The Hollow Review

Netflix is back at it with another animated series and I think it's fair to say that this one cought everyone of guard since the first trailer only came online a day or two ago so here is my review of the new Netflix series The Hollow.

The plot of this show is 3 teen strangers awaken in a dangerous world and try to make sense of what connection they have to each other as they attempt to make it out alive. Unlike other shows out there this one actually has a story which means it has a beginning , middle and end and I have to say that the story is pretty interesting and the series is really paced.

Starring in the show are Adrian Petriw , Connor Parnall and and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic star Ashleigh Ball. The acting in the show isn't really that good but the main cast do put in great performances what really shocked me tho was how many MLP actors do voices for the show so if your a fan of that show you'll have a good time spotting certain voice actors.

Until a few days ago there was pretty much nothing released for this show even know as i'm writing this there's only an IMDB page with only the actors that i've listed on there heck there's not even a Wikipedia page for the show so any information I can get for this show is mostly an educated guess but in this case not knowing is half of the fun.

The only production company I can find credited on IMDB is a company called Slap Happy Cartoons who have worked on a show called Nerds And Monsters and The Tom And Jerry Show but as far as I can tell those are the only things they've worked on prior to working on this show and I have to say that I really did enjoy the animation in this show is actually pretty good it reminded me alot of comic books but I will say that there are times when the animation isn't that great but they are few and far between.

I'm going to try and not spoil anything here but oh my gosh that ending it's something that I never saw coming and when it did happen the only thing I could say was "mind blown" that's how truly shocking it was and it's because of that ending that I want there to be a season two and it also makes me wonder how the heck they could do a season two.

I will say that for me the mystery aspect of the show kinda dragged on a little but that's more due to how long the series is but then again the mystery is also kinda weak in that it does give you clues here and there but not enough clues so you can't really work it out altho I did piece part of the mystery together but that's only because of something I cannot say because it's a spoiler and I don't want to spoil this series for you guys.

Another thing that I didn't really like about the series is the fact that it's two long for this kind of story and by that I mean this series is ten episodes long and I feel that this story would have been better served if it was say five episodes since with it being ten episodes it also made the mystery aspect suffer because they wouldn't have been able to reveal certain things right away.

This is where the review gets hard because of the fact there are things that I want to talk about but because of my own rules of only doing spoiler free reviews I can't but I can say that if you want to see a really interesting series then you should for sure check this series out but I can say the opening scene reminded me alot of the first Saw film so if you like those films then you'll be very happy indeed.

Overall like i've just said you should go and check this series out it's really freaking good but just be ready for a mystery that gets dragged out and for a series that really shouldn't be ten episodes long and I agree with the IMDB score and give this series an 8.5 out of 10.

Cloak & Dagger "Pilot" Review

Marvel fans the company that can do no wrong on the big screen hasn't had the same success on the small screen but will that all change with there latest show well let's find out with my review of the two part pilot episode of Cloak & Dagger.

The plot of these two episodes basically is Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson lead complicated lives which only get more complicated when they meet each other and discover they have superpowers. That's really all I got from this two hour premier which was what I was expecting since this is only the pilot episode but even so I do like the set up. Altho if there is one compliant that I have it's that the first episode does go a little two slow for my liking and while the second episode does go a little quicker it still feels slow.

Starring as the titular duo are Aubrey Joseph and ex Disney Channel star Olivia Holt and they are joined by Gloria Reuben as Adina Johnson , Andrea Roth as Melissa Bowen , J. D. Evermore as Connors , Miles Mussenden as Otis Johnson , Carl Lundstedt as Liam Walsh and Jaime Zevallos as Delgado.

One of the things that I like about the Marvel TV shows is that they are very well cast and I think the same thing is true here the actors playing Cloak & Dagger are so good in these two episodes and I hope that they are good in the rest of the series i'm not really going to comment on the rest of the cast just because we don't really see that much of them in these two episodes so it won't be right.

I've not seen any of the Cloak & Dagger comic books so I have no idea if the characters are true to there comic book counterparts but based of these two episodes the main characters are fairly likable which for me is a bad thing because these are characters you want to be cheering for so I hope that by the end of episode ten they do become likable people.

I should clear something up when I say Marvel TV what i'm referring two is there shows on mainstream network television and not there shows on Netflix so if you love those Netflix shows you can put your pitchforks down but what I said about the casting for Marvel TV shows being perfect is true for there Netflix shows as well.

What I wasn't expecting was the fact that this show isn't your typical superhero show there's no big CGI fight at the end of every episode instead what's at the heart of the show is it's two main leads and for me that's really refreshing and it helps set this show apart from all of the other superhero shows out there.

On the downside there doesn't seem to be a story in sight for this show which is a shame since it's ten episodes long so every episode needs to be about advancing the story and advancing the characters and for a show that's ten episodes long that's not a good thing maybe they'll get to the story in episode three but this review is being based of the first two episodes maybe i'm coming at this from the point of view of other superhero shows but only time will tell.

Overall it wasn't a bad two hour premier and the series so far is offering something fresh and different and I do believe that this could be the best live action Marvel show on network television but based of these two episodes there are some faults that need to be fixed so since this is just the pilot i'm not going to give it a rating but I might give this a full series review when all ten episodes have aired.

The Powerpuff Girls 2016 Review

Well then cartoon fans I bet that this is a review that you didn't see coming but it's one that i've been planning for a little while now and I finally decided to stop putting it of and get to it so here is my review of The Powerpuff Girls 2016.

The premise of the show is fairly simple the show follows the exploits of Bubbles , Blossom and Buttercup as they fight crime inbetween trying to have a normal childhood. This premise worked for the original show so i'm glad that they didn't change it however since this is reboot I think that they should have changed it in order to make it there own.

One of the many , many , many , many things that this show got criticized for was the fact that the main three actors from the original show weren't brought back to do the reboot and considering the stuff that the returning actors had to say i'd say that's a freaking blessing in disguise but tho the makers of this reboot should understand that for many people myself included the original three actors truly are those characters.

Starring as the girls in this reboot are Amanda Leighton , Kristen Li and Natalie Palamides but the show also has alot of actors returning from the original show such as Tom Kane , Tom Kenny , Jennifer Hale , Roger L. Jackson , Jeff Bennett , the late Chuck McCann and the always great Jim Cummings. 

I have to say that while it's great that they brought back alot of returning actors the three that they got to play the girls just don't live up to the original three voices the actors are good in the show but no matter who they got they were never going to live up to the voices of Cathy Cavadini , Tara Strong and E.G. Daily and the returning actors just sound bored half of the time.

Unlike the original show which was produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons this show was produced solely by Cartoon Network Studios and I think that the character designs do suffer because of that fact all of the characters just look the same not one of them stands out and that's not really a good thing in my eyes.

I will say tho that I thought the animation wasn't that bad it's not good by any stretch of the imagination but it's not as bad as people make it out to be either it just falls somewhere in the middle which for this show being just ok is fantastic.

There is something else that I have to talk about and that's the removal of the character Ms. Bellum I don't really see why she was removed from the show at all according to Nick Jennings who works on the show the reason is "We felt like Ms. Bellum wasn't quite indicative of the kind of messaging we wanted to be giving out at this time, so we sort of had her move on and that was a good choice I think on our part" to that I just have to wonder if he or the rest of the people working on this show even watched the original series Ms. Bellum was a strong female character and considering this whole franchise is about female empowerment taking her out of the show goes against all of that. 

Now i'm sure you can tell by the above picture what else I have to talk about and let me just say that I agree with what most people have said about this scene it is so inappropriate to have girls who are meant to be I think eight years old twerking and like I said before this goes against the whole female empowerment message that this franchise is built on so whoever came up with this idea because they used it twice should no longer be working on this show at all.

It's not all doom and gloom tho as I thought that both the intro and the theme song are actually pretty good the theme song has a nice catchy beat to it and the opening has some nice looking visuals but nothing is ever going to top the original theme song and opening narration (which for some dumb reason they cut for the TV version but is in the extended version) I would like to talk about the action but there's barely any to talk about and the same goes for the jokes.

Overall i'd say that this is a pretty bad show and a bad reboot that disrespects what came before it but if you of any little kids like this show then great but know that there are better shows out there that you could be watching for me this show scores a 4 out of 10. 

    

Dallas & Robo Review

Animation fans i'm willing to bet not alot of you know about this series well now your going to know a little bit more because here is my review of the new Youtube Red series Dallas & Robo so let's get it on mother truckers.

The plot for this series is Dallas and self-proclaimed warrior-poet Robo who must navigate their way around cannibal bikers rival space truckers and vending machine burritos as they try to make a buck in the seedy world of interplanetary big-rigging. I'll admit that the premise of this show is really fun and yes the show is fairly episodic I say fairly because episodes do reference what happened in past episodes so you do kinda have to see episode one to understand certain things in episode two and the pacing for the show is pretty good.

Starring in the show are it's producer and executive producer John Cena and 2 Broke Girls stars Kat Dennings as the titular Dallas & Robo. Also in the show are Stephen Root as Uncle Danny , Tim Blake Nelson as The Woodsman , Milana Vayntrub as Ellie and Dana Snyder as Fat Paul. For a youtube series the guest list is pretty freaking impressive with the likes of Jane Lynch , Clancy Brown , Ted Raimi and Bob Bergen all providing voices for this series.

The acting for the show is shockingly good i'm not shocked that John Cena is turning in a good performance but I was surprised by Kat Dennings and how utterly perfect she is for this role i'm not even joking she is pitch perfect as Dallas all of the other actors also turn in a pretty solid performance as well but there not as good as Kat Dennings and that's something I thought i'd never ever say but it's true here.

The animation for this series was done by ShadowMachine who have worked on shows like Robot Chicken , TripTank and Bojack Horseman and I have to say that the animation in this series is actually fairly solid for what is basically a web series I mean but that said if this was to air on TV then the animation wouldn't be that good since alot of the movements aren't as fluid as they could be and you can tell when they use CGI in this show.

What really bugged me about the promotion for the show was the fact that the WWE released the trailer on there air Youtube channel there is nothing wrestling related about this show at all there not even producing the show so why the heck is a wrestling channel promoting something that has nothing to do with them it makes zero sense to me what so ever.

This show isn't airing on any network so that might be why people havn't heard of this show instead it's airing on Youtube Red and is eight episodes long but I wish it could have had more episodes since it really is a good show that's really entertaining.

If you like to binge shows well then I have some good news for you because like I said this series is only eight episodes long and each episode is only twenty two minuets long so that means you can easily binge the entire series in a single day if you wanted to but just know there are better shows out there to binge.

I'll admit then when I saw the trailer for this show I thought it would be nothing more then a bunch of adult jokes and to some degree yeah that's what it is but at the same time those jokes are really freaking funny but I will say that if you hate pop culture jokes then chances are your going to hate this series because half of the jokes in this series are pop culture jokes and as you can mostly likely tell by the fact I said there's adult themed jokes this is a series.

Overall i'd say that if you can then you should check this show out it is pretty freaking funny but at the same time it does have a lot of issues that simply cannot be ignored so with all of that in mind the show scores a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

My Top 5 Best And Worst Animated Shows

Alot of animated shows come and go all the time some are good and some are bad and I like the rest of you have my own list of shows that I like and that I hate and now i'm going to list my top 5 best and worst animated shows.

Worst

5) The Little Mermaid

Honestly the worst thing that I can say about this series is that both it and it's stories are forgettable honestly i'm trying right now to remember any story from this show and I can't it's fine if you like these characters but if you want to remember what happens in any episode then your better of watching something else.

4) Wabbit

Yes I know this show is now called New Looney Tunes but it first aired under the name Wabbit and so that's what i;m going to call it. This show is really bad it dumbs down all of the characters especially Bugs and considering he's the main character that's not something you should be proud of at all.

3) Nate Is Late

This is show is a drag to sit through each episode is only twenty two minuets long but it feels so much longer then that i should know I watched an episode just to see what the show is about and I almost fell asleep half way through the first episode.

2) Spy Kids: Mission Critical

As well as being a really dumbed down version of the movies everything in this show just seems wrong the show doesn't know if it wants to be set in the same world as the movies or not and the characters look really freaking ugly quite frankly it wouldn't surprise me if Netflix cancelled this show.

1) The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle

I very recently reviewed this show so if you want to now more about why this show is bad that I suggest you check the review out but to summarize this show has ugly looking characters , bad writing and bad animation.

Best

5) Tiny Toon Adventures

This show is really freaking funny it really is a great use of the classic Looney Tunes characters and the show has some funny original characters overall i'd say any cartoon fan should check this show because it deserves alot more attention.

4) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1980's Series)

This show right here defined everything that we know and love about the turtles today everything from there personalities to the multi colored masks all came from this series it's a must watch for any fans of the ninja turtles.

3) Looney Tunes

This series of cartoon shorts brought the world such characters like Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny both of which are now household names and some of the shorts were directed by true animation legends everything about this series that was great back then is still great today yes some of the pop culture gags won't be as funny but some of the routines are legendary.

 2) Animaniacs

What more can i say about this show that hasn't already been said it has great animation , the voice acting in the show is freaking fantastic , the animation for a TV show is the best your going to get and oh my god the jokes this show fires so many jokes at you and nearly all of them land heck this show was so popular that it's spawned two spin off shows , a movie and an upcoming reboot.

1) Batman: The Animated Series

You all knew this show was going to make an appearance on this half of the list at some point I would go as far to say that it's the best superhero show ever made and that's freaking saying something while Animaniacs only spawned two spin off shows this one spawned an entire universe dubbed the Timmverse after producer Bruce Timm.  

Star Wars Forces of Destiny Review

We are in an age now where there's a new Star Wars movie out every year and that can be both good and bad but it's not what i'm going to talk about today tho i'm going to talk about something which features characters from all three trilogies and spin off films and that is Star Wars Forces Of Destiny.

There's no plot to this series it's an anthology show so each episode has a different set up with nothing that connects them and they all take place at a different point in time and while his can be a good thing since kids today are used to shows not having a story I myself would have liked it more if there was some sort of story or if each character had there own story going on but as it is it's a fine idea I guess.

Rather shockingly they did get a huge amount of the live action cast to reprise their roles and they also got actors from the animated shows to return as well so from the live action cast we have Felicity Jones in season 1 as Jyn Erso and she was played by Helen Sadler for season 2 , Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata , Daisy Ridley as Rey , Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker , Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico , Anthony Daniels as C3PO and John Boyega as Finn.

Returning from the animated shows are Vanessa Marshall as Hera Syndulla , Tiya Sircar as Sabine Wren , Catherine Taber as Padmé Amidala , Tom Kane as Yoda , Taylor Gray as Ezra and Gina Torres as Ketsu and they are joined by Olivia Hack as Qi'ra , Shelby Young as Leia Organa and Kiff VandenHeuvel as Han Solo. 

Yes i'm not fan casting this all of those actors did infact return for this show and this was me shortening the list of names and i will say that the returning actors do a pretty solid job playing there characters for me the issue lies more with the new actors Kiff doesn't sound like Harrison Ford at all and Olivia just straight up isn't doing an Emilia Clarke impression she's giving the character a different voice.

The show was animated by Lucasfilm Animation which means that since it was done in house it was made cheaply and yeah it shows it really freaking does everything about this shows animation just screams cheap to me this is freaking Star Wars you can afford to throw money into this project but since they chose not to.

I do like the character designs tho mostly because in terms of the characters seen in the live action films they do look like there live action counterparts but for some reason they gave Rey dimples and for some reason that really bugged me and all of the animated characters look really good in 2D as well which is good because unlike The Clone Wars and Rebels this show isn't done in CGI it's done in 2D.

Now if your wondering why you've not seen this show advertised on any Disney TV channels well that's because this is a web series that airs on Disney's Youtube page and I have to say it was a bold move on Disney's part to make this a web series rather then a full on TV series and I think that's why each episode is around two to three minuets in length.

Forces Of Destiny was announced back in April 2017 by Disney Consumer Products so this show is made to sell toys but it also has another goal in mind and this one is more admirable and that's to get more girls into Star Wars and while it's far two early to tell if it's been a success or not I do think that getting more girls into Star Wars is a good idea.

One of the things that really did start to bug me was the fact that for no reason what so ever who ever the female lead in that episode is would have a male do something that they could have done there's an episode set just after the battle of endor and Leia tells Han to go and get supplies from someone because the Ewoks are hungry and i'm sat here wondering why she can't do it herself.

Disney if you want the franchise to be equality then actually show equality don't show the guys doing things that the girls could do because that's not equality at all it's the opposite i'm not saying that the girls shouldn't do all the things that the male characters do but show that in this world both genders are equal and if that means a girl has to go and get supplies then so freaking be it.

Overall this is a decent show and while I do understand why some Star Wars fans don't like it I don't think it fully deserves all of the hate that it gets and if little girls get into Star Wars because of this show and these characters then that's only a good thing in my eyes and I give this series a 5 out of 10.

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle 2018 Review

Cartoon fans reboots are everywhere but one of the shows that for a while never got a reboot was Rocky and Bullwinkle well that now changes because Dreamworks has released a reboot but not on Netflix but on Amazon so here is my review of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle so let's get it on.

The plot of the show is Rocky and Bullwinkle get into situations and have to end up saving the day time and time again. What makes this series stand out is the fact that each story will last a number of episodes so the first story lets five episodes , the second lasts four episodes and the final story lasts three episodes and the story is the best thing about this show and that's not really saying much.

Replacing the late June Foray as Rocky and Natasha are the great Tara Strong as Rocky and Rachel Butera as Natasha Fatale but also in the show are Brad Norman as Bullwinkle J. Moose , Ben Diskin as Boris Badenov , Piotr Michael as Fearless Leader and Daran Norris as the Narrator. The show did have the hard task of replacing the legendary June Foray and i give them credit for doing just that.

That said however out of all the actors on the show Tara Strong is the only one who I feel is trying and giving a decent performance and she actually does a decent impression of June Foray Rachel Butera I feel would have better if she cast as someone else bu she's cast as another character who was played by June and she doesn't do a good impression.

This show was produced by Dreamworks Animation Television and the actual animation was done by DHX and while this is there first series not to air on Netflix the animation on the show is really freaking bad the original show didn't have good animation to begin with but that show barely had a budget this show is animated by a major hollywood studio so they have no excuse what so ever it doesn't have to be movie quality but it has to be at least watchable.

One of the things that struck me about the show was how ugly it looks people say most adult cartoons look ugly but so does this show in fact i'd say this show looks worse then most adult shows and that's really saying something I get that the makers of the show want to make it there own but this is also a kids show so it has to look appealing but nope everything in this show from the characters to the backgrounds look ugly.

I'm not gonna lie I didn't watch the original show nor did I watch the live action movie infact this is my only time being exposed to the franchise and even i can tell that these characters deserve better then this show.

Make no mistake about it this show is made for little kids but I can't really see little kids getting into or even liking this show and I can't even see fans of the original show liking this show so I have to ask who is show even for since the original fans are going to be put of by the either trailer or the idea of a reboot and the kids might be put of the by how ugly looking the show is.

In case your wondering this show has thirteen episodes but i'm only doing this review after watching the first five episodes since they tell one story it only makes sense to do that however after watching those five episodes I will not be watching the rest of the series that's how bad it is i'm going to publish this review and then get to work on purging this show from my brain forever.

Right now i'm sure your wondering if there's anything that even slightly redeems this show and that answer is yes because from what i've seen the show does have some funny jokes but there jokes that only a little kid would find funny and while that's not a bad thing since this show is based of an older property they have to understand that alot of adult fans will check it out as well so why not give them some jokes.

I will say that if you hate Teen Titans Go! get ready to hate this show even more because at least that show has alot more funny jokes and ideas which this show barely freaking has altho i will admit that the James Bond style opening sequence is pretty funny.

Overall this is a reboot that nobody asked for nor was it one that was even needed honestly your better of avoiding this reboot all together and watch something that's actually good and entertaining this show gets a 3 out of 10 from me.