TV

London 2012 Olympics
Day Sixteen
Closing Ceremony Countdown
Closing Ceremony

The last day! A bit of volleyball, a bit of gymnastics, the end of the modern pentathlon... and, of course, the closing ceremony, which I thought was pretty good overall.

No Olympics Tonight tonight though, sadly, which means no round-up of the final sports... at a sporting event. Dropped the ball a bit there, BBC.

[Watch the countdown and closing ceremony (again), as well as loads of archived coverage from the BBC.]

this week on 100 Films

Half by accident, it's been a kind of 'animation week' at 100 Films in a Year, with a mix of old and new reviews. It started with Cars and Cars 2 last week, and continues with two new reviews...

Rango: Extended Cut (2011)

perhaps the most striking thing about Rango is ILM’s hallmark, the extraordinary realism. Though some of the characters are rendered cartoonishly (just look at Rango’s face) and all are of course anthropomorphised, the textures and lighting are as true-to-life as any of their work in live-action movies. They consciously went for a photographic look, as if it had been shot with real cameras, and it paid off because the whole thing looks incredible.

Read more here.

Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation (2011)

Toy Story is in many ways Pixar’s flagship franchise, and after the Huge Event that was Toy Story 3, was it really wise to dilute the experience with a series of mini-adventures? Was it not better to leave it as a series of three big movies, each one a grand and special event? After all, the more you do something, the less special it becomes.

Read more here.

And new to the new blog this week...

Toy Story 3 (2010)

it’s hilarious, emotional, exciting, scary; a great comedy, a great action/adventure... It’s kid-friendly, of course, but it’s not just for kids — it’s for young adults, who’ve grown up with these films and these characters and, in a way, are letting them go along with Andy; and for adults, who may have left childish things behind but can hopefully still appreciate the thematic sentiment.

Read more here.

WALL-E (2008)

a film of two halves. They’re not exactly poorly linked, as elements from each feed into the other, but they are notably different... If I were to broadly characterise the two halves, I’d say the first is everything you’d hoped for after the advance hype, while the second is something you could have feared.

Read more here.

More next Sunday.