WB Rants: NOA.
Werebelushi:
Ah yes, time for another Night Of Alterations episode review/rant. The last episode I reviewed was that embarrassing zoo/freak-show episode and now an new episode has just aired this season which I hear hasn't been given good reviews. This episode is 'Underwater And No Place To Go'. Greetings monster lovers I am your host That Werebelushi In The Shades and welcome to another one of my rants. The rant is on the episode Underwater and No Place To Go.
The episode starts with a field trip...ah yes, field trip episodes. Night Of Alterations often does these seemingly innocent field trip episodes that turn into field trips from hell as soon as something goes wrong, in this one a class of students is going to the new aquarium that has been getting good press and they go to check it out. I have to admit the animation and visuals for the fish in the aquarium scenes are spectacular, there's nothing hokey or fake about how they are designed at all - in fact some are downright adorable like the talking seahorse for instance.
Once they enter the aquarium they do the usual things like check out the fish, talk to the tour guide, etc. When a massive wave of supernatural energy comes over and causes the aquarium's inhabitants to turn dangerous. And that is when we get a view of our antagonist for the episode...and what a wonderful antagonist she is, she's a large anthromorphic anglerfish who looks like a mix of Ursula and Queen Bansheera, the actress playing her is doing a terrific job of acting over-the-top yet creepy.
I like her backstory too, I like how it explains that she used to be cute and cuddly but as her powers increased and as she aged, she became more grizzled looking in appearance and this caused her to become more villainous and people to become afraid of her and the aquarium as a whole. Although it is questionable why an aquarium which was mainly tropical fish would have a deep sea section.
The fish-folk designs in this episode and the aquarium in general are very well designed and with lots of intricate details. Unfortunately, the chase scenes with the mutant fish-people and the fish-attack scenes tend to come out as being a bit cheap and CGI-esque in a way that just spells Sy-fy channel original movie. The scenes with the water waves though are very beautiful and realistic.
I can't comment enough on how wonderfully made the fish and the aquarium are in this episode, because it shows how creative the studio can be and also the fish-folk, while cheesy looking in the battle scenes, are wonderfully impressive on their own. It's like if H.P Lovecraft's book The Shadow Of Innsmouth was adapted into a movie. Also that talking seahorse voiced by Bill Murray is absolutely hilarious. The seahorse sarcastically comments on everything and also from time to time complains about how awkward his life is, which makes him hilarious and cute at the same time.
Also...the reference to Moana with an instrumental version of Shiny playing, well played, sadly though the plot is kind of weak and confusing. I can't stress enough just how ridiculous and stupid some of the instructors are, I mean don't they know better than to try and dive in after the students? And also if this aquarium is indeed cursed...why is it getting good press? It's not an episode I would avoid...it's just disappointing. Like the fact they have Josh Peck playing two characters in this, he's one of the fish-folk and also the tour-guide's assistant and yet the latter only appears once, during the scene with the tour and that's it. But he puts on a good performance when he's the fish-guy though.
I understand that they were doing a Captain Hook thing with the creature and the assistant being similar to eachother, but still...the assistant probably has the least screentime out of the two characters. But i'm glad the fish-guy gets to have an interspecies romance relationship with a female student at the end.
The special effects are pretty decent and the fish-folk have an interesting design to them, the visuals and animation are beautiful as is the water, but the scenes where the fish attack and the battle scenes just come across as looking like cheap CGI. Out of the special effects filled episodes this season, this one comes in just between the FNAF/Bendy/Cuphead themed episode, the Island Of Doctor Moreau tribute episode and the episode 'One Way Ticket To Burtonvile'. But it doesn't top the amazing creature effect filled episode 'Invasion of The Trump-Creatures' which had all the various types of Trump-monsters done in a variety of ways including practical effects.
The sets are somewhat of an improvement over previous attempts at this set and unlike the episode 'Curse Of The Prinandroids' which was just an excuse to do a whole episode on 'how glorious medieval times is' by having the Prinandroids trying to turn whole locales into replicas of fairytale landscapes, this one makes great use of the aquarium setting for some survival horror elements. And the acting is flawless in this. Although there are quite a few episodes that are better than this one, this episode is alright...it has all the makings of a good one but it fails on execution, perhaps it could have been better if they fixed a few of the plotholes and maybe if the adult characters weren't so foolish.
As it stands...it's not one of the worst episodes of the series, it's still a bit forgettable though apart from the special effects, visuals, the animation and the acting, nothing about the episode is truly memorable. It could have been better than it is, but sadly...no. But if you're curious you can check it out, i'm That Werebelushi In The Shades and this has been my review/rant on Underwater and No Place to Go. Here's hoping the next episode will be better than this.
Ah yes, time for another Night Of Alterations episode review/rant. The last episode I reviewed was that embarrassing zoo/freak-show episode and now an new episode has just aired this season which I hear hasn't been given good reviews. This episode is 'Underwater And No Place To Go'. Greetings monster lovers I am your host That Werebelushi In The Shades and welcome to another one of my rants. The rant is on the episode Underwater and No Place To Go.
The episode starts with a field trip...ah yes, field trip episodes. Night Of Alterations often does these seemingly innocent field trip episodes that turn into field trips from hell as soon as something goes wrong, in this one a class of students is going to the new aquarium that has been getting good press and they go to check it out. I have to admit the animation and visuals for the fish in the aquarium scenes are spectacular, there's nothing hokey or fake about how they are designed at all - in fact some are downright adorable like the talking seahorse for instance.
Once they enter the aquarium they do the usual things like check out the fish, talk to the tour guide, etc. When a massive wave of supernatural energy comes over and causes the aquarium's inhabitants to turn dangerous. And that is when we get a view of our antagonist for the episode...and what a wonderful antagonist she is, she's a large anthromorphic anglerfish who looks like a mix of Ursula and Queen Bansheera, the actress playing her is doing a terrific job of acting over-the-top yet creepy.
I like her backstory too, I like how it explains that she used to be cute and cuddly but as her powers increased and as she aged, she became more grizzled looking in appearance and this caused her to become more villainous and people to become afraid of her and the aquarium as a whole. Although it is questionable why an aquarium which was mainly tropical fish would have a deep sea section.
The fish-folk designs in this episode and the aquarium in general are very well designed and with lots of intricate details. Unfortunately, the chase scenes with the mutant fish-people and the fish-attack scenes tend to come out as being a bit cheap and CGI-esque in a way that just spells Sy-fy channel original movie. The scenes with the water waves though are very beautiful and realistic.
I can't comment enough on how wonderfully made the fish and the aquarium are in this episode, because it shows how creative the studio can be and also the fish-folk, while cheesy looking in the battle scenes, are wonderfully impressive on their own. It's like if H.P Lovecraft's book The Shadow Of Innsmouth was adapted into a movie. Also that talking seahorse voiced by Bill Murray is absolutely hilarious. The seahorse sarcastically comments on everything and also from time to time complains about how awkward his life is, which makes him hilarious and cute at the same time.
Also...the reference to Moana with an instrumental version of Shiny playing, well played, sadly though the plot is kind of weak and confusing. I can't stress enough just how ridiculous and stupid some of the instructors are, I mean don't they know better than to try and dive in after the students? And also if this aquarium is indeed cursed...why is it getting good press? It's not an episode I would avoid...it's just disappointing. Like the fact they have Josh Peck playing two characters in this, he's one of the fish-folk and also the tour-guide's assistant and yet the latter only appears once, during the scene with the tour and that's it. But he puts on a good performance when he's the fish-guy though.
I understand that they were doing a Captain Hook thing with the creature and the assistant being similar to eachother, but still...the assistant probably has the least screentime out of the two characters. But i'm glad the fish-guy gets to have an interspecies romance relationship with a female student at the end.
The special effects are pretty decent and the fish-folk have an interesting design to them, the visuals and animation are beautiful as is the water, but the scenes where the fish attack and the battle scenes just come across as looking like cheap CGI. Out of the special effects filled episodes this season, this one comes in just between the FNAF/Bendy/Cuphead themed episode, the Island Of Doctor Moreau tribute episode and the episode 'One Way Ticket To Burtonvile'. But it doesn't top the amazing creature effect filled episode 'Invasion of The Trump-Creatures' which had all the various types of Trump-monsters done in a variety of ways including practical effects.
The sets are somewhat of an improvement over previous attempts at this set and unlike the episode 'Curse Of The Prinandroids' which was just an excuse to do a whole episode on 'how glorious medieval times is' by having the Prinandroids trying to turn whole locales into replicas of fairytale landscapes, this one makes great use of the aquarium setting for some survival horror elements. And the acting is flawless in this. Although there are quite a few episodes that are better than this one, this episode is alright...it has all the makings of a good one but it fails on execution, perhaps it could have been better if they fixed a few of the plotholes and maybe if the adult characters weren't so foolish.
As it stands...it's not one of the worst episodes of the series, it's still a bit forgettable though apart from the special effects, visuals, the animation and the acting, nothing about the episode is truly memorable. It could have been better than it is, but sadly...no. But if you're curious you can check it out, i'm That Werebelushi In The Shades and this has been my review/rant on Underwater and No Place to Go. Here's hoping the next episode will be better than this.
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