My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) - Nothing new, but it's cute and fun.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has been one of the most surprising shows ever from the 2010s. Not only was it a surprise that it was as good as it was, or that it became a massive phenomenon. What was really surprising was that it found a large audience of male viewers above it's target age. Many fans were taken in by the shows charming and relatable characters, beautiful animation and important morals. What you got to remember is that this is the fourth generation of this franchise, and while Generation 1 had a movie, and Generation 3 had a couple, which many would rather forget about, Friendship is Magic only had a spin-off series of movies known as "Equestria Girls", which I am not planning to look at currently. So, come around 2017 and a feature length film that will be released in theatres and actually takes place in the land of Ponies, and the fandom, myself included, had some high hopes.

I remember seeing this movie in the theatre. I was actually thinking it wouldn't be showing in my city, not that I live in a small one, I live in the capital of the province, but a lot of people think that the capital is another city altogether. Anyway, it did get shown, and I did end up going to see it. While I was watching it, I loved it. The movie looked great, had wonderful songs, and had the characters I loved going on an adventure, what was not to love? Watching it recently, turns out there is a bit that is not to love, but is that a bad thing?

While Twilight Sparkle and her friends are setting up a massive festival, a new villain emerges called The Storm King, and he sends his lackey, Tempest Shadow (A Unicorn with a broken horn), to crash the festival and capture the princesses. Twilight and her friends manage to escape, and must go on a large adventure that takes them away from Equestria to find the kingdom of Hippogriffs. Along the way, they meet some colourful characters and get hunted by Storm Guards led by Tempest on her mission to regain her broken horn. Plot wise, this movie hits a lot of familiar beats. Grand opening song number? Check! Big dangerous location that our characters manage to get out of? Check! The big fall out? You better believe that is a check. In some respects, this is not really a bad thing, I mean, boiling it down this is basically the plot of the SpongeBob movie and the Simpsons movie, I guess you could also include Toy Story 3 in that line-up. I liked all of those movies, in the end it isn't the plot that drives a movie like this, it would be more the characters, humor and settings. So how are those aspects?

Character wise, well, the Mane Cast are still the same characters from the show. Pinkie Pie is just impossible for me to hate, full of energy and joy. Fluttershy is Fluttershy, she is timid a lot, but she does have a cute sassy moment in the opening and I just love it. Twilight is still my favourite pony, Rarity is very much a primadonna, but she still has some entertaining moments. If you like the show, you're not going to be let down by how the movie handles the characters. As for new characters, Tempest Shadow is pretty cool. Honestly, it's nice to see some canon about what happens when a unicorn breaks their horn. Capper is suave and charming, the bird pirates are pretty cool, the Hippogriff's are fine. I think this movie was good an introducing characters and giving them some motivation and character arcs, but as we spend most of our time with Twilight and friends, it is kind of a mixed bag.

The other two characters worth talking about are The Storm King and Grubber. I am, not really fond of either of these characters. Grubber is that comic relief character that villains have to make them less intimidating. You know, Iago from Aladdin, Kronk from Emperor's New Groove, Max from Yellow Submarine (Not like the Blue Meanie really needed one anyway). Grubber is the worst of these characters, worse than Iago. He's a big eating character, and does nothing to really advance the plot outside of notice Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom. Which Tempest could have easily spotted on her own, and reveal the characters while they are trying to rescue Twilight. Aside from Grubber, The Storm King is also pretty lame, from the introduction of Tempest, you would expect him to be big and menacing. Instead, I think they tried to aim for the Blue Meanie, but instead hit more, Discord crossed with Lord Tirek. This is not an interesting villain, one of the worst I've seen in an animated movie, up there with The Horned King from The Black Cauldron. When it comes to character, this movie is mixed. It does the familiar characters well, but the new characters, not so much.

As for the humour, this movie has some funny moments. Never laugh-out-loud funny, but amusing and sometimes the movie did get some genuine laughs out of me. I don't think this is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, but I don't think humour was the biggest focus for this movie. The movie isn't an adventure-comedy, it's a musical-adventure. So, how is the music? It's okay. The first song that plays is forgettable, I had no memory of the song playing at all, and really I only remember it now because I wrote it down in a notebook;

"Song 1: Forgettable"

The rest of the music is fine. When I used to talk about music, I wrote a blog post on the songs from the movie, but to summarize, the music is fun and bouncy. Looking back, I think I was a bit too enthusiastic, but there were worse musicals I've watched. The background music on the other hand is really good. Again, it hits on a lot of the same beats as other movies, but a lot of it is really good and helps emphasize the tension of the scenes. Special mention goes to the instrumentals of Capper's song, they were wonderful.

And this brings us to the animation. As expected, the animation quality would be higher than the TV show's would. Not that the show looks bad, the show looks amazing honestly. However, it definitely is not of cinematic quality. Now, whether or not one likes the change in art-style is their own preference. Personally, I love it. It looks so smooth, the characters look properly three-dimensional, and the colour palette of the movie is gorgeous. Again, this all comes down to preference, I can totally understand if you dislike the change in art-style. However, on the other side of the animation spectrum is the actual animation, and while it is really good for the most part, fluid and smooth. There are some pretty bad facial animations here and there. Nothing on the level of that Hercules and Xena movie I reviewed prior, but still pretty laughable.

I am a little torn on this movie. On one hand, there is a bit that is worth watching here. The songs are fine, the animation is beautiful, and I do like some of the new characters and settings. On the other hand, it is a familiar plot, and even the stuff I liked is not anything really new. I guess in the end, it all depends on what you want. Do you want a charming adventure with your favourite characters, or do you want a truly fantastic movie? I'll admit, I've kind of fallen out of the MLP fandom as of late, so maybe I'm not the best person to get a review of this movie from. However, I am of the belief that the main goal of the entertainment industry is to entertain, and there is some entertainment value to be found in this movie. Thank goodness I have a rating for movies like this. My Little Pony: The Movie, is a fine, charming, cute and at times, even a fun adventure, but it is not anything truly great, so if you are looking for something great, or just aren't in the mood for it, this movie might not be for you.

First Impressions: Toy Story 4 (2019)

Well, let's wrap up this little Toy Story Marathon with the first impressions of the latest movie in the franchise, Toy Story 4. I'll admit, when I first heard this movie was being made, I was expecting to hate it. In fact, I was kind of thinking it would be my most hated movie of the year. Then something happened, a couple of the critics I follow on Twitter started sharing some behind-the-scenes info on the movie, and something changed. I no longer saw this as a cynical cash grab on nostalgia, I saw this as a heart filled cash grab on nostalgia. Then, I saw Secret Life of Pets 2, which you may notice I made zero blogs about, and that was because it was so bland, boring and benign that I had nothing to really say about it. After watching something that was what I shall now dub the "Three B's of Failure", whatever Toy Story 4 had to offer, would have been much better. So, I was actually excited to see it in the end, and thankfully, my expectations were exceeded.

Toy Story has been a movie franchise that got better and better with each installment. Toy Story was a technical marvel and had a lot of memorable moments and characters, Toy Story 2 improved on everything in just four years, Toy Story 3 was my favourite of the series, and then I saw Toy Story 4.

If I'm being honest here, this is my favourite of the Toy Story movies. It is kind of a combination of everything I loved about the other three movies. It's the characters and warm colours of the second, the adventure of the first, and the emotions and lighting of the third, and it is all done so much better.

The movie looks amazing, Pixar really knocked it out of the park once again. Honestly, Pixar has been making a lot of visually impressive movies this decade, Coco looked amazing, Toy Story 3 looked amazing, Inside Out looked amazing, and Toy Story 4 looks amazing. All of the textures look so good, the lighting is amazing, and the animation is perfect. The visuals impressed me and kept impressing me until the end.

And the new characters, as is Toy Story tradition, are also amazing. The antagonist is sympathetic, you can understand what she is going through and sympathize with her and her endeavors. Forky was adorable, he was kind of like Pinkie Pie, or Kronk in that, you can't really hate them. But the character that really impressed me was the returning Bo Peep. Oh, man she was awesome in this movie. She was tough, but also emotional, and she was without a doubt, my favourite character in the movie.

And yeah, lets talk about the ending. Full admission here but, I did almost come close to crying. Jeez, what is it with these movies and trying to make the audience cry? Toy Story 3 with the incinerator and now Toy Story 4? Without spoiling the movie, it did nearly make me tear up.

Really, I'm just amazed at this movie. The new characters were wonderful, the movie had good amounts of humour, it looked beautiful. Some of the audience members in my theatre actually applauded at the end, and yeah, this has been one of two movies I've seen this year that really deserved it. Quite frankly, when you're on par with How to Train Your Dragon, that is one of the greatest compliments that can be given to a movie. Yeah, High Recommendation for this one.

And that wraps up our Toy Story Marathon, it was fun looking at all of these movies, but now it's time to look at something a little bit out there. See you next time at the Odeon.

Toy Story 3 (2010) - A Roller Coaster, Exciting, Entertaining and Keeps you on Edge.

And now, the final review of our Toy Story Marathon. Toy Story 3 was released a full decade after the second movie, but while a length of that magnitude could spell trouble for other films, Toy Story 3 found wide critical acclaim and was the highest grossing movie, not just animated movie, but movie in general of 2010, beating out films like Iron Man 2, Inception, How to Train your Dragon, and Tron: Legacy. What could have easily been a nostalgic cash-grab turned into one of the most beloved Pixar classics, and I'm not even going to pretend otherwise, this movie definitely deserves it.

While I can appreciate the first Toy Story as a landmark in animation history, and the second one for what improvements it made from the first, Toy Story 3 is a movie I can appreciate for more than historical significance. Toy Story 3 is the first of these movies I enjoyed from beginning to end. The second movie made me optimistic about this movie and I think the optimism paid off.

Andy's off to college now, and he starts to pack away his things, deciding to put his old toys in the attic, save for Woody. However, after a mix-up, Woody and the other toys find themselves in Sunny-Side, a Daycare for young children. Here, Woody and the gang get separated when Woody gets taken by a young kid named Bonnie and the rest of the toys stay behind in a room full of kids too young to be playing with them. This leads to both parties finding out that an old toy in the Daycare, a stuffed-scented bear named Lotso Huggins, is being a bit dictatorial towards the other toys. Now, Woody and the gang have to hatch a plan to escape, one that involves sneaking past the guards, and working around a reprogrammed Buzz Lightyear. The plot is surprisingly cohesive, I was kind of expecting this movie to be all over the place, but the plot is very smooth and flows quite nicely.

Plot wise it does hit on some of the similar beats to the other two movies, it starts with the army guys bringing in a communication device, has Buzz thinking he is an actual space ranger and also has Woody being taken from home and the rest of the group. I don't think that these repeated notes are a bad thing though, as a lot of them are kind of saying "Hey, things have changed now". The one's that are major are different from the previous movies to make this film stand out, it's not Buzz and the gang saving woody, now it's the other way around, for example. Plus, unlike the first film, this movie didn't have a plot I didn't like, bonus points!

Character wise, these are the same characters we've known and loved since the nineties, not a lot has changed with them. I do like seeing how Woody is still trying to be optimistic and keep the others in high spirits at the start, and I swear Zumbido Año Luz Buzz Lightyear was hilarious to watch. As for new characters, Lotso is a wonderful villain. A lot of people say he is a "twist villain", if he is then they play the twist really early. I like how his kind and friendly demeanor is a facade, how he presents the options as win-win scenarios even though they really weren't. I think this is Disney's best modern villain, and a great example of a manipulator villain. The rest of the cast is fine, as well, these movies never really struggled with character.

Animation wise however, this is the best looking of the three movies. The second one has a lot of warm colours that were pleasing to the eye, and the first one was a technical marvel. However, the textures and models in this one look much better, especially with a literal decade of experience since the second film. On top of that, the cinematography is great, scenes that are hectic and chaotic are fast paced, slower more suspenseful and dramatic scenes have longer holds. The lighting is also amazing, while the warmer colours are gone, the colour scheme and lighting match the scenes they are in, the warm fires of the incinerator, the bright light of the interrogation, it's all perfectly set. Special mention goes to the music as well, perfectly setting the mood and complimenting the scene beautifully. The incinerator scene in particular, the music starts and it's slow and somber, but by the end it sounds a lot more triumphant. This movie does not struggle with the technicals.

Also yeah, this movie gets dark. It's not a roller coaster for nothing. It has moments of intensity, fear, mystery, and even accepting fate. It's an emotional challenge at times and keeps you on edge. Will they escape the daycare? Will they take down the monkey? What is gonna happen to them at the dump? That isn't to say it doesn't have it's more upbeat moments, and a fair amount of humour, but Toy Story 3 is definitely the most emotional ride of these movies so far.

Toy Story 3 was amazing. Cohesive plot, wonderful characters, Spanish Buzz Lightyear was flat out hilarious to witness, beautiful animation, wonderful music. Toy Story 3 was a joy to watch, and is so far my favourite of the Toy Story movies. That also makes it the first of these movies to get a High Recommendation out of me, joyous celebration.

But, the marathon isn't over yet. Toy Story 4 is coming out soon, and I intend to share a First Impressions on it. See you then!

Toy Story 2 (1999) - A well-made sequel that improves on the first film

Continuing on with our Toy Story marathon, Toy Story 2 was Pixar's third feature film following 1998's A Bug's Life. Making a sequel for your third feature is risky, however, as one would assume from Pixar's upcoming sequel, the risk paid off. Many even consider Toy Story 2 on par, if not better, than the original movie. As good as the first movie was, because of the jealousy plot it was not on my High Recommendations list, though it just missed out by a slight hair. So, is the sequel better?

When Andy accidentally rips Woody's arm in an play accident, he get's left behind as Andy goes off to camp for a couple days. During this time, Andy's Mom starts a yard sale and puts one of Andy's old toys in a discount bin. Woody attempts to save the toy, only to get kidnapped by Al, a collector of merchandise of an old show Woody was a part of, which he discovers in Al's apartment along with other toys from the same show like Jessie, Bullseye the horse and the Prospector, Stinky Pete. Meanwhile, Buzz and the gang must try and return Woody home, but Woody is told he can be a part of something greater, adored by many people for eternity. What will Woody choose?

In the end, I definitely enjoy this plot more than in the first movie. Now that the jealousy plot has been swapped out with an "important decision plot", the movie becomes a lot more interesting. Seeing Woody have to choose between his two options is a fascinating watch. Made more interesting thanks to the other characters he meets. I'd be a fool to not mention Jessie's backstory, being both a wonderful scene that shows how she's come to the conclusions she has, and being a big deciding factor in Woody's decision. Interest in the plot aside, it flows very well, I'd argue better than the first one, since we also don't have to deal with the "confused identity plot" as much as the first one, leading to a lot more of a natural flow rather than "And now he goes here because he still thinks he's a space ranger!" The "Confused identity plot" does make a small return, but it's mostly for humour and does not effect that plot in any really massive way.

Character wise, it's nice to see old characters get fleshed out, and the new characters are a nice addition to the movie. Hamm is really funny, a lot of his dry remarks always managed to put a smile on my face. Jessie is lively and energetic, but has an emotional side to her that leads to resentment. Stinky Pete is an interesting villain, while he is not like a classic Disney villain, he is good at manipulating Woody into eventually, coming around in his way of thinking. Seeing him work adds a new layer of fascination with the movie. Al's also really amusing, the second Buzz Lightyear is actually really entertaining. So far, these movies have not struggled with characters, which is a good sign. Kind of optimistic about Toy Story 3.

When it comes to animation, this film is a step up in quality. A lot of the human textures no longer look plasticy, there are a lot more warmer colours, human character movement no longer looks weird, and the lighting is less of a problem now. While I can praise the first movie for looking good even by today's standards, I can praise Toy Story 2 for looking better than the first. The first movie has a lot of good looking models, but the more fleshy and hairy textures did not look right. While the textures are not up to a current standards, I think the textures in this movie still look great. Of course, a lot of this would be overshadowed by Monsters, Inc. a couple years later. Taking that out of the picture, I don't have many complaints with the models and textures, nothing looks uncannily artificial and the colour scheme is a lot more pleasing to the eyes. Toy Story 2 is actually a good showcase for how quickly CG animation is evolving, remember this movie came out nearly four years after the first, and in that short amount of time we got a much better looking movie. It's actually quite impressive.

While people say that Toy Story 2 is a better sequel, I think it's better by a few margins. I think most people can appreciate the first movie as a landmark in both animation and cinema history, but it also has it's merits as a story with characters. While I enjoy the plot a lot more, enjoy the characters more, since we are not spending most of our time with just Woody and Buzz, and think the animation has improved. I did enjoy those aspects of the first film too, and while the jealousy plot was not my thing, it was not a big deal for me. I think Toy Story 2 is as entertaining as the first film, with a couple of improvements in the areas where it mattered the most. If you liked the first film, you are gonna enjoy the second, and as such it is given another "Hair under high" Recommendation.

And to finish up these reviews, next week will be my review of Toy Story 3, see you next time at the odeon!

Toy Story (1995) - An important and entertaining movie, but not for me.

Well, with the release of the fourth movie in the Toy Story franchise, I figured it would be a good time to take a look at the first three Toy Story movies, a little Toy Story marathon if you will. The first movie was released in 1995, it was a massively important movie for its time, being the first entirely Computer Generated animated feature, the first biggest hit for Pixar, and remains not only a staple of animation history, but a staple of Disney/Pixar's line-up. Everybody loved it, and still does if the upcoming sequel is anything to go by. So... Why is this not one of my favourite movies?

Well, let's start with the plot. When a little boy named Andy gets a hot new Buzz Lightyear toy for his birthday, his original favourite toy, a cowboy doll named Woody, becomes jealous and accidentally pushes Buzz out of a window. Andy then takes woody to an arcade-restaurant but Buzz catches up with him and knocks him out of the car. The two must try and get back home, but are caught by a sadistic kid named Sid, who takes pleasure in blowing up and dismembering toys. Now the two must work through their problems, which includes Buzz going through a depressive identity crisis, and escape from Sid's house before Andy and his Mom begin their move. Objectively speaking, plotwise the movie is solid. It leaves me with few questions, and has no sloppy transitions. For example, at Sid's house, Buzz and Woody try to escape and sneak past Sid's dog. Woody ends up making a noise that alerts the dog and chases them into separate rooms where Buzz seas a TV advertisement for his own toy, which causes him to attempt to fly out of a window, where he ends up falling and losing his arm, causing him to become depressed.

The plot works well and flows nicely with the movie, but honestly, I don't like jealousy plots. I really don't like these plots. I get that they are identifiable and relatable, but honestly, there are other plots I'd rather see than characters being petty. Which is why I much prefer the other aspects of the plot a lot more. Buzz's character arc is an interesting idea that is executed well. I really like the concept of Sid's toys and what they would be like if toys were alive, and I like the stuff with Woody and Buzz trying to get back home. I do like a lot of the plot, but I really hate jealousy plots.

That is however, only one aspect of the movie, how are the characters? As we spend most of the movie with Woody and Buzz, it is understandable that they get the most on screen character in the movie. As much as I think jealousy plots make for annoying plots, they do often make for good characters because, again they are relatable. A lot of us have been jealous of another person in our lives, and Woody's reasoning is understandable. Buzz is one to stick with the plan, but will sacrifice himself to let Woody succeed. In the end it is nice to see both of them willing to give the other the leg up in the end, which makes it nicer when they sit together at the end of the movie.

Side characters are also pretty good, Bo Peep is flirtatious, Potato Head is a bit of a cynic, and Andy is your typical kid character. I think the one character everyone remembers the most though is Sid, and I can see why. I think other critics summarized his character nicely, he is kind of that part of us that took pleasure in throwing our toys around, the part of us that liked to see things get destroyed in a microwave or blender, the part of us that would grow up into pyromaniacs, or maybe that is just me. The point is, Sid is relatable to many kids because at one point, we all liked to see our toys explode, maybe on the TV screen, or maybe in real life. I think having an assortment of characters that are relatable to not only children but also adults does help this movie a lot, and does help in making it stay a timeless classic.

But then we have the animation, and it is really dated by the standards of today. Lots of textures look plasticy, and lighting doesn't always look right. That being said, the textures on the toys usually look great, character animation is pretty good and the colour palette is colourful and varied. To call this movie out for it's dated textures would be like calling out a movie like TRON for its dated effects. It is not an invalid argument, but it ignores the importance of these movies. Both TRON and Toy Story were huge steps forward for CG animation, but even taking that aspect away, both movies still look fine as well. I'd say Toy Story looks better than TRON does though, you know with the thirteen (13) year difference between the two. Toy Story does have dated textures, but they are few and far between enough to not be distracting from otherwise good animation.

Overall, I really do want to love this movie. I would love for it to be one of my all-time favourite movies in general, but I hate jealousy plots. However taking that out of the picture, the rest of the plot was engaging, the characters were relatable, the animation holds up decently well today, and the movie has some good jokes in it. I am tempted to call this a High Recommendation solely for it's importance to animation, as it is difficult to imagine where theatrical animation would be without Toy Story. However, my problems with the movie do make me hesitant, and knowing how far CG animation has come in twenty-four (24) years does play some part in that too. That being said, I do say this is a must see for any animation fan, but then again, you probably have already seen it. I think a good compromise is to give it a Recommendation rating, only slightly shy of being a High Recommendation.

With that all said and done, next week I'll be taking a look at Toy Story 2.