Introduction
Hello fellow adventurers! Blaziker is back for yet another exciting adventure and today, we are capping off this bumper summer season with two more animated movies and boy, this will be a blast! I was initially going to cover three, but unfortunately, I was unable to cover the third animated movie due to very limited screenings in Singapore, so unfortunately, that movie will be moved to the next rundown.
The first movie technically came out in May, but regardless, it was a movie that I was curious about, and that is the latest animated movie by Vanguard Animation, Rally Road Racers! Directed by Ross Venokur (who previously directed two Vanguard movies, Charming and Fearless), Rally Road Racers is a typical sports underdog story about Zhi (comedian Jimmy O. Yang), a rookie racing driver, teaming up with former race car veteran-turned mechanic (J. K. Simmons, also known as the GOAT) to take down a real estate mogul and rally champion (John Cleese) in the legendary Silk Road Rally and stop him from destroying Zhi’s home village. To say that Vanguard Animation is one of the worst theatrical animation studios out there would be an understatement. It has been almost 20 years since they released their first movie, so let us see if there is any signs of life at all…
The second movie, Nimona, is based on a book and was produced by Blue Sky Studios before its shutdown. When a knight in a futuristic medieval world is framed for a crime he didn’t commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona – a mischievous teen who happens to be a shapeshifting creature he’s sworn to destroy. Just as Nimona will be lost forever, Annapurna and DNEG took up the mantle and, with the help of the previous Nimona crew, they were able to complete the movie. With Netflix releasing it in their platform, will Nimona be well worth the hype?
With that said, let’s get on with this adventure!
Rally Road Racers
Key Information
- Director: Ross Venokur
- Animation Studio: Vanguard Animation (with Redefine)
- Country of Origin: United States, United Kingdom
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 12 May 2023 (In United States)
Trailer
Story and Characters
Let me just clarify one thing before we begin with this review: Believe it or not, you can find good writing in even the foreign CG animated movies, who have a reputation of not having great writing on average. Certain movies, such as Spycies, Seal Team, Chickenhare and more recently with The Amazing Maurice, surprise with way better writing than expected, but most of the time, the writing does fell by the wayside, even with great foreign CG animated movies.
With that said, the writing in Rally Road Racers is horrendous. End of the story.
If you ask me to describe Vanguard’s style of writing, forget about it. I had watched a lot of their movies for the past few years, and I’m not sure whether they had any particular writing style at all. All I can say is that the scripts in their movies are under-baked, with a good number of plot holes, stale or offensive comedy not suited for the family audience and an endless buffet of animated movie tropes that Vanguard fails to utilise well. In fact, Vanguard might have written those movies with little to no care about quality control whatsoever.
As for characters, do not expect the characters to be an improvement either. In fact, a lot of the main cast are pretty much caricatures of classic sports movies characters, except not done properly. The voice acting, with the exception of John Cleese who was carrying yet another bad animated movie on his own, felt flat as well. Honestly, the story and characters are not suitable for theatrical animation standards, for sure. Oh, and speaking of John Cleese, his character is basically Otto from Arctic Dogs, except with frog minions instead of puffin minions. Pretty original, huh?
Animation
While I am happy to state that animation is getting better and better for the past few years, it seems Vanguard Animation did not get the memo on the ‘getting better and better’ part of my earlier statement. This is because in even their most recent animated movies, not only were they riddled with animation errors, but the style is simply unacceptable for theatrical animation standards, meaning that the animation in Vanguard’s movies aged poorly upon their release. In the case of Rally Road Racers, the same thing has happened.
While the style used is probably the least offensive animation style from a Vanguard Animation movie so far, the quality control issues are still there. There were times where the voice lines do not match with the mouth movements in certain characters, which has been a staple problem in a lot of bad animated movies as of late. In addition, some of the character designs, while not actually too bad compared to some of the flat and uninspired designs in their previous movies, still have some rendering problems that is close to Arctic Dogs levels of bad.
However, the worst offender has to be the background designs. In an attempt to make their movie ‘stand out’ even more, Vanguard decided to flood the backgrounds with a sin that is over-saturating the colours in the backgrounds, thus making the movie even cheaper. I mentioned before that if Vanguard learn from other more successful animation studios, then they would have an idea on how to craft the animation. However, I did not expect to copy the terrible colour palette found in animated movies made by another bad theatrical animation studio that is Anima Estudios!
If there is one redeeming element regarding the animation, it has to be the Take on Me scene during the second act of the movie. Seriously, who would have thought that Rally Road Racers would utilise the song way better than The Super Mario Bros Movie, but squandered their chances in the rest of the movie? Still, that part serve no purpose in the movie, so it might as well not exist.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
Most Vanguard movies’ soundtracks are nothing memorable, as they love to use either licenced songs or B-rate songs, so I will just skip the soundtrack entirely and move on to my level of enjoyment.
Honestly, this is the first animated movie of 2023 where I did not enjoy my time at all. Yes, there was Mummies that was technically bad, but I still had ironic enjoyment out of it. However, as with all Vanguard’s movies, I did not enjoy myself at all, apart from the Take on Me animation sequence. Honestly, the fact that a Vanguard Animation movie can still be released in theatres in 2023 is making me question about the theatrical animation industry, and what movies deserve to get a theatrical release.
Overall Thoughts
Surprise, surprise, I’m not surprised in the slightest. I was hoping for Vanguard Animation to turn over a new leaf, but it has not.
Rally Road Racers prove that Vanguard Animation is still the same old animation studio that has not improve on their craft at all. While the cliché story, overuse of classic animated movie tropes and a mix of either boring or annoying characters. In addition to the poor animation quality and background designs, you get an underwhelming animated movie that does not deserve to be in theatres. Sure, Mummies was an animated movie that happened, but at least it entertained me and deserved to be shown in theatres, unlike Rally Road Racers.
After six months into the year, Rally Road Racers is the first true animated movie dud of 2023, and it is not surprising to see why their “least worst” animated movie is not worth heading off to the races for.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Movie Rating
Nimona
Key Information
- Directors: Nick Bruno and Troy Quane
- Animation Studio: Annapurna Animation and DNEG (with Blue Sky Studios)
- Country of Origin: United States, United Kingdom
- Rating: M18
- Release Date: 30 June 2023 (On Netflix)
Trailer
Story and Characters
While I had not read the original Nimona graphic novels, the movie delivers in terms of both the thrills and the emotions, and I got to say, Nimona got me hooked from start to finish.
Nimona took advantage of its wild concept and make most of its elements shine through. First off, having this movie taking place in a technologically advanced medieval world makes the world-building one of the more unique aspects of the movie, and the themes and morals of this movie are impactful as well. This is due to Nimona having a more mature storytelling, and not those cheap and generic story and execution that makes moviegoers feel cheated of the experience.
However, what sells this movie the most is the action which should not be a surprise given that the directors in charge also previously directed Blue Sky’s final movie before its official shut-down, Spies in Disguise, which offered exciting action as well. The action and the pacing in Nimona make the entire experience a thrill ride, and it is a pleasantly unpredictable movie that keeps you guessing on who the real villain of the story is to the very end.
Not only did Nimona nail the action, but it also nails the comedy too. The jokes, mostly from Nimona and Ballister, flow seamlessly and do not feel cringe worthy at all, which helps to break the tension when the movie needs to. Plus, the comedy took advantage of its unhinged concept to sell the story well.
The characters are as equally impactful as the story. We see the shape-shifting Nimona (Chloe Grace Moretz who has previous voice-acting experience in Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarves, as well as the two Addams Family animated movies) who is a fun and engaging sidekick with an unexpectedly dark backstory, and was one of the best parts of the movie, especially once she changes to other animals when she needs to. There is Ballister (Riz Ahmed in his first ever voice acting role) who also has a similar background to Nimona, but as a former knight accused of a murder he did not commit.
His relationship with Nimona, as well as his own character arc, blossomed throughout the movie, especially in the middle of the movie once he eventually teams up with Nimona. His relationship with fellow knight Ambrosius (Eugene Lee Yang) was one of the best LGBT relationships for any mainstream animated movie, but also one of the most tragic too. Speaking of Ambrosius, there were ways to not make this side character stand out, but he had a lot of standout moments, and his motivations make him such a great tragic anti-hero too.
In fact, the character development in Nimona is not just one of the best of the year, but so does the voice acting. Every voice acting performance is engaging and not phone-in at all, making Nimona’s story and characters one of the most fun of the year.
Animation
When it comes to the hot trending stylised CG technique, where 2D and 3D animation techniques merge to become a cohesive animation style, no mainstream animation studio took stride in that style more than Blue Sky themselves did. In fact, they had utilised that style in their previous movies, such as Horton Hears a Who, The Peanuts Movie and Spies in Disguise. With that said, Nimona is the movie that pushes Blue Sky’s style of stylised CG animation to the next level.
Beginning with the visual storytelling and it was already striking that this story takes place in a medieval world with a cyberpunk twist, and the background, the lighting, the colour usage, and character designs all blend in with this unique art-style. Everything is in its place, and felt cohesive for this setting, combining the old with the refreshing new.
Now only that, but the animation in the action sequences is dynamic, energetic and downright reminiscence of the classic that is Everything Everywhere All At Once. While fast-paced, the action does not feel frantic and on beat with the rock-based soundtrack, so the action leaves a lasting impact.
Despite its production issues arising from the shut-down of Blue Sky Studios, Annapura Animation and DNEG (together with most of the Nimona crew) delivered one of the most exciting animation sequences of 2023, and definitely on part with the likes of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Deep Sea in terms of overall animation quality.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
Let me be fair, Nimona does not need a well-crafted soundtrack when the writing and the animation is this fantastic, but it has one, and I am glad that the Nimona soundtrack did it anyway.
Having a rock-based soundtrack fits perfectly with the madness Nimona causes with every fight scene she and Ballister got involved in, and it was so glorious to watch every action sequence with that rock soundtrack. I may be a sucker for rock-based soundtracks, but this is one of the better rock soundtracks for an animated movie for sure.
In addition, as what I mentioned in the story, Nimona possesses one of the best LGBT relationships for any mainstream animated movie by far, with me feeling the tension between Ballister and Ambrosius throughout the entire runtime. Honestly, the fact that Nimona was initially cancelled mainly due to this relationship is a bit ironic, given that not only was this released on the final day of Pride Month, but it had a better LGBT relationship than other Disney or Pixar animated movies with an LGBT relationship, combined.
Honestly, I do not even need to discuss on my level of enjoyment, since Nimona was so perfect and entertaining, I was watching the movie with a big smile on my face. An absolute ripper from start to finish.
Overall Thoughts
Well, if this was Blue Sky’s swansong movie instead of Spies in Disguise, I reckon that this would be the perfect end to an underrated animation studio that were way ahead of their time, and also, this might be their best movie they produced.
Nimona is equal parts epic, equal parts hilarious and equal parts impactful, with so much action that adds to the story and characters with so much charisma and energy, Nimona is as close to perfection as any Netflix acquired animated movie will ever get and to say that this is the best animated movie acquired by Netflix would be the understatement of the century, as it pretty much destroyed almost every single Netflix acquired animated movie that had existed before this combined. It had action, it had comedy, it had amazing writing, it had well-built tension, it had everything.
To say that this is perfection would be an understatement, and I bet this time… Blue Sky Studios had finally completed their revenge on Disney in the most satisfying way possible.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Movie Rating
Conclusion
With two more animated movies of varying qualities, you never know what to expect from those movies. With that said, the unpredictability do make every adventure so much fun!
We got two surprise indie animated movies coming our way on top of what would have been the third movie in this rundown, and now that July does not have much animated movies to explore, why not we make a quick detour to those movies? I will see you on the next adventure, and until then, k thanks bye!
