illiniguy34

So we're now in a new decade, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't believe the 2010's are now over. Anyways, 2019 was an eventful year for me. I finally graduated from University and I recently proposed to my girlfriend (she said yes!), so I'd say it was pretty good.

Currently, I'm job hunting so I can finally afford my own car, move out of my parents' place, and have my fiance move down here from Canada. My fiance made the decision as she is going into writing, acting, film, and theatre, which makes more sense to move to a big market like here in Chicago. If it were flipped the other way and I had to move up there, we would've had to then move to either Vancouver or Toronto since those are the only two places to actually go into any of those I've mentioned up in Canada. Though if you're French, tack on Montreal as well. So in the end, it only makes sense for her to move down here. We are currently working towards a fiance visa for her which starts with me filling out a multi page petition and writing a check for a $535 filing fee. Worth it. As for our wedding, we're planning to have it in July 2021 up in her hometown with both of our friends and families attending.

As for videos, I am in the process of editing a review for the latest Disney show "Amphibia" with a comparison video between Peter Jackson's "King Kong" and "Kong: Skull Island" in the pipeline. I think the problem for me, as with most creators, is that I've got more video ideas than I do time on my hands to actually make them happen. Eh, it happens. Thankfully, my channel didn't suffer from Youtube's latest rule change to comply with COPPA coming after they illegally collected information on users that are minors. So essentially because Youtube broke the law, creators have to suffer. It's like that one shit stain in your class who ruins it for everyone despite the rest of the class behaving properly. And hey, this means that me selecting "no, set this channel as not made for kids" actually worked, however I haven't uploaded anything ever since this change was implemented. I just have this thought in the back of my head that says I'll eat my own words, so hopefully that doesn't happen. And when that day comes, I'll make it known. 

-Ernie

So this was supposed to be up on Sunday, March 17, but had 3 automatic claims right as I uploaded it from Toho, Sony, and Warner Bros. Thanks stupid Youtube bots. Anyways, I woke up at about 7:00 this morning and saw that my video is viewable again! Okay I can't monetize it, but I wasn't gonna monetize it anyways since I don't even make much off of Youtube to begin with. I got a real life job for a reason. Anyways, here's my first video of 2019 and man am I proud of it.


Enjoy!

-Ernie

So I finally made a review after nearly 2 years of not doing one, and yes this one has some similarities to my journal on the show (which you can read here:  So I just watched Season 1 of the new She-RaHi everyone, Ernthony Krautano here. The internet's busiest cartoon nerd. This show fucking sucks. Like, I had modest expectations and was still disappointed. And no, it's not because it's not the original (far from it, really). But before I go further, let's see how we got to where we are today. Also some minor spoilers are ahead, you've been warned.
In 1982, Mattel introduced to the world a barbarian-like action figure character named He-Man and a year later debuted in a show that he was the main character of, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The show told of a prince named Adam on the planet of Eternia who uses the Sword of Power to transform into He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe by the way, in order to defeat a villain named Skeletor and his evil forces. "By the power of Grayskull, I have the power!", Adam would always yell in order to transform. Did I also mention that this is Adam's secret? You know, despite the only difference between Adam and He-Man w). I did tweak my script heavily from my original journal so it's not a total copy/paste job like some would think. Anyways, here it is: 

Though if you had been keeping up with my Twitter and Facebook, you'd know that this was originally supposed to be up on Friday the 14th instead of today. Well, I do explain that in this video: 

TL;DR You can blame Youtube's copyright bots for taking my review down immediately after it was finished uploading. In the meantime, I did reupload it onto my Vidlii channel so people could still access it even if I did end up waiting the 30 day penalty: www.vidlii.com/watch?v…. Fortunately for me, Dreamworks' website gives you the information to contact their DMCA agent, which I did after sending a rebuttal to Youtube. But yeah, Dreamworks is fully aware of Youtube's buggy system to the point where they just have their DMCA agent's contact info readily available online as to avoid waiting Youtube's wait penalty (which you can see here: Dreamworks Terms of Use). Thanks, Dreamworks. That was awesome of you guys. Anyways, everything is cleared up for the most part. Sure I'm blocked from monetizing the video but at the same time, I didn't want it monetized anyway (you see why at the very end of my review, spoilers). So with all of that said, enjoy!

-Ernie

Hi everyone, Ernthony Krautano here. The internet's busiest cartoon nerd. This show fucking sucks. Like, I had modest expectations and was still disappointed. And no, it's not because it's not the original (far from it, really). But before I go further, let's see how we got to where we are today. Also some minor spoilers are ahead, you've been warned.

In 1982, Mattel introduced to the world a barbarian-like action figure character named He-Man and a year later debuted in a show that he was the main character of, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The show told of a prince named Adam on the planet of Eternia who uses the Sword of Power to transform into He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe by the way, in order to defeat a villain named Skeletor and his evil forces. "By the power of Grayskull, I have the power!", Adam would always yell in order to transform. Did I also mention that this is Adam's secret? You know, despite the only difference between Adam and He-Man was the fact that Adam had clothes on whereas He-Man was half-naked. It was a cheesy, but fun cartoon that was basically a half hour toy commercial like every other cartoon that came out in the 80's. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe would have a two season run from September 1983 to November 1985 and was so successful that it got a spin-off which began airing in September 1985 called She-Ra: Princess of Power. This show focused on Adam's twin sister Adora, who was captured as an infant and brought to the planet of Etheria by a force known as the Evil Horde, led by a being named Hordak. Adora then finds the Sword of Protection and uses it to transform into the mighty She-Ra by saying, "For the honor of Grayskull!" in order to combat Hordak and his Evil Horde. She-Ra: Princess of Power ran from September 1985 to December 1986 lasting two seasons, though it put a dent in the franchise as a whole. There would be a live action movie titled Masters of the Universe in 1987 with Dolph Lundgren as He-Man. The less said about that version, the better. In September 1990, Mattel tried to continue the continuity of the original He-Man show with The New Adventures of He-Man, which featured He-Man being summoned to the planet of Primus with Skeletor not far behind. I haven't seen this show, but most fans prefer the original over this. Then there was the 2002 reboot also titled He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which was the show that got me into the franchise when I was a little kid. This version has Adam as a teenager who is only a grown man when he's He-Man, which makes more sense than Adam already being an adult like in the original. Honestly, if the original Adam was having sex with a chick that didn't know his secret, he'd blow his cover easily. Anyways, we also get the origin of why Skeletor is a skull with a muscular blue body and in addition to the revamped styling of the entire cast, every character gets expanded upon with their own backstories, including the villains. This cartoon wasn't just selling toys, but toys of characters that you actually gave a crap about. But like anything good in life, the 2002 show was canceled after two seasons and ran from August 2002 to January 2004. Season 3 would have introduced She-Ra, but fate was in the way. Oh well. So finally, we get a new entry into the Masters of the Universe franchise, and of course the first reboot of She-Ra herself. So then, why was I so negative at the beginning? Well.........

Never have I been so underwhelmed than when I watched She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Though first of all, I'm fine with the slight title change, matches with her twin bro. The show follows the old one fairly closely in Adora's origins, and like the 2002 He-Man show it has Adora as a grown woman only when she transforms into She-Ra. Unfortunately, characters like the villainous Catra aren't fooled at all and unlike her bro, everyone knows that Adora is She-Ra. The villainous Shadow Weaver serves Hordak as a part of the Evil Horde, and she's pretty damn intimidating with my favorite scenes involving her. She's pretty threatening and even gains the upperhand on She-Ra at one point in the series. Other villain characters like Scorpia and Entrapta are there for filler, with Scorpia acting as the dumb muscle of the group (meh) and Entrapta working for them for.......well just cause unless I missed something. I do kind of dig the love/hate relationship Adora has with her former Horde member, Catra. Though Catra needs to decide whether or not to just DESTROY ADORA. Seriously, it's borderline bi-polar. No joke, but in episode 11, we see Catra get all warm and fuzzy inside about past events involving her and Adora and next thing you know, she decides she'll leave Adora to die. Not to mention at one point, Catra acknowledges that Shadow Weaver brainwashed her, but then gets mad at Adora for not accepting the brainwashing, this whole ordeal is all over the place. It's like the writers couldn't pinpoint exactly what they wanted to do with her. Do you wanna be friends with Adora or keep being Shadow Weaver's bitch? It's like the world's worst cocktease. As for the big bad guy himself, Hordak, he's barely in this! I swear if you weren't already familiar with She-Ra before this show came out, you'd probably forget about Hordak even being there. He's supposed to be to She-Ra what Skeletor is to He-Man for crying out loud, yet the show puts more focus on Shadow Weaver despite the fact that she's not the leader. And no, the show doesn't treat Hordak as something being built up and becoming She-Ra's most difficult enemy to fight, he's just a completely wasted character. At least Hordak's got a neat redesign reminiscent of the 2002 He-Man show, but that's all the positives I've got for him.

Anyways, the hero characters. The character of Glimmer is pretty damn unbearable like a whiny child in the first two episodes, but is decent afterwards and it's nice to see her always be there for Adora. Now with the character of Bow, it feels like the writers recycled Lance from Voltron: Legendary Defender with similar mannerisms and speaking patterns despite having a different voice actor. Not saying that having a character like Lance is a bad thing, but it feels strange already having a character similar to him this soon from the same fucking company. The princesses in the supposed Princess Alliance that we meet throughout the season (Perfuma, Mermista, and Frosta) aren't really anything to write home about, and they ironically feel like characters to fill toy shelves. Here, I'll sum them up for you:

-Perfuma: Tree-hugging hippie.

-Mermista: Hates life and the fact that she has responsibilities, probably wishes for death.

-Frosta: Overly serious 11 year old and long lost member of the Southern Water Tribe.

And that's it. That's all that those characters are. No personality, you get everything about them from these descriptions, I swear to God. Probably the biggest problem in this show is perhaps the lack of tension. Oh the show tries to build tension up, but it lasts for an episode at most. I don't know what it was, but it was hard to get engaged with this show. The characters don't give me much to care about, not to mention missed opportunities. For instance in episode 7, She-Ra appears to have been infected by a virus that has infected robots throughout the episode, but it doesn't make her evil like the robots and thus requiring Glimmer and Entrapta (this was her debut episode btw) to take She-Ra down. But no, it makes Adora drunk and for the rest of the episode, she's practically hung over. Honestly, what was going on in the writers' room? Was this a creative decision? Did Dreamworks completely meddle with this? Either way, blown opportunity. Oh yeah, and the last episode has Princess Netossa and Princess Spinnerella. That's all I'm gonna say about them because they just show up after serving as background characters prior to the last episode. Though the worst treatment to a character has to go to Madame Razz. Why is that? The episode she debuts in shows her as this quirky old witch who tends to talk to herself often, and then the show forgets about her after the episode ends. The fact that the crew introduced a pretty fun-seeming character only to have her basically disappear and be a throwaway character. Is it honestly that hard to have her play a role in the overall season? At least similar characters like Old Man McGucket from Gravity Falls served as comic relief for the longest time before being a crucial part of the series plot. But no, just introduce a charming character and then forget about her, that's how this show rolls. Ugh.

As for the look of the show, there are some redesigns that I am more than fine with. The character Madame Razz was in dire need of a redesign and I'm glad Shadow Weaver looks distinct and not just a tall female version of Orko. However, I'm not a fan of how She-Ra looks like she's wearing bike shorts. No, I'm not asking to have her goods be visible underneath her skirt, but I'd honestly prefer a longer skirt over the bike shorts. In addition, maybe just, oh I don't know, give She-Ra her boobs. As it stands, Adora looks like she's dressed up for a con rather than being transformed into the most powerful woman in the universe. Yeah Adora grows taller and her hair grows longer when she transforms, but that's it! Hmm, maybe that's why the villains know Adora is She-Ra, she barely changes! As for Catra, well she originally moved like a cat and could even turn into one, now she's a catgirl and resembles a long lost member of the Thundercats, though it has been growing on me. But then there's redesigns that look like recycles of characters from other shows. Now I get it, multiple characters can have similar traits, but that's one thing. It's another to basically copy and paste. Scorpia looks like Shiro from Voltron: Legendary Defender except with scorpion claws and a tail, Mermista looks like Connie from Steven Universe without her glasses (emo Connie?), Queen Angella bears too much of a resemblance to Allura from Voltron: Legendary Defender (even down to having a British accent, which is strange when you consider her daughter Glimmer doesn't have one for whatever reason), and like I mentioned earlier, Princess Frosta and her kingdom look and feel like a recycled version of the Southern Water Tribe from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Like I said, I get there are franchises with characters that bear resemblance to characters from other franchises, but these are just too damn distracting. You know come to think of it, the dynamic that Adora has with Glimmer and Bow is like that of Aang, Katara, and Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender and her relationship with Catra kind of resembles that of Aang and Zuko. Perhaps that makes Hordak the Fire Lord? Hell at some point towards the end of the season, it's suddenly dropped that there's been multiple She-Ras in time, so I guess She-Ra (and possibly He-Man if he does exist in this universe) is like the Avatar and is passed down generation-to-generation? No joke, the show just drops that on the audience with zero build-up and left me going "what the fuck was that?" Jeez. Look, I get that coming up with 100% original ideas is hard, but it's a turn-off when shit so closely resembles that of other franchises. 

So overall, there's some neat things, but there's a shit load of flaws and did I mention that I think this fucking sucks? There's a reason user reviews give this show a 40% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (with a critic rating of 100% ironically) and a 5.8 on IMDB. Yeah I know ratings on websites don't mean much to some people, but they do their job in giving a general consensus on whatever the fuck it may be. As for me, I honestly don't recommend it. It's not because it's not the original (I was never even that keen on the original She-Ra), it's because the show sucks on its own merits. From the writing, to the character designs, to the characters themselves, it's all fail, fail, and fail. This show is called She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, yet the only princesses that we even get to know are Adora and Glimmer, while the rest are throwaway filler characters (kinda like in the old show). I get that it's only the first season, but this is where the show is supposed to get people hooked onto the show as well as the characters, at least most of them anyways. If you can't manage to do that, then that's really no good. Now there might be someone reading this saying, "well it's such a diverse show, how could you not like it?" I'm fine with diversity, but I don't make judgments based on diversity. Diversity does not guarantee a good show and never will guarantee a good show. I'll also say this right now: I'm not going to be watching season 2, if season 2 even gets made (at this time, season 2 has not been announced). I might watch an episode that features He-Man in it if that were happen, but that's as far as I'll go with She-Ra and the Princesses of Power from here on out.

Oh, and how could I forget.


And I just made an entire journal talking about Masters of the Universe without saying He-Man or She-Ra are gay. Wait, ah shit.


shrugs

Anyways, goodnight, and just watch Voltron ya fucks. everything closes out with "Ok 2 B Gay" playing in the background

-Ernie

SPOILERS: The most I spoil from this movie is one scene as I tried to avoid spoiling plot points for anyone that hasn't seen the movie yet. So with that said, let's begin!

You know, it's been a long ass time since I did a journal like this, so why not. And plus, horror movies have been something I've wanted to talk about on some platform for a long time, especially slasher movies, and here's an excuse to fulfill that need. Now in the Halloween franchise over the years, we've seen the good (Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers, and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later), the bad (Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Myers, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, and Rob Zombie's Halloween), and the ugly (Halloween Resurrection and Rob Zombie's Halloween II). So then, what about this new installment in the Halloween franchise? 

Well firstly, let's lay down the rule that with the original Halloween from 1978, we now have three different timelines attached to it. The first timeline consists of the first, second, fourth, fifth, and sixth movies. The third movie in the franchise, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, was originally supposed to turn Halloween into an anthology series and consist of new stories. Unfortunately, it tanked because people wanted to see Michael Myers despite the third movie actually being good on its own merits. Oh well. The second timeline consists of the first two movies, but ignores the fourth, fifth, and sixth movies. Instead, it jumps to 1998's Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and concludes with the disaster that is 2002's Halloween: Resurrection (which ironically killed that timeline). Now, the Rob Zombie movies take place in their own continuity, so I won't waste time on those. Frankly, those movies earn their own separate discussion. And of course, we are currently in the third timeline of Halloween consisting of the first movie and the new one from this year. Quite the rollercoaster, eh? Seriously, it's reminding me of the Godzilla Millennium Series. Anyways, let's discuss it.

I'll say it up front, I loved this movie. In an age where most of the bad reboots and sequels are typically horror flicks, it's nice to actually have a good one. Although, I think the best way to describe the movie is that it's to 1978 Halloween what Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, it's a good sequel that shares similarities to its predecessor that introduces new characters into the franchise while retaining old characters and introducing them to a new generation. I took my dad to see this (he's only seen a handful of slasher movies, including the original Halloween) and one of his comments that stuck out to me was that the movie wasn't as gory as he thought it would be. Now don't get me wrong, there is gore in this movie for sure, though it's kept at about the same levels as the 1978 version, which I personally don't mind. If I wanted to see everyone on-screen getting slashed to bits and be able to fill a swimming pool full of blood, well I could just watch a Friday the 13th movie. In fact funny enough, the only kill that I left going "why" was when the neighborhood is flooded with kids trick-or-treating, Michael sees a woman through her house window (followed by a reference to the first movie), and then he breaks into her house through the back and kills her. She wasn't in his way, she had nothing to do with the plot, I guess he just needed to kill another person after killing another woman not that much earlier in order to get his knife. That said, the kills were maybe a bit too tame and too many of the kills are either off-screen or obscured by darkness. I will say this though, I didn't hate any of the characters in this to the point where I was begging for Michael to come and kill them, which I think deserves plenty of points. Now I'm sure that other people hated some characters and wished death upon them, but onions will be onions. Okay, maybe the dad character, but that's about it. I definitely dug the characters and the acting was pretty good all around. Oh yeah and for all the Halloween fans out there, have fun pointing out all the references and Easter Eggs in this movie. 

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this to people that are fans of the franchise and perhaps people that like watching slasher movies. But hey if you didn't enjoy it, well there's clearly nothing anyone can do about it. This new installment in the franchise certainly belongs in the "Good" category in my book. So on that bombshell, we end. Goodnight!