Most Overrated Movie: Spotlight Grant says: The kind of movie that always gets overpraised. Chronicling the exposure of the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in the early 2000s, Spotlight is a ‘talky’ without particularly good dialogue, which is a bit of an issue. It also feels dated (imagine if ‘Margin Call’ or ‘The Social…
I don’t wanna hear it–animated characters are hot. Let’s talk about the ones I’d like to date. Oh, here’s some clarifying rules for the list. 1. Disney does not equal Pixar 2. Only 2D-animated characters allowed 3. No animals or otherwise non-human characters allowed 4. Must be of at least teenager age 5. Must star in…
To celebrate our fifth birthday, each Earn This contributor is selecting his five favorite things from the past five years. Here are Kevin’s picks (all related to trends in animated movies). 5. Charming Comic-Relief Characters My list will be all things animated, and something that has impressed me over the past five years is all the…
Download link (you may have to right click and “Save As”) The ETCast is back! Kevin and I caught up on Skype and debated to movies we disagree about: Shrek and The Lion King. As you know if you’ve been following our Animation Evaluation project, you know that I’m a big fan of both Shrek and The Lion King, while Kevin believes…
Antz (1998) Kevin: Is it even possible to talk about DreamWorks’ first animated film without also talking about A Bug’s Life which was released that same year? Some part of me wants to say Antz is overrated, considering it got a fresh 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience reviews were not nearly as favorable, though,…
Toy Story (1995) Kevin: Whenever one great civilization falls, another one rises up in its place. It’s no different in cinema history. The Disney studio released their 33rd animated feature, Pocahontas, in 1995. Pixar released their 1st. Toy Story was heralded at the time for innovation and novelty. It is remembered today for giving us…
Hello all — it’s a couple weeks overdue, but here is a podcast review of How to Train Your Dragon 2 featuring me (Dan) and the ever-enlightening Kevin from Taestful Reviews. Kevin and I have been slowly working on a series called Animation Evaluation in which we go through the recent works of the major…
The Little Mermaid (1989) Kevin: Frozen is largely credited for creatively twisting Disney princess tropes, but for me, The Little Mermaid did it better. Although it returned to the animation Disney was known for in the golden days, The Little Mermaid should be known for innovating the Disney fairytale formula. Eric and Ariel fall in…