the big trip movie review

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The big trip, common sense media reviewers.

Uninspired animated adventure has quirky characters, peril.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Meant to entertain rather than educate.

Celebrates teamwork, determination, and friendship

The heroes are loyal, brave, learn to respect the

Lots of cartoon violence and suspense: a scary pyt

Mild name-calling, i.e., "fang face," "tomato face

Educational Value

Positive messages.

Celebrates teamwork, determination, and friendship.

Positive Role Models

The heroes are loyal, brave, learn to respect the uniqueness of others, and work hard to reach their goal. Their arch enemy is a mean python. Everyone, with the exception of the brief appearance by the panda mom, is male.

Violence & Scariness

Lots of cartoon violence and suspense: a scary python chases heroes in multiple scenes, gnashing fangs, cackling, coiling and preparing to strike. There are falls, close calls, a rocket blows up, bees chase, a boat crashes into rocks, snake and bear fight

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Mild name-calling, i.e., "fang face," "tomato face," "clown."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Big Trip is a Russian animated film for kids, adapted for English-speaking audiences using American actors. It's an adventure in which a misguided stork delivers a baby panda to the wrong house in the wrong neighborhood. A group of kooky animals unite to take the little bundle a long distance to find its rightful parents. On their journey, they encounter lots of cartoon action. A python causes the mayhem. He's a scary adversary: cackling, threatening, and baring his fangs. There are chases, fights, treacherous falls, and the baby panda, as well as his five "godfathers," are in peril. No one is injured or killed. Messages about teamwork, finding courage, and getting along are included in the story. All of the characters are male except for one. Some mild insults (i.e., "tomato-face," "fang-face," "clown") are heard along the way. The movie isn't suitable for younger or sensitive kids who aren't comfortable with real versus pretend violence. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (2)
Kids say (2)

Based on 2 parent reviews

So-so Big Nate copycat about animals saving the world.

What's the story.

A peculiar bundle lands near the house of Mic-Mic Bear ( Drake Bell ) in THE BIG TRIP. When the big, brown bear discovers a baby panda and watches a soaring stork disappear in the sky, the awful truth comes to him -- this special delivery is a mistake! The baby panda is adorable, but he cries a lot, and he definitely doesn't belong in Mic-Mic's forest. Oscar ( Pauly Shore ), an annoying hare, appeals to Mic-Mic. He wants to come along on the trip the bear must make to find the baby's rightful home. As the journey begins, the two travelers and the little panda encounter very unusual companions -- a poetic tiger, a very frightened wolf, and a pelican who almost never stops talking. Unfortunately, distance isn't the only problem the well-meaning animals must conquer. They must also face the recurring appearances of a terrifying and powerful python who means them harm.

Is It Any Good?

The story is easy to understand, the characters cute, and the animation is fine; however, the movie is repetitious, uninspired, and its cartoon peril may be a bit too scary for the target audience. The Big Trip makes an earnest attempt to follow its purposefully quirky animal folks on an obstacle-filled journey with a happy ending; and it succeeds, in part. Younger kids (who are okay with cartoon violence) will appreciate the funny characters, but won't get some of the jokes (references to Shakespeare?), nor is there sufficient pace to keep them engaged. And, there's not enough inventiveness, wit, or energy to hold the attention of older ones.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the scary moments in The Big Trip . Even though it's a cartoon movie, which events might be disturbing for younger kids or more sensitive kids? Why is it importance to understand the impact of violence on kids ? How do the adults in your home determine which movies are suitable for your family?

In this movie, the animals behave like humans ("anthropomorphism"). Why does telling a human story using animals as the characters work so well? How does it make the story both relatable and interesting for you? Find out more about anthropomorphism.

What helped the very frightened wolf find his courage? Have you ever behaved in a courageous way to help someone even when you were scared? How did it make you feel?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : January 14, 2020
Cast : Drake Bell , Pauly Shore
Director : Vasily Rovensky
Studio : Lionsgate
Genre : Family and Kids
Topics : Adventures , Friendship , Wild Animals
Run time : 84 minutes
MPAA rating : G
Last updated : March 31, 2022

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The Big Trip

Where to Watch

Drake Bell (Oscar) Pauly Shore (Mic-Mic) Danila Medvedev (Janus) Jonathan Salway (Cameo Role Characters) Bernard Carl (Mr. Panda) Katherine Marie (Mrs. Panda) Brodey Evan (Python) David Andrew Grout (Mole Stevie Rai) Stephen Thomas Ochsner (Pelican Duke) Joseph Sell (Amur the Tiger)

Vasiliy Rovenskiy

A goofy stork mistakenly delivers a baby panda to the wrong door. A bear, a moose, a tiger and a rabbit set on an arduous but fun filled adventure through wilderness to return the panda to its rightful home.

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The Big Trip

Dove review.

A grumpy Mik-Mik the bear doesn’t think he needs friends, especially Oscar the hare, who is planning a trip to the moon in his house-turned-rocket. The other forest animals invite Mik-Mik to the rocket launch but he refuses to go. When Oscar unexpectedly lands in Mik-Mik’s honey bee yard after being thrown from the exploding rocket, Mik-Mik is furious at him.

Just when Mik-Mik thinks matters can’t get any worse, Carl the stork mistakenly delivers a baby panda to him. Since Mik-Mik is mad at Oscar for destroying his beehives, he decides to travel down river by himself to deliver the baby to his parents. Oscar, who is always up for an adventure, finds a way to join Mik-Mik. Just as he is ready to throw Oscar overboard, Mik-Mik discovers Oscar’s talent to stop the baby from crying, so he allows him to stay and the two journey together.

Along their way they encounter Duke the pelican, Janos the wolf and Amore the tiger, who each have their own way of distracting the baby from crying and join them in their quest to find his home. When the animals fall asleep for the night, a sneaky python steals the baby. An argument ensues and they all separate to search on their own. Realizing they can work better together, they rejoin and each fights the python to save the baby. Finally, the baby panda is united with his parents. When Mik-Mik and Oscar return home, Mik-Mik sees Oscar as his friend and together they discover another surprise delivery from Carl.

The Big Trip is filled with adventure, humor and strong visual animation. It includes characters with integrity who ultimately work together, making it Dove-approved for All Ages.

The Dove Take:

This exciting adventure has lots of twists and turns along the way that will capture the attention of all audiences, especially young ones.

Dove Rating Details

A boulder is dropped on monkeys but they are unharmed. Mik-Mik gets frustrated at the other animals and yells at them. Oscar’s house explodes with him in it but he survives unscathed. Mik-Mik bangs his head against a pole when baby panda cries. Janos the wolf has an alter ego that frightens him. The animals fight with the python.

A few instances of mild name-calling occur when the animals make fun of each other.

More Information

Film information, dove content.

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Big Trip, The

Short takes

Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 8 (violence, scary scenes)

This topic contains:

overall comments and recommendations
details of classification and consumer advice lines for Big Trip, The
a review of Big Trip, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 10 March 2020 .

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie.

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

a synopsis of the story
use of violence
material that may scare or disturb children
product placement
sexual references
nudity and sexual activity
use of substances
coarse language
the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

Mic Mic (voice of Pauley Shore) is a grumpy grizzly bear who is quite content to live alone on the edge of the forest. When an inept stork accidentally delivers a baby panda to his gate, Mic Mic decides to set off in search of the panda’s rightful parents. As luck should have it but much to Mic Mic’s displeasure, an unfortunate rabbit named Oscar (voice of Drake Bell), who seems to encounter no end of trouble, decides to tag along. The unlikely pair are soon joined by Duke (voice of Stephen Thomas Ochsner) a flamboyant pelican who can’t stop talking; Amur (voice of Joseph Sell) a poetic tiger; and Janus (voice of Danila Medvedev) a lone wolf who journeys through life constantly paralysed by fear. As the group journey in search of the panda’s parents, they must keep the baby safe from the perils they encounter, particularly from an evil and dangerous snake bent on revenge. Soon the unlikely companions come to realise there is strength in numbers, that courage can come even from the most fearful and that friendships can be formed through adversity and adventure.

Themes info

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Separation of a baby panda from its parents, revenge, overcoming fear.

Use of violence info

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

A scary snake is about to eat a wild pig who appears to be hypnotised.
The snake chases monkeys through the forest attempting to attack and harm them. Just when it looks like he is about to strike them he bites his own tail instead. The monkeys fly through the air and crash to the ground.
A large panda grabs the snake by the neck and roughly throws him into the trees. The snake threatens revenge as he slithers away.
A rocket, also Oscar’s house, explodes with Oscar inside it. Bits of debris fall from the sky punching holes in Mic Mic’s boat and upsetting his bee hives. Oscar crashes to the ground unhurt.
A stork reminisces about a botched delivery and it was implied that a horse father, upset that it clearly wasn’t his offspring, trampled a baby zebra to death.
A stork is hit by flying shrapnel, gets a bucket on his head and crashes into a tree.
Oscar falls through the roof of Mic Mic’s raft.
Mic Mic repeatedly slams his head into a wooden pole when the baby panda cries.
The snake throws Oscar against a huge rock and Oscar lies there unconscious. The snake wraps himself around Mic Mic; he smashes through rocks blasting bits of stone to the side as he goes. Janus joins the fight and they manage to tie the snake to a tree, into a knot and fling him into the air. He lands in the distance with a huge crash.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under five info.

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

The movie opens with a sinister voice hissing in the forest. It is followed by an intense action scene where a creepy, evil, snake tries to eat a wild pig, three monkeys break the hypnotising spell and the snake chases them through the forest repeatedly trying to attack them. The scene is loud, intense and suspenseful and is likely to be too much, too soon, for very young viewers.
A wolf is shown running through the darkened woods, clearly terrified of numerous sounds that it hears. Suddenly a sinister voice begins to echo through the darkness telling the wolf that it is his own fear. The wolf collapses in terror as the voice keeps whispering all about the things he fears. Eventually the wolf stands up and runs off begging the voice to get out of his head.

Aged five to eight info

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

Mic Mic’s raft gets into dangerous waters. It begins to hit rocks in the rapids of a river and the characters start to panic. Mic Mic is shouting and the baby panda is crying. Ultimately the raft hits some large rocks and explodes into pieces. The characters are uninjured but the scene is intense and may distress some children.
There is a creepy rock cave, with a snake mouth and fiery flames. Inside the evil snake is holding the baby panda hostage. The baby is crying and clearly very scared. The snake is preparing to cook the baby and hisses at it not to cry as then it won’t taste good. The snake is interrupted before it can do any harm but the creepiness of the snake and the fact that the baby panda is cowering in distress may disturb some viewers.

Aged eight to thirteen info

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

There is a verbal reference to Dolce and Gabbana.

Sexual references

None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

Use of substances, coarse language.

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

Infrequent name-calling such as “Blabbermouth,” “Knucklehead,” “Pathetic Loser,” “Fluff head,” “Stupid,” “Clown” and “Idiot.”

In a nutshell

The Big Trip is a Russian, animated adventure with good graphics and quirky characters. While this film is aimed at a family audience, the violence and scary scenes warrant it unsuitable for children under 5 and parental guidance is recommended to 8. Furthermore, the fairly predictable plot may lack interest for older children. The film will therefore, likely be most enjoyed by children around nine.

The main messages from this movie are to believe in yourself, to complete what you start and that friendships can be found in the most unlikely places.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

Determination
Helpfulness

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

Anger management issues.
The impact of blaming others and picking on their faults while ignoring your own.
Believing that you don’t need friends and that you are better off on your own without help from anyone.

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CMA thanks the Romeo family for its support

Children and Media Australia (CMA) is a registered business name of the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM).

CMA provides reviews, research and advocacy to help children thrive in a digital world.

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The Big Trip

Cast & crew

The Big Trip plot

"Big dreams. Big travel. Big trouble!" A stupid stork accidentally puts a baby panda in front of the wrong door. A bear, moose, tiger and rabbit embark on a grueling but fun adventure through the wilderness to return the panda to its hometown. Do they succeed in achieving their goal despite the many difficulties?

Actors and actresses

Mic-Mic (voice)

Oscar (voice)

Duke (voice)

Janus / Mr. Panda (voice)

Amur (voice)

Mrs. Panda (voice)

Baby Panda (voice)

Oscar (voices)

Trailer & other videos.

Trailer The Big Trip

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4110 messages

Deze lag in de bib en eens meegebracht. Tja de film zal zeker geen award winnen voor mooiste animatiefilm, want ondertussen zijn we wel wat meer gewend. Het verhaaltje kon er mee door. Niet bijster origineel, maar vervelen deed het ook niet. De film had nog een goeie boodschap, dus was toch ook nog iets. De film blonk nergens echt uit, ook niet qua humor.

This was in the library and was once brought along. Well, the film will certainly not win an award for the most beautiful animated film, because we are used to something more now. The story could continue. Not very original, but it wasn't boring either. The film still had a good message, so it was still something. The film didn't really excel anywhere, not even in terms of humor.

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The Big Trip

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The Big Trip (2019)

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The Big Trip streaming: where to watch online?

Currently you are able to watch "The Big Trip" streaming on Starz Apple TV Channel. It is also possible to buy "The Big Trip" on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store as download or rent it on Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store, Spectrum On Demand, Apple TV online.

Where does The Big Trip rank today? The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

Streaming charts last updated: 1:17:28 AM, 04/12/2024

The Big Trip is 15120 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 12063 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Gardiennes but less popular than Waiting for Armageddon.

A goofy stork mistakenly delivers a baby panda to the wrong door. A bear, a moose, a tiger and a rabbit set on an arduous but fun-filled adventure through the wilderness to return the panda to its rightful home.

Videos: Trailers, Teasers, Featurettes

Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

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Movie Score

April 27, 2019,

Vasiliy Rovenskiy

Film Series

The Big Trip Movies

Dmitri Nazarov, Maxim Galkin, Filipp Kirkorov, Danila Medvedev, Alex Sparrow, Tatiana Navka

Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family

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The Big Trip (2019) Movie Review

The Big Trip – Movie Review

Director : Vasiliy Rovenskiy, Natalya Nilova

Writer : Vasiliy Roevenskiy, Billy Frolick, Pavel Vinogradov ( Screenplay )

Cast (Voice Talents)

Drake Bell ( American Satan )
Pauly Shore ( Bio-Dome )
Danila Medvedev
Jonathan Salway ( Petropolis )
Bernard Carl

Plot : A goofy stork mistakenly delivers a baby panda to the wrong door. A bear, a moose, a tiger and a rabbit set on an arduous but fun filled adventure through wilderness to return the panda to its rightful home.

Runtime : 1 Hour 20 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story : The Big Trip starts when a bear Mic-Mic and hare Oscar discover a baby Panda on their doorstep. It has been dropped off by a stalk that got confused and now the three team up to return the Panda to its real family.

Along the way, they are joined by a cowardly wolf and a tiger as they must do what they can to stop a python. The unlikely team must use their own strengths to complete their mission.

Verdict on The Big Trip

The Big Trip is an animated adventure following a mismatched group of animals trying to return a baby panda to its family. It sees them overcoming their own fears to achieve this along the way as they learn their own life lessons.

This is a fun little comedy that you can see the younger member of the family enjoys. It has enough laughs along the way along with the important message about understanding who you really are. There isn’t too much original to what we haven’t seen before, most notably with the ‘Ice Age’ in the past.

Final Thoughts – The Big Trip is a solid family-friendly animation.

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Movie - The Big Trip - 2019

The Big Trip (2019) الرحلة الكبرى

Release Date: 1 May 2019 (Russia) (more)
Genre: Family (more)

A stork accidentally delivers a baby Panda to the wrong parents. A bear, a moose, a tiger and a rabbit go on an adventure together to take the baby back to the right parents.

Vasiliy Rovenskiy (Director)
Natalya Nilova (Director)
Vasiliy Rovenskiy (Writer)
Billy Frolick (Writer)
Pauly Shore
Daniil Medvedev
Jonathan Salway
Katherine Marie
Brodey Evan
More Parts:
Big Trip 2: Special Delivery

Watch Online

2024 - Series

Nekdeb Law Qolna Mabenhebesh
2013 - Series

2023 - Series - Cartoon

2021 - Series

2023 - Series

2016 - Series

Stephen Thomas Ochsner
Maksim Galkin
Philipp Kirkorov

Irina Kireeva
Tatiana Navka
Dmitriy Nazarov

Release Date:
Egypt [ 4 September 2019 ]
Russia [ 1 May 2019 ]
Jordan [ 5 September 2019 ]
Lebanon [ 5 September 2019 ]
United Arab Emirates [ 12 September 2019 ]
Kuwait [ 12 September 2019 ]
Oman [ 12 September 2019 ]
Qatar [ 12 September 2019 ]
Bahrain [ 12 September 2019 ]
Saudi Arabia [ 12 September 2019 ]
Iran [ 12 September 2019 ]
Censorship:
Is this a coloured title?:
Box Office:
120,430 (more)

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The Big Trip

D Dmitry Nagiyev
P Philip Kirkorov
M Mikhail Galustyan

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User rating & reviews, jomar saldivar, clarisse rivera.

Movie Meister Reviews

The Big Trip (2020) – Fall Over, Play Dead

Released: 5th March Seen: 8th March

So there seems to be this weird new trend going on at my local cinema and I don’t like it at all. For some reason over the last year, every few months an animated film is put on a big screen that clearly was meant to go direct to DVD. I’ve now seen so many awful animated films in a cinema that I thought I was numb to them. We’re not talking your generally bad animated films either, nothing that’s just bland or boring. No, we’re talking crap like Arctic Justice , Cats (not that one), Here Comes The Grump and Flying the Nest . Films that look like they were made in a month for the express purpose of being sold in bulk to video retailers to help them have filler on their shelves. These movies are not meant to turn up in actual cinemas, they’re not built to be presented there… but they keep on coming, and today we have the first animated abortion of 2020 and oh my god, I hope this is the worst one of this year because I can’t handle any more of this.

The Big Trip starts with a very stupid stork delivering a Panda. Because he is a stupid stork, that’s his entire character, he delivers the Panda to a bear named Mic-Mic (Pauly Shore). Mic-Mic the Bear is a mean old bear who yells at everyone, that’s his character. He particularly likes to yell at Oscar (Drake Bell), Oscar is a rabbit who thinks Mic-Mic is his friend despite Mic-Mic essentially telling Oscar to eat what he leaves in the woods (shit, the joke here is that Mic-Mic is a bear who shits in the woods, the movie doesn’t try so why should I?). When Mic-Mic discovers the Baby Panda that he now is in possession of he decides to go take it to where the Pandas are. He gets in a boat (more like a shed that’s put on top of a raft, I don’t care) and Oscar stows away as the two of them head off to return the Panda. On their way, they meet a Pelican, a Wolf and a Tiger (because all of those creatures clearly live in the same area) and try to escape a Python who is in this film because we require conflict.

So, this film is up there on the list of worst animated pieces of garbage I’ve seen. Ignoring the lip movements, which aren’t going to line up because this film was originally in Russian and then dubbed for an international audience, it’s a visual nightmare that really proves that Russia should stick with hacking elections and killing reporters, things they’re good at. It feels like every character was made by a different art department who had a different brief so they never feel like they belong in the same film. Everyone is badly animated, even their basic walk cycles look horrific and when they try to do some kind of comical over-reaction, it falls flat instantly because none of them is animated with decent comic timing of any kind. There are several moments when the animated performance and the vocal performance are completely different and while this is a dub, that’s no excuse. A good dub would let the voice actors know what the animation was so they could adjust their performance accordingly, this isn’t a good dub… or a good film, I can’t imagine it was any better in the original Russian.

The storyline is basic and yet somehow still confusing. The entire plot is “Let’s get this Panda back to their home” but we never quite seem to know where that is because this film has a horrible sense of geography, you can’t tell who is where at what time. Hell, this is apparently taking place in a country where Bears, Pandas, Moles, Tigers, Snakes and Moose can all live together in the same general area but there’s bamboo and a great wall but there’s also bees… it’s a mess, it’s thrown together willy nilly with no care for logic. Several times there were drastic location changes and I was worried that I had fallen asleep and missed something, but I’m not lucky enough to sleep through this. If I had fallen asleep, I might’ve missed the Tiger who only speaks in bad poetry or the wolf with an anxiety complex that’s made worse by the ghost of his father or when I was legally permitted to leave, and I definitely didn’t want to miss that last one.

Visually, I don’t even know what they were trying here. This film has one shot that it absolutely loves doing where a character will be dead centre of the frame and looking directly into the audience while the background goes blurry and it does this often. If you did a shot every time it did this, you would die before the end of the film (which means you wouldn’t need to finish watching the film… just saying, it’s an option). The few times that it’s not doing this genuinely weird shot it has terrible camera motion, bland framing and just some strange style choices. The camera is never in a good spot to make a joke work, the framing is so bad because everything must be in stupid close-ups that aren’t wanted and the animation somehow keeps getting worse. Even basic editing jokes don’t work with this film, it’s stunning how everything just keeps getting worse and worse. I haven’t even gotten onto the weird nitpicks, like the only characters that don’t use words are Monkeys… you know, those animals that we share an ancestor with?

The Big Trip is neither big nor a trip. It’s barely even a film, it’s bargain basement bullshit that hired actors desperate for work and hopes that desperate parents will take their kids to see it. Your kid will hate this movie, straight-up hate. The only way they won’t is if they’re 2 years old and at that point, you might as well sneak the toddler into a screening of a movie that YOU want to see since they’re just in it for the bright colours.

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Sexual references

None noted.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Nudity and sexual activity, product placement.

The Big Trip has a verbal reference to Dolce and Gabbana.

Coarse language

The Big Trip has some infrequent name-calling, including ‘blabbermouth’, ‘knucklehead’, ‘pathetic loser’, ‘fluff head’, ‘stupid’, ‘clown’ and ‘idiot’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

The Big Trip is a Russian animated adventure with good graphics and quirky characters.

Although this movie is aimed at a family audience, the violence and scary scenes make it unsuitable for children under five years, and we recommend parental guidance for children aged up to eight years. Also, the fairly predictable plot might lack interest for older children. Therefore The Big Trip is most likely to be enjoyed by children around nine years.

The main messages from The Big Trip are to believe in yourself, to complete what you start and to be open to making new friendships, even when you don’t expect to.

Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include teamwork, determination, helpfulness, friendship and courage.

This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like:

managing anger
taking responsibility for your own mistakes before blaming other people for theirs
believing that you don’t need friends and that you’re better off on your own.

James McAvoy Faces a Family Trip From Hell in ‘Speak No Evil’ Trailer

The remake of the 2022 Danish psychological horror film hits theaters in September.

The Big Picture

Blumhouse unveils trailer for tense thriller Speak No Evil at CinemaCon, starring James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis.
The remake follows a married couple's trip turned sinister when new friends reveal dark truths. Directed by James Watkins.
McAvoy returns to horror after hits like Split and It: Chapter 2 , teaming up with Davis to bring chills in Speak No Evil .

Blumhouse is taking viewers on a nightmarish vacation with the first trailer for the English remake of the 2022 Danish horror film Speak No Evil . Unveiled during Universal's panel at CinemaCon , the footage introduces James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis into an initially mundane setting — a family trip with new friends — before twisting it into a psychological terror where kindness becomes questionable and nobody is as they initially seem.

The original Speak No Evil from director Christian Tafdrup emerged from the 2022 Sundance Film Festival with rave reviews for its uncomfortable and incriminating story. Like the original, the remake follows a married couple and their daughter Agnes who meet a similar family of a different background during a trip abroad and hit it off. Weeks later, the couple receives an invitation to stay for a weekend at the other family's idyllic country home, where their initially sincere sweetness quickly becomes more sinister. As they enter into their new friends' lives, the couple is left uneasy by their behavior and begins considering leaving before their stay is meant to end. Before they can depart, however, their little trip spirals into pure hell as dark truths are unveiled, and they realize too late the danger they're in.

Stepping into the shoes of Tafdrup and his brother, Mads Tafdrup , for the remake is writer-director James Watkins . Best known for helming another horror thriller in Eden Lake starring a pre- Yellowstone Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender , he also took charge of the fan-favorite Black Mirror episode "Shut Up and Dance." He has a strong core group to work with in Speak No Evil , with McAvoy and Davis joined by Scoot McNairy alongside Alix West Lefler , Motaz Malhees , Aisling Franciosi , and Kris Hitchen .

'Speak No Evil' Marks McAvoy's Return to Horror

McAvoy and Davis make the perfect pair of stars to join forces on the horror thriller given their impressive resumes and experiences in the genre. Davis has enjoyed a varying career, including a standout role in a Black Mirror episode of her own, " San Junipero ," but for McAvoy, Speak No Evil is a return to the spooky side of cinema after his previous brief stretch killing it as a horror star. He showed off his range as the dissociative identity disorder-diagnosed Kevin Crumb in M. Night Shyamalan 's acclaimed thriller Split in 2016 before going on to reprise the role in Glass in 2019. That same year, he'd take on an even bigger challenge as the adult Bill Denbrough in It: Chapter 2 , further cementing his place in the genre. Together, they look to further the discomfort of the Danish hit and make it stand apart from its predecessor.

Speak No Evil will terrorize theaters starting on September 13 . Check out the trailer below and stay tuned here at Collider for more news from CinemaCon, which runs through April 11.

Speak No Evil (2024)

Every Ghostbusters Movie, Ranked from Worst to Best

With the recent release of the newest installment, what better time to review the franchise's 40-year history and rank every Ghostbusters film?

It's been 40 years since the Ghostbusters first showed up on our movie screens, armed with proton packs and the blaring Ectomobile, kicking ghost butts all over Manhattan while their iconic theme song played in the background. The brainchild of SNL alumnus Dan Aykroyd, who was inspired to create the story based on his family's own fascination with the paranormal, Ghostbusters was a unique blend of horror and comedy.

Its all-star cast, which included big names like Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Sigourney Weaver, helped make Ghostbusters one of the biggest movies of the 1980s. Since then, we've had sequels, reboots, and more sequels, taking Ghostbusters from a stand-alone comedy to a multi-million dollar franchise . And with the recent release of the newest installment, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, what better time to review the franchise's 40-year history and rank every film?

5 Ghostbusters (2016)

Ghostbusters.

Ghostbusters (2016) was subject to review bombing and misogynistic online hate when it was announced that the film would reboot the original series and star a female main cast, which many viewers felt was "too woke", gimmicky, and a slap in the face to the original film. At one point, Answer the Call had the most disliked movie trailer on YouTube. It would've been nice if this movie turned out to be a great refresh, shutting up all the haters and naysayers. But unfortunately, as a movie, Answer the Call just isn't very good. And it should have been.

Not Great, but Unfairly Hated

Set again in New York City, Answer the Call was directed by Paul Freig , who knocked it out of the park with his female-led comedy, Bridesmaids. The film also stars four of the funniest women in comedy -- Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones -- who play the next generation of Ghostbusters.

Yet despite this, much of the humor in Answer the Call falls flat. The film is also bogged down by an overuse of CGI, which ends up looking worse than the original. Several original cast members make cameos, though they oddly don't play their franchise characters. There's a lot of talent in this movie, no doubt, but it's wasted on a messy story with poor pacing that spends more time being nostalgic than standing as its own film. Rent on Apple TV.

4 Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Ghostbusters: frozen empire.

Read our review of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the latest installment in the franchise, which just released this year. So far, it seems to be one of those fascinating cases where the critics' and audiences' opinions don't align at all . Critics torched the film, while early audiences gave it the thumbs up. So, is it actually good? Well, from the get-go, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has a few things going against it. It's yet another sequel from another franchise during a time when reboots and sequels are all we seem to get at the movies.

Another Unnecessary Sequel

When you first watch its trailer, you can't help but roll your eyes and say to yourself, "Ugh, another one?" And that shows in the film itself. It's nice that the franchise takes the story back to the streets of New York City, and it's refreshing to get a brand-new villain (aside from the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, again ).

But the story tries juggling too many characters at once, which doesn't really let any of them shine. And sure, it reunites the original main cast, including a few extras. But didn't we already get most that in Afterlife? Overall, Frozen Empire just feels like another unnecessary sequel that was shoved down our throats. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is currently in theaters.

3 Ghostbusters II (1989)

Ghostbusters 2.

Ghostbusters II tried capitalizing on the first movie's success and brought back the original cast. It was even directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, just like the first one -- and yet, the dream team still couldn't recapture the magic. The story behind Ghostbusters II felt tired and uninspired, like it was nothing more than a cash grab.

More Serious Than the Original

It also felt overly mature and serious compared to the original, which reveled in childish fantasies. The film's negative reception stalled the momentum of the franchise, putting it on a 27-year hiatus, until the franchise was (unsuccessfully) rebooted in 2016. Ghostbusters II did have some perks: it introduced a new villain rather than reusing those from the original film: Vigo the Carpathian, whose oil painting has become iconic in the Ghostbusters universe.

We even get to see Louis (Rick Moranis) throw on a Ghostbuster jumpsuit and proton pack in an attempt to become the fifth Ghostbuster. But like so many sequels , it failed to compete with the original's caliber. Stream Ghostbusters II on Hulu.

2 Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Ghostbusters: afterlife.

Read our review of Ghostbusters: Afterlife

After the female-led Ghostbusters bombed, producers needed a new direction for their beloved franchise. The answer turned out to be Ghostbusters: Afterlife . Rather than reboot the franchise, Afterlife continues the original series, set about forty years after the first movie. It departs the streets of New York City and follows the family of none other than Egon Spengler into rural Oklahoma.

The film introduces new ghosts and a fresh cast, including Paul Rudd, Stranger Things' FInn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace, who perfectly captures her grandfather's appearance and nerdiness . Afterlife imagines a world where the Ghostbusters and their adventures in New York City have been reduced to a mere ghost story, all but forgotten by the younger generation. Paul Rudd's character, Gooberson, is baffled when the kids don't know the iconic Ghostbusters song.

One Big Nostalgia Trip

Afterlife does lack originality. One of its ghosts, Muncher, feels like a rip-off of Slimer, and it recycles the original film's antagonists, Gozer and the terror dogs. But we're also treated with a surprise appearance by the original Ghostbusters: Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson).

Sadly, Harold Ramis, who played Egon Spengler, passed away prior to the film, though we do get to see his ghostly, digitized form. It's pretty cool seeing these four old friends throw on their proton packs and take on ghosts again. Is it one big nostalgia trip? Sure, but it's the most fun audiences will have riding around in the Ectomobile since the 1984 original.

Related: 10 Movies to Watch if You Love Ghostbusters

1 Ghostbusters (1984)

It's impossible to rank anything else as number one. This is the film that started it all, whose tremendous success birthed this entire list of movies. Ghostbusters blended comedy and horror to create a ghost story unlike anything that audiences had ever seen before. Here, a team of ghost police -- Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore -- use their wild inventions to clear Manhattan's streets of ghosts. Ghostbusters came with an A+ team.

It was directed by Ivan Reitman, whose name is attached to classic comedies like Animal House Kindergarten Cop, and it was written by comedy legends Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, who also co-star in the movie. And of course, they're joined by the comedic genius of Bill Murray and Rick Moranis. Throw in Annie Potts, who plays feisty secretary Janine, and a sexually possessed Sigourney Weaver, and you have yourselves a box office smash.

We Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts

Ghostbusters also features one of the most iconic villains ever. And no, we're not talking about Gozer, or the terror dogs , or even Slimer. We're talking about the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The movie's creature effects, which utilized puppets and costumes, still look better and more realistic than some of today's CGI.

The film's theme song, "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr., has become iconic in cinema, its lyrics instantly recognizable: "If there's something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?" Ghostbusters is now regarded as a 80s classic. Try as they might, none of these sequels and reboots could capture the magic of the original film. Stream Ghostbusters on Hulu.

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Big Trip Reviews

Uninspired animated adventure has quirky characters, peril.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 31, 2020

StarTribune

The next total solar eclipse will hit these two popular world travel destinations in 2026, iceland-spain eclipse in 2026.

Feeling FOMO from not traveling for the Great Texas-Indiana Eclipse of 2024? Yeah, we know. Then it's not too soon to daydream about the next total solar eclipse, coming to Iceland and Spain on Aug. 12, 2026. It makes for a tantalizing choice for travelers.

Around 5 p.m. GMT, the zone of totality will fall across western Iceland, including the acclaimed, remote Snaefellsnes Peninsula and the Reykjavik region, with more than two minutes of blackout. Then the moon's shadow crosses to northern Spain, on a swath between Barcelona and Madrid, for almost two minutes of totality. It ends near sunset over the Balearic Islands (Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca, etc.). Eastern Greenland, far northern Russia and a sliver of Portugal will also get in on the total darkness.

Grand Marais, Minn., will see about 6% of the sun eclipsed that day; Minneapolis will see only 0.49%. The next TSEs to be visible in the continental U.S.? Set reminders for Aug. 23, 2044, and Aug. 12, 2045.

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Airbnb updates cancellation policy

Airbnb is updating its Extenuating Circumstances Policy, including renaming it the Major Disruptive Events Policy. Under this updated cancellation policy, guests can cancel reservations and receive refunds in cases of "foreseeable weather events," such as hurricanes, that would result in another covered event occurring, such as large-scale utility outages. According to Travel + Leisure, the policy already applies to other unexpected major events, such as declared public health emergencies, including epidemics, but excluding COVID-19. This revised policy, which will go into effect on June 6, overrides individual hosts' own cancellation policies. This updated policy also applies to mid-trip cancellations, so travelers can receive refunds for the unused portion of their stays in the event of a covered cancellation.

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Civil War Plays Like a Nightmare. You Should Still See It.

A24’s most expensive movie to date is borderline incoherent. that doesn’t mean it’s not important..

The year is unspecified—it could be a few years into some alternate future, or it could be right now. The president, a clean-cut establishment type played by Nick Offerman, is unnamed, his party and political affiliations unclear (though his rhetoric in an address to the nation sounds disturbingly authoritarian). And the precise nature of the domestic conflict that has torn the United States apart and turned the nation’s major cities into zones of open warfare is unexplained. In Civil War , the provocative fourth feature from Alex Garland ( Ex Machina , Annihilation , Men ), the details about why and how America collapsed into violent chaos are immaterial. What Garland wants is to drop us into the middle of that violent chaos as it unfolds, to make us see our familiar surroundings—ordinary blocks lined with chain drugstores and clothing boutiques—recast as active battlegrounds, with snipers on rooftops and local militias enforcing their own sadistic versions of the law.

One thing Garland’s at times frustratingly opaque script does go out of its way to clarify is that the ideological fissures in this alternate version of America occur along different fault lines than the ones that remain from the country’s actual civil war. The main threat to what we’ll call the Offerman administration is the secessionist group the Western Forces, a Texas-California alliance that’s intentionally impossible to extrapolate from our current red state–blue state split. There is also a separate rebel movement of some kind based in Florida, but above all, there is unchecked street violence and general social disorder. One early exchange of dialogue suggests that the war has been going on for some 14 months, which seems like too short a time for the country to have fallen into the advanced state of dystopia in which we find it: highways choked with empty cars, most of the population in hiding, the internet all but nonfunctional except in a few urban centers. But again, the point is less plausibility than viscerality. Garland got his start writing a zombie movie, Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later , and he has also co-written an award-winning action video game. Civil War , A24’s most expensive movie to date, sometimes plays like a mashup of those two genres, with the viewer as first-person player and our armed fellow citizens as the zombies.

As the film begins, Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), a veteran war photographer, is in New York City, holed up at a hotel that doubles as a makeshift command center for the press. Knowing that the Western Forces are on the verge of taking the capital, Lee and her longtime professional partner, a wire-service reporter named Joel (Wagner Moura), are planning a perilous road trip from New York to D.C. in the unlikely hope of landing an interview with the embattled president. Lee’s longtime mentor, news editor Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), warns them that the plan is sheer madness—then asks if, despite his age and limited mobility, he can get in on the action.

As they’re preparing to leave, they’re joined, despite Lee’s protests, by Jessie ( Priscilla ’s Cailee Spaeny), an aspiring photojournalist in her early 20s who idolizes Lee’s work but has no experience in war zones. Bringing along the stowaway Lee disparages as a “kindergartner” will only, she argues, put all of them in even more danger. These doubts turn out to be justified: The presence of Jessie, a live wire with a penchant for unnecessary risk-taking, makes the journey to D.C. even more perilous, while forcing Lee to confront how jaded she’s become after years of compartmentalizing her most scarring memories. On the way to the capital, this multigenerational foursome encounters gas-station vigilantes, a shootout at an abandoned Christmas-themed amusement park, and a gut-churning encounter with a racist militant played by Dunst’s real-life husband, Jesse Plemons.

In its vision of journalism as a form of amoral adventure-seeking, Civil War belongs to a long tradition of films about hardened war correspondents in far-flung places, movies like A Private War and The Year of Living Dangerously . But the fact that the carnage these reporters are documenting is homegrown shifts the inflection significantly. Suddenly it’s impossible to exoticize or otherwise alienate ourselves from the bloodshed onscreen, which makes us ask ourselves what we were doing exoticizing it in the first place. This effect of moral immediacy is Civil War ’s greatest strength, and the reason it feels like an important movie of its moment even if it isn’t a wholly coherent or consistently insightful one.

Garland’s idea of throwing us in medias res during a civil war in progress is a bold gambit, and his cinematic instincts—his sense of where to put a camera and how long to draw out a moment of suspense—are often keen. The horrible realities he makes us look at—intra-civilian combat, physical and psychological torture, the everyday depths of human depravity—are summoned powerfully enough that Civil War remains emotionally and physically affecting even as the ideas it seeks to explore remain fuzzy. Is this a critique of contemporary journalism or a salute to the courage of reporters on the front lines? If it’s meant to be suspended somewhere in between, how does the filmmaker position himself on that line, and how should we, the audience, feel about the protagonists’ sometimes dubious choices?

Even as they document street battles and point-blank executions, adrenaline junkies Jessie and Joel occasionally exchange devilish grins. Meanwhile, Lee is all but incapable of normal human relationships because of her unacknowledged PTSD. A late sequence finds them unofficially embedded with an especially ruthless death squad; it would seem important to establish whether this alignment is meant to signify their ultimate journalistic corruption or a necessary compromise for the survival of the Fourth Estate. Even on the level of plot logic, the movie poses a question that the script’s curiously thin worldbuilding never answers: If the internet and most of the nation’s industrial infrastructure are in ruins, how are ordinary people reading Joel’s articles and looking at the photos that Lee herself struggles for hours to upload? If it is intended in part as a satire of journalistic opportunism, Civil War should be more specific about the conditions of 21 st -century media in wartime, especially given that it’s coming out at a moment when front-line reporters face more physical danger than at any time in recent memory.

All we learn of Lee’s background is that, like Jessie, she is from a farm town in the interior of the U.S., with parents who are in stubborn denial about the crumbling of the republic. But because Kirsten Dunst is a remarkable artist, she makes this somewhat underwritten character, who on paper could have been a stoic “badass” stereotype, into a complex and indelible presence. Dunst also, perhaps for the first time, loses the girlish quality she has brought even to middle-aged characters: Lee Smith is a plain, scowling woman with a glum, even abrasive mien. She’s a person whose perspective on life has narrowed down to the size of a camera lens, yet she’s also a committed journalist and a fiercely loyal colleague. As the other three sort-of protagonists, Moura, Henderson, and Spaeny all turn in finely tuned performances that bring a depth to their characters beyond what the script provides, but it’s Dunst whose thousand-yard stare and deep-buried grief will stay with me.

“What kind of American are you?” Plemons’ fatigues-and-pink-sunglasses-clad character asks the journalists one by one as he terrorizes them at gunpoint in the movie’s scariest and most successful sequence. (Not for nothing, it’s also the moment that suggests the most strongly that the vaguely defined conflict in this fictive America has everything to do with race.) That may be the screenplay’s smartest single line, in that it dispenses with the metaphorical quality of Civil War ’s imagined political dystopia and presents us with the real question many Americans are asking each other and themselves right now, sometimes in a self-reflective mode, sometimes in a contentious or overtly threatening one. As the unfolding of that encounter with Plemons makes clear, as soon as the question is asked with a weapon in your hand, it becomes a trick question, posed not to start a conversation but to set a trap. Civil War often leaves the audience feeling trapped in an all-too-realistic waking nightmare, but when it finally lets us go, mercifully short of the two-hour mark, it sends us out of the theater talking.

Wish Movie's Bad Reviews Explained: 4 Biggest Criticisms (Why It's So Bad)

Disney's Wish is now streaming on Disney+ , with new viewers who may have missed the movies in theaters wondering what big criticisms attributed to the film's negative reviews.

Debuting back in November 2023, the animated blockbuster was widely panned upon release, earning a dismal 49% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes .

Serving as a celebration of 100 years of Disney, Wish follows a young girl named Asha (Ariana Debose) as she takes on the sorcerer king Magnifico (Chris Pine) who is secretly harboring peoples' wishes with no plan to grant most of them.

[ Full Cast of Disney's 2023 Wish Movie: Every Main Character & Voice Actor (Photos) ]

Why Disney's Wish Movie Is 'Bad' (According to Some Critics & Fans)

With Wish now on streaming, fans are revisiting Disney's latest animated misfire.

After its release, the movie did not earn a good reputation, being seen by many as one of the studio's biggest flops on the back of countless bad reviews.

So, for those who may have missed the conversation when Wish was in theaters, here are the biggest criticisms being levied at the film:

An Over-Emphasis on Disney Easter Eggs

The biggest complaint people seem to have with Wish is its overreliance on Disney Easter eggs and fan service.

Throughout the movie, there are nods to the House of Mouse's storied history, as the film was released as a part of Disney's 100th birthday celebration.

These include everything from the subtle (like a nod to Maleficent's magic being wielded by Chris Pine's Magnifico) to the pretty overt (a straight-up cameo of Peter Pan).

In an exclusive interview with The Direct , Wish executive producer Peter Del Vecho pointed to a concerted effort to "evoke everything" that fans "love about Disney animated movies for the past 100 years," but whether that was successful is up to the viewer.

Instead of seeing these Disney references as a celebration of the studio's past, large swaths of the audience found the Easter eggs distracting.

In his review, Eric Marchan of Cinema Seen described many moviegoers' feelings when seeing Wish , saying, "When you remind audiences of classic movies...it takes away from what’s being played in front of them:"

"When you remind audiences of classic movies they grew up with, even as an Easter egg, it takes away from what’s being played in front of them. You’d rather watch the reference. And that’s the biggest problem. The film has no identity of its own."

Sean Collier of Pittsburgh Magazine echoed this sentiment, positing that Wish is "so determined to be a Disney movie that it forgets to be a good movie."

And that seems to be the nut of it. Because Wish is so focused on adding as many references to Disney's past as possible, it feels like a thin imitation of things that came before, rather than something unique in and of itself.

A By-The-Numbers Villain

Another major criticism people have with Wish is its forgettable and formulaic villain.

Chris Pine's King Magnifico is nothing but an evil man doing things for no real reason other than being evil.

After getting sorcerer powers during the film's storybook-style opening, Pine's animated royal builds the kingdom of Rosas as he takes the "burden" of peoples' hopes and dreams (aka wishes) from them.

He is said to hold these wishes for safekeeping only to eventually grant them to lucky citizens when he deems them worthy.

However, it is quickly revealed (only about 20 minutes into the movie) that he has no intention of granting the great majority of these wishes, sending Ariana Debose's Asha on a quest to free the wishes and take down the king.

This 'evil' turn happens fast and without much motivation. He is simply keeping the wishes because he says so.

While there are teases of a deeper motivation, the movie never fully explores them.

As Austin Burke from Fan Nation sums it up in his review, Pine's "[villain] arc goes nowhere," resulting in a story that "feels rushed, scattered, and extremely familiar:"

"'Wish' features plenty of classic Disney nods, a great performance from DeBose, and two solid musical numbers. Unfortunately, this story feels rushed, scattered, and extremely familiar. The villainous arc goes nowhere, and the spark is somewhat missing."

Not to say Disney villains like Jafar ( Aladdin ) or Ursula ( The Little Mermaid ) had these sympathetic multi-layered stories, but there was at least some level of motivation for why they were doing what they were doing.

Magnifico is essentially holding the citizens of Rosas hostage because he can and nothing more.

Forgettable Songs

For a studio that is so well known for its original music, Wish is a big miss on this front according to its detractors.

The songs in Wish are viewed as a far cry from the classics of Disney's vast library (i.e. "Part of Your World," "Let it Go," or "Can You Feel the Love Tonight").

Chris Wasser of the Sunday Independent described the movie's music as "knotted, entirely forgettable" ventures:

"The songs are knotted, entirely forgettable, and the iffy watercolour/computer animation hybrid gives Wish an awkward, unfinished look. Pity."

Wish 's songs - written by Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice - are weaving, sometimes labyrinthian arrangements, sporting unusual lyrical motifs and musical stylings unfamiliar to the general Disney audiences.

There are some highlights, like the show-stopping "This Wish" and the ensemble-led "I'm a Star." But in a movie that is so dominated by its music, it is hard to call it a success when only a select few songs will have audiences going back for repeat listens.

Even the score itself fails to land for many. It is an original composition, but features touches of Disney's "If You Wish Upon a Star," and ultimately boils down to hints of that beloved tune without ever giving fans the satisfaction of the whole thing (aside from a post-credits nod).

No Real Character Arc for Its Protagonist

Not to say these other cinematic sins would be forgiven if this one was not a problem, but it would do a lot.

Throughout many of Wish 's bad reviews, the movie's "shallow" story is referenced, and a big part of that is the lack of any real character arc for Asha its primary protagonist.

Asha, played by Oscar-winner Ariana Debose, starts and finishes the film in very much the same place. There is no real lesson learned or shocking revelation that sticks with Asha long after the credits roll.

Everything in Wish seems to involve Asha, but the character sees no real change throughout the movie. She is introduced in the fill with her wish still in her heart, looking to grant the wishes of the people around her, and ends just the same.

Seattle's Child writer Candice McMillan called this character arc for Ashsa "hopelessly shallow," playing into an overall "dreamless plot:"

"Filled with catchy new songs and featuring a classic Disney storyline, 'Wish' is a whole heaping of heart that’s completely underbaked. There is much to commend about its sweet story and good intentions, but 'Wish' is shattered by a dreamless plot and hopelessly shallow character development."

Debose's character is endearing but with no internal change of any kind, it does make the story of Wish feel like something that merely happens around its main character than something that happens to her.

Are the Wish Criticisms Warranted?

Of course, everything is subjective, so some people will see the bad Wish reviews and nod in agreeance while others less so.

Every one of these big criticisms is warranted, but to what extent will vary from viewer to viewer.

Wish is far from a masterpiece, but it is a movie that has some fun moments, a few memorable songs, and great performances from across its cast.

If the movie had not been branded as this culmination of 100 years of storytelling, it likely would not have received the fervent backlash that it did.

But because of its elevated place in Disney canon, expectations were quite high.

Wish is a perfectly fine Disney movie, but in a catalog as great as that of Disney Animation, it pales in comparison to most of its true-blue classics.

Wish is now streaming on Disney+.

Read more about Disney's latest animated movie:

Why Wish Movie Has So Many Disney Easter Eggs, Explained by Filmmakers (Exclusive)

Will Wish 2 Happen? Disney Director Responds to Sequel Prospects (Exclusive)

Wish: How Asha Differs from Other Disney Princesses, Explained by Director (Exclusive)

Wish: What Is Asha's Ethnicity? Producer Reveals Where She's From

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Fallout Episode 1 Cast, Characters & Actors (Photos)

Fallout Season 1 Review

“War. War never changes.” It’s the ominous line that opens every game in the 26-year-old Fallout RPG series. But while that may ring true for the tone of the eternal nuclear wasteland setting, thankfully the tide has largely turned for TV adaptations of video games. Following in the footsteps of HBO’s The Last of Us and Netflix’s Arcane , Prime Video now has itself an all-time great in Fallout, a confident and accomplished post-apocalypse show that proudly wears its heritage on its sleeve – quite literally, when it comes to its iconic blue-and-yellow Vault-Tec jumpsuits – while simultaneously being a compelling sci-fi drama all of its own.

It’s not hard to see why Amazon went to bat for Fallout. This is a weird, often hyper-violent, sometimes satirical black comedy that sits comfortably next to The Boys . While never quite as puerile or gross as some of Vought’s most extreme moments, Fallout consistently uses the darkness of its irradiated landscape to spin surreal jokes, from a talking brain-in-a-jar to an organ-harvesting robot spouting the honeyed tones of Matt Berry (of What We Do in the Shadows fame).

What's the Best Fallout Game Ever?

Pick a winner.

Produced by Westworld ’s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, Fallout is set canonically within the world and continuity of the games, but its eight-episode first-season isn't directly connected to anything you may have played. That means no prior experience is necessary in order to jump in with this entirely new cast of characters, starting with Ella Purnell’s Lucy. Raised in Vault 33, one of many fallout shelters built by the Vault-Tec company over 200 years ago , she’s never known life outside its impressively realized steel-and-concrete walls. As such, she’s an embodiment of the can-do spirit of pre-Great War America, which has been preserved for generations in this underground tin can.

In a knowing echo of Fallout 3 ’s opening, Lucy is forced to explore the surface when her father (Kyle MacLachlan) goes missing. Bright and sparky, polite and friendly, she’s totally unequipped for an adventure in the blasted California that awaits outside the vault’s sealed door. The way Purnell is able to project a delightfully naive sense of optimism amongst so much rusted devastation is the source of many early jokes – but more importantly it’s the starting point for an engaging character arc that demands she open her eyes to a world where lies and deceit are everywhere and life is cheap. While Fallout does have well-drawn villains hiding in the shadows, the real antagonist is the wasteland itself and the dog-eat-dog attitudes it forces even our heroes to adopt.

But while Lucy’s outsider (insider?) status makes her the default protagonist, it’s Aaron Moten’s Maximus who proves Fallout’s most compelling lead. Orphaned as a child, he’s found refuge in the Brotherhood of Steel; a faction of military zealots modeled on medieval knights. It’s an organization ill-suited to him – Maximus is an awkward, often cowardly man lacking the bolshy confidence of the Brotherhood’s power-armored warriors, and that clash creates both great humor and drama. It’s through a haphazard lie that he finds his footing in the story, twisting himself into something he’s not, and watching him desperately grapple with that precarious falsehood makes for Fallout’s most fascinating moments . It’s not always easy to root for Maximus – so flawed is his character – but that complexity made him the figure I found myself most invested in.

Lucy and Maximus provide an interesting duality: She’s only ever known the safety of the vault , and he’s only ever known the brutality of the wasteland. But Fallout has another sharp contrast, that of pre- and post-nuclear destruction, explored fantastically through The Ghoul. Played by Walton Goggins, this 250-year-old irradiated mutant is Fallout’s most magnetic presence – a drugged-up lone wanderer with a give-no-shit attitude. Compared to Lucy and Maximus, The Ghoul is the least complex character due to a relatively shallow arc, but he’s no doubt the most enjoyable to watch thanks to Goggins’ all-in performance.

But The Ghoul is just part of who Goggins plays here. Fallout frequently takes trips back in time to before the apocalypse to explore the life of the man The Ghoul used to be. An all-American movie star living a charmed life in retro-futuristic Hollywood, Cooper Howard initially seems the “boring” side of Goggins’ dual role, there simply to establish humanity for a character later totally stripped of it. But this story gradually builds into a truly compelling mystery, providing Goggins a much-needed sense of purpose. This plotline is also where Fallout gets to deliver its source material’s signature satire, with an anti-capitalism message that’s suitably haunting.

What video game RPG should be adapted for TV next?

Cooper’s life could have felt relatively divorced from the main events of Fallout, so different is the visual and narrative fabric of the two, but the past directly connects to the present in a much more interesting way than mere backstory. This design is one of Fallout’s greatest strengths; even what can initially feel like superfluous strands, such as the continuing story of Vault 33 after Lucy has left, turn out to be vital building blocks. Everything is propellant and accelerates towards a killer finale. And while there are a couple of episodes in the second half that slightly falter in terms of balance between storylines and momentum, this is an otherwise superbly structured show.

Every episode tells its own tale from beginning to end – such as Lucy’s run-in with the aforementioned organ harvester, or an encounter with a giant mutant salamander – and while these are clearly smaller parts of a greater whole, they still work as satisfying stories in their own right. In other words, the show is crafted like a chain of RPG quests. It’s a welcome change of pace from the mushy plotting and interchangeable episodes of so many other streaming series; that considered, it’s baffling that all eight episodes are launching simultaneously. If Fallout were a weekly show, we’d have the fun and suspense of discussing it relentlessly between debuts.

One of the greatest challenges Fallout faced was turning the world of the games into a live-action universe. Thanks to a truck-load of Amazon money and talented production designers, though, Nolan, Joy, and showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner have done an admirable job of it. This is a wonderfully tangible apocalypse, full of colourful oddballs and soundtracked by the 1950s’ best bops. Every space bursts with personality, much of that arriving via the astonishing attention to detail in all the items, weapons, and recognizable iconography. Nuka Cola bottles litter shelves, characters heal themselves with stimpacks, and Vault 33 is inch-for-inch damn near perfect, right down to the emergency override switches. You don’t need to know the games to appreciate the craft behind it, but if you do there’s a lot to love.

By far and away the most enjoyable thing, though, is the Brotherhood of Steel’s T-60 power armour, which is an absolute delight to watch in action. Where you’d expect something ripped from the games in its computer-generated feel as well as its faithful design, instead we get a largely physical prop that feels incredibly present and powerful. And while Fallout isn’t really an all-out action show, when the violence kicks off it’s at its best when the T-60 is involved – that’s when the Bloody Mess perk is activated and the delightfully gloopy gore effects get wheeled out.

Fallout: Complete Playlist

These characters, locations, and situations all feel authentic to Fallout. And yes, while the immaculate, game-accurate production design is partially responsible for this, most of the show’s ultimate success is down to the work of Robertson-Dworet and Wagner and their efforts to make an original story that’s distinctly Fallout. It’s in direct contrast to Paramount+’s dull Halo series , which fails to capture the urgency and spectacle of its source material, despite all the ripped-from-the-games armour designs and FPS action sequences. Fallout’s scripts nail the humor, capture the satire, and understand the subject matter of the series, all without leaning on any pre-existing story. This could have been a live-action replica of game characters and cutscenes you’ve seen before; instead, it’s a fresh and essential story that uses a new medium to enrich the Fallout universe for die-hard fans and rolls out a welcome mat for new audiences.

A bright and funny apocalypse filled with dark punchlines and bursts of ultra-violence, Fallout stands up there with The Last of Us among the best game adaptations ever made. Brilliantly constructed, its three distinct leads travel through cleverly linked storylines that build to a fantastic finale. Along the way, there’s a megaton of treats for long-term fans thanks to immaculate production design and attention to detail, but never at the expense of making this an ideal starting point for the uninitiated. It’s another special effort from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and easily earns a big thumbs up.

More Reviews by Matt Purslow

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‘Sasquatch Sunset’ Review: Big Feet and Small Brains

Four unrecognizably hairy actors, including Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough, play mythical creatures in this endearingly bonkers movie.

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In the outdoors, a sasquatch touches a butterfly sitting on his finger.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

If ever a movie seemed destined — nay, designed — for cult status or ignominy, “Sasquatch Sunset” is it. An initial glance suggests the kind of entertainment that emerges from late-night, bongwater-scented dorm rooms; yet surrender to its shaggy rhythms and you’ll find this sometimes tiresome portrait of a family of mythical beasts is not without intelligence and a strangely mesmeric intent.

Set in a North American forest (and filmed in the California Redwoods), the movie wraps four dauntless actors in layers of matted, gray-brown hair and impressively molded prostheses. Thus disguised, they lumber through a year of mating, childbirth, death and discovery, unburdened by names or lines of dialogue. To communicate, they grunt and yowl and gesture with a serio-comic zeal that earned my reluctant admiration. It must have been murderously sweaty inside those suits.

Little by little, personalities seep out. The alpha male (Nathan Zellner, who co-directed with his brother, David Zellner) is grumpy, aggressive and disruptively randy, courting furious rejection from the group’s sole female (Riley Keough). Her preferred partner (Jesse Eisenberg) is a gentler, more thoughtful soul, as is what appears to be their son (Christophe Zajac-Denek). Predators and poisonous fungi threaten the unwary, but these hirsute hillocks are mostly a danger to themselves — as the alpha will learn when he seems bent on visiting his lust on a hungry mountain lion.

A sincere gift to Bigfoot believers or a surreal cinematic prank, “Sasquatch Sunset” mimes the familiar beats of the nature documentary. This may be a one-joke movie, but it’s an oddly endearing jest, the beasts’ resemblance to primates tweaking our empathy. Even as their infantile, often disgusting antics become tedious, the film’s tone shifts from daft to tenderly melancholic as signs of human encroachment on their habitat multiply. The contents of an unattended campsite — especially a cassette player and a mirror — prove transfixing and unnerving; a paved road provokes the evacuation of every available body fluid. It’s a revolting sight, but also a touching one. We can see they’re terrified.

The roots of “Sasquatch Sunset” reach all the way back to 2011, when the Zellners’ four-minute film, “Sasquatch Birth Journal 2,” played at the Sundance Film Festival, highlighting the brothers’ inclination to cast a serious eye on patently unserious material. Since then, they have continued to treat preposterous stories — “Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter” (2015) , “Damsel” (2018) — with disarming gravitas. This time, they’re ably assisted by the marvelous cinematographer Mike Gioulakis, who, in films like “It Follows” (2015) and “Old” (2021) , has shown particular skill in giving a sublimely unsettling patina to ridiculous ideas. Here, his peaceful wildlife shots capture the natural world with a quiet awe, giving the forest a majesty unearned by the woolly dimwits it shelters and whose survival seems unlikely.

Positioning the sasquatches as threatened rather than threatening, “Sasquatch Sunset,” as its title suggests, is an oddball meditation on one species’ decline. Maybe even our own.

Sasquatch Sunset Rated R for spilled intestines and a perpendicular penis. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. In theaters.

Explore More in TV and Movies

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Even before his new film “Civil War” was released, the writer-director Alex Garland faced controversy over his vision of a divided America with Texas and California as allies .

Theda Hammel’s directorial debut, “Stress Positions,” a comedy about millennials weathering the early days of the pandemic , will ask audiences to return to a time that many people would rather forget.

“Fallout,” TV’s latest big-ticket video game adaptation, takes a satirical, self-aware approach to the End Times .

“Sasquatch Sunset” follows the creatures as they go about their lives. We had so many questions. The film’s cast and crew had answers .

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime and Hulu to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

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The Big Trip Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 2 ): Kids say ( 2 ): The story is easy to understand, the characters cute, and the animation is fine; however, the movie is repetitious, uninspired, and its cartoon peril may be a bit too scary for the target audience. The Big Trip makes an earnest attempt to follow its purposefully quirky animal folks on an obstacle ...
The Big Trip (2019)
The Big Trip: Directed by Vasiliy Rovenskiy, Natalya Nilova. With Drake Bell, Pauly Shore, Danila Medvedev, Jonathan Salway. A goofy stork mistakenly delivers a baby panda to the wrong door. A bear, a moose, a tiger and a rabbit set on an arduous but fun filled adventure through wilderness to return the panda to its rightful home.
The Big Trip
The Big Trip (Russian: Большое путешествие; also released as The Big Trip 3D and Mission: Panda) is a 2019 Russian animated adventure comedy film directed by Vasily Rovensky (who also acted as a writer and producer) and Natalya Nilova. The plot concerns a bear and a hare who must return a baby panda to its rightful parents after a stork mistakenly delivers it to them instead.
The Big Trip (2019)
The storyline told in "Big Trip" was good enough, but it was just lacking that certain comedy element that many other animated movies have, you know, the animated movies that actually bring about laughs and good entertainment. So without that particular ingredient, "Big Trip" just didn't stand out among other animated movies also released in 2019.
The Big Trip (2019)
Synopsis. A goofy stork mistakenly delivers a baby panda to the wrong door. A bear, a moose, a tiger and a rabbit set on an arduous but fun filled adventure through wilderness to return the panda ...
The Big Trip
When Oscar unexpectedly lands in Mik-Mik's honey bee yard after being thrown from the exploding rocket, Mik-Mik is furious at him. Just when Mik-Mik thinks matters can't get any worse, Carl the stork mistakenly delivers a baby panda to him. Since Mik-Mik is mad at Oscar for destroying his beehives, he decides to travel down river by himself ...
The Big Trip
Top Critics. All Audience. Verified Audience. No All Critics reviews for The Big Trip. Rotten Tomatoes, home of the Tomatometer, is the most trusted measurement of quality for Movies & TV. The ...
Movie review of Big Trip, The
There is some coarse language in this movie, including: Infrequent name-calling such as "Blabbermouth," "Knucklehead," "Pathetic Loser," "Fluff head," "Stupid," "Clown" and "Idiot." In a nutshell. The Big Trip is a Russian, animated adventure with good graphics and quirky characters. While this film is aimed at a ...
The Big Trip
Audience Reviews for The Big Trip. There are no featured reviews for The Big Trip because the movie has not released yet (). See Movies in Theaters Movie & TV guides View All. Play Daily Tomato ...
The Big Trip (Movie, 2019)
The Big Trip plot "Big dreams. Big travel. Big trouble!" A stupid stork accidentally puts a baby panda in front of the wrong door. A bear, moose, tiger and rabbit embark on a grueling but fun adventure through the wilderness to return the panda to its hometown.
Big Trip
Rent Big Trip on Apple TV, Prime Video, Vudu, or buy it on Apple TV, Prime Video, Vudu. Rate And Review. Submit review. Want to see Edit. Submit review. Super Reviewer. ...
The Big Trip
From a writer of MADAGASCAR comes this outrageously hilarious family adventure. After a dizzy stork mistakenly delivers a baby panda to a grumpy bear, the bear sets out to return the cub to its far-off family. Soon, a fast-talking rabbit, a storytelling pelican, a timid wolf, and a poetic tiger join the trek. To reach their goal, the group must travel a dangerous river, cross a parched desert ...
The Big Trip (2019)
The Big Trip (2019) on IMDb: Movies, TV, Celebs, and more... Menu. Movies. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. TV Shows. What's on TV & Streaming Top 250 TV Shows Most Popular TV Shows Browse TV Shows by Genre TV News.
THE BIG TRIP Trailer (2020)
Watch the official trailer for the animation movie The Big Trip. Available on Digital, Blu-Ray & DVD January 14, 2020.Once, the Clueless Stork from the child...
The Big Trip streaming: where to watch movie online?
Show all movies in the JustWatch Streaming Charts. Streaming charts last updated: 1:19:18 AM, 04/10/2024 . The Big Trip is 15407 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 13046 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Two Hands but less popular than Robin Hood.
The Big Trip
A goofy stork mistakenly delivers a baby panda to the wrong door. A bear, a moose, a tiger and a rabbit set on an arduous but fun-filled adventure through the wilderness to return the panda to its rightful home. You can buy or rent The Big Trip for as low as $3.79 to rent or $7.99 to buy on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, iTunes, Google Play, and ...
The Big Trip (2019) Movie Review
Director: Vasiliy Rovenskiy, Natalya Nilova. Writer: Vasiliy Roevenskiy, Billy Frolick, Pavel Vinogradov (Screenplay). Cast (Voice Talents) Drake Bell (American Satan)Pauly Shore ()Danila Medvedev; Jonathan Salway ()Bernard Carl ; Plot: A goofy stork mistakenly delivers a baby panda to the wrong door.A bear, a moose, a tiger and a rabbit set on an arduous but fun filled adventure through ...
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Russia. 90 minutes. Released. مصري. All Ages. Release Date: 4 September 2019 (Egypt) (more) Genre: Family (more) A stork accidentally delivers a baby Panda to the wrong parents. A bear, a moose, a tiger and a rabbit go on an adventure together to take the baby back to the right parents.
The Big Trip (2019)
Video Clips / Trailers. 02:21 Big Trip- Trailer posted on June 6, 2019. SPY x FAMILY CODE: White. The Big Trip - starring: Dmitry Nagiyev, Philip Kirkorov, Mikhail Galustyan.
The Big Trip (2020)
Movie Meister Reviews. Menu. Home; Contact Form; Contact Form; Home; March 10, 2020 July 22, 2022 leebutler Uncategorized. The Big Trip (2020) - Fall Over, Play Dead. Released: 5th March ... These movies are not meant to turn up in actual cinemas, they're not built to be presented there… but they keep on coming, and today we have the ...
Big Trip, The
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Adventure. Length: 84 minutes. Release date: 05/03/2020. 8+. Grizzly outsider sets off on a reluctant quest, accompanied by an ill-assorted but well-meaning bunch of quirky characters. Along the way, everyone discovers the importance of friendship, teamwork and courage.
'Sting' Review
Sting (2024) REVIEW. Sting is a horror movie about a killer spider from outer space that somehow falls short of the fun potential of such a premise. 5 10. Pros. The spider itself is a gem, even if ...
'Speak No Evil' Trailer
The Big Picture. Blumhouse unveils trailer for tense thriller Speak No Evil at CinemaCon, starring James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis. The remake follows a married couple's trip turned sinister when ...
Every Ghostbusters Movie, Ranked from Worst to Best
Ghostbusters blended comedy and horror to create a ghost story unlike anything that audiences had ever seen before. Here, a team of ghost police -- Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, and ...
Big Trip
Rotten Tomatoes, home of the Tomatometer, is the most trusted measurement of quality for Movies & TV. The definitive site for Reviews, Trailers, Showtimes, and Tickets ... Big Trip G , 1h 24m
The next total solar eclipse will hit these two popular world travel
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Bolshoye Puteshestviye. Spetsialnaya Dostavka