Charles Caulkins (Kishou the Badger)

I actually couldn't finish A Silent Voice because it angered me more than moved me. The realism is a touch too real in pointing out how bullying can affect others and how it can drive them to suicide. Yes, the main character Shoya was no saint as a child, but no one seemed to get the idea that he should get a break after what he did to Shouko. Because nearly every character in this movie is a horrible person and they seem to only get by making others feel worse than them. For a movie that seeks to invoke warm and fuzzy feelings that move us to tears, A Silent Voice either takes too long getting there or expects us to cry in sympathy for every time the world subtly wants Shoya to commit suicide. This isn't a love story or a redemption story; it's a story to make you feel bad for ever treating others badly and does so by bludgeoning you with a hammer until it gets bored. Not when you beg and plead and insist that "yes, I get what you mean and I'm sorry". Some characters spend most of the time believing they are worthless because EVERYONE ELSE TELLS THEM THEY ARE, even when they try to stay optimistic. There are better ways to teach empathy and forgiveness and this movie is NOT it.

I honestly loved "Wabbit/New Looney Tunes" when it aired. It got me laughing every time from the puns to the nonsensical gags that somehow managed to keep squeezing itself in a small time frame. I can understand the grievances some people may have on the vastly different character designs, but this was set up to be a return to form in slapstick, rapid fire comedy from back in the original shorts. Each episode was about 5.5 minutes long, with the second playing right after the first in an 11 minute long block. The first season is exclusively about Bugs with some returning characters to serve as his antagonists (Yosemite Sam and Wile E. Coyote) while creating new ones that would flesh out the gallery of characters (Squeaks, Leslie, Calzone, ect.) with hints that there were other characters in the series too (Porky and Foghorn). Following that, the latter seasons got creative with the inclusion of Porky, Daffy, and so many other Looney Tunes. It was just as relevant to the times, too, with one episode having Sam obsess about getting a new smart phone after scratching his old one, and Bugs disguises himself as a clerk to get back at him for texting and driving into him. Or how in other Sam-centric episodes he tries to rob the old fashioned way (like on trains or banks) and has to learn the hard, comedic slapstick way that things aren't so simple in the 21st century anymore. From the corny yet appropriate leitmotifs to character dynamics (who'd ever think to see Sylvester working with Pete Puma and Claude so constantly when not trying to catch Tweety, for example?), there's a lot of meta humor and heart, with even some music numbers thrown in later episodes. The New Looney Tunes is something I wholeheartedly recommend to at least watch and give a chance. It's not as deep as The Looney Tunes Show, and probably doesn't look as good as the HBO iteration now, but it is a fine legacy nonetheless.