Introduction
How do you do, fellow adventurers? Blaziker is back for another animated movie adventure. In spite of the lack of any fresh animated movies in 2026 so far, we still got six animated movies to look out for thankfully, so let me introduce them!
The first movie, The Light of Aisha, is a Spanish animated movie focused on a daughter of a pyrotechnician in 11th Century AD Spain embarking on an adventure to recover a precious book stolen from an alchemist. So, I had covered a lot of rather obscure animated movies in the past, which honestly is one of my specialities, as I wanted to highlight some hidden gems that are worth taking a look at. That said, this movie is not that easy to find, and I was fortunate I got to see it on the exact same Emirates ICE inflight entertainment (IFE) system I used to cover Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog. There is no denying Emirates’ ICE has some of the most comprehensive animated movie lineups of any top-tier airline, but was this movie worth seeing on an IFE screen?
The second movie, Cosmic Princess Kaguya, is an anime musical about a mysterious girl from space who crash-landed into earth and found herself with a Japanese schoolgirl who joined her on the quest to become virtual reality pop stars. As someone who had never watched the Princess Kaguya movie, which is not related to the movie we are about to venture into unfortunately, this movie somehow piques my interest, especially given Studio Colorido is involved in it. Sure, their previous movie, My Oni Girl, was not as great as its previous movie in Drifting Home, but I am willing to give their latest movie a chance. Will this be a good Studio Colorido hit?
The third movie, Charlie the Wonderdog, focuses on a dog who suddenly gained superpowers and can talk to humans after being abducted by aliens, taking on heroic missions to stop his evil neighbour cat’s plans for world domination. Well, it cannot be an animated movie adventure without once again tackling another animated movie distributed by the one and only Viva Kids, a distributor that leaves more questions than answers. Last year was a truly great year for it as Viva Kids picked up 5 animated movies, all of which I genuinely enjoyed. Will the streak continue?
The fourth movie, Black Butterflies, is another Contrechamp movie from the 2024 Annecy Film Festival, with a focus on three women who are facing the consequences of climate change, forcing them to emigrate to other places for a better life. For some reason, Black Butterflies is all but forgotten even in the non-mainstream animated movie community, so even I was not aware of its existence until I was able to find it somehow. Was this worth seeing through?
The fifth and final movie, Endless Cookie, is an animated documentary about two half-brothers who reminisce about their upbringings from Shamattawa to Toronto in the 1980s in a series of recordings. Endless Cookie got some of the animation community talking thanks to its appearance at last year’s Annecy Film Festival in the Contrechamp category, winning the Contrechamp prize despite some mixed opinions on this movie. Will this movie suit my taste?
Alright, let’s get this Rundown started!
The Light of Aisha
Key Information
- Director: Shadi Adib
- Animation Studio: Mago Production
- Country of Origin: Spain, Germany and Singapore
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 11 April 2025 (in Spain)
Trailer
The Review
Honestly, I wished I could like this movie more, but there were major flaws regarding this movie that are hard to ignore.
In terms of the positives, I liked where the concept of this movie was going for, being a breezy adventure that feels less condescending compared to most similar family-friendly foreign CG animated movies, especially one that was mainly produced in Spain (with Buffalo Kids and Mortadelo and Filemon: Mission Implausible being the main exceptions). Additionally, I liked the animation style, being a different feeling stop-motion aesthetic of CG animation that is decently executed, and these elements are good enough to be passable for family-friendly foreign CG animated movie standards.
Unfortunately, the execution of that concept leaves a lot to be desired. There were just too many elements within this movie, and a good number of these ideas just did not stick with the lack of development, and the writer veered off course during the second half of the movie, resulting in a final act that just felt too muddled for me to care. I know it’s typical for family-friendly foreign CG animated movies to have bad writing, but this is one that I was hoping for the writing to be good. Alas, it was not meant to be.
As for the minor elements, they are fine and personally, despite the major issues I had, I find The Light of Aisha to be just fine. It’s pretty good and is better than most typical Spanish CG animated movies, but there are better family-friendly foreign CG animated movies that have better writing than this one.
In conclusion, there were parts of The Light of Aisha I like, mainly its creative and different-feeling animation style and that the story is at least not as condescending compared to most typical family-friendly foreign CG animated movies. Unfortunately, the execution of the movie’s concept, especially with the second half of the writing, leaves a lot to be desired to how messy and incoherent the writing was, especially towards the end. Sometimes, you can’t win it all, I guess, and that was what happened with The Light of Aisha.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Cosmic Princess Kaguya!
Key Information
- Director: Shingo Yamashita
- Animation Studio: Studio Colorido and Chromadog Studios
- Country of Origin: Japan
- Rating: PG13
- Release date: 22 January 2026 (on Netflix)
Trailer
The Review
In my review of My Oni Girl, there were issues regarding its writing that honestly resulted in it being such a disappointment, especially considering Drifting Home, the movie before My Oni Girl, was a personal favourite before that. Well, it seems Studio Colorido listened, and what resulted was a banger two-hour virtual reality idol musical that hits the sweet spot.
There are still some issues regarding the writing that I need to highlight first. I personally there were a tad too many elements that are not needed for the overall impact of this story, and with such a long runtime of close to 2.5 hours, it feels a bit of a slog to get through some parts of the second act. However, issues aside, the writing is still entertaining, funny and above all, very realised, especially towards the final act of this movie. It is overstuffed, but in a great way, and rather than trying too hard to impress, the movie just lets its elements shine and let loose with its structure, making it such an entertaining ride. Of course, the characters are very memorable and have great personalities and energy, plus near-perfect voice acting to boot. The relationship between Iroha (Anna Nagase) and Kaguya (Yuko Natsuyoshi) blossomed with every moment together, and I just fell in love with the characters and their world.
The animation is also top-notch, being personally Studio Colorido’s best animation work. The animation style is overwhelming in a great way, providing a lot of colourful animation sequences that do not feel nauseating, fun battle sequences that keep the audience entertained and on-point background and character designs that reminded me why I love Drifting Home in the first place. While Drifting Home’s animation style is simpler, Cosmic Princess Kaguya’s style is full of style and also substance, and had it not been the fact that we had seen this animation style in other anime movies before, I would have given it a perfect score when it comes to animation.
A virtual reality idol animated movie cannot be complete with a banger soundtrack, and thankfully, this movie has some fun tracks to boot! The songs are energetic and versatile which makes for an entertaining experience with every song in this movie. As for my level of enjoyment, I really love this one! Sure, this movie is personally not as impactful as Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog and Living Large, but it makes up for in the entertainment aspect. Honestly, this is just a fun ride despite its long runtime.
Overall, Studio Colorido redeemed themselves with this banger of a virtual reality idol musical despite its long runtime, almost one-and-a-half years after My Oni Girl, and also hopefully a sign of things to come for Netflix’s animated movie lineup for the rest of the year. Let’s hope this will be the case, even the two Skydance Animation ones, despite me being cautious of them.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Charlie the Wonderdog
Key Information
- Director: Shea Wageman
- Animation Studio: Icon Creative Studios
- Country of Origin: Canada
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 16 January 2026 (in Canada)
Trailer
The Review
As someone who has been covering a damn lot of animated movies that Viva Kids distributed for the past few years, I was already prepared for what was to come with their latest pickup. Oh boy, I was not prepared for what was to come with Charlie the Wonderdog, because… Damn.
Where I begin with this entertaining mess of a movie? This movie’s story is an incoherent mess that I cannot stop watching. It is very clear the writers had to make up for an otherwise mediocre and generic story, so they pretty much threw everything to the wall and see what sticks, and you end up with a story so incoherent, so ridiculous and so nonsensical, it ended up becoming hilariously bad. It’s this Dino Time style of writing that makes Charlie the Wonderdog more memorable than some of the nothing burgers I had covered, which is a good thing.
The ridiculous writing extends to the characters who are also insane. Yes, getting THE Owen Wilson as Charlie was a bold choice and to be fair, he is quite endearing as the main hero, but you also have his evil neighbour cat who is a complete cat food chill, a president who is a complete grifter, a dog who identifies himself as a cat (who extends to how transphobic that scene is) and many more unhinged moments and characters that just made me laugh. It’s honestly amazing that this type of writing is still acceptable to be seen in theatres, which was why I was so amazed Viva Kids thought it would be a good decision to release this in January. Seriously, this is why I wrote an essay about Viva Kids, because a lot of their tactics just do not make sense, but they not give two damns about it.
That said, I find the animation to be solid but not the most mind-blowing. We had seen family-friendly non-mainstream CG animated movies with better or more interesting animation styles compared to Charlie the Wonderdog, which was why the animation is not a stand-out for me. It is decently animated even though certain character designs are questionable, but given that we had seen one family-friendly non-mainstream CG animated movie in Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog with way better animation style and quality this year, it just did not leave me an impression.
The soundtrack and minor elements are just there, and as for my level of enjoyment, let me just say that Charlie the Wonderdog left me with a wide range of feelings. I laughed, I cried and I cringed all at the same time during certain parts of the movie, mostly due to how ridiculous the movie is.
In conclusion, if you cannot produce a good animated movie, at least make me entertained, and that was exactly what Charlie the Wonderdog did. I rather have something that is so bad yet so entertaining than one that just felt like a complete waste of time, and that was why at least I had a good time with this one. Then again, what did you expect from Viva Kids, perhaps the most unhinged animated movie distributor in the world?
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Black Butterflies
Key Information
- Director: David Baute
- Animation Studio: Ikiru Films
- Country of Origin: Spain and Panama
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 10 June 2024 (in France as part of the Annecy Film Festival)
Trailer
The Review
Having seen this movie, I can understand why this has been all but forgotten since its Annecy debut, because while I appreciate what this movie was trying to do, in a similar vein to another Spanish animated movie I talked about earlier in The Light of Aisha, Black Butterflies just did not work out for me.
While I appreciate its themes on climate change and women’s suffrage, which intertwine with the stories about three women from different parts of the world being forced to emigrate to other countries, the writing lacks proper development of its stories and themes. It felt quite rushed, and the stories jump back and forth, which makes it difficult for the viewers to focus on the stories. These are story decisions, yes, but if that is the case, then more time and care should be taken to ensure that the story jumps felt more cohesive.
It’s such a shame that the writing is not as great, because the animation is honestly what saves this story. The roughness with its hand-drawn animation showcases the suffering these women had to go through while trying to survive in unfamiliar environments, which already elevate this movie above some animated movies that only serve to distract and entertain its audience (and mostly do so poorly). The minor elements are… fine I guess, and as for my level of enjoyment, while I can connect with the movie at times, the issues I had with the movie resulted in a slightly lacklustre experience.
In conclusion, I can see why Black Butterflies is a footnote in today’s non-mainstream animated movie scene, because while its concept is very sound and some of its animation design stands out, there is not enough story development to make its messaging shine even more. It’s a shame, because Black Butterflies is the type of animated movie I am hoping to see more, but because its execution is not that great, it just did not work out in the end.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Endless Cookie
Key Information
- Directors: Peter Scriver and Seth Scriver
- Animation Studio: Scythia Films
- Country of Origin: Canada
- Rating: M18
- Release date: 13 June 2025 (in Canada)
Trailer
The Review
I got to say, this is my 20th animated movie from last year’s Annecy Film Festival that I had covered, and with this movie winning the Contrechamp prize, I can understand why it won because this documentary is surprisingly fun!
I do have gripes about Endless Cookie, the big one being that this movie started out slow at the beginning, but the pacing gets better as the movie progresses. Like Black Butterflies before, this movie jumps between different stories which can be difficult to keep up, and finally, its bizarre and quirky animation style may bother some people who are not used to experimental, arthouse style of animation.
These issues aside, there is a lot to enjoy about this quirky documentary about two half-brothers, one of which is indigenous, Listening to their stories with their actual recordings gave this movie a personal touch as they explored their upbringing in two different parts of Canada felt comfortable and soothing. It is like visiting relatives on special occasions and sharing stories of what we had been doing, which can relate to a lot of people. Additionally, despite the bizarre animation style, it surprisingly adds a layer of charm to this already interesting and fun documentary with how absurdist the entire movie feels. This style can add too much, but because of the connection you get with the Scriver brothers, who are the focus of this story, it softens that jarring feel.
The minor elements, especially with the sound mixing, felt very solid, and as for my level of enjoyment, I was enjoying this movie more than I should. Endless Cookie might have this weird vibe, but this weird vibe has this tender story that felt more cohesive and developed compared to Black Butterflies. Honestly, it might look bizarre, but this is bizarre in such a great way.
Overall, Endless Cookie is why I enjoyed covering experimental and arthouse animated movies when they are executed very well. This quirky animated documentary is one massive, but delicious cookie indeed.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Conclusion
Well, this Rundown is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, we got a couple of really interesting animated movies that pushs the boundaries of what counts as an animated movie, but at the same time, some animated movies failed to hit the mark for me.
Thank you for joining me on this adventure. If you think we are done with the talking animal animated movies, think again, because we are time skipping back to the modern era for our adventure. Anyone up for a game of Roarball?
Until next time, see you on the next adventure!
Leave a Reply