fegamer Reviews

Hazbin Hotel (2019– )

One of the best adult animations in a while

[10/10 · 24 May 2024]

Usually adult animated shows fall into two categories, shock and gore like South Park and Family guy. Or dramatic comedy like BoJack Horseman or any Simpsons clone trying to get by with lazy writing and swear words for laughs. This brings a new genre to adult animation I've never seen before, musical theater.

Rather than being a straight up comedy series or dramatic series, it revolves around things that adults can relate too such as if we should question traditions that lead to harm. Seeing if redemption is possible for anyone who wound up in Hell. And being vulnerable with the people you trust in the end.

Many of the episodes are very well written, the animation is top notch, the cast of characters are likable and well designed, the voice acting and songs are also excellent. Just by getting some of the best names in Broadway on this show is impressive in itself.

And the fact that the songs are so catchy and fun makes this series worthy of the praise it gets. I can't wait for season 2 and the plots we get in the future.

Helluva Boss (2019– )

Top Notch Voice acting, Animation, and Writing

[10/10 · 29 December 2021]

Helluva Boss is the type of show every adult animation should aspire to be. It doesn't rely on cheap laughs and shock humor like Family Guy and South Park. The writing goes into humor mixed with extensive backstories, lore, and character development. Far different from many adult cartoons.

The voice acting is just amazing. Broadway stars like Alex Brightman, Barrett Wilbert Weed, and Bryce Pinkham, mixed with VA veterans like Cristina Vee, Erica Lindbeck, and Richard Horvitz is a recipe for success. Seriously I couldn't tell that Octavia was voiced by Barrett.

And the animation flows like water it's that good. All of this was done by independent animators who got their careers started through Youtube. Yes I'm serious, this show was done by independent animators no big studios were involved in making this at all.

Everything is just so well done I'm surprised that this is just a youtube show. It's really that good.

High Guardian Spice (2021)

Very poorly written, animated, and voice acted

[1/10 · 28 November 2021]

Now imagine Steven Universe, Little Witch Academia, My Hero Academia, and She Ra, were blended together with D&D and Madoka Magica but instead of being something cool, IT FALLS FLAT ON ITS FACE.

When it was first advertised, High Guardian Spice tried to be a D&D version of Little Witch Academia. But it was advertised for its diversity instead of its plot. I'm all for women being in charge of a show, but you can't make that your main marketing point. If we know nothing about the plot we're most likely going to assume it will be bad. And guess what? It was that bad.

First the voice acting and sound mixing, most of the time the voice acting was done by amateurs and the could only hire 5 professional actors. Yes only 5 voice actors I can literally count the professionals hired for this show on one hand. Heck most of the people in the show aren't even voiced by actors they're voiced by artists, cartoonists, and illustrators for comics and webtoons. Even the character, Slime Boy talks with a bad microphone you can literally hear it every time he talks. And the sound quality of the show is so bad you can barely hear what's being said.

Then there's the animation while it may look very cute and nice to look at, there are so many animation errors it's like watching an Ed Wood movie. You can even see that items used in the show were found on google images like food on the table. And when objects move you can see the frames glitch constantly. But that's not the worst part of it. The worst part of HGS is the writing.

Yes representation for LGBTQA+ people does matter but it breaks the biggest cardinal rule of writing, SHOW DON'T TELL! We're constantly being told oh look this character is a lesbian, oh look at the transgender character, blah blah blah, it's shoved in our faces so much that we don't even know what these characters do or their personalities. Being LGBTQ is considered a personallity in this show which is not how representation is done. Instead you need to give these characters personalities of their own and they just happen to be LGBTQ.

Speaking of characters, many of these characters are as bland as stale white bread and as cliche as the oldest trick in the book. The male characters are written as straw misogynists, and the female characters are so poorly done that the bully character, Amaryllis is actually likable. One of the worst written characters in the entire show believe it or not is Sage. Throughout the entire show she just complains and cries when things don't go her way rather than talk about them in a civil manner.

In one episode, when Sage is in a group project with Amaryllis and Thyme but when Amaryllis speeds up the project Sage gets offended because old magic isn't being used. All she says about old magic is that it's sacred. But it's never explained why. However, it's shown that old magic takes a lot of time to master and uses lengthy rituals. While new Magic is instant. All Amaryllis did was use new magic because she and Thyme wanted to go to lunch and were tired of being stuck in class. Then she treats Thyme like the bad guy and cries out of the room for agreeing with Amaryllis on one thing. Later on, Sage still demands an apology from her for "siding with the school bully" even though she didn't. Then in the Fall Festival episode, Sage gets dramatic over Rosemary signing up to do a different activity and almost ruins her friendship. In the same episode, when most of the crowd is turned into statues, and the cat girl, Olive threatens to shatter them, she tells Rosemary don't go after Olive. You're seriously telling her not to defeat the bad guy when one of your friends needs help? What are you even thinking Sage?

Oh and the main bad guy, Mandrake is extremely poorly written possibly the laziest written antagonist ever. The biggest problem with Mandrake in the show, HE'S AN IDIOT! Mandrake can shapeshift into anyone and is assigned to kill anyone who knew too much information about his side. He even disguises himself as Lavender, (Rosemary's missing mom who is assumed to be dead, Steven Universe Rip off anyone?) in an attempt to kill Rosemary. He literally has her in his arms and was about to kill her but as soon as professor Caraway is mentioned, he runs away to his office. What was stopping him from killing her? He could've killed her and hid the body and then gone to Caraway's office. What the hell is stopping him from killing her? And then when Olive offers to kill Thyme for him, he somehow trusts her to do it despite knowing that she has mixed feelings about killing. And in a not so surprising twist she stabs Mandrake instead. How can you write a bad guy who's this dumb?

And not to mention the plot holes, let us talk about the plot holes.

In one episode the students have to get a magic healing potion from a cave only to find that the wells are dried up but they find a well at the bottom of the caverns and get stuck, but after making an exit thanks to a dragon friend, the big hole is still there and there's no implication that it closed up again. So when Olive breaks their only vial of potion, Thyme acts like it's the end of the world. The cave was still there and not closed off, and Sage can fly on a broom, why couldn't they just go back into the cave and get some more? It makes no sense.

But is there any positive in the show? Yes, one character and one only, Snapdragon. When we first meet her (Yes she/her pronouns) she comes off as a boy who's a bully because she was raised by a very masculine father who expects his sons to be tough. But instead, Snapdragon goes through emotional rollercoasters and confesses after beating up another student that she wants to be a girl. Her story is relatable for young transgender teenagers and it's very emotional. But even the writers managed to mess it up.

When they first mention a trans character it comes from the creator's self insert character, Professor Caraway. When he and Rosemary are talking about Lavender, he goes through this 30 second dialogue with her about how he's trans. Plot hole: In a world of magic, how does Rosemary not know what trans people are? Sage's cousins are lesbians and she's okay with it. So how would she not know what trans people are? Also, what can she do with this information if she had almost no interactions with Snapdragon after she beat up another student? The trans conversation should've been saved for Snapdragon and Snapdragon alone. Which brings me back to the cardinal rule of writing that was broken in the first trans scene, SHOW DON'T TELL! Nearly every LGBTQ+ scene is telling and not showing.

Steven Universe did it a lot better in terms of representation because everything was SHOWN not told. Ruby and Sapphire didn't constantly say that they were a lesbian couple, they showed it and their characters were not defined by being lesbians. They were defined by how despite being opposites in personality, they can still make Garnet. Even in a more recent online show called HelIuva boss, we see so many LGBTQ characters in the show but it's not shoved in our faces that they're LGBTQ through dialogue it's shown the entire time and it's subtle.

TBH if you want a decent show to watch with LGBTQA+ representation just go watch Steven Universe, the Owl house, HelIuva Boss (for adults only) or She Ra. If you want a good anime with a similar plot check out little witch Academia, or my Hero Academia. Because High Guardian Spice is now in its first, last, and only season.

SparkShorts: Loop (2020) Season 1, Episode 6

Heartwarming and creates proper representation

[8/10 · 30 January 2021]

This is how you represent Autistic people in movies. In this story we can see how it can be difficult for a neurotypical person to interact with a non-verbal autistic girl. But as the short plays Marcus doesn't treat her as less instead he tries to communicate with her in means that make her comfortable. She's not infantilized she's not shown as a burden to people, she's not bullied. And best of all she's voiced by a non-verbal autistic woman with proper accommodations by the studio. I LOVE IT! Thank you Pixar for representing autism the right way.

The Happytime Murders (2018)

Waste of Time, Waste of Money, Waste of Potential

[2/10 · 26 August 2018]

When I saw the trailer for this movie, I thought that this was going to be a new an innovative take on adult comedy especially with Brian Henson directing. And trust me the marketing was very good. But in reality, we got 90 minutes of a very predictable mess filled with nothing but vulgar jokes that sound like something made by a 13-year-old. When will writers realize that just adding shock value, saying swear words, and putting in random sex jokes in a movie doesn't make it more adult? If anything it's more childish especially when you overdo it. And don't even get me started on how they used silly string as semen.

But lets get to the plot, again very predictable. In the first few minutes of the film our hero, Phil Phillips and other puppets are banned from being an officer after trying to shoot a criminal but instead shoots an innocent bystander in front of his daughter by accident. And in the present day, we see that Phil is now a private investigator approached by the predictable femme fatale because she's being blackmailed.

Later on we see the murders taking place where the ex cast members of the Happy Time Gang are getting killed off one by one. While they're investigating the remaining cast members most of the movie's plot is riddled with tons of genital humor filler content that wouldn't even change the plot if it was taken out. Seriously, most of this film was just poorly written filler. Heck the genital jokes were so rampant that they literally made pubic hair an essential plot point. Which also fits into how predictable this movie is because our femme fatale character is the bad guy all along because she was the daughter of the guy Phil accidentally killed and she wants revenge for what happened. Like we didn't see this coming at all.

It tries to be like an R rated muppets but it's not and even the live action cast members can't bring any drop of quality to this movie. If you want some good puppet movies, dust off your old muppet DVDs. If you want adult puppet entertainment, then watch an Avenue Q bootleg. Save your money and time with this film and if you want a bad movie night wait for this to come on Netflix.

Sausage Party (2016)

Do These People Know Anything About Good Comedy Writing?

[2/10 · 20 July 2017]

When I saw the trailer, I thought this was going to be a good movie. At first, it would seem like a kids film but then trick the audience later on. But once I got to actually see the movie, the jokes were nothing but swearing and sex references. Basically, within the first 30 seconds, you hear constant F bombs and sexual imagery. Heck, even some of the characters are shaped like genitals to further display the sexual imagery.

Another thing that's a huge turnoff for any movie goer is that most of the characters don't even have well-written personalities or any personalities for that matter. Instead, they just use walking stereotypes such as the bagel being Jewish and the lavash being Muslim. Not even the main characters have anything about them that makes them likable in any way. All the main characters want to do in the end is have sex with each other. Sure they want to know the truth about what happens to food, but the whole entire "plot" for our main characters is based on sex.

I forgot to mention that during the film, one of the scenes involves a douche raping a juice box to drink its fluids. Why would they feel the need to add in a rape scene like that? And then comes the ending scene where everything is having sex in a huge food orgy. I'm dead serious. Good writing for comedy shouldn't be based on just sex and vulgarity. I mean look at South Park, it's not all about sex and vulgarity in each episode, some of the episodes have an actual plot, heck even the movie had a plot. True, it was based around swear words but, not every character swore in every single sentence to try and make it sound funny.

This film was not even written with understanding what makes adult comedy funny, I feel as if this was written by a 12-year-old boy who just discovered what porn is.

The Cat in the Hat (2003)

The Cat in the Hat: As Pleasurable as a Dead Rat

[1/10 · 28 September 2016]

The Cat in the Hat is Seuss' mascot, I cannot believe the treatment it got. In the 1970s, the animated short's quality was very visible, why did they have to create something 30 years later that was so abysmal?

Our lead children are poorly cast and their acting was robotic and bland. We also get Larry Quinn played by Alec Baldwin, yeah that fits well in Seuss' land. Baldwin's character is gross, creepy, pointless and annoying. Overall as a villain, he's very disappointing. If you removed him from the story, nothing would be altered, but the writing and main character are where this movie really falters.

Mike Myers as the Cat, is as scary as watching zombies emerge from an acid vat. The makeup looks stiff, and all of his moments just make you winch. At least the makeup on Jim Carey clearly had more effort in the Grinch. In the movie itself, the Cat states he can't rhyme. This is a Dr. Suess icon, why you write that line? Aside from being out of character, the Cat makes dirty jokes that are too adult and disturbing for a movie rated PG. Why can't people remember that Suess' books were child-friendly?

Anyways, the movie ends just like the book, but I suggest you refuse to even give it a look. It's guaranteed to turn any decent smile into a frown, so I give this movie two thumbs WAAAAAY DOWN! This movie is so bad you need to know that no more live action Seuss films will be done at the request of the original author's widow.

Tropes vs. Women in Video Games: Body Language & The Male Gaze (2016) Season 2, Episode 2

Anita fails Biology 101 And Contradicts Herself Again

[1/10 · 17 May 2016]

In this episode of tropes vs women it seems that Anita has failed basic biology when it comes to female body language. When it comes to her analysis of female body language, one thing that she looked at was hip sways, claiming that it was as if all of the women in gaming walk as if they are wearing stilettos all the time. Here's a biology lesson for Anita, all biological women have wide hips once they reach puberty. The naturally larger pelvis is designed so they can give birth to a baby, as a result hip sways occur due to the wide set hips both with or without heels. I should know this because I'm a woman, it's what my hips do, and I mostly wear sneakers. Especially after a woman gives birth the hip sways get wider, since I have seen many new mothers in crowds that have very wide natural hip sways.

Furthermore, she stated that in one game the female warrior sits like a delicate flower while the male warrior's sit pose suggests confidence. Isn't the male's pose man spreading? Something women like Anita hate seeing? But of course she stated that the solution is not making female characters do man stuff, because that would be sexist. She contradicted herself right then and there because she clearly wants female characters to do male stuff for some reason now.

Anita, please take my advice and take some high school anatomy, because you don't have any idea how the female body even works.

The Internet Ruined My Life (2016)

Too many liars and stupid people on this show

[1/10 · 17 May 2016]

I just got finished watching this show, and I can't believe that so many of the people they picked to interview and share their stories were clearly lying about them. Let's take the infamous 3, Park, Wu, and McCurdy.

For Park, she claimed that after she went on her news interview, that people began to misquote her on twitter. However, I looked at that interview and most of the tweets sent to her were in fact correct. She did admit that when her opinion was called stupid that white people don't have the right to an opinion on the issue she started, and that they would never understand the situation. In addition, Park even lied about her time in New York because she contradicted herself when she talked about it. At first she claimed that she didn't leave the apartment she stayed at, but then she stated that while she was clubbing that there were these guys who took pictures of her in Brooklyn and Queens. Now how would Park even be in Brooklyn and in Queens when she stated that she was inside of the apartment for the entire time? That's a liar right there.

Meanwhile with Wu, there are too many tweets that people have picked up that show on how she often sent harassment threads to herself, she never left her home in Mass., she even lied about people actually hunting her down to kill her. For instance, that video with the guy who crashed his car was not on his way to kill Wu, and Wu even tweeted that certain death threats were a hoax.

As with McCurdy, it's very clear that she lied about the wrong emoji. For instance, I looked at some of her other posts she made on Facebook and she wanted Hattiesburg to turn into a Baltimore riot. She even claimed that officers take lives every day, clearly displaying that she was celebrating the deaths of the officers. Plus, if she really quit her job why would there be news articles and press statements from Subway that claimed she was fired.

Now for the stupid people. Cameron and Nicole were clearly doing stupid things that ruined their lives in the first place. Cameron clearly should've known that you cannot put human waste or any kind of unsanitary items into food. It's all part of fast food training. I should know this because I used to work for fast food a while ago and this was stressed a lot; you can't serve tainted food of any kind. Because every person who has done stunts like his, has gotten fired.

As for Nicole, one of the cardinal rules of acting she should've known was that you can't post spoilers of an episode, movie, etc on social media. No professional actor posts spoilers, or that would cost them their jobs. Imagine if Mark Hamil posted spoilers to the Force Awakens? He would never be Luke Skywalker again because it's the equivalent of working in retail and shop lifting from your store. You will never be able to work in the same environment again because people won't be able to trust you.

All in all, this series would've been much better if they didn't feature liars and stupid people. Because the internet didn't ruin their lives, they ruined their own lives.

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

This is the Star Wars We've Been Waiting For

[9/10 · 10 April 2016]

It seems that after those prequels, Star wars finally got it right. The characters are great, the settings are great, an the story follows everything a Star Wars Movie should follow.

Every time you meet these characters you care about them, you identify with them, and you even build empathy for them. Even with the old cast back, it just goes on point with what a star wars plot should be. There are no awful contradictions to cannon material, no obvious plot holes, and no terrible lines.

If you're new to Star Wars, or just a die hard fan, this is the movie for you. Especially since BB 8 is now one of my new favorite fictional robots.

Tropes vs. Women in Video Games (2013– )

Ever Hear the Phrase, "Never trust a skinny chef?"

[1/10 · 10 April 2016]

Look, as a gamer who happens to be a woman, it is interesting when different critics provide a different perspective on games. But this series? NO! Every video I watched was very poorly done and had very little to no research shown. And yet she got over 158K for this series? Well, let's see where the money went. Promised that the first video would be released in August of 2012, took over 7 months for it to show up. Some people were even waiting to receive copies of her videos by the end of 2012, never got distributed and nobody is getting their money back. As of now, the series took over 4 years to even get half of its videos out and people are still supporting her after she obviously took their money.

Furthermore, looking at her videos I managed to find out that it was all stolen let's play footage that she has cherry picked to fit her biases. She goes all out of her way trying to imply that women aren't in the video game industry and that any design that displays a character with cleavage is because the developers are automatically misogynists. If she even picked up a controller once in her life she would realize that there's more to female characters than just their bodies, it's how they are written.

Also, it seems that she even wants to avoid any form of criticism on her videos since all of the comments and ratings are disabled. I'm sorry, but if you're a critic you need to realize that part of being a critic and creator is being able to accept that you are going to receive criticism. Even as a feminist myself, I was just disgusted at her bias. Yes, I am a feminist, but I am the kind that believes women should just be seen as equals to men, not better. I just feel so disrespected by people like her, and she is giving gamers who happen to be women, a very bad name.

In addition, I believe video games are an art form and that you shouldn't push for censorship of the arts because of something you don't like about it. Also, have you even noticed that a majority of the games Anita looks at are rated M, for MATURE! These are games that are targeted at thinking, reasoning adults, not children. But of course the games she plays are usually app games, which are targeted at children, not veteran gamers who grew up with old school consoles such as the NES. Overall, if you hate to play video games, hate the people who develop them, and the people who play them, then this series is for you.