Freedom Fighters: The Ray Review

DC Comics might not be good at making live action movies but there animated movies are really good and on the flip side of that both there live action and animated shows are also really good heck one of those shows was good that it spawned an entire universe of shows some of much are online shows and here is my review of one such such Freedom Fighters: The Ray.

The set up for this show is Ray Terrill gains light based powers after Ray from Earth-X gets transported to his earth and dies and now it's up to Earth 1 Ray to become The Ray. Yeah there's no real plot to this series at all outside of that set up there's really nothing there in terms of plot which is a shame because this series could have been really good if it had a good story behind it.

Returning from other Arrowverse shows are Megalyn Echikunwoke as Mari McCabe , Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt , Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow , Melissa Benoist as Overgirl , Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon and Russell Tovey as Ray Terrill. Together they are joined by Jason Mitchell as John Trujillo Dilshad Vadsaria as Jenny Knight , Matthew Mercer as Black Arrow and Scott Whyte as Blitzkrieg (that's the Earth-X version of The Flash FYI).

Honestly the acting in the show was pretty good for the most part all of the arrowverse actors do deliver good performances but for some reason they chose to replace Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin not that the replacements are bad but if your doing a show set in an established universe it would make alot of sense to bring in the actors that viewers are used to seeing.

Honestly it's hard to say who did the animation it's either Warner Bros Animation or Blue Ribbon Content it is most likely Warner Bros tho and I do have to say that the animation for what is basically a web series is pretty good I didn't notice any animation errors and none of the characters limbs got any longer but you can tell that this was done on a budget and i'm guessing that the budget wasn't that high since the DC animated movies have better animation then this show does.

Now I did watch this show when the first season came out in December but the reason why I didn't do the review then is because there wasn't a story in those first six episodes which was a shame because I did like the show but watching it now that both seasons have been released I can say that it's not that good it's a prequel to the Crisis on Earth-X crossover but outside of The Ray and a few characters none of the characters that appeared in those episodes make an appearance.

To add to the confusion Cisco in those crossover episodes makes to reference to the fact that he knows The Ray nor knows of the existence of Earth-X (which for those who don't know is a world where the nazis won) so as a prequel it doesn't make any sense since the only thing it really explains is why and how Earth 1 Ray is there and how he got his powers and that's it.

The series does start of strong with the first two episodes mainly being set on Earth-X and basically setting up that it's a bad place to live (insert New Jersey joke here) and I do like that we get to spend some time with Earth 1 Ray before he suits up as The Ray since it does make us care for him alot more when he does get into a fight but tho Ray kinda feels like a side character in his own show often taking the backseat to either the villains on Earth-X or the other arrowverse characters it's something that could have been fixed if they wrote this series after the crossover episodes came out and not before.

I've seen alot of people complain about the fact that each episode is around five to eight minuets each and for me that's not really a problem since most cartoons these days are around eleven minuets per episode so having a show or in this case a series of shows be a bit shorter then that isn't an issue but at the same time I do see where they are coming from since if it's a good show like Vixen then of course you'd want the episodes to be longer but this is first and foremost a web series so chances of us getting twenty two minuet episodes aren't as likely.

Like I said before the first twp episodes of this show are set on Earth-X and there also one of the few action filled episodes and I have to say that the action in this show is pretty well done we get to see alot of The Ray's powers as well as other members from the Freedom Fighters and it's when those action scenes are on that I wish the episodes were longer because there one of the few good things about this show.

Overall this is not the best show that is based in the arrowverse heck it's not even the best animated show set in that world that honor to me goes to Vixen and what I found out is that like Vixen this show is getting both of it's two seasons edited together for a home video release this show does have a lot of flaws and I mean alot so it gets a 6 out of 10 from me.

Things I Want From The Rugrats Reboot

Just a few days ago it was announced that the greatest ever Nicktoon ever made was coming back for twenty six more episodes as well as a live action / CGI hybrid movie but i'm not going to focus on the movie in this post since honestly that alone could make up a future post but for this one I want to talk about some things that I want to see in the new series.

Bring Back The Original Cast

Honestly this should go without saying but if the reboot is to connect with older fans they should bring back the original voice cast since there the voices that those fans are more used to hearing and since Christine Cavanaugh is no longer with us why not have either Nancy Cartwright or Tara Strong play Chuckie since both are great voice actresses and both worked on the original series.

Just to add to this point imagine if the characters were all voiced by totally different people sure to younger fans the voices would sound fine since they didn't grow up with the original but if your like me and you did grow up with the original the sudden change in voices would be jarring and thus the show wouldn't be making a great first impression and I know that people are thinking that this is just a kids show which is true but it's also a show that alot of us grew up with and so with any new reboot there going to have adults watching regardless if it's aimed at them or not.

Update The Animation

I'm not knocking the animation in the old show with this but shows today have better animation then shows from the 90's sure there are shows from that time period that had great animation but the vast majority didn't so if you want the show to do well this reboot should have great looking animation.

If you look at shows like Steven Universe , Adventure Time , Ducktales , The Loud House and Spongebob one of the things that they have in common is the fact that the animation is always topnotch they also have something else in common but i'm going to mention that later on the animation in an animated show should be one of the things that is at the forefront of every production meeting and if the animation isn't that good then the fans will notice and they'll turn on this show pretty quick.

Great Writing

Now I have no idea if this is true or not since I havn't watched the series in a long time but I can't recall the writing for the show being that great I might be wrong and if I am please do feel free to let me know but due to how good the writing is in the shows I mentioned in my last point kids today have become used to shows with great writing and this is something that Rugrats will need if it wants to keep up.

Don't Be Shy To Not Be PC

There's no denying the fact that we are living in a time where everyone is offended by pretty much everything which is why I want this show to not be afraid to not be PC because weather this is something people want to believe or not but the world isn't PC there are people out there who will say racist things and while having a racist on the show would be a step to far I would want this show to show the world as it is not as people want it to be but do it in a way that the kid audience would understand.

Guys I know that my last point might upset people and if it does upset them then I apologize but that's what I personally would want to see in this reboot and so far it is of to a good start by having the original creators on board as executive producers but do we really need to see Dee Dee in live action.

Some Animated Films Coming Out Next Year

Guys there is no doubt that this year has so far been a big year for animated features but i'm not looking at films for the second half of the year oh no i'm going to so something that in a few months time a lot of people will be doing and that's looking ahead at some of the films that are going to be coming out next year so here we go.

Frozen 2

This sequel has been a few years in the making and it's finally due out sometime next year but the franchise hasn't been dormant by any means since we've had a short film and a christmas special and to add more hype to this film all of the original main actors are coming back.

 The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

Now unlike Frozen 2 we do actually have both a poster and some footage from this sequel and I have to say they've taken the story in a way that could only work for a lego movie and it's direction does have me slightly intrigued but at the same time i'm also worried because of the fact that both the first Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie were huge hits so there's a lot of pressure on this follow up to be as good if not better then those two.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

I make it no secret that i've not seen that much from this franchise i've seen the first film and a few episodes from the series and that's it but I know that this franchise does have a lot of fans and i'm sure they'll be happy to see this sequel.

Mavka, The Forest Song

Now then unlike the previous films featured in this post this film isn't being made in America it's being made in the Ukraine and I have to say that based of the little promotion that's been released for this film it does look like it will be a beautiful but of course looks can be deceiving but if your a fan of animation from other countries then this is one you might be interested in.

Minecraft

No you've not misread that there is in fact an animated Minecraft movie coming out next year and I just have to ask why is this getting a movie it has no story and no characters since it's world is something that you the player make that really doesn't lend it self to a feature film but if we get a trailer i'll check it out just to see if it looks good or not.

The Secret Life of Pets 2

This is a film that has had some controversy because of the fact that the lead actor for not only this film but the first film was Louis C.K. who admitted to inappropriate sexual conduct with five women and that meant that he had to be replaced by the funny Patton Oswalt so far tho no details in terms of what the plot will be have been revealed but it's been confirmed that pretty much all of the cast from the first film will be coming back and since I loved the first film so will I.

Toy Story 4

Again with this film I have to ask why not because it's based on a video game that has no story but because the story has already wrapped up and was wrapped up really well in the third film so what's the point in this fourth film since there's no story left to tell I will see it since i've seen every film in the franchise and all of the actors are coming back but I have no idea if it will be as good as the previous three.

Rating The DCEU Films From Worst To Best

DC fans there is something that we're just going to except and that's the fact that most films in the DCEU are bad but there are one or two good ones in there but they are few and far between and since i've seen every single entry into this franchise and own most on either DVD or Blu-ray (I refuse to buy Justice League until they release a more finished version) I thought that I will list the films from worst to best so let's get it on.

Justice League

Is this really shocking just everything about this film was handled very poorly this film should have been either two separate films or one two and a half hour film but due to the studio choosing to get more screenings rather then making a decent film we get a film that's just under two hours long and that means that alot of scenes get rushed and the film suffers because of it.

Suicide Squad

Honestly this was a tough choice since it was between this film and BVS and well when push came to shove the directors version of this film added nothing and fixed nothing and it's a waste of a cool concept and i'm sorry but this movie should have been rated 15 not 12a.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Yes I do think this movie is better then Suicide Squad get over it but unlike with that film were the directors cut added nothing to the film the directors cut of this film actually fixed some of the problems that people had my issue is that Batman and Superman only fight for around five minuets when the whole film or at least the final act should have been them fighting.

Man of Steel

Out of all the films that feature Superman this is the best one it has an interesting storyline and it does present these iconic characters in mostly new and interesting ways but I have to say that Superman of all people shouldn't be dark and brooding he's meant to represent hope and how can he do that when he doesn't even know how to smile.

Wonder Woman

If you've done your math then you'd known that this film was coming up and it's honestly the best DCEU film to date because it got everything spot on yes it has a dodgy third act and fairly bad CGI in that third act but it has more going for it then it does against it this is the film that gave people hope that the DCEU could spawn great films that hope was very quickly dashed when Justice League arrived but still for one that one shining moment there was hope and that's what this character is all about.

Young Justice Seasons 1 And 2 Review

DC and animation fans i've watched a lot of superhero shows some animated and some live action but one show I havn't watched is the very show that alot of people love well now that all changes because here is my review of Young Justice seasons 1 and 2.

The plot for this show was different for both seasons but the set up was largely the same a group of young heroes team up to take down bad guys which is a decent set up and it helps that the plot for both seasons were really good as well the plot for season 1 was the team have to find out who this group called The Light is and what there plan is whereas the plot for season 2 is the now expanded team have to stop an alien invasion. 

Both plots are pretty interesting but if push came to shove i'd have to say that the plot to season 1 was better because we got to see the team grow and learn to get along with each other and the season 2 plot just felt generic and offered nothing new in terms of story.

Starring as the main team we have Jesse McCartney as Dick Grayson , Cyborg as Aqualad / Black Lightning , Jason Spisak as Wally West , Nolan North as Superboy and Superman , Bruce Greenwood as Batman , Vanessa Marshall as Black Canary , Danica McKellar as M'gann M'orzz and Stephanie Lemelin as Artemis. I know I said that I was just listing the main team but I couldn't be bothered splitting it up into two so you instead you got a mixture of both but what doesn't change is my thoughts on the actors. 

The actors do a fairly solid job playing there characters I was truly shocked by how good Jesse McCartney was as Dick Grayson and I felt that he really was having a great time playing this character and having Nolan North play both Superman and Superboy was pure genius if you ask me since it adds to the fact that Superboy really is a clone the only actor i'm not to sure about is Bruce Greenwood as Batman he's not a bad choice but I couldn't help but feel that Kevin Conroy would have a been a better choice for this show.

The animation for the show was mostly split between MOI Animation and Lotto Animation I have no idea what other shows Lotto have worked on but MOI did the animation for Avatar: The Last Airbender so you know that the animation is going to be top notch and low and behold the animation in this show is really freaking good I really can't decide which show had the better animation this or Mystery Incorporated. 

All is not that good on the animation front tho as I did notice some cheats and by that I mean characters limbs suddenly get longer during fight scenes for me tho the worse case of that is in the season 1 finale where Aqualads arm grows a few more inch in the fight with the Justice League and I was like guys did you really have to do that you could have had him take a step closer to the button he was trying to press but nope he just gets a longer arm.

Honestly one of the most interesting things for me was the fact that between seasons 1 and 2 there was a five year leap it was interesting because I havn't seen shows take that much of a leap forward the biggest leap shows will make between seasons is six months but tho this one has a huge leap in time and I think that was done so they could more action figures made but it did also serve a story purpose as well.

We have to talk about the elephant in the room and that's the reason that this show got cancelled for you see the show's funding came from Mattel a toy company they financed the show so that toys would be made and thus they could sell the toys to make a profit that didn't work and thus due to low toy sales they ended the show so that they wouldn't loose money and that to me is understandable since they are a business and thus need to make money in order to survive my issue is why didn't they just produce a third season with a smaller budget that way the show could carry on and they wouldn't loose any money.

Incase there are people out there who want to watch the show but don't know how many episodes it has in total there are forty six episodes with twenty six going for the first season and a shorter twenty going to season 2 I do believe that season 3 will have twenty six episodes but weather or not the story will justify that many episodes remains to be seen.

If your like me and your a fan of the dc animated films or even if your an Avatar or Voltron fan then you'll be intrigued by this series because it has episodes directed by Jay Oliva who's made many animated films for DC as well as story boarded BVS , Man Of Steel , Ant-Man and Deadpool , Sam Liu who's made a freaking lot of animated films for DC as well as two for Marvel and Lauren Montgomery who directed the first adaptation of The Death Of Superman Superman: Doomsday as well as the 2009 Wonder Woman animated feature but is more known for working on both Avatar and it's sequel The Legend Of Korra and for being a producer on Netflix's Voltron series.

Now since this is a superhero show I have to talk about the action scenes in the show and to me they were the best freaking parts of the whole show since that was when the animation was at it's best plus we get to see the heroes use whatever powers they have so they are a treat for the eyes and they get better when they also help advance the storyline.

Overall YT is a good show but it's show that does have it's fair share of problems it is as good as people say it is but at the same time I don't think it's as good as it could have been and i'm hoping that the upcoming third season is the show at it's best and yes I do plan of reviewing the third season when it comes out next year but for these first two seasons i'll give them a combined score of 7.5 out of 10.

Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated Review

Well then scooby fans here is a review that i've been putting of for sometime and well a few days ago I thought that it was high time that I got round to it since i've not only not seen this series but it's not that alot of people love and I thought i'd see what all of the hype is about so here is my review of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

The plot to most Scooby shows is the same but in this series while they do keep the same plot they also add in a series long mystery which I think is a rather unique thing to do since no other Scooby-Doo! series before it has had a mystery last the whole length of the show but tho with that being said the pacing of some episodes is pretty off not all of them only a few but it's still something worth pointing out.

This series is also full of debuts and last appearances in terms of it's cast it's the first time that Matthew Lillard plays Shaggy in a Scooby-Doo! TV series and it's the last time that both Mindy Cohn and the late Casey Kasem play characters in the Scooby-Doo franchise. The rest of the main cast consists of the great Frank Welker and the crazy talent Grey Griffin and honestly all of the main cast are really good in this series and they have a lot of great scenes where they are allowed to add emotion to there characters.

Heck even the guest cast list is really cool Vivica Still Not A. Fox plays the towns local DJ Angel Dynamite , the always funny Patrick Warburton plays the towns Sheriff but the one actor who blows them all away just by how awesome he is is the great Mark Hamill because yeah he's in this series as Crybaby Clown and he's really freaking good in that role and I have to mention the fact they got the actress who played Velma in the two theatrical Scooby films Linda Cardellini to play a role in this show my issue is she's using the same voice she used for Velma in those two movies and that does get distracting.

As you might have worked out the animation for the show was done by Warner Bros. Animation and I think that out of all the shows that came out in 2010 this is easily the best one in terms of animation because my god do they really go all in for this show all of the characters have lots of great fluid movements , the backgrounds look detailed and the chase scenes have alot of energy to them but tho that being said this show uses alot of CGI and it's pretty bad and it stands out a mile.

What is really interesting is that both this show and Be Cool Scooby-Doo! are in fact tied for the most amount of episodes each one having 52 episodes each heck even the original show which for longer then both of these shows only has forty one episodes to me that's just freaking insane and it's something that I honestly didn't know about until I was doing some research for this review.

What makes this series standout a little bit more is the fact that all of the action either takes place in or centers around the town of Crystal Cove and again I can't think of any Scooby series where everything took place in one town and that helps give the show a unique edge since now we get to see more of the place that the team calls home.

Another thing that helps make this show standout is that Shaggy and Velma are dating for most of the first season that's a really interesting thing to do with those to characters and it's something that I wish i'd thought of doing since it's a great new idea to add into the franchise and it helps the characters seem more relatable.

This wouldn't be anything Scooby related if there wasn't a mystery and like I said at the start on this review this show has one series long mystery and in all honesty the mystery is well done it gives you just enough clues so you can keep up with what's going on but not so much that your getting ahead of the characters and that's what a great mystery should do and it's something that most Scooby-Doo shows and movies have done but none have had one last the entire length of a shows run.

The two things that Scooby-Doo as a franchise always was was a comedy and a mystery show and while this show does have a great mystery it also has drama as well as comedy and in my opinion the drama does get more focus rather then the comedy which isn't always a bad thing since drama does help with character development but when your a comedy show the focus should be more on the comedy rather then the drama.

The shows does have some great dramatic moments init tho with the first season finale having the gang split up due to various reasons and not just one episode but three episodes of season 2 dealing with them getting back together and working things out I don't think any show has had the gang split up and yet this show not only went there but they made it last a lot longer then perhaps any show would have done.

Overall this show isn't as good as people make it out to be but it is still a good show but I personally prefer Be Cool Scooby-Doo! but tho that being said this show does add some interesting new elements and there's plenty of references to previous shows to keep the fanbase happy so the show scores a 7 out of 10 from me. 

Summer Camp Island Review

Hello there any and all Cartoon Network fans back in 2017 a new pilot found it's way online and that pilot did get some people interested and well now the full series has come out which I will go into more detail about later btw and the show in question is Summer Camp Island so lets get it started.

The premise for the show is best friends Oscar and Hedgehog go to a summer camp only to find out that the came home to all things paranormal. I don't know if I made it clear in my summery of the shows main plot but this series is episodic so you can watch from any episode and pick up everything you need to know and I think that having an actual story for this show would have worked better since it could have allowed the characters to explore more of the island and it's lore.

Starring in this show are Elliott Smith as Oscar , Oona Laurence as Hedgehog , creator Julia Pott as Susie and Charlyne Yi as Alice. Of course there not the only cast members but since the cast list for this show is so freaking huge it made sense just to name a few actors and I have to say that overall the voice acting for the show is very the actors playing the leads have great chemistry and both can be funny and Julia does get alot of the best lines.

Like I said the actors mentioned are not the only actors but I had to split this up because oh my god they get some truly great actors to play supporting actors the show has the likes of Melanie Lynskey (Rose from Two and A Half Men) plays the sun with an Australian accent ,  Cedric the Entertainer plays the moon that's just freaking awesome , Alfred Molina plays Oscars dad and the ghost under Hedgehogs bed and finally Frodo Baggins himself plays a teenage yeti. Dude they brought in Frodo Baggins that to me is just pure awesome i'm not going to spoil how many episodes he's in but that makes it even more awesome.

Now i'm not 100% sure on this but the show was either animated in house by Cartoon Network Studios or it was done by Warner Bros Animation but either way the animation in the show I thought was pretty good altho my main issue from the pilot still remain which if you didn't know was the fact that the characters look a little creepy but tho since I got used to the designs it didn't bug me as much but tho they still have huge pupils for some strange reason.

I know that alot of people are going to find this hard to believe heck I myself did when I found this out but with this show Cartoon Network now has to shows that are created by women (all you need to do is looks at the above image to see what the other is) and I hope that more women creators get a chance to tell there stories be it on Cartoon Network or any other network and if they do get a chance I hope that they make a truly great show.

Speaking of Cartoon Network they did something which I thought was really interesting with this show because they aired not one or two new episodes but twenty episodes I really cannot think of any show where they did that and i'm trying to think if that's a good or bad thing since it could be seen as both but it now has me wondering how many episodes of this series are made and why they chose to air this many episodes in one sitting.

I really don't plan on finding a character that I really enjoy in every series I review but tho for me Susie pretty much owns this show she is so freaking funny most of the times when this show had me laughing it was because of her if this show gets canned then I can see Julia making it big either as a voice actor or in comedy and i'm not just saying that because she's a fellow Brit that is something I generally do believe.

Now I like a few people i've seen talking about this show was expecting it to be like Adventure Time which would make sense since Julia did work on that show however where others were put off by the fact it's not an Adventure Time type of show I was more intrigued since it then had me wondering what type of show I was going to be getting and the show that we have pretty much has it's own unique identity so much so that i cannot think of other shows to compare it to.

Overall this is a strange show but strange in a good way and yes there are some influences from The Peanuts that I noticed but not enough to make it into the actual review part of this post and the show is really funny so it gets a 7 out of 10.