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satureja13 · 29 days

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'Guess who just got back today? Them wild-eyed boys that had been away Haven't changed, had much to say But man, I still think them cats are crazy They were askin' if you were around How you was, where you could be found I told 'em you were livin' downtown Drivin' all the old men crazy'

The Boys are back in Town - Thin Lizzy

We are back! From a new computer! (EA App stopped working on my old Windows 7 PC -.-) Arturo invited them to celebrate the opening of a brand new Temple in Morensong (and for a belated Ostara/Spring Equinox Festival since we couldn't celebrate together last week. Day and Night were equal on March 21st and warmer days are coming. Hopefully for the Boys too).

They aren't really ready to meet again. Neither Saiwa and Jeb (after Sai's breakdown) nor Jack and Kiyoshi (after Jack's breakdown). But Ji Ho has a plan.

Arturo welcomed them and showed them around. This Temple is much bigger than Kiyoshi's/ the Tree's in Koh Sahpa. Had Kiyoshi gained so much more popularity since he's back from the tree?

Arturo: "Haha no ^^' Kiyoshi's followers wanted this Temple for Kiri, Little Goat and Kumo who hadn't left Kiyoshi's side and cared for him while he was one with the Tree for all those decades. And Little Goat played a big part in bringing him back eventually." Oh... ok Ö.ö So we have a Stable Temple now... For horses, goats and sheep. We've seen stranger things, haven't we? There are 12 easter eggs hidden in the following pics and posts. I write the amount of eggs in the respective pic below in brackets. For example in the pic below you can find 1 easter egg, so I write (1). (The same egg can appear in different pics and angles, but it still counts as 1 egg.)

Kiyoshi is embarrassed. He knows that the others are keeping his distance to him since they know the whole truth about him and Jack and that he became a demon, he's back and and a diety now and they are forced to stay together to avoid a catastrophe in their possible future and he destroyed Jeb and Saiwa's relationship with this damn 'Bird' misunderstanding... He just wanted to live quietly among them and somehow make it up to them and serve them and not to cause a ruckus and being treated as something special and upset them even more. (1)

The Temple is big enough for all the horses and goats and Kumo so they finally have a place to stay in Tomarang! (1)

The Boys' horses are Otherworlds horses and they are free to roam whereever they want to and the Boys can call them via the goats. Not sure if they stay here all together all the time since they have their own problems and misunderstandings and quarrels among them... (see our spin off -> The Stables)

Arturo: "What do you think? It's awesome, right?" Saiwa: "It absolutley is. They will live in a palace!" Arturo: "Come over to the meadow. I prepared games and food." (3) (But only two new eggs, the third egg is already shown 3 pics above. That makes a total of 5 different eggs in this post. Have you found them all? The other ones can be found in the following episodes and I will reveal where they are hidden in an extra post after the festival.)

From the Beginning ~ Underwater Love ~ Latest 🕹️ 'Therapy Game' from the beginning ▶️ here 📚 Previous Chapters: Chapters: 1-6 ~ 7-12 ~ 13-16 ~ 17-22 ~ 23-28

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cuoredolce67 · 2 months

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#saiwa

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snailwitdamail2 · 11 days

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KWAN MY BELOVED!!!!!!

#he was sauurrr good #i was not expecting primate characters in this movie aushdau such a fun surprise #my fathers dragon #my father's dragon #cartoon saloon #primates #shut up snail #snailposting #kwan #my fathers dragon kwan #spoilers for anyone who hasnt seen the movie >#im glad the movie didnt forget abt him ushadh. as it was ending i was like. where kwan. is he safe. is he alright. glad they kind of gave #a hint that he might try to go back to the island and apologize #idk he was fun. i liked him a lot idk!!! voice was good too #and saiwa!!!!! great antagonist!!!!! i was wondering if he was played by alfred molina #credits rolled and yeah. it was him lol #edit: CRYING LMAO DID I SAY ALFRED MOLINA?? I MEANT IAN MCSHANE HELLPPPP #I ALWAYS GET THEM MIXED UP SOMEHOW IMS ODNIFUNS;#saiwa and tamir were so gay usghd what was that at the end??? gay ppl.#anyway. more ape animated characters please. 2d preferably #long post

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animemakeblog · 8 months

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“Haigakura” The Manga For Gets TV Anime in 2024

Frontier Works unveiled a teaser image on the official website for a television anime adaptation of Shinobu Takayama's Haigakura manga. The debut of the anime is slated for 2024.

#haigakura #ichiyou #tenkou #saiwa ran #anime #anime adaptation #anime news

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hell-heron · 2 years

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My favorite regional differences honestly are those that have nothing to do with the typical products of the region or old traditions of any kind but simply at some point in the like 90s all the grandmas of the region unionized and decided Pavesini with Nutella and mascarpone or salame di cioccolato or some other dish made with extremely artificial ingredients you can find at any grocery store is gonna be their thing and no one else's

#op #salame di cioccolato drives me insane esp. the way in bologna you straight up find it for sale in my hometown its a low effort homemade #sweet for children's events and picnics and straight up doesjt exist in sardinia #how did that happen. i'm pretty sure cocoa and oro saiwa are not regionally connotated ingredients

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makapatag · 8 months

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Art by the refulgent @lntpblk!

Anitu is the word for ritual worship across the Sword Isles. Sometimes, it also refers to the gods, souls, and ancestors worshipped to: Anito, Hanitu, hantu. They all arrive from a shared culture in the distant past when even gods were not born.

GUBAT BANWA is a martial arts fantasy tactics RPG set in the refulgent lands of THE SWORD ISLES, inspired by Classical Southeast Asian cultures! We're coming to KS on the 27th!

Anitu lore below the cut!

Anitu is less of an organized religion and more of a catch-all term for most faiths in the Isles, where most of them practice ancestor veneration, sacred worship nature, and ardent ritualism. Each banwa might not even call what they do “anitu” and might refer to it as some other word in their language: in North Rusunuga it is called pagsamba, while in the Eastern Jamiyin Kulisa’s Arrows it is referred to as Qiparjeyuhun, which is just “faith” or belief. For the most part, only those in Gatusan’s mandala of effect recognizes Anitu as a term for a larger belief form.

The most prominent form of Anitu is Kangdayanon Anitu, which is the one practiced in the Gatusan Mahamandala’s center of power, Kangdaya. This version of Anitu has fully syncretized the Saiwa branch of Ashinin Religion, which brought the idea of a fully fledged pantheon and the idea of cosmic forces of gods in this realm. One important syncretism is the adoption of some ancestors turned into Gods, who are performed rituals to. One such god is Apung Makangayaw, the Dragon of Raiding, worshipped as a distant ancestor of Amihan, who became Rani Amiyah, the queen that Shri Bishaya married into to stake his claim into the island of Tauhaw. The gods Jamiyun Kulisa and Indira Suga also arrive from Saiwa Ashinin.

Another important syncretism is the understanding of a cosmic soul, or a supreme oversoul. This is meant to be Siwa, but that name was quickly indigenized and understood to be Laon, the Ancient One, the name of the tallest mountain that can be seen from Tauhaw, Kanglaon. Laon means old, aged, ancient. It is said that Laon is THE Ancestor, from where all things arise.

Another important aspect brought in by Saiwa is the construction of grand temples meant to emulate the stories of the gods both celestial and chthonic. By creating these they believe they are bringing in Favor and Merit, making their lives more fortunate and enriching them with good omens. An important belief, when in the Sword Isles, as every city is subject to the sacred whims of the souls of the world—hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, thunderstorms.

The word in Kangdayanon Anitu for temple is MAGDANTANG, and smaller versions of these temples are known as lantangan. Natural sites are worshipped and offered to as if they were magdantang. This is why every lake, mountain, hill, giant tree, river and every important shore and beach have lantangan for offerings. Stone structures are rare and only appear in the larger cities of Gatusan—they carved onto the side of hills and mountains, or from the rocks of said mountains after performing rituals to ask permission from the mountain gods to take stones for creating merit. The largest stone temple is in Kangdaya, which also acts as the Palace of the Ponong Raja. Other important sites are the Pagodas of Put’wan, the Holy Mountain of Kihadi-an, and the grand (yet now lost) temple city of Biringan, crafted by an ancient Samrasat Devaraja in the island of Mairete, now lost in its jungles.

Kihadi-an is a grand monument complex constructed to mirror the mountain of Semedu, the grandest peak in all of Gubat Banwa. This name in Kangdayanon, Put’wanon, Ba-enense, and Apunon Anitu is attributed to be one of the regnal titles of APU DAYAWA, the grand mountain that juts out from the island of Kalanawan.

Finally, Anitu now recognizes Ashinin-style regnal titles and even the concept of god-kings, as brought by Shri-Bishaya’s retinue and royal court. Ponong Raja Batara Ambas now has a claim to a divine right to rule by way of being an avatar or an embodiment of Laon on the Warring Realms. Titles such as datu are considered a step below the title of Raja, and Maharaja. Ponong Raja means head Raja, and is a coveted title amongst all. According to the Kangdaynon balyan, the gods in the sky speak of the Uniter of the Hundred Hundred Islands, which they call the Langidagandraja, a fusion of the words LANGIT + DAGAT + INDRA + RAJA. Together, this name means HEAVEN-SEA GOD KING, as the conquerer of the entire sky and sea. This name is fabled and no man has a claim to this title. It cannot be gifted by the gods nor can it be achieved through enlightenment. It must be seized from hearts and minds of people.

#gubat banwa #gamedev #ttrpg #tactics #southeast asia #filipino #fantasy #rpg #dnd #writing #game design #lore #fiction

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naonoholics · 4 months

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Happy New Year~!!!

Hiya All (｡◕‿◕｡) We made it to 2024 y'all!! We wanted to start this year off right so we have some releases for everyone. First up we have some goodies from our namesake Naono Bohra~! Error Free Life Ch 1: (Media Fire) (Mega) Shihai no Kyoukaisen Ch 1: (Media Fire) (Mega) Next we have the start of a very interesting story that I think a lot of you will enjoy by Yoshiko Watanuki. I know I'm excited to see what happens next. Tonari no Hyakkai Kenbunroku V1 Ep. Saiwa: (Media Fire) (Mega) Tonari no Hyakkai Kenbunroku V1 Ep. 00: (Media Fire) (Mega) Enjoy the new releases and Happy Reading~! I would also like to introduce our new translator Mari! She worked so hard getting all the scripts ready for so many of the projects we are going to be working on over this new year and seeing her crank out chapter and chapter really reinvigorated me. Also many thanks to all the members who have stick with me over the years and have continued to show up and show out when to comes to graphics, cleaning, typesetting and scanning the projects we work on since without them being willing to help staying around as long as we haven't wouldn't be possible. Knowing they are there to help when I need it makes me want to work on as many projects we can. Plus we can't forget about all the readers as well since at the end of the day what really makes me happy is knowing something we worked on brought a bit of joy to you all. I'm always so happy to see how excited you all get when we release a new chapter or when you all are looking forward to a new project we picked up and it makes it all worth doing after all these years. Here's to this year being better than the last! We have more goodies in the works so please look forward to it!

#naono bohra #error free life #shihai no kyoukaisen #tonari no hyakkai kenbunroku #Yoshiko Watanuki #naonoholics

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marcanimation · 1 year

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Some of the Animals of Wild Island. Saiwa was probably my favourite character to work, but he was always with Tamir who was super difficult (spindly little hands and perfect circle eyes) The little spiral tails of the howler monkeys were super hard to keep consistent too

#my father's dragon #cartoon saloon #mfd #animation #2d animation #tvpaint #hand drawn animation #traditional animation #cleanup #clean up animation

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satureja13 · 1 month

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The Friendship between: Saiwa and Vlad

Like Vlad and Jack, Saiwa and Vlad met at the Space (Balls) Bar & Grill & 'Residence'.

They have a very solid friendship and respect each other. Usually one of them is reasonable and able to talk the other into doing the right thing or out of making wrong decisions and usually the other listens.

Saiwa is a reluctant leader (no one except himself ever questioned his abilities to lead them, neither the Boys themselves nor the Resistance) and often questions his position in the group and it's a burden for him. He's glad that he can ask Vlad (and Kiyoshi) for advice.

And he also thinks that Vlad would be a better leader (also no one else shares this opinion lol and Vlad would be shocked if he knew about this. He has more than enough problems, is an introvert and prefers quiet activities like painting and writing over herding a bunch of weirdos out of control ö.Ö') More about this (and more ^^') here (under the cut) and here (also under the cut).

Aside of all their hardships, they also are a very handsome pairing (=the visuals of the group ;) (Romance Level: Below Zero) At Mount Komorebi

In our Heidi Special I love the way they look at each other.

And a very funny one! That was when we made the Simtimates Collection Special at the end of the Sabotage Chapter: Sai joked about what if Ms Coombes, their teacher (Vlad is her favourite) ever sees these pics hahaha. (And a few weeks later she said she really saw them! omg ^^')

And that was at the 6 month anniversary of our story ^w^ Hissing and growling with the yeti :3

And in the Jungle of Selvadorada

After Vlad died, it had been Saiwa who refused accepting it and kept on investigating. He even dragged Jeb to DEATH's Domain to find out what happened to him.

And that was when Saiwa and the Gang Doctor 'encouraged' Vlad to tighten the Bond with Ji Ho :3 (Ah I really enjoy doing this series, we had so much fun! And it keeps me busy and from worrying until I have my new computer and if everything goes well ^^')

And no one ever found out which song it was...

The only fights they had (and I remember) were before Ji Ho and Vlad tightened the bond. This was at the beginning when Vlad wanted to avoid Ji Ho:

And this was when Giga/Saiwa had sent Ji Ho to Vlad's room to take a bath and Vlad was upset because he feared to lose control ^^' (It had been Saiwa who dragged Ji Ho to the Space Bar and Saiwa was the first who predicted their epic love story at the first they they'd met)

Oh and the epic fight they had that faithful day when Vlad decided to bond with Morgan to spare Ji Ho from doing Bond Magic... Sai and Jack had been so mad at Vlad, they didn't speak with him for months ö.Ö' (this stupid action also lead to the Boys' separation and a few weeks later they swore to not have any secrets from each other to avoid further harm).

This is one of the few things they'll never agree on I fear. Saiwa wants to use their Bond magic for doing good and Vlad wants to spare Ji Ho from doing it.

Their Friendships (in chronological order):

Giga/Saiwa and Jack

Vlad and Jack (updated)

Giga/Saiwa and Vlad

Vlad and Sai at Tartosa

Vlad and Sai dancing together in our Goth Special

In chronological order: 🫛 Saiwa and Jack 🫛 Vlad and Jack 🫛 Saiwa and Vlad 🫛 Kiyoshi and Jeb 🫛 Saiwa and Ji Ho 🫛 Ji Ho and Jack 🫛 Ji Ho and Jeb 🫛 Ji Ho and Kiyoshi 🫛 Vlad and Kiyoshi 🫛 Vlad and Jeb 🫛 Saiwa and Kiyoshi 🫛 Jack and Jeb

❤️‍🔥 Ji Ho and Vlad (and Luci) ❤️‍🔥 Saiwa and Jeb ❤️‍🔥 Jack and Kiyoshi ❤️‍🔥 Noxee and Greg ❤️‍🔥 Leander and Wesley (and Vlad) ❤️‍🔥 Francine Spencer (Jeb's Grandmother) and Jules Rico

From the Beginning ~ Underwater Love ~ Latest 🕹️ 'Therapy Game' from the beginning ▶️ here 📚 Previous Chapters: Chapters: 1-6 ~ 7-12 ~ 13-16 ~ 17-22 ~ 23-28

#The Boys Friendships #Saiwa and Jack #underwater love #sims 4 story #sims 4 #simblr #ts4 #giga byte #saiwa #jack callahan #sims 4 vanilla #oc #ocs #my ocs #original character

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moviemunchies · 1 year

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Cartoon Saloon got famous off of doing movies like Secret of the Kells and Song of the Sea, and so I’m always happy to see more work from them. When I found out that they have this Netflix exclusive film, My Father’s Dragon, I knew I had to check it out.

For once, this Cartoon Salon movie is NOT about Irish mythology (though neither was The Breadwinner I suppose), but an adaptation of a children’s book about a little boy who goes to a magic island of talking animals to rescue a dragon.

Elmer and his mom, after having to close their store, move to a cramped apartment in a new city. Realizing that his mom needs money, and being misunderstood in his attempts to help, he runs off. A talking cat tells him how to reach a dragon that can help him solve his problems, and he’s on an adventure to the magic island. But the dragon, Boris, is actually trapped on the sinking island, and the only way to come into his full power is to save the island. The problem? He doesn’t know how. So now Elmer and Boris have to work together to figure out how to save the island and realize Boris’s full potential, while the animals of the island are trying to recapture Boris.

There is something interesting in the way Elmer interacts with Boris. You see, Boris isn’t precisely a wise, stately dragon. He’s kind of a small child. Well he’s not precisely a small child–he definitely has closer to an adult voice, but the way he acts and talks is reminiscent of a child. And Elmer, who is very focused on accomplishing the quest, has to struggle to keep Boris on track with his short attention span and boundless curiosity.

I can’t help but think that the impression we’re supposed get is that Elmer is learning what his mother’s going through: being a parent to a child, taking responsibility, learning how to guide Boris and letting him reach his potential. The reason this felt weird for me was that Boris was significantly more annoying than Elmer ever was for his mother. Like, yeah, I get it, Elmer didn’t always cooperate the best with his mom, but he was really a helpful child–the time he acts out is an outlier. Whereas Boris is constantly distracted, popping into Elmer’s bag without permission to eat candy…

Look, if the idea was “Elmer has to learn what it’s like in his mom’s shoes” then it doesn’t work, because Boris doesn’t act like Elmer does. So maybe I misread the entire situation and that’s not how we’re meant to read it this way at all. But then… it’s even weirder because then Boris is just obnoxious and Elmer has to take a parental role for no thematic reason and I don’t understand what we’re doing here.

Okay, I’m making it sound like Boris is really annoying to the audience throughout the movie, and he’s not–but I understand that in Elmer’s position he would be incredibly obnoxious to deal with. For that reason I imagine he will probably be grating to a lot of viewers.

Saiwa, played by Ian McShane, is a fantastic antagonist for this movie. He trapped Boris on the island and had him lift the sinking island out to try to save the other animals. He’s not malevolent–he’s actually very kind and respectful to the other animals, it’s just that this is the only way he can think of to save the island. He’s never angry or vengeful, he’s really trying his best here, and at the movie when he’s proven wrong he gracefully accepts it and tries to do better. Fantastic! Good job. Something different from a villain, instead of trying to do a twist like so many other animated movies do these days. There is a sort of feeling that Saiwa’s going to end up doing something more harmful, but he doesn’t–and I’m kind of okay with that.

But then Elmer goes home and things sort of… work themselves out? And that happens sometimes, I suppose; however, we don’t really get a ‘how’ on that, other than that they’ve accepted that they don’t have the store anymore and adapted to life in the city. It doesn’t feel as if the characters actually did anything for it, at least not that was in a part of the story we were shown.

The end result is a movie that’s good, I think, and certainly beautifully animated. I can’t help but think though that it’s not as fantastic as some of the other projects to come out of Cartoon Saloon. Movies like Secret of the Kells and Song of the Sea felt like they were masterpieces, and while this is still a good film for kids, it doesn’t have the same weight to it that makes me think I can watch it over and over again.

It’s fun, especially for kids, but it’s far from a must-see. Which, with Cartoon Saloon, seems a bit disappointing.

#Movie Munchies #My Father's Dragon #Netflix #reviews #Cartoon Saloon

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casatoracica · 1 year

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Ho un rapporto un po’ altalenante con gli Oro Saiwa, ogni volta che li riscopro mi ricordo il perché li abbandono: ti basta inzupparli quel millimetro di troppo che il biscotto si spappola tutto dentro la tazza di tè e la tua giornata è rovinata

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rayisalive · 10 months

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I watched my fathers dragon and ohmygod all the shapes and colors and the story like wow i loved it sm i love boris and elmer and iris and her kid is adorable i love it sm saiwa is such a great villain almost reminds me of miguel theyre doing what they think is the right thing but really just harming boris AND KWAN TOO i love it sm did i say that i love all the shapes and colors bc i do

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appendingfic · 1 year

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Man Saiwa's a great antagonist

#my father's dragon #hell kwan's great #spoilers

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dweemeister · 1 year

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My Father’s Dragon (2022)

Kilkenny, Ireland-based Cartoon Saloon has now released its last two films in collaboration with companies more interested in maintaining their streaming services than granting a significant theatrical release. Wolfwalkers (2020), a production alongside Apple TV+, was an excellent addition to the studio’s Irish folklore triptych, and understandably few theaters showed it due to COVID-19 pandemic closures. Nora Twomey’s My Father’s Dragon is a Netflix feature, and this is her first directorial effort since The Breadwinner (2017). With a similarly nominal theatrical release, My Father’s Dragon also represents another departure from all of Cartoon Saloon’s feature films thus far: it is specifically for a younger audience. I dislike the prevalent conflation of animated filmmaking as children’s entertainment (whether by those who write about films or filmmakers themselves), but this is an adaptation of Ruth Stiles Gannett’s book of the same name (itself a runner-up for the Newbery Medal, which honors American children’s literature).

My Father’s Dragon is visually striking, although it contains some of Cartoon Saloon’s most simplistic character design yet. But what makes this the studio’s most prosaic work yet are its tonal inconsistencies, noticeably modern sense of humor, and a conventional resolution to the central drama.

Elmer Elevator (Jacob Tremblay) and mother Dela (Golshifteh Farahani) move to a big city when their small-town candy store forecloses in difficult economic times. Money is short, and a distant Dela spends much of her time looking for stable work in order to help open a new store. Soon, Elmer encounters a talking cat (Whoopi Goldberg), who suggests that he might travel to faraway Wild Island to kidnap the lone dragon that lives there, and use the dragon for entertainment and exhibition purposes. With help from Soda the Whale (Judy Greer) and Saiwa the Gorilla (Ian McShane), Elmer travels to Wild Island and tracks down the dragon. The situation on Wild Island is more perilous than first impressions suggest, as Elmer befriends the young and immature dragon, Boris (Gaten Matarazzo) in order to address the situation.

All the animals on Wild Island are anything but nightmare-inducing, so younger viewers will probably be remarking how cute or cool the primates (Chris O’Dowd and Jackie Earle Haley), the rhino (Dianne Wiest), the crocodile (Alan Cumming), and the tigers (Leighton Meester and Spence Moore II) appear.

We do not see much of Dela after the opening minutes of the film, but her and Elmer’s character designs are a development from what viewers saw in The Breadwinner as opposed to Cartoon Saloon’s Irish folklore triptych. The oval faces and oftentimes half crescent/quasi-crescent eyes of the two human characters (and, strangely enough, Boris) in My Father’s Dragon are not quite enough to evoke responses that seem emotional enough for the moment. Acting teachers will say – and this is true for animated characters as well – that emotion typically precipitates an action (not the inverse of this). The degree of that action is up to the actor or, in this case, the animator. Too often, the human and the animal characters – in moments of distress, peril, and relief – are too still when expressing themselves. Frowns, tears, and anguished shouting convey only so much; through bodily movement and facial expressions do films, animated or otherwise, provoke an emotional response from a viewer. Twomey’s animators closely replicate Boris from how he appeared in Gannett’s book. But in that replication, they produce an inelastic character design that lends humor and a sense of fun, but largely incapable of handling pathos – which invariably harms the film’s closing act.

Gannett’s My Father’s Dragon lies somewhere between a picture book for the youngest children and a chapter book for students in the middle of primary school. At just over eighty pages, it is an abbreviated plot that sees Elmer encounter the dragon only in the final ten pages. The episodic nature of Gannett’s book makes the book difficult to adapt for screenwriter Meg LeFauve (2015’s Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur). LeFauve elects to understandably introduce Boris much earlier in the narrative and to introduce a catastrophic crisis to Wild Island that frames most of Elmer’s time there. Without spoiling much, such a calamity is nowhere to be found in Gannett’s original work, and one detects the influence of the interchangeable, humanity-threatening stakes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Was this sense of world-ending danger necessary? If one is targeting the audience that would also read My Father’s Dragon, the film’s climax is much too intense for them. Gannett’s book is defined by episodic, child-friendly peril from the animals (i.e., hungry carnivores that have peculiar quirks and can be reasoned with) and not existential stakes. Converting My Father’s Dragon away from an episodic narrative might be the primary narrative concern for most, but the counter to this is that LeFauve’s adapted screenplay dispenses with Gannett’s gentle wit that can delight those of any age.

Thus, Nora Twomey’s My Father’s Dragon can be a clamorous work that shows none of the patience – for its characters and viewers – of any of Cartoon Saloon’s previous work. Despite some impressive backgrounds (the most polished ever seen in the studio’s work) and wonderful color palette, no amount of visual mastery can cover up a screenplay that is trying too much to draw out laughs from Boris’ emotional immaturity. This writing tactic – in which modern screenwriters attempt to placate supposedly gratification-hungry viewers with one garrulous punchline-spewing character – is something I associate with the major American animation studios.

Another characteristic of My Father’s Dragon that seems more characteristic to its mainstream American peers is the presence of an all-star voice cast that does little to no modification of their typical vocal inflections while recording for the film. It is distracting to hear Whoopi Goldberg, Dianne Wiest, Rita Moreno (as the Elevators’ landlord), and Matarazzo (who essentially plays a character not too far removed from his character of Dustin in Stranger Things) acquit themselves in this manner. Too little thought has gone into how can they best voice their characters, given their characters’ appearances and the situations of the moment. Are these developments – the hyperactive and comedy-seeking writing, merely adequate voice acting, and declarations about courage and the Power of Friendship – indicative of Netflix’s influence over Cartoon Saloon’s approach to this adaptation of My Father’s Dragon? Or is it a sign of things to come for the Irish studio?

Whatever the case, this is a disappointing fifth effort from Cartoon Saloon over the last thirteen years. Given the standards of their previous work, the studio deserves mercy from further barbs from yours truly. The missteps seen in My Father’s Dragon pale in comparison to some of the work that the likes of Disney, DreamWorks, and especially Illumination have offered in recent years, The tenor of Cartoon Saloon’s upcoming work appears, at least for the new future, to be similar to that seen in My Father’s Dragon. Up next for the studio is a feature film treatment for their children’s television series Puffin Rock (on Netflix in the U.S.) and Louise Bagnall’s directorial feature debut in Julián (adapted from the picture book Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love; Bagnall previously directed the Academy Award-nominated short film Late Afternoon for Cartoon Saloon).

As for Nora Twomey – one of the co-founders of Cartoon Saloon alongside Tomm Moore and Paul Young – she remains a figure in animated cinema to keep an eye out for. The co-director for The Secret of Kells (2009) and sole director on The Breadwinner has shown her ability to guide projects along with emotionally and thematically nuanced narratives and stunning visual splendor. And though My Father’s Dragon represents the first miscue on the former element, Cartoon Saloon’s animation remains a visual balm in an industry that, at least among those that financially dominate animated filmmaking, is as far away from hand-drawn work as it ever has been.

My rating: 6.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL). Half-points are always rounded down.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

#My Father's Dragon #Nora Twomey #Meg LeFauve #Jacob Tremblay #Gaten Matarazzo #Golshifteh Farahani #Dianne Wiest #Rita Moreno #Chris O'Dowd #Judy Greer #Alan Cumming #Yara Shahidi #Jackie Earle Haley #Whoopi Goldberg #Mychael Danna #Jeff Danna #Cartoon Saloon #Netflix #My Movie Odyssey

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