Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure (2006) - A Wonderful and Respectable Adventure For Young Kids

 

Hey, It's Franklin! Yeah, I wanted to do something else that was relatively easy to review because, movie review last week, but I'm getting back on schedule, as a bonus for me it's another movie based on a property for preschoolers. I remember watching Franklin growing up, if I remember correctly I even had a Build-a-Bear turtle that I named Franklin, I think I preferred Franklin over Little Bear as a kid, but I don't actually remember too much about it now, I remember some episodes, but I think Little Bear just kind of stayed with me longer. To be fair though, Franklin had the better theme song, sung by Canadian icon, Bruce Cockburn (pronounced KOH-burn). Anyway, I wanted something familiar to review this week, so I chose Franklin, and as another bonus, this movie is available on YouTube via the officialfranklin YouTube channel and the Treehouse Direct YouTube channel.

Franklin finds his Aunt Lucy has returned to Woodland, and brought her Goddaughter, Sam along. Wanting a real adventure before the summer ends, Franklin and Sam are given an old map drawn by Franklin's Grandmother that lead to a small time capsule she buried when she was a kid. Seeing the old map causes her to remember a tragic event in her childhood. When she later falls ill, Franklin, Sam, Aunt Lucy and his friends Beaver, Bear and Snail, travel to Turtle Lake to find the time capsule, and the talisman that was inside of it. I really have to respect this movie a lot, beyond the fact that the plot is well structured with few diversions from the main plot, and even then they keep in the spirit of the theme so they aren't that big. The fact that the story does go to such a dark place, it does not hide the fact that Franklin's Great Grandparents didn't make it out of the fire. I admired The Little Bear Movie because it did not shy away from the dangers the characters could face on their journey, and similar can be said about this movie.

I feel like I should talk about things like this because, animation has a reputation amongst certain audiences as solely being for kids, unless it specifically goes out of its way to be raunchy and violent, and that does lead to a certain kind of image. I've ranted about this in the past, movies like Mummies, UglyDolls, Robinson Crusoe, Open Season, movies that are just uninterested in being anything other safe entertainment for children, stuff that doesn't stick with them as they grow up. Now, I'm not saying we should be letting children watch Felidae or anything, but there are plenty of kids movies that take risks, that go into darker places, and it always irritates me when a movie like Open Season or UglyDolls is made, because here is a movie for the same, arguably a younger demographic, and it takes more risks, it makes children experience harsher emotions, possibly more confusing ones. If Franklin the Turtle can take more risks and go darker places than your kids movie, you better hope that movie has some other strength to it, because that is frankly embarrassing.

The characters are charming, Franklin, Bear, Sam, they feel like genuine kids, and they have problems like kids too. Bear has a moment where he feels Franklin is putting someone else over their friendship, and it comes from an understandable place. I also like all the odd characters they meet, they all have their charm and even some kind of magic to them. If you are familiar with the old cartoon, I don't believe there is much difference between the characterizations. Also, Snail is just really adorable. What I can also praise this movie for is the animation. I'll be honest, I do like it when an animation style is polished for a movie, and the movie just has a warm and visually pleasing look to it. The only downside is that both official YouTube uploads are locked at low quality rates, with the Treehouse Direct upload only being 480p. So I would recommend finding this movie on DVD if possible, but if you don't mind 480p YouTube quality, the movie still looks good, just not as good as it could look.

I really was surprised by Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure when I first watched it, I love watching movies like this because they really do shoot the whole idea that these movies have nothing good for anyone after a certain age in the foot. Sure, kids will absolutely love the adventure and the pretty visuals, but I feel grown ups will have an appreciation for the story, the character moments, the theme, and the artistry. It really is one of those movies that I believe children that grow up watching will have an appreciation for animation afterwards. Put it up there with The Little Bear Movie and Blue's Big Musical Movie as something perfect to show really young kids. I would probably put this under Blue's Clues, but above Little Bear. All in all, Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure is a wonderful movie for kids, and I absolutely recommend it for kids and parents.

Sleeping Beauty (1959) - Disney's Silver Age Equivalent of Frozen

 

Okay, I am back from my trip and as you can imagine, I didn't have a lot of time to really pick a movie. In situations like that, I like to do a review of one of my comfort movies, unfortunately I've kind of already reviewed all of them, The Emperor's New Groove, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, so I figured I would do the next best thing and review a movie that I was still familiar with. I have made comments about Sleeping Beauty in the past, and I already reviewed that Maleficent movie a while back, so I figured it was about time to really put my full opinions out there. I have described it as "Classic Disney's equivalent of Frozen" or something to that extent. What do I mean by that, and is that really a bad thing?

The famous story of Sleeping Beauty is a classic Fairy Tale, we all know it, and Disney does a pretty fair retelling of the story. At a celebration of the birth of the Princess Aurora, the evil Fairy Maleficent curses the princess to prick her finger on a spinning wheel's spindle and die. To protect the Princess, the three good fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, take Aurora into the woods and disguise her as a peasant girl. On her sixteenth birthday, the Fairies intend to return Aurora to her father, so she can be wed to the Prince Philip. However, Maleficent manages to find out and thwarts their entire plan. I think a lot of people may view this as a particularly weak story, and I won't really disagree, but at the core of this movie is a fairy tale, and most of those are not particularly strong or deep stories. As a fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty does do a decent job of telling the tale. I don't think it's as strong as Cinderella, but I can imagine a worse telling of this story.

Another thing people might, and have, criticized this movie for are the characters, particularly the leads... sort of. Aurora and Philip are not the most interesting characters in Disney history, and honestly I don't really know if I can truly call them "The leads". It really does feel like the real "leads" of this movie are the three good fairies, they're the ones that have the biggest discussions, the big dilemmas, even arguably something of an arc. Even then, I wouldn't say they're the best characters in the movie, and you know exactly who I think that honour goes to. Maleficent is easily one of Disney's best villains, and she really has the best of everything in the movie, she has the best design and the best performance. Not that the rest of the performances are bad, but Eleanor Audley absolutely steals the show with this performance, in fact I think this is better than her performance as Lady Tremaine. I feel I should also talk about the two kings, King Stefan and King Hubert, but I feel they could have mostly been cut from the movie.

On the topic of "The best of the movie", I think we can all agree that Sleeping Beauty is one of Disney's most beautiful movies. I've heard it described as "Disney's Living Tapestry" before in a 2019 Article headline by Jen Seggio for moviebabble, and I got to be frank, I absolutely agree. The artstyle and design work is genuinely some of the most gorgeous work of the Disney Crew in this era, if I had to rank all the pre-Death era movies by how beautiful they looked, I think this would top the list, or it would tie with Fantasia. Speaking of, the music in this movie is alright, the backing score is fantastic, but I think the songs are not the best. Actually, that is not entirely accurate, because their is really only one real song throughout the entire movie, and it's repeated like five times. Even the best Disney songs I don't really want to listen to at five points in the same movie. It's a shame because Once Upon a Dream is genuinely a decent song, like I probably should have given it an honourable mention on my list of favourite Disney songs, and there are two other songs in the movie, but they aren't very memorable.

I think I kind of laid out why I view Sleeping Beauty as the Pre-Death equivalent of Frozen, it's an okay at best movie with a weak story and mostly weak characters, but the animation is really great, and it has that one song that overshadows the rest. The only real difference is that Sleeping Beauty has a fantastic villain, while Frozen does not. Still, I don't think that makes this movie "bad" per se, just not one I think I'd actively choose to watch very often. I can imagine this being someone's comfort movie, like the movie you put on when you're having a bad day or are just really sad. Honestly, I get that, I wouldn't argue that Muppet Treasure Island is the best Muppet movie, but it is still one of my biggest comfort movies. It's kind of hard for me to recommend as a movie, but at the same time I can't really not recommend it, I do think it's one of those movies you need to see at least once, so for that, I'll give it a Slight Recommendation. Not a great movie, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to see it.

Top 10 Single Role Wonder Voice Actors

So, I'm away from my computer for the time being, I can't really watch anything or write anything, so I've decided to touch up and old post I never published. I came up with this idea in late 2022, I didn't publish it for a couple reasons, but because I can't really write anything new, I decided to finally push this one out. I should be able to write new stuff next week.

In music, the term One Hit Wonder refers to, multiple things under the same umbrella, but mostly a band or artist who is only known for one song. That song could have been a major hit, it could have been a minor hit, it could have been one of many hits, but it is all completely overshadowed compared to one song. Think of songs like "Take on Me" or Alien Ant Farm's cover of "Smooth Criminal". The term has become a catch-all for most things in the entertainment world, directors, video game developers, and actors. I kinda wanted to do something similar, especially because voice actors can be linked to one role forever.

It tends not to be something you really think about, but then you remember, if someone brought up Clancy Brown, your immediate thought would most likely be Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob, unless your a fan of The Shawshank Redemption. There are many voice actors like Frank Welker, Tara Strong and Tim Curry who can really deliver unique voices and can disappear into their roles, and there are some voice actors like Patrick Warburton and Tom Kenny who are often recognizable, but have enough roles under their belt that you can recognize them beyond Family Guy or SpongeBob SquarePants. Some voice actors, aren't always that lucky.

I think my major rule for this list is that, while these actors can have other roles, they are mostly known for one role. Like, if I were to say "Tom Kenny", you could easily name SpongeBob, Spyro, Ice King and a bunch of other roles. If I were to say any of these voice actors, you would only really recognize them for their best known role. We are going to play a little fast and loose with the definition here, but in general all the rules will be adhered to. So, here are ten Single Role Wonders in Voice Acting.

#10. Jim Hanks as Sheriff Woody

A big part of being a one-hit wonder, or a single role wonder in this case, is having one major thing and not having anything else that massive, in music this often leads to chasing the success of the big hit, but you can't really do that in acting... unless you're major gig is literally providing the voice for your brother. When you're the brother of one of the most beloved and successful actors with a very recognizable voice, it must feel weird to be called in as his sound alike, right? Major props to Jim Hanks for stepping in, and whenever someone needs a Tom Hanks voice, he is always up there, though he is usually stepping in to do the voice for Sheriff Woody. Though he has stepped in for Tom on other occasions, like when The Polar Express got a video game, and he has quite a few live action credits to his name, in voice acting it's Woody, Woody, Woody, and apparently an episode of Milo Murphy's Law. Credit due, he never seems upset about it, like he can do a good impression of his brother and has made a good career out of it, but this is definitely one of those cases where I can sum up most of his career with one role.

#9. Alan Young as Scrooge McDuck

Something you should really consider when you talk about Single Role Wonders in acting, is their performances in other mediums. Some people might consider Mark Hamill a Single Role Wonder since his biggest role is Luke Skywalker, but when you consider his voice acting career, voicing the likes of The Joker, Fire lord Ozai, Skips on Regular Show and quite a few voices on Metalocalypse, you can't really consider him as such since none of those are minor roles. So, one could almost not consider Alan Young for this list either, since some people might now him as Farmer Wilbur on Mister Ed, but for most of you, you'll probably only know him as the voice of Scrooge McDuck. It really does do a massive disservice to the man's nearly eight decade long career, but that is another thing about one hit wonders, the big thing everyone knows you for can change, and though there are plenty of roles under Alan Young's belt, the one everyone will know him for is the money loving miser, old Uncle Scrooge.

#8. David Eccles as Krumm

Here is an odd one, David Eccles is a fairly obscure name in media, though according to his IMDb, he did a lot of sound editing for cartoons, and Metal Gear Solid, and did some composing work. As a voice actor, he has not done a lot, and even then he only appears in a couple episodes of what he is actually in, save for one show. You may not be able to tell what episodes of The Wild Thornberrys or Rugrats he's in, but when I tell you he is the voice of Krumm on Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, that's when you recognize his voice. I don't know why he didn't go into more voice acting, maybe he didn't like it as much as sound editing, maybe he didn't want to be type casted, then again he has largely disappeared from film entirely, according to his IMDb, his last job was in 2008 for a short film called "Kidnapping Terry". Whatever he's up to, I hope he's enjoying it.

#7. Thom Huge as Jon Arbuckle

There has got to be something said for voice actors who pretty much voice an entire cast of characters on one show. Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer have multiple well-loved voices on The Simpsons, but you can find them in other places. Thom Huge has never left Garfield, and despite voicing everyone from Binky the Clown to Roy Rooster on U.S. Acres, the one character who he is completely tied to will forever be the dorky loser owner of Garfield, Jon Arbuckle. It's always sad when a really good voice actor doesn't get to stretch out into other roles, but in this case it may be sadder. Thom left voice acting after Lorenzo Music died in 2001, and frankly, Lorenzo and Thom were like Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, you can't top them and they're an iconic pair. Whatever Thom is doing now, I'm sure he has no regrets about being part of one of the biggest pop culture franchises in the world.

#6. Colin O'Meara as Tintin

Lots of recognizable names on this list, so lets go with one more who is less recognizable, at least this name may not be so recognizable if you aren't a reader of my blog, because this is a name I've brought up before. For many of us in the English speaking world, Colin O'Meara was our Tintin, and his decidedly not at all Belgian voice was the voice of Tintin for many I would imagine. It's amusing because the show had quite a Canadian cast, but some of the actors on this show would be recognizable to most, like Wayne Robson who played Mike Hamar on The Red Green Show, or Maureen Forrester who was an Opera Singer. Colin O'Meara would probably not be too recognized beyond his role as Tintin, unless you're a massive fan of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. His Wikipedia page, which is literally half a paragraph long, also claims he was in Sailor Moon, but citation is needed on that one.

#5. Dan Povenmire as Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz

You can't really consider voice actors for this list who debuted in shows from the 2000s, mostly because they still have plenty of time to really find more roles and get some more notoriety. It does however, kind of stop mattering when your big role is one of the most beloved villains in cartoon history, and when you revel in that iconic role you are kind of admitting that you're okay with being known for one single role. However, to be absolutely fair to Dan Povenmire, voice acting really isn't his major gig, as he was an animation director on both Family Guy and SpongeBob SquarePants, and he wrote The Campfire Song Song. When you look at Dan Povenmire's credits, it's very clear that voicing Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz is just kind of a bonus to his already outstanding career as an animator, director, writer and producer. Keep on keeping on, good sir.

#4. Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn

...Well this just got sad... I came up with this idea early in November of 2022, and I sat on it for a while after it was written because... well you'll see why, but in that time Arleen Sorkin also passed away. I want to make it clear, calling these actors "Single Role wonders" is not meant to be an insult, if anything it's kind of a celebration of how iconic their most well-known roles really are.

I can't really imagine having one major role would be that upsetting to voice actors. I don't think Tom Kenny is losing sleep over voicing Nickelodeon's most iconic character. I can imagine voicing the same character could get repetitive, but when you are also the inspiration to one of the most beloved Batman characters since the comics, I can't really imagine you'd be that mad. Arleen Sorkin was a big inspiration behind Batman villain Dr. Harleen Quinzel, otherwise known as Harley Quinn, and to suggest that the character isn't a pop culture icon would be untrue. People have argued about her portrayals as if she has always been a part of Batman, and for a lot of people, she was. Voicing the character as recently as 2011, it can only be fair to say that Arleen Sorkin gave the character a lot of the personality and mannerisms we associate with our favourite clown woman. Voicing a character that becomes bigger than anyone could really imagine is not something one should sneer at.

#3. Casey Kasem as Shaggy Rogers

Casey Kasem is easily one of the most recognizable names in radio, but when it comes to animation, some radio personalities have managed to be recognized as voice actors, such as June Foray who has many voice acting credits under her belt. However, there is one major role that Casey Kasem has under his belt, a role that everyone adores to this day, one Norville Rogers, otherwise known as Shaggy. Voicing the character since 1969 and up to 2010, Casey Kasem has been the voice of Shaggy Rogers for so long, even singing for a BBC Children in Need Medley by Peter Kay. It's hard to imagine anyone else taking over the role, though Scott Innes and Matthew Lillard have also become quite synonymous with the character. Casey Kasem also did Cliffjumper on the original Transformers series, but left during the third season, so he's got other roles, but to many he is, and always will be, Shaggy Rogers.

#2. Peter Sallis as Wallace

British television has an odd place in American Pop Culture. Considering that very little dubbing needs to take place to import these shows, it could be argued that England has had a big impact on American television. Lots of Americans will know names like Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie, David Tennant, and oddly enough Peter Sallis. It really shouldn't be so surprising to think that the voice of our favourite cheese loving hair-brained inventor Wallace is one of the most iconic voices in animation, after all he's voiced the character in four shorts, a full short series, a theatrical movie, and a couple of video games. Any other role he's done, again, gets a little overshadowed by the fact that you can sum up his career as "he was the original voice of Wallace from Wallace & Gromit". It also doesn't hurt that Gromit himself has no voice, which gives Peter Sallis a large part of the spotlight in the shorts. Quite the cracking role, eh lads?

#1. Kevin Conroy as Batman

Oh... I'm going to get in some hot water for this one. Remember how I said I originally came up with this concept in early November of 2022, well one of the reasons I shelved it was because Kevin Conroy had passed away, and I didn't want to imply that his entire career revolved around a singular character. However, we need to be real here, he was the voice of The Batman in animation for so long because he was one of the best Batman actors. For many of us, the answer of who is the best live action Batman is tricky to answer since there have been some great ones, but there is only one answer for who the best animated Batman is, and that is Kevin Conroy. His effortless switching between the caped crusader and Bruce Wayne made him blend into the role so perfectly, that there really is no argument, for many animation fans, Kevin Conroy is Batman, and that is the role he will forever be remembered for.

Well that was... sad. Honourable Mentions!

1. Mel Blanc - I wanted to include him because he is mostly known for his role in the Looney Tunes cartoons, but he was also the voice of Barney Rubble on The Flintstones.

2. Carlo Bonomi - A voice actor you probably don't recognize, mostly because the character he voiced didn't really speak, more or less. However, the mumblings and Noots of Pingu will always be in our hearts.

3. Yeardley Smith - You don't really get to be a main cast member on The Simpsons and not have that role dominate your career, especially if that role is Lisa Simpson.

4. Alex Borstein - You may recognize her as the voice of Lois Griffin on Family Guy, but people seem to like her in The Bad Guys too, maybe it's a bit early to call this one.

5. Bill Farmer - Voicing a Disney character as iconic as Goofy might over-shadow other roles, but in this house, we respect Hop Pop.

6. Peter Cullen - He was on this list until the last minute, while Optimus Prime will forever be his most well-known role, he has some other roles that some may know him for, like Eeyore or Monterey Jack.

7. Dan Castellaneta - If Peter Cullen can qualify for this list, Homer Simpson can too, though some respect for Grandpa Phil too. 

Why is The Amazing Digital Circus Absurdly Popular?

Absurdly is probably not the right word for it, in under a week the second episode of The Amazing Digital Circus reached not ten million, not twenty million, but fifty million views on YouTube, currently at ninety-three million, and as of June 13th, 2024, the pilot is at three-hundred and twenty-seven million views. Now, I loved the pilot and the second episode as much as the next person, but there is a question that is sticking in the back of my mind, something I've wanted to ask with the pilot but never really got the chance to. All in all, it really isn't a big question, frankly it's inconsequential, but I got to know, does Caine ever accidentally bite down on his eyeballs? Okay, in all seriousness, the question I really wanted to ask is, why this show? Specifically, what is it about this show that makes it so popular?

Somethings, it makes sense why they're so popular, SpongeBob, Superman, Minecraft, Star Wars, I get why these properties are so popular, but a lot of that is hindsight and years worth of fans taking about every aspect of these things to death. The most recent example in that selection was Minecraft, which was officially released in 2011, thirteen years ago, and it was available to the public since 2009. The Amazing Digital Circus pilot was released in 2023, just barely a year ago. Yet it already has more views than the Nostalgia Critic's review of The Room. Hell, the Angry Video Game Nerd episode on NES Accessories as of writing this has only eighteen million views. Is It a Good Idea to Microwave an Airbag, one of the most well-known episodes of the webseries that got me into web-content, is at two and a half Million views. Actually no, I think the only way I can really illustrate how crazy insane popular The Amazing Digital Circus is, is by stating this fact; The Amazing Digital Circus pilot has amassed more views in less than a year, than Don't Hug Me I'm Scared did in twelve years. So, why is this show so popular?

Well, let's start with the very basic; the show is accessible. The Pilot is available in eighteen different languages and has closed captions for sixteen. Granted that is not anywhere close to the amount of languages there are in the world, but that is still an amazing amount. It goes to show the obvious, accessibility is a good thing. However, I don't think this is the full story. I'm sure the accessibility helps, and I'm sure it helps quite a lot, but all that accessibility wouldn't matter if nobody was watching it, and clearly people are, so I ask again, what is it about this show that appeals to people, to the point that it does actually matter that it's available in other languages?

Well, let's move from the very basic, to the very obvious; The Internet loves horror. "Oh, but I'm on the internet and I don't like horror", hey, I was like that too, but I still read Creepypasta, I wasn't too good for Jeff the Killer and Candle Cove, Hell I got my start in reviewing by talking about creepypasta on DeviantArt, don't go looking for those journals, I have honed my craft so much since those days. It goes way beyond Creepypasta though, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared was a sensation to the point that it was referenced in children's cartoons, Five Nights at Freddy's was such a viral sensation that it spawned a whole generation of horror games entirely made to be played by talent-less clickbait Let's Play channels, Hell it's not even just true-horror that gets popular, the most popular Homestar Runner toons are almost always the Halloween toons, to the point where those are pretty much the only thing we get out of Homestar Runner anymore. So horror and Halloween vibes are practically worshipped on the internet in the same way that Led Zeppelin is worshipped in rock and roll communities.

Once again, I don't think this is the full story. The internet loves horror, but that doesn't mean every horror thing is beloved. A lot of those old creepypasta stories are, rightfully, dunked on and mocked online, and bad horror games are practically a dime a dozen and often ignored, and terrible horror movies are almost never talked about, in fact I took part in one of those Twitter Retweet Response Thread things which asked for terrible horror movies, so while the internet loves horror, it also clearly only loves good horror, and bad horror is mocked, criticized and forgotten about. Besides, I don't think I'd call The Amazing Digital Circus a full on horror series, not like The Gregory Horror Show, honestly not even in the same vein as Courage the Cowardly Dog. It definitely has horror elements, but the kind of horror it reminds me of is more like The Stanley Parable, which... I don't know if you would call a horror game, but it certainly has a bleak, almost psychological horror vibe at points. So if it isn't the accessibility, or the horror, what makes it so popular?

Is it just that the show is THAT good? Well... of course, people wouldn't watch it if it wasn't. However, that's not the full story either. "Good" content doesn't always explode in popularity, especially not instantaneously. Many creators will talk about having that one video that opened the floodgates so to speak, some creators will even have a video that completely revitalizes their channel. So the excellent quality is definitely a factor, but it doesn't fully explain the immense amount of views.

There is also the possibility that the show is genuinely so eye-catchingly unique and different that it had to stand out and become popular. Which is a fair argument... except for the fact you could say the same about most internet content. Again, I must bring up Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared. It has significantly less views than The Amazing Digital Circus does, and I'd argue it's just as, if not maybe more unique. Really, the entire reason that internet content is more popular than traditional television or cinema is entirely because it is different, new and arguably groundbreaking. Any old fans of Game Theory or James Stephanie Sterling will recognize this comparison, it's like pasta sauce, there is always a market for a chunky sauce. Well, the internet is filled with that "chunky sauce", and all manner of pasta sauces that you can't watch on a television station or in the movie theatres. So, if The Amazing Digital Circus is not popular solely because of accessibility, the fact the internet loves horror, the show being of excellent quality, or the fact that the show is unique, what is the reason?

Well, isn't it obvious? It's all of that and more. It's kind of the perfect storm really, the description of the pilot describes it as a "Psychological dark comedy", so people who are into horror and horror adjacent content, i.e. the internet, would check it out, they would be impressed by the quality of the video and the fact that they haven't really seen anything entirely like this before and share it around, and because the show is available in multiple languages, anyone who is interested in it can check it out no matter what language they speak, it was the perfect storm of right idea in the right place at the right time, because... 2023 was not a very good year for animation. I say that like I am an expert on everything that was happening at the time, but no, 2023 was pretty bad, in fact the 2020s has not been a good decade for mainstream animation. However, independent animation, now the 2020s has been a fantastic decade for that. It blows my mind that The Amazing Digital Circus came out in 2023, because it feels like the kind of thing that would have been released in the absolute golden year that I did not give enough credit to, 2022. 

Honestly, I can see The Amazing Digital Circus being one of those shows that inspires the next generation of artists, like a lot of animations, comics, video games and short stories are gonna come out in the next few years that have such obvious traces of the Digital Circus in them, that it stops being funny. The popularity of The Amazing Digital Circus is an interesting phenomenon because, on the surface it is very obvious why the show is so popular, it's a really good show, but when you really look at how popular it is, that is where it becomes fascinating. If it was just a good show, it wouldn't be this popular, and I don't think it is just one thing that makes it such. If there is one thing I can say however, is that we want justice for Gummigoo!

Garfield Gets Real (2007) - A Lousy Attempt to Bring the Comics to Life

 

So, I've been on a Garfield kick right now, not sure if that's really a surprise. I remember reading those comics as a kid, we used to have a set of those rectangular books full of the comic strips, there was also this big thing that sort of got me reacquainted with Garfield; I began my journey to read through every entry in the 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die book, yes I am losing my grip on sanity. Also, there is that new Garfield movie that came out, so that may have got me thinking too. I always did have a soft-spot for Garfield, so I think this is the perfect time to look at one of his direct-to-video movies from the late 2000s... as for why I chose this specific one, well it was available on YouTube, sometimes I don't need a real reason.

The plot follows Garfield as he grows tired of his job of acting in a comic strip. Y'know, I would say that this is stupid, ridiculous and asinine, but the original Roger Rabbit book, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf had pretty much a similar setting, comic strip characters doing the comics as their job. The difference is, in Wolf's book, the cartoons and the humans coexisted in the same world, while in this movie it's two separate worlds, which adds a layer of confusion. After Odie looses a prop in the real world by a tear in a screen that lets the comic characters see into the real world, Garfield decides to jump into it, followed by Odie. Then after a day, their strip is about to get cancelled, so they have to return to the cartoon world, but they might be replaced by two buff and muscular animals, and hold on one second, how can they find replacements for Garfield and Odie if they're in the real world. It is said in the movie that there is no way back from the real world, so why is the real world finding replacements? Call it a nitpick, but it's kind of distracting. I guess the rest of the plot works, but that one bit bothers me.

The movie does Garfield as a character alright, like at no point did I think, "Nah, this ain't Garfield". Most of the characters remain the same from the comic and other adaptations, save for two. Nermal and Arlene just kind of felt different. I think it's felt less with Arlene, but in the comic she actually could keep up with Garfield's dry wit and sarcasm, she was practically just as sarcastic as he was, and here she feels like... gosh I don't know how to describe it, she feels like the only thing that the writer knew about this character was that she was Garfield's love interest, and I know for a fact that isn't right because the sole writer credit is Jim Davis himself, so maybe he wanted to do something different here. Nermal straight up annoyed me in this movie, he always did have a little ego calling himself the "World's cutest kitty cat", but here, he's just arrogant and annoying, and Jason Marsden's voice performance does not help. That being said, the voice cast is fine overall, Frank Welker does a good job replacing the late Lorenzo Music as Garfield, he doesn't have the same voice, but the inflections are there. Wally Wingert and Gregg Berger as Jon and Odie respectively are good. I think most people agree that Wally is almost as good as Thom Huge as Jon. Of course, the two villains have to have the worst voice performances though, being muscular pets, they obviously have to have Hans and Franz accents.

As an aside, for a world of cartoon characters, most of the comic strip characters they have are not real characters from real strips. Dagwood from Blondie cameos, but he doesn't really say or do anything, I mean I doubt you could have actually gotten Snoopy to appear, and so you only had to mention him, but why not Hagar the Horrible? Pearls Before Swine? Doonesbury? What about Dilbert... Actually yeah, maybe that was a good call, but my point still stand. Heck, even have some characters from discontinued strips appear, Little Nemo is in the public domain, any of those characters could have appeared. It really does cheapen the film a bit by not including that many memorable comic strip characters. They don't even make a reference to Rube Goldberg, and they invented a character who makes inventions.

The animation of this movie is disgusting. Okay, that is a bit of hyperbole, but the 3D models and this style of animation just do not mesh at all. The movement is almost too fluid, and character designs just look ugly. It sits in that middle ground, where the animation is cheap, but not Television cheap. I'm gonna say it, the 2009 Garfield Show looks better than this movie, yeah that animation was cheaper looking, but this movie just looks hideous. I suppose compared to other movies I've reviewed this movie isn't the worst, but I just hate looking it at, I can't really think of any other movie I've reviewed that is just straight up unappealing to look at, even movies like Silver Circle or The Misty Green Sky I can excuse as not having any real budget. I know Garfield hasn't had the best looking animation in anything, with the exception of a couple Television Specials, but this may just be the worst he has ever looked. They don't even do anything visually to separate the cartoon world from the real world.

It probably wouldn't help much if the movie looked good, because the writing just isn't there. We've all made comments and jokes about how the Garfield strip has become less funny over the years, but this movie is just painfully unfunny. Each joke was predictable, and Garfield just doesn't really have that bite to him, probably because he's not working off of Jon in this movie, he's working off of new characters who aren't really interesting, and Odie, who doesn't talk. I think back to a lot of the old Garfield strips, and Garfield's wit and sarcasm was genuinely funny, even if it took a while to get the joke, his dry responses to what was around him was a big chunk of the humour, so taking that away, what are you left with? Not much really.

Really, "Not Much" is the best way to describe this movie. The writing is lousy, the plot is flawed, the art-style is terrible, really the only saving grace is Garfield himself, and even then this movie doesn't have any of his strengths as a character. If you really want a solid adaptation of the comic strip, I say keep looking, I think your best bet would be the Garfield specials like Garfield Hits the Town, Here Comes Garfield and even the Garfield Christmas special. This movie just doesn't work, and I can't really think of any reason to watch it, unless you're like a big, and I mean big, Garfield fanatic. Even then, I think this is one that is safe to skip.