#53 - The Three Musketeers

Oh boy. Those of you who read these reviews on a regular basis know that I am no fan of made for TV movies. But there is a category of movie that may actually be worse, and that is direct to video. It's interesting though, made for TV movies, except for those on certain networks, are usually all very crappy, whereas direct to video is either suprisingly okay, or the worst piece of garbage you have ever seen. I think that makes the direct to video movies a much risker undertaking. The odds are against both, but the direct to video movie has more potential to be worse. If you haven't already figured out why I am talking about all of this, it's because this little cartoon is a direct to video movie.

How did this movie stack up with so much going against it? Well, honestly, it was more on the suprisingly okay side. Don't get me wrong, I'm not really saying that it was that good or anything, but it didn't completely suck. First of all, it clocked in at barely over one hour, which is a tremendous benefit to all. It also had some moments of decent humor, some of which was more inspired by Looney Toons that classic Disney, but still humorous. It's really odd. I can't say that I have ever seen anything that I was expecting to be awful, but turned out better than I thought, yet still wasn't that great. Normally when you say something is better than you expected it to be, that means that they like it. But this is not the case. If your expectations are way low, then everything else scales down to meet that expectation.

Don't be confused by the title. This is not another version of the Dumas story. It's an all new story that plays out after the original story. Did someone mention that they didn't need to do write anything new? Dumas has been dead for a little while. It's called public domain. It's why they didn't get sued over the title. The story is different, but it may as well be the same. Seemed like a bit of a pointless exercise to me.

Here's the most shocking thing about it all, the animation isn't that bad. They didn't really cut any corners with the characters animation. It's thought out well, and mixed with writing that isn't as bad as you would expect, they actually pull off a slick looking cartoon. It's not groundbreaking by any means, but definately a capable effort. I'm in a realy quandry about this one, I wanna hate it, but I can't. I don't want to recommend it to anyone, but I can't say that it was a complete waste of time. So don't watch it, but don't not watch it because I said it was bad. Not watch it because there are better things to watch, but always remembering that there are worse things to watch as well. That doesn't make any damn sense. Stupid movie.