Everything Wrong with Nostalgia Critic's Care Bears Nutcracker Review

He originally said he wouldn't review this, but I guess he needed something short and simple this week; like Linkara said, everyone is busy. At the end he said he really was done this time, even though he did use a clip from the new series. I haven't watched that yet and I doubt he will either. I wasn't offended at this, just a little annoyed. These are going to be more like nitpicks, but here's everything I found wrong with it (though most of it was on the nose).
~Don't bring Yen Sid into this. It's bad enough that they didn't come up with original villains (my theories about Dark Heart, No Heart, and the vizier notwithstanding).
~Lotsa's symbol is a weight, not a cowbell. Moo-ron.
~Grumpy exists to empathize with people who are in a bad mood. That's why the series picks on him and gives him reasons to be grumpy. This abuse was noted in the Wonderland movie.
~Getting their own ornament was like Hugs and Tugs' rite of passage or something. I agree that it's stupid and overplayed and nothing really came of it at the end, but there you have it.
~He keeps bringing up dictators and third world problems, even when he acknowledges that these are just characters based on a greeting card series. He also accuses them of being racist because of the blonde, blue-eyed girls who keep popping up in the movies (ignoring the series as a whole, which has a little more diversity than that - true, it's not that multicultural, but that's just the writers and animators doing what they know). My complaint about this is the same one I have about people who are altruistic to a fault. They're too busy trying to take on all the world's problems and ignore their own families in the process. It's happened before in U.S. history too; focus too much on foreign policy and the domestic front suffers, and then people vote to change presidents. Care Bears wouldn't fare well against dictators, anyway; they can barely handle evil wizardly opponents. They can't make food and water magically appear, either, at least I don't think so. They're more like babes in the woods themselves. Saying stuff like that is asking too much of them, of anybody. There's no quick fix for changing the way people feel either; it's not that simple, nor is it permanent.

Wrapping Up Another Year

I learned a lot this Christmas. What I learned was not pleasant. I don't particularly like spending Christmas with my mom's family, as they tend to ignore me. That's just as much my fault as it is theirs, though. I don't have a lot in common with them, so of course they're not going to talk to me, even if I did bring my boyfriend to meet everyone. I shouldn't be offended that they would rather talk amongst themselves and hang out together without me, but I can't help it. It was a little different when I was a kid, but now that I'm an adult, they have no incentive to interact with me. 

Additional dialog that I kept out of Kagemiya Sayuri included Braig's conversation with Lea explaining what happened to her and in turn Lea's conversation with Isa telling him the same. I got tired of rehashing it, even if it may be a jump or a gloss-over not to show these conversations taking place rather than to actually have them.
"Hey, you know your friend Kagemiya is here too," Braig told Lea after he left the briefing.
"Oh. That's nice. She came over to visit?" Lea inquired nonchalantly.
"Not exactly. She took a spill out in the street earlier."
"Is she all right?" Lea looked concerned but uncertain how concerned to be.
"Don't know. The problem is actually with her heart."
"Her heart?!"
"Yeah, it was beating too fast and gave out. Even's doing what he can for her. You should go and see her if you want to."
***
"How's life as a hero treating you?" Isa asked Lea somberly.
"It's got its ups and downs, same as ever," Lea replied. Then he got quiet and changed the subject. "Last time I went to the castle, Yuri was there."
"Of course she was," Isa scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, she's still friends with that kid and everyone," Lea responded awkwardly, "but no, that's not what I meant. She was there as a patient."
"What?"
"Braig told me he found her passed out in the street. Her heart hadn't been able to pump any blood because it was beating too fast. Her recovery took a little while. She didn't look too good when I saw her, but I hear she's back home now. Oh, and Ienzo even said that they've forgiven us for what we did."
***
How it would have been if Zexion had gone second instead of third...
Zexion returned to the basement, breathing heavily and clutching his left side. Lexeaus was next to him in an instant. "Zexion!"
"I'll live," Zexion gasped, leaning.
Lexaeus was having none of it. Before Zexion could protest, Lexaeus had unzipped Zexion's coat to inspect his injuries. "Lie down and rest. I'll grab the med kit."
Zexion did as he was told. His chest hurt like he'd bruised some ribs, and of course there was the slash he'd taken from Riku's sword. Lexaeus returned and bandaged him up. Rather than watch over his injured companion, he decided to fight Riku instead. His battle meditation did nothing to quell his rage, and his darkness ran wild. (The rest would play out normally from here.)

Holiday Spirit

I always liked Mary Poppins growing up, and I'd even watch it at Christmas. The most poignant scene for me for this time of year was the bird woman. Home Alone 2 had a bird woman, and I liked that better than the first one. I haven't watched either movie in a while, though, since my VCR crapped out, and I don't have those movies on DVD. Saving Mr. Banks is one of the films my family made me watch with them this year, and it almost ruined it for me. There were some parts I didn't like, and I didn't know who to root for (other than the Sherman brothers). Parts of it were surreal, capped off with the actual audio from the real meetings played over the end credits.

I've been too busy with work and such to watch anything this year, not even Nightmare. The past two months have been almost nothing but work, leaving me with precious few days of downtime to myself (and even then I had other things to do). Today, work was particularly trying. I should be used to such treatment by now. I've begun to realize that nothing has changed since school. As usual, the only reason anyone likes me is if they can push me around. I haven't even been able to enjoy the holidays because I'm working so much; I hardly ever get to go home for more than a couple days at a time every other week.

Angels in Flight

The Monopoly mini game in Birth By Sleep is a way to level up your skills and get spells. It's sort of ridiculous but in a fun way. You don't have to win to get your stuff. From a story-telling perspective, Aqua is very good and will win most of the time until Ven whines and they let him win. Terra would probably flip the table if he lost too many times, though. Queen Minnie's not very good at it, but it's heartbreaking to watch her cry afterward. I like to play against Cinderella, even if I lose. I don't like to see her unhappy either. I like Terra when he's happy too. That's why I like his part of the story in Cinderella's world the most.
A couple of things that Braig says in the new cutscene disturbs me. "This was a pain to set up"? So were all these setbacks part of the plan or not? Does he not feel sorry about what he got the others into like how he sounded in the flashback from the beginning of 3D? "Who's the lucky pick?" If you don't know by now, you're a moron, dude. Isa is the only one who looks like you as a "half-Xehanort." And if he looked like his normal self with his uniform and short hair, then I guess Xehanort took his heart all over again for him to revert back to Xigbar for 3D. With Isa we couldn't tell since he was still wearing the coat and didn't look any different anyway.
Speaking of disturbing (well, not really), Christopher Lee's metal Christmas albums. Holy crap.

Walken the Plank

Ho! Christopher Walken playing Captain Hook, what the heck? Unfortunately he didn't also play the father (that was Smee instead). That would have been awesome. "Hey. Kids. Shut your mouths." But he was a mad captain, and the only prescription was more cowbell. Not really, but that would have been great too. I couldn't take him seriously. But then the biggest surprise was Wendy forcing Smee off the plank at swordpoint while giving him a Reasons You Suck speech, to which he replied "Fair enough" and let go. Lady's got guts.

My job has been tough lately, especially at the recycling room. I keep getting called in to address complaints and fix things, and people still think I shouldn't be doing this job because I'm female. Whatever. I'm over that. But some people, especially the elderly, still say things like "this is a man's job" and "you're just a little girl." A lot of people have been recycling so of course half our machines are going to break down, and we don't have a technician on site (have to call one in all the way from Maine). Also, the automatic door is broken so this one guy got mad at me about that too. Apparently it hit him in the shoulder. It hit me in the butt and I didn't care. Other people are so touchy about how they want their groceries bagged. One lady didn't want paper because she'll get paper cuts. My hands and forearms get sliced up and I just keep going. They complain about every little thing. People are crazy this time of year. I thought it would die down after Thanksgiving, but that only lasted three days. Oh well. I won't let that ruin the holidays. Last year they overplayed "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" to the point where I got sick of them. I haven't gotten to that point yet, but because of last year I'm wary. They have started playing other songs or newer covers of them at least.