Despite recent budget cuts, Netflix’s in-house animation division continues to produce lively, interesting works that, if released theatrically, might be diverting some of the applause that gets automatically lavished on Disney and Pixar’s currently mediocre output. Not that this is anywhere as rich and strange as the streaming service’s last big title, the Oscar-winning Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. The latest in a 10,000-mile-long line of adaptations of Journey to the West, the 16th-century Chinese novel attributed to Wu Cheng’en, bounces along energetically, and has some exceptionally fun frills around the…
Tag: Family films
Boonie Bears: Guardian Code review – smash-hit Chinese animation tells an eco tale
The ninth feature in a hugely popular Chinese animated series directed by Lin Yongchang and Shao Heqi, Boonie Bears: Guardian Code is also the franchise’s highest-grossing film, second behind The Wandering Earth 2 as the biggest Chinese film of 2023 so far. With its two main characters Bramble and Briar, adorable bears who were abandoned by their mother in a forest fire, this environmentally conscious adventure is an entertaining, if rather formulaic, ride. For lovers of cute animals, the CGI designs of the brothers are quite lovely and detailed, though…