shrubsnout Reviews

Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir, the Movie (2023)

Decent.

[7/10 · 7 December 2023]

I'm not sure what other people are expecting. I mean, a continuation of the story that may or may not be relevant? We've got the Miraculous World for that.

The movie being a rehash of the story with some twists, is understandable from a cinematic point of view. I don't even watch movies much and understand what they could and couldn't do. I don't see the movie drawing in new fans, but it felt meaningless for an existing fan. There were also many scenes cut. Some scenes wouldn't fully address some criticisms, but it would've allievated it a little.

The most unnecessary jarring point is the voices going from character to singing voice. Instead of having all the voices naturally from the characters, they did the Hollywood thing and used a name instead.

Sure, the musicals were corny, but eh. If you were taking them seriously, or laughing at them, you've got problems, and some growing up to do.

Most people actually aren't mentally mature enough for a kids-teen TV series, and it shows. Can they analyze the storybeats and make clear, concise connections and points? No.

This movie is essentially alternate universe Miraculous. The ending shows that it'd follow a much different story, and it also shows the devastating effects of a villain. There was no lucky charm here.

Granted, I would've been happier if this was actually the start of the Shadybug world.

What this movie is, is basically an abridged version of the Miraculous TV series. As a stand-alone, it's fine, but as part of a series, it's only fun to watch because you get the Hollywood version of many characters. It becomes a movie-length scavenger hunt that you can skip through. It's possible to skip through the musical bits if needed, too. The Chat Noir parts are meh. Personally, it's nice to have something like this, because it's still better than many options in the world.

Unfortunately, fans and othersuch aren't so great. On other sites, an "11 year old" reviews it by calling it boring and more.

Same movie that made a mime actually threatening, with some classy explosions. But then again, someone that gives their kid enough media to have them review it, isn't a good parent. I have to witness this so very, very often...

Characters: Already established as part of a series, this simply is an abridged re-introduction.

Animation: It's very pretty.

Music: Decent-to-Great. Musical bits were okay, that's about it.

Voices: In English dub, it was fine. All the familiar voices we know, more or less.

Story: A rehash with a Hollywood twist. All Hollywood adaptations do exactly what this did, cutting and cutting and more cutting of the world. They've got a time limit and a funding limit.

That's pretty much it. It's simply fanservice, or a distraction for a child if they get immersed in colorful moving images.

As fans, it is confusing; who is it made for? Something we'll never truly know.

Dragons: The Nine Realms (2021–2023)

Wasted potential

[6/10 · 5 September 2022]

Season 1 was actually, pretty good. Season 2 was... well, bad. The 2 episodes I had a tough time with the most, is written by someone credited for the upcoming "woke" Comix Zone film, which gives no hopes of it being enjoyable with those two episodes as a basis.

Season 2 is the point where characters stopped developing, since apparently they can only develop on their initial introduction.

Visually, it's Dragons in a more modern time (1,300 years later to be exact), but since it's a cliff and a crevice, there's little to explore. That's where the Nine Realms supposedly comes in, but we wouldn't know that without making a random guess.

There's not much of a catchy theme or melody, and while the voicework is fine, you've got the problem in the writing which reflects in the voice.

When you try too hard to diversify, the colors stand out. You've got the weird lil' bit hippy, somewhat stupid Asian girl, the shy friendless nerdy Indian girl, the awkward strong paranoid black guy, the charismatic yet rebellious white guy. "Diversity" stands out like a sore thumb because they're all archetypes.

The only thing that's been enjoyable has been the dragons themselves. On their own, they've got more personality than all the humans combined. Problem caused by Asian girl was so bad that I wanted to tap out but kept watching. The paranoia from the black guy was so damn cringy, because, why? That's the cliche you want to go with? Or the petty teenage argument that ends with the equivalent of "you don't have a dad"? What the hell was that even about? I can't even mark it as a spoiler because it feels like I'm just talking about plotholes. They have nothing to do with the character's development, it's just drama for the sake of drama.

I'm not even sure where to touch on the plotlines introduced in Season 2. There's a character, essentially a rich ass who inherited a lumber mill/farm, I'm not even sure anymore, and ends up burning it down by chance due to his ego. Of course, he'll eventually want revenge and then Season 3. This does not work for something with only 6 episode bursts per season. They haven't even been addressing the Dragon problem, and there's like two of those issues so far.

The story is supposed to be about Dragons, not humans. Focus more on the Dragons aspect. They don't care about the issues we humans face, they aren't eligible for the criterias we set. It's funny that despite saying all that, mythical creatures always have more humanity than humans themselves.

9 Realms could've spent it's time much better, but chose teenagers over the grand scheme that you'd expect from Dragons. Even as a standalone, it would've faired well, but the path and direction they chose is not a pleasant one.

Zog and the Flying Doctors (2020 TV Movie)

The story continues

[8/10 · 5 September 2022]

Essentially Zog 2, the direct continuation from the first movie/book.

Also accurately adapted, but with a bit of additional depth added that the first movie didn't have.

In order to avoid spoilers, the premise is effectily: A stubborn old fool who'd rather choose death than to believe in someone who he should be holding dear.

Zog & co. Solve a series of problems around the unnamed, unexplored world. These characters hardly speak. Their voices are fine, especially if you consider the thousands of voices in our reality.

A dragon and a knight having a fight seems hardly a problem, if anything, a knight is finally being a knight, and the dragon is... well, did you not see the first Zog and it's opening few minutes with what would be the idea of a dragon chomping a human in half?

Both movies have a pleasant musical score and theme.

Visually, it's the same, there's no loss.

I've seen the most Karen of complaints, though. We've got "too much fighting", someone didn't like the unicorn's horn operation (it's a unicorn, not a bicorn), and other such.

I can find myself rewatching both Zog stories in the future, simply because it's pleasant. I just wish they were a bit longer. Despite the title, it simply doesn't have enough Zog in it, while the first movie ended with the similar problem, not enough Zog, the title character. Still, we have to remember it was essentially done for free, a TV film for the holidays.

Zog (2018 TV Movie)

A Dragon named Zog

[8/10 · 5 September 2022]

This is a short film that adapts a children's book. It features dragons, and eventually, a princess and a knight. It feels sped up due to it accurately portraying a 30~ page child's book. It takes some very small steps in giving Zog a smidge more depth than it's source. The other unnamed dragons have design flourishes that have add a bit of character, which is why it feels like a shame...

It's visually a beautiful and colorful world that feels like a waste because it is a child's book, meaning it's one-and-done.

It's got a message for girls, somewhat of a message for boys, but at least it's positive. Not bad considering this was a TV special film. I give it an extra point because I found Zog adorable.

Tom and Jerry in New York (2021)

Different

[8/10 · 5 September 2022]

It's definitely different. While it has a similar vibe due to it being in the style of The Tom and Jerry Show (2014~2021). I'm not sure which I liked more. The duo/trio felt more human in the Show, while in NY, they're less like people. Tom's definitely more heartless and Jerry is more of a nuisance, while Spike is only an occasional appearance. Perhaps with that, I would say I prefer the Show over NY. Plus, the humans had more personality than just being set pieces.

Visually, NY is the same, due to it being the same team as the Show. It's still colorful, and still full of all sorts of antics.

When it comes down to sound and music, it's classy, very "New York". Characters don't always speak, which really shows a difference a bit of dialogue can add. Voice contains life and personality.

I mean, yeah, it makes sense Tom would ignore a drowing bird, but if he's the one who caused it, there's not much reason for him to ignore it. The best shorts are when they have some sort of a truce, or there's a win-win of some sort. After all, it's "and", not "versus".

It just feels like there's something missing. Even so, NY is an enjoyable enough set of Tom & Jerry stories. It's just jarring after having watched roughly three seasons of the Show, not knowing 2 more seasons had been produced until just now. Though I do wonder about the future of Tom & Jerry now that HBO has been doing it's animation removal and it's great purge. Hopefully this series will still be available somewhere once it inevitably disappears.

Big Tree City (2022– )

A delightful chimera.

[9/10 · 5 September 2022]

If you take Bluey and add a pinch of Gumball, you have a simple cartoon full of unnecessary depth and lore. Simply put, this is a bit like Gumball for kids. To be more precise, it has the fluffier nature from Bluey, but it's got the moral grayness of Gumball, though with a more kid-friendly coat of a paint.

It all started with the click of a thumbnail. Why not, it could just be another cruddy typical kid's show. Well, it's at the least, better than that. I skimmed through it at first, expecting the worst. Then, Major Pickles happened. And Ted, the smooth-voiced news anchor.

The premise revolves around a team known as Big Tree City Rescue. It is a 7-member group led by Major Pickles. Each member can be fairly labeled as a main character, as each episode has a focus on a different pair. Each story deals with the city in pretty much every aspect, from policing to fire fighting, to general public problems, to sewage and more. Often times the situation is made light of, such as spreading fire and the massive amounts of destruction. It's a colorful world with these pill-shaped animals, complete with children's show fixings like obligatory theme song cues when moving into action. Each episode is usually about a character, sometimes involving a main character and a side character.

The characters are mostly run of the mill. Sometimes they're fun, sometimes they're extremely obnoxious. The ones that I find endearing are Major Pickles, Stripes, and Tricks. Breaking them down, you've got the problem-solving badger, the genius squirrel, the lead hedgehog. Then there's the valve-turning chaos-inducing plumber frog, the standard super strong bear, the hyperactive destructive construction bird, and the occasionally mentally mature but also "dull" medic fox.

Major Pickles is, well, he's a bit of an arse. Without his old fashioned charm, his chuckling, and his charismatic nature, it would be a generic kid's show that one would otherwise completely ignore. Stripes is a simple badger who likes solving puzzles. Tricks is the standard-fare genius inventor, but he doesn't do genius talk or tech babble, which is very welcomed. The others are alright.

The writing starts off pretty strong for what it is, but then has some slower-paced episodes with the lesser likeable characters. After those series of episodes, it continues on and picks up again. Despite that, each episode always involves multiple characters at a time, with plenty of recurring extras.

Due to the unexplainable chaotic nature of events, it's hard to figure out what exactly is a spoiler, so I'll just say that these are undertone highlights. In a VR simulation, Pickles fell to his doom. Tricks' smooth voice mod was impressively hot. There's also a hot manly tango, between men.

Visually, I'm drawn to the colorful childlike nature, which is a nice compliment to the apparent constant chaos in the city, either "naturally" or caused by Big Tree City Rescue. I also enjoy the facial expressions the characters make. As you would know it, Major Pickles makes quite a lot due to his frequent appearances. It's a bit of a reminiscence of expressions found in Gumball, and if I had to think about why, apparently, I haven't been watching very expressive animations. Plus, it enjoys itself, even occasionally making light fun of cliches. They had an episode involving a reverse heist plot, complete with the night time fountain/water watching conclusion.

I feel like there are plenty of things that would go over kids' heads, but there'd be plenty of hope yet if this is the entertainment kids can get. I cannot stand half of the things my niece wants to watch, but between this and Bluey, there may be a bright future ahead. I'm just a pessimist who finally found something positive, a cartoon simply being a cartoon.

Far from the Tree (2021)

Beautiful.

[9/10 · 26 August 2022]

The animation is simply put, beautiful.

It is the story of a racoon and it's parent. This actually a little more vague than you think.

It's an extremely symbolic short involving what seems like abuse of sorts, only to wind up with estrangement. Then, the future and a lesson to not repeat the past.

The scars. Feel my scars.

In a ways, people always blame their parents. You know what? I don't completely blame my parents. The way I was, was a factor in how they acted. I could've been a better child, you know. People without kids will never understand the frustrations from those with kids. Estrangement after getting yourself hurt because "you didn't listen", perfectly understandable.

There are thousands of meanings in just 7 minutes. You can read in many things, and they'll be true all the same.

Repeating past mistakes, however, is the main lesson above all else. There will always be a point where you can repeat history, or you can decide to change it.

Slugterra (2012–2016)

Slugterranus

[7/10 · 26 August 2022]

While the animation starts with being off-putting, you get used to it, and it becomes smoother with every episode. I enjoyed it when it first came out, then didn't return to it later. From a modern look, it's a bit rough of a show, but the writing's still quite good.

It's about using slugs as ammo in an underground world. Following the adventures of Eli Shane and his friends, you get the concept of 99 different caverns to explore, as well as a nefarious villain and other plotlines. You get typical do-goody nature, complete with typical heroics.

Unfortunately, this series never finished. Even with it's Season 6 Netflix episodes, it was never finished. In fact, it seemingly retconned much of Slugterra only to end with "here's a new character and new plot elements" instead of finishing -anything-.

If you're okay with that fact, then you'll get a pretty enjoyable journey, as long as you forget Season 6 exists and treat it as "he lives underground with his friends, this is his life now, the end". Which would be the best summary of how to end the story after Season 5.

Oddly enough, a mobile game for it still gets updated. The concept would work great for an xcom-styled game, too.

While the lack of an end is a shame, it's still a treat to bless the animated world.

Luck (I) (2022)

What is Luck?

[8/10 · 26 August 2022]

Luck is what you make out of it.

The movie starts with a teenager who has the worst luck. She's an orphan who aged out of the system and has to live alone. She'll eventually set the movie's plot into motion when she encounters a black cat and feeds it some of her sandwich. Sounds simple enough, right?

Her luck is extremely relatable; the world is miserable to live in. Even so, she powers through it when most of us would've given up. I guess that's the perks of being a depressed perky teenage girl living in a chaotic-neutral life.

Though, the story is hardly convoluted. The magical world of luck has good luck on the top and bad luck on the bottom. Bad luck seemed evil, so the boss dragon lady didn't want to have anything to do with it. Then, solution occurs. If anything, the movie felt a few minutes shorter than it should be.

You need both good luck and bad luck in the world. It's as simple as that. Why? Because bad luck helps make a person who they are. They wouldn't be much a person with only good luck.

I do wish they'd do a follow-up short or something on Earth so we could see some of that beautiful animation on Earth, instead of a magical world. Somehow, the story avoids being Monsters Inc despite the potential similarities. There could've been more time spent in the land of bad luck, since the characters there seemed to have loads more depth than those relating to good luck. Which is funny since that's kind of the point; bad luck is a necessity at making a person. It's all about perspective. Plus, the cat's fun. Need more "Scottish" cat.

Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny (2018–2019)

Also featuring feathers and hooves.

[8/10 · 26 August 2022]

Why's there a top review that's written like a 10 year old getting access to the internet for the first time? They did not downplay Po's growth. He actually goes out of his way to leave it up to his students. Why? Because he's a master teaching students. How is that not development? He's competent, but he's only a single set of paws. It's in the darned title. In fact, the title doesn't only refer to this set of five characters.

It was kind of jarring to go straight from Legends of Awesomeness to this, but after the initial few episodes, the ball started rolling. Of course it'll start rough, you can already get the idea of that from powers that need time to appear. So, there's four episodes dedicated to the kids out of 13. 5 out of 13 when you consider the initial power-gain.

People would really rate something as helpful where "story was boring"? Maybe people should actually watch it instead. Can't get more helpful than that.

The story was simple in the first half, got through it's initial character development, such as gaining powers, and a proper lead-up to the villain. The second half was a split between two groups doing different things.

The kids start off as extremely unbearable, to tolerable enough. I had thought it'd just be them, but I was wrong. Eventually, it would star Po's dads, Grandma, and even a thousand year old demon friend. Part 2 actually adds three more characters to the group.

There are plenty of fun undertones that you would have to use a braincell to catch, from Po's death threat, a waterdeer being off'd off screen, technical suicide, and more. Part 2 involves an assassination and a massacre. Without any specifics, these aren't even spoilers, they're just non-contextual events covered by cute creatures doing violent things.

It's a family friendly adventure following a master and his students. It's far better than most things of today.

Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness (2011–2016)

Awesome.

[8/10 · 26 August 2022]

Having recently caught up and finished what I left unfinished, I have to say, Legends of Awesomeness ended up as quite the fun journey. Even in 2022, it's an enjoyable laid-back watch. Also a nice change of pace from our cruddy world of today.

To summarize the series, you'll get the entirety of Kung Fu Panda in: Two movies, Legends of Awesomeness, A third movie, Paws of Destiny.

Complete with shorts and specials in-between that are simply stories that are told.

It was a long running show with 3 seasons, so you can expect it to be a bit messy with some hits and misses, but it really is Po as Shifu's student, and pairs nicely with the movies. After all, you expect things to be life-threatening every day? This is the slice of life and misadventures Po and the people around him go through. Given the target demographic, some things can be really... well, extremely... massively? Immensely cringe-worthy to hear.

While not everything about it has aged well, the show has aged well enough. Still completely enjoyable.

Even so, there's some good jokes around. Though when it first came out, it was somewhat ground-breaking in being a cartoon based off of a movie, with endless comparisons made for no reason. Graphic fidelity isn't everything, especially when there's worse. I guarantee you the people who made those comparisons have never seen a 2004 3D cartoon. There's one involving the Arthurian legend and dragons that's very, very hard to look at.

Really, it's about the emotions, the heart, and soul. Kung Fu Panda has it all. The first season's somewhat rough, but half-way through it, the voice actors are in-sync with the characters. You can't really say they're different from their movie counterpart that much if you consider you only spent 2 hours with them. It's a different side of a person, or rather, it's when people aren't in a state of constant peril.

Even in 2022, the legend remains awesome.

Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight (2022– )

Barely Panda-worthy

[6/10 · 26 August 2022]

I've watched nearly all of Po's adventures and watched his growth from student to master. No matter how cringe-worthy some of the dialogue can get, at least it had it's place.

This latest entry negates all of that. First, he's even worse of a man child, and second, it doesn't really contain any references that have meaning.

I just finished Paws of Destiny and decided to watch this. I regret it.

Anyone that likes this definitely doesn't like Po. In fact, they don't even like Kung Fu Panda. It's a series that takes itself seriously enough when it needs to, but is overall just Po. This should've simply been called "The Dragon Knight", that would've been more acceptable.

Legends of Awesomeness (LoA) is Po as a manchild student. Paws of Destiny (Paws) is manchild turned manchild-master. In many ways, Paws is a completely natural follow-up to LoA. But Dragon Knight? No.

In Dragon Knight, Po has no comedy or class, he's just the butt of all jokes here because he can't bounce anything off miss stoic-English-knight. It's a dreary (currently) 11 episode adventure that has nothing to do with Kung Fu Panda. For starters, he basically loses every fight he's fought. This feels like watching a what-if everything didn't happen, other than stumbling across Panda Village through plot-magic. You'd have more fun watching every single Tigress-focused episode of LoA than this. Yeah, Tigress is the same archetype, except she has more depth.

LoA & Paws have far superior animation and dynamics, especially because they have a large cast with so many things going on at once. Paws even had a nice end-all ending that this new series erases. If you loved the dark undertones of Paws, you'll find none of it here. If you loved the action-adventure-comedy in either, you will not find it here. In fact, this series erases everything.

Spirituality and chi? Gone. Deeper than death? Nope. It simply tries to be serious the whole way. Why is there a gauntlet of mass-destruction as the main part when Po has a literal fingers-of-death attack? He even threatened someone with it and even used it in Paws! Well, turns out the plot involves four weapons that would split the world apart. One of which was just hanging out in the literal middle of nowhere for plot reasons. Come on, make use of the settings that were established; you've got so much to use. Did I also mention, no chi? The enemy gets to use magic and are mages, but Po doesn't get to use his chi.

Episode 9 is more or less, Po didn't want to say a bittersweet good-bye, so to drag on the plot, it'll eventually come to a close with a "I can't believe you lied to me." Really, we've been through this how many times? Now he's back to being a selfish jerk? Really?

Let's talk about scenery; it's boring. Forest, desert, mountains. That nonsensical molten river was off as well. Legends of Awesomeness was limited for numerous reasons, but Paws expanded on the world quite a bit. It also makes sense that, without any form of a central hub, you can't tell all sorts of different stories. If you didn't know, LoA's centered around the Jade Palace and it's surrounding village. That's quite the sandbox for writers, a playground to figure out how to tell many stories in the same sand. This also means more time for characters to bond, including one-off characters. For Paws, it was a mixture of Panda Village and a temple, then wrapped up in the journey to reach the city, which included the seas as well as a volcano. It's got all the necessary generic RPG staples.

And the title? Let this be clear and obvious. The Former Dragon Master will now become Dragon Knight. He's leaving China to enter England (and/or the rest of the world). He said he wants to be a knight, and thus he shall! Do note in said same series, the two main villains for a majority of it are former mages, but there's barely any magic used. Po's thing was that he didn't need a weapon, and would only ever temporarily use them. That kind of will be thrown out the window. Four special godly weapons, and four characters to fit them, I suppose. Episode 11 ends with what we'll see as the main group, but with just four characters... which may be remotely interesting, but probably not. They have next to nothing to do with each other.

With Jack Black replacing Mick, it can be treated as Movie-Po's continuation... at least, if you want to kill off every character.

Let's wrap this overview up with some insight behind the creation of it, courtesy Wikipedia because I don't care enough.

"The concept idea for the series began as a road buddy comedy that takes the viewers all over in pursuit for their goal to try and catch the bad guys. Jack Black had a cool vision for what an epic journey would be, one that fits well from the first Kung Fu Panda film while having a darker, more mature tone with the show versus past chapters also marks how the series is expanding the franchise."

Except it's overall un-funny and the bad guys are dreadfully dull. Ah, yes, the crazy one. Fitting the first movie thematically despite there being two more is backwards thinking, literally. Also, Paws was a lot darker than this drivel! The undertones are there, you just need to look for them. Po literally made a death threat, technically a suicide, a leader dies, a village gets massacred. There are even assassins and eventually a revealed assassination. Really, the entirety of KFP is that we are all students in life, with lessons that can be learned from anyone. As it was once said in a remote village, anyone can be the dragon warrior. Learning from one's past is also a message, one that should've been taken to heart here.

11 years of lore, contradictions or not, in an established setting, thrown away for some generic super Americanized plot. 2008 - 2019, it was a great series. 2022 doesn't exists and Po and co. Can finally rest and take a break.

This just feels like an Americanized mess using China as a temporary backdrop. Rather, you know what this feels like? Anything involving England has the most typical English drama involved. A direct-to-DVD sequel.

This may be salvageable if you watch it without any context, but if you're a fan, it won't sit well.