REEL | Still Making Friends – Pixar and 'Toy Story 5' Play Together

"The age of toys is over!"

Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar Animation Studios

Longtime Pixar animator and director Andrew Stanton, joined by screenwriter/co-director Kenna Harris, reunites the whole gang back together for Toy Story 5. Both Tom Hanks and Tim Allen return as Woody and Buzz, but it's actually Joan Cusack's cowgirl sheriff Jessie who emotionally anchors the animated film's topical but touching story about the nature of childhood and friendship in an increasingly technological world.

CABLE | Betraying 'Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord' in Animation

"Empires can be shattered."

Lucasfilm Animation

Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, created by Lucasfilm president Dave Filoni, brings the iconic but tragic former Sith apprentice from The Phantom Menace, who was famously halved yet managed to survive nonetheless, back in the form of an exciting, all-new animated series. Actor Sam Witwer reprises his title voice role from The Clone Wars and Rebels to further flesh out the memorable villain's complex legacy, focused on betrayal, set shortly after the events of Revenge of the Sith during the reign of the Galactic Empire.

REEL | Chucking 'Hoppers' – Pixar Saves the Talking Animal Kingdom

"Flap around and find out."

Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar Animation Studios

Pixar Animation immerses audiences in the delicate yet comedic balance between the animal kingdom and human interference in its delightfully wacky adventure comedy, Hoppers. Directed by longtime animator and storyboard artist Daniel Chong, the lovely Piper Curda voices Mabel, a defiant Japanese-American student activist hoping to preserve the natural ecosystem in the local forest glade behind her grandmother's house in the city of Beaverton.

REEL | Pixar Abducts 'Elio' – Alone in the Universe

"I've never been a bargaining chip before!"

Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar Animation Studios

Pixar and Filipino-American child actor Yonas Kibreab, who voices the eponymous eleven-year-old orphan boy mistaken by aliens as Earth's leader and abducted to the intergalactic version of the United Nations called the "Communiverse," come together for a heartwarming space adventure about family and friendship. Elio, directed by animators Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi (original director Adrian Molina also retains a co-directing credit), packs a surprisingly large amount of goofy alien fun into ninety-eight minutes.

GENRE | Pedro Pascal Slashes Four 'Freaky Tales' in 1980s Oakland

"Oakland in '87 was hella wild."

Lionsgate / Cineplex Pictures

Freaky Tales, a neon-soaked throwback action-comedy from indie writing and directing team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, stars Pedro Pascal as the centrepiece of the third of four interlocking stories set before, during, and immediately after game four of the second round of the NBA playoffs between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers in Oakland in 1987. It's a stylishly violent tribute to the East Bay's diverse neighbourhood charm and sense of community, but reminiscent of something like The Warriors.

CABLE | 'Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man' Spins A Tangled Web

"I truly believe that I have these powers to help people, to protect them."

Marvel Animation

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is Marvel Animation's latest all-ages alternate reality spin on the web-slinging superhero with a strong retro artistic style inspired by Jack Kirby's classic two-dimensional hand-drawn visual designs updated through modern 3D computer technology for a cool "moving comic" look and aesthetic.

SCREEN | Saving the 'Watchmen: Chapter II' in Animation

"Exposing this plot results in greater destruction."

Warner Bros. Animation / Paramount Pictures

DC's second part of its animated Watchmen retelling of the densely layered 1986 graphic novel's political themes continues its faithful adaptation. Watchmen: Chapter II furthers its use of superhero storytelling to deconstruct the nature of humanity, conflict, and war.

REEL | 'Transformers One' Animates An Alien Robot Origin

"It's time to show them we are more than meets the eye."

Paramount Animation / Hasbro Entertainment

Hasbro's animated origin film about its popular transforming alien robot toy franchise, Transformers One, highlights its characters' beginnings on their home planet of Cybertron before becoming the warring Autobots and Decepticons on Earth. Directed by former Pixar animator Josh Cooley, it's a fun, more kid-friendly telling of the popular action figures.

SCREEN | Watching the 'Watchmen: Chapter I' in Animation

"We're society's only protection!"

Warner Bros. Animation / Paramount Pictures

DC's latest animated Watchmen adaptation, based on the groundbreaking 1986 graphic novel, takes its time faithfully translating another deconstruction of superhero storytelling nearly forty years after its initial publication. Watchmen: Chapter I, the first installment of a two-part release, features plenty of moody animation directed by veteran animator Brandon Vietti, who fleshes out the central murder mystery stylishly.

CABLE | 'Batman: Caped Crusader' Gets Animated on Prime Video

"He's an itch that needs to get scratched."

Warner Bros. Animation / DC Studios

From legendary Batman: The Animated Series writer/producer Bruce Timm comes the Dark Knight's next reimagined television incarnation. Even more of a detective superhero noir, Batman: Caped Crusader embraces the original Detective Comics as inspiration in a refreshing throwback to its hard-boiled crime mythos.

REEL | Animated Anxieties – Pixar Flips Its Emotions 'Inside Out 2'

"There's a lid for every pot."

Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar Animation Studios

Pixar and first-time director Kelsey Mann revisit unpredictable childhood emotions in their thoughtful animated sequel, Inside Out 2. Where the first Inside Out originally tracked the changing brain of a pre-teen girl, its follow-up nine years later further highlights the range of crippling oncoming anxieties on the precipice of full-blown puberty.

SCREEN | On Tamio Wakayama's Life 'Between Pictures' x DOXA 2024

"My boyhood years were a kaleidoscope of joy and pain."

DOXA Documentary Film Festival

Multimedia artist Cindy Mochizuki chronicles the remarkable life and career of the Japanese-Canadian photographer in Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama. Told through the framework of Wakayama's own family history of being imprisoned in internment camps, the Telus documentary follows his tireless efforts to capture the 1960s civil rights movement in the American South.

CABLE | 'X-Men '97' Defends Mutantkind on Disney+

"To me, my X-Men!"

Marvel Animation

Marvel Animation's much-anticipated revival of the groundbreaking and wildly influential original X-Men: The Animated Series (1992-97) ultimately proves to be a refreshing endeavour. X-Men '97, a direct continuation of the aforementioned Saturday morning cartoon, also provides some worthwhile contemporary updates to the comic book adaptation's narrative that make this new version of the old animated series a fresh take on the popular mutant superhero team, picking up where they left off twenty-seven years later.

CABLE | 'Scott Pilgrim Takes Off' Gets Remixed on Netflix

"My parties are curated."

Science Saru / Universal Content Productions

Toronto native and cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley readapts his famed graphic novel series once again—this time in television anime form. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off achieves the remarkable task of creating both something totally fresh and new storywise while also balancing the familiar comfort of the cult source material, including the entire cast of the live-action film adaptation, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, reprising their respective roles vocally.

VIFF 2023 | How Does 'The Boy and the Heron' Live?

"All grey herons are liars."

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2023—Legendary 82-year-old Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki emerges from his self-imposed retirement for a new, deeply personal film ten years in the making, The Boy and the Heron (aka How Do You Live?). A dreamlike elegy of wartime grief, the Studio Ghibli fantasy adventure is a dazzling, often confounding animated feature of childhood escapism.

REEL | 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem' Oozes Charm

"The peoples, zey got to go!"

Paramount Pictures / Nickelodeon Movies

Produced and co-written by comedians Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem resets the once ubiquitous comic book and toy franchise aimed at kids back to its basic elements. As the title strongly suggests, the computer-animated superhero adventure focuses on the mutations of its characters while also highlighting them as immature teens and outsiders, done in a flat, sketchbook-like animated style in the vein of the Spider-Verse films.

REEL | A Spectacular 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'

"He's barely a villain of the week!"

Sony Pictures Animation / Lord Miller Productions

Acclaimed Oscar-winning co-writers/producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller return to the animated Spider-Verse world for the spectacular multiversal superhero sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. This is a visually wondrous and maximalist adventure jam-packed with heart and tons of emotional resonance.

REEL | Illumination Imagines 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie'

"Time, like hope, is an illusion."

Universal Pictures / Illumination

Based on the classic Japanese video game franchise led by Italian-American plumbers, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is Nintendo's first foray into big-budget animation after the truly dreadful 1993 live-action film. Produced by Illumination and directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, the colourful adaptation is a visually dazzling but less than imaginative animated adventure squarely aimed at kids.

GENRE | Hayley Law Traps 'Door Mouse' – Stylish Neo-Noir Pulp

"It was a full pack of cigarettes type of night."

Gravitas Ventures / Elevation Pictures

Vancouver native Hayley Law stars in fellow local actor turned filmmaker Avan Jogia's stylish debut feature behind the camera in an indie neo-noir dripping with contemporary pulp. Door Mouse mines gumshoe detective genre fare with a modern gloss (not unlike the 2005 film Brick) for a rather oddball mystery genre effort.

SCREEN | 'Marcel the Shell with Shoes On' Finds Family

"A space in my heart gets bigger and louder every day."

A24 / Elevation Pictures

Co-creators Dean Fleischer-Camp, who also directs and co-stars, and Jenny Slate adapt their series of stop-motion shorts starring the eponymous anthropomorphic seashell (voiced by Slate) into a rather heartwarming feature-length hybrid live-action animated mockumentary film. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On remains a very cute coming-of-age meets slice-of-life effort full of whimsical charm.