Written by Jambareeqi

In this episode of “Bob’s Burgers”, the bank across the road from Bob’s restaurant is taken hostage by a robber called Mickey. Bob himself is first sent in as a burger deliveryman for Nicky, but he soon becomes a hostage.

“Bob’s Burgers” is an animated sitcom that I’ve been getting into more during quarantine, and this is definitely the funniest episode I’ve seen so far. The plot maybe a simple robber Vs. cops stand-off, but the inclusion of Bob and his family is what makes it absurd. Most normal families would be scared in this situation. Bob’s family aren’t normal though, and they actually get a kick out of the excitement of confronting a criminal.

It’s really hilarious how nonchalant his kids act! This isn’t a horrifying predicament to them at all, because they see it as an opportunity to interview a robber or learn about police procedures. That’s the major charm of these children as characters; they are really blunt and unapologetic about their curiosity or feelings.

I do also like how the episode subverts hostage stories. The cops are portrayed as trigger-happy nut jobs without compassion or common sense. Meanwhile, Mickey comes off as a lost, lonely, and confused individual who needs guidance. It’s the first time that Mickey has committed a robbery without his partner – which really shows.

Mickey is so clueless about robbing that he ends up turning to his own hostages for help. Most of the hostages are too scared or upset to calm things down, but Bob steps up to be a voice of reason and someone to sympathise with Mickey. Bob is an average Joe caught between two dangerous sides. He ends up being the most sensible person in this whole mess, because he is a down-to-earth guy who just wants to do the right thing.

The episode is very humour driven, but it backs it’s comedy up with genuine tension. “Bob Day Afternoon” executes the intensity of a realistic confrontation with legitimate levity, and this helps create a believable situation to be transgressively poked fun at. Darkly comic jokes grow naturally out of the tense narrative, because there’s a normality and set of expectations to be deconstructed.

To Conclude, “Dog Day Afternoon” is an episode that had me laughing until I couldn’t breathe. It takes a lot of skill to make a hostage negotiation side-splittingly funny, and the show’s writers manage to approach the premise with a tongue-in-cheek earnestness. The episode tells the riveting story of a rubbish bank robber wanting to fail with humility, and how a schlub like Bob can relate to that; all while staying true to the show’s silly nature.

Written by Jambareeqi

Kayley is the daughter of Sir Lionel, one of the knights of Arthur’s round table. She really idolizes her father’s knighthood, seeing his role as noble and special. Unfortunately, Lionel is killed by the rogue knight Ruber, the latter of which resents Arthur for being King.

Years later, Ruber kidnaps Kayley’s mother Lady Juliana, so that he can use her to enter Arthur’s kingdom of Camelot. Meanwhile, Ruber’s Griffin has been sent off to steal Arthur’s powerful magic sword Excalibur, but fails to follow through and accidentally drops it in “The Forbidden Forest”.

Kayley vows to not only rescue her mother from Ruber, but also retrieve the lost Excalibur for her King. While venturing to the Forbidden Forest, Kayley meets a blind hermit called Garrett, who trained with Sir Lionel to become a knight, but his loss of sight ended his dreams.

After insisting that he fights alone, Garrett reluctantly joins forces with Kayley to save Camelot from Ruber. Along their journey together, the two befriend a two headed dragon called Devon and Cornwall, who can’t breathe fire, fly, or agree on anything.

This film has often been branded as a “Diet Disney” movie, due to how it’s obviously trying to imitate the Disney fairy tale brand – without knowing what makes the House of Mouse formula work. I can’t deny how much Quest for Camelot seems to be replicating the Disney renaissance films, almost like it’s following a set of requirements demanded by the studio.

But it’s easy to simply dismiss a film for copying what’s been done before. I think that this movie deserves praise for a few things it executes decently, in spite of how much it fails to recapture the essence of Disney’s 90’s smash hits.

Kayley herself makes for a good heroine in this story. Sure she has a bad habit of talking too much, but the movie is aware of that flaw, and she accepts the price paid when her yapping puts Garrett in danger. When push comes to shove in dangerous confrontations, Kayley will cleverly utilize her surroundings to physically outwit Ruber’s army. She’s also willing to learn fighting combat techniques from Garrett, by working with hostile plant life as practice opponents, and his lesson is applied later in the finale in a different context.

That’s another compliment I have to give, the relationship between our two leads! Garrett and Kayley maybe confrontational at first, but they connect through a shared admiration for Sir Lionel, and their perceptions of each other change after witnessing what the other can do. Their romance maybe short lived, but it’s a relationship that demonstrates chemistry and equal respect.

I also like how Kayley helps bring confidence to the blind Garrett, who has pushed away his knighthood dreams for a life of solitude. Garrett himself can be a little grumpy at times, but he holds a sincere pride for Camelot. Even though he doesn’t think he can be part of the round table, he does want do what he can to save Excalibur.

It’s rare for children’s films to feature disabled lead heroes, with many movies resigning the blind to being one joke caricatures or fodder for forced comic relief. Garrett is a dignified hero for visually impaired children to aspire to, someone who overcomes his blindness to achieve his goals. With the possible aid of audio descriptive commentary, I can imagine blind kids adoring how Garrett uses sound perception to overcome obstacles or fight enemies.

I do also think that the world building is decently done. I know a lot of people despise how the film doesn’t go into intense detail about the forbidden forest’s lore, but over-explaining would have taken away the charming ambiguity of the fantasy setting (plus could have resulted in excessive exposition dumping). Sometimes asking for more answers can do more harm than good.

The action sequences are pretty okay too. The metallic minions of Ruber make for fun opponents, because their steel bodies and sharp weaponized limbs pose as legit threats. The scene where our heroes have to run away from giant dragons is quite intense, mainly due to how imposing these dragons are compared to Devon and Cornwall. Not to mention, the final conflict against Ruber with Excalibur melded to his arm, inspires creative combat on our heroes’ part, because they have to work around being outmatched.

I’m afraid that’s where my praises stop though. While I will defend these said aspects, I can’t argue that the film didn’t completely deserve to be lynched by critics. It’s desperate need to clone Disney aesthetics is it’s own undoing; especially when it misses the mark for why these tropes worked for the House of Mouse.

The inclusion of Devon and Cornwall is an obvious attempt to recapture Aladdin’s Genie. These two sometimes have a funny line here or there, but they spend a lot of the movie without much of a purpose in the main story, and their constant arguments can become grating. It’s not until much later on that they help out.

Their development doesn’t happen until the climax, when they realise that cooperation triggers their flight and fire, making them suddenly highly valuable to the quest. While I like the idea of fighting sibling characters learning the benefits of teamwork, because it can teach brother and sisters in the audience the same thing, enduring these dragons’ incessant bickering until the third act, is quite a lot to ask of audiences. Simply attaching two talented comedians like Don Rickles and Eric Idle to talking dragons, doesn’t automatically make for endearing memorable characters.

Ruber is a villain with the super basic motive of ruling a kingdom. This would be fine to me, IF there was more to him besides his desire for power. He has his moments of threat: from his twitching insane expressions to how he casually punches a dragon in the face. Plus his plan to use Juliana as a Trojan horse to get into Camelot is deviously clever.

The problem is that he is rubbish at witty deception or cunning charm; hence why he resorts to exploiting Juliana as a decoy. Even the blind Garrett could tell that this guy is a greedy baddie! Which makes me wonder how he even ended up on Arthur’s round table? Gary Oldman’s microphone-chewing voice acting makes this worse, because the character was already too over the top. There’s only so much exaggerated villainy an antagonist can have, before they become too silly to take seriously.

Quest for Camelot is also a musical. You can tell that the songs are mainly here for Disney cloning reasons, because a lot of them are either pointless, a waste of time, end or start abruptly, and could easily be removed without consequences. Some songs carry important development for characters (For example, “I Stand Alone” has meaningful lyrics for reflecting Garrett’s internal conflicts with his blindness), but most of them are way too forgettable, don’t pay off, or intervene with the film’s pacing.

A lot of these songs are also fiercely ruined by comic relief characters’ cartoon antics. It’s hard to get invested in a love ballad or a villain’s sinister number, when a chicken is falling about or the dragons are fighting in the background. Are we supposed to be laughing at the clumsy characters? Or crying at the dramatic song’s narrative meaning? You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Heck, the dragon brothers’ song is the most pointless and annoying of them all! It tries to imitate Genie’s modern reference humour, but fails to understand WHY Genie could do this, because these two aren’t established as powerful keepers of time and space.

The Animation may LOOK like Disney’s renowned style, but it’s missing the same top tier standards. I’m not saying it looks bad, because that would be unfairly harsh. It’s just that the animation is standard at best. Characters move with fluidity and have varied expressions, but they lack the intellectual pauses or humanistic details that makes Disney animation impressive. I’d say that the animation’s only praiseworthy aspect is it’s special effects; like fire, lava, fantastical plants, magic, etc.

To Conclude, Quest for Camelot has always been one of my guilty pleasure films, but I’d say that a new viewing has made me appreciate what DOES work. If it distanced itself from Disney in a bid to find it’s own identity, and toned down the unnecessarily-intrusive comedy, then maybe it could have been a commercial success? And perhaps be remembered more fondly by mainstream audiences? Because the more you try to make a film imitate a previous success, the more you clearly don’t understand that these hits came from original creative brainstorming.

It’s Halloween in the Pickles household, so the adults have setup a haunted house for trick or treaters, and the babies don’t understand what’s going on! Angelica then boasts to the little tykes about getting Reptar bars, telling them that they won’t receive any, but Tommy realises that older kids are going into the haunted house, and are coming out screaming while holding Reptar bars, so he knows what to do!

The endearing charm to this Rugrats episode is seeing how the babies react to Halloween traditions, each wondering what is going on, while none of the adults are explaining the reasons behind the spooky decorations or why they’re dressing up as monsters. Throwing Halloween into the Rugrats formula makes for a fascinating dynamic, because it’s the weirdest holiday to introduce to babies.

The grown ups ponder whether the babies are ready for their first haunted house, because it might give them nightmares. The Protective Deedee is being against them coming in, and old fashioned Lou insists that kids their age are brave enough. It did make me think, when SHOULD you introduce Halloween to infants? But I guess it depends on the child; only their parent will know them well enough to decide.

Angelica’s bratty boasting makes us root for the babies, because her mean spirited “You can’t have this” attitude is so harsh, and we also know much the babies love the Reptar bars. We cheer them on in hopes that they’ll get to have green tongues too, putting Angelica’s selfishness to shame.

The grown ups seem to be having lots of fun building their haunted house (which is really just a tent in the garden), each adult being very proud of their contributions. It’s cute seeing people this age getting so into the Halloween spirit – especially for the sake of making many kids’ Halloweens special. They could have just waited at the door with a bowl of candy, but the Pickles went the extra mile, taking creative pleasure in pulling it all off.

Although, I do wish that someone made sure an adult was looking after the kids, seeing as everyone is outside distracted with the haunted house gimmicks, particularly if Deedee doesn’t want the kids to come into the haunted house. Heck, the garden is open to the public, all the adults are busy scaring kids, AND it’s obvious that the backdoor isn’t locked, doesn’t that seem risky? Even if they are close. However, maybe I’m being overcautious after watching creepy true story videos on Youtube all week haha!

I get that the episode wants to setup a chance for the babies to get out, but why make it so easy? It takes away tension, and portrays the adults as irresponsible. Here’s my idea for how this could have been done better:

Grandpa Lou seemed to have the least input for the haunted house, so surely he could have babysat the babies? He could have accidentally fallen asleep, the babies would have then crawled towards the backdoor, noticed it was locked, and inspiring Tommy to make a tower to reach the keys on a hook, giving Tommy and friends a chance to get into the garden. Yeah, it would have made Lou look a little bad, but at least it could have showed that the grown ups at least tried.

Putting all that aside though, the haunted house itself is really fun. You can tell that a lot of imagination went into it, and I would have loved if my parents had a tent like this in our back yard at Halloween. Things take a comical turn too, when the babies’ antics in the haunted house create scary illusions for everyone, making Grandpa claim that the haunted house is REALLY haunted. After all the talk of the babies being too afraid of the adults’ tent project, it’s the rugrats themselves that end up scaring the adults. That’s pretty funny!

As far as I know too, this episode was the debut of the Reptar bar, a candy that became synonymous with this show, to the point where a company recently tried to sell them as real products, even including the novelty of it being able to turn your tongue green. I’ll confess, the episode does make Reptar bars look great, so maybe I’ll order a pack someday haha!

To Conclude, this is a cute Halloween special, with the heart of it’s charm coming from the babies’ reactions to spooky traditions, surprisingly To Conclude, this is a cute Halloween special, with the heart of it’s charm coming from the babies’ reactions to spooky traditions, surprisingly sparking me to think about the ethics of introducing Halloween to babies. Not to mention, it makes a dinosaur shaped chocolate bar look like the coolest thing ever, helping us to see WHY the babies want one so much.

However, the adults’ lack of precaution for protecting the babies, doesn’t make them look very responsible, and the show already has common criticism against it’s adult characters’ poor parenting. This maybe a childrens’ show, but mums and dads will sometimes watch it with their kids, and the grown ups are the characters they are going to relate to.
Despite that setback, it’s still an adorable wholesome take on Halloween – one that’s perfect for kids that are too young for scary movies in October!

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IIt’s Halloween for Charlie Brown and his friends, but while most kids want to celebrate with the usual traditions, Linus decides to wait for “The Great Pumpkin” in a pumpkin patch, with only Sally willing to keep him company. Meanwhile, Snoopy is getting into his Halloween fancy dress costume of “The Flying Ace”, by imagining he is in a dog fight.

This is a Halloween special that doesn’t aim for scares or spectacles, but simple dry humour and the spirit of spooky festivities. It’s a slice of life cartoon that perfectly illustrates the mood of Fall. You can really feel the atmosphere of the season, from the fallen crisp brown leaves to the gorgeous watercolour backdrops. The kids’ discussions about varied topics are highly amusing, each dead pan setup penned with clever wit by Charles M. Schulz himself; it’s a delightful script.

But this is also a special about one kids’ loyalty towards what he believes in: The Legend of the Great Pumpkin! Did Linus make up this character? Or does he truly exist? That doesn’t really matter, because it’s own belief that makes this running plot endearing, as Linus refuses to give up waiting, even while Sally grumbles about missing out on trick or treating. On the one hand, we understand why Sally might feel betrayed, but on the other hand, it’s hard to get mad at Linus’ sheer faith.

Watching these children going trick or treating is simple enough, but little things make it kind of funny, like the fact that most of them are dressed in the same ghost costume, or how Charlie Brown keeps getting rocks instead of candy at each house. I’d even say that all this trick or treating made me suddenly crave sweet confectionery myself, even though the candy doesn’t even look that appealing, and I guess that’s because the kids themselves made the candy sound fun.

I’ll admit that Snoopy’s subplot does slightly detract from the main focus, as the I’ll admit that Snoopy’s subplot does slightly detract from the main focus, as the short suddenly centres on his imaginary war game. It’s quite a stretch to say how relevant this gag is to the Halloween atmosphere, but it’s still cute seeing the Beagle playing soldier. Not to mention, Snoopy does later end up at the Halloween party, plus he fools Linus and Sally into thinking that he’s the Great Pumpkin too. So he has his purpose in the special.

To Conclude, this is a lovely relaxing Halloween cartoon, a charming special that will get you into the spirit of the season without needing to frighten, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a laid back Halloween atmosphere this month.

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Spongebob has gained a reputation for being easily scared, which has coined him the nickname “Spongebob Scaredypants”, but Spongebob wants to prove that he can be frightening this Halloween, and so he dresses as a ghost of the Flying Dutchman with Patrick’s help. However, Spongebob’s costume is so tacky, that it offends the Flying Dutchman himself, who threatens to steal the souls of everyone at Mr. Krabs’ Halloween party.

The strength of the best Spongebob episodes is their ability to take a simple setup in fun directions, by treating the premise as a spring board for lots of creative gags, and this Halloween special is no exception. We go from Spongebob feeling insecure about his skills as a trick or treater, to finding ways to make him scary, and all this sparks the attention of a supernatural entity.

The comedy comes from Spongebob assuming that he’s genuinely scary, when really, he’s just running away in a fit of giggles before seeing people’s reThe comedy comes from Spongebob assuming that he’s genuinely scary, when really, he’s just running away in a fit of giggles before seeing people’s reactions, with Patrick naively assuring him that he was spooky. I do like how much Patrick cares about Spongebob’s need to scare too, doing everything he can to support his friend, and going as far as shaving his spongey flesh to make him rounder for a ghostly shape.

The episode does have a great Halloween theme too! There’s pumpkins everywhere, kids are trick or treating, Krabs is having a fun Halloween party with guests in fancy dress, and the episode is set entirely at night. The Flying Dutchman himself is also quite an imposing villain, being a misty green spirit towering over Bikini Bottom residents, with Brian Doyle Murray’s gravelly booming voice adding to his menace perfectly, but he’s got enough self aware charm to prevent him from being too horrifying for kids.

I’d have to say that the creepiest part of the episode, isn’t actually the Flying Dutchman, but what’s underneath Spongebob’s costume, because it’s revealed that Patrick has shaved him down to his insides. It’s quite unsettling actually, and Spongebob’s nonchalant reaction makes it all the more disturbing haha. I remember being pretty grossed out by this episode’s ending, because it’s just really weird seeing Spongebob’s brain being exposed like this, and I still find it kind of repulsive to this day haha!

To conclude, Scaredy Pants is a terrific Halloween special cartoon, one of the best even, a basic setup that inspires a string of funny gags and eTo conclude, Scaredy Pants is a terrific Halloween special cartoon (one of the best even), it’s a basic setup that inspires a string of funny gags and entertaining child friendly horror. If you’re after a wholesome take on Halloween, with scares that don’t go too far (minus maybe Spongebob’s brain being exposed), then pick this episode of Spongebob, because you won’t be let down.

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Written by Jambareeqi

When the grown ups don’t let Arnold and Gerald join their Halloween party meeting, the two boys hatch a plan for revenge, by pranking the adults into thinking that aliens have invaded, by creating a fake radio broadcast, and they rely on the other kids’ coincidental alien costumes to play into their trick. However, the radio transmission was caught by UFO investigator Douglas Cain, who reports what he hears on his TV show, causing the whole city to go into a panic, and an angry mob chases after Arnold’s costumed friends.

This episode is an obvious tribute to Orson Welles’ radio reading of “The This episode is an obvious tribute to Orson Welles’ radio reading of “The War of the Worlds”, which sparked the public into thinking that a real alien invasion was happening. Even Douglas Cain has an Orson Welles inspired voice, provided by Maurice LaMarche – who frequently voices Orson in movies & cartoons. A similar incident happened in the UK, in which a staged ghost hunting show tried to trick British viewers, resulting in an effective prank that offended folks.

What makes this Halloween special unique is that it’s going down a sci-fi route, an underexplored aspect of Hallow’s eve, even though this is a genre renowned for its horror stories. That’s not to say that the aliens cloud over any seasonal atmosphere, because that’s not the case. There’s still a trick or treat spirit throughout the episode, and I did get that fun Halloween feeling from it.

The episode’s conflict and humour, mainly derives from the adult cThe episode’s conflict and humour, mainly derives from the adult characters’ reactions to the alien invasion prank! Some consider themselves soldiers in a war against invaders, others are ready to surrender to a supposed leader, and some just want to stay indoors. It’s a great way to develop the grown ups, demonstrating their instincts in a dangerous situation, even though we know that this is all fake.

I did also find some charm to Arnold’s and Gerald’s radio broadcast, as they clearly put a lot of work into preparing it, fueled by a determination to get back at the grown ups for condescending them. Gerald’s charismatic personality helps him pull off the reporter act (he’s aided by a deep pitch filter), Arnold’s sound effects are endearingly creative, and the technical setup is pretty clever for something put together by kids. I can imagine this episode inspiring kids to make their own radio productions maybe? They might want to try their hand at foley art or voice announcing, because Gerald and Arnold are having such a blast.

If you want to see this episode for some scares, you maybe disappointed, as this isn’t meant to be a story to curdle your blood. It’s more of a comical hi jink, but there are episodes of this show that are about creepy ghost stories. Although, there is something kind of unsettling about trick or treaters being chased by an angry mob, a fear that may tap into children’s imagination at Halloween, even though it’s mainly played for laughs.

To Conclude, this is a very enjoyable Halloween special, one that captures the spirit of the season while telling a funny plot. If you want a harmless spooky cartoon this month, then this is the one for you, because it mainly plays things safe, with an emphasis on comedy more than horror. Adults will also enjoy the reference to the Orson Welles radio controversy, as well as the episode’s commentary on media influence on the public, so consider making this episode into a family viewing.

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By the end of 2002, the beloved black comedy scif-fi cartoon series “Invader Zim” was abruptly cancelled by Nickelodeon, disappointing fans everywhere, but we all rejoiced when a feature film was announced in April 2017, and it’s now available on NETFLIX.

In this movie, Zim finds out that the tallest aren’t coming to visit Earth, so he uses Professor Membrane’s new invention to steer the Irken mothership’s course, much to the tallest’s frustration – who hilariously refuses to go any direction except straight. Unfortunately, Zim has created a fracture in time and space, a black hole called a “Florpus”, so Dib and Gaz need to rescue the Professor from space prison, and save Earth from the Florpus.

If you’re worried if anything has changed since 2002, then abandon all your fears, because this is the same Invader Zim we all know and love. It’s like creator Jhonen Vasquez is carrying things on as normal, as if Season 2 never ended, so fans will be pleased that nothing has been dramatically altered or ruined.

I was concerned that this was just going to be a long episode of the series, the same usual formula we’ve come to expect, with Zim once again failing in his conquest, while Dib breathes a sigh of relief. At first, it does seem that way, but once the Florpus appears, we know that things have been pushed out of the status quo template, because we now have a far more apocalyptic narrative at hand.

While the show was set in a dark dystopia, things were often kept quite small, with Zim’s schemes only affecting the school, town, or Dib’s life, but this film justifies it’s feature length by expanding the threat’s size. There’s a constant feeling of impending doom, especially when we have no idea what the Florpus is, with no one ever explaining where it’s portal will lead to; it’s a great way to make everything feel big and tense.

There’s also a running subplot about Dib’s relationship with his father, exploring a more sentimental side of their family bond, and adding some drama to all the chaos of the world ending. It is funny how Membrane doesn’t believe his son about Zim being an alien, because he is so faithful to science, but there’s only so much that joke can do, so it’s nice to finally see their relationship develop. Heck, Membrane even gets to play the badass hero, a role that he’s never been cast as (as far as I remember), it’s awesome seeing him looking THIS cool.

Oh and the inclusion of a “Fake Dad” is brilliant, this botched Zim experiment is a delight, a big loud mouthed monster dressed like the professor, determined to nail his character – even though he doesn’t represent membrane at all. He may have been built for evil, but there’s something very endearing about him! His purpose is to keep Dib and Gaz trapped, yet he has this big childish heart, really believing that this is his family.

Expect the same Invader Zim sense of humour as before, a strange hybrid of surrealism, black comedy, and random silliness! Pretty much every joke landed for me, to the point where my stomach would hurt sometimes. It’s a style of comedy that I personally love, weirdly sinister yet stupidly ridiculous too. If you are nervous whether Invader Zim can still make you laugh, let me reassure you that the writers have not lost their magic, because this is one of the funniest films that I’ve watched this year.

For the most part, the animation is pretty much the same as the TV show, which does give the film a TV Movie look, even with an apocalypse narrative to work with. However, the cartoony style serves well for the comedy, with the stupidity of everything being enhanced by over the top expressions – even though the animation can have some iffy movement for some shots. That’s not to say that the animation is devoid of anything special, because there are some pretty creative visuals, especially when the camera is allowed to glide or depict something cinematic.

The animation is at it’s peak, when the Florpus starts coming closer to earth as the art styles begin frequently changing, giving us a wide array of mediums, each depicting a wild series of glitchy imagery. Heck, you’ll totally get “Into the Spider-Verse” vibes with this film, as the animation does get that imaginative in the finale, bending reality like Spider-verse did. The laser explosion effects are pure eye candy too, intricately vibrant zaps and booms that are splendidly impressive, often making the film look almost anime-esque.

To Conclude, this Invader Zim movie is the continuation that fans wanted, with everything we love about the show still in tact, but it knows that it needed to return with a bang, so we’re also given a story that feels like a spectacular event. It maybe more valuable to longtime fans of the TV show, with it’s many references or in jokes. Plus it’s also not exactly a franchise that’ll be easy to get a new generation into easily (I mean, it’s pretty damn weird haha), but it all makes for a fantastic Invader Zim special that fans have dreamed of for almost 17 years.

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WARNING: The Following review contains possible spoilers

Tigger is upset that his friends can’t bounce with him, because they’re not equipped or skilled enough to keep up with him, so Tigger wonders who he could bounce with? When he learns that he could have a family, he becomes determined to find them, but his friends are worried that this will lead to disappointment. So they write him a letter to keep up his spirits. This letter though, makes Tigger assume that his family is coming to visit him, sending his friends into a panic, so they decide to dress up as Tiggers, in hopes that he won’t be sad.

As to be expected from a movie about Tigger, this is a very bouncy and hyperactive film, with a frantic pacing that can often get distracted. While it’s not surprising, it still makes it difficult for me to say “Oh yeah, the story is really well told and has a nice flow”, because the choice to make Tigger into the star, has inherently resulted in a film that reflects his unpredictable, off-the-wall personality, which isn’t going to make for a solid narrative.

So yeah, I get that a film about Tigger was bound to be unfocused, but that doesn’t mean that this an entirely a good thing, as the story’s cohesion is sacrificed for the purpose of staying true to Tigger’s personality, and this does explain why Tigger best suits being a supporting character in an ensemble cast. To be fair though, Pooh also brings the film to a hault in one scene, turning the search for Tigger’s family into a chance to steal honey, by singing a lullaby to some bees, which adds nothing to the main story.

The film also opens by addressing Tigger’s flaw of getting carried away, criticising that he doesn’t watch where he’s bouncing, but this fault is brushed aside, because the movie wants to focus more on Tigger’s search for his family. For most of the film, it felt like Tigger’s poor actions weren’t that big of deal, even though the movie wanted to draw attention to them at the start, which made me feel distracted, often asking “Are we going to go back to helping Tigger be a more careful bouncer?”.

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It’s not until the very very end, that Tigger tries to make up for this, and while it’s sweet how he does this, it all seems… last minute? When he could have learned how to be more sensible while bouncing throughout the film, maybe even while also on an adventure to find his family, like discovering that safe bouncing is more practical.

However, the strength of the film, is it’s theme of non-biological family, this is where the film shines the most. While Tigger is adamant to find his “real” family, he doesn’t seem to notice that he already has a loving family. They just don’t happen to be Tiggers, with Roo in particular showing a remarkable brotherly affection to Tigger.

This leads to a surprisingly deep conclusion, with Tigger never finding his fellow Tiggers, and the realisation that his adoptive family is his true family, and rhat’s a rather risky ending for a Winnie the Pooh movie! It teaches possibly orphaned kids in the audience, that they might not reunite with their biological family, but that’s okay, because the family you make yourself or get adopted by is just as valid and special.

Something great about this film too, is that it was the first time in 28 years that the Sherman brothers had worked with Disney, with the talented duo providing a string of new original songs. These musical numbers do seem to appear out of nowhere, and sometimes don’t really do much for the story, but they’re all very fun and lively. Oozing with the wacky charisma we expect from the Shermans, which perfectly fits a film about the silly Tigger.

To be honest, I don’t remember many of them that well, except maybe Pooh’s lullaby to the bees, but I can imagine some people (particularly the target audience of little kids), to remember all the lyrics by heart. Like I said, they are entertaining songs, I just don’t think they’re catchy or memorable enough to stick with me personally.

To Conclude, “The Tigger Movie” is a very hyperactive and unfocused film, letting Tigger’s boundless energy drive the story. Which is fine if you just want to see Tigger being Tigger, but this is a film that’s still trying to tell an adventure tale, and Tigger isn’t exactly a character designed for moving a story forward.

That being said, its message about finding your family is quite mature, plus Roo and Tigger’s brotherly bond is super cute to watch, and the Shermans’ songs are great additions. Overall, it’s an okay Disney Pooh film, certainly one of the more flawed ones, and one that lacks the franchise’s quiet atmosphere that I usually enjoy, but it’s a good effort for what it is.

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Red is a grumpy bird who often lets his temper get the best of him. This anger leads to a court ruling that requires him to attend anger management classes, where he meets a bunch of other ill tempered birds, and he has to commit to calming exercises. While the other patients are eager to socialise, Red would prefer to keep to himself, pushing away new potential friendships.

One day, a community of pigs dock off at the birds’ island, introducing themselves as harmless new friends, but really, they want to steal all the birds’ eggs. Red is the only one who sees through their sham, even though everyone else is convinced that these swine mean well, so the feathered grouch has to convince his fellow birds that these piggies mean trouble.

I’ve only played an Angry Birds game once, it was 3 or 4 years ago, I can’t even recall which game it was? So, I’m no expert or loyal fan, but one doesn’t need to be when it comes to critiquing movie adaptations, a film is a film regardless of what inspired it. The Angry Birds Movie is certainly high spirited, with it’s bounc-ily paced comedy and colourful character designs, but as a movie? It’s pretty…. meh.

It’s story is as predictable as they come! We know that the pigs are really up to no good, we know that they’ll reveal their true intentions eventually, and it’s more than obvious that the birds will seek revenge once the cat is out of the bag. Until then, we’re playing the waiting game, counting the minutes until the rouse is exposed, with nothing much happening besides the pigs distracting the birds with dance parties, and it’s all pretty much filler to say the least.

To also pass time, Red and his friends venture to find the legendary “Mighty Eagle”, which leads to the cliche plot of discovering that a hero is a let down, who wastes his days doing nothing, and it’s up to Red to motivate the eagle back into action. How many times have we seen this plot? Maybe in nearly every average animated kids’ movie? And this is what’s going to keep us entertained until the finale? Thanks, I don’t like it.

The humour is hit or miss. A few lines and gags hit the mark, but this wasn’t a consistent laugh riot for me. The film is clearly struggling to keep the comedy alive, so it reaches for easy gags in desperation, the kinds of jokes that are obviously going to make small kids giggle no matter what, from pigs slapping their butts at the camera to an awkwardly long urination scene. This potty humour is just tasteless and gross, a lazy attempt to be funny without taking risks or being inventive.

The Angry Birds Movie is at it’s most imaginative, when the birds finally attack the pigs, in a climax that resembles the playthrough of the original video games, the very thing that fans came to see the movie for. This is when we get to see each bird displaying a unique power, crashing into towers in a satisfyingly destructive fashion, all while the villain runs around in a panic. Unfortunately, this sequence overstays it’s welcome, overdoing the novelty of watching birds smashing into buildings, and even young kids might get tired of the repetition.

Red himself is the only character I enjoyed watching, a cynical bird who makes the most sense out of everyone. He keeps others at a distance while yearning for company, making for a relatable lead. He might be a grouch, but hints of a nice side are sprinkled into little moments, and he does eventually let his guard down once pushed into the role of leader, proving that he is capable of empathy if others trust him.

The lesson he learns is surprisingly unconventional too, teaching that anger can be justified when the situation calls for it, but controlling your temper is just as important. That’s a pretty risky philosophy for a kids’ film! The idea that what you do with your anger is your real test of character. What can it be translated to? How much of it should you let out? Anger is a complex emotion, it’s refreshing to see a children’s film address it without saying “bottle it up inside”.

The side characters though? They’re pretty one dimensional and annoying, including Bomb the whiny bird with the one trait of exploding, Chuck the super-fast bird that is only defined by his speed and hyperactive personality (imagine Hammy from “Over the Hedge”, just unfunny and less sympathetic), Terrance (grunted by an underused Sean Penn, which is admittedly funny) is kind of endearing in his own gentle giant sort of way, but I can’t say that he’s a well defined character beyond his grunts.

The villain, Leonard, is far from threatening or clever, being not exactly subtle about his intentions, he’s just lucky that these birds have been written conveniently dumb enough to fall for his plans.

To Conclude, “The Angry Birds Movie” does have a pretty solid lead character, vibrant cartoony visuals that are decent to look at, plus a rather complex view on the emotion of anger that’s quite refreshing. But overall? It’s cliche, predictable, uninspired, and not as frequently funny as it could have been. I wasn’t exactly let down, as I was never an Angry Birds fan in the first place, so I can’t say that I’m annoyed at my experience, but I also can’t say that this is a film I’d be eager to watch again.