B+ |
*** |
+0|
Kids & Up
An Aardman film is always an exercise in absurdity, but
The Pirates, directed by Peter Lord (
Chicken Run) and Jeff Newitt, is possibly their silliest ever. This is the kind of film in which people say things like “Blood Island! So called because …it is the exact shape of some blood!” And: “You can’t always say
Arrrrr! at the end of a sentence and think that makes everything all right.” And: “London town: the most romantic city in the world.” (Followed by: “London smells like Grandma!”) Those crazy Brits!
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Here’s my 30-second take on Aardman Animation’s
Arthur Christmas.
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For almost a couple of years now, I’ve been crowing about the joys of “Shaun the Sheep,” Aardman Animation’s “Wallace & Gromit” spin-off series on British television—until now available on Region 1 DVD only in one-disc collections of six to eight episodes. Now at last all 40 episodes of the first season of “Shaun the Sheep” are available in a two-disc edition from Lionsgate and HIT Entertainment. If you’ve been holding out, now is the time to discover the joys of Shaun.
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A Town Called Panic may be the most oddball thing you see all year, if you see it, which you probably won’t, although perhaps you should. How can I explain it?
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More wordless Aardman animation on DVD!
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B+ |
***½ |
-1|
Kids & Up*
Stop-motion animation cult heroes Wallace & Gromit, the brainchildren of British animator Nick Park of Aardman Animations, may not be unchanged in the transition from their charmingly dotty, wildly funny
shorts to their first feature-length film, but they’re still recognizably themselves.
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B+ |
*** |
+0|
Kids & Up
Real chickens, I have it on expert testimony, are homebodies
who do not actually pine for freedom, as do the heroines of
Chicken Run. Whereas these poultry-farm prisoners plot and
scheme endlessly to contrive by any means necessary to get under,
over, or around their chicken-wire prison wall, my wife’s hens
actually perch atop the five-foot fence that surrounds our back
yard. They are quite capable of escaping, but have no interest in
doing so.
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