Fish and Cherries Productions

Title: The Hobbit
Author: J. R. R. Tolkein
Illustrator: David Wenzel
Adapted By: Charles Dixon
Type: Comic Book
Genre: Fantasy

Big things come in small packages: this has been said all over and nowhere is it more true than with Bilbo Baggins, hobbit of the Shire. His all too quiet life is upended when the wizard Gandalf and thirteen dwarves come to his home and recruit him on a quest to retake their ancestor’s treasury from the dragon called Smaug. Along the way, they meet haughty elves, hungry trolls, hateful goblins, and a deformed creature with a golden ring that I’m sure is completely mundane and unimportant in the grand scheme of things. You all know the story, now enjoy it with artwork in this collected comic book adaptation.

When I was in Middle School, I set out to read all of the Lord of the Rings books, along with The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales (either for a report or because the movies had come out). This proved to be a very daunting task, as I found Tolkein’s prose to be very dense and hard to swallow. From time to time, I’ve wondered if that was really the case or if I was just too young to appreciate the subtle nuances in the text. After reading this very faithful adaptation nowadays, I realized that even in my youth, I was completely right: Tolkein’s prose is dense, longwinded, and completely mind-numbing.

This graphic adaptation takes the text straight from the book and uses it for both dialogue and text boxes, which unfortunately works to the comic’s detriment. You see, comics are a visual medium and should make good use of their pictures. This comic has so many words you have to read to understand what’s going on that there’s practically an essay on each page. We’re told that certain things are happening and that characters are feeling certain ways, but rarely do we actually get to see it.

Which is a shame, because the artwork is really beautiful. The painted style really gives it the feel of a timeless fantasy and the wide use of colors among the characters is pleasing to the eyes. It’s too bad that because of the way the comic is structured, each panel seems like a stand-alone portrait rather than telling a sequential story. It’s also, again, hindered because this comic has, in the words of Ben “Yatzhee” Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame, “TOO MANY FUCKING WORDS.” All that text really crowds the pictures at times and really does detract from the visual experience.

I will say this, though: the comic does make me appreciate the movies more. Oh, not because the movies are a masterpiece, but reading this comic made me realize that there was a lot of stuff that I took as extra stuff for the movies which were actually part of the original story. Beorn, Gollum chasing Bilbo and leading him out of the cavern, the eagles rescuing the party, the elves imprisoning the dwarves, the list goes on. It really does feel like the story would have been so much cheaper if it had all been squeezed into one movie (though I think two would have been plenty). I have seen the Rankin-Bass version, so I know it can be done, but I feel like a lot of the mythology got lost in translation.

This is a difficult piece to review because this is an adaptation rather than an original work, so I can’t criticize stuff like the plot or things like that. If you really want to see that happen, though, Lewis Lovhaug did it better than I could. Personally, though, I felt that a few more liberties should have been taken in order to make full use of the visual medium. It would have made the experience come to life more than feeling like the entire book transcribed over a bunch of pretty pictures. That said, the pictures are gorgeous, so if you’ve really been yearning to read The Hobbit with beautiful visuals to accompany it, feel free to check it out.

Selma was probably written with the old Voter ID laws in mind, but with the recent events of Ferguson and Michael Brown in mind, this movie becomes more pertinent now than back in 2008 when they started writing it. In fact, the song at the end hammers the similarities of the acts of today to the segregation state of mind from the Civil Rights Era. The movie itself was very powerful, not shying away from the brutality that awaited the protestors of the time. It delivers a gut punch in the first two minutes and the blows kept coming throughout the movie. It was also really good to show that not all of the violence victims were black, like violence and hate aren’t directed towards only one race.

David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King is great, capturing the full gravitas of someone who has the weight of an entire race on his shoulders in both his vulnerable moments and his inspiring moments. He’s not perfect, either; he makes some mistakes and even a few calls that a lot of people question. In fact, that’s another thing the movie does right: showing that not all of the protestors are fully behind King. It paints the group as dynamic and diverse and shows that they aren’t completely unified, that they’re still people with their own values and points where they won’t bend. Also, Oprah does a great job at playing the beleaguered woman who is denied the right to vote and attacked. The makeup artist was really superb in making her look old and haggard, while the lady herself brought the weary personality to make the whole thing complete.

Since this is a story of true events, it’s hard for me to criticize anything about the script that doesn’t veer too far from history. That said, my one gripe with the story is that Malcolm X shows up and talks to King’s wife about being a counterpoint to King’s methods to get more people following the good reverend and it’s treated as a big deal. A few scenes later, it’s revealed that he died off-screen. It’s such a bizarre choice and I have to wonder what the point was to bring that character in. Regardless, this is still a great movie and it’s great that they found a story to tell about Dr. King that didn’t involve his famous speech, as that seems to be a writer’s go-to for the man. It’s a pity I saw this after I made my Top 13 list or this definitely would have made the cut. As of now, consider it tied with The Imitation Game at number 4, both great stories about great people who face injustice and discrimination for their differences, be they invisible or as plain as their skin color.

With 2014 behind us and 2015 just stepping out of its cradle, most of us tend to reflect on the year gone by. In doing so myself, I came to the realization that 2014 was a great year for movies. From mainstream to potential Oscar candidates, we had a slew of high quality flicks that made us laugh, feel, and think. And since this was the year that I really made my Reel Snippets a priority, I’m doing my first top movies of the year list. But since a Top Ten list is so common today, I’m breaking the mold by giving you Ronin’s Top 13 Movies of 2014.

First, a couple of ground rules. The first, obviously, is that I have to have seen the movie and done a Reel Snippet of it, so Foxcatcher and Unbroken will not make this list. Second, which is a little more obvious, it had to have come out this year, which is an important distinction because Reel Snippets aren’t restricted to movies that recently came out. Finally, don’t expect a Top 13 Worst Movies of 2014. I tended to avoid a lot of the stinkers this year like Dumb and Dumber To and Left Behind, so the list would basically be populated with movies that were just okay and the like. The worst movie I saw was A Million Ways to Die in the West, and I’ll admit that had some genuinely funny moments. With that said, let’s start the countdown.

13 (tied). The Grand Budapest Hotel

I feel bad putting this at the bottom of the list because Wes Anderson is an inspiration to me, what with his quirky writing and out of the box thinking. And those qualities are exactly what put the movie on this list. While I can’t quote it as much as other entries, I remember so many of the situations, characters, colors, and emotions that came through the film that I can’t help but include it. The few things that I do remember in precise detail still crack me up, so this is definitely a hotel I’ll be checking into regularly when it comes out on DVD.

13 (tied). A Brony Tale

Let me make something clear: my being in the fandom has nothing to do with the movie being on this list. While it’s nice for a subculture to be noticed (especially if you’re a part of it, that’s not why this is here. No, the reason it’s on this list is its effect on people outside the fandom. Those that I talked to thoroughly enjoyed it and were able to understand where bronies were coming from and empathize with them. In that respect, the documentary was a complete success. Also, in the age of uncovering dark truths in our system and proving how unhealthy or taken advantage of we are, it’s rare to find a documentary that actually makes me happy to be alive. That alone is enough to earn it a spot on this list.

12. X-Men: Days of Future Past

Want to know the quickest way to a fan’s heart? Writing all the poor decisions of the franchise out of continuity. But even beyond that, the latest X-Men film is a huge treat, combining both X-Men casts into a great story that anyone, fan or not, will get a great kick out of. The acting is great, the stakes bring you to the edge of your seat, and the effects make it look like the mutants truly are gods among men. I’ve gushed about it before and I’ll be gushing about it for a while now. The seven-year-old kid inside me that used to get up early every morning to watch X-Men: The Animated Series couldn’t be happier.

11. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

What’s better than retconning the bugs out of your franchise? Turning it right on its head. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of the most poignant entries of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, taking one of its most sympathetic characters and tearing down everything he knows. Yet in spite of all these hardships, he is still able to rise up and persevere. That is the essence of what a superhero should be: an inspiration to everyone who watches him and a role model for overcoming one’s own challenges. Unlike a certain other American icon that got a big screen release recently (*COUGHMANOFSTEELCOUGH*). Everything else in the film just works, from the action to the side characters to the titular villain that made the internet explode. Until the next Avengers movie comes out, this is sure to be the benchmark for the MCU.

10. The Fault In Our Stars

We can talk all day about great action films and comedies, but 2014 was the year of the slice of life. The one that most people think of is the one that showed us life in the face of death. Augustus and Hazel feel so real in both their love and struggles that it’s hard not to feel for them. It’s got its share of detractors (particularly those unhappy that Fault beat out Edge of Tomorrow… or was it Live. Die. Repeat.? Gah, that title change was asinine…), but it’s hard for me to agree with them when so much of the characters and situations ring true. I’ve had friends pass away from cancer and other life-threatening illnesses, so I’ve seen a lot of these scenes play out. That’s why it’s so good, because it feels real.

I’ve gone into quite a bit of why I like the movie in my Snippet, but there’s one thing that sticks with me that I haven’t touched on: Peter Van Houten. This character intrigues me so much, partly because there’s nothing else like him. He’s not just an old, jaded curmudgeon, there’s a real sense that he’s thinking on a higher level than other people, but he lacks the ability or the knowhow to say it. I honestly want to dissect everything he says to find out where he’s trying to say. I don’t think I’ll get any answer from John Green – author of the novel – because of his belief in the death of the author (referring to a state of mind where a story stops when the book does, a theory I have a love-hate relationship with), but the character, like the movie, will stick with me for a long time.

9. The Theory of Everything

Anyone who’s been following me closely will know that I absolutely despised the 2012 Les Miserables movie. Since I never wrote a Reel Snippet on it, I should probably state that one of my biggest gripes was with Eddie Redmayne as Marius. Whether he was in love, tormented, or under pressure, he always had the same almost-smile facial expression and it really irritated me. So the irony hits hard when the role that he acts well in forces him to emote through limited facial expressions and he completely knocks it out of the park. And really, that’s what makes this movie. If Redmayne was really the limited actor I thought he was, The Theory of Everything would have fallen flat. I have never been so happy at being wrong before.

8. Big Hero 6

For a time, I was worried that I had perhaps been too caught up in the hype of seeing something so visually breathtaking that I had perhaps been a little overly positive about this movie. Recently, I saw it again and… nope, still as amazing as when I first saw it. True, the side characters aren’t as developed as they could be, but Baymax and Hiro more than make up for their slack. Not much to say, other than that I still love it.

7. How To Train Your Dragon 2

But if I had to be honest with myself, my animation award would have to go to How To Train Your Dragon 2. Yeah, it’s a sequel, but like the Hellboy sequel it improves upon what it had before and advances the characters rather than rehashing the plot of the first movie. Also, unlike Big Hero 6, there were a lot more twists and turns I couldn’t see coming and the gut punches hurt a lot worse. I think if the side characters in Big Hero 6 were as developed as in Dragon, it might have been a tougher pick. But in this race, the Night Fury’s wings beat Baymax’s jets.

6. Guardians of the Galaxy

Did you miss my first review of this? Then let me sum up.

I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot. I… am Groot. I… am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot! I am Groot? I am Groot. I am Groot! I am Groot. I AM GROOT! I AM GROOT! I am Groot?! I am Groot. (I AM GROOT!) I am Groot? I AM GROOT! I AM GROOT! I am Groot? I am Groot. I… am Groot. I am Groot?! I… am Groot. I am Groot?! I am Groot?! I am Groot! I AM GROOT! I am Groot! I am Groot? I am Groot?! I am Groot. I am Groot! I am Groot. I AM GROOT! I am Groot. I AM GROOT! I am Groot. I am Groot. I AM GROOT! I… am Groot. I… am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot. I AM GROOT! I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot! I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot. I AM GROOT! I AM GROOT! I AM GROOT! I am Groot. I AM GROOT! I am Groot. I am Groot? I am Groot? I am Groot. I AM GROOT! I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot? I am Groot. I AM GROOT! I am Groot?! I am Groot. I am Groot! I am Groot. I AM GROOT! I am Groot? I am Groot. I am Groot? I am Groot! I am Groot! I am Groot?! I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot?! I am Groot. I am Groot. I… am Groot. I… am Groot. I AM GROOT! (I… am Groot. “I am Groot.”) I AM GROOT! I am Groot? I am Groot. I am Groot. I… am Groot. I AM GROOT! I… am Groot. I AM GROOT!

Was the cheapening of the universe’s deadliest woman irritating? Definitely. But it was still some of the most fun I’ve had in cinemas in a while with memorable, quotable dialogue. And I even liked the post-credits stinger. Yeah, I said it. Come fight me about it.

5. The LEGO Movie

Actually, I take it back. THIS is what I’d give my animation award to. Is it high art? No… actually, maybe. That twist at the end is so brilliant and such a great commentary that I would actually recommend this film to as many people as I could. This should not have been as good as it was, but it perfectly encapsulated the creativity and fun of childhood and I would be surprised if it didn’t do that for other people too. What else can I say, but… everything is awesoooome~!

4. The Imitation Game

Initially, I was turning over in my head whether to put Chef or Mockingjay on this list. In the end, it didn’t matter because this late entry bumped them both off. Benedict Cumberbatch has quite a few forays into American cinema, but whether it be disappointing like Star Trek: Into Darkness, average like August: Osage County, or downright awful like The Fifth Estate, he had yet to have a bona fide hit. This movie changed that. The fact that he was able to play a character so like Sherlock and yet completely distinct from him is a testament to his acting skills, but the fact that he can make him seem so sympathetic and real just blows the doors wide open for him.

Oh, and the rest of the movie’s great too. Sorry, I wrote about it very recently, so I don’t feel I need to reiterate too much. However, I will note that it’s nice to see Mark Strong not play the villain for once (anyone who brings up the Green Lantern movie will be shot).

3. Whiplash

If I could give an award out for the movie that surprised me the most with its quality, it would have to go to Whiplash. The amount of character study you can draw from this is astounding and the sheer brutality of the music world that this movie depicts should be a nice wake-up call to those who think that music isn’t real work. This might have gone on the top of the list… if the director had kept his mouth shut. See, he stated in an interview that the ending was supposed to show how broken and meaningless the main character’s struggle was and that his pursuit would lead him to an untimely end. That… does not gel at all with what I took away from that ending or even fit with what I saw on screen. I think this is one of those times where the Death of the Author would be more beneficial. You know, let people draw their own conclusions on what happened to the characters. As it stands, though, this is still a great movie.

2. Gone Girl

Picking between the top two was very difficult and I have no doubt that my choices changed many times as I wrote and edited this list. Regardless, it would be a crime not to give Gone Girl a place here. You will never find a more gripping mystery that makes you question what you know to be true or an ending that will leave you feeling so shocked. Hyperbole? Perhaps, but that’s how I feel. Any talk of Ben Affleck’s talent and the Daredevil movie can now be put to rest as this role brings out the best in him. It’s not a perfect representation of reality, but it shows a very dark side of humanity that needs to be examined. Psychopaths do exist and can trap your life in ways you can’t imagine, and in today’s society, where people young and old give out their trust online so easily, that’s not a lesson that can be ignored.

1. Boyhood

But perhaps it’s best to also be reminded that life goes on after you’ve moved past the psychopaths, that there’s beauty in simplicity, and that people are complex layers upon layers of good, bad, and everything in between. And no movie encapsulates that better than Boyhood. Oscar Wilde once said that life imitates art more than art imitates life, but this movie seems to be the glittering exception. This actually felt like I was watching a person’s journey through adulthood captured in a bubble. I didn’t feel like I was watching characters on screen, I felt like I was watching people that I was getting to know. I have no doubt that there will be a lot of college papers exploring and interpreting this film, which is why I think everyone should see it. Everyone will be able to take something different away and interpret things differently from this movie as they go through it. And that’s life.

Did I miss any of your favorites? Which movies did you think were the top and the coliseum? Let me know in the comments below (and please keep it civil). This was a great year and I look forward to this year’s movies.

The Imitation Game is a great biopic about a great man and also a very poignant one. The movie doesn’t just focus on his breaking of the Enigma cypher in World War II, but also his struggles against the isolation of being homosexual and autistic (though the latter is never explicitly stated). In fact, Turing’s speech about the nature of the Imitation Game, known to us as the Turing Test, could very well be seen as criticizing how society treats those who think and behave differently.

On the subject of Turing, Benedict Cumberbatch plays the part of Alan Turing beautifully. There are some similarities to his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and some may be tempted to say the two are the same, but that isn’t necessarily true. Holmes is a lot more smug in his attitude and dialogue while Turning seems legitimately oblivious to social cues, subtext, and interaction in general, which is why I drew the conclusion about his autism. My only real gripe is that Charles Dance feels a little underused. Then again, he represents only a part of such an involved, tragic story. With great acting, beautiful writing, and a heart-wrenching look into the mind of an ostracized man, this movie is surely worth a watch.
14 ponies reached

Whiplash was a very intense movie, but it wasn’t a murder mystery or any kind of thriller. It was about music, specifically jazz drumming. In fact, it goes a long way to show how music isn’t all fun and games and involves a lot of work. Struggle, even. Some of the more memorable scenes are when the main character is practicing so hard that his hands bleed. Most of the tension comes from J.K. Simmons’ hard nosed teacher character. I’ve had a lot of strict and hard teachers in the arts, but this guy is on a whole new level of extremity, pushing his students in such a way that you wonder if it qualifies as abuse. Then again, the main character’s behavior sometimes borders on obsessive masochism, drumming past his body’s limit and undergoing some pretty deadly risks just to become a great musician. Yet through all of this, you can understand where they’re coming from. It’s a sparring match of ideologies and expectations, culminating in a finale so intense that I could hardly breathe until it was done. Rarely do I see a movie where I feel I absolutely have show it to people and get it more widespread. Whiplash is that movie.

It’s impossible to talk about The Interview without touching on the controversy surrounding it. The real life Kim Jong-un threatened repercussions if the film was released. Other people promised “9/11-style terror” to theaters that showed it. Sony itself was hacked and pulled the movie in the face of danger. Celebrities and the press jumped right down their throat as a response. But after all that, the movie where Seth Rogen and James Franco try to assassinate Kim Jong-un got its Christmas release. And… it’s pretty much Pineapple Express on steroids and with a bit more bite. But seeing as I liked Pineapple Express, I mean that in a good way.

In a way, the film’s reputation and infamy have outgrown it to the point where its quality and proposed offensiveness can’t possibly live up to the notoriety. Rogen and Franco aren’t two douchebags who get drunk one day and decide to assassinate North Korea’s dictator, but a TV personality and his producer who get roped into the CIA’s assassination plot because the two happened to get a rare interview with the target. Even then, the movie is smart enough to say, “Um, you can’t just take the guy out and expect everything to just solve itself.” That’s part of what makes the movie interesting, being smart and stupid at the same time (stupid in that Seth Rogen movies seem contractually obligated to have a certain amount of bodily humor). Oddly enough, they were even smart enough to give Kim Jong-un a three-dimensional portrayal rather than just make him a mustache-twirling scumbag. I don’t see this as trying to say that everyone has good in them and should be given a chance, but that even guys who do horrible things can still come off as nice and amicable. I think that’s a lesson that a lot of people could take to heart.

Admittedly, through the first part of the movie, I honestly thought the jokes were mostly just okay and that James Franco’s character was a little insufferable. But in the later part of the movie, everything kicked into overdrive. I had at least a laugh a minute, and the character actually wound up having something of an arc. Some people have a problem with the fact that they made a comedy about killing a person who’s still alive, but I had none. When someone treats their people as bad as Kimmy does, I have no problem sticking it to them any way I can. Also, I don’t recall anyone having a problem back when South Park killed the still-living Saddam Hussein and turned him into Satan’s gay lover.

Really, it comes down to this: Did you enjoy Pineapple Express or This Is The End? If so, then you’ll like this in all its raunchy glory. Is it propaganda? Yes, but it’s done right and has the know-how to portray the North Korean people as the victims of a powerful force and who don’t need another government to intervene to save them. If you’re sick of Seth Rogen comedies, this might not do much for you. But if you’re into that sort of thing, give it a look and enjoy the uncomfortable laughs.

Slap Shot is crude, raunchy, offensive, and violent… and I loved almost every second of it. Part of it comes from the fact that it’s not your average sports movie and it turns a lot of wholesome conventions on their head, culminating in an ending that’s too surreal not to love. It’s very clear that you’re not supposed to entirely side with the home team being as violent in the hockey rink as they are, but it’s so damn hilarious that you start crying out for blood just as much as the spectators on film. Anything involving the childlike yet overly brutal Hanson brothers had me in stitches.

The movie isn’t a complete winner; there’s a subplot involving someone possibly sleeping with the main character’s wife that I didn’t really follow. There’s also a lot of truly offensive language, so this might turn off some people with more delicate sensibilities. However, the fact that this was written by a woman, an Academy Award winner in fact, might mitigate some potential outrage. That right there sums up this movie in a nutshell: bro-ishness and feminism mixed together with an overpowering dose of the seventies. I feel sad that this movie has somewhat fallen through the cracks of popular consciousness because it really is unlike any sports movie I’ve ever seen. Even if you’re not a fan of sports movies, definitely give this one a shot. A “slap shot,” if you will.

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies is a film I enjoyed, but also took a lot of issue with. Of all the movies, I would say that this is the one where stretching out the story to three films really takes its toll, as a lot of it is just one big climax. The final Harry Potter movie did that too, but I felt that movie was a lot better paced. Part of the problem is that quite a bit of the film cut back to the absolutely superfluous character of Alfrid, which was a grating experience that didn’t even have any real payoff.

Still, there were quite a lot of good bits of action… most of the time. However, this is one of the few times where Hollywood’s attempt at bloodless carnage actually bothered me as I didn’t feel a lot of the injuries. I’m not asking for spurting blood or leaking intestines, but when someone gets dramatically impaled through the back and the blade doesn’t come out the other side, it feels fake and it takes me right out of the experience.

And then there’s the gender politics, which are… interesting. I get the impression that the filmmakers want to be progressive, but don’t quite know how. While Tauriel’s inclusion as a love interest is a little suspect on reflection, that’s not what bugs me. MASSIVE SPOILERS INCOMING! DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE! No, what bugs me is that they didn’t allow her to fulfill her arc and finish off the orc that killed Kili. I like that Kili’s death gave the romance some legitimate tragedy, but the filmmakers completely dropped the ball by not allowing her to avenge him and giving the kill to Legolas instead. I just don’t see the point of creating original characters if you’re not going to really do anything with them.

STILL SPOILERS! Because, honestly, did we really need another scene of Legolas being awesomely perfect? We had three Lord of the Rings movies showing that. Wouldn’t it have been better for him to not be as good as he was in the other movies so that he could have something to work up to? When he started running up the falling wall pieces like they were stairs, I mentally facepalmed and asked if this was real life. For crying out loud, he doesn’t get a single scratch on him after everything was said and done, which really ticked me off. Don’t get me wrong, it was also bullshit when Tauriel walked away from a fall that should have broken her back with nothing but a cut on her face, but at least it was SOMETHING. SPOILERS OVER! READ ON!

Again, I didn’t hate the movie, and my favorite parts might surprise you. I actually really liked the mounts the characters road. It wasn’t just horses, there were giant boars, elks, and mountain goats. They even took advantage of the mountain goats by having them traverse the rocks around the mountain. That was really creative. Thorin’s plight was also very engaging. I don’t know if they had Benedict Cumberbatch dub over him in some scenes or if they just edited his voice to make him sound like Smaug, but it was very effective. Of course, as with the other Middle-Earth movies, the scenery and visuals are gorgeous and breathtaking.

I think if they had put the first ten minutes of this movie onto the end of the last movie, the pacing would have definitely improved, even if it wouldn’t have erased all the problems. It’s a good puppet show, but I’m just a little annoyed that I could see the strings.

Penguins of Madagascar wasn’t anything super spectacular or groundbreaking, but it was still fun. I may not have thought much of the original Madagascar when I saw it, but I thought the penguins were the best part, so this was welcome entertainment. There were a lot of clever and fast jokes, as well as a string of puns that I couldn’t tell whether they were clever, corny, ironic, or all three. That said, the plot is a string of tropes and conventions, which leaves Benedict Cumberbatch’s character, which he brings all of his natural charm to, as merely a plot device and not a particularly interesting character. As such, you’ll probably figure out most of the plot as soon as movie gets going.

The biggest stick for me is that the moral seems very confused: there’s a message at the end about how a person’s worth is truly what’s on the inside, but this is being delivered while the heroes are turning people from monstrous to cute. That’s such a huge contradiction that I’m still trying to get my head around it. Honestly, though, I’m glad I saw it. The penguins are their funny selves and there’s plenty of good comedy from the side characters, which is all I was really expecting. It has its faults and it doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s still fun.