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Encanto – movie review

Disney enlists Lin-Manuel Miranda for Encanto, an animated family adventure that comes off a bit like In the Heights transplanted to rural Colombia. While this is a film filled with colour and energy, its rather muddled plot and lashings of treacle diminished its impact for me. Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Charise Castro Smith share…

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Vivo (Netflix) – movie review

For quite a while now, Disney/Pixar has “owned” the animation space. The decline of Dreamworks Animation has left the field basically open to them. But competitors are emerging, including (relatively) smaller player Sony Pictures Animation. Their first animated musical, Vivo, is a swing for the fences. Vivo sees the storied Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights)…

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In the Heights – movie review

Before Hamilton, there was In the Heights. Cultural phenomenon Lin-Manuel Miranda finally brings his Broadway musical about the largely Latin-American community of Washington Heights to the big screen. He once again collabs with Quiara Alegría Hudes (who wrote the book for the musical) and brings in Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) to direct. The…

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Hamilton (Disney +) – streaming review

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…

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Mary Poppins Returns – movie review

The original Mary Poppins, which came out in 1964, was a near-perfect blend of fantasy and music. Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke tripped the light fantastic and showed us how a family film should be. Fifty-five years on the world is a vastly different place. Expectations have changed. Technology has morphed. Children expect sophistication….

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