Category Archives: Animated Shorts

Frozen Fever Review

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Frozen was definitely a fun film to watch. It really got extremely popular for a while there and I thought that it lived up to the hype. While a complete sequel would be nice to have someday, a 5-10 minute adventure is a nice sequel to have until then. There’s not a whole lot that you can do in that time, but the short does at least have a plot and while the animation isn’t quite as sharp as the film, you could picture this being a bonus scene in the special features or something like that.

It is Anna’s Birthday so Elsa wants to make the day go perfectly. She sets up a large party area with cake, ice statues, and a lot of festivities. Then she also hides presents all around town so Anna can find them as they sing a song. It’s all going well at first, but then Elsa gets a fever and begins creating tiny snowmen that want to wreck the party. Can these little guys be stopped or is the party doomed to fail?

Naturally, Anna cares more about Elsa’s health than celebrating too much. You can see where the special is going with this from the get go of course, but it’s not meant to be a deep plot anyway. It’s a fun little adventure and the only thing that will make you wince is that Olaf wrecked the Birthday cake by basically putting dirt on it. Not a cool move if you ask me, but at least the main characters had soup instead. Elsa did a good job of setting up the party and she’s still the best Frozen character. She’s also the only one to have powers though so I suppose that makes it a little easy for her. Her powers are so useful and great for just about any scenario. I do think that she should be immune to colds and fevers with those ice abilities of hers, but maybe she just hasn’t learned how to fully harness her abilities yet. That will come with time.

As mentioned earlier, the animation is good, but it’s not quite as sharp as the film. The main character that stands out is Elsa herself. She is sick in the film so she shouldn’t look like she’s at 100%, but even so, she just looked super tired right from the start. The dark rings under her eyes are really large as if she hasn’t slept in ages. It was mildly distracting and I don’t feel as if it was completely intentional, but maybe it was. The main song is fairly good. It’s no Let It Go of course, but few songs are. It works well within the context of the special.

Overall, there’s not a whole lot more to say about this one. If you liked the Frozen movie then I definitely recommend seeing this short since it is one of the only ways to see your favorite characters again. Even if you haven’t seen Frozen, you will probably still enjoy the short. There’s nothing to really dislike and it is not as if you will lose a lot of time watching it. A few minutes will hardly make a big difference in the grand scheme of things and in the end you will be glad that you got to watch it. For a little short, Disney put a good amount of budget behind this.

Overall 6/10

Polar Trappers Review

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It’s time for the final Disney special that I’ve seen so far. This one features the long awaited team up between Donald and Goofy. I can’t say that I’m a big fan of Goofy. His character gimmick of not being too smart has been done more successfully by other characters like Knuckles from Sonic Boom. That being said, he was a little better here than I had expected. Goofy tries to capture some fish alive so he can take them back somewhere while Donald wants to eat Penguins for Brunch. Think of it like Batman V Superman with the moral dilemmas of this. Goofy gets a pretty neat song about how he catches them and keeps them alive. It was pretty hype and you feel bad for Goofy since he had better motives than Donald here, but still gets soundly defeated by nature in the end.

As for Donald, he’s essentially the antagonist here. He’s always trying to stir up some trouble and make life a little dicey for the Penguins. Luckily, they were onto him and his plans were spoiled yet again. He should have just kept on eating the beans right? I do like beans quite a bit, but they are one of the few foods that I actually would get bored with so I can totally sympathize with Donald’s reluctance to eat them. I can’t sympathize with his plan to eat a Penguin though. As with the other two specials, the animation is nice and smooth here. It’s a neat coincidence that all three specials took place with a lot of ice and snow. I suppose if it works, it works right?

Overall, It was neat to see the two heroes team up. “Hero” is a bit of an ambitious term for these two characters though. It was good to see the Penguins put them in their place as they reminded the main characters of who was really in charge here. It’s not quite as good as Corn Chips, but I’d say that it beat Rescue Dog. Once again, the short is only a few minutes so you’ll be able to blast through it in no time. I can definitely see the appeal of a good short as well, it is easy to just plug it in and watch without making a long time commitment. It’s a good style for telling stories as long as there is no really big plot.

Overall 6/10

Corn Chips Review

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It’s time for the next Disney short. This one focused on good ole Donald Duck. He was too lazy to shovel the snow out of his front yard so he tricked Chip n Dale into doing it. They weren’t too thrilled about this and decided to steal his Popcorn. It quickly becomes a battle of wits and brawn as the two groups fight to take control of the popcorn. The loser will be left hungry and in the cold so the stakes are certainly very real. This special is a lot more entertaining than the Rescue Dog one because Donald is a more interesting main character. He’s someone you can easily root for even if his actions are morally dubious. Tricking Chip n Dale is not something that you can do lightly after all, but Donald is nothing if not charismatic.

Chip n Dale aren’t quite as likable and are more annoying than anything else. They didn’t start this whole charade so you can’t give them 100% of the blame, but it would certainly help a lot if they could talk a little more. The little animal mascots can be fun, but they needed more personality if you ask me. The snow in the background is always fun to have and Donald’s home looks like a pretty cozy place to be. The animation is smooth like you would expect and as the special is only about 5-8 minutes long, it ends in a flash. That means the pacing has to be very quick the whole time. We get some brief fight scenes between the three characters. In the end, one team does win so luckily there are no cop outs.

Overall, Corn Chips is an improvement over Rescue Dog. I was waiting for a special with Donald in the lead and I ended up getting it just how I would have wanted. The only way to make this better would be to have Donald and Mickey team up. I’m sure we’ll get that soon. I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t like this special as it is so short and I recommend it if you want a glimpse into Disney’s past. This should bring back memories for the older readers on the blog.

Overall 7/10

Rescue Dog Review

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Rescue Dog is an old Disney special/serial from a very long time ago. Pluto’s the main character and he is really put through the ringer in this one. He underestimates Disney’s version of Jerry and pays the price. As Pluto cannot talk, it plays out like a silent film. The little Penguin who humiliates Pluto during the entirety of the short is a pretty good character. He may have defeated Pluto, but he still decided to help him out when the stakes became lethal. That’s a good rival to have.

The animation is smooth and looks good as the segment goes on. It is still very impressive to consider the fact that the animation tops that of some 2016 films. Disney definitely knew how to draw. The icy backdrop makes for a good locale in the special. Typically I prefer a bustling city myself, but the arctic can work wonders as well. Just look at Super Android 13, the DBZ film. We get a lot of action in the film since Pluto and the Penguin….Seal really duke it out for a little while. They chase each other up and down trees and it’s all very intense, but there can only be one winner and we know who that is.

Overall, this special is under 10 minutes. It is shorter than an Arthur segment so there is no time to really dislike it. Likewise, it won’t win any awards from me either. It’s a decent way to spend a few minutes and there is nothing wrong with the plot. I think it would have been better with more enjoyable characters, but at least there were no bad ones. If you like Pluto then that will help the short quite a bit. I like Pluto more than Goofy, but I’d certainly prefer to see Donald or Mickey take the spotlight. Those characters are the ones who really put Disney on the map after all. I’ve got two more animated short reviews coming up so stay tuned!

Overall 6/10

Mewtwo vs Fox

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Have you ever heard of the phrase “Combo4Dayz?” Well, it is an apt description of what would happen here as Mewtwo would unleash his extremely powerful combos. Fox really wouldn’t know what hit him and he would be overwhelmed by Mewtwo’s sheer power. There are very few beings who can hope to match his talents and I’m afraid that Fox is not one of them. Mewtwo wins.

Alpha (Spiderman) vs Ness

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Alpha (Spiderman) has a decent amount of super powers at his disposal and even Captain America/Spiderman feared his abilities. That being said, Ness can absorb the brunt of Alpha’s energy attacks and counter with his own projectiles. Alpha has a decent amount of super strength and speed, but I haven’t seen anything that makes me think it’ll be enough to win this fight. Ness wins.

Batman Beyond (2014) Review

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Batman’s 75th Anniversary continues to bring us more animation that is not only cutting edge, but also DCAU styled. Strange Days was a pretty good animation and it even had a plot. This short is much….shorter, but we still get a basic plot and even a villain. There is a cliffhanger which can maybe be wrapped up in a future installment, but probably just in our minds!

The short starts out with Batman Beyond realizing that the Batcave has been infiltrated and Bruce (BATMAN) Wayne has already been dealt with. That’s when Batman appears, but he seems different somehow. Batman Beyond has no time to think about this as the fight begins. He’s on the losing end of the battle for a while and this is probably what fans would expect from a fight between the two. It’s definitely fun to see Batman beat him up, but technically Batman Beyond can definitely fight on par with him thanks to his super suit. Will Batman Beyond live through this experience!?

The ending is probably the best part of the short. We get some pretty epic music that all fans of the original TV show should recognize and we also notice that Batman Beyond is completely doomed. If Bruce Wayne doesn’t get into costume quickly…this will get ugly. The homages to the other versions of Batman were great and the best one would be the original or seeing the classic The Batman get in there.

The animation and color scheme was spot on from the original show. That’s what I want to see when I turn on my TV. 5 Star entertainment. The voice acting was superb as expected and a new season of this show would immediately be one of the best superhero shows around. I doubt that any of DC’s future shorts will be able to defeat this one unless they go ahead and make a Justice League version. (Which will probably happen at some point)

Overall, this was easily the best DC short so far. We got some incredible action and the villain was pretty impressive. Seeing the DCAU back in action is an inspiration to us all and it shows that DC still remembers how to put out an epic show. I highly recommend this short to all DC fans and really to fans of Marvel as well. Agents of Smash and Avengers Assemble could learn a few things from this short. Batman Beyond already looks more impressive than all of Marvel’s current superheroes in animation. Hopefully we get another animation soon!

Overall 9/10

Batman Strange Days Review

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So, it’s already been 75 years for Batman eh? Time definitely flies by! It’s good to see Bruce Timm bring back the classic Batman design from the 90’s and it’s still the best one. I miss Justice League and Batman TAS along with many fans. It’s a great homage and there’s even a plot that is fit into this short. Solomon Grundy has kidnapped a lady and he is working with Hugo Strange. After learning of this development, Batman decides to take them down.

Batman may just be a human, but he’s Batman! Solomon Grundy definitely doesn’t scare him and Batman came prepared. It’s rare to see him use Nerve Gas, but Batman did get prep time and that makes all the difference. I highly recommend checking this short out. It’s only a few minutes, but it manages to be 100x better than the current animations that are being done by DC’s rival. The animation really holds up and obviously the character designs are spot on. It amazes me how most current animations forget the basics. This is an excellent way to get started in the Batman mythology and longtime fans can also appreciate it.

Overall 8/10

Naruto The Genie and The Three Wishes Believe It! Review

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This is an animated short that came with the Lost Tower film. It’s an animated short so…it’s pretty short. Likewise, this review will be pretty short and while this was a pretty fun special, there wasn’t that much action. Could it still be a great short or will the lack of action hurt it in the end?

Naruto and friends find a lamp that contains a magical Genie in it while they are at a beach party. They won’t want to talk to the other teams and I really can’t blame them since the other teams can be pretty sad in comparison. They’re good characters, but not very good conversationalists. After Naruto wastes the first two wishes, all of the fighters decide that they need the final wish and they will do whatever is necessary to get it granted!

After watching such an intense film of Naruto, it was a little hard to take this one seriously. The Genie is pretty unlikable, but I do like the fact that he enjoys messing with Naruto and friends. Naruto and Sasuke also take Kakashi’s disappearance in stride and proceed to get the beef ready to be cooked. That last part makes more sense while you are watching the short.

Well, it was a pretty fun special. Naruto and friends all went after the lamp and this lead to some pretty intense scenes with the soundtrack and Sasuke dominating as per usual. The ending is pretty predictable, but still epic since one of the characters trolls everyone. I’m pretty sure that he did it intentionally and that just makes things even cooler. I’d recommend it to Naruto fans and to everyone else..you’ll still enjoy it, but you won’t get quite as much out of it. It would be an interesting way to start on the Naruto franchise though, so be my guest! This is easily one of my shortest reviews, but there really wasn’t much to say about the short. It was just way….too short!!!!!!

Overall 6/10

Lego Marvel Superheroes Maximum Overload Review

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Lego Marvel was such a success for the video game industry that they brought it back in time for an animated short. It is split up into 5 episodes and the plot is pretty similar to the game. Will the Heroes be able to unite and take the villains down or will they fall against the onslaught of powerful villains!?

Loki seems to be pretty bored and he wants to start wrecking some havok in the city. That’s when he gets a neat idea on how to make things tough on the heroes. He uses the Cosmic Snowballs (Well, that’s how they look anyway) to amp up the powers of the super villains. He uses it on Doctor Octopus and it’s up to Spider man! Along the way, Loki also amps up the Mandarin, Venom, and more.

Spiderman gets a pretty big role and he’s the main reason why Loki doesn’t end up causing major damage to the area. With his quick thinking and fast moving puns, Spiderman is able to completely overwhelm Doctor Octopus and Venom. They’re tough, but just not tough enough to take on Spiderman. Spiderman is portrayed pretty accurately in this special, but some people may wonder about the New Jersey reference. Lately Spiderman’s been taking a lot of shots at New Jersey in the animated universe. (Just check out Ultimate Spiderman) It’s all in good fun, but you do have to wonder why Spiderman always takes a shot at that state in particular.

Other heroes appear as well including Ironman. Ironman gets a decent sized role as well and it’s up to him to stop the Mandarin. He gets most of the epic facial expressions and is never fazed by all who stand in his way. The Falcon gets a cameo which will have to satisfy his fans for now. Thor and Hulk also arrive for battle as the Hulk takes on Abomination and Thor leads two of the other heroes to Loki for the ultimate battle.

It’s an entertaining short. Everyone is used for comedy, but the lines can be pretty good for some of the jokes. Spiderman is portrayed more accurately in the short than in his own show which is very ironic. It’s only around 15 minutes not counting the theme songs, so you’ll be done with the special in no time. Considering that the animation was lego related, it had some decent fights..for lego. I’d recommend this to big Marvel fans and people who just want to watch a happy video.

Overall 6/10