Four and a half stars.

The Pirates is a fantastic laugh-out-loud action-adventure film for the whole family to enjoy! I loved the humor, there is plenty of physical comedy for younger children, and funny pop cultural references that adults enjoy, including the four “Pirate of the Year” nominees waiting in the wings, anxious for the winner announcement, just like at the Oscars. I thought that the claymation was done skillfully, all characters have such lively expressions and personality.

Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest, an animated short, is about Ms. Ingrid Pitt, a young Jewish girl and Holocaust survivor.  When she was 8 years old, Ms. Pitt miraculously escaped the Stutthof concentration camp with her mother, surviving in the forest until the end of the War.  I have the great honor to be invited by Beyond the Forest director and producer Mr. Kevin Sean Michaels and two-time Academy Award nominee Mr. Bill Plympton to be the sole animator for this film.  We must know our past to move on into the future, so I believe it is necessary and important to educate today’s children about the Holocaust so that similar tragedies will not happen in the future.

Perry Chen at Cars 2 press screening (photo by Zhu Shen).

In this sequel to Cars, after winning the Piston Cup, Lightening McQueen, professional racecar champion, invites his best friend Mater (a rusty tow truck who tries to be funny but ends up looking dumb) to help him in winning the World Grand Prix.  Along the way, Mater gets himself into tons of trouble and makes Lightening McQueen lose his first race.  Lightening McQueen gets into a fight with Mater and tells Mater he is no longer needed.  Mater is on the slow side, and doesn’t realize that he is mistaken for a secret agent by the enemy and the British intelligence.

4 Starfish out of 5.

Have you ever lost something or someone that you care deeply about? Victor Frankenstein, a quiet, thin, and clever young inventor has only one true friend – his beloved dog, Sparky. Together, Victor and Sparky have many adventures, such as making a movie together, building inventions in Victor’s secret lab in the attic, and playing fetch in the yard. Victor’s parents are a bit concerned for him, since he has no friends besides Sparky. But, Victor has no interest in befriending the children in his neighborhood. The kids there are Edgar, a nosy hunchback who can never keep a secret, Nassor, a dark, skeptical, and competitive bully, and a weird, unnamed girl who never blinks and rambles on about omens of the future found in her cat’s excrement, among others.

Paul Fierlinger's My Dog Tulip

Is love a bitch? Apparently so for British author J. R. Ackerley.  He was always looking for an elusive companion to come to his life, yet this companion never materialized … until Tulip, a mischievous female German Shepherd came to his life and became inseparable.  Together, they started many misadventures, including searching for the ideal vet and mate for Tulip, and other ordeals which turned out to be much harder than it seemed.

Ten-year-old Perry Chen of San Diego is making a name for himself as a film critic. Check out his interview with NPR's Liane Hansen as they discuss the latest DreamWorks film, How To Train Your Dragon as well as his KUSI San Diego TV interview/review.

3.5 Starfish out of 5

Have you ever wondered how Santa delivers millions of presents in a single night?  The 3D animation film Arthur Christmas (Aardman production for Sony Pictures Animation) will reveal exactly how things work in Santa’s mysterious Arctic Headquarters. In this movie the clever idea of multiple generations of Santa Clauses is introduced for the first time. In a busy underground snow fortress, countess elves operate advanced technology to calculate how many presents are given, children’s locations, and how naughty or nice they have been, while the Claus family is busy as well, managing the letters and elf teams.

 

On November 18^th 2011, my mom and I went to the Creative Talents Network (CTN) Animation Expo. It was the third year for this event, although it was the first time for me. When we arrived at the entrance of the Burbank Convention Center where this event was held, we were enthusiastically greeted by Dan Sarto, the Publisher of Animation World Network (AWN) where I am an expert blogger on animation films and events. He told my mom earlier that he really enjoyed CTN Expo which focused on the artists, and it’s a lot easier to meet people than at a huge event like the Comic-Con.

Four and a half Starfish out of 5!

Do you believe in magic? Do you remember how you felt when you saw a magic trick for the first time? Have you ever wondered what a magician’s life is really like? That is the story behind The Illusionist, a rapturously animated feature film by French animation director Sylvain Chomet about the languishing art of amusement, recently nominated for an Oscar.

2011 was a great year for animated short films. All of the shorts that were nominated for the Oscars had artful animation. My first film, Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest, (http://ingridpitt.co.uk)  in collaboration with Oscar-nominee Bill Plympton, was actually among the initial 45 animated shorts that qualified for an Academy Award! See the AWN list:

http://www.awn.com/news/short-films/academy-screens-next-oscar-winning-animated-short

I went to various film festivals in LA and San Diego, showed my film at DreamWorks Animation, and got to see all the nominated short films, thanks to Shorts International, the distributor of all nominated shorts and my own film.  My review and filmmaker interviews below for the 5 nominees are in the order from my least favorite to my favorite, with a prediction of Oscar winner at the end.