Chibi Chibi Con 2026 Recap

 

The Sheep Detectives review

THE SHEEP DETECTIVES: 

A TRULY DELIGHTFUL ANIMAL MYSTERY WITH BOLD MORALS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

MGM

Hugh Jackman in The Sheep Detectives

 

            Well, this movie certainly took me by surprise. A flock of talking sheep tries to solve the murder of their shepherd in The Sheep Detectives, the new film from Kyle Balda (The Lorax, Minions 1 and 2, Despicable Me 3), who’s best known for his work with Illumination Entertainment. The film is based on the 2005 novel, Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, which I’ve never read, and because of that, I’m judging this solely as a movie. 

            I can’t say I was particularly excited for this movie because the trailers and marketing just made it look like a typical dumb talking animal kids movie like the live-action Scooby-Doo movies or Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Yeah, it didn’t look great, but to my surprise, the film received very positive reviews and word of mouth, so I decided to give it a look and found The Sheep Detectives absolutely charming. 

            While I can’t say it reaches Paddington-level, this is a really solid and well-crafted family film that doesn’t talk down to its audience and addresses very bold themes, especially for a movie for children. It’s a very sweet, charming movie about talking sheep that’s also a great murder-mystery film at the same time, it’s like Knives Out if Benoit Blanc was a sheep and explored themes of death. 

            The film follows George Hardy (Hugh Jackman-X-Men franchise, The Prestige, Prisoners), a shepherd who lives in a meadow outside the English village of Denbrook and spends most of his time isolated from society and reading murder mystery stories to his flock of sheep. But when George is suddenly murdered, murder-mystery aficionado and Shetland sheep Lily (voiced by Julia Louis Dreyfus-Seinfeld, Veep, Marvel Cinematic Universe), a Merino sheep who always keeps his memories Mopple (voiced by Chris O’Dowd-Bridesmaids, Thor: The Dark World, Molly’s Game), and loner black winter sheep Sebastian (voiced by Bryan Cranston-Breaking Bad, Argo, Kung Fu Panda 3 and 4) decide to solve the mystery of who murdered their shepherd with the aid of clumsy local policeman, Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun-Sky High, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Freaks of Nature). 

            The film also stars Nicholas Galitzine (The Craft: Legacy, Bottoms, Masters of the Universe (2026)) as Elliot Matthews, Molly Gordon (Booksmart, Good Boys, Theater Camp) as George’s daughter Rebecca Hampstead, Hong Chau (The Whale, The Menu, Asteroid City) as Beth Pennock, Emma Thompson (Harry Potter franchise, Love Actually, Saving Mr. Banks) as Lydia Harbottle, Tosin Cole (EastEnders: E20, Doctor Who, Supercell) as Caleb Merrow, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Justice League, The Commuter, Mary Poppins Returns) as Reverend Hillcoate, Conleth Hill (Whatever Works, Game of Thrones, Vienna Blood) as Ham Gilyard, and Mandeep Dhillon (Some Girls, After Life, MobLand) as Postwoman Jo; and features the voices of Regina Hall (Scary Movie franchise, Girls Trip, One Battle After Another) as Cloud, Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation, X-Men franchise, Green Room) as Sir Richfield, Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget) as Zora, Rhys Darby (Our Flag Means Death, What We Do in the Shadows, Jumanji 2 and 3) as Wool-Eyes, and Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso, Shrinking, Office Romance) as Reggie and Ronnie. 

            Overall, The Sheep Detectives is a witty, heartfelt, and solidly crafted mystery that kids and even adults are sure to fall in love with. It isn’t a movie that talks down to kids or is filled with pop-culture references, song and dance numbers, or fart jokes; it’s a family film that treats kids with intelligence and gives them something that’s fun, wholesome, and smart. 

            I will say it’s not a very deep murder-mystery, and if you’ve ever seen a murder-mystery film before, you can pretty much pick up on the details, and it can come off as somewhat formulaic. But for a movie that’s essentially a kids' first murder-mystery, it’s interesting and compelling enough for them to put the pieces together, and above all, hit them in the feels with some heavy subject matter like understanding death and trying to cope with it. 

            Despite its laidback and upbeat tone, The Sheep Detectives cranks up the emotion and drama, and even though the film is for kids, they don’t sugarcoat it. The movie tackles death very genuinely between both humans and sheep, with the sheep assuming they become clouds in the sky when they die and realizing that’s not exactly the case. 

            Even though he’s not in it much, you feel the connection Jackman’s George has with his sheep, which makes his inevitable murder all the more tragic because of these early scenes. He gave all his sheep names, cares for them deeply, and yes, even reads murder-mystery stories to them. In a very short amount of time, there is a bond and an emotional core. 

            The film even explores themes such as prejudice with a winter sheep that the other sheep don’t take kindly to because it was born in the winter, which is very reminiscent of social dilemmas in human society. It’s a movie that kids will surely sink their teeth into and learn very important life lessons along the way, and in this age where studios will crank out dumbed-down and formulaic family entertainment, it’s nice to see something thought-provoking for kids that isn’t from the hopping lamp animation studio. 

            Speaking of animation, the animation on the sheep is great and really brings out their personalities via the designs, facial expressions, movements, and voices. There are a bunch of sheep in this film, and I was able to remember which one was which just by their appearance and movements. 

            The voice acting is also top-notch, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a murder-mystery enthusiast who’s hellbent on cracking the case of who killed her shepherd, Bryan Cranston as a lone wolf (or…sheep) with a very dry sense of humor and even some heartfelt moments of his own, and Chris O’Dowd who’s quirk is to remember everything I thought was going to get really grating, but it ended up being one of the funniest bits in the film; everyone did great. Even the live-action actors like Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Molly Gordon, and Emma Thompson bring a lot of heart to the film. 

            The Sheep Detectives is easily the most delightful surprise I’ve had all year with a film, a movie I initially thought looked incredibly stupid, ended up being one of the most charming films I watched in 2026. It truly is more than just your average talking animal picture, and I’ll gladly say “Less Raja Gosnell crap and more thought-provoking talking animal movies produced by British people”. 

Mortal Kombat II review

MORTAL KOMBAT II: 

VIDEO GAME MOVIE SEQUEL IS A SILLY, GORY GOOD TIME! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES AND NEW LINE CINEMA

Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Jessica McNamee, and Karl Urban in Mortal Kombat II

 

            The battle for Earthrealm continues in Mortal Kombat II, the much-anticipated sequel to the 2021 reboot of the Mortal Kombat film series based on the popular video game of the same name. I thought the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie was fine and thought it felt much closer to the source material than the 1995 film and its sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, simply because of its R rating and having a bunch of gore (The Mortal Kombat movies from the 90s were rated PG-13). 

            However, it was far from being a perfect representation of the game, as it didn’t even have a tournament (The thing the source material is supposedly about!), and the film made the bizarre decision of making a completely original character, Cole Young, the main protagonist. Despite Lewis Tan giving a fine performance, I thought Cole was an incredibly dull character that heavily paled in comparison to the actual in-game characters, the Milla Jovovich’s Alice from Resident Evil of Mortal Kombat. 

            Not exactly a “Flawless Victory”, but it was an enjoyable enough film, though the best Mortal Kombat movie we’ve gotten so far is the 2020 direct-to-DVD animated film, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, which delivered everything that made the games great. Despite earning mixed reactions from critics and even some fans, Mortal Kombat (2021) was successful in both theaters and streaming during the dark times of COVID, and now, we have a sequel. 

            I was actually looking forward to Mortal Kombat II when it was being advertised with a marketing campaign reminiscent of a late-80s or early-90s action movie which was appropriate given the film would focus on the character, Johnny Cage and my excitement was through the roof when Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Thor: Ragnarok, The Boys) was casted as the Hollywood actor turned tournament fighter. Well, like the first, I can’t call this a “Flawless Victory”, but goddamn, did I have a fun time in the theater with Mortal Kombat II?

            The film follows martial arts film actor, Johnny Cage (Urban) being summoned by Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano-Thor 1-3, Parasyte: Parts 1 and 2, Detective Chinatown 3) and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee-The Vow, Battle of the Sexes, The Meg) to join their Earthrealm fighters consisting of Liu Kang (Ludi Lin-Power Rangers (2017), Aquaman, Kung Fu), Jax (Mehcad Brooks-Desperate Housewives, Necessary Roughness, Supergirl), and Cole Young (Lewis Tan-Deadpool 2 and 3, Shadow and Bone, Cobra Kai) in the interdimensional fighting tournament, Mortal Kombat against the forces of Outworld and stop the tyrannical emperor, Shao Khan (Martyn Ford-F9, The Machine, Red Sonja (2025)) with the help of Edenian princess, Kitana (Adeline Rudolph-Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Riverdale, Resident Evil (2022)). 

            The film also stars Josh Lawson (House of Ties, Superstore, Bombshell) reprising his role as Kano, Tati Gabrielle (The 100, Uncharted, The Last of Us) as Jade, Damon Herriman (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Better Man, Together) as Quan Chi, Chin Han (The Dark Knight, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Marco Polo) reprising his role as Shang Tsung, and Hiroyuki Sanada (The Wolverine, Avengers: Endgame, John Wick: Chapter 4) reprising his role as Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion. 

            Overall, Mortal Kombat II isn’t quite the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 of Mortal Kombat movies, but it gave me exactly what I wanted and does improve upon the first in certain areas. The biggest improvements being there actually is a tournament this time, and the Cole character from before gets sidelined into a supporting role with Johnny Cage as the new protagonist. 

            Speaking of which, let’s talk about Karl Urban as Johnny. He’s great and effortlessly captures the spirit of the character. He’s charismatic, cocky, funny as hell, and kicks ass, but never to the point where he’s unlikable, as throughout his time in the tournament, he goes through an arc and learns to become a better person while still retaining his charm. 

            I don’t think I’ve ever seen Karl Urban in a role like this, but he nailed Johnny Cage extremely well, and I look forward to seeing more of him again in the next film. All the other returning actors are fine with the exception of Josh Lawson’s Kano; he is once again having a ball chewing the scenery as the resurrected mercenary with a laser eye, and his banter with Karl Urban’s Johnny is some of the funniest shit in the movie. 

            I also dug Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana quite a bit; she looked great in the costume, and seeing her fight with her bladed fans was fucking awesome, but she also carried a fair amount of emotional weight as a princess whose kingdom was taken over by Shao Khan. Seeing this version of Kitana made me realize they did her so dirty in the 1995 Mortal Kombat and the sequel. 

            The action sequences are very fun and deliver all the over-the-top, bloody goodness you’d want, with opponents being killed in creatively gruesome ways such as getting sliced in half with spinning blades from Kitana’s fans, Shao Khan smashing people’s heads open with his giant hammer, and several dismemberments. The film was also shot in IMAX for several of the fight sequences, and through the camera work and editing, it often does feel like you’re right there with the fighters. It’s no Dark Knight, Sinners, or Project Hail Mary, but I’d say it’s worth checking out on the large screen. 

            It’s a fun watch, but there are some major issues that keep it from being great. The biggest one for me is how choppy the editing is during character interactions. I love the actors and their characters, but a lot of their banter and dynamics are so incredibly fast-paced that I found it distracting. I wanted the movie to slow down and let the characters deliver more of these corny lines of dialogue to one another because, for Mortal Kombat, the silly dialogue actually works, and the times they do it are enjoyable.

            Despite its flaws, I had a good time with Mortal Kombat II and will gladly consider it part of this new golden age of video game movies, with tons of love for the source material and giving fans what they want. Hard to believe there was once a time when films like these were considered cinematic poison, all I can say is fingers crossed for that new Street Fighter movie in October. 

Hokum review

HOKUM: 

ONE SCARY-ASS STAY AT A HOTEL! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

NEON

Adam Scott in Hokum

 

            Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation, Severance, The Monkey) visits the Hotel from Hell in Hokum, the new horror film from Neon and director Damian McCarthy (Caveat, Oddity) in his third feature directing effort. I gotta say, the trailer for this certainly got my attention for no other reason than the design of the film’s monster, which gave me serious Insidious vibes with an arthouse bite. 

            I’ll be honest, I’m not familiar with McCarthy’s work, and after seeing this, I might need to seek out his other films because Holy shit, Hokum is wild and genuinely scary! This is a freaky fucking movie with very effective scares and spine-tingling suspense while also having an engaging story and solid character development. 

            The film follows Ohm Bauman (Scott), an author struggling to write the epilogue in a successful trilogy of books, who travels to Ireland to scatter his parents’ ashes. He stays at a seemingly normal hotel only to find out about a haunted Honeymoon Suite that’s supposedly home to a terrifying witch…oh, and the hotel’s bartender has mysteriously gone missing. 

            The film also stars Peter Coonan (King of the Travellers, Love/Hate, Peaky Blinders) as Mal and David Wilmont (The Devil’s Own, Black Sails, Hamnet) as Jerry. 

            Overall, Hokum probably doesn’t dethrone The Shining as the King of Hotel Horror Movies, but goddamn, is this creepy? It’s a slow-burn with the main character trapped in one location for a large portion of the film and scares that range from atmospheric and subtle to booming jump scares and absolute mindfuck imagery that may or may not be real, and all of it works spectacularly. 

            This is definitely not a Conjuring-like movie with constant jump scares and creeps throughout; Hokum really takes its time to build its scares up while also using its setup as a character piece for Adam Scott’s Ohm. One very challenging thing, not just with horror but any genre of film, is having a main character who’s a complete and total asshole and making the audience care about and be invested in them; that’s what this movie does with Adam Scott’s character. 

            If this were any other horror movie, Ohm would be a douchebag character who you just want to see get killed or have something terrible happen to him, but what’s so clever about Hokum is that he’s portrayed as an extremely flawed individual, and the film uses this new environment and situation he’s in to hopefully fix him by the end. At the flip of a dime, I went from “Fuck Ohm Bauman!” to “Oh My God, what’s gonna happen to him? Get out!” as I was watching this film, and all of it comes from the script, McCarthy’s direction, and most importantly, Scott’s performance. 

            Adam Scott is great here as this flawed, bitter author who clearly has serious psychological issues and struggles with finishing his last book. Scott plays a jerk character remarkably well, and it’s crazy seeing him do things that would probably get him in trouble with the law. As mentioned before, he’s not a jerk for the sake of being a jerk; his character has layers and depth, and throughout his nightmarish experience in the Honeymoon Suite, he learns to be a better person and conquer his demons in more ways than one. 

            Damian McCarthy’s direction is also incredible as he makes this old hotel building a legitimately scary-looking place even before all the supernatural and witchcraft stuff happens. Just this dark, brown hotel with muted colors and dim lighting to craft this unsettling and creepy atmosphere, if I stayed in a hotel like this, I would have requested a refund and stayed somewhere else, even if there wasn’t an evil witch downstairs in the basement. 

His scares, accompanied by Joseph Bishara of The Conjuring and Insidious fame’s musical score, are shocking and get under your skin. I’m serious, I have not felt this way watching a horror movie since probably Hereditary back in 2018; these are pitch-perfect scares of varying qualities. 

            Hokum is a stellar and absolutely terrifying horror movie that leaves you on the edge of your seat and gets your blood pumping with every creepy moment. Add an amazing Adam Scott performance and downright brilliant storytelling, and you've got a spooky movie that will be talked about for eons. I would gladly suggest booking your stay as soon as possible.