adaptation

Movie Night [National Anime Day]: Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

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15 April has been designated National Anime Day to celebrate the stylistic genre, which achieved mainstream success thanks to animators like Osamu Tezuka.

Released: 6 August 1994
Director: Gisaburō Sugii
Distributor: Toei Company
Budget: $6 million
Stars: Hank Smith, Ted Richards, Mary Briscoe, Donald Lee, Steve Davis, and Phil Matthews

The Plot:
M. Bison (Matthews), the vicious and powerful head of the notorious Shadowlaw syndicate, is brainwashing street fighters across the world to carry out assassinations and has his sights set on Ryu (Smith), a formidable martial artist who bested one of Bison’s lieutenants. When he’s unable to track Ryu down, Bison targets Ryu’s friend and sparring partner, Ken Masters (Richards), and Ryu finds himself joining forces with Captain Guile (Lee) and Interpol agent Chun-Li (Briscoe) in an effort to track down Bison and stop his mad schemes.

The Background:
In 1987, Capcom brought the very first Street Fighter to arcades across the world; conceived of by Takashi Nishiyama, who sought to expand upon the boss fights of Kung-Fu Master (Irem, 1984) and inspired by The Game of Death (Lee, 1972), Street Fighter stood out from other videogames by utilising unique pressure-sensitive pads for its controls but was generally met with widespread criticism for its graphics and gameplay. Undeterred, Capcom chose to develop a sequel that expanded on the alternative, six-button control setup; Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Capcom, 1991) expanded on everything from its predecessor, from the graphics to the roster of playable characters, and took the world by storm, ushering in an entire sub-genre dedicated to competitive fighting games that only expanded further when the game was bolstered by ports and upgrades. Such was the popularity of Street Fighter II that Capcom began expanding their franchise outside of the videogame industry; Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie was not just the first anime film I ever saw, but also the franchise’s first foray into animation. The slickly animated anime  couldn’t have been more different from the much-maligned live-action adaptation that released in the same year; it became one of the top-grossing films of that year in Japan and is widely regarded as one of the best videogame adaptations ever produced.

The Review:
I have a bit of a confession to make…I’m not actually a massive fan of the Street Fighter franchise. Sure, I researched it and wrote extensively about it for my PhD, but my actual experience with playing the games is quite limited. I grew up playing Street Fighter II on the Amiga, and my version was “cracked” so it had all kinds of helpful cheats to make playing through it a doddle. When I moved on to Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (ibid, 1993) and Street Fighter II’: Special Champion Edition (ibid, 1993), I didn’t have the benefit of any cheats so my tactic to just blindly flailing away as Blanka or Ken didn’t really amount to a whole hell of a lot. To this day, I struggle with the franchise, which is so dependent on frame cancels and complex button combos, but I do have an affinity for it and that’s mainly down to the glorious slice of cheese that was the live-action adaptation and this slick, beautiful anime that not only introduced me to the concept of anime but remains, for me, the quintessential Street Fighter II adaptation.

After defeating Sagat, Ryu looks for inner peace while Ken struggles to find a real fight.

Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie begins with a brief prologue, which takes place between the opening credits. Framed very much like the iconic opening of Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers and bolstered by some rocking electric guitar chords, we are introduced to main character Ryu at conclusion of his violent battle against Muay Thai champion Sagat. Despite Sagat’s mountainous size and incredible speed, Ryu is able to match him blow for blow and even counter his ki-based attacks with one of his own, a devastating  Shōryūken that splits open Sagat’s chest and leaves him with a humiliating scar throughout the remainder of the movie. Driven to a mindless rage by the disgrace and his inability to put Ryu down, Sagat charges head-first into the blast of Ryu’s Hadōken, which puts Sagat down and earns Ryu worldwide respect as one of the world’s most powerful fighters. However, in the time following this fight, Ryu has become a nomad; travelling the world learning to focus his ki and carrying with him the lessons of his master (George Celik) and memories of sparring with his friend, Ken, Ryu makes a point to help others in need but, despite his fantastic abilities and fighting potential, is haunted by his master’s unanswered riddle: “What do you see beyond your fist?” In their youth, Ryu and Ken were like brothers; they constantly trained together, and Ken’s more playful, carefree nature often clashed with Ryu’s more pragmatic and focused mindset. While Ryu dropped off the face of the earth, Ken is a much more public figure who regularly participates in street fights for cash. Not that he really needs the money, judging by his fancy sports car; instead, Ken fights to try and find an opponent worth his time and effort, and is continuously disappointed to find that nobody can give him a fight quite like his old sparring partner. Despite the affections of the beautiful Eliza (Toni Burke), Ken is just as haunted by this lack of competition as Ryu is by his master’s riddle, and vehemently declines to fight glory hounds like T. Hawk (Richard Cardona) since he sees it as a waste of his time and skills. Since Bison’s unable to locate Ryu, he targets Ken, whose fighting potential is theorised to be equal, and personally arrives to “recruit” him into his organisation. Ken’s desire for a real fight is more than met when Bison comes calling and he’s easily overwhelmed and subjected to Bison’s intense and horrific mind control powers, transforming him into a violent and mindless assassin.

E. Honda adds a bit of levity, but sadly Chun-Li gets sidelined and Guile gets wrecked by M. Bison.

While wandering the world, Ryu is pushed into an underground fight by a raucous crowd, instantly besting his opponent with a headbutt to the nose. This attracts the curiosity of Fei Long (Phil Williams), a champion of the underground fight scene who has since become an arrogant and successful action movie star. Fei Long would much rather get into the ring with Ryu than heed the call of his director (Kevin Seymour) but, while he’s a talented and agile fighter with his own mastery of ki, Fei Long’s ego means he doesn’t know when to quit and results in him being badly beaten and defeated by Ryu. Still, the two find a mutual respect for each other from the fight and Fei Long gives Ryu the rundown on where Sagat headed after his defeated, bringing Shadowlaw to his attention for the first time. Ryu’s travels then take him to Calcutta, where his ki arouses the attention of Dhalsim (Don Carey) and intrigues him so much that he forfeits his fight against E. Honda (Patrick Gilbert). A bombastic and aloof sumo wrestler, E. Honda is the film’s comic relief and he offers both shelter for Ryu out of a sense of brotherhood and amusing commentary on the film’s events. The main plot kicks in right after the opening credits, when government minister Sellers (Peter Brooks) is brutally executed in front of a gaggle of reports and eyewitnesses. The assassin was Cammy White (S. J. Charvin), an MI6 special agent who was brainwashed into becoming a terrorist for Shadowlow, an underground criminal organisation that seeks out street fighters and subjects them to torturous mind control. Heading the investigation into Shadowlaw is Chun-Li, a pragmatic and committed Interpol agent who almost immediately clashes with Guile, who holds a personal vendetta against Shadowlaw’s head honcho, M. Bison, after he killed his best friend. Guile’s abrasive attitude and refusal to cooperate winds Chun-Li up, but they soon reach an understanding after she shares with him that she also has a personal stake in the investigation as Bison killed her father. Unlike the live-action movie, though, neither Chun-Li nor Guile really have that much impact on the plot; despite having the most personal investment in Bison’s schemes, they’re merely supporting characters there to deliver exposition on Shadowlaw, and Chun-Li ends up being hospitalised after a brutal attack. Guile does show up for the finale and gets to engage with Bison, but is pitifully cast aside with very little effort on Bison’s part and left a broken, helpless mess at the bottom of a ravine, leaving the heaving lifting to the real main characters of the franchise Ryu and Ken.

M. Bison is a cruel would-be dictator who bends others to his will with his extraordinary powers.

Bision’s cyborgs constantly monitor the street fighters, giving us a rundown of their fighting potential, strength, reflexes, and other statistics and keeping him a persistent and ominous presence throughout the film despite the fact that he only really appears sporadically. When he’s introduced, Bison is flanked by his three lieutenants (Sagat, Balrog (Joe Michaels), and Vega (Davis)) and cuts quite the intimidating figure; a massive muscle-bound freak garbed in a glorious cape, Bison strides through his hidden facility with purpose and wears both a constant grimace and stoic expression. Tellingly, both Bison and Sagat are completely devoid of pupils, giving them a demonic air; but where Sagat is a mostly silent underling whose only spark of individuality is his lust to settle the score with Ryu, Bison is a malicious individual who demands results and doesn’t tolerate any questions or insubordination. Cold-hearted and cruel, Bison thinks nothing of breaking minds with his “Psycho Power” or discarding his “puppets” once they’ve outlived their usefulness. Bison’s abilities are portrayed as near limitless and incredibly powerful; he exhibits a degree of psychic power, being able to lift and toss people around with his mind and can easily bounce back projectiles and move faster than the eye can track. Essentially superhuman and untouchable, Bison relishes the thought of toying with and punishing his prey, so drops his power down for the finale and yet remains a fearsome opponent even when the odds are stacked against him.

The sadistic Vega lays an unsettlingly and brutal beating on Chun-Li to take her out of action.

Bison’s mercenaries are a strange bunch; despite his big introduction in the anime’s prologue, Sagat is basically a non-factor throughout the film and his vendetta against Ryu has absolutely no impact on the film (he doesn’t even fight Ryu again, or appear in the finale). Similarly, Balrog really doesn’t get much of anything to do except stand around, look good in a tuxedo, and trade blows with E. Honda at the end. Thus, the standout from the group is easily Vega; hiding behind his blank mask and carrying a nasty claw, Vega’s physical threat is matched only by his perverse nature; he and Bison drool over security footage of Chun-Li and Vega takes a sadistic pleasure in targeting her right after she’s finished showering (making for one of the anime’s most memorable moments of full frontal nudity and, of course, a fight sequence where Chun-Li is brutalised while wearing very little). Fast and vicious, with a bloodlust that matches his sick fantasises, Vega mercilessly slices and beats on Chun-Li, licking her blood from her claws and overwhelming her but, of course, his greatest weakness is his narcissism; when Chun-Li attacks his exposed face, he flies into a rage that ultimately proves his undoing, as she’s able to summon the last of her strength to kick him out of a window. Although it’s stated that Sagat chose to work for Bison, presumably to get the power and opportunity to fight Ryu again, Bison subjects his underlings to the full extent of his Psycho Power, in conjunction with a sophisticated machine, to twist and individual’s mind into that of a cold, vicious servant. This easily allows him to prey on Ken’s passion for fighting and relationship with Ryu and fashion him into a replacement for Vega, but he underestimates the depth of the bond between the two friends and unwittingly brings about his own end as a result.

The Nitty-Gritty:
To clarify (and no doubt upset all the anime “purists” out there), I am watching (and pretty much always watch) the American dub of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. There are, however, some fantastic benefits to this; first and foremost is the inclusion of songs from bands like Korn, Alice in Chains, and Silverchair and, perhaps even more memorably, some fantastically memorable lines from the dubbed script. Sure, Ken’s delivery is a little weird at times and Ryu’s very American for a Japanese guy, and there’s nothing to match or better Raul Julia’s iconic lines from the live-action adaption, there are some brilliant lines here: Ken scoffing at Bison and killing him “buffalo” is hilarious, as is Guile pointlessly and awkwardly flexing his muscles while vowing to avenge Chun-Li. Guile delivers again in the finale, when he promises to “rip [Bison’s] fucking heart out” and Bison wonderfully taunts him with this line soon after; Bison also delivers a brilliant callous “I don’t give a shit; if her jobs finished, she’s finished!” that’s equalled only by E. Honda’s random outburst of “I gotta kill this nut before I kill myself” and he and Balrog hilarious screaming “Oh shiiiiit!” while tumbling off a cliff edge!

The film is very violent and full of some tantalisingly adult content.

Although the lighting in anime is very dark at times, this actually gives it a real mood; the film is surprisingly adult and serious, especially compared to its live-action counterpart, and the fights are slick, fast, brutal, and beautifully animated. Guile is introduced at an airbase that greatly resembles his stage and the characters are all ripped right from the videogame artwork and all wear their game-accurate costumes and even adopt recognisable stances; even better, they all perform their signature moves, and even announce them more often than not, with no other explanation other than the idea of them being skilled fighters with a lot of potential. For a fan of the Street Fighter videogames, this is a dream come true and just goes to show that you don’t need to skirt around the concept of ki or superhuman abilities; you can just showcase them and have that be enough of an explanation because we’ve all played the games and we all expect them to have these abilities. However, it does have to be said that the anime is a little bloated and a little short on character development for a lot of its characters: Guile is little more than a gruff, buff guy with a personal vendetta and a rod up his ass. He develops a camaraderie with Chun-Li, who is revealed to have a far more playful personality than is first evident, simply because the plot demands that they get on the same page and the sidelining of Sagat for the finale is very odd considering how important he is seen to be at the start, but this prologue is mainly about establishing how strong Ryu is rather than placing any significance on the rivalry between him at Sagat.

Although some characters being mere cameos, the finale pitting is a slick and brutal affair.

However, there’s no tournament structure and street fights aren’t really a part of the plot; every character from Super Street Fighter II is included in some way, though many amount to little more than cameos, such as when Guile and Chun-Li ask Dee Jay (John Hammond) to help gather information about Shadowlaw but this is never revisited and serve sonly to alert Bison of Guile and Chun-Li’s presence. Sadly, this also means that characters such as Zangief (William Johnson) and my favourite fighter, Blanka (Tom Carlton), are reduced to bit parts, with these latter two simply showing up for an action-packed brawl in Balrog’s casino that is cut short to get to Chun-LI’s titties. Still, the main focus of the film is the bond between Ryu and Ken; rather than focusing on the politics or a military movement against Shadowlaw, the friendship between these two are their unfinished business is a central part of the anime. We get to see them training together, the brotherly bond between them, and origin of Ryu’s headband (Ken gave it to him after accidentally injuring him), and both have struggled to find an opponent or a purpose as meaningful as what they found in those years training together. This reaches a fantastic culmination in the finale, where Ryu refuses to fight his brainwashed friend despite Ken attacking him with a relentless brutality; Ryu is able to get through to Ken and help him remember their friendship, which breaks Bison’s control over him just in time for them to join forces and destroy Bison. Thanks to Bison lowering his power level, the two are able to double-team him very effectively with their most powerful and iconic signature moves, finally finishing him off with a double Hadōken and the United States/Interpol assault on Shadowlaw effectively ends Bison’s threat once and for all. In the aftermath, Ryu and Ken awkwardly part was and, as Korn’s “Blind” blares up, it’s randomly revealed that Bison actually survived and the anime ends on a massive cliff-hanger as Ryu leaps in to confront the would-be dictator once more.

The Summary:
I still have vague memories of spotting Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie scheduled to run late at night on the Sci-Fi Channel and setting up my VCR to record it. I’m pretty sure that this was my first ever exposure to anime and I was absolutely blown away by his crisp and beautiful the animated was, the memorable soundtrack and lines, and the level of violence, swearing, and nudity on offer. My interest in anime spring-boarded from there, though I’ll admit that I haven’t been exposed a huge variety of movies or shows since I used Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie as the bar of quality for the longest time. While the narrative is pretty bare bones and many of the characters are one-dimensional or inconsequential, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie remains, for me, the best and most accurate adaptation of the source material ever produced; I’ve seen all of the subsequent cartoons and anime and still consider this to be the most entertaining and faithful of them all. Bison is a fantastically alluring, malevolent villain who exudes menace even when he’s just striding through a hallway or sitting in a chair, to say nothing of him being a fearsome opponent thanks to his Psycho Power. I love that the anime focuses on the relationship between Ryu and Ken and is framed around bringing them together for the first time in years to fight both against, and alongside, each other. While this does unfortunately mean that other characters do get pushed to the side, there’s plenty for series fans to enjoy here thanks to the accurate depiction of the characters’ looks, abilities, and special moves, and that’s not even mentioning Vega’s brutal attack against Chun-Li or the lewd showcase prior to that fight, which I’m sure has a great deal of appeal for horny teenagers. Still, the action and animation quality make Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie an endlessly appealing experience and I always enjoy revisiting it to see the action-packed fight scenes, rock along to the soundtrack, and marvel at the ridiculousness of some of the dubbed lines.

My Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Fantastic

Are you a fan of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie? Did you like that it focused on Ryu and Ken or were you disappointed to see the other characters pushed aside? How do you think the anime compares to its live-action counterpart and which of the other Street Fighter cartoons and anime is your favourite? Did you enjoy the soundtrack and the fight scenes in the anime and what did you think to the adult content in the film? Which Street Fighter character or videogame is your favourite? How are you celebrating National Anime Day today? Whatever you think about Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, or anime in general, please do sign up to comment below.

Movie Night: The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Dr. K3 Comments

Released: 7 April 2023
Director: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Budget: $100 million
Stars: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Charlie Day, Seth Rogen, and Keegan-Michael Key

The Plot:
Struggling plumber brothers Mario (Pratt) and Luigi (Day) are sucked into the magical Mushroom Kingdom, where Luigi is captured by the nefarious King of the Koopas, Bowser (Black). To rescue him, Mario must embark on a quest with Princess Peach (Joy), whose people are threatened by Bowser’s perverted designs for her.

The Background:
It didn’t take long for Nintendo’s portly plumber Mario to become a mainstream icon; there was a time when Mario’s popularity eclipsed even Mickey Mouse so it wasn’t all that surprising to see Super Mario Bros, expand into a multimedia franchise. However, while the plumber duo may have seen some success in cartoons and comics, they didn’t exactly take the world by storm when they made the jump to the silver screen. Super Mario Bros. (Morton and Jankel, 1993) wasn’t just a critical and commercial flop, it was derided by both its cast and crew, and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was so disappointed by the film that Nintendo largely shied away from feature-film adaptations. Miyamoto’s position softened decades later when he believed such films had the potential to grow Nintendo’s brands and we got our first hint that a new Super Mario Bros. movie was on the cards following the November 2014 hack of Sony Pictures. After partnering with Illumination, whose animated ventures and proven critically and commercially popular, production on an all-CGI Mario movie was officially announced in November 2017. The production would push Illumination’s techniques to new heights and the filmmakers specifically aimed to make the film both cartoony and somewhat realistic so that the dangers would be taken seriously, when appropriate. Sadly, the film attracted toxic, unnecessary criticism after Chris Pratt landed the Mario role over long-term Mario voice actor Charles Martinet, though Martinet did cameo in the film and the filmmaker’s defended their decision as it tied into their desire to craft an origin story for the titular brothers. Although The Super Mario Bros. Movie has currently grossed over $445.3 million at the box office, the critical reaction has been mixed: some praised the film’s carefree presentation and narrative, the colourful visuals, and some of the performances, but others couldn’t get past their bias against Chris Pratt and criticised the simple plot and influx of fan pandering. Still, as of this writing, all involved have expressed interest in producing sequels and potential spin-offs

The Review:
Unlike the vast majority of audiences, I actually didn’t mind the first Super Mario Bros. movie; sure, it had barely anything to do with the source material but adaptation is all about change and reconfiguring media into new forms. Plus, videogame adaptations weren’t exactly commonplace back then and the medium wasn’t exactly well renowned at the time, so it made sense to try and alter the admittedly bizarre source material into something a little more accessible and mainstream. Finally, I thought it was a perfectly fun action/adventure for kids, and the whole family, with some enjoyable performances and a great visual style, but it can’t be denied that the poor reception to the film pretty much soured Nintendo on ever trying something like that again. Luckily, Mario and their other characters lived on in animated ventures and comic books but Nintendo has such a rich and diverse library of characters that it’s a shame we don’t see more feature films based on their properties; I’m still waiting for a Lord of the Rings (Jackson, 2001 to 2003) or Willow (Howard, 1988) inspired outing for the Legend of Zelda series (Various, 1986 to present) and an epic sci-fi/action film based on the Metroid games (ibid, 1986 to present). So, yes, I was very excited to hear that Nintendo were finally getting back in the cinema industry and teaming up with Illumination for an all-CGI Super Mario Bros. movie. Illumination have done some really fun films in their time and seemed like a perfect fit for the franchise, and going all CGI just makes so much more sense than doing a live-action film or even a hybrid as then there are far less restrictions on what the filmmakers can do and the gap between the source material and the movie screen is suitably shortened as the mediums are much easier to compare.

Mario’s never-say-die attitude drives him to overcome his failings and reunite with his beloved brother.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie once again has the titular brothers be depicted as blue-collar plumbers operating out of Brooklyn, New York. Having recently quit the employ of the Wrecking Crew corporation and sunk their entire life savings in building a recognisable, independent brand for themselves, the Marios are struggling to make it on their own; their colourful extended family disapproves of their decision and Mario struggles with the constant belittlement he faces for daring to dream big. In an effort to establish himself and his brother as legitimate, Mario insists that the two try and save the city from being flooded and the two are subsequently separated when they’re sucked through a mysterious pipe while venturing into the sewers. Mario is deposited into the Mushroom Kingdom, a surreal land of fungus, floating blocks, and populated almost exclusively by diminutive mushroom men like Toad (Key). The excitable Toad offers to bring Mario to the kingdom’s benevolent matriarch, Princess Peach, to help him rescue Luigi, who they theorise has almost certainly been captured by Bowser. Awestruck by the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario insists on accompanying Peach on her mission to recruit the King army from the nearby Jungle Kingdom in a bid to defend her lands from Bowser’s forces. However, while she’s excited to meet another human, Peach also questions Mario’s stature and suitability for such a mission and demands that he complete a hazardous obstacle course and get to grips with the various power-ups that are scattered throughout the land. Though Mario struggles with this, a montage is used to show him improving bit by bit and learning the jumping, fighting, and survival skills he’ll need later in the movie; crucially, though, this montage and much of Mario’s character arc is focused on his never-give-up attitude. Even when he fails time and time again or is being pummelled by a physically superior foe, Mario never quits and keeps getting back up; it’s this attitude as much as his love for his brother that pushes him to overcome the various platforming challenges set before him, take life-threatening risks when racing along Rainbow Road, and even find the courage to challenge Donkey Kong (Rogen) to a battle in order to recruit the Kong’s aid.

Surprisingly, it’s Luigi who needs rescuing and Peach leads Mario in recruiting help from the Kongs.

While Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom and embarks on a wacky adventure filled with fun references to the videogames, Luigi is unceremoniously spat out into the dark lands, a nightmarish landscape filled with lava and patrolled by Bowser’s forces. Unlike his bold, daring older brother, Luigi is far more cautious and resorts to running from danger rather than facing it head-on like Mario. In a surprising twist, it’s not Princess Peach who is captured by Bowser and must be rescued; it’s Luigi, who is picked up by a group of Shyguy and summarily trapped in a cage above a lava pit to be sacrificed as tribute to the Koopa King’s would-be bride. Still, despite his terror, Luigi puts up a good effort in resisting Bower’s torture, though he’s left with no choice but to give up his brother’s name when the Koopa King rips at his moustache. It’s interesting that the filmmakers chose to separate the Mario Brothers for the majority of the film; the dynamic between the two is charming and relatable and they absolutely feels like two brothers who love each other and work well together. Luigi does thankfully get some time to shine in the finale, but he doesn’t get to try out any of the power-ups Mario does and is basically a hostage for the entire film. this means that it’s Princess Peach who acts as Mario’s primary partner throughout; sure, Toad is there as well to whip up some goodies and offer his unwavering support, but it’s Peach who teaches Mario about the world and the power-ups and with whom Mario bonds over his relationship with his brother. Princess Peach is depicted as a strong, courageous, and incredible capable matriarch and fighter; she can easily conquer the obstacle course that continuously defeats Mario, makes effective use of her dress and the various power-ups in a fight, and is definitely not a damsel in distress. While I feel like we could’ve seen this and had both Mario and Luigi accompany her on her quest, there focus is still firmly on the brothers’ bond and I definitely think Luigi will have more time to shine in a potential sequel.

Mario is forced to fight Donkey Kong to sway the Kongs to Peach’s cause and net them some sweet wheels.

Mario and Toad join Princess Peach as she travels (on foot, strangely) across the land to the Jungle Kingdom. Confident that she can sway the Kongs to join her cause after Bowser decimates the Penguin Kingdom and steals the fabled “Super Star”, Peach is initially prepared to travel alone but allows Mario and Toad to accompany her after being impressed by their heart. The Jungle Kingdom sports Aztec-inspired ruins, a life-threatening series of racetracks through the treetops, and is ruled over by Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen), a cantankerous old ape who knows that he commands the greatest army in the land and initially has no interest in offering his aid. However, when he suggests that he’ll be swayed if Mario can defeat his son, Donkey Kong, in a fight, Mario doesn’t hesitate to take the challenge despite having no idea of what’s awaiting him in the arena. A natural showboat and possessing both great strength and an ego to match, Donkey Kong delights in pummelling his outclassed foe and, even when eventually trounced by Mario in his cat form, refuses to openly admit defeat or let go of his grudge against the plumber after he and the other Kongs get to work building special karts for the heroes to use to get the Bowser. However, Mario and Donkey Kong manage to build a mutual respect for each other after Mario goes out of his way to save DK’s life and the burly ape returns the favour, resulting in them fighting side by side against Bowser in the finale. Although its only briefly touched upon, there’s a surprising amount of emotional depth to the grandstanding ape; he’s riled up by the suggestion that all he has to offer is his incredible strength and he and Mario bond over their mutual desire to prove to their fathers that they’re not a joke.

The cruel and insecure Bowser wishes to use the Super Star to win over Princess Peach and rule the land.

Naturally, the film’s primary antagonist is the half-dragon, half-turtle Koopa King, Bowser. Bowser and his minions (including Koopas, Goombas, Parakoopas, Bullet Bills, Shyguys, and Piranha Plants) travel across the land on a gigantic slab of molten rock and lava and easily lay claim to the Super Star with a minimum of effort. While Kamek’s (Kevin Michael Richardson) magic and aid is of much assistance to Bowser, the Koopa King cuts an intimidating figure all on his own; alongside possessing incredible strength and surprising speed, he’s able to bring entire kingdoms to his knees with his fire breath and is not above leaving his prisoners to dangle over a lava pit or sacrificing them to prove his love to Princess Peach. Indeed, Bowser’s entire motivation for stealing the Super Star was not to harness its power for himself, but to impress Peach and convince her to marry him so that they could conquer all the lands side by side. Though he’s a cruel and merciless ruler, Bowser is deeply insecure; when he learns that Mario is accompanying the princess, he grows increasingly jealous and enraged and he’s in constant need of pep talks from Kamek and his minions to help him find the courage to propose to Peach. Bowser even takes the time to compose a ballad for his beloved “Peaches” and has no desire to destroy her kingdom unnecessarily, though he threatens to do so and kill all of her people if she doesn’t agree to marry him. Although they don’t actually meet until the film’s finale, Bowser’s hatred for Mario  is palpable since he views him not as a threat to his power, but a rival for Peach’s affections; he revels in the idea of immolating Luigi just to teach Mario a lesson and orders his troops to attack without mercy to intercept the heroes when they race along Rainbow Road. Here, Mario and the others encounter a particularly stubborn Koopa (Scott Menville) who delivers a decisive blow to the heroes by blowing up the Rainbow Road in his blue shell form, which allows all the Kongs to be captured and sees Mario and DK getting briefly swallowed up by a Maw-Maw before rocketing to Bowser’s domain to interrupt the ceremony at the film’s climax.

The Nitty-Gritty:
When I saw the first full trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, I was a little worried that the film might be trying to do too much: in addition to the main plot, we have a fight between Mario and Donkey Kong, a kart race, and all these other elements being thrown at us but, thankfully, the pace, execution, and balance of these sequences is absolutely spot on. Also, the film is absolutely stuffed to the brim with Easter Eggs, references, and little background details to not just the Super Mario franchise, but other Nintendo properties as well: Mario and Luigi frequent a pizzeria themed after Punch-Out!! (Nintendo R&D3, 1987), Mario plays Kid Icarus (Nintendo R&D1/Tose, 1986) after being upset by his father (Charles Martinet), the heroes pass by a herd of Yoshis on their quest, Diddy, Chunky, and Dixie Kong cameo during the fight between DK and Mario (which also includes various references to Donkey Kong (Nintendo R&D1, 1981) and a Jumpman-themed Donkey Kong knock-off is also seen in the Punch-Out Pizzeria), and we even get a flashback showing Baby Mario and Baby Luigi (though, in my opinion, the filmmakers missed a trick by not having Wario be the bully who picks on Baby Luigi). Music and sound effects from the games are also included in the film’s soundtrack to great effect Mario and Luigi star in a hilarious and catchy ad for their plumbing services that sees them adopt comically exaggerated Italian accents, and there are numerous times when the film switches to a side-on perspective to recreate the platforming action of the videogames.

A fun-filled animated jaunt full of visual gags and references to the videogames.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a fun-filled action/adventure movie that’s full of visual gags, cartoonish humour, and a surprising amount of heart. The plot is simplicity at its best, but I fail to see how that’s a negative as the Super Mario games have never (or, at least, very rarely) showcased a deeper plot other than “rescue the princess”. Much of the humour comes from Mario’s struggles to adapt to the Mushroom Kingdom; he’s constantly being bashed about by the high-speed pipes, gets pummelled by Peach’s obstacle course, and is far less adept at holding onto his power-ups compared to the princess. Since he hates mushrooms, Mario is reluctant to devour the Super Mushroom but delights in being tall and super strong from its power; unfortunately, he’s so taken by this form that he falls victim to the shrinking Mini Mushroom in his fight with Donkey Kong, though he is able to make use of the cat and raccoon suits to best DK and keep Bowser’s gigantic Banzai Bill from destroying Peach’s castle. DK and Peach also get time to shine with the power-ups, making use of a Fire Flower and Ice Flower, respectively, when the wedding ceremony descends into all-out chaos. Mario’s fight with DK is a notable highlight; though overpowered and outclassed, Mario keeps getting back up and ultimately emerges victorious, leading to the Kongs building custom karts for him, Peach, and Toad. They, and the Kong army, take a shortcut along Rainbow Road to intercept Bowser and, when the Koopas give chase, we’re treated to a brief adaptation of the Mario Kart series (Various, 1992 to present) as characters toss banana peels and Koopa shells, switch to a glider and anti-gravity mode, and fire rockets at each other in a unexpectedly brutal race to the death. We even get a very brief underwater section where Mario and DK are trapped inside a Maw-Maw that, admittedly, is more there for dramatic effect and an obvious fake-out death, but it works to unite these two rivals for the finale. One last aspect I particularly enjoyed and didn’t see coming was the inclusion of the extended Mario family; since most of them delight in putting Mario down, they primarily act as a catalyst to push Mario into trying and fighting harder to prove that he’s not a joke.

Reunited and empowered by the Super Star, the Mario Brothers defeat Bowser and prove themselves heroes.

Although Mario’s victory over Donkey Kong means the Kongs agree to join Princess Peach’s fight, the ape army is denied the chance to actually fight against Boswer’s forces as they’re left stranded on Rainbow Road or locked up in cages alongside Luigi and Bowser’s other captives. To spare her people, Peach agrees to marry Bowser but this is simply a ruse to get close to him; using an Ice Flower, she’s able to temporarily freeze the Koopa King and free his captives, with Mario swooping in at the last second in his raccoon suit to save Luigi from a gruesome fate. Enraged by the betrayal and defiance, Bowser orders a gigantic Banzai Bill be fired at Peach’s castle; though Mario is able to entice the weapon away, and into a warp pipe, the explosion causes a dimensional vortex that sucks them all into the streets of Brooklyn. There, an incensed Bowser targets Mario relentlessly and briefly sends him running before he’s inspired by his own advertisement and stands alongside his brother and newfound allies to battle Bowser. I was very happy to see Mario and Luigi team up for the finale after spending most of the movie apart; it really reinforced their bond and allowed them to share the spotlight rather than simply having Mario be the one to single-handedly stand against Bowser. Thanks to Princess Peach, the reunited Mario Brothers are able to grab the Super Star, which turns out to actually be a Starman power-up rather than a Power Star; this grants them temporary invincibility and superhuman abilities, allowing them to charge through Bowser’s minions and put a beating on the Koopa King, pummelling him in submission and force-feeding a Mini Mushroom to end his threat. In the aftermath, the city celebrates its heroes, and the Mario Brothers finally earn the respect of their friends and family, however they choose to stay in the Mushroom Kingdom and help rebuild the damage caused by Bowser’s attack.

The Summary:
I had a good feeling about The Super Mario Bros. Movie right from the first announcement; each trailer just got me more excited for it as it really seemed to be a fun-filled, colourful adventure film that did justice to the source material and I still can’t get over the fact that people were more focused on unnecessarily targeting the casting, specifically Chris Pratt, than focusing on how good the film looked. You can count on one hand the number of times that the videogame cast have featured in an adaptation, so I really don’t understand the pushback against Chris Pratt, especially as he was perfectly fine in the role and his dynamic with Charlie Day went a long way to making the Mario Brothers a charismatic and relatable duo. For me, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is probably the best feature-film adaptation of a videogame (and I’m something of an expert in that field); it’s startling faithful to the source material, featuring a bevy of references and Easter Eggs for fans of the games as well as adapting the platforming action of the source material in a fun and visually engaging way. While it’s a shame that the brothers were separated throughout the film, their bond is at the heart of the story and they come together beautifully in the finale, and I loved that Princess Peach was a strong, independent character who could hold her own alongside Mario. Bowser was also a highlight; his comical buffoonery and swooning over Peach didn’t diminish his threat and it was great seeing Mario, Luigi, Toad, peach, and DK unite to stand against him. honestly, you couldn’t really ask for more from a Super Mario Bros. movie; it takes everything that made the games so popular and brings it to life as a thoroughly entertaining animated venture that’s only bolstered by the all-CGI presentation, the ideal format for these characters and their surreal adventures.

My Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Fantastic

Did you enjoy The Super Mario Bros. Movie? How do you feel it compares to the live-action film and Mario’s animated adventures? What did you think to the casting and the performances in the film? Do you agree that going all CGI was the best way to bring the source material to life? What did you think to Princess Peach having a more proactive role and would you like to see Luigi get more of the spotlight in a potential sequel? What Easter Eggs and references did you spot? Which Nintendo franchise would you most like to see get a feature-film adaptation? Whatever you think, leave a comment below or on my social media and be sure to check out my other Super Mario content on my site.

Game Corner: Aliens (Arcade)

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Released: January 1990
Developer: Konami

The Background:
The Alien franchise (Various, 1979 to present) has a long and complicated history with videogame adaptations; from pixelated garbage to first-person shooters, real-time strategies and crossover titles, to survival/horror experiences, the decade-spanning sci-fi/horror franchise has seemingly done it all, including its fair share of arcade titles. In 1986, director James Cameron took on the unenviable task of following up on Ridley Scott’s financially successful and highly influential Alien (ibid, 1976) and more than met the challenge, producing an incredibly profitable and well-regarded follow-up that served as ample inspiration for both Alien videogames other videogame franchises as well. Naturally, considering how popular the arcade scene was at the time, Aliens made the jump from the silver screen to the familiar trappings of a sidescrolling run-and-gun courtesy of Konami, one of the most prominent developers in the industry at the time. Although it never received a home port, Aliens was an extremely popular arcade title when it released; its visuals and action were highly praised and, decades later, it is still regarded as one of the best games in the franchise.

The Plot:
Vicious, parasitic alien lifeforms have overrun Weyland-Yutani’s colony on the desolate world of LV-426 and only Lieutenant Ellen Ripley and Corporal Dwayne Hicks are left to battle through the hordes of acid-blooded Xenomorphs and confront the ghastly Xenomorph Queen!

Gameplay:
Aliens is a 2D, sidescrolling run-and-gun title in which players take on the iconic roles of either Ripley or Hicks to blast through a number of environments ripped straight from the blockbuster sci-fi/horror classic. The game allows for simultaneously two-player co-op, but players are locked into a specific character: player one is always Ripley, and player two is always Hicks. Additionally, there is absolutely no different between the two characters except for a different sprite and a different name above the life bar; both characters can move in any direction across each stage and fire while standing and walking or while ducking and crouching walking to blast at smaller enemies. There is no jump button to worry about, no health-draining special attack, and no time limit but Aliens will spawn in and swarm over you if you stand still for too long.

Blast your way through Aliens and their many variants to wipe out their infestation of LV-426.

Players are armed with the awesome M56 Smartgun, which has unlimited ammo and allows for continuous fire if you simply hold down the fire button. This default weapon has a high rate of fire and will shred the game’s basic enemies in just a few shots, though you can’t fire in any direction except straight ahead of the direction you’re facing from either a standing or a crouching position. There are instances where you can climb up or down ladders, however, in order to take a higher or lower path and, when playing in co-op, this is highly advised in order to better clear out the enemies in your path. Quite often, you’ll also be forced to crawl into an air vent to progress and have to watch out for blasts of steam, Facehuggers, and some of the game’s new Xenomorph variants.

Crawl through vents, mow Aliens down from the APC, or don the Power Loader to even the odds.

Aliens is the very definition of a coin-muncher; enemies will run at you and explode, taking a chunk off your health bar, and you get a couple of lives per credit. If you run out of credits, you can simply input some more and continue from where you left off, which is great news when you’re emulating the game as you can just plough ahead until you reach the ending. Its not all mindless sidescrolling shooting, however; the game always switches to a vertical shooter for some bosses and there’s a couple of bonus stages where you need to mow down Xenomorphs from the M577 Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) in a desperate attempt to rack up points and rescue Rebecca “Newt” Jorden. Other tried-and-tested sidescrolling mechanics are here to help mix things up as well, including acid hazards dropping from above, sudden drops to sewers, explosive barrels, and, of course, a moving elevator stage where you need to fend off waves of enemies while travelling further down into the bowels of LV-426.

Graphics and Sound:
If you’ve seen the movie on which Aliens is based, the environments will be immediately familiar to you; you begin the game in the living quarters of the LV-426 colony, and blast your way through the metallic hallways, dingy sewers, and enflamed landing pad shredding any enemies that you come across and grabbing power-ups. The game does a fantastic job of rendering the movie’s locations in a high level of detailed sprite work and locations, and even includes the motion tracker when you’re in the air vents; while the player sprites aren’t incredibly detailed and are lacking in animations, you do get to see them from different perspectives when the game switches to the vents or a vertical perspective, and all of the enemy sprites are quite varied and detailed (though the purple colouring of the Xenomorph drones is a little odd; I suppose it helps them stand out from the environment, though).

Environments and enemies are extremely detailed and perfectly recreate the movie’s aesthetic.

There’s a decent amount of attention to detail placed into the game, despite how short a lot of its stages are; Facehuggers are held in glass capsules in the backgrounds, Xenomorphs crawl over the walls, up from the floor, and drop down across the screen, and you’ll spot a number of colonists left helpless victims to the Facehuggers. Seeing Chestbursters explode out of their chests in a bloody burst and the Alien’s biomechanical gunk corrupt the environment really helps add to the atmosphere and the fidelity to the source material, and the game is punctuated by some limited voice acting (mostly grunts and cries), though the memorable Alien squeal is sadly absent. The game’s story is related through some out on context pixelated recreations of shots from the film, onscreen text, and using some limited sprite animation; the most impressive of these is saved for the finale, where you can force the Xenomorph Queen out of an airlock and be treated to a sprite-based recreation of her being flush out into space. Although James Horner’s iconic score is absent, the game’s action is punctuated by some rocking beats that incorporate a siren effect, and a blaring alarm in the finale stage helps to add to the tension created from the blazing sky and flaming walkways.

Enemies and Bosses:
If you remember Kenner’s awesome toy line from back in the day, you’ll know that the Xenomorphs had some pretty funky variants outside of the movies. The most basic Alien drone will amble over to you, trying to swipe at you and exploding on contact, and you’ll need to crouch down to destroy the Alien eggs before they can spit out Facehuggers or to take out the titchy Chestbusters and spider-like Xenomorphs that scuttle around in the sewers. You’ll also encounter bat- and snake-like Xenomorph variants that flutter or slink about, Xenomorphs that ooze out of the floor or leap up from the foreground, and variants that spit acid at you from a distance. Easily the weirdest Xenomorph is a red, frog-like variant than hops around the screen and grows bigger as you shoot at it, but the most intriguing inclusion are the zombies. It seems in this version of the story that those infected by Chestbursters become gloopy, shambling ghouls that toss grenades, take shots at you, crawl their legless bodies across the floor, and spit out Chestbursters.

Aliens come in all colourful, disgusting shapes and sizes in this action-packed title.

Each stage is finished by a boss battle against a particularly gruesome Xenomorph variant; the first of these is a quadrupedal monstrosity with a snapping mouth at the end of a long, elasticated neck. Joined by a cadre of Facehuggers and spitting projectiles at you when its head has been blasted off, this Alien isn’t too great a threat as you can easily dodge its vicious jaws and even destroy its attacks with your gun fire. While trying to track down Newt, you’ll be attacked by a large Alien that is impenetrable whilst curled into a ball; you’ll have to avoid its rolling attacks until it uncurls and then unload in it to bring it down, but this is merely a sub-boss before you battle an Alien that’s been partially absorbed into the environment. Though it remains completely stationary, it rains Alien eggs into the arena and stretches its limbs out at you while. You must keep moving left to right, blasting and destroying the limbs and hitting the head when it pops up, though beware as you’ll be literally bombard by eggs when it’s near death, which can whittle your health down in no time at all.

After wading through countless Aliens, you’ll go head-to-head with the Queen Bitch herself!

There’s also a particularly gruesome spider-like Xenomorph that you’ll have to contend with twice throughout the game; this brain-like monstrosity scuttles about the place surrounded by orb-like Alien embryos which it uses as a shield and throws out to hit you. After the first encounter, you’ll then battle two Xenomorph bosses at once; these two nasty critters channel the lightning bolts that rain down across the level and fire them at you as bolts of electricity, and when there’s only one left it will surround itself with and shoot out glowing spirals of electricity in a desperate bid to protect itself. After fighting your way through the Alien nest, you’ll encounter the Xenomorph Queen; at first, she’s unable to attack beyond spitting acid at you and summoning her drones to protect her, so you simply need to fend them off and destroy her egg sack a piece at a time. However, when her egg sack is destroyed, she’ll detach and go on a rampage; the final confrontation takes place aboard the Sulaco and sees her clawing, biting, and charging at you and swiping with her spear-like tail. Thankfully, there’s a Power Loader on hand to help smack her about and, after you’ve damaged her enough, you can either pour on the firepower to blow her to pieces or force her into the airlock by rapidly tapping the attack button to activate the Power Loader’s flame torch.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As you wade through the parasitic alien scum that have overrun LV-426, you’ll occasionally find food that will replenish your health, but these are few and far between and usually placed right before a swarm of Xenomorphs and hazards. You’ll also find crates that will bestow you with another weapon that you’ll keep until you lose a life; these can be either a homing missile launcher, a three-way shot, a rocket launcher that fires three in the direction you’re facing, and a flamethrower that fires in bursts. You can’t just hold down the fire button with any of these additional weapons, sadly, but you can pick up bombs to toss into groups of enemies or a super smart bomb to clear out all onscreen enemies. There are also rare occasions, most notably the final boss, where you can hop into the Power Loader and use its big, pincer-like arms to splatter Aliens into acidic goo, destroy walls, and even the odds against the Xenomorph Queen.

Additional Features:
There’s really not anything else on offer in Aliens except for about thirty minutes of frantic run-and-gun action. You can play with a friend, of course, to mix things up and this probably adds both player characters to the sprite-based cutscenes, and you can compete to get a higher score as well, but there aren’t any alternate paths or anything to that you won’t see on the first playthrough. You’ll notice some differences in the Japanese version of the game; stages now have titles beforehand, the colourings of the Aliens is closer to the movies, enemy placement is a little mixed up, and both Newt and the APC stages are missing.

The Summary:
I’ve played a lot of the Alien videogames, and my fair share of arcade titles, over the years and I have to say that adapting the property into a fun, action-packed, mindless shooter is generally one of the most tried-and-tested tactics for the franchise. If you can’t recreate the horror of the source material due to hardware restrictions or mass appeal, then why not lean into the action-orientated elements that James Cameron introduced so well in the sequel? Often, this is hit and miss, but I’m usually quite pleased with the results as I love a good run-and-gun arcade title and Aliens is certainly a lot of fun to blast through. The attention to detail is admirable, recreating the environments and bloody horror of Aliens to an astounding degree for the time, and I really enjoyed all the new Xenomorph variants peppered throughout the game. The game gets very cluttered with enemies at times, which limits the usefulness of the weapon power-ups, but it’s just the right length with some surprising variety with the vertical shooting and APC sections so it’s well worth setting aside a little bit of time to load this one up and give it a quick run through.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Have you ever played the Aliens arcade game? If so, where would you rank it against other Aliens videogames and arcade titles of the time? Which character did you play as and what did you think to the new Xenomorphs featured in the game? Did you enjoy the game’s bosses and what did you think to the final battle with the Xenomorph Queen? Which of the Alien movies or videogames is your favourite and why? Whatever your thoughts on Aliens’ arcade venture, feel free to drop them below or leave a comment on my social media, and be sure to check out for my review of the film that inspired the game.

Mini Game Corner [Robin Month]: Batman Forever: The Arcade Game (PlayStation)

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In April of 1940, about a year after the debut of arguably their most popular character, Bruce Wayne/Batman, DC Comics debuted “the sensational find of [that year]”, Dick Grayson/Robin. Since then, Batman’s pixie-boots-wearing partner has changed outfits and a number of different characters have assumed the mantle as the Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin have become an iconic staple of DC Comics. Considering my fondness for the character and those who assumed the mantle over the years, what better way to celebrate this dynamic debut than to dedicate every Thursday of April to celebrating the character?

Released: 1996
Developer: Probe Entertainment / Iguana Entertainment / Iguana Entertainment UK
Also Available For: Arcade, MS-DOS, and SEGA Saturn

A Brief Background:
It’s easy to forget now but Batman Forever (Schumacher, 1995) was a pretty big deal for Warner Bros. back in the day; not only had they sunk $100 million into the film but they were desperate to appease those who were outraged with the dark, macabre content of Batman Returns (Burton, 1992) and craft a film that would be more appealing for the sponsors. While it garnered a mixed critical response, Batman Forever made over $330 at the box office and was accompanied by a slew of merchandise and ancillary products. Like its predecessors, Batman Forever also received a tie-in videogame that marked Acclaim’s first foray into the arcade scene. However, the 2.5D beat-‘em-up was met with mostly mixed reviews but still fared better than Acclaim’s other home console adaptation of the movie.

First Impressions:
If there’s three things you can always count on with me, it’s that I’m a big fan of arcade titles, sidescrolling beat-‘em-ups, and Batman. Although I didn’t grow up with a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), emulators have allowed me to have a great deal of fun with Batman Returns (Konami, 1993), which was a cracking licensed videogame simply because it aped the formula of genre staples like Final Fight (Capcom, 1989) and X-Men (Konami, 1992). While Batman Forever had an extremely dismal and almost unplayable sidescrolling adventure game released on Mega Drive and SNES, arcades were blessed with this far more enjoyable and fitting videogame, which thankfully came to the PlayStation so I was able to snap it up (and at a pretty good price, too, all things considered). Batman Forever: The Arcade Game can be played on three different difficulty settings (Easy, Normal, or Hard), with enemies increasing in number and toughness on the harder difficulty settings, and allows you to assign yourself up to seven continues. You begin the game with three lives and, once you’ve lost all three, you can enter a high score and switch your character to return to the action once more. In terms of controls, Batman Forever is as simple as it gets: one button punches, one kicks, and one jumps and that’s it. you can customise these in the options menu and choose to play as either Batman or Robin (or both together, if you have a friend), before jumping into the game proper. There doesn’t appear to be any technical differences between the two, but they do have different animations and Robin seems to be a bit faster on his feet, but that could just my psychosomatic on my part. Right away, you’re treated to a pretty impressive in-game cutscene as Batman and/or Robin heads to the streets of Gotham City in the Batmobile, and the first thing you’ll notice is how impressive and ambitious the graphics are. The game utilises pre-rendered, 2.5D backgrounds that, while murky and a bit washed out, are immediately evocative of many of the neon-drenched, bizarre locations seen in the film, such as the graffiti-and-litter-strewn streets, Edward Nygma/The Riddler’s big gala (with partially animated guests in the background), and Harvey Dent/Two-Face’s lair among others. The playing field allows you to wander into the background, with sprites scaling accordingly, though they do lose a fair amount of graphical fidelity, becoming even more pixelated and ugly as you move about.

While the game is cluttered and chaotic, it’s full of action and fun ways to beat up thugs.

Sprites in general look decent enough; they appear to be digitised, similar to the early Mortal Kombat games (Midway/Various, 1992 to 1996), and Batman and Robin have a glistening sheen to them that makes them look like action figures. Batman looks a little goofy, with his massive chest symbol, but Robin looks pretty good; the thugs you encounter, however, are swarms of Two-Face’s goons, robots modelled after the Riddler’s fortune teller machine, and other generic beat-‘em-up mooks, none of whom have a life bar. The sheer number of enemies is pretty impressive and overwhelming, however. It doesn’t take much for you to get pummelled to death as enemies swarm around you and trap you in an unblockable beatdown, and enemies will fire guns, toss grenades, drive motorcycles and cars at you as well as spring out from the scenery. To make matters worse, Two-Face occasionally pops in, riding a wrecking ball or shooting rockets at you from the foreground, though there are times where you can swing and grapple parts of the environment to barge trough enemies. Combat is a pretty simple affair, with you mashing punch and kick to string together combos, tossing and jump-kicking enemies as you’d expect, but the game makes a big deal out swamping you with various power-ups. As you take out enemies, little Bat Symbols scatter everywhere which power-up your “Combo Meter” as well as a variety of gadgets and pick-ups: Bat-Signals, Two-Face Ying-Yangs, and Riddler Symbols appear frequently, bestowing either gadgets or temporary buffs and debuffs. When you grab a gadget, like the Batarang, grapple gun, taser, or Bat Bola, your regular attack is replaced with a projectile; the grapple gun is particularly useful for landing up to 150 hit combos on enemies and sees you swinging and flailing all over the screen, while the Batarangs can quickly rack up points and the taser and bola can stun enemies for a short time. You can also pull off a screen-clearing attack, summon bats to protect and attack enemies, and toss a stun grenade, and all of these attacks will increase in power and change their appearance as your meter builds higher. However, this can make the combat and action extremely chaotic as the screen is constantly filled with enemies, items, and your almost incomprehensible attacks, making for a very frantic and confusing experience.

My Progression:
As you fight your way through the game, you can pick up and throw objects, grab the odd bit of health to sustain yourself, and will be blessed or cursed with power-ups such as invisibility, duplication, invulnerability, and shrinking you (or your enemies), among others. After clearing a stage, your score is tallied up; the more enemies you defeat and the more gadgets and such you use, the better your score and rewards. You can then pick from these rewards to start the next stage with a gadget or power-up advantage; some are merely cosmetic, like “VR Mode”, which sees enemies burst into green computer coding upon defeat, while others increase your combo by default, allowing you to build your meter faster. There are no save points, password, or checkpoints in the game, however; once you exhaust all of your continues, the game is over and you’ll need to start from the beginning, which is always a pretty shitty thing to do in a home conversion of an arcade game since its purpose isn’t to relieve you of your pocket money. All I’m saying is at least have the option to earn more lives or continues, or limit your continues on the harder difficulties and have them disabled entirely on Easy mode.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to save Gotham from the villains’ mad schemes…this time…

Naturally, you’ll have to battle a few bosses over the course of your playthrough, however not as many as you might think. The game is structured more to have you battle wave upon wave of the same goons over and over until you reach the end of a stage, where a boss may be waiting for you, but it’s not always the case. I didn’t fight a boss until the second stage, for example, which pits you against three slightly tougher goons: Nick, Blade, and Flex, each of which fires at you with an Uzi, tosses grenades, or throws knives at you and can block your attacks (something you’re incapable of doing). You’ll know when you’re facing a boss as they actually have a life bar and the screen flashes dramatically after you defeat them, and these three weren’t all that difficult but, again, it’s easy to get caught in a crossfire and just whittled down to nothing in no time at all. At the end of an alleyway, you’ll fight Tassel (who seems to be the neon-painted, clown-like goon who hassled Dick in the film), who’s joined by a couple of gun-and-grenade-toting henchmen and shows off a bit of flippy, martial arts skill. After battling through goons on a rooftop, you’ll be confronted by a helicopter and a seemingly endless supply of enemies; simply fend them off, dodging the chopper’s machine gun fire, and press attack to toss projectiles when prompted. Two-Face will continually pop up to fire rockets at you in the subway and at the gala, and two of the Riddler’s robots will attack you with their extendable arms to cover their escape. These then become regular enemies in a construction site full of explosive barrels, where you’ll battle Feather and Stew, with Feather proving pretty tough thanks to being very handy with his bo staff. My run came to a disappointing end in Two-Face’s lair, however, where his beautiful bodyguards, Sugar and Spice, absolutely wrecked me with their fast attacks, which pummelled me from both sides without any chance of fighting back, treating to me to a rather bland game over screen (in the Batman: The Animated Series (1992 to 1999) font, no less) informing me of my failure to save Gotham City.

I was having a pretty good time with Batman Forever: The Arcade Game once I got past the visual and sensory overload. The game includes a renditions of Elliot Goldenthal’s score and some brief sound bites from the movie, but the sheer number of enemies and chaos happening onscreen at any one time can be a little overwhelming. The game looks fairly decent, even though things can get a bit ugly and distorted at times, but the depth of combat is a little odd compared to other beat-‘em-ups; the gadgets and various pick-ups mean there’s always something happening and you can rack up big combos, but it also feels like a lot of control is being taken away from you as Batman and Robin leap into action with these big, elaborate movements at the touch of a button. Unfortunately, neither are particularly durable; your health bar can be whittled down to nothing in the blink of an eye and you’ll burn through your lives and continues in no time, with no passwords or cheat codes to make things easier for you. It’s probably do-able, maybe in two-player mode, and I’m sure I’ll return to it again as I do enjoy a bit of sidescrolling, beat-‘em-up action, but lumbering you with limited continues for a home console release always irks me and there’s not really anything to unlock or to discover outside of the main campaign, which continues basically no story and very few cutscenes (and even these are limited to the in-game graphics, impressive as they can be). I’d like to know if you’ve ever played this one, either in the arcade or at home, and how well you fared against Gotham’s colourful swarms of criminals? Which character did you prefer, and what did you think to all the gadgets and power-ups? Which licensed Batman game is your favourite? Who is your favourite Robin and how are you celebrating the Boy Wonder’s debut this month?  Whatever your thoughts on this game, and Robin in general, sign up to leave them below or share your thoughts on my social media, and check back soon for more Robin content!

Movie Night: Shazam! Fury of the Gods

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Released: 17 March 2023
Director: David F. Sandberg
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: $110 to 125 million
Stars: Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Lucy Liu, Grace Caroline Currey, Helen Mirren, and Djimon Hounsou

Plot:
Troubled orphan turned magically-empowered superhero Billy Batson/Shazam (Angel/Levi) struggles to keep his adopted family together as a superhuman team. However, when the daughters of Atlas – led by Hespera (Mirren) and Kalypso (Liu) – arrive seeking to reclaim the Wizard’s (Hounsou) powers, Billy and his family must come together to defend their city and reinforce their bond.

The Background:
In a bid to cash in on the success of Clark Kent/Superman and Bruce Wayne/Batman, Fawcett Publications drafted ideas for their own colourful superheroes, each imbued with the powers of Greco-Roman Gods, before Ralph Daigh combined them into a superpowered entity to rival Superman eventually dubbed Captain Marvel. While battling legal issues around his name, Captain Marvel and his colourful extended family joined DC Comics and found some success on the small screen with the 1970’s live-action television show. Initially, Captain Marvel’s big-screen debut was to feature former wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Teth-Adam/Black Adam, though the project lingered in Development Hell before director David F. Sandberg delivered a critically and commercially successful action/comedy that was soon followed by the mixed reviews of Johnson’s solo Black Adam venture. Plans for a sequel to Shazam! (Sandberg, 2019) began soon after the film’s opening weekend, with star Zachary Levi and many of his co-stars signed on to return for multiple films. Mark Strong was revealed to not be returning, and Sandberg was forced to cut classic Shazam villain Mister Mind from the script to keep the focus on the family dynamic and the battle against Atlas’s daughters, with veteran actress Helen Mirren landing a prominent role as Hespera. Although the sequel was delayed numerous times thanks to the impact and fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, Shazam! Fury of the Gods finally released to the tune of a disappointing $134 million at the box office. Reviews were also somewhat mixed; some saw it as corny, but harmless, fun, while others regarded it as one of the worst DCEU movies ever made. Although newly-appointed DCEU head honcho James Gunn expressed interest in continuing Shazam’s story in future films, director David F. Sandberg stated this would depend on the film’s reception and hinted that he was burned out with superhero films after seeing the mixed critical response to the movie.

The Review:
I really enjoyed Shazam!; even now, it’s one of the better DCEU films since it really embraced the colourful spirit of the character and delivered not only some surprisingly poignant messages about friendship and family but stood as a stark contrast to the rest of the disappointingly bleak and gritty DCEU. Now, I’m not against this in principle; a great way for the DCEU to stand out against the Marvel films is to adopt a more mature and darker aesthetic, but that tone doesn’t work for every superhero. As much as I loved Henry Cavill as Superman, for instance, I don’t really enjoy seeing him moping about, barely saying a word, and being openly, routinely, and publicly criticised; similarly, while I like the idea of Ben Affleck’s older, jaded Batman, it’s not really true to Batman’s character to have him swearing and running around murdering everyone but his most iconic villains. Thus, yeah, sue me; I was all onboard for a more jovial adventure and, for me, movies like Shazam! and Aquaman (Wan, 2018) and even Wonder Woman (Jenkins, 2017) represented the direction I wanted the DCU to steer towards. Although I was annoyed and disappointed to find that Black Adam wouldn’t feature in the Shazam! sequel, especially as that would’ve made perfect sense and would’ve been a great way to expand on the lore established in the first film, I was still excited for it as I enjoyed the goofy humour, carefree action, and heartfelt message of Shazam!, especially as it co-existed alongside some surprisingly disturbing scenes.

Billy struggles to keep his family together as a superhero unit out of fear of losing them.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods picks up about two years after Billy and his adopted siblings – half-crippled Frederick “Freddy” Freeman (Grazer), budding academic Mary Bromfield (Currey), enthusiastic daydreamer Darla Dudley (Faithe Herman), gaming aficionado Eugene Choi (Ian Chen), and introvert homosexual  Pedro Peña (Jovan Armand) – defeated Doctor Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) and using their superhero forms, in which they possess the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury. Since then, this unnamed group have set up a base within the magical Rock of Eternity (an extradimensional cavern that was once home to the Council of Wizards and contains an endless library, countless doors to other realms and locations, and apparently a bitter Wi-Fi signal that most urban areas) and regularly workshop their strategies as superheroes. Unfortunately for them, their hometown of Philadelphia has been less than impressed with their superhero antics; they’re regularly called out for the destruction their blunders causes and it’s safe to say that they don’t have the best reputation. Nor, it turns out, do they have official superhero names or a team name; despite the fact that the Wizard clearly told Billy what his name was in the last film, a major side plot in Shazam! Fury of the Gods revolves around him – and his siblings – trying to settle on an appropriate name, something that vaguely ties into a general sense of teenage identity and the group forging a name for themselves individually and collectively, but primarily ends up being an extended commentary on how the characters are incapable of telling people their superhero names without turning to and from their child and adult forms.

Freddy’s role is greatly expanded as he seeks to strike out his own and embarks on a few side quests.

Oddly, Billy Batson is strangely absent from the film; he spends the majority of the movie in his superhuman form though, thankfully, there’s less of a disparity between the two; Shazam still acts like more of a man-child than Billy, but it no longer feels like they’re two completely different characters and there’s even an acknowledgement that he rarely employs the wisdom of Solomon and instead relies on his family, specifically Mary, to help him make decisions). On the cusp of turning eighteen, Billy is afraid that the only family he’s ever had will turf him out once he’s no longer legally obligated to remain under the care of his loving foster parents, Rosa and Victor Vásquez (Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews) and, since he’s been abandoned by everyone he’s ever loved up until this point, he’s holding on a little too tight, trying a little too hard, to keep his family together both in and out of costume. This is causes some tension between him and Mary, who it turns out didn’t go off to college (for unspecified reasons but it’s implied to be because of her duties as Mary Marvel), but more explicitly between him and Freddy. Freddy actually has a far larger role here than Billy; he he’s eager to go out on his own as “Captain Everypower” (Adam Brody) and, despite his love and friendship for Billy, can’t help but feel suffocated by Billy’s insecurities. When he meets and falls for new girl Anne (Rachel Zegler), Freddy gets an opportunity to stand on his own and forge his own path, one where his quirky, awkward sense of humour and encyclopaedic knowledge of superheroes is seen as a positive. Even when Anne begrudgingly betrays him and reveals herself to be the 6000-year-old Anthea, the third daughter of Atlas who wields the confusing (but visually impressive) power to rearrange the environment at will, and loses his powers to the Wizard’s staff, Fredy continues to play a prominent role. Imprisoned in a dungeon is the desolate realm of the Gods, Freddy teams up with the depowered but randomly very much alive Wizard in a bid to stop the daughters of Atlas from destroying Earth, thereby showing his heroism even without his amazing powers.

When the daughters of Atlas disagree, Kalypso seizes the staff and attacks the mortals.

The daughters of Atlas are, as far as I am aware, brand-new characters for this movie; rather than deliver on the promise of the Monster Society of Evil, led by Mister Mind (David F. Sandberg) teased at the end of the last movie (and this one), or include a throwdown against Black Adam, Billy and his family must contend with Hespera and Kalypso, the enraged daughters of Zeus who Billy unknowingly freed from confinement when he destroy the Wizard’s staff in the last movie. Hespera, who wields the power of the elements, is capable of turning men to stone and even encases much of Philadelphia in an impenetrable dome, to say nothing of being able to instantly nerf the Shazam Family with the Wizard’s reconstructed staff in a bid to rob them of the powers she feels they are unworthy to possess. While both she and Kalypso have a grudge against the Wizard and his Champions for stealing the power of the Gods, Kalypso is the only one of them driven by an inconsolable rage; able to twist the mind’s of others and bend them to her will, Kalypso isn’t satisfied with merely reclaiming the powers and the lost seed that will restore their world and instead turns on her sisters, planting the seed on Earth and birthing not only a legion of demonic, mythological creatures (including harpies, chimeras, and cyclopes) but also commanding the terrifying dragon Ladon, a being so immensely powerful that it cripples its prey by literally emanating fear and is cable to charbroil Shazam’s costume with is magical fire breath. Although Hespera attempts to oppose Kalypso’s plot, suggesting she has some morals, both characters are painfully one-dimensional and rely solely on the star power of their actors and the impressive visuals of their costumes and powers. Their anger is justified, and the power is more than a match for the Champions, especially as they’re able to remove their powers at will, and yet all too often the battle against them boils down to simple stuff like manhandling them or blasting them with lightning.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Shazam! surprised me with it’s poignant message about family; Billy’s arc of being a bit of a troublemaker who had no interest in forging ties with anyone as he was determined to find his mother, only to discover that his true family lay in his adopted home, really separated the film from other superhero productions. In that respect, I can somewhat understand why Billy takes a bit of a backseat here; however, the name of the movie is Shazam! so I was surprised to see that Billy’s arc was more concerned with him not being such a control freak and learning to trust that he’s accepted within his family unit, and that more of the film focused on Freddy. As a result, there really isn’t much for his other siblings to do: Mary expresses frustration at having missed out on college but otherwise remains loyal to her siblings, with no real explanation given as to why she didn’t go or resolution to this plot thread; Pedro randomly blurts out that he’s gay and is immediately accepted by his family, with his only other characteristic being that even his superhero persona (D. J. Cotrona) sucks at dodging. Although Eugene is reduced to exploring the many doors in the Rock of Eternity, this doesn’t really factor into the plot in a meaningful way, though Darla is able to help the depowered Champions assist Shazam in the finale by randomly tracking down a herd of unicorns (strangely the only creature the mythological demons fear) and taming them with Skittles. Indeed, as much as I enjoy the Shazam Family, their colourful costumes, youthful demeanours, and fun dynamic, I can’t help but feel like there’s too many of them; just Billy, Freddy, and Mary would be enough, I think, as the other siblings are just left making up the numbers.

Some fun visuals and action scenes keep the film entertaining, if a little muddled at times.

Thankfully, there’s some decent action, effects, and visuals on offer here that help to keep the film entertaining. The Shazam costumes have been tweaked and now look better than ever (though Zachary Levi continues to look a little out of proportion, especially in the head and neck area), and I loved that we get to see more of the Rock of Eternity. The Champions have pimped it out with TVs and games and such, but the depths hide doorways to strange dimensions and a library full of flying books and home to a helpful magic pen named Steve. When the Champions are in action, they work pretty well together; there’s not a huge amount of forethought to their strategy, which mainly boils down to saving as many people as possibly and trying to prevent greater damage and results in a fair amount of resentment as they’d unable to fulfil this latter objective, but it like that Shazam tried to do post-mission team talks to help them improve as a group. Each of them exhibits the same powers, including flight, super strength and speed, and the ability to shoot lighting from their hands, but all of them are rendered powerless at various points throughout the film (with the exception of Billy) and are forced to find other means to help out. As fun as it is to see Shazam fist fight a dragon and slam it through a building, and as impressive as Ladon’s effects are, the CGI takes a serious hit once Kalypso raises her army of monsters. These scenes, and the opening heist in a museum, recall the disturbing violence perpetrated by the Seven Deadly Sins in the first film but are somehow rendered a little more toothless thanks to the mythological creatures lacking substance and looking a little too cartoonish. The daughters of Atlas showcase ill-defined powers that make for some interesting visuals, such as Hespera turning a room full of people to stone and Kalypso cutting through the skyline on Ladon’s back, but I’m still confused by Anthea’s powers. She appears to be able to rearrange buildings and the environment to confuse, teleport, and attack her foes, but at the same time she isn’t actually rearranging the city as it returns to normal and these powers are rendered mute when she tries to avoid Kalypso’s depowering shot only for the bolt to find her anyway.

Whatever meaning Shazam’s sacrifice has is undone when Wonder Woman steals his thunder…

Despite Freddy’s best efforts, the daughters of Atlas are able to retrieve the seed from the Rock of Eternity after Hespera allows herself to get captured and the Champions just…forget that she’s a God of immense power and believe a simple cage will hold her. From the seed spawns a corrupted Tree of Life and, from that, Kalypso’s demonic creatures, which lay siege to Philadelphia and force the depowered Champions to recruit the aid of a herd of unicorns to help create a distraction for Shazam, the last empowered Champion standing. Thanks to this, and his own unique blend of distraction and fighting, Shazam is able to retrieve the Wizard’s staff from Kalypso; realising that the staff absorbs magical power and can be used to destroy the Tree of Life, Shazam convinces the dying Hespera to help him contain the force of the explosion by reducing the protective dome to a small area, trapping himself, Kalypso, and Ladon within and preparing to sacrifice himself after a tearful farewell to his family. The bold move is successful; the Tree of Life is destroyed, taking all the mythological creatures with it and reducing the slighted Gods to ash, however Billy is killed in the process. Heartbroken, his family lay him to rest in the desolate God world but, at the very last second, Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) conveniently shows up (since Billy had been pestering her for a date throughout the film) and uses her divine power to restore the God world, and Shazam, to life, thereby allowing the Champions to return to action and the Wizard to begin exploring man’s world. This deus ex machina of a cameo really didn’t sit right with me; I think if they were going to do that, it would’ve been better to have Wonder Woman show up right as Billy lay dead on the battlefield rather than waste time pretending like he’s really gone, and it takes away from the characters to have all their problems solved so easily. Compounding matters are the two completely pointless post-credit scenes in which Shazam is approached about joining the Justice Society and Dr. Sivana continues to plot with Mr. Mind, two plot threads that I really doubt we’ll ever see resolved in the near future.

The Summary:
To say I was disappointed by Shazam! Fury of the Gods would be a bit of an understatement. In many ways, I don’t think it’s fair to punish the film because egos, politics, and production shenanigans meant that we couldn’t see Black Adam in this film…but man, would have made so much more sense for Black Adam to have been introduced here, or at least show up looking to reclaim the power of the Gods from unworthy children, and therefore give the Champions a far more charismatic and interesting threat to go up against. There’s a lot to like here regardless, such as the expansion of this more colourful corner of the DCEU, the dynamic between the Champions, and Billy’s relationship to his family. I especially liked Freddy’s side plot of him wanting to strike out on his own, and Billy learning that he’ll always have a place with his family, but it’s very strange to see so little of Billy in the film. I equally found it odd that at least one of the characters, such as Mary, didn’t express relief at losing their powers and exploring what it meant to return to a more normal life. While the visuals were impressive for the most part, things got really muddled and CGI heavy once the digital minions swarmed the streets and the villains, while slightly compelling in their motivations, just didn’t interest me as much as I think the filmmakers were hoping for given the actors cast in those roles. I also feel like it’s hard to really care that much about Shazam! Fury of the Gods as we have no idea if these characters have a place in the DCEU going forward, resulting in a decent enough movie that just felt lacking in some areas; it’s a good companion piece to the first one, which I guess is a positive, but didn’t really impress in the same way and so, ultimately, I ended up feeling a little disappointed with the final product.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Shazam! Fury of the Gods? Were you disappointed at Billy’s absence in the film? What did you think to his character arc and Freddy’s solo ventures? Do you agree that there are too many characters in the film to sustain the plot? What did you think to the daughters of Atlas, their powers and motivations, and were you disappointed that Black Adam or the Monster Society of Evil didn’t feature in the film? Where do you think we’ll see Shazam next, if at all, in the revamped DCEU? Whatever your thoughts on Shazam! Fury of the Gods, feel free to drop them below or leave a comment on my social media.

 

Back Issues [Mario Month]: Super Mario Bros. #1

Dr. K2 Comments

So, for no better reason than “Mar.10” resembling Mario’s name, March 10th is widely regarded as being “Mario Day”, a day to celebrate Nintendo’s portly plumber, an overalls-wearing mascot who literally changed the videogame industry forever and shaped the home console market of the nineties.

Published: April 1990

Story Title: “The Legend”
By: George Caragonne, Art Nichols, Jade, P. Zorito, and Janet Jackson

Story Title: “Piranha-Round Sue”
By: Bill Valley, Mark McClellan, George Wildman, Jade, P. Zorito, Janet Jackson

Story Title: “Koopa’s Believe It or Else!”
By: John Walker, Ken Lopez, and Barry Goldberg

Story Title: “Cloud Nine”
By: John Walker, George Wildman, Jade, P. Zorito, Andrea Brooks, and The Gradations

The Background:
By the early 1990s, Nintendo’s mushroom-stomping mascot had firmly established himself as an icon not just in the videogame industry but in mainstream pop culture as well; with more than sixty videogames already released, and with Super Mario All-Stars (Nintendo EAD, 1993) being a blockbuster release for Nintendo (and a major player in the on-going “Console Wars” between Nintendo and SEGA), merchandising and licensing opportunities naturally increased as Nintendo sought to capitalise on the portly plumber’s popularity. Between 1990 and 1991, Nintendo partnered with Valiant Comics to published comic book adaptations of some of their biggest and most successful franchises, and Super Mario was naturally at the forefront of this. Mario’s Valiant adventures were based not just on his videogame adventures, but also his depiction in the animated Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (1989), and Mario featured in a number of Valiant’s comics, either as the main character or in cameo roles.

The Review:
Valiant’s Nintendo comics were basically like printed versions of their DiC cartoons and were short, slapstick, fun-filled adventures punctuated by advertisements both fake and real (mostly for videogames, other Valiant comics, and radical nineties toys and such). As a result, there are four stories contained in Mario’s debut issue, with two full length adventures and two interludes to pad out the comic, which was the style of many publications for younger kids as opposed to comics by DC and Marvel Comics, which generally had the one story contained in its page alongside ads and such. The first story is a two-page introduction to the general concept of the Super Mario Bros., their world, and their adventures; according to “The Interlude”, the magical Mushroom Kingdom was a peace-loving land of mushroom people until the evil King Bowser Koopa and his forces invaded the land and terrorised the kingdom’s patriarch, the Mushroom King, and his daughter, Princess Toadstool. Fortunately, their plight reached Mario and Luigi, two plumber brothers who “hungered for justice and thirsted for freedom” who heard the Princess’s cries for help through their pipes and…somehow (presumably by jumping in the pipes? It’s not made clear) journeyed to the Mushroom Kingdom with tools in hand to defeat Bowser, push back his troops, and rescue the Princess and then presumably stuck around for more adventures based on their experiences. The first story, “Piranha-Round Sue”, finds the Mushroom Kingdom being over-run by the titular piranha plants (leading to a somewhat amusing gag about the plants being “revolting”). The King doesn’t see this as nearly as much of a pressing issue as his current predicament; Koopa has randomly turned him into a chameleon and the King needs Mario and Toad to retrieve the Magic Wand to restore him. Quite how, where, and when this transformation took place isn’t established, but if you’re willing to overlook that then you’re probably willing to overlook the convenience of a Magic Wand only being located in the piranha’s headquarters in World One.

Despite Piranha-Sue’s best efforts, Mario and Toad restore the King using the Magic Wand.

Although Mario’s exasperated by the King’s distracted nature, he is gifted a “Green Gecko Gem” that protects him (but not Toad…) from “only the strongest enemies” at the cost of them being unable to touch anyone else, and the two head out to get the wand. Almost immediately Toad gets left behind and Mario delights in being able to plough through Goombas without issue, allowing Piranha Sue to easily get into Toad’s ear and manipulate him into getting a hold of the Green Gecko Gem in the promise of a fleeting moment of power as King of the Mushroom Kingdom, but of course it’s a trap to get the gem into the hands of her fellow piranhas so they can be free of Koopa’s service. While Mario’s busy collecting Coins with reckless abandon, he stumbles upon the Magic Wand just randomly sitting under a rock and is startled to find Toad on the verge of going over a tumultuous waterfall and drowning in the water. However, Mario hesitates to act since he can’t touch Toad and doesn’t want to abandon the gem in case someone steals it, but finally drops both the gem and the wand when Piranha Sue drags the mushroom retainer under the water. Although Toad is saved, Piranha Sue swipes both items and instantly declares herself to be the new rule of the world; unfortunately for her, Koopa was just off panel and took offense to her declaration. Despite the gem covering her in a protective aura, Koopa is able to grab her in a strangle hold and reprimand her for her insolence and discards both items since he believes the gem is worthless and Mario swapped out the wand for a fake on Toad’s suggestion. Victorious, the two return to the castle and change the Mushroom King back to normal, though his subjects are dismayed to find he has developed a taste for flies.

The Mario brothers foil Koopa’s attempt to ruin the cranky King’s reputation.

The comic then shifts to a one-page fake infomercial, of sorts, “Koopa’s Believe It or Else!”, a series of random gags and panels that tell us such tall tales as “Koopa” meaning “Thing of beauty” in “lizard language”, stuffed plumber’s caps being a delicacy in the Mushroom Kingdom, the Mushroom King having over 2,000,000 crowns but only one pair of socks, and a gag about a plumber actually making a house call that’s lost on me since I’ve never experienced an issue with plumbers not coming when I call them out. Following this odd segue, the issue ends with another full-length story, “Cloud Nine”, which finds the Mushroom King aggravated to be woken up in a mood so foul that he chases his sentient alarm clock and dumps boiling hot water on Luigi’s crotch! The King complains that his bed is so lumpy and uncomfortable that he can’t sleep, so Mario and Luigi take him to a shop to purchase a new bed. The Marios are stunned to find the King unsatisfied with the shop’s selection as they’re too hard, too soft, too lumpy, and not lumpy enough, and so distracted by his erratic behaviour that they completely miss Koopa switching places with the shopkeeper. Any suspicions they might have about this shady new character are quickly forgotten when the shop (really Koopa’s minion, Pidget), announces a 100% off sale on all plumbing supplies, easily allowing Koopa to spirit the King up to the 2,927th floor to try out his “Cloud Nine” mattresses. Introduced to the “Cumulo-Nimbus Special”, the King instantly falls into a much-needed deep sleep and is unwittingly whisked away across the kingdom. In the middle of despairing over the King’s disappearance, Mario and Luigi spot the cloud bed flying overhead and give chase, though they’re unable to stop Koopa from framing the King for causing bed weather over the land. Eager to stop the King from tarnishing his reputation further, Mario and Luigi hop into a biplane and catch up to the slumbering King, with Mario using his plumbing tools to…fix the leak in the cloud…? and stop the rain. With the King well rested, his mood noticeably improves (though he still doesn’t have a new bed…) and he regales his subjects with a bizarre dream he had where the plumbers harpooned Koppa in the butt and had the biplane carry him out into the faraway Fungus Forest while the repaired cloud blasted him with lightning, bringing the story and the issue to a close.

The Summary:
Super Mario Bros. #1 is a fun enough comic; it’s a pretty juvenile and slapstick series of adventures and gag strips that definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously and leans very heavily into puns, sight jokes, and kid-friendly cartoony situations. If you’ve ever watched an episode of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show! then you’ll be more than familiar with this sense of humour and presentation, which is a great way to capture the fantastical whimsy of the source material. When you think about it, Super Mario Bros. has always had a weird premise and an oddball sense of humour; fire-breathing turtle-dragons, sentient mushrooms, subjects being turned into blocks, and all kinds of weird power-ups and collectibles make this a light-hearted and fanciful world that’s clearly separate from ours. Like the cartoons, Valiant’s comics run with the idea that Mario and Luigi hail from Brooklyn and what we know was the “real world” and bring their plumbing expertise to the fantastical Mushroom Kingdom, making them hardworking, everyday heroes thrust into the roles of heroes in a magical world, which was also reflected in the anime and live-action movie and is a plot point that’s largely been ignored these days.

A fun, whimsical comic book adventure with some amusing gags and references to the videogames.

One thing I enjoyed about the comic was its juxtaposition of the surreal cartoon version of Mario with more traditional elements from the source material; Mario and Toad’s search for the Magic Wand is framed to resemble gameplay from the videogames, with cameos from Goombas, musical blocks, and even showing Mario grabbing a whole bunch of Coins and stuffing them into a bag so he can buy a new adjustable socket wrench set. Indeed, “Piranha-Round Sue” is the best story in the comic in terms of fidelity to the source material, with Mario utilising a power-up (one not seen in the game, but still…), his incredibly jumping prowess to hop over pipes and piranhas in his search for the Magic Wand, and he’s teamed up with Toad to evoke Super Mario Bros. 2 (Nintendo R&D4, 1988). “The Interlude” is a similarly faithful recreation of the popular canon at the time and a summation of the first videogame, with Mario and Luigi trumping Koopa’s forces and even using the Fire Flower power-up (though without changing colours), and even “Cloud Nine” feature some call-backs to the videogames, such as the cloud-based stages, even though the story’s much more in line with the cartoons. Overall, I have a soft spot for Valiant’s Nintendo comics, especially their Super Mario Bros. publications as they reflect a different, far more whimsical time when adaptations just kind of did whatever they wanted as long as it was fun and entertaining for kids. The artwork, while a little sloppy and rushed at times (character dimensions and spatial awareness suffer a bit), perfectly reflects the Mario cartoons from the time and there were some fun moments that made me chuckle, so this was an enjoyable debut issue for the world’s most famous plumber brothers.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Have you ever read Valiant’s Nintendo comics, specifically their Super Mario Bros. publications? What did you think to them? Were you a fan of the comic continuing the slapstick nature of the cartoon and splicing in some references to the videogames? Are you glad that the franchise has slightly moved away from these depictions or do you miss when the Mario’s were plumbers from the real world? Did you read and collect Valiant’s Nintendo comics? If so, what were some of your favourite stories and moments in their publications? Did you enjoy Mario’s other comic book adaptations as well and would you like to see another produced some time? Feel free to leave your thoughts on Valiant’s Super Mario and Nintendo comics down below by signing up or on my social media, and thanks for being a part of Mario Month this year.

Movie Night [PokéMonth]: Pokémon 3: The Movie: Spell of the Unown

Dr. K2 Comments

Upon the release of Pokémon: Blue Version and Pokémon: Red Version (Game Freak, 1996), a new craze swept through playgrounds across the world. An entire generation grew up either playing Pokémon, watching the anime, playing the trading card game, and watching the feature-length movies as clever marketing and a co-ordinated release and multimedia strategy saw Nintendo’s newest franchise become not just a successful videogame franchise but a massively lucrative and popular multimedia powerhouse that endures to this day. Accordingly, February 27th is now internationally recognised as “National Pokémon Day”, which I expanded to an entire month of Pokémon this February.

Released: 8 July 2000
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama
Distributor: Toho
Budget: $3 to 16 million
Stars: Veronica Taylor, Eric Stuart, Rachael Lillis, Amy Birnbaum, Dan Green, and Ikue Ōtani

The Plot:
Professor Spencer Hale (Green) is transported to a chaotic dimension by the mysterious Unown (Various), leaving his young daughter, Molly (Birnbaum), devastated and alone. Her grief causes the Unown’s power to rage out of control, manifesting an illusionary Entei (Green) and transforming her home into a crystal-like palace. When Entei kidnaps Ash Ketchum’s (Taylor) mother, Delia (ibid) to appease Molly’s wish for a mother, Ash and friends must brave the danger to break the Unown’s unruly spell.

The Background:
Pokémon (Nintendo/Creatures/Game Freak, 1995 to present) was an absolute phenomenon when it came over from Japan: it swept through playgrounds as kids played the videogames, collected the trading cards, and were mesmerised by the still-ongoing anime series (1997 to present). This fantastic marketing strategy was all it took for the aptly-titled Pokémon: The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back (Yuyama, 1998) to become a box office success and kick-started a whole series of feature films designed to expand upon the anime and promote both the newest Pokémon videogames and showcase the franchise’s most powerful and elusive beasts. Although it earned less than the blockbuster first movie, Pokémon the Movie 2000: The Power of One (Yuyama, 1999) still made over $130 million against a $30 million budget and Pokémon was arguably at its peak thanks to the anticipation around the newest games in the series. The third feature-film was afforded a much smaller budget than its predecessors and was the first Pokémon movie to premier in IMAX cinemas. Unfortunately, the film’s $68.5 million box office meant that it was the least successful of the first three Pokémon movies and it was met with largely negative critical reviews; however, it has amassed something of a cult following and is regarded by some to be one of the best Pokémon movies.

The Review:
Pokémon 3: The Movie opens in the beautiful town of Greenfield, a lush and verdant town in the Johto region that is knowing for is sweeping hills, windmills, and fields of flowers. It’s also home to the Spencer Hale and his daughter, Molly, who live in a luxurious mansion that overlooks the entire town. Every evening, Spencer reads to his inquisitive and loving young daughter from a picture book that imagines what some Legendary Pokémon look like; although she’s particularly taken with Entei, she also highlights the mysterious Unown, a group of interdimensional, Psychic-type Pokémon who have long been the subject of Spencer’s extensive research. However, while Spencer and Molly have a very close, loving relationship, it’s clear that there’s a void in the lives and their household due to the disappearance of the Spencer matriarch, who mysteriously vanished one day while helping Spencer with his research, leaving Molly without a mother and Spencer to carry the burden of guilt.

Molly is devastated when her father disappears, and overjoyed when he “returns” as Entei.

Spencer has doubled down on his research; aided by his assistant, Schuyler (Ted Lewis), Spencer has been conducting an in-depth investigation into a site of ruins where the stone walls are covered in carvings that resemble the Unown. Unfortunately, after discovering a chest full of small stone tablets engraved with the different alphabetical shapes of the Unown, Spencer is also whisked away to the cosmic void of the Unown Dimension, a swirling place of mystery while the Unown constantly rotate around and sing their names. Schuyler is left dumbfounded at Spencer’s sudden disappearance, and Molly is left absolutely heart-broken and alone; with both of her parents gone, she’s left only with the Unown puzzle pieces and the heartfelt wish to have her father returned to her. Her tearful plea summons the Unown and, while she is delighted that they’ve come to “play with [her]”, their true intention is slightly more malicious as they apparently feed off of her grief-stricken wishes in order to become stronger. Fuelled by her dreams of a crystalline home, the Unown transform the mansion a piece at a time until it represents pictures from Spencer’s book, and their power is so great that they’re able to answer her desire for the return of her father by conjuring an illusion of Entei, whom Molly believes is her father’s spirit returned to her.

Ash risks everything to rescue his mother, who is captured and brainwashed to be Molly’s “Mama”.

Quite coincidentally, Ash, Pikachu (Ōtani), and former gym leaders Misty (Lillis) and Brock (Stuart) just happen to be passing by and run across a trainer native to the area, Lisa (Lisa Ortiz). After Brock strikes out with her (with one of the film’s most amusing lines, “I’m Brock, from Pewter City! And I want to be your boyfriend!”) and Ash is able to beat her in a surprisingly evenly matched Pokémon battle during the film’s opening credits, Lisa guides them to Greenfield so that they can rest up at the Pokémon Center and take in the town’s much-lauded beauty. Suffice it to say that Ash is unimpressed, and the group is horrified, to find that the once stunning landscape has been almost completely overtaken with the Unown’s bizarre crystalline wasteland. Even perennial bothers Jessie (Lillis), James (Stuart), and wise-cracking Meowth (Maddie Blaustein) of Team Rocket are stunned to find Greenfield in such a state, and it’s not long before a news crew (Kathy Pilon and Roger Kay) arrive to try and restore order and report on the strange events. Back in Pallet Town, Delia Ketchum, Ash’s mother, sees the news report and is distraught at the continued suffering of her old friend, Spencer Hale, and she and Professor Samuel Oak (Stuart Zagnit) resolve to travel to Greenfield to get to the bottom of the what’s happening, and to check on Molly. While others are alarmed by the startling transformation of Greenfield, Molly revels in her crystal palace; she delights in playing with her “Papa” and seeing her wishes literally spring to life before her eyes, but her longing for her mother remains. Seeing Delia on the news broadcast reminds her not only of her own mother, but also of the times when Delia and Ash would visit her and her family in years past, and she wishes for Entei to bring her a “Mama” to complete their little family. This adds an interesting personal wrinkle to the film’s plot that has been absent from the previous two films as Entei boldly introduces itself to our heroes by subduing and kidnapping Delia right before Ash’s eyes and holding her captive in Molly’s crystalline palace. Ash is horrified when his mother is kidnapped, and immediately leads his friends on a rescue mission to get her back, literally putting his life at risk to brave the crystal wasteland and scale the tower and reach her.

Entei is the Unown’s avatar and determined to protect Molly, regardless of the morality.

Although Entei’s powers are formidable enough to render Delia a mindless drone who fully believes that she’s Molly’s “Mama”, its spell is broken when Delia sees Ash in danger, but she’s smart enough to quickly realise what’s been going on and to play along with the deception in order to try and reach Molly. Delia recognises that Molly has been very alone for a long time, even before Spencer went missing, and sympathises with her pain, but cannot condone Entei’s enabling and the disruptive influence of the Unown. It’s important to note for Poké-enthusiasts out there that the Entei seen is this film is not the Legendary Pokémon whom it resembles. Rather than being a reincarnated Pokémon known for its blazing Fire-type attacks, Entei is a creation of the Unown and more akin to a Psychic-type Pokémon. At the time, I considered this an odd decision as it kind of wastes the natural characterisation of this creature as one of a trio of Legendary Pokémon, but it actually goes a long way to supporting the deeper themes of the film surrounding grief and a child’s desire for love and affection. Born from Molly’s memories of her father, her love for him, and her idolisation of his strength and loyalty, Entei is granted incredibly powers by the Unown that are contrary to those it has in the games; it can teleport, control the minds of others, create crystalline structures at will, and spit out a powerful aura blast in addition to its durability and strength being theoretically inexhaustible. It is as strong and as capable as Molly wishes it to be, and as long as she believes in it, it can accomplish almost any feat, regardless of whether that action is morally right or wrong. A constant companion and guardian to Molly, Entei fully accepts her belief that it is her beloved “Papa” and goes to any lengths to keep her happy and to protect her, even battling against its out of control masters.

The Unown’s power is virtually limitless, and directly fuelled by Molly’s innermost desires.

So devoted is Entei to Molly that it not only bows to her every wish, but also encourages her to wish for more and to believe that she can anything she desires. When the authorities try to breach the crystal formation, Molly throws a temper tantrum and demands that they be kept out but, when she spots that Ash and the others are Pokémon trainers, she quickly wishes to engage them in Pokémon battles. Thanks to the Unown’s near-limitless power, the interior and environment of the palace constantly changes, and also allows Molly to conjure unbeatable illusionary Pokémon and even age herself up to be a more competent Pokémon trainer. Of course, thanks to the Unown’s power, she’s easily able to best her more experienced opponents with the likes of Teddiursa (Erica Schroeder) and Phanpy (Megumi Hayashibara) even when she should be hopelessly outmatched. She’s even able to flood the area with water, and allow her and Misty to breath underwater, so great are her powers, are she becomes so lost in her fantasy that Entei is empowered enough to battle even Ash’s stubborn and formidable Charizard (Shin-ichiro Miki), which arrives not only to help its former trainer but also to pit its strength against an opponent such as Entei. However, the battle proves destructive, wrecking much of Molly’s new home and leaving the heroes’ Pokémon hurt, and Charizard in danger of being killed by the furious Entei; the only hope for the heroes is for Delia, Ash, and the others to help remind Molly of her real family, both those who are gone and the family she could have by forming a bond with real Pokémon, which causes her to finally snap free from her fantasy and demand an end to the fighting.

The Nitty-Gritty:
One of issues I had with Pokémon the Movie 2000 was that it tried a little too hard to raise the stakes in comparison to the first film; while Pokémon: The First Movie was reconfigured into more of a worldwide threat in the English dub, the second film explicitly put the entire world at risk, so it’s a nice change of pace to see the third film tell a far more grounded, more personal story. This is most obvious in Delia’s larger role; up until now, she’s merely been a cameo or a bit-player in the films, but she’s a pivotal inclusion in this film and the driving force behind Ash’s excursion into the crystallised Greenfield. Indeed, he is driven to an uncharacteristic anger at her abduction, which is focused entirely on Entei and transforms into a battle of wills as Ash regards the beast as a mere illusion and Entei adamantly seeks to prove its reality and defend Molly by any means necessary.

Molly’s desire to have her family back means she dreams up her own fantasy world free from sadness.

Of course, it’s Molly’s sadness and grief that is at the heart of the movie’s story; already struggling after the loss of her mother, she was left despondent when Spencer disappeared as well and unable to properly process her anguish. When the Unown respond to her dreams and wishes, she finally feels that hole in her heart has been filled and is easily convinced that everything she is seeing is “real” and that she can be and have whatever she wants “as long as that is her wish”. It’s a powerful, emotional aspect of the film, and easy to forget that Molly isn’t some malevolent or mean-spirited antagonist. She’s just a frightened, lonely little girl who desperately wants her beloved “Papa” and “Mama” back, and is overjoyed to see her father returned in the form of Entei and her every wish brought to life by the Unown’s power. Similarly, Entei is not a necessarily vindictive entity; it’s simply acting out Molly’s wishes, whatever they may be, but bolstered by such vicious and formidable power that it transforms the once beautiful crystal tower into a hazardous landscape of spikes and battles Charizard with such an unmatched ferocity that it’s even posed to kill the helpless and outmatched creature. While Entei seems to fill the void in Molly’s life and heart, Delia and Ash and the others try to convince her that it’s merely another aspect of the Unown’s illusionary power; a false reality she’s conjured to shield her from facing the real world. Through them, she sees that real relationships can be forged through friends, partners, and make-shift families that can be just as fulfilling as having her every wish granted.

Probably the darkest and most personal Pokémon movie despite the odd changes to the source material.

I have to say that, given the trajectory of the Pokémon movies, I was surprised that a Pokémon as unremarkable and weak as Unown be such a focal point of this film, especially considering the next most obvious choice would have been to focus on Ho-Oh and the Legendary Beasts. Instead, though, Entei, Raikou (Katsuyuki Konishi), and Suicune (Masahiko Tanaka) were split up across specials and movies and it would take quite some time for Ho-Oh to actually make a real movie appearance. I guess this helped to make the movies a bit more unpredictable, and it certainly helped to make the Unown a surprising threat in this film, but I can’t help but feel like it was a missed opportunity. Still, the Unown are given an unexpectedly malicious edge in this film; while ostensibly appearing to be somewhat mischievous and aloof, their ability to read people’s minds and alter reality based on their wishes and dreams quickly makes them a threat to all of Greenfield. Not only do they transform the landscape, but they but many lives in danger through their quasi-avatar, Entei, and the strength of Molly’s tumultuous emotions soon sends their Psychic powers into overdrive. By the time she’s ready to leave behind her dreamworld and return to reality, the Unown have exerted so much power and thrown into such chaos by Molly’s emotional state that they’ve lost control of the illusion and the crystalline formations threaten to trap, or kill, everyone within. Their only hope is Entei, whom Molly pours all of her hopes and dreams and belief into to break through the Unown’s protective barrier and undo their magic, dispelling itself in the process. Although distraught to see her father-figure unmade, Molly has learned the value of friendship, co-operation, and family from Ash’s example and her story ends on a happy not when the Unown return not only Spencer but also his wife from their dimension. Thus, Greenfield is restored, Molly regains her true family, Delia is rescued, and Ash and the others continue on their Pokémon journey.

The Summary:
As much as the first two Pokémon films were a spectacle that released right as the franchise was at its peak, Pokémon 3: The Movie opts to tell a far more personal and emotionally-charged story by focusing on a little girl’s loneliness and despair and having Ash’s mother be caught up in a chaotic situation. This is easily the best part of the movie’s appeal, beyond the brutal and unrelenting battle between Entei and Charizard, and definitely makes it a worthwhile watch and worthy follow-up to its predecessors. It’s a very different movie from the last two, which placed the most powerful, mysterious, and elusive Pokémon at the centre of their stories and kind of slapped action set pieces around them, such was the allure of the Legendary Pokémon they featured, whereas Pokémon 3: The Movie fundamentally alters the characterisation, abilities, and role of Entei and the Unown in service of its story. As much as I appreciate the effort put into crafting a more poignant story that tackles the grief felt be the loss of a loved one and reinforces Pokémon’s overall themes of friendship and partnership, I still can’t help be disappointed by the depiction of Entei in this film. For me, splitting the Legendary Beasts up for so long as a major misstep and deprived us of seeing them make a proper, big screen impact. Still, this doesn’t dilute the story we’re given here and Pokémon 3: The Movie remains a unique entry in the Pokémon movie series since it keeps the stakes grounded and personal; while the literal world isn’t at risk, Molly’s dreamworld is and so is Ash and Delia’s (since they mean the world to each other), which really helps to make for a much more relatable and focused narrative. The Unown’s limitless and unpredictable powers, coupled with Entei’s mounting ferocity, make for a surprising threat against the heroes, who are constantly outmatched at every turn and only triumph by appealing to a frightened and hurt little girl’s heart, which definitely helps the film to make an impact even if I would have preferred more focus on the actual Legendary Pokémon.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Are you a fan of Pokémon 3: The Movie? What did you think to the more personal grounded focus? Did you like the depiction of Entei and the Unown or would you have preferred to see them portrayed closer to the source material? What did you think to Delia’s larger role and the focus on Molly’s grief? Which Pokémon game, generation, and creature is your favourite and why? How are you celebrating National Pokémon Day today? Whatever your thoughts, sign up to drop them in the comments below or feel free to leave a reply on my social media.

Movie Night: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Dr. K5 Comments

Released: 17 February 2023
Director: Peyton Reed
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Budget: $200 million
Stars: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Michael Douglas

The Plot:
After aiding the Avengers in saving the world, Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Rudd) has become a beloved celebrity now focused on making up for lost time with his daughter, Cassie (Newton). However, when Cassie inadvertently sucks Scott and his family into the mysterious Quantum Realm, Ant-Man faces his greatest challenge when he comes face-to-face with the maniacal Kang the Conqueror (Majors), a tyrannical despot from beyond time!

The Background:
In his first comic book appearance, Doctor Hank Pym/Ant-Man wasn’t the unstable, garishly-costumed hero who would form the Avengers, nor was he the only character to take up the Ant-Man mantle. Perhaps his most notable successor was Scott Lang, a reformed criminal created by David Michelinie, Bob Layton, and John Byrne, who assumed the role in 1979, and both characters eventually featured in the first live-action Ant-Man (Reed, 2015) film. Ant-Man’s impressive $519.3 million gross and largely positive reviews led to a sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp (ibid, 2018), which outperformed the first at the box office but was met with more mixed reviews. Although the core cast returned to the film, Emma Fuhrmann was disappointed to learn she’d been recast; Kathryn Newton replaced her as Cassie in a decision apparently motivated to better highlight Cassie’s coming-of-age story. Having been established as one a pivotal hero of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in Avengers: Endgame (Russo and Russo, 2019), the third film sought to further explore the Quantum Realm and the complexities of time travel through the inclusion of Kang the Conqueror. Returning director Peyton Reed was excited to pit Ant-Man against such a villain as part of his wish to produce a pivotal entry in the MCU rather than a simple palette cleanser, and Majors was equally excited about exploring the multiple facets and iterations of Kang in this film and beyond after previously portraying an alternative version of the character in Loki (Various, 2021 to present). Following numerous delays, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania finally released to a nearly $450 million worldwide box office and mixed reviews; critics expressed disappointment with the pacing and content of the film, though Jonathan Majors’ performance was met with unanimous praise and that there were some visually impressive sequences to be found amidst the jumbled plot.

The Review:
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Ant-Man; I’ve never been the biggest fan of the character, especially as his characterisation and relationships can be a bit dated, hokey, and inconsistent, but framing it as a superhero heist film and focusing on Scott Lang as this flawed, but loveable, reluctant hero, a dad just trying to make amends, was a really refreshing idea and helped contrast the MCU’s cosmic scope with a nice grounded adventure. I remember not really being too impressed by Ant-Man and the Wasp; I really should revisit it sometime, especially as it laid a lot of the foundation not just for a major plot point in Avengers: Endgame but also for this film, which takes Ant-Man so far away from a quirky, sci-fi action comedy and into the absolutely batshit realm of other dimensions and timelines. Scott is a great character to thrust into these situations; despite all of the abilities the Pym Particles give him, he’s still just a regular guy, someone who reacts realistically to the crazy events happening around him, so he makes for a charismatic and relatable character to help focus these mind-bending concepts through.

While there’s surprisingly little for Hope to do, Scott and Cassie’s relationship is a focal point of the film.

This is immediately emphasised in the opening scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; Scott is now a recognised and celebrated personality who remains awestruck at the fantastical things he’s seen in his adventures. However, as much as he enjoys the limelight, the abilities afforded to him by the Pym Particles, and the experiences he’s had alongside his fellow Avengers, Scott is now content to focus on promoting his inspirational memoirs and making up for lost time with his family. Hope van Dyne/The Wasp (Lilly) has now taken control of her father’s company, renaming and restructuring it in her image and to help displaced families following the Blip. She and Scott are seen to have a loving relationship and are no longer at odds with each other like in the previous film, but the two spend a surprising amount of time apart considering both of their names are in the title of the movie, so Quantumania is less a story about these two pint-sized heroes/lovers saving the Quantum Realm and more focused on developing the relationship between Scott and his daughter, Cassie. Cassie is now a somewhat rebellious teenager; she’s getting arresting and causing Scott headaches because she wants to follow in his example, “look out for the little guy”, and help others, and is disappointed in him giving up his superhero duties when there are still people that need help. Her arc throughout the film is both learning the value of patience and how to control her own shrinking/growing abilities, and understanding that the life she is so enamoured by is dangerous. While Scott is proud of her moral compass, her ingenuity, and her moxie, he also wants to protect her first and foremost; thankfully, while this is a point of contention between the two, the film doesn’t portray her as a cliché sulky teenager who acts without thinking or unreasonably lashes out at her father and they still have an adorable bond, she just wants his respect.

Janet’s stubbornness and fear cost the characters valuable time.

As part of this, Cassie has secretly been spending her time working with Hank (Douglas) to research and map the mysterious Quantum Realm. Despite Hope’s repeated efforts to find out more about the time her mother spent trapped there, Janet (Pfeiffer) remains stubbornly tight-lipped and this was a real issue for me in the early going of the film. Because Janet refused to talk about the Quantum Realm, the characters had no idea of the dangers that lurked there; her warnings came too late to prevent them all being sucked down there and, once they are stranded in the Quantum Realm, she continues to refuse to tell them anything for no real reason at all when that knowledge really would have helped them be better prepared once the source of her fears, Kang, inevitably showed up. Instead, Janet leads Hank and Hope on a merry tour of the Quantum Realm, now expanded into a strange alien environment full of colourful beings and bizarre creatures, most of whom, like the enigmatic Lord Krylar (Bill Murray), know Janet from her time as a freedom fighter. Hank, who has spent his entire life researching the Quantum Realm, is understandably fascinated by the ecosystem and society that dwells there, and equally stunned to get a glimpse of his wife’s tumultuous life amongst these beings. Both characters receive more screen time this time around and are certainly more of a focal point to the plot than Hope, and Hank’s demeanour is now noticeably far more relaxed; he’s lost a lot of his edge and is now portrayed as a quirky scientist with an unhealthy obsession with ants, whereas Janet is shown to be unreasonably cagey and to have fought against the all-powerful Kang during her time trapped in the Quantum Realm

With his nuance performance and incredible power, Kang was the undeniable highlight of the movie.

Although we get a glimpse of his arrival in the Quantum Realm in the film’s opening moments, Kang is a mystery throughout most of the film; he’s talked about with a mixture of awe and fear by the colourful freedom fighters Scott and Cassie hook up with and Janet is so terrified of him that she goes out of her way to keep her family in the dark just to try and avoid catching his attention. This is a shame as, once Kang arrives onscreen, he is unquestionably the most interesting and charismatic character, eclipsing even Scott with his nuanced performance. A cold, calculating, driven individual, Kang is a man from beyond time who was betrayed by his own alternate selves (or “variants”) and banished to the Quantum Realm because of his destructive nature. I know a little bit about Kang from the comics but am by no means a Kang expert, and Quantumania decides to keep his exact backstory and motivations a bit vague, presumably to explain them in further productions. It’s not really explained how or why he has the powers he exhibits or what his limits are; at first, he’s weak and helpless and needs Janet’s help to repair his ship, then he regains his fantastically comic accurate suit and shows an ability to stop characters in their tracks with a thought and swat his pint-sized adversaries out of the air. Yet, though he appears unstoppable and has built an empire comprised of (literal) faceless stormtroopers and advanced technology, Kang can still get down and dirty in a fist fight. Yet, for all his imposing menace and the captivating allure of his unhinged psyche, Kang is very much a desperate man; he’s clearly been broken by some unknown tragedy and is fuelled not just be a need to conquer and avenge himself, but a desperate desire to bring a twisted order to the multiverse, regardless of who he has to torture, enslave, or kill along the way. He’s not just some maniacal villain, though; he seems to genuinely value Janet’s friendship and is driven to violence only as a means to facilitate his escape and seems to regard himself as a necessary evil n the face of some unknown future threat.

The Nitty-Gritty:
There are a few themes at work in Quantumania; you might think that it’s a movie about Scott and Hope as surrogate parents and the dynamic of the Pyms and van Dynes co-existing as this superhero family, but it’s sadly not. You might also think that it’s geared towards showcasing Cassie’s journey into her own superhero persona and, while that certainly is a development in the movie, the focus is more on Scott learning to accept that her daughter wants in the life (which he’s happy to do, he just worries about her) and her learning to walk before she runs (perfectly exampled when Scott has to teach her how to properly make use of the Pym Particles in a fight). The film does shed a bit more light on Janet, a largely mysterious character who clearly has been through some stuff and seen some things down in the Quantum Realm, but it, like her, is unnecessarily coy about the specifics and we’re left with only the briefest, vaguest mentions of her as an inspirational fighter in the war against Kang. Like the other Ant-Man movies, Quantumania leans heavily on the comedy; mostly, this is demonstrated through character’s being awestruck by their surroundings, struggling to adapt to the Quantum Realm’s bizarre society and characters, and riffing off each other. For the most part it works, though the absence of Scott’s more comedic supporting cast is felt in the movie and there’s one scene in particular where the dramatic tension is completely undercut by unnecessary forced comedy.

While the visuals generally impress, others are a bit cartoonish and disappointingly realised.

This would be the death of Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), who’s revealed to have survived the ending of Ant-Man but been left a misshapen and embittered troll of a man; rebuilt by Kang’s technology into the ultimate cybernetic killing machine, he chases down Scott and his family with a vengeance as the MCU version of George Tarleton/ Mechanised Organism Designed Only for Killing (M.O.D.O.K.) M.O.D.O.K. is one of the most bizarre villains of Marvel Comics and one I never thought we’d ever see translated to screen, so it’s pretty amazing to see him flying about shooting lasers and missiles and sprouting buzzsaws, but then the face plate lifts up and we’re forced to look at this really unsettling, cheap-looking CGI face and listen to Darren spouting pithy declarations and the character loses a lot of his menace. It’s a shame but, for the most part, Quantumania looks really good; it’s naturally a very CGI-heavy film and as far removed from its more grounded predecessors as you could get and goes to great lengths to expand upon the Quantum realm, while also handwaving a lot of the specifics. Humanoid characters like Jentorra (Katy O’Brian) and telepath Quaz (William Jackson Harper) exist alongside anthropomorphic houses and surreal alien creatures like the protoplasmic Veb (David Dastmalchian) and a robot with a laser for a head! These characters, while visually interesting, aren’t very well developed, though; I barely caught most of their names and their single characteristic is wanting to oppose and dethrone Kang, but they do help to show how versatile the Quantum Realm is. Before, characters couldn’t survive in the Quantum realm without special suits or suffering severe time dilation; that is now no longer a problem as they’ve conveniently travelled to a part of the dimension where they don’t need their helmets to breath and suffer no consequences of lost time once they return. The world is colourful and alive, but also feels strangely restricted; I also can’t help but feel like exploring the Quantum realm should’ve been a sub-plot in Ant-Man and the Wasp and that maybe it would’ve been better if Quantumania had take place entirely in Kang’s city, Chronopolis, to avoid the slow start to this movie. Everything also just feels a bit too cartoonish and intangible, and it’s again far too obvious that many actors aren’t actually in the same shots in some scenes, which really took me out of it.

There’s an intriguing conflict and looming menace lurking amidst the bombardment of spotty CGI.

Yet, there are still some exciting and bonkers action scenes on offer here; any time M.O.D.O.K. shows up the screen I filled with explosions and frantic action, and seeing Scott, Hope, and Cassie come together in their small and giant forms for the finale was exhilarating, though it was difficult to appreciate Giant-Man’s scale from the framing. One really inventive scene in the film sees Scott shrink further down to reach the core of Kang’s ship; there, he splits into an infinite number of variants and they must work together to get him closer to the core, literally evoking the image of an ant colony working together. Cassie later has a cool coming-of-age moment where she inspires the people of the Quantum Realm to rise up against Kang, and even Hank gets to have a moment to shine by leading his army of technologically advanced ants into battle, though the same unfortunately can’t be said for Hope, who spends most of the film sporting a ridiculous haircut and being understandably annoyed at her mother’s stubbornness before swooping in to aid Ant-Man in reaching the core and in defeating Kang. After Scott retrieves his ship’s core, Kang sets about escaping his confinement using an elaborate set of spinning rings, which will bring him and his army out of the Quantum Realm and allow him to get back to conquering the multiverse. Giant-Man storms his citadel and, despite all of Kang’s vaulted and incomprehensible time powers, a fist fight breaks out between Scott and the conqueror that sees Ant-Man absolutely decimated. Scott frantically gets his family to safety and chooses to stay behind and sacrifice his freedom to prevent Kang’s escape, only for Hope to show up and help fend Kang off, presumably killing him or banishing him to a further sub-sub-atomic dimension. The film then teases that Scott and Hope will be trapped in the Quantum Realm but the Cassie just immediately saves them and everything’s fine…save for Kang’s troubling warning of an oncoming danger and an entire legion of his variants turning their attentions towards the MCU following Kang’s defeat. Personally, I think it would’ve made more sense for someone in the core cast to die or even have it be Hank and Janet who make the last-minute save and end up trapped in the Quantum Realm. That would’ve been quite fitting given Hank’s obsession with it and small things and Janet’s past there but, instead, things wrap up in a nice little bow despite Kang’s Variants still posing a threat.

The Summary:
I had high expectations for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; knowing full well that Kang was set to be an Avengers-level threat in the future and having had some knowledge of the character, I expected this to be a little darker, a little more high stakes, and to have serious repercussions for the MCU going forward. Hell, there was the suggestion that Ant-Man might not live through the tale, let alone be victorious, and it seemed like this could be the shake-up the MCU needed to start seriously working towards their next big team-up movie. Instead, it was just lacking in a lot of ways; I get the idea of exploring and expanding upon the Quantum Realm, but it felt like it took way too much time and I just wasn’t that interested in what was happening there as it felt somewhat inconsequential. It tied in nicely to Cassie’s arc of wanting to help people no matter where or who they are, but a lot of the new characters were forgettable, despite being visually interesting. There was next to no onscreen chemistry or development for Scott and Hope; she could’ve been entirely absent and it wouldn’t have mattered all that much as Cassie could’ve easily done everything she did. Paul Rudd continues to shine as Ant-Man but he’s bogged down by all this CGI mess and protracted world-building, and the environment really didn’t give his unique powers a chance to stand out. The sole saving grace was Kang; Jonathan Majors did an excellent job of portraying a nuanced villain, one who is filled with regret for the evils he must do, and he stole every scene he was in. sadly, though, we really don’t learn anything about him; I have no idea where he’s from or why he’s compelled to be the way he is, meaning a lot of the connection I felt to him came from inference, which is fine but I would’ve liked to see some of the early runtime focused more on him so we get a better sense of his motivations. I think Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will land better on repeat viewings, especially once Kang returns to the MCU in future productions but, for now, it was a bit of a let-down for me and definitely a case of style over substance.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Did you enjoy Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? How did you think it compared to the other Ant-Man films? What did you think to the exploration and expansion of the Quantum Realm? Did you enjoy seeing Cassie develop into her own heroic role and the relationship between her and Scott? Were you disappointed by M.O.D.O.K.’s portrayal and the effects used to bring him to life? What did you think to Kang and his motivations, and are you excited to see him return in the MCU? Whatever you think about Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, drop your thoughts below and be sure to check out my other Ant-Man content.

Movie Night [PokéMonth]: Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon

Dr. K1 Comment

Upon the release of Pokémon: Blue Version and Pokémon: Red Version (Game Freak, 1996), a new craze swept through playgrounds across the world. Entire generations have grown up with Pokémon as clever marketing saw Nintendo’s newest franchise become a massively lucrative and popular multimedia powerhouse that endures to this day. Accordingly, February 27th is now internationally recognised as “National Pokémon Day”, which I’m expanding to an entire month of Pokémon every Tuesday in February, which is even more fitting given that February 6 is the day that Mew successfully gave birth to my favourite Pokémon, Mewtwo!

Released: 29 April 2006
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama and Masamitsu Hidaka
Distributor: Shogakukan Productions / Pokémon USA, Inc.
Budget: Unknown
Stars: Sarah Natochenny, Bill Rogers, Michele Knotz, Jamie Peacock, Billy Regan, Katsuyuki Konishi, and Ikue Ōtani

The Plot:
Ash Ketchum (Natochenny) and his friends are invited to the mansion of Doctor Yung (Regan), a Pokémon scientist who has developed a machine to create holographic mirage Pokémon. However, he is kidnapped by the mysterious “Mirage Master” who wishes to use the system to produce Pokémon with absolutely no weaknesses, and it’s up to Ash and friends to preserve the natural balance of the Pokémon world.

The Background:
I’ve discussed in detail before about how influential Pokémon (Nintendo/Creatures/Game Freak, 1995 to present) was when it was first released, though the videogames were only one part of the multimedia franchise as kids became engrossed in every piece of Pokémon merchandise available, including the still-ongoing anime series (1997 to present). Accordingly, the aptly-titled Pokémon: The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back (Yuyama, 1998) proved to be a massive financial success despite the many changes made in the translation process. With Mewtwo being one of Pokémon’s most popular characters, and considering the movie’s success, it was perhaps inevitable that Mewtwo became the focal point of the anime’s tenth anniversary special, which chief director Kunihiko Yuyama aimed to be a celebration of the evolution of Pokémon over the last ten years. Premiering on Kids’ WB and made widely available as a DVD extra, the one-hour special received crticism for replacing the long-running English language voice cast and is generally regard as the worst Pokémon special ever made.

The Review:
The tenth anniversary special opens with Ash, Pikachu (Ōtani), May (Knotz) and her little brother Max (Peacock), and former Pewter City gym leader Brock (Rogers) travelling through a forest in Ash’s home region of Kanto. Ash is feeling particularly smug because he has received an invitation from Dr. Yung to test his “amazing Pokémon training skills” against the doctor’s new battle system, and the group quickly arrived at Dr. Yung’s laboratory, which is housed within an elaborate castle known as the Mirage Mansion. There, Ash is surprised to find that his mentor and neighbour, Professor Samuel Oak (Billy Beach), and his old travelling companion and former Cerulean City gym leader, Misty (Knotz), have also been invited to attend; Ash is disappointed to find that his invitation wasn’t unique and that Dr. Yung has been passing his compliments out to other notably Pokémon trainers. Their mysterious host soon arrives, and the group do that blood annoying thing where they waste time introducing themselves to him, as though anyone really needs such an introduction, but it’s notable that Dr. Yung and Professor Oak are already familiar with each and have a previous professional relationship.

Ash and his friends are excited at pitting their skills against Dr. Yung’s Mirage Pokémon.

Ever the eager beaver, Ash asks to see the doctor’s vaulted new battle system and the group are stunned to find that the entire floor of the Mirage Mansion has been converted into a “mirage field”. Using this holographic technology, Dr. Yung is able to conjure up a variety of Pokémon based on their Pokémon data; Dr. Yung’s Mirage Pokémon are realistic down to the smallest detail, save for an obvious glow, and Dr. Yung is extremely proud of having perfected his technology, which is even capable of recreating extinct and Legendary Pokémon in order to better understand their capabilities. Naturally, Ash immediately volunteers to pit his skills against these Mirage Pokémon, but Misty overrules him on the basis of chivalry. Misty and Dr. Yung engage in a simple, one-on-one, knockout battle that pits his Mirage Aggron (Unknown) against Misty’s Staryu (Shin-ichiro Miki). This is another of those horrible mismatches that could only take place in the anime; seriously I have no idea why Misty, a former gym leader, wouldn’t send her Starmie (Ōtani) out against an Aggron, and we’ll never know if Staryu’s more powerful and competent form would have stood a better chance against the Mirage Aggron. Still, the point of the battle is to showcase not only how powerful and fast Dr. Yung’s Mirage Pokémon are, but also that he’s fully capable of programming them to use any movies he wishes; in this case, the Mirage Aggron was given an additional edge because it was able to use Bullet Seed and Thunder Wave, two moves that are super effective against Water-types like Staryu.

While Team Rocket are no threat, Mirage Master is a heinous villain who cares little for Pokémon.

Despite this, Ash remains as excited as ever (if not more excited) to pit his Pikachu against the Mirage Aggron, but their battle is interrupted before it can begin when the Mirage System is suddenly hijacked by the malevolent Mirage Master, who turns Dr. Yung’s Mirage Pokémon against the heroes. Unfortunately for the mysterious, masked villain, all of the heroes are able to escape from the Mirage Mansion by running away, leaving only Professor Oak behind, and the Mirage Pokémon are unable to leave the confines of the mansion due to the limitations of the Mirage System. The Mirage Master holds Professor Oak hostage deep within Dr. Yung’s laboratory and demands to know the access password for the professor’s laboratory database so that the masked villain can put Oak’s research towards creating better, and even more powerful Mirage Pokémon that will be super effective against all types of Pokémon. Professor Oak is disgusted at the villain’s disrespect for the strengths, weaknesses, and individuality that comes from natural Pokémon. Determined to rescue Professor Oak, the heroes decide to split up: May and Max watch over the Mirage Mansion, Brock goes to contact Officer Jenny (Peacock) for help, and Ash, Pikachu, and Misty sneak into the Mirage Mansion using their Water-type Pokémon. As if the Mirage Pokémon wasn’t bad enough, Ash and Misty soon bump into regular buffoons and would-be Poké-nappers Jessie (Knotz), James (Billy Beach), and wise-cracking Meowth (ibid) of Team Rocket have followed our heroes to the Mirage Mansion with designs to finally get their hands on Ash’s Pikachu. However, their goals immediately shift to stealing or repurposing Dr. Yung’s technology for their own nefarious ends to create powerful Pokémon for themselves, win the favour of their boss, and become rich either through using or selling the Mirage System. However, Team Rocket are hopelessly outmatched by the Mirage Pokémon and quickly sent packing before they can influence the plot in any meaningful way, and Ash and Misty are separated while battling Mirage Pokémon. Cut off from his friends, Ash is assisted by a Mirage Mew (Satomi Koorogi), a gentle Mirage Pokémon and the victim of constant attacks and ridicule from the Mirage Master, who considers it a “flawed specimen”. Mirage Mew leads Ash to where Professor Oak and Pikachu are being held captive, but he’s too late to stop the Mirage Master from forcibly downloading data of all the Legendary Pokémon Pikachu has encountered from its memories.

Thanks to having access to near-unlimited power, the Mirage Mewtwo proves to be a ruthless foe.

Horrified at Pikachu’s suffering, Oak reluctantly gives over his password, allowing the Mirage Master to hijack every Pokémon database around the world and giving birth to his ultimate Mirage Pokémon: Mirage Mewtwo (Katsuyuki Konishi). Rather than being the same Pokémon Ash encountered before, Mirage Mewtwo is an all-powerful creation of the Mirage System, one incapable of telepathic communication but boasting every Pokémon attack available. Not only is the Mirage Master revealed to be Dr. Yung in disguise and out for revenge after his research was disregarded due to his immoral attitude towards Pokémon, he also extends the Mirage System outside of the Mirage Mansion using a series of missiles and recreates Mirage versions of Entei, Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. Naturally, the heroes’ Pokémon are no match for the Mirage Legendary Pokémon, much less Mirage Mewtwo; not only can it destroy other Mirage Pokémon in a single attack, it makes short work of even Professor Oak’s Dragonite (Unknown) by unleashing powerful attacks such as Flamethrower and Hyper Beam. Mirage Mew comes to their aid, shielding them from Mirage Mewtwo’s attack, but is ultimately overwhelmed and disintegrated by Mirage Mewtwo’s attack. Dr. Yung then downloads all of the Mirage Pokémon data into his Mirage Mewtwo, causing tumorous lumps to pop up all over its body and a range of powerful attacks to be unleashed all at once. Right as Mirage Mewtwo is poised to finish off the heroes, Mirage Mew remerges from the Mirage System (and within Mirage Mewtwo’s body) and exerts its control over Mirage Mewtwo, holding it in place so that Pikachu can destroy it with a Volt Tackle. Sadly, Mirage Mew is also destroyed along with its malevolent counterpart, and the entire Mirage System; Dr. Yung refuses to surrender, however, and disappears into the flaming rubble and explosions of his Mirage Mansion and is presumed to have perished alongside his research. In the aftermath, Ash and his friends thank the efforts of the Mirage Mew and condemn Dr. Yung’s immoral nature, before resolving to continue on their journeys.

The Nitty-Gritty:
One thing I’ll give The Master of Mirage Pokémon is that it sure doesn’t waste any time; the opening title sequence is painfully short, even shorter than the one in a regular Pokémon episode, and the credits play over the group’s arrival at the Mirage Mansion. There’s also little to no real build-up and no big Pokémon battle sequence to open the special; it simply begins with Ash re-reading Dr. Yung’s letter for the umpteenth time and then boom, they’re at the Mirage Mansion right away. Being that it’s only an hour long, this is necessary to get us to the main plot of the Mirage Pokémon as quickly as possible, but it’s not as if the special is full of non-stop action, returning faces, or Legendary Pokémon from there. In fact, it actually slows down for quite a chunk and more time is spent showcasing the Mirage Aggron than any of the more powerful, popular, and alluring creations Dr. Yung brings forth. It was great seeing Misty make a comeback and briefly revisiting her friendly rivalry with Ash, but you could have easily taken her out of the special and it wouldn’t have made any difference at all. May, Max, and Brock were all notably side-lined as well, acting as mere support characters going through their usual motions rather than actually having an impact on the plot, and as a celebration of the first ten years of Pokémon ends up falling a little flat as it just doesn’t do enough with the potential of its premise.

A fun enough, poignant special that sadly doesn’t realise the full potential of its premise.

There’s a great deal of anticipation surrounding the reveal of Dr. Yung’s ultimate Mirage Pokémon, which of course turns out to by Mirage Mewtwo and ultimately ends up falling very flat because, by the time Mirage Mewtwo finally shows up, the special is almost over and we don’t really get to see much from it. To make matters worse, Dr. Yung is awestruck at the amount of Legendary Pokémon contained within Pikachu’s memory and yet he doesn’t create Mirage versions of Pokémon like Lugia; instead, he limits himself to the Legendary Birds and Entei, who mostly just stand around and overpower the heroes’ Pokémon before they are absorbed into Mirage Mewtwo (something that didn’t really need to happen as Mirage Mewtwo could already utilise all of their attacks and abilities, and more). This means that the one time we get to see Mewtwo and the Legendary Birds onscreen in an actual episode amounts to a whole lot of nothing, and we don’t get to see Lugia, Latias, and Latios flying alongside the Legendary Birds or Ho-Oh or anything. Instead, the focus is all on Mirage Mewtwo being this dominating holographic Pokémon, which is certainly is, but without the morality and personality of the original Mewtwo, it’s little more than just a mindless beast or machine to put the heroes in peril. Things are even more confused by the fact that Mirage Mew inexplicably exhibits an independent personality; there’s an attempt to explain that this is because even Dr. Yung can’t destroy the natural spirit of Pokémon and that Mew is an aberration compared to the other Mirage Pokémon, but this doesn’t really hold up under close scrutiny. Indeed, if any Mirage Pokémon were to break free from Dr. Yung’s control, I’d expect it to be Mewtwo, and I wonder if the story might have been better serviced by Mirage Mewtwo going berserk and Dr. Yung being forced to team up with the heroes and turn the Legendary Mirage Pokémon against it in order to shut it down and realise the error of his ways.

The Summary:
I don’t think that I would agree that The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon is necessarily the worst Pokémon special I’ve ever seen, or even the worst product to come out of the anime, but it can’t be denied that it is quite disappointing. I am a big fan of Mew, Mewtwo, and the other Legendary Pokémon and I love seeing them crop up in the anime, specials, and movies, but a major gripe I have about their appearances is that they have to count for something. Here, they really don’t count for anything; Dr. Yung observes footage of some of the other Pokémon movies through Pikachu’s memories, reminding us of better times and more accurate representations of these creatures, and makes a big production of showcasing his Mirage Mewtwo and condemning his Mirage Mew, but simply having versions of these creatures appear onscreen doesn’t necessarily equate to them actually being meaningful or interesting. It’s great seeing Mirage Mewtwo busting out all these wacky attacks and overwhelming the heroes, and it was suitably heart-breaking to witness the Mirage Mew sacrifice itself to destroy its ruthless counterpart, but there was so much more potential to be had here. Why not merge the Legendary Birds into one being? Why not team Mirage Mewtwo with a Mirage Lugia? Why not have Mirage Mewtwo break free and go on a rampage and see it battle against Mirage versions of the other Legendary Pokémon? None of that happens, and it results in The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon playing things very safe and dull, and only saving itself from a one-star rating because of the nostalgia surrounding the tenth anniversary and the Pokémon anime and the fact that I am a sucker for Mewtwo and the Legendary Pokémon, even when they barely do anything remotely interesting or entertaining.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

What did you think of Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon? Did you enjoy seeing Mewtwo in action again or did you feel the feature was a missed opportunity to do more with the character? What did you think to Dr. Yung and the concept of Mirage Pokémon? Did you enjoy seeing Misty make a return and the cameos from the other Legendary Pokémon? How are you celebrating Mewtwo’s birthday this year? Whatever you think about Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon, Mewtwo, and Pokémon in general, sign up to leave your thoughts in the comments below or leave a reply on my social media.

Back Issues & Knuckles [Sonic 3’s Day]: StC & Knuckles

Dr. K4 Comments

Following a highly anticipated release, bolstered by an extravagant marketing and release schedule, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (SEGA Technical Institute, 1992) not only improved on every aspect of its influential predecessor but also went on to become the second best-selling SEGA Mega Drive game of all time. Expectations were high for the equally-anticipated third entry, a game that ended up being so big that SEGA made the decision to split it into two, birthing perhaps the greatest 2D Sonic adventure in the process.

Story Title: “Guardian of the Chaos Emeralds“
Published: 18 June 1994
Writer and Artist: Nigel Kitching

Story Titles: “Enter Knuckles” (Part 1 and 2), “Power of the Chaos Emeralds“ (Part 1 and 2), and “Robotnik’s Revenge” (Part 1 and 2)
Published: 20 August 1994 to 29 October 1994
Writer: Nigel Kitching
Artist: Richard Elson

The Background:
After allowing SEGA to knock Nintendo from the top of the videogame industry, the company almost immediately set about transforming Sonic’s popularity into mainstream success through a slew of ancillary media and merchandise, most notably cartoon sand comic books. About six months after the first of Sonic’s Archie Comics adventures, United Kingdom publisher Fleetway Editions Limited began their own series with “Britain’s Official SEGA Comic”, Sonic the Comic (StC), a fortnightly publication that I collected diligently until its unfortunate end. Heavily influenced by the now defunct Mobius and Doctor Ovi Kintobor storyline that was popular outside of Japan, StC quickly veered away from the source material to portray Sonic the a mean-spirited leader of a gang of Freedom Fighters comprised of both videogame characters and anthropomorphic characters adapted from the videogames. Like the Archie comics, StC included some very loose adaptations of the videogames that were often truncated or heavily altered to fit with its noticeably different lore. Their adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (SEGA Technical Institute. 1993; 1994) was no different, though it was framed as a lengthy ongoing storyline told over several issues. Additionally, though he was first teased in a one-off story in the 1994 Sonic Summer Special, these stories also stand as some of the most prominent storylines as they introduced Knuckles the Echidna to the comic, a character who would be at the forefront of his own solo series within StC and some of StC’s most important stories.

The Review:
Sonic the Comic readers first met Knuckles in Sonic: The Summer Special, the first of many bumper publications from Fleetway that contained additional stories and content not seen in the main issues. In his first appearance, Knuckles looked notably different, appearing squatter and more of a plum colour than his traditional red. Still, “Guardian of the Chaos Emeralds” introduces the legend of what was then called the Floating Island, a mysterious island floating above the clouds and which is so rarely glimpsed by those below that it’s thought to be a myth. However, this myth is actually true and the island, held aloft by the power of the Chaos Emeralds, is home to Knuckles, the last of the Echidna people, who is duty bound to safeguard the island while waiting for his people to return. One day, a meteor comes crashing down in the Ice Cap Zone, caching Knuckles’ attention. Knuckles easily travels the distance using a zoom tube and finds it’s not a meteor, but a large spherical craft. Knuckles is stunned when a remote probe emerges and, though cautious, ventures inside to help the “humble inventor” trapped within. Finding the interior to be a mess, Knuckles follows the probe, whose operator expresses surprise to learn they’ve crashed on the Floating Island and that Knuckles has all the Chaos Emeralds there with him. This is all the information the devious Doctor Ivo Robotnik needs to warn the naïve guardian of a pending threat from Sonic the Hedgehog, and therefore dupe Knuckles into aligning with him. A few months later, concerned over Dr. Robotnik’s disappearance after the Death Egg II fell from orbit, Sonic and the Freedom Fighters scoff at the notion that it landed on the mythical Floating Island. Sonic, already irritated at having to go on what he sees as a wild goose chase, is thus stunned when he and Miles “Tails” Prower find the Floating Island based on Kintobor’s hypothesis. Sonic and Tails land in a loose approximation of the Marble Garden Zone and are instantly attacked by an arrow-spitting totem pole, just one of many hazards and traps littering the mythical island. Thankfully, the sarcastic Sonic is saved from falling to his death by the much-abused Tails, and even demonstrates a secret new ability of his, a forcefield he creates by vibrating the air molecules in front of him at super speed.

Sonic meets his match in Knuckles, but ends the fight by finally capturing Dr. Robotnik!

The presence of a Badnik is all the proof Sonic needs that Dr. Robotnik is on the island, but the egg-shaped tyrant makes a physical appearance at the story’s end and Sonic learns the hard way that his hated enemy as a new ally: Knuckles, guardian of the Floating Island and last of the echidnas, who lays Sonic out with a single punch. Sonic recovers pretty quickly but learns that Dr. Robotnik has duped the isolated echidna into thinking that Sonic and Tails are petty thieves and despots looking to steal his island’s Chaos Emeralds; naïve and trusting that Dr. Robotnik is a kind-hearted soul, Knuckles has pledged to defend his island and its Chaos Emeralds, and a fight ensues. While Sonic has the speed advantage, Knuckles exhibits extraordinary superhuman (superanthro?) strength, walloping Sonic over the head and causing a significant tremor by punching the ground. When Sonic sends Knuckles flying with a whirlwind-like Spin Attack, the echidna surprises him by tunnelling under the dirt and the two battle so fiercely while underground that the landscape cracks apart. Sonic gains the upper hand but, although he’s taken a beating, Knuckles is still more raring for more; however, Sonic manages to outsmart his new rival by thinking of the big picture and has Tails literally capture Dr. Robotnik in a net and fly them away from the island.

Dr. Robotnik reveals his true nature, but his lofty ambitions are immediately undone by Knuckles.

Although Sonic exudes his usual brash arrogance, he admits to himself the Knuckles was tougher than he looked, and his troubles with the misguided echidna are soon revisited when Knuckles burrows into Dr. Robotnik’s cell at Sonic’s space thanks to a homing device the mad scientist implanted at the base of Knuckles’ skull! Dr. Robotnik takes Porker Lewis hostage and demands that Sonic hand over the six Chaos Emeralds in his possession; left with little choice, Sonic reluctantly hands over the gems and tries to appeal to Knuckles, but to no avail, so he and Tails quickly pursue the duo back to the Floating Island to retrieve the jewels. Sonic and Knuckles get back into it, but while Sonic is able to pummel the dreadlocked echidna, he’s at a disadvantage due to Knuckles’ knowledge of the island and all its secrets; Sonic feigns being crushed by two giant stone hands in order to get a better idea of Dr. Robotnik’s endgame, much to Tails’s chagrin, and the two follow their enemies to the Temple of Chaos. These stone runes seem to be acting as a temporary stand-in for the Hidden Palace Zone, and are home to the Floating Island’s six Chaos Emeralds; Knuckles is delighted to have the twelve Chaos Emeralds finally reunited after being split apart untold aeons ago, explaining how there are two sets of Chaos Emeralds in StC lore. However, at this point, the Chaos Emeralds are emerald cut and resemble the 2D sprites from the first two Sonic games rather than the diamond cut design of Sonic 3 and more commonly associated with them, and the Master Emerald is noticeably missing. Instead, the “Control Emerald” is the long-lost Grey Emerald, but Dr. Robotnik utilises a device of his own creation to replicate the Grey Emerald’s power, merge the twelve gems back into six, and then surprise Knuckles by absorbing the Emerald’s energy into himself! Nigh-invincible and grown to gigantic proportions, Dr. Robotnik easily turns Tails to glass and reveals his true nature as a manipulative, malicious dictator with designs of using the Chaos Energy to dominate and destroy everything in his path. However, Knuckles easily turns the tables by revealing not only that he’s not as gullible as Dr. Robotnik thought but also that he’s been in possession of the Grey Emerald all along; he easily saps the Chaos Energy from the would-be God, restoring Tails in the process, and teleports him away from the Floating Island, ending his threat before it can really begin.

Knuckles comes to Sonic’s aid to atone for leading Dr. Robotnik to his secret base.

With the truth revealed to Knuckles, Sonic offers him a place among the Freedom Fighters, but he refuses; not only is Sonic’s war none of his business, but he’s patiently waiting for his people to return from the stars, and the three part was amicably…but far from friends. Although Dr. Robotnik’s dreams of Godhood have been dashed, he poses an even more significant threat than ever as he now knows the location of Sonic’s hidden base and he launches an all-out assault against the Freedom Fighters with a legion of his Badniks and piloting the “Squeeze Tag Machine” (basically the Big Arms from Sonic 3). Tails and Amy have already abandoned the base, but Sonic and Johnny Lightfoot are forced to engage with Dr. Robotnik to buy Porker the time to download Kintobor’s program to the Golden Ring he came from to preserve his personality. The maniacal megalomaniac isn’t messing around this time, though, and the Squeeze Tag Machine proves too tough for even Sonic’s patented Spin Attack, but he’s able to buy them just enough time by burying the machine under a cave-in. While this is going on, Knuckles is working his way across the Floating Island, removing every trace of Dr. Robotnik’s influence; his first target is the Death Egg II, which is under repair at the tyrant’s man-made Launch Base Zone and under the supervision of the doctor’s slimy little assistant, Grimer. Knuckles coerces Grimer into delivering a false message of his death, simply to make a dramatic last-minute save right as Dr. Robotnik is closing in for the kill; with his incredible strength, he smashes open the Squeeze Tag Machine and allows Sonic to deliver the final blow, but there’s still the issue of the doctor’s Badnik army. Knuckles busts them out into the open and the two begrudgingly join forces to fend them  off, trading barbs and making a competition out of the combat. Although they clearly have no love for each other, there’s no denying that Sonic and Knuckles make a formidable team and (with some help from Johnny) and it isn’t long before they’re surrounded by a mess of broken mechanical parts. However, this is enough of a distraction for Dr. Robotnik to make a hasty retreat, and the status quo for Sonic and his friends has forever changed as they’re forced to go on the run, and in disguise, as “Bob Beaky’s Travelling Circus”. As for Knuckles, he commandeers one of Dr. Robotnik’s Egg-O-Matic’s and returns to his island for his first solo run, parting on amicable but strained terms with his newfound rival.

The Summary:
I was super hyped for Knuckles’ big debut in StC; the character had really captured my imagination and fascination at the time and I was eagerly anticipating his first story arc after his brief introductory story. Thankfully, StC definitely delivered in these stories; thanks to the unparalleled art of Richard Elson, Knuckles is at his absolute best here, appearing intimidating and confident and strong and he never comes across as a gullible, sheltered fool. Instead, he’s simply misguided; he has no reason not to trust Dr. Robotnik and is focused only on protecting his island and reuniting the Chaos Emeralds. Sure, it’s a bit weird how his chest fur is imagined as a necklace, but the character brings probably the most physical challenge to Sonic since Metallix. Though outmatched by Sonic’s speed, Knuckles more than holds his own with his superior strength, durability, and unrivalled knowledge of the Floating Island and all its secrets. He also ends up proving himself to be a wily and honourable warrior, deceiving Dr. Robotnik about the Grey Emerald and even helping Sonic out despite having no interest in the troubles of the surface world.

Very few locations and elements from the source material make it into the story.

It’s a shame, then, that the story really doesn’t explore the Floating Island all that much; the only location the story visits from the game is the Marble Garden Zone and the Temple of Chaos (which doesn’t appear in the game) and, as always, simply cherry-picks elements from the games such as Badniks, hazards, and Dr. Robotnik’s battle craft. However, it’s important to note that Knuckles’ story didn’t end here; far from it, in fact. Through his own solo run, and a subsequent story arc, we would see much more of the Floating Island and adaptations of Sandopolis Zone, Carnival Night Zone, and Sky Sanctuary Zone in a loose adaptation of Sonic & Knuckles that served as a conclusion to this arc. Here, though, there’s very little pulled from the source material and more of the story takes place in the Emerald Hill Zone thanks to the amount of time spent in Sonic’s base. Despite this, Knuckles’ big debut did shake things up in StC for quite some time; Sonic and his friends no longer had a hidden base to operate out of, and had gained a tentative ally in the reclusive echidna, who would reluctantly help Sonic out in future stories as well as have both solo adventures and team-based stories with the Chaotix Crew.

Richard Elson’s art, and the fights between Sonic and Knuckles, are the best parts of this story arc.

Overall, this is a fun story that is given a lot of time to breathe across its six issues, and yet is still primarily more focused on adding to the original lore of the comics rather than delivering a faithful adaptation of Sonic 3. I often wonder just how much material, context, and gameplay the writers and artists of these comics were given access to as there’s rarely an attempt to directly represent the events of the videogames, or maybe it was simply just easier to spend the time introducing and familiarising readers to this new, bad-ass character rather than dwell on the specifics. The general thrust of Sonic 3 is (Dr. Robotnik tricks Knuckles in The Summer Special, steals the Chaos Emeralds, and has Sonic fight Knuckles while he works to repair his Death Egg) but the lack of representation from the Zones is disappointing. It would’ve been nice, for example, if Sonic and Knuckles had had their rematch in Angel Island Zone rather than crash-landing in Marble Garden Zone, and the paper-thin explanation for Sonic’s new forcefield ability seemed forced to me (I don’t recall this ability ever appearing again in the comics, either). Ignoring Knuckles’ off-model appearance in The Summer Special, the best part of this story arc are the fights between Sonic and Knuckles, which are wonderfully brought to life by the amazing Richard Elson. Sonic’s biting wit and abusive attitude are a fantastic counterpart to the proud Knuckles, and this arc really expanded the world of StC into new arenas thanks to the mystery and lore surrounding the last guardian and his Floating Island and went a long way to bringing the comic a little more in line with the source material.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Have you ever read Knuckles’ debut story arc from Sonic the Comic? If so, what did you think of it and which of the six parts was your favourite? Did you enjoy the artwork and Sonic’s abrasive attitude? What did you think to the way certain aspects of Sonic 3 were adapted into StC’s lore and would you have preferred a more faithful rendition? Which of Knuckles’ StC stories was your favourite and what did you think to the changes they made to his character and backstory? How are you celebrating the anniversary of Sonic 3’s release today? Please feel free to share your memories of StC and Sonic 3 & Knuckles below by signing up, or on my social media.