#I feel redeemed from my last Rex art | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

holonium · 3 years ago

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After hearing a number of comments about Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous from @drakaina-amore64‘s Tumblr, finally decided to give it a watch, and so last night, I binged the entire first season of it and intend to keep watching it when I have the time. In order to make it more readable, I have decided to break up my thoughts by character. Be warned, there may be spoilers.

First off, Yasmina. When watching I found that I related to her the most, having hidden some of the things that I enjoyed, and when she was hurt, I was able to sympathize. During the over 8 years that I have been doing martial arts, I have received countless injuries, and seeing Yaz keep going after that was very impressive.

Second is Darius. With Darius, I did not find that I related quite so well, but he did remind me of an old friend that I haven’t seen in about 5 years at this point. He was similarly fixated on dinosaurs, and had an absolutely massive amount of knowledge on Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, and HTTYD, reminding me very much of Hiccup as well.

Next comes Kenji. For the first few episodes, I was absolutely certain that he would die from doing something stupid, and I am almost ashamed to admit that I was kind of looking forward to it. After those first few episodes, I found that he had some more redeeming qualities, almost reminding me of Snotlout in a way. Very full of himself and not necessarily the smartest, but still possessing redeeming qualities, even if they don’t come out very often.

For Ben, I spent the first few episodes wondering why he was even on the island in the first place, considering his very timid nature, but it did make more sense after the monorail scene, and I feel like he did overcome his fears near the end. When he fell, I was almost certain that he was going to be the first one to die, but seeing him coming back made me wonder how that would bode for the rest. I expect it to be quite interesting.

For Brooklyn, I was not necessarily impressed by her at first, finding her a bit like Kenji, though showing more intelligence. I did not feel like anything bad would happen to here, but more that she was just there. After she and Kenji talked on the kayak, I felt like she redeemed herself some by letting go of her grudge against Sammy, and after holding quite a few grudges before, I certainly understand how hard it can be to do that.

Sammy was a bit of an interesting character to me, especially with the revelation that she was a spy. I feel like she did a fairly good job of blending in, and I could feel her self-hatred about the trouble she caused. I do however feel like she tried her best to fix her mistakes, and I must admit that it takes a big person to do so. She is one of those characters that I will be keeping an eye on in the future and I look forward to seeing how she does.

Now comes Dave. At that point, I honestly don’t feel like there is much to say about him, other than that he almost serves as comic relief with the serious surroundings, but he does have a good heart under it all, and I am curious to see what he ends up doing.

Finally, we have Roxie. I feel like she is probably the most driven and responsible person so far, having done her very best to keep things from going badly, and I feel sort of bad for her. I don’t know what will happen with her, but I get the distinct feeling that she will not stay away from the island for long.

Now I have a few impressions from the overall show. First off, I am disappointed in the people who tried to bring Jurassic Park back after the previous disasters, as well as them playing with life and creating things like the Indominus Rex. Next, as a lockpicker, I personally found that the way that the locks were picked was very far from reality, although it is still an animated show, so I can’t necessarily hold it against them. Next is fact that they should have had much better locks if a teenager with a bobby pin is able to pick them. If they chose the right lock, it shouldn’t even have been possible to fit a bobby pin in the keyway. Another thing that sort of puzzled me is how Toro was even able to fit in the service tunnels. The fact that a dinosaur that large could fit leads me to wonder how well thought out the park was, alongside the fact that a service tunnel hatch was located inside of an enclosure which is just asking for something to go wrong. In regards to the tunnels, I also feel like they should have removed the dock sign, though I do see its importance to the plot. It honestly seems like a case of laziness not to remove the thing. The last thing is how they broke through the concrete wall. Coming from a physics standpoint, I honestly don’t feel like it was particularly realistic for the group to be unharmed by an explosion that put a hold in the concrete end of the tunnel, especially with their proximity. Still, important to the plot and not something I can really hold against them.

Despite all of this, I really do look forward to seeing what comes next in the series and hope to binge the next season today.

Note that this post may be edited as I watch each season.

#camp cretaceous

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itsclydebitches · 3 years ago

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Hello again! Im the tinfoil hat anon with the long ass asks and I finally had the time to read your response. Thank you, it makes my day reading your answers. I honestly just enjoyed them over a cup of coffee like a good book.

Now, the gun pointing scene I mentioned was in fact the one from the droid fight facility like the other anon suggested. But I really liked that you covered the boat scene too, I haven’t thought of it much myself and now I definitely have!

I also would like to mention I love your “candy bar” choice analogy and I 100% agree Hunter’s “invitation” to join back wasn’t welcoming in the slightest. It is very likely just an obligation as you said. Sort of “you gave us a chance, we owe you a chance too”.

And the problem with it is now I am struggling to figure out how the batch members might change their attitude toward Crosshair going forward, especially Hunter. As of right now Crosshair’s best relationship is not with his brothers but with Omega(as surprising as this is). And I think he does realize now she cared about him the most out of all of them during the short time they interacted(both 1st and last episodes). Even between themselves(not counting Omega) I find most of the bad batch members to be cold and distant to each other. They feel less like a family than Rebels for example. And they aren’t even a “found family”(a trope everyone loves) but an actual one! And I get that they’re soldiers and supposed to be tough, I don’t expect them to share all “the feels”. I just can’t put my finger on it but something feels off. I agree with your previous post, the show doesn’t do a very good job showing or even telling they love each other.

Will Hunter and co only start caring about their brother again only after he leaves the empire?(assuming he does at some point). What about Disney’s prevailing theme and message that “family always love and care for each other no matter what”? I guess it’s “family always love and care for each other but only if you’re good guys making right choices”. There is no room for mistakes or wrong decisions. In the last episode everyone form the batch seemed to have given up on Crosshair(besides Omega). For now their attitude seems to be just “you’re not our enemy” and that’s that.

I realize Crosshair is a “bad guy” and consciously made his choice(and we know it’s the wrong one) but to me it felt like he thought he didn’t even had a choice or rather became so lost and confused he actually thought he chose the empire as “the lesser evil”(as in the less shitty choice out of all the other bad ones). We as audience have the benefit to know exactly how atrocious the empire really is but maybe Crosshair still doesn’t realize that.

So what exactly must Crosshair do to get back “in their good graces” as you say? Start saving “the good guys”? Save the bad batch multiple times? There is a popular opinion on how Crosshair can redeem himself. That he eventually heroically sacrifices himself to save them. I personally REALLY hope it’s NOT what’s going to happen but I heard so many people speculating his story is set up to be redemption=death. I know you mentioned you don’t want “Vader style redemption” either. Personally I think it would be a waste of a character who has a lot of potential. And I just think that the batch kind of don’t really deserve his sacrifice(maybe save for Omega) after how they never tried to save him themselves and how they treated him overall. Maybe he will risk his life to save Omega at some point and that will “prove” to Hunter he cares? Although he has already shown he cares by saving her(even if in Crosshair’s own words it’s just so they’re “even”). And the thing is, he doesn’t need to prove that he loves them, he already did that in episode 15 and made it clear he does care. He actually went to extreme by shooting his squad to prove his loyalty. What were the moments the batch demonstrated they care about him? Hunter saying “you never were our enemy” and taking his unconscious body to safety? To me Hunter “not leaving him behind” during bombardment felt more like guilt about the last time it happened and an obligation to Crosshair for helping them with droids, rather than them showing care. And I kinda of think if that was any random civilian(or anyone other than an enemy or a threat) they would carry them out too just because that’s what good guys do and not because it’s their brother. You also mentioned that minutes later Hunter snaps at him with “if you want to stay here and die, that’s your choice” which I agree can be interpreted in different ways. And I think it’s one more point to it being an obligation that in Hunter’s eyes is fulfilled now. He corrected his mistake of leaving a brother behind and saved him this time, now his guilt won’t burden him any longer.

Anyway, I can’t wait for season 2 and I appreciate you and all the anons sharing the tinfoil hat, interacting and speculating together. Those discussions have been a lot of fun!

TLDR: How do your think the relationship between the brothers will mend or evolve in the next season? Do you think S2 will improve in portraying the batch more as a family rather than a group of mercs doing missions together? What are your thoughts on the popular idea of Crosshair’s redemption by ultimate sacrifice? As in, how likely do you think this scenario is?

Anon, that is just wonderfully hilarious to me. Ah yes, the sunrise, a good cup o' joe, and the overly long character analysis of a snarky, fictional sniper. Exactly what everyone needs in the morning! 😆

You know, TBB is far from the first show I've watched where there's an obvious, emotional conclusion the creator wants the audience to come to—the squad all love each other Very Much—yet that conclusion isn't always well supported by the text. It creates this horribly awkward situation where you're going, "Yes, I'm fully aware of what the show wanted to do, but this reading, arguably, did not end up in the story itself. So what are we talking about here? The intention, or the execution?" It's like Schrödinger's Bad Batch where the group is simultaneously Very Loving and Very Distant depending on how much meta-aspects are influencing your reading: those authorial intentions, understanding of how found family tropes should work, fluff focused fics/fan art that color our understanding of the characters, etc. And, of course, whether someone saw TCW before they watched TBB. I personally wouldn't go quite so far as to say they're "cold" towards one another—with Crosshair as an exception now—but there wasn't the level of bonding among the squad that I expected of a show called The Bad Batch. Especially compared to their arc in TCW. The other night I re-watched the season seven premiere and was struck not just by how much more the squad interacted with each other back then, but how those interactions added depth to their characters too. For example, Crosshair is the mean one, right? He's the one picking fights with the Regs? Well yeah... but it's also Wrecker. While they're trying to decide what to do with Cody injured, Jesse calls out Crosshair on his attitude—"You can't talk to Captain Rex like that!"—and Wrecker's immediate response is, "Says who?" and he hefts Jesse into the air. And then he just holds him there, clearly using his superior strength to do as he pleases, until Hunter (sounding pretty angry) tells him to put Jesse down. If Wrecker had put him into a more classically understood bullying position, like pinning him to the ground, it would probably read as less funny—less "Haha strong clone lifts Jesse up in the air!" and more "Oh shit, strong clone can do whatever the hell he wants to the Regs and few are able to stop him." It's such a quick moment, but it tells us a ton about Wrecker. That he's going to stick up for his brothers, no matter the context (Crosshair deserves to be called out). That he will gleefully assist Crosshair in bothering the Regs (something that is reinforced when he later throws the trays in the mess hall, after Hunter has already deescalated the situation). That he's likely been hurt by awful treatment from the Regs too. That he'll only listen to Hunter when it comes to backing off. Little of this work—that interplay among the squad that shows us new sides to them other than basic things like "Wrecker is the nice, happy brother"—exists in TBB.

Or, at least, little exists after Omega becomes an official member of the squad.

Because, as said previously, she becomes the focus. I don't mean that as a total criticism. As established, I love Omega. But if we're talking about why the squad can feel so distant from each other, I think she's the root cause, simply because the story became all about her relationships with the Batch, rather than the Batch's relationships with each other. Having dived headfirst into reading and writing fic, it occurred to me just how many of the bonding moments we love, the sort of stuff we'll see repeated in fics because we understand that this is where the story's emotional center is, are given to Omega in canon:

Someone is hurt and in need of comfort. Omega's emotional state is the focus + moments like her being worried over Hunter getting shot.

Someone needs to learn a new skill. Echo teaches Omega how to use her bow.

Someone reveals a skill they never knew they had before. Omega is a strategic genius and plays her last game with Hunter.

Someone is in serious danger and in need of rescue. Omega rescues the group from the slavers + is the most vocal about rescuing Hunter. (Which, again, is a pretty sharp contrast to the whole Crosshair situation.) Omega, in turn, needs rescuing from things like the decommission conveyor belt.

Similarly, someone is kidnapped and in need of rescue. Omega is kidnapped twice by bounty hunters and the Batch goes after her.

Someone saves another's life. Omega saves Crosshair from drowning.

Someone does something super sweet for another. Wrecker gives Omega her room. Omega gives Wrecker Lula.

A cute tradition is established between characters. Wrecker has his popcorn-esque candy sharing with Omega.

Someone hurts someone else and has to ask forgiveness. Wrecker is upset about nearly shooting Omega and they have that sweet moment together.

Note that most of these examples could have occurred between other Batch members, but didn't. Someone could have created a space for Echo on the ship too. Wrecker also could have apologized to Tech for choking him, etc. It's not that those moments shouldn't happen with Omega, just that there should be more of a balance across the whole season, especially for a show supposedly focused on the original squad. Additionally, it's not that cute bonding moments between the rest of the Batch don't exist. I love Hunter selling Echo off as a droid. I love Wrecker and Tech bickering while fixing the ship. I love the tug-of-war to save Wrecker from the sea monster. Yes, we do have moments... it's just that comparatively it feels pretty skewed in Omega's direction.

So, as a VERY long-winded way of answering your question, I think we need to fix the above in order to tackle Crosshair's redemption in season two. Now that we've had a full season focused on Omega, we need to strike a better balance among the rest of the squad moving forward. We need to re-established the "obvious" conclusion that the rest of the Batch loves Crosshair and that's done (in part) by establishing their love for one another too. To my mind, both goals go hand-in-hand, especially since you can develop their relationship with Crosshair and their relationships with each other simultaneously. Imagine if instead of just having Wrecker somewhat comically admit that he misses Crosshair (like he's dead and they can't go get him??), he and Tech had a serious conversation about why they can't get him back yet, despite very much wanting to. Imagine if Echo, the one who was rescued against all odds, got to scream at Hunter to go get Crosshair like Omega screamed at them to go back for Hunter. Imagine if we'd gotten more than a tiny arc in TCW to establish the Batch's dynamic with each other, providing a foundation for how they would each react to Crosshair's absence. Instead, what little we've got in TBB about Crosshair's relationship with his brothers is filtered through Omega: Omega's embarrassment that she knocked over Crosshair's case, Omega treating Crosshair's comm link like a toy, Omega's quest to save Hunter that just happened to involve Crosshair along the way.

Obviously, at this point we can't fix how the first season did things, but I think we can start patching over these issues in season two. It would be jarring—we'd still be 100% correct to ask where this "Brothers love you, support you, and will endlessly fight for you" theme was for Crosshair's entire time under the Empire's thumb... but I'd take an about-face into something better than not getting any improvement at all. It is frustrating though, especially for a show that I otherwise really, really enjoyed. For me, the issue isn't so much that the show made a mistake (since no show is perfect), but that the mistake is attached to such a foundational part of the franchise. Not just in terms of "SW is about hope and forgiveness" but the specific relationship most clones have with each other: a willingness to go above and beyond for their brothers. The focus on Omega aside, it's hard to believe in the family dynamic when one member of the family was so quickly and easily dismissed. I couldn't get invested in Hunter's rescue as much as I should have because rather than going, "Yes!! Save your brother!!!" my brain just kept going, "Lol where was this energy for Crosshair?" It messes with your reading of the whole story, so in order to fix that mistake going forward, we need to start seeing the bonds that only sometimes exist in season one. Show the guys expressing love for one another more consistently (in whatever way that might be—as you say, soldiers don't have to be all touchy-feely. Give us more moments like Wrecker supporting his brothers' bad habits) and then extend that to Crosshair. Which brother is going to demand that they fight for him? Which brother is going to acknowledge that they never tried to save him? Which brother is going to question this iffy statement about the chip? In order to buy into the family theme, Omega can't be the only one doing that emotional work.

Ideally, I wouldn't want Crosshair to go out of his way to prove that he's a good guy now. I mean, I obviously want him to stop helping the Empire and such, duh lol, but I'm personally not looking for a bunch of Extra Good Things directed at the Batch as a requirement for forgiveness. Simply because that would reinforce the idea that they're 100% Crosshair's victims, Crosshair is 100% the bad guy, and he's the only one who needs to do any work to fix this situation. Crosshair needs to stop doing bad things (working for Empire). But the Batch needs to start doing good things too (reaching out to him). Especially since Crosshair made a good play already, only to be met with glares and distrust. He saved Omega! And AZI! And none of them cared. So am I (is Crosshair) supposed to believe that saving one of their lives again will result in a different reaction? That doesn't make much sense. And no, his own life wasn't at risk when he did that, but does every antagonist need to die/nearly die to prove they're worth fighting for? As you say, he's already shown that he loves them, far more than they've shown the reverse. Every time Crosshair hurt them (attacking) it was while he was under the chip's influence. In contrast, the group has no "I was being controlled" excuse for when they hurt him (abandonment). Season two needs to acknowledge the Batch's responsibility in all this—and acknowledge that they're all victims of the Empire—in order to figure out an appropriate arc for Crosshair's redemption.

Right now, the issue is not Crosshair loving his brothers, the issue is how Crosshair chooses to express that love: trying to keep them safe and giving them a purpose in life by joining the organization that's clearly going to dominate the galaxy. The only way to fix that, now that his offer has been rejected, is for him to realize that a life on the run from the Empire, together, is a better option for everyone. And the only way for that to happen is for the Batch to seriously offer him a place with them again. They need to make the first move here. They need to fight for him. And yeah, I totally get that a lot of people don't like that because it's not "fair." He's the bad guy. He's with the fascist allegory. He's killed people and has therefore lost any right to compassion and effort from the good guys... but if that's the case, then we just have to accept that (within the story-world, not from a writing perspective) Crosshair is unlikely to ever come back from this. When people reach that kind of low, they rarely pull themselves out on their own. They need other people to help them do that. Help them a lot. But with the exception of Omega's reminder—which Crosshair can't believe due to how everyone else has treated him—they leave him alone and seem to expect him to fix himself first, then he gets their support. It needs to be the other way around. Support is what would allow him to become a good guy again, not "Well, you'll get our love when you're good again, not before." That's unlikely to occur and, as discussed, it doesn't take into account things like this bad guy life being forced on Crosshair at the start. If the story really wanted this to be a matter of ideological differences... then make it about ideological differences. Let Crosshair leave of his own free will, right at the start. Don't enslave him for half the season, have him realize he was abandoned, imply all that brainwashing, give him no realistic way out, and then punish him for not doing the right thing. This isn't a situation where someone went bad for the hell of it—the story isn't asking us to feel compassion for, say, the Admiral—it's a situation where Crosshair was controlled and now can't see a way out. That context allows for the Batch, the good guys, to fight for him without the audience thinking the show is just excusing that behavior. They should have been fighting from the start, but since they didn't, I hope we at least start seeing that in season two.

Ultimately though... I don't really expect all of the above. The more balanced dynamics and having the Batch fight for Crosshair rather than Crosshair going it alone... I wouldn't want to bet any money on us getting it, just because these are things that should have been established in season one and would have been more easy to pull off in season one. (If the Batch wouldn't fight for Crosshair while he was literally under the Empire's control, why would they fight now when he's supposedly acting of his own free will? It's backwards in terms of the emotional effort involved.) But again, it could happen! I'd be very pleased if it did happen, despite the jarring change. I don't want to make it sound like I think they're going to write off Crosshair entirely. Far from it, I think there are too many details like his sad looks for that, to say nothing of Omega's compassion. But the execution of getting him on Team Good Guys again might be preeeetty bumpy. I expect it to revolve around Crosshair's sins and Crosshair's redemption, even if what I would like is balancing that with Crosshair's loss of agency, the Batch's mistakes, and their own redemption towards him.

Honestly though, I just hope that whatever happens happens soon. It's a personal preference, absolutely, but after a season of Crosshair as the antagonist, I'm ready for him to be back with the group, making the Empire (and bounty hunters) the primary enemy. Whether his return happens through a mutual acknowledgement of mistakes, or through Crosshair being depicted as the only one in the wrong who has to do something big to be forgiven... just get him back with the squad lol. Because if the writing isn't going to delve into that nuance, then the longer he remains unforgiven, the longer some of us have to watch a series while going, "Wait, wait, wait, I really don't agree with how you're painting this picture."

#TBB #The Bad Batch #SW #Star Wars #mymetas #long post

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steve0discusses · 5 years ago

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Yugioh S4 Ep8: Magic Mai

So fun fact, I was out of town around this Thanksgiving and I grabbed a laptop from my Dad’s stack of machinery he’s sort of collected over the years and lo and behold--he put Linux on it.

Like I dunno if you all can relate to this problem, but everything he touches turns into Linux and he’s trying to live this Windows free/Mac free lifestyle, and I get it, I’m friends with so many vegetarians, but like I hate this laptop. I'm using Gimp to make these screenshots...So I can re-do them later in Photoshop because...it just doesn’t feel right to put Papyrus on this computer. It already has Linux. This poor machine has suffered enough. Long story short, this’ll be a small update because right clicking on linux is ass.

Also, because I was on a laptop and realized how small my blog is for the first time--I don’t have control over the size of pictures in text posts, tumblr does, and in this particular theme it’s not allowing me to change the size, and so do me a favor. Click ctrl and + at the same time a couple times (I’m assuming most of you are on firefox). There. the pictures are the right size now. If you hated that, you can click ctrl and - but like lets be real, my font is occasionally...tiny.

Anyway, we start discussing this episode on the confusing legs of the last one, where Mai is evil now, and it’s really not entirely clear if she’s possessed or if she’s just always been this way, or if she just FEELS like it.

And that’s all this episode is about, start to finish--is this Mai’s choice or was this not Mai’s choice? The answer is the same as it would be for a normal person: it’s complicated. Maybe it’s everybody’s choice. Maybe it was because no one did anything that Mai went completely haywire? Maybe it was because Mai hid how she was feeling so no one had any idea she needed help? Or, overall, maybe Mai is kind of a toxic person and wanted to be this way? Especially while she’s on children’s cartoon card drugs?

(read more under the cut)

So to start off, a weird thing happened at the beginning of this episode. After about 4 seasons, someone finally mentioned this:

How many seasons has Yugi been talking to himself? Like, out loud. In front of everyone and Kaiba? This whole time, right? Like Valon just dashed my headcanon where I figured Yugi was smart enough to think his thoughts instead of speak his thoughts. He’s just not that smart, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, Mai has managed to attract this other (teenager?) guy and like...to go worse than Joey so quickly is kind of shocking. Mai just seems embarrassed by the amount of very young boys in love with her. And she’s not even a cougar about it, she doesn’t really seem to want this to happen but it keeps on happening.

And although he is essentially the card form of a drug pusher, Valon has this soft spot for a girl I guess to give him some sort of redeemable flaw. However, she only wears tube tops and minis and spends like hundreds of dollars on her hair, so it doesn’t really make him seem any less shallow, tbh.

PS I’m surprised, that unlike all the other characters on Yugioh, I can’t just type in Valon’s name into Google and get his age and weight. No idea what his age is, and if you know, feel free to tell me but he just seems...exactly the same age as Joey. He seems very 17. Maybe it’s the obsession with motorcycles and children’s playing cards? Maybe it’s his big ol childlike eyes? He just seems young and niave like how a teenager who just fell in love with a very angry older woman would.

Joey tries to remind everyone, multiple times, that this game is the worst idea ever since it requires one of them to super die, but Mai is on card drugs so I don't know why they bothered. Also, why is Joey still surprised by this after 4 seasons of this?

Yo it’s S4 and Mai witnesses magic non-stop but still has basically no idea how it works. She really did say “I have no soul” and it was like...I’m 90% certain she literally thinks she has no soul right now. Which I guess, statistically speaking, is rare to actually have a still intact soul after hanging out with the main villain, with the way this show typically goes.

Meanwhile, last episode it really sounded like Duke Devlin was driving to Pegasus’ company building. It really sounded like he would have gone directly there, since Weevil and Rex told him that Yugi was going to Pegasus.

Remember that Duke Devlin works for Pegasus and probably has his own parking spot.

So where did he go instead?

You know how there’s only one gas station in the entirety of America?

I can’t believe it blew up.

Y’all what is the red splotch in the middle of the pile ps? That is legitimately a pile of blood, right? I didn’t shop that in. There’s just a red puddle in this kid’s show.

Y’all what is that? Like was there a scene with a red handkerchief that I missed? Is that a red handkerchief?

But to move past the mysterious pool of blood that confirms those bikers are so hella dead, I have no idea why Duke was here, I have no idea how he got the tip off that Yugi visited this place, but then he turned around and went back to SF so like...I guess he’ll arrive 3 days from now because again, they are in Arizona. They keep telling me this is right outside SF but like--Mesas. There’s Mesas.

And then this happened.

That one guy on the writing staff who just stans Seto Kaiba so hard got into the drawing room, I see.

PS someone had to pose for this shot for them to draw this shot from this angle.

Meanwhile, lets see why Mai turned evil. Ah, because it is Yugioh, the biggest reason is that she has no friends (probably because she’s got the most acidic personality known to man) and isn’t card popular enough and got super bitter and jealous.

Speaking as an artist who is online, I can understand the frustration here. Sometimes (99% of the time) you work really hard and no one cares and you get like 2 notes. And honestly, why should they? Like, why do you do it in the first place?

Mai echoes a lot of the issues of Seto last season, where she wants so badly to be the absolute best to prove herself to the ghosts of her past who really don’t care any more.

But, since Mai was in a coma when Seto got through all of that, I guess she never got the memo and still seems stuck on just wanting to be the best with no other reason than “to be the best” which again, sounds so much like art school problems. This is everyone who has ever had an interest in animation. We all go through that phase.

Generally we don’t take peoples souls as a reaction to that type of discouragement, but then Mai made sure to mention in almost a foot note that she did spend like an entire season and a half trapped in Marik's shadow realm. And that kind of effed her up in a really big way.

Thanks, Marik.

Really feels like Marik should be dealing with this problem--really feels like maybe Marik is the only person that we can actually point to and say “Oh yeah, that guy is to blame for Mai right now” And he is the only person that Mai does not actively go out and try to kill.

And I’ll have you know I just deleted like a 15 K word rant about the difference between character assassination and your character just--evolving into a jackass, and how it’s OK to have your character change into a jackass, especially after trauma. I felt this need to really have to defend this ancient writing technique that people have been using since about as long as stories have been around.

Then I remembered “Oh yeah, I’m just making this point because a few number of very loud idiots on the internet want to have very lukewarm hot-takes about popular characters solely because they enjoy baiting people on twitter into getting into week-long arguments that don’t go anywhere.” and I just...let it go. I let it just...go into the ether. Ah. The peace that comes when you already know you’re right.

But anyway, back to Yugioh, which thankfully doesn’t take a stance on this nuanced subject, and only presents this very serious problem without actually offering a solution (because there isn’t a one fit’s all solution to falling off the deep end and getting into drugs and murder), Mai decides to just go and blame this decision she made on anyone else. Because, why take responsibility for your actions, when you can pin it on people who were on the other side of the freakin planet when it happened?

Like, I just want to remind y’all that she was in ATLANTIS.

I wonder how good the cell reception is in ATLANTIS.

I just...Mai is like in her mid twenties maybe thirty’s. She’s so arbitrarily old that she plays Yugi’s Mom in the video game spinoff where they’re reincarnations of medieval times. That’s how old she is.

Imagine if you made some epically BAD decisions because you were jealous of some teenager’s success and didn’t want to be weak anymore, and then you confronted those teens, and said “This is all your fault.”

Imagine looking someone as dysfunctional as Joey Wheeler and telling him “You made me like this” because lollllllll

And I present this as a joke but like basically this happens all freakin time. We’ve all had a friend like Mai. Past tense of course, because it’s really hard to keep a friend like Mai for very long. (One of my friend’s who went Mai destroyed my apartment one summer and then literally blamed it on me for going to California for 2 months and leaving her unattended.) But like...don’t let Mai’s do it to you. They can get better, but only if it’s their choice, really. You can’t force them to save themselves.

But, as Mai was finally ready to give up cards and probably improve her quality of life by a huge degree, unfortunately, she got sucked right back into the trap.

Bro note: being a serial murderer cultist is basically working at McDonald's in this universe so maybe this wasn’t even that weird?

But that aside, this is alllllmost like a dark version of “Mai got into an abusive relationship to fill the void in her heart” except she’s not even really dating this guy? Like she hates this guy? He’s just kinda there?

Y’all I really can’t tell if Valon is in an abusive relationship with Mai who is using him for power or if she’s in an abusive relationship with him because he only wants her pretty face and wants to kill Joey because Joey liked her once--and maybe it’s both? Maybe both of these people are just...really bad for each other?

Overall Joey is kind of tossed into this not-a-love-triangle and I’m like

“Hey show? show? Am I supposed to....were any these people ever dating? Is there supposed to be an implied history? Am I supposed to get attached to this?” because I mean...the only character who was able to get some actual physical romance on this show was Pegasus when he macked the ghost of his dead wife because, again, Pegasus is the freakin king of this entire show. Of course HE can do it.

But have this show clarify what the hell is happening between Valon and Mai? I’m gonna take a bet that we will never get to see it beyond Valon being like “Ain’t she a beaut!” Like Steve Irwin talking to an alligator, and Mai just pretending he doesn’t exist. Yugioh romances are so completely one way every single time. If something more than that happens, I’ll be

shook.

Anyway, as all the children on the show keep repeating over and over again, they haven’t had any contact with Mai since she left the freakin country and they went back to High School.

And so someone threatens to kill himself, as is Yugioh tradition, and someone else barks at him to NOT kill himself, as is also tradition, and they decide to play real cards next episode.

This whole entire episode, PS, Joey went out of his way to just...not play cards. that was this whole episode. Way to draw out a card game over three episodes, I guess.

Anyway if you want to read these from the start you can do so by clicking the link here

#yugioh #ygo #episode recap #photo recap #Yugi muto #mai valentine #Valon #joey wheeler #Tristan Taylor #Tea Gardner #That moustache sideburns guy? I think his name is Raphael or something?#S4 #Ep 8 #PS I just noticed my episodes were numbered wrong #so that's nice #I may also decide to do some tagging shenanigans so you can have a link to read which season you would like to go to instead of just from S1 #but that will be when I get bored over christmas I have some client stuff to wrap up right now

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youbetterworkcovergirl · 6 years ago

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2019 Movies

Rent

Kevin Smith: Silent but Deadly

Angel

The Row

Kiki’s Delivery Service

Madea’s Witness Protection

Lessons From A School Shooting

22 July

Gehenna

Mischief Night

The Dorm That Dripped Blood

Don’t Go In The Woods Alone

My Neighbor Totoro

Sorority Babes in the Slime Ball Bowl-O-Rama

Never Sleep Again

The House With A Clock In Its Walls

The Cured

The House That Screamed

The Predator

Hell Fest

Bowfinger

A Simple Favor

Frightmare

Hardware

Buried Alive

Drive In Massacre

The Pit and The Pendulum

Goosebumps 2

Bullet Head

Throughbreds

Pumpkin Pie Wars

What’s Love Got To Do With It

Dr. Giggles

Bad Times At the El Royale

The Mighty Ducks

D2: The Mighty Ducks

D3: The Mighty Ducks

Awake to Danger

The Hate U Give

The Seven Five

Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes

Assassination Nation

Clockwatchers

Old Enough

Suspiria (2018)

Critters

Harvest Moon

Higher Learning

Kings

The Lure

He’s Out There

When Friendship Kills

All I Wanna Do

Strange Voices

Soaked In Bleach

October Kiss

Rent: Filmed Live On Broadway

Wishmaster

The Possession of Hannah Grace

The Clovehitch Killer

Wishmaster 2

Waiting to Exhale

Killer High

The Farm

Pledge

The Wood

Poetic Justice

Parkland: Inside Building 12

Bohemian Rhapsody

My Bloody Valentine 3-D

Indian Summer

White Men Can’t Jump

Do The Right Thing

Happy Death Day 2 U

Home For The Holidays

UFO

I’m Still Here

Wallenberg

49 Pulses

A Murder In the Park

Diner

Pet Sematary

Pet Sematary 2

Seems Like Old Times

Taken in Broad Daylight

Murder on a Sunday Morning

The Amityville Murders

Judgement Day: The John List Story

Used Cars

Two If By Sea

Revenge

Monsterville

Missing

Office Killer

Twin Towers

Midnight Special

Sierra Burgess is a Loser

Haunting on Fraternity Row

Castle Freak

Hidden

Red Clover

Air

Self/less

Colonia

Inoperable

Hallow’s Eve

Lord of Illusions

H.H. Holmes: Original Evil

Instant Family

Starman

Everybody Wants Some

After Auschwitz

Crocodile

Victor Crowley

Always

You Might Be The Killer

Jonestown: Massacre in the Jungle

The Act

Mister Rogers It’s You I Like

Swimming in Auschwitz

Ingenious

Bright Lights, Big City

The Dirt

Operation Finale

Hell House LLC 2

Extinction

The Night Eats the World

Green Book

Freddie Mercury: The Greatest Showman

Captive State

Encino Man

Aquaman

The Three Musketeers

The Highway Men

What We Do In The Shadows

Howling III

A Dog Year

Like Father Like Son

Tune In

They Live

Selena

Curly Sue

The Miami Showband Massacre

Follow That Bird

Lifeforce

Pet Semetary (2019)

Coherence

Devil In The Flesh

The Haunting of Sharon Tate

Hobgoblins

To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story

Last Girl Standing

Blood Was Everywhere

Compliance

Cat People

Helter Skelter

Dead Body

The Stranger Beside Me

Blood Rage

A Dog’s Way Home

Crazy Eights

The Nest

Haunt

Capturing the Green River Killer

Bumblebee

8 Seconds

Society

Apartment 143

Horror Noire

Stepfather 2

The Hillside Stranglers

Heart of the Country

Opportunity Knocks

Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst

Good Fences

Conspiracy

Eddie

Fatal Beauty

Like Father Like Son

The Telephone

Listen To Me

Fresh Horses

The Girl Most Likely To

Bingo

The Perfect Catch

House Party

Every Day

The Family I Had

Scenes From A Mall

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

Shuttle

Jennifer 8

The Chipmunk Adventure

Home Invasion

I Spit On Your Grave: Deja Vu

Avengers: Endgame

No Good Deed

The Exception

Train

The Hole In The Ground

The Perfect Guy

Man Up

Amen

The Rachels

The Vanishing of Sidney Hall

The Calling

Freedom Riders

Bad Dreams

Playing for Keeps

The Diary of Anne Frank

Thriller

Death House

Slumber Party Massacre II

Miracle on Interstate 880

The Long Island Railroad Massacre

Satan’s Little Helper

Voodoo

Charlie Says

November Criminals

Stripped to Kill

Soapdish

Gifted

Isn’t It Romantic

The Nanny Diaries

Before We Go

Into the Spiderverse

The Chesire Murders

Skyscraper

Strawberry Flavored Plastic

The Challenger Disaster

Rogue One

Solo

The Last Man On Earth

Hunger Games

Catching Fire

Mockingjay

Mockingjay Part 2

I Saw The Sign

Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie

Senior Trip

The Club

The Convent

The Initiation

One Dark Night

The Last American Virgin

Donkey Punch

Child’s Play

Screamtime

The Public

Trick or Treats

The Best of Enemies

Lake Fear

Funland

Lilo and Stitch 2

Stitch: The Movie

Emperor's New Groove

Threads

Hotel Mumbai

Little

The Langoliers

Mary Poppins Returns

Scary Stories

Greta

Witchfinder General

Denial

Cronos

The Redeemer: Son of Satan

The Curse of La Llorona

When The Walls Talk

I Married A Witch

American Dream

Body Parts

Woodstock

A Dog’s Journey

Brightburn

Stagefright

Ready or Not

Don’t Go In To the Woods

Hell Night

Sharknado

Skeletons in the Closet

Stalking Laura

Every Woman’s Dream

Dear Mr. Gacy

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Let’s Scare Jessica To Death

Fantastic 4

The Losers

What’s Your Number

It: Chapter 2

I Saw What You Did

The Perfect Score

The Red Sea Diving Resort

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Cellular

Puncture

Aladdin

The Secret Life of Pets 2

Sunshine

13 Ghosts

Harvest Love

Hell House LLC. 3

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Dark Phoenix

The Iceman

Shiver

Nightmare Cinema

The Invitation

Monster Party

Snowpiercer

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Beneath

Haunt

Primeval

Shazam

London

Under The Autumn Moon

Killing Ground

Malicious

Eyes Without A Face

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond

Toy Story 4

The Monster Project

Annabelle Comes Home

Not Another Teen Movie

Run, Hide, Die

Recovery

Fierce People

Bait

The Ranger

The Awakening

Critters Attack

Are You Afraid of the Dark

Crawl

Dead Night

Rogue

Silent House

3 From Hell

The Reef

The Incubus

The Midnight Hour

Repulsion

Booksmart

The Company of Wolves

Strange Invaders

Invaders From Mars

Murder on the Orient Express

Let It Snow

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

The Art of Racing In the Rain

Midsommar

The Intruder

Open Water 3

Black Water

The Night Before

While She Was Out

Knives Out

Rocky Mountain Christmas

Parenthood

Call Me Claus

Stranger in the Family

The Sweetest Christmas

Christmas Under Wraps

Goodnight Sugar Babe

Ghosts of Mississippi

Miss Christmas

Theodore Rex

Semper Fi

Hustlers

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Tomb Raider

Sahara

Tag

Game Night

Mary

6 Underground

Bah Humduck

The Campaign

Creed

TMNT

The Pledge

Don’t Let Go

The Lion King

Vertical Limit

U.S Marshals

Cum On Feel The Noise

Jumanji The Next Level

Charlie’s Angels

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cristinegrizzard-blog · 7 years ago

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Madden NFL 18

madden nfl 18 coins Cellular 18 POWERLINE BUNDLE! Madden Cellular pack opening! These are the very best Madden offensive gamers you want in your Madden 18 workforce. SportingNews did the heavy lifting and found that there are 62 gamers in Madden NFL 18 which can be designated as being "Clutch," down from 70 last year. Finally, there's aggressive mode. Elite player from your favourite NFL crew and five Squad Packs in Madden NFL 18 Final Crew, the entire NFL team-building mode the place you construct, play and win with your final workforce of todays NFL superstars and legends. MUT - Construct, play, and win with your ultimate staff of immediately's' NFL stars and legends. This Madden NFL 18 MUT Greatest Playbooks Information will make it easier to by providing you necessary information about the best playbooks for each offense and defense in the new Madden. It’s a bit disappointing that we’re now a month away from Madden NFL 18’s launch and we still haven’t seen any uncooked gameplay footage, nevertheless it seems like EA has a very particular plan for rolling out information.

My biggest situation with Madden 18, and Madden games the last few years, is the distinction in AI gameplay between All-Pro stage and All-Madden level. Taking part in Devin’s highschool career is fun as you run around the field making ridiculous throws and completing unbelievable comebacks, but when the sport switches to the coaching sequences of the Longshot actuality Tv present, the gameplay can really feel forced. Longshot might nicely be the headline addition, but the remainder of this year’s providing hasn’t stood nonetheless. Effectively for latest years years there is a repair for which: Relocation. There are pros and cons to creating a energy back vs. Quarterback is one of the most important positions in the game and teams and not using a solid area general are normally in bother. Peyton Manning - Indianapolis Colts: Consider a quarterback ability, any quarterback talent. Carson Wentz is the quarterback of the longer term, so the Eagles have been clever to go get him some weapons.

A closeer inspection revealed the Philadelphia Eagles defender took a few grabs at Cam’s junk before simply walking away like he didn’t do something. OBJ loses to kicking web, Rexs' Bills beat The Cardinals & The Eagles Stand out! Be certain to check it out and post your ideas. This can assist everyone who can’t make the draft. We have been able to flip an early second spherical choose for an early first spherical pick in next 12 months's draft. When you get your feet wet, get into MUT Squads and let your buddies play offense and defense, whilst you pick head coach and proceed studying. MUT is a crazy cash maker, so EA Sports will continue to nurture it. After i do get NBA 2K18, it'll save me some cash. Want to symbolize your favourite group and get in on the action? Madden 15 Ultimate Crew - New Content material! Included with the EA Sports activities Madden NFL 18 Final Crew Motion Figures shall be a code redeemable for (5) Madden NFL 18 Final Group Squad Packs.

In Longshot, Madden NFL 18’s new story mode, your selections shape the journey of forgotten prospect Devin Wade in this soccer redemption story. Microsoft just introduced this yea’rs Madden NFL Xbox One bundle, coming with Madden NFL 18 and an Xbox One S console. Obviously after one season back in California, the Rams would have most popular to see their first-general selection Jared Goff right here. Another one in all the most important breaks of the past week was the final info launch in regards to the upcoming COD: Black Ops three DLC5-Zombies Chronicles. This is presumably the largest update that a Madden recreation has ever seen. As for the video recreation itself, Digital Arts will reveal more throughout June's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. A soccer and technique recreation. United States. Subsequent Technology ranked it as the 55th highest-promoting recreation launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that nation.

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placetobenation · 4 years ago

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Meet the Robinsons

Release Date: March 23rd, 2007

Inspiration: “A Day with Wilbur Robinson” by William Joyce

Budget: $150 million

Domestic Gross: $97.8 million

Worldwide Gross: $169.3 million

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%

IMDB Score: 6.8/10

Storyline (per IMDB): Lewis an orphan wants to see what his mother looked like. So he invents a machine that looks through your brain so you can see your memories. But this weird kid says he’s from the future and warns him about a guy in a bowler hat. The bowler hat guy messes with his invention and it fails. He decides that he’s a failure and no one wants him. But the kid that warned him about the guy is here on a mission to find the bowler hat guy that wants to destroy Lewis. To prove he’s from the future he takes Lewis to the future. But the time machine breaks and he’s stuck in the future until he fixes it. In the meantime he spends quality time with the family. But the bowler hat guy is about to alter time and it’s up to Lewis to save the future.

Pre-Watching Thoughts: We continue on through the 2000s with our next film and this is a big one because in March of 2007 when this film was released, that was when I began my tenure with Regal Entertainment Group. So for the next 11 years, I would see Disney’s films in the theaters and I would see how successful or potentially how badly they would be, though in all honesty this is one I do not remember that much because I was just getting my feet wet working at the movie theater. After the last few films have been very disappointing and dismal, I am hoping that this film finally turns things around though again my hopes are not that high.

Voice Cast: We continue with the trend of having a brand new cast for each film though we did have a few actors return as well, and in addition we had a few actors pull multiple duty as they voiced multiple characters in the film. But as mentioned, we do have a few returning actors as Adam West returns to voice Uncle Art and also we have the return of Laurie Metcalf who voices Lucille Krunklehorn. We now move onto the newcomers as we have Jordan Fry who voices Lewis in one of the biggest roles of his career, and we should mention that Lewis was originally voiced by Daniel Hansen with Fry being brought in to do re-dubs of lines. We then have the legendary Tom Selleck who voices Lewis as an adult as he was starting to wind down his career, and then we have Wesley Singerman who voices Wilbur Robinson in what would be the last role of his short film career. Next, we have Steven Anderson who voices Bowler Hat guy along with Grandpa Bud and cousin Tallulah in multiple roles, and we should also mention Matthew Josten who voices Michael Yagoobian as a child. We then have Harland Williams who voices Carl as he was in the peak of his career by this point, and then we have Nicole Sullivan who voices Franny with Jessie Flower voicing Franny as a child. Next, we have Angela Bassett who voices Mildred as she was also hitting the peak of her career at this point, and then we have Ethan Sandler who voices multiple roles including DOR-15, Uncle Fritz and Aunt Petunia, the twins Spike and Dmitri, Cousin Laszlo, and the CEO of InventCo. We then have Don Hall who voices Uncle Gaston and the Gym Coach in dual roles as he also wrote the screenplay for the film, and then we have Tom Kenny who voices Mr. Willerstein though he will forever be remembered as Spongebob Squarepants. Next, we have Kelly Hoover who voices Aunt Billie in a minor role and then we have Tracey Miller-Zarneke who voices Lizzy in a minor role, and we have Joe Mateo who voices the T-Rex and then we have Aurian Redson who voices Frankie the frog with Jamie Cullum providing the singing voice. We then have Paul Butcher who voices Stanley in a minor role and we have Dara McGarry who voices the receptionist and Mrs. Harrington in a dual role, and then we have John H.H. Ford who voices Mr. Harrington and finally we have Nathan Greno who voices Lefty as he also had a hand in the screenplay. This was something that I haven’t mentioned in previous reviews of members of the creative team also providing voices, and this honestly might be one of the most low-key casts in Disney history as there was a significant lack of star power for the film.

Hero/Prince: We have had a string of fairly substandard heroes to this point which is sad since we were on such a good run early on in the run, and we will see if that trend continues here as we have the young man known as Lewis. He is left at an orphanage when he is a baby and he grows up loving science though he is frustrated that no one adopts him, and he decides to try and find his mother by inventing a device that could read his memory though it is sabotaged at the science fair. He starts to lose faith in his abilities until Wilbur arrives and takes him to the future though they inadvertently destroy the time machine, and Lewis agrees to fix the machine if Wilbur takes him back in time to see his mother which Wilbur agrees. Lewis meets Wilbur’s family and they become close until they learn Lewis is from the past, and after Wilbur admits he lied Lewis runs away and is coerced by the Bowler Hat guy to fix the Memory scanner. Lewis learns the truth that he is Wilbur’s future father and after Bowler Hat guy changes the future, Lewis fixes the machine and goes back in time where he manages to restore the timeline. Wilbur decides to take Lewis back to the moment where his mother left him at the orphanage though he chooses to let the events play out, and Lewis showcases the Memory scanner and wins the science fair as he is adopted and the timeline continues on as planned. Lewis is a pretty typical kid in that he has a specific love which is science though he does have a desire to be loved and feels his mother abandoned him, and after several failures he is ready to give up though upon learning what the future holds he is encouraged to continue on and fix things. He ends up getting everything he wanted as he has a family and he becomes a major success with his numerous inventions, and while he is not a typical hero he is pretty special for this film though he will probably not rank high amongst the other heroes.

Princess: N/A

Villain: For the first time since Treasure Planet, we have a pair of villains for this film though one is a true villain while the other is not so much a reluctant villain, but a misguided villain and we start with him as it is Michael “Goob” Yagoobian or Bowler Hat guy. He is a roommate with Lewis and is obsessed with baseball as he wants to be the one to win the championship for his team, but the day of the championship he is kept awake by Lewis and he falls asleep during the game which causes his team to lose. He is beat up by the team and kicked off the team as he becomes resentful to Lewis and is never adopted, and as he grows up he remains at the orphanage and vows revenge on Lewis when he meets the true villain of the movie which is the hat known as DOR-15 or “Doris”. DOR-15 was created by an adult Lewis to serve as a helper hat but malfunctioned and was left abandoned, and it would escape and meet with Goob who came up with the plan to sabotage Lewis during the science fair before stealing his Memory scanner and passing it off as their own. After some failed attempts, they manage to coerce Lewis into showing them how it works before revealing the plan, and they succeed in taking the credit and the future is changed though it is shown that DOR-15 betrayed Goob and enslaved humanity. Lewis goes back in time and stops them by saying he would never created DOR-15 which causes it to disappear permanently, and Goob sees the error of his ways though leaves out of guilt. After Lewis returns to his time, he makes sure that Goob is awake to win the championship game and he is hailed a hero, and Goob is later adopted by a family which changes his future and maintains Lewis’. DOR-15 is a typical example of a robot meant for good that turns bad and wants to rule the world though it is stopped fairly easily which makes it a weak villain, and Goob is a classic example of a troubled soul that goes down the wrong path though he ultimately is redeemed. As a result, both of these characters are not very memorable villains and will rank near the bottom of the list.

Other Characters: This is an interesting film in that the majority of the other characters in the film are all part of an extended family, but there were a few other characters in the film as well that are fairly important to the story. We start off with the family Robinson which includes Lucille Krunklehorn who is one of the judges of the science fair, and she ends up adopting Lewis along with her husband Bud which Lewis finds out when he goes to the future. We then have Franny who is one of the classmates of Lewis and she is fond of frogs, and she would go onto be Lewis’ wife and would train her frogs to sing and play instruments in the future. We then have Wilbur Robinson who returns to the past under the guise of a cop as he tries to keep Lewis on the right path, and he takes Lewis to the future and promises to take him to see his mother if Lewis fixes the time machine as Lewis learns that Wilbur is his future son. At one point, Wilbur disappears when Bowler Hat guy and DOR-15 change the timeline only for Lewis to fix everything and restore Wilbur, and Wilbur takes Lewis to see his mother as promised before returning him to his original time. We then have the other members of the family including Franny’s brothers Art and Gaston, Uncle Joe, Aunt Billie, Uncle Fritz and “Aunt Petunia” who is a puppet on his hand, cousin Tallulah and Laszlo, the twins Spike and Dmitri, Lefty the butler, and Buster the dog. We also have Carl the robot who is invented by Lewis in the future and he helps Wilbur in his plan, and Carl helps Lewis and Wilbur out until DOR-15 destroys him though he is revived by Lewis. We then have Mildred who owns the orphanage and tries her best to help Lewis and Goob get adopted, and then we have the other minor characters like the family that interviews to adopt Lewis, the other kids in the school, Lewis’ science teacher and the gym coach, and the board of directors of InventCo. While most of the focus was on the Robinson family which makes sense given its in the name of the film, the other characters in the film played some sort of purpose to the film.

Songs: This is another film that I never thought had any songs in it, but sure enough it did have a few though again they felt more like background noise as opposed to being a critical part of the film like in the past. The first song to talk about is the song “Another Believer” which is sung as Lewis begins building his Memory Scanner, and it is a fine song to serve as a transition into one of the main points of the film. The next song in the film is the brief song “The Future Has Arrived” which is first heard as a theme song when Lewis arrives in the future and is heard again during the credits performed by the All-American Rejects, and again it is a basic song in the film as it is more showcased in the end. The next song is “Where is Your Heart At?” sung by Frankie the frog as it is quick and easy and fairly forgettable, and then we have “Little Wonders” which is performed during the closing credits by Rob Thomas and it is again fairly forgettable. We do get one more song during the credits which is “The Motion Waltz (Emotion Commotion)” and it is mainly there to close out the film. Even though these last few films have had more songs than I ever remembered, it is clear that the songs are no longer the focus of these films which is sad since that seemed to be a staple of the earlier films and we will see if this trend continues.

Plot: This is another film that I was not aware was based off a book and given how short the book is, you knew that they were going to take some liberties in coming up with a plot though they did try to keep some faithfulness to the book. In the film, Lewis is an orphan who tries to create numerous inventions which typically fail and cost him chances at being adopted, and he decides to create an invention that can scan memories so he can find his real mother. However, the invention is sabotaged by Bowler Hat man and DOR-15 despite Wilbur’s warnings and Lewis becomes discouraged, and Wilbur takes Lewis to the future in a time machine which gets destroyed and Lewis agrees to fix it if Wilbur takes him back in time to see his mother. Lewis meets Wilbur’s family and becomes close with them until they learn he is from the past and Lewis learns that he is Wilbur’s future father, and Wilbur admits he lied to Lewis who runs away and comes across Bowler Hat guy who steals the Memory Scanner. He reveals that he is Lewis’ old roommate Goob who holds a grudge against Lewis due to being the reason his baseball team lost the championship, and he partnered together with DOR-15 who was an invention cast aside by Lewis and they take credit for the Scanner which changes the future. Lewis fixes the time machine and prevents the plan from going down as DOR-15 disintegrates and the timeline is restored, and Wilbur takes Lewis to the past to meet his mother though Lewis ends up putting it behind him. Lewis returns to his time and his fixed Scanner wins the science fair as he is also adopted which sets the timeline into motion. Again, they had to take some liberty with the plot given how short the book is though they do call back to the book in the film for those that are loyal to the book, and considering the plot was in essence original it was a fine plot for a film based off a basic children’s book.

Random Watching Thoughts: I believe this is the first film to feature the Walt Disney Animation Studios logo; Lewis’ mother must’ve been in real dire straits if she felt that she had to give up Lewis to an orphanage; She could afford to have a blanket for baby Lewis, yet she had to leave him in a cardboard box; Goob is going on and on while Lewis is clearly too focused on his work to pay attention to his ramblings; Goob tries to use the airhorn to get Lewis’ attention only to blow it in his own face; The Harringtons quickly realize that they are in over their head with Lewis just reading his notebook; How is that toaster not weighing down on Lewis’ head and causing him to lose his balance?; I wonder who Sarah and Jack are; You know there’s trouble when Lewis has kept exact count of all the times he’s been rejected; That is a big stretch for Lewis to think that his mother would want him now when she gave him up as a baby; He gets the idea for the Memory Scanner from a “Brain Scanners from Mars” billboard; “Boring”; Goob is clearly over being Lewis’ assistant; Everyone is used to Lewis’ inventions going bad that they have their own protection; I don’t think Mildred should be giving Goob coffee when he’s so young; “You have to get out of the past and look to the future”, something that will come into play later in the film; Lucille was right when she said that she doesn’t get out of the lab very often; How has Lucille not died from a caffeine overdose?; Are they really that short of teachers that the gym teacher is a judge for the science fair?; Of course the goth girl would have fire ants; Time Continuum Task Force; All DOR-15 had to do to sabotage the Scanner is loosen a few screws; If he is entering the date like I think he is, he was left behind at the orphanage on January 23rd, 2011; The gym coach tries hard to resist the fire ants, but ends up running around crying like a girl; This was the one invention that didn’t explode, but it still caused an insane amount of damage; I get future Goob was supposed to be a villain, but they made him way too stereotypical; Of all the things Wilbur could’ve used for a fake badge, he had to use a $15 coupon for a tanning salon; It’s a good thing Wilbur knew where his time machine was when he threw Lewis off the roof because that could’ve been really bad; Insta-Building; Obviously, they took some inspiration from Tomorrowland in the Disney parks to the point that the city was called “Todayland”; Instead of cars, people get around in bubbles; Lewis thinks he’s older than Wilbur because he was born in the past and technically, he is right in that; Goob thinks the receptionist is listening to him when she is actually on the phone; If only the real Mary Johnson came in and realized that someone stole her appointment spot; The CEO has seen a lot of pitches to the point that he times them to a specific point; Lewis went to the point that he had to make the headphones comfortable to wear; That is a strong cord to be able to pull the CEO across the table that easily; Goob actually censors himself when writing on his checklist; Of all the things to put on Lewis’ head to disguise him, he would use a fruit hat; How come we never actually learn why Spike and Dmitri are in those plants asking people to ring their doorbells?; Carl rants to Wilbur about the dangers they face yet also makes mention about his stolen bike; Yeah that sounds bad, but there is a .000001% chance Wilbur will live; Is it just me or does Bud look a lot like Geri from the Pixar short “Geri’s Game”?; Gaston would’ve beaten the train if he didn’t blast himself into the pillar; He painted a masterpiece in mere seconds; Fritz has a puppet on his hand that believes it’s alive and everyone treats it like it’s normal; The dog has insurance?; Only in the future can an octopus be a butler; Apparently, Franny was a fan of the Rat Pack because her frogs are pretty much carbon copies of them; Lewis learned about the family tree pretty quickly; They actually superimposed a real picture of Tom Selleck; They have no icepacks nearby so Goob has to use a piece of meat on his black eye; Adult Goob acting like the Emperor from “Star Wars” telling child Goob to embrace the hate; “Keep Moving Forward”; You have to be really dedicated if you fail well over 900 times yet keep working towards your goal; Lewis messes up one time on something he’s never dealt with before and he’s ready to give up completely again; Goob needs some work with his coordination skills in driving the mini DOR-15; Call me crazy, but gravy doesn’t work on spaghetti and meatballs; So the USA conquered Canada at some point and renamed it North Montana; The screen goes dark right before the fight and they even ape the classic Japanese samurai films complete with the overdubbed dialogue; So the first course was spaghetti and meatballs which is the appetizer to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; Clearly, Frankie still has some of his wits if he claims that Goob’s plan isn’t the best; I’ve never seen people celebrate failure so much; Goob probably should’ve thought more about going back in time and getting a dinosaur to do his bidding; These are some very unorthodox ways to fight off a T-Rex; Lewis would end up in the one area where the T-Rex couldn’t reach him; Even the T-Rex has his own language; Looks like mini DOR-15 is sleeping with the fishes; Wilbur really doesn’t want to reveal the truth to the family, but they left him no choice; They have to show Goob crossing his fingers behind his back; All of those futuristic buildings yet the orphanage looks like it hasn’t been touched in years; He kept his old baseball uniform on all these years; Goob thinks that everyone hated him yet it looks like they wanted to be friends with him; He is a typical example of not taking responsibility for your own actions and instead want to blame someone else; If only Wilbur had made sure the door was shut completely to set the alarm; Lewis realizes that Mildred was right all along about letting go of the past and moving to the future; We go from Goob just wanting to ruin Lewis’ life to DOR-15 creating a bunch of clones and taking over the world; I’m surprised that in their scheming that Goob and DOR-15 never thought to kill Lewis and change the future that way; That has to be the most anticlimactic ending to a villain in any Disney film; It’s funny how past Lewis dictates to Wilbur like he does knowing that he’s his father; So obviously this universe is set up that if your past self meets your future self, it doesn’t cause any disturbances in the space-time continuum; Of course Carl would try and ask Lewis to change his design while he’s there; Lucille clearly establishing she’s the dominant one in the relationship; We come full circle as we see the opening scene play out again and we learn that it was Lewis that distracted his mom briefly and also knocked on the door; Wilbur seems like the kind of person that would go back in time repeatedly to make sure Lewis stayed on the right path; Lewis had enough sense to make sure that Goob would win the game for his team and change his future as well; Everyone builds a barricade and prepares for the worst; So since Lewis met their future selves, do their past selves now have knowledge about this?; Lewis remembers that Franny is always right and gets on her good side; So their home was once an observatory; We see the early model of Carl on the ground; “Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney.

Overall Thoughts: Overall, this was a fairly decent film and easily better than the last two films I watched, but this was still not that great and was on par with a few of the other films from this decade. It is really sad that the quality of these films have severely declined over the last decade because I have really wanted to like these films having never watched them before, but while these films were not expected to live up to the expectations of the previous films they have not even lived up to my most basic expectations. The 2000s have been a tough time for Disney as they were growing in other aspects, but the animation studio was in a real slump and hopefully they would be able to pull out of it at the end of the decade. As for this film, it is a fairly average film that falls in line with the rest of the films from this decade.

Final Grade: 4.5/10

#IFTTT #Place to Be Nation

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