Cartoon Corner- The Pirates of Dark Water

Originally posted at the DL August 2016

You can definitely tell this is a Hanna-Barbara production.  The use of color, their signature animation saving techniques, and the basic construction of the main party fit their particular quirks.

Cartoon Corner- My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Season 5)

Originally posted July 2016

Last season unexpectedly went full DBZ.  This season instead has cultists and full throttle time travel fuckery.  Handled well though; the emphasis is on how terrible of an idea it is.  Similarly while it's noteworthy for being unusual in the context of the show, it's not really a standout episode in other respects.

Cartoon Corner- Finding Dory

Originally posted at the DL July 2016

Just keep swimming

Cartoon Corner- Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Originally posted at the DL May 2016

Ahh man.  This movie.  Let's talk the technical bits first.  There are very few movies animated with the level of detail the toons in Roger Rabbit are.  A recurring fact I bring up when we revisit Disney is their tendency to sink ridiculous time and effort into things the average viewer won't notice.
The film industry refers to this as the Roger Rabbit Effect, because they bloody well should name it after this movie.

Cartoon Corner- Millenium Actress

Originally posted at the DL May 2016

Y'know, I feel like Kon is just showing off in this one in a way the other movies of his I've seen don't.

Cartoon Corner- Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation

Originally posted at the DL May 2016

I knew I'd seen this at the point after they cut it up for syndication, but only really remembered one of the plot threads.  This was only partially true: a couple of the smaller stories I remembered just fine, but thought they were independent episodes.

Cartoon Corner- Fantasia

Originally posted at the DL April 2016

Oh god what have I done.

Cartoon Corner- Tokyo Godfathers

Originally posted at the DL April 2016

To this day this movie amuses me on a conceptual level.  Probably the greatest Christmas Miracle movie ever made comes from a Japanese man who, so far as I can tell, was not among the ~2% or so of Japanese folks who adhere to any variation of that faith.  Satoshi Kon's fingerprints are all over the movie in terms of visual design and story focus, but the actual story told here stands out a lot from the rest of his work and the degree it resembles western works (apparently it borders on adaptation of a John Wayne western, although I'm not familiar with that film) and the less-than-ubiquitous-in-Japan Christian faith is a bit uncanny.

Cartoon Corner- Futurama: Bender's Big Score

In a way, sometimes I wish Futurama hadn’t gotten that Comedy Central revival.

Cartoon Corner- Robin Hood

This seems to be considered one of the weaker films by Disney itself, based on how it’s generally marketed, released, and priced.  I can kinda see it.

Cartoon Corner- An American Tail

Originally posted at the DL April 2016

... oh yeah, this is more or less a musical.

Cartoon Corner- Prince of Egypt

Originally posted at the DL March 2016

Cartoon Corner- Teen Titans (Season 2)

Originally posted at the DL March 2016

Let's go ahead and knock this one out.

Cartoon Corner- Zootopia

Originally posted at the DL March 2016

God, how is there anything BUT Zootopia porn left on the internet.  This is the second furriest thing I've ever seen.

Cartoon Corner- Thor: Tales of Asgard

Originally posted at the DL March 2016

Hmm, so this is only our second of these direct to video Marvel things?  Well then.

Cartoon Corner- The Slayers Next

Originally posted at the DL February 2016

OP2 (Give a Reason)- The single best remembered song in Slayers, and with good reason.  The intensity of it builds in a way that gets you to follow one rhythm just before it ramps again, and it's almost impossible not to move along with it.  There's also this very real sense of incredibly sincere emotion to it that I just don't.... quite know how to explain.  We're moving to Megumi's rhythm, but she's really baring her soul here, y'know?

Cartoon Corner- Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Originally posted at the DL February 2016

So this finally happened.

Cartoon Corner- Summer Wars

Originally posted at the DL February 2016

At heart, Summer Wars is a very simple movie.  In the sense that it tends to be straightforward or obvious, and telegraphs heavily.

Which is good.  It's good to remember that simple things can be amazing.  That straightforward or obvious isn't the same thing as stupid.  That making something easy to follow and accessible doesn't make it somehow less.

Cartoon Corner- Ratatouille

Originally posted at the DL January 2016

Y'know how when you know a lot about a subject stories about it usually become hard to watch because it turns out writers don't usually know shit about shit and get everything wrong?

Yeah Ratatouille isn't that movie.

Cartoon Corner- Kung-Fu Panda

Originally posted at the DL January 2016

My biggest thought here is the movie wants to sound way more profound than it can actually back up.  I suppose that might just be a consequence of being a the sort of kung-fu movie that it is, but yeah.  It wants to be philosophical and inspiring and generally rings hollow.  There's a few things going wrong here I think.

Cartoon Corner- Chicken Run

I’m having trouble finding a reaction to this one.

Cartoon Corner- Batman and Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero

Originally posted at the DL January 2016

Basically a two-parter padded out to the length of a three-parter.

Well that was easy.

Cartoon Corner- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Originally posted at the DL January 2016

In some ways this is a bundle of ideas that doesn't quite tie itself together.  Bruce's former lover loses her family and goes down the dark path he himself oh so narrowly avoids.  A new Batman-like villain squares off between Bats and the Joker in a tragic three way.  Bruce's crusade to protect the knight almost ended before it truly began.

Cartoon Corner- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Season 2)

Originally posted at the DL January 2016

A lot of this season feels like background noise to me.  There's a seeming reluctance to put the main characters in the same place too much, so they're having to juggle a lot of plotlines all at once to keep everyone in the loop as it were, and I think the show overall suffers for it.

Cartoon Corner- Wall-E

Originally posted at the DL January 2011

The Best Pixar Movie.