jkylebennett

This movie absolutely terrified me as a kid. It gave me horrible nightmares for weeks when I was a kid. As an adult rewatching it for the first time in many years, I can say that i appreciate the hogh quality, beautiful animation, the story-telling, and the setting. But, the character designs are still truly terrifying, and I was a Thomas kid growing up in the 90s. The A/C, the parts shop, and the nightmare clown were all such frightening choices. It's honestly hard to say who this movie is really for. It's intended for children, but it goes on my list for scariest movies not meant for kids. It just can't possibly do anything but scare most anyone who watches it. I'm sure that if you were to show this movie to a newer generation, they'd be very curious about the design choices of the tech characters, but also likely put off. As for the main characters, they also tend to be just a bit too hard to route for. They're either hateful or annoying throughout chunks of the movie, which makes them not all that pleasant to watch at times. The music is impressive, but also very much nightmare fuel in some cases. I would love to know what went on in the meetings for planning out this movie to know why they made some of these choices that they did. It honestly seems like they set a goal for themselves to make the movie as unsettling as possible. That said, I can't help but to love the design of the forests the characters had to travel through. They were pleasantly unsettling in a weird way. The tree design choices were something you don't really see in most modern day movies. It reminds me a bit of Pooh's Grabd Adventure in that aspect. I always love a tree that's cleverly designed to have a scary face in the right lighting. It's such an effective choice. I really struggle to rate this movie with a number because the scenery is exceptional, but the character designs are unsettling. At the same time, the character designs were meant to be unsettling, so they do their job properly and effectively. All the characters also have such well fleshed out personalities. That's something you really just don't see in a lot of modern day movies aimed at kids. I think it best for me to not attach a star rating because I'm just too torn on how I feel about this movie. It scares me at times, but it's also such a high quality product. I just really don't know who this is really for. It doesn't feel like the best choice for kids who are easily frightened, but it also doesn't seem right for adults either who may just find it a bit annoying at times.

I think what makes this one so likeable is that it's so down-to-earth. It doesn't play anything up for comedic extremes. There are times where that's what you want is a romance comedy series, but this one actually plays it straight. It definitely goes down the full awkward angle that's to be expected in a group of teenagers' lives. Even elements that might normally be played out super cute are instead charmingly awkward. It's extremely relatable to most anyone currently going through this stage of their life or already have. If anything, it's more sad. But that doesn't make it bad. It just asks more of it's audience. That said, there are some points that are made even more needlessly complicated than what was necessary to the point of just causing needless confusion for the viewer. Still, it's a series worth watching at least once.

This is one of the few shows that really showcases what embodies the spirit of a kid's imagination. You can tell that the creators of the show knew what it meant to be a kid and were able to remember it. This type of show comes around about every 5 to 10 years. This is this generation's representation of that concept. Alongside shows like Recess, Ed, Edd, n Eddy, Codename: KND, and Phineas and Ferb before it, this show has the inspired premise that showcases what happens when kids are just being kids with the help of animation to take things to a hilarious extreme. The only drawback is this need from show runners to have that one character in the main cast that's always extra awkward and weird because they think it's a funny character trope. All things considered, this is a great show. You can tell that the people working on it were more than happy to dig deep and pull from their memories from when they were kids. It's a really unique experience. Truly top notch.