A Scathing Letter To Adam Of YourMovieSucksDotOrg

 I'm glad I unsubscribed to you years ago. You're such a pretentious dirt bag! It's straight up impossible for you to respect filmmakers and audiences members because all you are is ego!

"tHiS iS a DuMb BaBy MoViE fOr DuMb BaBiEs" GROW THE FLOP UP!!! You sound like a spoiled 3 year old stubbornly refusing to accept that not everything is going to be made for you! You should've stopped reviewing mainstream movies years ago because you're never gonna find one made with your tastes and you're not good a reviewing anyway! Stick to just reviewing indie films!

Or better yet, JUST MAKE YOUR OWN! You have a camera, you have friends, you have sound equipment, and you have a backyard full of grass you should be touching instead of insulting talented filmmakers! The only thing thing stopping you from making your own films is your stupid ego! You'd rather waste your free time belittling talented and hard working men and women who spend their free time following their passions because you can't bear the thought that these people were just like you when you started this channel. Young and ambitious artists who wanted to make movies and give audiences a good time. The very idea that these people are living their dreams sickens you because you failed to make yours a reality.

And now, all you do is insult them and insult people who support them because if you couldn't make people happy with your movies then no one should be happy with movies. You're such a sad, pathetic and nasty man who's living a miserable life and is making it everyone's problem. I know you're laughing at me for saying all this because you just don't care and you think I'm just a butthurt Mario fan. You'd just be proving my point, and showing that you're too pretentious and nasty to even take criticism. I'm mature and sane enough to take criticism like a man, while you are took weak and narrow minded to handle something as simple as "I disagee." Those two words alone make you vomit because you believe you're opinion is the only opinion that truly matters and everyone else is a braindead moron for thinking otherwise. Newsflash, jerk dish: THAT'S NOT HOW OPINIONS WORK!!! Opinions are personal tastes and preferences, not indisputable facts of life! You're not the end all, be all of movie critics! You never have been and you never will be! All opinions are different because all people are different. Just because you didn't like a movie that doesn't mean someone is wrong for liking it. A bloody 2 year old has more common sense than you! I hope more people realize what a terrible critic you are and stop watching your reviews.

Sincerely,

A Real Film Fan -.-

Opinion: Driving Should NEVER Be A Right -.-

 In the United States of America, all living citizens have a significant number of rights. We have the right to vote, the right to practice religion, the right to bear arms, and the right to express ourselves. We do NOT, however, have the right to own and drive a vehicle of our choice. If you're expecting me to say "it's time we change that" or "I think now's a good time to make it a law" you are sorely mistaken. While I do have my disaggrements with Congress, I applaud them for sticking to their guns and never making it the law of the land for every U.S. citizen to be able to own or drive a care. As controversial as it may sound, I earnestly believe we need to restrict access to automobile ownership like we've been trying to do the same for gun ownership.

Driving in the United States hasn't always been a thing, unlike all the other rights in the Constitution. The first automobile, the Benz Motor Car, was patented in 1886, with units being sold within the first 20 or so years. By the time cars swept the nation in the early 1920s, it had already been 150 years since we became a nation. In that time, manny laws were passed and ammended to suit the needs of the American people. When it came to cars, however, things got complicated. See, like the locomotive before it, cars had this one problem that made it evidently clear that this wasn't to be a right. Everybody wanted a car, but not everyone was responsible enough to own one.

Car accidents, while they're common place now, they're not a recent phenomenon. In 1896, a bicyclist was hit by a car in New York City. This was the first of countless instances in which operators of motor vehicles abused their ownership of a car to cause harm or death to an innocent bystander, whether it was intentional or not. The first state to recognize the dangers of motor vehicles was Connecticut and on May 21, 1901, the state passed the first automobile regulation law in the nation. This law, An Act of Regulating the Speed of Motor Vehicles, stated that no motor vehicle was permitted to go over 15 miles per hour on the highway or any place outside city limits, or 20 miles per hour on the highway or any where within city limits. A valiant effort, but it wasn't enough to prevent accidents. To do that, would be drivers need to be taught the rules and regulations of the road.

Driver's education and training began in the United Kingdom in 1909, but for the United States it started as a high school class course in 1934. Created by Amos Neyhart, this course taught students the rules, regulations and history of automobiles which still apply to this very day. While getting a driver's license was nothing new at the time (the first one being issued in 1899), taking a driver's ed class became mandatory for a license in the mid 20th century. It was also during this time when new laws were passed that regulated automobile operation for drinking, running a red light, abusing your car horn and manny more. Ideally this would make our more responsible and car accidents would be at an all time low. Yeah, unfortunately that's not even close to the world we live in.

In 2020, yes the same year we had to stay indoors due to the pandemic, 38,824 people lost their lives in a car accident. To put that into perspective, that's almost the same amount of people that live in my one horse town I call home. The circumstances of these accidents differ, from distracted driving, drinking, a tire blowing out, a pot hole sneaking up on them or an animal lacking common sense before crossing. The one thing they all have in common, though, is that the driver is at fault for not following the rules of the road and not being responsible. I'm well aware nobody's perfect, believe me I know I'm not. That said, perferction and responsibility are NOT  the same thing.  Being perfect means you have no need to be responsible for the rest of your life because things always work out. Being responsible means you take full ownership of your actions and reactions. You see a pot hole, you go around it. Your tires blow out, you pull over and call a tow truck. You have alcohol in your system, don't get in the bloody driver's seat. With the prescene of the Internet, there's now no such thing as "wElL i DiDn'T kNoW." It's your responsibility to prepare for what's to come on the road. It's your responsibility to avoid hazards on the road. It's your responsibility to stay out of other people's blind spots.  If you hit someone or something on the road, there's no one to blame except yourself.

And there are real people out there who think driving should be a right and not a privileged. In case you haven't been paying attention, let me spell it out for you. If you need to be taught how to do something, you don't automatically have the right to do it. You don't have to be taught to express yourself, practice religion or vote. You also won't go to jail for expressing something negative, affiliating yourself with a controversial religion or voting for a politician that made very bad choices. Driving and owning a car shouldn't be a right because you don't have to work for your rights. You don't have to take a test and get a license to express yourself. On top of all that, if driving was a right, than all the laws that regulate and restrict it would be unconstitutional, thus causing more car accidents and deaths than their already are. You know what we should do, instead? Add more restrictions and car laws, like what we're trying to do with guns. There should be a law that forbid people prone to anger and violence from owning a vehicle. There should also be a failsafe installed in all vehicles that makes the car not turn on if the driver has alcohol in their system. More laws like this are guaranteed to save lives and make driver's think twice before making stupid mistakes.

As someone who's in the process of becoming an official driver, seeing car accident after car accident makes me want to puke up my internal organs. I don't think the rules of the road are hard to follow, nor are they confusing when you read them thoroughly.  I also don't think it's hard to responsible behind the road and be a decent driver. Ignorance is not an excuse in the age of the Internet and there is not "iT's NoT mY fAuLt" when there's over a hundred ways to avoid an accident. If you want to learn how to drive, here's the most important lesson for you to learn: it takes less effort to be responsible than it does turning the ignition. And don't gimme any of that "driving should be a right" malarkey. Your thinking druving is easy is not even close to being a good enough resaon to make it a right. Here's a right for you: I have the right to tell you that you have NO right to be a driver, especially if you're mentally unstable. Don't like it? Tough bananas -.-

A Scathing Letter To Cartoon Brew

 Dear Cartoon Brew,

You are one of the worst websites for animation I know. You're everything I despise about bad faith reviews and news reporting. I can't believe what start out as an honest endeavor by Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi has now turned into a sad, pathetic and painfully unfunny joke of itself.

I first saw just how bad you were are reporting news when Chris Savino was fired from Nickelodeon. Instead of simply doing your job and reporting what happen, how it happened and leaving links to hotlines for victims of abuse, your editor decides to go on and say The Loud House should be canceled for what Chris Savino had done. Oh sure! Let's fire 100s of hard working employees with families because their boss was a creep! Do you see how cruel that sounds? This is something I'd expect from a 2 year old who thought firing people was part of the game we call life!

But it didn't stop there, did it? No it only got worse and worse as you spread misinformation and lie to your viewers. You knew Cartoon Network wasn't going to shut down after Warner Bros. merged with Discovery. Yet you go and published that article anyway, causing everyone and they Grandma dread and anxiety. This isn't even your first offense as in 2020 you claimed Disney wasn't supportive of The Owl House's push for LGBTQ representation, when the creator confirmed that was not even close to true. You give other journalists and reporters a bad name because of how much you lie and hype up misinformation just to get views.

Just when you couldn't get anymore pathetic, you post a news article about Rebecca Sugar buying a house and POST HER ADDRESS ONLINE???!!! What the flop is your problem?! Why would any one of your editors think that was a good idea?! Regardless of intention, you just doxxed Rebecca Sugar and put her and her husband at risk of getting killed! I can't even think of a valid reason why anyone would do something this incredibly stupid! If I was Rebecca, I'd get my lawyer on the phone and sue your pants off!

If I had any respect for you, it left the building years ago. I'd even go as far as to say Cartoon Brew was better off laying dormant since Jerry Beck left because now it's just a freak show with Amid Amidi as the ring leader. It's clear you don't even have a so much as a speck of dignity left because this website should've shut down a long time ago. Hence for, I will NOT be using links to your website and I shall discourage others from doing the same. You are the bane of animation's existence and the medium would be better of if you cease to exist.

Sincerely,

A Real Animation Fan -.-

A Scathing Letter To Mr Enter

 Dear John,

I just want to say congratulations on proving your haters right. Over the years you've been called, selfish, egotistical, pretentious, and overall ignorant among many other things. I used to be one of your defenders until recent years and I feel like an idiot for not seeing it until now. 

Firstly, how dare you call any cartoon or creator lazy? Do you really think people who spent more time learning the craft of animation that you learned the fine are of basic common sense wouldn't bother putting in any effort to their projects. Even the poorest quality of animation takes a lot more effort to make than anything you or I could put out because we have no experience in the medium.

You say health care shouldn't be a right? Then I guess the Affordable Care Act, which was passed to give everyone health care even when they couldn't afford it beforehand, was rather pointless. You clearly don't know the struggle of not being able to pay medical bills to save a loved one's life or your own. You've clearly never had the displeasure of not having enough money to pay back the hospital after they treated you. If you did, you would know just how dangerous your argument of "health care shouldn't be a right" actually is.

You think Disney and Pixar are just greedy corporate executives cracking their whips over content creators. A bit of hyperbole, but it's not far of with how you feel about Disney or any of the major animation companies. Disney isn't just guys in suits having business meetings. It's also hard working men and women trying their best to entertain the audience. The people that make the films and TV show you hate more often than not are people how have always wanted to work for Disney and leave their mark under the Mouse House. They're not slaves under the thumb of a Pharoah who only cares about his own ego, and even if they were, you ain't Moses.

Your hatred for executives is exactly what's holding you back from making Growing Around a reality. You say you want to do it independently, but that's easier said than done. You didn't provide so much as an animatic in your Kickstarter to intice more people to back it. You have yet to make a pilot for your concept to get people invested in your idea. If you're really dead set on making Growing Around happen, than you need a financial planner to help you with investments. Whether you like it or not, you need a business plan to bring your cartoon to life; otherwise it's just going to be another idea in a sea full of them in your mind.

Your worst quality, though, isn't your pretentious attitude, or dangerous takes, or even your recent selfish review in which you imply Domee Shi was ignorant for not mentioning 9/11 in her film that's set in 2002 (despite the fact that it has NOTHING to do with the story). No, the worst part about you John is you are so cynical that you retired Admirable Animations. To you Soul was the last great animated anything, when since that film's release we've had a quite a few really good animated projects you could've and should've talked about. Netflix is absolutely killing it with their animated releases with films like Flee, Vivo and The Mitchells vs The Machines recieving critical acclaim. Then there's the animated shows on the platform like Kid Cosmic, Arcane, The Midnight Gospel and Inside Job among so many others. Outside of Netflix, HBOMax has really good shows like Looney Tunes Cartoons, Jellystone and Primal. Amazon Prime has been killing it with Invincible, The Legend of Vox Machina, and Undone and AppleTV+ has some shows like The Snoopy Show, Pinecone & Pony, and El Deafo. We are living in a golden age of animated content and you don't want to talk about any potential great ones because all you care about is trying to make your own animated project a reality.

John, when you started making reviews, you were irritated at a show's failures but very complimentary to a shows strengths. I thought if you looked kept talking about good animated shows and movies, you'd have a greater appreciation for the art form abe more understanding and respectful when you do critcise animated projects. Instead of that happening, you just became more spiteful, selfish, egotistical and ignorant to the point where everything your detractors said about you is true. You're not the worst critic, but you're most certainly among the most pretentious and I should've seen it coming sooner so that I could've help prevent this outcome. I hope you lose all your subscribers and people stop giving you money on Patreon. 

Sincerely,

A Former Fan -.-

My Powerpuff Girls Review Extended

5/10 A Jar Of Candy With An Even Mix of Good and Bad Pieces

30 years ago, a young CalArts student Craig McCracken drew a simple drawing of 3 girls with big head, large eyes and stubby arms and legs as a birthday card design for his brother. These 3 would become the basis for one of Cartoon Network's first show. I'd call it one of the network's best, but that'd be far from the truth having rewatched the entire series on HBOMax. Don't get me wrong, when the show is good, it is indeed a smart, funny and action packed show that more than delivers on its concept. At the same time though, it also has some truly awful episodes that make the entirety of Teamo Supremo look like Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The premise of the show is rather simply: 3 kindergartners with large eyes and stubby limbs beat the tar out of villains and monsters in the city of Townsville. Each episode is normally follows the patteren of having the Narrator introduce the show with a shot of Townsville before cutting to the girls fighting the villain of the week. This formula could've gotten repetative and tiring, yet the writers and storyboard artists manage to find clever ways to shake it up. These include having the opening line "The city of Townsville" spoken by someone other than the Narrator, the Narrator not being present at all or the girls being in school rather than in the city fighting evil. The humor of the show is usually slapstick, clever word play and visual gags that generally get a good laugh out of me. What really sells a typical episode is the action, which is always fast paced, has genuine stakes and great camaraderie between the girls. That said though, episodes tend to succumb to bad writing and unfunny humor that makes the runtime of each episode feel wasted. Episodes such as Los Dos Mojos, Monkey See, Doggy Two, Super Zeroes and Him Diddle Diddle have their plots based on one joke that goes on for way too long. Rather than ammend this issue as the series progressed, they doubled down on these overly drawn out jokes in Seasons 5 & 6 with episodes like Toast of the Town, Save Mojo, Pee Pee G's, Mo' Linguish and That's Not My Baby. One of the most infamous episodes from the show is Sun Scream which is 11 minutes of the girls being in agony as they have sun burn. I recognize comedy is subjective and the writers must've thought these episodes were really funny (otherwise they wouldn't have made it passed the conception stage), but to me these episodes are prime examples of what NOT to do when telling a story. Another problem I personally have with the show as a whole is the amount of missed opportunities the writers had to make the show better such as making Mitch Mitchelson the focus of Mojo Jonesin instead of 4 random kids or making Bubbles' impaired vision permanent in Bubblevision instead of returning to the status quo. At the very least the girls should've grown up with each passing season because having the characters not age a day after 6 years just make me think Townsville is in some sort of purgatory that just loops over and over.

Moving on to the characters, each one is memorable in their own way. The main triplets themselves all have distinct personalities and act just like real little girls if they had powers. Starting with Blossom, she's the smartest of her sisters and comes up with strategic plans to defeat the baddies. She can be bossy at times, but she means well and cares for her sisters. Buttercup is the toughest and temperamental of the trio who is more than willing to give a beating to baddies who deserve it. She acts tough and often butts heads with her sisters, but she does love them deep down and grows as a better person as the show continues. Then there's Bubbles, the sweetest and most childlike of the girls. On a typical day she's the first to want to show compassion and cares about everyone deeply. But when she gets mad or pushed to her breaking point at best she cries and at worst she gets vicious. The 3 of them together make a great team and act just like sisters. The play, they fight, they laugh, they cry and at the end of the day they love each other.

Their father, Professor Utonium is...not a great parent. I mean, he's not even close to the worst father in a cartoon, but he should've been better. Yes there are episodes such as Boogie Frights and Knock It Off where he acts like a genuinely caring parent. But in episodes like Uh, Oh Dynamo, PowerProf, Daylight Savings and The Mane Event where he's just a nuisance. I also hate how the Professor acts childish in the final 2 seasons because it really devalues his character. In my humble opinion, the Professor needed to be to the girls what Greg Universe was to Steven: a fun, caring and helpful parent that is the one person above everyone else that deserves to be saved.

Another not so great character is Ms. Keane who has more episodes showing her as a bad teacher then as a good one. Yeah she rightfully scolds Buttercup in Paste Makes Waste, but in Schoolhouse Rocked she scolded the girls for rightfully trying to stop the Gang Green Gang from hurting the other students. In Daylight Savings, she demanded the girls be put on a curfew even though she knows how helpless Townsville is without them (more on that later). In Keen on Keane, she neglects to do her job because she and the Professor start dating (side note: they're better off as friends). She's not the worst teacher, but these episodes don't do her any favors.

The Mayor of Townsville is a complete moron who can be funny sometimes, but other times I roll my eyes and wonder how he got elected in the first place. Ms. Sara Bellum is clearly smarter than him in every way and yet she's not the mayor of Townsville because potatoes. It may seem like he cares deeply about his city, but episodes like Monstra-City, Toast of the Town, Live & Let Dynamo and Night Mayor make me thing otherwise.

I'd be re-missing myself if I didn't talk about the girl's rogues gallery. Starting with the most (in)famous, Mojo Jojo is an intelligent chimp who relishes in being dastardly. He also has a unique way of talking in which he overly explains what he means which didn't get on my nerves until Mo'Linguish in Season 6 when everyone else started talking like him. HIM is the living embodiment of all things evil and he just loves being sinister and devilish. He typical speaks in a calm high octave masculine voice but when he's serious it becomes more monstrous and loud. Princess Morbucks is a spoiled brat but unlike Gem Stone, she's not taken seriously by the girls until she takes control of the story. Plus she get's rightfully punished at the end of her respected episodes. The Amoeba Boys could've easily been forgettable villains, but their incompetence and accidental evil deeds do make them entertaining and fun villains. Fuzzy Lumpkins is a pink hillbilly who gets very personal about his property. Another one of the missed opportunities of the show is how his red rage form is only used twice in the whole show. That would made him a much more formidable foe than just a pink hillbilly. The Gang Green Gang are a group of green skinned teenagers that like picking on other people because it's fun. They all have unique personalities but one thing they all have in common is they're not to be trusted. Sedusa is a promiscuous lady who uses her good looks and her living hair to get what she wants. Thing is though, she only has 3 major appearances in the show, but that's forgivable as they all have her be a great villain. Most of the one off villains are hit or miss, though I do like Femme Fatale who's basically a man hating Karen and I wish the Boogie Man had comeback for revenge. My personal favorite villains of the show though are the Rowdyruff Boys. They are every bit as nasty as the girls are sweet and they couldn't have it any other way. They put up a good fight with the girls every chance they get and act just like the girls would but as boys: rude, rough, gross and inconsiderate of other people. They are the perfect opposites of the girls and the only downside is that they weren't in more episodes.

Then there are the citizens of Townsville, who are without a doubt one of the worst examples of the mindless sheep trope that I hate so much. There are very few instances (not episodes, instances) where they actually act like really people with their own opinions and beliefs. More often than not they're either siding against the girls for some stupid reason or they're completely helpless without them. Too Pooped To Puff is one of the worst episodes about the citizens and it just shows that if the girls didn't save their ungrateful lazy butts, they'd be annihilated because they're too stupid to fight for themselves. Girls Gone Mild is a prime example of how useless the police are in this city as for almost 5 minutes straight a guy steals a car and when the cops get there, they let him go Scott free. In Major Competition, they all turn on the girls and side with this macho superhero who just showed up almost instantly. The worst part about the citizens of Townsville is that the average family outside the Utonium household are one dimensional jerks who only care about their own happiness. I'm not just making that up, that was basically confirmed in the episode Supper Villain where Harold Smith is a pathetic father, Marieanne Smith is a short tempered mother, Bud is an angsty son and Julie is a dimwitted daughter. This alone makes me want to stay as far away from Townsville as possible because a city that's mostly comprised of bad people might as well be a jail.

What also brings the show down is when the characters act out of character for the sake of forced conflict. Blossom, who's supposed to be the smartest and most responsible of the 3 girls, steals a golf bag in A Very Special Blossom, laughs at Bubbles' glasses in Bubblevision after the events of The Mane Event, and lies to the Professors face in Ploys R Us. Bubbles, who's supposed to be the sweetest of the trio is uncharacteristically nasty in Curses, Los Dos Mojos (getting bonked on the head is NOT an excuse), and The Mane Event. Buttercup is usually butting heads with her sisters, but I did NOT need that to be the focus of Three Girls and a Monster.

Other side characters that are worth a mention include Mitch Mitchelson, a sneaky little twerp who relishes in causing trouble, Robin who moved next door to the girls and became their new friend (though I wish she appeared in more episodes), Bunny who the girls made in Twisted Sister and who at the end of the episode had a good heart, and the Narrator, who is a funny character that makes clever commentary during the show.

Visually the show still looks incredible even for the time it was made. The character designs all look distinct from one another with mostly sharp noses, varying body times and different hair and clothes. The girls meanwhile maintain their look from Craig's original birthday card albeit with slight differences. The backgrounds are also very well detailed and the city feels like it's populated by a lot of people. The animation got a slight upgrade when it switched from cels to digital and the colors and designs pop much more in the later season.

What truly brings the show as a whole to life is the amazing voice acting on display. Cathy Cavandini, E. G. Daily and Tara Strong were perfectly cast as the main triplets. Each one makes the girls sound very distinct from one another and they have great chemistry with one another. Tom Kane does a good job voicing the Professor and makes him sound like a smart and caring father figure. Tom Kenny shines as both the Narrator and Mayor, Jennifer Hale makes Princess and Ms. Keane sound very distinct from each other and Roger L. Jackson was just perfect as Mojo. Other actors like Jim Cummings, Jeff Bennett and Dee Bradly Baker all make memorable impressions throughout the whole show. 

Overall The Powerpuff Girls is a mixed bag of a show with some really good and really bad episodes. At its best it has some great writing, intense action scenes, lovable characters, amazing voice acting and really strong humor. At worst though, it also has terribly written episodes where characters act out of character, the citizens of Townsville are mindless sheep and it’s painfully unfunny. I say at least the first season is the best of the series but each season has at least 1 truly great episode. I recommend giving it a watch for yourself but you’d be forgiven for not wanting to sit through Seasons 5 & 6.

In Defense of The Ice Age Sequels

 The Ice Age franchise, despite being one of the most financially successful animated film series, has recieved mixed to negative reviews with each passing film. Specifically, while the first film recieved positive reviews from critics and audiences, the reactions to the sequels were mixed at best with the last film getting the most negative reviews in the franchise. Having rewatched all the films not so long ago, I find myself in the minority that find genuine enjoyment out of these film and think they have some merit to them. In this post, I'd like to explain why I like the Ice Age sequels despite their reputation.

The most common complaint regarding the Ice Age sequels is that they rely more on comedy than telling a story. This is understandable as the best moments from all the Ice Age films, including the first one, were the comedic ones. This is especially true with the character of Scrat, who is always a riot because he just can't keep hold of that one nut. The filmmakers knew that these films make the audiences laugh and kept coming back for the comedy aspect. This is not to say that the films don't have stories to tell though as each film continues the ongoing journey of Manny, Sid and Diego.

The Meltdown is about the herd treking to a boat when they see that the ice is melting and could flood the entire valley. Along the way, they encounter Ellie, a mammoth who believes she's a opposum. I think The Meltdown is the best of the sequels and is of similar quality to the first. In addition to being very funny, there are also moments where the visuals speak for themselves. I also really like the character of Ellie and just how fun and sassy she is. Crash and Eddie made for a funny duo and Sean William Scott and Josh Peck do great work voicing them.

Dawn Of The Dinosaurs follows up The Meltdown by focusing on Manny wanting to make sure everything is safe for his soon to be born child. In the midst of this, Sid adopts 3 baby T-Rexs and is promptly kidnapped by their Mom. Now Manny and the rest of the herd have to save him while treking through the dinosaur work with their weasel guide, Buck. This film is kinda underrated IMO because of who understandable Manny's motivation for wanting his unborn child to be safe. If you recall ftom the first movie je lost his family once and he's not risking that again. It's also no secret that Buck is the MVP of the entire franchise next to Scrat. He's wild, fun, a bit of a loon, but a master survivalist; and Simon Peg gives a magnificent performance of this character.

Continental Drift is about Manny, Sid, and Diego treking to reunite with Ellie and Peaches (who's now a teenager) after a powerful earthquake separates them. Along the way, the trio encounter pirates who are nothing but trouble. I like how the filmmakers decided to have pirate be the antagonists of the film as this just make the journey Manny, Sid and Diego have to go through more perilous. I also like Sid's Granny (played by the brilliant Wanda Sykes) and just how sassy she is.

Collision Course finds the herd treking to a volcano to redirect an oncoming comet that could bring them to extinction. All the while, Manny has to cope with the fact that his daughter is getting married and could potentially move away. I like how Manny and Ellie are still concerned for their daughter's well being and the filmmakers made a great decision in bringing Buck back. I also really enjoyed the Shangri-Llama and just how loose and bouncey he is.

One element that many people agree about these films is that there's a noticeable upgrade in quality when it comes to the animation. The team at Blue Sky Studios always strived to improve their animation quality with each passing film. Each film explores new environments for our characters to go through and many of them are gorgeously rendered and feel lived in. The dinosaur underground in DawnoOf The Dinosaurs looks amazing and feels like a luscious land full of towering dinosaurs. The character animation also became looser as the filmmakers doubled down on slapstick and visual gags. In addition to that, the textures of the characters looked more real and flowed more naturally. 

The characters themselves grow and change with each passing film, yet are still as fun and as entertaining as they were when we first met them. Manny has becoming more willing to interact with others and his past trauma has effected how he acts as a father to Peaches. While many grew tired of Sid's antics with each film, I found myself always laughing at him because he tries so hard to belong and be respected because his own family doesn't respect or care about him. Truthfully underneath his silly and inept exterior is a very lonely sloth who just wants companionship. Diego, once a ruthless predator, now serves as a good ally who's always got his friend's back. His arc in Dawn Of The Dinosaurs felt natural and had a satisfying payoff in the end. Ellie went from being a mammoth who believed she was a opposum to a great wife for Manny and a good mother for Peaches. 

Another element that I don't think is talked about enough is how good the voice acting is. Each of the actors give very good performances and have at least one moment in each film to truly shine. Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary all still do wonderful jobs voicing Manny, Sid and Diego respective. I like how Manny slowly looses his depand tone and becomes more eccentric, showing that he's not as depressed as he was in the first film. Sid squealing like a girl always has me in stitches and the tribal sloth number from The Meltdown is still one of my favorite scenes in the series. Diego leaving was handled brilliantly and he sounded both sad and sincere. I think Queen Latifah was perfect as Ellie, as she brought the right amount of sass and nuance to the character while also giving her some genuinely funny moments. Her shouting "Yabba-Dabba-Do!" as she rides down a branchiosaurus in Dawn Of The Dinosaurs gets a laugh out of me every time. Major credit should also go to the first film's director and Blue Sky's co-founder Chris Wedge for voicing Scrat. He's a real trooper having to scream and yell in the recording booth for hours voicing this character and none of them were in vain. KeKe Palmer did a really good job voicing Peaches, making her sound sassy like her Mom but also resourceful and fun. Peter Dinklage gave a stellar performance as Captain Gutt, making him sound charsmatic, intimidating and firece. 

All that said though, there are a few elements about the sequels that I don't think quite worked. I found Cretaceous and Maelstrom (the antagonists from The Meltdown) to be serviceable predators but not particularly interesting villains. The most interesting things about them are their names and designs, but they were never referred to by names in film nor did they even talk. While I like all the Scrat segments in these movies, I thing the stall the pacing in Dawn Of The Dinosaurs. Had they been removed, I thing more time could've benefited Sid's arc in the film. Did anyone else find it jarring that Peaches went from a baby at the end of Dawn Of The Dinosaurs to a teenager at the start of Continental Drift? I feel like we missed an entire movie focusing on Manny being protective of his daughter when she was still a child. Then there's the character of Louis, a molehog who has a crush on Peaches but is friendzoned for most of Continental Drift. He had a good arc in that film and was generally a likable character. Yet Collision Course did him dirty by reducing him to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it background cameo. Why? Maybe Josh Gad (who voiced Louis) chose not to return or the filmmakers thought it wouldn't feel right if Peaches ended up with someone outside her own species. I disagree with the latter strongly because if a mammoth can be raised by opposums, why can't a mammoth and molehog be a couple. Also, I found the dinobirds to be serviceable, but not as interesting as the main cast. The most egregious problem I have with the sequels though is that the humans are nowhere to be found. Why? Well apparently the filmmakers were going to reintroduce the humans in one of these films, but that never happened because they didn't serve a purpose to the story. It's unfortunate, but I still think it was a missed opportunity to have Manny, Sid and Diego reunite with the baby from the first movie now all grown up. Other factors I didn't think wrked that well include Crash and Eddie not developing as characters, Sid's family being the absolute worst (I know that's the point, but still), Julian just appearing in the last film already in a good relationship with Peaches.

Despite their faults, I still enjoy the Ice Age films as a whole. They're all wonderfully animated, funny and engaging films with fun characters and excellent voice work. I think these films, like the first, are fun for the whole family to enjoy and I expected nothing less from these films. It's unstandable these films aren't for everyone, but I still have fun watching them nonetheless.

Opinion: Lazy Writing Doesn't Exist

Lazy is commonly used to describe bad writing in fiction. Be it in a movie, a tv show, a song or even a video game, if it's bad, the first kneejerk reaction is to call it lazy. I myself am guilty of this, but as I've grown older I realize that that particular word is not only false, it is hurtful. To call a writer's work (or the writer themselves) lazy is to imply that they did not do there job. Not that they didn't do their job well, but rather they didn't do the job at all. Let's talk about that clear as day difference.

A writer's job is to, well, write. Specifically, they have to turn the ideas in their heads into written words on paper. If that sounds easy, let me be the first to tell you having several years of experience in writing: 👏it's👏not. Even if you have basic spelling and grammar rules down, you still need to structure your work so that it's easy to read and follow. You also have to give your piece your own unique voice. How does your writing skills stand out from everyone else's? What makes your material worth reading? Another factor that comes into the writing process is learning to take constructive criticism and improving on previous works. And when I say criticism, I'm talking about feedback that's on the lines of "I didn't find this piece very interesting. Maybe add some comedy or character drama." That's the type of criticism you should listen too when you want to be a better writer. As for the ones you should ignore, that's where today's topic comes in.

The literal definition of the word "lazy" is being unwilling to work or use energy. Whenever I hear this word lumped into what's supposed to be constructive criticism, I roll my eyes and think "oh you don't know how wrong you are." Fart jokes are often called lazy because apparently anyone can do it. Tell me, can anyone you know make a fart joke funny every single time? Writers are also called lazy for ignoring plot holes. Can you name me a single work of fiction without plot holes so that writers can use that as an example? Then there's the times when writers incorporate pop culture references and are called lazy for that. So writers aren't supposed to make pop culture references anymore even though they've been doing in since Day 1?

See the problem with using lazy as a form of criticism is it implies the writers were just sitting on their couch all day and let the written work write itself. Maybe the writer included the fart joke because they thought it was funny. Maybe the writer ignored a "plot hole" because nobody needs to know everything that doesn't matter. Maybe the writer included a pop culture reference as a fun little nod to a previous work. You never know and you should watch what you say because being called lazy is not helpful: it's hurtful.