Soul // Review #11

(*Sigh*)

Okay, so I finally watched the Disney/Pixar movie, Soul.

And to make a long review short, I didn’t like it.

My brother originally wanted to watch this movie a long time ago because he was told by his friends that this movie was inspiring and life- changing. So, we watched it together over this past weekend. 

And… I was disappointed, to say the least. That’s not to say that I was expecting this Disney/Pixar film to utterly change my life or anything, but I was at least hoping to feel something instead of intense apathy and exhaustion by the time it was over. 

Let me explain:

You may or may not know this, but I am currently experiencing what is known to as a "quarter-life crisis," in which everything in my life seems to be frustrating and uncertain. Things like relationships and job prospects are all really hard for me to navigate right now. Knowing this information, you would think that a movie like Soul, in which the main character is trying to fulfill his dream even though he’s (literally) got one foot in the grave, would speak to me on some intimate level. You would think that someone like me, who is currently going through it (as the kids say), would relate all too well to someone like Joe for this particular reason, as he attempts to find his purpose in life. 

But au contraire! I did not!

Listen, I didn’t think Soul was a bad movie, per say, but for someone who went into this movie with moderate to high hopes, I will say that I was not exactly moved by this film. If anything, I was annoyed by it and slightly anxious for it to be over.

However, that's not to say that the film doesn't have its merits. (SPOILERS FOR SOUL, BY THE WAY)

Let’s start with the things I liked. 

Category 1: Diversity- B-

First of all, I liked that this movie was black. Unapologetically black, actually, which I appreciated. There was something delightfully real about Joe and his family in this movie, and it was in everything from the occasional side-eye from Dorothea to Joe having to kiss his auntie every time he sees her as a sign of respect. I fully got the impression that the creators of this movie understood how to depict black culture. Even getting notable actors like Jamie Foxx and Phylicia Rashad to play Joe and his mama was a solid casting choice. I really appreciated the human elements of the movie in which we as the audience got to see Joe’s neighborhood and how he interacts with those around him. Seeing his barber for example, was a nice touch, and elaborating on how he and his mom don’t see eye to eye was cool.

I even liked the scenes with Joe teaching his music class at the beginning, especially because it felt real and it was a real opportunity for the movie to show us who Joe was exactly and what he was all about.

That was good stuff. That was one of the strongest aspects of the movie.

That being said, it cannot be overlooked that this is the first Pixar film starring a black lead, and yet most of the film had the voice actor for this black lead voicing a blue blob or a cat instead. 

Which leads me into one of my main complaints about the film-

Category 2: Body Swap Horror- F (for “Fully Unnecessary,” again)

Midway through this movie, the main character, Joe, and an emerging soul known as 22 end up back on earth after seeing the Great Before. Somehow, through some shenanigans and some tomfoolery, this results in Joe, a black man, ending up in the body of a cat, while 22 (played by the white Tina Fey) ends up inside of Joe, the aforementioned black man's body.

By this point in the film I was tired.

Not only was I disappointed and a little annoyed that Pixar had the nerve to put another person of color into a situation where they're transformed into an animal so they learn their lesson (because it's a whole problematic trope in animation, especially with Disney films. I made a list on Letterboxd if you were curious.), but I was also just... unimpressed with the plot device as a whole because it seemed unnecessary.

Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen as frogs (left) and again as humans (right) from The Princess and the Frog (2009).

At least in The Princess and the Frog, the whole, "turning the main character into an animal" aspect of the movie was plot relevant because of the existence of voodoo in the universe. It was plausible and fun to watch because it implied that there was magic in this world, no matter how nefarious it may seem.

The Princess and the Frog also didn't throw me because  the original source material of the The Frog Princess already had a person transforming from a frog into a prince, and so it wasn't so outlandish and annoying when it happened in the movie (although it's still a little suspicious that they made the only black princess the one that transforms into an animal, but still).

Soul was different, though. They didn't just transform the human character into an animal- they fully swapped the human character with the non-human character for laughs, leaving the human character, who happens to be black, sidelined, trapped in the body of a cat.

In all fairness, I will say that there is a slight similarity between this aspect of Soul and an aspect of The Princess and the Frog. The closest thing that relates to this element of body swap horror in The Princess and the Frog are the scenes in which (SPOILER for The Princess and the Frog) Lawrence, the prince's lowly servant, pretends to be the prince by essentially donning blackface and putting on a charade. However, I will still argue that this is not as egregious or even as problematic as the Soul body swap was. 

Joe Gardner inside of Mr. Mittens the cat and 22 inside of Joe Gardner (played by Jaime Foxx and Tina Fey respectively)

For one thing, the frogs in The Princess and the Frog were not hanging around Lawrence attempting to coach him on how to be a prince as he impersonates Prince Naveen. In that movie, it was funny to watch Lawrence because he was a bumbling idiot who didn't know what he was doing, and he was very clearly the bad guy. Meanwhile, in Soul, Joe essentially had to coach 22 on how to be black throughout their daily interactions, and since they were both the heroes of the story, Pixar wasn't trying to be problematic in order to make their heroes look bad. Yet somehow, they were. 

It didn't matter that the people in the movie could only hear Joe's voice when 22 spoke- we as the audience knew it was Tina Fey, and so it essentially felt like Jamie Foxx giving Tina Fey a lesson on "how to be black" and I wasn't here for it.

The whole thing felt yucky to me, and it left me waiting for this portion of the movie to be over (even though it went on for a solid 20-30 minutes). 

I think the thing that bothered me the most about this aspect of Soul was that the person learning the lesson during this sequence was not Joe, but 22 in Joe's body. During this sequence, 22 was walking around admiring everything in the body of this man that she had no claim or right to. We spend most of our time on her arc throughout the film, which was annoying to me.

Joe may have reflected a little bit during his time as a cat, like he did when 22 spoke with the barber and when he spoke with his mother through 22, but the movie really wants you to worry about what 22 learned during her time on Earth. And I just couldn't get behind it.

I felt like Tina Fey had essentially hijacked this black man's body and character development, meanwhile the actual main character was relegated to a silly side gag.

If they really wanted to keep this stupid idea in the movie, they should have at least made Joe another person. The whole mix up that arises with Joe ending up in the body of another person is due to a kind old lady leaving her therapy cat on Joe's lap as he's in the hospital. In my rewrite, we would nix the old lady and her cat and put Joe into the body of another human person who had just vacated their body after they recently passed (a la Drop Dead Diva). (By the way, if you haven't heard of Drop Dead Diva, you should check out my other review that includes body-swapping horror, Wonder Woman 1984, where I go on about it for way too long.)

This would alleviate any of the previous concerns about turning him into an animal for a gag, and then the movie becomes a Freaky Friday mashup in which Joe and 22 have to get Joe back into his body or he'll be stuck inside this other person forever (It could even be another black person!). It would have even been better, to me, if Joe got to see the world through someone else's eyes in this case while 22 tagged along. Have this person's family come up to him and tell him how happy they are they he's alive. Have Joe get swept up and go to this person's job. At least then I would've felt like Joe had learned something about life and purpose and all that other crap he was so hung up on.

Anyway, I guess my main point here is that body-swap horror is problematic as hell unless you're referring to Freaky Friday (2003) or Drop Dead Diva.

Category 3: Plot- C

I was so worked up about the unnecessary body swapping element of the story that I got ahead of myself and failed to mention what the plot of this movie even is. Let's rewind.

Soul is the story of a middle aged man named Joe Gardner who is currently a middle school music teacher, but his dream is to become one of the greatest musicians jazz has ever heard of. Just as he's about to get his big break, however, he dies.

After Joe dies, he is transported (through shenanigans) to the Great Before instead of the Great Beyond. There, he is confused with someone who lived a worthy life (a la season one of The Good Place) and is tasked with mentoring a young soul before they reach Earth. In comes 22, a rambunctious soul who has no interest in becoming a person or even being on Earth. They need each other, though, because... plot?

Overall the plot was somehow too complicated and metaphysical for me to care about it, while also being outlandishly dumb (like, you mean to tell me that they couldn't figure out that Joe wasn't this renowned child psychologist that they immediately mistook him for, despite looking nothing like him even in the afterlife? Also, you mean to tell me that Joe is the first person ever to want off of the conveyor belt to the Great Beyond? Really?).

Aside from the problems that I had with the whole body-swapping plot device, I also couldn't really get into the plot as a whole. Perhaps it's just because I'm not a big jazz fan, or maybe it's because I wasn't super invested in Joe as a character, but there was never a point where I was sucked into this movie. I was just... sitting through it.

It probably didn't help that this movie didn't end in a satisfying way for me. We never resolve the whole conflict that Joe had at the beginning of the film with disliking his job, and we never see 22 ever again after she’s out on earth. I know that statistically it’s unlikely for Joe to run into 22, but I think that it would be a nice little nod to the audience if the two of them got to meet up again. 

For example, what if there was a baby born in a hospital where Joe was doing some sort of charity concert with his school, or what if years later Joe ran into a child that reminded him of 22, and he smiled?

OR! 

Even better, what if Joe wound up teaching 22 in his middle school class even further on and then they did an internal reveal to show that it was 22 inside of this twelve year old kid the whole time? That ending would have made me feel something as opposed to the apathy I felt at the corny “you get a second chance at life, so you better go live it” thing.

The ending may have seemed good on paper, but even an epilogue where we see what the rest of Joe’s life was like after he came back to earth would have felt sweeter and more earned, to me.

Category 4: Animation- A

Talk about an easy A. 

As always, the animation is where this movie really shines for me. I especially liked the Picasso-esque beings of Terry and the Jerrys. I really appreciated how they moved despite having no arms or legs (especially Terry when she moved throughout the real world.) I also feel like this movie played with space in an interesting way- both literally and figuratively.

That said, because a lot of the "real world" animation is grounded in ordinary New York City, the colors can seem a little flat at times. The animation is clearly well done, but in a photo-realistic way that's not immediately eye catching because of the setting where the film takes place. Of course the animation was lovely, but it wasn't as exciting or different to look at like some of the other Disney/Pixar films, like Ratatouille or Coco.

Despite my criticisms of the movie as a whole though, Soul managed to win a Best Animated Feature Oscar earlier this year, so the Disney/Pixar animation department has to be doing something right. They even beat themselves out for the other animated movie that they released in 2020, Onward.

Category 5: Themes- D

For me, the themes are where this movie really fell apart.

The theme of Soul isn’t exactly the clearest thing in the world, and again that has to do with the fact that the ending sucks. Like, I can see what they were trying to get the theme of the movie to be, but without a solid story structure, the theme doesn’t quite work as well.

Let's see if we can figure out where exactly the thread of this movie gets lost.

Joe was unhappy with his job at the start of the movie and threatening to not accept a good job offer because his dreams were more important than making decent money. His mother essentially tells him, "BOY, I thought I told you to accept that job" (paraphrasing, obviously). He ignores her and goes to an audition to become a jazz musician with a local band. He passes the audition, and on his way home- he dies.

Okay. Simple so far, right?

Here's where things take a turn.

As soon as Joe dies, things get muddy. This movie's no longer about following your dreams no matter how impractical they are, or even working hard to support yourself so that eventually you can follow your dreams.

As soon as Joe reaches the Great Before, the movie becomes about what your "Spark" is, and how your "Spark" is different from your (capital P) "Purpose." Joe thinks these two things are synonymous, and he believes that he was put on God's green earth to play jazz.

Which is... already too deep for me, dawg.

Like- your mama told you to stick with the stable teaching position, and I'm going to have to agree with her. Like, damn.

They could have went so many different ways with the messaging for this movie, but the way that they went in the end was weak and unsatisfying.

The theme of this movie started out being very anti-capitalist in its messaging, essentially saying: “I don’t dream of labor, and having a full time job isn't as important to me as doing the things that I want to do with my life, and following my passions." However, in the end, the moral that this movie comes to is that you don't need a "Purpose" in life, other than to just "live it," which is not only some hippy dippy bullshit, but it's not a theme so much as it is a lack of theme. 

I think the theme should have been more defined, and one way to do that is to take the whole "Fuck capitalism" route that they proposed at the beginning by having Joe argue with his mom about his full time job and run with it more. 

However, that's a big red flag for Pixar because Disney's clearly not going to dismantle the system that pays them billions every year. The theme has to be something else.

Then, instead of anti-capitalist propaganda, it seems like the theme could have been something along the lines of "Be happy with what you have" in terms of making a difference in children's lives and helping them to go along their path. This is briefly explored at the school in the beginning, and even referenced with the happy barber who ended up doing something completely different with his life than the thing he wanted to do. The theme in this scenario could have been something like "You never know what will truly make you happy until you're content with where you're at." (Similar to a Wreck it Ralph kind of theme, where you know who you are and accept your circumstances because that's just where you're at.)

Either way, the movie definitely didn't lean far enough into the whole "Fuck capitalism," thing that the Zoomers have going for them right now, and it also didn't lean the other way into the whole "Be happy with what you have" moral, either. Instead it came up with a clumsy third moral about "Sparks" and "Purposes" that fits literally nowhere into the story other than to serve as the plot device that gets 22 to come to Earth.

If they really wanted to make the "Spark" and "Purpose" theme work, though, they should have hit the whole “teacher” thing, harder. They should have reinforced Joe’s relationship with his students. He should have reflected at least once that he liked working with his kids and he enjoyed nurturing their musical talent. This never happens, and so the whole plot of the movie feels like a waste with an empty theme.

For example, there is a wasted scene with a music student in the middle of the movie where this opportunity is given to 22 in Joe's body, but I believe that Joe should have helped this child believe in herself and her musical abilities in order to reinforce his "Purpose" even though his "Spark" was music.

Overall, I just think that this theme of "Purpose" and "Spark" is lofty as hell, and difficult for children (if not most people) to grasp. Thinking about what brings you joy versus what you should be doing with your life is the kind of thing that you ponder at 3am when you're having a mental crisis, and usually those thoughts are about as scatterbrained as they appeared in this movie. 

I just think there was a lot of missed opportunity to pin down exactly what the broader idea of this movie was, and it could have been executed so much better if this movie had just been rewritten maybe two more times.

Category 6: Kid-Friendliness- D

I was not and am not convinced that this movie was made for kids. In fact, the whole time I was watching it, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps I was the target demographic for this movie, as I fall into the bracket of sad millennials who don't know what to do with their life (although I am on the cusp of Gen Z, for the record). 

However, I didn't cry at the end of this movie, which I think is a bad sign. I'm a big sucker for Disney films with a lot of heart, and I'm especially a sucker for animated movies where characters die before they can do the thing they want to do (a la Mufasa in The Lion King, and Tadashi in Big Hero 6), but this time I felt mostly tired after watching Soul. 

I think this is because the whole concept of the film felt way too deep for me, and I couldn't get past why this animated movie was tackling death in such a literal way. The Great Beyond is no longer a metaphorical, theoretical idea- it's a real thing, a real place. Literally. You can go to it and see what happened to all those that have come before you.

Joe looking up into "The Great Beyond."

Something about that just sat with me the wrong way. And while I know this movie made a painstaking effort to avoid religious discussion and to be as lighthearted about death as possible, it somehow still made the entire concept seem... dark?

I'm definitely not saying that this movie had to have religious overtones in order to be a better film (and I'm definitely not promoting one religious belief over another), especially not since this is technically a film for general audiences, (and parents would riot if their children were exposed to unsanctioned religious commentary) but... something about animating death in a way that depicts it this bluntly and absolutely is really bleak and unsettling for me.

Take Coco for example: In Coco, the main character, Miguel, is sent into the Land of the Dead in order to find his long lost relative so they can convince his family to allow him to play music. Even though most of the cast in this movie is long dead, the entire setting of the Land of the Dead is colorful and lively, implicating the notion of life after death. And while I understand that this is a cultural belief and there are clearly plot and thematic differences between Coco and Soul, somehow Coco still feels like it was made with children in mind. 

Nothing about Soul screamed: "Hey take your kids to see this!" 

The music was old (jazz), the main character was in his mid-forties, and the entire concept was about death and discovering what you're going to do with your life. As people in the biz would say, there is no "child-entry point" (Yes, I am referencing the whole Infinity Train controversy).

Soul had no singing and dancing, no princesses, and no superheroes. If I were a child, I would've been bored throughout most of this movie. And while I'm definitely not arguing that animation can only be made for children or with children in mind, I can't help but think that this is part of the reason why I didn't like Soul. 

The fact of the matter is, I was bored watching this movie.

And when I wasn't bored, I was unimpressed with what the movie had to say.

I was... annoyed, I think, with this movie as a whole. I guess I knew deep down I wasn't going to like it, but I went into it with an open mind, hoping I would be proved wrong. 

After watching it, though, I'm not sure how to feel other than disappointed in the choices that were made for this movie as a whole. Some of them worked for me, like the inclusion of more black culture and the theme of being happy with the life that you have instead of chasing a dream, but the execution was poor, leaving me feeling indifferent to most of this movie and everything it had to offer.

 

Overall, I'd give Soul a D. If you wanna watch a Disney movie where the black protagonist turns into an animal in order to learn the lesson they're meant to learn- watch The Princess and the Frog instead. It's a better movie.

Raya and The Last Dragon // Review #10

So this past weekend I finally got around to watching Raya and the Last Dragon with my brother. And, naturally, I had some thoughts.

Raya and the Last Dragon was a March premiere access release movie on Disney+ that was made available to stream the same day that it came out in theaters. If you have a Disney+ membership and are able to swing the hefty $30 premiere access fee, you can watch this film currently on the platform without having to leave the comfort of your own home or go to the movie theater. If you are currently not able to swing the (expensive) premiere access fee, then you can still go to the theater and see the film, or you can simply wait until June 4th when the movie is available on Disney+ without the premiere access surcharge.

I finally took the time to watch this movie this past weekend because not only did the movie look interesting and unique in comparison with other big Disney films, but because I wanted to know what the plot of the movie was. Try as I might, but I could not discern what the story of the movie was just from watching the trailers for the film. So naturally, I was curious. Going into this movie I knew that the visuals would be stunning and the animation would be immaculate, but I was cautiously optimistic about the story quality of the film. On more than one occasion I have left a Disney movie thinking that the story left a lot to be desired (I'm looking at you, Frozen.).

However, after watching this movie, I have to say that I did not have that problem with this film. I would even caution to say that the film is good. Dare I say, pretty good in fact. 

Perfect? Far from it. But definitely watchable, and possibly even re-watchable.

The following categories are the areas where I think the film excels, and where I think the film could use a few improvements.

Category 1: World-Building- B-

One of the first things that you will notice about Raya and the Last Dragon's universe is how dragon centric the entire world is.

Each village in this movie is named after a different part of the dragon's body (as represented on the map below), which when combined make a unified dragon, known as Kumandra. The five villages are Fang, Heart, Talon, Spine, and Tail. Raya, our main character throughout the movie, is from Heart, which is the sole proprietor of the only Dragon Stone in existence. 

Map of Kumandra

The first 15 minutes of this movie are dedicated to explaining this universe and how everything works in great detail to catch the viewers up to speed. This is presented by flashing back to Raya's past in order to give us her perspective on the five villages, and what makes each of them different. Once we are all caught up on the different tribes and what they are like aesthetically, the movie flashes forward to the present day, where Raya is travelling to all of the different regions in order to complete her quest. While I appreciate that I was never really lost on the whole world building aspect of the movie, I do almost wish that there was more time dedicated to each tribe's culture and how each region is different from one another, aside from aesthetically.

For example, early on in the movie it is mentioned by a character from Fang that rice isn't readily available for them like it is in Heart, where Raya is from. This is never fully explained or even mentioned again, but it is a worldbuilding detail that kind of got dropped out of nowhere.

I feel like this movie would have done better as an extended series or even an anthology series (like Infinity Train *cough, cough*) in which we explore the different regions of Kumandra and get to fully dive deep into the history and lore of each region. Experiencing the locations through Raya's perspective is nice, but it can feel limiting when the character is on a time-sensitive mission.

The setting mixed with the additional lore of the dragons and their relationship to the world were interesting and overall pretty easy to follow (after all, this is a movie for kids, mostly), but somehow it all left a little to be desired. Important things that should have been explained (SPOILER AHEAD) like why all of the other dragons turned to stone and then didn't awaken until the end of the movie, just aren't, or are completely overlooked altogether.

Overall, the world building was fine, but it could have used a little more time to breathe in this hour and 57 minute-long movie.

Category 2: Plot- B

Throughout this film, I was strangely reminded of the universe of Moana and the universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender. This could just be because they share certain elements like the boat adventure and the shapeshifting aspect of the main supernatural character from Moana, and the actual plot of Avatar: The Last Airbender. (See the Honest Trailer for Raya and the Last Dragon, which made this comparison before I did).

(LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD)

Without getting into too many spoilers for the film, just suffice it to say that the Dragon Stone that resides in the Heart village is one of the central conflict pieces in the movie, and all of the other villages in Kumandra want it. Early on in the movie the Dragon Stone is split into several pieces that are then taken to the different regions of Kumandra, kept by each village's chief. From that alone, you can probably piece together what has to be done in order to unite the Dragon Stone once more.

As I mentioned previously, this movie would have likely been better suited to be made into an animated epic along the lines of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I would definitely watch a spinoff show about the thieving baby, Noi, as she grows up in the Talon community. I just think that Raya's plot was perhaps a little too complex for a movie of this length, and a little derivative of other works that felt similar.

Category 3: Themes- C-

This is one of the aspects of the movie that fell short for me. The main theme of the movie is about forgiveness and trust, and how those are the things that will unite people and make the world a better place.

While I agree with these themes in principle, in practice, I feel like the movie did a bad job of making those themes realistic and believable in the film.

(MORE LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD)

Raya and Naamari as children, getting along.

One of the main conflicts in the movie is between Raya and Naamari, a girl Raya met when they were children. Without spoiling too much, I will just say that Naamari betrayed Raya when they were younger, leading to consequences that essentially caused the end of the world, and the loss of Raya's father for several years.

In this circumstance, if I knew a girl who betrayed me so badly that it brought about the end of the world and the loss of my only parent, I don't think you could convince me to be the bigger person and not murder her.

However, because this is a Disney movie, and because Naamari seems like a conflicted villain who didn't mean to cause the end of the world and the loss of Raya's father, we are meant to sympathize with her and want Raya to forgive her and be friends with her by the end of the movie.

I DID NOT.

The entire time that Naamari was onscreen, I was livid. If I had been in Raya's position in any point in the film, I truly believe I would have stabbed Naamari, and the movie would have been over. Some things just aren't forgiveable, and I think the film wants us to look over the fact this person caused the end of days just because they "didn't mean to." 

Sometimes intentions don't matter if real harm is caused. This is why involuntary manslaughter is a crime and not just a "whoopsie-doopsie."

 Naamari leading the Fang Tribe

(I would have actually killed Naamari, no joke.)

I also think that the movie wanted us to sympathize with Naamari in a way that didn't quite work, because the entire time the movie paints this whole feud between them as a two-sided thing, when it's very clearly one-sided. Naamari is to blame for most of what happens in the movie, but Raya shares the burden of the plot by "being too trusting." In reality, the entirety of the conflict can be hung squarely on Naamari's shoulders, and frankly, the movie didn't redeem her in enough time at the end for me to care about the moral that was learned about trust or whatever.

I think this comment from GingerBean on YouTube left under Saberspark's video on Raya and the Last Dragon summarizes my feelings on this theme perfectly: 

Category 4: Animation- A

It's almost boring for me to compliment the quality of animation that is in this Disney movie, because of course they've got it down at this point. Every animated Disney movie that's come out since the Disney Renaissance has been beautifully animated.

However, I will say that this movie made history as the first Disney film to be made at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down Disney Animation Studios for some time. Even with that hurdle, the animators made a movie that looks utterly amazing. It was almost like this movie was completed under normal circumstances and the world wasn't burning around them.

Even with all of that, though, I will say that I was impressed with the way that the fight scenes were animated in this movie, specifically the fight scenes between Raya and Naamari. The animators made Raya skilled in Southeast Asian fighting styles like Muay Thai and Arnis, and they were intense and captivating to see on the screen. I especially liked the unique details that they put into the fighting scenes, like Raya's dragon sword that she inherited from her father.

Obviously the animation was flawless and I have no complaints about this aspect of the movie.

Category 5: Diversity- C+

Raya and the Last Dragon's universe is based on the cultures of Southeast Asian communities from Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, and Myanmar, which is definitely a region that is underrepresented in media, especially Western media.

I really do applaud Disney for trying to represent these communities in their latest animated film, and while I am not a member of any of these communities, I can understand how someone from those communities would be disappointed by this movie's representation of them.

I'm not qualified to speak on how accurate the representation in this film is to Southeast Asian culture, but I can definitely say that it is a little weird that nearly all of the voice cast for this movie is East Asian, and not from the community that they're attempting to represent.

Aside from Raya, played by Vietnamese- American Kelly Marie Tran, every other character in this movie is played by someone who is not of Southeast Asian decent. I can understand how this can be frustrating and disappointing to those who do not see themselves or their culture represented authentically on-screen. There was an attempt, but the entire casting department could have been a little more careful about their choices.

If the movie really wanted to be diverse, I would recommend including more LGBTQ+ people in the film.

Simply put, Raya should have been gay.

If you watched the relationship between Raya and Naamari, you would understand. 

Raya and Naamari's relationship felt queer coded from the beginning of the movie. It’s in everything from their interactions, to their haircuts, to the fact that when Naamari was hunting Raya at the beginning of the film my brother literally said, "[Naamari's] only interacted with this girl once, why is she so obsessed with [Raya]?"

Throughout the movie Raya and Naamari have big Korra and Asami energy from The Legend of Korra- where the romantic/sexual tension is always just under the surface of their interactions but never overt enough for a general audience to catch on (Although I definitely picked up on it.).

If Disney really wanted to be as diverse and inclusive as it claims to be, Raya should have been gay, and she should have ended up with Naamari in the end. (It would have thrown off the story a little bit, but it really would have made more sense for Naamari to be following Raya around in the first act if she secretly had a crush on her.)

If you've seen this movie and don't agree with what I'm talking about, try watching it again, but imagining Naamari as a boy. If Naamari had been a boy, it would be obvious that they had sexual chemistry. Nothing else would have changed, but I feel like more people would see the relationship as inherently romantic because it was heterosexual, which is what we normally associate with romance.

Either way, my pitch to improve this movie overall is to make Raya gay and to make Naamari more sympathetic and less likely to shift the blame for things that are clearly her fault. 

Category 6: Kid-Friendliness- C+

As with all of the Disney movies that I've done reviews for, I have to give Disney credit for making a movie that is perfectly suitable for children. Although I will say that this movie somehow feels more intense than either Big Hero 6 or Frozen, if only for the fact that the stakes of this film feel somehow more grounded in reality.

The divisiveness of the tribes and the fact that no one feels safe trusting anyone else feels like a real-world problem that is a little more pressing than an "eternal winter" or "a giant wormhole swallowing the city." The climactic ending of this movie is a direct result of infighting between different tribes of the same nation, which is honestly prescient considering the current global and national crises that we’re in right now.

One of the more chilling scenes in this movie (for me, anyway, after all, this movie is for children), was when we meet Tong in the Spine village. (SPOILER AHEAD) We quickly find out that he was the only survivor of his village because everyone else he knew was turned to stone. Somehow this chilled me because it made the conflict of the movie feel real. The Druun had wiped out everyone but him, and he was lonely.

This film is appropriate for children because while kids are smart enough to grasp the (admittedly very obvious) themes of unity and peace that the film was going for, there are also colorful dragons with magical powers in the movie to take the edge off. A movie about a bunch of warring factions without the dragon magic, though, would be better suited for a YA dystopian novel than a Disney movie. (Although admittedly, I'd probably read that book).

Overall, Raya and the Last Dragon was a good time. I cried at the end of the movie, which is always a good sign of a feel-good film to watch with your family (and it's also a pretty good indicator that I'm a sucker for an emotional Disney film). I would give this movie a B-, but mostly because I think it could have used just one more draft in the writer's room to really drive home the overarching conflict between Raya and Naamari. Perhaps I would have given this movie an A if there was a gay romance between the two like so many people on Twitter have already speculated about.

Namari and Raya fanart credit to: 

Mamá Croqueta

@ArrietartOp

   

Infinity Train // Review #9

 

So I finally got around to watching Infinity Train, a show that I've been meaning to check out for a while. To be honest, I had completely forgotten I had been meaning to watch this show until I logged into Twitter and saw that everyone I knew was talking about it for some reason.

I think it's because the fourth and last season of the show just premiered on April 15th. Ever since then, the internet has been all abuzz because of the conclusion to this mysterious show. In light of all of the hype, I recently watched the whole show on HBO Max, and... I have some thoughts, to say the least.

Infinity Train originally aired on Cartoon Network back in 2019 before it was canceled by Cartoon Network after its second season and picked up by HBO Max  in mid-2020. The show was created by Owen Dennis, one of the guys behind Regular Show, which also aired on Cartoon Network before being moved to streaming on HBO Max last year. Keeping that in mind, it honestly makes so much sense that the two shows have the same creator, because despite the subject matter being wildly different, the two shows have a very similar vibe. They're both slightly offbeat and out of the box in a creative way- with funny scripting that make the characters feel real. I wasn't exactly a fan of Regular Show, but I was familiar enough with it to support its weirder ideas. Infinity Train is definitely its spiritual successor, and as such, it's a lot of fun to watch.  

And so, as someone who hasn't consistently watched Cartoon Network since they stopped airing the original Powerpuff Girls (sue me, I'm old), I was interested to see what all of the hype was about regarding this new show. And so I binged all four seasons in the span of two days.

Now, for the uninitiated like me, I'll just say that this show is... a lot, to say the least. The show itself is very creative and weird, and yet still very much grounded in some very serious topics like divorce and humanity and finding yourself.

When I first went into this show, I honestly had no idea what to expect. This is mostly because the entire first season of the show is setting up the mystery of the show's premise: what is the infinity train, and why is it the way that it is? After that initial season of discovery, the rest of the show goes DEEP into developing its respective characters and making you care for them in a way that will leave you laughing and heartbroken all at the same time. It was honestly an emotional rollercoaster, which wasn't what I signed up for when I agreed to watch a show about a magic train.

Nonetheless, the whole series was a success for me. Overall, I would say that some seasons worked better than others, but they all managed to stick the landing at the end of their 10-episode run. Since Infinity Train is an anthology series, each season is a self-contained story about an individual set of characters, which made it really interesting to see where they were going to go with it. You don't necessarily need to watch all of the seasons in order like I did on order to enjoy the show, but it definitely helps to have context about the previous seasons when watching them, just to be sure that you fully understand what's happening.

In order to conduct my review, I will do as follows: I'm going to give a brief synopsis of each season, explaining generally why I think they worked, and why I think they didn't. I will also list each season's best and worst episodes in order to explain my thinking on the subject. 

LIGHT SPOILERS FOR ALL FOUR SEASONS OF INFINITY TRAIN: 

Season 1: Tulip- A

Tulip, joined by One-One the robot, and Atticus, the King of Corgis

The first season of Infinity Train follows the main character, Tulip, as she is dealing with her parent's recent divorce very poorly. She wants to go to video game design camp, but due to circumstances out of her control (and due to her parent's poor planning), she is unable to go. After running away to get to her video game camp herself, she finds the Infinity Train and hops on.

When she wakes up on the train, Tulip finds that she is in a mysterious train in the middle of a pocket dimension, and each car on the train leads to mysterious lands. She also realizes that she has a number stamped on her hand, which can go up or down. However, she doesn't know what the number signifies, or how to get off the train.

 Tulip's Number Going Down

Tulip's season of the show is very important, because not only is it an introduction into what the train is about and how it works, but it also sets up the premise for the remaining seasons of the show. A human passenger is joined by a companion who is a part of the train car, and they are there to assist them with getting their number down- which (SPOILER) is how they get off the train. The train is both literally and figuratively a person's path to self-improvement. Once the passenger's number reaches 0, that means that the passenger has resolved their issues in the real world- either with themselves or with those around them, and they can go home.

The best episode in this season is probably Episode 5, "The Cat's Car," because not only was this where we begin to build some of the lore of the train, but we discover more about Tulip and how her parents' divorce affected her. It's so amazingly animated and such a clear and honest way to look at how Tulip was feeling that it made the whole season better for me to watch. I had already been invested by this point, but this sucked me in even more.

Each episode of this show is only 11 minutes long, but honestly don't let that deceive you into thinking that the show doesn't go deep into what's bothering these people.

That being said, the worst episode of this season was probably the one directly before "The Cat's Car," "The Crystal Car." This episode wasn't bad so much as it was... unnecessary. I liked this episode if only for its use of "Word Up" by Cameo, but otherwise, this episode didn't really reveal much about the train, or tell us anything new or interesting about Tulip. I thought it was a decent episode, but if you're willing to skip episodes of content, this one definitely seems more like a filler episode.

I will say, though, that this season was definitely a good way to set up an anthology show, with all of the endless possibilities in each car, and all of the unique, fun characters that were in them along the way. I didn't even mention the recurring cast of characters such as Amelia, the "evil" train conductor, One-One, who is very reminiscent of Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (if he was cheery every once and a while), and The Cat, Samantha, who are very present in this season, and the follow up seasons in this anthology.

The Cat, Samantha (who is morally ambiguous at best)

Overall, by the end of Tulip's story, I was confused but intrigued as to how they were going to follow up this story in the next season.

Cut to- 

Season 2: MT/ Lake- A+

MT, Alan Dracula, and Jesse

This season started off somewhere where I didn't really expect it to- it started off with a minor character from season 1- Mirror Tulip (MT), who was released from the Mirror Realm in the season 1 episode, "The Chrome Car." This entire season is about her following up with what she planned to do in the first season, become her own person, and discover who she was without having to reflect someone else.

I really like this season, and I think it's the best season of the whole show. I think it's much darker than the first season in terms of themes, but in the best way, because it made me laugh and cry and feel about the characters more than I did in season 1. Season 1 was lighthearted until it neared the end and revealed the truth of the train, but this one starts off a little more intense, as MT is running from those attempting to capture and kill her for daring to be different, until she is joined by her friend Jesse and their magical pet deer, Alan Dracula.

Now, after I saw this season, I saw some people on Twitter say that MT was queer-coded as trans, and while I'm not saying that I don't see it, I am saying that this wasn't what I got when I initially watched the show. I read this season as more of a take on humanity, and what we value as "human." While I can see how that can be interpreted as wanting to come out as trans, I don't necessarily think that's what the creators were going for (although I very well could be wrong, IDK). 

In my mind, MT just wanted to be recognized as a person who could feel and think and believe in things herself, which honestly put me more in the mind of something like Blade Runner (or the book it was based on, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). It was a little trippy and meta to consider that this person who doesn't look like a human being is only trying to stake her claim to what the rest of humanity has to offer. I was definitely thinking more along the lines of that game: Detroit: Become Human while I was watching this season.

I really loved the last five episodes of this season. "The Lucky Cat Car," "The Mall Car," "The Wasteland," "The Tape Car," and "The Number Car," are all perfect episodes to me, because they run the gambit of emotional depth and have some deep philosophical questions in them that left me literally in tears at some points. I think this season had the best episodes, and honestly some of the best dialogue. I especially appreciated the interactions that MT had with Jesse and the Reflection Police in these episodes specifically.

MT and Jesse being separated in Episode 7, "The Mall Car"

The worst episode in this season is probably the "Family Tree Car" but only because I eventually got sick of Jesse and MT fighting all the time without getting anywhere. As I mentioned before, each episode is only 11 minutes, but sometimes if nothing is happening for too long, the episodes can feel like they're dragging. Even still, this episode is fine, as by the end of it, both Jesse and MT form a truce that they're going to work together to get Jesse off the train so she can be left alone with the deer. 

Jesse petting Alan Dracula

Season 3: Grace and Simon- B

Grace, Hazel, Simon and Tuba

My goodness. This season was a DOOSY.

Following the same format as the previous season, this season follows characters that were already introduced by way of the other characters, Grace and Simon.

Grace and Simon are the leaders of a group of kids on the train known as the Apex. They don't care about breaking the train's rules or killing the magical creatures, because they're not people- they're nothing, according to them. In fact, the whole point of the Apex is to achieve the highest number on the train. Soon Grace and Simon are separated from their pack, but on their way back to the rest of their group, they run into a little girl named Hazel who is being protected by a magical talking gorilla named Tuba. Soon after they learn Hazel's secret, things go awry.  

Even though I may not have ranked this season as high as the first or second season, I definitely think that it's worth checking out. Without too many spoilers, I'll just say that this season definitely follows the philosophical ideas of the second season and runs them into the ground. (Not in a bad way, just in a way that might make you go, "OH MY GOD.") Out of all of the seasons of this show, I would say that this season was the darkest, and it's the most insane season because of it.

(SPOILERS AHEAD) I'm not going to lie to you- Hazel made me bawl my eyes out. At the beginning of episode 9 when Grace was crying after Hazel left with Amelia, I was ugly crying exactly like her. When Hazel was singing Tuba's song at her funeral, I was literally sobbing just like Grace. I mean, how can you not? Listen to the song, OMG:

"No need to worry baby" sung by Hazel at Tuba's funeral

By the end of this season, I liked Grace's arc, especially when compared to Simon's opposite arc. It has a real Zuko and Azula energy to it. Speaking of Zuko and Azula, I have to say that it was nice to see Grace be humanized after her horrible actions in season 2 and the beginning of season 3, however, when we see Simon after he left Grace for dead, it seems like he went incredibly evil entirely too quickly. I wish they had taken more time to flesh out him going fully over the deep end on his own. Because of this, I will say that Infinity Train's villain arcs are not nearly as effective as the villain arcs on Avatar: The Last Airbender, but they are very reminiscent of it.

The best episodes of this season are probably the darkest, which would be, "The Color Clock Car,"" The Campfire Car," "The Origami Car" and "The New Apex." All of these episodes are surprisingly heavy to watch, but in a good way that reveals something about each of the characters. I honestly respect the hell out of this season for having the balls to do something this intense in a cartoon aimed at children.

The worst episodes of this season are probably "The Musical Car" and the "Le Chat Chalet Car." Both of them are fine episodes on their own, but compared to the other episodes in this season they stood out as weaker than the rest to me. I liked elements of them fine- like how it was clear that Simon and Grace did care about one another, and they would've protected one another despite everything because they had a relationship. It was clear from these episodes that Grace and Simon loved each other, which is why the ending of this season hits a little harder than normal.

Overall, I would say that this season was solid, but I felt like it could have been a little better. For one thing they could have explained what happened to Grace once she learned her lesson in the end. The result is alluded to, but never shown, which I found to be a little disappointing.

Nevertheless, that leads us onto the fourth and final season of Infinity Train:

Season 4: Men-Gi and Ryan- C+

Men-Gi and Ryan

When I saw the first episode of this season, I was... disappointed, to say the least. I thought we were going to get a follow-up of Hazel from the previous season, just like what happened with MT in season 2 and Grace from season 3. I think one of the main reasons why I didn't like season four nearly as much as I liked the previous seasons was that it felt so loosely connected to the original cast of characters who had left or were going to leave the train. It felt like the show was making me start all over again with brand new characters, which didn't exactly click for me. 

I was hoping that we would see what was going on with Amelia and Hazel from season 3. I would've been interested to see if raising Hazel would have brought Amelia's number down significantly, as she had the highest number on the train. I was even hoping for perhaps some more backstory regarding Tuba, or even how Amelia's number got to be so astronomically high. In the end of that season, I think it would have been cute to have Hazel grow up and take over the train with One-One (if it's even possible for her to grow up, all things considered).

Instead, what we got was the story of Men-Gi and Ryan, two boys from British Columbia, Canada, who want to be rock stars. They both came onto the train with the same number. This is strange, because that doesn't happen, (or so they say at the beginning of the season) but it's never exactly explained why they have the same number. Their lives are displayed as parallel in the beginning of the season in episode 1, but the show doesn't exactly dive deeper into why they are so alike, yet so different.

One of the worst episodes of this season was episode 2, "The Iceberg Car," because the episode not only revolves around these two guys bickering (which grew tiresome very fast), but an unlikeable bell character named Kez explaining the rules of the train to them- which we, the audience already knew. As someone who had binged the previous seasons of this show before this one, I was annoyed that they were rehashing this information and starting all over. It felt like I was wasting my time re-learning all of this information with the main characters.

In the showrunner's defense, I'm assuming that they did this purposefully in order to remind people of the stakes of the train since this was the final season, and it was premiering so long after the third season, which ended nearly eight months ago. However, I found this annoying, nonetheless.

To be honest, it took me at least five episodes to get into this season, as I wasn't truly invested until "The Astro-Queue Car," in which Men-Gi and Ryan are stuck trying to figure out how to get into a space themed club, only to discover that both of their ideas were bad, and that they should be kinder and more patient with one another. I really liked this one, because for me it was one of the first instances of actual forward momentum in the season. From there, things really seem to kick off, and the season gets better. 

Overall, I liked this season fine, but it pales in comparison to the other seasons, for multiple reasons. (Also it bugs me that we never revisit Amelia and One-One in this season after the first episode. Amelia pops in periodically to help- I think- but it's never quite clear what she's doing exactly, and we do not see either her or the real conductor in person past episode one. Also, we never see Hazel again, which kind of bugs me, no lie.)

I will say that one of the best things about this season is the ending song that they perform: "Train to Nowhere," which is honestly a pretty good sendoff for this season and the show as a whole.

Men-Gi and Ryan singing "Train to Nowhere" in the show's finale

Overall, I'm sad to see Infinity Train go, since it's been confirmed that this fourth season was it's last season. HBO Max didn't want to pick up a fifth season of the show, even though the show's creators had more planned, including a season starring Amelia and Hazel further down the line (which I was hoping would be season 4, but I digress) and a movie explaining Amelia's backstory (which is also something I wanted).

My final opinion on the matter is that Infinity Train was a good show, and somehow it feels bittersweet that it didn't get to last more than four seasons. I knew it couldn't go on for infinity as its name suggested, but I am happy with the four seasons that we ended up with. I would highly recommend you checkout this show on HBO Max if you have it. I would give this show a solid B+ for how creative, edgy, and fun it is to watch.

Thanks for reading! Stay safe everyone!