So I promise I will have long blog reviews of Creed, Good Dinosaur and Sanjay’s Super Team this week but for now here are my youtube reviews. I loved all 3!
I’m traveling tomorrow to my parents in California but will do best I can to get them up soon. Thanks!
I’m not sure who asked for a Lion King animated series for small children but we have gotten it with Disney Jr’s The Lion Guard. I recently watched the 1 hour premiere and had mixed feelings about it. I love Lion King and had it in my Top 50 Animated Films, but am not quite as high on it as many who have it as their favorite animated film ever. I’m not sure what those fans will think of this addition, so if you are let me know!
PROS
Let’s talk about the things I liked in the premiere.
The most important stand-out is the animation. Disney has been doing an amazing job with their 2D and CG TV offerings. Whether it is Star Wars Rebels, Wonder Over Yonder, Disney’s Mickey Mouse, Gravity Falls, the TV animation is on par with the film animation. It really is and Lion Guard is no exception. While perhaps not the masterpiece quality of the original it still looks great.
I haven’t seen the sequels for some time so I can’t compare the animation in those but Lion Guard I thought looked smooth, bright, colorful with beautiful backdrops.
I also thought the mythos behind the Lion Guard and Scar losing his roar was pretty good. The group of 5 in the guard should be fun for small kids to follow on adventures protecting the Pridelands from villains.
The voice casting was solid with Rob Lowe voicing Simba and Gabrielle Union Nala. I also liked Atticus Shaffer from underrated show The Middle as the voice of Ono the egret of the Lion Guard.
The score by Christopher Willis and Beau Black is excellent even if the songs were very lame.
Here is the trailer
CONS
I am not a fan of the sarcastic, hip tone we got from lead Kion but there was admittedly some of that in the original with Simba wanting to be king and all. For some reason, I found it more grating here. Also the character of Bunga, a honey badger that reminded me of Terk from Tarzan, was very annoying. He’s supposed to be Kion’s snarky friend but most of the time it came across as forced and obnoxious.
I also didn’t like the way the females were all either insecure or arrogant divas. In a way I kind of wish that Kiara would have been the lead of the story but she is relegated to being rescued in the premiere. I particularly didn’t like Zuri who complains about her nails and getting dirty.
I also did not like the constant winks to the original. It felt very lazy to me and forced. Like they sing instead of Hakuna Matata, Zuka Zamba. Why not have a reprise or new arrangement of Hakuna Matata? I mean would Timon and Pumba have gotten a new word/philosophy to life? Plus, Timon and Pumba are still living by the no worries philosophy? Wasn’t that kind of proven wrong in the whole ‘it allowed Scar to take over and ruin the pridelands?’
Plus Hakuna Matata was not about not working. It was about not worrying. That’s not exactly the same thing. It’s about not having problems and Simba realized it was wrong and certainly wouldn’t have been teaching his son some new version of it called Zuka Zamba.
It just felt kind of like a bargain basement rip off of a highlight from the original film. There are also lots of jokes and puns about the original, which got a little old. Even Rafiki saying ‘it is time’ and then Kion singing ‘It is Time’ song made me roll my eyes! Couldn’t they have thought about something else for Rafiki to say?
I also did not care for a scene where Mufasa visits Kion with the voice of James Earl Jones. In the original film when Simba see’s his father in the vision of the clouds it is an emotionally powerful moment. Here it’s like ‘oh hi Grandpa…’
I was also disappointed to see the hyenas as the main villains. They are so stupid that I don’t think they will be tough for the Lion Guard to defeat. I understand it is a show for very small children but why not have a child of Scar be the main villain? That would be really cool. You’ve got to imagine as King he fathered cubs? Scar is possibly my favorite Disney villain so this seems like a serious downgrade.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Overall, I think it is an all right animated series that small children will probably enjoy. The animation is good quality and the voice work I liked. It’s basically Lion King fan fiction so its appeal will partly depend on how open you are too new properties in that world.
However, I felt many of the attempts to tie back into the original felt lame and generic. The attempts at potty humor, songs like Zuka Zama annoyed me. They don’t show any growth on the part of Timon and Pumba from the original film. The songs in general were mediocre.
I also didn’t care for the way the girl characters were portrayed and Bunga I found very annoying.
That said, not a bad watch and will be curious how the series works out.
If you have seen it put in the comments section and let me know what you thought- especially if you are a big Lion King fan.
Overall Grade- C+ (good animation make it just a hair above average Disney fare)
Yesterday my friends Abby, Jeremy and I discussed what is widely considered the best of the Star Wars films: Empire Strikes Back.
I watched Empire Strikes Back twice last week and each time I was truly blown away by it. There was a new director for Empire Strikes Back, Irvin Kershner and new writers Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, and you can really feel their influence on the finished film. I am not overstating my feeling when I say every decision they made works. There isn’t anything I would change in the film.
The characters are the first stand-out in Empire Strikes Back. You get some new characters in Yoda who is a tough taskmaster to Luke as he teaches him about the force. You also get to know Lando Calrissian who at one moment betrays the team but there may be more too it than that.
Then of course our core group are all back with Luke learning about his father, facing his demons, and getting training from Yoda. Han Solo has become fiercely loyal to Luke and him and Leia have terrific romantic chemistry. He is asked to sacrifice everything and is frozen in carbonite in an amazingly tense scene.
The Empire led by Vader is more like a Nazi regime in this film and especially in the final confrontation with Luke there is no doubt of Vader’s strength and overwhelming control of the force. When Luke realizes his father is Vader it is such an intense, devastating moment (not to mention the greatest reveal ever in movies).
The action is all better with incredible battle sequences on Hoth and in Cloud City. The special effects are great and the writing is poignant, funny, emotional, everything you could want in a movie.
If it is possible Empire Strikes Back was even better than I remembered it on this recent rewatch. Without a doubt in my mind one of the most perfectly executed films ever made.
I hope you guys enjoy our discussion and would love if give it a thumbs up if you do. Thanks so much!
What is your favorite moment from Empire Strikes Back?
Overall Grade- A+
Hey guys! Just thought I would share with you my thoughts on the new Zootopia trailer.
Here’s the actual trailer
Long and short of it is I didn’t really like this trailer. It’s more of a clip than a trailer and I didn’t think it was that funny. It was like a joke on the Simpsons that gets stretched out way beyond where the gag needed to be. It doesn’t make me very hopeful for the comedy of the film. I’ve always felt it looked a little Chicken Littleish, which makes me very nervous and this trailer didn’t calm my nerves in that regard. I hope it will be good but so far nothing I’ve seen from Disney has won me over on this film yet.
What did you guys think of this trailer? Are you excited for Zootopia?
I must confess I have absolutely no memory of the 2010 Chilean mining disaster that evidently captivated the entire world but yours truly. This fact probably helped me to enjoy the film The 33 more because if I had known the details going in it would have felt very predictable.
It’s not a perfect film but I had an ok time watching it. If you are in the mood for a cheesy inspirational film you certainly could do worse.
It basically tells the story of 33 miners who after a collapse are stuck beneath the ground in a mine in Chili. The men must use the small supplies they have to survive and try to get along in the hot, tense cramped quarters.
Meanwhile above ground their families are trying to get more help and Laurence Golborne (Rodrigo Santoro) the minister of mining is trying to manage expectations and find a way to drill down to the men.
For the most part I liked the performances of the actors playing the miners. Antonio Banderas is good as the leader and Lou Diamond Philips as the safety officer who feels he let the men down by not insisting on safety to management.
Above ground the acting is more dicey. Juliette Binoche is completely miscast as the estranged sister of a miner. There are also a lot of caricatures that made me cringe like 2 women that are in love with a miner- one wife, one mistress. Gabriel Byrne appears as an engineer and he is pretty good.
There are a couple of choices the director Patricia Riggen made that felt odd to me. First of all, some characters speak Spanish with subtitles but the majority speak English with a Spanish accent. I found that very distracting. She should have just gone with one or the other.
Also she could have done more to create a sense of claustrophobia in the mine. It felt hot but never the kind of thing that would make a man crazy. The audience for the film also feels a little muddled. A few times it feels like it is aiming for a faith based audience but then you have things like mistresses and a weird segment with the men hallucinating their females feeding them that evangelical purists will not like.
It’s also way too long. 127 minutes really started to drag and should have been more like 90. There was no need to include multiple scenes with them rationing food or multiple scenes with bigwigs shouting about giving the men ‘false hope!’. The Juliet Binoche scenes in particular could have been cut out and it would have been much better.
That said there were strong moments particularly from Banderas and I did feel inspired by the end of it. The late James Horner score helps add to the inspiring feel. I did want to see them succeed and get rescued and it was exciting when (spoiler alert) they were!
I guess it is one of those films you take it for what it is- a cheesy inspirational story. That’s what I thought I was going to get and that’s what I got. So if you are in the mood for that watch it!
I’m working on coming up with a new grading system but for now The 33 gets a
Overall Grade- C (which in my world means I liked it but it has some major problems)
I must own to not being a fan of the very popular Hunger Games series. I liked the first book while I was reading it but it is so cynical that it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth afterwards. 2 and 3 of the books I thought were boring, repetitive and even more cynical especially the way things ended in 3. I saw the first Hunger Games movie and while I like Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss I did not enjoy the film. I had some of the same problems with the cynicism and the shaky cam made me crazy (not a fan of that filming technique if you didn’t know). Anyway, I had no interest in seeing any of the follow-ups and I haven’t; therefore, I will not be seeing the final film (how they put Mockingjay into two movies I will never understand). However, my friend over at Jasonsmovieblog posted his review so I thought I would share it with all of you. If you are a fan of the series it sounds like something you will enjoy. Follow his blog if you don’t already do so.
There is a really fun series I do over on my youtube channel that I normally post on my other blog smilingldsgirl.com called The Friday 5. It was set up by a fellow youtuber named Sarah Crawford and each week she picks a topic and we have to choose 5 of our favorite songs that fit that topic. Normally my other blog is more suited to music but since this one involved animation I decided to include it on this blog this week.
This week’s topic was ‘5 of your favorite themes from TV Shows” and since animation is my favorite I decided to go with that.
I think they are 5 really fun themes and 5 great shows. If you haven’t seen them you should totally check them out. What are some of your favorite themes from TV shows, animated or not? I would love to hear. I do this series every week and next week is wild card so if you have any suggestions of a fun topic I could pick put in the comments section. If any of you have youtube channels it’s a very fun series to be a part of.
Thanks and have a Happy Friday!!
It’s movies like Spotlight that make me wish the Academy Awards had a Best Ensemble award because every single player in this journalism expose film is about as good as it gets. This whole movie is without a doubt one of the best of the year and I really think it is an important movie for all to see.
Spotlight is based on the 2001-2002 investigative journalism done by a wing of the Boston Globe called spotlight. They spent nearly 2 years researching abuse in the Catholic Church and by the end uncover 70 predators and the widespread cover-up that allowed this evil to persist.
But that might make it sound depressing and it is certainly sobering but I was surprised how many times I smiled. The script is so well written and the performances so great that it feels like we are following real people who of course are going to smile and laugh on occasion even when investigating this awful thing.
It will also rip your heart out at sections but that is again because the writing allows for the softer moments and gives us a chance to breathe and take it all in. There is never a sense of being manipulated because some of the characters even realize their lack of reporting in the past was part of the problem. It is not like Steve Jobs which was good but left me feeling cold because it was so one-sided. Here are fully dimensional people investigating lead after lead after lead.
If Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer don’t get nominated for Best Screenplay than it would be the scandal of the year. These reporters and most of the other characters were so compelling I felt like we had been through an experience together and I knew them after watching the movie. It was that natural and real.
I love movies about work and this is an amazing one. You could feel the hard work weighing down their faces but their drive and ambition, even arrogance also feeding in.
Mark Ruffalo- as Michael Rezendes, one of the main investigators, amazing performance and a scene where he talks about how much he used to like going to church made me sob.
Rachel McAdams- as Sacha Pfeiffer, the lone woman in the Spotlight crew who goes to church with her Nana and makes a personal investment in interviewing and getting to know many of the victims.
Michael Keaton- as Robby Robinson, head of Spotlight who is a great leader and uses his ins within the Boston community to uncover many things he wish he didn’t have to know about or find.
Liev Schreiber- as Marty Baron, new editor for the Globe and pushes the Spotlight team on the case. He is Jewish and there is a feeling he is trying to use this case to make a big name for himself, which may be partly true. It’s a brilliant performance.
John Slattery (from Mad Men)- Ben Bradlee Jr, one of the heads at the newspaper.
Stanley Tucci- as Mitch Garabedian is nomination worthy as a lawyer who takes on these long shot victims cases. Initially you think he is out for only the notoriety of suing the Catholic church but there is more to it.
The list could go on and on. It’s truly remarkable how these reporters felt like real people and I was completely engaged as they dug one level and then another and another.
Now most people know I am a person of deep and abiding faith, so it might rightly be asked if watching such a film about a corrupt branch of a faith is difficult. It is tough, but I absolutely think that is a reason to watch it not to stay away. If I had my way this film would be required viewing for anyone of faith. It’s like the old quote by Edmund Burke says:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
To hear how men supposedly of God could rationalize and make excuses for molesting and harming children is sickening. I don’t know how that can not be the case. But it is also sickening to hear about people who could have done something to stop it and kept their mouth shut, or in some case silenced those who were willing to speak out. That is not what Jesus would have us do. He protected the little children above everything else. He blessed them and brought one back from the dead. Yes, he forgave the woman caught in adultery but that was only after she faced near death as a punishment. He showed mercy but he did not for a second turn a blind eye to sin especially when it came to children.
Watching something like Spotlight it does tear your heart out and make you think about what you would do. We all like to think we would do the right thing but an entire city for decades didn’t and that is a sobering thought. It took the brave efforts of these reporters to finally get something done. They are true heroes in my book.
Here’s some of the actors and the actual reporters.
But I can’t overstate it enough this is a sobering but not depressing film. I left feeling inspired, wanting to make a difference in the world, wanting to be a better person, and I really did laugh more than you’d think. It’s a great movie and I loved it so much.
As far as content surprisingly it is a very mild R rating. There’s a little bit of language and some scenes where molestation is discussed openly but it’s minimal and I think definitely appropriate for mature teens. Go see it!
Overall Grade- A+
Here’s the trailer:
Here is my youtube review
So we have gotten through the prequels and I think had a pretty good time doing it and now on to the cream of the crop! Yesterday my friends Abby and Jeremy and I discussed the original Star Wars movie. This is a film that I think is just about perfect. If I was going on a desert island it would be a film I would take with me. I love the characters, action, pacing, setting, lore, and everything else. Nevertheless, we aren’t just drooling fans but have a good discussion on the film I think you will enjoy.
Just as I have done in the past Star Wars reviews here is my summary of Episode 4.
PLOT:
The original Star Wars ep 4 starts 19 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith. The galaxy has split up into two groups, rebels and the larger Galactic Empire. At the opening a rebel Princess Leia has stolen plans to the Death Star in R2D2. Leia is captured but she sends R2 and C3PO to Tatooine to find Obi-Wan Kinobi.
Next we meet Luke Skywalker who is anxious to get out of his uncle’s simple farm life. Luke purchases the droids and see’s the message from Leia to Obi-Wan. They end up meeting Obi-Wan and Luke learns about the days of the Jedi, the force, and Darth Vader who studied under Obi-Wan and killed Luke’s father. Luke is also given his father’s light saber.
After viewing the message Obi-Wan decides to go to Alderaan and visit with Leia’s father. Luke decides to go with him only after he finds his uncle and aunt have been burned alive by Imperial storm troopers looking for the droids. To get to Alderaan they hire the cynical pilot Han Solo and Chewbacca who fly in the Millennium Falcon.
Meanwhile Grand Moff Tarkin decides to make a show of force to Leia and the other rebels and destroys the entire planet of Alderaan in one massive shot. The Millennium Falcon is caught by the Death Star and Han, Luke, Obi-Wan and the droids stage a rescue for Leia. However, things go wrong as they are caught and end up in a trash compactor where they narrowly escape being crushed alive. Then they escape but not before Obi-Wan and Vader duel with light sabers and Obi-Wan is killed. Luke is devastated but they must leave.
Using the plans for the Death Star the rebels discover a port that connects to the station’s main reactor. They decide if they can shoot a target directly in that port it will cause the entire Death Star to explode. Luke and a squadron join the mission and Vader is hot on their trails. Obi-Wan’s spirit helps counsel Luke to use the force and he is able to successfully get the shots into the port and destroy the Death Star. This kills Tarkin and weakens the Empire for the moment. Han and Luke receive medals for their bravery to end the film.
REVIEW:
This is pretty much how I feel about this movie:
I love Star Wars. I love the characters especially Han and Luke. I love the journey we go on with Luke as he learns about his father and the Jedi. I love Vader as an awesome villain with a strange attachment to his ‘old religion’. I love all the world building and the special effects. I love hyperspace and the droids. I love the humor especially from C3PO. I love what Star Wars did for movies and fandom. I think the music is perfect and by the end I want to cheer.
What George Lucas accomplished is truly remarkable and as much as the prequels aren’t my favorite I give full props to him for all he gave modern movies. I don’t know how it can be argued that Star Wars is not one of the top 10 most influential films of all time. Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, Star Wars to me belong in the same discussion as the greatest movies of all time and 99% of people I know agree with me on that. Most of all it is so entertaining for the entire family. That’s why most of us are excited for Force Awakens because it will hopefully be a chance to relive the Star Wars we were introduced to as kids. The Star Wars that made us want to cheer.
That’s all I really have to say about Star Wars. I love it and on to Empire Strikes Back next!
Overall Grade- A+