children’s

Audiobook Reviews 4/5 Stars: Cecilia’s Tale by Debbie Manber Kupfer

Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, children's, Fantasy ,
adorable cover from Audible

Narrated by Fiona Thraille

Run Time: 11 minutes

Summary: 

Short tale of a cat’s life.

Additional Comments:

– I love the narrator.

– Sort is based on a true story as the author based it off a cat she owned.

– Features a style of story like Pets… where everything is from an animal POV.

– Cute. Kid safe.

  • Super short.

Conclusion: 

If you enjoy short stories and love cats, this is a tale for you.

Associate links to follow…

Note: I’m starting to use a few ad sites for audiobooks, so codes are disappearing quickly.

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything. That will change very soon.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

4/5 Stars: Noelle (Disney+ Movie)

Julie Gilbert children's, Family, Fantasy , ,
Movie poster for Noelle.

Genre: Comedy, fantasy

Summary:

When the elder Kringle dies, his son, Nick is supposed to take over the family business, but he doesn’t really want the job. He’d rather be somewhere he can stretch and get away from the immense pressure of having Christmas literally rest on his shoulders. Noelle, Nick’s sister, has the job of keeping his Christmas spirits high. She tells him he should take a weekend off. He disappears. Now everybody kind of hates her. She’s got to find her brother before Christmas is a bust this year.

Additional Comments:

  • Categorized as comedy, fantasy.
  • Snowcone (the Reindeer) is flippin’ adorable.
  • It’s got some classic charm.
  • It’s not the constant laughs sort of comedy, but there are some amusing moments.
  • Gabe’s obsession with tech is funny. His algorithm for determining naughty and nice is hilarious. 2837 or something nice kids in the world. He wants to deliver everything by Amazon Prime.
  • Noelle’s gifts show up in small ways.
  • The reindeer eating everything in sight in the mall was awesome.
  • Everybody wants an iPad apparently.
  • The sleigh has little animated figures that act like they’re on a roller coaster.
  • Disney manages to push their agendas somewhat subtly this time.

Conclusion:

Overall, it’s a charming, modern Christmas tale. I’m not a huge fan of the Christmas genre of movies and books, but this one worked. Oh, there are certainly cheesy moments, but the net feel is “feel-good” instead of completely sappy.

Associate links to follow…

Note: I’m starting to use a few ad sites for audiobooks, so codes are disappearing quickly.

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything. That will change very soon.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

4/5 Stars: The Great Bobbert by Debbie Manber Kupfer

Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, children's , ,
Cover from Audible.

Narrated by George Sirois

Run Time:

4 Minutes (Story is ~3.5 min; 30 seconds is about the author)

Summary:

Pretty sure this review will be longer than the entire book. It’s a cute story set in the P.A.W.S. world. Bobbert is a clown hanging around a park where he thinks he sees a kangaroo.

Additional Comments:

  • Kid-safe.
  • I don’t remember much about the P.A.W.S. world, but I do remember the name of one of the side characters mentioned in here.
  • Not sure why it needs to be its own book, but if you’re a fan of the world, it’s a nice enhancement piece.

Conclusion:

Cute story, but going for the record of the shortest story I’ve ever heard.

Associate links to follow…

Note: I’m starting to use a few ad sites for audiobooks, so codes are disappearing quickly.

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything. That will change very soon.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

Audiobook Reviews 4/5 Stars: The Wide Awake Loons by Katherine L. Holmes

Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, children's, Family, nature , , , ,

Narrated by Aven Shore

Summary:

The story revolves around a lake. Part of the time, we observe the daily kid-adventures of Wes and Ginny who spend the summer canoeing. The other part, we see the lives of the loon family of Owala and Yudal and their chicks.

Additional Comment:

  • I’m used to a very different type of book, but this one was okay as a change of pace.
  • Much of the story felt like it lacked a conflict, but that got sorted by the end.
  • Would probably mean more if you lived near a lake or got to visit a summer house near a lake.
  • Seems high on details about the inner workings of loon lives, so I guess it could be considered educational too.
  • The performance worked well.
  • Not really feeling the cover or the title. I get that it’s about loons, but if I just saw the cover, I’d think “boring nature thingy” not fiction anything. Yes, I’m judging the book based on cover. People do it all the time. You see shirtless dude, you think trashy romance. You see photo of an actual loon, the brain says book equivalent of a nature documentary. The title sounds documentary-esque too.

Conclusion:

Kid-safe story. The awkward tagline sort of spells things out. (It’s about a girl, a loon family, and their lives which revolve around the lake.)

Associate links to follow…

Note: I’m starting to use a few ad sites for audiobooks, so codes are disappearing quickly.

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything. That will change very soon.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

5/5 Stars: Frozen 2 (is Fantastic)

Julie Gilbert children's, Family, Fantasy, Movie Reviews , , , , ,
I can only assume a standard promo pic…captures the main characters well.

Starring: Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff

Summary:

Picking up where Frozen left us, Arendelle is peaceful and happy. Then, Queen Elsa starts hearing a voice calling to her and feels compelled to investigate. Mysterious forces drive the people out of the city after Elsa inadvertently awakens something powerful. Her sister, Anna won’t let her run off alone, so Kristoff, Sven (the Reindeer), and Olaf (the comic relief snowman) get caught up in the adventure as well.

Additional Comments:

  • Songs 4/5 Stars: Some of the songs are wonderful. Some are kind of just there because it’s a musical, so pretty much every emotion needs a song.
  • Plot 4.5/5 Stars: It’s super predictable, yet it works.
  • Comic Relief 5/5 Stars: Spoiler section with specifics after ads.
  • The heartfelt moments between the sisters works.
  • There’s a lot in here to love for everybody.
  • The performances and animation are high quality.
  • The tie-in to the first movie is far from subtle, but it’s also not overbearing.

Conclusion:

Find an excuse to go see this movie. You don’t need to have seen the first recently to enjoy it, but it would help if you’ve seen it once upon a time. Not sure if the big screen experience is better than it would be from the comforts of home, but I suspect a lot of people will be doing both (seeing now and buying a dvd/ bluray later…or waiting for Disney + to have it).

Associate links to follow…

Note: I’m starting to use a few ad sites for audiobooks, so codes are disappearing quickly.

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything. That will change very soon.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

Spoiler Section:

  • Humor is spot on.
  • Highlights: Olaf telling stories. Oh my goodness, he’s deliciously terrible at it. The experience is like watching a five-year-old who has to pee tell a tale.
  • Curse Disney and their need to make something so freaking cute in every movie. This time, the award for cutest thing, probably will have to buy as a plushie, is the Fire Spirit. The thing didn’t even had any lines but literally and figuratively lit up the screen every time it showed it’s tiny, adorable salamander like face.
  • The beginning scene with Anna and Elsa as kids listening to their father tell a story was awesome. Young Anna carries the same essence as her future self. She’s also adorable.
  • Even Kristoff’s bungling of the proposal until the end is predictable but still works out well.
  • Elsa’s fight with the water spirit was pretty sweet.
  • It follows classic storytelling arcs, including some pretty dark points.

Movie Reviews 3.5/5 Stars: The Lion King – 2019 Remake

Julie Gilbert children's, Family , , , , ,

*May be spoilers, but if you’ve seen the original, you’re 100% spoiled already.

Summary:

The live action, for lack of a better term, remake of Disney’s animated classic, The Lion King is honestly sort of disappointing. Not much about the story changed, though that’s not a surprise with it being a remake.

Additional Comments:

  • I really wish Disney put that ginormous budget into making something new and original, though I’d probably be disappointed in that too with how conscious they are about being politically correct these days. I digress.
  • Forgettable. That’s the best term I can come up with for this. Literally. I forgot to review the movie for like 2 weeks.
  • Still love James Earl Jones’s Mufasa. He lends a wonderful gravity to the role.
  • Scar looks anemic in this one. The guy who did his voice this round did fine, but I think I’m gonna sign up with the camp that prefers Jeremy Irons’s performance.
  • The new music inspired by the movie is excellent.
  • Certain sections are breathtakingly gorgeous. They obviously put a heck of a lot of work into the movie.
  • Perhaps it’s just the magic and mystery of childhood and the tendency for the mind to paint the past in a more favorable light, but the animated one struck me as more fun.

Conclusion:

I think they were trying for epic scope here when what they had was classic and wonderful. The overreach didn’t live up to the hype, so a lot of people ended up disappointed. Yikes, I actually agree with the critics this round. There’s a scary thought.

Associate links to follow…

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

Nonfiction:
5 Steps to Surviving Chemistry – A primer for chemistry students. Breaks down concepts into simple terms. 

5 Steps to Better Blurbs – A book for writers looking to improve their book descriptions

4/5 Stars: The Secret Life of Pets 2

Julie Gilbert children's, Family, Movie Reviews , , , ,

Summary:

Max has a big life change when his owner meets and marries Chuck and they have a kid. When they go on a family vacation to visit Chuck’s uncle, Max gets some life lessons. Duke’s just along for the ride. Max is super worried about everything that could possibly happen to his boy. Meanwhile, Gidget has to retrieve something she lost. Snowball is playing hero with a new dog, Daisy.

Additional Comments:

– Better than the first movie. That’s a rarity.

– Specific hilarious moments and deeper comments below in a spoiler section after ads.

– Characters 4/5: Most of them are adorable as they’re meant to be. The bad guy is completely over the top, caricature type villain.

– Plot 4/5: Quite a lot happens. But there is nice balance between the various threads. Gidget is left to safeguard Busy Bee while Max goes on vacation with Duke and the family. Daisy really wants to rescue a poor tiger from the circus. Max is facing his fears.

– Rooster’s awesome. They put a lot of the amusing parts in the trailer though. Daisy’s fun too. Max is good old Max. Snowball is still nuts.

– Honestly, I don’t remember much about the first movie.

Conclusion:

Not sure it’s a must see in theaters movie, but it’s definitely up there on the you-should-see-it list.

Associate links to follow…

Amazon Prime

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.


OR

Spoilers:

– My favorite part by far was Gidget eating the red dot to impress all the cats. The whole crazy cat lady angle was amusing. The Roomba ride through the room topped it off nicely.

– The train fight is actually similar to Dark Phoenix. Not sure why everybody thinks a fight on a train is a must for a movie these days.

– I loved how they managed to balance the screentime for the 3 threads.

– Cotton made me laugh. Typical sheep.

3.5/5 Stars: Disney’s 2019 Aladdin Reboot

Julie Gilbert children's, Family, Fantasy , , ,
standard movie poster

Summary:

A poor boy with a pure heart finds a magic lamp and wishes himself into a prince so he can see the Sultan’s daughter, Princess Jasmine.

Additional Comments:

  • A valiant effort for rebooting a classic tale.
  • I still think the animated version is better, but they handled the beloved story with love.
  • Casting fit pretty well, though personally I think Naomi Scott had a stronger singing voice than Mena Massoud. They both did fine though. Will Smith put in an admirable performance as the genie. Nasim Pedrad gave life to a new character, Dalia, handmaiden to the princess. She was hilarious. Hands-down, my favorite new character. Alan Tudyk also did a nice job with Iago.
  • Comparison to the old version: I miss Gilbert Godfried’s Iago and Robin Williams’s genie. The new ones were fine but just not the same.
  • They definitely added some new songs and overall smacked the production with Bollywood style. They also kept some of the old classics and the basics of the storyline. I hadn’t seen the animated one in forever, so I forgot how things played out.
  • Were the additions worth it? Not really. They’re fine, but the movie doesn’t come close to the wow factor I had as a kid. That could partly be because I’m not a kid anymore, but I’m left with a feeling of “yeah, it was good.” Maybe the issues is my expectations were too high because the original left a very high bar to reach.

Conclusion:

Decent in its own right, but I’m still not convinced Disney needs to keep digging into its archives to find worthy stories to tell.

Associate links to follow…

Amazon Prime

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.


OR

Audiobook Reviews 3.45/5 Stars: The Loudest Meow

Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, children's, Fantasy, ghosts , , ,

3.45/5 Fun Fluff for Cat Fans

*will try to keep this spoiler free until after ads

Summary:

Jem’s dead. She’s also a cat. She ends up in a weird cat heaven of sorts. Her sole goal is to make it back to Molly and Nick. In the afterlife, she meets several of Molly and Nick’s old cats.

Additional Comments:

  • It’s cute. It’s unique.
  • Characters 4/5: Jem’s cute. The rest of the eclectic ghost cast is sort of forgettable, but there are some really great dynamics of love and hate and jealousy. It’s like middle school.
  • World-building 4/5: The world created is fine fantasy in that it’s plausible and well-described.
  • Plot 2/5: It’s pretty much one random event after another meandering to nowhere. I guess you could say it’s about Jem’s emotional journey, but I’m used to more action in stories.
  • Audiobook version is fun, though I will say that Marmalade’s voice got very old, very quickly. Thankfully, she’s really only prominent in the first third of the book.
  • Can’t make heads or tails of what the title has to do with the story.

Conclusion:

Although clearly kid-friendly, I’m not exactly buying into the idea of this book actually being aimed at kids in grades 4-7. I’d broaden the general appeal to “people who love cats.”

Associate links to follow…

(If you click through and buy something, there’s the chance I’ll earn like $0.04 ….)

Amazon Prime

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.


OR

Spoiler talk:

  • Continued thoughts on plot: When they were meeting to help Rusty, did they actually do anything? I got the feeling they met and sort of sent him positive vibes.
  • The whole check in process, training process, etc was cool, but it never went anywhere.
  • They’re already dead, so there wasn’t much sense of danger or suspense.
  • The story doesn’t have much closure except that Jem seems to have accepted her fate.

Awesome Movies Review 4.5/5 Stars: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, children's, Family, Fantasy, Movie Reviews , , , , , ,
Not my pic – standard poster

*Spoilers after ads

Summary:

Hiccup, Toothless, and the How to Train Your Dragon crew returns for a final adventure to the trilogy. (Though let’s be honest, if it makes money, they’ll find a way to get a 4th story and make it a cycle.) Hiccup and company have fought hard to create a dragon-human utopia. And it works, sort of. It also draws a lot of unwanted attention.

Additional Comments:

– Dragon based stories generally fall into the “dragons are adorable” or “dragons are terrifying” sides. Though they’re definitely mostly on the “adorable” side, the makers of this movie managed to include some super scary dragons as well.

– Story 4/5: Hiccup’s way of life is threatened, so he tries to move on. His clan faces big trials. Toothless meets a lightfury and falls in love (not a spoiler since that’s pretty much all the trailer and the posters focus on). There’s good balance between the two halves of the story.

– Fight Scenes 4/5: Most reminded me of the Battle for Naboo (plains side), where Jar Jar Binks is fighting off droids and succeeding despite complete ineptness. There is an exception to that noted below. Hiccup’s sword is pretty awesome though and there are some pretty sweet moves here and there.

– Flashbacks 4/5: Not usually a fan, but I think it worked well here.

– Conflict 4.5/5: Toothless and Hiccup are at an interesting point in their relationship and in life. They handled the themes with care.

– Humor 3/5: The comic relief characters had way too much screentime, and they weren’t particularly funny. On the other hand, the awkward scenes with Toothless and the Lightfury were downright hilarious.

– Epilogue 4.5/5: Not really a huge fan of epilogues, but this one worked for me. More on that later…

– Visuals 4.5/5: comments below.

Random trailer comment: I’m such a sucker for Nancy Drew, I’ll probably watch the reboot.

Conclusion:

Excellent movie worth seeing a few times. One of the rare movies where I think it matters to have it in 3D. Entertaining and fun as well as pretty (if you can get past the overdone sections of stupid humor.)

Associate links to follow…

(If you click through and buy something, there’s the chance I’ll earn like $0.04 ….)

Amazon Prime

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.


OR

Spoiler Section:

– Music 4.5/5: Favorite score was the one playing while Toothless and the lightfury weave in and out of the campsite.

– Visuals 4.5/5: It’s a very pretty movie when they’re not focusing on stupid humor. The Hidden World piece is only like 5 minutes long, but it’s beautiful and majestic. I think you see the best part in the theatrical trailer.

– Best fight scene: The escape from Grimmel’s trap.

– Most of Ruffnut’s dialogue was stupid but the part where she annoyed the heck out of Gimmel was quite impressive. (Even though the evil mastermind planned for it.)

– Epilogue comments: Baby dragons! Awwwwww. They’re so flippin’ cute.