in 2016 we get to return to the world of KUNG FU PANDA with the third animated adventure. In this one, we learn a bit more about Po’s history, and get to meet his long lost father. And then we get to watch him bust his chops to train all of his new found relatives into defending themselves, their friends, and their way of life. This will NOT be his easiest adventure!
There is no doubt that the winner this week is Minions, and finally we get to see the back story of the real stars of the series. Not that Gru and the girls aren’t amazing in their own right, but the little yellow guys are really at the core of the whole thing. It may be the best option this weekend (at least for those of us addicted to the terminally silly), but it isn’t our only one. The other choice is Self/less, about an old guy who wants to live forever. So he has his consciousness transferred into a younger body, without first doing his due diligence to determine what baggage that body brings along with it. That oversight leads to things he never suspected would be brought into the mix, and now his ability to survive the experience is at risk, along with his chances to create a new life; not the same thing at all, but certainly related.
Movies have Alien Outpost, while TV brings Bitten: Complete Second Season and the Witches Of East End: The Complete Season 2. None of those did particularly well with the critics or the ratings.
In Anime Atelier, Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky contains all 12 episodes of the mismatched alchemists working together to save their world. Noragami: The Complete First Season has a slacker god with no shrine or worshipers trying to help a girl who’s soul keeps slipping out of her body.
Yes, this is the series that asks that age old question: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Except the protagonist is doing anything but trying to pick up girls, they just seem to collect around him. The anime series is based on the light novel of the same name, what in the US might be called a Novella or Novelette, written by Fujino Omori and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda. This is my favorite anime of the spring 2015 season (although there are a few others which are quite tasty and almost as much fun, which I make sure to watch each week), and although the season is winding up, it doesn’t look like the story line is. In fact, becoming the fastest growing adventurer now seems to be the set up for what the quest becomes in the next season, not the goal for this one. Although as we get to the end of the first season, the advice his ghostly grandfather keeps giving him makes a lot more sense once we learn who that grandfather is. If you haven’t been following this one, use the Crunchyroll link and binge-watch it this weekend to get yourself up to speed.
This Disney flic looks like a lot of fun! Zootopia is by definition the kind of Utopia where humans never existed, but the anthropomorphic animals who lived there were extremely HumanEsq. It has a great premise and some good 3D CGI animation that brings the characters to life in ways beyond what the creators were trying for, I suspect. I have enjoyed everything they have shown us of it so far, and can’t wait to see more.
This week we get a whole new level of dysfunctional fantasy with Ted 2, a comedy going places the first one didn’t dare to. Ted and Tami-Lynn want to have a baby, but to qualify, Ted will have to prove he’s a person in a court of law. It is basically Heinlein’s Jerry Was A Man dressed up with outrageous gobs of raunchy humor. If you prefer your comedy a bit less raunchy you might want to check out the award winning Australian film The Little Death this weekend instead. At least I think it is a bit less raunchy, but I know it isn’t genre; and the trailer had me laughing, so I figured I should mention it here.