HOME | DD

Description
(aka Animation Unknown #37)

Yeah, I kinda forgot that I had to put out this review today so you'll excuse my lateness. I actually have some very distinct memories of this movie from when I was a kid. I know the first time I saw it I didn't like it, and it seems like this is the only one that people really don't seem as turned around on. Fievel Goes West (which we'll be getting to tomorrow...hopefully) was at least a semi-decent sequel, even though what led up to it with the other sequels was mediocre at best and embarrassing at worst, and Balto was able to grow a fairly decent sized cult following enough to get 2 sequels of its own (I'm not talking about those, as I said, but needless to say they're not too interesting unless you're curious). We're Back, though, doesn't even have that much. You could argue that it's just a self-contained story but so was Balto. And, here's something I bet a lot of you might not know, it's based on a children's book by Hudson Talbott; don't know how good the book is but this is one of those adaptations/remakes that people never knew was an adaptation. Is this a diamond in the rough or was this better left in the dust?

Plot- at an unknown point in the future, Captain Neweyes (voiced by the late Walter Cronkite; Sidebar: get used to hearing that, there's a surprising amount of dead celebrities in this and that's not getting into our next review being the final performance of Jimmy Stewart), inventor of both the Wish Radio and a breakfast cereal called Brain Grain that increases intelligence exponentially, travels back in time to bring real, living dinosaurs to the present day, with human level intelligence so, y'know, they won't eat people and stuff. On their way to the Museum of Natural History, our main motley crew of Rex (the Tyrannosaurus voiced by John Goodman...because that's a sentence), Woog (the Triceratops voiced by Rene LeVant), Elsa (the Pterodactyl voiced by Felicity Kendal), and Dweeb (the Parasaurolophus voiced by Charles Fleischer), meet a runaway boy named Louie and a lonely rich girl named Cecelia.
Characters- Now might be a good time to talk about the characters. We can kinda expect that Amblimation can boast a pretty sizable cast of big-name talent; not just the ones I mentioned before but Martin Short, Yeardley Smith (best known as Lisa Simpson), Jay Leno, Rhea Perlman, and the late Kenneth Mars. As for the characters themselves, while the dinosaurs all have distinctive personalities and designs, they mostly function for city shenanigans and mostly go along with what Rex says. Louie is a bit unlikable at first but he's got a good heart and he does start to grow on you as a character, as does Cecelia. The BEST character, hands down, is the evil twin brother of Neweyes, Professor Screweyes who runs an eccentric fear circus.
This guy is just so despicable and brilliant, mostly because--while it's easy to write him off as evil just for running a "fear circus"--he does carry himself as a very professional businessman and his enterprise is largely fairly successful, but the way he talks and acts is just so sinister (not in an over the top way like Steel, but in a very controlled way; probably helped influence by big obsession with villainy and evil--outside of Disney--when I was a kid). What's most disappointing is that, in a deleted scene, we actually get to know his backstory and learn how he lost his eye. Though this scene was retained in the novelization (cuz that's a thing movies used to do; I didn't think it was still a thing until I found a novelization of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man when I was working at a Goodwill but this section's already gone on too long), the scene was restored and posted on YouTube.
Enjoyment- Not to keep getting off-topic here, but I don't think I've ever liked how Enjoyment is ABOVE Creativity in these reviews. Whatever; not the time nor place. Has my opinion of this movie changed from when I first saw it on VHS as a kid? Answer: yes, but not drastically. I'm not gonna call this a flawless gem that nobody noticed at the time, I'm not saying this is my new favorite movie or anything, but if you can look past its faults, you'll find a fairly fun and entertaining movie that you won't feel like you're slogging through. Let's pretend for a second that I have to give it a rating out of 10, so for the sake of argument, let's call it a 7/10 experience.
Creativity- If this movie shines in anything, it's a definitely creative film: the animation is amazing for the time, the character designs are distinctive and interesting, and even the world itself has a lot of background details and quirks that you don't pick up on the first time watching it that makes the world feel very lived in and developed. Hell, some movies TODAY don't have that kind of attention to detail that aren't coming from big studios like Disney or Pixar, or have scale and preciseness of Laika.
Execution- Overall, this movie is definitely at the bottom ranking of Amblimation's 3 films, but it's not because of lack of quality, but more in a "Something has to be on the bottom" type of way. It's by no means a worthless film, but it's not something that I'd demand you rush out and grab for yourself. If you catch it on TV or find it in a bargain bin or something for, like, $10 or less, you're not wasting your time and I'm sure that kids would definitely have a nice time with it. So, maybe not a wonderful experience of a lifetime but certainly a memorable one.

Final Score: Plot (6), Characters (5), Enjoyment (7), Creativity (8), Execution (7)= 33 (+ Extra Credit: 1/2 Star each for Simon Wells, Amblimation, and the cast, 1 Star for Animation)= 45/50

Next Time: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (yeah, it's a little weird to be starting from the end and going backwards but whatever)

Description
(aka Animation Unknown #37)

Yeah, I kinda forgot that I had to put out this review today so you'll excuse my lateness. I actually have some very distinct memories of this movie from when I was a kid. I know the first time I saw it I didn't like it, and it seems like this is the only one that people really don't seem as turned around on. Fievel Goes West (which we'll be getting to tomorrow...hopefully) was at least a semi-decent sequel, even though what led up to it with the other sequels was mediocre at best and embarrassing at worst, and Balto was able to grow a fairly decent sized cult following enough to get 2 sequels of its own (I'm not talking about those, as I said, but needless to say they're not too interesting unless you're curious). We're Back, though, doesn't even have that much. You could argue that it's just a self-contained story but so was Balto. And, here's something I bet a lot of you might not know, it's based on a children's book by Hudson Talbott; don't know how good the book is but this is one of those adaptations/remakes that people never knew was an adaptation. Is this a diamond in the rough or was this better left in the dust?

Plot- at an unknown point in the future, Captain Neweyes (voiced by the late Walter Cronkite; Sidebar: get used to hearing that, there's a surprising amount of dead celebrities in this and that's not getting into our next review being the final performance of Jimmy Stewart), inventor of both the Wish Radio and a breakfast cereal called Brain Grain that increases intelligence exponentially, travels back in time to bring real, living dinosaurs to the present day, with human level intelligence so, y'know, they won't eat people and stuff. On their way to the Museum of Natural History, our main motley crew of Rex (the Tyrannosaurus voiced by John Goodman...because that's a sentence), Woog (the Triceratops voiced by Rene LeVant), Elsa (the Pterodactyl voiced by Felicity Kendal), and Dweeb (the Parasaurolophus voiced by Charles Fleischer), meet a runaway boy named Louie and a lonely rich girl named Cecelia.
Characters- Now might be a good time to talk about the characters. We can kinda expect that Amblimation can boast a pretty sizable cast of big-name talent; not just the ones I mentioned before but Martin Short, Yeardley Smith (best known as Lisa Simpson), Jay Leno, Rhea Perlman, and the late Kenneth Mars. As for the characters themselves, while the dinosaurs all have distinctive personalities and designs, they mostly function for city shenanigans and mostly go along with what Rex says. Louie is a bit unlikable at first but he's got a good heart and he does start to grow on you as a character, as does Cecelia. The BEST character, hands down, is the evil twin brother of Neweyes, Professor Screweyes who runs an eccentric fear circus.
This guy is just so despicable and brilliant, mostly because--while it's easy to write him off as evil just for running a "fear circus"--he does carry himself as a very professional businessman and his enterprise is largely fairly successful, but the way he talks and acts is just so sinister (not in an over the top way like Steel, but in a very controlled way; probably helped influence by big obsession with villainy and evil--outside of Disney--when I was a kid). What's most disappointing is that, in a deleted scene, we actually get to know his backstory and learn how he lost his eye. Though this scene was retained in the novelization (cuz that's a thing movies used to do; I didn't think it was still a thing until I found a novelization of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man when I was working at a Goodwill but this section's already gone on too long), the scene was restored and posted on YouTube.
Enjoyment- Not to keep getting off-topic here, but I don't think I've ever liked how Enjoyment is ABOVE Creativity in these reviews. Whatever; not the time nor place. Has my opinion of this movie changed from when I first saw it on VHS as a kid? Answer: yes, but not drastically. I'm not gonna call this a flawless gem that nobody noticed at the time, I'm not saying this is my new favorite movie or anything, but if you can look past its faults, you'll find a fairly fun and entertaining movie that you won't feel like you're slogging through. Let's pretend for a second that I have to give it a rating out of 10, so for the sake of argument, let's call it a 7/10 experience.
Creativity- If this movie shines in anything, it's a definitely creative film: the animation is amazing for the time, the character designs are distinctive and interesting, and even the world itself has a lot of background details and quirks that you don't pick up on the first time watching it that makes the world feel very lived in and developed. Hell, some movies TODAY don't have that kind of attention to detail that aren't coming from big studios like Disney or Pixar, or have scale and preciseness of Laika.
Execution- Overall, this movie is definitely at the bottom ranking of Amblimation's 3 films, but it's not because of lack of quality, but more in a "Something has to be on the bottom" type of way. It's by no means a worthless film, but it's not something that I'd demand you rush out and grab for yourself. If you catch it on TV or find it in a bargain bin or something for, like, $10 or less, you're not wasting your time and I'm sure that kids would definitely have a nice time with it. So, maybe not a wonderful experience of a lifetime but certainly a memorable one.

Final Score: Plot (6), Characters (5), Enjoyment (7), Creativity (8), Execution (7)= 33 (+ Extra Credit: 1/2 Star each for Simon Wells, Amblimation, and the cast, 1 Star for Animation)= 45/50

Next Time: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (yeah, it's a little weird to be starting from the end and going backwards but whatever)