Migration (2023) - Movie Review

While Illumination managed to pull themselves out of their recent funk with the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, I was still a bit sceptical about whether that would be a fluke or not. It’s highly unlikely that the studio would be able to keep bringing back the geniuses behind Teen Titans Go! To The Movies for every release going forward, and given their previous track record of trying to relive past glories, there’s just something about how generic this film comes across on first glance that had me worried. Well, that and being written by Mike White, whose last animated venture was with the generation-defining disaster of The Emoji Movie. However, not only does this manage to keep up with that Mario-mentum (oh shush, I liked that one), but it taps back into what I originally started liking about Illumination Studios specifically.

Spy Kids: Armageddon (2023) - Movie Review

Even before I recognised Robert Rodriguez’s name as a filmmaker, the Spy Kids series was the shit when I was a kid. The first one in particularly was largely responsible for me going through a major spy phase, getting a bunch of toy gadgets and playing mock action spy in the playground… alone… because goddamn, if you think reading my words as an adult makes me look awkward, kid-me was even worse. And the films themselves have held pretty damn well… okay, two of them have held up really well, with 3-D: Game Over having aged especially poorly thanks to the visuals and ugly-ass red-blue 3D, and All The Time In The World being just a categorical disaster that Rodriguez himself was basically strong-armed into doing thanks to Harvey Weinstein (a statement which itself has aged even worse than Game Over).

But even those films still held onto the unshakeable earnestness that RR approaches every production with. The way he wrapped up so many wrong-headed ideas in All The Time In The World with a genuine message about putting family first and doing right by your kids (made stronger by how he often makes films with his kids)… I mean, the film overall still sucks, but there’s no denying that he meant that shit.

Oink (2023) - Movie Review

Time to go from the convincing look-a-like to the genuine article with some proper stop-motion animation. And this is something of a historic example of such things, as the debut for Holy Motion Studio, based in the Netherlands. It’s been touted as the first feature-length stop-motion production in the country’s history, and far as I can tell, this is likely the first Dutch film I’ve ever actually watched. And I gotta say, on both counts, this is a pretty good introduction.

The Amazing Maurice (2023) - Movie Review

With how badly director Toby Genkel’s previous animated ventures have turned out, being responsible for the gargantuan irritants of the Nestrians in the Two By Two films, the prospect of him helming an adaptation of Terry bloody Pratchett is… concerning, to say the least. Doubly so because this will be the first theatrical adaptation of Pratchett’s Discworld canon, being relegated to TV miniseries up to this point. However, knowing that the writing and storytelling was ultimately the biggest problem with Two By Two, and this is built on a foundation not reliant on toy sales to justify its existence, maybe this will work out for a change.

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (2022) - Movie Review

Y’know, if you’re going to insist on having a singer be a lead character in a film, and they aren’t exactly well-known or even all that capable of acting, having them play a character who literally only sings seems like a da-doy moment for musical movies as a whole. I mean, when the alternatives are trying to get the likes of Adam Levine to be in any convincing as an actor, or saddling actual actors with painfully-obvious dubbing, it’s a wonder why more productions don’t aim for this.

Turning Red (2022) - Movie Review

There are quite a few things that are considered good sport to make fun of. Boy bands like One Direction, twee romance novels like Twilight, any number of chick flicks. And not only has it been openly acceptable to mock such things, their audiences are regularly caught in the cross-hairs. Not many people tend to take a step back and considering why it’s okay to mock the things that young girls and woman are interested in; it’s just… part of ‘the culture’.

And before this sounds like I’m getting all holier-than-thou, I did my fair share of this shit too. ‘Boy bands are gay’, ‘chick flicks are stupid’, ‘what kind of damaged freak could possibly enjoy Twilight?’; teenaged me was way more judgemental than the me that decided to make a career out of judging media. I can’t say that I don’t hold onto at least some of those opinions today, but the notion that it’s perfectly cool to mock people just because they find joy in something? Yeah, that’s unbelievably not okay.

Slumberland (2022) - Movie Review

I’ve really come to appreciate the films of director Francis Lawrence. Sure, his work on the Hunger Games sequels represents the best of the 3^rd wave of YA adaptations (not to mention what might be my favourite scene in any movie with the Hanging Tree sequence in Mockingjay Part 1), but there’s also I Am Legend and Constantine as well. Legend has an understanding of the effect of social isolation that has properly stuck with me since watching it, and while Constantine is one of the best examples of the Vertigo comics aesthetic on film, even if it’s not necessarily the best example of Hellblazer specifically. And now, he appears to be aiming for something more family-friendly than he’s used to, with a reimagining of Little Nemo In Slumberland. And I gotta say, it’s pretty good.

Marmaduke (2022) - Movie Review

Because there are only so many spaces for me to watch movies in December, I’ve tried to be careful with the ones I pick for review. This year has involved less of me actively seeking bad movies to watch; not saying I haven’t gone after them on purpose at all in 2022, just that I’ve done less of it. This will be an exception, though, as this is primarily the result of morbid curiosity on my part as to how this could be the third-lowest rated film of 2022 on Letterboxd (beneath the 365 Days sequels), as well as meeting my ‘bitching about talking animal movies’ quota for the year. From the director of the film version of Spawn… seriously… here's Marmaduke.

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022) - Movie Review

After the third film managed to bring everything full circle, I was quite certain that that would be the end of the Hotel Transylvania movies. And I don’t say that out of some sense of relief or anything like that; I’ve been a fan of this series since the first film, and beyond their fantastic and consistent animation style, I think they do well with their re-examination of the old-school Universal monsters and what it means to be Othered. As such, when this for-realsies finale snuck its way onto Amazon Prime all the way back in January of this year, I was a bit taken aback but willing to give it an honest shot. And what I got was… well, it’s still fun, but for the supposed finale, it’s also unequivocally the most lightweight of all these films.

Hellbender (2022) - Movie Review

 

Now this is a family picture right here!

I mean, yeah, it’s a story about the relationship between a mother and daughter, but this is one of the more holistically family-oriented films I think I’ve ever looked on here. Pretty much every aspect of the production here (directing, writing, producing, acting, camera work, editing, soundtrack) is shared among the four members of the Adams family: Father John, mother Toby Poser, and daughters Zelda and Lulu. I’ve said a few times before that I think women who love horror are awesome people, but it’s another level when an entire family bonds over that kind of subversive material.

DC League Of Super-Pets (2022) - Movie Review

DC animated films feel like an anomaly within their own genre. While the live-action features spend so much time trying to turn the lavishly ludicrous into something that needs to be taken very seriously (and this isn’t just a DC thing; they’re all like this), the animated films could not care less about such things. Batman: Return Of The Caped Crusaders, the LEGO Batman Movie, Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, not to mention the official DC Animated line; not only are these among the strongest superhero flicks of the last several years, they got to that point by just embracing the sheer fun that’s supposed to be the core appeal of these characters. And this latest release from the Warner Animation Group is yet another example of that.

Minions: The Rise Of Gru (2022) - Movie Review

Illumination might be in trouble. While they’ve certainly found their lane with a mixture of old-school animated slapstick and embracing the popularity of villains, their most recent features have been the epitome of diminishing returns. Their take on The Grinch was okay, but not exactly going to replace Jim Carrey anytime soon, the Secret Life Of Pets sequel was closer to a pilot for a TV show than its own film, and Sing 2 showed a noticeable drop from the rousing effect of the original. At this point, it’s easy to argue that the studio should stick with their prime cash cow (the Minions), since their ability to deliver with other franchises isn’t working out… but as their latest has shown, even that is in question.

Luca (2021) - Movie Review

The year just doesn’t feel complete without looking at what Pixar has to offer. I understand that looking forward to a Disney product nowadays is like looking forward to a sunset (it’s difficult to get too excited about something that happens with clockwork regularity), but outside of the first two Cars movies, Pixar has never really steered me wrong as an animation studio. And with their latest, they’ve offered one of their most uncomplicated stories of the last several years, which itself is part of what makes this work.

Daisy Quokka: World's Scariest Animal (2021) - Movie Review

Time to take a trip back into Sanctuary City, our own little slice of the talking animal market and, judging by the previous two films set in this world, a welcome reprieve from what I’m convinced is the ‘norm’ for this sub-genre. Having already gone over the visual quality in those past reviews, with this sticking firmly to the series standard, I probably won’t be talking much about the animation for this animated film. Instead, I’m probably going to spend most of this write-up hung up on the title, which is one of the most misleading and, the further into the film I got, befuddling titles I’ve seen in a long time.

Now, on the surface, it makes total sense. It’s about the titular quokka (voiced by Angourie Rice) who, rather than fitting into the cute and non-threatening role that society has laid out for her, wants to become the champion of the World’s Scariest Games, just like her idol Frankie Scales (Sam Neill). It’s a nice juxtaposition, aided by some species-ist subtext since literally every other quokka in this world is in the tourism industry, which mainly consists of taking selfies with said tourists.

However, even with the ultimate message about rejecting societal expectations and redefining who can and can’t excel in a certain field, it really feels like the film missed a trick with its title and its repeated use of the word “scary”. Like, if this was some kind of Monsters Inc. situation, or even just a Halloween-set story about competitive trick-or-treating (an animated film could easily turn that into an Olympic-level event), that would make sense. But the actual World’s Scariest Games are closer to American Ninja Warrior than anything else, with athletes competing in increasingly-hazardous terrains and obstacle courses. I’m just saying, ‘World’s Strongest Animal’ would make a lot more sense and would still fit with the main themes of the story.

I usually try and focus just on what a film is, rather than what it could be, but it’s rare when I get the impression that a film is repeatedly using the wrong word to describe itself. Especially when what really describes this film, to be brutally honest, is likely the reason why I found myself so fixated on that one word: It’s just another sports movie. An underdog athlete is trained by a disgraced former champion, facing resistance from their competition who think they don’t deserve to be there, but gradually winning their respect through their determination and skill at the sport; we’ve all seen this before. As fun as it is to hear Frank Woodley returning as Flightless Feather, here serving as colour commentator on the Games, that nostalgic connection isn’t enough to get past how tired and, even with the animation quality and the plentiful background gags, uninteresting this all is.

I get that I’m not the target audience for these things, as I’ve likely proven with my track record for films about humanoid animals, but I can’t shake the feeling that I wouldn’t be the only one disappointed by this flick. Kids are just as entertained by being scared as adults, and I do think that a film all about a cute little quokka learning how to be proper scary could still work as a family film. But no, it just succumbs to cliché that, unlike Wishmas Tree and Combat Wombat, doesn’t have enough of its own flair to keep things interesting. The additions to the world-building that are made here definitely open up the world of Sanctuary City, but I’d be lying if I said I was super-hyped for where things go from here.

Sing 2 (2021) - Movie Review

Well, this year’s been turning out pretty well for movie musicals, and the few talking animal movies I’ve seen this year have been consistently good… sure, let’s take a look at this feature. Although I’m not entirely sure if I need to, since this film’s marketing/trailer might be one of the worst cases of “they put all the best bits in the trailer, didn’t they?” I’ve seen in quite a while. Yes, let’s take the big emotional finale of our nearly-two-hour film, and make it the first thing most audiences will even gander at leading up to its official release; why even release it in the first place if you’re going to pull something like that?

Back To The Outback (2021) - Movie Review

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from the talking animal set. I know that this sub-genre is something of a regular punching bag on this blog, but something I feel the need to point out is that that reputation doesn’t come from any real disdain for the sub-genre itself, or kids’ entertainment, or animals in general. It’s just that there are a lot of films that come out every year that feature talking animals, and most of them are made quickly and on-the-cheap to create disposable fluff because anthropomorphic animals are easy for kids and kids-at-heart to latch onto. I mean, I grew up in the era of PS2 platform mascots; I get the appeal. And yeah, this latest iteration is as light as light entertainment, but… something feels different about this one.

My Little Pony: A New Generation (2021) - Movie Review

A few years ago, I reviewed the then-latest My Little Pony movie. I thought it was pretty good, but I also went into it with only one or two episodes’ worth of background information. Well, over the course of this introvert’s ironic hell that is lockdown, I have now watched every single episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, including those godawful Equestria Girls spin-offs. I would honestly rank it as one of my favourite animated shows, and where I was initially just confused at all the backlash its fandom has faced over the years, I am now even more annoyed at people drinking the Haterade just because people like something worth being invested in. So, as I take a look at this introduction to the newest incarnation of the show, understand that I’m not looking at it as a casual observer this time around.

Earwig And The Witch (2021) - Movie Review

As a result of not getting around to as many films this year, I in turn haven’t had as many chances to go out of my way to see films that have gotten… mixed reactions, let’s say. And with this one in particular, it seems a little too easy to see the problem with it, even before I started watching it. This is the first feature to come out of the fabled Studio Ghibli since When Marnie Was There six years ago, and it’s also their first attempt at 3D animation. Part of me is tempted to just chalk up the whole thing to a bad experiment or, more pointed, maybe it’s just a result of critics being unwelcome to Ghibli trying something new. However, the problems with this go much deeper than the surface. Well, as deep under the surface as there is room to get with something like this.

Encanto (2021) - Movie Review

It’s Disney time again, and it’s also time to take another look at what Lin-Manuel Miranda’s been getting up to in 2021. The music here is pretty good and keeps with what Miranda is good at, and man, is it catchy. I’m still humming The Family Madrigal as I’m writing this, and the individual character songs like Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz)’s Waiting For A Miracle, Isabela (Diane Guerrero)’s What Else Can I Do?, and even Luisa (Jessica Darrow)’s Surface Pressure are all bops. Hell, We Don’t Talk About Bruno even has some Frozen-level irony in the lyrics, which is quite the treat.

A Boy Called Christmas (2021) - Movie Review

I’ve encountered quite a few films like this over the lifespan of this blog. These family-friendly, secular-reason-for-the-season Christmas origin stories like Klaus and The Man Who Invented Christmas that, rather than just retell the Biblical genesis (heh) of the holiday, take a more contemporary approach that acknowledges that it’s not just the religious that celebrate this time of year.

And coming from these particular creatives, I’d lying if I said I was entirely hopeful that this could hold up alongside those other two classic efforts. This is directed and co-written by Gil Kenan, who is not only co-writer on the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but who we last checked in on with the totally unnecessary remake of Poltergeist, and also co-written by Ol Parker of Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again fame. If nothing else, this should be make for some interesting write-up fodder.