Scoob!

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Scoob! is an animated reboot of the theatrical Scooby-Doo franchise. Scooby and Shaggy must team up with the Blue Falcon and Dyno-Mutt when Scooby finds himself in the crosshairs of the villainous Dick Dastardly. Let's start with the negatives. First, the mystery aspect of the movie is inconsequential. It isn't the main focus of the movie, which is a bit odd because this is a Scooby-Doo movie. Second, I didn't love Will Forte as Shaggy. He's not bad. It just feels odd to me when Matthew Lillard has been the official of the character since 2009. Third, I don't necessarily think the movie always knew what to do with Fred, Daphne, and Velma beyond having them in the movie. I wanted to get those out of the way because I legitimately really liked this movie. Now that I've seen it a couple of times, there are things I didn't notice on my first viewing. For the most part, I really loved the voice cast. My personal favorites were Jason Isaacs as Dick Dastardly and Mark Wahlberg as the Blue Falcon. I genuinely loved a lot of the film's writing as well. There are some great jokes that poke fun at the Scooby-Doo lore. The movie does serve as something of a set up for a larger Hanna-Barbera universe. This is something that isn't going to work for everybody. Personally, I kind of like the idea, and I have seen attempts at doing this that are much worse by comparison. So, yeah. I really did enjoy this movie quite a bit. It's not going to go down as one of my favorites of the year. But, I don't think it needs to. The movie does its job. That's about all I can say on the matter.

7 / 10 

The Addams Family

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The Addams Family follows the titular family as they deal with a nearby neighborhood and a real estate agent who wants them to either conform, leave, or be destroyed. This is a movie I think can pretty much be summed up in one word: decent. The animation is decent. I kind of like that a lot of the animation has this fast-paced energy to it. In fact, it kind of reminded me of the Hotel Transylvania movies. The story is decent. If anything, it kind of reminds me of the first live action Addams Family movie, but not quite as strong. The jokes are decent. The best ones are some of the more morbid jokes, but they don’t always feel like they go far enough. Most of the jokes made me chuckle, but only a handful of them are legitimately hilarious. The voice actors are decent. The best parts of the movie for me are easily Oscar Isaac as Gomez and Chloe Grace Moretz as Wednesday. Overall, nothing in the film is particularly bad. But, nothing in the film is exceptional either. Part of it could be the fact that this film is pretty clearly geared towards kids, especially compared to the two live action movies that came out in the early 90s. 

6 / 10 

The Nightmare Before Christmas

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Jack Skellington is the pumpkin king, and he rules over Halloween. But, after years of doing the same thing every year, he begins to yearn for something difference. So, after he accidentally stumbles across Christmastown, he decides he wants to take Christmas for himself. There's a lot about this movie to love. The animation is awesome. I really appreciate how much time and effort goes into claymation. But, it goes deeper than that as well. The characters all have this distinct look to them that helps make them stand out. The music is quite catchy, even if I personally feel like a lot of the more Christmas-based music is some of the weaker music in the film, but it's still solid. The character's aren't super-deep, but they feel like they're as deep as they need to be. Since this is a kids' movie, I don't necessarily need them to be. This may not be one of my all-time favorites, but it's still an enjoyable movie with a distinct look that's worth a look by fans of off-kilter Christmas movies (as well as fans of Halloween) since this film can easily be watched on both holidays.

8 / 10 

The Lion King (2019)

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From a technical aspect, the remake of The Lion King is stunning. It’s beautiful to look at. Yet, the film just feels hollow, almost like an imitation of something better that came before. I think the Disney remake this reminded me of the most was Beauty and the Beast. Yeah, I didn’t really like this movie very much. Don’t get me wrong there are good things about the film. The voice actors do an admirable enough job. I’ve already mentioned the film’s visual effects. At the same time, I feel like the attempt to make the film look more realistic is also one of the film’s biggest hindrances. The original made the characters emote. You could understand what they were going through. Here, their faces are blank slates. What makes it even harder for me to feel any real attachment to this remake is that some of the original film’s biggest moments come across as though they have less weight and impact. The musical numbers feel restrained here, like they are being held back. The stampede scene doesn’t have the same ominous feeling because it lacks the scale and the shadows. For the first hour of the film, it’s just the original movie beat by beat. At that point, some changes come in. They’re fine, but they don’t really stand out too much. Now, I don’t normally like to compare a remake to its original. The problem is this film doesn’t do enough to stand out and be its own thing. The thing that makes it so strange is knowing how little this movie deviates, despite being a half hour longer. Overall, this isn’t the worst movie ever made, but it’s still pretty bad.

4 / 10 

Frozen 2

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Three years after the events of the first film, Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel) begins hearing a voice calling out to her. When something begins to threaten the kingdom, she, Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell), Kristoff (voiced Jonathan Groff), Sven, and Olaf (voiced by Josh Gad) travel into an enchanted forest to find a way to save their kingdom. Once again, I really do have to compliment the animation and the voice actors. The characters actually feel like they are a little more evolved. Olaf is actually beginning to question things about existence. Now, I will say that it really is the stuff between Anna Elsa that works the best. Their relationship feels like it genuinely grown. A lot of the comedy actually worked for me. I appreciate that the film will take a minute to have some heart when it’s absolutely needed. As I dive into the things about the film I didn’t care for, know that I actually did enjoy this film. The music is a bit of a mixed bag. None of it is awful, but the weaker stuff is just kind of forgettable. Some of the story aspects didn’t always work for me either. I will give credit that the movie did subvert some of the story beats I expected it to deal with. It was interesting to me that this film didn’t really have a villain. The reason for me is because this almost feels like a story that would lend itself to having a central villain more than the first film. Overall, I think Frozen 2 will definitely work for kids. But, I think parents will actually like this film fine as well. It’s not as good as the first movie, but it’s still a decent flick. 

7 / 10 

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

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I do have to give a lot of respect to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves for being a landmark in cinema. This is the first full-length animated feature of all time. That said, I think this is a film I respect more than anything. It's not bad, by any means. It just feels so quaint compared to where Disney would go following this film. For example, I actually think this is one of the weaker Disney movies when it comes to music. That doesn't mean the music is bad. I just prefer movies like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and The Jungle Book when it comes to the songs. Some of the songs do deserve classic status (Heigh-Ho, for example). I also feel that this film is a prime example of what you get when the supporting characters are generally more interesting than the title character, or at least, for the most part. The prince really doesn't feel like he counts as a character. I also don't feel like Snow White has much of a character to her, either. As far the supporting characters go, I actually like the dwarves. They all have distinct personalities, and are genuinely memorable. I also think the fact that evil queen isn't a super deep character actually works in the film's favor. She's entertaining because she's evil. Her motivation is literally petty jealousy. Even though he doesn't appear much, I actually like the huntsman. You actually understand his conflict. I could pick the story apart, but I don't really feel like that's fair for this film. The movie operates on fairy tale logic. It offers much more of an emotional feel than anything else. It amazes me the animation still looks incredible, even after 80 years. Yeah, this movie originally came out in 1937. Like I said, I do think this is a good movie. I just don't rank it among my all-time favorites.

6 / 10  

Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus

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This is actually a movie I didn't even know was going to be a thing until I saw it was on Netflix not too long ago. Zim had vanished for some time, leaving his arch nemesis Dib to become a shell of his former self, merely waiting for Zim's return. I should start this by saying that I'm really only a casual Invader Zim fan. I've seen some episodes of the show here and there, but I know the gist. I don't think you need to be the biggest Invader Zim fan to get something out of this movie, nor would I say you necessarily need to have seen the show. There are points in the film where they reference the show's backstory. However, I do think that even the most basic knowledge genuinely helps. I really dug this movie. It's pretty well-animated. The humor works really well. Most of the jokes really do land. The movie also keeps up a pretty good pace. Sometimes, I wonder if the pace might be a touch too fast. However, this never feels like a detriment to the film, so much as my own personal observation and nitpick in regards to this film. I don't really think there's too much more for me to say. Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus is a lean 70 minutes. It's short and sweet, but never overstays it's welcome. I recommend this film to fans of the Invader Zim series, hardcore and casual fans alike.

7 / 10 

The Secret Life of Pets 2

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I don’t really think The Secret Life of Pets needed to have a sequel, but we have one anyway. Don’t get me wrong I actually did like the first film. It did what it needed to do. So, I didn’t really know what to expect going into the sequel. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t really like this film. Don’t get me wrong, it still has some of the strengths of the first movie, namely the voice acting. Everyone is clearly putting their all into their performances. The animation is pretty good (or better than the animation in Wonder Park at least). Occasionally, there’s a funny joke. But, there aren’t nearly as many in this as there are in the first film. OK, so that was pretty much everything I liked about this movie. Now, I should talk about the elements I really didn’t like. For starters, far more of the jokes miss than they do hit. But, there is one glaring flaw with this film that honestly prevents me from enjoying it. The film doesn’t really seem to have one main plot line. It feels more three separate movies have been sandwiched into one, and none of them actually feel like they even remotely blend. This isn’t the worst movie I’ve seen this year. Hell, it isn’t even one of the worst animated movies I’ve ever seen (I definitely liked it better than Wonder Park). This just felt like a sequel that didn’t need to exist, and never really justified having a reason to exist. 

5 / 10 

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

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Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) comes face to face with his greatest enemy, a dragon hunter named Grimmel (voiced by F. Murray Abraham). Meanwhile, Hiccup’s dragon Toothless falls in love with another dragon, called a Light Fury. Yes, the animation is gorgeous to look. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the fluidity of the film’s action, or the fact that the backgrounds actually look realistic. Once again, the film’s voice cast is incredible. It certainly helps that many of the actors have voiced these characters for multiple films now, so they honestly feel like they are comfortable in their roles. Newcomer F. Murray Abraham provides the villain Grimmel with an appropriate menace. Something this film, and by extension the whole How to Train Dragon franchise does that I absolutely love is the fact that the filmmakers give the dragons personality without them ever talking. The characters feel as though they have progressed with each entry in the franchise. I find it appropriate that each of the three films seem to be given a grander scale with each passing film. As much as I would honestly welcome more films in this franchise, I am honestly satisfied with this movie as the conclusion to a trilogy. This film seems like it legitimately has everything I could ask for out of this film. The animation is excellent. The story is excellent. The characters are excellent. This might just be one of my favorite films I have seen so far this year, and I don’t have a problem with that at all.  

9 / 10