Introduction
Hello, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is back for yet another 2024 Animated Movies Rundown, and you know the drill, I covered a few animated movies from across the world, so let’s get straight into introducing three more movies for this Rundown!
The first movie, Four Souls of Coyote, is a Hungarian animated movie (and Hungary’s pick for last year’s Oscars for Best International Feature Film) and tales a Native American tale on the creation of the world where the creator creates the world and creatures around him using mud. However, the more creatures he creates, the more things get out of hand. Having seen loads of animated movies in the past, I always crave for something different, and this Annecy Festival competition pick from last year was what I needed. So far, this is the 4th 2023 competition pick I had covered (after Robot Dreams, Chicken for Linda and The Inseparables), and will this be yet another great animated movie from the 2023 line-up?
The second movie, Thelma the Unicorn, is the newest movie from Mikros Animation (who has already impressed me with their co-production of Orion and the Dark earlier on this year), and is a musical where a twist of fate turned Thelma the Pony into Thelma the Unicorn, rising to an international pop sensation much to the irk of one animal sensation who will stop at nothing to snatch back the crown. For the past few years, Mikros Animation has been producing hit after hit after hit, and with my expectations of this Netflix co-production running high, is this yet another great movie to add to Mikros’ already impressive catalogue?
The third and final movie, The Garfield Movie, is based on the beloved Jim Davis comic strip about a fat and lazy cat with a lasagne (and cheese) addiction and hates Mondays, Garfield finds himself in an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father, they and Garfield’s dog friend Odie go on a quest to perform a high-stakes heist that Garfield himself is incapable of. I grew up with the Garfield comic strips and I love them, so finding out that he will be having his own theatrical movie is exciting. That said, it’s also realistic to prepare for the worst as I am not sure how that movie is going to happen. Now that I have seen this movie, will this bring back the good old memories?
Only one way to find out, on to our adventure!
Four Souls of Coyote
Key Information
- Director: Aron Gauder
- Animation Studio: Cinemon Entertainment
- Country of Origin: Hungary
- Rating: NC16
- Release date: 16 March 2023 (in Hungary)
Trailer
Story and Characters
Four Souls of Coyote presents a rather unconventional native American tale that tells the creation of the world, and while I appreciate having a plot that is different, one issue I had with it was the pacing, as sometimes the story slows down and almost nothing happens in the movie. Another issue I had with this movie’s writing is that I felt some plotlines in this movie do not gel well, which can make the movie confusing at times.
However, not only do I applaud Four Souls of Coyote for being refreshingly different in the way it tells its creationist story, filled with a colourful cast of characters such as the main characters of Old Man, the creator, the coyote, Kojot and the main human of Hoksila. Their personalities clash beautifully, which was also helped with how the messaging tie everything together in the end. The other characters have their moments to shine, though the focus on Old Man, Kojot, Hoksila and Holsila’s partner Wichincala can overpower the other characters in certain moments.
Overall, while there were key issues in terms of the writing quality, I feel the story is well executed enough that the flaws do not overwhelm the other positives within the movie’s writing, so yeah, the story is solid at least.
Animation
Given Hungary is one of the emerging countries in the theatrical animation scene, I am looking forward to the animation style Four Souls of Coyote adopts, and it did not disappoint at all.
The hand drawn animation is just a delight to look at, with pristine usage of colours depicting the vast landscape. The forests, the rivers and the mountain centrepiece all look fantastic, as do the characters in the movie. In fact, I would praise the texturing of the characters especially, because the texturing is what gives the animation an extra layer of depth and character to the roughness of the Native American setting.
In fact, I have nothing much to criticise about the overall animation style and quality of this movie; it is that great, especially one from one of the most exciting upcoming animation landscapes in Hungary.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
The score and soundtrack is nothing special, but it helps to build up momentum throughout the movie, so not much to say about the overall quality of the soundtrack.
As for my level of enjoyment, despite the issues I had with it, I find Four Souls of Coyote to be excellent in spite of its flaws. The mature storytelling and concept, not to mention its stunning animation, are why I enjoyed my viewing of this sleeper of an animated movie. It really taught me another perspective of the creation of the world, and I appreciate an animated movie about doing something different.
Overall Thoughts
While there were issues holding this movie back, Four Souls of Coyote made an impression on me for sure.
While far from being the top-tier of non-mainstream animated movies due to is pacing issues and a lack of cohesion in tying its themes together, Four Souls of Coyote nevertheless present an intriguing tale that has great characters, solid messaging that ties the movie towards the end and some gorgeous animation that embrace its creationist plot.
It may be much when it comes to Four Souls of Coyote, but what it presented to me was very good enough for it to stand out from other animated movies. Give this movie a watch if you want to explore something different from the typical family-friend animated fare.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Thelma the Unicorn
Key Information
- Directors: Jared Hess and Lynn Wang
- Animation Studio: Mikros Animation (with Netflix Animation)
- Country of Origin: United States, Canada
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 17 May 2024 (on Netflix)
Trailer
Story and Characters
Coming towards this movie, while the movie is based on a novel that I have never read before, judging from the concept alone, I was seeing similar things to other family-friendly animated movies of the past, be it the mainstream or the non-mainstream. However, it is the execution of the concept that makes Thelma the Unicorn one of the better animated movies so far.
Yes, this movie is rather predictable as it follows similar story beats to other similar animated movies, and some of the jokes do not land at all. However, the execution of the movie’s concept is commendable, with a hilarious satire on how much we get obsessed with viral animal videos while also taking a shot at the music industry in general.
The overall cast of characters is solid too, with great personality and voice acting for most of the characters, all things considered, especially for a mainstream Netflix animated movie. I had been rather disappointed in the writing in some of Netflix’s animated movies last year, but the writing in Thelma the Unicorn is solid.
Animation
Everyone’s perspective on what is considered good animation are different, and mine is no exception. Given my personality and experience in covering animated movies that cover a variety of animation styles, even when using the same medium or same animation technique, I find the animation style in Thelma the Unicorn to be overall good, even if it’s not my preferred style. What do I mean by that?
For starters, I prefer a simpler feeling animation style that does not feel overwhelming, and I find Thelma’s animation style to be too much of style over substance. I noticed a few issues with the detailing of the backgrounds, and some of the character designs felt too over-exaggerated for my taste.
That said, the overall animation quality is solid, mostly thanks to yet another solid job from Mikros Animation, who is now probably one of my new favourite foreign CG animation studios that can produce top-quality animation for mainstream animated movies on pretty much smaller budgets. Movements, colouring and lighting are spot on, and the texturing is as good as the rest of the animation elements too.
While not the most original feeling animation style I had seen all year, the quality is once again better than what the concept presents, so I’m not complaining much about the animation too.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
Being a musical, the songs need to be as great as the writing and the animation, and the songs did just that. The soundtrack will not blow the audience away, but what I got from the musical numbers are well-rounded musical numbers covering a wide range of genres, from country to rock and hip-hop. Overall, I like the soundtrack for what it was aiming to do.
As for my level of enjoyment, while Thelma the Unicorn is not made for my taste, I appreciate how technically sound it is as the entire package. Even if I had seen similar feeling animated movies many times before, I commend how the execution of the safe and generic concept outshines the concept, with decent writing and all-around solid animation and soundtrack that I am certain the family audience will appreciate.
Overall Thoughts
If you are going to produce an animated movie with a rather safe and generic concept with ideas that we had seen before, the bare minimum for these types of movies is to have solid enough execution of that concept, and Thelma the Unicorn passes the past with flying colours.
Despite its predictability, some bad jokes and an animation style that I still cannot understand, Thelma the Unicorn executes its unknown to world-famous star plot with ease thanks to solid execution of the story without stooping too low to its audience, fun satire on our obsession with viral animal videos and the music industry, well-realised characters and solid animation despite its weird style. This is not to mention it having great voice acting performances and a solid soundtrack that’s not too grating.
Honestly, I would not mind seeing Thelma the Unicorn on Netflix again if I have nothing else to watch, and honestly, that is enough for me to recommend this movie to a certain extent.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
The Garfield Movie
Key Information
- Director: Mark Dindal
- Animation Studio: DNEG
- Country of Origin: United States, United Kingdom
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 23 May 2024 (in Singapore)
Trailer
Story and Characters
One of the elements I am fearful of has to be the writing, because knowing how safe and repetitive some of the jokes in the original comic strips are that The Garfield Movie does not add much to any imagination, especially as someone that had grew up reading those comic strips in newspapers and comic books. Thankfully, despite certain issues I had with the writing, the overall writing is pretty well done.
Honestly, I find this movie to be rather predictable (which was to be expected if you had seen the trailers already) and there were some mis-steps with how it wants to bring its new characters forward. That is despite strong voice acting performances from pretty much everyone. Again, I underestimated Christ Pratt’s range voice acting as the titular lazy cat, but there were other stand-out performances from Hannah Waddingham as Jinx, the movie’s main villain, and Ving Rhames as Otto.
That said, given what we have, The Garfield Movie thankfully has the goods with its hilarious script that brings a lot of laughs, utilising classic Garfield gags to this movie’s advantage. As a heist comedy with Garfield, his long-last father (Samuel Jackson) and Odie (Harvey Gullien, though he only made typical Odie noises), the comedy carries this movie so well that I can forgive this movie for its writing issues. That is also because this movie is directed by Mark Dindal, who brought in the comedy style that made the likes of Cats Don’t Dance and The Emperor’s New Groove into this movie, and it shows.
Despite my initial fears, the writing in The Garfield Movie delivers because it treats the original newspaper comics with utmost respect, while also providing laughs that do not feel cheap.
Animation
DNEG has honestly been a solid animation studio with what they had been doing, especially coming off one of my most favourite animated movies of last year with Nimona. And just like with Nimona, the animation overall is very good.
While the animation did not take much risks, there is no need to because the overall quality is just great. Character and background designs are great, the action animation and movements are well-articulated and texturing is on point too.
More importantly, however, is that the animation looks like an upgrade compared to some of the Garfield animated series, which is very important since the team at DNEG knew they had to upgrade the animation style for Garfield compared to previous adaptations, and they made it work.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
The soundtrack is good, but it honestly took a step back when the main focus is on the writing, which is not a bad thing at all.
As for my level of enjoyment, I had a great time with this movie overall. Yeah, it is relatively safe and I can honestly predict most of the movie. That said, because of how effortlessly hilarious this movie is due to its comedy, I enjoyed my viewing of this adaptation overall.
Overall Thoughts
I was preparing for the worst with this movie adaptation of one of my childhood favourites, but I am happy to report that The Garfield Movie managed to be great.
Despite key writing issues with the lack of risk taking and some characterisation issues, The Garfield Movie is worth seeing thanks to it having a lot of heart and dedication in giving Garfield the limelight he deserves, not to mention solid comedy that is as great as the gags in the original Jim Davies comic strips, the animation, while nothing imaginative, is solid and well-executed and the minor elements are great too.
It is not a mind-blowing animated movie, but it is one that faithfully adapts the comic strips and treat this adaptation with respect. To see the director of Chicken Little getting the redemption he deserves with this one is quite heartfelt, and I am certain families and Garfield fans like myself will be happy about this adaptation.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Conclusion
The three movies presented here are very consistent in terms of overall quality, which for once I am not complaining. Each of these animated movies felt different in the best way possible and shows that there is no one wrong way to do an animated movie.
Now that I still have more animated movies to cover, I will be taking a short break in order to cover them before the end of the first half of 2024, so tune in next time when I cover one of the most anticipated animated movies of the year so far, plus one more rundown to round up the first half with four more animated movies. Until next time, see you on the next adventure!
