Introduction
Hello, fellow adventurers! After a break to focus on some other important stuff in my life, I had returned to cover another set of animated movies, and boy, this was a rather interesting Rundown to say the least, in a sense that we are seeing a massive low and a massive high for today’s Rundown.
The first movie, Mantra Warrior: The Legend of the Eight Moons, is a 2023 foreign CG animated movie from Thailand, based on a sci-fi take on Ramayana, with futuristic warriors taking down an evil force trying to take over a universe. I got to say, I had just explored animation from Thailand with my short Letterboxd review of Khan Kluay, and to say that they might be the next hidden force in animation is an understatement. With a sequel slated to come out soon, how will part 1 of Mantra Warrior fare?
The second movie, Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie, is the new spin-off movie from the legendary SpongeBob SquarePants franchise, this time starring Bikini Bottom’s Texan squirrel Sandy on a trip back to her hometown in Texas to save Bikini Bottom from being experimented by Wanda Sykes and a pair of scientists. This movie was initially leaked onto various social media websites, resulted in it some users watching this movie early. As a reviewer, I decided not to review it early out of respect to the writers, animators and the rest of the team that worked so hard on this movie, and only reviewed it once it was released on Netflix. With so much negative coverage of this movie, is Saving Bikini Bottom going to be good?
The third movie, Giants of La Mancha (also known as Storm Chasers and Gigantes), is the new animated movie from Argentina, Germany and Spain, based on the Don Quixote story, about a trio of children, the main character being a descendent of Don Quixote, on a quest to save their town from a huge storm. When the first trailer came out late last year, there was a sense of confidence that this movie might be terrible. Then, early on this year, some of my friends got to review early, and they had a lot of negative things to say about this movie. Worse still, Viva Pictures (under its Viva Kids brand), a US distributor famous (or infamous) for bringing in a lot of foreign CG animated movies into theatres in the United States, had unceremoniously released it onto some video-on-demand websites in the United States on the day it was released in theatres in Argentina and Mexico, with more theatrical releases in the rest of Latin America in the coming weeks. With so many red flags and storms regarding this movie, is Giants of La Mancha a disaster waiting to happen?
The fourth and final movie, Look Back, is a Japanese movie focusing on two teenage girls and their love of drawing Manga together, despite their distinct personalities. Look Back is another animated movie that debuted in the 2024 Annecy International Film Festival under the out-of-competition “Annecy Presents” selection, which is odd because most of the movies in that selection are family-friendly animated movies, which Look back is out of place given it is for the general audience. However, with it ending up in theatres in Singapore, will Look Back be a surprise?
So, without further ado, on to today’s adventure!
Mantra Warrior: The Legend of the Eight Moons
Key Information
- Directors: Veerapatra Jinanavin and Manassavin Malevong
- Animation Studio: Riff Animation Studio
- Country of Origin: Thailand
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 11 October 2023 (in Thailand)
Trailer
Story and Characters
Talking about the writing, what I like about this movie’s plot is that there are clear Thai mythical influences in this futuristic sci-fi action movie that actually has soul and authenticity to the story, which cannot be said for the many Americanised foreign animated movies that I have covered in the past.
However, it is a shame that there was not much development in both the concept and the characters, which was what held this movie back the most. Even if the part 2 of Mantra Warrior is slated to come out later this year, I just wish this movie explores more into the concept and the characters so that I am more invested in this movie.
Ultimately, despite its strong concept and that its heart is in the right place, Mantra Warrior: The Legend of the Eight Moon ultimately lacks enough substance for me to be invested into the movie.
Animation
While the writing did not live up to its concept, the animation managed to salvage this movie, and honestly, this was surprising for me.
I absolutely love how much originality and energy the animators involved put into the animation style. Yes, it is yet another stylised CG animated movie, but it is their own take on this type of animation style, resulting in some stunning animation and action sequences, including well-realised character and background designs and colouring.
Considering I do not have a favourable view over Southeast Asian animation in the past, the animation style in Mantra Warrior shows that there is still hope in Southeast Asian animation, and I cannot wait to see what is next with the next Mantra Warrior movie.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
While I have little to say about the soundtrack and the minor elements, I honestly was content with this movie. Even if I was disappointed with how the concept was not fleshed out enough, Mantra Warrior: The Legend of the Eight Moons gives me hope for the future of animation in Southeast Asia, especially in Thailand. With both the Mantra Warrior sequel and even Out of the Nest (despite its lacklustre reception at the Annecy Film Festival), the future could not have been brighter for Thai animation.
Overall Thoughts
I will be honest, with the first Mantra Warrior movie, it gave me hope that Thai animation can be actually worth looking out for.
Despite the underdeveloped plot and how it did not explore enough of its unique concept, Mantras Warrior: The Legend of the Eight Moons excels in providing a dynamic and action-packed animation style that is full of stunning animation moments, especially one from an animation studio in Thailand. In addition, despite the lacklustre writing, there is still some promise in its world building, especially since the sequel was slated to come out later this year.
I will admit, movies like this are why I still explore many animated movies from unchartered territories, because you never know, there is always that one animated movie from a country not known for its animation that blows my mind.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie
Key Information
- Director: Liza Johnson
- Animation Studio: Nickelodeon Animation Studio
- Country of Origin: United States
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 2 August 2024 (On Netflix)
Trailer
Story and Characters
Let me ask you a question before we get to the story and characters: do you remember the time when SpongeBob SquarePants used to be great? I know that nostalgia can be a touchy subject, but I remember a time when this series is a childhood classic of mine, but it seems some of the newer episodes of SpongeBob lack that charm and entertainment the older series has. Sure, I had not watched the newer episodes, and I heard from friends that enjoyed some of the newer episodes, but the thing is that from watching some clips of the newer episodes, there is a lack of identity in those episodes.
Well, with Saving Bikini Bottom, yeah, this is a shadow of its glory self. To go straight to the point, the script lacks the charm and cohesion that makes this series so well-beloved, from the wrong pacing of this movie resulting in a lack of control, to too many side plot elements without adding much to the main story and the lack of cohesion between the live-action and animation elements, the script is just lacking too many stuff to make it at least remotely good.
This is also not to mention the poor comedy, as the jokes are rather unfunny because of a lack of proper buildup and originality, as well as poorly developed characters (even with the likes of SpongeBob and Sandy) that made me miss how entertaining those characters are in the past. I can see that the writers were trying way too hard to be funny, or that the producers involved had no idea how to produce a good script.
Man, talking about the script in this movie is very frustrating, because the lack of any direction, if any at all, resulted in such a lacklustre and poorly conceived script that is an injustice to this franchise. You can tell the director has no control over the movie’s creativity, because Saving Bikini Bottom’s script felt soulless overall.
Animation
One of my hot SpongeBob takes is that this series should have remained 2D hand-drawn animated, not 3D computer-generated, because that is one reason why I love the older episodes of SpongeBob. With Saving Bikini Bottom, this is a very good reason I felt this way.
As what I mentioned earlier on, Saving Bikini Bottom is a hybrid animated movie, and what is more important in these types of animated movies is how the animation blends into the live-action shots, and unfortunately, the execution of it is bad. The visual effects of those CG animation moments are pretty terrible as they look nauseating, mostly thanks to how poorly rendered the animation is, especially once it blends into the live-action sequences.
Also, there is one animation moment involving the main villain played by Wanda Sykes towards the final act that I will not spoil, but let just say that after seeing that, I really wanted to stop watching that movie for good. That is how terrible the animation is.
The only “good” thing about the animation is that at least it is not mockbuster territory, unlike Cats in the Museum, but with the animation being comparable to that in Megamind vs the Doom Syndicate (or the next animated movie I will be talking about after this, spoiler alert), do not expect good things in the animation.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
Ok, the songs in the movie are not too bad. That is all I have to say about the soundtrack and the minor elements in the movie.
As for my level of enjoyment, well, I honestly did not enjoy this movie. Sure, I dislike Butterfly Tale and Cats in the Museum more than Saving Bikini Bottom, but it still frustrates me that this movie, especially one from one of the most well-loved franchises of all time, is compared to low-quality shtick sums up what I have to say about it.
Overall Thoughts
I got to say, Nickelodeon needs to stop milking the SpongeBob franchise, or at least freshen up its newer episodes more, because Saving Bikini Bottom ain’t it, chief.
With a terrible script that lacks both cohesion and charm, comedy and gags that failed to liven up the movie most of the time and some of the most hideous blending of its poorly rendered CG animation and live-action shots for any hybrid animated movie so far, Saving Bikini Bottom is an absolute disgrace to one of the biggest cartoon franchises of all time.
While the likes of Megamind vs the Doom Syndicate and Cats in the Museum are much worse, that does not excuse the terrible experience I had with this movie. Honestly, the reviews when it was accidentally leaked were right: this was a waste of time.
Also, to the executives involved in this movie, stop trying to hide the fact that this movie was accidentally leaked. You will not be helping yourselves with that.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Giants of La Mancha
Key Information
- Director: Gonzalo Gutierrez
- Animation Studios: Studio Isar Animation, 3 Doubles Producciones
- Country of Origin: Argentina, Germany, Spain
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 8 August 2024 (in Argentina)
Trailer
Story and Characters
Taking about the story, and I got to say, Giants of La Mancha is a movie meant for movie theatres, meaning that there are higher expectations for theatrical animated movies, and higher standards to be expected. Of course, the standards are lower for most foreign CG animated movies, especially one from Latin America, where most CG animated movies from that region are not as good compared to those from Europe and Asia. However, I was still shocked by how awful the writing in Giants of La Mancha is.
When trying to adapt from the Don Quixote story and the various quests and challenges he faced in the original story, the adaptation is less of a faithful or interesting adaptation that takes a fresh spin on this legend, and more of an Americanized foreign CG animated movie that not only did a shallow spin, but fails to do so convincingly too.
The ideas it wanted to convey felt all over the place, with an over-reliance on animated movie clichés we had seen so many times before, a lack of, if not no, cohesion and direction with its story, resulting in a script that felt aimless throughout its 85-minute runtime. Speaking of that, the pacing is out of place, with some moments feeling too fast or too slow, without giving the audience any breathing space or some food for thought at all.
In addition, the comedy and jokes are poorly executed, with no build-up or proper punchline, and the dialogue is uninspired and poorly constructed which ruined the script, especially in the English dub version that I watched. The worst part is that none of the ideas are well-developed or well-thought out, resulting in one of, if not the worst, script for any theatrical animated movie of 2024 so far.
In addition, the movie’s terrible writing can also been seen in the characters too. The main trio of Alfonso (who has this weird concept of seeing things that are not real with his imaginary trio of rabbit companions that act as Minions imitations), Victoria and Pancho just do not add much to the story and are poorly developed, in fact being caricatures of typical animated movie character stereotypes we had seen before. The villain is also bland, the other characters are not worth discussing about due to the poor character development, and the “giants” that were in the movie’s title? They only appeared in two major scenes in the movie. TWO!
That is also not to mention the voice acting. While I heard that the Spanish voice acting got Karol Sevilla, who is well-known in the Latin American entertainment scene, voicing as Victoria in the Spanish dub, I can only talk about the voice acting in the English dub, and while I had covered many foreign CG animated movies with terrible English dubs (which is a common occurrence if you ask me), the English dub in Giants of La Mancha might be my least favourite English dub of any foreign CG animated movie I had covered this year. I am not so sure what was with the voice acting, but it was unbearable to listen to the voice acting throughout the movie’s runtime.
For an animated movie meant for theatres, you should expect for these movies need to be of a minimum standard in order to be acceptable for theatrical releases. With Giants of La Mancha, this might be my least favourite script for any foreign CG animated movie this year (apart from Cats in the Museum), let alone any theatrical animated movie this year. Everything about this movie’s script is wrong or poorly executed, and it is a travesty that such a poor quality script is allowed into any theatrical animated movie.
Animation
Considering one of the animation studios involved (3 Doubles Producciones) has already been involved in the animation for Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow (which I reviewed early last year), and has a few more animated movies to come (including SuperKlaus later this year and Flamingo Flamenco in 2026), I have some expectations that the animation will at least be acceptable enough for theatrical animation standards. Sadly, that was not the case.
First off, I was taken aback by the weird character design, especially the human characters. While weird character designs can sometimes work, the weird character designs make the animation stuff very off-putting. In addition, the animation sequences are weird and poorly executed as well. Some scenes are animated at a breakneck pace or sometimes at a weird angle where you are constantly facing the characters in most of the movie, which does not allow a dynamic perspective of the animation (not that it will matter anyway).
In addition, there were certain animation moments where the characters and backgrounds felt poorly rendered for theatrical animation standards and some of the colouring felt off too, especially when some animation elements clash with some of the colouring in the backgrounds too. If you also see closely enough, you can see a few animation errors where the movements of some characters appear suddenly.
The fact that this quality of animation exists in a theatrical animated movie in 2024 is almost unacceptable, especially since we are seeing foreign CG animated movies with better looking and more fluid animation styles that often tries to push animation beyond its limits, such as Deep Sea. The animation quality in Giants of La Mancha felt like a movie made in the 2010s, not 2024, which was why I despise this movie because of its animation
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
As for the score and soundtrack, in my essay about the Americanization of Non-Mainstream Animated Movies, one way to Americanise these movies is to over-rely on pop songs, irrespective of whether they are existing songs or songs composed for the movie itself. Here, the soundtrack for Giants of La Mancha is in the latter, having too many pop-centric songs that play every few minutes that further cheapen the entire movie experience. The musical score is also not interesting, just to add on to how much Giants of La Mancha had a terrible soundtrack.
In addition, the marketing for this movie is almost non-existent. While Viva Pictures (under the Viva Kids brand) had picked up this movie for a North American release, the problem is that while they still committed to promoting the other animated movies they picked up for release in US theatres (especially the upcoming 200% Wolf), here they decide to unceremoniously dump this movie into various American video-on-demand websites, including Vudu/Fandango at Home (which was how I was able to rent out a copy of this movie in the first place). For the Latin American side where it was heavily marketed, the trailer puts a lot of emphasis on Karol Sevilla in the movie’s Spanish trailer and promotion, which is normally a sign the marketing team is not confident this movie’s quality is good enough, though that sometimes may not be the case.
As for my level of enjoyment, I had covered a lot of foreign CG animated movies, let’s get this out of the way. These types of movies may not be top quality, but there had been some recent foreign CG animated movies where the quality of such movies is worth celebrating as a handful of them can at least compete with some of the big Hollywood animated movies as of late. Admittedly, most foreign CG animated movies are not going to be great, but their quality, on average, has steadily improved over the year.
With Giants of La Mancha, however, this movie felt like a spit in the face for the non-mainstream animation industry, as the terrible script and cheap feeling animation, not to mention this movie not going the extra mile to stand out and instead take something and cheapen the experience, is why I do not Giants of La Mancha at all. It honestly feels like a travesty that such a foreign CG animated movie exists in 2024, and just like Cats in the Museum, it only serves to convince moviegoers not to explore non-mainstream animation at all.
Overall Thoughts
After seeing the movie for myself, my worst fears about this movie were realised: Giants of La Mancha is the first theatrical animated movie (as it is releasing in theatres in South America and Mexico as of the writing of this review) since Arctic Dogs back in 2019 and Butterfly Tale just this year that made me question whether it was worth paying to watch this movie.
Giants of La Mancha is an almost 90-minute distraction that takes a legendary story like Don Quixote and drag it across the mud without much care about the story’s messaging, resulting in a tepid and poorly executed script, filled to the brim with reliance on animated movie conventions and cliches, a lack of cohesion and direction with the ideas it wanted to convey, bland and unfunny jokes and poorly developed characters with some of the worst voice acting performances of any theatrical animated movie this year so far.
In addition, the animation, despite having some decent animation moments, is let down by weird and bizarre character designs, poor rendering for theatrical animated movie standards and an over-reliance on slow-motion animation sequences that highlights the cheap-looking animation. Coupled with a terrible music score and poorly composed pop-centric songs to boot, not to mention the purely non-existential marketing (at least in the North American side) and the weird and inspired marketing from the Latin American side of things, and this resulted in Giants of La Mancha being an injustice to good foreign CG animated movies that deserve to be in theatres way more than this.
If you want an animated movie that has a decent interpretation of Don Quixote and does it with a lot of heart, go watch The Inseparables which I had reviewed earlier this year. Otherwise, Giants of La Mancha is a must-skip for almost everyone involved, and I honestly feel sorry for the writers and animators who had to deal with such a poorly executed animated movie in the first place.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Look Back
Key Information
- Director: Kiyotaka Oshiyama
- Animation Studio: Studio Durian
- Country of Origin: Japan
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 8 August 2024 (in Singapore)
Trailer
Story and Characters
In a stark contrast to the poor writing quality in Giants of La Mancha earlier on, the writing in Look back is not only way better, but I actually would also reckon that this movie’s writing was… perfect.
Even with its 57-minute runtime, it was clear a lot of care and consideration were taken to ensure that the script and story in this movie is top-notch. The writers managed to do this by focusing mostly on the two main characters in this movie, the over-confident bragger Fujino (Yumi Kawai) and the shut-in introvert Kyomoto (Mizuki Yoshida), with both happened to be passionate about manga, one of the most important Japanese exports when it comes to entertainment. In fact, this is the only plot point of the entire movie, and the writers’ dedication on developing that plot resulted in a movie that brings heart and joy to not just manga lovers, but to those that are dedicated to their favourite activities and hobbies for most of their lives (such as my love and dedication to cover animated movies from around the world).
In addition, this movie is unpredictable in where this story goes as it went from one part of the story to the next part where the two characters grow older, and that was where everything comes full circle. Whatever happened in that second half makes the first half so fulfilling and it ended in such an unexpected but emotional manner, resulting in one of the most well-developed stories of any animated movie this year, even with its short runtime. The comedy is not to be underestimated either, as despite having way fewer jokes compared to Giants of La Mancha, the jokes landed harder when needed and did not try too hard at all.
Speaking of Fujino and Kyomoto, the relationship and development between the two main characters are just a beautiful feeling to look at, as not only are they both very well-developed and voiced well by top-tier voice acting performances, but you can tell them to be real people who genuinely bonded over their love and passion for manga drawing, even though their styles of manga are different from each other, just like their personalities. In fact, the character development elevates the already perfect script and writing for Look Back even further.
Aside from Robot Dreams, I don’t think I had come across a perfectly crafted script from a 2024 animated movie so far like Look Back, with little to no weaknesses in the writing whatsoever. Compared to the infuriating script from Giants of La Mancha, this was a script made with so much passion and attention to detail, and I appreciate how much the writing is excellent.
Animation
Talking about the animation and given that this movie is all about the passion for manga drawing, the animation style matches some of the best manga series from Japan, and for a very good reason.
You can tell that the animation style is just as excellent as the movie’s script by embracing its imperfections in the hand-drawn animation sequences depicting various manga drawings throughout the movie. In fact, the main draw for this movie (pun intended) has to be the rough hand-drawn animation style in both the manga drawings and the actual movie that gives Look Back such a distinct personality not seen in even top-tier anime movies so far.
This movie also cleverly utilises match cuts to compensate for the seemingly limited budget, which helps the animators to manipulate the timeline in this movie very well. Compared to the excessive slow-motion animation sequences in Giants of La Mancha earlier on, the animators use those match cuts at just the right moments in order to bring the story forward between the different time periods and Fujino and Kyomoto grow up.
The colouring is also as spectacular as the art style, focusing on natural colours of the movie’s backgrounds while invoking this nostalgic feeling of the various time frames in the movie.
Again, the animation is just as perfect as the writing and honestly, I can see why this movie was selected for this year’s Annecy International Film Festival, because Look Back’s animation is something special.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
The soundtrack is so beautiful and mesmerising, and helps to play in the feelings and atmosphere of each scene in this movie, creating such a high impact and crescendo needed in this movie. Honestly, I have nothing much to say about this movie’s excellent score.
As for my level of enjoyment, I had to admit, I was in tears by the time the credits rolled, and for a very good reason. This movie utilised its short runtime to its absolute potential by focusing on only the essentials and nailing everything inside the movie, thus creating such an emotionally powerful masterpiece that I will honestly never forget for a very long time. It’s honestly so rare to see an animated movie this perfect, especially for one less than an hour, but that was exactly what Look Back did.
Overall Thoughts
After spending some time discussing furiously over how terrible Giants of La Mancha feel to me as an animated movie, I am now in the opposite side of the scale where I am giving a lot of praise to how amazing Look Back is, and for good reason.
Even with its short runtime, Look Back took every minute of its runtime to showcase an emotional story about the passion of doing something you love with someone, and a love letter to the world of Manga at the same time. The pacing of the story was just right, the comedy, while minimal, are well-executed, the main characters are well-developed and had so much heart, the animation is easily one of the best animation works of the year and the score is just as amazing as the rest of the movie.
Most importantly, however, Look Back made me reflect on why I love animated movies in the first place, because it made me so emotional beyond belief and gave me a lot of faith when it comes to creators putting in their best work in animated movies. When you give them the freedom to do whatever they want and believe in their best form of art, you get animated movies that excite audiences alike like Look Back, and that is why this is easily a high recommendation. Go check it out if you get a chance to see this masterpiece.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Conclusion
Even though we had two absolute bummers of animated movies with one other animated movie being decent at least, the good news is that we managed to discover one of the best animated movies of the year so far with Look Back, which was worth the pain going through the two rotten apples in this Rundown so far.
Thank you for joining me on this rather interesting adventure, but tune in next time as we cover a few more interesting animation adventures coming our way. Until next time, see you on the next adventure!
