RJ Writing Ink

A Quick Review in Retrospect of A Goofy Movie

This week 25 years ago, Disney released a film called A Goofy Movie. It was based on a show that didn’t make it past its first season. Unlike all its other films, A Goofy Movie got modest reviews. In other words, it looked like it would be forgotten.

Then my generation proved all the critics wrong. Millennials loved A Goofy Movie, and once we grew up, we turned it into a cult film with merch, re-enactments, and just enjoying the film. I just finished re-watching it, and I can say that yes, this movie lives up to the hype behind it.

If you haven’t seen the movie on VHS, Disney Channel, or Disney+, then here’s the basic plot: Goofy’s the single father to his teenage son Max, who ‘s constantly embarrassed by his dad’s antics. So, in an effort to reconnect to his son, Goofy decides to take his son on a cross-country fishing trip. Which is bad for Max, since he just asked his crush Roxanne out on a date. Then the boy dug his own grave by lying to her and saying he was going to be onstage with famous singer Powerline during a concert everyone’s going to be watching. Thus, hijinks ensue.

Timeless, Yet Dated in All the Right Ways

Fans who grew up with this film agree that A Goofy Movie works so well for two reasons. Reasons that, ironically, seem like polar opposites: it’s timeless, and at the same time dated.

As a kid, I loved A Goofy Movie (when some scenes didn’t scare me!) for the titular character’s brand of slapstick. Now that I’m adult, though, I love it for being a great story about the bond between parent and child. We’ve all been in Max and Goofy’s shoes at one point in our lives. Either we feel like our parents are treating us like we’re still little kids, or we feel like we don’t understand our kids anymore. It’s tough, but it’s a big part of being a parent or growing up.

What’s important, though, is that kids and parents learn to see eye to eye (no pun intended!) They just need to sit down and talk things out, and everything will turn out fine. Granted, Max and Goofy do so while rafting through the Grand Canyon, but that’s not the point.

As for the dated, I mean that’s A Goofy Movie is a time capsule of everything worth remembering from the 90s. From the rebelling against authority figures who don’t get what’s cool to the Michael Jackson-Prince fusion that is Powerline, it’s nostalgic for my generation. And the 90s are now nostalgically profitable, so it’s a win-win for everyone!

If you haven’t already seen A Goofy Movie, then go watch it now on Disney+ or rent it on demand. It’s a great film for all generations. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna listen to “I2I”

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My Honest Review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

I would like to state, for the record, that I’ve always been unsure about the Star Wars Sequel films. I love the franchise to death, but I thought making new movies could end up backfiring. However, I buried by concerns and went to see the new movies anyway. I put up with the fact that The Force Awakens rehashed the original film; and I tried to accept what Rian Johnson did to Luke. Now here I am, having seen The Rise of Skywalker bring an apparent end to the Skywalker Saga. My ultimate verdict: meh. Here’s why.

The Folly of the Sequels

Going into this, The Rise of Skywalker had a lot of things working against it that the original films didn’t. Thanks to the Internet, fans could now be very vocal about what they liked or disliked, and Star Wars became no exception. As we saw with reactions to The Last Jedi, this could divide a franchise’s fanbase in two. As a result, Disney tried to reconcile both parties in the span of a single film and give everyone a satisfying ending. Truth be told, though, I think that making the perfect ending to the Skywalker story was impossible. We can’t please everyone, especially in regards to something as beloved as Star Wars.

Then there’s the effect of The Last Jedi. Despite what critics say, that movie was divisive among fans. Rian Johnson had good intentions, but him trying to subvert expectations split the fanbase in two. I didn’t like how Luke got handled, and I especially didn’t like how Holdo’s actions almost wiped out the Resistance. Needless to say, but The Last Jedi put things in a bind for The Rise of Skywalker.

Lastly, there’s the elephant in the room: the passing of Carrie Fisher. When I heard about Carrie Fisher’s death, I mourned for her like so many others. After that, my thoughts turned to the future of Star Wars. How could they finish the Trilogy without Leia, when The Rise of Skywalker was supposed to give her a prominent role? I think we all knew that this film would be the final chapter in Leia’s story, and the fact that Carrie didn’t live long enough to film it gave the movie a bittersweet tone. That said, I think they did the best with what they could.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Now that I’ve gone over all that, time to dive into the spoiler zone as I talk about five major plot threads that left the biggest impact on me. I wanted to do this without spoiling anything at first, but I realized that’s impossible for me.

Palps is Back!

This one’s so obvious I don’t even count it as a spoiler: Darth Sidious’ back. First off, the film does confirm that Palpatine did die in Return of the Jedi like we saw. However, what the film doesn’t confirm is how the Sith Lord came back from the dead. The closest we get to an answer is Palps quoting what he said at the Opera House in Revenge of the Sith about the Dark Side being a pathway to many abilities. So I’m just using the headcanon that he used the Dark Side and cloning to come back.

Fortunately for the Galaxy, the process brought him back more dead than alive; his body’s falling apart and kept alive by life support. However, while he’s as cunning and manipulative as ever, I think death damaged the Sith Lord’s mind. Whereas before he hid his true nature behind a facade, in TROS he drops all pretenses and openly proclaims himself a Sith Lord to the Galaxy. That would explain why his master plan sounds so convoluted, though:

1. Lure Rey to Secret Base
2. Transfer spirit into Rey’s Body
3. Unleash massive armada of retro-looking Star Destroyers with mini-Death Star cannons to reconquer Galaxy

I’m going to have to devote another post to this, but my point is, I think they could have done a little better bringing Sidious back into the films. When you’re so evil that your actor considers you to be more evil than the Devil, you want to do this character justice

My Rankings for Every Lightsaber Duels in Star Wars

The moment you hear that hiss and the sight of the plasma beam coming out of the hilt, you know shit’s about to go down. Each of the main Star Wars movies has at least one lightsaber duel. With The Rise of Skywalker coming out soon, I’m taking a trip down memory lane. These are my rankings for worst to best lightsaber fights in Star Wars thus far.

For this, I will only be using the duels that occur in the main films. In other words, no Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Rebels, or other material. However, I will do them in separate posts, so don’t worry.

#12-Darth Vader vs. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Episode IV: A New Hope

This may have been the one that started it all, but it’s also the slowest one. In order to buy time for Luke and his friends to escape, Obi-Wan duels his fallen apprentice and friend one final time. However, the duel itself is very slow-paced and lacks excitement. In addition, while I’m not certain, I think Obi-Wan let Vader win.

Thankfully, some fans decided to remake the duel with more modern tech, and the results are cooler.

#11-Rey vs Kylo Ren, Episode VII: The Force Awakens

I had doubts about the sequel trilogy, but I held out hope that at least the lightsaber duel would be epic. After all, the fights in the Prequels were some of the best in the franchise. Those hopes were dashed when I actually saw Rey and Kylo Ren fight.

While I admit that seeing Rey call Anakin’s lightsaber to her was an epic moment that convinced me she was Luke’s daughter, that was the only cool thing about this fight. It lacked any of the elaborate acrobatics or techniques we saw in previous films. I understand that JJ Abrams wanted to return to Star Wars roots, but the lightsaber duels were some of the best things about the Prequels. This felt like a step back from what I was used to.

#10-Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi And Yoda VS Count Dooku, Episode II: Attack Of The Clones

In hindsight, I think its safe to say that Attack of the Clones is the weak link in Star Wars. The movie’s great when there’s actual action being shown, but then we have Anakin’s “I hate sand” speech. What was great, though, was the duel of Dooku vs. Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Yoda.

Despite putting up a valiant fight, Obi-Wan and Anakin are still no match for the more experienced Sith Lord, with the latter losing his arm to the Count’s blade. However, then Yoda shows up and turns the tables on his former Padawan. As a result, we got to see the legendary Jedi Master in action for the first time, and even in his advanced age, he’s a deadly opponent. The one problem is that he kept jumping all over the place like Kermit the Frog. Which I know is ironic since Yoda’s voice actor Frank Oz is part of the original cast of The Muppets.

#9-Anakin and Obi-Wan vs. Dooku, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Despite being the apparent big bad of the Clone Wars, Count Dooku barely does anything in Revenge of the Sith. While trying to “rescue” Chancellor Palpatine from General Grevious’ flagship over Coruscant, Anakin and Obi-Wan engage in their final duel with Count Dooku. Obi-Wan gets knocked out, and Anakin’s forced to duel the Sith Lord on his own. Ultimately, he ends up winning and straight up kills the Sith Lord.

In a movie with no less than five lightsaber duels, this one wound up being my least favorite. While Anakin’s victory shows how far he’s progressed since Geonosis, this fight lacks the savage brutality, high stakes or emotion of the other fights in the movie. In addition, Anakin’s victory is soured by the fact that it was a test by Sidious to see if he could be turned to the Dark Side.

#8-Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. General Grevious, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

General Grevious hated the Jedi, but he hated Obi-Wan the most. As a result, when Obi-Wan confronted him on Utapau, the cyborg decided to fight him himself instead of siccing the entire army on him like any sane man would do. The result is a brutal and winding chase and battle which ends with Obi-Wan finally putting an end to the cyborg.

Going into the movie, we knew Obi-Wan would win due to plot armor. That still didn’t stop me from being impressed with their duel. Grevious was a terrifying opponent and one of the few non Force Users able to wield a lightsaber. Despite

#7-Kylo Ren and Rey vs Praetorian Guard, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

After failing to convince Luke to join the fight against the First Order, Rey allows herself to be captured and brought to Snoke to try and redeem Kylo Ren. In an unexpected twist, Ren ends up saving her life by killing his master, doing what Grandpa Vader could never do. As a result, the two fight back-to-back against Snoke’s Praetorian Guard.

Firstly, I can’t remember the last time a Dark-Sider had the guts to kill their master, so when I saw Ren do it, I was impressed. Secondly, I think this fight was a huge step above the snoozefest that we got in The Force Awakens. While not at the same level of the Prequels, this lightsaber duel showed off how powerful both Rey and Kylo Ren were. On their own, they’re incredibly powerful, but together, the two are unstoppable. Too bad Ren decided to stay on the Dark Side.

#6-Yoda vs Darth Sidious, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

This was the kind of lightsaber duel that would make fans drool. As Obi-Wan confronts Anakin on Mustafar, Yoda faces off against Darth Sidious in the Halls of the Senate. The resulting fight between the two masters of the Force, while brief, was very brutal with neither holding back. Seeing the two fight on almost even footing reinforced just how powerful each was. In the end, though, this duel resulted in a draw with neither side claiming victory. As a result, it gets placed halfway on this list.

#5-Mace Windu vs Darth Sidious

While Return of the Jedi showed us how powerful Darth Sidious was in the Dark Side, it was Revenge of the Sith that showed us how deadly he was with a lightsaber. Faced with a team of four Jedi led by Mace Windu, the Dark Lord of the Sith drops his facade at last and unleashes his full power as a Sith; and it was terrifying!

From the primordial howl he gives to the sight of him cutting down three Jedi Masters in seconds, this duel reminds us how dangerous Darth Sidious is. However, what I love about this fight was seeing Mace hold his own against the Sith Lord. In fact, some fans speculate that had Anakin not intervened, Master Windu would have won.

#4-Luke vs Darth Vader, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

The climax to what many consider to be the best Star Wars movie saw Luke recklessly head to Cloud City to rescue his friends. Too late, he realizes that its a trap as he faces off against Darth Vader. While he manages to put up a valiant fight, even briefly pushing the Dark Lord back, Luke proves no match.

Going into this lightsaber duel, we knew that Luke had little chance of defeating Vader. This only made it all the more painful to see Luke battered and dismembered by the end of the duel. However, the real trauma is more emotional. In this now legendary, Vader drops one of the biggest bombshells in the history of storytelling: that he’s Luke’s father. Not sorry if I spoiled it!

#3-Luke vs Darth Vader Round 2, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

In an effort to redeem his father/protect his friends, Luke let himself be captured by the Empire. This leads to him being brought to the Emperor and forced to duel his father once more. Only this time, it’s a far more even duel. At least, until Luke refuses to fight his father anymore.

The film had already shown how far Luke had progressed in the year between Episode V and Episode VI, but this lightsaber duel drove that point home. Not only did Luke match Vader blow for blow, but once he finally snaps and lets his rage out, he completely overpowered him. Seeing the once invincible Vader be brought to his literal knees was a sobering moment. Thankfully, Luke had the common sense to refuse to give into his anger.

#2-Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs Darth Maul, Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Say what you will about The Phantom Menace, but it has three things that redeem it, and this lightsaber duel’s at the top. In the midst of helping to free Naboo from the Trade Federation, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan engage in a ferocious duel against the Sith Lord Darth Maul. The end result was one of the most exciting displays of swordsmanship in the entire franchise.

In many ways, this fight came to exemplify what Star Wars could do with lightsaber duels for me. From the fast and furious clashing of lightsabers, to the acrobatics, the Duel of the Fates, this was leaps and bounds above what had come before. Also, it’s why I’m so critical about the fights in the Sequel Trilogy. If George Lucas could do this twenty years ago, then JJ Abrams has no excuse.

#1-Anakin vs Obi-Wan, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

This was the fight that fans had been waiting for since Empire. Needless to say, what we got in Revenge of the Sith didn’t disappoint. Having learned of Anakin’s transformation into Darth Vader, Obi-Wan fights him in a terrifying duel that will shape the Galaxy for decades.

More than any other example, I consider this to be the definitive lightsaber duel in Star Wars. Considering its importance, it’s no surprise George Lucas’ team went all out. From the lava-strewn surface of Mustafar invoking an image of Hell, to John Williams’ masterful music, this fight screams epic! In addition, the fact that Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen spent weeks practicing so they could fight shows the level of dedication the cast had.

In the Star Wars films themselves, this fight manages to be both epic and heart-breaking all at once. On one hand, it’s the most amazing lightsaber duel in the films. On the other, it symbolizes the death of the brotherly bond that Anakin and Obi-Wan had. The final sight of Anakin burning alive beside that river of lava’s enough to bring tears to one’s eyes.

May the Force Be With You

Do you agree with my picks? What has your favorite lightsaber duel been from Star Wars? Let me know in the comments! Until then, may the Force be with you!

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