Thanks to the Prince Charles Cinema, Nipponophile and Studio Ghibli expert Vincent was recently given the chance to watch Kiki’s Delivery Service on the big screen – a full twenty-four years after it first appeared in cinemas. But how does the tale of one tiny witch and her chatty cat stand up to a repeat viewing? Pretty bloody well, as it turns out.

One winning performance and a couple of charming moments aside, Magic to Win is a derivative, slightly dull fantasy for a young audience. Dripping with familiar tropes and overbearing, syrupy music, Wilson Yip’s film is one you can afford to miss at the cinema.

This Friday, Dreamworks’ Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots is hitting the cinemas. To celebrate this occasion, we are taking a look back at some of our most beloved onscreen cats. We’ve also invited along noted cat scientist Professor Snowypaws to help us out.

Yay!

What do you mean, you haven’t meticulously planned your summer around the amazing film events which are going on all over London? You’re not right, mate. Fortunately, we definitely have organised our getting-burnt-in-the-park sessions so they work around the special screenings we just can’t miss – and if you’re nice, you can peek in our diary.

And it’s lovely. SO LOVELY.

Studio Ghibli has done it again. Arrietty, inspired by the Borrowers novels of Mary Norton, is an incomparably beautiful story which effortlessly draws the viewer into a rarified world where a bay leaf makes a decent raincoat and cockroaches are the size of (shiny, aggressive and antennaed) Shetland ponies. Delicate, thoughtful and visually unmatched by almost anything we can think of, this is a very special film indeed.

Floating castles, sky pirates and magical stones. All in a days work for Studio Ghibli. Another classic Japanese animation, you say? Well, don’t mind if I do.

For the longest time animation was simply perceived as something for kids, and wasn’t taken seriously by adults. If an animated film did in anyway achieve the hallowed ground of ‘appealing to kids and grownups alike’ it was considered a pretty rare thing. Today, animated films about toys are getting Oscar nominations and reviewers like to deal out their opinions based on one neat bit of criteria: is it any good?

To celebrate the May 9th double play (Blu Ray + DVD) release of the Studio Ghibli anime classic My Neighbours The Yamadas, we have 3 x DVDs to give away! Competition ends 28 May 2011.