Seen, Read, 2025

1/2

Moana 2

Watched it with my 5yo, who's a big fan of the original (as am i). We both agreed this one was very good, but the origianl was better in every way. Even right after, when I thought about this one the music from the original kept popping into my head. Still, it was a good story, and they avoided the very common (and very irritating) error of many sequels (especially, but certainly not exclusively, in kids movies) of rolling back a bunch of character development to hit the same emotional notes. This genuinely felt like a plausible "what's next" for the characters we loved from the first Moana, and that's it's main job. If you enjoyed the first one, this one's worth your time, but if you don't have a super-eager kid, maybe wait until it's on streaming.

1/18

Metal Lords

This was cute and fun. It did a pretty good job of capturing high-school-band-drama feelings — not to mention how hard it is to find a good drummer. I think maybe my favorite moment was when Kevin, listening to another band's playlist, says: "Are they all like this? Just pretty much the same beat all the way through?"
Hunter got off to easy with his friends; dude needs therapy.

1/20

Back in Action

It was... fine? Fun, but unremarkable.

2/14

Unpregnant

After we watched the trailer, my partner said "Is this just going to be a less-funny Juno?", to which I responded "I'm worried it's going to be a mediocre teen Thelma & Louise." I was glad to see both films get explicit nods, the later in a way that tied into the plot in a way that made sense. It was fun and felt significant without being overbearing.
I really hope my relationship with my kids never looks like these kids' relationships with their parents. I enjoyed Veronica ripping into Bailey's dad.

2/26

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

This was good. Pretty much all the character development points were predictable, but enjoyably executed. The one notable exception was Jod, the main... antagonist? That's the thing: they did a really good job of keeping the question of whether he was getting a redeption arc or just pulling another scam (or maybe trying for both) plausibly open throughout, in a way that never felt like they weren't being fair with the audience. It's also another good step in expanding the Star Wars world beyond stories that revolve around Jedi.

4/9

Top Gun: Maverick

This was good, and much better than I expected. Certainly some of it was nostalgia bait (which, given my feelings about the original in high school, very much worked for me), but aside from a few individual shots that seemed odd outside the callback it was generally done in a way that didn't distract from the rest of the movie. It stands on its own, well; in terms of "cool plane stuff", sure, but the emotional beats work at least as much as the first film. There's not a lot of surprises, but it does what it sets out to do well.
I'm glad Val Kilmer got to be in this.

4/18

The Breaker Upperers

This is a weird film. I'm still not sure if I really liked it? A lot of the writing is very clever, but the characters are a mess, and I can't tell how much of it's because of intentional writing choices. I mostly don't buy them, which maked it hard to get into the story. I laughed while watching it, but usually in a "what is going on" way. I think I'd rather have used the time doing something else.

4/41

The Wheel of Time, Season 3

I continue to really enjoy this. The development of the main characters is really solid, and most of the secondary characters get really good treatment, as well. Rand remains a mixed bag as a character, but in ways that feel both intentionally written and make sense in the story. I like that this season gave us more of the Aiel, Which I'd left Season 2 very much wanting, and more pushback on the Tower's view of the world.
The political intrigue in the tower is the weak point, I think; too many characters' motivations don't seem to make sense. I get that a lot of that is due to people not trusting each other, but too much of it just feels like "well we need these people to fight".
This was the last thing I finished before we canceled Amazon Prime.

4/27

Star Wars: A New Hope

First time with the kids; they really enjoyed it. The younger had a few moments of concern for all the people being blown up. The film really holds up overall, but this was my first time watching the new Disney+ version, and I think my first time seeing any verion newer than the 1997 "Special Edition" re-release. Those parts are worse than I remember. The 1977 effects certainly look old and dated, but not bad, just an occasional reminder you're watching an older film. The 1997 (and later) bits, though, look awful. Perhaps because they were over-reaching, whereas in 1977 they had a better handle of where their technology was, many of the creature and stormtrooper additions look worse than the originals. Certainly things feel more crowded and more packed with gimmicky. The scene where an added creature entirely obscurse the characters we're trying to watch for a few seconds made it all feel like a parody. Even things like the updated engine/thrust coloring, which looked fine on their own right, mostly feel out of place because they're applied seemingly randomly.
I'll need to look into despecialized editions for the future films.

4/26

KPop Demon Hunters

My daughter had been clamoring for this one for a month, after being introduced to the soundtrack by a friend. I went in with pretty low expectations, but I will say they were exceeded. The story is decent, if a little predictable after the first big reveal. The characters are fun. The music is very much not my jam, but is certainly catchy. Overall, it was a fun watch. Kid wants to watch it again.
There was something off about the animation I can't quite place. A lot of it was beautiful, but it felt like maybe the focus was on making pretty stills or short clips and the motion was done afterwords. It felt similar to how the backgrounds and character animation in the Spider-Man movies were done on different frame intervals, but didn't work as well somehow. The also made an interesting choice with the mouth animation. Even thought the characters are speaking English (that is, in the original voicing for the animaiton, if not in-world), the mouth shapes are done as though they're speaking Korean. It's an interesting choice, and ties in to the many ways they tie in Korean culture, but I think this one was a miss. It felt more like a mistake, with the other animaed oddities.

9/17

Hooky, by Míriam Bonastre Tur

This was wonderful. I read this with 6yo, who also loved it and wanted to do it over and over. I didn't realize we only had Volume 1 initially, and towards the end I was a little worried it'd have to rush to tie everything up; finding out there were two more volumes was quite a relief. Things definitely get intense, especially after Volume 1, and I'd say it wasn't for every 6yo (which it doesn't claim to be; I think it pegs itself starting at 8yo), but it worked well for us. We re-read Volume 1 twice while waiting for Volumes 2 & 3 from Books With Pictures, and have read the whole series twice through now, and I'm pretty confident if I said I wanted to read it again right now 6yo would be down. And I wouldn't mind, either.

10/04

ʻAuana, Cirque du Soleil

This was amazing. Physically, the Cirque du Soleil performers more than live up to their reputation. But in this show, I was also particularly impressed by the treatment of the Hawaiian themes. It wasn't just costume and set dressing (which were excellent); the culture was well integrated throughout. Many of the physical feats, of course, could be re-cast easily in any other setting, but real care seems to have been taken on integrating them. All the support dances integrated elements of traditional Hawaiian dance in a way that felt not just like decoration but inspiration. We took our 7yo Hawaiian niece, who recognized elements from her hula classes. All the background singing was in Hawaiian. The structure of the acts, and the transitions between them, had Hawaiian cultural ties.
I've seen Cirque du Soleil before and loved it; this was better. I'd be interested in reading more about how this show was developed.