Jennifer Phan

I don't really understand the people who say the movie has no emotion. Seriously, the main couple were very romantic, and I could feel how much of a struggle it was for them to be apart for 5 years so their son could grow up in relative normalcy with his father. And the scene where his mother reunites with him is one of the best in the film. The last part of the movie on the main bad guy's private island was the most action packed part of the film, but others including the car chase scene earlier in the movie were still very good.

Honestly, usually parodies/references to the time period feel dated (like the social media references we get in media nowadays will feel SO dated in 10-20 years), but in House of Mouse, it's charming. Probably because they actually tried, combined with the lovable Disney characters and humor. I had never watched any of the Mickey Mouse Works cartoons, so everything felt fresh and new. But even for people who might not enjoy those cartoon sections, you can skip them and still enjoy the jokes and story of the House of Mouse segments. It surprised me too how they will bring back recurring gags and story beats in episodes like Donald's various attempts to outshine Mickey, Gustav the goose eating all the food in the kitchen, Pete trying to steal the House of Mouse from Mickey and gang, etcetera.

The first and best movie in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Should have been the ONLY movie.

A great mini series for both those who know the original story Chunhyangga, and those who don't know. For those who don't know, it is a cute tale of love and romance. For those who do know the original Korean folktale, it is a creative twist on it. Aside from the interesting premise, that being "what if Lee Mong-ryong fell in love with the servant girl Hyang-dan instead of Chun-hyang?", it has many new and entertaining scenarios. In the original story, Chunhyang and Mongryong fall in love because he sees her on a swing, and falls in love with her beauty. Meanwhile, in this series, Mongryong is chased after by the policemen as he attempts to help the chivalrous robbers (stealing from the greedy rich to give to the poor). The place he hides into happens to be where Hyangdan is. Hyangdan covers for Mongryong and they fall in love. So the way that Hyangdan and Mongryong meet is much more exciting and believable as to how they fall in love (one is a hero, the other helps that hero), and they don't marry right after their first meeting like Chunhyang and Mongryong. The series also has added complications for Hyangdan because of her status as a maid. She has to pretend to set up her mistress Chunhyang with Mongryong, and later, she has to get married herself to cover up her love for Mongryong. Not to mention, the addition of the evil governor Byeon Hakdo, who in the original story, lusts afters Chunhyang. In this series, he still does, but Hyangdan is forced to take her place by Chunhyang's mother Wolmae. Of course, everything ends happily for Hyangdan & Mongryong. I prefer the Legend of Hyang Dan over the original Chunhyangga because it adds new and better scenarios to the original story, while also keeping the themes of the original story: love between a lower class woman and upper class man (Hyangdan is even worse off than Chunhyang because she is just a servant, and not even a courtesan's daughter who is educated to entertain and converse with men), the selfish governor being punished by Mongryong, and the common people's wish for truth and human freedom (the chivalrous robbers).

This is a great movie. From the first ten minutes alone, you're already hooked on it. You meet Sayoko, and you get an instant feel for her character: somewhat odd (that is, she doesn't fit other's standards of her of what she should be like for her age), but nonetheless caring (considering how many cats she has in her home). She, like the people she rents cats to later on in the movie, is lonely, with her grandmother deceased, and one of her goals this year to "get married". We see her walking, pulling her cart of cats, to advertise her "rent-a-cat" business. She gets mixed reactions from those who see her, like a mother and her young daughter, who simply watch her without a word, and two schoolboys who call her a "weird cat lady" and run away. Then we meet her first client of the movie, an old lady whose husband has died, and so has the cat that belonged to them. We can see the old lady has an immediate liking to the ginger 14 yr old tabby that Sayoko introduces, which makes sense because it reminds her of her old cat. It was very sad when she died, and her son came by to her apartment, and saw all of the sweets she made for him in her freezer (she made them because he liked them when he was younger; when he left, she kept on making them for herself). Other customers in the movie include a man who has been away from his wife/daughter for years, and feels lonely. A lady who works at a rent-a-car business and has the tendency to put things in classes (A,B,C). I found myself relating to her the most. I especially liked when her and Sayoko ate donuts together. "That hole in your heart, don't try eating it, fill it up instead." This movie not only has drama, but also comedy. For example, Sayoko meets up with a man who she used to know from middle school. They would hang out in the nurse's office together. He visited her home and had beer with her, and they talked. Later, she would find out he was a burglar. This is a strange scenario, from meeting a former classmate, to finding out he is a burglar. Sayoko is a kind hearted woman, who never charges more than 1,000 yen for her customers to rent a cat. She gives various examples of side jobs she has, including stock broker, fortune teller, and tv jingle composer.

Rilakkuma and Kaoru is one of my all time favorite series on Netflix. A perfect blend of comedy and cute silliness, with melancholy and serious topics. So of course I was very excited to watch Rilakkuma's Theme Park Adventure. While it leans less on the heavy side, it still brings you gorgeous stop motion animation and great voice acting and music. Rilakkuma and Kaoru was written by Naoko Ogigami, who is a great film director and able to blend the serious and comedic together seamlessly. The difference in tone of Rilakkuma's Theme Park Adventure is because the series was written by Takashi Sumita and Makoto Ueda, not Ogigami. While Theme Park Adventure is less serious than Rilakkuma and Kaoru, it still deals with such topics as loss (the theme park is one that will be shutting down soon), time moving forward, the clash between parental expectations and what children want to be when they grow up, etc. So I would recommend Rilakkuma and Kaoru for adult viewers, though kids would still enjoy it, certain messages would be lost to them. And Theme Park Adventure is more suited for children, although adults can still watch it and enjoy the cute storytelling and gorgeous animation. (I am sort of upset we didn't get any Hayate and Kaoru moments though!!! Come on, writers!!! When will we get Hayate x Kaoru??? Do we have to wait for a third season???? A fourth???)

I just did not like Billie and Theodora. They had none of the charm that Bill and Ted had in the first two movies. And even in this movie, as middle aged dads, they're more engaging at age fifty than their 24 year old daughters. I like that this movie brought back the first movie's idea of bringing various historical figures out of their time periods. The guitar and piano duet with Mozart and Hendrix was a great call back to Beethoven in the first movie with the electric piano. The subplot of Bill and Ted meeting their future selves, and eventually their old and dying selves was done pretty well. The self to self talk was just the right amount of sentimental but also absurd. And the reunion with Death was so sweet! Dennis the robot also endeared himself at the end of the movie.

Great game, EXCEPT for those dang sneak "mini-games". where you have to sneak behind a character and not get caught by them. I messed up too many times to count, especially for Pete in Agrabah.

1 star for Rosaline, 1 star for Dario, and 1 star for Rosaline's father. Now onto the actual review! This movie...what can I say about it? So, I love a good retelling of stories, especially filling in gaps that were present in the original, or telling the perspective of a character we don't know much about, but this movie...well, it only succeeds 50% of the time. After the first half of the movie when Rosaline gets over Romeo and the movie goes full throttle with making fun of the original Romeo and Juliet, it's much more enjoyable. Therein lies the problem. The character of Rosaline in the original Romeo and Juliet wasn't much of a character at all - she was a plot device for Romeo to be at the ball and meet Juliet. In the original, Romeo simply had an unrequited crush on Rosaline, and Rosaline was never in a relationship with him. In fact, she made a vow to shun men and become a nun. If writers actually delved into this aspect of her character, i.e. rejecting romance, there would be a great story. I think that what many writers who attempt to tell "Rosaline's" story don't understand is that she doesn't need romance. In every adaptation about Rosaline, she is in a relationship, whether with Count Paris, Benvolio Montague, etc. Which is a shame, because I think an adaptation with a Rosaline who rejects romance would be great. The movie tries to address some of these aspects, like Rosaline is rebellious, likes horseback riding/sports, wants to go on adventures around the world, etc. Similar to her original character, she does not fit the mold of a conventional woman who marries/has kids. But instead of going all in with this, the movie gives her a romantic interest in the form of Dario. While I quite liked his character in the movie, it's still a shame that they needed to give her a love interest at all, when the original Rosaline wholly rejected romance and relationships. More about the characters...while I praise the actors for Rosaline, Dario, and Rosaline's father, most of the characters in the movie are not as great. I don't like that they made Paris a stereotype of a gay man (and Rosaline's best friend aka the gay best friend trope) i.e. dresses flamboyantly, speaks flamboyantly, etc. Like previously mentioned, after Rosaline gets over Romeo, she is a much more enjoyable character. I don't like the way the movie pitted Rosaline against Juliet for Romeo in the first half. And finally, the best parts of the movie are when it pokes fun at the original Romeo and Juliet. Even in Shakespeare's own time, there were many who considered Romeo and Juliet to not be his best work, and it isn't. I enjoyed the movie poking fun at Romeo and Juliet's "deaths", i.e. how flawed Juliet's plan was to fake her death, and then Romeo for actually dying (in the movie, this is subverted by Dario telling him Juliet is not actually dead). And the after credits scene, which shows that Romeo and Juliet are on a boat to Cyprus after faking their deaths, to "spend the rest of their lives together", shows us that their relationship probably won't last.

It was a 3/5 movie but for the Sanderson sisters, it's 4/5. It did what it accomplished, i.e. brought back the nostalgia of the first movie. People can argue it leans too heavily on the nostalgia, and I don't entirely disagree, but people also seem to forget these are 300+ year old witches, who were resurrected for literally only one day in the first movie, and one day in this movie. Obviously, they do the same things. The songs were amazing, just like the first movie. While I don't think the main character, Cassie, and her friends, are nearly as interesting as Max, Binx, and Danni were (sorry Allison), they were okay. And I liked that they brought back Billy. TLDR, if you're only watching the movie for the Sanderson sisters, you'll like it. The actresses are still amazing singers; the hate for them is undeserved, especially rude comments about their age, or the actress for Sarah Sanderson having a "horse face". [spoilers] As for the new characters like Gilbert the magic shop owner, I take issue with his character, if only because his backstory makes no sense. Sarah bewitched all of the children on Halloween, so how was Gilbert free and able to see the sisters? And for bringing back children-eating witches, he should not have gotten off as lightly as he did. Cassie and her friends can't prove that he brought back evil witches, but they could still get him arrested for child endangerment or something. I also thought redeeming the Sandersons, or more like just Winifred, was odd, considering, again, they are witches who murder/eat children's souls. But, considering the actresses may not be able to film a third movie or following movies, it was an okay ending for them. I can believe Winifred cares about her sisters, despite how they may annoy her (which is just most sibling relationships). [spoilers]