#JACKIE GOLDBERG

[antifainternational]

Jackie Goldberg drops some truth bombs.

[hornedchick]

(Warning: lound and emotional.) I love this woman... I want to cheer her and give her a hug and buy her a drink. Brilliant speech.

[abs0luteb4stard]

This is the page of the book, "The Great Big Book of Families" that got the homophobes all mad.

[gwydionmisha]

L.A. School Board President Gives a Lesson on LGBTQ+ Inclusion

[telomeke]

Los Angeles Unified School Board President Jackie Goldberg destroys homophobes protesting a children's book. Powerful stuff.

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Link to an explanatory article here:

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[tinyreviews]

Tiny Review: My Father's Dragon 2022. My Father's Gaten Matarazzo.

Fans of Gaten Matarazzo should not miss this one. Even if it's a kids show. His scenes are comedic as heck.

The simple conflicts and complications, artstyle and characters, actually would make this a good sidescrolling story-based game.

Oh! I didn't realise this is from the same producers of The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and Wolf Walkers, until just before uploading this post 😂

My Father's Dragon is a 2022 animated fantasy adventure comedy film directed by Nora Twomey with a screenplay by Meg LeFauve who co-wrote the story with John Morgan. It is based on the 1948 children's novel of the same name by Ruth Stiles Gannett.  

It stars the voices of Jacob Tremblay, Gaten Matarazzo, Golshifteh Farahani, Dianne Wiest, Rita Moreno, Chris O'Dowd, Judy Greer, Alan Cumming, Yara Shahidi, Jackie Earle Haley, Whoopi Goldberg, and Ian McShane.

[trailerreport]

New Clip | TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM (dir. Jeff Rowe, Kyler Spears)

"After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them."

In cinemas July 31, 2023.

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

GREEN NEW DEAL

Opening in theaters today:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem--This new animated feature version of the adolescent DNA-altered martial-arts-practicing chelonians is about mayhem that arises due to mutants. In case the title doesn't make it clear.

The quartet, all named for some reason after Italian Old Masters, dwell in the sewers of New York under the strict protective care of their teacher and adoptive parent, the mutant rat Splinter (voiced by Jackie Chan), but long to go to high school, maybe have girlfriends. On one of their sorties into the city, they meet high schooler April O'Niel (Ayo Edebiri), who's an aspiring journalist. They also run afoul of an evil scientist (Maya Rudolph) as well as a gang of other mutant animals led by the monstrous Superfly (Ice Cube).

It's a striking movie to look at. The visuals have a garish, roughed-out, graffiti-esque look, and the animation has a stylized hint of stop-motion in the Rankin-Bass manner. Among the writers are Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen; Rogen also provides the voice of the mutant warthog Bebop. The trailer and poster say the movie is "FROM PERMANENT TEENAGER SETH ROGEN."

The jabbery, overlapping dialogue is ticklingly funny, and I appreciated the characterization of the young April, who in the earlier movies has seemingly served as eye candy for the dads in the audience, as a smart and brave but unconfident kid with a typical body shape. As with earlier entries in the series, the film is packed with product placement, to the point that it becomes part of the comedy.

The Turtles made their debut in 1983, too late to be part of my childhood; my nephews were fans. I remember finding the '90s-era live-action TMNT movies annoying, but I found the live-action features of 2014 and 2016 surprisingly fun, even without a nostalgic attachment. Mutant Mayhem, however, may be the best-looking and funniest of them all.

As is so often the case in movies for kids, the ultimate goal that our heroes are seeking is, of course, acceptance, popularity, or simply "to be normal." This persistent theme can be tiresome, but undoubtedly it does reflect a common wish among this film's target audience. Permanent Teenager Rogen and his collaborators know their business.

[alphawolfice1989]

The actresses that   played the character’s mom in The Goldbergs 

Jackie Geary played  her character’s mom   Lynn  in the goldbergs 

Brea Bee  played her character’s mom  vicki in the goldberegs 

[dweemeister]

My Father’s Dragon (2022)

Kilkenny, Ireland-based Cartoon Saloon has now released its last two films in collaboration with companies more interested in maintaining their streaming services than granting a significant theatrical release. Wolfwalkers (2020), a production alongside Apple TV+, was an excellent addition to the studio’s Irish folklore triptych, and understandably few theaters showed it due to COVID-19 pandemic closures. Nora Twomey’s My Father’s Dragon is a Netflix feature, and this is her first directorial effort since The Breadwinner (2017). With a similarly nominal theatrical release, My Father’s Dragon also represents another departure from all of Cartoon Saloon’s feature films thus far: it is specifically for a younger audience. I dislike the prevalent conflation of animated filmmaking as children’s entertainment (whether by those who write about films or filmmakers themselves), but this is an adaptation of Ruth Stiles Gannett’s book of the same name (itself a runner-up for the Newbery Medal, which honors American children’s literature).

My Father’s Dragon is visually striking, although it contains some of Cartoon Saloon’s most simplistic character design yet. But what makes this the studio’s most prosaic work yet are its tonal inconsistencies, noticeably modern sense of humor, and a conventional resolution to the central drama.

Elmer Elevator (Jacob Tremblay) and mother Dela (Golshifteh Farahani) move to a big city when their small-town candy store forecloses in difficult economic times. Money is short, and a distant Dela spends much of her time looking for stable work in order to help open a new store. Soon, Elmer encounters a talking cat (Whoopi Goldberg), who suggests that he might travel to faraway Wild Island to kidnap the lone dragon that lives there, and use the dragon for entertainment and exhibition purposes. With help from Soda the Whale (Judy Greer) and Saiwa the Gorilla (Ian McShane), Elmer travels to Wild Island and tracks down the dragon. The situation on Wild Island is more perilous than first impressions suggest, as Elmer befriends the young and immature dragon, Boris (Gaten Matarazzo) in order to address the situation.

All the animals on Wild Island are anything but nightmare-inducing, so younger viewers will probably be remarking how cute or cool the primates (Chris O’Dowd and Jackie Earle Haley), the rhino (Dianne Wiest), the crocodile (Alan Cumming), and the tigers (Leighton Meester and Spence Moore II) appear.

We do not see much of Dela after the opening minutes of the film, but her and Elmer’s character designs are a development from what viewers saw in The Breadwinner as opposed to Cartoon Saloon’s Irish folklore triptych. The oval faces and oftentimes half crescent/quasi-crescent eyes of the two human characters (and, strangely enough, Boris) in My Father’s Dragon are not quite enough to evoke responses that seem emotional enough for the moment. Acting teachers will say – and this is true for animated characters as well – that emotion typically precipitates an action (not the inverse of this). The degree of that action is up to the actor or, in this case, the animator. Too often, the human and the animal characters – in moments of distress, peril, and relief – are too still when expressing themselves. Frowns, tears, and anguished shouting convey only so much; through bodily movement and facial expressions do films, animated or otherwise, provoke an emotional response from a viewer. Twomey’s animators closely replicate Boris from how he appeared in Gannett’s book. But in that replication, they produce an inelastic character design that lends humor and a sense of fun, but largely incapable of handling pathos – which invariably harms the film’s closing act.

Gannett’s My Father’s Dragon lies somewhere between a picture book for the youngest children and a chapter book for students in the middle of primary school. At just over eighty pages, it is an abbreviated plot that sees Elmer encounter the dragon only in the final ten pages. The episodic nature of Gannett’s book makes the book difficult to adapt for screenwriter Meg LeFauve (2015’s Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur). LeFauve elects to understandably introduce Boris much earlier in the narrative and to introduce a catastrophic crisis to Wild Island that frames most of Elmer’s time there. Without spoiling much, such a calamity is nowhere to be found in Gannett’s original work, and one detects the influence of the interchangeable, humanity-threatening stakes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Was this sense of world-ending danger necessary? If one is targeting the audience that would also read My Father’s Dragon, the film’s climax is much too intense for them. Gannett’s book is defined by episodic, child-friendly peril from the animals (i.e., hungry carnivores that have peculiar quirks and can be reasoned with) and not existential stakes. Converting My Father’s Dragon away from an episodic narrative might be the primary narrative concern for most, but the counter to this is that LeFauve’s adapted screenplay dispenses with Gannett’s gentle wit that can delight those of any age.

Thus, Nora Twomey’s My Father’s Dragon can be a clamorous work that shows none of the patience – for its characters and viewers – of any of Cartoon Saloon’s previous work. Despite some impressive backgrounds (the most polished ever seen in the studio’s work) and wonderful color palette, no amount of visual mastery can cover up a screenplay that is trying too much to draw out laughs from Boris’ emotional immaturity. This writing tactic – in which modern screenwriters attempt to placate supposedly gratification-hungry viewers with one garrulous punchline-spewing character – is something I associate with the major American animation studios.

Another characteristic of My Father’s Dragon that seems more characteristic to its mainstream American peers is the presence of an all-star voice cast that does little to no modification of their typical vocal inflections while recording for the film. It is distracting to hear Whoopi Goldberg, Dianne Wiest, Rita Moreno (as the Elevators’ landlord), and Matarazzo (who essentially plays a character not too far removed from his character of Dustin in Stranger Things) acquit themselves in this manner. Too little thought has gone into how can they best voice their characters, given their characters’ appearances and the situations of the moment. Are these developments – the hyperactive and comedy-seeking writing, merely adequate voice acting, and declarations about courage and the Power of Friendship – indicative of Netflix’s influence over Cartoon Saloon’s approach to this adaptation of My Father’s Dragon? Or is it a sign of things to come for the Irish studio?

Whatever the case, this is a disappointing fifth effort from Cartoon Saloon over the last thirteen years. Given the standards of their previous work, the studio deserves mercy from further barbs from yours truly. The missteps seen in My Father’s Dragon pale in comparison to some of the work that the likes of Disney, DreamWorks, and especially Illumination have offered in recent years, The tenor of Cartoon Saloon’s upcoming work appears, at least for the new future, to be similar to that seen in My Father’s Dragon. Up next for the studio is a feature film treatment for their children’s television series Puffin Rock (on Netflix in the U.S.) and Louise Bagnall’s directorial feature debut in Julián (adapted from the picture book Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love; Bagnall previously directed the Academy Award-nominated short film Late Afternoon for Cartoon Saloon).

As for Nora Twomey – one of the co-founders of Cartoon Saloon alongside Tomm Moore and Paul Young – she remains a figure in animated cinema to keep an eye out for. The co-director for The Secret of Kells (2009) and sole director on The Breadwinner has shown her ability to guide projects along with emotionally and thematically nuanced narratives and stunning visual splendor. And though My Father’s Dragon represents the first miscue on the former element, Cartoon Saloon’s animation remains a visual balm in an industry that, at least among those that financially dominate animated filmmaking, is as far away from hand-drawn work as it ever has been.

My rating: 6.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL). Half-points are always rounded down.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[explainedfilms]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Movie Ending Explained (In Detail)

Seth Rogen, of all people, has taken on the task of bringing the popular turtle mutants back to the screen. The passionate comic fan moves for TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM back to the origins of the pop culture icons and, together with two animation film experts, presents a film that is not only aimed at action-loving hardcore fans, but also relies on loving coming-of-age…

[milliondollarbaby87]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) Review

The origin of the Turtle brothers and the curiosity they feel towards the human world, wanting to explore New York City and be accepted. They must work hard to prove they aren’t evil like some of the other mutants. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Continue reading Untitled

[spryfilm]

Movie review: “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” (2023)

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” (2023) Action Running Time: 95 minutes Written by: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Jeff Rowe, Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit Directed by: Jeff Rowe Featuring: Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Hannibal Buress, Rose Byrne, Nicolas Cantu, John Cena, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Natasia Demetriou, Ayo Edebiri, Giancarlo Esposito, Post Malone, Brady Noon, Seth…

[thenerdsofcolor]

Capturing the Perfect 'Ninja Turtles' Look with 'Mutant Mayhem' Cinematographer Kent Seki

Capturing the Perfect 'Ninja Turtles' Look with 'Mutant Mayhem' Cinematographer Kent Seki #TMNTMovie #MutantMayhem @TMNTMovie

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is officially in theaters! And if you haven’t seen this one yet, we cannot recommend it enough. It’s spectacular! And part of the reason this one is special is because of how beautiful and charming the movie looks, from it’s wonderful animation style to the filmmakers’ abilities to put some challenging but gorgeous action sequences on screen. And none…

[screenzealots]

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem"

An action-packed visual delight, the film sets the bar at the highest standards for quality, edgy animated films for adults.

One of the greatest surprises of the year has to be “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” a film that I never would’ve expected to be as terrific as it is. Co-directed by Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears and co-written by Rowe, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg, this animated feature is confident, action packed, funny, and is a visual delight. It’s a crowning achievement in animation, and the perfect summer…

[bob-the-movie-man-film-reviews]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (PG): How to Milk Turtles Without Nipples.

#onemannsmovies review of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" (2023). ##TMNTMovie. Animated yarn that the kids will enjoy. 3/5.

A One Mann’s Movies review of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” (2023). The “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” have been trotted out to the cinema for each new generation of kids. Looking at IMDB, there have been films in 1990 (then sequels in 1991 and 1993), 2009, 2014 (and then 2016) and as recently as last year’s “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie” on Netflix. And…