I had heard about this movie from several online pundits and I was looking forward to this animated movie from DreamWorks. Forgotten Island did not disappoint.
According to IMDB, “Two best friends become stranded on the mystical world of Nakali, where their only escape might cost them their shared lifetime of memories.“
There were so many amazing things about this movie. Let’s start with the animation. It is one of the most original animated styles that I have ever seen. It blends the 3D computer graphics with 2D hand drawn effects. It reminded me much about The Spider-Verse animated movies, the last Puss in Boots film, and anime films from Japan. It is so chaotic and energetic that it was awesome to watch. It is a visual masterpiece and a bright colored image.
Our two main characters, Jo and Raissa, are fully relatable and engaging. I was hooked with these two characters the minute they met outside of the principal’s office. The voice work of these two characters were great from the performers H.E.R. and Liza Soberano, respectfully.
Other voices in the film included Dave Franco, Jenny Slate, Manny Jacinto, Lea Salonga, Dolly DeLeon, Jo Koy, Ronnie Chieng, Kevin McCann, and Kailey Crawford.
Forgotten Island is full of imagination and creativity. It is a sensational animated movie and I loved watching it. Everything about the film was amazing and it was enjoyable the entire time I was in the theater. One of the best animated movies of the year.
One of the greatest animated franchises of all time, kicked off by this excellent film. The friendship that developed between Woody and Buzz Lightyear carries this franchise. Toy Story is a marvel.
Voice cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, Jim Varney, John Morris, Erik von Detten, Laurie Metcalf, R. Lee Ermey, Sarah Freeman, Penn Jillette, Joe Ranft, and jeff Pidgeon.
I was shocked to see that the latest season of American Horror Story debuted this week. I was also surprised to see that they dropped three episodes on the opening night. I thought to myself that I did not have the time to fit three episodes into my schedule for the night, so I started the first one to see how much I could see.
Episode one ended suddenly after only about 33 minutes. The second episode was around 31 minutes and then episode three was the shortest of the three at 22 minutes. I was able to see all three in a short space of time.
Wild.
The show was weird as could be. There were characters that were from previous seasons that I recognized, such as Constance from season one, the Coven from season three and Rubber Man, also from season one.
Since I have not watched all of the seasons of AHS, I was not sure how many were returning characters and which were new. I discovered that the entry point to the season was Ben (Joey Pollari), a hospice and palliative care worker who suffers from triskaidekaphobia. Trying to overcome his fear, Ben went on an ill-fated plane trip with his girlfriend for her birthday. The plane crash killed her in the cold open. We then see Ben taking a hospice job at a residential building called The Apollyon in New York City. This is where the characters from previous season can be found.
Ben was hired by Constance to take care of the mysterious Mr. Nas. There are a ton of weird things going on with this man, including his vomiting black substances, what looked like a tail, and possible horns. Devil, anyone?
Tate Langston is alive and living in the building along with Kai Anderson, the cult leader from season seven (Cult). Both are played by Evan Peters. Twisty the Clown showed up about midway through episode 2 and brutally killed 13 people.
The number 13 is significant this season.
Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short also returned from Murder House and Apocalypse (season 8). Sarah Paulson is all over the place too, back as both Apocalypse’s Wilhemina Venable and Coven’s Cordelia Goode.
There is a portal to Hell beneath the Apollyon. This is where Wilhemina is hanging out.
This has been wild so far, and I do like how things are coming together, though I wonder if my lack of knowledge over the AHS seasons will hurt the experience of the show.
Animation Style: a unique blend of traditional hand-drawn 2D animation and innovative volumetric lighting that creates the illusion of 3D depth
Studio: SPA Studios/Netflix
Another surprise as this came out of nowhere and was nominated for Best Animated Picture at the Oscars. A wonderful origin story for Santa Claus and one of the best animated holiday movies ever.
Voice cast: Jason Schwartzman, J. K. Simmons, Rashida Jones, Will Sasso, Neda Margrethe Labba, Pablos, Norm Macdonald, Joan Cusack, Reiulf Aleksandersen, Sara Margrethe Oksal, Sergio Pablos, and Sam McMurray.
Additional children’s voices: Evan Agos, Sky Alexis, Jaeden Bettencourt, Teddy Blum, Mila Brener, Sydney Brower, Finn Carr, Kendall Joy Hall (who voiced Annelise Ellingboe), Hayley Hermida, Lexie Holland, Brooke Huckeba, Matthew McCann, Tucker Meek, Leo Miller, Joaquin Obradors, Víctor Pablos, Lucian Perez, Bailey Rae Fenderson, Maximus Riegel, Emma Shannon, Ayden Soria, Sunday Sturz, Hudson West, Gordon Wilcox, Emma Yarovinskiy, and Julian Zane.
It is that time again for the favorite comic covers of the week. Once again, the race to win this year is hot. Unlike last year, which was decided half way through the year, this one may go down to the final few weeks. It is an exciting few months coming up.
Also-Rans: The Greatest American Hero #3 (A, C), Thor #801 (Cover B-Hercules), The Eye Collector #4, Feral #26 (B Cover-The Shining homage), Spectacular Spider-Man: Brand New Day #5, Terrorbytes #10, Absolute Batman #24, Black Star #3, Any Given Smile #1, D’Orc #8, Generation X-23 #8 (B Cover), and A Mischief of Magpies #2.
Bronze Medalist
Crimes Against Nature #1
Cover art by Mattia Monaco
What a fun cover. This cover really makes me want to see what is going on in this new Image book. It absolutely stands out among the books on the stands this week.
Silver Medalist
The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe #1
Cover B Foil
Cover art by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado
A beautiful gold foil cover with two of my all-time favorite characters in Spider-Man and Kermit the Frog. What more could I ask for. This one was absolutely going to get a place in the medal round this week.
Gold Medalist
Thor #801
Cover art by Alex Ross
This close up on Thor’s face is powerful, intimidating, and regal. The eyes on Thor just dominate this cover. This is a great way to kick off a new arc for the Thunder God.
Another film that was a huge surprise. Who would think that a movie about LEGO creatures would be anything but stupid. Yet, The LEGO Movie was one of the best movies of 2014. There is a short section of live action during the animation, but I determined that this would still count under the animation rules I set down at the beginning since the live action stuff was a minimal part of the movie, even if it contained some of the most emotional parts.
Voice cast: Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Melissa Sturm, Cobie Smuthers, Jadon Sand, Anthony Daniels, Keith Ferguson, Billy Dee Williams, Shaquille O’Neal, Will Forte, Dave Franco, Jake Johnson, Keegan-Michael Key,Christopher Miller, and Graham Miller.
This is one of my favorite episode of the new season. So far, the episodes have been great but there has been one of the story arcs that I thought was weaker than the other stories. Tonight, I loved all three main story arcs on the show.
Story #1: Gemma gets injured during a game and it affected Alice dramatically. She confronted Gemma, who had not even been checked by a doctor, but she was thinking about not coming back to play.
Story #2: Roy and Keeley were going to the ceremony for Roy at his old team, and just about everything that could go wrong, did. This led to the reunion of the pair in one of the sweetest, most epic scenes of the series. It was truly a beautiful moment.
Story #3: Leslie Higgins investigated someone trying to force people into selling their stock in Richmond under the table. It is the possible return of Rupert. I am curious if Anthony Stewart Head had recorded a role prior to his death or if this would be a recast. I enjoyed the almost secret agent mood of this storyline.
Ted gave a wonderful speech to his team after he found Alice crying in the office over the injury to Gemma. It was an absolute classic Ted Lasso speech and it was very emotional.
Animation Style: grounded, painterly, and naturalistic
Studio: Studio Ghibli
One of the most beautiful and saddest Studio Ghibli films. I had heard so much of some of the other classic Studio Ghibli movies, but not much about this one and it was absolutely spectacular. It is a classic war film as well as a deeply personal family tale. This is the highest Studio Ghibli film on my list and, if you have not seen it before, it is worth your time.
Voice Cast: It depends on which version of the film you watch. The original Japanese voice cast included Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara, and Akemi Yamaguchi.
I finished the OJ docuseries on HBO Max tonight with the final two episodes talking about the time OJ and a group of creators tried to make a hidden camera prank show called Juiced.
The last two episodes really showed just what a bad idea this prank show was. It was shaky after the first two episodes, but there were some simply horrendous things such as OJ pretending to work at a car sales lot and selling the white Bronco or doing a rap that was in remarkably bad taste.
The whole project got tore down by a leak from within the project. I think that was a great thing, considering how scummy this was.
It followed the story right up until OJ’s death in 2024 and covered his arrest for the robbery of his old sports memorabilia that sent him to prison for nine years.
The discussion from the people who worked on the crew of Juiced was fascinating, though most of them were truly lowlifes too.
I am glad I watched it…. but a little ashamed too.
Animation Style: 3D computer-generated semi-realistic style
Studio: DreamWorks
Shrek is a wonderful movie that spawned several sequels and a Broadway musical. The movie had some of the most iconic characters of animation.
Voice cast: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow, Vincent Cassel, Conrad Vernon, Chris Miller, Cody Cameron, Simon J. Smith, Christopher Knights, Aron Warner, Jim Cummings, Kathleen Freeman, Andrew Anamson, Bobby Block and Michael Galasso.
Good day to all. The EYG Comic Cavalcade is here. Last week at Comic World I picked up a pack of Batman Vol. 3 which included #92-100. I have not bought a bunch of Batman over the years. In fact, these are the only Volume 3 books that I own.
I also picked up a four-issue series from Mad Cave on eBay this week called Hours of the Wolf. I picked this up because it looked as if the series is coming back later this year.
Comic of the Week
DNX #1
The new crossover between X-Men and Fantastic Four with the storyline of the X-Virus finally coming to a head. Things feel very hectic and dangerous as the X-Men and 3X start to arrive at Philadelphia, which is where the virus was originally released in the Age of Revelation arc.
I picked up a bunch of DNX blind bags as well, and I got some interesting Skottie Young covers, a red blank cover and one with Temper. Apparently there are no more blind bags with A covers any more. Great thing, Marvel.
Books this Week:
Avengers Armageddon #4. Written by Chip Zdarsky with art by Delio Diaz & Frank Alpizar. Cover art was done by Dike Ruan & Moreno Dinisio. The Avengers battle Red Hulk in a huge battle… and one of the biggest events. Dalton has become the new Miracleman in the Marvel Universe. It looks like Miracleman is going to be the mystery member of the new Avengers coming soon. Meanwhile, some bad things are about to happen.
X-Men #37. Written by Jed MacKay with pencils by Netho Diaz. Cover art was done by Netho Diaz, Sean Parsons & Arthur Hesli. More DNX action with the X-Men taking on 3X. All inside the mind of Cassadra Nova. Quentin Quire has a secret weapon… Jean Grey. The appearance of Phoenix caught me truly off guard and it was awesome.
Uncanny X-Men #35. “Fear and Fight Clubs” Written by Gail Simone and art by Luciano Vecchio. Cover art was done by Luciano Vecchio & Matthew Wilson. The X-Men are on the trail of the monsters that have abused our new hero Howler. Wolverine connected with Howler, who he could relate to. Howler is the newest awesome new mutant that Gail Simone has given us.
Something Epic #15. Written, illustrated and cover art by Szymon Kudranski. Variant cover C was the gold medalist this week. The mystery series continues with an appearance by the Headless Horseman and then Frankenstein. I really love the artwork from Szymon Kudranski and this arc with all of the allusions to the different characters.
Pancho Villa: Monster Hunter #1. Written by Hector Rodriguez III with pencils by Ariel Medel. Cover art was done by Canaan White. Pancho Villa-General-Revolutionary-Monster Hunter. This new book from Amp Comics was a lot of fun and gave positive representation to the Mexican community.
Redcoat #20. Creators were Geoff Johns & Bryan Hitch. Cover art was done by Bryan Hitch & Brad Anderson. After last week’s shocking issue where Simon’s wife and kids were murdered by Benedict Arnold, thing hit the fan. Simon went all feral on Arnold, and anyone else connected to the event. His vicious attack left him apparently paralyzed after falling from a window. It has been a burtal couple of issues for Simon.
Spider-Man: Long Way Home #3. Written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Adam Kubert. Cover art was done by Adam Kubert & Arthur Hesli. Some big time battles between Hulk, Punisher and Spider-Man highlight this issue. The art was so monumental that it had to be turned to the side to fit it in the book. It looked as if the Hulk has his oversized hand on the Cosmic Cube so… that’s bad.
Exquisite Corpses: Fox Mask Killer #1. Written by Che Grayson with art by Adam Gorham. Cove art was done by Adam Gorham. We get a backstory on the Fox Mask Killer and we see her desire to get out of the assassin game to be with her daughter. There is a sadness to this issue as we follow through the efforts of Naomi Raturugi and exploring her origin.
Nightwing #142. “Downwind” Written by Dan Watters with art by David Lapham. Cover art was done by Jorge Fornes. Nightwing is in a race against a truck filled with dynamite that is heading toward Gotham. The spores from the whole Bad Seeds arc are affecting a few people from Bludhaven, leading to this conflict.
Queen in Black #4. Written by Al Ewing with art by Iban Coello & Paco Medina. Cover art was done by Ryan Stegman & Frank Martin. The Queen in Black Hela takes on Knull. I have to say that this issue of Queen in Black became a bit too choppy for me. It felt like it was spread around too much between the spin-off issues making it too convoluted. Hopefully this will finish stronger.
Daredevil #7. “Of Moles & Owls Part 2” Written by Stephanie Phillips with art by Flaviano. Cover art was done by Lee Garbett. Daredevil has to fight his way across the city, facing off many of the dangerous criminals such as Tombstone, Silvermane, The Track Suit Mafia– all after the Kingpin’s ledger. We get the return of Elektra.
Detective Comics #1113. “Bad Seeds: Toxic Skies” Written by Tom Taylor and art by Jeff Spokes. Cover art was done by Mikel Janin. After Batman fought to the roof of police headquarters, he discovered that Vandal Savage was not going to stop the zeppelins from dropping a toxic, mass-casualty herbicide on the city, even when Batman told him that thousands of people would die from it. Batman has to go and stop the zeppelins. This crossover with Batman continued.
Hornsby & Halo #16. Creators are Peter J. Tomasi & Peter Snejbjerg. Cover art was done by Peter Snejbjerg & John Kalisz. Zach and Rose go to meet up with the DeadTones, the latest Unbelievables. The DeadTones are a rock group whose powers help make the stage show all the more spectacular.
Dog Tag#5. Written by Mark Russell with pencils done by PJ Holden. Cover art was done by PJ Holden & JP Jordan. The synopsis of this book is as follows: “A small group of American soldiers must defend the Austrian castle against hundreds of incoming SS troops. Unexpectedly, German Wehrmacht soldiers inside the castle join forces with the Americans in the only known battle of the war where U.S. and German troops fought side by side” This is the penultimate issue of this series. The war is coming to a close.
Ofiusa #1. Written, art and cover art by Guillem March. This first issue from a new Image Comics book features a love triangle spanning two timelines. This was a little challenging to follow at times, but I did like the look of the book and the characters.
Absolute Green Arrow #5. “The Longbow Killer Chapter 5” Written by Pornsak Pichetshote with ar tby Raphael Albuquerque. Cover art was done by Raphael Albuquerque & Marcelo Maiolo (Bronze Medalist). I’m not sure I followed this that well. I thought they revealed who the Green Arrow was two or three times. And then, he seemed to be there at the end. I might need to re-read this one to know what is happening.
Marc Spector: Moon Knight #8. “Midnight Multitudes” Written by Jed MacKay with art by Devmalya Pramanik. Cover art was done by Jose Luis Soares & Rachelle Rosenberg. Moon Knight turned the Midnight Sons over to the Mansion Ravenous in able to get his friends back. It’s all part of Marc’s plan, but Daredevil, Ghost Rider and Blade don’t have to like it.
Showdown #4. Written by Dave Wielgosz and illustrated by Tadd Galusha. Cover art was done by Steve Lieber & Jack Cole. Trish and Harvey prepare for their big showdown in the final issue next month. However, the house on fire may not allow the showdown to commence.
GI Joe #26. Written by Joshua Williamson with art and cover art by Tom Reilly. The chase to capture the Baroness continues, but she seems to be one step ahead of the team of Joes in pursuit of her. I hope she does not turn away from the Joes because I do like the use of the character.
Other books this week: Viking Moon #4, Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Dark #3, Star Trek: The Last Starship #11, X-Men: Outback #4, Absolute Cassandra Cain #1, Tyler Rake: An Extraction Story #5, Vampyrates #3, and 51 #5.
Quick Hits: I grabbed a graphic novel this week from Mad Cave called Havana Split: Welcome to Cuba. I have not had a chance to finish it, but it was an interesting start. A new Dark Horse book was released this week called The Big Shakedown #1, which dealt with a major earthquake. The Patron #2 featured a serial killer trying to make art more valuable, by killing the artist. There was a new cover book from Joe Kubert. The Joe Kubert: 100 Years- A Life in Covers #1. More action with Red Roots #5 continues. We get a new Dynamite Comic series as we get Space Ghost vs. The Herculoids #1. I’m not a big fan of the Herculoids, but I do love the Space Ghost books. The Marvel Mangaverse has a new issue this week with Arcane Avengers #1. The book Killer Influences #3 came out too. The story came to a conclusion. The End of Life #8 was an entertaining issue this week. Eddie is trying to escape from his capture… despite not being very successful. Just Brutal #6 came to an end this week. Then there was more stuff under the ground with The Hab #4.
A wonderful sequel to a classic animated movie. This, amazingly, found a way to elevate the emotions even further than the original.
Voice cast: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig, T.J. Miller, Cate Blanchett, Djimon Hounsou, Randy Thom, and Kit Harington.
After last week’s major conclusion of the 2016 storyline, we find ourselves back in 2026 to continue that story that dropped in episode one.
Hal Jordan is dead. Shot in the head.
There were a lot of speculation that Hal was not really dead from the online pundits, but that seemed to be definitively put to bed with this episode.
I really have some questions about John’s motives in this episode and the town’s anger and resentment toward Hal. We learned that Hal and Kerry had a relationship after she split with her husband. John had come back to Rushville because his mother had told him that Hal wanted to apologize. That was a surprise to Hal. John hit him, perhaps breaking Hal’s nose in the process.
We learned that Hal was shot point blank in the head, which was an odd situation. Just off the top of my head (poor pun there) I am guessing that Noah is the one who killed Hal. That would make sense why someone could get that close to Hal to kill him.
John Stewart contacted Guy Gardner with the Green Lantern-signal, which is in the middle of the town, provided by Guy. However, a bunch of men showed up, including Billy, Kerry’s ex-husband, to threaten John. John kicked all of their butts, and eventually ended up in jail for assault.
Guy showed up as John was behind bars. John asked Guy to retrieve Hal’s suit and decommissioned ring so they could bury him in it. Gardner was not anxious to help, seeing as that he would have to fly to Oa to get it. He wound up doing it after all because John had told him that everything he had was because John had refused the ring.
Guy dropped the piece of info that Sinestro had escaped from the space prison. He also confirmed the existence of the Phantom Zone in the DCU.
Carol Ferris made a debut in the episode as well. Carol had a previous connection to Hal Jordan, specifically a main love interest in the actual comic books. She apparently had become the Star Sapphire in the comics, which I did not realize since I do not collect the Green Lantern books.
John, Carol and Kerry were the only ones in attendance at the funeral, and they did bury Hal, only for John to come back at night and dig him up to retrieve the ring.
Did not see that coming.
I kept waiting for the ring to fly off Hal’s hand and choose John, especially as John was reading Hal’s handwritten eulogy. This scene reminded me of the episode of The Boys where Hughie read the letter written by Frenchie.
Of course, the ring had 5% power left for some reason and John used it to bring back the Hal-ogram with the intention of using it to help solve the murder.
He rattled off a monologue to another lawyer that was absolutely off the charts. And he did it with such a ferocious gleam in his eyes that I was nearly intimidated sitting at home.
The was also one of the best scenes of the series in “Legal Deficits” where Denny Crane was examining Brad on the witness stand, after Brad had been arrested for cutting off a priest’s fingers in “Gone.” Brad was trying to help Denise, whose housekeeper’s son had been kidnapped by a pedophile. Brad and Denise did several thing that were anything but moral, including snatching the brother of the pedophile to get information out of him, pretend to be FBI agents and the aforementioned finger cutting.
The scene with Denny and Brad was so beautifully written that it was as clever of a scene as the show could offer.
“Legal Deficits” also saw the debut of Jerry “Hands” Espenson, who would become a much bigger part of the series moving forward. Jerry is shown to be on the Autism Spectrum, with a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome. Early connection to Alan would foreshadow what the characters’ future would entail.
In “The Fat Ass Jungle”, Shirley had to cross-examine a witness who had stage for Alzheimer’s Disease and she had to make her look confused to get her client off on the charge. It was clearly a dirty tactic for Shirley and she was conflicted with having to do it. We meet Shirley’s father at the end of the episode who is suffering from Alzheimer’s as well. David E. Kelley has used Alzheimer’s several times in his shows, certainly putting the disease front and center in Picket Fences as well as with Denny Crane in Boston Legal.
Denny cracked a great joke about winning an Emmy, which broke the fourth wall once again. The banter and the dialogue of this show is simply brilliant.
I have to admit that I was fascinated, as much of America was, in the case of OJ Simpson. When I saw a new four-episode limited series on HBO Max that chronicled the life of OJ during a time frame where he was recording a “Reality Show” called Juiced, based upon the Ashton Kutcher Punk’d or Candid Camera, I knew I wanted to watch it.
The documentary used all kinds of unseen footage from behind the scenes of that show, including direct interviews with OJ himself. The first two episodes truly set the stage for some explosive results.
The show gave us a look at OJ and his reactions to a lot of the situations that he was placed in. OJ was very charming and had a lot of charisma, which is undeniable. Still, every time you wonder about him, you couldn’t help but picture the gruesome scene of Nicole and Ron’s murder.
While OJ was certainly reviling in the attention and infamy, the fact that the creators of the show were exploiting him could not be lost. Did he deserve it? I am sure that there are plenty of people who would say absolutely. Still, it felt a little wrong.
That does not mean that I am not engaged in the series. I am two episodes in and I really wanted to continue on to episode three, but I had other things I needed to do. In fact, I had originally intended to do one episode over the next four days, but after episode one, I was enthralled enough to just let the show move on into the next one.
We will see where this goes and how this docuseries finishes up.
