Tag Archives: Short Review

The Little Drummer Boy Book II Review

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It’s time to look at the relatively obscure sequel to the original Drummer Boy. At the very least I had not heard of this film before. The first Drummer Boy was certainly a classic so this one had a lot to live up to. It’s a reasonable special. Not a whole lot happens but that’s a given considering the length. The villains were pretty fun and I think the special did a good job with the visual gags. While this is a special that feels like it was made for kicks, I’m still glad we got a sequel.

The short starts out with a bunch of roman guards storming a poor village. Someone had spent months creating a few large bells to signal the birth of Jesus Christ and was preparing to set them up. Unfortunately the villains had other plans and quickly stole the bells. They plan to melt them down into pieces of silver so the villains will all be rich. All hope seems to be lost but that’s when the Drummer Boy steps in. He figures that he can distract the villains with his performance while the animals grab the bells but this task may enact a greater price than he could have ever suspected.

Naturally the guards are as corrupt as they come. You certainly aren’t supposed to root for these villains by any stretch of the imagination. Still, the special at least makes them fairly humorous. I actually enjoyed the song about money. Both because of how unexpected it was and because the lyrics actually made sense. It just had a catchy beat and if anything the villains were able to pull it off better than the actual Drummer Boy. Throwing in some good music is always a good way to make a special even more memorable and I don’t think I’ll be forgetting this one anytime soon.

I’m still not a fan of the claymation style though. It all looks rather clunky and the animations just don’t look as nice to the eye. There’s nothing particularly appealing about the style and since everything looks like clay you won’t be watching this one for the visuals. Still, the actual plot is good. It’s always cool to see something taking place around the birth of Jesus. The Drummer Boy makes for a good main character. He also made quite the sacrifice for his mission which is more than other leads would have been able to do in his shoes. The special has a happy ending though and so everything worked out in the end.

Overall, The Little Drummer Boy Part II is a pretty good sequel. It’s nice to have the old gang return even if his actual drum skills didn’t really look so good this time around. I guess realistically you can’t expect such a tactic to work for very long right? At least he was able to keep it up for a little while and it was a nice homage to the original. If you enjoyed the original Drummer Boy then I certainly think you’ll like this one and vice versa. They’re pretty similar and you could easily watch them both back to back since combined they would be about as long as the average episode if not a little longer.

Overall 6/10

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