The Fullmetal Alchemist Movie and it's weird love for obscured characters

 

So did you guys see the Cowboy Bebop show on Netflix? Seems most people have different opinions on it. I was halfway done binging the show and then I heard the news of it's cancellation. I liked most of it but I hated how lame Vicious was. Instead of the cold quiet stoic man, we got this overemotional manchild. 

Look at this manchild's big expressive eyes

There's been a dozen live-action adaptations of popular anime from both sides of the ocean and alot of them aren't great. There are some that are like don't resemble the source material or vaguely resemble (US Death Note/Dragonball)

There are some that follow through to a point but change too much like Attack on Titan

Mikasa being lovers with her cousin, FakeLevi who is in love with her adopted bro, Eren. Also FakeLevi happens to also be Eren's long lost bro. Meaning this is one messed up incest family.

(Yes, I know Levi and Misaka being related wasn't reveal till way later on and he's not exactly Levi)

It's funny that Eren's evil bro happened years before we got major revelations about Eren's family in the canon material.

The Fullmetal movie is faithfully adapted, the problem however is it shoves way too much material. We have the storylines of the origin, Father Cornello, Nina, Meeting Dr. Marcoh for the 1st time, Hughes' death, Lab 5, Al's existential crisis, the Mannequin Soldiers, Roy killing Lust, Envy reduced to a tiny parasite, as well as Ed seeing Al's body at the gate. All this within a 2 hour movie. I mean gosh. Go watch Rurouni Kenshin, Bleach, or the 1st two Japanese Death Note movies if you want to watch actually good adaptations that perfectly cover one little arc in one or two-part film.

Also guess whose one of the main villains...

Besides the scumbag who fused his daughter with his dog for science or the three Homunculus based on 3 of the 7 sins.

No, it's Major General Halcrow

Yeah, they made this guy the main baddie.

To explain Halcrow, well this is going to be tricky. There are two separate Fullmetal Alchemist shows that were both adapted from the manga(comic). The 1st show quickly caught up to the manga material and diverted from it's source and created a whole new story. The 2nd show, Brotherhood didn't get caught up and stayed faithful to the it's source to the very end. However, due to the 1st' FMA show was still fresh in everyone's heads, the 2nd show's 1st 13 episodes were sort of ran on super recap mode and quickly told most stories in rapid pace and skipped over some stories that weren't too important, like Halcrow's 1st appearance.

The 1st show(and manga) had Ed and Al on a train and met with a another member of the military, Halcrow and his family. Train got attacked by a terrorist, he threaten the dude's family, shot him in the ear. The good guys overcome the villain. blah blah blah

Due to the rushed pacing of the 1st 13 episodes. The 2nd show skipped all this.

He did appear very late in the 2nd show(and manga) where he warned King Bradley about Roy's coup d'état. He was out of the loop whose the good guys and bad guys and just simply serving his orders.  That's all his appearances for a guy they chose for the main villain for the movie.

Now since the 1st show did divert from the manga. Halcrow did somewhat had a little bit of more screentime.

The show started with an evil cult leader in the city of Reole, feeding lies about his miracles. Much later when Ed and Al weren't looking, a civil war happened about the false man of the faith. The military came in to bring order and not caring who shot first.

Halcrow made his 2nd appearance as he interrogate poor Rose. She was part of group rebelling group against the cult leader but Halcrow didn't care and told his men to deal with her.

And the next time we saw her, she was mute from her experience and already have a baby from the event.

He is more villain-like than his manga/2nd show counterpart that his men caused this poor girl to get raped. Still, it's still weird he ended up as one of the main villains despite he had a very limited amount of appearances in any adaptation of FMA.

Santa specials/movies

It's Christmas time and I figure I list all the Christmas stuff that stars Santa Claus.

The company known as Rankin-Bass did all those popular stop motion specials that everyone grew up with. Some aired on local stations, others aired elsewhere on cable(mainly Fox Family/Freeform).

First, I be talking about three Rainkin-Bass specials that has Santa as the main character.

There Santa Claus is Coming to Town

This explains the origin of Santa and how he became the famous gift deliverer as he deals with the evil Burgermeister Meisterburger.

I always got the song "Put One Foot in Front of the Other" messed up by saying putting the foot on top of the other and others who heard said, "And soon you be falling through the door."

There's also A Year without Santa Claus Saint Nick got a cold and wonder if it's worth delivering presents this year. 

Despite somehow that some kids doubt Santa is real, Santa quitting Christmas for a year got to be be front page news.

This special also gave us our two breakout stars, Heatmeister and Snowmeister. They're popular for their memorable songs.

Speaking about those two, this special got a direct sequel called, A Meister Brothers Christmas

I know I said I focus on Santa first but this is directly spin off the same movie.

The plot is they have to work together to help Santa. Their evil brother, The North Wind tries to ruin Christmas by causing the two brothers to bicker like no tomorrow and become the big man in red.

The last Santa special made by Rankin-Bass is The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

You can kinda pretend that all the Rankin-Bass specials are in the same universe but I seriously doubt this is.

It's an alternate origin story for Kris Kringle. This time, he is raised by loins and nymphs and they debate if he should be granted immorality.

This is noticeably more darker and serious than most stop motion specials(adult parodies not included) but it's still aimed for general audiences.

Santa Claus: The movie

I remember seeing this on Christmas Day after a few hours after opening my presents and saw again a few years ago. The film is like two separate stories. The 1st half is this magical tale of how Saint Nick encounters the elves and how he became the famous man himself and how he spent year after year delivering gifts.

The 2nd half takes place in modern day has an ashamed elf go in self-exile and made a deal with a greedy businessman who hams out his performance. "FOR FREE!!!", and "CHRISTMAS 2!"

The Santa Clause Trilogy

The 1st one is easily the best of the three. A comical film that has Tim Allen accidently kills Santa and ends up becoming the new Santa himself. He and his son goes out to delivers presents. After that night, Tim thinks his night delivering his gifts was all a dream goes in denial that happened. As time goes on, he ends up accepting his role.

2nd one was not bad, but not as good as the 1st. He on a quest to quickly find himself a wife and get married just before Christmas Eve night and deal with his son's angst issues. While out of town, a Toy Santa clone is set up to help run the place, however he becomes an evil A.I. unit and goes full dictator on North Pole.

3rd one is clearly the worse of the three. Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. However the "beginning" part overstays it's welcome as you see Santa dealing the problem with his muggle in-laws visiting, not knowing he's actually Santa. By the time the main villain's evil plans start rolling, the movie is way beyond halfway over. The middle and end parts are rushed through.

The 3rd film does have it's good parts. The villain known as Jack Frost. This mischievous troublemaker is fun to watch.

The film does go all "It's a Wonderful Life" with Jack Frost rewriting history becomes Santa and turning the North Pole into a tourist attraction and bribing parents to pay him, so he can put their kids on the nice list. Exactly like It's a Wonderful Life because all this what if timeline and the ending is in the last 30 minutes. However that classic is a great film that explains the life of Bailey while this is Claus complaining about his muggle in-laws. Also the villain is defeated by in a hug that warms his heart. This is cheesy, even by these films standards.

Arthur Christmas

Instead of a single man. Santa is a role that's passed down the family. After a Christmas Eve run, the current Santa is getting ready to retire and giving the title to his eldest son. However the younger son, Arthur notice that Santa missed one present but everyone in the family thinks it isn't a big deal but Arthur believes otherwise, so he tries to go on a trip to deliver the present before the night ends.

It's a fun enjoyable flick, also it has ninja gift-wrapping elves.

Klaus is about a spoiled rich kid whose father is fed up with him and send him to a far away North on a Scandinavian island. It's also the worse place to live since there is an ancient rivalry between two clans. The spoiled man known as Jesper is trying to mail 6000 letters so he can get back to his life at home. He meets a mysterious man named Klaus and they work together.

Imagine if Santa was basically a real guy with no connections to elves or magic. It's completely realistic...Or is it?

You may think it's 3D but everything here is 2D hand-drawn. This animation here really stands out.

Christmas Chronicles 1 and 2.

The 1st one is two trouble siblings discover Santa's sled and accidently crashed it and they have to work together to get it together. It is a cute film and all. The 2nd one shows alot more of (Mrs)Claus' village and you learn that he started as Saint Nick and how he ended up as he is. There's is a bad elf who is trying to ruined Christmas. Also, Santa goes all Mario 64 on a giant cat.(Whose the Iceland version of Krampus)

A Boy called Christmas is a tale of Nicolas who is sometimes nicknamed Christmas, whose father disappeared to find the mythical elves. He cared by the worse aunt ever who seriously needs a visit from Krampus. Fed up with her and wanting to find his dad and the elves, he goes out to find them and would end up becoming the famous man in red.

Super Mario Snow White

This is part 3 of 3 of the Amada Anime Series where popular fairy tales been reimagined with Mario characters. If you want to see my previous entries of this series, here's part 1 and here's part 2.

Unlike the previous two which is based on Japanese fairy tales, this one is based on a popular one in the Western world. Story now begins

I'm not going to take Bowser's castle that seriously with that goofy grin.

That's right, Bowser in drag.

Decades before everyone did there Bowsette fanart, we had a crossdressing Bowser from a officially licensed Mario material.

The King..I mean Queen of the Koopas asked the mirror.

Seriously, this ugly turtle monster thing?

Some time later, the queen hears about Princess Peach.

Different from the other versions of Bowser. Normally he wants to kidnap her and marry her.

They all replied by making a noise and their mouths don't move.

Yep, the animation is that cheap.

They attack the Princess

Then Mario appears.

He scares them away and hides Peach at a cabin. 

And oh boy, Peach's voice is high pitch but that's tolerable but what comes after is a billion times more annoying.

The anime short's version of the dwarfs and they shout in unison with their screeching voices.

Mario is friends with them and he goes off to maybe stop Bowser.

Don't you guys remember when the prince saves Snow White and let her stay hidden at the Dwarfs cabin? I sure don't.

Then Bowser hears the news Peach survives.

Is that how speak to your own kids?

Or adopted kids maybe. I don't know. Mario's canon lore likes to retcon everything once a year.

Then we have the scene where Queen Koopa does the whole witch scene and feed a poison apple.

Peach got to be a dumb idiot to randomly bite into an apple from a creepy looking person she never met and didn't even bother to wash before eating.

What about Daisy or Rosalina?

Somehow Bowser has flying powers.

 So why does he need his flying clown car or use a cape/racoon tail/bunny ears power up if he always had the power to fly?

The toads found her and scream in unison that she's dead. Way to ruin the mood.

And their screaming ruins the mood of the funeral.

Then Mario shows up and you know what that means. The games usually end with Peach giving Mario(sometimes Luigi) and peck on the check. But if they're following the famous fairy tail, that means Mario is going to give a on the mouth kiss.

But instead, he gives a magic potion. This anime short dupe you on seeing a mouth on the mouth kiss. You have better luck with Luigi and Daisy's live-action counterparts.

Will you just shut up!!!

Now the story goes way off the rails with the gang charging to the evil queen's castle.

Punching Goombas years before the RPG games and 3D started doing it.

Gee Mario, your a little extreme for being a kids icon

The Koopalings zap him.

The Toads give Mario a power up by somehow fuzing into Mario or something.

Then he kicks their butt.

Geez, Bowser with a knife and Mario cursing. Here I thought all the Smash trailers with Sephiroth stabbing Mario or the Grim Reaper turning Luigi into a ghost was a little extreme for Mario.

Then randomly out of nowhere, Luigi showed up and they pwned the beast. 

Out of these three shorts. Luigi was no where to be seen and he just decides to appear at the very last minute. Seriously, you could cut him out and you wouldn't notice.

The End

What to say about this short. It was ok. Animation is very cheap. Toads were annoying. I did had a few laughs like Bowser in drag, him/her somehow the "fairest", how they duped up of Mario kissing, or Mario getting a extreme in this family friendly franchise.