Dawn of the Nugget is a return to form for Aardman, at least on the animation department. Though there are a few CGI touches, most of the movie is in their classical stop motion, which is rather pleasant to see especially given a certain company decided to forsake traditional animation styles.
Storywise, however, it suffers. It is essentially the plot of the DTV Little Mermaid sequel...
2023-12-15 21:22:20 +0000 UTC View Post
Epapetelo by SpinoDragon145
Pteranodontians are a famous clade of Late Cretaceous pterosaurs that include the titular Pteranodon, the nyctosaurs and taxa that sometimes are either pteranodontids or nyctosaurids like Volgadraco. They dominate the Late Cretaceous oceanic environments, seemingly replacing the closely related ornithocheiromorphs and other toothed piscivor...
2023-12-12 17:13:01 +0000 UTC View PostTj and Sydney love movie nights with friends, but sometimes more private viewings are afoot.
"Have you decided on what movie" Sydney lounged on the couch, curious but nervous.
"I'm not sure myself" TJ confessed, "Its been a while without Flynn, Carl or Chase to help out."
"Jenna's next door" Sydney offered, an offer that neither would take.
"Well, I think this is perfect" TJ said "Has the pop fiction you like and its not anti-Christ...
2023-12-11 14:10:43 +0000 UTC View Posthttps://multituberculateearth.wordpress.com/2022/04/01/the-birds-of-multituberculate-earth/
2023-12-11 14:10:12 +0000 UTC View Post
https://mullerornis.itch.io/lands-of-fire
2023-12-11 14:09:16 +0000 UTC View PostIt's a story that has been brooding about in my mind for a long time. For now, it takes a back seat to Fallen Máni and Matahouroa, but I will unveil it alongside Aethersworn.
Unlike Aethersworn, I can give you the basic world building points.
Premise
The titular Anamills are animal-mill magical cyborgs conceived by the ancient Minoans as slave labor. Anamills are formed when magical nanites invade an animal's body and give it both intelligence and a mill. Anamills...
2023-12-11 14:07:44 +0000 UTC View Post
Merry Little Batman is decidedly on the lighter side of Batman media, in stark and perhaps welcome contrast to other DC animated films. The character designs are highly caricaturesque, ranging from Alfred looking like a The Thief and the Cobbler reject to Penguin only having three teeth to the one Ren and Stimpy-esque gross out close up.
Where the movie fails, in my opinion, is that it doesn't ...
2023-12-09 08:39:41 +0000 UTC View PostNaje held unto the her boat. It was midday, but in the bayous of the Guey territory the cypresses dimmed the sunlight somewhat. It was enough for her purposes. Crawdads were compelled into the net, rising from the muck. Once the cache was filled, she rowed to the docks. Upon landing, a few fishermen gave her dirty looks. Their catch was less plentiful, most having to resort to necromancy to get some fish and shellfish. So, with her mostly fresh, mostly living menagerie within her ne...
2023-12-03 19:23:02 +0000 UTC View Post
A maker of Rhamphichnus footprints by Mark Witton. Note pronated arms.
There are three main pterosaur ichnotaxa (footprints assigned taxonomically):
Two depictions of Navajodactylus as a non-azhdarchid pterodactyloid, by Spooky and Corvarts respectively.
Navajodactylus boerei is an interesting Late Cretaceous pterosaur from the Campanian of the San Juan Basin (then part of Laramidia). Represented by a single ulna, it was tentative...
2023-11-28 10:46:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Titina is a rare family animated movie that is based on an historical event that is down to earth and (relatively) accurate to said event. There are no talking animals, and fantastical scenes are the result of inhaling blipper gases. The titular dog still manages to have an expressive personality, but not to the point where she's just a human on four legs.
The animation is alright. I...
2023-11-24 17:55:20 +0000 UTC View Post
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off has been heavily prommoted as an adaptation of the comics, down to the casting of most of the film's actors. And indeed, the first episode does more or less follow the events of the first issue.
Then it takes a radical swerve, and the events from then on make this it's own unique work.
This isn't a bad thing, as it acts as a sort of alternate timeline to...
2023-11-19 12:13:45 +0000 UTC View Post
The Boy and the Heron in some ways resembles Spirited Away, and in some ways it can be considered an improvement, enchancing its more positive qualities. The key difference is that the movie dedicates a significant portion of it's time to establishing the relationships of the protagonist with his family, and only then go into the spirit world.
The animation is beyond gorgeous. The ti...
2023-11-18 18:01:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Captain/Ms Marvel and the various people that donned those titles are among my favourite Marvel heroes, so a legacy flick focusing on these underrated gals was a treat to see.
Carol Danvers in particular gets the lion share of character development. A criticism of her debut movie is that she comes across as a Mary Sue. Not here! Her actions have consequences that torment her and actu...
2023-11-12 07:59:39 +0000 UTC View PostSo the planeswalker's guide to Lost Caverns of Ixalan dropped and I'm honestly still processing everything. There's a lot of rich worldbuilding, a true trimph for vorthos.
One thing in particular stands out: the aftereffects of the phyrexian invasion. Only briefly touched upon in Wilds of Eldraine, here we're given a through demonstration of how it affected...
2023-11-10 19:35:42 +0000 UTC View PostScavengers focuses on two stranded scientists on the planet Vesta Minor, exploiting its indigenous life for a variety of ends.
Biologically, the alien life doesn't make a lot of sense, being more like organic appliances. So if you're aiming for speculative evolution, don't bother. But if you're down for this amazing 2D animation and surreal spectacle, this is more than enough for you. It's honestly like watching people fixing a puzzle.
The story stars what are clearly predecessors...
2023-11-10 13:05:24 +0000 UTC View Post
This is a stop motion animated film, and a damn fluid one at that. The animation is beyond spectacular and never feels clunky. It also plays close attention to detail, like the constant flowing candlewax in the Wise One's face, and considering each trampire dies by a very gory explosion you can really feel the level of effort it went into making this.
Plotwise this is a pastiche of 8...
2023-11-09 17:34:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Doom Patrol is by far one of the best superhero shows of the 2010's/early 2020's. The comics, having essentially lived in the shadow of the more popular X-Men, have taken a route towards surrealism and post-modernism. This is translated well into the show, being rather bold and not afraid of being silly or ridiculous.
It contrasts this with a tragic portrayal of the characters themse...
2023-11-09 12:36:02 +0000 UTC View PostOn November 5 2023, roughly four years after her series run on Crunchyroll, Onyx Equinox creator Sofia Alexander confirmed the show was cancelled.
This is beyond tragic for me. I loved this series with all my heart, and what it represented for me.
As someone with indigenous heritage and a love for mythologies and cultures, Mesoamerica is seldomly represented in media, let alone i...
2023-11-06 11:34:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Blue Eye Samurai is a visual masterpiece with cel-shaded CGI, which truly gives it a comic book vibe on certain scenes. At times, the show gets experimental; you'll never live until you see their animated kabuki theater on episode 5, or the many 2D visual effects.
Storywise, it's a classical ronin story, with the added bonus of tying with European colonialism during the Edo period. O...
2023-11-05 22:05:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Christmas films are aplenty, and though this does not reach the heights of posterior works like Klaus there is some interesting animation going on. The movie combines a rather child-book like style with more caricaturish designs, making this feel like an odd mixture of a stereotypical Disney film and a Nickelodeon cartoon.
Plotwise, it is alright. The idea of a child successor to San...
2023-11-04 16:29:13 +0000 UTC View PostLeo Alvarez never much cared for the Day of the Dead, but he reconsiders it for his family.
Leo Alvarez carefully cleaned his shrine.
Marigolds, candles and incense surrounded a photo of his abuelo and abuela. It was a rather simple shrine, born out of inexperience, for it was the first time in years he celebrated this holiday.
Growing up, Leo didn't much celebrate Dia de los Muertos. After moving to Echo and adapting to its Latin-hostile...
2023-11-02 15:20:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Young Titicula emerging from an elephant wound. By Dave Garcia.
The island of Lemuria is home to a staggering mammalian megafauna, ruled over by large birds of prey. Yet, few creatures inspire as much fear in the prey mammals – including human beings – than the Ti...
2023-10-31 07:17:47 +0000 UTC View PostThe Echo gang lets their kids celebrate trick-or-treating
Jenna watched the sunset.
It was melodic, the blood red of the sky heralding softer orange lights, soon keeping the darkness at bay. If only the bonfires had been enough at Echo; she always thought it was a silly belief of her brother and the rest of the tetanus gang, but now she wasn't quite as sure. If she were to get analytical, Halloween was a celebration of renewal, fighting the lon...
2023-10-29 14:38:11 +0000 UTC View Post
So "adventure archaeology" has been a stapple of popular culture for decades. Usually it focuses on obtaining artifacts, unfortunately ignoring the realities of colonialism and its unlawful theft of culturally important items.
So what if there was a show inversing that, restoring what has been lost to its rightful owners?
A show like that, with nice cel-shaded CGI an...
2023-10-28 18:38:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Moschorhinus and Lystrosaurus by DiBgd. Notably, the small plants in this picture are not true ferns but the extinct seed fern Dicrodium. To help illustrate my point.
In paleoart, “fern praries” are a type of biome frequently depicted. After all, if there was no grass in the Mesozoic (until the very end, at least), what else carpetted the ground?
A lot, actu...
2023-10-27 13:20:21 +0000 UTC View Post
As my previous review showed, Life On Our Planet has issues. One of the issues is how it portrays pterosaurs, in the episode In Cold Blood (which you already know by the title is a doozy.
Here, the sole direct depiction of pterosaurs portrays Pterodactylus 2023-10-26 06:59:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Prehistoric Planet seems to indeed have heralded a new age of prehistoric documentaries, and some like this one take new creative insights. Rather than being something akin to a David Attenborough documentary, Life On Our Planet jumps around between different eras, explaining the various principles of evolution and even cutting to modern wildlife scenes to illustrate the ...
2023-10-25 08:49:11 +0000 UTC View PostWas too busy during Spirit Day, so I decided to make up with this
"Everytime I see you part of me combusts, so radiant you are" Drayden whispered softly into Zander's ear.
"You have such a way with words" Zander whispered back.
He kissed his husband, casually glanding at the purple flags outside.
"When I'm with you I feel like I'm wrapped in the blanket, safe" he whispered to Drayden.
The cat side hugged his deer lover.
...
2023-10-22 12:56:20 +0000 UTC View Post