jediforce10 Reviews

Good Times (2024– )

There's no "good times" to be had with this show

[1/10 · 24 April 2024]

Before I begin this review, I must admit, I've never seen an episode of the original Good Times show. Having said that, if the original one was anything like this version it would've been canceled after one episode and wouldn't be remembered fondly at all. Even though I haven't seen an episode, I know this revival has nothing to do with the original at all. It was greatly remembered for being the first sitcom to have a black family about the struggles of life while living in the projects. While the premise may seem similar in this reboot, it completely misses the point.

The best way I can describe this show would be like The PJ's show from the 90s without any of the wit, charm, or the appeal of what made it good. While some people complained about the stereotypes in that show, the Good Times reboot goes overboard on every stereotype of the black community from the ghetto to drug dealing and so on.

This all applies to every character. Not one of them is good and they're all just stereotyped to the max. I hate everyone in this show and you will too once you see how terrible they are from the drug dealing baby to the dad just standing naked in front of his daughter and not caring about it.

Seth MacFarline was part of the revival and his involvement is clear in this show. It's like he was trying to do another version of The Cleveland Show, a show that was really bad and had stereotypes too. In fact, the baby and Ralo are almost similar in a way. Even the daughters feel similar from each show.

The "jokes", and I call them jokes very loosely, pretty much are on brand for his style of humor. Many of them either drag out or just flat out confusing and have no point or delivery.

The writing is just as bad. The show wants to try and aim for some satire, but it misses the mark with all the stereotypes. When you look at something like The Boondocks, you can tell what the writers wanted to aim for with the characters and mix a different look from an event while it can also make you laugh. Here, there's none of that. Even in moments where the show should take a moment and try to have some good meaning behind it they quickly toss it out for more stereotypes. Why?

The animation in general is cheap looking. Mouth movements look weird, characters moving look stilted, and it feels so stiff. The backgrounds and character designs feel uninspired and lack anything that's interesting.

The voice work is alright I guess, but I generally have to wonder how desperate these people were to sign for this. Did they need the paycheck that badly? Were they being blackmailed into this? I can't imagine any of them signing for this with a straight face and not having a gun pointed at them to sign a contract to this.

There's no reason for you to watch this. There are plenty of shows out there like The Jeffersons, All in the Family, and the original Good Times that do a far better job than this show. The PJs and Boondocks do a better satire than this show. It takes every stereotype of black people, cranks it up to 11, and parades it around like we're supposed to be entertained. Instead, it's dated, tiresome, annoying, and downright insulting towards a classic show that, while I never saw, made a major impact on TV. Honestly, with all the problems this show has, a question needs to be asked to the creators.

Did any of them bother to do even the slightest research on what made the original Good Times so beloved?

Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate (2024)

A mega waste of time and one that insults those who loved the film

[1/10 · 2 March 2024]

Megamind vs The Doom Syndicate could've honestly been a good sequel to an excellent movie. With the ideas possible for what to do after how the first film went, there was a great potential for it to have more to the franchise. But if this is the direction the sequels are going after a long time for waiting, then it's making me regret ever want to see this film get a sequel.

Taking place after the movie, Megamind is settling into his new role as a hero and not the villain. His new heroic life takes an unexpected turn when his former team of evil villains come to Earth with the intentions of destroying it. It now falls to Megamind to create a new team to beat his former one and save the Earth before it's too late.

Now, the premise doesn't sound too bad on paper. In fact, I was willing to give it a shot and see what they could do with it. Oh, how wrong I was with how they completely dropped the ball.

The animation in general is horrible. I know this is on a budget for a streaming service, but was this the best they could do? Characters move either very awkwardly, stiff, and in some cases their limbs look broken or out of place. Compare it to the movie that came out over a decade ago and the animation there still looks crisp and clean. This looks like an amateur's first project done.

The acting is awful. None of the cast from the first film are back and they're really missed here. Keith Ferguson reprises his role as Megamind from the video games, but he sounds so disinterested most of the time. The rest of the cast is certainly no better at all and don't seem like they want to be there. The only one who seems to be trying the best is Josh Brenon as Minion, or Ol' Chum now. He seems to at least be putting in effort.

The characters are worse. Virtually none of the charactrers, old and new, are likable anymore. The fact Minion had to change his name because of some cease and desist order is stupid. Seriously? Who orders someone to change their name because of some brand name? The kid sidekick, Keiko, is arguably the worst and downright annoying. You know the old stereotype of a kid sidekick? Keiko is all of those old traits in her and has no reason to be here.

The villains are equally as lame. Their designs are okay at best, but compared to the previous villain of the movie, Hal/Titan, they fall very short. They're either being obnoxious, stupid, or both. It's no wonder Megamind wanted to get away from them with how irritating they are.

The writing is abysmal to say the least. The charm of Megamind had some solid comedy, but knew when to be serious or combine the two. Here, many of the jokes are horribly done or so painfully obvious you can see it coming as soon as they start setting up the joke. The dialogue is somehow worst. Characters say stuff that sounds either insufferable or makes you wonder who talks like that. Even in moments that are supposed to be uplifting or emotional, the dialogue is horrible and the immersion is ruined with either dumb jokes or saying something that doesn't fit for the scene.

I can't recommend this movie at all to anyone. This isn't meant for anyone who loved Megamind and it certainly shouldn't be used to introduce someone to the franchise itself. It's an absolute mess from beginning to end and feels like an insult to people who waited 14 years for a followup. What should've been a triumph and great movie ends up being one of the worst sequels to a classic ever.

Do yourself a favor and go watch the first film, and stay far away from this disaster and I do mean stay very far away from it.

Peter Pan & Wendy (2023)

It's more fun to get chased by Tick Tock the Crocodile than to watch this

[2/10 · 30 April 2023]

Peter Pan & Wendy is the next in Disney's maddening and tiresome efforts to turn every classic animated film into a live action adaptation. Peter Pan shouldn't have been that hard to do, but Disney shows again how they're more interested in a cash grab than making something good. Take all the fun, entertainment, comedy, wit, and joy out of the original animated film and you got this movie in a nutshell.

The acting is awful. Alexander Molony does a dreadful job as Peter Pan. Peter is supposed to be this energetic, fun, charming, and confident. Molony's Peter Pan comes off as boring, uninteresting, and so bland that you wonder why anyone would follow this guy at all. Ever Anderson isn't that much better at all and seems disinterested in this whole film. The one actor who does stand out is Jude Law as he does a great job portraying Captain Hook. He's easily the best thing to come from this movie. Too bad Law's talents are wasted here.

The effects are somewhat passable. There's at least some form of effort and some of the sets do look nice. They're nothing to write home about, but they at least looks alright for the most part.

Much like every other Disney live action remake, portions of the story are cut out, shortened, or flat out changed. The Lost Boys now include girls which makes no sense considering that in the original source material boys would tend to get lost often while girls were smarter. So are they implying girls are that dumb too? Peter Pan takes Wendy to Neverland for little to no reason. The plot points in this movie are given virtually little to no explanation. It doesn't help the pacing feels very rushed and all over the place.

The film is incredibly boring to sit through as well. There's very little of the wit and charm of the original animated film at all. Everything feels like it's going through the motions with no passion. I only got a tiny bit invested by the time of the final battle and the speech Hook gave to Peter before he fell to his doom.

Look, don't waste your time on this film. It's just another awful live action adaptation from Disney. The only thing this movie has going for itself is Jude Law's performance as Hook, but that can't save this film at all. While I'll grant them they put it on Disney+ this time instead of theaters, it doesn't excuse how bad this is. It's frustrating that Disney continues to do these instead of putting in any creativity and heart into their movies these days. How many more of these live action remakes need to be made before Disney finally stops and gets back to being creative and innovative again?

If you want a great live action Peter Pan film, go see Hook that stared the late great Robin Williams. It has more heart, love, and passion than this film ever will.

Velma (2023– )

Who was this made for?

[2/10 · 12 January 2023]

Since it's creation in 1969, Scooby Doo has become an iconic cartoon series and character for everyone. Whether you grew up watching the original series, to What's New Scooby Doo, or the great Mystery Incorporated, Scooby Doo is still a popular franchise and beloved by pretty much everyone.

The franchise isn't perfect and has had its downward moments. Such example being the Scrappy Doo years when they used him too much in a lot of shows and left a bad taste. Another being the awful Shaggy and Scooby Doo Get a Clue. At least in those shows' favor you can tell there's still elements of what made Scooby Doo so memorable and great.

I say this because Velma has virtually next to nothing to do with Scooby Doo. Sure, you got the characters (except Shaggy is someone else) and Velma saying her iconic "Jinkies!", but that's about it. It may promise the idea of a mystery and how the gang got together, but after watching the first two episodes of this show if this is how the Mystery Gang got together the way they are, I doubt they'd want to stick together very long.

The first, and arguably the biggest sin, is the complete absence of Scooby Doo himself. Yes, the dog that's usually the title character of every Scooby Doo series is missing completely. Apparently, the studio wouldn't let the team use him to protect imaging brand. Yes, they wouldn't let Scooby Doo be used in a show about Scooby himself and the Mystery Gang. Why even have the Scooby Doo license if the dog himself isn't allowed in the show? Trust me when I say this is one of the least of this show's problems.

This show seems to hate its audience and hate you for liking Scooby Doo in general. It seems to take pleasure at taking pot shots at its own franchise. It mocks others for liking what made the franchise so memorable in an attempt to be edgy and meta. Instead, it's just insulting and downright boring.

The jokes are dreadful. Many of them are overly drawn out and fail to deliver anything really funny. Most of the jokes are also so clear to see where its going that you can take a good guess how it's going to play out. There's virtually no cleverness here or wit.

The characters, unsurprisingly, are unlikable too. Fred is completely destroyed in this series and made to look absolutely incompetent when he's usually a great leader who looks out for his friends and helps keep them together. Daphne is just some stereotypical rich girl. Shaggy (I refuse to call him his new name) is just boring now. Velma herself is easily the worst of them all. Velma is usually the most level headed of the group and has great intelligence and her sassiness made her really great. Velma in this show is nothing like that. She's very nasty, cruel, and beyond arrogant in this series. She's cruel to her own friends and to everyone around her. If Velma was like this in any other Scooby Doo show, the others wouldn't put up with her at all and probably want to stay away from her. Honestly, this "Mystery Gang" is so bad that you'd think they were from a bad parody from a Robot Chicken sketch or an episode of South Park.

This series also has been saying it's supposed to be about how the Scooby Doo gang got together. Well, we already have plenty of material and even a TV movie that shows the origins. It was Called Scooby Doo The Mystery Begins, and while that movie was flawed it at least treated the franchise with more respect than this. This is easily one of the worst origin stories for an iconic group ever.

I truly can't recommend this show to anyone at all. It's not for Scooby Doo fans. It's not for adults. It's not really for anyone at all. It has no clue who it's for and what the target audience is. If it's not boring you with its attempts to joke about its own franchise, it's annoying you with how bad the characters are.

You know, if this show didn't have the Scooby Doo license all over it, I doubt this show would've gotten a second look. It would've been met with a shrug and be overlooked. They probably slapped it on at the last second to try and draw in more views.

If you want to see Scooby Doo for adults, go watch Mike Tyson Mysteries, Mystery Incorporated, or the excellent Supernatural crossover with Scooby Doo. Just forget this show ever happened and that it was nothing more than a bad dream. Any other Scooby Doo show is worth more of your time than this awful mess.

Pinocchio (I) (2022)

Just another live action remake disaster from Disney

[2/10 · 10 September 2022]

Why? Why does Disney continue to do this? You would think after how many of their live action films have been disasters from The Lion King to Beauty and the Beast that maybe they'd learn these remakes aren't needed. They all try to recapture the magic and feeling of their original counterparts, but fail to do so. Pinocchio continues that trend with a lazy remake that lacks the heart and soul.

What's sad is that maybe this film could've been saved because it does have a solid cast and a good director, Robert Zemeckis; who worked on classics like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Back to the Future. Despite all that though, the film is a disaster from beginning to end.

Much like a lot of the other Disney live action remakes, Pinocchio is just a recycled version of the 1940 one that tries to do the same scenes and hit the same notes, but it's clearly not the same and lacks so much of the impact or means of keeping your attention.

Some things lack a proper feeling of tension or buildup. The Monstro scenes in particular are a major highlight of this problem. In the 1940s version, Monstro is built up as this terrifying being that should be feared. Here, there's virtually nothing at all and he just kind of appears out of the blue.

The characters are another massive issue. Everyone looks and feels so uninterested in what's going on in the film. They all either have the same expression or when they try to do another expression it's like a forced one. Everyone looks almost bored in all the scenes of the film.

The villains are just lame in this film. The 1940s one made the villains to be creepy and sinister with what they do. The villains in this movie are more goofy and over the top instead of intimidating and making you fear them. They're more bumbling idiots than scary villains.

The acting is another major issue worth mentioning. Tom Hanks, as much as I love him, just doesn't cut it in this film. He seems very uninterested and wants to do something other than be here. The same could be said for almost every other character. The one that did probably put in the most effort was Benjamin Ainsworth as he does a somewhat admirable job as Pinocchio. Everyone else is just going through the motions.

The CGI looks downright awful as well. It's amazing how despite so much money Disney has that this is the best they can do. Pinocchio looks creepy and feels choppy with his movements; even though he's a puppet it looks awkward. The Blue Fairy looks like a joke and unintentionally made me laugh at how ridiculous she looks. Everything looks cheap and on a string budget. How is it possible that Disney could produce such cheap animation and think it was a good idea?

While the film tries to recapture scenes from the 1940 version, there's so much cut out from it. The biggest offense has to be with Pinocchio dealing with his consequences for his lying and other bad things. It's completely cut out from this film and takes away a major theme of the 1940s version. Pinocchio had to learn that lying and stealing were wrong as part of his path to becoming a real boy and learning to listen to his conscience about what was right and wrong.

It's completely gone in this film. There's no major theme involving such an important lesson to learn. This means things like how he ended up on Pleasure Island are not because of his bad choices, but because of coincidence or the plot demands it with no logical sense.

The only thing I'm willing to say that may be a positive is at least the music is decent. Not as good as the original one, but at least it's passable for the most part and isn't as frustrating as the rest of the film.

Why can't Disney understand these live action remakes don't need to exist? They've all been awful in their own way, and this film is no different from the rest. While not as bad as The Lion King, that's not saying a whole lot.

Once in a while there can be something visually nice and the music isn't too bad, but it's not worth the time to sit through this mess. Just do yourself a favor and watch the 1940s version or wait for the Del Toro version to drop on Netflix as it looks more superior to this utter mess. This is another pathetic cash grab from Disney to cash in on nostalgia, it's one that you should avoid as well as the other live action remakes; including the upcoming Little Mermaid remake that's most likely going to be another disaster.

Johnny Test (2021–2022)

An awful revival to an awful show. What less could you want?

[1/10 · 22 July 2021]

It's truly baffling how this revival even exists. What exactly did Netflix see in Johnny Test that they decided to revive it? Maybe the idea was that like a lot of other networks they wanted to cash in on reboots and revivals. However, Johnny Test is neither nostalgic nor was it ever a popular show to begin with. It was an awful ripoff of Dexter's Laboratory and had abysmal ratings during its run. Seriously, how did Netflix see this show as a good idea for a revival?

Now to be fair, revivals and reboots usually tend to fix issues that the original show had. A great example being Webby from Ducktales who was annoying and irritating. The revival updated her to be much better. So, you'd expect there to be some of those improvements here, right?

Not this revival though.

While there are a few minor improvements such as removing some of the obnoxious sound effects and the plots are not as repetitive, pretty much all the same problems Johnny Test had during its run are still present. Johnny is still as much of a jerk as he was in the original series. Many of the jokes are still not funny and are either predictable or try too hard. The villains are still as a lame as ever and terrible. This revival just seems to pick up where the original series ended without trying to do anything to make any major improvements.

The sound effects are still as bad as before. While the imfamous whip crack sound effect isn't used as much, at times it still does go off. Whenever somebody freaks out, there's some goofy over the top sound effect that's irritating. They do, thankfully, cut down on the of sound effects, but they're still as terrible as before.

The animation in the original show was already bad. Somehow, the show's animation is even worse. The coloring seems overblown most of the time making everything look very bright. The characters still move stiffly like they got arthritis. I didn't think it was possible to somehow make bad animation even worse, but this revival did the job.

The plots aren't as repetitive as before, but they're still boring and nothing to write home about. Many of them are predictable and are utterly boring. I'll give it some credit and say that at least they aren't constantly recycling the same plots as before, but that's not saying a whole lot.

There's really nothing else to say about this revival at all. If you've seen the original Johnny Test at all, then congratulations you've already seen this revival. Nothing major has been improved to make the show better at all. Instead, the show is still as bad as before with its lousy jokes, an unlikable main character, even worse animation, and plots that are boring. There's nothing to this show at all and it shows. While there are a few minor improvements, it can't save this show at all.

Johnny Test wasn't a good show to begin with. It was terrible all around and had abysmal ratings during its run. It wasn't popular at all and was constantly criticized for being a Dexter's Laboratory wannabe. So why did Netflix decide to revive this? It feels like they just chose this show to cash in on nostalgia and chose the cheapest show to produce it and make no major improvements.

Don't waste your time on this thing, okay? There are far better revivals and reboots out there worth your time. If you want a good reboot, go see Ducktales or wait for the Darkwing Duck reboot to drop. If you want a good revival, go see something like the Hey Arnold jungle movie or the Invader Zim movie. Let this thing fall into obscurity and hope this show is buried once and for all.

If I ever run into any of the people who thought of and green lit this revival, I will take that same whip they used to make that terrible sound effect and chase them down with it.

Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)

A legacy of awfulness

[2/10 · 16 July 2021]

Being a huge fan of the original Space Jam, a sequel wasn't generally a bad idea but I never saw any reason for there to be one. Perhaps one could argue a sequel can work if you got the right talent, the right sports star for it, and a solid plot. It could be possible to do something like this, but you'd need to find all the right things.

Space Jam 2 doesn't have any of those elements at all. The film is a complete mess from start to finish. It really has no reason to exist at all. If anything, it makes me wonder why anyone bothered with this in the first place at all. It's painfully obvious though that the film is trying to cash in on nostalgia for those who loved the original Space Jam film. Sure, Space Jam definitely had its weird moments but at least it worked and was fun and entertaining; much more than this film.

The first strike against this film is who they chose to be the sports star. So they want to stick with a basketball player, so who do they choose? Somebody fantastic and loved by lots of people? Like maybe Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, or Kobe Bryant? Nope! Make way for Lebron James. Why he was chosen is beyond me when I felt there were other better choices is beyond. That's only the beginning of the problems with the movie though.

If you thought Michael Jordan's wooden acting was bad in the first film, Lebron James is somehow worse. Lebron is either taking things too seriously or is trying too hard to be funny. Jordan's acting was wooden yes, but at least some of the deadpan deliveries got some chuckles from me. Here, James is trying too hard to be serious or funny without balancing it out.

The other actors are okay for the most part; given the material they've got to work with. Some of them are good like Bugs and Daffy being pretty good. But the acting in general is really nothing to write home about. It's just passable at its best.

Most of the problems with the acting though can be attributed to the awful script. The dialogue is repetitive and it gets tiring really fast. Lebron constantly saying he has to save his son or, more annoyingly, the constant gushing over Lebron James himself. I know the original Space Jam definitely gushed on Michael Jordan, but good lord does this film take it to another level. The movie has to remind us again and again how good Lebron James is, and it gets sickening quickly.

Equally bad is the comedy in this movie. The first film's comedy did have some awkward moments in it, but a lot of the jokes worked well and still stand up well to this day. The jokes in this movie are instantly dated or are tiresome. Hearing Granny say "haters gonna hate" just felt cringe worthy and a lot of the visual gags just makes you want to roll your eyes. The only slightly good joke was Sam shooting those basketballs; it got a slight chuckle from me.

The CGI and cartoon effects look good for the most part. However, the Looney Tuns don't work out well in the 3D portions. They all look rather poorly designed and facial models (particularly Bugs and Lola) look off and jarring. The other designs are fine for the most part though.

The film relies heavily on a lot of winks and nods to other WB properties such as The Iron Giant, some appearances of Harry Potter for some reason, Austin Powers, or A Clockwork Orange. They don't add anything to the movie overall; nor does it serve any purpose aside from some poor fan service. If anything, seeing those characters will remind you there are better films you could be watching than this.

The story overall is just an utter bore. The whole movie plays it in a generic way that has very little creative twists or turns. There's very little creativity in this film and the whole movie ends up being by the numbers in how it plays out. There is one twist that may get you off guard, but not by much. There's no sense of fun, no entertainment, and no joy. It just feels boring and dreary.

The original Space Jam definitely had its problems for sure, but at least it felt like a fun film that was tongue in cheek entertainment for everyone involved. This movie though feels like it has only one demographic being targeted; very little kids, and I do mean very little. Even then, kids would be more entertained with almost any other movie than this.

Do yourself a favor and forget this film happened. Go watch the first Space Jam with Michael Jordan. While that film has its own problems, it can at least still entertain and give some great laughs. This film really serves no point at all other than to be a cheap cash grab. The only legacy this film has is one of wasting your time and being an overall failure.

Star Wars: Resistance (2018–2020)

This is just a mess

[4/10 · 10 October 2018]

I know the show has only begun and I hate to really judge it so quickly, but I have to say Star Wars Resistance has done very little to get me interested in the show. When I first saw the trailers, I was very skeptical, but I decided to give it a chance. Rebels kind of looked weird when I saw the first glimpses of it, but it turned out great upon seeing the first few episodes. I wish I could say the same for this series.

Resistance naturally takes place between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. It centers on a guy named Kazuda Xiono, or Kaz for short, who's joined the Resistance and has been tasked to spy on the First Order. However, he's been given the job of a mechanic as a cover to his real mission and works with a crew. Kaz has to learn to be a spy and a mechanic so he can continue his mission and find out what the First Order has planned.

Well, that sounds like a decent enough story, but the first major issue is that there seems to be no direction at all in the story. In the three episodes I've seen, it's been all about Kaz screwing up or getting over his head and having to fix his mistakes. They talk about spying on the First Order, but they haven't had much of a presence in this series. They talk about them, but nobody seems to care at all.

Another major issue are the characters themselves. Kaz seems like he could develop fine as he's stated he's always been handed everything by his dad and wants to make something for himself. However, he's really whiny about stuff like work or when things go wrong and mopes around. He's constantly lying to others for no reason at all other than to impress others, but he comes off as just overly smug or makes himself look stupid.

The supporting cast is certainly no better either. I HATE Neeku so far. The guy is supposed to be the "comedy relief", but this guy is just not funny at all. His jokes are terrible, go on for too long, or just cringe worthy. And what's with Neeku's VA? Why does he sound so amateurish? It's like this is his first time acting and they decided not to do another take with his lines or try to make him sound better.

Tam is just annoying to say the least. She seems to always be one of two things; either angry or snarky. She seems always angry at something and a very hotheaded person that's not likable. I don't think she's ever smiled ONCE so far, and always seems to have a scowling expression on her face. I know Zeb from Rebels was angry or snarky, but at least they didn't make him be scowling all the time. Tam is just angry all the time and never seems to be happy at all.

Jarek is alright I guess. We do learn some things about him like how he was in the Rebellion and at the Battle of Jakku. However, as a supposed mentor to Kaz, he's terrible. He offers no advice to Kaz, nor does he even really teach him stuff at all. He just tells him to not blow his cover and get to work. He doesn't even bother teaching Kaz about being a mechanic or do anything at all to help him along the way.

The minor characters aren't even likable and everyone acts like a complete jerk all the time. The only likable characters so far have been BB8 and R1-J5, AKA Bucket. They seem to be the only likable characters as they aren't either telling bad jokes, aren't constantly angry, or being downright useless. How sad is it that the droids are better characters than the fleshies we've seen in this show?

The comedy is also terrible. The jokes are so easy to predict, and as I said earlier with Neeku, his jokes are flat out terrible. The only funny ones were Bucket hitting Kaz, or Neeku saying he ate his dead pet. Every other jokes has been nothing short of cringe worthy or awkward.

The writing is also lousy too with virtually no major character development for most of the characters. Nobody seems motivated at all to fight the First Order at all. Jarek doesn't care at all, despite being told by Poe about the threat. The others don't seem to care at all. Nobody has any major development, or feel like actual people you could relate to.

The art style is awkward too. It took a while, but I did eventually get used to it, but it still looks weird to me. I think they were going for some cell shaded type of art, but I wish they stuck to the same art style as Clone Wars and Rebels. I'm not sure if this was Filoni's decision to change it, or Disney. At least the animation is rather smooth.

There's not much else for me to say about this show. I know it's probably too early for me to judge this show since it only began, but this has been a bad way to start this show off. Rebels had its problems too when it started, but at least it got me interested in the first couple of episodes. Here, I'm just shaking my head at the bad jokes, unlikable characters, and lack of any kind of story.

I don't want to hear the "It's a kid's show" excuse. Rebels and Clone Wars also were meant for kids, but it had stuff too that attracted older fans. This show better get its act together quickly. I think this show could possibly work, but it has a lot of issues to iron out quickly before it tanks. As of right now though, this show is just a hot mess, and needs to get it together. Maybe if it does get better, I'll come back and redo this review. Just please get better for my sake, show.

Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie (2017 TV Movie)

Hey Arnold! This movie is awesome!

[10/10 · 25 November 2017]

Hey Arnold! was a show centering around a kid named Arnold and his adventures with his friends and around the city. But one thing the show never got a chance to do was show us what happened to his parents when they went to South America. After 14 years though, Nickelodeon allowed Craig Bartlett to come back and bring us the conclusion we've been waiting for.

When Arnold and his friends are selected to a trip to San Lorenzo, he hopes to find his parents in the country he disappeared in. But they all soon end up getting caught up by the infamous river pirate, Lasombra, and their trip takes a turn for the worse. Now on the run from Lasombra, Arnold and his friends must find the mysterious Green-Eye People and discover the truth of what happened to Arnold's parents.

If you've been a longtime viewer of Hey Arnold!, you'll notice nothing hasn't changed much from how the characters are, the jokes, and everything that made the show so charming and wonderful. In fact, it feels like everything was preserved perfectly and it picks up where the first movie left off. Every running gag from Pookie's wild antics to Brainy getting punched by Helga is in it, and there are plenty of callbacks.

The voice work is also fantastic. While Mason Vale Cotton's Arnold voice may seem a bit odd, he seems to do a fantastic job capturing the football head we all know and love. The original cast come back to reprise their roles and all sound fantastic as well.

The story, as mentioned before, focuses a lot on Arnold finding out what happened to his parents, but also focuses back on the love Helga has for Arnold. I have to admit, I feel the romance subplot is handled way better in this movie than how it was in the theatrical movie. The interactions between Helga and Arnold are handled well here and it all builds up to the inevitable confession near the end. It also finally gives closure as well to the Gerald and Phoebe romance hints we got in the show with them becoming a couple too.

I have to also give the movie props for not only maintaining a lot of the elements from the show, but also managing to get emotional about Arnold's desire to find his long lost parents, to even getting dark at times; especially with Lasombra. The movie manages to hit a lot of emotional high notes and takes a lot of risks with some of its dark moments. Something I really appreciate since a lot of shows these days love to play it safe.

Lasombra himself is a fantastic and cunning villain. I got to admit, he's clever in what he does from manipulating Arnold about his parents, to even getting most of his crew killed just to get to the treasure and not care at all. He even manages to fight off a poison dart for a while just to try and kill Arnold and his friends. He's a really threatening villain all around.

About my only real gripes are that the Pataki's are still so careless around Helga (although Bob at least remembers her name), and that the movie kind of ends a bit abruptly. I was kind of hoping for a scene of Arnold showing his other friends his parents, but it just suddenly stops with them being back home again, and everything ends with Arnold and Helga closer, and Gerald and Phoebe a couple.

Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie does have some minor flaws, but after 14 years of waiting, it was worth. Everything is handled fantastic from the writing, to the character, to the jokes. The story is good with lots of great twists. The villain is awesome. It's a good movie all around and serves as a great series finale for Hey Arnold!

I've heard rumors that if the movie does well enough, Nick may ask Craig to revive the show, and the crew would be back again to get the show going. If they do so, it should be about the spin off series; The Pataki's. It was supposed to center around Helga's family, but Nick deemed it too dark. If there is no revival though, I won't complain as this movie perfectly wraps up everything. It took 14 years, but Bartlett and the Hey Arnold! crew brought us a fantastic movie that wraps up everything and will satisfy everyone.

The Emoji Movie (2017)

This movie should be considered a crime against humanity

[1/10 · 28 July 2017]

Everything about The Emoji Movie is as bad as you would think it is. The people who came up with this movie should either be arrested for making this awful thing or be never allowed in making movies ever again.

I admit that I had no intention of seeing this film, but because my little cousins thought, for some weird reason, that it would be good, they dragged me to it. I desperately tried to keep an open mind thinking, "This may turn out to be like The Lego Movie. It sounds like garbage, but it may surprise me."

You can guess how quickly those hopes were dashed.

I could go into detail about the "plot", but if you've seen any of these "be yourself" kind of movies, then you have already seen The Emoji Film. The movie is predictable from start to finish, with no major surprises. It's inconstant as well when it comes to Gene and how he can't control his many emotions. Yet later on, he does so without any problem at all. What was the point of that?

Speaking of Gene, the characters are not interesting at all, and I never cared about any of them. Gene is just a boring main character, and he's not interesting at all. The so called "comedy relief" of Hi-5 is more obnoxiously irritating than funny. Then there's this lady named Jailbreak who acts somewhat like one of those feminazis on Tumblr.

The voice work is also pathetic too. Despite the great cast they had at their disposal, the actors sound so bored and uninterested in delivering their lines. Then again, the dialogue is ridiculous and most of it sounds like stuff no person would ever say like, "Play it cool, just send an emoji." Who talks like that? I really got to wonder how they got these people to even be a part of this mess, especially Patrick Stuart. Were they that desperate for a paycheck that they sacrificed their dignity to be in this?

The only thing I'll say to this movie's favor is the animation does look decent. Textopolis does look colorful and has some good attention to detail such as the old style emojis. It at least has some effort put into it, unlike this film.

What makes The Emoji Movie so bad is not just because it's a movie about emojis, it's because this film does everything so lazily and doesn't care at all. The script is wretched with awful dialogue for everyone. The story is nothing interesting at all. It's unoriginal in every aspect and has nothing notable about it.

The only amazing thing about this movie at the end was that nobody laughed, and most people left the theater (not that there were a lot of people) before the halfway point. Even my cousins, who begged me to take them to see it, realized how bad it was because they asked if we could leave a little after the halfway point, which we gladly did. They were at least nice enough to apologize for wasting time on seeing this boring, irritating, mess of a film.

And to think that THIS is what canceled the Popeye animated movie; which looked like it had more love, care, and good jokes. Way to have your priorities straight, Sony!

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2017–2022)

It may be cloudy with a chance of meatballs, but this show has a 100% chance of sucking

[2/10 · 10 March 2017]

Why? Why did this need to be made? Maybe to somebody at Cartoon Network, they saw some merit in a show like this, but was anybody really demanding a show from this? In case you aren't aware, I'll give you a quick summary. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs started out as a very popular children's book that I still love to this day. In 2009, Sony decided to adapt the book into a movie that was pretty entertaining and fun. It had a sequel in 2013 that was disappointing and boring.

So after all the time has passed for these movies, CN decided it needed to have a TV show. So the main question is this; why? If this had come out during the time of movies, I could understand it, but this show came out in 2017, 4 years after CwaCoM 2 came out. By that point, you could easily find both movies in the Walmart bargain bin. But yet CN went ahead and had this show made.

Serving as a prequel to the two movie mentioned before, the show basically ends up being another one of those high school shows, but focusing on Flint, his friends, and his inventions. In a way, this show kind of reminds me of Jimmy Neutron with some of the premise and the genius main character and wacky inventions. It's a real shame this show couldn't be as good as that show.

Many of the episodes usually play out the same way. Flint makes an invention, it goes wrong, he has to stop it in some way, and the day is saved. To be fair, there are some episodes that don't involve Flint's inventions going nuts such as him and Sam babysitting Brent (Yes, that is real and it's as bad as it sounds) or about how Steve wins the lottery. The problem though is that these episodes play out in a very simplistic way with no real twists or anything unique to them at all. All the plots are just boring messes that won't entertain at all.

The voice acting is nothing to write home about either. None of the cast from the two movies come to reprise their roles, so they got new people instead. They do a decent enough job with the scripts given, but nothing about the voice work is that good. It sounds like they're just going through the motions and giving little effort.

The jokes are no better at all. Some of them are okay, but a lot of the jokes either are weak, or ones you can see from a mile. It either does forced in jokes, references, or even some crude humor. None of it works at all in this show at all.

Perhaps the biggest problem this show ultimately suffers from is how generic and boring this show is. Everything about this show feels so uninspired in every way. From the plots of each episode, to the jokes, to the characters being so bland and one dimensional, and to how everything plays out in each episode. There's no variety, twists, or anything unique about this show at all. The lack of creativity and overall blandness really makes this show an utter bore.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a reminder that just because you can make a TV show based on an animated movie, doesn't mean you should. If it's not boring you with it's tiresome stories, it's making you cringe with it's bad jokes. It's an extremely bland show with nothing unique to it at all, and serves as nothing but a terrible and very late attempt to get in on the popularity of a movie franchise. It was uncalled for and never should have been made at all.

If you want to see a show about a genius and his inventions, go watch Dexter's Laboratory or Jimmy Neutron. If you want to see a good show based on an animated movie, go watch one of those Disney shows like Aladdin or The Little Mermaid. If you just really love Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, just stick to the movies and book instead. This show is just another mark in the growling list of failures from CN, and something they need to pull off the air ASAP.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Friendship Games (2015)

Let the games begin...eventually

[2/10 · 15 January 2017]

I've never exactly been a fan of the Equestria Girls movie series, but I've always given them a fair chance to see what they have to offer. Despite the flaws from the first two movies, there were things I enjoyed from both of those films. Whether it was the villains, some of the songs, or the interactions between Sunset and Twilight, the first two movies did have some good things in it. This movie though? I can't say the same at all.

Taking place after the events of Rainbow Rocks, the human world's Twilight Sparkle, who was seen at the end of the last movie, is going around investigating the strange readings around Canterlot High. Meanwhile, the main focus is supposed to be about how Canterlot High is getting ready to face their rivals, Crystal Prep Academy, in the Friendship Games. Sunset is tasked with keeping the magic under control while the games are going on.

Notice how I used to the word "supposed" in regards to the Friendship Games. Don't be fooled by the so called title of the movie. Despite it being about the Friendship Games, they barely play a part in the movie at all. That's the least of this movie's problems though.

The real title of this movie should've been "Twilight's Magical Hunt." All that happens for most of the movie is Twilight going around Canterlot High and stealing magic in some device she made. A lot of the scenes in this movie can be described as the following: Twilight meets one of the Humane 5, interacts with them for a little bit, one of the girls ponies up, Twilight's device steals magic from the girl, and then a small scene with Sunset talking about the magic or the Friendship Games. There is so little going on in this movie that it gets very boring very fast.

As I mentioned earlier, the Friendship Games hardly play a part in this movie at all. They talk about the games and all, but we hardly ever see them at all in this movie. You want to know how long it takes before we finally get to what is supposed to be the focus of the movie?

One hour.

You have to wait a full 60 minutes, in a 90 minute movie mind you, before the Friendship Games are ever shown. What's even more insulting though is that these Friendship Games are only around for 15 minutes before they are dropped from the movie completely. So out of the 90 minutes, the games are only around for 15 minutes. That's not even a fifth of the movie!

The songs themselves are also pretty lousy. Many of them are just forgettable and aren't that interesting at all. The only one I liked was the final song about unleashing the magic. The rest of the songs though are just bland and not memorable. Even the first movie had a better soundtrack than this.

The villains are just lame. Principal Cinch has to be one of the most note villains ever. She's not the least bit memorable. The Shadowbolts, while slightly better, are disappointing. While they are polar opposites of the Humane 5, and the intro title made it look like the two groups would face off against each other, they barely do anything in the movie themselves. The only Shadowbolt I liked was Sugarcoat, and that was because her bluntness was hilarious.

Then there's the final conflict with Midnight Sparkle. When Twilight gets engulfed in magic, it turns her evil. Why is she evil? Because the movie said so. I know the old saying is power corrupts, but there's no buildup to Twilight turning evil. It would've worked out better if Twilight showed resentment for the way the rest of the school treated her. Here, she's just evil for evil's sake.

Speaking of final conflict, this battle basically rehashes the climax from the first movie. Seriously, it's almost played out the same way. It's the same setting, same characters involved, and even Midnight Sparkle reminds me too much of Demon Sunset. I guess you could say this was meant to be an homage and some sort of test for Sunset as she went through this before, but this is a cheap cop out for a final battle. And the way it all ends is head scratching. All that happens is Spike, who can now talk thanks to magic, distracting Twilight, Sunset overpowers her, and convinces her to stop. Talk about an anti-climax of an ending.

There are really only a few minor things that I did take from this movie. One, the romance subplot with Flash and Twilight is ignored completely. Two, at least pony Twilight didn't return in the movie until the end. But those aren't enough to help this mess of a film.

Friendship Games is an overall mess, and arguably worst than the first movie. While the first film was bad, it at least had a three act structure to it, and some character development. This movie is a total mess and a complete bore. Aside from Sunset Shimmer and Human Twilight, nobody gets any screen time to develop their characters or anything. The story is all over the place with no focus, and it rehashes elements from the first movie. The villains are either lame or disappointing. The songs are bland. The writing is weak and the jokes aren't that good.

I can't recommend this movie to anyone unless they are a die hard Equestria Girls fan. Otherwise, I would suggest staying far away from this mess of a movie. And I do mean stay far away from it.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks Animated (2014)

Better than the first movie, but still has problems

[7/10 · 14 January 2017]

Rainbow Rocks is the sequel to the first Equestria Girls movie. The first film was pretty bad that had a predictable story, a mixed bunch of songs, a generic setting and premise, and was nothing more than a cheap attempt by Hasbro to compete with Mattel's Monster High series and sell toys of the MLP characters as humans. Despite the mixed reception and all, a sequel was made, but this time it would have Sunset, the villain of the last movie, take center stage.

Taking place after the events of the first movie, Sunset Shimmer has been struggling to fit in and make friends with everybody; especially since the school is still angry at Sunset for the years of torment she put them through. As Sunset struggles with fitting in, three mysterious girls come into the school and use some magic to twist the school and "feed" upon their hate and bickering. Now faced with a new threat from Equestria, Sunset must get Twilight to come back and team up to take down this threat.

The first thing I'll say to the movie's credit, is the story is much better than the first movie's. While still predictable and by the numbers, this one actually works out a bit more and does have some better elements in it. The story overall is nothing amazing, but at least it's a step up from the previous movie at least.

What's not so good though are some of the forced plot elements. When Sunset needs help from Equestria, she writes in a magic diary that can communicate with Princess Celestia. Yet as we see in Equestria, Twilight ends up with it for no reason at all other than because movie said so. There's no explanation as to why Twilight has something so dear to Celestia in her possession other than because the plot demands it.

The other major forced thing is the romance between Flash and Twilight again. If you thought the first movie was bad, this is even worse. Not only is the dialogue between them still terrible and awkward and we still know nothing about Flash, but it also makes Twilight seemingly stupid. For example, Twilight meets with her human friends after being told about the new threat. The first thing she talks about? How Flash has been talking about her. Yes, this is the first thing she brings up in regards to a threat to the human world. And don't even get me started on that near kiss.

Speaking of Twilight, while the movie seems to focus on Sunset initially and her dealing with her past demons, the movie ultimately focuses on Twilight. Sunset's story about her wanting to show she's changed doesn't get a lot of focus as a result. It's rather irritating since she was supposed to be the main character, but instead gets pushed aside by Twilight. To be fair though, like the last movie, the interactions with Sunset and Twilight are good again. They have some good character development and the scenes are pretty sweet overall. It's just a shame that it feels more like Sunset gets kind of pushed aside.

The villains end up being three sirens disguised as humans. Sonata Dusk, Adagio Dazzle, and Aria Blaze, AKA the Dazzlings. They're much better villains than Sunset was in the first movie. While Sunset relied on intimidation alone to rule the school, these girls use magic and systematically take over. They also get a few good laughs, especially Sonata, and are enjoyable villains overall.

With the theme of the movie being about a battle of the bands competition, there are a lot of songs in this movie. Unlike the first movie with how mixed the songs were, all the songs in this movie are really enjoyable. From the Rainbooms, to the Dazzlings, and even Trixie gets a song in. They're all enjoyable and different in their own ways. Even if you don't like the movie, I'd definitely buy the music for this movie and listen to it.

The climax is better as well. Ignoring the really weird inclusion of Vinyl's car (Another toy Hasbro wanted to sell), it was kind of over the top and kind of exciting to see the sirens in their true forms and it was kind of awesome to see Sunset step up to the plate and help save the day. It's nothing amazing, but at least it's a step up.

While not perfect and not something I'd watch constantly, Rainbow Rocks does end up being much better than the first movie. It does improve on many things such as the story, villains, characters, and songs. However, it still has some issues that hurt it as a whole. Twilight taking over ended up being the thing that hurt the most here. Sunset barely gets to do anything and gets pushed aside. Combine that with some issues with forced plot points and the terrible romance subplot, and it brings the movie down. However, those things won't ruin what is a pretty rocking movie overall, and is worth checking out.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013)

A bland movie that severely lacks any of the magic FiM has

[4/10 · 14 January 2017]

Since its launch in 2010, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has been critically acclaimed as one of the greatest shows of the modern era. It's fantastic line up of characters, good morals, and good comedy made for something really magical. While the show itself has hit some big bumps here or there, it's still going strong.

With all of this success, Hasbro decided that a TV movie series was needed about Twilight being in another world. That world, of course, being the human world and her being in high school. A simple question has to be asked in regards to this whole thing: Why? With all of the creativity in FiM in both the show and fandom, why choose something so generic and bland as the high school setting? My only guess about that was because Hasbro wanted to compete with Mattel's Monster High series. Even with that said, I feel that something like this was bound to be not as good as FiM, but I was willing to give it a fair shake.

The story is simplistic. Twilight Sparkle has her crown stolen by Princess Celestia's former student, Sunset Shimmer. Twilight has to chase her through a magical mirror that takes her to an alternative world where every pony is actually a human. Now Twilight must race to get the crown back and bring an end to Sunset Shimmer's dark reign over the school.

The story itself is just a complete and total bore. I know this is a kid's movie and the plot shouldn't be complex, but FiM has taken some predictable story lines and spiced them up. This story is pretty much paint by the numbers about how things go. From the story about Sunset never losing the Fall Formal, to Twilight being the underdog in the competition for the crown, it is very simplistic and predictable. It feels like they were playing it too safe with this movie. There's nothing really about the story that stands out.

The writing is okay for the most part. There are a few good lines here and there and, while the jokes about Twilight fitting into the human world are predictable, some of them are pretty decent. There are some pretty good moments such as Twilight and Spike in the library, or really just any scene with Twilight and Spike talking with each other.

The writing also manages to nail down the characters in their human forms to the best extent. You can all look at the human forms of the Mane 6 and see how similar they are to their FiM counterparts. Their designs overall are decent at best. All the characters have their own unique design that stand out well.

The other characters are alright at best, bar for one. The villain, Sunset Shimmer, is a pretty good villain, but not as good as some of the other past villains from FiM. I did like how much of a polar opposite she was to Twilight, and I generally enjoyed any of the scenes with her and Twilight. She honestly ends up being the best thing about this movie.

Then we have the "romance" interest. I say romance in the lightest form possible because this has to be some of the worst romance writing ever. Flash Sentry is pretty much a stock tool. He ultimately has no character to him whatsoever. The only thing we do know about him is that he just plays a guitar, and that's it. Yet for some reason, Twilight falls for him. There's no buildup to it, no real interaction between them aside from some really awkward dialogue, and ultimately feels very forced. Simply put, this is some of the worst romance I've ever seen in any form of media.

The songs are honestly a bit of a mixed bag. They're pretty decent for what they are, but nothing amazing to be honest. The only one that I enjoyed was the one about the Humane 5 encouraging the students to help Twilight win the crown. For the most part though, the songs are decent at best and forgettable at worst.

The final battle is okay as well, but nothing too exciting. In a way, it kind of reminds me of the series opener's final showdown with Nightmare Moon. Twilight uses the Elements of Harmony from each of her human friends to ultimately wipe out Sunset and "reform" her. The problem I have with this reformation is that it feels rushed. She's blasted with the Elements, and then suddenly turns good. It feels off and confusing. I kind of wish they added a bit more of Twilight and Sunset trying to duke it out with each other instead of them constantly doing a predictable chase after the crown bit. The ending does leave the door open for a sequel, and surprise there were three (soon to be four) sequels to this movie.

Equestria Girls isn't an awful movie, but the problem is that this movie really reeks of blandness in almost every way. It's story is not very generic, but the human world really has nothing about it that stands out at all. The characters, aside from Sunset, Twilight, and Spike, are kind of bland as well. The romance interest, as I said, feels awkward and forced. The final conflict feels pretty short lived and I felt Sunset's turn to good was a little too quick.

Every once in a while, it does have a decent scene with Sunset, Twilight, or Spike, and a few of the songs are okay, but they can't save this movie. There's not much to say about Equestria Girls because of how much it just feels so stale and predictable. Unless you are a die hard fan of the high school drama stories, you are probably better off skipping this movie.

Legends of the Hidden Temple (2016 TV Movie)

A great blend of nostalgia and a decent story make this Temple Run good!

[7/10 · 27 November 2016]

Anybody like me who grew up in the 90s knew about the amazing game show on Nickelodeon called Legends of the Hidden Temple. To me, it's one of the greatest game shows to ever exist with some great obstacle courses, interesting stories, and the temple runs were always fun to watch.

Imagine the surprise of many though when it was revealed that this game show was coming back as a movie. To be honest, I was really skeptical on this because there was a question that I think many others asked; how do you turn a game show into a movie? Well, Nickelodeon found a way to do so, even going out of its way to getting Kirk Fogg and Dee Bradly Baker back to reprise their roles again. Considering as well that Nick's TV movies have often been hot garbage, it still made me feel nervous. But I was still willing to give it a shot at the end of the day.

Three siblings named Noah, Dudley, and Saddie get away from a temple tour and get a map to the temple from the guide, Kirk Fogg. After failing to get her brothers back, Saddie, Noah, and Dudley fall into the temple, and meet King Olmec. He tells the three siblings about how his son, Zuma, was supposed to inherit the kingdom from him, but another son of Olmec's, Thak, and his band of Temple Bandits attempted to take the Amulet of Life. With no other choice, Olmec imprisoned his people in stone to stop Thak, and now it's up to the three siblings to save Olmec and his people.

Admittedly, the story is a bit out there, but then again there never was a story to Legends of the Hidden Temple itself. For the most part, it's a pretty standard story about a power hungry person wanting to rule. The story is decent enough and it does give some general good background for the Temple itself.

Kirk Fogg and Dee Bradly Baker are just as awesome as they were all those years ago. Baker is still doing a solid job as Olmec. Kirk, while not doing much in the movie, still puts on a great performance overall and is overall having fun in this film.

The other actors are, surprisingly, not that bad for a Nick TV movie. Usually, Nickelodeon TV movies have actors that range from mediocre to awful. This movie actually had some good actors who didn't come off as annoying or look like they were trying too hard.

The characters themselves aren't bad either. None of them really came off as annoying or terrible at all. At first, they seemed to be rather flat characters, but they do have some general character development. All the characters are good in their own way and each do have a time to shine. For a Nick TV movie, that is an accomplishment.

While the characters are good, the same can't be said for some of the dialogue. While not awful, some of the dialogue can be a bit cheesy. One thing to the movie's credit though is that as it goes on, the writing does get better and the dialogue doesn't feel as bad.

The special effects are not very good either. I know this is a TV movie and the budget is going to be limited, but some of the effects like the Purple Parrot blowing up and the explosion at the temple gate just looked terrible. Granted though, some of it like the look of the Silver Snakes and the Green Monkey did look pretty good. It's nothing that ruins the film, but some of the effects could have honestly been better.

The Temple itself is really well put together and the scenery is great overall. It has pretty much all the rooms from the original game show like the Pit of Despair, the Treasure Room, the Quicksand Bog, and, of course, the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. The movie even pokes fun at how long it took people to put together the Silver Monkey. Anybody who watched the show always knew that the contestants took forever to put it together. When it said "Four hours later" and they still didn't have it together, I laughed at that.

It sadly only showed one treasure from the show, which was Galileo's Cannonball. I wish they could've shown more of the treasures, but at least the movie acknowledges the treasures the contestants would run for in the game show.

The action itself is pretty good for the most part. I do like how the siblings are able to overcome some of these problems like in the Pit of Despair. The puzzle solving and riddles are pretty well thought out too like in the Treasure Room. It's got a lot of good elements to it that make the movie pretty exciting overall.

While not perfect and having its own issues here and there, Legends of the Hidden Temple is a good movie overall. It not only has callbacks to the game show itself, but it stands on its own merits pretty well. While some of the effects are terrible, and it does have some problems with the script and the story does end up being somewhat predictable, it's nothing that hurts the movie overall.

I usually don't find Nick TV movies to be that good since most rely on tired formulas, but this movie manages to not only be nostalgic in a way, but a good movie overall. If this movie does do good enough, maybe we'll see the return of the game show itself. If it happens, hopefully Kirk and Dee Bradly Baker will return again.

If you're a Legends of the Hidden Temple fan like me, you owe it to yourself to check out this film and return to the temple again.

Cool Cat Saves the Kids (2015)

An anti-bullying movie made by a person who bullies others

[1/10 · 19 February 2016]

Cool Cat Saves the Kids may seem like a very cheap PSA film about dealing with bullying, but it goes beyond that. Despite its intentions to teach kids about stuff ranging from dealing with bullies to what to do about guns, it's a complete and total mess that offers nothing to its target audience, assuming there was one to begin with as this film doesn't seem like it would even appeal to kids.

Cool Cat is apparently this lovable and friendly cat who loves kids, being nice, and helping others, but in reality, he's neither cool, nor does he even "save the kids" like this movie says he does. Most of the time, Cool Cat fails to do anything at all to help save kids. Either an adult is there to resolve the situation, or the police take care of it.

Not only that, but Cool Cat fails to give any good advice on what to do with bullies. For example, a kid gets a text message from someone she doesn't know, and Cool Cat tells her to read it. She does so, and finds out the message insults her. Then she gets another text from the same person. What does Cool Cat say? That perhaps the person who sent that message didn't mean it. Ignoring for a fact that reasoning is beyond flawed, if someone sent you a cruel text, what makes you think the next one will have the bully apologize? Another example is how Cool Cat is bullied online. Rather than block the person initially like any other person would, Cool Cat decides to reply back with a pathetic comeback message and only feeds the troll. So not only is our "hero" not saving kids, but he's also completely inept at stopping bullying like the movie says it does.

The other characters are not any better either. Everyone seems to be giving zero effort, or are really just being hammy; especially Butch the Bully. None of them seem to care at all, but you can't blame them for staring in such a bad film. The only one who seems to be giving effort is Daddy Derek, who is played by the creator of this film himself, Derek Savage. Even then though, he is just really hamming it up in this film.

Perhaps worst of all is that this film is so boring and unnecessarily long. A lot of scenes go nowhere, and there is a lot of padding in the movie like Cool Cat going to Hollywood to be in a parade, or him preparing for the day, or exercising. None of which teach kids anything at all about dealing with bullies.

The few lessons and morals that are in this film feel so forced and spoon fed that it quickly gets on your nerves and is stuff so simplistic, any other PSA could do better.

It doesn't end there with the movie though. Derek Savage himself has noticed the amount of negativity towards this movie and has been going around deleting and taking down reviews that criticize and are negative towards this movie.

Most notable of all is his attack on a YouTube reviewer named I Hate Everything. IHE received threats from Derek Savage over his negative review towards this movie. Even going as far as impersonating a law firm to intimidate him, and then later on make a video accusing IHE and people who hate this movie as "haters" and "liars", and to even encourage others to send hate to IHE. So not only is Derek Savage a failure at making an anti-bullying movie, but he's also a complete and total hypocrite who can't take the slightest form of criticism. If that's not the sign of a bad director, I don't know what is then.

Stay away from Cool Cat in general. I wouldn't wish this on anyone; even my worst enemy. There's no reason for you to support this cat who seems to be a pedophile, and Derek Savage. This isn't even a "So bad, it's funny" movie. Its morals are lousy, its title character does nothing and is moronic, and there is virtually nothing to take away from this movie. Kids deserve better than this, and Savage and his ugly looking cat need to just fade away into obscurity and never be seen again.

Game Shakers (2015–2019)

Game Over, Nick

[2/10 · 18 September 2015]

In Nick's never ending quest to establish the bottom of the barrel, Dan Schneider's once good career continues to go down the toilet with this new show he made. But I have to be honest; when I first heard of this show, I was actually a little curious due to the fact that it would also star Kel Mitchell. Kel is one of my all time favorite TV stars and I loved him in Kenan and Kel and Good Burger. I figured it was still going to be bad, but not so bad that even Kel himself couldn't save this show.

Kenzie and Babe are two kids who make some really bad ripoff of Flappy Bird, and it somehow gets so popular, it makes them a lot of money and popular on the internet. What soon follows is a rapper named Double G coming in and making a deal with all of them being business partners.

There are multiple words that can easily describe just how bad this show is. Ranging from ear-bleeding annoying to complete garbage. It manages to hit every annoying note in a live action show. From bad jokes to annoying character, this show hits every bad note.

The actors themselves, save for Kel, are just annoying. They either act over the top at certain things or they do EXCESSIVE SCREAMING AND YELLING. Seriously, there is not a single scene where one or more characters are yelling or screaming loudly like as if they stubbed their toe. Kenzie gets a bad grade? She rolls on the floor and screams like a banshee. It's annoying and makes you want to punch them out.

All the characters are annoying and make me want to hit them with a bat. In fact, some of them remind me of Dan's other show, iCarly, another show with a good premise that ended up being awful.

Babe reminds me of Sam with her rude and irritating behavior. Kenzie is your generic nerd who acts all insane over having perfect grades. The teacher is an idiot who likes to rub it in kids' faces when they fail. Even Kel's character, Double G, isn't that interesting, despite him probably being the best character. Hudson is like Gibby from iCarly. The rest of the characters are just bad and I couldn't care less about them if I tried.

Hudson alone is a good contender to be in the top 100 worst characters in a sitcom. I'm convinced he was dropped on his head as a baby... from the very top of the Empire State Building. Seriously, this kid is annoying in every way. He giggles like a moron at everything. He crashes into a wall? He giggles. He gets placed on a hook? He giggles. He hears about someone's grandmother in jail? He giggles. This kid needs to be slugged and placed in an incinerator. Though I'm sure while he's burning, he'll still giggle like a moron.

Kel, as I've said, I deeply respect and he's a great actor. While he does get a few laughs out of me here and there, he's not really interesting at all. At times, he's trying too hard to be funny, and sometimes he looks embarrassed. I do applaud him though for trying desperately to bring some entertainment to the show and does give it his best.

The jokes don't work most of the time. While Kel does have some decent jokes here and there, every other joke is awful. For example, at a restaurant Kenzie believes an earthquake is occurring when it starts shaking. What does she do? She yells stop, drop, and roll. Ignoring for a fact that this is what you should do when YOU'RE ON FIRE, it's done so over the top, it ruins what very little humor was in it. Then we have Kenzie having her mouth open in front a camera and acting goofy around it. The cherry on top is when Hudson asks, for some reason, if any of Double G's members are Jewish. What does that have to do with anything!? It's not funny and it makes no sense! Oh, and of course, the tiresome laugh track returns and sounds off every two seconds.

They even got some YouTube stars in on the show to try and liven the show up and make it more popular. There's this one girl I don't remember except for her constant screaming. But they got ProJared, and you can tell he is flat out embarrassed to be a cameo on this show. He even did a video about it shortly before the show was released to advise his viewers and subscribers to NOT WATCH THE SHOW. That is how bad it was.

Above all, this show is not realistic in the tiniest bit. The teacher claims video games don't benefit humans, which has been proved wrong in multiple studies. Methinks this teacher fails to keep up with the times. There is no way a ripoff of Flappy Bird would reach #1 in less than a day. And, of course, no way all all two kids own a video game making business. There's a clear difference between suspension of disbelief, and then flat out insulting your intelligence. This show crosses that line multiple times.

Kel, I love you man, but this was seriously not worth it. Everything about this show is awful. The writing is deplorable, the characters are annoying, the jokes range from bad to senseless, the yelling and laugh track are ear bleedingly bad, and it has no realism at all. The only somewhat decent thing in this show is Kel since he seems to be giving it his all.

Dan, it's time for you to consider retiring. If iCarly wasn't proof you were done for, then this show is sadly the last nail in the coffin of your once great career. Let's just hope that it'll soon be game over for this show.

Rugrats Pre-School Daze (2005)

The final nail in the Rugrats' coffin

[1/10 · 27 August 2015]

I thought All Grown Up! was as bad as the Rugrats could get. Apparently, someone wanted to find a way to drag the franchise deeper through the mud though. And as bad as All Grown Up! was, there were at least still some things I could say were good about it. There's also a good reason why this show is so obscure and considered the black sheep of the Rugrats franchise.

Rugrats Pre-School Daze centers around Angelica and Susie as little kids again. They both go to the same preschool and get on each other's nerves. Angelica is usually causing trouble, so Susie has to find a way to stop her and saves the day at the end of each episode.

Sounds decent, right? Well it would be if it wasn't so repetitive in every way. Each episode plays very similar. Angelica causes trouble by lying to the students. The kids get panicky and fearful. Susie investigates Angelica's claim and exposes her as a liar. The class goes back to normal. There are some plots about a school play or news reporting, but it's certainly nothing to write home about at all.

By the way, it should be noted that the classmates of Angelica and Susie have got to be the most gullible children of all time. The kids are constantly falling for Angelica's lies. Nobody is skeptical or remembers the previous times Angelica tricked them. They all immediately fall for it without a second thought. I know the babies in the original Rugrats are guilty of this, but they at least did remember when she tricked them, AND they were babies. These are older and smarter kids. These are the most easily led kids I've ever seen.

The teacher is certainly no better at all. All she does in every episode is one of three things: Whine about watching kids. Complain about the kids. She cares less about the kids and more about herself. How or why she's still a teacher and hasn't been fired yet is beyond me. She doesn't even really watch over them or anything. She just wants to do stuff on her own and could care less about the kids.

The jokes aren't that good at all. I don't recall a single joke being good, and the jokes you do find are often flat and don't work at all. There's none of the cleverness or fun unlike Rugrats.

Speaking of Rugrats, I fail to see why this has the Rugrats name in it because none of the other Rugrats characters show up. Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Dil, Kimi, or even the adults show up at all in this show. So what's the point here? To bring in old viewers of the original show? The artwork is absolutely awful. The characters all look like they have porcelain faces with red rosy cheeks and their bodies look weird. They look more like dolls, not humans. Is this Rugrats or Child's Play: Preschool Panic? The animation is somewhat better, but that's not saying a whole lot. The characters move fine and lip syncing isn't terrible. It's not bad, but just passable. It's probably the only good thing about this show.

At the end though, Rugrays Pre-School Daze would be a big flop and be pulled off the air after only four episodes. That's right, it only lasted four episodes before being pulled off the air. Even if it lasted longer, this show was a failure anyway. The characters are either boring or annoying. The plots are uninspired. The jokes aren't funny. The artwork is awful.

As a Rugrats show, it's very badly done. As a show about school life, there are better shows out there. Instead of giving more life to the Rugrats franchise, this show officially put the final nail in the coffin of the franchise. Unless you want to waste your time on boring episodes, annoying characters, and bland jokes, make like Chuckie and run screaming from this pitiful excuse of a Rugrats show.

Pixel Pinkie (2008–2009)

Not just bad, but very bland and boring

[1/10 · 2 December 2014]

What do you get when you take the repetitive formula of Johnny Test and mix it with all the bad things of The Fairly Oddparents? You get a really big ripoff known as Pixel Pinkie.

Airing only in Australia, Pixel Pinkie centers around two girls named Nina and Anni. Nina gets a cellphone for her birthday, but it has a magical fair. . . I mean, genie known as Pixel Pinkie, who can grant wishes. Nina and Anni decide to use Pixel to make any wish they want, but it always goes horribly wrong and they have to fix it.

If you can't tell from that plot summary, this IS a Fairly Oddparents clone. From the whole magical being granting wishes, to the oblivious child shirking off responsibilities and thinking wishing will solve it all, and even to keeping the magical being a secret from everyone, it's nothing short of an FOP ripoff.

All the characters on this show are terrible. The main character, Nina comes off as whinny and complaining most of the time. She doesn't have any likable traits, nor does she ever seem to learn any of her mistakes. The antagonist, Suzi, is your generic mean girl for the sake of being mean. Her friends, who's names I don't remember, but don't care, are just bland and forgettable girls who follow Suzi around. Pixel herself doesn't have much of a character, nor do we know much about her at all. We don't even know where she came from. Everyone in this show is as bland and generic as you can get.

Add to that, the plots are also rehashed from other shows and have no attempt to add something new. Such thrilling episodes include Nina using Pixel as a clone of herself to go to a party to avoid babysitting. Another involves trying to get rid of a zit. Not only do these plots sound boring, but they are boring and are extremely predictable.

Not to mention that they constantly reuse the same plot formula. Nina and Anni make a wish. The wish goes bad and they have to fix it. Everything is resolved at the end with nothing learned at all. Rinse and repeat and you got this show in a nutshell. Even Johnny Test, as repetitive as that show is, had at least two part episodes. You'd get more variety in watching a blank TV screen.

The jokes are also really bad in this show. It seems the writers think seeing Pixel pull a stuff animal out of her nose, while it's covered in snot, and thrown on Nina is funny. If it's not that, they attempt to tell jokes about fashion or having Pixel try to do the simplest things like opening doors or something. It's not only not funny, but it's boring.

The artwork and animation is deplorable to say the least. The characters and set designs look uninspired and very bland and generic, with nothing sticking out. The animation is some of the worst I've ever seen in a cartoon. The characters have such stiff movements that it makes sock puppets look good in comparison. Not only that, but lip syncing seems to be off as well. I've seen better animation from a Go Animate video.

The bottom line is Pixel Pinkie is not only just a horrendously bad show, but it's really boring and uninspired. The characters are just bland and lifeless with no memorable traits. The plots are extremely predictable and offer nothing new. The jokes aren't funny. Pixel is not interesting, nor do we know anything about her. It's just a bland, boring, and bad show all around.

If this show ever airs in America(I pray it does not), I hope this review will convince others to stay away from it. Because when you're making watching a FOP episode involving Poof or Sparky more desirable than this show, you know you've messed up.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

Congratulations Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3. You are no longer the worst TMNT movie ever.

[2/10 · 8 August 2014]

Before I begin this, I want to say I'm not exactly the biggest TMNT fan out there. Having said that though, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is so bad that it'll probably make any fan, whether they be casual(like me) or a die hard fan. When trailers of the film first came out, I thought it looked like the new Transformers movie. But when I finished seeing it, and noticing Michael Bay was behind it, I had a bad feeling about it.

Even though Bay is only producing and Jonathan Liebesman is the director, who was behind Battle: Los Angeles, this film still feels like a Michael Bay film. From the over the top explosions, really loud sound effects that'll probably make you deaf, and, of course, Megan (I can't act) Fox.

The story is mostly recycled from the first TMNT film from way back in 1990. The Foot Clan is terrorizing New York City and crime is at an all time high there. Apparently, though, they want to ally themselves with some corporate guy, spread a toxin, and sell the cure to the government for money. After that, we are pretty much treated to the typical Michael Bay stuff you'd see.

The fight scenes are very similar to that of Bay's four Transfomers movies. They're long, very bloated, and everything is pretty much exploding like every item is combustible. I was somehow expecting Optimus Prime to somehow show up. Though, part of me wants to say this was action stuff Bay had not time in to fit in Transformers 4 and decided to use it here.

The acting is a mixed bag. The actors voicing the turtles are decent enough and are rather believable. They also do a decent job keeping the turtles to their same personality, sometimes. However, Megan Fox is NOT cut out to be April O'Neil. She just has this constant dull surprise expression, or is staring at the camera, not sure how to react. Not to mention she's not tough or confident like in the TV shows. She's more of a coward than anything. Tohoru Masamune is a very mediocre Shredder. I don't feel intimidated by him at all. The original Shredder in the first two TMNT films was much better than Masamune here.

Perhaps the actors could've done better if the script wasn't so bad. The dialogue is bland as sawdust and it looks like some of the actors seem embarrassed by what they have to say sometimes.

Not to mention they get the origins of the TMNT and Splinter wrong. Instead of Splinter being Hamato Yoshi's pet, or Hamato Yoshi himself, he turns out to belong to April when she was younger, along with the four turtles. The turtles themselves were actually supposed to be found by Splinter, but instead they all end up in the sewer together. So forget following continuity or respecting the source material.

The jokes provided by the turtles are not funny either. Instead of clever gags or witty jokes from our heroes, we're treated to fart jokes and other raunchy material.

Speaking of which, the Turtles look ugly. I know they're supposed to be mutants and going for some realism here since it's live action, but this is ridiculous. I couldn't be intimidated with how goofy they look, even if one held a gun to my head. The animation for them is also stiff as a wooden board and, I swear, lip syncing looked off.

Perhaps the worst part of this movie is that it doesn't have any of the joy or fun of TMNT. It's extremely dark and joyless. While there were dark elements in the shows it had, it was lighthearted most of the time. Here, the film is dark and probably dark for the sake of being so. There's no joy, no fun, no laughs to be found. It's rather depressing instead.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fails as a reboot to the franchise and triumphs as a means of insulting the hardcore fans who love the TMNT since the first TV show. If its story isn't taking its sweet time to get going, its throwing bad jokes at you. Not to mention bad acting, bloated action scenes, horrible CGI turtles, and pretty much straying far too much from the TV shows everyone grew to love. And the stuff that does have to do with the shows feels like a slap in the face.

Sadly, I've heard that a sequel is in the works already. What's worse is that they're bringing in Casey Jones and Beebop and Rocksteady. Stick to the TV shows and the three movies I say and spare yourself the agony of this film and its possible sequels.

Shorty McShorts' Shorts (2006–2007)

Disappointing and Dreadful

[2/10 · 19 July 2014]

If you grew up in the 90s, you most likely heard of What a Cartoon! And Oh Yeah! Cartoons, with the former airing on Cartoon Network and the latter airing on Nickelodeon. The concept was ingenious with each show's focal point being to show new cartoons and see which ones would take off and get their own show. It was a big success with shows like The Powerpuff Girls, The Fairly Oddparents, Codename: Kids Next Door, Chalkzone, and so many more shows(Though, WaC successfully created more cartoons).

With the success of these shows, Disney decided to get on board with their own show about promoting new cartoons. . . . in 2006. By that time, What a Cartoon and Oh Yeah! Cartoons had long since been canceled, so Disney was way late to the party. Either they wanted to wait until the competition was dead, or cash in on the nostalgia of OY! and WaC. But hey, better late than never, right? Well, after this show, they should've stuck to the never part.

One of the biggest failures of this show was that almost every cartoon idea pitched in was dead on arrival. Take for example, Dudley and Nester Do Nothing. It's nothing more than someone taking the Mr. Magoo formula and modernizing it. That formula wasn't funny then, and it's not funny now. Another one being Boyz on Da Run(Nice grammar job there) which is literally nothing more than a boy band running away after they're revealed to be using a lip syncing machine. Mascot Prep is nothing more than a generic high school show about a kid fitting in, except the emphasis is on mascot products like for soap and so on. There are many more, but not only were these ideas dead on arrival, they were dead the moment they were thought up. It's like these creators had only five minutes to come up with ideas.

Not all the ideas were bad though. Too Many Robots! was actually not a bad idea. The concept of a show about a country girl living with her mad scientist uncle and his robots sounded great. Another good one being Flip-Flopped, which was basically kids being adults and vice versa. Finally, SheZow!, a show about a tough boy becoming a female superhero.

The problem was that, like the other shows, the execution was poorly handled. In TMR!, the main character, Digit, is a whinny, stereotypical teenage girl. In F-F, it's just the kids acting like adults and adults acting like kids. SheZow! wasn't too bad though.

There was no attempt to be creative at all, instead it relied on stereotypes and recycled plot lines. Not to mention all the jokes in every cartoon, the good and bad ones, were not funny at all and extremely predictable.

The only show that managed to get its own show was SheZow!, but it never aired on Disney. With some changes here and there, it was revived on the HUB Network. Why Diseny never picked it up, I'll never know.

The artwork and animation is deplorable. I know there are pilots, so the budget for these shows won't be huge, but for a first impression, they just looked unappealing. Almost every character designed looked uninspired and ugly to look at. The backgrounds looked very generic, with nothing interesting to look at. The animation overall was no better as it looked very choppy and stilted.

Shorty McShorts' Shorts fails at being a good launch point for new cartoons and to cash in on the nostalgia factor. Almost every concept for a new show was not only awful, but they were uncreative. The few there were got screwed over by bad writing and bad execution. It was a complete waste of time overall that should never have happened. Maybe one day, they'll bring back shows like What a Cartoon! and Oh Yeah! Cartoons to launch new shows, but hopefully, it will never reach the sheer awfulness of Shorty McShorts' Shorts.

Clarence (2013–2018)

Surprisingly good!

[8/10 · 4 June 2014]

Admittedly, when I first saw promos for Clarence, I was really turned off by it. The show looked really weird and honestly, it seemed to remind me, for some reason, of The Problem Solverz. I got curious one day about it though and decided to watch an episode on YouTube, and let me say this. You know the old saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover"? Well this show proves that old saying again.

In Clarence, it centers around a boy of the same name, with his friends Sumo and Jeff. Usually, either Clarence or he and his friends get into some kind of adventure, with hijinks ensuring. Alright, the show's premise isn't the most original, but most shows can reuse an old premise and make it good. It's something the show does do a good job on.

You know how shows like Uncle Grandpa and Breadwinners don't follow any kind of plot line? Well this show actually does follow a plot. They aren't anything groundbreaking, but the stories themselves are pretty good. The one where Clarence goes to the grocery store, I have to admit I felt like I was watching that Rugrats episode where Tommy went to the store and caused destruction, which is something that also happened in this episode. It's a very nice callback. The other stories can range from Clarence making his own money, to him and Sumo having fun in a playpen. The show does try to be creative, which is something I really welcome since most shows these days seem to lack that.

=The character, surprisingly, are really good. I have no real issues with these characters at all. Clarence is a very good protagonist. He isn't stupid like Fanboy an Chum Chum, or Sanjay and Craig. Nor is he annoying like Uncle Grandpa or the "heroes" from Breadwinners. He's a good kid who's helpful and wants to just have fun. I really like this kid because of how kind he is and even though his methods are out there, his intentions are harmless.

His friends, Sumo and Jeff are pretty good too. Sumo's a nice kid too, but he's often the one causing trouble and chaos to others. To his favor, at least Sumo isn't like a Patrick Star ripoff, like how most shows these days seem to have the best friend be like him. Jeff, he's kind of like Squidward in a way, but they keep him unique too. He's pretty uptight, but at the end, he learns something about having fun. The mom reminds me of the one from Phineus and Ferb because of how oblivious she is to what her kid is doing. Again, nice to see there's some inspiration from other shows.

The jokes are another good thing. There are no fart jokes, or extreme randomness for the sake of randomness. It has some good jokes and antics like how Jeff goes nuts over his fries being stolen and those light up shoes Clarence was wearing. There are some laughs to be found in each episode and, the best part, no crude humor at all. Something that's a welcome breath of fresh air.

Where the show falters though is in two categories.

One, the voice acting is pretty bad. Clarence and Jeff sound pretty good, but everyone else? Not so much. Clarence's mom sounds like she's got something in her throat and very nasally. Sumo, has got to have the worst though. It sounds like he smoked a bunch of cigarettes from the moment he was born and this is the end result. It's not God awful like The Mighty B!'s acting, but it could've been a bit better.

The other problem goes to the artwork. The set designs are good, the coloring is very nice, and the locations are creative, but the character designs are just lackluster. Jeff has a cube head for some reason. Clarence and his mom have some pretty weird designs that make them look like circle with limbs sticking out. Sumo looks very skinny and his head looks odd. It's not a big turn off, but it looks a bit weird. I don't know what they were going for here. However, the animation makes up for it. The characters move smoothly without a choppy feeling and it looks good.

Clarence, overall, is a simplistic cartoon about kids doing stuff kids would do. It's simplistic premise and good characters make it a fun show to watch. It doesn't try to be over the top or extremely epic, but that's part of its charm. It's a funny and innocent cartoon about what kids do. It was a bit of a risk, but I think it payed off and I think this show has plenty of potential. And you know what? With Stuart "The Devil" Snyder gone from CN since he resigned and this show came out a little after he left, maybe CN can finally put the dark legacy of Snyder behind for good and we could see more good shows like Clarence in the future.

Peppa Pig (2004– )

Extremely annoying

[1/10 · 28 May 2014]

If you want a kids' show that offers next to no morals, have annoying characters, and teach kids to be rude, then Peppa Pig is right up your ally. The idea of a little girl and her family learning life lessons could've been fine, but it turns out to be a complete chore to watch.

If you thought Caillou was bad enough, then Peppa Pig is right up there in terms of being an annoying brat. In almost every episode, Peppa is usually whining about something, being selfish, or being very rude to everyone. She constantly puts down what others, especially around her brother, George. She always acts annoyed with him and doesn't act like a good big sister.

Not only that, but Peppa is really irresponsible and never seems to learn anything. In one episode, she loses her stuffed bear, Teddi, again(Yes, she loses this bear on a regular basis). The mom tells Peppa she must be responsible about her stuff. Not even two seconds after Peppa gets Teddi back, she acts like she did nothing wrong and blames Teddi for getting lost, even though Peppa was at fault.

George, Peppa's little brother, is no better at all. It seems he's always got his mind on dinosaurs and only says dinosaur. He also cries constantly in a wailing voice that's like hearing nails scratching a chalkboard in surround sound.

Mummy is the only decent character, but only because she's the only member of the family who acts like the disciplinary one. She does lecture the kids and her husband about things, but she's also a complete airhead. She often allows her kids to do something like play in the mud, and doesn't do much to punish Peppa or George if they do something completely wrong.

Daddy, I feel sorry for in this show, but at the same time, he is a complete moron too. Everyone seems to always pick on him for no reason. His chair gets taken by Mummy and then he buys it back. Peppa and George act rude around him by interrupting him, calling him fat, or just being disrespectful of him. All the while, he takes this all in stride. However, he's pretty dumb and can't even get the most basic of instructions right. On the other hand, I feel really bad for him since he's always getting picked on by his own family. The fact that he hasn't lost his mind yet is also amazing.

The plots, if you can call them that, are really jumbled and most of the time, they go nowhere. A lot of episodes feel very rushed and don't offer anything to learn at all. The morals themselves, the few there are, are horribly handled or shoehorned in there at the last second. The episodes don't follow any kind of plot, but just some stuff happening and a few tidbits of learning here and there. There's no substance, there's very little stuff to learn, and the learning stuff in each episode is so small, kids won't even pick up on it. Also, the episodes usually end with everyone falling on their backs for some reason and laughing. Why? If these episodes have no point or moral, then what purpose is there to them?

The behavior in this show has got to be probably the worst aspect of this show. Everyone acts so irrational in this show. Peppa is always being rude and demanding to her family and friends and acts like a spoiled brat if things don't go her way. George is always crying over something minor and never stops talking about dinosaurs. The adults never get mad at their kids for being rude or disrespectful, but instead laugh it off. Nobody acts like a normal being and it sends a bad message to kids that being rude won't get you in trouble.

Not to mention the parents allow their kids to do stuff like jumping in mud puddles, eat their food loudly and slurp it all down. None of these parents do anything to correct their kid's behavior.

As if that wasn't bad enough, there is a narrator. And just like in Caillou, the narrator here serves no purpose but to point out the obvious like kids are too stupid not to realize something. When George cries, the narrator has to needlessly point out that George is crying. When Daddy said the dinosaur was lost, the narrator had to repeat that like kids are too stupid to remember something said less than a second ago. This narrator is as useless as the one in Caillou.

The artwork and animation is awful, to say the least. The character designs are so poorly thought out that you'd think none of these artists have ever seen the animals in this show. In fact, most of them look like recolors with different ears. The backgrounds and set designs are even worst. There's no shading at all in the show, no details at all in the background, and it's nothing but green hills with some trees and a few clouds. Everything looks so repetitive, bland, and uninspired.

The animation in general is just as bad. The characters move so weirdly and awkwardly that I've seen snails have more movement than these characters. It's very choppy, the lip syncing is off sometimes, and everyone moves like they have major arthritis or something.

In a sea of never ending bad kids' shows, Peppa Pig is only another example of how bad they've become. Its morals are few and far in between. The characters are not only rude, but they act insane. The plots make no sense most of the time, nor do they go anywhere. It's just another kids' show to add to the list to avoid. So unless you want your kid to learn to be rude, disrespectful, bratty, and whinny, then you'd better put on something else like Curious George.

Postcards from Buster (2004–2012)

This isn't a show. This is somebody's home movies they decided to put on TV.

[2/10 · 22 April 2014]

For as long as I can remember, Arthur has been a big part of my childhood. It's easily my favorite book series as a kid and is one of my favorite educational shows as a kid. During one of the show's episodes, Buster leaves Elwood City for a vacation with his pilot dad and goes around the world. This led to a spin off known as Postcards from Buster.

In this show, Buster goes to other countries around the world like Egypt, Italy, and so on. In each episode, Buster learns about different cultures, the types of food there, and traditions in each country. Sounds like fun, right? Well it would be if the show wasn't a complete bore.

Throughout a majority of the show, we never see the title character, Buster. We hear him interact with the people he meets, but we don't see him until the end of each episode. Most of the show takes place in a first person perspective that takes place in real life.

First of all, why is this taking place in the real world? Shouldn't this be animated like in Arthur? Secondly, why have this all take place in this first person POV? I get they're trying to go for what Buster recorded on his trips, but this comes off more like somebody did some home movies, PBS learned about them, and decided that Buster should voice over these videos to show his adventures. This is just a lazy move to save money, or, most likely, the team was very cheap and didn't want to do animation.

I'm also not kidding when I say we don't see Buster at all in the show. We only see him in two places. One, the opening theme. Two, the ending. We hear what he wants to do or how intrigued he is in something, but we don't see him interact at all. My question here is why even have Buster be the star when we don't see him through 99% of the show? Now that's not to say this show is complete garbage. There are some good stuff for kids to learn from the locations Buster goes to. They can pick up some historical icons from the locations. Maybe the traditions in certain places. There's some education to be found here, but ultimately kids will grow bored. Anybody who's a fan of Arthur will want to see Buster, but just hearing him all the time and not seeing much of anything else gets boring very fast. There's no variety, there are no laughs to be found, and since most kids have a short attention span, they may not want to pay attention very long to the history stuff.

If the show was animated, had Buster become friends with other people, and had adventures with said person, that would work out. They could keep some of the educational stuff about places around the world and mix it up a bit with the life lessons from Arthur. That could've made the show as successful as Arthur. Instead, we get a show that's boring and resembles somebody filming a day in the life of their home.

Postcards from Buster is an overall forgettable show that was a bad attempt to try to be as successful as Arthur. While it has some good educational stuff in it, kids will get bored very easily because of the lack of variety in each episode. We never see Buster himself in the show, but only his voice, making it a lazy effort. There are no laughs, nor does it have the charm that Arthur has. This show is just too boring for anyone, especially for those who love Arthur. If you're a parent wanting to show kids the world of Arthur, have them read the books or watch the excellent TV show, even if it has jumped the shark and has some bad episodes. As for this show? Keep the kids away from it. This is just a skid mark on the good name of Arthur that needs to be best left forgotten.

The Christmas Tree (1991 TV Movie)

May the people behind this "special" get nothing but coal from Santa from now on

[1/10 · 13 January 2014]

I've seen quite a few bad Christmas specials like "The Night B4 Christmas", but I don't think it has anything on the sheer awfulness of "The Christmas Tree". It's everything wrong with a Christmas special and would turn even the most joyous man into a bitter Grinch after seeing this stinker.

The plot centers around a rundown daycare, where a woman by the name of Mrs. Mavilda is making the kids' miserable because she is really strict on them. The children's' only friend is a tree named Mrs. Hopewell, albeit all they do is stare at it everyday, but that's the least of this movie's problems. So when a new assistant arrives, named Lily, and her two kids, they all try to teach them about Christmas.

So what's so wrong with this movie? The premise is pretty mediocre, but that doesn't matter at the end when a good story with a good moral is done like in every other Christmas special right? Wrong. Very, very wrong.

First off, the artwork and animation is beyond hideous and sloppy. While the sets and backgrounds look decent enough, the character designs are horrible. Everyone's eyes and facial expressions are guaranteed to give kids nightmares and creep adults out. They all have blank, soulless eyes and sinister smiles and I feel that they're going to steal my soul. The animation is no better at all, it's even worse actually. The lip syncing is so off key, that it's like watching sock puppets try to talk. Every bit of dialogue never seems to match the lip movements of the characters. Not to mention that these characters barely move. They never seem to have any movement and when they do move, it's like they have chronic arthritis or something.

Secondly, the voice work is beyond awful even for a low budget special. The actors put zero effort into their parts, resulting in everyone sounding monotone and lifeless. The worst actors though go to the ones who voice the kids. I can't even understand what 90% of them are saying because their voices are very garbled and unclear. I know these are little kids, but at least let us understand what they're saying.

The next big problem is that the story is ultimately told very badly. There are a lot of pointless scenes that go nowhere. Sometimes, there are these horrible edits that show two things happening at the same time. The pacing is also really horrible and the quest to bring Christmas isn't done until towards the end of the film. Not to mention that there are some plot holes ranging from why Santa just randomly drops presents everywhere to what caused Mrs. Hopewell to be hit with a lightning bolt that resulted in Mrs. Mavilda being hit and somehow becoming nice. Many elements in the story are left unexplained for no reason and is irritating.

The final gripe, and possibly the worst aspect of this film, is its so called "moral". To put it bluntly, the moral here is so awful and misguided that you'll be wondering what the point of this whole film. Apparently, according to this movie, "You always win when you are good." Yes, this is literally the moral of this film. Instead of something like how everyone gets together to be with their families, or helping those in need during the holiday season, we get a horrible message that being good means you'll always win. If this isn't the worst moral in a Christmas special, then I don't know what is. As bad as "The Star Wars Holiday Special" was, it at least had some decent moral, even if it wasn't entirely clear, it had a moral. This movie's moral is beyond lazy and completely misses the point of Christmas so much so, you have to wonder if the people behind this film even know what Christmas is.

Overall, while this film may, keyword: may, be funny to laugh at how bad it is, it's nothing but a heartless film with a horrible moral, a badly told story, and horrible animation and voice acting. There's really nothing good I can say about this so called "special" and it's best left forgotten. So the next time Christmas comes around, find a way better special like the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I'd even say go and watch the live action one. At least Jim Carry was amusing to watch in that one unlike this film. So unless you literally want to find a film that makes you hate Christmas, then avoid this abomination at all costs.