TV REVIEW: BOJACK HORSEMAN – SEASON 04 – EPISODE 03

September 12, 2017September 12, 2017 festreviews Mary Cox, television, Television Reviews, TV Reviews, Uncategorized Aaron Long, Alison Brie, Amy Sedaris, BOJACK HORSEMAN – SEASON 04 – EPISODE 03, Hooray! Todd Episode!, Mary Cox, television, TV Reviews, Will Arnett

Helpful to a fault, Todd is spread thin doing favors for Princess Carolyn, Mr. Peanutbutter and a visitor with a potential connection to BoJack.

Review by Mary Cox

“Hooray! Todd Episode!”

Asexuality is something that hasn’t really been addressed in any mainstream form of media up until this point in time. There’s a lot of controversy about what asexuality really is, or how to define it as an orientation. In spite of this, Bojack Horseman is actually doing a great job with handling Todd’s exploration of his sexuality, and with depicting asexuals as normal human beings who aren’t the result of malfunctioning biology or dysfunctional personalities.

Again, there’s an issue with congruence of ideas in this episode. The undercurrent of Todd seeking to prioritize his own self-care, while also trying to manage his personal and professional relationships almost comes together. However, between Mr. Peanutbutter’s campaign, Princess Carolyn’s struggle to conceive, and Bojack’s long-lost daughter, there’s just so much happening this season that even in a literal “Todd Episode,” there’s no real room to focus on the inner-life of this character.

It seems like because the show has become less and less Bojack-centric that there’s now a serious lack of focus and structure. Bojack Horseman has never really been an ensemble show, and transferring it over to that structural format is an interesting experiment. Despite the efforts to keep the series fresh and original, right now, it doesn’t seem like Bojack Horseman is a show with a host of concurrent and carefully structured plot lines. Instead, we have a great big bunch of loose and hanging threads that are more tangled than tied together.

******
“Mary Cox is an entertainment writer from the United States. Her hobbies include making good beer and bad decisions, watching drag queens fight on the internet, and overanalyzing everything. Mary one day hopes to be the person shouting “World Star” in the back of a Waffle House brawl video. She is currently tolerating life in Toronto. You can follow her on Twitter at @M_K_Cox”t

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TV REVIEW: BOJACK HORSEMAN – SEASON 04 – EPISODE 02

September 12, 2017September 12, 2017 festreviews Mary Cox, television, Television Reviews, tv, TV Reviews, Uncategorized Alison Brie, Amy Sedaris, Anne Walker Farrell, BOJACK HORSEMAN – SEASON 04 – EPISODE 02, kate purdy, Mary Cox, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, television, The Old Sugarman Place, TV Reviews, Will Arnett

BoJack goes off the grid and winds up at his grandparents’ dilapidated home in Michigan where he reflects on his family legacy and befriends another soul haunted by the past.

Director:

Anne Walker Farrell

Writers:

Raphael Bob-Waksberg (creator), Kate Purdy

Stars:

Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie

Review by Mary Cox

“The Old Sugarman Place”

Bojack is back! The second episode of this series sits somewhat uncomfortably for me. “The Old Sugarman Place” seems to be jumping back a little from the weight and drama of the previous season, but it’s right now, it feels the direction of the show is kind of still in limbo. Bojack Horseman is half-in and half-out of being a serious drama.

In the flashback scenes with Bojack’s grandparents, the recurring “it’s the past, so everyone is sexist” jokes start to wear a little thin. This isn’t because the repeated references to “womb problems” are offensive or in bad taste, but it’s that the jokes are somewhat one note. After the fourth or fifth antiquated riff, this episode starts to somewhat literally beat a dead horse.

Bojack’s grandmother getting lobotomized at the end of the episode is melodramatic and out of place. This scene is clearly supposed to be evocative of Rosemary Kennedy, the younger sister of JFK who was famously lobotomized against her will, but certain tragedies don’t translate when it comes to cartoon horses. Touching on such a dark and serious topic would be okay if it wasn’t just a throwaway moment in a flashback, but the way Bojack Horseman handles this scenario makes the weight and tragedy of the lobotomy somewhat cheap and unnecessary.

Clearly, there exists a balance between comedy and tragedy, and in the past, Bojack Horseman has successfully walked that line. However, things aren’t looking so hot based on how the content of this episode has been handled. There’s a chance that the flashbacks at the Sugarman cabin will have some greater thematic significance later in the season, but I’m not holding my breath.

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TV REVIEW: BOJACK HORSEMAN – SEASON 04 – EPISODE 01

September 12, 2017September 12, 2017 festreviews Mary Cox, television, Television Reviews, tv, TV Reviews Alison Brie, Amy Sedaris, Amy Winfrey, BOJACK HORSEMAN – SEASON 04 – EPISODE 01, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, See Mr. Peanutbutter Run, television, TV Reviews, Will Arnett

Mr PeanutButter starts his campaign for Governor of California and starts by challenging the current governor to a ski race while Bojack is no where to be found.

Director:

Amy Winfrey

Writers:

Raphael Bob-Waksberg (creator),

Stars:

Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie

Review by Mary Cox

“See Mr. Peanutbutter Run”

After last season’s bombshell with the death of Sara Lynn, Bojack Horseman seems to be pivoting away from heavy drama and is returning to more of the lighthearted comedy featured in the first season of the series. Bojack himself is still missing in this episode, but it’s unlikely that he’s going to pull an Agent Cooper and not show up until late in the game.

This season of Bojack Horseman is shaping up to be heavily political, as the California gubernatorial race is pretty obviously taking a page from the 2016 Presidential Election. Mr. Peanutbutter has never really been depicted as a sinister character in the past, but something tells me that drawing a parallel between Peanutbutter and Trump is pretty telling about the direction this season is going to take.

It’s almost impossible to make something now that doesn’t touch on the surreal political climate we’re all desperately trapped inside, but I’m wondering how close to home we’re really going to get here. Can we expect another Cosby episode, where contemporary hot topics like covered-up abuse and sexism in the film industry itself is addressed? Or is this going to be a broader and more general look at the world we now live in?

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Film Review: THE NUT JOB 2: NUTTY NY NATURE (USA 2017) ***

August 7, 2017 festreviews 2017 movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized Bob Barlen, Cal Brunker, film reviews, gilbert seah, Katherine Heigl, Maya Rudolph, THE NUT JOB 2: NUTTY NY NATURE, Will Arnett

Following the events of the first film, Surly and his friends must stop Oakton City’s mayor from destroying their home to make way for a dysfunctional amusement park.

Director: Cal Brunker
Writers: Bob Barlen, Cal Brunker
Stars: Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Maya Rudolph

Review by Gilbert Seah

The sequel to THE NUT JOB delivers much more of the same with the coloured squirrels and other rodent park animals, led by Sury and his rat sidekick Buddy, voiced by mostly the same actors.

Surly (Will Arnett) and the park animals must band together to prevent Oakton City’s crooked mayor (Bobby Moynihan) from bulldozing Liberty Park and replacing it with a dangerous amusement park. Surly even gets help from the territorial street mouse gang leader Mr. Feng (Jackie Chan) into thwarting the mayor’s plot.
The sequel introduces three new and welcome characters that provide most of the film’s freshness and humour. These are Bobby Moynihan as the Mayor of Oakton City, Isabela Moner as Heather, the mayor’s spoiled daughter and Jackie Chan as Mr. Feng. Credit should also definitely go to the animators of these three creatures.

When Mr. Feng, the white mouse first appears in the film, speaking with a strong Chinese impression, the immediate thought that will come to mind is racism. Society has progressed a far way since Mickey Rooney could get away doing really awful and unacceptable Japanese impressions with fake teeth in Blake Edwards’ BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S. But the credits list Jackie Chan as the voice behind Mr. Feng, and Chan does speak that way with a strong Hong Kong accent. The animators are also smart enough to make sure all he mice characters including Mr. Feng have really round and no slanted eyes.

THE NUT JOB films are the lower breed of animated films after films like SHREK, MADAGASCAR, HAPPY FEET, KUNG FU PANDA, HOW TO SAVE YOUR DRAGON, MEATBALLS. The NUT JOB films are have nothing really new to offer. Despite a few relatively new ideas (such as the mice and Mr. Fend who refuse to be cute – a sort of direct attack at cutest animated characters), parents will find the whole enterprise a chore to watch while children will undoubtedly be entertained.
Though the film is listed as an American production, there is a lot of Asian input (especially in the animation) as mentioned in the closing credits. Not only that but two asian companies are credited as with producing credits at the start of the film.

THE NUTJOB films are modest productions. The first cost only $42 million to make and went on to gross $120 million thus green lighting a sequel. The original director, a Canadian Peter Lepeniotis who based the first film on characters he created in his short was supposed to co-write the sequel but his name is missing from the list. Number 2 is co-written by Cal Brunker
Bob Barlen andScott Bindley.

The closing credits in the first THE NUT JOB film featuring an animated version of South Korean rapper Psi performing “Gangam Style” dancing with the park rodents were so irresistible that almost the entire audience stayed to the end. This was indeed a difficult act to follow and the rap sequence the closing credits of NUT JOB 2 unfortunately emptied the theatre in no time, thus allowing almost everyone to miss a last sequence of animation that appears once the closing credits rolled over.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lpw2gJt9Us

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