Kronk's New Groove

In the mid-90s and throughout most of the 2000s, Disney released a number of direct-to-video sequels for some of their films, regardless of box office performance. Some, like Atlantis: Milo’s Return, are actually three episodes of a canned TV series stapled together. One such DTV sequel was Kronk’s New Groove (titled onscreen as The Emperor's New Groove 2: Kronk's New Groove), which released in 2005 despite its parent film, The Emperor’s New Groove, not turning a profit in its initial release. Considering that the spinoff series The Emperor’s New School lasted two seasons with 52 episodes, however, post-release popularity must have come into play. In any case, Kronk’s New Groove notably scored a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, but considering that it only has seven critic reviews, I didn’t consider that an accurate barometer of its quality. Since I owned the film on a Blu-ray with both installments, I thought it best to watch it for myself, though I did go in with already low expectations (Tony Leondis, best known for The Emoji Movie, even had a story credit, for what it’s worth). I found it better than I was originally led to believe, although it’s (unsurprisingly) still a step down from the original film.

Very Little Nightmares

It’s not often I talk about a mobile game like this, but this is a case where, much like God of War: Betrayal, the game is considered canon to its parent series.

Following the release of the original Little Nightmares game in 2017, a mobile prequel, Very Little Nightmares, was released in 2019 for iOS and Android devices. I will admit that, when it first came out, I didn’t play it in part due to it being a paid app, but it was mostly due to my lack of understanding that it was a new game and not a mobile version of the first game (which, incidentally, exists as of 2023). It wasn’t until recently that it clicked for me how it fit in with the larger series and, with the aid of a free $2 Google Play credit, bought it after seeing it was still available as of 2025. Despite some issues, both in and outside the game, it still felt like a worthy entry in the Little Nightmares series in a smaller package.

Stubs - Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Mission: Inpossible The Final Reckoning (2025) starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen Based on Mission: Impossible by Bruce Geller. Produced by Tom Cruise and Chistopher McQuarrie. Run time: 170 minutes. Color. USA. Action, Espionage

Ethan Hunt returns for what appears to be the last time in Mission: Inpossible The Final Reckoning, the sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023). And if this is indeed the final installment with Tom Cruise as the star, then this series went out with a bang and is heartfelt.

Stubs - When Worlds Collide

When Worlds Collide (1951) Starring: Richard Derr, Barbara Rush, Peter Hanson, John Hoyt. Directed by Rudolph Maté. Screenplay by Sydney Boehm. Based on the serial story "When Worlds Collide" by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie in Blue Book Magazine (Sep 1932--Feb 1933). Produced by George Pal. USA. Run time 83 minutes. Science Fiction

I’ll be honest, part of my interest in seeing When Worlds Collide was that it gets a mention in the song “Science Fiction - Double Feature” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975); “…But when worlds collide / Said George Pal to his bride…” When I saw this was going to be on TCM, on went the DVR.

The movie rights for the novel, When Worlds Collide, were originally purchased by Paramount Pictures in 1922 with the idea of Cecil B. DeMille making a film called End of the World. But that film wasn’t made. The story was shelved until October 1949 when Paramount sold them to George Pal, a producer best known for a puppet-cartoon series The Puppetoons. When Pal signed a production contract with the studio, he sold the rights back.

Following the success of Pal’s Destination Moon (1950), Paramount rushed When Worlds Collide into production to capitalize on that film’s success.

Moana 2

Note: This review contains spoilers for Moana and Moana 2.

The success of Moana in 2016 meant an inevitable follow-up. In 2020, Disney originally announced such a follow-up as Moana: The Series, a five-episode long-form musical comedy series meant for Disney+ in 2023. During development, however, the team kept getting asked about putting it on the big screen to the point that in January 2024, the project had officially pivoted to a theatrical sequel with the original cast reprising their roles. Although the final film, Moana 2, released in November 2024 to mixed reviews, it still made over $1 billion against its budget of $150 million (a massive profit unless Disney’s accountants somehow believe otherwise). Based on word of mouth, I (fittingly) waited for the eventual Disney+ release so I could see the finished product for myself without potentially wasting good money watching it in a theater. As it turns out, Moana 2 really feels like five episodes of a TV series stapled together, making it the modern equivalent to the likes of Atlantis: Milo’s Return.

Second Look - Moana

When I first watched Moana in 2016, I will admit that I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at the time, but I did at least like it enough to get a copy on Blu-ray to watch it again in the future. Although the Blu-ray went untouched for years, the arrival of its theatrical sequel on Disney+ gave me an excuse to revisit the movie, as well as re-evaluate it for more than just the animation. After watching it again for the first time in nearly a decade, I found it to be far better than I remembered it being. Barring maybe Encanto (which I thought was okay), I would even go so far as to say it was Disney’s last good animated movie in years.

Stubs - Blade

Blade (1998) starring Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson. Directed by Stephen Norrington. Screenplay by David S. Goyer. Based on characters created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. Produced by Peter Frankfurt, Wesley Snipes, Robert Engelman. Run time: 120 minutes. Color. USA. Horror

Before there was the MCU and before the X-Men franchise got off the ground, there was Blade. Not the first Marvel adventure into films, there was a Captain America serial in 1944, and, of course, the misfortunate Howard the Duck (1978), but unlike that film, Blade showed there was money to be made from adapting comic books for the big screen.

There are other firsts for Blade that often attributed to other films. As an example, it was the first comic book film adaptation to feature a Black superhero, not Black Panther. And the first comic book adaptation to receive an R rating, not Deadpool.