Sony Reminds Us Why Physical Media is Important

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Sony has announced that it will be purging over 500 movies from its Playstation Store since they lost licensing with Studio Canal. Users who bought these titles will no longer have access to them or even a refund in a few months. What a bummer.

In our age of digital content, it is important that we own physical media or at minimum downloaded media not connected to the Internet. They're one-and-done purchases, and you own them forever. Also you don't have to worry about titles disappearing or censorship. (Search the chromosome episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy for an example of the latter.) I've been stocking up on DVDs, Blu-rays, and CDs myself, and I encourage you to do the same.

Will Aslan Be Female in Netflix's Narnia Reboot?!

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Et tu, Greta?

In my last post, I talked about how Disney's Snow White was going to be a box office bomb and not show any amount of respect for the original 1937 film. The film dropped last month and...I and most people were pretty much right on the money. 

To continue this tiresome modern trend of making unfaithful reboots that barely please anyone and bomb faster than one can say "screw it," there is an adaptation of the Narnia series currently being produced at Netflix of all places with the first movie being based on The Magician's Nephew, the sixth book published but the first one chronologically. And the director? Greta Gerwig. Yes, that Greta Gerwig who directed 2023's Barbie which ended up being a radical feminist and misandrist manifesto. What could possibly go wrong?

Not much is known as of late, but apparently Aslan, the lion who rules over the land of Narnia, will be voiced by actress Meryl Streep. So will Aslan still be male but have a female voice, or will Aslan be a lioness? Only time will tell, but knowing who is heading this production, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the latter is true.

What really makes this frustrating is that the Narnia series as a whole is an overt Christian allegory. Aslan in particular is a representation of Jesus Christ. In fact, he is Jesus taking on a different form in another universe. Therefore, having him be voiced by a woman or having him be a woman downplays that fact and makes it seem like this will be a feminist subversion of a beloved Christian story. Never mind that there are plenty of strong female characters in the series already.

If I were you, I would avoid this altogether. Remember that hate-watching is still watching. For a good example of Narnia adaptations, check out the three movies produced by Disney before they sucked (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader).

Movie Trailer: 'Snow White' (2025)

 

What did we do to deserve this?

The trailer for the ill-conceived live-action dump based on the classic 1937 Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarves has finally been released, and boy, is it a doozy. See for yourself at the top of this post. Then read the comments. They are more entertaining than this film.

This trailer is yet another example of everything wrong with modern Western media and reboots in general that have become cliché at this point. Here, Snow White is not only race-swapped for no good reason, making her name lose its original meaning, and played by won't-shut-her-mouth Rachel Zegler, she is also changed to be a "girlboss" who leads a revolution against the Evil Queen. Because that's what Snow White was about, right? And if I had to guess, the prince will be made into a weakling and will not kiss a presumably dead Snow White at the end, because that's sexual harassment apparently. Honestly, the only character I like in this is the Evil Queen played by Gal Gadot, and while she too is a race-swapped version of her original counterpart, she plays the role well. She and Zegler should have switched places as she appears to be a more worthy candidate for "the fairest of them all," but I digress.

Then there are the CGI dwarves. They could have been played by real people with dwarfism á la The Wizard of Oz and Time Bandits, but political correctness and Peter Dinklage got in the way and prevented a whole demographic from getting an opportunity to make it big in the film industry. Everyone thinks they're creepy, but I actually don't find them weird at all in the same way that I was not at all creeped out by the characters from The Polar Express (which is now 20 years old as of this post!). My issue with them is that they're not as unique-looking nor as memorable like the originals.

In the end, only time will tell if this movie will make it big. I personally hope it doesn't since I'm tired of unfaithful reboots and cheap cash grabs and would prefer either new and exciting stories or else adaptations that respect what came before. Maybe a movie like this failing will be a wake-up call to Disney and Hollywood to stop making these types of movies for good.

Video: "WHAT WE'RE LEARNING FROM DISNEY’S ANIMATORS | Film Threat Rants"

Film Threat, an independent apolitical film review site, recently published this rant video on YouTube. Current and former animators from the Walt Disney Company have contacted the hosts, sharing their experiences and voicing their grievances toward the company and the American entertainment industry in general. It's well worth the watch.

Unless you've been under a rock for the past decade or so, the Walt Disney Company, and indeed Hollywood at large, seems to be getting worse lately. Lack of creativity and originality, leftist activism (especially identity politics shoved down children's throats in an attempt to indoctrinate them), and poor business decisions have led to many American films not performing at the box office both domestically and internationally. Some recent examples include Wish and The Marvels which became box office bombs and further alienated audiences. Meanwhile, domestic studios like Illumination and international studios like Toho are kicking butt with films like The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Godzilla Minus One, both of which I have seen this year. Unless these failing studios course correct very soon, it seems they are living on borrowed time.

Anime Review: 'Sailor Moon S: The Movie'

original Japanese theatrical poster (source)

Today I'll be going over the second theatrical film based on the classic 90s anime Sailor Moon. This is Sailor Moon S: The Movie. The "S" in the title implies that it takes place at some unspecified point in the Sailor Moon S arc, which is the third season/series in the overall canon.

Why am I reviewing this during the Christmas season? Simple: it takes place during Christmas break, in much the same manner that Die Hard takes place on Christmas Eve, therefore making it a Christmas movie, technically. For this review, I will be utilizing screenshots that I took myself from the Blu-ray disc, because I finally have that capacity now (yay for me!).

Movie Review: 'Klaus' (2019)

Welcome to the jingle. (source)

Merry Christmas! I'm still allowed to say that, since Christmas is twelve days, not one. Speaking of, today I'd like to go over a Christmas movie that, had I seen this before 2020, I would have mentioned in my 2010s movie retrospective and would have hailed as a modern classic and the best movie of 2019 with Steven Universe the Movie as a close second. This is Klaus.

Movie Trailer: 'Sonic the Hedgehog 2' (2022)

Let's flipping gooooooo! (source)

It seems Christmas has come early for Sonic fans, because the trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has finally dropped, premiering during The Game Awards 2021. The YouTube trailer can be found below:

From what I can gather from this trailer, Sonic is fighting crime in Green Hills, Montana. His guardian/adoptive father Sheriff Tom tells him that one day "there will come a moment when [his] powers will be needed." That time comes soon enough when Dr. Robotnik, played by the one and only Jim Carrey, returns to Earth and reunites with his previous righthand man. He mentions that he has found a source of ultimate power, which, for those who know at least some Sonic lore, is a Chaos Emerald. Then Miles "Tails" Prower enters through a ring portal like he did in the end of the first film and meets Sonic. The two fly on Tails's biplane and attempt to dodge Robotnik's attacks. They then enter the bar from the previous movie wearing heavy snow gear which seems like the start of a hilarious skit. The final scene worth noting is the first appearance of Knuckles the echidna who is implied to have been convinced by Robotnik that Sonic is evil and must be destroyed, as is the case with other Sonic media such as Sonic X.

Picking up from where Sonic the Hedgehog left off, which I reviewed previously, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is setting itself up to be just as good if not better than the first movie and another entry in the realm of video game adaptations that don't suck, which began in 2019 with Detective Pikachu. It premieres in theaters April 8, 2022.

'Evangelion' Officially Releasing in North America on Blu-ray!

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This is admittedly a late post after the news dropped, but GKIDS has obtained the rights to Neon Genesis Evangelion and its movies Death(true)² and End of Evangelion in North America and is releasing it on Blu-ray for the first time! There are three versions of this release: the Standard Edition (pictured above), the Collector's Edition (pictured below), and the Ultimate Edition which is only limited to 5,000 copies and is now sold out. More information can be found on the GKIDS website. I have preordered the Collector's Edition as it contains the old ADV English dub in addition to the new one. Once it arrives, I'll review it.

The snazzy Collector's Edition. Source is the same as above image.

I had discussed the bootleg Blu-rays previously, and after hearing what will be contained in the official release, I've decided to keep them. First of all, "Fly Me to the Moon" is intact, the ending theme that unfortunately will not be present in the rerelease. It also contains the original versions of episodes 21 to 24, Death(true), and then some. In short, I want to preserve some of the original material from the franchise.

'Hayop Ka!': A Netflix Original Film from the Philippines

Movie poster. (source)

How was I not aware of this movie until now?

To preface, I'll state upfront that I am half Filipino on my mother's side. Growing up, I didn't think I would ever see explicit Filipino characters outside of what was produced in the Philippines. That changed in 2017 when I saw Lars Barriga from Steven Universe make an ube cake in one episode. It blew my mind to see a Filipino character in a major Western production. Ever since then, I've been interested in seeing Filipinos in mainstream media.

So imagine my surprise when I found the trailer for a Filipino animated film being produced for Netflix:

Content warning: violence, implied sex scenes

Hayop Ka!, which means "you animal" in Tagalog, is a story about a cat named Nimfa who works as a saleswoman. She has a dog boyfriend who works as a janitor. One day she meets another male dog who is rich, and after falling for him she must decide if she will go for him or stay with her boyfriend. Basically, a generic love triangle story that has been told millions of times before.

The animation and backgrounds look very impressive for an international non-anime film. The characters are anthropomorphic animals along the veins of other Netflix properties like Beastars and Aggretsuko. Heck, the main character almost resembles Nicole Watterson from The Amazing World of Gumball minus the blue fur.

I would like to see this out of curiosity, but unfortunately, it isn't available in the US, only in select regions. As long as this is better than The Nutshack, the gosh-awful attempt to have a mainstream television series featuring a Filipino cast, then I'd consider this a win for Filipino animation, or at least a step in the right direction.

Anime Review: 'Akira'

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Earlier this month at my local comic-con I bought myself a used copy of Akira, the landmark anime film that started the anime boom in the West. I had actually seen it a few months earlier online, and after seeing it I wanted to own it. So here we are.

The famous bike slide scene

Akira is based on the manga by Katsuhiro Otomo. Interestingly, the manga was still being produced when the film adaptation hit theaters in 1988, finishing in 1990. Otomo himself even directed the movie. What sets this film apart from other anime is that it is animated at 24 FPS (frames per second) and it shows the characters lip-synching, meaning that the voice acting had to be recorded before the animation. While this is normal for a Western animated feature, this isn't for anime; animation is mostly limited and audio is recorded after animation. Because of this, the film was the most expensive anime production until Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away in 2001.

Movie Review: 'Sonic the Hedgehog' (2020)

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I saw Sonic the Hedgehog with my sister and her friends last Friday, and, similar to Detective Pikachu from last year, I think it is a well made film. Not groundbreaking by any means, but still enjoyable.

There is an interesting story surrounding this film's production, of which you should be aware. Last year, the first trailer came out and Sonic's design was...less than accurate, to say the least.

Put that thing back where it came from, or so help me. Source

People online were furious that a big budget Sonic movie would portray him this way, and they complained and memed for days on end. This got wind of the director who, realizing that the film would flop if Sonic's sucky design remained, decided to change the release date from November to February and give Sonic a much needed makeover. The result is a better-looking design for the little blue hedgehog.

Much better. Source

2010s Retrospective: Movie Edition

 So begins the first 2010s retrospective post.

Before I begin this lookback, I will let you know that the following films are those that I have seen (though not all because that would take too long), so no, I will not be discussing Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4, or other such films simply because I have not seen them. Also, these movies will be listed alphabetically and by release date. So without further ado, let's begin.

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1. Alice in Wonderland (2010)

A surprise success for Disney's live-action branch, making a billion dollars worldwide, Alice in Wonderland is a sequel to the original story by Lewis Carrol and is directed by Tim Burton. Many people panned this film likely because they compared it to the animated Disney version. But when judging it on its own, it's actually pretty alright. I like the designs for the characters, and the world of Wonderland actually being called Underland is a very Tim Burton-y thing. Can't say much for the sequel released a few years later. That was a waste of time.
Official rating: PG / My rating: 10+

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2.  How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

DreamWorks Animation starts the decade off strong with How to Train Your Dragon, a film based on the book series of the same name. In a similar vein to Shrek, the film takes liberties from its original source material. The flying scenes are some of the best animated sequences ever put on screen in my opinion, and the film does not contain any pop culture references, something that is usually present in DreamWorks films. While nowhere near as grand as other DreamWorks classics like The Prince of Egypt and Shrek, it definitely soars above their other mediocre works (*cough* Boss Baby *cough*).
Official rating: PG / My rating: 7+

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3. Tangled (2010)

Disney's 50th animated film in their ever-expanding canon, Tangled is a great Disney princess film that draws inspiration from the fairy tale Rapunzel. The songs are great, the CGI is impressive, especially in regards to Rapunzel's hair, which I've heard was tough to animate, and the characters are endearing and worthy of Mickey Mouse's ears of approval. The film did so well that it even has its own TV series which is still ongoing as of this post.
Official rating: PG / My rating: 7+