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Reviews
Yin! Yang! Yo! (2006)
Strange and crude, yet humorous and deep...
I first discovered this show when playing an online game, with the ad for this show as a banner. I thought it looked rather impressive, so I decided to find out more. What I got was a rather entertaining, imaginative kids show that can be surprisingly witty and intelligent at times (making a good change from the slew of mediocre kids show's at the time).
"Yin Yang Yo" is about 2 siblings efforts to become "Woo Foo" (a parody of Kung Fu) experts, lead by their Panda master. Along the way, several odd villains will try to thwart their efforts and steal their powers through various (and really, really, REALLY) strange means.
One of the many impressive things about the show is it's art style. While it may not be strikingly beautiful (in fact at times its pretty basic, even for student level), you have to remember that the entire thing was composed in Adobe Flash- and that takes quite a lot of skill to do, for a 10 minute episode.
Another thing I like is how much effort has been placed into each character. While some are made to represent stereotypes (such as the self-obsessed, gross, violent Yang), others are made to have their own unique personality, which adds to the charm this show has to offer.
There are a couple of niggles I have with this show. One of which is the varying quality of voice acting: some characters are voiced extremely well, others not so much (for example, Yang doesn't even sound like he's 11 years old like he's supposed to). Another thing is the show sometimes becomes so crude it may put some people off, or it may incite many "what the hell?" moments.
Still, with all that said, this show is very entertaining, but it reached it's peak too early; the show,in my opinion, declined massively in quality after episode 12. If you must watch "Yin Yang Yo", try the first 12 episodes for a great laugh!
The Secret of NIMH (1982)
An animated classic on life support; don't pull the plug!
The above title may confuse you. Let me explain. This film is one of the greatest animated classics ever released and it's in danger of being forgotten. Only a few people are willing to promote it, and I think more people should watch this before it's forgotten altogether! But I digress, here's what I thought.
"The Secret of NIMH" is about a mother's struggle to keep her son alive after he falls ill. By trying to enlist the help of the mysterious rats of NIMH, she hopes to save him and her home.
The best thing I like about this movie is about how seriously it takes it's audience. Sure, it's for kids, but Don Bluth (the creator) pulls no punches in making the world a much darker place in this movie. In the ending sequence, 3 people are killed, the main character's home is nearly destroyed and her children almost killed! What? Child friendly family fun? Sorry, not here.
I can't fault this film in any way, other than it rushes itself a little too much, meaning some things may not have time to sink in properly after watching them the first time through.
Overall, seek this out. You won't regret it.