Adam Blake

Not my favorite cartoon. While the animation was stunning, the artistic direction beautiful, and initial premise promising, the story juggles too many side characters, plot lines, and thematic stylings to develop characters that I could care about. Characters: The characters, though going through their individual dynamic story-arcs, have incredibly rushed "come to Jesus" moments. Characters within seconds are deciding that they were missing a baby's love for a complete life, that their brother isn't a self-center single-minded pleb, or remorse for the wronging of a once detested-then accepted-then once again accepted nanny. The characters annoy me more than make me feel for them. I mean, I always thought Ricky Gervais was annoying, but that's besides the point. Are we going for a Coraline-Series-of-Unfortunate-Despicable-Wes-Anderson feel? Where ASOUE stuck to their motifs, grey and mute tones, and deadpan humor, this movie straddles the line of WANTING to be macabre yet staying warm. The temperature ends up tepid rather than hot nor cold. It's not dark enough to be dark, and it's not warm enough to be warm. To sum everything up, it was like watching a child pull through their parents old halloween costumes to try and make something inspiring. Too many characters to care about, too many plot points to keep track of, too many antagonists, to many protagonists, and I swear to GOD if I heard that girl sing that melody again!!! DOES SHE NOT KNOW ANY OTHER SONG?!?!? Just my opinions :). It was pretty though.