Review: 'Zootopia 2' a worthy follow-up and the best Disney animated film in recent years11/25/2025  Disney Animation, 2025. It's been nearly a decade since the release of the Academy Award-winning Disney animated film, "Zootopia," a movie that defied all expectations and went on to gross over one billion dollars worldwide. It was praised not only for being a fun family film with many memorable scenes and characters (who can forget Flash the sloth?), but for its depth, exploring themes of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination. (Read my review of the first "Zootopia" film here).
With "Zootopia 2," Disney has come a long way from its cash-grab, direct-to-video sequels from a few decades ago. This is a worthy, insightful, and still fully accessible follow-up that reunites all of our favorite characters from the first film while adding in some solid newcomers. It builds on the deeper themes of the original, exploring empathy, trust and how history is often written by the winners. Mix in an all-star voice cast and vibrant, colorful animation, and Disney has delivered one of its best animated features in years.
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 Universal Pictures, 2025. "The Bad Guys" - based on the children's book series by Aaron Blabey - has quietly grown into one of the more beloved family franchises in recent years. The first film adaptation in 2022 grossed over 250 million dollars and proved to be a pleasant surprise for the studio. And while I wasn't a big fan (see my review of the first film at the link below), its success led to follow-up Holiday and Halloween specials on Netflix, so a theatrical sequel felt inevitable.
The good news? "The Bad Guys 2" isn't all bad. It's diverse cast of misfits have gone from mildly annoying to surprisingly fun to be around.  Disney/Pixar, 2025. The mere mention of the word "Pixar" used to bring with it an expectation of exceptionalism. And while the studio still is capable of producing magic from time to time (see last year's "Inside Out 2"), "Elio" contains very little of it.
 Warner Bros. Animation/Ketchup Entertainment, 2025. While the beloved Looney Tunes characters are familiar and respectful, these aren't exactly your parents' Looney Tunes.
"The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie" is shockingly the first all-animated Looney Tunes movie ever released in movie theaters. It's also not being distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures...that duty is being handled by the much smaller Ketchup Entertainment, which is why this film might feel a bit "under the radar" for most. And while this weird, zany sci-fi story is quite harmless, it also feels a bit uninspired. It's been nearly 100 years since the release of the very first Looney Tunes animated short...and this is what we've all waited for?  2025 Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation. The major bone that I have to pick with "Dog Man," is that the titular character is actually the least interesting of the bunch. But that doesn't stop it from being a successful, if not all that stellar, family-friendly adventure.
 Disney, 2024. I have to admit: When I walked out of the theater after screening "Mufasa: The Lion King," the new prequel and sequel to the CG-realistic 2019 version of "The Lion King," I had a smile on my face. Indeed, there are some good messages and the movie got better, faster, stronger, as it went along, culminating in what felt like a satisfying conclusion.
But the more and more that I thought about what I had just seen, the more I felt...underwhelmed. The animated original, from 1994, was and is of course a modern classic. And I was one of the lonely critics that actually embraced the 2019 version (that last movie only ended up with a 51% on RottenTomatoes.com). Especially when I started comparing it to what had came before, I began to feel like the franchise deserved better. "Mufasa: The Lion King" doesn't feel like a pure cash grab in the way that, say, the straight-to-DVD "The Lion King 2" did. And yet, there is no real reason for its existence other than to ravage the dead carcass - like a hyena might - of yet another Disney classic, squeezing what little life might be left so that the masses can feed. When the tribute to James Earl Jones at the start of the film carries more weight than the film itself, there's a problem.  Paramount Pictures, 2023. With an animation style inspired by the recent "Spider-Verse" films and a hip, kinetic energy influenced by movies like "The Mitchells vs. The Machines," "Mutant Mayhem" is not your father's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
In fact, in many ways, it's better.  Pixar/Disney, 2023. The bar is always set exceptionally high when you hear the word "Pixar." The animation studio has of course given us some of the very best movies - animated or otherwise - that have been made over the last 3 decades.
With that framing in mind, "Elemental" isn't among the very best of Pixar. But it is the sort of movie that we frankly need more of. Review: 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse' one of the year's best, animated or otherwise6/2/2023  Sony Pictures Entertainment, 2023. It is impossible to believe that the 2018 animated "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" could be improved upon. "Hold my web-shooter," says its sequel, the new "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse."
A lot of big words get thrown around in movie reviews, but I can confidently say this: I have never, ever seen a more visually ambitious movie - animated or otherwise - than "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse." Go see it at all costs...it's one of the best, most crowd-pleasing films, of 2023.  Universal Pictures/Illumination/Nintendo, 2023. It's hard to believe that there has never been an animated film featuring Mario and his brother Luigi, until now. "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" doesn't have the "coolness" or cutting-edge appeal as, say, "The LEGO Movie" did, and it wasn't quite as fun as the recent "Sonic The Hedgehog" film, but it's a mildly enjoyable, family-friendly adventure that does just enough to make it feel like a success.
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