Based On Children's Novel Archives

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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Presented in English
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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Everything Old in How to Train Your Dragon is “New” Again, and Original Book News!

Everything that’s once animated in How to Train Your Dragon is now brought to vivid real life in the teaser trailer released a few days ago. Toothless looks terrific and Mason Thames, the actor playing Hiccup Haddock the Third, will take getting used to. My only problem is that there’s nothing new to add to this ‘reboot.’ Everything the teaser trailer showed is basically the first film being recreated in earnest!

I’ve watched everything released that is set in this animated universe (including the children’s Rescue Riders series) and profess a fondness for all the early material, books included! Jay Barachel will always be the voice of Hiccup, and while I’m glad Dean DeBlois has returned to directing this work, I have to wonder if he has ideas to add something fresh so that I’ll enjoy this film. For now, I’m simply not feeling it with this new star. He lacks that awkwardness and belief he’s the runt of the litter. Or rather, not suited to be a Viking.

How to Train Your Dragon Teaser Trailer

The teaser hasn’t made enough of an impression to say DreamWorks made the right call to reinvigorate the franchise.

After Dragons: The Nine Realms, this franchise has nothing left to explore, so the timing of the film is good! After eight successful seasons, the tale has ended. Even the connections with the early series have put a closure to everything. The series revealed that Tom is a distant relative of Hiccup, and even uncovered the resting place of this ancestor. And as for Toothless, I can only assume they’re together in Valhalla, recalling their tales to Odinson.

How to Train Your Dragon School Book Cover As for the original material, there’s good news! Cressida Cowell announced a new series, where Hiccup and gang go to school. In this series, the kids have to deal with other threats, and at time of writing, only the book cover has been revealed. Autographed editions are available to pre-order through Waterstones (UK) website or on Amazon USA.

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You Can’t Push Willy Around in Wonka, Which Shows Who Has the Magic to Build an Empire!

Dancing, glancing, Willy (Wonka) will drive them rivals silly with his star shoe shimmy shuffle down.

Wonka Movie Poster Spoiler Alert

To be wild about Wonka depends on how many times an individual wants to see this musical. This prequel about the chocolatier (Timothée Chalamet) before he’s set up his empire is well done and offers a lot more music than its predecessors! While this latest is rooted in magical realism rather than being a social commentary, what’s key to all films (including Tim Burton’s remake) is that we’re dealing with how to deal with ill-mannered individuals.

Here, we see this wannabe magician cum chocolatier arrive at some borough in London. While we see him do a lot of daydreaming, hopefully those glimpses of that empire he wants won’t come crumbling down. That’s because he’s facing stiff competition. That cartel of other local chocolate makers he’s next door to believes he’s trouble. But instead of finding his operation infiltrated upon, what happens here is that they’re trying to prevent him from setting up shop!

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Gale, Stay Away From Oz Offers More Than The Stuff Nightmares are Made Of!

Prepare to be creeped out in Gale, Stay Away from Oz which is no doubt influenced by Disney’s Return to Oz (for those who haven’t read the books).

Available on Chilling Streaming Service

Frank Baum’s books about the fantasy world of Oz have never been cause for concern amongst those familiar with the entire series. After watching the horror film, simply titled Gale, Stay Away From Oz, I have to watch Return to Oz (1985) again to refresh my memory. It seems this short is clearly influenced by it along with the books. The story here concerns how insanity has affected the Gale family.

Just when fans of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s film Wizard of Oz thought that film was the end all be all, there’s been attempts to continue the story with Journey Back to Oz, produced by Filmation, but it largely lays forgotten when compared to other attempts by the House of Mouse, which includes Oz, The Great and Powerful, along with other studios’s interpretation. The original tale is in the public domain, and filmmakers and playwrights can do whatever they want with this fond classical piece of children’s literature.

With the novels, I like to see if it ever alluded to Dorothy Gale going insane after returning to Earth. Fans of the books know the author also included scarier elements later on in the series. As for which work made Daniel Alexander reimagine this world to a product of true nightmares, I’m glad he’s taking a chance and releasing it early, before Spooktober.

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The Buzz About Lyle, Lyle Crocodile is Wonderful

Not everyone knows Lyle, Lyle Crocodile was a children’s book and it’s one of this year’s better adaptations to grace the movie screen.

Currently Available on Digital

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile is one of this year’s better comic strip/children’s storybook adaptations to grace the movie screen. After a different effort by another studio with a certain comic strip, Marmaduke did not sit. If people missed catching this flick because of the limited screenings, then they can thank Sony for the digital edition that’s now available.

Alternatively, the home video release is next week; the extras that come with it will certainly get me dancing and perhaps singing to Broadway too. I loved the musical presentation, and I’m eager to see music videos and featurettes to detail the production. On the list are:

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The Little Tears in Captain Underpants, A Movie Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

DreamWorks adaptation of Dav Pilkey‘s Captain Underpants, The First Epic Movie is deserving of one half juvenile delinquency at its finest and the other, I don’t get it. The humour can garner giggles to a very select crowd of young boys but for everyone else who are not familiar with the source material, this film is better off skipped.

I admire this studio’s original work and many adaptations because the writing teams often create a well-meaning tale about relationships. Whether that’s between unlikely personalities, family members or brothers in arms, the joy is in seeing how the bond becomes firm. Underpants is a tale about two mischief fourth graders, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, dealing with elementary school life. They try to brighten up life there because the place feels like it should belong in Pink Floyd’s The Wall, and they also fear where their friendship will go if the mean principal, Mr. Krupp, separates them.

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