SPECIAL REVIEW: The Powerpuff Girls review

THE POWERPUFF GIRLS:

BLOSSOM, BUBBLES, AND BUTTERCUP SAVE THE DAY AND BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO ONE OF CARTOON NETWORK’S MOST ICONIC ANIMATED SHOWS!

By Nico Beland

Show Review: *** out of 4

CARTOON NETWORK

Blossom (middle), Bubbles (left), and Buttercup (right) saving the day in The Powerpuff Girls

            Here we go again, another review of a Cartoon Network premiere, seeing how Sonic Boom brought Sonic the Hedgehog, one of the biggest characters of my childhood back to television in 2014, it’d make sense to talk about Cartoon Network’s latest reboot of another big show from when I was a child. That’s right, a mixture of sugar, spice, and everything nice, and an accidental dose of Chemical X and BOOM! A new cartoon series based on Craig McCracken’s iconic cartoon show from 1998, The Powerpuff Girls, one of the biggest staples of Cartoon Network before Finn and Jake came into the picture.

            Going back to the late 90s and early 2000s, I was a huge fan of The Powerpuff Girls growing up, I remembered staying up late every Friday night to watch new episodes on Cartoon Network’s Cartoon, Cartoon Fridays block, buying the volumes of the show on VHS, seeing the theatrical movie, The Powerpuff Girls Movie in 2002, and watching the Christmas special, Twas the Fight Before Christmas around the holidays. Besides Pokémon and Sonic the Hedgehog, Powerpuff Girls was one of my biggest childhood obsessions and I still revisit some episodes from time to time today with the complete series DVD set.

            Not only was The Powerpuff Girls a great Cartoon Network show back in the 90s and 2000s, but it became one of the biggest pop culture icons of its time, basically they were like Cartoon Network’s version of SpongeBob, when you went into a toy store back in the day chances are you’d see Powerpuff merchandise everywhere. Not only that but they had a theatrical movie in summer 2002, had an anime series called Powerpuff Girls Z, a tenth anniversary special, The Powerpuff Girls Rule in 2009, and most recently a special with different animation called Dance Pantsed in 2014.

            Now Cartoon Network brings us a reboot of the original series, under direction by Nick Jennings, best known for his work on Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time and Regular Show and Bob Boyle who’s worked on Butch Hartman’s The Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom for Nickelodeon and is currently working as a supervising producer on Cartoon Network’s Clarence. When I first heard they were rebooting The Powerpuff Girls, I was intrigued but skeptical, I’m usually always open to seeing new takes on shows and movies I watched when I was younger, and I enjoyed reboots and spin-offs like The Looney Tunes Show, Sonic Boom, and some of the many re-imaginings of Scooby-Doo.

            But I was concerned when I found out voice actors, Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong, and E.G. Daily, who voiced the Powerpuff Girls, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup in the original show would not be returning to voice them here. So I watched the first two episodes with no critical review thoughts going through my head, so my opinion on the new show would be 100% me.

            And, it’s not bad so far, I can’t really think of my full thoughts on the series itself yet seeing how I’ve only seen the first episodes that premiered today. But for what it is, kooky little cartoon show featuring three pint-sized superheroes people know and love, and the animators do a fantastic job mimicking the animation style of the original show, I was almost convinced that McCracken was secretly behind it, but it also mixes in some anime-style animation, specifically on character facial expressions, so let’s see how this new show holds up compared to the original.

            The first episode was okay, Escape from Monster Island, the Mayor of the City of Townsville (voice reprised by Tom Kenny) is lost on the dangerous Monster Island (if you remember the original show, you know exactly what this is!) and is in need of rescuing, so the Powerpuff Girls, Blossom (voiced by Amanda Leighton-Grey’s Anatomy, Make It or Break It, The Fosters), the smart one, Bubbles (voiced by Kristen Li), the cute one, and Buttercup (voiced by Natalie Palamides), the tough one, are called in to save the Mayor before he gets devoured by monsters, with pickles on the side. Meanwhile Bubbles wins tickets for two to a concert featuring the hottest pop band in Townsville and Blossom and Buttercup fight over who gets to go with her to the concert.

            The second episode was pretty funny, Princess Buttercup (I just now got the reference as I’m writing this!) focuses on Buttercup hanging out with a bad crowd of punk kids with skates that skateboard, while wearing skates, and play Death Ball and in time her sisters start missing her. So Blossom and Bubbles are in need of a replacement to help them fight crime, in comes rich and spoiled, Princess Morbucks (voiced by Haley Mancini) who wants to become a Powerpuff Girl so she could eventually destroy them calls a monster by phone (I’m not making this up!) to cause a ruckus in Townsville to tempt Blossom and Bubbles to have her join the team, what could Princess be plotting and the real question is can Buttercup trust her new friends?

            Overall, this new take on The Powerpuff Girls is decent for what it is, it’d be hard to top the original show, but as an entertaining cartoon series, it manages to pay homage to the original show while still being its own unique creature, the hotline phone is now replaced with Smartphones, Princess Morbucks’ Powerpuff costume doesn’t have those rocket wings anymore, but rather rocket boots, kind of like a Powerpuff version of an Iron Man suit, video game controllers still look like the ones we had in the 90s, and the characters can get wacky and hilarious facial expressions.

            Like Sonic Boom, the humor is hit or miss, sometimes there are a few duds but I can think of quite a few times in the episodes I watched where I laughed my butt off, mainly in the second episode involving one of the members of Buttercup’s punk friend group with a big bushy beard and a voice so funny I dare not ruin it here. It’s not the same kind of humor as the original show but it’s different in the right way.

            The animation for the most part is pretty good, the characters look like they came right out of McCracken’s original show with some updates and slight redesigns, but nothing so major old fans won’t be able to recognize the characters, the facial expression animations are like a mix between traditional Powerpuff Girls animation and Japanese anime, strange but it works.

            So far, I think the show is pretty good and what I got out of it makes me want to see where the show will go, do I miss the original voice cast? Of course but hopefully I’ll get a whole bunch of new ones that are just as good. So in my opinion, I don’t think it’s as good as Sonic Boom in terms of a reboot or re-imagining, but it’s CERTAINLY better than Teen Titans Go, it’s about the same as what I thought of The Looney Tunes Show, and that’s not at all a bad thing.

AND SO ONCE AGAIN THE DAY IS SAVED THANKS TO THE MOVIEWATCHIN’ PSYCHOPATH!

Midnight Special review

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL:

A SCI-FI ADVENTURE WORTH WATCHING ANY TIME OF THE DAY!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

He’s Not Like Us in Midnight Special

            You know those movies that you have very little knowledge of but the trailers leave you interested and curious to see the finished product and you think “Yeah that looks pretty good, I’ll have to check that out” but then it turns out being better than what you expected? Well, that’s all my thoughts on Midnight Special in a nutshell, the latest film directed by Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, Mud) and starring Michael Shannon (Mud, Premium Rush, Man of Steel) and Kirsten Dunst (Interview with the Vampire, Spider-Man trilogy, Marie Antoinette).

            I’ve only seen a trailer once in theaters and a few ads on TV so that was a movie that didn’t really get my attention very much (probably because my eyes were drawn towards films like Deadpool and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice). So I came into this movie with little knowledge of the premise, all I knew is that it was about a father and his son with superpowers and it’s a similar premise to those sci-fi movies that were popular in the 70s and 80s, specifically Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

            The film completely took me by surprise, Midnight Special is one of those sci-fi movies that doesn’t rely much on big budget, flashy special effects and over the top action sequences, but instead suspense, build-up, and character development. It reminds me a lot of sci-fi movie classics, from The Day The Earth Stood Still to the early films by Steven Spielberg, but it manages to keep people guessing, no matter what generation they are.

            The film follows father, Roy (Shannon) and his eight-year-old son, Alton (Jaeden Lieberher-St. Vincent, Masters of Sex, Aloha) who possesses extraordinary powers, escaping from a religious cult in Texas. Unfortunately, the news claims that Alton was abducted by Roy and the police and FBI are on the hunt for them.

            When an Amber Alert is issued for Alton and the military and FBI are hot on their tail, Roy, his childhood friend, Lucas (Joel Edgerton-Star Wars: Episodes II and III, Smokin’ Aces, Black Mass), and Alton’s mother, Sarah (Dunst) make it their mission to bring the child to an undisclosed location on a specific date to bring the mysterious boy back to his world.

            Overall, Midnight Special is a unique experiment in modern film, it’s not a flashy big budget blockbuster like most sci-fi movies these days, but rather a slow, character driven, and thrilling experience. The movie keeps you guessing and you don’t know where it’s going and it’ll leave you breathless.

            It’s a breath of fresh air to see a sci-fi movie that takes its time to develop the story and characters, especially after all the Star Wars, Transformers, and comic book movies that feature loud special effects and frenetic action sequences. The film reminds me a lot of the classic Spielberg films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and even a little bit of A.I. Artificial Intelligence and sci-fi classics like The Day The Earth Stood Still, a movie that manages to take me back to when I first watched Close Encounters gets extra points.

            But aside from the plot and filmmaking style, the cast is very solid, a very different Michael Shannon performance compared to what I usually see him in, whenever I think of the actor I go directly to his villain performances from Premium Rush and Man of Steel, Lieberher is a fine child actor and very convincing as the boy not from our world, and it’s great to finally see Kirsten Dunst in a movie again, I swear it’s been a while since I last seen her acting in a movie, I swear I haven’t seen her in a supporting role since Spider-Man 3, her cameo in Anchorman 2 doesn’t count, and she does a fine job as the boy’s mother and she does a lot less screaming than her performance from the Spider-Man films.

            If you’re a fan of classic sci-fi films, Spielberg and Shyamalan films, and movies that take their time to develop the story and characters, Midnight Special is a “Special” worth experiencing any time of the day.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 review

MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 2:

A HARMLESS BUT FORGETTABLE SECOND WEDDING!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** 1/2 out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

The Greeks are back for more hijinks and hilarity in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

            Making a sequel over ten years after the first film is a very risky move, especially if the movie is a comedy, there was Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues which is good, but then there’s Dumb and Dumber To and Zoolander 2 that just rehash its predecessor or simply not as funny as it was back in the 90s and 2000s. So I can safely say I wasn’t very enthusiastic when I first heard they were doing a sequel to the 2002 hit comedy, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

            Going back to the first My Big Fat Greek Wedding movie, I don’t consider it a great comedy or one of those must-see staples of the genre, but I thought it was a decent flick, a goofy comedy about a couple getting married and a colorful cast of family members, the jokes and timing were okay, but what made the first movie so enjoyable to me was the family, Good God I love this family, from the grouchy grandma and grandpa to the sassy aunt, they actually remind me of characters I would see on a show like The Simpsons.

            But apparently the film was a big hit when it came out and even nominated for an Academy Award®, spawned a short lived TV series, My Big Fat Greek Life, and now fourteen years after the first film, we have this sequel, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, and that’s where I come in. With my thoughts on the first film being adequate my expectations on the sequel were very low and could you really blame me? Most comedy sequels are almost never as good as its predecessor, as well as sequels being made over ten years after its predecessor.

            So I was ready to bash this movie hard, but to my surprise, Eh, it pretty much shared my exact thoughts on The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, where it’s very unnecessary in its existence but what keeps it going are its characters. And like I said before, the family still manages to get some laughs, despite the fact the movie itself is very dated.

            The humor itself is the kind that would be on a sitcom from the 90s or 2000s like Seinfeld, Mad About You, or Friends, but as cheesy at it is, it gets some giggles going, either intentionally or unintentionally. Basically if you’ve seen the first movie, you know exactly what you’re getting into here.

            The film follows Toula Portokalos-Miller (Nia Vardalos-Team Knight Rider, Connie and Carla, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) and Ian Miller (John Corbett-Northern Exposure, Tombstone, Sex and the City) after having a Big Fat Greek Wedding and a Big Fat Greek Life coming to grips with her teenage daughter, Paris (Elena Kampouris-Labor Day, Men, Women, & Children, American Odyssey) wanting to leave for college in New York City and her family may be causing her to become a social outcast. From her dad being her high school principal, her mom showing up at P.E. class to her entire family barging into a school college fair and of course hijinks and embarrassment commence.

            However, Toula and Ian’s Greek family soon realize that her parents, Gus (Michael Constantine-My Life, Roots: The Next Generations, MacGyver) and Maria (Lainie Kazan-Harry and the Hendersons, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Pixels) aren’t legally married as the legal document approving their marriage has never been signed by a priest. So Toula, Ian, and Paris, with the help of Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin-Black Christmas, Anastasia, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius), Uncle Taki (Gerry Mendicino-Ready or Not, The Big Hit, Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business), and the rest of the family must pull off another Big Fat Greek Wedding while helping Paris take off for college.

            Overall, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 can be summed up by its title, more hijinks with a wacky foreign family, I don’t consider it a bad thing, honestly it’d be a bad thing if it was written by the folks at Happy Madison Productions, but I digress. Does this movie need to exist? No, it doesn’t, the first movie was fine the way it was, it didn’t need a sequel nor did it need a TV show, but if they had to do a sequel, I’m glad it had plenty of screen time for the family, they manage to have both goofy and quirky moments but at the same time enough touching moments to warm the heart.

            But you really need to know what you’re getting into here, if you’re not a fan of 90s or 2000s style humor that you would see on a television sitcom, this isn’t your flick. But if you want something cute and harmless and get a few giggles out of you, this might be a second outing with the Greeks you might find enjoyable.