mable.ruecker - 2015-12-14 22:48:03

As it is every year, with a new Precure team, there's a new All Stars movie. In this case we have Spring Carnival with the (at the time) rookie Princess Precure team headlining the show. So how did it do?

Story (3/10): So all the Precure teams have been invited to another magical kingdom (this one called Harmonia) for a Spring Carnival, but unbeknownst to them, it's been taken over by a thief and his assistant. When the two realize who's coming, they decide to hold a 'concert' to catch the teams unaware of their wrongdoing and escape with their transformation devices.

...holy shit. This plot actually makes the Miracle Lights look dignified.

Seriously, this is honestly the worst that I've seen these movies be. While the first New Stage was shaky, at least it had a plot and took itself seriously. This? This is bad. There's almost no tension in this story, and it feels almost bland. Just...there's nothing really exciting here to talk about. It's just a boring as hell story and I feel like with the way the current series (Go! Princess Precure) is going, that this is a massive step down in comparison.

Oh, and the kicker? The first half of the movie is a music video for each team. No really, you read that right. Each team gets a chance to perform either their opening or ending theme, with the team doing the CGI dance from the ending or a new dance to the opening. And while it is nice to hear some familiar songs, you have to imagine that Japanese parents were pissed when they realized that they had to sit through at least 40 minutes worth of nothing.

(Also, you ever see the Gokaiger 199 Heroes movie? You know, where all the Sentai teams show up at the end? I'm 100% certain that they ripped off the climax for that and stuck it on here.)

Art (6/10): One of the positives of the movie is that it shows off all the updated CGI Precure models, and boy do they look good. Some look better than others, though that is more than likely due to animation style rather than anything else, since more often than not, they look amazing. Otherwise the art was average for the movie, with few and far between scenes looking good. Harmonia is also designed as Generic Fairy-tale KingdomTM #25871, so don't expect anything interesting there either.

Also the Primavera Keys for the Princess Precure are not that great looking. In fact, the design looks like they just stuck puffy stickers to regular Elegant Mode dresses and called it a day. I'm starting to miss the original upgrade forms from the DX movies...

Sound (6/10): As stated above, this movie has a lot of tracks from previous shows. There are openings and endings aplenty, so you have the chance to listen to some good music at least. Oh yeah, and there's a terrible fourth wall breaking song sung by the villains. ...it sucks.

Character (5/10): I'll give the movie a pass on one thing. It does a great job with showing off each team of Precure and it lets them all have some screen time. Everyone behaves in character and they all react in the way that you're used to. It is, however, really obvious about which voice actors they got to come back for each team, since at least half to 3/4ths of the cast just stand in the background not saying anything. Be warned though, as the movie reveals the endings to a few shows, so if you're watching Fresh, Heartcatch, Suite, and Doki Doki, you WILL be spoiled.

The worst part of this movie, though, goes straight to the villains. Hell, I'm honestly reluctant to call them villains. They're idiots that try to be comic relief and it's just painful. Remember the huge big bads from other movies? You know, where they tower over the Precure and it takes the power of all the teams to kick their ass? Yeah, these guys aren't even worthy of being shit those villains step in. And there's also the royalty of Harmonia and a last minute boss, but they're in the movie for a grand total of 5 minutes, so no, they really don't count as characters.

Enjoyment (4/10): This one is bad guys. Really bad. I could barely sit through it. Actually, I fast forwarded through parts because it was either boring, bad, or not all that interesting. Seriously, after the shaky start of the New Stage movies, they ended up with a mostly well done third movie. This though? This is child pandering at its worst. The fights are disappointingly short, there's just no tension, and it's almost insulting that someone thought that this script was a good idea.

Precure All Stars: Spring Carnival has set itself to be remembered. Not for anything good, mind you. This is easily the worst of the All Star movies, with an idiotic story, musical recaps, stupid villains, lazy reasoning, and just an all around backward step in how these movies were going.

4/10: Precure fans will more likely than not really dislike this movie; only thing going for it is better time spent on past teams and interactions; pretty much sums up as lazy child pandering; I seriously urge that if you aren't a Precure fan, you should stay away;