firefox335 Reviews

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)

An out and out Triumph

[10/10 · 21 April 2011]

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole represents everything that is right with a full length computer animated feature. The story touches on elements of trust, belief in one's self, loyalty and team work. The voice characterization is among the best you could hope for. From heavyweight veterans like Sam Neil, Geoffrey Rush, Helen Miran and Hugo Weaving, to relative newcomers like Jim Sturgess and Emily Barclay. David Wenham's performance makes "Digger" a standout character.

The animation is some of the most complex and realistic to date. The animators have created not merely a collection of sets filled with phony looking rubbery characters, but have created an entire world populated by owls whose feathers are as soft as their talons are sharp. But even more importantly they have created characters that we can care about.

Conspicuously and thankfully absent are any and all references to modern pop culture that Disney and Pixar are so fond of. Such references detract immensely from animated films and severely date them.

This film is an instant classic that's fun for the whole family. I daresay that those of us who have seen it would welcome a sequel or two.

The fact that this film was not even nominated for "Best Animated Film" is testament to the fact that the "Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences" can no longer hope to be taken seriously.

The Garfield Show (2008–2016)

New show has NONE of the charm of "Garfield & Friends"

[1/10 · 4 June 2010]

I couldn't agree more with timgneher's review. I'll add my 2 cents as well.

My daughter was watching this show and I sat down to give it a chance myself. Although the animation was very amateurish (in the vein of "Sid The Science Kid"), I decided to give it a try. I knew off the bat that since Lorenzo Music's death, any Garfield show wouldn't be "as good" as the Garfield of the late 80s/early 90s, but I thought it might be able to hold its own. I was sadly mistaken.

Even though I was thirteen when "Garfield & Friends" debuted, the show was so well written that you couldn't help but love it. The best part about it was the tongue-in-cheek jokes and pop culture references only the adults would get.

For example: "Hello, this is Garfield your doorman." - a reference to Garfield voice actor Lorenzo Music's roll on the 70s TV show "Rhoda".

Jon makes Garfield a bet that he can't go a whole day without watching TV. The TV comes to life and tries to entice Garfield to watch it. When Garfield unplugs the set, the TV counters with "Garfield, what are you doing? We had such fun together. Gaaarrrrfiieeelld... Gaaarrrrfiieeelld... ggiiivvveee mmeee yyooouuurrr aannnsswwweeerrr dddoooo" - a reference to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The list goes on. To me it was always as if the writers were saying to weary parents, "Yeah, we know you're up early with your kids on your day off, we feel your pain." The new show has none of that. Not one bit. It's geared solely to young elementary school aged children who don't notice just how much substance it lacks. The only similarity to the Garfield of old is that this show also stars a fat lasagna loving cat named Garfield. Jon and Odie are equally one-dimensional. I'm so thankful that Bill Waterson never let Calvin or Hobbs go though this kind of indignity (although, showing such respect for his own work maybe proof that he could have gone on for decades more.) Even Berke Breathed and Gary Larson's commercial success was always tempered with respect to their creation. It's clear that Jim Davis sees Garfield as his own personal ATM. He has that right of course, but it doesn't make it any less pitiful.

Mediocrity? Thy name is "The Garfield Show."