Kung Fu Panda Kicks Butt

Dreamworks' 3-D stunner stuck with one-dimensional storyline

(NEWSER) - Monsters Vs. Aliens looks amazing on screen, but grownups may find the thin jokes and the storyline of Dreamworks' animated spoof of '50s flicks a little grating, say critics.

• James Rocchi, Redbox: The movie "has amazing 3D, solid gags, wacky concepts and great animation; I just wish that at some point along the way someone had been as passionate about the story as they were about the spectacle."

(NEWSER) - Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa brings back the on-the-run New York menagerie, and DreamWorks hasn't monkeyed much with the first movie's winning, if slightly tired, formula, say critics. The celebrity-voiced animals' new adventure "is aimed mostly at children and should score a direct hit," Kirk Honeycutt writes in the Hollywood Reporter. More»

Critics love Dreamworks' latest animate tale

(NEWSER) - Dreamwork’s latest animated romp, How to Train Your Dragon, is earning nearly unanimous critical praise—it’s currently at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes . Here’s what they’re saying:

• The story’s pretty conventional, but writer-directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois (Lilo & Stitch) “make funny, touching, sublime entertainment out of it,” writes Peter Travers of Rolling Stone . “Kid stuff? Maybe.” But it’ll “charm your socks off.”

Film tells of burlap robot battling through frightening world

(NEWSER) - The creepy tale of 9, which depicts a burlap-bodied robot’s (Elijah Wood) quest for his origins while battling bad guys in a post-apocalyptic world, looks incredible—but its script leaves something to be desired.

• “Long on imaginative design but less substantial in narrative, this dreary story of fighting the power is more numbing than thought-provoking,” writes Claudia Puig in USA Today.

Dazzlingly creepy stop-motion animation conjures up children's worst fears

(NEWSER) - Coraline is an eerie marvel of stop-motion animation guaranteed to give little kids nightmares, say critics. The story of a young girl—voiced by Dakota Fanning—who stumbles into a strange parallel universe where life seems almost too good to be true is a "dazzling, delightfully dark children's movie," Rafer Guzman writes in Newsday. More»