The Top Five BEST Animated Movies I watched in 2023

 

You know, doing a list of the best animated movies is always difficult. Not picking the movies or even ranking them, honestly that is usually the easy part, and I do love when that is the difficult part. Unfortunately, when that is the easy part, the hard part is finding anything to really say about these movies. Like, you probably know why these movies are good, or you have probably heard people say similar things about why these movies are good. I guess you could make the same arguments about Worst lists, but I always find it much easier to explain why something doesn't work than why it does. I mean, I don't need to be a mechanic to see a broken chain on a machine, and I don't need to be an animator to know that some movies just don't work.

You know, I've been told a couple times that "You should learn to do something before you criticize it", well I learned how to animate, it's actually made me more critical of animation. In some strange way, you would think that would make me better at recognizing good qualities in movies, but ultimately, these type of lists aren't about what is "good" or "bad", those are things that measure the quality of the writing, acting, animation, cinematography, choreography and everything that goes into the movie, lists like these are ultimately about whether or not we liked these. Sure, some movies don't work and are "bad" because of that, but if that was the case one hundred percent of the time, Plan 9 From Outer Space would have faded into obscurity years and years ago.

None of this is really relevant to the list proper, all of it is really to say "If this list feels underwritten, please know I tried", on with the show.

5. Elemental

Is Elemental one of the "best animated movies of 2023"? Honestly... no. It's a good movie, but it is kind of a weak entry in Pixar's line-up. I'll be damned if I don't respect it a lot though.

Elemental seemed to be doomed from the get go, everyone was worried it would be Onward again, or Zootopia again, the trailers were not that great (Though really most animated trailers are pretty bad now-a-days), and on opening week the movie was underperforming like mad. Yet, someone at Disney or Pixar had faith in this movie, and... against all odds it did pay off. Elemental was a sleeper hit, and people seem to agree it's a fine movie. It's the kind of movie that I'm glad succeeded, because it does lessen my worries about Pixar's treatment by Disney.

This actually is similar to last year's list where I put the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Rehydrated at number ten, where even though I wouldn't argue it as one of the best movies, I had enough respect for it to want to give it a shout out. Elemental deserves a shout out for... not being Onward.

4. The Boy and The Heron

The Boy and The Heron is an interesting movie. It's interesting in that, I do like it, but I also kind of hate it. I mean, it's a Miyazaki movie, and his standards are usually pretty high. I love the slower pacing and quiet ambience of the movie, it's pretty much a hallmark of Ghibli movies that they're gonna take more of their time and have plenty of moments where you just let the scene sink in. Honestly, Miyazaki is kind of like the anti-Baz Luhrmann in my opinion. I think the moment I knew I was going to put this movie on my best list was a really small scene, just the lead character lying on a bed and breathing. The animators actually animated his body rising and falling to his breathing, and that's the scene, it's not really a scene you would find in any typical American animated film, though I can't say that for absolute sure.

But the second half, I honestly really began feeling the length of this movie, like the first half, nearly an hour went by and it felt like ten minutes, but the second half went by and it felt like an hour went by. It kind of became a movie akin to Suzume or Night is Short, Walk on Girl at the end, just a bizarre and strange trip through... something? I did like those movies fine, but this isn't really what I watch a Ghibli movie for, I watch Ghibli movies because they are usually ambient and let the mood sink in, and it's not like the second half wasn't that, it just expected us to take in a lot of stuff at the same time. I mean, it is definitely a movie worth watching, but I don't know if I'd say this is Miyazaki's "Magnum Opus".

Oh yeah, I also watched the Subbed version, in case anyone is Curious.

3. Suzume

Between The Boy and The Heron and Suzume, I think I have to pick Suzume as my favourite anime movie this year, even though it is technically a release from last year and it got a theatrical release in the West this year, look one day release dates aren't going to matter too much for most people.

Suzume is the kind of movie that really shows what animation can be and can do. It is a visual delight that has charming characters and an interesting story. This is from the same guy who directed Your Name and The Garden of Words, so if you're into Makoto Shinkai's work, I think this is definitely gonna be up your alley. If you're new to his work, I don't think this is a perfect starting place, but being a newcomer myself, this movie definitely tells me to keep my eye on his future works.

2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Poor Spider-verse, forever stuck as my second favourite animated film of the year. Into the Spider-Verse was just topped by Isle of Dogs, and now Across the Spider-Verse ranks as number two on this list. Like last time, it was a pretty close call, but there are a couple things that keep it from being number one.

Across the Spider-Verse genuinely feels like this was what the first movie was building towards, little things that carried over from the previous movie and a deeper exploration of this universe-portal technology all feel like a natural step for these movies, and the introduction of these new Spider-Heroes like Spider-Byte, Spider-Punk and Spider-Man 2099, among others is fascinating. Spider-Verse, both into and across, feel like movies made by people who love Spider-Man, and it shows. The focus on Gwen is also a welcome shift, but it doesn't take away from Miles' story, it balances out, and it gives me high expectations for the second part.

Which brings me to why I can't justify putting this film at number one. Production sounds like it was a bit of a nightmare for a lot of the staff on this movie, to the point where the second part is said to be delayed from it's original 2024 release. This is a good thing, I would rather have a movie be made under fair conditions than not, and I hope that 2023 is a wake-up call to many executives and filmmakers that the staff that don't get their names celebrated are just as important to the film.

I can't justify putting Across the Spider-Verse at number one, because there is one movie that has a better ending to it's production nightmare, and don't act like you didn't see it coming.

1. Nimona

I mean... how could I not have chosen Nimona as my favourite animated movie of 2023? It has been my most anticipated movie since it was announced, and all my fears and worries have been quashed by a string of fortunate events. I was worried Blue Sky was involved, than they made Spies in Disguise, a really good movie. Blue Sky shut down, then Netflix picked Nimona up. I was worried about Netflix's involvement, then 2022 had a string of really good Netflix releases, so finally the only worry I had to deal with was that this movie would not meet expectations.

Nimona was everything I wanted it to be, fun, exciting, dramatic, and kept the theme of the book. Sure I would have liked a more one-to-one adaptation, but I like to view them as the same story told two different ways. I compared it to Coraline in my First Impressions blog, saying that Nimona was a different story but kept the theme close to the book that it didn't feel that different. Really, the only thing I can say I didn't like about Nimona, is that it isn't a complete one-to-one adaptation, but that does mean that the characters, animation, story and writing are all such top notch work, it stopped mattering that Nimona the movie was different from Nimona the graphic novel.

Congratulations Nimona, you crawled out of Development Purgatory and became one of the best movies of the year. Your success makes me hope for two things, that Bob Chapek is kicking himself that he's the reason this can't be a Disney movie, and that other cancelled projects have a shot at redemption. Looking at you Warner Bros.

The Top five WORST animated movies I watched in 2023

You know how I said 2022 was a mediocre year for animated movies? How they were all kinda same-y in quality and nothing really stood out? 2023 was almost a complete opposite year, it started off very strong, the first half of the year was some of the strongest animated films of the decade, and then... they just stopped. I'll admit I didn't get around to watching a lot of movies this year, which is evident with the lack of First Impressions blogs I did, but even with some of the movies I did see, like... what is there to say about them? So, this list isn't the "Worst" worst of the year, but it's the ones I think are the weakest, and the top three are genuinely awful movies. Would this list be more accurate if I watched more movies? Absolutely, but it's actually kind of getting harder to watch movies now, I mean theatres are still expensive, and streaming has basically become the new cable, and good piracy sites are, you know I don't want to say they're impossible to find but I'll be damned if anyone makes it easy, and no that is not an invitation for anyone to give me recommendations. Watching a movie is slowly becoming what playing video games was in the 2010s, an expensive hobby that you almost need a spreadsheet to keep track of everything, I mean how is trying to keep track of what game is coming out with what bonuses on what release on what system any different than what movie is releasing on what streaming service?

You know what I miss? I miss 2022, yeah, 2022 had a slew of massive releases, and not all of them were good, but I'll be damned if they weren't interesting. Like, DreamWorks making a sequel to such a nothing movie and that sequel being one of the best god damn movies of the year? Netflix actually hitting multiple home runs with really amazing releases? Pixar making a movie that every one lost their minds over in both good and bad ways? That blazing saddles for kids movie finally being released? A stop motion mockumentary? Henry Sellick and Jordan Peele collaborating? I'll even throw a bone to Luck, yeah, god damn Luck. Like 2022's line-up wasn't spectacular, but it at least warranted interest, I look back at that line-up and I think, damn, I really did not give 2022 the time of day. You know I may think that about 2023 in the following years, but I doubt it.

Anyway, I've ranted enough, here's the list proper.

5. Wish

I liked Wish, I did. It was a fine fairy-tale movie that was good. Just good. Wish isn't on this list as a movie, it's more on this list because it is making me really worry about the quality of future movies. Strange World was boring, but Wish is a step in the right direction, but they didn't need to go in this direction because prior to Strange World, Disney released arguably their best movie in years, Encanto. Encanto was really good, but it just seems painfully obvious to me that nobody at Disney seems to understand why it was so good, and really I don't think I can explain either. Encanto was a movie I wasn't expecting to be as good as it was, Strange World is a movie I was expecting to be better than it was, Wish is a movie I expected it to be exactly as good as it was, better than Strange World, not as good as Encanto, it reached for good, but it could have been great.

There are so many people talking about how Wish could have been improved, make it 2D, use original plans and have the star be the lead's love interest, ditch all the references, but really there is only one thing I can suggest to make it great, actually have it take one-hundred years to make. No really, if they actually took a full century to make this movie, it could have been so fascinating, but it genuinely only feels like they called this "A hundred years in the making" just as a marketing gimmick, like "Oh, this movie was made out of scrapped plans from the early days of Disney", well it doesn't feel like it, it feels like an excuse to make as many Disney references in two hours as you can, that isn't a movie, that is me at trivia night.

I want to reiterate I did like this movie, but I don't think I liked it enough to want to actively watch it again.

4. Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken

From a movie I did like, to a movie I really so desperately want to like. Ruby Gillman is a movie with so much potential, so much good qualities, so much it could have been... but what did we end up getting? A movie that is weaker than the sum of its parts.

I talked about this in my First Impressions blog and my blog where I compared it to Elemental, but it bears repeating, Ruby Gillman desperately needed a re-write so that they could flesh out the actually interesting elements. They wanted Turning Red, but they also wanted The Princess Diaries, but they also wanted to be Luca, but they also wanted to be-Just pick a god damn movie you want to be!

I gave this movie a full First Impressions blog because, I really needed to gather my thoughts about it, and even now I'm still not sure if I actually dislike it. Maybe I just don't want to dislike it because I would love to see this world and these characters fully fleshed out, but the problem with that is, first I want to know how being a Kraken hiding amongst humans is really affecting Ruby and her family. How does having a crush on a human affect her relationship with her parents? How does living out of the sea affect how they view themselves and their own kin? Well guess what, none of this will ever get explored now because the movie flopped and was pulled from theatres rather quickly. DreamWorks was scared this movie was gonna tank and be a money pit and they pulled it rather than take a risk like Disney and Pixar did. You know, I didn't even think Elemental was all that great, but I have to respect that they took a risk in extending that movie's theatrical run.

This was probably Dreamwork's biggest waste of potential since they stopped making 2D movies.

3. Toopy and Binoo: The Movie

I mean... you didn't need me to say this movie sucks right? It's Toopy and Binoo, a toddler's franchise that nobody likes. If Franklin or Blue's Clues got a theatrical movie, that would make sense, people like those franchises beyond the fact that it keeps their children quiet for half an hour, but Toopy and Binoo? I mean it ain't Caillou, but it sure as Hell ain't Blue's Clues.

The big problem is really the characters, they were all really annoying and not entertaining to watch, and they didn't go through a relatable nor even a visible arc. It's just, one scene these two are cowards, the next they're not anymore. One scene this character is a stuck-up B-word, the next she isn't. Like, it really is just a... not pleasant movie to watch. These character's don't really improve on their own, and it's not fun to watch. Honestly, I think a Caillou movie would be better, there would at least be something to talk about. Then again, it would probably be more difficult to watch, so... careful what you wish for I guess.

2. The Magician's Elephant

You know, even if I did watch this movie the week it was put onto Netflix, I doubt I'd have anything to say about it. I never read the book this movie is based off, so I can't say whether it's a good adaptation or not, but what I can say is that this movie is really boring.

I'm just not interested in anything that's happening, nothing left a genuine impact, and I struggle to even remember what happened in the movie. The characters weren't that interesting, the setting wasn't that interesting, even the animation is boring, it looks so unspectacular and plain that you could have told me this was an Illumination movie, and trust me, that is an insult to Illumination. Really though, let's be real, this movie was just a movie they threw out to keep people somewhat invested until the actual good movies were being released. Netflix may have dropped the ball a couple times, but they did hit one major home run.

1. Mummies

How the Hell did nobody watch this movie? No seriously, I feel like I'm the only animated movie reviewer who did, Animated Antic, Cellspex, Saberspark? None of them talked about it, Saberspark only talked about after the movie left theatres, how did this squeeze under everyone else's radar? Somehow, nobody watched this movie, yet everyone did because it apparently made bank. Was there really nothing else to watch?

The worst thing is, I can't even say I'm that surprised in hindsight. When a movie is bad, people don't see it, and bad movies like Arctic Dogs, UglyDolls or Paws of Fury flop. However, when a movie is just "mediocre", people will see it because, well we want to watch A movie, but not really ANY movie. We're here to watch something to ignore the rest of the world and enjoy some snacks, we're not here to watch the greatest thing ever. Mummies is exactly the kind of movie that you watch because you want to watch something edgeless, tame and bland. It's not even offensively bad, it's not poorly put together, it's not phenomenally unpleasant, it's just a bad movie. It's so much of a nothing burger, that it's not even a spectacular list topper. Say what you will about The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wilde, that was a spectacularly bad movie, that was a movie that could, and did, piss me off. The only thing that pisses me off about this movie, is how much it doesn't piss me off. Worst animated movie that I saw this year, easily. It is the least ambitious, least polished, least good animated movie I've seen all year.

No extra mentions this time, this year has kind of been a slow drizzle of animated content. Though, that Baby Shark movie would totally make this list if I could actually watch it somewhere, maybe people are trying to bury that movie's existence. Oh well, the line-up next year should be more interesting, yeah? Please?

Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018) - A Harmless, if too Safe, Retelling of the Classic Story

When it comes to Christmas specials, I think one that everyone loves is the 1966 classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, it's Dr. Seuss, Chuck Jones and Boris Karloff, we love the characters, message and music. It really is one of the most perfect holiday specials there is, and while I would love to talk about it, at 25 minutes, it does not qualify as a feature. However, there were two attempts to make a feature film of the 50 page children's book, one in 2000s with Jim Carey, which was live-action so it's not on my table, and one in 2018 by Illumination. Oh boy, Illumination, my least favourite animation studio, I would say that I was not expecting anything great when this movie was announced, but let's be fair here, nobody was. I don't think there was one single person who watched this movie that expected it to be great, honestly I doubt half of the people who watched it thought it was gonna be good. It seemed like another Illumination movie that was harmless but not much else. Well, it's Christmas, so I may as well give it a watch.

The story follows the basic premise of the book, all the Whos who live in Whoville really love Christmas, but the Grinch does not. So, one night he decides that he's gonna steal Christmas, the gifts, the lights, the lot. To flesh and pad things out, they want to give The Grinch a reason he hates the holiday, but it's glossed over, to the point where it probably could've been cut out. I do appreciate they wanted to show the actual planning of the holiday heist, but the movie is still pretty... meh? I can't say it's really weak, because the only thing that makes it weak is how they handle the scene where the Grinch's heart grows. In the original, him pulling up the massive sled is symbolic of the power of the true spirit of the Holiday, but here, he gets outside help. However, I will concede that maybe, they wanted to try a different theme with this interpretation, a theme about love, kindness and friendship. Okay, I'm not against that on principle, I just don't think it's done all that well. I should also mention the B-Plot with Cindy Lou Who, which is... okay. I admire it tackles he subject of overworked parents, which is especially rough around the holiday, but it doesn't really get solved. Cindy blames herself for Christmas being stolen, but the actual issue is not really addressed, at no point does she tell her mom that she thinks she's overworked.

The characters are mostly just there, not really the most memorable, not really leaving a massive impact. The Grinch's characterization in this version does leave some people a little frustrated I think, because, what was just a sour, grumpy, mean jerk, has his edges sanded down and became much softer. On principle, I'm not against this change, one of my issues with the original story is that The Grinch just goes from mean to nice with no real transition. I remember Cellspex calling this version of The Grinch a "Tsundere", and honestly I think Cellspex covers why this version of The Grinch just doesn't work as a character the best. The rest of the cast is... fine, I guess. I didn't hate them, but I was not eager to see more of them. The voice acting isn't bad though, we've got an Angela Lansbury cameo, which is always pleasant, and most of the cast like Kenan Thompson, Cameron Seely and Rashida Jones do a good job, Benedict Cumberbatch is... okay, he does just kinda sound like that generic nasal voice anyone can do, like Herman from The Simpsons, and Pharrell Williams as the Narrator is wholly unnecessary. The original had narration because it was 25 minutes, this is over an hour, it did not need narration.

The animation is... trying. It really wants to look like a colourful Christmas movie with all the lights and stuff, but the actual colour is kind of washed out, and what we're left with is a lot of white, blue and brown tones, I think spectacles like the lit up town at night, and the lighting of the tree were meant to look really colourful and festive, but they just don't, they look faded and the actual colour gets over taken by other bright lighting. The actual animation is fine, it moves nicely and I didn't notice any obvious flubs, but it really isn't that visually appealing. Plus it puts a lot of scenes full of nothing but "thrilling" movement, and again it's just unnecessary, I'd take less of unfunny slapstick and chase scenes, and more character development scenes, or a scene where Cindy Lou's story actually gets some kind of resolution, and I mean a real resolution.

I think the sad thing about this movie is, I can't say it's bad. It tried, it tried to be something, which... I think is worth something. I'd rather a movie try and fail, than not try. Like is this movie "good"? I can't say that, but is it better than something like Duck Duck Goose or Open Season? Definitely, yeah. I think the big problem is that, they wanted to carve their own identity in something that is already iconic, it's like that version of A Christmas Carol on Netflix from 2022, I enjoyed that movie, but it had the same basic idea. The Grinch and A Christmas Carol are iconic stories, and putting ones own spin on them is a risky venture, sometimes we'll get a Muppet Christmas Carol, but other times we'll get a 2009 Christmas Carol. Do I recommend this movie? That's a difficult one, because I don't want to say it isn't worth seeing, it's not, but like I can see really young kids getting into this movie. It's these kinds of movies that are toughest to rate for me, because what good is a movie that only one specific audience can enjoy? But on the other hand, that does mean someone still enjoys it. Plus, it's not like this movie is straight up harmful or anything, so... I'm going to go Slight Recommendation on this one. If you have really little kids, they might like it, but this is a "If it's on streaming and you want something easy" recommendation.

Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002): A Perfectly Adequate Bible Movie for Kids

 

Well this review is a bit tricky to write. I was thinking about movies to watch for this blog, and since it is December, this is a biblical story, and I was a big fan of VeggieTales as a kid, I thought this would be the perfect movie to talk about. Then I put the movie in and got reminded that most of the Bible is set in Israel, and Israel has kind of been a hot topic at the moment. Still, I do think this is a good time to talk about this movie, or more accurately the themes of the movie, but my job primarily is to review a movie as a movie, so I'm going to save my soap box standing for the end. Still, Christmas, and most of the winter holidays, is a good time to remind people about good will, kindness, love, friendship and especially compassion and mercy. So, the themes of this movie are good, but the question now becomes, is this a good way to teach these themes?

I was a huge VeggieTales fan as a kid, had plenty of the DVDs and VHS Tapes, and a couple DVDs for 3-2-1 Penguins too. So the main plot structure of this movie is not unfamiliar to me, and shouldn't be for anyone that is familiar with VeggieTales. The stories usually begun with a conflict and the stories being told were lessons on how to resolve the conflicts, and this movie works similarly. The conflict starts when, on their way to a concert, a few misfortunes happen to Bob the Tomato, Dad Asparagus, Junior Asparagus and Laura Carrot, as Bob and Mr. Asparagus get two flat tires on their bus, and Laura loses her concert ticket, which Junior says is her fault for teasing them with it. This is overheard by Pa Grape, Mr. Lunt and Larry the Cucumber, the infamous band of scallywags known as The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, who tell Junior that he should be compassionate to his friend, reciting the tale of Jonah and his voyage to Nineveh. The story is told in a kid friendly way, which... is fine. Sure, I would have liked something like The Prince of Egypt, a much darker movie that doesn't shy away from the drama and trauma of the events, but as a movie for really young kids, this is fine. I won't say it's completely sanitized, like they do have a ridiculous and kinda silly form of execution in the movie, but it's still is execution, it's toned down definitely, but it's still there. I can't think of anything plotwise I take issue with.

VeggieTales is a fun series, mostly because the characters in the films do feel like they're putting on a play or production. So when you see a character like Mr. Nezzer or Archibald Asparagus, even if they play a different character they still have their own characteristics, which means that Jonah, played by Archibald, has a sarcastic side to him that is very entertaining. We also spend a lot of time with the Pirates, and they're an entertaining bunch. I think the only character I'm not to keen on is Khalil, and for two reasons, firstly, he's not a vegetable, he's a half-caterpillar, I'm sorry that just weirds me out a little, like I know animals are a thing in the VeggieTales world, but... actually no, that also weirds me out, why does the VeggieTales world have animals? Okay, one thing at a time, the animals previously in the series were... animals, they never talked, or at least very rarely. The second thing is, you know the whole, white voice actor putting on an accent is a bit of a debate topic, but apparently the performance was nominated for an Annie in 2003, I mean it isn't a bad performance, as long as you can sit through bad Persian accents.

Animation wise, it looks like VeggieTales, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because it won't be too alienating to go from direct-to-video CG animation to this movie. To be fair, VeggieTales was a major step forward in CG animation, being one of, if not the first direct-to-video series made with Computer Generated Animation. However, it is also a bit of a weakness in this movie's case, as this was early 2000s CG, and couple that with the almost simplistic style of VeggieTales, some moments of animation don't really mask the weaknesses in the animation, stuff that makes you ask if this was worth putting on the big screen. That being said, there are a lot of fun details, little touches that make the animation a little better. Honestly, I think the same can be said for the writing, there are little moments that give this story more life and identity than just a flat re-telling of the story of Jonah, like during a huge storm, Larry and Mr. Lunt are just playing Go Fish as if nothing is happening. There are some moments in this movie where I did chuckle, or even straight up laugh.

I should also bring up the musical numbers, because as VeggieTales is known for their silly songs, this movie is as one would anticipate, a musical. The songs are... mostly okay. The first real song in the movie "Message from the Lord" is pretty good, there is a line about not eating bats which has aged... interestingly, but most of the other songs are not that great. "It Cannot Be" is a good moment with Jonah having a small crisis, but the backing music sounds like an ambient track you would get in a small quiet moment where the characters look up at the sky or something, and the song "Second Chances" has one of the worst editing choices I've ever seen in an animated movie. The background music is also alright, there was one moment where Jonah was riding a camel, and the music synced with the camel's movements, that was neat. Overall, I can't say this is a bad movie, it's adequate for young kids, and bearable for adults.

And I do think that the themes of this movie are delivered well, Khalil does kind of spell it out at the end, as do the Pirates, but it is shown throughout the movie what compassion and mercy are, and how people should be given second chances. I'm not going to discuss whether I agree with all of it, but I want to stress we should be living these themes, Christmas is a time of love, kindness, friendship and joy, and why do we have to keep that to one time of the year? What stops us from giving our friends gifts any other time of the year? Love, Kindness, Peace, these are not things we should keep to one time, these are things we should live year round, and I think we need to remember that above all else, we need to be good people. Is this movie the best way to send this message? Maybe not, but it's not a bad way either, if you have kids, I do think this movie is worth showing them, regardless of if you're Christian or not, because kindness knows no faith, pray for peace everyone, and fight for goodness.

Ponyo (2008) - An Adorable and Charming Take on a Classic Tale

 

I guess I just am on a bit of an anime kick right now, not really surprising since I've been getting more into graphic novels lately, and that includes manga. It may also be that I really wanted something comforting to watch, and you can't really get more comforting that Studio Ghibli. One of the most recognizable animation studios in Japan, Studio Ghibli is probably what most American audiences think of when they think of "Anime Movie", and it's easy to see why, these stories are cute, charming, resonant, powerful, exciting, creative, Studio Ghibli is a unique brand of animated movie that I don't think we really have an equivalent to in the west, nor does there need to be one. I haven't talked much about Studio Ghibli, mostly because I want to really explore animated movies and find things I wouldn't normally watch on my own, but I did take a look at Whisper of the Heart as my fiftieth movie review, and I thought, it's been a while so maybe I should take a look at another Studio Ghibli movie, and why not make it the first Studio Ghibli movie I ever watched, Ponyo.

At it's core, Ponyo is a retelling of The Little Mermaid, in that it's about a girl from the sea who falls in love with a human boy and wants to become human herself. Ponyo, or Brunhilde, is one of the daughters of Fujimoto, a formerly human sea wizard, yep this is definitely a Studio Ghibli movie. Anyway, Brunhilde swims off and comes across Sōsuke, a five-year old boy who lives on a Cliff by the sea. This is where she gets the name Ponyo, and wishes to become human, and she does, she begins to turn into a human. The problem is, something about the sea world and the human world never being able to fully cross, so either Ponyo has to give up her powers to fully become human, or the world ends. The plot moves along, kind of at it's own pace, there are a lot of scenes that don't really advance the main plot in anyway, but they still work because they serve to show Ponyo learning about and interacting with the human world, and as far as Ghibli movies go, Ponyo is actually not that slow. You can still tell this is a Ghibli movie, it has the pacing and editing, but it's not to the same extent of Whisper of the Heart or My Neighbor Totoro.

It may also not feel slow-paced because Ponyo herself is a highly energetic character. She's usually always running around and laughing, and it never gets too annoying, it also helps that she is just super cute too. The rest of the characters are pretty good, Sōsuke is a good kid, kind, hopeful, I think he's just well developed for the story being told. I think the only character I have some issue with is Lisa, Sōsuke's mother, she does clearly love her son and she's not unlikable, but I do think she can be a bit of an irresponsible parent, like leaving two kids alone during a flood is not something a responsible parent would be doing. Honestly, the characters aren't too complex or deep, pardon the pun, but they work, besides, this story is about Ponyo, and she's a fun and charming character. I also watched the Japanese version available on Netflix, and not the Disney dub this time, and I will say the voice acting was quite excellent, though Fujimoto's voice actor was a bit... I mean when he says the world is gonna end, he doesn't say it with a lot of weight.

Where the movie really shines is in the animation, and yeah, this is a Studio Ghibli movie and they have high quality animation. Not only is it really bright and colourful, but the way they make the water look, with flat colours and different shades of blue is incredible, and the backgrounds are just filled with tiny details, like Ponyo's wet footprints on the concrete, all kinds of creatures moving around. None of which is wholly necessary, but it's all appreciated, it makes each scene come alive, while it also doesn't overstuff each scene with things. When a scene needs to be empty, the scene is empty, like Sōsuke and Ponyo finding Lisa's car on the road, there is only Sōsuke and Ponyo in that scene, and it works so much better because of that. Really, this is kind of a standard for Ghibli movies, what else can I really add about the animation?

And really, what is there more to say about Ponyo? It's just a good movie, solid and likeable characters, a good story, wonderful and detailed animation. Honestly, there is not much else to say about Ponyo, it's a cute, charming, enjoyable watch, and I think this is a great starting place for anyone who wants to get into Studio Ghibli's features. Like, people will always bring up stuff like My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away, but if you want something that is more accessible, I think Ponyo is a good place to start. This and Castle in the Sky would be my picks for starting points if you want to get into Studio Ghibli, in fact I should consider doing a review of Castle in the Sky as well. I can't say Ponyo is their best movie, but that is a really high bar to reach considering, and regardless it is a good movie and I definitely recommend it to anyone, consider this one of those "Almost High" recommendations.

Editorial: The Amazing Digital Circus Pilot is Fantastic

 

The 2020s have so far been a pretty fantastic decade for independent animation. Thanks to animation software reducing the barrier to entry for many users, and the viewer-base for online content only really going up, a lot of people are taking a stab at creating their own animated series, this isn't new to the 2020s, people have been making online animated web-shows since the 1990s and it has become much more popular with channels like Eddsworld, Mondo Media, and the Disney of the internet, Rooster Teeth, and no that is not mean as a compliment. Honestly, it's kind of because of this that I've stepped a bit away from internet animation, save for the shows I'm already a fan of like Death Battle or Red vs Blue, it's kind of that we're spoiled for choice and short on time so we have to pick and choose what we want to give our time to, we all have our preferences to what we want to spend our time on. Yet, something drew me into The Amazing Digital Circus, and if I'm being frank, it was entirely the response the pilot has received, people are going crazy over this show, excited about the amount of views it's gotten in three weeks, already making fan theories and so much Rule 34 art already... just so much.

To be fair, I absolutely see why people have been going crazy over this, because this is such a fantastic pilot. It advertises itself as, if I may quote the video description, "A psychological dark comedy about cute cartoon characters who hate their lives and want to leave", and frankly, I don't think I can sum it up better than that. It's kind of like a cuter, and funnier version of The Gregory Horror Show, a cult anime that is also a psychological dark comedy, but it's a very different kind of show. The Gregory Horror Show is very much shrouded in metaphor and symbolism, and it is very dark. The Amazing Digital Circus, as of now, isn't as full of metaphor and although it definitely has a darker edge to it, visually speaking it is very bright and colourful. It also reminds me a little of one of my favourite video games, The Stanley Parable, which also has a bit of a psychological edge to it.

Speaking of the visuals, let's start there, because the animation is absolutely amazing. When people talk about stylized CG animation, this is the kind of stuff we're talking about. It gives off the vibes of an old uncanny computer game, the kind of games that stuff like Baldi's Basics took inspiration from, but a lot more polished. Which is amusing, the opening splash logo look like a PlayStation One title screen, and the whole pilot could have looked like that, honestly the fact that they chose not to go that route is very respectable. Anyone could have made it look like an old PC or PS1 title and claimed "Stylization", but that trick doesn't really work for animation like it does video games, and even then it doesn't work all the time for video games. I think where the visuals really shines is the character design, each character looks distinct, unique, and memorable. I've been watching MrEnter tear into High Guardian Spice, and for the life of me I can't remember which character is Parsley, Sage, Rosemary or Thyme in that show, I just remember them as "Pink", "Blue", "Elf" and "Dwarf". Not here, I can easily put a name to the design of Caine, Jax, Pomni, Ragatha, Gangle, Zooble, Kinger and Bubble, and can list of personality traits, like Kinger being a nervous and unstable wreck, and Jax being an unapologetic jerk... I think he's my favourite.

Which is a perfect segue into the comedy. I think my main issue with dark comedies is that they focus a lot more on the "Dark" than they do the "Comedy", though honestly this one kind of skews in the opposite direction, but there are two things I have to keep in mind; Firstly, this is a pilot, more episodes are potentially on their way and we may get some much darker episodes in the future, and secondly, even if we don't, the show is still funny. Jax is probably my pick for funniest character, but Kinger and Caine both had equally hilarious moments. Pomni herself is a great protagonist, I do want to follow her as she tries to escape the circus, or slowly becomes consumed by it. Ragatha is probably my favourite non-humourous character though, that is my favourite character beyond how funny I find her, you can tell she is clearly as sucked into this world as the others, but she still tries to be kind and friendly, I hope nothing but good things happen to her, they say knowing full well nothing good is going to happen to any of the characters in the future. It also helps that the voice acting is perfect, all the characters were perfectly cast. Lizzie Freeman as Pomni, Michael Kovach as Jax, Amanda Hufford as Ragatha, and Alex Rochon as Caine? Alex Rochon, former Countdown YouTuber, formerly known as The Autarch of Flame, was Caine? Well that is just point number "Okay I've lost count of how many points this bloody pilot has" to add to why this pilot is awesome. All the cast did an excellent job, absolutely disappearing into their characters.

The Amazing Digital Circus is a wonderful show with loads of potential, I really want to see where this show goes. Will it get darker? What is in store for the characters? What is Caine's deal? Very much, this is a show I will have to keep my eye on, and the fact that it's an independent internet series, allowing it to have few restrictions, means that it is bound to be a very unique show. I'm really hoping this series becomes the next big piece of indie animation, it was funny, dark, had wonderful characters, fantastic animation, there really is nothing bad I can say about it, I mean I guess I could nitpick, but you know what, I don't really want to. I want to see more of this show, I want to see a home media release in the future, and I want to have one of those Pomni plushies... I know what I'm going to pester my family for Christmas for. I'd say "Go see it", but at 78 Million views on YouTube... you already have! If you haven't, this pilot gets a High Recommendation from me. I eagerly await more, MORE!

Editorial: Disney Dreamlight Valley Updated Review

 

Eighty-three, that is the number of hours I have put into Disney Dreamlight Valley since October 25, 2022. That was when I published my initial impressions of the game as an Editorial. In that review, I outlined some of the major flaws with the game, including the bizarre character inclusions, weird bugs and and how the game forces you to progress in Friendship quests before you can freely explore the world. Well, a lot manages to change in a year, and there have been some announcements about Disney Dreamlight Valley, and since I have, for all intents and purposes, finished the main story of the game, I figured now is a good chance to update my review, and talk about the announcements.

And I think the first thing to talk about is stuff that I... didn't get wrong, but are wrong about the original review. Like saying that Belle was in the game and I haven't come across her yet, straight up, she wasn't even in the game, she was added much later and is in the game now, but as of writing, while she was advertised as being in the game, she was not. Also to bring up is the story, as it ended up becoming more... complex is too strong of a word, but it was more than just "tidy up Disney Town", it introduced a darker version of your playable character and... yeah that is about it. The way they let you progress was kind of weird, and I probably should have brought this up when I said that "a lot of the game was gated off", but straight up, when I wrote that review, they did not let you progress until the next major update, like you could access the biomes, but until they released the update you could not really fix those biomes by doing what the game wants you to do. Okay, so a big part of the game I neglected to mention was that you needed to find and restore a bunch of magical orbs and put them back into pillars to fix the world, and when I originally wrote the review, the pillars for Frosted Heights, The Forgotten lands and I think Sunlit Plateau were unavailable to do, and that irritates me to no end. I hate the idea of game companies selling incomplete games and finishing them with updates and DLC. No! Sell a complete game, add to it later, because that is how you should do it. If I worked at a sandwich shop and gave you two slices of bread and told you to come back next year for a piece of lettuce and two tomato slices, you'd boycott my place and get me shut down.

But now the game is complete... I hope, and I've put in plenty more hours, so what is my updated opinion? The game is... mediocre at best. Honestly, a lot of my complaints have not changed, but I've added plenty of new ones since. The first major complaint I have, the biomes just aren't fun to explore. Let's take another mediocre at best Disney game to compare, Disneyland Adventures, that game has you wandering around a simulated Disneyland Park, and you know, it's kind of fun to explore because you have items that you can use to interact with the world, you can find items to use your magic wand on, you can find hidden mickey's around the park to photograph with your camera, find hidden secrets in the park and on the rides. It's a really mediocre game, but it gives you a reason to go looking throughout the park, Dreamlight Valley doesn't. The main reason I keep going around the world is to pick up stuff to sell to Goofy, and that just gets tedious, picking up the same flowers, gems, herbs, it's so boring. Sometimes there's a chest you can open, but that's about it, there aren't really any secrets to explore for until you get a quest that makes you find something that only appears once you activate that quest, come on, maybe I want to catch eels for more reasons than coconut trees.

It also doesn't help that the world map is pathetically small. Small worlds aren't inherently bad, but they need to be packed with content to be worth exploring, but that isn't even the main problem with this game's world. It's packed alright, packed with crap, so much of the biome space is taken up by trees, rocks and other natural objects that you can't really place anything in them, much less another house. "Oh, but you can remove all the things", but I shouldn't have to, there either needs to be less crap in the biomes, or the biomes need to be bigger. I don't want to have to keep removing foliage to place houses.

Another big part of the game is collecting fragments of memories, which are really just screenshots of iconic Disney movie moments, and you get this randomly by doing errands. You'll get pieces of specific memories by catching fish, or digging in the ground, or feeding critters, or mining, and the problem is that they are too random to even really be worth getting. Like, you'll get a piece of memory after making one meal, but then you will get another piece of a different memory after making fifty meals, and you may not even get a memory piece, you may just a small amount of coins instead, which really makes the memories not really worth it. It also doesn't help that to get some of the pieces, you need to feed critters, which is difficult because they each have different ways to getting close to them, different foods they prefer, different favourite foods that will give you better rewards, and different critters will appear of different days at different times, sorry that I can't keep playing this game 24/7 guys, I guess that critter that appears from 6AM to 8AM just isn't worth not having a life over.

But let's get to the meat of all of this, the big announcements. The biggest announcement made in regards to Dreamlight Valley was that it was leaving Early Access, come December it will no longer be an Early Access game, which is kind of confusing to me because, A) This isn't an Indie game, I mean it's backed by a major company, so while the dev team may not be a Triple A studio, the association with Disney definitely restricts from being an Indie game. It also, B) means that this game isn't an original IP that needed Early Access sales to fund the game's development, this is a Disney game, they could easily have pumped a fraction of the money they withhold from Writers and Actors to give this game some more funds. It's also worth noting that this game is, C) not a Steam exclusive, so this game will also recieve money from sales on consoles, which means that the only reason I can see for this game being Early Access is entirely because Disney didn't want to fund it but still reap profits from it, which let's be real is a Disney thing to do. It's probably also why this game isn't going Free-to-Play when it leaves Early Access like it promised.

So with all that said, I must really hate this game right? Honestly, a mediocre at best game is not worthy of being hated, at least not by me. The big problem is, I can see a good game in pieces of this one, a fantastic game even. Interacting with different Disney characters and collecting fragments of memories that are Disney screenshots, I can see a fantastic game being made with that concept, it's just that a fantastic game wasn't made. Sometimes, I wish I could get into game development, as a writer or concept artist, because there are ideas that just seem so obvious that it makes no sense that, instead of a Kingdom Hearts style RPG where we collect memory fragments, it's a life-sim where we run errands and do busy work, and after a while it just kind of feels like a chore to play, and nobody likes chores. I can't say I hate it, but once that better game is made, I'm probably not gonna come back to it.

And really, why isn't Winnie the Pooh in this game yet?

Panda! Go, Panda! (1972 & 1973) - A Fun Collection of Two Cute Stories

 

Okay so, I'm kind of cheating for this review. Panda! Go, Panda!, is not a movie in a sense, it isn't even really a package film like The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, it's a 2017 DVD and Blu-Ray release of two short films, Panda Kopanda from 1972 and Panda Kopanda and the Rainy-Day Circus from 1973. I have a general rule about reviewing short films, in that I just don't review them. 40 minutes is the general accepted minimum length required for a movie to qualify as "Feature Length" according to the AFI and the BFI, and neither of these shorts reach 40 minutes. So the question is, Does this fall into my rules? Well, I decided to cheat a little bit, this is gonna review the shorts as though they are part of one big package film, because the DVD release allows you to watch both of them in one sitting, no selecting at the menu, just click play and watch. Does this mean short film packages from the likes of Disney and Pixar up for review? I'm going to say no, I'm making an exception here because, honestly I do need to talk about anime more on here.

Panda Kopanda follows a little girl named Mimiko who is left home alone when her Grandmother leaves to Nagasaki for a memorial service. She finds a baby panda sleeping on her back porch and befriends the little guy, meets his father, and the three of them quickly decide to become a family, with Mimiko becoming the little Panda's mother, and PapaPanda becoming Mimiko's father. The first short mainly follows the three of them getting along together, with the little Panda "Panny" following Mimiko to school, and Mimiko learning that the Panda's actually escaped from the Zoo. The whole short is actually really cute, and the three lead characters are all very perky and bubbly. It's a very comforting watch, and really has that Studio Ghibli vibe to it, which is entirely because this was Written by Hayao Miyazaki, and directed by Isao Takahata, both of whom would go on to found Studio Ghibli in 1985. Other staff include Yoichi Kotabe as animation director, Yasuo Otsuka as a character designer, and Yoshifumi Kondō as an animator.

The second short, Panda Kopanda and the Rainy-Day Circus follows Mimiko and the Pandas as they discover an escaped baby tiger in their house. Being a cutesy anime, the tiger quickly befriends the three, and Mimiko reunites the baby tiger with its mother at the circus. Of course it wouldn't be called the "Rainy-Day Circus" if their wasn't a rainy day, or a stormy day that floods most of the town they live in. With the circus animals stuck in the flood, Mimiko and the Pandas need to rescue them. This short is just as cute as the previous, but it was also a bit tenser, the music in the opening when the circus crew were looking for the tiger, it almost made it feel like a horror movie, which of course makes it all the funnier when Mimiko excitedly does a hand-stand on the table proclaiming that she's never seen a real burglar before, and the climax with the circus train was both fun and kind of exciting. This is admittedly a film for younger kids, but I can see them really getting into this one.

Both of these shorts have really simple designs, but it really fits the tone they were going for with these movies. The characters look cute and the stories they're put in are equally so. There really isn't a whole lot I can say on the animation side of things, it has a simpler style and doesn't do a lot of what I think most people come to expect from anime, but it wasn't meant to have any super detailed moments or extravagantly choreographed sequences, it was meant to be a cute and charming series of shorts about a girl and two pandas and that is what it is. I also watched this movie subbed, and the Japanese voice actors really did do a good job, I honestly almost dread watching it dubbed because I feel that American voice actors very rarely get "cute" down right, I can name some who do, but not a whole lot. I think my only real problem with these shorts is that... well whenever Mimiko is excited, she does a handstand, and that leads to a lot of shots where we see here underwear. I do feel like that is something I should tell people about before they give this a watch.

Other than that, Panda! Go, Panda! was a fun collection of two really cute shorts. You can draw a lot of connections from it and Hayao Miyazaki's future works, especially My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo. If you're a big Studio Ghibli fan, I would classify this as a must see, and if you are an anime fan, I would say this is worth checking out. It's nice comfort viewing, the stakes are never very high and the whole this is just an adorable and fun watch, it would be fantastic to show for kids, and it's a cute comfortable watch for anyone else. I may be a bit biased because the Panda is my favourite animal in the world, but even looking at this objectively, it's not aiming for more than cute and fun, and I'd say it succeeds. Yeah, this was kind of a short review, but hey, it happens. I give this collection a solid recommendation.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) - Phenomenally Boring and One of the Worst Movies I've Ever Seen

 

The emotion of fear doesn't have to revolve around traditionally scary things, there are multiple kinds of fear, including dread, worry, anxiousness, panic, many types of fear. Why do I mention this? Because when I was younger, I popped in a VHS tape my dad had, it was a recorded tape of three movies, it was one of my first double features as I skipped over the first movie on the tape (it was Leon: The Professional if anyone is curious), the movies I watched began with Resident Evil, a really bad movie that I hated watching. Then it started, the movie that I would dub "The worst movie I've ever seen in my life", a movie that would stick in my brain and make me so angry every time I thought about it that even after years of never having rewatched it, it still holds that spot. I've seen some awful movies in that time, and a part of me wonders if this is still the worst, or at least my most hated, of the bunch. It made me mad when I was younger, now it makes me afraid as an adult, it is silly, I know, but I'm walking into this review feeling like a man condemned to the electric chair. Well, here it is, my review of what I dubbed "The Worst Movie I've Ever Seen", Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

The plot follows Dr. Aki Ross as she tries to find some energy forms known as "Spirits" in order to save the Earth from an alien threat known as The Phantoms, translucent beings that are almost immune to physical attacks and seem to kill people by attack their life essence. See, all beings have this kind of essence to them, and organic life forms are apparently attached to the spirit of the Earth known as The Gaia, and it has absolutely nothing to do with anything Final Fantasy that I am aware of. Okay, I know that there is some form of environmental theme in Final Fantasy VII, but like, there is nothing Final Fantasy about this Final Fantasy movie, I mean this is normally the point where I would say, "Full disclosure I've never played a Final Fantasy game ever", but that literally does not matter here because even I, who knows next to nothing about the games, can find nothing that identifies this movie as Final Fantasy, you literally could have called this movie "Spirits of Gaia" it would still work. As for the plot itself, I mean it moves along fine, they have a major reveal in the first third of the movie that would have worked better in the second act, and the big reveal of the movie is that the phantoms, beings I have described as similar to ghosts, are actually ghosts of an alien species. What a reveal...

However, that really isn't the biggest issue with the plot, the biggest problem with the plot, and really the entire movie is that it's boring. It is really boring, like I have never seen a movie this boring before. Remember when I was reviewing Open Season and I mentioned that I don't find boring movies to be worse than bad movies? This is the exception to that statement, this is the boring movie that is worse than bad movies. Open Season was boring but it was an uninspired kind of boring, Wonder Park was boring but it was a predictable kind of boring, this movie is almost offensively boring.

I think the big problem is that the crew were too focused on the animation and graphics. This movie had a 137 Million dollar budget, not the most expensive animated movie ever made, Treasure Planet had a budget of 140 Million, but that is just one of the examples of how much they hoped the visuals would save this movie. It took four years to complete this movie, and 960 workstations to render it all, they wanted this to be one of the first photorealistic computer-generated movies ever, and the worst part about all of it is that it doesn't look all that great. Like, it looks no different from a PS3 game really, which is funny because a later Final Fantasy project would also be known for trying to push graphics to an absurd degree to the point where background plants had just as much polygons, if not more, than human players. Apparently when it comes to Final Fantasy, lessons are always learned the hard way. 2001 was the year Monsters, Inc. was released and that movie still looks great today, while this one doesn't look that great.

It also does not help that it really does feel like more effort was put into the characters, apparently 100,000 polygons, than towards their personality. I could not tell you anything about these characters, maybe one or two aspects, but rather than give time developing the characters and their relationships, they just dump exposition. There is a scene in the movie where one of the characters watches one of her team get killed, and she just gives up and lets the Phantoms kill her too, I'm sorry, all through the movie she made it clear she did not think too highly of this character, now I'm meant to believe that she actually liked him, and not just that, but enough to actually give up fighting after he died? Honestly, such a waste of a decent cast, Donald Sutherland, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, James Woods, Ming-Na Wen, Peri Gilpin, not bad actors, but they really weren't given the best writing or direction.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is notorious for being one of the worst Box Office Bombs in cinema history, grossing just over 85 million dollars and was one of the major causes for Square's financial trouble that lead to them merging with Enix Corporation. Honestly, I can see why, it banked too much on the visuals and not enough on the story or characters, there is no hook to keep anyone watching, let alone coming back, and I can't imagine this would be any good for Final Fantasy fans either. Is this still the worst movie I have ever seen? Honestly, I don't know, I can think of movies that I hate more, but not really movies I like less. With all of that said, is there anything good about this movie?

I'd say there is, it makes fantastic white noise.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) - Two Classic Stories Paired with Classic Animation

 

I'm gonna level with you guys here, I kind of chose this movie last minute. I wanted something properly in keeping with the month of Spooky that is October, and I had some good choices. That being said, my September was pretty full on a personal level, so I didn't really have much time to sit and ruminate on one movie. So, as I usually do when I don't have anything planned, I rummage through Disney's package films. You know, I should be a bit more nostalgic for these, since I grew up with Melody Time and The Three Caballeros and my first movie review on this blog was Fun and Fancy Free, heck one of my favourite Disney movies, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, is a package film. Honestly, I think I look at a lot of these movies as more a fascinating relic. A moment when Disney, and by and large the entire United States, were struggling. The Great Depression, followed by the second world war meant that many studios did not have the money, material, nor staff that they could put towards anything really major, which meant that Disney had to rely on making short films and packaging them together in one movie to make a feature. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is often cited as the best of the package films of this era, and mostly for one segment, but we'll get there when we get there. Well, let's see how it holds up.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, easily on the longest tiles of any movie in the Disney Animated Canon, tells two short versions of iconic literary characters, Ichabod Crane of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and J. Thaddeus Toad of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Like I do with most other Package films, I'm gonna go over each segment individually, I do this because, there is no real point to doing them both together as if they're one movie. They are two different stories, so I'm going talk about them as two different stories. I've never read either story originally, but I am vaguely familiar with them both, Tim Burton's 1999 film version of Sleepy Hollow is one of my favourite movies, and I've heard about Wind in the Willows before, though this will be my first real exposure to that story.

The movie's first story is The Wind in the Willows, following the story of Mr. Toad as he becomes obsessed with Motorcars and gets accused of stealing one. I must say, this is a really cute story, Mr. Toad and his friends are charming characters, and I did quite enjoy seeing them go through this ordeal. It can be a bit weird that Toad can somehow manage to disguise himself convincingly as an old woman, but this is a world where toads and rats and moles and badgers and horses can talk, so I can suspend my disbelief a bit further here. I really do have to make a special mention of the soundtrack for this story, it perfectly captured the energy and mood of the scenes, when the scene was quiet and tense, the score matched it. When the scene was chaotic and frantic, the score matched it. Honestly, I'm kind of sad that this short doesn't get as much attention as the Sleepy Hollow segment, I think The Wind in the Willows was a really excellent segment, and it's a shame that the only recognition this segment gets is for the dark ride at Disneyland. Though weasels have appeared in other Disney properties, you can just as easily associate them with Mickey and Friends instead of Mr. Toad.

A lot of people will mostly recognize this movie for the Sleepy Hollow segment, it's pretty much a staple of Halloween. It is a good story, and I really love Ichabod's design, scrawny and lanky, very unassuming looking. I didn't get as much into this story as the last one, mostly because this segment was just really goofy, like almost Looney Tunes level of goofy. The first half of it has a lot of cartoonish slapstick and shenanigans, which is fine, this is a cartoon, and it offers a nice contrast with the second half, or it would if it also wasn't full of similar antics. After Brom Bones tells the story of the Headless Horseman, and another creepy forest scene, the actual chase with the Horseman is a lot sillier than people have said. Everyone brings up how this scene was super scary to them as kids, and it's still one of the best scary moments from classic Disney, and my biggest thought was, replace Ichabod with Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck and not a whole lot really changes. I don't want to say that this story was bad, it was still pleasant, but I think I preferred The Wind in the Willows.

Both stories are narrated, with The Wind in the Willows being narrated by Basil Rathbone, and Sleepy Hollow being narrated by Bing Crosby. I liked Basil Rathbone's narration quite a lot, British accents are typically used to add some kind of dignity or grandiosity to a story, but they don't forget that this is a children's story, and I think Basil meets in the middle very well. I can definitely get into Bing Crosby as the narrator for Sleepy Hollow, he definitely has that odd voice that does lend itself to something a bit darker, which is probably why I prefer his version of "Do You Here What I Hear?", since that is also a dark song. I think they mostly went with Big Crosby because they wanted to make some musical numbers, and Bing Crosby was one of the most popular singers at the time. I guess I would have preferred someone with a more sinister voice for this story, but Vincent Price wouldn't be a horror icon until the late 50s, so this is probably a hindsight criticism.

Honestly, this is another case where I'd rather watch both shorts separately, but to be fair to the movie, they do work together. I could imagine this being a series where Disney animators take a classic story and tell a condensed version through animation and a famous celebrity narrating. I think this film works predominately because both shorts are well done. It isn't that much different from Fun and Fancy Free, with the exception that the framing device can still work if you separate these shorts, which I think adds to them. I think all in all, you're probably better off watching both shorts as separate shorts, especially if you only want to watch one for Christmas and the other for Halloween, but if you do have an hour to kill, I mean, it's a lot better than Fun and Fancy Free, small victory, but a victory none the less. I think I can give this movie a solid recommendation, both shorts are worth watching and the convenience of them being together does help if you want to cross out two short films from your list. I don't think I'll personally come back to this one very often, but I may watch the shorts every now and again.

The Simpsons Movie (2007) - A Good Movie with a Bit of a Deeper Side

 

Has there been a movie that you feel is underappreciated? Not a movie that is over-hated or obscure, I'm talking about movies that generally, people are positive towards, but not necessarily favourable. Like, you bring up the movie and people will go "Yeah, that was a good movie", but not much else. For me, The Simpsons Movie is that movie, that movie I think doesn't really get the admiration it deserves, which is weird don't you think? I mean, this movie is not something like Felidae, a risky and one of a kind animated movie, nor is it like Treasure Planet, a very expertly crafted movie that can be considered a masterpiece. The Simpsons Movie seems like it would fall more into the camp of movies like The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie or DuckTales: The Movie, good movies that are entertaining, but that's all they aspire to be, and there is nothing wrong with movies that just want to be solid entertainment, but to say The Simpsons Movie is one of the most underappreciated movies, is to imply that it is more than an entertaining romp with our favourite characters. It also helps that I've been watching a bunch of Simpsons episodes recently, strike the ADHD iron while it's hot, am I right?

The plot is not wholly different from a usual Simpsons episode, it starts with one plot and then veers into another entirely. As condensed as I can make it, The Simpsons Movie follows the Simpson family as another one of Homer's screw-ups puts Springfield under a dome, but they manage to escape. It's kind of like three Simpsons episodes put together, like the first part is Lisa's plot about the lake and Homer's plot about getting a pig, then the second part is the dome, and finally it's Alaska and the plan to blow up Springfield. Despite this, each bit flows into each other nicely, we can see the progression from point A to point B to point C. Homer gets the pig, needs to dispose of it's feces, and dumps it into the lake, which was established to be heavily polluted by Lisa's plot. This prompts EPA involvement which leads to the dome, and so on and so forth. However, this plot is not the stuff I want to talk about, it's fantastically done, but there is something deeper here.

The Simpsons Movie is about how far one man will go to protect the people he loves. That statement may sound wrong, after all this is Homer Simpson we're talking about, this is like saying Family Guy is about one man learning to love his family. However, Homer is not Peter Griffin, while both of their idiotic tendencies have been amplified over the years, there are lines Homer would never cross that Peter has. Peter is callous while Homer is just thick in the head, so it doesn't feel like a stretch to say that this movie is about him and the lengths he'll go to protect his family. Listen to his excuses when the angry mob is trying to kill him, his excuse is that he's afraid for his family, obviously a cover for his real fear, but it's interesting that his first excuse was to protect his family. Him blowing off Marge as she uses his own words against him, an awful thing absolutely, but think of it from his perspective, he and his family are safe, and now Marge wants to risk everyone's life for a town that tried to kill them. Homer also does ridiculous things like dog sled, and then walk, from Alaska to Springfield, or does the motorcycle ride up the dome, this is not a man who doesn't care. He is destroyed when Marge and the kids leave to save Springfield, and his epiphany vision has features them prominently.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that this is one of the deepest character dives in cinema history. I am however, going to say that this movie might have been hiding something in plain sight. I could easily see the writers pitching ideas for how Homer goes from Alaska to Springfield, and they could have done something really silly and jokey, like Homer dog sledding to an airport or a seaport, or even managing to hitchhike with some hilarious one-off character, but they went with something that wasn't as silly, which strikes me as interesting.

Beyond the plot, the movie is pretty solid. It's comedy is a bit... 2000s, but there are a lot of jokes and gags that do make me chuckle, to straight up roar with laughter. This movie was released between Seasons between 18 and 19, which is the era of Simpsons I grew up with, so if you're fond of this era of The Simpsons, I think there should be some bits here that you'll enjoy. These are still some of our favourite characters with some good writing. Admittedly, the satire stuff, like President Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Mr. Burns claiming "For once the rich white man is in charge", have aged a bit, and one gag about Fox advertising shows during movies, I mean in the era of Streaming, that joke feels like a relic of a by-gone era, but I think there are more jokes that are still fresh, than jokes that are aged and kind of groan worthy.

Animation wise, there are a couple flaws I noticed, like Lip-Syncing not matching with dialogue, some shots where characters look out of place, and some movement animation not being complete, but overall, they really aren't obvious. I swear anyone who says that "You need to study animation to appreciate it more" really has no clue what they're talking about, because I've become way more critical of animation since learning to animate. Barring these minor flubs, The Simpsons Movie doesn't really look all that much different from modern HD era Simpsons, maybe a little bit cleaner, like you can tell the difference at a glance, but it doesn't look too different. I think it looks great, minor flubs aside.

The amusing thing is, The Simpsons 2000s run, and even their modern run, are kind of getting second looks. People are going back to these seasons and going "You know, maybe our initial reaction was a bit harsh", yet people don't seem to be doing the same for The Simpsons Movie. I feel that is a bit unfair. I think the problem is it isn't completely a fun and wacky adventure with our favourite characters, but it also isn't something that is entirely deep and emotional, it's kind of an attempt to balance the two. I don't know if audiences would prefer it skew more towards one way or another. On the one hand, a wackier plot would be funnier, but it would be reminiscent of a standard episode like "Bart on the Road" or "Kill the Alligator and Run", whereas a more serious plot would let us care more for the characters, but would ultimately leave behind what The Simpsons is, it's a comedy, not a Drama.

I think there is a lot here to admire about this movie, it is still The Simpsons, the characters and humour are still here. Plus, given a plot that is both silly and character-driven, I really do think that you should take another look at this movie. With The Simpsons modern era getting some more appreciation recently, people may look at the movie as the bridge between classic era and Modern era Simpsons, I don't think it is, "Classic" and "Modern" are descriptors that change with time. I feel like The Simpsons Movie gets lost a little, and I think it should get another chance in the spotlight. I don't think it's on par with the best Simpsons episodes, but when you have highs such as "Cape Feare", "And Maggie Makes Three" or "Last Exit to Springfield", that is a pretty high bar to reach. I say, give it a watch, and let it stand on its own merits, and I think you'll find this movie is more than you may have initially thought of it.

Open Season (2006) - A Rather Uninspired and Basic Kids Movie

 

Nostalgia is a dangerous thing, be wary of it. Those fond memories you have are not entirely based on quality. When everything was new and exciting, you will remember it as better than it was, simply because it was new and exciting, but always remember that memories can be deceiving, and it is best to acknowledge when what you are nostalgic for, is not really that good. By all means, hold onto the precious memories, but do not let them cloud your judgement of your future, your now, for as the Tragically Hip song goes, "You can't be fond of living in the past, 'cause if you are than there's no way you're gonna last". I am not above admitting that Open Season was a movie I enjoyed as a kid, but as time has moved forward, I've not come back to this one in a long time. Is there a reason I've left this movie behind alongside other aspects of my childhood? Or is there something worth growing up with?

The story follows Boog, a Grizzly Bear as he is relocated from his shelter home back into the woods after an incident. A deer named Elliot with a missing antler tries to get him back into his home before open season starts, which causes more problems for everyone involved. As a plot, it moves along alright, the only nitpicks I have are like really minor things that don't really matter. Like, there's a point where Boog is meant to find something in his teddy bear, which he finds because of hearing them break, earlier in the movie he throws his bear at something, and there is not a breaking sound. Again, it's a really minor thing that doesn't really matter, but the rest of the movie is uninteresting to the point where I'm left wondering about stuff like this because it's much more interesting. Which falls mostly on the fact that the plot is not really unique, and the characters aren't interesting.

I'm not really invested in these characters, and I think part of that is because they're really standard, Boog is a character we've seen before and nothing is really done that differently with him. He's the fish out of water, out of his element, and the only thing that really separates him from other characters of this type is that he's a bear. Elliot is your annoying moron sidekick, and that's it. There's some stuff about him being kicked out of his herd, but I can think of way better idiot sidekicks in animated movies. I think another part of it is the voice acting, no offense to Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher, but they're voices do not really match the designs. Martin Lawrence's voice fits the pampered and tamed side of Boog, but I don't really buy it when he's supposed to be angry, it's just kind of too smooth for that, and Elliot's design just does not fit Ashton Kutcher's voice. It's a shame because the rest of the cast isn't bad, especially Gary Sinise, who plays the hunter Shaw, and he's really the only character I wanted to watch in this movie. The rest of the cast is okay, Gordon Tootoosis, Patrick Warburton, Billy Connolly, not bad choices, and they do solid jobs, but we're not spending most of our time with them.

That really is about the best I can say about the technical side of this movie, because the animation and soundtrack are both uninspired. The animation really has that early 2000s first feature vibe to it, it really does look like this was Sony Pictures Animation's first animated feature, which it was, so I can't be too hard on the animation, but when you look at their future films, with movies like Hotel Transylvania and their stylized CG animation, the jump in quality is just too noticeable. It isn't terrible animation, but it's on par with the time period. Similarly, the soundtrack isn't awful, in fact I do kinda like the opening song, but most of the other songs are just kind of generic and I feel they only used because they couldn't use similar sounding songs by R.E.M., it's like this movie saw Shrek, and wanted to have the dollar store version of its soundtrack.

On top of being really "2000s" in the animation and soundtrack, it's also kind of generic kids movie humour, admittedly there were some jokes I chuckled at, like when Boog drops Elliot off a cliff, only for the camera to reveal he caught him, that was a cute gag. Otherwise, most of the humour just did not hit, and it wouldn't, it was a movie made for kids in the 2000s, it wasn't really designed to grow up with them. This is the kind of children's movie I can't stand, it's the Duck Duck Goose or the Swan Princess, the kind of kids movies that are made just to entertain kids and not enrich them. I do think both of those movies are worse than this, Duck Duck Goose was taken to an almost insulting degree and The Swan Princess was a theatrical knock-off, and both of which irritate me more than this movie ever could, but that's mostly because this movie is just... uninspired.

The biggest crime of this movie is that it aims moderately and barely reaches the bar. The animation, soundtrack, characters and story are all uninspired and basic, it's not hard for me to imagine this movie being the favourite of many kids, but it isn't hard for me to see them forgetting about this movie either, because there isn't much in this movie that sticks with you. Some might argue that a boring movie is worse than a bad movie, and on some level I agree, but that implies that all kinds of "bad" and "boring" are the same, I mean, is this movie boring? Yes, is it worse than Duck Duck Goose? The Barbie Diaries? Felix the Cat? The Magic Voyage? Well, I'd much rather watch a movie that is uninspired and boring than any of those, so in this case I'd argue that a boring movie is better than a bad movie, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still a bad movie. I can't recommend this one, maybe if you have little kids they'd be entertained, but they'd probably be just as entertained with any other kids movie. I have some memories with this movie, but I don't think I'll be making any new ones.