professor-x

The Croods was fun to watch, and teaches kids to take risks while instilling reasonable family values along the way. There are many great laughable family moments; but, if you stop and think about what's actually going on, there is little purpose to the characters journey. I'm not a huge fan of Dreamworks storytelling, but this is definitely their worst story.

As always, the visuals were risky, hit and miss. Initially, I thought that the characters were very ugly, but after five minutes of seeing them on screen, I was able to enjoy their expressiveness. I had a similar experience with PIXAR's UP... the characters were so weird, but when the acting started, things were fine.

All of the animals in the film felt like they were inspired by an acid trip with Dali inside of an 80s airbrush painting. The wild elements were always interesting, but not the best quality.

So again, there are lots of unique interesting scenes and creatures here, but it all seems a little unfocused and half realized. There are TONs of great special effects in this animated feature, so if you like nature on a big scale, this might be something for you to focus on while kids enjoy the goofy antics of cave people.

If you have nothing better to do, get out of your cave and see this one!

I'm confused. Does anyone know how to write a concise comment about the essence of a film without rewriting the entire script, or merely stating that the plot was ambiguous? "Brotherhood of the Wolf" is an entertaining period action film. I say 'period' only because it feels like a believable portrayal of a fantastical moment in history (i.e."Van Helsing" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" - but minus a small amount of the cheese.) As far as the fine art of film-making goes, "Brotherhood of the Wolf" will never be a hailed a masterpiece, but there are more than a handful of ideas and sequences within the film that make it a must.

The costume design is interesting, most of the cinematography is lovely, but seeing modern production drawings within the film is lame.

The films bulky runtime of two hours and twenty minutes is a bit hard to swallow. A thinner script and more film on the cutting room floor would have done this move wonders. AKA - smart people.

"Brotherhood of the Wolf" is very entertaining, and quite good quality in almost every respect, except pacing/shot selection, and visual effects.

If your first language is English, I highly recommend watching this film in French, with English subtitles. (If your first language is French, I highly recommend that you watch this film in English, with French subtitles.) It helps lessen the 'cheese factor' when you're watching a "foreign" film.

A lengthy series of numerous animations comprise "Spalicek", also known as "The Czech Year." This animation is not available in the US, and can only be obtained via Amazon Japan, contained on the first volume of Jiri Trnka Film Works DVD collection.

As far as I can tell, "The Czech Year" might be more accurately described as "The Czech Seasons". Each short contains a simple story, somewhat related to the emotions and traditions associated with each season.

Like most of Trnka's work, the puppet designs are simple, but full of life. "Spalicek" doesn't have the same refinement of Trnka's later work, but is wonderful as his first big foray into puppet animation.

Since I am not fluent in the Czech language, this series of shorts can be a little difficult to watch. A great deal of story information is sung and spoken rather than acted. Still, there are great bits of animation, visuals, and music to keep things somewhat interesting.