The Ice Age: Adventures Of Buck Wild is a unnecessary spinoff to an already messy series.

Buck, Crash, and Eddy try to keep the Lost World from being overtaken by dinosaurs.

What can I possibly say here? The Ice Age series should have ended after the third movie, after that the movies started getting worse and worse. Adventures Of Buck Wild feels like an extended TV episode of a Saturday morning cartoon, there’s some good moments in this movie the problem is a majority of them are at the beginning which afterwards the movie takes a complete nosedive. Out of all the characters to give a spin-off film why on earth did they pick the two most annoying and uninteresting characters Eddie and Crash? At least Buck was somewhat interesting and I actually liked him quite a lot in Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, so I didn’t mind him here. It’s just a shame he has to share the movie with Eddie and Crash, this movie is truly the definition of lazy. The only reason why Disney continued the Ice Age series was because of money and that completely shows here, say what you will about the last two sequels at least there were some sort of effort put into them. They just happened to be terrible movies, with this movie it feels like it’s only purpose is to make money. Overall Ice Age: Adventures Of Buck Wild is horrible, it’s a pointless and horribly dull entree into an already tired series that did not need to continue.

The Ice Age: Adventures Of Buck Wild is available on Disney+

2/10 F

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania offers very little new to a series that’s overstayed it’s welcome.

Van Helsing’s mysterious new invention transforms Drac and his pals into humans, and Johnny into a monster. With their new mismatched bodies, Drac and the pack must find a way to switch themselves back before their transformations become permanent.

What do you want me to say here exactly? This is the fourth Hotel Transylvania movie which is actually very hard to believe. There are some differences this time around although they don’t benefit the movie. For starters Adam Sandler is no longer voicing Dracula it’s Brian Hull who is a Youtuber and I will give him credit. He did the absolute best he could with the script and with his role voicing Dracula. There are definitely times where I thought he completely nailed it and then others where he missed the mark but that’s mainly due to the script. The other difference is the animation that does feel and look significantly cheaper and not as good as the previous three movies. With that said the animation certainly isn’t terrible it’s a bit surprising to see it slip after being so consistent for three movies, outside of those differences it really isn’t that much different from the other movies. This movie is definitely more joke heavy which ultimately does effect this movie and the creativity is just not in this one, it’s a perfectly okay movie for kids as it doesn’t do anything harmful. There’s some nice messages in the movie that does put a smile on your face, it’s just a shame this one feels nothing more than a cash grab.

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is available on Amazon Prime Video!

5/10 C

Encanto is a magical ride for all the right reasons!

The Madrigals are an extraordinary family who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia in a charmed place called the Encanto. The magic of the Encanto has blessed every child in the family with a unique gift — every child except Mirabel. However, she soon may be the Madrigals last hope when she discovers that the magic surrounding the Encanto is now in danger.

The last half of 2021 has really delivered a ton of surprises when it comes to film and Encanto is absolutely no exception. Before going into the film I was prepared for another nothing special about it Disney film that wouldn’t do anything interesting. Encanto is quite different, first off the characters are all actually really well done. The writing for this film feels much more grounded and feels like the writers wanted to give the characters their own personality and dive more into said personalities rather than just list them and that’s it. It really dives deep into family themes such as relationships and how families can be flawed, when you compare Encanto to a lot of other Disney films that have released over the last few years you can tell it’s very different. The world building is also quite incredible, it shows both the light and the dark side of the world and establishes early on how much the world means to the characters. The music is some of the best from a Disney film in quite awhile, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s choice of music is absolutely spot on and matches the tone, energy and style the film is going for. Which leads to the cast who have beautiful singing voices and completely hit it out of the park when it comes to emotions, each song really hits the viewer with a different emotion. As well as each song having it’s own identity with a lot of energy and strength put into them, overall Encanto is truly a charming film that surprised me. It’s one of the best films of the year make sure to watch this one.

Encanto is available on Disney+

10/10 A+

Rumble is a very forgettable underdog story.

In a world where monsters are tame and monster wrestling is a popular sport, Winnie seeks to follow in her father’s footsteps as a manager by turning an inexperienced monster into a contender.

Rumble is exactly what you think it is, another beat by beat story of the main character wanting to be just as good as their parent, I feel like the release history of Rumble is far more interesting than the movie itself. Rumble was supposed to come out this year but then got switched to February of next year and finally at the last second got switched back to this year and released a few days ago. As far as the movie itself as I said earlier it’s very generic, if you watch the first 15-20 minutes of it you are going to know exactly what happens. I guess the movie has a nice message and the animation is not bad as there were a few moments I found to be quite solid. And for a movie that WWE Studios was involved in this is definitely one of the better ones. Will Arnett is easily the best part of this movie and it’s really not even close, he brings a lot of character and energy to his role and actually works pretty well with what he’s given. Writing wise Rumble is once again exactly what you expect, there’s a few jokes that are okay but a lot of it is just very standard kids movie type of writing. Overall there really isn’t much else to say about Rumble, it’s a completely harmless kids movie that’s entertaining at times by way too generic and predictable to recommend. It truly feels like a case where Paramount wanted to put something on their streaming service around the holiday season so they settled with this movie.

Rumble is available on Paramount+

5/10 C

Injustice is both a messy and failed adaption.

The story takes place on an alternate Earth in which the Joker has tricked Superman into killing Lois Lane, sending the hero on a rampage. This unnhinged Superman decides to take control of Earth for its own good, leading Batman and his allies to attempt to stop him.

Sometimes you watch certain movies and just say “this should have been a series” Injustice is one of those movies, I was pretty excited when I heard that a movie was being made, plus it’s directed by Matt Peters who directed Justice League Dark: Apokolips War one of the best DC Animated movies in recent memory. Injustice is a massive disappointment there’s a few things to enjoy such as some of the action scenes and a few moments (and when I mean few I mean a few because good lord) where the writing isn’t surface level and attempts to try and keep the story interesting. That’s where the good parts end because Injustice is a complete and total mess writing wise and tone wise, the tone constantly switch’s back between being incredibly dark to being a friendly Saturday morning cartoon. During one scene you would have a character getting brutally murdered and the next scene you will have Green Arrow or Harley Quinn cracking jokes (I don’t mention Plastic Man because I actually didn’t mind those jokes as much.) but let’s talk about the bigger issue the writing, I feel like the writers had no idea what to do with Injustice so they kind of just wrote random scenes as it went on. It doesn’t help that a lot of the scenes feel like a clipshow that I’m sure would confuse a lot of people who aren’t too familiar with Injustice. It doesn’t help that the writing is very surface level and has no interesting elements in it at all, they really could have explored some of the characters but instead a lot of the characters are just there to be killed off. Which yes is to be expected but it doesn’t feel impactful at all, it just feels like they had no idea what to do with said character so they killed them off. And that all traces back to how lazy and bare minimum the writing is, it’s such a massive disappointment because I really do think this had potential. Overall Injustice is as I said multiple times very disappointing, this is a prime example of something that could have easily worked as a series but instead we get a lazy movie that was sent out for a quick buck.

Injustice is available on all VOD Platforms!

1/10 F

LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales is great for kids but could have been much more.

Dean, Poe and BB-8 must face their fears, stop an ancient evil from rising, and escape to make it back to their friends.

Lego Star Wars Terrifying Tales is about about the same as the Lego Holiday Special from last year. Only that I prefer the Holiday Special a bit more, the main problem with Terrifying Tales is it’s not very funny at all. I like that Poe Dameron was a main focus in this special whenever he was on screen it was always pretty solid. The three stories are all just average, none of them really standout in any special ways. I will say that this is a pretty good special for kids, it’s completely harmless and does get the job done. However for everyone else you sadly will not get that here, sure the animation is very nice to look at and there are some jokes that work. But a majority of them are a huge miss or just aren’t funny at all.

Lego Star Wars Terrifying Tales is now available on Disney+

5/10 C

Scooby-Doo Meets Courage The Cowardly Dog is a welcome nostalgia throwback!

The movie involves Scooby-Doo and his friends finding a strange object in the middle of Nowhere, Kansas, the backwoods hometown of Courage and his owners, Eustace and Muriel Bagge.

Growing up Courage The Cowardly Dog was one of my favorite cartoons, it was a very smart and horror filled show that was quite fantastic. So when I saw that a Scooby-Doo and Courage crossover was happening I was pretty excited, this is something that should have happened years ago! The end result is quite great, I do wish John Dilworth came back as the director but that’s perfectly okay. The movie does a good job of combining the two really well, it keeps the characters as they were several years ago. Both properties fit very well together and it really shows here, I do wish the movie used some darker imagery that Courage The Cowardly Dog is known for. The jokes are actually not too bad, there are some that don’t land particularly well but a lot of it does remain faithful to both properties. It plays out how you would expect, it takes elements from both properties and blends them into one. There are things that I do wish this movie improved on such as the villains which were bugs, part of what made Courage really interesting as a show was the creatures and villains. Using bugs sort of seems like they took a very uninteresting path, despite that though I had a lot of fun with this movie. If you are a Courage The Cowardly Dog fan you will absolutely love this. It’s not anywhere near as fantastic as the show was but it’s a nice throwback that I do hope we see more of Courage in the near future.

Scooby-Doo Meets Courage The Cowardly Dog is now available on all VOD Platforms!

7/10 B

Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle Of The Realms is a solid follow up to Scorpion’s Revenge!

The heroes must travel to Outworld to defend Earthrealm as Scorpion searches for the ancient Kamidogu before it’s used to resurrect the One Being.

Mortal Kombat Legends Battle Of The Realms is a sequel to Scorpion’s Revenge which came out last year and was even in my best list. Battle Of The Realms is more of a traditional Mortal Kombat movie, as in it focuses a lot less on backstories and more on the tournament and action itself. In some ways this helps the movie and in others it kind of hurts it. For starters the animation is quite great, it’s very detailed and adds a lot to the gore and fatalities. Although the characters don’t get the most development this time around, they are all still a lot of fun and are backed up with very strong voice acting. Battle Of The Realms does go a little too bonkers towards the end such as having Liu Kang go full on Super Saiyan (which kind of just happens out of nowhere). Overall Battle Of The Realms is a very straightforward Mortal Kombat movie that will please fans of the franchise, It might not be as good as Scorpion’s Revenge but it’s still a solid time!

Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle Of The Realms is now available on all VOD Platforms!

7/10 B

The Boss Baby: Family Business (2021) Movie Review!

Now adults, Tim Templeton is a stay-at-home dad for two adorable daughters, while his estranged brother, Ted, is a big-shot CEO. They come together in an unexpected way when they take a magical formula that transforms them into babies for 48 hours. Joining forces with Tim’s secret-agent daughter, they must go under cover to prevent an evil genius from turning fellow toddlers into monstrous brats.

I’m going to be completely honest The Boss Baby Family Business wasn’t actually that terrible, is it a good movie? Absolutely not but it’s far better than the first movie, this one actually seemed like effort was put into it. There’s also a few jokes in the movie that actually worked and a few okay moments as well, having that said the rest of the movie is really not good at all. A lot of the jokes end up missing (a lot less bathroom jokes thank goodness) mostly due to either not being funny or just have very poor execution. The main problem with this movie is it ends up being an overall very generic kids movie despite some bizarre ideas that happen in the movie. Which I really do like those ideas it makes the movie have a bit more personality I just wish it could have stuck with it and did more with it as well. The animation is nice and actually detailed at times, the writing while not good isn’t horrendous. Overall The Boss Baby: Family Business isn’t the worst movie of the year, if it’s job was to be better than the first movie well it accomplished that. If it’s job was to be a good movie….it didn’t succeed.

The Boss Baby: Family Business is now available on Peacock!

4/10 D+

Spirit Untamed (2021) Movie Review!

Lucky Prescott’s life is changed forever when she moves from her home in the city to a small frontier town and befriends a wild mustang named Spirit.

Out of the several films I’ve watched so far this year Spirit Untamed is one of the movies where I got absolutely nothing out of it, it’s a movie that just sort of exists for the sake of existing. Spirit Untamed is based off the Netflix series (which I haven’t seen) I honestly don’t know what to say here in fact I’m struggling to even come up with something to say, the animation wasn’t very appealing at all, the writing was terrible and completely fails when it tries to be funny. There is absolutely nothing in this movie that hasn’t been done before, I do feel that parts of this movie was begging to get people who remember the original movie, the problem is the original movie while yes it does have it’s fans are nowhere near the amount of fans this movie makes it out to be. It’s a very weird hybrid of wanting to please fans of the original movie and to please fans of the Netflix series. All I know is that it isn’t a good movie and definitely one of the most forgettable movies of the year, this is a prime of example of a studio saying “we aren’t even going to try”

Spirit Untamed is now available on VOD Platforms!

3/10 D-