Samurai Equine

Hello there, my crowd! Welcome to my Weekly Musings: Orange Edition. 

[I ❤ JAPAN] -- [I ❤ THE COLOR RED] -- [I ❤ CELESTIA]

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I may need a vacation after all...  Let's talk about it, my crowd.

 My weekend was pretty full. There was shopping, gift wrapping, spending time with the family, paying bills, and so many other things. Barely had time to fit in some of the fun things I wanted to do as well. Worst part is, I'm STILL not done. There's at least one other person I need to buy a Christmas gift for...  I've never cut it this close to Christmas before, but I may not have a choice. I may need to... ugh... Go shopping one last time this weekend. Wish me luck, everyone. It's going to be SOOOOO crowded~! I would love to just buy something online, but at this point, overnight shipping would be my best bet. I'm not sure I want to spend that much.

 But as I said, I got to have some fun. There's been more clips of Sonic Prime and the Mario movie posted online. We are getting SO CLOSE to the premiere of Sonic Prime~!! But I may hold off 'til after Christmas. Furthermore, the Sonic Frontiers soundtrack dropped. You know I'll be getting my own copy of that! Last of all, the gifts I ordered online at the beginning of December came in. So there's a lot less I need to worry about.

 NO KAMEN RIDER BLACK SUN THIS WEEK!  Ran out of time. But make no mistake, I will finish this soon!

 DonBrothers 39: Nothing Shines Here.  The episode is a hard pass. It's pure filler. Even the Killer robot in this episode fails to accomplish anything. It's happy to settle for temporarily injuring our heroes rather than going for the fatal blow. Furthermore, it seems weird that they chose NOW to decide that transforming can cure injuries. Hope they don't go further and say it can cure death too. About the only thing this episode accomplished was reminding us that the prisoner character and Zenkaiser Black still exist. Also, the MOTW is based on JAKQ.

 Geats 13: A Two-Way Flight.  As cool as it is, I am saving any gushing I have over this new buckle set for the next episode, when we should see it in full swing. It seems there is a higher authority over the Game Master, and he will step in if his subordinates are getting out of place. I can tell Geats is trying to make a connection with Buffa. I hope his and Tycoon's words of wisdom actually get through to him in the next episode, because they are clearly building up the arrival of another Rider...

 MOVIE TIME!  Recently, I watched A Christmas Carol (2012) by Jason Figgis. Never have I seen a movie that made me wish for a movie to take its production back to the theater, its roots, and yet here we are. This movie commits every sin that make people shy away from practical effects. Bad acting, bad casting, bad costume design, bad framing, using paintings for filler shots, etc. I cringe when I see them try and fail to make modern buildings and décor look like Victorian England homes, especially when all the sets might very well be in one person's house. I hate seeing the narrator say lines of dialogue that the actors aren't good enough to deliver. Even the rare hints of CGI and special effects they use do not make it better. If this was a production made by some YouTubers, it might be genius. As is, it's a disappointment. They even had a very meta opening with someone pitching the story to an early investor, but that didn't go anywhere. But there were some good points. I feel like there were more introspective moments with Scrooge, giving him a chance to really examine all his beliefs and his impact on this world, thus making his reformation not just a selfish or fear-based one. I do think they thrown in way more lines from the novel. I don't know for sure, but it feels that way. I can't recommend this for anyone, but they tried. Bless them, they tried.

 DOUBLE FEATURE!  I also saw Netflix's Scrooge (2022). It's... better? But not by much. When I heard that Netflix was doing a CGI animated movie based on A Christmas Carol, I HAD to see it! Didn't care that it was a musical, the timing just could not be more perfect. However, the moment I began to play it, I saw Scrooge with a dog he never had before, and I knew we were in for some creative changes. Sadly, these changes amounted to a very mixed bag. Some were good, some existed to lessen the Christian influences or the darker subjects (which were never a problem before), and some were terrible or pointless changes. Even certain moments in the story that should have been gut-wrenching were half-baked at best. Perhaps the really sad thing is the potential that was here. The visuals were AMAZING! And some of the songs really were soulful and from the heart; perfectly fitting for the characters. But the watered-down story just doesn't justify these few good elements. You know how some parts of A Christmas Carol get lost when turning it into a movie or a special? It feels like someone put those adaptations through an AI without including the book itself, and then made this version of A Christmas Carol, minus the hilarious side-effects that prove it was automatically generated. I am not against creative changes, but only if these changes are justified. I can't say they are fully justified here. After seeing them make something special with their 2019 Klaus movie, I really expected more out of Netflix.

That's all for now, my crowd.  Take care, and can you hear those sleigh bells ringing?

When Archie lost the legal rights to continue making Sonic comics, believe it or not, I was actually sad. They had just started a new line, staring Sonic and friends in their Classic incarnation. Best of all, it was based only on material from the games. It was easily THE BEST Sonic comic line ever, and then it died before it had a chance to do anything. I am glad to see that even with IDW taking over, that line of comics doesn't have to come to an end. This is, perhaps, the best way for it to come back. I want to get this comic. This is "Tails is 30 Years Old | Sonic Speed Reading" by Game Apologist.