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KlingonSteve
Reviews
Yakusoku no Neverland (2019)
The Ultimate Example of YMMV
Not going to get into the specifics much because you can read other peoples' reviews for that; suffice it to say that everyone agrees season 1 was at least relatively tight and generally well done (though I was a little annoyed by how often characters just seem to know things, have things, or figure things out without much explanation).
Now here's the thing with season 2: if you *read the manga* and enjoyed it, you won't like season 2; they montage their way through some of it and change some things otherwise. But if you *didn't* read the manga, season 2 is a perfectly fine continuing story of the handful of main characters and the trials they undergo which put them face to face with their principles in extremely trying situations. In this it reminds me of the Harry Potter movies after the fourth one; it boils down the characters and the plot points into the essentials needed to tell the story in a limited time frame. But in this case, I'd have to guess that Covid made them skimp on bringing the manga more fully to life.
So is it disappointing that the original creator's vision got nerfed some? Sure. But is it a hateful, rotten story in season 2? Not at all, unless you go in with the expectation that things will fully reflect the manga. This is no "Attack on Titan" in its fidelity, but it's a darn good story for 24 half hour episodes. Give it a shot.
The Simpsons: Warrin' Priests: Part 2 (2020)
Missing the Point
What a tone deaf, stupid set of episodes. Here's the writer's ever-so-brilliant commentary on religion: Christianity can be read to mean that since God is love and loves every one of us, therefore God doesn't care about the bad things you do. Oh, and also all religions are basically the same.
And the idea that church membership is declining because Christianity is so judgey, is actually the opposite of what poll after poll after poll of young people who have recently left OR entered Christian churches are saying: when they leave it's because the faith has already *been* watered down by ridiculous Bode-type pastors, and when they come back it's because tradition has been restored and authentic Christian teachings are being preached.
People who come to God want love, yes, but they also want guidance, not to be told what they want to hear. God is a God of mercy, yes, but also of justice. Right and wrong are still a thing. The fantasy on display in this episode is that there exists some kind of Christianity that isn't actually Christianity, but is instead some kind of amalgam of Buddhism and hippy philosophy, filtered through a layer of conveniently selected scripture passages and stamped with a "JESUS" seal of approval.
Sorry, friends. That's...not how any of this works.
Do better, Simpsons. Or better yet, stick to comedy and leave the juvenile Comparative Religions 101 nonsense to the tumblr crowd.
Wizards (1977)
A psychedelic mess
Yes, this is as bad as it gets. Unless you grew up in a wood-paneled basement in 1970's suburbia, breathing air with a lingering aftertaste of cheap cigarettes and a used-up dime bag wedged between the sofa cushions, this movie will astound you with its mere existence.
Wizards has been described as "thought-provoking", and it is, just not in the way director Ralph Bakshi intended. It's clear Bakshi thought he had the skills to deliver what he believed was the all-important social message of the 60's and 70's, but apparently subtlety wasn't one of those skills. The commentary is so heavy-handed that the term doesn't do it justice. It's a shame, because Bakshi's film style is unique and has a strange kind of stilted power to it, although in general his artwork is weird, ugly, and unpleasant. Think of Miyazaki, but with no concept of beauty, and completely insane.
Even that could have been redeemed, had it been used in the service of something other than ridiculous post-hippie ideology that simply flails like an angry child at everything the free-love generation wished they could do away with -- technology, the military, religion, and so on. Also, Hitler was bad. Bakshi thinks it's important to tell you this.
I mean sure, we could all do without nukes, zealotry, and Hitler, but this goes way beyond that.
This film really is like the proverbial train wreck you just can't look away from, complete with bloody corpses. Just add a wizard that smokes cigars with his toes, a promiscuous fairy, a hideous elf named "Weehawk" and a robot that is apparently missing his pelvic region (not just his groin, but the whole area), and you've got Wizards.
At times the movie goes places that are seriously unimaginable. Things happen that don't make any sense at all, or that are barely tangential to anything else you see. One example of many should suffice (SPOILER WARNING):
Near the beginning, after all the introductory back story that gets us to the "present" of the film (actually 2 million years or so in earth's future, the strung-out female voice-over tells us), we are shown a small room inside a high tower. Inside a stubby wizard named Avatar, dressed in green and with a full red beard and moustache that covers all but his nose and eyes, is talking to a crazy, gangly mannequin that is supposed to be the president of fairyland. He looks nothing like a fairy.
Nearby sits the ugly elf and the president's vapid, winged daughter, who does look like a fairy except that she's taller than the others, and has huge lips and a skimpy sex-pot dress, complete with pokey nipples (for some reason present throughout the entire film).
Lounging in a huge chair, with a vacant expression and a voice like a prototype for Foxy Cleopatra from "Austin Powers: Goldmember", she explains that she's not really entirely fairy yet. She touches her wings. For some reason, she laughs. About everything.
Suddenly, the crotchless robot wearing a red one-piece jumps through the window and blasts the president with a laser. The wizard takes out the robot, at which point the fairy screams like a banshee and proceeds to jump of the robot's corpse and tear into it with . . . fairy claws, I guess. Chunks fly everywhere. She keeps screaming. Meanwhile the elf and the wizard calmly discuss what to do next, as if she's not there. The fairy screams fade into the background. End scene.
We are suddenly back in the same room. The bodies are gone. The three "heroes" are still discussing plans, but now the wizard is lying in a bed and the fairy is sitting on him, hinting with Bakshi-like subtlety that she really would like to have sex with him. The elf is sharpening his sword. Oh, and they've decided to reanimate the robot and name him Peace.
I don't really need to go on. (END SPOILER)
Perhaps one of the most amusing yet bizarre aspects of the experience is the interview with Mr. Bakshi on the DVD. Unlike Disney, he says, he doesn't lie to children. Yes, Wizards is intended to be a kid movie. An "honest" one. Good one, Bakshi.
Now maybe this sounds like something you would enjoy. I didn't, except in all the ways I wasn't supposed to. In fact, I recommend watching it once (not with children), just for the experience. It'll make you feel weird. After all, this is THE quintessential whacked-out children's propaganda cartoon made by a self-important lech with an art kit, a camera, and some watercolors (all other films in that category also belong to Bakshi). It made me believe it might really be possible to lace a DVD with hallucinogens, designed to release on every viewing. It's that good/bad/odd.
Perhaps some folks are nostalgic for 70's suburbia and that wood-paneled basement. Even I am sometimes, and that's fine. But the huge, boxy VCR in our minds should be playing "Watership Down" or "The Last Unicorn", and hopefully not this mess of a movie.