[Movies] The Good Dinosaur (2015) Review

These days it almost feels obligatory that one watch any new Pixar movie that comes out. And thus it can feel genuinely surprising when you realize that you may have missed a movie or to along the way despite your best efforts.

Enter The Good Dinosaur, a Pixar movie that I never properly watched from start to finish. I remember that we had tried to watch a downloaded copy some time back but we were clearly distracted and did not give the movie the attention it deserved in order to fully appreciate the story. I can't really remember why things were that way, but that's just how it played out.

While I do regret having not seen this particular Pixar movie sooner, I'll admit it's not exactly right up there with the best of them, if you get my drift. It's still pretty good and better than your average release but it also didn't quite shine as brightly as some of their other movies have. It's a little hard to explain but I'll try to capture my feelings about this movie in words.

[Movies] Finding Dory (2016) Review

It was hard to believe that the folks at Pixar had decided to make a sequel for Finding Nemo as that movie felt like the story was pretty much closed by the end of the film. After all the main quest of the movie - to find the young Nemo - had been fulfilled. So all's well that ends well, right?

But 13 years later Pixar released Finding Dory, which initially felt like a blatant cash grab to me and sort of not in tune with Pixar's general dedication to telling stories well and creating quality animated features. So a sequel to a pretty much closed story felt odd to say the least.

But hey, you just got trust in Pixar, I suppose, and see what sort of a story they'd try to tell. And true enough, they did find something to focus on that made sense - Dory's apparently complex back story. Sure she was funny as a supporting character in the first movie, but given the unique problem of having short-term memory loss can significantly complicate one's life. And that's where the story grew from, it seems.

[Movies] Incredibles 2 (2018) Review

When The Incredibles first came out in 2004, it was a revelation. It was a celebration of the classic superhero story genre with a retro aesthetic but very modern storytelling. It had a strong character-driven narrative that was strongly tied to the Parr family and it was just a LOT of fun.

There has always been a fan demand for a sequel and initially it felt like the only Pixar property that was getting any sequel love remained to be Toy Story. Brad Bird had made repeated statements that he wasn't sure what story to tell and thus wasn't rushing into the project.

Fast-forward to 2018 and here we are with a brand new movie in Incredibles 2 that is everything that we needed. Some speculated that it was going to become a commentary on more recent superheroes and related movie franchises but I'm glad that they didn't go in that direction and kept things well-focused on the family. That's the heart of this franchise and celebrating that family is way drives things forward.

[Videos] 107 Facts About the Incredibles

With The Incredibles 2 rocking theaters and proving just how much love there is for this franchise, it felt like a timely idea to re-share this Channel Frederator 107 Facts video about the original 2004 The Incredibles movie. And given how much effort went into this project, you can imagine that there are a heck of a lot of different aspects to this movie (now a franchise) that are totally worth digging into.


107 Incredibles Facts YOU Should Know - (ToonedUp #137) | ChannelFrederator
And if you're feeling brave enough to risk potential spoilers, they've already created a new 107 Facts video for The Incredibles 2 because we just can't get enough of the super-powered Parr family.


107 Incredibles 2 Facts You Should Know! | Channel Frederator

[TV] Star Wars: Rebels - Season 4 Review

As is often the case with shows that I love, I had somehow missed out on writing a proper review for the final season of Star Wars: Rebels because needless to say it was amazing. And it always begs the question of whether or not one should review just the season or the season in the context of an effort to wrap up the season and come up with a decent ending to things.

If anything this show remains a testament to the vision of producer Dave Filoni and his obvious love for the Star Wars franchise that is very much evident in every show he creates. He has a particular way about crafting a story that nicely marries old references without making it feel like you know nothing. He nicely balances the Legends side of the fandom alongside the newer fans learning about Star Wars for the first time through animated features like this.

I wasn't overly keen on the show when it began but by this final season I totally didn't want things to end. But at least it's a show that got a proper ending unlike Star Wars: The Clone Wars before it.

[Movies] A Wrinkle In Time (2018) Review

I had mixed feelings going into A Wrinkle in Time since Disney's track record with their recent big budget live-action movies has been rather mixed. There's a lot of love for the book that this movie was based on though, so that helped push away some of the initial trepidation. I have yet to read the original book, but it does seem to promise to contain a lot more of the quantum science that sort of defines the flavor and feel of this story.

The initial trailers for this movie certainly went all out and made sure to highlight the interesting cast of characters brought together for this movie. That's sort of par for the course for a lot of movies these days, especially the ones backed by a lot of moeny. But it isn't a guarantee of it being a good one either.

This movie left me a litle underwhelmed but I guess generally satisfied? There was clearly an effort to limit the movie in order to ensure it could be best appreciated by viewers of the same age as the protagonist but a little less likely to satisfy their older movie companions. Maybe it is what it is. Maybe it's something lacking.

[TV] Star Wars: Rebels Penultimate Week

This week saw the release of episodes 12 and 13 of the fourth and final season of Star Wars: Rebels. We have just one week to go before this crazy Dave Filoni trip draws to a close and the stage has been set for something pretty amazing.

If you've already watched this week's episodes, I strongly recomend that you check out this week's episode of Rebels Recon on the official Star Wars YouTube Channel as the folks behind the show including Dave Filoni himself discuss the revelations of these episodes and the thought process that went into the crafting of this story.



Rebels Recon: Inside "Wolves and a Door" and "A World Between Worlds"

Then for more Star Wars Rebels analysis, I suggest you pop on over to Star Wars Explained for another good break-down of this week's episodes and a more recent video trying to think about one of the biggest revelations of the episodes - the World Between the Worlds.


Star Wars Rebels Season 4 - Wolves and a Door & A World Between Worlds Episode Reviews


What is the World Between Worlds - Star Wars Rebels Season 4

[Videos] Star Wars: Rebels Mid-Season 4 Trailer

Because mid-season trailers are thing, we recently got our official mid-Season 4 trailer for Star Wars: Rebels as the show comes to an end. We also get a final air date for the last season - February 19, 2018. The first minute or so is mostly a clip show from past episodes but the second half of this trailer is pretty meaty.


Star Wars Rebels Mid-Season 4 Trailer (Official)
But if you're that sort of person, you can also check out various trailer break-down artciles and videos by now, but naturally I'll favor content from channels like Star Wars Explained, which are among my personal favorites for YouTube surfing.


Star Wars Rebels Mid-Season 4 Trailer Breakdown and Analysis
And while I don't want the show to end any more than you do, I am still excited to see how things will wrap up.

But darn it, Filoni better answer what happened to Ahsoka Tano.

[Movies] Coco (2017) Review

It is interesting how Disney Pixar has become such a trusted name in animation. Perhaps that statement is still inaccurate - we trust Pixar as storytellers and year over year they consistently manage to find new ways to tell highly personal and engaging stories in a variety of ways across a variety of story genres and all that good stuff. Long story short: Pixar makes good movies.

Coco was a little hard to read at first, but the general trust in the Pixar brand was enough to get us to the movie theater. The risk was how this felt of too similar a tone to The Book of Life, another movie that focuses on the mythos and aesthetic of the Mexican Day of the Dead - Dia de los Muertos.

But as has been often the case with many Pixar movies, it was a totally different animated experience and one that had us really amazed at how a seemingly simple story could be told so elegantly and so beautifully. This is an amazing movie.

[Star Wars] Win Exclusive The Last Jedi Swag with Grab!

Right before my recent Singapore trip I spotted an interesting Grab sedan vehicle dressed up to promote the Resistance featured in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and in the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It turns out Grab and The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia have a special tie-up that allows Grab riders to get chances to win exclusive movie merchandise and some major prizes as well. This is the last week for the promotion but don't fret, there's still time to compete!

The in-app Star Wars trivia quiz wasn't too difficult, but then again I'm quite the Star Wars geek so maybe my perspective is off. But it's totally worth trying for as the movie's premiere is just around the corner!

After  the cut is a full infographic related to the promotion and the full press release.

[TV] Ultimate Spider-Man: Season 1 Review

My continued explorations of the Disney-enhanced content library of iflix. And that led me to the odd single season if the Ultimate Spider-man animated TV series. Wikipedia tells me that the show ran for 4 seasons but we only get 1, but beggars can't  be choosers, eh?

This is not to disparage the show right off the bat, but I have to consider the fact that there have been a LOT of Spider-Man cartoons over the years. He's right up there for sheer variety of animated incarnations over the years. And the target demographic wildly between the very young child to the very hormonal teen.

This version of Spider-Man, as is the case of many Disney-Marvel ventures since the acquisition, definitely feels quite kid-centric. And so I was prepare to dislike the show as going full kid means that it's going to dumb thing down and reboot his continuity again.

And while that did happen...I didn't quite hate the show as much as I thought I would have. But it was hard to like it as well.

[Movies] Coco Final Trailer

We've had quite a number of trailers for Coco, the upcoming Disney Pixar movie starting with that adorable short film about Dante the Dog. Since then we've learned that the movie is set during the Mexican Día de Muertos festival period similar to what was tackled in The Book of Life.

But this movie has music as a start of its own and it's looking quite sharp and definitely vibrant. The final trailer came out this week and it's gorgeous.


Coco Official Final Trailer
And in case you missed them, here are all the other trailers that led up to this moment.


Disney•Pixar’s Coco presents “Dante’s Lunch - A Short Tail”


Coco - Official US Trailer


Coco - Official US "Find Your Voice" Trailer

[Movies] John Carter (2012) Review

The stronger ties between Disney and regional streaming service iflix have resulted in a lot of interesting new TV shows and movies added to the streaming library. And thus I'm now able to play catch up with a variety of Disney programming that I didn't get to watch on TV or in the theater. It's a mixed bag of the good, the bad and the ugly, in a manner of speaking.

I didn't know enough about the source material that John Carter had been based on to be excited about the movie when it first came out, but it was hard to miss the promotional trailers given how hard Disney had been trying to market the movie at the time.

It's clear that Disney had a larger movie franchise in mind for John Carter based on the marketing efforts and the many stories they could draw upon for this franchise. But the actual movie was a little confusing and quite a narrative mess such that it's obvious why the franchise has no continued on beyond this first foray.

[TV] Guardians of the Galaxy: Season 1 Review

Like many other Marvel Cinematic Universe characters, the Guardians of the Galaxy have been re-positioned to also appeal younger audiences through an animated TV series. We had seen the same treatment applied to the Avengers before them and clearly Disney changing the core playbook.

The Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon largely follows the characters established in the movie franchise but with touches of the older comic book series in terms of supporting characters. Thus it's an odd mix of the old and the new and I rather enjoyed it.

It's not the best cartoon out there, and I often feel this way about Marvel's animated ventures on TV and home video. But it's close enough to remain fun and that's not something to be sneezed at. But at the same time there were rather shallow bits, which were a natural consequence of being a show marketed towards children but that always feels like a shame. After all the Guardians initially felt a lot grittier during their 2008 relaunch and I still look for that vibe when I encounter properties related to them.

[Movies] Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) Review

Wow, it's hard to believe that this is the fifth movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise. I had thought that we were done with the series after the third movie, but then it kept on going. And it's still going apparently and I'm honestly beginning to worry that it's not going to stop anytime soon.

Dead Men Tell No Tales is the title of the fifth movie. Let's say that again - there is actually a fifth Pirates movie. It blows the mind to really think about it.

Tobie and I ended up watching it on home video just for the heck of it. At this point it's hard to not watch these movies since you're curious as to what sort of a story they're going to come up with this time around.

It's not that the movies are bad - but more they're really running out of runway. Things are starting to feel tired and the franchise is feeling the weight of its own internal running gags and tropes. And yet there is still talk of a possible sequel.

[Videos] Star Wars Rebels Season 4 Trailer 2

So the second trailer for the fourth and final season of Star Wars Rebels hit the internet recently and I'm still reeling over the implications. There's a lot more shown of whats to come but also a lot more questions that remain unanswered.

And it feels like showrunner Dave Filoni is taunting us with just how many wolves are in this crazy trailer. So. Many. WOLVES.

There's no sign of Ahsoka Tano yet (Ahsohka LIVES!) but I continue to hold out for her making an appearance. But man there's other great stuff like references to the Death Star and thus the Rogue One time period draws ever closer.


Star Wars Rebels Season 4 Trailer 2 (Official)

[Videos] 107 Facts About Darkwing Duck

Darkwing Duck, strange Batman-like creation of the 90's with the somewhat cool catch phrase of "Let's get DANGEROUS". With a DuckTales reboot about to hit TV screens soon complete with notable DuckTales crossover character Gizmoduck back in the original series, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of Darkwing Duck nostalgia going around for all the good feels.

Clearly ChannelFrederator was thinking along the same lines when they released this 107 Facts video about Darkwing Duck to join their prior 107 Facts video about DuckTales. So let's geek out over all this brilliant duckery!

But enough squawking. Let's. Get. Dangerous.


107 Darkwing Duck Facts YOU Should Know! - Cartoon Facts! (107 Facts S6 E20)

[TV] DuckTales First Full Trailer

Okay, I'm old enough to have been part of that generation that grew up with the crazy adventures of Scrooge McDuck along with his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie in the original DuckTales. I wasn't sure how to feel about the news of a reboot until Disney decided to knock it out of park with their initial casting announcements.

Headlining the show is David Tennant (my Doctor!) as Scrooge McDuck. We have some major comedians playing the kids with Danny Pudi as Huey, Ben Schwartz as Dewey, Bobby Moynihan as Louie and Kate Micucci as Webby. And there was the news of Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Fenton Crackshell, perhaps better known as Gizmoduck from the spin-off Darkwing Duck series.

The initial teaser trailers didn't quite give you a good feel for the show but this first look trailer is just AMAZING it has me wanting to sing the classic theme out loud because IT'S ALL SO GOOD.

So I guess think Doctor Who but with ducks maybe?


DuckTales First Look | DuckTales | Disney XD

[TV] Star Wars Rebels Season Four Trailer

This year's Star Wars Celebration at Orlando, Florida was the place to be as a Star Wars fan given all the teasers, trailers, panels and other fun bits that gave fans a lot to speculate about. And as much as I love the Star Wars movies, I'll have to admit that more of my life has a Star Wars fan has been spent exploring the stories of the old Expanded Universe, now known as Star Wars Legends.

And thus why I've fallen deeply in love with Star Wars Rebels as the continues to bring back Legends stories and characters into the new Star Wars canon thanks to the likes of Dave Filoni who breathe life into the show. And the trailer for the fourth and final season of Star Wars Rebels is quite a doozy.


Star Wars Rebels Season 4 Trailer (Official)
You can also check out the official Star Wars Rebels panel from Celebration here:


Star Wars Rebels Season Four Panel - Star Wars Celebration Orlando 2017

[TV] Star Wars Rebels: Season 3

The end of season 2 of Star Wars Rebels was quite an amazing narrative climax and I wasn't quite sure how they'd follow-up from that point. I mean seriously, it was one of the best fights that we had seen in the series - or perhaps across most of the Star Wars franchise as well.

But season 3 of Star Wars Rebels promised a lot of big things to get folks excited. And this applied to both younger fans and older ones with memories of the larger Star Wars Expanded Universe, now known as Star Wars Legends.

The biggest piece of news that really made this season so exciting was the reintroduction of Grand Admiral Thrawn into the current Star Wars canon. He was definitely a fan favorite from the older books and to have him in the new canon was a great reassurance that Rebels was truly proving to be a great venue for "saving" elements from the old canon and bringing them into the present for all the newer Disney-provided fans.

It's a good time for the Star Wars fandom.