animation – Page 2 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

MOVIE OF THE WEEK October 31, 2025: LITTLE AMELIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN

October 26, 2025October 30, 2025 Jennifer Merin Amélie Nothomb, animation, betsy bozdech, Cate Marquis, Cathy Cerda, GKIDS, jennifer merin, leslie combemale, Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang, Little Amelie or The Character of Rain, liz whittemore, Loïse Charpentier, Maïlys Vallade, motw, Movie of the Week, nell minow, sandie angulo chen, sherin nicole, Victoria Grobois, Yumi Fujimori

The world reveals itself to be full of wonders to a very unusual girl in director Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang and Maïlys Vallade’s vibrantly hand-drawn French animated film Little Amelie or the Character of Rain. As the title character interacts with the people and places around her, she sees and understands them in ways unlike anyone else — but she also struggles to navigate the big feelings that come with being a child.

Reviews

STITCH HEAD – Review by Susan Kamyab

October 22, 2025 Susan Kamyab animation, Asa Butterfield, Guy Bass, horror, Steve Hudson, Stitch Head, Toby Genkel

Stitch Head is a sweet, light-hearted film with a relatable message told through quirky and loveable characters who maybe look different, but hope to feel safe in public, and be treated like everyone else. While there are a few new horror flicks you can catch in theaters, Stitch Head is one you can take the whole family to see.

Movie of the Week

MOVIE OF THE WEEK August 8, 2025: HOLA FRIDA

August 1, 2025August 3, 2025 Jennifer Merin Andre Kadi, animation, Annie Girard, betsy bozdech, biopics, Cate Marquis, Cinema Citizen, Diego Rivera, Emma Rodriguez, Frida Kahlo, Hola Frida, jennifer merin, Karine Vezina, leslie combemale, Level 33 Entertainment, liz whittemore, loren king, Manuel Tadros, nell minow, Olivia Ruiz, sandie angulo chen, sherin nicole, truth-based

Like the lovingly illustrated picture book it’s based on (Frida, C’est Moi), Karine Vézina and André Kadi’s charming Frida Kahlo biopic Hola Frida brings the famous artist’s early years to life in a colorful, creative, accessible way. It’s simple enough for even young children to understand, yet it has enough layers that it will still be appreciated by those who are already familiar with the story of Kahlo’s path to becoming an icon of both feminism and international art.

Reviews

HOLA FRIDA – Review by Jennifer Merin

July 28, 2025July 31, 2025 Jennifer Merin Andre Kadi, animation, biopics, Cinema Citizen, Frida Kahlo, Hola Frida, Karine Vezina, Level 33 Entertainment, truth-based

Hola Frida is a charming, beautifully animated biopic about artist Frida Kahlo’s childhood. Co-directors Karine Vezina and Andre Kadi focus on young Frida, the smart and curious girl whose indominable spirit gives her the strength to soar past her physical afflictions and imagine a world of wonders. The storytelling is deceptively simple in its understated delivery of wise advice. It leads to an understand of why Frida Kahlo became a painter.

Festivals Reviews

BILLY IDOL SHOULD BE DEAD (Tribeca 2025) – Review by Sherin Nicole

June 16, 2025June 16, 2025 Sherin Nicole animation, Billy Idol Should Be Dead, documentary, Jonas Åkerlund, London punk, Steve Stevens, Tribeca 2025

Director Jonas Åkerlund guides the documentary from gorgeously crisp interviews—shot in rich black and glowing white—to lush but cheeky animated sequences that play out like fever dreams, weaving through the mayhem and pivotal moments that reveal the man behind the wild child persona. Allowing every line on Idol’s face to tell the tale as clearly as his voice and the testimony of those who know him well. Billy Idol Should Be Dead is a compendium of ironies—some delightful and others tragic.

Reviews

FLOW – Review by Diane Carson

December 18, 2024December 22, 2024 Diane Carson 3d animation, animation, Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, Latvian films

Latvian writer/director Gints Zilbalodis presents an imaginative, fabulous 3D animated film. Told solely from an expressive black cat’s point-of-view, no human voices intrude into any part of the story. After establishing a populated forest environment, the action jumps into high gear quickly with a catastrophic flash flood inundating the area. After nearly drowning, the black cat (hereafter called Cat and from whose point-of-view all events unfold) scrambles and struggles to survive, eventually taking refuge aboard a small boat with a friendly dog, an indifferent capybara, a feisty lemur, and am officious secretary bird. The five animals, not normally found together, forge a bond, though all are wary at first, solving conflicts in tandem. They change, they trust, and they come to appreciate each other as these animals navigate a perilous series of crises, including a deserted, devastated city.

Reviews

THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF IBELIN – Review by Diane Carson

November 17, 2024November 17, 2024 Diane Carson animation, benjamin ree, documentary, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Mats Steen, netflix, norwegian films, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, World of Warcraft

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin pleases as much as it surprises. Some people lead disreputable secret lives which they hide for obvious reasons. That is decidedly not the case for Mats Steen, the subject of Norwegian director Benjamin Ree’s wonderful documentary, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin. That Ibelin is an appealing gamer’s persona is merely the first surprise, especially given the internet’s world of toxic, exploitive frauds. Instead, Ibelin offers a warm, supportive, powerful character within the World of Warcraft. That gamers’ environment of friendship and love, action and beauty contrasts shockingly with the young man who created that internet presence.

Reviews

PIECE BY PIECE – Review by Diane Carson

September 26, 2024September 29, 2024 Diane Carson animation, documentary, LEGO, Morgan Neville, Pharrell Williams, Piece by Piece

Piece by Piece delights in an animated LEGO film about Pharrell Williams. When I heard that documentarian Morgan Neville’s animated film made entirely with LEGOs would chronicle the life and career of Pharrell Williams, I couldn’t believe or embrace the idea. Was this a joke? Well, one screening later, count me in as an enthusiastic fan of Piece by Piece, which interprets Williams’ inspired idea in surprising and informative ways.

Festivals Reviews

FLOW (TIFF 2024) – Review by Nadine Whitney

September 16, 2024September 15, 2024 Nadine Whitney animation, Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, Latvian films, Matīss Kaža, TIFF 2024

Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’s impeccable fable Flow is again proof of Guillermo Del Toro’s maxim that animation is cinema – “It’s a medium for art, it’s a medium for film, and I think animation should stay in the conversation.” Del Toro argued that animation is not just for children and Flow, although family friendly, is a sophisticated metaphor for the effects for environmental crises, and for the experience of refugees trying to stay alive and learning to trust each other despite linguistic and cultural differences. Flow is a work of immense cinematic art. A film with no dialogue and no humans that speaks to both the human condition and considers the immensity of the natural world which is suffering because of our failures as a species. Flow is a profound, emphatic, and empathetic experience.

Festivals Reviews

INKWO FOR WHEN THE STARVING RETURN (TIFF 2024) – Review by Leslie Combemale

September 16, 2024September 15, 2024 Leslie Combemale Amanda Strong, animation, indigenous storytelling, Inkwo for When the Starving Return, Michif/Métis, National Film Board Animation, national film board of canada, Richard Van Camp, Tłįcho, Wheetago War

Anyone who knows Michif/Métis artist and filmmaker Amanda Strong, knows she has a talent for bringing together stop motion, bold graphic artistry, and gorgeous lighting with evocative and emotional indigenous storytelling. Her stories often consider the impact of colonialism and climate change on both the indigenous and the natural world. Inkwo means medicine. It is not only the title for a moving and fascinating piece of animation, it is also an apt description for the transformative healing quality that suffuses even the most turbulent moments in the film. A gorgeous piece of cinema that is both activism and art.