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MOVIE REVIEW: Battle for Terra, Michelle’s Review

Posted by   on May 3, 2009

in Movie Reviews,Movies

Battle for Terra Movie Review

I’m not sure what to think or even say about Battle for Terra. On the one hand, I always complain about American Animation being too child friendly and not serious enough, but Battle For Terra suffers from being way too serious. I was intrigued by the story and twist that for a change the Human race would be the bad guys invading a peace loving planet but somehow this movie is a crashing bore.  The character models aren’t that interesting and kind of weird. They are modeled after mermaids, move around their world like mermaids, there’s even flying whales but there’s no water. I couldn’t get past that. It made the characters look really sluggish – which, again, I could have accepted if it was an Ocean planet. The first half hour of the film we are introduced to Mala Evan (Evan Rachel Wood) a young idealist and scientist who spends her free time flying around in hang gliders with her best friend Senn (Justin Long) and living in their city that look like 20 story tall mushrooms.  For the first 1/2 hour of this movie, literally nothing happens. It’s just a bore, then one day the evil humans come to take over. See the humans not only destroyed the Earth’s environment but they took two other planets with them so they had to seek out a new home.

[click to continue…]

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CONTEST: Win our Exclusive Battle for Terra Toy Set!

Posted by   on April 29, 2009 · 3 comments

in Contests,Movies

battleforterra

Here’s something pretty cool. We have 5 sets of Toy Figurines for the Battle for Terra to give away. I’m personally looking forward to this movie, it has a unique plot where Humans are actually the invaders of another world. The film tells the story of Senn (Justin Long) and Mala (Evan Rachel Wood), two rebellious alien teens living on the beautiful planet Terra, a place that promotes peace and tolerance, having long ago rejected war and weapons mass destruction.  But when Terra is invaded by human beings fleeing a civil war and environmental catastrophe, the planet is plunged into chaos. During the upheaval, Mala befriends an injured human pilot (Luke Wilson) and each learns the two races are not so different from one another.  Together they must face the terrifying realization that in a world of limited resources, only one of their races is likely to survive. The movie opens this weekend, Friday May 1.

 

Take a gander at 3 of the Toys in this collection that 5 lucky winners will get.

Battle for Terra  

Battle for Terra

Battle for Terra

 

Contest Rules

 

We have 5 sets of toys to give away. The contest will run for three weeks, Wed April 29 -  Monday May 18th. To participate leave a post about your favorite Animated movie and or what summer film you are looking forward to the most.  On the 18th send an email to contests@eclipsemagazine.com with your UserID and full address. We will select 5 winners at random.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Monsters Vs. Aliens 3D, Surprisingly Bland Experience. Michelle’s Review!

Posted by   on March 29, 2009 · 1 comment

in Movie Reviews,Movies

Movie Review: Monsters Vs. Aliens

Movie Review: Monsters Vs. Aliens

I was going to start this review off by talking about how tough it is to review a movie that’s technically brilliant but bland as heck then I was going to go into this whole rant about how I’m not a snob, but in reality I am, but I’m poor so I have to keep my natural snobbishness in check.  With that said, as a general rule, I don’t like most American animated films. I don’t like most of the stuff from Pixar, Dreamworks, etc. I understand the technical wizardry involved in creating the material, appreciate the story and directing quality but I always find the facial features to be too perfect, plastic, and the reliance on Hollywood Star voices distracting (except Shrek where it works). Now this new emphasis on 3D animation, I just don’t know.  I loved and connected with Coraline because the 3D really sucked me into the story. In Monsters Vs. Aliens 3D, it had the opposite effect. I kept thinking, this is kind of cool, but is it really adding anything to the story? The answer is no and it was a bit distracting.

When I really have nothing say about a movie, this is the point where I would trot out my standard formula of giving you the tedious plot summary (TPS). I could tell you that it’s actually a good little chick flick (not a bad thing), disguised as a animated action film. How the story is about a woman named Susan Murphy/Ginormica (Reese Witherspoon) who is minutes from marrying her dream guy a small market weatherman when she’s hit by a Meteor that causes her to grow 50ft tall, she’s then captured and taken to a secret government facility where she meets her fellow monsters – a blob (Seth Rogen), a mad scientist cockroach (Hugh Laurie), The Missing Link – a fish man (Will Arnett) and a giant fury animal creature that’s even taller than Susan, Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson).  The first part of this film is actually pretty depressing because it shows how poorly the Government is treating these “Monsters.” When the Aliens finally attack, I wanted the Monsters to join them.

The voice acting felt really forced and not natural at all. Or maybe it’s the opposite; that it was all so neutral that there didn’t seem to be any real emotion coming from the voices. I thought Reese was really bland and dry throughout most of the film – which is bad because the entire film hinges on her performance, she sounds bored. While the cast is good mix of A and B list actors none of them have real distinctive voices like an Eddie Murphy or Chris Rock or Billy Crystal so it wasn’t as distracting as it usually is. I didn’t even recognize Kiefer Southerland as (General W.R. Monger) and I almost always know his voice. Dammit.

It was weird seeing this movie the very first day I moved to Fl, I came out of the theater not knowing where I was and feeling a bit disoriented for a few minutes. The one thing 3D does, is you really do pay attention to everything on the screen I wasn’t watch checking at all.  Hollywood is going overboard with animated films this year and it’s going to wear thin really quick. Monsters Vs. Alien isn’t a bad movie it’s just too generic to really get excited about.

Final Grade C

EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally Posted 3.29.09

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TELEVISION: Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!

Posted by   on January 19, 2009 · 1 comment

in Television,TV Reviews

It’s been a while since the Powerpuff Girls have had a new adventure, but that all changes this evening following the Cartoon Network’s Powerpuff Girls Marathon! The new, special, double-length Powerpuffs Rule! [8/7C] brings back this smart, semi-satirical superhero series for the team’s most outrageous adventure yet!

PPG 10 Villains unite against the Powerpuff Girls

It seems that the Key to the World is coming to Townsville for one day – despite The City of Townsville being Supervillain Central. Worse, The Mayor loses the key – setting everyone of the Girls’ enemies after it. Now, not only do the Girls have to find the key, they have to undo the chaos that the villains are catching in their.

And what if the Key makes the girls decide that only they are capable of ruling? And what happens if Mojo Jojo should get his paws on the key? Just how evil are his plans for ruling the world – and where do the puppies come in?

Once again, Craig McCracken and his cohorts have come up with a unique adventure for Bubbles, Blossom and Buttercup – including some wisdom from another source on the subject of great responsibility; listening to their father, and generally putting their heads together to find ways to stop the ever reliable Mojo JoJo [and make fun of his manner of speech]. [C’mon, the guy is redundancy on legs!]

McCracken’s crack creative pepper the double-length ep with pop culture references – the great responsibility this is only one several. The Powerpuff Girls don’t work without a dash of satire, a few pop culture references [into which category, Mojo JoJo’s songs clearly fall] and a bit of cartoon violence, cleverly concealed beneath streaks of red, blue and green.

All The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!! Because they’ve been brought up right and love their father, whose radical experiment went, as the PR material puts it, horribly right. So, once again the City of Townsville is saved by The Powerpuff Girls! And really, they are so swell, how could we want things any other way? Happy Anniversary, Powerpuff Girls!

Final Grade: A-

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DVD REVIEW: The Real Ghostbusters: The Complete Series – Sometimes Scary, Sometimes Funny, Always Smart!

Posted by   on December 21, 2008 · 2 comments

in DVD,DVD Reviews

Forget, for a minute, that the complete run of The Real Ghostbusters comes in a box that is the team’s fire station headquarters –with lenticular “no ghosts” symbol on one side and a lenticular Slimer on another. Ignore, also, that the five volumes that encompass the series are packaged in five steelbook cases and a 52-page booklet gives you the complete episode guide – listing all 134 syndicated episodes and the 13 one-hour episodes created for ABC-TV. Forget the extra bonus disc that gives you two hours of material that comes in addition to the 20 visual commentaries; introductions for the majority of the episodes [by various members of their creative teams]; 22 isolated music and effects tracks, and trivia from the vast majority of the eps.

Ghostbusters Set

The Real Ghostbusters is unique in the history of animation for a number of reasons: it was commissioned for both a network market [ABC] and the syndicated market; each series had its own writers, directors, designers and story editors, and it was one of the smartest, funniest and, yes, scariest animated series ever to be commissioned. The ABC eps tend to be funnier, while the syndicated eps tend to be scarier [no network Standards & Practices people looking over their shoulders]. The syndicated eps are also – surprisingly, given their turnaround time per ep – slightly better animated than the ABC eps.

Whether they were trying to find a way to get an angry ghost some nap time [while visiting the set of the movie of their careers – a juicy bit of meta filmmaking], or explaining how a throwaway character from the movie became the team’s mascot, The Real Ghostbusters did something that not many movie spin-offs do: capture the feel, tone and quality of the original movie. Every episode was fast paced and the jokes ranged from the slapstick [getting slimed, for example] to the satirical [the aforementioned quiet-seeking ghost couldn’t possibly be echoing a director’s insistent calls for quiet on the set, hmmm...?].

As I screened this prodigious set, I was pleased to note that J. Michael Straczynski [Babylon 5, Changeling] was the story editor on the syndicated eps and wrote a goodly number of them [including the aforementioned Hollywood satire and explanation for Slimer’s presence]. Under his guidance, the syndicated eps were so well researched [many of the show’s menaces were based on actual mythologies, folklores and urban legends] that they had genuine heft to them. While I’ve only mentioned a couple of episodes [the Hollywood spoof is entitled Take Two, while the story of how Slimer became the team’s mascot is called Citizen Ghost], the rest of series is also as much fun now as when it originally aired.

Features [beside those mentioned above]:

Volume One: Featurette: I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghost; Image Gallery: Promotional and Development Art; Design Gallery: Night Game, and Episodic Scripts and Storyboards in PDF Format [DVD-ROM].

Volume Two: Animating The Real Ghostbusters Featurette; Image Gallery: Background Art; Design Gallery: The Man Who Never Reached Home, and Episodic Scripts and Storyboards in PDF Format [DVD-ROM].

Volume Three: Who You Gonna Call? The Heroes of The Real Ghostbusters Featurette; Image Gallery: Character designs of the Heroes; Image Gallery: Equipment, and Episodic Scripts and Storyboards in PDF Format [DVD-ROM].

Volume Four: Something Strange in Your Neighborhood: The Creatures of The Real Ghostbusters Featurette; Image Gallery: The Creature Designs of Everett Peck, and Episodic Scripts and Storyboards in PDF Format [DVD-ROM].

Volume Five: He Slimed Me! The Green World of Slimer! And The Real Ghostbusters Featurette; Image Gallery: Slimer! Character Designs, and Episodic Scripts and Storyboards in PDF Format [DVD-ROM].

Bonus Disc: Promo Pilot – the unaired four-minute original pilot; Promo Pilot Visual Commentary; Extended Interviews [Executive Producers Joe Medjuck & Michael C. Gross; Writer & Story Editor J. Michael Straczynski; Director & Storyboard Supervisor Kevin Altieri; Maurice LaMarche, Voce of Egon Spengler; Laura Summer, Voice of Janine Melnitz One, and Kath Soucie, Voice of Janine Melnitz Two]; DVD Promo Trailer [created for Comic Con 2008]; Alternate Opening and Closing Credits; Title Card Slideshow, and the Series Bible and Promo Pilot Storyboards for The Real Ghostbusters in PDF format [DVD-ROM].

Grade: The Real Ghostbusters: The Complete Series – A

Grade: Features – A+

Final Grade: A

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DVD REVIEW: Kung Fu Panda/Secrets of the Furious Five

Posted by   on November 14, 2008

in DVD,DVD Reviews

The story of how Po [Jack Black] becomes the Dragon Warrior – despite the skepticism of the Furious Five Masters, Crane [David Cross], Mantis [Seth Rogen], Monkey [Jackie Chan], Tigress [Angelina Jolie] and Viper [Lucy Liu] – is one of the year’s surprise hits, critically as well as at the box office.

KungFuPanda

The film’s DVD release is full of bonus features and, in a special two DVD package, includes The Secrets of the Furious Five. This twenty-five minute tale finds Po facing his greatest challenge – teaching a class of easily distracted young bunnies the art of king fu [Master Shifu, still voiced by Dustin Hoffman, seems particularly tickled by the situation]. To get the class’ attention, Po relates stories of how each of the Five – Crane [David Cross], Monkey [Jaycee Chan], Mantis [Max Koch], Tigress [Tara Strong], and Viper [Jessica Di Ciccio] – had to overcome such flaws as impatience [Mantis], Compassion [Monkey], control [Tigress], and so forth. Even Master Oogway [Randall Duk Kim] puts in an appearance.

Most of Secrets is filmed in the beautiful 2D style seen in the prologue to Kung Fu Panda, with CG used for scenes that feature Po and his class – and the clever cover art from the two DVDs is designed to be one larger picture when placed side by side.

There is a wealth of features on each DVD.

Kung Fu Panda: Audio Commentary by Co-Directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne; Meet the Cast; Pushing the Boundaries [improvements in CGI]; Sound Design; Kung fu Fighting Music Video by Cee-Lo; Mr. Ping’s Noodle House [watch a master make noodles from a simple ball of dough]; How to Use Chopsticks [this time for sure!]; Conservation International: Help Save Wild Panda; Dragon Warrior Training Academy; Printables and Weblinks [DVD-ROM], and Dreamworks Animation Jukebox.

Secrets of the Furious Five: Po’s Power Play: Learn to Draw [Character animators show how to draw their respective characters]; Dumpling Shuffle [which bowl is the dumpling under]; Pandamonium Activity Kit [DVD-ROM]; The Land of Panda: Learn the Panda Dance; Do You Kung Fu [demonstrations of basic kung fu forms]; Inside the Chinese Zodiac; Animals of Kung Fu Panda [and how they relate to their namesake forms of kung fu], and What Fighting Style Are You?

Grade: Kung Fu Panda – A

Grade: Secrets of the Furious Five – B+

Grade: Features: Kung Fu Panda – A+

Grade: Features: Secrets of the Furious Five – B+

Final Grade: A

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TELEVISION: Batman: The Brave and the Bold – ‘50s-Style Batman Teams Up Nicely!

Posted by   on November 13, 2008

in Television,TV Reviews

When Batman: The Brave and the Bold premieres [Fridays, 8/7C], long time Bat-fans may be surprised to see a Caped Crusader who bears more than a slight resemblance to Dick Sprang’s version of the character which ran in the comics from the mid-‘40s to the mid-‘50s. The stories will also remind of this period as they combine mystery with science-fiction, which leads to episodes like the series premiere, Rise of the Blue Beetle, where we are treated to two team-ups – Batman [Diedrich Bader] and Green Arrow [James Arnold Taylor] take down the Clock King [Dee Bradley Baker] as a warm-up to a galaxy-spanning adventure in which Batman teams up with the newest incarnation of the Blue Beetle [Will Friedle].

Brave & the Bold

In each instance we see a difference side of Batman – the friendly squabbles with Green Arrow, an equal to the Dark Knight, and a more mentorly approach with the Beetle. Each is appropriate to the partner involved, and each leads to unexpected action – especially in the Batman/Beetle clash with dreaded Justice League of America villain, Kanjar Ro [from all the way back in the original JLA #5].

Considering the amount of action and characterization contained in this episode, it’s amazing that it doesn’t feel overcrowded – but it doesn’t. Instead the quips fly fast and free; the action involved in taking down a rather mundane [for Batman] villain generates laughs, while the Kanjar Ro beef is considerably more serious [he’s found using a sentient lifeform to fuel his ships].

The writing on Batman: The Brave and the Bold is sharp and concise. It mixes a bigger dose of humor into the adventures, while knowing when to get serious. The animation is as series specific – and right for the series – as that of each of the previous Bat-shows. Plus, the series will find Batman working with a lot of interesting characters, such as: Red Tornado [Corey Burton], Aquaman [John DiMaggio], and Plastic Man [Tom Kenny]. Scriptwriter Michael Jelenic and director Bon Jones may have used Rise of the Blue Beetle to introduce the series to make it clear that it’s a different Batman series – if so, they’ve certainly succeeded!

Final Grade: A-

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