TheRetroCritic

Based on an ongoing manga from 2006, the anime series of Nichijou followed a group of high school students as well as a robot girl, a child scientist and a talking cat as they embarked on very small but very significant (to them, anyway) random situations which they handled, more often than not, rather strangely. Early on, I wasn't sure if Nichijou even had a story or an arc to it. The first few episodes of the series really prioritising slapstick goofiness and emphasising the over-the-top reactions of the characters to certain minor events like bumping into someone or dropping a tiny sausage. It feels like a very cartoonish comic strip, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The humour is a wacky mix of observational, sarcastic and OTT slapstick with the occasional mini slice-of-life "moment" breaking up the episode. Every so often, you get a quiet, detailed but blurry shot of a street as a breeze moves a drape or something like that, before they cut to the ne

Jonesy, the overdramatic cat from Ridley Scott's  Alien , takes on the movies!

Shrek had a good run. And for a character I never actually liked all that much, it's amazing the series kept me watching until now. Never a fan I nonetheless looked forward to the antics of the cartoon gang, at least early on. Although it feels like Puss In Boots should have been made way earlier, say between Shrek 2 and 3, when the joke was still fresh, it seems Antonio Banderas' furry alter-ego still has enough charm left in him to warrant a solo effort. Luckily, Puss In Boots is a breath of fresh air. Forget the tired, endless pop culture references, forget the Fat Bastard-sounding ogre, forget that mouthy Donkey, forget the shitty pop songs: this is where it's at. By going for a vastly different vibe, focusing more on the characters, the story and the action, Puss In Boots proves itself to be an infinitely more rewarding experience than, say, the last two Shrek movies. Sure, the film retains the lighthearted feel of the original franchise but Puss is an infini

I wonder how many kids growing up reading Dr Seuss' Cat In The Hat ever pictured an overweight Alec Baldwin holding a six-pack of beer in the story let alone Mike Myers in cat drag! Oh well... Initially the film looks appropriately quirky and cartoonish but soon we realise that the story mostly takes place in a living room so goodbye slick CGI suburbia, hello boring pastel-coloured...indoors. Because that's what kids enjoy: Indoors. Anyway, you remember everything that didn't work in Ron Howard's The Grinch ? The noisy, chaotic direction, the messy musical numbers, the intrusive score, the erratic editing, the overacting... Yeah that's all back. The Grinch could be forgiven for being a Christmas movie and for having an ever entertaining Jim Carrey as the titular green grump. Here, however, we're given a rushed, dumb, predictable mess of a kids film with Mike Myers desperately trying to insert some jokes here and there and there's really no re