My Top 10 Favorite Female Characters in Fiction

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

While working on a future list I thought about female characters that I really enjoyed and since this is Woman’s Month, I wanted to share my top 10 favorite female characters of all time. I chose these characters for how likable and well written they are. Some of these characters you’ve probably already seen in my (outdated) favorite characters list years ago but most are brand new.

Honorable Mentions: Carmelita Fox from Sly Cooper, Winry Rockbell from Fullmetal Alchemist, Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagann, Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony, Wendy Corduroy from Gravity Falls, Stella Zhau from The Loud House, Sid Chang from The Casagrandes

10. Kairi from Kingdom Hearts:

I know she’s not the most developed character in KH, but I think she serves a very important purpose. I love characters that are the heart of the story and she fits that role perfectly as the representation of Sora and even Riku’s light. Also her manga version is GOAT lol. 

9. Katara from Avatar:

Much like Kairi, Katara is the heart of the story and in a way she’s technically the hero of the show. She woke up Aang from his 100-year sleep, brought him back to life when Azula killed him, and even defeated the (almost crowned) firelord. Without her loyalty and hope, the Avatar wouldn’t have brought balance to the world.

8. Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter:

Even though she was introduced half way through the series Luna is exactly what the story needed once Voldemort came back and everything got darker. Luna is extremely supportive and loyal to Harry. She acts different from everyone else but she doesn’t mind it because she doesn’t care what they think.

7. Hilda:

One of the reasons I love this character is Bella Ramsay’s performance whose voice matches the character so well that I can’t imagine anyone else playing her instead. She brings a lot of snarky and heart to her. Hilda has a great adventurous spirit and a love for creatures and nature.

6. Ochaco Uraraka from My Hero Academia:

I think it is impossible or even illegal to hate Ochaco. She is just so likable, supportive, bubbly and kind that it’s really hard to dislike her. I love how she gets along with all of her classmates even Bakugo. Even her motive about getting money is actually touching because she wants to earn money to help her family.

5. Pompo Pomponette from Pompo the Cinephile:

I consider myself a cinephile so I identify a lot with her. We both have hard times sitting through three-hour films. Her snarky and confident personality makes her a joy to watch. Her advice on directing, filming, casting, and editing are extremely helpful for anyone who wants to join the film business like me.

4. Suzu Naito from Belle:

You’ve already heard me gush over my love of this movie and I’ll will again. One of my favorite things about this movie is the main character Suzu. Her quiet and distant personality is so understandable and relatable that you want to hug her. I love how she was willing to risk her celebrity reputation to help someone who needed her help.

3. Amity Blight from The Owl House:

Mae Whitman really nails great female characters. Amity has some of the best character development I’ve ever seen. Every episode she appears in develops her from a typical academic school bully into a loyal friend that stands up to her abusive mother. Heck she was my favorite character right from the start and she got better. Also, her relationship with Luz is so precious.

2. Amethyst from Steven Universe:

After I posted my favorite characters list the episode “What’s Your Problem?” aired which showed another reason why she’s great. She was the first character to tell Steven that he should’ve have to take responsibility for his mom’s crimes and she won’t use him as a pillow to cry on. I love how Ametyst is like a surrogate older sister to Steven and Michaela Dietz brought so much humor and heart to her.

1.Anne Boonchuy from Amphibia:

One of if not the best portrayal of a teenage character I’ve ever seen and one of my favorite main protagonists in all of fiction. Anne starts off as a typical teenage girl but her time in Amphibia changed her into a better person that stood up for her friends and family. Brenda Song is absolutely pitch perfect and gives so much humor, emotion and life to this great character.

Happy International Woman’s Day!

Who are your favorite female characters? Like and comment below.

95th Academy Awards Predictions

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

The Oscars are one week from today which means it’s time I share my predictions. Like before my choices to win are in bold. Feel free to share your predictions in the comments below and good luck to all the nominations next Sunday.

Best Picture

“All Quiet on the Western Front,”

“Avatar: The Way of Water,” 

“The Banshees of Inisherin,”

“Elvis,”

“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” 

“The Fabelmans,” 

“Tár,” 

“Top Gun: Maverick,” 

“Triangle of Sadness,” 

“Women Talking,” 

Best Director 

Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 

Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) 

Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) 

Todd Field (“Tár”) 

Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”)

Best Lead Actor

Austin Butler (“Elvis”) 

Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 

Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) 

Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”) 

Bill Nighy (“Living”) 

Best Lead Actress

Cate Blanchett (“Tár”) 

Ana de Armas (“Blonde”) 

Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”)

Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”) 

Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Best Supporting Actor

Brendan Gleeson (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 

Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”) 

Judd Hirsch (“The Fabelmans”)

Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 

Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) 

Best Supporting Actress

Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) 

Hong Chau (“The Whale”) 

Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 

Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) 

Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Best Adapted Screenplay

“All Quiet on the Western Front,” 

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” 

“Living,” 

“Top Gun: Maverick,” 

“Women Talking,” Screenplay by Sarah Polley

Best Original Screenplay

“The Banshees of Inisherin,” 

“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” 

“The Fabelmans,” 

“Tár,” 

“Triangle of Sadness,” 

Best Cinematography 

“All Quiet on the Western Front”

“Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” 

“Elvis,” 

“Empire of Light,” 

“Tár,” 

Best Film Editing

“The Banshees of Inisherin,” 

“Elvis,” 

“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” 

“Tár,” 

“Top Gun: Maverick,” 

Best Original Song 

“Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman,”

“Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick,” 

“Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,”

“Naatu Naatu” from “RRR,” 

“This Is a Life” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once,”

Best Production Design 

“All Quiet on the Western Front,” 

“Avatar: The Way of Water,” 

“Babylon,” 

“Elvis,” 

“The Fabelmans,” 

Best Visual Effects

“All Quiet on the Western Front,” 

“Avatar: The Way of Water,” 

“The Batman,” 

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” 

“Top Gun: Maverick,” 

Best Animated Feature Film 

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” 

“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On,” 

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” (close 2nd)

“The Sea Beast,” 

“Turning Red,” 

Best Costume Design 

“Babylon,” 

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” 

“Elvis,” 

“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” 

“Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” 

Best Makeup and Hairstyling 

“All Quiet on the Western Front,” 

“The Batman,” 

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” 

“Elvis,” 

“The Whale,” 

Best Original Score 

“All Quiet on the Western Front,” 

“Babylon,” 

“The Banshees of Inisherin,” 

“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” 

“The Fabelmans,” 

Best Sound

“All Quiet on the Western Front,” 

“Avatar: The Way of Water,” 

“The Batman,” 

“Elvis,” 

“Top Gun: Maverick,” 

Ant Man and the Wasp Quantumania review

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

Ant Man and the Wasp Quantumania is the first MCU film of phase five. After the Avengers defeated Thanos Scott enjoys being praised as a hero but is sad that he lost five years of his daughter’s life. During that five year gap she created a machine that accidently transports them and the Pymm family to the Quantum Realm which is being rules by Kang the Conqueror. This film sadly doesn’t have the same charm, wit, and humor as the first two Ant Man films. I thought the Quantum Realm was a visually cool looking location. Some of the locations looked and felt like something from Star Wars.

While some of the actors such as Paul Rudd, Kathryn Newton, and Michelle Pfeiffer gave good performances, characters such as Hope and Hank unfortunately felt very underused in this film. What’s odd about that is that this film is literally called “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” so you’d think Hope would have a huge role. Bill Murray was also wasted here since he only has 2 scenes with him and just felt like a pointless cameo. Luis and the wombats don’t even make an appearance. The standout in the cast was definitely Jonathan Majors as Kang who was very threatening. I’m really looking forward to see what they do with Kang later on. SPOILERS: I also liked MODOK who turns out to actually be Darren Cross from the film.  

Ant Man 3 wasn’t the strongest phase opening film in the MCU and while it is better than the 2nd film, I still think the first film was better. While it lacks the previous film’s charm and most of the original cast felt underused it still has an threatening and very well established villain.

Verdict:

+Kang the Conqueror

+The Quantum Realm 

+MODOK

-Lack of charm

-Underused cast

Score: B

2022 Recap Part 3

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

Since I have a Letterboxd account now I’m probably retiring the recap posts.

Movies:

Three Thousand Years of Longing: Too weird for my taste. C

Pinocchio (remake): A terrible Disney remake has none of the heart of the original. D-

Wendell and Wild and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio: Wonderfully animated stop motion movies. A-

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story: The funniest movie of the year. A

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: Not as good as the first one but it had a great tribute to Chadwick Boseman. B+

My Father’s Dragon and Strange World: Good animation but kind of the weakest work of their studios in a while. C+

Glass Onion A Knives Out Mystery: A perfect sequel to a perfect film. A+

The Fabelmans: As a fan of Spielberg, I was kind of underwhelmed by this film. B-

Spirited and A Christmas Carol (Netflix): Pretty good adaptions of A Christmas Carol. B-

A Christmas Story Christmas: The true Christmas Story sequel. B-

Violent Night: A fun Die Hard style Christmas action film. B

Avatar the Way of Water: Same story beats from the first one. but with better visuals. B

Puss in Boots the Last Wish: Best Dreamworks movie since Kung Fu Panda 2. A

TV:

Rick and Morty season 6: This might be my favorite season.

Oddballs: Huge fan of TheOdd1sOut so I really had fun with this.

Inside Job and Dead-End season 2: Really good cartoons with great animation and great characters. Such a shame that they were cancelled.

The Owl House season 3: Such a great season premiere, will share more of my thoughts once season 3 is over.

Ranking Rick and Morty Season 6

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

Season 6 of Rick and Morty ended a month ago and I my opinion I think this might be one of my favorite seasons of the show so far. So now that the season is over it’s time to rank the episodes of season 6. This list does have spoilers and is based on my personal opinion.

10. Rick: A Mort Well Lived: Just because this is last place doesn’t mean it’s not good. The Die-Hard parody a-plot is good. The b-plot which focues on a Morty cult taking place in the Roy arcade game is what really stood out to me.

9. A Rick in King Mortur’s Mort: It was nice to Rick being nice to his grandson (at least until the next episode). Hearing Daniel Radcliffe and Jack Black was fun. The punchline at the end is a great callback to another great episode from season 4 that I won’t give away.

8. Juricksic Mort: The idea of dinosaurs fixing the world is hilarious and the twist of the hate filled meteor is hilarious. It’s always great when Rick has to face off with someone with the same intelligence as him and he has to ruin them out of pettiness.

7. Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation: This finale felt smaller compared to the last two finales and most of the humor was just making fun of Star Wars but it’s still a good finale. The twist that Rick being nice in the previous episode was just a robot was clever and the President is always enjoyable.

6. Night Family: Finally, an episode 4 that didn’t suck. This episode has the feel of a Jordan Peele film being both funny but surprisingly very creepy. I also really liked the 80s music in this episode. I could listen to the end credits theme all day.

5. Analyze Piss: I can’t believe this show managed to make a tragic piss themed villain work. It was nice to see both Rick trying to improve and Jerry actually getting some respect. It really is a great episode with full of great character development.

4. Final DeSmithation: The dynamic between Rick and Jerry is one of the more interesting dynamics in the show and the episodes focused on them like this one are usually really fun. This episode just pure insanity. I love the conspiracy involving the fortune cookies and the different fortunes are creative and funny. 

3. Full Meta Jackrick: The most meta episode of the show and as a fan of meta humor I really enjoyed this. I really liked the stabs at story tropes, and Dan Harmon’s story circle. Having Story Lord return and planning to steal all the motivation in the world is a very unique evil plan.

2. Bethic Twinstinct: This is Sarah Chalke’s best performance. Beth and Space Beth have some really good chemistry that’s both sweet and hilarious. Jerry’s reaction to finding out this affair will shock you and the realistic video games Morty and Summer play to cope were also hilarious.

1. Solaricks: Rick and Morty really knows how to make a great season premiere. The idea of sending Rick, Morty, and Jerry back to their original universes and showing the consequences to their actions is brilliant. The twist that our Morty is the grandson of Rick Prime is interesting and promising.

My Top 10 Favorite Movies of 2022

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

2022 was honestly a really great year for movies. Now that the year is over it’s time for me to share my top 10 favorite movies of the year. Pretty much every film on this list are movies I would watch over and over again. As usual this list is based on my personal opinions.

Honorable Mention: Top Gun: Maverick

10. Elvis:

Like Baz Luhrmann’s other films, this one is pure eye candy thanks to Baz’s terrific directing and Matt Villa’s amazing editing. Austin Butler is perfect as Elvis and his downward spiel is very tragic to watch. Tom Hanks as the Colonel is enjoyably despicable and it’s very refreshing to see Hanks as villain.

9. The Batman:

Never thought a DC movie would top all the Marvel movies this year. Robert Patterson is a great Batman and the Riddler was a great villain. This film also has one of the best Gotham Cities I’ve seen since 1989 thanks to the great cinematography and directing from Matt Reeves.

8. The Bad Guys:

Sly Cooper is one of my favorite game series so this film spoke to me. The cell shaded animation and cartoonish character designs make this one of the most amazing DreamWorks films to look at. Every character has a great design and great voice that gives them so much life.

7. Nope:

Like Jordan Peele’s other films, Nope manages to balance being both scary and funny. I love the sibling’s dynamic and the unique take on the spaceship. Tying the alien ship to the central theme on the spectacular and trying to tame the untamable is handle very well.

6. The Bob’s Burgers Movie:

Before I start, I just want to say that the Christmas episode this year, The Plight Before Christmas is a fantastic episode and one of my personal favorites. It has all the charm of the show along with flued 2d animation. Anyone who watches and loves the show will love this.

5. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story:

FYI, my review of this film was a parody review. This is probably the funniest movie of the year. The idea of doing a parody biography of a song parody singer is genius. Every actor gives a hilarious performance but of course the real stand out was Daniel Radcliffe as Weird Al.

4. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish:

I think this was DreamWorks’s best year for animation in a long time. I loved all the new characters and I love that this film managed to do multiple villains perfectly. The animation is some of the best the studio has ever done and I love that DreamWorks took inspiration from Spider-Verse for their films this year.

3. Everything Everywhere all at Once:

Everything about this movie is like a drug trip. Every actor from Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis and James Hong is at their A game here, especially Michelle Yeoh and Stephanie Ann Hsu. The action is both badass and hilarious and the different universes were all unique and visually amazing.

2. Glass Onion A Knives Out Mystery:

Technically this is my favorite movie of 2022 since number one was released in Japan last year. Benoit Blanc is one of the greatest characters ever thanks to Daniel Craig nailing it again. Much like the first film both Rian Johnson’s directing and writing are pitch perfect and the cast pull off great performances.

1. Belle/Pompo the Cinephile:

They say the best movie is one that touches you personally and emotionally and each of these films has accomplished that along with having both great animation and great relatable protagonists. Pompo the Cinephile touched me personally because I am also a cinephile and I took editing classes in college. This film also gave me great advice about editing and directing. Belle touched me emotionally, there were scenes that made me choke up especially the “A Million Miles Away” scene. I watched this around the time I just started my Letterboxd account. It’s a great commentary on the escapism and deceptiveness of social media. These animes aren’t just my favorite movies of the year, there also both my favorite anime films of all time and two of my favorite movies of all time.

You can also check out my ranking of all the movies I’ve seen here. What were your favorite movies of 2022?

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish review

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is the long-awaited sequel to the 2011 spinoff of Shrek, Puss in Boots. After dying from a fight with a giant Puss finds out that he is down to only one more life and is forced to retire. After an encounter with Goldilocks, he learns about a wishing star that he could use to get his lives back. This film is surprisingly dark in both the comedy and themes of the movie. This along with Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio deal with the themes of death wonderfully. There’s literally a scene where a baker gets eaten by a giant flower and spits out his skeleton.

The animation in the first one was fine but nothing spectacular just your typical DreamWorks animation. The animation in the sequel however is incredibly different and a huge improvement. The cell shaded animation gives this film a much more unique look and you can tell the studio took inspiration from Spider Man into the Spider Verse especially the action scenes. It’s brighter and more colorful. I’m really glad DreamWorks did something new with their animation this year, along with the Bad Guys. I really hope DreamWorks uses this Spider Verse tactic for future films or even try new experimental animation styles.

I love all the new characters this film introduced. They all have great designs and great performances that fit their personalities perfectly. Perrito is very likable and a great foil for Puss. I love the dynamic between Goldilocks played by Florence Pugh and the Three Bears. I also like that they gave Goldi an understandable and sympathetic motive and story arc. I would honestly love a spinoff with this group. Wagner Moura is really cool and legit intimidating as the Wolf/Death and John Mulaney is enjoyably despicable as Big Jack Horner. This film honestly handles the multiple villains very well.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is one of if not the the best animated movies of 2022. Not only is it also the best Shrek movie since Shrek 2, it’s also the best film DreamWorks has done since Kung fu Panda 2. Anyone who has wished upon a wishing star for a sequel to Puss in Boots has had their wishes come true.

Verdict:

+Darker tone

+The animation

+The new characters

Score: A

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery review

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

This review contains huge SPOILERS considering this is a mystery film so go watch this film first before reading.

Knives Out is one of my favorite movies of all time, everything from the screenplay, directing and the performances were perfect especially Danial Craig as Benoit Blanc who’s officially one of my favorite fictional characters of all time now. Now Blanc has returned for the sequel Glass Onion. In this sequel tech billionaire Miles Bron invites his friend group called the Disruptors and unintentionally Blanc to his private Greek island for a murder mystery. Blanc solves the game very quickly but another murder happens and now he has to solve that one.

Rian Johnson is a master of great directing considering he directed Ozymandias aka the best Breaking Bad episode ever. Every shot of this film is well crafted and amazing to look at. Rian Johnson’s screenplay is also extremely well written with dialogue that’s both smart and funny. The story is incredibly thought out and everything that’s established in the beginning pays off near the end. If I had one problem with the movie is that the murderer being Miles Bron was kind of obvious. Though I did like how his whole shtick of being smart and complicated when actually he’s a complete idiot to the point where even Blanc is offended by how stupid he is. There is however a great twist where Mile’s former partner Andi is actually her twin sister Helen in disguise trying to solve who murdered the real Andi.    

Every performance from the cast is incredible. Danial Craig is still incredible as Benoit Blanc Every member of the Disruptors has great dialogue, great personalities and motives that make you curious who the culprit is. Rian Johnson really does a great job of making obvious terrible people very enjoyable to watch. Other big standouts were Edward Norton as Miles Bron and Janelle Monáe as both Andi and her sister Helen. Do you think it was a coincidence that this released around the time Elon Musk bought twitter because Elon and Miles are very similar.

This is one of those sequels that you don’t need to watch the first one to fully understand. Glass Onion is a perfect sequel to an already perfect film and one of my top 3 favorite movies of the year. Honestly, I can’t decide whether I like this or the first one better, there both equally incredible. Now we have a new mystery of when Rian Johnson will make the third film.

Verdict:

+Andi twist

+The acting

+The directing

+The writing

-Obvious culprit

Score: A+

Avatar: The Way of Water review

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

After 13 years, James Cameron has finally released the long awaited to sequel to the most successful movie of all time Avatar. Avatar the Way of Water takes places more than a decade after the first one. After a decade time skip Jake Sully is now chief of the Neytiri and also has a family. Unfortunately, the RDA has returned to colonize the planet of Pandora so Jake exiles himself and his family to seek shelter with the reef version of the Navi the Metkayina Clan. This film has the same problems the first film had. First off, the runtime which is about 3 hours and 10 minutes long. This film is so long that I actually had to find a theater that had recliner seats for my family. This film also retreads story beats from the first one which is ironic because the first one also retreaded story beats from Dances with Wolves and Pocahontas.   

The best part about the film that’s also the highlight of the first one is the special effects. The effects in the first one was good but the effects here are even better. The scenery is gorgeous to look at and the reef setting reminded me a lot of Hawaii. One of the things that also stood out was the design of the Metkayina Clan. They have great little details that make them stand out from the other Navi like having turquoise colored skin and tails that look like fins which cleverly ties in to their ocean culture. It makes me wonder if there are other unique types of Navi on Pandora that I hope we see in the future. I also really like the whale-like creatures named the tulkun. I like the Metkayina Clan calls them their spiritual siblings and each member has their own special bond with one. I also liked the relationship between the son and the outcast tulkun.

Avatar: The Way of Water is probably better than the first one and while it isn’t the best movie of the year but it still has some of the best visual effects I’ve seen from any movie this year. The three hours are worth the 13 year wait, just make sure you get comfortable seats before watching. Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas!

Verdict:

+Special effects

+The tulkun

-Retread

-Runtime

Score: B

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio review

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

Father when can I leave to be on my own? I got the whole world to see.

Netflix has released Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio on Netflix. I can’t believe that there have been three Pinocchio adaptions this year. Guillermo del Toro’s version is probably one of the most faithful adaptions of the wooden puppet but having it take place during World War II makes it very unique. This movie is visually amazing thanks to the amazing stop motion animation. The style kind of looked like a mix between Laika and the animation from Wes Anderson’s stop motion movies. Alexandre Desplat’s score is also really good and there are a bunch of cute songs. This film also has a huge celebrity cast such as Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett and Christoph Waltz. My favorite has the be Ewan McGregor as Sebastian Cricket.

Spoiler warning: My one nitpick is actually a nitpick I have with a lot of Pinocchio adaptions. In order to escape the whale Pinocchio lies in order for his family to cross to the whale’s sprout. This is seen in Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, Geppetto (Drew Carey), Pinocchio 3000, and the recent Disney remake. I really feel like having Pinocchio lie in order in order to escape or help goes against the whole lesson about not lying. The only time this is done right was in Shrek 2 because that was a parody.

Me and my brother were very lucky to be able to see this on the big screen. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is by far the best Pinocchio adaption of 2022 and the best adaption of Pinocchio outside of the original Disney classic. If the original author Carlo Collodi was alive right now, I think he would’ve been very impressed and proud of Guillermo del Toro. If anyone says the Disney remake is the best adaption this year their nose has probably grown by now.

Verdict:

+The animation

+The music and songs

+The voice talent

+World War 2 setting

-Growing nose deus ex machina

Score: A-