animated – Page 2 – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn (1982)
Written by Peter S. Beagle
Directed by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass

I grew up with a very inconsistent standard of what I could and could not watch because of my parents’ reactionary right-wing Christian beliefs. He-Man? It was not allowed because he called on the power of Greyskull, not Jesus. Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia? Perfectly fine because it was some sort of metaphor for Jesus. The Last Unicorn was one of those movies that would air around Easter or Thanksgiving on television. I would catch promos for it but was never allowed to watch because it was “of the Devil.” By the time my youngest siblings reached high school age, my once religiously dogmatic parents had abandoned these strictures but still kept them in their pockets as a cudgel to judge other people. So, after all these decades, I finally got to see The Last Unicorn, and it was, um…okay.

PopCult Podcast – The Boy and The Heron/Furiosa

A Japanese animation master delivers his potential swan song while An Australian filmmaking legend visits his apocalyptic sandbox once again.

TV Review – The End of Evangelion

The End of Evangelion (1997)
Written by Hideaki Anno
Directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki and Hideaki Anno

Apparently, a large enough contingent of viewers were dissatisfied with the ending of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and creator Hideaki Anno produced this follow-up feature that exists parallel to that conclusion. From what I read, it sounded like Anno went back and forth between his original concept and some altered ideas. It is a very jarring experience for the central narrative to suddenly collapse into an internal dialogue between Shinji and mental projections of the important people in life. There’s also a meta-commentary on anime cliches that pops up and a weirdly upbeat ending. Several questions were left unanswered, so it was decided to go back and add more to the finale.

TV Review – Neon Genesis Evangelion Episodes 19 thru 26

Neon Genesis Evangelion – Episodes 19 through 26
Written by Hideaki Anno, Akio Satsukawa, and Hiroshi Yamaguchi
Directed by Masayuki, Masahiko Ōtsuka, Hiroyuki Ishidō, Akira Takamura, Shōichi Masuo, and Kazuya Tsurumaki

When I first started watching Neon Genesis Evangelion at the start of the year, I read that some fans hated the ending of the anime series. I wanted to know why that could be. Now that I have finished the show, I completely understand why some of the audience would not like this. I, however, am a big weirdo, and I loved it, yet I get that it goes in a wildly different direction and doesn’t provide the direct sort of conclusion you might expect from a show about giant “robots” fighting monsters from space. Of course, I will be watching and reviewing the two feature films that serve as a complementary ending next month, but for now, I just want to focus on the series.

TV Review – Neon Genesis Evangelion Episodes 13 thru 18

Neon Genesis Evangelion – Episodes 13 thru 18
Written by Hideaki Anno, Mitsuo Iso, Akio Satsukawa, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Shinji Higuchi
Directed by Tensai Okamura, Masahiko Ōtsuka, Ken Andō, Naoyasu Habu, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Minoru Ōhara

Neon Genesis Evangelion is finally unfolding its mystery with this batch of episodes. Of everything I have watched so far, these were the ones that grabbed me the most. I won’t say I understand every detail of what is going on, but the ideas presented here are both about how the Angels are evolving and what NERV’s true end goal is with the development of Evas. Some very anime-trope-y things are still going on, but they feel toned down in this section of the series. I think that was the right idea because now we’re starting to see who the real villain of this story is, and I don’t think it’s the Angels.

Movie Review – Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
Written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman
Directed by Robert Zemeckis

There will never be a film like this one again. Warner Bros. and Disney allowing their characters on screen together makes it a rare event. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was a celebration of classic American animation, both in the characters featured but also in animation legend Richard Williams overseeing that part of the production. Watching it now as an adult, it is surprisingly straightforward. It follows the noir genre closely with its plot while letting the tone be set by the zany premise. The story takes place over two days, and there’s never a lull; the pacing keeps us moving along with the characters, leading up to a very memorable conclusion.

TV Review – Neon Genesis Evangelion Episodes 7 thru 12

Neon Genesis Evangelion – Episodes 7-12
Written by Hideaki Anno, Yōji Enokido, Akio Satsukawa, and Seiji Mizushima
Directed by Keiichi Sugiyama, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Tsuyoshi Kaga, Hiroyuki Ishidō, and Tetsuya Watanabe

Here are my thoughts on the first six episodes of Evangelion

My feelings on this next batch of six episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion are far more positive than the first six. The first six were not terrible, but these are diving just a bit more beneath the surface of the back story, and some characters are introduced that add some much-needed conflict & new personalities to the series.

Movie Review – The Venture Brothers: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart

The Venture Brothers: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart (2023)
Written by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer
Directed by Jackson Publick

In 2020, series creator Jackson Publick announced on Twitter that Adult Swim had canceled The Venture Brothers. He and co-creator Doc Hammer had been in the middle of writing season eight when they were informed. After eighteen years, Adult Swim decided they no longer wanted more of this show. Publick & Hammer took what they had for season eight and reworked it into a script for an eighty-four-minute feature that would serve as the series finale. This film was released in 2003, marking the 20th anniversary of The Venture Brothers.

Patron Pick – Ferngully: The Last Rainforest

This special reward is available to Patreon patrons who pledge at the $10 or $20 monthly levels. Each month, those patrons will pick a film for me to review. If they choose, they also get to include some of their thoughts about the movie. This Pick comes from Bekah Lindstrom.

Ferngully: The Last Rainforest (1992)
Written by Jim Cox
Directed by Bill Kroyer

The 1990s was a strange time for the environmentalist movement. My perspective was shaped at the time by hyper-conservative Christian fundie parents who, fed by their own propaganda sewer, insisted that anything about protecting nature from corporate greed was “new age, pagan filth.” We didn’t watch Captain Planet in my house for that very reason. Not that I was really missing anything. Upon visiting that show for the first time as an adult, I was very unimpressed, but I can now see also the stuff I did like at the time as very pandering, shallow commercialism. My parents didn’t have a problem with the mass marketing to children part of things; they loved capitalism. All this to say, I never watched Ferngully until this Patron request. Without the rose-colored nostalgia of my childhood to lean on for this one, it is pretty bad as far as kids’ movies go.

TV Review – The Venture Brothers Season Seven

The Venture Brothers Season Seven (Adult Swim)
Written by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer
Directed by Juno Lee

The core theme rippling throughout The Venture Brothers has been fathers & sons. This is seen in multiple relationships in the series. There is Rusty Venture and his deceased dad, Dr. Jonas Venture. There’s Hank and Dean in relation to their father. There were more on the edges of the show: Brock’s paternal relationship with Hunter Gathers, Sergeant Hatred’s desperation to be seen as a father figure, and Billy Quizboy having to accept Action Man as his potential stepfather. But that first dynamic, the one between former child adventurer Rusty and his deeply toxic father, was the fuel for this show. With Venture Brothers Season Seven, we open on a three-parter that finally brings closure to that arc.