Charles Solomon

Editor

Internationally known animation historian and critic, Charles Solomon has written over 15 books books including Enchanted Drawings: The History Of Animation, The Art of Disney’s Frozen, The Making of Peanuts Animation, and Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Disney Beauty and the Beast .

Articles By Charles Solomon

Commentary

Although he wrote them in 1859, Charles Dickens might have been thinking of animation in 2016 when he penned the celebrated lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the […]

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Reviews

As it’s the 2nd talking koala movie, the 2nd juke box musical and the 11th talking animal movie of year, Illumination Entertainment’s Sing! suffers from a certain lack of originality. Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), an upbeat, if less than honest koala, runs a crumbling theater that he’d love to restore to its former glory. But […]

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Anime

Writer-director Makoto Shinkai’s runaway hit Your Name. (Kimi No Na Wa) is the year’s number one box office hit in Japan and the sixth-highest grossing film of all time there. Since it opened in August, it’s earned more than ¥19.4 billion (about US $174 million), more than any animated film not directed by Hayao Miyazaki. […]

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Anime

Based on a manga by Asa Higuchi, the 2007 broadcast series Big Windup! turns the clichés of the anime sports genre upside down. The main character is neither an ace who needs to be taught the importance of teamwork, like Ryoma in Prince of Tennis, nor a newbie who discovers his exceptional talent as he […]

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Anime

Although it didn’t draw much of an audience when it aired on Fox Kids in 2001, The Vision of Escaflowne (Eska-FLOW-nay, 1996) retains a loyal following, probably because this sprawling fantasy infuses sword-and-sorcery and mecha elements into the popular “magical girl” genre. Hitomi Kanzaki (Caitlin Glass) is a sensitive teen-ager who reads Tarot cards for […]

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ANIME REVIEW: “All Wishes Come True!”

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