Minimoni The Movie: The Great Cake Adventure!


Title: Minimoni The Movie: The Great Cake Adventure!
Original Title: Minimoni ja Movie: Okashi na Daibōken!
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Comedy, Musical, Adventure
Starring: Mari Yaguchi, Mika Todd, Ai Kago, Nozomi Tsuji, Ai Takahashi
Director: Shinji Higuchi
Language: Japanese

When most bands announce a change in the line-up they have a press release, or mention it in some official capacity. A lot of smaller bands don't even do that, they simply place it on their website and let the fans discover the change in their own time. Minimoni (a J-pop band formed amongst some of the members of the well known “Morning Musume”) clearly had other ideas as the 'story' of how the band leader left and the woman who would replace her is all depicted in this hour long film. Apparently. In reality I think they let themselves exaggerate the events a little too much, and if this really is anything remotely resembling how it happened then they should all be tested for LSD. As the title alludes this really seems to be about their great cake adventure, not that I'm really complaining as some sort of J-pop 'Some Kind of Monster' flick wouldn't be half as much fun.

With their current line-ups second year anniversary rapidly approaching, the MiniMoni cake shop run by the bossy one, cakes baked by the tom boy-ish one and served by the clutz twins, is preparing by baking an elaborate castle cake to celebrate, but trouble is brewing. The shop is broken into by the evil Fairy Queen who despises all cakes and orders her fairy minions to turn them all to stone, but bring back the castle cake because that might be fun to live in. Discovered when the alarm goes off, they panic and drop their fairy dust and - no it doesn't turn them to stone as you might think, but – turns them into miniature CGI characters. They're also broken into by a cat burglar trying to steal their secrets, but nobody seems to care and she ends up joining the group anyway. On commences their great journey to find the Evil Fairy Queen and with the help of a friendly fridge and an army of gingerbread men, invade the castle to get back whats rightfully theirs.

With none of them actually being actresses it was probably a wise move to keep their actual screen time to a minimum, probably the reason for turning them all into short CGI creations to blend into their 'childrens TV' level of CGI surroundings, which oddly enough works in helping you reminisce back to your childhood (or at the least mine). The plot is all over the place and makes nigh on no sense, like a child trying to force pieces of a puzzle to fit without much success, and yet it's still fun; it still manages to make you forget your age and start giggling to their cutesy oddball antics. I think it's already evident that this film has a pretty niche market that for most reading wont apply but its sheer absurdity and nonsensical nature means that you don't need to be a fan to watch it. In fact, I imagine this would make excellent stoned viewing...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Female Prisoner: Scorpion

Image
Title: Female Prisoner: Scorpion Rating: 4/5 Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime Starring: Meiko Kaji, Rie Yokoyama, Isao Natsuyagi Director: Shunya Ito Language: Japanese It was the 70s that saw the rise in Japanese grindhouse cinema (also known as ‘Pinky Violence); tired of the very ‘traditional’ style of many local films, and with the rise in success of Hollywood titles such as ‘Dirty Harry’ and ‘The Great Escape,’ a new wave of daring and experimental directors came to light. Armed with a low budget and all the influences of the early Western grindhouse cheap gore flicks, they combined it with traditional Japanese film-making sensibilities to create a style that somehow succeeded in being both artistic in style whilst retaining those cheap traditions such as gratuitous nudity and violence to result in something rather unique. And it was with this, the first instalment in the ‘Female Prisoner’ series, that would influence a wave known as ‘Women in Prison’ films; with a strong the
Read more

Slasher Hunter

Image
Title: Slasher Hunter (2011) Rating: 3/5 Genre: Horror, Comedy Starring: Chad Phillips, Derek Rothermund, Ryan Sullivan Director: Steve Rudzinski Duration: 35 mins Four pals are planning to have a great weekend of sex and brews in an old cabin in the woods. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “this is the exact set up to every slasher movie from ‘79 to ‘99; this can’t end well.” Well our group of campers have thought of that, that’s why they brought sci-fi nerd Lee along for the ride who carries within him the so-called “survivor gene.” This special gene helps prevent him from being the unfortunate victim of any slasher maniacs that may be lurking about. Unfortunately this gene is also highly coveted by a group of the most dastardly slashers around: Frank, Larry, Jay, Charles, Pleatherface, and Puzzle (I didn’t say their names were very dastardly, did I?). It’s up to a renegade, federally-employed Slasher Hunter to thwart the slashers’ plan and save Lee and his friends before it’
Read more

Chinese Erotic Ghost Story

Image
Title: Chinese Erotic Ghost Story Original Title: Yuk lui liu chai Genre: Comedy, Exploitation Rating: 2.5/5 Starring: Ben Ko Chu, Chun Chung, Siu Wan Hung Director: Kin-Nam Cho Language: Chinese It's always a little tricky to think how these sort of films should be rated; from the title it's apparent that they aren't perhaps the most creative when it comes to titles, though if nothing else it certainly is an accurate one, with perhaps some mention of how batshit insane the bizarre events of the actual film are being the only thing missing. It all kicks off rather normally; Chu is introduced as the debt collector working for an asshole of a King with a beautiful mistress, two beautiful daughters and an even prettier wife, whilst he's stuck with a woman who sleeps 20 hours a day and spends the remaining four awake eating. Caught in the embrace of one of the King's daughters he's punished with the task of entering Satan's Temple and stealing the statu
Read more