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Kevin Phillipson (10072 KP) rated Doctor Who: Evil of The Daleks in TV

Sep 28, 2021 (Updated Sep 28, 2021)  
Doctor Who: Evil of The Daleks
Doctor Who: Evil of The Daleks
1967 | Sci-Fi
9
6.7 (3 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
Patrick Troughton (1 more)
Daleks
Been wanting to this one for along missing from the archives for fifty years now reanimated and I've just finished watching in my opinion one of the best daleks story's of the 60s which at the time was gonna be there last story as there was an attempt to create a spin off show to be shown on us tv but wasn't made which was a shame. It has every thing daleks at there most evil an emperor dalek civil war between the daleks plus patrick Troughton at his best it ticks all the boxes just a shame the orignal version was wiped leaving episode 2 and this animated version as its legacy
  
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Blazing Minds (92 KP) rated Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (2018) in Movies

Nov 1, 2021 (Updated Nov 3, 2021)  
Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (2018)
Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (2018)
2018 | Comedy, Horror
All hell breaks loose when a strange force animates the puppets up for auction at a convention, setting them on a bloody killing spree that’s motivated by an evil as old as time in Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich. which was recently shown at the Fractured Visions Film Festival.

I remember many years ago, in those days of VHS back in the 80s/90s seeing the first Puppet Master movie, it was one of the movies that I loved, not for just the slightly gory bits, but also for the way that the puppets were created and animated on the screen, via stop-frame animation and practical effects as well.
  
Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm (1993)
Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm (1993)
1993 | Action, Animation, Family
Spin-off/prequel from the 90s TV show "Batman: The Animated Series", which comes across as more mature than that Saturday morning cartoon, and which sees Batman implicated in a series of brutal murders of various gangsters.

This also has several flashback sequences to when Bruce Wayne first donned the mask, and to a pre-Joker Joker (although no sign of Harley Quinn here, understandably) and to a lost love of Bruce Wayne's life.

Despite not showing up until roughly the half way mark, Mark Hammill also shows why his interpretation of the clown prince of crime stands as one of the very best (and almost steals the entire show from both Batman and The Phantasm)
  
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Darren (1599 KP) rated Akira (1988) in Movies

Jun 20, 2019  
Akira (1988)
Akira (1988)
1988 | Action, Animation, Sci-Fi
9
8.5 (17 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Story: In the aftermath of World War III in 1988 Tokyo has had to build again and 31 years later in the 2019 New-Tokyo is on the edge of the next war. We follow Kaneda and school student the leader of a biker gang including Tetsuo and Kei. When Tetsuo ends up involved in an accident after getting distracted by Takashi a young boy with certain abilities he gets taken by the government.

When Colonel Shikishima is running an operation to find Akira the cause of the previous World War the three children Takashi, Kiyoko and Masaru must prevent this happening while Tetsuo ends up becoming power and a threat to the whole city. Kaneda teams up with the resistance against the government through Kei and we follow as every side comes to a battle that will need to stop a future war.

Akira reaches levels most action films could never imagine with the number of character in the overall battle each having their own motives behind being involved. The look at what a future could have been all looks great and coming from a graphic novel everything works for what the film is trying to achieve. The violence is unlike anything you would have seen in an animated film which helps shows the world we will be entering.

Character Review

Kaneda: Kaneda is the leader of the school aged biker gang who drives the iconic red bike, when one of his gang is kidnapped by the government he joins the resistance against the government movement. Once we see what happens with his friend Tetsuo he must fight his old friend to stop the next World War happen. Kaneda is a great leading character that even after nearly 30 years is still one of the most iconic in all of animated film history.kaneda

Tetsuo: Tetsuo is a member of Kaneda’s biker gang but after he has an accident the government takes his away to use in their latest experiments. What happens to Tetsuo leads him to become a threat to the city as he searches for Akira a threat not just to Neo-Tokyo but the world. Tetsuo starts of as just a member of the gang wanting to become more and once he has the powers he learns he isn’t ready to have the leadership when he ends up turning on the people he once considered friends, a great villainous character without being a true villain.tetsuo

Kei: Kei is a member of the resistance that Kaneda rescues from the police before joining forces Kaneda to stop the government and rescue Tetsuo from bring Akira back from the dead. Kei is the potential romantic angle for Kaneda who is also as tough as they come, she also has a connection to the children with the abilities.kei

Support Characters: Akira has a large amount of supporting characters which include Kaneda’s gang who all stick with him when he needs to fight. We also have the resistance who help Kei and Kaneda achieve the battle. We have the three kids who have to abilities in their own right that together making the deadly but also fighting for the right thing. We also have one last group and that is the government who want to bring the Akira power back as a weapon.

Director Review: Katsuhiro Otomo – Katsuhiro brings us his own graphic novel to the bring screen which offers one of the most entertain and well developed characters in recent film.

Action: Akira has action from start to finish, we have a motorbike chase to open the film, constant chases to either reach someone or escape from them and the final fight oh my god what a brilliant conclusion.

Animation: Akira has simply brilliant looking animation that help bring the action to life and once more I refer to the final scene which is just breathtaking visual moment.

Sci-Fi: Akira brings us into a future world where the world has been through another World War and had to rebuild in a new future with the Neo-Tokyo.

Settings: Akira creates a futuristic looking world that helps us identify just how far into the future we have gone with the story.

Suggestion: Akira is one for all the animated fans to see because it really is a visual treat with a stunning story that will stick with you. (Animated Fans Watch)

Best Part: The final battle which will leave your jaw dropped with how amazing it looks.

Worst Part: I would say this is going to be too violent for certain animated fans.

Action Scene Of The Film: The final battle is easily the best scene in the whole film and could easily be the best one in action animated films.

Believability: No

Chances of Tears: No

Chances of Sequel: No

Post Credits Scene: No

Oscar Chances: No

Runtime: 2 Hours 4 Minutes

Tagline: Signal Traced to Tokyo!

Trivia: The movie takes place in 2019 and depicts Neo-Tokyo creating a new Olympic stadium. Coincidentally, Tokyo is scheduled to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Overall: Akira really is one of the best animated film that ever got made that will still be talked about for years to come.

https://moviesreview101.com/2015/09/30/akira-1988/
  
Sing (2016)
Sing (2016)
2016 | Animation, Comedy, Musical
Fun for all the family
Talking animated animals are big business over in Hollywood. After all, Disney’s Zootopia was one of only a handful of films to gross over $1billion last year. Its competitor, The Secret Life of Pets performed well but wasn’t critically successful.

Here, the company behind that second film, Illumination Entertainment, try to get the genre right with Sing. But are we looking at the next superstar of the animated genre?

Koala Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) presides over a once-grand theatre that has recently fallen on hard times. An eternal optimist, he loves his work enormously and will do anything to preserve it. Facing the crumbling of his life’s ambition, he takes one final chance to restore his fading jewel to its former glory by producing a singing competition, with eternal glory facing the winner.

There’s an impressive roster of talent on offer in Sing, something that parents will no doubt enjoy slightly more than the offspring they no doubt have to bring with them. With Matthew McConaughey taking the lead role, Taron Egerton, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson and Seth McFarlane to name a few all lend their voices. There’s even a role for Brit-favourite Jennifer Saunders as a grumpy old sheep, it’s not ground-breaking, but it’s immensely likeable stuff.

Illumination Entertainment has brought us the brilliant Despicable Me franchise as well as its ridiculously successful spin-off Minions, but they’ve been criticised heavily for relying too much on the funny yellow critters to cash their paycheques. Thankfully, bar the now infamous company logo, the tic-tac shaped creatures are nowhere to be found and Sing is a vastly entertaining movie, in spite of their absence.

Whilst it’s true that the animation lacks the depth or fluidity of offerings from Pixar, Disney, and Dreamworks, there is a certain charm to its simplistic colour palate that children will find endearing. The plot is woefully unoriginal but director Garth Jennings, in his first animated feature, utilises that well, cleverly referencing the many talent shows that feature on our television screens – including those we are sick of.

There are some moral lessons in here too. Tori Kelly’s stage-shy elephant Meena has a great story arc that sees her face her fears and embrace her talents, whilst Taron Egerton’s gorilla Johnny stands up to his criminal father and learns that a life of crime doesn’t always pay.

In fact, only Seth MacFarlane’s obnoxious mouse Mike fails to make an impact on the plot, with his berating of an asthmatic sheep in the cleverly produced opening sequence coming across a little crude in comparison to the rest of the script.

Overall, Sing is a great film to hold the kid’s attention as we approach the half-term holidays. It would be easy to criticise it for lacking an original story, but there’s more to offer here than a half-baked plot. It’s beautifully voiced and reasonably well animated. Illumination Entertainment may not have topped Zootopia, but this is their best offering outside of Despicable Me by a country mile.

https://moviemetropolis.net/2017/01/28/fun-for-all-the-family-sing-review/
  
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Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Dante's Inferno (2010) in Movies

Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Jun 23, 2019)  
Dante's Inferno (2010)
Dante's Inferno (2010)
2010 | Action, Animation, Drama
6
7.5 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A commercial for the Dante's Inferno video game aired during Super Bowl XLIV, which gave viewers the impression that the game would be incredibly reminiscent of games like Devil May Cry and God of War. Although I never played the game, Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic was sent to me by the Amazon Vine program. My expectations weren't very high and that seemed to pay off in the long run. The animated feature takes the Batman: Gotham Knight approach where six different animation directors take hold of the film, but Dante's Inferno tells one semi-coherent story.

The film surely has no issue with showing graphic violence, gore, or nudity as there rarely isn't a moment in the 77 minute feature where buckets of blood aren't falling from the sky or where Dante's beloved Beatrice isn't exposing her rather well-endowed set of breasts. The changes in animation seemed rather infrequent and drastic at times while at others it felt a bit more natural. The voice acting is pretty top notch as the film utilizes voice actor veterans such as Mark Hamill, Steve Blum, and Kevin Michael Richardson.

Dante's descent through the nine circles of hell was unintentionally humorous at times though.; the main example being when he's fighting off and fleeing from the army of dead babies in Limbo. Also, his father accepting Lucifer's offer to work for him in exchange for all the gold he desired and the slaying of his mortal son wasn't surprising, but the fact that his mouth now looked like female genitalia was. Certain things just didn't add up at times. In the end, Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic isn't terrible but isn't fantastic either. It's not worth hunting down specifically, but is worth sitting through on a rainy day afternoon or something.

The only special features included on the DVD are the EA game trailer and animatics for five scenes in the film.

For those interested in which animation studio did what, here they are in order:

Film Roman (American animation studio)
Manglobe (Samurai Champloo) picks up when Dante enters Limbo (directed by Shuko Mirase who did Ergo Proxy and Witch Hunter Robin, easily the best out of the bunch)
Dongwoo Animation handles the next four circles of Hell (unfortunately)
JM Animation steps in when Virgil and Dante reach the City of Dis
The final circle is handled by Production I.G.