So it's double list time; over the years cartoons have evolved to a level that far exceeds it's most basic plot so lets have a look at those going extinct and others in the second list that are still alive and well. No real order to this and it can apply to cartoons, anime and in some cases video games so lets start with the extinct list. No real order to this.
1. Damsel in Distress
Concept: Typical Fantasy plot focussing on the dashing hero saving the trapped Princess.
Status: Only Mario really still uses it and in very small doses, has become a subject of ridicule in recent years and condemned by feminists the world over.
2. Hunter vs the Hunted
Concept: A hunter going after the hunted only for the hunted to take revenge in hilarious slapstick ways.
Status: After a small revival in the 90s it's not really recaptured it's form and poor writing has left lead cartoons Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes struggling to reclaim past glory.
3. Perverted Love Struck Wolves/Male Harem Leads in Anime terms
Concept: In Cartoons it's portrayed as a wolf but in anime it's often a male with access to tons of overly sexy women.
Status: The cartoon version is very much exclusive to Tex Avery and Animaniacs, it really hasn't come back, as for the harem it's being criticized heavily for poor story and being sexist so writers have been more clever with the fanservice, see Keijo!!!! review for an example.
4. Million Dollars with a Catch
Concept: Your a millionaire providing you don't harm innocent creatures.
Status: Classic cartoon plot but because it can come across as mean spirited and often runs hand in hand with money makes you a dick it's sort of faded out.
5. The Boy Genius
Concept: As it says the Boy Genius
Status: Became a popular thing during the 90s but died out in the 00s somewhere round the advent of the Big Bang Theory as well as other shows kind of making the character type more jerkish in nature compared to someone like Dexter or in some cases Jimmy Neutron.
6. The Money Making Scheme
Concept: Whether it's a con or not, the idea is simply to make money but often losing it by the end.
Status: Kind of been killed off by Spongebob's Mr Krabs, sort of shows itself to be ugly in nature.
7. Good Ol Fashioned Slapstick
Concept: Anything the old cartoons used to do for entertainment, better known as cartoon violence.
Status: Often labelled too violent and over sophistication or domestication has killed off the effectiveness of this type of humor.
8. Classic Romance
Concept: Good old fashioned romantic fairy tale style love story, made famous by Disney.
Status: Disney have stopped doing it in favour of high octane adventure, even "girl" cartoons and films won't do it.
9. History Lessons
Concept: Cartoons that teaches you history, mostly American History.
Status: Horrible Histories made it redundant here in the UK, as for America I barely see it anymore.
10. Crime Doesn't Pay
Concept: A Good Natured character learning the lesson of Crime doesn't pay when he/she does something wrong.
Status: Overly complex writing in characters makes this redundent, even if the character does learn a lesson in one episode it's immediately lost in the next episode.
I'm back and ready to review again but don't get too used to it, this is the first time I've found time to do this in weeks so I'll start off with something easy in the Angry Birds Movie.
Red is an Angry Bird..................Before you switch off, the island of birds is home to all birds in different shapes and sizes and all are happy but Red is naturally angry and has become isolated as a result; tired of this, the judge sends him to anger management where he meets other birds, Bomb and Chuck whom he becomes reluctant friends with. The peace is disturbed when the pigs arrive led by Leonard, the pig's King; initially arriving as friends it soon becomes more and more obvious to Red that the pigs are up to something which he is proven right when all the eggs are stolen. With no help from their Eagle Guardian, the birds bombard the Pig's Island with the catapult they gave them and take back the eggs.
For a narrative and considering it's basically a story of Angry Birds, there's not much to write about and not much to get wrong so it's difficult to mess up, so this movie can be considered a success. Well that's putting it strongly, I didn't dislike it and Red is a very charming character but I seriously don't want to hear Josh Gad's voice anymore in cartoon films, Frozen is enough.
So do I like it? Yeah, it's a silly adventure, it's non offensive and way more watchable than many of it's other video game films so good job Angry Birds for making me care about your little mobile phone franchise again. Pity I still won't play your games.
Illumination double time as we now do Sing.
In animal world, Buster Moon runs the theatre he always dreamed of running, but many years of poor performances, building falling into disrepair and spiralling debts has led to it's near ruin until a last chance idea of running a singing contest tries to rebuild it's once glorious popularity with a promise of a cash prize for the winner.
The singers Buster plans to use are as follows.
Rosita: Over worked mother who gave up teenage dreams of stardom to become a housewife to 25 piglets.
Mike: An aspiring musician with a jerkish attitude to back up his talent, who often acts bigger than he looks.
Ash: An aspiring rock star in a difficult relationship.
Johnny: A teen caught up in his dad's crimes as a getaway driver.
Meena: The obvious too nervous to sing best singer of the group.
and we can't forget Gunter the overly flamboyant dancer in Rosita's performance.
While trying to setup it becomes more and more obvious that Buster Moon is playing with fire as a series of events leads to the theatre getting more and more ruined and the promise of prize money looking more like a pipe dream, even the singers start getting into trouble as Meena fails the audition, Johnny's dad and gang get thrown in jail, Ash breaks up with her boyfriend, Rosita feels out of her league working with Gunter and Mike gets into trouble with local mobsters which actually leads to the theatre being demolished.
On the verge of giving up and returning to his father's past time as a car washer, Buster Moon receives some inspiration from Meena and decides to have one last crack at it leading to the final concert.
Against Secret Life of Pets this is a much better showing of Illumination's abilities and turned a cheesy concept into a half decent movie, the characters are all likeable and Buster Moon while looking like a character desperately clutching at straws actually offers good advice to his singers which pays off massively when they all perform, there's no mean spirits about what he's trying to do either and he accepts it hard when it all comes crashing down, boundless optimism can kill a movie if done wrong but this is done well enough to use it as it's main strength and the pay off is sooo worth it at the brilliant concert at the end.
More films like Sing and less like Secret Life of Pets please Illumination.
Next up, the secret life of pets.
Max is a dog whose owner spoils him to death, this is normal life among the other pets of New York City, this is until the peace is broken when Max's owner comes in with a new dog called Duke who immediately ruins everything, intially trying to control Duke by blackmail, the two dogs end up cornered in a cat alley where a series of events ends up with them being captured by the pound and then human hating animals called the "Flushed". Gidget not wanting to stand idle along with the other neighbours pets, goes after Max as they chase him to Brooklyn where more series of events ends in being captured again and a chase to Brooklyn Bridge that nearly ends in tears. Afterwards the two dogs make peace and continue their lives.
This movie is messy and in some cases mean spirited in a number of ways. I'm familiar with the unwanted guest plotline and seeing where it goes, finding a cult and trying to understand one another through the journey. I've seen it before and I've seen it done better. The funnier moments is when there is no dialogue and your watching the animals do their thing behind closed doors and that's just the trailers repeating again and to be honest I'd take that over the rest of the film, everything else is just not well done at all, both dogs come off as being unlikeable and the situation goes from being friendly and kept within certain universal laws to very convoluted and stupid.
This actually ends up being the most disappointing of the recent rise in quality animated films and it didn't need to be.
Now for a classic in the Swan Princess.
A prince and a princess of neighbouring Kingdoms meet up every summer in an effort to fall in love with each other to unite the Kingdoms, only they don't get along during the time of the opening musical number right to the end of their childhoods. Puberty hits and they do fall in love. Only Prince Derek lost some brain cells as he can't think of any other quality than beauty as to why he should marry Princess Odette. Odette rejects Derek only to get ambushed by the evil sorcerer Rothbart who curses Odette to transform into a swan and can only return to normal in the Moonlight of Swan Lake.
After befriending some animals Odette must find a way to escape while Derek refusing to believe Odette had been killed by a great beast tries to find Odette himself with his best friend in which he succeeds after some mistakes but Rothbart has a backup plan in disguising his henchwoman as Odette with his magic as the only way to break Odette's spell is a vow of everlasting love which fails as Derek declares his love for the disguised henchwoman. After a final battle with Rothbart, the spell is broken and happy endings for all.
They tried so hard to make a Disney style film that it's almost plagiarism, but apart from the beginning the rest is ridiculously cheesy and over the top to the point where the film is a slow motion trainwreck, but saying that, it's so ridiculous that it's also very fun, made even funnier when Derek becomes the Prince from Enchanted with all the over the top declarations and speeches, this coming from a child who previously hated Odette; that's puberty for you.
After Swan Princess were sequels, bad sequels, coming up to today there are 5 sequels and a 6th one in production, someone thought it did better than it really did.
