Reviews

I must confess that I never gave Recess a proper chance back then.

Probably I was a bit biased, merely considering it a sanitized version of Hey Arnold...(Also the main cast often made me think of the Burger King Kids Club)

After the recent leak of the pitch bible for a supposedly cancelled sequel series, I finally decided to start watching the original cartoon, finding it to be pretty enjoyable.

Very fun and charming, the series has a rather wholesome 90s, making me feel pretty nostalgic for that era, when children were still innocent instead of being given cellphones since they are babies.

This episode was a pretty decen beginning for the show, setting the overall tone of the series, making me wish I had seen it when I was still a kid.

The negativity towards the supposed sequel series is more than justified in my opinion: It feels way too cynical to give such kind of mean-spirited continuation to a pleasant series like this, and frankly I hope it never gets greenlit.

Well, at least that inane garbage allowed me to discover a gem that I kept ignoring all these years.

Even when I discovered Recess way too late, I guess it's better late than never.

An animal western short film by Karina Farek, the same director of the werewolf gay romance "Dirty Paws".

Like in that short, the animation is a bit rough, but the technical limitations are largely compensated by a fun plot and charming characters.

I wonder if this was inspired by Gore Verbinski's Rango, particularly in what concerns to the design of the antagonist design, which immediately made think of Rattlesnake Jake.

Like in "Dirty Paws", the premise here has a lot of potential; I personally would love to see this story expanded in some way or another, either as a movie, a longer shorter, or even a television series. Or at least a sequel.

The giant jackalope was the best character, in my opinion.

A simple, but charming gay themed animation about a guy and his werewolf boyfriend.

While the animation isn't anything extraordinary (With the characters almost resembling unfinished sketch drawings most of the time) and the voice acting is honestly a bit amateurish, the story was cute, despite being labelled here on the internet movie database as "horror". (It barely qualifies for such category, in my humble opinion)

Definitely not a life-changing experience, but it was enjoyable enough. And frankly much better than the large majority of gay animations that I have seen in my life so far.

I felt a bit bad for the kitten, though.

This was my favorite of the Cartoon Network Groovies, even when I barely remember anything about Jabberjaw (Other than his "I don't get no respect! Catchphrase) : Jonas Odell surely managed to capture the essence of many classic Hanna-Barbera shows, updating them with a more modern, almost experimental approach, yet for some reason, Warner kept focusing only in more Scooby Doo stuff without giving any of the other shows a chance to shine, something openly acknowledged by the song used here.

I really feel very nostalgic towards the 90s and early 2000s era of Cartoon Network: The channel used to have a pretty vibrant personality back then, with lots of fun show to watch.

These good times are never coming back, unfortunately. But it was quite wonderful while it lasted.

I actually liked this show the first time I watched it on television as a kid.

Of course, back then I had no idea it was supposed to be a show aimed at adults, nor that it was intended to compete with The Simpsons, feeling pretty much like a typical Saturday Morning Cartoon. If anything, it felt like something made to compete with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Rewatching as adult, I finally noticed a lot of innuendo and adult themes that went over my head during my childhood; that said, the show could felt a bit childish at moments, which might explain the extremely poor reception it got back then.

But it wasn't really as bad as some people claimed, nor it deserve its infamous reputation, since it had its fair share of clever jokes, and the puns weren't as prevalent as some negative online reviews claimed.

Another criticism was for the character designs, which were accussed of falling into the uncanny valley due its mixture of humanoid and fish features, but I personally have seen far worse stuff. (The Seth MacFarlane shows had a far more hideous art style, and that didn't stop them from becoming succesful. And don't get me started on nthe repulsive Big Mouth designs. )

I must confess I largely prefer the design of the main character in the show than his comic-book counterpart, where he looked like Jiminy Cricket on steroids.

I sincerely think Fish Police was an okay animated series; definitely not in the same league than the classic Simpsons episodes, but far better than most people claim.

This five-part miniseries used to be shown in the Latin American feed of Cartoon Network back then in the year 2004, being one of their first original series from this side of the world.

I must confess I never watched any of El Santo movies in my life, but I did enjoy watching this series, considering it almost on par with the regular Cartoon Network programming from the era, if not better.

Rewatching as an adult, I appreciate its adventurous charm, having a certain feel akin to old serials.

While the plot ended with a sequel hook, unfortunately no more episodes were made, and there was no more El Santo animations.

But at least Cartoon Network Latam eventually produced a new animated miniseries inspired by Rey Mysterio, another masked wrestler, named "Rey Mysterio vs. The Darkness".

A fun science-fiction Spanish animated short , taking place in a city where people is perpetually stuck in a loop, always performing a single activity, until a man and woman are finally able to break from the their respective cycles, causing the forces in control to hunt them down.

Very fun and interesting to watch from beginning to end, Loop manages to balance very well the humor with tension, developing a great sense of mystery, though it does ending leaving a few questions unanswered: While there is a resolution for the main couple, my biggest question watching this was who was behind this "loop" conspiracy, and for what purpose, but said questions remained unanswered. Maybe the conspiracy aspect was merely something allegorical.

Still, a pretty solid work, more than worth-watching thanks to its stylish visuals and cleverly executed premise.

I particularly loved the art style, which feels reminiscent of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland (Unsurprising, taking in consideration the nature of the plot, which takes place inside a world of dreams) mixed also with some aesthetic elements from anime and Herge comics.

The oneiric setting has enough potential to carry an entire feature-length film, or even an animated series made in the same vein of shows like Infinity Train.

It honestly would be wonderful to see more of this Dream Hotel. I hope it doesn't as a simple one-shot piece of fiction, a fate sadly shared by many other Gobelin shorts.

Weird how so many artists tend to hate their most popular works; sometimes with so much burning passion that they come to resent their legacy disregard of fame and monetary success.

And apparently A-ha hated so much "Take on Me" they had to include a mean-spirited jab to the fans to that song at the beginning of the video of "The Sun Always Shines on T. V.", supposedly as some form of "revenge" towards the thousands of fans asking them about the couple from that video. (A petty and rather childish move in my opinion, but whatever)

"Train of Thought", the follow up of "The Sun Always Shines on T. V." has the same black and white rotoscoped animation style than "Take on Me", but despite the visual similarities, it has very little to do with the two previous videos, feeling complete unrelated to them story-wise.

That said, both the video and the song are good enough, and definitely worth-watching...But nowhere as iconic, memorable and catchy as Take on Me. And the same goes for "The Sun Always Shines on T. V."

A-ha can revile that song for the rest of eternity, but that's the tune they will always be remembered for.

One of the most fascinating aspects from animation is that this medium allows to depict even the most mundane activities (Such as taking breakfast or changing clothes, as shown here) in a pretty surreal way, as some sort of "living painting" or through the lens of a dream.

That's the key of its beauty, allowing a series of infinite possibilities. And yet, due the general public perception of this medium as something inherently childlike, the large majority of mainstream animation seems to be relegated to low-quality cookie-cutter stuff, perpetuating an eternal cycle of biased preconceptions.

While Youtube has screwed animators several times (And continues screwing them to the present time), I have to recognize I wouldn't have been able to discover gems like this without that platform.

It's a mixed blessing, to say the least. But a blessing anyway.

I think this was one of my first contacts with anime, along with "Ultraman II: The Further Adventures of Ultraman ". But while my memories from the latter are a bit fuzzy, I still vividly remember several moments from this series, with its theme song and the "fan club oath" still resonating inside my mind from time to time.

I used to follow this show religiously back then, never missing any episode; I guess I really liked seeing stuff blowing up as a little kids (Something which tended to happen a lot in this series)

After a recent rewatch of some episodes, I still found it enjoyable enough: While the dub is clearly a product of its time (With lots of 90s cultural references), its wackier approach (done in part to compete with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon) actually worked on its favor, since the setting had a lot of potential for many absurd jokes.

Maybe it's nostalgia talking, but I think this is was one of those rare instances where a gag dub was done right.

Yes, I know the band and the hardcore fans aren't particularly fond of this song, but to be completely honest, I genuinely consider it one of the best tunes from R. E. M.

And you know what? I liked it way better than Everybody Hurts: Maybe it was because I heard the latter by the first time being used in a rather ironic manner in "Mission Hill", but I never was able to take it seriously. I found the lyrics and the melody way too corny and try-hard to find it remotely comforting, feeling more like an "award-bait" song than something genuinely emotional.

This, by contrast is just a happy, unpretentious cheerful tune very pleasant to hear; weird how some people apparently had to create some rather silly theories about it having a "darker secret meaning", because apparently art has to be gloomy and edgy to be considering good or interesting.

As for the music video, I found it okay, capturing the happy mood of the song. It isn't "Losing my Religion", but it fullfills its purpose pretty well.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse arrive to Mexico city in this little gag short combining animation with some edited live-action footage, just to discover that place is already chaotic enough without the need of their intervention.

Very brief (The actual short merely lasts about two minutes, while the rest of its run consists of credits) and direct to its point, while it has a clever idea, does not take full potential of its premise: The city depicted in the short reminded me a lot to my own country, but it didn't feel particularly chaotic, or at least, not chaotic enough to warrant the punchline, so the joke felt a little bit flat to me.

On the other side, I liked a lot the animation style used here, with simple but very appealing designs and a neat "apocalyptic" atmosphere.

A decent beginning for Alejandro García Caballero, but his later shorts (Such as Tintico's Afternoons and The Garden of Delights) were more interesting.

Fun, colorful Mexican animation which makes a great use of a stylish minimalistic aesthetic in order to tell a rather atypical version of the aftermath of the fall of man described in Genesis.

Tintico's Afternoons, the previous short by Alejandro Garcia Caballero was also charming, though I must say this might be his best work, and personally I think it deserves a much higher score here on the Internet Movie database than just 5.9.

This version of Eden is quite beautiful to look at, having a neat sensual feel from beginning to end, without any kind of moralizing messages, just pure delight.

It honestly deserves far more recognition.

8.5/10.

Fun, colorful Mexican animation which makes a great use of a stylish minimalistic aesthetic in order to tell a rather atypical version of the aftermath of the fall of man described in Genesis.

Tintico's Afternoons, the previous short by Alejandro Garcia Caballero was also charming, though I must say this might be his best work, and personally I think it deserves a much higher score here on the Internet Movie database than just 5.9.

This version of Eden is quite beautiful to look at, having a neat sensual feel from beginning to end, without any kind of moralizing messages, just pure enjoyment.

It honestly deserves far more recognition.

8.5/10.

"In this town, since who knows when, rain has never stopped. Residents moved out to suburbs and high ground around. People's memories are now deeply submerged. But into this forgotten rainy town sometimes, someone wanders..."

Even when the plot here might be a little bit too basic to the point of being almost non-existent, the beautiful atmosphere of nostalgic melancholy which permeates this animation from beginning to end it's more than enough to make it a totally worth-watching experience.

The open conclusion leaves room for a possible continuation, and it certainly would be very nice to see more of this bittersweet tale and its characters. I would also like to see more stories about the people and robots from this setting.

I hope one day Hiroyasu Ishida revisits Rain Town...

The third and final Compiler original video animation, serving as some sort of closure for the story.

Compared with the previous two episodes, the animation here is more polished and detailed, also with a better artwork, closer to the manga designs by Kia Asamiya.

While the intro sequence made me think this was going to have a wackier tone than the previous episode (Which was a serious romantic drama instead of an action comedy) the plot soon turns pretty serious, with only a few glimpses of humor there and there.

Surprisingly enough, despite all the previous drama, the story ends in a rather light-hearted tone, leaving open the possibility for a sequel or continuation. (Apparently the original manga had a sequel named Assembler Ox, but I never had the chance of reading it.)

A shame Compiler never got any other anime adaptation. For that matter, I haven't seen any other anime inspired by the works of Kia Asamiya since the 2000s...Which is weird, considering he managed to achieve international recognition making the manga adaptation of The Phantom Menace, and even collaborated with Mike Mignola in a Hellboy anthology.

But for some reason, he basically vanished from everyone's radar in the last two decades, after being pretty active in the 90s.

A shame, because I really digged his very distinctive art style.

Back then in the early 2000s, thanks to the Silent Mobius series, I became very interested into the works of Kia Asamiya (Pen name of the Japanese artist Michitaka Kikuchi)

That's how I discovered Compiler, a much wackier creation by him, combining comedy, science-fiction and action, with some elements of romance and eroticism.

This miniseries is more an spin-off/sequel of the manga than a proper adaptation; even when the intro gives a quick rundown of the premise, watching this without any previous knowledge of the source material can get a bit confusing, with the intro referencing a lot of events that only happened in the original comics.

Also, only the first episode keeps the original wacky tone of the manga; the second episode drops entirely the action and science-fiction elements, becoming a romantic drama out of the blue. It was like watching a complete different series, despite having the same characters.

For most anime fans, I guess these animations won't be anything out of the ordinary, but watching this made me feel a bit nostalgic for the anime boom era in western countries, during the late 90s and early 2000s.

Noiseman Sound Insect is a experimental anime short from the late nineties by Koji Morimoto (Better known for the Animatrix segment Beyond, and the beautiful "Magnetic Rose" segment from Memories)

The stylish visuals carry the film here, with very neat character designs and gorgeous sceneries. On the other side, the plot is a bit confusing, being frankly hard to follow in a couple of moments.

From what I could understand here, the story follows a strange creature named "Noiseman", which steals the sound from people by separating them into crystals and "ghosts" resembling fishes, while also brainwashing some kids into becoming his minions to chase those fishy ghosts.

However, one of these kids breaks from Noiseman control and joins a rebellion group to recover the music of the world. Or something like that.

Honestly, the plot doesn't feel much important here, being basically an excuse to feature a lot of wacky animations. That works well enough for me, but I kinda wish the story was just as strong as the amazing imagery.

The episode that introduced the Black Saints, but more importantly, the episode which started a somewhat annoying trend in the series, being the first of many times where Andromeda Shun has to be rescued by another character.

This time he was saved by Hyoga, but his older brother Ikki kept rescuing him for the rest of the series.

When I was kid, as strange this might sound, Shun was my favorite saint, and I always disliked how he lost almost all his battles. Even worse, he tend to lose in rather pathetic manners as in this particular occasion, where he basically became a punching bag for the Black Cygnus Saint, unable to do anything against him.

I get he is supposed to be a pacifist character who doesn't like fighting, but come on! The way in which Toei treated this character was frustrating to say the least.

Despite this, the episode itself isn't bad, being fun to watch. Not the greatest of the series, but entertaining enough, even when my favorite character was basically completely trashed here. And he continued being trashed for the rest of the series and the movies, unfortunately.

An eerie animation loosely inspired in The Little Match Girl fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen: Here, instead of a series of comforting Christmas visions, the little match girl sees a strange, surreal vision of horror and violence, involving a tale of children rejected by their parents, their revenge towards the world, and the harsh comeuppance unleashed upon them by the adults.

A very bleak, hopeless tale where the cruelty of the plot is only somewhat mitigated by the stylish animation.

At least the little matchgirl didn't die in this version, though but that's hardly a silver lining considering the overall tone of this short.

Discovered this short anime while I was looking for similar movies to Interstella 5555: The main problem here is that this seems to be aimed to the people who already has familiarity with the source material; to everyone else, this will merely appear as something completely random and disjointed. (Case point: The main love interest basically disappears after the Let's Hear It For The Boy sequence, despite supposedly being the protagonist, at least according with the plot summary)

The 80s soundtrack is nice, with some pretty good songs and some nice covers, being the strongest aspect of this animation.

There is an "incomplete" feel here, with the story seemingly going at first in one direction and then simply going nowhere.

Also, what's up with the weird incest subtext on the latest part?

A shame "The Listener" (the first animation made by Chris Landreth) doesn't have its own page on the Internet Movie Database, leaving me with no choice but to write this review on the page of the Liquid Television episode where it was featured instead. (Another early work by him, named "Data Driven: The Story of Franz K" is also missing from this website)

From the very beginning of his career, Landreth already showed a pretty original artistic vision for his CGI shorts, displaying a very creative use of imagery which still feels fresh disregard of the dated technology.

A brief, but fascinating experience which does a lot with very little elements. Kinda wish more 3D animators dared to be more experimental with their work instead of just aiming for realism and generic cuteness, but then again, it's an understandable consequence of thinking all animation is exclusively a children's medium, something very limiting for the creators involved.

This was available here on the Internet movie database, so why not give it a look?

I honestly don't know what I was expecting, but this felt more like a drawing tutorial than a proper short, with a half of it dedicated to show the same previous footage in reverse as the CGI recreation of Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night gets undone.

Like the other review points out, this kind of stuff was probably something completely unheard of back then in the 2000s, so I guess this could be seen like some sort of "tech demo", but not as interesting as those early experimental CGI tests from the 80s and early nineties.