Reviews of Cartoons and Comics by Jacob Mattingly (32, he/him, bisexual). Reviews Use a lot of Language. Comissions avaliable via ask direct message or email patreon.com/popculturebuffet . email [email protected]
So we can pretty much call the all new seekers "occtis anime harem and also his second mom and cuck chair bolarie" right? Also thimble and him are apparently the same age
Junteenth Special: Sinners Is Now and Forever The Definition of a Masterpiece
Happy Juneteenth and welcome to my annual Juneteenth special looking at black horror.
Sinners is a film geninely like no other. Every time I watch it it's direction, color, and atmosphere truly send me away. It is like nothing else and held strong as my faviorite film of 2025. It still does. Nothing rattled it, nothing could impeach it, it was the best from the moment I saw it. One of my faviorites and every rewatch, last year on fourth of july and just a few days ago for this review, only adds more to it. There's layers of history and character moments that build each time, that are baked into each performance, and moments that were always good and are just a joy to watch again and again and again.
Sinners was a film Coogler put his soul into: After the death of his older uncle James, Coogler reconnected with his love of the blues, the music they loved.
“I would listen to it and find myself reminiscing about him. It really interrogated the art form of music. Becoming obsessed with that led to this movie,”
This idea eventually crossed with horror: Coogler, as per the wrap article I got my information, was a big fan of the film and novel Salem's Lot and specifically the antecdote that king has always told about the film, his wife saying if Dracula wer ein modern day he'd get squished by a cab. That idea of the old meeting the new and these people in an isolated setting dealing with something sudden and otherworldly.
“Something ancient and knowledgeable and powerful and from another world and another time coming to this foundational year in terms of the Delta blues music and walking right into [the movie’s fictional town of] Clarksdale, into this room full of almost mythical characters who think they’ve seen it all, until they met this guy. That was where it came from. You know, it’s basically merging my artistic proclivities with the story I wanted to make about my uncle,”
This story was personal and powerful enough that Coogler cut a unique deal. You've heard about this I have but in 24 years from now he will own the film wholly. It's a mild shock he could pull this off given how hollywood treats horror: Their willing to soak in the money sure , studios know , but when it comes to awards season no matter how good it is it's often ignored. Treated as disposable. This thankfully may be changing: i'm not counting on the academy being smart just yet, but last year Sinners and Frankenstien both got nomianted for best picture, while Sinners, Frankenstien and Weapon all took home awards with Micheal B Jordan rightly winning best actor, and the film itself winning awards for Screenplay, Cinematography and Score, all RICHLY deserved. I"m still salty as fuck it didn't win best picture and Del Roy Lindo didn't win best supporting actor, but the wins are far from nothing. This film is far from nothing.. it's everything.
If you already have seen this masterpice, strap in to here a white dumbass talk about how good it is. If you haven't, please do as this review is going to be soaked in as much spoilers as the film is blood. The film is best gone into with the bare minimum of the setup and the fact their be vampires in it. The trailers do do a good job of MOSTLY hiding what shots are the most spoilertastic. But if your a bit gunshy about horror or just want to hear about it all over again, come on in under the cut.
Something For Us
Sinners is the story of the Smokestack Twins, both played in the best dual roll of all time by Micheal B Jordan, a staple of Coogler's films. It isn't just easy it's damn near impossible not to forget at some point that these men aren't the same actor. While each has a unique style, both liking finely tailored suits but Smoke preferring classier understated outfits with a blue sheen and Stack preferring reds, big hats and flash, it's really in the posturing, Smoke always being calm in a scene almost always standing tall, imposing and commanding presecnse while Stack is more relaxed, no less filling the room but far more cocky and at ease. Just from their first shot in the film, you can tell who these are in seconds
Both share a cigarette, a feat in itself, both are on the same page... but Smoke is standing up tall and ready for the racist piece of shit their about to deal with, while Stack is no less ready but relaxed on the car. One is professoinal, the other is blunt but neither is incompitent. It's something I really like: a lot of the time when you have a hot head sibling and a responsible one, one has to be stern and authrotative and the reckless one is more prone to stupid mistakes. Here their both utterly compitent dangerous professionals, former gangsters and WWI vets hoping to make something for their people after Chicago only proved to have the same racist bullshit just in a city setting. They'd rather face the devil they know.
The rest of the scene shows it off as the two confidently deal with Hogwood, a greasy southren landowner played by David Maldonado who their buying a factory from. The two instantly cock him as a racist, probably KKK, and a piece of shit, with Hogwood not beating the allegations by calling them boy repeadtly assuming like most black people he's probably encountered the Twins would be too scared of him or the lynch mob he could bring to not just take his racisim.
Gloriously he's so fucking wrong. Stack calls him out on the boy thing after one too many and when Hogwood tries to just pull out his gun to scare them as he likely is wont to do.... the boys show their not only packing but Stack smartly started flanking him, showing in an instant that the two were not stupid, knew who they were dealing with and were only polite as they needed to be to not have to hide a racist southren corpse just outside their new Juke Joint.
The goal of Club Juke is to create a space for the community, for the tired sharecroppers who pick cotton all day, get paid in company scrip often, and need a fucking break. A place away from pieces of shit like hogwood or even just the casual forced politness of interacting with white people at a time when just saying the wrong thing or just looking at a woman the wrong way could get you killed. I'd like to say that's completely passed... I really would. Can't though.
The first half of the film is the twins rounding up staff for the club, reconnecting with old friends and lovers and making it very clear their back while drumming up buisness.
Their first stop is SAMMMMMIEEEEEE, our third main character who we meet in the film's striking opening covered in blood , clutching his guitar and having to deal with his preacher dad being more concerned with a come to jesus moment than figuring otu why his son is caked in blood, half alive and shellshocked.
Before all that though Sammie played by Miles Canton who despite being a fresher face holds his own well with Jordan. Both of him. Sammie is an aspiring blues musician and son of a preacher man. Said Preacher Man is a jackass: While Sammie confirms he dosen't lay hands on him and even with the corpral punishment of the time, lets Sammie's mom handle that, the film dosen't paint him as any less abusive. He's trying to force Sammie onto his path despite Sammie's clear disintrest.
He's a judgmental prick and it's no wonder Sammie instead looks up to the twins. While Smoke can also be distant and somewhat blunt, his love for his cousin is clear while Stack in paticular takes to mentoring Sammie, gladly hanging out with him all morning when the twins need to split up gang to cover more ground. The scenes with Sammie and Stack hanging out are some of the sweetest, from Stack's plesant suprise at how good Sammi'es gotten, to teaching his cousin how to find the clitoris with way less fanfare than south park, to the two just driving on a very sunny day.
The cinematrography is the best i've seen in a film. That's not hyerbole: from the cool soft colors of the sky to the darkness of night to the cool oranges of sunset and sunrise the film has an eye for color and every frame absolutely pops while still feeling entirely lived in. Everything is real but instead of trying to project that with dark grey over everything, it lets the color of life pop and accent things.
Stack's journey with Sammie brings them to the train station to recurit local legend and town drunk Delta Slim, played by Delroy Lindo in his best role in his long career. Slim is reluctant at first because he has a steady saturday gig and has an inkling Club Juke may not last, but is easily bribed with 40 bucks and all the irish whiskey he can drink. The cut from him thinking it over to him happily playing with Sammie to advertise is my faviorite joke in the film. The film isn't stuffed with them, but what few it has pop up are really great.
Trouble seemingly comes up as Sammie spots a white woman walking up to them.. before they both recognize her. Mary is played by Hailee Steinfield who does a fantastic job here as Mary who hasn't met a sex term she can't use and is more than happy to put Stack on the spot for up and abandoing her years ago. Mary is biracial but passes for white, and Stack's distance is him TRYING to keep her in her comfortable life.
Mary however dosen't really want that, pissed Stack basically shoved her into a life she didn't want, abandoned her when she wanted him despite the hell of a risk and knowing damn well what they were, and most damingly that the twins didn't visit for the funeral, something neither seem to be that arsed about despite Mary's Mother having helped raised them. We never get a clear why: Maybe Stack was avoiding mary, maybe they just couldn't make it, we never really know.
The final pickup for this half of the team is Cornbread, a sharecropper who just wants to make his quota. Stack's plan for getting him to coperate is to say fuck his wife.. while she's standing right their prengant and talk about how they fuck. Predictably this nearly gets his ass kicked but this being america his wife is willing to hear HOW much money Cornbread will make and now Club Juke has a bouncer.
So now i'ts time for Smoke's side of the story. Smoke goes to Bo and Grace Chow, played by Yao and Li Jun Li chinese store owners who taught me something: Asian Storeowners were common complete with the setup the Chows have here with a white store and a black store across the street. You CAN faintly make out the other side of the street has white people on it but it's not something you really notice till the film makes a point of it which is just good filmaking saving it for the reveal and the nice shot of Grace walking over
Before she does though, Smoke gets a really excellent scene outside the Chow's general store. Part of the reason the team split up is that someone needs to watch the massive stash of booze they brought with them. While it's part responsiblity Smoke's stops are both with trusted friends while Stack and Sammie are going to both a train station that has a decent amount of white people nearbye and a cotton field, and even pass a chain gang, a bit too many white people who could make up whatever to steal what they have, something Delta Slim knows all too well as he lost a friend who saved his money for their high days while Delta drank is.. but made the mistake of withdrawing it all at once and was lynched by the klan so they could steal it.
So to guard it Smoke enlists a girl outside the store to sit in the truck. What I love about this scene is it shows Smoke's gentler side: he's firm and stoic as usual, but makes it clear he's not going to hurt her, and teaches her how to haggle for pay giving her more than he offered her intitally. While Smoke is a gangster the desire to give back to their community is genuine.
That said he's not a soft touch and when talking to Bo, two guys outside try to rob the truck despite being warned it was his. This gets them both shot but noticably Smoke shows mercy: He does shoot both of them, one in the leg, shot him in his left leg, the other in the hip, but it's areas they can recover from and he pays Bo to patch em up after. He can't show he's soft on people trying to take his shit, but he also dosne't kill two people needlessly for good reasons: the pramgatic one of not leaving dead bodies lying around and the empathetic one of "their not really far from where me and my brother used to be, they just need to know not to punch above their weight class".
His friendship with Bo and Grace is nice and genuine, a tad snarky but their clearly glad to see him and while Smoke haggles on the sign for the club he's resonable and also hires the two to help run it.
The bigger ask thoug his his wife, Annie played by Wumni Mosuku who was also tragically lost, though at the very least unlike Delroy, she lost to a worthy opponent in Amy Madigan for Weapons. Why anyone thought Sean Penn playing the most cardboard cutout of a white suprmiacist was't better than Delroy Lindo I do not know.
Annie is one of the films highlights, a voodoo practicioner who Smoke left after the death of their baby showing part of why he ran. While Stack likely did it simply because "Why not?" , Smoke was in clear pain and couldn't face it. This scene with them is powerful as you can feel the sheer sexual tension.. but also the pain of loss... and the longing as they never stopped loving each other. Annie cast spells and gave Smoke a charm to make sure he survived... but sadly coudln't save their baby. Yet the longing is real.. as is the fucking.
This movie is unashamidly and wonderfully horny: from this tender scene to Sammie fliting with a married womm to Mary just loudly announcing how Smoke fucked her to a large crowd and not for the last time either, this film is unabashed in it's sexuality.. and tha'ts very much the point. That ther'es geninely nothing wrong with it, contrasting Sammie's Dad's narrow minded bullshit with the reality these are people. Pearline, the woman Sammie flirts with is married as is Mary but given the tims and how hard it would've been to be unmarried for too long, it's more of convience than because their happy. People make mistakes, they fuck up, or they end up in bad situations. Some people are just generally fucked, see Hogwood, but a large point of the film's first hal fis no one is morally perfec tor pure, it's about being sure of who you are. What you want.
So with all this set up we get a truly awesome sequence as everyone drives up to the club and gets ready for the night.
It's then the genre starts to shift: it hasn't fully YET but it's the first hint at it as Remmick, played by Josh O'Conner in a once in a lifetime performance, drops out of the sky steaming. He is VERY lucky to find two white supremiacists, Bert and Joan who do just point a shotgun at him but spins a tale of some Chocktaw hunters hurting him because he's white and you know not beacuse he's a monster. Their racisim costs them as the Choctaw can't really hunt at night. Not because their not badass enough their just not stupid enough to fight a master vampire for the sake of two racist shit sacks and didn't consider Remmick might branch out. Remmick dosen't even seem aware of the club at first or have a plan beyond survive and feast.
In a truly chilling scene Joan returns from telling the choctaw to fuck off to find remmick having fed on Bert
And also.. next to an empty crib meaning he.... probably had some baby back ribs. And that i'm scared for life, not the most a review has
But still a decent amount. I'd say about a quarter this.
Either way Remmick is omnius setup for later. For now CLUB JUKE IS OPEN and the joint is jumpin. Pearline shows up, everyone's partying and Mary also shows up which pisses off both brothers. On Smoke's end it's pragmatic: Mary looks white and the wrong thing gets back it could lead a clan down. Stack on the other hand
It shows off the brother's.. less savory side. Not the killing men part, their criminals sure but given their dad was an abusive monster, they got their dad's terrible rep , crime was the easy out and not something Smoke wants to see repeat in Sammie.
The problem is both try to solve their problems in very paternalistic ways: For Mary and Stack Stack assumed telling her he loved her then abandoning her was the best way to shield her, when really it just forced her into a life she didn't want and while life with him may of not been long either due to the crimes or the lynch mobs, it was her choice and she's understandabliy pissed. It's also noticable no one else , including the guests, geninely minds her prescene, likely also knowing her and in the case of the main group are all old friends: Annie and Grace warmly welcome her and while Sammie TRIES to shoe her off he utterly fails at it being just too good a boy.
On Smoke's end not only does he threaten "you hadnle it or I will", but with Sammie he ends up trying the same tactics as his dad saying this life isn't for him.. and like his brother making a chocie for someone that is THEIRS, getting to the ponit he pulls out a fucking gun on Sammie.
Something I noticed more on this watch is that Sammie.. is a really fine character. He's young, naive, a tad cocky.. but he's steadfast in what he wants, rejecting that his options are stay in the chruch or go down just a ways. That rowdy clubs aren't for him. He's told the risks, he knows and accepts them, and not carring about them, much like with mary, isn't the same as not understanding them, something neither brother ever understands.You can't, for better or worse, take someone's choice from them no matter how good your intetnions are.
Sammie does show why this is for him perfomring his heart out with the film's standout sequence: "I Lied to You' A truly dimension shaking number that literally breaks time nad space. As the narration at the start outlines Sammy isn't just good. .he's magic, so damn talented his music tracendes time and space and as his heartfelt jam about his daddy issues plays and echoes thorugh every bone we get visotrs from the past and future: tribal dancers, chinese fan dancers, and from the future funk guitarists and b boy dancers and dj's. It's a sequence that could've been seen as too much but instead perfectly incapulates how connected black culture is and how much blues has fed into all music and how connected everyone feels in the moment ending in the juke seemingly burning as everything.. and Remmick seeing SAMMMIIIIEEEE.
It's here the tone firmly ships: Before this was a period drama about two brothers whose Juke Joint , their dream is on the cusp of failure as most of the patrons are paying in company scrip and while they can run it for now they got two months max, not to mention, as Mary figures out, they stole all the booze from their former bosses who are bound to come looking.
So at the worst possible time Remmick shows up with his two new thralls, just wanting to dance.. and it's here yet another theme, this film has themes upon themes upon themes, and one of the most powerful and relevant: White Encroachment.
Remmick just offers to have a goood time, ignoring all the issues his presence brings; Mary was already possible trouble, but was stubborn enough to not go and is known enough by the people here they aren't going to tell she was here. But three white strangers just invites one person letting it get out they were there and one racist hearing and deciding to nix this co mingling in the bud, never mind the threat that remmick might get offended the wrong way and bring back the clan. Remmick wants in, but it isn't his space.
This wasn't built for him. He points to his skin saying i'ts a non issue.. but him being here is one. It's the embodiment of how sometimes white people can just.. forget that maybe not everything is directly FOR them or should be targteted FOR them. White Culture has a nasty of habit of rather than allowing black culture to exist on it's own ends and simply let black creators showcase it, to try and absorb it to claim "we're all the same". It's the kind of post racial nonsense I grew up with. What's the truth is that our diffrences and truths make us stronger, and some experinces are simply not unviersal. I have no personal one on one context for the sheer bigotry Black People deal with every damn day, how it is living in a system with everything stacked against you, where racists can't just let you be because your very existance bothers them and they want to mamke it your problem. I've seen videos, i've seen one or two of the police killings various essays ranging from black creators like FD Signifier to the very white but very often correct John Oliver, but that only gets you so far. You can only know so much. You can be an ally, try your best to be suppportive and back up those who are being pushed down, but you can never truly understand what it's like to be a black person in america unless you are one. Same with any color, any sexuality.
I like seeing othe rhperspectives, getting a glimpse of that, it's why the diversity we're getting in media is a net good.. .but i'ma lso self aware that you can't just absorb another culture. You can learn,, you can observe, you can know things.. but your not part of it. And if you try ot take it for yourself your just another colonzier, anothe rperson trying to take things you want without regards to the context or what it means to the people who made it.
Tha'ts what Remmick is: He's not intentionally raccist, being an irishman who saw the british ravage and destroy his country an went through his own pain but can't see he can't just take and destroy someone else's community to replace his own. He needs to build, to find others and slowly rebuild instead of leeching and forcing everyone to be what he wants, absorbing them instead of coexisting. He claims to want fellowship but he really just wants to eat them all alive.
Still he can't get through the door but dosen't leave and waits.. and sadly he ends up waiting for Mary who wants to get a read on him to see if she can get his money with Stack reluctantly agreeing as they are in the hole. Him finally recognizing her autonomy is nice... but is sadly too late it seems. Remmick is also an empathy, able to read others emotoins and thus learn about Mary's mom's passing and her pain.. and while she treis to leave it's too late. Mary is the first infected and is sent inside. She easily seduces Stack and as Sammie plays again, Stack is killed adn the film fully turns. Smoke goes to get him , not carring he's seemingly fucking.. and Mary turns covered in blood Stack gutted.. and when shot down gleefully gets up cooing "We're gonna kill every last one of you"
These Ain't Haits, Their Vampires
With that the film shifts, with the patrons of club juke sent out and leaving us with our core group of survivors: Smoke, SAMMMAAAAAEEEE, Annie, Pearline, Delta Slim and Grace. Bo was sadly sent out ot get the car and As for Cornbread he went to take a leak, always certain death in a horror film. We get a hell of a scene when Stack wakes up an d agreat door shot that was used in the trailers: bit of a spoiler to reveal stack gets turned but boy is it a great shot as he begs to be let in.
Smoke is of course reluctant at first but I like that he dosen't take too long to be convinced: he dosen't quite buy Annie's explination, but DID see Mary win a game of count the bullets and isn't stubborn enough to deny what he just saw.
What finally clinches it, as well as tells Annie what their really dealing with, is Cornbread in one of the film's lowkey best scenes. He reutrns wanting in.. but Annie understandably refuses and Delta Slim and Smoke both clock something is REALLY wrong with this setup: Smoke may not fully belivie these are zombies, what Annie thinks they are at first, but he can smell just how fucking suspcious it is that Cornbread suddenlyc an't just walk in and is also caked in blood. He does offer Cornbread his pay but smartly has his gun ready and shoots him. It can't kill them, but it DOES slow them down as the force still knocks them on their ass.
So with the jig up our survivors prepare and Grace in paticular is not doing so good since her husband's out there and probably dead, but the others do stop her from going after him. I like that despite this being LONG before a lot of horror tropes were clear.. the characters still act intellgently: They gear up, annie knows vampires by rep if not having met one having splashed Stack with garlic when he awakens, getting stakes, do tests on each other to make sure no one's a vampire, all resonable shit. Sure some of it is done with Smoke pointing a gun at people but given Mary and Cornbread roll aroun dat the speed of sound, he can't afford to make mistakes. Our heroes stay close and outside of Grace, who slowly breaks down but still tries her best, ther'es no real distruption. Some natural tension but no obviously evil bastard sabotaging the group. I'm not knocking those scenarios but it works better here.
So Remmick drops by with Stack and Mary, who are weirdly cute together, and asks to just hug it out. He then drops SOME of the pretense and reveals who he's after. SAMMMMIEEEEE. Sammie's music pierces the veil between worlds and having lost his family, wants to bring them back. Sammie being a good kid, immidelty prepares to walk out and take the offer... while both Smoke and Slim make sure he dosen't. Smoke is a pragmatic son of a bitch.. but this is his line. He's not sacrifcing Sammie and is also smart enough to know evne if he was callous enough to sacrifice his own cousin it dosen't put Remmick down or truly mean he'll hold up his end of the bargin. I suspect he MIGHT'VE , but it's not worth it. So Remmick whips out two trump cars> the first is beau and in a truly sicking moment Remmick reveals thanks to the vampires hivemind he knows "Where she likes to be licked" saying so in chinese, just.. ewww and showing truly he's a colonizer: he claims to be better.. but he just takes and is willing to threaten Grace and Bo's daughter if it means winning.
The other chestnut hits slightly harder: Hogwood was never just going to let them be. As Slim's tragic backstory earlier outlined, white supremacists will NEVER be happy to just let you exist and if your a group they don't like, i.e. everyone who isn't the kind of white they approve, straight, and does what they say, they will hound you as long as they possibly fucking can. So to no one's suprise Hogwood was Klan and was planning a massacre. As we can see form later this wouldn't of ended well from him but would've ended in a lot of innocent peopl ebeing slayed first probably. Hogwood is a pure and simple racist and pure and simply wanted to exterminate those he feels lesser, never convicing that they were trained soldiers who may of stashed some ordinance just in case this exact thing happened or that even if most of these are civlians they do VASTLY outnumber them. And judging by the fact they have some guns stashed inside club juke, even before they could get to the good stuff Smoke and Stack likley woudl've cleared them out. It dosen't make what the Klan was trying to do any less horrific or ghoulish, it still woudl've likely ended the club, but it does show the sheer arrogance of not carring to knwo their target.
Remmick tries to use this as a "I'm not as bad really guys".. but as we see soona fter when he's understandably rejected, whlie he's not AS bad.. he's not much BETTER than hogwood, ahving turned every last person who left Club Juke in a truly chilling sequence where the hive sings rocky road to dublin, one of the films best and one that made my jaw drop in the theater as I realized just how outnumbered our heroes were and how fucked they likely were. We know Sammie survives from the opening.. but no one else's odds looked good.
Tragiclaly they aren't.. Grace eventually gets fed up enough to invite them in and everyon'es forced to scramble. Grace dies but does manage to freee Bo in a mutual kill.. but it's quickly a tragedy. Despite being kind, patient and savy... Annie dies horribly, her throat eaten by Stack with Smoke finally, seemingly accepting his brother is too far gone and putting Annie down at her own request despite his grief and rage. Jordan REALLY plays Smoke well here, letting his emotion out and his raw grief.
Delta Slim then pulls a hell of a move after a great action sequence tha tshows our heroes ar ecapable.. but their simply outnumbered: he has everyone else run upstairs to escape shouts LAST CALL FOR DELTA SLIM then opens a fucking veign. This film is bloody as fuck and I apprecaite that.
Unfortunately , if cleverly, our heroes only find
When they try to escape. God I love how he delivers that. I also like the red color on the eyes: just the sharp contrast it gives and the faint glow it has in the dark. Relaly creepy, really effective. Pearline sadly dies and Sammie barely escapes while Smoke and Stack have a fight that goes how you'd expect with Smoke kick his brothe'rs ass. Or his own ass.. depends on how you view it.
This leaves SAMMIEEEEEE!!!!! to flee Remmeck who in a cool as hell moment either leaps or glides right after him. Sammie tries oto use releigoius protection but it does nothing wtih Remmick ranting about how the religious cracked down on his people and etc... not getting that he's just doing the same thing. he's trying to force people into his own culture to replace it.
While the power of christ can't save Sammie, he's not nightcrawler after all
His guitar can and he El Kabongs remmick.. which works because the center is silver, a chekovs gun that I swear should've been ovbious but is so well hidden. You just never think about taking the guitar apart or using the plate on him as how would that even go. Turns out it'd go thorugh his head and weakens him enough for Smoke to bring in the calvary and for
With that and with some great John Carpenter Synth, Coogler is a huge fan, Remmick and his followers go boom and the day is saved.
The problem is the sheer weight of it. Our heroes DID live... but lost everything. By the end of this the only named characters seemingly left are Smoke, Sammie, Asshole Preacher Dad Man Express, An Orphan and Hogwood, whose still planning a massacre that already hapepned.
So having nothing left to live for, Smoke tells Sammie bi and in amoving sequence using scenes we didn't see but did happen, we see just how.. happy everyone was getting the club ready, uniting, how specail this was: all these people, this family of choice gathered for one night to make something truly nicea nd specail for their community.. and Remmick destroyed it all.
So in a hell of a sequence that shows off Micheal B Jordan's massive guns and also his weapons, Smoke gloriously dispatches the racist in one of the most deligthfully one sided fights in film. The Klan was expecting this to be easy and to be fighting mostly drunks.. instead their facing a trained soldier with a full arsenal who knows the land better than they do. I get the sense the twins genuinely studied the layout: it's why Smoke knew to escape and why Stack and thus Remmick knew where to cut the survviors off. So he easily mops the floor with them and while he DOES get shot and prepare to bleed out, it seems like had he not wanted to die, he could've probablyg one and got the wound treated or patched it up. But Smoke.. is done and after a glorious final conforntation with HOgoowd where the fucker calls him the n word.. and naturally gets shot, gets his cigs taken and we get a truly awesome pov. I cannot tell you how cathartic it is to watch white supramicists get shot in the hellscape we live in. Or just in general.
The other half is cutting back to the opening where Sammie holds shis guitar as his dad.. just neglects his well being even telling his mother to sit down, choosing trying to control SAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIEEEEEEE over actually helping him.. and in a glorious bit of payback.. Sammie just leaves. He takes the twins now abandoned car and drives off into the sunrise, finally truly free and making his own path. He lost everything.. but gained himself.
So that was Sinners and.... oh it's still going. Yup we're now in 1992, just a year after I was born with blues legend Buddy Guy now playing a very aged Sammie who sings us out. Oh that's nice and... oh it's still not done.
Sinners is a movie I dearly love and for most of the runtime have no complaints.. but while I do feel the various ending sequences are necessary, it is defintely a film where you feel how long it's going on: we get the end of remmick, which feels like it could end there but with the intro really can't. Then we get the beautiful intercut and Smoke reuniting with his family in the afterlife in a beautiful sequences and Sammy escaping.. but then we get this. I do geninely love this sequence, but it definetly feels more like a post credits sc4ene than part of the narrative, a needed and necessary epilogue but one that defintely has you a tad exaustd as you've just been through the shit.
Still it's a good un and I get not cutting it: Sammie gets some visitors and I do appreciate the twist; Stack and Mary are STILL alive and looking fine so fine in their early 90's outfits. This did get my tension up as I assumed they were up to something.. but no. Turns out with Remmick dead their themselves agani and being vampires meant they could finally, truly be free. Cleverly we never actually see Mary die at any point during the final battle or with the crowd that dies with Remmick and it's revealed Smoke couldn't kill Stack, at most just asking they leave Sammie alone.
Stack agreed and has only come back to offer Sammie eternal life now he's lived a long one. He got all of Sammie's albums and it's actually really sweet. It shows that Stack is once again really him.. that he got to live with Mary at last, the two are happy. They've DEFINTELY killed al ot of people to survive, but the film leaves it nicely ambigious on how many and given how many less toothy monsters exist in the world there is PLENTY of people the world would be better off about. I know tha'ts a slippery slope but when it's that or die of hunger, I can live with a few less rapists, racists and billionares couldn't you?
Wether their ethical vampires or still kiling innocents but have honor the truth is.. their free. They offer to turn Sammie but take his polite refusal and it turns out that while that night hautns Sammie he reitartes that day, till the sun went down was the best day of his life.. and Stacks too as it was the last time he saw the sun and his brother. While again pacing wise this sequece is mildly exuasting... I still wouldn't and really can't dump it. it's a touching coda that shows both that Sammie truly got to live his life.. and so did Stack. That they both got to be free in their own way.
So Sinners is the best. Said it up front, saying it again, a gorgeous masterpice that you just cannot stop paying attention to for the whole runtime les your like me and your bladder won't let you and even then I was eager to get back even on my third watch. The film is tense, beautifully scored, and rich with themes of freedom, the harsh racist core of america and community and the segue into horror is perfectly pulled, never feeling out of place and putting the characters just out of sorts that stuff suddenly shifted. If you STILL haven't stopped to watch it and haven't seen it before please go do this film is fantatic, one of my faviorites and a good watch any day. Thanks for reading.
Jacob Mattingly | creating Animation And Comic Reviews | Patreon
Did I learn how to make GIFs just because their hug at the end of 4.08 fixed the regret I had at the end of 3.12 that their hug then was played for laughs? Yes I did! 💜🩶✨
Happy World Cup all you happy people! While I usually don't watch World Football/Soccer/Kickstuffballthing I am excited for this event from the food tie ins to the fact one of the stage is the nearbye city of Kansas City Missouri, having passed through a ton of world cup stuff on the way there. I may only know the game from Ted Lasso but this is a truly special event.
And since i've covered all of Wallace and Gromit and Aardman's unsung masterpiece Pirates: In An Adventure with Scientests I was happy to revisit Aaardman with a film i'd never seen but really wanted to I just tend to put things off till I can't no more. And Kev paying me good money to cover this for the world cup qualifies as "can't put this off any longer".
Early Man was orignally conceived as part of Aardman's deal with Dreamworks, which to make a long story short was like living in a living nightmare and did not last long as the two clashed constantly due to a combo of Dreamworks wanting to cut costs (hence why Flushed Away ended up being their first of two CG Films), and not understanding what they had wanting to americanize Wallace and Gromit.
While it was still technically functioning Dreamworks and Aardman thought up a film together: Crood Awakening, a film that with some tightening up by John Cleese of Monty Python fame and Kirk DiMicco of Ruby Gilman, Teenage Kraken fame, became about an inventor and a luddite in the stone age forced to cooperate.
With the Dreamworks deal ending in flames, no small amount of bloodshed and two films early, Dreamworks took the idea and socked it away for later, eventually leading to 2013's the Croods, which kept the inventor clashing with a luddite, but made the real focus the Luddite's Daughter and her issues with her controlling NIcholas Cage dad.
Aardman clearly still had some stone age ideas though, and five years after the croods and after Sean the Sheep Movie Film For Theaters had some success, felt in the right place to try it.
The result was Early Man, a film that likes pirates before it didn't really score at the box office, making, according to wikipedia, 54.6 million.. on a budget of 50 million. It didn't help over here that for whatever reason, Lionsgate put up a quirky very british film .. up against
Yes the biggest winter release of all time at the time, one of the most influental and important superhero films ever, and my personal faviorite mcu film... went up against Early Man. And if you think it got it any easier in the UK
Yeah one of Pixar's biggest hits and one I regretfully still need to get to... easily washed it aside.
There was no need for this to happen and the failure is entirely on distribution for deciding to basically throw the film away. This is the kind of scheduling that tells me neither Lions Gate nor international distributor Studio Canal gave a prestoric poop about this film, that they were obligated to put it out, dumped it wherever was convient and moved on. It's still a minor miracle aardman has lived this long as every company as even their most enduring partnership with Studio Canal still lead to shit like this while over here it feels like every company has had a turn at treating one of the best animation studios in existance like garbage. I can see why Netflix has become their main distributor as while Neflix can be shitty itself, it's not so stupid as to realize "hey wait having Aardman is a net win for us". Which you would THINK wouldn't take three other companies failing to get to that point, but here we are.
As a result of , no matter the country, going up against something making a far bigger more impactful splash Early Man has kinda fallen through the cracks of Aardman's filmography. It's the one film I see people just.. never even mention or talk about and that had my curosity peak. Was the film bad or was it just a victim of bad timing? Why don't people talk about it as much as the others?
My honest answer and one that pains me a bit: Early Man is, out of the Aardman Films i've seen (Excluding the Shawn the Sheep Films, Arthur Christmas and Chicken Run 2)... the most mid film Aardman has ever made.
Early Man is not a terrible film: The premise is pretty inspired and the opening one of aardman's best. Long ago a Meteor arrived on a prehistoric mostly uninhabital earth. Instead of killing the dinsoaurs, this meteor was left in the shape of a football and after dtermining they couldn't carry it and kicking it around a bit, the greatest game in the world was born. Besides debunking Hank Hill's own theroies on how Football came to be
This opening is the highlight of the film, a truly hilaroius little mini movie that sets up the premise well: Cavemen invented soccer, it's inherently funny.
The problem is it dosen't really.. use that premise. Instead it pivots to one that's equally promising and equally underutlized: The Bronze Age versus the Stone Age.
In the film's present but still prehistoic times, Dug , played by Eddie Redmayne is an optimistic young caveman with big ideas like maybe hunting mammoths that his world weary tired old chief of only 32....... 2.. years younger than me... liking this joke less the more I think about the implications, played by Timothy Spall, who lives by the motto of
If you don't try, you can't fail and we really can't succeed can we? While the bright eyed teen destined for more is one of the most deadest of dead horses in animatoin it does work for me here do that wrinkle. The Chief isn't mean to Dug or dismissive to be a dick, he just assumes if they did try his people might get hurt or Dug's spirit might get crushed. That it's better to take the path of least resitatnce. He's wrong, people doign that is why the world feels like a basket of turds these days, but it's something young people are bound to encounter.
Things change when a nearbye bronze age empire decides to mine in the Valley and forces the cavemen out lead by the agresively french Lord Nooth, played to comedic perfection by Tom Hiddleston who has far more comedic range than I realized. I knew he had plenty as loki but my god does he ham it up here.
Dug ends up swept to the Broonze empire and finds out Football has evolved, becoming the premire league of the empire with their team Real Bronzo being the reinging champs of all of Football. So when Dug is naturally outed as a caveman, he challenges them the same way the oposing team did for high stakes; They win they get the valley, Bronzo wins, they become slaves int he mines.
So Dug is forced to rally his bunch of ragtag misfits getting help from Gloona, a bronze ager who not only takes a shine to our young hero, and vice versa, but is more than happy to join the team as both their coach, as no one has the faintest idea what their doing or how footballw orks, and one of their members as undsuprisngly the bronze age is very he man woman haters when it comes to women in sports. Sadly something society hasn't really evolved on enough for my taste.
So our two young heroes and pig sidekick have to figure out how to train these misifits using the unorthadox methods of trainign in the volcanic hellscape they had to run to and the fact they like each other more than the more individualistc and egotsitical Real Bronzo.
Naturally the stakes rise ofr the villiana s the Queen isn't happy Nooth made the wager without him and while like him she considers the Cavemen savages, unlike Nooth she recognizes both how humilating the lost will be.. and how you know they have something to fight for so they'll actually put in the work to get good. Nooth has to try and demoralize Dug by revelaing his ancestors, while inventing football, eventually gave up on it after sharing it with other tribes who constintely beat them and invoated the game.
Dug almost sacrifices himself, but the chief, realizing he was a dick, gets the team there in time and convinces him it's about the heart and all that. The team despite stronger opposition and Nooth blatantly cheating win while Nooth is consigned to the mines and the Bronze and Stone Ages make peace and Goona moves in with the tribe because why not.
If all this sounds familiar, your spotting Early Man's biggest issue: it has nothing really.. new or interesting to do despite having had several chances at a fun setup: seeing how cavemen play football wether it be in the distant past or against the broonze, pitting a colonalist empire against cavemen to show the "Savages" they dismise and force out of their rightful land arne't as uncultured or helpless as they appear. The cast would have ot be 80% less white to really make the latter idea work, but it's still one worht exploring.
Instead Early Man just goes where 80 dozen films have before: There's no real character to it. Looking at Aardman's other leads off the top of my head they have more character, more humor to them and more of an arc. Wallace is a hapless idiot who just so happens to be a genius who can't see the forest for the trees because his tree o matic plucked them all out of the ground so he could see the lake better but means well, Gromit is his silent loyal dog who often has to reign in his nonsense, Ginger a defiant rebel against an unfair regime who simply makes the mistake of betting her hopes on Mel Gibson, and Pirate Captain is a swaggering moron who geninely loves his crew and cares about them but struggles iwth his own ego and inferority complex.
In contrast Dug is just a good kid who has big ideas and more faith in his people than Chief does. That's it. It's the START of something but he dosen't really get more to play jokes off: we get some great jokes in the Bronze City as he has no idea how to operate in it, but otherwise he's just a pretty bland paragon. And as superman shows us a paragon can still be funny and adorable while also being funny. Goona has a bit more to her being a lover of a game that rejects her and the Chief having just given up only to realize "Hey maybe don't" but they just never fully sculpt those into an arc. Dug is optimistic the whole time and was always right, the Chief was always wrong and just needs genine hope and effort and Goona is never wrong. They don't have to be wrong but htere's really nothing to them and nothing comedic to compesate.
A character can be thin arc wise and still have a lot of comedic laters but aside from Lord Nooth, whose snootyneeds, nove of bathing in gold and general ego make him funny, it dosen't work. The Cavemen don't relaly get invidvidual jokes and never coalse enough into one big unit. The film banks on you loving them as a family on them being funny enough but it dosen't work.
And aardman has made what's fucntioanlly one character spread across many with a few notable traits work: I can't tell you the names of more than four of the Pirates from Pirates, but they do a lot better job up front selling why we like these guys with one scene: Ham Night. The weekly gathering where they all clink plates and have ham selling both the pirates obession with ham glorious ham, and their togetherness as well as why they love PIrate Captain: he provides the ham while hamming it up. He provides adventure. With Dug we get they like him and the chief and they like their lives, but we don't get much of a sense of community and the film banks on it too hard to get away with failing at it just as hard. I still root for them, but it's hard not to root against rich assholes wanting to enslave them. It's like Space Jam if it didn't make you care about the Looney Tunes but withou decades of already carring about them as a cushion.
The jokes could save the film but they don't relaly make the cast distinct or funny enough and don't provide them frequently enough to matter. There are enough good ones to make the film still decent from Nooth's dealings with the queen's messag ebird which mimics her, the queen herslef bringing her own commentary team, the commentary team having puppets and saying "puppets dont' lie', Dug falling down a bunch of stairs, or just general puns like one of the commentators calling them Early Man United. I'm sure if I was more familiar with Football in Britian, Ted Lasso only gets you so far, i'd probably laugh at more, but as it is it relies on that a bit too much to be funny if you don't watch the great game. Which tbf is less likely anywhere lese in thew orld, but still an entry for me and even beyond that the rest of the stone age jokes just dont' land. They get pretty basic with the training the only one making me laugh when they play a combo of hexgon heat and bumper balls that also makes them focus. There's good scattered jokes that work enough to make it watchable but they really coudl've done more to both sell their progress and the jokes. Instead ther'es just nothing to relaly care about till the next joke floats you by. There are a bunch of great visual gags like Tooth's minon getting a foam finger stuck on his head and having to point with it or making their shoes out of local catipllars, just not enough to be as joke a minute as pirates or either of the wallace and gromit films with not enough heart to compensate.
The films one ace in the hole and the one thing it gets absoltuely right is the animation. Early Man is easily the most gorgeous Aardman film i've seen and Pirates was damn impressive visually. The backdrops are haunting beautiful each setting, the valley, the bronze city and the badlands are wonderfully animated and a lot of the weaker jokes are elevated simply by having such expressive gorgeous animation. It's not enough to make the film great, but it is enough to deserve a watch. The detail on the costumes from the cavemen's togas to their eventual uniforms to the bronze age togas and their own uniforms are great, you can see the fine detail on the hair.. it's all so damn good. I had high expectations but boy oh boy is this film just pretty to look at. Any time I paused it the frame was great.. till the amazon ad came in.
Early Man is far from Aardman's best films, not having the heart or joke denseity to really stand out. I can see why it's mostly forgotten. That said.. it's still charmingly british and gorgeous to look at enough to merit a watch, it just dosen't merit multiple like the rest and for a studio that for the most part has delivered banger after banger, it is a bit disapointing. It's Aardman's Equivlent of the Boxtrolls: not necesiarlly horrible, but not nearly good as everything else this stuidos done. Thanks for reading and if you liked this review please consider following for more and joining my patreon
Jacob Mattingly | creating Animation And Comic Reviews | Patreon
The Wonderful Year of Mickey Mouse: Quack Quack Bicker Bicker: A Donald and Daisy Shortstacular
Hello all you happy people and welcome back to the wonderful year of mickey mouse.
This .. is the one i've been most excited for all retrospective. As we hit halfway, it's finally time to talk about he of the sweetest dispostion and all the luck. Who else would we talk about for his birthday week but Donald Duck?
Donald is my faviorite Disney character. I've covered tons of his work from his time with the cabs to grabbing on to some ducktales to his excellent shorts. He can be a loving father, an angry asshole, a down on his luck everyman, a subpar boyfriend, an abused boyfriend, an ostrich owner, a duck pointing a rifle at a baby penguin, a citzen of nazi germany (Covered that earlier this month), a sailor, a beloved brother, a bickering brother, an uncle, an abusive uncle, a superhero, a victim of wage abuse and of course he of the sweetest dispoistion. He's been everything everywhere all at once and The Mickey Mouse SHorts capture that well: he's often Mickey's grumpy friend, sometimes daisy's grumpy boyfriend, sometimes her entirely resonable and loving boyfriend, and sometimes he just struggles to get a fucking bag open. These shorts do my boy well and as an added Bonus do Daisy well, letting her get in on the fun. It's why I gave the special to both of them as most of Donald's stories are daisycentric. Even when she dosen't technically appear we still get Hallucination Daisy to fill in. She's a good friend, a put upon at times partner, a bad sport, and a hell of a driver.
So we're honoring our faviorite duck couple with 6 stellear shorts. Let's roll.
The Adorable Couple
The Adorable Couple might've been my faviorite Mickey mouse short and while tha'ts no longer the case, the final one fucking punches my heart too good for that, it's still damn fine in large part thanks to one musical moment. One perfect distlation of the more angry and pissy moments of Donald and Daisy's relationship
Look the entire rest of the short could've been mickey mouse's rap album and it still would've been in the top ten of these shorts. It's catchy, it's perfectly performed by the two of them, and it's greatly animated and using Daisy's dismissive nail filing to give it some base was genius.
The rest of the short is still genius though as the whole concept is Mickey and Minnie, who are so cute it can and will give you a heart attack, can't fathom someone else's can be entirely passive agression and active shouting and still be a functional relationship. I mean a lot of the time it isn't but I love the idea of the short that these two trying to get them to just be happy.. only pisses them off, that they LIKE fighting. We don't see THEM be affectionate because Disney is afraid to show full on graphic hate sex between two ducks on the Disney channel. Don Rosa barely got away with implying it
You just can't have Donald's angry cum noises as the lead in to the Suite Life On Deck reruns i'm sad to say.
So Mickey and Minnie just can't undrestand. Their lovemaking is slow, sweet, and other ajdective si'm sure but unlike Donald i'm not as willing to speculate on Mickey's sex life. All my mind can conjur is he goes OH BOY when he cums and tha'ts enough to make me question my thought processes.
So it makes sense they just try too hard and have to right it by getting their rain cloud back. I also love just how over the top wholesome they are: it's a common trait in these shorts, if stripped away when it'd be funnier, but here Mickey nearly passes out just from seeing his friends fight and needs gumdrops and can't imagine fighting Minnie and Donald is right to get the popcorn to watch them try to fight to bring it back, which is enough foreplay for Daisy and Donald to get back to buisness and all to be right with the world. Top notch short, the better the more I think about it.
Captain Donald
Captain Donald is really a perfect setup for a Donald Duck story: Turns out Donald dosen't really know how to sail and has been lying to daisy and because he sucks at lying she's tired of his web of lies and if she finds out he's doing it again, she's going to dump him. She's also VERY turned on by him being a sailor. She has a thing for men in uniform.
Look I could lie to you and say this isn't going to be a weirdly horny blog about Donald Duck but that ship has sailed. You made it through the last one your stuck now. And since your stuck now please consider joining my patreon for exclusive reviews and voting maybe.
Jacob Mattingly | creating Animation And Comic Reviews | Patreon
I need the money. Talking abotu Donald Duck's sex life shockingly does not pay for itself.
Seriouslyt hough times have been very tight and I could use the extra money to if nothing else play for netflix. So please consider throwing in a buck a month or more if you can. Thank you. Now back to Donald Duck's web of horny lies already in progress.
So Donald has to fake it with Mickey's help as Mickey invited himself, Minnie and Daisy for a day out on a boat as Donald didn't loop him in on the lie. In fairness Mickey has a poker face that says "please rob me", so I get not trusting him with secrets.
The rest of the short is just fun slapstick as donald climbs the sail, get sstuck and then gets stuck in a typhoon manging to impress daisy and get his outfit shreded. So now he's a pilot. Bad news he still has no idea what he's doing. Good news he knows a pilot. Bad news...
I mean his sister is also a pilot and has defintely gotten herself into shenanigans trying to get laid, but you know Donald isn't going to ask Della for help unless he's about to be strangled by a mummy and even then we'll see.
Split Decision
This one's just pure fun, with a great high concept: Mickey wants to help cure donald of his rage as Daisy is about to dump him. He does raise the valid point that she always says that but given he literally gets fussy at the drop of a hat (a gag I love as is Mickey's knowing look as he drops the hat), so they try to see if Ludvig von Drake has a thing that can make him not mad.
Given this is the same man who made the entire universe Donald's Ass before someone reset it
This goes about as well as you'd expect with donald instead of being calmed down being split into two versions of himself: Drunk Donald who loves everyone and everything and Angry Donald, a monstroisty of pure rage who levels about half a city block. Donald is so reliant on his rage stripping it out leaves really nothing left and distilling it kickstarts the end of days. This is just an excuse to have fun iwth both with Drunk Donald hugging someone's wife and Angry Donald rampaging. We also get Hallucination Daisy as Mickey's guilt over causing this leads to him hallucinating her. The hallucination slaps him for his hurbis as it should and can because it's daisy.
He realizes Daisy is the key and gets angry donald to beat up drunk donald by getting them both horned up which somehow recombines them
So Donald's back to normal... if with a very angry ass. That's not me his ass would like to rage. This short is hilaroius and the idea donald is nothing without his anger as it's that key to him and he's just a dlerious wreck hugging everyone is great. I also like how drunk drunk donald sounds. The art on both is great paticuarlly rage donald all super deformed and murdery. I'd have a beeer with him before he splits me in half.
Two Can't Play
Look the second Kev pitched this there were a few shorts I knew I had to do and while some like Our Floating Dreams and Potatoland we've seen, a LOT of them are concentrated in this special. Two Can't Play is one of the top ones.
The setup is simple: Donald and Daisy play tennis with who you'd expect
But since he and Tina are on a break they had to call Mickey and Minnie who just once want to win while Donald and Daisy are about as obonxious about winning as yo'ud expect. It is geninely cute to see them bonding and at peace for once even if that peace involves being just
The hypercolor outfits, the anime hair on donald, the fucking gloating, ti's so damn amazing. I would wager this short exists soley because someone drew these outfits and then they wrote a short as an excuse to use them. It's so damn majestic and so them to just be.. garbage people. just the worst. But still so damn cute.
So when the unambigously adorable duo find a cheating device over by the vending machine, they think about it for one minute, see Donald and daisy have got out the air horns which can only mean we're minutes from the live sex celebration, and decide to cheat just to serve it to them.
I love the animation on the tennis, on Donald and Daisy getting clobbered and how poorly they naturally take being beaten and their reactoins are satisfying. As is the twist: their also cheating and whlie they try to claim victory their gear shorts out leading to one last tennis and everyone involved's clothes reparing, which is a shame donald's tron vest is the tron best, and of course the underdogs win and gloat as they deserve. I love you donald and daisy but you desrved that.
Supermarket Scramble
Look did I put this one here because I relate to Donald struggling to open one of those godforsaken supermarket produce bags?
I also put it here because it might be my faviorite mickey mouse short and defintelyf rom the Wonderful World of mickey Mouse sequel series.
Mickey and Co are having an adorably swell day, love the cycled but still cute animation of them making .. I guess grass angles? grangles? their doing snow angles in a field let's just say that and move on.
So wanting to cap such a perfect day that he's glad he spent with you, Mickey decides on a barbeque and to team up: He goes for the fixins, donald goes for fruit because he's bi as fuck like yours truly, Minnie meats
And Daisy will drive because.. they needed something for Daisy to do. Goofy's on lobster.
This short is really 5 smaller concepts stacked and cut between each other and it's beautiful. It's the greatest grocery disaster since Dethklok tried to go to the food library
Almost every one of these is gold. Goofy's dive into the lobster tank is bronze, but the brick joke of him getting left behind and taken home by some lady is gold. We will not ruminate on Goofy's sex life as he's already told the world and his son in detail
The rest are all just pure gold: Mickey gets roped into being the manager as it's really just as easy as giving someone a sweater and saying I'M FRE I'M FREE, Minnie has to go fucking feral to get some sausage from pete, Daisy has to deal with parking on the curb and everyone being mad at her, and Donald.. well donald struggles just to get a bag open. It's all ncie character stuff: Mickey is a natural people pleaser, Minnie is hilarous seeing someone this nice go apeshita s she deals with a crowd of assholes, Daisy gives not one iota of a shit and her rolling up the window on a cop telling her not to park there who just.. walks off defeatd is gold. And life hates donald so of course trying to open one of those accursed motherfucking bags would lead to static and him gaining electric powers a big unruly mob. And OF COURSE Daisy would be the one to fix it wondering what the fucks going on and reminding Mickey, HEY YOU DON'T WORK HERE. It's a fun, breezy short and a nice one that works in the whole gang.
Just the Four of Us
And we end on another Wonderful World episode and my second favorite, a donald and Daisy focused episode.. but what I like is unlike the rest it's not about them fighting or being assholes or implying rough sex. The two of them just want a fucking break after a string of disasterious double dates with Minnie and Mickey, cumilating in trying to rocket to the moon.
It's a great premise as, like the Adorable Couple, it nicely plays on the contrast between the sugary over the top Mickey and Minnie and the more groudned and conflict ridden Donald and Daisy. Donald and Daisy would just be happy with a movie or a nice sandwich or just to fucking stop for a week, while Mickey and Minnie are convinced they have to try the hardest and give their friends THE BESTTTTTT instead of just letting them be tired and are so emotoinally fragile their afraid to just tell them what htey need to hear: No. We need a break, we love you guys but please stop.
So Donald decides to default to what he's worst at: Lying. It's a sweet gesture just get out of it by telling them they can't go.. but Donald makes a crucial error: He tells them their sick, and so the rest of the episode is a slasher movie where Mickey and Minnie try to take care of Donald and Daisy. It's geninely nice ot see Donald and Daisy as a team, and while Donald understandably feels bad he fucked up, in a shocking show of restraint Daisy dosen't pile on him.. even when warning him her yells are less "YOU DONE FUCKED UP BOY" and more "THEIR COMING FOR US". She's not mad at him just understandably terrified at her friends overperforming. It's relatable: while i've never had couple friends like this because i've never coupled long enough for that, we al lhave friends or aquantinces we geninely love but who are just.. a lot and feel bad when we set boundries even though that's healthy.
And necessary as Mickey asking for a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down or Daisy singing creepy nursery rhymes is just great. It's geninely hilaroius the whole time.. sepcailly as the coule get an actual cold and go into the rain just to avoid them. Also Goofy questions his reality. As you do.
The ending is the only part of this short I really don't like: the two end up in the hopstial.. and end up stranded with mickey and minnie when.. they did nothing bad enough to deserve this outcome. Donald and Daisy I mean. They SHOULD have set boundries sure, but we've seen that just seeing Donald and Daisy fight nearly made Mickey pass out and having a fight with his girlfriend was geninely taxing. It would've been hard to actually tell Mickey no without him sobbing for a week straight. But tha'ts also his problem, but being dishonest dosen't mean "oh well the thing we wnated to avoid should happen". Mickey and Minnie aren't bad people.. but neither are Donald and Daisy for just wanting a second. This short is still great but really needed a second draft for that ending as it's the most predictable and eh direction for it to go with.
Next Time: Summer continues as it's the wonderful SUMMER of mickey mouse and the worst scrooge voice you've ever heard. Thanks for reading, later days
Critical Role Episode 4-29: Opening NIght Thoughts
After expermenting with liveblogging last night, and finding it fun though i'll defintely need a sideblog for it, I decided to write down any extra thoughts as i'm a wordy bastard and while I have a full review full of ducks to get out today, I just wanted to geninely.. engage with the rest of this fandom. I was brought in by the cartoons and it took me a long time to mount up and watch campaign 4 constiently. Still gotta catch up but I knew enough from tv tropes, recaps and the like to keep up. So i'm excited to be here, took me a few weeks to actually do this, let's go.
Breaking this up by section as since we have three distinct groups and since i'ts the biggest and meatest this session, let's talk about
THE GATHERING OF THE SUNDERED HOUSES
First off Wic and Tyranny have been my easy faviorites out o the soldiers even before I properly got to meet them , everything I read from Dr Jizzabell Finger to Wic being a sad boy dealing with the fact his entire life's a lie (Critical Roll's version of Hunter from the Owl House), made me excited to. The fact said meeting involved them noisly pulling up to the archenade and Wic having the disguise skills of an excited toddler ready to play dress up and Tyranny wanting to eat a corpse only met my expectations.
That said i'm still not sold that his whole party's going to make it out of this alive. While Wic was right to stand up for himself and while his punch was deeserved (And gave me the shiptastic wiccany or whatever it's properly called moment I deserved, same with him calling her pretty this episode, seriously man realize the affect you have on this woman) his return punch was equally satisfying as while Julian is a hoot to watch and a beast in any party he's in.. he's still a dick and still deserved it. Frankly he deserved a busted nose too but Wic has the physical strength of a newborn baby, the fact he hurt him at all was a miracle.
Anyways I do think Wic was right this was a gamble needed to take and that they need to stop treating him like the tagalong kid no one likes. He's certainly not an equal to many of them but he has a seat at the table for a reason. Where I worry is how the fuck they get out of this. They do have Glyphs and Bolaire as a trump card, but as Wick himself as said Yanessa will kill "Kill them so fast" and the more he stays the more he's becomming engrained back in his house.
Brennan being both a kind resonable dm who warns his players before they fuck up but also a complete and utter baastard is not making it easy, hammering in that Iris and Wic II (He has a name but frankly given how he's treated and how he's the finished Asmir she wanted) really missed him and SEEMINGLY have nothing to do with all this. Seemingly. He can't rescue them too as they don't want it.
His sister on the other hand is the fucking worst and I do think she geninely killed Aramis. While it could be an empty threat, given Yanessa was ready to slit her faviorite pawn and propoganda tool's throat if he lied I doubt she'd be that arsed to keep around a commoner who was geninely making things difficult just by existing and who Wic was both too sweet and too naive to give up on. I completely buy Wic's sister volunteering just to have somethihng to hurt him with later and get some small satisfaction every time he brought his lost love up knowing she'd put that poor girl in the ground.
The whole masking scene was funny after the deep uncomfort of "Oh Tyranny's just going to casually pick someone who may not be able to say no to try and fuck wic so they die". The "not prettier than me" was hilarious and Bolarie REALLY needs to set these down too, get them some tea and say, for both their sakes
So Wic can either reject her and they both can move on as she is down bad and it's starting to affect the team and he is too damn oblivoius to pick up the neon signs. I do like he's now stuck in the middle of this as the adult in the room as not only is he my faviorite (Talisen's characters were instant faviorites in the cartoons and Bolaire's reveal cemented him as one here), but he frankly is the only one with a brain cell consitently.
Either way the reveal she's actually a weird dick riding zealot who wants to be with him for always and rejects the reading mask was fantastic as was poor Bolaire getting her horny. Horny transfers. I also like the way Talisen played it, implying that this isn't the first time he's taken someone just after they got super triple horned up. I mean I get it, seducing someone is probably an easy way to do this, I also get why he probably only saves it for if he has to. It's awkward enough having someone's risdual horny for what is now by this point his young ward. Granted he had to feel a ton of that coming from tyranny. Also love Whitney's pantomining when he's puppeteering tyranny's body. That was amazing. She's the best.
So with all that drama out of the way we have the meeting itself, which was tense as fuck as expected. It also got a hilarious crash in as the Aspirants continue to be comedy gold. I haven't seen their first bungled fight, though I have read the quote "YOU SHOULD BE LUCKY TO HAVE HIS COMPANY", but one of them (Haven't fully memorized whose who yet) writhing with no yous while they dick themselves under a carriage and the other asking thier nemisis to "Please, be cool", was glorious.
This was no less so as I swear to the everlight I heard the bulk and skull theme music when they emerged carrying two bodies. I also like that none of the other houses seemed to genuinely care Yanessa had done a kidnapping. Kattigan being in the bag reminded me of that episode of star vs where tom's trapped in a bag but way more dramatic.
So speaking of Kattigan I really did'nt know him well: Iknew he had some mysterious tragic past but he seemed like just the swaggering rogue of his group, your han solo type. I should've knonw better aas that opening was fucking gutting. While I did'nt guess Primus himself being the culprit I defintely called it being a Tachonis: While i'm sure some people Kattigan went to were just.. classist dicks who assumed she abandoned him as Brennan narraited, I was just as certain given the Tachonisses aren't exactly subtle in their apperances and primus is more than willing to murder someone just because he feels they didn't "Know their place" , that anyone who DID realize who Kattigan was talking about clammed the fuck up and simply played it off as "are you sure she didn't run" for both their sakes. Let's face it, Kattigan ENTIRELY would've tried to get a party and go murder that mother fucker immeditely had he known all this time and that would not have ended well. The man is a tragic figure and I feel deeply for him but he is not remotely smart enough for subterfuge. It's why he got sacked and then dragged away as he found his wife and child's killer ni the first place. Hope he gets to save their souls from whatever the fuck Primus did with them.
Back to the meeting, Otto geninely impressed me , as did Brenan having not only set things up in case they ran into any of the other houses plans, but for how their actions paid off. I assumed, and have the posts to back this up, Otto was going to die for darring to speak up to Primus.. but instead is powerful enough that he GENINELY scared the man. Which worries me as that means Otto is just as powerful as any of them and while he has a sense of honor he IS a maid killing bastard. I don't completely trust him, I just trust him more than the two big bads.
Still seeing this horrible monster who tried to have his own son killed and slaughtered Jullian's entire family , all while being utterly unashamed of murdering the royces and bragging about how they all WANTED to do it: he just did it cowed, even if it was sadly temproary was great.
Primus did have a fucking whopper of a villian speech though, explaning just how much he hates the poor, how he's aware rebellion is on the horizon, and in a dark echo of wic's actions last episode that while not planned given how much that floored brenan, defintely synch up well... getting out of certain death or war by simply speaking the truth. Admitting that "Yeah I was trying to become emperor, yup I did all this... and it's not like any of you haven't been doing the same", also VERY aware of what the aspirants really are and that the ressurection was bullshit. I am shocke dit does seem the hallovars and tachonises aren't working as closesly as I thought but it suprises me less and less that they were ALL planning some trump card. It also makes me fucking happy that the person most crucial to stopping his plan.. was a commner he dismissed and nearly casually murdered earlier that day. Still nothing good can come from any of this except maybe if Tyranny can loosely convince her sisters to rebel. Which is a tall order given they all hate her and she hates them but we'll see.
Almost forgot to mention Bolaire's sister, which was fucking excellent from the head break to the fact hse really does not understand things have changed... and that instead we now have a VERY dangerous wild card about. That said I did fullly expect her to leave the box at some point and while I COMPLETELY get why the Schemers didn't check it sooner, it still might of behooved them to have Murray scan it if she could.
The Play: The Dead Speak
I have less on the Play sequence but only that it was truly stunning. Some of Brennan and Liam's best work: you can tell they worked out teh whole damn play together, Liam being the one whose character wrote it and is directing it and Brennan having to play everyone in it. It was truly beautiful.. as was Valeus bit of ship tease, get it girl. The faire showing up to deal with the creed was also fantastic, just a truly awesome moment of payoff for their racist bullshit.
The big event was of course.. Thaisha being a proud stage mom to Shadia and showing how much she loves her baby. While i gave Brenan a pass if it happened this week the offer still stands: one punch to th back of the head or drawing of it for legal reasons and because I like him if this baby girl baby dies.
The real event of course was the ritual.. and the suprise of it.... the ghosts of the dead returend... and got to actaully pass on. Thazi's plan to turn this around was not beocming a god, as many understandably theorized, at least not yet.. but to simply free his people and let them see where they are NOW. That's all. To show orc kind free and use that with his brothe'rs art to show the people what it means to be free. This could still be something way darker... but I doubt it. The plan , even if it was turning around something from the houses, was always something beauitful and trascnednat. It raises a lot of question about what's the next step of it, but it is beautiful that at least for one act, Hals' show did what he set out to do: inspire, to show people why art matters and to strike back against the monsters plotting at the same time.
The Spooky Murder Mansion of Regret
Okay one more and less character stuff here as it was mostly sneaking around a mansion and then playing brenan's faviorite dnd mini game "TRY NOT TO DIE BITCHES!". LIke the players i just.. did not question that maybe going into a spooky death mansion with only a 20 year old's decade expired knowledge of the place , two gloriously meatheaded furies, a vengance man and thimble (who was actually a good choice), was a good idea. I saw all the danger flags for the theater (a mystery ritual that was heavily built up as being something truly horrifying, making brenan's swerve all the cooler), and the Vila Aurora (A party of only three stuck behind enemy lines with only a flimsy possibly blockable way out), I didn't think "Hey maybe the guy who massacred an entire house in one night and nearly massacred the party that same night just a week and two levels ago in universe probably left some pretty dangerous shit". Like the mansion conflict itself, I genuinely wasn't sure ANYONE would make it out alive till the very end.
Travis being utterly terrified was funny, but it underlied the fact they were all one bad roll or two away from certain death, especially Cyd who got no main character bonuses becaue Brenan can REALLY be a cruel bastard. If a fair one in this case as he scaled the dungeon for a much bigger party figuring they wouldn't visit till the end game of hte campaign if that. But this being the campaign it is he can't really warn them and his philosphy for armian and campaign 4 as a whole geninely seems to be
He's fair about it including warning players if their out matched.. but this is not making it easy for them and the fact they all nearly died.
On the bright side Occtis made a friend/possible love intrest. Also got me to look up whose corpse they've been lugging around but i get it now. She geninely bound herself to him as his his protector and now can get her revenge on his family. Plus a party as small as the seekers (not by normal standards but by critical role and "this campaign is a fucking death world standards", yes), could use another npc member. Granted I don't think ANY of the parties will be the same coming out of this, but I could easily be proven wrong.
Anwyays that was all great, thanks for reading. Stick around for reviews and more simpsons gifs. later days.
Realized I never sent my theater post.. too late for that now.
Otto to Primus:
God I fucking love you Otto. I thought just a minute ago, check the posts, this man would die horrribly.
"It was never my intention to slaughter anybody who sits at this table"
"It was not meant to slaughter you , it was meant to make you kneel"
So this wasn't one concetrated plot all along: it was all of them seperatley doing game of thrones shit. That.. generally throws me.
And we're finally to the speech from the trailer... in full context.
"They will bury you in their dirt and call it freedom"
Fuck this is a good villian speech. And it genuiely worries me. I was hoping they'd break.. but expecting they woudln't.
"We have laid a feast for you as a token of our apologies"
Wic's Words: Yay go team
Wic Internally: WHAT WHAT DO I DO HOW WORDS WHAT
BROTHER! I'M HAVING SUCH A GOOD TIME
You tried bolaire .. you tried.
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