Hayao Miyazaki is a legend of Japanese animation, making numerous classics like My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away. After a 10-year break, Miyazaki has returned with possibly his last film, The Boy and the Heron. Mahito Maki (Luca Padovan) is a young boy who loses his mother during an Allied bombing raid on Tokyo during the Second […]
Author: Kieran Freemantle
Godzilla Minus One Review
Godzilla is one of Japan’s greatest cultural exports, appearing in 33 Japanese films and five American films. Godzilla Minus One acts as an origins story for the King of the Monsters. Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a kamikaze pilot during the dying days of World War II. On Odo Island, he sees a Japanese garrison get killed […]
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Review
The Hunger Games movie series has returned after an eight-year break with an adaptation of the prequel novel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. It has been 10 years since the failed rebellion against The Capitol. As punishment, the Districts of Panem must send two tributes aged between 12 to 18 to fight in the annual Hunger Games. […]
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire Review
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is a space opera Zack Snyder and Netflix plan to use as a launching pad for a franchise. It is already a film that has stirred a lot of debate. Kora (Sofia Boutella) is a woman who lives in a simple farming community on the moon of Veldt. […]
Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom Review
The DCEU has come to an end with the sequel to 2018’s Aquaman, the billion-dollar film in the series. Four years after the events of Aquaman, Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) is king of Atlantis, married to Mera (Amber Heard), and has a son with her. However, David Kane/Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is desperate for revenge against […]
Tabby McTat Review
The BBC’s adaptation of Tabby McTat is the second feline animated story to be broadcast on British TV this festive period. Tabby McTat is a busker’s cat. He performs every day with Fred (Rob Brydon), but when Fred is injured chasing a theft, he leaves Tabby McTat as a stray. Tabby McTat gets taken in by Sock […]
Mog’s Christmas Review
Channel 4 has developed a tradition of adapting popular children’s books into animated specials for Christmas. 2023 sees the second book in Judith Kerr’s Mog series getting this treatment. Mog is a dim and forgetful cat that the Thomas family owns. Her peaceful life gets disturbed by a strange tradition the humans celebrate. This includes putting […]
Rick and Morty – Mort: Ragnarick Review
The penultimate Rick and Morty’s seventh season sees the titular pair going on an adventure into the afterlife. Rick discovers that the afterlife does exist after murdering Jerry seven times. The afterlife can be a source of infinite energy. To harvest this energy Rick concocts an overly complex scheme involving getting himself murdered by Bigfoot and […]
Journey to Bethlehem Review
The Nativity Story is one of the most famous ever told and the bedrock for Christmas. It gets a musical retelling with Journey to Bethlehem. Mary (Fiona Palomo) is a teenage girl who is betrothed to Joseph (Milo Manheim), a man she has never met. She had even more pressure thrust upon her when the archangel […]
The Hunger Games Retrospective: Mockingjay – Part Two
The Hunger Games concludes with the second part of Mockingjay and shows the final clash between The Capitol and the Rebels. Peeta has been rescued from The Capitol, but he has been brainwashed, leading to him harbouring a bloodlust against Katniss. The war has swung in the Rebels’ favour and the Capitol is about to […]










