Back in 1961, Walt Disney got a little hip with 101 Dalmatians, making use of that flat Saturday morning cartoon style that had become so popular. The result is a kitschy change in animation and story. Pongo and Perdita are two lonely dalmatians who meet cute in a London park and arrange for their pet humans to marry so they can live together and raise a family. They become proud parents of 15 pups, who are stolen by the dastardly Cruella De Vil, who wants to make a fur coat out of them. Cruella has become the most popular villain in all of Disney; she's flamboyantly nasty and lots of fun. But it's the dalmatians who shine in this endearing classic, particularly those precocious pups. Telling the story from the dogs' point of view is a clever conceit, a fundamental flaw of the live-action remake. -Bill Desowitz.

After viewing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote to Walt Disney about adapting his novel of an ape-man into a feature animated cartoon. Sixtysome years later, the tale is finally told with brilliant design work that looks unlike any previous animated film. The story is a natural for Disney since the themes of misunderstood central figures have been at the heart of its recent hits. Disney's Tarzan doesn't wander far from the familiar story of a shipwrecked baby who is brought up by apes in Africa. What gives the film its zing is its clever use of music (the songs are sung by Phil Collins himself rather than onscreen characters) and the remarkable animation. Deep Canvas, a 3-D technology, was developed for the film, creating a jungle that comes alive as Tarzan swings through the trees, often looking like a modern skateboarder racing down giant tree limbs. The usual foray of sidekicks, including a rambunctious ape voiced by Rosie O'Donnell, should keep the little ones aptly entertained. The two lead voices, Tony Goldwyn as Tarzan and Minnie Driver as Jane, are inspired choices. Their chemistry helps the story through the weakest points (the last third) and makes Tarzan's initial connection with all things human (including Jane) delicious entertainment. Disney still is not taking risks in its animated films, but as cookie-cutter entertainment, Tarzan makes a pretty good treat. [+]

This original, 1987 all-animated Chipmunk movie is a worldwide adventure featuring the Chipmunks, Chipettes, international crooks, various thugs, and a healthy dose of danger, natural disaster, famous scenery, and cute little animals. It all starts when Dave Seville leaves Alvin, Theodore, and Simon Chipmunk home under the care of Ms. Miller while he travels to Europe on business. Sore at being left behind, Alvin challenges Brittany from the Chipettes to the video game "Around the World" and his boast that he could beat her traveling around the world in a real hot air balloon is overheard by Claudia and Klaus, a pair of international crooks searching for an innocent courier to deliver a load of illegal diamonds to various places around the world. The crooks wager a million dollars on the Chipmunks and Chipettes to see who can race around the world the fastest, providing the hot air balloons, all necessary supplies, and the promise of $100,000 to the winner. Stalked by various thugs and encountering obstacles that range from hurricanes to snakes, tribes bent on worshiping and then sacrificing Alvin, and even a baby penguin that needs to be reunited with its parents in Antarctica, the Chipmunks and Chipettes sing their way around the globe, defeating villains that cross their paths and eventually learning the truth about the illegal cargo they're transporting. In the end, the Chipmunks and Chipettes combine forces in hopes of bringing Claudia and Klaus to justice while ensuring they all return home in one piece. This fantastical Chipmunk journey is suspenseful, funny, full of catchy music, and appropriate for ages 5 and older. Bonus features include original artwork from the movie and a CD with all 11 songs from the movie. (Ages 5 and older) -Tami Horiuchi.

This epic, animated 1997 fantasy has already made history as the top-grossing domestic feature ever released in Japan, where its combination of mythic themes, mystical forces, and ravishing visuals tapped deeply into cultural identity and contemporary, ecological anxieties. For international animation and anime fans, Princess Mononoke represents an auspicious next step for its revered creator, Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service), an acknowledged anime pioneer, whose painterly style, vivid character design, and stylized approach to storytelling take ambitious, evolutionary steps here. Set in medieval Japan, Miyazaki's original story envisions a struggle between nature and man. The march of technology, embodied in the dark iron forges of the ambitious Tatara clan, threatens the natural forces explicit in the benevolent Great God of the Forest and the wide-eyed, spectral spirits he protects. When Ashitaka, a young warrior from a remote, and endangered, village clan, kills a ravenous, boar-like monster, he discovers the beast is in fact an infectious "demon god," transformed by human anger. Ashitaka's quest to solve the beast's fatal curse brings him into the midst of human political intrigues as well as the more crucial battle between man and nature. Miyazaki's convoluted fable is clearly not the stuff of kiddie matinees, nor is the often graphic violence depicted during the battles that ensue. If some younger viewers (or less attentive older ones) will wish for a diagram to sort out the players, Miyazaki's atmospheric world and its lush visual design are reasons enough to watch. For the English-language version, Miramax assembled an impressive vocal cast including Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup (as Ashitaka), Claire Danes (as San), Minnie Driver (as Lady Eboshi), Billy Bob Thornton, and Jada Pinkett Smith. They bring added nuance to a very different kind of magic kingdom. [+]

15 episodes. 85 minutes. Color. Not Rated. "Burger World," "Customers Suck," "The Butt-head Experience," "No Laughing," "Scared Straight," "Manners Suck," etc.

Independent animator Bill Plympton first received widespread public attention when his outré "Your Face" (1987) was nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short. His short films-some as brief as 15 seconds-made between 1985 and 1991 showcase his unique talent much more effectively than his ponderous features, The Tune and I Married a Strange Person. Plympton's earliest films indicate that he experimented with a variety of techniques-cutouts, cel animation, stop motion-before finding his personal style: colored pencil drawings on paper to illustrate bizarre, metamorphic transitions that build to an absurd climax. Eyes slide up foreheads, lips elongate, mouths rotate, bodies distort, and heads explode in loose, scribbly sketches. Plympton is not a great animator: he uses only four to six drawings per second, less than a Saturday-morning series (full, Disney-style animation requires 12 to 24 drawings per second), and his attempts to tell a coherent story through his drawings invariably fizzle. But in off-the-wall shorts like "Your Face," "25 Ways to Quit Smoking," and the 15-second "Plymptoons" made for MTV, he emerges as an entertaining and highly original filmmaker. Not rated; suitable for all ages, although bizarre imagery may frighten small children. -Charles Solomon.

This excellent theatrical feature is loosely based on the Swan Lake story. Princess Odette, having been turned into a swan by a sorcerer's spell, is held captive at the enchanted lake with friends Jean-Bob the frog, Speed the turtle, and Puffin the bird. Along comes Prince Derek, who becomes involved in liberating her by taking on the villain. The movie has been criticized for being too similar to Sleeping Beauty, but once you're watching it-with its strong characters, entertaining vocal performances (John Cleese and Steven Wright are particularly funny), fine artwork, and action-such complaints are negligible. -Tom Keogh.