Trailer: Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck It Ralph 2

It's the end that solidifies this as a winner.

#18: The Lion King II: Simba's Pride

Disney's love of Shakespearean lions continues. 

I much preferred this one to the original as a little girl, but rewatching it as an adult....the darkness is pretty impressive, but the humor is, just like Hunchback, severely undercuts any kind of tension.

And if it's not the humor, it's the very cheap animation that hits you full on in the face when there's a closeup of the characters.

There is one aspect where it has the original movie soundly beat -

#17: The Breadwinner

A very emotional movie that is, just like it's predecessors, slightly undercut by its third act.

Cartoon Saloon is improving.

Both Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea had promising starts that were undercut by severely boring, slogging third acts that - at least in the case of Song, the final act couldn't redeem the picture as a whole.

Give it Credit - Modern Credit Scenes in Movies I Like

Having seen Black Panther twice, I adore the bright, sleek, colorful yet minimal design of its ending credit scene.

Read about a lot of behind the scenes creation of both the technology used and the end credit scene, and check out many clear screenshots here.

This isn't about stinger scenes, but how movies present their credits, either opening or closing.

Book 2: The Avatar State / The Cave of Two Lovers

Because of a bit of finangling,  S1 was posted initially in Jan and put back into drafts, and I published it again, but it apparently doesn't show up as the newest post...so here it is if you missed it!


Welcome to Book 2: Earth!

This is my favorite book...or it was when I watched it. Will it remain so? Who cares, it's Avatar: The Last Airbender, it's all cool with me.

Water? Semi-Mastered. Fire? Don't talk about it. Earth? Beginner.

The Last Airbender Recaps

Hi, all five people who read this blog.

The Avatar Recaps have not stopped. In fact, one of them was posted but, since I initially published it back in Jan, it reverted back to that date instead of being posted 'at the top', so to speak - but I do need to find a better way to review them. It's a hell of a lot different than reviewing Ever After High, there's weird things like consistency and plot in Avatar.

It's hard to parse down exactly what relevant information should be shared when it's all pretty important, especially when I can't speak quickly in a video and have to type and screenshot.

Would you like something rather drawn out? Or a bit more condensed?

#16: Disney's Zombies

Not original like High School Musical was (well, it wasn't but it did it's job well enough) or filled with nostalgia factor like Disney's Descendants to really be worth watching.

Black Panther Second Watch

I'm seeing quite a few viewpoints that say Black Panther is not very revolutionary.

I'm writing this spurred by reading the article 'Black Panther' Is Not The Movie We Deserve - and not wholly disagreeing with it.

There will be spoilers.

If you missed the first review, it's over here.

#15: Black Panther

I'm not going to say I had zero expectations, but I knew better to expect something earth-shattering from Marvel, and yet...that is exactly what I got. Something earth shattering, and new. And for the first time watching a Marvel movie... I was genuinely concerned about what was going to happen.

Also, maybe it's because I'm familiar with the work of the directors, but it feels like Marvel is bringing in directors with a style and letting them be themselves, between this and Ragnarok.

So many things Shuri, Okoye, and Killmonger did got a huge reaction, and I think those three people were really the ones who are going to stick out to people. M'Baku was cool too, I wish we had seen more of him and the tribe who left.

People have called the action scenes a bit poorly shot - I mostly disagree, in fact, I think the car chase through the city was the most impressive action sequence I've ever seen from the MCU.

Spoilers are beneath the cut.

#14: The Boss Baby

A movie based on a book that's one joke extended to an hour and a half - and surprisingly, it's never boring.

I think I'm asking myself - why did I, honestly, enjoy this movie more on its own merits instead of on the basis of nostalgia, like Captain Underpants?


I actually enjoyed the shit out of this movie. It doesn't really have a story; like I said, it's a gag that's sustained over a feature length film, but the ideas are so creative and the jokes never overstay their welcome.

There's a part in Captain Underpants - which has considerably more story than this - that drags for maybe fifteen to twenty minutes, compared to this one's, maybe ten, near the start of the third half.

I keep pulling back to comparisons to CU, both being the last two movies 20th Century Fox would distribute by Dreamworks before the company was bought by Universal, and they put all their advertising money behind BB instead of CU, and at the time, I was bitter.

But CU and it's books is so self aware, but it's still a book about a man in his underpants and the power of imagination. I think self-awareness in kid's movies today might be falling out of fashion.

I don't think if I rewatched CU that it would be terrible, no way, but the main characters are still relatively straightforward. There's no weird hook with 'hey, these two kids make comic books' as there is with 'hey, this baby is a corporate executive!'

It feels that jokes and imagination were first and story was second, because some of the trite "I wish you were never born!" shit that comes out of nowhere is out of place.

I think the reason this got nominated is because it's creative in the confines of what people expect from animation. It makes a mundane world fun through a child's imagination.

Captain Underpants kind of does that but it's clearly a bit more fanatical as there's an actual mad scientist who shrinks a school down and giant Turbo Toilets IRL.

#13: Loving Vincent

A paint not by numbers role playing game.

A character walks around a town and talks to people, trying to find out about the circumstances of Van Gogh's death.

#12: The Female Brain

If I made a movie that made me a self insert lead (and turned myself white, somehow)

#11: Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

A small Chinatown bank is the only institution to be charged for the 2008 financial crisis.

I'm impressed they got people from both sides of the issue to speak about it, and you see the great culture clash from how Chinese people in this community work with and feel about money and loans.

#10: The Cloverfield Paradox

With a SURPRISE! release on Feb. 4th on Netflix, this was completely unintended. Because the previous Cloverfield movie is called 10 Cloverfield Lane and this .... is film number 10 of the year.

Okay, you got it.

You can't just shove a bunch of concepts into a pot and call it Cloverfield, then, halfway through, pick one thing out and decide to center the rest of the movie around them.

Book 1: The Northern Air Temple / The Waterbending Master

The last stop on the Air Temple world tour. Wouldn't it have been nice to visit one per book, but I get why they didn't.

Our kids approach the temple and see - people flying!