Best Retro television & films of 2023
This will be a list of both television/streaming series and full length films that premiered in the year 2023.
- PLUTO : A Netflix original mini-series based on the acclaimed manga by Naoki Urasawa. Pluto is a retelling of a story arc from the pages of Astroboy by Ozama Tezuka. A riveting story that should be talked about a lot more. Don’t expect the Saturday Morning cartoon formula. This is a masterpiece with brilliant and poignant references to our current geopolitical climate, debates on A.I., Civil Rights, life & death, PTSD and the costs of war on the spirit. Anime of the year.
- Dungeons & Dragons (Honour Among Thieves) : A quick and straight to the point adventure starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Hugh Grant, Sofia Lillis and Rege-Jean Page as your typical D&D table-top party archetypes. Not too dark and not too comedic with wonderful landscapes and action set-pieces. Worth the viewing.
- Super Mario Bros the Movie: What a wonderful and beautiful film. The textures and amazing animation painted with the most beautiful colors I’ve seen since Children of the Sea. The story is what you’d expect and that’s fine. The voice actors did their thing here and performed nicely according to the script. A must watch on psychedelic stimulants.
- Barbie: I heard it was good. I interviewed over a dozen people about it with 19 out of 20 giving positive responses. It has to be good to earn $1.4 billion dollars. Good job. Keeps that momentum going.
- Town Called Malice (series): Created by Nick Love (Football Factory, The Business, The Firm) for Sky Max. The series premiered on 16 March 2023, with the full set of episodes being made available on Now. Jason Flemygn and Martha Plimpton star with an ensemble cast as a family living the life in the 1980s on the coast of Spain only to be entangled with the criminal underworld of their new home. Stylized Neon Crime.
- TMNT Mutant Mayhem : The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman. A reboot of the Turtles film series, it was directed by Jeff Rowe and co-directed by Kyler Spears, from a screenplay and story written by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Rowe, with Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit co-writing the former and Brendan O’Brien the latter. Acid dripped animation not too different from the Spiderverse films featuring Miles Morales. The turtles battle in and under the streets of New York City against the schemes of villains like Baxter Stockman and henchmen including Bebop & Rocksteady.
- Scott Pilgrim Takes OFF: A collaboration between Netflix and Japanese animators, Takes Off is a retelling of the original graphic novel as well the live-action film. The entire cast returns to lend their voices to the story. Still streaming on Netflix.
- Yu Yu Hakusho : Like it or not Netflix is determined to bring a lot of your favorite Toonami series to life. The beloved Yu Yu Hakusho has been adapted in live-action. However, there is one drawback. This is a very short season with a lot of character development from the anime crammed, if not rushed, into these episodes. I am no uber-fan of live-action animes but, it’s been hit and miss with Netflix with the Death Note adaptation being its worse while the live-action One Piece had a good launch with some if not most fans. Hopefully, Netflix can continue to improve with the upcoming Avatar: the Last Airbender series soon to premiere on the streaming app.
- Totally Killer : The Retro Slasher Comedy from Blumhouse came like a whisper and tickled every remember-berry I could have. First off, Kiernan Shipka is always going to give you a good performance and she doesn’t disappoint. The film will seem like just a slasher back to the future rehash but, at the halfway point it does start to pick up the pace and plays out into being a pretty entertaining film. Still streaming on Amazon Prime, worth a watch.
- Jewel Thief (Documentary) : Now this is a film that I started watching out of boredom and boy is it a helluva documentary. Gerald Blanchard the infamous international jewel thief and con-artist is a tale that spans three decades and is documented in this brilliant documentary on HULU with testimonies from associates, victims and law enforcement local, federal and international. This is an absolutely recommendation for true crime fans and those looking to remember a simpler time in their yesteryears. Too good to miss.
And there it is your list of (in my opinion) the best in retro for the year 2023. Stay cool, Stay Classy, Stay Chill and remember never take your finger off that REWIND button.
“Look forward to more reviews and Fish Scale in the 2024.”
