DVD Review Update 9/22: MCU 2021 Movies & Mission Impossible

So this time we are going to look at two of the three movies out in 2021 for the MCU. Movies that apparently did not fare so well… but who cares. They are either getting sequels OR they play an important part in 2024’s Thunderbolts… mainly Black Widow. But first…

Mission Impossible, the 5 movie collection. Featuring the three numbered Mission Impossibles from 1996, 2000 and 2006. Ghost Protocol, no relation to Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon (2011) and Rogue Nation (which is not a movie about all the people who want a certain actress to be cast in the next X-Men movie as Rogue) (2015). I saw the first two in theaters, I saw the first one twice in theaters… and that’s it. I was never compelled to see anymore Mission Impossibles after II featuring the directing style of… what’s his name. I forgot.

Anyway there is still Fallout, which stars the most recent Superman with a Mirror Universe beard… I forget him too. Probably due to all the mess the DCEU is presently in… Herny Cavill… didn’t he play Jesus once for Mel Gibson?

Yeah. Anyway Mission Impossible. I’ll probably review all this in 2023, when the first movie of the final two part arc for Mission Impossible hits theaters. Well I figured they couldn’t go on forever, but an eight movie run is pretty good I’d say.

Anyway time to see what the MCU did in 2021 that isn’t Black Widow. They did… two other movies. One based on a certain legendary creator’s title Eternals… more or less.

“A birlliant ensemble stars in this enthralling film from Marvel Studios. ETERNALS follows a group of ancient heroes from beyond the stars who have protected humanity since the dawn of our existence. When Deviants — monstrous creatures who were thought gone forever — mysteriously reappear, the Eternals return, hoping to save humanity once again.”

BUT it turns out the Deviants are the least of their problems. Because one of them, Icarus aka Not Henry Cavill Superman, is a traitor… also they happen to work for the worst cosmic beings in the multiverse. The Celestials. Giant powerful armored beings who like using planets with people to birth new Celestials. Like Earth!

They have to defeat that Celestial before it’s born, and it so angered the Celestias that they bought the Supreme Court and had them strike down Roe v Wade so that people cannot abort Celestial fetuses in planets anymore… that’s why they struck down Roe v Wade right? Because of this? No? Never mind.

The problem with this movie is that it’s 1) BORING, 2) Introducing a ton of characters you know nothing about. If they were teased out and introduced over a lot of movies, and you had a chance to know them over time? MAYBE you’d care more… not like this. Also 3) It’s like the D-List tier characters of Avengers canon in comics. Black Knight, Sersi, etc. Also Pip The Troll who knows Adam Warlock who hasn’t appeared in the MCU yet fully… or has and nobody cared.

It’s a giant movie with too many characters that nobody knows or who are so D-tier list in the comics that nobody, again, cares. But this gets a sequel becuse somebody has to have a movie with the Celestials as villains. Everyone else is focusing on Kang The Conqueror so… why not.

Anyway it’s the first movie ever where the heroes arrive in Starship TriForce… did anyone tell the makers of Legend Of Zelda? Might be sueable… next…

This one I am more intersted in, because it’s directed by a Hawaiian based director for his first movie so… I’m hyped for that local connection. And I hear he’s coming back for #2 so that’s good. Maybe his career will take off after #2. Anyway Shang Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings But NOT The Ten Rings You Were Expecting…

“Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) must face the past he thought he left behind and confront his father, leader of the dangerous Ten Rings organization.” (that would be the actual real Mandarin… even though if memory serves, Shang Chi is actually cousin to far more used in cneimas villain Fu Manchu).

AND… that’s it. Shortest blurb for a movie DVD ever. Sigh. Yeah. Anyway you might remember this because this is where Wong was throughout the events of Spider-Man No Way Home. Also featured The Abomination (who returns from Incredible Hulk of years ago… and that means that yes, the second Hulk movie sometime back is indeed MCU canon… guess so because at the end of the movie Robert Downey Jr met with General Thunderbolt Ross…

Then Ross was recast for Captain America Civil War. And he might not even be in Thunderbolts as Red Hulk… the character. Not Ross from Incredible Hulk. Anyway yeah… also no. The rings? Ten Chinese arm band rings for martial arts fighting, not the ten rings with powers that were salvaged from the engine of an alien spaceship which belonged to the dragon… wait… you mean THAT dragon is supposed to have an appearance in this movie? Only smaller?… damn.

So yeah. This is the MCU and their two movies that didn’t go well, but are getting sequels nevertheless. Sigh. We will see how those fare in the future… but I still need to get Black Widow 2021 because Red Guardian and Black Widow II are going to be in Thunderbolts 2024… for some reason.

They might as well call the movie Secret Avengers. It has more to do with the Avengers than the actual Thunderbolts. Like the group of villains pretending to be heroes, or the team led by Red Hulk and featuring Deadpool and the Punisher. But whatever. Stay tuned.

Next up? From Universal its time to look at the last Jurassic World movie for the present… despite the fact Universal kept dropping hints that they want to make a large franchise of movies, it seems the team has had enough and wont do another movie until Universal makes them do one… sigh. Jurassic World Dominion. Tomorrow. See you then.

DVD Review Update 7/30: Star Trek Lower Decks Season 2 DVD

Yeah. You know what? I haven’t sat down and committed reviewing Star Trek yet… maybe some month I’ll begin scheduling new Trek on the schedule. At 10 episodes or so a season, I guess it could take… 10-20 days each to review depending on length. Eh. Maybe one day. For now it’s in my personal collection.

So Lower Decks Season 2. A series that so far is love it or leave it for some. I kinda love it so I’m glad there is Season 3 this year, and Season 4 the next… and maybe more afterwards. After all they can’t let a whole bunch of series die the same year! They kinda need to space them out so they only have to add one new series a year.

And given how (adjuectiveless) Star Trek the comic is looking from IDW in October? I think they’re going to launch the anthology series Star Trek Tales Of The Federation in 2024 to replace Picard. Maybe. We will see.

So let’s see. Lower Decks Season 2. “”Hilarious and awe-inspiring” (AV Club). Created by Emmy Award winner Mike McMahan (“Rick And Morty” “Solar Opposites”), Season Two of the Emmy-nominated series Star Trek: Lower Decks is bigger, funnier and Star Trekkier than ever before.”

Well… that’s a lot of EMMY in on line. Also Star Trekkier than ever before… ok.

“Follow the adventures of our favorite Starfleet support crew in the U.S.S. Corritos as they deal with changes in group dynamics, chasing promotions, and tons of sci-fi missions.”

Because… this is a sci-fi show? I wonder if next year Season 4 will have Not Master Chief Cortana show up on the show… as if HALO series Master Chief Cortana wasn’t already not what fans wanted… why not have her show up in this show and rub it in some…

“This 20disc DVD includes every hillarious episode of Season 2 along with over 1 hour of special features, including featurettes, animatics, commentaries and much more! Also features guest appearances by Jonathan Frakes (William T. Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation)…”

(And Star Trek: Picard. Well yeah. He does do a lot more directing on Star Trek of late… so of course he’s here. I’m still waiting on him to show up on Prodigy.)

“and Roboert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris in Star Trek Voyager.”

Not listed? Alice Krige, who supposedly is here as a cameo as the Borg Queen. You remember her, right? From Star Trek First Contact aka Star Trek VIII? Also she was in the finale of Star Trek Voyager, and I think she was also in Season 2 of Star Trek Picard? Or not? Well John DeLancie was there…

Anyway yeah. Season 2. Next year is Season 3, but let’s focus on the near present. Next is… a bit up in the air. Now it should be Star Trek Prodigy Season 1… EXCEPT they took the 10 episodes that were to be Season 2, and turned them into Season 1 Part 2. There is a Season 2 (2024), but that seems to be scripts from what should have been Season 3. Does this mean they will wrap up Prodigy in 2025 with Seson 2 Part 2 aka Season 4? Guess we will see.

Anyway if that isn’t out in a few, then the next Star Trek DVD is Discovery Season 4. The day Discovery met giant alien skeletons and learned a new language in order to tell aliens not to blow up the Earth… again. But that is a talk for another time… like near the end of hte year I’m guessing.

Next up? Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, the DVD… and my thoughts on how Disney is… not giving you your money’s worth when you buy their DVDs anymore. But we’ll get to that soon…

Disney’ Encanto 2022 Review Finale Part 4

The Review Ends Happily… Of Course! This Isn’t A Disney IRL Story!!

So yeah. Let’s go over the end of the movie, and then I’ll tell you why I liked it so… and why it’s going to end up in my Guilty Pleasures pile and probably not something a lot of you will buy…

So Mirabel goes to make amends with Not Poison Ivy, which kinda reveals a lot about her perfect sister… mostly that she’s kinda burning herself out being the so called perfect sister, and is kinda envious of Mirabel who is just herself and doesn’t have to live up to such high expectations.

Suddenly the sister learns she can create different kinds of plants. More than just the fancy showy roses and other flowers, she can also make cactus plants… that she finds cute in their own way. Which brings forth… a song! Of course a song. But yes, she and Mirabel hugs… which kinda begins repairing damage. But it’s not enough.

Why? Because the one main cancer that is killing the house, and the family is… the Matriarch of the family. True to form she shows up, and is quite angry at Mirabel. But she’s kinda figured it all out and she finally tells the matriarch off telling her that she was the one destroying the house all along.

But at this point, thanks to said matriarch, the house is destroyed. The candle extinguished, and all seemingly is lost. However… in this moment of introspection… the matriarch finally realizes what she’s done wrong… and goes to fix things by seeking out Mirabel.

ODdly enough she finds Mirabel at where everything started at the beginning of the movie, the place where her husband died. She tells Mirabel everything about what led up to this moment, their past together… the birth of the triplets… the destruction of their home and the husband sacrificing himself to save the others… which brought forth the birth of the magic.

However what she hadn’t told anyone for a long time, was that she made herself kinda bitter… she needed everything to be perfect, all to protect everything she had and not to lose a single thing or person ever again. However,inthe end of course, her driven attitude was destroying the very things she wanted to protect.

But at long last she finally woke up, and realized how wrong she was to try and smother everyone and control everything, creating the very things she feared would happen. She finally hugs Mirabel, and reconisiles with her. She also hugs the arrived Bruno, and reconsiles with him too.

They return to the house, where Bruon finally explains his so called predictions and makes amends with everyone about them in his family… I guess if we had a sequel or a new series he would then be explaining to everyone in the village but that is neither here nor there.

They need to rebuild the house, because for now the magic is still gone. Why? Because if they saw the vision to completion then they would have seen that… bringing the family back together is not enough, because the family now is far bigger than just this family. As you probably guessed by now, this family also includes the entire village of refugees that are set up in this valley along with the magical family. They are all essentially family….

LET’S just not go there. About the whole marriage thing and such… just think of everyone as spiritual family and we’ll move on from there. Ok? Ok! Good to know… we already had one way too graphic thing today. Let’s not go for two.

The village comes together and helps rebuild the house in record time. It’s not magical, or special… but that is about to happen. Now that the family is together it’s time for Mirabel to open the door again, this time to the new home. This time the magic works… well it comes back. And her magic seems to be the power to mend families? Anyway the magic returns, the house returns to life and becomes the TARDIS once again… whether or not Mirabel now has her own powers I guess is the stuff of prose fiction, or fan stories, or a sequel.

Yeah. Like I said, this movie did not do well in the box office because theaters were still struggling with COVID and all that, so it was the right movie at the wrong time. It was good, I liked it a lot… but at this point I think I’m going to have to file this one away as a niche favorite of mine. Because due to it’s failings to catch fire in theaters? It would take a lot of DVD/Bluray purchases, and a ton of intersts to make this come back once again.

Not to mention Bob Cheap-ass-pek needs to go away. And a new better leader of the Disney brand needs to come in, because like the matriarch of this movie, Chapek is destryong the miracle…. only unlike this lady in the movie, he doesn’t seem all that intrested in saving it. Yeah… sigh.

So this movie gets a 5 out of 5 from me, and unfortunately it also gets acknowledgement that there’s just no way to course correct where it is going. Which is to say a one off that will never create any future potential. NOW MAYBE a new ride will show up in one of Disney’s Solid Gold Rich Parks, and interst will be re-ignited in the movie and for a sequel or a series… yeah.

I an not even going to pretend I want to risk neck injury trying to stare up the impossible mountain that Bob Chapek has turned Disney into. I’ll just file this aside in my collection, watch it a few times a year, and lament what could have been… until the guard shifts, attitudes change, and Disney becomes something of what it used to be. An actual place of dream realization… not the nightmare it is now. The end… until the next review.

So yeah. I liked the movie, but the thoughts about what a horrible place Disney has become depressed me at the end. So… I guess I’ll swing another way this week for the next two reviews for the week. I don’t think my heart can stand another Disney movie for quite a while. So… where to next? Good question. Guess we will find that out… tomorrow! See you then!

Disney’ Encanto 2022 Review Part 3

The Review Comes To A Shocking Realization… That’s Not So Shocking If You Really Think About it.

So it looks like we are going to go one more day looking at Encanto. But by the time we get to tomorrow it’s time for the climax, so the movie is rounding down to it’s end.

So… why do we not speak of Bruno? Well… we don’t speak of Bruno because he has the power of future sight. And… that’s it. He has the power of future sight, and because of that everytime he saw the future he ended up rubbing eveyrone the wrong way… because he usually had bad things to predict.

Don’t blame him. It’s not like his powers come with a suitable for all ages button or a happiness pill so he only tells good futures. The future is the future. You make due with the knowledge and try to change it… though nobody tried to change their futures so… ok.

She did get all the pieces of the mirror vision. However it turns out to be a 3-D image of… Mirabel standing in front of the house as it comes apart.

It turns out that the vision was not quite done yet, but Bruno stopped looking before he saw it all… and thus the entire fear over the future is based on only half the knowledge needed to prevent said future. Which the house has been relentlessly trying to warn Mirabel about… but we are not yet there.

It looks like the sister with the Poison Ivy powers is going to be proposed to, and since the father took away the shards of the mirror from Mirabel (her father), it looks like she will just have to sit back and cool it for awhile… but again she’s not that great at the whole sitting back and cooling it.

Also the rats seems to have picked the father’s pockets, took all themirror shards, and are assembling the image under the table… which causes chaos as Mirabel tries to stop them, and gets the matriarch angry as she realize what is going on.

So let’s get to the quick as there is a good reason why the matriarch is so angry. It turns out the mirror is stolen, and its stolen by someone hiding in the dark crawlspaces of this gigantic TARDIS sized house. That person being… Bruno. Yeah. Wouldn’t you know it. He didn’t leave the safety of this valley sanctuary to travel into the war torn world of Colombia outside… go figure!

We find out a few things. We find out that he has been trying to keep the house together, as it looks like, from the dark interior of the house itself, that it is already breaking apart… but he’s been desperately trying to keep it together. We also find out that he’s been alone long enough that it made him kinda mad.

Mad as in he’s now a viable candidate for Harley Quinn Season 3 because he’s kinda nutty in the head. Yeah. He’s been alone for way too long. Anyway it’s time to finally figure out the matriarch’s role in all this.

Mainly she already knew the house was in danger, because she was the first one to see it! She asked Bruno to sort things out, but because he was unable to fully force himself to see the full vision? He only knew that it had something to do with Mirabel. Sadly, giving the matriarch that half story only led to speeding up the destruction rather than delay it.

Why? Because it seems the house is dying NOT because it’s losing it’s life force… how considering all the powers it keeps giving out, that and it made itself into a mansion of infinite spaces like Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, or the TARDIS. Nope. It’s not the loss of the candle’s lifeforce. It’s… the fact that the family is slolwy and steadily tearing itself apart.

So yeah. the house prepresents the unity of the family. It was built on the sacrifice of the former patriarch of the family, the father of the first three children of this amazing family. So of course it’s demise would coinside with the death of the family, as they are yanked apart. And… well…

Bruno kinda started the chain off by putting a cold barrier between the matriarch and Mirabel. If we doubted this? Her mom and dad even call her out on in as she has the family serarching for her. So yeah. It started with the failed vision, and sped forwared from there.

With the help of the youngest family member who can talk to animals… and who lives in a room that is a giant rainforest full of animals… how did he know to show up? The rats came and told him all about what is going on. Of course. Bruno needs a large space to do his future seeing, and since apparently Mirabel trashed his old vision room they needed the young cousin’s help for Bruno to do this vision thing again.

While, again, ghe does not see the vision through to the end? They do see long enough to see that the family has to be brought back together. They have to mend all their broken family bonds that are tearing the family apart, and come back together as this amazing family that protects this valley full of refugees from the harsh world outside.

So that is where we are as we head to the climax. Somehow, Mirabel has to figure out that it’s not just her and… Poision Ivy girl… who needs to reconsile. Which might be hard since Mirabel kinda ruined her wedding proposal and she might not be too likely to listen to Mirabel’s words right now. Anyway she has a lot to do, and practically no time in which to do it.

Why? Because this latest stunt with the mirror prediction has really set off the matriarch, and Poison Ivy girl, and we already saw the matriarch getting bitched out by Mirabel’s parents so… yeah. The house is now breaking apart, because the fmaily is well on it’s way to breaking apart.

So how will the climax go? Guess we will find out… tomorrow. As we wrap up the review of Encanto. And yeah. It would be nice if this movie had a sequel down the line, or a Streaming Series… then again, given how Disney has seemingly declared itself Enemies Of All Non Rich People? MAYBE… maybe Encanto needs to be sold to Dreamworks. Just saying… Encanto didn’t do well in the box office last year. And Disney is all about the cheddar so… yeah.

Anyway, we wrap up Encanto tomorrow. Then… we will see what we review next during the new week ahead. Stay tuned.

Disney’ Encanto 2022 Review Part 2

The Review Enters The Tower Of Bruno The… Timelord?

Yeah yeah. Views are down because I’m doing something different with my daily video review. Sigh. Come on folks! I need to do other things from time to time! I’ll run out of Anime to review if I piled it all on top of you all at once. Also I’d get burn out from it all… which is why it’s been so long since I last reviewed Anime/Manga. I got burned out from the daily demands!

So remember my fellow reviewers. Take the time to step out of your daily Anime routine and do something else once in awhile. Stretch your mind a bit, flex your muscles, go off the script and take a chance on something different! You’ll thank yourself later for the variety in your daily routine. I know I do.

So it is as I said it would be yesterday, the matriarch shuts down all ideas of the house being in jeopardy. And it is now that I am beginning to think there is a good reason why there’s an entire song dedicated to why they don’t speak of Bruno!

Especially since it looks like Bruno’s magical room in the large house is… a giant testament to his ability to see through the veil of time. But more on that in a bit.

Deciding not to give up her search, she decides to find the family member with super hearing and ask her about the house and it’s losing it’s magic… but first, that night, she goes to look at the candle (the heart and soul of the house). It’s then, with the Matriarch coming out to the window to speak to her dead husband’s spirit (not seen but you know how that goes), we find out she knows what Mirabel said is true. That the house is in jeopardy.

So yeah. Mirabel is embolden to continue her quest… but for me at this point it kinda tells me that there’s a reason why Bruno is not spoken of, especially since he’s the one who could see through tine… hence he knew this was happening, and she refuesed to listen to him. See how well this is working out for the house now.

So she goes to see the sister with the excellent hearing… only to accidentially kinda tell the problem of the house to the young boy with the shapeshifting powers… dammit movie! You went into Rule34 didn’t you!… but it was funny. Anyway she leads Mirabel to the sister who is as powerful as the Hulk.

She’s strong, she’s helpful and can’t stop helping eveyrone… which is a bit off as she can move churches, gather donkeys, correct the stability of buildings with a shove, and so on… also I’m wondering if she won’t end up being the English voice dub for Hitomi if we get a Hitomi-chan is Shy With Strangers. Her VA would be ideal for Hitomi.

So she gets a song, ahd hey this song has a Hercules (Disney variety) reference! Also the Donkeys get involved in the song at one point, so yay. The songs are nice, but since there isn’t much to say past how much I’m loving the music of the movie I’ll just skip them for brevity’s sake. Anyway she tells Mirabel something that furthers her worry.

Mainly that she felt her powers slip away briefly. Which means if the house dies, all the gifts it has given to everyone dies as well… which actually… is dramatic, but also doesn’t make sense. After all the house is losing parts of it’s lifeforce to give these powers. Why would the powers go if the house dies? If they are all connected then the house shouldn’t be dying. It should still be fully sustained by the family who is connected to the house…. so as this is dramatic license I feel it kinda is counter to the narrative this should be leading to.

That being that the house has been slowly depleting it’s lifeforce to grant powers to everyone, which means when it uses the last of it’s powers the house dies and the safety of the valley is put in jeopardy… but their powers shouldn’t die because they were given at a cost to the house. These gifts were not given duty free after all so… but I’ll forgive that. This needs a bit more urgency for resolving the conflict so… ok.

Of course talk of Bruno comes up again, which means that… huh? The meal scene? Oh right. While investigating today Mirabel is stopped fom questioning the powerful sister by a meal. Mirabel… for one who is trying to secretly learn about the trouble the house is in… is not very sutble in her investigation in front of everyone.

Let’s see. She already told a person who didn’t need to know about the trouble. Maybe two. And she can’t stop being curiously suspicious in front of the whole family at mealtime. So… yeah. Her subtlety needs works.

Bruno has a room in this house. And since he is not here to answer Mirabel’s questions, the strong sister recommends that Mirabel sneaks into his tower room to invetigate. But warns that she shouldn’t get caught, beause the Matirarch has forbidden access to the room. Yeah. Given how she’s been hiding the truth she learned from Bruno all this time? I can see why.

The room basically is a long reference to time. The sands of time, a sealed vault where Bruno hid the shards of the vision he saw about the destruction of the house. Also we seem to go a little Indiana Jones in Mirabel’s quest for answers. Also she has a few moments with a toucan that lives in this tower room… and is way smarter than Mirabel in terms of not going where sane people wisely avoids.

She finds a vault hidden in plain sight high on top of the tower room. There, hidden in the sands of time, are shards of a mirror. Magic shards which seems to hold the secrets of the destruction of the house, and ties to Mirabel. However she has to quickly grab as many of the shards as she can, as going in the room sets off the rooms defenses which floods the room with more sands of time. She gest out, and hopefully grabbed enough shards to solve the riddle.

However, she is almost caught by the Matriarch, only to be saved by the strong sister who distracts the matriarch so she doesn’t question her further about where she was… or figure out she was searching Bruno’s tower room.

However, as we end the review for tonight, it seems Mirabel can’t find a quiet place to reassemble the mirror shards without running into the perpetually cloudy sister… whose emotions create mini weather events around her. Finally. We have found a sister who is Cloudy With A Chance Of Drama Storms.

So tomorrow, after the incoming Bruno song… because this is a Disney movie, why talk about the family’s outcasts when you can sing about them, we will see what the mirror shards reveal to Mirabel… and where her investigation goes from here… tomorrow.

As for you cloudy lady? Have you considered installing a Mood Tracking App to your smartphone? Maybe one made by The Weather Channel? Just saying…

Disney’ Encanto 2022 Review Part 1

The Review Begins With Lighthearted Moments Spliced Together With Deep Personal Drama… Yup. We’re Watching A Disney Animated Movie!

Yeah… I am getting my fair share of Disney in my collection. Not just Dreamworks or Illumination or the newest player on the block, now manned by former Disney animators… whose first new big movie in their new form is coming shortly in the form of Luck. But that is a review for another day.

Eancanto 2021, but I’m going to say 2022 because that’s when the DVD I bought was released. 2022. It came out when theaters were still struggling under the ever evolving COVID pandemic. Not quite yet the time of the Monkeypox, but it wasn’t that great either for this movie. It did ok, but it could have done better.

And, well, as I watch this I think I’m going to be voicing that opinion throughout. That this movie could have done better if it was released under more ideal circumstances. But it had the cards it was dealt with, which is ironic because this movie kinda has the same fate as the heroine Mirabella in this movie. It got dealt maybe not the most ideal hand, and it has to deal with it. Like her.

So we start the  movie off… by finding out this DVD is using Disney’s new Fast Play technology. Which means loading the DVD immediately brings up the language menu… but NOT the subtitles menu. Great. Thanks. I guess I would have to go back to the Main Menu to find that option… I won’t bother.

So after a few trailers, including for Turning Red, we begin. And we have a rather hard core opening… as we are introduced to how everything became the way it is in this universe.

So this is in the country of Coloumbia. and it is not the best or ideal place to live. With war, and strife going on people were fleeing from the country looking for a better place. Away from all the turmoil and chaos. The main couple of the start, sadly, is broken up as the husband of the lady who will become the matriarch of the family… dies.

However his sacrifice for his young wife, and their triplets, was not in vain. From his sacrifice came the power to protect his remaining family from the darker side of human nature. A candle, which I felt was empowered by the sacrifice of his life, but I guess I’ll find out as the  movie goes on… build a giant magical sentient house to protect this new family.

As time goes on this family grew, and the house further protected them by granting each family members powers. Which, I feel, is why the danger is happening presently. But more on that soon. As the movie begins it is now 50 years into the lifespan of this house, where an entire community of war weary people have found refuge from the chaos ragting about the land here… in this one place of sanctuary. And thus we begins Miraballea’s story.

She was the young girl who was told the story of her family origins in the start of the movie, and went to receive her powers on the night this intro was told… however, we find out soon after the first song that was not to be. Which seems to immediately tell you what is going on with the house.

This kinda has weighted heavily on Mirabella. For as cheerful, lovely and bright eyed and full of life she is… she’s been burdened by being the only one without powers in a family that is two steps shy of forming the South American branch of the Avengers. And as we near the festival or the newest family member to get his powers, her feelings of isolation and being different from her family is weighing heavily on her.

She tries to help with the prepearations for the celebration, as the young man in question is about to gain his powers… but it seems as if she’s just getting in the way. She’s not, but this kinda needs to happen in order to address her feelings that she’s not quite family. Despite all her cheer and songs that say otherwise.

It’s kinda worst when we find out the reason she need sot not be part of the party planning, she needs to have a chat with theyoung man whose about to gain his powers. Because he and Mirabel have formed a close bond… which feels awkward when he can’t go to the door with mirabel, but she feels alienated and distant and uncertain if she should when her family kinda told her to step aside.

Yeah. At this moment, at the festival when he calls her out to walk with him? Her family should have done something to prove to her that she is not alone… he did it, why didn’t they. Oh right. She needs to feel alienated so that her saving everyone will have more impact when it happens. Right.

Walking the young man to the door, however, brings back painful memories of when it was her turn. And the door had no power to give her. This time it workss, and it gives him his powers to… commune with animals… oh great. Now he’s the Beastmaster. But as the family gathers around to record this moment with a photo… they excluse Mirabel.

Yeah. Great. Thanks movie. We didn’t get enough of a kick to the stomach before with the way her family is acting, we needed that too. It triggers a second, sadder more heartfelt song. And the songs in this movie are fine. Well worth owning a soundtrack to if you want to… nice. But at this point I think I finally have a bead as to why Mirabel has no powers… and why the house is in danger.

Well… long story short? My theory is that… well… it’s been 50 years! Like clockwork this house has been granting powers left and right for 50 years! Thing is? Has anyone been giving any of their lifeforce back to the house and the candle, the heart and soul of the house? I bet not. The reason why Mirabel didn’t get powers may be because… the hosue realizes it’s running low.

I think the only reason it gave her young cousin Ernesto… I think that’s his name… powers? Is because it’s what Mirabel wished for, and the house kinda feels guilty about passing her up in an act of self preservation. However granting this newest member of the family powers comes with a cost, as Mirabel is given a vision warning of the house’s demise.

It’s running painfully low on lifeforce energy. It’s given so much energy to grant powers to this family, who protect this community that has grown around them, that it’s sacrificing its own existence to protect all these people from the horrors of the world… and since nobody has been giving their lifeforce back to the house, replenishing all it has given? It’s dying.

So that is where we leave off. Mirabel warns the family of what is happening, unaware what she saw was a dire warning of the house of what could be. Now I would assume, given that this entire fmaily is full of powerful metas… and they already had a family member who foretells the future, the we must not speak of him Bruno from the first stong, you think they wouldn’t question this dire warning from Mirabel.

HOWEVER we already saw them kinda push her off to the side and ignore her so… yeah. Who wants to be we are about to see more of the same as we roll into Part 2 of the review. Thing is… is what Mirabel saw is true, and no one in her family will listen to her… who can she turn to? Guess we find out tomorrow.

DVD Review Update 7/15: Disney’ Encanto 2022 Review

So let’s see… we need to take a break from reviewing My Dress Up Darling Season 1. Just long enough to have reviewed My Dress Up Darling Volume 2 and 3. So I need something to fill this weekend… and since I’ve done some Dreamworks animations lately I thought we’d swing in the opposite direction, and look at something from Disney.

Not Pixar, though I am planning on getting Turning Red soon for review… and try again to order Zootopia. Nope. For this review we go to… this year. 2022. And the release on DVD of… Enacanto. From Late 2021 in theaters or on streaming because theaters were still struggling to open up.

“Walt Disney Animation Studios'”…

AKA the people Disney actually allows to go into theaters with their movies. Unlike Pixar which only got Lightyear put into theaters… which was worse than Turning Red, Luca, Soul and… yeah. It didn’t do what they wanted it to do. Go figure.

“Encanto, with original songs by award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, tells the tale of the Madrigals, an extraordinary family living in a magical house in the Colombian mountains.”

(It tooks years before their drug lord neighbors realized it wasn’t their merchandise that made them act weird when visiting their magical neighbors, that their neighbors really were magical… they then moved to a less mystically inclined country soon after. Because, you know, they saw Carrie… and Buffy The Vampire Slayer… and The Coven… and…)

“But when Miradel, the only ordinary family member, discovers the magic surrounding their home is in danger, she may be her family’s last hope.”

Yes. Yes. It’s maybe one of the worse re-used tropes in these kinda of movies. Of all the magical people only the one with the least magic can save the day… unless it’s a Harry Potter movie, then it’s the one with the most Desitny or Magical Lineage, or a bankable backstory and franchise… something.

So can Encanto make the tried and tried again trope of the least magical is the one who can do the most to save the day trope? Guess we find out this weekend. Starting tonight we review… Encanto 2022. See you tonight.

Animation Versus Russia Edition: My Sweet Monster Review Part 3 Finale

The Review Goes Turnabout Story… Again?

Is it just me or are modern fairy tales only good when you get down to the final third of the movie? Well,, yeah, much like with our review of Kiki’s Delivery Service 2014, My Sweet Monster only gets good in the third act. So… let’s go.

So the mechanical army of Bundy finally has found Barbara and Rabbit. But not before Rabbit confesses why he hates humans so… because it seems that Barbara’s father, who happens to be named Elijah… is this a Bible Reference? Saved Rabbit’s life. But he didn’t quite so see it that way…

How so? Well… it turns out the way the king saved Rabbit is by giving him a mechanical heart powered by the lifeforce of the planet, aka Spark. You think that would be fine with his family… but nope. Apparently he was driven away from his own family because they feared what he became. And yes. The King also made speech possible for him, so this is not a world of talking animals… unless you use your tech knowhow to make such a feat possible.

Ok so yeah. This world is all over the place with technology, as you will see when Barbara finally gets to the city on the other side of the forest, and it turns out to be a Metropolis style city of the future… Wait! Hmm… Metropolis was a old Golden Age Sci-Fi movie that was made in Europe I think. Russia? Probably ran it in it’s day. So… yeah. I can see it being a reference here.

So Barbrara finds out about Rabbit and what he went through, and they have a bit of a moment where she comforts him. How sweet. Oh, and Bogey shows up to save the three from an army of these robots chasing after them… funny. The only reason the army found them was because they all ran into the beaver, the beaver threw a stick at the giant mech because his house got destroyed (again), running gag, and that beaver led them to Barbara and Rabbit.

So after the big fight with an army of these mechs the trio are back together, however it just so happens that the aerial spy drone Bundy sent out to find Barbara find them at this moment… as they are standing right next to the mana pool of Gaia the Earth Goddess. Oh. Right. Of course. Why? So that Bundy will forget all about Barbara and Bogey for now to rush the remains of his army to the mana pool to mine it… after they destroy Bogey’s home for good measure.

So they finally get Barbara to the city, where she finds that Prince Edward lives… in a high rise publishing house? I bet you know what’s coming next, right? Right. It takes pretty much several minutes worth of dialogue for it to get through Barbara’s head, but it turns out the Prince she fell in love with… is not a Prince at all. He’s a fictional character written by a woman. Whose staff has been sending generic fan letters to her… HOW did she not notice that she has been getting generic fandom letters? I don’t know…

Oh wait. I know. Fans tend to wear rose colored blinders when it comes to being fans. I know, I’ve been there. Oh boy have I been there. So I’m going to grant that she was way too into this character to even notice he was fictional. Anyway for some reason this publisher lady… and yeah Prince Edward is the creation of a female writer… JK Rowling? Anyway she has Barbara locked up because… they want to sell her back to her father?

Back in the forest, Bogey and Rabbit notice that their home is on fire… well fire in general. I don’t think they know their home is on fire yet. But before they go to investigate? Bulby, the cute little easily mass merchandisable light bulb sidekick that has been around this whole movie, arrives and getes Bogey to come back to the city to help save Barbara.

So… uhh… the fire eventually put itself out? SPOILERS by the end of the movie the forest did not burn down so… I guess so? Anyway he saves her, and the writer lady decides to let them go and not put up a fight. Why? Because she remarks that they should be honored, to have lived to see a real life fairy tale play out before their eyes. And that’s nice…

For some reason Bogey takes Barbara back to the place where Gaia dwells… why? Oh right. So they can be lured into a trap set by Bundy, who figured out how to summon Bogey using a whistle. So this is the part where everything needs to turn about and the heroes to finally get back on top. Especially since Barbara is seconds from agreeing to marry Bundy to save Bogey.

Looks like the staff of the castle has saved the King from being locked up in… his laboratory… wait. Why did they lock him up in the very place he needed to be locked up so he can turn the tables on Bundy? Well… ok fine. He’s not too bright so I’ll grant that too. Anyway he shows up, and reveals he didn’t build Bundy an army without having a plan. Mainly building a safeguard in all the bots which made it easy to shut them all off.

Suddenly Bundy, for some odd reasons, decides to try to use the Spark he has on him to repair his damaged arm, which he still has. Funny. The arm was damaged because it got a direct shock from Spark enfused crystals but ok. The Spark revitalizes his arm, but being the fool that he is, he decides to take a full on heavy dose of the pure mana liquid pumped out of Gaia’s mana spring in order to become… a hulking monster.

Sigh.  We are nearly over with this so hang in there. Gaia finally shows up, in the form of a tornado, but all she does is nearly get Bogey and Barbara killed. Her help isn’t all that helpful. On the bright side she does clear away all of Bundy’s powerless mechs so… no wait… the King defeated all of those. So why is Gaia… OH RIGHT! She’s here to withdraw Spark from the battlefield, far too late to be of any use… in fact she only makes things worst.

She ends up killing Rabbit… and Barbara. Yeah. It turns out the only way he could save Barbara in the end was… give her an artificial heart. But he was unable to do the same for the mother before she died. Which I guess means she died while he was away fetching the water of life aka pure mana. Bogey demands that Gaia takes his life in order to save Barbara and Rabbit, which she seemingly does… yeah. Nice.

So it’s now winter, and Barbara, the King, Rabbit and the three ladies show up so Barbara can sing one final song about falling in love with Bogey. Gaia, for some unfathomable reason, decides ok I’ve let them suffer long enough, I’ll reverse my decision. She brings Bogey back from being a lifeless statue, and makes him human again. So of course now he can marry Barbara and they will live happily ever after… and the movie ends here. The end.

So that is My Sweet Monster… so how was it? Well… it’s ok. However it’s also a bit all over the place. It takes a bit of time before we actually get to see Bogey and Rabbit in this movie, and far longer before the three finally really bond and start to become close. Like the final third of the movie.

Bundy is an ok villain, and Pauly Shore does a bang up job as the villain. He might not be a commanding dominating villain, but he is effective as the villain so I can grant that. Overall the voice acting is nice, and it’s decently done so points on that. Downside is the songs are,, at best, ok. Nothing really leaps out as something I would want to buy a CD soundtrack of this movie over.

The story is ok, but really falls into place and gets interesting by the third act. However in order to get here you have to sit through about an hour of passable movie, before it finally begins to be something worth really watching. I like the twists of the story, but some things (like Prince Edward not being quite what Barbara thought he would be) kinda was easy to predict. Other twists were nice and really worked well with the story.

So all in all, from Russia with semi decent love we give My Sweet Monster… ehhh… a high 3 out of 5. It has its good points, but it also runs a bit slow at times, and is not a 100% memorable film. I liked parts of it, especially the third and final act, but there is just not enough here to give it any higher a score.

Now I doubt we will see a sequel to this movie, BUT I would love to see more things from this animation studio. And who knows. Maybe if somebody will kindly kick Putin out of the Presidency, the world will finally stop being angry at Russia and this studio can go back to making quality animated movies.

So it’s not going to be hard to think that Ukraine can get a better score. All they really have to do is keep from being a slightly above middle of the road movie. That’s it. Wow me. But anyway this is going to be like how I hope the war goes in the Ukraine. Russia started it, and Ukraine is going to end it…

Tomorrow we look at The Stolen Princess. Ukraine’s entry into this little versus. We will see if one man who is more stage director for a struggling performance troupe can pull off being a knight and save a princess from… a creepy old man with magical powers. Sinister Strange he is not. Tomorrow.

An8mation Versus Russia Edition: My Sweet Monster Review Part 2

The Review Continues With Revelations…

Mostly that I don’t think many people are clicking like on Part 1 of this review… sigh. Come on. I need a break sooner or later, I planned these reviews so I can have some variety in my reviewing life! Be kind! Click like.

So with Princess Barbara knocked out, Bundy shows up to steal her… he even has time to sing a song before Rabbit shows up… and summons Bogey. He ends up losing Barbara, and his bike, and runs all the way back to the castle… but not before falling into a ravine which contains a lot of these crystals that can be powered with spark energy. But more on that in a few.

So as you expected this movie follows the Shrek formula of Bogey and Princess not getting along. They try to take her somewhere as their prisoner, but she ends up almost getting away… until she realizes that watching Bogey fall into a nearby river isn’t good for him because he can’t swim. She ends up saving him and Rabbit from falling over a high waterfall to certain doom… or not.

After saving them Princess gets into a who owns the land argument with Bogey. WHY? Because earlier we had Biundy return to the castle, to ask the King about the source of Spark. And his story says that he went into the forest to search for mythical water of life… why? Because Barbara was born weak and was supposed to have died without some aid, which the Spark apparently is and how the King got ahold of it. All to save the life of his newborn daughter. And no, there is no word about what happened to her mother. I guess she died.

Mainly he got it from a pool of water inhabited by… Gaia, The Goddess Of Nature and Mother Earth Gaia. Yeah. APPARENTLY this forest is the home of the goddess incarnate Gaia, who has not yet appeared in the movie past a giant tornado formed from her pool of life mana, and… glows. But yeah. Apparently the thing that is so valuable in the forest is… Gaia, the Earth Goddess, and the lifeblood of the world mana energy in the form of Spark.

As for Bogey? I don’t think he can die because he was saved when he was very young, and human, lost in the forest during a snowstorm. Gaia used her powers to save his life… and mutate him into the creature he is today. As her guardian, her acolyte, and protector of the forest… without even asking the young kid if he wanted to spend all eternity being Gaia’s puppet to proetct the forest. Gee. Thanks Gaia. Your as horrible in this world as you were in God Of War.

So why did Barbara and Bogey need to argue about who owned the forest, so that Bogey would take Barbara to see (from a distance) the mana pool and the resting place of Gaia… and realize how small she is compared to the vast beauty of nature around her. And that pretty much ends her and Bogey being at odds with each other… but it also begins Bogey falling in love with her.

Well… yeah. He is a human after all despite being mutated by Gaia the Earth Goddess to do her bidding as her guardian. That night, after a rousing game of charades, Bogey travels alone (singing his own song) to the place where Giaa rests… why? Guess we will find that out tomorrow… though I guess if he’s changed back it won’t be until the very end of the movie. Changed back into a human I mean.

So after Barbara and Bogey made up and became good friends? What happened then? Well from the time they first got ahold of Barbara she’s been saying that this Prince she is in love with, Edward, lives on the other side of the forest… THIS FOREST. Uhh… yeah. Is it me or does this seem like plot convenience to reveal that Bogey is Edward? But we shall see.

Anyway, because the King is so desperate to save his daughter? he does exactly what Bundy wants. Which seems to be build him a mechanical army to be powered by Spark, and… build Bundy a new robotic arm? WHY?? When he came back from running around like crazy it was only in a sling, I don’t think it was so severe they had to cut it off and replace it with a mechanical arm… but then again this movie does seem to like to go to extremes so… eh.

So we had about three songs in this viewing. And the songs are… meh. They’re ok. They are not much to write home about, but they are passable. I’ve heard worst, but these are far from the best songs ever. They are… I’ll say middle of the road.

So by the time dawn arrives once again, Barbara and Rabbit are pretty much good friends now… oh. Yeah. Rabbit was the one to see Gaia save and transform Bogey, so he probably knows a lot more about who Bogey really is than he is saying. Anyway when we start things off again to wrap this review up? It looks like the mechanical army of Bundy has found our trio… so what happens next? Find out… tomorrow.

Animation Versus Russia Edition: My Sweet Monster Review Part 1

The Versus Begins With A Trip To Russia!

So yeah. Since I might as well get this over with? We kick off our first versus by starting off with the Shrek in the room. My Sweet Monster. Originally released in 2021 by Grindstone, a Russian Animation studio. Released internationally by LionsGate. Starring Hilary Duff as Princess Barbara, Pauly Shore as the villainous Mirror Universe Postman Pat aka Bundy, and… Not Shrek and Not Donkey. Yeah.

So let’s see. The movie begins with Barbara thinking of this Prince she has had a relationship with for some time, but off the radar. Off her father’s radar that is. Why? Well we will get to that soon enough. Apparently this Prince is well known. So well known in fact he has his own series of action adventure novels published about him, of which Barbara is an avid fan of. Of course.

So what is up with Barbara? Well she is your usual free spirited girl who just so happens to be a Princess. Her father is… NOT your typical ruler. Now he does worry about his daughter alot, but given the fact the mom is nowhere to be found? Perhaps dead? Yeah… if you lost the love of your life? You’d be a tad overprotective of your remaining kin (your daughter) as well.

So the King is NOT an idiot. Believe it or not. I know, I know, you watch the trailer he doesn’t seem all that bright. HOWEVER? Remember all those robots wandering around the castle? He built them! Well… I think he built all of them. He certainly is an inventor, and that brings us to the conflict of this story… also a bit of a confusing aspect of this story.

So a whole bunch of minutes into the movie, and we have the vaguest notion that this kingdom is set sometime in the 20th Century. Circa the 30’s I guess from the car/motorcycle technology… in that we have one scene where we have long fancy cars and our villain (Bundy aka Pauly Shore) is riding a bike I think Indiana Jones rode once in Last Crusade. So at least the age of mechanisation is happening… BUT…

I know I’m avoiding the main plot. But we might as well get this out of the way. It turns out all this technology was made possible thanks to this substance called Spark, which he somehow got from the forest. The forest being protected by Bogey. So does this mean the King stole it from the forest years ago? Or does it mean that Bogey and the King have an… agreement? Guess we will find out later on. Anyway…

Today is Barbara’s birthday, and while the king is fixing one of his favorite robots (who he treats quite well since they are sentient tech… yeah. Pure plot convenience, but let’s give the guy some credit), he’s told that the ladies he has watching over and training Barbara lost track of her. Again. Giong to find her he leaves the very important safe containing the Spark wide open… yeah. Later on Bundy wanders into the room and gets ahold of it. Of course.

So we already know that the King is overtly protected, and Barbara wants to fly away from home and live her own life away from the stiffling protections of her father. She probaby needs to learn why he’s this way, but that will probably be later on in the movie.

As for Bundy. How does he enter the picture? Well we finally get the first reference to Bogey when we go over to the Post Office, full of 20th Century automation by the way, and we find out he has been stealing from the Postal service. Someone who has recently been robbed by Bogey has a letter for Princess Barbara, but nobody wants to go to the palace… and report the presents for Barbara’s birthday was stolen by Bogey.

Bundy goes. Because he’s an ass who only thinks of himself and he wants Barbara for himself. But how can he do it? Well… first he tries to bribe Barbara by reading her mail… which doesn’t matter because it ends up being read by her father anyway which doesn’t go well for her. He then ends up finding the Spark, and because he has no notion of the kind of trouble he’s getting into playing around with it? The King has to promise to marry Barbara to him just to get him to stop… yeah. That also does not go well.

So yeah. This is supposed to be her birthday, so maybe she should have been rather suspicious when the birthday caterers roll out a wedding cake? Oh right. She’s too busy being angry at her father for his disapproval of her prince she loves so much, and decides to rebel by cutting up the dress she was given for her party and showing up… well… baring a lot of leg.

Yeah. This kinda… makes the King ultra sad. Why? Because he kinda made the monumental oopsie of giving Barbara the dress he kept from her mother WITHOUT telling her the importance of that dress. Yeah. Awkward for both of them. But not as awkward as the King trying to explain he’s about to give his daughter away to a crazy postman because… he got ahold of the Spark.

So Barbara, not waiting for the weird old priest from Spaceballs to show up to perform the wedding, calls on her horse Fireball… wait. Was he waiting within earshot of her? I’m guessing she did that so she would have invited him in to help himself to cake at her party, or because she figured she might need to make a quick getaway from her smothering father but… well… he’s there.

And this leads to… a chase. Yeah. The villain Bundy actuallly arrived at the castle with his bike, a piece of 20th Century technology fast enough to keep up with a strong stallion of a horse. And we are treated to a few minute chase which is actually well filmed, and has a comedic moment as both race out the city gates. Nice. After a few minutes chase the Princess somehow loses Bundy, but ends up eating it soon herself as Fireball takes her into the forest… and runs her head first into a branch knocking her out.

Well… I guess she should be glad her precious horse didn’t just kill her with that stupid move, but ok. And this is a good place to call it a night. When we return? Barbara has been found by Bogey… who I am sure is still a giant human in a furry costume… and Rabbit, aka Not Donkey.

Also apparently while Barbara and Bogey get to know each other, Bundy figures out what makes Spark so special (that it is used to power the technology made by the king) and… he somehow uses it to create a cyber canine army with it? Guess we are about to see how that happens.

So as of right now how are things shaping up? Visually the movie is well animated, I will give it that. The voice acting is well done, and the story is presently good. It’s not particularly original but it is focused primarily on Barbara as the main protagonist of the story. If this was a Shrek clone we would have seen more of Bogey by now, so Bogey is more a supporting character as of this review… so that’s nice.

I think I can forgive the fact that technology seems to be all over the place. We have a king that seems capable of building sentient robots, but we also seem to be in a time of 1930’s tech in terms of automobiles. So… yeah. Ok we can just brush that aside and just try to enjoy the movie for what it is I guess.

So Bogey finally enters the picture, and we will see if this quest to get more Spark by Bundy ends up turning the movie into one part Avatar. Which is timely since we now know there will be a ton more movies, starting with Avatar’s second movie coming December 2022. Yay. I guess I should start getting ready to look at the giant blue alien smurf movies… oh nature why… oh. Right. Tomorrow is part 2 of the review of My Sweet Monster. See you then.