Child's Play (2019)

I thought I reviewed the Child's Play franchise before, but I apparently haven't. Guess that's what I'll be doing tomorrow then. But in the meantime, I saw the new Child's Play remake last night, so here's my review of it:

A young single mother gives her 13-yr old kid a Buddi doll for his birthday. The doll (which randomly names itself Chucky) is essentially a walking, talking Alexa, being able to control various electronic systems in your home and has an adaptive learning AI. However, this particular doll's AI is corrupted, lacking certain safety protocols that prevent it from turning homicidal...

Right off the bat, this movie takes a twist from the original franchise. In the original, the doll was just a doll (a "Good Guys" doll, not a "Buddi" doll). It was a mortally wounded serial killer named Charles (a.k.a. Chucky) who used voodoo to transfer his soul into the doll in order to escape pursuing police. His soul got trapped in the doll though, preventing him from regaining human form, and he continues his homicidal rampage as a creepy but unassuming doll.

This remake removes the supernatural element from the story, instead making the doll essentially HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's a corrupt AI that just wants to be best friends with the kid it imprints on and will stop at nothing to remove any obstacles that keep them apart.

Overall, it was kind of a meh film. The plot was super obvious and I spent a lot of the film just waiting for the Chucky doll to start murdering people. Also, the doll was super ugly and never would've sold in real life, which kind of took me out of the story. It felt like they designed a doll that would look super evil, then tried to make it display a normal relaxed face. Plus, there were a few scenes where the face was 100% CGI (and poorly done too). The doll was just too distracting and not really scary. Although I did like the idea that his eyes were a digital display and would turn red when he was doing evil deeds. That helped to make him appear a little more sinister overall and was a unique take on the character.

Still, Chucky was small, slow, and light-weight. It bothered me that no one just punted the thing across the room when it came for them. Only a couple times did it display any real speed, but overall, its intimidation factor was practically nil. Because it was a learning AI, it was slow to process and decide on actions, so the only way anyone really got hurt is because they were even slower to understand the situation they were in. It was the standard horror movie trope, where people in danger just stood around gawking instead of getting the hell out of there. Or doing anything useful.

A note on actors: Aubrey Plaza was pretty decent in this. It was a bit distracting at first, with her trying to play mother to a 13-yr old kid (I thought maybe they were siblings at first), but they really beat you over the head with the exceptionally young mother role, justifying it as her having the kid after a "wild party at 16 years old." Aubrey has also pointed out that her own mother is about the same age difference from her as she was from her character's son in this film, so she understood the role pretty well and made it pretty believable. It was her first acting role as a mother, which makes me feel old because she's the same age as I am IRL.

Chucky's voice actor was Mark Hamill, whose Joker voice acting in the Animated Batman series is legendary. He did an excellent job of voicing the doll, making him sound super creepy. He may have been the closest thing to a saving grace this movie had.

The creator of the original Child's Play franchise (along with a handful of the franchise's cast) has announced that he had absolutely nothing to do with this film. Instead, he claims he's been busy working on a TV series to continue his original Chucky story. So this is essentially a one-off story that has no ties whatsoever to the original franchise. Thank god. I much prefer the supernatural serial killer Chucky to this HAL wanna-be knock-off.

I'd recommend this film just for fans of the original movie series who are curious to see a unique twist on the character, but it was not a very entertaining film overall.

Toy Story 4 (2019)

DAMMIT, TOY STORY 4 MADE ME CRY!! Again... like every other Toy Story movie. 😢

This film continues the story of Woody and the gang. Except this time, their new kid, Bonnie, creates a new toy at kindergarten orientation. Sporky, the arts-and-crafts spork figure, becomes Bonnie's new favorite toy. And Woody must do everything he can to protect their fragile new friend.

In the same vein as other Toy Story movies, this was an excellent tale. Despite the overarching storyline of recovering the lost Sporky and bringing him home to Bonnie, this tale was mostly about reuniting Woody and Bo Peep. She was mysteriously gone in Toy Story 3, but this film opens up with the backstory of her disappearance and deals with the conflict and resolution of discovering one another again in the wild.

The film did a good job of subverting expectations, making you think the story was playing out a certain way, until it suddenly turns another direction. I was on my toes through the final act, wondering how it was going to end. It had changed course a few times by then, which left me guessing if the obvious ending was coming, or if it was going to head down yet another path. Any film that prevents you from guessing the ending is a great film in my book. Once you see the ending coming, you're just sitting along for the ride, but if you can't guess what's going to happen, you find yourself more emotionally invested in the story up until the end.

There were several moments that made me cry. And just when I thought it was over, something else happened that brought on another emotional twist. The last 30 minutes or so kept me in an emotional turmoil. Pixar claimed they wouldn't do another sequel unless it could be on par or better than all the films before it. Mission accomplished, Pixar.

It also blows my mind that this film came out 24 years after the first Toy Story. Children who saw the first film in theaters are full-grown adults now. Heck, I was one of them; I was 11 years old when Toy Story came out. And now I'm 35 and still bawling like a baby at the theaters. 😭

Robonimal Panda-Z: The Robonimation (2004)

I finally found it! I've been searching for Panda-Z: The Robomination for over a decade!

When I was stationed in Japan a decade and a half ago, I came across an anime short series that was really entertaining. Episodes were 5 minutes long, but with a minute-and-a-half intro and a half-minute of credits, the actual episode was only 3 minutes long. It's intended to bridge the gap between shows on Japanese TV, as their shows don't necessarily run a solid 30 minutes like ours.

I downloaded a copy of this show when I first found it, but that hard drive broke ages ago and I haven't been able to find another copy until now. I'm so happy!

It stars a small cute panda named Pan Talon who is the hero of Robominal City. He pilots the giant mecha known as Panda-Z and defends his city from the evil Waruminals and their mechs.

The show is in the style of an old silent film, with periodic cuts to a black screen with white text anytime someone "talks." However, instead of black-and-white animation, you get vivid colors, and instead of old-timey piano background music, the musical theme for the show is more of a 70s classic rock vibe.

Talon seems to be the only flesh-and-blood creature on the entire show, as all the other characters are animal-themed robots. Mostly panda-themed, but there are a few others, like bunnies, cows, and dogs. Talon fights the evil Skull Panda and his Warunimal Forces. "Warunimal" is a Japanese/English portmanteau, as "warui" means "bad" in Japanese and it's blended with the English word, "animal."

Most episodes are brief day-in-the-life scenes, showing what goes on at the respective bases of the good and bad guys, with an occasional mecha battle here and there. Everyone eats batteries as their main source of food, even Talon. Which makes you wonder if he may be part robot. Although, there are a few episodes where he gets soaked and is just fine; whereas all other characters short-circuit when wet.

There's not much background given to the world these characters live in. Granted, there's no time in each episode to explore their world in-depth. But you get a few episodes that focus solely on a character or two, where you get to know them a little better. There's even an episode dedicated to the Waruminal Forces ranting about how awful their respective bosses are. I always wondered where all these robot creatures came from. I wondered if Pan Talon built most of them and some turned evil. There's a lot of room for speculation in this short series. Sadly, it ended after only 30 episodes.

If you're looking for a brief, entertaining concept for a show, or just need to pass some time, this is a great show to occupy your mind for a bit. The music is awesome and it's not just unending mech battles, like some anime shows. You get some calmer episodes to sit and enjoy the characters too. I highly recommend this series!

DuckTales (2017)

I've been catching up on the new DuckTales show (which is an incredible reboot, by the way - go watch it!)

The first season's finale had this interesting moment where they temporarily "fixed" Donald's voice so they could understand him. He sounds so strong, brave, and courageous with a normal voice! This new intelligible voice is recorded by Don Cheadle.