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Reviews
Sarah & Duck (2013)
Charming, Edifying
Sarah and Duck is lovely! The animation is wacky and colorful, the characters (especially Sarah) are well-mannered and kind, and the story telling is fun. The sound effects are fun and musical. As an adult I am usually left with a sense of wonderment after each episode (how many kids shows do you actually ENJOY watching every minute?!), and I LOVE being able to offer such a good quality show to my little ones. I particularly like the portrayal of everyday life in England, Sarah is always walking to and fro shops, spends a lot of time in the garden, rain is a frequent occurrence, and other little regular-life details. Sarah is intelligent and creative. I LOVE that she plays a tuba. And her little sidekick, Duck, is silly and cute, but not obnoxiously so. I love this adorable show, especially when compared to other popular UK kids shows with downright nasty characters...anyway...I just can't say enough good things about this show. Wish there was more good quality out there like Sarah and Duck for our children!
Peppa Pig (2004)
Insulting, Bad Manners
Peppa Pig is a brat. She is a nasty big sister to her little brother George. Peppa shows off and brags and as a rule is ungrateful. She is disrespectful to her parents, especially her father. It doesn't help that he is portrayed as a bumbling oaf and Peppa's Mother constantly berates and belittles him.
I am not sure why any family would want this in their home; I certainly don't want anyone in our house emulating any of the characters in Peppa Pig.
Nothing with watching in this show, even the animation style is crude and unimaginative. Pass!!
PAW Patrol (2013)
Mind Numbing Nonsense to Sell Products
This isn't the WORST thing your kids could watch....but it's not going to do them any favors. This entire series is very obviously created to sell merchandise, and based on the 55 million lunchboxes, pillowcases and millions of little figures, one would assume it is achieving its goal.
This entire series teaches children nothing, and the characters that have zero personality use endless specialized mechanical tools to problem solve.
The adults are morons and the leader a boy who has no family. There is zero character development, cats are inexplicably demonized, and the pups (main characters) all have stupid phobias. The story lines are carbon copies of the last episodes and extremely uncreative and the animation style is boring and uninspired.
I really dislike this series and don't want to insult my toddlers intelligence with it. I've seen worse on tv, but this is far from the best. It's just empty filler, not educational, not fun, just boring. If you want your kids to request every single stupid piece of merchandise based on Paw Patrol then just show them this show.
Predestination (2014)
Entertaining, until ending in utter disappointment
This is one of those movies that you have great hopes for being deep, revealing, and compelling, but in the end turns out to be full of empty promises. Tree of Life and Prometheus are a few other recent titles where I felt the same "I've been ripped off!" feeling after.
To sum it all up (SPOILERS): every main character is not only the same person (Jane, John, the time-traveling agent), but also their own parents through hermaphrodite/self-reproduction. Yeah, messed up. Deep? Not really. Not only that, the agent is attempting to foil a murdering antagonist "Fizzle Bomber" from the past, who ALSO turns out to be himself.
So, recap: no less than all FIVE of the characters in this film are supposedly the same person. The purpose? Near as I can tell, simply to announce to the viewer: "HA, DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING, DID YA? GOT YOU!"
Not only that, there are multiple plot holes, for example: how does Jane fail to recognize herself, supposedly "as a male" John, but the only other noticeable change to be different clothes and shorter hair?! How did John fail to recollect that Jane's vanishing lover as himself? How did the agent fail to recognize that he was having a hand-to- hand brawl with HIMSELF as the Fizzle Bomber (must have been the ponytail, those are QUITE disguising)? And most of all: HOW CAN YOU HAVE SEX WITH YOURSELF TO PRODUCE YOURSELF, TO BE KIDNAPPED BY YOURSELF?!?! How? "Time travel, my dear, stupid, stupid viewer. Never mind that it's not plausible, just swallow it and admit you didn't see any of that coming." What is the point of it all? To prove PREDESTINATION (see what they did there?), of course. Do you believe it? Perhaps...if everyone is as ignorant and unobservant as this person, the main character(s).
I am extremely disappointed in this movie. I was expecting a time- traveling caper with a plot around circumventing a mastermind serial killer, not a plodding story about a self-impressed, embittered brat, who sees the world to blame for her entire predicament despite later resigning/sentencing herself/himself to it for no reason other than "it's for the best." I will admit the mysterious storytelling, at least in the beginning, was entertaining and exciting. The sets and costuming were perfect. Unfortunately, they don't make up for the great big: "PHOOEY ON YOU!!" to the viewer revealed in the end.
This is one of those movies you WILL think about about you see it, but only to anxiously spout "BUT IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!" And you WILL BE right, notwithstanding other reviewers who are for some reason perplexed enough to instead extol this film's supposed brilliance.
Apparently a two-inch puddle that seems "deep" can drown the most willing...