WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN Â YOU-KNOW-WHATS, IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS MOVIE!!!!!! GO AHEAD AND CONTINUE, IF YOU DARE. đ
-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review, Already in Progress-
Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and it’s already been nearly two years since the last main Disney animated film. That’s right, “Big Hero 6”, which is still a good movie to this day. Well, Disney going back to its usual CGI animated films every year with doing the same technique one of their owning companies, Pixar, did last year and how they did over a decade ago in 2002: “Release Two Movies at the Same Year”. So, in order to start off the new year of 2016 in Disney’s attempt to release two theatrical animated films that they made, we shall take a look at the newest animated flick, “Zootopia” (or “Zootropolis” in other countries). It first came out into U.S. theaters on March 4, 2016 and all of you are wondering: “THIS FILM FOR FURRIES CAUSE THEY LOVE ANIMALS SO MUCH!!! BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!!!!” Well, you’re wrong because when Disney first made films, they did a LOT of animal-based films on animals acting like humans and this film is a perfect example, in a good way. So, is this film really for “Furries”? You’re about to find out, let’s dive right into “Zootopia” AKA “Zootropolis”!!
The premise of the film is about a bunny named Judy Hopps (played by Ginnifer Goodwin) who travels to an animal city (which is the film’s title) called “Zootopia” (or “Zootropolis”, as I stated earlier), a place where animals such as predators and prey get along and live together in harmony (almost), because she now has the job of becoming a police officer. However, because of her size and how she’s a cute, innocent bunny, everyone in Zootopia judges her for it and is eventually given a case on a missing mammal. As she gathers clues on the case, she is forced to team up with a fox con artist involved in evidence of the crime named Nick Wilde (played by Jason Bateman) and they soon figure out that the mystery is much more than just a missing mammal case. As more and more clues and characters are found, it eventually leads to more (missing) mammals involved in the case.
Now, you may think that this is “Just Another Disney or Furry Flick”. But, as I stated earlier, you’re wrong. Very, very wrong. This movie has some very interesting aspects, such as the moral, which is about racism/discrimination. It’s usually played out in the beginning and near the end of the film and in my opinion, it was handled very well. There are people out there that are prejudice towards other people and their race, which is not a good thing and it’s best that we treat other people and their race with respect, even if they’re different or not. It may be a bit dark for kids, but, hey, at least Disney handles it well, as usual.
As for the plot, itself, it goes along very well and connects with all the various subplots. Although, there are a few moments that are fairly predictable, such as the scenes from the trailer and is sometimes a little cliched. But, other than that, there’s nothing else wrong with the story and the humor is very funny for both kids and adults to be interested in. Especially the sloth named Flash and here’s a clip of it from the trailer.:
Even the references to movies such as “The Godfather” and stereotypes were entertaining, in my opinion. As usual, the animation’s great and is very beautiful because Disney is fantastic at making animation work, either 2-D or CGI animation. Also, the characters are very fun, especially Nick Wilde, Benjamin Clawhauser (played by Nate Torrence), Chief Bogo, etc…. As for the soundtrack, it’s very good and the movie’s theme song, “Try Everything” by Shakira (as Gazelle), is just so FREAKING amazing and catchy. Take a look at it, if you haven’t right now!!!:
I literally know what you guys are thinking!!!!:
Now, onto my final thoughts.
In conclusion, is this movie for Furries? Well, not exactly, it’s another Disney film that’s enjoyable for both kids, Furries, and adults. The animation is fantastic as usual, the plot was very good, the characters are memorable from beginning to end, the moral about discrimination was handled very well, the humor was funny for kids and adults, and even “Try Everything” was great. Everything about this film was very good, even there are a few problems, such as the film being a little bit slow, a little cliched, and some parts are fairly predictable. But, other than that, there’s nothing else that needs to be changed and I would definitely recommend it to any other Disney fanatic or Furry. But, if you’re neither of those things, you’ll probably despise this film. I would rate it an 8.5/10 for such a fantastic Disney film with a lot of good topics on racism/prejudice/discrimination. I’m The Detective Librarian and stay tuned for my next review of the Season premiere of Season 6 of “MLP: FIM”!!!!!! Toodles!!!! ;D
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO– Wait a minute, this is an “Editorial”, not a review or an update or something. So, Disney fans, WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO WITNESS MIGHT OFFEND SOME DISNEY FANS WITH MAJOR CRITICISM!!! IF YOU’RE A DIE-HARD DISNEY-FANATIC AND HATE DISNEY FROM BEING CRITICIZED BY MANY PEOPLE ALIKE, STEP AWAY FROM THIS POST, RIGHT NOW!!!!!
-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Post, Already in Progress-
Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and who doesn’t love or like Disney and their amazing talents for making good movies, characters, shorts, songs, and even make more money? Well, not everyone loves Disney because, meh, it’s just their opinion. Ever since Walt Disney created his company called “The Walt Disney Company”, people around the globe have grown up watching Disney and their cheerful and (sometimes) dark animated films for all-ages that have been based off of various books or classics, while some were original, such as “Wreck-It-Ralph”, the next Disney flick: “Zootopia”/”Zootropolis” in other countries, etc… They’ve even owned other companies that are either still living or sadly shut down, including Pixar, one of the best animation studios of all-time!! But, as the years went by, more and more Disney films and TV shows have gained critical acclaim from their well-known classics that have either been remembered or forgotten, Disney turned from a simple family-flick company to a “money-making monster”. Why, do you ask? Well, they began to build more companies, Disney World and Disneyland, and worst of all: BUY OTHER FRANCHISES FROM OTHER COMPANIES SO THAT THEY CAN OWN THEM: INCLUDING “STAR WARS”, “MARVEL COMICS”, “INDIANA JONES”, ANYTHING GEORGE LUCAS OR STEVEN SPIELBERG-RELATED CONTENT, ETC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:
But, today we’re gonna be answering one of the biggest questions of all time: “Is Disney really one of the biggest money-making monstrosities in the entire universe?” Many people have asked this ever since the whole “Franchise-Buying” scheme came to mind in the company the world had come to know and love. For our first editorial, let’s dive in!!
Well, it all began when “The Muppets” (created by “Sesame Street” creator, Jim Henson) and another Henson-created show called “Big Bear in the Big Blue House” had their very own company known as “The Muppet Studio, LLC”/”Muppets Holding Company, LLC” back in February 2004 thanks to the rights of those two shows being owned by (you guessed it) Disney!!!! Five years later, they did the same thing to “Marvel” and they’ve been involving in making movies based off of the Marvel comics, ever since, and (you won’t believe this), they did the same thing to “Star Wars” in 2012!!! YES, ONE OF THE GREATEST CLASSICS OF ALL TIME BEING OWNED BY A FAMILY-FRIENDLY COMPANY IS NOW A FRANCHISE-BUYING SCHEME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:
Trust me, most “Star Wars” fans were as shocked as you are and this was my reaction as well. More like–:
Anyway, “Star Wars” was not the only LucasFilms franchise that Disney currently owns. Take a look at “Indiana Jones”, Disney owns that as well, which explains why we see the “Indiana Jones” Ride in Disneyland and the show at Disney Hollywood Studios in Orlando. But, that’s not the only thing Disney does nowadays while making movies as they normally do, they also make TV shows as seen on Disney Channel and Disney XD. But, is Disney really a money-making creature in the world? But, looking back on how the company is good at making beautiful animation (either 2-D or 3-D/CGI), good movies, solid morals, catchy songs, own great companies such as Pixar, and have unique characters, even if some of them are forgettable most of the time and some of their works can be childish and a drug-tripping moment, especially in those really freaky nightmare sequences they have! Also, they do have funny humor put into it and the jokes are funny, I’ll give them that, as well as really emotional and powerful scenes in their films. Take a look at “The Lion King” for example, it had emotional and powerful scenes, especially during Mufasa’s death scene and it got a lot of Disney-fans and the audience to tear up or feel emotional during that particular scene.
I mean, Disney does do a great job of giving out funny humor, animation, action scenes, drama, unique creativity, etc…. Even when it does seem childish and annoying at first. After all, I do enjoy various Disney movies that I’ve seen in my childhood or as I’m older now, such as Pixar films, “The Lion King”, “Big Hero 6”, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, “The Fox and the Hound”, etc… However, Disney sometimes doesn’t do the best job at making good movies and the one perfect example of that would be the infamous straight-to-video sequels, prequels, and midquels to their films they’ve done in the past and (of course) managed to piss a LOT of Disney fans and critics off. Although, some Disney sequels are okay or pretty good, including “TLK 2: Simba’s Pride” for example. I’m not saying that they’re bad, I’m saying that they were unnecessary to make and some of them are slightly average. But, they’re still pretty bad. đŚ
Also, I get this feeling whenever Disney buys another franchise to make more movies/money, the movies actually turn out to be surprisingly good in the end and could not only possibly strengthen the franchise, but give Disney more money and strength as well. Take a look at the latest “Star Wars” flick, “The Force Awakens”, “The Avengers”, and “Guardians of the Galaxy” from Marvel. These three movies were good movies and even if Disney helped with the projects because they own those two companies that made those movies, “Marvel” and “LucasFilms”, they turned out to be very enjoyable from beginning to end. So, in conclusion, I get this feeling whenever Disney’s involved in a movie, they seem to be good or great sometimes, while it can be bad, mediocre, or terrible, momentarily. Now, onto my final thoughts.
In conclusion, is Disney really the biggest money-making creature in the world? Well, the answer is both yes and no because even if we grew up watching Disney movies and TV shows, while witnessing it buying franchises that were probably unnecessary to be purchased to begin with, it’s actually quite enjoyable and can be a guilty-pleasures from time to time. Well, let’s face it and look at Disney for the way it is, it’s a money-making company, but they actually do a great job making great classics with fresh animation, memorable songs and characters, have great companies like Pixar that has some great movies and shorts, stories, morals, attractions at their theme parks, shorts, humor, and emotional content. At first, I disliked Disney and only cared about Pixar at first, however, looking back at it now after seeing the newer films getting better and better, I actually enjoy it to this day. Even if Disney isn’t as good as it used to be, I’ll still enjoy it and I’ve heard some people that are either Disney-lovers and haters. Even if you like Disney, while everyone else doesn’t, you can still like it because it’s just an opinion. I’ll always like Disney for the way it is and I still feel bad for being so harsh on it than I’ve been on in my review of “TLK” last year.
But, other than that, I’ll still enjoy both Disney and Pixar, even if it’s still one of the biggest money-making abominations in the universe because people have grown up with it and you can’t help but love how colorful it is with the characters, stories, animation, songs, etc… Let me know in the comments below of what you think of Disney and, as always, I’m The Detective Librarian and stay tuned for my next review of “The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well”/Another Worst Episode from “MLP: FIM”, one of my favorite shows. Oh, be sure to check out the trailers for Disney’s next film, “Zootopia” and remind me of what you think of it so far. Toodles!!! đ :
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!! TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS PILOT/MOVIE EPISODE THAT WASN’T AS GOOD AS THE MOVIE IT WAS BASED OFF OF THAT IS CONSIDERED ONE OF DISNEY’S WELL-KNOWN CLASSICS OF ALL TIME!!!!!!
-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review, Already in Progress-
PREVIOUSLY ON “THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN”:
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: *Reads RMâs Diary* Wait, YOU have a sister and a real name?
THE REVIEW MASTER (PRESENT): *Sigh* Yes. Yes, I do. Her name is Rosie Bernstein, while my REAL name is Trevor. Trevor Bernstein. Before I met you, my older sister, Rosie, was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago. We didnât have enough money to help her get cured and I wanted to because she took care of me, after my parents got killed in a car crash when I was 10 years old. I decided to make my OWN blog in order to raise money for Rosieâs breast cancer. I even tried to advertise about helping me raise more money to help my sister, but ALL that changed, when you came along as âThe Detective Librarianâ AND TOOK AWAY ALL THOSE FANS FROM ME!!!! As time went by and your first few days on my blog came, I started to get less attention and enough money to help and I thought that things couldnât get any more worse than this! But, I was wrong, a few months after 2015 started, Rosieâs condition began to worsen and she died on February 28, 2015, as a result. I decided to help get a backup plan, by doing charities, asking my horrible-relatives to help, and buckets for money, but THEY DIDNâT WORK EITHER!!! By now, I REALLY WANTED TO GET RID OF THE ONE THING THAT RUINED MY LIFE AND CAUSED BY ONE AND ONLY SISTER WHO EVEN CARED ABOUT ME IN MY FAMILY, ROSIE BERNSTEIN, BUT YOU TOOK THAT MONEY THAT COULD ONLY SAVE HER LIFE AWAY FROM ME AND YOU STARTED TO GET MORE PRAISE THAN I DID, BECAUSE OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! đĄ
KING ORKENIA (SPEAKING ALIEN LANGUAGE): As for YOU!!! AS SOON AS I MAKE ANOTHER âSTAR WARSâ REFERENCEâŚYou will be DESTROYED!!!!!! *Shoots Heat-Laser from Eyes*
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: *AGH!!!* AAAAAAAAHHH!!!! ARRGHH!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! OH MY, CELESTIA, HELP!!!! REVIEW MASTER!!!!âŚPLEASE!!!!!! IâM BEGGING YOU!!!! HELP ME, HELP ME AND ALL THOSE DYING HUMANS AND FRIENDS OUT THERE THATâŚNEED YOU!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!âŚ
THE REVIEW MASTER (PRESENT): *Gasp!*
NOOOO!!! DONâT YOU DARE HURT MY FRIEND LIKE THAT!! EVER AGAIN, YOU MONSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Carries King Orkenia and Throws Him, While Being Heated By His Heat-Powers*
KING ORKENIA (SPEAKING ALIEN LANGUAGE, NOT REALLY):
THE REVIEW MASTER (PRESENT): *Collapses to the Ground*
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Trevor!! NO!!! GET UP, NOW!!!! *Explosion*
THE REVIEW MASTER/TREVOR BERNSTEIN (PRESENT) (DYING):âŚThank you⌠Detective. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with meâŚThat was the last review I ever needed for my career andâŚ..My life. *Coughing* I was wrongâŚRosie taught me that âYou Donât To Control Everything In Your Life That You Hate and You Have to Face Them With Confidence and a Faithful SoulââŚâŚGo. Help me finish what my sister startedâŚPlease.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: *Sad Sigh* I will, Trevor. I promise.
THE REVIEW MASTER/TREVOR BERNSTEIN (PRESENT) (DYING): Actually. Instead of calling me thatâŚCall meâŚâThe Review Masterâ once again. The new âReview Masterâ is you, Detective. Keep your old name and Iâll keep my other name I choseâŚâŚ.âYouâre The Detective Librarian andâŚ.Happy 100th Review for One Year and Iâm Very Proud of You and how You Received Many Praise and a hundred reviews after all this timeâŚ..Iâll always be here in the reviewing community. I promiseâŚ..â <:â) *Dies*
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN:
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN (CONTINUED): *Sigh* I will, Review MasterâŚ..I promise. *Cries Deep Down Inside*
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN (MAKING A SPEECH): Where ever you are, Review Master AKA Trevor, youâll ALWAYS be one of us and part of our hearts and souls of review-making. <:'(
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN (MONOLOGUE): Today, a new day is dawning for reviewingâŚA day where things will turn out just fineâŚ..
-PROLOGUE: The Review Master’s House, 11:46 AM, Present Day-
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: *Unpacking Trevor Bernstein/Review Master’s Belongings*……….*Sad Sigh*
TED THE SCRIPT PERSON: Hey, Detective. I know you’re upset, but, The Review Master was your arch-enemy. I think it’s time you put it behind you and move on. We’ve got to unpack most of his stuff, seeing as how he’s no longer living here and has moved onto a better place.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: I know, Ted! But, I still feel very depressed by it. Ever since we first began our major rivalry, I’ve always had this strange feeling that Review Master– I mean, Trevor and I have this sort of interesting relationship that us fighting is like a bond, until his death, when he gave his life to save me from the Mormenian ruler, King Orkenia, and his kind from killing me. I just wish that I could do something to honor him and start off my upcoming Season 4 of my blog’s reviews.
TED THE SCRIPT PERSON: Well, why not do a collaboration review with one of the former members of his group called “The Hunters”?
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Nah. They might still be evil anyway, especially Timothy the Ghost Train or even Frankie Heck for that matter. Although, I still congratulate her for sending a ship to rescue me and the Review Master’s dying body from the collapsing Moon Destructor.
SHINING ARMOR: Well, don’t worry, Detective. You’ve still got us as your friends, ever since we became friendly-rivals, I’ve always considered you one of my best friends.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN:…..Hmm, maybe you’re right. But, I should definitely do a review to honor Trevor. We should think about it later and get back to unpacking.
SHINING ARMOR: Right! *Continues Unpacking*
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: *Unpacks Stuff in Trevor’s Room* *An Object Falls to the Ground* Huh, what’s this? Hmm, looks like some-sort of flashdrive or something. *Plugs Flashdrive Onto Review Master/Trevor’s Computer and Plays It*
THE REVIEW MASTER/TREVOR BERNSTEIN (FLASHDRIVE VIDEO): Hello, it is I, “The Review Master”!!! I’m recording this video as my will, in case I die and send a message to anyone who is going to replace or dedicate me as “The Greatest Reviewer of All Time”!!!! For my final review on my blog, I’ll be doing a review of the TV movie/pilot episode of Disney’s “The Lion King” spin-off show, “The Lion Guard” and is titled, “Return of the Roar”, focusing on Simba’s son, Kion. *Video Continues*
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: A new “Lion King” movie based off of a new “LK” TV show, focusing on Simba having a son, instead of a daughter? :O TED, SHINING ARMOR, AND EVERYONE ELSE, COME UPSTAIRS, I THINK I’VE GOT SOMETHING!!!!!
-The Detective Librarian’s Office, 2:30 PM-
Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and as you all know, Season 4 of my reviewing career on my blog has finally arrived, after a LONG hiatus (okay, not really), we’re FINALLY BACK INTO REVIEWING, THE ONE THING I ENJOY THE MOST ON MY BLOGGING CAREER!!!! *Sigh of Relaxation* In order to start off, we’re going to be taking a look at a new movie for a new TV show on Disney Junior based off of “The Lion King”. I know what you’re thinking, “This is just another money-making scheme for Disney” and you’re probably right or just a way to bring back nostalgia for many fans of the movie that this is based off of. What’s the new movie called, along with the TV show, you may ask? It’s called “The Lion Guard”: “Return of the Roar”; Â first aired on Disney Channel on November 22, 2015. Since this is a film based off of a movie that everyone seems to enjoy, you’re all wondering, “OMG, Disney’s Ruining Our Childhood Forever, OH NO, LET’S FORM A ANGRY MOB, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH” and (again), YOU’RE ALL CORRECT!!!! This is supposed to be a pilot episode for the new TV series that’s airing on Disney Junior next year on January 15, 2016, meaning that it’s supposed to be targeted towards the younger audience/children.
Gee, I wonder how it’ll turn out when it airs as a series, instead of a movie. Aside from that, will this movie turn out terrible, let’s find out! This is “The Lion Guard”: “Return of the Roar”!!
So, the movie starts off at the Pridelands, where we get a nice little reference to the first movie, where we see the sun rise over the Pridelands, while music from the scene with Mufasa’s ghost from the first film is being played in the background. Sadly, the “Circle of Life” song is not being sung, which would’ve been better, but, I would sound like a broken record if I ranted about it. We then see Simba (played by Rob Lowe, not Matthew Broderick), the ruler of the Pridelands, teaching his daughter, Kiara (played by Eden Riegel) about how the kingdom works/the same lessons Mufasa taught to him in the first movie, like “How the Sun Touches Our Kingdom and Stuff”. Also, I would like to point out that Rob Lowe’s voice for Simba is just awful because it sounds NOTHING like Matthew Broderick’s voice for him from the original movie and the franchise’s trilogy. Take a look at this clip for example and see what I mean!!:
I’m not even kidding here, THIS is how he sounds throughout the entire film and probably for the rest of the series!! Rob Lowe’s voice for Simba sounds more like an Asian male/someone who’s high and mighty, like one of the male characters during the “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from the “Mulan” movie. Why, Disney, just WHY, WHY THE BUCK COULDN’T YOU HIRE MATTHEW BRODERICK AGAIN OR EVEN HIRE SOMEONE ELSE THAT SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE HIM (SUCH AS, I DUNNO, CAM CLARKE, JUST LIKE IN THE “TIMON AND PUMBAA” CARTOON)??????!!!!!! I MEAN, I KNOW THAT HE’S BUSY WITH OTHER PROJECTS OR ANYTHING PERSONAL, BUT COME ON, HE DID A GREAT JOB VOICING HIM IN THE FIRST THREE MOVIES, FIND SOMEONE ELSE THAT SOUNDS LIKE HIM FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!! đĄ But, I digress, we first meet our main character of the movie, Simba and Nala’s son and Kiara’s younger brother, Kion (played by Max Charles) and his best friend, a honey badger named Bunga (voiced by Joshua Rush), who are both playing a game called Baobab Ball right in-front of Simba’s lecture with his daughter from the second film, “The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride”. Simba suggests that he should continue playing their game somewhere else, while he lets Kiara and her friends hunt gazelles in the Pridelands. So, Kion and Bunga travel across the Land, through rivers, different clans of animals, other characters from the first film (including Rafiki), new characters that will be important to the story later, and play our first song of the movie, until they chase the Baobab Ball, which lands into the Outlands from (again) the second film.
Ya see, guys, this does show some continuity from the first two movies, except it shows Kiara as a cub and without Kovu involved, except that he’ll appear in the show, soon enough. Anyway, Bunga decides to foolishly risk his life to get the Ball back and into the Pridelands, but, Kovu (of course) refuses to come with him and sticks to his father’s rules of staying away from the Outlands. As Bunga explores the Outlands and gets the Ball back, a bunch of hyenas (just like the ones from the first movie) led by our new hyena named Janja (played by Andrew Kishino) ambush and capture him. Kovu saves Bunga by roaring so loudly with a bunch of cloud-lion-like spirits in the sky roaring with him and gain his cutie mark– I mean a tattoo-like mark that looks more like a cutie mark from “MLP: FIM”, which actually surprises the Hyenas and let Bunga escape. Gee, I bet that if the CMC (Cutie Mark Crusaders: Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle) still had their blank flanks, they would definitely believe that roaring loudly as they can like a lion would do the same thing to Kion. Even Scootaloo would be like–:
You can say that for this movie being a non-canon version of a well-known classic, just to sell more toys for a new show that is actually nothing but selling more merchandising, like the new CGI “Thomas” episodes. But (AGAIN), I digress, as you’d expect, Kion and Bunga are very surprised over Kion’s unexpected roar that acted all magical and cutie-mark and such, while they head their way back home to Pride Rock. Speaking of Pride Rock, Simba, his wife Nala (played by Gabrielle Union, have to admit, not a bad replacement for her original voice from the three movies, Moira Kelly), and Rafiki have apparently heard Kion’s roar while at Pride Rock. They now believe that Kion is the new leader of an organization called the show and movie’s title, “The Lion Guard”, even though Simba is very doubtful about Kion’s new responsibility. But, Nala encourages him to listen to Rafiki, seeing as how he’s the insane, but wise monkey of Mufasa and now Simba. But, as Kion and Bunga (conveniently) return, they overheard the conversation, but are wondering what Simba and Rafiki were talking about, until they are led by Rafiki into a cave, where he and Simba are waiting for him. We then get an explanation of what “The Lion Guard” is and why this movie and series is titled that way, being a spin-off to the you-know-what.
It turns out that the roar that Kion gave earlier was “The Roar of the Elders”, a powerful roar belonging to the leader of the organization called “The Lion Guard”. The organization was in the cave/secret base called the Lair of the Lion Guard and (get a load of this) Mufasa’s (played by James Earl Jones, THANK GOD FOR HIS ROLE) younger brother, Scar used to be the leader of the Lion Guard and once had the Roar of the Elders. The members of the Lion Guard that Scar once led are lions that are meant to be the “Fastest”, “Strongest”, “Keenest”, and “Bravest”, but he permanently lost his position and gift when he attempted to use the roar (since he’s everybody’s favorite villain of the trilogy) for evil. After this, Simba– Wait a minute, WHAT?! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT SCAR, WHO WAS JEALOUS OF HIS OLDER BROTHER WAS A LEADER, INSTEAD OF A VILLAINOUS LION THAT ASKED THE HYENAS TO DO HIS BIDDING, WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR MUFASA’S DEATH AND RESULTED IN HIMSELF GETTING MAULED TO DEATH BY THE HYENAS WAS ONCE A LEADER?????!!!!!! I would make a major rant about it, but, this review is taking too long, so let’s back to the real deal. As I was saying, Simba asks Kion to (since he’s the leader) look for lions that are fit enough to be part of the organization.
On their way to look for other group members, Kion decides his first member of the Lion Guard should be his BFF, Bunga, and Bunga–:
–Accepts the offer as the “Bravest” spirit of the Lion Guard. However, unbeknownst to our heroes, a vulture named Mzingo (played by Jonny Rees), who is Janja’s best friend, is spying on them and overheard their entire conversation, before he flies away to tell the Hyenas the news. Our heroes decide to do their first mission as the Lion Guard and they have their first chance when one of Kiara’s friends, Zuri, screams because her claws are stuck on a log, while she was sharpening them. Just then, everyone’s favorite bunch, the meerkat and warthog duo named Timon and Pumbaa (played by Kevin Schon, replacing Nathan Lane from the first movie, and Ernie Sabella) show up and attempt to free Zuri’s claws. But, Bunga (who is actually Timon and Pumbaa’s adopted nephew) interrupts the whole failed rescue operation and causes Zuri to fall out of the log and reveal a load of bugs, Timon and Pumbaa’s favorite food. He tells everyone about Kion’s new position as the Lion Guard leader and asks his two unexplained-adopted uncles if he could be a member of the group. But, Timon and Pumbaa, being danger-haters, begrudgingly agree to allow him to be a member of the you-know-what, after we get this musical song called “Zuka Zama”, which is basically a replacement of “Hakuta Matata”!:
Wow, “Hakuta Matata” is now replaced by this!!! But, I have to admit, it’s pretty catchy, even if it’s aimed for kids and “The Lion King” is one of Disney’s family-entertainment flicks that is usually animated. Back with the story, after the scene ends with Pumbaa doing a fart joke, we then cut to the Outlands, where Mzingo from earlier flies to the Hyenas and tells them about the resurrection of the Lion Guard, much to their dismay. They come up with a plan to attack the Pridelands, which is attack all of the animals, while singing our second song, “Tonight We Strike”. That song sure gives me classic film and “Nightmare Before Christmas” flashbacks. Meanwhile, Kion and Bunga’s Lion Guard assembling continues at the Pridelands, when they assemble the rest of Kion’s friends. They are a cattle egret named Ono (played by the actor of idiot Brick Heck from “The Middle”, Atticus Shaffer), a cheetah named Fuli (voiced by Diamond White), and a hippopotamus named Beshte (played by Dusan Brown).
He then gathers all of his friends to show them the Roar of the Elders. But, as Kion attempts his roar, it only makes a squeak instead of an actual roar, much to the confusion of our new characters. Then, out of nowhere, Zazu (played by Jeff Bennett) brings Simba, Kiara, and Tiifu to Kion, where Simba scolds his son for choosing his non-lion friends as members of the Lion Guard and tells him that it isn’t a game and it must be taken seriously, before walking away, leaving Kion unhappy. While Kiara and Tiifu are busy hunting some gazelles (even though Kiara turned into an adult to hunt animals in the second film), Mzingo flies over the group of gazelles and has Janja leading his hyenas to the herd. They decide to send Simba to help investigate, while Kiara keeps a sharp eye on the Hyenas. Meanwhile, Kion is still disappointed over the way his father harshly scolded him over his decision and (terribly) sings our third and final song of the movie, “Kion’s Lament”. During the song, he then meets Mufasa’s ghost (just like in the first film) and is taught by him to trust his instincts, which gives him the courage to do the right thing.
As he finishes his song with confidence, Bunga arrives and warns him about the Hyenas and their attack on the Pridelands. Kion rushes towards his friends and they accept his offer to join the Lion Guard and are each given their marks by Kion.
1.) Fuli = Fastest
2.) Bunga = Bravest
3.) Besthe = Strongest
4.) Ono = Keenest
At least the Elements of Harmony from “MLP: FIM” were more powerful than them– I mean as powerful as them. đ So, our newly-formed heroes work together to fight back against the Hyenas and stop them from killing and leading the entire herd of gazelles. But, the gazelles continue to race and place Kiara in danger on a rock, leaving Fuli to help Bunga race to the rock and save Kiara. How does he stop the herd: Take a wild guess. It’s another “Fart Joke”, of course and it actually works because Pumbaa’s farting techniques actually taught him to do those farts.:
Exactly, Rarity! The last fart joke was funnier than that and at least it’s better than giving a crap about it, which I don’t because I’M SO CALM ABOUT REVIEWING THIS MOVIE!!!! After saving Kiara, Kovu uses his Roar of the Elders to banish Janja and his Hyenas back to the Outlands. Simba, Rafiki, and Nala, who have been watching the entire scene congratulate Kion and his friends for saving the day and we finally end this movie when Simba agrees that it’s officially time to have Kion as the new leader of the reformed Lion Guard. It’s basically the credits rolling and call the film quits!:
This video really describes this movie because I don’t want to see a pointless reason to sell more merchandising based off of a classic Disney film!! And you know what, NEITHER SHOULD YOU!!!! Even if you’re a “Lion King” or Disney fan, this movie is just terrible. The animation is okay, the jokes are okay, but the plot is handled really poorly, the new characters are forgettable, the songs are less than average (but some of them are alright), and there’s really no reason to make a spin-off show based off a good Disney film. I still feel bad for being very harsh during my review of the first “Lion King”, seeing as how many people have and still really, really love or enjoy that movie. But, hey, I still like the first film because it did have a good plot, colorful characters, really powerful moments, a great moral, really good songs, beautiful animation as always, and had hilarious humor. But, let’s remove that for a second and just look at “The Lion Guard” on it’s own!
Overall, “The Lion Guard” is not only a really bad pilot episode to an upcoming spin-off, it’s probably one of the worst spin-offs to a classic!! It’s one of the worst because of Disney agreeing to have a spin-off aimed for younger children decided to make more money and toys by creating this crap!! As a sequel/midquel/prequel, it would be not epic and be pointless, as a standalone movie, it would be even less pointless and make it less epic. I already know for a fact that many fans of “TLK” are already pissed off by it and will go crazy over it and form an angry mob to track down Disney for killing their childhood, forever!! This movie deserves an absolute 4/10– Actually, it’s a 2/10 because it’s not really that good and it didn’t do much for me!!!!! To the person that I dedicate this review to, “The Review Master”/Trevor Bernstein, I’m sorry that you chose to review this piece of crap!!!! If you’re here right now, I’ll be sticking to the first two movies, except for another pointless prequel and midquel that no one loves!!!
I’m The Detective Librarian and if you’ll excuse, I’m going to watch some “PROPER” “Lion King” clips. Also, I’ll be expecting some reviews for Christmas, just in time for the holidays, so, toodles, everybody!!! đ
-Before We Start Today’s Review, I’m Here to Give You a Small Disclaimer (Not Spoilers, Just a Reminder) That This Episode is Dedicated to the Victims of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, Fourteen Years Ago. If You Experienced This Tragic Day or Feel Uncomfortable Reading Anything Involving Fires or Explosions, I Advice You to Please Turn Back If You Don’t Want to Relive That Traumatic Event. Thank You For Reading This and Now, Onto The Actual Post-
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!!! TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS MOVIE YET!!!!!
-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Post, Already in Progress-
Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and remember the time when Disney (or as I like to call them, “The Money-Making Monsters”) came up one day and said this?: “Hey, we’re lacking money from our film productions and classic short films! Why don’t we buy Marvel Superhero Comics AKA DC Comics’ rival company and the 2nd most popular comic book company in the world?! After all, they made ‘Spider-Man’, ‘The X-Men’, ‘The Avengers’, and all those other superhero celebrities, while we made animation in the 1920’s – 2000’s and now use CGI and bought ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ and other films by Steven Spielburgh and George Lucas!!! So, let’s by ‘Marvel’!!!” I apologize to those Disney fans out there who read that quote, but I just had to because of Disney buying classic franchises being REALLY unnecessary, while they make box-office animation for the cinema and the kids, while having their own channel buy crappy sitcoms and newer animation shows.
But, aside from that, remember the movie that I mentioned in my “Top 10 Best Movies of All Time”, “Big Hero 6”. As you can tell, I did enjoy it and I rewatched it while I was on vacation last month. Please note that this movie comes to mind when reviewing a movie that you’ve seen and saw for the 2nd or third time, meaning that you want to review it right now. So, with that said, “Big Hero 6”, based off of the Marvel Superhero comic characters of the same name and first came out in theaters in the US on November 7, 2014. Keep in mind that this movie contains a popular character that might beat Olaf from Disney’s previous flick (and most popular box-office success and the one movie everybody can’t stop talking about), “Frozen”, which I’ll get around to sometime. So, who is this cute and cuddly, inflatable character, well, let’s find out, by taking a look at “Big Hero 6”.
So, we start off this film with some very beautiful animation and shots at the main location of the movie, San Fransokyo (which is actually a mixture of Tokyo, Japan and San Francisco, California), AKA a Futuristic Japanese version of San Francisco, California. We then cut to an alley, where we get introduced to our main hero of the movie, Hiro Hamada *Ba Dum Tsh* (played by Ryan Potter), who is a young 14-year old robotic genius that just graduated high school because of his intelligent brain at age thirteen(which is CRAZY) and now spends his time doing Bot Fighting. Now, you may think that name is obvious and Bot Fighting is the kid-friendly version of dog-fighting (which is also illegal), but remember again, Disney’s making it good for kids, everybody! Anyways, Hiro goes up against a Giant Bot Fighter who beats Hiro the first time, but loses the second time due to his small rival. đ As you’d expect, The Giant Bot Fighter is furious at losing against Hiro and is about to attack him, along with some thugs AKA other bot fighters, until Hiro’s older brother, Tadashi (played by Daniel Henney), conveniently arrives on a motorcycle to come and rescue him. He scolds his younger brother for doing illegal bot fighting and we get a little chase scene between Hiro and Tadashi and the other bot fighters, until they get surrounded by the police and are taken into custody.
After the police allow them to leave the police station, the two boys get picked up by their Aunt Cass (played by Maya Rudolph), who has been raising Tadashi and Hiro, ever since their parents died years before this story begins. She also runs a cafe where she and the two brothers currently live and speak of the devil because Cass angrily drives them home to the cafe, while acting a like a complete goofball (just like Marion the Steamshovel from “Thomas & Friends”). Hiro and Tadashi go upstairs to their room, where Tadashi tells Hiro that he needs to go to college to use his smart brain and reveal it to other people around him. That means going to Tadashi’s school/college/university, or as Hiro calls it, “Nerd School”. So, Tadashi drives Hiro to his university to show him around and meet his teacher, Professor Robert Callaghan, the head of the University (played by James Cromwell), and his friends, GoGo, an athletic and Gothic girl that looks like Wyldstyle for “The LEGO Movie” (played by Elizabeth Banks– I mean, Jamie Chung), T.J. Miller as Fred, a comic book fan that is the mascot of the University AKA San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, a cautious and smart guy named Wasabi (played by Damon Wayans Jr.), and an enthusiastic chemist named Honey Lemon (voiced by Genesis Rodriguez). Hiro sees the inventions that Tadashi’s friends made inside the lab of the University, including Tadashi’s invention AKA one of the main characters and the most popular character of the movie, Baymax, an inflatable and huggable robot nurse (portrayed by Scott Adist) and here’s how his introduction goes.:
Again, as you’d expect, Hiro is amazed by Tadashi and his nerdy friends’ inventions and is raring to get into school ASAP. Now, in order to get in, he must sign up for the school’s Science Fair and he has to pass, in order to get enrolled in the school. Now, if I was Hiro I would have MAJOR anxiety over that but imagine if I created an invention for the Science Fair, like this. *Ahem*
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: “The Video-Game Compilation Console”!!!! It’s where you get to play ALL video games that are compatible to the console, such as the Nintendo Gamecube, Xbox, 360, and Xbox One, Wii, Wii U, and other home consoles, except for the handheld consoles like the Gameboy Advanced and the Nintendo DS or 3DS. Including “Sonic Adventure 2 (Battle)”, “Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2”, “Mario Kart: Double Dash”, etc…. Sound fun?
AUDIENCE:…….*Cricket Noises*
RANDOM BOY: Uh, Detective?
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Yes?
RANDOM BOY: Wouldn’t that be an entire waste to the environment?
RANDOM GIRL: Yeah, it might create an electromagnetic pulse in the electric system.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh, come on! What’s the worse that could happen? Let’s try it on now.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Okay. Sorry about that! Anyways, back to the story.
Hiro and Tadashi work together in creating the new invention for the Science Fair and the big day finally arrives. Hiro presents his invention, which are microbots, swarms of tiny little robots that can be connected together in any shape and any size with an transmitter on Hiro’s head, like a swarm of bees. Professor Callaghan is impressed over Hiro’s imaginative creation and offers him to go to the school, while we get introduced to another character named Alistair Krei, the CEO of Krei Tech, who offers Hiro to buy his microbots. But, Callaghan warns Hiro and of course, he takes Callaghan’s advice and warns Krei that the microbots aren’t for sale, before he joins his friends, brother, and Aunt to go out of the building to celebrate. While we get a little bonding scene between Hiro and Tadashi, the two brothers hear a commotion that a fire just broke out at the School and Professor Callaghan is trapped inside. Tadashi risks his life to try and rescue Callaghan, while leaving Hiro outside, but he fails when the burning building explodes and kills Tadashi and the Professor inside. We then get a emotional scene over Hiro and everybody attending Tadashi and Callaghan’s funeral, while Hiro is left in major grief over the loss of his one and only brother.
After the events of the funeral and the tragic deaths of two important characters (*SPOILER ALERT*), Hiro is now in major depression over the recent events and hasn’t still accepted the offer to go to Tadashi’s former college and accidentally activated Baymax. And as you can tell, we get a funny scene here.:
Uh, Baymax, puberty is what most teenagers experience these days. As Hiro struggles to put Baymax inside his charger-thingy, he accidentally stumbles upon a microbot that somehow made it to his sweatshirt, even though they were destroyed in the fire. He examines it and discovers that the microbot is pointing towards a different location, leaving Baymax to follow it like a compass and go out on the street, outside the cafe. This causes Hiro to chase after him and lie to Cass about going to the University (which would get him into trouble, if he told her the truth). The chase scene starts with Hiro following Baymax on the streets of San Fransokyo and leading him into an abandoned warehouse, which is where the microbot is leading them to. The two of them sneak inside the warehouse and we get more funny scenes of Baymax inflating like a fart joke, while Hiro makes a shocking discovery. His microbots are inside, meaning that someone is making more and new microbots, which could be the main villain of this film.
After we get another funny scene of Baymax involving the expression “heart attack”, the microbots suddenly start to attack our heroes. Hiro and Baymax try to escape from the microbots and encounter the controller of the microbots AKA the main villain of the movie, a mysterious man in a Kabuki mask AKA Yokai. He uses the microbots to attack the two heroes, until they fall off and land on the ground and head towards the police station. Hiro and Baymax try to tell the police what had happened, but Baymax is low on battery and the police asks Hiro to write his name and number to call (as they say “parents”) Cass, but the two of them leave. Hiro and Baymax arrive back at the cafe and now, Baymax is fully low and acting drunk, like this.:
I know what you’re thinking, what are you thinking, Shining Armor?:
SHINING ARMOR:
SHINING ARMOR: I’m amused! At least I didn’t die in the “MLP: FIM” franchise AKA the Brony fandom.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: That’s true, but at least you weren’t really drunk/drugged when you were brainwashed by Queen Chrysalis, the queen of the changelings.
SHINING ARMOR: Don’t remind me! Anyways, I gotta go, Twilight and Cadence are waiting for me at Canterlot in Equestria.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Okay, bye!!
As soon as Baymax gets fully charged upstairs in Hiro’s room, Hiro and Baymax have a brief conversation about Tadashi’s death and the fire that took his life that was considered an accident, or if it WASN’T an accident! đ Hiro realizes that the Man in the Mask caused the fire to cover his tracks and stole his microbots as well, meaning that they have to bring him down to avenge Tadashi. But first, Hiro must help Baymax get new armor and karate moves during the first montage of the movie about Hiro creating new armor and moves, the same ones I mentioned earlier. After the first montage of training, Hiro gives Baymax the “fist bump” aka a “brofist” or a “brohoof”!! đ :
Baymax, everybody! He’ll be the next popular meme with his fist bump and adorable moments, besides Olaf, which remember, he might not know about!! Later that night, Hiro and Baymax sneak into the docks to track down the Masked Villain and find him in the ocean that throws a giant debris/portal piece at him with a sparrow symbol on it. Just then, Wasabi, GoGo, Honey Lemon, and Fred arrive in a car (conveniently) because earlier at Hiro’s room, Hiro accidentally contacted Tadashi’s friends by using Baymax, like a phone or a computer on emails. They get surprised over Baymax’s new upgrades and are attacked by the Villain, who chases after him in (of course) a car chase on the highway that leads them into the ocean and luckily escape, by using Baymax’s inflatable power! They go to Fred’s house/mansion (as well as another fist pump joke by Baymax and Fred) and discuss about the events and what they think on who the Bad Guy really is. They think it’s Krei because of his offer with Hiro about his microbots, earlier, and decide to help Hiro stop him by creating a superhero team named “Big Hero 6”.
We get another montage of Hiro making new upgrades to Baymax with newer armor and scanners for his friends, training with their new gadgets and suits, as well as the song “Immortals” being played in the background. Once the training is finished, Hiro rides on Baymax with his new armor across San Fransokyo, like a roller-coaster ride. They land on a blimp and see the sunset or sunrise, before coming back down to Earth and bring the rest of our heroes to find the Villain and discover some forms of life on a mysterious island off of the ocean. They decide to inspect the island and go inside a dark laboratory and a room with a broken-up portal, as well as footage over who the Villain really is. The security footage shows footage, years before this story begins, that Krei once worked on this island and he created a portal as an experiment for the Government. However, the experiment went awry, when the portal went out of control and trapped the female pilot inside, which caused the Government to force Krei into shutting it down for good. Now, our heroes believe that Krei is the culprit and speaking of, the Villain arrives and attacks our heroes.
They try to attack the Villain, but to no avail, until Hiro tackles the Bad Guy and removes his mask and we finally realize that our heroes were idiotically wrong. It turns out that the real villain is actually Callaghan!!!:
Yes, Callaghan survived the fire and he used Hiro microbots to shield him from the inferno, while leaving Tadashi to die. Bet ya didn’t see that coming! đ Now, Hiro is enraged over Callaghan leaving his brother to get killed, so he takes away Baymax’s health chip that makes Baymax’s personality, and replaces it with his fighting chip. This causes Baymax to get violent and attempt to destroy everything, leaving Callaghan to escape and Honey Lemon to place Baymax’s health chip back inside you-know-who. Hiro’s anger grows when he blames his friends for letting Callaghan get away and flies away with Baymax to the garage to fix his scanning visor, that is now damaged. Baymax questions Hiro’s actions that if this is what Tadashi wanted and we get another really emotional scene that teaches Hiro to get over Tadashi’s death and that his brother is inside his heart and everybody’s heart and souls.:
Now, Hiro finally gets over his depression and apologizes to Baymax and his friends for carrying his anger out towards them and they accept his apology and vow to catch Callaghan correctly. Also, they just received new footage before being picked up by Fred’s butler that proves why Callaghan is the bad guy of the movie. It turns out that the female pilot during the experiment, Abigail, is actually Callaghan’s daughter and when the portal experiment malfunctioned, Abigail was trapped inside. Now, it’s up to our heroes to stop Callaghan from getting revenge on Krei because Callaghan reactivates the portal on top of Krei’s company with the microbots and traps Krei, while the portal sucks away the building. Our heroes confront him and Hiro tries to convince Callaghan to stop this madness once and for all, but he refuses to listen (of course) and we get one last battle between Callaghan and the Big Hero 6. However, they struggle to defeat the Villain, until Hiro has an idea on how to stop him. He decides to lure the microbots into the portal, so that they will be destroyed for good.
The plan works and Callaghan is no longer in control of the microbots, which gives Hiro and Baymax the perfect chance to destroy his mask and have our Villain and the microbots tumble to the ground. However, the portal is still unstable and it’s still on, but Baymax uses his scanner to discover that Abigail is still inside the portal, meaning that she’s still alive, but in a deep hyper-sleep. Now, it’s up to Baymax and Hiro to go inside the portal and rescue Abigail. As they make it inside the portal, they dodge various debris that the portal sucked in, until they spot Abigail’s pod and fly towards the portal opening to bring her back home. However, their chance is prevented when Baymax’s rocket boosters/thrust is damaged after hitting a giant piece of debris, meaning that Hiro will have to go back on his own with Baymax’s armor glove booster to blast them out, unless if he says “I Am Satisfied With My Care”. Hiro sadly agrees over Baymax’s sacrifice and Baymax sends him and Abigail back home, just in time, causing the portal to finally shut down. Abigail wakes up and is taken to the hospital by an ambulance, while the police arrest Callaghan, and the news about our heroes saving the day is brought into the News.:
When Hiro goes to the University, still sad over Baymax’s sacrifice, he discovers that Baymax somehow placed his health care chip for him, which gives him another idea. Hiro rebuilds Baymax, delighted to see him again, Hiro and his friends are now crime-fighters/superheroes, and they’re now going to fulfill Tadashi’s plan to help other people. Now, since this is a Marvel Superhero movie, I know what you’re thinking. WHERE THE CRAP IS STAN LEE?! Well, after we see the credits roll with the Big Hero 6 saving the day many times (meaning that the audience believes that it’s time to go home), we see a post-credits scene of Fred finally seeing his father again (played by no one other than the Marvel creator himself, Stan Lee)!:
And that was “Big Hero 6”. Despite some errors and lack of realism, I enjoyed it. The plot was good (even though the pacing was a bit slow), the animation was good as always (for Disney, that is), the characters are fair, the humor was amusing, the music was excellent, Baymax was an excellent and huggable version of Olaf, and the subplot involving Hiro getting over Tadashi’s death was a really interesting moral for a Disney movie. Most kids’ movies and TV shows would sometimes show the topic of the main character handling grief or depression either good or bad (like in the “MLP: FIM” episode, “Tanks for the Memories”), but in this movie, it was executed really well. Although, I do have to issues I want to point out, such as the lack of realism (including Abigail being under a hyper-sleep/coma, even though she would’ve died already) and various other plotholes, including the characters being sort-of morons. All in all, I really enjoyed this movie and I would recommend watching it, but if you’re more into “Frozen”, you may like it or not, or if  you’re not a superhero guy. It’s up to you.
Because of good this movie is, I’ll be rating it an 8.5/10. Also, I’d like to point that the main song of the movie, “Immortals”, is a really catchy song and I would recommend listening to it as well. Now, that it’s already behind me, I’m The Detective Librarian and now, if you’ll excuse me……It’s time to blast off with Baymax!! Toodles!
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!!! TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS FILM, YET!! YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT IN MOST REVIEWS LIKE THIS!!!!!!!!
-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review Already in Progress-
-The Detective Librarian’s Office, 4:27 PM-
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN:……*Deep Sigh*
SCRIPT PERSON: What’s wrong, Detective?
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh, nothing. It’s just that summer’s coming to an end here and school’s about to start. That means that there’s less time for reviews and other posts, before and after school returns.
SCRIPT PERSON: Well, look at the bright side. You have plenty of time to focus on other things, BESIDES the one place we have to learn for the rest of our lives!!!!! Also, you have a review to do for today.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Really? What is it this time?
SCRIPT PERSON: Actually, it’s a bonus review. You said that in the script for today.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Gimme that! *Reading Script* So, you want me to do a bonus review on one Disney film that is considered emotional?
SCRIPT PERSON: Yes! It’s called “The Fox and the Hound”. Oh, speaking of, it’s time you did your introduction!
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh! You’re right! Alright, folks, today we’ll be reviewing the one Disney film that everybody emotionally cried at, “The Fox and the Hound”. It was loosely based off of the novel of the same name and first came out in July 1981. Please remember that this is another one of those dark Disney flicks that is what most classic Disney and children’s movies are and is emotional. So, what makes this film so “emotional”? So, let’s find out, by taking a look at “The Fox and the Hound”.
So, we start off with the opening credits that would be more fitting for the ending credits because they basically give away ALL OF THE CHARACTERS and their respective voices, which means that you know what’s going to happen! Anyway, we officially begin this film with a female fox, carrying her baby fox across a field as fast as she could, and placing her baby near a farm. Why is she running and protecting her newborn cub?: Because a hunter is hunting down the mother fox and when she races off into the distance, she sadly get shot by the hunter. We then see an owl named Big Mama (played by the late Pearl Bailey) and a woodpecker named Woody Woodpecker– I mean, Boomer (voiced by the late Paul WInchell) and his finch friend, Dinky (played by the late Richard Bakalyan) deciding to bring in the young fox into the farm’s owner named Widow Tweed, a kind and elderly farmer lady (played by the late Jeanette Nolan), wow, there is a LOT of actors who passed away after this movie came out, but I digress, in order to adopt him. It makes sense because this young fox doesn’t even know how to survive yet.
So, Widow Tweed finds the fox and takes him in. She decides to name the fox, Tod, a feisty one, who reminds her of a toddler, while we see a hunter named Amos Slade, a hunter (played by the late Jack Albertson), bring in home a puppy with wrinkles on his face named Copper and introduces him to his hunting dog named Chief (portrayed by the late Pat Buttram). Now, you may think that Chief will get jealous over Copper, and you’re right because things will change when Copper grows older and they’ll start bonding from father-like-son to brother-like-brother, later on in the film. So, Tod grows a little older into his younger self (played by the younger version of Keith Coogan/Keith Eric Mitchell and to answer your question, this is the first time we see him play a character in a movie) and starts chasing a butterfly, while Copper, who is still young (played by the kid version of Corey Feldman) starts sniffing a smell he’s never smelled before. Even though Chief said to Copper that it’s just food that Slade is cooking grits and fatback/meat, but I would say that Copper’s smelling crap or some crappy movie or TV show like films by M. Night Shyamalan or Michael Bay or “The Middle” or something.:
Because, Rarity, crap smells bad and it causes people to puke one way or another. Anyways, the first subplot of the movie comes, which involves Boomer and Dinky trying to hunt down a caterpillar, even though that subplot is just here to entertain the audience. Now, this could be the inspiration for Timon and Pumbaa from “The Lion King” because of Timon and Pumbaa’s love for eating bugs, while Boomer and Dinky are a clumsy duo that try to hunt down that caterpillar, now matter what, until the very end. Aside from that, let’s move on, Tod chases a butterfly, which leads him into meeting the sniffing Copper. The two of them meet and decide to become playmate, while playing hide and seek, like this.:
A fox and a hound become BFF’s, how quaint is that?! However, Slade begins to feel exasperated over Copper escaping to meet up with Tod, so he decides to prevent him from wandering off, by putting a leash around his neck, near his and Chief’s resting place outside. Later, Tod meets up with Copper again, near Chief, who is sleeping, and decides to play around him. The young feisty fox (of course) refuses to listen to Copper and he wakes Chief up anyway. This causes Chief to attack Tod and chase after him, along with getting the attention of Slade, which gives Tod the perfect chance to escape, by hopping onto the truck that Tweed (conveniently) is driving by, while delivering cartons of milk. However, Chief and Slade chase after Tod and accidentally shoots his rifle at the milk cartons that Tweed is carrying, which–:
–startles her and confronts Slade and grabs his rifle to shoot his radiator. Well, that was an appropriate way of not killing someone, violently, otherwise, this will affect kids deeply. So, Slade and Tweed get into a major argument about the whole situation and Slade is so furious that he threatens her, saying that if Tod EVER comes back to his property ever again, he will kill him!! After that violent death threat/fight (not an actual fight), hunting season arrives and it’s time for Copper to be trained by Slade on how to hunt, along with Chief. This means a sad goodbye for Tod and Copper, until hunting season is over. As Copper rides at the back of Slade’s truck, Tod glumly watches Copper ride away with the two hunters, before they’re out of sight. Speaking of hunting season, I wonder how Copper’s first hunting experience will turn out. Will it be like a “Looney Tunes” or “Bugs Bunny” cartoon?:
Oh, never mind! Let’s just continue the story, here. Big Mama attempts to warn Tod that his friendship with Copper must not go on, it’s like what they say: “All good things must come to an end.” However, Tod refuses to listen to Big Mama and hopes that he’ll still be friends with Copper, permanently. Wow, this movie does do a good job of foreshadowing events that will be contrary of what Tod and Copper say. As the months and seasons go by, Tod and Copper start to grow up and be adults. Tod is now voiced by the late Mickey Rooney, while Copper is now played by Kurt Russell.
Also, hunting season is over, too, which means that Copper is going to return home. On the night of Copper’s return, Tod sneaks over to Slade’s farm to visit Copper. However, Chief is still asleep and Copper is now (officially) a hunting dog and many things have changed, now. Tod and Copper’s conversation about still being friends and how things have changed now wakes up Chief, who uses his barking to alert Slade and causes a chase scene between our villains and Tod. During the second chase scene, we hear 1970’s music that would be better fitting for a cop show, like “CHiPs”, but, I think that this music would’ve been a better payoff.:
During the chase, Copper catches up with Tod and decides to distract Chief and Slade, while Tod races on some train tracks, in order to escape. However, Chief follows Tod and it leads him into getting hit by an oncoming train and falling into the ravine below, near a bridge. I would expect Chief to get killed by the train (imagine if it was Timothy the Ghost Train), but, no. Instead, Chief’s leg gets severely injured and Copper gets so enraged that he and Slade blame Tod for Chief’s injury. That means that he’s now adversaries with Tod, instead of friends. Y’know what I just realized, imagine if the driver of the train that hit Chief was so insane and psycho, that he said this quote from “The Temple of Doom”.:
Now, Copper and Slade are determined to avenge Chief (who is still jealous, over Copper and can’t go hunting anymore), forcing Tweed to sadly put Tod into the wildlife in a game preserve in a song called “Goodbye May Seem Forever”. Trust me, this scene will make you cry. đĽ Really, you don’t want to sob in tears. Okay, play it and I can assure you, this scene will make your heartbreak in sorrow.:
So, *Sniff* how did you react to this scene. Let me know in the comment section below *starting to cry*.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!!! *Crying Loudly*
SCRIPT PERSON: Detective, you okay?
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: YES, I’M FIIIIINNEEE!!! *CRYING*
SCRIPT PERSON: Okay, okay. Calm down.
-12 Hours of Crying, Later-
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: *Sobbing* Okay, okay. I’m better now. *Deep Sigh* Alright, back to the movie. *Sniff*
Now that Tod is going to live on his own for the rest of his life, his first night in the woods goes on, horribly. How bad is it? Well, Tod accidentally goes to an old badger’s home (which looks like Cornelius the Badger from “Once Upon a Forest”) and has to sleep with a friendly porcupine in a tree for shelter, during a rainstorm. Now, we can’t have Tod be stuck in that kind of danger because Big Mama decides to have Tod (why) get a girlfriend to have baby foxes, of course. She finds a female fox named Vixey (played by Sandy Duncan) and Tod’s first encounter with her goes clumsily, here.:
Now, ever since I first watched this scene, I’ve noticed that Tod’s face when he meets Vixey (which shows that he’s in love) looks like he’s on meth or tripping on any type of drug. So, Big Mama teaches Tod that he must appreciate Vixey, by being himself, while singing the song that may be another inspiration for “The Lion King” because of Tod and Vixey being romantically attracted to one another and playing at a waterfall. Meanwhile, Copper and Slade (who are still angry) now want to spread their revenge on Tod, by trying to hunt him down with his gun and bear cages, while trespassing the game preserve, where Tod, Vixey, and the other animals are at. Tod easily escapes from the villain’s traps and (along with Vixey) get chased by Copper and Slade, once again. The two foxes hide in their burrow, but Slade has an idea; he’s going to set the burrow on fire, forcing Tod to come into where Slade and Copper are waiting for them, which’ll lead him to his death. However, by another giant surprise, Vixey and Tod easily manage to escape from the burning burrow the OTHER way!!
The chase continues, until they reach a waterfall (probably the same one from the song “Appreciate the Lady” earlier) and just as Slade and Copper are about to attack our foxy heroes, a giant bear attacks back against the villains, causing Slade to trip and fall into one of the traps he set up for Tod and drops his gun. As Copper attempts to fight back against the bear, he fails in doing so. Now that he can’t let his former friend get killed, Tod sacrifices himself, by going against the bear, as he falls into the waterfall. As you’d expect, the bear is defeated and Tod is exhausted at the water below the waterfall, with Copper watching, amazed over Tod’s bravery to save his life. Just then, Slade pops up and points his gun at Tod, but Copper luckily defends Tod, causing Slade to see the error of his ways and walk away with Copper, who gives one last smile to his friend. After that scene, the movie ends with Tweed and Slade being friends again, while being nursed back to health, and Copper and Chief rest, while Copper remembers the day when he met and became friends with Tod. Speaking of, Tod and Vixey watches the dogs on a hill, which means that they’re still friends.
And that was…A good Disney movie. There are a few things that are wrong with this movie, such as the lack of realism (normally, I would rant on about it, but it’s Disney, they know it would be too dark for kids), how it’s really short, the plotholes of the story, and one subplot about Boomer and Dinky catching a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly at the end, which is basically just a way to entertain little ones. But, overall, this was a really emotional, sweet, and nice movie. The animation was beautiful (as usual), the characters were good, the songs were nice, and even the drama was taken seriously. Although, I would’ve extended the story a little bit, even though it would ruin the movie, even if Disney decides to blindly make a remake that might go unsuccessful at the box office. But, all in all, I really enjoyed this movie and I’ll be giving it a 7.5/10 for such a well-thought out film that had really nice and emotional scenes. Well, at least we didn’t have to deal with the crappy sequel/midquel that was direct-to-DVD (like most Disney sequels) and was totally panned by many people alike.
Well, it’s a good thing that I won’t have to review the sequel/midquel that nobody liked, but maybe. We’ll see. As always, I’m The Detective Librarian and–
PINKIE PIE (CLONES): FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN!!!!–
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh no! Brace yourselves, everybody! The FUN AND THE PINKIE PIES, ARE COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!!!!! TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS– Movie this, movie that! Blah, blah, blah! Yadadadada.
-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review Already in Progress-
Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and remember one of Disney’s well-known CGI movies called “Wreck-It-Ralph”? Yes, the arcade version of “Toy Story” that included an arcade with video-game characters coming to life when the arcade closes, such as “Sonic the Hedgehog” and Dr. Eggman, Bowser from “Super Mario Bros.”, the Ghosts from “Pac-Man”, etc..  Also, remember the movie that was just like THAT movie, “Foodfight”?!! đŚ Yes, the one movie that is like “Wreck-It-Ralph”, except that it includes supermarket icons like Mr. Twinkie, Mr. Clean, the Owl from the “Tootsie-Pop” commercial, Charlie Tuna, etc… But, I’m not gonna talk about those two films today. I’m going to talk about the one movie that I think inspired the directors of those movies to make those movies with another well-known Disney classic. With that said, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, first came out on June 1988 in the US.
Now, I know a lot of you people have and still really, really enjoyed or loved watching “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” to this day, ever since it first came out. But, I consider it the first steps into making “Wreck-It-Ralph” and “Foodfight”, but with animated cartoon characters/icons being filmed in Hollywood and living in a town called Toontown, including Mickey Mouse, Goofy Goof, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, Dumbo, Porky Pig, etc…. But, you may think that this movie is for kids because of the animation. But no, it can be disturbing for little children. So, let me enlighten you on how dark this movie is for children. In the meantime, let’s dive right into “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”!
So, we start off this film in 1947 with a cartoon that features one of our main characters of the movie, Roger Rabbit (played by Charles Fleischer) and Baby Herman (who’s baby voice is played by April Winchell, while his true voice, that is actually an adult which is not worth questioning, is voiced by Lou Hirsch). The cartoon is basically being filmed in Hollywood and how does it go?:
And that’s it! This movie is going to make fun of old cartoons from Disney (one of the companies responsible for this flick) and Looney Tunes. So, you’d better get used to it. Anyways, the premise of the film is that Roger’s employer and the head of Maroon Studios, R.K. Maroon (played by the late Alan Tilvern) has hired our main hero of the movie (yeah, I bet you thought that it was going to be Roger Rabbit, wasn’t it), an alcoholic private eye/investigator named Eddie Valiant (portrayed by the late Bob Hoskins) to investigate rumors about Roger’s wife, Jessica Rabbit (played by Kathleen Turner) having an experimental affair.:
Yep, sexual activities in a Disney movie, even though there are some Disney movies that are unsuitable for younger audiences. I told you that this was one of the inspirations for “Foodfight”, due to “Foodfight” having inappropriate jokes, terrible and often nightmarish CGI animation, racist stereotypes, etc…. But I digress, Eddie has been an alcoholic, ever since the death of his brother and partner, Teddy Valiant, who has been mysteriously murdered by a toon. Take note, folks, Teddy’s death will be major to the plot, later. That night, Eddie goes to the Ink and Paint Club to (of course) drink alcohol, along with cameos of other cartoon icons, like the penguins from “Mary Poppins”, Betty Boop, and Donald and Daffy Duck (the two well-known duck cartoon icons) playing the piano in a rivalry-style. Outside the Club, Eddie notices Marvin Acme, the owner of Toontown, the place where toons live (played by the late Stubby Kaye), playing patty cake with Jessica Rabbit. He takes pictures of them, by using a camera to show to R.K. Maroon as evidence.
As you’d expect, Roger sees the photos and he is traumatized by it. As a result, he begins to have a MAJOR meltdown, before racing out of the window (and crashing into it, as well, which is supposed to happen to cartoons) and vows that he and Jessica will be happy. Please note that Jessica Rabbit is supposed to be a human, instead of an actual rabbit. I hate to break it to you, folks, but, that’s unhealthy. It seems like ANOTHER inspiration to “Sonic 06”, when Princess Elise, a human, fell in love with Sonic the Hedgehog, until the events were erased in the timeline and thank God, it did. Anyways, the Los Angeles Police Department Lieutenant Santino pays Eddie a visit to tell him shocking news: Marvin Acme was murdered by Roger Rabbit, who used an office safe to kill Marvin!!
Eddie and Santino arrive at the scene of the crime, where we meet Christopher Lloyd’s character, Judge Doom, who is basically the judge of Toontown and also controls a pair of weasels named the Toon Patrol. Not only that, he’s created a toxic mixture called the “Dip”, which is capable of killing a Toon and will use it to kill Roger. He gives out the demonstration in a dark and chilling way like this.:
Now, let’s just hope that this doesn’t happen to other cartoon characters that I’ve known and loved from my childhood and my recent years. As Eddie returns to his office, he encounters Baby Herman in a crib putside (heh, being a baby, heh, heh, heh) and finds out that Acme’s will has gone missing and if it doesn’t return at midnight tonight, Toontown will be sold to Cloverleaf Industries, which recently has been buying out trolley cars, not the same trolley car from “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood”. After this, Eddie goes inside his office, enraged, finds Roger, who begs him to clear his name, while handcuffing him in his closet, which means that they can’t unlock it with a key. The two heroes make their way to a bar, run by Eddie’s girlfriend, Dolores (played by Joanna Cassidy) and it’s revealed that Maroon blackmailed Jessica into compromising Acme, in order to try to sell both of their companies to Cloverleaf. Also, we get a somewhat funny scene here with Roger causing havoc at the bar.:
Just then, Christopher Lloyd AKA Judge Doom pops up with his Toon Patrol, while Eddie and Roger hide in a secret room and try to get rid of the handcuff that’s keeping them together. However, it’s revealed that Roger was pretending to have his hand get stuck in the handcuff and because it’s so skinny, he easily reveals it when he slips it out, causing Eddie to not (of course) be amused by it! Heck, if I was Eddie, I would definitely be NOT amused by it because it would’ve been something Roger could’ve told him earlier because he just wants to make people and Eddie laugh (even though Eddie lost his sense of humor, after his brother’s death)!! He’s just like a cuckoo version of Bugs Bunny, but with different clothes and looks on. Speaking of Bugs Bunny and being insane, just as Judge Doom keeps tapping with his staff (since it causes Roger to pop up in an insane way and show himself in public), Roger pops up after Doom does his “Shave and Haircut” trick, that lures him out in the open, out of the wall and gets captured by the villain and is held over the Dip.
It looks like it’s the end for the title character, until Eddie has an idea. Oh, I forgot to mention this earlier; when Roger drinks alcohol, he goes cartoonally-insane like a spicy sauce. Eddie uses alcohol and persuades Roger to drink it in a “Rabbit Season, Duck Season”-style.:
See, I told you that this movie would be making fun of classic cartoons we’ve seen, known, and loved. It’s just like when Pinkie Pie from “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” did that Bugs Bunny-trick towards the salespony over tomatoes and Iron Will.:
Well, at least it didn’t end up like this.:
Anyways, our heroes escape from the bar, by using a cab named Benny the Toon Cab (voiced by, also, Charles Fleischer) and hiding in a theater. If this was actually in real-life, this would be me.:
or….
Okay, not really. But, back to the story, at the theater, Eddie tells Roger about his brother, before leaving the theater, while a short from Goofy is playing on the screen. Eddie goes back to Maroon Studios that night, while Jessica (unbeknownst to him) knocks Roger out with a frying pan and puts him in her car trunk. Meanwhile, Eddie confronts Maroon in Maroon’s office and it’s revealed that he blackmailed Acme, which was an attempt to save Toontown from a fate that will be revealed later, before being killed by an unknown culprit. After this, Eddie finds Jessica fleeing from the scene of the crime, forcing him to chase after her and all the way to Toontown, while going through a wonderland of cartoon-inanimate objects that could talk, which would be creepy, if I were Eddie (again).
He tries to find Jessica in her hotel, but is chased by an ugly women that looks like her and chases after him because of her falling in love with Eddie. While Eddie falls off the hotel, he encounters Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, skydiving (by huge coincidence) and he falls for another one of Bugs’ tricks (of course), like this.:
Uh, Eddie? Didn’t you learn to never fall for Bugs Bunny’s tricks that he’s been using for seventy-five years? THAT’S RIGHT, THE MAIN CHARACTER OF “LOONEY TUNES” HAS BEEN AROUND FOR SEVENTY-FIVE FREAKING YEARS!!!!!!!!!!! So, you know that he’s WAY younger than Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (who is basically forgotten, until he returned in “Epic Mickey”)! So, Eddie finds Jessica in a alley and it’s revealed that Judge Doom was responsible for murdering Acme and Maroon, even though it was obvious that he was evil because of his acting that Christopher Lloyd put in for him. Well, speak of the devil because Doom and his minions chase and capture Eddie and Jessica and take them to the Acme Gag Factory.
There, we learn the reason why Doom was Acme and Maroon’s murderer: Doom has built a giant-Dip-mixing machine to destroy Toontown, in order to build in a freeway, allowing Cloverleaf to eliminate the trolleys and having motorists use the freeway, as well. But, since it’s 1947, Eddie and Jessica have no clue on what a freeway actually is. What are the odds? Then, Roger arrives from the drain to save the day, but ends up getting captured himself and get tied up with Jessica to get executed by the Dip. Again, I also forgot to mention this earlier: back at Eddie’s office, the Weasels went in here to look for Roger and they revealed that if they laugh, they’ll die. So, that means that it’s up to Eddie to perform a wild circus to kill the Weasels with their laughter and insanity.:
After the Weasels get killed with laughter (thanks to the performance that is considered their “kryptonite” in this world), Doom confronts Eddie and they have a battle of wits, by using gag weapons, until Doom gets run over by a steamroller, but survives, revealing that he is actually a toon AND the TRUE MURDERER OF EDDIE’S BROTHER, TEDDY!!!! He reveals his true form like this, WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY BE DISTURBING FOR YOU!!:
Eddie tries to stop the Dip machine from reaching Roger and Jessica, but Judge Doom prevents him, by using his toon weapons to fight back against him. As Eddie is about to be cut in half by Doom’s saw-blade, Eddie luckily uses a boxing-glove mallet (the same one from earlier) to punch a lever that causes the Dip machine to spew out the toxic that kills Doom for good, while making a reference to “Wizard of Oz” because of toxic causing him to melt. The machine is about to go to Toontown, until it gets (luckily) stopped or destroyed by a convenient train that is passing by. We end this surrealism of a movie with Benny, Dolores, Santino, and a bunch of other toons arriving at the scene, finding out that Roger’s love letter to Jessica was actually Acme’s will and it was hidden from invisible ink, it leaves to the toons in Toontown, Eddie shows that his love for toons and sense of humor has returned by kissing Roger, before they head out into the sunset of Toontown with all the other characters and Porky Pig concluding the film with his catchphrase (“That’s All, Folks”) and Tinkerbell using her magic. It’s okay, Eddie. We all know that you had to come out of the closet sometime!
And that’s “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and I can assure you, it was not only a movie filled with insane surrealism, it’s also a nice one to be exact. Although, the plot does have holes in it and some parts don’t make any sense. But, other than that, this film was tolerable and it’s funny moments and action made up for it. The animation was nice, the jokes were funny, the characters were fine, the acting was good, but the movie could’ve ended in a different way, like seeing on what actually happens next, rather than ending it on a cliched note, before Porky Pig and Tinkerbell show the credits in-front of us. However, this movie raises the question on if it’s really a family-movie or not because of how dark it can be with it’s swearing, use of alcohol and smoking, and other things that are not fitting for a PG rated movie. This might have been before the PG-13 rating even existed, so, I’ll just have to deal with it.
Overall, this was a nice film and it really was the inspiration for “Wreck-It-Ralph” and “Foodfight”, but without the horrendous and scary animation and poorly written plot. I’m not saying that this movie is bad, I’m just saying that it’s surreal, but still enjoyable, I did manage to sit through it all the way. The jokes are still fun to laugh at and if you’re into animated cartoons meeting live-action, Disney movies, or humor or content that can be surprisingly suitable for adults, this movie is for you! With that said, I’m going to give this movie a 7.5/10. And that’s my review, I hope you enjoyed it and as always, I’m The Detective Librarian and as Nostalgia Critic would say, “I remember it, so you don’t have to!”
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS!!!! IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS MOVIE YET, YOU KNOW THE DRILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review Already in Progress-
PREVIOUSLY ON “THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN”:
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: I’m The Detective Librarian and join me next time as I review something really goofy!
GOOFY GOOF:Â *Goofy Chuckle* Did somebody say Goofy? Gawrsh, Iâm gonna be in a review next!! WOOHOO!!!
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Ooh. Goofy!
LINK TO PREVIOUS POST:Â https://detectivelibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/07/25/comparisons-2-dc-and-cws-arrow-vs-the-flash/
-Now, Back to the Show-
Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and poor, Disney. Yeah, I know that I’ve reviewed many Disney movies and other productions related to it in the past and consider them either good, bad, or mediocre. But, Disney is still well known for trying to make more money by doing one-off direct-to-DVD sequels, buying other franchises from other movie companies such as “Star Wars” from Lucasfilms and “The Muppets” from Jim Henson, etc….. But, today for you all, I’ll be discussing another Disney sequel that is tolerable, but still average, which is of course the sequel to “A Goofy Movie”, titled “An Extremely Goofy Movie”, which first came out on home media on February 29, 2000 (meaning that it came out on Leap Year 2000). Now, you may know that “A Goofy Movie” and “An Extremely Goofy Movie” both focus on Goofy Goof’s TV show (one of Mickey Mouse’s best friends), “Goof Troop”, which has his only son, Max Goof. Well, at least he grew up in “A Goofy Movie” and today’s film. So, let’s see how this just another sequel; this is “An Extremely Goofy Movie”.
So, the film starts off with Goofy hitting a gong to reveal the title of the movie, “An Extremely Goofy Movie”, even though it has NOTHING to do with the actual movie itself. Now, we officially begin at Goofy’s house, where Goofy is celebrating a graduation party of his son, Max Goof (played by Jason Marsden, the one voice actor that sounds like ToonKriticY2K), who just recently graduated high school and is about to go to college with his friends P.J./Pete Junior, Pete’s son (played by Rob Paulsen) and Bobby Zimeruski (voiced by Pauly Shore). Max and his friends are preparing to team up, in order to become the top team in the upcoming College X-Games and wants to go to college ASAP to try to get away from his father’s overprotectiveness, now you may think that having X-Games in college is ridiculously crazy. But, sequels are just sequels, eh? I’m surprised that colleges would force freshmen, softmores, juniors, or seniors to compete in a competition that they have that would have nothing to do with their grades whatsoever. It’s a good thing that stereotypical teenagers usually want to go to college to escape from their parents that they call “prison” (no offense).
Anyways, Goofy teaches Pete about how fast children grow up and how college teaches them to be important people, by playing a game of horseshoes, all on his own. I have to admit, that’s an odd way of teaching children or inexperienced people about how college teaches students about careers and how life flies by. Later that night, Max starts packing up to head to college, tomorrow, but Goofy tries to pack him a teddy bear, but his stubborn son refuses to pack up the teddy bear (cute). As a result, Goofy gives Max his father’s counting machine as a maturity gift, before tucking him into bed and closing the door with tears in his eyes. However, Max decides to sleep with his teddy bear for the final time.:
Indeed, that is HEARTWARMING!! The next morning, Goofy makes Max breakfast, but Max–:
–is so excited to get to college with his friends as quickly as possible and says a few goodbyes to his father, before coming to Bobby’s van with P.J. to pick him up for college (which more looks like a hippie van AKA the same van that Fillmore from “Cars” was based off of), leaving Goofy, sadly, suffer from empty-nest syndrome, which (if I recall) is when a parent or guardian is left alone when their child leaves home for the very first time. It may be the cause of depression, y’know. So, Max and his friends go through an obstacle course, which is actually a cornfield that leads them to their destination. When they reach college, they encounter the house of the Gammas fraternity, a team that won various other X-Games. We then see the leader of the Gammas, Bradley Uppercrust III (played by Jeff Bennett). After the three boys encounter the cocky leader, they decide to go skateboarding, but then get followed by an impressed Bradley and his gang and reach a beatnik cafeteria named the Bean Scene Cafe and meet a sexy poet girl that goes like this.:
I can’t even criticize that scene, a sexy cartoon character that does poems or rhymes. Hopefully, she won’t be the next Sharon Miller of HIT Entertainment. đŚ So, Max meets Bradley and his assistant, Tank (played by Brad Garret), not Tank, Rainbow Dash’s pet tortoise from “MLP: FIM”, though, and is given the offer to join the Gammas, IF he abandons P.J. and Bobby. As you’d expect, Max refuses to accept the offer and starts to have a major rivalry between his friends and Bradley’s gang and are kicked out of the bar as a result of their major argument between each other. Meanwhile, Goofy’s empty-nest syndrome gets worse when he gets distracted, by daydreaming at his job at a toy factory and accidentally causing an accident (of course, like in most cartoon or stereotypical factories). His manager fires him, as a result, forcing Goofy to find another job.
The problem, however, is that Goofy has never completed college and admits that during a conversation between him and an unemployment lady at an unemployment office. This means that Goofy must get a degree at college, in order to get any kind of job. If that’s so, then why didn’t Goofy mention this earlier and how come he showed Pete that horseshoe lesson in the beginning of the film? Because: reasons. Also, we need an excuse to bring Goofy into the main plot because he’s going to attend at the same college that Max and his friends are at! WHAT ARE THE FREAKING ODDS?! He interrupts Max’s first class at college in a goofy way, along with a funny scream and face of Max, in which would be like Montague’s screaming during the cliff scene in Tines Sensahthe’s “Tobias and the Half-Pariah”.:
So, after that “embarrassing first day of class”, Goofy begins to continue his overprotective annoyance towards Max for the rest of the day and throughout the rest of the year in practice sessions for the X-Games and their free time. At the library, Max urges his father to go get a library card to urge him off. At the front desk of the library (not me, “The Detective Librarian”), Goofy meets a librarian named Sylvia Marpole (played by Bebe Neuwirth), who is just like him, but is “pretty”, and they begin a romantic relationship with each other. They decide to do a date by meeting each other at a disco, where Max and his friends are (of course) like this.:
Before that, Goofy tells his son the news during the middle of his training session for the you-know-what and shows off impressive skateboarding moves by accident, which amazes the Gammas. They decide to ask Goofy to join their team (even though it might usually get him hurt), which gives Max an idea to distract his father. Because he believes that the Gammas will lose, Max decides to have Goofy join the Gammas. Now, you may think that plan makes NO sense whatsoever and the Gammas might win, instead of distracting him!!! But (like I said), it’s just a Disney sequel and sequels might not be as good as the previous or original flick entirely. But I digress, after Goofy’s “Saturday Night Fever” night (*Ba Dum Tsh*), he starts to have a romantic relationship with Sylvia and spends more time with the Gammas as well. However, we know that the Gammas are up to no-good, so Goofy must watch his back, otherwise, he’ll get back-stabbed by the team!!!!
At last, the day of the X-Games qualifiers arrive and it’s Team 99 (Max, P.J., and Bobby’s team) VS. the Gammas (Bradley, Tank, and Goofy) at the first competition, which is a skateboard rally. Since the Gammas are the main villains of the movie, Bradley orders Tank to sneak a rocket at the back of Goofy’s skateboard, in order to win the competition, even though it might send Goofy flying and about to get killed, “SKY-HIGH”!!!! The plan (of course) works and results in the judges giving Goofy a nearly-perfect score. Next, it is Max’s turn and Bradley decides to cheat again, by reflecting a bright light into his eyes to trip him over and consequently, Team 99 loses the competition. After the qualifiers, Max gets furious and he shows his anger to his father by saying to “leave him alone and get his own life”. Well, at least it wasn’t “A Canterlot Wedding”, when Shining Armor kicked his little sister, Twilight Sparkle (Sparkle, Sparkle, Sparkle), out of his own wedding!!!!
SHINING ARMOR: Don’t remind me!:
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Sorry, but, I just had to, Shining Armor! I had to!
After getting torn up of his one and only son telling him off, Goofy gets depressed, which causes him to lose his focus, fail an exam, and forget about a date with Sylvia, while doing a daydream sequence that is just another dream sequence, when the creators of Disney are on meth, but still makes people somehow intrigued.:
Well, you know what that means? “Big Lipped Alligator Moment”!:
Thank you, Nostalgia Critic, “I Remember It, So, You Don’t Have To!” đ (NC Reference) Goofy returns home and reunites with Pete and tells him that he should drop out of college. Now, I would expect Pete putting Goofy down because he’s a villain and the arch-enemy of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and you-know-who, but instead he advises Goofy by saying that he should regain his focus. Well then, I guess Pete’s a good guy now, instead of a bad guy! Meanwhile, we see Max back at the Bean Scene Cafe, considering transferring into another college, but Beret Girl (the rhyming, sexy poet from earlier), Bobby, and P.J. convince Max to stay at college for the X-Games. While that’s going on, Goofy returns to college and apologizes to Sylvia, while remembering that the real reason that he came to college in the first place is to get a degree. We then cut to a montage of Goofy and Sylvia preparing, while studying for college, that is more like something you would see in an ACTUAL sports movie, like this!:
Y’know what just hit me? This is the movie that inspired the writers of a sitcom called “The Middle” to do the story arc in Season 4 about Frankie Heck getting fired from her old job and going back to college to become a dental assistant. I mean, think about it! Frankie wants more money from her family (even though she acts like she doesn’t care about her family or friends, at all) and herself, since her old job didn’t get her that much money. So, yeah, good job, “An Extremely Goofy Movie”! Good job!
Anyways, because of Goofy’s odd-studying/training, his grades start to go up to A’s, GRADE A, PICTURE PERFECT “A’S” FOR “A GREAT GRADE!!!!!!!!!!!”:
Also, Goofy decides to leave the Gammas, just because they’re just another distraction. However, the Gammas refuse to let him leave and he has to return his membership pin, in order to quit the team. As he is doing so, Goofy overhears the Gammas talking about cheating, once again at the X-Games, by huge coincidence! The day of the X-Games arrives and it’s Goofy’s only chance of warning his son about the Gammas’ plan to cheat and win the competition. But, Max, who is still mad at his father for what happened earlier, dismisses Goofy at the locker room. The competition begins and many teams get eliminated, due to Bradley (AGAIN, OF COURSE) cheating!!!!!!!!!! Now, Team 99 and the Gammas are the only teams left in the finals, which is basically a crazy-race/obstacle course with skateboarding and biking!
Before it begins, Bradley uses rockets under P.J.’s roller skates to blast P.J. sky-high! Now, Max realizes what his father was trying to warn him in the first place and is reminded by the referee that if he doesn’t get a third member in less than a minute, he and his team will be disqualified. Now, remember kids, always obey your parents, otherwise, you’ll learn the truth halfway through! Max uses the camera from a poorly-CGI rendered X-Games/ESPN blimp and a microphone to contact Goofy and ask him to help him win the race. Goofy sees Max’s message and gets to the finish line, just in time and we start the final race! So, we partake in a montage of racing, sabotage, and Max nearing the finish line, until Bradley decides to use a rocket under Max’s skateboard, but Goofy luckily uses his conveniently placed horseshoe from his pocket to literally throw it right at him and it causes Bradley to press the button of the rocket with his chin and send Max crashing into Tank and into a giant X-Games logo and set it on fire.
Goofy rushes to save Max, while Bradley continues to the finish line, while he and his son rescue Tank and escape from the burning logo in time and beat Bradley. Bradley (in which I didn’t expect) congratulates Max and is grabbed by Tank, before being thrown into the poorly-rendered blimp. Which is more or less a cheap way of throwing away the fake-looking or the poorly-looking blimp that is not rendered properly. After the events of the X-Games, Goofy congratulates and gets his degree, Max gives his father his X-Games trophy as an apology for the way he treated him earlier, and reminds his father that (just like in the first movie) “he may not be his little boy now, but he’ll always be his son.” So, we end this movie with Sylvia arriving in her car to take Goofy to a celebration picnic, while Max continues his college life and watches his “goofy” father drive off into the sunset, along with the ending credits having the characters dancing like disco or “Saturday Night Fever”.
And that was “An Extremely Goofy Movie” or (let’s be honest here) as I like to call it, “Another Disney Sequel”. It’s not the worst “Disney” movie nor the worst sequel of all time. But, it has it’s flaws, the new characters are okay but are just our normal throwaway characters for more merchandising, the animation can be colorful (except for that poorly-done CGI blimp), the acting was fine, the songs were good, but the plot is (as always) meh. I’m not saying that this movie is terrible, I’m just saying that it’s just another Disney movie or a sequel. After all, I’ve seen WORST Disney or animated movies that are easily forgotten and for many good reasons! However, I’ve seen parts of “A Goofy Movie”, but, I’m not sure if I ever will see it, either.
All in all, this movie was okay, you begin to like it at the beginning of the movie, until you get confused by the story. It’s pretty decent, but, Disney is just Disney. Well, at least we don’t have to deal with those forgotten sequels again, until we get more movies that may gain a sequel one-way or another. Overall, I give this movie a 6/10 for not best, but still be able to sit through it, all the way through. Well, just wait until I get the famous “Goofy Holler” again. I’m The Detective Librarian and– *Train Approaching and Horn*
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS!!!!! SO, TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS MOVIE YET!!!!!!!!!
-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review Already in Progress-
Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and you may remember my “Trailer Reminder” for Pixar’s newest movie, “Inside Out”. I was really excited for this movie and I saw it yesterday and I can assure you, it was really worth waiting for and watching!! Now, you may know that Pixar didn’t have a movie last year but the previous Pixar film was the “Monsters Inc.” prequel, “Monsters University”, and that was good too. Now, many people really enjoyed and loved “Inside Out”, even after it came out on June 19, 2015 in the US and I concur! Now, time to see how “emotional” this movie can be, by taking a look at “Inside Out”.
(Please note that I’ll be doing a spoiler-free review, just like my review of “Jurassic World”, which I’ll be doing for movies that were recently made, from now on) Anyways, the film is about an 11-year old girl named Riley Anderson (played by Kaitlyn Dias), who recently moved from Minnesota, all the way to San Francisco, California, who’s mind is controlled by five different emotions. The emotions are Joy (played by Amy Poehler), Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith), Bill Hader as Fear, Lewis Black as Anger, and Mindy Kaling as Disgust. However, Joy and Sadness accidentally get lost outside of Headquarters (where Riley’s emotions control Riley) and have to find a way back before things go from bad to worse. Now, I know what you’re thinking: emotions controlling a human being like a robot being pure, diabolical genius!!!!!!!!! I know, it’s very clever to have Pixar show us what how our minds actually work due to our different emotions, memories, ideas, etc….. Even though we’ve seen other cartoons focus on our mind, but Pixar’s way (in my experience) is a better way of telling us of how things work in our brain.
Now, let’s focus on the plot. The plot is really well organized and the settings and the problems are very realistic. It really does a nice job on how things are different when you move to a new place and you start to change a lot on how you feel and how you have trouble making new friends and getting over change that you don’t want to accept. I particularly like how our mind works in this movie on how our personality is, including having different islands in our head of our interests, personalities, and ways that make who we are. I’m not gonna get too personal about it, but I’ll mention a few like Hockey Island, Family Island, Honesty Island, etc…. I feel like the moral of this movie is that you cannot always be happy all the time and you can’t force other people to be positive all the time and make them a different personality. After all, people having different attitudes and personalities make them just the way they are, unless if it’s a negative way.
Overall, the plot is really nice and the moral is really taught out. Onto the characters, the characters are really enjoyable and my favorites are Anger, Sadness, Disgust, and Fear. Although, I really like Joy and Fear, but I can relate to Anger and Disgust the most because of me getting super ticked over something I don’t like and being disgusted over something gross or being very sensitive over things I don’t find funny or anything else, sorry if I’m getting way too personal here. I really like Anger’s personality and he’s super hilarious, I like how he’s hot-headed and acts like a grouchy, old office worker or a business men who hates his or her job, especially when being played by a famous comedian named Lewis Black. Also, Anger really has a way of being sly, especially when he wants to curse (not for kids) or has a devious idea for Riley. But, I can’t seem to find a least favorite character in this movie, but I enjoyed all the characters in this film.
Let’s remove that and just look the animation on it’s own. It’s really beautiful as always and Pixar still knows how to make good CGI animation, even after it was first established nearly 30 years ago. The music was really nice and the scenes were really memorable and some of them were really emotional and they made me feel like crying, which shows that our emotions are causing us to react to a sad or heartwarming scene. The humor is captured really well and it made me laugh all the way to the very end. Here are some examples (WARNING: MAY SPOIL THE MOVIE FOR YOU):
So, what do you think? Be sure to let me know in the comments section below. All in all, I really enjoyed this movie. The characters were lovable, the animation was great as always, the moral of the story was played out well, the acting was good, the humor made me laugh all the way through, and it’s amazing on how emotional and funny it is. It is probably one of Pixar’s best movies ever made so far and let’s just hope that it’ll be more popular than say “Frozen”. But I digress, I highly recommend you go see this movie, if you’re wondering how our mind actually works and let’s just hope we’re getting a sequel to this movie. I’ll be giving “Inside Out” a 9.5/10 and please note that we’re getting ANOTHER Pixar movie later this year.
That’s right, TWO movies in one year, which is a first for Pixar and that’ll be titled “The Good Dinosaur”, but that’s another story. I’m The Detective Librarian and have a happy day, every peoples!
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS! IF ONLY YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE SEQUEL TO A FILM THAT’S CONSIDERED A CLASSIC, STOP READING THIS RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!
-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review Already in Progress-
Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and as you may have known already, I reviewed a Disney film that is nearly 21-years old and that is “The Lion King”. I said it was okay, but it’s sort of growing on me and I sorta like it. I kinda take back of what I said about this film and the characters were nice and memorable, the plot was good and it felt like the Bible, it had very powerful and epic moments, and some of the songs were interesting. After the film’s success, someone did a Broadway musical based off of the film of the same name and it was successful as well, believe it or not. However, Disney decided to make two more films after the first film as a sequel and a midquel (a film that takes place in the middle of another film)/prequel and they were direct-to-home/DVD releases. Today, I’ll be reviewing the sequel that was considered not as successful as the previous film. I’m of course talking about “The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride”, based off of William Shakepeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” (just like how the previous film was considered based off of “Hamlet”). Now it’s time to hear my thoughts about the not-so-successful-sequel. This is “The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride”.
The film opens with the first song of the film, “He Lives in You”, and it’s quite similar to the first film’s song, “Circle of Life”, but it focuses on the Pride Land’s king, Simba (voiced by Matthew Broderick in the previous film), and his wife, Nala, Rafiki (Simba’s royal monkey), and everyone else showing Simba’s newborn daughter, Kiara, with Mufasa (Simba’s dead father) watching them like God. Timon and Pumbaa (the friendly pair of a meerkat and warthog that adopted Simba in the previous film) think that Kiara is a boy like Simba was, but they faint when Rafiki corrects them saying that Kiara is a girl. Wow, what a reaction to a different gender being born off of the face of the freaking Earth. The next scene cuts to Kiara (now a young cub) getting permission from her father to go out on her own with Zazu (Simba’s royal bird) warning them about a dangerous group known as the Outsiders. Wow, what a name to a bunch of Out-siders. *Ba Dum Tsh!*
EVERYONE: BOOOOOOO!!!!! *SPLAT!*
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Everyone’s a critic. Not you, Nostalgia Critic!
(Reference to a Joke By Trainboy7 & Dalek44)
Anyways, we’ll found out what those (quote on quote) “Outsiders” are later. So, Kiara goes out and just after she leaves, Nala explains that Kiara reminds her of Simba when he was very young. Uh-huh, back when Simba was young, inexperienced, clumsy, bad-luck prone (as usual), AND NOT SO WISE!!!!!!!! Along the way, Kiara chases after a butterfly, stands on a rock, and notices the Outlands (where the Outsiders are). Just as she’s about to risk her life and be an idiot, the odd-but-friendly pair themselves show up and scare the crap out of Kiara and that causes her to fall into the water and get rescued by Pumbaa. Why?: Because Timon and Pumbaa are now Kiara’s babysitters (thank God Simba didn’t hire “The Baby-Sitters Club” because the BSC are immature, but I digress), it’s a nice way for Timon and Pumbaa get a reward for helping Simba and Nala stop Simba’s cold-hearted, deciving, and evil uncle, Scar.
Just as the pair try to get Kiara to eat bugs (like they normally do), Kiara sneaks past them when they weren’t looking. Seriously, Timon and Pumbaa seem like BAD BABYSITTERS AND JUST WAIT UNTIL THEY START THEIR OWN BABYSITTING BUSINESS.–
SCRIPT PERSON: Hey, Detective.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh, hey. What’s up?
SCRIPT PERSON: Oh, nothing. But, did you read the news lately?
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: No, I didn’t and besides, I’m not a newspaper person.
SCRIPT PERSON: Well, I just came across this really interesting ad on the paper and you gotta go check it out.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Okay, let me see here.–
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN (READING): “Are you in trouble? Do you want to have great babysitters that don’t act immature or be lazy and stuff like that? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Just call Timon and Pumbaa’s Babysitters Organization! Just call 1-840-684-TIMON-AND-PUMBAA-BABYSITTING. Call now! I mean it because we need bugs and Uh-oh! Here comes the newspapers guys, bu-bye!
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Wait. WHAT?! SURELY, you CAN’T BE SERIOUS, SCRIPT PERSON!!
SCRIPT PERSON: I AM and don’t call me Surely!
So, Kiara goes to the Outlands (disobeying her father’s instructions) and stumbles upon a cub that resembles a younger version of Scar. His name is Kovu and he starts teasing her and they come across a bridge of alligators that nearly eat Kiara and Kovu. Luckily, they escape from the swamp of alligators just in time. However, when they reach the other side, they come across Kovu’s vengeful mother, Zira (voiced by the late Suzanne Pleshette), the leader of the Outsiders at the same time Simba, Nala, Timon, and Pumbaa show up! Simba and Zira have an epic roar-stand-off and it turns out that the Outsiders are Scar’s family that was exiled to the Outlands after Scar’s death. Wait a minute, HOLD ON! There’s a continuity error in this one, we never saw Scar’s family in the previous film and WAIT A SECOND!!!! Scar must’ve married Sarabi (Simba’s mother) after Mufasa was killed, so that pretty much makes more sense.
Back with the story, Kovu is actually Zira’s adopted son (which means that he was found in the open) and Simba exiles Zira and Kovu (again), while taking Kiara home and finding out from Zira that their biggest feud between the Outsiders and the Pride Lands has just begun. What a family feud (not the game show), and it’s really based off of “Romeo and Juliet” alright. Simba returns his daughter to the Pride Lands, still not happy over his daughter’s mistake. Kiara then doubts herself, until Simba teaches her that being a lion or a lioness is in her blood during the song, “We Are One”. This is really a way to teach kids to not have doubts and commit suicide after making a mistake. After all, we all make mistakes so that we can learn from them instead of making the same mistake again like an idiot. Meanwhile, we get to see the other part of the Outlands for the very first time, along with the rest of the Outsiders.
This includes Kovu’s crazy older brother, Nuka, and his sister, Vitanni. Zira, as her hateful and vengeful self, gets very angry over Kovu coming across Kiara and just as she puts her adopted son onto a bed-thingy, she realizes that coming across Simba and his family is the key to getting back the Pride Lands. After this, she sings her lullaby, or should I say: “My Lullaby”, in a very dramatic and intense way. Meanwhile, the crazy-lunatic himself, Rafiki, is alone in his tree keeping track of what’s going on and is communicating with the ghost of Mufasa. He realizes that Mufasa’s plan is to unite the Outsiders and the Pride Lands, have Kovu and Kiara fall in love, and become one. What a plan, heh, I wish I made plans like that.
After time goes by, Kiara grows up to be a young adult (now voiced by Neve Campbell) and is now able to go and hunt on her own. Simba, however, is starting to become doubtful about Kiara, so he sends Timon and Pumbaa (again) to watch Kiara. Meanwhile, at the Outlands, Zira trains Kovu, now a young adult, voiced by Jason Marsden, and seems like a lionized version of ToonKriticY2K and Zuko from “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, (something you would see when someone’s being brainwashed or hypnotized) over Kovu’s mission. Here’s how it went like. You should go see it for yourself, click on it.:
Yeah, intense right? While Kiara tries to hunt a bunch of wildbeests in a field, Nuka and Vitanni (now grown-up) begin Zira’s evil plan to kill Simba and take the Pride Lands. Zira’s plan is to have Nuka and Vitanni start a fire they collected from a volcanic cave, then, bring it to a field to start the fire. Timon and Pumbaa’s babysitting business continues once again when they find Kiara, who’s now upset over Simba not trusting her actions and stubbornly decides to hunt on her own. Geesh, Kiara is a very stubborn daughter of the main character from the previous film and the lion that is Mufasa’s son. Seriously, would you ever want to go out with her if she ever acted like this?:
ZOO KEEPER: Now, be careful Kiara because there are other animals that are dangerous in the zoo.
KIARA: Yeah, whatever, I can do this on my own!
ZOO KEEPER (THINKING): Gosh, what a stubborn lioness!!
KIARA: Hello, I’m Kiara and who are you?
MR. CROCODILE: WELL! I’M, MR. CROCODILE AND I CAN I INTEREST YOU WITH MY NEWEST INVENTION?
KIARA: Um, okay? What is it?
MR. CROCODILE: It’s called, “THE TIME MACHINE THAT TAKES YOU BACK TO THE GOOD OL’ DAYS INSTEAD OF THE CRAPPY NEW DAYS!!!!!!!!!” Like other time machines, it allows you to go back in time into the good ol’ days!!
KIARA: Wow, this seems like an invention I would try.
KIARA (THINKING): Unless, if he really means that.
-13 Minutes of Time Traveling Later-
KIARA: Hey, this isn’t a time machine. IT’S A TRAP!!!
KIARA: Oh I should’ve listened to my zoo keeper!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CURSE YOU, MR. CROCODILLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways, Nuka starts the fire and Kiara, Simba, and everyone else notices it, with Zira and Kovu watching by and having Kovu carry out the rest of Zira’s plan. Kiara goes into the fire and tries to escape, but then passes out due to the smoke. Wow, that was the most over-the-top way to teach kids the consequences of breathing smoke in a fire. As Nostalgia Critic would say: “Y’know, for kids!” Kovu finds Kiara, unconscious, and carries her, then escapes the inferno with Zazu flying close by and witnessing the entire thing. Kiara regains consciousness and is very surprised to see Kovu again, just as Simba, Nala, and Zazu arrive and we have ANOTHER dramatic confrontation/roar-stand-off!
Simba (being a stubborn father) decides to forbid Kiara from hunting again and Kovu lies that he’s now a rogue of the Outsiders (part of Kiara’s DEADLY plan), which causes Simba and Zazu to reluctantly agree to let Kovu stay. So, they return back to the Pride Lands, leaving Kovu to sleep outside for the night (like leaving an innocent cat, dog, or hobo to sleep outside in the cold and be left to rot). Kovu criticizes Kiara not being a good hunter, which causes her to plan a hunting lesson tomorrow morning before going to bed. Later that night, Simba gets probably one of the most creepiest and disturbing nightmare sequences ever put in any kids’ movie! THAT PROVES THAT SIMBA HAS PTSD (post-traumatic-stress-disorder). See it for yourself (again):
So, yeah. It would be even MORE disturbing than say, the clown nightmare from “The Brave Little Toaster” or any other Disney dream sequence. The next morning, Kovu tries to attack Simba, who doesn’t mention his nightmare to anyone. What gives, Simba? You could just easily talk about your– oh, right, you don’t want to talk about your father’s death from the last film. Kovu’s attempt to kill Simba fails when Kiara calls him to start the hunting lesson they planned last night. During the lesson, Kovu scares Timon, have him and Kiara do a little race/chase against some birds, come across rhinos, get chased by the rhinos with Timon and Pumbaa following behind, and then hide. THIS causes Kovu to have a change of heart (that’s kinda sweet, which shows that everyone has a kind side, right?).
Later that night, Kovu and Kiara follow Rafiki to a dating location after star gazing and we get a romantic song called “Upendi”. Don’t know what it is? It means “love” in Swahili! This causes Kiara and Kovu to fall in love, they could maybe defeat a bad guy or save the day with the power of love (like in the 1999 version of “The Haunting” and “Frozen” *SPOILER ALERT*)! Anyways, Zira and Vitanni watch by as Simba lets Kovu stay for the night and are both angered that Kovu’s now a double agent. The next morning, Kovu tries to talk to himself about the current situation and makes a confession about his mission, but it’s interrupted when Simba wants to talk with him with an evil-like face. The face drops when he tells Kovu about Scar’s past and into the location of where the fire started from earlier and it leads them to (you won’t believe this) an A-M-B-U-S-H. What does that spell?: AMBUSH!!!!!!!!!
The ambush shows the Outsiders with Zira leading the team and it’s revealed that Kovu accidentally lead Simba into the ambush. Well, that escalated quickly. Simba tries to escape and goes up a dam of logs blocking a river, but then gets stuck. Nuka (his usual insane self) tries to kill Simba, but then he falls into a bunch of logs and then gets killed. Nuka said his last few words, but here’s what the original version went like.:
NUKA:.I’m sorry. Mother!……I tried.
ZIRA: Shhhhhhhh……
NUKA:……Well……I finally got your attention, didn’t I?……….
So, I would’ve PREFERRED that scene and it would’ve been more emotional because of Nuka wanting to get attention from his mother. I mean, it would be more sad for kids. Anyways, all the Outsiders are dismayed over Nuka’s death and Zira gets so upset and enraged that she gives Kovu a scratch on the cheek and it somehow gets into his eye and blames him for betraying his pride, Scar, and killing Nuka. As Kovu runs away to the Pride Lands, Zira decides to take the entire kingdom by force. Meanwhile, Simba returns home and tells everyone about what happened earlier. This causes an alternate version of “We Are One”, called “Not One of Us”, a scene that has Kovu exiled/banished into the Outlands in a abusive way.
Kiara and Simba begin to argue about Kovu and Kiara is so upset that she yells at her father claiming that he’ll never be like Mufasa! OW! OW, OW, OW! NO! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING KIARA AND SIMBA?!?!?!?!!?! Critic, play your reaction!:
“NO, HE DID NOT” indeed! SHAME ON YOU, MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kiara runs away from the Pride Lands to look for Kovu and they reunite during the song, “Love Will Find a Way” (similar to “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”). After Kovu and Kiara cuddle each other, Kiara explains that they have to return to the Pride Lands, otherwise, the two families will be divided badly for all eternity. She’s right, Kovu because think about it! What would happen if a war that lasted for years, months, days, weeks, or even decades continued? This would bring the entire population to it’s knees and let’s just hope the next scene doesn’t have a war in it!
The Outsiders prepare to attack (okay, I spoke too soon) and Simba orders Timon and Pumbaa to look for Kiara after hearing Kiara’s disappearance and the Outsiders’ dramatic march to the death! He forms all the lions he could get to fight back in a battle of wits against the Outsiders. Oh great, a war that could end the world as we know it! Hey wait, animals don’t use guns, bazookas, cannons, AND MOST OF ALL, TANKS! FREAKING TANKS THAT WOULD BE DANGEROUS TO ALL OF MANKIND! BUT, THIS IS WAY TOO OVERRATED FOR THE LITTLE CHILDRENS!!!!!!!!!!!! So, Disney, what your doing is a really dark way of teaching children and families what happens in war, famine, or family feuds (no not the game show)! Still, you can never be too careful.
So, Timon and Pumbaa join Simba’s army to fight the Outsiders (even though they were supposed to look for Kiara) and I swear that this scene is like the marching scene in Tines Sensahthe’s “Tobias and the Half-Pariah” except that was a much better fan “Thomas” film and this scene from “The Lion King 2” doesn’t include diesels, demon-possessed Duck, alternate versions of the characters in the TV or “Railway Series”, or steam engines doing a battle of wits against the diesels! So, the battle begins and Timon and Pumbaa defend themselves with a (possible) fart joke (in real life, soldiers or enemies would not fall for that!):
GOOD SOLDIERÂ #1: Uh oh! I’m outta bullets! What are we gonna do, Jerry? We’re surrounded?
GOOD SOLDIER #2: Uh. Uh. *Sees Random Cat* AHA! Stand back every peoples because this cat’s loaded with you don’t wanna know!
EVIL SOLDIERS: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!! RUN!! *BAM!*
GOOD SOLDIER #2: See, I told you earlier that having a cat’s tail as a gun would work after all!
CAT: *Growl* RAWR!!!!
GOOD SOLDIER #2: AAAHH!!!–
-Cover Your Eyes, Small Childrens-
Just as Simba and Zira are about to kill each other, Kiara and Kovu leap out and confront their parents. We get a (probably) pretty touching scene here: Kiara explains that “we are one” and the Outsiders are them all along. This causes the war to end, Simba and the other Outsiders to see the error of their ways, and have Simba reconcile with his daughter. Zira, however, is still vengeful that she tries to avenge Scar one last time by lunging out at Simba before being pushed towards the edge of a cliff by Kiara to protect her father. Simba goes after the two lionesses, whose lives are at risk when they hang at the cliff.
To make matters worse, the log dam from earlier breaks open and floods the river. Kiara tries to help save Zira, but Zira misses her paw before falling to her death. I swear (again) that THIS is really something you would see in an “Indiana Jones” movie, actually, Disney DID borrow “Indiana Jones” AND it seems like a cheap scheme to get more cold-heart-cash! Well, Zira’s original death was that Zira was going to commit suicide by not doing what Kiara said and then letting go of the cliff, fell, and died. Everything is wrapped up after this; Simba helps her daughter, Simba welcomes the Outsiders and tells Kovu that he belongs here and was wrong about him, and Kiara and Kovu get married, just like Mufasa planned it would be! We get one last roar from the characters and a reprise of “We Are One” with Mufasa’s words echoing, “WE ARE ONE!”
THE END.
POST-FILM-FOLLOW-UP
This movie seems like an alternate version of “Romeo and Juliet” and Disney’s way of retelling the segregation laws in the Southern part of the United States from the 1950’s-1960’s, which was when the whites and African-Americans could not get along and thank God that the segregation laws are over and we won’t have to have racism in the U.S. again! After all, Kiara and Kovu really acted like Martin Luther King Jr. in this film. I praise the film’s animation, even if it looked unrealistic at times and some animation errors, the funny faces the characters make, the new characters, and some of the songs. However, I do point out that the plot was a mixture of good and bad that includes some plotholes like Zira’s death because I thought it was rushed and I would’ve preferred her original death before it got cut in the final production. Besides, those funny faces are like Rainbow Dash’s funny faces in “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”, except that she was trying to entertain the guards at Sugarcube Corner and the audience. See it for yourself if you haven’t.:
Also, the acting is a little bit off like when Kovu shouted “NOO” while roaring and running away. I felt that line was a little bit cheesy, but overall, the acting was fine. As I stated before, the new characters were interesting like Kiara, Kovu, and Zira because Zira felt like a female version of you know who, Kiara’s arguments with Simba felt realistic and a teenager fighting with his or her parents, and Kovu was kind of a light-hearted version of Scar and a Gothic version of Zuko and ToonKriticY2K. Overall, this film is average and I find the first film better than this film entirely and I always will admit that the first “Lion King” will be the best out of the trilogy (or should I say, saga). But, it’s still not bad.
You can watch it, get excited, and feel like this is a decent epilogue over the first film entirely. So, I’m going to rate “The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride” a 5/10, even if it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. You should really watch first film. I’m The Detective Librarian and just wait until you see the prequel that is supposed to be the final film in the trilogy and see you later!
P.S. If you haven’t heard about ToonKriticY2K, then absolutely check out his videos. He’s a reviewer like me and he also does other things besides reviews. If you’re into reviews of things you like including “Thomas & Friends”. “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”, or anything else, this youtuber is for you. Click on the link that’ll take you to ToonKriticY2K’s channel, but please remember that his videos do contain some swearing, so please view at your own discretion. That’s all and good night everybody!
LINK TO TOONKRITICY2K’S CHANNEL:Â https://www.youtube.com/user/ToonKriticY2K
WARNING: THIS MAY CONTAIN SOME (Y’KNOW) SPOILERS!!!!! TURN BACK KNOW AND I’M OUTTA HERE SO..Good-bye! *BAM!*
-We Know Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review Already in Progress-
Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and remember little kiddies, fire is NOT A TOY!!!! DO NOT PLAY WITH IT, OTHERWISE IT WILL DESTROY YOU, YOUR SURROUNDINGS, AND YOUR FRIENDS OR FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, speaking of fire, there are many people that we have to respect, including firemen. Everyday, firemen risk their lives to save others, even from tragedies like the Great Fire of London and the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, sometimes, they sacrificed themselves so that others might survive. We all know that it would make sense for “Cars”, “Planes”, or other kids’/family productions to have characters or stories about firefighting to teach children and everyone else what those heroes are. Well, there is ONE sequel in the “Cars” franchise that continued the “Planes” trilogy (the spin-off of “Cars”) with a sequel that came out in theaters last summer.
Yes, I’m talking about “Disney’s Planes: Fire & Rescue” or “Disney’s Planes 2: Fire & Rescue” in other countries outside of the U.S. This film was released in theaters in the U.S. on July 18, 2014 and on DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital download on November 4, 2014. I know what you’re thinking, how could a film that was so poorly received ever gain a sequel and feel like a cheap way to sell more toys. Well, let’s see how what I think of this film. Let’s take a look at “Disney’s Planes: Fire & Rescue”.
The film starts off with words up on the screen that talks about this film being dedicated to firemen, who are considered one of the most bravest heroes on Earth. We then get to see the logos of the film before seeing our Dane Cook voiced hero, Dusty Crophopper, do a montage of winning all kinds of air races. Ever since after his victory in the previous film, Dusty’s now an official air racer for three years. The montage ends and we cut back to Dusty’s hometown, Propwash Junction, which is getting ready for the upcoming annual Corn Festival. Sparky is reading a newspaper about Dusty’s victory and explains that Dusty will be attending the upcoming festival and we get to meet Mayday, Propwash Junction’s old firefighter truck who made a cameo in the previous film. Mayday (voiced by Hal Holbrook) shows off one little crude humor joke, until Skipper Riley and Dusty decide to coach/practice flying. But, things go awry when Dusty’s engine breaks down and lands clumsily on the airfield.
Our heroes rush to Dottie’s workshop to check out what’s wrong with Dusty. Dottie has bad news for our cropduster friend; Dusty’s gearbox is permanently damaged and it can’t be replaced due to being a different gearbox unlike other gearboxes. If Dusty pushes himself in the red, he’ll crash and this means that he can’t race anymore. Aw, poor Dusty, so much for the entire racing career that lasted for only one film-and-a-half. Please note that Dottie has placed a warning light on him to warn him to slow down or pull power. That night, Skipper tries to cheer Dusty up by going to a diner to eat and they talk about what to do with the current situation that’s going on. Chug and Sparky (CHUGA-CHUGA-CHOO-CHOO) arrive with good news (no, they haven’t found a new gearbox right for the main character), they’ve found a place to find the right gearbox for their best friend, Dusty.
Just then, Leadbottom (from the previous film, too) arrives and offers Dusty his old sprayer and job back, this causes our hero to idiotically go out for a test flight to test out his warning light from earlier. As the warning light activates after going into the red, Dusty is distracted by it and accidentally crash lands on the airfield, crashes into a propeller-like building, causing it to explode and start a fire. Mayday is called to the rescue of course and he runs low on water when his hose has holes and leaks in it. And instead of finding more water and getting a new hose (oh wait, that won’t work), Mayday and our heroes decide to use the hoses to topple down a water tower to put out the fire. Holy crap, DID YOU SEE HOW MUCH THAT FREAKINGÂ WATER TOWER COST??!!!!! Do you really think that Mayday and anyone else would do something like that when the hose is old and broken or they’re out of water, like at swimming pools?:
SWIMMING POOL MANAGER: Okay, Mayday. Give it your best shot.
MAYDAY: Okey-dokey! *Water Spraying* *Water Running Low* Oh, crap. I’ll be right back! *BAM, HE-GONE!*
MAYDAY: Come on, Mayday! Find something to put more water in the pool! Hmm, hmm, a-ha! THIS!!!
CHORUS: *A GIANT WATER TOWER SOUND EFFECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
SWIMMING POOL MANAGER: What the– Ah! *Blub, Blub, Blub!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
MAYDAY: HA HA! I’VE DONE IT AGAIN, right sir? Sir?
SWIMMING POOL MANAGER: *Resurfacing* *Gasp!* Oh wait, I can’t swim. Oh hey, look at that. A board. Hgh! Ah……………..Mayday……..WHAT. HAVE. YOU. DONE????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MAYDAY: Uh, am I in trouble now?
SWIMMING POOL MANAGER: Oh, ho, ho! Yes, you are, Mayday! YOU ARE IN HOT WATER RIGHT NOW! *Ba Dum Tsh!* AND, you’re fired!
MAYDAY: Okay, I hated that job anyway. So, good-bye! *ZOOM!*
So, the next morning, the TMST (Toast Marshmellows and Stupidity Toast)– Uh, I mean, (Transportation Management Safety Team) arrives at the scene of the fire. Ryker (member of the organization & voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) interrogates Mayday and Dusty admits his guilt about bringing the tower down. Wait, Dusty admitted that he was the one who put the tower down? But, he, Skipper, Dottie, AND EVERYONE ELSE WAS INVOLVED WHEN THE TOWER FELL DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you lying, seriously, you’ve got to have someone to talk some sense into you, sheesh! Ryker explains that he believes that Propwash Junction doesn’t have enough firefighters and as a result, he shuts down the town and it won’t be reopened until Propwash Junction finds a 2nd firefighter. As everyone in town complains about the entire town being shut down, Sparky and Dottie make a (not-so-good) plan to reopen Propwash Junction and get a 2nd firefighter.
That plan didn’t work and Dusty decides to speak with Mayday privately in the firehouse/fire department. As Dusty sees an image of the first firefighting plane, Mayday explains to him that a firefighting plane is like a cropduster, except that they shoot out fire retardant to put out fires, it’s like a pink and colorful version of water, moist, and fog. Then, Dusty decides to become a firefighter to reopen his town (even though his gearbox is still damaged and this might cause him to be killed). The next morning, Dusty’s trip to go to Piston Peak National Park (a national park with a firefighting crew to fight wildfires) starts so that he could get trained to become a firefighter. We get a nice montage with good animation with the song, “Still I Fly”, playing in the background and it ends with Dusty making it to Piston Peak.
There, Dusty meets Cabbie, an ex-military transporter and the carrier plane for a group of diggers known as the Smokejumpers. The other firefighters include Dynamite, the leader of the Smokejumpers, Drip, Blackout, Avalanche, and Pinecone, members of the Smokejumpers, (Lil’) Dipper, Dusty’s biggest fan and obvious serial killer and stalker played by Julie Bowen, Windlifter, an Native American-helicopter that carries a tank with fire retardant, and Maru, the Smokejumpers’ mechanic pitty voiced by Curtis Armstrong. We get the 2nd fire of the film along with the song, “Thunder” by AC/DC, playing in the background and the Firefighters putting out the fire with Dusty flying by and watching. Dusty gets into trouble by the leader of the firefighting organization, Blade Ranger, a red-helicopter (played by Ed Harris), and is cleaned up after getting covered in retardant. Let me get this straight, Dusty has made two moronic mistakes in a row in this movie and he keeps on making the same mistake over and over again??!!!! COME ON, DUSTY!! GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, Blade begrudgingly agrees to train our hero to become a firefighter and we get (yet another) montage, but this time, it’s on Dusty’s training. Wow, Blade is a really strict dude and boss if you ask me. He can’t even get a sense of humor in this film.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Hey, Blade! Wanna hear a joke?
BLADE RANGER: No.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN (Sweet, Innocent, and Cute Voice): Come ON! YOU LIKE JOKES! YOU LIKE JOKES! YOU LIKE JOKES, DON’T YOU, BLADE? COME ON!!! TELL ME A JOKE, COME ON!!!!! *Squee*
BLADE RANGER: Okay, whatever. Make it snappy, I gotta go out on a business dinner with my fellow colleagues!
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Why did the chicken cross the road?
BLADE RANGER: I dunno, I’ve heard this joke before.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Because: he wanted to get run over, picked up by a chef, cooked to death, have its soul get consumed, get eaten by a human, AND HAVE OTHER CHICKENS DO THE SAME THING 25,000 TIMES, JUST TO BE SAFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Parody of Nostalgia Critic’s “Jumping the Shark” Gag)
BLADE RANGER:………………….I don’t get it.
The montage ends and Dusty, STILL, isn’t a firefighter yet and we encounter the park superintendant, Cad Spinner, who is reopening the park’s old hotel, the Fusel Lodge, which will be important later. That night, Dusty’s invited to a secret club with all the other firefighters, except for Blade, led by Maru. At first, we get to think we’re going to watch “Howard the Truck” (which is a parody of “Howard the Duck”, considered one of the worst movies ever made), but it’s revealed that we get another parody of a classic TV show or movie. This parody is “CHoPs”, a parody of the 1970’s police TV show, “CHiPs”. So, play it.:
Much to Dusty’s surprise, Blade Ranger was a character in the series, along with another helicopter named Nick “Loopin” Lopez. After the episode ends, Dusty wonders why Blade quit his job as a TV star and moved on to a firefighter in the first place. Early the next morning, we get another call for help when a fire starts after a lightning storm last night. Dynamite and the Smokejumpers are called to the forest to cut down the trees to stop the fire. The fire gets worse when the wind blows the fire and into another set of trees. They’re forced to leave until they get trapped by burning trees. This calls for Dusty Crophopper to save the day once again when he uses fire retardant to put out the fire and let the Smokejumpers past. Also, things have been a little boring recently, so the writer explains (which I forgot to mention earlier) that Chuga-Chuga-Choo-Choo and Sparky have found a gearbox that’s perfect for Dusty.
Now, you know that this perfect news isn’t going to last (foreshadowing). That night, the firefighters and Dusty are invited to a grand opening party at the Fusel Lodge. There, Dusty and our heroes meet a caravan couple named Harvey and Winnie (not Winnie the Pooh), who arrived at the park to celebrate their first kiss decades ago. They gather at a fire to celebrate the celebration and Windlifter activated his Native American-tribe mode when he tells a story (not important). The next morning, Dusty gets MORE bad news when it turns out that Dusty’s friends had the wrong gearbox and no one has Dusty’s gearbox after all. Poor, poor, abused, Dusty.
Another fire occurs and this time, it’s four hours from the Fusel Lodge. Cad Spinner refuses to evacuate everyone in the Lodge and to help out with our heroes, making the entire situation worse than ever before. Dusty tries to get more water to create more fire retardant at a river. The river has rapids however and Dusty is pulled along the rapids and into an obstacle course down the river. Blade and Dusty arrive at an abandoned mine and the fire begins to spread too much and Blade wants him and Dusty to go inside the mine for some shelter to wait for the fire to pass. Dusty then argues with Blade about having what it takes and confesses to him about his gearbox problem. I mean, Dusty never bothered to tell ANY OF THE FIREFIGHTERS ABOUT HIS DAMAGED GEARBOX, WHAT GIVES DUSTY???!!!!!!!!!!
Dusty now wants to no longer be a firefighter and Blade explains that if he ever gives up, he won’t be a firefighter and not save any lives tomorrow. This causes Dusty to persevere and risk his life to go inside the mine for shelter. Just as a large portion of flames go inside, Blade shields Dusty, protecting him from the fire and getting his engine damaged. Meanwhile, Cad opens a new statue/sign with himself at the Lodge and he goes into a brief argument with the park’s fire truck, Pulaski, and Cad’s pitty assistant, Andre. Cad wins the argument and insults Pulaski and Andre, wow, Cad is a major sleazeball and he really doesn’t deserve to be a park superintendant anyway. I would say this to him or any other people or fictional character that I despise.:
Anyways, Cad unveils the sign-thingy and everyone immediately leaves and evacuates the Lodge when the fire goes closer and closer than ever. Back with Dusty and Blade, it turns out that they both survived the entire ordeal and just as they’re about to leave, Blade tries to fly away, but he immediately loses control and crashes to the ground. Blade is soon taken back to the base and is catalyzed. Later that night, Dusty begins to blame himself for Blade’s injury and we finally get to hear the truth about Blade. It turns out that during a stunt show of “CHoPs”, Nick “Loopin” Lopez was killed when he lost control and crashed to the ground. As a result, Blade’s acting career was over and he became a firefighter ever since, which is REALLY something that should HAVE been mentioned EARLIER!!!!!!!!!!! Meanwhile, Cad’s selfishness strikes again when he refuses to give water to the firefighters and uses it on his roof sprinklers to save the Lodge from the fire.
Meanwhile (again), the evacuees try to escape from the fire by going to the entrance/exit, but it gets blocked by fire and some burning trees and Pulaski defends Ol’ Jammer (the park’s ranger) and the park’s Secretary of the Interior when a landslide occurs. Now, Pulaski’s sprinkler is damaged and the news is soon spread to the firefighters. They load and discover that there’s no water pressure (thanks to that major selfish dork) and are forced to use the last of their water. Dusty soon learns that Harvey and Winnie, from earlier, are now on a burning bridge and are going to die. He convinces Windlifter to help save them and Windlifter reluctantly agrees to let Dusty help save the couple.
The other firefighters put out the fire at the entrance, the evacuees escape, Dusty arrives at the bridge and immediately goes into the red and doesn’t pull power when he gets more water from the nearby waterfall. Blade (now conscious) helps save Harvey and Winnie and let them escape before the bridge collapses into the ravine below. Blade congratulates Dusty by saying the old quote from the show, “CHoPs”: “Good move, partner”, before Dusty breaks down and crashes into a bunch of trees. He falls under a 5 day coma and is brought back to the workshop to be repaired. Dusty soon awakes from his coma to find out two things.:
1.) Cad Spinner got his punishment by getting fired by the Secretary of the Interior and having Ol’ Jammer replace him. Well, Cad deserves it and that’s what he gets for being so selfish and not helping out heroes that risk their lives to save others that are about to get KILLED!!!!!!
2.) Dusty now has a new gearbox thanks to Maru and he can race again.
Blade is pleased over Dusty’s courageousness and gives him the certification of being a firefighter. Propwash Junction is now reopened, the Corn Festival is a success, Mayday (now good as new) thanks Dusty for his brave efforts, AND we conclude the film with an airshow starring Dusty Crophopper and the Piston Peak firefighters. As for Cad, well, let’s just say that he’s now part of Death Valley National Park. Like I said, he really deserves it!
THE END.
POST-FILM-FOLLOW-UP
I’ll give this film credit for focusing on something that is much more suitable than the same old “racing” storyline that we have in EVERY SINGLE “CARS” FILM!!!!!!! This time, it centers around firefighters, which is a nice way to honor heroes that need to get respect. However, the plot in this film is somewhat weak and it has a bunch of subplots that have nothing to do with the story, but it does make a way to keep the audience interested. The new characters are okay, even if they were pointless and are a bunch of background characters made just for the merchandising. In my opinion, I found Blade Ranger the much more interesting character in this film due to his backstory and personality. But, the execution of his subplot isn’t very good.
Dusty’s role in this film is completely bad, he acts like a major doofus until the very end. Also, there’s the lack of common sense between the characters and it’s very unrealistic!!!!!! I will admit, the animation was good as always, some jokes were funny, and some of the characters were memorable, even if some weren’t. Overall, this film is average and it’s an okay way to show how firemen should be depicted. However, this is NOT the worst “Cars” or “Planes” film ever made, but it’s still a tad below average. All in all, it deserves a 4/10, it wasn’t that good. However, this film is a little bit better than the previous one, even if it’s not much in line with the rest of the series. So, I’m going to change my score to a 6/10.
I’m The Detective Librarian and now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some things to deal with Cad.
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh, Caaaaaaaaaddddddd………
CAD SPINNER: WHAT?!
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: I’ve got a surprise for you!
CAD SPINNER: REALLY? I’m getting my old job back?????
THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: No…….For your punishment for being so selfish, we’re going to watch one of the worst films of all time!…….”Food Fight”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, they do have funny humor put into it and the jokes are funny, I’ll give them that, as well as really emotional and powerful scenes in their films. Take a look at “The Lion King” for example, it had emotional and powerful scenes, especially during Mufasa’s death scene and it got a lot of Disney-fans and the audience to tear up or feel emotional during that particular scene.
The Detective Librarian 