Jack Angel Movies

When a kindly elephant hears a faint cry of help from a floating speck of dust, his attempts to protect the tiny particle cause his neighbors to question his sanity in this animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss' classic 1954 children's book of the same name. Produced by Ice Age makers Blue Sky, scripted by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, and directed by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino, Horton Hears a Who reunites Bruce Almighty co-stars Jim Carrey and Steve Carell as the eponymous elephant and the mayor of Whoville respectively. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

After the critical and commercial success of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, the Walt Disney Pictures animation studio embarked on their most serious and ambitious animated feature to date with this adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic novel Notre Dame de Paris. Quasimodo (voice of Tom Hulce) is a grotesquely deformed but kind-hearted young man who was abandoned by his parents as an infant and thrown down a well; he was rescued by the priests of Notre Dame, the massive cathedral in the heart of Paris, and he lives there, earning his keep as a bell ringer. Quasimodo has become the ward of Judge Frollo (voice of Tony Jay), an outwardly pious but deeply hateful man who treats Quasimodio with indifference and violently loathes the Gypsies who spend their days in the cathedral's courtyard. Frollo hopes to clear the Gypsies out of Paris with the help of Phoebus (voice of Kevin Kline), leader of the troops under Frollo's command. However, Phoebus does not share Frollo's racist views and harbors no ill will against the Gypsies. When Quasimodo is crowned King of the Fools after leaving Notre Dame during the annual festival of Topsy Turvy Day, the hunchback is ordered beaten by the guards as punishment, but Esmerelda (voice of Demi Moore), a hot-blooded but compassionate gypsy beauty, shows pity on him and helps free him from his chains. The lovely Esmerelda is the first woman to show kindness to the unfortunate Quasimodo, and the hunchback soon falls in love with her. However, the dashing Phoebus is also infatuated with her, and Esmerelda is attracted to Phoebus as well, though she feels a motherly affection for the hunchback. Judge Frollo finds that he also desires Esmerelda, which only inflames his hatred for the Gypsies when she refuses his proposals. Darker and less outwardly comic than most of Disney's features, The Hunchback of Notre Dame does feature comic relief in the form of Victor (voice of Charles Kimbrough) and Hugo (voice of Jason Alexander), a pair of gargoyles who befriend Quasimodo, as well as several songs from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this animated sequel to An American Tale, Fievel Mousekewitz strikes out from not-so-enthralling New York City in a wagon train headed West. Helping propel the departure is a crafty cat named Cat R. Waul who tells our Fievel that out West the cats and mice get along just fine. Once on the trail, Fievel finds that the cat's real plan is mice meat pie out of the little rodents, and Fievel tries his darndest to warn everyone, but to no avail. On his side, however, are a couple of friendly cats, including one named Tiger (voice: Dom Deluise) whose scattered one-liners will keep most audiences chuckling. Another wonderful character is the has-been sheriff Wylie Burp (voice: James Stewart). Although this film may be rightfully criticized as being a little too tame, even for toddlers, the endearing and humorous character side-play will likely appeal to most little ones, and very possibly some big people, too. ~ All Movie Guide

In this theatrically released chapter of the 1984-1987 syndicated animated series, the struggle between the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons is taken twenty years into the future as both sides must deal with a world-devouring being called Unicron (voiced by Orson Welles). Set in 2005, The Transformers: The Movie serves as a bridge between the series' second and third seasons, with the deaths of several major characters and the introduction of new ones. Darker and more action-packed than the TV series, the movie was originally dismissed as little more than a feature-length toy commercial, but it has since grown in stature to become a cult favorite. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide

Set to Tchaikovsky's score, this Japanese animated effort chronicles the adventures of a young girl dreaming of a magical land of anthropomorphic mice that are under the spell of a wicked two-headed mouse. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

The Young Savages is what used to be called a "thinking man's picture" about a potentially lurid subject: urban juvenile delinquency. A blind Puerto Rican boy is knifed to death in Spanish Harlem, and three teenage gang members are accused of the crime. Politically ambitious assistant DA Burt Lancaster initially presses for the conviction of all three boys. But as he gets deeper into the case, he realizes that what appears cut-and-dried on the surface is tortuously complex: for starters, the murder victim was hardly the paragon of virtue that the prosecution claims. Despite pressure from his superiors and from members of the accused boys' gang (who at one point threaten Lancaster's wife Dina Merrill with a switchblade,) Lancaster nonetheless sees to it that justice is properly administered. The defendants are portrayed with varying degrees of Brando/Dean "method" by John Davis Chandler, Neil Nephew and Stanley Kristien; more believable, less affected performances are rendered by Shelley Winters, Pilar Seurat and Telly Savalas. Filmed on location in New York, The Young Savages was based on the Evan Hunter novel A Matter of Conviction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide