The Nut Job (2014)

Hi fellow animation fans, welcome to my review of The Nut Job.

Synopsis: In a city park, Surly the Squirrel (Will Arnett) has overstepped with his latest scheme, resulting in the destruction of the animal community's winter food supply. Now banished, Surly and his rat companion Buddy (Robert Tinkler) stumble upon a nut shop to plunder after a harrowing night on the streets.

Meanwhile, the valiant squirrel Andie (Katherine Heigl) and the flamboyant Grayson (Brendan Fraser) are tasked by Raccoon (Liam Neeson) to secure a new food source. Andie eventually encounters Surly and, out of necessity, agrees to assist in his heist for the benefit of the colony.

Yet, the nut shop is a facade for bank robbers, and Raccoon has his own schemes to maintain control. Amidst the ensuing chaos, Surly is confronted with challenges he never anticipated and uncovers the true reward to be cherished in this adventure.

The Good:

* The animation is really well done, it is colorful, bright and some of the woodland creatures even have facial features that slightly resemble their voice actors. The standout though is the backgrounds which perfectly show off the era in which the movie is set, the late 1950s.

* The voice acting was all pretty well done with Maya Rudolph as Precious sounding positively excited and bubbly, even Jeff Dunham, better known as a comedian, does really well. 

* Quite a few of the jokes will leave children giggling.

The Bad:

* The story is not brilliant and with two heists going on beside each other it's a little too easy for children to get lost and start asking what is happening, not a good thing when it is aimed towards children.

* Adults won't find many laughs, with many of the jokes aimed at kids and others being very juvenile potty humor.

* The action and story really slows down when they human mobsters are on screen.

* The story mostly revolves around Surly, but they made his selfishness really unlikeable, even though he comes to understand that this is not a good thing and makes a change at the end, it just doesn't feel like enough to redeem him.

                            IMDB 5.7/10                   Rotten Tomatoes 13%                    Me 6/10

Surly (Will Arnett) standing in front of his biggest mistake yet.

Harlock: Space Pirate (2013)

Hi fellow animation fans, welcome to my review of Harlock: Space Pirate.

Synopsis: In the future, humanity has mastered faster-than-light travel and established colonies on myriad planets. As human existence wanes and the universe's resources diminish, half a trillion humans embark on the arduous journey home. This sparks the Home Coming War, driven by the desire to repopulate Earth, until the Gaia Sanction, an authoritarian universal government, proclaims Earth sacred and off-limits to humans. Amidst this decaying cosmos, the space pirate Captain Harlock (Shun Oguri), commands the formidable flagship Arcadia on a mission shrouded in secrecy.  Yama (Haruma Miura), sibling to Fleet Commander Isora (Toshiyuki Morikawa), is tasked with infiltrating the Arcadia to unveil the pirate captain's enigmatic agenda.

The Good: 

* The animation is amazing, from the steampunk styled space craft to the vast vistas of space it looks almost perfect.

* The battle sequences are a whole lot of fun to watch, both colorful and spectacular.

* The voice acting across the board is pretty solid and well done.

* The design of the Arkadia (Harlock's ship) is amazing, with that large shiny skull at the front it just oozes menace, and the inside has a really nice blend of steampunk mixed with high end modern electronics.

The Bad:

* The script is all over the place especially near the end, it is possible it may have been edited for English audiences but there's a definite time skip where something has happened or even been mis-translated so the ending feels a bit garbled.

* The overall story is a little shallow compared to the source material.

                     IMDB 6.4/10            Rotten Tomatoes 54% (audience)        Me 6/10

The titular Captain Harlock (Shun Oguri).

Planes (2013)

Hi fellow animation fans, welcome to my review of Planes.

Synopsis: Dusty Crophopper (Dane Cook) is a crop duster who is bored with his lot in life, but he has a dream to compete in the Wings Around the Globe aerial race. So, with the aid of his friends Chug (Brad Garrett), Dottie (Teri Hatcher) and the gruff old fighter Skipper (Stacy Keach), Dusty wins his way into the race. But there are just 2 little problems the current champion Ripslinger does not want to lose to a crop duster and Dusty is just a little bit afraid of heights, will he be able to overcome these obstacles and finish the race or will he surprise us all and win?

The Good:

* The animation is bright, colorful and is bound to appeal to children.

* The message about trying hard and you can achieve anything is well done.

* The voice acting is all fairly solid.

The Bad:

* The plot feels like a lot of other Disney movies that preceded this making it extremely predictable.

* The comedy actors just weren't well used, even John Cleese as the stuffy British plane only really raised a smile.

* The villain of the story is just bland, his whole personality revolves around winning at any cost and he barely uses any imagination to achieve this goal.

* It doesn't really feel like a family movie, it feels more like it was designed for the under 10 crowd and even then, unless they really love planes, I feel many of them will get bored.

                          IMDB 5.7/10       Rotten Tomatoes 26%             Me 5/10          

Dusty and Ishani flying together.