The Croods 2, A New Age: The Age Of Stone

The Crood 2, A New Age is an animated family film directed by Joel Crawford. The plot continues on from the first film, with the Crood family trying to find a new permanent home (or tomorrow as the film calls it). In this pursuit, Guy (Ryan Reynolds), runs into this adoptive family that took him in after his parents died, naturally the two families’ clash.

So, I was not very impressed by the first Croods film, it felt very generic and had no emotional impact. I am glad to say that I enjoyed this film a significant amount more and I think it made great strides to better the issues of the first film.

Yes, very much like the first film, the conflict is insanely predictable and cliché: where the first had a father needing to set aside, the second also has that but with the added dimension of question whether they need to change how they are and become more than just cave people. The emotional journey of this film is one you have seen done hundreds of times before and the resolution is exactly how you would expect.

This film does feel like it has more heart than the first film, that felt very much like it was trying to steal from other properties in a cold, corporate way. I felt a greater connection to the characters here and enjoyed seeing them interact on screen. I thought this was definitely Eep’s (Emma Stone), film and she was the character that kept me engaged in the plot.

The female empowerment angle towards the end of the film left me split. On the one hand it was a cool scene and came off as a nice final battle scene with all the female characters riding in on huge beasts and saving the day. However, at the same time it felt forced in and unnatural, it felt very much upon a second rewatch that the film was trying to set up this empowering moment throughout in the least subtle way possible- shoehorned in some might say.

Overall, this is a much-needed improvement over the first film and gives me some hope for the series going forward.

Pros.

Eep

The emotional connection/impact

Having a distinct set of personality

Being fun to watch

Cons.

The arc/ journey of the character is a little stale

The female empowerment sequence

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Soul: The Jazz Man

Soul is an animated family film directed by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers. The plot follows a part time teacher/ wannbe jazz musician Joe (Jamie Foxx), as he dies before he has a chance to achieve his dream of performing on stage. Whilst in the afterlife Joe meets 22 (Tina Fey), a young soul who is struggling to find their spark, together the two of them run away back to earth and go on a journey of self-discovery together.

This film almost made me cry, almost. The ending is beautiful and heartfelt, and it really brought Pixar back for me in a big way. Personally, I haven’t really enjoyed a Pixar film since Brave and even a few of the ones before that Ratatouille, Wall-E did nothing for me: I enjoyed a final trip to Toy Story but more for nostalgia then a strong story. However, I am pleased to say that this film bucks that trend and in my mind restores Pixar to its former glory.

I enjoyed seeing the bond develop between Joe and 22, I thought it was a incredibly well realised friendship and touched on the very real experience of what it means to be human. The individual character arcs of Joe and 22 are equally well done, and you are left staggered at the complexity of emotional impact they manage to elicit.

My one complaint would be that the soul world stuff is a bit dull at times, and it tends to drag on: you can’t help but think during these sequences that you would much rather they get back to the Earth storyline.

Overall, a film that resorted my faith not only in Pixar but in the animation genre in general.

Pros.

The emotions

The character journeys

The performances from Foxx and Fey

A return to form for Pixar
Cons.

The soul world plot could and should have been more interesting

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Boss Baby: I’m Pretty Sure This Kid Is The Antichrist

The Boss Baby is an animated family comedy film directed by Tom McGrath. The plot sees a family welcome a new baby into their lives, however there is something different about this baby he wears a suit and talks on the phone: he is a boss baby.

I truly do believe to enjoy or even understand this film you need a degree in some field of high concept science, as the logic of this film is nowhere to be found. Normally, I would not go after the logic of a kid’s film, but this is particularly egregious. It almost feels at times like the film is going out of its way to make itself more confusing then it already is, it piles on more and more baby lore until you reach a giving up point.

By making the film so convoluted and over the top it removes a sense of relatability the film might have for parents who remember what is it like to have a new baby or for children who remember when their parents brought their sibling home from the hospital. To that end, once the bright colours, and the vapid jokes about poo and things like that are over there is nothing left for the kids to enjoy, they too will see its hollowness.

Alec Baldwin is okay as the titular Boss Baby, he is serviceable, but this is not one of his better 2010 era roles. Furthermore, it is nice to see Tobey McGuire return to our screens even if it is just as a voice over narrator it has been too long.

Overall, I fail to see how this was popular, it takes itself far too seriously and makes things far too complicated baffling viewers whilst simultaneously putting them off the film.
Pros.

Baldwin and McGuire

Cons.

It is too complicated

The jokes aren’t funny

Most of the characters are irritating and not relatable or likeable in any way

It wastes its wider supporting cast

1/5

Reviewed by Luke

SpongeBob SquarePants, Sponge On The Run: Another Feather In Paramount’s Cap

SpongeBob SquarePants The Movie: Sponge On The Run is an animated family film directed by Tim Hill. The plot sees SpongeBob’s (Tom Kenny), beloved pet snail Gary be snailnapped. As such SpongeBob and Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke), must set out on a quest to get him back.

I enjoyed this film immensely, far more than I thought I would. I have not seen SpongeBob in years, but I did use to like it when I was a teen.

My one complaint of this film would be that the animation is ugly, and quite jarring if you go in expecting the old-style SpongeBob animation like I did. The issue with the animation was that it looked too fake, too CGI, and when they added in real world live action elements it became trapped in the uncanny valley.

I really enjoyed the story of the film. I liked the feeling of finality it had to it, I know there is plenty more SpongeBob content on the way, but it was still nice. Seeing all of SpongeBob’s friends talking about how much he meant to them was a touching moment, and the reveals of how they all met was a good pay off for long-time fans.

The highlight of the film for me was the humour and the cameos. The humour often skewed older, a lot of the jokes and references I feel kids off today would not understand, but they made me laugh. I have always enjoyed the absurdist nature of SpongeBob as a show. Furthermore the cameos were terrific though only brief, Danny Trejo leaves a strong impression as El Diablo and Snoop Dogg has a nice little musical number that livens up the first act; of course Keanu Reeves as Sage is magnificent, but that goes without saying at this point.

Overall, this feels like a love letter to the show itself, it feels like it is done with care, it will make you laugh, and the ending will make you cry. Definitely one of the better SpongeBob films.

Pros.

The tribute to Stephen Hillenberg

The trial scene

Matt Berry

The humour

The cameos

Cons.

The animation is horrendous

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Wolfwalkers: Never Cage Something That Is Wild

Wolfwalkers is an animated fantasy film directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart. The plot sees a girl and her father move to an Irish hamlet in the 1600’s to kill wolves and to start a new life. However said girl Robyn (Honour Kneafsey), finds that there is more to the wolves than any of the towns people know and that the pack is being controlled by a mother daughter Wolfwalker duo, who she soon makes friends with.

This film is a heartbreaker, the plot won’t leave a dry line in the house. It has so many layers to it many of them deeply sad it makes for a very melancholic watch. The later scenes between Robyn and her Dad (Sean Bean), are particularly hard to watch, when he keeps making the situation worse and worse before he realises the error of his ways.

I enjoyed the friendship between Robyn and Mebh ‘Og Mac Tire (Eva Whittaker), I thought it was nice to see their friendship develop over the course of the film and to watch them grow up during such a difficult time period, I’m sure there was a metaphor in there somewhere. I thought this part of the story and its innocence nicely contrasted with the more adult moments.

Finally, I thought it was nice to see a return to 2D animation. It has been too long, and it looked really beautiful throughout, you could tell a lot of work had gone into it and it really helped the film to standout amongst the 2020 animation landscape.

Overall, a beautifully thoughtful and heart breakingly sad animated film that you owe it to yourself to see.

Pros.

A return to 2D animation

The friendship between the two girls

The emotional beats

The father daughter relationship

The look at Irish/Celtic mythology

Cons.

It is desperately sad

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Scooby Doo And The Goblin King: The Return Of Tim Curry

Scooby Doo And The Goblin King is an animated family mystery film directed by Joe Sichta. The plot sees Shaggy (Casey Kasem) and Scooby (Frank Welker), go on a magical quest to defeat an evil Wizard and save Halloween.

Unlike others, that have strayed too far from the formula, I think this film benefits form ditching the standard story structure of a Scooby Doo film and going fully out there. I enjoyed seeing Scooby Doo fully explore the concept of magic, I liked seeing classic creeps like The headless horseman make an appearance and I appreciated the larger world and mythology this film tried to set up; I would like to see it explored further at a later date.

When I heard that Tim Curry was returning to voice a character in this film I was immediately expecting big things, he was after all one of the best things about The Witches Ghost. So, I was saddened when he only had a small part. He does his best with what he is given, and he does make the Goblin King memorable.

The villain is okay, serviceable enough to keep the plot running in one direction but not strong enough to carry any real weight. I feel the story itself buckles under all it is trying to do and crosses a line where it becomes more spectacle than anything else.

Overall, this was one of the better Scooby Doo films of this era (the late 00’s), it is up there with Zombie Island and Witches Ghost, however all that it tries to do weighs the film down a bit too much and it just can’t live up to its high ambitions.

Pros.

Tim Curry

Fully going for the supernatural

The headless horseman scenes

It is a lot of fun

Cons.

Tim Curry only has a very small part

The film becomes spectacle and falls apart after a point

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

Early Man: The Origins Of Man United

Early Man is a British stop motion animated film directed by Nick Park. The plot follows a group of stone age people as they are challenged by a bronze age civilisation to a game of football to decide the fate of their valley home.

I will admit I have a bit of a love hate relationship with Aardman and their animations, I really didn’t like Chicken Run and I enjoyed Wallace and Gromit when I was young, but I have not thought about those films in years. So, going into this I had low expectations that were lowered even further when I heard the mixed reviews, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with this film.

I enjoyed the story quite a bit and found that the time period leant itself quite well to Aardman’s signature animation style. I thought the characters all had a great deal of rootability, and you really wanted to see them win the game. This film manages to capture the plucky underdog spirit to a tee.

The voice cast didn’t add much to proceedings as I feel like anyone could have played those characters, the voice actors themselves were not memorable, which could be a good or bad thing depending on your viewpoint. Out of the cast I thought Maisie Williams shone the most, her character of Goona was fun and memorable and Williams managed to pull of an accent for the full run time somewhat convincing; much more convincingly then her GOT co-star Sophie Turner in the last X-Men film, however.

Overall, a fun film that really made me consider Aardman that bit more, maybe it has converted me to their cause- time will tell.

Pros.

Fun and accessible

The setting leant itself well to stop motion

Maisie Williams

Capturing the underdog spirit

Cons.

The voice cast weren’t very strong

It felt a bit bloated

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Chill Out Scooby Doo: Casual, Seemingly Random, International Abduction

Chill Out Scooby Doo is an animated family mystery film directed by Joe Sichta. The plot sees the Mystery Gang’s holiday in Paris hijacked when Shaggy (Casey Kasem), and Scooby (Frank Welker), get kidnapped and taken to the Himalayas to act as bait for someone looking to trap the abdominal snowman.

So, I will admit I love the yeti/abdominal snowman so yes I might view this film a bit more favourably that I otherwise would have, though I have tried to control my bias of course for the purposes of this review.

This film feels like a return to the old ways of Scooby Doo, there is just one monster, there are no attempts to be meta (though in moderation those are a good thing), and there are no needless cameos. It is just the gang hunting a monster and then demasking it at the end.

Hell, I’ve reviewed quite a lot of these at this point and I have to officially say I have gone full circle. I started off apricating the Scooby Doo formula, then I grew sick of it and now after seeing how badly a lot of the Scooby Doo films turn out that don’t stick to the classic structure I am back to apricating it once again.

An issue I had with this film is the side story stuff. The High Lama felt crammed in to pad out the runtime, if done well this could have been like an extended version of one of the classic episodes, but no they had to stuff more in. Furthermore, as has been a recurring complaint, the Tibetan characters are little more than stereotypes and character cliches, which just feels irritating and lazy.

Overall, it has strong parts and weak parts, at its best it is a return to the classic formula and its worst it is still using the same old stereotypes and can be consider a bit offensive.

Pros.

The yeti

A return to the classic form

An interesting and not obvious mystery

Cons.

The stereotypes

The side story and characters

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Scooby Doo Abracadabra Doo: They Fight A Griffin In This One, The Continuation Of The Oddly Sexual Age Of The Scooby Doo Franchise

Scooby Doo Abracadabra Doo is an animated family mystery film directed by Spike Brant and Tony Cervone. The plot sees the Mystery Gang go to a magician’s college to check in on Velma’s (Mindy Cohn), younger sister Madelyn (Danica Mckeller), who is training there. Once there things quickly take a turn for the sinister and the gang has to face off against a griffin.

So, much like Camp Scare this film marks a change in animation style from the late 2000’s Scooby Doo films. Personally, I don’t mind both styles, I think both are of a similar quality and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. One thing I will note about this film about Camp Scare is that they go out of their way to sexualise Daphne (Grey Delisle); it is very noticeable.

This film had a warmth to it that a lot of the other more rushed together Scooby Doo films don’t have, there were songs made for it and it had a title sequence and all over it felt like more effort had been put into then a lot of the other films, which I appreciated.

I enjoyed the irony of having the Gang, whos’ main purpose is to solve mysteries and debunk the supernatural go to a magic academy. Sadly, they didn’t do much with the concept.

Overall, though clearly more thought had been put into this when contrasted with a lot of the other Scooby Doo films coming out around the same time, it still does not fully utilise the premise and it is again a bit too sexual for a kid’s film.

Pros.

The effort that had been put in

The mystery wasn’t obvious

A few good laughs

Cons.

Oddly sexual again

It doesn’t do much with its premise

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Scooby Doo In Where’s My Mummy?: A More Adapt Question Would Be Where Is The Villain?

Scooby Doo In Where’s My Mummy directed by Joe Sichta. The plot follows the Mystery Gang as they head to Egypt to meet up with Velma (Mindy Cohen), who has been restoring the Sphinx, however as they arrive they realise that something is a foot and they find themselves in the centre of a century’s old supernatural mystery.

I have to say this might be the only Scooby Doo film that didn’t have a clear-cut monster, or a guy in a suit. Yeah they have a generic villain, but they are side-lined and ignored so much that you forget the film even has a villain. In the end when you have the big reveal scene you are left confused with only a vague remembrance of who the baddie even is.

Though I am impressed they didn’t go the generic route and have the monster be a mummy, I feel like the film as a whole might have been better served if they had gone that route, rather than have this confusing conspiracy angle that really doesn’t come together.

The only real positive I can give this film is that it does not make the Egyptian characters stereotypes, they feel like actually characters. This is hollow praise as this should just be standard, but some of these Scooby Doo films do like to throw out cultural stereotypes here and there.

Overall, a very confusing, bland mess.

Pros.

They didn’t go for the obvious

Cons.

The obvious might have been better than what we got

The villain is forgotten about and ignored

It is dull

It is not fun to watch

1/5

Reviewed by Luke