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Cuphead (2017)
Perhaps the greatest indie game ever created.
I've been a huge fan of this game since 2017. What really intrigued me into wanting to try this game was the 1930's cartoony art style. (More on that later) But for now, lemme just say that this is one of the greatest indie games ever created if not THE greatest indie game ever created. And hopefully this review will somehow manage to convince you to try out this game if you haven't.
The game is heavily light on story, so I'll summarise the game altogether. The opening starts with 2 brothers by the names of Cuphead and Mugman who go into 'The Devil's Casino' and end up making a deal with The Devil on earning everything in the casino. After Cuphead landed on snake eyes (Which is a term for rolling two 1's on 2 dice) Cuphead and Mugman are tasked to collect soul contracts from debtors. Then Elder Kettle (The caretaker of Cuphead and Mugman) gives them a unique ability to shoot bullets from their finger tips. Throughout the entire game you will be facing bosses across 3 Inkwell Isles and across a wide variety of characters. Even eventually facing off against King Dice and The Devil as the final bosses. Near the end of the game you'll be given 2 choices on whether to give The Devil his contracts and join him in hell or refuse to give them to him and face him off. After that. Cuphead and Mugman burn the contracts, everyone cheers for them and that's where the story concludes. A simple concept but a well executed one.
During your time playing the game, there are 4 types of gameplay levels you'll encounter. Run 'n Gun levels where you make it through a side scroller with small enemies and is a way to earn coins for weapons and charms to make bosses easier for your play style. Another thing about the Run 'n Gun levels is that you can earn a P rank by not killing a single enemy and you can get a black and white filter and vintage audio by talking to the turtle NPC in Inkwell Isle 3. (More on the NPC's later) There are the mausoleums where you'll parry pink ghosts and free The Legendary Chalice who will give you a super move to perform when all your cards are filled up. There is 1 mausoleum in each Inkwell Isle with the exception Inkwell Hell with their own unique ability. There are ground bosses where you'll use your equipped weapons, supers and charms against the debtors in which there'll be either 3 or 4 phases for each of them and the same can be said for air bosses, where you're in a plane fighting specific bosses with the plane's own unique super and weapons. All these bosses are unique in their own right. A prime example would be King Dice where you'll parry a die to fight a mini boss depending on which number you landed on. You'll need plenty of health left in order to face King Dice himself while surviving cards by parrying the pink ones.
One more thing about the gameplay I can heavily appreciate is the difficulty. Yes, this is not an easy video game. And I think it's part of the charm of this game. It pretty much encourages you to get better at the game. If you wanna try going for 200% in this game, then prepare to be tested. After you beat the main game, you will be granted access to an expert mode for all the bosses and will be the only way to get to 200%.
Now I'm gonna talk about the thing that got me (And I'm pretty sure everyone else) hooked onto wanting to try the game. The art style. If their goal was to pay homage to the 1930's Mickey cartoons, then saying "They knocked it out of the ballpark" would be a huge understatement. The art style is phenomenal. The fact that all the animations are hand drawn on paper instead of doing the animation digitally shows how much dedication they put into this in wanting to pay homage. The classic 1930's rubber hose art style was something we barely saw back then and I believe this is what revived it. (Although you could say that for the modern Mickey shorts, but I think it's more of a modernised version of the rubber hose art style) I mean, we're getting Mouse: P. I For Hire which also uses the rubber hose art style, we got a Just Dance map with it and a bunch of online videos with the art style. So I believe this game is living proof of the starting of the rubber hose era of animation and even gaming. But aside from that, the animation really helps this game pop out and stand out amongst the library of indie games. Kind of like the pixelated art style of Undertale. And any 3D visuals are thanks to Screen Novelties which also did 3D backgrounds for the show and part of the game's DLC. Either way I love how this game looks.
Speaking of the animation, I should also talk about the hub worlds. Inkwell Isle's 1, 2, 3 and Hell are all uniquely designed and are a joy to walk around. You can talk to NPC's that can give you tips on the game, they can give you a mini quest in exchange of a coin and can even grant you access to a couple of filters by doing tasks related to the Run 'n Gun and boss levels. There are also a few hidden coins, secrets and shortcuts throughout the hub worlds. And yes, the animation also adds a lot of life to them.
One thing that goes brilliantly with the art style is the soundtrack. Like the animation, the jazzy soundtrack also pays homage to the 1930's cartoons. Whether it would be the title theme to Floral Fury to even the The Devil's theme in the final boss, the OST is just a blast to listen to.
Here are some miscellaneous things about the game before I wrap up this review. (Mainly to do with the Switch update) This was once an Xbox and Steam exclusive, but is now available on a variety of consoles. Before the Switch update, you could only play as Cuphead and the only way to play as Mugman is to play in co-op mode. But as of now you can choose between Cuphead and Mugman in single player. The Root Pack, Djimmi The Great and Sally Stageplay all have secret phases and if you agree to give the contracts to The Devil and join him in hell, the title screen with play the title theme backwards.
In conclusion, Cuphead is in my opinion the greatest indie game ever created. If you have yet to try this game, then please do. And I really hope one day we can another game to this franchise or at least a next generation console remaster. Oh, and there's a great DLC for this game as well. "But that is another story..."
Port by the Sea (2024)
Perhaps the most underrated indie show ever
At the time of writing this review, the pilot to Port by the Sea only has under a million views on YouTube. Which I find a shame since this is one of the best pilots in indie animation I've seen. I say it's on par with Digital Circus in terms of how beautifully written it is.
The pilot opens up with a small prologue about 4 titans with one of them who's name is "Tiamat" begins to drown the rest of the world within his domain. Therefore the other 3 titans had to sacrifice themselves for Tiamat's prison which is The Moon. And it is shown within the last 3 pictures that the moon has fractured and Tiamat seeming to break free. Now since this is only the pilot, we don't know much about this, so only time will tell.
Then we cut to our main characters Port, Umi and Jolly the Crab facing off against a sea monster and crashing onto a nearby town's beach. Due to their boat being wrecked, they ask a local towns shopkeeper on what to do to fix the boat which eventually leads them to a lighthouse and are tasked with finding Bonnie, the lighthouse keeper's fish.
After many tries of finding Bonnie by going into a cave, asking more local townsfolk and even asking a graveyard keeper on where she is, they eventually run out of luck and resort to just fixing the boat themselves. Meanwhile Port feels disappointed that they couldn't return Bonnie to the lighthouse keeper, they soon immediately encounter the sea monster that they fought earlier. And due to them removing the moon shard from the monster, it's revealed that it was Bonnie the entire time. It adds onto the world building so uniquely and gives you a taste of what's next to come. So Port and Umi return Bonnie to the lighthouse keeper, he fixes the boat and Port, Umi and Jolly set sail to what I believe is stopping the titan and fixing the moon.
For a pilot, I'm surprised this doesn't get much recognition unlike other indie shows, because what they did with the 18 minute runtime (16 if you exclude the opening logos and end credits) was incredible. The pacing, writing, world building, comedy and pay offs were all masterfully written.
Port and Umi are wonderful protagonists to spend time with. If not for their wholesome yet complex dynamic, this pilot probably would've fallen flat on its face. But thankfully their relationship is by far the best thing about the show. Port and his pet crab Jolly are neatly balanced with their main sources of comedic relief, helping out however they can and having wholesome interactions. Meanwhile, Umi is more on the serious and confident side, yet not over the top cruel to her partner. It also shows her more softer side in which Umi cares deeply about Port and Jolly. The side characters Port and Umi interact and/or encounter are all unique designed and well written.
While the animation isn't as stunning as Lackadaisy's or Helluva Boss's 2D visuals, the animation still looks really good with the budget they had to work with. The lower frame rate on the character animation gives it a really good style and can be excused in exchange for the gorgeous scenery.
The other things like the voice acting, music OST and almost everything else works really well. Especially with the beautifully written end credits song "Beyond" by Olivia Olson (Aka the voice actor of Marceline from Adventure Time) gives off a nostalgic feel to end off this pilot.
In conclusion, Port by the Sea is a severely underrated show that deserves so much more attention. It has a brilliant cast of likeable characters, an awesome concept for a story, stunning animation and well written world building. Not to mention it perfectly balances the fantasy and slice of life genres and gives off a real homely feel to this show. I implore you to give this show a chance. This has the potential to be one of the greatest independent animated shows out there. And I cannot wait to see what lies next for Port and Umi.
(This review may change when the show is complete or enough episodes have been released)
The Loud House (2021)
A huge spit in the face to the show
Even if The Loud House is heavily despised by some, I personally really like the show and consider it to be a favourite. When it got a movie 5 years after the first season, I never watched it until 3 years later. When I did watch it though, it felt like a huge spit in the face to the show and its fans.
So the plot of this movie is that Lincoln Loud feels left out and overshadowed by his sisters which was a plot line they do over and over in the course of the show. So after a chat with Clyde McBride, Lincoln gets the idea to go to Scotland and learn about his relatives. Now this idea doesn't actually sound bad on paper, it could've worked as a mini series in the show like with the "With The Casagrandes" mini series during the first 5 episodes in season 4. But then they had to include dragons and ghosts into this... Now, The Loud House show was just a slice of life kind of show about a middle child surviving in a house with 10 sisters. It never had all that supernatural stuff (at least in the earlier seasons) and when it looked like it, at least it was explained by something completely different that wasn't anything supernatural. But now in this movie they went heavy on the supernatural stuff and it just doesn't work for something like The Loud House. And considering this was made around the time the show started to take a nose dive, it's not really surprising that the quality of the movie is the way it is.
While I do appreciate the animation staying 2D, it just feels so off. The best part of the animation are the backgrounds and shading, It all looks really nice. But the character animation and all the 3D styled shots just look awful. I'm guessing this was done by a different animation studio or something.
Now let's get into the characters. Lincoln is at his absolute worst in this movie. In order for him to be the duke, he has to gaslight his family into staying in Scotland. Not even thinking about their schools, clubs, friends ETC. Then when his sisters get like a few seconds of spotlight he's just like "No! It IsN't FaIr! I'm SuPpOsEd To Be ThE mOsT iMpOrTaNt LoUd!" It just portrays him as a person who only cares about himself even though that was not at all what his character was in the show. Sure he can be a bit selfish in the show at times, but not to this extent. And not to mention that the movie acts as if Lincoln doesn't have any sort of talent even though it's made clear several times that Lincoln can do magic. Although I guess if they did give Lincoln a section in the montage showing his magic skills and having his trophy then the movie wouldn't have happened. The sisters barely get to do anything in this movie. Asides from the beginning and end, they're mostly there for 1 liners or background noise. The only 2 sisters that are somewhat relevant to the plot are Lily Loud in which she has a forced in pay off that sets itself up way too much and Lucy Loud. And despite Lucy Loud being my favourite Loud House character even she isn't enough to save this movie. Since she spends almost the entire movie with
Lucille Loud which I'll get into later. The Loud Sisters all played a huge part in the show and even got their fair share of episodes, so to see them get completely sidelined in the movie almost makes it so empty. Rita and Lynn Sr are just there, not really doing much like the sisters. One thing I do want to say about them though is that in the beginning they were panicking about the sisters all having activities even though in the series there were plenty of times where they were capable. Angus is one of the only few characters in this movie. Probably because he was voiced by David Tenant. However I really don't like his verses when singing. Clyde McBride only appears 3 times in this movie. One of those were a post credit scene. And that's a shame since he's one of the best characters in the show. It almost makes me want to have him get his own movie. (kind of like The Casagrandes) Morag is by far the worst antagonist in The Loud House franchise. Her goal is to chase away The Louds by using a gem to control the dragon so it would destroy half the town. Then her goal seems to change halfway through to wanting to become the duchess and forcing everyone to leave.
Now let's talk about the biggest plot hole in this movie. The Loud Ancestors. For starters, if the ancestors really died 400 years ago then how are the current Louds still around? The bloodline would've stopped and they wouldn't have existed. It makes 0 sense whatsoever. Also if Lucy can summon her Scottish counterpart then how come the rest of them didn't show up? They only show up near the end. Not to mention Lucille Loud can solve like half the problems during this movie. For example, if Lucy and Lucille had been there while the dragon was being controlled then they could've proved Lincoln's innocence and they wouldn't have been kicked out of Scotland. It's just straight up plot contrivance.
Now let's get into the musical numbers. Most of them are pretty bad. The only good one was "Life Is Better Loud" which actually feels like it would come from the show. "Ordinary Me" is just a generic "I Want" song, "This Town Was Named For You" was just cringe, "Loud Castle" just further implies that Lincoln is selfish and "The Duchess I Must Be" is by far the worst song in this movie. Now The Loud House has had a lot of good songs in the show. They even made an entire musical episode about it. They should've been an easy win for this movie. I also find it weird how none of The Loud Sisters got any songs but Lincoln and Angus get 2. They could've made one of Luna since she's all about music or Lucy and Lucille since they're at least somewhat plot relevant.
Now, back to the dragons and ghosts thing. Like I said earlier, whenever there's a conflict in the show where it seems like ghosts are real, it's all explained that it was one of the characters and such and any modern Loud House/Casagrandes episodes that do have ghosts in them I just don't consider canon. Since the show had always been a slice of life show with episodic chaos. Including the conflict of actual dragons and ghosts just feels so out of place in this movie. Let alone the franchise.
Overall, this movie is nothing more than a spit in the face to what the show built upon and its fans. It ruins Lincoln's character, sidelines the sisters, runs on a plot that makes no sense, has a bad villain, off putting character animation and some terrible jokes thrown in there. The Loud House deserved a better movie than this. And as of 2024 it seems we already have that with "No Time To Spy" which was a lot more realistic and respectful to the show. I don't consider the Netflix movie to be canon and neither should you. Just watch the show and skip this movie.
Despicable Me 4 (2024)
Another pointless Despicable Me movie and by far the worst one.
They really did it. They made another Despicable Me movie! This is now the 6th entry in the franchise. (if you count the Minions prequels that is.) How have they not ran out of ideas you may ask? I have no idea. But who knows? Maybe they might surprise us. After all, they did really well with Sing 2, The Mario Movie and Migration. So, is this movie in an already milked franchise any good? Spoiler alert: No, no it is not. This might be by far the worst one of the franchise. Perhaps slightly worse than Minions. Let's get to the summery
So the plot of the movie is after Gru gets Maxime Le Mal arrested at an awards ceremony at his old school, he wants to get his revenge on Gru and tries to track him down. So Silas sends Gru and his family to a smaller town so they would not be found. Meanwhile Gru is trying to get his baby to like him. Then there's a Gen Z character next door named Poppy who wants Gru to pull of a heist with her getting a honey badger despite Gru going into hiding and not explaining to Poppy why he can't do the heist. Eventually Maxime Le Mal finds Gru due to the honey badger having a tracking device and then kidnaps Gru's baby. One fight later and Gru's baby now loves him. It's not a lot right? Well, that's because it isn't.
This movie has way too many subplots that never get brought up again. I could've sworn that 60% of the movie was built on these subplots and constantly relies on them. There's one where Margo tries to fit in high school, there's one where Edith goes to a karate class, one with Agnes refusing to lie, one with Lucy running away from a human due to her messing up at the hairdressers, one with Maxime Le Mal travelling to find Gru and... my god there are a lot. At least the subplots in Despicable Me 3 had some finality to them and didn't have nearly as many.
Now let's talk about the characters who have all been downgraded so much. Gru is so thick headed here. All he does for nearly the entire movie is try to get his son to like him, embarrasses himself and his daughter in front of the neighbours and doesn't even bother to tell Poppy about Maxime Le Mal trying to track him down and why he can't do the heist. Speaking of Poppy she is by far the worst character in this movie. For starters she calls Gru a "Boomer", blackmails him into doing a heist for a honey badger and then they skip over her character arc into actually liking Gru and keeping his secret. She receives absolutely no character development throughout the entire movie. (Also I noticed that her lisp voice disappeared after the heist. I guess consistency isn't a thing anymore.) Lucy is reduced to being a one dimensional mother and barely gets anything to do in this movie. Apart from her subplot that just adds nothing once again. Margo, Edith and Agnes might as well not be in the movie since they don't even do anything in this movie that's plot relevant. We don't get to see Margo in high school, all Edith does is karate in one scene and Agnes has to learn to lie which makes no sense because there's a scene in Despicable Me 2 where she lies to save Gru from going on a date. I find it really impressive how you can assassinate a character who's only into unicorns. In fact I don't think Agnes even mentions unicorns once in this movie. (We'll get back to the girls in a moment.) Maxime Le Mal might be the most boring villain I've seen in a movie. He pretty much wants to get his revenge on Gru for getting him arrested at the awards ceremony, but then they seemed to change it halfway through to "He sang Karma Chameleon when I was gonna sing that!". He also has the ability to turn people into cockroaches, but he never even uses that power to his full potential. And how on earth does Maxime know that Gru has a baby? Overall Maxime Le Mal is such a huge let down, but not nearly as much as a letdown as the Mega Minions which I'll be getting into later on. Valentina is just a one dimensional accomplice and an overall wasted character. They even brought back Silas Ramsbottom which makes the replacement boss in Despicable Me 3 completely pointless.
Now if you've seen one of the news articles about this movie, they confirmed that the girls and its characters will not age up in the series and will be taking a Simpsons styled approach. This is just a horrendous idea in general, because not only does this not work for a movie series but it also removes a lot of opportunities and potential for the girls if they did age up. And if the characters don't age up then how does that explain the many times we've seen young Gru during the series and the Minions prequels?
Now let's get into those Mega Minions. They are by the most underwhelming thing about this movie. They were hyped to high heavens in trailers and television spots. And what do they do in this movie? Nothing plot relevant that's for sure. It felt like they only had under 5 or 10 minutes of screen time. They have an entire montage showcasing their abilities and 'saving people' which then they go into retirement by Silas only for them to be pulled out of retirement to take down Maxime Le Mal but only showed up after he was already defeated. That's all they do throughout the entire movie. They might as well just not be in it at all. But we all why they were made, right? It was just to sell merchandise and to pad out the runtime.
The final scene where all of the past villains from all of the previous movies getting together in prison and sing felt like rushed fan service in an attempt to salvage this abysmal sequel and muddles up the timeline even more, like the villains from the Minions movies being present here. We can see Scarlet and Herb Overkill with a streak of grey hair making the "Characters not aging in the series" statement more confusing and contradictory. Also, shouldn't the Overkills and some of the Vicious 6 members be dead of old age by now since the Minions movies took place in the 60's and 80's? How is Vector back from space? And they also made Vector floss. Just... why Illumination?! Why would you ruin your best villain? This entire segment is just nothing more than a confusing mess with unanswered questions.
But apart from all of that, do you wanna know the real worst part of all this? The franchise is still gonna keep going! They just announced minions 3 and they're thinking of making Despicable Me 5. And I'm gonna be real here, it feels like Despicable Me 3 and 4 are just 2 cartoon seasons worth of content shoved into 2 movies that are an hour and 20 minutes each. I mean Despicable 3 and 4 would've probably worked a lot better if it was a cartoon on Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network. Because not only would it give them an excuse to keep making Despicable Me content but also flesh out the characters a lot more and spend more time with them.
So to conclude, Despicable Me 4 is just another pointless entry in a franchise that should've ended after the 2nd one. There is no character development, there's nothing to gain from it and overall just another cash grab as an excuse to make more Despicable Me movies. I recommend skipping this one and watching Inside Out 2 instead. You'll have a far better time watching that and will gain a lot from it rather than another entry in an Ice Age levelled milked franchise.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)
Aardman's first bad movie and so far their worst one
After rewatching this movie, it was so much worse than I thought. Just a genuine question: Why would anyone watch this movie when it's nearly the same plot as the first one except this time they're breaking in? Now I'm not gonna explain every negative but I will explain the ones that bugged me the most.
The plot is pretty much the equivalent to The Little Mermaid 2. Molly wants to go to the other side but Ginger refuses cause of what happened in the last movie and doesn't bother to explain why. Not to mention that Rocky is also responsible for telling Molly about his "Loan Free Ranger" days which motivates her to go out and explore. So then Molly meets another chicken named Frizzle and gets transported to Fun Land Farms. Speaking of which, the original Chicken Run was supposed to take place around the early 1940's and this movie is supposed to take place at least 8+ years after the original. So do you honestly expect me to believe that they would have such advanced technology in the 50's?
Most of the characters are just bad compared to the original. Ginger has been reduced to an overprotective mother and has been mercilessly character assassinated. There was one moment in the movie that completely goes against her motives from the original. Rocky has been reduced to a punching bag throughout the entire movie. I'm just sick of sequels treating their old characters like trash in order for the new ones to shine. Molly is just not that interesting of a character. Frizzle is completely wasted due to her being mind controlled for a good chunk of the movie. Fowler has now been one noted to talking to a snail for a big chunk of the movie and adds nothing to the plot. But then there's Mrs. Tweedy... For starters they never explain how she survived almost being boiled alive by gravy and crushed by a door in the last movie. Second of all her motives are pin point identical to the last movie aka "Running an evil food business for her own needs". And finally she's just not as cool as she was in the original. They even repeat the "Bye Bye" scene except it's just lame and not as satisfying.
The only good or at least decent characters in this movie were Babs, Nick, Fletcher and Dr Fry. Babs pretty much stayed the same and is actually more funny in this movie with her having more jokes. Nick and Fletcher were alright and Dr Fry is a decent equivalent to Mr. Tweedy.
Just like with most bad sequels there are way too many conveniences and contrivances that get characters out of trouble. Like the sun light being exactly where it needed to be to light the firework and the missing string so Molly could escape the room.
The climax is just lame compared to the pie machine scene and the plane climax from the original.
The only redeeming factors of this movie is the brilliant stop motion animation, a few funny jokes, the "My Sweet Baby" song, whenever Babs is on screen and a couple decent scenes.
But like I said, this movie is still awful. It's just a shame since Aardman has made a lot of amazing movies so I guess you could call Dawn of the Nugget their first bad movie. Just go watch the original instead.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (2017)
The crossover we didn't ask for, but needed.
After almost 7 years since its release it still holds up to this day. Although it isn't perfect, it's still a great game and I highly recommend it. The puzzles are really well crafted, Most of characters are fun to use during battle, each boss (Except for the last 2) are difficult but great, The comedy works really well for a Rabbids game, The music is amazing just like any other Mario game and the story is super endearing.
The DK adventure mode is also just as good as the base game with new enemies, new characters and new level objectives so that it wouldn't be too identical to the base game and makes you feel like you're playing an in between sequel.
Not to mention that there's just a bunch of content either just by base game or DLC in general.
I highly recommend you play this game if you haven't already. It always goes on sale on the E-shop so if you're interested on getting the game that's when I recommend doing it.
The Cuphead Show! (2022)
A show that was brilliant at first but got worse and worse.
So I'm gonna basically review the seasons as a whole here:
Season 1 was absolutely phenomenal, it had a well good introduction to the characters, The animation was where it was at its best, Each episode felt great with only 2 weak ones and the music was so well orchestrated. Easily the best season. 9/10
Season 2 was okay, The first 6 episodes were good but the rest were just awful, Cuphead was more unlikable then ever just for his rushed character development later on. It's also the home to the best episode (High Seas Adventure) and one of the worst episodes. (Lost In The Woods) the season was still fine but not the best. 6/10
Season 3 was easily the worst one, it just had too much of The Devil in there and mercilessly character assassinated him, turning him from a threatening villain to an absolute joke. The episodes were boring and some of the worst in the whole series with only one being a 5/10, Holiday Tree-dition) There were no new boss characters and especially no boss from the Cuphead DLC, The Devil Christmas special did not need to be over 30 minutes long, Special Delivery is by far the worst episode in the show, Joyride had no plot to it at all and is the definition of filler, relies on reused music, reused scenes and reused lines for I think is supposed to be nostalgia pandering or whatever and the final episode and the (Rock, Paper, Scissors) climax was not satisfying in the slightest. Oh and during the last minute it reckons the game and completely nukes the series and the overall timeline and we never even got any confirmation on whether this was supposed to be a prequel to the games or an entirely different thing. But whether it's the same or not, it was still awful. 3/10
After watching season 3, I don't even know if I even want a season 4. Because either they could make season 4 and try and fix the damage that season 3 had on the Cuphead show or there's nowhere else to go here it's all just ruined and just no reason to make a season 4.
So I'm gonna give the overall show a score of 5.5/10.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)
A game adaptation that's on par with the original
This Movie is on par with the original. The character's are just as good, the visuals got a slight upgrade and there are a few rememberable moments. Although there were somethings that made me give it the same rating as the first one. I'm not going to name them all BTW. The wedding drama scenes could've been cut from the entire movie and nothing would've changed, like the 3 minutes after sonic arrives at the wedding and the 3 minutes of Rachael confronting Randy is just 6 minutes of filler and should've been cut. I also wished that Tom/Donut Lord and Maddie/Pretzel Lady would have more of a prominent role. But aside from those things this was a solid sequel that's on par with the original
Verdict: 8/10.
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
A great video game adaptation
After over 3 years of its release, it still holds up to this day. This movie definitely has that 2000's live action adaptation to it that still has a lot of stuff to do with the game. It has a lot of rememberable moments, great casting and great visuals. I also like how the humans actually do stuff unlike other live action adaptations where they're just there to be an NPC for 80% of the movie. And yes, Tom/Donut Lord and Dr Robotnik were some of the best characters in the movie. It has no unnecessary filler which makes this even more enjoyable. I highly recommend this if you're a sonic fan
Verdict: 8/10.
The Amazing Digital Circus (2023)
The Amazing Digital Circus really is *Amazing*
The perfect thing to watch if you're an animation fan and want something new. The show has heavy lore within' the pilot
. The characters are an easy 10/10 for me. They all have some of the most personality I've seen in an indie animation series with my favourites being Caine, Jax, Gangle and Pomni, the rest of the characters are brilliant too, the voice actors killed it with their roles. And I'm hoping that they can still introduce Kaufmo in some way despite being abstracted.
I love the comedic moments, most of them got a pretty good laugh out of me. Most of the comedic moments mainly came from Caine. Hence why he's my favourite character.
Anyway I am hyped for what they're gonna do with the series in the future.
Verdict: (So far) 10/10.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever (2023)
The best animated wimpy kid movie yet
I'm just gonna say that this was the best wimpy kid animated movie yet. I usually look forward to these wimpy kid animated movie's each year, and this did not disappoint at all. I loved Greg's character development, the thrilling moments and pretty much nearly everything. And I didn't mind the recasting on the characters. And the animation is slowly getting better and better within' each movie. Now obviously it's not perfect but it's good enough. I highly recommend this if you're getting trying to get into the Christmas spirit and I'm hoping that each Wimpy kid movie will get better and better year after year.
Verdict: 8/10.
Adventure Mode (2023)
An attempt to replace Fazbear & Friends, but could potentially be a good series
The following review is based on my personal opinions, you can disagree if you must.
So a few months after Fazbear & Friends ended, we eventually got the Purple Girl music video, one month later ZAMination announced a new indie animated Minecraft series called "Adventure mode!" Now there's not much to say on this series due to there only being one episode that's 12 minutes long. But I've still got quite a few things to say about this.
The Comedy/Humour is almost identical to Fazbear & Friends, if not executed worse. I guess there can be a few jokes that can be funny. But most of the jokes are way too similar to Fazbear & Friends that it kinda makes you wonder "If they wanted to make/continue a Minecraft series then why not just continue FB&F?" But I'm guessing they wanted to move on from the series due to past controversies, which is kind of understandable. And I know that this series is made by the same people, but I feel like there should be different humour to make this series stand out.
The characters are too similar to the main 4 of Fazbear & Friends. Bubbles and Dr Bonehead are basically just discount Bonnie & Foxy. And as much as I like Stiffany, she's no Chica or Circus Baby. Norman is the typical "New member of the gang" character that's been done to death before. Circus Baby in episode 4 pulled off the "new member of the gang" trope way better in my opinion. And Meep doesn't really fit in with the rest of the gang. It only says one thing which is "Oouuuaaa, aaauuuuuu" and it's a 3D cel shaded model instead of a Minecraft model like the rest of the characters. I feel like meep should've been a Minecraft model instead of a 3D cel shaded model. Honestly my critique with Meep was more of a nit pick.
Now you may notice that in the animation, the characters are seen with lines and circles with certain shots and movements. It kind of looks like they're taking a Spider-Verse approach, which in my opinion doesn't really look appealing.
And this is just me, but I feel like some things are just happening way too quickly on screen, some of the humour is usually fast paced and some scenes with movements are way to quick. Like the scene where Norman tries to get meep, too many things are happening on screen with the pistons and Norman flying all over the place.
But by far my biggest critique with this is how it made "The End of FB&F" kinda pointless, cause the whole purpose of that finale was that they were gonna go back to making music videos and for them to make adventure mode kind of feels like a borderline replacement for Fazbear & Friends. But to be fair, this series has only just started and there are more episodes to come and to be fair, the pilot wasn't all bad. So hopefully the series will still be good despite it being a replacement for Fazbear & Friends.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
A video game adaptation that could've been a lot better
After almost a whole year since this movie came out, does it hold up well? Kinda. This is a fine video game adaptation, but I just think it could've been a lot better.
So the plot is pretty much your standard origin story. The movie begins with Bowser stealing the Power Star to which is later revealed to be used to force Peach into marrying him. Eventually Mario and Luigi discover a pipe while trying to stop a flood in Brooklyn. Then the two of them get separated. Mario goes to The Mushroom Kingdom and meets Toad while Luigi ends up in the Dark lands. One scene with Peach later she trains Mario for when they have to seek out the kong army. So yeah the plot is pretty simple. It's filled with a ton of great scenes whether it's action packed or to take a breather. Although, with everything going at a lightning fast pace due to the short runtime, it makes it hard to simply enjoy it or take a breather. A longer runtime for a movie based on Mario is something that should desperately be needed.
Now I'm gonna talk about the characters in which some of them are my biggest problems with in this movie.
Mario is a fine protagonist. Although what I don't like about him is how he's a punching bag throughout most of the movie. But by far the worst thing about him is that he doesn't really feel like the main character even though he's the title character.
You'd think that Peach not being much in the games mean that she would be much better in this movie, right? Nope, sadly not. Princess Peach is just another one of those characters who's made out to be perfect in every way, has absolutely no flaws and exist just to make the main character look worse. Peach was also condescending and a jerk to Mario in this movie (not by much) like overhead slamming him, size shaming him, forcing a mushroom down his throat and announcing that he's not important. Peach is pretty much treated as if she's the main character when she clearly isn't supposed to be and she takes up around 50% of the movie. I completely understand why people would like her, but personally I can't stand her.
Despite Luigi being a great character he's just completely sidelined in this movie. So there's not much to talk about him other than he should've gotten way more screen time. This is another reason on why the runtime should've been longer.
Bowser was the best character in this movie despite the motives being copied from Mario Odyssey.
Toad was a great character and unlike most comic relief characters he actually contributes in the story. Although he was kind of a plot device in the 3rd act with the whole ice flower thing.
Donkey Kong was just insufferable in this movie. He's just salty ever since he lost the fight and never changes once over the story. It would've been really nice if the "swallowed by the Eel" scene if we actually see Mario and DK bond or at least have a truce when they talk about how their fathers think they're a joke. It would've been a nice act of character development from both of them. But nope, we just had to have DK be salty to the point where he's just not enjoyable.
The side characters (except for Spike) and Charles Martinet's cameos were also really good.
But then there's Lumalee. The most pointless character in this entire movie. He has one gag of him constantly saying death and depressing jokes and it's never funny. I guess he was supposed to fill in the role as "the comic relief" character. But here's the thing, we already have Toad for that. Like Luigi, Lumalee is barely shown on screen so there's not much to talk about him. Well, except for all the stuff I just said.
Now I'm gonna talk about some other positives and negatives.
The animation looks absolutely stunning and a nice change from the overused Despicable Me art style. The music score is perfect. (Except for all the licensed music) There's a lot of neat references to catch onto. I consider scenes like the Dry Bones chase and the Mario Kart scene to be the best in this movie. The chemistry between Mario and Luigi was endearing. The Mushroom Kingdom in this movie is by far the best iteration of it. The locations are beautiful to look at even though we barely spend any time with them. The Peaches song is just annoying in my opinion. All the scenes with Lumalee were filler. The climax is way too similar to the one in Sonic 2020. There was little to no character arcs or development. The movie in general felt kind of rushed and the last post credit scene wasn't all that revealing or shocking.
And here are a couple of nitpicks I personally had. Peach and DK using the fire and ice flower when Mario and Luigi didn't and the fact that they can just blow out a fire flower when that was never something in the games. So does this mean you can blow out an ice flower? Would it defrost it?
This movie had a lot of potential to be outstanding. It's still good, but I wished it could've been better. Let's hope the sequel will be a huge step up.
Nimona (2023)
This movie really is "Metal!"
This movie is a masterpiece! Most of the twists and turns actually shocked me the first time I watched this, the comedy is golden, the 3D animation is some of the best I've seen, the character's are so well written, the story is fantastic and the ending where Ballister almost swears after nimona's revival is a fantastic way to end the movie. It reminded me of Spider-Man homecoming cause of the cut-off swear before the credits.
This and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio are some of Netflix's best animated movies and I hope we get more quality animated Netflix movie's like this in the future
Verdict: 9.6/10.