Reviews

'Zambezia', the new south African animated film is an obvious low budget animated feature, you wont see any ads on TV, and the animation looks 10 years old, but that's no reason to straight away hate on Zambezia, it's not one of those dubbed foreign trashy animated movies which have no single thing put into them apart from making money. Zambezia has a story, a plot, good characters. When it wants you to take it seriously you will take it seriously. When it wants you to laugh you will not be sitting there rolling your eyes.

The movie is another one of those typical 'parent letting go of child' kind of animated movies, which is possibly the most cliché type of character development seen in any kids movie. But I guess there's good reason for the situation, it just doesn't have it thrown in to make a plot (hint hint Ice Age 4). But I thought the characters were good, not really that deep, but good, nothing to really complain about.

The movie has a nice soundtrack, and I thought the visuals of the landscape were absolutely brilliant. The humour isn't bad, with a lot of jokes that hit. Nothing laugh out loud funny of course, but still much better than the humour in 'Ice Age 4'.

There are some obvious similaries to 'Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole' and possibly the movie was made with the intention to 'duel' Rio, but it still has originality, the bad guy for one, is new, and intimidating enough to be a good villain.

Zambezia is a perfectly good movie for kids and adults, there's nothing wrong with it at all really, and it actually kind of surprised me. I think this movie takes much more risks than 'Ice Age 4', 'Rio', and many other current animated films.

Go and see it, have a good time.

Brave was possibly my most anticipated film of the year, not because I thought it would be good, but I knew that watching it would be history in the making. This was Pixar's chance for them to redeem what they did with last years 'Cars 2', a very mediocre animated film. Have Pixar done that? In short, No.

Brave is possibly the most conventional animated film ever made. The Plot is the same one seen in 'The Little Mermaid', 'Happy Feet', 'Kung Fu Panda', Parodied in 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' and most similar 'How to Train Your Dragon', about parents who don't let their kids be what they want to be, and have to learn how they have been wrong in this regard. There is also similarities to 'Brother Bear', which are quite obvious.

Brave's positives come from it's grand visual style, typically pixar, and the fact that it takes itself seriously and has a structured narrative and characters. This gives it the 6 points by itself, but the 4 are lost through a variety of things.

The comic relief seems tact on and incredibly unfunny. The way the story tries to get the plot moving is silly. The conflict is way too co-incidental and forced. There's also a subplot about the tribes of the land and how bad it is that they are fighting, which really doesn't make sense when you see that they seem like they are just having fun.

The greatest disappointment is the fact that the magic this movie promises is weak, and it feels like we've seen it all before.

I wasn't a huge fan of the original 'An American Tail', but with my curiosity for animated films, I took a look at the sequel, the film I'm reviewing now.

All the voice actors are back, the music, the animation looks pretty damn similar too, but one thing is gone, the director. Don Bluth was replaced by Simon Wells, in his directorial debut. As someone who finds Simon Wells' films to be enjoyable but not top notch (especially in the writing department), this is exactly what we get here.

Many people will complain that there are very few plot similarities to the original, this is true, the film's plot is nothing like the original, which I thought was a good thing in my opinion.

The characters I found to be much more memorable compared to the original, including the villain, played by John Cleese. Dom DeLuise returns as tiger and is much more funny and less annoying than in the original. Feivel the mouse continues to have a lack of a real character but I still thought he was an improvement to the original, possibly because of his maturing voice actor.

The film does not contain nearly the same dark elements as the original, but in my opinion, is more funnier and more fun. The songs are either catchy or not at all, the films signature song 'Dreams to Dream', is as good or possibly better as the original's 'Somewhere out there'. The score by James Horner is a treat, just like the original.

All real complaints come from the writing, there are small plot holes, a pointless subplot revolving around Feival's sister Tanya, and sometimes the plot seems a little too convenient.

Kids will probably like the film, fans of the original may or may not, I personally rate it lower than the original, but by not too much.

This film is known to people as simply 'that Brazilian film that rips off Ratatouille', but if you simply sit back and watch it, you'll find that it's much more than that, it falls right into the category of 'so bad it's good'.

The film's animation is crap, the film has terrible dialog, over drawn-out scenes, stupid characters, characters who change their mind all the time, characters that sound the exact same as other characters, things that make no sense at all and a crap load of padding. The film has everything that would make it one of the most terrible films on the planet. However, it has a certain unexplainable charm, perhaps due to the cute plasticine mice, or the hilariously out-of-place decent voice acting.

The film makes you laugh, whether it is at the film, or with the film, it doesn't matter, it makes you laugh, and at something completely innocent no less. The plot is also interesting enough to wonder what is going to happen next while you're laughing your ass off.

Don't expect a great movie when watching Ratatoing, but you can expect one that will make you laugh.