Family

Disney Pixar’s Monsters University announced for Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013

The family film will screen at the festival three weeks before release in the rest of the UK

Edinburgh International Film Festival audiences will be among the first in the UK to see Disney Pixar’s latest offering, Monsters University. The Family Gala 3D screening will take place on Sun 23 Jun in the Festival Theatre, with an exclusive schools…

Oz the Great and Powerful

An action-packed spectacle of a prequel, starring James Franco, Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis

This prequel to The Wizard of Oz might have been little more than an expensive special effects extravaganza were it not in the hands of a director with as distinctive a visual style and flair for knockabout comedy as Sam Raimi. As with Tim Burton’s…

Sammy’s Great Escape

Limp animation sequel to 2010's A Turtle's Tale

Sammy’s Painfully Long Incarceration would be a better title for this sequel to 2010’s A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures. With a sequel to Pixar’s Finding Nemo still several years away, there’s presumably a wide-open market for aquatic animations, but…

Hot 100 2012: Brave

Pixar's first foray onto Scottish soil was one of the cultural events of the year

Just casting a glance over the 2012 edition of our annual Hot 100, you can see how pervasive Brave’s influence is. Kelly Macdonald (Hot 100 #3) and Billy Connolly (#51) took leading roles as Highland princess Merida and her father King Fergus…

Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings

Slight, professionally crafted fluff from the Disney Fairies franchise

Enjoying a considerably more successful solo career than most animated characters could muster, Tinker Bell has now featured in four feature films in her own right, without making any reference to her original role in JM Barrie’s Peter Pan. As a key…

Rise of the Guardians

An overcooked seasonal family release, with the voices of Jude Law and Hugh Jackman

This latest DreamWorks animation, a 3D concoction just in time for Christmas, is a rather soulless affair. Which, given it features Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, not to mention a whole bunch of elves, might seem hard to believe. But…

Nativity 2: Danger In The Manger!

A shambolic, festive family offering that grates from start to finish, starring David Tennant

Festive cheer will be in short supply for anyone who endures Nativity 2: Danger In The Manger!, a shambolic family offering that grates from start to finish. Written and directed, like the original, by Debbie Isitt, the film sees David Tennant…

Hotel Transylvania

Horror-themed animation that relies too heavily on crass fart jokes and juvenile humour

Given Genndy Tartakovsky's extensive background in animation, working on TV favourites Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars, it's hardly surprising that his feature film debut Hotel Transylvania boasts such impressive visuals. Sadly, they are not…

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

The third in the animation trilogy offers superb entertainment

The naughty animals from Central Park Zoo return in this new animation from Dreamworks, and the third time proves lucky for Alex the lion and his chums, with Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted offering superb entertainment. After the lacklustre…

Revisiting: Frankenweenie (1984)

Tim Burton’s original Frankenstein tribute is lovingly constructed, despite its troubled past

It’s hard to know what Disney were thinking when they took on Tim Burton in 1979. Freshly graduated from CalArts (alongside future Pixar bods John Lasseter and Brad Bird, as well as The Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick), Burton had…

ParaNorman

Kids’ horror story that’s funny and terrifying in equal measure

What’s the limit on the amount of fear we can responsibly allow a child to experience? Roald Dahl thought nothing of inflicting child-eating giants and malevolent witches on his junior readership; in more recent years, the makers of Monster House and…

Brave

Beautifully realised Scottish-set animation from Pixar, featuring Kelly Macdonald and Emma Thompson

Historians might chafe at the vague approximation of medieval clan politics, and linguists query the anachronistic slang, but on the whole you’d have to be a paranoid curmudgeon indeed to take offence at this much-vaunted trip to Scotland by Pixar…

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012 Day Planner

Day-by-day highlights of the 2012 EIFF

List film editor Gail Tolley selects the highlights of this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. You can catch every one of these films in the order they’re listed.

Dr Seuss’ The Lorax

A visual delight let down by its sledgehammer approach to storytelling

The latest adaptation to be plucked from Dr. Seuss’s enduring oeuvre comes from the makers of Despicable Me, and it’s a visual delight; all beautifully-designed 3D animation, detailed sight gags and unique characters shaped in Seuss’s immediately…

Top Cat: The Movie

Unfaithful to the original cartoon but this adaptation still retains a cheeky charm

Also known as Boss Cat during his regular BBC television outings, to avoid giving advertising to a popular brand of cat food, Top Cat remains one of the most fondly remembered characters in cartoon history. Despite living in a dustbin in an alleyway…

New Brave trailer showcases Emma Thompson and Billy Connolly's roles

A new trailer for Disney-Pixar's Brave is available, revealing a little more of the Highland-set story line. In it, we see a lot more of the dynamic between impetuous heroine Merida (Kelly Macdonald), her indulgent father King Fergus (Billy Connolly…

Mirror Mirror

Snarky re-telling of the Snow White myth, with the odd visual flourish

Tarsem Singh is a frustrating director; he has a canny eye for striking imagery, but an uncanny knack for picking scripts with little or no charm (The Fall being his sole exception so far). So it was with J-Lo vehicle The Cell and Clash of the Titans…

The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists 3D

An enjoyable, if occassionally laboured, family animation from Aardman

(U) 88min Aardman's Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists is the most ambitious undertaking yet from the Bristol-based clay-mation specialists but while often enjoyable it's not all plain sailing. The madcap story of a pirate captain, who…

Disney Pixar's Brave to premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival

The highly-anticipated family film to close EIFF

Disney Pixar's Brave has been announced as the film that will close the 2012 Edinburgh International Film Festival. The screening will also double as the film's premiere, following a similar slot by Pixar's last release, Toy Story 3, in 2011. Brave…

The Muppets' most memorable moments

A gallery of clips from our favourite frog and his friends

The Muppets have a string of movies to their names already, including The Muppet Movie, The Muppets Christmas Carol, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and The Great Muppet Caper. Never ones to shirk away from serious film, darling, they’ve also had cameos in…

Ronan Keating wants reality show judging role

TV Gossip

Ronan Keating would love to be a judge on a reality show in Europe. The Boyzone singer - who currently works alongside Melanie B, Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Guy Sebastian on the Australian version of 'X Factor' - admits he would love to be closer…

Preview of 2012 - Brave

Pixar’s highland fling has a lot of heart

After dropping the ball with Cars 2 last summer – the only one of their 12 feature-length releases so far to have been deemed a bit lacklustre – the award-winning animation house will be looking to score big again with Brave. Set in the misty and…

War Horse

Unashamedly sentimental cinema from Spielberg

(12A) 146m As War Horse begins, with soaring shots of rolling English hills and a sweeping John Williams overture, director Steven Spielberg sends a clear message: settle down for some large-canvas, unashamedly romanticised, old-fashioned big-screen…

Gavin Rossdale feels pain when away from Gwen

Celebrity Gossip

Gavin Rossdale finds it "painful" when he is away from his wife Gwen Stefani. The Bush frontman is currently on tour and he admits the worse thing about it being on the road is not waking up next to the No Doubt singer - who he has been married to…

New Pixar film Brave set in Scottish highlands

Stars Kelly MacDonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson and Robbie Coltrane

Pixar – the CG animation powerhouse behind hits such as Finding Nemo, Up and Wall-E – are turning their attention to Scottish shores for their next feature, Brave. Due to be released on Fri 22 Jun 2012, it stars Kelly Macdonald as the voice of Merida, a…