In Loups=Garous, people are living in a tightly controlled environment. Everyone is accounted for. SVC, a giant corporation, controls everything, from the population’s diet to security to education. On the surface, the environment made by SVC is paradise but something’s missing. Real contact is non-existent. People talk with each other online. Busy parents interact with their kids through video chats.

The premise could have resulted into a great anime but instead we get a confusing with subplots that clash with each other. It wants to be a lot of things at the same time. It is predictable except for the main villain who turns out to be a Hannibal Lecter wannabe.

It tries to be complex by taking the viewers to several directions at the same time. It could be good if only it made sense. It relies on stereotypes for its character development. They are paper thin and boring.

Loups=Garous is a forgettable anime. The title is French for werewolf but there are no actual werewolves in the movie. If you come across this piece of crap, don’t press play.

Prince Naveen was transformed into a frog by a voodoo witchdoctor. He persuaded Tiana to kiss him so that he would be a human again. But unlike the fairy tale Frog Prince where the kiss broke the curse, Tiana turned into a frog as well. Now with the help of a Cajun firefly, trumpet-playing gator and an old blind lady, the two frogs attempt to break the curse before time runs out.

The jazz music enhanced the story of Princess and the Frog. It helped tell the story. Kudos to Randy Newman for creating beautiful music that goes well with the animation. You could feel the Louisiana flavor through the music.

Princess and the Frog has all the right elements of Disney animated movies from the 90s. It is a good combination of old school Disney with new elements to make it attractive to the younger generation. It is a fun and entertaining ride that you’ll enjoy from start to finish.

Swackhammer, owner of the Moron Mountain, sent the Nerdlucks to Looney Tune Land to get Bugs Bunny and the rest of the gang as the newest attractions of the theme park. Bugs tricked the Nerdlucks into accepting a basketball match to determine their freedom.

Bugs Bunny thought that they got the advantage over the puny Nerdlucks but what he didn’t know was that the aliens can absorb the talent from other beings. The Nerdlucks went to Earth and used their powers to steal the talents of NBA stars of that time, who are Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, Muggsy Bogues, and Shawn Bradley.

Tweety Bird: I tought I taw – I did! I did! I did tee Michael Jordan!

In desperation, Bugs Bunny asked Michael Jordan to help them out. It was the time when Jordan announced his retirement from basketball and declared his intention to play professional baseball. He agreed to play with the Tune Squad against the Monstars with special participation of Bill Murray.

Michael Jordan is not the best actor around but you would not watch Space Jam because of his acting. It all about basketball and the Looney Tunes characters interacting with each other. If you’re expecting Jordan to be an award winning actor then skip this one. It was not made for you.

Space Jam is a fun movie that I enjoy even though I’m already in my 30s. I already lost count of the number of times I watched this cartoon and the play count would probably increase until I die. Kids would love it. Basketball fans would enjoy every moment of it.

This is not an easy task because her family is celebrating the family matriarch’s 90th birthday. This means he needed to fool a lot of people into thinking that he is her boyfriend. Plus, he had to lie about his status to make him more suitable for her.

Then there’s OZ, an online virtual world that in reality controls the real world. Everything is incorporated into it – traffic lights, banks, cable TV and a lot more. Then one day OZ got hacked and everything was blamed on Kenji. Now it is up to Kenji and a bunch of Natsuki’s relatives to save the world but first he must make them believe that he was not the hacker.

Takashi Sakuma: Please tell me you didn’t break the internet.

Love Machine must be inspired by the ILOVEYOU Virus that managed to infect millions of computers in 2000. In Summer Wars, the Love Machine is an artificial intelligence program designed by the military. It was an experiment gone very wrong. The real hacker used Kenji’s avatar and account, which caused the authorities to go after him.

Summer Wars has a lot of minor characters that were conveniently placed in the story as a solution for a problem that would be encountered as the story progressed. Too bad that some of the characters are poorly developed, which makes the viewer less connected with the movie.

There are lots of lessons to be learned from Summer Wars. One of which is that gamers should be taken seriously. Without Kazuma’s King Kazma then the Love Machine could have destroyed OZ immediately. It also teaches one not to give up. No one can solve a problem by being a quitter. This was embodied by Kenji who didn’t lose hope and manage to beat Love Machine with the help of King Kazma and Natsuki.

Summer Wars also shows us the dangers of being too dependent on technology. It doesn’t say that technology is evil but it gives out the warning of what can happen when computers get too smart for our own good.

Mamoru Hosoda could have shortened the first third of Summer Wars. Then I could have considered it a masterpiece. The two-thirds of the movie had better pacing than in the beginning. But overall it is a good movie that the whole family can enjoy.

In this animated film, Hayao Miyazaki takes the audience to a magical journey where gods and magical creatures roam the land. It has everything you look for in an epic story except one. It has angry gods, cursed monsters, motivated humans, and Ashitaka the selfless hero. What it doesn’t have is a villain but that doesn’t mean that the story is uncompelling.

Ashitaka is a young warrior who got cursed when he killed a possessed boar to save his village. He then ventured to find a cure for the curse that’s slowly taking over his body. He arrived in the Iron Town where people are exploiting the forest by stripping it clear and getting the precious metal out of it. Not only that, there’s war between two human factions.

This drew the ire of the forest gods as well as Princess Mononoke herself. The latter is a mysterious girl who was raised by the wolves. As the movie progressed, she would be Ashitaka’s ally and adversary. As seen in previous Hayao Miyazaki works, character development was perfect.

Ashitaka: What I want is for the humans and the forest to live in peace!

Princess Mononoke is another environmental movie that didn’t try hard to convey the message that we all need to protect the planet in order to survive. Another lesson to be learned from the movie is that hatred doesn’t do anyone good. This is embodied by Ashitaka who tried to be neutral up to the end.

Studio Ghibli did a good job with the animation of Princess Mononoke. You’ll enjoy everything that’s on screen – from the rain drops to the movement of the grass to the tiny forest spirits. Princess Mononoke is a fantasy animated movie that will fascinate you from start to finish.

Maybe people were expecting too much from 9. The plot is actually good but not perfect. It’s about 9 rag dolls who were brought to life by the Scientist. They are known through the number printed on them. Their mission is to shut down the Brain, which is made up of the Scientist’s intelligence.

The good thing about 9 is its pace is super-fast. The viewer is led from one scene to another in lightning speed and the action doesn’t let up. But the fast pacing led to one of the downsides of the movie. It was not enough time to think about what just happened.

Actually it’s a good thing. Then you wouldn’t realize that the plot depended on lucky circumstances to resolve the problems in 9. It’s one close call followed by another. But I forgive Shane Acker and his team for that because I enjoyed the movie.

One thing that made 9 somewhat tedious to watch is that the characters were devoid of personality other than 9 (Elijah Wood) being the designated lead of the movie and 7 (Jennifer Connelly) as the strong woman role. Aside from 9, character development was an unknown entity in 9.

5 (John C. Reilly): I don’t mind having one eye. It just means I can focus on one thing at a time.

9 is a good visual experience and while there were obvious flaws to the plot, there was a vital message it tried to convey. The world today is full of conflict and the post-apocalyptic world of 9 might be our future. But we must not lose our optimism because even in darkness, as long as we maintain our humanity, there is hope.

Even with all the flaws I found in 9, I still found myself liking 9 but I can’t recommend it to everyone. If you like sci-fi thrillers or just a straight up action animation then check out 9.

Howl’s Moving Castle featured luscious settings, unique characters, and innovative machineries. I haven’t read the Diana Wynne Jones novel where the movie is based but I do believe that Hayao Miyazuki and the guys from Studio Ghibli did it justice.

The story is about Sophie, a young woman who is turned into an old lady by the Witch of the Waste. Her search for a solution to the curse led her to Moving Castle owned by a powerful wizard named Howl. There she met Calcifer, a fire demon, and he promised her that he’ll make her young again if she can break his contract with Howl.

Old Sophie: When you’re old, all you want to do is stare at the scenery. It’s so strange. I’ve never felt so peaceful before.

Just like the other Hayao Miyazaki animated movies, Howl’s Moving Castle felt like a dream. The sceneries added to the ambient beauty of the movie. The story is driven by the characters and you go with them on an emotional roller coaster as they go from one emotion to another.

You could feel the anti-war sentiment from Howl’s Moving Castle. Even though Howl is a powerful wizard, he didn’t want to use his powers to help in the war. The world of Howl’s Moving Castle might be violent but they do respect their elders.

Howl’s Moving Castle is entertaining and a must see for everybody. It is not just for anime fans. It is fun, complex movie that can appeal to both young and old.

My Neighbor Totoro is about two girls, Satsuki and Mei, who moved to an old house in a rural area with their father. Their mother is hospitalized and the father had to commute to work every day. When their father is out, they’re left to the care of a neighbor.

Just like any other kids their age, Satsuki and Mei love to explore their new environment. It is a place where forest spirits live and one of them is Totoro, which is a big mystical creature that lives in the forest. To roam around the forest, Totoro rides in a twelve legged giant cat that resembles a bus.

Unlike the animated movies of today, My Neighbor Totoro doesn’t have an antagonist nor have the characters break out into a song. Just like any Studio Ghibli movie, My Neighbor Totoro relied on magical elements to entertain its audience. Yet each moment seemed real.

Part of the reason why My Neighbor Totoro is enjoyable is because each scene was rendered beautifully. Every cell of the animation is a work of art. There are images from the movie that will linger in your brain long after the movie has ended.

Tatsuo Kusakabe: Trees and people used to be good friends. I saw that tree and decided to buy the house. Hope Mom likes it too. Okay, let’s pay our respects then get home for lunch.

My Neighbor Totoro is a timeless tale of friendship. I enjoyed it as a kid and I know that kids of today will still be entertained by it. It is better than the cartoons being shown on TV today. You’ll have a smile on your face after watching this gem of a movie.

WALL-E stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-Class. He is the only thing left on earth and is just doing his daily routine until he meets another robot named EVE, which starts his (mis)adventures. WALL-E might not speak but his actions say a lot. It is the robot version of Charlie Chaplin. I don’t usually find slap stick to be funny but this is one hilarious movie.

Beneath the cute love story and the numerous humorous moments, there’s an important message that this film wants to deliver. If you want to teach the next generation to start caring about the environment, make them watch WALL-E.

Captain: Wait, that doesn’t look like Earth. Where’s the blue sky? Where’s the-the grass?

There are lots of documentaries about how humans are destroying the planet but they tend to be too preachy that viewers loss interest after a few minutes of watching it. This is not the case with WALL-E. The message is delivered clearly during the first few minutes of the film, when we see WALL-E all alone in a desolated Earth.

WALL-E shows a world where machine care more about life in general than humans do. People are lazy and depend on robots to do everything for them. It’s a sad realization that even today a lot of people depend on others to do their job for them and there’s a big chance our future will be the same as in WALL-E.

If you still think that cartoons are just for kids then I bet you haven’t watched WALL-E yet. The characters are likable and even if they’re robots, you’ll feel connected with them. It is interesting from the start until the end.

As soon as Chihiro and her parents went through the tunnel, we are taken to a dream sequence that lasted for almost two hours. Spirited Away flows flawlessly from one scene to another without experiencing the kick that would wake us up from this beautiful dream. Studio Ghibli did a good job with each frame that every scene looks like a work of art.

I was captivated with Chihiro’s adventure in the bathhouse as she tried to get her parents back as humans again and go back to the normal world. In the mystical world, we are introduced with different characters that are as interesting as the main character.

Spirited Away might not be tagged as a comedy but there were some scenes that made me laugh. The comedic breaks were incorporated into the plot seamlessly. It has drama, tragedy, and comedy to make it a wonderful animated film for all ages.

It you’re going to watch Spirited Away, I suggest getting the subbed version instead of the Disney-dubbed one.  I saw both versions and there were huge discrepancies between the two. Some scenes and the subject of the dialogues were changed. The characters’ motivations and personalities were different. If you want to know Hayao Miyazaki’s true intentions, go watch the subbed version.

I was not surprised to find out that Spirited Away is the highest grossing movie of all time in Japan. It’s a masterpiece that can be enjoyed by both adults and children together. A word of caution: once you’ve watched Spirited Away you’ll find yourself wanting to watch it again and again.