Tag: Raggle Fraggle Review

Until Dawn (2015) Review

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Until Dawn is the first of many choose your own adventure games from Supermassive Games, the game relies on player choices determining who will survive this horror story on the mountains of the Wendigo. The game takes inspiration from the Butterfly Effect a chaos theory where different choices and events will lead to vastly differentiating outcomes.

The game is considered an interactive drama series where players take control of eight playable characters and make decisions which will in turn effect their survival chances and relationships with other characters in the story.

After a horrible prank gone wrong two twin sisters Hannah and Beth go missing during a snow storm on the mountains and are presumed dead after search and rescues teams fail to find them.

One year later the teenage pranksters return to the mountain in remembrance of the girls but soon realise that something dark and sinister is afoot, they are not alone on this mountain and they start to wonder what really happened to their friends who perished on that terrible night!.

The game takes place primarily in four locations the Lodge, the Sanitorium, an old Hotel and the Mines and where each character ends up depends on player choices.

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In my personal opinion none of the games locations are all too memorable, nothing about them really stands out although I would make the argument that this does work much more in the games favor than it may seem.

The areas of the game are basic but are all very dark helping to build upon the atmosphere and increase the players fear levels, throughout the entire journey you will be on the edge of your seat not sure if your next decision will end kindly, the Wendigo’s are absolutely terrifying and give you very little chance to escape if they manage to catch you, a shot with a gun will help you knock them back temporarily but the most common and difficult way to survive is to keep absolutely still.

The Wendigo’s are blind and track players by sound, a very clever mechanic in the game uses the dual shock controllers motion sensors to enhance realism during segments where you mustn’t move, players literally need to keep the controller as still as possible and one slight movement can easily lead to death so be careful.

The game is full to the brim with quick time events, I normally hate these in games but they work quite well in this, you don’t get much warning when they appear and if you miss them it can end very badly.

Throughout the adventure there are plenty of collectibles to find most of these are clues to discovering the three in game mysteries, those being what happened to the twins, who is the psychopath and the history of the mountain. You need to find all of the twins clues to save Josh at the end of the game so I would recommend trying to get everything.

Totems are also hidden across the mountain, finding these will show you clues on possible outcomes later on in the game, it can really help you make decisions depending on whether you want to save or kill certain characters.

There are many different way to finish the game, you can choose who lives and who dies leading the multiple outcomes, I had two issues with the game and both were a problem with its replay value, don’t get me wrong the game has plenty of reasons to replay but not being able to skip over cutscenes a second or third time around will get you sick of the story pretty fast and the biggest problem of all is that there is only one ending.

The end of the game is a helicopter shot of your survivors followed by police interviews in the credits, nothing else gets added here and the reason that is a problem is because apart from trophies if there is no additional cutscene or reward why would we want to replay this over and over again?

The game is fun but it is also very slow paced and is a bit of a drag to replay at times, I did this four times in a row to try and get all the trophies and after that I had no intention to put my self through it again and I completely understand that this is a different type of game to what I’m used too but I cant lie about how it made me feel after multiple playthroughs.

Visually the game is terrifying and graphically it holds up really well for a mid life span PS4 game, the dark atmosphere really helps to give you an uneasy feeling from beginning to end and the designers put a lot of effort into graphics helping to again build on realism with the excellent and powdery snow effects, and the slimy and meaty skin of the Wendigos.

The games soundtrack composed by Jason Graves and while very basic it works well for the game, they used an orchestra but remained very quiet only getting louder the closer characters got to a threat, the quietness makes the game feel empty and does help to put players more on edge and when the music does get louder due to it being unexpected it really set me into a panic not quite knowing what was around the corner.

Until Dawn is a game that I have wanted to play for a very long time but have waiting for the right opportunity, thankfully with this being part of the PS Plus game catalogue I finally got the chance and I really enjoyed it, I liked most of the characters and wanted to see them all succeed and the story is so well written, the twist of who the psychopath was really caught me off guard and I had even found all of the clues. The game controlled fine and was a lot of fun my only issue was with my distaste for choices with the replay value but overall I can highly recommend this one to fans of horror and gamers alike 7/10

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Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One (2021) Review

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Based on the character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is the latest Sherlock Holmes videogame, it was developed and published by Frogswares for the PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X with versions for last gen consoles coming soon.

This is an origin story for our favourite detective so you wont be seeing Dr Watson in the game. The Plot actually sees a younger Sherlock Holmes returning to the Island of Cordona to revisit his family home and try to find out why his mother died.

He is joined by his imaginary friend Jon who acts as his conscience but at times seems to have a mind of his own.

While figuring out the answers to one of his biggest family secrets word of his unique detective skills gets around and young sherlock finds himself solving various different mysteries before he can finally get some answers.

The game is an open world Action/Mystery videogame based in the early 1800’s. It differs from a lot of other open world games as their is very little action segments and those that do exist can be skipped with very little effect to the player.

The Main Quest is very short and in order to get the most out of the game you really need to be focussing on the side cases and collectables.

The Gameplay is all very similar throughout the experience, you are a detective putting clues together to solve crimes, there are various ways to do this but some of the most frequent ways to solve a case are by examining a crime scene, you can view certain objects to gather information and you can even check for much smaller details such as blood spots on the carpets or scratches in woodwork etc.

Some people wont speak to Sherlock in his expensive suit so putting on different disguises is absolutely necessary, these can be purchased from various street sellers, you can also purchase furniture for your home from sellers across the island.

There are three archives you can visit, Police (Crimes), Cordona Chronicle (News) and Cordona City Hall (Official/Legal Documents). Depending on your clue you need to decide which will be the most useful to visit, you first need to select your clue from your case file then you can choose three key words to try and match some further information. For example if I was looking for a news article about an escaped monkey in Scaladio 100 years ago I would visit Cordona Chronicle and would search 1700’s – Front Page – Scaladio and that would then match the correct information.

Once you have enough of an idea of how a crime was committed you will be able to enter Sherlocks imagination where he can individually choose positions and actions to determine the most likely possibility of a crime before making his final decision in his mind palace.

Some items you collect during investigations can be chemically analysed to find out what certain stains or substances are. This process requires players to complete a small math puzzle where they need to find clever ways to match the required outcome by either dividing, adding, subtracting or doubling numbers.

The mind palace is where sherlock is able to connect all of his clues and make his final judgement of who is the culprit and how they should be punished, this normally results in whether he lets them go or reports them to the authorities but in more serious cases he can even suggest the death sentence.

The cases are almost perfect from a gameplay perspective you really do feel like a detective but if there is one issue I would say that Jon should have been a developed a little differently, throughout the game he constantly complains when you make mistakes but the game isn’t very clear on what direction you should be heading in, the clues are very complex in areas and I think that Jon maybe should have been used more as a hint system or a way to help players with trickier clues. I used a walkthrough more than once and I am not ashamed to admit that because this game can be really hard at times due to its lack of direction.

While the detective and mystery elements of the game really shine I feel its combat is a little lackluster, thankfully as I have already stated you can skip these but in case you want to do them, the idea is to shoot off armour and use the environment to stun enemies so you can arrest them, you can kill people but you will be penalised for this.

The problem with the combat is that its really slow paced and because of the lack of ways to interact and stun enemies it gets repetitive very quickly, towards the end of the game I found myself really enjoying the fact that I didn’t have to do these parts.

While your running around the island, eves dropping on locals and solving side cases there are actually 24 hidden treasures you can find by using photographic clues given to you by the treasure master.

These are actually quite cryptic and really challenging to find, they are a great way to have a break from the rest of the game which all follows a very similar gameplay pattern and there are some trophies to unlock if you collect these.

The game is lacking in its visuals, graphically its not really up to scratch with the modern hardware its been released on however that is not to say that it isn’t impressive. This is not a triple A game and it had a much smaller budget than some other games on modern systems, It doesn’t even have a physical release which says a lot in how much money was able to be pumped into it, what is really impressive is how the developers managed to make the world so realistic and immersive. The 1800 style really works in the games favour for being pretty cool to explore especially for fans of history. The load times are really fast and there is no issue with background items loading in too late. The developers were really clever with how they managed to hide invisible barriers, by putting Sherlock on an Island they are able to allow him to explore almost anywhere that he can walk too, he cant jump so he is restricted to the ground and since he cant swim the only barrier is the ocean which drowns him when entered. Smart game design like this allows players to remain immersed in the gameplay without obvious blocks taking away from the experience.

The soundtrack isn’t too special but I don’t think it needed to be, the small music tracks it uses are very simple and mellow, I does pick up during combat for the most part you are so focused on solving cases you forget the music is even there, so unfortunately I don’t have much to say about the OST here apart from its neither good nor bad.

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One was a lot better than I expected, I really enjoyed the freedom that came with the open world, I spent a lot of time focussing on the side content and really going after all the trophies which I did manage to pull off, they are quite easy to get and a good chunk are rewarded for making certain moral decisions and doing Jon’s various challenges.

The main quest line is fine enough but its very short especially on a second playthrough so again you really will want to do everything to get your moneys worth with this one, especially since you will be paying a fair bit on money as the game is not cheap for digital only.

Overall I really enjoyed this game but even with all of impressive features its got some pretty serious issues in its gameplay, the combat is creative but badly pulled off, again you can skip these but that’s still no excuse, the main puzzle solving and the mystery parts are really cool but a little bit too cryptic at times which can effect peoples enjoyment as just little hints would have been useful to help get us in the right direction without having to use the internet.

However I did get excited to play this game whenever I got the chance, even though I did use a walkthrough a couple of times I was still really invested in the story and cases I was solving, I thought the world was really well animated, it felt how I would imagine the 1800’s to be and the characters were all really interesting. I think it was a great choice to do an origin story as well before Sherlock becomes famous, who knows maybe one day we will get another game in this style, perhaps with Dr Watson?

6/10

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Alan Wake (2010) Review

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Alan Wake is a game that I have avoided since it released almost 12 years ago, it just never appealed to me but ever since getting the PS5 and there not being many budget friendly games available Alan Wakes remastered version was offered at a price I just couldn’t refuse, but how does it hold up? is it worth picking up and was I wrong to avoid it for so long?

Alan Wake describes itself as a Phycological Action Thriller and is very unique with its episode based progression, inspired by TV dramas.

It was developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft as an exclusive to its Xbox 360 videogame system and it remained an exclusive until 2021 when it was released on the PS4, Xbox One, PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S.

I played the remastered version of the game for the PS5 so my opinion is based upon my own experiences with this port.

The game is very story driven and that is its main hook, the plot of a writer being trapped in his own horror story and having to find a way to change its pages in order to save his missing wife is something I don’t think has ever been done before, it is very immersive and the commentary by Alan throughout the adventure really helps to make sense of what is going on.

You can also collect pages from the original manuscript to help explain the story in more detail although a good number of these can only be obtained on the Nightmare difficulty of the game, another collectable are the 100 coffee thermoses, these don’t do anything in the game but are available for trophy hunters.

Discussing the difficulty I feel is necessary as this is a very hard game, I played on Normal and still really struggled at first, the game is a survival horror and if not careful players can find themselves with no ammunition and very little light.

The dark is a huge theme here and is the most dangerous element of this adventure, while in the dark possessed spirits will bombard players and can take you out in only a few hits, the flash light will eventually stun them so they can be shot but this light is limited and you should try to use the back up batteries sparingly. Trying to kill every enemy is almost impossible as in most cases they keep re-appearing, so what you really need to do is try to avoid combat when you can and very strategically make your way to light sources so you can heal. Lights are also the only areas that are completely safe but of course they are few and far between so they cannot be completely relied on.

There are some “Boss fights” in the game but they are mostly just much more powerful and larger versions of the possessed, again light is your best weapon with these and I highly recommend trying to defeat them (even though some can be avoided) as certain ones will give you in game trophies.

The game is very dark in its colours and uses very little detail to help pull off its creepy and empty atmosphere, Alan is lost on his journey and is slowly figuring things out, the players see the world though his eyes and it works surprisingly well having less to focus on it gives off the effect that this is a very dark and secluded game and it helps to put more emphasis on the story, there are no side quests or open world areas as Alan Wake doesn’t need either of these to tell a very good story and it does that extremely well.

On another note the flashback segments are much more detailed and use a full colour palette, these are a nice change of pace, they don’t stay for long but are much appreciated when we do get them, they also help shine some light on Alans relationship with Alice and why they were having problems before she was taken by the darkness.

There are two DLC episodes which are included as part of the remastered package, these are titled the Signal and the Writer. I wont go into discussion about these as by doing that I will be spoiling the main games ending as these are both follow on stories which prepare players for the eventual plot of Alan Wake 2 releasing sometime next year.

The soundtrack was composed by Petri Alanko and is really good, I’ll be honest it is really rare that the game uses music and that does benefit it as it helps pull off that empty, realism and loneliness, but since the game is episode based, each episode ends with credits which all have their own song with a vocal performance and these change depending on the themes of said episode. The sound track also is used on the title screen and while the music here is very quiet and mostly matched with creepy sounds it helps to add to that atmosphere and I absolutely love it.

Alan Wake is a game I wish I played a very long time ago, I think the slower gameplay was off putting to me back then, but I am pleased to say I actually really enjoyed this one, I wasn’t hooked on it but I don’t feel like your meant to be, the game is slow and extremely difficult but tells this absolutely amazing story that is awarded to you for your survival. There isn’t really much to the game to make it addictive but I kept wanting to see where the plot was going to take me and of course the mystery of the island was really captivating and if there was any hook that was it for me, the ending definitely caught me by surprise and I am really looking forward to see where this goes in the sequel. 7.5/10

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The Promised Neverland (Anime) Review

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The promised neverland is an anime adaptation of a popular Japanese Manga series, the original books were extremely successful and won numerous awards, the anime was first announced in 2018 from a company called CloverWorks. I have never read Manga so my experience is purely through this adaptation and I have quite a few mixed feelings about it so without further ado lets jump straight in

I also want to put a spoiler warning, I am not going to hold back in this review so if you want to watch the show, you have been warned.

The first season takes place in an orphanage ran by a seemingly kind young woman who goes by the name mom. The orphanage is ran with strange rules and very heavily controlled in a way that seems innocent.

These rules are not exactly shown as they are more things viewers will pick up on as the show progresses, I knew something was up as soon I began the show because it was odd that all of the children were dressed in the same white clothes and each had similar smart hair styles.

Also it is implied early into the season that none of the children had ever left the Orphanage, they hadn’t left the walls of the children’s home once in their entire lives, even the children who were older, it was really weird and just left me feeling uneasy.

In the first episode their is a very sweet 6 year old girl named Connie and at the end of her story she is “adopted”. Mom walks her to gate and she is seemingly taken to her new family.

An older boy named Ray notices that Connie left behind her favourite toy and asks his friends Emma and Norman to take the Bunny to Connie before she leaves. Both of the children know they are not allowed near the gate but decide that returning the bunny is good enough reason to break the rule.

When they arrive they cant find Connie and check in the moving truck where they discover her corpse. The children hide when they hear voices behind a door describing their dissatisfaction with the specimen and how it will not be a good meal due to its age and lack of intelligence.

These are demons and they feed on the flesh humans to survive, the brain is the best part of a human being and is the most delicious.

After this discovery the first season primarily takes place in the orphanage and has the three friends Emma, Ray and Norman trying to come up with an elaborate plan to escape from the facility. This often leads to disagreements with Emma wanting to save all of the children and the other two trying to be more realistic with either just saving themselves and maybe the older children.

There is a lot of elements of mystery in this season, on top of trying to find out more information about the demons, who mom really is and which children are selected to be eaten, there is also a spy in the orphanage who is whispering information back to mom. This plot gets really interesting and multiple children are suspected before Norman figures out its Ray.

So Ray is very interesting character because he is the birth child of mom, in flashbacks we learn that mom’s are females who are chosen to run the human farms in exchange of not being eaten by the demons. Because Ray is super intelligent he is top priority to be eaten, to save her son mom got Ray to be a spy who would help mom pick the best children to serve as well as report to her everything and anything that goes on behind her back. Ray is obviously only doing this to save his own skin but it does show a selfishness to his character and even though in the end he does go against mom and help the children I could never forget that at one point he was helping the demons for his own benefit.

About halfway through the season a helper for mom is hired to help look after the children, her name is Krone and to be honest she was probably the worst part about the season for me. It felt like she was mainly added just to be another obstacle for the children. She’s very loud and erratic and to be honest feels really out of place although I will admit it did make her presence feel a little more uneasy than others.

The first season has a very surprising ending, mom breaks Emma’s leg to prevent her escaping before she is meant to be shipped, luckily she recovers in time but Norman is shipped early and assumed dead. With just her and Ray left, Ray fakes burning himself alive using sausages, human hair and his own ear with his tracking device in order give off the effect of burning flesh, this distracts mom long enough that himself, Emma and all of the children aged 6 and older (6 is the minimum age they can be eaten) to escape over the wall and into the surrounding woods.

So season 1 was very nicely paced and had some good plots and mystery to keep it entertaining without it feeling it dragged on too long or too little.

Season 2 played an Uno reverse card because they went from this really nicely paced show to the world record speed run for quickest ending anime.

So a lot of plot is crammed into 11 episodes here a lot of people do not like this season, I enjoyed it but it definitely felt rushed there are some important plots here and I will go over them briefly but If you want a real analysis why this is a bad anime season, Youtube will give you a better explanation than I can give, this is purely just my opinion.

The children are now in the Demon World, they are barely surviving until they find a bunker which they hide inside of, here is a phone and they are contacted by Mr Minerva who left clues in books previously to help the children escape (He is never seen and he doesn’t really show up again after this.)

After the bunker is raided the children befriend two vegetarian Demons who want to help them escape, there is a weird part later on where the male demon hints that he wants to eat the children (but this is never addressed again and doesn’t happen)

Later on in the season we find out that Norman is alive and wants to kill all the demons because they tortured and experimented on him, he becomes the leader of a gang of demon slayers who have all been through what he has, he vows to slaughter all Demons and become either a god or a devil in their eyes if he has too (This plot ends in the next episode and now he just wants to escape again !)

Look I know I keep pointing out how badly rushed this all is but it’s important I do in order for someone who hasn’t seen it to fully understand how bad it is and why people are pissed off.

At the end of the season, Emma, Norman and Ray free the other children from all the orphanages and the main villain behind the operations is killed. They forgive mom and let her come with them to the human world (this is same woman who murdered them, the same who broke Emma’s leg and lied to them their entire lives), Emma, Ray and Norman decide to stay in the demon world to help them survive without humans, Emma vows to make a new promise in the demons benefit (we never find out what this is) a two minute slide of what happens next plays and Emma, Norman and Ray go to the human world ending the entire anime !

The Promised Neverland is half excellent and half mediocre, that first season is one of the best anime’s I have sat down and watched and I was so excited for that second season that when it was so disappointing I was genuinely upset about it. What I don’t understand is why they rushed that second season and ended it there, they could have paced it better and we could have had at least three really good seasons. I think maybe the writers didn’t enjoy the more action based plot compared to the horror and mystery of season 1 so wanted to end it while they had the chance, of course I have no evidence of this so don’t take that as fact but it’s about all I can come up with.

Apart from the second half the show is animated very well and actually has really good dub work which is something a lot of anime’s struggle with so I can give it props for that. The music for both season openings is also very catchy and highly enjoyable, the theme from the first season got me pumped everytime it played and the second’s theme was a lot of fun too.

That’s all I can really say about this series, I enjoyed all of it but the second season really takes away from it’s quality and its quite sad because we could have had another outstanding anime on our hands, If you want to see this I would recommend only the first season and maybe just see the ending of season 2 because that’s probably all you really need to see and like I said before I have gone over most of the plot here, so until next time

Thanks for reading this review of The Promised Neverland (Anime)

If you would like to help support the website please use the donation button at the top of the page, your donations will help to improve the website by allowing me to afford products to review and to be able to execute any costly updates and changes, any amount in donations are welcome.

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Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters Review

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1988 gave us the final Looney Tunes Compilation film and is also unfortunately the final review of Looney Tunes Month 2.

Quackbusters is as the pun intends a spoof of the 1980’s hit film Ghostbusters, it was the second movie to have its own coherent story intertwined with animated shorts. The movie stands out for being Halloween themed and featuring shorts which are almost all spooky in nature.

Daffy Duck has inherited the fortune of a millionaire business tycoon but he is only allowed to keep the money if he uses it for good, of course Daffy ignores this rule since the man is dead but is soon shocked when he realises that he loses money every time he is unkind, greedy or selfish.

After learning this Daffy comes up with a business plan that can help the community, earn him more money and hopefully one day get rid of the spirit who is watching over his fortune.

Daffy sets up the Paranormalists at Large a company set to eliminate all evil spirits for a hefty price, he hires his Looney Tunes co-stars Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig and the ghost hunting begins.

As per usual I will go over each short that is in the film and give my brief opinion

Night of the Living Duck

Daffy Duck is an entertainer for classic movie monsters, this short was made for the film as an opening and its a nice way to get you ready for the upcoming movie, there isn’t really any comedy here it is just a song and is there to really get you into the spooky mood of the movie although it is pretty cool to see all of these classics characters drawn in the style of Looney Tunes.

Daffy Dilly

1948’s Daffy Dilly is a Chuck Jones cartoon that sees Daffy Duck as a gag joke salesman failing to make even a dollar on the streets, he over hears a Television broadcast that a dying millionaire will leave his fortune to the person who gives him his last laugh, Daffy seeing a way out of his financial failures heads over to his mansion and has to out wit the butler to see his master and make a quick million.

A really fun short that ties in heavily with the movie, in fact this short is expanded upon in the film to make the plot which is a first for these compilation films and its executed extremely well, in fact I assumed this was all new footage for the movie before I began researching for this review.

The Prize Pest

Porky Pig has won the grand prize in a radio competition, his prize is Daffy Duck a goofy and reckless animal who wants to make Porky’s home his own. He makes up a Jekyll and Hyde condition where he turns into a monster when he’s angry scaring Porky into doing all of his bidding until Porky decides to give him a taste of his own medicine.

A great short and almost all of this one is used in the movie, of course the parts where daffy is delivered as a prize are not here but the majority of the remainder of the short is here in full.

Water Water every Hare

A sequel to Chuck Jones excellent short Hair Raising Hare is included here but it is broken up into small segments and used as part of commercials, Its a shame because the original short is very good and it just doesn’t work when its not shown as a whole, I don’t see why they couldn’t have cut out the beginning and ending segments as it would have fitted into the movie perfectly if they did this.

Hyde and go Tweet

This Friz Freleng short is another Jekyll and Hyde inspired cartoon, this time starring Sylvester and Tweety, its a very funny film seeing Tweety trying to eat Sylvester for a change but the roles of who is hunting who changing back and forth as the unfinished Hyde formula keeps undoing and resetting its effects.

Definitely one of my favourites in this film and only very small segments were cut and is hardly noticiable.

Claws for Alarm

Two Sylvester cartoons in a row and this is another great one, this was one of few shorts where Sylvester is the pet of Porky Pig and plays much more of a sidekick roll than his usual antagonistic self. In this cartoon Porky and Sylvester are looking for a place to spend the night while travelling. They come across an old Hotel in the middle of nowhere but no one seems to be awake, they decide to find a room and stay the night anyway but Sylvester soon catches onto mischievous mice who are trying to murder his master. He makes it his sworn duty to protect his Master no matter what unfortunately Porky doesn’t believe him about the mice and puts all of Sylvester’s heroic deeds to mischief and nuisance.

The Duxorcist

This short was specifically made for this movie which is very cool, it is available in other releases but Quack busters was the original !

In the short Daffy has been sent to deal with poltergeists in a young woman’s home, this is an obvious homage to Ghostbusters which has a very similar scene. Of course the self centred Daffy mistakes the woman’s possession for flirting and actually has no idea how to really deal with this kind of evil to the point that he has to read up how to perform an exorcism.

I did enjoy this one but it wasn’t as funny to me as the other shorts payed before it, but this does fit best into the movie and of course is not cut at all which is to be expected.

Transylvania 6-5000

Bugs Bunny is lost on his travels and ends up at an old castle, he enters the home looking for a phone to call his travel agent, The host is none other than famous vampire Count Dracula who gives him a room for the night so his blood is well rested. During the night Bugs can’t sleep and reads a book of magic words not realising that every time he reads one he transforms Dracula into a bat, this leads to plenty of hilarious slapstick.

This is one of the better shorts in the film and is my second favourite, this had me in stitches during both viewings of it and I would recommend this one to anyone trying to get into Looney Tunes.

The only changes I noticed to this one was the ending was cut and for some reason they changed Bugs dialogue of Moth to Mosquito.

The Abominable Snow Rabbit

Bugs and Daffy get lost in the Himalayas while looking for the paradise island of Palm Springs. They run into a very stupid Abominable Snowman who is very excited then he captures Daffy who he thinks is a pet bunny rabbit, Daffy and Bugs keep tricking the Snowman to grab the other while they try to escape before Bugs tricks the Snowman into his own demise.

This short is ok, it is funny at moments with the Snowman but honestly I didn’t like the ending much, the Snowman is shown to be so innocent that when he melts in the end I felt really sorry for him.

Punch Trunk

This short is the most unique here because its actually a Merrie Melody cartoon which has none of the Looney Tunes in it, A tiny elephant is released into the city after he is trapped in a box of Banana’s after getting out he innocently sends the general public into a frenzy whenever he is seen as no one can quite believe that an elephant can be so small, he even sends one man to a mental institution. A good short and a nice break from the regular Looney Tunes characters.

Jumpin Jupiter

This short was only used for a very small clip out of context of the rest of the cartoon, the original cartoon about Martians is quite good but its far from my favourite of the genre. The clip here was used right at the end of Quackbusters and to be honest I wouldn’t have even known it wasn’t new animation before I did research for this review.

Daffy Ducks Quackbusters is a really entertaining clip show that hardly ever cuts or alters the shorts, compared to Fantastic Island this is better for the shorts chosen but I feel the story lacked a little bit. It was really cool for them to expand the story around an already existing short and for a Ghostbusters spoof this is excellent and only goes to show how inspirational the original Ghostbusters is.

I really like this movie and I could recommend it to anyone but I prefer Fantastic Island and I think I would still put this one just below the Bugs Bunny and Road Runner movie, This is one spooky Looney Tunes film I am sure to watch again.

And that’s Looney Tunes Month 2 completed I had a lot of fun this month and it was great to revisit the Looney Tunes, There will definitely be a part 3 but for now I think a little break from our wacky friends is needed and we will be back to see them some other day

and with that said and done I hope you enjoyed Looney Tunes Month 2 and for now th th th That’s all Folks !

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The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) Review

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The Muppet Christmas Carol is a musical fantasy film starring everyone’s favourite puppet characters, Originally created by the late Jim Henson the Muppets were a huge success on Television and eventually starring in movies until Jim’s death in 1990.

This is a really good video playlist about Jim Hensons career it was made by Youtube Channel called Defunctland and is one of the best documentary series on Jim and his creations, I would highly recommend checking it out

After Jim’s passing his son Brian took the Muppets franchise under his wing and began work on the first movie that would be made after Jim Henson and this film just so happens to be a take on the Chales Dickens story A Christmas Carol.

The story is one of the most well known tales of all time but for those who may be living under a rock, A Christmas Carol is the story of a very angry and unkind man who is shown the error of his ways on one Christmas eve where three different ghosts show him his past, present and future in hopes of giving him a chance to redeem himself and avoid an eternity in Hell.

In this version of the classic story, Ebenezer Scrooge is played by academy award winner and cinema legend Micheal Cain, his performance in this is really good, in fact its my favourite performance of Scrooge in any media. The film is relatively silly as it should be, it is the Muppets after all.

The silliest moments come from Gonzo and Rizzo who are narrating the story while the movie is playing.

Another Great example of Muppet humour is the christmas party scene, it has Animal on the drums, Rolf on the Piano, Bad Jokes from Fozzy Bear and is genuinly one the most memorable parts of the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jLRLwI6OdU

What makes Cain stand out so well is that he plays such a serious role when the rest of the movie is a Muppets film, his performance in this is so convincing that by the end of the film you even start to feel a little sorry for him, I really do think this is one of his best roles, the only slight issue is that he struggles to carry a tune during his song at the end of the movie and it would have been better if his singing was dubbed.

The rest of the cast is great, I felt the muppets chosen for the characters were really good, Kermit being Bob Cratchett is an obvious choice and Miss Piggy playing his wife Emily also makes sense, but we need to take time to appreciate the smaller roles, Dr Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker play the charity collectors which is seems an odd choice but it works surprisingly well but the best casting which was ingenious in my opinion was the role of Jacob Marley going to

Waldorf and Statler, I dont think anyone expected these guys to play such a large role in the film as they were mainly used for the odd funny remark in the TV show and the previous movies, they are great as Jacob Marley (now split into two brothers) and even sing a catchy musical number.

The music for the film was written and composed by Paul Williams and Miles Goodman, I have very mixed feelings on this I would argue that half of the music is phenomenal and some of the best Christmas themed music put to screen but the other half feels a little lackluster. Some highlights for me were “Scrooge”, “Marley and Marley”, It Feels Like Christmas” and even the “finale Song” was memorable but the rest is so forgettable, I couldn’t recall “One More Sleep til Christmas” or “Bless us All”, the movie had a lot of songs cut from it including songs by Beaker and Dr Honeydew, another by Sam the Eagle, these were not very good so I’m glad they weren’t kept in the film but the track “When Love is Gone” was cut from the film in releases after the theatre since it was deemed to sad and this is a shame because its a really beautiful lyrical piece that helps give more depth to Scrooge and his long lost love Belle’s character.

My favourite track is It Feels Like Christmas sang by the Ghost of Christmas Present, its a really bouncy and fun song about the meaning of Christmas but what makes it most impressive is the Puppet used for the Ghost, he was a life size Puppet made for the movie, a human actor controlled the puppet from the inside while a Puppeteer used robotics to control the eyes and mouth and did the voice acting in sync with the actors dancing and movements.

A Muppet Christmas Carol is a magical movie that is a yearly tradition for many especially Muppet fans like myself, It has a lot going for it with its impressive puppetry, charm that only these characters can bring the the screen and of course you cannot forget about Michael Cain who is just wonderful in this, this is one of the best telling’s of the classic Dickens tale but it’s not my favourite, it falls short is some places I found the commentary from Gonzo and Rizzo a little distracting at times and a few of the songs were forgettable but overall this is a still a really amazing film and it is one of the best in the Muppets library, a lot of love went into it and I have a lot of love for it and I’m sure you will too if you give it a try this Christmas.

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Prometheus (2012) Review

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As the first prequel to the beloved Alien franchise Prometheus at the time was exciting and had garnered high expectations from the franchises fan base but was it what we had expected or did we leave theatres disappointed?

The film may catch viewers by surprise as it doesnt just look at the origin of the aliens but at society as a whole. The movie opens to a humanoid figure consuming a substance and disintegrating, we are then introduced to our main characters before the plot starts to unfold.

I really dislike the casting in the movie because in my opinion apart two characters everyone is really forgettable, I couldn’t tell you much about this crew apart from there a geologist, an android called David and the female lead of the film Elizabeth Shaw.

The two characters that were memorable were fantastic, Noomi Rapace is a great actress and gives some really emotional work in this film, this is best seen in a really well directed segment where she is told by David she is pregnant, since she in infertile she realises that there is an alien inside of her and in a panic she quickly uses the ships mechanics to remove it from her stomach before she is killed.

David is the best android the franchise has ever had, All of the movies previous to this had an android and all of them have been portrayed by very good actors and actresses but from a personality point of view I think David is the most relatable and a lot of this is in part due to the portrayal by Michael Fassbender and Davids ability to make his own decisions beyond his programming this is shown later on in the film.

Thankfully compared to Alien 3 the CGI here is really good and I think it works really well and is better than some CGI you see in films today, the alien designs are really cool and have a prehistoric look to them which helps to emphasise that this is an origin story so these creatures have not evolved to the form we know and love.

I like Prometheus a lot as it helps me to appreciate the origins of a franchise I hold very dear to me but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t hard to follow even for people who know the original movies and I think if this was your introduction you may be left confused and not quite understanding what you just watched.

Overall an interesting start to the Alien prequels and one that I would recommend seeing but at least see the original film first to get an idea of the xenomorphs and to compare the complete difference in tone, pacing and story telling between the two movies.

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Tomb Raider (1996) Review

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Tomb Raider is a 1996 3D platformer-puzzle game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was released for the Sega Saturn, Playstation 1 and MS DOS. The game was the first release in the popular video game series that sees Tomb Raider Lara Croft solving dungeons to discover treasures.

Relaxing in a Hotel in India, Lara is approached by a texan man named Larson who shows her a video feed to his boss Jaqueline Natla who offers her a job to travel to various countries to seek out the Scion of Atlantis which had been split into separate parts and hidden in tombs across Peru, Greece and Egypt.

The first Tomb Raider game while not limited in it’s environments definitely is forgettable, nothing about these areas stand out much apart from the enemies that you would fight, for example Peru has wolves and bears, Greece has lions and gorillas, Egypt has panthers and Atlantis has bleeding skin demons.

In the game you will have to solve puzzles and commit to some tricky platforming in order to survive the many tombs in the game, unfortunately you would be best playing the game on an original PS1 controller as more modern controllers make the platforming difficult as the game really was made with the Playstation’s original limited controller in mind.

while general control is rather clunky and a little stiff I found that swimming in the game worked really well and controlled smoothly, I believe this is why I enjoyed the underwater segments the most.

For an early PS1 game the graphics are really good and even hold up better than some games released later on in the systems life time, the game focuses primarily on tombs and is actually quite realistic as Lara will die constantly due to small mistakes and the tombs feel like they could exist in real life due to their simplicity by using mainly levers, switches and difficult platforming sections, there is nothing in the game that feels fantasy minus a few additions such as the Lara Doppelganger in Atlantis which is a puzzle in its self.

The soundtrack is great, it uses simple tunes but mixed in with orchestral music that fits perfectly into the lonely tombs and helps to amp up serious moments in what is a very quiet game. The developers decided to not have music playing constantly in the game but to only have it appear on certain cues such as discovering a secret or triggering a boss fight.

Tomb Raider on PS1 is a very important game as it was the introduction of Lara Croft who would go on to become one of video games most famous female icons. I wish the game controlled a little better or at least would save after every challenge as the controls really did make the gameplay unnecessarily difficult, I also wish that the environments were more memorable as apart from Atlantis and the dinosaur section nothing else really stands out. Overall I dont think is one of the best games I have ever played but its far from the worst and I look forward to checking out Tomb Raider 2 in the future.

5.3/10

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The Spongebob Movie – Sponge out of Water (2015) Review

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Sponge out of Water is the second Spongebob film that was released in theatres, in brought back the original voice cast and starred Antonio Bandares as a new villain. Stephen Hillenburg returned to write this film as well as future episodes of the television series before his untimely death in 2018.

Similarly to the previous Spongebob film this opens with a live action Pirate sequence but instead of going to see the movie this Pirate played by Antonio Banderes actually plays a major role in the film when he steals the Krabby Patty formula using a magic book.

Because of the Formula disappearing food production at the Krusty Krab is put on hold causing the citizens of Bikini Bottom to go into an apocalyptic meltdown, leaving Spongebob and Plankton to try and save the town and recover the secret formula.

What I really like about this movie is that it showed a different side to Plankton that I feel hasn’t been shown before this. In the movie he and Spongebob are forced to work together to retrieve to formula and while at the beginning his plan is to take the formula for himself throughout the movie he starts to see the benefit of team work and friendship ultimately giving up what he has always desired for the benefit of others.

I really appreciate the the various styles of animation used in the movie but my favourite was during the time travels scenes where the animation got really silly and creative, every time that the machine was used a different idea was used for animation styles so each time there was something new to look forward too.

Another part I really enjoyed was when Plankton climbs into Spongebob’s brain, this highly animated scene shows to the full extent how sweet and innocent Spongebob’s mind is, of course the sweetness is too much for Plankton to handle which ends in a few good laughs.

The third act of the movie focuses on live action animation hybrid which puts CGI versions of the Spongebob characters into the real world above the ocean where they eventually gain super powers to take on the Antonio Banderes pirate.

When I first saw trailers for this movie I was concerned that it was going to use the cliche of characters from an one world come to our world and thats where all the jokes would come from. While this does happen and some jokes are at this expense I was pleased when the main goal of the film remained the focus and the comedy was more clever than easy to write humour to keeps the kids happy.

The entire film does a great job of explaining who the Spongebob characters are along with their personalities and goals so that new comers can understand whats happening without making this come across as a forced narrative.

Sponge out of Water is a really fun movie, there is a lot of different plot points going on which I think a younger audience might struggle to follow but overall its a very funny and entertaining film that is sure to keep the attention of both children and adults and shows that Spongebob is still relevant enough to make a film good enough for a theatrical release.

My favourite Spongebob episodes – F.U.N

Whats a better time than now to talk about the very famous Spongebob episode F.U.N?

After once again having his plans foiled Plankton is sent back to his computer wife Karen utterly defeated. After seeing him so sad Spongebob decides to show Plankton the power of friendship and change his evil ways.

At first Plankton is against the idea of befriending Spongebob but is convinced by his computer wife Karen that it’s the perfect chance for him to learn the formula so he ultimately agrees.

This leads into one of the most famous songs in the shows history where Spongebob tries to teach plankton how to have fun with plankton eventually fooling Spongebob into thinking he has changed.

One of the more silly episodes of the show which has more random moments than clever comedy but I feel it works really well and flows nicely as a simple story. I really love the song F.U.N and I often sing it to myself and have never forgotten the lyrics.

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Book Review: God’s Timing by Janet. E. Green

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A huge thank you to the Publishing Push for sending me a review copy of this book.

God_s_Timing_Cover

I was one of a very lucky group of people to be sent a copy of this book which has not yet been released so I cant give away too many details however I will explain things the best way that I can.

I will start by saying that I really enjoyed parts of this book more than I did others. The main focus of the story is on a young girl who is suffering with anxiety, depression and other forms of mental illness which I feel in this day and age is very relatable and some people will connect with this character and feel their pain.

To be honest all of the characters in the book are really interesting and are extremely likeable, some are love interests or family to other characters in the story but some are there to help the young girl in this story to overcome her problems and become a much healthier and happier person.

The settings are really well described and it helps the reader to picture the various locations of the story and some of these places are dull and depressing which works well for certain parts of the book and others are full of wonder and creativity which I personally really enjoyed.

So for the most part I really enjoyed this book however I like to be honest even when I get sent stuff to review and a recurring theme of this book really did not work for me and that was the Bible stories.

Before I continue I want to elaborate that I have no issue with religion and I feel that it can be worked into any story if done in a way that is more subtle and a little less forced.

In the book the main character meets a person that wants to understand their mental illnesses and help them to overcome those problems but a lot of the time the way this is done is with Bible stories being told to the main character.

These sections really dragged on more than I felt was necessary and while I will admit that I have not read the original stories it seemed as if the entirety of those stories were being told.

On top of this I struggled to understand some of the morals of these stories and how they were meant to help the main character.

Perhaps if I did know the Bible stories it would make more sense but you shouldn’t need to know material from one thing to understand another thing and that is why I think the book didn’t keep my interest.

I also felt that it really affected the story because for the most part the book was great and I wish it kept its focus on the original characters and ideas instead of bouncing between that and the Bible.

I think that 60 percent of this book is great but the other 40 percent really holds it back, my biggest issue was the constant jump between this story and the Bible stories, I think a religious theme could of worked extremely well if it was executed a little bit differently, for example the main character could have joined a church or made friends with a pastor among other ideas like that but the stories were just too much because in the nicest way I can put this if I wanted to read Bible stories I would just read the Bible.

Again huge thank-you to the Publishing Push for sending me another book.

I feel a little bad for not enjoying this one as much as other books I have read but honesty is a huge part of my job and it would not feel right to pretend I enjoyed something that I didn’t.

I hope you enjoyed this review of Gods Timing by Janet. E. Green

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