Least Favorite Animated Films of 2022

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keep the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

Sorry to keep getting these types of articles up late, but sometimes you need time to just let everything simmer about how amazing and chaotic a year like 2022 was in animation. Lots of great stuff, but also stuff that missed the mark. The talented crews and artists made some of the best animated films for Netflix, while the streaming service also had some of the most panned animated films of 2022. Only in this chaotic world of the animation industry can this happen. As usual, these will be the nine animated films I liked the least during this year, and it’s always a shame that I can’t like everything. No one wants to criticize the people who work in a chaotic industry that needs all the love and support they can get right now. Despite this list and ranking, and however I feel about these films, I’m always going to be rooting for everyone to succeed.  Now then, let’s get started. 

9. Night at the Museum: Kahmunra’s Revenge

Maybe it would have been better if I had more attachment to the franchise, but this film felt like it was made to be a pilot for an animated TV series. The script does have a few moments where the comedy hits and the 2D animation is better than what I was expecting. Still, the story and themes feel undercooked and needlessly complicated with the introduction of an art museum and how the portraits can be portals to the past. It doesn’t help either that a good chunk of the cast is there for nostalgia and fans, and then they don’t do anything. Still, if it’s here, then that means I still enjoyed it, but their non-Pixar-released-to-Disney Plus films have not been great. 

8. Ryoma: The Prince of Tennis 

The biggest sin that a sports film can commit is to not be about the sport itself. Instead of being based on the main series, this film is based on the stageplays. This means a much heavier focus on big grand musical moments and very little focus on story cohesion and characters. You think the plot of our lead getting sent back in time to see his dad would be interesting, but it’s not. You keep watching to see how absurd this film gets with rap battles and duets while playing one of the few scant games of tennis that you do see in the film. The CGI is also really ugly. It looks like a higher-end PlayStation 2 cinematic cutscene at points, and it’s a definite downgrade compared to the other CGI films from Japan that show how far they have come with films like The First Slam Dunk. The characters are forgettable, and once you are over the absurd things that ignite the musical sequences, the film is boring. Even when our lead meets and faces off with his dad, it’s too little too late. For a franchise that already doesn’t have a huge foothold in the US market, the fact we got this is wild. It was probably brought over when they were dubbing the second Prince of Tennis series, but it’s going to be a bad time if you make this your first piece of media to intake from the franchise. 

7. Hotel Transylvania: Transformania 

While Genndy Tartakovsky was still attached to the writing of this film, it feels like it also had the same energy as a DTV Disney film from back in the day. It had a creative hook of Andy Samberg’s character turning into a monster, and Drac and his friends turning human, but it doesn’t do much with the premise that feels like they weren’t given enough time to flesh out the story. It was part regressive of the character growth, lacked the same silly humor that was mastered in the third film, and once again, they bring a lot of your favorite characters back only for them to do very little. Even if the very little they do was decent, it just feels like a film that was running on fumes, and hopefully, the talented group of animators at Sony Pictures Animation hit it out of the park in the future, which seeing their lineup, probably will. 

6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules 

Yeah, the promise of Diary of a Wimpy Kid animation adaptations has been a real disappointment so far. This one looks slightly better and has a better overall story, but a lot of these characters are not fun to be around. I still wish they had more time or a budget to make this film more visually interesting than it is, and I’m glad that they tried to put more of an emphasis on the family feeling more connected with one another. Still, Disney needs to give these people more time to craft an excellent animated adaptation of the books with the visual flair that they deserve. 

5. Riverdance: The Animated Adventure 

For a film based on the dance sensation, you would think there would be a bit more to it than dancing elk. To be fair, it does try to with trying to tie the story around a young boy dealing with the grief of losing his relative, but the animation and creativity on display don’t match the whimsy, and the more fantastical aspects of it don’t feel all that whimsical The dance sequences are also way more robotic due to either time or budgeting making the iconic dancing look more stiff and lifeless than it should be. Just a real forgettable experience and that’s a shame. In a world where we have films like The LEGO Movie and silly films like Seal Team, a Riverdance film is not that out there, but it just feels like they didn’t go far enough with their premise and production. 

4. The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild 

No matter how good this film could have been, it was always going to have the stink of Disney’s corporate greed of letting this film get made by a third-party studio, and banked on the love for the franchise and the return of Simon Pegg as Buck Wild. Sadly, this is essentially a direct-to-video plot with no other returning cast members and a huge downgrade to the CG animation from the theatrical films. It became less of a high-flying adventure of Buck saving the day, and more of a sad state of things as Disney shut down Blue Sky Studios and then made a film from one of their IPs that resulted in a cheap experience.

3. Pinocchio: Based on a True Story

Honestly, these next three films could tie for the worst. People elevated this film thinking it was going to be some gonzo disaster that was fueled by the meme of Pauly Shore’s take on Pinocchio, but when you take out the clips of Shore’s performance, the film is absurdly boring, badly animated, and will leave your mind once the film ends its sluggish finale. It banks on the meme factor and ends up with a frustratingly mediocre experience. Oh, and how is this fantastical story a “true story”? Seriously, there is a reason why this came and went as it did after it got its 15 seconds of fame. 

2. The Soccer Football Movie 

I’m still baffled by how this film came to be. There were no news announcements, no real trailers, the audiences only getting clips of this film a few days before it was released, and no production history that you could find beforehand. It just arrived on Netflix with no real mention of it from the company itself. Was this half-baked fever dream supposed to have originally come out during the World Cup? For whom was this made? Who was the target demographic? Why did this film need to get made? Even the creator of Angry Beavers who was the director of this, Tom Kenny, and Weird Al couldn’t save this heap from just feeling like a movie put together by an ai. Hopefully, the two soccer players who star in the film got to have a good time, but this is yet again, another film that just came and went with no real fanfare or reason to exist. 

1. Marmaduke 

Like I said above, The Soccer Football Movie, Pinocchio: Based on a True Story, and Marmaduke are tied for my least favorite animated films of the year. Something about Marmaduke filled me with dread, due to how it had a trailer that failed to impress, and when I was finally able to watch the film, I had a rough time sitting through it. You can tell this was trying to do more than what it possibly could on a small budget, but what it does try to do falls flat on its face with annoying characters, ugly designs, gags that fall flat, a weak story that doesn’t grab you at all, and some of the worst animation of 2022. Who knows what the animation production was for this film since it was supposed to come out before the pandemic happened, but it feels like they just made a first run-through of what the film will look like, and then couldn’t do a pass with adding better textures or anything like that. Better animation wouldn’t have helped a garbage story, but it would have at least made it a little bit more tolerable. A lot can happen in the production of animated features and this may have had a bad production, but it was probably a bad idea in the first place to make a film based on an IP that no one outside of rights holders care about. It was one of the few films I watched in 2022 that made me feel like I wasted my time, and the fact Netflix could put this out in the same year as The Sea Beast and Pinocchio is shocking.

The Other Side of Animation 298: The Super Mario Bros. Movie Review

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keep the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

From what has been discussed and seen from recent films and shows, the video game adaptation curse seems to have been lifted. I don’t fully agree with that statement, but it is definitely a much better place than previous entries that included stuff like Double Dragons, DOOM, House of the Dead, Monster Hunter, Alone in the Dark, and you get the idea. Sure, some of them are still not perfect like the Sonic movies, but when you get stuff like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, then you know that times have changed. Who would have thought that it took just getting the right people who actually cared about the material and a lot of involvement from the studio to make the films or shows that actually work and feel like they are from the same franchise. Granted, being 100% loyal to said source material isn’t necessarily going to result in a good adaptation since you need a story and characters to invest into, because otherwise, why would someone who isn’t a fan of the game in question care about what’s going on in the story? Anyway, 2023 decided to be weird with how it took until April to have our first major studio theatrical animated feature, and it just so happens to be a video game adaptation. Let’s talk about The Super Mario Bros. Movie! 

The movie is directed by Aaron Hovath and Michael Jelenic of Teen Titans Go!! fame and is written by Matthew Fogel. Of course, the animation is handled by Illumination Entertainment. We follow Mario and Luigi, voiced by Chris Pratt and Charlie Day. They just started their own plumbing company and messed up on their first gig. Beaten down and disappointed with their lack of achievements and support from their family, all seems lost with the duo until Brooklyn gets flooded and the two go save the city. Unfortunately for them, they find themselves getting warped to the Mushroom Kingdom that is led by Princess Peach, voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy, who is dealing with the looming threat of invasion from Bowser, the king of the koopas, voiced by Jack Black. Can Mario save the kingdom and get his brother back who has been kidnapped by Bowser? 

This film has been getting a lot of people on social media in a firestorm about who is in the right, and whether the critics are being too grumpy about a simple animated film aimed at overall audiences and crowds, or are audiences too forgiving of lightweight entertainment and not supporting the “real” art that gets released when most filmgoers know that some films won’t appeal to them. Plus, it helps that until this film was released, the family film landscape in theaters was pretty much dead. For those that say superhero films are default family entertainment are also dismissing the fact that a lot of superhero media right now is absolutely not for families, unless they are hardcore watching Invincible and The Boys at age 5. For some reason the industry thought that superheroes were all audiences needed, and considering that the first two have underperformed due to a multitude of reasons, it’s no shock that families showed up in droves for this Mario movie. 

So, who is in the right here? Hate to say the safe answer, but it’s what I honestly think. Both are right. For example, while I don’t think the lightweight story hurts the overall experience, I get why people have criticized it. The thing about the Mario franchise is that unless you dive into the spin-offs, the franchise is very light on plot. With the few exceptions where Peach plays alongside Mario and Luigi, it’s always about Mario stopping Bowser. They weren’t going to turn this film’s plot into one of Pixar’s more methodical and philosophical stories. Asking for a deep plot with Mario is like asking Sonic to not have an angsty teen persona, it won’t happen. Now, if they adapt something like Paper Mario or Super Mario RPG, then I will get frustrated with that plot being light on story. With all that said, the story does fall flat in a few spots. It introduces a ton of story beats that could have added a little more meat, with an overall story like Luigi getting over his cowardice, Mario and Donkey Kong’s disconnection with their dads who see them as disappointments, or heck, Mario and Luigi’s dynamic, since for a film called The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it is rather light on having them on the screen at the same time. The entire plot basically separates them for about 80% of the time and that feels a tad disappointing, because there are story beats that would have strengthened the film all throughout the runtime. It’s pretty much the beginning and the third act where they get to be together and they wrap everything up fairly easily. I’m sure there was some situation of how the characters would be portrayed since Nintendo was actually collaborating with Illumination this time around and they couldn’t go too far with the characters and stories, but in some ways, that works to its advantage. No matter how much you love the recent live-action Sonic films, those films pander to casual audiences a bit too much. You could argue they aren’t good at adapting the Sonic storylines either, if you really want to discuss how good they are as adaptations. The Mario movie on the other hand does none of that. It’s a purely straight forward film with very few references outside of the film’s distracting use of 80s music. Mario doesn’t say or reference any memes, and I think there is appeal to that. The appeal of Mario is how safe it is compared to other franchise leads. He hasn’t had to do stuff like rap or cater to the social media crowd to have a lasting appeal. Granted, it also helps that the franchise has some of the best games of all time. It had enough charm and appeal to not alienate everyone, and whether you hate it or love it for that reason, it works here. The only references getting made are basically Mario and or Nintendo-focused with references to Star Fox, Punch Out!!!, and Kid Icarus among many others. Even the minor antagonist Spike is a reference to The Wrecking Crew game that is Mario adjacent. I did hear some people say it has too many references, but you all eat up the MCU and other comic book movie references, so maybe pick a lane when you complain about references. It’s at least more loyal than that disaster that was the 90s Mario movie that was basically lacking in anything Mario for a majority of its runtime and yet people are trying to claim it as an unsung masterpiece that is actually loyal to the game when it’s really not. Sometimes reevaluating a film that got panned doesn’t need to happen. Anyway, if you do feel the Illumination movie vibe at all, it would probably come from Bowser and his dynamic with Kamek, but if you have played the games like Paper Mario or Super Mario RPG, then you know that their personalities in the film would be pretty accurate from the games. That’s the thing about this film, all of the characters act pretty on point and for those that are crying about Peach being more active in the story has never played a Mario game before or one of the many spin-offs. It’s absurd how many people are revealing themselves by this one complaint. The only one who gets a bit more edge is Toad, but who wouldn’t want a Toad whose first line is so intense? He brings some of the best laughs of the film, and Keegan Michael Key does a great job as the character. 

Since we just mentioned one of the cast members, let’s talk about that next. Chris Pratt as Mario is actually not that bad. Sure, I wish he had a little more of that Mario energy in him, but he does a perfectly fine job as the lead. I still wish Charles Martinet was the lead character and not just some secondary characters, but I think everyone was trying to hype up how bad it was when the trailers weren’t doing a good job with how good or bad his performance was going to be. Of course, there are a lot of reasons outside of his acting to hate Chris Pratt, but in terms of his performance, he does okay. Charlie Day is a lot of fun as Luigi and captures his more earnest and innocent personality. Anya Taylor-Joy is also okay as Peach. She does as good as the princess as you could expect. Now, speaking of recognizable voices, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong is typical Rogen. While he does try to do more as the character and his voice as possible, he’s still going to be Seth Rogen, but he does keep a lot of his Seth Rogenisms outside of his laugh on the down low, which once again, helps to make this film feel more timeless than most video game adaptations. Still, Rogen captures what Donkey Kong would be as this cocky show-off compared to the more humble Mario. The only actor I felt was miscast was Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong. He could have been a touch sassier and more snarky instead of a sort of whiny grandpa. But all things considered, Jack Black, out of all of the celebrities, does the best job, because if you were going to cast Bowser, it had to be Jack Black. He puts it all into this performance with the best balance of comedic and threatening since Bowser can be both and also be a touch pathetic. Luckily, this film has a lot more voice actors playing side or minor roles than just getting a bunch of celebrity cameos to play all of them, but you will hear famed voice actors like Cree Summers, Kevin Michael Richardson, Eric Bauza, Khary Payton, Scott Menville, John DiMaggio, Jessica DiCicco, Rino Romano, Ashley Burch, and Phil LaMarr to name a few. It’s a pretty good cast in general, and probably one of the better casts for an Illumination Entertainment film. Brian Tyler does a great job at remixing the music from the franchise and it all sounds great. You can hear a multitude of different tracks from all over the franchise. As I said above, the only part that is distracting is when the film shoves in an 80s song, and while they are good ones, they are also the ones we have seen in almost every film ever made animated or live-action. 

As for the animation, for a collaboration between Nintendo and Illumination, the visuals and animation are perfect. You can tell the collaboration was a real commitment, because the characters move as they would in the games, and it just looks so good. Considering this is Illumination’s most expensive animated film to date at $100 mil, then it should look amazing. You can tell the resources went into the right spots for the animation and visuals. I don’t really agree with how this looks or feels like a typical Illumination film when all of the humans look like they were right out of a Mario game. It has some cartoony squash and stretches as well, which gives it a more bouncy feel that Illumination and Nintendo are really good at. Mario has a specific look and it needs to pretty much stay to said look. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be Mario. The worlds they crafted look jaw-dropping and grand in scale with some real ambiance and atmosphere that are in each location. They look like they were once again right out of the video games. Even the world of the Kongs looks like they were pulled out of the Donkey Kong Country games. Nothing feels out of place. Even the human world looks as if Nintendo and the Mario team were asked to craft their version of Brooklyn. You also stay in the Mushroom Kingdom and that world for a lot of the movie, which is nice since the Sonic films were so afraid to do that for some reason. Plus, it keeps with the fact that Mario is basically an isekai anime due to Mario and Luigi getting transported to another world. They also capture the wild and surreal feel of Rainbow Road and how horrifying it can be depending on the Mario Kart game you play. 

Listen, Illumination Entertainment family films are going to be aiming for mass audiences and they are never going to try and be Pixar or Disney films, and it’s time for film snobs and filmgoers to realize that. There is a reason why, while maybe lacking in some regards in substance, and I have had my issues with them as well, their films make all of the money. Sure, I wish people went to see other animated films that had stuff that went against the US animation tradition, but many of the people that complain about Illumination films also don’t see those more “complex films”, and it’s very telling how much that happens. Who knew there were animation fans and filmgoers who didn’t actually follow what they preach. If you all wanted to go and support something, then Suzume is literally coming out soon (it’s out now) and you all should go find a screening of that film. Or we could all accept that some audiences don’t want to go to a theater to sit down for a few hours being depressed or challenged. Sometimes, you just go and see something silly like Cocaine Bear or a fun fantasy romp like Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves or some amazing spectacle like John Wick 4. 

Back to the review of the film, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is an actually faithful adaptation of the games to a really impressive degree that offers everyone a fun and whimsical time at the theater. Honestly, I have some complicated feelings about it. It has some story beats that could have been fleshed out, and I wish Luigi was with Mario a lot more in the runtime, or that the film was longer than its extremely tight 90 minutes, but I found myself enjoying it a lot. I still have my issues with Illumination and that won’t change, but this is probably my favorite film from the studio, and so far is the best adaptation of a Nintendo property. It set out to be a loving adaptation of the video games and it passes with flying colors. I can see why some people may not like this film, but the beauty of animation is that it’s a medium that can be for everyone, and that means family and mass appeal audiences. Hopefully with the success of this film, the profits go into Illumination Entertainment’s new division that goes into more teen-to-adult-focused animated films, and I can’t wait to see what else they do next. I wouldn’t mind seeing them adapt the Mario franchise in another film since you can go in so many directions, and they have about 30+ years of games and spin-offs to pull from. I would say go see it, but due to how much money it’s making, you can tell everyone is going to see it. Like I said earlier, it helps that family audiences were starved of family entertainment for three months in 2023 so far. Now then, next time, we will be talking about the very intense Unicorn Wars. 

Rating: Go See It!

The Other Side of Animation 292: The Magician’s Elephant Review

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keep the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

Animal Logic has become a rather fascinating studio in the world of VFX and animation. Depending on how familiar you are with their work, their more recent efforts from the last decade will be recognizable to many an animation fan with the theatrical The LEGO Movies, Netflix’s The Sea Beast, and Warner Bros’ DC League of Super-Pets. They have one of the more interesting animation filmographies, and while there are some reasons to worry about why they were bought out by Netflix, if they are able to get the time and money needed to craft experiences like Chris Williams’ The Sea Beast, then I’ll always be rooting for them. Of course, a studio is just one part of the equation of filmmaking, and you need a good team of writers, editors, a director who knows what they are doing, and so on and so forth. So, what does that give us with Netflix and Animal Logic’s first major animated film of 2023? Today’s review will cover The Magician’s Elephant. 

The Magician’s Elephant is directed by Wendy Rogers, written by Martin Hynes, and based on the book by Kate DiCamillo. The story follows a young boy named Peter, voiced by Noah Jupe. He is an orphan who believes that he can’t find his missing sister since he lives within a kingdom that has lost metaphorical and literal magic among its people. One day, while in the market, Peter wanders into a tent that is being helmed by a mysterious woman voiced by Natasia Demetriou. She tells Peter that to find his sister, they must follow the elephant. Well, there’s a problem, there are no elephants in sight! In what is a coincidence to our lead, due to an accident caused by a magician voiced by Benedict Wong, an elephant is now within the kingdom walls. The countess of the kingdom would rather not let the elephant go or let it end up in the grasp of Peter, but due to the king, voiced by Aasif Mandvi, having a sense of humor, he offers Peter three challenges to conquer to try and get the elephant that could somehow help him find his sister. 

Here is what to expect from this film. If you are expecting a grand epic adventure like Animal Logic’s last film, The Sea Beast, then you will be disappointed. Do not go expecting another big film. It’s a smaller-scale story about a kid trying to overcome impossible odds in a world that has pretty much given up on living in a world that, while full of tough situations, still has magic that gives people hope. Some characters also encounter the commentary about how acts of kindness can do wonders for people who could use the help in finding happiness in a difficult world. It also tackles the theme of characters dealing with regrets from their actions, which pops up quite a lot during the film’s second act.  While it might be a smaller-scale story that takes place within one location, the story itself has layers to pull back and reveal the story beats connecting the overall experience together. It definitely feels formatted like a more fairy-tale-driven experience since this is based on the book by the same author that did Tales of Desperaux, so that makes a lot more sense. Like, there is a magician and an elephant that he magically poofs into being, but they play very little part in the story, and while they don’t get too much screen time, they play more metaphorical parts in the plot, while also having their own little histories and arcs that don’t feel out of place. It has some predictable story beats that you can see coming, and some of the characters are forgettable or don’t offer much to the overarching narrative, but the cast is likable enough to make the story compelling as we watch the unfolding of the mystery of the elephant, and the lead’s journey in finding his sister. It mixes its dream-like sequences and realism well, and when it goes full-on dream sequence, that’s when the film’s visuals and storytelling are at their best. The only real part of the narrative that is constantly distracting is the narrator. It feels distracting and doesn’t add much that the visuals couldn’t have told the audience. It feels more aimed at children than their last film’s audience of everyone, and that isn’t a bad thing, but it’s something worth knowing going into this film, depending on what kind of adventure you are wanting to partake in. 

The animation is one of the best and weakest parts of the overall package. The stylized human designs look great, and there are a ton of great stylistic touches, like the pillowy spherical clouds that cover the landscape. The human and animal animation also have proper weight and feel as though they aren’t too ‘floaty’. It even has elements that remind me of the more painted look of certain animated films like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and The Painting. The visual presentation falls flat in some areas due to the smaller budget . The building and cityscape feel flat and rough looking, and not in a thematic way either. While the movements and overall animation look good, there is just something clunky about the overall vibe of the animation that feels like they weren’t able to polish the movements at times. If you have seen animated films that had slightly smaller budgets like The Amazing Maurice, then you will get where I’m coming from. There’s also a lack of lighting and shadow work with the film when it’s doing outside sequences, which may help expand upon why the buildings and the city itself look flat. When they do inside shots at night, they look fine. Though the big flashback sequence that shows the backstory of four of our characters is handled pretty well and obviously got the most focus, the best parts visually are the moments when it goes into the more magical and dream-like sequences, because the art gets to flex more and where you see the best moments on a presentation level. The voice cast is also pretty good. The overall cast includes Brian Tyree Henry, Noah Jupe, Benedict Wong, Pixies Davis, Aasif Mandvi, Cree Summers, Tom Kenny, Mandy Patinkin, Dawn French, Natasia Demetriou, Miranda Richardson, Sian Clifford, and Phil LaMarr to name a few. The musical score is composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, and while it is whimsical and fantastical, the tunes themselves weren’t as memorable as previous soundtracks Mark has worked on in animation. 

With it leaning more into its family-friendly audience, The Magician’s Elephant is a good movie in that genre. It isn’t my favorite animated film of the year so far, but of the films I have seen as of two months into 2023, it’s definitely the strongest one released. If you have liked Netflix’s output of feature animated films from the past few years, then there is no excuse for skipping out on this one. It will be hitting Netflix March 17th, and is a magical journey through the power of storytelling in animation. Next time, we shall be diving into some animated films playing at the New York Children International Film Festival. The first film taking flight will be Blue Thermal. 

Rating: Go See It!

The Other Side of Animation 291: DEEMO: Memorial keys Review

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keep the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

Since 2019, there has been a small uptick in how video game adaptations have been handled. Instead of being the biggest burning money pits, the mostly positive reviews and receptions to projects like Detective Pikachu, the live-action Sonic films, Dragon Age: Absolution, DOTA: Dragon’s Blood, as well as the upcoming Mario movie cause me to think that maybe we are slowly and steadily heading into a realm where we don’t have to dread these productions anymore. Even the world of animation suffers from this situation, where the adaptations of famous and not-so-popular video games are inconsistent in quality. For every anime adaptation of a mobile game that succeeds like Princess Connect: Redive, we get 15 that fail and or miss the point. So, where does Deemo: Memorial Keys stand in terms of animation adaptations? 

This is based on the rhythm game by Rayark. It’s directed by Shuhei Matsushita, written by Junichi Fujisaku, and Bun’O Fijisawa, and produced by a collaboration between Production I.G. and Signal M.D. We focus on a young girl named Alice, dubbed by Anairis Quinones. She has lost her memory and is now stuck in an unknown world. That being said, she is not alone. Alongside her is a whimsical cast of characters that include the titular DEEMO, a mysterious entity that plays the piano every night.

Let’s talk about what may be the thing that will probably hold a lot of viewers back while watching this film, the animation. It’s pretty obvious that due to how rigid the movements are, a lot of the CGI is motion-captures, and the jittery look of the CGI models with smaller movements gives an uncanny valley feel to the characters in the film. It’s not Ex-Arm levels of bad motion capture since they did enough to smooth everything out to the best of their abilities, but it sure doesn’t look as good as something from Studio Orange or look as good as some of the recent CGI films from Japan like Lupin III The First or The First Slam Dunk. But with those two, they are franchises that were able to get the best CGI animation tools and teams around. It undercuts its visuals with this underwhelming CGI, due to how the film wants you to be enthralled in this mysterious place that our lead is in. It’s unfortunately drab looking. 

I hate talking about the visuals of this film, because they really do show how hollow the story comes off. It’s meant to be this fantastical take on finding connection and dealing with grief and loss. It’s trying to be this emotionally touching story about this girl’s journey of what I just listed in the previous sentence, but due to how floating and flat much of the world and the characters are, it only makes those issues stand out more. There also doesn’t seem to be a lot there in the overall execution of the plot. The characters are all uninteresting, and you can probably guess what will happen and what the twists will be. There are some decent moments where everything works, and when it’s letting the music and atmosphere do their trick, the film gives this ominous and otherworldly feel. Because DEEMO himself doesn’t talk gives you a feeling of what is behind the individuals’ intentions. The big problem is that there is very little going on in this film. It has story beats, but for a film that’s only 90 mins long, it drags the pacing out and then relies on you to be connected from beat to beat. It wants to run on emotional and fairy tale logic, but doesn’t go the distance to go all the way with said logic. It’s as if it has heard about films that do this, but didn’t go the distance. Who knows?. Maybe this film was meant to promote the game and be a tech demo for the music for the game. The 2D visual pieces during the ending credits are lush and beautiful. I just wish the CGI translated the designs well. There is a universe out there where DEEMO: Memorial Keys has a truly out there Fantasia-like experience, but we can only judge what we get here with the film’s visual and musical presentation. 

To be fair, the music is fantastic. The piano ballads are on point as they have these beautiful orchestrations that are the highlight of the movie. The composers for the film were Yoshichika Kuriyama, Shiho Terada, Kaho Suzuki, and Yu Sonoda, though the main theme was composed by Yuki Kaijura who worked on shows like Demon Slayer, Sword Art Online, Madoka Magika, and Noir. Without having played the game, these tunes were extremely catchy. Well, when you are based on a rhythm game that’s made to line up, or well, originally line up to release alongside the game, you should have killer music. The voice cast is small, but full of talented dub actors including Anairis Quinones, Bryce Pappenbrook, Mike Pollock, Stephanie Sheh, Luci Christian, and Michelle Marie. They do their best to work with the clunky dialogue. 

Some people assume that all animated features from Japan and other parts of the world are great, just because they are not made by Hollywood. It’s an extremely bad take that rings hollow, when no matter where you go, whether it’s budget is small or big, films of all levels of quality are going to be made everywhere. The film has a lot going for it, but it fumbles the execution by being a hollow experience based on a game that is made to sell the game. It’s a shame, because if it had a bit more polish and focus on its story, or went “all in’ on a symphonic experience, it could be something special. Sadly, that isn’t the case, so what we got is a film that falls flat in the story department. Still, it’s nice to see the film gain a bigger audience by getting a US release. if you are curious about this film, it will be coming to blu-ray and digital soon. For now, we will be diving into a multitude of different animated films from around the world and on streaming services. You will just have to wait and see what unfolds. 

Rating: Lackluster

My Dad the Bounty Hunter Impressions: An Out of This World Adventure!

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keep the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this editorial!)

Animation is such a diverse medium of storytelling, whether you are making shorts, films, TV series, or something in-between. So, it makes absolute sense to make sure that we get a multitude of different stories and representation of people in said stories. Representation in animation is important because we live in a diverse world and it’s full of different cultures and backstories. Why not let more audience goers be able to see themselves on screen? These two months so far have been great at it, including season 2 of Daniel Spellbound and The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and now Netflix’s newest series, My Father the Bounty Hunter by Everett Downing Jr. and Patrick Harpin. 

My Dad the Bounty Hunter offers an interstellar adventure about a dad who hides his secret profession as a bounty hunter, who traverses the galaxy finding the worst of the worst. He ends up having to go on his next bounty with his two kids resulting in some rather complicated relationships as the show dives into not only the lives pre-space adventure, but during their time together now, trying to capture this supposed convict the dad is assigned to find. This is what is fun about animated shows that are getting made these days. If this was made in the 80s, it would probably be this corny, barely-animated sci-fi fling that was meant to sell some kind of toy. It may have DNA in trying to tell a deeper story, but wasn’t able to go deep into those themes. They would have made the dad the killjoy, or made the kids the lead and the father a buffoon, or just some other mix of trope-riddled 80s cartoon trends. Nowadays, while you can make shows to sell some kind of merchandise, writers are usually given much more leeway in actually building up their stories, characters, relationships, themes, and actually not being afraid to show some flawed characters. The show is very much telling you that the dad’s relationship with his children and wife are not perfect. He means well with his bounty hunting job to make cash for the house, his kids, and for a living. He just doesn’t quite have the capacity to truly feel invested in their lives, and be there for them or his wife. 

Most shows aimed at kids or families seem to at times be worried about how to tackle these kinds of topics of families that are not in the best familial situation. It just takes a good hand and a talented team of writers and creators to crack the code in order to be respectful and not fumble the ball. With all that said, the show does a good job of balancing out its more serious moments of family interactions and fun space-faring adventures, character growth, and the ongoing mystery of why the dad’s benefactor wants him to capture this specific person. It’s a show all about dealing with fear, and commentary on how there are a ton of shady individuals and shady-as-heck companies that will use your labor and efforts for their own needs at the end of the day. And all of this is about two kids who go on space adventures with their dad. What’s also fun is that the kids are also fully dimensional individuals. I don’t blame anyone who has to be in charge of writing kid characters since they can be obnoxious, dull, or tedious. Here, though, both kids have their own arcs as they grow while also dealing with what the universe may throw at them, whether it’s morally ambiguous bounties or pill bugs with big alien dogs. 

Animation-wise, the CGI looks very good here. Whether it was a good production pipeline or a slightly bigger budget and time to craft said show, TV CGI can be hit-or-miss, but this is a case where the CGI hits. The designs are charming, there is a lot of dynamic lighting and shadows, and its planets feel very lived-in and bustling when they are in more crowded locations. They even talked about how they wanted the tech used in the show to have a worn look to everything to help represent the not quite solid foundation of the family’s relationship, which is such a fascinating touch to the overall visual look. Oh, and the flashback sequences are probably one of my favorite pieces of animation so far in 2023. It’s really cool how they went about this show’s visual presentation. The voice cast is fantastic with Laz Alonso, who voices the titular bounty hunter Sabo Brok, and brings to life this conflicted and unprepared dad who has to not only deal with aliens like Glorlox who is voiced by Rob Riggle but also his two kids Sean and Lisa, voiced by Jecobi Swain and Priah Ferguson respectively as well. Yvette Nicole Brown voices our bounty hunter’s computer system KRS. The extremely creepy exec that gives Sabo his jobs is played without skipping a beat with an unnerving edge with Jim Rash. While we sadly don’t get to see her a whole lot in the show itself, Yvonne Orji is great as the mother Tess. The other cast members include Jamie Chung who most people would recognize as GoGo from the Big Hero 6 franchise, Maddie Taylor, Kari Wahlgren, and Leslie Uggams as another great grandma character. What’s fun about this show is that even with some getting more time under the sun than others, no characters feel wasted and are to be seen on screen whenever they show up or who we follow in the episode. 

Now then, are you ready to head to the stars for a literal out-of-this-world ‘take your children to work day’ adventure? Because My Dad the Bounty Hunter is the show for you! It’s a galaxy-trotting adventure full of action and a family reconnecting through a rather unorthodox way. With fun action, creative alien world/inhabitants, and witty writing, you will want to catch the nearest warp orb or spaceship to check this series out when it hits Netflix on February 9th. You will definitely want to check out this enterprising sci-fi experience.

The Other Side of Animation 289: New Gods: Yang Jian Review

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keep the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

Light Chaser Animation has been a rather fantastic new addition to the animation game. Since its founding in 2013, they have made it their goal to elevate the animation scene in China after years of stagnation and questionable quality. While they haven’t made a banger every single time, their contribution to the animation scene has been nothing but positive, especially after  2019, which was just a good year for China’s film scene with three major hits with The Wandering Earth, Nezha, and Light Chaser’s White Snake. After that, they have been hitting it out of the park. They are one of the most well-known animation houses in China, and they are putting out some killer films like New Gods: Yang Jian. 

Directed by Ji Zhao, and written by Muchuan, This is the second film in the New Gods franchise that takes place after New Gods: Nezha Reborn. Our story follows Yang Jian, dubbed by Nicholas Andrew Louie. He used to be a powerful god, but after an incident that happened 1500 years ago, he is now skating on by in life as a bounty hunter, as he and his crew go from bounty to bounty so their ship doesn’t run out of fuel and they don’t starve. After taking care of a recent bounty, they are approached by a mysterious woman named Wanluo, dubbed by Christine Lin. She requests Yang to help capture a young man named Chenxiang, who has taken a precious and important artifact with powerful properties. Yang Jian takes on the task as he tries to find this individual, leading to conspiracies, murder, and finding out what exactly is going on with the incident that happened so long ago and the characters at play in this overall scheme of things. 

Who knew that they could top the world-building from the previous film? What we get in this outing is essentially a steampunk take on Cowboy Bebop, where we follow our bounty hunter and his crew through different cities and unique locations, travel through warp stations, fight criminals from the underworld and the deities that help run things, all of which is backed by some very funky jazz/blues-like tunes. Of course, all of this is mixed with the distinct identity of the architect, which is so full of life, details, and personality. It’s rather shocking how much they fit into each scene as you truly feel like you are traversing a living world with bustling crowds and beautiful landscapes that show a world ravaged by war and other cataclysmic events. There are so many neat world-building moments, like the energy Chexiang steals during the early part of the film being guarded by a multi-armed beast with eyes in the palm of its hands. They put in a lot of effort to make the world feel cohesive and sensible as we explore a world where demons and gods use ships to race across the skies. Not only that, but we also have some of the most well-executed fight sequences seen in animation. At first, you think they aren’t going to bring back the power abilities from the previous film for this one due to how low-key and grounded the fights are during the beginning hour of the two-hour runtime. Then, during an important fight sequence with an obstacle in Chenxiang’s way, the powers come back, revealing how certain individuals can unlock special powers from their past. The studio really knows how to make these powers feel grand in scale and larger than life, especially when we see Yang Jian unleash his powers after so much of the film had him be like an animated version of Jackie Chan as he tries to avoid aggressive action unless required. It makes sense, due to how Yang’s story arc is basically holding onto the regrets of his past actions, and trying to let go of them. There are many twists and turns with how the story unfolds, with it feeling so cut and dry with what’s going on until you dive deeper and deeper into the morally gray and messy history and wires that are crossed between everyone involved. Some characters are holding back secrets from others, and some manipulate and use others for their own selfish needs. It’s a fascinating journey as it goes from steampunk action to fantastical action thriller as everything falls into place. We go from Yang being a laid-back reluctant hero who would rather not get involved with the bigger picture and then seeing him push against literal gods to fix the mistakes from the past, taking down the threat that wants to unleash powerful chaotic forces to wipe the world clean. 

Animation-wise, it might feel like they are sticking close to the human designs and visual fidelity that their previous films have used, but they find ways to still have these creative touches from the combination of CGI and ink painting visuals. When they look good from the ghetto, no need to make as many improvements as you would think. Sure, I want to see them experiment like other studios doing stuff like China’s other major release this year, Deep Sea, but New Gods is doing enough to not feel repetitive. The matter of fact is that all of the designs are appealing to look at and aren’t detracting from the story and experience of the film. The cast is great and the English dub is also doing fantastic with the cast that includes Nicholas Andrew Louie, Luke Naphat Sath, Parry Shen, Christine Lin, James Sie, Johnny Young Bosch, Stephanie Sheh, Su Ling Chan, David Chen, Angela Tan, Mick Lauer, Jimmie Yamaguchi, and many others. The music, as mentioned before, is a mixture of both jazz and fantastical. It gives the film a different flavor of music compared to the last film.

While some may prefer the dieselpunk visual look of the first New Gods film, and while this film makes some small stumbles in the second half, New Gods: Yang Jian is exactly the change of pace everyone should want to go out and find if they are getting burned out by US animation. It has a lot of the best aspects from Light Chasers Animation, and with this obviously building up of an epic franchise, we will have to see where they go with this retelling of mythological epics and their continued evolution of incredible CGI animated fare. Next time though, we will be talking about the next film in the Sword Art Online retelling films with Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night

Rating: Essentials

The Other Side of Animation 288: The Amazing Maurice Review

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keep the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

You would think for such a famous author, Terry Pratchett, the creator of the popular Discworld series, there would be more adaptations of his work. His writing was whimsical, charming, and filled with delightful bits of humor and memorable characters. There haven’t been too many out in the wild and when you find them, they are not all that accessible. The most animated-related adaptation is probably Wyrd Sisters or Soul Music, which is noted for having the late great Christopher Lee who played the voice of Death. How on earth do we have a Discworld point-and-click adventure game, but not a Discworld animated series or animated feature? Still, I’m sure the estate is picky with what gets adapted, and who knows, maybe some of his work is easier to adapt than others for a feature film-length experience. This is where The Amazing Maurice comes into play and is one of the first feature films in the US in 2023.

Based on the book The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, this film is directed by Toby Genkel and written by Terry Rossio, who co-wrote some of your childhood favorite animated features like Aladdin, Shrek, and live-action films like The Mask of Zorro and the Pirates of the Caribbean films. The story revolves around a talking cat named Maurice, voiced by Hugh Laurie, who works with a human named Keith, voiced by Himesh Patel, to clear any town or city of rats. Though the thing that many will not know is that the two of them actually work with the group of rats that just so happen to be in town when they arrive. These include a few named ones like Darktan, voiced by Ariyon Bakare, Peaches, voiced by Gemma Arterton, Sardines, voiced by Joe Sugg, Nourishing, voiced by Julie Atherton, and Dangerous Beans, voiced by David Tenant. As they head into town for one last con, they realize something is up when there are no rats to be had or seen. With the help of the mayor’s daughter Malicia, voiced by Emilia Clarke, can they solve the town’s mystery and take down an individual named Boss Man, voiced by David Thewlis? 

One of the first details that should be pointed out about this film is the animation. Listen, it’s going to be a bit before the major studios put out their films, and that means we are going to get a couple of smaller releases before March and April. So, you should adapt your expectations to what varying degrees of quality you will probably see on the big and small screen. What’s impressive about this is how great the character animation is. You will see where the budget was invested, since despite having a mostly empty-looking city, the character animation is the best aspect of the film. The team of animators did these little details here and there that bring so much charm into the characters we see onscreen. Doing something as simple as Sardine’s movements differently than the other rats is such a fun little detail that people will probably not see or care about when first seen onscreen. It perfectly encapsulates his character and personality without hearing a single bit of dialogue. A lot of the comedy is executed well also. Even the villain has some of my favorite character animation of the year so far, due to how ragdoll he moves, but is still immensely imposing and threatening. While stills may not do his design justice, Maurice looks great. Just a quirky and cartoony cat that has a multitude of different facial expressions. Sure, a lot of the backgrounds and environments are empty and flat, but they do look nice. It’s not like they look like first-draft rough renders or anything like that. It’s polished for what the possibly small budget for this was. 

As for the story, it’s mostly a journey of connection through our characters realizing why they are important for one another and finding their inner talent and being able to save the day from actual corrupt forces that want to do bad in the world. The fact we have a group of flawed thieves is perfect for what the story is all about seeing as how they are crooks, but they aren’t literally stealing everything from right under the town’s people’s noses. I mean, they are stealing cash at first, but not to the extent the villains are. Sometimes, it’s fun to have flawed protagonists. You just have to make them likable, and while only some of the rats get personalities and names you can remember, they are likable. Maurice is egocentric and cocky, but he gets more sympathetic as time goes on. The human characters are pretty okay. The only one who has any real major personality is Emilia Clarke’s character, who is meta and self-aware about the ways stories are told and the tropes that unfold from within them. Keith is a decent wide-eyed and likable lead, but he has the more typical route of becoming a real hero. It really helps though that it has a killer voice cast that has been listed in the top part of this review. Cast the characters wrong, and it could derail everything. It also helps that this wasn’t a film that needed to be dubbed over since the stars are big enough for their own movie. For the comedy, it is more dialogue driven with wordplay and the reliant eeriness of the meta nature of the female lead. It isn’t always consistently funny, but it’s consistently charming. That’s more of a victory than if it had the most laughs. Sometimes, being more consistent is better than being ambitious but inconsistent. Also, if you are curious, yes, a certain fan-favorite character does show up, but he isn’t in the film a whole lot. 

In general, while it probably won’t be winning any major awards, The Amazing Maurice is a delightful surprise during a part of the year that was originally a time to dump smaller films to write off as failures or for people to catch up on the award season fodder. If you can see it in theaters, then give it a watch! Seeing a mostly positive reception to the film definitely makes this the most accessible and watchable film brought over by Viva Kids, and the fact they are confident enough to give it a theatrical release is admirable. Now, how big that release ends up being is probably the usual NYC and LA release and not an actual wide release. Still, if you can find time to watch this film, then do it! Definitely recommend checking it out while we wait until Netflix and the big studios drop their big films. Now then, it’s time to go big and epic as we talk about New Gods: Yang Jian. 

Rating: Go See It!

The Other Side of Animation 285: Puss in Boots The Last Wish Review

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keep the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

A lot can change for a franchise when it is now over 20 years old. The Shrek franchise is one of the most influential franchises in the world of animation. With all that said, it is interesting to look back and see what has changed from 2001 to now. Animation and storytelling in the medium of filmmaking have evolved and while you can’t take away the impact the first film had, it’s easy to see how the franchise has moved away from Shrek to the other popular character of the series, Puss in Boots. It has honestly outlived the rest of the franchise due to having a popular Netflix animated series years after there were any talks or plans to really bring the brand back to life. Sure, there were talks about how a new Puss in Boots film started all the way back in 2012, but they didn’t really get the ball rolling until six or so years ago. This was probably due to being on and off in development because of what was going on with DreamWorks at that point in time before and after they got bought out by Universal, and Illumination’s Chris Melandandri taking up the job to executive produce and help helm both Illumination and DreamWorks. Obviously, it got a boost in getting put back in production after 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s interesting to see how one character has become its own franchise within a major franchise. I guess you can call it “franchiseception” or some other outdated pop culture joke. Either way, this film got audience-goers wondering what direction this film would go in, and how it might or might not be a testing ground to see if people still cared about the franchise. There was also the push of the development of a fifth Shrek film, resulting in one of 2022’s best animated films and one of the best films from the studio. 

This film is directed by Joel Crawford, written by Tom Wheeler and Tommy Swerdlow, and created at DreamWorks Animation. The story follows the titular brave, fearless, and heroic individual we all know and love named Puss in Boots, voiced once again by Antonio Banderas. After having a party that results in the slaying of a giant, he’s about to perform another toe-tapping tune, when Puss ends up dying. After being told by the town’s doctor/vet/jack-of-all-trades that he only has one more life, Puss stomps out, mad that he was told to basically hang up his boots and live a peaceful life. After having an encounter with one of DreamWorks’ most imposing antagonists, voiced by Wagner Moura, and losing against this dangerous foe, Puss goes into hiding at Mama Luna’s for the remainder of his days. Upon meeting a dog that’s hiding at Luna’s named later as Perrito, voiced by Harvey Guillen, the house is ransacked by a group of bounty hunters that force Puss to jump back out of retirement to find this wishing star to gain back his nine lives. Along the way, Puss and Perrito join back up with Kitty Softpaws, voiced by Salma Hayek, and try to avoid the grasps of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, voiced by Florence Pugh, Way Winstone, Olivia Colman, and Samson Kayo,  and Big Jack Horner, voiced by John Mulaney. Can Puss realize what’s important in living a good life? Will he avoid the grasp of this new dangerous foe? Will Perrito not have some of the darkest humor in the film? 

The big thing with DreamWorks is that they are never in one spot in terms of tone with every film they make. Some of them are more story-driven. Some are more comedy-driven, and leave plot and emotional connections to the side. Some even try to balance it out in both drama and comedy. Sometimes, it doesn’t really work. You have some films that are all jokes, but no cohesive story, or the story wasn’t good enough to walk alongside the jokes that were being thrown a mile a minute. Sometimes, they struggle with keeping a tone that feels consistent, and it has only worked a couple of times. Mostly in their Kung Fu Panda films has it worked the best. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish though? It has reached that point where its humor and drama are perfectly synced with one another. Who would have thought that a legacy sequel to a spin-off of the franchise would go this hard with its story, themes, action, animation, and characters? It could have easily lapped up the nostalgia from people who have made the franchise live on by having it be a part of their childhood and through the internet culture of memes. Instead, they didn’t make a film until they had a story to tell, which follows Puss’s arc about him realizing his own morality and what’s important in his life. It also tackles elements of found family and dealing with things like death. Oh, and shout-out to the small story-important moment of introducing viewers to what panic attacks look like and what Perrito as a service dog’s job is to do. You will rarely see a studio tackle something like that and we can only hope more studios are willing to tackle some difficult topics or show some things that happen in real life. 

It’s a shockingly complex film despite it also having some of the best comedy in it, not just relying on making references to real-world things or doing a simple flip or take on a pre-existing fairy tale trope. It all comes from the characters, and at every point, it almost becomes too much with how much the entire cast steals the scenes when they are the focus on the screen, or when they banter with other characters. While many are talking about our mysterious wolf friend for being one of the most realized villains DreamWorks has ever put on screen, Jack Horner is an absolute scene stealer and such a distinct villain idea that it’s amazing that the previous films didn’t try something like a nursery rhyme character with a severe case of inferiority. They could have easily done that for the third and fourth film, but instead, we got the third film rehashing one of the villains from the second film, and the fourth film using another fairytale character as a villain. Nothing feels undercooked or throwaway. 

The other element that people have adored has been making buzz in just about every review and word-of-mouth discussion of the film, the animation. Yes, every studio is taking notes from Spider-Verse, but who cares anymore? The animation industry has needed a kick in the butt to evolve and expand upon its visual horizon. It might only do the lower framerate thing during certain action beats, but the painted look of the world and designs are gorgeous. We can finally make concept art into reality, and all it takes is for the team to do it from ground zero when the film is in production. DreamWorks has some of the best character animation in the industry and the humans have finally moved away from the realism route the previous Shrek films took and are way better-looking. It makes you wonder what DreamWorks could do with previous releases if they were able to go all the way with the stylized looks of things with films like Monsters vs. Aliens. DreamWorks is also incredible with their action set pieces, and that is no different here as this has some of the most exciting action in animation history.  Heitor Pereira crafts the exciting and atmospheric soundtrack and worked on franchises like Despicable Me and films like Madagascar 2, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron, and Pearl Harbor. The voice cast is stellar. Not only is it apparent that Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek do not skip a beat with their characters, but everyone else feels more immersed within their characters. You can probably pick up who they are, but they are never being as distracting as certain films that have star-studded casts.  Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, Harvey Guillen, Samson Kayo, Joh Mulaney, Wagner Moura, Florence Pugh, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph do a great job with their roles and put in some of the best voice performances of 2022. 

No matter how many lives you have, no matter how you slice it with this new iteration of the Shrek franchise, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a triumph, not only for the studio or the franchise but animation in general. It might have some of the usual clunky DreamWorks tropes and ideals, but they are overshadowed by a fantastic script, the most endearing characters in the franchise, and some of the most stunning anime from 2022. Now then, next time, we will talk about the new season of a well loved animated series from 2022. Sadly, it is coming out when the higher ups of Wizards of The Coast and Hasbro are trying to be really scummy about Dungeons & Dragons. You will see what I mean soon. 

Rating: Essential

My Favorite Animated Films from 2021

Now then, the original plan was to do a list for My Most Disappointed Animated Films of 2021, My Runner-Ups for Best Animated Films of 2021, and My Favorite Animated Films of 2021, but we will just cut it down to My Favorites, due to how it’s a new year, I am so far behind, and I want to get this list done. I’ll try to do more of these varied lists for 2022. I hope you understand, and if you want to see the entire list of films, here is a hyperlink to my Letterboxd list. Let’s get some honorable mentions out of the way! 

Honorable Mentions: Luca, New Gods: Nezha Reborn, Seal Team, Josep, Raya and The Last Dragon, and Flee.

Now then, let’s get started so we can talk about 2022’s films next! 

10. Fortune Favors Lady Nikkuko

I know some people weren’t happy with this film due to how it wasn’t a big ambitious follow-up to Watanabe’s previous film with Children of the Sea, but this coming-of-age dramedy about a mother and her daughter in a small sea-side town, finding connection with not just life and the people around them, but each other is a charming experience. It might not feel as grand on the big screen, but it sure looked nice up with Studio 4C’s amazing animation and Watanabe’s detailed directing of a fairly offbeat kind of story. It has its moments where the jokes fall flat, but the heart is in the right place.

9. Poupelle of Chimney Town

CGI animation in Japan, whether its use is in anime series or films, has evolved. That they can now craft a vibrant and distinct dieselpunk world in this film shows that the medium of CGI animation is still evolving. The medium is used to tell a rather sweet coming-of-age tale about a boy and his friendship with a mysterious robot in a capitalist and smoke-covered world. It might be a little clunky at some points, but it’s a fun little story that is visually distinct and a thrill to see from beginning to end for film lovers of all ages. 

8. Calamity

It’s a real shame this got such a small US release and one that was so barebones. It’s a crime it only has a digital-only release with no extras or an English dub for people who prefer a dub over subtitles. The director of Long Way North’s follow-up is a rip-roaring western adventure with some beautiful visuals that really show the western landscape throughout every scene with some of the best character development of any animated film from 2021. 

7. The Bears Famous Invasion of Sicily 

Do you know what else is a crime? This gorgeous and incredible animated film still doesn’t have a proper US release for some unknown reason, when it’s one of the most visually stunning features in animation. You could literally frame every frame as a painting and get something out of it due to this film’s striking use of CGI and 2D animation. It definitely uses emotional and fairytale logic to tell its story and presents its themes of colonialism, greed, and discrimination to the audience, but not every film needs to be logical to be enjoyable, and it’s more of a crime that a company like GKIDS has yet to pick this film up. 

6. Words That Bubble Up Like Soda Pop

People worry too much about creativity and originality in storytelling, and are willing to overlook films that are just straight-up rock solid and charming as all get out. It’s a bit of a bummer this film is stuck on Netflix, but the fact they brought over this adorable rom-com between two teens who feel like outcasts due to one thing or another is also a runner-up in 2021’s most visually stunning animation seen on screen. Sometimes, all you need is a well-executed experience in storytelling that will carry you through to the end credits. 

5. Encanto

It sure does feel like it has been a hot minute since Disney had a huge worldwide hit animated feature since 2016, right? While the film might be entering its backlash phase due to how it was always in the public eye since its November release on Disney+, there is a reason why this film became beloved due to its soundtrack and its focus on familial drama instead of your typical Disney good vs evil formula. Sure, the music might have some of the typical aspects of Lin Manuel Miranda’s music-writing quirks, and I get why people felt divided by its ending, but I give Disney kudos that they want to make animated films that deal with topics that were not seen in a lot of US animated fare. Granted, by now, we have had a few, and we could use some shaking up, but the fact is that Encanto is still a fun charming musical adventure that was a refreshing take after a couple of years of making non-stop sequels. 

4. The Summit of the Gods

This film that Netflix sadly buried on their service was a beautiful journey of human ambition and what you are willing to sacrifice to reach your goals. When people want more “adult” animation, it’s not more stuff like Paradise PD, but stuff that tells a story that you don’t normally see in animation, which shows what you can do with the incredible medium of animation. With stunning landscapes, interesting characters, and some of the best animation from 2021, The Summit of the Gods is a film that sadly should have had more people watching it. 

3. Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish

With the current trend of every film needing to be big and bombastic in the tentpole area of the film-going experience, it’s always good to remember that story, writing, and character are more important than big flash visual effect shots. This is a coming-of-age story about dealing with the trials and tribulations of life and overcoming hardship and challenge, all wrapped up in a very nice romcom setting with some of Studio Bones’ most visually lush animation that has ever come from one of the top-tier animation houses in Japan. It might have a few story beats that are predictable, but the overall journey is important, and if I enjoyed it from start to finish on a consistent basis, then it did its job. 

2. The Mitchells vs. The Machines

Honestly, these next two could basically tie for first place, as Sony Pictures Animation somehow raised the bar in stylized animation with a quirky family dramedy about the disconnect between a father dealing with his daughter moving out for college that just happens to line up with a robot apocalypse. With some of 2021’s most stylized visuals, there was a reason why this film took the world, Netflix, and animation fans by storm with its complex and intensely hilarious themes and comedy. Just a delight from start to finish, but if we had to pick a film that could beat it by the slimmest of margins, it would be…

1. Belle

I know some people find this film too overly ambitious and unfocused, with its combination of a coming-of-age story, a musical, a drama, a romance, and commentary about the social media age which is what we are dealing with in this day and age, but you know what, the emotional throughline of a girl dealing with the loss of her mom and becoming a stronger individual really pulls it all together. With jaw-dropping visuals, bombastic and powerful musical numbers, and some of the best storytelling from the director himself, there is a reason why this film beat out The Mitchells vs. The Machines by the slimmest of margins.

The Other Side of Animation 284 – Scrooge: A Christmas Carol

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. It would help support my work, and keep the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

One of the biggest problems with having a timeless classic is how it branches off into a multitude of different adaptations of the said classic. You will see them take one form, and then another one, or maybe a musical! And then, you will see that musical get adapted into a film, and then people want their crack at that version of the timeless tale. It’s tough, because you don’t want to radically change anything that makes the original amazing, but not every adaptation needs to fully be a 1 on 1 comparison. You need to have some kind of fingerprint that makes your take distinct due to how many versions of something like A Christmas Carol there are in the world. You can usually find one that has stuck with you whether it has Mickey Mouse, The Muppets, or the film adaptation of the Leslie Bricusse Scrooge starring Albert Finney, which is my favorite version. So, this year’s Christmas review will be of Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, a CGI animated feature that is an animated take on the musical. 

This version of the classic tale is directed by Stephen Donnelly, co-written by Donnelly and the original writer of Scrooge, Leslie Bricusse (which is probably more of a royalty/rights situation due to Leslie passing away in 2021). The animated version of the story obviously stars Mr. Ebaneneezer Scrooge, voiced by Luke Evans. As the story goes, Scrooge hates Christmas with a vengeance and how everyone delights in partaking in it, including his employee Bob Cratchit, voiced by Johnny Flynn. That night on Christmas Eve, Scrooge goes home with his dog Prudence only to have the arrival of the ghostly spirit of Scrooge’s last partner, Jacob Marley, voiced by the High Sparrow himself, Jonathan Pryce. Marley puts the fear of the afterlife in Scrooge and tells him that he will be visited by three spirits. These include the candle wax-like Ghost of Christmas Past, voiced by Olivia Coleman, the bombastic and lively Ghost of Christmas Present, voiced by Trevor Dion Nicholas, and the ghoulishly evil-looking Ghost of Christmas Future. Can Scrooge change his ways? 

So, not to get personal with this review, but the 1970s Scrooge is one of my, if not my favorite Christmas movie. I watch it every year with the family on Christmas Day, and it’s the adaptation of the book I watch the most. So, if I sound more critical, it’s because this incarnation is basing itself on a film that’s close to this critic’s heart. What was one of the fun aspects of the original story is how it’s a cautionary tale, but also gothic horror. It was a dark story, and to be frank, this film does seem like it wanted to have its gothic horror, but their main focus was making a family-friendly version of the tale so it would be in that roundtable of A Christmas Carol viewings for families, alongside the Disney and Muppet version. It leans a bit too much on the family-friendly side, as they do what a lot of Toei animated films used to do all of the time back then with the small animal mascots. Scrooge gets a dog, and The Ghost of Christmas Past and Future share these little sprite-like beings that have no real reason to be there. Sure, depending on the version you watch, Christmas Carol can get dark, but it’s a fun dark, and not intensely stressful like Smile, Nope, or Hereditary. They expand upon Scrooge’s past and show more scenes of his slow turn from a kind human to who he was in the present time period. It just seems like they didn’t need to do this because you get the idea of what happens when the “Happiness” sequence happens, but they shorten that part to make room for more scenes and original song sequences that are exclusive to this version of the film. 

Oh, right, there are original songs in this film, and they are a mixed bag. This wouldn’t be so distracting if they didn’t remove songs from the original musical to make room for these new ones. They feel too modern and really detract when they do use music from the original musical. Not that they aren’t sung well, but the first song used in this version of the film is very forgettable. That being said, you can tell that the animators by Timeless Films did a lot of great work during this opening sequence, and make sure to give this film its own distinct visual flair. It has a lot of bright vibrant colors that do detract from the original’s more somber atmosphere. The other new songs are fine, but they feel out of place with the other ones including Luke Evan’s rock opera song that he sings before Marley arrives. It just has a ton of different story decisions that really do hamper the original tone that, while having its own moments that work, don’t compare to the original. The one song sequence I did like was between Luke Evans and Jessie Buckley, but when push comes to shove, the original version of Happiness is still the best version of that moment in the film when Scrooge sees his past. They even push the side characters even more to the side and don’t leave much of an impression unlike the live-action film. The rest of the humans look great and while they come close to looking like they are from something from either advertisements or some of the more well-known mobile games, the film looks fine for what was assumedly not on a large budget. They throw in a lot of Christmas flair and visuals, but personally, the ghosts got the best design boost by being in animation. The Ghost of Christmas Past and Jacob Marley have probably my favorite visual designs. Marley’s more ice/blue flame look is awesome to see unfold when he arrives and Christmas Past is inspired by a candle and made of wax has some of the best animation in the film. You can tell the animators had a ton of fun making her work. Even if Olivia Coleman is maybe hamming it up too much. Ghost of Christmas Future has the least interesting design, and what makes some other adaptations work is how they handle this specific ghost in general. Even Jim Carrey and Robert Zemeckis’ take on the ghost does some truly spooky things by making it a shadow along the walls, and that’s great. Sadly, the animation isn’t consistently well done when you get to the Thank You Very Much scene, the animation took a hit and is way too robotic and stiff when it is one of the more darkly comedic and lively scenes from the original musical. The one thing this film doesn’t fully mess up is the stuff with Tiny Tim. I mean, it’s hard to mess up one of the most adorable kids in fiction. If you mess that up, then you aren’t a good director. 

It sounds like this isn’t a very good adaptation, but there is stuff to like. A lot of the animation looks good, and at moments, it really captures the somber and eerie tone of the film even when it’s aiming for a more family-friendly version. The voice cast is pretty good with Luke Evans, Johnny Flynn, Jessie Buckley, Olivia Coleman, James Cosmo, Fra Fee, Rupert Turnbull, Rebecca Gethings, and Giles Terera to name a few of the major actors they got for the film. When it does slow down and show some of the plot beats from the original, it does do those scenes well. The music is composed well by Jeremy Hollen-Smith, and while I’m not super fond of the new and old songs in how they are executed, they are sung well. When you have a guy who was the Genie on the Aladdin Broadway show, you know you are going to have a fantastic Ghost of Christmas Present. 

It’s a solid adaptation, but if it didn’t try to feel so modern and family-friendly, even compared to other more family-friendly adaptations of the source material, it would leave a more lasting impression. It has some solid visuals, a few decent musical numbers, and good voice performances. It’s a fun time, but I wouldn’t call it one of the better films of the year. If you have yet to see this version, then there is a reason to give it a watch. It’s different enough to stand out, but even with my underwhelming impressions of this version, I bet this one will make the rounds every Christmas. Most people will watch more than one version of A Christmas Carol every year during this time period. Either way, see it for yourself and come up with your own thoughts about it. For now, it’s time to relax, work on some editorials, and enjoy the holidays. 

Rating: Rent it (well, it’s a streaming-only film, but still.)