Robot Chicken-style supervillain sitcom.
What better character to explore the weird supervillains and goons dynamic of the Marvel universe than a gigantic head in a floating chair?
Tonnes of in-jokes, Patton Oswalt is perfectly cast, the whole thing is light, silly fun.
Recommended.
The best of the Disney+ Marvel shows so far.
Production design is outstanding, the cast is charismatic and strange. It’s a tight six episodes too, which is a real sweet spot for these series. Feels like the best parts of a Dr Who adventure mashed together with a big budget behind it.
There’s SO MUCH fan service drawing from the deepest, more ridiculous and obscure depths of Marvel Comics’ silliness.
Ultimately the story ends up servicing the next big phase of MCU projects, but it does so with style and the characters are fun. I mean, they weren’t exactly going to let Tom Hiddleston off the hook easily, were they?
Alligator Loki is MVP.
Recommended.
Possibly the lightest, summeriest Pixar film to date — one that’s thankfully not interested in heavy emotional subject matter but would rather just present a nice, simple story and it delivers a delight.
Two young sea monsters sneak up on land to win a triathalon so they can buy a Vespa. Friendships are formed, hijinx ensue.
The visuals take on a sort of extremely advanced claymation quality, complimented by saturated colours and an expressive animation style.
Charm in spades, it’s a warm and easy film that unfortunately might end up overlooked due to skipping a theatrical release in favour of jumping straight to Disney+.
Don’t sleep on it though, it’s great.
Solid family adventure film with the obligatory gorgeous Disney Animated visuals.
At what point do we stop commenting on how pretty each new one is, given that the next one will inevitably somehow manage to surpass it? Nonetheless, design aesthetics are fantastic here, and unique among their animated collection.
It’s a Disney princess film with a SouthEast Asian setting, no love interests and a vaguely post-apocalyptic bent.
Potentially questionable moral for young children about trusting untrustworthy people, but overall it’s pretty great.
Recommended.
A solid start to the MCU’s new Disney+ arm.
A little slow to start for the first two or so episodes, but quickly gets comfortable playing with its concept and pushes what’s expected of a superhero show out into some interesting directions.
I’ll save the big plot twists and geekery for a spoiler section after the click-through, but safe to say there’s some solid easter eggs and fan service woven into it all.
If you’re not familiar with much of the Marvel universe there’s still a decent amount to enjoy in the satirisation of various television sitcoms over the years, and at its heart it’s fundamentally about Wanda and her sadness. If anything it could have stood to lean a little harder on the sitcom tropes, since there was a lot of good material in the supporting cast that felt a little shoved aside when the main arc needed to wrap up.
Great supporting cast, Paul Bettany imbues The Vision with a wonderful humanity, and extra accolades must go out to Elizabeth Olsen for such a multi-faceted performance anchoring it all together.
Hard to say what got shuffled out in terms of the larger MCU tie-ins since the release schedule was scrambled last year, but it’s a worthy addition to the canon and bodes well for the D+ series going forward.
Criticisms and larger discussions are pretty spoilery so consider yourself warned:
SPOILERS AHEAD
Continue reading “WANDAVISION (2021)”
All the emotional storytelling you’ve come to expect from Pixar wrapped up in stunningly brilliant abstracted visuals and perfect sound design.
In a lot of ways it presents as Ratatouille for music, but it has much more to offer while still keeping a light enough touch that you never feel clubbed over the head by its themes.
The otherwordly soundtrack and score is fantastic (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross doing a Pixar film?!) and the visual design (especially around the astral elements) is absolutely gorgeous.
Of course, you already assume that, going into one of these, and I’m happy to report the quality is strong and rich as ever.
Of the two or three major cinematic releases that dropped to streaming for Xmas this year, this is absolutely the one you should watch.
NERVE.SQUID.PILOT 