Dragonball Z: Frieza, Fall of a Tyrant.

For this review, I will be lumping all five Dragonball Z episodes into one large review, largely given the nature of them.

During these five episodes the main plot is largely centered around Goku (Our Hero) and Frieza (The Villain) as they duke it out at hyper speed on a self destructing planet. Meanwhile we also get a few glimpses of what's up from other characters, though most of it near the end is merely watching and waiting for the fight to end.

Now, onto the fight. Apparently this five+ episode fight takes place over mere minutes. Minutes. Yet for some ungodly reason we have to sit through roughly two hours of this drawn out fight. Filler much? I mean, I enjoy a really great fight, battle, duel etc. But seriously now, a several minute fight over multiple episodes? I could understand if it were a war/battle with -multiple- character PoV's which draws it out longer.

All in all, it's less enjoyable than other episodes/compilations for me. The animation is on par with what I'd expect from Dragonball Z.

Ouran High School Host Club

Alrighty. Anime! Woot! This review is just a few hours late, and sadly a tad short. However the show viewed is quite good!

Tonight we're taking a peek at the first episode of Ouran High School Host Club. This high school is like no other, it's a private, rich, elitist school where everyone is beautiful and filthy rich (some are even royalty). However, our protagonist is actually quite poor, not even having enough money to buy a proper uniform.

How did she get in? Turns out she's extremely smart and made it in through scholarship.

Things kick off when she encounters a group of students called the Host Club. After breaking an expensive vase, they take her in so that she can work off what she owes. Though at first none of them even realize she's female, largely due to her looks and poor clothing. Eventually they all figure it out and since she's a hit as a male, they keep her around.

Now the first episode is very enjoyable, we're introduced to our main crew. A number of the characters are rather delightful, while some are going to take a few episodes to fully grow on me. The animation is quite good (far far better than for other shows I've reviewed to this date), though the intro credits are still growing on me a bit. If you are a fan of anime and are looking for something not dependant on kicking and punching, this is most likely for you.

Fieval Goes West: The Series

After Fieval Goes West, a 13 episode animated series soon followed. There seems to be several oddities that pop up between the show and the movie, largely the way some of the heroes interact with each other.

In "The Legend of Mouse Hollow" Fieval's class is going to be putting on a play about Legend of the same name. "Dreams to Dream" is reused here as Tanya's song and once again draws Catterwaul into wanting to use the young mouse to help him box up all the mice in town. The villainous cat takes care of the teacher so that Tanya is free to unwittingly help him. Which means Fieval to the rescue!

The second episode contained on this vhs is "Babysitting Blues" in which Fieval must babysit his younger sister Yasha while his parents rush around to prepare for the photographer to arrive. During a game of hide and seek, young Yasha wanders off and becomes lost prompting Fieval to have to find her and get the baby home before his parents do.

While the series is slightly entertaining, the oddities can be a bit hard to get around if you're like me. However it can be worth a look if you are a huge fan of the mouse and his movies.

Dragonball Z: Super Saiyaman - Gohan's Secret.

Alrighty. Taking place years after an unnamed story arc, Super Saiyaman takes place during a time of peace. Though not peaceful enough for the now teenaged Gohan to smash the villains.

After foiling some villains, Gohan decides to don a disguise and adopts the name "Super Saiyaman" Both the costume and his behavior is quite laughable, and takes the show towards the realm of stupidity.


The first episode involves Gohan helping to stop a bus hijacking. Though he arrives at the last minute and only helps to keep it from falling off a cliff. The episode also shows how Gohan recieves his costume, name and his...super saying which involves a lot of idiotic moves.

Following it, Gohan is then blackmailed into dating a girl who claims to know his secret. Of course, trouble occurs and Gohan rushes off to lend a hand right in the middle of his date. A large building is set on fire and he works to release the water tank despite a stuck valve. In the end, the girl reveals his secret to be that he wears...teddy bear underwear. Just when I thought Gohan couldn't get more childish.

The final episode deals with the Red Shark Gang who demands a showdown with Mr. Satan. When his daughter, Videl answers the challenge, Gohan has to try and get out of his classroom without blowing his cover. Videl begins to suspect that he is the Great Saiyaman, which makes Gohan work hard to keep his secret from getting out.

The animation is on part with Dragonball Z shows, however the story is hampered by several flaws that keep it from being fully enjoyable.

Dragonball Z: Super Android 13!

Hoo boy. If I thought Sgt. Savage had overly-muscled characters, Dragonball Z far outdoes them.

If you are not familiar with the story, starting halfway in doesn't fully help. The main plot of this particular "movie" is that evil androids are let loose against our hero. Pretty much the majority of things are just one long fight that takes place in only minutes.

Apparently the characters, or the super-powered ones can fly extremely fast with a grunt and some flexing. And..if they flex and grunt enough, they light up like novelty condoms. They are also able to shoot out energy blasts, some of which grow stronger the longer they focus.

Character's are visually interesting and diverse. Extreme muscles aside. Voices can range from the alright, to slightly annoying. The animation is pretty well done for the time it was made, but overall the lack of story outside of "punch, kick, punch, punch, grunt, glow, super punch!" makes it a clunker. Unless you enjoy that kind of thing.

Sgt. Savage and the Screaming Eagles!

OK. G.I Joe. We're actually going to skip talking about the show itself as a series and such, largely due to the fact that this...one singular episode really doesn't focus on the usual cast of heroes and villains.

In 1944, Sgt. Savage goes missing and is presumed dead. Years later he is found in East Berlin after having been frozen in cryo-stasis. The..."joes" I guess you could call them, defrost Savage who is the size of a mountain. Soon he discovers his old nemesis is still alive and decides to seek revenge for what happened to his men all those years ago.

Savage is given charge of six unruly men who apparently have a lot of court martial for insubordination. Which makes me wonder what the hell the US government is thinking keeping them around. He soon whips them into shape however, in time to stop his enemy from succeeding with his plot. Krieger, the villain plots to take over the world but first things first is to take control of all the computers.

The animation is rather poor compared to other shows from the 90's. Character designs are extremely blocky and aren't as interesting as the Joes that are more well known.

Friends Series Finale

Spanning 10 seasons, Friends follows the lives of six friends in New York City. All of this is wrapped up in the series finale.

The finale episode largely deals with two main stories, Monica and Chandler as they welcome their new twins into the world and finish their packing for the big move. The second follows Ross and Rachel's on again, off again relationship and dealing with Rachel leaving for Paris.

As a whole, the episode is very enjoyable and full of laughs and sad moments. Phoebe of course provides many hilarious moments from driving Ross to two airports at high speed to bursting into song after claiming things are like a musical.

The entire run of Friends is quite entertaining, but in the end "The Last One" or the Finale is definately a highlight and among the best of the episodes.

Enchanted Tales

Enchanted Tales.....dear god what an exercise in patience. The general idea is two shorts, each highlighting a Disney Princess. Much like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins the characters are pandering and shove the lesson of the story at you with nothing that resembles tact.

First up. Aurora. The characters are a slight departure from how they were in the film, aside from the Queen who has more lines here than in the movie I think! In this short, King Stephen and King Hubert are off to a royal conference. Philip and the Queen also attend, thus leaving Aurora in charge of the kingdom. God help us all. The first couple minutes have two references to the movie title in a row which is quite sigh worthy because things only get shoved at us more as things continue.

Now, King Hubert leaves his speech behind being quite forgetful apparently. The good fairies, like in the movie are eager to help and state this many times to Aurora. She finally makes use of this by asking them to take the speech to Hubert. Before leaving, Merryweather leaves she gives Aurora her wand just in case it's needed.

This is where things lose me. Why does it take three of them to deliver one speech? As it turns out, Aurora is overwhelmed and uses the wand which results in chaos. But what can you expect? Now...in the end she throws a banquet after sticking to it and not taking the easy way out. Again. In the end, Aurora ends the story with the moral pushed one last time.

Moving on is Jasmine's story, where much like the movie she is still unsatisfied with her life in the palace. Yeah, because being rich is such a burden. It turns out she's tired of smiling and waving, though honestly I'd happily do that if it meant living in a palace.

While Jasmine does want to do more challenging things with her life and not have an easy life, she more often comes across in an annoying and whiny manner. It really hampers the ability to care.

We are quickly introduced to Saharah, the horse that once belonged to the Queen and will not let anybody ride him. Her father suggests that Jasmine try her hand at helping to teach. This of course quickly fails when the children scare both her, and her tiger up a tree.

This leads to a rather awkward scene where we see Jasmine bathing in...milk while she has a heart to heart with her newly introduced nanny. We soon reach the problem of the story when Abu accidentally releases Saharah who goes missing. This leads to Jasmine flying off in search of the horse, intent on riding the horse back home.

She enlists the help of her nanny to keep her father from finding out, and the rather unhelpful duo of Abu and Iago who watch her attempts. Of course she rides the horse after earning it's trust through song and arrives back in time to earn praise from her father.

The thing about Jasmine's short is that there is a huge lack of Genie and Aladdin, who are assumed to be off on an adventure of sorts. The very fact that they are missing just goes to show how much more interesting they are over Jasmine. If one or both of them had been present, she would have been overshadowed. This also occurs with Aurora's short by removing Philip the slightly more interesting character and by sending the good fairies off to be absent most of it.

Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico

Continuing with the short Scooby-Doo kick, we now go south to Mexico! Though...I think the gang has been here before at some point in their wide number of episodes. However, this is the first feature length movie to step foot here.

On this outing a large purple monster is terrorizing, looking much like the Cookie's monster cousin gone wild. While they are in town, Fred's pen-pal, Alejo and his family lend a hand with providing them a place to stay and showing them around the town. We are provided with many suspects on this trip include a Medicine Man, Louis the cowardly brother, his wife Charlene and Senor Fuente who wishes to buy the hotel from Alejo and Louis.

One slightly interesting thing to me is that Alejo's pet dog is unable to speak. I just find it so odd that Scooby, Scooby-Dum, Scooby-Dee and Scrappy are all able to speak English (to varying degrees) and are understood by their human companions but all other dogs are largely silent. Not so much an annoyance, just a small oddity that's never really given an explanation to my knowledge.

So. Back to the movie. The gang starts out by interviewing the townspeople about the Chupacabra (who is actually Puerto Rican inspired) before heading out to the woods where a chase occurs. Alejo nearly falls off a cliff, with his brother nowhere to be seen until after the monster disappears. Meanwhile Fred, Daphne and Velma encounter the Medicine Man who gives some cryptic words and advice. Shaggy and Scooby sit this one out and sleep in the van, though discover the brake lines were cut leading to a slight scare.

Moving along, the gang proceeds to check out a history museum, following up on the advice they gained. Daphne, as per usual goes missing and what results is an overly long chase to a Latin song. The gang returns in time for the Day of the Dead and meet up with Alejo's wife and his mother Dolores who inform them that Charlene has been taken by the Chupacabra. After rehashing all the clues and events, the ghost of Senor Otero appears and urges the brothers to sell their land and hotel. Realizing something is up, Scooby uncovers a skeleton dressed man and a brief chase ensues ending with the unmasking of the skeleton and the chupacabra.

Monster of Mexico is...rather in the middle ground for the direct to video releases. It's not all that amazing, but not overly bad. Given the still constant releases of these films it's doubtful Scooby-Doo will be going anywhere, anytime soon.

Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase

Alright! So! Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase, one of eleventy billion different Scooby-Doo movies/shows. This one however focuses on a mystery in a computer.

The plot is quite simple. Find out who created the Phantom Virus. Let's start off by rounding up the suspects. We have a security guard who right off the bat is a tad antagonistic towards the gang, the college professor who helped create a special laser and his two students, one of which is friends with the gang.

Even to the most casual viewer, the answer is repeatedly shoved at us with constant hints delivered by the Virus himself, as well as a couple of visual clues. Like most Scooby outings, many Scooby-Snacks are consumed when food is in short supply and Jinkies abound!

Certainly not one of the best Scooby films, though one thing that does work in it's favor is the complete lack of Scrappy-Doo. However the gang does poke a bit of fun at their own running gags from time to time, as well as question their fashion sense when they meet virtual versions of themselves (though wearing their old outfits we know best).

Probably worth a view if you're a die-hard Scooby fan, or for the curious with an hour and half to spare.

District 9

Going to be brief today. District 9 is a great movie visually, the special effects are quite good and the script among the best of the films I've seen this year.

However.

It's extremely slow paced, and contains a rather documentary type of feel to it. This is a huge detracting factor to enjoying it, especially if one (like me) is much happier with fast paced films.

The characters are rather few, and I found it hard to care really about the main character, Wilkus. His wife however, I was more sympathetic towards. The lack of a person to root for can make it hard to watch the film, though I suspect there are many out there who do care about Wilkus more so than I do.

In the end, this movie isn't a terrible movie it's just a really slow movie that feels longer than it is.

Happy Feet

Happy Feet, a story of a penguin who cannot sing but sure is able to tap dance. In Antarctica, Emperor Penguins sing to each other their Heart Songs to find a mate. However, Mumble, is dropped as an egg which affects his ability to sing.

The movie starts off fairly well, baby Mumble is quite adorable as are the other baby penguins. Quickly though baby Mumble grows up into....a taller version of himself and is voiced by Elijah Wood, thus losing all his adorable.

After becoming the misfit of his class and being forced to sit out at the graduation, Mumble leaves and soon encounters the Adelie Amigo's who befriend him. While with his new friends, he seeks out Lovelace, a rather crazy penguin who will answer a question in return for a pebble. With his new friends and Lovelace, Mumble sets out across the vast land and learns about being true to yourself.

The movie is rather enjoyable, though at times it can drag on a bit. Happy Feet's music and the tap dancing are among the highlights of the film.

Goofy World of Sports

The first of many Disney today! The Goofy World of Sports is a fairly old vhs compilation, and the opening sequence itself is rather enjoyable as it shows a number of scenes from various shorts. Though for me, some of this is more than likely nostalgia kicking in.

First up is Olympic Champ in which we join Goofy as he attempts various Olympic events with...little success as we could predict. One highlight is during the pole vault demonstration, in which our narrator asks poor Goofy to wait in mid-air so that he can describe things but quickly become distracted with telling a poem. In the end, Goofy lands in a well earned pile of trophies.

Next up we join Donald as he tries to golf, though the pranks of Huey, Dewey and Louie provide him with much trouble. From phony golf clubs that do a 1,000 tricks to hiding a cricket in a fake golf ball the troublesome trio do their best. After Donald becomes tied up, they proceed to sink their own balls in a variety of ways, though Donald only manages to get his bill stuck as we close.

Moving onto Skiing, we join Goofy and the Narrator once more. First we watch Goofy as he tries to prepare for learning to ski, having some difficulty with getting dressed. Once on the slopes many gags ensue as the lovable Goof does his best to try and stay on his feet while showing a variety of things from basic walking to the much more advanced ski jumps.

The final short is Aquamania in which Goofy attempts to take on water skiing, and boating in general. His rarely seen son joins him this trip, when Goofy or "Mr. X" as he's called here purchases a boat and is quite promptly entered in a water skiing race.

The four shorts are quite enjoyable, though personally most would rank in the middle for me. Some out there are not quite as fun, yet there are better shorts out there showcasing our two main stars. The animation is, I assume, quite good by the standards of the shorts back then though since I viewed an older vhs things weren't quite as good as they could have been. The shorts and the humor inside them more than make up for it though.

Infested

A group of friends gather together at a remote summer home after the death of a friend. However, the reunion is short lived when killer flies infest both the house and their bodies one by one.

The characters are fairly uninteresting and I find it rather hard to care about them. Others lean more towards the annoying side at times, especially the Conspiracy Nut. Amy Jo Johnson is easily picked out as the main hero.

The special effects are pretty sub-par for even a lower budget horror film, and the script fairly bland. There really isn't a whole lot of good to say about the movie, and all in all there's better films to watch.

Peanuts, Part 2

Today I will be wrapping up the non holiday shorts for Peanuts. While the two of these may not be as iconic as A Charlie Brown Christmas, or It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown they are still just as enjoyable.


He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown.

After one too many antics upset the other kids, Charlie Brown decides it's about time Snoopy was sent back to the farm for a refresher course in obedience. Snoopy, however has other plans as he decides to prolong his one night stay with Peppermint Patty and fantasizes he's a World War 1 flying ace on vacation in France. The kids eventually miss Snoopy and Charlie Brown tries to bring Snoopy home with little success until the dog realizes he'd rather be at home.


Charlie Brown's All-Stars.

With the arrival of the new season, Manager and Pitcher Charlie Brown hopes to make up for all of his past failures. Of course things go terrible and all of his teammates quit in favor of swimming and skateboarding. But when the local hardware store decides to sponsor the crew, the idea of real league uniforms lures them back. However, the league rules won't allow Snoopy and the girls to play in the organized league.


The latter of the two shorts stands out as my favorite despite the lack of Peppermint Patty. The loyalty Charlie Brown shows towards his team despite their poor treatment of him is rather sentimental. I also quite enjoyed how Schroeder put the girls (and Snoopy) in their place when it's revealed why Charlie Brown did not accept the uniforms.

However, that is not to say that He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown isn't inferior since it certainly is able to hold it's own and is quite enjoyable as well.

Animorphs

Animorphs, based off a popular book series, follows five teens who are given the power to "morph" into animals. Together, they fight against the Yeerks, slug-like aliens who take over other species and are lead by the evil Visser Three.


The heroes include Jake, the leader, his cousin Rachel, Cassie an animal lover, Marco the practical joker and Tobias who is trapped in the form of a hawk. Today I sat and watched the three episodes I currently own of the series.

Between Friends:

This episode follows Rachel's concerns over her friend Melissa, whose father is being controlled by the Yeerks. Trouble ensues when she is caught in cat form eavesdropping on a meeting between the father and Visser Three.

The Message:

After Cassie and Tobias both see visions of another alien crashing to earth, the teens decide to seek it out to find out if the newcomer is friendly or not. What they find is a young Andalite warrior who they call Ax. However, as usual, Visser Three is close behind and intent on turning him into a mindless host for the Yeerks. A bit of slight humor introduced at the end as Ax learns to speak, though it's smile worthy at best.

The Reaction:

During a trip to the zoo, Cassie and Rachel save a young boy from the crocodile pen. However it comes with the side affect of Cassie being allergic to the newly acquired crocodile morph. This proves to have bad timing when the two girls go to be on a t.v show to recount their heroism and the allergy is expelled from Cassie. They also happen to find a popular t.v star who is being controlled and seek to try freeing him from the Yeerks grasp.


The show is pretty decent in the end. Some of the acting isn't exactly top notch, Visser Three comes off a tad comedic at times which could have been intentional. The special effects are rather good, at least during the morphing sequences. The Andalite aliens look a tad clunky but it can only be expected from blue horse sized aliens that...wield scorpion tails. Huh.

This review may be a tad hard to follow for those who are not familiar with the books, or who have not read them in a good deal of time like myself. Even then, the show does make some alterations such as morphing. While in the show they can go about it as they please, in the books they are required to wear skin tight clothing underneath otherwise when they change back it's in the nude.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Ninja Turtles, like several t.v shows eventually moved onto the big screen.

As we open, we get a news report from April O'Neill as she talks about the recent escalation in crime. Unlike the animated series, this April lacks her trademark yellow jumpsuit in favor of normal clothing. Well. Normal for the early 90's that is. Though she does don a raincoat in a loose reference to it. Much like the series though, she tends to drift towards the damsel in distress role.

We're quickly introduced to the four turtles and their mentor, Master Splinter. Who, all look pretty good visually even if it's actors in suits. An example of this being Splinter's talk with Raphael. Not to be outdone, the Shredder also looks quite good.

One thing that works in favor of the movie, is the fact that it does not rely on the world established in the t.v series. The series being something we will cover at a much later date.

The movie's plot is fairly simple, during a crime wave orchestrated by Shredder the turtles leader is captured and they must come to his rescue. Despite this, the movie is quite enjoyable with it's mix of humor aimed towards adults yet enough for the younger crowd.