copy pasting writeups from the last topic for movies i haven't seen yet
Luca I knew very little about this movie going in, though I think I watched a little of its trailer months ago and forgot most of it. Luca is a very competently made film with a ton of heart; it's very fun to watch throughout with gorgeous animation that Pixar is known for. The dynamic between the main characters is excellent. I do have a few small grips. The premise itself is not as memorably unique as some of other Pixar outings. The villain's take-down was really quick and could've been more satisfying. And the sea monsters being accepted right away didn't really feel all that natural. But yeah those are minor enough and it was still a very lovable movie. Shout out also to the character designs that felt familiar but different enough, I'm glad Pixar's not too attached to their usual human proportions and such.
I know that Vespa was in rough shape, but I hope they got something for it other than a single train ticket to Genova. Bad trade, that's how those guys start with a stick of gum and trade their way up to owning Amazon or however that works.
Movie is fantastic in most ways. Looks and sounds gorgeous, voice acting is great though not watching a lot of western animated movies it took me back when Jim Gaffigan all of a sudden started talking, not used to hearing voices of people I'm familiar with.
Plot... everything felt safe? Kind of reminds me of a lot of Marvel movies, where it feels like a non-comedic madlib where they just insert new names and places into the same madlib and pass it off as a new movie. Feels like I've seen this before without having seen it before.
And if you take the most accepting group of people in the world, on top of that make them super vegans who would as soon kill themselves before eating an egg, and all of a sudden you put a harpoon in their hands and magically a sea monster appears in front of them... that sea monster is getting 'pooned. I know that's not a story they're going to tell in a movie mostly geared towards children but everyone seemed way too okay way too fast about that.
My favorite samurai film. Fell in love with it right away and have since watched everything adapted from Shuhei Fujisawas work, and while I love almost all of it Twilight Samurai is still my favorite. I'd love to read his books instead of only watching adaptations, but whomever is in charge of his estate refuses to sign off on translations so the single collection of stories from over a decade ago is all there is. Glad I bought it years ago as it now routinely sells for 20-30 times what I paid for it.
I love the setting. It always feels strange to me that my least favorite part of a samurai film is the fighting, seeing as it plays such an integral part of most of them. It's hard to blame Koei for utilizing the 'One Man Kills Thousands' style of combat in the Warriors series when most samurai movies eventually have a scene where one man is constantly surrounded by swords on every side and yet he wades through them all, while they take turns meeting their end. Nothing of the sort here, outside of the short duel, if you can call it that, in the middle of the movie there's just the one battle at the end between two men, neither of whom truly wants to be there.
I wish there were more movies where the samurai are the focus rather than the swords.