#blandification

[undttype]

✎ Ⓐ ✄ NaNtxt008

« A Critique of Critiques of Blandification »

by Marcus Leis Allion

↳ https://www.nan.xyz/txt/a-critique-of-critiques-of-blandification/

[fashionlandscapeblog]

The blandification of fashion is very real, guys. It has been virtually impossible to find inspiring content for the past 2-3 seasons and I blame it on the rise of quiet luxury and late stage capitalism. The latter means that the fashion industry is designing as simply as possible (minimalism does not equal boring) not because of 'sustainability' as some people seem to put it, but to save on material, details. patterns, etc to increase profits in order not to go bankrupt in a system that demands increasing economic growth. The demand for quiet luxury has been welcomed by the fashion industry for this very same reason, but in my opinion, people who wear this 'trend' do not like fashion, since wearing nondescript clothing has nothing to do with style and individuality, but on the contrary: it makes you a clone. It has also nothing to do with minimalism and less with sustainability, because it is a logical fallacy to believe that absolute simplicity has a positive environmental impact, neither do the socalled 'capsule wardrobes'. You can buy a sequin skirt or something with a pattern or a very distinctive design, but if you wear it all the time, it is far more sustainable than a Loro Piana cashmere sweater you think you 'invested in', yet never wear. Capsule wardrobes and basics are a myth, as you will wear in real life what sparks joy in you the most (I'd rather wear my asymmetric tops than any 'basic' white shirt), not what a brand/influencer/magazine tells you to buy. Capsule wardrobes are a very individual thing based on your personality, not a cookie cutter formula. To achieve a wardrobe that you love and wear for years is a very organic and eventual process, definitely not based on what a Vogue site tells you to buy now, but on what you find yourself and love.

[parlerenfleurs]

Content warnings are usually recommendations to me. I rub my little trash raccoon hands delightfully, and eagerly browse them to see how the story will be exciting.

[aldieb]

no way did eric church create this monstrosity with morgan fucking wallen. i was just trying to drive to the grocery store and listen to some tunes but now i have to dress in black and shave my head in mourning………..

[sugarpkts]

the blandification of glass animals is so crazy like why did you stop making nightvision safari music and commit so hard to bisexual lighting music

[odoanaga]

I hate the blandification of modern mainstream fantasy so much, look what they did...

[erijuice]

My Revision of Wish

As someone who loves the concept of Wish, I thought it was a decent addition to the Disney Animation Canon. I enjoyed the songs, the gorgeous hybrid artstyle, and the homage to Sleeping Beauty's wide cinemascope aspect. Unfortunately, the more I think about Wish, the more disappointed I was with the final product. For what was supposed to be a celebration of Disney's legacy, it ended up being shot with the blandification ray by the studio itself, because they had a lot of interesting concepts planned for the film. It's just impossible for me to hate Wish like everyone else on the internet, because I know there's passion behind this idea, it was just muddled and screwed over by the despicable corporate side of Disney.

Now, while I did love the final product and was also simultaneously disappointed over what it could’ve and should’ve been, I wanted to showcase my version of the film with a heavier emphasis on the wishing star’s untold origin story. This is actually an updated/edited version of my original draft, and I added a little bit of characterization as well.

SPOILERS FOR THE ACTUAL FILM BTW

Wish (in my version) is fully 2D-Animated, and contains music, orchestration and lyrics from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, with additional output from Julia Michaels.

Cast:

Alycia Pascual-Peña as Asha

Chris Pine as King Magnifico

Amara Le Negra as Queen Amaya

Roman Banks as Orion (Star)

Summary: 

“Have you ever wondered how the legendary Wishing Star was born?… Set in a time centuries before Snow White wished by the wishing well, or Geppetto wished for his little wooden puppet to become a real boy, Wish takes place in the medieval city of Rosas, a fantasy kingdom off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea where your wishes can literally be transformed into reality. The kingdom is ruled by King Magnifico (Chris Pine) and Queen Amaya (Amara Le Negra), respected by all as the kingdom’s sole wish-granters. They live happily in peace with their royal daughter named Asha (voiced by Alycia Pascual Peña), who was set to take her parents’ throne once she turned 17. 

Princess Asha is sharp-witted and wildly smart beyond her years: a young philosopher in the making, who believes that the stars are always there to guide her. She's a shy bookworm who is very creative, she draws animations in her notepad and paints with watercolors all over her bedroom, much like Rapunzel. Asha also wants to be a musician and to inspire the people with her music. While being devoted to her goal to ensure that everyone gets their wish to come true, Asha also struggles with poor leadership skills, and she doesn't know how to be a good leader to her friends, or her kingdom. Her parents seem to make it look easy, and sometimes Asha prefers to rely on them to make her dreams come true. However, Asha believes that a bigger and stronger wish requires a much more difficult journey, and in order to achieve her wish, she must confront her own parents, two of the fiercest and most powerful villains the Disney universe has ever known.

King Magnifico is almost the same as his canon depiction, except he has no backstory of him losing his family to destruction which would've make him more sympathetic, and does not mesh well with him being a villain. He uses his magic to remove wishes from people's hearts and keeps them in his own "wish orbs" for personal keeping, but we don't find out what he does with them until the first act. Before he praticed magic, he was a philosopher who believed in the power of the stars in the night sky, inspiring Asha to develop her belief that there is magic in the stars.

Queen Amaya is a female villain who is madly in love with Magnifico and pressures Asha to be a perfect royal daughter, much in the vein of Yzma and Maleficent, with shades of Mother Gothel. She is a black dark-skinned Latina, and Asha's birth mother. Queen Amaya owns has a pet cat assistant named Cleo, who is a callback to Maleficent's crow Diablo, or Lady Tremaine's cat Lucifer.

Alright, now back to the story!

On her 17th birthday, during a beautiful royal ball, Asha notices that her parents have wondered off from their thrones, and she uncovers a dark truth about both of her parents and how they want to keep the wishes of the people for themselves. Even worse, she peaks through the cracked door of the throne room to witness that the King and Queen are crushing the people's wishes, and infusing their energy, in order to make their own magic more powerful, and thus manipulating the townspeople and giving them the false hope of their wishes being granted. Asha tries to keep what she saw a secret from her parents, but she argues that the wishes must be free and sent back to the people. After a heated argument with her parents, she runs to the forest and makes a passionate cry for help to the stars, in the hopes that they will give her guidance and strength to help her entire kingdom. (‘This Wish’ is staying btw, but with adjusted lyrics) Her plea pulls down the brightest star out of the sky and transforms it into a glowing ethereal humanoid being without a name.

Here is where we meet Orion. Orion is THE wishing star of legend. He is a glowing, Black-coded, humanoid boy around the same age as Asha. Newly formed, he has no name and no sense of right or wrong, much like Pinocchio, but he reveals himself to be a powerful shapeshifter with magic celestial powers. The starboy is aided with the tiny, Luma-like canon version of Star, named Little Dipper, as his personal companion. Little Dipper is more mischevious than Orion, but it's also a powerful wish granter in a tiny celestial body. With a reworked, more orchestral version of "At All Costs", Orion takes Asha on a gorgeous flight, explaining his purpose to help Asha, as the duo sings in harmony above the stardust-sprinkled woodlands, with Little Dipper setting the scene. After the song ends, Asha tries to name all the constellations off the top of her head, and ultimately names the starboy Orion (serving as a subtle callback to Kiss the Girl). Asha brings Orion back to the kingdom, and she tries to teach him how to grant the peoples’ wishes. As the two plans to give the wish orbs back to the people, Asha notices that her parents are angered over the townspeople praising Orion’s descend, hoping that he will grant the wishes of all the people. Feeling threatened by Orion’s presence, the King and Queen scheme to use dark magic to kill Fate and steal her magic, so that they will remain as the only wish-granters in Rosas, but at the risk of permanently being surrendered to the dark side. (This Is The Thanks I Get, except it's reworked into a grand, badass, orchestral villain duet with Magnifico on the first verse and Amaya on the second verse)

Desperate to warn the kingdom about her parents’ true colors, Asha disguises herself (a la Sleeping Beauty) as a peasant girl, while Orion tries to disguise himself as a normal human boy. As the two try to grant the wishes of the townpeople who haven't given their wishes to the king and queen, the town descends into chaos with some wishes spiraling out of control. While it is a moment of hilarity, Asha and Orion come to a realization that some wishes should never be granted in the first place, as they're more likely to cause harm and chaos than pure good. The two comes across a group of seven teenagers modeled after the Seven Dwarfs, Asha's longtime team, and Orion starts to get to know each one of them, before planning a rebellion against her parents, and yet, Asha is secretly hesitant to disobey her parents, she confesses to Orion - in a short reprise of At All Costs - about how she used to be perfectly obedient and a perfect princess to her people. Meanwhile, Orion reveals to the Seven Teens that he’s still learning to grant wishes, but they also end up horribly wrong, but he comes to a realization that he shouldn't grant wishes that could cause harm, no matter how much they beg for it. The Teens make a promise to Asha that they will protect her secret, as well as Orion's. The duo and the teens team up to stop the King and Queen, with a reworked version of "Knowing What I Know Now."

During the epic climax, Orion and Asha create a diversion, with Asha freeing the wishes with her team and learning to be a good leader in doing so, while Orion shapeshifts into multiple forms to battle the King and Queen and distract them away from the castle, but they capture Little Dipper into the scepter, and use Dipper's magic to transform their cat Cleo into a giant dragon (akin to Maleficent's dragon form) that flies them to the top of the castle, with Orion chained up. The parents chain Asha to the top of the castle where the battle occurs, and they force their daughter to watch Orion suffer. Engulfed by the pain of losing her protector, Asha breaks into the This Wish reprise, as do the other residents of Rosas. The King and Queen try to push Asha off the castle to her death, but the townspeoples' voices lift her up, as does Orion's, and he uses his magic to make her float above in mid-air. Everyone's hearts beginning to glow and attract their wishes back to their hearts as they sing in unison. Orion transfers most of his celestial powers into Asha, who uses her temporary celestial powers to free Little Dipper from the scepter, and blast the King and Queen to their death, while Orion simultaneously creates a powerful sword to throw into Cleo's heart, killing her as well. After a moment of silence, Asha breaks down into tears and feels bittersweet that she’ll never have her parents again, but more optimistic about being the ruler the kingdom desperately needed - someone who will choose only the best wishes to come true. Orion comes down to Earth to comforts Asha with a hug, and the kingdom rejoices with the evil King and Queen gone for good.

Cut to a few months later with Asha hosting her first royal ball for Rosas, and dancing with Orion, similar to the endings of Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast. Before Orion flies back to the night sky to become the Wishing Star, he gets Little Dipper to create a magic wand and grants her the role of a honorary Blue Fairy guardian, transforming Asha’s purple queen gown into a beautiful, glittering, baby blue gown. Orion informs to Asha that Asha will be reincarnated into a true Blue Fairy after her time on Earth comes to an end, but Orion will descend back down to Rosas every now and then to help Asha. As a final gift, even though he admits his magic is not perfect just yet, Orion finally grants Asha’s wish and creates a lute for her to play for her people, but Asha realizes what her true wish was all along: To be a good leader to all of Rosas.

After Orion forms into the glimmering Wishing Star in the night sky above Rosas, Queen Asha looks down on the townspeople of Rosas with hope in her smile and she looks up at the wishing star above her, with a hope that everyone will have a wish to come true, because now, Queen Asha knows that there is no force, no magic more powerful than the power of a wish, for a wish is more powerful when it’s inside your heart.

Cut to a few nights later, after the credits have rolled, when Asha walks out onto the balcony above the kingdom. She pulls out a music sheet, and begins to play ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’ for the stars, as an homage to Orion.

My version of Wish will also contain hundreds of Easter Eggs that all pay tribute to ALL 61 FILMS in the Walt Disney Animation Studios library, all worked seamlessly into the context of the story, not just containing the ones that inspire the film like Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. Anyway, all I’m saying is that Disney should’ve hired me and put me into the writers room, because as a Disney fan, I know how to make this story work and how to make it even better, and I hope you guys love this version of the story! Oh, and also, screw Disney for donating to a genocide. Goodnight Kingdom of Rosas!

[only-by-the-stars]

more little NL vs NH thoughts because I can't stop playing NL again and apparently can't shut up about it (it is so important to me okay?)

-villager dialogue is just so much better in NL. I've heard people complain about the villagers not being mean anymore in that game like in older ones, and I have little opinion on that, but whew can I ever see the downgrade between NL and NH. the regular dialogue is so bland, and there's fewer options for when they have something to ask you for. in NH, it's:

wanna come over/can I visit your house RIGHT NOW? I had a fight with [other villager], can you deliver this gift? I'm trying to sell stuff, will you buy this from me?/here's a random item (this always happens when I'm digging up clams and need empty pockets...) can you catch this bug/fish for me? (very rarely) want to play a treasure hunt game?

whereas with NL it's:

wanna come over/can I visit your house RIGHT NOW? wanna come over/can I visit your house later? can you take this gift to [other villager]? I'm trying to sell stuff, will you buy this/can I trade you for item in your pockets? can you catch this bug/fish for me? wanna play hide and seek? can you bury/dig up this time capsule for me? can you bring me a piece of fruit? I need to speak to [other villager] but can't leave my house, can you bring them here?

I'm probably forgetting something, but you can see the disparity anyway. regular dialogue was generally more interesting too. I also like that you had to bring a sick animal medicine for *three* days instead of just one, it felt like nursing a sick friend back to health instead of one and done and was more rewarding.

-speaking of more rewarding... SHOP UPGRADES, MY BELOVED <333 my file has T&T Emporium, and it is SO NICE, OMG. ;w; I loved the process of working towards the shop upgrades and seeing it become gradually bigger and with a better item selection. ALSO I MISS YOU, GRACIE. </3 the fact that NH has the nerve to try and sell me ridiculously expensive furniture without the GracieGrace brand attached, smh.

-it was the Bug Off today! if I'd realized, I would've prepared last night, but oh well. I still got to get a couple cute furniture pieces and I think I'll place first, so that was fun.

-doing item customization yourself is more convenient (because you can see what things will look like without using a guide) and faster, but... I actually still like using Cyrus? I know he's at the co-op on Harv's island if you shell out enough cash, but that's so expensive and his prices have gone up. customization kits aren't cheap either! in NL you paid less, and had to wait a half hour for an individual item to be ready, but I like that. I like going a bit slower. NL in general is slower and so much more relaxed and relaxing, I like walking at a normal pace and getting to soak in the atmosphere and music.

-as much as I appreciate getting to hear Blathers blather about the donated stuff, I also like the convenience of getting to look at the info in the museum itself without having to bring him another one. it's part of what makes going to the museum soothing, despite that there's no wow factor in the design of the exhibits.

-Main Street in general is just so nice to have, and it makes the actual town feel bigger. I do like being able to decorate outside, but... at the same time I like the simpler feel here and the PWPs that we had. and remodeling town hall and the train station was so neat!!! why can't we do that in NH???

-GOD I MISS THE LEGEND OF ZELDA ITEMS AND VILLAGERS SO MUCH.

-the music. again, the music. NL remains one of my favorite video game soundtracks ever. when it hit 7 PM last night and The Song started playing... oh man... ;w; will we ever have that level of music quality again?

-cannot stress enough how much I miss Tortimer Island. the minigames! the easy access to summer bugs and fishing! AAAAAHHHH

-I... forgot what the Aquarius Urn looked like in this game and now I'm annoyed all over again at the blandification of the Zodiac series in NH. IT WAS BLUE AND FILLED WITH WATER. I COULD'VE. IT WOULD'VE LOOKED SO GOOD AS PART OF MY ZORA-THEMED AREAS. AAARGH!!!

-odd little discrepancy, but why is it when you talk to Gulliver to try and wake him up in NH you have to put away any tool you're carrying, but not so in NL? weird.

-I like the hyacinths and windflowers, but I also miss the violets and carnations. the purple roses were also a LOT prettier in NL.

-also, for all that NH offers more freedom in some aspects, it really took a big step backwards in house customization??? you can't even GET a different exterior until you have ALL the rooms, and you have NO CONTROL over the room size??? and the exterior options are all SO BLAND. you could be way more creative and aesthetic in NL by choosing which rooms to have, how big they were, and you had way more and more interesting exterior options.

-sure were more events and generally things to do in NL. :< the only part of winter I liked was playing snowman bingo and trying to make the different snow people for various rewards! and they took THAT away too! there was more charm, too, I loved the coziness of the "small forested village" that I got in NL, and I prefer taking the train to flying everywhere, and the post office was so cool, and I liked the reliability of taking Dr. Shrunk fruit to learn new reactions. I really hope the next game is a return to form and not more of the same problems that still plague NH...

[un-pearable]

oh yeah saw blue beetle last night and one million thumbs up. going into having heard it’s very tokusatsu and comic booky made it one million times better. goofy and stupid in fun ways. i’m so glad we’ve looped back around to comic book movies being like comic books: confusing chronologically and catered to fans willing to put up with wildly specific nonsense. also heck of a great job making a movie about gentrification and colonization out of the chaos of blue beetle lore and corporate blandification i genuinely had fun

[zykamiliah]

netflix atla episode one's fuck-ups:

they really killed the mystery and intrigue aspect of the first episode. we know from the first 10 minutes who aang is, so when he arrives 100 years later at the south water tribe there's nothing interesting going on. which brings me to-

too much tell, and what little "show" there is, is not the good kind.

making aang go "for a stroll" to erase the fact that in the original story he ran away after learning the truth because he (understandably) didn't want to shoulder that responsibility, it's just plain bad. to those who watched the original show it's gonna be very obvious they're following "the main character(s) can do no wrong" motto, which is just plain shitty writing

speaking of which, the characters fill so. so bland. i can't comprehend how dull was watching them interact.

that scene in the original where aang played with the kids??? gone. we don't need reminders that aang is a kid. he's a Hero now. he's Responsible. he's childish, he doesn't make Mistakes, he's Morally Correct always.

oh my poor boy sokka. what have they done to you. this blandification of the character is really the worst thing about the remake. and!!!

iroh has always been one of my faves and he's just so??? unfun??? what have they done to my favorite uncle???

speedruning the plot so that by the end of ep1 they are already visiting the aang's home/air temple-- where is the adventure??? where is the bonding?? do netflix even cares to show us these three becoming friends?

also lmao it seems they want to nip kataang in the bud. can't have aang think about romance and girls until he's 18 it seems ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Must Protect the Children From the Evil of Crushes

I'll admit that the one good thing the remake has going is the sets, the costumes, the craftmanship, the special effects and the fight choreographies-- credit where credit is due, that was pretty cool. i also feel that the casting was well done even if we've lost the comedic side of the story. that's probably a scrip and direction issue anyway

[atomictiki]

Fan redesigns these days suck all the personality out of characters. In ages past, it was about making characters more exciting, not this "blandification"

[goddessactuality]

Good things technology has wrought: populism democratization of creativity instant generation of dreams and magic connections across the entire globe visions of beauty endless feed of wonder empowerment enablement and godlike communication an arsenal of weapons to counter mainstream blandification and gentrification horror of ruling class ideology that loves to flatten and generify the infinitely faceted endless prism of cults and societies across the world

Bad things technology has wrought: the ever expanding panopticon of social norm enforcement reified by the technoempowered police force and governments which operate to protect wealth and enable and enforce murky and ill conceived opinions which the powerful insist are for our benefit while benefiting mainly themselves at the expense of the newly empowered democratized masses

[motorclit]

I still don't get the blandification of spaces.

I have a theory not rooted in any evidence that I could give you, though. It's trying to make bland things the norm to balance out the reality of people's quality of life; make people think things aren't so bad, that the individual is overreacting.

Another theory is that rich people live a rather bland aesthetic lifestyle because they can afford to do things in life that make up for it.

And another is that establishments are cheap bastards who don't wanna spent a few extra bucks making the place look nice (hence why many fast food restaurants all look the same and shit).

The last one might actually be it, though. I say this because 9 times outta 10, it all boils down to something as simple as rich corporations wanting to make as much as possible by spending as little as possible, and not some illuminati-level pay-ops something or other. Because sometimes it's not that deep. It's just painfully simple.

For decades stoners were renowned for their aesthetics. For their blacklight posters and lava lamps, for their airbrushed dragon murals and electrical shock orb thingies from Spencer Gifts. Then they legalized weed and every weed store became the flattest, emptiest minimalist void imaginable. They're putting a weed store in a former Rainforest Cafe and they're tearing out all of the rainforest decor to make it just a big empty space with walls painted the blandest green they can find. They tore down paradise and put up a place where a business major tries to tell you CDB oil can cure cancer

[confirmed-for-trash]

watched The Fabelmans last night and it's honestly a really well-made, engaging film that sucked me right in, like films used to do before the blandification of cinema.

when it ended, I was disappointed, I wanted it to keep going. it's an emotionally intense film. there are scenes of the Jewish main character, Sam, getting harassed and beat up by little white fascist boys at public school, and a REALLY funny and weird scene where Sam meets and kinda falls for a religious girl who has a Jesus kink. there's a heartbreaking scene of Sam's family coming apart at the seams and if you're a child of a broken home, it might be hard to watch, but it rings true emotionally. there's also the hilarious scene where young Sam gets to meet a veteran film director; if you're a film nerd, this scene alone is worth watching the movie for.

basically, if you like Steven Spielberg and the way he makes films, and if you're interested in cinema from the 20th Century, you'll probably enjoy this movie. if you enjoy the art of visual storytelling, there's a lot to like here. for example, the scene where Sam is waiting in the director's office, and the camera pans around the room to show us the movie posters covering the walls, and we see Sam realize exactly whose office this is... that's CINEMA babey.

[mmwm]

LINK FEST: 11 APRIL 2023

Links that may or may not be related to gardens, food, travel, nature, or heterotopias and liminal spaces but probably are. Sources in parentheses. long article: The age of average (Alex Murrell). “This article argues that from film to fashion and architecture to advertising, creative fields have become dominated and defined by convention and cliché.” The reasons he offers for the blandification…

[lmast-arts346]

Inquiry 5: Typographic Mermaid Poster

The last sprint. Boy, did I have a run for my money on this one. Going into this last case study, I wanted to explore something fun while trying my hand at animation. Initially, I wanted to approach animation and movement through Adobe After Effects but ended up completing an  animated poster in photoshop. I used the themes “paper engineering” and “organic” from the matrix to get me started. I wanted to study more of my obsession with mermaids. These sea nymphs and water spirits have always been a part of my life and I created a whole zine with the same energy and theme in Arts 246 with Professor Meena last year. So, I combined elements from that past project: the typeface Herculanum, photographs, and the color palette. I added new drawings too! After having my freak out moment in After Effects, I scrolled through Skill Share and was blessed to find a lesson on typographic animation that helped me finish this case study. This lesson was led by Khadija El Sharawy’s and she had us choose a song to create the poster. Since I already had visual imagery, I chose the song Ocean by Dontask, that included words relative to my animation and mermaid theme.

Media 5: Design Observer Episode 95

This design podcast was juicy and easy to listen to. Michael Bierut said comments in a way that makes you laugh but has a very real point to it all. Key takeaway quotes:

“People want differentiation to an extent. People want to standout to fit in amongst a crowd.”

“People don’t like change, even though they come to designers for change.”

“People are desperate to avoid appearing like they are trying hard.”

“A thinker of visual form” takes many forms and I am currently exploring all of these in undergrad; feels extremely curious, warm, and invigorating. I really like working the game of process, experimentation, and failure.

Identity is key. Logo must travel into many spaces via many routes.

Blandification of logos and how this taints and sets back designers.

I love Norman Teague’s website and how they display their service, work, and brand identity. Designer’s websites are so beautifully crafted more than 75% of most brands.

This episode discusses influences on the modern design world and how the consumer/user can affect the universal design space, but it is up to us designers and visual communicators to take that space back via the work we put out there. I am doing that in my final project by reclaiming the growth needed within a new brand in the historical Cotton Gin space. While this change might not be wanted or make sense for my community now, it is my job to show what it could be through my process and experimentation to win them over. Ready. To. Play.