The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) - A Fun and Decent Quality Movie by Illumination

2023 was not a bad year for animated movies, I mean it had Nimona and Across the Spider-Verse as big releases, it couldn't be bad. The thing is, it was just kind of a... quiet year? It was very clear that the pandemic projects were starting to wrap up and if anything began work during 2020 or 2021, this was the last year we would see any of that. 2022 was just absolutely full of releases that everyone was going crazy over, and 2023 definitely had a lot of those as well, by comparison it felt much quieter, of course 2024 was also quiet by comparison so we'll have to see what 2025 brings us. I think doing my best list of 2023 was largely easy to do, because the top five was comprised of two movies I really loved, two movies I liked a lot, and one movie I really respected. There was, however, one movie I did not put on that list, and one might wonder why. Was it simply because I hate the studio that made it? Was it because it was not actually that good? Was it for any other reason other than that I wanted to give a shoutout to Elemental? Well, let's take a look; This is my review of The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

The plot follows Mario as he and Luigi are sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom via a pipe they found while secretly fixing the Brooklyn Water System. Luigi gets dropped in the lands under the control of Bowser, who has stolen a power star in order to get Princess Peach to marry him, but Mario has teamed up with the Princess and a brave little Toad to gather the Kong army to fight back against Bowser and save Luigi. I think the best thing about this plot is that it very much is in spirit of the video games. I could very easily imagine a Super Mario game that is a lot like this movie's plot, something akin to Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros. 3D World, and maybe a reverse of Mario is Missing. I think the big fault of many video game movies is that they can often deviate too much from the initial video games in spirit, but I feel this movie manages to within the spirit of the Mario games.

I think most of the characters are the same, close in spirit to the games. Luigi is still your scared of everything coward, Bowser is still your lovesick villain, of course Mario did not have much of a personality in the games, other than that guy who will always help out with a smile on his face because that is what he likes to do. They definitely fleshed out Mario a lot more here, and I like it. They also took a lot of influence from other sources for Peach, she reminds me a lot of the Super Mario Adventures comics that were originally published in Nintendo Power. Overall, the characters are good, the ones that are similar to their game counterparts are well-done, and the ones who do deviate are still recognizable. However, I think the voice cast is the biggest part of these characters, specifically one Chris Pratt. Honestly, I think we are so used to Mario's cartoony Italian voice that we probably would not have been too accepting of any voice actor in his role, though there probably had to be picks we would be more accepting of than Chris Pratt. I dunno, my biggest issue with Pratt is that he's just given roles he is not best suited for, but I think he does an okay job here.

The rest of the voice cast are definitely much better cast, Anya Taylor-Joy captures the determination, excitability and authoritativeness of Princess Peach (those were a lot of big words), Charlie Day definitely captures that timid nature of Luigi, and I don't think there could have been any better casting for Donkey Kong than Seth Rogen. My biggest criticism for the voice acting, as I've said before, goes to Jack Black as Bowser. He does a fine job, but his singing voice is too close to his normal singing voice for me to separate the two, and later in the movie he sounds more like Jim Cummings as Pete, I like Jack Black, the Kung Fu Panda movies I think are some of his finest work, so I think this was more of a direction thing than an actor thing. However, one place I can give credit to is the voice cameos, everyone talks about Charles Martinet's roles, a character who represents the original Mario design, and Mario's father, and those are very fitting roles for him. I also noticed Scott Menville in one scene, and it's always difficult for me to hear him voice anyone, because the first thing I immediately think when I hear him is Robin from Teen Titans.

Before I forget, I did like the music of the movie. You will hear a lot of classic Mario tunes integrated into the movie's score, and I was one of the many people who cheered when they heard the DK Rap in the movie.

When it comes to animation, I'll be honest... I think Illumination was the best studio to make this movie. I know how that sounds, but Pixar and DreamWorks both have this very noticeable and recognizable style, both of which are more focused on realistic movement and texturing. I think the cartoony world of the Super Mario Bros. games truly did benefit from a studio that is more known for Cartoony and Stylized looking animation. It might sound weird, or look weird, that I'm praising Illumination, but my gripes with them were never about animation, mostly. I was always eyeing them for their stories and that they never seemed to really reach for much with their movies. I don't think they make entirely bad movies, but by the same token I don't think they make entirely great movies either. Animation wise, sure they started off kind of basic, but I do think they've gotten better, and my biggest example of that? The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is bright, colourful, expressive and full of life. So, is this Illumination's lone "Great" Movie?

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is good, absolutely. The story is good, the characters are good, the animation is good, what is holding it back? I think a lot of it is that the movie is simple and only really takes risks as a product and not as a movie. It's kind of hard to really love a movie like this unless it is really damn good, Transformers One was really good, but it also came out in a bit of a dead year for animated cinema. I don't think it really is the fault of the movie that I can't say that it's one of the best animated movies ever, I think it's more the year it came out and the track record of the studio behind it. It's easy to be the best when everything around you doesn't try. That being said, I do think The Super Mario Bros. Movie is good, Illumination's animation style does suit the Mario world perfectly, the casting is pretty good, and frankly, it was just nice to get a good movie with Mario in it, so for what it's worth, I do think this movie warrants a viewing, if only for being one of the few, if not only, Illumination movies I can say is better than alright.

The WORST Animated Movies of 2024

How would I describe 2024 for animation? Well, that is kind of a meaningless question. As a whole, animation has had its ups and downs this year, and there was plenty of good stuff, like The Amazing Digital Circus, that was absolutely peak. LS Mark released the pilot to his new animated series this year, and that was pretty good. There was A New Wish, which I hear most people quite liked. Batman: Caped Crusader, which was... I mean it was alright. X-Men '97 has gotten some good attention, and there is probably quite a bit I am not mentioning, mostly because I just don't really have any time for animated shows, I barely have time for new movies, but I did watch quite a few, but I do want it known that I couldn't watch everything, so if you want a more thorough look at the Animated Cinema of 2024, I'm sure Animated Antic can give you that.

There really is no other way to say this, but for animated movies, 2024 sucked, and this will not be the last time I say that in 2024, I'm repeating myself a lot but I really don't know how else to word it. It's not that this line-up was completely bad, there were some good and unique pieces of animation this year. However, it's very clear that we are officially finished that wave of "Pandemic Ideas", ideas that were bred out of artists of many varieties finally being able to take a breather and let their creativity flow and allow them to work on and polish up something truly unique. It would almost be amusing that we have learned nothing from the pandemic if the world wasn't completely on fire, both metaphorically and practically literally.

Really, all this list really goes to prove is that I'm a miserable curmudgeon who wants to go back to the days of watching Disney VHS tapes and racing around to get my pajamas on and my teeth brushed before the previews were over, and that was awful. Still, 2024 is not over until the worst of the worst have been named and shamed, so let's get to it. Here are the worst animated movies of 2024. 

6. Despicable Me 4

Oh... we're starting this list off strong when Despicable Me 4 is only the bottom of the list. Really, this movie should be higher considering it's from my least liked studio, Illumination. Still, I can't be surprised this movie wasn't good, I mean, did we really expect them to start making masterpieces after The Super Mario Bros. Movie? It's not like they were suddenly gonna start making things that would actually rival Disney or DreamWorks, though movies like this don't help with the feeling that The Super Mario Bros. Movie was not a total fluke.

The big problem was that, they had a lot of ideas and just didn't flesh any of them out. The movie is mainly a combination of three major ideas, Gru goes into witness protection, Gru assists a young villain-to-be in pulling off a heist, and the Minions become superpowered, and then a bunch of smaller ideas that spring off of those three plots. Really, I think if they just picked one plot here, the movie would have been a Hell of a lot better, and picking one or another would give them the chance to flesh out some of these ideas. I like the idea of one of the characters having to lie about their identity while not wanting to lie, that is a good dilemma, but that goes nowhere. I also like the idea of Gru having to decide about whether he wants to have his family and his good guy image or if he does miss the thrill of villainy, but that ultimately does not happen. I'll say it again, if the movie was just Gru and Poppy or Gru and Maxime, it would have been much better, but they had to go with Gru and Poppy and Gru and Maxime and also Super Powered Minions because... we need a new way to get merch sales out of these giant sentient tic-tac mutants.

It's only number six on this list because... let's be real, it's an Illumination movie, and Illumination is pretty much incapable to making anything that's really worth getting angry at.

5. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Easily the most disappointing movie on this list, if the only thing I took into consideration for this list was wasted potential, this would be number one, because there is almost a good movie creeping through here. Hell, I'd even go so far as to say there is a great movie hidden within, something to prove that the Lord of the Rings extended universe can be just as good as the Peter Jackson Trilogy. Instead, we got definitive proof that maybe the Tolkien estate should have kept the film rights under lock and key.

It's not even that there is one glaring issue that makes this whole movie suck, it's a bunch of small things that chip away at my enjoyment of the movie bit by but until the massive marble block is little more than a pile of rubble with a Squidward nose stuck to it. My biggest issue was the camera, they tried so many 360 shots and pans and all kinds of camera movement that half the time I swear I was watching The Gondor Witch Project instead, and it doesn't help that the animation just doesn't look right. I am going to say it, I think this movie has worse visuals that Ralph Bakshi's movie, because I'm not convinced that A.I. wasn't involved in this movie whatsoever. Characters look separate from the backgrounds as though they're greenscreen, which should not be a problem because this is 2D Anime inspired animation, but even then the characters are often too anime, Héra often looking more like a character out of Final Fantasy than Middle Earth. On top of that, she just isn't a good character, she's hyped up to be this badass character, but her God damn horse gets a more badass moment than she does, she really does fit the whole "Strong Female Lead TM" nonsense.

On top of that, it was just so anti-climactic, the antagonist gets killed by being choked with a shield, like come on, like their could have been something more to it, which would have made it more tragic too. Just a disappointing movie, and the archived recordings of the late Sir Christopher Lee do not help, yeah, you totally just added them for marketing hype, you printed that archived recordings were used and gave him a total of eleven lines. I really hope that we don't get anything more like this in the future.

4. The Garfield Movie

I think the main reason I can't say that this is the most disappointing movie of the year is that, I did kind of anticipate a middling, mediocre at best, but still watchable movie. Maybe it was just because Chris Pratt was involved, I dunno.

Really, the strengths of this movie is that, on some level, the crew behind it really did have some understanding of  Garfield, like this wasn't just a quick cash-in like some other Garfield movies were, but at the same time, it doesn't get as heavy or rough as some of the earlier Garfield specials did, or even as some of the comics did. Garfield saying goodbye to his mother is ten times the heart-breaking moment that anything in this movie, and they really do try, but it just didn't come together. Maybe with a better script something may have been decent, but it is kind of difficult to really do a decent Garfield anything when Garfield hasn't been good for a long time. The dry wit and sarcasm of the original strips long since been replaced and so are nowhere to be found in this movie, which sucks because there are moments that do almost, if not entirely, feel like Garfield.

It really is clear to me that Mark Dindal's strengths as a director do not like in movies like this, they lie in the zanier movies like Cats Don't Dance or The Emperor's New Groove, but even then, maybe not. Maybe those movies were just flukes, and The Garfield Movie might just prove it.

3. The Casagrandes Movie

On some level, writing these year end lists is easier for me than other reviews because I can just paraphrase or truncate any First Impressions that I have done, or expand upon any Social Media post I made. That being said, when a movie as completely boring and uninspired as this one comes out, really what else can I do?

I don't want to lift my original First Impressions word for word, but there are only so many ways I can say something is boring and doesn't put any new spin on old, tired jokes and clichés. I was finished with this movie when the ancient God was speaking in modern teenage slang, but I kept soldering on, because maybe this movie would have been somewhat watchable. Instead, it was the most boring animated movie of the year, and at one point I might have put it at the top of this list.

2. Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie

Frankly, I still think y'all are too harsh on this movie. No, it is not good on any level, but it is still better than Sponge on the Run, I mean do you guys remember Sponge on the Run? No, of course you don't, you remember zombie pirates with Snoop Dogg and Dany Trejo, Keanu Reeves in a Tumbleweed, Plankton Booty and Mr. Enter doing another Angry SpongeBob Review. Let me tell you, Sponge on the Run is the worst, because it does not feel like a SpongeBob movie, with the soundtrack full of modern popular acts (seriously the days of Ween and Motorhead cameoing in SpongeBob are over), attempts to satirize common animated movie tropes and moral about inner beauty or whatever... you know what all that reminds me of? Shrek, Sponge on the Run is a Shrek movie with SpongeBob's skin, and worse, it's not even a good Shrek movie in SpongeBob's skin.

With all that in mind, comparing it to a movie that didn't even feel like SpongeBob, what does this movie have? A line about SpongeBob not being able to watch his streaming shows? Uncanny live-action mixing? A weird moment where Sandy Cheeks gets DeviantArt Inflation put upon her? Yeah, really the worst thing about this movie is that even with all of that, this still isn't as bad as Sponge on the Run, there were moments here that did feel like SpongeBob, which I guess is more the shame all things considered. Really, it just falls under the category of "That Kind of Animated Movie", but even then only barely, and really it's only at number 2 because frankly, it's a much more interesting entry than The Casagrandes Movie. Still, I do think there is something that you can get somewhat upset with here, like SpongeBob means a lot to a lot of people and seeing stuff like this doesn't help. In any other year, I probably would have conceded to popular opinion and put this at number one, just because it would have given me the most to talk about, you know without the stigma of a good movie trying to break out of it like with The Lord of the Rings movie.

But this shockingly, was not just any other year, this was 2024 and 2024 gave us one massive surprise that we frankly should have seen coming, yet none of us did.

1. Where the Robots Grow

What, you didn't see this movie? Of course you haven't, at most, you watched Saberspark's video about it and promptly forgot it existed, lucky you.

Really, on principle this has to make number one, because the use of A.I. in creative spaces has truly been the death of creativity. A.I. is little more than legalized plagiarism stuck inside the uncanny valley, and the fact that any movie can be made with A.I., that just has to make it the worst animated movie of the year by default, doesn't it? I don't blame people for not watching it, why would anyone bother to watch a movie that nobody could be bothered to make? At least with the Lord of the Rings movie, I can convince myself that it was all done by human animators, I can believe it was all humans who made it. Really though, this is just giving the creator, or should I say the prompter, what they want, attention. They probably did hope that this was the movie that would make everyone change their mind about A.I. in creative spaces, or maybe they just wanted to show it can be done and get all the attention off of it, well guess what; No.

Come to think of it, I haven't actually watched this movie myself, really. Can I qualify it for this list if I didn't watch it? No joke, I seriously did not watch this movie before writing all of this about it, it is literally number one because it was made using A.I. and really that isn't entirely fair, is it? Can I put this movie on here by principle? Yes, the answer is yes. Yeah it isn't fair, but it also isn't fair that A.I. is being used to replace genuine creative talent while also stealing from said creative talent so I think it's fair game for everyone to call this the worst animated movie of 2024, even if they haven't actually watched it. I don't swear on this blogs, but ---- this movie, just for existing.

Well... that was fun, 2024 was not a great year for animated movies, but I am hoping that 2025 will be better. Like I said, I couldn't watch every animated movie this year, so while Megamind 2 and Mufasa: The Lion King would have been total shoe-ins for this list, sometimes I am just going to have to miss a few things. That being said, the big trend I notice in this batch of garbage is that, at the core of every movie here, there isn't a bad movie, except maybe for the A.I. movie, but honestly most of the movies here weren't even that infuriating, like I genuinely can't think of any real reason why to be mad at the existence of most of these movies, which is entirely why Where the Robots Grow was an easy number one entry. Really, 2024 was the year of the disappointment, where some movies just were not as good as they could have been.

Anyway, to round out the list, here are a few dishonorable mentions:

1. Orion and the Dark - I just did not enjoy this messy film, but I can see why some might like it.
2. Thelma the Unicorn - A very predictable and very mediocre movie, but harmless enough.
3. The Imaginary - This movie just... rubbed me the wrong way, would have been on the list if I actually got around to finishing it. Maybe I'll give it a review in 2026 or something, but no promises.

The Bizarre Case of Banned Animated Movies Around the World

Why do people care so much about media being banned? Well, the answer is quite obvious I think, it's because art is a universal form of communication, so when a book, movie, video game or anything is banned it is essentially saying that the ideas and thoughts of the work are not welcome in the area. Sometimes though, bans can be put in place for okay reasons, like say an episode of a cartoon being banned from televised airings because it has a scene that contains rapidly flashing lights that could cause seizures in epileptic viewers, or maybe a certain streaming service will ban a creator from their platform because they're spouting hateful nonsense and spreading harmful misinformation, or maybe a media company puts out a list of things that maybe shouldn't be played or aired for a couple days during a national tragedy. Whether or not these things really count as "bans" is, a different conversation entirely, but the point I do want to make is that sometimes things aren't banned or "Soft banned" just because the government wants total control over what their people think, some things do get pulled for less frustrating reasons. Some things also get pulled for completely stupid reasons.

So I thought, why not have some fun and talk about a bunch of animated movies that have some ban history to them. Why? Partially for educational purposes, I mean this is still film history after all, but also because I want to have a laugh at the stupid things and dumb reasons that most banned lists give us. This isn't going to be a top ten list, I'm mostly going to go through these movies in alphabetical order and whenever I can I will be providing links to articles about these film bans, I do have to be some kind of journalist here after all. So, with all of that said, welcome to the Bizarre Case of Banned Animated Movies!

(Author's note - *Denotes any movie where hard confirmation of the film actually being banned in any way is dubious at best)

Abomniable

Really? Abominable was banned? Yes, yes it was, in three countries no less, but... when I tell you the countries that banned it, you might notice something interesting about them. See, Abominable was banned in Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, and if you even vaguely know your geography, you can tell that all three of those countries have have shorelines in the South China Sea, an area which has several islands that are currently in dispute. See, China has a policy called the "Nine-Dash Line" policy which basically lays claim to those islands, and possibly the sea itself as well? What does this have to do with Abominable? Well, there is a brief scene where a map is displayed, that shows this Nine-Dash Line. Because this is disputed territory and this can be seen as supporting China's claim over the area, the three countries have called for the scene to be edited out, or censored, however because it was refused to cut the scene, the movie was pulled from theatres.

An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster*

Really, direct to video movies are being banned now? Well, not exactly, this is one of the movies that has a ban in the United States, and American bans tends to be either very regional or strictly over one form of viewing, for example, this movie. It was apparently banned from airing on Universal Kids, a Children's Television Channel that launched in 2005, and they gave no reason as to why they wouldn't air it. Some speculate it's because there is a character who might be a minor that has a crush on a character that is supposed to be middle aged, and the channel might have considered that inappropriate. Funny enough though, Freeform, an American basic cable channel, actually aired the movie in 2019 with a TV-PG rating, so make of all of that what you will.

Coonskin

Well, here's our first adult animated movie, a Ralph Bakshi film too. Ralph Bakshi has a history of controversial animations, with things like Fritz the Cat and even Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures. An archived article on The New York Times from 1975 (linked above) details one of the biggest controversies this film received, allegations of racism! The Congress for Racial Equality or CORE dubbed the movie as racist and campaigned to stop the movie's release, which led to the production company Paramount choosing to no longer distribute the movie. It should be stated that the article does mention that some black people were not on CORE's side about the movie, and many will comment on Bakshi's satire in the film. Coonskin is a movie that many better animation reviewers, analysts and historians could talk about for ages, so I'm gonna cut it off here. What I will say is, if you find a copy on Home Video in the wild, even under the alternate titles "Bustin' Out" or "Street Fight", maybe it's worth holding on to.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - To the Hashira Training

Of all the places to ban an Anime film, one of the last places I would expect would be The Bahamas, yes, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - To the Hashira Training, was banned in, of all places, The Bahamas. Why? Nobody is really sure, some have said that it's because the movie isn't in English, which is a dumb reason considering that the movie can be dubbed. So yeah, the Bahamas Plays and Film Control Board just banned this movie for... as far as anyone can really tell no actual reason. See, this is the stupid stuff that people like to see in ban lists.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - To the Swordsmith Village

Well, here we have it, our first movie ban in the Middle East. I will not even begin to talk about the culture of the Middle East because I am very much ill-equipped to do so, but suffice to say we have a bunch of movie bans in the Middle East. To the Swordsmith Village was the second Demon Slayer movie, and it was banned in a couple Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates banned this movie because of a scene where the character Mitsuri Kanroji is taking a bath. Of course, the Middle East in general has a problem with nudity and sexuality, so even a scene that is apparently not explicit can be seen as controversial. The sad thing is, this isn't even the weirdest ban for Demon Slayer.

Fairytale

What the heck is this movie? Well, Fairytale is a 2022 experimental adult movie by Alexander Sokurov, it was submitted to the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, and was scheduled to be screened at the Moscow Karo.Art festival but was denied a screening license. So, the movie was denied screening in Russia, and why? Again, no real reason is given, but if I had to make a guess, the movie is about Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini and Churchill in the afterlife, so... make of that what you will.

I should specify here that I'm not linking to any sources in this case, predominately because the sources are Russian, and I don't want to send people to any pro-Russia propaganda sites. The necessity of proper and sourced journalism is only upstaged by the necessity of due diligence.

Fantasia*

Yes, Fantasia was also banned at one point, in Ireland of all places. Why? Well, there are speculations, Wikipedia mentions that Fantasia had to be cut to remove the introduction of the Rite of Spring section, and it sources the book "Irish Film Censorship: A Cultural Journey from Silent Cinema to Internet Pornography" by Kevin Rockett. Others speculate it was because of segments like The Sorcerer's Apprentice or The Night on Bald Mountain being too much for the predominately Catholic Irish, some even speculate it's because of the infamous black centaur which I'd say is a bit of a stretch, I mean if Golliwog is still a thing in Britain, y'know?

Lightyear

Just when I thought I've finished talking about Lightyear, but yeah, this movie was banned too, in fourteen different countries no less. Predominately banned in Middle Eastern countries, as well as a few east Asian countries, for a brief lesbian kiss displayed in the movie that Disney refused to cut. Lightyear is banned in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Lebanon, Bahrain, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Turkey for this, even though apparently Kazakhstan has no laws criminalizing homosexuality in film. Due to the ban in Kazakhstan, it was also banned in Kyrgyzstan because their movies are distributed by Kazakhstan. I know this isn't exactly a popular Pixar movie, but I don't think even its biggest critics would say it warrants a ban.

The Lion King II: Simba's Pride*

Okay, this one may not be true, but I'm going to include it in case anyone has any information that I can't find. Apparently in the early 2000s, The Lion King II was pulled from television rotations for the subject matter. The problem is that I can't find any sources to back this up, the only source Wikipedia provides is a DVD review that can only be viewed on the WayBack Machine, and I don't think it makes any reference to it being pulled from TV, so I'm gonna label this one as "Dubious". If anyone has any information that can confirm or deny this one, please leave a comment.

The Mad Doctor

This is one of our first Short Films to be on the list. I should have kept it to feature length movies, but there is some interesting history with some of these short films, most notably one of, if not the most infamous Mickey Mouse short. If you know your history, you would know that The Mad Doctor was banned entirely in the United Kingdom, many theatres in the United States also refused to show it. However, I think the hilarious part about this film ban is that, apparently, Nazi Germany also banned it. Wikipedia sources the book "Hollywood Flatlands: Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant-garde" by Esther Leslie, looks like there is a bit of reading in my future.

Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes

Oh boy, strap in folks, this one is a lot to explain. With a franchise as massive and ever-present as the Looney Tunes, it makes sense that there would be some cartoons in this series that have been banned, most notably the "Censored Eleven". A series of shorts from 1931 to 1944 that were pulled due to racist depictions of African and Black American people. Three of the eleven shorts are in the public domain as of now, and no official release has been made, though one has been planned since 2010. Other banned shorts include "Inki and the Minah Bird", the 1969 short "Injun Trouble", and all Speedy Gonzales shorts, though those were only temporarily banned due to backlash from fans, which included Latin American citizens.

Minions: The Rise of Gru

No, I'm not talking about the teens banned from theatre screenings, I'm talking about the movie itself. We have another Middle Eastern ban here, this time solely in Lebanon, and frankly I don't see why. The article I linked to makes claims it's due to homosexuality and a character who is portrayed as an evil nun, but no official statement has been given. I find it odd that this was the movie that Lebanon alone banned, like really? An Illumination movie was banned? Illumination movies are barely worth watching, let alone banning.

Onward

Yep, Onward was banned too, and take a wild guess where and why. Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have all banned the movie due to a minor lesbian character in the film. I want to give props to Disney for not cutting the character for these markets, but like... I remember the whole mess this movie spawned because the character was touted as "Disney's first openly gay character", and let's just say nobody bought it, I feel like banning this movie for this is just giving Disney what they wanted, an easy defense for anyone criticizing the character. "Who cares this character only appeared on screen for a minute and never appeared or was mentioned again? She is the reason this movie is banned in four countries, so we're clearly doing something right!"

I would be remiss if I did not share this article I found on Out about the timeline of Disney's 17 "First Gay Characters", which has some legitimate criticism of the character in question.

Persepolis

Probably the least shocking entry on this list... or the second least shocking, Persepolis was banned in, wait for it, Lebanon, at least initially. The movie, an adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's autobiographic comic, was banned during a political crisis apparently, and the movie is about Marjane's life during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Lebanese authorities banned it out of fear of how it would effect the political situation there, however, due to some outcry the ban was reversed not too long after. Some claim that the ban was made more to please Iran than protecting Lebanon. If you have the opportunity, I definitely recommend reading the original book, I think it is one of the defining comic and graphic novels of its time.

Popeye the Sailor

Yep, a number of Popeye shorts were also banned, and for largely the same reasons as the Looney Tunes bans. The thing is that Popeye was largely used in Propaganda cartoons so, a lot of the racial stereotypes are a result of the War, this is not to excuse the shorts, this is to provide historical context. Other reasons the shorts were pulled include a couple with Native American stereotypes, and a short where Popeye actually murdered someone. A total of nine Popeye shorts are not available on HBO Max, but you may be able to find them online.

The Prince of Egypt

Yep, The Prince of Egypt is banned, in three countries too. To begin with, the movie is, ironically enough, banned in Egypt. The movie is, allegedly, viewed as revisionist history that distorts Egyptian history and shows bias against Arabic people, with one Egyptian director calling it "Poisoned Honey". The movie was also banned in Malaysia, with the Film Censorship Board chairman stating that they "Found it insensitive for religious and moral reasons". Malaysia has a majority Muslim population. The biggest surprise for me was that the movie is also banned in the Maldives. Islamic custom has a rule about portrayals of prophets, so the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs took offense at the film's depiction of Moses. I gotta say, I never would have expected The Prince of Egypt to be banned more than once, and in only one Middle Eastern country too, that might be the most surprising thing to me.

Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy*

Here's another short film, and another one I can't find any confirmation on. No, we're not talking about the 1977 Musical Adventure, this is a 1941 short film by Fleischer Studios. Usually, what I do when I can't find a source over Google, I'll turn to Wikipedia and see what they source and look that up. In this case, they source the book "Raggedy Ann and Johnny Gruelle: A Bibliography of Published Works" by Patricia Hall, but I did some basic keyword searching and nothing came up, so take this one as another dubious claim, but if this story is true, it's actually one of the funnier stories here, so I'm gonna share it, under the caveat that this story may not actually be completely factual.

Apparently, this short film was suspended in its initial release because this short kind of has a different interpretation of Raggedy Ann and Andy's relationship. There is no polite way to put this, the short kind of depicts the two as being lovers instead of siblings, so one could easily see the short as incestuous. Again, I can't find any confirmation of this, but the story is kind of funny, so I'm sharing it anyway.

Red Hot Riding Hood*

Another short film ban, this time with an asterisk attached. Red Hot Riding Hood, the famous Tex Avery cartoon, was banned from televised broadcasting due to the Television Code, which was a set of ethical standards for television from 1952 until 1983. Again, I don't have any confirmation on this one, sources on Wikipedia are not links, and Google is just turning up a bunch of stuff about the original Little Red Riding Hood story, but I'm inclined to believe this one because, it just makes a lot of sense.

Sausage Party*

Another one to chalk up to the "Can't find confirmation but it's believable enough" category of "Dubious claims", but apparently the raunchy, controversial adult comedy Sausage Party is banned in Kuwait for indecency. Again, no confirmation here, but I can believe it.

I should also talk about the boycott some people had over the film for the terrible working conditions for the animators, but that isn't really a "ban" per se, maybe I'll do another blog where I talk about movies that have been boycotted.

Shrek 2

Yes, Shrek 2 was banned, and this time I have found receipts. Of all the countries to ban Shrek 2 of all movies, Israel was the ones to do it, temporarily. See, in the Hebrew dub of the movie, they make a joke at the expense of Israeli singer David Daor, and Israeli court said that the joke had to be removed. What was the joke? The joke was that David Daor is a high pitched singer, so use your imagination. Honestly, I'm just kind of amused that Israel banned Shrek 2, then I remember what Israel is doing and I'm less amused.

The Simpsons Movie

Hey, one of the least surprising entries on this list! So, why was The Simpsons Movie banned? Was it because of the plot about a government conspiracy? The irreverent satire? Bart's nude skateboarding misadventure? Shockingly no, it was banned allegedly for the colour palette. The Simpsons Movie was banned in Myanmar/Burma, because the country had a rebel group whose flag was prominently red and yellow, and the defining colour of The Simpsons is yellow, and there is a fair amount of red in the movie. This is another case of "There's a lot of political climate reasons involved that I am  nowhere near well-equipped enough to go into detail on" and also another case of "The reason is really ridiculous and silly", really they could have just listed any other reason and I'm sure everyone would have bought it, why did they have to single out the colour palette?

The Skeleton Dance*

Okay, this one is gonna be super quick and easy to talk about. In a March, 1931 New York Times Article, they reported that the 1929 Silly Symphony cartoon was banned in Denmark for being "Too Macabre". Unfortunately, the archived article link doesn't seem to work for me. Plus, it's a New York Times article, not a Danish news article.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

Ladies, gentlemen and everyone outside the gender binary, the least shocking film ban on this list. Shockingly, the movie wasn't banned (Entirely) for the 399 uses of profanity, on screen visual of a giant talking clitoris, or the irreverent satire (Not being facetious with my wording there), it was banned in Iraq and Kuwait for its depiction of Saddam Hussein. In fact, the TV series itself is banned in Kuwait, which apparently led to the creation of their own show titled Block 13, I imagine it would be like any other extremist knock-off of any other show.

Apparently, as he was being held by US Marines, Saddam Hussein was actually forced to watch this movie. I don't know how legitimate that claim is, but if I were wanting to torture someone, making them watch a movie that makes a mocking depiction of them is probably something I would do,

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Yep, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was banned too. Another film band that pretty much sweeps the Middle East. You've probably heard this story when it was new, but countries like the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, Egypt, Kuwait and the like all pulled this movie from their theatres, most likely due to a "Protect Trans Kids" flag and some of the trans symbolism in the movie. Look, I don't even know where to go from here, so... Trans Lives Matter, Queer Lives Matter, Queerphobes Die Mad.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime: The Movie - Scarlet Bond*

Another potentially dubious claim, but there is some anecdotal evidence to back this one up. Apparently, Scarlet Bond is banned in, once again, Kuwait, primarily for the protagonist, Rimuru Tempest, being genderless. Wikipedia doesn't give us any sources, and I couldn't find anything to hard confirm this, however, Kuwait did ban the movie "Talk to Me" allegedly because of actor Zoe Terakes, a Non-Binary Transmasculine person. On top of that, Russia apparently banned a bunch if Isekai Anime, which does include That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, so with all that information, I can believe that Kuwait banned a movie for having a genderless protagonist, but there's no official evidence to back up this claim, at least none that I have found, so it's still in the dubious zone.

Tom & Jerry

This is our last entry for short films on this list, but there have been quite a few cases where Tom and Jerry shorts have been pulled, and for different reasons.

The short "Heavenly Puss" is banned in the Middle East and Brazil. Brazil also banned the short "The Two Mousketeers", as did Morocco, which also banned the short "Tot Watchers". The shorts "Calypso Cat" and "Jerry, Jerry, Quite Contrary" are both banned in the Middle East. The shorts "Mouse Cleaning" and "Casanova Cat" were edited for American broadcasts. The short "The Mouse from H.U.N.G.E.R." is pulled from American broadcast due to concerns over flickering lights causing epileptic seizures. I would be remiss if I did not mention the infamous short "Blue Cat Clues" which has been pulled from American airings due to its content, and the first Tom and Jerry short "Puss Gets the Boots" faced heavy censorship for future airings.

There are more bans, pulled airings and censorship to Tom & Jerry shorts, including a case of legal disputes for an entire showrunner's run of shorts, but I'm gonna leave it here.

Toy Story 2

Okay, this one isn't a ban, but the story is kind of hilarious. Toy Story 2 had a scene cut from the film, which scene? One of the end credits bloopers. The blooper scene where Pete is talking about getting a role for two Barbie dolls was cut from the movie entirely after the #MeToo movement. Queerphobia, political unrest and sexual misconduct, this blog has been a barrel of laughs hasn't it? I find it kind of funny that they went out of their way to cut an end credits blooper scene, but considering that John Lasseter had some allegations thrown his way, I can't really say I blame them.

Turning Red*

Great, like we need another controversy for Turning Red. At the very least, this is another dubious claim, probably due to misinterpreting sources. The Wikipedia article on Films Banned in China claims that China refused to give this movie a classification due to the indecent content, and it links two sources. A Radii article that talks about the representation of Chinese people in the movie, and a Bustle article that says nothing about any bans or China at all.

There is another claim it's banned in Kuwait, but I couldn't find anything to hard confirm that, frankly I don't think this movie needs anymore controversies surrounding it.

Waltz with Bashir

Well this one is gonna be a fun one, Waltz with Bashir, the 2008 Israeli animated docudrama was banned in a few Arab countries, most notably Lebanon. To start with, Lebanon was boycotting Israeli products at the time (I can't imagine why), and secondly, the movie is about a man recounting his experience as a soldier in the 1982 Lebanon War and the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

That all being said, there are some people in Lebanon who praise the film, with activist Lokman Slim saying that he felt jealous about it.

Winnie-the-Pooh

Well, coincidentally, we've saved the funniest ban for last. You have definitely heard of this before, but just in case you haven't, Winnie the Pooh, the character, has been banned in China, including Hong Kong and Macau, because he was a meme used to mock Chinese President Xi Jingping. Like, frankly, I don't even know what to say about this, you literally banned Winnie the Pooh from your countries media for a meme, that would be like Donald Trump banning Hello Kitty because people kept comparing him to Badtz-Maru, or if Justin Trudeau banned Doonesbury because it was written by Garry Trudeau. Seriously, this might be the stupidest ban on this entire list.

To reiterate, the point of this blog was predominately for educational purposes, as when we talk about film history, we tend to overlook minor reactions to the films. Also, I want to make the statement that this is not an indictment on any of the countries mentioned or their people, bans start at positions of power, bigotry of any kind will not be tolerated here.

Throughout this list, we've seen some films banned for stupid reasons, and some films banned and censored for less than stupid reasons. If I had to pick the stupidest bans, I think it would be The Bahamas banning Demon Slayer, China banning Winnie the Pooh, and Israel temporarily banning Shrek 2. Of course, there are a few dubious claims on here as well, I should do the proper journalism thing and just cut them, but I wanted to keep them up here because, first of all, if these bans are legitimate, they should be known about, and second, if these bans aren't legitimate, then it's a good lesson on being able to verify your sources, if I found an entry on this list to be dubious, I did mark it as such, but keep in mind, I am human, I make mistakes, so something may have slipped through the cracks.

This blog took a lot out of me.

First Impressions; Despicable Me, Sandy Cheeks and Ultraman

I have to wonder, at what point can we call a year "Bad" for something, like did people decide that 1980 was the worst year of Pop Music in 1980 or only after a few years have gone by? It's easy to say that 2024 is a mediocre year for animated movies now, but we're just over half-way through, but like, what really has there been animation wise? 2023 was a pretty empty year for animated releases, but at least there were good movies released then. 2023 was no 2022, but it had some good stuff, but what has their been for 2024? There's been Inside Out 2, Which I still have yet to get to, and Kung Fu Panda 4, which seems to have gotten a mixed reception. It's telling when the best animated movies released are sequels and a documentary about a notoriously bad animated movie. Still, we have some new releases to talk about, so maybe we'll see something good?

Despicable Me 4
Released: July 3, 2024
Portion Written: July 28, 2024

I mean… it’s an illumination movie, what more needs to be said? Okay, that is a bit unfair, it's not like Illumination makes movies that aren't worth talking about, it's just... I feel like all my major problems with this movie are the same problems I have with the rest of Illuminations line-up that I've seen, it's just not trying to be anything that great. Granted, this is probably on the lesser side quality wise, and that mostly falls to the story. There is just too much going on, and a lot of stuff that just doesn't really get much of a resolution. The kids have a Karate class and that goes nowhere, the wife becomes a hair-stylist and that goes nowhere, the Minions become super-powered and that also really goes nowhere despite it being the most advertised aspect of the movie. I was waiting for them to show up in the climax and when they appeared I was like, "Ah, this is all this subplot is going to amount to, alright." I mean seriously, the Minion stuck in the vending machine had a more rewarding pay-off.

I feel like the story would have been better if it was just Gru and Poppy or Gru and Maxime, because I can imagine the former being a fascinating character study of Gru deciding whether he wants to return to being a villain or if he wants to stay with his family, and the latter would be a standard, but fairly entertaining, family-comedy film. Do I think this is the worst animated movie of the year? Honestly, no. Illumination movies just don't really get there for me, again they don't try to achieve greatness, and the benefit to that is that they also never hit absolute failure either. I can't really recommend it, but like... it's pretty innocuous.

And if anything, it got "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" stuck in my head, so thanks for that movie.

Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie
Released: August 2, 2024
Portion Written: August 2, 2024

At least it's better than Sponge on the Run.

Okay, that's a bit harsh, because I'm gonna be honest, I didn't think this movie was awful. There were some gags I actually liked here, even some dumb ones, like they almost felt like classic SpongeBob gags, and I'm not gonna lie, I did like Sandy's family, though I also just like Johnny Knoxville so take that for what it's worth. Is this movie great? No, it does have some issues, some of the effects, most notably the live action mixing were noticeably off and uncanny, the human actors just didn't feel right, the songs aren't really anything I'd want to listen to, I really don't get what the obsession with this stylized Computer Animation is, I think it looks ugly, and the movie is kind of... there. I mean, I wouldn't classify it on the same level as a movie like Mummies, but like, it really isn't something I'd probably come back to, but you know what, it is better than Sponge on the Run. I'll make jokes about its content, like Squidward being a bisexual furry (Only half kidding), but I don't think it's that bad, I can accept this movie's existence as a SpongeBob movie, albeit not a good one. I can't really recommend it on any real level, but like... I can't say I didn't have some enjoyment out of it, I'll go "Slight Recommendation" but take that with a grain of salt.

Ultraman: Rising
Released: June 12, 2024
Portion Written: August 17, 2024 (I watch these sporadically, shut up!)

On some level, I do have to admire this movie. There are elements here I can really appreciate, like the stylized animation, the choice to have a grey morality, honestly even the character relationships and drama I can kind of admire. Despite that though, this is kind of just another one of those movies where I have to ask, "Am I just getting jaded?", because I did kind of peg how a lot of this story was gonna go, for an Ultraman movie, I didn't assume that the movie I was gonna be reminded of most would be Mr. Baseball of all things. Even the animation, though I do recognize it as being of high quality, it often does just come off as Spider-Verse-lite. Still, I can't say this is a bad movie, it's quite well done, it's just, I think I would just rather watch The Sea Beast. I dunno, this was just another movie that failed to grab me, maybe I just had high expectations. Do I recommend it? Yeah, I arguably is one of the best movies I've seen all year, but like... honestly, if this is it, than this year just seems ready to accept the title of "Worst year for animated movies".

The Imaginary
Released: Dec 15, 2023
Netflix Release: July 5, 2024
Portion Written: August 25, 2024

Yet another movie that I just have to ask myself if I'm becoming too jaded or if the movie is just genuinely not that good. Something about this movie just does not entertain me, I dunno, maybe it's how the movie looks, something about the art-style and animation is just not pleasant to me, it's like putting an anime face on a real human head sometimes. Maybe it's the villain, who is holding onto an imaginary friend as an adult, which has a bunch of implications regarding the theme, maybe it's just that I wasn't a huge fan of Spirited Away, that could be a factor too. I dunno, something about this film doesn't sit right with me. I guess I'll withhold a full rating for now because, I mean how can I really rate a movie when I can't describe my reaction towards it? This... is a first for First Impressions, a movie I just straight up can't really articulate myself with, bound to happen sometime I guess.

Yeah, this year isn't looking to great for animated films, and if I'm being honest, I'm not really looking forward to the rest of the line-up for this year. We've got Moana 2, Mufasa: The Lion King, and The Wild Robot, and honestly, I'm most dreading The Wild Robot. Hopefully I'm wrong on that one, but I dunno, this year's track record has been unimpressive so far. I don't even know if I'll be able to do a best list... maybe a "Movies that weren't complete trash" list... I'll think of something.

Despicable Me (2010) - A Standard, but Endlessly Charming Movie

 

So... There is a fourth Despicable Me movie out. Honestly, I'm kinda shocked they even made a second one, but that was the 2010s, I was younger, dumber and not really in a good place. I never actually watched any of the Despicable Me movies until I saw Minions: The Rise of Gru, and that movies was... I mean it wasn't awful. I have been curious about Despicable Me, it is kind of a big thing in animated cinema and I have been meaning to check it out, but it has never been very high on my list because... I hate Illumination studios, but there's the fourth movie out now and it was available on streaming for me so why not?

Despicable Me follows Gru, a super-villain, as he plans to steal a shrink ray in a plot to steal the Moon, however another villain by name of Vector steals the ray from him, and Gru enlists the help of three orphaned girls to get in back, but he finds he gets more than the Shrink Ray. I'm going to be honest, I can't really say this is a great movie story-wise, like it hits familiar beats and you know what direction it's gonna go. Like, you just know that there is going to be something important on the same day he needs to do his moon heist, you know there is going to be a third act break-up, like it's all fairly straight forward. Despicable Me does get away with it though, firstly because this is Illuminations first feature production, but mostly because it is just so charming. People might scoff at the idea of "charm" taking something far, but the entire point of the entertainment industry is to primarily be entertaining, and charm can be a major part of entertainment value.

A lot of it is down to the characters, and the found family trope that I am realizing I am much more of a sucker for than I initially thought. Gru and the girls are just charming characters to watch, I want to see them interact, I want to see them be a family, I even want to see the turmoil of Gru trying to choose between villainy and fatherhood, I think if the characters weren't as charming and didn't work as well off of each other, the movie would have suffered a lot more. Side characters are also amusing, I guess with the only exception being Vector, not that he's a bad character or even a bad antagonist, but I think I wanted to punch him in the face more than I enjoyed seeing him on screen, and I get that is the main idea, we want to be on Gru's side, but I don't think making him a nepo-baby dork was the right idea. Of course, with Despicable Me, we have to talk about the giant yellow Tic Tacs in the room, the Minions. The Minions have been cited as one of the worst things to ever happen in animation, with constant overexposure and worthless knock-offs in other movies have made the Minions into one of the more disliked aspects of the franchise. Honestly, that's kind of a shame because I actually thought they were tolerable in this movie. Actually, that's not entirely right, the Minions had moments I actually thought were funny, they kind of harkened back to an era of classic slapstick cartoons, and even when I didn't think they were really funny, they were still kind of a cute and charming funny. I think if the Minions hadn't become the mascot for Illumination they might be more accepted.

I do have to give props to the voice cast too, Jason Segel was almost unrecognizable as Vector, Steve Carell was good, and I will always love a Julie Andrews cameo. Plus, I never would have guessed Miranda Cosgrove would translate well in the voice acting booth.

Speaking of the comedy, the movie is kind of mixed. Some jokes I knew were coming, and some did fall flat. That being said, there were some gags that I actually did like, one of my favourites was actually towards the start of the movie where Gru revealed he stole a Jumbotron, I totally expected the screen behind him to show footage of the theft, but then I realized that the screen was the Jumbotron, I don't know why but that gag really caught me off guard. Again though, even when the comedy wasn't laugh-out loud funny, it still had a charm to it. I think my only really complaints with this movie are with the animation and music, not that either is bad, but both are just kind of... standard. I can give some leeway to the animation, again this was their first animated feature, so it's not like I'm expecting Pixar quality right off the bat, but it didn't really have much to it, it was mostly just "This is what we need, don't animate anything else", just getting the job done but not really going above and beyond, which isn't really a criticism that goes away with Illumination, but to be fair they do improve in future movies. As with the music, I just don't think Pharrell Williams was the best choice to sing the theme, like I dunno, I just didn't think his voice was the right fit, but that might just be me.

I have to say, I'm honestly impressed with Despicable Me, I was fully expecting a bog standard, average at best, mediocre at worst family film, but what I got was a genuinely charming film. I don't think I can really call it a great movie, honestly I don't know if I'd even call it "good", but I would be a liar if I said it didn't have its charm. The characters were charming, the story was charming, the comedy had a charm to it, I can't think of many movies I can recommend just on how charming I think they are. I can see why this became a flagship franchise for Illumination. Do I recommend it? Yes, but I think I'll go Slight Recommendation on this one, mostly because charm only does get you so far, but I genuinely think that Illumination made a decent family film here. If only they could do it again.