First Impressions: The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (2022)

Disney... We need to talk.

Look, I get it, movies get scrapped for a variety of reasons, it sucks but I can overlook the canning of Nimona if something super spectacular comes along to take its place. In Nimona's place, you gave us Raya and the Last Dragon, a movie that is just fine, and nothing else. You gave us Cruella, which did not need to exist. You gave us Encanto, which almost makes up for Nimona, but then you bring a Blue Sky property back to life for... why? Why are you bringing back Ice Age? Nobody is clamoring for the return of this franchise, because the franchise started going downhill with the second movie.

On principle I don't want to watch this, because let's look at the facts. Fact number one, Disney acquired Blue Sky during the Fox acquisition. Fact two, Disney closed down Blue Sky in 2021. Fact three; Blue Sky was working on an adaptation of the graphic novel "Nimona", which a lot of people were anticipating. Fact four; Disney decided to scrap the Nimona project, along with a bunch of other promising projects that Blue Sky was working on. Fact Five; The next thing we see from a Blue Sky property is a sequel to an Ice Age movie that goes directly to Disney+ in January. The facts show that Disney cut a movie that a lot of people were anticipating and gave us a movie for a franchise a lot of people wanted to stay dead. If I wasn't giving the benefit of the doubt, I would assume that Disney only greenlit this movie as a show, to say "See, we do care about this studio and their franchises", despite giving us a garbage movie and saying "well clearly you guys don't care about the franchises, I mean look at the viewer results".

I'm giving Disney the benefit of the doubt here, despite the fact that I highly doubt they've actually earned it. Companies operate on how much money a product could make, but I have doubts that Ice Age would make more money than a movie that a lot of people were vocally excited about. I can only assume Disney either did not know about the hype surrounding Nimona, or they were aware of the hype but were afraid of pissing off some bigoted market, and let's just say, Disney is no stranger to editing movies for said bigoted countries.

Oh and let's talk about other movies that Disney is planning on releasing, like that Snow White remake that Peter Dinklage has called out for dwarfism, and also could be a movie with the Snow White tag on it. Disney's also releasing another Rio movie, that'll be fun to talk about. Oh yeah, and Turning Red is gonna be Pixar's next movie to go directly to streaming. Which leaves me wondering if Pixar is gonna be the next Blue Sky and we're gonna get a Toy Story 5 out of it, but let's not dwell on that topic anymore. Disney has been making a lot of bad decisions, and the new Ice Age and Rio movies might just be the worst of them. Well, of their recent decisions, I mean their messing up of Copyright Law and the hiring of Eisner and Katzenburg might have been worse than this one, but that is talking with the added benefit of hindsight.

Why was all of that important? Because, screw Disney!

As a huge Disney fan, I can say without any hesitation, screw Disney, and I'm keeping it there because I do want to keep my swearing to a minimum with this blog. Disney represents the very worst of the entertainment industry, at least the entertainment industry that doesn't include video games, but we'll see which company they end up acquiring. Disney is devoid of creativity, almost discouraging creativity, does not listen to their audiences, and aren't even very good at pandering or virtue signaling. Disney makes great products, on occasion. I wasn't kidding when I said Encanto was Disney's best film in years, and it sadly might be Disney's best film for another few years. Disney has and can give us a lot of the best stuff, while representing the worst of it all. That is why I can say, screw Disney.

And screw this movie too, it's dull and boring and unfunny. No disrespect to the people who worked on it, but it really does feel like a TV show that was retooled into a movie, something Disney has a shocking amount of knowledge about. Did Michael Eisner really leave Disney? Because this seems like something he would suggest. It has all the failings of a movie that was meant to be a TV series, because this movie was meant to be a TV series. Quite frankly, I'd say don't watch this movie on principle, but it's not even worth breaking those principles for, and quite frankly, I think I should be paid to watch movies like this. Screw Disney, don't watch this movie.

Editorial: Nimona

 

Okay so I'm really late to this punch but, this month has just been a fustercluck for me, what with classes, personal life stuff, and of course the excitement of both The Muppet Show and the new category "Star" coming to Disney+, I've been busy, and honestly the fact has kind of fallen out of my head for a bit, I mean what's more important, some silly animation or movie studio or making sure I don't have an emotional breakdown because I have to animate a minute and a half of animation by myself? By the way, a minute and a half of animation is over two-thousand frames, think about that next time you brush off animation as lazy work, but that fact still remains that Disney has officially shut down Blue Sky Studios.

Disney acquired Blue Sky, most likely with the Fox acquisition, the acquisition that completely screws over the entertainment business because it gives Disney an insane amount of new properties which includes, and is not limited to, "The Simpsons", "Alien", "Family Guy", "The X Files", "Firefly" and the most depressing out of all of them, "Dude, Where's My Car?". I swear, next Disney is gonna try to acquire SquareEnix or Scholastic or something. Either way, Blue Sky would have been acquired during this acquisition, and Disney has decided to shut them down, because the live action reboots make more money than the medium that Disney literally became synonymous with. Legitimately, that is the reason I talk about animated movies instead of live action movies, with the rare exception, I want people to respect the over one hundred year old artform.

Well anyway, with the news of Blue Sky turning grey also came the news that all of their current projects would be cancelled, which included the movie I was most looking forward too seeing, Nimona. So, instead of looking at one of Blue Sky's movies, spoiler, the next review is gonna be a traditional Disney movie, I thought I would write a post talking about Nimona, what it is, why I'm sad the film got cancelled and whether or not it can and should be saved. Here we go.

What is Nimona?

Nimona began as a webcomic, not unlike other famous sensations like Penny Arcade and Cyanide and Happiness. Unlike the previous though, Nimona was shocking in a different way, rather than make it's lead character a zoophile or make jokes about some dude's crotch looking like applesauce, Nimona was one of those properties that started off really cute and charming about a villain who gets a new sidekick that can shapeshift, and then Nimona turned into a monster, demolished an entire city, and everyone almost died. Also there is something in there about some kind of conspiracy, the main antagonist was forced into maiming his best friend, the government kind of wants to run tests on Nimona, and it gets dark. Don't be too surprised about that, this comic was first published in 2012, and if you know anything about 2010s TV, it's that the cartoons started off super cute and charming, but then ended with apocalypse. That was kind of the thing with the 2010s, and I wouldn't really call it "Shocking" in the same way I wouldn't call Adventure Time or Steven Universe "Shocking", but it's still in that bubble.

Later it was published into a full graphic novel by Harper-Collins, so when the great internet purge happens and every scrap of internet content is erased from existence, we'll still have Nimona, which is great because, Nimona is one of my all time favourite graphic novels. It's not that I've read a lot of them, but I've read some big ones, like V for Vendetta, Maus, I've read the Legend of Zelda mangas for a bit, and I think the only Graphic novel I like more than Nimona is Anya's Ghost, and it's mostly because of the artstyle. Seriously though, if you have yet to read Nimona, I highly recommend it, seriously, one of the best graphic novels of the last decade.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, who wrote Nimona? Well, the comics and novel were done by one Noelle Stevenson, and if you recognize that name, you may be a fan of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, because they did that too, or you might be familiar with Lumberjanes, which they also did. So, if you're fond of either of those, you might like Nimona.

Why are people bummed it has been shelved?

Well, I can tell you why I myself am bummed about it; Nimona's awesome. I think I've hit the nail on the head a lot in this blog, but I really love this book. I love how it flips the narrative on it's head, the black haired villain and the spunky girl that loves to make things explode are the protagonists while the charming and handsome blonde dude is one of the antagonists. I love the characters and their relationships, how the main guy meets another enthusiastic scientist and immediately puts them as their emergency contact, or how he starts to see Nimona as more of a family member than an accomplice, at least that's how I see it, and I think these characters would have been really good in a movie.

Now, I think most people also have the same view, they really love the story and characters and wanted to see it all on the big screen, but there is something else that some people may be bummed about; this movie may have also been massive for the LGBTQA+ crowd.

So, I am unsure if Noelle has actually said anything about this, but I do feel that the characters can appeal to the Gender Neutral audience, and Noelle is LGBTQ+ and gender neutral, so yeah, this movie would have been pretty huge for those groups. So Disney pulled the plug on a movie that would have been a big thing for them. Now, I'm not LGBTQA+, My Q stands for questioning, so I am probably not the best person to talk to about this subject, but I can see people being upset about that, honestly it is worth getting upset over, unlike a variety show from the 70s having a disclaimer attached to it because some of the material is completely wrong by the standards of today, seriously that is a disclaimer, if warnings are so offensive to you, maybe you need to chill the hell out and realize that having a panic or anxiety attack is about as fun as it sounds, so it really helps if we minimize our exposure to anything that can trigger those. No I am not getting off that soap box!

Anyway, the other big reason that people are bummed is because the film was, pretty much 90 percent done at least, give or take. Some tweets from people who worked on the film have stated that it would have had a unique animation style and I can tell you I was ready to call it the best animated movie of the year when it came out. Jumping the gun? Yes, but I was also ready to call The Lion King the worst animated movie of 2019, so I'm not always too far off on predictions like that. However, this all leads us to our final question;

Can Nimona be saved, and should it?

Now, can it be saved? Yes, it totally can. With the amount of work finished on the movie, and the fact that Disney is pretty much made out of money at this point, there is no question about Nimona's ability to be saved. The real question is, SHOULD it be saved and... that gets complicated.

On the one hand, yes I and a bunch of other fans, would love for the movie to be salvaged, in fact I made a joke about starting a hashtag campaign to save the movie, and yeah a small hashtag campaign has started, so yeah, we would love for this movie to see the light of day. On the other hand, I have doubts that the original crew is going to be brought back to finish their work. If Nimona does get another greenlight, they'll probably bring in a completely different crew and rework the entire movie, I would not be surprised if sometime later down the line Disney will take the fan backlash as a sign that they want A Nimona movie and not THE Nimona movie that was already being made.

While Noelle does have some recognition thanks to She-Ra, one show does not always net you the recognition you really need to get far. Stephen Hillenburg got that recognition because he made SpongeBob SquarePants, an icon that stands alongside Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, Nimona is not on the same level and She-Ra was a reboot, also the industry may not be as respectful towards women and LGBTQ+ people as we would like, but that's another argument. So, while Noelle does have recognition, I don't think it's enough recognition to really sway anyone at Disney.

Should Nimona be saved, well, I'm not gonna say no, but there needs to be some massive steps taken before I can say yes. That was a lot of people that were working on this movie, and some of them have probably moved on to other projects, either by choice or by being put there, it is how the industry does sometimes.

In the end, I'm sad to see my most anticipated movie since Deadpool be shelved, but maybe it's not the end of the road for Nimona. Again, the fan backlash has been vocal if nothing else, so there may be something at the end of the rainbow. So, if sometime in the future I have to eat this entire blogpost with a nice cold glass of hindsight, I won't be surprised. That being said, I also wouldn't be surprised if this was the end of the road for this particular Nimona movie.

Ice Age (2002) - A hilarious and heart-warming feature

The first release for any studio, not just in animation, is always a risky one. Not only are you betting on the movie being a success, you're counting on it being a big enough success that you can make another movie or game. Basing your first project on a well known source has worked in the past, but what if you wanted to create a whole new original franchise? Blue Sky, as does any studio, had a lot riding on their first release, and in the end, was the risk worth the reward?

While everyone is migrating to the south to avoid the ice age, a mammoth named Manfred goes the opposite way and meet with a sloth named Sid. Meanwhile, a pack of Sabre-tooth Tigers are attacking a human settlement in revenge. They plan to steal a newborn, however their plans are thwarted when the mother jumps off of a near-by waterfall with the infant in her hands. She comes across Manny and Sid and the two try to return the infant to the human settlement, with the help of a Sabre-tooth tiger named Diego. But, Diego has other things planned. The plot is a simple characters go on adventure plot, where the characters will end up in one situation and interact and react, and then move along. This type of plot is dependant on having good characters and interesting settings.

On the character aspect, each character is delightful and charming. Manfred is a grump that gets annoyed by Sid. Sid is naive, clueless and very talkative, but he does know when he should shut his mouth at times. Diego seems to be collected, sophisticated and cunning, but we do get to see a more childish side to him at points. As the movie progresses, we get to see the characters grow and change, we see why Manny is generally grumpy, we see Diego go from luring Manny and Sid into a trap to seeing them as good friends. Character growth is the heart of this movie, and the characters bounce of each other so well. Side characters appear occasionally throughout the movie as well. Characters like the Dodos and Scrat are very humorous and lead to some of the film's funniest scenes. The movie does not struggle with it's characters.

When it comes to the humour, this movie might be one of the funniest animated movies I've ever seen. The movie has lots of different jokes, slapstick, reference, and just funny character interaction. One of my personal favourites is when, after a crazy ice slide, which ends with our trio smashing into a wall of snow, and Diego bursts out of a pile of snow in excitement. I really don't want to spoil a lot of the humour of this movie, but how can I not share things like the Dodos and when Scrat gives them directions via charades. However, the movie isn't just joke after joke, as the film gives the characters lots of emotional moments, like in a cave full of paintings and when Manny and Sid come across the human mother and her infant. These moments are done beautifully with the right music and atmosphere. Ice Age is one of the more surprising movies I've seen in this regard, one would not expect a comedy like this to have such well done emotional scenes.

While the animation does look dated, the movie still looks really good. Lighting and shadow are used really well and the animators made good use of their chosen colour palates. Scenes like the icy cave are full of blues, a small cave where they sit by a fire is warmly lit, the cave paintings scene is animated in a different visual style, helping it to stand out from the rest of the movie. Despite this, the movie does have a lot of browns and whites and these colours are not very appealing to look at, but I think the movie has enough visual pleasing scenes to balance it all out. While Ice Age may not have the best looking animation, models do have that gummy/plastic look that most dated CG animation has, it's definitely not terrible, and I have to give the animation and design team all the credit for making what they had work.

It's not much of a mystery why Ice Age was successful enough to keep Blue Sky Studios around. I was honestly thinking that this movie was one of those movies that you liked the most as a kid, but as you get older you kind of fall out of it, but thankfully, this movie not only had me howling with laughter, but it had me invested in the characters, impressed with the animation, and even feeling for the characters. It's no wonder they kept making sequel after sequel, though I've heard they're not as good as the first movie. Overall, Ice Age is funny, exciting, and even heart-warming at points. I think this is a good movie to show to children, and I'd even recommend adults sticking around to watch it with them for the sheer enjoyment of the movie. Yeah, this movie get's my high rating, and that's a surprise even for me.