Introduction
Hello again, fellow adventurers, and a very happy National Day to my Singaporean readers! Blaziker is back for the next animation adventure and this time, we are continuing to look back at the animated movies that came out from the end of March to early June, before this blog happened. If you want to check out some of the movies I already covered, you can check out part 1 of my rundown here.
We will begin the second half of the rundown with a trip to downtown Los Angeles to witness another successful heist, and ending off with an exploration of the lost world to find the sacred Hamster of Darkness. In between those trips, we will stay in Los Angeles to find a dog that is too big (and too ugly to be shown on the video feed), a trip to South America to find the destruction of nature, venture to space to find a boy on a secret NASA mission, a short hop to Tokyo for some gravity-amplified parkour and to Denmark to understand the pains of an Afghanistan refugee. We are even ascending to heaven (without dying, of course) as a bonus.
If that is an adventure for you, then strap in, because it starts right now!
The Bad Guys
- Director: Pierre Perifel
- Animation Studio: DreamWorks Animation
- Country of Origin: United States of America
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 17 March 2022 (In Singapore theatres)
Review
Directed by the same guy behind Bilby, The Bad Guys is an adaptation of a well-loved children book series starring Oscar winner Sam Rockwell as the wolf leader of a criminal animal group simply known as “The Bad Guys”. After a heist went wrong and got arrested for the first time, Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade from The IT Crowd) saw the opportunity to use his skills to mentor The Bad Guys into good citizens, but will they reform, or will The Bad Guys stay bad?
Here’s the thing: DreamWorks needed to make this movie work, considering this was their first original animated movie in years and that their recent animated movies had range, from pure misses to decent. Well, I can tell you, it’s so good to be bad!
The Bad Guys has the essence of classic anime Lupin the Third, with fun, exciting and well-paced action sequences and some unexpected twists along the way. The animation is something DreamWorks rarely do, but had executed the unfamiliar stylised animation so well, especially with the fun facial expressions from the characters.
Speaking of characters, Rockwell’s Mr Wolf performance is one of the best voice acting performances of the year, showing off his charisma he gained from his time in The Hunger Games series. He and Marc Maron’s Mr Snake have one of the best relationships (and ships) of the year, and everyone else delivered fun, epic voice acting as well. To top it off, the Pulp Fiction-inspired soundtrack, complete with one killer original song that is “Good Tonight” and this is such a great all-rounder animated movie.
The Bad Guys is DreamWorks’ best animated movie in a long, long time. It combines the well-written heist plot with some fun action, hilarious comedy that breaks the tension when needed, some of the best and the most unique animation DreamWorks ever done. The cast is very memorable and complements the story and has one of the most exciting animated movie soundtracks of the year. Suffice to say, DreamWorks pulled off a successful heist out of nowhere and to be fair, there is no need to arrest them. They are just… too good.
Rating
- Story and characters: 5/5
- Animation: 5/5
- Special sauce: 5/5
- Overall score: 15/15
Rating: Euphoria
Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood
- Director: Richard Linklater
- Animation Studios: Netflix Animation, Minnow Mountain
- Country of Origin: United States of America
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 1 April 2022 (On Netflix)
Review
Directed by the legendary director of Boyhood, A Scanner Darkly and other interesting movies, Apollo 10 ½ is his first animated movie in a very long time and taking place in a 70s Houston suburb, Jack Black narrates as an adult version of a Houston boy given a secret mission to test out a spacecraft (that could only fit him due to a design mistake when designing that spacecraft) that would get him to the moon. However, as he trained to be ready for the mission, we also get a chance to see him going through life in Houston, from his family to his school and his fascination with Houston’s legacy of space exploration.
Apollo 10 ½ is the type of animated movie few directors desired to make because of current trends: a slice-of-life animated movie that makes viewers feel nostalgic about the old times, even if they are not born in Houston (I’m from Singapore). Sure, Black may have overstayed his welcome with the narration, but it did not take away the nostalgic, feel-good vibe throughout the movie. Each character has something special and on-brand with the 70s culture, even if they are familiar places with some people we grew up with, for the right or wrong reasons. The rotoscoping animation that makes Linklater’s animated movies differs from the rotoscoping in Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, having more of a personal touch and looking less rough compared to Linklater’s other rotoscoping movies.
Apollo 10 ½ is the slice-of-life animated movie rarely seen in mainstream and even indie non-anime animated movies. The story may be slow, and it should have a shorter narration, but it did not take away the nostalgic, atmospheric of growing up in the 70s. The animation is one of the more unique animation styles you will see in 2022 and felt more natural than that of Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. Like any trip down memory lane, Apollo 10 ½ is something similar folks that grew up in that era will reminisce, and even those the younger generation might appreciate the nostalgic feel this movie has to offer.
Rating
- Story and characters: 4/5
- Animation: 5/5
- Special sauce: 4.5/5
- Overall score: 13.5/15
Rating: Fairytale
Flee
- Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
- Animation Studio: Final Cut for Real
- Country of Origin: Denmark
- Rating: M18
- Release Date: 10 March 2022 (in Singapore theatres on limited release)
Review
Flee documents the life of Amin, an Afghan refugee whose family had to leave his homeland because of the Afghanistan crisis in the 1980s. However, as he and his family began their migration to somewhere safe, they found themselves in a difficult situation as migrants, as Amin discovers things he never knew about himself.
Flee gained early buzz upon its Sundance release last year, but it took slightly more than a year for it to come to Singapore and even then, it was a limited release to one indie theatre (The Projector, which I recommend you to check out if you are an indie movie buff). However, after my screening, I found out the story of Flee was way more haunting than what I imagined. Flee captures the trials and tribulations of any immigrant in their pursuit to find a safe haven, and with the recent migrant crisis, Flee is a haunting memoir of that crisis. The animation covers the blood, sweat and tears of the story, and some scenes are so devastating I could not bear to look at the horrific images Amin and his family had to face as they tried to escape far away from a war-torn Afghanistan. The diverse use of 2D animation captures the tone of this movie at the right moments, making Flee a sensory experience.
People use animation as a canvas to showcase stories that would be otherwise difficult to produce in a live-action format, and Flee is one of the best uses of the medium in a long time. The story had elements of despair, hardship, hope and discovery that everyone can relate to and the 2D hand-drawn animation pictures one of the most devastating storylines of the year. The documentary storyline opens up to who Amin is now: an Afghan refugee restarting his life in another country and finding out who he really is. Flee is the one hopeful, indie animated movie that people should see at least once to appreciate how difficult a migrant’s life is.
Rating
- Story and characters: 5/5
- Animation: 5/5
- Special sauce: 5/5
- Overall score: 15/15
Rating: Euphoria
Bubble
- Director: Tetsuro Araki
- Animation Studio: Wit Studio
- Country of Origin: Japan
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 28 April 2022 (on Netflix)
Review
Produced by the same people that brought us the legendary Attack on Titan anime series, set in a Tokyo devastated by a strange phenomenon, it has now become a place for a group of young people who lost their families, and found solace in games of gravity-amplified parkour to win valuable resources for their team. One day, Hibiki, a specialist at that dangerous game, fell into the ocean during a parkour climb and discovered Uta, a 15-year-old female human created from the bubbles generated from his exhale that could be the voice he heard from his visions.
As someone that has not caught on with the Attack on Titan series, I also did not discover the issues the series had, particularly with the more recent episodes. With that said, a big issue regarding the story is that it felt unfocused at times, mostly focusing on the relationship between Hibiki and Uta. Honestly, there were just too many plot points to follow through. Sometimes, it feels frustrating being overwhelmed with too much information, even if the story has better technical writing than other animated movies that came out this year.
That said, the animation saved the entire movie, providing us with some of the most beautiful visuals of a sea-filled Tokyo, complete with some amazing movements during the parkour sequences. The ending at the abandoned Tokyo Tower makes up for the unfocused writing, complete with some amazing music from J-rock band Eve (who also worked on their “Adam by Eve” Netflix special, which I highly recommended).
Bubble is proof that sometimes, great animation can save ok, or even bad writing. While the story felt unfocused and over-complicated the visuals of an abandoned Tokyo, the parkour sequences and the homage to The Little Mermaid saved the entire movie, complete with an epic soundtrack by a J-rock icon. It may be yet another Netflix anime movie, but at least it is something worth looking into for some bubbles and dark forces wreaking havoc across Tokyo.
Rating
- Story and characters: 3/5
- Animation: 5/5
- Special sauce: 4/5
- Overall score: 12/15
Rating: Fuego
Koati
- Director: Rodrigo Perez-Castro
- Animation Studios: Los Hijos de Jack, Upstairs, Toon City Animation
- Country of Origin: Mexico, United States of America
- Rating: G
- Release Date: 15 October 2021 (in select USA theatres)
Review
Set in a rainforest in Latin America (although not sure where), three unlikely animals embark on their journey to save their home and stopped an evil and manipulative coral snake from destroying their homeland.
Even as someone that ventures out for any animated movie adventure, I will say I never heard of the movie until its sudden release last year, but thanks to a connection, I was able to get an online screening for Koati (even though it never came to Singapore). I was curious about how this movie will fare and since there is not much to say, I will go straight to the summary.
Koati is a decent first attempt for the crew involved, despite its various issues. The story plays it straight and safe, but with some memorable characters, gets the job done even if certain elements are forgettable. The 2D animation may not be the most solid and riddled with lip-sync errors, but is vibrant without feeling off-pudding. Koati may not have something special that makes it standout, but is still a decent animated movie, regardless.
Rating
- Story and characters: 3/5
- Animation: 3.5/5
- Special sauce: 2.5/5
- Overall score: 9/15
Rating: Decent
Marmaduke
- Directors: Mark A.Z. Dippe, Lee Youngki, Phil Nibbelink and Matt Phillip Whelan
- Animation Studios: One Cool Animation, Storyberry
- Country of Origin: United States of America
- Rating: PG (Should have been R21 if you ask me)
- Release Date: 6 May 2022 (on Netflix)
Review
Marmaduke stars Pete Davidson as Marmaduke, an undisciplined dog that is “too big” but is lovable. One day, an experienced trainer saw potential in training Marmaduke to become the first ever Great Dane breed to win the World Dog Championship, even if he had to deal with the annoyance this dog possesses.
The animation community turned heads negatively upon witnessing the trailer of the abomination and for good reason. It looked like it came from a Foodfight rip-off, not a proper animated movie! Even worse, when researching deeper, I found out the same guy behind The Reef 2: High Tide (a Finding Nemo rip-off) directed Marmaduke, and co-directed by the man who directed and worked solo on Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss. The fact that unknown animation studios (even by my acquired taste of lesser known animation studios) are in charge of the animation compounded on my low expectations. After I watched it on Netflix, this may be the first time since Arctic Dogs in 2019, I felt repulsive over an animated movie’s existence.
Marmaduke combines the uncanny animation of Foodfight, the pointless, broken and sometimes dull writing in Arctic Dogs, the tasteless, cringe “comedy” of Norm of the North and most importantly, the mind-numbing of almost every viewer who finished watching this waste of space and money to make it somehow “popular”. How Netflix picked it up when they could have used their money to either improve the overall user experience, market their shows and movies more, or bring in better quality shows and movies from more reputable studios, we will never know.
Rating
- Story and characters: 0/5
- Animation: 0/5
- Special sauce: 0/5
- Overall score: 0/15
Rating: Burn in Hell
Even Mice Belong in Heaven
- Directors: Jan Bubenicek and Denisa Grimmova
- Animation Studios: Fresh Films, Les Films du Cygne
- Country of Origin: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, France
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 26 May 2022 (in Singapore theatres)
Review
This animated movie from the Czech Republic saw two mortal enemies (a mouse and a fox) finding themselves in heaven after a tragic end, but as soon as they lose their natural instinct, it created one of the most unlikely friendships as they reflect on their journey before and prepare for the road ahead.
It is great that in 2022, we are seeing some animation studios outside of the big stop-motion juggernauts of Laika and Aardman experimenting with stop-motion animation, a dying breed. It is even impressive when that indie animation studio also explores the life beyond the living, like what Pixar did with Soul. Having such a mature storyline has its high risks, but the team at Fresh Films somehow made Even Mice Belong in Heaven one of the sweetest and most thought-provoking movies of the year. Not only does it explores death and re-incarnation, but it also explores human (or in this case, animal) instinct, relieving the past and moving forward, things Wizzy (the mouse) and Whitebelly (the fox) had to work together. Even with their differences, their chemistry and the various other characters brought in a different personality that keeps the story fresh, and that is not to even mention the effort put in making the stop-motion aspect cute and welcoming, aided by the calming score composed by Krzystof A. Janczak.
Even Mice Belong in Heaven is proof that stop-motion animation can still be relevant. The less common story about the meaning is less philosophical compared to Soul, but benefits from having interesting and thoughtful perceptions about life, death and starting afresh. The characters, particularly the two main characters, each have their unique personality and the stop-motion animation is a refreshing detour from the endless CG animation viewers are used to. Accompanied by a calming musical score that eases the viewers into the heavenly experience, and you get a unique animated movie that is often hard to find elsewhere.
Rating
- Story and characters: 4.5/5
- Animation: 4.5/5
- Special sauce: 4/5
- Overall score: 13/15
Rating: Fuego
Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness
- Directors: Ben Stassen and Benjamin Mousquet
- Animation Studio: nWave Studios
- Country of Origin: Belgium
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 2 June 2022 (in Singapore theatres)
Review
Loosely based on the Chickenhare comic series by Chris Grine and animated by personally the Illumination Entertainment of Western Europe, nWave Studios, it follows a young half-chicken, half-hare being on a quest to find the one artefact his father could not find for years: the sacred Hamster of Darkness. However, he had to do so before his evil uncle came for the same artefact, but for malicious purposes.
I will admit that this is unironically one of my most anticipated animated movies of 2022 for a few reasons. From the trailer that came out last December, it has a lot of promise coming from a studio that does family fare well, in spite of those that dislike their animation line-up. Who would have thought that since its first theatrical releases in January this year, with a major Netflix release in some countries (including the United States) in June, that Chickenhare became an unexpected success across the streaming market? I documented my theories about its success in my essay, but I can tell you the story, while weird at first, is a nWave movie with much better writing, some cheeky, but well-timed jokes that came straight from left-field, one of the best uses of realism animation from an indie studio in a long time and overall, just a lot of fun to watch.
Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness, like Chickenhare himself, is an unexpected surprise very few people cared about, and could in contention for the dark horse animated movie of 2022. The story, while familiar, hits you with lessons people of all ages can resonate with while not riddled with the usual cliches and dirty jokes nWave is guilty of at times. The characters, especially with the supporting cast, personify the heart of the story. The animation is easily the best nWave has ever done in their history, and showcases how sometimes, animation studios can change for the better. Just like Chickenhare himself, nWave produces their best ever work by not being ashamed of their past mistakes and staying true to who they are: a small animation studio from Belgium who is not willing to play it safe, does not take themselves too seriously and is passionate about making enjoyable animated movies for their target audience.
Rating
- Story and characters: 4/5
- Animation: 4.5/5
- Special sauce: 4/5
- Overall score: 12.5/15
Rating: Fuego
Conclusion
Whew, I covered all the animated movies I watched before Lightyear, and seeing that it will be quite some time before the next animated movie comes out, I will be taking a short break but after that, we will be back for more explorations of animated movies! I will see you on the next adventure and until then, k thanks bye!
