Arnold's Christmas

     If there is one show on Nickelodeon I respect, it is Hey Arnold. While people on TVTropes complain about Arnold was flanderized until he was basically Kid Jesus, I do prefer the later seasons. While Arnold was flattened, others expanded, and he became the foil to everyone else, allowing him to mesh with any character or situation thrown at him, whether it be a bird-man, kid obsessed with chocolate, or a 30 year old man who doesn't know how to read. Hey Arnold doesn't look down on kids (too much) and is fairly enjoyable.

     The Hey Arnold Christmas special came out in the first season as the last episode (if the show gets canceled, end on a good note, as they say), and is one of the most memorable for me.

To start out, let me just say the first thing that popped into my head upon watching the special:

"Wow, this show has atmosphere."

Nowadays, shows are normally made with bright, pastel colors, with little variance in terms of lighting or camera angles. This is abundantly clear in the 3D shows based on movies, where the textures on the characters become smooth and plastic, and the time of day is always triple suns to make no shadows appear ever. But in the 1990's... People actually put a large amount of work into making the shows look good. They all had their styles, a special look to their animation... Now, we just have flash animation, and the only people really doing it right are the My Little Pony animation team.

But, now to summarize Arnold's Christmas:

Summary; skip if no care. 

A TL;DR will be at the bottom, but the insights gathered will not be repeated.

     The special begins with the fourth graders getting out of school for Christmas vacation (may have to do that one if I run out before December 24th...) and Helga is talking to Phoebe (Helga has a massive lisp for some reason...) about getting a lot of presents, while Phoebe gives the generic "It's about giving!" speech. (Yes it is about giving... but when you only get an allowance, you can't actually give. If you have some way of making money, THEN it is about giving. Unless you can't buy bread, in which case it is about being sent canned foods and turkeys by Student unions and National Honors Societies.)

     Helga then spots a flashy pair of boots made of leather and gold (You fools! It's silver and gold! Only the BDSM people like Leather and gold!) that apparently everygirl wants. No idea why, though Helga says that she has been dropping hints that she wants them to her parents (considering her personality, those hints might've been in the form of Anvils).

     We then cut to Arnold and Gerald, talking about presents, and pass by Helga, who goes into lyrical poetry about how she loves Arnold, and how she's going to profess that love through a flashy gift. (Talk to the boy; he's Jesus, he'll forgive the sin of stalking.)

     We then cut to the boarding house that Arnold lives at, and everyone is picking a secret Santa. Arnold gets Mr. Hyunn (pronounced Win, with a breathy W) who is from Vietnam... You can guess what the man's been through.

Arnold finds out that Mr. Hyunn tried to leave Vietnam during the war, but was unable to. A copter was taking refugees away from Vietnam and to America, but only one seat was left. So, Mr. Hyunn had them take his daughter Mai. The Solider told him where she would be, so that he may one day find her again. 20 Years later, he came to Arnold's city looking for her, to no avail.

     So, Arnold sets out to find his daughter for him, on Christmas eve. (Why the secret Santa went into effect on Christmas eve, I do not know.) So he goes to a local government information building to ask for help in looking her up (legality of looking up such information, I will not question at this time). To accomplish this, Arnold picks up the next quest in the chain, and does the shopping for a Department Supervisor, in exchange for his assistance. Unfortunately, he fails the quest, because of the boots Helga desires (dun dun dun).

     Helga ends up getting the boots from her parents, but she overheard Arnold talking about how he needed those boots to complete the quest and find Mai. She decides to give them to the Department Supervisor, and he does a search for Mai.

    Come Christmas Day, Mr. Hyunn is reunited with Mai, and all is good and joyous.

TL;DR

Arnold sets out to find a missing girl for his friend. he is on a time limit, and doesn't manage to accomplish it in time; but someone else intervenes with good will and everything is happy.

    This is probably one of the best TV Christmas specials I have seen. It isn't about Santa, and gifts actually play a relatively minor part, serving only to control the main plot. The focus is on reuniting a father and daughter separated by war. It isn't an original story, but it is a lot more powerful than the usual Christmas fare.

     Compare this to the SpongeBob special from yesterday; while that was fairly mean and too sugary, this is a lot more light hearted and sober, and has far more soul behind it.

     This story isn't perfect (nothing ever is) but I don't see anything that needs fixing in this special. It shall instead reside as a marker for quality Christmas specials.

    I've been focusing on Nickelodeon for a bit too long now me-thinks, time to move onto one of their rivals... Cartoon Network.

Sponge Bob Christmas Special

...
Spongebob Squarepants.
Just the name... the name has become a thing of hatred... To explain, let me go over a quick history of this... annoying character.

     Spongebob was created in 1999 after Nickelodeon's Rocko's Modern Life ended. It was about an every-man Sponge who was square, lived under the sea, and was eccentric. He has some friends like Sandy Cheeks who is a squirrel (and pretty much the only consistently sane character), Squidward who is a downer and probably an audience surrogate at this point, and a pink one we do not speak of. It lasted about 6 years, winning Emmys and kids choice awards, and was canceled in 2005, where they released what was assumed to be the final "lost" episode.
     But, then it was uncancelled, because Nickelodeon prefers to milk shows rather than let them die, much like all the other shows on the Nicktoons Christmas DVD released in 2003...
     Even before his cancellation, SpongeBob was a moron, and more than a little annoying. As time went on, he just got worse and worse... He became "Flanderized" (named after Flanders from Simpsons) which means his character was flattened to the point where the background is more interesting than him. All his friends experienced this as well, becoming dumber and crueler. (Then again, all American TV seems to be doing that. People somehow think being an asshole is funny.)

     I watched Spongebob as a kid. Hell, I knew every single episode! But, what does it say about a show when I say that I preferred Mystic Knights (a power rangers rip-off by the same company who made power rangers) to it? How about when I only had 4 episodes of Mystic Knights on VHS at the time DVDs were big? And no other access to the show beyond those 4 episodes?
     Yeah, I really don't like Spongebob. But, for the sake of figuring out why the hell we like Christmas specials, I am going to put aside my hatred for Spongebob, and analyze...

(Though seriously, don't watch SpongeBob. Go watch My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. At least it doesn't look down on kids. Hell, even the first generation of My Little Pony is at least better than watching this idiot!)

     The special begins when SpongeBob-
     No wait, the special begins with Patchy, the insane man-child fan of Spongebob who dresses like a very drunk Captain Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean.  He's the outer story, the man telling the story, and is an invention of the later SpongeBob seasons, most notably the "lost" episode. The best thing I can say about him is that he gave the double entendre, "There is nothing better than a Bikini-bottom Christmas!" (As long as it is the women wearing them, then yes. However I personally prefer a One Piece Christmas.)

     When the special finally gets underway, SpongeBob is going to sandy's to fight her with karate when he sees her activate her Christmas tree lights. This being foreign to him, he rushes in thinking there is a massive fire. Sandy then explains Christmas to the moron, but seems to neglect telling SpongeBob that Santa only comes when one is asleep, and that forcing the whole town to stay up late and singing Santa's praises doesn't work... But I'm getting ahead of myself. We learn that Sandy is either a young teenager or a Christian to be celebrating Christmas around people that have never heard of Christmas before (and therefore would not sell Christmas decorations for her to set up), and SpongeBob goes off to tell the town about how they bring trees inside and put lights outside their houses for Jesus, and how a fat man breaks and enters houses through non-existent chimneys and flies through the use of extremely heavy snow deer. (An image just popped into my head of Santa's sleigh being pulled by snow leopards, and his sleigh being a boat instead. Testosterone-Poisoning-HO!)
     Squidward claims that no one will bring him a gift simply because he sends them a letter (obviously he's never gone for scholarships before), and SpongeBob requests that Santa bring Christmas to Bikini Bottom. (I should just start writing a blog made up of double entendres to be made out of the name Bikini Bottom...)
     SpongeBob then invents a machine that shoots bottles up to the surface so Santa may receive the letters (Why people send the letters during December instead of during the year, I do not know. They work year-round, yet we send our orders in last-minute. Guy's gotta be hatin' December...). Patrick is a moron so his letter doesn't matter, and Mr Krabs gives the most reasonable Present request ever: a pony.
Then there is a long Montage of setting up for Christmas, and people asking for really weird presents that one cannot make, and then it goes to commercial.
     Once it gets back, Spongebob sends the last of the letters, and then freaks out because Squidward hasn't joined the Church of the Later Day Saints yet, and rushes to help him write a letter. Squidward declines, and forces Spongebob outside. Then the entire town of 20 people start singing how Santa is coming; until the morning, where upon discovering that Santa hasn't come, they all leave, calling SpongeBob a liar (He changed to the Westboro Baptist Church, so being a moron and a liar comes with the territory). Squidward then comes and rubs Spongebob's face in it, with the image of a Donkey super imposed over him.
Subtle.
     SpongeBob then gives Squidward the gift he was planning on giving him, which turns out to be a clarinet SpongeBob made at the last minute. Squidward feels like an ass for what he's done, and tries to make it up to the Sponge that torments him year-round. So he dresses up like Santa, and gives away everything he owns, and then the stress causes him to see Santa Claus in front of a green screen.
     The special ends with Patchy being assaulted by his puppet parrot, and thankfully the special ends...
   

... Why the hell did I put myself through that? I have zero respect for Spongebob, and yet I watched his special...
*sigh* alright, since I've already spent time doing this, let's begin repairing...

     First, the plot is way overdone; character doesn't believe in Santa, another does, the one who doesn't believe ends up playing Santa to make the other happy, and Santa comes in at the end to make everything happy. Disney did it way better in the original Mickey's Once-Upon a Christmas. Goofy and Max work more for this plot than SpongeBob and Squidward. Plus the animation is 100% better.
    Second, the special feels churned out, like no thought was really put into it. I never expected any thought to be put into it, but still. They basically just took Christmas themes and slapped some Spongebob skins over it.

     So, how to improve it... First, toss out the idea of it being the first Christmas. Make it so that everyone knows about and celebrates Christmas. Even Squidwards celebrates, but he doesn't decorate much. Instead of having a bland story about Santa, instead have it be where SpongeBob has run into money trouble, and is unable to pay his monthly payment for his home. Then have SpongeBob go around asking for help in paying for his home, but for one reason or another, people can't lend him money (make him not mention he needs to pay for his house). Then, someone figures out why SpongeBob was asking for money, and goes off to tell the others. The special ends with everyone coming and giving some money to SpongeBob so that he may spend Christmas at his home. (Think the ending scene for It's a Wonderful Life.)
     Why this story? Well, first because it has a little heart in it, even if that heart is stolen from something much greater than it. Second, it's to breathe some humanity into the characters, and some soberness into SpongeBob, which would help make it special compared to other SpongeBob episodes.
     However, though SpongeBob is still running, I do not wish for them to make another Christmas Special. I'd prefer it simply stop being made, so that we can begin repairing our children damaged by the poor quality of TV today.


Next however, is a special I have far more respect for.


Edit Long before posting: They have made another spongebob Christmas special. This time in the same veil as the Rankin Bass specials. I'm not touching it, and shall forever treat it as a pariah.

Santa Claus: The Movie

     26 years after Saint nicholas fought the devil, and 21 years after Santa Claus conquered the head-butting martians, the Big Lebowski defeated a greedy business man that wanted to make a sequel to Christmas. Though that sentence is incredibly strange, there probably will be stranger in the future.

     Yes, this movie exists; and guess what, it isn't half bad. It actually has a small cult following believe it or not. And I'll admit, it is pretty good. For a christmas movie I mean. You aren't going to want to watch it at any other point in time.

     And this holiday season, I have decided to look into a large number of holiday specials and movies, giving my take on them, how they could be improved, and coming to some conclusion as to why we have different standards for holiday movies and why we don't want to see them out of the month of December.

     To accomplish this goal, I shall be doing a review a day all the way to December 24th. How will I do this you may ask? Especially considering I have more important college classes and a finals week that should have my full, undivided attention? Simple: I'm cheating. I wrote this review in early October.

Without further adue, let's analyze.



     Santa Claus the movie starts out with the origin of Santa; not the idea or the original person, think Santa Claus is Coming to Town and you'll get an idea of what I mean by origin.
     Santa starts out as a regular man who likes to make toys out of wood for the children of his town/region. After he, his wife, and his reindeer (only 2 at that moment in time) get caught in a large snow storm, they are saved by a group of elves (that seem more like gnomes in design). The elves somehow make Santa and his wife immortal, but considering they are immortal themselves and can make night last as long as Santa needs to deliver the toys, it isn't worth buggering over.
     After several centuries of delivering toys, Santa is running himself haggard, and needs an assistant. He names a inventor elf named Patch as his assistant, and Patch constructs a machine that makes toys automatically. However, Patch forgets to do quality tests on the toys, and they start falling apart when the children start playing with them. Because of this, Patch goes into self-imposed exile, and travels to New York (what Christmas movies have against England and love about New York, I have no clue).
     There, he meets the manager of a toy company, who is so corrupt that he doesn't bat an eye at teddy bears filled with nails. Patch comes to him with the idea of candy that allows those who consume it to float... Though that isn't a smart idea considering it is really hard to burp without carbonated drinks, the candy is successful and proves popular. The executive, seeing the money opportunity, comes up with the idea of a second Christmas on March 25th.
     To make more money, they increase the formula used for the floating candy, which would make people fly if consumed, but it has the side effect of making the candy explode. The manager opts to take the money and run, but is found out and caught by the police. Patch then quickly takes the exploding candy to the North Pole, where he is then saved from dying by Santa.


Now with the summary out of the way, lets find the problems:

     The focus for the main character changes from Santa, to Patch, at about the first plot point. For a movie called "Santa Claus: The Movie," Santa plays a relatively minor role in the story. We learn his origins, he does some stuff, then we focus on Patch. Which makes sense; Santa is a stagnant character, he isn't going to change, and nothing is really going to happen to him. Patch however, can grow as a character. It is odd, but not worth tarrying for.

     The biggest problem I found was in the reaction of the individuals in the film to their situations. At numerous points in time, people act differently from what would think normal or logical:

• The Claus' are only slightly disoriented when they are told they will live forever, and that Santa will deliver toys to children all around the world. A normal person would be taken aback, and feel forced into a form of slavery, unless the choice was given to them.
• There are two children who get to meet Santa, and one of them even gets a ride in his sleigh; when the other children become angry about their broken toys from Santa, they place their anger on the two, and cite how the two are underprivileged orphans. The children wouldn't really believe the two normally, and if by some chance they did believe them, then they wouldn't be beating the two up because of the broken toys. 

     However, there is one point where the character's reaction is perfect, and is probably one of the best scenes I have ever seen. 

     I would love to go into detail of the scene, but I don't want to ruin it by telling it in the form of text. Go watch the movie on Netflix instant, if only to see why Patch goes into exile.
     Beyond that, the special does have some heart in it, and I can't find too much fault in it. It is fine as-is, and I doubt anyone will try to remake it.


Next time however, is something truly despicable...

Rise of the Guardians

Well, as promised, I have a short recommendation for Rise of the Guardians. I say recommendation, because I won't give a full review of it right now. I will give one a month from now, to allow the film to gestate, and allow more avenues of improving the movie to be considered. But, for now, here's some thoughts on it.



     Dreamworks seems to have found it's niche. Making movies that Pixar wouldn't consider, making them focused on kids, but not talking down to them.
     Rise of the Guardians is no How to Train Your Dragon; it has moments that weaken it, that are more for young kids than higher age groups... But it is still quite fun and enjoyable.
     It's rating on Rotten Tomatoes, 73%, sounds about right. It is a solid C movie. Miles ahead of Brave though (another C movie).

     If Wreck It Ralph is still in theatres and you haven't seen it, go see it first. If it isn't, and you still want to see an animated movie, Rise of the Guardians is good enough to entertain you.
     Children will probably enjoy this movie a lot (along with parents), so I recommend it for families.
     Individuals who are looking for a good movie to see and don't care what it is, go see Skyfall or something; unless you are a kid, a parent, or a fan of animation, you won't be as entertained.
     However, don't mistake my distant praise of the movie for dislike; I do like it, and I really want it to succeed. This definitely seems like a movie that would make a great series, functioning as Dreamwork's money machine without resorting to idiocy (Shrek series... The Madagascar series...). Hopefully it will also prevent other movies from falling by the wayside (They are planning a sequel to How to Train your Dragon. My hopes are not high, rather they are rife with fear about how they may defile the original movie for me. Similar to how Brave and Monster University did the same with Pixar. But hey, Dreamworks already has a low reputation...).


TL;DR: Rise of the Guardians is good, go see it if you have kids to entertain. If alone with no interest in animated films, don't bother.



This has been Fixer Sue, putting off a review until December.

An outsider's view on the Horror genre and Jump Scares

     I am not a fan of horror movies. At all. In case it was hard to tell, me favorite movies are Animated, which tend to be adventure, fantasy, or comedy based, never horror. I don't even particularly like blood, so I am not one to nitpick when an animated film lacks realistic battle-damage. But horror... To me it is just a get rich quick scam; film a movie in low lighting with bad editing and almost no story line, where all the budget was placed in gore, and loud noises.
     When I ask fans of horror films why they like it, the more eloquent among them will explain that it is the adrenaline, akin to a roller coaster... (coincidentally, I hate roller coasters.)
     But, not being a fan of the horror genre doesn't mean I can't understand them. I know how they work. Granted, most of my knowledge comes second hand, but there is more than one conclusion I can draw from seeing people's reactions.
     So, I'd like to give an outsider's view on the Horror genre, and the plague that is Jump Scares.


     To discuss this topic, I'll be focusing on one series in particular: Slenderman.
     Slenderman is a creation of the image boards of the internet, and is known as a "Creepy Pasta." (Origin of the phrase ranges from "Copy Pastea" where something is copied and then pasted repeatedly, to just being a silly name.) It is about a tall, faceless man in a suit with tentacles. Generally he can't be seen, and can only be caught on Camera. When he is on Camera, he causes distortions, and makes editing go awry. He tends to drive those who see him insane, and is followed by other horrors (which I will not cover because I do not know enough about them.) He's basically Cthulhu, but without the wings or maelstrom.
     Now, there are two versions of Slenderman: The one from Marble Hornets and Everyman Hybrid, and the one from the video game Slender. These two are distinct for a reason.
     First, we'll cover the Slender version of Slenderman. In the game, you have a narrow field of vision, and are going around an enclosed park looking for papers with cryptic phrases about Slenderman. Creepy, and in line with the story... until Slenderman actually appears. Slenderman appears with a scare chord and screen static, in the form of a jump scare. If you continue looking at him, you lose. If he catches up to you and you see him, you lose. He's a bit like the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, or the Boo's in Mario, but with the reverse (looking at him is bad, looking away is good).
     Next, there is the Slenderman from Marble Hornets and Everyman Hybrid, two video series built around the stories. In both video series, a guy or group of guys are creating a movie/tv series, often with stylistic suck. Slenderman in those sometimes appears in the background; not doing anything. There are a couple distortions, but sometimes he just stands there and nothing happens. Sometimes it's even humorous, with one theory being that Slenderman just wants to be in the movie/on TV, especially so in the comedy video "Concrete Giraffes" by the creator of Yugioh the Abridged Series, where Slenderman even speaks and went to college with one of the main characters. But, it's the interpretation that is more interesting here. Is he evil? Or is he Benevolent? We never know, we just have him standing in the background, causing audio and visual errors, doing nothing...
     Can you guess which one I have more respect for? The jump scares which are guaranteed to make people scream, or the guy in a suit doing nothing in the background and is sometimes funny?
     The Latter. Why? Because you aren't afraid of Slenderman in Slender; you're afraid of the noise, the distortions, and the game over that comes with seeing him. It isn't him you're afraid of. In Marble Hornets and Everyman Hybrid however, while there are jump scares (can't avoid them...) they aren't the reason to fear Slenderman. Nothing is scarier. With nothing  you don't know what he's going to do, when he's going to do it, or if he will at all... It is anticipation, foreboding, and the unknown that drives the fear of Slenderman.

     I could make the same argument with pretty much any film, tv, or game series, I just chose to do Slenderman because of this fact:
     Slenderman is no longer a cult phenomena. He is now mainstream, because of Slender the game. The reason for this, is because of "Let's Players" (people who play video games and commentate on them for entertainment) promoting it, since watching people scream is apparently hilarious. But, because Slenderman is now mainstream, everyone connects it to the game, and not the series... I realize I sound like a complete hipster while saying this, but Slenderman was something that, though I didn't really like, I respected on an intellectual level, and when he became mainstream, I lost that respect. It was no longer a psychological horror akin to the Cthulhu Mythos, it was the jack-in-a-boxes from Elf.

     And that brings me to the Horror genre today... It isn't about actual fear, it is about having loud noises and a lot of gore.

     "How would you make a horror film then?" a staunch 'horror' enthusiast may ask...
     Simple. In the previous post, I mentioned a possible plot for James Bond, where no one was able to open the doors... That is exactly the kind of horror plot that could be done. Take away some aspect of life that we take completely for granted, and there is horror and fear to be found in there. Like what would happen if all the power in the world went out? What if Gravity was reversed? What if all the computers and electronics in the world came to life? It is perfectly possible to make a horror film that doesn't revolve around jump scares and gore; it just takes half a brain and the willingness to make something of quality, rather than feeding the mindless machine that is Horror fans.



This has been Fixer Sue, reminding you that my name means "One who fixes perceived problems."

Skyfall

... This movie... This is like Brave, but in Live-action. I don't mean storywise, I mean reaction wise... When I first went in and watched it, I enjoyed it, and thought it was a good movie. I'm no real fan of the Bond films, but it was enjoyable. But, after actually thinking on the movie for a bit I realized that there were actually quite a few things that now make me think otherwise...


     From this point on, there will be spoilers.


     The first thing that gave me pause in the film was when they had the badguy captured, and were trying to decrypt his codes. I don't care so much that their portrayal of hacking wasn't realistic, having a screen display a sort of spider-web of code instead of just thousands of lines of information, rather I care about how they go about decrypting it...They know the villain to be a manipulative bastard, and yet are trying to decrypt the code while being connected to M16. No shit he snuck a code in there to open all the doors! I'm just shocked he didn't blow up the entire building once the code was decrypted!

     That's another thing; the villain blows up the office of the head of MI6. He does this by hacking into the building, and turning on the gas... One, why is such a thing connected to the internet? This is not Megaman nt Warrior, we do not have personal AIs to go into machines and kill anthropomorphized viruses, not everything is connected to the internet. Two, why do they have gas anyway? It is the 21st century, we have these things called fans, radiators, heaters... Why would they have gas anywhere but the garage and possibly the weapons lab?

     That's another thing also; the villain is a super hacker. He claims at one point to be able to crash the stock market, with just a couple keystrokes. But, he doesn't do that. Instead of being a cyber terrorist, he focuses on hurting MI6 and it's leader... Sure, he has a personal vendetta, but wouldn't the idea of someone's world crumbling around them be better than just menacing them?

     Consider this: what if instead of turning on the gas that is connected to the internet for some reason, he controls the doors of MI6? He's shown to be able to open all the doors, so keeping them closed would've been just as easy. Consider how many doors you walk through in a day; what if you were no longer able to open these doors? You'd probably be stuck in a room with no food, and if the room is hermetically sealed with regulated air supply (like there would be in a weapons development area) you'd probably run out of oxygen. That's an idea out of a horror or sci-fi story, yet is entirely plausible when doors can be opened and sealed via a computer.
     Rather than Bond trying to find the villain to retrieve a list of agents, it could instead be Bond racing against the clock to free MI6. Meanwhile, the villain is forcing the boss of MI6 to watch as her people die around her, with her powerless to stop it. He wouldn't get his desired "satisfaction" from killing her (really, the dude's a sociopath. after killing her he'd probably just have started setting the world on fire) but he would get to watch her torment.
     Changing the plot to that would've removed a lot of the problems revolving around the hacking and the insane planning. It isn't necessarily Bond-like, but it is a more believable plot, with less contrivances.

     Speaking of contrivances... At the end, the Boss and some guy we meet in the last 20 minutes are escaping Bond's home, Skyfall (yeah, kind of a let down. Was expecting it to be a botched mission or something... not the name of Bond's childhood home.), and the guy is dumb enough to be waving around his flashlight, as if to say, "Here we are! Come kill us!" Oy...
     Oh, and you know that gun Bond gets in all the preivews? one that they make such a big deal about? Bond never fires it. In fact, it is never fired at all. It is a Chekov's gun that fires off by not firing off, as absolutely insane as that sounds. Complete let down. The tiny radio was more useful than that gun...

     Oh, to bring this up again (and as a way of showing what the movie did wrong) the list of the undercover agents all over the world, that plot thread disappears entirely after the badguy is captured. It is never brought up again, and never considered. It is a true-blue MacGuffin. A useless item to be sought after simply because the plot demands it.

     And just one last note... This movie feels padded by about 30 minutes. This is because the end sequence feels a bit like it is happening after the big climactic battle. The badguy interrupts the hearing about the missing files, and attempts to kill the Boss, only to be stopped by the agents and Bond. There is also a very brief, Blink-and-you-miss-it-but-is-brought-up-later scene where the guy who is going to replace the Boss intercepts the bullet that was meant for her. This entire scene feels like it should've been the end of the badguy, and the wrapping up of subplots... But nope, we need to trek across the country to Bond's old home, so that they can kill him. THEY COULD'VE DONE THE SAME WITH A GAS ROOM AT A REMOTE LOCATION. They didn't need to go to Bond's home to set up a trap! They set up crumbs for the badguy to follow, and he followed them like a lemming! Sure you wouldn't get to kill the Boss that way, but if you're going to contrive circumstances just so that the Boss will die, you could have done so 30 minutes before hand!

One last nit pick... Where does the bad guy hire his goons? Do they have lives, families, friends outside their job? Did he clone them with her computer skills? Why does no one want to explain why the badguy always has mooks?!


*sigh* Skyfall is a popcorn movie. You'll enjoy it while watching it, but you won't want to see it again. If you like Bond films, go watch it. If you enjoy random action like in the Furious 5 movies, go watch it. If you like deep, intricate plots that make perfect rational sense even after watching them, go read Death Note.

This has been Fixer Sue. Don't be surprised if a week from Friday I'm gushing about Rise of the Guardians; also don't be surprised if I'm actually raging about Rise of the Guardians, it could go either way now.

Wreck-it Ralph

YOU DID IT DISNEY! Welcome back to the top! We missed you dearly!

Wreck-it Ralph is fantastic! Go see it! If you like video games at all, go see it! if you like animation, go see it! If you like being annoyed by little kids while at the movie, you're insane!

     Wreck-it Ralph is expertly written... It is a little slow at the beginning, but after the first 10 minutes or so, it picks up speed and becomes excellent.

     This movie... it is a little hard to describe. I want to say it's like Pixar at it's best, but this is better... It's like it broke off from being a film solely for kids, and became something much more enjoyable. I would almost describe it as a Dreamworks movie, but it has a massive amount of heart behind it...
     This movie feels like Disney. Disney at it's best.

     I can barely find anything negative to say about the film, let alone anything to fix. (Apart from the whole thing about big-names like Sonic and Eggman on covers of the posters, when they only have 30 seconds of screen time at most.) The only thing I can possibly say is that the relationship between Felix and Calhoun feels a bit forced... But that's small potatoes compared to how well all the other characters are written.

     Unlike Pixar's Brave, I want to get this movie on DVD & Blu-ray the day it comes out, hell maybe possibly go see this movie in 3D while it is still in theatres.
     I know it seems like I should say more, but I don't want to spoil the movie in any way.




     This is looking to be a good month; Wreck-it Ralph is brilliant, and Rise of the Guardians is coming out on the 21st. So while people are scurrying to buy all the black-Friday deals, I'll be watching Dreamwork's latest... And because it's black Friday  I may even get to have an empty theatre! :D However, a review for it will not appear for a while... You'll see come December.
    Though I am so happy to see Disney doing great again, I can't discount Dreamworks too much. One of the previews was a Dreamworks movie I hadn't heard of; The Croods. So far, it looks like Brave's female characterization done right, with Journey to the Center of the Earth done right as well. The best part: the designs. They didn't try to make them be attractive for the sake of being attractive, the characters look more like actual cavemen. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

     Then there is Pixar... it seems to almost like dragging it's name in the mud now. They are re-releasing Monsters Inc in 3D. The cash cow goes Moo, and then prints money. The only film so far that looks like it has a shadow of a hope for Pixar, is "The Untitled Pixar movie that takes you inside the mind." Set for release in 2015.
     Unless that movie is one of the trippiest things ever and just basically goes all out on creating something not seen in animation ever before, there isn't likely to be a winner from Pixar for a couple years... Get off your cash cattle Pixar, and start trying to find your name again.


But, to end on a happier note...

This has been Fixer Sue fanboying over the latest animated movie.