Steven Spielberg’s most personal film went against the trend of other alien invasion movies by other filmmakers; unlike other popular movies of the genre like War of the Worlds or Alien, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial featured aliens who, similar to Spielberg’s other movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, don’t want to hurt humans. To create this non-threatening lovable alien adopted by a lonely boy, the designer for E.T. took inspiration from wise old people like Albert Einstein, with the alien voice provided by an elderly woman whose voice afterward was electronically modified and mixed with animal sounds. On set, many techniques were utilized to bring him to life, such as hiring a mime to control his hands, yet at other times, the E.T. puppet had to be controlled entirely by wires and computers.
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It may have been a kids’ movie, but Steven Spielberg understood what kind of film he was working on and spoke to the kid actors at their level. He did this by keeping the order of scenes filmed throughout production chronological to the story’s timeline so the kid actors wouldn’t be confused—the kids weren’t even told what would happen next in the story until the day of shooting each scene. And it all worked out: this nostalgic portrait of the 1980s suburb is one of the most influential movies of the decade and made possible many of the sci-fi movies of today.

PG (DL)
Sci-fi
1 hr. 55 min.

Watch it for FUN.
​Watch it to feel HAPPY, SAD and AFRAID.

This first ever “high school musical” redefined cinematic musicals with its roller coaster of an experience that anyone can sing along to. Up until the 1970s, Hollywood musicals were known for their squeaky-clean adaptations of the classics, like The Sound of Music or Mary Poppins; any more mature musicals like Cabaret or The Rocky Horror Picture Show were not designed for the masses. Grease on the other hand went against the grain by focusing on teenagers in the 1950s, with music from the culture, and numerous sexual references that could only be made in the ratings system era. The result of this daring direction entertained all the teenagers of the time who wanted something which spoke directly to them, striking that balance between mature content and wide mass appeal.
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While not a “good” movie by any stretch, this grand achievement in writing more modern music for a more modern musical film paved the way for what types of motion pictures people wanted to see. G-rated family fare like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory weren’t really “cool” anymore, just like the rest of the 1970s in Hollywood, the musical genre was growing up, and now even Broadway is willing to make more entertainment exclusively for the adults. The main takeaway isn’t just that daring content will leave an impact, but that anything with catchy songs and a nostalgic time period will more likely entertain the masses.

PG (DLS)
Musical/Historic
1 hr. 50 min.

Watch it for FUN.
​Watch it to feel HAPPY.

Director Domee Shi, in her feature film debut, demonstrates how well she can translate live-action filmmaking techniques into animation and take full advantage of the animation medium. She sustains a very balanced use of color where the school looks fluorescent green, which contrasts with the red on Meilin when she turns into a red panda. Other creative touches take direct inspiration from anime, which goes on to influence the music, action poses, and adorable, highlighted eyes. It's incredible how brave Pixar has become at this point to utilize such stylized animation in a way that doesn’t distract from the story.
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In regard to the subject matter, Meilin’s body is going through unusual changes, and her parents and friends remain so supportive of her. Meilin is a rather complex main character for a family film; she genuinely wants to prioritize family yet at the same time sees a boy band concert as her coming-of-age ritual. The story of this Chinese-Canadian tween is made even more special by the fact that it was directed by a Chinese-Canadian woman, who in turn tastefully explores the issues that come with a Chinese family moving into a new country, particularly in how it causes tension across generations. Bottom line: Turning Red is exactly what Disney needs right now to appeal to more mature audiences and represent more minority groups who need their stories to be heard.

PG (DV)
Comedy/Fantasy
1 hr. 40 min.

Watch it for FUN.
​Watch it to feel HAPPY and SAD.

Complete with its new technological breakthroughs that shall soon change the animation industry, Encanto is familiar yet far more sophisticated than any average motion picture produced by Disney. The lighting is more natural. The animation is more human. The magic is more magical. It’s a compilation of so many talents that bring every musical number to life. The already famous “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” sequence contains so many layers behind how the characters move, even with the way their fingers fly around. Breaking down the choreography of this number reveals everything needed to know about what each member of the family Madrigal ultimately wants, and in the end of the movie, those arcs are fully realized.

As if the attention to detail wasn’t impressive enough, reference footage was filmed of human dancers to help the animators create extravagant musical numbers that are as energetic as a real cumbia. It feels special because Walt Disney also used live references to inspire his animators, whether it was bringing real deer into the studio for the artists of Bambi, or having Helene Stanley dance for the artists of Sleeping Beauty. The challenges surpassed by this ambitious project of 2021 honor the past and offer hope for the future, which guarantees that not a single dry eye will remain in the audience by the end, and makes Disney’s 60th animated feature film a great time!

PG (D)
Fantasy/Musical
1 hr. 42 min.

Watch it for FUN.
​Watch it to feel HAPPY and SAD.

Under the wing of DreamWorks, The Bad Guys pulls off the miraculous task of taking role models that would come off as horrible by another animation studio and yet somehow making them into positive influences on kids. Yet there’s just as much heart to please the grownups as well as professional animators, starting with its opening scene that is a continuous shot focused on a casual conversation in a diner, like in Pulp Fiction. There are also fun car chases similar to those found in The Blues Brothers and elements found in heist movies like Reservoir Dogs.
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As for the animation, the refreshingly bright backgrounds are made from splotches of paint while the special effects tricks create 2D smoke with lines drawn on the computer graphics to resemble a comic book illustration. The eyes of the characters are intentionally given no lighting or texture, yet still glow brighter than anything else in the frame. The way the city skyline is rendered with its haze and sun flares are intentionally meant to resemble an instantly recognizable look for Los Angeles, the city this movie takes place in. The animators furthermore had the challenge of translating live reference footage of dancers into anthropomorphic animals who had to do those same dances. With all these elements brought together into a satisfying whole, DreamWorks Animation created an exciting little movie that parents and their kids can have fun watching together.

PG (DV)
Comedy/Fantasy
1 hr. 40 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY.

It was first a 2010 short film, then shortly after, it became a children’s book, and now, it’s the most adorable stop-motion movie ever made, as well as the most technologically ambitious. While films in the past have put hand-drawn animation over live-action before, and CGI characters are currently everywhere, never before has stop-motion puppetry been used to this detailed of an extent with technology that’s well ahead of its time. This medium of animation is known for being such an enormous task, and sure enough, this little movie was so complex that it took the storyboard artists three years to create the animatic.
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When creating the props for the film shoot, anything that the cute little shell interacted with had to be either rigged with materials that could be animated or remade from scratch with bendable materials. These props included plants, a couch, and even the dust on a table while these little characters were ice skating on top of it. The animated components in each frame had to be filmed separately from the live-action environment, meaning before they were combined in post-production, they had to match one another perfectly in light, composition, and even camera focus. No other movie exists like Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, and in time, it should pick up momentum and go on to inspire other special effects artists as they acquire a plethora of brand-new tools in their toolkits.

PG (D)
Comedy/Fantasy
1 hr. 30 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and SAD.

The first movie went to a desert planet straight out of a Western. The second went to a snowy trench battle, a swamp with a wise old hermit, and a majestic cloud city. And to cap all that off, Return of the Jedi went to a crime lord’s palace and a forest with a tribe of sticks and stones. It was the legendary trilogy’s third installment, and George Lucas somehow outdid himself yet again with his inspired eye for worldbuilding. John Williams’ musical score continues to be memorable, especially with more creative liberties to expand on the culture of this galaxy, with the tribal instruments of the Ewoks and a band whose tunes resemble 1980s funk. Yet even more amazing is how Lucasfilm pushed the envelope further in the visual effects department.

​The elaborate Jabba the Hutt puppet needed five puppeteers to bring this giant slug to life, which was still nothing compared to the Rancor sequence. Yet that’s just early on in the movie, from there, the showcase of stunts combined with ambitious visual effects includes the Sarlacc Pit battle, the speed biker chase, the Ewoks’ attack on the Stormtroopers, and the Rebellion’s flight into the unfinished second Death Star. Even the costumes are works of engineering mastery with the alien creatures in Jabba’s palace, which were made from costume materials that couldn’t have been afforded for the first Star Wars.

PG (LV)
Sci-fi/Fantasy
2 hr. 11 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.

Before The Empire Strikes Back, a “good” sequel rarely came around. While The Godfather Part II did win the Oscar for Best Picture, most sequels, especially those in the still rarely respected sci-fi genre, never met their full potential. Fans anticipated their return to the galaxy set far, far away, but even then, they had to question: “How does one top Star Wars?” Simple: Go darker and bigger. One of Lucasfilm’s ways of doing that was ironically by one of the smallest, purest characters in the series: Yoda. This was an engineering marvel with his wide range of facial expressions coupled with Frank Oz’s puppeteering on the sets built for his exchanges with Mark Hamill; it proved from there on that not all movie stars were going to be human.

​Besides just Yoda, there were many other massive visual effect spectacles the movie theater had never seen before. The Battle of Hoth alone is one of the most elaborate practical special effects symphonies in cinematic history, with its stop motion work on the AT-AT walkers and ship flying techniques from the first movie used once again, but this time in a bright snow environment instead of against the black of space. After going through this roller coaster of an experience, topped off perfectly by Vader saying, “No, I am your father,” everyone knew this new shift in Hollywood was only going to grow in maturity.

PG (LV)
Sci-fi/Fantasy
2 hr. 4 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.

This independently produced space opera prior to its release had no promise of becoming a mega-hit, seeing how it was a genre that nobody at the time took seriously. Yet George Lucas’s spectacle ended up changing everything forever. No storyteller had ever combined genres as different as Hollywood westerns, samurai epics, space operas, and fairy tales with as much fluidity as Lucas did, especially not with aliens and droids as innovatively detailed as they are here. Yet what really makes this galaxy far, far away shine bright is John Williams’ legendary musical score, which besides being a dramatic feast for the ears in a massive theater, also dares to be different with that jazzy Cantina Band tune played on alienesque musical instruments.

​Though ultimately, Star Wars was an exercise for the production crew as they worked with a new camera operating system, which was one step in their innovative special effects technology that created ships flying more flexibly than any other movie beforehand. It pushed for a permanent shift in the film industry; now everything about our culture has been drastically altered. The way we watch movies is different. The way we enjoy movies is different. The way we make movies is different. The way we think about movies is different. Think of any verb, and this first installment of cinema’s most famous franchise for sure made it completely different.

PG (LV)
Sci-fi/Fantasy
2 hr. 1 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the producers of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, created yet another animated feature film with a distinct visual art style, this one having photographs that are hand drawn, light programmed to behave like paint, and a cast of characters that look like insane caricatures. Decorating this art style are splashes of what look like doodles from a school journal, be it hearts popping up for a moment when somebody hugs another, tiny little dinosaurs in a secret handshake, or a cat filter covering someone’s face. They are the kind of visuals that erase what’s normal and leave behind only what’s ugly.

​The absurd look of the animation fits the tone of the story, which throws around a joke per second while also not shying away from how deeply personal it was to everyone who helped make it. After all the brilliant doses of humor, the director comes right out at the start of the end credits and says he based the Mitchell family on his own imperfect family, just like how everyone who made this movie is from a weird family of misfits. At the end of the day, that is how every filmmaker got their start, which proves why The Mitchells vs. the Machines, in all its self-aware glory put on by a bunch of professionals simply having fun together, is among the best American animated movies ever made.

PG (V)
Comedy/Sci-fi
1 hr. 54 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and SAD.