[usr 5]

This week, I’ll be reviewing the Japanese stop-motion series “Pui Pui Molcar.” It’s a series of shorts, each one a little over 2 minutes, revolving around sentient guinea pig cars as they get into wacky adventures and help each other out of problems.

The show arrived on Netflix at the end of March, but originally aired on Japan’s TV Tokyo channel in the mornings beginning in January of this year. I watched the show on Bandai Namco’s official YouTube channel, where each episode was uploaded the day it premiered on TV, and remained available for a week. I’ve also seen other people re-upload the episodes after Bandai Namco took theirs down. After finishing its first season recently, the show has 12 episodes, so it’s an easy binge; you can watch the whole series in less than half an hour.

I did a little research on how this show was created, and discovered that it took a year and a half to produce the first season! It was created by director/animator Tomoki Misato when he was thinking about the annoyances that come with driving, and wondered what it’d be like if instead of cars, people drove around in guinea pigs. This is what sparked Pui Pui Molcar, which shows the misadventures of guinea pig cars including getting stuck in traffic jams, helping a friend overcome their fear of the car wash, and competing in a race.

Each Molcar has their own unique personality. The fuzzy cast includes tan-and-white Potato, who’s always willing to help out his friends, the tomboyish Teddy, who isn’t afraid of anything (not even a zombie apocalypse!), and white Shiromo, who’s always landing himself in sticky situations. There’s also a bunch of special characters that show up, like emergency services, a DJ, and even a time machine a la Back to the Future.

“Pui Pui Molcar” has a unique look to it, because the Molcars themselves are needle-felted. That’s something I haven’t seen a lot of in stop-motion shows, and I am 100% here for it. It’s cute and fun, and whenever I watch the show I just wanna reach out and touch the fuzzy guinea pig cars. The backgrounds for their crazy adventures are colorful and fun-looking, and it adds a lighthearted and playful feel.

As for the non-cavy characters in the show, like the drivers, they’re represented by tiny plastic figures when they’re not the main focus of the scene. When the camera zooms into the Molcars to show what the drivers are thinking or doing, they’re represented by real people (one of which is Misato’s sister), but they’re filmed in stop-motion to blend in with the rest of the show, which I absolutely love. It’s different, and it works perfectly.

There’s no dialogue, with the show consisting almost entirely of guinea pig squeaks and chortles (which are from a real guinea pig, not an actor) as opposed to talking. Although their eyes are black beads, the Molcars are super expressive. They show on their faces how they’re feeling, and will even cry and sweat to show emotion. This helps add to the easy-to-follow stories, and makes them even more engaging.

“Pui Pui Molcar” is visually appealing, and a short, fun watch. Not to mention it’s super creative; combining cars and guinea pigs sounds strange, but this show makes it work really well. There are so many fun adventures and stories to see. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes cute things, or has a guinea pig – I’ve heard stories of people’s guinea pigs squeaking at the TV when this show is on. I hope there’s a season 2!

[usr 3]

After only a week of release worldwide, Godzilla vs. Kong is already roaring its way into the box office overseas, having grossed $70.3 million in China during its opening weekend. The monster film released in the United States on Wednesday, and according to Deadline had a record-breaking opening day for the pandemic, grossing $9.6 million on its premiere date.

A follow-up to both Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) and Kong: Skull Island (2017), Godzilla vs. Kong takes place five years after the events of the former, with Kong living in a dome on Skull Island that’s monitored by Monarch, a secret scientific government agency established to contain dangerous monsters. Meanwhile, Godzilla unexpectedly attacks an Apex Cybernetics facility in Pensacola, Florida. The two monsters clash when the evil tech corporation formulates a plan to fight against Godzilla, which involves traveling to Hollow Earth with Kong to retrieve an energy source that will save the world from Godzilla’s wrath.

So, how was it? Well…it definitely lives up to its title, because you get to see Godzilla and King Kong beat each other up. Other than that, there’s not much else going on. The human characters don’t get enough development, and their conflicts aren’t really that interesting. They just kinda threw in a couple of new characters along with the preexisting ones to expand the Monsterverse. I will say that I loved Jia (Kaylee Hottle), a deaf orphan native living on Skull Island who – initially unbeknownst to her adoptive mother, scientist Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) – can communicate with Kong through sign language, and has a special bond with the giant gorilla that ends up being crucial to the story. The scenes with Jia and Kong were really sweet, and brought a sense of humanity to the monster, showing us that Kong just wants to go home (which he does at the end – Monarch moves Kong to an observation post in Hollow Earth, where he has free reign).

What about the two monsters the film is titled for? They’re really what the hype is all about, and it’s absolutely worth the excitement. The shots of them brawling it out underwater and smashing into skyscrapers are a lot of fun. I loved the aesthetic at the climax of the film, when they were in Hong Kong. The neon, futuristic look to the city set against the night sky was the excellent backdrop for this long-anticipated monster battle, creating lighting that was fun to look at, as well a color palette that went well against the monsters as they shot laser beams at each other and stomped around the city. This epic brawl was like the classic scene that comes to mind when I think of monster movies or kaiju: just a couple of monsters beating each other up in a big city.

My final thoughts on Godzilla vs. Kong? If you’re looking for an action-packed monster movie and think it sounds cool to watch King Kong and Godzilla beat each other up, then this movie is for you. Just a disclaimer, I watched the movie at home on HBO Max, which may have affected my viewing experience. Because it’s really about the action rather than human conflict, I’m willing to bet that my experience might’ve been different if I’d watched the movie on the big screen in a theater, as opposed to the TV in my living room.

[usr 4]

For this Film Review Friday, I’m reviewing the second season of the HBO Max original Close Enough.

I’ll start with a little background about the show. Close Enough is an adult animated sitcom created by J.G. Quintel (who’s best known for creating the Cartoon Network series Regular Show). It follows Josh and Emily, a couple in their early thirties, who are living in an apartment in Los Angeles with their six-year-old daughter Candice, along with their divorced friends Alex and Bridgette. Much like Regular Show, all of the episodes revolve around a small problem that eventually turns into a surreal, sci-fi-style adventure of large proportions. Like Josh joining a gym so he can be strong enough to pick up Candice, but it actually turns out to be an addictive cult.

The series premiered on HBO Max in July 2020, and got renewed for a second season less than a month later, which arrived on the platform on February 25, 2021. Two weeks prior, the series got renewed for a third season. It’s been met with mostly positive reviews by users on Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, and IGN.

While it has a lot in common with Regular Show, Close Enough is for a slightly older target audience, skewing more towards Millennials than kids and teens as we watch the couple and their best friends/roommates transition from their 20s to their 30s. Like that awkward time period between spontaneous college life and settling down to start a family or career.

With that being said, let’s dive into season 2. With the last season setting up the cast of characters and getting us used to their personalities and quirks, I found this new season to be a little different. There were episodes focusing on the other characters in the show besides Josh and Emily, which I liked a lot. I got to see more of the other occupants of the duplex, including their landlord Pearle and her adopted son Randy.

One of my favorite episodes from Season 2 was “Cyber Matrix,” one of the two segments of episode 3. This segment focused on Alex’s refusal to get a smartphone, as he believed that it would become addictive. Sure enough, the quirky, washed-up community college professor ends up switching to a smartphone after his old phone breaks (with the selling point for him being that it has a calculator feature). When the virtual assistant ends up seducing Alex into a smartphone addiction so intense he’s literally connected to the phone, it’s up to Josh to connect to him via VR headset and bring him back to reality.

Josh and Emily’s daughter got her own episode as well, titled “Sauceface.” This was also one of my favorite episodes of the season, featuring the six-year-old starting an illegal hot sauce ring after the school cafeteria bans it so she and her friend can buy a drone.

I’m really liking Close Enough so far, and find it to be a super creative, funny show about growing up and becoming an adult. As someone who grew up watching Regular Show, this show almost feels like a spin-off (Quintel even confirmed that it takes place in the same universe), and it’s almost like this is what Regular Show grew up to become. It has that same witty, quick humor, and I love how it turns mundane, everyday situations into wild fantasy situations. I’m excited to see where this show goes in the future!

[usr 3.5]

This film review for Armageddon is one that contains a lot of love for the characters, even if the film isn’t perfect. Armageddon is by no means a perfect film, but it is a fun film. Following the first few minutes of the film, we immediately get treated to action. Everything we want to know about the characters is also laid out for us. Regardless of its plot, the film is still a save the world from destruction film. Those types of films were common at the time, but they were still enjoyable.

All of the characters in the film have their own quirky personalities, and we can see them play out. Then, we are introduced to the main plot of the film, and it follows with the characters agreeing to go on a mission they may not return from. We can see on screen the clear sense of brotherhood amongst all of the characters. After finding out that the world is about to end, the crew agree to help their boss in saving it. Every character knows that they may not make it out alive, and they are by no means great people. Regardless, however, they decide to go through with it all to protect what they can.

In Conclusion For This Film Review of Armageddon

The film follows a path of ups and downs showing that nothing can ever truly go someone’s way. Therefore it is natural that some characters see their end, even if it was early on. It doesn’t matter how long they were present, however, because we could learn exactly what they are like even early on in the film. This film review for Armageddon is just meant to illustrate that point, and it’s up to everyone else to watch it. Then you will see how they managed to portray the characters as people who could exist.

For more information on the film, click here.

[usr 3.9]

Fast and Furious Presents Hobbs and Shaw is a relatively fast paced action movie that I enjoyed watching. That’s not to say that there aren’t any clichés or over-the-top action scenes, but that was what I already expected to see in the film. If you want to see a good pure action movie, then this is definitely one to watch. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham work together very well within the film and it can be seen as the film unfolds. There are moments here and there where the action is in a lull, so to speak. These moments are the ones that are filled with most of the clichés in the film. The action set pieces on the other hand are way over-the-top, but unique in that I haven’t seen set pieces like that in most other films. It is most certainly a Fast and Furious film in that sense; so if you enjoy that series then that style of action is nothing new to you and you will definitely enjoy this film. If you don’t enjoy the series, but want to still see an action movie, this one is worth the watch, but be mindful of the fact that the film is rather long at 2 hours and 17 minutes. This is a film that is worth a watch if you have the time even if you haven’t seen any Fast and Furious films, and if that type of movie isn’t for you then don’t watch it.