Movie Reviews
Film and television reviewed the way I’d want to read them — with a rating that means something, an honest accounting of what works and what doesn’t, and craft notes for writers who want to understand how the machinery operates.
Each review includes a craft notes section for writers — specific observations about structure, character, world-building, and what the film does that you can actually use. Not theory. Technique you can steal.
Animated (46)
May 15, 2026101 Dalmatians (1961) — Review
One Hundred and One Dalmatians is one of the great Disney animated productions and the studio's most successful early 1960s feature. Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, and Wolfgang Reitherman directed. Bill Peet wrote the screenplay. The film was released in January 1961. It grossed approximately one...
May 19, 2026A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
Charlie Brown directs the Peanuts gang in a Nativity pageant after rejecting the commercialism of the season.
May 15, 2026Alice in Wonderland (1951) — Review
Alice in Wonderland is one of the substantial mid-century Disney animated productions and the studio's most successful engagement with Lewis Carroll source material. Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske directed. Multiple Disney writers contributed to the screenplay. The film was...
May 15, 2026Antz (1998) — Review
Antz is one of the more interesting late 1990s American animated productions and the feature debut of DreamWorks Animation as substantial competitor to Pixar. Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson directed. Todd Alcott, Chris Weitz, and Paul Weitz wrote the screenplay. The film was released in October 1998....
May 19, 2026Arthur Christmas (2011)
Santa's bumbling son Arthur must deliver a forgotten present before sunrise, using an antique sleigh and his grandfather's wisdom.
May 15, 2026Bambi (1942) — Review
Bambi is one of the great American animated films and one of Walt Disney's most personal achievements. The film was released in August 1942 after more than five years in production. It was Disney's fifth animated feature and the most ambitious the studio had attempted. The film was a financial...
May 15, 2026Beauty and the Beast (1991) — Review
Beauty and the Beast is one of the great Disney animated films and the first animated feature ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film was released in November 1991 during the peak of the Disney Renaissance. It grossed approximately four hundred forty million dollars...
May 16, 2026Bee Movie (2007)
DreamWorks 2007 Jerry Seinfeld animated comedy. The meme afterlife has substantially exceeded the original commercial reception.
May 18, 2026Cars (2006)
2006 Pixar animated film with Owen Wilson as race car Lightning McQueen stranded in Route 66 town Radiator Springs.
May 18, 2026Cars 2 (2011)
2011 Pixar sequel with Lightning McQueen and Mater drawn into international espionage. Widely considered Pixar's weakest film.
May 15, 2026Chicken Run (2000) — Review
Chicken Run is one of the great British animated productions of the early twenty-first century and the feature debut of Aardman Animations as substantial feature production company. Peter Lord and Nick Park directed. Karey Kirkpatrick wrote the screenplay from story development by Lord and Park....
May 15, 2026Cinderella (1950) — Review
Cinderella is the film that saved the Walt Disney Company. The studio had been struggling financially through the 1940s. The wartime production constraints had damaged the catalogue. The post-war return to feature production needed a commercial hit. Cinderella delivered. The film grossed...
May 17, 2026Cool World (1992)
Bakshi's 1992 live-action-animation noir. Brad Pitt, Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne. The disastrous attempted Who Framed Roger Rabbit follow-up. Notable mainly as a cautionary tale.
May 15, 2026Dumbo (1941 / 2019) — Contrast Review
The Dumbo property exists in two substantial Disney adaptations across nearly eighty years. The 1941 animated production is one of the great classical Disney achievements and the production that financially saved Disney following the substantial commercial disappointment of Fantasia. The 2019 Tim...
May 15, 2026Fantasia (1940) — Review
Fantasia is one of the great animated films in cinema history and one of the foundational documents of the entire American animation tradition. Multiple directors handled the various segments under Walt Disney's broader supervision. The film was released in November 1940. It grossed approximately...
May 16, 2026Flatland: The Movie (2007)
Johnson and Travis's 2007 animated adaptation of Edwin Abbott's 1884 novella. Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell, Michael York. Source long thought unfilmable.
May 17, 2026Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Takahata's 1988 Studio Ghibli WWII drama. Two siblings starve in firebombed Japan. The animation widely cited as the most devastating ever made.
May 19, 2026How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
Chuck Jones directs the animated Dr. Seuss special about a sour creature plotting to steal Christmas from the Whos in Whoville.
May 19, 2026Klaus (2019)
A spoiled postman exiled to a frigid island town befriends a reclusive toymaker, and they invent the Santa tradition together.
May 16, 2026Megamind (2010)
DreamWorks 2010 animated superhero comedy. Will Ferrell as the supervillain protagonist. Substantial engagement with genre conventions through inversion.
May 15, 2026Mulan (1998) — Review
Mulan is one of the substantial late Disney Renaissance productions and the studio's most successful engagement with Chinese cultural material. Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook directed. Rita Hsiao, Christopher Sanders, Philip LaZebnik, Raymond Singer, and Eugenia Bostwick-Singer wrote the screenplay....
May 19, 2026My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Hayao Miyazaki's 1988 Studio Ghibli pastoral. Two girls discover forest spirits in rural Japan. Catbus, soot sprites, kindness throughout.
May 15, 2026ParaNorman (2012) — Review
ParaNorman is one of the substantial Laika stop-motion animated productions and the studio's second feature following Coraline in 2009. Sam Fell and Chris Butler directed. Butler wrote the screenplay. The film was released in August 2012. It grossed approximately one hundred seven million dollars...
May 15, 2026Peter Pan (1953) — Review
Peter Pan is one of Disney's enduring animated features and one of the most iconic adaptations of J.M. Barrie's source material. The film was released in February 1953 after more than fifteen years in development. Walt Disney had purchased the rights to Barrie's play and novel in 1939. The Second...
May 15, 2026Pinocchio (1940) — Review
Pinocchio is Disney's technical masterpiece. The film was released in February 1940 as the studio's second animated feature after Snow White. The budget was approximately two and a half million dollars. The film grossed approximately one and a half million dollars in its initial release. The film...
May 15, 2026Pinocchio (Garrone, 2019) — Review
Matteo Garrone's Pinocchio is the most faithful screen adaptation of Carlo Collodi's 1883 source novel ever produced. The Italian film was released in December 2019. It grossed approximately twenty-three million dollars worldwide on a production budget of approximately fifteen million dollars. The...
May 17, 2026Princess Mononoke (1997)
Miyazaki's 1997 environmental fantasy. Iron age Japan, forest gods, no clear villain. The film that defined Studio Ghibli's mature period for Western audiences.
May 19, 2026Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
A young reindeer with a glowing red nose runs away with an elf who wants to be a dentist, and they find acceptance through the Island of Misfit Toys.
May 15, 2026Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) — Review
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the foundational achievement of American feature animation. The film was released in December 1937 after more than three years in production. It was the first feature-length animated film produced in the United States. The film was widely predicted to fail....
May 17, 2026Spirited Away (2001)
Miyazaki's 2001 fantasy. A ten-year-old girl trapped in a bathhouse for spirits. First non-English Best Animated Feature Oscar winner.
May 15, 2026Tangled (2010) — Review
Tangled is one of the most substantive Disney productions of the post-Renaissance period and the studio's most successful Disney Princess production of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Nathan Greno and Byron Howard directed. Dan Fogelman wrote the screenplay. The film was released in November 2010....
May 15, 2026The Aristocats (1970) — Review
The Aristocats is one of the substantial Disney animated productions of the post-Walt era and the studio's most successful cat-focused feature. Wolfgang Reitherman directed. Larry Clemmons, Vance Gerry, Ken Anderson, Frank Thomas, Eric Cleworth, Julius Svendsen, and Ralph Wright wrote the...
May 15, 2026The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) — Review
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of the darkest films Disney has ever released and one of the most thematically ambitious animated features in the studio's history. The film was released in June 1996 during the late phase of the Disney Renaissance. It grossed approximately three hundred...
May 15, 2026The Iron Giant (1999) — Review
The Iron Giant is one of the great American animated films of the late twentieth century and one of the more substantively thematic animated productions in commercial cinema history. Brad Bird directed. Tim McCanlies wrote the screenplay from a story treatment by Brad Bird. The film was released in...
May 15, 2026The Jungle Book (1967 / 2016) — Contrast Review
The Jungle Book exists in two substantial Disney adaptations across nearly five decades. The 1967 animated production is one of the great classical Disney achievements and the last feature animation Walt Disney personally supervised before his death in December 1966. The 2016 photorealistic...
May 15, 2026The Lego Movie (2014) — Review
The Lego Movie is one of the great American animated films of the 2010s and one of the most substantial commercial cinema surprises of the decade. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directed and wrote the screenplay. The film was released in February 2014. It grossed approximately four hundred...
May 15, 2026The Little Mermaid (1989) — Review
The Little Mermaid is the film that started the Disney Renaissance. The film was released in November 1989 after the studio's animation division had been struggling commercially for over a decade. The film grossed approximately two hundred eleven million dollars worldwide on a production budget of...
May 15, 2026The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) — Review
The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of the great stop-motion animated productions in cinema history and one of the most distinctive American animated films of the 1990s. Henry Selick directed. Tim Burton produced and developed the story and characters. Caroline Thompson wrote the screenplay. The...
May 19, 2026The Polar Express (2004)
Robert Zemeckis directs the motion-capture adaptation of the picture book about a boy boarding a train to the North Pole on Christmas Eve.
May 15, 2026The Shrek Franchise (2001-2022) — Review
The Shrek franchise consists of six feature productions across approximately twenty-one years of continuous DreamWorks production. The 2001 original is one of the great American animated films of the early twenty-first century and the production that established DreamWorks Animation as substantial...
May 19, 2026Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
Satoshi Kon directs the story of three homeless Tokyo residents who find an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve and search for the parents.
May 19, 2026WALL-E (2008)
Andrew Stanton's 2008 Pixar masterpiece. Garbage robot finds love on dead Earth. First forty minutes near-silent. Environmental fable.
May 17, 2026Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Zemeckis's 1988 live-action-animation noir. Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Roger and Jessica. The technical achievement nobody has matched.
May 15, 2026Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) — Review
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is one of the great American films of the 1980s and one of the most substantial technical achievements in animated cinema history. Robert Zemeckis directed. Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman wrote the screenplay. The film was released in June 1988. It grossed approximately...
May 15, 2026Wizards (1977) — Review
Wizards is one of the substantial adult animated productions of the late 1970s and one of the most distinctive Ralph Bakshi feature productions. Ralph Bakshi directed and wrote the screenplay. The film was released in February 1977. It grossed approximately nine million dollars worldwide on a...
May 15, 2026Wreck-It Ralph (2012) / Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) — Duology Review
The Wreck-It Ralph duology demonstrates one of the more visible quality declines between original Disney animated production and direct sequel extension. The 2012 original delivered substantial creative achievement within video game source framework. The 2018 sequel substantially weaker work that...