Mulan becomes a story of embracing one’s true identity and the innate power that comes along with doing that, this simple conceit the crucial through-line around which the entire plot emphatically revolves.

This new The Secret Garden, while full of life and overflowing in imagination, isn’t still without a few thorns. Had those been trimmed back even a little bit, I’d likely be frolicking through this film’s cinematic fields in bare feet and a large smile plastered on my face.

Wendy isn’t a modern spin on a classic tale of fantasy and wonder, it’s an outright nightmare I never want to think about ever again.

It’s all a bunch of colorfully anarchic, emotionally uplifting heartfelt supernatural silliness, all of which helps make Pixar’s latest comedic adventure Onward a goofy good time I’d be excited to see again.

The final third is a massive disaster that’s bewildering in its narrative ineptitude, and as I sat there in the theatre I was dumbfounded how those involved with Fantasy Island thought any of this was a going to play even reasonably well with a paying audience.

While Sonic the Hedgehog didn’t win me over, I sure as heck was never so annoyed that I regretted giving the film a look.

For me, though, even if I could chat with a chimp in chimpanzee, converse in polar bear, curse in fluent kangaroo or answer with a boisterous, “of courserous!” if asked if I could speak rhinoceros, Dolittle still would have been one talk with the animals I’d rather have not engaged in.

Cats might be a mess, but it’s a one-of-a-kind incredibly memorable mess (for better and for worse), and for all I know that’s entirely by design.

Maybe I’ll not feel so sad after I give The Rise of Skywalker a second look.