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This story of the value of life begins in an idealised New York City where Joe ( Jamie Foxx ) is tutoring music to school kids. Even the Disney “When you wish upon a star” theme is rendered on badly-played instruments. Joe is about to be made a permanent member of the school staff, much to the pleasure of his mother. Then the secret dream that he’s always harboured—to play with one of the greats—presents itself and whilst bursting with happiness and not looking where he’s going, Joe falls down an open manhole and dies. The worlds beyond are visually weird, almost like experimental animation. And set against this are jokes about rebranding and training (including “You Seminars”)—as if the route to heaven or “h, e, double-hockey-sticks” is a modern business. Beforehand, the depiction of New York, the apartments, schools, jazz clubs (“Nice…”) and streets are all beautiful. Finding himself in the Great Beyond and unwilling to accept it, Joe escapes and ends up in the Great Before, which...

This is the sequel to Finding Nemo , the Pixar film from 2003 which really launched the animation company into the popular and critical stratosphere. And no, this film isn’t as good as that one—but Finding Nemo was an instant classic. The comedy relief was Dory ( Ellen DeGeneres ), and the best thing about this film is that it has a different theme and stands in its own right. Clearly comparisons with the Toy Story films will reflect badly on Finding Dory, but on the other hand it is a lot better than Monsters University. Actually the best thing about this film is Piper, the incredible short before the main feature. But more on that later… Dory famously suffered from short-term memory loss and this drives the plot of the sequel. Dory lives with Marlin and Nemo, but she wonders about her parents. Memory loss here is treated as a disability but the character has positives and has an existence beyond being “this character with this issue”. So it’s inclusive and that’s good. H...

This latest Pixar movie manages to be a film that’ll make you examine your relationships, as well as mining solid fantasy and having the feel of an 80s caper film. It references High School comedies with the misfit character; it references those John Hughes type films with an absent father; it even references Indiana Jones. And it references a few more things… The premise is that a kingdom has been devoid of magic for a long time, and so those magical creatures like Dragons, Centaurs and Unicorns are mere creatures. Within a troll family, Ian Lightfoot ( Tom Holland ) turns 16. He is the dorky kid at school, and his older brother Barley ( Chris Pratt ) is into a fantasy role-play board-game. Barley has vague memories of their father, who died when Ian was very young, and Ian clings on to a view of the man—and aspires to be what his father means to him. He makes a list in a notebook (using the r etractable ballpoint pen with the multiple colours ) and ticks them off or crosses ...