Scoob! (2020) - Movie Review

Okay, I think it’s time to leave the Aussie indie scene alone for a bit. And yet, I’m still going to be talking about something that’s close to home for me… just not as literally. As I’ve mentioned in reviews past, I grew up glued to Cartoon Network, and in many ways, I still am. When you’re responsible for the likes of Cartoon Cartoons, Adult Swim, Toonami and getting Run The Jewels to team up, you’ve more than earned your place in my heart. And part of that adoration is a respect, if not entirely being entertained by, classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Again, I’m much more familiar with the studio’s later work, but thanks to Boomerang, I had Scooby-Doo, Josie And The Pussycats, Hong Kong Phooey, Wacky Racers, and Captain Caveman in my media diet as a kid. I’m bringing all this up now because, holy hell, it feels like a film like this was made with an audience like myself in mind.

The LEGO Batman Movie (2017) - Movie Review

Even though it’s only a little over three years old now, it is quite possible to understate the impact that The LEGO Movie had when it first came out. Aside from being one of the two biggest surprises of 2014, the other being Guardians Of The Galaxy, it also latched directly onto the audience mindset like very few films before it have managed. Starting out as a project where audiences had no real idea what the film would even be like, it resulted in an incredibly astute satire of the Hollywood blockbuster formula as well as being a very entertaining action-adventure in its own right, complete with an acknowledgement of the creativity that made LEGO the household name that it is.

 

Me personally, while I did enjoy it immensely, I was somewhat off-put by the quite literal and jarringly realistic turn it took during the final reel which ended up souring it a bit for me overall. Naturally, when news hit of a spin-off film coming out, this time helmed by LEGO Movie head animator and Adult Swim legend Chris McKay, all the petty misgivings in the world couldn’t stop me from watching it. Computer batteries to power, keyboard to speed.

Storks (2016) - Movie Review

When I was a young-in and still naïve to the world around me, I had some… interesting ideas about where babies came from. For some reason, I was under the impression that when a couple is married, the wife’s wedding ring sends a little UFO into the stomach which creates the baby. Feel free to laugh at this in all its preciousness, because I honestly never stopped. What I’m getting at with all this is that, because of my own misconceptions about conception, recurring ideas like “storks deliver babies” don’t seem as ludicrous to me as they probably should. Not that I’m advocating lying to children or anything, but I do understand not telling them the whole truth when they’re too young to understand ideas like sex. I mean, hell, some adults are still struggling to deal with sex in its many bizarre facets. Considering all this, today’s film centred on probably the oldest wives’ tale involving baby-making already gets the head-tilt seal of approval. Does it get any other seals of approval?