Reviews by Emily J.

34 years ago, we had Cosmos, a TV series that fascinated people with thorough scientific evidence while showing impressive visuals. Today, we have a reboot in the form of Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey, and it makes me wish I had watched the original because this version is actually quite breath-taking.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a great host much like Carl Sagan was, the visuals are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, and the animated segments focusing on historical figures were pretty good, too.

Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey is without a shadow of a doubt the best new TV show to have aired in 2014.

My rating: 9/10

From 1994 to 2007, a handful of movies have had direct-to-video sequels, starting with Aladdin. Most of the direct-to-video Disney sequels were reviled by those who loved the first movie, while the rest were either liked by fans of the original or were given neutral opinions. The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, in my case, would fall in the latter category.

After the events of the original movie where Simba has defeated/dethroned Scar and became king of the pridelands, he and Nala had their daughter Kiara. She is adventurous like her father, but he warns her not to interact with the lions that were banished for siding with Scar. One of them is Kovu, who is told that his destiny is to follow in Scar's paw prints, but instead, Kovu and Kiara fall in love, which did not sit well for Simba (at first), but Mufasa's spirit tells Rafiki that Kiara and Kovu are destined for each other.

This is not a bad sequel, but it isn't a good one, either. Some of the songs are nice, but they aren't as good or memorable as the ones from the first movie. And while that had some sad moments, this movie can be absolutely DEPRESSING at times (as well as kinda complicated). So... no, I don't recommend it.

My rating: 6/10

Over the years, there have been plenty of Saturday morning cartoons on TV that have involved several household names. Hanna-Barbera was no stranger to this method, [Link removed - login to see]. One of HB's examples was Gravedale High, which aired on NBC's Saturday morning block in 1990 with other cartoons such as Captain N and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.

Gravedale High stars Rick Moranis as Max Schneider, an eccentric human in his late 20's/early 30's who takes up a job teaching teenaged monsters. His students are the cool vampire Vinnie Stoker, the Gorgon diva Duzer, the werewolf nerd Reggie Moonshroud, the Bart Simpson-ish Frankentyke, the surfer fish monster Gill Waterman, the awkward nerd girl mummy Cleofatra, the cultured leech-loving J.P. Ghastly III, the Southern Belle zombie girl Blanche, and the invisible class clown Sid. The animation is a mixed bag: sometimes it looks gorgeous, such as the opening, but sometimes it can also have several inconsistencies, the latter being most prominent in the episode "Frankenjockey". The voice actors are great: aside from Rick Moranis, there's also Ricki Lake, Jackie Earle Haley, and others such as Barry Gordon (Donatello's first VA) and legendary voice actors Frank Welker and Maurice LaMarche. Since this was a cartoon from the late 80's and early 90's, it has life lessons, like "friends are there to help you", "don't skip school", etc., but the messages aren't layered too thick.

Sadly, Gravedale High never got any reruns in the United States, where it originated (and yet Camp Candy did), but it did get to air in the United Kingdom, and of all places, Italy. I may have been born a year after this cartoon first aired, but I feel that it does not deserve to be tossed aside and forgotten like some cheap rag doll; it is an underrated animated jewel that is lost in a dark vault we call the short-lived cartoons of the 1990's.

My rating: 8/10

Deep within the dark vault of lost specials and made-for-TV movies lies one that has never since saw the light of day again: The Earth Day Special. Due to the fact that this aired in 1990, that's probably why it hasn't aired since, but in case you're curious, let's analyze this.

Now, this special is filled to the brim with the biggest stars at the time, and has characters such as the Looney Tunes, E.T., Kermit the Frog, Doc Brown from Back to the Future (apparently this special takes place after Part 3), and Doogie Houser M.D., but the characters that the special mostly focuses on are Mr. Everyman and Mother Earth, played by Robin Williams and Bette Midler, as well as the couple of Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman as Vic and his wife Paula. Due to the apparently unstable fourth wall, Vic and Paula are watching the special with us as Mother Earth comes to chastise the people, including Everyman, for not giving the environment the respect it deserves. At that moment, Mother Earth falls into a brief coma, and nearly everybody feels rather remorseful and tries to do their part to protect the environment, except for Vic, but he receives a change of heart towards the end. What else were you expecting?

But to be fair, despite some flaws that the plot has, and all of these cameos and commentaries being all over the place, some of these parts are actually effective. A few of the Mother Earth scenes in the hospital were rather melancholy, while the cameos with Rodney Dangerfield and the cast of Married... With Children were actually pretty funny. However, there are missed opportunites with a few cameos. For example, Rick Moranis plays one of Vic's jerk friends alongside Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase, but wouldn't it have been cool to see Wayne Szalinski team up alongside Doc Brown and Doogie Houser? Sigh, only in our dreams...

Overall, I didn't find this special to be BAD, but it's not great. However, it seems to be worth a watch if you were a fan of any of the characters and celebrities.

My rating: 6/10

The Last Polka is a 1984 made-for-TV movie that parodies concert mockumentaries such as The Last Waltz (hence the title). It focuses on SCTV's Happy Wanderers polka band and their founders, the Schmenge Bros., played by John Candy and Eugene Levy. Even though this most likely never got any re-airings that I know of, I still consider this to be the series finale to SCTV. The premise is quite clever and the jokes are funny, particularly the one where the Schmenge Bros. tried to cover Michael Jackson at a concert, complete with them wearing the Thriller jackets and sequined gloves on one hand. If you're a big SCTV fan, go find this movie if you can (heh, that rhymed).

My rating: 7/10

For almost 30 years, Mario, Luigi, and the rest have given us fun adventures, whether it be rescuing Princess Peach (several times, in fact), turning transformed kings back to normal, go-kart racing, saving the Mushroom Kingdom from outer-dimensional robots, having parties, playing sports, stopping an evil queen from sending the world into darkness, etc. And Super Mario 3D World may be the best game in the Mario series yet.

This time around, Bowser has kidnapped the adorable Sprixie Princesses, and one of them pleads for Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad to save them all by collecting as many Green Stars as possible. Not only are there Warp Pipes, but there's also Clear Pipes, which are implied to be constructed by the Sprixie Princesses themselves. There's also 2 new power-ups: the Super Bell, which provides the Cat Suit that helps you climb things, and the Double Cherry, which clones whomever you're playing as. The former is my favorite.

The game is fun and easy for the most part, and it can be challenging when it calls for it. In my opinion, it's the best Mario game since Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, which I wish was released on the Wii U Virtual Console since it happened with The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.

My rating: 10/10

Pumpkinate, wherever you are, thank you for suggesting this game to me. :)

Anyways, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror is one of Kirby's big adventures on the Game Boy Advance. When I first heard of it, I liked the idea, but I thought that having to call the other 3 Kirbies would be tedious or something.

When I got the game off of Amazon years later (once again, I thank Pumpkinate), I actually find everything about this game to be a lot of fun. Kirby has to collect 8 pieces of a magic mirror that was broken by a dark figure resembling Meta Knight, who also imprisoned the real Meta Knight within the mirror. There's also the ability to collect treasures, such as maps, melody sheets, and spray paint cans to change your Kirby's color.

This game takes a good bit of trial-and-error to go through, and in the end, it's worth it.

My rating: 9/10 (at most)

As the years go by, the Pokemon games seem to get better. Generation 2 was the best generation, until Black and White came out and churned out even better sequels. And as of the final months of 2013, Generation 6 managed to top them all with Pokemon X and Y.

There were so many improvements to favor: you can choose any language you want to play in (preferably your native tongue), you get TWO Starters as opposed to one, you can improve your Pokemon's battle skills with Pokemon-Amie and Super Training, and you can change how your character looks by styling his/her hair and changing his/her clothes.

Congratulations, Game Freak, it took you nearly 20 years to perfect this franchise! Merci beaucoup!

My rating: 10/10

Out of all of the Donkey Kong games I've played, this one is the most fun, and the most hilarious. DK teams up not only with perky monkey Diddy, but the other Kongs, such as oddball orangutan Lanky, sassy but sweet Tiny, and gentle giant Chunky. Their mission is to save their island home from being destroyed by King K. Rool's death ray, as well as free K. Lumsy, who refused to do any harm to our heroes. The gameplay is inconsistent at times. Sometimes it's easy, other times it's needlessly difficult. The controls are a little better, but there are occasions where they backfire. 100% completion and beyond won't be easy, but try to get at least half of the Golden Bananas and more importantly, have fun... on your old N64, at least, if you still have one, and if it still works.

My rating: 8/10

In Yoshi's Story, you can control one of 6 Baby Yoshis (8 at the most later on) to go through 6 pages of a storybook land to get the Super Happy Tree back from that bully Baby Bowser. This game may have been criticized as too cutesy by a few people, but this game can be a bit challenging and even scary near the end. Either way, it's still a nostalgic game with colorful graphics.

My rating: 8/10