A film to put you off eating meat forever, Fresh on Disney+ is a twisted tale of depravity with some humorous moments. Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is an attractive, bright everyday young woman who can’t seem to find a decent guy. Her online dating is nothing short of disastrous and her latest dinner companion has been…
Growing and maturing get a twist in the animated feature Turning Red. Meilin (the voice of Rosalie Chiang) is a very bright and dutiful 13-year-old. She diligently follows her overprotective – and, at times, overbearing – mother’s lead and always does the right thing by her. But one night the totally unexpected happens. Meilin turns…
Adapting work from screen to stage can be tricky, even more so when it is a beloved animated feature. Thankfully, the hit family-friendly Broadway musical Frozen rises to this challenge, with lavish production design, stunning costumes and impressive special effects to astound as much as entertain. The musical, adapted from the Disney film and Hans…
Stellar lead performances, brilliant staging, evocative lighting, a healthy dollop of Disney magic and a delightful sense of humour underpin a triumphant story of sisterly love in Frozen The Musical. It is the perfect blend of comedy, emotion and theatrics, and brings to life the story of Elsa and Anna, separated by a potentially deadly curse. The…
Wow! What a ripping good, most entertaining, magnificently realised origin story. Cruella is clever, funny and sassy – a family comedy turned sophisticated adult offering. English children’s novelist and playwright “Dodie” Smith is best known for the novel The Hundred and One Dalmations (1956), which became the big screen animation 101 Dalmations in 1961. Disney…
I felt uncomfortable about reviewing WandaVision while episodes were still dropping on Disney +. The series was so, well… unexpected, that I didn’t think I could grasp it until it was finished. Now it is finished, I’m still not 100% sure I’ve “got it” fully. If you’ve spent time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the…
Trust is in short supply in the Disney animated feature Raya and the Last Dragon. That’s because 500 years ago, sinister monsters known as the Druun turned most of the people and the dragons (who until then had lived in harmony) to stone. But the collective energies and special powers of five dragon siblings saved…
Cinema, like any art form, has boundless capacity to surprise. Disney-Pixar has struggled a little recently (see Onward, for example). But the studio reclaims its title as the benchmark in animation with the incredible Soul. I suspect the success of Soul has a lot to do with the return of Pete Docter to the director’s…
Although billed in some quarters as “Hamilton: The Movie”, the Hamilton now streaming on Disney + is more of a filmed version of the stage production. Director Thomas Kail (Fosse/Verdon) captures a 2016 performance of the groundbreaking musical at the Richard Rodgers Theater in New York. The performance features the original Broadway cast, including Lin…
In the days before the pandemic (remember them?), hype swirled around Disney’s adaptation of Artemis Fowl, the much-loved YA novel by Eoin Colfer. Originally slated for a (northern) summer release, COVID-19 torpedoed those plans and Disney moved it straight to its new streaming platform, Disney +. In hindsight, that could have been a wise move….
