#and again if your art style is simple or cartoony or hell if you have some kinda kink related to skin or fat folds or whatever

[kaninchen-reblogs]

One thing I can’t really wrap my head around is when furry artists just. Don’t draw fur.

Like art styles are obviously gonna be varied, duh, and plenty of art styles will be simplistic or cartoony or abstract or just won’t have a style that lends well to rendering detailed fur, or maybe someone’s starting out and they’re still figuring out anatomy or whatever, and that’s totally 10000% okay.

But I’ll see some artists who are very clearly going for a incredibly detailed render style, with phenomenally drawn backgrounds and a masterful grasp of light and shadow, and their posing is expressive and realistic despite the fantastical subject matter, with a digital painted style that clearly takes dozens and dozens of hours to complete …

And the characters look like humans with body paint with animal heads.

Like, the excessive shine of the light on their body is something that you’d only see on (sweaty) skin, not fur or hide (or even scales!), with wrinkles and folds you would never see if they had even an inch of fur on their body, and the only hint of fur is portrayed on the tail and head (which might still be rendered fairly sleek). I’ve seen at least two artists in the past 48 hours who straight up rendered skin pores on the furries in their art.

And these are big popular artists that I see doing this, charging upwards of what I make in a month for some of their pieces, and clearly still finding the clientele as they post commission after commission which means people want this.

And I’m just here like. Why tho. Like I’ll find the commissioned character being portrayed and find their refsheet and it’s the fluffiest damn dog you’ve ever seen and then you go back to the $800 high-res digital painted render of the character and they look like a person wearing a skin-tight painted body suit and a fursuit head. Why would you do that to yourself. Why deny yourself the joy of being fukcign fluffie.

[popculturebuffet]

Quick Thoughts: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl Reveal Trailer and Initial Roster

Whelp I didn’t expect to be doing another one of these so soon but welcome to quick thoughts where I give well quick thoughts on stuff instead of the longer form reviews I usually do. 

So as longtime or even short time readers of this blog might know I love NIck. I don’t review shows from it as often as Disney or Cartoon Network, but it was still a beloved part of my childhood and still makes great shows today such as the Loud House, Harvey Beaks and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It’s horribly mismanaged, which is why two of those shows are no longer with us and the last of them is weirdly missing from this game, and have a long and storied history of screwing things over.. and i’m not exagerating when Mr. Enter, no matter your opinon of him now, did a whole marathon of every nicktoon almost every entry included the fact the show had been screwed over in some way. 

But as anyone who knows my history with Disney will tell you just because I don’t sugarcoat a brand I like’s fuckups dosen’t mean they aren’t near and dear to me at the same time. I”m a grown up: I can have complex emotions towards a chlidren’s tv network. So I love it’s varied shows some of whom (Avatar, Harvey beaks again, Danny Phantom, Hey Arnold) are among my all time faviorites. 

Now something readers of my blog probably WOUDLN’T know is I love Nintendo, they have their own fuckups like weird release strageies and never doing a remotely decent discount like the competition, but their still a company I love and since I only play handhelds most of the time are my primary source of good shit. So naturally Smash Bros is my faviorite franchise of theres. I love the idea of fighting games but often struggle with the combo heavy nature. So Smash Bros, having a roster of some of my faviorite characters ever, a plaformer style control scheme, and a deceptivley simple style that’s easy to learn and fun to master with the right character, is my shit. Sure I won’t rush out to buy every dlc character, but you better belivie I played the hell out of Ultimate, will likely go back to it again some day, and did buy Banjo and Kazooie because fuck yeah. 

So yeah I needed to talk about Nick making their own smash bros clone. When I heard the rumors I wasn’t sure, mostly because Rumors can be just that.. but nope this game is happening and i’m all on board for it. This isn’t Nick’s first crossover rodeo in recent memory either also making a pair of Kart Racing Games: one I KINDA wanted to play till I looked at the roster, had a good laugh and lost that i want, and the other I really want to play as it seems like the first game if it were you know an actual game with a decent track selection, a deep character roster and an actual love of it’s properties. 

So making their own Smash Bros was a logical step and one i’m here for. We haven’t had any of the big cartoon networks make one since well.. Cartoon Network, and Nick has just a deep a bench to pull from, one that will hopefully get CN to get their cast to throw hands once more. 

For now though the idea of the vast history of nick all throwing hands with each other is amazing. Look i’m honest with myself: this looks like a decent smash clone,functional but nothing specail, but with the expressive character animation and solid roster you need for a game like this. I know going in i’m not going ot get Smash Ultimate quality of brawler, but i’m probably going to have fun with it. 

The only downside I see so far is , like the Kart Racers, theyd idn’t seem to get ANY voice actors for this which smacks of laziness, especially since most of the voice actors for these characters are still active, and in some cases like Spongebob or Loud House are still working with you. So you have no real excuse for this, shame on you.

But yeah the game looks good.. despite the trailer being pretty bad. It’s just some generic music set to “LOOK WHO WE GOT”. And granted look who they got is really spiffy and i’ll be diving into that in a second, but it dosen’t give any of these characters a reall chance to show off how they play or how awesome they are. It’s just a bland montage of whose in the roster in the same 2 or 3 stages. And when you have 15 stages overall to show off that’s not excusable. Again i’m not expecting Smash level quality revelas, this game dosen’t have the marketing budget, but you have a really great concept and roster here, you coudl’ve revealed it better and this game better. The Kart Racers 2 Trailer was also mildly bland but it did show off the game better, showing off several tracks and how VASTLY improved the roster was, so you CAN make a good trailer you just didn’t. It felt like they thought the poitn of all the smash reveals trailers was here’s a character and missed all the style and substance to them. 

That being said while the trailer was weak.. it was boyed by the fact this roster is REALLY damn good. Let’s face it I woudln’t even be talking about this game if the roster wasn’t this minty but they clearly learned from Kart Racers not to half ass it and while they learned the long lessons from Smash in how to promote the fighters they have, they learned the right lessons in having a nice mix of crowd pleasing faviorites for kids and vetrans alike along with a few deep cuts for said longtime fans. And this is JUST the intitial reveal roster: Given the Box Art isn’t out yet, I feel there’s more to come, especially since despite being perfect for the game there’s no one from the Avatarverse yet, but I also feel that Nick is saving that for a second trailer to announce the release date. But I can and will go into who i’d LIKE on the roster in another one of these sometime soon. -

Spongebob, Patrick and Sandy (SpongeBob Squarepants): I’m getting these three out of the way as their essentially to this what Mario and Co were to smash: necessary and inevitible.  As for who was chosen.. it was as obvious as putting spongebob himself int he game. Sponebob is Nick’s mascot, Patrick is nearly as iconic and Sandy is well loved as well as the spongebob character most associated with buttkicking. Being an expert martial artist is both part of her character and a cerntral part of her character and relationship with Spongebob. So yeah not a lot ot say here: it was ineivible but I don’t mind at all having grown up with them and with my niece and nibling being huge fans. 

87 Leo and 87 Mikey (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles): This one i’m mixed on. Not on the turtles being here: i’m a MASSIVE TMNT fan and i’td be stupid to leave them out since Nick Owns them, made the last two series, and they fit this kind of game like a glove, even having had their OWN smash clone to themselves once. 

No my issue is obviously in the version choseN: The 87 turtles. Again I have no beef with the guys themselves, I haven’t seen much of 87 but I want to and they look really gorgeous and nicely cartoony. It’s just a REALLY weird choice. The 87 turtles have never been on a nick network due to rights issues, have never been associated with nick, and aren’t the ones most kids of EITHER DEMO would be familiar with: Grown up fans of nicktoons from the 90′s like myself would be more familiar with 2003, and kids and teens from more recent eras would be more familiar with 2012 and rise, which REALLY should’ve been the rep. I mean their weird shame of rise bothers me enough on a good day but not using EITHER show you actually made bothers me, it bothers me a lot. I’ll still probably play Mikey, i’m not made of stone and as I said I have no beef with the 87 turtles, I just wish nick had used the others or hell just gone all lin and used one turtle from each cartoon. I mean if your going to use stuff you’ve barely aired why not give me some 2003 nostalgia too huh? Though it could just be that since, unlike the rise and 2012 turrtles the 87 turtles have the same body type and colors it was easier to just do all 4 and just give each unique facial expressions. Who knows... I knows it was probably that. 

Lincoln and Lucy Loud (The Loud House, Duh): Another pretty obvious one as The Loud House is currrently nick’s co-flagship show with spongebob. Still waiting for my diffrent world spinoff with Bobby and Lori guys. So yeah Lincoln isn’t a suprise and Lucy is only minorly one as it was a matter of “which sister”... and Lucy is one of the most popular. Neither really fit a combat setting.. but given this is a fun crossover game, that really dosen’t matter and in fact is kind of the fun: taking just the most insane matcchups imaginable and mashing them together. I mean this is a game where Lincoln and Lucy can beat up Leo and Mikey, why wouldn’t I want that kind of crack on my nintendo switch? I am hoping for Luna to make her way to the stage next as she was absent from Kart Racer 2 and would be really fun to play. Plus having ANOTHER bi fighter in the mix if korra gets in there would be awesome, let alone letting the two beat up or punch each other’s face. But again I could and probably will mak ea whole article about other possible fighters i’d want. 

The Plesant Suprises: Nigel Thornberry , Oblina and Powdered Toast Man (Wild Thronberries, Ahhh! Real MOnsters1 and Ren and Stimpy) : Yeah while only one of these cartoons was a faviorite as a kid (Wild Thornberries)... I have nothing but respect for these choices. One of the funnest things about Smash is while you can see some roster members coming sometimes you get utter curveballs like Mr. Game and Watch, Pirana Plant and MInecraft Guy. They also go for more cult franchises like SNK or Earthbound (the latter of which is fucking awesome localize mother 3 already dammit) too among the big heavies, making it feel like a true tapestry of Nintendo’s history. 

Nigel is the only one of these three that’s really obvious. He’s a meme, he was the best part of his show.. but it’s still just uniquely batshit to put NIGEL THRONBERRY in a fighting game. You better belivie he’ll be one of my mains. 

Oblina is more a suprise because I thought they’d go with Icket, but instead went wtih the character who was more popular and had a really unqiue and cool design, so i’m pleased as punch to have her. Finally while I don’t have any real attachment to ren and stimply apart from Log, and really it’s hard to gain any now knowing i’ts creator was a pedophile piece of shit, the franchise is still a cornerstone of nick history, the rest oc the crew didn’t abuse power or not make deadlines or be a com plete piece of shit, and powerded toast man is genuinely great. I”d love to see Really Big Man too, clash of the weird superheroes, I love me a weird as hell superhero. This also speaks promisingly that w’ell get some real weird curveballs to come and i’m here for it. 

The Rest: Helga, Zim, Danny and Reptar. (Hey Arnold, Invader Zim, Danny Phantom and Rugrats! ): Note i’m not lumping these together because their bad: their all graet nostalgic picks from timeless shows and with the rugreboot currently running on Paramount+, it’d be weird not to represent them. 

And since I brought it up reptar is a fun chocie, another oddball but one more understandable as no one wants to beat the shit out of a toddler. Or rather no one playing the game would care you could because it’s a silly fighting game and a 12 and 8 year old are also beat upable, but someone would probably throw a fit somewhere. Plus again it’s a game where you can have danny phantom fight reptar. Shut up and take my money. 

The rest are all great choices if ones I’m not suprised by: Hey Arnold’s an all time classic and being tough is a lot of Helga’s character, and again I can have her throw hands with nigel thornberry, reptar and a ninja turtle in the same match. Zim is another fan faviorite and fits the game like a glove and Danny Phantom is the one out of Nick’s three suprehero classics it actually still cares about so my boy getting in there isn’t a shocker, though his attacks lookw eird. Hopefully they green them up before the final prduct. 

So yeah overall it looks really promsing and really fun and i’ll probably check this game out if I get enough money when it comes out or more likely put it on my christmas list. But I will get it somehow this i swear.. speaking of which put manny in the roster dammit. If you liked this.. thing consider joining my patreon for a buck a month fo exclsuvie reviews and ot help me review tuca and bertie, amphibia and more as part of my memebership drive. 

[shysheeperz]

Now that the Manga Plus app is a thing (with a spanish version on its way), here is an edited list of my manga recs for anyone interested:

One Piece

I said once and i'll say it again: Just do it you cowards! i know the length scares some of y'all, but if you end up liking it, why does matter? It's a good investment imo. Also the art style complaints-not having it. Heck, if you like a lot of current modern day cartoons then the art style shouldn't really be an issue for you. The cartoony-ness works. Also, if you dropped the series during fishman island or dressrosa, you're missing out. It's returned to form with zou, wci and wano. Psssst also if you have the time go check out episode 870 of the anime...please and thank you.

Dr. Stone

One of Jump's best right now. I personally have it at the top sharing the spot with OP. What's not to love about this series???? The story is strong, the art is godly thanks to the one and only boichi, SCIENCE!!!!!!! Who doesn't like science???? The humor is fantastic, the cast is very likable, the pace is great, RPG feels, you'll cry over things like lightbulbs and glasses...i could go on and on. It really surprises me that it hasn't taken off on this site. Pretty niche right now.

Kimetsu no Yaiba

Straightforward/simple storyline but itps executed well, unique art style, if you like demon hunting or sword fighting this might be for you. Some good fights. Overall a solid series.The main character is an angel.

Jujutsu Kaisen

One of the newer series, so if you want a series that's young and under 50 maybe give this one a shot. Extremely likable cast that gels well together (bonus: they avoid feeling like tropey cardboard cutouts), if you're a fan of exorcism manga then here you go, i personally think the rougher art style boosts the story and mood and works really well. Decent fights. If you liked bleach then give this a whirl.

Jigokuraku (Hell's Paradise)

Great art, great battles, gore, intriguing storyline, stuck on island/battle to the death kinda thing, fantastic twists, lots of lore (half of it goes over my head but i don't care). People seemed i to it until viz licensed it and region blocks became an issue, but hey if you're one of those people who dropped it...here's your chance to rediscover it!

Haikyu!

In terms of sports manga it's one of the greats. Need i say more? Large, lovable cast, camaraderie, lots of tears over receives and spiking and the end of lots of high school volleyball careers. Just...lots of tears (both happy and sad). Season 4 of the anime was finally announced if you missed it!

Ao no Flag (Blue Flag)

GO. READ. IT. GO READ IT NOW. JUST DO IT. GO. IF YOU ARE READING THIS POST YOU HAVE TIME TO READ AO NO FLAG. GO READ IT.

Chainsaw Man

By the dude who made Fire Punch. That should tell you right there. Demons--there's no greater love than the love between a man and his chainsaw demon dog :'). Tired of the current mcs all wanting to be the 'greatest [insert occupation here]'? Denji's your man. Pretty refreshing in terms of the current lineup.

The Promised Neverland

Has one of the strongest first arcs you'll probably ever read (especially in this day and age in terms of shonen jump). A good read.

Blue Exorcist is also included, though i'm not up to date!

I would have added MHA Vigilantes to the list (yes, you're reading this right: the spinoff) but i'm sure it'll be added eventually. For now there's just viz. A prequel of sorts with a likable mc and relatively likable cast, cameos from the main series, lots of slice of life, the world building you wish the main series had, some good revelations that connect to the present day universe of the main series. I've personally enjoyed it more than MHA for the past year.

Give 'em a go!

[flarebossmalva]

kester flarebossmalva’s favorite online games

you like games, right? everybody likes games!

everything here is playable for free right in your browser. my favorites are pretty varied, so take a look, there's sure to be something you like on this list

feel free to reblog this post! i’ll update it periodically as i discover new favorites!

last update 03/29/17

basic - probably the most straightforward, mindless idle/incremental game i have ever played. fun time-waster

bloons tower defense series - i love tower defense games and i feel like these are some of the best tower defense games out there. lots of varied maps, enemies, and tower types (all of which can be upgraded, and many of which have multiple upgrade paths)

bubsy visits the james turrell retrospective - where do i begin with this one... okay, first of all, it’s by the people who made sonic dreams collection, so that might give you some idea of what you’re in for. pretty short but takes some surprising turns along the way. a true experience

candy box series - idle/incremental games with ascii art. starts out simple but gets a lot more complicated as you progress. i’d say it has a lot of easter eggs but actually virtually the entire game is an easter egg

clicking bad - while it’s aimed at breaking bad fans, and probably best enjoyed by them, i played this before watching breaking bad and i had a fine old time. it’s another idle/incremental game; you make meth, try to improve its purity over time so you can earn more money, and avoid the dea

cookie clicker - everyone knows about this one by now, right? it’s an idle/incremental game involving cookies, among other things. also i attempted to hack it once and completely broke the prestige system somehow but then again i don’t know much javascript

coma - you may need to use a walkthrough for this one, as it isn’t always clear what to do next and the controls are a bit fussy; however, i think it’s worth it just for how fucking cool this game looks and sounds

congamoeba - make buddies, unicellular style. simple, cute game where you interact with other amoebas using a language that you learn as the game progresses

critter mound - my personal favorite idle game. your goal is to breed the best critters (it’s never really specified what they are exactly, though they’re most likely insectoid) and go to war with other critters. i’ve played this game all the way through several times now, and, seeing as a full playthrough takes quite some time, that’s a testament to how fun this game is

cube escape series - room escape games with surreality and horror elements. you’re going to need to think creatively to solve these! in my opinion, cube escape: seasons (the one linked to above) is the best and the most effective as a stand-alone, but all games in the series are worth playing

a dark room - rather stylish idle/incremental game that, like candy box, starts out simple but gets a lot more complicated as you progress. i’ve never beat this one but i got far enough that a lot of weird shit was happening. a neat time

daymare town - visually interesting point-and-click game with a bit of a creepy atmosphere, if you’re into that kinda thing

don’t escape series - while these play like room escape games, they have essentially the opposite premise: instead of trying to escape, you’re trying to seal yourself in. each game is its own story, and all have multiple endings depending on the choices you make. horror/fantasy/sci-fi themes

don’t get spooked - if you like really silly horror, really silly monsters, various creepypasta tropes (and characters!), and halloween in general, then play this

don’t shit your pants - sounds pretty easy, i know. typing-based game with multiple achievements/endings to unlock (most of them involve shitting your pants)

factory balls series - unfortunate name aside, these are puzzle games where you’re shown a ball with a certain pattern on it and have to recreate that pattern exactly

haunt the house - you’re a ghost whose mansion has become infested with partygoers! oh no! try and scare them all out of the house, but don’t get them too scared or they might jump out a window or something

i am an insane rogue ai - you’re an insane rogue ai! pretty self-explanatory. hack computer systems and kill humans, basically

i wish i were the moon - really neat simple game with multiple endings to unlock. it’s essentially about a love triangle

infectonator series - ever felt like causing a zombie apocalypse? well, now you can! each level has you attempting to infect the population of a given locale with the zombie virus by clicking to infect the initial few victims and (hopefully) starting a chain reaction

mitoza - the developer describes it as a toy, not a game; it’s a bit hard to explain, but it’s very fun to play around with. cool, surreal visuals

nested - by the guy who made cookie clicker. it’s basically a text-based universe simulator where you click on things to see what’s inside them. i’m not doing it justice with that summary

parameters - for a game that consists of nothing but clicking boxes, this is pretty damn entertaining

plinkyplinky! - it’s plinko but incremental game style. i hesitated to recommend this one because it’s erased my save more than once, but not everyone seems to be having that issue and also i just played it for six hours straight and had a hell of a time

rebuild the universe - idle/incremental that’s science-themed, if you’re the sort of fucking nerd who’d be into that. i’m currently in the process of trying to get every single achievement, i’ve prestiged like 5 times, it’s wild

samsara room - a surreal room escape game. pretty short, but thoroughly entertaining if you like weirdness. if you’re into the cube escape series you’ll like this; it’s presumably by the same folks, as it utilizes some of the same art assets

slurpy derpy - like critter mound, but with cartoony graphics, a prestige system, and some other bells & whistles. essentially you’re in charge of a buncha cute but stupid creatures called “derps” and also it’s the apocalypse or something; the plot doesn’t bear thinking about

the uncle who works for nintendo - this is possibly my favorite twine game ever. it’s a horror game with five different endings (you’re not going to understand the story too well until you get them all). pro tip, choose a girl’s name for your friend at the beginning — just trust me on this

upgrade complete series - if you’re one of those people who derives immense satisfaction from purchasing/unlocking upgrades in games, you’ll love these. by playing these games, you earn money to upgrade the game, improving the graphics, sound, voice acting, interface, etc. very silly

windows 93 - okay, this isn’t a game exactly — it’s a fictitious operating system you can explore. very surreal/funny, lots to do

you find yourself in a room - text-based adventure that hates you a lot

if there’s a game you think deserves to be on this list, send me an ask!

[thebluesideofthemoon]

The Wall #49: SHEEP AND WOLVES

Welcome everybody to another entry of The Wall. On this week... your mom! Heh. Oh, I wish- I'm sure she's a wonderful lady. I said I was going to review Batman v. Superman but... eh, I then kind of lost interest and heat after a while- besides, the movie still sucks balls, so it's not like anything's changed. No, this week's review takes us on another stop of our international animated tour- Russia! The big mother of all cold herself, Mother Russia blessed us with this animated outing that was so good that it didn't get imported to the States. "Why might that be?" you're probably asking yourself, well I'll answer that right now: ... I HAVE NO IDEA! Maybe it was some sort of communication error (which wouldn't make sense as this movie has a fully dubbed English version, so... I 'unno), maybe they changed their minds at the last minute, or maybe because it's so mind-meltingly awful that they pulled the plug on its release before the studio would embarrass itself. Considering my last review it may be easy to assume that anything I would review afterwards would automatically be less positive. That may be true, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't have good things to say about it- hell, last week I saw one of my favorite movies this year (which I'll review later), and I've been itching to gush about it here. But no, I'm going to talk about Sheep and Wolves instead because, what better way to transition into my Worst Movies of 2016 by going from one of the best animated movies of the year to one of the absolute worst? Let's dive in, why don't we~?

(Music: Undertale- CORE)

I don't mean to be disrespectful, I like to think I'm a nice person and I will give anyone a chance, unless you’re Zack Snyder, or David S. Goyer, or Warner Bros., in which case you can piss off any day now. So when I write the things I’m going to write, I don’t mean this as just me trying to be mean, but as a way to try and help a small studio like the one that made this movie understand why your product doesn’t work, so I will try to be as cold and clinical as I can to explain just what is wrong with this movie. But first the plot, and you might want to sit down for this one.

In this movie we have a wolf named Grey (voiced by Tom Felton. Yes, THAT Tom Felton) who is a goofy but kind wolf who wants to live life as a carefree spirit, that is until he crosses the path of a big bad wolf named Ragear (voiced by Rich Orlow, whom I’ve never heard of) who is adamant to become the new leader of their wolf pack since their current leader Magra (voiced by Jim Cummings. Yes, THAT one, too.). However, Ragear gets shut down by Magra by telling him that he will not be ascended to be leader of the pack unless he faces off in a duel with another wolf, who just so happens to be Grey. Grey steps up to the challenge and they’re due to fight in three days to see who is more fit to run the wolf pack. Meanwhile, Grey faces a bit of problem when a surprise he had planned turns out to dash the dreams of his girlfriend, Bianca (voiced by Ruby Rose. Yes, THAT- I’m not going to keep this gag going or we’ll be here all day), who thought Grey was going to ask for her hand (paw?) in marriage. She accuses him of being very immature and in desperate need of change. Trying to find a way to change, Grey stumbles into this caravan full of gypsies and he talks to their leader(?) named Mami (I don’t know who she’s voiced by) who gives Grey this potion to help him change, but things go south when Grey gets turned into a sheep and is not only unwelcome, but hunted down by the wolves due to sheep being their prey. So he runs away and ends up getting knocked out, only to wake up in the sheep village. He’s being taken care of by an ewe named Lyra (China Anne McClain), while being suspected of by this skeptic sheep named Zico (Ross Maraquand) who questions his whereabouts and goes on to find clues about this new mysterious sheep that just showed up in their home. Grey believes that he’s in a bad dream but then decides to blend in once he starts meeting the sheep folk. Meanwhile, Ragear becomes impatient by Magra and his ban to keep them from hunting prey like wolves (which for this universe doesn’t really make much sense), so instead of waiting for his duel like Magra ordered, he just kills Magra and ends up taking the position as the wolves’ leader and wants to lead the wolves to hunt for the sheep so they can eat… well, like wolves. Grey discovers this and now wants to protect the sheep from this possible massacre, while it becomes hard for him to keep his true identity intact with his new kin. How will all of this be resolved?

I don’t take this long trying to give a simple plot synopsis, but I wanted to break down this entire setup to give you a hint as to what’s wrong with this movie. If you want me to sum this movie up really quickly it’s just yet another “fish out of water” story, and with a twist that isn’t even that unique to this kind of movie. The movie is a bizarre combination of both Shrek 2 and Brother Bear in terms of plot, but it’s nowhere near as funny as the former, nor (while flawed) as engaging as the latter, and while I have serious problems with Brother Bear I can tell you it pulled this story off a LOT better than Sheep and Wolves.

Since I’m going to dip into my issues with this movie (which is a LOT of them) I may as well get my positives with the movie out of the way, because they’re very minimal- it’s actually just one: the movie is really pretty. While it’s pretty obvious that this is a low-budget movie thanks to the very small amount of environments featured in the movie, not to mention that just like Sing it shamelessly copy-and-pastes characters and shots everywhere, the scenery of the movie actually manages to be pretty stunning. I like how the environments look, they’re vividly-detailed, very colorful, and the lighting also manages to look really good, especially when they stand out against things like grass or the fur on the wolves. The animation itself is also not bad. It’s far more lively than something like, say, Ratchet and Clank, and it has an art style that suits the animation better than a movie like The Wild Life. Even though I have HUGE issues with the character design, they managed to make a really appealing-looking movie and I do think that’s something that deserves some serious credit. It’s obvious to me that the people working on this movie have some good talent in their hands, and I’m saying this because I stop being nice right here. Because the problems with this movie are far too many for me to recommend this as something anyone reading this should watch.

Let’s start with the character designs. While the general look of the movie is really appealing and colorful, the actual designs of the characters leave a lot to be desired. There’s no real better way for me to say this, but the characters all look like how a middle-school furry artist would draw his furry wolf OCs (original characters, for those of you that don’t know) when first starting on DeviantART. They’re far more humanoid than anthropomorphic, which really stands out with characters that have more stylized and cartoony designs. It’s almost as if the characters were all designed by completely different artists, however this is an approach that worked in its favor in a movie like Secret Life of Pets, but here they stick out like a sore thumb. All the wolves are top-heavy and just look ridiculous when they run on all fours. I also had this same problem with Alpha and Omega six years ago (funny how they’re both movies about wolves), but the hair is really off-putting. Most of the wolves have pretty much anime hairstyles which just look distracting and out of place. This is really noticeable on a character like Bianca who basically looks like a human chick that just so happens to be cosplaying as a wolf. With the sheep this gets even more bizarre, as there are sheep who clearly look like anthropomorphized sheep, standing right next to sheep that have more human-like features that are kind of distracting, NEXT to other sheep who just look like they’re a human and sheep that probably fused together like in The Fly. Again, it’s highly distracting because they’re not anthropomorphic like the characters from Sing or Zootopia, and yet they’re also not animal enough to be like the animals from The Secret Life of Pets or even The Wild Life. It’s like they’re stuck in this strange uncanny valley of anthropomorphism and it’s kind of off-putting to watch. Mami is the only one who manages to make this work, though it probably helps that she’s hardly in the movie. Grey looks alright by all standards, except for his dumb Emo Peter Parker haircut.

From what I’m sure you can gather I’ve said about the story, it’s pretty much also copied and pasted from… anywhere else. It combines traits of Shrek 2, Brother Bear, The Lion King, too many romantic comedies to count, Kung Fu Panda 3, Shark Tale (another disaster full of clichés and off-putting character design)- it borrows so liberally from other movies that it even borrows their flaws as well. Shark Tale needs no explanation, it has the dopey character who is in love but cannot spit it out because God help him “he’s just awkward” (oh please), it also borrows a problem unique to a movie I reviewed not too long ago, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie, in which it is full of really annoying cartoony sound effects that get really, really fast. By the way, I said this movie ripped off The Lion King (why on Earth do we have TWO animated movies that came out in 2016 that thought this was a good idea?) and it does so in the Magra��s death scene. Ragear shoves him off the cliff in a way that’s not too dissimilar to Scar throwing Mufasa into the wildebeests. It doesn’t help that both just so happen to have a character voiced by Jim Cummings, which makes the resemblance even more obvious.

Though speaking of terrible sounds, the voice acting isn’t that great. I mean sure, you have people like Jim Cummings who would sound awesome if they even just read the phonebook, but much like Morgan Freeman in Ben-Hur, he’s not doing anything new. Tom Felton… I have NO idea what the hell he’s doing, it’s like he’s trying to sound American and fail horribly at it, but he’s at least trying. Ruby Rose just straight up did not care about this movie at all, she could not sound any more disinterested if she tried, which isn’t only a serious problem because it just sounds bad it also makes her character come across as really uncaring and self-centered, which becomes a MAJOR problem thanks to one particular scene from the movie that I’ll get to. Believe me, I will. Still, this is pretty bad- it’s almost as if the voice actors weren’t allowed to be given a second take or something like that.

But what’s even worse than the voice acting is the score. I’ve complimented good scores before and lambasted bad ones like Accidental Love, for example. It had a score that was highly annoying, bouncy, and would never shut up. It was trying to be a “whacky, silly” score that instead of trying to get you to laugh it only made you cringe. So yes, an overly-goofy score is one issue but thanks to this movie the opposite is also true. This movie has a score that is far more surprisingly dramatic and intense than you would think which gives me the impression that this movie is really trying to get me to take it seriously… and this is the same movie that has a Rocky-style montage of a character trying to give themselves a concussion. AND FAILING AT IT. Sure, that’s meant to be the joke, but this is much less justifiable in countless scenes of something dramatic happening only for it to get cut-off by some awkwardly-inserted comic relief. Oh God, it’s like Epic all over again.

The absolute worst part about this movie is the characters. I’m not going to spend much time on them because I could write an entire essay on just what’s wrong with this cast, and this review is getting really long as it is. So I’ll say this, they vary from being really stupid, to being really annoying, to all-around unpleasant. Grey is kind of a goofball, but other than that he’s just your generic main character and he’s one of the better characters. His best friend sheep who is lovestruck cannot say a word to her about his feelings to save his life, which is not just an awful cliché in and of itself, but his voice is really annoying and her never shuts up. The big bad Ragear is clumsy and gets beaten up a lot, so it’s pretty much impossible to take him seriously as a credible threat and the only time he succeeds at anything it’s simply because the plot just felt like it needed to keep going. Lyra is your generic “nice girl” type who pretty much has no personality aside from, well, being nice, except for one particular scene where she chews out Grey for giving her little brother, Shia, the influence to have him run off from the sheep village to fight off wolves himself, and this happened AFTER Grey saves his life as well as a scene in the movie where she scolds her little brother for being an irresponsible little shit who doesn’t listen to anybody. And Shia, oh I despise him. Not only does he have a really annoying voice and attitude, he’s one of those characters that should have died far sooner than he does (which is never- spoiler alert) because he does anything BUT listen to someone who’s trying to do nothing but HELP HIM. He’s by far one of the most irritating characters I’ve seen in any movie this year- he’s up there with Steel from Max Steel, The Enchantress from Suicide Squad, the Colleens from Yoga Hosers, and pretty much EVERYONE in Collateral Beauty- and it doesn’t help that he gives a really awful message at the end of the movie which pretty much amounts to him saying that you shouldn’t kill someone because it will make you just as bad as they are, which is normally a message that has a lot of weight to it, but when the person who is trying to kill you is DOING EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER TO TRY AND EAT YOU, and you fight back in self-defense!

I also mentioned Bianca, and out of all of the bad animated movies with forced-in love interests she’s by far the worst. Now, she’s at least thankfully not forced into a relationship with Grey (they already have one at the start of the movie) and the way his little problem is resolved isn’t by true love (but it’s not less dumb). The reason why I hate Bianca the most is because of one particular scene where she pretty much ACCUSES GREY OF CAUSING RAGEAR FROM KILLING MAGRA AND MAKING HIM THE NEW LEADER, and all because he was trying to change himself to prove to her that he’s not an immature clown. It’s somehow all HIS fault, and at no point does she ever get called out on being a colossal bitch. Though Grey DOES call out the sheep for being whiny, pathetic, and annoying, it doesn’t really leave a very satisfying impact when it’s ruined by the scenes that precede and follow it. I HATE EVERYONE IN THIS MOVIE. This movie was just like Collateral Beauty all over again- I really thought I was going to be in for something bland, but not THIS annoying and unpleasant. I really hate this movie, thanks to its combination of terrible tonal shifts, bland story, irredeemable cast of characters, and ho-hum voice acting. It’s easy to see why this movie never made it to the States. (2,541 words. Can't believe this one took me almost a week to write, but I needed to get my thoughts collected so I could express just what the hell was wrong with this movie.)

This is a really foul movie. I don't really get this kind of enjoyment out of something that fills me with dread and hatred- I would much rather be talking about things I really love, like Zootopia, but this is the kind of movie that is not only so bad that it's wasted your time, but it'll ruin your day!

Yes, I give this movie a 2. And how appropriate because now I can make more room for my best big project. That's right guys, The Wall #50 is going to be... THE TOP 10 WORST MOVIES OF 2016 I'll see you all there.