Channeleven

I've seen a repeating pattern when it comes to reviews of this movie, the animation's bad, mice are evil, it's different from the original.

For being different from the original, A Christmas Carol stands as one of the most adapted works out there, least it feels like it with how many we got. It wouldn't hurt to try and change things up just to stand out, otherwise people would say it brings nothing new to the table. Guess this film was gonna lose no matter what.

The mice, most I can say scenes centering on them were to pad out the runtime, At the very least they don't talk and thus don't become horribly unbearable.

The animation... I guess after seeing so many works by Don Bluth and at Disney standards had grown. The animation here is otherwise acceptable, nowhere near as terrible as people make it out to be though still not great. But it does stand out to me, whether against some beautiful storyboards. It fits the narrative and tone, so to speak.

Course you may be asking, what could be worse than this adaptation?

Bah Humduck, which hits two of the three same sins as this film, only difference is that their liberties cripple the original tale way worse.

So the story seems obvious. After The Rugrats Movie came out in 1998 you'd expect any company to try and get a slice of that pie. Disney was set to take that chance, not like they had much to lose. It wasn't great, but what's worse is how it's hard to get a concrete consensus. People knocked this movie simply for not being the exact same as Nickelodeon's Doug, a complaint that extends to the Disney seasons. Some say a Nickelodeon Doug movie would've been better, and to that I say...

Get you heads out of your asses.

The truth of the matter is that Doug was never a cartoon worth fighting for, frankly it was never that great to begin with. When the rest of the Nicktoons came out Doug was pushed far into the background, it became obsolete. It doesn't have the longevity people think it did. So it's hilarious to even think people treat Nick's Doug like it's the best thing ever, tarnished because of things like... people getting a haircut, losing weight, coming into money, bands breaking up, restaurants closing, you know, common parts of life? Going with the theme that things change in life?

I'd tell you about the issues of Disney's Doug, but nobody brought them up, all there is is people bitter over petty changes. The only criticism that holds any weight is Doug and Roger's new voice actors, and just to get that out of the way it was because Billy West would have to travel between New York and Los Angeles just to participate, it wasn't out of protest like with Adult Party Cartoon.

So why am I talking about this here? I feel like people only knock this movie because of it's mere connection to Disney's Doug, thus they'd take everything seriously, nitpick and vie once more for Nick Doug and a supposedly better movie.

Let me be blunt, a Doug movie's gonna flounder no matter who's in charge. Doug has no staying power. Even the overall quality of the film feeling like a TV movie put on the big screen, Nickelodeon would've done the same thing, if the history of Hey Arnold! The Movie serves.

Why should it matter what the film is like if people would just reject it solely for not being like the Doug from their childhood? I mean, am I wrong? Check out the one star reviews here and on Disney's Doug and tell me at least 80% aren't just bemoaning the changes? That's really all that can be said about Doug, people were trying to pass off a lump of coal as a diamond, when there wasn't anything in it to begin with.

As for the movie itself I'm bound to see a lot worse, I prefer it over Recess: School's Out at least. I'm prepared for this to backfire.

Shock that the film led us in with false advertising, we never got to see much of that talking kangaroo.

Denial over the lack of said talking kangaroo

Anger that persists for a lot of people whether they do angry reviews or snippy Letterboxd comments about it.

Bargaining, or dwelling, on a movie that's literally over two decades old.

Depression that may stick every time this film is brought up in passing.

Testing to see if things were really as bad as they were made out to be.

Acceptance that the movie was just terribly marketed, and that this film wasn't that bad.

I saw this movie when it came out, whether or not I wanted to see it for the kangaroo I couldn't tell you, but I remember actually liking it for what it was. People are just hung up on the false advertising, and that has given the film a reputation that I feel is undeserved. I can't say this movie is great, but come on, watch this against other bad movies like it and tell me this is on par. I've seen movies that went on as advertised that were worse than this.

That's all I gotta say.