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Reviews
Ben 10: Race Against Time (2007)
Slightly better than I expected, but still not good.
When I found out they were making a live action Ben 10 movie, I knew it would not be good. Cartoon Network seems to have forgotten their own name, and is wasting our time and their money on live action garbage.
It wasn't that horrible. Grandpa Max and Gwen were both fine, but the linchpin Ben was both poorly written and overacted. Grey Matter looked good, Diamond Head and Heat Blast were acceptable (barely), but Wild Mutt looked horrible. And none of the aliens sounded the same, which is absurd. Grey Matter sounded the worst, absolutely nothing like the animated version.
The storyline had potential, but did nothing with it. Eon was too much of a waffle, neither a true evil villain, nor a sympathetic antagonist. The Plumbers in Bellwood are mostly one-dimensional. Gwen contributes almost nothing. Ben's modern hippy parents were interesting, but neither grow nor change, and are also underused.
Worst of all, the movie all but ignores the mythos of the show. Gwen doesn't use her magic or martial arts, even when her life and the whole world are in extreme danger. Ben forgets who the Plumbers are, which is really just an excuse for exposition by Gwen. Eon spouts facts about the Omnitrix that are counter to the facts of the original show.
Zatch Bell! (2003)
Who will be king?
This anime recounts the tale of the Battle for Mamodo King. Every 1,000 years, 100 Mamado children are sent to Earth to fight to determine who will be their next king (in the original Japanese, the creatures are Mamono, which literally means magic/evil object). Each Mamado is paired with a Human partner, and given a magic spellbook. The Human can use this book to unleash incredible powers in the Mamodo, and when a Mamodo is defeated, their spellbook is engulfed in flames (alternately, a Mamdodo's book can be captured and burned directly). After that the Mamodo returns to the Mamodo world.
The titular character is Zatch (Gash in Japan), a 6-year old mamodo with electric powers. He is paired with Kiyomaru Takamini, and 14-year old genius. Zatch is initially reluctant to fight, but learning that some Mamodo are evil and deciding the battle for king is wrong, he decided to fight to become a 'kind king'.
Zatch Bell has drawn comparison to Pokemon, but a better comparison is to Digimon. Like Digimon, the Mamodo and Human have a one to one, symbiotic relationship. Also unlike Pokemon, both shows have an actual plot.
Zatch Bell features character growth and evolving relationships, and some fairly adult story lines (like love vs racism; slavery; mind control; etc.). It even has some decent plot twists and mysteries.