Story Announcement #6

The Loud House is arguably one of Nickelodeon's best cartoons in years since Avatar: The Last Airbender. However, that doesn't mean it's perfect: Like I said back in this post...

http://asateriale.blogspot.com/2016/07/cartoon-network-vs-nickelodeon-part-1010.html

Lincoln doesn't have much of a personality, cares too much about comic books and video games, and has no special traits compared to his sisters. I also don't like how there's a fair amount of episodes that give Lincoln a bad ending, like 'The Loudest Yard', 'Two Boys and a Baby', 'The Sound of Silence', and 'Get the Message'. To make matters worse, there are even episodes in which Lincoln is consistently tortured and/or beaten up badly, like 'It's a Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House', 'One of the Boys', and 'Brawl in the Family'. I also find it really annoying that Lincoln is too much of a wimp to fight back. In the words of that beaver kid from Fantastic Mr. Fox, "Why is your brother such a wet sandwich?"

That's why my next story will be a Nicktoons version of Disney's Mulan, though there will be appearances of several Loud House characters. However, instead of having a female protagonist dress up as a boy, A Loud Legend, the name of my next story, will have a male character with feminine traits, because of growing up with many sisters. That's right! Lincoln Loud will take the place of Fa Mulan. Instead of having ten sisters, however, Lincoln will have seven sisters, so Lola and Lisa will not appear in the story. However, Lynn WILL appear in the story, but she'll appear as a horse, taking the place of Kahn, Mulan's horse in the original film. If Lynn acted like a dog in the episode 'Picture Perfect', then it would only make sense for her to be the horse. Not to mention that I can't think of that many Nicktoons characters that are horses.

Besides, who in their right mind would want to raise eleven children at the same time? I know it's a cartoon, but that's just insane!

Also, the remaining siblings will be aged by 4 years, being four years older than in the original series: Lincoln will be 15, Lori will be 21, Leni will be 20, Luna will be 19, Luan will be 18, Lucy will be 12, Lana will be 10, and Lily will be 5.

For Mushu, the hilarious pint-sized dragon, I used Craig, the snake from Sanjay and Craig, but made him into a serpent the size of a garter snake.

I know what some of you are thinking. "That show was a piece of garbage and was a ripoff of Adventure Time and Regular Show! It was nothing but potty humor!" I understand, but I couldn't think of many Nicktoons dragons, let alone reptiles, that are small enough to carry. For those who despise Sanjay and Craig, I promise I won't include as much potty humor or gross-out gags as in the show.

For Li Shang, I used Ronnie Anne Santiago, younger sister of Bobby Santiago, Lori's boyfriend. She's a bit of a Latino equivalent of Helga Pataki from Hey Arnold, though not as occurring or as deep as Helga. So far, she only appeared in three episodes.

Like Lincoln, Ronnie Anne in this story will also be aged to 15, because what adult men would want to listen to an 11-year-old female captain? Bobby will also be aged to 21.

For Cri-Kee, Mulan's lucky cricket, I used Flecko, a fly character who would appear on occasions in Rocko's Modern Life.

For the matchmaker at the beginning of the film, I used Ed Bighead, the grumpy old toad from Rocko's Modern Life. Lincoln will be applying for a job in this story.

For the gang of three, Ling, Chen-Po, and Yao, I cast Sid (from Hey Arnold) as Ling...

Heffer Wolfe (from Rocko's Modern Life) as Chen-Po...

And Harold Berman (another Hey Arnold character) as Yao. The Hey Arnold characters will also be older in this story, about 25 or so.

For the cranky Chi-Fu, I used Squidward Tentacles, SpongeBob's grumpy next-door neighbor, but made him human.

For the wise nameless Emperor, I used Really Really Big Man, from Rocko's Modern Life.

In this story, Really Really Big Man will be human, and will have a secret identity known as 'Kenneth Thompson', named after his voice actor, Tom Kenny.

And finally, for the threatening Shan-Yu, I used Oonski the Great, a beaver Viking from Breadwinners who wears a turtle shell as a helmet.

I chose him because he's the closest character I could find to Shan-Yu, and I thought it would be funny to use a character from a show that many people don't like as a villain. Instead of having a falcon like Shan-Yu, Oonski will have an anhinga, a long-necked predatory bird that lives near freshwater. The Pokemon Fearow is based on this species of bird. I would imagine it to be drawn in the style of The Wild Thornberrys.

I will begin posting A Loud Legend on March 4th.
However, I have a bit of a warning. A Loud Legend will be a bit more intense than my previous stories.
Just to let you know, I'll be on vacation in Florida from February 17th to March 3rd.

Top 10 Best Stop-Motion Animated Films

Well, I did Top 30 Best Computer Animated Films, and then I did Top 50 Best Traditional Animated Films. Now it's about time that I did the Top 10 Best Stop-Motion Animated Films! However, I have two rules: First, the movie has to be over an hour long. Second, the film had to be released in the US theatrically, with the exception of The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix, a Norwegian film. Without further ado, let's start the countdown!
10. ParaNornan (2012)
 
Laika's followup to Coraline, ParaNorman is about a boy named Norman, who has the ability to see and talk to ghosts. Everyone thinks that he's crazy, but when zombies start infesting the town, it's up to Norman to save everyone. ParaNorman is different from Coraline because it's more for a teen audience with a deep mature story, some sensual themes, and some strong swear words for a PG film. Regardless, ParaNorman got great reviews and got nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Pixar's feature that year, Brave.
9. Corpse Bride (2005)
 
In Tim Burton's followup to The Nightmare before Christmas, Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) is betrothed to the lovely Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson). However, after practicing his vows in the forest, Victor accidentally marries a corpse named Emily (Helena Bonham Carter) and gets sent to the colorful Land of the Dead, inhabited by zombies, skeletons, and creepy-crawlies. However, Barkis Bittern, who killed Emily years ago, hears about Victor's sudden disappearance, and plans to marry Victoria against her will. Corpse Bride did quite well at the box-office, got good reviews, and even got an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
8. Coraline (2009)

Coraline was Laika's first-ever feature film, and stars an 11-year-old girl named Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning), who moves into a new apartment with her parents. She finds a door that leads to an alternate universe, but only at night. This universe has copies of Coraline's parents, but these ones actually listen to her; Coraline's Other Mother cooks delicious food, while her Other Father is a genius inventor. The only difference is that in this universe, everyone has buttons for eyes, and if Coraline wants to stay, she has to have buttons sewn into her eye sockets. Now Coraline has to challenge Other Mother to an ultimate game in order to get her real parents back. Coraline got really good reviews when it premiered and got nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Pixar's Up.
7.  Shaun the Sheep: The Movie (2015)

Shaun the Sheep made his debut in the 1995 Wallace and Gromit short film "A Close Shave", in which Gromit is framed for sheep rustling and Wallace falls in love with an owner of a wool shop. Several years later, Shaun got his own TV series simply called 'Shaun the Sheep'. Wallace and Gromit don't appear, but instead, there are several new characters like Bitzer, a big-nosed sheepdog who looks a bit like Gromit, Shirely, a gluttonous sheep with tons of wool, Timmy, the baby of the flock, the unnamed Farmer, and three trouble-making pigs. The best way to describe the series is like Nickelodeon's Barnyard in stop-motion with better writing, better character designs, and more likable characters. There's also not much dialogue, not even from the human characters.

In Shaun the Sheep: The Movie, Shaun is tired of living on the farm and decides to go to the city. However, the Farmer gets lost in the city and suffers from amnesia. Now it's up to Shaun and his flock to find the Farmer and get his memory back. Like Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Shaun the Sheep is an enjoyable film, but suffers from a weak villain, this time in the form of an animal-control worker named Trumper. Like 'Curse of the Were-Rabbit', Shaun the Sheep: The Movie got excellent reviews, and even got nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Pixar's feature that year, Inside Out. Also, when 'Shaun' was released theatrically in the US, it did horribly at the box-office. Maybe because it had to compete against the yellow cash-cow known as Minions.

6. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

In our favorite man-and-dog duo's first feature-length adventure, Wallace and Gromit are exterminators paid to get rid of bunnies (but not kill them) so they won't eat everyone's vegetables. Wallace builds a machine that brain-washes bunnies so they will eat cheese instead of vegetables. However, Wallace accidentally swaps brains with a bunny and turns into a Were-Rabbit! Now, it's up to his dog Gromit to save the day. While the animation is definitely top-notch, the film may be confusing to those who aren't familiar with Wallace and Gromit, as well as a rather lame villain; Victor Quartermaine, who wants to marry Lady Tottington and kill all the rabbits in town, is as threatening as Edgar the butler from The Aristocats. Nether the less, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is an enjoyable film, got great reviews, and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

5. The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (1975)

Sorry that the poster I chose is in German. I don't think this film had an American release.

The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix is an enjoyable Norwegian film about an inventor named Theodore Rimspoke, who lives with his animal sidekicks Sonny Duckworth and Lambert in a workshop on top of a hill. When Theodore discovers that an invention of his, a race-car engine, is stolen by his former assistant, Rudoph Gore-Slimey, Theo has to build the ultimate race car and challenge Gore-Slimey in the Grand Prix. The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix became Norway's most successful film, and certain theaters shown it 28 years in a row! 'Pinchcliffe' is a forgotten gem that will appeal to both kids and adults and deserves a wider release.

4. The nightmare before Christmas (1993)

In Tim Burton's first animated feature, there lies a place where it's Halloween all the time, and the residents consist of monsters, ghosts, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night. After getting bored of the same routine year after year, Jack Skellington, the king of Halloween, accidentally stumbles into the North Pole and discovers Christmas. With the help of his friends, Jack decides to take over Christmas for the year, unaware of the disasters to come. The Nightmare before Christmas was a big success when it came out, got great reviews, and has become a beloved holiday classic ever since, for both Christmas and Halloween.

3. Chicken Run (2000)

 

Aardman's first feature film Chicken Run is about a British hen named Ginger (Julia Sawalha), who lives on a chicken farm owned by the wicked Mrs. Tweedy. Whenever the chickens stop laying eggs, Tweedy kills them. When a 'flying' rooster named Rocky (Mel Gibson) crash lands into the farm, Ginger eagerly asks Rocky how he flew so all the chickens can fly to escape Mrs. Tweedy. Meanwhile, Mrs. Tweedy is tired of making minuscule profits and wants to earn real money by baking the chickens into pies. Chicken Run is a gem with fluid animation, a compelling story, and likable and funny characters. I also think Melicia Tweedy is Aardman's most threatening villain to date. Chicken Run got really good reviews, with a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and grossed over 200 million dollars worldwide. The film was so successful that Aardman and DreamWorks worked together on two more features, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Flushed Away. However, both of them were flops in the US, so DreamWorks and Aardman abandoned one another for good after that.

2. Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
 
Kubo and the Two Strings, Laika's fourth feature film, is about a Japanese boy named Kubo, who wields a magic guitar that can control paper. When the ghosts of his aunts attack a local village, Kubo gets rescued by a stubborn snow monkey and finds himself in a cave on top of a snowy mountain. Now Kubo must embark on a quest with the monkey, along with a humanoid samurai beetle, to find magic gear to defeat his evil grandfather the Moon King. Kubo and the Two Strings is one of the rare opportunities for an animated film in which the story is just as beautiful as the animation. If Zootopoia or Moana don't win the 2016 Oscar for Best Animated Film, when 'Kubo' should win.
And the Number 1 stop-motion animated film of all time is...
1. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Based on the children's book by Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr. Fox tells the story of a fox (George Clooney) who steals chickens for a living. When his wife Felicity (Meryl Streep) gets pregnant with a cub, she tells Mr. Fox to get a new job. Twelve fox years later, the cub grew up to be a stubborn boy fox named Ash (Jason Schwartzman), and gets jealous when his talented cousin Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson, director Wes Anderson's brother) comes over. After convincing his lawyer Clive Badger (Bill Murray) to buy a tree his family can live in, Mr. Fox plans on doing one more heist between three farmers: Walt Boggis, Nate Bunce, and Franklin Bean. However, the heist puts all the animals in danger, and it's now up to Mr. Fox to make things right. Fantastic Mr. Fox truly is fantastic with top-notch animation, witty writing, and an all-star voice cast. In fact, I enjoy Fantastic Mr. Fox just a little more than Pixar's feature that year, Up.
Well, these were the Top 10 Best Stop-Motion Animated Films of All Time. On February 14th, I will post an announcement for another story!

Movie Review: Groundhog Day

Movie Review: Groundhog Day                                                                                                 2-2-17

Groundhog Day is about a grouchy news anchor named Phil Conners (Bill Murray). He is forced to go to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to host the annual Groundhog Day festival live for the network. Phil just wants to leave as soon as possible, but by the time he and his crew finished taping, it starts snowing, and the roads are blocked. Phil has to stay a night in Punxsutawney, but when he wakes up, it's Groundhog Day all over again. And again. And again. During this paradox, Phil tries to woo his assistant Rita (Andie MacDowell).
Groundhog Day is a timeless class that has aged extraordinarily well. The cinematography is flawless, the writing is genius, the actors are superb, and the music from George Fenton is memorable. I'm normally not a big Bill Murray fan, but I think his acting in this movie is perfect. My personal favorite scene with Murray is when 'I Got You Babe' plays on the radio for the hundredth time and Phil smashes the radio.

Another thing to appreciate about Groundhog Day is the amount of cameos in the film. We have Bill Murray's brother Brian Doyle Murray as the Groundhog Day representative...
Stephen Tolobowsky as Ned Ryerson...

And Robin Duke as Doris the waitress, just to name a few.

My favorite cameo in this movie is Hynden Walsch as Debbie. Walsch is better known as the voice of Starfire in Teen Titans and Bonnibell Bubblegum on Adventure Time.

That's Walsch to the left of the picture.
In conclusion, Groundhog Day is an enjoyable film you will want to watch every February 2nd.
Rating: The perfect rating of 5 stars
Plus 5 snowmen ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️