Introduction
Good morning, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is back for another animated movie adventure, and this time, we will explore not one, not two, but three animated movies! Sometimes, there will be certain movies that would not have much to say, but that does not mean they are bad. Anyway, after my trip to the Land of the Mummies, I think it is time to take it easy and go through other animated movies I checked out while relaxing, so let’s get right into today’s review!
In the first movie, The Amazing Maurice, we will explore the adaptation of one of the most beloved stories written by Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. Animated by Red Star 3D, a studio I previously encountered when I covered StarDog and TurboCat, it gave me a pretty bad first impression of the studio. Even worse still, this was a movie for Sky Cinema, a UK-based streaming service that admittedly does not have the best reputation out there for their original animated movies. Still, with it getting a limited theatrical release and debuting in America at the famed Sundance Festival, there is a chance The Amazing Maurice could be a surprise.
In the second, Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow, we set our sights into another world, this time a world populated with modern civilisation bugs and insects. In a world where spiders are expert cops, one detective spider found himself in the middle of a murder while on a plane bound for San Francisco that could bring implication into his world and possibly the human world as well. While very few had heard of this Spanish movie, I was aware of the director and the studio behind it. Julio Soto Gurpide and studio The Thinklab are in charge of this movie, and the reason I was familiar with both is that they were also responsible for the lesser known 2017 animated Finding Nemo rip-off Deep, which is one of my various guilty pleasure animated movies.
In the third, it is time to explore a festival pick in the Chilean-Brazilian animated movie “Nahuel and the Magic Book” that debuted during the Annecy International Film Festival in 2020. It is about a boy on an island who was afraid of the sea. One day, he discovered a magical book that could be the solution to overcoming his fears, but little did he know, an evil warlock is out to get him and retrieve that book back for no good. Nahuel has a very familiar plot, but what matters more is the execution, and with that, I was curious to see whether that movie works for me.
With that, let’s get right into our three-part adventure!
The Amazing Maurice
Key Information
- Director: Toby Genkel, co-directed by Florian Westermann
- Animation Studios: Red Star 3D (with Studio Takete, Cantilever Group and Squeze Studio Animation)
- Country of Origin: United Kingdom
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 16 December 2022 (On Sky Cinema in the United Kingdom)
Trailer
Story and Writing
One trend I noticed in recent animated movies is some usage of self-commentary and narration, not to mention self-awareness and fourth wall breakages, and The Amazing Maurice had loads of self-awareness, maybe to where it becomes too annoying for certain viewers.
Apart from that, the writing is surprisingly pleasant and competent. Usually, foreign CG animated movies suffered from bad writing, but thankfully, the script is competent and has a decent structure from start to finish. In addition, the dialogue makes sense, and some moments were pretty hilarious too without forcing the occasion.
I also say the characters are well-thought and well-realised too. Maurice (voiced by Hugh Laurie who has his fair share of voice acting roles in the past, mostly notable Dr Cockroach from Monsters vs Aliens) is a smart and self-aware cat that strikes a good balance between intellect and snarky, while veterans Emilia Clarke (who voiced spy Malicia, who mostly narrates the story) and Himesh Patel (who voiced Pied Piper wannabe Keith) also did a fine job, even if their respective characters are a bit bland.
However, Maurice’s rats stole the show with their scheming with Maurice, with each of the main rats showing a fun and quirky personality. I mean, who would have thought British YouTube personality Joe Sugg (who voiced the French entertainment rat Peaches) is pretty competent at voice acting?
Animation
I feel the animators paid enough respect when translating Maurice and his team of rats from book to the movie and to be fair, I had never read the original novel. Still, I think those characters kept true to their original forms well. With that said, I doubt the slightly weird character designs, but honestly, that was because I was reminded of my worst animated movie of the previous year, Marmaduke, who had slightly similar human character designs too.
However, I must say that for foreign CG animated movie standards, and especially compared to Red Star 3D’s previous movie which had horrible animation, this one ain’t too shabby. While it may not be polished to other, better foreign CG animated movies, the animation is pretty smooth and while it felt bland at times, the animation and the designs are solid.
It might be a Sky Cinema animated movie, but the animation in The Amazing Maurice is definitely above the average animation standard for Sky Cinema’s previous animated movies.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
I have little to say about the soundtrack, apart from the fact that the flute tracks (emulating the hypnotic tunes used by the Pied Piper in the classic fables) felt pleasant when it needs to. Sure, the soundtrack does not stand out, but at least it was not too annoying.
As for how much I enjoyed it, while I did not enjoy it as much as the other animated movies I covered this year (Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On), but I was enjoying myself throughout the runtime, especially towards the climax when the weirdness went up to 11.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, there were some teething issues regarding The Amazing Maurice, especially with some of the human character designs and the excessive use of self-awareness and fourth wall breakages. Thankfully, The Amazing Maurice has a shockingly good script and writing for foreign CG animated movie standards, with a fun cast of characters and pretty solid voice acting.
Despite being a Sky Cinema original animated movie, and animated by a studio with a not-so-good reputation, they somehow produce a decent enough animated movie worthy of its Sundance premiere, and is worth looking into.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Movie Rating
Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow
Key Information
- Director: Julio Soto Gurpide
- Animation Studios: The Thinklab, Kapers Animation, 3 Doubles Productions
- Country of Origin: Spain
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 28 December 2022 (In Spain)
Trailer
Story and Characters
Having covered a decent chunk of Spanish animated movies, I know that their level of writing is not as good as that of established European countries who possess better writers, such as France and the United Kingdom.
With that being said, I find the mystery of the murder onboard the seaplane, as well as the clues left behind, to be intriguing enough that the audience would be excited to solve the mystery, together with their parents. Even those teenagers and adults watching the movie alone might get interested in it.
While the actual mystery is fun to unravel, the other writing elements fell flat at times. Some of the dialogue felt shoo-in (which is to be expected for English dubs of most foreign CG animated movies), and the English voice acting for certain characters (well, except for stand up comedian and Daily Show correspondent Ronny Chieng) does felt annoying, but at the end of the day, it is the journey, not the destination, that matters, and the writing of the mystery is a decent journey at least.
Animation
Before watching this movie, I took a chance to have another look at The Thinklab’s previous movie before Inspector Sun, Deep. What I like about that Finding Nemo rip-off is the wacky character designs they came up with, even if some of the character designs make little sense. For Inspector Sun, the studio tried to translate the same formula to the bug characters, but I find their execution less successful, even if Deep has worse writing.
Yes, I am talking about bugs and insects and they should not be beautiful, even so, a decent amount of the bug characters look too detailed, which makes the designs less appealing. Sometimes, you do not need character designs to be this gritty.
Also, some of the rendering in this movie is not too great. There are certain moments in the movie where the fast sequences are pretty blurry, which lowers the overall quality of the animation. Honestly, the animation in Inspector Sun is a lowlight, but hey, I had seen movies with even worse animation than this.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
Given Inspector Sun takes place in the 1920s, it makes sense that the composers did a swing soundtrack which complements the mystery plot of this movie. While it does not offer much, it puts me in a tipsy mood as I move along with solving who is the murderer.
As for my level of enjoyment, because of the surprisingly decent writing, I was enjoying this movie to a certain extent. Yeah, the animation may be off pudding for me, but given I was used to this level of animation in a majority of the foreign CG animated movies I covered for the past few years, it is tolerable for me.
Overall Thoughts
Despite the cheap-looking animation from the limited budget, what keeps Inspector Sun together is the script-writing and how the movie weaves through the mystery behind the murder. It definitely gets the viewer guessing over who’s the real culprit, even if the voice acting of the English dub was not great.
For a movie produced by the same studio behind a Finding Nemo rip-off, Inspector Sun is an improvement, but a middle-of-the-road experience for me. Honestly, The Thinklab is a studio looking out for in the future once they get their stride in theatrical animation.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Movie Rating
Nahuel and the Magic Book
Key Information
- Director: German Acuña
- Animation Studio: Punkrobot Animation Studio
- Country of Origin: Chile, Brazil
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 20 January 2022 (in Chile)
Trailer
Story and Characters
The story takes a familiar magical adventure journey set in modern civilisation, but makes it a calming experience, which is honestly a reprieve from all those crazy, unhinged adventure animated movies I had checked out. While there are some undeveloped story elements in some parts of the movie, and certain ideas that make little sense in the scheme of things, the story still has better execution compared to another animated movie that has a similar plotline, Anima Estudios’ Xico’s Journey. For me, Xico’s Journey suffered from overcomplicated writing and weird, sloppy animation, while Nahuel simply nailed the basics of storytelling.
The characters, while nothing new when compared to similar movies, have decent development throughout the movie. Nahuel plays as a typical protagonist with nothing unique compared to other movie protagonists, but he is still a well-realised protagonist at the end of the day. As for other characters, they may be familiar with experienced animation moviegoers, but they are at least not too annoying. The voice acting is also decent as well. In short, the characters are nothing much, but are still solid.
Animation
I will be biased when it comes to well-executed, 2D hand-drawn animation, and the animation, while simple and suffered from some flawed animation due to a smaller team of animators and lower budgets, is pretty good. The scary elements just had the right amount of edginess to make them fun without being scary, and some of the character designs, while boring and generic, are pretty nice. I do not need well-detailed designs if the animation quality is still good, and Nahuel is simply as that.
Let’s be clear, Nahuel does not have the best hand-drawn animation of the year, especially when Little Nicholas pulls off the hand-drawn animation aspect way better. Still, the animation quality, while not the best, is solid, not gonna lie.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
The soundtrack is a more calming, melodic music score that sets the right tone throughout the movie. Even if it felt repetitive at times, the score is definitely better than some animated movies’ soundtracks with worse quality and questionable songs.
As for how much I enjoyed the movie, to provide context, I watched the movie after a day of work, and it was the stress relief I needed. Watching the numerous scenes in Nahuel makes me calmer, and allowed a level of destress that would not happen for any other, faster-paced animated movies.
Overall Thoughts
Sometimes, when an opportunity presents to watch a movie that only exists in animation festivals, you have to take those chances. I did with Nahuel and the Magic Book, and honestly, I like what I saw.
Nahuel and the Magic Book is a simple animated movie that most of us would be familiar with, but what it provides is a calming experience thanks to both the simplicity of the story and animation, as well as the soothing score that makes the journey enjoyable. It may not be the most memorable animated movie I watched, but it did the job for me.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Movie Rating
Conclusion
Let me be honest, there will be a time where I will review multiple animated movies where there is not much to talk about, and these three are great examples of it. There are much more exciting animated movies to look forward to, so I will have to consider doing quick reviews of smaller animated movies in combined reviews.
With not much animated movies to go to right now, and with me having to go back to my real world for audit peak season, I will take a break from talking about animated movies until a few weeks’ time, when one of the most anticipated anime movies of 2023 comes out with the conclusion to the Makoto Shinkai trilogy, Suzume. I will see you later for the next adventure, and until then, k thanks bye!
