Introduction
Ahoy, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is back for yet another animated movie adventure and this time, we have more places to explore. Summer might be over pretty soon, but at least we can spend the final days of summer and the first days of autumn taking a look at more animated movies, plus one that came out in January that I missed out and two that came out in previous years, but I had yet to watch. However, given that the whole rundown might be too long, considering how long my two previous rundowns are, I decide to divide it into two parts.
We begin the first part of our adventure with a trip to New York City for a familiar squad of ninja turtles, then travel back in time to the Jurassic period for more adventures with the one-eyed weasel. After that, we will fly to Spain to meet up with a familiar pair of Spanish comic icons who always can’t finish a mission properly before we take a breather from the chaos that unfolded with these three movies.
With that said, let part 1 of the third rundown of 2022 begin!
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie
Important Info
- Directors: Andy Suriamo and Ant Ward
- Animation Studios: Nickelodeon Animation Studio, Flying Bark Productions, Xilam Animation, Top Draw Animation and WildBrain Studios
- Country of Origin: United States of America, Australia, France
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 5 August 2022 (on Netflix)
Trailer
Review
Based on the Nickelodeon/Netflix adaptation of the beloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, Rise of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie stars the beloved turtles of Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo with another mission, this time, with a mysterious stranger from the future, to stop the invasion of an alien species locked away for thousands of years.
I should begin by pointing out that its IMDb score is a 5.8/10, a shockingly low number if you ask me. I say this because chances are, most viewers, including myself, had never watched an episode of the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Netflix series. However, I had seen clips of the series and I really love the gritty and stylised 2D animation that is a breath of fresh air and here, the Rise of the TMNT movie is a refreshing, but familiar take on a typical TV movie in that while it does not offer something new, this movie gets the basics right and then some.
While the writing is straightforward, TMNT fun that most fans will not mind, the main TMNT gang stayed true to the original selves (especially with their love for pizza) but personally, I loved the fact that compared to their previous iterations, they not only posses special abilities of their own, their team dynamic (while shaky) is a total cowbunga and developed very well throughout the movie. With that being said, the animators deserve the biggest credit because not only are the action sequences orgasmic and as beautiful as great Donghua movies of date, and the fight sequences, while not as epic as the ones in the series, is a total blast regardless.
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie is a straightforward, but fun, animated TV movie that should excite both TMNT and non-TMNT fans, with great writing and some of the best stylised animation of the year. Sure, the writers could have polished the story a little more and use less old animation tropes, but this movie gets the done in making TMNT fans forget that the Michael Bay adaptation happened.
Rating
- Story and characters: 4.5/5
- Animation: 5/5
- Special sauce: 4.5/5
- Overall score: 14/15
Rating: Fairytale
Ice Age: The Adventures of Buck Wild
Important Info
- Director: John C. Dorkin
- Animation Studios: Bardel Entertainment and Blue Sky Studios
- Country of Origin: United States of America
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 28 January 2022 (on Disney+)
Trailer
Review
Initially planned as an animated series focusing on fan favourite Buck Wild, Ice Age: The Adventures of Buck Wild is the supposed farewell for Blue Sky Studios, who unfortunately was shut down in 2021, both because of the COVID-19 pandemic and failing box office returns. It sees Simon Pegg (who also had another voice acting role in Luck) returning as the one-eyed weasel, who helps the annoying possum sidekicks of Crash and Eddie to find a new home, while navigating through the dangers of The Lost World (the main location for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs).
Even as a fan of Pegg’s character throughout the Ice Age franchise (and he once again did a fine job reprising his role), this movie ain’t it, chief. I am very sure Disney wanted to get any involvement with Blue Sky out of the way, but if they want to, at least they should allow Blue Sky to complete what they had yet to finish (including Nimona, which thankfully will come out on Netflix next year… hopefully).
Instead, they got another studio to finish the job and made them rush through it, which explains the distinct drop in quality, as compared to even Collision Course, the supposed worst movie of the franchise. Giving Crash and Eddie, literally the two worst sidekicks of the franchise, a shared spotlight makes the movie more annoying than even their personalities, and there is also a continuity error of it being supposedly taking place after Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
However, the worst part of the movie goes to the animation. I will admit, while the character designs look cruder and the rendering is terrible compared to the Ice Age franchise, it is slightly better than the animation and rendering in Norm of the North and Arctic Dogs, which admittedly is a very low bar to clear. Still, given how decent the animation in the Ice Age franchise is, such low-quality animation is unacceptable, though I could not blame Bardel Entertainment (a decent animation studio in their own right) for the animation issues.
Ice Age: The Adventures of Buck Wild is an insulting finish to the team at Blue Sky Studios with how low-quality it looks. From the messy and nonsensical writing and characterisation to cheap-looking rendering due to a rushed production and, of course, the lack of Scrat is the last straw that broke Blue Sky’s back. Shutting down Blue Sky is one thing, but trashing their legacy with this frozen junk is another. But hey, Marmaduke is even worse, but that is a given, anyway.
Rating
- Story and characters: 0.5/5
- Animation: 0.5/5
- Special sauce: 0.5/5
- Overall score: 1.5/15
Rating: Horrible
Mortadelo and Filemon: Mission Implausible (2014)
Important Info
- Director: Javier Fesser
- Animation Studio: Ilion Animation Studios (now Skydance Animation Madrid)
- Country of Origin: Spain
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 28 November 2014 (in Spain)
Trailer
Review
Based on the well-beloved Spanish comic series about the most incompetent spy duo in existence, it stars Mortadelo and Filemon once again on a mission to stop a super villain from blowing up the headquarters of the agency that recruited them.
Honestly, since I had reviewed this movie on Letterboxd, I will keep it brief here. Given Ilion’s lacklustre track record, with works like Planet 51, Wonder Park and the recently released Luck, Mission Implausible is a breath of fresh air from their other movies. Even though I never read the comic series, this adaptation has hilarious but clever absurdist comedy and gags, the animation stays true to the original designs with even more absurd characters and exaggerated movements and most of all, in a similar vein to another spy animated movie called Spycies (a 2020 Chinese animated movie that I had reviewed on Letterboxd), the movie has smarter writing than first thought.
Mortadelo and Filemon: Mission Implausible is not the lame duck Ilion worked on compared to their other movies. Fun, clever writing with great use of absurdist comedy and gags, perfectly exaggerated animation that stays true to the original comic series, and it is such a great animated movie at a very low cost ($12.5 million). If this is what Ilion can produce, I hope Spellbound and their future movies are as fun as this.
Rating
- Story and characters: 4/5
- Animation: 3.5/5
- Special sauce: 3.5/5
- Overall score: 11/15
Rating: Worth the Popcorn
To Be Continued
And with that comes part 1 of the third 2022 animated movies rundown. While Part 2 will most likely come out in a couple of weeks once I complete the other four animated movies, I am also working on a couple of reviews as the animated movie season goes on a two-month slumber (unless we get sudden announcements of any animated movie coming out in either September or October). Trust me, we will be going back to the Jurassic, but not the Ice Age one, the one where three kids found themselves teleporting to the Jurassic period by accident, where they will meet a crazy-looking dinosaur… voiced by Rob Schneider.
I will see you in part 2 and until then, k thanks bye!
