#angry birds comic studio

[sortanonymous]

Sorta Angry Comics #4 - "A Family Found Furiously"

[someone-inthebackground]

It's time to remember that cringe is dead and you should kick its corpse

[pico-digital-studios]

Into, Across and Beyond! Credits Post

Sonic the Hedgehog: Into, Across and Beyond!

Based on Spider-Man: Spider-Verse by Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Animation, alongside Spider-Man: No Way Home by Marvel, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures

Written and directed by Pico Digital Studios, NOT solely to be yet another EXE work, but as a loving tribute to all things Sonic

Based on the Sonic the Hedgehog IP by SEGA and Sonic Team

Co-Writers

@becdoesthings

@mcgamejolter

SFG1235

Sprite Work

CartoonAnimates22

Cylent Nite

Xeric

Mod.Gen Project Team

AkumaTh

jrm10071322

Octluigi

deltaConduit & Pebble

Dolphman

paveldechev0604

Deebs

Jack Gore and darck12exe

NotSoDevy

miniluv73

SuperGoku809

RatherNoiceSprites

khalifax10

DerZocker

LegoLoco7

Miles The Duck

GalaxyTrail

SFG1235

KostyaGame the Fox

JunkeyBot

Nebula

randidesu

Gardow and Overbound

Gabriel_aka_Frag

FlewayAmysprite

TheCrushedJoycon

MarkeyJester

NickyFan7

Shinbaloonba

Willosonic

ManiaMadness91

Lone Devil

mtallic

Rosabelle

NightAkio

Louplayer

Tonberry2k

Smoke-the-Pyroling

KoolTimYT

LiefBnuy

HyperTails12 and LillyDragon

RaulHedgeBomber

DanielMania123

Pics and Pixels

Hyperknux6

And everybody else I forgot to mention

Chosen Official Content

The games by SEGA and Sonic Team

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) and Sonic Underground by SEGA of America and DiC

Sonic X by TMS Entertainment

The comics by Archie Comics, Fleetway Comics and IDW

Sonic Prime by Man of Action Studios and WildBrain

Sonic Boom by OuiDo! Productions/Technicolor Animation

The Sonic film trilogy by Paramount Studios and Original Film

Sonic OVA by Studio Pierrot and ADV Films

Chosen Unofficial Content

Sonic.EXE: One More Saga by Mr. Pixel Productions

Crossover Realm by @becdoesthings

Sonic EX: A Prophet's Tale / A Player's Requiem by AetherAsterisk; Xenophanes by ASTRANOMICON

Friday Night Funkin': D-Sides by DastardlyDeacon and the D-Sides team

Black Knight Amy AU designed by @emistations

ChaosIIUniverse / Sonic: Next Dimension by Toonsite Comics

Errorverse by myself

Mobiverse by SFG1235

Mobius' Freedom Fighters by @becdoesthings and JordanGaming101

Hog the Tenrec by Jack Gore

Myths of Yamaha by HarbingerBeats and danicorelove

What If Sonic Lost His Memory? by The Sega Scourge

Sonic CD: Alternative Ending by Lucsan 2015

Sunky.MPEG by LooneyDude

Needlem0use by ShutUpJojo

Sonic/Avalice Blitz by @bobtheguyyyyy

Sally.exe Discovery, SONIC Lost Drive and Sonic: Shifted Reality by NotSoDevy

Somari by Hummer Team

Sonic Limited Edition: The Lost Cartridge by JordanGaming101

Sonic.exe: Spirits of Hell by Danuha2526

Sonic.exe: Nightmare Beginning

Sonic.exe: The Glitch Chaos by NikoGlitchArts

Sonic 1: The Next Level by MarkeyJester

The .EXE Saga by Oldum77

Hues of Metal by kkirby999

Sonic: EXtraterrestrial Encounter by @mcgamejolter

Sonic Robo Blast 2 by Sonic Team Junior

Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers by Kart Krew

Sonic Legends by Ultra Ring Team

Angry Birds by Rovio and SEGA

GlassCD AU by HarbingerBeats

Sonic Chaos Adventure by Team Chaos

Sonic.exe by JoeDoughBoi and ASTRANOMICON

Sonic.exe - The Game by MY5TCrimson

Green Mountain by grenmoun_s o n i c

Naturagenso by @bluebun69

Friday Night Funkin' AUs featured

Funkinverse by @robovoidfrog

ErroRhythmic Beats by myself

Arrow Funk by Yoisabo

Friday Night Funkin' Soft by ShinyTrexx

Funkin' MIX by Namdam_096

Mega Man: Funkin' Heroes by Merchanto

The Return Funkin' by badre

Wii Funkin' by Sulayre

FNF - Childhood Memories by NotSoDevy, me and BEC

Friday Night Funkin' Neo by JellyFish

BluBuni by leideri

Salty's Sunday Night by Tsuraran and Maqua

VS OURPLE GUY by kiwiquest

Saturday Night Swappin' by Roaming_Pikachu

Wednesday's Infidelity by Box Funkin'

HoloFunk by Codexes

Vs. Sonic.exe by Saster and CommandoDev

Friday Night Funkin': D-Sides by DastardlyDeacon and the D-Sides team

Friday Night Funkin' Minus by LagoAnims

Twinsomnia by Sock.clip

Electro Funkin' by Hannimal

The Blueballs Incident and Alice: Mad & Hopeless by MaliciousBunny

Friday Night Funkin' DJX by valengarfy and Pyschocat

FNF Vs. Uzi by Redpanzee; Murder Drones by Liam Vickers and GLITCH Productions

Friday Night Funkin': B3 Remixed by Biddle3

Friday Night Fever by Helloitsmako and CesarFever

Friday Night Funkin' Logic by GameToons (god forbid)

Friday Night Monster of Monsters by CumiNashe

Friday Night Funkin' WITH LYRICS by RecD

Girlfriend Mode Boyfriend by NoLime

Friendly Night Funkin' by AjtheFunky

Other Featured Non-Sonic Content

Freedom Planet by GalaxyTrail

Spark the Electric Jester by LakeFeperd

Rollin' Rascal by Curiomatic

Penny's Big Breakaway by Evening Star Studios

Kinoko and the Cult of Galaxy by @cultofgalaxy

Mega Man by Capcom

Undertale by Toby Fox

The Smiling Critters by MOB Productions

Amanda the Adventurer by jpgamedesign

Other Featured Content only present in AUs

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic by Hasbro

Featured Original Characters (prominent and cameos)

Nitro, Amelia, Evo, Wade, Karilvatch and Lucia by me

Mr. Needlemouse and Kyuzi by @mcgamejolter

Antho the Hedgehog by SFG1235

Devy and Smol Devy by NotSoDevy

Emi Leafy by @bluebun69

SunFIRE and Creamy by the respective owners

Milly Prower by SallyAc63038470

Millie the Fox by CartoonAnimates22

The various characters, including Kaede/Detective Ghost, by ApocalypseTitan

Special Thanks

@trocyte: for helping get all the FNF/Funkinverse information correct.

SFG1235 and @bluebun69: for showing support for the project and being alright with both your AUs being featured here.

@btnfstudios: thanks for the sweet questions you provided for the Q&A so far!

Marvel and Sony Pictures Animation: for designing a wonderful tribute to all things Spider-Man!

NightAkio: for contributing your OC and Candy's as cameos, alongside the idea of Lord Mortis showing up.

All those I've seen crafting wonderful NU retakes behind the scenes, such as Stitches, PrimalKoopa and @chicaseptic!

SEGA and Sonic Team: for bringing the way past cool blue blur into our lives!

And, of course, you guys! Thanks for giving the webcomic/fanfic a read!

Sonic the Hedgehog is (C) of SEGA and Sonic Team as of 1990.

[sege-h]

Alright this post has been ruminating in my brain for at least 2 months now and I finally have the time/focus to make it.

And it all spawned from seeing Tristamp fans going ‘Old Trigun fans only hate the new one because it changes so much from the manga, as if their beloved ‘98 version didn’t do that too’ so

As someone that’s never read the manga* (*I’ve started reading it but I’m not really far in) that knows that ain’t it and is proof of it, I’m about to go into why I don’t like the latest iteration of Trigun

So like. If you’re a fan and hate perspectives other than ‘Omg I love this show it’s SO good’, probably don’t read this

Creature design

Putting this in first because it’s probably what could be considered my most minor gripe with the show out of everything.

The creature design for the bugs? Excellent! Love it!

But then you get to...the Thomas Look at this, this is a goddamn Creature

They’ve got fun weird designs, and their heads are actually fukken Tiny-located at the ‘beak’ of their masks, and they don’t even look bird-like under there!

So it’s really disappointing when a studio that’s shown they can do great creature design comes up with....this...

Just. A blue emu. With such low color contrast between the beak and the feathers that it could get mistaken for a ‘base texture’ model. Like. C’mon.

But again that’s what could be considered my most minor of complaints so I’ll just move along to my next topics

The Human Typhoon

So. Vash already has a bounty on him at the start of this series- as he usually does. But like...why...?

He doesn’t really do much gunslinging in this series, he kinda just goes around and helps people-- which yes he does in the original series too, and people in towns already know/like him. But the difference is-- the season finale reveals that all the events in Tristamps first season took place before the events at July. So why is Vash already wanted with a huge bounty on his head? The whole ‘oh people keep mistaking Knives for him’ feels pretty flimsy since they don’t really look or act similar- and whole towns seem to know Vash just from him stopping by. He’s kind of just. Some depressed guy that goes around helping people.

Which is another thing. Tristamps Vash really is just Some Depressed Guy.

Yes ‘98 Vash is depressed too, but he hides all this, along with his rage, underneath the mask of a goofy clumsy doofus. It’s part of what makes him so interesting as a character. You watch what he does, you see all the ‘clumsy mistakes’ he makes that end up saving either himself or others that you KNOW are deliberate moves on his part, you see all the moments where you know there’s anger bubbling under the surface that he never lets loose, all the excellent gunmanship that never turns lethal even though it’d be so easy for him to mow down anyone that threatens him. And you have pieces of what’s lying under the mask that you have to start putting together.

You have a man that’s gotten very good at hiding his feelings, and his past and the things that haunt him.

Which is why it was so jarring that at the end of episode one, Tristamp’s Vash gets asked ‘what are you scared of?’ and just immediately answers ‘I have a brother.’ and in the next episode he’s just ready to answer a reporter’s questions about it and about himself.

I was just like...really??? He just immediately spills this to people he met 5 minutes ago???

There’s just so much of Vash’s nuance that’s stripped away completely from his character here- and he’s not the only one but I’ll get into that later.

And he’s just really...timid. Which- there’s nothing wrong with timid characters. But in Vash’s case it’s another case of this show’s ‘nuance-be-gone’ showing.

Vash is a pacifist, refusing to kill people in a world full of people that’d shoot him dead without batting an eye. And as you get a whiff of that rage of his that lies beneath the surface, you wonder why.

Tristamp Vash just really...doesn’t even get comically angry over things- again because he doesn’t even have the emotional mask Vash usually has. And he doesn’t do much gunslinging either, at least not until the final episode of the season.

He’s entirely too trusting for someone that’s been through the things he has. Vash as a character, at least from my POV, is a bit more complex with his trust. He trusts people with the chance to do the right thing. But he doesn’t trust people with himself- again going back to the fact Tristamp Vash just immediately goes ‘I have a brother’. And while he trusts people with the chance to do the right thing, he doesn’t just assume anyone Would take that chance. So Tristamp Vash just going ‘I know Wolfwood is a good person I see it in his eyes :)’ was equally jarring when he’s only known Wolfwood for like 5 minutes, just like with Roberto and Meryl

And I frankly just miss Vash bickering with someone like Wolfwood, instead of whatever’s happening in Tristamp where it feels like Wolfwood keeps trying to start to bicker with Vash only for Vash to be all ‘Wolfwood... <:)’ at him despite having just met him

It was fun, Vash finding a dude who’s so similar to him that he can spot his fake smile from a mile away, yet opposite in some ways and then just bickering with him was fun

Wolfwood has any nuance taken away from him as well-he was a guy that was sent to keep an eye on Vash and to kill him if he got the order to, that spent enough time with Vash that they end up being friends, and he frustrated because that was never supposed to happen.

But Stampede rushes through it’s own story set up so fast that he’s just left being kind of the edgy guy that hangs around and yells at Vash, and they want us to see them as friends because??? I don’t know, because that’s how the story is supposed to go, and we have no time for ‘show don’t tell’.

Vash and Knives

Speaking of lost nuances in relationships. Knives’ attitude towards Vash is a lot less compelling in this show to me.

I can’t speak on anything that goes on in the manga, so again that’s not even my ‘Old Trigun fan hates Stampede because of this’ issue.

To me it just seemed like Stampede Knives saw Vash as less than him. Like something broken that needs to be fixed, or remade into something ‘better’ and on his level.

Which...I don’t know. To me that’s a lot less compelling-- especially as Stampede Knives still thinks plants like him are  superior to humans! But still treats his brother, who’s the same being as him, as less. He even seems to treat other plants as less, as just fodder for his plans.

That’s a lot less compelling than a guy that thinks plants, any plants, independent like him and Vash or not, as superior to humans. The contrast there is just a lot more fun to me- of Vash, who doesn’t think he’s superior to anyone, and Knives, his twin brother that thinks they’re superior to humans and that Vash should just join him in destroying them already. Knives didn’t think Vash needed to be fixed or that he was less-- he saw Vash as his equal, but just thought he was lost in a delusional phase where he tries to live alongside humans. And he did think it was just a fleeting phase- that one day Vash would see his own superiority and abandon them after he’s had all his fun. It was just that that day wasn’t coming fast enough for Knives’ liking, so he tried to break Vash and make him ‘realize’ humans aren’t worth his time and that he should just join his brother already.

The Plants

This maybe could’ve gone under ‘creature designs’ but it didn’t quite fit because the plants are both creatures but also environments.

I don’t quite mind the designs of the plants as creatures in Stampede.

But I don’t like what they did with the environment they’re kept in at all.

I miss the giant light bulbs that stuck out of the remnants of old space ships, and how they both looked fragile due to their design but were also way too big to make stealing them be just a simple feat.

How there was no way to go into a town and be unaware of them, but any regular person would still be unaware of just what plants are

The plants in Stampede are just...they’re just the tumor device from Homestuck. Which I know sounds like an unhinged sentence so here’s a visual for what I mean

Corporate wants you to find the difference between these two pictures

Which isn’t a bad design in general but to me it’s a bad design for something that contains plants

Tropes

That’s what everyone in Stampede is. Just walking tropes without any character actually attached to them-- I keep talking about the loss of character and nuance in this show, and that’s all it really boils down to. It’s not just one or two characters that are stripped of it, it’s all of them. They’re walking tropes, and the writers keep acting like they’re characters with connections that they only ever tell us about instead of showing us or actually developing them like.

Wolfwood is just some edgy guy that keeps being angry at Vash, but no wait actually they’re friends and Wolfwood would go into battle with him.

He and Livio are adoptive brothers but we are told this rather than shown-- I’m a sucker for story beats like these so you know something’s wrong when it doesn’t tug on my heartstrings as much as it should. Wolfwood seems more ready to kill Livio- his childhood friend and adoptive brother, than he is Vash who he met a day ago and is supposed to be ready to kill.

Roberto is a drunkard that keeps not even using Meryl’s name and keeps mocking her for being a ‘rookie’. But no wait actually he cares for her deeply, like an adoptive father would even, and also she respects him too! It means so much to her when he calls her by name!

Like don’t even get me started on Roberto. I hated him, and as a character made up entirely for this show, what the writers do with all of them is the most obvious with him.

Like he spends the entire show being drunk, constant one liners of ‘rookie the world is a shithole’ and burping and lines that make me livid like ‘whoop, noob down’ in Fucking 2023

And then comes the moment where he dies. And he leaves Meryl with some parting advice, and a gun. And you realize. Oh. The writers wanted us to see Roberto as just ‘the tired dad or maybe tired uncle’. But they never actually did any character development or character moments that show this, or even develop it in the first place. They’re jumping straight from point A to point Z

All the characters are just building blocks or crumbs of who they’re supposed to be. I’ve seen so much fanart and memes from people that have only watched Stampede that would fit PERFECTLY with their ‘98 counterparts. Because the crumbs for what these characters are IS there, and fandom is incredibly good at building entire characters out of any crumbs a writer gives them but....that usually applies to like side characters and background characters. Meanwhile these are your MAIN CHARACTERS! You’re supposed to have more than just crumbs for characters when they’re your main cast, especially after a season!

I could say some things about how shipping factors into this, but I’d rather not get viciously mauled by shippers, so I won’t

Episode 1 is just bait for old fans

Literally from the very first teaser for it. You get everything I complained Vash lacked earlier, and then some, and it’s just in this one episode.

You get fun western-y music. You get Vash showing his skills, and actually firing his guns. You get him being a doofus, and pulling expressions like this

Which is like...God. GOD I miss Vash pulling funny and exaggerated expressions! Especially since this shows us they CAN push the models like that, and it looks so fun! And then they just. Don’t do it again.

They pull you in with ‘yes this is a different show, but still has some of the Trigun things you love in it!’ and then they don’t do it again for the rest of the season. No ‘who the hell even is this guy’ feats of gunmanship, no fun times, no exaggerated fun expressions, and no Vash yelling and being a doofus...which is the other thing

Voice acting

Everyone’s kind of. Subdued in that department. Like they could do more but they just don’t do it. And so does Vash. You get Johnny Yong Bosch to reprise his very first VA role, and then you don’t even let him go all out or really have any scenes that’d LET him go all out? I think that should be a crime

You have scenes here and there where you get to hear him do his ‘a panicked Vash is running’ noises and those are good but it leaves you wishing we had more scenes where he could be a goof

And then in the season finale he finally FINALLY gets to yell and have some emotion but even that feels just a tad held back

But the voice acting issue could be entirely because Crunchyroll especially loves to live up to the ‘Crunch’ in its name which is a whole other can of worms that’s not related to Trigun alone so. I’m gonna let it slide

Jesus, Sege, is there anything you DO like in Stampede?

I like the worm creature design! And I like Zazie. Zazie is definitely the best thing about Stampede and I like that they kinda set up a third party in the whole humans vs. plants thing by just being the insect creatures that have lived on Gunsmoke long before the ships crashed. The planet was theirs, and now they suddenly have two new species on it, and one of the new species is trying to wage war and destruction on the other, so they’re just trying to figure out which one will be more beneficial to them. I think that’s fun.

I also like the animation! I love what they’ve done with the 3D-- before this series whenever I tried to get into a series with animation that’s like ‘its CG but it’s looking like 2D animation’ I just couldn’t get into it. I could never figure out what it was about the style that kinda put me off. But I finally did it with this series!

I...like the final season 1 episode? Maybe? I have issues with it but honestly I think Vash getting to yell, and fire his gun as part of a big fight scene was such a breath of fresh air after the whole season that I just didn’t care

I like the music but it also feels like I have to just listen to the OST to actually get to hear music other than the Jenora Rock Resistance and Knives’ theme, it doesn’t feel very prominent in the show

Conclusion

Stampede is just. Not a good show. Not ‘not a good Trigun show’, just plain not a good show. If I’d never seen ‘98 Trigun earlier this year, I’d still have all the issues with it that don’t have to do with Trigun related things like the Thomas or the plant environmental designs or the character dynamics. I’d still think the characters are just walking tropes and that the writers want the payoff without any of the buildup or development, I’d still think it’s jarring how quick Vash is to trust people with his past, or trust that Wolfwood is good. I’d still be glad Roberto is dead because I’d still hate him.

It’s not just me theorizing on ‘what ifs’, I think it’s the most evident that I’d have the same emotions by how I reacted to the Livio episode. I haven’t gotten to him in the manga, and he isn’t in the ‘98 anime. I have nothing to compare that episode to, but it still left me feeling like the writers wanted payoff without development.

If I’d never seen Trigun ‘98, I’d have probably dropped this series after the first season, if not the first few episodes.

But having seen Trigun ‘98, I’m left morbidly curious as to what the plans are for the story. It’s like watching someone put together a puzzle by mixing the pieces around, and they’re still making an image form so you’re just curious as to wtf this thing will look like once it’s completed compared to the picture on the box.

So I’m kind of just along for the ride now even though the ride keeps crashing every 5 minutes

[siphersaysstuff]

LOCKTOBER!

It's "Locktober", a month entirely about Dinobot leader GRIMLOCK! I mean, what else could it be? So let's close in on some of the plastic toys of the Autobot warrior who simply won't be restrained in this month's batch of Patron-backed @tfwiki pictures!

Sadly, I don't have wiki-worthy samples of the first Grimlock toy, G1 or G2 (also I'd want all 3 G2 decos represented). But here's the Action Master, the fourth release of the character in the original toyline. He came with an "Anti-tank cannon" partner/drone (bonus pic!).

Robots in Disguise 2001 Grimlock, named to secure the Trademark, is one of the most awkward Transformers toys ever made. Them arms, man. This yellow deco was a Hasbro exclusive, released in a post-RID 4-pack of the entire Build Team on Black Friday 2003. Thank you for preserving the name.

The only Unicron Trilogy Grimlock wasn't even originally supposed to be in that series! The Energon Grimlock & Swoop toys (who can combine into Mega-Dinobot) were originally meant to be in the concurrently-running Universe line, but got shifted to the combination-centric Energon.

Grimlock was a natural choice to be in the very limited 2006 Classics line, though him being a Deluxe baffled many. Still, for my money this is a great redesign. I can just see him biting down on a Decepticon, pinning him to the floor, and transforming to stand directly on top of him.

Grimlock made a splash in Animated, though his role and number of toys ended up being pretty limited overall. Still, aside from the big Voyager toy, there's the smaller Activator version, with a partially-spring-loaded conversion activated by pressing the gold button on his dino-butt.

Shattered Glass Grimlock started as a brainless beast. But the pre-convention "prank" comic pages by @therobotmonster and myself portrayed him as highly intelligent and verbose, inspired by the Brain Gremlin from "Gremlins 2". Which went over so well that's how he ended up in later SG stories!

Weirdly, it took some time for Grimlock to show up in the Kre-O building-brick line. The first were Age of Extinction sets, including one with an inexplicable G1-based build and Kreon in the "Grimlock Unleashed" set! G1 Grim also showed up in the "Kreon Class of '85" San Diego Comic Con 2015 exclusive set.

Speaking of Age of Extinction Grimlock, one of the oddest toys of this version of the character is this Walmart-exclusive redeco of the ten-year-old Energon Cruellock mold! The "energon star" accessory has been glued into place to hide that the toy lacks its "spark crystal".

And speaking of weird Grimlocks, Angry Birds Transformers! The app's still going, what the hell? It briefly had actual toys, which included this Jenga-branded "Optimus Prime Attack Game" set with a Grimlock Bird Jenga frame! And yes, this thing is in the mobile game. In both, the goal is to knock out as many tummy bricks and pigs as possible.

The large "Hyper Change Heroes" 3-Step version of Robots In Disguise 2015 Grimlock is possibly the perfect-scale dino-mode toy compared to his teammates' Warrior-class toys (def a bit too big in robot mode)… but ooh, does he take a big hit in robot-mode posability and accuracy from the waist down.

Cyberverse "Spark Armor" Grimlock came with a "Trash Crash" dump truck that forms incredibly bulky armor for him. Interchangeability of the Spark Armors has not been extensively tested to the best of my (admittedly limited) knowledge on the subject.

Of course, G1 Grimmers gets loads of merch. He's currently the only TF to have two wholly-different molds in Super7's ReAction retro action figure line, with both robot and dino mode figs. This G2-colored (but not G2-symbol'd, boo) figure was one of many, many Target exclusive ReAction figs.

Let's end on the "ultimate" G1 Grimlock (well, non-Masterpiece version, though one can argue which of those two is truly "ultimate"), Studio Series! He came with a semi-posable Wheelie figure, so when his price point was inevitably budget-cut, the "partner" fig could be dropped, a sacrifice so the later Dinobots could still afford AN accessory.

If you enjoy these stomps through Transformers toy history, you can help out by joining my Patreon at "gregstfwikipics". Every little bit helps get more pics out a month, plus at higher pledge tiers you can even pick a theme!

[ptbf2002]

Happy Belated 59th Birthday To Tabitha St. Germain

Jimmy Two-Shoes Belongs To Sean Scott, Edward Kay, Alex Galatis, Kevin Gillis, Mark Evastaff, Mercury Filmworks, Elliott Animation Inc. TELETOON Original Production TELETOON Canada Inc. Corus Entertainment Inc. Corus Entertainment Inc. Jetix Europe N.V. Disney XD, Disney Branded Television, Disney–ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution, Disney General Entertainment Content, Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, Disney Entertainment, Disney Enterprises, Inc. The Walt Disney Company

Krypto the Superdog Belongs To Otto Binder, Curt Swan, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, DongWoo Animation Co. Ltd. Studio B Productions, Inc. DHX Media Vancouver, WildBrain Studios, Starburst Animation Studios Co., Ltd. Top Draw Animation Inc. Mercury Filmworks, DC Comics, Inc. DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation Inc. Kids' WB, The WB Television Network, The WB Television Network, Inc. Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC, Tribune Media Company, Cartoon Network, The Cartoon Network, Inc. Warner Bros. Discovery Networks, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution Warner Bros. Television Studios, Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. WarnerMedia, And Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.

Astérix: The Mansions of the Gods Belongs To René Goscinny, Albert Uderzo, Alexandre Astier, Mikros Animation, Mikros Image, Belvision, Grid Animation, M6 Films, M6 Studio, Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie, M6, W9, Metropole Télévision S.A. And Groupe M6

Packages from Planet X Belongs to Jeff Harter, Cyberchicken Animation, American Greetings Corporation, DHX Media Vancouver, WildBrain Studios, WildBrain Ltd. TELETOON, TELETOON Canada Inc. Corus Entertainment Inc. Disney XD, Disney Branded Television, Disney–ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution, Disney General Entertainment Content, Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, Disney Entertainment, And The Walt Disney Company

Dorg Van Dango Belongs To Fabian Erlinghäuser, Nora Twomey, Nick V. Murphy, Cartoon Saloon, WildBrain Studios, Family Channel, WildBrain Ltd. RTÉjr, TRTÉ, RTÉ2, Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Nickelodeon, Nickelodeon Group, Paramount Global Content Distribution, Paramount International Networks, Paramount Domestic Media Networks, Paramount Media Networks, Inc. And Paramount Global

Ed, Edd, N Eddy Belongs To Danny Antonucci, Yeson Animation Studios, Funbag Animation Studios, A.K.A. Cartoon Inc. Cartoon Network, The Cartoon Network, Inc. Warner Bros. Discovery Networks, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution Warner Bros. Television Studios, Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. WarnerMedia And Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.

Angry Birds: Summer Madness Belongs To Rob Doherty, Scott Sonneborn, Yowza! Animation, Kickstart Entertainment, CAKE Entertainment Ltd. Rovio Animation, Ltd. Rovio Entertainment Corporation, SEGA Corporation, SEGA Sammy Holdings Inc. Sony Pictures Television Studios, Sony Pictures Television Inc. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Sony Entertainment, Inc. Sony Corporation of America, Sony Group Corporation, And Netflix, Inc.

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 Belongs To Reed Shelly, Bruce Shelly, Hong Ying Animation Co., Ltd. Sei Young Animation Co., Ltd. Nintendo of America, Nintendo Co., Ltd. DIC Animation City, Inc. DIC Entertainment Corporation, Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. DHX Media, Ltd. WildBrain Ltd. Italia 1, Mediaset S.P.A. MediaForEurope N.V. NBC, NBC Entertainment, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, NBCUniversal Media Group, NBCUniversal Media, LLC, And Comcast Corporation

Pucca (TV Series) (2006-2008) Belongs To Boo Kyoung Kim, Calvin Kim, VOOZ Co., Ltd. Studio B Productions, Inc. DHX Media Vancouver, WildBrain Studios, DHX Media, Ltd. WildBrain Ltd. MBC TV (South Korean TV channel), Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, Toon Disney, Jetix, Jetix Europe N.V. Disney Branded Television, Disney–ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution, Disney General Entertainment Content, Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, Disney Entertainment, Disney Enterprises, Inc. And The Walt Disney Company

[princesssarisa]

the 7-questions-ask: Horace Horsecollar (Disney)

Three facts about them from my personal headcanons.

He wishes Clarabelle Cow would be his girlfriend exclusively, but he's willing to wait for her to choose between him and Goofy.

His favorite foods are corn on the cob and watermelon, which he's shown eating at the picnic in the 1931 cartoon The Beach Party.

He would have been a more prominent character over the years if Goofy had never joined the gang. In the early cartoons he often played the role of Mickey's sidekick, and if fate had been different, he could have kept that role forever. But when Goofy came along, the studio started giving those parts to him instead because he was funnier. Horace, though still a friend, couldn't help but fade into the background.

A reason they suck:

In The Beach Party, when the gang is fighting off an angry octopus, he repeatedly kicks Clarabelle in the rear to shoot jars of olives at the octopus from her mouth. Even if it does give the jars more traction, it's not very gentlemanly to kick a lady.

A reason they are great:

Even though his roles have been limited, he's still a likable character whenever he appears.

A reason I relate to them:

I also enjoy taking care of people.

(what I consider to be) the top tier otp/ot3 for that character:

I like him with Clarabelle, and if I could make her choose between her two boyfriends, I think I'd want her to choose him over Goofy.

Five things that never happened to the character that I believe should have happened:

That he had bigger roles and a more clearly defined personality.

That he would star in a new cartoon short as the main character for a change.

That Clarabelle would chose him as her one-and-only boyfriend.

That his ability from the old cartoons to switch back-and-forth between his anthropomorphic form and the form of a regular horse would be acknowledged as his special talent.

That his friendship and occasional rivalry with Goofy would get more emphasis – there's unmined comic potential in that.

Five people that character never fell in love with and why.

Minnie Mouse. She's taken, and besides, he likes tall women.

Daisy Duck. Ditto.

Clara Cluck. He's not into birds.

Mickey's sister Felicity Fieldmouse. Besides being too short for his taste, she's already married with two kids.

Snow White. She's a nice girl, but he's not into humans.

[anthony7612]

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!

Hey! I'm Anthony7612. I'm just a guy that loves creating fanworks for his favorite fandoms! Also, i talk about those cookies that run. A LOT. Get used to it.

Name: Anthony7612

Pronouns: He/Him

Favorite Color: Green and Purple

Country of Birth: Costa Rica

Languages Spoken: English + Spanish

Favorite Fandoms: Cookie Run (Main Fandom), Sonic the Hedgehog, Friday Night Funkin', Cartoon Network in general, Angry Birds, Five Nights at Freddy's, Epithet Erased, Doki Doki Literature Club, Minecraft, Learning with Pibby: Apocalypse, Roblox, Fundamental Paper Education, Puyo Puyo

DO NOT INTERACT: If you're: Transphobic, Homophobic, Proshipper, TCC Blog, Cringe/Flop Blog, DSMP Fan, Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss Fan, NSFW Artist (for now), MAP, Zionist, Pro-AI Art

I CREATED THESE BLOGS:

@crkstarrynights

@askcookieruncataclysmgang

@askcookierunacademyau

@pibbywebofdarkness (CLOSED DUE TO LACK OF AUDIENCE)

@askmoonbeamcookie

WHERE TO FIND ME:

Twitter

GameJolt

GameBanana

Archive Of Our Own

Youtube

Discord: anthony7612

Cookie Run Kingdom + Ovenbreak: Anthony7612

Steam

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Pony Town + Ashes Town: Anthony7612

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- Enjoy your stay! -

WARNING: A MAJORITY OF MY CONTENT IS 13+. THEY CONTAIN THINGS LIKE SERIOUS + DISTURBING THEMES, BLOOD AND GORE, SWEARING, AND OTHER STUFF.

Previous Pinned Post

[rawnion]

The Crunch Bird (1971)

https://youtu.be/imFOrbIwV04

-Lead animator/Director/Studio

A Maxwell-Petok-Petrovich Production; directed and produced by Ted Petok, and animated by Joe Petrovich.

-Outline of the story

A lady sets out to town to buy a birthday gift for her husband. She enters a pet store, and becomes set on buying a “crunch bird” despite how dangerous and destructive the bird seems. To demonstrate, the shopkeeper called the crunch bird’s name and said “the chair”, to which the crunch bird, on cue, flew to the chair, shredding it to pieces with its razor sharp teeth. The lady sees no problem with this, and is glad to have found something unique and different. She takes the bird home and awaits her husband's return, where he later arrives—exhausted from the stressful day he’s had from paying off his wife’s shopping bills. He becomes furious upon discovering that she had gone shopping again, asking his wife what exactly it was that she had bought this time. The wife explains that it is a crunch bird, to which he replies: “Crunch bird? My ass!” as an angry exclamation. The crunch bird mistakes this as a cue to crunch and destroy. The bird flies over to the man’s behind with its beak open, ready to crunch, before the entire screen goes black.

-The Technique, or new Technology used in the creation of the short?

The technique used to create this short film was traditional, hand-drawn animation. Ted Petok had animated and directed award-winning commercials, and more than two dozen cartoon shorts before he worked on The Crunch Bird. The project was developed by him and his associates, which had ‘exceeded his ‘wildest dreams’’ by featuring a naughty bird. His Oscar win for this short encouraged him to finance, produce, and direct the sequel ‘The Crunch Bird II’ that came out four years later in 1975.

-The Reception (How did people of the time feel about it)

At the time this short was released, people were caught off guard by the unexpected ending, and had mixed opinions about it. Some liked the short and found it amusing and surprising in a funny way, because during that period it was uncommon to have words like “ass” show up in cartoons. Other audiences found it inappropriate and offensive. Later on, the short appeared on the 1982 TV series “Jokebook”, but the line "Crunch Bird, my ass!" had been censored and changed to "Crunch Bird, my butt!" This comical short film with its simple humor won an Academy Award in 1971 for “Best Short Subject”, with a running time of two minutes and thirty two seconds. 

-Sources used:

Lenburg, J. (2006). Who's Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film and Television's Award-Winning and Legendary Animators. United States: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books.

https://www.bcdb.com/cartoon-reviews/38899-Crunch-Bird

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crunch_Bird-The Reception (How did people of the time feel about it)

[fireflyish121]

Ds Cartridges

[sortanonymous]

Sorta Angry Comics #6 - "Big Green Inflatable Machine"

[someone-inthebackground]

Oh yeah, this is the first thing i did after finding out there's an angry birds comic studio

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael in the Mainstream: The Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad has frequently been touted as one of the worst comic book movies ever, and honestly? I don’t really agree, even if I almost wholeheartedly agree with every criticism of it. The editing is bad, the story is a mess, the Squad’s friendship is nonexistent, characters like Waller act like absolute idiots, Enchantress is a bad character and an absurd villain for these people to face… And yet, the core cast of scoundrels are all pretty likable when you wipe off the crap they’re buried under. These characters all could have shined bright if they were given competent writing and direction; the ideas are there, but the execution is unbelievably flawed due to excessive executive meddling (and probably a bit of pretentiousness on director David Ayer’s part). If only there was a director capable of taking the concept of a bunch of C-list villains getting together and performing dangerous missions and, along the way, becoming a found family…

That director thankfully exists, and his name is James Gunn. Gunn has already shown twice that he is capable of doing “a bunch of assholes become a found family” really well with the two Guardians of the Galaxy films, films that have a lot of style and flair that help make them the best films in the MCU, and considering Suicide Squad was mangled the way it was to try and be more in line with his Guardians films, it only makes sense to pull him in to give Task Force X another shot. Why settle for imitations when you can get the real thing? It’s not like he was doing anything else while Mickey Mouse put him in time out for naughty tweets, after all.

But this isn’t Gunn under the thumb of the Mouse, oh no; this is Gunn allowed to go absolutely wild. This is Gunn given the budget of a modern superhero film and asked to make a Troma picture, with all the blood, gore, and cheesiness that entails, and by god did he pull it off. Right from the get go we are given a taste of just what sort of movie we’re in for as a mangy child-murdering weasel man shows up and Nathan Fillion detaches his arms from his body to gently tap enemy soldiers on the head, and somehow things only get wackier from there.

Gunn seemed to actively go out of his way to fix every single problem of the original film. The characters, for instance, are all fairly similar to those of the first film. Bloodsport is clearly the stand in for Deadshot, but where Deadshot was just your average charming, funny Will Smith role to the point it could get distracting, Idris Elba makes Bloodsport a tired straight man to the wacky antics around him and portrays his growth through the film very well. Peacemaker is the jackass of the team in the vein of Captain Boomerang, but where Boomerang had little use in the narrative despite being the best and funniest non-Harley member of the team, Peacemaker is given his full due, with John Cena making him one of the funniest assholes ever put to film and even giving him a bit of depth and moral complexity. King Shark, AKA Nanaue, is obviously Killer Croc’s replacement, but where Croc was bland and really just stood in the background the whole movie, Nanaue is a sweet, charming, funny oaf with brutal strength who is just absolutely lovable and adorable, all capped off with hilarious vocal delivery from Sylvester Stallone himself. Polka-Dot Man is something of a replacement for El Diablo, though while El Diablo was really bungled by the narrative despite being well-acted and sympathetic, Polka-Dot Man is given ample opportunity to be funny, tragic, and useful all at once, and gives him a bit of an arc (pretty impressive for a character who was added in solely because Gunn googled who the lamest DC villains were). And finally, Ratcatcher is something of the replacement for Katana, being the second woman of the squad and the token good teammate, though where Katana was awkwardly shoehorned in at the last minute, Ratcatcher is clearly the heart of this team and brings the band together. Overall, the new Squad is leagues better than the original, and you will care for this band of criminals by the film’s end.

Returning characters get their due as well, particularly the ones really screwed over by the first film Waller and Flag get it the best of all. In the first film, Waller’s entire scheme was stupid, nonsensical, contradictory, and basically everything she did went against what was told to us about her, namely that she is a master manipulator. It was really a waste of Viola Davis, who had the presence and mannerisms down but who was constantly being failed by a shoddy script. Thankfully, that’s not the case here; Waller is very much the ultimate, manipulative girlboss she should be, from using her own troops as a distraction for another team to threatening Bloodsport with his daughter getting raped and murdered in prison over a minor offense if he doesn’t join her Suicide Squad. She is a stone cold bitch you will love to hate, and is easily one of the best comic book villains in film now (quite the turnaround all things considered). Flag is an actual character in this movie, with great chemistry with the members of the new Squad, particularly Bloodsport and Harley. Much like Bloodsport, he also gets a bit of a rivalry with Peacemaker going, which ends up being entertaining and even leads to a truly sad moment late in the film. Quite impressive for a guy who did nothing but spout awkward exposition in the first film.

Then we have Harley. I’m going to be honest, Harley has never been written better than she was in this film. While Robbie has had the character down from day one, the scripts have consistently failed her. The original film did nothing with her but sexualize her and have her spout crappy one-liners, and while Birds of Prey was a massive step up and had her written as she should be, the overall narrative of that film didn’t quite give her the due she deserved due to her feeling like a passive character pushed around by the flow of the plot. Here, though, Harley fully grasps at what’s given to and takes charge when she can, leading to one of the best action scenes in a film full of them. She ahs great interactions with her teammates and is just consistently funnier than she ever has been before, and it makes me happy to know someone who loves this character as much as Robbie does is finally getting to truly shine as she deserves.

The music and editing are vastly better. Remember how the original film had a new licensed song every minute, and almost all of them made no sense, and the music that played for Deadshot was exclusively rap artists (which was lowkey kinda racist)? Well, Gunn is bringing his ability to weave songs into the narrative with this one, but he also gives plenty of time for the music composed for the film to shine. As for the editing, gone are the obtrusive comic-book style cards that announce stupid throwaway details (and in a few cases, plot points you will very likely miss), replaced by more amusing and less obtrusive gags. The movie is also cut in a way where, you know, it makes sense. Everything flows naturally, and while there are a couple of points where time rewinds so we can see how we got to a certain point, it’s never so confusing that you can’t follow it.

The stakes are vastly overhauled. It made zero sense in the first film that Waller would assemble a team that consists of people whose powers range from “is good with weapons” to “is an Aztec fire god” to “is a big ugly crocodile man” to take on Superman-level threats. This is like if you sent a Boy Scout troop to fight Godzilla, it’s just not gonna end well and there’s an absurd disparity in power levels. Here, the team is being sent on a general black ops mission and have their skills selected by who would be most useful for the mission, and while they do end up taking on something a bit outside their context in the form of a certain cyclopean starfish alien, it’s a bit easier to swallow because of the buildup and because “big angry alien” is a lot more sensible as a threat to black op vigilantes than “ancient interdimensional witch goddess with a zombie army.”

Most importantly, though, is that this film lives up to its title. This is very much a suicide mission, and where the last team made it out relatively unscathed, this film suffers a lot of casualties. Characters die for gags, characters die suddenly, you might think a character is going to be a big, important part of the plot only for them to be dispatched right when it seems they’re getting going. For a film like this, it works perfectly, and some of the deaths are absolutely hilarious. That being said, you can kind of predict who lives and who dies based on star power alone; do you really think Harley’s gonna bite it? Come on.

I don’t really have many issues with the movie, but I will reiterate: this is essentially a Troma film with a massive budget, made by one of their alumni. Troma is a studio that makes gory, gross, and awesome B-grade movies and a similar irreverent mentality is on display here. If you can stomach gore, violence, and absurdity then this is a film you’re probably going to get into, but it’s definitely not the kind of comic book movie for everyone. Thankfully, it is exactly the kind of comic book movie for me. It honestly feels like the sort of movie I’d want to make, where I take a bunch of stupid C-list villains with dumb powers and give them actual development and characterization to the point the audience feels something for them. You’re going to be moved by a girl who controls rats, a stupid shark man, and a depressed dude who shoots polka-dots from his hands, and you’re not going to care.

I really hope they follow this up with another one, especially if they bring James Gunn back. There were a lot of characters he considered for the team, and a lot of them have potential, be that hilarious or dramatic. I mean, the man considered Mr. Freeze, that guy could be one hell of a leading man! Round out the team with some of the considered ideas like Rainbow Creature, Solomon Grundy, Chemo, Livewire, Punch and Jewelee, Man-Bat, Dogwelder, and the almighty Kite Man, and you’ve got one hell of a Suicide Squad! Also, maybe get Gunn to consider Crazy Quilt and Condiment King.

Really, the possibilities are endless, and that’s what the fun of a Suicide Squad movie should be: seeing the dumbest dregs of comic book history thrown into a place where they’re probably going to die horribly. Gunn managed to get that when Ayer couldn’t, and the results are perhaps his magnum opus. This is Gunn at his best and most free, unchained from the restrictions of forcing a film to tie into a bunch of others while also using all the tricks of his signature style to craft a damn fine film that easily holds up on its own outside the context of the DCEU. These are the kind of comic book movies we need, so let’s hope this film gets the respect it deserves so it acts as a wakeup call for studios content to churn out

[lovingmyselfcore]

Rainbow Moonlight

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH GUYS GALS AND NON-BINARY PALS

Ahhhhh I have goals for content this month but if I say them then I can be held accountable so ummmm

Anyway have some gays in an au....

"You met me yesterday. Yes and I would die for you, next question." From @ciaraloves I changed the prompt a little babe hope you don't mind

It was a dark evening, the sky was an inky black, no moon in sight, which Alex knew because he’d been staring at the sky for a while now.

He’d snuck out, something he’d never done before.

It was terrifying.

He’d come out to his parents a week ago, something he’d been scared to do for months, but he had Julie, Luke, and Reggie to constantly tell him he could do this, and they would always love and support him, so he’d done it.

They didn’t get mad, as he’d been afraid they’d do, they hadn’t thrown him out. What they had done had almost been worse.

They ignored him.

They were distant, attempting to act like nothing had happened at all, trying to ignore the pride flag over his bed that Flynn had gotten him for his birthday a few weeks before. They pretended to not know that their son wasn’t going to continue the bloodline in the way they hoped.

Tonight, it had gotten to be too much. Alex laid in his bed, and felt like the house was closing in on him, he couldn’t breathe. At the start of the evening, his parents acted just like they had since he came out, but it seemed like they’d worked up their courage, determined to have it out with him.

“So I was talking to my friend at work,” His mom said.

Alex looked up so fast he felt like he got whiplash, fork clanging as it hit his plate. His mom winced at the sound and seemed to falter now that she had his attention.

His dad reached across the table to grab her hand, like having a simple dinner conversation with their gay son was something that needed back-up. He wanted to roll his eyes.

But this was the most she’s said in a long time, so he held back the cutting remarks bubbling up his throat, and schooled his face into an expression he hoped was encouraging.

“She has a lovely daughter, Alex. You’d look good together.”

Alex went numb, his fingertips tingling as he gripped the edge of the table, digging into the marks he made as a kid using forks for drumsticks before his parents caught him. He was shaking his head.

His dad looked ready to say something but Alex felt that niggling in his chest and knew he had to get out of here.

He uncurled his hands from the table and pushed his plate away with more force than necessary. “I’m going to bed.”

“Alex!” Someone called after him but he was already running to his room, slamming the door closed and slumping against it with a dry sob. So that was that then. They’d been feeding it to him slowly since he’d come out but now it was like they shoved it down his throat with a silver spoon.

They didn’t support him.

~~~~~

Alex was rattled out of his thoughts by the sound of a skateboard on the pavement. He looked up quickly, surveying the dark park that he, Reggie, and Luke always went to when they were really young.

It was a boy. It was too dark for Alex to make out any defining features besides that.

He rolled to a stop a few feet from Alex and kicked his board up into his hands, “Hey, dude,” He says, seemingly unaware his presence initiated Alex’s fight or flight instinct. He gestured to the bench Alex was on with his skateboard, “Can I sit?”

Alex took a shaky breath and nodded. The boy sat down and Alex noted he kept a small space in between them, so they weren’t touching anywhere.

“Look, you don’t have to talk about whatever’s bothering you, but I can’t just go home not knowing if you’re okay.”

A car drove past, illuminating him in the headlights and Alex realized who he was.

Alex snapped his fingers, “You’re Julie’s friend. Willie?”

He grinned crookedly, “That’s me. And you’re Julie’s boyfriend’s cute drummer friend.”

Alex felt his face grow hot. He just said ‘cute’. Get a grip.

Alex’s brain went on overdrive: How to compliment him back, if he even should compliment him back, what his parents were thinking right now, if they even noticed he was gone, whether or not Willie was going to kill him, how insane that idea was, the probability of Julie being friends with a killer, whether or not there were killers in his school, maybe he should’ve just gone to Luke’s, no that wouldn’t be a good idea because then he’d be burdening Emily and Mitch, Reggie’s place maybe, no his parents weren’t much better then Alex’s…

It was only after that cycled through his mind that Alex realized he’d just been staring at Willie.

Willie shifted, a flash of something like discomfort in his face before he was grinning again, but this time it looked a little forced. “Do you want me to go?” He asked, voice surprisingly sincere. “Cause I’ll leave you alone if you want.”

“No!” Alex blurted, and Willie’s grin turned genuine again. Alex felt a flush creeping up his neck.

“Okay then,” Willie said, blowing at a piece of dark brown hair that fell over his face. Alex got the irrational urge to fix it for him. “Do you want to talk? About anything?”

Alex curled in a little on himself and shrugged.

Willie didn’t seem bothered by his unresponsiveness and just nodded to himself. His eyes flashed. “20 questions?”

“Are we third graders?” Alex asked with an arched eyebrow.

Willie laughed, “Why not, hotdog?”

“‘Hotdog’?” Alex asked incredulously.

Willie laughed again and Alex decided he’d be content spending the rest of his life making this beautiful boy laugh like that. “That can be one of your questions,” He said with a pointed look, eyes shining as the moon finally crept out from behind the clouds, it felt almost poetic: the moon showing her face to highlight Willie’s beauty on one of the arguably worst nights of Alex’s life so far.

“Fine,” Alex said and Willie’s grin strengthened if that was even possible. “I’ll play 20 questions. So why ‘hotdog’?”

Willie clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, “Not yet, hotdog. I go first.”

Alex rolled his eyes, shoving his hands deeper into the pocket of his hoodie. The curiosity was nearly killing him at this point.

Willie took that for encouragement and hummed, “Favorite song you’ve played with your band?”

Alex smiled, “Probably Finally Free. It’s not the best song we have but it was the first one all four of us worked on. When we first played that on stage with Julie was the first song we played in front of a crowd as a real band, that Julie and Luke both worked on writing…” He realized he was rambling as he talked with his hands and shoved his hands back into his hoodie. “Yeah. Call me sentimental, sorry.”

Willie was smiling at him with something he couldn’t decipher. “Don’t be sorry. I asked. And that’s sweet, hotdog.” Alex flushed again and Willie’s smile changed into something else. “Your turn.”

“Why hotdog?” Alex asked.

Willie’s laugh came out in a huff, “You are determined aren’t you. Well, Julie told me a summary of the story of how she met the three of you. Something about bad hot dogs, Carrie’s dad, and mom’s studio in her garage?”

Alex snorted. “Yeah, that was an eventful day.”

“So I just called you hotdog in my head because somehow Julie overlooked telling me your name in the beginning.”

Alex burst out laughing and Willie did too, some birds squawked unhappily in the trees.

“My turn,” Willie said once they calmed down. He rubbed his hands together like some supervillain from the cartoons Reggie adored.

~~~~~~

They shot questions back and forth for another twenty minutes, the moon barely moved from her position in the sky, illuminating the two boys, who had both shifted almost imperceptibly closer each minute, so now their thighs were pressed against each other and each time they moved, their shoulders brushed. Willie was rolling his skateboard between his feet on the ground as if he was a little nervous.

“My turn,” Alex said, “Why are you out here?”

Willie froze for only a beat before leaning back far too casually. He shrugged, “Just skating around a little. I live like a 10-minute walk from here.”

“Isn’t your family missing you?” He winced as soon as he said it and immediately wanted to take it back.

Willie shrugged and Alex pretended not to notice his heartbreaking a little when Willie slid a little farther away from him down the bench.

“Ask me why I’m here,” Alex said, offering the beautiful skater boy an olive branch. Let him take it, he asked the moon.

She was listening.

“Why are you here?” Willie asked, voice a little strained, looking at him with something else undecipherable in his face.

“My parents don’t accept me,” The words tasted weird in his mouth. He’d never said it out loud.

Willie suddenly looked angry, “What don’t they accept?” He took a deep breath as if bracing himself for a rant.

“I’m gay,” Alex interrupted. Willie’s mouth snapped closed, almost comically.

He blinked at Alex for long enough that Alex started panicking. Then he smiled, it spread slowly across his face, and it was the most beautiful smile Alex thought he’d ever seen.

“Your parents are stupid,” Willie declared, bringing his arm up and down like he was a judge. “They have no reason to not accept you. You’re gorgeous and brilliant, you’re hilarious, you’re a drummer in your own band which is so close to playing at the Orpheum and I know for a fact you get straight A’s. You’re gay? Fan-fucking-tastic. Makes you better, in my professional opinion.” He was out of breath by the end of his speech and Alex felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He wanted to cry. But he wouldn’t because that would be embarrassing.

“Makes me better?” He asked finally.

Willie looked a little embarrassed himself and looked down at his skateboard, which he started moving again. “Yeah. You’re amazing.”

“You care that much? Even though you met me like an hour ago?”

“Yes, and I would die for you. Next question.”

That startled a laugh out of Alex and Willie glanced up at him with a smile.

“Gorgeous, huh?” Alex asked, suddenly emboldened.

Willie gave a non-committal hum, still not meeting his eyes.

“Says you.”

Willie glanced up again, startled and Alex felt his face burning, wanting nothing more than to bury himself into his hoodie, but he forced himself to take a deep breath and met Willie’s eyes.

They just stared at each other in silence before Willie laughed disbelievingly. “This is insane. I’ve had a crush on you for the longest time, and instead of a cute confession, I basically told you in a rant about your stupid parents.”

“A crush on me for the longest time, huh?”

Willie bumped his shoulder, “Oh shut up, hotdog.”

They fell into another comfortable silence before Willie said, “My parents are too busy to notice when I leave.”

Alex looked at him but Willie looked more uncomfortable than Alex had ever seen him.

“Would you like me to ramble about how gorgeous and brilliant you are?” Alex said, hoping to ease the tension in Willie’s shoulders.

He succeeded.

Willie buried his head in his hands with an anguished cry, “Let me forget that ever happened.”

“No, because I won’t.” Willie looked up again at his serious tone and smiled, reaching forward slowly to cup Alex’s cheek.

“You still have a question left,” Alex whispered breathlessly.

“Will you let me kiss you?” Willie asked, also a little breathless.

“Yes.”

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale’s Analysis: Birds of Prey vs Sonic the Hedgehog: What Sega does what DC don't.

This will be spoiler Free, but we will be tackling some key matters regarding these two films.

This will be talking about the matters OUTSIDE of the film itself. This is not about if the movies are good or bad. In fact, I am a fan of Both Sonic and Harley Quinn. So I felt I needed to write this.

These two movies got a lot of attention over the last two weeks.

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) or better known since the Name Change. Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.

and

Sonic the Hedgehog.

Hilariously these movies are Polar opposites.

Sonic is PG, a Buddy film aimed at fans and families.

and 

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is a Rated R Gangster movie with a super hero/vigilante theme going with an all female cast of badass women.

Why would these two movies be in such conflict? 

Simple, Harley Quinn is not doing as well as everyone wants it to. And Fans of that Movie as well as Critics have been attacking Sonic.

But here is the main question.

Why is Sonic a success while Birds of Prey is flopping? (and yes it is flopping, I am not sugar coating it. It needs to make 200,000,000 mil to break even possibly more due to Marketing changes, which for a super hero movie/ staring comic book characters is VERY NOT GOOD from a financial stand point)

Is it because Men are sexist and don't want to see Birds of Prey which has been boasting about its Feminist Message? Nope. According to metrics turns out More men are seeing it then Women. 

Is it because Birds of Prey is a bad film and Sonic the hedgehog isn't? No, its not bad. The reviews from both Critics and Audience members have been relatively positive for both movies (sonic having a more favorable audience score but Harley having a better critic score).

Is it because BOP is a rated R movie? That might be why some people aren't seeing it, can't bring their little kids to something so gruesome.

Is it the Title? While the title was dumb, I doubt it was the contributing factor.

Then what is it? How does Sonic become such a smash in its opening Weekend while Birds of Prey wasn't?

The answer comes down to something absolutely simple.

The Way They Treated Their Fans.

_____________________________________________

When the first Sonic trailer came out, the FANS HATED IT. The design was repulsive, fans were outraged.

What did studio do? Yell at the fans and call them ingrates? Tell them to get over it? Tell the fans to lower their standards and just enjoy the movie? No.

They listened.

They redesigned Sonic, pushed the movie release date back to have time to make the necessary changes. They Respected their fans.

In the actor interviews, none of the actors, writers or directors talked bad about the fans. There was nothing but respect and love put into this production.

Birds of Prey didn't do that.

When the trailers received criticism, they mocked the fans, they criticized and belittled their fans. They totted out the movie as a magna opus for all women and if you didn't like it, ‘You were the problem”.

When the box office failed to see the returns on Opening weekend, there was outrage, anger, the fans  and Actors lashed out at others that didn't see it.

The actors trying to fuel the fire of the angry fans only made things worse.

A movie having a message is fine, nothing wrong with that, but people HATE being insulted and preached to just because they didn't want to see a movie. So when people see these Fans and actors being mean about people not seeing their movie and ATTACKING fans of another movie. What do you think Reasonable people will do?

Thats right, Not see the movie the angry people are screeching about. They will take their kids and go watch the nice Hedgehog and the man with the funny mustache.

If studios want people to watch a movie with a popular character they like, how about you treat the fans with some respect And not s*** on them?

Thats what Sonic did, Sonic was the gentleman that escorted its fans to the car and paid for dinner, Harley Quinn and Birds of Prey was the date that yelled at the fans for being 3 minutes late and had 3 drinks and didn't bother with the check even though it said it would pay.

 And that’s a shame. Because if Warner Brothers, BOP fandom and the actors had just handled things better, The movie would probably be more successful. 

[charliejrogers]

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) - Review & Analysis

Here’s a non-controversial statement: 2017’s Wonder Woman is a legitimately great film (if you discount the last act’s boring battle). A fun, yet emotional anti-war tale with a great period aesthetic. What elevated it from greatness was its starkly bleak reveal that Ares does not start man’s wars, but he merely gives humans ideas for how to instigate them. Ultimately, it is Man who holds responsibility for our own destruction, and despite this Wonder Woman still chooses to help us poor creatures. Cool themes, cool hero, cool movie.

Wonder Woman 1984 shares the main character from its 2017 forerunner, as well as its dedication to recreating a particular period aesthetic (here the 1980s), but the brilliant writing from the first film is gone. The main themes are essentially… “be careful what you wish for” and “winners never cheat; cheaters never win.” Not the most grand and interesting follow-up to the prior film’s genuine insight into human nature.

But that’s OK. I’m really not sure why this movie is getting so much flak online. If DC’s recent prior history with filmmaking should have taught us anything, it’s that 2017’s Wonder Woman was a fluke. Remember that this is the same studio that brought us the outstanding climax to Batman vs. Superman where one grown man learns that another grown man’s mother is also named Martha. Oh, and did we all just forget that Justice League is one of the worst movies we have all collectively ever seen?

So let’s not be too hard on WW84 for not meeting the quality of 2017’s Wonder Woman. Few comic book movies can. In the more fair comparison to other movies in the DCEU, it sits below Shazam! and Aquaman, and just a smidge below Birds of Prey, but certainly above Suicide Squad, and then literally leaps and bounds over every other movie they’ve made.

Let’s start with the good. Honestly, despite my gripes about the themes of the movie not being very profound, I found the story to be interesting. The movie centers around Diana Prince (Gal Gadot in her role as an archaeologist for the Smithsonian and not as Wonder Woman) stumbling upon an ancient stone whose inscription invites people who hold the stone to make a wish. No one takes it really seriously at first, so two people make wishes without thinking they could come true. The first person is Diana herself who wishes to bring her boyfriend (whom she only knew for about a week, mind you) from the dead. As a reminder from the first film, her boyfriend Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) had died nearly 70 years prior to the start of this film in a dramatic, sacrificial, world-saving act. Apparently, Diana hasn’t moved on at all from the 1910s and still considers her short-time lover to be her forever lover. She’s not really a human and did not grow up a human, so I think we can forgive her for not moving on… but it is weird to imagine that Diana somehow works at the Smithsonian (without going to college? Or did she?) without developing any friends or interest in life. Wouldn’t she have moved on... like a little bit?

Anyways, she wants her boyfriend back, and that’s wish #1. Wish #2 comes from new character Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig… who I am shocked to find is 47 years old! She looks fantastic and far younger in this film). Were Barbara a man, the way she is treated by her colleagues would put them in the stereotypical role of a future school shooter. Barbara is a brilliant gemologist for the Smithsonian, but goes completely unrecognized for her brilliance. She is shy and unconfident, and subsequently people frequently forget that they have even met her. Add on to that the fact that she has to work in the same office as Wonder Woman, and her loneliness and subjective feelings of unattractiveness increase as male employees drool over Diana while they ignore and mock Barbara. Therefore, we would forgive her for having a chip on her shoulder. Yet, for all this, Wiig avoids playing her as an angry, emo goth. Barbara kinda has this air about her of “Well, this is just how life is, and there’s nothing I can do to change that.” Given the character’s lack of self-confidence and lack of social grace, it at times seemed like Wiig was just reprising her old SNL character, Penelope, the socially awkward one-upper. But that’s not fair to her character. Wiig portrays Barbara with an earnest goodness to her. She’s one of those people who when allowed to talk one-on-one proves to be more eloquent and interesting than you could have imagine. Far from being angrily envious of Diana’s confidence and beauty, she’s more sadly jealous. Naturally, then, she wishes on the stone to be more like Diana… unaware that this wish might have some unintended benefits.

But then, there’s a third key character to the film (and a third wishmaker), the main villain Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal). I cannot tell you if this was a good character or not… and I cannot tell you whether the imperfections of the character are more due to the film’s writing or Pascal’s performance. Lord is another loser, and like Barbara, his “loser” status is the result of being a victim of America’s prejudicial attitudes. But whereas Barbara fell victim to sexism, Lord falls victim to racism. Hispanic in origin, Lord grew up in America with an abusive father at home and racist classmates at school. Beaten down from an early age, all he wants in life is to make a name for himself, to prove he’s not a loser. In a clever twist, Lord (the person who originally ordered the wish stone to come to America before it was confiscated by the FBI and sent to the Smithsonian for analysis) does not simply use the stone to wish for riches and power… he wishes to BECOME the stone. That way, he can get nearly infinite wishes so long as he can con the people around him to wish things for him.

The scenes of Max Lord as a flawed human who just wants to not be a loser show Pascal giving a great performance as a human being at the ends of desperation. The scenes of Max Lord the supervillain are… not good. In a long string of over-the-top, eccentric, hyperconfident supervillains in countless superhero movies, Pascal’s Lord is just not interesting. In fact, he is literally a weak character. He cannot fight for himself as his body is crumbling (a side effect of wishing to become a stone). Furthermore, his initially grounded motivations to finally be respected and successful seem to be just utterly lost by the end of the film when he just wishes for world chaos… only then to turn around and declare undying love for his son. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Failure to understand a character’s motivations casts a shadow over Barbara’s character arc as well. It is explained that the wish stone takes something in return for granting someone their wish. So as payment for bringing Steve Trevor back to life, Diana loses some of her strength. Still… this strains to fully explain why Barbara, after gaining Wonder Woman-like strength, turns into a walking humanoid cheetah (complete with bad CGI like she walked straight out of the cast of 2019’s Cats.) Like I get that she lost some of her humanity and morality in exchange for strength… but Cheetah girl seems like a little much. And though initially it is fun to see Wiig get to play Barbara as a confident and sexy woman who fights back against the patriarchy, the movie (I think) unfairly pushes her into the villain role. In my opinion, she should be treated as a tragic character, something akin to a Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, as her villainous tendencies are not really her fault. She literally had the part of her that cares about other humans taken away from her when she naively and innocently wished to be like Diana. Instead, the movie has Diana lecture her that she shouldn’t be so evil. She literally can’t, lady! Stop being so hard on her! In any case, it seems like a failed opportunity to generate sympathy for a genuinely likable character who tragically becomes a villain not through her own accord.

That failure to create genuine emotions extends to Diana’s story as well. As soon as Steve is resurrected, you know by the movie’s end he will be dead again. There’s no other way this movie ends. Yet, the fact that Diana is so stubborn in refusing to give up Steve makes it hard to sympathize with her. She is simply being selfish, making her eventual decision to say goodbye to Steve feel more like her finally doing the right (and obvious) thing, and not some heartbreaking decision. Also the fact that seemingly Diana hasn’t even tried to move on in the last seventy years doesn’t help matters for me: it more just feels like a lazy way to write in Chris Pine’s popular character into the second movie. The move certainly weakens the idea of Diana as a strong, independent woman by making her emotionally stunted and crippled for the last 70 years. It would have been a much more satisfying (and daring) choice if Diana had moved on from Steve emotionally and had to deal with the guilt of having brought him back by accident, particularly if he didn’t want to go back to being dead. Instead... Steve knows he has to go back and Diana feels no guilt keeping him around. It’s weak character writing.

These poor choices I contrast with two of my favorite TV shows that demonstrate perfectly how former lovers who miraculously reunite eventually have to say goodbye for good: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Jane the Virgin. For risk of spoilers to those still watching Jane, I’ll stick to the Buffy example. There’s an episode of Buffy (though technically an episode of the spin-off show Angel) where Buffy and her vampire lover Angel are fresh off their recent and tumultuous break-up, but through some dark magic that neither seeks out, they are given the opportunity to live a life where Angel isn’t actually a vampire and their love can be fully expressed. Yet, in the end, Angel opts to give up his life as a human and return to being a vampire. The choice is so moving precisely because (due to circumstances I cannot begin to explain) in choosing to give up his life with Buffy, he saves her life as well. Whereas in this movie, Diana choosing to let Steve go is really just her choosing to undo her choice to essentially cheat death. Angel, however, is actively choosing to give up a life of happiness he never wished for but was just given on a silver platter, and will now live in a world where his lover will never know his selfless act and will go on hating him. It’s heartbreaking in a way Wonder Woman dreams it could be.

And not to get too Buffy-heavy… but that show also deals with the emotional consequences of being ripped out of the afterlife much better than this movie. Steve just kinda unrealistically adapts to being alive again in all of five minutes. If, perhaps, from the start he questioned why he was there and hinted to Diana that something was wrong, the emotional aspect of this story, the doomed nature, the feeling of “this is the last chance we’ll have together” could have made this a stronger movie. I wanted to find myself crying when Diana finally says bye to Steve, and I was no where close to that. Gal Gadot shares at least part of the blame. She’s a pretty wooden actress. It’s something I noticed in 2017’s Wonder Woman, but in that movie she was supposed to be a fish out of water so her stilted presence seemed appropriate. Here, where she’s supposedly become an assimilated American for 70 years… it is just bad acting.

Anyways, another aspect of this film that was lacking were the visuals. The bad CGI of Barbara as Cheetah is just scratching the surface here. The opening flashback to Diana as a girl performing in the Amazonian Olympics just… looks fake. I don’t know. The reliance on CGI over practical effects is clear and distracting. It’s only worse in the subsequent scene where Wonder Woman stops a theft from occurring in a mall. The effects are just bad. Like passable for a film in the 1990s or early 2000s. But for a 2020 blockbuster, it’s noticeably bad. And already the scene where Wonder Woman is running towards the camera with a weird green screen behind her seems to have become a meme given just how weird it looks.

And yet, for all the negatives I’ve listed, this is a decent action flick. There’s even some nice set pieces like the one in the White House. As little as I liked Max Lord as a supervillain, I found figuring out the other half of each of his various Monkey Paw wishes (i.e. the downside of each wish) to be clever. unfortunately, each of the main three characters fails to have a story line that takes full advantage of their emotional potential, or they are just poorly acted. With few exceptions, the film eschews “fun” in favor of “seriousness.” Really the only exception is, as in the first film, the chemistry between Pine and Gadot. Their chemistry makes for some of the movie’s best moments, like when Wonder Woman makes the plane they’re flying in invisible and the pair flies over fireworks on the fourth of July. But that sense of whimsy in their scenes is largely absent from the rest of the film. This is particularly true of the action sequences, especially those at the climax. The seriousness makes them rather boring. Really, I’m comparing these action scenes with the last half hour or so of Birds of Prey which really set the bar for superhero movie fight choreography. So in the end, it’s overall an OK movie. It certainly isn’t as bad as others make it out to be, but I cannot believe I’m saying this… in 2020 if you’re in the mood for a fun superhero movie, you’re better off with the Suicide Squad sequel than the Wonder Woman sequel.

**/ (Two and a half stars out of 4)