The Lord of the Rings (1978) - A Kinda Sloppy, but Ambitious and Admirable Attempt at an Adaptation

 

The Lord of the Rings is one of pop cultures most prominent book series, it is probably more well known than other book series like Narnia, Harry Potter and Dragon Riders of Pern. J.R.R. Tolkien's fantastical tale of wizards and hobbits and the horrors of war has enchanted, delighted and horrified many a reader, and has made its way into multiple other formats, ranging from video games and Hollywood features, most notably the Peter Jackson trilogy that was made and released in the early 2000s, defining the decade and fantasy cinema of the future. However, this was not the first attempt at adapting Tolkien's story into a feature, as in the 1970s Ralph Bakshi took a stab at it with a Screenplay by Chris Conkling and Peter S. Beagle, yes, the same Peter S. Beagle who wrote The Last Unicorn. Despite the talent and ambition, and some fair responses at the time, it has largely been overshadowed by Peter Jackson's version, for a while until it garnered some attention online. Of course, it isn't as good as the Jackson trilogy, but is it any good on its own?

The story is a loose adaptation of the first two books, up to the Battle at Helm's Deep. It has a uniquely done prologue that tells the story of the one ring, then it's a pretty straightforward telling of the story, with, as you can probably guess, a fair share of omissions. I have not read the Lord of the Rings books, honestly I haven't even watched that much of the Peter Jackson movies, so I can't say this with one-hundred percent certainty, but I do believe they get the important bits down. They skip Tom Bombadil, but they get through the Ringwraiths in Rivendell, Gandalf meeting with Saruman, the council of Elrond, the mines of Moria, Lothlórien, Boromir's death, Merry and Pippen being taken by Orcs and meeting Treebeard and Frodo and Sam meeting Gollum. It is condensed but I do think the important stuff is there. Likewise, I do believe the characters are fairly accurate, though this is only me guessing from learning from second-hand sources, so I'm bound to have someone commenting about every minute difference between the book characters and the movie characters. Please note, I don't actually care, I'm not Dominic Noble, comparing books to adaptations is not my job. Aragorn is pretty badass, but also can take a moment to chill and Gimli is not just made completely to be comic relief. On top of that, I really did feel like the group had a sense of friendship and camaraderie.

The biggest issue with the story is the editing can be really... hilarious at points. I thought the editing to The Swan Princess was a problem, but in this movie, they literally talk about going to Lothlórien and then the next shot is Galadriel welcoming the party to Lothlórien, that made me laugh when I saw it, like this is something you would see in like, a spoof comedy. That being said, when shots needed to drag, they do drag, but not for too long. One of my favourite shots in the movie was when Frodo and the Hobbits were about to be spotted by the Ringwraith, the scene shows them leaving the road to hide, but it lingers, it stays still as we hear the Ringwraith ride closer until it appears on screen. It's honestly a pretty well done shot, and there are more editing choices like that then randomly cutting to Galadriel. Editing wise, this is not as bad as The Thief and the Cobbler or The Swan Princess, but it isn't exactly great, and does contribute to this movie coming off as kinda sloppy.

The animation is pretty notorious to people who know of this film. Most of you will know that the movie mixed traditional cel animation with live-action rotoscoping. There is a fine line between good rotoscoping and bad rotoscoping, it's one of those things where if it isn't one-hundred percent good, it's garbage. Personally, I think that is a bit of an exaggeration, there is really good rotoscoping out there like the music video for A-Ha's Take on Me, and while this rotoscoping is a bit more middle tier, it isn't terrible, at first. As the movie goes on, the rotoscoping does sometimes look like someone just put a filter over the footage, and when obviously live-action people have animated characters next to them, or worse, animated parts attached to them, it looks really out of place. As for the traditional animation, it's really solid, the facial animation is a bit bizarre, almost Hercules and Xena levels honestly, but the body animation is realistic, most likely thanks to the rotoscoping references, and the character design is okay. They look nothing like you would expect them to look like if your familiar with the live-action movies, but they still look mostly distinct from each other, you can pick most of them out in a screenshot. Speaking of design, the backgrounds are all fantastic, though they sometimes do this thing where the backgrounds fade away and it looks like someone put a greenscreen effect in an animated movie. It's... an interesting choice, to say the least.

The voice acting was really good though, I don't imagine that any of these names are familiar to most movie goers, unless you're really big into British television. The biggest names I recognized were John Hurt, who is an icon who has appeared in so many things and plays Aragorn in this movie, and Anthony Daniels, most known as the voice of C-3P0 in Star Wars and plays Legolas in this movie. That being said, the other actors do great jobs, William Squire as Gandalf does have that presence that Sir Ian McKellen has while still being distinct, and honestly I kinda prefer Christopher Guard as Frodo instead if Elijah Wood, Wood just kinda comes off as vulnerable all the time. The acting gets a huge thumbs up from me, and so does the score really. I do not understand the choice of music they went with, it's kind of jovial, almost reminiscent of pieces like Entry of the Gladiators, but honestly, I kind of love it. It's beautifully triumphant, though not as epic. The music was done by Leonard Rosenman, who also did the music for movies like Rebel Without a Cause, Fantastic Voyage, A Man Called Horse and two of the Planet of the Apes sequels. I'd say this was an excellent score.

Overall, I can't say that Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings movie is a truly great movie, I do think that, if he had the budget he probably could've done better by making it a trilogy. That being said though, it isn't a bad movie on its own. I think when people think of "The Lord of the Rings", they think of "Epic", and animated epics are... kinda rare honestly. Other than The Prince of Egypt I can't really think of any other animated epics. If you temper your expectations, I do believe you'll see an ambitious project that was probably way ahead of its time, truly the biggest problem of this movie is simply that it was probably too ambitious. Do not let that keep you from watching this movie, simply as a curiosity or as a Ralph Bakshi fan. I enjoyed my time with this movie, and I do believe that others will find something to enjoy, or at least something to talk about. Remember, this was one of the movies that led to Peter Jackson's trilogy. Also, this movie is over two-hours long, so maybe don't make this a casual viewing.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) - An Admirable Attempt at Adapting an Adolescent Favourite

 

When I was a kid, one of my all time favourite book series was The Adventures of Captain Underpants. Not only was the childish humour appealing to me... as a child, but the way the book implemented unique features made them special. They were like, a cross between a children's book, a graphic novel and an activity book. It was up there with Encyclopedia Brown and Deltora Quest as one of my favourite book series. I imagine the same things appealed to a lot of people, because it really didn't surprise me that a Captain Underpants movie was to be released in the 2010s. Imagine the fourth-wall breaking and interactivity of the books implemented into a movie! Okay, that is a bit of high expectations, but I can imagine fans of the books were pretty excited for this, and the late 2010s were the perfect era to make this movie, with animation getting some more recognition, adaptations being the most dominant form of movie and DreamWorks being on their A-Game coming right off the release of The Boss Baby... Yeah. Anyway, with all that said, how is this adaptation of a childhood classic?

The story follows George Beard and Harold Hutchins, George is the one with he flattop and the tie and is voiced by Kevin Hart, while Harold is the one with the T-Shirt and the messy hair and is voiced by Thomas Middleditch. They're two elementary school students who like to pull pranks and make silly comic books about their superhero Captain Underpants. However, their principal, Mr. Krupp catches them pulling a prank and tries to break their friendship apart, by George uses a toy hypnotizing ring to keep Mr. Krupp from breaking the two friends, and in the processes, they turn him into Captain Underpants. While trying to keep him under some control, he ends up hiring the evil scientist Professor Poopypants as the new science teacher, who plans to remove everyone's ability to laugh. I know it may... sound difficult to take a plot like that seriously, but it was all from the book, or... books, yeah this is like The Adventures of Tintin where they adapt multiple stories into one movie, it is mostly adapting the fourth book, The Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants, with a little bit of the second book Attack of the Talking Toilets, as an adaptation I'd put this in the Coraline camp, solid work, but some changes that don't sit right with me. Like, they add in a new character named Edith, who replaces the lunch ladies from the first three books and is Mr. Krupp's love interest, and they omit the bit where Professor Poopypants' home country has everyone named a ridiculous and stupid name. I mean, there are worse adaptations, but I feel like a direct adaptation of the books would have benefitted more.

That being said, character wise it's pretty spot on from what I remember. George and Harold had good chemistry, Melvin was as annoyingly stick in the mud as I remember him from the books, and Mr. Krupp was the joyless authoritarian principal who probably should have been let go ages ago as he normally is. I do feel like they changed George and Harold a bit, I remember them doing pranks on everybody, not just teachers, like they made other students plenty miserable in the books too. This might just be a change because these kind of rule-breaking miscreant bad kids are not really that enjoyed much anymore. I dunno, but we really don't see these kinds of characters in media now. Not that the movie does a bad job of George and Harold, honestly I think I'd rather have been a classmate of these two than their book counterparts. I think my only major nitpick is the voices, this movie falls into the problem that most animation has today, in that the kids have voices that sound almost adult, but most of the other voices are fine. Ed Helms as Mr. Krupp is almost perfect casting, though I imagined him sounding a lot more Gilbert Gottfried or Bobcat Goldthwait-y, though his voice as Captain Underpants was spot-on to how I always imagined it, and then there's Kristen Schaal, who actually doesn't do a typical Kristen Schaal performance, like I recognized her voice, but I did not immediately imagine Louie Belcher or Mabel Pines, so... that's neat.

I definitely have to give praise to this movie in the animation department, I feel like this was the start to the big stylization push that 3D animated movies have been getting recently, I mean after this we had Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and The Bad Guys, so I believe this is, if not the start than at least where the push got rolling. The characters look like three-dimensional versions of the book characters. The animation was bright, colourful and fluid. On top of that, the way they implemented different styles, from simplistic 2D to a more hand-drawn looking 2D to using sock-puppets, it was pretty hilarious. Plus the use of the famous Flip-O-Rama from the books was a nice touch and some nice fourth-wall breaking. The animation is really the best part of this movie for me. Which is honestly kind of sad.

To be fair, this isn't a bad movie, and on the scale of movies I just wasn't that into I'd rank it higher than Charlotte's Web or Bambi, but it was just kind of another Coraline for me, in that it just wasn't really the books. Is it bad? No, and I can't even say I didn't like it. I did enjoy some aspects of it, the characters were pretty spot on, the acting was solid, the animation was great, but it just wasn't the books. I guess I shouldn't be too hard on it, the books were unique and a lot of that unique-ness couldn't really be translated into a movie. It was an admirable attempt, and it really isn't one of the worst DreamWorks movies out there. Do I recommend it? Um... yeah, yeah I think I do. On some level, I do think that this is one of those animated movies that is worth seeing, and can change your perspective on animation. Yeah, Captain Underpants is the movie that can help people respect animation. Well, this was one of the first stylized 3D animated movies, which let people realize you could break away from the typical style that most 3D movies were using, and it also is an adequate adaptation of a children's book, taking a ridiculous concept as seriously as one could expect. This is kind of what I thought that DC League of Super-Pets movie was gonna end up being, but at the end of the day, I don't know if I can really recommend it to that many people. Maybe you'll get more out of it than me.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) - A Surprisingly Fantastic Action-Adventure Movie

 

I have made my opinion on 2022 as a year for animated movies abundantly clear. However, I will say this about the year which I believe I have only implied, 2022 was an interesting year... in concept. By that I mean, if you just look at the kinds of films that were released last year, it is actually quite fascinating. So many visual styles, and different attempts to tell their stories. The problem simply was that a lot of it just just felt formulaic and didn't really add much new, at least they didn't feel like they did. That is a big reason why my top five favourite animated movies turned out the way it did. I bring all of this up because, in late 2022 I was getting a bit burnt out, I was just looking forward to my January off and was kind of planning to only do one movie review in December, and because of that, I didn't end up writing a First Impressions for the new Puss in Boots movie, in fact I didn't see it in theatres at all, and from all of the buzz around this movie, apparently I missed out. So, let's change that, lets give a look to Puss In Boots: The Last Wish.

The story follows our favourite Feline Spaniard Puss in Boots, as he gets down to his final of nine lives. With Death stalking him, literally, he lies low until Goldilocks and the Three Bears Crime Family try to find him to help them steal the map to the Wishing Star, a fallen star that can grant one wish. The one problem, the map is in the hands of Jack Horner. Puss in Boots, plus Kitty Softpaws and a new Dog friend, travel through the Dark Wood to reach the Star before anyone else can reach it, or Death can reach Puss in Boots. I think my favourite thing about this plot is that it avoids using a lot of traditional clichés, I remember seeing people talk about this movie and "What if this character got their wish" and I thought to myself, "Okay, the dog character gets killed and Puss wishes him back finally learning the value of one life", but no, that doesn't happen. Heck, even when they do a third act split up, it's done for an understandable reason. We understand where Puss in Boots is coming from, we understand his anxieties and fears. I mean, the plot is smooth as butter on its own, but avoiding using the fake out death cliché, I love it already.

And yeah, the characters are all delightful. The relationships each character has is so believable that you almost forget you're watching a movie with talking cats, dogs and bears. You genuinely believe that Kitty has a deep sense of betrayal, that Goldie and the bears are a genuine family, that Jack Horner is... unredeemable and pure evil, God I missed having villains like this. Not that I don't love more three-dimensional and deep villains like John Silver from Treasure Planet or The Gorgs from Fraggle Rock, but sometimes you do just want a villain that is just plain evil. Speaking of villains, let's talk about Death, because yeah, I totally get why everyone latched onto this character. Effortlessly intimidating, that whistle sent chills down my spine, and his voice is just right, maybe a bit on the plain side though. I mean, I don't need, or want him to sound like Christian Bale's Batman, but I could have gone with a bit more of a sinister voice, then again, Death having such a standard, every-day voice might actually make him much scarier. Genuinely, I think this is one of the most terrifying performances in an animated movie.

2022 will be the year I pegged as animated movies trying more styles, and compared to some of the other movies that came out in 2022, this movie does look a little standard, but this movie did not need stylized animation because this movie looked so good. The beautiful colours, the wonderful transitions that used the characters fading out, and the character designs, I liked the stylized look of films like The Bad Guys and Wendell & Wild, but sometimes, a really good non-stylized movie can still look fantastic. That isn't to say there is no stylization, some of the action scenes were definitely inspired by the look of the more stylized animated movies, like Into the Spider-Verse and The Bad Guys, and it does feel a little out of place, but that is just nitpicking, the animation of this movie is fantastic. Really, it is a shame I didn't see this one in theatres, because hot damn, this is a theatre movie done beautifully. Some films only ever look impressive on giant screens in dark rooms, but this movie is one of those that would look great on a dinky laptop in the summer sun.

So yeah, this was a really good movie. I kind of thought I could skip this one since... I mean it's a Puss in Boots movie, did anyone even care about the first one? I mean, I doubt it's a bad movie, but it feels like it would be such an inessential movie, so how good could the sequel really be? Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a reminder that when you give something a chance, you can be surprised. Giving movies a chance is a big reason I started this blog. This is a movie I missed out on and am really glad I decided to watch, it is a fantastic movie and easily one of the best of 2022. Where would it rank on my list? Honestly, it probably ranks over Wendell & Wild, yeah it is that good. Which does in fact mean, that this movie is a High Recommendation from me. Then again, considering it's accolades, you've probably already seen it.

Editorial - Top 10 Disney Songs (Animated Canon)

It is springtime, and that means my mind is set towards the Magical corporation that is the biggest name in animation, Disney. Since I like to space out my Disney movie reviews, at least my reviews of the movies in the Animated Canon, I decided that I would do an editorial that has been sitting in the back of my mind for at least a year by now, and since you've probably read the title, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Disney songs have become an iconic part of their movies, these songs were probably a lot of kids first introductions to music in general. So many people can sing every lyric to these songs, know the music by heart, every key change, each and every dialogue exchange in between the songs. Whether we grew up with these songs on Sing-along Video Tapes, on Soundtrack albums, or streaming them online, Disney songs have stayed with us from childhood to adulthood. So of course, there is always discussion about which songs are the best, from the show stealing title tracks, to the iconic villain songs, to the songs that play in the end credits, people have their favourite Disney songs. I am absolutely no different in that regard. So, I want to share with you, my favourite Disney songs, even if you can probably guess a few of them already. Of course, the basic rule must apply, that being, only songs from the official Disney animated canon qualify for this list. So no Live-Action, No Direct-to-Video Sequels, no Nightmare Before Christmas, and no Disney TV songs, though a separate list about the best Disney Cartoon Theme Songs sounds like a fun idea... I'll put a pin in that. I should also mention I am going with the soundtrack versions of these songs, more often than not, it doesn't actually matter.

Without further ado, here are my top ten Disney Songs.

#10. Strangers Like Me - Tarzan

To be frank, I think the Tarzan soundtrack may be one of my favourite Disney soundtracks of all time, up there with The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Muppet Christmas Carol, it is kind of weird not having any of the characters actually sing these songs, but as a whole I don't mind to much. I really like the theme of Strangers Like Me, a song about Tarzan learning about his own kind, a song of fascination and infatuation, and of course I am just a sucker for songs that have big and bombastic endings, where the singer just puts all their power and passion into it. I do like Phil Collins as a singer and I think he and Mark Mancina did a fantastic job here, even if the backing music of the bridge of the song sounds like a turn signal.

#9. The Phony King of England - Robin Hood

Robin Hood and Country? Oddly a match-up that works pretty well. It's not really that often you hear a Disney song about how inept the villain actually is. Off the top of my head there was "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" from The Three Little Pigs, but that was more bluster on the pigs' behalf, so it's kind of fun to have a song just about how lousy the villain actually is, even if it isn't really that historically accurate, considering John actually was King, the taxes were more for Richard's crusades, and if Robin Hood was around the time of King Richard the Lionheart and was a noble like many stories say he was, he would have been French, well Norman anyway. Hey, who would have thought that Shrek had the most accurate interpretation of Robin Hood? Anyway, there isn't really much I can say about this song, it's just fun.

#8. Under The Sea - The Little Mermaid

Speaking of fun, when making a song all about how it's more wonderful to live beneath the waters than it is on land, you better pick a genre that is upbeat and bouncy. There are a lot to choose from, Ska would probably be my go to, love me some "We Are Number One", but Calypso was definitely the right choice here. To be absolutely fair, Sebastian does make some fairly good points, I mean, what do we have up here? Green forests and big dirty cities. Colourful coral reefs, calm vastness of blue and a lot of unique creatures, many of which are too small to actually kill us, unlike on land. Of course, we are also making sure that none of those stay around much longer, but conservation of the ocean is for another blog. This genuinely is a song that would make me want to pull a Captain Nemo and live under the sea. Rest in peace Samuel E. Wright.

#7. Let It Go - Frozen

Yeah... I'm one of those people. Like I said, I am just a sucker for songs that build upon themselves, where the power and passion is put into the singing and the music. It's funny because I'm not actually a fan of Idina Menzel's music, I have nothing against her, it's just not my thing. That being said, I think what really makes me fond of this song is the subtext, or maybe it's context. Elsa is finally free, free from the expectations placed upon her, free from the guilt of hurting Anna, free from her fears and she finally has a chance to just let it all go. She can do what she wants now, she can use her powers for whatever, and it's fitting that during the song, she builds a snowman, the thing Anna wanted to do with her for such a long time, arguably Elsa wanted that too. I think a lot of people just look past the song because, outside of overplay, they just kind of see it as Elsa running away from her problems, because you know, it isn't like distance can be a solution, or can help with finding a solution. Anyway, I still love this song, and it's fine if you disagree, just, you know, let it go.

#6. Friend Like Me - Aladdin

Again, this is just a really fun and bouncy song. Really fitting considering the late-great Robin Williams sang it. It is a song that really does seem to perfectly fit his energy, and really introduce the character of the Genie really well. I guess you're probably wondering what I thought of Will Smith's rendition of this song. Honestly, while I prefer Will Smith's version of Prince Ali, for the most part, I do prefer Robin Williams version of Friend Like Me. Will Smith, being an actual musician, does give the song a different kind of sparkle, but I just think the energy of the music paired with the energy of Robin Williams just fits the song better. Really, we never had a talent like Robin since.

#5. Heaven's Light/Hellfire - The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I know everyone loves Hellfire, but the soundtrack puts these two songs together so I'm doing the same. Putting them together is actually really great though, since it shows the contrast between how Quasimodo and Frollo see Esmeralda. Heaven's Light is very pretty and ends with bells and a cheerful symphony, contrasting that to how Hellfire begins, with a deep Latin choir and a slower, much more haunting bell sounds. The contrasting elements go further, with Tony Jay's singing voice being much deeper than Tom Hulce's. I don't think I need to say this, but Hellfire is the best part of this song, again it's the build up and the passion put into it. The Latin is a nice touch too. Still, these two songs together do make a very interesting piece. I think more people should talk about Heaven's Light, because it is a nice little song. Two sides of a beautiful coin, One side is much more traditionally Disney, the other is much more risqué and unique.

#4. Circle of Life - The Lion King

It was a toss up between this and Be Prepared, I was gonna cheat and put them both on this list as a tie, but then I realized, Circle of Life is one Hell of a way to open a movie. Be Prepared is an excellent song, but I love the instrumentation and beat of Circle of Life. I could also talk about the pretty lyrics and the use of actual African language in the song (Apparently it's Zulu, but correct me if I'm wrong) which is a nice touch, but let's be honest, the one best thing about the song is that it's big. As soon as you hear that "NAAAAAAAAAA" screaming with the the rising sun, you know exactly what kind of movie you're in for. Believe it or not, that actually used to terrify me as a kid, it was this harsh screaming paired with this harsh reds and it was just awful. Still somewhat terrified, but I still have to admit, this is a pretty fantastic song.

#3. Beauty and the Beast - Beauty and the Beast

Taking things down a notch, this song is beautiful. I could talk about the lyrics and how the reflect upon the story, theme and character arcs of the movie, or I could point out the beautiful orchestra work, but if I'm going to be honest, the one thing that makes this song work so well and what puts it in my top three is simple, Angela Lansbury's voice. Her voice is just the chocolate drizzle on top of the strawberry shortcake of this song. Like yes, the lyrics and the score are exquisite and darn near perfect, but some songs need the right singer. Under The Sea needed Samuel E. Wright, Friend Like Me needed Robin Williams, and this song needed Angela Lansbury. May she rest in peace.

#2. We Don't Talk About Bruno - Encanto

You know, I think a big reason I enjoy Let It Go is simply because I wasn't as overexposed to it as a lot of people say they were, like I knew it was a charted hit song, but like, I never really absorbed how big it actually was. The same can definitely not be said about "We Don't Talk About Bruno", I heard that song playing in a McDonald's at least twice. What is it about this song that works though? Well, to start with, the different musical beats to represent the different family members and how they sing about Bruno makes the song a lot of fun to try and sing along with, anyone else remember the Singstar games? Anyway, this is easily one of the best songs to just get up and move to, but then you think about how this song is also a bit of a subversion. Bruno is somewhat of a subversion of Disney clichés, he wears green, a colour associate with Disney villains. On top of that, you notice little things in the song, like Isabella saying "I'm fine", sounding like... well anyone who is forcing an "I'm Fine" would sound, and the entire song hinting that Bruno is still in the house. It's a clever song, and it would easily be my favourite of the modern Disney era... but...

#1. I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme) - Treasure Planet

You know, I'm not actually that big a fan of the Goo Goo Dolls, but John Rzeznik was easily the best singer and writer they could have gotten for this song. The best thing about this song is easily how it relates to the main character, so many of the lines relate back to him, especially in the chorus with "Wanna hold on and feel I belong". Best lists are always difficult to write, because there are only so many ways to say something is beautiful, or well-made, or relatable. You would think I'd have something more to say about my favourite Disney song, but outside of it perfectly relating to Jim, and probably a lot of audience members, I can't really describe it. I'm not a music guy, I'm an animation guy. Either way, this is my favourite Disney song, and one that I think is fairly underrated, seriously, give this song another listen, it's worth it.

And of course, because this is Disney we're talking about, here are the honourable mentions:

1. Friends on the Other Side - The Princess and the Frog; Easily one of Disney's best Villain songs.
2. I Won't Say (I'm in Love) - Hercules; Again, I love the twist here, as it's a Disney love song, where the heroine is trying to convince herself to not be in love.
3. I'll Make a Man Out of You - Mulan; You're seriously telling me this was Donny Osmond singing this? This song is way too good.
4. The Three Caballeros - The Three Caballeros; Again, this song is just fun.
5. Goodbye May Seem Forever - The Fox and the Hound; HA, I just made some of you feel like crying.
6. Colors of the Wind - Pocahontas; Eh, this song is pretty, but very preachy, but like... maybe rightfully so I guess? I don't know how I feel about this one.

Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie! (2013) - Not great, but it's pretty chill

 

April the twentieth, otherwise known as 4/20, is upon us. To me, the day is about spreading good vibes, a kind of pleasance and joy that don't normally come with other days. It's a day to just chill, or it would be if it wasn't on a Thursday this year... but I digress. To celebrate the stoner holiday, I figured I'd look at a stoner movie, the problem is, animation and stoner movies don't seem to be that common. I mean you can make cases for movies like Yellow Submarine, Alice in Wonderland or Spirited Away, but those movies aren't really the kind of stoner comedies as something like Dazed and Confused, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Pineapple Express or even Tenacious D In: The Pick of Destiny, thankfully, I happened across a copy of Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie, which is just perfect.

I'm only as familiar with Cheech and Chong as anyone else who grew up when they were icons, but never had any of their records or movies. So, I know of them but I'm not as familiar with them or their bits. Stoner comedy is a very different style of comedy to other kinds, and as such it can be a difficult genre to get into. It can range from slow and monotonous to bizarre and absurd, so I think the big question for this review is ultimately, is this good for Cheech & Chong fans and is it good for newcomers?

So this is where I would usually go into the plot, what the major events are and how the plot flows together. Just one problem with that, there really is not plot to this movie, sorta. It's all just a collection of classic Cheech & Chong sketches put to animation, and I mean that literally. I can't find any evidence to this, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was literally the skits from their records put to animation. Lots of their classic skits including Sister Mary Elephant, Dave, Ralph and Herbie, Let's Make a Dope Deal, Trippin' in Court, and Earache My Eye. It's funny, not the movie itself, I'll get to that in a bit, but the fact that there aren't too many animated sketch comedy films. Yes, we have movies that are package films, but those are typically movies they can chop up and air as segments on their own, I mean movies like Monty Python's The Meaning of Life or The Kentucky Fried Movie. We don't really have the movie version of Robot Chicken or MAD or anything like that. Actually a MAD movie might be interesting. We don't really have a lot of animated sketches loosely tied together with some central plot or theme. Oh yeah, the scenes that tie this movie together follow a genital crab trying to land in Tommy Chong's beard, yeah, raunchy and toilet comedy are going to be present a lot in this movie.

Guess that should be my segue into talking about the comedy. This is a Cheech & Chong movie after all. So, is this movie funny without the need for uh... comedy enhancing psychedellic smokable plants? Well... not really. A lot of the humour is very slow moving and I just kind of wanted them to get to the point faster, but after a while I did kinda get into the pace and flow of the movie. I dunno, if you dig slower kind of laid back humour, you might get into this movie. Then again, as stated before, there is quite a lot of toilet humour, well "humour" is the wrong word, unless you find the image of a dog's anus opening up to let a giant turd out to be funny. To be fair, some of the toilet humour was somewhat amusing, Cheech urinating on his car trunk yelling to the people inside of it is kind of funny, so I think most of the humour is going to depend on your tolerance for slow comedy and toilet humour. Again, this is not my style of humour, so I wasn't super into this, but I could dig the pacing and tone after a while.

All of the voices in this movie are done by Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, and they do good work... I think? Again, I have a hunch that they may have just taken their old recordings and put them to animation. In the Sister Mary Elephant sketch, when the Sister Mary Elephant character yells, it sounds like somebody blowing out their headset mic on Audacity, not like professional recording. That being said, I wouldn't be shocked if they did redo their skits for this movie, since Cheech Marin has done plenty of voice work in the past, such as on Oliver & Company and The Lion King, while Tommy Chong did films like FernGully and Zootopia, plus the two did a bunch of comedy albums, plus the movie had a couple of people in the sound department, according to IMDb, so it could have been either. Either way, the vocal work is solid.

What isn't very solid is the animation itself. I'd usually go into issues with the animation with any other movie, but the issue with the animation here can be summarized in one sentence; It looks like a cheap Flash production. Characters look flat, everything is coloured with solid colours, light and shading is basic, and when characters are meant to move smoothly and have some flow to their movement, it looks really off because the rest of the animation looks stiff and cheap. I don't think anyone really wanted to make this movie look spectacular, I wouldn't be surprised if they aimed for something simple looking, but this looks like something you would see for free online, not a theatrically released animation. I feel like something like this might make someone's opinions of theatrical adult animation much less positive, which is totally not fair.

So, where do I rank Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie? It's... watchable, mostly harmless, but not essential viewing. If you have the comedy albums, I'd say listen to those instead, maybe watch Up In Smoke too, but it might be interesting as a curiosity viewing. I think movies that you need to watch stoned off your butt to enjoy kind of miss the point entirely, like yes, they're funny when you're too high to remember you have hands, but they also should be funny when you're sober. That being said, I didn't have an awful time with this movie, and I did feel the vibe after a while. I'd imagine this as a decent film to put on in the background and chill. This is a very different style of movie than I am used to reviewing, so I'm glad I saw it, but I don't think I'd choose to watch it again. This movie fits very nicely in the "Slight Recommendation" category of movies. Hope you have a happy, SAFE and RESPONSIBLE 4/20 everyone.