#LOVE the absurdity of this design. LOVE that it is what the spiderverse one is based on/inspired by!!! CUZ HOT DANG.

[lemonprick]

thoughts on puss in boots 2: the last wish

spoilers for puss on boots 2 if anyone cares enough about it. you’ve been warned!

i didn’t even know there was a sequel until i saw the thumbnail for schafrillas productions’ video on it, now i’ve watched it and um. it’s actually kinda good?

i had such a weird fondness for the first one. the spanish aesthetic, score, the animation, just the absurdity of this tiny adorable cat, that looks so much like mine, being voiced by antonio banderas. (this is coming from someone who didn’t watch any of the shrek films except the first.) but the story did suck, and humpty dumpty is easily my most disliked character in all of dreamworks history, barry b benson included.

so i figured i’d enjoy this one the way i did the first too; cool fight/dance scenes, good soundtrack and animation, bonkers ideas. turns out i was right in all the wrong ways.

first of all, the fuckin animation?? holy crap what is dreamworks doing? where is the realistic lighting and fur/leather textures you’re known for and why have you given us such gorgeous painted landscapes and layered models?? are you out here trying to steal sony animation studio’s thunder because you truly are! every single fight scene in this is a delight (as expected from dreamworks), was not expecting the 2.5d effect thing they’ve got going on and was straight up blown away by the colours. the kung fu panda influence is strong in this movie. i do think the effects are not quite as earned as in spiderverse of kung fu panda, since its styles are kind of all over the place and not as thematically cohesive, but it’s such a surprising departure from the usual dreamworks look. of course i hope they don’t completely move away from that era, but the designers have really shown us what they can done and i am here for it. i will say the way the frame rates noticeably slow down every time a fight goes on can get grating, but i got used to it halfway in.

secondly the story. yes it is rushed, yes it’s a mish-mash of ideas, yes it doesn’t quite explore each character’s motivations or conflicts to warrant any strong emotional responses, yes it was resolved all rather quickly; all these were issues in the first one as well. goldilocks is especially egregious since we know that she loves her family; look at all their little interactions! they’re the crime family! the writers did drop the ball by making her wish for another family. whatever was that all about?

but jesus christ i was not expecting death to straight up be the antagonist of this film. what an unexpected plot point for what i assumed was marketed as a family fun adventure film, but at the same time oh so expected, because a cat using up his nine lives makes for such fun storytelling? sure it can get a bit too on the nose, but death’s design and entrance is so darn cool i can forgive it a thousand times over.

also the writing. it was pretty clear that they’ve started running out of jokes at some point in the middle and so it did get a lil sluggy in the dialogue, but otherwise? holy fuckin hell how is this a movie for children. you have raw-ass lines like “has the legend gotten so big there isn’t any room for anyone else”? plot-twist-gut-wrench-holy-crap moments like santa coloma?? “it wasn’t just one bad heist. it was a church with priests and guests”?? “lives flashing through your eyes? / no, just one”??? telling death himself to pick up your sickles because i know i can’t win, i’m just going to go down fighting anyways????

and the absolute explosion of bleeps and curses that was perrito. seriously, how did they greenlight that? they put “shit-for-brains” in a kids movie??

(also, the side characters are so casually killed in this movie that it’s kinda insane. dreamworks has never shied away from a good “oh he’s dead now” gag but the way the girl just turned to gold and the baker’s dozen were straight up thanos-snapped away without a moment to spare. chilling to think about.)

not much to say about the acting, it was fun enough to service the film without being outstanding i guess. antonio banderas is having fun as puss as always, for some reason i always thought penelope cruz voiced kitty? but she’s cool in this anyway, finally the comedic relief third-trio-character doesn’t have an annoyingly comedian voice and just sounds like a sweet little dude. florence pugh is fine but there are moments where you know she’s not a voice actor, whoever voiced baby bear sounded a tad too much like james corden and i got chills whenever he spoke. i’d say john mulaney does a decent job selling jack horner, the way he delivers absolutely horrific sentences with such nonchalance and glee is so entertaining to watch; guy may have problems but he is still a comedian with iconic joke delivery.

more of a subjective preference than commentary, but the score was a bit of a let-down. i was so hoping to hear more of the gorgeous spanish acoustic sound that i loved from henry jackman’s previous tracks but this film seems a tad too eager to introduce electronic sounds. some parts do get real castanet-y and brassy, which were my favourite parts; a bit sad diablo rojo or the puss suite didn’t get an encore but oh well, it has been a while.

so i guess the takeaway is that i’m so well-versed in how the studio uses comedy that i was yet again able to predict the “leeches!” line about ten minutes in right before the barber said it.

an objective 7/10 because of the weird pacing and ending, a subjective 9/10 just because i would never have taken a puss in boots movie seriously enough to rank it like i would with other movies. incredibly high-quality absurdity, stellar action, amazing antagonists, absolutely insane lines, a better magical forest adventure than frozen 2. go watch it guys.

(additional comment because i haven’t said enough: this also marks the third 3D animated movie set in a hispanic country where a character dies by being crushed by a bell. only in the case of the book of life the guy was exploded inside the bell but still. a bell.)

EDIT: UPON SECOND WATCH i immediately watched it again the next day because i was so baffled by this movie. i loved it a whole lot this time around! revisiting this makes me realise how good the voice performances actually are, like now with the context that antonio banderas is 62 and still voicing puss with such energy and rigour, just how different john mulaney sounds than his other roles but still delivering deliciously evil lines so well, and i found myself enjoying goldilocks a lot more. also i realised i judged the soundtrack too quickly, even though i’m still not eager on the synths i did appreciate the orchestrals a more (i’m just really stuck on henry jackman’s score). pacing-wise i had initially thought it ran too fast, but now i’m realising maybe it’s just because i loved every single moment in the film that it didn’t feel like it had any room for downtime; too full of fun interactions and chilling moments for me to realise time was passing. still a 9/10 subjective rating, holy fuck this has been one of dreamworks’ recent strongest and it's a shrek spinoff movie

[hollowsart]

my favorite design of kingpin is

this absolute UNIT of a man.

[fewderpewders]

some movie reviews cuz i’ve been binging and wanna share my thoughts. SPOILERS and uncensored movie names cuz i’m throwing it all under a read more anyway

Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Went into it mostly blind, watched bc I wanted to see the references and animation. Honestly the most exciting part was just seeing characters I recognized, like the mlp crew.

Other than that… it was okay. It was cheesy, the animation was alright, they tried to make a 2D look out of 3D, but it really just looked like CGI in the end. (i’m sure disney treated them like shit so no hate to the animators. merging all the styles at once was probably tricky too). The pacing wasn’t bad, and the plot was typical surface level kids movie stuff. Idk, it was cute I guess but eh, not amazing.

The Bad Guys

Plot was cute, a sweet take on villain redemption archs. Pacing was good, and yes it was very silly BUT it owned it in a way that made it not… uncomfortable (looking at u chip n dale) Idk how to put it.. the movie was really self aware, I guess. The writing was good, if not a little corny sometimes.

But my favorite part of this movie was the stunning animation and visuals. Definitely the best blend of 2D and 3D i’ve seen since spiderverse. This is where 3D animation needs to head, not in a realistic uncanny valley way. The character designs were also great they knew exactly what they were doing with the wolf I really enjoyed it and highly recommend, especially if you’re an animation junkie like me

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Hoo boy. I went into this one totally blind, I had only heard that it was good and very thought provoking. After seeing just the beginning, I’d assumed it’d be a heartfelt and serious movie about a mom learning empathy with a little sci fi on the side. However, it ended up being the most absurd, crude, fast paced and reality bending journey that didn’t resolve in a heartfelt and grounded way until the end. And I loved it.

The visual effects were stunning (lots of flashing tho, be warned), and the fight scenes were well done for even the wackier throw downs (one but was brutally beaten with enormous d*ldos !!!!) The acting was awesome too, and it seems like they used a lot of practical effects along with the CG sets which is cool.

I think the portrayal of relatable family struggles (especially as a daughter of an asian parent myself) was well done and woven into the crazy sci fi aspect nicely. It gets very real, showing aspects of asian american families and generational trauma that i’m happy we get to see more representation for. I was definitely tearing up by the end. I guess my only criticism was that some of the fights felt a little bit long (I might just be impatient lol). I liked it a lot, and I felt satisfied by the end.

[neriad13]

Best of the Best - Media Consumed 2018

Books - Fiction

The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch

I devoured the entire series in a series of months this year and what I’m about to say holds true for all of them (probably more than for the latter two than the first)...but I have a particular soft spot for the plot twists and humor of the beginning. So, it’s my choice for the year, though it is representing the series as a whole.

This is the series that showed me what inclusive fantasy can be like. It’s a story predominantly about straight white dudes written by a straight white dude (a comfort zone I am struggling to break out of) and yet, it is one that purposefully skirts the tropes of the genre and plays with them in such a way that it makes the world feel welcoming to a reader who is neither straight nor male. There’s lesbian pirates, multiple queer characters, copious well-written women and non-white characters as major players in the narrative. This was a book that gave me hope and help as I struggled to bust out of my old patterns of thinking and writing. And yet, it was familiar enough that it was enough of a comfort zone to retreat to in times when I needed to seek comfort in fiction.

And it’s so much good fun. Half a year later and I’m still cracking up at “Nice bird, asshole.”

Books - Nonfiction

Dictator Style - Peter York

This book was weirdly heart-wrenching. There’s something so melancholy and strange about surveying the living spaces of these paragons of human misery and trying to figure out what they were thinking through medium of their wallpaper choices. That, and the knowledge that even the seemingly all powerful are far more tacky and slipshod than commonly believed, stuck with me.

Fic

Batya - Valya

I didn’t read a whole heck of a lot of fic this year and only counted those that were above a 30k word count. There were plenty of short fics that I loved, but alas, I did not write them down. Goals for next year!

So, Batya, BioShock fic - AU in which Ryan discovers Jack far earlier than intended and decides to adopt him as his son. Once this fic gets going, it’s intense. And sad. And beautiful, all of which apply heavily to the relationship between Jack and Kyle. The final scene between them is pure poetry and had me thinking of them dancing as Rapture fell apart around them for days afterward.

Film

I saw so many hecking good movies this year. I’m just barely able to pare it down to a top three.

Black Panther - Ryan Coogler

This movie was exhilarating. The design, the energy, the acting, the humor, the primal drama of two types of activism duking it out in the bowels of the earth...I walked out of the theater in a daze, hardly believing that I’d seen what I had.

When Marnie Was There - Hiromasa Yonebayashi

This movie contains the most accurate portrayal of social anxiety I have ever seen in fiction, period. It hit especially close to home for me, as this year was the one in which I faced and struggled with my own lifelong anxiety. I watched it wondering how on earth filmmakers half a world away got the details of my own childhood down so precisely on film. When the credits hit and “Fine On the Outside” played, I bawled at my computer screen.

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse - Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

This movie was a staggering technological accomplishment. It pushed the boundaries of animation and filmmaking in ways I have flat-out never seen before. It was joyful, it was dramatic, it was tragic, it was gorgeous. It was a celebration of everything animation is capable of. And the fact that a brown kid is at the center of it?

Stunning.

Comics - Webcomics

Alethia - Kristina Stipetic

This is beautiful world in which the characters are forced to make terrible choices, as the main character struggles to find the meaning in such things.

Also, it’s all lesbian robots. The artist drew the comic specifically because she wanted more women in fiction that she could relate to. It’s a fascinating, meditative piece of work.

Comics - Fiction

Akira - Katsuhiro Otomo

This manga is a masterpiece of destruction and resurgence. The art is stunning, the characters are charming and the action is absolutely unbeatable.

But my favorite section was the one which focuses on Chiyoko - an unapologetically masculine woman with an arsenal of heavy weapons - while she’s on desperate rescue mission in hostile territory. My eyes were glued to the page as she blew away her foes and struggled against them in turn, her plight given the gravity and intensity that is so rarely bestowed on female action heroes.

For that alone - best fiction comic of the year.

Comics - Nonfiction

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me - Ellen Forney

I read so many fantastic comic memoirs this year. It was difficult to choose from among them - almost all of them were highlighted as among my favorites of the year. But there’s something about a seasoned artist drawing and talking about her own battles with mental illness after a long (and ongoing) war that stood out to me.

It’s a tale of seemingly endless medication adjustment, therapy and the breaking down of personal stigmas surrounding mental illness and the drugs used to treat it. Though I don’t share the artist’s diagnosis, it was a book that gave me confidence in choices about the treatment of my own mental illness.

Shows

A Series of Unfortunate Events S2 - Barry Sonnenfeld, Bo Welch, Mark Palansky, Allan Arkush, Loni Peristere, Liza Johnson, Jonathan Teplitzky

What can I say about something that is perfect? Every joke hits. Every bit of wordplay makes me burst out laughing. The absurdity and surreality of the situations are a sight to behold. The acting is phenomenal. The writing improves upon the books in every possible way. And in all of this, not an inch of the story’s darkness is ever given up.

Games

This was the year I played the first Fallout (the ending destroyed me), That Dragon, Cancer (very much hit home), 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (can you make a historical game that both teaches, entertains and reveals the human cost of a complex conflict? Yes. Yes, you can.) Pillars of Eternity (A well-written Atheist in my video game? It’s more likely than you think.) and Tales From the Borderlands (the humor! The art! The voice cast! The rock-solid writing!). All of them were top contenders and yet...there was really only one choice for me.

Papo and Yo - Vander Caballero

This is a game about the relationship between a boy and his alcoholic father. It is heavily based on the lead developer’s own experiences. It’s a fraught relationship - torn between the sober moments when the hero’s father loves him, protects him, takes care of him, plays with him - and the moments when drinking turns him into a monster of rage.

The hero sets out to find a cure for his father’s addiction and after great trial discovers…

*spoilers, though the answer is probably pretty obvious, though no less painful for its obviousness*

...that no such cure exists and that the only thing he can do is let him go.

I sobbed uncontrollably at the ending of this game and sniffled long after. The message stuck with me months after I’d played it.

All of the hurt, confusion, anger and grief of letting go of my own toxic person - there it had been, on the screen right in front of me. This game helped me come to peace with that decision in my own life and for that, I am astounded and humbled by the simple artistry of this game. If you have your own toxic person in your life - be the problem alcohol, religious fundamentalism, intolerance or any other form of abuse - play this game and know that it’s okay to leave them behind.