Leofwine_draca

MUFASA: THE LION KING is the prequel to the CGI remake of the original Disney cartoon that did so well on release in the 1990s. Are you following so far? Essentially this is nothing more than a soulless cash-grab which attempts to replicate the first film's storyline to no good effect. This time around, we meet Mufasa as a young character and learn something of his background, but it's all entirely generic and bland, a story populated by caricatures and predictable plot beats. Some of the songs are remarkably bad - the "brother" one in particular grates - while the voice performances are ridiculous and the laboured comic relief incessant. Exactly the kind of mind-numbing Disney entertainment we can do without...

MOANA 2 is exactly the kind of sequel you'd expect them to make to MOANA, a mild breath of fresh air in the modern animation world for its engagement with South Pacific mythology and culture. I didn't mind MOANA too much despite the many detriments of the genre, but this unremarkable follow-up is a good example of how not to do a sequel. The plot sees the first film's characters go off on a quest to thwart a legendary figure, but it's all ho-hum, plotted by rote, and with none of the charm that made the first film so likeable. In addition, the numerous songs are so bland and predictable that it feels like they were created by AI, which they probably were.

GHOST SHARK is another bargain basement dud with a ridiculous premise capitalising on the insatiable public appetite for shark movies. This one begins with a redneck fishing trip that goes wrong when a shark is shotgunned to death before returning for revenge. The plot then shifts to a small town where the central characters find themselves being attacked by a creature that can spread through the water pipes, thus attacking people in the bath and the like. It's nonsensical stuff, badly acted throughout and with a script that does little more than join the dots, and of course the special effects are less than special.