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brendalaI caught some of the live-action Fairly Oddparents movie ("Grow up Timmy Turner") on TV today. My immediate reaction was:
"HOLY HELL!!! CGI WANDA & COSMO ARE %&*#$ING CREEPY!!! GET THEM OFF MY TV!!! AAARG!!!"
However, I kept watching beause, believe it or not, it had enough good things going for it to keep my interest (as long as I covered my eyes when the fairies showed up >_<).
The good:
-Casting Darren Norris as Mr Turner was brilliant! And I'm pretty sure Susan Blakeshee played Mrs Turner (it sounded like her, anyway). They were both really funny and it was cool to see the voice actors giving their characters life in live-action.
-The guy who played Mr Crocker was AMAZING! I'm serious, he was the reason I kept watching. He had the look, voice, and mannerisms down so well it was scary. Kudos to him!
The bad:
-Butch Hartman's drawing style does NOT translate well into 3D. At all. Cosmo, Wanda, and Poof looked horrible and totally clashed with the live-action setting. Later in the movie, Cosmo and Wanda go undercover as humans and are played by Jason Alexander and some actress I didn't recognize. I think it would have been better if Alexander and that other actress had been green-screened onto Timmy's shoulder and played Cosmo and Wanda through the whole movie. Sure, it wouldn't allow their original voice actors to play the roles; but that wouldn't really matter since a live-action movie is so different from the cartoon (and the voice actors already got to play the parents anyway).
-Poof. He sucks. I didn't even know that Cosmo and Wanda had a baby in the show until I saw ads for this movie. Looks like I didn't miss much. He's basically the Dil Pickles of this show (he exists only to gurgle and provide lots of fart/poopy jokes)
-Cosmo and Wanda are completely unlikable! I know this happened in the later seasons of the cartoons, too. But the jokes went beyond "Old married couple who are annoyed with each other" and into "Old married couple who should have divorced ages ago but are only staying together for the kid". It's really sad to see considering what a cute couple they were in the early seasons.
-The romance. Tootie is the love interest in this movie. And the whole reason Timmy falls for her is because she became really hot since the last time he saw her. No, really. That's it.
The story in a nutshell:
Timmy is about 20-years old and is still in grade school because he wished to be a kid forever so he could keep his fairies into adulthood. He is still in Crocker's class (and Crocker is still trying to get his fairies). And his parents desprately wish he would grow up and move out so they could do fun adult things like take cruses and have the house to themselves.
One day, Tootie returns to town to protest against some big corporation building a factory over the Dimsdale Park (she grew up to be an annoying, hippie activist). Timmy uses his fairy magic to help her; and Cosmo and Wanda worry that Timmy will fall in love with her and they'll end up losing him (apparently, falling in love automatically makes one a grown up. Go figure). Cosmo and Wanda go out of their way to sabotage Timmy's chances of rekindling even a friendship with Tootie because it's clear to them that he wants to do her. They sabotage it by pulling some pretty cruel and humiliating pranks on Tootie in the hopes that she'll blame them on Timmy and hate him for it. And it works until Evil Corporate Guy finds out that Timmy has powerful fairies in his possession (thanks to Mr Crocker) and he kidnaps Tootie and Cosmo, Wanda, & Poof because....HE'S EVIL!! MWA HA HA!
Evil Corporate Guy uses a bizarre machine to trap the fairies and suck out their magic so he can use it to grant his wishes. Timmy is unable to break them out of the machine. But he figures that, if he lets them go, they'll automatically be whisked off to Fairy World and be free from the machine. So he sticks his tongue down Tootie's throat and, apparently, that automatically makes Timmy a "grown up". So Wanda, Cosmo, and Poof dissappear and return to Fairy World. Evil Corporate Guy is rendered powerless and Timmy and Tootie easily take him out.
At first, it looks like the movie is going to end with Timmy realizing that he did the right thing and moving on to start a life with Tootie. But, because this movie is stupid, we instead get a scene where the grand poo-bahs of Fairy World declare that Timmy is such a great guy that he deserves to keep his fairies despite the fact that he decided to embrace adulthood and adults are not allowed to have fairies.
....this is just dumb! Timmy's only options in that situation were....
a) Let his fairies go
b) Let his fairies die horribly by having their magic sucked out by a psychotic dude bent on killing him
...so it's not like he sacrificed anything by letting them go. He chose the ONLY option that would save his sorry ass (and the ass of the hot girl he wants to bang). The fact that that option also happened to be the one that let Cosmo, Wanda, and Poof live was just icing on the cake. I could see them allowing Timmy one last chance to say good bye; but letting them stay together forever was just stupid.
Anyhoo, the movie actually ends with Timmy getting a van that looks suspiciously like the Mystery Machine and telling Tootie that he wants to travel the world helping other people with Cosmo, Wanda, and Poof's magic instead of just himself. And he asks Tootie if she'll join them as part of their "family" (***GAG***). Tootie, being an annoying hippie activist, squees at the thought of living in sin in a dirty van with her boyfriend and 3 other people and driving around teaching poor kids to read and building magic wells in Africa or whatever. And then they all drive off into the sunset. I assume the sequel will feature them solving mysteries or something.
In short, this movie was...dissapointing. It had a few good things going for it (mainly Crocker and Darren Norris) and I think it had the potental to be a good sendoff for the cartoon. But the weak romance, annoying characters, and cop out ending killed it. And so did the CGI. The creepy, eye-scorching CGI!
"HOLY HELL!!! CGI WANDA & COSMO ARE %&*#$ING CREEPY!!! GET THEM OFF MY TV!!! AAARG!!!"
However, I kept watching beause, believe it or not, it had enough good things going for it to keep my interest (as long as I covered my eyes when the fairies showed up >_<).
The good:
-Casting Darren Norris as Mr Turner was brilliant! And I'm pretty sure Susan Blakeshee played Mrs Turner (it sounded like her, anyway). They were both really funny and it was cool to see the voice actors giving their characters life in live-action.
-The guy who played Mr Crocker was AMAZING! I'm serious, he was the reason I kept watching. He had the look, voice, and mannerisms down so well it was scary. Kudos to him!
The bad:
-Butch Hartman's drawing style does NOT translate well into 3D. At all. Cosmo, Wanda, and Poof looked horrible and totally clashed with the live-action setting. Later in the movie, Cosmo and Wanda go undercover as humans and are played by Jason Alexander and some actress I didn't recognize. I think it would have been better if Alexander and that other actress had been green-screened onto Timmy's shoulder and played Cosmo and Wanda through the whole movie. Sure, it wouldn't allow their original voice actors to play the roles; but that wouldn't really matter since a live-action movie is so different from the cartoon (and the voice actors already got to play the parents anyway).
-Poof. He sucks. I didn't even know that Cosmo and Wanda had a baby in the show until I saw ads for this movie. Looks like I didn't miss much. He's basically the Dil Pickles of this show (he exists only to gurgle and provide lots of fart/poopy jokes)
-Cosmo and Wanda are completely unlikable! I know this happened in the later seasons of the cartoons, too. But the jokes went beyond "Old married couple who are annoyed with each other" and into "Old married couple who should have divorced ages ago but are only staying together for the kid". It's really sad to see considering what a cute couple they were in the early seasons.
-The romance. Tootie is the love interest in this movie. And the whole reason Timmy falls for her is because she became really hot since the last time he saw her. No, really. That's it.
The story in a nutshell:
Timmy is about 20-years old and is still in grade school because he wished to be a kid forever so he could keep his fairies into adulthood. He is still in Crocker's class (and Crocker is still trying to get his fairies). And his parents desprately wish he would grow up and move out so they could do fun adult things like take cruses and have the house to themselves.
One day, Tootie returns to town to protest against some big corporation building a factory over the Dimsdale Park (she grew up to be an annoying, hippie activist). Timmy uses his fairy magic to help her; and Cosmo and Wanda worry that Timmy will fall in love with her and they'll end up losing him (apparently, falling in love automatically makes one a grown up. Go figure). Cosmo and Wanda go out of their way to sabotage Timmy's chances of rekindling even a friendship with Tootie because it's clear to them that he wants to do her. They sabotage it by pulling some pretty cruel and humiliating pranks on Tootie in the hopes that she'll blame them on Timmy and hate him for it. And it works until Evil Corporate Guy finds out that Timmy has powerful fairies in his possession (thanks to Mr Crocker) and he kidnaps Tootie and Cosmo, Wanda, & Poof because....HE'S EVIL!! MWA HA HA!
Evil Corporate Guy uses a bizarre machine to trap the fairies and suck out their magic so he can use it to grant his wishes. Timmy is unable to break them out of the machine. But he figures that, if he lets them go, they'll automatically be whisked off to Fairy World and be free from the machine. So he sticks his tongue down Tootie's throat and, apparently, that automatically makes Timmy a "grown up". So Wanda, Cosmo, and Poof dissappear and return to Fairy World. Evil Corporate Guy is rendered powerless and Timmy and Tootie easily take him out.
At first, it looks like the movie is going to end with Timmy realizing that he did the right thing and moving on to start a life with Tootie. But, because this movie is stupid, we instead get a scene where the grand poo-bahs of Fairy World declare that Timmy is such a great guy that he deserves to keep his fairies despite the fact that he decided to embrace adulthood and adults are not allowed to have fairies.
....this is just dumb! Timmy's only options in that situation were....
a) Let his fairies go
b) Let his fairies die horribly by having their magic sucked out by a psychotic dude bent on killing him
...so it's not like he sacrificed anything by letting them go. He chose the ONLY option that would save his sorry ass (and the ass of the hot girl he wants to bang). The fact that that option also happened to be the one that let Cosmo, Wanda, and Poof live was just icing on the cake. I could see them allowing Timmy one last chance to say good bye; but letting them stay together forever was just stupid.
Anyhoo, the movie actually ends with Timmy getting a van that looks suspiciously like the Mystery Machine and telling Tootie that he wants to travel the world helping other people with Cosmo, Wanda, and Poof's magic instead of just himself. And he asks Tootie if she'll join them as part of their "family" (***GAG***). Tootie, being an annoying hippie activist, squees at the thought of living in sin in a dirty van with her boyfriend and 3 other people and driving around teaching poor kids to read and building magic wells in Africa or whatever. And then they all drive off into the sunset. I assume the sequel will feature them solving mysteries or something.
In short, this movie was...dissapointing. It had a few good things going for it (mainly Crocker and Darren Norris) and I think it had the potental to be a good sendoff for the cartoon. But the weak romance, annoying characters, and cop out ending killed it. And so did the CGI. The creepy, eye-scorching CGI!
