I would like to enjoy Confused Matthew's work, even if it's just to retain my iconoclast street cred, but as much as he beats, sometimes deservedly on the illogical points in movies, I find he misses the point. Instead of seeing the overwhelming cool and interesting things in movies, he points out movies weaknesses without giving any consideration to genre or target demographicf, in Spirited Away he picks on a weak story, in The Incredibles a cynical message, how about the infamous Lion King review, in which he treats it like an adult movie, when it's animated by Disney for gods sake. In all of those reviews, he decides to criticize things that most would forget about, or is even the whole point of the movie.

I personally disagree with most of what I've seen by him, but he redeems himself by refusing to give in to the usual, accepted opinions on things, by complimenting Transformers for its remarkable effects, and usually giving reasons for his dislikes, so I can't write him off for being a troll. Maybe you'll agree with his points, so give him a try.

p.s. Avoid the Spirited Away review, he hates anime so the entire thing is pretty much pointless.

p.s.s If you like anime at all, or even understand it, you'll groan and facepalm.

Confused Matthew has suffered a great deal from the He Panned It Now He Sucks phenomenon, partly because, like a Classical critic, he analyzes both content and morality — and doesn’t allow considerations of mere style to sway his judgment of either: no matter how brilliant the cinematography or special effects, what affect him are the intelligence and the decency of a work.

He receives much abuse for his take on animated films — not entirely unfairly, perhaps, but not entirely fairly, certainly. Intemperate fans complain of his relegating animated films to the Animation Age Ghetto. This is unjust; every film he reviewed was aimed at the youth market. (Some adults liking well-made children’s stories does not make those stories adult. When Pixar does an animated version of The Faerie Queene or Metropolis, I may consider them as purveyors of mature entertainment.) I’d like to hear Matthew’s thoughts on Persepolis or Pans Labyrinth.

I did disagree with Matthew’s review of The Incredibles, largely because I don’t believe that children dislike Darker And Edgier stories (it infuriated me when Moral Guardians scrubbed all the gloom and death out of the cartoons I watched as a child and substituted incessant sweetness and light); however, I can respect Matthew’s differing opinion. He thought it was a bad influence on children and said so. More power to him.

His Spirited Away review garnered much hostility, all ignoring the fact that he began by admitting that he is prejudiced against anime (as am I) and reviewed the film only as a personal favor. I myself wouldn’t review any Japanimation to please a dying obaasan, but I can’t fault him for it.

And The Lion King. Like Matthew, I am at a loss to imagine how anyone admires that piece of tawdry self-indulgence, after “The Circle of Life” ends. The story is disjointed and cliché, the songs (in the immortal words of Dean Yager) “the worst kind of popular tripe,” the characters stereotypes, the character designs re-treads of The Jungle Book, the animation wildly inconsistent in style, the chi-chi mysticism and laborious PC simply annoying, and the whole thing obviously one huge appeal to the nostalgie de la boue. Of course it was a mega hit. BUT IT STILL SUCKS.