Charles Solomon

Zilbalodis’ storytelling is intriguing but oblique.

The Tower is an angry, ambitious and often moving film from an underrepresented group, but its story might have been told more effectively in live action.

Some of the special effects are genuinely spectacular, but the narrative is often difficult to follow.

The nonstop mayhem will delight “One Piece” fans, but the uninitiated may find the film exhausting.

Rezo Gabriadze comes across as a genial, unpretentious man. But the viewer sees too little of the internationally respected artist and leaves feeling shortchanged.

Director Shinsuke Sato’s film may lack nuance, but fans of martial spectacles will have an enjoyable if exhausting time.

The film suffers from a surfeit of characters, many of whom remain underdeveloped.

Sadly, Laika’s new feature, Missing Link, fails to match the striking visuals and compelling characters in its Oscar-nominated 2016 film Kubo and the Two Strings.

Chance is a well-intended but heavy-handed denunciation of the barbaric blood sport of dog fighting.

Hardcore “Hunter” devotees may enjoy “Last Mission,” but the film lacks much of the good cheer and frisky élan of the broadcast series.

Liz and the Blue Bird may appeal to fans of “Sound Euphonium,” but many recent Japanese features have dealt with teen friendships and angst in more interesting ways.

MFKZ is obviously modeled on Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s “Akira” and Taiyô Matsumoto’s “Tekkonkinkreet,” but it lacks the gritty brilliance of the former and the underdog poignancy of the latter.

At almost two hours, the film feels a bit long and suffers from multiple endings, but Okada is clearly a talent to watch.

The filmmakers seem to have been trying for the kind of animated film noir that has been done so skillfully in Japan, but Cinderella the Cat never approaches that level level.

The flashy battle sequences will delight “Yu-Gi-Oh” fans. Viewers not familiar with the game will themselves be hopelessly lost.

Although the filmmakers use the soldiers’ own words, they fail to create believable characters who can engage the audience.

Much of the dialogue is too literal and undercut by its stolid earnestness, and many of the characters are left underdeveloped.

Although Mark Osborne’s new CG/stop-motion feature succeeds in bringing the essence of Saint-Exupéry to life in the lovely stop-motion sequences, there are only a few of these delightful moments in an otherwise muddled movie that feels like three films ineptly grafted together.

Belladonna of Sadness is an interesting curiosity from the early days of modern anime, but material that may have seemed daring and adult in the era of Disney's “Robin Hood” and “Snoopy, Come Home” looks exploitative and misogynistic 43 years later.

The visuals in Doukyusei are more original than the rather standard story.

Directors Jean-François Pouliot and François Brisson fail to organize the material into a coherent story or strike a consistent emotional tone.

While individual sequences are genuinely entertaining, Monster Hunt remains considerably less than the sum of its many parts.

The film is as lacking in polish and structure as its subject's canvases, which makes it an appropriate tribute to a marginal figure whose dreams of art world and/or Hollywood stardom stubbornly remain "almost there."

No "Naruto" fan will want to miss "Boruto," which suggests a new direction the franchise may take, now that the long-running TV series has finally concluded.

"Riviera" suffers from a weak story with an obvious ending.

Although it is often moving, the film is less satisfying than it could be.

An increasingly rare example of traditional 2D American animation, Henry & Me is so well-intentioned, you wish the film were better.

Genndy Tartakovsky is a talented director who knows how to telegraph what an animated character is thinking and doing and how to move a character in ways that suggest personality.

The audience's response to The Prophet is likely to be determined by their feelings for the original book rather than the eclectic, imaginative visuals.

Talky, relentlessly affirming and as predictable as a paint-by-number.

Although it was made on a smaller budget, "Neverbeast" is a more coherent and entertaining film than the bizarre jukebox musical "Strange Magic."

Kirkland manages to rise above the soap opera script with its improbable twists, stilted dialogue and internal contradictions to give a believable and often-sympathetic performance.

Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but Argentine writer-director Damián Szifron allows it to sit until it congeals in the dreary six-part anthology Wild Tales.

The Book of Life juxtaposes overwrought visual imagery with an undernourished, familiar story.

The story and characterizations never get much deeper than "We're all special in our own way."

Disjointed and unfocused.

Background stylist/co-director Eric Radomski has created a terrific-looking world of film noir-influenced Art Deco skyscrapers, shadows, gargoyles and windows. Unfortunately, some of the worst-animated characters in any recent feature get in front of those stylish backgrounds.

An exciting, upbeat film, but not a very impressive example of the animator's art. [01 Feb 1989, p.8]

Contemporary viewers are more likely to find Fritz the Cat a mildly amusing period piece, as dated as a Nehru jacket.

Akira is a jumble of high-tech visuals that will appeal only to hard-core Japanese animation fans. Viewers in search of a coherent narrative or polished animation should look elsewhere. [14 Mar 1990, p.F3]

Writer Dennis Marks and producer/directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera can't seem to decide whether they're making a with-it musical for teen-agers or re-creating the ingenuous humor of a '60s TV show, and don't do either very well.