Introduction
Hello, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is back for yet another adventure and today, it yet another rundown of three more animated movies!
The first movie, Scarygirl, is an adaptation of a video game centreing around a mutant girl who must overcome her fears and travel to a mysterious city to save her father from a dangerous scientist and prevent the destruction of her world. While it does sound very typical, this is an animated movie that interest me when I watched its first trailer, which is already a promising sign. Now that it came out, will this be a spooky and fun adventure worth looking out for?
The second movie, Headspace, is from South Africa, and is about three aliens who found themselves trapped in the mind of a 16-year-old teenager. As with a lot of foreign CG animated movies, this movie came absolutely out of nowhere and I was not planning to watch it. Alas, as with all foreign CG animated movies, I have to give these movies a fair shot, so yeah, let’s see what happens with this one…
The final movie, Trolls Band Together, is the third movie of the DreamWorks’ Trolls franchise and this time, with the discovery that Branch (the legendary Justin Timberlake) used to be part of a boy band and one of his former mates got kidnapped, he and Poppy (Anna Kendrick) set off on yet another adventure to reunite the rest of Branch’s old band and rescue the kidnapped member. I will be honest, I don’t care much about the Trolls franchise, but I acknowledge how insanely popular the series is. With the third one, will Trolls Band Together convince me to join along for the ride?
One way to find out, on to our 8th 2023 animated movie rundown!
Scarygirl
Key Information
- Directors: Ricard Cusso and Tania Vincent
- Animation Studios: Highly Spirited and Like a Photon Creative
- Country of Origin: Australia
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 17 June 2023 (in Australia)
Trailer
Story and Characters
When it comes to non-Chinese foreign CG animated movies (since Chinese CG animated movies are so amazing that they are in a league of their own when it comes to foreign CG animated movies), I tend to be slightly more lenient than usual simply because the track record for those movies are not so great. However, as I mentioned many times, a handful of those movies managed to surprise viewers in being way better than first thought. The Minuscule movies, Son of Bigfoot, Mosley, Seal Team, Chickenhare, the list goes on and on. Well, add Scarygirl to the list because it delivered!
While Scarygirl has similar beats to other family-orientated animated movies made by foreign animation studios, the writing is very competent. It has a slight level of unpredictability that is refreshing with a surprise twist that turned the movie on its head in a great way. Not only that, but some decisions made in the writing and the in the messaging is very competent, and I love that the movie challenges viewers rather than force feeding them, which already puts it above your average foreign CG animated movie.
The competent writing also translates to the characters too. Arkie (Jillian Nguyen) is a well-realised protagonist with a lot of heart, and I really love how much the writers made such a compelling and sympathetic villain in Dr Maybee (Sam Neill). I will, however, highlight Bunniguru (Remy Hill) as he might be a surprisingly great supporting character for foreign CG animated movies. Also, I did not forget about the voice acting, as every voice acting performance in this movie is very good indeed.
Animation
Scarygirl possess a unique-looking aesthetic that I think fits perfectly into the Halloween season. It is one of the better looking animation efforts for any foreign CG animated movie that is not Deep Sea and Chang An, whose animation towers above the other non-Chinese foreign CG animated movies.
The unique character designs are enticing to look at, well translated from the video games, and the different background animation are not only special, but well-crafted too. While the texturing is on the simpler side and I notice some slowdown in the movie’s framerate, the animation is so great that I am willing to forgive some of the movie’s shortcomings.
Seriously, Australian animation is on the rise here, and to those that think that Australian animation is only Bluey, well there are other great Australian animation here. Australia is already blessed with two great animation studios in Animal Logic and Flying Bark Productions, but I think Highly Spirited (the same animation studio that helped with Where is Anne Frank) and Like a Photon Creative (the animation studio behind the Sanctuary City movie series) could be two more Australian animation studios worth checking out for.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
The soundtrack, while nothing special, is very competent and helps to set the scene for the various action sequences, so yeah, there’s that for the soundtrack.
As for my level of enjoyment, I was genuinely blown away by how great this movie is. Yes, it is a foreign CG animated movie, but at the same time, Scarygirl is just a well-made animated movie that is already above average for a foreign CG animated movie.
Overall Thoughts
Some people will ask me whether I am tired of covering foreign CG animated movies simply because most are not good. Well, while I agree that most foreign CG animated movies are not up to par with the mainstream giants, there are a few foreign CG animated movies that manage to surprise.
Scarygirl is by far the best non-Chinese foreign CG animated movie of 2023, filled with very competent writing, well-rounded characters with great voice acting and stunning animation style for foreign CG animated movie standards. It may not have the absolute highs of Mosley from neighbouring New Zealand, but it is far above your average foreign CG animated movie.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Movie Rating
Headspace
Key Information
- Directors: Paul Meyer and Gerhard Painter
- Animation Studio: Luma Animation
- Country of Origin: South Africa
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 15 September 2023 (in South Africa)
Trailer
Story and Characters
Last year, I reviewed another animated movie from South Africa, Seal Team (although that technically came out in December 2021), that I find it to be one of the best foreign CG animated movies in recent memory. It was an exciting, action-packed and brutal animated movie that I would love to see a PG13 version of because of how violent that movie was for a family-family animated movie. It does to show that there is something to look out for when it comes to African animation. Headspace is, unfortunately, none of those things.
Since this movie is very predictable, I will spare you the details, but what I got in terms of the writing was very bland and predictable. In fact, chances are you would have seen some similar beats and cliches to other mainstream animated movies, even with an alien invasion plot. I know that this is from a studio that I have never heard of myself, but I have to judge it as fairly as all the other animated movies I covered, which is why I was fairly disappointed over its writing quality.
The same thing goes for the characters, and a few hours after I finished watching the movie… I kind of forgotten most of them already. Yeah, that sums up what I have to say, nor was the voice acting any memorable too.
Animation
The animation, how I should I put it, is not good unfortunately.
First things first, Headspace might probably be one of the blandest animated movies of 2023 in terms of the character and background designs. Looking at those designs made this movie pretty uncanny, and sometimes unwatchable, to look at. This resulted in an unintentionally ugly aesthetic that can be rather off-putting to watch.
At the same time, the movements are pretty stiff. Characters move at a somewhat unnatural posture and position, and the frame rate for the movie drops at times. I know, I should be expecting that level for certain foreign CG animated movies, but given that it is in 2023 proves how dated the movie’s animation is already. Besides, I have reviewed other foreign CG animated movies with exciting animation, and unfortunately, Headspace was not even close to a passing grade in terms of the animation.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
I honestly don’t have anything to say about the movie’s soundtrack and the other elements.
As for my level of enjoyment, I did not enjoy this one at all. Not only was this forgettable, but the poor execution of the movie’s elements made this one of the most uninspired animated movies of 2023 so far, even when considering that the only animated movie that I did not enjoy up to Headspace was Rally Road Racers. Still, considering that this was more watchable than any Vanguard Animation movie, Rally Road Racers included, I still feel Headspace is a slightly better movie for me.
Overall Thoughts
Apologies for my half-heartedness when it comes to talking about Headspace, but honestly, I do not have much to say about this movie. Headspace is an animated movie that came absolutely out of nowhere, and after seeing that movie, I can understand why very, very few people talked about it even though it was released just last month.
It is honestly difficult to describe an interesting thing about Headspace, because while it is definitely not too terrible, it is so bland and predictable that honestly, there is not much to talk about. From the predictable writing to bland and forgettable characters, to the uninspired and stiff animation, it is honestly something not worth talking about. I wanted foreign CG animated movies to succeed, but at times, I have to remember that most of them will most likely not be good, and that is understandable given that it is already difficult to produce a proper animated movie. In fact, at least it is not as terrible as Rally Road Racers, but that is about it for Headspace unfortunately.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Movie Rating
Trolls Band Together
Key Information
- Directors: Walt Dohrn and Tim Heitz
- Animation Studio: DreamWorks Animation
- Country of Origin: United States
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 2 November 2023 (in Singapore)
Trailer
Story and Characters
I personally have issues regarding the writing, but to provide context, this is coming from someone that had seen a lot of mature and well-developed animated movies with more interesting and well thought plots. For me to watch something as safe as Trolls Band Together, it is very likely that I will not enjoy its writing, and that was exactly how I feel about it.
Trolls Band Together has very safe writing that felt very predictable, especially coming off from Trolls World Tour, which takes more risks compared to this one. Because of the lack of unpredictability, the movie just felt boring in terms of the complexity of its writing.
I still think that despite its lacklustre writing, one thing they got it right was the characters. While most have a lack of dept and character development, I will say that the side plot with Poppy and her long-lost sister Viva (Camila Cabello) is one of the very few highlights from this movie, as I felt there was some genuine connection and heart with the two trolls, especially with Viva’s tragic backstory which helps to tie up some of the loose ends from the movie.
Still, given that this is 2023, the least the team at DreamWorks could have done is to provide a bit more depth in terms of turning the story on its head, but given that the Trolls movies are meant to be safe, I guess that not taking risks is where I feel this series is going for. Oh well, at least there is no James Corden in this movie, which I guess is a plus regardless of how this movie fared.
Animation
While the writing is very lacking, the animation is one of the movie’s saving grace. The overall aesthetic and vibe with the movie’s characters and backgrounds is a lot of fun, with vibrant colours and interesting character designs which at least makes this movie interesting to look at. I guess I should not be surprised given this is DreamWorks we are talking about.
However, this movie takes risks in incorporating different animation mediums in the movie, particularly the two “Hustle” scenes when this movie suddenly transforms into 2D trippy animation which adds a level of variety in the movie’s animation style.
While this movie will not get awards for original visuals in mainstream animation anytime soon and this animation style is something I have seen before, the least I could say is that the execution is very solid and for that, DreamWorks did their job when it comes to the animation side of things.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
I am very particular when it comes to animated movie soundtracks, especially when it comes to musicals, so this time, I paid special attention to the soundtrack.
Given this is a jukebox musical movie, I do not expect the songs to be original, but the least they could go was it to be fun and memorable, and that was what the Trolls Band Together soundtrack gave me. It is far from being the most inspired, but to see Justin Timberlake reuniting with the rest of his old band *NSYNC for “Better Place” which has not one, but three versions. That takes dedication to provide three versions of one song, but I love the *NSYNC version the best as always.
However, what I enjoyed the most from the soundtrack was that the composers remixed songs that would not be from the new wave era of the late 90s to early 2000s and gave it such a nostalgic spin that despite the lack of originality and corniness, I could honestly forgive the soundtrack for its faults.
As for my level of enjoyment, I entered the theatre knowing what to expect, and I came out of the theatre feeling just fine. I simply went through the motions, knowing that this is not my type of animated movie, and you know what? It is at least tolerable for me. I do not like it enough for me to recommend, but at the same time, it is not terrible enough for me to just leave the theatre early. Overall, it’s there.
Overall Thoughts
Given that this was the very first Trolls movie I have seen in theatres, I came into the theatre with no expectations whatsoever. I have heard stories about certain animation fans not liking the Trolls series, and that is fair. The Trolls series is safe but well-executed family fare that is not for those with more intricate tastes like me, and that was what happened.
Despite the lacklustre writing and the lack of character development, there were some bright spots in the movie, mainly the trippy and varied animation style and the catchy, if not corny, soundtrack. However, this is not the movie for you if you want something more daring, as this is a decently made family flick that the general audience will enjoy it more than animation enthusiasts like me.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Movie Rating
Conclusion
Well, this is a mixed bag of a rundown for me. One very good foreign CG animated movie, one okay-ish animated movie from a big studio and one pretty bad foreign CG animated movie.
Still, we need to move on to our next adventure and this time, it is time that we travel to the Kingdom of Rosas to celebrate 100 years of Disney! I will see you on the next adventure, and until then, k thanks bye!
