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Post by Trey_Vore on Dec 12, 2020 4:01:29 GMT -5
The Polar Express (2004)
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Tom Hanks (Hero’s Boy’s father, Conductor, Hobo, Scrooge puppet, Santa Claus, Narrator), Daryl Sabara (Hero Boy), Isabella Peregina (Sister Sarah), Eddie Deezen (Know-It All), Nona Gaye (Hero Girl), Peter Scolari (Billy the Lonely Boy)
Runtime: 100 min.
MPAA rating: G (all ages admitted)
On Christmas Eve, a 10-year old boy (no name given) thinks he may be approaching the end of his potential belief in Santa Claus. After he falls asleep, a magical locomotive parks on the street and the conductor invites him to take the journey to the North Pole to meet Santa. After a brief refusal, he broads the train and befriends a girl (also, no name) and helps another boy that almost misses it. Will the boy meet Santa and have his belief in the magic of the holiday restored?
Make no mistake, Christmas is my favorite time of year. I have a gigantic collection of must-watch holiday favorites to see and my iTunes account is full of songs classified under “Holiday”. I have several seasonal favorites, namely Home Alone, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas… There’s no better time of year.
Now, I’m not completely opposed to going against the grind of what you’re probably expecting from a Christmas movie. When you think “Christmas” you tend to think of a time of family togetherness, warm fuzzy feelings and of course, the birth of Christ. That said, I do enjoy something that isn’t supposed to be that way (I still love movies like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and Gremlins).
However, while there is definitely a market for Christmas movies, there is inevitably going to be some movies that just plain suck. Movies meant to be funny can be cruel and mean-spirited, movies meant to be heartwarming can seem despicable and movies trying to be magical end up feeling soulless. I remember hearing about this movie back during my time on the Disney College Program and at the time, CGI was pretty much guaranteed money in the bank. I did see it in theatres and…?
…I regret my choice.
Maybe I should start with the story. The movie is based on the picture book written in 1985 by Chris Van Allsburg (who you probably also know as the guy that wrote Jumanji), and expanded to feature length. Problem with that is while Jumanji managed to find something it can do to justify it’s now a movie you would go to the theatre and pay money to see, The Polar Express doesn’t—it takes just about 10 minutes of story and just leaps around from one scenario to the next without any real rhyme or reason. From a story viewpoint, it just seems more like a roller coaster ride than a movie.
The characters basically are flat and undeveloped as well. The main character is only referred to in the credits as “Hero Boy”. His first friend is “Hero Girl”. The white smart kid who sounds like Mandark from Dexter’s Laboratory is “Know-It All”. The lonely boy’s name is “Billy”. The conductor never gets a name either. That’s all we really get to know about them as what’s probably more important is a desperate need to enchant. Are we really supposed to want to know these characters or find someone we can emotionally relate to? I can’t tell.
And of course, the way they describe Santa Claus isn't what you're probably expecting from a kids' movie. You might think he's supposed to be a kindly, gentle, warm-hearted elf but instead, he seems more like he's supposed to be the CEO of a mega-conglomerate corporation. I'm almost expecting the elves to be shuddering in fear as even a slight mistake could cause him to make like Donald Trump and say "You're fired!"
Now for the elephant in the room: the animation. The book was originally done with a painterly tone as it gave the movie some degree of charm. Here, they use CGI to make the characters look as though they are supposed to be real people—it goes for the dreaded Uncanny Valley. We know they want the characters to look like people you could actually meet but it only has the opposite effect. Instead, these characters end up looking like plastic dolls with glass eyes. They always look stiff and unlike what you’d expect a real person to look like. Because of this, and the fact the characters go undeveloped, even back when I saw this movie in 2004 I found myself wanting to avoid the characters regardless of what message they were trying to send. But isn’t this movie supposed to make me want to join these kids while they make their trip to the North Pole? Very self-defeating in my book.
This movie may want to be a Christmas classic, but instead it wound up being a horror show. The Polar Express is yet another example of how not to make an animated feature film about a children’s book. It wants to make you feel warm and toasty, but instead it is creepy and soulless. I’m pretty sure even kids aren’t going to like this movie as it might unintentionally scare them. Do yourself a favor and stick with your other seasonal holiday favorites and avoid this awful movie.
The Polar Express (2004)
TreyVore rates it: F
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Post by Trey_Vore on Dec 11, 2020 20:36:00 GMT -5
just today we lost Tommy Lister Jr. www.tmz.com/2020/12/10/tommy-tiny-lister-dead-dies-friday-movies-deebo/he was well known as Zeus in the 1989 movie "No Holds Barred" in which he starred alongside Hulk Hogan, he also did stints in the WWF and WCW (in WCW he was Z-gangsta). He was also known for his role as Deebo in the Friday movies and we should know him as the voice of Finnick from Zootopia I heard about that at work. Poor little bitty fox. RIP Tommy Lister, Jr. |
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Post by Trey_Vore on Dec 8, 2020 10:58:27 GMT -5
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Post by Trey_Vore on Dec 6, 2020 11:50:54 GMT -5
Here’s my updated list of Christmas movies/specials I watch every year: The Bishop’s Wife A Charlie Brown Christmas Christmas Chronicles A Christmas Story Christmas Vacation Frosty the Snowman The Grinch (both the cartoon and the Jim Carrey movie) Iron Man 3 Klaus Krampus Love Actually Mickey’s Christmas Carol Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas Miracle on 34th Street (original) The Muppet Christmas Carol A Muppet Family Christmas Nöelle Olaf’s Frozen Adventure Opus and Bill in A Wish for Wings That Work Pound Puppies: I Heard the Barks on Christmas Eve Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Santa Buddies Santa Claus is Coming to Town The Star White Christmas Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration The Year Without a Santa Claus What do you think of that list, Trey_Vore? Good updates, I had no idea that Krampus would be one of your favorites. For me, I have this: A Christmas Story National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Miracle on 34th Street How the Grinch Stole Christmas Fat Albert's Christmas Special A Charlie Brown Christmas Home Alone 1 & 2 (the third movie had nothing to do with the first two, and the fourth movie...don't get me started) 101 Dalmatians (1996 live action movie) 101 Dalmatians the series: A Christmas Cruella Frosty the Snowman Christmas Eve on Sesame Street And here's some more: Die Hard Gremlins Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights Lethal Weapon Updated with: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Santa Claus is Coming to Town He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special Kung Fu Panda Holiday Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special A Garfield Christmas Olaf's Frozen Adventure The Simpsons: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire The Amazing World of Gumball: Christmas Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas Mickey's Christmas Carol It's a SpongeBob Christmas! Minions Holiday Special So yeah, I got a lot to binge on. Pretty much need to start before Thanksgiving. What do you think Belchic? |
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Post by Trey_Vore on Dec 1, 2020 19:00:58 GMT -5
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Post by Trey_Vore on Dec 1, 2020 8:44:01 GMT -5
Random Fact #4324:
If Bruce Lee was still alive, he would have just turned 80 years old.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Nov 29, 2020 5:16:26 GMT -5
Hey guys. I don't see too many sources of info on this mini-series (it doesn't even have a page on Wikipedia), but right now there's going to be a shorts collection #9 which I'll get too.
Plus I heard there is going to be another spin-off show called Puffins that has speaking parts and the lead Puffin is, in an awkward casting choice, Johnny Depp.
EDIT: Apparently while Arctic Friends is running, this is going to feature the Puffins as well as Leopold and Bertha.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Nov 28, 2020 10:25:54 GMT -5
So far it seems All Quiet on the Western Front on the premiere. Having heard no one talking about it, I chose to listen to some reviews and this is the excerpt from Wikipedia:
The first season of the show received generally positive reviews from critics who praised the voice acting, musical score and animation. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season received an 80% "Fresh" rating and an average 8.03 of 10 review score based on 29 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Charming and chaotic, if slightly too caustic, Animaniacs is a delightful revitalization of a beloved series that's fun enough to make up for any early fumbles."
Some critics felt that the revival of the series lacked the same charm that the original show had, which was attributed to the lack of any of the original production staff on the new show, as well as the influence of more recent animated shows like Family Guy on the show's approach. Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone said that while the revival maintains the humor for the Pinky and the Brain shorts, the shorts with the Warners were not as well done as the original series. Sepinwall said, "Where their powers of exasperation once made them unstoppable, now they're the ones who seem impotent and irritated by the people and culture around them.", a factor he attributes to the lack of the original producers' involvement with the revival. Variety's Caroline Framke said that the series focused too much on trying to lampoon current and political events, a measure exacerbated by the fact that the forward-looking writing approach was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of simply parodying the entertainment industry in general, and left the show "more of a sour aftertaste that keeps it from being as effervescent as it once was, and could be." The A.V. Club's Danette Chavez gave the first season a C+, stating that "when Animaniacs remembers to have fun, it makes for lively, occasionally impressive, viewing" but felt that the balance between satire and silliness was off, with many of the parodies that targeted modern issues lacking subtlety. Beth Elderkin of Gizmodo said that the revival did not have the same "biting" satire as the original, with some jokes having to be explained to some degree to the audience, and that the show felt that it held onto trying to being a product of the 90s, and thus did not have a clear target of what audience it was trying to please.
Paste's Joseph Staniclar spoke more highly of the show's take on political and contemporary topics, saying that while it may rely too heavily on modern references, "it's refreshing to see the show's satire actually take political stances instead of falling into the crowd-pleasing 'both sides'-isms many modern comedies now take." Ethan Anderton of Slashfilm also stated that the new show heavily references political commentary, but, as with the original series, praised that the show equally targeted aspects across partisan lines, and that "no one is safe from the buffoonery and mockery of Animaniacs." Jesse Schedeen, writing for IGN gave the first season an 8 out of 10, writing, "Animaniacs is a mostly witty and faithful update to an old favorite. Despite the march of time and a flashier coat of paint, the new series plays remarkably similar to its predecessor. Yakko, Wakko, and Dot's misadventures are still a hoot, and the Pinky and the Brain segments help add just enough variety to keep each episode humming along. Some fans may lament the loss of so many classic supporting characters, but the emphasis on the big guns has its clear benefits. Animaniacs is a concentrated blast of cartoon nostalgia that any Fox Kids or Kids' WB veteran would do well to check out."
The Verge's Joshua Rivera stated that the show's approach to satire of the entertainment industry, political topics, and modern culture done in the same style as the original show did not hold up well considering newer animated shows like Family Guy, Bojack Horseman and Rick & Morty that had more innovative ways to present such satire. Kate Cox of Ars Technica said that with some of the repetition of humor between episodes and the lack of cast variety, the show does not lend well to binge viewing typical of streaming services, but otherwise still has the original show's trademark comedy and that "it has the seeds of a great show in it."
So it sounds like it's a good show despite a few flaws. I do worry though that some of the more topical humor is going to date it.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Nov 23, 2020 1:55:25 GMT -5
Bolt (2008)
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Director: Chris Williams and Byron Howard
Cast: John Travolta (Bolt), Susie Essman (Mittens), Mark Walton (Rhino), Miley Cyrus (Penny), Malcolm McDowell (Dr. Calico), Grey Griffin (Penny’s mother), Greg Germann (Penny’s agent)
Runtime: 96 min.
MPAA rating: PG (mild action and peril)
Bolt is a show about a white Shepard dog endowed with amazing superpowers who, with his human owner Penny, is on a hunt to try to save Penny’s father from the nefarious Dr. Calico. Unbeknownst to him, he’s just an actor for a popular TV show. During a cliffhanger stunt, Bolt is accidently taped up in a box and mailed cross-country from Los Angeles to New York. There, he is referred to a scrawny alley cat named Mittens who starts to help him realize he’s not simply a prop in the show. After meeting his biggest fan, a hamster named Rhino, they make the trek to get back to California. Will Bolt realize the meaning of being a true hero?
You probably remember the 1970s and the 1980s not being Disney’s proudest times. A large part of that was due to the fact Walt Disney had died and there was not a lot of new direction for the studio. As dark as that was, I would probably argue that the 2000s were a worse time for Disney. At this time, CGI-animation was taking over the field and cel-animated movies started seeing a lot of decline as far as revenue was concerned. Not to mention, this was what Disney’s animation division was founded on; now they had to start making some drastic changes to continue to compete with newer companies like Pixar, DreamWorks and Blue Sky. After largely phasing out cel animation for all CGI, Disney needed to start finding a voice with their newer movies as what seemed to work as high-concept and name-casting. If we forget about Dinosaur for a moment, Disney made three major all-CGI animated films: the first was Chicken Little, second was Meet the Robinsons and the third was Bolt.
This movie had a troubled production history. I remember first hearing about this movie during my time in the Disney College Program back in 2004 when its working title was American Dog. Spearheaded by Chris Sanders as a follow-up to the warmly-received Lilo and Stitch, the story was originally a quirky one about TV actor dog, a testy, one-eyed cat and an oversized, radioactive bunny who are trying to find new homes while the dog still thinks he’s on camera. After John Lasseter gave some pointers on how to improve the story, Chris Sanders refused and was eventually fired. A new team was brought in and movie had to be completed in a year and a half, rather than the usual four years. Chris Sanders would then find work at DreamWorks, where he would give direction to How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods.
So with all that in mind, I did go ahead and revisit Lilo and Stitch and I feel it’s still watchable but its not holding up as well as I would have liked. At the same time, Bolt was under the radar since it left theatres. Does Bolt fare better as a movie?
I remember telling my mom that Bolt was more the Disney that I remember. However, in retrospect its… well, not a masterpiece but it’s fine.
The story is a lot less quirky than before and that’s got its pros and cons. It feels a lot less gimmicky than it did and it feels like there is nothing to potentially screw something up. The trade-off though is it feels a lot more conventional—like imagine how King of the Hill probably was after seeing Beavis and Butthead. The story is very straightforward about a dog named Bolt who wants to return to his owner after being accidently mailed cross-country and meets a bunch of quirky characters along the way. The problem with that though is it feels a little too safe. It doesn’t have the guts to do something bolder and it just doesn’t feel especially confident.
The animation, as previously stated, also lacking in a real personality. Disney was still adjusting to having to do all CGI and while they’ve shown in this film that that they have improved, it just looks like imitation Pixar; the humans in particular look like they were leftovers from an Incredibles movie. That’s not a complaint but again, just no real personality.
With the characters, Bolt is supposed to be a dog that winds up learning he’s more than just a prop. Still, I can’t help but feel like they feel vaguely familiar. Bolt thinks he’s a real-deal hero but just an actor. Like Buzz Lightyear’s sense of duty mixed Pinocchio’s desire to be a real boy. It’s a perfectly fine set up helped by a solid performance by John Travolta. Mittens is an alley cat who is more streetwise and has to contend with making him come to grips with the fact that her new pal isn’t merely an actor. She’s riddled with abandonment issues, which could have potentially made for a daring backstory, but again, they just don’t go far with it out of fear of making some people uncomfortable. Rhino is probably the best character as he’s probably the most identifiable character. They play two opposite ends to Bolt: Mittens is world-weary while Rhino is the optimist. Penny really just bookends the story as Bolt’s motivation to get back home; in this role Miley Cyrus proves she has more competent acting chops, at least above that of Hannah Montana.
The biggest problem with the characters is the fact it doesn’t have a strong villain. The villain isn’t Dr. Calico as you may have thought but rather its… Penny’s agent. A typical Hollywood agent who is always on a hunt to keep ratings up, he’s probably meant to give the movie some satire on the inside of Hollywood. Not overly topical and that means the movie won’t be subject to groan-inducing humor, problem is, it doesn’t really have any bite.
This was one movie that got nominated for Best Animated Feature in 2008, alongside Pixar’s WALL-E and DreamWorks’s Kung Fu Panda. However, while WALL-E definitely deserved to win the award and Kung Fu Panda is an animated film that DreamWorks can be truly proud of, Bolt it seems, is lost and no one ever talks about it—you’d have to time travel back to Thanksgiving 2008 to find anyone who remembers it. Why might that be? Well, Disney had clearly evolved and sharply improved from their experimenting days in the 2000s; movies like Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia and Moana proved that they had perfected the art of CG-animation and there’s really no looking back. For a moment, let’s say this movie was not released in its original time—how about… let’s say it came out in 1998. Yeah. Suppose that Disney gave us Mulan as originally planned but they gave us Bolt in Thanksgiving 1998 instead of Pixar’s A Bug’s Life; would it have seemed really special? I’ll bet it would, and probably would have gained lots of fans (although I doubt that in time the CG animation would hold up), but it just feels too safe and pedestrian for a wide audience in 2008.
In the end, Bolt is perfectly fine for a big animated film from Disney. If it came from say, Sony or Blue Sky they would have had something they could truly proud of, but seeing as this came from Disney… it’s a serviceable movie that just does its job right but will not threaten to replace any of your existing favorite Disney films or even be a favorite in general. The fact it even seems to end definitively means there’s likely no chance we’ll be returning to Bolt’s world anytime soon. It never threatens to be bad, but it’s hardly memorable—at least Lilo and Stitch was willing to take a risk. Hardly their best, but never to be judged as their worst.
Bolt (2008)
TreyVore rates it: B
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Post by Trey_Vore on Nov 22, 2020 8:05:10 GMT -5
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (2000)
Distributor: Warner Bros., Phil Roman and the Fred Rappoport Company
Director: Phil Roman
Cast: Susan Blu (Grandma Spankenheimer) Michele Lee (Cousin Mel), Alex Doduk (Jake Spankenheimer), Jim Staahl (Santa Claus), Elmo “Dr. Elmo” Shropshire (Narrator, Grandpa Spankenheimer), Cam Clarke (Austin Bucks), Maggie Blue O’Hara (Daphne Spankenheimer), Kathleen Barr (I.M. Slime)
Runtime: 51 min.
MPAA rating: Not rated
It’s holiday season in Cityville, and people are caught up in the craziness of the holidays. The Spankenheimer family is running a modest general store that sells Christmas necessities. The family does fine (despite a somewhat lax attitude on shoplifting), but Cousin Mel thinks things could be a lot better. Things result in Santa clobbering Grandma with his team of reindeer and now Jake has a limited time to find his Grandma and stop Cousin Mel from stealing an insane amount of money. Can Jake save Christmas?
I’m pretty sure you’ve heard this song on the radio during the Christmas season. It’s meant to be a funny (if dark) Christmas song about the singer’s grandmother being run over by Santa and his team of reindeer and the family mourns her death. It’s probably best to think of this song as a more seasonal “It’s My Party”. Why? For if “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” is “It’s My Party”, it did get a sequel in 1992 called “Grandpa’s Gonna Sue the Pants off of Santa”, so I guess that song would be “Judy’s Turn to Cry”. Unlike those songs though these two Christmas minded songs are a total guilty pleasure.
Then during the late 90s an idea came about to take the song and turn it into an animated holiday special. Sounds crazy, right? Well, it worked for Alvin and the Chipmunks so why not try turning Elmo and Patsy’s song into a cartoon and have it become a holiday staple too? After all everyone wants to take a crack at having a Christmas story to tell for the ages and why wouldn’t you? It’s pretty much money in the bank as you’re likely going to get some air time and for everyone that hates on a special, you’ll surely find some supporters (let’s not talk about the Star Wars Holiday Special okay!?)
I’ll start by saying this: putting it lightly, the effort to take a three-minute song and turn it into an hour-long cartoon was not too successful.
For one, we have a story where since it is clearly intended for kids, Grandma doesn’t actually die; she just survives and gets a case of amnesia. It’s a little far-fetched that one minor incident could cause such a stir that would ultimately lead to Santa Claus getting arrested and put on trial, and one that could potentially destroy Christmas. At least Miracle on 34th Street did that with some good writing and some actual pacing; it goes from the villain wanting to sell a general store to suddenly becoming a massive get-rich-quick scheme really fast! It becomes weirder when you take into account that there is some very slow decision-making on the characters’ parts and even if Santa was innocent on account of a hit-and-run he could have been found guilty on charges of kidnapping. This story may be set during the Christmas season when snow is all around, but the story being told is one big hot mess.
The animation quality leaves a lot to be desired too; as nothing about it feels terribly inspired. I’m aware that Phil Roman isn’t exactly the Ritz when it comes to animation but this looks and feels cheap. All the character animation, while semi-realistic, looks stiff and unnatural. The painting on everything looks very flat. There are even numerous instances where the camera pans across a still image as though you’re scanning a picture with your eyes!
The characters… there’s just not much to say about them. Jake is the hero of the story but he’s such a flat character. The kid is pure virtue; he always does the right thing, always helps his grandmother when she needs it, believes in the spirit of the holiday… it has to say something if probably the worst thing he does is throw a pillow at his sister! The grandmother is basically the reason for the incident to happen; she’s a glorified MacGuffin. The rest of the characters are basically just one-note sketches--Daphne is the snotty older sister, Santa Claus is just the bare minimum for the character, Austin Bucks is the big corporate developer who's... maybe the villain, maybe not, Grandpa is an old coot and Jake's parents are... his parents. By the time the story is over no one develops, grows or changes. I’m aware that Cousin Mel, who at the most was a passing reference to a way for Grandpa to cope with his wife’s early death, was ambiguous gender-wise and basically adapted into villainy in this cartoon. Despite that, and the fact we are not supposed to want her to win, she and her lawyer are probably the closest things we get to characters that are actually sensible. She isn’t satisfied with the way the family’s general store is being run and thinks they could be doing a lot better. Maybe this is just my inner 80s kid talking but I don’t think just being a simple little general store is all you really want to be; regarding money you really can’t have enough. Would you want to just run a small mom-and-pop store or be the CEO of a mega-conglomerate that pays millions of dollars each and every year? The choice is obvious!
I will say that Cousin Mel does have a really nice figure too, she’s probably the one thing this cartoon has to a redeeming quality. Why am I supposed to see this character as evil? Oh right, because it’s a Christmas special for kids and we need to tell them that there is a greater purpose for Christmas other than the almighty dollar.
In the end, I guess it’s true that like how when you try to adapt a short children’s book into a movie that people would pay money to see, it does take a lot of padding to translate a song into a Christmas special. It shows too. At odd points of the cartoon they take a deliberate time out to either have a random song or make a flat-out reference to its original source material. Sometimes it’s a combination of the two, I’m not joking. They go ahead and point things out through the song as though you were just too stupid to get it for yourself. The songs aren’t even that witty or clever.
Despite all that though, I won’t say it’s completely awful. I guess if you’re in the mood for something cute and silly then this should prove to be what you’re looking for, but this isn’t a good example of how to make a Christmas cartoon. Does the song justice, at least.
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (2000)
TreyVore rates it: D-
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Post by Trey_Vore on Nov 20, 2020 12:31:13 GMT -5
Hi guys! If you need a reminder, Belchic did one review of a Christmas film from the 2000s that starred classic cartoon characters. sparkydearly.proboards.com/post/201964So, I now I give you a review of a different Christmas film from the 2000s that stars a different set of classic cartoon characters. Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas (2006) Distributor: Warner Bros. Director: Charles Visser Cast: Joe Alaskey (Daffy Duck, Sylvester, Marvin the Martian, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepe Le Pew), Bob Bergen (Porky Pig, Tweety, Speedy Gonzales), Jim Cummings (Taz, Gossamer), June Foray (Granny), Maurice LaMarche (Yosemite Sam), Tara Strong (Priscilla Pig), Billy West (Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd) Runtime: 45 min. MPAA rating: not rated Daffy Duck is the obscenely wealthy CEO of the Lucky Duck Superstore, a Wal-Mart like shopping center where he is anything but a generous boss. He cuts wages, eliminates health insurance and demands that all his harried employees show up for work at the crack of dawn Christmas morning. Bugs Bunny warns him that lack of holiday spirit will result in him being visited by three spirits to scare it into him. Do you think Daffy is going to learn his lesson? You may have heard about this cartoon when it was released to much hype back in 2006. Remember only a few years ago, Looney Tunes: Back in Action went nowhere and the still-running Loonatics Unleashed was just… no. It got somewhat lukewarm reception and then just kinda faded into the background, turning its head during the Christmas season. I gotta say, if you think the Sonic the Hedgehog fanbase is unpleasable, I can only wonder what the WB animation team has to say about new projects with the Looney Tunes. I’m pretty sure you heard this story before. It’s yet another retelling of Charles d**kens’s A Christmas Carol. Never mind the fact that it’s a dead horse beaten into dust and the Looney Tunes already did this once back in 1979 (see Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales), but how does this one fare? I’ll start with the positives. The whole Looney Tunes gang made it into this special and the animation looks really nice. The casting is creative as well, I liked how they selected the characters’ roles; for one thing you have Granny and Tweety as the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Yosemite Sam as the Ghost of Christmas Present and Taz as the Ghost of Christmas Future. I know Mel Blanc was not going to be around forever but the voice cast does an admirable job. The classic Looney Tunes style humor is still intact; I don’t think I remember a version of Charles d**kens’s holiday chestnut that was this slapsticky. But… those are probably the best things about it, as I do have issues with the rest. You probably have fond memories with these characters. All the major and most of the minor Looney Tunes characters are here and they all fill roles in some manner or another. If you knew about how the Termite’s Terrace originally worked most of the classic Looney Tunes shorts had just a small idea for a story and then used that one idea to pile on jokes and slapstick. However, it does feel as though times and tastes have changed since their original heyday. Nowadays we tend to see something meant for children as having some educational/social value and the kids don’t learn from mallets, anvils and dynamite. So what do you do? Well, taking a piece of classic literature and throwing the Looney Tunes in the mix seemed to be the answer. Problem is, it’s just too… orderly. We know that Charles d**kens’s A Christmas Carol has a timeless, proper structure. The Looney Tunes just work best with their patented anarchy. See a problem? Instead of allowing these characters to be themselves, they’re stuck being servants to a story with too much inhibition. They feel too organized and they start feeling worn out if taken out of the 7-8 minute cartoon short. You probably know who the classic Looney Tunes are and who the characters from Charles d**kens’s story are supposed to be so there’s not really a great need to bog us down with elaborate character development, but there are some issues with some of its themes that it tries to get across as even retreading the classic story isn’t all that effective. Due to all its looney slapstick in the beginning, it comes at the expense of the original text; for one thing, we get to see so many of the classic Looney Tunes which I did like and appreciate but the pacing is terrible--I was nervous when the cartoon was more than half over and there was still no sign of the Ghost of Christmas Past. Then there is the themes of the story. All that slapstick comedy that Daffy suffers and the characters doing their classic schtick is great but then you have the sentimental moments as well to try to make it more receptive to kids. Maybe that works great for the classic Disney characters and the Muppets but it just doesn’t fit the Looney Tunes; you have pratfalls, getting shocked, flattened, and blown up and all that looney wackiness but then there is the attempts at heart where a part of the story involves Porky Pig wanting to get his precocious daughter Priscilla a doll for Christmas. Suddenly… “we’re only doing this because we love you” doesn’t exactly come to mind. Also, if Bugs Bunny is meant to be the Cousin Fred character here and he could as easily have told Daffy about the three spirits to scare him into believing in the spirit of the holiday, then is there any point in having Jacob Marley at all? None that I discern beyond giving Sylvester some sort of role. All that said though, Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas is certainly watchable and definitely will hold some appeal. This special is meant to appeal to kids and it does work for them. It’s bright, colorful, full of jokes and it is brimming with holiday cheer, and for a warm holiday story kids like that. Otherwise, there’s just too many superior versions of Charles d**kens’s story for you to really waste time with this one. Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas (2006) TreyVore rates it: C- |
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Post by Trey_Vore on Nov 19, 2020 18:48:29 GMT -5
So is the drawing going to happen shortly or maybe next week sometime bab?
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Post by Trey_Vore on Nov 16, 2020 9:23:32 GMT -5
Now that the show is coming back, I feel this would be appropriate.
Random Fact #4322:
As a series, Tiny Toon Adventures was a highly popular show. So much so that even when the series ended in 1992 (though there were two specials in the form of Tiny Toons Spring Break (1994) and Tiny Toons Night Ghoulery (1995)) the series still had video games being released during the fifth gaming generation (specifically the PlayStation 1/Nintendo 64 era).
At the start of the new Millennium (specifically, the early 2000s), there was going to be a video game developed by Treasure and published by Conspiracy Entertainment that was going to be called Tiny Toon Adventures: Defenders of the Universe. It is known that there was going to be PlayStation 2 version of the game and Nintendo Power did hint at a possible port for the Gamecube. The plot of the game was that Montana Max had seized control of the Planet Gold Star and the Bullions, the planet's natives, escape and ask Buster, Babs, Plucky and Hamton for help. The game would have been a 3D battle arena fighting game in the vein of Power Stone.
What was known about the game was that screenshots also featured Furrball, Shirley the Loon and Fifi La Fume, suggesting they would be featured in the game as well. It's also been confirmed that the original voice cast would have returned to do the characters' voices. Charlie Adler would have returned to voice Buster Bunny (he was originally angry over the fact they decided not to have him do a voice for Animaniacs) and Billy West would take over as the voice of Hamton as Don Messick died in 1997.
The game was slated for release in 2002, but several delays took place and they eventually told us the game was still coming out by 2004. After the PlayStation 2 and Gamecube were phased out for the PlayStation 3 and the Wii, the game never materialized and was quietly canceled. It remains unclear why the game never came out and presumably would have been too expensive to 'update' for the superior consoles. Other victimized games were the cancellation of Dizzy's Candy Quest for the Game Boy Color and the limited release of Tiny Toon Adventures: Scary Dreams for the Game Boy Advance.
Random Fact #4323:
A poll on a Tiny Toon Adventures wiki page once ran a poll where they wanted to know which of the classic video games is the most popular and the winner was the Sega Genesis game Tiny Toon Adventures: Acme All-Stars. This is a sports game notable for being a Tiny Toon Adventures game where the other characters other than the leads are usable in some form.
It's also the only officially licensed Tiny Toon Adventures game where Fifi La Fume is playable.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Nov 16, 2020 8:20:46 GMT -5
Let's do this thing for the birth of our Lord guys!
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Post by Trey_Vore on Nov 12, 2020 7:25:39 GMT -5
This may end up being another review that I will have to write.
BTW, at one Wizard World con I did actually get to meet Loni Anderson. She still looks amazing.
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How you holding up?