ANI-MOVIES, *The Good Dinosaur

"Another dinosaur movie?" That's what most people thought when this picture came out in 2015, even though this was the first time that Pixar produced two movies within the same year, the other one being Inside Out, but The Good Dinosaur suffered from dinosaur movie burnout. Disney had already done its own fully-CGI dinosaur movie creatively titled Dinosaur in 2000 which was met with universal disdain, so having their blockbuster subsidiary of Pixar wanting to do a similar movie should have raised a fleet of red flags. The story had a stonking five writers in it who probably tried to make a coherent plot of all these ideas patchworked from other dinosaur stories, but all their efforts became as extinct as the movie's premise. Pixar brought their A-material when it came to the terrific backgrounds, but having all the characters looking like they're out of The Far Side is similar to watching a John Ford movie with the entire cast coming out of Gumby. The trailers were deceptive by making you think that this would be one cartoon dinosaur flick that would be free of dialogue, but then you learn all the dinosaurs can speak fluently and the humans are barking like dogs and it puts a serious spanner in the works.

A long time ago in a parallel universe where the dinosaurs never died out and continued to slightly evolve over several eras, the creatures have become more intelligent and built a rudimentary society largely consisting of farmers. An Apatosaurus family is trying to get through their next harvest before winter hits, and the runt of the litter Arlo is hoping to find his place in the family. After the father is killed in a flood, Arlo feels guilty when what caused it was them chasing after a stray caveboy who here have the mental capacity of wild dogs. The boy shows up again stealing the farm's food supply, so Arlo goes after him only to end up in the river and getting carried off several miles from home. Arlo gets stuck with the cave kid and calls him Spot after getting into an argument with a solitary older dinosaur. Now, the two of them have to find their way back to Arlo's farm via the river. Along the way, they run into scavenging pterodactyls, some T-Rexes who are herding bison, plus cattle rustling redneck raptors. At the end of their journey, Arlo realizes he needs to leave Spot behind with another family of primitive humans who adopt him into their circle.

The Good Dinosaur does contain a few choice moments where Arlo has to deal with the loss of his father and getting stranded away from home which he and Spot bond over, but this ultimately fails to sustain the numerous things holding the film down. There's so much about the dinosaur society that remains unexplained like how they utilized tools and constructed houses using mostly just their mouths, plus how the cavemen managed to evolve enough while avoid getting eaten into extinction. This whole movie is just The Land Before Time with extra steps. Just retell the story of a young dinosaur getting separated from its family and adding the plot from A Boy And His Dog. Pixar's cinematic breathtaking backdrops are the only thing keeping this movie above water. They should've made the entire film about the cowboy T-Rexes even though they are just a bunch of old western cliches it still would be way more appealing than this low-hanging fruit.

ANI-MOVIES, *Migration

For the first time in a long while, Illumination finally made a movie that wasn't a sequel, tied to a video game, or based on Dr. Seuss book. Migration is an original story by Mike White turned into an animated film in 2023 directed by Benjamin Renner who also worked on Ernest And Celestine. In what might seem like a ripoff from Disney, the film is about talking ducks, although these ducks are more realistic and don't wear human clothing for no explained reason. This sounds like one of the National Lampoon's Vacation installments as it has a family running along various mishaps while they travel to an ideal destination, but Migration is less cynical and largely wholesome. The animation is above standard which isn't too different from what you might have seen in one of the Rio movies. The only major fault in this is a reoccurring villain halfway through it when the story didn't really need it, that and having Awkwafina voicing in yet another cartoon movie might also detour several viewers.

Mack and Pam are a pair of mallards that live a comfortable life in a New England pond with their children Dax and Gwen, plus their slightly over the hill Uncle Dan. After a flock of other ducks use their pond while they migrate to Jamaica. Mack is resistant to consider travelling south with his whole family, but Pam talks him into it, so all five of them take off. They get stuck in New York for an inordinate amount of time after running into some rude pigeons and help free a depressed macaw named Delroy from a chef that looks like Gendo Ikari if he was in the yakuza. After liberating Delroy, he agrees to lead them to Jamaica where he comes from and temporarily run across a sanctuary for overfed ducks which it turns out is really a farm that supplies the same evil chef with his duck dinners. Dax realizes the whole thing is a trap, so he gets Mack and all the other ducks to ditch the farm and join them on their trip down south. The chef chases after them all in his monogrammed chopper and nets most of them, but Mack and Pam manage to samba their way to freedom. Delroy eventually gets them to Jamaica where they stay until the next spring where Mack agrees to help a bunch of misplaced penguins find their way back to the South Pole in an obvious sequel bait which seems it was more put there for comedic effect instead of a definitive continuation tease.

Migration wasn't made with the intent on highlighting any particular product brand or dreamed up just to sell a munch of merchandise as there was a lot of time and effort into the detailed production and the sweeping flight sequences that shows Illumination isn't just an extension of Universal Pictures' marketing department. It shows a healthy family dynamic with all the characters learning to getting along and work together instead of petty bickering. There is also a great deal of cartoon antics that blends well with breathtaking backdrops and colorful characters. This wasn't something on the level of an epic from Laika, but even they made the mediocre Missing Link just to keep the lights on. The celebrity voice overs a fitting, although once again Awkwafina is completely unnecessary in this. This is a charming and harmless film for children with some seriously over-the-top slapstick.

ANI-MOVIES, *Gandahar

The third and final feature-length animated movie by Rene Laloux of Fantastic Planet legend was Gandahar from 1987. Released in English under the title Light Years, this French film was based on a 1969 sci-fi novel written by Jean-Pierre Andrevon, but the translated version was adapted by none other than Isaac Aasimov. The dub had several high-profile celebrities in it including Glenn Close, Jennifer Grey, Christopher Plummer, John Shea, along with awesome original voice of Mumm-Ra, Earl Hammond. Some of the animation does look slightly stiff, especially with the robots, although there is particularly unique mecha and character designs.

Set in the land of Gandahar, the biologically enhanced citizens are being attacked by an army of automated soldiers called the Men of Metal, so an agent of Gandahar name Sylvain is set out to investigate them. On his journey, Sylvain runs across a tribe of abandoned Gandahar humanoids branded the Deformed each of which has their own physical mutation, although they all have limited precognition. Sylvain also comes across Arielle, a survivor from the Men of Metal attacks who petrify all their victims. The dark droids worship an entity known as Metamorphis who is a giant sentient brain. Once confronted with this by Sylvain, Metamorphis claims innocence to the Men of Metal's inhuman crusade which turn out to be coming from a thousand years in the future where the older Metamorphis has sent these soulless soldiers to collect fresh DNA. Sylvain is frozen for a millennium by present day Metamorphis to terminate his corrupted future self to bring peace to Gandahar, even though the land is still largely decimated even after the time paradox is resolved.

Gandahar was not a success at the box office and was considered buried for several years. However the US version has recently been restored for streaming, but this time the unedited version as well as the original release has a few minutes removed because of mature material. This isn't for younger viewers as there is an abundance of nudity in it, but it makes for a forgotten science-fiction epic with its amazing music and creative concept art.

My Little Pony: A Streamlined Timeline

My Little Pony is starting a new series in 2027 which is just the tip of the iceberg. The Brony fandom has been active for decades now but really became a phenomenon with the start of Generation 4 where cartoonist, musicians, artists, writers, cosplayers, and gamers found a new source for their creativity. The life affirming message of peace and harmony have created friendships all over the world. Given that, let’s give the toy line and animated shows a streamlined history.

MLP originally started out as My Pretty Pony in 1981 from Hasbro under their Romper Room label. This was part of a trend of franchises in the early 80s featuring cute characters like Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, and Get Along Gang, although those were all started out as a line of greeting card mascots. They were created by Bonnie Zacherle first under the title of My Pretty Pony where the figures were bigger than their MLP descendants which spun off into its own brand in 1982 which made up G1. Bonnie Zacherle had already left Hasbro at the time G1 had started, so Liz Knight who was VP of their girl’s toys department, was just starting out.

Two years later, Hasbro had the first animated TV special by Sunbow Entertainment and Toei Animation titled Rescue At Nightmare Castle, which was followed up in 1985 with another special titled Escape From Catrina. In 1986, My Little Pony: The Movie came out 2 months before Transformers: The Movie making it the first Hasbro film based on their toys. This was followed by a TV show titled My Little Pony And Friends that ran for a single season, the first half starred the Ponies, while the second featured animated shorts of other Hasbro toys like Potato Head Kids and Glo Friends.

G1 continued into 1992 with My Little Pony Tales which removed the fantasy elements of the 80s show and remade it in a modern setting with a different batch of ponies who were suburban teenagers. Despite what a lot of people think, this was not part of the G2 toy line which ran from 1997-2003 which never had its cartoon series. Hasbro had bought out Kenner and assigned their people to design G2.

G3 started in 2003 with a new animated series done by Wang Film Productions and SD Entertainment along with a series of made-for-video movies. This lasted until 2008 when the revamped G3.5 was launched with webtoons and the formation of the Core 7 which focused on a specific group of ponies that had different character designs.

Hasbro decided in 2010 to create a G4 of MLP but this time with genuine worldbuilding and its own narrative, so they got animator Lauren Faust to map out this new interpretation. She used the idea of the Core 7 and turned it into what is called the Mane 6, and added Friendship Is Magic to the title so it could be seen as its own distinct entity separate from the previous MLP shows.

MLP: FIM premiered on The Hub which was Hasbro’s own channel that had original programming based on their products such as Transformers, GI Joe, and Littlest Pet Shop. MLP was animated entirely in flash by Allspark Animation and was the biggest hit on The Hub which eventually became Discovery Family in 2014 and was one of the few shows that continued after the channel was rebranded.

After 3 seasons, there was a spinoff titled Equestria Girls where the Mane 6 exists as humans in a more earthlike parallel world. This launched with 4 movies, TV specials, and a web series.

The main FIM series went on for 6 more seasons including a second MLP: The Movie, a pair of TV specials, and some web cartoons. Following this was a chibi-fied reboot of FIM titled Pony Life that played on Discovery Family. It was also the first time MLP had its own comic book line which became a bestseller.

G5 began in 2021 with the premiere on Netflix of a new CGI movie titled MLP: A New Generation, which missed getting a theatrical release due to the covid lockdown. Netflix followed this up in 2022 with a series titled MLP: Make Your Mark. Running along this was a chibi-fied web series called MLP: Tell Your Tale from 2023 that continued the story even after Make Your Mark concluded.

G6 is coming out with a new series titled MLP: Forever Friendship on YouTube in 2027. There are also plans to do a “live-action” movie from Amazon MGM Studios that will probably be like The Lion King live-action films. Hopefully future installments of MLP will gather the kind of numbers that G4 did.

ANI-MOVIES, *Wildwood

Fathom Events which normally has special limited theatrical presentations grabbed the reigns and distributed the latest offering from Laika in their sixth cinematic release, Wildwood. Not having anything to do with the New Jersey town of the same name, Wildwood is based on the New York Times Bestseller novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis which is their longest feature at 132 minutes and has Travis Knight returning to direct for Laika after handling the Masters Of The Universe live-action reboot. Laika bought the film rights to Wildwood a week after the book first came out in 2011, so this project was in the works for over 15 years, and for a stop-motion-animated movie you can see it in every detail. What the film lacks in originality when it comes to the story, the animation itself is a life-changing experience once you see it in the theater. This is not just a movie, it is an event to be witnessed at your local cinema, although Fathom's distribution isn't as wide as your average DreamWorks or Disney cartoon, so make sure you get yourself to your nearest picture house.

Taking place in Portland, Prue is a girl who has been left in charge of her baby brother Mac while their parents go to a fair with the explicit instruction that Prue never take Mac outside of their house. Like most teens, Pruse brushes this off and takes Mac out for a bike ride with him in a wagon, and she runs into her dorky schoolmate Curtis. Suddenly, a massive crew of crows snatch Mac away from them and fly him into the dark forest called the Impassible Wilderness, with Prue and Curtis chasing after them. Curtis gets captured by an army of talking coyotes while Prue seeks help from the governor of this magical realm which is sealed off from the rest of the world. The two of them have their own separate journeys with the various factions that occupy the enchanted woods. The coyotes are led by a traumatized dowager governess named Alexandra who is the one that orchestrated Mac's kidnapping and uses witchcraft with plans to sacrifice Mac to bring her back her departed son. The acting governor only cares about keeping order, so he has Prue locked away, but she's freed by the bird principality while their brave general dies taking Prue to mystic hippies who communicate with a giant tree that is the pillar of the whole forest. Curtis escapes Alexandra's dungeon along with some imprisoned bandits who are also against the governess' dungeon, all while Prue briefly returns to her parents to learn the truth about her and Mac's origins. Armed with this new knowledge, Prue goes back to the Impassible Wilderness to save Mac in a climactic battle which will decide everyone's fate.

Wildwood is total perfection in all visual respects with the entirety of Laika's effort on full display which shows all the time they took to create it with every intricate detail that make this possibly the greatest stop-motion animated film of all time. Despite its practically flawless execution in lifelike imagery, the drawback to this is the plot which throws every possible fantasy cliche into the mix. There's several allusions to various other fantasy sources like Wizard Of Oz, Narnia, Labyrinth, Secret Of Mana, and Lord Of The Rings which gives people the impression that the screenwriters just picked a bunch of story tropes out of a fishbowl and went with whatever they thought would fit. The original novel might have had a more solid structure with strong archetypes, but none of those transfer to the movie with mirky plot devices, stock characters, and large expositions given to nearly everyone's backstory. For Laika to have achieved such a vivid masterpiece for the eyes, it seriously missed the mark when it came to writing a cohesive storyline. Stay for the visuals but put your brain on hold when it comes to all the overwhelming plot inconsistencies.

R.I.P. Patrick Stewart

ANI-MOVIES, *Batman: Knightall: Part 1-Knightfall

In the mid-90s, DC Comics decided to replace their Big 3 with some replacements. Where The Death Of Superman "killed off" the Man of Steel and replaced him with four understudies, Knightfall went a less lethal route by having Batman getting critically injured and replaced by someone who wasn't a Robin. Like Crisis On Infinite Earths, Warner Bros. Animation decided to turn this adaptation into a trilogy, even though there still isn't a collected Blu-Ray of all three movies, so you might not see a box set of the entire Knightfall trilogy for some while. This first part is titled Knightfall which is of course the beginning of the Batman: Knightfall saga, but it looks strange to have the same name twice in a single title, plus this isn't part of the any of the other DC Universe animated project since the Tomorrowverse concluded in 2024. The character designs are straight out of the 90s comics event and captured Norm Breyfogle's vision along with Kelley Jones' gothic cover art, so anyone who grew up on reading this story arc back in the day should be satisfied.

It opens with Batman encountering an armored assassin called Azrael who was brainwashed by the hidden Order of St. Dumas to exterminate the guilty, and Batman takes in the young man named Jean Paul and tries to deprogram him along with Tim Drake who is the latest Robin. Prior to this, an unnamed child survived growing up in a Caribbean prison and becomes the test subject of an experimental steroid called venom which increases his strength and intellect. With these new abilities he takes on the name Bane and escapes to Gotham City with the intent of defeating Batman and taking over all on his own. To do this, he busts all the inmates out of Arkham Asylum, so Batman runs himself ragged trying to catch all the escaped lunatics, even though Joker is suspiciously missing from the mayhem. Robin takes Azrael to find out who caused the outbreak in the first place, but Azrael starts to give into his bad habits and spirals into despair. Robin is caught by Bane who says he already knows his and Batman's secret identity, however Robin gets free and makes it to the Batcave where Batman gets angry and fired him. Bane then breaks into Wayne Manor, knocks out Robin and Alfred, then proceeds to give Batman a stone-cold beatdown and breaks his spine, dropping the Dark Knight onto a city of onlookers.

This first part of Knightfall compresses a lot of the original preliminary build up to the comic book, like greatly shortening the Azrael introductory mini-series, plus Tim Drake's freshmen run as Robin gets thinned out. One major factor that was abandoned for the movie is that building up to before Bane arrives in Gotham, Batman was working his fingers to the bone just keeping Gotham together which went on for weeks, whereas here it's only two days. For Batman, two days isn't even slight overtime as he's gone whole weeks with no sleep in the comics, so it's hard to believe in this abridged version of the story. The animation is up to specs, especially the boss fight between Bane and Batman, despite the fact that the movie's take on Bane has him being twice as big here as he was on the comics. The movie could have been longer by an extra couple of minutes to fill in some of these inconsistencies, although it is a decent intro to the trilogy going forward.