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Post by Trey_Vore on May 26, 2023 3:11:40 GMT -5
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 25, 2023 21:48:09 GMT -5
We'll miss her.
RIP Tina Turner
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 22, 2023 21:00:43 GMT -5
*sigh* Here we go again! Another unnecessary argument between me and another member, and everyone is making me look like the bad guy without showing any sympathy towards me whatsoever! And you guys wonder why I talk about leaving here so often. Though after a little consideration, I think I get what Trey has been trying to say to me… With Transformers, I think he was bringing up the fact that it was also coming out the same month as Spider-Man and Elemental. I know Trey is a huge Transformers fan, and the Transformers movies are always big summer blockbusters. If we were talking about all movies in general here, then it would make total sense, and Transformers would likely make more money than Spider-Man overall. However, in terms of the sole genre of animation, that honor would clearly go to Spider-Man. With Lightyear, I think he was adding on to my assumption of Elemental likely becoming a flop. I think what he’s trying to say is because of the controversies surrounding Pixar’s last film, it’s likely that audiences don’t trust Pixar anymore. Then again, I could counter-argue to that point: Disney’s Strange World did the same thing, and yet everyone seems to be super hyped about Wish. So if I may ask, why is it okay for Disney to do it and not Pixar? That just doesn’t sound right to me. Is that what you’re trying to tell me, Trey? I do intend to see Elemental once it comes out Belchic, just one thing that Disney would need to do is not go and push some sort of controversial agenda and I can promise you it will succeed. It's just they did not have a good year in 2022 and those listed reasons were why. Hell, they deserved to lose money for that live-action Pinocchio alone. Even if it does flop (so many movies packed into one summer is bound to cause trouble), it will find itself a voice provided they don't just use it as a means for social awareness. It seems like they are off to a good start with the third Guardians of the Galaxy and their new live action The Little Mermaid which will probably make money one way or another given the popularity of the original movie. |
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 20, 2023 22:58:58 GMT -5
So you don't think Lightyear being banned in almost all of the Muslim world had any kind of role? It goes a little deeper than "not being promoted enough". Show some hope, like how you did with The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Also, if those giant transforming robots aren't animated then do they exist like how normal people do?
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 18, 2023 19:39:44 GMT -5
If that was the case, chances are it would have more to do with the woke agendas that they were recently pushing. Case in point:
Last year, a joint between Disney and Pixar got us Lightyear. This was based on the Toy Story series of films as a background story for one of it's principal characters, that being Buzz Lightyear. Over the course of that movie Buzz tries to be a test pilot for a hyperspace fuel crystal that he and his partner Alisha will need to return home. After several tries it has drastic effects on the timeline as he speeds through time. He then learns that during that time, Alisha got married and had a child with another woman.
Despite the fact it was based on Toy Story, which is by all accounts a very bankable property and got generally good reviews, the movie was a bomb having only made back its budget rather than maximize its profits. The suits at Disney wrote it off as people having some post-COVID concerns, but that turned out to not be the case as only a few weeks later, we got the joint Universal/Illumination animated film Minions: The Rise of Gru and families flocked to see that movie.
During the holiday season of 2022, Disney tried again with Strange World. This movie was about a family of explorers starting with Jaeger Clade and his son Searcher. Twenty-five years later, Searcher gets married to a woman named Meridian and they had a son named Ethan, and he's now in a relationship with his same-sex friend Diazo.
We don't need to go further but that movie was a massive bust for Disney; adding salt and lemon juice to an wound that was wide open was the fact that during the Christmas holiday we got Puss in Boots: the Last Wish which, despite being a movie about Shrek, which had not seen a movie since 2011, got great reviews and turned a major profit.
I have nothing against people who prefer the company of their own gender; while I was on the Disney College Program in 2004 one of my roommates was gay and we had a very close friendship. However kids should not have to be exposed to the idea of gay marriages that soon. It's hard enough to explain when kids ask where babies come from but explaining what it means to be gay without telling them about sex is practically impossible; it makes for a very awkward conversation piece on the way home.
The reason Universal is doing that well is because they are not pushing awkward agendas in movies meant for kids; a hard example is the fact The Super Mario Bros. Movie did not do that and it made over $1 billion. Because we don't see Spider-Man or Transformers pushing that either is a stand against it as well, and they already have millions in pre-orders for ticket sales.
Late last month, I shared a news article explaining that Disney was set to eliminate 1000s of jobs by the end of the month. Imagine that happening when you have a house payment to make! They need to stop with these agendas and the money will come back. That's a promise.
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 16, 2023 22:19:28 GMT -5
Okay, I gave it a fave.  |
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 16, 2023 21:16:59 GMT -5
Don't forget Belchic.
Inbetween those two movies we are also getting Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and that is going to be epic. I know this is going to be one hot summer.
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 16, 2023 0:05:28 GMT -5
Early next month is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and two weeks later, Elemental!
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 14, 2023 23:23:59 GMT -5
I can add onto that one.
Random Fact #4605:
When Raul Julia was confirmed to be dying of cancer, he let his children pick his final film role. Because they were such fans of the Street Fighter video game series, he committed to the 1994 movie as the villainous dictator General M. Bison.
When I got to meet Miguel A. Nunez, Jr. (who played Bison's communications expert Dee Jay) at the Wizard World comic con in 2011, he told me "I didn't even know he was sick."
Random Fact #4606:
You can find a lot of weird and unique things on eBay. What you may not know is that amongst all that you can search for, you can even buy things like wine and live lobsters!
You can't however, sell things like used cosmetics as they pose a health and safety risk.
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 11, 2023 23:47:36 GMT -5
Well, I guess I have been working too much. I hope your 30th birthday was amazing babclayman!
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 10, 2023 23:43:14 GMT -5
You weren't kidding about the whole shadowing thing bab. My most recent pic took at least 6 hours to do. These pics are all really nice man. Looking forward to more. |
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 9, 2023 22:13:08 GMT -5
Random Fact #4600:
When SpongeBob SquarePants was in its planning phase, it was always going to be a creator-driven show. Creator Stephen Hillenburg wanted SpongeBob to be an adult, but Nickelodeon wanted him to be a child. There was a discrepancy between them both and Stephen Hillenburg was going to leave the show to Nick, but they relented and agreed to let SpongeBob be an adult figure.
Stephen Hillenburg got what he wanted, but he agreed to compromise. He decided to let SpongeBob be a perpetual student at Mrs. Puff's Boating School and was just not able to pass his boating exam as comedy. By doing this it allowed SpongeBob to be a student and be attending some sort of school.
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 6, 2023 22:09:58 GMT -5
Chances are, it's finally going to be out of the #1 spot due to the amazing performance of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
We can't deny it had a great run though.
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Post by Trey_Vore on May 1, 2023 21:33:49 GMT -5
The Super Mario Bros. Movie has officially made more than $1 billion!
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 30, 2023 0:21:30 GMT -5
This review was a request from Belchic, being one he recently reviewed. Thanks to it being available to watch on FreeVee and Tubi, I was able to take in the whole movie and now I give you:
The Last Unicorn (1982)
Distributor: Jensen Farley Pictures/Rankin-Bass Productions/ITC Films/Topcraft
Director: Arthur Rankin, Jr., Jules Bass
Cast: Mia Farrow (the Unicorn/Lady Almalthea), Alan Arkin (Schmendrick), Jeff Bridges (Prince Lir), Tammy Grimes (Molly Grue), Robert Klein (the Butterfly), Angela Lansbury (Mommy Fortuna), Christopher Lee (King Haggard), Keenan Wynn (Captain Cully), Paul Frees (Mabruk)
Runtime: 93 min.
MPAA rating: G (all ages admitted)
This movie, set in a world of fantasy, is about an all-white female unicorn who learns from a pair of hunters and a butterfly that she is the only unicorn left in the world. The reason for this is that a malevolent creature named the Red Bull has captured them all. Knowing the peril at hand, and her own mortality at risk if she leaves her forest, the last unicorn goes off to rescue her kin.
Chances are, if you have had some sort of childhood, you probably have a history with Rankin/Bass. Name not ringing a bell? They are well associated with the Christmas season, so you probably are familiar with their work; they have what you could judge as a monopoly on seasonal specials from the 1960s/1970s that still play every holiday season. With Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Little Drummer Boy, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Year Without a Santa Claus… the only OG Christmas specials they didn’t give us were A Charlie Brown Christmas and Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
That’s only what they may be best known for. They were also notable for making the original cartoon about The Jackson 5ive and doing their spin on The Hobbit and The Return of the King long before we had the live film series, and children of the 1980s also remember them for giving us memorable 1980s cartoon series like ThunderCats and SilverHawks.
During the late 1970s/early 1980s, they would do this movie. Based on Peter S. Beagle’s novel which shares the name, this movie would be the first animated film they made after those aforementioned adaptations of J. R. R. Tolkien’s books. It did fall into obscurity especially when you take into account that Don Bluth was the man for 1980s animated feature films, but this movie would go on to develop a cult following. But is it worth watching right now? So here we go with my thoughts on Rankin/Bass’s early 80s animated film about an equine not related to My Little Pony.
The movie’s story is clearly fantasy-based, as we have a very out there story about a female unicorn who learns that she may be the last of her kind unless she can free her kin from some monstrous red bull. However, this movie is not as straightforward as it might appear. It has plenty of hard choices and emotions the characters would have to play with. It goes through some paths where there are no easy answers and they are handled with much greater nuance than some other animated films would. No one ever said the path you go down in life is easy no matter what you do, and chances are you will end up making a lot of mistakes and questioning yourself as you go on. This movie does have a bit of humor to brighten the mood but for the most part it’s a very serious film.
I will add though, that you should not judge this movie on account of the fact it’s animated that it’s automatically strictly for kids. It does contain a few brief moments of nudity, occasional uses of mild profanity and a truly awkward sequence where a character is essentially forced into motorboating an anthropomorphized tree. What is this movie rated?? G!? Just exactly how did they dodge the PG?!
Now, for the animation, Rankin/Bass always had some offbeat animation that is identifiable, but here there is plenty for you to take in. The movie does have some Japanese artists that lent their talents to this film and one might be excused for thinking this movie was meant to be Japanese anime. In truth, some of its artists would effectively be what led us into Studio Ghibli!
For a lot of the animation, we have several mood-reflecting scenes like how the Unicorn’s forest is meant to be full of life, while King Haggard’s castle is completely decrepit and lifeless. A lot of thought went into the emotions one is supposed to be feeling and the musical score, oddly enough, seems to fit the atmosphere without sounding like a parody of the stereotypical bard. Some of the character animation looks very much like they have two different animation teams on hand, an example of which being how Schmendrick looks very much like a typical Rankin/Bass character with his small eyes and big nose while other characters like Molly, King Haggard and the Unicorn all seem to have more of a Japanese influence. Oddly enough, they still look like they belong in the same movie, likely because of its fantasy themes!
The movie’s characters are certainly a complex bunch. Who do I start with… maybe I should start with Schmendrick, the amateur magician. He originally was working for a manipulative witch but believed in more than seeing with his eyes and wants to aid the Unicorn in her quest. Molly Grue is a bandit’s lover who insists on helping them due to her long-standing childhood fascination with unicorns. Prince Lir is the villain’s son who falls for Lady Amalthea and he would do anything to make her his woman, not fully aware she is not human. King Haggard, the villain of the movie, is the dreary king who finds no joy in anything barring the unicorns, he’s clearly standing in for why depression is a serious problem.
Then of course, we have the leading unicorn. As a mythical creature she is unnamed but upon arriving at King Haggard’s castle she is named Lady Amalthea. She is probably the most complex character in the movie. At first, you have a unicorn that is on a simple rescue mission but it’s a lot more complex as the movie goes. When she is about to be captured by the Red Bull (not THAT Red Bull!) Schmendrick uses his magic to transform her into a mortal woman. At first she is disgusted with her new form, wondering why she is suddenly stripped of her immortality for a body than can die. As it goes, she soon starts questioning herself as she loses sight of her original mission now that she is in a human body; she can feel human emotions such as regret and falling in love. The characters are all very fleshed out and very complex and that’s most certainly good!
Rankin/Bass had most definitely done Peter S. Beagle’s book a lot of justice here, he even approved it himself! The Last Unicorn might not be as obscure as work such as The Comic Strip, but it’s a movie that deserves a lot more love than it gets. They were on their A game with this film and it still works amazingly well. The Last Unicorn is a thought-provoking movie with a story that gets more complex as it goes with strong animation and truly memorable characters. I still may have preferred The Secret of NIMH but losing to Don Bluth is nothing to spit at. If a unicorn is truly a sight to behold, then this movie is truly solid and well-defines the aesthetic of the 1980s. Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass may not be with us anymore but this is a lasting movie that will define their legacy!
The Last Unicorn (1982)
TreyVore rates it: A
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