Season 1, Episode 15: Mafdomius Movie

February 22, 2022

The Mafdomius Movie is the first movie created by Mitcheal Reyna. He makes the movie to prove to Logan Thirtyacre that a movie can be made in less than three years. Mafdomius Movie became the most underrated movie even though Reyna has the disadvantage of being fifteen years old, low budget, and the script being a first draft.The first five minutes are heartbreaking, showing a baby Mafdomius watching a volcano eruption kill his mother. With the death of his mother, Mafdomius cries for comfort until Gru adopts him, giving him a new family.

Mafdomius suffers a relatable inner conflict of battling depression. After Article 13 causes the termination of his YouTube channel, he gives up with life and spends the whole day in bed. He is unable to fulfill his passion and cannot search for a new career because he is skillful in video making. As “The Sound of Silence” plays, he looks at every terminated YouTube channel in the darkness, emphasizing Article 13 causes depression to consume him. He suffers from trauma over the eruption. He has flashbacks over the death of his mother from every mention of Isla Nublar and the volcano. After all the suffering, he has empathy. He idolizes Logan Thrityarce and does not want to hurt him as he tries to convince Logan to surrender in their first meeting. When Logan kills Gru, he fears Logan and gives up. Zilla is unable to convince him to continue the fight, but he calls him not special in the heat of the moment. He ruins the self-esteem of his brother because he is unwilling to move forward. Then, he realizes Zilla wants to feel special after being bullied by the Godzilla fandom and tries to apologize. He risks his life to save his brother from Logan. During the second meeting with Logan, he sympathizes with Logan and emphasizes the importance of moving forward. The conversation between Mafdomius and Mind Flayer is the second-best scene. Mind Flayer has the curse of being all-knowing and every possibility in the future. He is unwilling to teleport Mafdomius to Logan because of his unwillingness to move forward. He establishes the focus on the past, makes Mafdomius forget about the future and can be successful without YouTube if he tries. He promises to teleport Mafdomius to Logan if Mafdomius moves forward. The best scene is Mafdomius meeting his human version. The humor is hilarious because human Mafdomius thinks the original Mafdomius is a hallucination. Then, he suffers a panic attack as the original tries to calm him down. When the original returns to his universe, the human alternative faints. Besides being comedy gold, the scene is heartwarming. Mafdomius asks his human alternative about the possibility of losing his YouTube channel, then he says that he would be upset, but he uses it as an opportunity to work on movies.

Zilla is a three-dimensional comic relief. He tries to comfort Mafdomius over losing his YouTube channel, but he does not understand YouTube is more than a hobby. He has a strong relationship with Mafdomius because he follows his advice of not needing the approval of others since he is the first person who loves and cares for Zilla. He wants Mafdomius to escape from his depression and rebuild their brothership. He states, “Life is not fair. What makes life fair is doing something about it”, showing happiness takes effort and letting go of the past. Zilla has the character arc of finding self-worth. Even though he is happy to see Godzilla, Godzilla tells him that he is an embarrassment to his franchise and tells him not to participate in his acting career. When Mafdomius refuses to track Logan, Zilla attempts to stop the world-ending threat since he follows his responsibilities. Logan is an excellent villain because of his threatening and sympathetic demeanor. His short height makes Mafdomius underestimate his power and shows his pettiness of trying to open a multiverse risking the world to get his YouTube channel back. He symbolizes the dark side of Mafdomius because his happiness is from his YouTube channel. He loses his job, his friends, his girlfriend, and his fame because Article 13 terminates his YouTube channel. Unlike Mafdomius, people care about him over his YouTube channel.

The lighting where Mr. G Reaper kidnaps Zilla and Mafdomius is fantastic. The scene is dark enough to make Mr. G Reaper unnoticeable, creating fear with unknown settings, but bright enough to see the face of Zilla and Mafdomius. Mr. G Reaper has the logical reason to send them to track Logan instead of the military. He does not want to aggress Logan to prevent risking the lives of soldiers and end the conflict with peaceful negotiations. They have an outstanding sensing ability to track Logan in the far distance.The action scenes have great tension. The battle with the snake shows the risk to the life of Zilla and Mafdomius. It strangles Zilla as he cries for help, so Mafdomius freezes in place as it stares at him. He bites its neck and repeatedly hits its head to the ground until it throws him and strangles him. Zilla saves him by crushing its head. The final battle between Mafdomius and Mechagodzilla makes the audience worry about the survivability of Mafdomius. As Mechagodzilla beats Mafdomius to critical injury, Mafdomius punches back, but Mechagodzilla cannot feel pain allowing Mechagozilla to throw Mafdomius a few feet away. Unfortunately, the defeat of Mechagodzilla is anti-climatic. Mechagodzilla almost kills Mafdomius until Zilla regains his strength and throws Mechagodzilla a few feet away. The scene is illogical because Mechagodzilla defeats Zilla before and should not get injured from the fall, allowing him to continue fighting.The foreshadowing is subtle and requires attention to detail to recognize it. When Zilla tries to comfort Mafdomius, he says, “Where is the real Mafdomius, in another world?” foreshadows Mafdomius meeting his alternative version of himself. When Zilla watches Hazbin Hotel, where Charlie meets Alastor, Charlie closes the door on Alastor, similar to Zilla closing the door on Godzilla when he tries to apologize. Gru and Mafdomius are watching Hellboy, where Trevor Bruttenholm, adoptive father of Hellboy, dies, foreshadowing the death of Gru.The movie has well-thought-out jokes. The news article about Donald Trump declaring war on Uganda is funny because America does not have conflicts with Uganda. Trump feels threatened by a third-world country. When Mr. G Reaper states he is a director of the Organization of Really Great Agent Spy Men, Zilla tries to point out that the acronym is orgasm, but Mr. G Reaper shuts him off. The resolution is the best conclusion of character arcs. Mafdomius getting out of his room shows how he escapes from his depression. As Mafdomius and Zilla watch El Chavo, they have a bonding moment. Godzilla apologizes to Zilla, and now he gets respect, even offering a leading role to the Beast From 20,000 Fathoms reboot. Mafdomius plans to write Star Wars movies.

The movie has three crucial flaws. The volcano eruption is a clip from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is lazy. If there is no budget, the eruption could be animated with a free 3D animation program like Bender. Gru is a mediocre character because he only says, “You are going to suffer the wrath of Gru.” Characters with limited vocabulary are challenging to make interesting, making it difficult to express emotions. Groot has done a limited vocabulary troop well because he speaks in different tones, has a descriptive face, and shows emotions with his body language, unlike Gru. The death of Gru is not upsetting because there is no previous scene demonstrating the relationship between Gru and Mafdomius. Mafdomius should not speak Spanish fluently because there is no reason for him to learn a second language, and he remains in Isla Nublar during his baby years.

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