Introduction
Hello once again, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is back for yet another animation adventure! This time, it is yet another rundown for the 2024 animated movies to cover and finally, we got a couple of big mainstream animated movies, plus one other animated movie, to cover!
The first movie is technically the first mainstream animated movie of 2023 with DreamWorks’ Orion and the Dark, a horror-inspired animated movie with a script by none other than Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, I’m Thinking of Ending Things and Anomalisa, among others). Orion and the Dark focused on a scared boy facing his fears one night as a creature named Dark and his friends accompany him on an adventure to face his fears. Compared to Kaufman’s other movies, this is a much tamer project from him, but it still has some intricacies that you would expect from him. Still, will this be yet another great movie by him?
The second movie, The Tiger’s Apprentice, is a Paramount Animation movie releasing onto Paramount+ instead of in theatres due to a new release strategy from Paramount. Based on a popular book series, a Chinese-American teenager encounters a talking tiger who takes him up as an apprentice to become a new guardian of an ancient phoenix. With Paramount focusing on not bringing their original animated movies (or original adaptations in this case) into theatres, there are fears that this means low confidence with this movie, so with that said, will this movie be the first good movie from Paramount Animation since Rango?
The third and final movie, The Canterville Ghost, is a movie about an American family moving into a haunted mansion occupied by a ghost for 300 years, based on the Oscar Wilde short story but with some modernisations. I will be honest, this movie was very under my radar even though it was released late last year, but I am familiar with one of the production companies behind it, and that is Align, a studio that I will admit can be hit or miss when it comes to their animated movies. In fact, they had co-worked on Paws of Fury and The Inventor which I had reviewed, and also Kensuke’s Kingdom, which does have promise. Still, will this slight detour be all worth it?
Now, let’s get the second rundown of 2024 on the road!
Orion and the Dark
Key Information
- Director: Sean Charmatz
- Animation Studio: DreamWorks Animation and Mikros Animation
- Country of Origin: United States
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 2 February 2024 (on Netflix)
Trailer
Story and Characters
This being a Charlie Kaufman, I expect a level of unpredictability and creativity when it comes to the script, and indeed, he did just that.
To cut to the chase, the writing is very, very good. There is a sense of unpredictability in terms of its story as it uses a non-linear storytelling approach which is rare in most mainstream animated movies. It also does not rely on cliches and instead focuses on its cute and charming characters that help to carry the story forward. Sure, the story went off the rails during the final minutes, but that was the only negative point of the otherwise fantastic script.
Speaking of characters, Orion is a cute and relatable protagonist that most can resonate with, especially when it comes to facing one’s fears. It also helps that Jacob Trembley, who has already racked up experience in voice acting for the past few years, voice acted Orion to near perfection and his voice acting performance is once again solid. Paul Walter Hauser’s Dark, at the hands of other writers, could have been an annoying and unbearable companion, but thankfully, Dark is cheerful and friendly while exhibiting his slight horror undertones that make Dark who he is, as well as his other dark entity companions that help out Orion. Honestly, I have nothing much to complain about the characters because they are all great.
Despite not being as ambitious as other scripts by Kaufman, the script in Orion and the Dark did its job well, and I am very happy with how the script is both grounded and creative.
Animation
While DreamWorks worked on the animation of Orion and the Dark as per usual, they teamed up with the ever-reliant France-based animation studio Mikros Animation, who not only has an already proven track record of high quality animated movies on relatively tight budgets (including the two Paw Patrol movies, of which I had covered the sequel) but has ventured beyond their usual fare to produce high quality animated movies on mainstream budgets, such as last year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem together with Canada-based animation and VFX studio giant Cinesite. Once again, the animation in Orion and the Dark is top-notch.
When looking at the animation style, it is clear that it felt like a Mikros Animation movie, except one in collaboration with DreamWorks, with simplistic but charming and unique character designs that felt distinct from each other. However, it is the background animations that blew me away, with fantastic-looking contrast between darkness and light that makes every night scene pop in the best way possible. Thanks to the background animations, the spectrum of colours were in full display throughout the movie’s runtime, making the overall animation that spectacular.
Yes, this may not be the most unique looking animated movie DreamWorks and Mikros Animation has ever done, but the overall execution of the animation is so fantastic that it is easy to ignore this gripe and stare in awe at the various scenes throughout the movie.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
I have not much to say about the soundtrack in this movie, as this is a well-executed soundtrack that helps to accentuate the right atmosphere in the scenes the score plays. It does the job well.
As for my level of enjoyment… I love it! I missed out on the level of comfort and joy from DreamWorks’ two movies from last year (Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken and Trolls Band Together), and it felt so refreshing to see them going back to basics and producing a well-realised animated movie that everyone can enjoy. Honestly, this movie is as great as it should be and shows that 2023 is just a blip for DreamWorks.
Overall Thoughts
Well, what can I say, but welcome back, DreamWorks! For a moment, we thought we lose you after a shockingly bad year for you last year.
While Orion and the Dark is not perfect with an ending that went slightly too unhinged as well as it not being the most original of ideas, but what it provides is a well-executed, cute and charming animated movie that hits the spot in all the right ways. The writing is fun and slightly unpredictable that keeps the viewers on their toes, the characters are very relatable and have so much charm and the animation is fantastic with both its creative character designs and dazzling backgrounds.
Despite not being as ambitious as Charlie Kaufman’s other movies, Orion and the Dark is essentially his movie through and through, and I am so happy to see both DreamWorks and Mikros Animation utilising Charlie Kaufman’s services to produce one fun movie more worthy of being put in to theatres than on Netflix.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
The Tiger’s Apprentice
Key Information
- Directors: Raman Hui, Yong Duk Jhun and Paul Watling
- Animation Studio: Paramount Animation (with Mikros Animation)
- Country of Origin: United States
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 2 February 2024 (on Paramount+)
Trailer
Story and Characters
In order to talk about the movie’s story and writing, I have to acknowledge one issue with regards to the production of this movie: the original director of this movie was fired during the early stages of production. In fact, a few crew members confessed that when they were eventually fired from the production of this movie, they felt liberated from having to deal with the mess. This was also true with another previous movie by Paramount Animation that has similar production issues, Wonder Park, and what resulted in both of them? Poor quality writing for mainstream animated movie standards.
One significant issue I had regarding the writing goes down to how over-convoluted and unfocused the writing is, mostly due to its short 82-minute runtime. Given that most viewers have never read the book series of the same time, it is nigh impossible to pack a lot of exposition in such a short runtime, which is why this movie suffers from nearly non-existent character development as well as rushed pacing that leaves the viewers nearly unsatisfied. This is why it should have gotten a two-hour runtime so that the movie can expand on the universe properly. In addition, while there were a few well-written jokes that I had a laugh at, the comedy and jokes for the most part felt a bit cheap which makes this movie even more generic than it should have.
In all honesty, I do not have any major element that felt positive for me, which honestly should not be a surprise considering the production issues this movie has. In fact, why going through with such an ambitious concept when Paramount Animation cannot nail the basics of writing in most of their movies anyway?
Animation
In a sense of déjà vu, Mikros Animation (yes, that French animation studio that also helped with the animation for the aforementioned Orion and the Dark) was in charge of the movie’s animation and of course, the animation in The Tiger’s Apprentice was the saving grace in an otherwise mediocre animated movie.
Even with not much detailing in some of the characters, I adore how different looking this movie was compared to Orion earlier, focusing this time on its fantastical elements with its Zodiac character designs as well as some gorgeous action sequences that prevent this movie from going stale real fast.
Yes, the human character designs and the detailing leave a lot to be desired, but honestly, there is so much energy put into the animation sequences that I am willing to let that slide. I know that good animation alone cannot save an otherwise bad animated movie, but at least there are elements I can genuinely compliment in this movie.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
There is a reason why most needle drops in animated movies simply do not work, and it is that they mask the viewers from the overall quality of the movie. The needle drops in this movie felt cliché and unnecessary. That is all.
As for my level of enjoyment, seeing this movie felt frustrating, because this is something of a Groundhog Day for Paramount Animation. Seeing them fumbling yet another great concept is aggregating as in all honesty, I had given them as big of a benefit of a doubt as I could. However, after seeing this movie as well as certain posts about how bad the working conditions for this movie are, I had honestly lost all my patience with Paramount Animation. While it is inevitable that I will be reviewing worse animated movies than what was shown in The Tiger’s Apprentice, for mainstream theatrical animation standards, the overall quality in that movie felt unacceptable in 2024.
Overall Thoughts
I honestly do not know what to say about Paramount Animation other than what has already been said in my review of The Tiger’s Apprentice. The only other thing I have to talk about this movie rather than it being another wasted potential is how much I am upset with Paramount Animation over repeating the same mistake over and over again.
The Tiger’s Apprentice is proof that Paramount Animation not only fails to understand why their previous animated movies fail badly, but they do not care about doing anything to improve working conditions at their studio. This resulted in a very rushed and unfocused plot that suffers from its short running time as well as complete lack of character development whatsoever, as well as certain jokes distracting from the main plot itself and “choices” in some of the needle drops. Despite its stunning animation and action sequences once again from Mikros Animation, great animation cannot save a poorly written animated movie.
Honestly, I think Paramount Animation is at a point of no return and there is honestly no way they will survive in the short to medium term in its current state. They are truly one of the worst mainstream theatrical animation studios of all time in terms of overall track record and production mismanagement.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
The Canterville Ghost
Key Information
- Director: Kim Burdon and Robert Chandler
- Animation Studios: Align, Melmoth Films, Space Age Films, Sprout Pictures and Toonz Animation
- Country of Origin: United Kingdom
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 22 September 2023 (In the United Kingdom)
Trailer
Story and Characters
Let me get this out of the way because frankly, I do not have much to say about The Canterville Ghost: the story is as plain as vanilla ice-cream: it does not leave up to the imagination. Again, I had not read the Oscar Wilde short story of the same name, so this is the first time I had watched an adaptation of The Canterville Ghost. Still, this movie felt particularly long, not because of the movie’s runtime, but because almost nothing interesting happens in the movie!
If you had seen similar looking foreign CG animated movies of the past, chances are you would have seen this movie. To keep it straight, the writing is very similar to those movies in the sense that it does not have anything that is interesting or unique from those foreign CG animated movies. It has similar beats, it has similar tropes and cliches and the writing overall is not remarkable.
Plus, I had already forgotten most, if not all characters in the movie. Being a bog-standard foreign CG animated movie, it is expected that there will not be much character development. Voice acting, and that is about all I remember about the writing, but hey, it is more cohesive than Warrior King and The Tiger’s Apprentice, I tell ya that.
Animation
Again, not much to say about the animation style, especially if you have seen a lot of foreign CG animated movies like I had.
For starters, the animation style is rather boring and repetitive to me with not much detail or interest going on. Sir Simon Canterville does not look scary and instead looks like an old clown, which I honestly do not mind at all. The human designs felt a bit repetitive and the backgrounds are not as detailed as other, more well realised foreign CG animated movies. Movements are off in certain areas too.
I understand that from the interview with co-director Robert Chandler that the production budget is rather minuscule, having to make do on a fifth of its projected budget. This explains the lacklustre animation that thankfully is ok with its execution. In fairness, I had seen foreign CG animated movies with worse animation than this, so at least there’s that. At least the execution of the animation is alright for what it is.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
In fairness, the soundtrack and other elements are relatively ok, if not rather typical, so let’s move on to my level of enjoyment.
To be honest, I find this to be more tolerable than The Tiger’s Apprentice above for various reasons: firstly, it is a foreign CG animated movie with a significantly lower budget than the one in The Tiger’s Apprentice, so it is expected for the quality of the movie to not be good. Second and more importantly, while I was frustrated with how much the production issues ruined the movie in The Tiger’s Apprentice, I was not as frustrated with The Canterville Ghost. Yes, it is a rather boring animated movie, but it is a movie with not much production issues and not much discord, so I am cooler with The Canterville Ghost.
Overall Thoughts
When I watch and review foreign CG animated movies, which I do on a regular basis, there is a high possibility that if I can point out something in this movie that is worth seeing, I will mention it. That said, most foreign CG animated movies tend to be similar and The Canterville Ghost is no exception.
The Canterville Ghost is a rather vanilla-looking animated movie that is pretty much what you would expect from a typical foreign CG animated movie that does not go far, with a middle-of-the-road tier of the Oscar Wilde short story, compete with typical animated movie tropes and unremarkable characters, as well as a rather boring animation style that at least is not hideous to look at.
It may be one of the most vanilla-feeling foreign CG animated movies I watched, but hey, it is less frustrating to watch compared to The Tiger’s Apprentice because at least despite the limited budget and massive outsourcing of the animation works; it is more competent than yet another troubled Paramount Animation movie.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Conclusion
We are finally getting started on two mainstream animated movies as well as one more foreign CG animated movie. Honestly, one excellent animated movie and two mediocre ones is not what I had planned, but at least it will make the race very interesting.
We still got more animated movies coming our way, so tune in next time as we explore more animated movies for the 2024 season. Until next time, see you on the next adventure!
