Gorilla Snail

instagram.com/christos.demetr

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instagram.com/christos.demetr

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instagram.com/christos.demetr

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new avatar babyyy

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I learned about aardvarks, they are very cute, here’s one

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Robin playing Animal Crossing!

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show and tell

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Onward Review

By the time 'Inside-Out' hit theaters in 2015, Pixar Animation Studios had settled in the marketing and creative direction they would stick to for the next decade or so: Their films would feature metaphors for upper middle class Americans, dealing with relatable problems while going through a colorful adventure, intermittently stopping to ponder life, look at personal items and tear up, while audibly realizing that what they were searching for was right inside them all along - or something to that effect.

...Pixar has been sticking to that formula with impressive rigour for quite some time now, marketing their movies as their signature "family films with unexpected grown-up sad stuff in them" - but six years and eight films later, the tearing-up and cheap existentialism are starting to lose their unexpectedness.

Their films of course have always been expertly made - almost never has Pixar sacrificed its immeasurable polish and extreme care in the making of their movies - so I personally have never felt betrayed by their creations. But I've sorely missed the days were the Emeryville studio could squeeze tears out of me with the story of a rat that wanted to cook - rather than spoon-feeding me stories of teenagers who want to resurrect dead parents.

"Onward", Pixar's latest adventure, follows loyally the afromentioned formula. In a fantastical version of an American suburb, a couple of teenagers embark on a quest to revive their father who long ago succumbed to an illness. Along the way, they will often stop to have a heartfelt conversation and tear up a bit, in the hopes that they will make us tear up as well. Sounds familiar, right?

Well, it is. But the devil's in the details, as they say, and if I had to chose one of Pixar's last 8 films as my favorite, 'Onward' would easily take the cake. For reasons I can't really put my finger on, Onward's story felt more like an actual story, and less like a plot created just to check all the boxes. The adventure is so electrifying, the heroes are so detailed and the jokes are so hilarious that there was barely any time for me to dwell on the movie's storytelling tropes. Even the most minute characters in the film carry with them their very own personal story arc, so that in the end, no singular thematic has the time to become too preachy. Instead, what you get is a world that feels alive and full of detail, in a movie that cleverly focuses most of its attention to the whimsical and fun adventure, the gags and the spells and the details, making its emotional moments hit even harder. And by the end, all of it slowly comes together - until Onward ultimately achieves something that rarely happens to me nowadays: You just don't want it to end.

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things that annoy robin

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annoyed Robin

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The Gentlemen Review

Guy Ritchie makes his long-awaited return to the Gangster genre, but this film sadly feels more like an obligation rather than a return to form. The frantic, lightning-fast formula Mr Ritchie followed in LockStock, Snatch and, a decade later, Rocknrolla, is here remixed into a slower version of itself, full of dragging conversations, long pauses and wannabe tension-building moments that sap every bit of flair and pizazz from the director’s signature style. There are some seeds of cool things in here, like some promising characters and the backbone of an interesting gangster whodunnit, but the movie runs out of steam quickly: the characters never give us any reason to care, the dialogue feels uninspired and bloated, and I found myself just waiting impatiently for the credits to roll so I could part with this world I gave no shit about. All the expertise and polish of a director that’s been working for many decades is here (The Gentlemen is acted, shot, edited and scored perfectly), but sadly the passion, fun and energy of Mr Ritchie’s past creations is disappointingly, completely absent.

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Missing Link Review

It's beautiful, it's exciting, it's moving and mature and in a world where my Carl Barks/Indiana Jones old-school adventure itch hasn't been properly scratched in a very long time, this film was truly, an unexpected gift. I cannot be thankful enough that we once again have a great explorer hero worth rallying behind, and a sequel (even a whole franchise) out of this would be absolutely marvellous. Sadly, it doesn't seem that we're ever going to get one -or maybe even any other sample of LAIKA's mind-blowing craftsmanship- as this, as well as every other film of theirs, was financially disappointing.

If you ever have the chance to support LAIKA and enjoy this film, I highly recommend you do!

PS. the only thing I didn’t like was the film’s attempts at comedic dialogue. They should have stuck to the excellent visual comedy - Zach Galifianakis’ Mr. Link especially is supposed to be the comic relief but mostly comes off quite cringey...

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I’ve been reading old Floyd Gottfredson strips

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So cool that they actually wanted to make this guy a separate Pokemon, it’s sad that he never got his time to shine

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Baby Meowth is the best idea that never happened in pokemon. Now we have hobo Meowth and stretchy Meowth, still no bebe.

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I wanna try to sketch some of those Gold/Silver beta Pokemon! Starting off with this one - it’s so out there I can see why they passed on it for gen II

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I saw this post by @bluekomadori and I tried to make the first one! <3