Introduction
Happy New Year, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is here to celebrate a brand new year, and a whole new year for animated movies! But first, let me tell you about some updates with the blog.
First off, while this blog will remain “Blog of Blaziker” because this is my blog we are talking about, my review series “Blaziker Reviews Animation” will be be renamed to “Blaziker’s Animation Adventure”, because every animated movie feels like an adventure waiting to be explored by those brave enough to venture there, while “Blaziker Explores Animation” will now be a series of non-regular essays called “Blaziker’s Opinions”, and that will not be restricted to animation only.
However, today, I will be announcing a revamp to the rating system!
Why The Change?
For starters, when I reviewed animated movies for the past few months, I was not too happy with how I rate animated movies, especially for one particular category, and that is the “Special Sauce” category. While I like looking to other elements of the movie, I feel that category name is wrong. Also, I am changing the rating scale to “Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Move Rating Scale”, hence the name change to “Soundtrack and Other Elements”, given that I liked listening to the soundtrack.
In addition, I always review animated movies based on my standpoint on whether I enjoyed the movie or not, so I feel I needed something to indicate how much the movie entertained me. Hence, I added a new element of my rating system to indicate how much I enjoyed the movie!
And finally, in terms of the actual rating, I had changed it based on how spicy (or how great in this case) the animated movie I was reviewing. Some viewers might know from some social media posts that I had a very high level of spice tolerance, as I was trained to handle spice since young (yes, this is based on a true story), so I am very used to eating spicy food. Whenever I used chili sauce (the equivalent of hot sauces) and other similar products, such as sambal, I always hope that they are spicy enough for my liking. Hence, going forward, I will be gauging my enjoyment level of future animated movies the way I gauge the spiciness of my food: the spicier or better the movie is, the higher my level of enjoyment towards this movie.
Probably a good example of a hot sauce that is on my spice level has to be the world-famous Nandos Extra Hot Sauce:
Or even spicier, a bowl of “volcano noodles” from a noodle shop near my Malaysia home:
Anyway, let us get to the updated criteria for my new rating scale:
The Elements of My New Rating Scale
Story and Characters (Unchanged)
As previously mentioned, writing in animated movies is now as important as the animation work, being essential in terms of how the writers involve write the story in the movie or series, and how they also utilise the characters, since memorable characters require great writing. In addition, voice acting, especially great voice acting, helps to not only elevate the characters’ personalities, but also helps in the writing, as the quality of the scripts for these voice acting performances are shown in full force. Here is the list of what I look out for in terms of these criteria:
- Originality – Have we seen this type of plot before, and if so, did the writers write the story differently to make it more interesting?
- Cohesion – Are there any visible plot holes that do not make the story much sense? How do these writers help to combine the ideas and plots in the movie in a cohesive fashion?
- Comedy – Do the jokes land, and what types of jokes are in the movie? Are they also appropriate for the relevant audience?
- Characterisation – Have the writers develop the characters properly throughout the movie, and are they very memorable? Do these characters help to elevate the story?
- Voice acting – How do the voice actors involved voice their respective characters, and do they do a good job at it?
Animation (Unchanged)
While animation plays a key role in determining the quality of any animated movie, regardless of animation style, with the quality of level of animation improving as the years go by, cinemagoers will notice when the animation is not good compared to other movies. Even though I am not an animation specialist, here is what I look out for:
- Animation style – Does the styling of the animated movie suit the context of the movie, or could it perhaps have used a different style of animation?
- Animation quality – Are there any quality issues regarding the animation, such as any rendering issues? How bad are they such that even regular moviegoers would notice?
- Character design and movements – Are the character designs interesting, and are their movements appropriate?
- Backgrounds – Do the backgrounds fit the animation style?
- Visual storytelling (new) – Do the animation help to elevate the story visually?
Soundtrack and Other Elements (Renamed)
As someone that listened to music very regularly, I personally believed a movie’s soundtrack can make or break a movie. Even if that movie is not a musical, the songs, whether composed for the movie or licenced from music distributors, are important in creating the appropriate atmosphere for the movie. In addition, there are other elements within the movie that not many will appreciate, so this criteria focuses on the other elements that make up the animated movie, including:
- Soundtrack – Does the movie has a great musical score or catchy songs in the soundtrack so that cinemagoers can remember the songs and the movie associated with them?
- Sound design – Is there any sound engineering that boosts the atmosphere of the movie?
- Cultural influences – Do the movies have a cultural standpoint that would make the movie extra special, such as a cultural aspect of the country the animated movie (or show) comes from?
- Representation – Is there any representation that plays a special role in the story, and how well-executed that standpoint is?
Level of Enjoyment (New)
Finally, here comes the new element, that is my level of entertainment. I had to gauge how much I enjoyed the movie experience, since that is a personal preference. There will be different types of animated movies that different people will enjoy, and some might resonate with a particular animated movie, even if most do not agree with that sentiment.
Hence, this new criteria is simple: It judges how much I enjoy the movie, and also serves as some sort of a tiebreaker to separate movies from each other. It is as simple as that.
The New Ratings for My Reviews
And now, finally, here is my new rating system for the 2023 season. With four elements instead of three in my previous system, the maximum possible score will be 20 points. With that, here is how I will rate each animated movie:
| Rating | Description of Rating | Score Range |
| Straight Up Fire! | So hot, even I can’t take it! What an amazing animated movie! | 19.5 to 20.0 |
| Extra Hot | This animated movie is making me sweat with excellence! It’s my level of spiciness now! | 16.0 to 19.0 |
| Hot | It’s starting to heat up! I’m really starting to enjoy this movie, even if it has some flaws. | 12.0 to 15.5 |
| Medium | The middle level, this animated movie can be enjoyable for some and not so for others. Exercise your judgement. | 8.0 to 11.5 |
| Mild | Not much spice, but still worth considering in a pinch. | 4.0 to 7.5 |
| Extra Mild | Still a palatable animated movie, though with its many issues, don’t expect much. | 1.0 to 3.5 |
| No Flavour! | What a foul-tasting animated movie! Avoid it if possible! | 0.0 to 0.5 |
Now, allow me to illustrate these ratings with two examples:
Example 1: I Am What I Am
One of the movies I was fortunate to see in theatres is I Am What I Am, which not only has the best animation for any Chinese animated movie, but could be one of the most underrated animated movies of the 2020s due to its sheer lack of distribution.
Under my old rating system, I gave it a 14.5/15, rating it “Euphoria”. Under the new system, here is how I will rate it:
With only the addition of the “Level of Entertainment” or “Entertainment Level” in this example, I am only adding an additional 5 points for how entertained I was throughout the whole movie. This will still mean I Am What I Am the highest possible rating, “Straight Up Fire!”.
Now, here is an example of a movie that would otherwise get a lower rating had it not been for the “Entertainment Level” element:
Example 2: Dino Time
Dino Time is one of my biggest guilty pleasures, and is a movie I would love to see just to turn my brain off for 90 minutes. It may be a terrible movie, yes, but it is something I really enjoyed. Besides, even the most revered movie critics have a selection of guilty pleasures they are unwilling to disclose.
Under the old rating system, I would have given it a 3.5/15 which be the equivalent of “Horrible”. Under the new rating system, here is how I would have rated it:
Despite its low quality prospects, the fact that I enjoyed this movie a lot would result in Dino Time getting a higher rating than expected, just barely getting that middle rating of “Medium”. It is a movie I really enjoyed, despite it being critically panned.
Conclusion
Well, that is about it! This is my newly revamped rating system for 2023 onwards. I cannot wait for the new year of animation to begin!
I will see you for the first two animated movie adventures of 2023 with “Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be” and “Mummies” next month! Until then, k thanks bye!