Movie Reviews: "CoCo" and "Olaf's Frozen Adventure"

Reviews Written By Michael J. Ruhland



CoCoMichael's Movie Grade: A+

Review: Incredible pure Pixar magic at its best and a must see for all movie lovers.

When I was watching Cars 3 for the first time (and yes I enjoyed that movie) I could tell you each little thing that was going to happen next. This is far from the case with CoCo. Just when I thought I knew where the story was heading it did something completely different. However not only was it completely different, but it was so much more powerful than what I saw coming. This is an extremely moving movie. This is hugely because the characters and environments felt so real. I believed from the bottom of my heart every little thing I saw on screen and accepted it as real. The characters could have easily been simple movie stereotypes, but they are so much more. Each facet of their personality is extremely well thought out and come together to make a completely believable character. The environments are likewise filled with an extreme amount of detail. I can't even imagine how much work probably went into something I probably saw on screen for no less than a second. The story itself is fantastic. As I stated before, you never know what is going to happen next. Despite this though each plot twist seems to naturally flow out of the story and characters and there is nothing in this film that feels forced.

It is hard to praise this movie enough, but every movie fan out there needs to see it.

Olaf's Frozen Adventure

       Michael's Movie Grade: B+

Review: This short was a delightfully enjoyable little film, and I was happy to get both this and a feature film for my money.

The best parts of this film were the humor and characters. While I know many people seem to be tired of Olaf, I find him a great character, whose ability to detach body parts reminds me of silent era cartoon characters like Felix the cat or Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He is extremely delightful here, as he is funny and good hearted and brings a classic cartoon energy to this film. This film is quite funny throughout much of it. While it is hard to describe why a film is funny, I found myself laughing at quite a few of these jokes. The short also gives us a greater insight to what happened when Elsa had to hide from Anna, and these scenes are very touching and flow naturally out of the characters, we already loved from Frozen.

On the downside this does feel like a story we have seen before, and Anna and Elsa's part in the story seems too brief.

I have to be honest, I don't know why people hate this short so much. I find it delightful. I know many people complained about having to sit through a 21 minute short before the feature. However to me the short felt like it went by extremely quickly. Also to me to get a longer short and a feature just made it feel like I was getting a very special movie going experience that is too rare today. Personally I would love if Disney made more 21 minute shorts before their feature films, but sadly that doesn't look like it is going to happen.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: My Little Pony the Movie

Review By Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade: B

Review: A highly enjoyable adventure movie, but those who have seen enough of the TV show it is based off of will know that show does outshine this film by quite a bit.

The highlights of this movie are the returning characters and animation. The characters are just as well developed and likable as they are in the TV show. Twilight is given the biggest role and is handled very well. While it is unfortunate that her geekiness is toned down here, she is extremely likable and relatable. At all times you fully understand what she is going through. She may be a hero but she is far from perfect and does things that she soon regrets. The other members of the mane six are also very well written but are not given as much development as they have received in episodes of the TV show as this film is mostly Twilight's story and there is nothing wrong with that. The animation is the one thing that really is an improvement over the show. This animation is absolutely incredible. It stays true to the TV show's roots but does something quite different with the look here. The film beautifully combines 2-d animation with 3-d animation. This never feels forced and the two look perfect together giving the film a bit of scope not seen in the show. The character animation is equally effective and just by looking at the animation you can tell just what the characters are thinking. They tell you everything with just a look. The story itself is quite charming and fun. It is not anything that rises above anything the show itself has done (and in fact repeats what episodes of the show have already done), but is still a lot of fun. It has a great sense of adventure, and scope.

However this film does have problems the main one is many of the new characters. The Storm King himself is a very disappointing villain. Despite his great power and how much he intimidates other characters he does not feel the least bit threatening when appearing on screen. This is strange considering how intimidating the villains in the show were (Discord, Quenn Chrysalis, Tirek). The fact you know they have done so much better on this front makes him all the more disappointing. His character is also given some humor but this falls flat. Speaking of unfunny villains Grubber a "comic" sidekick to the villains is extremely unfunny. Every one of his jokes feels forced and annoying. This character also talks in a very modern "hip" style that will soon date each scene the character is in. Tempest however is a fairly strong villain even if she treads ground already done in episodes of the series. Despite this she is quite enjoyable and a nice addition. Capper is another strong new character. On another downside Songbird Serenade feels like just what she is a forced celebrity cameo.

There is nothing (besides the animation) here that makes it stand out among all the episodes of the TV show. In fact some of the show's best episodes are better. However for what it is this is a very enjoyable movie. It is a lot of fun to watch and fans of the TV show (myself included) will have a lot of fun watching it. Newcomers should enjoy the movie, but will not understand the huge obsession the show's fanbase has as well as if they had watched A Canterlot Wedding (for a quick example). So just understand that the show is better and sit down and enjoy a fun movie, because there is still a lot to recommend here.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: The Lego Ninjago Movie

Review Written by Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade:D

Review: Sadly an extremely disappointing film after the last two Lego movies, and just not a very good movie period.

The major problem with this movie is that is simply extremely clichéd and predictable. The only thing that is really surprising in the story comes quite early on and everything that happens after that can easily be seen coming. This is equally true of almost all of the film's jokes, most having a punchline we see coming from a mile away. There are some good jokes here, but sadly they are not as common as the weak jokes are. However these weak jokes are rarely that bad they just don't invoke much laughter. The characters are similarly very familiar. They aren't bad characters but they feel like characters from so many different films, and have little to make them stand out on their own (yes I do know this is based off a TV show). However the weakest part of the movie is the live action opening a closing sequences. These really feel out of place in this movie and like they were tacked on at the last minute. They add nothing to the movie and the film wouldn't lose anything if they were cut. The inclusion of these scenes feel more puzzling than anything.

The movie has its good points though. The animation is excellent, as should be expected from these Lego movies, the voice acting is quite good, there are a few good jokes (even if they are in the minority), and the characters are pretty likable if not exactly memorable.


This movie doesn't leave much of a bad taste in your mouth, but instead just leaves one with little if any impact. This unfortunately though does make this a huge disappointment after the last two Lego movies.

-Michael J. Ruhland