stefanor99 Reviews

The Jungle Book (2016)

Had high hopes for this one

[6/10 · 17 April 2016]

Just got back from taking my 3 year old to this, she absolutely loved it, mesmerised by the scenery and the talking animals which are incredibility photo realistic. From her point of view it was a pretty great film.

However she's also a fan of the original animated version of the film, as am I and I am sad to say the new version although great with live action is sort of a disappointment.

It's like they try to make it a little truer to the original story at the expense of the light-heartedness of the original. It doesn't quite work as well as it should. They took King Louie and made him into an intimidating monster which is a shame because his character in the cartoon was one of the best.

Hats off to Jon Faverau for giving it a shot and not completely messing it up which would have been easy to do; maybe the Disney committee got in the way and skewed it the wrong way slightly.

The Snowman (1982 TV Short)

Excellent Christmas Cartoon with typical dose of real list British ending

[9/10 · 8 December 2015]

After growing up with the Snowman in the UK on TV at Christmas annually I was able to introduce it to my kids over here in the US.

Happy to say that despite being born in an age where top quality CGI animation is the norm, my 3 year old daughter is mesmerised by the Snowman every time she watches it.

Seeing it as an adult makes you appreciate the animation that was done by hand back then. The great flight sequence and the accompanying song not sung by Aled Jones hold up today very well indeed.

Why however it is given the rather sad ending says everything about the British Isles you need to know.

After having a great time at the north pole with Santa and his new friend, the Snowman, little Billy wakes the next morning rushing down to see his new best friend. Only to find him melted into a pile on the ground, dead if you will.

To further rub salt into the wounds, he still has the scarf given to him personally by Santa the night before. This confirms to the boy that the event really did happen, he really did fly with the snowman and really did get to visit Santa. AND HE WILL NEVER GET TO DO IT AGAIN. Naturally he breaks down in tears as the end credits roll.

That right there is the harsh reality that those from and living in the UK love to deal their young, as a means of character building. None of that magic nonsense, off to school and when you graduate off you go down the coal mine.

Happy days indeed.

Home (II) (2015)

Loses a star because of the shameful Rihanna soundtrack plug

[5/10 · 5 May 2015]

This is my first review for a very long time - can't even if I left one under this account before but the whitewash reviews on here are forcing me to do this.

This movie is OK. Kids will enjoy it, you will get maybe a few laughs out of the whole thing. It's good for a matinée. Jim Parsons is being Sheldon Cooper so that's funny. The Boov's are hilarious. Story is simple and you can guess the plot from about 10 minutes in but that's OK.. It's all about the journey right? That's the plus points.

The negative and (it's a real negative), is the awful soundtrack and the deliberate catering to Rihanna by changing the character's background to be the same as her's. It smacks of narcissism - not something you want your kids to be learning.

The soundtrack liberally features "hits" from Rihanna's and J-Lo's catalog and honestly they stand out like a sore thumb. It's like they managed to get Dreamworks to contractually agree to use a certain number of songs in the film if they were to do the voice over.

Someone at Dreamworks needs to be fired for this. Rihanna is not a box office draw. Look what happened when she was in Battleship. Jenifer Lopez isn't much better - ever since Out of Sight she's been so-so. There's lots of talent out there that deserves a shot at voice over work.

You get the feeling a suit somewhere in that organization said let's either get Nicki Minaj or Rihanna to do the lead character and they picked Rihanna because at least she's human.

Anyway I digress. Her voice work isn't bad it's just that they could have got someone better who didn't insist on poisoning the soundtrack with their work - same accusation can be leveled at Jenifer Lopez.

The ONLY catchy song on the soundtrack was Red Balloon by Chali XCX. The most annoying thing on this movie's IMDb is the paid Rihanna / J-Lo bots plugging the soundtrack in the reviews as a positive. Come on guys, is it really worth taking the $2 you earn for writing the review to spread such misinformation?