Rate the Last Film You Watched

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Lady Oscar

One of the earliest live-action manga adaptations, Lady Oscar is an English-language French/Japanese co-produced adaptation of Riyoko Ikeda's classic The Rose of Versailles. It's a fascinating entry in Demy's filmography - his most political work up to that point, with an anger and purpose that he would carry through to his final decade with Une chambre en ville and Parking prior to his tragic death from HIV/AIDS.

Despite being an adaptation, it feels at times to be a deeply personal work: a piece of queer, revolutionary pop-art about a girl raised as a boy that is as much about sexuality and gender identity as it is about sticking two fingers up to the bourgeoise - from Jacques Demy, a (as far as I'm aware, closeted) bisexual whose sexuality was rarely, if ever, discussed or addressed in his work or that of his great wife, Agnes Varda.

I don't think Lady Oscar has ever been available here or in the States, but I imported the Japanese Blu-Ray release which boasts a gorgeous restoration from a 6K scan and a great interview with star Catriona MacColl, whose career then took her to three films by Italian horror great Lucio Fulci - City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, and The House By the Cemetery.
 
Aftersun - Holy -! The debut feature from writer-director Charlotte Wells explores a young woman's memory of a childhood holiday to Turkey with her father, who is played by Paul Mescal. It's extraordinary; I doubt I'll see a better film this year. It's the way it doesn't just explore memory but the texture of it, heightening the emotion, the melancholy, the sense of grief and loss for something but for what? The past? A person? What was or what is now? Also the best use of Queen/David Bowie in a film that I've ever seen. A

Bones and All - Luca Guadagnino reunites with Timothee Chalamet in a cannibal romance that takes us on a road trip across the less explored parts of Reagan's America. I suspect it might not be to everyone's tastes as it doesn't shy away from some of the gorier aspects of its subject matter but, at its core, it's a tender, moving love story between two individuals who find themselves as outsiders, with tastes and appetites they can't control that threaten their humanity. Fantastic. A-
 
More Hong Kong genre films.

Yes, Madam! (1985)

Corey Yuen's crime thriller about a pair of mismatched detectives was massively influential in its day - kickstarting a new boom for female action heroes in HK while making stars of then unknown Michelle Yeoh and martial artist Cynthia Rothrock - but feels a bit rough and ready compared to what came afterwards. The stunt work is top notch and the film shines whenever Yeoh and Rothrock are onscreen, but despite their heavy presence in any marketing for it, it feels as though the film's focus was originally intended to be the trio of hapless petty thieves who come into possession of the film's mcguffin microfilm. In a different movie, this might have worked well enough, John Sham in particular does okay as the comic relief, but they are given a lot of screentime and here it's hard not to see their scenes as anything more than a distraction from Yeothrock's baddie battering. Definitely worth a look, but anyone expecting a Lethal Weapon-style buddy cop movie may be frustrated.

Fractured Follies (1988)

Part of a late-80s trend for 1930s-style screwball comedy, this starts off looking like it'll be in the kind of purposely questionable taste we'd see later from people like Adam Sandler, with goony taxi driver Chow Yun Fat slowly falling for disabled shop worker Joey Wang after hitting her with his cab in a traffic accident, but soon develops into something pleasingly lightweight that plays well to the two stars' easy charm and onscreen chemistry. Very episodic and not without the usual brief moment of tonal whiplash, as CYF and his fellow cabbies bust an illegal porn ring (seriously), but plenty of gentle gags make this a relaxing watch.

The Top Bet aka Queen of Gamblers (1991)

A sequel of sorts to Stephen Chow's breakout hit All For the Winner, itself a spoof of megahit God of Gamblers, this sees casino owner Blackie (Ng-Man Tat) up to his neck in hot water when his supernaturally gifted nephew (Chow) disappears to travel the world, only for a violent mob boss to demand he produce Chow to be his representative in an upcoming high stakes tournament. At first Blackie's prayers seem to have been answered when Chow's equally powerful sister (an almost unrecognisable Anita Mui) turns up from the PRC to look for him, but she thinks gambling for money is abhorrent and refuses to co-operate, forcing Blackie to look to a blue-collar card-sharp (Carol Cheng) he finds hustling her co-workers at the local fishmarket.

The film is about fifteen minutes too long and too convoluted at times, but this is a real tour-de-force for Carol Cheng, who has a plum starring role as the motor-mouthed con-artist in over her head, and absolutely brings her a-game here, demonstrating considerable comic talent and upstaging everyone else. There's plenty to enjoy in her catty rivalry with Mui in particular, it's just a shame that the film couldn't have been more focused on that. Would recommend, but probably better to at least see God of Gamblers first to understand the tropes it's playing with.
 
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Even more HK actioners.

Angel Terminators (1992)

Sharon Yeung Pan Pan and Kara Hui star as two detectives coming up against a sneering Japanese gang boss (Kenneth Tsang), following his return from exile in Thailand. The action is very strong here, with great set-pieces throughout (I was particularly impressed with the sense of scale during an ambush on a police motorcade), but the film is surprisingly grim away from these, with a lengthy addiction/withdrawal subplot that seems to have been borrowed from The French Connection 2, a film I've never much cared for. Worth a look if you don't mind that.

Angel Terminators 2 (1993)

An in-name-only sequel to the previous film, this time seeing teenage delinquents Yukari Oshima and Moon Lee in too deep after crossing a strutting gang leader (Chin Bo). A very different experience to the previous outing that feels more recent than it actually is, given the way the characters are styled and the pleasing, verite-style immediacy it brings to the set pieces. The characterisation is noticably stronger too, with a especially good turn from Oshima, who is very convincing as a sullen young woman trying to readjust to life on the outside, following a spell in prison. Having watched the two back to back, however, there was a certain wildness about the action in the first film that I missed here, particularly once it reached the final showdown, which feels a little ordinary compared with what precedes it. A better film and a solid crime drama overall, if nothing original.

Princess Madam (1989)

In marked contrast to his famously terrible output from the middle of the decade, Godfrey Ho’s Princess Madam is surprisingly (maybe even disappointingly) competent - it feels like a real movie, with a plot you can almost follow! It's still a bit confusing, but broadly speaking, it's the story of two police detectives (Sharon Yeung paired with Moon Lee this time) assigned to protect a bratty witness due to help convict her gangster former lover, but things become complicated after an attempted hit on her fails, and one of the surviving assassins (Michiko Nishiwaki) becomes obsessed with ruining Moon Lee's life. There is a lot going on here and it isn't always easy to follow, but it moves at a relentless pace and, again, boasts some good action set pieces, even if it occasionally feels as if the two leads are starring in different films to each other - Yeung experiencing a more serious heroic bloodshed style drama about her family's ties to the criminals, while Lee is caught up in something campier and more Hollywood-esque as Nishiwaki stalks her husband. Yeung is very good here though and really sells the ridiculous drama, while Nishiwaki is always good value as the scenery chewing villain. With its eye-watering dialogue (poor translation maybe?) and questionable narrative logic, it's certainly more inept than the other two films I've mentioned here, but there's a sort of gonzo charm about this one that I feel makes it the most entertaining of the bunch.
 
The Incredibles

Pixar's magnum opus IMO; this film has so much to like about it, nostalgia plays a huge part in my opinion but I also liked Disney's Robin Hood when I was younger only to despise it now so nostalgia can only go so far; thankfully The Incredibles has so much more than nostalgia going for it.

First off, the story is an excellent twist on the superhero genre, it takes the tropes of many a superhero film and twists them in some clever way, for example, capes are forbidden by Edna as they have gotten many supers killed, a neat bit of foreshadowing for Syndrome's death at the end, this is just one of the many examples of how the usual trappings of superhero films are subverted in this film; not to mention how much of a legend Mr Incredible is, a character who is all about helping those who cannot help themselves and is not afraid to really take the gloves off when he needs to.

By Pixar's usual family friendly standards this film can actually get pretty violent at times, obviously it's not going to make Mortal Kombat look like the Teletubbies but I respect it for not holding back when it needs to go all out; a far cry from any other Disney/Pixar film I have seen.

The characters are the cement that holds this all together; Mr Incredible is one of my favourite Pixar characters, Syndrome is a fantastic villan with a unique motive that is perhaps, despite it's absurdity, more realistic than the moustache twirlers that Disney loved to keep chucking off their respective cliffs or into their respective voids, most of the other characters range from good to great, let's not forget Frozone and his "super suit"; speaking of which, this film is incredibly quotable; one example is how Syndrome says that when everyone is super then no one will be, lines like these trust the audience to get the message as they do not pepper them with exposition, just one simple line will suffice.
This is all aided by a memorable voice performance from basically everyone.

Another thing is how this takes inspiration from spy thrillers as well as superhero stories; giving it yet another layer to an already great film.

The most prevalent issue I have stems somewhat from the fact that visually it hasn't aged great, I do think that the look has a charm to it but compared to Dreamwork's efforts with Shrek 2, which has far better lighting and effects thanks to global illumination, it's clear to see that Pixar still had a ways to go at the time.

Despite the dated visuals, The Incredibles is a genuinely fun film to watch and is basically an essential film for the few people who haven't already seen it; this is the one Pixar film that I was happy to watch more than once.

Score 10/10
 
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The Incredibles

Pixar's magnum opus IMO; this film has so much to like about it, nostalgia plays a huge part in my opinion but I also liked Disney's Robin Hood when I was younger only to despise it now so nostalgia can only go so far; thankfully The Incredibles has so much more than nostalgia going for it.

First off, the story is an excellent twist on the superhero genre, it takes the tropes of many a superhero film and twists them in some clever way, for example, capes are forbidden by Edna as they have gotten many supers killed, a neat bit of foreshadowing for Syndrome's death at the end, this is just one of the many examples of how the usual trappings of superhero films are subverted in this film; not to mention how much of a legend Mr Incredible is, a character who is all about helping those who cannot help themselves and is not afraid to really take the gloves off when he needs to.

By Pixar's usual family friendly standards this film can actually get pretty violent at times, obviously it's not going to make Mortal Kombat look like the Teletubbies but I respect it for not holding back when it needs to go all out; a far cry from any other Disney/Pixar film I have seen.

The characters are the cement that holds this all together; Mr Incredible is one of my favourite Pixar characters, Syndrome is a fantastic villan with a unique motive that is perhaps, despite it's absurdity, more realistic than the moustache twirlers that Disney loved to keep chucking off their respective cliffs or into their respective voids, most of the other characters range from good to great, let's not forget Frozone and his "super suit"; speaking of which, this film is incredibly quotable; one example is how Syndrome says that when everyone is super then no one will be, lines like these trust the audience to get the message as they do not pepper them with exposition, just one simple line will suffice.
This is all aided by a memorable voice performance from basically everyone.

Another thing is how this takes inspiration from spy thrillers as well as superhero stories; giving it yet another layer to an already great film.

The most prevalent issue I have stems somewhat from the fact that visually it hasn't aged great, I do think that the look has a charm to it but compared to Dreamwork's efforts with Shrek 2, which has far better lighting and effects thanks to global illumination, it's clear to see that Pixar still had a ways to go at the time.

Despite the dated visuals, The Incredibles is a genuinely fun film to watch and is basically an essential film for the few people who haven't already seen it; this is the one Pixar film that I was happy to watch more than once.

Score 10/10

Great review overall but having seen many other Pixar and Disney films multiple times I don't really think you're being entirely fair to them. Ursula is effing terrifying to me even now as an utterly monstrous creature, essentially female Cthlulu and Hunchback of Notre Dame for all that it changes a lot from the book is a remarkably dark piece of filmmaking given it's ostensible target age group (my PA is a middle-aged man who mostly can't really stand Disney films and he actually genuinely enjoyed that one when he and I watched it together). Disney princess movies and their protagonists get waaay too much flak as well IMO but tbf you didn't say anything negative about them yourself I just find the relentless bashing of western media aimed at girls rather tiresome and sexist. I do get some of this comes down to taste and I'm not trying to start some sort of nasty flamewar or anything but I love animation in general not just anime so I'm defending it a lil here I guess.
 
Great review overall but having seen many other Pixar and Disney films multiple times I don't really think you're being entirely fair to them. Ursula is effing terrifying to me even now as an utterly monstrous creature, essentially female Cthlulu and Hunchback of Notre Dame for all that it changes a lot from the book is a remarkably dark piece of filmmaking given it's ostensible target age group (my PA is a middle-aged man who mostly can't really stand Disney films and he actually genuinely enjoyed that one when he and I watched it together). Disney princess movies and their protagonists get waaay too much flak as well IMO but tbf you didn't say anything negative about them yourself I just find the relentless bashing of western media aimed at girls rather tiresome and sexist. I do get some of this comes down to taste and I'm not trying to start some sort of nasty flamewar or anything but I love animation in general not just anime so I'm defending it a lil here I guess.
To be fair I haven't seen Little Mermaid so I cannot comment on how Ursula is; I have seen Hunchback of Notre Dame and it's pretty good but it is held back by Disney's usual trappings (the singing, the gargoyles, etc).

The only Disney princess movie I have seen, to my memory, is Moana and I think it would have been a very good film if not for the singing; it is very rare for a film to have characters start singing at inopportune moments that doesn't make me cringe, only Prince of Egypt and El Dorado truly pull this off (I'm not sure how myself but I think it's because they have fantastic melodies); I don't mind incidental singing though; like the one song in Treasure Planet.

Although I don't feel like rewatching other Pixar films; many of them are still great, Ratatouille is another classic from Brad Bird and Wall-E becomes a phenomenal film once they go to space, Up is an absolute rollercoaster and Coco is fascinating in how it depicts Mexican culture; I do think Pixar are fantastic for the most part.

As for Disney; I have seen some of their films and I can only name 3 that are truly excellent that I've seen; The Fox and the Hound was great (in spite of it's singing) due to a very emotional scene, Atlantis is a consistently excellent adventure film and... Treasure Planet, this film is on a whole other level (when Ben's not there at least) in fact I was planning on rewatching this one again before christmas because it is just so good, I think Atlantis is more consistent but when Treasure Planet is at it's best it puts most other films to shame.
There are other Disney films I've liked but only those three stuck with me.

I know my review made it seem like I was bashing on Disney but, like any company, they can do good when they put their mind to it.
 
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Shrek 2

As I got back into western animated films this year I thought that in the final days of the build up to christmas it would be fun to rewatch and rate my favourite films from Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks respectively; this is my favourite Dreamworks film and my favourite of all 3.

First off I should note that this will talk about the story of Shrek 2 which continues on from the first; as a result, there may be spoilers for the first film and, for reasons of practicality, only the spoilers for this film will be marked as such; in the unlikely event that you haven't seen the first Shrek; first off, check it out if possible, it's actually really good, secondly, stop reading here.

First off a bit of background; the first Shrek film was created as a massive take that to Disney; it takes the fairy tale stories that they built their empire off of and literally tears the page out to use as a 2020 holy grail, from what I have read, it was made out of revenge towards them but it was still an excellent film, primarily because Dreamworks did not lose sight of how to make a good film; with that said, it was not without it's issues, it had a ton of gross out humour and at least one of the lines felt a bit forced, at least to me; fast forward to the sequel however and all of the original's issues were either eliminated or toned down while everything that was good was cranked up to 11, not to mention all the new things that were added.

The story continues from where the first film left off; Shrek is married to Fiona and the two are on their honeymoon, after getting back they are invited to the land of Far Far Away; this is literally a fairy tale version of Hollywood with it even featuring a parody of the iconic sign, this film has a lot of brand parodies, many of which can get overlooked on the first viewing, this keeps the film fresh even after 5 viewings (yes this was my 5th); the characters are excellent as always, Shrek must overcome his insecurities after being shunned by society for so long and takes a long time coming to terms with it, Fiona tries to bridge the gap between her human family and Shrek, though he has no faith that they will accept him, which is not helped by King Harold's alterior motive and then there is the Fairy Godmother; one of the best villans in any film ever, she seems like a good person at first but she is really a dark empath who, as soon as she discovers that Shrek is not sure Fiona actually likes him, she zooms in on that insecurity and exploits it to such a degree that it nearly costs Shrek his wife; the climax is so good that it deserves it's own paragraph.
The quality of the twists present here is monumental; one of my favourite twists has Shrek turn into a human; this creates a what if scenario that flips the whole narrative on it's head in a sensible way.
Another thing I like regarding the story is that Shrek is not one of those unrealistic optimistic protagonists; he has been psychologically scarred by society's prejudice against ogres and this shows in his character development and personality.

There are so many little details scattered around, only last night did I notice the game of Parcheesi scattered on the floor in Shreks house after Donkey asked him if he would like a game of it; it's always fun looking for these little easter eggs.

Visually this looks incredible for 2004; this, I believe was the first film to use global illumination and it made a night and day difference between it and it's contemporaries; there is one scene where Shrek is looking out of a window that looks almost like a film that would be up to today's standards in terms of quality.

The humour is super funny in this film, Shrek's dark sense of humour, married to his iconic scottish accent by Mike Myers, just makes it all the better; in fact this whole film has a dark sense of humour that makes it perhaps even better for the adult me than the young me back in the day, I have laughed more at this film than I have at all Disney/Pixar movie's I have seen combined.

One of the most significant things about Shrek 2 however is the music; continuing on from the first film's method of having only the villans sing Disney esque songs, and instead opting for covers of pop classics to be the songs for anyone else; the covers for all of the songs slap super hard, the best of which being I need a hero; in fact, this is the climax that needs it's own paragraph.

Without this scene, this film would still be a very easy 9 out of 10 and maybe still a 10 but this scene kicks the film's score into the stratosphere with the best use of pop music I have ever seen; the original version of I need a hero is an absolute classic but this cover mixes it with several other synths and even some of the original score to create a perfect storm of action, tension, energy, whatever makes a good action scene, this scene probably has it; almost to the point of me wanting to break the 10 cap and rate this 11, 12, over 9000, the sky could be the limit but I have to keep it in the limit of something out of 10; detailing this scene any further would do it a disservice, it needs to be seen to be believed.

Shrek 2 is a legendary film; I personally say it's Dreamwork's magnum opus but they also made Prince of Egypt; personally I just about prefer Shrek 2 but the fact is that Dreamworks have at least 2 films under their belt that are worthy of a.

10/10 Shrekceptional

Now this must mean that Shrek the Third is good....................................................riiighhht??....................................................................
 
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I really like The Prince of Egypt because I saw it when I was small and thought it was amazing, and still do to this day. I think all the songs are great and the animation is beautiful, and the different stages of the story are very distinct. going to have to listen to through heaven's eyes now....
 
For me, the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy is very easily Dreamworks' best.
HTTYD has a lot to like about it; the character development, the setting, the music, all 3 films are great; I struggle to say which one is my favourite of the three because they are all about as good as each other; I especially like how Hiccup becomes more of a badass with each entry.

My vote goes to Rise of the Guardians :)
I haven't seen this yet but literally have planned to make it my christmas eve film for a while now; I don't know if it is really a christmas film but it has Santa in it so I'm hoping I made the right choice saving this to be the one.

I really like The Prince of Egypt because I saw it when I was small and thought it was amazing, and still do to this day. I think all the songs are great and the animation is beautiful, and the different stages of the story are very distinct. going to have to listen to through heaven's eyes now....
Prince of Egypt is another masterpiece from Dreamworks; the presentation is nigh on flawless and the symbolism is so powerful, to top it off the singing actually makes the film better; I almost never say this as I normally cringe when characters start singing out of nowhere but here they not only get away with it but it actually makes the film better; I think it's down to the fact that nearly every song has a phenomenal melody and sometimes the setting is appropriate, like with heavens eyes and playing with the big boys; both performed in places where the singing makes sense.

Dreamworks are one funny company in that they have on one end; Prince of Egypt, Spirit, El-Dorado Shrek 1, 2 and 4, HTTYD, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar 2, etc, while on the other hand they have Shrek the Third and Madagascar 3 (those two are the only truly bad Dreamworks films I've personally seen but they are both abysmal).
When Dreamworks do good; they do better than anyone else but when they do bad, they do really bad; sometimes they have films that are in between like Sinbad (I personally think this one is ok even though many people don't like it) or the first Madagascar.

The good thing about Dreamworks is that they don't hold back, at least last I saw, they are not afraid to swing big, even if it does leave them wide open when they miss; they take risks that sometimes blow up in their face but when the risk pays off it blows all of the competition out of the water.
 
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I think it is the era, the 90s and 00s was really a great time for mainstream (kids) western animation. I think now they have lost their direction a bit. They are trying to make tickboxes and get the cash in, and movies really come across as something far more corporate and less artistic.
 
I think it is the era, the 90s and 00s was really a great time for mainstream (kids) western animation. I think now they have lost their direction a bit. They are trying to make tickboxes and get the cash in, and movies really come across as something far more corporate and less artistic.
Indeed; the good thing is though that they still put out the occasional good film like HTTYD The Hidden World, though in truth; like seemingly any film company they were better in the 90's/2000's.

I honestly think that we just don't see many masterpieces anymore from any company though there was one film that I saw that came out in recent years that came close, this film was Klaus; when I started watching it I thought it would just be a pretty good film but I was genuinely suprised to see that it was so nearly a masterpiece; just narrowly held back by a clumsy usage of the liar revealed trope; despite this I personally think that it is the best film that came out in recent years IMO.
 
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Treasure Planet

A couple days ago I rated The Incredibles, yesterday I did Shrek 2 and now it is time for me to rate my favourite film from Disney; is it as good as the other two, well... not so much, is it still a great film in it's own right, absolutely.

I will mark any obvious spoilers as such but some things I say might give some hints towards one of the twists in the middle of the film; this twist is fairly obvious but just be aware that these will not be marked as it would be impractical to do so.

I may have said a couple of times that I only this year got back into western animated films, well this was the first one I watched this year; as I was well into anime and I was umming and aahing about whether I wanted to give this medium a chance again, I thought this would be the best film to get started; the art style is not dissimilar to the anime style and no more so than One Piece, with that said, the animation style is quite different, using Disney's signature squashing and stretching from time to time.

On the note of the animation, it is incredible, according to a list I found on wikipedia this was the most expensive traditional animation film to produce and it shows; in the scene around the beginning, that shows Jim riding on his solar surfer, the animation is so good that the only other films I have seen that come close are Redline and One Piece film Z, both also absolute powerhouses in terms of animation; some people theorise that it was so expensive that Disney wanted it to fail so that it would not become the standard expected of them, I don't know whether the bad efforts at advertising it were clumsy or deliberate as it is just a theory, as far as I'm aware, and the only people who can know for sure are those who made the decision in the first place.

The story and setting are truly inspiring; the chemistry between Jim and Silver make for an incredible piece of narrative with a maturity and complexity that I rarely see in Disney films, both characters sell the film tenfold, Jim is a young man who's father abandoned him at a young age, as a result he had no father figure to guide him and keeps getting into trouble as a result; Silver is a member of a crew who are out to find Treasure Planet and it is one of his lifelong obsessions, Jim is given a map to Treasure Planet and somehow knows how to open it, a small gripe I have is that this is a bit daft, how can he open it when no one else can, but I can suspend my disbelief over this, after this he and Dr Doppler join a crew who are also looking for the treasure, here Jim meets Silver, easily the most complex Disney villan ever; he has a motive but it clashes with another side to him, at one point he serves as the father figure that Jim never had, which is a cornerstone for both of their character development.
The setting is a sci-fi rendition of Treasure Island by Robert Louise Stevenson, perhaps the most transformative use of a public domain story ever done by Disney; the mix of sci-fi and fantasy create a truly epic setting that is so much grander and has a far greater sense of scale than anything else Disney have made.

The music is perhaps the best I have heard from a Disney film, none of their usual singing, that gets on my wick, there is one song with lyrics and it is incedental, as I prefer it, it's a pretty good song as well; one of my favourite tracks plays at the aforementioned scene with Jim and his solar surfer.

All should be golden right?... Disney should have what I would say is their first 10/10 film right?... well... it would if not for one pile of absolute scrap, B.E.N; I can't stand this rusted bucket of scrap metal who vomits so much tar all over what would otherwise be a home run for Disney that it can cheese the entirety of Mortal Shell from start to end; there are a couple of other gripes I have but I could still maybe give this a 10 if they were the only gripes, as there is a lot to love about this film, but B.E.N... ooh no; first off, he is the most irritating character who was chucked in for the purpose of comic relief, I get he has not seen anyone else for a long time, but he is so over the top and not in a good way; he relies on some of the most unfunny jokes as well but that is not the worst thing; the worst thing is the fact that he nearly gets Jim killed multiple times, despite the fact that he is supposed to be on his side, by just being such an idiot, like that time when Jim told him to wait and he was like, OK I'm going to run in and start tinkering with some wires, literally kicking off an alarm that alerts the villan who is more akin to a typical Disney villan that leads to a battle that so nearly ends up with Jim getting chucked into space; all because B.E.N couldn't not be himself for 5 minutes.
B.E.N is like that AI teammate in a co-op game where one of the fail conditions has said teammate dying only for the AI to keep jumping off of cliffs for some reason; irritating enough to drive anyone insane.
To top it off, there was already a comic relief character, Morph, only Morph does not really talk much at all, he does cause Jim problems but it is more understandable due the fact that he does not know any better and more importantly, Morph can do subtlety; something that is to B.E.N, what climbing Mount Everest is to a car with square wheels.
Another thing I didn't like was the fact that there is an alien who talks in flatulence though, unlike B.E.N, he only shows up for a grand total of approximately 2 minutes so I could forgive this.

B.E.N really drags this film down; so much so that I can say that, despite the fact that it is my favourite Disney film, it is not quite the best one I've seen, that would be Atlantis; when Treasure Planet is good, it is a masterpiece but when B.E.N shows up, beware, beware the cyb... I mean beware the nutty robot for his hand is like the hand of Midas, if it turned everthing to rust instead of gold.
Atlantis is a far more consistant film, it is a 9 throughout with little to detract from that but Treasure Planet reaches for that score of 10 and mostly stays there for a good while, after B.E.N shows up though the film goes down to a 6, why not lower? because Silver, here he shows the darker side to himself and must make a choice between Jim and the treasure, this makes for a powerful and emotional climax to the story that somewhat helps to redeem B.E.N's schenanigans but I cannot give this a 10 because of B.E.N, I cannot even give it a 9, he drags the film down to a 6 in the second half while it is a 10 during the first, so it makes perfect sense for the film to be rated.

8/10
 
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I always get Treasure Planet mixed up with Atlantis. I really liked one and thought the other was OK - I can't remember which was which though!
 
I always get Treasure Planet mixed up with Atlantis. I really liked one and thought the other was OK - I can't remember which was which though!
Personally I like both but Atlantis is the more consistent of the two while Treasure Planet hits greater heights when it is good.
 
I always get Treasure Planet mixed up with Atlantis. I really liked one and thought the other was OK - I can't remember which was which though!

Atlantis is the one that's somewhat inspired by Laputa and Nadia with a more grownup (though still young-ish) protagonist who's a bit like Niles from Frasier, and Treasure Planet is basically Treasure Island in space and the protagonist is a teenager who's cool rather than nerdy XP
 
Kubo and the Two Strings

Picked this movie up from Sainsburys a couple years ago when it was on a reduced to clear pile, and finally gotten round to watching it (my movie backlog isn't quite as big as my anime pile, but I need to be in the right mood for movies). A good movie with stop motion animation
 
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