First Impressions: Wendell & Wild (2022)

 

Henry Selick  is easily one of animations biggest directors, having directed movies that have breeched both the mainstream and the cult fanbases. From The Nightmare Before Christmas to Coraline, Henry Selick's movies are loved by animation fans all over, and with a collaboration with Jordan Peele, who has also produced beloved horror movies of recent years, it seems this would be a match made in Heaven. How could it possibly go wrong... Oh right... Netflix.

As I always say when I talk about animated movies that go directly to Netflix, I do not have high expectations of them. Yes, they have distributed some really good stuff, Klaus and Arlo the Alligator Boy were good movies, but the amount of absolute garbage they also peddle kind of outweighs the good stuff. Simply put, Netflix seems to stick their name on any crap and hope it's watched by enough people. Duck Duck Goose, Pets United, The Larva Island Movie, Vanguard's absolute unwatchable pieces of test animations like Gnome Alone and Fearless. They put their brand on absolute piles of unredeemable garbage and I seem to be the only one who acknowledges them. That being said, I know it is not entirely Netflix's fault, a lot of these movies are just movies they put their branding on, not actually ones they had made for them, and fair is fair, while I missed Appolo 10½ and The Sea Beast, they are both on my catch-up list, the reaction to both of them has been positive, so it does seem like this year, Netflix has upped their game this year.

So what about Wendell & Wild, is this movie any good? Is it another The House, or another Riverdance? Well, neither, it's a Wendell & Wild, and Wendell & Wild is good, damn good even.

I have said it before, I will say it again, the animated movie line-up this year has been mediocre at best. Not that The Bad Guys or Lightyear were bad movies, I enjoyed them fine, but they weren't really special movies. It really says something that my favourite animated movie of the year, was a film-festival release from 2021. Wendell & Wild is no Marcel The Shell With Shoes On, but it's in the same ballpark. The big issue with animated movies this year is they all seem to play it safe, Minions 2 is a prime example of this, being a movie that offered little in the way of challenge or depth, but offered decent enough entertainment value to make it less of an agonizing sitting. Marcel and Wendell & Wild both offer deeper stories and characters which make them stand out in a year where the best animated movie that wasn't released in a previous year, prior to now has been The Bad Guys, an entertaining movie, but a predictable one.

Wendell & Wild is another child-friendly horror from Henry Selick, but this one is PG-13. There is a stigma around the PG-13 rating now-a-days, since the PG rating has been given to movies with little more than one measly, and not even funny, adult joke. Yes Frozen, everyone will be howling with laughter at a foot-size joke, and while I won't say this imagery is on par with 1980s PG-13 movies, it can still be a lot for young kids. The images of corpses being brought to life, death and some darker themes do warrant this movie not being a standard G rating. On top of that, if anyone knows how to do child friendly horror, it's Henry Selick, Henry "Adapt the Neil Gaiman novel where a monster tries to sew buttons into a child's eyes to steal her soul" Selick. Even if I don't really like Coraline, I respect it immensely. I guess since this one isn't an adaptation like Coraline or James and the Giant Peach, the only thing I have to compare it to is, Henry Selick's other movies, and I think it has earned a spot amongst them all.

On top of that, the soundtrack is fantastic, the minute I heard X-Ray Spex play in the movie, my ears perked up and my hopes were raised. Germ-Free Adolescents is an amazing punk album and if you can, pick up a copy on Vinyl. However, I'm not here to talk about X-Ray Spex, but the rest of the soundtrack has some excellent songs on it. On top of the soundtrack, I also really like the themes of the movie, and I do think they are important for, not just kids, but also adults. Lots of people struggle with traumatic memories, guilt and the fallout of both, so it is nice to see this theme be tackled in a movie that is meant for, not little kids, but slightly older kids, kids who may be going through similar emotions or situations.

What can I really say, this was the kind of movie I needed to watch this year. After so many safe animated movies, I think it was time that Henry Selick and Jordan Peele came in and showed what animation was truly capable of. This was an excellent, risky and poignant movie, and I think... I think... I can't believe I'm saying this but... I think Netflix has the best new animated release of the year. it felt weird to say that, Netflix, the company that put it's name on Animal Crackers of all movies, giving us arguably the best animated movie of the year. Is someone at Netflix reading this blog? Well, doubtful, but The House and Wendell & Wild both released this year, and Nimona is set to release next year, and honestly, my hopes are getting pretty high for Nimona, it does seem Netflix is doing something good. What an absolutely strange feeling.

Editorial: Top 10 Animated Disney Villains

Easily one of our favourite things about Disney is their impeccable ability to create some of the most vile and evil beings known to man, I'd make a joke about their CEOs being worse than their villains, but I think there is enough obvious things within this list. Everyone has a favourite Disney baddie, from the movies to the shows and even the comics, Disney villains are, or at least were, one of the things we loved to look forward to in watching their stuff, so, this Spooky season, in lieu of watching something Halloween related, I thought I would have some fun.

Being someone that loves Disney villains as much as the next person, I don’t think my choices are gonna be to out there, but either way, I wanted to celebrate my favourite vile, scummy, down right despicable villains and antagonists that the Magic Kingdom has to offer. Some of them will be quite obvious picks, but there may be one or two surprises here. I decided to not limit myself to only the animated canon, so I'm including villains from other animated movies, cartoons and comics. I'm leaving out any live-action villains because this is primarily an animation blog, and I'm also excluding any villains who were exclusive to video games, so no Organization XIII, Mizrabel or Shadow Blot and Blotlings from Epic Mickey. Also to be fair, the two major comics antagonists I have picked for this list, they've also made major appearances in animation, so consider this more of an animation list than anything else.

Anyway, on with the countdown!

#10. Professor Ratigan - The Great Mouse Detective

Disney has a way of making their villains so fun, but also very intimidating. Ratigan is definitely one of the villains that is entertaining enough to not be too scary, but at the same time always menacing. There are times when you just feel Ratigan is holding back his true villainy, just to keep up the appearance of suave and sophistication. Of course, when he is finally able to unleash his true dark side, it is as intimidating and scary as some of the classic Disney villains. A lot of that is due to the voice acting, Vincent Price is not only an amazing actor, but apparently he translates into the voice booth just as well. He always finds that right mix of entertaining and threatening that I don't think many other actors could get. The Great Mouse Detective was a fun, but a bit risqué children's film, and Ratigan was a big reason for that. He had some of the most entertaining moments of the film, but also some of the scariest moments. He's a fun blend of fun and sinister that is the perfect start to my list.

#9. The Phantom Blot - Disney Comics/DuckTales (2017)

The comics world is weird, esoteric and full of just strange things. Batman has a cow, there is a Squirrel themed super-hero who took out Thanos effortlessly, and Mickey Mouse has an antagonist that is just a massive shadow, resembling an ink blot test. While The Phantom Blot is a cool villain in and of himself, I mean he sets up back-up death traps in case his first death trap fails, what really makes him one of my favourites is that he is just a neat little send up to the comic fans. While he doesn't appear often in animation, when he does, it does feel like the writers are giving a little nod to the comic fans, saying "Yeah, we see you." You may be wondering what I think of him in the 2017 DuckTales series, since that was most likely his largest role in anything outside of the comics. Well, I definitely liked him, and I think it was a neat idea to have something chasing down Magica, it really does go to show, the enemy of your enemy is not your friend. That being said, I do think Phantom Blot was one of those villains that worked best as a duo, think Yzma and Kronk or Prince John and Hiss, and while I love Pepper as a character, and would love to see her (And a couple other DT17 original characters) become official Duck Comics canon, I mostly wanted this list to be full of solo acts.

#8. Chernabog - Fantasia

Chernabog, only number eight? Well, on the one hand, yes he is the pure embodiment of evil. His towering, shadowy figure looms over the town, and his own shadow distorts everything inside of it. The facial expressions he makes, inspired by horror icon Bela Lugosi, are pure nightmare fuel. Outside of Fantasia, he has been seen with other big name Disney villains, including taking over the House of Mouse with Jafar, smashing Mickey and friends at American Football with Pete and the Beagle Boys, and even trying to take over The Magic Kingdom with Hades. He's been a Kingdom Hearts boss, and referenced in so many other media, some did it well like Rocko's Modern Life, others did it poorly like The Thief and the Cobbler. Yes, I do think that design and reputation alone, Chernabog has earned a spot as one of the top Disney villains... That all being said, he's mostly been used for comedic effect recently, nothing super menacing, like in The House of Mouse where he admits to being afraid of the dark, or when he was sheepish around Michael Eisner, or the aforementioned Football game in the 2010s Mickey Mouse cartoons. On top of that, Chernabog doesn't really do all that much, he just kind of summons spirits and tortures them. Not that that isn't pretty evil, and it's definitely cool to watch, but when you compare it to what the other villains do, it's kinda weak. Design, associations and reputation can only get you so far, you need a little more substance to yourself, y'know.

#7. Oogie Boogie - The Nightmare Before Christmas

Oogie Boogie doesn't even make a major appearance in the movie until the third act, yet the character leaves such an impact that it doesn't even really matter that for most of the movie he's just kind of not there. Another villain that toes the line of entertaining and threatening, but you really do get the sense that he is only entertaining because you're watching him. You really feel as though that if you were anywhere near him you'd be terrified. It is also a very unique take on the Boogie Man, not a tall shadowy figure or a great snarling beast, but a big burlap sack of bugs, which does mean he lacks a lot of visual interest, but is still a version of the character not usually seen. On top of that, I do think they make him visually appealing enough, introducing him with the glowing eyes and mouth, and having him a bright glowing green, almost neon, does give a little bit of flare to what would otherwise be a boring design. On top of that the voice work by Ken Page is fantastic, almost hitting the tone of amusing but threatening as good as Vincent Price. Even though this character's role in the movie was small, he left a big impact, being resurrected for the sequel video game and being one of the main baddies in the first Kingdom Hearts game. Iconic, entertaining, and oh so evil, it's no wonder Oogie Boogie is a classic Disney villain to many.

#6. John Silver - Treasure Planet

Treasure Planet easily has the best dynamic between Jim Hawkings and John Silver in any version of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel. Easily one of two villains on this list who also makes my favourite Disney Characters list. Long John Silver, to begin with, is just a cool design, the cyborg parts add a unique touch to the character making him stand out, and the mix of CG and traditional animation is unique. On top of that, he is one of the few Disney villains to actually get a character arc. Throughout the movie, you really see him bonding with Jim, and become something of a father figure to the lad. Which makes it all the more crushing when the two end up on opposing sides. Culminating in the end where he has to choose between his life long obsession, and the lad he grew so close to. Apparently in the scrapped sequel, he was gonna return as a smuggler, and his smuggled explosives would have come in at the end climax. I am a bit bummed we never got Treasure Planet 2, it really seemed like it could have been the best of the Disney sequels. That all being said, this is also the reason Silver doesn't place in the top five, as this is mostly a list about villains and their villainy, and while John is a great character, he does end the movie by no longer being a threat to the protagonist. In fact, one could make the argument that Mr. Scroop is the real antagonist of the movie, he is the biggest threat to Jim, but at the end of the day, John Silver is still one of Disney's best characters, and as he is recognized as an official Disney villain, I guess that warrants a spot on this list.

#5. Magica De Spell - Disney Comics / DuckTales

On the topic of villains that also make my favourite characters list, Magica De Spell is a great villain no matter if she's in a comic, video game, cartoon or even alternate universe. The best thing about Scrooge McDuck's adversaries is that, for the most part, you do get some sense of respect or admiration between them. It is not uncommon in the comics for Scrooge and Magica to team-up for some reason, and the writers have had almost every reason for Magica to interact with the Duck Family, from trying to manipulate Gladstone Gander in another Dime Robbing Scheme (And potentially falling in love with him, Magicstone shipper to the bitter end), to going to visit Grandma Duck to get an herb for some hair lotion, or even involving the Triplets in a scheme. While comics canon is wild, it does seem that every writer agrees that on some level, there is positive emotions between Scrooge and Magica, which is probably why Dimeshipping is popular amongst the fandom. That being said, if I had to pick my favourite version of Magica as a villain, it would have to be the 2017 DuckTales series. Not that comics Magica, Topolino Magica, or '87 Magica are bad as villains, but I think 2017 got the mix of threatening and entertaining down better. Plus, while I love June Foray, she was just giving Magica her Natasha Fatale voice and it can be a bit distracting, where Catherine Tate's voice does make the character less silly. Magica De Spell was one of the things I think the DuckTales 2017 reboot did perfectly, beginning as just a shadow, developing her relationship with Lena, and even working in Scrooge's Number One Dime into her backstory. Whether you like the Comics, 87 Cartoon or 2017 series version better, Magica De Spell is easily one of the best Carl Barks characters ever put to paper.

#4. Lady Tremaine - Cinderella

Anyone who says that Cinderella just waited around and did nothing about her situation, well, that is how a lot of abuse victims are, because they often feel powerless against their abusers. With just control over one person's life, Lady Tremaine manages to squeeze every last drop of joy from poor Cinderella's existence. The mannerisms of Lady Tremaine are nightmarish, laying in her bed stroking Lucifer surrounded in shadow, and the way she glares at Cinderella makes my spine shiver. Lady Tremaine is one of the best Disney villains, mostly because she is the most realistic Disney villain. As much as we love to imagine, let's face it, there aren't a lot of Cruella De Vils or Professor Ratigans, or Magica De Spells, or Maleficents in this world, but there are a lot of Lady Tremaines. People who will destroy any chance at someone having a decent life for petty reasons at best. She is emotionally abusive to Cinderella, but there are other abusers who are mentally, physically and sexually abusive, among many other forms of abuse. It's not hard to think of alternate versions of the character where Lady Tremaine is even worse, because there are so many abusers out there. Abuse is not a competition, and if you or someone you know is being abused, talk about it to someone you trust, because you're stronger than they want you to be, and that is why they're afraid.

#3. Bill Cipher - Gravity Falls

Bill Cipher is not a villain that toes the line between amusing and threatening. Bill Cipher is a villain that is amusing because of how threatening he is. Among the gifts of heads that are always screaming and snappy zingers, lies a scheming being of pure evil. It does sometimes feel like Bill is two or three steps ahead of everyone else, like he could see how the events would play out by gaining Ford's trust, by manipulating Mabel, by making deals with Gideon. You do have to wonder how ahead of the game he is, but he also comes off as insane enough to just wing all of his plans. Both sides work as it makes him too tricky to dupe, but too cocky to think he ever could be duped. Bill Cipher really is the devil, and I don't mean that as a metaphor, the way he is portrayed in the show really does make him seem like a version of the Devil himself. I mean, there is the obvious weirdmageddon stuff, but then you have Time Baby, the closest thing to God in this show, and all of his deals, which always turn out in his favour. The Devil will play any trick to make a deal with you, up to and including pretending to be God. Much like The Devil as well, when you are aware of his presence you see him everywhere, the window, in carvings, all over the place. You really get the sense he is everywhere, omnipotent, he sees all, in fact he could be all. Everything, everywhere, all at once, Bill Cipher is three-sides of one goal, pure chaotic evil.

#2. Maleficent - Sleeping Beauty

Okay, hot take, Sleeping Beauty is the "Pre-Death of Disney" era's equivalent of Frozen. Weak story, okay characters, fantastic visuals, the only difference being that Frozen's villain sucked, while Sleeping Beauty's villain was Maleficent. Maleficent is a character that is evil, most likely because it is the only thing that gives her any joy. Spreading curses and smiting weaklings is what she enjoys doing, and her evil laughter is one of the best evil laughs in all of cinema. Points to Elanor Audley who provided the voice for Maleficent, giving a truly threatening performance. Where Bill Cipher is entertainingly threatening, Maleficent is threateningly entertaining, in that you always want to see what she does next, or where her plan is going. Maleficent is usually one of the top tier baddies in Disney villain team-ups, especially in Kingdom Hearts where she is the leader of the main group of Disney Villains. She is the mother of lead character Mal in the Descendants series, and was the first villain to get their own spin-off series, which, while not a major achievement, does still show how popular of a character Maleficent is. Evil to the bone and loving every second of it, Maleficent has stayed a villainous icon for a reason.

Which does beg the question, if Chernabog, John Silver, Magica De Spell and Bill Cipher don't top Maleficent, why is she at number two? Well, there is one villain I like more than Maleficent, but before then, because there are a lot of Disney villains that people will jump down my throat if I don't include, here are some honourable mentions.

1. Hades (Hercules) - fun and entertaining, though not much on the threatening side. James Woods does an excellent performance, but I just haven't seen Hercules in a long time.
2. The Evil Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) - The one that started it all, more or less. Gotta give her some respect.
3. Cruella De Vil (101 Dalmatians) - Well designed and entertaining enough, but her villainy amounts to theft and furs, which is pretty weak, honestly I prefer Glenn Close's portrayal.
4. The Mad Doctor (Mickey Mouse Shorts) - The villain in a short that got banned, that's gotta be worth something.
5. Negaduck (Darkwing Duck) - Jim Cummings' voice makes kitties, puppies and ducklings keel over and die.
6. Yzma and Kronk (The Emperor's New Groove) - Easily Disney's funniest duo, but again, this is predominantly a solo club.
7. Pete (Disney-verse) - Disney's oldest character, so while his villainy is malleable, he is worth a mention.
8. The Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland) - Note to self, review Alice in Wonderland sometime in the future.
9. Lotso Huggins (Toy Story 3) - Pixar's best villain. Consider him my Number eleven.

So many wonderful Disney baddies, and which villain tops all of them? Well, it is less of a character and more of an entity, but it is often considered one of the best villains in cinema, so... without further ado...

#1. Man - Bambi

Yes, I did not like Bambi. That does not matter, I'm not ranking these villains on how much I like their source movies or shows. Man was probably the most well done thing in Bambi. First, you hear Man's gunshots, but you don't see any damage, then you hear man's gunshots, and you are told of the damage. While it is unseen, it is made known that Man has done something. Finally, not only do you hear Man shoot something, you see a dead body fall to the ground. Finally hitting home what exactly the threat of Man is. It was very well done, and really does keep Bambi from being a truly unbearable movie in my opinion. We never see Man, but we are always aware of Man when the are in the forest. It is also worth noting that many hunters actually avoid shooting at female animals, so it is likely that the hunter that shot Bambi's mom was doing so illegally, or just didn't care. What really puts Man on my list though, is Man's impact within the real world. That isn't to say that Maleficent, Bill Cipher or Lady Tremaine did not scare some kids, but they would eventually grow up and overcome the fear these characters gave them. Man on the other hand is different, because anyone could have been Man, and worse, they could have been the "Man" that killed Bambi's mom. Your Dad sitting next to you, your neighbor, your teacher, Red Green, any of them could have been the "Man" that killed Bambi's Mom, carelessly set fire to the forest, or even nearly killed Bambi himself. It really made kids look at relatives and friends who were hunters in a different light, and I have to give credit where it is due, very few villains really have that kind of impact. I mean, Darth Vader didn't make people look at fascism any differently, The Joker didn't change many people's minds on mental health, nobody really talks about the world of envy and pride of Plankton from SpongeBob, and those are some of the most iconic villains of all time. For traumatizing people both in and out of the cinema world, Man from Bambi has to rank as number one on my favourite Disney Villains list.

Although modern Disney movies have been leaving the idea of the traditional villain behind, it is fun to look at some of our favourite baddies, the ones who told us that heroes can overcome any obstacle, the ones who taught us that the worst villains can be the ones we're closest to, the ones who taught us that villainy can really be about perspective. I won't argue that modern Disney movies need villains, Encanto and Turning Red were fine without them, but I do think villains are important in some manor. One of my favourite quotes preceded Neil Gaiman's Coraline, which he attributed to G.K. Chesterton, it reads "Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." Of course the dragons are a metaphor. Villains are fun, not simply because they give a story stakes, but because when the heroes defeat them, we learn that we can defeat them too.

have a happy and safe Halloween everyone.

Editorial: Disney Dreamlight Valley - Video Game Review

 

So, trying something different, again I like to use Editorials and other non-review type blogs to just kind of talk about things on my mind. Maybe that's an old SpikeTV show, maybe it's why I don't really put a lot of stock into the Academy Awards, or maybe it's a video game I have been playing a lot recently, and with 40 hours put in within the span of less than a month, I think it is safe to say this game has been on my mind as of late. I want to put this 39 hours into perspective, one of my favourite childhood games, Stronghold, is available on Steam, I've put 9.3 hours into since I bought it. One of my favourite releases this year was The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe, which I have put 7.1 Hours total into. I've put 4.4 total hours into DuckTales Remastered, 5 hours total into the original DOOM, and as for three of my all time favourite video fames, BioShock, Portal 2 and Saints Row The Third, 14.4 Hours, 9.9 Hours and 29 hours respectively. The games I put more hours into a Garry's Mod at 211 Hours, Tabletop Simulator at 160.8 Hours, and Viscera Cleanup Detail at 533.4 Hours, and those three are really just mindless time wasters I like to play while I have a YouTube video on in the background. However, just because I put a lot of hours into a game doesn't mean I love it, and while I do enjoy this game, there are some flaws.

So what is the main plot of this game? Well, your character enters Dreamlight Valley, what was originally a beautiful paradise where all your favourite Disney characters roam free, like Scrooge McDuck, Wall-E, Belle... whom I haven't come across yet, Cinderella... no she isn't in the game... Yeah, we'll get to that. Anyway, you are tasked by Merlin to tidy up the area and restore the valley to it's natural state, think something along the lines of the plot of Stardew Valley, except the characters aren't dealing with all varieties of mental illnesses, well not explicitly anyway. The main idea is that this is another, albeit more fleshed out attempt at for Disney to make a massive crossover video game.

On principle, I do not have any issue with Disney's massive crossover games, I mean as a Disney nerd, I am quite fond of the idea. I mean, Disney Heroes: Battle Mode is a fantastic idea, but a mediocre at best game. Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey is absolutely insufferable, and Disney Mirrorverse... I dunno, I never actually played it. The main issue is, no studio seems to really know what to do with the massive collection of characters from the Walt Disney Corporation. Let's put them in a mobile RPG where they have very little interaction, let's put them in a fantasy RPG where they interact only within their own worlds, let's have a life-sim/errand runner where we only have a handful of Disney characters.

Yeah, that is my first issue with the game, I do get the idea that you might not want to use ALL of the Disney characters, you gotta think about story, quests and of course whether or not you are allowed to use the I.P., but at the same time, you're making a game with all manner of Disney characters and you decide that you aren't going to represent movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Treasure Planet or even Cinderella, and the characters they do have to represent some movies... I mean why have the only Tangled character be Mother Gothel? Why is the only Lion King character in this game Scar? Despite it being an even worse game, Disney Heroes: Battle Mode still has this game beat by having representation for multiple Disney properties.

On top of that, the majority of the game is literally just running errands for the characters. A lot of people would compare this game to Animal Crossing, and I have even compared it to Stardew Valley, but the game this really reminds me of is Disneyland Adventures, a game where you wander around Disneyland, do busy work for the characters and occasionally play a mini-game. It's like that, except there are no mini-games, and just like Disneyland Adventures, I found myself way more engaged with wandering around the world finding collectables that I was actually playing the game. Unfortunately, finding collectibles is nowhere near as fun in this game since there are no hidden mickeys to take pictures of, no special objects to interact with, no autograph books or photo albums to fill.

On top of all of that, I noticed a few bugs and glitches and small things that annoyed me. For instance, once I was in my house, and as I was about to leave I noticed a whole lot of foliage in the black void.

I've also caught plates floating a foot above the tables at Chez Remy, I have had digging spots spawn where I can't dig (Three behind Scrooge's shop), and I also have a coin land right underneath a tree in the Forgotten Lands that I couldn't reach until I just removed the tree entirely.

Plus, so much of the game is gated off, and I am not talking about needing Dreamlight magic to open new areas, I'm talking about not being able to access the second half of the Glade of Trust until you have your watering can enchanted enough, or the back of the Frosted Heights without getting a high enough friendship level with Elsa, can't even unblock the bridge on Dazzle Beach without, I'm assuming sucking up to Maui for a bit. This just gives us more busy work to do, and it's not even that much fun. So then, why do I put so many hours into this game?

Easy answer is that I am just a sucker for Disney crossovers and I want to enjoy what I can. However, I feel like that is only a part of a larger answer. We've all imagined the perfect Disney crossover haven't we? Or like any major crossover with many of our favourite characters. Well, honestly, I'm still kind of waiting for my perfect Disney crossover, and yes I can write fanfiction, but it's not the same. Somewhere amongst the Kingdom Hearts games, the Disney Heroes: Battle Mode game and this, there lies the perfect crossover, but I'm not holding my breath for it. It's amusing, Nickelodeon had plenty of crossovers, most notably the NickToons Unite titles, and aside form them being absolutely awful games... actually Battle for Volcano Island isn't that bad, but despite most of them being absolutely awful games, there really is not much of an issue with those games. Maybe Disney needs something like their own LEGO style game, or their own Smash Bros style game, something where we can have a whole bunch of characters and where we get more interactions with them.

As for this game, I am enjoying it, but if this game has anything in common with Animal Crossing, it's that I'll play it daily for a good long while, and then forget about it and move on.

Rock-A-Doodle (1991) - The Beginning of Don Bluth's Downfall

 

Don Bluth was one of the greatest directors in animation, originally coming from the Disney animation department working on films such as Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too and The Fox and the Hound, in the early 80s he directed and produced some of the decade's greatest animated movies, beginning with The Secret of NIMH, a movie that I have previously reviewed, but a movie that is excellent and so beautiful, it may be one of my favourite movies of the 1980s. Following that was An American Tail and The Land Before Time, before he ended the 80s with All Dogs Go To Heaven. Then immediately after that, came Mr. Bluth's lesser period. What happened? Where did one of the best animation directors go wrong and begin making movies that just weren't as good? Fellow animation reviewer Animated Antic did a marathon of Don Bluth's theatrical movies, so he probably has a better answer than I, but I'm curious if I can see the signs from the movie that began his nineties descent, nine-descent, Rock-A-Doodle.

The story follows young Edmond, a live action boy turned into an animated cat by The Duke of Owls as he helps a group of animated farm animals find their lost friend, the rooster Chanticleer, so he can raise the sun and ward off the evil owls and stop the endless rain and darkness. Chanticleer however, found a new life as an R&B singer in the city, and the owls try to stop the farm animals, and keep Chanticleer in the city. The plot does not really have any major fumblings about it, it does seem like some elements are just not explained very well, like how Chanticleer's agent and the Duke of Owls know each other, and a major plot point is that, as a ploy to keep Chanticleer in the city, the agent has another act, a character named Goldie, to make him fall in love with her, ending with her actually falling in love with him, and all we get of this development is some narration, and it really does make that entire plot point come out of nowhere. Speaking of the narration, it is not terrible but it isn't great. It's no Spirit, but it certainly isn't The Thief and the Cobbler.

Plot is not where the movie falls apart, where it falls apart is the voice acting. No offense to Toby Scott-Granger, who was a little kid when they were making this movie, but his acting was terrible in this movie, half the time I couldn't understand what he was saying. He hasn't done any major roles since the 90s, and apparently he is now a rapper, so... that's cool I guess. To be fair, it isn't that Toby is the only actor that does a bad job in this movie, Christopher Plummer's Grand Duke sounds a lot like he's channeling Christopher Lloyd, Charles Nelson Reilly, I would say is another attempt to ape Robin Williams in Aladdin, but either I'm wrong, or Don Bluth has future vision because Aladdin wasn't out yet, and wouldn't be released until the following year. This was also the final film role for Phil Harris, and he does an okay performance, it just makes me wish I was watching Robin Hood instead.

Speaking of vocal talent, the movie stars the late country singer Glen Campbell, and he does alright, I guess. I'm not really a big country fan, so I can't really say much about the songs in the movie. However, I can say that the movie does one of the biggest sins a musical can commit and has the songs get interrupted constantly. Opening song? Interrupted by narration. Goldie and Chanticleer duet? Interrupted not half a minute into the song. Some of the other songs are sung by the Owls and they're bad. There's a joke about one of the songs opening with the line "Tweedle-dee-dee", but what nobody ever mentions is that the song itself is less than a minute long, maybe even less than thirty seconds. For a musical with heavy allusions to Elvis Presley, you know "allusions" may be the wrong word but I can't think of another word that qualifies and also means "Blatant", "Obvious", and "Only Meaning of One Thing", but for a musical with references to Elvis, Chanticleer even goes by "The King", having the music be this bad seems like an insult to Elvis.

That brings us to the animation, and it's okay. It is still Don Bluth animation, but it's nowhere near as good as The Secret of NIMH or The Land Before Time. It still has some nice design work, moves nicely, this is not the worst looking Don Bluth production. That being said, they have a fair amount of live-action mixing in this movie, and it just doesn't work. It worked in Roger Rabbit because everybody on that movie worked hard to make the illusion work, but here, they just have Toby wander around a blue screen at the end, and it's painfully obvious. I think if they nixed the live-action stuff, made it a jukebox musical with songs by Elvis Presley, did a rewrite or two and got a different cast, this movie could have worked, but that is a lot of work to put into a movie.

So, what happened here? How did one of the best animation directors go from a string of highly regarded works, to this? Well, I don't really know if any of you know this, but in the late 1980s, there was a little bit of a shift in animation. In 1987, DuckTales became one of the first syndicated televised cartoons that did not require a toy line to make profit, and though it was based on an existing franchise, the comics did not exist because of the cartoon, the cartoon existed because of the comics. In 1988, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released, helping Disney get back on its feet, and they followed that with The Little Mermaid in 1989, which a lot of people will argue was the movie that kickstarted the Disney Renaissance. On top of that, the decade ended with one of the most influential cartoons ever making its way to air, a little show called The Simpsons. The late 80s and early 90s were a changing time in animation, and Don Bluth's bread and butter, kids films with darker and more serious themes but still pulled through with a happy ending, those films didn't seem like they'd stick around much longer. That was mostly an early 80s thing, and it wasn't just Bluth doing it, Disney did it with The Fox and the Hound, Rankin & Bass did it with The Last Unicorn, I think the last Non-Don Bluth film to really fall into this category was 1987's The Brave Little Toaster.

I think the kind of movies Don Bluth wanted to make, were not the kind of movies people wanted to see by the 90s, so someone tried to make him adapt, whether it was a studio thing, a market thing or a personal thing I won't begin to guess. What I can say is that, this movie is bad, but ultimately harmless, I can see children watching this movie and enjoying it, but this is something they will grow out of. Is it worth showing your kids? I wouldn't say yes, I'd show them The Secret of NIMH or The Land Before Time instead, but if you are watching over really little kids and don't want to worry about giving them something really dark to watch, I can't see this as being any harm. It was mostly just dull and boring for me, not really something to get mad about. I don't recommend it, but it's harmless.

Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams (2007) - A Forgotten Direct-to-Video Disney Movie, and For Good Reason

 

From the early 90s until the late 2000s Disney released a lot of direct-to-video animated sequels. At some point they also began to introduce more original movies with established characters, like the Mickey Mouse Christmas movies, or the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command pilot movie. One of the movies that often gets forgotten is Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams. It does seem to be the black sheep of the Disney direct-to-video movies, first off, it's another "Technically" as this film is over 40 minutes, but less than an hour, secondly, it appears as if this movie was intended to be a franchise starter, so really this should be more remembered, but it as of right now isn't even on Disney+, so is this the worst of the direct-to-video animated movies? Is this the one that was so bad nobody remembers it? Or is it just really boring and forgettable?

Like the aforementioned Mickey Christmas movies, this movie, which I will no longer be referring to by full name because it is long and annoying, is made up of multiple small stories, in this case, two. One for Princess Aurora of Sleeping Beauty fame, and one for Jasmine of Aladdin fame. As usual for package films I'll be looking at both stories separately, starting with Princess Aurora's since her story is first, and her movie is older than Jasmine's. I can't believe I even have to justify such a thing, but here we are.

Princess Aurora's story has her taking charge of the kingdom while her father, King Stefan, is at a conference. It is your standard, "Biting off more than you can chew" story and it is just as boring to watch as it sounds. There is a small conflict where King Hubert, Prince Philip's Father, misplaced an important speech, but that's resolved, and then the conflict becomes Aurora having issues with magic because Merriweather the fairy lent her a wand. You might think she has to deal with something big, like an impending war, or an economic crisis, but she has to deal with paperwork and magical farm animals. Okay, so you don't want to tell anything big that might not be interesting to the target audiences, okay. How about a story where she has to resist the temptation to overuse and abuse magic to solve all her issues, where she learns how to solve problems on her own? They try to give the same lesson about hard work, but she literally chose to read through every piece of paperwork before she signed it, so there is a fundamental flaw in how this story is written. If I could rewrite it, maybe I'd have it so that she calls on the Fairies to do all the royal work while she focuses on the banquet, which leads to problems that she has to solve before everyone returns. So, all the paperwork is signed, and this leads to issues regarding land disputes, because the fairies didn't read the paperwork before putting a magic signature on it. That would be more engaging.

Jasmine's story is also about proving oneself. Jasmine becomes an educator to misbehaving children, and then has to find a missing horse. Okay, mystery of a missing horse, that's a good hook, and the stakes are established. If they cut the educator stuff, this could make for a really good short. It has bonus points for having the late Gilbert Gottfried as Iago essentially riffing the plot as it's happening. He's no Robin Williams, but he's not bad. This story is more interesting than the last, but not by much. The framing device for these stories is also pretty weak, it's just this big castle dedicated to a single storybook with some narration by Susanne Blakeslee. Overall, neither story was very interesting, and I can't imagine this would really engage kids for very long.

Animation wise this movie is mixed. Aurora's animation did not look right to me, probably because Aurora mostly moved in that more realistic way of the classic Disney animated features, where they had a reference for the poses and movements. Jasmine's animation looked better, but with two direct-to-video movies and a TV series, I think it is fair to say that Jasmine can survive with a smaller budget. That being said, Jasmine's story had some distractingly noticeable CG integration, so it wasn't that great either. Unfortunately, the animation was much better than the voice acting, no disrespect to any of the talent in this movie, but it didn't feel like any of them were giving their A game. Susanne Blakeslee is an amazing voice actor, but she isn't given much to do here, and though Frank Welker and Lina Larkin reprise their roles, it's not perfect either. I swear I heard Frank Welker channel Donald Duck at points as Abu. However, the worst was Erin Torpey as Princess Aurora, not that she did a bad job, she is a good voice actor, but the voice just isn't the same as Mary Costa's, and it actually really distracted me. I'm not even a big fan of the original Sleeping Beauty, I think it's just okay, but even I could pick this up.

I can see why this is the forgotten Direct-to-Video movie. It's not the worst, but it is the least. It's the least memorable, least important, probably even the least good. It has important morals, but besides that, I can't see much value in it. The DVD I have actually has a sneak peek for another one of these movies, this time featuring Cinderella and Mulan, but that was never released, and it just makes me wonder why they didn't just make this a TV series? Yes it was 2007, after the debut of Kim Possible and The Proud Family with their strong female leads. However, The Proud Family ended in 2005 and Kim Possible ended in September of 2007, besides I don't know why either of those shows would have to do with not making this a series, I mean, an anthology series about our favourite Disney Princesses telling us smaller scale stories? That could really work, imagine the framing device of them spending time in a big castle, imagine them adding characters like Alice, Maid Marian or Captain Amelia to the mix. There was actually something called "Disney Princess Academy" that was also shelved, you can find concept art online, it seems like it would be a really interesting film or short. As for this movie, it is wasted potential on a bad idea, it is forgotten for a reason, maybe we should keep it that way.