David Ballinger

While I'm still at a loss in understanding how the idea of doing Shakespeare with garden gnomes came about, the movie that was built around the concept is surprisingly entertaining. The jokes are funny, as are the Shakespeare references and sight gags that are peppered throughout. It's got some heavy Toy Story vibes and I feel like there's a bit of Shrek influence, as well.

I love this. It mixes the cuteness and humor of Disney-style animation with the excitement and action of anime. The character designs are awesome and the animation is beautiful. It's a great fight-your-fate story, apparently based on a Chinese fantasy novel published around the end of the 16th Century. I'm looking forward to the sequel, Jiang Ziya.

I made it through two and a half episodes before flipping it off. Movies and TV shows based on comic books are totally my jam, but this one didn't grab me at all. A lot of time is spent on character development, which is usually great. This show has a lot of characters, however, and I didn't find any of them particularly interesting or likeable. I kept waiting for something comic-booky to happen, but that element of the show was kept to a minimum for some reason. There just wasn't anything here that could grab or hold my attention.

If you read up on cuckoos before watching this, especially how their offspring are reared, the movie might make more sense. Just don't expect any kind of explanation at the end. The filmmakers drop lots of clues about what might be going on, but they stop short of actually piecing it all together and leave that task to you. For this reason in particular, I was left unsatisfied when the credits started to roll.

A sad story beautifully told. I recommend it to anyone who likes a healthy mix of joy and grief, and has an appreciation of the eccentric souls that this world doesn't deserve.