It’s become something of a cliché recently to begin films – especially ones aimed at a family audience – with a car accident, robbing a character of one or more parents. “Dark Phoenix” did it. “Pete’s Dragon” did it. “Shazam!” sort of did it. Even “Frozen” did it, although they used a ship instead of a car. It’s on that particular detail that Zemeckis chooses to turn his protagonist’s world…

The Guillermo del Toro-directed opening to The Simpsons Halloween Special XXIV brings us the classiest, cleverest intro sequence ever. Riffing on the traditional Simpsons title sequence, del Toro weaves together a gleeful tour of a Springfield populated by horror cinema icons and garnished with gleefully indulgent references to his own work. It’s so packed with references and ideas, it ends up…

Arriving nearly five years after the last instalment, “Kung Fu Panda 3” may not be part of the fastest moving animated franchise but it’s still one of the best. Like its predecessor, it again manages to blend kung fu movie tropes and winning animation to deliver not only a great family-orientated action adventure but a pretty good martial arts movie in its own right. Having mastered inner peace…

ALT

When a group of reluctant children arrive at a museum for a field trip, they are taken on a secret tour by their guide Mary Beth who brings them to a lavish exhibit about the legends and myths of Mexican folklore. And so begins the real story of “The Book Of Life”, as Mary Beth tells the story of a small Mexican town called San Angel and how two gods: La Muerte, the ruler of the land of the…