By: Hermekay Dehaney

‘Bob Marley: One Love’ is a biopic film released on February 14 that tells the life and legacy of the iconic Jamaican reggae musician, Bob Marley. The movie aims to show us more about his journey, impact, and his legacy on the world.

Bob Marley is played by the British Actor, Kingsley Ben-Adir who is known for  playing Malcolm X in ‘One Night in Miami.’ There have been lots of discussions online of people being skeptical as to why they chose a British actor instead of a Jamaican actor. I was also skeptical as well because the Jamaican accent is complex to non-native speakers.

However, it’s important to note that actors are trained professionals who have the time, and the ability to practice different accents so that they can immerse themselves into who they’re playing. Kingsley has also said that he had a language team of 7-8 people on set at all times, he also had friends and family of Bob Marley who were able to help him. That much commitment to a role is very noteworthy, and I think he did a decent job portraying the accent.

A unique feature I love about this movie is that it tells the story of Bob Marley through three years of his life from 1976 to 1978 instead of the typical birth-to-death type movies that a lot of other biopics like to portray. During those 3 years, we saw an important part of Bob Marley’s life, from when he got shot in 1976 to the time he spent recording his album.

The movie does show a little bit of random flashbacks of Bob Marley from the past which I didn’t like as much because it felt a little bit unnecessary in my opinion.

During the movie, we saw a brief appearance of Cindy Breakspeare played by Umi Myers, the Canadian-Jamaican beauty queen who Bob Marley had an affair with. They didn’t give it a storyline, the only time we see her was when Bob Marley was in London calling his wife Rita Marley, played by Lashanda Lynch, where we got a little close-up glimpse of her.

They made it seem like it was some sort of little thing which is shocking because their “relationship” lasted from 1976 to his death in 1981; they even have a son together, Damian Marley. I understand that the movie’s primary focus was to show his music, and his message of peace and love, but if you’re going to add that, make it an actual storyline where people who might have not known about that point in his life have a little context to understand.

His family was also a big part of making this movie, so they were probably trying to protect his legacy by not adding too much information on his personal life. I felt that might’ve limited the movie from reaching its full potential.

One thing they did get right was the music, and the impact it had on Jamaica and around the world. I do think this movie is a perfect homage to Bob Marley music wise, but for the other things? Not so much.

I would give this movie a 6/10. You can see it in theaters.

By: Julia Yang

*Note: This article will contain potential spoilers for the show

When I say ‘Wakfu’, I’m referring to the anime-influenced French animated show— not the game.

Before we start, I’d like to say that I’m not the best at explaining things.
So, the story in short, ‘Wakfu’ is all about a special boy named Yugo. Yugo travels through different realms, saving the universe and his race alongside his friends.

The End.
Now, let’s actually start.

The show begins with Yugo, the boy I mentioned earlier, who first shows up as a baby with a newborn tofu— tofu is a species of bird, small, round, yellow, and harmless. Yugo is an orphan given to his new found father by a dragon named Grougaloragran in his human form. Grougaloragran tells Yugo’s new found father, Alibert, about Yugo’s past and origin through the tofu, Az.

Yugo, Az, and Alibert grow up together enough to the point where Yugo looks like he’s 12 years old. From this point on, this is where Yugo’s adventure begins.

An Iop— a race with ginger hair and not the best intelligence— named Dally, or Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove, barges into the restaurant that Yugo and Alibert are working in. This Iop is being possessed by his sentient demon sword called a shushu. Dally isn’t strong enough to fight back the possession, so he’s basically just destroying the place without meaning to. Ruel, Alibert’s old friend, explains to Yugo that he needs to take the demon’s eye out of Dally’s forehead to get rid of the possession. Yugo uses his powers and newfound knowledge to take down the possessed Dally, to which the demon resorts back into his sword form.

Yugo’s current powers— as of this episode, allows him to use blue portals to travel to nearby places. Yugo, Ruel, and Dally become friends.

Whilst this is happening, the village breaks out into an unusual disease where if anyone is touched by a black, gooey, strange creature, they’ll be turned into moss. Yugo, Ruel, and Dally leave the village to find the cure to this odd virus.

They run into two girls named Amalia and Evangeline.
Amalia is a sadida. Sadida have the ability to talk to, grow, feel, and bend plants. Evangeline is a craw. Craw’s have the ability to create magical arrows for a bow.

Amalia is traveling with Eva (Evangeline) to find out what’s wrong with the forest since sadida have very good senses for the world.

Of course, they all travel to the source of the disease.
Skipping the adventure so I don’t waste your time, they cure it and everyone who got turned to moss turns back to their normal selves.

They all go back to Yugo’s village where they get ambushed by a xelor named Nox. Xelor’s are time wizards— they look like humanoid robot people. Nox stops time and says he came to get information about Grougaloragran from Yugo.

Yugo, being an infant when he “knew” Grougaloragran, has no clue what Nox is talking about. Nox pulls a special feather off of Az that tells Yugo a message to find his true family. Nox threatens to hurt Yugo if he doesn’t tell what he heard, which sets Alibert off and Alibert breaks through the time stop and harms Nox. Nox, before anything worse had happened, teleports away, resuming present time.

Yugo and his friends leave the village in search for his true family.

Their search ends up with an island in the middle of nowhere where Yugo meets his strange brother. Yugo’s brother is a dragon.
The dragon’s name is Adamai. Adamai explains that dragons and eliatropes— the race Yugo is, are born from dofus’— dragon eggs.

Yugo and Adamai are born from the same dofus, meaning Adamai and Yugo are brothers.

Adamai explains how both Yugo and himself need to find a thing called an eliacube. The eliacube is basically a cube of an extremely large and powerful amount of wakfu originating from the eliatropes.

Long story short, Nox has the eliacube in order to go back 20 years and see his dead family. Yugo and friends need to obtain it from him because in the wrong hands, the eliacube can, and will, be very dangerous.

Nox invades the sadida kingdom to obtain wakfu from their Tree of Life and gain more wakfu for the eliacube. The Tree of Life quite literally holds all the lives of the sadida in it. If that tree dies, so does a whole race. Stakes are incredibly high.

Yugo and Adamai manage to stop Nox and get the eliacube in safe hands— their hands.

This is basically the end of season 1 of ‘Wakfu’. I won’t be saying anymore as some may wish to watch this later and I don’t want to spoil anything further.

I’d personally rate this season a 7/10. Although I may not like this season as much as the other seasons, it’s still a good watch.

The original dub of the show is in French, but I watched the first 3 seasons in English. The English dub is of lower quality than the French, so that’s most-likely why I dislike the first season. If you’re watching it in English too, I promise it gets better in later seasons.

Again, this is a very bad representation of what actually happens in the show, so feel free to add ‘Wakfu’ to your list of things to watch.

Overall, I find the show super good, and I’d highly recommend giving it a chance.

‘Wakfu’ can be found on ‘Netflix’ as an original series.

By: Hyde Moua

There are a lot of new and exciting upcoming anime that are a MUST watch if you already enjoy watching anime, or are just starting to watch anime. These anime are released within the time of January through April 2024. By the time this article is released, there will be a few anime still unreleased. All anime in this article are available to be watched on CrunchyRoll and Netflix.

1. ‘Solo Leveling’: ‘Solo Leveling’ was a highly anticipated anime which was based on a popular Manwha also named ‘Solo Leveling’. Our protagonist, Sung Jinwoo, is preparing to enter a powerful dungeon with his team despite being nicknamed “The Weakest Hunter of All Mankind”. Being on the verge of death, a mysterious notification appears and Jinwoo accepts. Now granted the ability to level up, he sets out on a journey as he battles against all kinds of opposing men and monsters. For more information, click the link: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt21209876/plotsummary/?ref_=tt_ov_pl
2. ‘Delicious in Dungeon’: ‘Delicious in Dungeon’ begins with our protagonist Laio, battling a massive crimson dragon with his party. Suddenly, his little sister pushes him out of the way, with Laio dodging the dragon’s mouth but ending up with his sister being eaten. With her last few words as she hangs out the dragon’s mouth, she casts a spell that sends Laio away with the other troops. He makes it his mission to save her before she gets digested due to crimson dragons having slower digestive systems. He makes new friends and adds new people to his party in order to reach his end goal: to save his sister. For more information, click the link: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt21621494/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_delicious
3. ‘Chained Soldier’: ‘Chained Soldier’ takes place in a world where female super humans dominate. Our main character, Yuuki Wakura, is selected to join a group of monster hunters who will reward him for his servitude. For more information, or if you want to watch this anime, click the link: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://m.imdb.com/title/tt16156736/__;!!LSatmg!5DaE344SgND6dAWRqonNeEpbHJKT9fpq_JytIJUPvBOCvVkGec5VItJNigZnblxhg8zRqiYXEzdesy-DC4bdD9uu0XU$
4. ‘A Sign of Affection’: Our main character, Yuki, has always been deaf. She is comfortable communicating using sign language and her phone, but she’s not used to English. She nearly panicked when a tourist from over seas asked for directions, until a stranger steps in and helps. They both feel drawn towards each other and plan a romantic winter date night, although she is afraid if her feelings are real or not and is afraid she might end up getting hurt. For more information, click here: https://kodansha.us/series/a-sign-of-affection/
5. ‘Whisper Me a Love Song’: Our main character, Himari, is a first year high school student. She awakens feelings that she doesn’t understand after hearing a girl named Yori sing. They become friends and grow a strong and secure relationship, while also growing their feelings for each other. For more information, click here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/WML/whisper-me-a-love-song/__;!!LSatmg!6WflV_9Np-7fi7ul7QoUinqIPyJHc-jOxYzK0 RzohIdYzR7bWImG3kIfpfmEQoDUxthVyrZKELsB50Z8Tv2NfR8CE54$

By: Fletcher Pike

*Warning: This review contains small spoilers

‘Barbie’ is a movie directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig that was released in theaters on July 21st, 2023. This film is a visually fantastic creation that captivates the bright pink land of the Barbie franchise. It features actors such as Margot Robbie in the role of the protagonist Barbie, and Ryan Gosling in the role of Ken. This movie also includes popular actors such as Simu Liu, Will Ferrell, and Micheal Cera.

‘Barbie’ tells the story of Barbie living in Barbie Land with a perfect life filled with fun which comes to a stop when she begins to feel powerful emotions that aren’t like her own. She must travel to the real world and discover who her owner is and what is causing her to experience these new emotions.

Accompanied by Ken, Barbie navigates through this new unusual world of humans, and discovers severe differences from Barbie Land. She finds that gender inequality, bullying, and negativity are all common things that she comes across in this new world, and she begins to adapt to these new feelings that she has.

Ken begins to learn about the almost ‘reversed’ gender roles in the real world compared to Barbie Land, and spreads these new ideas back to Barbie Land, causing more chaos. Some themes that are implemented in the movie include feminism, gender equality, and emotional value.

I found this movie to be both comedic yet emotional with stunning and colorful visuals accompanied by a wonderful soundtrack featuring artists like Lizzo, Dua Lipa, and Billie Ellish that embodies the pink, vibrant land of Barbie.

The acting performed by both Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling was filled with hilarious and fun dialogue that really brought the movie to life. I found myself both amused yet moved by the duality between humor and emotion.

The plot was not what I was entirely expecting. The theme of feeling deep and powerful emotions was not a theme I would’ve associated with Barbie, and yet the movie perfected it wonderfully.

Overall, I had a fantastic time watching this movie and I would definitely watch it again. The combination of great visuals, soundtrack, and acting would have me rate it a 10/10.

By: Samson Belihu

*Warning: This article contains spoilers

This movie picks up over two decades after the first one. We start with one of the main characters, Dexter who is an entrepreneur with many ideas, and hopes of being rich in the future.

This movie shows us this dream become a failure due to him burning his home with a spray that can make any material flame-retardant. Turns out instead of a fire repellent, he made a fire spray. He tries to go to his sister, but his sister tells him he can’t live with her. That’s when Dexter is walking and he stumbles upon Ed, now a father and owner of Good Burger.

When Dexter asks if he could stay at Ed’s house Ed agrees due to their old friendship. Dexter then becomes an employee at Good Burger, and he starts getting his life back together.

Just when we start thinking it’s going great for Dexter, and Ed, a corporation called MegaCorps interrupts them by giving them a contract to sign. At first, Ed wants to decline, but she tells him that if he signs the contract his employees would get a huge raise. The once distrusting guy trusted the corporation when she told him her intentions. So, Ed signs the contract thinking it is a good idea.

But later on, they find out the true intentions of MegaCorps. In reality all MegaCorp wanted was to replicate the Good Burger’s secret sauce. If they managed to replicate the sauce they could eliminate any threats such as the Good Burger.

Once Ed signs the contract that’s when MegaCorps decides to leave thinking they have dealt with the threat, and would be back soon for the sauce. When they find out MegaCorps real intention, Dexter, Ed, and all the workers decide to create a plan to reclaim ownership back from MegaCorp, because they’ve beat them once and they’ll do it again.

Will they ever claim back GoodBurger?

The only way to know is by watching the movie on Paramount+.

In my opinion, the movie was good. I would give it a 4.2 out of 5.

I recommend watching the first one before the second movie though, so it makes more sense.

By: Abisola Dosunmu

The first two episodes of ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ were pretty fun to watch, and I am really excited to review it.

The set looked really pretty. The cabins looked straight out of my imagination. They all looked big and majestic, especially Percy’s cabin. There are green fields filled with campers going about their day, restocking weapons or training. The show really does a good job of transporting you into Camp Half Blood.

Walker Scobell, playing the role Percy Jackson, immediately brings Percy to life with his quick to miss, frustrated remarks. Aryan Simhadri plays Grover and is as lovable as his book counterpart. Leah Jeffries also looks good being the youngest of the actors, but her acting and delivery was a little stiff starting off. Later in the episode I could see a marked improvement as she grew more comfortable with her lines. The rest of the cast looks good too, but there’s still a lot to improve on, and the acting was a little rusty the first two episodes. Hoping this will improve in later episodes as the actors get more used to their roles.

Finally, the writing in this show was pretty tight considering there was a lot of action to pack in a thirty to forty minute episode, which left no time for fluff or filler. Which meant a lot of the scenes we saw in the book had to be cut out, which saddened a lot of PJO fans. The episode progresses in a rapid fire way, being that we are given some quick exposition on Percy, quickly introduced to him and Grover, then jumped right into it with him learning more about the world of Greek mythology. The dialogue is, like I said, quick or you miss it (like a bunch of stuff in the episode) with Scobell delivering it in a dry or deadpan way, similar to the way he did in ‘The Adam Project’.

The thing that disappointed me the most is that we only get the barebones of exposition; there’s little to no filler. I get why, because the directors were only given a short amount of time to deliver important scenes, but it gives off this energy of desperately trying to shove a few chapters worth into one episode and that energy is very apparent. Season two hasn’t been green lit so that definitely adds to the pressure to pack everything in. 

All in all, I’d give the series an eight out of ten. The newcomers watching the show won’t notice a difference at all, and it’s both a nod to the fans that read the book, and a welcome to the ones that haven’t and are just discovering PJO. I think the adaptation accomplished what it wanted to.

For more information, please go to:

• https://thefantasyreviews.com/2023/12/20/percy-jackson-and-the-olympians-episodes-1-2-reviewed/#:~:text=Overall%2C%20I%20am%20delighted%20to,it%20has%20all%20come%20out.

By: Cade Sullivan & Joey Briseno

‘Elf’, directed by Jon Favreau and released in 2003, has firmly established itself as a timeless holiday classic. Starring Will Ferrell as Buddy, this heartwarming comedy follows the story of a human, born and raised as an elf in the North Pole, who embarks on a journey to New York City to find his biological father.

At the center of the film is Will Ferrell’s endearing and charming performance as Buddy the Elf. Ferrell’s portrayal is excellent at infectious enthusiasm, capturing the essence of a silly, childlike man. His dedication to spreading Christmas cheer, combined with his larger-than-life personality, is the main comedic element of the movie and hits more often than it misses.

The film’s humor comes from the stark contrast between Buddy’s festive spirit and the harsh realism of New York City. Watching Buddy navigate the bustling streets of the city, his naïve yet charming attempts to embrace human culture, and his pure joy at discovering everyday experiences make for fun and quality entertainment.

Supporting performances, including James Caan as Walter Hobbs (Buddy’s biological father), Zooey Deschanel as love interest Jovie, and Bob Newhart as Papa Elf, contribute significantly to the film’s charm. Caan’s character undergoes massive character development, going from a work-focused individual to a father embracing the magic of Christmas. Deschanel brings warmth and dry wit to her character, Jovie, providing a romantic subplot that complements Buddy’s journey of self-discovery.

Visually, ‘Elf’ captures the essence of the holiday season with its vibrant and festive cinematography. The set designs and costumes, especially in the scenes set in the North Pole, are cute and deliver the feeling of holiday cheer. While the CGI may not impress or look as good as it once did, it is used sparingly and complements the practical sets well.

John Debney’s musical score shouldn’t be ignored either, as it elevates the film’s emotional beats and captures the essence of Christmas. From cheerful tunes to low-key melodies, the soundtrack complements the story, positively impacting the film by adding a sense of festivity through tunes.

While ‘Elf’ might follow some predictable tropes common in holiday films, its unique warmth and earnest delivery of positive themes resonated with us. The movie makes sure to drive home its themes, heavily emphasizing the importance of love, family, and embracing uniqueness. Its long-lasting popularity lies in its ability to cause laughter, make its viewers genuinely happy, and spread that unmistakable holiday feeling.

The film’s appeal lies in its ability to evoke a sense of nostalgia while offering a fresh and heartwarming take on the holiday genre. Its feel-good factor makes it a go-to movie for families seeking a fun and joyful experience come Christmas time.

In the end, Elf’ stands tall, like its protagonist among his elf friends, as a heartwarming and uplifting holiday gem. Will Ferrell’s special performance, coupled with an endearing storyline, strong supporting cast, and great visuals, makes it a must-watch during the holiday season. Its ability to capture the magic of Christmas and deliver a message of joy and acceptance has secured its place as a beloved classic for generations to come. ‘Elf’ is a film that not only entertains but also manages to warm hearts with its universal themes.

Despite its comedic tone, it manages to deeply explore themes of acceptance, belonging, and the importance of embracing your true self. Buddy’s journey of self-discovery is one to root for, and it reminds audiences about the importance of staying true to your beliefs and finding joy in life’s simplest pleasures. 5/5 stars

You are able to watch this film on:

• Amazon prime video: $3.79
• YouTube: $3.99
• Vudu: $3.99
• Google Play Movies & TV: $3.99
• Apple TV: $3.99
• The Roku Channel: Premium subscription