It’s time to look at a pretty well known film here. The Lion King is a movie that almost everyone has heard of and deservedly so. It’s a solid movie with good characters and it manages to be centered around animals while avoiding the animal violence angle pretty well. I’m definitely expecting a big remake of this film soon and we’ll see how that goes. It’ll be difficult to beat the original here.
The film starts off with Mufasa having a son. His name is Simba and he is destined to one day lead the Lions. Naturally, Mufasa’s brother Scar is not happy with this since it means that he will never get the throne. This inspires him to hatch a plan to destroy Mufasa once and for all while also tricking Simba into abandoning his village. The plan succeeds and Scar becomes king. Nothing can get in his way now or so he thinks. Simba grows up in the wild, but eventually heads back to his land to make things right. Can he stop Scar and his diabolical plans or is it all over?
Mufasa is definitely a fun character even if you know that he’s doomed from the start. He’s a very capable leader and one who clearly helped the lions quite a bit during his tenure. The sheer size of his kingdom is evidence of this. Everyone has a lot of food to eat and whenever there is trouble he is quick to resolve it. He’s basically the perfect leader. His bird sidekick also does a good job of always keeping an ear close to the ground. If anything I don’t think he gets enough respect as the bird does do his job well. He may not be too subtle at times, but he gets the job done.
Simba isn’t quite as good a lead. Of course he makes a lot of mistakes when he is a cub so we can’t be too harsh on him but even when he grows up he doesn’t always make the right calls. It takes a considerable amount of convincing to get him back into the village including a conversation with Mufasa. He was very close to just letting the rest of the lions die out so it’s hard to respect Simba as a leader. I just don’t think he has the same level of leadership that Mufasa had.
Nala is a solid heroine. She’s definitely a very proactive character who takes it upon herself to find some help for the village while the others simply become resigned to their fate. She was always a good fighter even in her youth so it makes sense that she would be pretty tough. Then we’ve got Scar who is effectively her polar opposite. He’s not all that tough in a fight but he’s all about being crafty in the background. He certainly knows how to manipulate everyone pretty well. Everyone leaves him alone so that leaves Scar free to really do whatever he wants tbh.
Timon and Pumbaa are more fun than I remember. Timon is your classic wisecracking character who always knows just what to say. He’s a good guy for Simba to have at his side. Pumbaa brings in the muscle and he is certainly a lot more heroic than Timon. They’re fun supporting characters who never get annoying and are pretty entertaining the whole time. They help round out the cast pretty well I’d say.
It’s definitely a pretty fast paced movie so you won’t get bored at any point during it. There really aren’t any big negatives to speak of. The scene of the main characters eating the insects can certainly be a little gross, but fortunately it’s a very quick moment and the film doesn’t choose to drag it out which is a good move. Solid films know when to breeze through a scene rather than extend it and it’s definitely a crucial skill to have.
The animation holds up really well here. The animation is as sharp as ever and the characters are very detailed. There was clearly a lot of care put into the movie and I suspect 20 years from now it’ll still look good. While the songs aren’t quite Frozen level they aren’t bad. I think they aren’t quite as good as the average Disney film, but so long as they are catchy and still solid then they’re good enough for me. As expected the writing is also pretty solid. Even if not all of the characters are super likable it’s not as if any of them are super annoying or unrealistic. Scar is nice and sarcastic without being super obvious for example.
Overall, The Lion King is definitely pretty good. I have to admit that I was a little worried that the film would step in some holes along the way, but it actually rode between the line of action and animal violence pretty well. I don’t remember the sequel being nearly as good, but maybe it’ll be better than I remember. If you haven’t seen the Lion King yet then I’d recommend changing that. it’s definitely a classic that really lives up to its reputation and that can be quite rare at times.
Overall 7/10
All right guys, it’s time to look at one of my most ambitious articles yet! In this one I rank all of the lyrical RWBY songs from worst to best. It took quite a long time to listen to them all and start the ranks but it was certainly worth it. Some songs were higher than I thought and others were lower. For example, I usually thought of Weiss’ volume 4 song to be her best one, but it actually ended up losing to two of her others. It’s always nice to listen to the classic tunes again to really appreciate where they go. Over 90% of the RWBY songs are excellent so even low scoring ones can be quite great. Naturally the volume 6 tunes are incomplete so we’ll have to work with what we have. That’s enough of an intro though, lets get to it!
47. Smile –
46. Boop –
45. All Our Days
44. BMBLB –
43. Wings –
42. Home –
41. Shine –
One thing you can see from this collection of songs is that most of them are quite emotional. Nothing wrong with a good emotional song of course. Most of these have fairly catchy beats and all, but they aren’t as blood pumping as the ones that are higher on the list. I love the more adrenaline based songs of RWBY so naturally these would be fairly low. Still, they are well written.
40. Cold –
39. Gold
38. Ignite –
37. Big Metal Shoe –
Ignite is one of the few songs where I thought it sounded a lot better before the full version was released. The rap section wasn’t all that great and some extra instruments were added which takes away from the impact of the song. Big Metal Show is just a bit too loud to fully enjoy which definitely ends up holding it back quite a bit.
36. Caffeine –
35. Neon –
34. Dream Come True –
33. All That Matters –
While Caffeine is a very action heavy song, it’s just not as soothing to listen to as most of the other tunes. Neon has a fairly catchy theme but the lyrics don’t really work for me. All That Matters was a nice emotional song. I think it succeeded more than some of the other similar style tunes we got.
32. Not Fall in Love With You –
31. Like Morning Follows Night –
30. Mirror Mirror Part 2 –
29. Forever Fall –
28. Red Like Roses –
27. I’m The One –
26. Rising –
25. I May Fall
24. Let’s Just Live –
Red Like Roses is definitely a classic song. As the first RWBY song to ever come out it is certainly pretty nostalgic. There aren’t a whole lot of lyrics here, but the beat is solid and really works well with the action scene. We got a good remix in volume 6 and I wouldn’t be surprised if we get another one towards the end of the series. It’s definitely a good example of a song being carried by a great beat. Rising was a good theme song. It may not have the same energy as some of the other openings, but it’s good. I May Fall for example did a good job of showing that the series was about to escalate the stakes quite a bit.
23. When It Falls –
22. Lusus Naturae
21. Nevermore –
20. Bad Luck Charm –
19. Indomitable-
18. This Time –
I was not all that impressed with Lusus Naturae at first. The song’s beginning is rather rocky, but from there it has one of the best beats in the series. Likewise, Nevermore is a really nice song, but just a bit rough around the edges compared to some of the other songs like Miracle. Bad Luck Charm makes for an epic song even if Qrow is whining for most of it. It worked really well for his fight scene. Indomitable is one of those songs we haven’t heard much from yet, but what we got was very nice. I think this song could certainly rise up the charts once we get the first version.
17. The Triumph –
16. I Burn –
15. Sacrifice –
14. The Path to Isolation –
13. This Life is Mine –
12. From Shadows Part 1
The Triumph was a nice return to form for RWBY as things finally started looking up for the heroes in volume 5. It’s a solid intro theme that is pretty uplifting. I Burn (clean version of course) was a great theme ofr Yang as it really highlights her fighting spirit and the brutal nature of her fighting style. Weiss has two songs in a row here with both of them being quite good. Her ongoing plot with the mirror in the songs is always fun and trying to resist her family lineage makes for great lyrics. Then From Shadows does a great job of effectively having two different songs merged into one. The beats go up and down but with rhyme and reason that keeps it on the higher end of the RWBY songs.
11. Red Like Roses Part 2
10. It’s My Turn –
9. Miracle –
8. Time to Say Goodbye –
7. All Things Must Die –
6. Die –
5. Lionized –
We’re getting close to the top now. Part 2 of Red Like Roses is a great sequel to the original. It’s very fast paced and fits any action scene. Miracle was a very impressive song from Volume 6 that helped start the volume on a high note. It’s really well written and the song just pops out at you. All Things Must Die is a great song for Raven/Cinder. It feels like a nice semi sequel to Die even if they might not be in direct connection. Die will always be an excellent song and Lionized really shows you Adam’s original goals. He may not have gone down the right path, but he did help the Faunus get a lot of respect through fear thanks to his actions.
4. Armed and Ready –
This is definitely a great song. It has a perfect blend of action themes while also being fairly emotional. It’s a shame that this wasn’t able to play during the recent Yang vs Adam fight as it would have been awesome to see even if maybe a little too obvious. Still, it’s an excellent song and it’s going to be tough to top that one for the Yang themes.
3. One Thing –
As Neo is one of the best characters in the show it makes sense that she would have an awesome theme to go along with that. We’ve only seen a glimpse of the song so far, but it’s already shaping up to be one of the all time greats. It does a good job of telling Neo’s story as she doesn’t talk in the series.
2. Divide –
This is a fairly close second place. Divide makes for a perfect villain theme with Salem basically gloating the whole time. It was perfectly timed for the credits and would work really well as a battle theme as well.
1. This Will Be The Day –
It probably comes as no surprise that this is the best RWBY song of them all. It’s basically perfect and really helped start the series on a high note by having this as the theme song. I do hope we get this for the final fight in the series because that would be awesome. I’ve heard this song hundreds of times and will certainly keep hearing it as it’s quite timeless.
Well, those are my RWBY song rankings. The series has definitely delivered with a ton of awesome songs. I don’t see any dethroning the number 1 song here, but anything’s possible. Now the wait for Volume 7 continues.
It’s time to look at the original version of A Star is Born. It’s definitely a title that I’m sure just about everyone is familiar with thanks to all of the remakes. Does it really hold up to such an illustrious legacy though? It’s not a bad film, but the second half does ultimately end up hurting the movie. It’s an ending that isn’t particularly great and one character is pretty annoying the whole time.
The film starts off with a girl named Esther expressing her desire to be an actress. Her family almost literally laughs her out of the house so her grandmother tells her to pursue her dreams. Esther heads on the train to Hollywood and gets ready to be famous. The problem is that there are a lot of other people who want to be famous and so she has hit a dead end. She meets a guy named Danny who has some connections, but instead of a part in the picture she is relegated to maid service. Still, this works out as she is noticed by washed up actor Norman who still has a lot of influence within the company. He’s happy to help her get famous so that they can get married, but when she begins to exceed his popularity can he handle the pressure?
One thing I’ve noticed about a lot of the old school male leads is that most of them seem to be really insecure. The instant that the heroine passes them they start getting really whiny and petty. Unfortunately Norman is no exception. He crashes her party and sulks for the majority of the movie. It’s easy to forget that they’re together at times. I’d give him credit for retiring and all, but he then starts to get into fights and tarnishes her reputation. He even gets thrown into the asylum for his antics. Sure, Norman’s over the hill, but he was famous for a while so you’d think that he could at least enjoy that part. Of course, how famous he ever was is probably debatable since nobody seems to even know the poor guy.
Esther is certainly a much better character. Her only weakness is that she gets emotional very quickly as she cries if you insult her. Fortunately I’d say that showbiz went well for her and has toughened her up by the end. She is able to put up a strong front and her talent was shown to be the real deal. She didn’t just go to Hollywood, she excelled while she was there. It’s also good that her granny was around to keep her on the right track as she almost made a big mistake at the end of the film. So, Esther was solid, but I think if she was less emotional then she would have been even better.
Meanwhile we have Danny, who was an interesting character. His voice is incredibly memorable so odds are that it is the part about him that you will remember the most. I’m not sure if it was intentionally humorous or not, but it did make him fun. His first scene was a bit rough though as he starts yelling as Esther for no reason. That scene probably could have been cut out since it makes absolutely no sense. He pretty much gets written out once Norman shows up though. Norman’s pr agent makes for an intense, albeit mean spirited character. He’s good at his job and he can even fight so you can’t ask for much more than that. Meanwhile the owner of the company is a nice enough guy. He kept trying to help Norman even when the actor made that difficult.
As for the ending, while it was unexpected I can’t say that it was good. If anything it just makes Norman look a whole lot worse than he was looking already. Rather than accept the new status quo and turn his act together he figures that it’s time for desperate measures. His answer is never the proper answer to anything. It’s just a way to escape a problem, not a way to solve one. I wonder if the newer films will switch that ending. I hope they do since it will definitely help the character be a little more redeemable.
As for the writing, it’s pretty solid for the most part. When the film attempts some humor scenes they tend to work well like Norman’s beer with a touch of soda gag. The romance isn’t handled quite as well as it’s hard to take Norman seriously since it seems like he typically likes flirting with everyone. It doesn’t make him look all that genuine but I suppose we can give him the benefit of the doubt. Esther just seems a little too trusting and quick to romance as well. Given that her goal is to be the best, I feel like romance would just be a big distraction for her. Ah well. The film’s pacing is pretty solid and although the film is fairly long it never drags on which is always important.
Overall, A Star is Born is a reasonable film. I wouldn’t call it amazing, but it was passable. The idea of someone walking into Hollywood and then rising to the top is a classic, but consistent premise. If executed well it makes for a nice, uplifting story. If it’s cashed in then it ends up being super cheesy and you wonder what happened to the other actors for them to all be surpassed in such a short amount of time. I’ll probably see the remakes soon and I get the feeling that they may have the edge this time, but if you haven’t seen the original it’s probably worth checking out. It is a classic after all.
Overall 5/10
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