One Hundred Years of Solitude; Dream Productions; Polo

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such a perfectly crafted literary adaptation. From spot-on casting to the sparse yet carefully chosen dialogue; from camera shots that move with purpose to follow the characters and immerse the viewer to music that summons forth a world steeped in magic and mysticism – there’s an ethereal, fairytale-like quality that grabs your attention by the throat and won’t let go.”
Helen Coffey, The Independent

“For British viewers, what helps enormously is that the uniformly excellent cast are largely unfamiliar, a key part in creating a convincing world that is both familiar and yet also unsettling and strange. Ghosts haunt the action, but this is never a horror story; priests levitate, but there’s a rational explanation. What this adaptation does so well is take Márquez’s imagination at face value and let us make our own sense of it.”
Keith Watson, The Telegraph

“There’s enough warped wonder here to make Macondo worth revisiting.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“In the wake of this year’s wildly successful theatrical sequel comes this more modest but still fizzingly witty mockumentary spin-off, set at the studio inside 12-year-old Riley’s psychological apparatus where her dreams – both night and day – are produced. It’s fascinating that Pixar should choose to make this series right now – at a time when the studio itself, bouncing between shock flops and mega-hits and masterpieces squandered on streaming, is in an existential knot over its owner’s and audience’s wants. But if any corporate therapy is afoot, it isn’t immediately obvious in the finished product, which has the easy confidence of a relatively low-stakes experiment that immediately starts hitting bullseyes.”
Robbie Collin, The Telegraph

“As ever with Pixar, it works on multiple levels. Your kids may not get all the in-jokes, but they will love the pace, comedy, emotion and characters. Adults, meanwhile, will be reminded that Tinseltown is rarely more entertaining and savage than when it is examining its navel.”
Ed Potton, The Times

“Above all, it is a generous, exuberant thing that feels born of a desire to give us all a treat – a gift rather than a franchise being milked dry. It feels like someone wanted to make us happy rather than treat us as cash cows, and that the idea of giving viewers a couple of hours of escapism and a happy ending was reason enough to get the old gang and some equally great new members together to do it.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Polo looks destined to fall through the submenus into obscurity at the speed of light. And rightly so. It’s clattering and niche, and feels like a spoof documentary designed to play on screens in the background of episodes of Succession. The end of the final season goes out of its way to tee up a sequel, but I really don’t think any of us deserve that.”
Stuart Heritage, The Guardian

“There’s lots of blood, sweat, and tears in the series – but not enough of the Sussexes to make this anything other than a dull indulgence about a rich person’s pursuit. This horsey hiccup is another bad neigh day for the Sussexes and their media ambitions.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph