Tag Archives: disney

Articles, Weekly Updates

Weekly update: I work with Spider-Man, not for Spider-Man!

2 Comments

Greetings, Gothamites!

It’s a great time for TV shows and in coming weeks I’ll be discussing my thoughts on the latest seasons of Stranger Things, Queer Eye and Orange Is the New Black. I’ve watched OITNB for many years, but never reviewed it because I wanted it to be something I just enjoyed rather than analysed. However, with this season being the final one, I feel like I’d like to delve in to discuss how I feel about the end of the era. Continue reading Weekly update: I work with Spider-Man, not for Spider-Man! →

Articles, Weekly Updates

Weekly update: It was either you or a teapot

2 Comments

Greetings, Gothamites!

It has been a minute and a bit. I was recently struck down with a bout of BPPV (a form of vertigo) that meant I got to enjoy all of the motion sickness without the hassle of actually having to go anywhere. Continue reading Weekly update: It was either you or a teapot →

Articles, For the Love of Pop Culture

For the Love of Pop Culture: I know you …

7 Comments

Greetings, Gothamites!

It’s Thursday, Thursday, gotta- … actually, I don’t know what you’ve gotta do on a Thursday because no one has written a song about it that subsequently went viral. If you don’t get that reference, it’s probably for the best.  Continue reading For the Love of Pop Culture: I know you … →

Articles, For the Love of Pop Culture

For the Love of Pop Culture: Hot crustacean band

4 Comments

Greetings, Gothamites!

Last week I talked about trying to ensure I remember why I love the things I love by revisiting them. These included weekly visits to the worlds of Disney, DC Universe Animated Original Movies (DCUAOM) and b-grade horror.

For the DCUAOMs, I’ve decided to start them again chronologically. But for the b-grade horror movies and Disney films, it’s a carte blanche of whatever I feel like that week. 

I’m also reading and rereading through Stephen King’s bibliography in chronological order. I have recently reread Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Night Shift and The Stand, so I started up again from The Dead Zone.

So, this week, the run down looks like this:

 

DCUAOM – Superman: Doomsday

The DCUAOM creators recently redid The Death of Superman story in, well, The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen … and I’m *so* glad they did. This film is still a quick and fun romp through the story, even though it does lack a lot of the story’s depth, but I think it’s important to remember this was DC’s first foray into animated films. 

 

Disney – The Little Mermaid

One of my favourite Disney Princess movies. I love the soundtrack, the moments of hilarity and Ariel’s headstrong stubbornness to follow her heart. Even if she makes some questionable life choices. And Sebastian is one of the best animal sidekicks in Disney history, because he is cranky (crabby?) af but has a heart of gold. I think most of us can relate to that.

 

B-grade movie – Trailer Park Shark

This week was the first time I’ve watched this film so it got its own rated review in the weekly update. The basic gist of it is that there were sharks in a trailer park and I was living for it. 

 

Stephen King – The Dead Zone

I really enjoy the story about Johnny Smith, a man whose latent psychic abilities become activated by a tragic car accident. The character depth is unreal and the story never feels overlong. The story is both heartwarming and heart wrenching because Johnny has already lost so much after the car accident, but is still willing to put himself on the line to help others. 

 

That’s it from me for this week, Gothamites! What do you think? Have you seen any of the movies on this week’s For the Love of Pop Culture or read The Dead Zone? Share your thoughts in the comments or hit me up on Twitter.  

– CJ

Articles, Weekly Updates

Weekly update: Let me Trixie Mat-tell you what’s up

2 Comments

Greetings, Gothamites!

It’s been an interesting week as 2019 starts to settle in and make itself at home. It’s all but got its feet up on the coffee table at this point.

I’m still getting back into the groove of pop cultural goodness, but I have managed to immerse myself in some beauties and beasties for us to discuss. I’m also starting a new tactic to keep myself immersed in the things that bring me joy. 

I mentioned last week that I was trying to watch Under the Dome again — which is based on the novel by Stephen King — and was in the middle of the first season. I have finished the first season, but I want to percolate on it a little bit before I discuss it in detail. Mainly because this is my first impression of the adaptation upon finishing its first season:

Starting this week, I will be making the effort to ensure each week I watch one b-grade monster movie (think Sharknado and its ilk), watch or rewatch one DC universe animated original movie and rewatch one animated Disney movie. These are all things I love and I find that too often I’m so caught up in watching something new that I don’t make time for my golden oldies.

I’m also going through Stephen King’s bibliography and reading/rereading all of his novels/collections. For this one, I’m starting at The Dead Zone because last time I attempted this I had gone through Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Night Shift, and The Stand.

I’m counting on you guys to keep me on track! Anywho, without further ado, here are my thoughts on this week’s newbies.

 

Reign of the Supermen (2019)

Er. Mah. Gerd. Reign of the Supermen is a direct sequel to The Death of Superman (2018) and I LOVED IT.

The plot is strong and the characters are well portrayed. My absolute favourite moments come from the interactions between the Justice League members, particularly Green Lantern and Batman, and the meeting between Diana and Lois Lane.

Can we also talk about how great it is to have Nathan Fillion back as Green Lantern? Because it is super great. If Michael Rosenbaum were still voicing the Flash and Kevin Conroy was Batman, it would be a perfect cast. (No shade to the voice actors who portrayed Flash and Batman in this, but Conroy and Rosenbaum are in my animated Justice League dream team.)

As a whole, Reign of the Supermen is the perfect sequel to The Death of Superman and I recommend putting aside a few hours to watch them back to back. 

 

Ice Road Terror (2011)

Ice Road Terror is brought to viewers by Syfy, the same network that brought the world all of the Sharknado movies, Sharktopus, Arachnoquake, Frankenfish, Piranhaconda and so many other wonderfully ridiculous splatterfest monster movies. So it had pretty big footprints to fill. 

Ice Road Terror does a pretty good job of carrying the torch for the cheesy monster movie genre. There are special effects that are so bad, they’re hilarious. Terrifically tacky one-liners. 

I did think that Ice Road Terror missed a few opportunities for great bad dialogue and that it took itself a bit too seriously at times. But all in all it’s a fun b-grade monster movie and you get to yell at the characters for doing some really ridiculous things. 

 

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars: Season Three

Okay, no tea, no shade, but there are a lot of things that I really didn’t like about All Stars 3. So let’s get them out of the way first. 

The top two girls having to lip sync for their ‘legacy’ and then the winner chooses who gets eliminated from the bottom two/three? Girl, no. Not only does it make the judges seem basically redundant but, in this particular season, it was the straw that broke the leading competitor’s will to compete. I didn’t like it when it was introduced in All Stars 2 and I loathed it this season.

Whyyyy are queens brought back after they’ve been eliminated?! Don’t answer that. I know it’s to create drama and conflict, especially now that they can confront the queen that eliminated them and not just the demons that got them eliminated. But it doesn’t even do that for me. When I see the eliminated queens come marching back in, I find it slows down the whole process and we often don’t see the remaining queens’ best work. And *minor spoiler* here’s the thing about queens that are given a second chance. They never. even. win. They never even get close. 

Okay. So, besides those couple of grizzles, I did enjoy watching several of my favourite queens this season. Often when queens who had bad reputations in the past come back, they can use it in a way that redeems them and makes viewers see them in a new light (hey, Roxxxy, hey — no, no, PhiPhi, you stay over there). So I was a little sad to see one girl who was a bitter bitch in her season return still bitter about her season and with a whole new bag of bitter, because they’re just so creative. But regardless of that, I was really happy to see one of the two girls I was rooting for most won.

 

That last one was a doozy! Thanks for sticking around, Gothamites, and until next time:

– CJ