Film Review – Epic (U)

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adventure, Amanda Seyfried, animation, Beyonce Knowles, Blue Sky Studios, Christoph Waltz, Colin Farrell, Epic, fantasy, Josh Hutcherson, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, William Joyce

Relative newbies to the animation game, Blue Sky Studios have long shown unfulfilled potential. Their Ice Age series managed to capture people’s hearts without ever producing a truly acclaimed film. Their best film to date, Horton Hears a Who! benefited from the talents of a literary creative. Epic, an adaptation of William Joyce’s The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, is their most ambitious project to date. Is this the moment the Connecticut-based outfit arrives as an animation studio to be reckoned with?

Game Review – Banjo-Kazooie (N64)

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adventure, Banjo, Banjo-Kazooie, Gruntilda, Kazooie, Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Platformer, Rare

You will believe a bear can fly.

Film Review – The Croods (U)

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adventure, animation, comedy, DreamWorks, Emma Stone, Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, The Croods

I’ve always been a little frustrated by DreamWorks. Their success with cash-guzzling franchises like Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda has made them the most prolific animation studio in the world but they haven’t been able to marry quantity with quality with any consistency. It’s difficult to know, when attending one of their new films, whether to expect a How to Train Your Dragon or a Shark Tale. There’s no denying their ability to keep kids entertained but few, if any, of their films will ever be remembered in the same way as most of Pixar’s emotionally satisfying, story-led back catalogue.

Game Review – Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble (SNES)

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adventure, Dixie Kong, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, Kiddy Kong, Nintendo, Platformer, Rare, SNES

There’s an unusual trend that can be found in SNES games towards the end of the console’s life cycle – platformers starring sidekicks. Yoshi’s Island, the sequel to Super Mario World in which the earlier game’s clan of dinosaur buddies took the limelight away from the Mario brothers, is a fine example but Rare pulled the trick twice. The first sequel to the hit Donkey Kong Country didn’t even include the famous gorilla as a playable character, handing the baton instead to his sidekick Diddy. A year later in this third outing Diddy too ended up shelved while his sidekick and monkey squeeze Dixie took the lead role. We’re still waiting for Donkey Kong Country 4: Kiddy Kong’s Day Out.

Film Review – Jack the Giant Slayer (12A)

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adventure, Bill Nighy, Bryan Singer, Eddie Marsan, Eleanor Tomlinson, Ewan Bremner, Ewan McGregor, fantasy, Ian McShane, Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack the Giant Slayer, Nicholas Hoult, Stanley Tucci, Warwick Davis

Jack (Nicholas Hoult) is a farm boy in the Kingdom of Albion who loses himself in adventure stories to escape his humdrum existence but when a chance encounter with a monk sees him trading his horse for some bean-like ancient relics and the kingdom’s princess shelters from a storm in his house adventure comes to him. Legend speaks of a land above populated by giants defeated in battle long ago by Eric the Great. When one of the ‘relics’ Jack receives sprouts a mighty beanstalk that lifts his house and the princess skywards, Jack volunteers to join a rescue party to save her.

Top Ten Skies of Arcadia Tunes

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adventure, Dreamcast, fantasy, Gamecube, Sega, Skies of Arcadia, Skies of Arcadia: Legends, Steampunk

Sometimes when a review for a game (or whatever) that really means something to me comes along it seems that just a review isn’t enough. I talked at some length in my recent love-letter to Skies of Arcadia: Legends about the soundtrack and how much it enriches the game with its innumerable mood-setting melodies. It seems only fitting now that I take a moment to really honour the game’s wonderful soundtrack with a good top ten. So here are my ten favourite individual tunes from the OST. Any one of these conjures feelings of pure escapism and adventure one way or another and they are all tunes I could happily listen to just for themselves. As usual with this type of Top Ten there’s no waffle from me. I’ll let the music explain itself.

Film Review – Oz: The Great and Powerful (PG)

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adventure, fantasy, James Franco, Joey King, L Frank Baum, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, Oz, Oz: The Great and Powerful, Rachel Weisz, Sam Raimi, The Wizard of Oz, Zach Braff

Creating what is, essentially, a prequel to one of the best-loved films of all time must be a thankless task but in the case of Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful, not only did the film-makers have to face the potential for fan backlash, they had to do it whilst constrained by copyright. Warner Bros. still own the rights to everything in the classic 1939 film so Disney’s new movie was not allowed to borrow any ideas it came up with that weren’t taken directly from L. Frank Baum’s source novels. This even extends to the exact shade of green of the wicked witch’s skin. How do you appeal to people’s fondest memories when invoking them is legally taboo?

Game Review – Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)

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3DS, adventure, Bowser, Intelligent Systems, Kersti, Mario, Nintendo, Paper Mario, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Princess Peach, RPG

Given the number of times I’ve reviewed games made by Intelligent Systems it should come as no surprise that I’m a fan of the Paper Mario franchise. This series of spin-off RPGs began on the N64 and have become famous for their creativity and charming stationary-themed world of paper-thin characters. This 3DS entry, the first on a handheld, is the fourth game in the series and, like the platforming-orientated Super Paper Mario before it, changes up the formula. The focus this time is on stickers.

Game Review – Skies of Arcadia: Legends (GC)

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adventure, Aika, Drachma, Dreamcast, Enrique, Eternal Arcadia, fantasy, Fina, Galcian, Gamecube, Gilder, Nintendo, Overworks, Ramirez, RPG, Sega, Skies of Arcadia, Skies of Arcadia: Legends, Steampunk, Vyse

As long as there are dreamers with the courage to pursue their dreams, the world will have heroes.

Film Review – Wreck-It Ralph (PG)

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adventure, animation, Calhoun, comedy, Disney, fantasy, Fix-It Felix Jr, Hero's Duty, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, John C Reilly, Mortal Kombat, Rich Moore, Sarah Silverman, Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter, Sugar Rush, Vanellope von Schweets, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Wreck-it Ralph

My two favourite things together at last.

Book Review – The Snow Merchant (Sam Gayton)

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adventure, fantasy, Lettie Peppercorn, Sam Gayton, The Snow Merchant

Lettie Peppercorn is the twelve-year-old landlady of an inn on stilts. A note from her alchemy-practicing mother, who left a decade ago, warns her that if she leaves her home she could die. Confined to the inn with only a pigeon and a pair of demanding and belligerent old crones while the contents of the house slowly disappear to pay for her worthless father’s gambling debts, Lettie faces a pretty miserable existence. Then one day a rude man arrives to sell her something he claims to have invented, something called snow.

Book Review – Itch (Simon Mayo)

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adventure, Itch, Itchingham Lofte, Simon Mayo

One thing I find reassuring in my effort to become a children’s author is the knowledge that someone else in the family has already managed it. Simon Mayo, the popular radio broadcaster (who presents a weekly film review show with Mark Kermode that I listen to every week), is a distant relative of mine, second or third cousin once removed I think. We’ve never met apart from a brief conversation on Twitter but since his first and, so far, only book falls neatly into the type of storytelling I’ve built my life around, I definitely feel something of a connection with him.

Film Review – Life of Pi (PG)

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adventure, Ang Lee, Drama, Irrfan Khan, Life of Pi, Rafe Spall, Suraj Sharma, Yann Martel

When a book is labelled ‘unfilmable’ you can bet a whole bunch of directors suddenly become interested. It must be a badge of honour among film-makers to have in their filmography a successful picture adapted from such a publication. Now Ang Lee has added his name to that club with this highly anticipated big screen version of Yann Martel’s novel about faith and survival, Life of Pi.

Film Review – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12A)

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adventure, Bilbo Baggins, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, fantasy, Gandalf, Hugo Weaving, Ian McKellan, J.R.R. Tolkien, James Nesbitt, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Sylvester McCoy, The Hobbit, The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey, Thorin Oakenshield

In a hole in the ground there lived a wonderful film.

Book Review: The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien

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adventure, Bilbo Baggins, fantasy, Gandalf, Gollum, J.R.R. Tolkien, Smaug, The Hobbit, Thorin Oakenshield

In a hole in the ground there lived a children’s classic.

Book Review: Marlfox – Brian Jacques

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adventure, Brian Jacques, Dannflor Reguba, fantasy, Lady Cregga Rose Eyes, Marlfox, Redwall, Songbreeze Swifteye

Twenty-one down, one to go. It’s been a long road but the end is finally in sight. I have now read every Tale of Redwall with the exception of The Rogue Crew, the last work Brian Jacques published before he died last year. Before I commence on the final leg of my two year Redwall marathon there is the matter of my verdict on Marlfox, the eleventh book published and the last I read as a kid. Of all the books in the series this one proved the most useful in the debate over old Jacques against new. Of all the books in the series I had read before this was the one about which I could remember the least, including how much I like it and I approached it this time without any rose-tinted spectacles. So does Marlfox stand up next to the old classics or is it more of a match for the lesser later titles?

Game Review: The Legend of Zelda – Spirit Tracks (DS)

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adventure, Chancellor Cole, DS, fantasy, Link, Malladus, Nintendo, The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda - Spirit Tracks, Zelda

I have a theory about escapist storytelling; trains make everything better. The evidence is present in everything from Paper Mario – The Thousand-Year Door to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. There’s just a romance about old locomotives chuffing their way through breath-taking landscape that elevates the sense of adventure and transports the reader/viewer/player just as effectively as the passengers. Nintendo evidently feels the same as evidenced by The Legend of Zelda – Spirit Tracks, a DS follow-up to Phantom Hourglass built around the romance of trains.

Film Review: Brave (PG)

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adventure, animation, Billy Connolly, Brave, Disney, Emma Thompson, fantasy, John Ratzenburger, Julie Walters, Kelly McDonald, Merida, pixar, Robbie Coltrane

The studio that has dominated CG animation for over fifteen years offers up their biggest challenge to Disney’s supremacy yet.

Book Review: The Sable Quean – Brian Jacques

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adventure, Brian Jacques, Buckler Kordyne, fantasy, Redwall, The Sable Quean, Zwilt the Shade

Does nostalgia cloud critical thought? Is a beloved creation from one’s childhood always at a massive advantage next to something more recent? The answer to these questions is almost certainly ‘yes’ but it might not always be that simple. I’ve now reviewed ten of the eleven Tales of Redwall I first read in my youth and this review covers the tenth of the eleven books in the series I am reading for the first time. There can be no question that the former ten have, on average, enjoyed more of my praise than the latter. Am I just revisiting Brian Jacques’ earlier work wearing rose tinted spectacles or did the quality of his books really drop off over time? I think the answer is probably both. Maintaining the extremely high benchmark of quality laid by books like Redwall and Mattimeo for over twenty publications is a big ask. And while there have been plenty of lesser titles like Triss and Loamhedge there is also High Rhulain and Eulalia!. And there is The Sable Quean.

Game Review: Super Metroid (SNES)

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adventure, Metroid, Mother Brain, Nintendo, Ridley, Samus Aran, science fiction, Shooter, Sidescroller, SNES, Super Metroid

The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace.