Book Look: Redwall

Here is something that made up a huge part of my childhood, the precursor to Mistmantle, but with a lot more black and white morality, happy endings, and monster horror. Redwall has 22 books with a 23rd one in development before Brian Jacques's untimely passing.

Which still bums me out like seven years later.

While this is the first book written for the series, it is chronologically number 9. I'm curious as to how many of them I can get through before either DirectTV or Xfinity restores our services.

Being the first book, there are some major things that stand out differently from the rest of the series; Hence, why this book is more or less considered Canon Discontinuity with the other 21.

Descendants vs. Ever After High

Most of the time, I'll compare if the character has a counterpart, though there are some instances where they simply don't and we have to improvise.

Daughter of the Dark Fairy; 

Mal vs. Faybelle Thorn

I was prepared to immediately give Faybelle the win by virtue of being my favorite Ever After High (EAH) character.

But Mal can turn into a dragon, and there's nothing in the EAHverse that suggests Faybelle can do the same. Mal is wholeheartedly trying to be a "good" person, while Faybelle is learning that her role as The Dark Fairy doesn't have to be her entire identity, and she can be a bit nicer without totally losing her acerbic personality.

#69: Jupiter Ascending

2015 in Film was so weird. The only outright good movies I remember were The Force Awakens, Shaun The Sheep, and Creed. Sponge Out of Water wasn't bad, I'm not a fan of Inside Out and Dope but they have their merits and Fantastic Four....exists.

Then there's this. I remember seeing Jupiter Ascending in the theater twice.

Mainly because I got there an hour early and walked in, was confused at all get out but just hung around, knowing there was context missed and to watch it from the start.

If you expected me to say "And I saw it from the beginning and was still confused", no. It's not confusing if you pay attention.

A alien-humanoid woman died and owned Earth because her alien race colonized it and basically use it to farm humans to live unnaturally long lives. She left it in her will to her reincarnation, a young woman called Jupiter Jones, on Earth.

Her three children find out because for some reason no one bothered to check her will closely, it seems, and they see how fond she was of Earth and scheme to take it for their individual needs.

Meanwhile, Jupiter is taken from Earth by a bounty hunter named Caine, a half-dog half-human man on anti-gravity rocketboots, to deliver her to the planet where the siblings live, and see if they can woo her enough to take her inheritance and kill her.

Ok, well, when you put it like that, it's a wee bit confusing.

#68: Wreck It Ralph

Dang, who ever thought we'd get a sequel to this? Not me - but I'm glad for it.

Also I love the teaser poster to both this and the second movie. The rest fall into that typical CGI cartoon nonsense but the pixellation of this + the cursor and searchbox of the sequel poster are awesome to me.

Let's get this out of the way; This could have gone badly. Every time Disney hint at putting some kind of semi-modern spin on its movies, people get into a panic that it'll be "too much" or "it won't age well."

This movie doesn't have that problem. Now, the sequel, dealing with the internet, very well might. But this isn't about that.

This is about a man who does a job and everyone hates him for it it both in and out of game. Kind of like job recruiting.

The overwhelming message here is...what is the aesop here?

Film in 2017; 10/10

#43; Persepolis & #44; Batman: Return of The Caped Crusaders 

I scored both of these movies a 10/10

IMDB's description of Persepolis;

In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Statrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own. With Marji dangerously refusing to remain silent at this injustice, her parents send her abroad to Vienna to study for a better life.

I can't tell you much about it because it benefits highly from watching it. I can admire how it's mostly monochrome, hand drawn - how often do you see an autobiographical movie told in this way?

Also, how often do you see an autobiography not about some uber-famous white person reach America and make this much of a splash?

On the flipside, Return of the Caped Crusaders is no biography, but a throwback to the original Batman show of the 1960s, which I have never seen, but the silliness is so permeated in pop culture that the jokes land.

#67: A Star Is Born (2018)

I make an effort to watch the movies that look like they will win Best Picture.

You know, there are a lot of singers and models who try to make the leap into acting. I've not seen Epic or Obsessed, and we'll have to wait until next year for The Lion King, so I have nothing to say against Beyonce in the acting department.

Didn't see Battleship, but I did see Valerian; It could have been worse for Rihanna. Besides "Space!", "Wow cool CGI", and "kickass worldbuilding!" the saving grace of that movie was Cara Delevingne.

But Lady Gaga is really talented here, so stand down Little Monsters.

*Spoilers*

FALL OUT BOY: How did they get so big??

The only band I still listen to from my childhood (Sorry Maroon 5).