Lurker > PrinceKaro

Wordle 225 4/6






Pearl
Round
Grunt
Wrung

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 317
Evillord: 311
Johnbobb: 236
Red: 228
Inviso: 217
Karo: 195

12. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

Evillord: 3
Karo: 4
Inviso: 7
Johnbobb: 27
Ermine: 27
Red: 34

Total: 102

Evillord: I thought this was great. The ideas about growing up and clashing aesthetics were a good way to continue examining the premise of the first film, there were parts that really captured the feeling of being a kid playing with your siblings, and I laughed more at this than any other movie on this list. The Lego-based animation is a joy to watch and it's full of energy and life. I went into this with low expectations so it was probably the biggest surprise of the marathon. It reminded me why I enjoyed watching the first Lego movie so much.

Karo: This sequel expands on the lego world by asking the question of what would happen if more than one god-child was in control of the universe. So Bricksburg, which is now a post apocalyptic Mad Max wasteland, comes under attack from the forces of Sistar, a sparkly land of cuteness and pop music.
Sistar (where most of the movie takes place) feels new and different and helps to keep the sense of wonder that permeated its predecessor from dispersing. This is the rare sequel that doesn't just feel like a rehash of the first movie and it feels like it actually deserves to exist from this one simple fact.
There are plot twists, there are hidden antagonists, there is Emmett facing his dark side (literally), and there are full blown musical numbers. Yes, it is a musical now, and is everything you would hope a lego musical would be with singing about dating Batman and villain songs about not being a villain.
Though the curtain has been pulled back on the true nature of the lego world, it doesnt make it any less charming. The story of the two sibling gods, their conflict and eventual reconciliation though the strength of their love, is mega feels central and the heart of the movie.
I don't know if I would want to see a third part, but this second part at least was very enjoyable and a worthy addition to the lego universe.

Inviso: Full disclosure, Lego Movie 1 is perhaps my favorite animated film of all time (it topped my Western animation list the first time around), so having its sequel on this list is almost a double-edged sword for Lego Movie 2. On the one hand, its the same characters (for the most part), and a reasonable continuation of the plot from the first movie, which manages to retain a great deal of what made the first film so great. However, it doesnt QUITE land as well as the original movie, largely because the first movie was very much a meta-comedy. There was a lot of humor regarding the properties featured, and revolving around Lego themselves. Theres SOME meta-humor in Part 2, but I feel like the film really focused on going the musical route more than the comedy route, and the comedy is a bit more standard than the first film. It still winds up good, because the songs play well into the plot (even if the plot feels cobbled together), and the concept of the plot (brother and sister fighting, which creates a war of the worlds until Mom gets involved) is a solid one. Its a fun movie, but its always going to be compared to the original, which is rough for Part 2, thats all.

Johnbobb: This is basically the "sequels not as good as the originals section of the list" and I'm running out of things to say about them. The Lego Movie was great. The Lego Batman movie was great in similar and different ways. The Lego Movie 2: More Christ Pratt Than Anyone Asked For is just ok, and largely just kinda retreads the first, but in a way that is ultimately less memorable or fun.

Ermine: I didn't like the first Lego movie that much and I like this one even less. The one thing I hated most about the first Lego movie was the live action sequences. Like... I get it, I just think the acting is actually godawful and cringeworthy. It's dialed up to eleven in this one and it's like... oh my god, PEOPLE WOULD NOT ACT LIKE THIS. THEY DON'T SAY THE THINGS THESE HUMANS ARE SAYING, FUCK OFF!

Getting away from the live action sequences, Batman feels so forced sometimes and rarely does he say anything that actually makes me laugh. The Queen is a terrible character and I hate her. There are a few moments that are enjoyable... mainly the credits sequence which was actually pretty cool... but do I get to count that?

Red: There is a recurring theme of sequels in this list where they want to use the same marketable characters but be in a completely different world to make as little reference to the prior movies as possible. That is the Lego Movie 2 but it is possibly the worst in this regard as well the universe has basically been completely blown up none of these characters would have any value if you didn't know them from the first movie. And knowing them from the first movie is only useful to see how much they've killed their personalities to make pretty much everyone less likeable. Also with the twist from the first movie hanging over this things ugly head from the start the way the movie ends is basically written in bold letters right from the start. Everybody share yay happy happy fun times what a great original message we've got here.

Wordle 224 5/6







Heart
Pious
Found
Mould
Could

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 302
Evillord: 302
Inviso: 212
Johnbobb: 221
Red: 206
Karo: 187

:O

13. Missing Link

Karo: 5
Inviso: 15
Ermine: 17
Red: 19
Evillord: 25
Johnbobb: 29

Total: 110

Karo: The latest film from underappreciated yet stellar stop-motion studio Laika. The story is about a self-absorbed British adventurer and the naive and surprisingly civilized Sasquatch he ends up on a mutually beneficial journey with.
The characterization is so strong that even this less than original plot shines like a star. You could literally have a story where they just go shopping at the supermarket and it would still be hilarious. Add in the amazing dialogue and comedic timing through the film and you have yet another winner from this studio. At least quality wise.
The fact that such a witty animated comedy flopped at the box office says volumes about the sheer stupidity of the American people and their unwillingness to do anything but to suckle on the comforting teat of tradition and repetitive safe rehashes.
I sincerely hope that Laika can continue to survive as a studio, they have a unique vision that would be a shame to lose, lest we end up with nothing in the animated scene but Hotel Transylvania 7: Vampires in Space and Toy Story 12: Please God Make it Stop.

Inviso: Aside from Boxtrolls, Laika has been very solid in their delivery of quality films over the years. That being said, while this is still a strong effort, this stands out as a lower tier than films like Coraline, ParaNorman, and Kubo. I thinks just the subject matter lends itself to some creepier and less visually-appealing designs than we got in those other movies. Plus a LITTLE too much immature humor, given the monstrous nature of the titular Missing Link. Its still a solid movie though, and Id put it in my good tier, as opposed to an acceptable movie. I liked the comparison between Frost and Susan, both trying to find acceptance with groups that want nothing to do with them. And Stenk served well as a weasely, recurring antagonist that never quite had enough of a bite to ruin his comedic potential as a character. Really, the main thing I think would have made the film better would be the removal of Adelina, who feels like shes there just to have a female character, rather than because she serves a decent purpose.

Ermine: Pretty decent movie all things considered. Characters were interesting and likeable and the style/animation worked. Well... other than all of the animals in the movie. Every animal's eyes were WAY too close together and made them look so goofy and weird. Most of the humans has pretty close together eyes as well but it didn't look off.

Pretty predictable all things considered though, could tell exactly how the movie was going to go from like the five minute mark. Still decent fun.

Red: Society of snobby people denies existence of easily found legend or something. Despite the rather underwhelming introduction for most of our characters the plot of finding the home of the yetis and the yetis turning out to be just as much of a bunch of jerks as the humans are was kind of interesting. A lot of the movie is a bit long winded but on this list being a bit more of an original non-sequel is enough to carry it pretty far, even if our characters are ultimately all a little flat.

Evillord: I didn't think there would be two movies in this project about bringing a cryptid to the Himalayas, but maybe that just speaks to how formulaic the scripts in children's animated movies tend to be. I liked the main character in this one though. Laika movies often make up for weaker stories with awesome stop motion animation, and thats true here, though I didn't think it was as mind-blowing as Kubo.

Johnbobb: No more yeti movies for a while. It's not bad, but goddamn there are three yeti movies on this fucking list, and of those three, Missing Link is the one I cared least about.

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 298
Evillord: 290
Inviso: 210
Johnbobb: 205
Red: 200
Karo: 179

14. Raya and the Last Dragon

Red: 6
Karo: 8
Ermine: 19
Inviso: 20
Johnbobb: 23
Evillord: 36

Total: 112

Red: I really want to like this movie more than I do but I also don't want to excuse the movie wholly because it feels like the film on the list most impacted by the pandemic. This is a weird step down from typical Disney animation these days, backgrounds can be found to be a little plain, attention to detail is light, and it just feels inconsistent. Again, pandemic troubles, but at the end of the day pandemic or not it is what it is. We've got a couple of leads that are frustratingly stubborn, dragons with an animation style that is just slightly out of place with the world around them. I still very much enjoyed it, everything is just slightly flawed. Also I will forever be angry that they somehow forgot to put cats in Fang. The entire introduction to Fang was about how it was the city of fearsome cats and then you get to Fang and they didn't animate in a single cat. Again, pandemic, but still a frustrating lack of attention to detail that Disney doesn't usually miss. It is particularly grating when it is the climax of the movie.

Karo: A kung fu princess sets off on a journey to find the last dragon in order to heal the world so it is no longer Mad Max beyond Thailand.
However, the dragon in question is 'not really the best dragon', and thus the heroes must journey to the five kingdoms named after pieces of dragon anatomy to find all the magic crystals that will level Sisu up. After acquiring assorted Dreamworks characters, Raya finally has to face her arch nemesis and they all discover the magic of friendship and found the land of Kumbyadra.
Character wise, Raya and Sisu are both excellent, but everyone else not so much. The supporting crew of dipshits is no big loss, but the villain being this underdeveloped 'Dark Raya' is what really hurts. The story of her journey to the light is meaningless if we never get to know her beyond 'oh hey will the bitch with the bad haircut stab Raya in the back again'.
There is a regrettable lack of polish to the story, and the film kind of trips over its own message by repeatedly showing anyone that shows the slightest bit of trust getting immediately betrayed for the lulz.
The film is visually beautiful in the manner of Disney's recent offerings and the world they create is very vibrant and compelling. It just feels like we are racing from one place to another at breakneck speed trying to cram five whole kingdoms into a runtime of under two hours. I think it might have made a better miniseries instead of a movie, where we could explore the setting and characters further than we did here.
Still, it is quite enjoyable, and certainly preferable to more damn sequels.

Ermine: Hoo boy, where do we start with this one? The movie looks incredible and the style is awesome but that miiiiight be the most praise I give it? The overall story and lore are points in its favor as well.

The characters... Sisu in particular... man did they miss the mark. Elsa, the My Little Pony dragon is one of the most frustrating and annoying characters of this decade and I'm surprised at how many people can put up with her. If she was just annoying... it would be serviceable... but god her character sucks as well.

"Blah blah blah, you need to trust people more! Like me!"... she says this AS she gets tricked for being too fucking trusting and making things harder for everyone.

SHE SAYS THIS AS SHE GETS HERSELF KILLED BY NAMAARI BECAUSE SHE'S BEING TOO TRUSTING.

And then the movie has the gall to say that it's Raya's fault because she's wasn't trusting enough.

Go fuck yourself movie. Go fuck yourself for the message you were trying to send because good lord you did it in the worst and stupidest way possible that made absolutely no sense. Sisu was an idiot and ruined everything for everyone there. Not Raya. Well, Namaari is to blame too, but we knew how she would react. There was no god damned reason that Sisu should continue to be this trusting after she was literally tricked like 30 minutes earlier. It's absolutely mind blowing to me that they are trying to send the message that Raya was in the wrong here.

Despite these massive issues that completely bring down this movie, there's still a decent amount of fun to it.

Also... what happened to the cats that were in the Fang tribe in the first third of the movie? They were completely removed from every scene after a while. Did they forget that the tribe had a bunch of cats? What happened here LOL?

Inviso: Ah, the movie that got Lindsey Ellis cancelled. This feels like a good spot for it, because its not amazing, and it doesnt really do anything that different or unique, but its also not actively terrible or anything like that. I will say that I hate Sisu, which is kind of a major make-or-break character given that shes half of the movies title, but when Sisus not being wacky and trying to be your standard goofy sidekick, I guess shes not TERRIBLE. The message of trust over division is one we really need, especially in the modern sociopolitical climate, and though the plot was a little bit formulaic, I did appreciate that it didnt go IMMEDIATELY to Sisu is always right, trust everyone and youll be fine. The scene where the old lady tried to extort Sisu with threats of death was much needed, just to build up the struggles of trust in the world. It made the eventual breakthrough feel that much more earned. I just wish Sisu was a lot less annoying, and the plot took some more risks like that.

Johnbobb: I'm completely torn on this. On the one hand, Raya is great, Namaari is great, and the story of their friendship turned bitter rivalry in the midst of an ancient magical apocalypse makes for an excellent animated film on its own. Really just top tier Disney. BUT then they throw in an MLP-knockoff-looking dragon that doesn't fit the art style of the rest of the movie, voiced by Awkwafina at her worst, with some of the least funny lines I've ever heard in a Disney movie, and it drags the entire thing down.

Evillord: God, this movie was boring. It was really just going through the motions for the entire run time. The plot is basically just Trolls World Tour with the roles reversed, but somehow less entertaining. I liked the idea of Raya and Naamari having crushes on each other but being enemies, but I didn't really think they did anything good with that.

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 293
Evillord: 268
Inviso: 204
Johnbobb: 196
Red: 192
Karo: 173

15. Onward

Karo: 10
Inviso: 14
Red: 17
Johnbobb: 21
Evillord: 22
Ermine: 29

Total: 113

Karo: So basically the whole thing is that this movie used to take place in a cool fantasy rpg world, but everyone became lazy and forgot how to do magic, and Dungeons & Dragons material is basically history books now.
These two elf brothers acquire some old magic shit and use it to try and bring their dead dad back to life, but they resurrect their father's ass and nothing else. This leads to a race against time to find the magcuffin they need to complete the spell before papa needs to use the restroom.
Sure it is the same old two dudes who end up on an arbitrary journey shtick, and the protagonists immediately scream out Buzz and Woody's high school years, but it is how they use the scenario and characters that really make this film shine.
The two brothers are the heart and soul of this movie, and seeing their relationship deepen over the course of the story is what really makes this movie special.
There are plenty of nerdy visual gags peppered about, including an epic encounter with a Gelatinous Cube that will certainly make D&D fans cheer.
It just goes to show that Pixar is still a talented studio when they aren't making uninspired sequels, and while in this film they may have rolled a natural 1 on an imagination check, they still scored a critical hit upon my heart.

Inviso: First off, is Chris Pratt just in EVERYTHING now? Not only do we have the news about Mario and Garfield, but Id forgotten just how prominent he is in several films on this list that have already come out. Second, while Onward is low tier by Pixar standards, thats still pretty solid overall. Its a film that at least FEELS like a unique concept (road trip movie about two brothers trying to spend one last day with their dead dad), and on paper, the main character gets a decent growth arc over the course of the film (gaining confidence as he embraces his wizard status, and general learning to appreciate his brother). The film is a BIT heavy-handed at times, or at least its a bit on the nose in a few instances, but overall, I feel like it nails the emotional element, and the ending feels deserved (getting to see his dad was never Ians reward, but rather Barleys for helping Ian grow as a person over the years). Its definitely not a masterpiece, but I appreciate it for trying to be different and unique.

Red: An original movie from Pixar? This is going to be great, right. This might be the most disappointing movie on the list. I don't even really want to call it bad, but it really feels like a very generic brother roadtrip movie. They wanted to try to do the pixar tug at your heart with the dad but on that front it was telegraphed fairly hard and ends up as mostly a miss. A unique world thats a mix of fantasy and reality ends up mostly underutilized, being used for plot convenience but with very little expansion beyond that. You are left with characters that just aren't very memorable and while I appreciate an original movie on a list like this, can't help but feel like the movie was a big miss and wasted potential.

Johnbobb: I remember seeing the initial trailer for this a couple years ago and thinking... "meh." It looked pretty uninspired, tbh. Things like the unicorns in place of raccoons, the people replaced by orcs or whatever, but it otherwise looked like a generic coming-of-age tween movie with a light fantasy skin on top. Once I actually saw it though-- yeah, ok, it still is kinda mostly just that, but it's not all bad. The relationship between the two brothers was surprisingly moving, with the different experiences of loss being the focus, delving into the not-insignificant difference between losing a parent you loved dearly and losing a parent you never got the chance to know. It's a dichotomy I've rarely if ever seen in movies, and the type of emotional chord I expect from a Pixar film, even if the rest of the movie didn't quite live up to it.

Evillord: This movie gets a lot of justifiable flak for having a formulaic plot, but it was fun to watch and pretty good in the fine details. I liked the dragon fight and the dad being only legs was used really well.

Ermine: I just gave a huuuuuge ass yawn before starting the write up for this.

I think that's all I need to say.

Mantis
Rocket

Wordle 223 4/6






Cheat
Pried
Perks
Perky

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 279
Evillord: 261
Inviso: 203
Johnbobb: 190
Red: 190
Karo: 168

16. Loving Vincent

Evillord: 10
Karo: 13
Ermine: 13
Johnbobb: 22
Inviso: 29
Red: 32

Total: 119

Evillord: As this film makes sure you know in the opening, every frame was hand-painted in a style based on Van Gogh's, which did end up being really cool. The narrative is structured quite similarly to Citizen Kane, with someone else hearing conflicting stories of Vincent's life after he's already gone. It was quite intriguing and captivating to watch, with a nice emotional payoff in the end.

Karo: In a quest to deliver Vincents final letter, a man interacts with various subjects of Van Gogh paintings and discusses the life and death of the great artist.
How the movie so vividly captures the soul of the eccentric painter without even showing him save for a few brief flashbacks is quite amazing,
The film is visually stunning to the extreme, and can be called no less than a miraculous feat of animation. Just thinking about how an individual detailed painting had to be created for every fucking frame is absolutely mind boggling.
It is a film as unique as its subject, and one that pushes the limits of what can be done with the art of animation.

Ermine: This one surprised me a bit by the amount I enjoyed it. I won't say it's a favorite of mine in the slightest, but as the movie went on, I found myself more invested in the story and characters. I enjoyed the different art styles and animation employed throughout the film and thought it was just overall a mostly enjoyable watch. Not particularly my thing... but still was alright, to say the least.

Johnbobb: If this ranking was solely based on how impressive and innovative the films were from an artistic perspective, Loving Vincent would easily be near the top. As it is, the movie is a gorgeously and uniquely animated depiction of an altogether dull and unmoving true story that really could've been told in a much better way.

Inviso: This wasnt the most interesting film Ive watched on this list, and the first half is definitely rough going to get through. However, I think the back half really picks up and manages to balance out the dullness. I dont know why the son of a postal worker gets QUITE so emotionally invested into the death of a random artist (who I dont believe wouldve been famous or beloved at the time). But that investment carries the film, because it adds an element of mystery. Suddenly, its not just a slow posthumous biopic about Vincent van Gogh (which, Im sorry, but this is not as good as Vincent and the Doctor), but rather a murder mystery with multiple suspects, and an investigation into what drove Vincent to kill himself, or DID he actually kill himself? The plot just kept unraveling again and again, bringing new suspects into the mix and new circumstances, and it made for an intriguing endgame, even if it took a long time to get that far.

Red: You want a movie that drags itself out and probably could have been done in half the runtime? This is the epitome of that. On top of that, most plot lines are left without much fulfillment and the movie doesn't really know what it wants to be. Are we a murder mystery? No not really. Is the main character going to end up important? No not really. Are any of the side characters going to develop much? No not really. Anything that might have hooked you ends completely unfulfilling and while the art style is a neat attempt to be unique, it cant save what is a weak and ultimately completely dull plot.

Johnbobb posted...

The most annoying thing was probably the rabbit romance side-story, which was just completely unnecessary (and inevitable, the moment I saw that they had weirdly feminized the girl rabbit)

it wasnt any more unnecessary than anything else in moon land, and was at least cute

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 276
Evillord: 255
Inviso: 190
Johnbobb: 184
Red: 174
Karo: 165

Inviso: I dont know why this one annoyed me as much as it did, but here we are. I feel like this is one of those movies that is very much written for children, without necessarily expecting the parents to glean anything from itbut rather than have a lot of poop humor or whatever, this goes the route of having a fuckton of unnecessary, cutesy filler. Over the Moon is all over the place in both story and tone. The open segment features multiple songs in the style of a Disney princess movie, but the setting is in modern-day China. And that is annoying, but it could work if it maintained that theme throughout the filmbut it doesnt. Once the main character travels to the moon kingdom, where such a whimsical atmosphere would be more welcomethats when we get a modern pop diva concert number, followed by a ping pong rap battle. Its just so bizarre, and thats what I mean when I say the movie has these abrupt tonal shifts.

Then theres the plot. The basic premise is fine: little girl is upset that her dad is meeting a new woman who might replace her dead mom. Because of this, she wants to build a rocket ship to travel to the moon, to prove that her mothers old fairy tales are true. Im willing to let that slide, despite the inanity, because it might just be a cultural thing. Ultimately though, its part of the problem, because you build this girl up as a genius, whos able to build a rocket ship in the first place, and that character trait is almost WILDLY unexplored during the course of the film. It feels like Fei Fei ONLY has this intelligence as a plot convenience to explain her ability to reach the moon. Thats literally the only purpose it serves.

Also, were introduced to Fei Feis obnoxious, future step-brotherand he sneaks aboard her ship, screwing up the calculations. This character has no reason to exist in the plot of the film. He offers nothing and is completely disconnected from the main character. Yet for SOME REASON, despite being separated from almost the moment they arrive in the moon kingdom, the ending comes with the main character having learned to accept this little brother character. MAYBE shes more tolerant by being around the annoying space dog, but thats not a worthy instance of character growth and development. Really, she shouldve been saddled with him through the entire moon section of the movie, slowly growing to realize that he (and by extension, his mother) arent so bad. This would go a long way to making BOTH characters more likable, as they currently are not.

So yeah, this was a rough watch, and it very much felt like one of those films that does not even remotely care about an adult audience. But while a lot of kids movies in that vein go the route of lets fart and poop a lot to make kids laugh, this instead decided to go the route of bright, flashy colors, and lets be extremely safe and uncontroversial in ANY way. Basically, its boring as hell on top of having little in the way of substance. And that sucks, because I feel like this could have been a great story about coping with a new stepmom or something like that. Instead, this is a nothing movie.

17. Over the Moon

Ermine: 5
Karo: 11
Johnbobb: 13
Red: 24
Evillord: 32
Inviso: 35

Total: 120

Ermine: Despite thinking that it takes too long for our heroes to actually get to the moon, this movie really surprised me in a good way. It's weird... and things happen randomly to progress the plot but I can forgive it for those things because it was just very sweet and pleasant to watch and to look at. I wasn't too sure about the songs in the first half but I was definitely more sold in the second half.

I wish we had a bit more time with the supporting cast to get to know them a bit better. You get a lot of the main and her brother but not as much with anyone else. I personally would have LOVED to see more with Gobi. Yes dammit he's an Ermine character. He's ALMOST a bit too in your face but has enough depth to him that makes him really charming. I absolutely LOVED his song and that was basically the turning point from me thinking this was an alright movie into one I enjoyed a good amount.

If it wasn't for the slow first third... maybe even first half... and maybe fleshing out a few of the characters out more, like Gobi and Jade?... I think this could have been in the higher/top tiers for me.

Overall, a very fun movie with a lot of charm and energy. Slowed down a bit by random plot progression and first third but definitely picks up when GOBI arrives. Good stuff.

Karo: A young girl decides to build a rocketship and travel to the moon to meet the lunar goddess because this would somehow stop her father from remarrying.
So yeah, Fei Fei is this little genius who has enough scientific knowledge to launch a rocket into orbit using advanced magnetic levitation, yet somehow still believes that a lovelorn immortal woman lives on the moon with her magic rabbit.
Except surprise, surprise, that is exactly what is on the moon. The story goes completely off the (magnetic) rails at this point as Fei Fei and friends encounter a lot of weirdness and garish colors. This is where the movie should be full of magic and wonder, but inexplicably this is where the magic starts to leak out.
Thus begins a random quest for a macguffin that the goddess wants so she will a give Fei Fei a picture she needs for stupid reasons. The story flails around at this point searching for a purpose, and the writers seem so lost that we somehow end up with a zero gravity ping pong rap battle.
The film wants me to care about the mythology of Chang'e as much the protagonist does but I really don't. I care about the character of Fei Fei and the pain she is dealing with, and a lot of that seems lost once the cosmic moon bitch comes on the scene and makes the whole movie about her stupid ultraluminary ass.
The first 30 minutes of the movie are so perfect, and it takes until the very end until it reaches such heights again. When it is at its best it is a touching and heartwarming story of dealing with sorrow and loss, and while the weak middle act keeps it from reaching all the way to the moon it is still worth seeing.

Johnbobb: There's some cheesiness here, sure. There's a weird hiphop ping-pong battle. There's a pretty simplistic core story of a girl not wanting to accept her new stepmother and stepbrother, but where it shines is when it works in a combination of Chinese mythology and incredible space visuals. That, and Phillipa Soo is just absolutely fantastic here every moment that she's on screen.

Red: Do you want to talk about the moon while eating moon cakes with a moon stone with a moon creature with a moon obsessed moon family on the moon with a moon goddess to sell moon cakes to an angry moon to a moon palace on the moon. Moon moon moon moon moon moon moon moon moon moon moonmoonmoonmoonmoonmoonmoonmoonmoonmoon. By the time the movie is 10 minutes in you will have heard the word moon so much you just want to strangle every character every time they say the word moon. But don't worry we'll eventually go the moon where the animation budget runs out and you get an ugly moon palace and a generic moon goddess who is a villain but isn't really but also is horrible and then not at the same time. It never makes sense, the moon goddess absolutely does villain things but all is forgotten because moon.

Evillord: This was ultimately mediocre, but I did think the intro scene for the secretly bitchy Goddess was well-realized, and I liked that the main character and the Goddess had parallel character arcs. I appreciated that it was trying to deal with heavy subject matter like grief and acceptance, but it didn't do anything special with that.

Mantis
Rocket

Wordle 222 3/6





Learn
Point
Mount

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 264
Evillord: 240
Johnbobb: 180
Inviso: 172
Red: 167
Karo: 159

18. The Red Turtle

Evillord: 2
Red: 16
Karo: 17
Johnbobb: 20
Ermine: 33
Inviso: 37

Total: 125

Evillord: This dialog-free movie ends up covering such a wide range of subjects, from growing up to death to what it takes to be happy, that it's hard to summarize, but it was definitely more interesting and emotional than most films I've seen. I felt like I came away from it with a new perspective on life.

Red: When this movie started I honestly thought it was going to bore me out of my mind. But once the family is established and we're dealing with their way of life on the island it had me surprisingly hooked. Every character grows and gets their own conclusion. It definitely had a rather slow start and took awhile to really get the characters moving, but once we get to the middle I was susprisingly invested in where it was going. Still not necessarily my thing, but it was far more interesting than I was expecting as it started.

Karo: A minimalistic and dialogue-free story of a man who is marooned on a tropical island and his relationship with a giant sea turtle. I mean like actual relationship as in the turtle transforms into a beautiful woman and makes babies with him. The movie follows this family and their life on the island up until the original castaway grows old and passes away, and Mrs Turtle returns to the sea.
It is equal parts haunting and beautiful in a strange way, and it is very different from any animated movie I have seen before. It is not afflicted with the pretentiousness or lack of structure that plagues a lot of independent animated movies, it is charming in its simplicity and mesmerizing in its depiction of this nameless castaway and the depths of his speechless personage.
In an industry full of frantic hijinks and screaming characters, there are some lessons to be learned here about the value of slowing things down and letting it all sink in, and modern American animation could definitely make use of taking some of these lessons to heart.

Johnbobb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z74hjn5rMuU

Ermine: So that was a movie.

I mean... I get it. I can get why people would be super into this... and these types of movies can really suck me in and get me invested but, this just really didn't, at all.

Lost me as soon as the turtle turned into his new wife and the film never really recovered.

Bleh.

Inviso: I know this isnt ENTIRELY Studio Ghibli, since its half Western-inspired, but it definitely runs afoul of some of the biggest pitfalls Ghibli has to offer. Ghibli is very hit-or-miss, in that when they go the exciting and whimsical route, they can create amazing works of cinema. But when they try to be somewhat grounded in reality, they get kinda wrapped up in that kind of sentimentality. This film is largely silent, save for the occasional Hey!, and outside of the inherent fantasy elements of a turtle becoming a woman, its a very flat story. Its about a guy who gets shipwrecked on a desert island, and winds up living out his life there after escape proves impossible. He kills a sea turtle out of spite, and that turtle turns into a woman, whom he has a child with, before growing and dying. There really isnt a lot of content to this movie, and with the silence, it makes for a very boring watch.

pup

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 249
Evillord: 224
Johnbobb: 178
Red: 165
Karo: 158
Inviso: 153

19. The Incredibles 2

Red: 9
Inviso: 17
Evillord: 19
Karo: 22
Johnbobb: 25
Ermine: 35

Total: 127

Red: One of exactly two sequel movies on the list that actually called for a sequel, dropping us in pretty much immediately where the first left off. Despite not leaving a lot of glaring holes in the first movie, The Incredibles left a mostly open super hero world to explore and in a world of super hero movies being more main stream a sequel felt inevitable and almost necessary. The family dynamic surrounding with dealing with supers and their return/shunning from the world still plays and we're given an expansion of the role supers(And villains) played in society. I wouldn't call it the most original movie out there, but still the odd welcome sequel on this list.

Inviso: I almost feel bad about ranking this film this high, because a lot of this ranking comes from the polish and prestige inherent in a lot of Pixars work. Incredibles 2 falls into a lot of the same pitfalls as other movies on this list, namely coming in as sequels and trying to spread the narrative too thin for its own good. The first movie was almost entirely about Bobs mid-life crisis and trying to prove himself. This time around, while the plot feels EXTREMELY similar (surprise villain hired the main hero to work for them the WHOLE TIME), its a little disjointed. Helen is the one trying to prove herself this time, but Bob is trying to be a stay-at-home dad, and Jack Jack is developing a vast array of powers, and Violet is struggling with her social life. To rip off Syndrome, when everyone gets a story arc, no one gets a story arc. That being said, the story is still decent, albeit inferior to the original. The characters are extremely strong and well-written, and at the very least, their multitude of arcs feel as well-crafted as they possibly can. And the overall quality of the film-making is solid as well. That puts it ahead of a lot of the field Ive watched thus far, even if its not the greatest movie ever.

Evillord: While good, I don't think this movie lived up to the first one, which is my favorite Pixar film. I liked seeing the new characters' powers, the villain's motivation was kind of interesting (more so than most Pixar villains not named Syndrome or Lotso, anyway,) and seeing Bob try to handle the kids at home was cute, but there's not really anything that wowed me like the first one did.

Karo: This starts literally right where the first movie left off, where the super family combats the Underminer with the power of teamwork and bad parenting. Half the city gets wrecked and so they aren't allowed to be superheroes anymore. Again.
They then meet a sketchy businessman who offers to pay them money for breaking the law so he can assumedly create a hero-based reality show or something. The movie then splits into two parts, Elastigirl doing some very basic and uninspired superhero stuff, and Mr. Incredible being terrible at stay at home dad stuff. Both storylines are unremarkable and rote.
The lone bright spot in the movie is the Screenslaver, a supervillain who can use any electronic screen to turn their victims into mindless puppets, which is brilliant on a number of levels. Screenslaver is a top 3 Pixar villain, by which I mean they have a rudimentary level of character complexity and some motivation beyond revenge or being a bully. Goddamn, Pixar, you really suck at making bad guys.
The original was made in an era before we had like a dozen superhero flicks every year, and it felt special. Now it is just.. why? This is not the best superhero film of the year, hell, it isnt even the best ANIMATED superhero film of the year. The reasons for the existence of this are nothing but greed and memberberries, and neither of those are good reasons.

Johnbobb: I can't quite place why this sequel didn't quite do it for me like the original did. By all means, it's MORE of everything that was good in the first one. More heroes, more Jak-Jak shenanigans, more crime-fighting, more of Mrs. Incredible's absurd cake. But something just didn't quite click with me as much. Like it's fun, but definitely not the instantly-quoteable fun of the first one. The not-so-surprising surprise villain of this one is no Syndrome, and while the action is great, it just kinda felt like a retread in a lot of ways.

Ermine: I enjoy that the movie focuses more on Elastigirl since she's probably the best character in the family, but with a twist and plot as predictable as bread turning into toast when you put it into a toaster, there really isn't much here for me to enjoy. The rest of the family is as boring as ever. No the raccoon scene with Jack-Jack isn't cute. It's dumb.

I just don't care about any of these characters and never will... I'd say this is sliiiightly better than the first due to a slightly less annoying villain but it's hard to say.

Wordle 221 4/6






Tread
Lamps
Chain
Whack

Mantis
Rocket

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 233
Evillord: 224
Johnbobb: 172
Red: 155
Karo: 155
Inviso: 151

20. Frozen II

Red: 13
Inviso: 16
Johnbobb: 17
Evillord: 23
Ermine: 28
Karo: 34

Total: 131

Red: A sequel we unfortunately knew was coming the moment frozen made megabucks and you went a year without being able to hide from hearing Let It Go everywhere. Hell if there is something to bet on getting a reference in any new Disney film, it is probably Let It Go. If there was something you could bet on a Frozen 2 dealing with, it is the origin of Elsa's powers. And to no surprise, we're dealing somewhat with the origin of Elsa's powers. Except in doing so we're also going to spit on the original and decide Elsa doesn't really belong as queen and needs to go live with magic people because she doesn't belong in Arendelle or something. It is really bad messaging that really leaves a big stain on the franchise if you think about it too hard. The music is mostly though but we don't hit the highs of the original. Still wouldn't be surprised if we're hit with a Frozen 3 at some point in our lives.

Inviso: It says a lot about the quality of this list as a whole, that Frozen 2 is ranking as highly as it is. Frozen 1 is overrated, but at least it has a coherent narrative from start to finish. Sure, they had to rewrite when they realized how awesome Elsa was, and therefore they couldnt just make her a generic Disney villain (whichhonestly, probably hurt the brand in terms of replicating villains of the past). Anyway, with Frozen 2, its very clear that the success of Frozen 1 forced Disneys hand into creating a sequel, and they didnt have the best ideas for it. Elsa is still awesome, and continuing her story of questioning why shes uniquely magically was a good choicebut everything else feels off. Theres this theme of growing up that doesnt mesh with Elsa learning about the past, yet its Olafs main thingplus theres this weird will they/wont they storyline with Kristoff and Anna. Basically, much like Frozen 1, Elsa carries the film as best she can, but unlike Frozen 1, I feel like the other characters dont uphold their end of the bargain as much as they need to. Its still decent enough, but Elsa alone cant push this higher.

Johnbobb: Frozen 2: Frozen Harder, where the ice is icier and Olaf is sillier and...
https://imgur.com/1K1L6kn
...oh

Evillord: I actually liked this more than expected. I thought the two girls learning about their country's dark past was a nice story idea and there were some cool visuals, especially the part where Elsa is trying to freeze her way across the stormy sea. It does suffer from trying to tie everything up too nicely, though (I would've respected it more if the castle really did get destroyed) and the songs are generally lackluster.

Ermine: It is sad to rank this movie so low after I enjoyed the first film so much but this really was just a complete let down in every regard. The songs aren't even CLOSE to as good as they were in the first and "Into the Unknown" is such an obvious attempt to recreate "Let It Go" that it hurts.

WE MUST HAVE AN EPIC INCREDIBLE SONG WITH THE SAME EXACT ENERGY AS LET IT GO...!

No, stop, just let things be natural. This song was the most unnatural forcing of anything I've ever seen. And the song itself isn't even that bad, it's kind of good! Just the context behind it feels so forced and ugh.

And then we have the characters... what the hell did they do to Anna and Kristoph to make them so unlikable now? Why are these arguments they are having and romantic trouble so incredible cringe and forced? Oh that's right, because the writers decided to shit own their own characters and make them say things they would absolutely never say.

The plot? Man, I just don't care. They had this cool lizard thing that I thought was going to be relevant and then it just didn't matter at all... because reasons?

What a shit show.

Karo: In a small bout of schizophrenia Elsa wakes the magical spirits of the enchanted forest that we are only just now hearing about and wrecks the kingdom again, and thus everyone embarks on a forced arbitrary quest to set things right. Anyway they head into the lost woods and find a tribe of magical native people and these soldiers who were trapped in the forest for like 30 years and still have their uniforms in good repair and have perfectly cut hair.
The way Elsa acts throughout the film is truly bizarre, it is like they decided to fuse part of Moana's personality onto her and make her into this wild obsessive woman who hears a magical siren call and is like 'fuck all these people who love and care about me, I gotta do some adventure shit'. Elsa then gets pissed when Anna is worried about her and wants to be by her side, so in order to keep her sister safe from harm, Elsa puts her into a canoe made of ice and shoves her down a rocky embankment nearly killing her.
The music is frankly forgettable for the most part. There are a few decent songs, but the majority I have forgotten completely within an hour of finishing the movie. Given how music was such a big part of the first film this is truly disappointing.
Soooo, Anna frees the forest by destroying a dam that was hurting the environment, something the all powerful spirits of nature were not able to do themselves for REASONS, and everyone lives happily ever after. Sort of.
Elsa stays behind to be the bitch of the spirit world because that is what is 'expected' of her, leaving the kingdom in the capable hands of her ditzy twin sister who tried to marry a psychopath after knowing him for 10 minutes, and we end with the touching moral of 'magic people are cool but they should stay with other magic people'.
Jesus fucking Christ.
How do we go from themes of accepting others for being different and being proud of yourself to themes of blind conformity and extolling racial separatism in just one film? How the fuck do you miss the point of your own movie this badly that you make a sequel with the literal opposite message?
How do you turn a simple story of the love between sisters into a contrived clusterfuck of confusing mysticism and laughable 'gotcha' moments that plays out like some abysmal piece of bad fanfiction?
By making sequels that have absolutely no reason for existing, that is how. Just listen to your own damn song Disney, and let it fucking go.

1. ???
2. ???
3. ???
4. ???
5. ???
6. ???
7. ???
8. ???
9. ???
10. ???
11. ???
12. ???
13. ???
14. ???
15. Ralph Breaks the Internet
16. Anomalisa
17. ???
18. Spies in Disguise
19. Trolls World Tour
20. ???
21. The Grinch
22. ???
23. ???
24. Croods: A New Age
25. I Lost My Body
26. ???
27. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
28. The Polar Express
29. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
30. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
31. Despicable Me 3
32. The Illusionist
33. The Boy and the World
34. ???
35. The Secret Life of Pets 2
36. Ferdinand
37. Abominable
38. Fritz the Cat
39. It's Such a Beautiful Day
40. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 225
Evillord: 221
Johnbobb: 169
Red: 148
Inviso: 147
Karo: 141

21. I Lost My Body

Johnbobb: 11
Evillord: 13
Karo: 25
Ermine: 25
Red: 27
Inviso: 30

Total: 131

Johnbobb: Someone saw Thing in the Addams Family and thought "there's a story to be told here." They were right! It's a great story.

Evillord: Even though I'm not normally a sucker for romances, I thought all the scenes with Naoufel and Gabrielle in this movie were really cute and well-written. I also really liked the hand's storyline, but my concern with this one is that it's two mostly-separate halves (they do come together in the end) that don't fit too well together, even though I enjoyed watching them both individually. It's sad to see that this is the last French movie on the list, because I liked them all a lot.

Karo: This is actually two movies running concurrently, the story of a missing hand looking for the rest of its body, and the story of a pizza delivery guy with a crush on a girl.
This 'romance' starts with the dude hearing a girl's voice on an intercom while failing as a delivery boy, and falling in love with her for some reason. This dumb kid then looks up this girl's personal info, stalks her all day, and then browbeats her uncle into hiring him just so he can get close to her and then is like 'why u no leik me :('
Jesus Christ, this is the kind of story I expect to see on incel forums, not in an oscar-nomimated animated movie.
The journeys of the disembodied hand are the strongest part of the movie, not only does it have incredible artistry in its cinematography and music, but oddly enough little Grabby McHandjob is the most compelling character in the narrative.
It would have been much better as an experimental short film about the hand, with the dumbass delivery boy and his lame story kicked to the curb (and kicked in the balls for good measure).

Ermine: I disliked the first half of this movie with the guy's hand and I don't think some of the beginning scenes really added much to the overall story that the film was trying to tell. Like I don't need to see a hand strangle a pigeon for a minute or fight with a bunch of rats. I also really question the decision to make this a Rated R movie. I think most of the scenes (except one) that would earn the movie that rating added absolutely nothing to the film and really could have just been done away with. The hand being cut off scene... Yes, that was important and integral to the film... but even that could have been toned down slightly perhaps, maybe at the actual cutting part to be slightly less gorey.

Some really good music though, there's a track in particular I really enjoy and the back half of this film is pretty decent.

Red: The story of a severed hand trying to reunite with its body. Actually its not and the severed had plot is ultimately pointless padding that never really serves any purpose. He cuts his hand in an act of stupidity by never learning the one thing he was attempted to be taught at the beginning of the movie, because we want a severed hand subplot that isn't really related to anything. The hand is kind of a jerk to all the animals too, so there isn't much to like about it. But the actual plot has fake conflict over information withheld from each other for not much reason and the film really feels like they knew how they wanted the middle to go but no real way for any character arcs to end. It was an interesting main plot middle, but the end is a bit rushed and the hand adventure adds nothing.

Inviso: This one is strange, to say the least. Its like youve got a short film about a disembodied hand wandering around, and then the rest of the runtime is meant to develop the character and explain how exactly he got to lose his hand. But its hard to enjoy this film for me, because I absolutely hated the main character. Hes just such a socially-awkward loser, and Im sorry, but I dont want to watch a movie about myself, striking out with a girl after awkwardly chasing after her. Keep in mind, this character stalks a girl, inserts himself into her life, and then thinks it will be some kind of romantic gesture to reveal that he was stalking her the whole time. And then this all results in him getting upset at a party, having a rough night, and slicing his own hand off with a bandsaw due to lack of sleep. The ending is justit feels its supposed to be triumphant, but at the same time, it doesnt feel like the main character earned that triumph in any way. Ultimately, I will rank this higher it perhaps deserves because the characterization is decent, if not even remotely enjoyable, and this feel like it deserves better than some of the trash movies Ive watched that still outrank other artistic films on this list.

Mantis
Rocket

Wordle 220 4/6






Pears
Satyr
Sonar
Sugar

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 221
Evillord: 213
Johnbobb: 159
Red: 142
Inviso: 138
Karo: 137

22. Abominable

Inviso: 13
Johnbobb: 15
Red: 15
Ermine: 21
Evillord: 33
Karo: 37

Total: 134

Inviso: This felt like a Disney movie, specifically a standalone Disney movie that didnt utterly fail at trying to craft the story behind a sequel. Thats not even an insult; I think Disney is very good, (when theyre trying) at crafting an emotional narrative, and capitalizing on sentimentality. On paper, weve seen tons of kids befriend a strange creature, and then government and/or big business thugs try to capture said creature storylines, and a lot of them can be hackneyed. This didnt feel like that at all, but rather they gave us a main character whos directionless in the wake of her fathers death, and via a magical beast, shes able to go on the road trip hed always planned on taking her. She comes to grips with her fathers passing, while simultaneously helping to reunite the yeti family. Also, this is just a minor thing, but I loved how cartoonishly evil the bad guy was. Its just more interesting to watch a bad guy whos just bad, and not misunderstood.

Johnbobb: I like this trend of modern animated movies exploring characters of different races and ethnicities and their cultures while still making the movies entertaining and beautiful to look ata. This one does a lot of stuff right, and stands out as the best of the weirdly significant amount of animated Bigfoot/Yeti movies to come out in the last few years

Red: Somehow not the only movie on this list from 2019 about befriending a Yeti and trying to take it home. The magical yeti makes for some fun scenes but I really think where this movie sets itself apart it bit is the dynamic with the villains. Taking a character type we've probably seen a thousand times and then giving them just a little twist to be a villain works. Or at least compared to a lot of the villains on this list works. Probably say this like 10 times on this list but everything not a sequel is automatically refreshing.

Ermine: This movie was alright.

Had some really awful and weird dialog that made no sense and god I hated that little kid character.

But by far the most unbelievable thing in this film is a huge billboard that says VISIT EVEREST.

Really?

No one wants to visit Everest. You'll die. So put that shit away.

Run of the mill movie at the end of the day, nothing that offensive but nothing that really stuck out as amazing in any way.

Evillord: A few movies on this list are obvious garbage, but this one just feels kind of rote. The plot also stops working later on because the Yeti's magic can easily solve every problem the heroes encounter, though at least it makes for some nice visuals.

Karo: So there's this young girl in China who befriends a magical Yeti who heartless adults are trying to hunt down for experimentation in the typical ET storyline. Next they would normally be chased by the army but in China everything is perfect including the military so the bad guys are a private force of multinational corporate poachers lead by a pair of western capitalist pig dogs. Remember kids, foreigners are evil and the government is your friend! If you disagree you will be run over by a tank.
In order to take Totoro back to Mount Everest, Yi and her two annoying friends travel across the country in a boring, soulless endeavor seemingly more focused in showing off potential Chinese tourist destinations than having any real character development. Hey guys, come and see all these cool places in China you can visit, like those pretty mountains, this humongous Buddha statue, or the Uyghur harmony learning centers... ahh wait no don't look oh fuck
I just was not interested in anything going on, nor was I affected by the movie's many awkward attempts to do 'feels', and the whole thing feels half-assed and phoned in on nearly every level.
With a rote plot and substandard animation, Abominable cannot even measure up to the middling standards of modern Dreamworks, let alone the industry at large. Is it a sobering look into a future where Hollywood is stuck licking the butthole of the CCP in order to get to the mega china bux, and clearly the one thing the world fucking needs is more assaults on artistic freedom. Fuck you.

I am angered, but not surprised in the slightest.

GavsEvans123 posted...

This occured to me way too late, but Secret Life of Pets 2 is three separate stories, with tenuous connections between them at best. I wonder if there was a cancelled TV series, and the completed episodes were combined to make a film? That happened with a couple of the direct-to-DVD Disney sequels.

But that's the way the first movie was too!

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 220
Evillord: 202
Johnbobb: 152
Red: 135
Inviso: 129
Karo: 122

23. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

Ermine: 9
Evillord: 11
Inviso: 26
Karo: 30
Red: 30
Johnbobb: 35

Total: 141

Ermine: I'm a bit disappointed in this film when comparing it to the first. The main baby alien character was annoying all the way throughout and really just brought it down overall. The movie still has a ton of the good humor that the first had, but any sense of emotional connection to the characters that the first movie gave us was thrown out the window.

This movie also had a bunch of lyrical songs that all felt so out of place in the movie. They kind of took me out of it each time they played, especially the one where the alien is sad or whatever and I'm like... do we really need a song telling us that we should be sad? We can freaking see what's going on, there doesn't need to be lyrics telling us.

That aside, I still love Shaun as a character. He's fun, cute and sassy. I also quite enjoyed the robot character that was added in for this and I DID appreciate that the rest of the sheep weren't as prevalent as they were in the first film. Solo Shaun stuff is always the best stuff I think. Or at least, when he's not with the rest of the herd.

Overall a bit of a letdown but still a bunch of laughs. Pretty decent.

Evillord: If the first Shaun the Sheep Movie were in this, I'd probably rank it in the top 3. Farmageddon is still fun and charming, the stop-motion animation is still lovingly done, and I still admire the dedication to dialog-free storytelling, but it doesn't have highlights as great as the scene in the restaurant, the pound section, or the part where the dog was confused for a surgeon in the first film. I did like what they did with the antagonist.

Inviso: This was fine. I mean, Ive long been a fan of Nick Aardmans work (see my rankings of Chicken Run and Flushed Away on the original Dreamworks list), but even before that, it went back to Wallace & Gromit. They were short movies that didnt overstay their welcome, and played more into the absurdity of an eccentric inventor than anything else. Even there, the third film (which introduced Shaun) started to go a little overboard in its story decisions. I dont remember what I thought of the first Shaun the Sheep movie, but this one was just okay. Its the kind of film that doesnt really lend itself to feature length status. The alien looked a little tooI dont know, it just didnt look right to me. And having it be a spastic child alien for the duration of the film was a choice, for sure. It still had some laughs and it was a fun little romp about getting an alien back home to its parents, but its a simple story, and it didnt do a whole lot extra for me. At least it didnt make me hate it.

Karo: So when Shaun and friends order pizza, they end up with a side order of baby extraterrestrial that they need to help phone home in yet another incarnation of the tiresome 'lost alien' story.
So begins an incredibly forgettable adventure that is mostly just Shaun and Lu-La wandering arbitrarily about town accompanied by marginally funny visual gags and physical humor.
Of course stereotypical evil government people get involved and they do stereotypical evil government things and this leads to our heroes having to break out of the british version of area 51.
It just lacks a certain something the first movie had, and I couldn't bring myself to really care much about anything gong on. While there were a few very funny scenes, much of the movie is very boring and predictable. When you make something with no dialogue, you really need to step up in other areas to fill the void and this film absolutely doesn't.

Red: Farm animals reunite a lost alien child with its bad alien parents. This movie is just kind of weird, and at times, just kind of dull. Definitely had a hard time holding my attention. The movie honestly felt more interesting just with more cartoon antics between the sheep and the dog but when it tried to have this weird alien plot it really had more of a made for TV cartoon movie plot. And not a particularly interesting one. At least not one that could maintain interest for even a short full length movie.

Johnbobb: This is boring. Just really, really boring. Not because it doesn't have dialogue, but because it's just boring movie trope after boring movie trope for an hour and a half, with no break. A story about a mischievous sheep sneaking aboard a UFO while a dumbass farmer tries to scheme his way into a low-effort theme park SOUNDS like an original idea, but nothing in this film has any real substance. Throwing in a bunch of musical montages isn't helping!

Wordle 219 5/6







Train
Boned
Loons
Uncle
Knoll

Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 206
Evillord: 190
Johnbobb: 140
Red: 128
Inviso: 126
Karo: 115

24. Croods: A New Age

Ermine: 11
Red: 20
Karo: 24
Inviso: 25
Johnbobb: 31
Evillord: 31

Total: 142

Ermine: Well that was a surprise! I actually quite enjoyed that movie. There's a bunch of humor that doesn't hit, but there's a ton that actually does. Definitely better than the first movie. Chunky the sabertooth cat thing is great and I love him, despite his overly large head.

The grandma and the baby are completely awful. Thankfully the latter isn't in the movie much, but god the grandma ruined any moment. Everything with her was actually cringe... and I hate using that word.

But yeah, I'm really surprised at how much the humor actually hit. Good stuff.

Red: This movie was actually fairly interesting where you had the clash of two different families from different levels of advancement going on. Then it threw that out the window and everyone had to be friends to face a greater threat because Dreamworks likely thought that was more marketable or something. It is significantly less interesting than the plot they spent half the movie building up just to throw away for pointless adventure that will resolve all conflicts for no reason.

Karo: So the Croods stumble across a family of smug, highly civilized cavemen named the Bettermans (ha ha) who live in this protected enclave and actually understand the concept of bathing. Of course Grug throws a fit again because things being different scares him and there are a lot of 'neanderthals are dumb' gags as the Crood family tries to adapt to life in their new home.
It is sort of the same kind of conflict that Guy created in the first movie, giving a feeling of 'been there done that' to the story, and despite the greatly improved animation it seems like we lost something important at the heart of these characters.
It is your average modern CGI movie. Nothing too great, nothing too bad, funny at times, and not really very original. It is a somewhat decent followup to a movie that didn't really need a followup, but it isn't quite the new age it wants to be.

Inviso: I liked the first Croods movie a lot, largely because I think Nicolas Cages father character had a great growth arc. That being said, despite this movie being very fun, it felt like it took several steps backwards. Grugs whole story in the first film was about him learning to expand his horizons and accept change. This movie starts out with him still being very stubborn, averse to change, and terrified of losing his daughter. Again. Its like nothing in the first movie mattered, except for the Eep/Guy romance. And that romance was the half of the first movie that did nothing for me. So yeah, undoing Grugs character development, and giving him a weasel-y antagonist of a neighbor in Phil Betterman wasrough. I still found a lot of the jokes relating to modern day comforts to be pretty funny though. Whether it was the window gag, or treating the giant sabercat like a classic car, or having a literal man cave, that humor worked for me. And honestly, its weird that in THIS movie, the romance plot was the stronger half, because it makes sense for there to be some clash between the caveperson lifestyle and the modern lifestyle, as demonstrated by Eep and Guys tenuous relationship. So ultimately, this was fine overall, but a demonstrable step down from the original.

Johnbobb: I liked the first Croods a decent bit. Less so for the story and characters, which were kinda flat and unimaginative (oh man, the dad doesn't want the daughter to date a boy, woah. Where it succeeded was the gorgeous environments and visuals (in everything aside from the goofy characters) and exciting action scenes. This one was... more of the same? Like it introduced a new location, but in doing so, made it so that there was less overall creativity in the surroundings. This puts less focus on the world and more on the characters, which... literally haven't changed at all since the last movie. The "technology" they have is simultaneously less creative and more unbelievable, instead having things like unexplained indoor plumbing? The parents are even more focused on the kids' relationships. The story follows even more generic modern day beats than the first one. Altogether just "fine" and nothing more. Also, between this and the Despicable Me movies, what the hell is the deal with banana-based comedy in kid movies now? Bananas are not inherently funny enough to be a recurring joke in multiple movies.

Evillord: I've seen the first Croods movie but can't remember anything about it. This was alright though. I kind of like the "thesis, antithesis, synthesis" storyline that this (and Lego 2) have, and the Thunder Sisters part was fun.

Mantis
Rocket

rockus posted...

If I submitted a ranking would I still be met with the same kind of hostility? Or am I just not allowed to participate?

I didn't really want to get involved in this drama, but I feel there is something I need to clarify here. This is Board 8 ranks movies, not gamefaqs ranks movies. It is a project for members of this social community. You and your movie board buddies are not members of this community, nor have you shown any interest in becoming such other than popping in every few months to mock people for having 'wrong' movie opinions.
So to answer your question, if you submitted a list I would have just ignored it. Yeah I would feel bad for someone having to watch Jimmy Neutron or Despicable Me 3 without any payoff, but you should learn to read the room. Or at least read the topic title.

To paraphrase the wisdom of a certain bald guy with a cape, 'I'm just a guy who wants to rank movies for fun.' The way you guys casually dismiss the feelings and intelligence of people who put time into these projects makes things anything but fun.

I don't like to be told that because I don't like certain art films I am 'supposed' to like I am just some stupid troglodyte who doesn't understand 'real' cinema. I consider myself to be an animation buff, and I have seen well over 600 animated movies in my lifetime from all over the world, and I like to see the art form explored in new ways even if they don't always work. That doesn't mean I am like 'ew mainstream movies are for babies', I absolutely adore Zootopia, for example.

But back to the topic at hand, the hostility you complain of has less to do with you being an outsider and more how you all jumped into the middle a group of longtime friends and went full on fedora mode with all this smug superiority towards the 'unwashed masses'. Maybe that may make you feel better about yourselves but it is not a very good way to make friends.

Next ranking will be up a bit later today.

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Outlier Rankings:

Ermine: 196
Evillord: 183
Johnbobb: 132
Inviso: 124
Red: 123
Karo: 115

Ermine: Holy fuck this movie. I didn't know a sequel could be so awful and shit on its own characters so badly. Everything you enjoyed about Ralph and Vanelope as characters is completely thrown out the window to progress the "plot" of the film. The "arguments" they have are completely nonsensical and it makes you want to root for neither of them. There are a couple moments where the movie is fine and serviceable but I've never seen a movie where it makes you hate the main characters more than this one... well scratch that... there are, but not ones where they were actually good characters before. (Frozen 2 does this as well, but not to the extent that Ralph 2 does)

Evillord: People talk about how this feels like an ad for all the websites and Disney properties it references, but I think the bigger problem is that it's just really boring. This probably stems from the first movie ending in a way that didn't really leave room for an entire second movie's worth of conflict, so they had to come up with an extremely forced plot for this one. It's also way too long.

25. Ralph Breaks the Internet

Red: 10
Karo: 15
Inviso: 18
Johnbobb: 26
Ermine: 36
Evillord: 38

Total: 143

Red: The start of Disney's descent in sequelitis. Arcades are dead and we're going to the internet. Actually somehow the arcade is still alive in 2018 which I didn't think is possible but props to someone from Disney trying to hold onto their childhood(I'm not sure what exactly it was based on, but the outside of Litwak's actually looks like a long demolished arcade/mini-golf place that used to be close to me. They had the best mini-golf. kind of a crappy arcade.) This movie is absolutely carried by the Disney scene. I don't think it could fail to get a smile out of me on a rewatch. But Ralph deciding to be a jerk is kind of a downer to the whole thing and the internet hit plot is kind of a miss on the whole. I both appreciate and am kind of annoyed at the reading the comments section segment.

Karo: When a wifi router is plugged in at the arcade Ralph and Vanellope go on an arbitrary online adventure in search of a new steering wheel for Sugar Rush. Inside the internet is this whole world populated by computer users and other online entities. In this place websites are represented as buildings making up a digital city, and for some strange reason 90% of them are not brothels.
It deserves props actually taking some risks with a sequel, but the things they do are not exactly the best. The original introduced us to this world where video game characters were alive, and instead seeing how this extended beyond their old-timey arcade we get... internet tourism? Indeed, other than a short foray into an online racing app, video gaming is in very short supply.
But really, this movie was at least ten years too late for what they were going for here. Here in the 21st century the internet is a mundane aspect of our lives, and we're supposed to have this sense of wonder about it for some reason. Hey wow we're going to eBay and not-YouTube! Maybe someone's 90 year old grandma will still be in awe at this.
But the questionable scenario aside, this is still a very good followup. Vanellope is an absolute star here, I'm not sure whose idea it was to put her in the straight man role for much of the film, but please give them a raise.
Her story is the heart of this film, and the main reason for watching. It is about growing up and the bittersweet way that may set you on a path diverging from that of your best friend. In many ways it is like the ending of the Fox and the Hound, only done way better.
Despite its flaws, it it still an exemplary addition to the Disney Canon, and gives us possibly the greatest scene ever in a Disney movie, not to mention a surprise guest appearance by Alan Menkin. It just goes to show that even if you are just making something for the money, it doesn't mean you gotta wreck it.

Inviso: I went into this rewatch, having watched Ralph 2 once before, and I was kind of dreading it. I love the original Wreck-It Ralph, both the movie and the character, and this was such an unnecessary sequel that never shouldve gotten a theatrical release in my opinion. It felt like a cynical cash grab, playing up internet references to get clicks (and pimp Disney products with the princess brand, among other things). But on the rewatch, its not as bad as I remembered, and perhaps it manages to impress me more, having watched almost half the list thus far, and being very VERY underwhelmed by almost every film Ive seen (spoilers, but not entirely since I said ALMOST).

On the plus side, I feel like they went with one of the better options for a sequel to Wreck-It Ralph. Ralph is happy and his life has improved dramatically from the first movie, but hes still largely comfortable with keeping things exactly as they are. Vanellope, meanwhile, is younger and fuller of life, so while things have improved for her, she also is bored of having the same daily grind. In true Disney princess fashion, she wants something more. Ralph wants to help his friend, but that help winds up breaking Sugar Rush and leaving Vanellope homeless. This is a good inciting incident, because it justifies the trip to the incident with Ralph trying to fix his mistake by buying a replacement part for the broken game. And in doing this, Vanellope goes to the internet and discovers a whole universe of new and exciting possibilities, including an open-world racing game where she can put her skills to the ultimate test.

The first third to first half of the movie is solid; where it goes off the rails is the back end. Ralph and Vanellope clashing over her desire to leave and his desire to keep her (his best friend) around is a fair plot. But Ralph really torpedoes his character in this regard. He becomes SO overly-controlling that it leads to a Homer Simpson-esque characterization which greatly damages him as a character. First off, we get a dumb sequence where Ralph becomes a Youtube star to make money, which is pointless and feels blatantly pandering to the internet generation. Then, he forces Vanellope into the Disney product placement, because he doesnt want her going back to Slaughter Race, but she winds up having a very meta Disney princess song and goes back there anyway, which makes Ralph jealous and insecure, and he tries to destroy Slaughter Race.

This is part of the problem. The original movie had a through line of the Cy-Bugs from Heros Duty threatening Sugar Rush, and this was set up over the course of the film, combining with King Candy as the big villain. This time, the villain is introduced late in the film, when Ralph goes hunting for a virus to use on Slaughter Race, and the virus gets out of control in duplicating Vanellopes glitching, and then Ralphs insecurity over losing his friend. The real bad guy was inside Ralph all along, as it were. And the problem with this is that you end up with a massive Ralph monster that is defeated by a brief pep talk, which makes the whole climactic battle feel pointless and rushed. I think this couldve been fixed by introducing the virus earlier in the film, but really, the back half feels like the writers werent entirely sure of what to do with the plot to get to from Ralph is worried about losing his friend to Ralph is okay with his friend leaving.

Ultimately, its not AWFUL (especially in comparison to a lot of this list, as Ive said), but its disappointing, nonetheless. I feel like there are better ways this plot couldve been handled, and its unfortunate that so much of this movie feels like referential pandering.

Johnbobb: Man we FINALLY get a good movie parodying video games and all its wacky characters and such, and for the much-anticipated sequel, we get THIS. Forget gaming, what this series needed was memes, lazy branded jokes, and a huge chunk of the movie dedicated to Disney congratulating itself. Character progression from the first film is tossed out the window, and the only thing true to the original movie is the online racing game, which pokes fun at the basically two types of racing games (goofy kart-racers and gritty realism) and at absurdly expensive skins. But ultimately, the movie itself is flat and left me with little hope for future entries.

My first victory was attempt 19, but it was very close to being attempt 5 (Hades 2nd form at half health). My previous pb as of the 4th attempt was halfway though asphodel, so along the way was the defeat of both Lernie and the Heroes my first time seeing them. Triple Jab + Extending Jab is just XD

I know people are gonna say 'yeah, right' so here is proof

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/5/8/AAKk_SAAC1um.jpg