The Fuzzi Movie

**"Now, let me tell all of you how *BAD* this movie is.... it was a very. very, *very* bad film I have to say something about this film: it's by no doubts.... THE WORST.... MOVIE.... EVER!!!! Yes, even worse than THE EMOJI MOVIE!!!"**

**-Chris Stuckmann**

### This movie just made the wrong fuzz 💩😔

*The Fuzzi Movie* is a 2018 computer animated comedy film released by Columbia Pictures and produced by Ankora Films. It was directed by Tony Leondis, written by Leondis, Eric Siegel, and Matt White, and produced by Michelle Raimo. The film was released to theaters March 16, 2018 and despite being a box office hit, it was lambasted by critics and audiences worldwide. As of 2021, the film holds a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes.

## Plot

Hidden inside a kid's tablet, the bustling city of Fuzziopolis is home to the multi-expressive colored Fuzzies. However, there's one fuzzi named Lene who isn't "normal" like his fellow fuzzi friends due to his exuberant, happy-go-lucky attitude. Determined to become "normal" like the others, Lene and his orange companion Fuzz set out on a comical "gaming app-venture" through the tablet as they play some of the latest mobile games and hang out around social media plus other platforms; but when the ruthless Paperman kidnaps Ms. Phone (Lene's would-be girlfriend) and decides to take over the digital world, it's up to this wacky duo to save their kind while also protecting Fuzziopolis and the other apps from being completely deleted forever.

## Why It Sucks

1. The basic concept of having a movie based on fuzzies, while not the worst concept, has already been done before and feels unnecessary for 2018 standards, as by that year fuzzies were already outdated due to their lawsuit with the Colored Brothers back in 2017.
2. The film is nothing but a 88-minute long commercial overloaded with board games & random media sites like *Jenga,* *Connect Four, Simon Swipe, UNO, Guitar Hero, Pandora, Super Mario Bros, Monopoly, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook,* and *Dropbox.* The film tries to leech off today's culture since it's also full of obnoxious (and blatant) dated pop culture references, as one can see the Gangnam Style music video on the YouTube scene and hear "Watch Me" by Silento playing in the background for the Pandora scene. Also, the juxtaposition of board games & random media (whether it be social media, online gaming, or other media) is incredibly bizarre and confusing.
	* It is also obvious by the fact that Lene introduces the audience how the tablet works and the world of technology for the first ten minutes, although the introduction is pointless since they aren't actually located inside the tablet.
	* On top of that, this movie clearly knows nothing about how technology works and only uses that for putting in various aspects of gaming culture that aren't technology, such as board games and card games, which have absolutely nothing to do with mobile gaming. They also used technology as an excuse for promoting mobile apps and games like *The Emoji Movie*.
	* This film also was Ankora's revenge towards Viacom Animation Studios, like how *Food Wars* was Ankora's revenge on Actors 3D Entertainment; but here, Ankora never gave Viacom any permission to obtain the rights to the Fuzzi media franchise since *The Red Fluff.*
	* And, speaking of the premise, the whole film is wasted concept as it has no originality or effort put into it; it's just a generic animated film full of obvious corporate propaganda about fuzzies doing *absolutely nothing.*
3. The premise makes no sense and fools the audience about Lene's abnormality issues, and we already know that Lene isn't really "abnormal" by the second act, which outright spoils the film's plot out of existence.
4. Most of the characters are incredibly unlikable, flanderized, and very bland to the point where they could get loathsome for most viewers:
	* Lene is a very unlikable, bland, and generic protagonist who wants to fit in but has something on his way; and doesn't get punished for his actions since he was the one who provoked all of the problems at Fuzziopolis and this film in general.
	* Even worse, Fuzz comes off as very annoying, incompetent, and self-centered as he joined Lene on his journey since he only wanted to become popular again; he also provides most of the film's bad jokes throughout.
	* The Clams are pointless and obnoxious comic reliefs who don't do anything other than gossip and telling bad fish jokes, and ironically, *they are just clams, not fish.*
	* Ms. Phone, despite her being one of the few good characters in this film, serves as Lene's one-dimensional, stale-as-bread love interest who becomes a damsel-in-distress by the third act. She is also a blatant rip-off of Techsavvy from *Meet The Starlings* despite them having different personalities as they are both anthromorphic female phones whom serve as love interests for the main characters.
	* Paperman is a lame, mediocre, and downright atrocious villain with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, as he shows no mercy to those around him and only wants to destroy Fuzziopolis just because he wants to, which is a very generic and stupid reason for doing so. He also curses the fuzzies but doesn't harm them somehow despite his hatred for them.
	* The Boogers are very disgusting and unnecessary characters who only provide toilet humor plus terrible booger-related puns and think of themselves as clean although they are not; they are also highly narcissistic and sometimes arrogant.
	* Mr. Staples is the stereotypical "busy man" who only cares about his business and nothing else; he is also very self-centered and arrogant towards the other fuzzies, especially Lene and Fuzz.
	* The fuzzies come off as either indifferent, arrogant, or one-dimensional characters who mistreat Lene for being "abnormal" although their arrogance towards Lene is *completely* justified by the third act; and speaking of the third act, they also come off as damsels-in-distress.
5. The romance between Lene & Ms. Phone feels rather forced, bland, and generic. Even worse though is that Lene doesn't get around Ms. Phone too much since he prefers to be with Fuzz, being an obvious gay allegory for this film.
6. Lame and downright terrible puns like "fuzz yourself" and "don't booger me, my son", both of them being laughable.
7. Excruciating and stupid dialogue (Examples: **"We're number one!"**, "*I'm not a fat ball!",* and most infamously, *"just blow up the phone lady already!"*).
8. The climax scene is pointless: Lene does nothing to stop Paperman and gets rewarded despite his laziness and later... the fuzzies' world is about to get deleted and suddenly, everyone panics. Armand tries to help by fixing the controller, but Lene tells him to stop and the fuzzies stop panicking after things get back to normal thanks to Lene repeatedly saying the word "stop". *He could've helped Armand in the first place instead of saying "stop!"*
9. Very poor attempts at comedy that take forever to finish and come out as either unfunny, disgusting, immature, childish, or just downright terrible; one example being when Fuzz throws up some Jenga block only for him to swallow it up:
	* There's this insultingly tasteless joke in the Lounge Of Loners scene depicting the birthday cake fuzzi as someone with a disability.
	* Perhaps the most infamous example of pop culture-related gags here would be the SpongeBob joke in which UNO SpongeBob shows himself up to the royal Deck Of Cards with underwear; being very childish, absolutely ridiculous, and somewhat inappropriate for its target audience while also being an insulting gag towards *SpongeBob SquarePants.*
	* There's another scene in the beginning where the Boogers are seen *puking* at the bathroom floor for no apparent reason.
	* Some jokes suffer from being completely on-the-nose or stereotypical, with one scene having an avocado bowl fuzzi holding three chip fuzzies on its head- resembling guacamole, and another one being when Lene asks the fish fuzzies where they are heading to and the fish head out to school (which is of course, school of fish).
	* There's also insultingly tasteless and pointless fish-related jokes from The Clams that repeat themselves *throughout the whole entire film!*
	* Probably the most unfunny humor hinges around the other characters, such as when Meh states "Man, you make me go really mad" and makes a tired face rather than an angry one.
10. Some inappropriate moments here and there, such as Booger blurting out every time "what the fuzz" as an alternative to "what the f\*ck" and scenes where Fuzz twerks for five seconds; there's even lame and blatant **LGBT** references, especially in the beginning where we see Lene's room being full of gay decorations and the ending when Lene & Fuzz accidentally kiss each other. The scene where Paperman attempts to blow up Ms. Phone is an obvious example of ***sexual exploitation*** (and, seriously, we're not joking about this)***.*** The film also suffers from scummy innuendos, such as one scene in the beginning where the Two Hands resemble a bull and poop, which literally means "bullsh\*t" and another scene depicting a group of shrimps... *eating sushi?* (which is cannibalism since they're both species of fish).
11. **False advertising:** Supposedly the trailers pointed out that the movie was about "the secret world inside your tablet" although the film **doesn't actually take you inside the tablet,** coming off as an even more cynical cashgrab than *The Emoji Movie.*
	* There was also an infamous Twitter message depicting this film as a parody of *The Handmaid's Tale* with Ms. Phone as the handmaid along with #blessed*,* which ironically *The Emoji Movie* tried to leech off before being released to theaters back in 2017. However, Sony apologized for this incident and accepted the fact that this film isn't a true parody of *The Handmaid's Tale.*
12. The film lacks emotional depth as Lene gets angry at Mr. Stapler for no reason, he doesn't really apologize him and the Fuzzies at all. Lene doesn't even show mercy to them after supposedly saving them from the Iron Shark. Doesn't help that Fuzz shows no mercy to them either, as he's already been arrogant and self-centered by the time he got introduced in the film.
13. Lazy, awful and childish writing that's predictable: the main character comes off as an outcast and then gets appreciated by his friends, and they all dance at the end (like in most animated films), even though the main character did **nothing** at all.
14. Shockingly mediocre voice acting, despite a talented voice cast. The characters come off as bored and seem like they don't want this movie to exist. Patrick Stewart was severely miscast as Booger and later said it was a joke.
15. This film is a shameless rip-off of *The Actors Movie, The Colored Brothers Movie,* *Lego,* and even **its predecessor**, as well as other animated films like *Mr. Robot, Agent Cyberlink,* *The BeachBallHeads Movie,* and *Meet The Starlings.*
16. Sluggish, atrocious slow pacing that even kids would get bored watching this film, since the movie has scenes that are either too fast-paced or slow-paced, like for example, the climax scene was quick and the so-called "gaming app-venture" pads down the film's runtime. Also, if Lene & Fuzz needed to reach the Great White Cloud, then *why* did they have to hang around the gaming apps? This was just meant to well, pad out the film's runtime.
17. The film actually *contradicts* the theme of "being yourself" that the film's trying to give, as we know by the second act that Lene is actually *normal* and he even says his abnormality issues were a joke! Besides that, the film has several awful messages like "being rewarded even though you've done nothing to help" and that "boredom can lift up your self-esteem". So, *what's the whole point of this film anyway?*
18. The other non-Lene characters have flat characterization, since they don't act as "normal" as they should throughout the film.
19. Several inconsistencies in the film: why, when, and how did Ms. Phone get kidnapped? Why does Lene have abnormality issues? Why does Paperman want to destroy Fuzziopolis and Ms. Phone? Why do Lene & Fuzz play games instead of going to the Great White Cloud? etc.
20. The film forgets about Ms. Phone's subplot and focuses on Lene & Fuzz, undermining the film's plot in favor of two abysmal acts later in the film.
21. The trailers were terribly funny it's no wonder this became a box office hit, especially compared to *Dorm And The Invincibles;* and the posters for the film are somewhat horrible and laughable to look at.
22. The film also suffers from lots of clichés, as it has the "main character who's different from the others" cliché, the "comic relief sidekick" cliché, the "damsel in distress" cliché (as mentioned above), the "misunderstanding" cliché, the "show-off character" cliché, the "liar revealed" cliché, and several others, including the "dance party at the end" cliché.
23. This movie was unnecessary, since *The First Fuzzi Movie* already explored media-related worlds that weren't meant for advertising, and this film seems more like a rehash of that film, except that it focuses on board games and mobile gaming (and speaking of mobile games, there's **none** in the film but Hasbro-related apps). The film can't also decide if it's a direct sequel or remake of the aforementioned film.
24. Some anachronisms: at the *Super Mario Bros.* scene, the Iron Shark somehow replaces Bowser, the game's real antagonist, as the "boss" of the game (and we all know how Shigeru Miyamoto would feel if he sees this movie); and also one scene where the Pepsi logo from 1992 appears in one of the vending machines that feels out of place.
25. This film *completely* ruined the whole reputation of the Fuzzi media franchise, with the franchise already being ruined by *The Red Fluff* in 2017; but this film only made matters worse and even ruined the reputation of Ankora Films as a whole, as by now they aren't as great as they used to be thanks to *Food Wars* and especially this film. This film is also the main reason why its 2020 sequel bombed badly at the box office.
26. The animation, while nice to look at, is actually weird, very bland, and uncreative even for Ankora standards.

## Redeeming Qualities

1. The animation (despite a few weird movements) is nice, like most other Ankora films; the worldbuliding for Fuzziopolis is actually decent to look at despite the blatant product placement.
2. Armand is the best character in this film. A few other characters, like Mr. Scattergories & Ms. Phone, are at least tolerable.
3. A few jokes actually worked: one is when an elderly couple of fuzzis (one's a honey jar and the other's a cup) spill some tea by accident and the cup says "my bad, honey" and the Columbia Pictures opening logo with a fuzzi.
4. Great soundtrack, especially "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys and "I Can Feel It" by Jake made exclusively for this film.
5. Depending on your opinion, this was an improvement over *The Red Fluff.*
6. Decent cinematography.
7. The scene where Armand & Ms. Phone have a conversation in Pinterest is very emotional, as it resembles a couple going through problems. Ironically, this film could've been better if the film focuses on them, not Lene.

## Reception

### Critical reception

*The Fuzzi Movie* got lambasted by critics and audiences (and even fans of the Fuzzi media franchise) for its plot, characters, voice acting, humor, false advertising, tone, blatant product placement, and most of all its LGBT references. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 6% approval rating with the critical consensus reading, "Unoriginal and unfunny enough to satisfy the most bored of fans, this Fuzzi remake is nothing else but an 88-minute long commercial for fuzzies". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 11 out of 100, indicating "overwhelmingly dislike" while also becoming the lowest-rated Marcanese animated film on the site. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an assigned score of "F" on an A+ to F scale, becoming one of the few animated films to gain that score. Many people consider it to be one of the worst animated films of all time (and some even say it's the absolute worst).

### Box office

Despite the film being a critical failure, the film grossed $219 million over its $50 million budget and became the 2nd highest-grossing Fuzzi film as well as the 10th highest-grossing animated film from Ankora.