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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 18, 2021 10:32:47 GMT -5
Open Season 2 (2008)
Distributor: Columbia/Sony Pictures Animation
Director: Matthew O’Callaghan, Todd Wilderman
Cast: Mike Epps (Boog), Joel McHale (Elliot), Jane Krakowski (Giselle), Billy Connolly (McSquizzy), Crispin Glover (Fifi), Steve Schirripia (Roberto), Cody Cameron (Mr. Weenie), Danny Mann (Serge), Matthew W. Taylor (Deni, Buddy, Ian), Nika Futterman (Rosie), Michelle Mordocca (Maria)
Runtime: 76 min.
MPAA rating: PG (mild rude humor)
Since the end of the original movie from 2006, Boog has adjusted to life as a wild animal with his pal Elliot. On Elliot’s wedding day to his mate Giselle, he breaks his new gigantic antlers and with it, his pride. Elliot then sees that Mr. Weenie is being lured back into civil life thanks to his owners and draws the attention of some pets led by Fifi, a toy poodle with a raging hate for wild animals. His goal is to rehabilitate Mr. Weenie into being a loyal home pet whether he likes it or not. Wanting to rescue their friend, and with Giselle thinking Elliot might be getting cold feet, can the pack rescue Mr. Weenie from whatever terrible fate awaits him at Pet Paradiso?
Time for another look at Sony Pictures Animation to fully appreciate Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse!
I’ll admit that I didn’t get to see Open Season in theatres. When I did see it, I didn’t think I missed a whole lot. Sure, I thought it was okay, but if that was Sony’s first venture in CG-animation, I didn’t think they gave Disney and Pixar much to worry about. It wasn’t awful, and it did make money, and there were worse movies to come from Sony, but… it’s not the proudest beginning.
Now that we are going back into the forest to catch back up with Boog and Elliot, what can we expect to see this time?
I’ll start off by saying we have strike one right out of the gate. It’s a direct-to-video movie, and the leading VAs from the last movie, Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher, are gone. They’ve been replaced by Mike Epps and Joel McHale, who do a fine job, but if this was cost-cutting on account of lower budget, that’s an immediate sign of trouble. Most of the secondary characters voices’ return, save for Patrick Warburton who does not re-voice Ian, the alpha male deer.
Another problem: in this movie, Boog does return, except he’s more of a secondary character here. This time, Elliot is more prominent, and Mr. Weenie, a minor character that did very little in the original movie, is now thrust into the limelight. That already is a bad choice, as Elliot is hardly a lovable character and Mr. Weenie, while he wasn’t bad… well if you put a minor character that didn’t do much as the focus that should be a bad sign.
For this movie, Mr. Weenie is feeling like an outcast amongst the other wild animals as he still acts like a domesticated pet. Thing is though, being a German Dachshund, he IS a domesticated pet. It’s not advised that you release your pet into the wild as they would be lonesome and have no survival skills. Do you remember how in the 2000s, when Disney was making sequels to their animated movies they’d usually take the original idea and then do the inverse? Well in the original movie Boog was a pet that had to learn how to be wild, here Mr. Weenie, a domesticated pet that lives out in the woods, ends up in his owners’ custody and the wild animals need to save him. Following the leader much?
Another thing that has to be said is the animation. And I have to say, Ho. Lee. CRAP. I’m literally watching this right after Ice Age: the Meltdown and I can tell the budget was a LOT lower than the first movie. Sure some of the animation, like on the returning characters like Boog and Elliot, still have the same look as before so there is not much to complain about, but there’s limited textures, phony looking hair/fur, liquid that looks like sludge and some characters like the ducks don’t even look finished. Not to mention the characters’ movements are a lot more rigid than before, so they don’t move all that convincingly. This looks like a PlayStation 1/Nintendo 64 game in quality! I understand this is a direct-to-video movie and the production values are a lot lower, plus the time granted was a lot more limited being that this was internationally released only two years after the original movie. Still, it’s almost impossible to NOT notice after just viewing another movie from the original film’s release year!
Now, I would go ahead and discuss the characters here, but there’s nothing I can really say that I didn’t say in my previous review. There’s not really a character I feel that I should be emotionally gravitating towards, because what’s the point? I will say though… my thoughts on Elliot haven’t changed. He’s getting anxious on his upcoming wedding to Giselle, and this happens after his ginormous antlers are broken thanks to his own stupidity. However, it’s asking for trouble when they want you to cheer for him despite the douchebag he acts like. He is overly self-centered and idiotic and doesn’t want to be a team player, and he doesn’t seem to have learned much of anything over the story. Is he the one I should be gravitating towards? You got another thing coming. With that in mind, that means I should side with Giselle, right? Actually no. They had been together for one full year and we see that Elliot’s overbearing confidence came from his new antlers. Yet she can’t see that something is wrong, when his rack has clearly been broken? And she refuses to buy into Boog’s analogy about Elliot when they are clearly made for each other? She’s one dumb doe.
Another issue I have is the movie’s villain. Rather than see a return of the redneck hunter Shaw, we instead get Fifi the toy poodle. He’s supposed to be a domesticated pet who essentially has a blind hate for wilds. Unlike the first movie where Shaw is a lunatic that seems to be declaring war against the wilderness, Fifi instead seems crazy for keeping order amongst the pets. Already he’s sort of a weak villain as he doesn’t feel like he’s gunning for war, but rather more quietly keeping pets from falling back into anarchy. This might be a metaphor for making your own choices rather than being a blind follower, but the stakes seem a lot lower here.
What are some good aspects? Well, despite all these failings it’s probably diverting enough to satisfy absent-minded viewing, and some of the goofy slapstick will still appeal to kids, making it an okay babysitter. Really, this could be like a long epilogue for the first movie and you wouldn’t notice a thing. Plus, it’s not going to cost much as you can easily get it on a DVD combo pack, like I did at Wal-Mart for less than $5.
Open Season 2 is no classic or even a good movie. Still, there’s worse choices and it’s going to keep kids quiet. Beggars can’t be choosers.
Open Season 2 (2008)
TreyVore rates it: D
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 18, 2021 4:58:36 GMT -5
Ice Age: the Meltdown (2006)
Distributor: 20th Century Fox/Blue Sky
Director: Carlos Saldanha
Cast: Ray Romano (Manny), John Leguizamo (Sid), Denis Leary (Diego), Queen Latifah (Ellie), Sean William Scott (Crash), Josh Peck (Eddie), Jay Leno (Fast Tony), Will Arnett (Lone Gunslinger Vulture), Chris Wedge (Scrat)
Runtime: 91 min.
MPAA rating: PG (mild language, innuendo)
Manny, Sid and Diego are all surviving in the icy valley peacefully, but soon discover this is just a big frozen dam. They soon learn that there is potential doomsday coming as the sun is getting hotter and the animals could all drown in a flood. A vulture tells them there is a boat on the other side of the valley which could save them, but they have three days to find it or they could all die. At the same time, Manny is worried that he may be the last mastodon. So with survival at stake, and a threat imposed by a thawed Ichthyosaur and a Pliosaur, can Manny, Sid and Diego get to the boat and is there a chance Manny could still find love?
Believe it or not, there was a time when the world was eagerly anticipating a sequel to Ice Age. I remember actually studying computer animation at one time and it was a hot topic when we heard there was going to be a continuation of the movie that started Blue Sky. I remember hearing very much about it and was anticipating it, animation junkie that I am.
I wasn’t able to see it back in 2006 (personal matters), but I didn’t hear too much afterwards; I just assumed it was a worthy sequel that didn’t get a nomination for Best Animated Feature for… reasons. Now that I have seen it, it’s time to give this movie my honest opinions.
When the movie begins, we do get some funny Scrat antics, but after that… well for starters, it’s showing signs that its losing its maturity. For one, the movie starts at the ice age answer to a water park and the three main characters are acting as babysitters for a bunch of kids. A bunch of childish jokes emerge from there; the only real aspect that seems mature is Manny worrying that he may be the last mastodon and his chances of finding love are slim to none. I guess there is also the growing fear that everyone could die as a result of the impending meltdown but the target demograph seems a lot younger than before.
Sure, it does contain it’s still-valid themes of sticking together, and there is also family being more than just a bloodline or species though it’s not as fresh here as it’s not as strong as the first movie. Because of these aspects, the characters’ impending doom isn’t really as strong as the stakes presented in the original movie.
Another thing that is probably worth mentioning is the fact that it does feel like the animation doesn’t really hold up as well as the first movie either; this is very notable on some of the hairless animals. Oddly enough, the furred animals look just fine. The animation is mixed, but overall better than the original 2002 animation.
For the characters, Manny is less of a grump than before to be more depressed, probably because now that he has some friends there’s not really reason for him to be overly grumpy, but he’s still got reason to be unhappy as he feels like he may be the last of his kind. I… suppose that could add something to his character from the first movie as he originally lost his mate and child, and with their deaths he’s got nothing to keep his species alive. Diego, originally an antagonist in the first movie no longer has reason to be imposing now that he’s friends with Manny and Sid; he almost feels like he’s now little more than a snarker. He’s not left out in the cold though, as… we learn that despite his fearsome predator status, he’s still got his fears, ie. water. Sid has got it worst here, as by this point any of his original characterization is gone and now he’s a full-blown idiot. Problem with that is, he’s a lot less intelligent, but it’s not making him funnier. There is also Scrat, who still maintains his original charm even if he feels like not really a relevant character but more like a funny intermission when the movie is getting too serious.
For the newer characters, we have Ellie, a female Mastodon that thinks she’s a possum. She’s not an amazing character as she just goes through a lot of the typical lover tropes and it feels like we’ve seen this story before and told better. I don’t get why she needs to sound like a sassy urban lady, though. Her two brothers, Crash and Eddie, are two slapsticky jokers who are loyal to their sister and have to learn how to respect their new friends. Problem is, they are just too stupid to live and are always whacking things, and each other, around. Unfortunately, Beavis and Butthead they ain’t, and they aren’t likable as characters because not only do they serve no purpose beyond Ellie’s species confusion, all they really do is make Sid seem more noble by contrast. Not to mention because they are both essentially just one character in two bodies, and not even their voices are all that different, I can’t really tell which one is which. I guess the only reason they have to number two is so they have someone else to talk to, relate with and beat up. The only other character is Fast Tony, the scamming salesman armadillo who pops up to give sales pitches and that’s the extent of his character. The villains? Well, there’s the Ichthyosaur and the Pliosaur, who for some reason didn’t die and are really just predatory beasts along the lines of Sharptooth in The Land Before Time. They really aren’t necessary beyond some prehistoric animals meant to antagonize the heroes.
I guess a part of the problem was the story of Ice Age was more or less told by the end of the first movie, and there wasn’t enough material to really keep this franchise going. Not just that, but the characters didn’t seem to have the depth or charm that one would probably need to have it continue. I suppose maybe you could bring this movie back for one sequel, if Manny’s character is an indication, but that’s all you could really do. It’d just start getting worse after that.
Amongst these problems, I did not hate this movie. Ice Age: the Meltdown does have its share of tense moments and some appeal of the original characters does gleam through. Plus Scrat remains funny, and he’d be a testament to why he’s the face of the franchise. The movie is very much a mixed bag, but… it’s an okay mix of good and bad.
Ice Age: the Meltdown (2006)
TreyVore rates it: C
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 13, 2021 17:29:16 GMT -5
It most definitely looks like it.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 12, 2021 7:39:01 GMT -5
Despicable Me 2 (2013)
Distributor: Universal Pictures/Illumination Entertainment
Director: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud
Cast: Steve Carell (Felonius Gru), Kirsten Wiig (Lucy Wilde), Benjamin Bratt (Eduardo Perez/El Macho), Miranda Cosgrove (Margo), Dana Gaier (Edith), Elsie Fisher (Agnes), Russell Brand (Dr. Nefario), Steve Coogan (Silas Ramsbottom), Nasim Pedrad (Jillian), Pierre Coffin (Kevin, Stuart, Bob, Minions), Chris Renaud (additional Minions)
Runtime: 98 min.
MPAA rating: PG (mild action, rude humor)
After Felonius Gru has quit being a supervillain and now makes an honest living producing a line of jams and jellies, a top-secret Arctic laboratory is stolen. Taking note of this, the Anti-Villain League sends Agent Lucy Wilde to recruit Gru as an AVL agent, being that he is a former supervillain he knows how they think and act. Gru suspects that it may be the work of the thought deceased supervillain El Macho, whose son is interested in his oldest adopted daughter Margo. Feeling protective of his three daughters and finding himself attracted to Lucy in spite of all the women in his neighborhood trying to win him over, unbeknownst to him his army of Minions are strangely disappearing. With all that at stake, can Gru keep his children safe, confess his love for Lucy, rescue his Minions and bring El Macho to justice?
First off, 2013… sucked as a year for animated films. After the great year we had in 2012 there was not a whole lot 2013 had to offer. Some were passable, others mediocre, others were just downright awful. Sure that was the year we got Frozen, which was a solid movie and became a cultural phenomenon but I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I loved Wreck-It Ralph.
There was only one other animated film that really caught my attention that year: Despicable Me 2.
I’ll start by saying that while I originally missed the first movie in theaters, after seeing it once it came out on video I knew I had to make way for the sequel once it came. Once it came out on Fourth of July weekend of that year, it was my first order of business once I was off from my on-call job. I was hoping it would be a worthy continuation, being aware that sequels have a tendency to not live up to the first.
When I did see the movie, I loved it! So now that I’m giving this movie a review, it’s time to see how well it fares.
For starters, the movie does keep the original movie’s wacky tone and remains entertaining as ever. While the first movie had a genuine heart being that it was about Gru foregoing his villainous scheme to become a father figure to three orphan girls… well, that’s nearly impossible to top, so what they do instead is try to make the sequel funnier. I’m going to dive into that as we go.
It still does contain some heart, as in this movie Gru still feels he must provide for Margo, Edith and Agnes (personality-wise, they haven’t changed), while fending off the advances of single women who are on a rather aggressive hunt for a husband. He may consider himself a devoted bachelor, but it proves that even someone who thinks they are unlovable can be loved. The only one that succeeds in winning his heart the one that doesn’t try so hard in that ambition, the AVL agent Lucy Wilde. She’s a career woman, although perky and eccentric as well; her delivery of her lines are enhanced thanks to the solid performance by Kirsten Wiig. She provides a good foil for Gru and his straight character status.
Who knows romance better than the French, am I right?
For Margo, Edith and Agnes, they maintain their same precociousness as before, although they do seem to suggest there’s not much else they can really do as characters. Sure Margo still plays a role in the story that we are focusing on being that she is noticing boys, Agnes is still the cute one fixed on unicorns and Edith… well, gets the shaft here. She seems to have taken up an interest in ninjas because… well it has no bearing on the story. But it gave her something to do right?
I’ll also add that Margo is no longer quietly advertising The Lorax here. I did like that as it means she is not simply a billboard here.
Another factor that I felt works in this movie’s favor was the fact it benefits from having a stronger villain. While Vector was not really all that imposing, El Macho, on the other hand, proves to be much stronger. Maybe this is because there was some lead-up to villain status, but he’s supposed to be a supervillain who defied authorities and was thought to be dead following a stunt; no one had seen or heard from him since. Going incognito, he schemes to obtain ultimate power through a power serum that mutates its victims into a nigh-indestructible purple-furred beast. He plots to do so by kidnapping the Minions to experiment on; it’s no doubt they upped the ante in the villain department this time around. For a fan like me it goes for more of an over-the-top superhero film-like climax which I definitely enjoyed and found thrilling.
Speaking of which, the writers and animators were aware that the first movie’s breakout characters were not Gru or the three orphan girls, but rather the Minions. They more or less gave the movie its voice and wacky spirit; they were definitely the best part of what would otherwise have been a standard ‘grump finds a heart’ story. The Despicable Me franchise would have the Minions otherwise usurp most of the promotional material; whether it was the app game, theater PSAs, toys, board games, TV specials and even a ride at Universal Studios, they knew the public fell in love with the Minions. Plus, you know they’ll hold up as characters being that they speak in their “Minionese” babble talk rather than lines of dialogue, they get more screentime here and that is a definite good call.
Still what I consider to be Despicable Me at its peak, Despicable Me 2 I found to be slightly superior to the first movie. I’ll also testify to that as it’s still to this day the lone Illumination-animated film to be nominated for Best Animated Feature. It may not have won, being that Frozen pretty much had a lock on the award (there was controversy over the fact the previous year’s award went to Brave instead of Wreck-It Ralph), but seeing as it cost $75 million to make and made close to $1 billion, you can only complain so much. I even borrowed my DVD of this movie to a friend who hadn’t seen it and they loved it, being that it seemed to improve on the first. A rare breed of movie when the sequel is actually better!
Despicable Me 2 (2013)
TreyVore rates it: A-
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 9, 2021 12:32:22 GMT -5
Iconic rapper DMX just died at age 50.
They think it was a heart attack resulting from a drug overdose.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 8, 2021 9:15:43 GMT -5
I like man.
It reminds me of the original poster for the 2007 Transformers movie.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 5, 2021 0:09:48 GMT -5
I had a good Easter Sunday, steak with my folks is always good
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 4, 2021 19:50:09 GMT -5
Well hey there. TreyVore is my handle. I'm an artist and writer. Critic too. Nice to meet ya.  |
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 4, 2021 12:32:15 GMT -5
The Star (2017)
Distributor: Columbia/Sony Pictures Animation/The Jim Henson Company/Walden Media
Director: Timothy Reckart
Cast: Steven Yeun (Bo), Keegan-Michael Key (Dave), Aidy Bryant (Ruth), Gina Rodriguez (Mary), Zachary Levi (Joseph), Christopher Plummer (King Herod), Lex Lang (The Hunter), Tyler Perry (Cyrus), Tracy Morgan (Felix), Oprah Winfrey (Deborah), Ving Rhames (Thaddeus), Gabriel Iglesias (Rufus), Kristin Chenoweth (Abby)
Runtime: 86 min.
MPAA rating: PG (some thematic elements)
Starting 9 months B.C., Mary is visited by an angel telling her she will be in labor with the Messiah. 6 months later a mill donkey, later named Bo, wants out of his wheat milling life thinking he’s meant for greater things, namely joining the royal caravan. However, he and his dove friend Dave, after escaping the wheat mill soon cross paths with Mary and Joseph, who just got married and will soon be traveling to Bethlehem. However, King Herod hears about the new King from the three wisemen and wants to have this new king dead by any means so he sics his hunter on them. So with Bo soon having to find himself with a new purpose, can he and Dave stop the Hunter and get Mary and Joseph safely to Bethlehem in order for the son of God to be born?
Let’s start by stating there were two things that happened in 2017. First off, it was not the best year for animated films. Don’t get me wrong, we had some good movies, like Coco, Despicable Me 3 and The Lego Batman Movie, but the rest of the year was notable for having junk that is not worth revisiting. For one, we had no major Disney animated film that year and what else did we have, Blue Sky’s spin on Ferdinand? The Boss Baby? Another Cars? Another Nut Job? Second, this was the year we had three major animated films from Sony Pictures Animation, likely the weakest animation studio. Their first animated film, released in the spring was Smurfs: the Lost Village, which is probably the best Smurfs movie ever made but let’s not kid ourselves, Smurfs isn’t exactly high art and the bar was very low. Their second major animated film was summer’s The Emoji Movie, which was a cataclysmic failure. Sure it made money but it was easily the worst animated film of the year; so bad it was the first animated film to ever win the Razzie Award for Worst Picture! And it won that award over movies like Baywatch, Fifty Shades Darker, The Mummy and Transformers: the Last Knight!
So, with that in mind, during the holiday season of that year we got their third major animated film, The Star. This film was based on the Nativity story, the lead-up to the birth of Christ. Was this just a disaster waiting to happen? Especially when you take into account that this is the weakest studio and it was coming so soon after that Emoji abomination? Are we really trusting the most important story to them?
I’ll start by saying this movie as expected was the birth of Christ, and would then be celebrated on a yearly basis as our holiday Christmas. Of course, I’m reviewing this movie on Easter, but being that Easter marked the time that Christ rose from the dead to save us all from sin, I feel this would be appropriate.
I guess we should start with the concept of there being another Biblical story. The last major animated movie I remember doing that was DreamWorks’s 1998 movie The Prince of Egypt. The fact that we don’t see a donkeys as typical major characters too, the last time that happened in my memory was in the Shrek franchise. Of course, we had a later Biblical movie in 2004 with The Passion of the Christ too, but… I digress.
That said, there’s an awful lot of side plots here; we have Bo thinking he’s meant for greater things, Mary and Joseph on their trip to Bethlehem, the camels that are on the move to get the three wisemen there, the King who wants Mary and Joseph to fail on their quest, and many other animals on the way. Oddly enough, it does manage to tie them together in a sense. It doesn’t forget that it’s main raison d’etre, the birth of our Lord, is the most important element. The movie does have an odd sense of reverence for the source material, probably the most whacked out element was the King’s scheme to eliminate Mary and Joseph from delivering the son of God.
Curiously, despite what you’re probably expecting from Sony Pictures Animation, this movie does have more kid-friendly jokes than you might be expecting. It doesn’t have a reliance on pop culture jokes that would look anachronistic for a movie like this. I recall there being one toilet joke delivered by Dave which happens very early in the movie.
The movie does have a soundtrack that’s very Christmas-minded, as you have “O Holy Night”, “Breath of Heaven”, “The Little Drummer Boy”, “Mary, Did You Know?” and of course, Mariah Carey’s “The Star”. The soundtrack can feel appropriate, if a bit intrusive.
For how the movie looks, I’ll say didn’t have much of a budget; it only cost $20 million. That said, it looks a lot more like a cartoon than you might think. This isn’t bad, as they do establish some solid reality on these movie’s characters. The humans are realistically animated and while there are times the animals can feel more animated than you’d think, they do have some appeal. It’s been said that you can get away with non-realistic descriptions on animals, and more liberties can be taken with their designs, which you can’t do with humans. The animation is nice overall.
Now the characters? Wow, there’s a lot of them here. I’ll start with Bo, the main donkey. He starts off as a typical stubborn donkey, literally, but feels like he’s meant for more by wanting to be a royal carrier of the caravan. It might sound typical of these movies, but through the movie he becomes a loyal friend towards Mary and Joseph, who will be the parents of Jesus. Ultimately, he’s probably meant to be the character that kids are supposed to find to be their gateway into the movie’s world. He’s supposed to be torn between two choices and ends up choosing to be a follower of Christ. Nothing wrong with that at all. His friend Dave is a goofball who is meant to be funny but he doesn’t do much. Ruth the sheep is a better character, I felt, as her Dory-like personality is like a symbol of the path that Bo takes. Her first sequence has her instructing Bo to just take a leap of faith which works. You also have the three camels Cyrus, Felix and Deborah, are on the hunt to lead the three wisemen to Bethlehem and they are like comedy reliefs in their own right; the movie does need them being how their roles in the original story were and they probably needed their own personalities. Now, characters like Mary and Joseph, as you would find, are a little more modernized than you would think, but they still manage to be memorable. A very specific caustic critic once asked why Joseph wasn’t the leading character, but one needs to take into account that it’s a movie meant for kids and they can’t emotionally connect with him; that would be more fitting for a more adult-minded movie. If anything the fact they are supposed to find Bo to be emotionally resonating would more than likely give kids reason to take faith seriously.
I’m also really surprised that with such a top-tier voice cast, and the movie only cost $20 million? The cast had to have been willing to do the animation team a massive favor.
The biggest issue I tend to have with the characters tends to be with the movie’s villains. The Hunter is, well, a character I don’t imagine was in the story at all, he and his two dogs are probably just in the movie so it has some conflict. Speaking of which, his two dogs, Thaddeus and Rufus, are an as-expected pair of smart one and dumb one pair that as I said, are just there to Hollywoodize the movie in some degree. If what Roger Ebert said was true, that a villain can either make or break a movie, that would be a problem here.
I have to say, Arctic Dogs really seems to have pried my eyes open.
For a movie coming from Sony Pictures Animation, I will say this movie was definitely a pleasant surprise. The Star might not be the iconic film you’d find in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but I will say that it might be seen a child’s good first introduction to Biblical teachings. This movie may feel more like it’s just for kids rather than one that the general public should take seriously, but as a movie for kids it’s doing its job right. It may not be a movie that leads to a big franchise, but I feel it’s a nice recovery and one that leads to some sort of redemption from that detestable Emoji Movie. Jesus forgives, indeed.
The Star (2017)
TreyVore rates it: B-
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 3, 2021 11:27:03 GMT -5
I like this one: it's an old video game favorite tune as more of a synth wave:
Seems very 80s to me!
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 3, 2021 11:23:29 GMT -5
I didn't forget, and plan on using it for my third book. Maybe on account of a real-life comic book universe battle occurring? I'm also thinking of doing a new comic where Roxy sings for our OCs if anyone wants to add theirs speak up. I have Lita and Slayer :> You're certainly welcome to add them.
Regarding your latest pic, it's nice to see someone's original character growing wings and taking flight in their own franchise. Roxy's a beacon of success we should all try to emulate :>
Okay thank you Mizan. I'm glad I'm proving to be an inspiration to so many people. BTW, someone gifted this to me as a late birthday present, scope it out! www.deviantart.com/worldwideweekly1009/art/ART-GIFT-A-Foxy-Couple-875118167 |
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 3, 2021 7:05:04 GMT -5
I remember on my Tier list of Best and Worst episodes I did say that "Mall Pups" was one of my picks for the worst episodes.
Reason being is because it does have the perfectly acceptable aesop "don't cut school". We have the Main Pups deciding to not go to Bark Brigade and Pug acts as a truant officer. However, because Lt. Pug just never worked as a character, the Main Pups are the ones you are still siding with while for some reason Pug is supposed to be the bad guy. You understand the message they are trying to get across but it doesn't feel very effective because you are spending the whole episode hoping this is going to be the episode where they finally lose this dead weight on the show.
That was a reason why I put it down as one of the worst episodes, there was just no way they could handle its message well.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 2, 2021 9:36:42 GMT -5
He was Mario's first nemesis.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Mar 31, 2021 9:05:00 GMT -5
I have a new console thanks to my folks during the Christmas season.
I now am the proud owner of the TurboGrafx-16 mini!
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Post by Trey_Vore on Mar 29, 2021 6:53:29 GMT -5
Random Fact #4345:
In summer 1998, DreamWorks released a live-action/animation hybrid science-fiction movie called Small Soldiers. This movie was about a toy company wanting to "up the ante" for a successful toyline. The intended purpose was for the Commando Elite to be the heroes and the Gorgonites to be the villains. Due to conflicting ideas from the designers, the Gorgonites are actually pacifists while the Commandos are militant and hostile, wanting to eliminate the Gorgonites and any humans that try to help them.
The movie was directed by Joe Dante, best known for his work on the two Gremlins movies. He was told to make a movie that teenagers would flock to, but sponsor tie-ins forced him to soften it to be a family-friendly movie. It was purged of a lot of violence and explosions, but still got a PG-13 for a sequence where the Commando Elite drug Christie's parents' drinks.
The movie got mixed reviews, but still made a profit. It's credited as being the final film role for actor Phil Hartman, who was murdered by his wife in May 1998.
In the 2013 movie The Call, in one sequence we see an action figure standing on a table. One may assume this is a G.I. Joe but it's actually supposed to be Major Chip Hazard, the antagonist voiced by Tommy Lee Jones. The movie did have a line of action figures made by Kenner.
Random Fact #4346:
During the 2010s, 20th Century Fox did announce plans for an upcoming movie called Toymaggedon. It was going to be about a toy factory that goes amok and at the time was not supposed to be seen as a remake.
In 2019, after 20th Century Fox was bought out by Disney, it was announced that it was supposed to be a remake of Small Soldiers, and was canceled.
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