Introduction
Hello, fellow adventurers! Blaziker here and today, we got yet another Rundown, but unlike previous Rundowns, this Rundown (and future Rundowns) will be slightly different, so I will have an announcement before we get on to this adventure. This time, though, we are covering a whopping six animated movies!
The first movie, Panda Bear in Africa, centres on a panda in China on a quest to Africa to find and bring back his dragon friend, who was captured by guards in Africa for a lion as his birthday gift. I had already covered a good number of animated movies that featured at this year’s Annecy International Film Festival, and this is one of those movies, albeit as part of the out-of-competition “Annecy Presents” category. Given its middling reception there, will Panda Bear in Africa be just that?
The second movie, The Umbrella Fairy, is another Chinese animated movie, this time focusing on a fairy of an imperial umbrella who, together with the help of a young craftsman who guards the fairies of other imperial relics, on a quest to save her sister, a fairy of an evil sword that was stolen, from instigating a war. For those unaware, covering Chinese animated movies has been something I had a lot of experience in, and I had tackled many top-tier animated movies from this country. Will this be another hit?
The third movie, 200% Wolf, is the sequel to 2020’s 100% Wolf, and taking place months after the events in the first movie and the animated series, sees Freddy Lupin’s wish of becoming a true werewolf coming true, but with a moon sprite finding himself on earth with him, Freddy must restore the cosmic order before the earth and moon collide. I had a soft spot for 100% Wolf and I still had, but I am amazed by the surprisingly healthy fanbase this movie is getting. There is a reason why this movie is part of my 2024 Non-Mainstream and Foreign CG Animated Movies Watchlist, but will this movie be worth it?
The fourth movie, Johnny Puff: Secret Mission, is a 2024 animated movie that is actually a spin-off animated movie of one of the most hated animated movies of the 2010s, 2019’s Arctic Dogs (or depending on where you watched it if you did, Arctic Justice or Polar Squad) centring on the original movie’s villain Otto van Walrus and his squad of puffin minions, one of which was voiced by Captain Jack Sparrow himself, Johnny Depp. Some might be shocked to hear that ever since the colossal failure of Arctic Dogs, it has joined the dark side by becoming an animated franchise, with loads of spin-off cartoon shorts series and two hybrid Christmas-themed movies, of which you might hear none of them due to how obscure and hated this franchise is. Now that I had seen the movie for myself, will the cold brew hit once again?
The fifth movie, The Jungle Bunch 2: Operation Meltdown, is the sequel movie to a popular French animated series and this time, when a mysterious villain covers the jungle with a poisonous foam that explodes on contact with rain before the rain season, the main Jungle Bunch squad must hurry to find an antidote to stop the power from destroying their jungle. The Jungle Bunch series has become a hit series across France, but with this being my first foray into a movie based on the series, will this convince me?
The sixth and final movie, Transformers One, sets up the origin story of the Transformers franchise focusing on the origins of the franchise’s main characters, such as Optimus Prime, Megatron and Bumblebee, and how Optimus Prime and Megatron became the sworn enemies they are today. The Transformers franchise is also a well-beloved franchise among the animation community, and has been ongoing for many years. With this origin movie, will this continue to solidify this franchise’s legacy?
An Announcement
Before I continue with this Rundown, I wanted to make a special announcement, and this is honestly a very big one for me.
Recently, I have been admitted to the University of London’s Masters in Professional Accountancy program, which is a one-year part-time Masters program. This means that on top of reviewing animated movies while also working as an auditor, I have to attend lessons and complete assignments too.
Therefore, at this rate, I have to focus more of my energy on completing the program, so from this Rundown onwards until I complete my Masters program next year, my Rundowns will be much shorter, going straight to the point to talk about the elements of the movie in a shorter and more concise manner. I will do standalone reviews for some of the biggest animated movies from time to time, but until around October next year, the Rundowns will be much shorter.
Anyway, back to the adventure at hand, shall we?
Panda Bear in Africa
Key Information
- Directors: Richard Claus and Karsten Killerich
- Animation Studio: A. Film Estonia, A. Film, Comet Film and Cool Beans
- Country of Origin: Denmark, The Netherlands, France, Germany and Estonia
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 15 February 2024 (in Germany)
Trailer
The Review
Even amidst the slightly negative critical reception from its Annecy premiere, I honestly did not feel Panda Bear in Africa is a complete waste of time, even though this movie is almost as typical as you would expect from a family-friendly foreign CG animated movie.
Regarding the writing, I was pleasantly surprised that it took inspiration from The Lion King and stretch it to become a somewhat well-executed story about a panda venturing to Africa to save his dragon buddy. The pacing is surprisingly well-rounded such that it does not get too stale and some characters have some level of personality that is worth celebrating for. Even if not all jokes landed, the writing is pretty decent, especially for one parodying The Lion King to a certain extent, I will admit.
I, however, have some issues with the animation. Yeah, some movements do not feel natural and there is not enough texturing in some backgrounds. That said, the animation is ok for me, rendering is fine and so does the colouring. It is a step down compared to other family-friendly foreign CG animated movies I covered that have more superior animation, but at least the animation quality is not too bad.
While I have little to say about the movie’s minor elements, in terms of my level of enjoyment, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself not feeling about this at all. Despite low expectations, Panda Bear in Africa thankfully has some substance to make it a worthwhile watch, even if it is not worth rewatching.
Overall, I would not highly recommend Panda Bear in Africa, but at least there are much worse family-friendly foreign CG animated movies out there compared to this mini-adventure.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
The Umbrella Fairy
Key Information
- Director: Jie Shen
- Animation Studios: Maoyan Entertainment and Gu Dong Animation
- Country of Origin: China
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 6 July 2024 (in China)
Trailer
The Review
I honestly had relatively high expectations for The Umbrella Fairy, especially since this is inspired by fairies of classic Chinese relics and accessories that have graced ancient China throughout the years. Unfortunately, the execution falters in terms of the writing.
The Umbrella Fairy has a fairly short runtime of about 1 hour and 30 minutes, which is short for Chinese animated movie standards. Because this movie had to cover a lot of bases on its concept, the pacing felt rushed and gives little room for its story to breathe, resulting in a rather unsatisfying story for most of the movie. It is a shame, because I thought the characters were well-thought of and had decent character development, and the voice acting is also solid.
What saved this movie to a certain extent, however, has to be the animation, as the character and background animation is just beyond beautiful, with interesting animation moments with its 2D hand-drawn animation being as amazing as some of the best current hand-drawn animated movies of the 2020s so far. There are some experimentation with its animation and the colouring is just as amazing. Honestly, I have nearly no faults to note in the movie’s animation.
The musical score is fantastic as per classic Chinese animated movie standards, and as for my level of enjoyment, I was fairly let down by its shoddy writing, but the animation is so damn amazing that to a certain extent, it carried The Umbrella Fairy. I know great animation alone cannot save bad writing, but in fairness, this movie also proves me wrong.
Overall, while I felt that The Umbrella Fairy is a disappointment due to its lacklustre writing, the rest of the elements are great enough to carry this movie. Don’t expect much, but I still think The Umbrella Fairy is worth giving a fair shot.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
200% Wolf
Key Information
- Director: Alexs Stadermann
- Animation Studios: Flying Bark Productions (with 3 Doubles Producciones)
- Country of Origin: Australia
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 8 August 2024 (in Australia)
Trailer
The Review
Given I had reviewed 100% Wolf when it was released back in 2020, I had some expectations for this sequel and unfortunately, after seeing this movie, I feel a good number of my expectations were not met with this sequel.
While the sequel introduced new characters and new concepts into the mix, other than that, most of what we had seen in 100% Wolf is also here in the sequel. Even though there is nothing wrong with recycling concepts into sequels, it was the shoddy writing that lowers the quality of this movie’s script. This is because compared to the first, there is a sense of confusion in terms of what it wants to do with the sequel, so the lack of cohesion in tying the storylines and themes together make it a slog to go through, furthered exasperated by its inconsistent pacing that can be painful to get through.
In addition, I personally feel the comedy is slightly weaker compared to the first movie and there is less character development in both the regular and the new characters in this movie. This is honestly a bit of a shame, because if you have seen either 100% Wolf or the 100% Wolf animated series, the characters are the standout thanks to their personalities, but even the regular characters like Freddy (Ilai Swindells) and Batty (Samara Weaving) just do not have as much personality compared to the first one. I had a soft spot for the wolf spirit companion Moopoo (Elizabeth Nabben) though, he is too precious.
In terms of the animation, there is a visual upgrade in 200% Wolf compared to the first movie. There is much more personality in the character and background designs and you can identify that this is a proper 100% Wolf movie, although let us be fair, the furies are clambering over wolf form Freddy, for better or worse. The colouring is alright, and movement animation is alright, so yeah, I have nothing much to say about the animation style, other than it is solid.
While I have nothing interesting to say about the minor elments, as for my level of enjoyment, I felt disappointed to a certain extent that 200% Wolf was not an improvement over the first, although given it is a sequel, I should not be surprised. It is a shame I did not like this movie compared to the first one, because I feel 100% Wolf at least has something worth looking into.
Overall, 200% Wolf is not as great as the first one and the lack of cohesion in the writing did it for me. Still, I do not think 200% Wolf is one of my least favourites of the year given that we had seen worse animated movies than 200% Wolf. Unless you love the 100% Wolf franchise, I don’t think it should be in your top priority of animated movies any time soon.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Johnny Puff: Secret Mission
Key Information
- Director: Nestor F. Dennis
- Animation Studios: Melies Producciones, Assemblage Entertainment and ILBE Studios (with Iervolino and Lady Barcadi Entertainment)
- Country of Origin: Italy and Spain
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 5 April 2024 (in Spain)
Trailer
The Review
Before I start talking about Johnny Puff in great detail, I have another special announcement to make related to Arctic Dogs. Given it has been 5 years since the theatrical release of Arctic Dogs, I had already crafted up a special review to “commemorate” the 5th anniversary of that cold brew and man, writing my full review of Arctic Dogs was an arctic blast experience, if you catch my drift. You will see what I mean when I release that review later in November.
Anyway, talking about Johnny Puff: Secret Mission, I am not going to beat around the bush for this one: this is pure garbage. Enough said.
First and foremost, Johnny Puff is basically a series of shorts combined to become a movie, with narration from the one and only Johnny Depp (who is still reeling from his court case win against Amber Heard) who also “voiced” Johnny Puff. I said “voiced” in quotations, because it is a non-verbal animated movie, ala the Minuscule movies. While there is nothing wrong with that and nor is this an anthology animated movie… There is no proper execution of what this movie was going to do.
Given these shorts have the same structure, once these shorts continue on, then you will realise that Johnny Puff: Secret Mission has basically no plot at all! Yeah, in Arctic Dogs, almost nothing interesting happened, but Johnny Puff is lazier in terms of its “writing”, if you can call it that. The comedy is boring, there is no cohesion in the “themes” and “messaging” and the pacing is bafflingly slow, just like with the original Arctic Dogs movie.
Plus, you can say the same thing about the characters, who all lack personality or development, and even the “voice acting”, which is basically puffin sounds and grunting, are very bad too.
Just like with the Arctic Dogs movie, the animation is very cheap and poorly rendered. Because of its arctic setting, that gives the animators excuse to produce half-hearted animation filled with poorly rendered backgrounds, cheap and ugly character designs, robotic movements form the characters and a lack of personality in terms of its animation style. If you have seen the poorly rendered animation in the Arctic Dogs, chances are, you will see that again in Johnny Puff.
The minor elements are very bad too. Just like with the Arctic Dogs movie, the sound editing is very bad, and the score is very bland. As for my level of enjoyment, well… I think you get the idea of how much I enjoyed it by seeing this movie. At least compared to my least favourite animated movie of 2022 in Marmaduke, Johnny puff is slightly less bad, but that is the only “positive” I have with Johnny Puff.
In conclusion, I will end off my review of this additional cold brew with this: if Johnny Puff: Secret Mission is not my least favourite animated movie by the end of the year, I will be amazed, because I am certain no other remaining animated movie of this year will ever top how unwatchable this vanity project of an Arctic Dogs spin-off movie virtually no one wanted is. You are better off with pretty much almost every animated movie I had covered that score at least 12 and above on my Hot Sauce Rating because compared to Johnny Puff, those movies at least have substance.
And yeah… The cold brew hits once again, and this time, it is even worse…
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
The Jungle Bunch: Operation Meltdown
Key Information
- Directors: Laurent Bru, Yannick Moulin and Benoit Somville
- Animation Studio: TAT Productions
- Country of Origin: France
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 11 November 2023 (in Singapore as part of the French Film Festival Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
Considering this is my first foray into The Jungle Bunch series, especially since I did not watch the first Jungle Bunch movie, I came into this sequel blind. However, I was assured by one of my friends who had already watched the sequel that I do not require any prior knowledge into the series in order to understand this movie, as The Jungle Bunch: Operation Meltdown is also a standalone. After I watched this movie, I got to admit, considering we just came off a massive cold brew with Johnny Puff: Secret Mission, any other animated movie after that would be an upgrade. Sure enough, this movie did just that.
Despite its simple, safe and generic premise, the execution of the story in The Jungle Bunch: Operation Meltdown is better than what its concept is suggesting. Even with its slightly rushed pacing, the writing is solid with decent comedy that lights up the movie when needed, the characters each have a distinct personality and quirks that made them stand out thanks to solid character development, and the voice acting (in the French dub that I watched) is great. Honestly, the writing is overall decent.
When it comes to animation, TAT Productions already proved they can do animation well with its 2018 hit Terra Willy, and the animation in this Jungle Bunch movie is great for the most part. Even though I had seen animated movies with a similar animation style as Operation Meltdown, what matters is the animation quality, and the execution of such is great. Character designs are unique and distinct, and the background designs are well done mostly, allowing viewers a more immersive experience, and the movements and action animation is well-executed. I have little complaints about the animation, mostly because the style felt different, and the quality is up there with some of my most favourite foreign CG animated movies of recent memory.
I don’t have much to say about the movie’s minor elements, but as for my level of enjoyment, while not as high as some of my favourite animated movies this year, for an animated movie meant for the family audience, I say this is a solid choice. I know I am not the target audience, but if I was the target audience, chances are, I will have fun with The Jungle Bunch: Operation Meltdown, mainly because its solid execution triumphs its otherwise familiar concept.
Overall, I am satisfied with how decent The Jungle Bunch: Operation Meltdown is as a good quality family-friendly foreign CG animated movie that at least is of decent quality and is respectful to its target audience. If you have run out of animated movies to watch with the whole family, I think this movie will serve a good purpose in a pinch.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Transformers One
Key Information
- Director: Josh Cooley
- Animation Studios: Paramount Animation and ILM
- Country of Origin: United States
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 12 September 2024 (in Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
When I heard that there was going to be an animated Transformers origin story, I did not have much high expectations, but after getting to attend an advanced screening of Transformers One… I was wrong, this is a pleasant surprise!
Transformers One is a surprisingly comprehensive and action-packed animated movie with nearly perfect pacing that keeps this movie from going boring fast, coupled with surprisingly strong comedic moments to break the tension and a well-rounded messaging that focused on the relationship between Orion Pax/Optimus Prime (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) and D-16/Megatron (Brian Tyree Henry) so well that their character arcs carry the story forward. It helped that the other characters, such as Elita-One (Scarlett Johnsson) and B-127/Bumblebee (Keegan-Michael Key), all have fantastic personalities and voice acting to bring this story alive.
I also think the animation ain’t too shabby either, helped by the fact that ILM, the animation studio/VFX specialist that had showcased their animation strength with Ultraman: Rising earlier on this year, with its slightly hyper realistic CG animation style being vital to provide well-crafted animation sequences and fight scenes. It helped that the animators translate the original designs from the Transformers franchise and bring it new life to keep it distinct from the Michael Bay live-action Transformers film series or even the classic Transformers animated series in a great way.
Speaking of other elements, Brian Tyler (fresh from producing a great score with last year’s The Super Mario Bros Movie) composed yet another excellent score that makes the movie’s moments so exciting, and as for my level of enjoyment, despite being a Paramount Animation movie, compared to some of the half-hearted attempts from them, this was a fantastic animated movie that is on par with another top-quality Paramount animated movie with last year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant. I am honestly amazed by how much I underestimated this movie.
Honestly, there are times where I hoped a movie with low expectations can surprise me, and this is one of those movies. Transformers One is a Transformers origin story not only worthy of the legendary franchise, but one of the most exciting mainstream animated movies of the year so far.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Conclusion
Wow, just wow, we covered six animated movies in this epic Rundown and while most are terrible at worst and decent at least, at least one of those movies turned out to be excellent, but if that meant going through the bad animated movies to cover one that is great, I honestly feel it is worth it.
Thank you so much for joining me on this epic adventure. Next time, it is finally time we covered perhaps my most anticipated mainstream animated movie of the year, and one that involves a lost robot and her nearly adopted gosling. Until next time, see you on the next adventure!
