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senexbarbatus
Reviews
Wish (2023)
Disney meets ChatGPT
Every element of this movie feels like it was generated by a lackluster AI program.
The heroine has no apparent drive or motivations outside of the immediate plot, and has the same cute but generic "adorkable" vibe as Rapunzel, Anna, Moana, and Mirabel. She's enough of a cypher to let anyone put themselves in her place.
The villain is a blandly handsome king whose motivations boil down to "worship me" and "more power." He lacks the complexity of Frollo or Gothel, and the charisma of Scar or Ursula. He's empty enough that you can imagine him as an analogue for whatever politician you dislike.
The supporting cast was a pile of generic stock characters. Ably enough acted, but utterly forgettable. None were developed enough to be interesting.
The music is lively, but instantly forgettable. After Frozen, Tangled, and Moana, my kids sang garbled toddler versions of the songs on the ride home. After Wish? Nothing. Not even a hum.
The art was interesting. The watercolor-ish style worked for the backgrounds, and captured some of the feel of classic Disney films. But the characters seemed crudely pasted atop the background. More than any recent Disney film, you could FEEL the computers behind the animation.
The plot was uninspired. There were a handful of places where the writers could have taken different paths, and asked interesting questions about the nature of power and responsibility, but they abandoned them in favor of a one-dimensional and utterly predictable story.
Even the worst flops in the Disney archives had something going for them. Brother Bear was beautiful, Home on the Range was funny, and Dinosaur was a technological leap forward. Wish has nothing. Was it terrible? No. Was it memorable? Definitely not. Will anyone bother to see it more than once? I doubt it.
Rescued by Ruby (2022)
Predictable and cheesy
As predictable as the sunrise. You can guess every step of the plot within five minutes.
The writing is corny, the acting is mediocre, and the accents are horrible.
This movie is like koolaid. It's sweet, it's simple, and your kids will probably love it and ask for more. I don't like koolaid.
Ratched (2020)
Beautiful, but only skin deep
The cast is stellar, and the sets and costume design are beautiful.
But the screenwriting is a mess. Plot threads are thrown in hapahazardly, and never well developed.
The writing exhibits only a passing knowledge of the time in which the show is set, and even less knowledge of psychology. It's a lot of lazy, worn out tropes disguised by a veneer of great actresses.
And the last nail in the coffin is how different Mildred Ratched is from the version in the book and the movie. They did a great disservice to an iconic character with this sloppy hack job.
Absurd Planet (2020)
Good footage, lousy commentary
The footage is excellent, and the series could have been interesting if the script weren't written by a particularly immature middle-school boy.
Even my kids, ages 5 and 7, were turned off by the negativity of the narration and the constant bathroom humor.
I also noted several factual mistakes; they refer to the Slow Loris as "poisonous", when it is actually venomous. (Yes, There's a difference, and yes, it matters.) They also said that "Narwhal" was an Inuit word; it's actually Old Norse. Easy mistakes that a more professional production would have caught.
I guess it's a nature show for people who don't actually like nature shows.