#36: Knives Out

So the mystery is essentially solved before the first hour half, the rest is seeing a bunch of famous people be characters. Some of it's surreal, all of it's interesting.

My notes for this are a mess, forgive me.

People will say that 'the big standout is Chris Evans!' but that's because you're used to seeing him as Captain America or as a baby-eater in "Snowpiercer" or something that no one but dedicated Stans saw.

He's certainly way more compelling than he ever was in a MCU film. There's nothing wrong with him here. Honestly, the standout for me is Toni Collette ("Hereditary", Ari Aster, yes, the man who brought us "Midsommar").

Also, Daniel Craig with a Colonel Sanders type infliction and accent is amazing and I love it.

So, you know how Star Wars films, modern ones, will sprinkle faux progression or mentioning minor that insists the creators are 'woke'?

This is more of a genuine attempt from our old friend Rian Johnson (And yes, I desperately miss him in Star Wars already). It's not far enough because it turns into 'rich white people try to get an immigrant framed for the crime'.

Even the white liberal turns on her. Surprise, right?

#35: Star Wars: Episode 9 - The Rise of Skywalker

I don't think I've heard people ask so much about 'family names' in Star Wars before.

I flat out forgot that new characters were intended to be added. It was a surprise (but a welcome one, to be sure) when Lando showed up, but Zorii and Jannah were negligible presences.

Also I mean, Rose was already there, and they sidelined her. Imagine going through all that abuse because Star Wars fans were so against people of color and women of color in their space movie to be 80% ignored.

It was funny to finally see our sequel trio interact and actually have an adventure...together. Even the bickering was funny. This is the first time I have ever liked C3P-O.

That's the big problem with this franchise, is that JJ listened to the fans for both of his sequel series movies. (Sorta).

Let's introduce a diverse cast, and when adults pitch a fit that boils down to "I hate everyone who doesn't look like me", the series is pretty quickly adjusted to be mostly nostalgia based upon the white characters and their legacy.

Instead of going "Wow, let's explore the concept of an escaped Stormtrooper.", it's "Cool, what if this famous person in the galaxy had an unknown descendant until now."

#34: Cats (2019)

Um.

Okay first off, let's say it - This movie has no plot besides 'Cats introduce themselves to enter 'American Idol', and the reward is death'.

 The production value is lovely.

For the sets. I was genuinely interested in the environment these weird hybrids inhabited. Why is everything a cat pun when there are clearly humans in this world?

There's a segment early on with Jennyanydots and her dancing mice and cockroaches and it all looks just cheap and terrible. I hope the Graphic Patch for the movie updates those in particular, as the rest cannot be saved.

(The mice themselves? Actually adorable!)

The characters themselves...every so often, I'd go "This is okay." and then the characters would turn their heads or their bodies in a particular way and it would just look awful.

I'd wince.


Visibly.


More than once.

Just when you think it's okay-adjacent, you get the rumpled-fur rug look of Idris Elba's Macavity or cat Taylor Swift's chest and it's very distracting.

#33: The Lighthouse

Surprisingly, not the A24 release of this year I had expected to see. I had initially planned to see "The Farewell" but it simply didn't grab me.

Unlike old timey sailor speech, hallucinations, and forni-mermaid-cation.

Another award season, another role in which Willem Dafoe is probably the only nomination for a movie. Remember last year and "At Eternity's Gate"? That was certainly more accessible than this, a rather "Mandy"-ish assortment of a different, secluded life that just might drive one mad.

Yes, it's all black and white, with a lot of striking light sources. The aspect ration is also very akin to an older picture.

This movie can be summed up as 'Who's mad here? Who isn't mad? We're all mad here?'.

I'm not the person who says 'All movies need to adhere to a strict storytelling outline', there are some like this that are just nice to watch, not pretend you understand, but watch for the visuals and wondering just how far down it can go.

Guess we can also give Robert Pattinson props to being much more of a looker now than he ever was in "Twilight".

Servant (Apple TV+)

You know, when I read that M. Night was going to get his own show on Apple TV+, I shrugged. I had watched "The Sixth Sense" (fine) and "The Last Airbender" (abomination) and left it at that.

No "Split", no "Glass", no "Devil", no "Unbreakable".

Good to know that he has climbed from media-maker purgatory. I mean that sincerely. Everyone's entitled to a few bad shows.

But I wasn't really here for it so far. Nothing personal, I wasn't here for 99% of anything on any streaming service.

But goddamn it, they knew what they had to do to get me to watch this, they knew who they had to cast, and by god, they did it.

I couldn't say no now! This could be the first actual good thing he's been in since 2017! And here we are, nearly a year later, and what do we have?

Servant follows a Philadelphia couple "in mourning after an unspeakable tragedy creates a rift in their marriage and opens the door for a mysterious force to enter their home."

Don't you hate it when that happens? Absolutely annoying.

The series will be written by Tony Basgallop. Toby Kebbell and Lauren Abrose will star in the show with Rupert Grint.

Mild spoilers near the end for something that came out...about 8 hours ago.

#32: Frozen II

You know my thoughts on the original movie (They're about 2 posts down) - It's a little muddled and messy in its screenplay but otherwise fine enough.

I had no plan to even see this but the story greatly intrigued me.

 The opening song Queen Iduna sings - "All Is Found" - is going to be overlooked and it's such a shame. It's the best song in the film sung by a character.

(Yep, I like the Panic! At the Disco version of Into The Unknown better)

Ok, I wrote that before seeing the movie, and I'm still kind of right there. The only bad song is the Olaf one and the first one (Home is unused but better). "Lost in The Woods" is great and the weird 80's pop ballad style is hilarious.

As the first movie was very much about Anna, this is about Elsa. Why does she have powers?

In one word - Spite.

In more words, Spoilers Definitely Follow

Hazbin Hotel and the Idea of Old Media Gone New

The early 2010s are back.

Remember way back then, when webcomics that went beyond stickfigurs (Sorry, Cyanide and Happiness, I love you!) often had lanky characters with mysterious pasts and a dark flare?

Some of them also had violence. Lots of it. And innuendo.  And an old timey character.

It's sorta back! But it's ANIMATED now!

This, is "Hazbin Hotel"; And despite being animated, it's clearly not for the youth.

Trailer Tuesday: Guess Who's Back?

As you can see, Paramount listened to criticism and gave us a far better Sonic model.

The movie now looks obnoxious instead of terrifying, which I consider a step up.

Many people believe that Paramount did this on purpose to drum up controversy. After BOM's really great redesign, I can't check the studio totals anymore, but considering Paramount has had many bombs in the past few years, it would be pretty foolish to intentionally waste everyone's money to get some eyes on the Blu Blur.

#31: Frozen (2013)

Disclaimer: I dislike 3/5 of the current Disney Princess movies that are in the official line up.

• "Brave" is a missed opportunity.
• "The Princess and The Frog" is an insult.
• "Moana" kind of has the same issues as "Frozen" regarding the screenplay but it's a lot more tolerable because it doesn't drag.
• "Tangled" is the best. 

This one?

Took America by storm in 2013 because there were two nearly identical white woman models singing songs. Man, these people would not hear a word against this movie. Say "I don't really care because it's a bunch of same-faced white people", and you would be considered the devil.

 I was impressed with the ideas, not the story outline, execution, screenplay or pacing way back in 2013. I am genuinely interested in the sequel later this month, so I decided to put my biases aside and try again.

#30: Parasite (Gisaengchung)

The best plan is no plan at all.

The return of Bong Joon-Ho! At least to Western Audiences like myself. There could very well be other films between "Okja" and this I have not heard of.

I enjoyed "Snowpiercer" but thought "Okja" left something to be desired. But a story about the poor infiltrating the lives of the rich? I love to see it.

It gets a little batshit at the top of the hour before lurking a bit more into "Oh boy, we have to deal with this now." After the Kim family is tangled up with the former housekeeper, who was also hiding secrets under her employer's nose.

You get a serious feel for everyone's personality despite it being a cool 2 hours long with multiple characters, though of course, some get more attention than others.

You notice that Mrs. Park is continually using the family for more and more things she really should hire some handymen to do instead of a lone older woman.  The Park family grows into the obliviousness that many rich people take akin to a drug after being relatively reasonable in the first half.

It's only batshit insane if you've never seen a South Korean movie before, but it's still pretty insane and well worth the watch.

Admire the layers of acting everyone in the Kim family had, I especially admire Park So-Dam as Kim Ki-jung.

This must be a shoe-in for Best International Film.

Trailer Monday: Or, "The Author is recalled As Saying 'Thank God, Those Are My Boys!' " Edition

The long-awaited second trailer to THE RISE OF SKYWALKER and the somewhat-long-awaited by me and another 6 people trailer to BLOODSHOT.

SPIDER-VERSE: What Makes Animation Feel Human?

#29: Little Monsters (2019)

Out of this fall/winter's film (and semi-film) lineup of faves, I had completely forgotten about this one. Of course, I had no idea if it would get a US release.

The hilarity comes from the absurdity of the situation, from usually-child-friendly Josh Gad swearing and mentions of sex addiction to  "There are little kids in the middle of a zombie outbreak".

Which is a great idea, but the wee mites are set dressing for something more interesting that never comes. Much of the movie is situated in one area, there are typical story and character beats.

No one is terrible, the script is underwhelming. I am super interested to know why Lupita Nyong'o picked this project in particular. It's a nice change from her even if it doesn't go all of the way.

I wish it had been a little longer and a little more serious, but it's nice.

Though, there is nothing more on brand at having the US military go into a foriegn land and attempt to kill children.

Movie News Roundup: Into The Tom Hollandverse

I like Tom Holland. While he's not my first choice for white British male actor to stan, he is a firm #2 and seems like a good kid.

Friday, September 27th, was probably a very exciting day for this young man.

First, and possibly least exciting, there was a new trailer for the long-awaited Blue Sky Studios feature SPIES IN DISGUISE.

'Disguise'....'The skies'...get it?

Super spy Lance Sterling (Will Smith) and scientist Walter Beckett (Tom Holland) are almost exact opposites. Lance is smooth, suave and debonair. Walter is … not. But when events take an unexpected turn, this unlikely duo are forced to team up for the ultimate mission that will require an almost impossible disguise – transforming Lance into the brave, fierce, majestic… pigeon. Walter and Lance suddenly have to work as a team, or the whole world is in peril. “Spies in Disguise” flies into theaters this Christmas.

It's not something I kept a close eye on, but it seems fine. Will it be the late-year animated stunner like last year's INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE? Probably not. I do like those music choices!

#28: Ad Astra

What was the last Brad Pitt movie I saw?
Probably "12 Years A Slave" in 2013. But my god, I was not going to miss the opportunity to miss a space movie on the big screen.

 Especially one with Ruth Negga! What was the last movie with her I saw? Probably "Warcraft".

Ooh.

Last year, I caught "2001: A Space Odyssey" In IMAX by myself and it was glorious. This is no "2001", of course, but that doesn't mean it's not good!

It's just a little...unemotional? Extremely conventional?

Despite having such a strong storyline that's purely set up to be emotional. Then again, this is a culture where men are just now being re-allowed to air their feelings out in nonviolent ways, so maybe this will be the film to encourage them to do that. Hell, one of Roy's (The lead, Brad Pitt) big hang ups is that he's so great and accomplished and so much like his father but can't connect to people or, basically, function as a human being, not out of arrogance, but out of deep-seated issues. He's even trained himself with a mantra to not be emotional.

That sounds like a mighty big portion of our population, huh. Except that bit of the population usually leans heavily on the arrogance.

The film looks gorgeous, but it's 2019. That doesn't mean shit anymore. It's the cinematography choices that really stand out, that and the score.

It's such a loaded year on the award front that I think this will even fall flat with Academy voters outside of (well deserved) technicals. Though the sound mixing at points was pretty one-sided toward the ambience and not towards the dialogue.

Spoilers follow.

Regal And Cinemark To Play Even More Commercials Before Movie Starts

#27: Steven Universe: The Movie

Beware a court jester spurned.

It's going to be hard to watch season 6 for several reasons;

1: Cartoon Network will do a poor job advertising it and sticking it to a consistent schedule. After all, it's not "Teen Titans Go!" (which has its good qualities).

2: Returning to simpler animation after how fluid and amazing this looked will be hard. This would have been amazing to see. This would have been astonishing to see on the big screen, but the time of television cartoons to cartoon theatrical movies has long ended.

The closest thing was Nickelodeon / Viacom's intended theatrical adaptation of "The Loud House", which has now been pushed to Netflix for...eventually.

"Steven Universe: The Movie" is not hiding how its a rehash of the first 5 seasons of the show and how the main characters relearn their lessons within about an hour. It's trodding old ground, but the introduction of new villain Spinel in all her wacky, malevolent, Harley Quinn-esque fighting is incredible.

I'm not sure who Sarah Stiles is, but good lord, this was the best voice acting I have heard on a show in an insanely long time. The edge of madness, the weight of sadness, that was so impressive.

And they let Steven grow up. I'm happy to see and hear it.

I glance-listened to some of the songs out of context and wasn't terribly impressed until I saw and heard them in the movie. I love "Other Friends" and "Independent Together". Some of the other songs have really interesting instrumental pieces that jump in halfway though, but sadly it doesn't warrant listening to the entire song.

Then there's pieces like "Drift Away" and "Found" that are nothing without the visuals.

Book Look: David Liss' Randoms series - "Randoms", "Rebels", "Renegades"

 A science fiction superfan finds himself on his very own space adventure when he s randomly selected to join an alien confederacy in this exhilarating middle grade debut novel. [..]To evaluate humanity s worthiness, the Confederation of United Planets has hand picked three of Earth s most talented young people and then there s Zeke. He s the random. Unfortunately, Zeke finds life in space more challenging than he d hoped. When he saves his transport ship from a treacherous enemy attack, he s labeled a war criminal. Now despised by the Confederation, rejected by his fellow humans, and pursued by a ruthless enemy, Zeke befriends the alien randoms: rejected by their own species, but loyal to each other. But their presence in the Confederation may not be so random after all, and as the danger increases, Zack s knowledge of science fiction might be the only thing that can save himself, his friends, and Earth itself."

The books are just as verbose as that description - and that's me cutting it down.

TLDR: Know it all sci-fi geek kid is hated on earth and in his new world, but gets the girl eventually. And the girl is a cat-girl hacker.  There's also a Cockney lizard guy who steals vehicles and is terribly underused, talented non-white kids, and a society of bad guys that I'm still not sure what their plan is.

Looking Ahead to...Film in 2020

2020!
The decade is done/new! Funny how that works. Most of these movies clearly have no information besides release dates and titles, but I do this every year.

PUSHED BACK, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN.

My Spy's original release date was  August 23rd, the Friday of the week I'm starting this issue, before being pushed back to our old film friend, "Fuck You, It's January".

Of course, Sonic The Hedgehog has been pushed from this November to next February. Not much farther to wait, considering they have to redesign the titular character.

The Gentlemen, yet another STX property in a lackluster year, was pushed from this fall to next January.

For the second year in a row, Artemis Fowl is my most anticipated movie. Not because it was so good, I want to anticipate it again - Because it didn't come out August 9th, 2019, with a pushback to May 29th, 2020.

For the eleventh-thousandth time, The New Mutants has been pushed back to April 3rd, almost two years to the date of it's original release. Will it finally make it to theaters, or be pushed back again  - or even put on Disney+ or Hulu?

Book Look: The Hermux Tantamoq Adventures by Michael Hoeye

I have always loved the cover. I picked it up because it didn't have pictures on it. Little did I know, it was called 'minimalism in that funky 90's, wavy way with the scrawly font.

Hands down the most obscure book I've mentioned here, and undoubtedly the one that has influenced me the most. These were much more popular in Europe; That is to say; They heard of them over in France and Germany. USA, well, we were all on the Harry Potter train, and rightfully so.

Before there was "Geronimo Stilton", before there was "Redwall", before there was "Mistmantle", there was this: Hermux Tantamoq.

A watchmaker who leads a simple life; Coffee, his job, funny suits, his pet ladybug, reading. He inadvertently ends up as a pseudo-detective. There's still an appeal of having a fairly ordinary job and talent for something you love, while also being head-first in something else that's wilder.

And being able to own a lovely apartment on what must be a middling salary. 90s kids can't relate.

Because yes, this was for kids. And looking back at it, I'm not sure it was intended to be.

#26: Overlord

2015's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" + 2017's "Kong: Skull Island" = 2018's "Overlord".

By the way, it is not part of the Cloverfield universe.  Nor directed by J.J Abrams, only produced.

 Funny how people pitched a fit about a black Stormtrooper and I recall no qualm about a black person from Louisiana speaking French and fighting in World War II.

Have people evolved? Not likely. They let it pass because he was fighting for 'Murrica. Or they accepted revisionist history easier than fake history.

More likely that no one saw this movie.

Though, surprisingly, it did make its budget back with a whopping 41$m worldwide.

(Also, maybe because of the growing acceptance of nazis in America under various other names that all boil down to "white supremacist". Disney itself has reservations about anti-hate satire film "Jojo Rabbit" because 'it's not for kids', or... is it because it is clearly anti-nazi, and they want that alt-right money? It can be released it under the Fox Searchlight banner...I don't think anyone would be against it.)

#25: Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Remember when Zack Snyder - yes, that Snyder - made a kickass movie about owls. It remains the single best-looking CG animated movie on a 'realistic' scale that has ever been made. The fact that there aren't humans helps immensely.

And this budget was only 100$m? There are movies today that look worse and cost more.

 Funny how this and the only other CGI movie I will say looks different and stylish ("Into The Spider-Verse") are within a 10$m budget of each other.

Unfortunately, it's bogged down by a lot of elements to make this more palatable to a mainstream audience; Because everything about this movie is half-assed except the visuals.

And it didn't even work.

139$m return Worldwide on that 100$m budget. Probably doesn't even cover advertising. 

Hey, Netflix, since you like spending money, get a budget that's even 3/4ths on par with this one, hire Snyder, and let him make a damn CGI "Redwall" series. If you don't want him to retread the ground that the Nirvana series did in 2004 (They covered "Redwall" and "Martin the Warrior", and "Mattimeo"), there's another 19 books you can pick.

Why "Redwall" over "The Chronicles of Mistmantle", you're asking?


You're probably asking "What are either of those?"

#24: Blindspotting

There's something wonderfully miraculous about the human connections that made me love nearly

everybody after they were on the screen for 5 seconds.

 Not the shithead cop though.

 I was especially surprised by Rafael Casal after initially only watching this for Daveed Diggs (Hamilton, "Black-ish") 

 Another day, another time the editor doesn't want to cooperate.

Will Smith - Friend Like Me (From "Aladdin")

I don't normally just post plain music videos from movies here, but this was far and away my favorite part of "Aladdin", which, if you remember, I quite enjoyed.

This is just surreal every time I watch it.

Book Look: Star Wars: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden

Oh look, another Star Wars novel, the first one I've read that's not by E.K Johnston or Claudia Grey.

Very surprised to see a bit of Anakin in here. Are there any canon novels that actually focus on him? I've read more books about Obi-Wan and Padme than him (A surprise, but a welcome one).

#23: Osmosis Jones

Back in the 90s, there was a trend. Yes, this came out in 2001, but you don't think it takes 7 months to animate a movie, right?

It involved 'urbanizing' cartoons with slang, but more often music.

Some movies did this better than others. "Osmosis Jones" is not one of those movies.

The songs involved use some slight sampling of more popular songs they clearly couldn't get the rights to, because the artists and producers had a shred of dignity.

The art style is simple and somewhat effective, though there are moments where Jones (Chris Rock) will try and pull off some expression that really elevates how odd it looks with the art style. It's almost uncanny valley.

Both a blessing and a flaw with the animation is the CGI inclusion of Drix, the pill. There are moments you know David Hyde Pierce is acting his heart out (Or, I know, mainly because I watched a ton of "Frasier" as a child and know he's no stranger to physical displays of emotional reaction. Watch my favorite episode, "Dial M For Martin" for a great example), but the limited facial expressions (of a pill) just make him look wholly disinterested.

#22: Descendants 3

Sometimes you get early copies!

Without any further ado, some of this was hard to watch, especially the bits with Carlos (Cameron Boyce), who unexpectedly died in July.

This is Disney's third 'normally blue but now has a human skintone' character in a live action movie this year, after "Kim Possible" and "Aladdin".

One thing that continues to annoy me is the inconsistency of the characters between the book, webisode, and movie medium. Freddie Facilier doesn't exist in this verse, but Celia Facilier does.

Mal and Ben are getting married, and they're like...what, 17? You're a child. Stop.

Also, it took so long to film this, Doug, the son of Dopey, now looks like a middle aged man.

Essentially, you can sum up this movie as 'White girl from slums colonizes a black girl's birthright', but it wasn't really her birthright.But that's more an instance that this series was full of colorblind casting - Lady Tremaine is East Asian and her granddaughter Dizzy is white.

Though, there is a moment with a photo that shows a young Ben and Audrey...but the little girl is white, so. Well, I guess Disney hoped the fans would be as stupid and incessantly pro-white as they are for their Animated Canon princesses.

The songs, that's why we're here, right?

Book Look: Warcross by Marie Lu

It's amazing how many Marie Lu books I've come across but never picked up until now. Mainly because this cover is pretty, it was in the clearance section, and it was the only one signed.

The setup is similar to the stories of 'old', and by 'old' I mean 'circa 2009 - 2012'. Talented girl is tough but poor, exposes her talent, brought into a rich world, there's only one other female character with any kind of presence, falls in love with rich dude.

My cover is white and rainbow-y!

Book Look: The Mistmantle Chronicles (Again)

This post has more indepth than the post previous about this series. So I've deleted that one.

These books are more in the vein of the Redwall series, but with no animal species dictated as the 'evil' ones and others as the 'good' ones. There's a heavier slant on religion, a fake one, but religion nonetheless.

Spoilers for all 5 books.

Urchin of The Riding Stars

We are introduced to a lovely little place where animals work happily, ruled by a king and queen, there's fresh food and water everywhere. Boats and toys are made by otters by the coasts, moles dig tunnels, and peace is kept.

Until the crown prince is found dead and a captain is framed for the murder.

Late Stage Disney | Renegade Cut

Economic systems don't last forever...

#21: The Lego Ninjago Movie

This movie is amazing.

I have never watched a movie intended for children that felt so disjointed. Plot beats happened because the story writers felt they were supposed to happen. Not because they made sense.

Fun story: I paid to see this - and only got about 2 minutes in. The crowd was rowdy. I left and went to see "My Little Pony: The Movie" instead.

Better choice.

The plot itself isn't terrible - "What if the bad guy is your father? Every one knows it. But then you need his help, and maybe his training?", and for the first hour, that's 90% of what the movie focuses on...but it's not done in an interesting way. Or even a sensible one.

They want to throw the jokes at us that made "The Lego Movie" and "The Lego Batman Movie" so beloved. Most of them aren't funny. The only consistently funny characters are Zane (The Ice Robot Ninja) and Garmadon (The Bad Guy).

I will say that out of the Lego Movies, it looks the best. There's a lot less emphasis on outside elements (besides the cat) and more on enviroment design in a Lego style. It's Tokyo made out of Legos - and then jungle enviroments. It's pretty nice.

Book Look: Master and Apprentice by Claudia Gray

The cover art looks familiar...Alice Zhang?

The other Star Wars novel that came out in April of 2019.

Claudia Gray is the best Star Wars author in the present day, and I wish she had written the Padme novel "Queen's Shadow", even though E.K Johnson did a fair job. I'm reading it again, and I still feel that we don't know as much about Padme as we knew about Leia in "Princess of Alderaan" or "Bloodline".

I just LOVE Claudia Gray SO MUCH, but I'm so grateful we got anything to do with Padme at all. You know she's my favorite Star Wars character. I love characters like that, elected nobility who does their best by people and are constantly targets of assassination.

#20: Midsommar

I was spoiled for this movie about 5 times before seeing it, and after seeing it, I was still too afraid to go to sleep.

That, to me, is the mark of a great film.

Since the trades are gonna do it, let's do it too - If I had to pick one horror actress to be nominated or win this year, between this and Lupita ("Us"), I'm picking Lupita. She's playing two people, ya'll.

Florence is great, and goes through various stages of grief. But TWO PEOPLE.

Anyway.

It wasn't lost on me that the white dudes had to be horrendous people to be killed, but the ambiguously brown people and the black dude (Who fucked up. He did!) got killed under the guise of "Hey, a ritual!"

This is my first Ari Aster film (Though I did read the synopsis for "Hereditary") - the cultish aspect is far less random here.

The music and some of the early cinematography reminded me strongly of a sci-fi film instead of summer-horror.

#19: My Hero Academia Two Heroes

Again, not super huge into anime, but a lot of it seems to follow the same format. You get standalone movies like this that are simply extended episodes. Status quo doesn't change so the main storyline can continue.

I did watch 6 episodes or so of the first season of My Hero Academia, but like a lot of anime I come across, I find that it wasn't progressing much. Such is the difference of storytelling. To this day, there are only two works of anime I've watched in full and more than once.

It looks nice, it's fine.  Take the tower, stop the bad guy,  five layers of deceit, more endings than "Return of the King".

I'll pick a background character to get attached to in the main shows (Because I've somehow watched more OVAs than actual anime. Does this count as an OVA?), and I'm glad my choice here, Yaoyorozu (The girl with the kickass hair) got more screentime than what I saw in the main show. I was also fond of Iida ("Does a set schedule mean NOTHING to you people?") and Kacchan (& I know that's a nickname but I can't for the life of me actually find the name on IMDB).

Good Omens (2019)

Need to cop this sign for my main hustle.

My knowledge of Terry Pratchett & his books is thus:

I read The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents in 2nd grade.
I owned A Hat Full of Sky at one point.

That's really it. I was a Redwall / Mistmantle / Geronimo Stilton kind of kid on the talking animal side, and the usual suspects on the magical boy round.

#18: Shazam! (2019)

You know me, for the most part, I like the DCEU. I don't think it's perfect, I understand the criticisms, but I like how they immediately started by breaking the mold instead of waiting 20-some odd movies to do so.

This is really the tone they've been trying so hard to strike, and they nailed it.

 This opens with parental abuse and car accidents - I didn't expect something described as a "Fun adventure for the entire family" to do that.

Some of the imagery is what I call 'dark with purpose' - it's not dark for the sake of being the DCEU, instead it shows Sivana anger/lack of morals.

The enemy isn't a big CGI world destroying villain, it's one angry dude.

The hero's moral struggle isn't "We have to do this bc we're metahumans." It's "Where does my value as a person come from?"

Is there a humongous disconnect between how Asher Angel and Zachary Levi play the same character? Yeah, it's still tolerable and funny.

Spoilers beneath the cut;

Avatar the Last Airbender: The Tragic Beauty of the Final Agni Kai

Disney's Amphibia

After stealing a mysterious music box, 13-year-old, Anne Boonchuy (Brenda Song) is magically transported to the world of Amphibia, a wild marshland full of talking frog-people. With the help of an excitable young frog named Sprig, Anne will transform from monster to hero and discover the first true friendship of her life!

Wow, it's good to see Brenda Song again!

It visually looks nice, though I fear that in time, like "Star", the story will outgrow the style, but for now it's really pretty.

LBGTQ+ Representation & the Chinese Box Office

#17: Nine (2009)

Not to be confused with 9 (2009).

The first hour is really just a string of music videos from various women.

• A wife
• A Mistress
• A costume designer
• An actress
• A lady from the past
• An editor from Vogue
• His mother

Pretty ones, sensual ones, ones that make you wonder "This is only PG-13?".

"Be Italian" and "My Husband Makes Movies" are the songs I particularly like.

The real surprise is this is by Rob Marshall. "Chicago" Rob Marshall, "Into the Woods" Rob Marshall.

How did this feel so choppy when those are great? Even though the latter was 5 years later and had the Hand of The Mouse steering it, "Chicago" is a masterpiece.

The second hour is improved in a "All the shit hits the fan" kind of way, but a few women (The actress, the editor, the mother) seem hamfisted in.

#16: Aladdin (2019)

Fun fact: My mother has never seen the original Aladdin.

Mind, she was also 8 months pregnant with me when it came out.

I can't think of one casting choice here that wasn't hotly contested online, mainly Will Smith and Naomi Scott. I also cast criticism on Guy Ritchie because...really, why?

There's something to be said for Disney casting a half-Indian woman to be their first brown princesses, but it's also not for us to say if she's 'dark' or 'ethnic' enough.

Anyway I enjoyed this immensely?

The '?' is because while I thought "Sherlock Holmes" was perfectly adequate, I abhor "The Man From Uncle" (It has an uneven, patchy second half and frankly, it doesn't deserve a sequel), and "Rocknrolla" is really badly edited and shot but insanely entertaining (and deserves a sequel), I didn't think Ritchie had it in him to make another movie that didn't give me motion sickness or had more than two colors. Kudos!

So, Sonic The Hedgehog Moved.....

.... To a very crowded February, 2020.

Specifically, February 14th, 2020.

Valentine's Day.

I like to think it's a call back to this but probably not.

Why? Because the director wanted to redo Sonic after the internet clowned on him en mass, as if they really couldn't just take one of the models from the newer games, spruce it up, and put it in.

Not that simply, engines and whatnot differing between games and movies, but....it's not as if they didn't have a model to go on besides making him look like a child in a Sonic costume.


But I'm not here to talk about Sonic going fast into a new release date; I'm here to talk about how crowded of a month it will be.

13+ Characters I Want as Funko Pops

This is like a bad Buzzfeed list but bear with me.




1. Queen Elinor (Brave)

Brave itself was a pretty mediocre movie. Let's be honest with ourselves. Humongous let down. Female characters fighting after the female director was shoved off her own product. Far as I know, the product would have been similar, but how dirty to do Brenda Chapman like that.

But Queen Elinor was awesome. I loved her more than Merida even if Merida's ideology was more palatable to a modern audience.

#15: Justice League (2017)

I didn't see this in theaters. I haven't seen any DCEU movie in theaters in a long time. Not since "Suicide Squad".

Wait, I snuck into "Wonder Woman" because "The Mummy" was trash.

This came on Showtime and I thought "Well, why the hell not."

This was fine. 

Steppenwolf looked like a joke. I wish the movie was more about dealing with a....from the afterlife Clark instead of this video game villain. 

One thing the DCEU is really good at is having impacts and punches hit in time with the music. Especially with Wonder Woman. I love that.

#14: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

The biggest caveat with this movie is that it took too damn long to come out. The twist of the first one was never going to hit hard again. Maybe that's why Warner Bros. decided to shove "The Lego Batman Movie" (Good) and "The Lego Ninjago Movie" (Unseen, but apparently not that good) at us. Even then, both of those were in 2017, two years after the original "Lego Movie".

The goodwill not only died, it evaporated like saltwater in the Mojave Desert.

There's nothing horribly wrong with "The Lego Movie 2" if you're a very small child. It's loud, bright, and almost obnoxious. The first one (rewatched recently) knew when to pull back and when to really press the gas on the outlandishness

That's what happens when Lord and Miller aren't directing I suppose. Though I believe they did produce this..."Spiderverse" is one of the greatest movies of all time, what happened here.

#13: Pokémon Detective Pikachu

Video Game movies as a whole have had a hard time appealing to both casuals and players. "Doom" was serviceable and not really any good.

"Assassin's Creed" was allegedly hilarious.

"Warcraft" was fine, though 90% of it went over my head, despite a friend explaining everything as it was happening.

(They walked into a void?)

But this is my territory now - I'm no newcomer to the world of Pokémon.

My first games were Gen 2, specifically Gold. Then I went back and got Red, Blue, Yellow, and I've been playing them ever since. I still have my 'gold' plated Pokémon cards in their Pokéball holders from Burger King from 1999.

Though, I was far more interested in this movie than I am in Sword and Shield. British Pokémon land? Cool. Hope Scorbunny doesn't turn into fire/fighting type in it's last evolution!

Sitting at 70% on Rotten Tomatoes, "Detective Pikachu" is just appealing enough to the general audience to not leave them lost in Viridian Forest.

Disney Dates 63 (!) Movies From NOW to 2027

How will Disney integrate all its new Fox films? By alternating STAR WARS and AVATAR titles, and pushing back the beleaguered NEW MUTANTS yet again pic.twitter.com/5iRO3idNjR

— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) May 7, 2019

Between this Friday ("Tolkien") and 2027, Disney is releasing not 1, not 2, but 63 movies after its recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox.

There's nothing to say about UNTITLED MARVEL MOVIE besides "It's probably sequels to Panther, Strange, Guardians, Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, and whatever else I'm missing.", but there is about some new developments.

4 CANCELLED Sonic The Hedgehog Movies (Lost Sonic Film Adaptations)

Trailer Tuesday: Sonic The Hedgehog (2019)

I don't normally make posts for individual trailers, but....this is special.

Oh god, let's break it down.

She Ra and the Princesses of Power Season 2

Because I didn't want this month to pass by without seeing something.

Obviously, spoilers.

And there are only 7 episodes, even though the show is sanctioned for a 53 episode series on Netflix. Time for them to cut it up and half release it for 4 years until people hate every part of it.

Looking at you, "Voltron".

Anyway, all the princesses are here. Perfuma is Perfuma, Mermista is Mermista, and Frosta is less aloof and more annoying because of her lack of social skills.

In a more 'realistic' setting, Frosta acts like Toph really should have. But Toph is better. No shade, it's hard to live up to an icon like that.

How They Filmed The Doppleganger Scenes in 'US'

Retro Tech: Game Boy

Star Wars: The Clone Wars panel at SWC2019

Remember; #CloneWarsSaved

Star Wars Celebration: Episode 9

The bi-annual official Star Wars convention - Celebration - Is here! I've enjoyed each of the 2 years I watched it, and even the smaller panels are a lot of fun.

For now, the focus is on one piece of Star Wars media, and we all know what it is. Or, we don't exactly.

See, the title for EPISODE 9 has been kept under wraps for awhile now. Considering THE LAST JEDI was revealed at the end of January 2017, we're quite overdue.

So, we expected JJ Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy to unveil the big show, and unveil it they did;

Book Look: Ronan Boyle and The Bridge of Riddles by Thomas Lennon

The Old School:
Harry, Percy, and Artemis.
You don't need last names. You know who they are.

The Middling School; Very few people read these books so if I name dropped them in casual conversation, who would know:

Darren Shan...

Maybe Eragon? But that was kind of popular.

Oh - Nathaniel (Who? You'll see).

The New School:
Arthur Whipple (The Fantastic Family Whipple), Benjamin Ripley (Spy School), and now, I suppose Ronan Boyle.

Man, young white boys on mostly magical adventures written in somewhat snarky tones have definitely permeated middle grade books for the past 20 years, haven't they.

The Mysterious Sonic Statue's Owner Has Been Found!

Star Vs. The Forces of Evil Season 4 E5-6

This? This is the best thing ever.

OK THIS IS REALLY LATE.

#12: Us

It took me 2 days to write this review.

"Get Out" made a splash 2 years ago with its message of 'liberal white people are just as dangerous as their conservative counterparts'

Now, Jordan Peele is back with....something.

Did I enjoy this as much as "Get Out"?

Don't compare it to "Get Out". That being said, it does not put a horror spin on a modern social issue - white liberals - but instead goes for out and out disarming horror.

The review contains spoilers - including the twist. Which will be marked near the end. You can't miss it.

Every time I ask a question here, it's just puzzling out. I don't expect everything to be answered. I don't want everything to be.

Disney: What They Got From Fox

It's less a merger and more 'eroding competition between corporate giants in America', but hey, let's see what Disney has gained in their acquisition of 20th Century Fox.......'s movie studios.

Small things;

• Blue Sky, Fox's animation branch, still exists for now, and multiple projects are in development from the man who gave us "Monster Trucks". 
• The "Ice Age" franchise is now Disney property. Will we see a "Frozen" crossover?
• Disney now owns the rights to "Alita: Battle Angel", which I loved. They have enough money to fund a sequel. They fund about 2 flops a year, it can be done.

Big Things;

Star vs. The Forces of Evil S4 E5-8

In a weird twist, DirectTV didn't air "Ransomgram" and "Lake House Fever". Or one of my family members stopped the recording.

I think it was the former because they don't seem to be airing again in the future, but "Moon Remembers" and "Beach Day" are.

["Lets dismantle the patriarchy!"]

#11: Fighting With My Family

Someone please reinvent the biopic, I am begging you.

Dream → big break → panic → change → familial breaking → darkest hour → find strength → success.

That's all there is to this. The shine comes from the earnest performances and the difference in it being "Young woman wants to wrestle" and not be a pop star or whatever.

Though there were moments ("I wanted to do some REAL wrestling") that sounded oddly out of place. Saraya surely did not get that far thinking wrestling was 100% real.

I appreciate giving everyone even the tiniest hint of depth. Not enough to take away from the focus, but enough so that no one is really a stereotype.

Star vs. The Forces of Evil S4 E 1-4

Last season? Last season!


Yep, Disney has decided to shove the first half of Season 4 at us.

I'm grateful we got to see it at all, and I prefer these dumps. This has been my favorite new show since it debuted in 2015 - Part of the theme song has even been my ringtone since then. I have the Book of Spells, 2 shirts, and both variants of the Star Funko.

I really enjoy it, and if Disney ever blesses us with the entire series on Blu-Ray, I will totally buy it.

So, thanks Daron.

WELL ONTO THE BEGINNING OF THE END.

DC Super Hero Girls 2019

Why 2019? Because there was a 2015 version, with webisodes having really simplified and bad art and mostly cut-and-paste character types.

2015

2019

So, what are the character archetypes - I mean, what's the deal?

Book Look: Queen's Shadow By E.K Johnson

PADMÉ HAS A BOOK I REPEAT SHE HAS A BOOK FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1999.

Okay, I'm done.


Alright, so I did try EK Johnson's Ahsoka novel, and .... I didn't finish it. It was pretty predictable, the new characters were not compelling enough for me to wonder "Oh wow, what will the fallout be?"

I much preferred Claudia Grey's Leia: Princess of Alderaan and Bloodline for a more direct and less 'introspective for 5 pages' style.

Where does Queen's Shadow fall?

#10: Free Solo

I am so glad NatGeo put this on their station  relatively early.

Normally we'd have to wait months, if not years, or rent/buy digital copies for documentaries to see them, but between this and Period. End of Sentence on Netflix - let's keep making documentaries accessible!

One downside is that as beautiful as this is shot, it makes me sad I couldn't see this in IMAX. It did get a limited re-release in IMAX theaters in January, but we didn't get it.

Alex Honnold lives in a van and there's a shower in the van. That's kind of cool. Almost cooler that mountain climbing without gear, but it doesn't reach those heights.

And he practices this! He goes up (some of the way) with one Tommy Cauldwell (who has his own documentary) on El Capitan to get a feel for things.

I enjoy how it's not "Oh this dude is a benevolent rock climber who does all these good things!".

Nope.

How Pop Culture Hurts the Mentally Ill

The 91st Annual Academy Awards

With no host and no stupid skits, the 91st Oscar ceremony went smoothly and relatively quickly, only going 20 minutes over the appointed time.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the winners. This is real, tangible progress of a more inclusive Academy, especially with 'below the line' nominations - Which were all aired.

#9: At Eternity's Gate

The cinematography for this is wild. Close ups, tilts, swerves, downright setting the camera on the ground - on it's side! - and turning it to an upright position. Which you may not care for, there are points that feel a little disjointed. You can consider it a parallel to Vincent's behavior if you like.

Unlike last year's "Loving Vincent", where we saw snippets of the artist through the subjects of his work, this one is a front-seat to a visionary of things we can't see, clinging to any person who remotely likes him.

It's about how Van Gogh feels things so deeply in nature, in wanting to insert every emotion into his paintings, that he loses himself for minutes at a time.

I enjoy movies like this with strong biopic leanings but do not start out from birth to death in a Power-point esque production. There's time to stop and admire things as Vincent does.

Sexual Assault of Men Played for Laughs (TW: Sexual Assault).

#8: Kim Possible (2019)

For those unaware, Kim Possible was an amazing show that aired on Disney Channel in the early to mid 2000s about a teenage crimefighter name Kim Possible.

The kicker? It wasn't a secret. Everyone knew who she was and what she did. She had to balance an after-school job, work, and cheerleading practice with saving the world and stopping crime.

Why Disney decided to reboot it into a live-action movie isn't surprising - Girl power. In fact, they give Kim a female friend earlier than they did in the show, and they also beef up the cast with her mother and grandmother being former fighters as well - ...but why they decided to make it a TV movie is.

Disney Channel Original Movies are cheap; As much as I love the Descendants franchise, it looks and feels cheap and silly.

#7: Alita: Battle Angel

I kind of liked the original working title of "Battle Angel Alita" better, but whatever.

The more I sat on this, this more I realized I was always going to see it.

I'm that person who loved "Jupiter Ascending" and "Valerian" and thought, while they had some bad elements, there was much more good in them, and they deserve sequels, damn it!

So cheesy, expensive adaptations of foreign comics and manga is clearly right up my alley. And a $4 DBOX ticket helps.

The action shines, helped extraordinarily by DBOX and fantastic, clear fight choreography.

This...is extremely dense. Heavy, intricate material. I don't know how much of the manga they put in here, how many volumes, but it ends with a clear open door for a sequel, which I really hope we get.

While some of the effects on the side characters are a little iffy (The bounty hunter after Alita especially, Ed Skrein doesn't look so bad), Alita herself (Rosa Salazar) is a marvel. The eyes are still uncanny - That's the point.

Special note; Law enforcement is now part of the gig economy. Which is kind of amazing. God knows we couldn't have that in America.

SPOILERS

#6: Zootopia

I have always been a humongous lover of anthropomorphic animal tales. I talked about Redwall, but there's also Mistmantle, and Geronimo Stilton, and Hermux Tantamoq and I totally understand that I just said a bunch of gibberish and you don't know what any of it is but it meant the world to me as a child.

Just 7 short years after making their first black princess a frog for most of her movie, the geniuses at Disney Animation Studios made a bare-bones, kind of muddled story about discrimination. Is Judy discriminated against because she's a rabbit? A herbivore? Small?

It's about Prey vs. Predators, and you can fill in the power imbalances yourself with whatever you like! Mayor Bellwether (My favorite character) talks about a "Mammal Inclusion Initiative" but mammals can be predators or prey.

Yeah, this movie doesn't have the bite of actually making a clear allegory, but the people who made it are mostly white men, and while their lives have had individual challenges, they don't immediately understand that everyone outside of that demographic has had far bigger challenges because of race and gender.

The Better Sequel: Incredibles 2 VS. Ralph Breaks The Internet (Feat. Ho...

Restoring the sound of Sleeping Beauty (1959)

In honor of her 60th.

#5: Hellboy (2004)

I am not Del Toro's #1 fan.

I am also not experimenting with new layouts, the formatting is uncooperative today.

He's a very capable ideas man, but those ideas often get lost in fantasy and imagery on the screen. And sure, screen is a very good place to show that, but at some point, you want to stop winding through the woods and get back upon the path.

I've seen "Pacific Rim" (trim off about 20 minutes and we're okay), "The Shape of Water" (Fine) and "Pan's Labyrinth" (Interesting). "The Devil's Backbone" is on the to-watch list, and "Crimson Peak" is not.

#4: If Beale Street Could Talk

Mr. Jenkins seems to like those unusual narrative choices. Moonlight ("- Best Picture - Moonlight") had 3 sections, and Beale Street had a lot of asides that are common to a story like this - Pointing out how shit life was (is) for black people in the unjust country that is America. That anti-blackness is not just reserved for white people or cops, that belief in stereotypes run rampant no matter what race you are.

That the first black person you see is the one that did the crime, that your trauma will ruin someone else's life and, oh well.

Stephan James and Kiki Layne are just so sweet and hopeful it made me cry.

Unlike Moonlight, this is not nominated for Best Picture, or Director, but there is an Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress for Regina King, and Best Score. Better than nothing.

I have long, long thought that the faith Black Americans have in a white God is misplaced and useless, and I'm glad there is a movie where it's clear that the God-loving black people are, frankly, pieces of shit.

Disasters.

Abhorrent.

No one is light-skinned except arguably one side character.

Tyler Perry is shaking!

2018: The Year in Podcasts & Youtube Shows.

There was plenty to listen to in 2018! Many new discoveries, including...


The DIS
A Disney-oriented site (wdwinfo.com) slash travel agency (Dreams Unlimited) that focuses on the guest experience, dining reviews, and the business side of the Disney parks, from World to Land, and even Japan;

With spark, wit, and rapport for days, I love listening to the podcast for each park (Stateside) every week. There's also a side Universal show for those parks as well.