04 March
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In Movie Reviews

RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON Director: Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada, Paul Briggs, John RipaStarring: Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Daniel Dae Kim, Gemma Chan, Sandra Oh, Benedict Wong The latest Disney offering, Raya and the Last Dragon, is a dazzling visual feast even if the story may seem a bit familiar. Kelly Marie Tran provides the voice for our hero, Raya. She’s a spirited young woman nicknamed Dew Drop by her father, Benja, and is the Princess of Heart. Their world, Kumandra, is divided into different kingdoms named after parts of the dragon. Legend has it that the dragon population was wiped out by aRead More →

03 September
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In Movie Reviews

MULAN Director: Niki CaroStarring: Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen, Li Gong, Jason Scott Lee, Tzi Ma, Yoson An The latest Disney animated classic getting the live action reboot is Mulan. As a young girl Mulan was always a rambunctious child whose eye for adventure knew no boundaries. She was not the girly girl that her mother wanted her to be under traditional Chinese culture. Now as a young woman, played by Yifei Liu, she finds her calling when her kingdom comes under attack. The Emperor of China, played by Jet Li, calls upon one man of every household to fight in the army. With her father in failingRead More →

05 August
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In Movie Reviews

BLACK IS KING Director: Beyoncé Knowles-CarterStarring: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Jay-Z, Kelly Rowland, Pharrell Williams, Lupita Nyong’o In my opinion, Beyoncé is one of the greatest artists of her generation. With each musical project she elevates her style and sound to new heights. Her new film, Black is King, is also considered a visual album and is streaming on Disney+. Last year, Beyoncé provided the voice of Nala in the remake of The Lion King. She also provided a new song for the film called “Spirit” and an accompanying album of inspired music called “The Gift” With Black is King she continues to use The Lion KingRead More →

01 July
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In Movie Reviews

HAMILTON Director: Thomas KailStarring: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Jonathan Groff, Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos Despite Broadway being shuttered until January 2021 and national tours on hold for the foreseeable future, you can have a bit of Broadway history in your very own home as Hamilton will be streaming on Disney+ July 3. Hamilton on Disney+ is being referred to as the Hamilton movie, which isn’t quite accurate as it’s not a traditional movie musical. This is filmed version of the stage production featuring the Original Broadway Cast. This isn’t a reunion special or anything like thatRead More →

24 May
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In Special Series

THE ENDLESS STREAMING QUEUES Can you run out of TV to watch? What happens if I reach the bottom of my Netflix queue? These are just some of the questions I’ve been hearing lately as people are spending their quarantine time in front of their favorite streaming service. I answer these questions and offer up suggestions on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, CBS All Access and more as we all sit and mindlessly binge during the pandemic. Here’s the videoRead More →

16 July
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In Movie Reviews

THE LION KING Director: Jon FavreauStarring: Donald Glover, Beyoncé, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, James Earl Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, John Kani, Keegan-Michael Key, John Oliver Disney’s latest remake is their 1994 masterpiece, The Lion King. Director Jon Favreau is using the same technology and special effects he used with The Jungle Book to make the animals come to life in a photo-realistic way. The results are stunning. He has an all-star cast bringing Simba, Nala, Mufasa, and the rest of Pride Rock back to life. Here’s my reviewRead More →

13 February
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In Movie Trailers

FROZEN II Director: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee Featuring the voices of: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff Disney will reign supreme at the box office for 2019. Not only will they be release three of their live action reboots with Dumbo, Aladdin, and The Lion King and their various Marvel and Star Wars films, but this November also marks the release of the highly anticipated Frozen II. The original film grossed $400 million at the domestic box office and became a world-wide phenomenon thanks to its strong female heroines voiced by Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel. It also featured catchy music by RobertRead More →

19 December
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In Movie Reviews

MARY POPPINS RETURNS Director: Rob MarshallStarring: Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth Mary Poppins is back on the big screen in an all new adventure thanks to Disney and director Rob Marshall (Into the Woods, Chicago). This new film takes place a couple of decades after the original one, and Michael (Whishaw) and Jane Banks (Mortimer) are all grown up. Michael is a widower with three kids. He’s facing a financial crisis and is told by the bank that they will repossess their childhood home if he can’t come up with the payments. It’s up to Mary PoppinsRead More →

21 November
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In Movie Reviews

RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET Directors: Phil Johnston, Rich Moore Starring: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Taraji P. Henson, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Ed O’Neill, Alfred Molina Ralph (Reilly) and Vanellope (Silverman) have become very accustomed to living their lives inside the arcade in both of their video games. That all changes when the owner, Mr. Litwak (O’Neill), plugs a wi-fi router into their outlet. They have no idea what’s inside the Internet, but Vanellope’s always up for an adventure. Vanellope’s game Sugar Rush malfunctions when the steering wheel breaks off the machine. A couple of customers inform Mr. Litwak that theRead More →

26 November
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In Interviews

IN CONVERSATION: CHRIS BERNARDI FROM PIXAR’S “COCO” Chris Bernardi began working for Pixar Animation Studios in November 2000 as a shading technical director on Finding Nemo. Since then, he has served in a variety of roles, including sets shading supervisor, sets shading technical director, senior shading artist on many of their films like Cars, WALL•E, Toy Story 3, Monsters University, and Inside Out. As he mentions throughout the interview, being the set supervisors has Bernardi working with other supervisors, directors of photography and the production designer. Long before his days working for Pixar his path was quite different. He studied biology and physics at WashingtonRead More →