reluctant to return, but the studio eventually lured him back with a juicy paycheck, a promise to greenlight one of Whale's passion projects, and nigh-total creative control over what eventually beca...

Taking place in a world where the United States and the Soviet Union are engaged in an arms race over shrink ray technology, Fantastic Voyage has the premise of a low budget B movie. 20th Century Fox, however, cast the film with prominent movie stars, spent lavishly on special effects, and promoted the film with an aggressive marketing campaign. While it didn't quite make it to profitability d...

Produced for an unusually high budget in the nascent years of the character, the seventeen animated shorts starring Superman marked a significant high water mark in the Golden Age of Animation. Crafted with care and using tech that was on the bleeding edge of film animation, the shorts were highly successful and made a significant impact on both the cartoon medium and the development of Superman a...

Produced on a whim by a bunch of art students in between their proper assignments, the first Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared Short went viral on YouTube. Centering on some hapless puppets experiencing existential horror through vividly graphic musical numbers, Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared struck a chord with an online audience receptive to its ambiguity and strangeness. The unexpected success...

Riffing on Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid", Ponyo centers upon a young sea creature who bonds with a little boy on the surface world. Their budding relationship, however, is put to the test when the fundamental balance of nature is placed in jeopardy by both magical interference and humanity's poor stewardship of the oceans. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki with care and...

One of the most popular authors to ever write anything, Agatha Christie would inevitably find Hollywood eager to adapt her work to the silver screen. As per usual, the quality of their many attempts has been uneven at best, but the enduring appeal of the murder mystery means that it's hard to imagine that we won't keep seeing new takes. Murder on the Orient Express, arguably Christie's...

Following the disappointing reception of X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men Origins Wolverine (2009), Fox decided that a soft reboot of their superhero franchise was in order. Set in the 1960's, X-Men: First Class juxtaposes the formation of the team alongside the Cuban Missile Crisis and the usual metaphors regarding civil rights. A profitable film interpreted as a badly-needed course cor...

Largely greenlit because The Beatles felt that an animated feature would settle their three picture deal with United Artists without requiring much effort on their part, the cast and crew of Yellow Submarine were given a shoestring budget and a mere 11 months to crank out a completed movie. Somehow, the team supervised by director George Dunning and character designer Heinz Edelmann overcame these...

Aside from Gone With The Wind, Meet Me in St. Louis is the most popular film released by MGM during the Golden Age of Hollywood. A lush, sentimental, and deeply nostalgic musical centered on a middle class family going through personal changes during the 1904 World's Fair, this film charmed critics, wowed audiences, got a heap of Oscar nods, established Vincente Minnelli as a director, and fur...

Originally written as a vehicle for Bill Murray, The Santa Claus was rebuilt around the comedic persona of sitcom actor Tim Allen and thrust into theaters shortly before the onset of the 1994 holiday season. While greeted with lukewarm reviews that damned it with faint praise, The Santa Claus was still a sizable hit that (briefly) established Allen as a movie star. This film also had legs; after s...

Due to their penchant for solving problems by punching things, superheroes aren't inherently conducive to Christmas stories. They can, however, function as handy counterprogramming in the same way as semi-ironic seasonal fare like Die Hard, Gremlins, or Silent Night, Deadly Night. As such, most popular superheroes have been featured in yuletide-themed fare over the years. Ryan, Cheryl, and Jac...

One of the most noteworthy slashers of its period, Candyman centers upon a Chicago semiotics student (Virginia Madsen) who blunders into the wrath of a supernatural folklore spirit (Tony Todd). Based on a Clive Barker short story that uses ghosts to symbolize income inequality in Liverpool, writer/director Bernard Rose moved the setting to Chicago and gave the narrative a subtext that comments on...

Loosely adapted from the metafictional children's novel written by Michael Ende, The Neverending Story centers upon a young boy (Barret Oliver) who gets immersed into a fantasy book whose plot seems to be magically affected by how it is read. The most expensive film produced outside of America or the Soviet Union at the time, The Neverending Story failed to catch on in an especially competitiv...

Centered upon the vivid imaginations of a family of anthropomorphic blue heelers, Bluey is an animated children's television show that has taken the world by storm thanks to its endearing characters, playful sense of humor, and emphasis on gentle parenting and unstructured play. In many ways, Bluey has captivated parents more than its target demo of toddlers; Sylvan is a big fan and their choi...

Derived from Erica Schmidt's musical retelling of Edmond Rostand's oft-staged play, Cyrano stars Peter Dinklage as the titular protagonist. Caught in romantic intrigue alongside him is Haley Bennett as Roxanne and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Christian. The basic plot of this version isn't too different from most of the traditional renditions, but several key alterations are present in both...

Released when the Pokémon multimedia franchise was at the zenith of its initial mania, Pokémon: The First Movie received critical scorn but easily became an unqualified smash due to its passionate international fanbase of 6-11 year olds. Very much in this demographic is Latisha, who joins Ryan for an in depth talk about this interesting time capsule of late-90's pop culture. Ryan and Latisha d...

Looking to take on a more commercial project after the lackluster box office of the critically acclaimed The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), writer/director Carl Theodore Dreyer decided that a horror movie was the way to go. Loosely adapted from Sheridan Le Fanu's story collection 'In a Glass Darkly', Vampyr was filmed on location in the French countryside with a cast primarily composed...

Writer/director Nicholas Meyer is best known for his contributions to the better Star Trek films of the 1980's, but he was noticed by the Federation due to Time After Time, a quirky romcom in which a time traveling H.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper across 1970's San Francisco. Anchored by a cast that includes Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, and Mary Steenburgen, Time After Time charmed au...

Based on Koji Suzuki's 1991 novel and loosely remade from Hideo Nakata's 1998 film adaptation, the 2002 Hollywood take on The Ring was a sleeper hit that shrewdly played off a number of prevalent trends found at the turn of the millennium (it lifted its color palette from The Matrix, it featured a precocious child character like the one found in The Sixth Sense, and it engaged in a guerill...

The fifth installment in the Child's Play/Chucky franchise, Seed of Chucky involves the titular killer doll starting a family. While noted upon its release for leaning into the campier elements of the slasher genre, Seed of Chucky might be distinguished more by its focus on transgender themes, an uncommon practice in Hollywood during the turn of the millennium. Ryan is joined by Pete, Cheryl,...

Bigger, bolder, more ambitious, and more character-driven than its predecessor, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 also got better reviews and took in a heftier box office. It is often cited as one of the few MCU movies that possesses a distinct visual character and a unique directorial voice. Ryan is joined by Toby, Cheryl, and Sarah for a conversation about this rousing, emotive crowd pleaser. Talki...