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Finally, something that’s right up my alley. The last time we had one of those was with Bolt, a fairly good movie but nothing special, and it’s funny because Wreck-It Ralph is about on par with Bolt.

I think I really gravitated to this whilst a young adolescent as it was the best movie centered around video games since Spy Kids: 3-D Game Over. Secondly this came out around the time of Despicable Me and Megamind where the lovable main character is the villain, which at the time felt quite ground breaking to me.

Wreck-It Ralph feels inspired by Pixar with it’s very unique premise of a world where video game characters are alive and able to integrate via a power-board. The first 25 minutes are probably the best where Ralph goes to a Villain’s AA meeting and fumbles about in the Hero’s Duty game. I guess it’s mainly because I’m a bit of a gamer and it was cool to see some easter eggs from games I like. Also the retro animation of the Nicelanders and the soldier guy walking into the bar I thought was great.

I must admit I was disappointed that they spend the rest of the movie in the Candy Crush Mario Kart land. Not that it wasn’t entertaining as the heart of the movie, Ralph and Vanellope, kept up some of the fun from those previously mentioned great 25 minutes. Ralph’s journey of proving to everyone he can be a good guy, but realising he can be good as a bad guy, was really well done and Vanellope was just the icing on the top of Ralph’s destructive road to redemption. I also enjoyed Jane Lynch’s character, Calhoun, but she could have done better than Felix who is annoying and in this movie way too much.

This is still entertaining, but boy is it definitely underwhelming. It’s not because of the lack of video game references, it’s mainly because of how formulaic it became. A lot of explaining accompanied by some set-up to some pretty obvious reveals. The biggest sin would be how they contrive the  break-up of Ralph and Vanellope because it’s a movie and every movie does this. It’s horrible because the scenes are still effective and because Ralph went out of character just so we can get these horrible scenes. At least the climax makes up for it so I can kind of forgive it.

Overall Wreck-It Ralph is a good movie that kind of squanders it’s opportunity to be amazing. 7/10.

“Why did we need this?” said the internet critic, The Blog Complainer, on the Twenty-First day of May Two Thousand and Twenty at eight minutes past two on a Thursday afternoon.

It’s a common occurrence now that after one or two great movies we’re rewarded with one smelly stinker to even things out. Planes takes place in Pixar’s Cars universe and despite sharing the same IP, Lightning McQueen and friends are thankfully nowhere to be found. Planes has a new setting and  cast of characters but at the heart of this tale is Dusty the dust-cropper, a little plane who wants to race in the skies, go up against all odds and prove he’s the best plane racer ever! It’s just like in Chicken Little and a variety of other underdog sport movies where our main character needs to prove to everyone that they’re the best.

So yeah, this is the most painfully predictable boring movie I think I’ve watched in this Disneyathon. The definition of unoriginality! The movie seriously did not even try to do anything innovative with this story. The reason for that is probably because it was originality meant for Direct-To-DVD, but being under the Cars banner why not release it to cinemas so then they can also profit off toy sales as well!

It also doesn’t help that all of the characters suck! Say what you like about the Cars movies, but at least the characters have a bit of depth and charm to them. Dusty pretty much displays every attribute I hate in a movie protagonist. Luckily he’s no Milo, Dusty is too boring for me to actually hate him. That honour goes to his pal, the loud obnoxious oil truck. I know a lot of people like to hate on Mater for being loud and annoying, but I’m willing to put my life on the line to say that this truck can give Mater a run for his money.

There really isn’t much love I can give this one. The animation is pretty good and the race around the world was a good opportunity to check out some exotic locations like Tibet and Mexico but it still  feels like we’re trapped in the same boring air-hangar. There are some okay sequences with the Mexican Wrestler Plane, who I’m hesitant to say was the only character I kind of liked. I guess the real saving grace is the idea that Dusty the brave plane is afraid of heights! It’s humorous to me and how it helps the character grow was handled quite well.

I would not recommend Planes to anyone as it’s best forgotten. Watch Cars as it’s a much better family movie. Planes gets a 3 out of 10 and I hope to never cross paths with it ever again.

We did it ladies and gents, we made it to Frozen! Now you get to finally learn my thoughts on this overrated, Oscar winning, over hyped, highest grossing animated movie that is considered on par with the best of the Renaissance movies.  Did I mention over praised yet?

It may be hard to believe this, but I actually remember a time before this franchise was over saturated to death. The first time I heard of Frozen was early 2013 when I was into playing a game called Disney Infinity. It was similar to the game Skylanders that was popular at the time, but with Disney characters, and Anna and Elsa were playable characters in the game. I was a young teen and princesses didn’t interest me so I never thought about those characters again, until the first trailer came out, and now every day until I die.

My anti-Frozen days are long behind me as it’s been years since it came out and I admit I enjoyed this movie much better than I did back in 2014. I still don’t think it’s the greatest thing since The Lion King, but I won’t lie about the fact that I do like Frozen. This is mainly because most of the characters I really grew to care for. Especially Anna, she’s just so lovable and Kristen Bell gives such a dynamic performance. Kristoff is a good foil for her but I’m not sure about them hooking up. Elsa, the breakout character, is just alright but I do like her place in the story and how she affects the other characters like her sister. Other than that she’s okay, but definitely has issues.

Let’s move onto the songs starting with Let it Go, everyone’s favourite, though not mine. My favourite is Anna song’s For the First Time in Forever and I guess the opening song. Most of the songs don’t do anything for me, especially since some feel completely unnecessary like the rock people song and Olaf’s song which I have actually grown to hate.

Speaking of Olaf, I liked his introduction to our main characters but after that I wished someone had used a magnifying glass to melt that annoying blabber mouth away. There are things in the plot that bugged me, like I find it very hard to believe that no one outside of the castle knew about Elsa’s ice powers. The castle doors were open when Anna and Elsa were kids. Also when Anna and Elsa’s parent took them to the rock grandpa Kristoff saw them go there so you don’t think he never told anyone?

The biggest thing that outright sucks is the reveal that Anna’s fiancé is an evil sociopath. It’s right at the end of the movie and it’s hard to buy that the youngest of 13 brothers would want to murder two young women so he can become king. It also ruins that nice duet because now all I’m thinking is that this guy is using this sweet girl to gain higher power. If they wanted to have a villain for this movie it should have been Elsa. Being sheltered away for years could have led her down a path of destruction with only Anna able to bring back this tragic misunderstood soul.

Frozen is a pretty good movie and now I’m free of having to talk about this movie ever again. My frozen heart gives this a 6 to 7 out of 10. Take it or leave it.

My Official Disneyathon Ranking List

Link to Next Part: The Disneyathon Part 21: Different Studio Misfires