This is a company most animation buffs view as inferior quality to the other studios, but culturally they are the real top dogs with all the money they make, and how loved they are by general audiences. They are full of movies I find mediocre at best, but time to look into them. Here is my rankings of them before their next film makes 700M at worst case scenario.
Four Tree Stars
1. Despicable Me
Yes, everybody’s top pick. It is their only film to somewhat take itself seriously, and it really does have quite the satisfying emotional arc. I recently rewatched it for the first time in years, and I was surprised at how good it is. It is great at balancing a dark family plot with comedic antics. The surprise stand out was Dr. Nefario.
2. Despicable Me 4
For the first time since the first one I actually felt something from this franchise, focus. I mostly hear bad things about it online, but I sure enjoyed it enough to make this spot, and this is a purely subjective post.
Three Tree Stars
3. Despicable Me 2
Again, I rewatched it for this list for the fist time in years, and I was surprised at how good it is. Sure it has some jokes I find distinctly unfunny, but there were many I enjoyed (particularly if they involved Edith).
4. Despicable Me 3
Disappointing, but it gave me some laughs.
5. Minions 2
Same with where this franchise has been. Nothing special to a full grown man, but it is worth some laughs.
6. Sing
Finally, a movie not from Gru and friends. It gave exactly what the trailer promised, and I found it funny. I watched it several times as background noise during college, and it is great at that, which is a good summary for Illumination at their best. I am sure it helps I saw it in theaters like the first Despicable Me.
7. Minions
You know the drill. Nothing special, but it has enough comedy that I can reliably have a good time watching it. One key thing I noticed from this list is Gru is by far their best protagonist. He really brings some much needed drama to these comedies while still being really funny. Future film historians should study him closely.
8. Sing 2
Unfocused and the best character is gone, but it had highlights.
9. Migration
Decent children’s movie that gave me very little enjoyment as an adult.
Two Tree Stars
10. Secret Life of Pets
I saw this in theaters and just watched for the first time since (though I rewatched the first few minutes as background noise before turning it off once). It is not good. It is incredibly cliched, and hardly any of it is funny. The one character I enjoyed was Snowball. I do not know if this is a hot take or not, but I find none of Gidget’s comedy funny at all.
11. Hop
The sucky version of Sonic the Hedgehog. I was rooting for the villain the whole time.
12. Super Mario Bros
I do not play the games, so I am sure this greatly diminished my enjoyment (and these last two are very low Twos). This was so boring, unfocused, badly animated, and full of badly fitted music. Donkey Kong was the only saving grace.
One Tree Star
13. Secret Life of Pets 2
Same as the first one, but now even more cliched and unfocused. I just wanted it to be over whenever Snowball was not on screen. The poor guy was stuck trying to carry so much dead weight.
14. The Lorax
This was painful to watch.
15. The Grinch
Why is The Grinch so friendly? They really suck at Dr. Seuss adaptations.
The franchise has been dead for 15 years, and another DTV film came to bring it new life. With a cheap DTV budget this was a big money maker reviving the franchise for two more DTV films. Time to look into the film that made a successful legacy sequel series.
The only returnee were the producer from the first two and composer from the last film. Composer Mark McKenzie was careful with using the iconic theme from the first film, and he did a very good job at integrating new music with it. The producer’s stepson did the script, and I think he is the strongest part. I could not help but notice the writing is very fast paced, while the directing is very slow. It does give it an interesting atmosphere.
For those who do not know in Dragonheart the dragons can give half their heart to a human, and with it they share each other’s strength, pain, and life force. In the first one the villain got the heart. They are about following the old code.
Inside the table’s circle, Under the sacred sword. A knight must vow to follow The code that is unending, Unending as the table– A ring by honor bound. A knight is sworn to valor. His heart knows only virtue. His blade defends the helpless. His might upholds the weak. His word speaks only truth. His wrath undoes the wicked! The right can never die, If one man still recalls. The words are not forgot, If one voice speaks them clear. The Code forever shines, If one heart holds it bright.
It starts with cloudy figures describing Hadrian’s Wall. Even after Rome’s fall it divided the Roman like Southerners and the mystical Celts of the North lead by Druids. The Celts are divided on living in peace or destroying it. It takes place around 300 years before the first film. It is very quick and effective exposition.
All within the first five minutes the Druids meet. Brude betrays and kills the others. It can seem like Brude is doing this for the good of his people like he claims, but he betrays his real motivation, “The wealthy lands to the South.” He is really just power hungry and kills his mentor. Good opening. One druid in training, Lorne, escapes.
Our hero, Gareth is introduced. He is a squire trying to be a knight to Sir Horsa. Gareth is his best fighter, but he is merciful to the peasants when collecting money and pays for them, and Horsa decides he will ultimately cost him a little money and kicks him out.
Great introduction. Gareth will have real trouble keeping The Old Code, as the major self-less act gets him in so much trouble. Horsa is what Brude will be if he wins. Instead of stopping there he will keep milking tiny insignificant amounts of money here and there, as having it will be his god. In fact he will later get dragon eggs, and his plan will be to sell them as food instead of the much cooler evil stuff he can do. While Brude is the more threatening villain I think Horsa is the better one.
Like the first two films the knights are a corrupt group. In the first film Bowen is clearly the exception, and even he gets corrupted for a huge chunk of the movie. The knights are described as rotten to the core and just interested in personal glory and money. When I heard it was a prequel I wonder if this would be the origin or glory days of The Old Code, but it is not. Even in the past The Old Code was considered outdated by most.
This film both romanticized and deromanticizes the past. Even around 1,500 years ago they were critiquing the past and old values just like we do today. It is not about trying to be just like them, but having the timeless values. The old code preaches self-less ness, honesty, and justice. These are old values because they are timeless, and that is the part of the past that should be romanticized. It fits well with the first movie.
Horsa says Gareth can be a knight if he pays him 100 crowns. He fully thinks Gareth will actually steal that amount and give it to him. An asteroid falls on the North side of the Wall, and Gareth hears about possible riches in it. He climbs the wall after easily stealing a sword from a new knight. It is a good introduction to the main setting. It is a dark and mysterious forest with a mysterious figure stalking him, and he finds a hanging corpse. On the other hand I am going to get really tired of this forest.
Gareth finds the asteroid, the dragon, and several eggs. According to the writer the ancient dragons have died, and these are sent to replace them, and I always assumed something like that was the case. For selfish reasons Gareth saves the eggs (money), but the dragon thinks it was for selfish reasons, and does something I was shocked to see.
1/4 the way through he gives him half his heart. For the first time in the series the hero will have the dragon bond. With that they have to buff the villains, so Brude does his master plan. He curses Drago to be his slave by the moon and a shade by the sun. Just giving the hero a dragon heart is a big deal. While this film has many character counterparts with the first one this is completely different.
Gareth is rescued by Lorne and Rhonu. Basically they do not like having to trust a Southerner, but they are happy to have the dragon bond on their side. They happily think he is a knight, and he does not correct them. I really just view them as discount Brother Gilbert and Kara. Lorne explains to him how the dragon bond works.
Next Gareth and the dragon connect in a great scene. Using the shared heart they can find each other. There are scenes in the first one where it is implied it works that way, and Gareth tries talking to him in broken English resulting in “I shared my heart with the village idiot.” In addition it expands on the lore. The dragon (deemed “Drago” by Gareth) can speak thanks to the bond. Makes perfect sense, as Draco in the first one was basically using a second language before the bond. In the first film Draco doubts his dragon name can be pronounced by humans. Here Drago tries, and it comes off as gibberish.
Gareth says he is a knight. Drago knows it is false, but technically true. He has seen him be heroic, and that is his definition of a knight.
Shade form Drago is there to save money, but he also looks cool. Nice way to save money, as they have to priotize the budget. Brude is keeping 50 gazillion torches to keep him away. Thanks to Lorne’s draining magic they get the eggs Back. Gareth tries to escape without them, but stopping to save Lorne halts his plans to abandon them and sell the eggs to Horsa.
Shadow jumping is introduced. It does not go very far, but it makes an entertaining scene. It is not in the first one, as Drago only learned it because of the curse. The actual meat is the Drago/Gareth talking and playing. They feel each other’s physical and emotional pain making some funny scenes. After this is a dramatic scene where Gareth tries to pull the gold off the eggs, and this physically hurts Drago, as the evil affects his half the heart.
After is the best scene in the movie. Brude has some of his slaves, friends of Lorne and Rhonu, paraded around to draw Lorne and Rhonu out. Now Gareth has his whole goal, distracted enemy, and the Celts gone. Seeing them about to die he comes back. This strengthening of the heart is visualized by the heart changing from human to dragon, as this temporarily frees Drago from the curse. Using some preestablished lore they escape alive. If there was every doubt Brude is not evil but just defending his people he happily talks about killing Rhonu’s mother within hearing distance. Not to mention enslaving them, and earlier he killed several in fits of rage.
Gareth and Drago have a literal heart to heart before he is totally enslaved. Gareth apparently decides the best plan is still to put them at the mercy of Horsa, and he captures all of them and the dragon eggs to sell to be eaten. Humorously the knight Gareth stole the sword from takes it back without orders implying Horsa refused to give him another one.
The battle begins, and it is dark and violent. This is known for being the most violent film in the franchise for a reason. Drago effortlessly breaks the gate, and the good Celtic army arrives making a three way battle with Horsa just packing up his money to leave. No wonder the Southerners suck at fighting, he put no effort into training them.
In the highlight to free Drago Gareth follows the code and fights Horsa to save the eggs. The big moment is when he catches the sword with his hands. There is clear pain, a sad version of the main theme plays, and his heart is shown full of dragon scales. Drago is freed, and Gareth beats Horsa. Interestingly he then executes him. It is kind of refreshing seeing the hero do that with no implied evil intentions. His wrath undoes the wicked after all.
Rhonu gets fatally injured killing Brude. An unborn dragon somehow shares its heart with her. They marry in a union of Northerner and Sountherner uniting the realms in “The Age of the Dragon.” Good ending for a good movie.
I am glad they did not force attacks on the second film. Sure I do not like it, but that would not have helped this movie.
It lacks rewatch bonuses, but I really enjoyed it back in 2015. Four Tree Stars. Next time is Scooby-Doo Mask of the Blue Falcon.
Abominable is a 2019 Dreamworks film that was a decent box office film, good with critics, and it is mostly forgotten. Part of this is there were two other yeti movies released at the same time, part of it is how loaded 2019 was with box office megahits, and part of it is its weirdly inconsistent quality. It goes back and forth on doing something great and doing something bad.
To start things off there is a mixed scene. The introduction to Everest, the yeti is good. He breaks out before he can be shown to the world. He is kept completely in the shadows, and he looks at a poster to his home mountain. On the other hand there is the introduction to our villain, Dr. Zara.
I think She and Prince Hans are a perfect twist villain together, as they reverse all their strengths and weaknesses. While he is a great villain build up she is a boring villain build up. While he then becomes a sucky villain with too little thirst for blood she is great after the reveal and has lots of thirst for blood. Here is her initial look.
It is a boring look for such a key antagonist. She pretends to be an animal lover, so she carries around a gerbil that she secretly hates. She always looks very stoic.
Here is after her reveal.
Much more emotion, much wilder, and the animal is gone. She looks kind of like Merida, except Zara looks like she fits into her own movie. She has more in common story wise with Scarlet from Total Drama.
Next scene introduces the main three leads, Yi, her cousin Peng, and their cousin Jin. Yi’s father recently died putting the family in a rough patch, and they are trying to move on in different ways. Peng is into sports and tries to move on with his life. Only the younger kids play with him, so he hopes either of his bigger cousins will play with him. Jinn in into social media and popularity to get over it. Yi is the lead, and she does it by hustling for money to take a trip she was going to take with her dad (later revealed she has never left the city). She is introduces as very aloof trying to stay distant from her remaining family. I like this scene. The dialogue leaves a little to be desired early on, but the story gets the job done. My main problem is Chloe Bennet’s performance as the lead. She is not bad, as she gets the range right, but she does not sound like a young teenager, as she sounds like a 30 year old woman. I let that pass years ago, but now that I am on a PBS Kids binge for an upcoming list I am not so forgiving. Their shows are full of children voiced by children or adults convincingly sounding like children. It does not help Peng and Jin were actually voiced by teenagers.
A good detail is most of Yi’s jobs are literally working in trash. She lies she sold the violin to her mother’s disappointment, and later scenes show how big a deal that is. Her father taught her to play it, and ignoring it is her ignoring what he wanted her to focus on, family.
12 minutes in until Everest’s face is revealed. Yi shelters and cares for him over several days. It is revealed through music he has powers like making plants grow fast and healthy. By many reports yetis are big singers, and some malicious stories say they have sound based attacks, so I am fine with this very divisive element. I also see the other side who think magic yeti should be able to just teleport himself to Everest.
Burnish, the red herring villain, is introduced. He is played by Eddie Izzard giving it lots of energy. His design is much funner than the other ones. He is a man who seemingly hates nature, but loves it in his own way. He will become the nature lover Zara pretends to be. In the past he was attacked by a yeti, and nobody believed him. I see why he wants to prove they exist, and he makes me laugh, so I like this guy.
Everest is found resulting in a decent and mixed chase scene. One one hand it is animated well, has some good visuals, and Jin (reluctantly) and Peng (happily joining are highlights). On the other hand it seems forced Zara can keep up, and at this point she is a boring villain.
Peng’s arc is the most simple. He basically wants a big brother and Everest gives him that right up to letting Peng play in his mouth.
Next comes a series of short scenes. A major highlight of the movie is the blueberry scene where Everest makes them grow enourmous, and they have to flee them. The problem is Jin goes “Flat Earth Atheist.” There is some good dialogue with Jinn and Yi about Hustle vs hedonism. Burnish is the one enjoying nature, but he wants to cut his favorite tree down to put it in the penthouse. This contrasts with Zara being hyper focused on yeti. He is becoming a real nature lover piece by piece.
In a chase scene Jin gets scared and captured and Zara is finally shown to be a good villain. She manipulates Jin by explaining Everest is an unpredictable wild animal. Zara is revealed to be villain at 53 minute mark, and she plans on killing kids and gets rid of gerbil. Jin overhears and gives Burnish the gerbil and leaves in the funniest part of the movie.
I have been lost many times and highly relate to this.
He comedically keeps getting lost, filthy, and all his master plans like stealing a motorcycle go wrong. I relate way too well to Jin this scene. At the end he finds a boat and trades it for his phone showing how he has changed. Going into this movie and rewatch I thought he would be my least favorite character, but I love this guy. Some viewers have asked how the battery is not dead. I think it is in character for him to carry around a portable charger. The comedy mixed with character development and a new design really helps. His inconsistent and inconclusive actions (jumping on the boat, but not the previous escape dandelion) help him feel the most like a real kid.
Throughout the movie he has called his expensive shoes “his babies” and been way too worried when they got dirty. After this image where he holds them above the rain he ditches that and uses them as normal shoes.
Thanks to Jin’s words Zara interecepts Everest, Peng, and Yi. Jin and his new boat and hero design come to the rescue, and Everest uses his yeti powers to lose Zara. It is a fun scene that then hits mood whiplash when the violin is broken.
Broken violin is a key highlight. There is no big third act break up nor big action, just talking about dealing with the death of Yi’s dad. It does make them seem very grown up like this adventure has changed them all for the better.
Almost 70 minutes in and Yi can now make plants grow too. I presume this is due to Everest remaking her violin with his fur, and it is a sweet scene. Villains corner them on a bridge, and Everest goes to defend them. Burnish then remembers the yeti he faced was defending its three children, not attacking him, and he switches goals. Zara has her security captain tranquilize him, captures, Everest, and throws Yi off a bridge. I was forgetting why I praised her as a good twist villain, but this is quite the scene for her. She is incredibly malicious.
Yi survives by clinging to a broken cable. In the climax she wakes up Everest with her violin’s new Yeti powers, and he stops the convoy. Zara is fed up and tries to kill him resulting in her own death. After all the good to great scenes before it this is a lackluster climax.
It has the expected falling action. Burnish is now a huge hero. They get Everest back to his home and family, and the children’s family is very happy with how the children have changed. It is simple, but I think it is a good ending.
It is slow paced, thus the pacing is highly subjective- too slow or great for development, and I am mixed. It is a mixed movie, and I give it a high Three Tree Star rating. I am glad I saw and rewatched it.
The second one from Universal Animation Studios. Unlike the previous one I have no nostalgia for it, and I have no experience with the franchise outside of these two movies. I am not one of the hordes of animation fanatics who hate this franchise due to “The Hipmunk” films beating the The Princess and the Frog at the box office and dooming 2d animation (its days ruling theatrical films was long over anyway, and it was not making a comeback.)
It came out in 2000 with the same team from last movie. I am happy to see John Loy is back. To what I can tell this got good reviews, so hopefully that is a good sign.
It opens with Alvin having a nightmare about a werewolf. On paper the opening is good, but I think it is too rushed. It is still decent. He blames it on their neighbor, Talbot. They are in a school play for Jekyll and Hyde, and I think this school setting is a big downgrade from last film’s theme park setting. I just do not find it that interesting. Why does a Jekyll and Hyde play have women in it? Did they not read the book and… Apparently this is adapting some adaptation instead of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classis.
I think the moral is about the balance of confidence vs humility. Alvin ( too proud) vs Theodore (too meek) with Simon having not much of a role. Alvin messes with production and blows up the theater. I feel bad for Dave. He sees the giant mushroom cloud, and he knows it will be Alvin’s fault.
Unlike last film “The Chipettes” have a role, and I do not like that, as I do not like their designs. The brothers look like stylized chipmunks. These look like small humans with weird noses. I think it is the hair.
Talbot’s introduction is good on paper, but it drags. Very obvious he is werewolf, and I think that is intentional. He is not happy with Alvin snooping around, as he does not want to accidently kill or infect them in werewolf form like he later does to Theodore.
Like last movie I like the small scenes, and that is important for a movie with this slow of a pace. It gradually builds tension through small character driven scenes. I like the three brothers, but Dave is a little frustrating, as he cannot see he is in a fantasy. It is another downgrade from last movie. Alvin is fired from the lead role, and Dave makes him go cold turkey on monster mania. I cannot blame the director for screaming in pain. Losing the star of a dual role is huge.
Why is Lampy in their room?
The first song is “Munks on a Mission.” It is too repetitive, and that is how I describe all the songs. They repeat the lyrics too much and sound the same. Simon is really inconsistent this movie. Sometimes he is gung ho on making Alvin go cold turkey and other times he supports his obsession. Also why does he have a sample of Talbot’s blood?
Theodore becomes a “werepuppy/werechipmunk.” Neither term is correct. “Were” means human. Those terms mean he is a human puppy or a human chipmunk. At least at first it does not make Theodore mean or anything like that. He is super fast and happy with that, and a meaner side only comes later.
One highlight is the werewolf reveal when Dave talks with Talbot. I like the werewolf face reveal. Sure it is a disappointing design, but the directing helps. It happens when Dave calls him “A civilized guy,” and the back is shown first. It builds up suspense slowly. Is running to the school the best idea? Well he is panicked.
It is a really underwhelming climax especially how one werewolf bites heals the other one for both. I like the falling action where Dave gets ready to beat Talbot (the new principal), and Alvin has to stop him. Then Talbot thanks Theodore for curing him. If they made a third one was Simon going to become the monster this time?
This is pretty good. It has no appeal to me as a 29 year old man, but I feel safe saying child me would have liked it, I just think the predecessor is its superior in every way. Three Tree stars.
It was like I was watching a nature documentary. A really sucky nature documentary. I was rooting for the villains very quickly. One Tree Star.
The Secret Life of Pets 2
A bunch of meandering plots with very little connection. Gidgette is the worst part and Snowball is the best. I did debate giving this Two Tree Stars, but I am going with one.
Raya and the Last Dragon
Better than I expected. I kept thinking it could be way worse, but also way better. It has a solid plot and main characters, but weak villains and too many weak side characters drag it down along with a bad script. Two Tree Stars.
Hitpig
Any children’s movie starting by killing off a good guy has my respect. It has many great stuff and big fumbles too. Three Tree Stars.
Other than Arthur I think Curious George is the show I have seen the most. For well over a decade it was my breakfast show due to it coming on at 7 AM, and that first season is glorious. There are better PBS Kids shows, but I think its first season is a major candidate for their best season. It premiered when I was ten, and before then I really loved the books.
The first film came out in 2006 with the second coming out in 2009. This came out 6 years later in 2015, and it was a major change while still feeling like the movies. It keeps the darker and 4th wall breaking comedy, but it ditches all the side characters. Other than Ted (Man with the yellow hat’s real name) and George nobody in it is in another movie. Chuck Tately is back as the writer and Hector Pereira is back as the music composer. After this these jobs will be shifted for each movie. It is directed by Phil Weinstein. He also directed Balto II and Balto III.
I know I said this for the last movie, but it just feels special seeing the full Imagine Studios logo. Normally for an episode they just show a frame.
The opening scene shows the strengths and weaknesses. For one it adapts a famous part of the books. It is funny. The problem is the same as the all the sequels have, Ted scolds George and needs to learn to trust him. These movies do that message over and over for film after film. In some speedy exposition they quickly get to the main plot.
Some scientists made a dam to control flooding in Africa. Interesting they teach about manmade attempts to help the environment and portray it completely positively. I do not know if this science is accurate, but it feels really odd remembering this aired on PBS Kids. They lost their custom made one of kind controller (RDS), and they need George to retrieve it. It is in a dead satellite, and the only rockets they have is monkey sized. Very forced but okay. It is less forced than the plots of 2 and 5 (and less boring than the plot of 4). The problem is the scientists are boring. They are the typical excited and overly calm scientist, and they are too calm to be funny. As strange as this sounds John Goodman is phoning in the role.
It is not really an anti-caution message, but that does come through. It is really about Ted being a better parent by seeing what his monkey is actually doing. Another key detail is the stuff they do this movie is way crazier than the stuff they do in the 4th and 5th film, and that makes them struggling to be cautious more logical. After fighting off a lion illegally flying a broken plane does not sound very dangerous.
The movie then meanders for around ten minutes with astronaut training. George retrieves the RDS, accidently damages the rocket, crashes in Central Africa (hence the title), and he loses the RDS. The scientists dismissing all Ted concerns that keep proving legitimate is really annoying. Thankfully it has some saving scenes like Ted packing George his favorite lunch, and George saving a picture of Ted. It adds some needed heart to all the chaos.
One great thing about the first three movies is the conflict narrative is different in all of them. The first one is man vs himself, as Ted is also the main antagonist. The second one is man vs Man (a nice detail is the man is not the villain either, just the antagonist). This one is man vs nature.
The movie gets back to its biggest strength, Ted. I love George, but the movies increasingly made him crazier and crazier, and that gets to be too much for one movie. Ted on the other hand works great in large doses. The action survivor who somehow comes out on top in all these wacky situations. For example he gets mistaken for an astronaut allowing him to get a rental airplane. He realizes how dumb flying it is, accidently turns it on, and he somehow pulls it off. Most of the comedy is bad luck keeps following him resulting in getting the plane stuck. This guy is somehow incredibly lucky and unlucky at the same time.
After this the song “Welcome to Paradise” plays, as George saves a baby rhino while Ted tracks him down. This song was really pushed, as all the TVs at Walmart were constantly playing it in Summer 2015. It has poor lyrics and great melody. It is about the benefits of throwing caution to the wind. The show and books are on caution’s side. The first film is balanced. The sequels are anti-caution.
Ted and George are reunited, and a major strength is Jeff Bennet and Frank Welker’s acting. By this point they have the roles down so well, and they add so much sincerity to this man/monkey relationship. After this Ted lectures George about caution completely oblivious to George saving his life every two seconds. The middle of the movie is full of dragging scenes, and this is by far the best part of the middle. I think it shows this was made to be background noise on the TV.
The final third is Ted and George trying to retrieve and install the RDS before devastating floods come. It is a lot of episodic mishaps until they get there just for George to be unable to climb the power pole meaning everything will flood with the RDS right there. They solve it by making a kite to fly George. As underwhelming as most of this movie is the climax is very good.
It is unimpressive animation, hit or miss comedy, and a slow unfocused plot, but it certainly kept my attention the first watch back in 2015. I give it three Tree Stars for that. Certainly way better than the 5th film.
Next time. I finally found the source material for The Flight of Dragons. Time to look into it.
This movie is very stupid, and the drama is dumb. I am not going to lie and say I did not like it, as it is funny. It is a very solid dumb action/comedy. Way better way to end the main franchise than the previous film. Three Tree Stars.
Ferdinand
Early on I thought this would be too childish for me, but the more it went on the more I enjoyed it. The characters are surprisingly complex while still being simple and easy for children to understand. The action scenes are very good. The development is great. Four Tree Stars. I have now seen every Blue Sky film.
Vivo
This really sounds like the type of movie I would not like, so I think my positive review says some great things. The animation is great, the story is great, and the character development is great. Best movie of these four. I am not a big fan of the songs, but I think that is more personal taste than anything. Four Tree Stars. Also the characters look way better in animation than on the posters. The cover does not show how good the animation is.
Despicable Me 4
I came in expecting the usual middle of the road movie from this franchise, and other than the first film I think it is easily the best. It went much more concise focusing on a few key characters while giving everybody else a satisfying small subplot (only Margot got the short end). It was a very good climax, and it is really funny. No way the franchise ends here, but it would be a really good ending. Four Tree Stars.
Time to accept I just do not care for this world at all. Is puberty really just something that shows up overnight? Is it now confirmed Riley is not in control? Do the emotions have emotions (they did say Joy has a mind at one point)? Clearly many people adore these movies, but I am not one of them. Two Tree Stars.
The Super Mario Bros Movie
I do not play Mario games, and I saw many positive reviews by fans. They kept saying they doubted non-fans would care, and I say they are right. I enjoyed the crazy evil dog, but I hated his resolution at the end. Other than Donkey Kong (thanks to the show I actually do have nostalgia for him) I thought the whole movie was dull. Is that “Peaches” song a famous thing from the game? Luigi is all of the suddenly important at the end despite being absent almost the whole movie. I was really ready for this to be over half an hour before the ending. Ironically (or fittingly) its fans wished it was a half hour longer.
The Wild Robot
I was crying most of the movie. Another huge winner from Chris Sanders. The only problem is the basic plot was pretty predictable. I did not care, as the comedy was really good, and the drama is amazing. My favorite character was Fink. He reminded me of a meaner version of my Dad. Five Tree Stars, and it is my current pick for best movie of the year.
One of the easiest parts of this blog is negatively reviewing movies from studios I hate (until I have to do the actual hard part of the negative reviews), and one of the hardest parts is reviewing works I hate from my favorite distributor, one of my favorite studios, and from one of my favorite franchises that I am deeply nostalgic for. I loved the Curious George books, and I was excited to see a show come when I was 10. I loved it for years. That is why this awful movie hurts so much.
These movies normally start with exciting scenes like George on a kite going on a rampage. This starts with with looking out a train. Like the fourth movie this has way lower stakes than the second and third movies. They go to Ted’s cousin Ginny’s farm, and for some reason they are visiting when she is about to go on a vacation. I normally view the point of visiting family as being in the same place as them.
They meet Ginny’s suicidal lamb Nellie and new farmhand Emmitt. Quit talking like farm work is relaxing Ted. It is tough work full of weird problems. Like the escaped lamb that Emmitt fails to catch and instead lets the bull and horse out, or all the other animals they break out and then run away.
I know this sounds exciting in that fast paced, but this happens over 20 minutes into he movie, which is a major problem. It is very long for a DTV film at 85 minutes, yet it is really slow. I takes 1/4th the way to get to the plot, since it wastes so much time. Even later it keeps wasting time with al these random scenes of Ginny enjoying a resort that go nowhere. That is why the wordcount will be very short, as this is a 50ish minute movie padded into 85 minutes.
Back at the animal escape we get to the moral, never ask for help. A professional offered to give any needed help, but George and Emmitt convince Ted to never ask, and just try to fix everything without him.
They really try to force the mules’ annoyed expressions, but when everybody regularly looks mad it does not work.
This means they take forever to get their wagon and horse even working (they still have the bull, horse, dog, and two mules for pulling the wagon), and they miss all the escapees. Thankfully for them all the escapees apparently never split up.
27 minutes in (several hours in movie), and Emmitt reveals he lost the trail and never said anything. Call the professional already. That is the problem with Emmitt. He is a psychopath trying to use a problem to make himself bigger instead of accepting he needs help, or his job is gone, his boss is out of a job, and all the animals he is in charge of are probably dead. He is also really lazy and keeps insisting it is time to stop and eat.
Thankfully Ted is sane to his stupidity. Until he learns his “lesson” and now treats Emmitt like a godsent gift.
As Ted keeps saying to call the professional, and he keeps telling him to instead stop and rest and goes crazy when the idea of calling is brought up it really becomes clear what Emmitt is doing, trying to move on from his job as a farmhand to a ranch hand, by doing this himself no matter who dies in the process. I really hate this guy.
They really take their sweet time in the morning despite being in a serious rush. Thankfully Emmitt gets injured when he sits on a porcupine. Easily the best part of the movie yet. Now he is riding while Ted earns to ride a horse. I guess it is at least noon now. Anyway at 54 minutes in they find all the escapees… The llama is gone. More looking.
Due to the rain they take the escapees to a ghost town… In a thin canyon? No wonder it is a ghost town. Ted reads a book on the history of the town and sees it was abandoned due to it constantly flooding (with all the stuff they find in the town there is now way it is flooding), and they flee before the flood comes. This should be exciting, but it is a really slow scene that takes up almost half the remaining runtime.
Before they leave they find the llama, and Ted calls the professionals. The look of disgust from Emmit disgusts me. The gloryhound cannot handle help, especially when Ted is the one about to save him and has been carrying this team. Seriously, George, Emmitt, and the narrative treat calling for help as some sort of betrayal. It is just awful.
The arrive at a flooded river for the climax. This scene is really stupid. Here is how the show handles stuff like this- George does trial and error (probably with quickly made tiny boats to test the water) to see how dangerous it is. In this movie they treat it like a matter of believing in yourself and just doing it. That ignores this is incredibly dangerous.
They just ford through fast water. Right next to a waterfall. Without putting the sheep who cannot go in the water in the safety of the large wagon that can carry them. With professionals literally within seeing distance. No looking upriver for a better spot to cross.
There is a long closing action, and Emmitt happily singing badly just feels like a huge insult. (No, I did not intend to review two films in a row with that name. Since I saw this film a few years ago I forgot that was his name).
I have always rolled my eyes at the notion Curious George teaches bad morals and being reckless. This movies absolutely does that. Zero Tree Stars, second worst film I have ever reviewed, and the fourth worst movie I have ever seen. Next time will be reviewed in my bloggiversary post. In addition I will look at a few of my opinions that have changed since my blog’s founding and give an updated best and worst movies list I have reviewed.
In 2012 Universal and Paramount had their 100th anniversaries. In 2023 Disney and warner Bros had their 100th anniversaries. Now this year MGM and Columbia have their 100th anniversaries. Time to see who has the best 100th logos.
6. Disney
Composed by Christopher Beck. Adds a train that means… Adds a waterfall that means… This is just too long, and with how often Disney uses variants it just seems to lack any importance. Also it is way too long, as it is 2 times the length as the rest. I am also not a fan of how Beck extends “When You Wish Upon a Star.”
With all these problems Disney gets last place.
5. MGM
This one is only 16 seconds, and it probably needed around 10 more. I get what they are going for- the brief showing of their iconic movies, but at this speed I can only recognize one of them. At least the Lion replacing a 100 is cool. The music in previous logos was done by Franz Waxman. I cannot find the current composer, but this is much worse. That 100 being replaced is the only thing saving this from the bottom spot. Granted it is one of only that attempt to show 100 years.
I appreciate the ambition, but it is way too short and disjointed to make it work.
4. Warner Bros
I think they still use variants of Max Steiner’s theme. I am glad they added the Clocktower, but now the shield is almost invisible next to the giant “100.” Also I think Morgan Freeman’s voice over is distracting. At least it is really short.
3. Paramount
Composed by Michael Giacchino. It is very different from the previous music used by Jerry Goldsmith. I prefer the previous fanfare, but I appreciate them doing something different. Before joining the logo the stars now ski over the water, and I like that touch. The music still summarizes how I feel. The previous logo was better, but I like that they went different.
This is the lowest one I consider to be a good logo. As picking the top 3 and bottom 3 was really easy.
2. Universal
Composed by Jerry Goldsmith, and this time they kept using his old music from the previous logo. Such wonderful music for the best logo there is. I prefer the older version where The Northern Lights are shown over the cities, but I still love this one. The Centennial part does not distract form Universal. The 75th anniversary logo is better, which had music from James Horner, but this is a really solid 100th logo too.
I am sure a major reason for their high rank is Universal has the best logo. Their floor was always very high.
1. Columbia
They kept the composition by Jonathan Elias. Easily the best. Instead of saying it is 100 years they show it with a brief showing of all the logos, and it feels very whelming with how easy it is to keep track of them all. So much is covered in only 30 seconds. I also love how they reverse The Wizard of Oz and go from color to black and white.
Without this great logo I probably would not have bothered even making the list.
Next time-
I do not know when I will get to Starchaser The Legend of Orin with the Olympics coming, but that is next.
The Animation Historian 