Score: 8
"The Best Toothpick..."
date: July 13, 2009
This was cute. I really enjoyed it. The animation was actually very good. When Zito was sitting on the branch eating, it looked very smooth and looked like a lot of effort was put into it. Or, when the bug followed him around, the flying looked very good. Fast and hard to catch...just how all flies are. However, there were some moments of animation that didn't look so realistic. For example, when Zito jumped from branch to branch, it looked like he just jumped in the air while trees went backwards. No variety was put into his jumps. Or, when he stopped suddenly before reaching the statue, he sorta looked like he was ABOVE ground. Besides all that it was great animation-wise.
The artwork was awesome too. I really liked Zito's look. He looked like a cute, mutated, dinosaur. What I don't get is that he's living in present time. The bug looked like something off of the Rayman games to be honest. With it's big eyes and even bigger nose while still having toothpick legs. However, what I didn't like was how there were NO shadows on Zito or the big. It looked like the Sun was just shining down on only him and that he wasn't under a tree branch or a whole squad of policemen(And women I guess). However, the background makes up for it as it looks very detailed. Such as the trees, with the bark looking good. And at least you used shadows on the background. Mostly on the trees to be exact. However, the biggest detail I find was the best was the grass. Not very many people spend time on the grass, seeing as it's only a minor thing. But, in actuality, the grass detail is a very big thing that is unnoticed. So, basically, all of the artwork was good, but the background was the best.
The music was cute too. Like it fit perfectly with the movie. I also like the fact that it was from Square-Enix. Which is a really awesome video game company. (They helped with Kingdom Hearts and created Kingdom Hearts II) I also like the sound effects, like the writing on the paper, or the guns cocking. It all fit with the movie very smoothly and well.
All in all, a well thought out, original, and cute movie. I really enjoyed it.
