kutivastu Reviews

Maya & Miguel (2004–2009)

Amazing show

[10/10 · 31 March 2022]

This is an awesome show I just discovered for the first time a few days ago. I've watched the first season/volume on Amazon (via IMDB TV), so far.

I watch a *lot* of chlidren's shows, and this is one of the best, in my opinion. It has five important things:

• Love (characters who care about other people)
• Education
• Entertainment
• Culture
• Morals

It's the most educational children's show I've seen with regard to learning Spanish and English, and culture for that matter. That's not what the show focuses on, but it is a benefit.

The episodes are very creative, and have a lot packed into them (they're not shallow). There's plenty of humor.

The season I watched was clean. There were a few euphemisms in some episodes (like 'gosh' and/or 'heck'), but no foul language.

Maya is very empathetic and loving, and she seeks to help people do what they want to do.

I'm really surprised I hadn't heard people talking about this before now. It's an awesome show (and I personally enjoy watching it). I've purchased a couple seasons, and plan to purchase the rest next month.

The art is great. They capture things I've seen in real life that I haven't seen captured in a cartoon before.

My favorite episode I've watched is the second one.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Owl's Well That Ends Well (2011) Season 1, Episode 24

Great attention to quality

[10/10 · 3 March 2022]

This episode is really good quality. I didn't notice it the first couple times I watched it, but it's really awesome. The other times, I guess I paid more attention to the plot and less attention to details. The plot is about how Spike gets jealous of Twilight's new assistant (Aloysius? We'll go with that spelling) who he thinks is trying to steal his job as Twilight's assistant (but before that happens, Spike does a really good job at his job, and gets a lot of praise--except he burns a book, and hides the fact, and that factors into his suspicions against Aloysius, who shows the burned book to Twilight).

Spike runs away, dejected, and finds a cave full of gems. He eats his full of them, but misses Twilight. Aloysius, saves spike from the dragon who owns the hoard, and Spike repents, as he knows that Aloysius wasn't trying to steal his job, after all.

I think this is actually more about suspicion than the classic jealousy plot, actually. I know what it's like to feel suspicious (I don't particularly mean in a jealousy context). So, the show is a good reminder that just because it looks bad that doesn't mean it is.

How to Build a Better Boy (2014 TV Movie)

Awesome movie

[10/10 · 11 December 2021]

This is a really awesome movie. You should definitely check it out. Great acting. Funny. Romantic. Etc.

I love Kelli Berglund. She's pretty awesome. She also played in Lab Rats.

It's a good movie that the whole family could enjoy. I'm sure many girls would love it. I'm sure many boys would learn some useful life lessons by watching it.

Puppy in My Pocket: Adventures in Pocketville (2010– )

Great kids show

[10/10 · 11 November 2021]

I watched the whole series on Amazon's Prime Video.

Although I guess it's not Japanese, AFAIK, it's probably about as close as you can get to a truly clean Japanese anime TV show viewable in the USA (not counting anime movies like My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Whisper of the Heart). Kuu Kuu Harajuku is another clean one (the first two-thirds of it that I've seen anyway; also not Japanese, but it's based in Japan and is kawaii). It's so hard to find clean anime. Most of the stuff people say is clean isn't very (like it has foul language, or sexual content, or violence, or creepy stuff, or whatever).

Puppy in My Pocket is uplifting. There are challenges. There are villains. There's no foul language. There's no sexual content. It's mostly just kids and animals (mostly animals). Violence is minimal, if it exists at all (there are ambush/trap scenes, kidknapping, and stuff). There's magic. The good characters are kind. The art is great. I like the voice artists. There's an overarching plot, but it seems to be targeted at kids (not teens, nor adults). It teaches morals. Most episodes follow a similar pattern, even though there is an overarching plot.

If you're comfortable with content of popular American cartoons from the 1980s and 1990s, it's about the same level of family-friendliness as that, but less violent and no romance.

You Can Tutu (2017)

Underrated, apparently; great movie

[9/10 · 7 January 2021]

I watched this on Netflix a couple times. I liked it both times. It has re-watch value. It's well-done. I would probably buy it on Prime Video soon if it were available. (And no, I don't have Netflix, currently.)

The acting is great. The dancing is great. There's no profanity (that means a lot to me). There's character development for most characters. I wouldn't call it cute, but it is beautiful, entertaining, and touching. It's not explicitly for little girls, in my opinion; I'd say ideally maybe ages 9+ for females and I'm not sure what age for males, but if they're averse to watching a movie that seems to be for girls, they might not appreciate the movie enough. The cinematography doesn't feel low budget. There's no CGI or anything, though, as far as I can tell. The music is great. It's a good movie. It's very emotional (not a comedy). I'd say it's a light-hearted (not dark, mundane, or scary), emotional, uplifting drama. There are no fantasy elements (e.g. magic and talking animals). There are some sad parts. There is some bullying.

The main character (whose name is Tutu) doesn't get everything she wants: the instructor has a very specific way of doing things, and contrasts a lot with how Tutu wants to do things. Tutu wants to wear her own stuff and dance her own way, but no. Her instructor won't have it. She has to wear a plain pink tutu and dance like everyone else (and not as a lead). She tries, but ...

Tutu's mom died (before the movie began). So, she's emotional about that, and she loves her mom. I believe her mom was famous for something or other, and I think Tutu wanted to perform like that with ballet.

Tutu has a hard time at ballet school sometimes, because of a bully, and the contrast with her instructor, and how she non-purposefully dances free-form at times. The bully comes around by the end of the movie and they're all on good terms by then. The bullying might seem extreme and vigilant for the age-group, and the activity, but stranger things have happened, and it's surprisingly normal in girls fiction (movies, TV, and books). Anyway, I'm reluctant to call it unrealistic when I'm not all-knowing myself, especially because my life would probably look less realistic to critics than this story.

There's a side story with the parents of the girls as they watch their daughters practice and perform. One or more of the parents isn't very fond of the behavior of another one of the parents, and expresses this (in a snobby and racist way), but Tutu's father (the only male parent) is very kind to the oppressed woman (and blatantly is unafraid to be kind in front of the woman who acted snobbish/racist). Tutu's father and the oppressed woman become good friends. He seems to become friends with all the women, though, but especially her. You'd think there'd be some romance between the two, but I don't know. I think they're just friends.

There's a nice girl who likes to spell things out loud in a semi-musical sort of way. This isn't explained much, but it's entertaining/quirky, at least, and she's lovable.

There are serious ballet competitions in this movie, which seems to indicate that the dancers are supposed to be pretty good.

I don't know why people have given this movie such harsh reviews. It deserves a lot better than that (much as does Jessica Darling's It List, but even more so). The movie has a lot of artistry and poetic style. It wasn't just thrown together overnight or such. Whatever imperfections it might have, it definitely makes up for them. If you don't care about interpersonal relations, friendship, training, and emotional goals, this probably isn't the movie for you, unless you really love dancing or something.