WeirdRaptor Reviews

My Little Pony Tales (1992)

Surprisingly good.

[7/10 · 29 November 2012]

In 1984, Hasbro worked with Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions to create a pair of half-hour TV specials based on their toy line. At this tentative stage, they were simply testing the waters to see if anyone would be willing to sit through a televised program starring the pastel-colored equines running through fields, playing, dancing, singing, and battling the force of Apocalyptic evil. Release April 14th, 1984, it aired in Prime Time.

An evil tyrant requires four ponies to transform into dragons to pull his chariot so that he can fly through the skies and rein in The Night That Never Ends and take over the world. So the ponies team up with a 10-12 year old girl named Megan Williams to stop him. Better than it sounds.

The story is solid, if a little clichéd. We've seen Evil Overords try to Take Over The Earth, and can only be stopped by a Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits with their Super-Special Items a million times before. Then again, it wasn't meant to be ground-breaking in any regard. It did what it was supposed it to well as a fun little fantasy-adventure.

It does have its flaws. A half-hour it held back a lot. As is it, the villain only gets a chance to shine a few times. The journey to his castle is also less than spectacular. It's literally an afternoon stroll away with hardly any obstacles along the way (the worse being completely accidental). Obtaining the Super-Special Item needed to defeat The Big Bad is literally just handed to the heroes because they didn't have enough time to crawl their way through a dungeon or temple to get it.

With that in mind, it certainly had its strengths which do outweigh its weaknesses. The special had atmosphere and the audience feels as though there is something at stake at all times. Its villain had a very commanding presence and the nastiness to back to it up. The henchman are also decently competent, which is a nice break from the norm.

The characters weren't deep, but their personalities are concisely written distinguishable. Firefly is a head-strong daredevil tomboy. Medley is reserved and cautious. Twilight is motherly and supportive. Bow-Tie is level-headed and takes charge. Applejack is awkward and clumsy. Amber wants to grow up quickly. Megan is inexperienced and unsure of herself, but sincere and brave. Spike is naive and excitable.

The animation for this special was actually pretty solid. It was nothing wowing, but it actually had some care put into. The ponies moved fairly realistically and they were designed to look a lot like actual ponies. A handful of inspired designs also help give the look of the special an edge as well.

The music and songs are fairly stock for the medium, but were by no means terrible. The songs were more memorable than the score though, and quite enjoyable. My picks from the songs would have to be "Dancing On Air" and "A Little Piece of Rainbow", sang by Sandy Duncan and Tony Randall respectively, because…Sandy Duncan and Tony Randall. Come on. Sandy Duncan and Tony Randall.

The voice acting was well done over as well, with standout performances from Sandy Duncan, Tony Randall, and Ron Taylor with the rest ranging from Really Good-to-Decent. I in particular took a liking to Bow-tie's voice.

Final Conclusion: It was good. Pretty stock in many cases, but some inspired writing, designs, and performances raised it just a notch above the standard norm of early-mid 80s TV animation. To this day, My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle remains a cult classic among fans of the franchise and fans of 80s animation in general and rightfully so. Give it try, if you haven't yet. I think this TV special just might surprise you.

My Little Pony (1986–1987)

Fun and charming.

[28 November 2012]

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, WeirdRaptor here. This is the very first animated incarnation of My Little Pony. It was set in a fantasy world called, Ponyland, or Dream Valley (no two writers could decide whether the former was a part of the latter, or if the latter was a part of the former). Anyway, wherever it is, all the stories are placed within it…somewhere. The basic framing composition of the series was always the same, but it worked.

It went something like this: Magical sapient ponies live idyllic lives in their home, first Dream Castle and later Paradise Estate, and frequently go on adventures to save the latest victimized one shot character from the latest villain. The nature of these adventures (oddly) usually involved the villain having ambitions to either destroy Ponyland/Dream Valley, or change it so fundamentally as to render it desolate for everyone else. They were often helped by a mushroom-themed gnome named the Moochic and his beleaguered assistant, Habit. A handful of episodes focus not on averting the latest Apocalypse, but on more mundane matters, such as using your imagination for fun, scavenger hunts, taking care of stray animals in need, dealing with bullies, and mending political ties following the catastrophic Ice Cream War II (Hey, don't look at me that way! A friend of mine lost both his legs in that war!).

There were 65 episodes in all. 16 were multi-part serials, most of which were either 2-4 parts long with one Ten Episode Pilot. There were only 9 standalone episodes.

Some technical aspects of the series: its continuity tended to be "lax-to-non-existent. The animation was cheap, animation errors were in abundance, the characters' faces would sometimes just look weird because of this, but it was good enough to get its job done. There were some inspired moments in design that led to creative settings, backgrounds, and character designs.

The writing was uneven, ranging from decent to serviceable to "Criminey, somebody actually wrote that and they actually got an actor to say it".

The voice acting was on par with the rest of the show. Some of the voice actors really knew what to do with their characters, while others just sounded awful. The Baby Ponies in particular were a big offender on having annoying voices, what with adult actresses trying way to hard to sound cutesy and young. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic does young pony voices right, by casting actual kids. Oddly, the human children featured in the series were voiced by actual kids, but the Baby Ponies weren't. Figure out that logic behind that one.

In all, when the show was at its best, it was a solid, fun watch. And when it was bad, you had Miss Piggy wannabes and their Dog-Bird…things from Jersey, attempting villainy, by GASP! cutting ponies' hair! Yeah…this show could get out there sometimes. Did I mention Miss Piggy Wannabe's powers were to turn things to glass, and her Achilles Heel was the destruction of her cape? In all, it was a decent show and a fun one. If you like My Little Pony and you're not too turned off by the overly sugary look of the show, I'd recommend it.

Parental Warning: The overt strangeness and sometimes, frightening, nature of the villains and the effect they have on the ponies and their environment has been known to be a rife source of nightmare fuel for some of the wee ones. If you're hoping for something along the lines of G3, this is not for you.

Objective Vote: 6/10. Subjective Vote: 7.5/10.

The Land Before Time (1988)

The Film That Started A Saga

[7/10 · 28 September 2006]

To put my thoughts of this film in a nutshell: this is definitely one of the best animated films I've ever seen, and I consider myself a fairly avid fan of all things animated…as long as its good. High production values, good continuity, slightly rushed pacing, a simple, but firm plot, sufficient casting, good voice acting, great characterization, and all this was achieved in the meager running time of about one hour and ten minutes only. Don Bluth and company really knew how to pull it together, even with two big Hollywood producers breathing down their necks about…everything.

Everything fit in the film almost perfectly, with the exception of the pacing. But other than that Bluth and company brought together a truly memorable film of overcoming prejudice, that combined effects of several towards a single ideal is better than a single heroic individual working alone, the themes of the film are highly pluralistic. Another one of the major themes was finding hope in hopelessness. The idea that there is hope of success and survival, despite every that's coming down against you. It is dark moments of need when Littlefoot and the others' inner most strengths really come out. Don Bluth was able to take some very profound themes and put them very well in sync with the action and storytelling of the film.

One can confidently say that it is above the average animated children's film. One can also say that it is on par with animated films long since past that haven't been seen since Disney's day. The film is not without it's flaws, though. The meager running time of an hour and ten minutes forced the filmmakers to rush the pacing, and it seemed like they were forced to finish the story as quickly as they could by studio executives.

Despite this, the themes of the story and the character development were still woven in effectively. This is probably due to the simplicity of the story, itself: a small band of very different individuals overcome "racial" differences in pursuit of a single ideal, in this case five young dinosaurs lost and separated from their families, searching for a Utopian "Great Valley".

Pacing aside, everything else in the film was made to be as well as it could, and there was certainly no shortage of budget on this film. The animation, the backgrounds, the effects, the atmosphere, and the music all meshed together beautifully and more than made up for sub par pacing and almost forced story telling at times.

So here you have it. This is "The Land Before Time", a standing ovation in animated films in its own right. A modern classic film much remembered and still watched by those young and old alike, and was the film to spawn a record setting number of sequels, which are still in production to this day, nearly twenty years down the road from the original's release in 1988.

Dungeons & Dragons (2000)

Staffs, Dragons, and Thieves, oh My!

[5/10 · 20 September 2006]

My thoughts in a nutshell: while decent, this film, frankly, just wasn't what it could have been. Mediocre production values, manageable continuity, sometimes good sometimes poor pacing, under-developed plot, unexplained plot points, questionable casting, sub-par acting, and sometimes good sometimes horrible characterization.

I have to say that I had no expectations for this film right from the beginning. The director of the picture was inexperienced, the budget was ridiculously low, and a few of the casting choices were baffling. Justin Whalin and Marlon Wayans as a duo of roughneck fantasy fiction thieves? A normally proportioned man named Lee Arenberg as a dwarf, without forced perspective or scale doubles? African-American Kristen Wilson as the film's main elf character (half-elf, actually, but they never tell the audience that in the film, I had to find out through the DVD audio commentary)? On top of that, a few casting choices one would have thought would have saved the film didn't. Jeremy Irons and Bruce Payne as the film's central villains could (should, actually) have been heavenly, but weren't. The cameos by Tom Baker and Richard O'Brien were excellent, though.

When all is said and done, the central problems with this film are very evident. The first being that, Courntey Solomon, the man at the helm just did not have the background as a filmmaker required to bring something of this magnitude to the big screen. While watching the film, it is apparent that he poured his heart and soul into each scene, but lacked the polished skill to truly bring it out effectively, most of the time. If anything, the director can only be blamed for being too enthusiastic and impatient about getting to be a filmmaker of an adaptation of a role-playing game he has much love for. The other problem being the matter of budget. Solomon made the film for $35 million. Now balance that between the actors, the costumes, the props, the sets, the cameras, the film, the shooting locations, the make-up, and the computer generated special effects. Listening to the audio commentaries for the film, and watching the deleted scenes (both with or without Director's Commentary) made it clear that he had much higher ambitions for the project that were just impossible for what he had to work with. Regardless, with his own inexperience and a hideously low budget working against him, he still managed to put together a decent film. I don't think I need to explain the situation again in order to tell readers that shows promise in a filmmaker, but showing promise was not enough to make this a solidly good film.

Rating: 5/10

The Lord of the Rings (1978)

Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings: Because Violating Tolkien's Fans is fun!

[3/10 · 3 September 2006]

To put my thoughts in a nutshell: this film stinks to high heaven. Low production values, poor continuity, sloppy pacing, over-condensed plot, horrible characterization, sometimes manageable, sometimes horrible casting, and the fact that its actually only half-animated make up what's wrong with this film. If Director Ralph Bakshi wasn't even able to afford to make his animated feature...animated! He probably shouldn't even have bothered!

While several of the scenes are word for word from the book, they are soullessly done. A story should have a "soul", if you will, and this film lacked anything of the sort. Which is a huge part of the problem with it. The original books, on the other hand...well, they almost overflowed with the stuff. The author, the esteemed Oxford Professor, J.R.R. Tolkien, spent about twelve years of his life writing them, using a typewriter. He seamlessly spun together a beautiful fabric of a story, using his craftsmanship, his devotion and his love for his work. This brought us "The Lord of the Rings".

Ralph Bakshi merely took the materials he already had and just slapped them on screen with very little care.

After looking through the movie, piece by piece, the two biggest mistakes that Ralph Bakshi made are definitely evident.

Biggest Mistake #One: He tried to do it for too little budget, $8 million. What he was able to do with that little amount is impressive, though, I will admit. On the other hand, being impressive of such a small amount of money, and actually making something that actually is impressive, in and of itself, are two different things. He definitely needed about twice the budget that he had just to get the film fully animated, and even more than that if he wanted to add a little style to the animation.

Biggest Mistake #Two: He tried to fit the entirety of the first two books (about 730 pages total, and in small print) into one two hour and fifteen minute film. This forced drastic cuts all throughout it, especially in the "Two Towers" section, also at which point he'd run out budget for animation for the most part (filming at high contrast and using rotoscoping does not make animation). He was also forced to sacrifice personality and development for most of the characters.

All this led up to a sudden end, in which the narrator announced "to be continued". The film was not officially titled "The Lord of the Rings-Part One", and nothing even hinted that this was merely a part of the story. It is merely titled "The Lord of the Rings", which directly implies that the entire story should have been told in this film. They advertised it that way, and they've kept it that way. In another review, the reviewer who wrote up "Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Ring, Part One: A Critique" on the "Tolkien Sarcasm Page" said, "I'm surprised there weren't any lawsuits." Film Rating: 3/10

Legend (1985)

An amazing film. (Spoiler free)

[3 July 2004]

Really. Just look at the costumes, the sets, the makeup, and that forest. They made all that from scratch! Talk about well-done and elaborate! Ridley Scott is a genius!

This film even made me appreciate Tom Cruise's talents, or lack of, for once, it was that good.

Tim Curry is amazing as the villain, Darkness.

I recommend this film for anyone who likes fantasy films in general. Granted, this one is not for everyone, but its still good. Also take a listen to the soundtrack, which is very good as well.

Enjoy.

One thing, though. Avoid the Director's Cut, it is not so good.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Great, just like the first one.

[10/10 · 23 January 2004]

There's a lot to cover on this film, since it is 3 1/2 hours long with A LOT happening.

First of all, the photography of the sights is nothing short of superb. The acting is powerful, aspecially Sean Astin's, the battles are true epic scale, and the story is excellently told.

I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys 'The Lord of the Rings' or other fantasy works.

Gargoyles (1994–1997)

The best animates show ever.

[10/10 · 8 December 2003]

I honestly don't understand why this didn't last longer. It was the best.

It was full of lovable characters beyond count: Brooklyn, Lexington, Galiath, Hudson, Broadway..the list goes on and on.

You'd never settle for the usual crap Disney comes out with after watching this for any length of time.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994–1998)

The only 'Spider-Man' adaption to get it right.

[16 October 2003]

Call me crazy, but it's true. This is the only adaption of the original comic-book series to really get things right with the characters.

I actually prefer this over the new movie, but that's due to the fact that I grew up with this one. Through age six to twelve, baby!

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

The Lord of the Rings=A GREAT UNFORGETABLE MOVIE

[10/10 · 9 June 2003]

LIke the title says, its a great movie with fine acting, great SFX, a decent plot, excellent backgrounds and sets, and very haunting music. ALthough you better have an extra three hours to watch it, because you can only get the best out of this film if you watch it in one sitting.

(Contains Spoilers)

I have some evidence from the movie to back up my good oppinion about, and it is:

1) As for the performances, Sean Bean's Boromir is played to near perfection in the key scenes in which he's present. His death will leave you in tears. Viggo Mortensen's performance as Aragorn is a real treat as well, he was required to deliver a wide series of emotions and succeeded at a great level. 2) For SFX, the best example would be the action scenes in the Mines of Moria, just look at that Balrog,that Cave Troll, and that near death staircase scene. 3) The plot is rather complex, but its simplest form is Frodo carrying the ring to the cracks of doom, and eventually has to destroy the ring in order to cleanse the world of a huge evil. 4) For backgronds, hey, if New Zeeland and the sets at Weta Workshop aren't beautiful, then I don't know what is. 5) For music, Howard Shore created a great soundtrack for LOTR:FOTR, "May it BE", by Enya will leave you felling warm inside. (Igmore the music for LOTR: TTT, isn't nearly as good.)

That about covers it, now you just need to the film, I can almost guarinee that you will like it.