Reb00t 1t - Ducktales Season 1

My history with the original Ducktales series is pretty limited but I watched the Treasure of the Lost Lamp and know the basic premise and some of the history. I was more a looney tunes than a Mickey Mouse guy growing up but in older age, I have grown to appreciate the wit of the Disney staple of characters as well.

But to business, Ducktales had a reboot, so welcome to Reb00t 1t

And because I’d rather not do another massive 50–100-episode retrospective I’m breaking this down by season. The Ducktales reboot premiered in 2016 and ran for 3 seasons, its finale airing in 2020. The show was a hit for Disney, making the rare jump from DisneyXD to the main Disney Channel, and has even found a life outside of the show with YouTube podcasts.

The show is primarily comedic, so we’re gonna glance over story developments that aren’t worthy of critique or contribute to character development. I may sum up some episodes in a couple of lines but I’ll give an overview of all the seasons, and break down episodes that I think are interesting or contribute to the shows overarching plot. We’ll be covering this in the intended Disney+ Order and not the original airing order.

Young Justice Outsiders Retrospective - Episodes 20-22

Hope you enjoyed the last 3 episodes with the Outsiders, they do not have another mission until episode 24, in the meantime, we need to catch up with everyone else as we dive into episodes 20-22 of Outsiders.

Comic Book Lucky Dip - Doctor Aphra #7 (2017)

For a while now, I’ve wanted to get back to doing more regular comic reviews, but the issue has always been one of schedule slippage. I tend to do reviews months in advance and that wasn’t really compatible with the 4-issue test format which intended to always come out before the 5^th issue. So we’re trying something a bit different. I have a sizeable collection of comic books at my disposal, so I’m gonna pick one at random and do a recap-review of it. One of the aspects I’ll critique is how easy it is to pick up and read as an individual issue, I will not be recapping any part of the story not contained within the issue. As the late great Stan Lee once said, every comic is someone’s first.

So, what came out of my bookshelf today: Doctor Aphra #7, part 3 of the Screaming Citadel crossover arc. Written by Kieron Gillen, with art by Andrea Broccardo and colours done by Antonio Fabela. Released in July 2017 by Marvel comics.

Young Justice Outsiders Retrospective - Episodes 17-19

OK, let’s get back into Young Justice Outsiders and, in the 6^th of 8 reviews for the season, finally get to the debut of the titular Outsiders.

Alita: Battle Angel

 This one has been one I’ve been meaning to do for a while

Battle Angel: Alita is a Manga series created by Yukito Kishiro in the 1990s, it had 9 volumes and was obviously enough to catch the eye of some pretty big Hollywood figures. Most notably Avatar director James Cameron. But then Avatar made all the money and they’ve spent nearly a decade figuring out how to capitalise on that, leaving this series in the hands of Robert Rodriguez

Robert Rodriguez is generally more well-known for low budget flicks, his biggest budget was Spy Kids 3D, and that was… something, I think.

The film was released in January 2019 and whilst critics were largely divided, it seemed to hit a note with audiences, though not sufficiently as the film made $405m on its $200m budget, at best it broke even but some project that the film lost around $50m once marketing expenses are factored in.

Still, pop culture wouldn’t let it die, and the film was intended to get a rerelease in 2020, unfortunately the ongoing pandemic shuttered cinemas so the returns there were minimal.

Is Alita: Battle Angel any good? Let’s take a look.

Young Justice Outsiders Retrospective - Episodes 14-16

OK, we’re back with the second half of Young Justice Outsiders and I decided to bite the bullet and buy the episodes individually, after a I got a voucher for some money off them. Part 2 was released a bit differently to part 1, episodes 13-15 were released in one block, episodes 16-23 were released weekly and episodes 24-26 were released as another block. I’m guessing it was trying to keep interest in DC Universe, and it kinda worked. Let’s see what the writers have for us this time

Praise4Media - Jumanji: The Next Level

Welcome to Jumanji, again

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a massive hit for Sony, moreso even than the original adaptation, a sequel was greenlit but rather than alter the formula drastically they decide to stick with the core cast. I guess we’re still more of a video game society when it comes to games and we haven’t really evolved past it yet... Jumanji VR, now there’s a horrifying idea for a sequel.

Anyway, released in 2019, the film was another box office success, raking in $800m on its $132m budget. A 71% and 87% Rotten Tomatoes rating with Critics and Audiences respectively also speaks to the film’s merit. But it’s been a couple of years now, let’s dive into the film and see if it holds up under scrutiny.