Steven Universe fans as you'll all no doubt know yesterday I had to make a choice and that choice was do I review Return To Zombie Island first or do I review this movie first. Well you all know what option I went with and I have since wished that I hadn't chosen Return To Zombie Island because that movie sucked badly so to say I was looking forward to seeing this movie would be like saying Avengers: Endgame made a little bit of money and so here is my review of Steven Universe: The Movie and yes there will be spoilers.
The plot of the movie is a few years have passed since the final episode of the show and Steven has gotten used to a life with no fighting but all of that changes when a new gem named Spinel threatens to destroy the world. To say that this plot is epic again would be an understatement one of the hardest things you can do when transferring a show to a movie is coming up with a plot that can only be done in a movie and this movie did just that I honestly feel that this story could only be told in a movie and it helps that the pacing was so freaking good the time just flew by for me whole watching this film and that's not something I get to say often.
Now it goes without saying that all of the actors from the show reprised their roles for this movie so i'm just not going to bring that up. So starring in the film is Zach Callison as Steven Universe , Estelle as Garnet , Charlyne Yi as Ruby , Erica Luttrell as Sapphire , Michaela Dietz as Amethyst , Deedee Magno Hall as Pearl , Sarah Stiles as Spinel , Tom Scharpling as Greg Universe , Grace Rolek as Connie Maheswaran , Matthew Moy as Lars Barriga , Kate Micucci as Sadie Miller , Shelby Rabara as Peridot , Jennifer Paz as Lapis Lazuli , Uzo Aduba as Bismuth , Patti LuPone as Yellow Diamond , Lisa Hannigan as Blue Diamond , Christine Ebersole as White Diamond , Toks Olagundoye as Nanefua Pizza , Aimee Mann as Opal and finally Ted Leo as Steg.
I honestly really did enjoy the acting in this film it's also one of the many things that the series got a lot of praise for as well. Which isn't hard to see why because all of the characters are so well acted and now it;s hard for anyone to imagine these characters being played by other actors. As for the new cast members those being Sarah Stiles and Ted Leo there really good as well I mean Ted isn't in the film much but Sarah is just a joy to watch in the film.
The animation for the film I assume was done by Cartoon Network Studios I say assume because there's no listed company anywhere on either the film's IMDB or the shows IMDB so this is pure guess work. As for what I thought about the animation it's more movie like and by that I mean when you see it it looks like the kind of animation you'd see in a movie which is honestly what you want you don't want the animation to be the exact same as it is in the show there needs to be some form of improvement.
IfF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM YET THEN DON'T GO ANY FURTHER BECAUSE THERE WILL BE SPOILERS GALORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The movie confirms something that has been hinted at for a long time and that's the fact that Steven's mother is pretty much a bad guy. If you think about it everything bad that's happened to Steven happend because of something that his mother did and once again that comes into play here as it turns out the villain of the film Spinel was Rose's I guess friend and Rose just left her on an asteroid for thousands of years.
You can pretty much see this movie without seeing an episode of the show because the opening few minuets is just them recapping the events of the show. Which for people who havn't seen the show is a good idea however the only people who are going to be seeing this film are fans of the show so it kind of makes no sense in doing in that recap , however it would have worked if they added in some stuff which would come into play during the movie but they don't so it comes across as pointless.
What I found really interesting is that very early on Pearl , Amethyst and Garnet got taken out of action really freaking early. That is such a good idea because it makes your villain seem more of a threat and it now forces Steven to really have to think about how to save the world instead of relaying solely on his friends and for some of them it does lead to alot of comedic scenes which are actually funny.
What was also interesting is the fact that the villain has the ability to turn people essentially to babies at least if she wanted to go that far. I just love that I guess power just because it opens the door for the characters to find out new things about themselves which does happen here with Steven realising that the fight isn't over and that he has to keep on fighting until it's over for good and so in that regard the film is also a tragedy due to the fact that at the start of the film Steven is happy with the fight being over.
I loved the character of Spinel even tho she was the villain of the film to me she was really freaking enjoyable. In my opinion she's like Harley Quinn if Harley had been made for Steven Universe but kept the exact same personality that's how insane she is and how much of a fun character she is and I just fell in love with her and I kind of want to see more from her be it in the comics or in a future series or film.
This is a comedy and with that in mind one would expect there to be some jokes and well let's just say the jokes in this movie are alot better then alot of the jokes in Return To Zombie Island. While there aren't any joke jokes and by that I mean there's no set up and punchline alot of the films humour comes from alot of the cuter character moments like for example during one of the scenes when Steven is trying to get Garnet to remember by putting her in danger Peridot pulls out a giant Pizza cutter which to me was funny and later on in that same scene Sapphire describes everything that's happening.
This film is a musical and I have to say that honest to god the songs in the film aren't that bad in fact some of them are really catchy. I honestly think that "Drift Away" which is the villain song for the movie is honestly really good and it fits the character of Spinel really well it starts of really playful and kind of upbeat but then as it goes on it takes on a life of it's own and it truly becomes a really good villain song and it was one of my favourite songs in the movie I also really liked "True Kinda Love" as well.
I say one of my favourites because this movie has alot of musical numbers in it which for a musical makes a lot of sense. However there are times where one song would finish and then less then a minuet later the next one is playing there was no time to catch your breath and it was getting so bad that I at times was saying "Oh My God We Just Had A Musical Number We Don't Need Another One" and I honestly feel that alot of the numbers in this film were there just to pad the time of the film we really didn't need the song that Sadie and the band sing at all but it's there for some reason but hey if Kate Micucci is in your cast you got to have her sing something.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall this movie is far better then Return To Zombie Island was and it serves as a great epilogue to the show but it's not a perfect film as i've already listed some of it's issues and so it gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me.