Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

I do still miss the late Robin Williams but like Naomi Scott -- Will Smith does his part as the Genie rather well. No autotuning and I decided to really give the film its own credits. While I still go "BAH!" with Luke Evans singing "Gaston" -- Smith actually did good in his own way. Nostalgia is getting there but just listen to his remake version of Prince Ali.  Smith has plenty of acting experience to play a rather complicated, hammy character. What Williams has -- Smith has in his own way. We can see how he decides not to hide behind the greatness of Williams and become his very own genie. The movie even made some alternations to the Genie such as turning him into a human in the end. Also, the Genie singing the Arabian Nights song makes him his very own genie.

After considering that Jasmine being less attractive has its own charm (but I haven't changed my mind about Emma Watson as Belle) -- I still thought of a possible alternative casting. So here are my picks for Jafar and Jasmine... I thought the cast doesn't have to be of Middle Eastern descent. Will Smith is of African-American descent. Naomi Scott is half-Indian. Now, I want to think that the better Jafar over Tunisian-Dutch actor Marwan Kenzari could've been Luke Evans. Evans looked more like Jafar than he would as Gaston. Kenzari is what I'd call too hot to play the role of Jafar who wasn't known for being attractive. Kenzari could play any attractive villain which I think makes him not the best choice for Jafar. On the other hand, Evans wasn't really attractive enough to play Gaston. As said, that part should've been for the much younger Zac Efron. Although Scott did a good job -- I thought Victoria Justice could've made a more attractive Pri...

JIBAN JIBAN! I remembered the cool theme song though I just feel like this is another low-tier show for me. Okay, it did come after the ninja-themed Toku called Jiraiya (who also guest-starred in Nininger) in the 90s then the next show to follow it was Winspector. Robocop was a popular R-18 film which had the story of a slain police officer revived into a cyborg law enforcer. The concept was carried into Jiban but only in that aspect. Other than that, Jiban seems to derive inspiration from other popular American movies about genetic engineering. I even have the Species vibes too. So what makes Jiban different from Robocop aside from him performing capital punishment on Bioron mutants for murders that the monsters commit PER EPISODE? It's the fact that the main character Naoto Tamura doesn't have a wife and son like Alex Murphy does in the Robocop continuity. He's a rookie cop who got killed in action by a Bioron monster. Naoto becomes Jiban when he needs to and wears his...

My preferences for old school and new school stuff will always be a mixed bag. It's known that I usually prefer old school Super Sentai over the new school Super Sentai. All the while, I end up preferring the new school Kamen Rider series over the new school Super Sentai. The more I watch the Heisei era Kamen Riders -- I realized that's probably the only old-school Kamen Rider that I'd watch! Then I'd like to write a flashback of sorts with old-school Kamen Rider . Yup, that was the 90s when Kamen Rider was on an indefinite hiatus until I'd turn 15 years old! I remembered those toys being spread there all the while the only Kamen Rider series I got familiar with was Kamen Rider Black followed up by its rather underperforming sequel Kamen Rider Black RX . I always looked at the toys in the toy store and I wanted them all. Not all of them had really cool features. Some of them were probably old stock such as the Kamen Rider vinyl figures. I remembered co...

I remembered being such a fan of The Lion King as a child. As an adult, I don't know if the remake will still hold up to the original classic movie -- this is coming from someone who thinks Aladdin (2019) is an interesting remake! One whole thing in Lion King is that remember it's not entirely science but the supernatural is hugely involved. Remember when Mufasa talks to Simba via the clouds or when it suddenly rains after Scar is defeated? It just feels so weird! So here's a really good theory considering that Lion King is full of supernatural elements... The idea that the clouds follow the rightful king may make sense. The drought started immediately like so shortly after Simba left and Scar became king. Scar wasn't even meant to be the rightful king so the clouds didn't follow Scar. The very statement that Mufasa made that the past kings join the stars may also account for that. I always found it funny that it rains after a more mature Simba finally def...

It's ironic how Naomi Scott made me hesitate over Power Rangers (2017) but hasn't done the same effect for me for Aladdin (2019). So how did Princess Jasmine being less hot actually work? Princess Jasmine (1992) is  too hot for her own good. Jafar in the 1990s version goes from a scheming vizier who soon got Jasmine's hotness into is head later in the game. But the 2019 version has a less attractive Jasmine actually worked. How do I think it worked? It doesn't distract me from the changes the story had. For instance, Jasmine being presented to be less attractive (but still attractive in her own way) makes you want her more for power than appearance. Jafar (2019) is more focused on, "I must marry the princess to legitimize my planned tyranny." He even attempts to marry her rather than that disturbing scene in the 1990s version where Jasmine was forced to become what could be a sex slave for Jafar. Jafar (2019) focuses on marrying Jasmine so he could finally ...

Nobody can deny that inspiration begets inspiration? Disney's works aren't always original though many of these changes are actually better. It's like how often I prefer Disney's The Little Mermaid over the original tragedy or I'm a big fanboy of the original Beauty and the Beast . Now, I'd like to examine two imaginary friends of mine namely Simba and Kimba. I remembered watching the TV series Kimba the White Lion in the rather cheesy English dub on ABC-5. That was back in the simpler 90s where you'd have a hard time catching up with shows you've missed. I remembered crying over missing a number of episodes I missed from Kimba! Now, I don't know if I should watch said old-school classic though it always brought my attention to another all-time masterpiece -- T he Lion King ! I never got to see Lion King in the theaters but saw it on TV instead. I remembered how I panicked and rolled on the floor angry because my parents never took me to see...

X-Men Animated presented one case of a lesson in human genetics -- it's when two Mutant Human parents give birth to a normal human child. Graydon Creed is the illegitimate son of both Sabertooth (who was renamed as Graydon Creed Sr. in the cartoon) and Mystique but was abandoned when they discovered he was human. The cartoon did somehow drop a hint that Nightcrawler could be Sabertooth's son too and that Mystique was probably lying about the German count. Remember that scene Wolverine imagines Nightcrawler but also sees Sabertooth? The whole Friends of Humanity movement was founded by Graydon himself for this reason -- to eradicate mutants. He discovered he was the normal human son of two mutant parents who abandoned him as an inconvenience. Him being a normal human is no surprise. His grandparents on his father side were both normal humans and Mystique's parents were probably human too. So why be surprised that Graydon is perfectly human? Creed would use his hate orga...

I did some Conan the Adventurer rewatching and realized that the voice actor Scott McNeil voiced both Wrath-Amon and Ram-Amon while he also voiced Zula and Graywolf. McNeil did make Ram-Amon sound like Destro but one voice actor could've done a better job in carrying out both Set's former high priest and incumbent high priest. That guy would be James Earl Jones himself. Although I originally wanted Ram-Amon to be voiced by the late Chris Latta (due to Cobra Commander sharing a similar role as one who got deposed of an artificially created being) -- Ram-Amon has a deep voice which I think would have been greatly filled by Jones himself. Remember how Jones delivered his lines in the Conan movie as that amazingly evil movie version of Thulsa Doom? Also, Wrath-Amon's status as Set's second-in-command and the entrusted high priest can also be filled by Jones too. You can think of Wrath-Amon as a Serpentor and Thoth-Amon hybrid (while Ram-Amon is a demoted Thot...

It's almost ten years since Mortal Kombat reboot (or dubbed as MK9 by the fans) has been released. We had MK11 released this year and I thought, "Time does fly fast!" Then I thought about how older school MK fans are still nostalgic about MK2  -- it was a game that got so popular than its successor MK3, UMK3, and the incredibly imbalanced MK Trilogy . Then I think one game that may soon get into the, "It may be old school but it's still so good!" because it's what I'd call almost everything that MK Trilogy just wasn't. Besides, I don't even feel like playing MK Trilogy  (and every other previous installment in the fighting format) after picking MK9 up. MK9 is just so good! So what really happened with MK9? MK9 was basically that reboot and a very good reboot at that! MK evolved outside obsolete concepts such as digitized actors (which caused MK Trilogy to lose a dozen potential) and started using 3D models. The first game that came into ...

Here's a bit of real excitement. Shang Tsung is voiced by none other than Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa! Remember the excitement he brought when Tagawa played Shang Tsung in the MK movie AND the now-canceled MK Legacy series. The trailer here features a bit of throwback such as Shang Tsung using the abilities of warriors whose souls he's stolen (which may imply he also stole Kintaro's soul) though I feel it can be quite imbalanced. But at least he can only morph into his opponent. I really found the idea of Shang Tsung morphing into any character any time to be a huge imbalance factor. That's why I don't play the old school Mortal Kombat games anymore as far as the 90s are concerned! Then I thought about MK11 and how I wish they used Tagawa way back in 2011 -- even at least as the facial template! MK9's rejuvenated Shang Tsung looks a lot like Ian Anthony Dale (and ironically said actor starred with Tagawa in the failed Tekken movie) although the line "YOUR SOUL ...