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We All Swim With The Pout-Pout Fish in the Deep Blue Sea

It’s worth diving in with a yellow submarine to view the life found underwater in The Pout-Pout Fish. This adaptation of the bestselling series by Deborah Diesen and illustrated by Dan Hanna offers plenty of action, along with a thoughtful look at courage in the face of environmental change.

The Pout-Pout Fish Poster The Pout-Pout Fish had me wondering if Mr. Fish is somehow a distant cousin of Red from Angry Birds. Their personalities are not quite the same, but both characters exist in worlds that seem determined to tell them to cheer up. Here, the glum Mr. Fish (Nick Offerman) has his solitude interrupted by a very chipper young seadragon named Pip (Nina Oyama), who mistakes his home for a safe refuge. When trouble hits their stretch of reef off the Meanjin coast, located off of Brisban, the two have little choice but to work together.

An overgrowth of seaweed drifts in with the tides, turning the area into a maze of thick kelp that leaves the local marine population struggling to navigate. This spreading plant also creates a darkness that other marine life find unsettling.

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Predator Badlands – When A Hunter Becomes the Hero

A new perspective freshens Predator Badlands, but at the cost of the franchise’s ferocity. Is the softened tone and redesigns right?

Spoiler Alert

20th Century Fox’s Predator didn’t just thrill action fans; it roared. It took a simple hook—survival in the jungle—and turned it into one of the toughest films of the 80s. Guerrillas, locals, commandos… none of them realised they were being stalked by something far worse. Predator Badlands carries that same DNA, but flips the lens. This time, the hunter is the hero.

Dex (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is the runt of his clan, desperate to prove himself to a father who’d sooner cull the weak than train them. His brother Kwei (Mike Homik in suit, Stefan Grube on voice) doesn’t think he’s ready. Their dynamic sets the stage fast, and then the film hits full throttle: Pops arrives, declares Dex unworthy, and doesn’t even give the lad a chance. Big brother steps in, pays the price, and the ship bolts off as Dex watches him die. It’s raw, swift, and effective.

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With Lilo and Stitch in 2025, What’s Significantly Bad Isn’t All That Extremely Good

Disney really should stop remaking fond classics, especially with Lilo and Stitch, and simply concentrate on coming up with original material.

Spoiler Alert

The live-action Lilo and Stitch movie will not please everyone, and when it’s significantly different from the original material, not everyone is going to enjoy it. When this young girl’s relationship (wonderfully played by Maia Kealoha) with Myrtle (Emery Hookano-Briel) is nonexistent, I groaned. Their conflict makes up a significant part of the series as this rival believes her family is better than most Polynesians. To be exact, this girl has a superiority complex. And as for the two aliens who would eventually become friends with the title characters, even I was wondering why change them up that much?

A lot of the humour comes from Jumba’s mad god complex and Pleakley’s belief he knows this world. Even in the alt-universe versions of the series, the new showrunners never changed their purpose; and I’ve looked at both Stitch! and Stitch and Ai (review links) to know why some characters stick around. Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen are decent when performing their own stuff, but when trying to live up to the past material, they really do not measure up.

Without this double act done proper, what’s presented doesn’t make too much sense. I wanted to hear the big hippo hybrid speak with a Russian accent. As for the one eyed alien, what made him a fan favourite is because of all the cross-dressing ventures. Even in human form, to see Billy confused about gender roles and still wear a dress would’ve been a hoot, but it was not done! Continue reading “With Lilo and Stitch in 2025, What’s Significantly Bad Isn’t All That Extremely Good”

To Not Say “Elli and Her Monster Team” Is Not Riding a Ghostly Ghost Train May Seem Unusual, But…

When getting rid of the double entendre makes sense for the American side presentation of Elli and Her Monster Team, the interest in checking out this film needs help to chug along!

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This review credits the original voice actors.

Originally titled Elli and the Ghostly Ghost Train, this movie from Germany got renamed to Elli and Her Monster Team for obvious reasons. When this title character wants to be like Casper the Friendly Ghost, this film written and directed by Piet De Rycker and Jesper Møller has morals to preach. Fortunately, it’s not too blatant to undermine the action.

It has moments to like and other bits to puzzle over. When this team had Ottfried Preußler’s “The Little Ghost” in mind as their inspiration, not everyone is going to recognise this storybook! Fortunately, I’m familiar with that work and Hui Buh. They may be the two best-known films outside the country about a spirit looking to make a name for him or herself.

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When A Minecraft Movie Is Not All That Memorable

The big problem with A Minecraft Movie is that its various subplots don’t all come together nicely. Although Jack Black is entertaining in a musical sense, we’ve seen that character profile before.

A Minecraft Movie Poster I never fully understood the Minecraft craze, and after watching the movie loosely based on what the sandbox video game is about, I can say it certainly honours the spirit of creativity, building and … last-minute, isn’t this concept LEGO? The similarities between A Minecraft Movie to the storylines from Ninjago and A Lego Movie are blatant. This Dutch toy also introduced skeletons as one of the basic “enemies” and in Mojang Studio’s product, they’re also here too!

When this electronic game never had a properly defined mythos during its initial launch, I didn’t play for long. Other than creating random items for no purpose at all, I wondered when elements from Doom or Unreal Tournament would get incorporated. Thankfully, this cinematic treatment is quick to define all that because without a solid threat to face, and understanding the foundation this Swedish product developed from, not everyone will be interested in this film.

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All The Scary Details You May Want To Know About Vampire Zombies From Space with Michael Stasko

In part two, fans might want to be careful in what gets revealed concerning all those Easter eggs that can be found in Vampire Zombies From Space.

Mike Stasko - WRITER_DIRECTOR_PRODUCER When Mike Stasko makes up one third of the core team who helped fine tune what Vampire Zombies From Space is, I’m really hoping for more! His latest film is almost similar to Casey Walker’s A Little Bit Zombie, a movie made more than a decade ago. Both deal with how victims eventually become a member of the walking dead, and to find a cure is rarely explored. I will post an old interview I did with him and include updates regarding his next horror movie, which is currently in post-production. And please visit this link to read part one with writer Jakob Skrzypa.

While the circumstances are completely different between these two particular films, I’m a sucker for zombie comedies. It’s a subgenre that gets a movie made at least once every two years, but not a lot of them stand out because they lack originality. The last time I laughed out loud was with Anna and the Apocalypse! The fact that it’s also a musical says it all.

There are honestly not enough movies being made that marry random genres together. I have to say it was by sheer luck that this movie and Night of the Zoopocalypse released nearly back to back. The dose of nostalgia and euphoria I had was on cloud nine. Afterwards, I had to fall back to the animated medium to rewatch Monsters vs Aliens to round out what I feel are in my top five favourites of this subgenre.

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