Introduction
Hey, hey, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is here to begin our very first animation adventure of 2024! You may be wondering “But Blaziker, there’s no animated movies until Orion and the Dark. Why are you mentioning that there’s an adventure waiting for us?”
Well spot on, fellow adventurer, because today, we are going back in time, way back in time as we will explore not one, not two, but three rather obscure animated movies I watched when I was a little kid. They all have something in common: these movies are from the 2000s, they are mostly not well received (especially with the first one) and most importantly, few people talked about them, so it’s worth at least talking about them? Do I regret going on this risky adventure? Of course not, because that’s what adventurers do: explore the unknown!
The first movie is Zodiac: The Race Begins, a 2006 animated movie from my home country of Singapore. Yes, you heard it, an animated movie from Singapore. This movie is basically the re-telling of the Chinese folklore that is the Zodiac Race that resulted in the 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals that you often see today. Considering that we are approaching the Lunar New Year, this is a perfect opportunity to talk about a movie that I had been embarrassed to share for so long… Until now.
The second movie, iZ and the Zizzles, is a 2007 animated movie based on the the discontinued Interloper 2 (or iZ) toy line, and focused on an iZ finding himself in the middle of nowhere to help out a struggling radio station with him chosen to take charge of a new band owned by the family in charge of said radio station. This was a movie that for some reason played on the kids television studio (formerly known as Kids Central) in Singapore, and I by chance had watched that movie, twice. I have no idea how it ended up in Singapore, nor how it was made, but will this re-discovery be worth it?
The third movie, Tom Sawyer, is a 2000 animated movie by MGM animation, and is of course based on Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, except with animal-based characters and also a musical. I will be honest, this movie was also an unexpected find when I borrowed it from a library as a child, which is one of the best places to rent out a movie for free, especially with movies you have never heard of. With that said, will this childhood memory be as good as the last time?
So, are you ready for the first animated movie adventure of 2024? I’m sure am, because here we go!
Zodiac: The Race Begins (2006)
Key Information
- Director: Edward Fu
- Animation Studio: Red Light Studios
- Country of Origin: Singapore
- Rating: G
- Release date: 26 January 2006 (in Singapore)
Trailer
Story and Characters
Before I began this review, there is one thing I am confident about, and it’s that I feel Singapore needs to go back and work on more animated movies, especially since now there is more interest and passion for animation and studios that can produce good animation such as Robot Playground.
Still, from the plot, the writing is very inconsistent and unfocused. If you have seen some of the mainstream movies from Singapore, one issue I have with them is that the writing is pretty poor, and this is no exception. It tried to mix in too many Chinese myths which distract from the main Zodiac race plot, not to mention too many side plots that do not add up.
There is also the weak characterisation that is a result from the inconsistent writing. Considering there are 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac, inevitably, there will be a sheer lack of character focus. Sure enough, the movie puts the focus on the Rat and the Bull, and some of the other Zodiac animals and the Cat, but even so, the character development is not good. I will say that given that this movie has prominent Singapore-based actors and actresses I am familiar with (like Fann Wong as both the Snake and the Cat, Dennis Chew as the Rat which is the weirdest mismatch, Jamie Yeo, veteran radio DJ Vernetta Lopez and even Tom Arnold, among others), the voice acting is not the worst voice acting I had heard of.
Considering that I had seen really good movies from Singapore when it comes to writing quality, especially from the likes of those produced and directed by Eric Khoo (like My Magic) and Jack Neo (like Homerun and the two I Not Stupid movies) at that time, I find it taxing to see bad writing in Singapore-based movies, and this is no exception. I kind of expected more, to be honest, and yeah, no dice in the writing.
Animation
While I had been a massive proponent of foreign CG animated movies despite most of them being not great, I had avoided talking about foreign CG animated movies before the 2010s decade. There are many reasons why I do that, and two of the reasons are that computer-generated animation technology was very expensive and not advanced enough, and most foreign CG animated movies from before the 2010s do not look good at all. Zodiac: The Race Begins is no exception.
Of course, the character designs of the animals and the humans are going to be bad, but this is a bit much. Texturing is way off, some of the background animation (especially with the water animation) feel unnatural and certain character movements are just stiff, which did not help with the inclusion of weird and unnecessary sound effects.
If there is one redeeming element in terms of the animation, it is the usage of paper mâché cutouts in some of the sequences, such as the Celestial Palace, which adds a level of uniqueness into this otherwise uncanny looking animated movie. Otherwise, I do not think there is anything else good about this movie’s animation unfortunately.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
Considering no one talked about the soundtrack, I will say this: the score and soundtrack for Zodiac: The Race Begins is the only element of the movie that does not feel cheap. Yes, it’s not the best quality and I have covered better soundtracks from other foreign CG animated movies, but it is not so offensive. I will say that the one unexpected musical number is unnecessary.
As for my level of enjoyment, I was honestly expecting myself to hate this movie even more, but the more I looked into this movie, the more I realised that I do not think this movie is too bad at all. Yes, I did not enjoy the experience but believe me, I had been into worse animated movies than this one.
Overall Thoughts
Look, as someone from the country that produces the movie in question, it is not surprising that I had to be harsh about the movie. At the same time, this is a foreign CG animated movie from the 2000s back when the technology is not advanced enough for a foreign animation studio.
Zodiac: The Race Begins is a bizarre animated movie from a country not known for its theatrical animation, with a very cliché and nonsensical story, absolutely terrible animation (though not too bad compared to some of the 2000s foreign CG animated movies) and some of the worst character designs I had seen for 2000s standards. With that said, there are some interesting ideas in the movie, mainly in terms of the animation style, but other than that, I don’t recommend it.
While Zodiac: The Race Begins is very bad, at least there are definitely worse foreign CG animated movies from even the 2010s and beyond than this terrible animated movie from my home country. Also, Singapore’s football in recent years is way more terrible than this movie and I have no doubts about it.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
iZ and the Zizzles (2007)
Key Information
- Director: Jeffery Scott (based on the Letterboxd page)
- Animation Studio: Suzhou Hong Ying Animation (with DIC Entertainment)
- Country of Origin: United States
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 13 March 2007 (in the United States)
Trailer
Story and Characters
One of the weird things about iZ and the Zizzles is that it is actually a combination of the first two pilot episodes, but since this was a movie when I watched it when I was young, I will treat it as such since both episodes have the same concurring storyline. Also, episode 1 was in English dub while episode 2 is in a foreign dub (since the English dub of episode 2 cannot be found), so yeah, it goes to show how bizarre my discovery of this movie is.
This movie’s writing is… weird to say the least, in the sense that the movie’s plot felt rather generic and uninteresting. Yes, we have an alien that can mix sounds and turn it into his own and there is a sense of adventure, but the problem is that we had seen a few animated movies focusing on music creation that did it way better, such as the excellent Blue Giant last year. This movie also felt very cliché with jokes that are often reused in this movie. Yes, it is a direct-to-television movie, but even so, the movie could have been better off with less of the same jokes.
Also, the characters felt overall felt uninteresting to me. While the characters are not as terrible as characters from worse animated movies I will not name, but by the end of the movie, apart from iZ, I kind of had forgotten pretty much most of the characters. As for iZ, iZ might be a very annoying protagonist because his voice, for some reason, for distorted. I’m not sure whether there is poor sound mixing that resulted in his voice, but it’s not good.
Animation
Considering that DIC outsourced the animation to a China-based animation studio (back when a lot of Chinese animation studios outsourced a lot of animation work to international companies to mixed to negative results), it is not surprising if the animation does not lives up to the expectations. However, to my surprise, the animation is not the worst thing I had seen.
Sure, the character and background designs feel generic and there are times when certain animation scenes are overused and the overall feeling on the animation was cheap, which is to be expected for the quality level of Chinese animation in the 2000s. With that said, it’s far from the worst looking animation I had seen, and I like the iZ designs in this movie since they do not look uncanny and at least had a level of personality to it.
I also feel that despite being a direct-to-television animated movie, the character movements feel smooth and natural especially with the movements of the iZ robot aliens, and therefore elevates this movie to a certain extent. I know this is not high praise, but at least there were some elements in this movie’s animation that I appreciate, and that is all that matters in order to get a more favourable rating.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
If there is one element in iZ and the Zizzles that is not an issue at all, it is the soundtrack and man, for direct-to-television standards, this is a very good soundtrack! Most of the songs in the soundtrack are very competent and memorable, especially with the incorporation of iZ’s sounds in the music tracks, and would compete with soundtracks from the likes of Rock Dog, which also has a rock-based soundtrack that is much better compared to the soundtrack in iZ.
In terms of my level of enjoyment, knowing that it is a 2000s direct-to-television animated movie meant to promote the iZ toys, I had low expectations for this movie, but I found myself to be ok with the overall experience. Yes, this movie is technically flawed, but I kind of was in the middle in terms of how I feel about this strange movie.
Overall Thoughts
It’s honestly fascinating how this animated movie exists in the first place and now that I saw it in action, I personally do not think this is a good animated movie.
iZ and the Zizzles is a rather odd animated movie with a failed toy and an even stranger animated movie that came absolutely out of nowhere and onto the TV screen. It suffers from very generic writing and characters, which is further exasperated by an annoying protagonist of iZ. The animation looks a bit cheap but has at least decent quality movements and animation that softens the blow, and the soundtrack is very good, I must say.
Still, the fact that I am not so sure which audience will enjoy this movie the most is this movie’s biggest problem. Even with a great soundtrack for a direct-to-TV animated movie, iZ and the Zizzles is not good enough for it to be memorable, unfortunately.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Tom Sawyer (2000)
Key Information
- Directors: Paul Sabella and Phil Mendez
- Animation Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Animation
- Country of Origin: United States
- Rating: PG
- Release date: 4 April 2000 (in the United States)
Trailer (Full Movie)
Story and Characters
Considering that I had never read Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, I came into this movie with that fact and I ended my movie with me asking this question, “Um, what did I just watch?”
Probably the biggest issue I had with the writing is the lack of cohesion in the main plot. The lack of focus on what this movie wants to achieve can be distracting, especially to moviegoers who had not read the original novel before. With that said, the story is honestly quite cute for what it is worth, some of the characters are memorable and most of the voice acting is decent, but honestly, the almost low quality of the writing is to be expected for a direct-to-DVD animated movie.
In all honesty, this movie is very inoffensive and harmless, I will say that, considering that I had watched a good number of worse animated movies with even worse writing that somehow ended up in theatres. I will not mention who they are, they can speak for themselves.
Animation
Normally, direct-to-DVD animated movies suffer from poor quality animation, usually because studios tend to either produce them in house on a tight budget or outsource the animation to a foreign animation studio for even less. However, Tom Sawyer 2000 proves to be an exception.
For a direct-to-DVD animated movie on what I can assume would be made on a small budget, the animation is very decent. While there is still a level of roughness in the rendering of certain characters, the colouring is kind of spot on in this movie. There is also a level of depth in some of the scenes, especially with the darker scenes that adds to the mystique needed to elevate the relevant sequence.
In addition, I think the character designs are pretty decent, even if I was questioning whether using anthropomorphic characters is necessary. Overall, Tom Sawyer 2000 definitely had some pretty good animation for a direct-to-DVD animated movie, so yeah, well done to MGM Animation on that aspect.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
Being particular about animated movie soundtracks, the one element in the Tom Sawyer movie that I remembered the most is the soundtrack, so I was wondering whether it has aged well. Having listened to the soundtrack again in the movie, I kind of think it was alright.
The musical songs in the movie overall were a mixed bag, with a selection of really cheesy but enjoyable songs and some annoying ones. In addition, I wish the pacing between the musical numbers is more spaced out so that I can take a well-needed breath from these songs. It honestly feels like a right type of cheesiness overall, and there are definitely animated movies with worse soundtracks than the one in Tom Sawyer 2000.
As for my level of enjoyment, I will say that watching this felt like a fever dream that I wished I would refuse to believe, but it turn out to be a good type of fever dream. Even with the mediocre writing and the cheesy musical numbers, I was in it for the ride and yeah, I am cringing a bit, but I was enjoying this childhood movie for the most part.
Overall Thoughts
I honestly do not know what to expect when re-watching this movie, knowing that I have to set aside my childhood sentiments and judge the movie as is. Again, I have no idea how this ended up on the library shelves in Singapore of all places, but now that I watched it… Yeah, this is one hell of a fever dream for me.
The 2000 Tom Sawyer animated movie might be one of the weirdest childhood memories I had even if I had not read the Mark Twain original novel at all since childhood (mostly because I was reading the local writers like Neil Humphries and Catherine Tan). This is a movie with not much cohesion in the story nor any interesting elements in the writing, but it does have solid animation and well-liked characters for direct-to-DVD animated movie standards. The country-based songs and the soundtrack is a mixed bag overall and the overall experience is frankly middle of the road for me.
It may not be a cohesive animated movie, but this is one hell of a fever dream that I will remember… for a few weeks until we get started on the 2024 animated movies.
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating
Conclusion
Yeah, I know the three movies I covered are not the most exciting, but looking back, it felt poignant that these are some of the movies I covered during my childhood that are not the usual mainstream animated movies most are familiar with, which can be a precursor to my interest in non-mainstream and foreign CG animated movies.
That is all from today’s adventure and now, we are finally on the road with the first couple of animated movies for 2024. Tune in next time as we begin the very first animated movie adventure for the 2024 animated movies.
Until next time, see you on the next adventure!
