Editorial: The Best Animated Movies of 2019

Well, Happy new year everybody, with the coming of the new year, I figured it would be nice to send the year away properly, by looking back on it and talking about the best and worst stuff of the year, and since I am an animated movie critic, you know what this post is going to be about.

Now, I have already talked about the worst animated movies of the year on my BitChute, I'm going to use this to talk about the movies I enjoyed this year.

While 2019 is the year theatrical animation seemed to give up, that doesn't mean it was all bad, as there was still some pretty good movies released. Plus, it isn't like all the bad releases were theatrical, however, I don't think there were very many "Great" animated releases this year, there were some, but a lot of the releases were "Good but not great", like, if I didn't go see The Lion King in theatres, I don't think I would have seen Frozen II twice. Either way, here are the animated movies of 2019 that I thought were pretty good, and I'm going to talk about them in order of release (As according to Letterboxd).

Talk about amazing, being only vaguely familiar with the How to Train Your Dragon movies, I went in with expectations that this was going to be a good movie, but completely lost on me. Thankfully I was wrong because, with the exception of one of two pieces of information, the movie is still accessible to new comers. Barring that, the action scenes were great, the animation was breathtaking, and I really did enjoy the humour of the movie as well. This was before I did my "First Impressions" blogs, but I do highly recommend this movie if you have yet to watch it. Honestly, it came close between this and Toy Story 4 as my favourite movie of the year.

I may or may not have a review for this one planned in 2020, not that this movie isn't a good one, but because honestly, I found this came off as a big joke. I mean, there are moments the movie is self-aware of itself, and, while I'd be lying if I said this movie wasn't really funny, I will say that kind of meta awareness does drag it down a little for me. It is still good though, I did enjoy the movie for what it was, and the reveal that the characters from the Sis-star system weren't the bad guys was actually pretty funny, not for the reveal itself, more how it was handled in the movie. While the movie may come off as a self-aware joke of itself, it is still an enjoyable movie that can be enjoyed by many.

Laika scored another goal with Missing Link, while they did let go of their usual horror edge for this one, I think that choice worked in their favour, as Missing Link was not just a funny and beautiful movie, but also an emotional one. While it is a bit paint-by-numbers at times, I will admit that the familiar scenes are done quite well, and I really did enjoy the characters. While I think this is probably on the weaker end of the spectrum, I still can't deny it is a decent watch for fans of Laika, adventure films, or just in general. Seriously, it did not deserve to be a box office flop.

Is this movie pointless? Maybe, but did we really need a Toy Story 2 either? Toy Story 4 took everything I loved from the previous Toy Story movies and combined them all together, with a few additions to make it a little less stale. While it was a tough choice between this and How to Train Your Dragon, ultimately I had to choose this as my favourite movie of the year. I loved how the story moved, the characters grown and how amazing this movie looked. Let's just hope this is going to be the definite end to the Toy Story movies. I don't think they could end on a stronger note.

Unpopular opinion but, I didn't find this movie to be that funny. I think overall this is the weakest movie in this selection, but I can't deny that it isn't terrible. Personally, I found a lot of the satire to be either too on the nose or too subtle to get on first viewing, that being said, if you are a fan of Rocko's Modern Life, you might find enjoyment in this movie, and while it was not my thing, I can safely say that it isn't one of the worst movies I've seen this year. The satire is still good, even if it's too blatant or subtle, the characters are still good, and the animation is wonderful, and who knows, maybe it's funnier on rewatch.

Even then, I still think that Enter the Florpus is one of the funniest movies I've seen this year. As a new comer to the series, I found myself laughing at so much of this movie, especially GIR, GIR is awesome. I got to this one really late in the year, but I am glad that I checked it out.

Speaking of surprisingly funny movies. I really don't know what else to say with this one, it was just really, really, really funny. Even some of the lame jokes that in any other movie I would have rolled my eyes at, I found funny here. I think a lot of it is because, in some of the other movies, they tried to be more attune to the real world reality, but this movie went straight for the cartoonish and silly. Characters inflating themselves like balloons is not something we see in very many animated movies anymore, and while I do like what animated movies are doing now a days, sometimes it is nice to see something that is just fun, and this movie was just fun.

I might have been more kind to Abominable than I should have been, but honestly, I could not help myself. I was blown away by how well the music and visuals complimented each other in some of the scenes. I loved how the characters grew and developed, and I could never hate Everest, he was just too adorable. Even if the plot is a bit standard, I still highly recommend this movie, if only for others to see how animation can compliment the shots you are trying to pull off.

Klaus was a bit of a slow burn, but once the fire got going, it roared. While the movie had a few familiar beats to it, the rest of the movie was still a wonderful experience. I eventually forgot how much I hated the characters, and found myself really rooting for them. Also, the animation is incredible, characters are expressive and the settings can be beautiful. Seriously, if you haven't seen Klaus, give it a chance, you might find a new addition to your Holiday viewing list.

When I went to see the Lion King, I made the promise that if Frozen II was any good, I would see it twice. Thankfully, Frozen II was really good, so I did see it in theatres twice, same theatre too. I really liked what they did with the story of this movie, how they didn't go with a twist villain and instead made the villain the past, that is something I don't see very often in movies, and it was nice to see some definitive answers about Elsa and Anna's parents, I guess the whole "They were going to Rapunzel's wedding" theory is debunked, though I guess it would have been debunked by Rapunzel showing up in Frozen in the first place. The animation was wonderful, and I really liked seeing Elsa being in control of her powers this time.

That being said, I really don't care for awkward proposal scenes, and that is basically the entire subplot. Plus, I don't think the music was as good, I really don't care for a lot of the lyrics and deliveries of "Into the Unknown" and Kristoff's soft rock power ballad can burn alongside "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" and "Glory of Love". Other than that, Frozen II was a pretty solid movie, but sadly I can't say it was truly "Great".

And now, the biggest surprise of the year. Spies in Disguise not only surprised me with how funny it was, with how the plot wasn't completely predictable, and how dark the movie could be, but I was also surprised at how the movie hid a crucial plot point as a lame joke in the trailer, I will admit that was quite impressive. Still, don't be fooled, the movie is a lot darker than the trailers made it out to be, while we never see characters die on screen, we do come pretty close to it, and the villain's design is... though toned down for younger audiences, still pretty gruesome for a kids movie. Honestly, I was expecting this movie to just be "Okay", but now, this was a really good movie, and a solid recommendation from me. Seriously give it a chance if you haven't already.

And that wraps up the best of the year, if I had to rank these movies, I think the ranking would look pretty close to this.

11. Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling

10. Missing Link

9. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

8. Frozen II

7. Klaus

6. Spies in Disguise

5. Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus

4. Abominable

3. The Angry Birds Movie 2

2. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

1. Toy Story 4

Maybe give or take a few spaces. As a whole, while I am disappointed that there weren't more Really Great releases, I can't be disappointed with the quality of the good releases. Though few are amazing, I don't think a film needs to be amazing, a film just needs to have some good qualities about them. I will say, the movies I expected to be good, most of them were really good, and it is still a good thing that releases were at least of a consistent quality.

And now, I await for 2020, it looks like we're getting some pretty good stuff in 2020 alone. Have a happy new year and I will see you all next time at the Odeon.

Fare-thee-well!

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964) - Yes, this counts as a movie

To get this out of the way, the AFI and BFI do classify the minimum running length of a feature film has to be 40 minutes, so yeah, this counts. Plus, I really do want to look at more older animated movies, so I would have probably stretched my rules anyway for this one.

That being said, since it is the month of winter festivals, most notably Christmas, I figured I had to look at a holiday film this month, and you know what, I'll be damned if I let another Christmas go by without watching this one, this was one of the specials I used to watch a lot as a child, this and Frost the Snowman and of course the classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Of course, having become much older, and watching this with a more critical view, how does it hold up?

The plot of the movie is well known, Rudolph is born with a glowing red nose and becomes an outcast amongst other reindeer. Meanwhile, one of Santa's elves named Hermey is also outcasted because he doesn't like to make toys and instead wants to be a dentist. When the two meet, they decide to run away and come across a prospector named Yukon Cornelius. After being chased by the Abominable Snowmonster, the trio find themselves on the island of misfit toys, where they wish to stay. The king of the island however, says they cannot, but allows them to stay one night on the promise that when they return to Christmas Town, they tell Santa about the island so he can find homes for the toys. Rudolph strikes out on his own during the night to avoid getting his friends hurt by the snowmonster, and realizes he can not run from his problems and goes home, to find that his family and friend left to look for him. He finds them, but is attacked by the snowmonster, but they're all saved by Hermey and Cornelius, who then head back to Santa's workshop, they all make-up, and then learn of a bad storm that might cancel Christmas, but then Santa has the bright idea (Pun intended), that Rudolph's glowing nose might help guide them.

Man, the plot is a lot longer than the film made it seem. Overall, I am going to be more lenient towards the plot of this one. While I would typically comment on the use of time skip and narrator, I do have to concede that this is a Television special, and those usually only go up to an hour, and there is only so much you can do in an hour. Even so, while some important things did get rushed, the plot is still mostly solid, and even when something big was glanced over like Rudolph coming to the realization he can't run from his problems, while it would have been nice if it was a scene of cinematic quality, I will concede that, a throw-away, blink and you'll miss it explanation is better than no explanation. So, while the plot is not of cinematic quality, it is still a solid and easy to follow plot, even if my explanation makes it seem complicated.

I do think the characters are charming as well. They aren't exactly complex, but they have a goal and they have their own thoughts. Rudolph doesn't want to put his friends in danger, Yukon Cornelius welcomes others alongside him with joy, again the characters are not of cinematic quality, but they are still identifiable, and charming enough that I never disliked watching them. Even the side characters I kind of liked, I especially like Donner, and how he does realize that he was too hard on his son.

Speaking of which, yeah, this film has garnered a bit of a reputation recently, and not a very positive one. Some say that it says that differences will be mocked until they can be used to serve one's purpose.

Stop that.

If you actually watch the special, you will know that it wasn't the storm that made everyone change their minds about Rudolph, it was the bravery he displayed trying to save his family and friends. Again, something that might have been better explained by the plot being more detailed, but what can we do? We need not forget that Donner went out to find his son way before the storm began. Of course, people also say that the special kind of encourages bullying, but I think that might be an over exaggeration, it's like saying SpongeBob promotes working for exposure. Even if you actually think that, the other reindeer are kind of supposed to be seen as jerks, and we are meant to sympathize with Rudolph.

But now let's talk about the animation. Being a stop motion animator myself, yeah, this special doesn't have great animation. Even for the time I would have to assume it looked choppy and basic. Keep in mind, some of our first filmed animations were stop motion, look up J. Stuart Blackton. On top of that, I noticed a few small errors here and there like mouths not syncing properly and repetitive movements. Despite that, the animation is not actually terrible, scenes like the wind storm blowing things away, that is actually quite impressive and a lot of the movement itself is actually pretty smooth. Yeah, some of it is jerky and some of the models look sparse and cheap, but I never found myself overly critical of the animation or visuals.

And I think there is one reason why, the special is not great on a critical point of view. Characters are simple, the plot glances over important moments and the animation is a bit crude. That being said, it still is a lot better than other hour long films I've seen in all of those aspects. Characters do have a goal they wish to obtain, the plot is simple and flows well and the animation does have it's moments. However, none of that is why this special is well loved, it's well loved because it is just so charming.

It's simple, but that helps many viewers get attached to it. It's cheap, but they still put effort into it. It is a special that I enjoy watching every year, and I am sure that many other do to. It is a charming special, and it has some good elements that keep it from faltering on a critical level. Honestly, I think the only problem I really have with this special, is a small one but still; How cool would it be to have a cowboy that rides an ostrich? Ostriches are cool, why is the cowboy on the ostrich a misfit toy? I would love to have a toy cowboy on an ostrich.

Anyway, this is a classic special and one that you're probably watching every year.

Editorial: Talking about Disney+

So, Disney+ has been out for a while now. I actually started this post pretty much the day after it was released, but because the service was still brand new, I put this post off a little bit.

So, after having used Disney+ for a little while now, I can say that it is... a streaming service.

Look, I am not crazy over streaming services, I like having physical copies of things I watch, and barring that, there are a dozen other streaming services. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, I mean, if we really want to get technical, sites like YouTube and BitChute, which are video hosting platforms, are not that different from a streaming service like Netflix, the only difference is that the content that is made for the platforms and who makes it. You'll never find something like "Is It a Good Idea to Microwave This?" or "Eddsworld" on Netflix, but you'll find "Red vs. Blue" and "RWBY" on there because... Rooster Teeth is pretty much the internet equivalent of Disney, not saying anything, but it is kind of a Disney thing to acquire a property and have no clue what to do with said property (Cough, Muppets, Cough). I'm sure the ScrewAttack acquisition was a good idea at the time, and I like Death Battle fine... but you know, they kind of forgot why people liked ScrewAttack to begin with.

I got off topic there.

Anyway, if I am being honest, I was pretty interested in Disney+, if only because it meant that Disney was gonna get rid of the Disney Vault. I realize that there are probably a few people that don't know what that is, put simply, Disney had a thing where, they would only release a certain movie or a set of movies for a limited time, and when that time was up they would go "Back into the vault", it was a marketing thing, and one that became obsolete, quickly or not, it became a bad idea quickly, so yeah, if anything good came from Disney+, it's that the vault may very well be officially gone forever, huzzah!

Really the prospect of having one quick and easy place to watch almost any Disney property is really exciting, especially if you're like me and collect Disney movies. Like seriously, I have like, three separate VHS copies of Alice in Wonderland, it is bloody wonderful. Of course, it would also hold the Pixar, Marvel, Fox acquired, Star Wars and National Geographic stuff, which... I didn't even know National Geographic was owned by Disney... damn, really expanding potential Kingdom Hearts worlds aren't we?

Seriously though, the amount of content Disney has on Disney+ is crazy. They have the animated movies, the direct-to-video sequels, the live action movies, Disney channel movies, Disney channel shows, the Home Alone movies, Nation Geographic shows, Pixar movies, Pixar Shorts, old Mickey Mouse shorts, the Star Wars movies, the Marvel movies, seriously, there is more than enough content to suffice a decent streaming service, granted they don't have everything, (seriously where the Hell is Dave the Barbarian? ) but they have a lot.

Content wise, I really can't complain, it's got a decent selection of movies and show and shorts that I would be happy for a good while. Of course they have a few originals on there which, are fine. Mandalorian is okay, I'd rather watch it than Riverdale anyway.

I think the layout is alright too, it has a few categories and a watch list, basic stuff. I don't really notice a "New Additions" list, which, I don't know if they're gonna add one when they start releasing new stuff or if they are just going to ditch it entirely, but it would be nice to have. They do have a list for Ultra HD and HDR stuff, if you're into that, which I'm not, I own six movies on Blu-Ray and one of them was for a little plastic statue.

One thing I will say is that lodging a complaint is easy... too easy. I can't shake the feeling that they purposefully screwed up the order of some shows to turn around and say "See, we fixed them, we're listening to feedback." I mean, it should be pretty obvious which episode is the first episode of a series the begins with characters meeting each other. Yeah, as of right now some shows on Disney+ are way out of order, I mean, with most other streaming services, I would be more leniant, but you would think Disney of all companies would know which order the episodes of their shows should be in.

I do think the feedback page in general is really easy to use. You literally pick out what you want to do, whether it is suggesting something to lodge a complaint. Requesting a film or show is really easy, you type in up to three titles and click submit. Whether or not these shows or movies will appear is, yet to be seen, still waiting for The Muppet Show, but the fact that the feedback page is so easy to use is actually a very big point is Disney's favour here.

Overall, I can't hate Disney+, I love a lot of these movies and shows and it is nice that it is all in one place right now. Aside from a few hiccups, there isn't anything I would really not recommend the service over. I mean, if you already have enough streaming services, I would not recommend it, but at the end of the day, this is just a Disney themed streaming service, and that is what I was expecting. I would not recommend watching any of the shows until we know which ones are in correct order, Legend of the Three Caballeros is in proper order, so you should definitely check that one out. I also really like The World According to Jeff Goldblum, and they also have the X-Men animated series so, if you're curious, it might be worth looking into, but if you have reservations, I don't think you're really missing anything here.

First Impressions: Playmobil: The Movie (2019)

I am just gonna come out and say it right now, this movie is worse than Arctic Dogs, it is worse than Secret Life of Pets 2, I will even say that it is worse than UglyDolls. No exaggeration, this is possibly the worst animated movie of the year.

Did you know that in some countries this movie was released in the summer? Yeah, us in the west had to wait until the last few dregs of 2019 to watch this stinkfest, and no, the wait was not worth it. Tom Petty said the waiting was the hardest part, but sadly, watching this movie was the hardest part.

Actually, the hardest part was having to acknowledge that I was not the only person in the theatre for this showing, so, this movie has that over UglyDolls, more people came to the showing I sat in at, which was sad because this movie was terrible.

So, why is this movie worse than UglyDolls?

Well, UglyDolls, as atrocious as it was, at least knew what it wanted to be. It wanted to be a movie that marketed a soundtrack, and a message. What does Playmobil want to be? It wants to be The LEGO Movie, which is why it is more like Jumanji than the Lego Movie. It wants to have the same kind of adventure, so it thrusts us into worlds with no rhyme nor reason. At least the Lego Movie, had some kind of in universe barriers. It wants to be UglyDolls with a marketable soundtrack that... I'm gonna be honest, I completely forgot about the songs as soon as they were over. The only song I remembered was Rex Dasher's theme, and that is because it sounds like the Pepsiman theme.

Also, the plot really pisses me off. So what is the plot. While a young child is estranged from a busy relative who is taking on a parental role...

Have you seen Hook? Lilo and Stitch? Christopher Robin?

In Lilo & Stitch, the problem wasn't that Nani was working too much. In Christopher Robin, the problem wasn't solved by Christopher quitting his job, and in Hook... Well, it was entertaining.

Seriously, this is a young adult, college age, having to take care of a younger brother after their parents died, and the movie treats her like she isn't doing her hardest to make sure they can live to see tomorrow in decent living.

"We need to have fun"

Kid, if your sister was just having fun, you would be starving to death, and bored enough you would probably appreciate the outcome.

You know what... UglyDolls, I'm sorry. I am truly sorry for wanting you to flop. If I knew this movie was going to be this bad, I would have cut all of that out from my post.

On top of that, the song numbers are unnecessary, the plot is predictable, the jokes fall flat, characters literally leave and then show up at the literal final moment. This movie is garbage, the only good thing about it, is that it is out alongside Frozen 2, so go see that instead. I don't care if you think it is unnecessary, I don't care if you've heard it was a retread, if your choices are this, Arctic Dogs or Frozen 2, it should be a no brainer.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - A Modern Classic? I'd say yes!

With November comes the knowledge that Halloween is over and the winter holidays are coming. If you are American you have Thanksgiving in November, but since I'm not, I decided to look at a movie that is between the two holidays, much like the month of November. As a bonus, I've seen this movie at least a dozen times. So, let's take a look at one of the best Halloween/Christmas movies, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

After a successful Halloween, the Pumpkin King Jack wanders off feeling bored of the holiday, and finds a selection of doors, opening one of them, he finds himself transported to a different world that intrigues him, a world of bright colours and a fun atmosphere called Christmas Town. After he tries to find what made the world so appealing to him, he decides to try his own hand at the holiday and has Santa Claus kidnapped. Unbeknownst to him, Santa is sent to Oogie Boogie, a devilishly evil being that finds joy in the idea of killing the jolly man. After Jack makes a mess out of the holiday of cheer, he must rescue Santa and return things to the way they were. A part of me feels like I made the plot a bit more complex than it actually is, it really is a simple plot but it is just so solid and well paced that you kind of forget about its simplicity.

While the movie does partake in time skip montage, with one exception, there aren't really a whole lot of questions surrounding the plot. Even the subplot surrounding the other main character, Sally, is integrated well into the story, as both Jack's and Sally's stories intersect in different ways, like how she tries to warn Jack about her premonitions around his attempt at Christmas, or when she escapes her room to give Jack a gift. They're small moments, but they still bring the two stories together. As a whole, the plot is smooth as butter, and even though it does follow some familiar beats, it does some things different with them, like having the emotional low of the film not only be a song number that transitions into him feeling better, but it's having him work out these thoughts on his own. I don't think I see that very often, especially not in more recent films.

Since I brought it up, let's talk about the music. Let's start with the background music, because a lot of it is really good. Danny Elfman does a wonderful score, I don't know if it is one of my favourite scores, but it is really good. I have a copy of the soundtrack on vinyl, so I have heard a few of the backing tracks a couple times, though let's be honest here, the song tracks are the most memorable part of the movie.

I criticized the Steven Universe movie for having a song every minute or so, I think this movie is a good example of how to do something like that and make it work. While songs are pretty frequent, they are used as song numbers should be. They can showcase how the character is feeling (Jack's Lament, Sally's Song and Poor Jack), or they can be used to make some scenes more interesting (Town Meeting Song, Kidnap the Sandy Claws, and Making Christmas). Plus, the movie establishes things before the songs, so we know that Jack is not feeling very cheerful before he goes into his song. On top of that, the songs were great, "This is Halloween", "Oogie Boogie's Song" and "What's This?" are some of the favourite songs in any animated movie, I'm a sucker for this soundtrack, I not only got it on Vinyl, but I also got that "Nightmare Revisited" album, with the songs redone by bands like Marilyn Manson, Korn, and The All-American Rejects. Rise Against does a pretty good cover of "Making Christmas".

I think the other thing that makes the songs good is that the characters are really strong to. We can understand that Jack is feeling bored or lonely with Halloween, and we can relate to him wanting to recapture that joy when he first arrived in Christmas Town. Oogie Boogie is another good example, as we can pick up that his is a slimey being that takes joy in causing harm and discomfort. Side characters don't get much of the spotlight, but as this movie is only slightly over an hour long, it's understandable. This brings us to Sally, and if I am going to be honest here, Sally is one of my all time favourite characters in media. I love that she is not just a passive observer, when she overhears that Jack might be in trouble, she takes initiative and tries to rescue Santa. Even though she doesn't always succeed in her plans, the important thing is that she tried and took initiative, hands down one of my favourite characters ever.

The only thing left to discuss is the visual aspect of the film. I watched this film on Blu-Ray so, the visual detail I could see was much better than a VHS. There are so many little details in this movie you are never going to see them in one sitting. On this recent sitting, I just realized that one of the motifs on Jack's front gate is a scared cat. Other nice details are things like character movements, the splotched lighting on the Professor's brain, and environmental details like etching in the stone and bark, and textures on characters clothing. Even the pallets are great, with Christmas Town being a stark contrast to Halloween Town, and even in the character palette with Sally being more colourful than Jack, though I think Anim8ball covered that part of the film much better than I could.

As for the animation itself, while the entire film is really smooth, I can't help but notice some shortcuts that were taken, and even in the more expressive characters like Jack and Sally, I could still see some jerky moth movements, though I am not sure if that is because I've done stop motion animation myself, I am going to school for animation or because I was taking a more critical look at this movie. Anyway, the visuals of this movie are great, and unique too as Disney hasn't really done anything like this since, which is kind of a shame, but I guess it does make this movie stand on its own.

I don't think it is any stretch to say that I really love this movie. Even after having seen it a dozen times, even after looking critically at it, even after looking through the tie-in Trivial Pursuit game cards. I can't hate this movie, there is so much to talk about this movie, like did you know that the speaking voice of Jack Skellington is Chris Sarandon? Yeah, Prince Hunperdink from The Princess Bride! and there were 180 individual heads for Jack as well, and though the movie was based on a poem by Tim Burton, the only characters that were in the poem originally were Jack, Santa and Jack's Dog. I have the Trivial Pursuit tie-in game, I can keep going.

To wrap this up, I think that if you enjoy the classic holiday specials of Charlie Brown or the like, you're going to enjoy this one too. Even if not, the music, visuals and silky smooth plot make it more than a nostalgic memory. It is a legitimately good movie, and I cannot recommend it enough, it is one of my all-time favourite movies, and chances are, you already plan to watch it every October, December or both.

First Impressions: Klaus (2019)

Ah November, the time of remembrance, the full swing of Autumn and the month of telling people that it is NOT time to put your Christmas decorations up. However, as it is close to the month of many holidays, it is around this time that some holiday movies start to come out. Last year, The Grinch graced the silver screen in November, and this year, it seems that the early holiday release is a Netflix Original film called Klaus, which had a release in select theatres, but not in my city so I saw it on Netflix. Oh well.

I will say I was interested in this movie, a part of me wants to say that I kept my expectations in check because of other Netflix original films like Next Gen and Duck Duck Goose, yes Next Gen sucked, don't @ me. Sadly, those thoughts slipped my mind because, it looked interesting. After having just saw it, was it any good?

Plotwise, this movie is kind of predictable. I could peg that this movie would have the reveal, and the low-point and the get-together in the climax, it's pretty paint-by-numbers.

I should clarify here that because a plot is predictable or paint-by-numbers, doesn't mean the plot is bad. It just means that it isn't going to surprise you with any major development. A paint-by-numbers plot is not the be all and end all of a movie. I mean, I've seen The Princess Bride so many times I could recite it, but I still love watching that movie. The plot is but a mere ingredient for a movie, and like all ingredients it can be used well, used poorly, used a lot or used infrequently, something we love or something we aren't fond of...

So while the plot might have been predictable, that doesn't mean the movie as a whole is rubbish or lousy.

So, what about the other aspects of the movie?

Honestly, the movie is a bit of a slow burn character wise. The movie begins with all the characters being unlikable, even hateable. However, by the end of the movie we do start to get wrapped in the charm of things like the citizens of the town begrudgingly doing nice things for each other, and even some of the sacrifices they make. While I started off hating a bunch of the characters of this movie, by the end, I actually really liked them.

I will say though, some of the characters' speakings and mannerisms were very modern. I don't hate modernisms in movies like this, but they do kind of take me out of the experience a little. I don't think it took me out of the experience enough to fully lose me, but when these modernisms did occur they did take me a little out of the mood.

That being said though, I will say that the animation and art style was really good. When we got our first view of the town, it gave a German Expressionism vibe, a visual style used in the silent film era in a lot of German productions like Nosferatu. I feel like that is the visual style they aimed for, with the jagged and pointy architecture. Of course, the lighting is also incredible and some of the perspective shots in this movie are amazing. You really get the idea of the shots as well as them looking cool. The main art style of the movie also looked incredible, it reminded me a lot of the web animation titled "The Backwater Gospel", where you could barely tell whether the characters were 3D models or 2D drawings. I really like this style because it shows what you can accomplish with CG and how you can integrate traditional aesthetics with the modern technology.

Honestly, while I don't think Klaus was an incredible movie, I got to admit there is a lot to like here. While the plot was predictable, it was pretty solid, the characters became likeable, the animation and art style were great. Honestly, while I don't think this is my favourite of the Netflix Original releases this year, I will say it is pretty good. It is worth checking out, I think it is too early to really know if this will make my permanent Christmas watchlist, but who knows. Speaking of which...

Anyway, I think this is a good movie and it deserves a good recommendation rating.

This has been the Entity of Darkness and I'll see you next time at my humble little Odeon.

First Impressions: Arctic Dogs (2019)

How many paint-by-numbers animated features have we had this year? We had Wonder Park, UglyDolls, Abominable was a pretty safe movie in formula, Missing Link was close, Addams Family was kind of that. Not that I dislike all of those movies, but once you notice the formula, you start to notice which movies follow it to the letter. Arctic Dogs is a movie that follows it to the letter.

This movie is a really formulaic plot, it contains all the tropes of any other children's animated feature, for a lot of this movie, it was actually reminding me of Shark Tale, though this movie is better with the plot than Shark Tale, which is not saying a lot really. I mean, you have the generic characters, the generic set-ups, the generic "Kiss before they do something dangerous" the whole formula has been done, and unlike with Abominable or Missing Link it didn't have many redeeming qualities to make it worth seeing.

Characters are annoying, you have your typical lead that makes up stories to make himself look better, the big guy with a kind heart, the goofy friend, you even have your own minions expy, because we haven't enough of those. There is no character that I even remotely gravitated towards for anymore reason than that I like foxes, but even then Zootopia, Fox and the Hound, Robin Hood, all movies with fox characters and all better than this.

Animation wise, this movie is unimpressive. There were moments that could have been impressive, but most of the movie is bland to look at and the animation itself is... okay, I guess. Visually speaking this movie is not worth the theatre trip.

You know, when I saw the poster for this movie, I kind of expected it to be a direct-to-video affair, it looks and feels like it. Like, from the poster and title alone, it looks like a movie you would see in the discount bin. The fact that this movie was produced by Assemblage Entertainment does not help matters. The visuals of this movie are not terrible, but not theatre quality in my opinion. I would not be surprised if this was going to be a Direct-to-video feature and then got thrown into the theatres for one reason or another. Though the casting might have been why it was a theatrical release though.

Quite frankly, there is not a lot worth talking about wit this movie. It is bland to look at, formulaic, bland, boring, and humourwise, jokes that would have been worth a slight chuckle at most were the funniest things in the movie. It is not worth getting angry at, not worth seeing and sure as hell not worth the 13.50 I spent for the ticket. If you want to see it, I'd say "Save your money for Frozen II", that one looks promising.

God this was bland....

Editorial: Why I don't like Coraline (2009)

Everyone has a movie or two that they so desperately want to love, maybe the movie has a lot of good qualities about it, maybe it has a plot or character type that you really like, maybe it is based on one of your all-time favourite source materials, or maybe it's all three, but for one reason or another, you just don't like it, maybe the good things don't outweigh the bad, or maybe it is just different enough from a book you love so much that you can't help but notice every single detail they changed.

This is going to be a different kind of review.

Coraline was a book originally published in 2002, I didn't read it as a kid, I was like, four years old when it was released, I first read it when I was in middle school. At that time the movie was already out, and I did see that before reading the book. After some time though, the book became one of my favourites, in fact, it is in my top three, along side S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders and L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Both of which also had movies made from them. I really enjoyed the book for its themes, amazingly detailed settings, and for Coraline herself, who is a great protagonist and one of my examples of a strong female character.

Which is the main reason I don't like Coraline, the movie tossed most of her wit and cleverness to the cutting room floor. What made Coraline a strong character was that, even though she was afraid, she kept herself calm and at the end used her wit to defeat the Other Mother's disembodied hand. What she did was, she took an old cloth, placed it over the open well, placed her dolls and some plastic tea cups around, filling the cups with water as a weight, and placed the key in the center, pretending to have a tea party with her dolls. When the hand made a grab for the key, it's weight sent it, the key and the cloth plummeting down the well, which Coraline sealed back up.

I guess in the end, smashing the hand would have made it more clear that the hand was done, but the well was stated to be so deep you could see stars in the sky in the middle of the day, and even then the boards covering the well were at least sturdy enough to carry the weight of a child so, they are probably not easy to move. I get that most of this in inferring, but at the same time, it is pretty much a given that the hand is gone, as is the key. However, my main point is, smashing it with a large rock only served to ruin what was a clever plan from a clever main character.

Speaking of clever. You know how Coraline found out about the snow-globe in the book? She realized that the Other Mother could not create, only distort. Yeah, the snow-globes on the mantle were not in the book, it was only one Snow-Globe. It was inconspicuous enough to be unnoticed by Coraline in the first place, I don't get why they needed it to be a collection her actual mother and father already had, and making it so that it she noticed her parents in it rather than figure it out, again serves to make her less clever.

There are some small changes I don't get, like, why did they make the door a crawl-space door. If it was meant to be so, I think Neil Gaiman would have written it in. Keep in mind, it was speculated in the book to have originally lead to the other flat of the house, but at the same time, it doesn't really effect anything major.

I also don't get why they changed the stone to a piece of candy. Stones with a natural hole in them, or Hag Stones as they're called, have some significance in magic, as they were used to ward off curses and nightmares, see other worlds and even reveal the true appearance of something. Is this another Philosopher's Stone thing where they thought people wouldn't understand it and changed it to something that has no significance to anything other than making it more marketable?
Unlike Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, this makes even less sense as even though I did not understand the connection, I could still grasp the idea of a stone with a natural hole in the center being used to reveal things.

I must also ask why they felt the need to destroy the "Hag Candy" in the film. I guess it makes things more suspenseful, but at the same time, the stone could not really help her in finding her parents anyway, since she was being watched by the Other Mother. Even if they wanted to go down the route of having her destroy the stone, wouldn't crushing it in her fist be more haunting than tossing it into a fire?

But my most hated change in the film is the addition of Wyborn. He is not only an irritating character, he is also an unnecessary one. Everything he did in the film was either a change from the book or an addition to the book (I.e. the doll he gives Coraline). For an example, he didn't release Coraline from her punishment in the book. It was the Other Mother, who got her from behind the mirror when she felt that Coraline learned her lesson. This made her more human in the book, which can make her more unnerving, especially since this is when we learn Coraline isn't the first child to stumble through the door.

To be absolutely fair to this movie, to be fair, it is a good quality movie, it has wonderful animation and settings, has a pretty good version of Coraline (if not as good as the book), does stand out on it's own, and was the introduction film for Laika Studios, which would eventually give us Kubo and the Two Strings, one of my personal favourites. By all means, this is a good movie, and worth checking out, but I can't get over some of the changes from the book to the screen, maybe if they made it so Coraline was still the intelligent character of the book, but personally, I did not care for this movie. I am going to side with the book for a long time to come.

However, as a film I do have to give it praise, so in the spirit of fairness, and the fact that it is a quality product, I do have to give it a recommendation rating. I can't go higher because of my feelings, but I will grant it a good rating.

Vampire Hunter D (1985) - A very... okay, but heavily flawed movie.

As it is October, the month of spooks and scares, I figured it would be a good opportunity to take a look at a movie that has been in my collection for a good year at this point, but never got around to watching. The 1980s Anime action/horror, Vampire Hunter D.

When a young girl gets bitten by a vampire, she hires a wandering hunter known as "D" for help. D must destroy the vampire that bit her to cure her of her infection, however, the vampire, Count Magnus Lee wishes to wed the young woman to... I am not making this up, alleviate boredom. While the plot is fairly solid it does take a while to get going. The Count sends others to kill D a couple times, and D goes to the castle once and gets caught by snake women. I guess these scenes mostly exist to show the audience what D is capable of, or maybe they were part of the original book. Yeah, this is another adaptation, and again, I haven't read the book. Then again, I would not know how easy it would be to get a hold of these books. Overall, the plot is solid, but the progression kind of meanders a bit, and sadly, that isn't the only thing that keeps me from enjoying this movie.

The movie also had some weird pacing issues. I mean, I guess I don't need to see the heroes escape the crumbling castle, but the previous scene they were still standing inside, and then the camera cuts to another scene and they're right there. At least, establish that they turned around to leave, but maybe it just bothered me. still, that is only one example, and it bothered me for most of the movie.

Now, I am terrible at identifying character, but I felt like most of these characters were bland. D is the strong and silent protagonist, but he has some moments that keep him from being a total bore. The Count is an interesting villain, but only in how we can identify with his motivation. Other than that, he isn't really that interesting to watch. The only other characters that I could find character to, were the Mayor's son and the Count's Daughter Lamika. The Mayor's son is an asshole womanizer, he is kind of like Gaston, only less likable. I really hate characters that I am supposed to hate that have nothing enjoyable about them. I want characters I love to hate, and not hate to love. As for Lamika, she is prideful, though she has moments where I found myself respecting her. As a whole, the characters are not great, but at least most of them have their moments where they aren't terribly bland.

Now, this is where I mention that I watched the dub of this movie as that is the copy that I have. So, this will be the first time I mention the dubbing quality. Now, growing up in the 2000s, I was in the middle of a huge anime boom. The nineties and 2000s was the time that anime became more popular in the west, with shows like DragonBall Z, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece and of course Pokemon. So, I have to wonder, was dubbing prior to the nineties usually of a mediocre quality? The dubbing in this movie is fine, but some of the lines were read completely bland, some dialogue was spoken too fast and overall it was mediocre, I mean, my standard is that is has to be of better quality than a TeamFourStar production, but this was more on the level of Friendship is Witchcraft.

Now we get to the animation. Now, what you have to keep in mind is that, 1980s anime and modern anime look completely different. Not to say that something needs to look like a modern anime to look good, but don't go into a movie or series from this era expecting it to look like FullMetal Alchemist or Attack on Titan, and especially not something super stylized like Kill la Kill. That being said, while this movie does look good, it is anime good, meaning that it is more artstyle than actual animation. I have this feeling for a lot of anime, where I just feel like a lot of it is stylized to hide the fact that little is happening. That being said, I did notice some reused animation, and there is a good amount of bright flashing lights in this movie, so be warned.

On the topic of content warning, this movie contains some pretty brutal deaths. I feel like a lot of the style went into these violent and gruesome deaths. Monsters get cut in half and you see their insides, and creatures get their heads blown off, and so on. There is also some nudity in this movie, so be warned this is not a movie for younger audiences.

As a whole, I did not really enjoy this movie. It was slow, had some weird pacing problems, and wasn't very engaging. It is a shame because I feel like this could have been a great movie, but we got some bleh characters, with mediocre dubbing and okay for the time animation. I guess it is not too bad, but I would have personally rather watched Netflix's Castlevania series instead. So... that's always an alternative. I can't really recommend this one, if you're into classic anime, you might enjoy it, but you've probably already seen it, with the original recording no doubt. Even if you haven't, I don't really speak highly of this one. Maybe Ghost in the Shell is better.

First Impressions: Invader ZIM: Enter the Florpus (2019)

Yeah, it is about time I get to this one. I've put this blog off for a bit because I haven't actually watched Invader Zim before. After I got some confirmation that I did not need to binge the whole series to watch the movie, I figured it was time to go ahead. So, as a new comer, what were my thoughts?

Of the three TV Movie specials of cartoons that I have seen, the hierarchy goes, Steven Universe: The Movie at the bottom, than Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling, and then at the top is Enter the Florpus. So, while I have yet to watch Rainbow Roundup or the other Equestria Girls thing (not that I am really holding my breath for Equestria Girls), I think this has been the best of the TV Movie special thing... Man, 2019 was an interesting year for animation.

Not being a fan of Invader Zim, my expectations were shaky, however, literally from the first scene, I was laughing. Reference, gross-out, screw the audience, subverted expectations whatever the joke, it was usually funny. Seriously, there were times I laughed so loud I had to restrain myself to listen to the audio, I haven't laughed like that since I started watching The Amazing World of Gumball. I think with the Rocko special, a lot of the humour was more satirical, which is fine, but I felt some of it was either too obvious or too subtle to be funny. Like the Joke with Heffer's grandpa being a ghost, yeah, with some thought it is funny, but it is too subtle to be funny at first, at least, that is my opinion. With Invader Zim on the other hand, so much of the humour is from the subversion of expectations, and it is extremely funny.

I guess in some ways, the Rocko movie was like that lousy Homestar Runner sketch from Robot Chicken, whereas the Invader Zim movie, by comparison, is more like a Robot Chicken sketch where they actually know what the joke is. Of course, the Rocko movie is better than Robot Chicken's Homestar Runner sketch but... I think you get the idea.

The movie isn't just a bunch of humour, I surprisingly found myself enjoying a lot of the characters too, and not just Gaz and GIR, though Gaz was definitely my favourite. I liked Dib, and found him relatable in someways. I also liked Professor Membrane, and that Kamehameha he did in the final climax. There was a moment between Dib and his father that I did enjoy, and I won't spoil it.

The other thing I really enjoyed was the animation. I've seen clips of the show and knew that it was a darker show than Nickelodeon was known for. However, the style and lighting of the movie looked incredible, and the alternate artstyles when they went through the florpus hole, not only were they impressive, but I also found myself laughing at how ridiculous they could be. Really, this might be one of the best looking animated movies of the year, which really goes to show how good movies can be outside of the cinema.

Overall, I really enjoyed Enter the Florpus. I found it to be funny, engaging, charming and a visual delight. I don't know if this would rank high on my favourites list of the year, but I know it will rank at least in the top ten, which means this movie gets put in the recommended rank. If you have seen Invader Zim before, you'll probably enjoy it a lot more than me, but if you're new to the series, it is still worth checking out. I actually might start watching the show after this. I have high hopes.

First Impressions: The Addams Family (2019)

Animated Antic said that this was the biggest disappointment of the year for him.

Anim8Ball titled his review of the movie "Me-Di-O-Cre *snap* *snap*"

Now, I'm sure they both have valid arguments and criticisms towards the movie, but going in, with reasonable expectations and a lack of experience with the Addams Family, I can personally say that I disagree with them.

I thought the movie was pretty good, not great, but pretty good.

I kind of enjoyed the main arcs for each character, and the themes of tradition and fitting in the plots have. Now, I am not saying they are really deep or nuanced, what I'm saying is I enjoyed them. I really liked the film showing that Wednesday and Parker weren't all that different, and that Morticia was just as restrictive and controlling as Parker's mother. Of course, the difference between the two is still obvious, one goes to an extreme of keeping her daughter from leaving the house, and realizes she's done wrong. The other goes to the extreme of trying to straight up murder the entire family, and thinks she is justified, like I said, there really is not a lot of nuance here, so I don't think this movie will win any awards for plot.

That being said, I can take a lousy plot if the characters and jokes are good, so how are the jokes? They're mixed. A lot of the jokes are not really funny, but the ones I did find funny, I really found funny. The science class scene for an example, while the Frankenstein reference is cute, albeit a little predictable, the following reference to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I found hilarious, though I like reference humour. I think the humour as a whole was mixed, I found it funnier than some, but some of the jokes were pretty lame.

As for character, I think Wednesday was a really strong character, the way she works off of the others was always entertaining. I don't think there was a character I didn't enjoy in some way. On top of that, I really like the designs of them. The villain being this "standard" of beauty contrasts very well with Morticia Addams being very slender and monotone. Honestly, I quite enjoyed the characters in this movie, especially Wednesday, no wonder everyone likes her.

Maybe I'm more forgiving of this movie than others, I have not really indulged myself in The Addams Family outside of internet memes, so maybe there is something else I am missing. However, I did enjoy my time, and you know what, this movie was not The Secret Life of Pets 2, so, that is something. Does it have it's flaws, yes. However, I did enjoy my time, and I do think some others will too, so with that, I can safely give this movie a Slight Recommendation.

First Impressions: Abominable (2019)

A while ago, this was back in August if my Letterboxd is accurate, I watched a direct-to-video animated movie called "Legend of the Secret Pass". I thought that movie had a good premise, but was wasted on bland or annoying characters and sub-par animation, which did the scenes that tried to look beautiful zero favors. I mention this because, Abominable is kind of the opposite, it is a decent premise, but had wonderful characters with their own arcs and a beautiful art style and animation.

While there was some to enjoy in The Legend of the Secret Pass, I did not recommend it, but I do feel like this is kind of the movie it could have been with a better budget.

Each of the characters were interesting in their own way, and none of them ever got annoying. There is one character that is very childlike and energetic, but he never gets annoying. One character is super popular and "with it" and all of the stuff that personally makes me cringe, and he never gets annoying. I think each of the characters balance each other out, as well as the environments they go through.

While I do say that the animation is not the be all and end all of a movie, a movie like Abominable really does show why having good art and animation is, while not entirely important, is highly beneficial. Going back to the Legend of the Secret Pass movie, when it had a scene that should have looked beautiful, I could admire the ambition, but find myself thinking about what the scene would look like had a couple thousand more dollars been tossed its way. With Abominable, there is a particularly gorgeous scene that is also a deep emotional moment for the lead character. The beautiful colour, lighting, and camera movement all enhance the scene, where a movie that wouldn't have the budget or had people that did not understand the importance of these elements, would have the scene be hindered by them.

I think this movie really is a good example of what animation can do when your making a less cartoonish work. Animation is a lot more like cinema than a lot of people would think. It is not just the art of the drawings or modelings that make it beautiful, much like it is not the thousands of pictures taken for a live-action film is not what makes it engaging. In both mediums, it is the use of lighting, colour, performance, cinematography, choreography, music and writing that brings it to life.

I am unsure if this movie is going to rank as my favourite animated movie of the year, but I know it will rank high. Maybe not as high as Toy Story 4 or How to Train Your Dragon 3, but I definitely enjoyed it more than The Lego Movie 2. I also recommend this movie because I would love to see more from this studio, but I've heard this movie made back it's budget, so, I just hope it can make twice it's budget back.

First Impressions: Steven Universe: The Movie (2019)

So... what can I say about Steven Universe? Well, unlike Rocko's Modern Life, I actually did watch a lot of this show before the movie was announced. Though I still did binge watch most of it to catch up as I've kinda fell out of it. Watching it again though, I gotta say it really is great. That being said, it is flawed, and there are some things I do not think the writers really thought through, but hey, it has great characters, great animation, some great songs, I like it. I was pretty excited when the movie was announced, though I sadly did not see it as it aired, not really a Television watcher. So, I watched it online, admittedly not the best thing, but still. So, what are my thoughts on this movie?

I didn't like it.

I like the concept, a new villain comes in and reverts the gems to their original selves and begins to destroy the Earth. Plotwise, it is a fine movie, it flows well together, it's just that... well...

Can this movie go ten minutes without going into another song number?

Look, I get this is a musical, but even Disney has restraint when it comes to their song numbers. I'm not sure if they wanted to make their own "Power Puff Girls See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey" like thing but, that was like, a regular length episode and it was meant to be a rock opera like Tommy. They could have also wanted to make something like The Wall, but really The Wall worked better as an album, or maybe that is because the film cut songs out. I know the songs are a well loved aspect of the show, and don't get me wrong "Stronger Than You" and "Here Comes a Thought" are two of my favourite songs in animation, but some of these songs just appear to fast. Even ones that, if given a second listen to I'd probably enjoy, I just wanted them to end so I could get back to what I like the show for, the characters.

When it comes to characters, I want to say this movie is wonderful because it is the show characters, but a few years older, but no. While Steven is still a good character, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl are turned into their original selves (i.e. before the show began) so the characters we know and love don't really appear until towards the end. Lapis and Peridot are the same though, and that is great because I love them both, and most of the laughs I got out of this movie were from them. I, have yet to see Bismuth's return episode, but I do kind of like her character here. Connie is out of the film completely until the third act which sucks, and the new character of Spinel is... I don't really like her.

Spinel is that clingy friend people don't like to hang around with, even in her original form, she is kind of annoying. This may be because I am an introvert, but then again I would be lying if I said I didn't see a bit of myself in her. We do both love fun and do get emotional, but the difference is, I do worry that I annoy my friends sometimes... a lot... and a character like Spinel doesn't.

"But don't you like SpongeBob and Patrick? Aren't they similar characters?"

Yes and no, SpongeBob and Patrick are both fun loving and can be ignorant to the annoyance of the people around them, and the episode where that gets out of control are some of the worst episode of the show. The episodes where it's SpongeBob and Patrick working off of each other, or off of just Squidward, or where the town gets in on their antics, those are the episodes where they shine.

"But Spinel's backstory, and how she has trust and abandonment issues."

Yes, Spinel's backstory is really sad, but ultimately, I don't think a character having a trauma makes them good characters from the get-go. Also remember that she spends a good chunk of the movie as her original self anyway, Steven hit her with that, admittedly cool scythe weapon. So, I can assume that this is the character she was with Pink Diamond.

Yeah, at the end we do see the full trauma she deals with, which also hit close to home for me, but when I have to get through the stuff I don't like to get to the parts I do, that isn't fun, or entertaining, it's boring, and frustrating. Even Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, for as tedious, uncomfortable and insane as that movie got, it still had all the funny, engaging and creative moments. At the end of the day, I don't think someone should use their trauma to justify being a horrible friend, but hey, Spinel changes in the end, and for the better. Like Peridot... and Lapis... and Bismuth... and apparently the Diamonds... Yeah, just... following the formula... nothing wrong with that.

Actually that is harsh, Spinel is kind of like Tempest Shadow from the MLP movie. Though, even then, that movie did turn the main baddie into a stone statue and let him fall of a balcony and shatter on the ground. I do like the idea of using non-violent and peaceful ways to overcome your enemies, but I also think that not everyone can be won over that way. Some people are just to arrogant, to prideful, to savage or just to stupid to think that way.

I don't want to say this movie is completely bad, I did find myself laughing at some moments, I liked the concept of the movie, the animation was gorgeous, and I never really hated any of it, but I found myself not liking a lot of it either. Seriously, there were way too many songs in this movie, a Disney sing-along has less singing. I'm not sure if this needed to be reworked from the ground up, or just needed an extra re-write, or maybe if the whole thing would have been better if it was more like The Wall instead where it was all music and told a story through it all. As a whole, if you like Steven Universe, you might like it, but even then that is a big "MIGHT", there are some fans that didn't like this movie, and I can see why. Still, I don't think this is one to skip over, but it isn't one I really recommend either, you know what that means!

Oh yeah, there were also some comments that Rebecca Sugar made involving Spinel, but in these cases I like to invoke the "Death of the Author".

Also, updates to this blog may be coming infrequently for a while, here's a previous post explaining why: https://darkanimatedodeon.blogspot.com/2019/09/update-it-has-been-couple-weeks-whats.html

Update: It has been a couple weeks, what's going on?

This is just an update post, I haven't been writing reviews for the time because I have been starting school once more. I am going to art college.

This, of course, throws my schedule for a loop, and I want to find a decent solution around it. Keep in mind, I live with my dad and I prefer to watch movies on my own. So, it may take me a while to get back into doing proper reviews.

That being said, I will still try to get as many "First Impressions" blogs out as I can. I still have the Invader Zim and Steven Universe movies on the back burner, I do intend to do those before the year ends.

So yeah, reviews are going to be postponed for a while, until I get back into a working schedule.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

The Secret of NIMH (1982) - A truly amazing and timeless classic

The 1980s was an amazing decade for a lot of reasons, awesome music, hilariously awful fashion, video games becoming popular, and animation getting out of the rut it has been in since at least the forties. You see, the eighties was the last decade that the "it's for kids" mentality was really a driving force of the animation being made. It still exists mind you, but nowadays we have an understanding that animation can be made for anyone. This idea really did begin in the seventies with Ralph Bakshi, but it became more of an explored concept in the eighties with releases like Heavy Metal in 1981, Akira and Grave of the Fireflies in 1988 and The Simpsons in 1989. On top of that, we also got a lot more adult children's films, ranging from The Fox and the Hound (one of my personal favourites) and the works of Don Bluth. After he left Disney, he made some of the greatest animated features of the 1980s, starting with The Secret of NIMH.

The Secret of NIMH tells the story of a field mouse named Mrs. Birsby, as she must find a way to move off of her field to avoid getting her and her children killed by the farmer's plow. However, as one of her children is sick and cannot be moved, she must seek help from the Rats, who come from a scientific research lab and have gained superior intelligence. Here, she learns the past of her deceased husband and meets the elder Nicodemus, who tells of her their plans to leave the farm altogether and live independently. However, a power hungry rat named Jenner wishes to sabotage the plans and stay in the rosebush they inhabit. The plot is loosely based on a book, which, this time I have actually read, but a long time ago, I was in Middle School when I read it. So, like usual, I am unable to comment on book accuracy.

As for the plot itself, it is solid. We get to see the motivations of characters and why they do what they do. We see why Mrs. Brisby goes to rough lengths to save her family, why Jenner is in favour of the moving project, and it is seeing these motivations that makes the plot stronger and the characters more interesting.

Speaking of which, when it comes to characters, this movie is almost perfect. Mrs. Brisby is a great character, she's timid and worrisome, but also brave and determined. She'll do whatever it takes to save her family, risking the same fate as her late husband. The rest of the characters are fine, Justin is your typical "Leader-to-be" character, Jenner is your typical treacherous villain, Nicodemus is your typical old wise man, they aren't bad characters, they're actually great characters, and dialogues they have are always interesting, it is more that their motivations won't necessarily shock you. The only character I really found myself disliking was the crow Jeremy, which is kind of funny because Crows are my favourite bird. Jeremy was just really annoying to me, and I get that was kind of the idea, but I found myself really annoyed by him at times. I found myself fast forwarding through his scenes a lot, I really could not stand him.

While the eighties is not knows for super pretty animation, I do think that this movie looks amazing. Don Bluth is an amazing animator and while there are no visible animation errors, the real treat is the design and colours. The design of the home of the rats is really cool, and seeing a lot of the lights is neat. The colour scheme is also nicely varied, a lot of scenes are bright and colourful, others are dark and moody. The canal in the cave is a beautiful and the scene with the Owl is amazing. I have never been more amazed than afraid of a spider in an animated movie, well one that was supposed to be scary anyway. While the movie does have the eighties style to it, it is an aesthetic I enjoy, so it will really come down to your preference on that one. As a whole, the animation is solid, and really does showcase the talents of Don Bluth and his team.

The Secret of NIMH is a wonderful movie. It has a solid plot, identifiable motivations, wonderful characters, amazing background design, smooth animation, beautiful colours, this is a must see for any animation fan. Really, most of the Don Bluth catalogue is worth checking out. He really did some incredible movies, and I really hope we get that Dragon's Lair movie soon. As for The Secret of NIMH, it is a timeless classic that many kids and adults will love. While it is not one of my all time favourites, I still think this movie has earned a High Recommendation.