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The Scrotum Toad
The Scrotum Toad
Charles Moberly | 2022 | Humor & Comedy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A delightful mix of unique characters.

Set against an African back drop, with descriptions of pure beauty and wonder, The Scrotum Toad pulls you into a story that can outshine any soap opera. Full of quirky, fun characters each with their own special personality traits and levels of intelligence and luck (how on earth Stanley has made it as far in life as he has is beyond me)

Each character does have endearing qualities, I'll be honest though, it took me a little while to warm up to Tangle but that's definitely down to having to rearrange my way of thinking. She's quite the inspiration.
  
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LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Maleficent (2014) in Movies

Oct 19, 2019 (Updated Oct 25, 2019)  
Maleficent (2014)
Maleficent (2014)
2014 | Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
A refreshing take on a beloved classic
Sleeping Beauty is one of the most famous classic animated Disney features of all time, and that is partly thanks to the villain of the piece - Maleficent.
When I think back to watching Sleeping Beauty as a child, Maleficent is the main aspect that sticks out.
A being of seemingly pure evil, who would curse a baby just because.

This live action re telling of Sleeping Beauty shifts the focus to Maleficent almost exclusively, and explores an untold backstory that gives the character a whole different aspect.
And I reckon it's done pretty well.
Angelina Jolie is obviously having fun playing the strong fairy Queen, who turns to the dark side after she's done over by King Stefan, and she plays both the sympathetic and evil parts of Maleficent with style, with sprinkles of dark humour here and there for good measure.
Stefan is played by Sharlto Copley, who I loved im both District 9, and Elysium, so it's interesting to see him do something different here.
Aurora is more of a side character this time around, but Elle Fanning does a good job of fitting in when the narrative calls for it.

The film looks great for the most part. The more colourful palette of The Moors is lovely and feels suitably magical, and the darkness of the thorned forest plays well with a more gothic athstetic, and it's all backed up by a terrific score (courtesy of James Newton Howard).

The CGI is still pretty passable considering the film is now 5 years old, only becoming more obvious in the flying scenes.

The only things I didn't like about Maleficent, was mainly the three fairy godmothers. I know that Disney need to fill a certain quota of silly humour, but they became quickly annoying and actually quite out of place with the rest of the film.
Some of the dialogue is quite cheesy (especially when Maleficent performs the curse on Aurora) but little things like this are to be expected from a Disney fairytale.

All in all, Maleficent is great fun, and pretty good twist to a well established classic story.