First Impressions, January to March: Orion, Kung Fu Panda, and The Casagrandes

You know, doing singular First Impressions is fine, I don't mind doing it, but it doesn't really help that much when I don't have scheduled releases for them. So, here's what I'm gonna do, I'm going to do what Crash Thompson does... or did. For those unfamiliar, Crash Thompson is a music reviewer on YouTube, most notable for his series How To Get Into, Bad Album Covers, and some old series about a dorky alt. rock back from the 90s nobody's ever heard of. When he was doing reviews of new releases, he did a series called FIMI, which is an acronym which I will not be revealing because I have a rule about swearing. Basically, he compiled a bunch of albums that were newly released and gave his thoughts on them in a quicker... well "Quicker" manner than full on reviews.

So I'm gonna do something similar, because A). This let's me talk about more movies, B). This lets me have an excuse to keep things short, C). I can post this on a scheduled time instead of randomly, and D). I can add to this every time I see a movie. Basically, I'm going to introduce the movie, give the release date, and I'll also give you when I wrote that particular portion of this blog, so if I make an observation or prediction, I don't have to tell people which bit I wrote before or after the other. So, now that I have explained how this all worked, let's get to the actual movies.

ORION AND THE DARK
Released: February 2nd, 2024
Portion Written: February 6th, 2024

Oh DreamWorks, literally the day before this movie was released on Netflix, I called DreamWorks one of my favourite animation studios, and that is still true, but... it's movies like this that make me hesitate a little. Orion and The Dark is a pretty bad movie, it's a story within a story movie, like The Grand Budapest Hotel, but like... it made me think more of that Simpsons episode "The Seemingly Never Ending Story", which mocked this kind of story telling. If only the story telling was this movie's only problem. The comedy of this movie was not very funny, one of the entities is meant to induce sleeping in people, and they do this by smothering them with pillows, chloroforming them and hitting them with hammers... I'm sorry, this isn't funny, I get the joke, but that doesn't mean it's funny. I also wasn't a huge fan of he art style, but I think that's mostly just a nitpick.

I kind of expect this movie to be really divisive, like a "Love it or Hate it" type movie, but unlike something like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas which achieves this by being both enjoyable and horribly uncomfortable, this movie does it by virtue of... being just complicated enough to make others feel smug, I guess. I'm just saying, don't be surprised if people take the Rick and Morty meme and use it to make fun of this movie's fanbase in the future. (Remember I'm writing this portion in February.)

I can't really recommend this one too much, on the bright side, this is also like Ruby Gillman in that I can see a really good movie in here... but I think I actually prefer Ruby Gillman to this one.

KUNG FU PANDA 4
Released: March 8, 2024
Portion Written: March 10th, 2024

From one of DreamWork's lesser movies, to one of their better franchises. After having done a whole marathon of the previous Kung Fu Panda movies, I was all set for this one. Kung Fu Panda 3 was, in my opinion, a solid way to end the series and a fourth film just kind of felt unnecessary, plus the advertising did this movie zero favors, look at this point the only people who don't know that the Kung Fu Panda movies are more than dumb Kung Fu comedies are young kids and people who don't respect animation. I'm just saying, Frozen II could have an awesome trailer, but a Kung Fu Panda movie needed to have one that only emphasized the lamer jokes of the movie?

Thankfully, DreamWorks... usually know what they are doing, and the team behind Kung Fu Panda 4 really gave us another fantastic movie. Admittedly it is not as good as two, or even three, but those are tough acts to follow. Ultimately, it is worthy of being a Kung Fu Panda movie. It once again, feels like a more natural continuation, sort of... I feel like this part of Po's story is rushed, I mean yeah, eight years is not that short of time, plus there was an entire series that took place after three, but like... it doesn't feel like that long has passed. Besides that, admittedly tiny nitpick, I had a good time with this movie, I liked the new character, I liked Po's conflict, and as usual the action scenes are pretty top notch, honestly the fight with Lord Shen from two may have some competition as my favourite fight scene in these movies.

I did kind of miss the Furious Five, a lot of what I loved about the other three movies was Po's relationship with the Five, but all in all, I can't say I'm disappointed. I don't think I can Highly recommend this one, but it's a tough call. Hopefully the next DreamWork's movie will be excellent.

THE CASAGRANDES MOVIE
Released: March 22, 2024
Portion Written: March 25, 2024

You know, this is my first dive into anything Loud House related, because I never really watched any episode of The Loud House or The Casagrandes, and I missed out on the Loud House movie. So, my first impressions are... wow this was boring.

Really, boring is the best word I could use to describe this movie, boring and predictable. Every joke in this movie was something I've seen before, and there are no new twists on them, and as soon as the opening with the modern slang talking ancient God was finished, I knew exactly how this story was going to go. If you're curious, just watch A Goofy Movie and Hercules at the same time, guarantee it's a more interesting experience.

I missed out on The Tiger's Apprentice and the new Megamind movie, I don't guarantee I'll get to them before the year ends, this era of streaming is... kinda stupid honestly, but that's a rant for a different day. I have heard that I'm not missing much on either of them, but still. So far, the movies released have been, meh, like if Orion or Casagrandes are my pick for worst movie of the year, than I'll genuinely be surprised, maybe I'll try and get around to that Megamind movie soon. Regardless, this is still the early months, all the major releases are going to be coming out more towards the summer so I can't really say I'm too disappointed so far. So, how would I rank this set of movies?

Orion gets a Not Recommended
Kung Fu Panda 4 gets a Recommendation
Casagrandes gets a Not Recommended

With all that said, I've got a movie review to write. Fare-thee-well.

Top 20 Worst Movies I've reviewed (100 Reviews Special)

I've had multiple ideas about how to celebrate one-hundred reviews, and I settled on the idea of going through and listing the five worst movies from each quarter. Then I decided to just to a traditional top 20. It was a fairly last minute choice, but I like writing lists, and this felt less convoluted than the other option. If I had to pick one word to describe this batch of one-hundred movies, I would use the word... challenging, a lot of the movies I reviewed were movies I probably would not have watched if I wasn't doing this blog, movies that I had to find something new to talk about, and of course, movies that were just unwatchable trite. After one-hundred movies, one is bound to come across some distinct varieties of garbage that you probably never thought were even possible until you actually saw them. Some aren't so bad, like a used dryer sheet or a crumpled newspaper, and some are even unique pieces of garbage that you almost want to admire, but at the end of the day, I didn't really care for any of these movies, and I'll be happy to not really think about them afterwards. These are the worst movies I've had to review for this blog.

Also, please enjoy the new thumbnails I made, I have updated every one of my previous reviews with these thumbnails and I wanted to use them here.

20. The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie

Of all the movies on this list, this one is probably the one I want to put here the least. There was a time when a movie like this was an ingenious idea, compiling some of the best shorts and tying them together in a narrative, a little more involved than the original Disney Package Films, no? Ultimately, watching this movie made me really wish I was just watching the original shorts, cutting pieces off of the ends, putting them in a not so great order, it really made this movie suffer. You can find complete collections of every Looney Tunes short by era, character, animator, I mean you can probably find compilations for what title cards the shorts have, so the base question becomes if the new animated content is worth it, and frankly... I don't think so.

19. The Transformers: The Movie

Oh... this one is not going to make me any fans. I ultimately couldn't put Fun and Fancy Free on this list, despite being the worse movie, I've grown an attachment to it, there was a reason it was the first movie I reviewed on this blog, so I have to appreciate it on some level. The same can't be said for The Transformers movie though, it's just a sloppy movie with a messy plot that only existed to bring us to some admittedly alright action scenes, overly detailed designs, and a wildly out of place centerpiece single for the soundtrack. Plus, not every vocal performance was the best, sorry Orson Welles, but this was not the great curtain drawn for your career was one would hope. I know this movie is nostalgic for a lot of people, but that is the thing about nostalgia, it betrays you more than you think it does.

18. The Swan Princess

You know, the funny thing about this movie is, it's so uninspired and dull that as I was writing my review of it, I actually began to second guess myself. Not because this movie is secretly brilliant, but because I genuinely could not remember if the problems I brought up were genuine problems or if I was just blowing stuff out of proportion, and that was literally seconds after I watched the darn movie. One of the most shameless attempts to steal Disney's thunder, the movie had poor pacing, awful songs and animation that was... meh at best. I don't see why this movie needed an endless amount of sequels, but I'm glad they all went straight to DVD.

17. Open Season

Picking the fifth worst movie from the fourth quarter of reviews (Reviews 76-100) was a toss up between this, an uninspired and generic kids movie, and Silver Circle, a poorly made, mediocrely written movie that was a political statement before it was entertainment. In the end, I'm kinder to smaller scale productions, and Sony Pictures is not a small production. Honestly, I said this was one of my favourite movies as a kid, but even then I remember realizing that the movie wasn't that good when I was still young, maybe early teens, don't quite remember when. This is just not a movie that sticks with you, and frankly it is the perfect movie to begin an animation studio with. Like I said with Mummies, bad gets forgotten but mediocre at best movies that are inoffensive and not too challenging stick around, because they're perfect for doing something as a family, anything as a family. Open Season is not the worst example in this regard, but it's up there.

16. Robinson Crusoe (Otherwise Known As: The Wild Life)

Speaking of uninspired, mediocre at best movies that are inoffensive, unchallenging and just perfect for watching when you want to watch a movie, but not necessarily any movie. Absolutely bland, forgettable schlock that you only put on to entertain the kids while you do anything else. It's an agonizingly dull sit through and easily in the list of worst "That Kind of Movie" films, yeah, I'm gonna start calling movies like this, Open Season, Mummies, UglyDolls "That Kind of Animated Movie", the kind that you think of when you think of "Animated Movie". Anyway, there really isn't much else to say about Robinson Crusoe, it's such a forgettable experience, I only remember one scene where Crusoe just stared at a Tapir's waving butt for a couple seconds... like what were they doing with that shot?

15. Space Jam

Of all the movies that don't work, the one I'm most perplexed about is Space Jam. What is it about this movie that didn't work? Was it the writing? Was it the directing? or was this just an idea that was dead on arrival? I guess it's a combination of the writing and directing, because it is a fairly uneven movie, the good elements are not good enough to distract from the bad elements surrounding it including the dated CG integration, the humour that is trying but just isn't that funny, the subpar acting of Michael Jordan, the subpar character of Lola Bunny. Honestly, this is one of those movies where the soundtrack is ten times better than the actual movie, let's just be real.

14. Wonder Park

I was initially kind to this movie, because while it was a generic, bland, and not very well written movie, I thought the creativity was good and would maybe inspire some kids. I was much kinder to it than other reviewers were, then I gave it a rewatch and found that those reviewers were actually right. Honestly, Cellspex and MrEnter both have done better jobs at explaining why this movie doesn't work than I could, and most of the points I could bring up would just be their words, or Animated Antic's words. Well, at the very least I can say... I'm not budging on Detective Pikachu.

13. Tom and Jerry: The Movie

What a strange way to make a movie based off of two beloved animation icons. Giving them the benefit of the doubt that the orphaned girl looking for her father, the evil family members, awful songs, characters that were mute suddenly speaking, Rip Taylor, the thrilling chases and around the country adventures were all necessary for this movie to be made, that the only way they could have made a Tom and Jerry movie was to have all of that stuff put into it, at least make the comedy good. This movie had some of the worst slapstick I've ever seen. Nothing felt right, nothing felt like there was any weight to it, the reactions didn't feel right, it just didn't feel like a Tom and Jerry movie. Take this plot and replace Tom and Jerry with, Mickey Mouse or Felix The Cat, and that would solve a good twenty percent of the issues with this movie, not enough to make it good, but enough to make it... less bad.

12. Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams

I mean, what is there to say about this movie? If we can even call it that. It's two stories that really don't understand the morals they're trying to teach, with mediocre animation and voice acting. This was one of, if not the last of the Disney direct-to-video movies and it has been rightfully forgotten. They were actually planning a whole series of these movies, and there is a trailer for the second one on the DVD, which would have featured stories with Mulan and Cinderella. Someone get that to the Lost Media Wiki, might be the only thing talking about in regards to this movie.

11. Hercules & Xena - The Animated Movie: The Battle For Mount Olympus

Oh direct-to-video awfulness, there is a reason most critics ignore direct-to-video nonsense in favour of the stuff released cinematically. Though there are some excellent movies released straight to video, this one clearly isn't one of them. Awful animation that uses budget stretching tricks from animation in the sixties, some of the worst facial expressions in animation, and some of the lousiest songs ever in a pseudo-musical, it makes sense why Hercules and Xena were never featured heavily in animation, since this attempt was so misguided and awful, it actually enters "So bad it's good" territory, seriously, if you love movies like Birdemic, The Room, or Plan 9 From Outer Space, give this movie a watch, it will make you laugh.

10. Felix the Cat: The Movie

You would think the feature film debut of one of animations icons, one of the earliest animated characters to grace the silver screen and a major figure in animation history, would be a little bit more respectful of all of that history. Annoying, poorly written, nonsensical, it truly is amazing how badly you can mess up an idea as "Movie with animation icon", it would be like making a Mickey Mouse movie, but instead of having him go on an epic adventure, he sits at an office desk and does tax filings all day. Actually that movie would probably be better than this, solely for being less annoying. Honestly, I should have given this movie an Avoid rating, just for being a slap in the face to animation lovers, but then again, I don't think that many people are really upset that a Felix the Cat movie ended up being this awful.

9. My Little Pony: The Movie

I wanted to give this movie a fair chance. I am a former Brony, I had some fun with the 2017 movie, I love me some animation history, I thought at the very least, this movie couldn't be an agonizing watch. Well boy howdy was I wrong! Not only was this movie an insufferable sit through, it was also everything I hoped it wouldn't be. Shameless marketing, pandering to the target audience, and the usual amount of disrespect to the actual voice actors whom we would actually watch this movie for if we were fans of the original show. Poor Charlie Adler, Nancy Cartwright and Russi Taylor, among others, were not given opening credits, but the awful performances by Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn and Rhea Perlman were warranting of opening credits. At least The Transformers movie had some good action scenes, this movie couldn't even get a decent filler scene.

8. The Thief and the Cobbler

Okay, forget the fact that this movie had a production nightmare and ended up being taken from the hands of the original creator, let's just look at what this movie is. It is a gorgeously animated pile of garbage that was re-edited in a manor to better befit that of a Disney movie and completely ruined what could of been a great magnum opus of animation. However, let's add that production nightmare back into this equation, because not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven, not eight, not nine, not ten, but eleven people who worked on this movie died before it saw the light of day, and poor Vincent Price died only a month after this movie got a major release. I repeat what I said about Paws of Fury, there are some movies I'd rather not have than have in as a sorry state as this. Thankfully, the Recobbled Cut exists, and it is leagues better, so find that online and give it a watch.

7. Storybook Classics: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The best thing I can say about this movie, is that I found it for dirt cheap, but even then I think I spent too much on it. One of the most befuddling movies I've ever seen, befuddled by how the managed to boil any complexity down to plain, flat and boring characters. I am especially befuddled by the video and audio quality of the movie, as the DVD I purchased looked and sounded no better than a standard VHS, it even had that background hiss that VHS Tapes have. Add to that annoying voice work, and some admittedly good visuals absolutely ruined by the lack of any upscale in quality, and you have a movie that I am... honestly surprised I managed to write a review for, even one that was rather phoned in.

6. GoodTimes Entertainment's Cinderella

Why is this one of my most viewed blogs? Either way, with the vibes of "We only made this movie because Disney was in the midst of a renaissance and we wanted some of their pie", this movie was easily prime material for this list. Honestly, it's not even the fact that it's clearly a poor attempt to take some of Disney's video release money from deceived elderly relatives that puts it on this list. It's on this list by being an even worse knock off than one could imagine, ruining the moral of the Disney version, adding in a bunch of cartoony crap that makes the movie even worse, and such poor animation that it gives direct-to-video animation a bad name. Why is it not in the top 5? Honestly, I'm kinder to direct-to-video movies than theatrical ones, but make no mistake, this is still avoid rating territory here.

5. The Magic Voyage

Usually, when ranking my worst list, a big part of my decision making is this one thought, "Would I rather watch this movie, or that movie?". Of course there is a lot more that goes into it than that, but when the ranking becomes tricky, that is usually what settles it. Would I rather watch The Magic Voyage over the next movies on this list? Yeah, yeah I would, because even though it's obnoxious, poorly written, bizarre, filled with unnecessary scenes, a complete disregard to actual history, and one of the worst dub jobs I have ever watched, honestly I can't even say it's well put together, it at the very least wasn't a painfully agonizing experience that could be equated to Vogon poetry.

4. The Barbie Diaries

I would normally hold a spot in the top five for a movie that had a major release. A bad movie, I find, is so much worse when it hits the cinemas. Like, yes it is partly an elitism thing, but straight-to-video and television movies are so much easier to ignore than a movie that is released theatrically or released on a major streaming platform. In the scale of ignorable, you have Theatres, Major Streaming Release, Minor Streaming Release, Television Movie, Direct-to-Video, and then you have movies only released on YouTube or something. The Barbie Diaries actually managed to be so bad, I would call this movie an insult to Television movies. Holy crap, the animation of this movie was so primitive, even by the standards of 2006, when actual TV shows from earlier years and for lesser properties, managed to look way better. The plot was vapid, the characters were bland, it was an amalgamation of everything I hate about High School movies. No, I don't hate this because it's a Barbie movie, I hate this because it is a terrible movie, and I'll bet it's also terrible by Barbie movie standards. I can't even call this movie "So bad it's good", it's not entertaining, it's infuriating. If someone makes you watch this movie, they want you to atone for something you did. This movie certaintly is not Kenough.

3. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

I... can't muster the hatred for this one as much anymore. Don't get me wrong, it's still a really bland and boring, poorly written waste of a promising license, and I absolutely can't stand it for all those reasons. This movie was so phenomenally boring that I don't think I'm using the word improperly for the purposes of hyperbole, I genuinely think that the boringness of this movie is a phenomena that needs to be studied. How does a Final Fantasy movie not only have nothing to do with Final Fantasy, but also manages to be an absolute dull as a butter knife snore fest? Are we sure this isn't like... an SCP that escaped the laboratory and disguised itself as a movie to feed on the souls of the people it bores to sleep? So yeah, this is a boring movie, but the worst I've watched for this blog? Bland, boring, poorly written and wasting a promising license is pretty bad, but it ain't really infuriating.

2. Ferngully: The Last Rainforest

I know this movie has its fans, but I honestly don't get it, this movie is awful. It's one of the blandest, most boring, preachiest movies I have ever seen. "But it was about saving the environment", yeah and? Just because the intention is good doesn't mean the end product is any good. "but Robin Williams!" Yes, but this was not one of his better performances, I miss him too, but that doesn't mean everything he did was gold. "Tim Curry, and the songs", look, you can keep throwing out excuses, but nothing actually changes the fact that this movie is a boring, formulaic, preachy, and shameless product of the 1990s, easily one of the worst movies I ever had to sit through for this blog. It was so close to being number one, but I do have to relent that on some level, it was made with good intentions, I think you know where I'm going with this.

1. Duck Duck Goose

I mean, you probably saw this one coming. A movie does not earn the title "Worst animated movie of 2018" by being mediocre, though mediocrity is easily one of the biggest flaws of the movie. With some of the worst comedy I've ever seen in an animated movie, this was the movie that made me realize that Netflix would stick their name on any old garbage and hope enough people watched it to make a profit. Unlikable characters, wasted voice talent, this movie almost makes me regret getting into animation, and I'd say Jim Gaffigan could do better, but considering he went on to do Playmobil: The Movie, maybe that would be wrong. Ferngully was a bad movie that was at least intended to have good intentions behind it, I can't think of any other intentions behind Duck Duck Goose than making a movie that will keep children quite, and I have zero respect for movies like this.

Despite all the garbage I watch, I am still really thankful for this blog. For every Duck Duck Goose or Ferngully, I'll get the chance to check out something that would genuinely surprise me, or a movie that is just a comfortable viewing experience. These past one-hundred reviews have really let me explore the medium I love, and really let me step out of my comfort zone. Honestly, even though these movie have been really bad, I can't say I regret starting this blog, or continuing on with it. These past few years have been an interesting experience, and I wouldn't want to trade it in for anything else. So, to all of you who have read this, even if this is your first time reading, thank you, because knowing that someone reads this makes the experience just that tiny bit more worth it.

Honourable Mentions:

1. A Christmas Carol 2009 - So close to being one of the worst, but the stuff that is good just keeps it from being on here.
2. Once Upon a Forest - I mean... it's better than Ferngully.
3. Monster High: 13 Wishes - If this were a proper movie and not a TV Special repackaged as a movie, it might have been okay.
4. The Three Caballeros - Frankly, I wouldn't be on America's side after a movie like this.
5. Cats - Honestly, this movie is over hated.
6. Rock-A-Doodle - Don Bluth... why?
7. A Christmas Carol 1997 - Yeah, they're both on this side of the list, not even Tim Curry could save this one.
8. Silver Circle - Not every piece of lost media needs to be found.

Wonder Park (2019) - A Kind of Generic and Dull Movie

 

Hey, didn't you already review this movie? Technically, I haven't, that was a First Impressions blog. Okay, truth be told, it's been four years since my initial first impressions on this movie, and time has been... well, I don't want to exaggerate, but saying "Time hasn't been kind to this movie" is an understatement. Especially since time has been unfriendly to this movie before it even released. It went through Development Hell, was critically panned, just barely made back it's budget at the box office, which means it's pretty much a flop, and nobody even really remembers this movie. To be fair, it does seem like most of the bad movies from 2019 have been forgotten, unless there is a special place in your heart for Arctic Dogs, UglyDolls and The Secret Life of Pets 2. Everything was against this movie... except for me. I didn't like this movie, but I did have some respect for it, this was the first movie I gave a First Impressions look at, and all this time later, does it still have any respect from me?

The story follows June Bailey, an imaginative young girl who loves to build an imaginary theme park with her mother. Unfortunately, her mother gets the very serious "Never-explained" disease and has to leave, and I am wording it like that for reasons. This causes June to develop some emotional issues, which her father thinks sending her to math camp will help. However, while trying to get back, she stumbled upon a magical gateway to Wonder Park... Oh wait I'm sorry, Wonder Land, yeah, this movie's title totally wasn't a last minute name change in the slightest. Anyway, she finds the park is destroyed and overrun by possessed plush toys that feed broken pieces of the park to this entity called "The Darkness", sadly not a 2000s hair metal pastiche, but just a big purple cloud. This movie is a touch more generic than I remember it being. In my first impressions, I did say that this movie's plot was predictable and followed the formula, you can kind of tell where this story is going, except for the reveal that June's mother isn't dead, which is... a choice. This movie definitely has the stench of "We don't exactly know what we're doing", is this a story like Inside Out or Where the Wild Things Are?

A big part of the story for this movie is meant to be June taking her Mother's illness hard, which causes her to develop some mental issues, and I think it's meant to be mirrored by Peanut, who she meets sorting candies by colour. The thing is, we didn't see June sorting things by colour, and we didn't see Peanut aggressively vacuuming. I am going to, really word myself carefully here, I know OCD isn't just sorting everything by colour and keeping a cleaner than clean house, I know OCD is a lot of other things, but if you're going to connect these characters, you should at least have them doing the same thing. Have Peanut aggressively cleaning his area, polishing glass and sweeping up behind June as she walks around. Have what Peanut does mirror was June was doing.

I guess I should talk about the characters, but they're all pretty basic, don't really stand out too much, and just barely serve their purpose in the movie. Honestly, you can say similar things about the animation, it's bright and colourful, but nothing is really amazing, it's kind of like a basic plate of rice or pasta that's shaped like a circus tent, it looks nice, and as a meal it does its job, but it isn't really something that wows and amazes anybody. Character designs are pretty basic, not unappealing, but I feel I could see these designs in any other animated movie, and the montage songs are bland and forgettable. I can see why very few people have talked about this movie since 2019, there really isn't anything that spectacular about it. It does the basic job, and that's about it.

I do remember saying that I might have enjoyed this movie when I was a kid, because it would have triggered my imagination and make me think about what kind of fantastical and magical theme park I would build. Not an impression that holds up over time, not after playing the enormous waste of potential that is Disneyland Adventures and wanting to build my own virtual Disney park. I can imagine really little kids having their creativity sparked by this movie, but I'd probably give them Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and download the OpenRCT2 mod and let them go crazy instead. I compared it to The Greatest Showman, another movie that gave me a creative bug, making me plan my own circus, and might have been a big inspiration to a personal project I've had on the back burner for a while now. The difference is, The Greatest Showman had some really good songs and choreography, and was a movie I would actually want to come back to. Wonder Park is mostly just a bore.

Yeah, my First Impressions do not hold up to snuff. I can't say I agree with everyone, I don't think this is one of the worst animated movies I've seen, but then again, generic and boring movies don't really rate highly for me. Nothing about this movie is really worth hating, save for the ending where they decide to chicken out and have the mother live, giving this movie the perfect ending. Yes kids, your sick parents will get through just fine, and my grandmother will come back from her fatal run-in with pneumonia. I know, sometimes things turn out just fine, but things never turn out perfect, and I do think that this movie is trying to portray a perfect ending. Is it harmful to kids? I'm not going to say yes, but I think it can give them the wrong idea, but really, if this is the only thing that gets me upset about a movie, the movie is pretty boring. I'm dropping my rating from a Slight Recommendation to a Not Recommended.

First Impressions: Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022)

Eight years for this movie to get to theatres, over a decade if we want to talk about conception years, but being announced in 2014 and finally reaching theatres in 2022, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank dares to ask one question; When can we start to assume a delayed movie is going to suck?

I'm going to be real, when I read the original title and saw the poster, I kind of thought this movie would suck, but I've been surprised by movies before so I was still somewhat optimistic. Unfortunately, as time went on things changed, I started noticing how safe recent kids films are being, I started to let myself slip into watching trailers (I blame Frozen 2 for that one, that trailer was amazing) and the movie started to be officially released, beginning with a name change. I originally wanted to title this blog "First Impressions: Blazing Samu... Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank" because for a long time, this movie was originally going under the name "Blazing Samurai", and I feel the name change was very last minute. There are a couple of jokes in this movie that would have been... well not funnier but at least more... clever is the wrong word but they would have been somewhat cute if the film kept the original title.

Speaking of humour, I mean... it is there. What can I really say about the humour of this movie? It's a generically unfunny comedy for children, it's like talking about a generically boring action movie for dudes, or a generically disgusting rom-com for moms, the demographics seem to have their generic movie types. I will say they did try to be varied with the humour, they got toilet jokes, fourth-wall jokes, anachronistic jokes, honestly I think the casting of Mel Brooks was meant as a nod to the fact that this movie was called "Blazing Samurai" and he did the movie this was inspired by, "Blazing Saddles". Oh yeah, they also have Samuel L. Jackson using fake curse words, because y'know, he swore a lot in "Snakes on a Plane"! Oh and George Takei says "Oh My!" twice because that is the meme, actually Kubo and the Two Strings had him say that too, but like, it was cute there because it was said in a situation where anyone would have said that. Once would have been fine for this movie, it would have been cute, but twice was just forcing it.

I mean, what else is there to really talk about? This movie is unfunny and has a predictable plot and character arcs. I guess it isn't devoid of character, but like, that's it. It's a generically bad kid's movie, honestly I'll give Minions 2 some credit, it was a generically okay kid's movie, so take your kids to see that. Honestly I'd call this a disappointment but like, eight years in Development Hell, that's a pretty good sign it wasn't going to be great.

From what I understand, development for this movie was a nightmare, directors came and went, the film ended up crediting three directors, companies acquired and abandoned it, some reports even stated that it was still in the animatic phase in 2019. Apparently a lot of this movie had to be worked on remotely because of the pandemic and eight different companies got production credits. Quite frankly, with the added name change, this movie had red flags all over it, and honestly, I can't think of a sadder movie release, not that I expect this movie to flop, time will tell on that one, but the fact that they clearly had some faith in this movie, despite everything going against it. It's honestly kind of sad. Especially since it doesn't even have much to show for it. The Thief and the Cobbler at least had amazing animation, and that movie was still garbage until the Recobbled Cut became a thing. Honestly, at some point someone should of scrapped this movie, I'd rather not have this movie than have a movie exist in a sad state like this. I can't really think of any reason anyone would want to watch it, outside of the movie the kids actually want to see is sold out and you're not leaving until they shut up for thirty minutes. I'm not mad, I'm not even disappointed, I'm just sad.

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015) - A Fun and Imaginative Sequel to an Already Fun Movie

 

Now that the Special Effects movie marathon is finished let's go back to the realm of movies that are predominately animated. Well that was the plan anyway, but then I remembered that there was a large portion of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water that was in live action. I did not anticipate this being the bridge movie between the Special Effects movies and the regular animated movies, but I guess it worked out, I must have more Gladstone luck than I thought. As a bonus, since it is still July I figured I'd treat myself to a SpongeBob movie, because while it is no longer my birthday, it is still my Birth month, so I'm gonna watch something SpongeBob. 

I actually remember the first time I watched this movie, it was on Netflix, and I enjoyed fine, but I remember all of the advertising focused on the fact that the SpongeGang would be on dry land and become superheroes. You can imagine this is one of the reasons I try not to watch trailers because I was a touch disappointed when I learned that only the last third of the movie took place on dry land. However, seven or so years can change a movie, and since we're going to be able to remove it from the expectations of the trailer, I think it is only fair to ask if this movie actually holds up.

The plot does not follow from the first movie, I think the closest thing to a direct sequel we got to the first movie was the episode Krabby Road, where Plankton tricks SpongeBob into forming a rock band. Side note, I literally JUST got that the title is a reference to Abbey Road, I am an idiot. Continuity in SpongeBob is hit or miss anyway, so if it isn't continuing from the first movie, then what direction are they going for the plot? They go in a rather interesting direction. While Plankton is making another attempt to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula, it just vanishes right before his and SpongeBob's eyes, so with Bikini Bottom in a Mad Max apocalypse, SpongeBob and Plankton must team up to find the formula. The interesting thing is that while this is happening, a pirate named Burger Beard is narrating the story and uses a magic book to steal the formula himself and become a successful food truck entrepreneur. I do realize that the summary leaves out how and why the gang becomes superheroes, but I would actually say that the superhero part is one of my big issue with the plot.

Not that the story is terrible, heaven knows I've watched worse, but like with the first one there are somethings that don't add up when you look at them with a critical lens, like for example, Sandy sees a book page land on her treedome, and then goes on to think that there are sandwich gods who want a sacrifice. It does lead to some funny jokes, but shouldn't Sandy know what a book page is? Wouldn't she try to find out what kind of book it came from? Wouldn't she try to do anything science-y? You know, because she is a scientist. I also think the movie shot itself in the foot by advertising the superhero angle of the movie since it really isn't a superhero movie, they just use a page from the book to become superheroes, which I feel would have been better if the movie built up to that and made it a reveal rather than highlight this aspect. On top of that, I don't know if they were aiming for a moral or a joke moral, but I don't think they pulled either off. I guess they were aiming for like a joke moral or a deconstruction of this moral, but I didn't really find it amusing. Still, I don't believe we were meant to take this plot seriously, it just seems like a vehicle for jokes and the superhero climax.

As a comedy, honestly I think this movie may be better than the first. There are so many different kinds of jokes that range from the "Meh, that was kind of amusing" to the "Now that was hilarious". I also loved a lot of the background jokes, like in the Chum Bucket during the apocalypse there is an iron maiden in the shape of Plankton's computer wife Karen. Of course, the plot allowed the writers to set up some really good jokes, including going into SpongeBob's mind, a bunch of fun meta gags, and some really amusing scenarios. I will say that not every joke lands, I don't think any of them were, and I apologize for the use of the overused term, cringey, but some of them were just mediocre. There are jokes in here that are definitely more for the children, the movie even ends with a Rap Battle, because kids like Epic Rap Battles of History, those guys even make a cameo in the film. That being said, I can't think of a joke that just fell dead on arrival, even the ones I wasn't fond of I know are up some people's alley. I think this movie is better as a comedy than the first one because the first one wasn't too focused on just telling joke after joke, it's kind of like the Ice Age movies in a way (Will I ever stop comparing movies to those?) where the first one had a solid mix of comedic and serious moments where the sequel is more focused on telling jokes.

Character wise, I mean it's the characters we all know and love in an apocalypse, as superheroes, and just as they are. For whatever reason Sandy wasn't given a lot to do in the first movie, but she has a more prominent role in this movie. I guess for new characters we have Burger Beard, played by Antonio Banderas, whom I did not immediately recognize. He is an amusing one off villain, would have loved to see him and Patchy interact, but I guess that suit was deep in storage somewhere. Otherwise, we get some more minor-ish characters who do have a good sized role in the story, and were fun enough characters, but overall the movie does keep its focus where it should be, on SpongeBob.

More interesting is the animation, and I don't just mean the 2D animation, though it was really good, maybe a little bit better than the first one, but I also want to talk about the live action mixing. After watching four movies that tried to blend animation with live action in some way, I have to say, I feel like the intentionally cartoony CG was a mixed bag. On the one hand, it did mean that the characters still looked like the characters, even if they were in a different medium, but on the other hand, when the CG character and the live action character had to interact, it looked fake. That being said, the CG looked WAY better than the third movie, Sponge On The Run, which just didn't look right to me, I still can't place my finger on it, but looking at two examples side by side, I just prefer the more cartoony style they went with for this movie.

So, my thoughts seem all over the place here don't they? Well, yeah, if this were any other movie I probably would be harsher, but what does save this movie is the comedic writing. On top of that the animation is still fun for a very large majority of the film, the voice acting is still excellent, and the plot is a bit iffy, but it does deliver fun scenarios for jokes so I guess it serves its purpose. This movie is fun, and I feel like that is all it wanted to be, could it be smarter? More emotional? Probably, but I don't think that was the kind of movie they were making. This is the perfect example of a movie you just shut your brain off and let it play, sure you can put a lot of thought into it, I mean hey it's my job to, but there are movies out there where the best way to enjoy them is simply to enjoy them. Maybe that isn't your kind of movie, maybe you would rather have a Little Prince or Felidae where you can analyze the symbolism, the themes and messages, the imagery and characters, hey I liked those films to, but sometimes it is just nice to watch a movie that is meant to be enjoyed. Flaws and all, I had a good time, and I think you will too.

The Adventures of Tintin (AKA: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn) (2011) - A fine adventure for fans and newcomers alike

So, I said I was gonna try and review older movies this year. I am not backing out of my promise, I am still going to try and review movies from the 1990s and before, but I think I should be allowed some leeway here. Especially since 2011 was ten years ago, my does time fly. I figured since I had the opportunity I should give this movie a go, especially since I am a big Tintin fan. When I was a kid, there was this channel called "Teletoon Retro", it was pretty much Boomerang for you readers with Cartoon Network, it played all of the old kids shows and is where I first discovered such wonderful shows like Fraggle Rock, Rocket Robin Hood, and of course, The Adventures of Tintin. After that I read some of the comics, and I really love them. They're definitely my favourite comics and I kind of wish someone took the license and made more of them, I dunno maybe Dark Horse or IDW, but regardless, given my enjoyment of the franchise, how does the movie hold up?

The plot follows Tintin, an English reporter, as he tries to figure out what makes a model ship he purchased so alluring to others, a model ship that gets him kidnapped, introduces him to the drunkard Captain Haddock, and takes him to the Middle East to find the secret that these model ships are holding. It's kind of an amalgamation of different Tintin comics, The Secret of the Unicorn most notably, but with elements of a few others. Overall I do think that the plot moves along solidly, being an adventure/mystery movie I feel both elements are done very well and in keeping with the comics, well sort of.

Watching this movie, it really does highlight the differences in expectations between comics and cinema. Comic audiences don't typically expect long, epic chase sequences, thrilling and exciting action scenes. This is because of the fundamental differences between the comic and cinema mediums. Comic books are not very long, sure you have graphic novels and manga, but other comic books, especially the serialized ones, like the superhero and Tintin comics, are rather short affairs. For the most part (From my bare minimum of research so feel free to correct me in the comments) Tintin comics are 62 pages long, with a few exceptions, notably the first book which is 141 pages long. Even so, the amount of action you can convey is limited, so a chase scene would need to be a handful of panels, a page at most if you can get away with it. With cinema, that handful of panels to a page can be translated to two to five minutes maybe, so you can get away with some of the flowing camera work and more... outlandish elements that this film gets away with.

I am rather split on the action scenes in the movie. The chase seen in Bagghar was pretty well done, if a bit more destructive than I think would happen in a regular Tintin comic. The crane duel between Haddock and Sakharine though, that was just stupid. I'm also not a huge fan of the camera flow in the chase scenes, maybe that is just a me thing.

I think this transitions decently well into the animation which... is a mixed bag. On one hand, the movie looks incredible. The lighting and the textures almost made me think this film was shot live action, which can be a problem, you know this is animation, but I think the characters were exaggerated enough to make it not too realistic. In fact, that character design is really good, Haddock looked just like a three-dimensional, more realistic version of Haddock would look like, Thomson and Thompson looked great, but on the other hand I think they erm... well reduced Madame Castafiore's size a bit, and gave her a different nose, and as for Tintin, some of his facial expressions looked really off to me, that may just be a me thing, but some of his looks just gave an uncanny valley kind of vibe.

Character wise, they're all the same characters you know and love from the original comics. Tintin is a curious and determined fellow that tends not to go down without a fight. Captain Haddock is a drunken excitable man of action, and Thomson and Thompson are the same bumbling police officers they were in the comics. They included Madame Castafiore in the movie as a bit of fan service, personally I would have also enjoyed to see Professor Calculus as he is one of my favourite characters. Overall though, the characters have largely been unchanged, and the voice cast did a decent job as well. Andy Serkis was really good as Haddock, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg worked great as Thomson and Thompson, even if they probably only got the role because of Hot Fuzz, let's be honest. I think my only real complaint is Jamie Bell as Tintin, but that is definitely a me thing. See, I grew up with the 1990s animated series, which (if you were an English speaker like me) had voice actor Colin O'Meara as Tintin, and that obviously not at all British voice is the voice I most associate with the character. Again, totally a me thing, and Jamie Bell did an excellent performance, I'm just used to the voice I grew up with.

Over all The Adventures of Tintin was a fine movie. Unlike Coraline, it does translate what I liked about the comics to the big screen. I really should stop being so mean to Coraline. Anyway, while I do have my issues with the movie, it had some good action scenes, a solid mystery, faithful characterizations, and had some genuine moments of good humour. I think whether you're a fan of the comics, or are a newcomer to the series, you'll get something out of this movie. While I don't think it's one of my favourite movies, I am glad I saw it. Solid recommendation. Maybe I should try to find the other Tintin movies as well.

First Impressions: The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run (2020)

2020 has been one Hell of a year, trust me it's been a ride for me as well, even as a non American, and honestly, I think one of the most sour things I had to accept was, well a lot of things, but relevant to this post is not being able to see the new SpongeBob movie in theatres.

Why does that hurt so much? Well, I have been a SpongeBob fan for literally my entire life. The first cartoon I remember watching was SpongeBob, and to this day SpongeBob is still one of my favourite shows and one of my favourite characters. I don't remember seeing the first SpongeBob movie in theatres (Though don't take my word on that one because I would have been six at the time), and I had no chance of seeing the second one in theatres on account of me being a broke high school student. In a way, it's kind of a Shakespearian tragedy of sorts that I have never officially been able to see one of my all time favourite franchises on the big screen. Yes, the movie is in theatres in Canada, where I live, but I'm not going to the theatre during the pandemic, so, no I have never been able to see any of the SpongeBob movies on the big screen with a crowd. It's sad, but that is what happens sometimes.

Well, the movie came to Netflix for other viewers so I was able to watch it and... I really want to like this movie.

Okay, so, it's almost the end of the year and I have a bunch of movies to watch for the end of the year, and some movies are still coming out so I don't really know how many I'll get done. I've seen some really bad animated movies like Pets United, Scoob! and the latest piece of garbage from that festering dumpster heap of a studio known as Vanguard, Fe@rLeSS_. So, with all of that under my belt, I can't be too hard on this movie, but... I'm sorry, it wasn't that good.

I think... I don't actually know what I think. It is often hard to pin-down what exactly makes SpongeBob good in the first place. For me, it's a really funny show that makes me feel like a young kid eagerly running for the TV again, even as an adult, a lot of the jokes and writing in SpongeBob is genuinely funny, and I'll admit there were some moments that made me laugh in this movie, I don't think they were as strong as the show's high points, but they were decently amusing. The problem is, those jokes were few and far between, not that any joke really fell hard or became cringey, but nothing really elicited much of a response from me.

The pros of this is that the movie doesn't really become unwatchable, but the downside is that the movie ends up being kinda boring. Let me explain with an example of the movie: The climax involves running through castle halls, SpongeBob and friends piloting a suit of armour like a Gundam, and said suit of armour falling out a window and the gang having to chase it down to catch it to save Squidward, I should not be thinking about skipping any part of that segment.

There is another weird scene where SpongeBob and Patrick are dreaming, they meet the head of Keanu Reeves inside of a tumbleweed, go into a saloon for pirate zombie cowboys who have a song number with Snoop Dogg, and they're being held prisoner by a demon played by Machete himself Danny Trejo. That was a more entertaining scene in the movie, but it still wasn't entertaining by that much.

The animation is kind of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it is bright and colourful and pretty to look at, for the most part. The other hand is that the CG models are not the best the characters have looked in CG, I mean, they have looked worse, but they didn't look that good, I think they looked better in the previous movie, Sponge Out of Water. Still, it wasn't the worst I've seen, after a movie like Fe@rLeSS_ any CG animation looks better... from big studios anyway, but it still didn't sit right with me.

It hurts that I don't like this movie, I actually really hate having to say all this, this movie had people who worked hard on it, and I have nothing but love and admiration for the late Stephen Hillenburg, and I have faith that the team behind this movie wanted to make something that he would have loved. I just, didn't love it myself. Could it have been worse? Yes, but it most certainly could have been better. I think at the end of the day, you're either going to enjoy it, or not, but not in the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas kind of way where that is the entire point, more in the Hazbin Hotel kinda way where it's most likely just not going to be your cup of tea.

If you love SpongeBob even more than I do, or think it's something you might enjoy, or even just want to kill an hour and a half with something that's not super serious, hey, give it a watch, you might get more out of it than me, and that's great. Who knows, maybe I'll find more out of it upon repeated viewings, hey it's a SpongeBob movie, I'm still gonna buy it on DVD when it comes out, I just don't think I'll watch it as much as the first or second movies. Still, depending on who you are, you might get more out of it than me, so I'll give it a slight recommendation.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) - An entertaining road trip movie with our favourite characters

If there was one movie I have been waiting to talk about it would be this one. I was a huge SpongeBob fan as a kid, and even today I still have a love for the cheery yellow sponge. I even purchased a full DVD set of the first one-hundred episodes, and if there is any merchandise I'm going to buy, it is either going to be Disney, My Little Pony, or SpongeBob. So, I have been waiting to revisit this movie and give it a review on this blog, and since the most anticipated releases this year are 40 minute specials of Rocko's Modern Life and Invader Zim, the timing is perfect. While SpongeBob was not the first Nicktoon to have it's own movie, prior to this was Rugrats, and if we want to include other Nickelodeon shows, Good Burger predates that as well, but this is the first one I remember and it was probably the first one most people my age saw, also I'm not a big fan of Rugrats or Klasky-Csupo so, SpongeBob it is.

Full disclosure, I actually wanted to review the Hey Arnold Jungle Movie this week, but I had some trouble with it, and decided to cut it for the time being. This is getting to be a bad habit, I know, I'm going to try and get better at it. Though, I think I've been looking at enough movies from this decade, I should be branching out into older decades, I realize the 2000s is not that old of a decade, but I do need to look at more movies from then. Anyway, I do apologize for the change, I am going to work on it.

So, what is the plot of the SpongeBob movie? Well after getting passed on a promotion at work, SpongeBob has to prove he is not a kid when Plankton steals King Neptune's crown and frames Mr. Krabs and he and Patrick must go through horrible obstacles such as a dangerous trench, a tough-guy biker bar, and the most challenging of them all, David Hasslehoff, and return the crown within six days to free Mr. Krabs. Meanwhile, Plankton steals the Krabby Patty formula and uses this opportunity to take over Bikini Bottom, can SpongeBob and Patrick save the day? I think as a cinematic adventure for SpongeBob, this is a good plot. SpongeBob does not leave Bikini Bottom very often, or did not at this point, so a plot that took him out of his usual environment was kind of cool, and it also briefly took him to the surface world which only happened once or twice in the series prior. Plotwise, the movie is solid, while it may have a couple hiccups here and there, I never found anything distracting, and I only had one question with the plot; What was the timeline of events?

Okay, so SpongeBob and Patrick spend one day to get to destination A, there they see a sing that tells them they have five days to go to get to their main destination. We have no time skip from there to destination B, so we can assume it was one day. Then after the trench they get caught by a "Cyclops" (Really a Scuba Diver in a dry suit) and are trapped there for, as far as we can tell the rest of the night. However, when we cut back to King Neptune, he is saying that the time has ran out and Mr. Krabs is on death row. So, either, they spent three days on the road instead of one, or they were unconscious for three days in Shell City, or King Neptune is a lying jerk. It is a weird problem with the plot, but I'm not sure it is a major one. I didn't notice it as a kid, and I don't think a lot of kids will, not that kids won't, some kids will probably notice, but even then there is more to this movie than the plot.

This movie is definitely more of a comedy than the last cartoon adaptation I reviewed. Though My Little Pony is more of a slice of life/fantasy series, where as SpongeBob is mostly a comedy series. When it comes to the humour, I did find myself laughing at a lot of the jokes. It is tough to talk about the humour of a movie because, you don't want to spoil the jokes, but you also don't want to leave it vague, so I'm going to say, it is not the funniest movie I've ever seen, I do think the sequel might give it a run for its money, but it is a funny movie.

Character wise, the majority of the cast of the show comes back in some way. If you love SpongeBob, Patrick and Plankton, they have the majority screen time of the cast. Plankton might be a bit too evil in this movie, and I do think they could have written a better angle on his turn to dictatorly madness, but he was still fun to watch. As for the new characters, King Neptune is funny, though is your standard "King" character. Princess Mindy is kind and wants her father to be more compassionate, she is not a bad character, but is not the best character in the movie. That would go to the other antagonist of the movie, Dennis, a killer for hire sent by Plankton to dispose of SpongeBob and Patrick. He is just awesome, he is that character you kind of see as the epitome of cool when you're younger, but as an adult you see the humour of his character, I mean, he wears sunglasses, over his sunglasses, that's kind of funny. When it comes to the characters, I have no complaints with this movie, while I would have liked to see the rest of the main cast have more screentime, I did enjoy the new characters, the sequel would do this aspect better, but I'll review that when I have a physical copy.

Animation wise, I mean it is a television cartoon being put in theatres, of course the animation looks wonderful. That being said, I did notice some moments that seemed off, I thought there were times lip syncing was off when they could get away with it. That being said, it was only really noticeable when I paid close attention. Other than that, the rest of the animation is smooth and the colours match the mood. When the scene is cheery and child friendly, it's full of bright colours, when Plankton takes over, the scene becomes dark and muddy, the trench itself is dark and eerie with less browns and more greens, the Trench is also dark, but with more of a blue tone. It's cool to see how many different sets of colours can be used with bright and dark settings. On the other side of the technical, the music isn't bad, background music does its job, and even Motörhead get a musical cameo. The main songs of the movie are also good, I really enjoyed the silliness of the "Now That We're Men" song, and the "Goofy Goober Rock" parody of "I Wanna Rock" is one of the most memorable parts of the movie, even if it is a bit of a deus ex machina. Of course, the voice actors do a good job, and the live action portions are done decently, on the technical aspects, this movie is fine.

As a SpongeBob fan, I can say that if you love the show's early seasons, you'll love the movie. If you are new to the series, I don't think I'd recommend you start here. Looking at the movie critically, it does have some flaws, but as a whole, it is an entertaining movie. I am tempted to dock it points for its flaws, as when you focus on them they are big, but personally speaking, I only thought that after I finished the movie, and during the movie, I enjoyed my time. So, while I would label this a slight recommendation, I think as a whole, it is a movie worth seeing, especially if you are a fan of the show, though in that case, you have probably already seen it.

First Impressions: Wonder Park (2019)

I typically don't like to review movies that are still in theatres, but I do still want to talk about them. Sort of as a time capsule moment, where I and others can look back if I ever get around to doing a proper review. So, with that said, a quick look at Wonder Park.

Wonder Park was a surprising movie, from the trailers I expected this movie to be bland, generic and full of awful pop songs. Not to say it isn't those things, but it's a little bit more, to the point where I can safely say this might not make my worst animated movies of the year list.

What really surprised me was that the movie did not sugar coat any of it's darker scenes, scene's like the mother leaving to go to the hospital are played with little comedy and no sad pop song. While it is true that they don't state her disease, I think it's more of immersion rather than sugar coating, it kind of brought me back to a similar time. While I do think that good emotional scenes should be the bare minimum a movie, especially a kids movie gives, I can say that these were mostly well done.

Though, the movie does kind of go through the motions a little, their is obviously the falling out scene and the "Pit of Despair" scene, so it does lose some points for that. It doesn't really do anything different with these scenes either so it is a tad predictable.

What also makes this movie lose points is the humour, or the lack there of. I chuckled a couple times, but never once laughed out loud. Can't say I'm too surprised honestly, Nickelodeon hasn't had the best track record when it comes to making movies for young audiences.

The movie has a fair bit of imagination in it, though whether it's original is up for debate. I swear I saw something similar to the Sky Flinger ride in the second Spy Kids movie (Anyone else remember those movies?) However, original or not, I'm sure it's creative enough to spark a child's imagination and it kinda did for me.

Watching this movie was not to dissimilar to watching The Greatest Showman, while not a great movie, was a fine experience. Though I much prefer The Greatest Showman as both a movie and an experience, both movies did spark a creative part of me. I started thinking about what kind of rides I'd like in an amusement park, the rides that YouTube channels like DefunctLand talk about, or the kind of rides and parks you could build in Roller Coaster Tycoon. In some ways, it made me feel like an excited kid making a new world to play in, much like The Greatest Showman did.

In many ways, this is the kind of movie I would have loved to watch as a kid, imaginative, partially silly and colourful. However, as much as I would love to leave it at that and say that the child in me is never wrong, the critical adult has some valid points. I think this is a movie children will enjoy a lot, and unlike a movie like Duck Duck Goose, this is a movie I'm fine with kids watching. This movie could spark their imagination like it did for me, and even if it doesn't, the darker and more emotional scenes are still their to challenge them, give them something to think about.

I can't say this is a great movie, it is rather bland and predictable, but not many kids are gonna mind that. However, there are somethings in here that make it worth watching at least once, but only if you have kids, and for that reason, I can say it's okay.

And those were my first impressions on Wonder Park, see you next time at the Odeon.