#because disney takes these very loved stories and properties and turns them into advertisements

[cheese-rat29]

my hope for doctor who is that they never ever start to use cgi more than practical effects.

[recentanimenews]

Licensing of the Monsters: How Pokémon Ignited An Anime Arms Race

  "Hey, what do ya' got there? A rabbit?" Batman asks his mentor, staring at a video of Pikachu on a massive underground computer screen.

  "It's a Pokémon," Bruce Wayne replies.

  Five seconds later, Batman is shocked so hard by the tiny yellow creature that he ends up flying headfirst through another computer monitor (Using a clip from the "Blackout" episode of Batman Beyond, an episode that would've aired for the first time just days earlier.) It doesn't make much physical sense, but this bizarre 1999 crossover promo did establish two things: 1) Pokémon was coming to Kids' WB, and 2) Pokémon was important. So important that Batman actually took time away from obsessing over crime and vengeance to care about it.

  Echoing a 1997 promo where the comedic Bugs Bunny let us in on the "secret" that the serious, dark Batman was coming to Kids' WB, it almost seems like a passing of the torch. Kids' WB, up until then, was a programming service chock full of classic Warner Bros. cartoon properties like Bugs, Daffy, Pinky, Brain, and various members of the Justice League — all animated Americana. 

Pokémon wasn't a huge risk as the 4Kids Entertainment dub of the show had done well in broadcast syndication, they had plenty of episodes to work with (sometimes airing three in a row), and it was based on a game series that was already a worldwide smash hit.

  But the show was ... different.

  And it would end up changing cartoons as we knew them.

  Part 1: Batman Jumps Ship

  It's hard to think of a better scenario when it comes to appealing to kids than the one Fox Kids had with Batman: The Animated Series. Debuting in September 1992 and airing on weekdays just after school let out, it received immediate acclaim due to its moody, beautiful animation and storytelling that didn't talk down to anyone. Little kids could get into Batman throwing crooks around and adults could marvel at plots like the one where a former child actress with a medical condition that keeps her from aging takes her former co-stars hostage and ends up holding a gun, hallucinating, and sobbing into Batman's arms.

  It did so well that Fox tried to air it on prime-time Sundays and though this was short-lived — turns out, Batman was no match for Ed Bradley on CBS's 60 Minutes — it solidified the show as "cool." This was a show that could hang with the big boys. You couldn't say the same of something like Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.

  And then, in 1997, it was gone. A five-year contract ran out and Batman leapt completely to Kids' WB, where a continuation of the show (the often even grimmer The New Batman Adventures) aired later that year. There, it joined Superman: The Animated Series in a one-two punch of programming called The New Batman/Superman Adventures. When it came to Kids' WB, competitors not only had to deal with the Merry Melodies crowd, they now had to face the World's Finest Heroes.

  This, along with a departing Animaniacs, left Fox Kids with a gap in flagship programming. Sure it had various incarnations of the Power Rangers (which was still holding strong) and Spider-Man, but if you look back on 1998 programming, little of it would survive the year. Silver Surfer? Gone by May. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation? Out by December. Casper? Dead in October. By May of 1999, Warner Media would announce record ratings thanks to Pokémon, while its competitors, including the Disney-led ABC, Fox, and even Nickelodeon, would suffer losses in the Saturday morning area. Pokemon would have the best ever series premiere numbers for Kids' WB at the time.

    A chunk of that has to do with 4Kids Entertainment's (or to be more specific, 4Kids Productions) handling of the show. Again, Pokémon was a proven concept. If you love monsters, adventure, and collecting things, you'll probably find something to enjoy in the franchise. But the dub was particularly strong. For years, dubbing was seen as an inherently laughable thing in America, full of exasperated voice actors trying desperately to convince you that they weren't portraying three different characters, and lips that didn't match the dialogue. Entire Japanese series were reduced to laughing stocks in the U.S. because why focus on the lovingly created miniatures and top-notch tokusatsu action in Godzilla if one of the actors sounds weird?

  But while Pokémon wasn't the first great dub, it was a remarkably underrated one. Veronica Taylor's work as Ash Ketchum was relatable, funny, and consistent. And Racheal Lillis, Eric Stuart, and Maddie Blaustein's turns as Team Rocket's Jessie, James, and Meowth gave us villains that could've easily been the most repetitive parts of the show  — you can only try to capture Pikachu so many times before you should logically find a second hobby — but instead were one of the most entertaining aspects.

  Aside from some easily meme-able bits — Brock's drying pan and jelly donuts, for example — Pokemon became a seamless addition to the Kids' WB lineup and would end up giving many fans a lifelong love of anime. And it was great for 4Kids, too, as in 2000, they would be number one on Fortune's 100 Fastest-Growing Companies.

  Fox Kids wanted an answer to this. And it would soon find one.

  Well, two.

  Part 2: Monsters Rule

  Saban Entertainment was no stranger to Fox Kids. They'd been the one to adapt Toei's Super Sentai into The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers for American and international audiences, creating an unexpected sensation that combined monsters and martial arts. And in 1999, they nabbed Digimon Adventure, a series about kids that gain "digital" monster partners when transported to a "digital world," which had begun airing earlier that year in Japan. Based on a fighting virtual pet that had already been around for a few years, Digimon was a natural fit for an anime series and also a natural fit for a climate that was desperately trying to find the next Pokémon.

  Renamed Digimon: Digital Monsters, it premiered in August of 1999. Of course, accusations followed that it was a Pokémon rip-off, considering that they were both about befriending terrifying laser critters, but they offered fairly different things. While Pokémon was more episodic, Digimon gave viewers a more Dragon Ball Z-esque experience (they were both Toei productions, too) with the titular monsters evolving and gaining "power-ups" due to fighting increasingly powerful villains.

  Almost two months later, Monster Rancher would join the Fox Kids lineup, airing on Saturdays at 8:30 AM after Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (a Fox Kids lost relic if there ever was one). Together, Monster Rancher and Digimon would cover the programming block with monster action, sometimes airing twice each. Meanwhile, Pokémon would do the same for Kids' WB, and if you look at their Saturday morning schedules from 1999 and 2000, it appears they just shoved Pikachu in whenever possible.

  Looking back on Monster Rancher is always odd, though, because it's so specifically trapped in the time period where it originated. The video games used metadata from readable discs to create new monsters for the player, meaning that as soon as people gained the ability to download or stream media online without having to travel to their local Circuit City, the game would look absolutely archaic in comparison to its peers.

  Monster Rancher is a very fun show based on some very fun games, and the dynamic array of personalities and their particular squabbles in the core group actually reminds me a lot of One Piece. But even the show itself deals with reviving monsters on giant stone discs — a prehistoric-looking adaptation of a video game gimmick that would, a decade later, appear prehistoric itself.

  The Monster War was waged across 2000 and 2001. And though it appears Pokémon was the clear winner — in 2020, it's the most popular franchise with the widest reach, even if Digimon does produce some stellar shows and movies — the ratings tell a different story. In the May sweeps of 2000, Pokémon (and Kids' WB) took the prize among kids 6-11, but in the end, Fox Kids would score a victory of a 3.1 rating to Kids' WB's 3.0 (the first sweeps win since 1997, the year that Batman left.)

    Early the following year, Fox Kids would score again, narrowly beating Pokémon on Saturday morning in the same timeslot and even coming ahead of properties like X-Men. And what would propel this February 10th victory? The first appearance of BlackWarGreymon, the Shadow the Hedgehog to WarGreymon's Sonic.

  However, Pokémon would still help create ratings records for Kids' WB, even though late 2000/early 2001 saw a slide that would often cede dominance to Nickelodeon. Jed Patrick, who was president of The WB at the time said: "I didn't think Pokémon would fall off as much as it did ... every fire cools down a little, but that doesn't mean it doesn't stay hot."

  Even though, in retrospect, claims that "Pokemania" had died seem a little ridiculous — the latest games, Pokémon Sword and Shield, just became the highest-selling entries in seventeen years — big changes were ahead.

  Part 3: It's Time To Duel ... Or Not

  In early 2001, Joel Andryc, executive VP of kids' programming and development for Fox Kids, was looking for a "Digimon companion series to create an hour-long anime block." He felt they were too reliant on Digimon, as they were airing it three times in a single morning. Likely not coincidentally, that summer Fox Kids Fridays were dubbed "anime invasion," advertising Flint The Time Detective, Dinozaurs, Escaflowne, and Digimon. In one commercial, a single quote zips across the bottom of the screen: "Anime Rocks!" Nicole, TX

  That it does, Nicole from Texas.

  Meanwhile, 4Kids Entertainment would provide Kids' WB with another monster show: Yu-Gi-Oh! Known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Japan, this anime adaptation absconded from retelling the stories found in the early chapters of the manga — which were mostly devoted to Yugi running into jerks, only to have his Egyptian spirit "alter ego" deal karmic retribution on them — and instead focused on the parts that involved the cool monster fights. So basically the parts that were the most like Pokémon.

  But how would this be received? In 2000, Canadian studio Nelvana had licensed the anime Cardcaptor Sakura and turned it simply into Cardcaptors — an extremely edited version that removed many important relationships and plotlines and tried to streamline the show into a pseudo-Pokémon story. It's gone down in history as one of the most questionable dubs ever, and never really made a splash on Kids' WB. So they wouldn't want a repeat of that.

  But would kids be into a card game? The cards did summon monsters, but in Pokémon and Digimon, the monsters are just there, moving around and not relegated to a glorified checkers board arena. It turned out, yes, kids would be REALLY into that. Yu-Gi-Oh! debuted at number one in multiple demographics in September 2001, and would remain a steady part of its lineup for years to come.

    And how did Fox Kids respond? Did the "anime invasion" work out? Well, sort of, but not in the way they were hoping.

  In 2001, due to diminishing ratings and audiences, Fox Kids Worldwide (along with Fox Family Worldwide) were sold to The Walt Disney Company. By November 7th, they'd canceled their weekly afternoon blocks, and the next year, they'd end up selling their entire Saturday morning block to a company that had provided their rivals with the very same TV shows that aided in sinking them: 4Kids Entertainment. The final show to premiere on the original Fox Kids was Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension, a live action series that stood beside Alienators: Evolution Continues (a cartoon sequel to the mediocre 2001 comedy Evolution) and the underrated Medabots as the block's last gasp. 

  Renamed FoxBox in late 2002 (and later 4KidsTV in 2005), the 4Kids run schedule would, over the years, include anime like Kirby! Right Back At Ya!, Ultimate Muscle, Fighting Foodons, Sonic X, Shaman King, and eventually, in 2004, the infamous One Piece dub. The first Saturday of the new FoxBox lineup would also outdo the previous Saturday's Fox Kids lineup. Disney would acquire the rights to Digimon and it showed up on ABC Family in late 2001 (eighteen years later, a reboot of the original series would air, which can be watched on Crunchyroll).

  Eventually, in 2007, the Monster War would come full circle. 4Kids Entertainment announced they would be taking over the Kids' WB Saturday morning block entirely, renaming it the "CW4KIDS," as The CW had been born after UPN and The WB had ceased to be. Pokémon was long gone by this point, having been dropped by Kids' WB in 2006, and was now overseen by The Pokémon Company International on Cartoon Network.

  "We wish Pokémon USA much success going forward," the CEO of 4Kids Entertainment said. Later sued over "illegal agreements" regarding the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, the company would eventually file for bankruptcy in 2016. Pokémon Journeys, the latest installment in the franchise, launches on Netflix on June 12th. 

      Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[geminijackdaw]

Fanfic Author Asks

Tagged by @bereft-of-frogs​! 

I... have a really hard time being positive about my own writing, but I tried OTL 

Author Name: I’m KiwiMeringue pretty much everywhere! I might change it to this one sometime? But I’ve changed it before and I don’t want to keep like, switching all the time OTL I should probably just have called it like KiwiWrites or something, but the thing about this username is I just thought it was cute and unintentionally led a bunch of people to assume I was from New Zealand which is patently false advertising and very disappointing when it turns out I’m Canadian xD; 

Fandoms you Write for: I’ve got stories published for the MCU, and Naruto!  Uhhh I’m blanking on things I’m famiiliar enough with to write for but there are a bunch? Critical role, the adventure zone, Good omens, netflix she-ra., maybe? Homestuck, but more @mr-alice and I’s fantrolls and kids, who still have a huge place in my heart, more than canon.  

Where you post: I’m kiwimeringue on AO3 and FF.net, and then any like small prompt fills I’d probably leave here, 

Most Popular One-shot: Hands down, it’s Therapy Dog.  In which a young Hatake Kakashi deals with grief, survivor’s guilt, or PTSD by acquiring an irresponsible number of dogs. (Disclaimer: this does not work irl if you’re not a magic dog whisperer with a large property out of town) 

Favourite Story You Wrote:  This is as far as I got and this has been sitting in my drafts for days because I really, really struggle with this. I have a hard time being proud of anything I write. I guess it’s Therapy dog, becuase it’s definitely the one that’s resonated best with people, and probably my best example of “Look, I wrote a fanfic!” without having to qualify it with a bunch of asterisks. 

I have given myself a self-imposed deadline of from October 1st to halloween to finish a prompt that I got from @portraitoftheoddity​ in her discord server, (it’s not SUPER spooky, but it’s tenuously thematically appropriate enough that I’m making it my project for the month xD) if I can pull this off, it will be this one. It should be fun. 

Story You Were Nervous to Post: ALL OF THEM. Time I had some Time Alone (TIHSTA) is like a self-indulgent au of a self indulgent au, and I;m amazed anyone enjoyed it xD It got more of a response that Undying Fidelity (UF), the fic from which is is derived, did, for a while, which surprised me. I sort of what to qualify that I started this before I found the incredible corner of the MCU writer’s fandom that I currently frequent, so uh... this is very much Disney Grandmaster. This is Jeff Goldblum in space. Which is what I’m comfortable writing, but feels really pale and inconsequential in contrast to the horrifically vivid and rich dark carnival of twisted Grandmaster fan content that exists, like welcome to fucking weenie hut Jr’s, population: me. 

How Do You Pick Your Titles: With great difficulty and much waffling! Kintsugi is named for thematic relevance that... I haven’t actually gotten to yet but it’s about to become stupid literal anyone who read version 1.0 knows how I mean this. But the idea of things history, and damage being inextricably linked to them, but that the thing can go on anyway, changed but not ruined, there’s recurring imagery and points of fault lines, places where things have been weakened, but that these are important and necessary. 

I don’t feel like I have to explain Therapy Dog xD it’s about coping with grief... with dogs. 

Undying Fidelity is like, painfully obvious, but it’s what I had started calling it, and it just. stuck. Obviously from Loki’s like... second last line in IW, and Sigyn’s title in the Marvel Comics. I’m kind of wishing I’d chosen something else, because there are definitely other fics with the same title, and it’s the name of a song from the IW soundtrack that is... less than fun. For obvious reason. I mean it’s perfect for what it was used for, but it’s not a “ahhh gonna pop this one on for a listen” kind of piece. I still can’t think of anything better, though we’re kind of in a weird place because I don’t quite have all the cards on the table, yet. On Loki’s end though,I’m hoping that I’ve sufficiently established this like... tenuous vestigial little flicker of affection that he’s been able to more or less ignore, but that simply would not go out, despite how much easier that would have been, that’s been given a little room to breathe now. (I could definitely go on trying to justify this for paragraphs, so I’ll stop now xD). Thematic chapter naming is another thing I love to inflict on myself and I always regret it, though I love it so much when other people do it, ahhh. UF’s chapters are all named after cards of the Major Arcana in the Tarot. I’m going to get to one eventually and you’re all going to see why I did this, and you’re all going to hate me and I deserve it xD 

Time I Had Some Time Alone is the thing that’s repeated at the end of REM’s :”It’s the end of the world as we know it” and does sort of describe our reluctant hero’s state at the beginning xD Thriving in his completely self centered backstabbing Littlefinger party hellscape. (I went off on a huge tangent here that I have removed, I may make it its own post). Anyway, more thematic chapter naming, everything’s based on some apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic story. So 21 Days later (since for Loki it felt like three weeks) instead of 28, and chapter two is now titled “beyond thunderdome” because of course it is. (it was “the man come around” for like, THE ARRIVAL OF DEATH  but that uh... that’s going to be a later chapter now). 

Fic-in-planning stages will be called some variant of “Again, from the Top”? Take it from the top? ugh I’m trying to evoke like... redoing a scene. 

There was also Errant, my NaNoWriMo story from like 2012 or something? xD It was about a bunch of idiots that were basically an RPG party in a shitty High fantasy bullshit setting. So like, as in, “a knight errant” wandering in search of adventure, but also in the sense of like like... they’re a bunch of dumbasses making mistakes. 

Do you Outline: Yes! I definitely need to be more organized about it because my outlines are like these stupid irreverent event sequences that involve me remembering nuance way too well. Like for Kintsugi especially I’m scared I’ll have forgotten important minutia that I didn’t bother including becauyse oh pfft, of course I’ll remember that. And then I ...dont. My initial outlines for UF were an excel spreadsheet with scenes in various tiem periods that I dragged and dropped all over the place xD It was SUPPOSED to be thematically relevant paired scenes, with one part of each chapter being zset in the past and one half on the statesman and it just... did not work out that way. 

How Many of Your Stories are complete: One! And it’s the one-shot! FML!

In-Progress:  Undying Fidelity: Currently working on chapter 10 out of 22 TIHSTA: 2 out of... probably 4+ epilogue? Kintsugi: 13/Mayyybe like 30 something?

Coming Soon: From the Top is in its planning stages~! 

Do You Accept Prompts: Absolutely! I can’t guarantee that a prompt is going to like... spark writing? in me? But I’m always open to the idea. And that doesn’t mean that an idea is bad or anything! Just like, can I, personally, take this idea and run with it somewhere. 

Upcoming Story You’re the Most Excited For: Probably from the top, though I am two chapters out from part of of UF I am reeeeeally looking forward to writing :D 

Tag Five Fanfic Authors to Answer These Questions: I don’t know who’s been tagged already, I’m so bad at this, so uhh~ If you have been already, or if you just don’t feel like it, please disregard this! And if I don’t tag you but you feel like it, go for it!  @teleris-night @malicemanaged @cosmicmewtwo @not-so-terrible and @ramblingredrose 

[plogan721]

What the Heck is Well-nigh and Other Ponderings

                       Subtitle-how to use rewrite software

I want to interrupt your normal reading of this blog for a very important message:

THIS BLOG IS MOVING SOON!!

No, I mean it this time.  I have been meaning to move it to a WordPress platform for some time, made several announcements only to not do it, and frankly for even me, it is getting quite annoying.  This is one of the reasons why I do not have traffic on this blog anymore.  I am working on that.  Later on this blog post.  I promise…..

                                  That is not why this post is being interrupted

Disclaimer: P. Lynne Designs is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Today, I want to talk to you about one of the bad subjects in the writing world, and that is rewrites.  After all, the world is full of rewrites, redo, remakes, sequels, and so forth.  There is nothing so far that has been done that has not to be tested, tried, fried, dyed, laid to the side.  Oops, wrong subject and wrong blog (At Home with Tricia's Baskets needs to address this subject on hair).  But the point is that if it has not been on the market before now, THEN it is new.  Otherwise, it has been done before, EXCEPT in a different way.

I am currently working on a blog post called “How to write a 500-Word Blog Post” or “How to start a blog”, depending on which title I am going with.  It is my new, “I am not writing like I am mass-producing blog post” campaign challenge I am giving myself for 2020.  Here is the backstory:

    Image by skeeze from Pixabay

 (Pensive Female) 

I was feeling bored with this blog, all of my blogs.  One of the issues I am having is being honest with myself, and the honest truth is I was not liking my posts.  Some are great and I love them, it was the rest of the post from all three of my blogs that made me say, “ugh” to them.  It was a combo of things such as editing issues to I was not really feeling the subject I was writing about.  At times, I was feeling rushed, that “I got to make this deadline or else” feeling.  I did not like the links to a blog post, I did not like the photos, etc, and the low numbers from clicks proved it. So I decided to take the time to evaluate each blog and each blog post and main subjects. 

Tip:  If you are feeling bored with your blog, do a re-evaluation.  Do not beat yourself up about it, just find the places that need improving, even if it means to start over with a fresh blog. 

Now, before you start saying to yourself, “she is going in a different direction and talking about something else”, the answer is “no, I am not”.  I love all my subjects on all of my blogs.  From writing about “how to write a blog post” to “journaling” and now adding using planners with your writing with My Ambiance Life, Traveling to Disney to homelife and organizing with At Home with Tricia's Baskets, and finally crafting tutorials and product reviews with P. Lynne Designs, there will no change in that.  I was unhappy with my approach to these subjects.  If I change anything about the subjects it would be to split At Home with Tricia's Baskets to where the traveling would be separated from the homelife and organizing sections, making it two blogs again.

I decided that I did not like the flow of the “500-word blog post” post, so I turned to a blog post rewriting software program or site.  I must say that it was an eye-opener, and depending on how I feel, I may do it again.  Word has a feature now that allows you to rewrite a line or a whole post, but I do not think that is how this feature works, and I have to research it a little more.

This is when I came across the word, Well-nigh, which sounds like something that a British person would say, not an American, still wet behind the ears writer like me.  The word is an adverb, and it means “almost”.  So I am going to show you two sentences from my post that I am still working on to see how this word is being used.

This is the original sentence:

“Have you ever wanted to write something you are passionate about or have a unique skill that others crave they had?”

Now for the rewritten one:

“Have you overly wanted to write well-nigh something you are passionate well-nigh or have a unique skill that others require they had?”

 “Dear rewrite software maker:

I do not think that in my original sentence I did not have the word “almost” in it.  Why do I need to use the word, well-nigh”?”

This is what I would ask the website creators.   This is one of the sentences, and believe it or not, “well-nigh” is used a couple of times throughout the post.

Then I decided that I must replace the word.  Now, keep in mind that what I was about to use was Word’s synonym checker.  This was against the website’s rewrite copy of my post.  The words used were:

·         Nearly

·         Almost

·         Virtually

·         Just about

I am sorry to say this but just about every word in this word list does not match to what I was trying to convey in the original sentence or the entire post.

Tip:  The first sentence in a post after the title should set the tone for the rest of the piece.  It is not the means that ends it all, but it should give your reader some idea of what you are trying to arrive at.  Your title tells the reader about your subject matter.

So, what am I trying to say about rewrite software, websites, and all related items:

I have nothing again rewrites at all IF it is your original and YOU wrote it. What I have a problem with has to do with plagiarizing:  Those that do it are too lazy to come up with their own articles for their own blogs.  Now before I get any further, this is different from ghostwriting and guest posting.  

With Ghostwriting, the original author is willing to not take the credit for anything they produce for you or your company.  The only difference with the post, article, or book is the original author’s name is not on the byline, the individual or the individual’s company is on the byline.  This is not considered cheating at all, and in the contract, you draw up with the author, it states that the author is not allowed to use the copy on their blog o resell it if the post is in book form.  It is now considered the property of the individual and cannot be contested in court. 

Guest posting is when the author agrees to post an article for your site.  It works the same way as if the post was written on their blog.  It is not considered a rewrite, but the author can do a rewrite of that article for their own blog post.

Cons to rewriting a blog:

As I stated before, rewritten posts can be a problem if a person plagiarizes the original post. 

Say you want to write an article about cats and the benefits of being a cat mommy or daddy.  You have never owned a cat and you have not interviewed a person who owns a cat.  You just thought it was a good idea because cat ownership is a trending topic because everyone is doing it.   So, you decided to do some research on the subject of cat ownership, and in your research, you find this great article online about me loving being a cat aunt.  Gizmo is not mine, she belongs to my nephew and his girlfriend who both live with me. (True story) Instead of emailing me to as if I would give an interview on why Gizmo makes me happy (and I would be happy to do an interview, BTW), you take my article, use a rewrite software, and have it rewrite the whole article for your blog.  This is still considered stealing.  It may not look like the same post to the naked eye, but if I run across it, and it sounds like the same post I wrote, I could sue you.  This is one of the reasons why I do not like them.

So, use rewrite software and websites with a grain of salt.  Use them for your own posts to do a comparison on which version of your post you like better.  When you read the rewrite, make sure that the copy flows the same way that the original flows, if not, change it within the rewritten copy or be willing to combine the two. Never use it to copy someone’s idea and post. If you do, you could come off as a lazy writer, or you will be hearing from the original author’s lawyer.  If you are a writer, there are ways to check to see if someone is copying your work or if you have copied a passage that sounds like someone’s work. This will be the subject for this topic next time

That is all I have to say at this time.  Next subject….

Traffic and Promotion

This is one area that I have the most problems with.  It is not that I do not get it, it is… well…. Let me explain.

I am currently on Blogger, in reality, it does not matter what platform you are on, as long as you do the following:

1)       Write

2)      Write consistently, meaning GET A SCHEDULE!

3)     Promote what you write.  Meaning promoting your work on social media, groups of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram). Even YouTube and newsletter count.

OK, I get it.  What I do not get is how many subscribers, followers, viewers, or visitors you need to have on your blog visiting daily, weekly, and monthly in order for brands to even consider you to write a sponsored post.  For months, and sometimes even now, I am baffled to the number of clicks needed and so on.  On social media, you cannot lie about these numbers.  You can sometimes exaggerate the numbers on your actual blog, but not on social media.  The brand liaison can look at your profile and tell if you have over 1000 viewers or not.  My question is often, “why so many?” It is the same question I ask about my credit score, “why 800”, but that is another question for another day, and I am not a financial guru, so I will leave the question here.  But, if anyone knows to “why I need a score of 800 to have a chance to get a new home?”, comment below, and I will try to understand it.

 Image by Mary Pahlke from 

Pixabay (Marketing)

Tip 2:

Write

Write consistently, meaning get a schedule

Promote what you write

I want to go over this more in detail.

1)       Write

This is obvious.  Get into the practice of constantly writing something if you are not used to it.  It does not matter if it is digital (computer) or pen and paper, but write something.  This is where I suggest that you get a writing journal, and write down things such as goals you want to achieve in the year or in your life, a bucket list, decorating or organizing pieces in your home or office, even spiritual aspirations and affirmations. 

Write them in paragraph form, a proper paragraph form. This means correct spelling, grammar, and the whole nine yards.  The reason for this practice is one day you may have to write something for business, or you might get a promotion on your job.  Anyway, companies do not understand the need to write “Tyme” for “time” and other things like that.  It may be good for social media, but not good for business.  Plus, some readers do not like reading blogs that have mistakes in them.

2)      Write consistently, meaning get a schedule

One of the problems I do have is being consistent with my writing.  I get on a roll, and for a while, it seems like I have a habit of staying on that schedule.  Then I have a falling off period, and I do not write for a while.  This comes with discouragement. I want to have big numbers, but I also want to see the comments as well. One tip I find that helps with every time a person views a YouTube video in the comments.  The vlogger always asks viewers to like the video, comment, subscribe to the channel, and share the video.  Well, I am good at doing just that on my YouTube channel, but the same is not said on my blogs. 

For schedules, you do not have to write every day, which is what some bloggers strive for.  Do not kill yourself to try to get a blog post out every single day.  You also have a life as well.  For 2020, I am going to try to get both blogs and videos out on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of each week.

3)     Promote what you write:

Promote your writing.  It goes back to what I said earlier in this piece.  It also does not matter if you are an established author, guest poster, or even if you are a ghostwriter.  Use your social media outlets as mentioned before to promote your work.  It is crucial, especially if you are looking for clients for freelance writing, or if you are trying to drum up sales.  If you an author, have book signings.  People love getting that first edition of your book.  If you are writing more than one book in the future (think Steven King or a Star Trek series of books), your first edition could be worth some money before and after you have died.  It may not mean much to you, but it may mean something to the person who owns a copy of your first written a book or your family.

Wow, this was a long post, the first of many, many long posts.  Let me know in the comments what you think of my 2000+ words per post. I will not get mad, I promise.

Afterthought: 

Before I was about to upload this post, I was looking for some further inspiration for the word and meaning of the word re-write.  I failed to issue a positive aspect of the word. I ran upon several books on Amazon that suggests a different look at this word.  Look at the word and meaning of the word to make a character stronger than before.  In other words, in fiction and creative writing, if you made the character seem week to the reader, the rewrite would make that same character stronger. so in this case, a rewrite is warranted. 

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[andrewuttaro]

Reviews with Andrew: The State of #StarWars Episode 1 - Pre-Episode IX

Star Wars maybe the sample case to end all sample cases on what toxic fandom is. I’m not saying that to be a predictable ass but come on, have you been living under a rock? I am personally saddened to see how the response to the Last Jedi has ruined the fan unity, if that ever even existed, on Star Wars. It’s okay to not like a movie. That’s the bottom line. It’s okay to be lukewarm all puns intended. I was a little sour after my first viewing of the Last Jedi but after two more viewings I put it together a bit more. But at the end of the day there was nothing in that movie that was downright unforgivable… even Canto Bite.

On a scale from 1-10 Star Wars nerd, 10 being you can name different species of aliens that only appeared in de-canonized Expanded Universe books and 1 being your experience of Star Wars can be summed up by being captivated by a slutty Leia costume, I consider myself right in the middle of the pack at 5 or so. I’ve seen all the movies, played as many video games as possible and dabbled in some books. I’ll admit there was a time I would’ve said 7 on that scale but I’ve fallen back as life has changed for me. What I want to do today is talk about the State of the franchise. I think there is two parts to this. The state of the in-universe story and the state of the creative output making new material for us to consume.

Obviously these are my opinions and obviously I am going to spoil some movies, books and TV shows here. If you’re up-to-date on the basic lore I think you’ll be fine. Moreover, I want to talk specifically about these things in a Pre-Rise of Skywalker context. There will be a similar piece I will do sometime after the Rise of Skywalker. Disney has advertised this final installment in the sequel trilogy as “the end of the Skywalker Saga” and that’s a notable before and after moment in my humble opinion. Feel free to tear me to shreds in the comments. Review with Andrew is all about the discussion so let me know what you think. With entertainment properties the size of Star Wars it’s such a collective experience that to not be aware of popular opinion is to kinda miss the point. So with no further ado, let’s start with where we sit in-universe prior to the conclusion of the Skywalker Saga’s Sequel Trilogy.

Fate of the Galaxy

I am 25 so I grew up with the Prequels as the backdrop of my Star Wars experience. Here comes something that will probably get many of you to click off: I enjoyed the politics in the prequel trilogy. Disclaimer: that does not mean I love the prequels overall. That trilogy lacked clarity and compelling performance in multiple places. However I am not going to lie and not tell you Emperor Palpatine seizing control of the Republic Senate and reorganizing it into the Galactic Empire wasn’t the most simultaneously jaw-droppingly dreadful and entertaining moments of my young life watching movies. It was. It sticks with me to this day. However the political machinations come at the expense of dragging the whole story into the dirt on several occasions in those movies particularly in the Phantom Menace.

The Sequel Trilogy clearly and obviously overcompensated for this popular grievance with the prequels. I have not gotten around to the New Canon books yet, I know they explain the politics leading into the Force Awakens very well, but the first two films in this sequel trilogy have departed so far from galactic-level political movements that their plot is confusing at times. Had the character development and narrative pace not been so good in the Force Awakens it would’ve been an incoherent film given the lack of political setting. I don’t need Senate deliberations or trade negotiations, I get it; but how is there a whole fleet of bad guys who had enough time and Empire-like resources to build a planet-sized death laser to decapitate galactic government? This problem carries over to a movie like the Last Jedi where Resistance leadership is axed at every turn before the whole movement can fit in one spacecraft!

The fact that none of it is explained in the movies is the real kicker here. Setting was something the Original Trilogy did effectively on a flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants basis while the Prequel Trilogy did it haphazardly with CGI heavy establishing shots and exposition dumps built into the script. The Sequel movies have done neither and had it not been for great acting from the core cast of both of these main saga films this would be a huge problem. In the scale of my earlier Star Wars nerd spectrum, anyone beneath a 6 or 7 on the scale is having trouble following along story wise. Good thing the CGI and character writing is good because that constitutes a story-building shortcoming too great for many franchise films to overcome.

That said, the Anthology films have been superhot fire in spite of the main saga. In fact, the broader strokes of galactic politics and setting worked against both Rogue One and Solo. The direct connection between the battle at the end of Rogue One and the beginning of A New Hope provided for good food for thought and a totally rad Darth Vader scene, but it also made you scratch your head and call BS on Leia in New Hope when she says that ship is on a diplomatic mission. You just came from a battle and this same guy was two corridors away from chopping your head off, that’s a really poor cover story. And who could forget the collective groan that was Han Solo getting his name from the Imperial recruiter in Solo. Give me a break.

I don’t think it’s unfair to say broad world-building has not been a strength of the Disney-Era Star Wars films so far. Again, I know the books, comics, TV shows and other media are doing that world-building in spades. If you enjoy that media that’s great. When the animated Star Wars Clone Wars was on the air it wasn’t explaining things we didn’t get about Episode III, it was filling in gaps in fun ways. Star Wars has always been a property for a mass audience and when that mass audience, which you have to assume does minimal research beforehand, might walk out of a film not knowing broadly what was going on, that’s a problem. Star Wars isn’t supposed to rely on content beyond the films and if the Rise of Skywalker does we’re going to be in for a messy finish to the sequel trilogy.

Finally, let’s talk about where the characters are going. Rey seemed to gain full control of force powers by the end of Last Jedi, so I am excited to see how her power is deployed in wrapping up this trilogy. I am an admitted sucker for a redemption story, but I can’t envision one for Kylo Ren that would be close to satisfying. That character kinda has to die a bad guy. If they stick with the themes Rian Johnson setup with the main characters in Last Jedi then Kylo needs to die the legacy guy who is consumed by what he thinks he needs to be simply by virtue of parentage. We’ll see about that. Finn, Poe and their respective orbits of characters are… I guess great supporting pieces. I loved the arc Finn went through in Force Awakens and I love the arc Poe went through in Last Jedi but now I don’t see where that leads both of them. I don’t know if there is a logical end point for their stories based on where they’ve been. After seeing Luke’s time in this trilogy wasted after seeing Han Solo’s time in this trilogy more or less wasted I just can’t see a world where at least one of the new core cast isn’t wasted in the end. But I’m not married to that opinion, in fact I really hope I’m wrong and JJ Abrams ties it all together.

Fate of the Brand

Let’s talk about the thing we all love about Star Wars: Jedi and Sith. With JJ Abrams returning for the final installment of the “Skywalker Saga” as it were we have a distinct possibility at hand that the dualist dichotomy of light side versus dark side is undermined forever. For a pragmatist such as myself it’s weird to be against the discovery of a middle ground but here I am. The Jedi and the Sith represent the fundamentally flawed nature of the Force. It’s always making corrections. It’s always pulling someone too far too one side and correcting and sometimes overcorrecting. Like most all spiritual forces there is an acute degree of imperfection that makes the perfection of its divinity real. Turning the force into something that can be mastered and controlled with Grey Jedi turns the whole thing to magic tricks. Yes, I am aware of the Grey Jedi plotline in Star Wars Rebels. No, it doesn’t change the problem here.

The problem is the resolution of the whole light/dark side narrative with Grey Jedi is the perfect Disney ending… but more importantly, it’s probably the JJ Abrams ending. Fans of his work on Lost as well as his movies will tell you he’s a master of the mystery box. Historically he’s not so great at answering the questions he sets up… as in resolution. He is now responsible for resolving the Sequel Trilogy and I am going to have a real problem with 42 years of Star Wars Jedi/Sith lore building ending with a variation of: They figured it out and lived happily ever after. If the last piece of the Skywalker Saga ends this way it will be the fan toxicity that followed the Last Jedi times twelve except this time without the even-keeled nerds like me defending the writing.

It's pretty clear that Star Wars was going to be different from the moment George Lucas sold the property. The fact he’s felt regret about that is another discussion for another day. He sold it to a mega corporation he knew was going to get started making sequels and spinoffs. Disney prints money at a rate the Federal Reserve gawks at. Every Star Wars film before 2012 was more or less a Lucas project. They were all one man’s vision carried out through different producers and directors to varied results. Post-Sale different creators coming in was going to change the creative flow and result in different takes on the world. That’s not a bad thing. Star Wars fans need to accept Star Wars canon with a new dividing line: Lucas Canon versus Disney Canon. I enjoy both but if you wake up in the morning upset about Disney-Era Star Wars then you probably should just decide to believe in the Lucas Canon.

I thought Kathleen Kennedy was a wonderful person to bring in as the puppet master of the Disney Era Star Wars franchise. I still think she has the career bona-fides to justify being at the head of the beast. However, in the hiring of Kevin Feige you can tell she and the brain trust she built around Star Wars has realized they saturated the market too much and damaged the product a little. Solo was not an awful film, but it will forever be the first Star Wars movie to lose money. However that happened aside, the Disney Star Wars Brain Trust needs to decide what it wants going forward. I’ve already discussed how the pieces of the anthology films that were unmoored from the broader Skywalker narrative were the best of the Disney Era films. The rate at which directors and producers have been fired indicates there was a confusion about how much Star Wars was going to be allowed to be different.

Are you going to let the directors play on your playground with the toys you bought for 4 Billion dollars or are you going to tell them how to play until they storm off in anger? Disney Star Wars has chosen the latter in all but one of the four films they’ve produced so far. Rian Johnson did his own crazy thing with the Last Jedi, you let it ride and you let that predictable nerd backlash screw up Solo. Now you don’t know what you’re doing. You have to pick. If you want to let the property rest for a few years after Rise of Skywalker and then drop it on us on some Tuesday in 2024 that’s great! It will probably be best for the brand. But when you do come back please commit to the degree of creative freedom you’re actually going to give your directors.

The four films of Disney Star Wars are batting at about .750. Solo was your bomb but even that one was an enjoyable movie. The whole thing will be more fun and piss off fewer people when it appears you guys have unified marching orders. Star Wars as a brand is okay but if its comes back looking as confused as it did with whatever comes after Rise of Skywalker it’s not going to be good. At that point sinking one of the biggest entertainment properties in history would be an accomplishment all it’s own. The Studio and brand questions post Rise of Skywalker will be very interesting. For now let’s wrap up the conversation of the State of Star Wars before that epic conclusion.

Conclusion

Star Wars still makes mad money and reels in younger people with no experience with the property. By that logic it’s doing just fine. Any nerd property is going to have a segment, even a large vocal segment like we’ve seen here, that will get upset with a new creative direction. That’s okay, move past it like professionals. If that can happen and that new creative direction sees a commitment to it from the studio I see some fun Star Wars to come. If not then I am fully prepared for Star Wars to be run into the ground. Which is also okay because it’s just an entertainment product (see Indiana Jones and the Lord of the Rings). The in-world story faces a lot of loose ends it needs to wrap up to stick the landing in Episode IX. I don’t have total confidence JJ Abrams can do it, but I am interested to see.

I won’t be doing a grade here because this is more a meta-review than an individual movie review. So let me hit just a couple of those loose ends that will be the hardest to wrap up in a satisfying way: Poe and Finn’s friendship, Palpatine’s Return and not making Darth Vader’s sacrifice worthless, Rey’s place in the Force, the fate of Kylo Ren, the very nature of the Force, and of course what is this thing between Kylo and Rey? Like and share this blog. I want to do reviews more and more and reader input is important to that so leave a comment with your thoughts! I can also do weird little think pieces like I did after Force Awakens like “Is Star Wars about disarmament?” so if you like reviews of all media coming off a screen let me know what you want to read about!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Last Christmas looks like grade A date night material. It could be next level if the plot actually makes sense beyond the normal romance narrative rigmarole.  

[nievefergie]

Is Disney an Auteur Through Genre Theory?

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson says to Moana, “If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you’re a princess”. Disney’s most recent iteration of the animated princess genre appeared in 2016 and featured a number of updates to what is often considered to be an outdated and/or old- fashioned storyline. Even though it departs from the formula by doing away with one of the major elements—the prince and the love story between the prince and the princess — the film nonetheless adheres to the central formula of the princess genre of wanting more than the sheltered life they live. This can be seen in every Disney princess movie where the protagonist sings about wanting something of a future they look forward to. At the same time, this film offers a convenient vantage point to ask a different question: who is the author of the film, and why does it matter? Is Disney as a brand the auteur of this film because they created the Disney genre, or are Ron Clements and John Musker the auteurs of this film inside of the Disney Princess genre? This paper will explore Moana from these two particular theoretical perspectives in order to elucidate that Ron Clements and John Musker are the auteurs of Moana due to the fact that they created the highly intertwined Disney Princess genre.

In 1951, the French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma published an article by André Bazin called, ‘On the Politique des Auteurs’. Bazin argued that in cinema, the author of the film was the director and they are the singular creative force guiding the film through stylistic motifs and thematic preoccupations. Bazin referred to it as auteurism, and the theory took off all over the world. Auteurism remains a preferred theory of film authorship due to the value of originality in Hollywood and the entertainment industry. American film critics like Andrew Sarris argue that auteurism is made up of three parts: technique, personal style, and interior meaning. British film scholars argue that auteurism is more structural, with the director achieving high-quality work through anthropology and literary studies and their principle of methods (Chris). Most popularly known, auteurism is the simple theory that the director of a film is the mastermind behind the creative piece as its true author.

Though, in a time where cinema was being spoken about as original and how to tell apart true masters and authors during the French New Wave, nowadays the argument has little bearings. A large part of filmmaking is collaboration and all of the various jobs and hours going into it. There are writers, producers, directors, executives, actors, set designers, etc., that all contribute to the final product. It might almost seem expeditious to label one of these artists as an individual visionary. This opens up the debate for the auteur theory to enter the idea of the corporate author. Thomas Schatz developed the concept of the model from Bazin’s remark about Hollywood individuals being less interested in the system of cinema as a whole. Schatz argues that even from early Hollywood, certain studios were easily distinguishable from the other studios. You knew if you were watching an MGM film or a Warner Brothers film — they each had their own distinct brands as an effect of the overseeing producers. Each studio used synergistic mechanisms of industrialized production to create their own brand (Chris). This begs the question — in terms of big studio movies, who is the true author? The directors or the studio producing the film?

John Lasseter once noted in his forward to The Walt Disney Film Archives: The Animated Movies 1921-1968, that, ‘‘people sometimes describe something as ‘Disney’ as if it were a single look and style, when in truth the look of the studio’s work was continuously evolving. Films were influenced by new artists joining the studio or coming into their own, new technologies being developed, and new styles arising in the culture of the day” (Mason, 3). From as early as 1921, audience members could tell the difference between something like an MGM film and a Disney film. Even as directors and technology changed, the brand was still aware of its market. Walt Disney wanted to make films for everyone, for both children and adults in the same medium. It would be highly unusual to see an ‘adult’ movie under the Disney brand. Their family-friendly brand is without competition as noted by Joel Best and Kathleen S. Lowney, who claim, “‘Disney’s rivals have clear moral reputations, [...] in contrast, the name Disney has become closely linked in the public mind with decent, family-oriented entertainment” (Mason, 4). With a set brand in mind, Walt Disney created the Walt Disney Company, and in that, he became an auteur of the work he was distributing. When he passed away, the company became the auteur of Walt Disney’s work.

When Moana was announced by the Walt Disney Company in 2014 and slated to premiere late 2016, it was marketed to be the next Disney Princess movie. It was to be directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, who had just previously directed The Princess and the Frog in 2009. The two directors joined the Walt Disney Company over 40 years ago while they were in their twenties, being trained by one of the original Nine Old Men. Throughout their time at Disney, the two together have directed seven films: The Great Mouse Detective (1986), The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), Hercules (1997), Treasure Planet (2002), The Princess and the Frog (2009), and Moana (2016). It stands to reason that their directing of The Little Mermaid is what resurrected Disney’s feature animation business and began what fans and historians refer to as ‘The Disney Renaissance’. After The Little Mermaid’s success, Disney green-lighted Musker and Clements’s next project — a comedy called Aladdin. Aladdin was to also feature a princess, and prince, their love story, a faithful and lovable sidekick, and an evil villain (Miller). Even though Disney already had three successful princess movies before the Disney Renaissance during the Golden and Silver Ages in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), Cinderella (1950), and Sleeping Beauty (1959), Disney had not done another fairy tale since. It seemed as if Musker and Clements had created a new form of Disney Princess, and their Disney Princess was modernized for this time period’s new genres.

John Musker and Ron Clements’s Disney Princesses stood different than the princesses of before. Not only were they bringing in a substantial amount of money through things like tickets, but also through merchandise and consumerism. Little girls wanted to be these princesses. These new princesses inspired them to be strong. After the success of four Disney Princess films in the Disney Renaissance, The Disney Princess line was created in 2001 as an advertising and marketing campaign to encourage children to identify with the characters so they would buy associated products by contributing to a new ‘girlhood’ (England et al.). Disney had officially taken the work that John Musker and Ron Clements achieved through Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, and made it more than just individual markets under Disney Animation’s properties, but into a whole brand of itself, the genre, under ‘the Disney Princess’.

The term ‘genre’ is French for type or kind, but when used to describe works of literature, films, or television programs, genre theory implies that these works of art can be categorized into a class of related works. Film and television genre categories are very limited and culturally specific. Rather than using the genre ‘comedy’, the specific genre like ‘screwball comedy’ and ‘romantic comedy’ are used to measure comic forms of mass media. Due to the industrialization of mass media, the genre became a way to standardize similarity and differences in the production of a product (Feurer). Audience members know that if they go into a film labeled as a romantic comedy, they know to expect tropes such as a heterosexual romance, a quirky best friend, enemies turned to lovers, and the ultimate happy ending.

Because critics argued that these genre films lacked originality, they decided they weren’t art or original because they were not authored works. Auteur theory attempted to take back the artistic merit in films from the Hollywood assembly line of studios and celebrate individual artists as the author of the films rather than following the categories already produced. Yet Jane Feuer, a film theorist, argues against the auteur theory destroying genre by stating,

However, it was discovered that certain authors expressed themselves most fully within a particular genre—John Ford in the western or Vincente Minnelli in the musical. In some sense, then, genre provided a field in which the force of individual creativity could play itself out. Some viewed the genre as a constraint on complete originality and self- expression, but others, following a more classical or mimetic theory of art, felt that these constraints were in fact productive to the creative expression of the author (Feuer, 107).

Thus, even though auteur theory evolved from the need to distinguish itself from what they considered was a lack of originality, they only further introduced genre and genre theory into the romantic bias of auteur criticism.

Audiences know what a Disney princess is. They know she wears a dress, her family is important to her, she always has a ‘want’ and she’s going to have a song where she declares it, and she has a love interest. The first Disney Princess movie to drift away from this was the Pixar film, Brave (2012). For the first time, there is no love interest. The movie is about familial bonds rather than the love between a man and a woman. But this movie, although under Disney, is still Pixar. This means that it is a weird combo of the Disney Princess genre and the Pixar genre that Disney bought. This set the standards for the new Disney Princess genre — rules can be broken. Which is where Moana comes in. Moana is a princess of an island called Motunui who wishes to see the world, or more specifically, the sea. She desires to explore and goes on a quest to save her island and family. Along the way, she does meet a man, but he is not her love interest. The demigod Maui remains a friend and guide along the whole film, never breaking or abusing the barrier between that romantic and mentor relationship.

So then, one may question: is Moana really a Disney Princess movie? Does it fit inside the genre that the Walt Disney Company created? And in turn, does it fit inside of the genre that Ron Clements and John Musker helped solidify during the Disney Renaissance? And finally, does that mean the Walt Disney Company are the auteurs of Moana, or does that mean Ron Clements and John Musker are? John Musker and Ron Clements changed Disney Princesses forever in 1989. They made the Disney Princess genre typically a musical fairytale, with a song about wanting something. In Moana, the song is called ‘How Far I’ll Go’ and is written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The song describes the need to be out in the sea and how she plans to do that. Similarly to other Disney Princess ‘ I want’ songs like ‘Almost There’ and ‘Part of Your World’ from Clements and Musker’s The Princess and the Frog and The Little Mermaid respectively, the main protagonist sings about what she wants. These songs are clear indications of what the princess desires. The characters from Clement and Musker’s Disney Princess movies always sing these songs, and Moana adheres to this model they’ve created. Moana also fits inside the Disney Princess genre of having an animal best friend and sidekick. Jasmine has Raja, Ariel has Flounder, and Moana has Pua and Hei-Hei. Once again, Moana adheres to the Disney Princess genre. So even though Moana is newly different without having a prince or a love story, the base of the personality of the princess is still there and she still holds the crown, so she is a princess.

With Moana being apart of the Disney Princess genre, one could argue the Walt Disney Company is the auteur of the hit 2016 movie. Yet more important to make the distinction of who the auteur is, we have to look back at who created the genre inside of the company. The modern Disney Princess genre created during the Disney Renaissance was formed from Ron Clements and John Musker, therefore, they must be the auteurs of Moana, simply because they are the auteurs of the genre. Both genre theory and auteur theory give the audience expectations about what they are about to see. Going into a Disney film, you can expect family-friendly content with good morals. When going into a Ron Clements and John Musker Disney film, you know you’re going to get a classic modern Disney film. The audience knows this because Ron Clements and John Musker were hired by the brand that Walt Disney Company created to design a new and better genre for their animated fairytale adaptations, and that made the Disney Princess genre that Moana falls into. They created the genre, so they are the auteurs.


Bibliography

Kackman, Michael, and Mary Celeste Kearney. The Craft of Criticism: Critical Media Studies in Practice. Routledge, 2018.

Mittell, Jason. “A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory.” Cinema Journal, vol. 40, no. 3, 2001, pp. 3–24.

Brookey, Robert Alan, and Robert Westerfelhaus. “The Digital Auteur: Branding Identity on the Monsters, Inc. DVD.” Western Journal of Communication, vol. 69, no. 2, Apr. 2005, pp. 109–128. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/10570310500076734.

Íris Alda Ísleifsdóttir 1988. From Snow White to Tangled: Gender and Genre Fiction in Disney’s “Princess” Animations. 2013.

Mason, James Robert. Disney Film Genres and Adult Audiences : A Tale of Renegotiated Relationships. 2017.

England, Dawn Elizabeth, Lara Descartes, and Melissa A. Collier-Meek. "Gender role portrayal and the Disney princesses." Sex roles 64.7-8 (2011): 555-567.

Miller, Bruce. “Disney's Ron Clements Still Looks to Do More, Post-'Moana'.” Sioux City Journal, 12 Sept. 2018.