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Turning Red (2022)
Not bad, but I have a lot to say for the Climax.
The movie does a fine job with exploring another round of generational trauma from a "Asian American POV", which is nice. The father character was really funny and nice, and the mother is a fair antagonist with understandable motives. I kind of got what the protagonist was going with and her goal to see a concert. I liked the whole BTS parody called 4town. The 4 friends fangirling about it was realistic, and dare I say, amusing. The whole concept of Mei Lin (protagonist) running away and lying under her mother's watch is because she feels too much pressure, and I thought that was an accurate moment. Now for the elephant in the room: Mei Lin turning into a red panda is a fun concept with her thinking her life is ruined. I liked the story where Mei Lin tries to raise money to get tickets to a 4town concert, despite her mother's disapproval. The grandmother's role to attend the ritual to "cure" Mei Lin was kind of hilarious. A lot of Asian American gags were fun too (and the Timbits cameo).
When Mei Lin runs from home to escape to the 4town concert (ditching the ritual), her mother becomes mad, and she becomes a red panda too. Except she is like, godzilla levels of huge. This is where the movie falls a bit, because I found it quite odd how the grandmother was Mei Lin's size in red panda form. I thought the ending was nice; it was bold for Mei Lin to refuse the ritual cure to become "normal" again, which shows how much she has changed (and later turns out it was a good decision because it does wonders for the temple the family runs). However, I found the falling action to be quite undeserving: A huge fine from the city is good, but not enough. Some 4town fan must have definitely died during the climax scene and the family just goes off with a fine? Because the movie takes place in modern Toronto, I would expect the military to fly in and carry an operation, hell we don't even see any police officers on the scene. If I was the mayor, seeing my city getting stomped by a giant creature, I would immediately order an airstrike, or some kind of military support. It's a brutal ending, but would be more deserving and would make sense.
Also just a nitpick, but it was a missed opportunity to put Mel Latchman in the movie, (Mayor of Toronto in 2002), it would have helped reinforce the timeline the movie was in.
High Guardian Spice (2021)
I don't care bout the budget, the representation, even the animation; the writing and concepts are contrived, unexplained, and bland.
This show has many flaws. The worldbuilding has no good explanation. They don't really say what a Guardian is, they don't say what new vs old magic is, and they don't do a good job with explaining the limits or lore to them all. The worldbuilding feels very contrived in that aspect.
The characters, well, most of them are really poorly written. Rosemary is just too clumsy and irrational to be likable, and even when moments are supposed to be sad for her, I end up cringing more than feeling sadness. Sage, is a contrived and difficult, mainly because she really flip flops around from "sweet and laughable" to "girl friendships are better than guys". That was quite scummy (speaking of that, this show portrays several cis males as forced jerks). Parsley is fine, she doesn't whine but the buildup in ep 3 where she yells feels unjustified because, well, the buildup was rushed. She yells after the 2nd talk or something. Thyme is supposed to the "oo shes cold but deep down does care" type of person, which I've seen better execution elsewhere. Here, she just feels so unlikable. I get that she has issues with her homeforest, but she still talks like a twitter user and thats just painful.
The moral of this show is that you should not put representation over writing, otherwise, you'll be getting this. The creator of this show is actively trying to deflect criticism, and won't come to accept the fact that she (or was it a he, I don't know) created a show that lacks drafts. The show should have taken a more comedic route, because even the Abridged version on Youtube made a better impression than the original.
Encanto (2021)
Good characters, with a lesson done well.
Encanto is a movie that does a good job with dealing with the family members, in such a large amount too. Not all of them got screen time, but they all felt alive due to bits of symbolism, and actions they do in the background. The main story doesn't go on a big epic adventure, rather it all takes place in the Encanto valley, which I thought was more interesting that the answer to save the miracle, was at the start all along. As a result I had more time to be invested in the characters, and I thought that was good. The antagonist, the Abuela, also had good motives, as she lost her husband during a war (historically accurate too, because Colombian civil war). She has a reason to be this overprotective and perfect, but in the process, she makes her family miserable. And in the end, Abuela apologizes and concedes to Mirabel for her actions. And finally, there's Bruno: A man who loves his family so much, he left so they family doesn't expel Mirabel. Kind of far fetched on that part, but it doesn't matter. I really liked the portrayal of family toxicity, and the climax was not violent, but still intense.
Criticisms include, the beginning a bit too dragged, no blood, sadly, because if Mirabel was wounded after the house collapsed, it could have amplified the mood.
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
This film was fine, but the characters feel conflicted.
Raya and the last dragon is a decent fantasy movie based in Southeast Asia. I liked the worldbuilding, the tribes, but ultimately I really disliked a lot of the characters Namaari, the main villain is a really conflicted villain, because she was the one who destroyed the world, does all the betrayals, and doesn't even apologize for her wrongdoings. Raya has every right to kill Namaari, or at least not forgive her, but no, the movie always has this message "trust". Which by the way, is pretty toxic, and kind of forced. Sisu the dragon's introduction felt fairly rushed, as if she was summoned and bought in through a cheap method after a ritual. She also tries to be funny, but in the end, she feels more irritating than helpful. And while I wasn't happy to see her get shot by Namaari, I didn't care, because she was just obnoxious. I also didn't exactly like how the shrimp chef boy, eyepatch warrior, and con baby were dealt with because Raya basically just trusted them out of the blue. Which made me think: "Wait, didn't they all have motives to steal the gems?" It just makes no sense, and I think Raya should have been more cautious. The shrimp chef boy is an exception, but as for the eyepatch warrior and con baby? Yeah, it would have made more sense for Raya to kill them. The end of the movie wasn't deserving, Namaari tries to guilt Raya for being part of the cause for Sisu's death, which I have to call BS about, because Raya was betrayed, traumatized, and vengeful. And this all stemmed from the beginning. This movie would have done much better if Raya killed Namaari, the baby, and the warrior. At least that way I can get some mileage from the violence.
Spookley and the Christmas Kittens (2019)
This is no better than the first one.
It still has the same issues, except half the characters are literally just there with no rhyme or reason, with the exception of Santa, who straight up changes into a raccoon and an owl solely to punish Mistletoe the cat that somehow is green. Theres no explanation, hes just green. There also these 3 smaller kittens that Santa kidnaps and gives it to Mistletoe, thus giving him more punishment. After that, Spookley does the only good thing to run into the woods to save Mistletoe, but gets brutally beaten by the weather. After a few bland musicals, we learn at the end that the farm is indeed runned by legit humans. Or just 2 kids, and the parents fled, which makes me question: If this was a sequel, then how do the humans not realize that their scarecrow is stupid, the pumpkins are alive, and they have 2 bats- oh speaking of the 2 bats, they hardly appear. They seem to have just died in the bridge thanks to the cold. Thats the only good thing I can say about this movie. Kind of wished the scarecrow got attacked too.
Spookley the Square Pumpkin (2005)
It's a kids movie, but that doesn't make up for it's mediocrity.
The thing is, this movie basically has almost no substance or plot whatsoever. The summary of it is: Pumpkin olympics on a farm. Thats it. The characters are all weird or creepy, like how a spider literally hits on a bat, or how theres 2 pumpkins that are conjoined twins. Not only that, but the movie also seems to be a bit biased on characters (or it's just the scarecrow's stupidity). Thing is, Big Tom and Little Tom (the conjoined twins) attend the pumpkin olympics, but their conjoinedness makes them unable to do some things that single pumpkins can do. As a result they get disqualified for it and funny it may be, it was more funny to see the scarecrow being entirely stupid, rather than me going full on schadenfruede on the 2 pumpkins. But when weather changes in a blink of an eye, and fire somehow forms in the rain, this movie follows physics on a whole other level, to the point where it's irritating and it makes you think: "If so and so character just did so and so like, 2 seconds longer they wouldn't need Spookley to intervene and save them". Also as much as how thunderstorms can produce wind speeds high enough to knock pumpkins around, it doesn't make sense because even if it's the whole "cartoon not being real", I would expect the whole farm to be wiped out in like 2 minutes.
Vivo (2021)
Has nice representation of an underrated animal species.
It has been a very long time since I heard a Kinkajou, and this movie does a pretty nifty job at establishing Vivo's character. Now this movie is basically "Secret life of pets" but a tad bit more interesting with the usage of Florida and a sort of interesting plotline of Vivo and this girl just trying to go to miami, with wholesome intentions. It's pretty tragic too that Vivo's original owner died, (though the death seemed pretty random) and the resolution of it all when Vivo hands his deceased owner's lover the letter was quite nice. Overall, the movie is a simple, nice story. Tell you what I really hate though, that "bounce to the beat of my own drum" song was so bad. No wonder no other characters in the movie believe in the fat girl's "dreams" of being a star. Lol.
Over the Moon (2020)
It was fine
This movie was mainly alright as it had a fun story to follow. I do think it's a tad bit too unrealistic, but then again, this is fiction. I do find the moon queen character a bit annoying and arrogant, and her reasons for doing so were not exactly justified, given her lover's death. The ending was kind of cliche, but it was nice knowing that the protagonist accepts her new stepmother and stepbrother as family, seeing her original mother died. Would have been nice to know the actual causes of the death though.
Planes: Fire & Rescue (2014)
An ode to the firefighters
This film is actually good and wholesome, and it really makes the first planes movie a lot more sensible. Here we see Dusty achieve his lengths to be a firefighter after single handedly ruining his hometown's airport. The message that this movie brings are "push yourself past the limit" and "be a firefight I guess...". But even still, it does a great job in executing that message to see Dusty's redemption. The others are fairly likable too, Dipper is entertaining, but overall creepy, Windlifter is decent, Blade is makes a good chief, and Cabbie is ok. I also really liked how they portrayed Cad the lodge's former super intendent, by making him look like a spoiled idiot only caring about himself. The movie also does a good job with the visuals, with appealing textures and a smart usage of dialogue. It's climax doesn't need killing and gore to be thrilling, just a huge forest fire scene was enough. It's better than the first movie, and makes a better sequel than Cars 2.
The movie also has a few real tips in firefighting.
Luo Bao Bei (2017)
It's a fun children's show
Luo Bao Bei is an episodic styled childrens show that just follows the adventures of Luo Bao Bei and her 2 friends, Timmy the guy and Faye the embarrassing drama queen. The show also has some funny bits with these 3 baby chickens and the rest of the family. Generally speaking, this cartoon is VERY accurate to asian representation. (With the exception of chill parents). The grandma always feeds LBB and the grandpa always listens to his radio (which is technically a form of political representation, but is rightfully vague). Apart from that, it also deals with real like problems that a kid usually goes through, like "oh no, Faye is dressing like me, shes getting a bit too much" and such. It teaches some fine lessons along the way and as a kids show, I think it does great in that aspect.
Rick and Morty: Rick & Morty's Thanksploitation Spectacular (2021)
An episode is a good episode when the president is there.
And this time it was no different. The concept of the turkeys were funny, though was kind of bland ish. On the other hand, the president was absolutely hilarious in this episode, and it was kind of fun to see Rick and the POTUS bond together once more despite the previous encounters that ended with some sort of issue. Now I wouldn't give it a 10/10, but this episode deserves an overall higher score than "7.5". It was even better than the dragon episode!