Today, for the Genre-ary DailyView, I went to Vudu and rented Shrek: The Musical. It is a recorded version of the stage show that was based on the Dreamworks movie, Shrek.
The story was fairly consistent with the Mike Myers movie. The costumes and designs of the characters and setting was fantastic and really took the stage show into an awesome look. It’s amazing with the creativity of the set designs that were able to bring this animated movie to life.
Brian d’Arcy James played Shrek the ogre and Sutton Foster played Princess Fiona. Both did an excellent job making these iconic characters their own.
The play had a whole new list of songs written for the show, although it did end with the I’m a Believer, just as the original movie did. The music was fun and clever, working very well for the story.
Daniel Breaker had a difficult job, trying to fill the shoes of Eddie Murphy as Donkey. He did a decent job in a role that was always going to be a challenge.
I really do like this type of film, showing a Broadway play as it is on the stage, much like they did with Hamilton and Kinky Boots. I would love to see more of these.
Well, here we are. The finale of season two of What If…?, and it has been a glorious season. Several of these episodes truly took a leap from season one. I shouldn’t say that I disliked season one, because I liked it enough. It just does not stand out. It’s fine.
That is why season two has been so great. Because it went beyond what was before and improved everything: storytelling, animation, characterization… all of it.
The 1602 episode was the highlight of a fantastic season and its placement just before the finale raised the stakes for the finale.
The finale turned out to be a step back from the best episodes of the season, but was a lot of crazy fun.
Strange Supreme returned to his goal of saving his universe, especially Christine, and he tried to fool Captain Carter into helping him by retrieving Kahhori, who had slipped from his grasp. However, together Captain Carter and Kahhori fought against the Doctor.
Most of the episode was taken up by the two powerhouses battling the demonic doctor with their powers. Peggy seemingly kept acquiring even more power, through other MCU weapons that she obtained through the episode.
What was the most fun about the episode was the Cabin in the Woods type situation that happened. Supreme Strange had been collecting and imprisoning powerful forces from the multiverse. In order to distract Strange, Peggy freed them all, leading to a wild brawl among all of these Easter eggs.
While this was a lot of fun, I kind of wanted more because the season had been so good. I’m not calling this a bad episode. It just did not quite reach the level of so many of the other episodes of the year.
Though the final shot of the Watcher and Captain Carter standing in front of the Tree of Life from Loki season 2 finale presents a lot of possibilities for the third season, which has been confirmed by Marvel.
Final Episode Order:
E8 ”What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602?”
E3 ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”
E1 “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”
E5 ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”
E9 ”What If… Strange Supreme Intervened?“
E6 ”What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”
E7 ”What If…Hela Found the Ten Rings?”
E2 “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”
E4 ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”
“What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?”
This is a sequel to the Captain Carter episode and the finale of season one and I was thoroughly entertained by it.
This episode was a combination of the Winter Soldier and Black Widow movies. There was an awesome pairing of Captain Carter and Black Widow, the characters. Hayley Atwell and Lake Bell have some great chemistry.
We have the Peggy Carter-Steve Rogers love story at the heart of this episode as well, just told in a different perspective.
Since this is What If…?, I had some serious anxiety during the action scenes that one of these characters were going to die and I did not want that. It says something about the stakes of your episode when I was legitimately nervous that the characters were in danger.
The scenes in the Russian fake town were creepy as could be, and were filled with some of the best action sequences of the series so far. The choreography is exceptional. As it has all season so far, the animation is spectacular.
Rachel Weisz returned to voice Melina is a cool thing too.
The very ending of the episode messed with the mind as well as even the Watcher was surprised by what he saw. Peggy Carter fell through a portal and showed up in the Marvel 1602 universe with Scarlet Witch standing before her. That was a really exciting pre-credit tease.
Up to DateRunning Order:
E3 ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”
E1 “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”
E5 ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”
E2 “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”
E4 ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”
Previous Winners:Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Coco, Moana, Inside Out, Big Hero 6, Flashpoint Paradox, Paranorman, Winnie the Pooh, Klaus, Wolfwalkers, Mitchells vs. the Machines, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
There was another good year in animation. There is a considerably longer list on the best side than there is on the worst side. It is possible that some of the worst animated films this year I did not see.
I only have two films on the worst list so I will give them both here. They were Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken and Legion of Superheroes. I saw one in the theater (Ruby) and one online (Legion). Neither were very good. I might say that Legion is a step better for me because I have a connection to those characters, but Ruby looked much better.
Having done the worst, here are the runners-up.
Runners-Up: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was very artistic and had a great voice cast, especially those young actors who did the turtle voices. Super Mario Bros. was another fun film that made a bunch of money at the box office. A film that did not make as much at the box office was Disney’s Wish, which was decent, but not awesome. Another Disney film that did not do as well as they were used to was Elemental. At the beginning of that movie I did not like it, but it won me over as it progressed. Trolls Band Together was fun and had some good music to it. We had a new film from EYG Hall of Famer Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli called The Boy and the Heron. It was the typically high quality from that studio. Merry Little Batman approached its topic with a flair and if you could get past the characterization of Damian Wayne, you should have enjoyed this. Migration was okay, another film that ended better than it started. Then today I watched the Netflix films Nimora and Leo, both were very enjoyable.
After seeing the runners-up, it should not be a surprise which animated film receives the Frame Award this year…
Winner: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
This was a no-brainer for me. Spider-Man is my favorite character and this movie was such a beautiful film, the art design was spectacular and the animation was as creative as any film you will ever see,
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a masterpiece.
I am trying to catch up on some of the Netflix films that have come out in 2023 now that the year is coming to an end. I have a couple of animated films to kick off today.
Starting off, I watched Nimona, which I had heard could be one of the nominated Oscar movies this year. I can see why.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “When Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a knight in a futuristic medieval world, is framed for a crime he didn’t commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz), a mischievous teen with a taste for mayhem — who also happens to be a shapeshifting creature Ballister has been trained to destroy. But with the entire kingdom out to get him, Nimona’s the best (or technically the only) sidekick Ballister can hope for. And as the lines between heroes, villains, and monsters start to blur, the two of them set out to wreak serious havoc — for Ballister to clear his name once and for all, and for Nimona to… just wreak serious havoc.“
The relationship between Ballister and Nimona is the strength behind this movie. They have such a wonderful connection and their lives intersected beautifully.
The animation of the movie was gorgeous, creating a great visual storytelling part of the film. The design of Nimona and her shapeshifting abilities are creative and original. Then, every time you think the story was going in a specific direction, it went differently.
Riz Ahmed and Chloë Grace Moretz do a wonderful job creating their characters and building the connection between them. It is because of the connection that they build in the first part of the movie.
The message of the movie was fairly straightforward though there is another theme that is more subtle too.
Nimona was an excellent animated movie that is available on Netflix. It is certainly worth the time to watch.
It is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the world of movies. At times it is really a matter of opinion. Others it is painfully apparent as to whether a film has flopped. Sadly, 2023 saw more than its share of flops.
Truthfully, even some of the better movies of the year could be considered a flop this year because of the way the box office seems to be going. I know that there will be some films on my Top 30 films list of the year that would be considered a flop. It has been a tough year.
Even the juggernaut of film companies, Disney, has lost its share of money on movies this year. If it can happen to Disney, it can happen to anyone.
The excess of streaming services can be blamed for some of these flops. Who wants to go to the theater when they can just wait a few months and see the film on Disney + or on Max?
The John Carter Memorial Award is given to the film chosen by EYG as the biggest flop of the year. This year was a tough decision.
Past years had some tough choices too.
John Carter Memorial Award
Previous winners: John Carter, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Lone Ranger, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Expendables 3, Jem and the Holograms, Pan, Rock the Casbah, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Robin Hood (2018), Mortal Engines, Playmobil: The Movie, The Rhythm Section, Reminiscence, Strange World
This year had plenty of runners-up.
Dis-Honorable mention: One of the reasons that these films are considered flops is the size of the budget. Some of these movies just spent too much money and had no chance of making it back. One example was the fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which was a decent movie, but it seemed as if no one was going to go see it. Certainly not enough to make up a budget of reportedly 294.7 million dollars, not counting marketing. Another film with a budget too high was the first official flop of the MCU, The Marvels. I liked that movie a lot, but it did not make it to $100 million domestically. Killers of the Flower Moon also did not make much money domestically with a considerably larger budget than this type of film usually has. Shazam: Fury of the Gods did not succeed on building on a successful first film. Disney’s latest film Wish should have done much better business than it did, just showing that Disney is struggling to put together that classic animated hit. Big George Foreman only made $5.7 million worldwide on a $32 million dollar budget. I did not see it either. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One was one of the best films of the year, but it just did not make much moolah.
Of all of these, though, there is one that should have been way more successful and should have been a lynchpin of the films this summer.
Winner: The Flash
This was a huge DC Comics film, featuring one of the top characters of the company. The Flash had a nine year TV show preceding this. And yet, it was as if everything was playing against The Flash for Warner Brothers. Starting with the craziness of its star’s life over the last couple of years. Ezra Miller made headlines with his behavior and it reflected poorly on The Flash. Though not the sole reason for this film’s downfall, it did play a part. Secondly, the film was not very good. It had some parts that were solid, but a film that saw the return of Michael Keaton as Batman should never have had this much trouble. Third, everyone knew that this was a film that was staggering to the end as the whole DCEU was being revamped into the DCU by James Gunn and this film would not go on.
I’ve always liked the Flash. He is one of my top DC characters. This was, at best for me, okay and I could see the numerous problems with it. I never would have guessed that it would only make $55 million opening weekend.
That makes this the John Carter Memorial Award winner for 2023.
Previous Winners: Robin Williams (Aladdin- honorary), Auli’i Cravalho (Moana), Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Josh Brolin (Avengers: Infinity War), Ryan Reynolds (Detective Pikachu), Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Jeffrey Wright and Chadwick Boseman (What If…?), Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish)
Every year, there are talented voice actors who create characters with their voices. In this category, we include animated movies, CGI characters, and even live action characters whose face you never see.
There are always a lot of great choices. Here are the Honorable Mentions…
Honorable Mentions: A couple of actors from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse included a great performance from Hailee Steinfeld as Spider-Gwen and Oscar Isaac as Spider-Man 2099. Vin Diesel does a great job as Groot both in Guardians Vol. 3 and I Am Groot animated shorts. The iconic Peter Cullen brought Optimus Prime back to the live action Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. The four young actors, Micah Abbey, Shannon Brown Jr., Nicolas Canter, and Brady Noon in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem were brought together in the studio to do their voice over together. Daveed Diggs appeared as Sebastian in the live action Little Mermaid flick. If I had a basic runner-up, it would be Jack Black in The Super Marion Bros. film.
And the winner: Bradley Cooper (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3)
Rocket was the emotional heart of that movie and Bradley Cooper brought his best work from the franchise. Though he did not record the really young Rocket, he did the majority of the character and did the most painful parts. He has been exceptional as the raccoon and he is a big reason why Rocket is a major character in the MCU.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 