Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
I am pleased to say that this blog is again renewing its partnership with St. John's United Methodist Church for their annual Summer at the Movies series!
As in past years, each week for 4 weeks, the church will be airing a movie on a Wednesday night, I'll write a devotional to be passed out at the screening, and accompany it with an article here going more in- depth with the movie and messages that can be taken from it on how to live for Jesus.
Now, hold on tight and get your popcorn, fans, because for the first installment of this series, we will be looking at the hard- hitting animated film 'Rumble'!
Based on the graphic novel 'Monster on the Hill,' this takes place in a world in which giant monsters live peacefully with humans, and compete with each other in professional wrestling tournaments.
In the town of Stoker on Avon, monster wrestling is practically a way of life, with everyone for a long time being impressed with the legendary monster wrestler Rayburn and his equally beloved human coach/ manager, Jimbo Coyle. However, both of them were apparently lost at sea, and the wrestling world continued to mourn their loss. Stratford eventually gets themselves back on top by hosting a new wrestling champ named "Tentacular" (Voice of Terry Crews), but after winning a big championship, Tentacular announces he's leaving Stratford for a bigger city. This means that Stratford no longer has a monster wrestler to attract money and publicity to their town and thus their beloved wrestling arena that was dedicated to the memory of Rayburn and Jimbo may need to be repossessed and torn down.
However, all is not lost: Jimbo's spunky daughter Winnie (Voice of Geraldine Viswanathan), who inherited her father's love of wrestling and skill for coaching, is determined to find a way to save things, and so she heads to an underground wrestling ring to find a new champion. She eventually comes across a monster who turns out to be Rayburn's son, Rayburn Jr. (Voice of Will Arnett), aka "Steve the Stupendous," and convinces him to help her.
Junior is definitely NOT the champion- material that his father was. Among other things, he works in this underground wrestling ring as what's known as a "Jobber," which is a wrestling slang term for a wrestler hired to lose every time. Junior in fact refers to himself as "The best loser there is." As a result, he goes into pretty much every match preparing to take a dive and throw the fight. When Winnie realizes this, she knows she needs to break him of this habit
Winnie eventually discovers that Junior has a passion for salsa dancing, and realizes that with a little creativity, she can use that to come up with an effective wrestling strategy involving him having a dance- based style to how he fights. Sure enough, while it looks rather silly this strategy enables Steve/ Junior to start winning matches and rising up in the ranks, with even the most naysaying of sports commentators starting to come around to him. It all leads up to him having to face Tentacular in a championship bout to determine the fate of the arena.
A weakness the film has is, while its main antagonist is Tentacular, another is this rich guy named Jimothy Brett- Chadley III (Voice of Ben Schwartz, whom I normally like as a voice actor), who is behind Tentacular's move and the attempted demolition of the arena. He's basically just a dime- a- dozen "spoiled, social media- addicted, rich creep who talks in hashtags too much" villain, and gets on your nerves in practically every scene he's in. I feel like he could have been cut from the movie, and we wouldn't have lost much.
Aside from that, 'Rumble' was quite a nice movie!
The animation was solid, the story was pretty engaging, it had a good amount of humor (Especially from a scene near the climax when the people of the town prepare a brutal obstacle course/ training course to help Junior prepare for the big bout against Tentacular), and the fight scenes/ wrestling matches were VERY well- animated. It really felt like watching a pro- wrestling match, just with giant monsters instead of people.
Speaking of which, the monster designs are really creative, too, with each one looking unique. They often include elements of two or more animals combined together. My favorite was probably "Ramarilla" (Voiced by real- life pro wrestler Joe Anoa'i, aka "Roman Reigns"), an ultra- energetic gorilla/ ram monster that Junior briefly fights around the middle of the movie. He looked great, combined both animal aspects well (And considering that gorillas are my favorite animals, that's a BIG plus in my book) and had tons of personality.
Most of the voice- work is pretty solid, including Tony Shalhoub (Who I've known from one of my all- time favorite TV shows, 'Monk') as a local diner owner who's a major wrestling fan.
Now, for the main character run- down.
Winnie makes for a nice heroine. A good role model for girls, spunky but not aggressive or annoying. It's clear that she deeply loves wrestling, and deeply loved her father, and is determined to help his legacy endure in any way that it can.
Rayburn Junior works well too, on the monster side of things. He's mostly funny, but has some good serious moments as well. He contrasts well with Winnie, as while they both have the legacies of famous fathers, they feel differently about it: Winnie loves the idea of continuing the great work of her father, whereas Rayburn Junior feels a lot of pressure from it, hence why he hides his identity behind the wrestler name "Steve the Stupendous." He struggles so much with being compared to his father and feeling like he'll never measure up. In short, while Winnie sees her father's legacy as a goal to reach for, Junior sees his own father's legacy as more like a heavy stone weighing him down. Will Arnett (Who has been proving to be quite an excellent voice actor over the last several years, such as through his hysterical work voicing Batman in the assorted 'Lego' movies) does a typically great job as his voice, with humor but also sadness and poignance in key scenes.
Tentacular acts as kind of the epitome of a sports- movie villain: The undefeated champion who is the main opponent for the hero to eventually face, and is an egotistical, bullying jerk about it. From how coldly he dismisses the town that started his career early on, right up to his insulting and smack- talking Junior and Winnie near the climax, you'll be eager to see him get taken down a few pegs.
All in all, while maybe not the most memorable animated film to come out in recent years, 'Rumble' is a fun romp for the whole family, ESPECIALLY if that family happens to be wrestling fans!
'Rumble' comes with a couple good Scriptural messages.
First, in the devotional I passed out at the screening, is on the importance of never giving up in life, but to keep getting back up again and again. As I said earlier, Rayburn Junior starts the movie as a "Jobber" who's accustomed to throwing the fight and deliberately losing, but Winnie eventually teaches him the importance of not surrendering so easily and pushing himself all the way to the end. This calls to mind 2 Corinthians 4:16- 17 AND Proverbs 24:16, both of which deal with enduring through hardships and getting back up again when life knocks you down.
I think another relevant Scriptural message to be found in 'Rumble' is on the importance of being yourself. While Winnie and Junior start out basically seeking to copy their respective fathers' strategies and styles in wrestling, they achieve true success through instead being themselves, tapping into the gifts, interests and strategies they already personally have (i.e. Using Junior's love of dancing to create a new fighting style that he uses to start winning matches). Winnie's mother sums it up early in the movie with a wise line of "Train the monster you have, not the monster you wish you had." I think what that line boils down to is don't pretend to be something you're not, or relying on what other people use to get ahead; Instead, play to your own strengths and don't care what others think. Winnie herself then says near the end of the film, "We don't have to be our dads; We just have to be ourselves. They wrote their stories, and we're writing ours right now."
God wants us each to be ourselves using the special gifts and talents that only we have. It reminds me of Psalm 139: 14, which says "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; My soul knows them well." We must keep in mind that all of us are God's creations, carefully and uniquely made by Him with love and care to be just the way we are. God doesn't make failures or garbage, He made us each the way we are to accomplish His will in various ways. I can picture Him smiling lovingly as He handcrafts each of us.
In addition, Romans 12:6- 7 says "Having gifts that differ one from another, let us use them: If prophecy, in proportion to our faith; If service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching." Each of us has gifts, given to us by God, which vastly differ from each other. Each of these gifts, even the ones that seem useless (I.e. Junior, son of a great monster wrestler, having a gift for dancing), can be used by God to do wonderful things to do His will and bring His Kingdom on Earth, if we will harness them and learn to use them the right way.
And so, there we have 'Rumble,' a nice fantasy film which teaches us even nicer messages on never giving up even when things get tough, and on being ourselves and using the gifts we ourselves have in service to the Lord. By doing those, I'd say each of us can become true champions in the eyes of the Lord Jesus.
That's it for this entry on the Nightcrawler Experience. Come back next week when I look at the next film in this series. Until then, stay safe and healthy, and may God bless you all!
