#disney alien about page

[thetreetopinn]

Sources for Somerton's Plagiarism from Hbomberguy's Video (as much as I could get)

I went back through Harry's video, focused entirely on the sources James Somerton pulled from in the hopes of creating as much of a comprehensive list as I could--though my Google-Fu is not very strong. I did however find something I thought was forever lost and that made me very happy--specifically the magazine Midlands Zone containing the column by Steven Spinks that Harry poignantly used as an illustration of gay erasure... while Somerton uses it to sound like HE is waxing remorseful about the very subject.

This is not a complete list, I'm sure. For one thing, I was only able to attempt to pull sources that Harry himself mentioned in the video. Surely there's so very much more out there. I expect there to be a great deal more internet archeology to unearth just how much writing and culture Somerton has stolen like he's the British Museum of Natural History but for gay people.

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Harry's list of mentioned youtubers:

Alexander Avila - https://www.youtube.com/@alexander_avila Matt Baume - https://www.youtube.com/@MattBaume Khadija Mbowe - https://www.youtube.com/@KhadijaMbowe Lady Emily - https://www.youtube.com/@LadyEmilyPresents Shanspeare - https://www.youtube.com/@Shanspeare RickiHirsch - https://www.youtube.com/@RickiHirsch VerilyBitchie - https://www.youtube.com/@verilybitchie

Harry created a convenient playlist of videos by these and other people he wants to bring to everyone's attention.

Please give them your support.

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Midlands Zone Magazine - Column by Steven Spinks

After a great deal of searching, I found an archive of the "Midlands Zone" magazine, where you can read through past issues dating all the way back to February 2014. I have also found the issue from which Somerton took Spinks' poignant discussion of gay erasure: Overall archive Specific Issue - Pages 16-17

It will not allow you to download it, but you can read it exactly as it appeared in print form.

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My best effort to find the exact book or article Somerton lifted from to be able to get attention to the original writers

Tinker Bells and Evil Queens By Sean Griffin

The Celluloid Closet By Vito Russo Wikipedia article about the book Wikipedia article about the documentary My weak google-fu could not find where you can access the book or documentary. Check your local municipal or university library for book or documentary, or if you know a good source for one or both, please reblog with it added

Camp and the Gay Sensibility By Jack Babuscio

The Groundbreaking Queerness of Disney's Mulan By Jes Tom Personal site with links to social media accounts

Why Rebel Without a Cause was a milestone for gay rights By Peter Howell

Why "The Craft" is still the best Halloween coming out movie By Andrew Park

Opinion: From facehuggers to phallic tails, is 'Alien' one of the queerest films ever? By Dani Leever

Women and Queerness in Horror: Jennifer's Body By Zoe Fortier

[Pride 2019] We Have Such Sights to Show You: Hellraiser and the Spectrum of Queerness By Alejandra Gonzalez

Revealing the Hellbound Heart of Clive Barker's 'Hellraiser' By Colin Arason

Queering James Cameron's Aliens (1986) By Bart Bishop

Demeter and Persephone in space: transformation, femininity, and myth in the 'Alien' films By David Greven

Fears of a millennial masculinity: Scream's queer killers By David Greven (Scholarly site, unable to access original work, offers a way to request a full copy of the text in PDF)

Queer Subtext in Stephen King's It - Part 1: 'Reddie' Character Analysis By Rachel Brands Rachel is the very unfortunate lady who found out she was being stolen from because she supported Somerton through Patreon and saw one of his videos early with her writing--lacking any form of citation or credit

How 'It: Chapter Two' Leaves Richie Tozier Behind By Joelle Monique

When Horror Becomes Strength: Queer Armor in Stephen King's 'IT' By Alex London

Why Queer People Love Witchcraft By Amanda Kohr

'The Favourite' Queers The Past And The Present By Giorgi Plys-Garzotto

(Wuko) Crush (Mako x Wu) By MoonFlower on YouTube

5 Terrible Movies With Awesome Hidden Meanings By J.F. Sargent

The Radicalization of Sexuality: The Queer Casae of Jeffrey Dahmer By Ian Barnard

Netflix's 'Dahmer' backlash highlights ethical issues in the platform's obsession with true crime By Shivani Dubey

The Possible Disturbing Dissonance Between Hajime Isayama's Beliefs and Attack on Titan's Themes Original Article by "Seldom Musings" (Author has made all posts not related to Attack On Titan private and has retired from the blog)

Everyone Loves Attack on Titan. So Why Does Everyone Hate Attack on Titan? By Gita Jackson

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The following people are otherwise named in the video. There are no direct citations of articles or books by them in said video. I am unable to guarantee that I have identified the correct individual.

Darren Elliott-Smith Michaela Barton David Church Claire Sisco King Amanda Howell Jessica Roy

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Telos announced and cancelled a film likely based on this book: The Final Girl Support Group - By Grady Hendrix

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I refrained from including certain sources.

First off only focusing on Somerton's work.

Secondly not including anything that might be visible enough to not require amplifying their voice (I cannot speak for all of those I have found links to, but journalism is frequently a thankless job).

Thirdly any source that is of a nature that is antithetical to the very existence of the queer community, such as the right-leaning source that didn't make it into Somerton's video, but Harry was able to identify as a source he had considered using.

If you feel I have missed a mentioned source--or you know of a source from material that was not covered in Harry's video--please do not hesitate to reblog with added details.

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Please share this information far and wide, and please add to it if you find more material that can be positively identified and linked to the creator/writer.

[bucksboobs]

I mean I think it makes sense for heartstopper to not have anything explicit going on as one of them only Just realised he liked boys and the other one has an ED, they do talk about it pretty directly in the show so its addressed not totally unrealistically. But as for fan response yeah there was a weird thing amongst… a certain subset of fans of making a joke/meme out of a single throwaway line in the books where they mention having sex, maybe the accessibility draws that type of crowd but I don’t think that’s the fault of the show/comic itself 😅 esp as things get fairly explicit in the comics later as they get older

I have complicated feelings about Heartstopper. I actually like it in theory as Baby’s First Gay Show (I would have rather had it then Queer as Folk when I was 14) and in theory it’s a uncomplicated cozy, warm, fuzzy story about two young boys falling in love. It’s the definition of Toothrotting Fluff

However in practice, it feels alienating to me as a gay man when the only two things gay boys are allowed to be in the show are Pure UwU Tumblr Softboy who Speaks in Therapy-ese and Pure Evil Rapist who is brought back into the show after the point the comic counterpart had been written out just to be a punching bag for the Valiant Bisexual Girl to yell at and out in front of their classmates and then Get Dunked On by his ex when he tries to apologize and then have The Symbolism Doodles symbolically reject him from the LGBT community and then get written out of the story.

Combined with the complete stripping away of any mention of sexuality outside of exactly One Scene where they discuss the gay equivalent of Waiting Until Marriage, it does come off as incredibly puritan even if it’s justified in-story by Charlie’s ED and I do actually attribute that in part to the source material. Alice Oseman is by their own admission, pretty uncomfortable with the idea of sex and it shows in the way Nick and Charlie are written. As Trixie and Katya put it: they seem like they just want to hold hands at the post office. The show to this point has been very very uncomfortable with the idea that these two boys might be attracted to each other in a not-purely-romantic way, and when the only other gay character that did show some level of sexual attraction that maybe wasn’t purely romantic is Ben Fucking Hope, the implication seems to be that there’s a Right and Wrong way to be Gay in the eyes of the story.

It also doesn’t escape my notice that Love, Victor petered away into obscurity but Heartstopper is seen as the pinnacle of Gay Representation to a lot of people. Love, Victor was unafraid of teenage boys of all sexualities being sexual beings and in fact reckons with it in ways that were VERY close to my actual experiences, like everything with Victor and his mom coming to terms with him having a romantic and sexual relationship with his boyfriend. Disney shafted LV a lot but Netflix has this Pure Sanitized Risk-free Romance on the front page every time a new season comes out and that also just stings. There’s the feeling that maybe if LV had been more chaste, more palatable, it would have actually been a major success.

I don’t want to sound too dismissive of what HS is for a lot of people but to me there’s just something that makes me feel like it was never for me and that could be because I’m too old for it, but it sometimes feels like it wasn’t for me because it’s not for gay men at all.

[my-name-is-bunnyfoxy]

Rise Leonardo HEADCANNONS

While he is often joked to be the gay one on the team, he is actually abrosexual who currently switches between bisexual and or pansexual.

His favorite singers are Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Arianna Grande and at times will listen to Justin Bieber.

His favorite comics are DC and his favorite is the Flash and also enjoys Kid Flash. He also loves Beast Boy because he finds him funny.

Leo knows how to cook and bake. Though doesn't really do it often. He does it when he is hungry or bored. Or simply when Mikey can't make them any food.

He has actually babysitted Senor Hueso's son a few times. Mostly taking him out for ice cream, arcade and also buy him whatever he wanted.

Leo enjoys finding any poster or anything with some kind of picture on paper and hanging it on his walls in his room. He also enjoys at times just getting another copy of a comic he already has and cutting out pages and plastering them on his wall thinking it looks cool.

He enjoys collecting action figures and will actively snatch one he finds even if it came from the trash can.

Donnie judges Leo's outfit choices on many occasions and Leo learnt to deal with it. Though then he would just trash Donnie's clothes and make a mess whenever he gives him the most hurtful judgement.

When he is dealing with stress or feeling depressed he will shut his door, plop headphones on, get cuddled and put on his favorite movies and admire characters who he can relate to.

He jokes being a blonde girl after 'Bad Hair Day' episode.

He doesn't like cream the best. Despite that, he will devour cream cake anytime.

Whenever he wants to vent, he looks at a mirror and puts a photo of one of his family members or friends and start venting to them. He would eventually after the events of the movie start to communicate properly and start to genuinely vent to his close ones. He felt as if it was better then to bottle his emotions.

While he is seen as the type of guy to swear on a daily, he actually swears the least along with Donnie. Only when he is fully in-raged and in need of using curse words to express his rage or any other emotion of his. I'd say he is the 3rd to swear.

He actually sneaks out a lot with April to skateboard at a roller skating park at night.

If he had an Instagram, most of his pictures would be of his brothers sleeping or just fails or pranks.

He sliced a rabbit in half... (I feel like certain shippers are gonna come for me or start making jokes about that one rabbit character TMNT has crossovers with lmao-)

For absolutely, NO REASON, he begged Draxum to film him doing a very dangerous stunt with his tentacles. That day he broke 75 limbs and 2 of his ribs and lost 100 pounds of blood (not really but he broke a lot of bones)

He's a sci-fi nerd. Besides, Jupiter Jim, his favorite sci-fi movies are Star Wars, E.T., Monsters VS Aliens, Batman VS Superman.

He loves poor quality movies because he can then make fun of them. That's why him and Raph stopped watching live-action Disney movies-

He developed massive claustrophobia when Raph sacrificed himself for him and got in the pod.

Clings onto Raph after the movie and they both put a leash on each other 24/7 to make sure they are safe. Also since Leo is aware of the tracking devices, he always asks Donnie where Raph is. The same is with everyone else.

[palepaintersweets]

MVA Sonic au belongs to @weirdozjunkary

Notes: I drew the comic scene inspired by a MVA Halloween film; MVA Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space. In this Halloween event of the au is about the invasion of the alien robot pumpkins called Jack-o-Bots. You know, MVA Jack-o-Bots From Outer Space.

Tails, on the other hand, lost his Halloween spirit due to the bullies who picked on him and stole his swirly pop lollipop when he was 3 or 4 years old. But on page 9 and 10, the old woman is amazed at Tails's twin tails and gave him a candy that he had lost all those years ago, a swirly pop! It brought back his Halloween spirit.

Funny facts: On page 3, the woman mistaken Knuckles of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. On page 4, Shadow doesn't understand Halloween due to being living in G.U.N. facility for over 50 years and this is his first Halloween. On page 6 and 7, three kids, who dressed up as Knuckles, Tails, and Shadow, are references of the Disney characters Bambi, Thumper, and Flower.

(@weirdozjunkary, if you’re seeing this, I'll give you my permission for you you to redraw this. I'm sure you'll draw it better in your version. 😉😁)

[timeagainreviews]

From Page to Screen: The Star Beast

Growing up can feel like a lifelong process. I’m an adult, but I’m obsessed with a time-travelling alien show. Part of you will always feel like a kid, but another part knows the past is the past. While I may fantasise about revisiting my past like the Doctor, I admit it wouldn’t feel the same. I’ve changed. The ‘80s could never feel like the present. Every hairdo dated. Every new record in the shop window is a relic. Childhood always stays with you, but as an ever further memory. Understand then the implication that when my household of 30-40-somethings finished watching “The Star Beast,” we were like children.

In my “The Eve of the 60th,” article, I talked about how I don’t have a childhood nostalgia for Doctor Who. But sometimes, the things we love inspire a childlike enthusiasm within us. Somehow, Russell T Davies managed to retcon my past. In this timestream, Natalie has childhood nostalgia for Doctor Who. Using the TARDIS, RTD has managed to time travel back to our hearts. There’s something warm and fuzzy (and I don’t just mean the Meep) in my chest and I’d like to talk about it.

There are some Doctor Who reviewers who seem to think it’s impossible to talk about the Doctor Who episodes they enjoyed. But if we learned anything from the Jedi, it’s that walking the path of the light side is harder. Snarky shittiness is fun to partake in because it’s easy and immediately gratifying. But I’m not here for shittiness. I’m here for the love. It feels so good to say “I loved The Star Beast,” but it doesn’t mean I don’t have notes. I started out writing about the Chibnall era from a place of enthusiasm. I can’t help what happened after the fact.

My enthusiasm at the beginning of the Chibnall era isn’t a bad place to start this review. Because after “The Woman Who Fell to Earth,” I still possessed said enthusiasm. Seeing Jodie Whittaker as the first woman Doctor was a joyous experience. And seeing David Tennant in the TARDIS again was just as joyful. It’s a fabulous feeling, but I was burned the last time I felt this way. I further temper my expectations because, as I said, I do have notes.

When you spend a large portion of your time either watching, listening, reading, writing, or thinking about Doctor Who, you forget that to some, it’s just a TV show. It’s one of the many they try and watch but miss the odd episode. So while I may roll my eyes at the goofy PowerPoint presentation at the beginning of Saturday’s episode, I have to remind myself that not everyone has been obsessed with Donna Noble for years. Some people might need a little reminder. Fine. While the casuals and newbies are getting caught up on the Nobles, I’ll be over in the corner frothing.

Previously I mentioned that I was withholding judgement for Murry Gold’s new intro music until I heard the full mix. Now that I’ve heard it I can say I liked it much better. It’s far more bombastic with proper engineering. The intro sequence itself was colourful but safe. I enjoyed watching the TARDIS skim the perimeters of the time vortex like a surfer catching a wave. It’s ironic that Dan Slott admitted to writing The Silver Surfer to be like Doctor Who, as it was the Silver Surfer I thought of during this sequence. People have been musing that the Disney influence may have Doctor Who going down the path of the MCU, but this one is pure coincidence. The intro is stunning and fits this exciting new era perfectly.

It’s not as though “The Star Beast,” were an adaptation of a Marvel comic published in 1980. Oh it was? Oh right. Well they got us on this one! Surely they wouldn’t copy the MCU further by hiring the directors of Loki. Oh they have? Oh right. Well at least they didn’t do a Marvel Studios type of production logo that shows different characters across the franchise to play before every new show. Oh they did? Well damn, I guess they are going Marvel. It makes sense when you consider that many people said Loki was doing Doctor Who better than Doctor Who was doing Doctor Who. And on top of that, “The Star Beast,” is a fantastic comic in its own right. I would say Russell T Davies is a mad genius for mining gems from the extended Whoniverse, but he’s done it before with “Human Nature.” My only regret is that this somewhat undoes the continuity of the comics. The nerd in me can’t help but acknowledge the fact that the same comic recently canonically destroyed the Thirteenth Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, and put the Fourteenth Doctor on course to Skaro where we saw him briefly in the Children in Need special. Timestreams.

“The Time Beast,” has now gone the way of “Shada.” Both stories take place across multiple Doctors and multiple forms of media. Not only is there an audio adaptation of Shada featuring Paul McGann, there’s also an audio adaptation of The Star Beast starring Tom Baker. Add the upcoming Target novelisation and you’ll soon have both stories in book form. It’s the fandom’s new “The Doctor’s Daughter was played by the Doctor’s daughter who then went on to marry the Doctor who played her father in the episode ‘The Doctor’s Daughter.’” Get ready to hear that ad nausea. All of this is to say I love when Doctor Who acknowledges its other media and this one was well played.

This adaptation of the Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons comic is a loose one. While the Meep and Wrarth Warriors look fantastic, some minor liberties have been taken with the story. Yet it’s hard not to admire how Russell T Davies has woven the Noble family and a narrative about gender identity in such a way that it feels seamless. Themes of duality and stereotyping are heavy throughout this episode. Speaking of gender identity, I totally called it with Rose’s choice of name. I said I hoped they would use the trans experience of choosing ones own name to tell a wibbly wobbly timey wimey story, and they did. But this also brings me to my biggest sticking point in the entire episode. I’ve seen a lot of people online using the word “clunky,” and that’s exactly what I would call it. Having Rose choose her name from a latent human/Time Lord meta-crisis going on inside her was great. However, having it be a factor in her gender identity left me a bit cold. It may have worked better if it had been implied that Rose was non-binary at some point before.

Ultimately, it feels like a cis male trying to write an empowering trans narrative and missing the mark a bit. It’s like your uncle using the wrong language to awkwardly say “I support you.” It’s in no way problematic, but it could have done with being passed through a few different trans people’s hands before going into production. Donna’s line "Anyone has a go, I will be there and I will descend,” is the Doctor Who equivalent of David Lynch telling transphobes to “fix their hearts of die,” and I want it on a pin. As a trans woman, I do appreciate the trans representation, but it didn’t quite stick the landing. Moving forward, my personal preference would be to just let trans characters exist. We don’t need you to constantly point out our differences. On the other hand, we did get what seems like very positive disability representation. My disabled Whovian friends all seem to agree that having Shirley Anne Bingham with her rocket chair and a wheelchair-accessible TARDIS made them feel seen. One out of two ain’t so bad, Russell. 

It’s funny to me that it took the Doctor becoming a man again to even start asking questions about gender. Chris Chibnall felt as though he was afraid of bringing up the Doctor’s new gender. It felt very “I don’t see colour, I just see people,” like mentioning the Doctor’s gender would have been the real sexism. I can think of three moments where the Doctor’s gender comes up in the Chibnall era- when the Doctor called herself daddy, when Captain Jack thought Graham was the Doctor, and when the Sontarans thought the Doctor was a companion. It wasn’t until Juno Dawson, a trans woman, wrote “The Good Doctor,” did we get a great conversation about the Doctor’s non-binary nature. I guess “The Star Beast,” was right, trans people are fucking magic.

Seeing David Tennant in his new threads with a sonic screwdriver that draws shields in the air was very cool. He and Catherine Tate haven’t missed a step, and of course, they haven’t, they’ve been playing the same characters on Big Finish for years. But people still felt the need to point it out, so here’s me doing it too. That’s quality. Their meeting again played out almost exactly as I predicted it would in my article “The Future of Doctor Who.” The Doctor is going to see Donna behind some packages, freak out when he realises it’s her, but come running like a puppy dog at the name “Rose.” Only in this instance, the Doctor is torn away from this intriguing discovery by what appears to be an alien craft crashlanding in London. Donna, of course, remained oblivious, as per the terms and conditions of the the Doctor’s neural block he placed on her 14 years ago.

This “new” Doctor prefers to play things close to his chest at first. He avoids Donna and UNIT alike. He still doesn’t know why he has this face again, or why out of all the people in time and space, the TARDIS decided to put that face in front of Donna Noble. If there is a reason, he’s not going to assume what it is, or who might be responsible. I loved watching the Doctor question Shaun about Donna. The fact that the Doctor still remembers the name Nerys after hundreds of years made me laugh out loud. It’s nice to see the Doctor being Doctory. He’s skulking around. He’s getting clues. He’s not making assumptions. Already he’s learned that the rocket hadn’t crashed. Something is not as it seems, and the Doctor intends to find out what.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town we meet Fudge who tells Rose about the alien space pod that landed near their houses. Fudge is one of the few characters who kept his name from the comic. They don’t even call the Meep "Beep" anymore (sort of.) As in the comics, Fudge is an excitable boy interested in science and space. He also plays a major part in helping the episode feel like classic Davies era stuff. One thing we often missed from both the Moffat and Chibnall era was the human cost of alien invasion. Watching Fudge’s reaction to the streets of London turning molten was a nice reminder that the danger was real. Seeing the BBC news correspondant being thrown into the back of a UNIT van made me happier than you might expect. I was reminded of Trinity Wells giving us news briefs. I missed the clever ways in which Davies made the world feel involved in his stories while also getting a bit of exposition out of it. It was at that moment that I realised RTD and Doctor Who were officially back. 

While going back to the house to grab her phone, Rose meets the Meep hiding amongst her bins. Right away she feels kinship to the Meep who she sees as a misanthrope hiding from oppressors. Of course, she gives the Meep sanctuary. Even though the E.T. moment of Donna discovering the Meep among Rose’s “gonks,” had been played over and over throughout the trailer, it still made me laugh. Catherine Tate has great comedic timing, and watching Rose attempt to draw her attention away was charming. Everyone but Shaun seems hellbent on hiding aliens from Donna, especially Sylvia. I found Sylvia’s transition into a sort of June Whitfield à la Ab Fab entertaining. She’s just let herself in making enormous sausage rolls and tuna curry.

The Doctor says things like “I absolutely love her,” now. Even Sylvia feels warmer toward Donna. Her insistence that the Meep doesn’t exist, even as its holding onto Donna’s leg doesn’t come from her old streak of meanness, but rather from a place of protection. She’s horrified by the prospect of Donna seeing an alien and it burning up her mind. She’s carried the facade this long. This falls into line with the character growth she began experiencing toward the end of the original RTD run and I am happy she didn’t regress.

Most of the Donna Noble story remains in tact and accounted for. Shaun? Still her husband. The lottery winnings? Gave it away. Nerys? Still a snake in the grass, despite the accident. The only one missing is Wilf who the Doctor fears is dead. Honestly, who can blame him though? The only times people say “He’s no longer with us,” are usually when someone has either left their job or died. I guess it’s a nice fakeout for people who didn’t see behind-the-scenes photos from some guy on Twitter. We are given hints that we’ll see him at some point, probably in “The Giggle.” I liked the implication that UNIT has put him up in some comfortable digs. It’s nice to imagine that Wilf and Benton are probably playing chess in a posh retirement home somewhere.

UNIT is back in a major way, and it appears to have some new players. I feel like we’ll see more of Major Singh and Colonel Chan. It would be nice to get some recurring UNIT soldiers again. I feel like they missed a chance with Ross Jenkins in “The Poison Sky.” Kate Stewart is set to return, but replacing Osgood is Shirley Anne Bingham. I loved Osgood, but after seeing Shirley take those soldiers out with darts hidden in her chair I thought “Oh no, I think I fancy her.” She’s got a mischievous air about her that makes her feel a bit cheeky. It will be a lot of fun to see what Ruth Madeley brings to the table. I hope they don’t shunt her off as quickly as the rest of them. 

After a daring escape through the lofts of several people’s homes, the Doctor and the Noble-Temples escort the Meep to safety. But after witnessing the Wrarth Warriors’ tendency toward non-lethal force, the Doctor begins to piece together who might have taken over the minds of Colonel Chan and his men. The Doctor decides it’s time for the Meep to plead its case in the court of a parking garage. After gathering two Wrarth Warriors as witnesses, the Doctor dons a barrister’s wig and invokes Shadow Proclamation Protocols 15, P and 6. And dammit wasn’t it good to hear David Tennant invoke the Shadow Proclamation again? Blissful, even.

One thing I particularly liked about the barrister’s wig is that it calls back to the Fourth Doctor in one of my favourite stories- “The Stones of Blood.” Not only was it good to see the Fourth Doctor referenced in what was originally a Fourth Doctor story, but it also mirrors the circumstances of the original trial quite well. In both cases, an evil villain is posing as a harmless innocent and it’s on the Doctor to prove it. Like the black sun of the comics, a Psychedelic sun turned Meepkind into hideously evil monsters. Their once gentle natures now give way to sadism and conquest. The last remaining Meep, the worst of them all, stands before us today. If you had read the comic book like I did, you would have known this to be true, but up until the reveal, my wife would have died for the Meep. She was mostly alone in this as everyone else saw the Meep’s “I will either die or turn evil,” t-shirt quite early on. Interestingly, some people were actually drawn in by the Meep’s lies.

Casting off its ruse, the Meep’s face contorts as it produces a laser gun from its marsupial pouch. I absolutely love the transition from Puss In Boots to Dr Evil’s cat. The marriage of CGI and practical effects had me wondering how they managed the change. I imagine they had two separate sculpts for the head. One cutesy floof and one twisted grin. I know it’s difficult work, but I love an old fashioned person in a costume. It was cool to get a glimpse into the performance with the Cicely Fay interview on Doctor Who Unleashed. As a person interested in practical effects, this was right up my alley. It’s nice to see that no matter how big Doctor Who gets, they’ll still use a performer in a suit.

The Meep takes the Doctor and company back to its ship to keep them as an in-flight meal. But before the Meep can get them all on the ship, UNIT intercepts leaving only the Doctor and Donna onboard. It’s up to them to stop the Meep before the ship’s dagger drive takes out 9 million Londoners upon lift-off. Evoking the MCU once again, the Doctor deprograms Donna like she’s the Winter Soldier or Black Widow calming the Hulk. The code awakens the Doctor Donna which causes her to exhaust artron energy. We get another classic David Tennant yells at God moment as yet another member of the Noble family is separated by glass. But just as things begin to feel hopeless we learn that not only is Donna not dead, but Rose is also part human and part Time Lord. Using her brief taste of Time Lord consciousness, Rose fully disables the Meep’s ship and the molten cracks from the dagger drive powering up disappear. This was so cheesy and I adored it. Classic RTD right there.

A recurring argument I see in favour of Chris Chibnall is to point out how people often complain about things the Thirteenth Doctor does that other Doctors also did. According to this theory, every Doctor has their own “giving a brown man up to the Nazis,” moment. You know, kind of like when the Eleventh Doctor murdered Solomon by teleporting a bomb onto his ship as he was escaping. He could have teleported the bomb anywhere but chose murder. Who was it that wrote “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship,” again? Chris Chibnall? Oh. We do get a bit of that here with the Fourteenth Doctor ejecting the Meep from its ship. But the Meep was refusing to know when it was beaten. It’s the Sycorax all over again- no second chances. It’s dumb to call the Doctor a pacifist, but is it better that the Twelfth Doctor pushed the Half-Faced Man in “Deep Breath,” or that he talked him into jumping? These are some pretty heavy concepts, but no, the Nazi thing was still worse.

I was glad to see the human/Time Lord meta-crisis taken care of in this first story. It’s nice that Donna is out of the woods and able to have some final adventures with the Doctor before she bows out again. It would have been kind of distracting for them to have to keep worrying about her mind burning every time someone said the word Doctor. It also allows us to fully enjoy the TARDIS reveal. Watching David Tennant run through the slick new interior like a little boy was euphoric. It was cute to get confirmation that even the Doctor has a moment of discovery whenever there is a new console. You always assume the Doctor just knows how to pilot any configuration of TARDIS controls, but even he sometimes has to ask “What’s that?” The TARDIS redesign was well worth the wait. Such a gorgeous set. It’s easily my second favourite TARDIS interior after the Eighth Doctor’s. The changing colour of the round things will offer so many different moods. White for normal function, red for the cloister bell, and purple for the disco party. The Doctor should get some roller skates now. Maybe if they visit the ‘70s at some point. I pray there’s a mirror ball.

Along with a possible mirror ball, the new TARDIS console comes decked with a coffee machine. If you’ll recall “The Doctor’s Wife,” the TARDIS doesn’t always take the Doctor where he wants to go, but always takes him where he needs to be. This means that the TARDIS dropped the Doctor off next to Donna, redecorated knowing about Donna’s tendency toward spilling coffee on computers, and offers her a cup of coffee. That’s some 3-D chess there, old girl. But wherever it is she was so keen to take them in “The Wild Blue Yonder,” she seems as equally keen to escape. From some of the stills I've seen, I wonder if it isn't some sort of evil TARDIS they've found themselves inside.

Judging by Davies' past penchant for planting the seeds of future stories across multiple seasons, it may be a while before we meet the Meep's cryptic boss. Will this boss have anything to do with the woman in Dubai who is gaga over Rose's gonks? Was that just a red herring? Perhaps this boss is actually the Toymaker and I'm overthinking it. But why would he be interested in two-hearted creatures? Is he searching for two-hearted species to track down the Doctor for some revenge? I have so many questions! As wonderful as it is to be curious about Doctor Who again, we'll still have to wait until next week. But the longer wait is over. Doctor Who is back, and isn’t that exciting?

[spamtoon]

DCRC week 4.. in week 5. paperinik

i am behind. you know this by now. let's read paperinik

love the cross hatching in these first few panels something's gonna happen for sure!

JFEAJFOIEAJFIEAJ ill be so real the walt disney logo and OMBRE SU VENERE caught me off guard so hard. the way its in the corner and yellow and Not Fitting At All. the word art ahh look of the text (though i understand why they couldnt replace it in a way that looks good) im so. what a beautiful panel

donald is so sad.... the way that theres so many screens and they're all donald. duckblr user (not that angus fangus would be allowed on duckblr. he doesnt even deserve to call lyla luv)

great to learn that this donald is computer generated. he doesnt have five hands though so this clearly isnt the ai art issue. also ever since last issue learning that lyla is a robot whos become so acclimated to her environment she loves playing the part of the reporter and is still passionate despite technically being made to literally call the time police whenever things go wrong she ough. ohohoh. i appreciate her so much more

i think uno deserves to spy on people. as a treat

one's face... he's so silly....... he's so insanely silly....

the evronians should get angus fangus i think. destroy him agron of evron. i know they're trying to team up to make duck avenger look bad or something but please

the action panels in this comic are also lovely but maybe thats because i havent read a superhero comic before. that isnt darkwing duck

JOIFEAOIFJ THE WAY DONALD LOOKS UP LIKE Xadhoom! (: haha glad to see you here! and then she just. comes down in a firey rage its beautiful.

excellent wisdom donald. im so glad he smokes weed (I AM JOKING I EDITED THIS AS A JOKE)

okay hello for context i am writing this almost a full week later. my ahh did not wanna do this but cog it. we ball. i think i need to just like. stop treating this as an obligation because like it's literally fine spam. you dont have school rn you deserve to chill.

ughhghghg donald loves uno so much already. he's so glad for uno dude... dudeeeeee... artificial or not you're a genius

oguhghh. donald's determination to save angus despite everything because nobody deserves to have Them sucked out of them. ough

this whole page is so cool but i love how they visualize the search okay. sorry i'm just appreciating the Comic-ness. of this comic. you know? when the comic play with panels...

he's so tired.... you're so right uno. i should go to bed after this. oughhghgh he's so silly when he's tired.

i think uno deserves to be done with people's crap more often

oughoghgnghng seeing uno happy again and laughing at donald im so. uno... hi uno... little uno...

im so happy we're four issues in and already donald and xadhoom are going to space to take down aliens. its beautiful... sorry if my commentary gets worse i may just be tired but i know if i dont do it now i'll never do it

hi camera 9... i do not care one bit about this red hair character so far but hello camera 9 you're just little (unaware of the camera 9 lore)

the way that all three of them are slouching here. nobody is stnaidng their ahh up straight when they got incomprehensible angus to worry about

good for him he got on megavolt's good side. bribed him with a lightbulb (SORRY i like making darkwing duck references. i know its not) UFOEAIJFOIEAJ lyla being in the shadow i'm so. she's so silly here ough

the fight scenes in this comic are so.. maybe thats just because i havent read a non-darkwing comic before but like. i dont know im admiring the art and the art style and the time period and the medium and such you know

i dont know what they wanna do with angus fangus other than just like. set him up against the duck avenger and make the earth go against him but like. i suppose he knows he cant kill paperinik here which alright. fair

xadhoom... gnngngnng she's so distressed in these panels

HELP IM SO MAD he really is just a hateful guy. okay they're candace flynning him i see

luckily for us, the universe sucks so much lots of people hate life

xadhoom............................... she deserves so much

glad even angus fangus hates this guy. like great. i wanted that crime to happen and you just. messed it up.

uno with party hat... they really decided y'know what? he's aiing us? let's just ai him back. okay thats the end of the comic maybe next time i'll be more coherent but i hope this satisfies puffy i'm tired man. i was procrastinating on this so hard but this comic... good...

[snakesinsocks2005]

I’m so curious about your specific interpretation of Thor as someone who hyperfixated so hard on marvel at one point, especially the first two Thor movies for some reason. What is your opinion on the Thor movies actually, being as you seem to consume the animated series and comics too!

Ough believe it or not there was once a time I had very little idea about marvels comics, and solely fixated on the movies, and that's where my initial love for thor came from!

I still very much to this day Adore and wholeheartedly appreciate the first two thor movies (as admittedly boring Dark World was-) the amount of D e t a i l and work went into the costume design and the cgi and the sets and the. God just the everything... was Sooo well done. Chefs kiss.

Thor ragnarok, when it first came out in 2017? I think it was? I actually really liked! It was and still is a solid and fun movie. However looking back im kinda bitter at how it and taika kinda put the first domino (atleast in my opinion) in the downfall of the mcu.

The complete 180 on the dialogue, the writing off on sif and the w3, really just taking anything and everything thor ever had before like his family his friends his hammer his HAIR his eye his planet his culture his.well I could go on. And reading interviews on how taika thought of the previous movies and comics put a bad taste in my mouth, it was real clear he had little to no respect for the original (And Original) material, and how he was just making it more enjoyable for him specifically, no matter how it was planned to be in the start. Impulsive with good intentions middle english speaking mcu thor I miss you so much,,

I've grown up watching various marvel animated shows on Disney xd (rip) such as ultimate spider-man, hulk and the agents of smash, guardians of the galaxy, and my favourite of course Avengers assemble. After disney xd's TV channel poofed off into the void, I had to delve deeper into the mcu to get my marvel fix, and that worked for a good while. Until it was clear marvel was on a steep downslope (after endgame I kinda lost interest, I've kinda stopped keeping up with the mcu completely after quantumania and multiverse of madness. Sigh. I reckon wandavision was the last top quality thing theyve put out)

Re and rerewatching marvel shows has helped me regain interest with marvels characters, with that plain to see with thor especially (the latter half of the fourth and fifth seasons of aa im totally ignoring, seeing as how its desperately trying to mush itself into the mcus continuity sespite making No sense and just being kinda :///)

I've since then taken a greater interest in the comics, despite having no easy resources to read through any completely other than small snippets I happen to find (most of the comic pages I've seen I've reblogged on here lol)

And man!! There's such an appeal to love a character from a specific source and find out there's possibly hundreds of versions of him out there with different writers, story directions, and art styles with unique yet recognisable designs!!! (Herald of thunder from what I've seen of you you are GORGEOUS.)

As for my specific interpretation of thor and marvel overall, it's quite alot of my own indulgence and preferences sksjf. Mixing what I liked from parts of the mcu, the animated shows and the comics heaps of lore/s, it's basically a big hoge-poge au of mine.

Thor is both classified as an Alien and God because why can't he be both? There's elements to him that are very very different to humans biologically (hyper density, more efficient senses, inhuman physical capabilities, glowing eyes, glittering blood, no finger prints, etc etc) with mystic (able to sense and 'see' different energies, everything to due to his asgardian Allspeak ability, able to surive in space with no air) and asgards incredibly advanced it looks like magic tech (mjolnir!!!!!!) With lots of things a mix of the three (his ability to harness storms, lightning in particular (probably the best idea taika put in that film was having thor have magic on his own with mjolnir only serving to harness and focus it)

There's lots of other details I could write but Man is this getting long lmao

[puffyducks]

DCRC Week #21

Aight y'all we're playing a little bit of catch-up this week cause I went on a big trip to Disney World which ironically left me with no spare time to sit down and read Disney comics. So we're reading PKNA #17: Shooting Star and we're all gonna pretend this was posted on time!!

Guys look Xadhoom is back!! And she looks like she's doing really well too :D

Ok but listen I know this cover looks scary but hear me out - the cover for chapter #9 showed Xadhoom protecting PK, but then in the actual comic she ends up attacking him SO, if this cover shows her straight up attacking PK, obviously that means the opposite is true and she's gonna protect him this time!!! The math checks out trust me guys

okay nevermind maybe she's not doing well

guys she's meditating

One of many instances where the triplets allegedly exist but we never actually get to see them, we're just constantly getting jebaited 😭

Also housewife Donald moment

I'm kinda interested in Uno's reluctance to let Xadhoom know about the secret floor cause like, sure he wants to stay incognito, but who is she even going to leak the information to? She just said like 10 pages ago that Donald is her only ally lol

zapped him so hard he straight up turned into a dognose in the last panel </3

laughing my ass off at this panel sorry why does she look like that. she hit the O=O

WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?????

Guys stop flirting this is SERIOUS. There is a super scary alien on the loose that is totally not in the room with us right now

Imagine getting left on read by an AI, L + ratio

Crying what the FUCK is going on with the crime in Duckburg bro, why do they have flamethrowers 😭

Actually can we bring back those weird LARPing gangs from Trauma? The guys roleplaying as Roman soldiers? I miss them

omfg she can noclip through walls we are so fucked

It took Uno several days of complex scientific analysis to determine that Xadhoom is completely out of her fuckin gourd when he probably could've watched her on camera for longer than like 20 seconds and come to the same conclusion lol

Love the look of the black and white panel on the right, and also shoutout to Mary Ann for being a real one

oh my god they KISSED!!!! EEEEEEEEEEW COOTIES 🤢🤢🤢

Okay so MAYBE I was wrong about Xadhoom protecting PK and maybe she just attacked him for a second time but HEY!! This time it was sort of an accident. Not really but like she was clinically insane so I think she gets a pass. Anyways I like this comic but I think a lot of it is my Xadhoom bias, I just think she's neat ok! I like reading stories about her. I will say that the art leaves something to be desired and also I don't really know what the point of having Gamma and Delta here was? But like believe it or not they do come back later (for some reason) so I guess they're sort of relevant. I'll be back with the next chapter soon ✌️

[stitchtriverse]

Welcome to our Unison.

~ Artwork by PurelyToffee, depicting Royal Princess Yaiko Galaxia and her Variated Experiment partner, Kyohaku Stitch.

Welcome one and all, to the official "Stitch Triverse" Tumblr blog! After all this time, we've made it to Tumblr! Huzzah!

For those who are uninitiated, "Stitch Triverse" is a fan concept/series created and overseen by Dylan "D Barenzu" Barnes, or @dbarenzu626, based on Disney's prolific "Lilo & Stitch" franchise and its adjacent spin-offs. Production on this project started as far back as 2012, when it started as three specific and separate entities, including a reinvention of anime spin-off "Stitch!". That was before in 2014 when the decision was made to merge the three entities into one and lo and behold, "Stitch Triverse" was born.

"Stitch Triverse" as an expansive fan concept encompasses several entries in its multiversal tides. Main Triverse, for instance, is the central first team and iteration of the story, as told by BOOK 1-3 and focusing on Yuna Kamihara, Kyozuki Yamada, Yaiko Galaxia, their Stitches and the Royals who join them: Mako Eikochino, Mimi Hiromi, Elle Vulcania and Keiko Hubrecht as they stop evils beyond their imaginations. Mirror Triverse was created following as another iteration next door, focusing on the Uehara sisters, Yuna and Ami, their friends Hideki Kuro and Dolores Shirutori and of course, their Stitches as they save modified Experiments from the clutches of Dr. Hamsterviel. Following these two, the door was suddenly and ambitiously swung open for more teams and more characters in this wild, wild concept and more ways to unify alien and human into a powerful teams of three... each, that is. That's what a Triverse is after all, unity that comes in threes or more.

You see, Triverse as an iteration and as an idea that runs off infinite probability, allows for much more than just what's put to page and to art already by those who have contributed: if you have the idea for a new team or iteration that bends the genre pools and introduces something new to our multiverse? By heaven above, make it real and let us know. For a growing universe is one that fuels the creative more and more regardless of how it's fashioned in its fires.

It's not really rocket science, but if you want to discover more about our general "rule of three" found family fan series, from inspirations to creatives and more, we do have a Carrd site that exists already that's in our bio that we'll also share it here for clarity's sake. Peep it below:

So the real question is though, what will our blog here entail? Well, we're glad you asked! Here's what you can expect:

Updates on projects within the "Stitch Triverse" mythos. You can expect to find progress updates and new developments to our project here, whether they be on Main, Mirror, Celestica, the IGNITION TTRPG or even fan projects being created by the community. If it's being created within our fair multiversal tides, we'll be happy to talk about it!

Lore dumps on characters, species and worldbuilding between iterations. Obviously, we've created a lot in the fan concept already with more being created constantly, but sometimes we never actually get the time to talk at length about what these kinds of things are. After all, how does worldbuilding work if you don't have the explanations to back it up? That's another thing we wanna put out with this blog is for fellow Stitch fans and even just fans of the Triverse concept to find out how things work. Like, how does a Neptusian live resisting water pressure crushing them? Who are the Alkari? What does Negatorium do to a bloodstream? How does Yuna Kamihara's AO-Band work? These questions and more are among things we'll answer!

Artwork. With the creatives found within the project, we always cook up new art or commission more from other fine artists and you can bet we'll share anything we can for the concept here! Be it character illustrations, concept art for weapons or lore or just fun scenarios. Some say a picture's worth a thousand words!

Questions. Listen, it's a great big, beautiful multiverse out there and sometimes, even to understand our characters, teams, environments or even craft your own realms too, you need answers to burning questions, whatever they may end up being. That's why our ask box is always open! We'll be happy to answer questions revolving around our cast, the universes around, the universes beyond, so on! You got questions? We got answers... just... no big red button like business stores have.

All this and more are in store for your stay should you chose to follow our little Triversal adventures here! For familiar fans and to new fans within the Stitch fandom, welcome aboard and enjoy your stay! Haisai, ohana!

[tybaltsjuliet]

1, 3, 19

01. the character everyone gets wrong

sandy from grease and i will die on this hill. “oh, sandy changed herself for a man-” and danny was trying to change himself for a woman, but people only remember sandy doing it because of the leather pants!

what i think people tend to ignore, or miss, is that by the point of the “sandra dee” reprise, sandy is not happy. like, even if you are willing to accept that sandy *was* happy as the good girl, once - and i fully am willing to accept that; i do not think a fondness for cheerleading and pastels speaks to a void in her soul - by that time, she is not! and it is not just because of danny being kind of a dick to her. there’s a *reason* sandy’s change starts with a reprise of rizzo’s song that was mocking her, and it is because pretty much everyone, bar frenchy, is a dick to her. (i feel like this is a little less apparent in the movie, but in the original production, the t-birds are right there cackling along with rizzo during “look at me, i’m sandra dee,” and even patty simcox gets catty about sandy behind her back!)

so, by this point, sandy is alienated, and lonely, and an object of mockery, and she wants things to be *different*. here’s another point that got home better onstage than in the movie, in my opinion - because, originally, the “sandra dee” reprise comes RIGHT ON THE HEELS of “there are worse things i can do” - and rizzo sings that song, not alone after sandy walks off, but directly *to* sandy. just before the song, rizzo snaps at her, “now wait just a minute, miss goody-goody! who do you think you are? handing me all this sympathy trash! since you know all the answers, how come i didn’t see zuko here tonight?” and all this after sandy has done nothing but show riz a little kindness and sympathy over her situation, and try to remind her that she does not have to go through it alone.

being a good girl, a nice girl, has gotten sandy nothing and nowhere, with anyone, for the whole two hours’ traffic of our stage. who can really blame her for wanting to change?

now, obviously, this is all pretty watsonian, and sandy is one of those characters where there’s tons of great discussion to be had about the ways misogyny *does* influence the way her story is presented. but there are a lot of other interesting things to unpack in her, too, and it frustrates me that everyone just stops at the most obvious part.

03. screenshot or description of the worst take you’ve seen on tumblr

gods, just one?! mentally rifling through the disney princess takes alone has already exhausted me. that said, i might have to hand it to one of the particularly devoted ambassadors of this website’s jedi defense squad, who insisted that the jedi were A Beautiful Culture requiring no reform whatsoever, and A Wonderful Found Family to the children they brought up, and Committed No Mistakes.

like, come on, now. even if i leave all my personal religious baggage at the door, there are nine movies and a massive extended universe because THE JEDI FREQUENTLY COMMIT MISTAKES. anakin skywalker was not an inherently rancid nine-year-old; he was a case study among many on why the jedi needed fixing!

19. you’re mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like…

i’m kind of mad that i still like frozen as much as i do. it wounds my pride in otherwise being the haughty and pretentious flavor of disney adult.

i’m not mad that i am properly getting into ASOIAF, because i am loving these books. i *am* mad that the only reason i first put on my clown shoes and walked all the way to westeros in them is because rhys ifans hot. it’s almost as embarrassing as the number of times i’ve watched anonymous.

but the really embarrassing skeleton in my closet is that i have written more pages of HP drawerfic since i started listening to the shrieking shack podcast than i wrote any fic for it at the height of the fandom way back in ye olde FFN/livejournal days. and that’s terrible.

[spiderdreamer-blog]

The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

Movie sequels are a funny thing. Done well, they can be clever, meaningful expansions of the original film or give artists chances to take the creative impulse in a different direction; compare Ridley Scott's Alien to James Cameron's Aliens. Done poorly, they seem like cheap cash-ins with lazy writing and not an ounce of true artistic passion. Nowhere can this divide be more apparent than in the decade-plus of direct-to-video Disney sequels that kicked off with 1994's Aladdin follow-up The Retun of Jafar. As I've said in other posts, it's not ALWAYS true that these or the TV spinoffs were bad. In addition to my previously published review of 101 Dalmatians II and Atlantis: Milo's Return, I swear by Aladdin and the King of Thieves for being a solid adventure film. And Cinderella III: A Twist in Time fills in characterizations for characters that often came off as ciphers in the original, as well as being a clever story in its own right. Some could even be downright inspired, like how The Lion King 1 1/2 takes a page from both MST3K and Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildernstern Are Dead compared to the original's Hamlet influences. But many fumbled in trying to justify further stories for characters that weren't necessarily built for them or did lazy reversal rehashes. Curiously, though, a built-for-the-theaters sequel beat this crowd to it, in the form of 1990's The Rescuers Down Under, coming to us in the midst of the Disney Renaissance. How does that one stack up?

A sequel to the 1977 film The Rescuers, Down Under reunites us with Miss Bianca and Bernard (Eva Gabor and Bob Newhart, reprising their roles), two mice who are agents of the Rescue Aid Society, which dedicates itself to helping lost or kidnapped children. Their case this time is Cody (Adam Ryen, who, in a fun fact, dubbed his own part in the Norwegian dub), an Australian boy captured by the evil poacher McLeach (George C. Scott) and his sidekick goanna Joanna (Frank Welker) in pursuit of the great golden eagle Marahute. Bianca and Bernard catch a flight with Wilbur the albatross (John Candy), taking over from his brother Orville from the original, and catch up with local hero Jake (Tristan Rogers, the only natively Australian actor in the film) to track down McLeach.

The most immediately striking thing about the film compared to its predecessor is its look. The original Rescuers was made in the heyday of Xerography, the process wherein Xerox machines could print animators' drawings directly onto cels and save a shitload of money/time in terms of hand-inking and painting. Starting with 101 Dalmatians (which necessitated the process both for the logistics of all those puppies and because the gorgeously rendered, lovingly hand-painted over years of production Sleeping Beauty had been a financial failure), this gave Disney's films a scratchier, more graphic look through the next couple decades. It's not a BAD way to make a film, and I would say the results often looked quite good, especially for moody, atmospheric scenes such as the swamplands in the original film.

Down Under, however, took a different approach, being the first Disney animated film to be fully inked-and-painted digitally in Disney's CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) pipeline. This has a number of advantages, such as better integration of the CGI elements like McLeach's Truck Of Doom, but not the least of which is the bright, vibrant colors. The Outback truly feels like an epic stage for the adventures, with the justly famous Marahute flight showing off its grand scope and beauty. Even the urban night-time New York scenes feel freshened up compared to the muddier vision of before. Even beyond that, the filmmaking has evolved. The original's director, Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman, was a fine talent (I'm especially partial to his Robin Hood), but the 1977 film feels awfully slow-paced for what's supposed to be exciting and propulsive. Down Under's directors Hendel Butoy and Mike Gabriel use tighter angles and much brisker editing to lend a real sense of Spielbergian action mechanics, such as in a scene where the mice try and board the Truck Of Doom or the nervy climax.

The character animation is excellent as usual, with the obvious standout being Glen Keane's Marahute. Bird anatomy is perhaps the hardest to do in animation outside of horses, and Keane gives the eagle both a sense of realism and character without anthropomorphizing her to the same degree as the rest of the cast. Mark Henn, meanwhile, does a solid job of grounding Bianca and Bernard as a duo and separately; they never reach too far for effect and seem more or less like normal people doing their best. The great Ruben Aquino, whose resume is more diverse than he gets credit for (Ursula, Adult Simba, and Pleakley are among his characters), gives Jake a full dashing-rogue bearing. Nik Ranieri does honestly some underrated work with Wilbur on the anatomy front, and Duncan Marjoribanks and David Cutler attack the duo of McLeach and Joanna with gusto. The way the latter moves in particular is hilarious, such as in a scene where she tries to steal eggs from a pondering McLeach.

Story-wise are where things get interesting. In addition to the original being well-suited to a sequel (literally having the "you've got another case!" ending), we smartly get things rolling fast. The first film is about the same runtime length-wise, but it spends a long-ass time getting anywhere, or at least feels that way. Whereas this is like "yup, we're off to the races, kids, iconic eagle flight in the first 10 dang minutes". Thus, while Bianca and Bernard don't enter the film for a hot minute, we don't feel like our time's being wasted in the first act as we set up the situation. I like also how the potential triangle between Bernard, Bianca, and Jake is handled with remarkable subtlety. Bianca barely seems to notice, while Jake is certainly puffed-up but never outright cruel to Bernard, and the latter gets a great chance to step up to prove himself when the time comes. The only possible negative effect is that the film is ultimately on the short end, and the plot is fairly simple as a result. Thus we get some goofy comedy padding with Wilbur being subjected to unhelpful medical practices to straighten out his back, as well as a pair of scenes with Cody and some Marketable Animal Friends as they try to escape McLeach. Hardly bad, but a little perfunctory.

I also like Cody a little better as a kid protagonist, tbh. The original film tries to get a lot of pathos out of the plight of Penny, who's not just an orphan, but a KIDNAPPED orphan. It's not bad in and of itself, with an effective scene where the villainous Madame Medusa insults her passive-aggressively to try and get her under her thumb. And it anticipates where Don Bluth, who worked on the film as a directing animator, would go in terms of his own child protagonists like Fievel or Littlefoot. But a little of it goes a long way, even if my heart's not fully made of stone. Down Under trades things up for Cody in terms of being well-adjusted with a single mother and tenacious enough both to save Marahute upfront, as well as seeing right through McLeach's transparent attempt at bullshitting him (though a later manipulation DOES succeed).

The audio end is a good marriage here too, starting with Bruce Broughton giving us an absolutely iconic adventure score. There's lots of distinct themes here that all weave together fantastically, never feeling overly like a "cartoon" score. In terms of the voice cast, Ryen gives a nicely natural performance, kid-like without ever being too cutesy, and brave, but not SO brave that it feels out of place. Gabor and Newhart, the highlight of the earlier film, reach a nice equilibrium between "society lady who takes nobody's shit" and "nice normal guy who can nonetheless keep up with her". Rogers is one of my favorites here, his Aussie twang lending some authenticity to the proceedings, and his soap opera experience (he's a longtime fixture on General Hospital) lets him access the slightly broader cartoon acting necessary. Candy, of course, was a comedy legend, and he adjusts well here in terms of making Wilbur a distinct chatterbug with a noble streak rather than simply recycling his genteel screen presence. My favorite performance, though, is undoubtedly George C. Scott as McLeach. Always an intense, thoughtful actor (he's my favorite Ebenezer Scrooge on film), he makes what could've been a generic "evil hunter" type into something really memorable by snacking on the scenery and giving him a real cruel streak. And I'd be remiss without mentioning Welker's Joanna, who nearly sounds like an anticipation of Andy Serkis' Gollum in her slobbery growls and chuckles.

I'll be honest, I can't be TOTALLY objective about this movie. It was one of the first Disney films I owned on VHS, and many a rewind was had because I couldn't get enough. It's a little rougher around the edges now that I'm an adult, true, but when Marahute starts to fly as the music swells? Every time, I get transported back to a living room in Peachtree City, Georgia, inches away from the TV. That still means something, and thankfully, most of the movie still backs that kid up.

[forter-from-meteos]

What is this silly meteos stuff

oh! ohohoho

I took a quick peek at your blog because of the thirnova icon, and love the theming you've got, but i didn't see any meteos posts (which is fine) so I'm gonna give the full rundown 👍

lemme just start by dropping a few links: Miraheze Meteos Wiki - Meteos Wikipedia Page - if you want comprehensive, objective stuff

Alright! Now time for the Cliffnotes version of that stuff, plus my own subjective info

Meteos is a game series consisting of Meteos (2005) for the DS, Meteos Wars (2008) for the Xbox Live Arcade (Xbox 360 online store), and some other titles that I'm not knowledgeable on, like the now defunct Meteos Online and Meteos: Disney Magic (which is just funny to me)

The very basic plot is: The planet Meteo is sending out streams of destructive matter called meteos, which is threatening to destroy all the planets in the universe. The various alien civilizations discovered that when the meteos group in a certain way, they change direction, and launch the meteos falling from the sky back out into space. Now they're fighting back against the meteos, and one of the civilizations has created the Metamo Ark, a spaceship made of meteo ore, to sail to Meteo and defeat it. There's some details I'm leaving out, but this isn't an award-winningly deep plot we've got here.

Actual gameplay is essentially just a match-3 game, but with a twist: meteos (matchable blocks) fall from above, and by moving them through the columns, you match them, and they launch upwards. The real kicker is the many different planets with different mechanics. For example, Forte (the home of my namesake) has a playfield 9 columns wide, has relatively low gravity (stacks fall back down slower) low-ish horizontal launch power (matches where the blocks are next to each other instead of above/below) but very high vertical launch power. And now that I'm typing this, I realize that I'm just saying words, so, uh, I'm just gonna drop another link to this playlist of gameplay samples for every planet in the original Meteos DS. The uploader is playing pretty fast, but it should give a basic idea.

Anyways, subjective opinion time. First of all, the gameplay is simple, but it's really good. Second of all, the art and general visual design is just, also really good. This post is already on the bulkier side, so look through the miraheze wiki if you want some images. I just, I just like it a lot, especially the aliens. They're all just color, no shading, just flat shapes, and the lore is bare-bones, but what's there is so nice and creative! It's beauty in simplicity, and it's a perfect little base to build off of!

Ok, but how could I play it? Well, the roms for both Meteos DS and Meteos Wars are easy to find, and the emulators DesMuMe and xenia are too! The company that made Meteos is defunct now (sad), so I don't think supporting the devs is something you can really do here, but if you really wanna play legit (or if your computer can't handle Xbox 360 emulation, like mine) and you have the consoles, then Meteos Wars is still available for purchase from the XBLA, and there's copies of Meteos DS still floating around on online marketplaces.

In summary, Meteos is a simple but good game (series) with very nice visual design, with easily available roms. If you're thinking about playing it, do. Please. /lh

[januarymoreau]

Neurodivergency Coding in Disney and Nick Shows

Okay this was requested by @gstone97. I'd like to talk about neurodivergency coding in Disney Channel and Nickelodeon shows. Disney and Nick shows have A LOT of neurodivergent coding, and whether they give neurodivergent traits to characters unintentionally or intentionally to mock neurodivergency is something I've considered but have not come to an answer on. Personally, I believe the neurodivergency coding is unintentional, but I'd have to research it more. Seeing as I'm autistic and have ADHD, most of these characters will be characters I believe to have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or ADHD, but if you'd like to add any characters that have any other neurodivergency I'd love that.

Let's start this post off by talking about Cat Valentine from Victorious.

Although many have said that Cat may just have trauma (and I'm not arguing with that, she definitely has trauma), I'd like to argue that Cat also has Autism Spectrum Disorder. She says inappropriate things during inappropriate times. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=246172576497297 If you watch this video you can see multiple times where she says inappropriate things. This could lend to my next point which is that Cat doesn't understand social cues. I can't find the exact example, but I believe there's a scene where Cat doesn't understand an expression. Cat also frequently uses self stimulatory behavior, also known as stimming. Additionally, Cat collects stuffed animals, which could be considered a hyperfixation.

The next character I want to talk about is Max Russo from Wizards of Waverly Place.

I'd argue that Max has ADHD. He struggles with his grades, as we see through most of the show. However, he is smart, he just needs a different learning style. One of my favorite episodes with Max in the show is the episode where the school gets a new principal and he starts doing really well in school. Despite common beliefs, Max is NOT stupid. Additionally, Max has a hard time picking up sarcasm. There are a lot of episodes where he takes things literally, which could be a symptom of autism but can also be a symptom of ADHD. He seems to go through brief phases where he's obsessed with things, such as when he gets obsessed with the idea of being Family Wizard.

Another character I believe to be autistic coded is Spencer Shay from iCarly.

Spencer's Wiki page even refers to him as "weird, eccentric." A lot of autistic people can come across as weird. Plus, Spencer's interest in art could easily be considered a hyperfixation or special interest. Plus, Spencer doesn't understand social cues. He brings home an ostrich and doesn't seem to understand why it's a problem. I definitely view him as autistic.

Another character I headcanon as autistic is Skylar Storm from "Mighty Med."

Although I could write a whole other post about the autistic coding of alien or other-worldly characters, this isn't that post. Skylar shows a lack of understanding of social cues, likely because she's from another planet, but even as time goes on Earth she fails to grasp them. She frequently says inappropriate things. She often fails to understand that Oliver is flirting with her. I would definitely argue that many of these could be due to not being from Earth, but I would definitely say she's autistic-coded regardless. Many alien characters that find their way to Earth are autistic-coded, and she definitely fits in there.

Finally, I'll talk about what to me is the most obvious autistic-coding of a character on Disney Channel: Dez Wade from Austin & Ally.

Dez fails to understand common phrases, a reoccurring joke in the show. He also fails to understand tone and doesn't seem to comprehend when people are mad at him. He seems to have a special interest in film and has a very almost obsessive relationship with Austin. He struggles socially and has difficulty making friends. I could go on and on about why he's autistic, but I won't.

Overall, I don't know why so many Disney and Nickelodeon characters are neurodivergent coded. It could be an attempt to mock neurodivergency, or it could be a completely innocent accident. I'd like to believe it's not on purpose or if it is it's not an attempt to mock autism or neurodivergency, but it's definitely possible. Also, if you're a Disney or Nickelodeon fan who's neurodivergent please watch "The Proud Family." They have a character who gets diagnosed with autism.

[pyladeshungover]

intro post

Tara // 29 // Australia

she / her / hers

oops i got into hockey sorry guys

my url is from approximately 2013 when I was a les mis blog, and my pfp is athelstan from vikings in a flower crown because that was cool in 2015. title is from the boat that rocked. I've been here forever.

i'm very not normal about sidney crosby, matthew tkachuk, and travis konecny

i'm slightly more normal but still unhinged about claude giroux and jamie drysdale

i do occassionally lb the hockey - pens lb, flyers lb, sometimes panthers lb

tag lists also i do tend to be pretty good about tagging everything so if you blacklist nothing should slip through

I did not realise you can only access that page on desktop but also the hyperlinks won't work in this post so here's the list:

FROM THE SELF

my face; sort of - my face and my thoughts

university life - university/college experiences

adulthood - attempts to function as a successful adult

millennials - the Adulthood Experience™ specific to millennials

life is hard - depression tag

so not straight - i am queer

mine - shit i’ve made or drawn

tumblr - i’ve been on this godforsaken website since i was 15 and i hate everything about that

RELIGION

blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord - christianity

jc and the boys - jesus and the apostles

jc and the girls - ladies of the disciples

upon this rock - history of, stories about, and images of the church

do not be afraid - angels 

your kingdom come - prophets, saints, and the apocalypse

the old gods are dead - graeco-roman mythology

folklore - local folk and fairy-tales 

WORLD AFFAIRS/CULTURE

straya - things about Australia

auspol - Australian politics

uspol - US politics

i’m a pathetic history major - general world and cultural history

who likes bad jokes - especially awful attempts at humour

words - poetry, quotes, literature

reclaiming the women - feminist re-tellings of fictional women

humanity - the good and incredible things about humans and community (also includes human and alien speculative fiction)

christmas - i love christmas

covid 19 - self explanatory

2020 - see above

2021 - mamma mia, here we go again

2022 - we’re three years into The Great Loneliness

FANDOM

fandom / fanfic

# - 911

A - abfab

B - brooklyn 99 / black books / beauty and the beast / birds of prey /buffy

C - criminal minds / code black

D - dirk gently / doctor who / disney / derry girls

E - elementary

F - firefly / fresh off the boat / friends / fleabag

G - great british bake off / grace and frankie / greys anatomy / galavant / game of thrones / gilmore girls / the great / the good place

H - holes / hunt for the wilderpeople / the hobbit / hannibal / hamilton / harry potter

I - inside llewyn davis

J - jurassic park / jesus christ superstar

K - kingsman / killing eve

L - lethal weapon / lucifer / lotr / les mis

M - moulin rouge / mamma mia / moana / mad max / the man from u.n.c.l.e. / mindhunter / miss fisher’s murder mysteries / the marvelous mrs maisel

N - narnia / nhl

O - the office / the old guard / oitnb

P - pushing daisies / parks and rec / the princess bride / psych / the prince of egypt / the parent trap / pirates of the caribbean / pride / prodigal son / phantom of the opera

Q - queer eye

S - spn / star wars / scrubs / the song of achilles / schitts creek / santa clarita diet / six the musical

T - teen wolf / twilight / to all the boys i’ve loved before /

U - umbrella academy

V - vikings / venom

W - what we do in the shadows / the witcher / wonder woman

X - xfiles

HOCKEY

nhl

hrpf

the rituals are intricate (n-h-is-for-for-homosexuality-l)

they’re so stupid 🥹 (memes)

hockey narratives

hockey art

hockey poetry

hockey vid edit

Players tagged initials jersey number (ie. sc87)

Other player tags - hughes bros / tkachuk fam / love thy goalie 

Ships - tknp / sidgeno / drygras / mattdrai / brioux / mike likes jeff but jeff loves mike / swaymark

Teams - bruins / ducks / flyers / gritty / leafs / oilers / pens / sens / stars / yotes

Liveblogging semiregularly - pens lb

Liveblogging very occassionally -  flyers lb / sens lb / panthers lb

[thesinglesjukebox]

OLIVIA RODRIGO - "VAMPIRE"

The Jukebox has risen from the grave...

[7.08]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Sophomore albums--and especially their lead singles--are so tricky because expectations are lofty and unreasonable. Artists need to appeal to their original fanbases without pigeonholing themselves; experiment with new sounds without alienating their original fanbases; create new aesthetics without sacrificing visual continuity; attain virality without being a flash in the pan. "Vampire" achieved all of this and more. On one hand, it's a melancholy ballad à la "Drivers License"; on the other hand, it's a ever-evolving three-minute distillation of her full pop-rock singer-songwriter range from SOUR. The songwriting's emotional intimacy feels instantly familiar, but more mature and lived-in. Rodrigo sounds Disney enough, but the chorus climaxing with "fame fucker" is an electrifying reminder that she's moved on, and invites just enough speculation as to who the song is about while avoiding Sabrina Carpenter and Joshua Bassett levels of specificity. The balladry of "Vampire" will sound good during karaoke, on car rides with parents, and on future seasons of The Voice; but its Hannah Montana, Elton John, and Queen-esque bridge is also snippy and clever enough to become a TikTok trend. It's extraordinary how Olivia was able to get this balance right without sounding over-calculated. We're witnessing the birth of a generational talent, and if there's any justice in the pop world, one day we'll look back on "Vampire" as the moment we knew Olivia Rodrigo wasn't going anywhere. [8]

Alex Ostroff: The most interesting thing about "Vampire" is the gap between what it convinces you it's doing and what it's actually doing. The introductory piano chords and initial aesthetics send a message to the audience that this is "Drivers License, Part 2" -- an earnest ballad that tells a real, personal, relatable story of heartbreak. Except it isn't that at all. Olivia's debut single was a particular narrative whose songwriting hinged on Swiftian levels of detail, but "Vampire" is much vaguer and relies on broad strokes and tropes about predatory older men and the Hollywood machine to fill in the gaps. This evolution is probably a good thing, though, because instead of writing a song that incentivizes fans to engage in close readings and lore about her personal life, Rodrigo leans all the way into her theatre-kid dorkiness in a way that not even Ariana has let herself do on record. By the time "Vampire" builds to the hammering piano chords and the over-the-top backing vocals, it become very obviously a cheesy rock opera 11-o'clock number. That makes it hamfisted and embarrassing, but also the first sign that GUTS would be less "diaristic" and more Olivia chewing scenery and acting her way through songs, selling every line reading for the seats at the back of the theatre. That's secretly her real strength. [7]

Will Adams: Olivia Rodrigo has never clicked with me, despite all evidence suggesting that she should. A few listens of GUTS earlier this year helped me pinpoint the main reason: her musical theater pedigree often manifests as overly edited, everything-in-its-place songwriting that clashes with the messiness of the stories she's telling. "Vampire" operates exactly like her debut single: a studied ballad that goes from tinkling piano to an urgent pulse, to the big climax before curtain call. The neat packaging only makes the clumsy moments stick out more, like the mixed metaphor of "sold me for parts as you sunk your teeth into me" arriving at exactly the worst time. [5]

Alfred Soto: I prefer my undead tropes campier and faster. [4]

Leah Isobel: The lyric on the page is two words: "Bloodsucker/Famefucker." Olivia sings it as four: "Blood, sucker/Fame, fucker." During her breakout year, she spun a relatively low-profile relationship into tabloid fodder via sheer force of will and became a star in the process. For its first minute, "Vampire" seems to repeat the same set of ideas: lugubrious swells of piano, a throatily emotive lead vocal that leaps up into the chorus. But unlike "Drivers License," this song is characterized by a new sense of paranoid shadow-play, an omnidirectional viciousness that drives its accelerating energy. By briefly inhabiting the form of her breakout hit, "Vampire" literally reanimates her past. By supercharging it into a rock opera, the song reveals that her past work was always, on some level, a performance, an exaggeration: a lie. She surveils the wreckage that her pen has wrought; she wonders, to others and to herself, "how do you lie?" The chorus is the answer. Fame demands blood. [7]

Rose Stuart: I think I get Olivia Rodrigo now. "Vampire" feels like musical theatre, a perhaps unintentional Queen pastiche that uses its increasing momentum to move from depression to rage. In a year with so many big songs about breakups, "Vampire" is the only one that is honest enough to scream out its pain instead of hiding behind bravado. Its only flaw is that Rodrigo stops one foot too soon, ending the song when it is amping up rather than riding the crescendo to its full conclusion. If you're going to do an anguished "Bohemian Rhapsody," you need to leave space for some headbanging. [8]

Brad Shoup: From her frequent dips into rippity-rap delivery to her tendency to make even her best asides feel workshopped, there's more than a little Broadway about Rodrigo. "Vampire" feels like the deflating power ballad at the back end of an Act I: a sour realization that has to be swished around for a while. When she's really spitting bile, it feels self-directed, and it's all the more poignant for it. The ending (fists pounding on loop) is maybe the only way to end a pop version of a rock-opera track; the real deal would have had an instrumental solo to spell Rodrigo off. [6]

Katherine St Asaph: It is very personally funny to me how Olivia Rodrigo recorded a song called "Vampire" that sounds, at least in the beginning, like Christina Perri's Twilight ballad "A Thousand Years." But, of course, "Vampire" is not meant to be funny at all. The song is a product of Rodrigo's musical theater background -- maybe Chicago's "Nowadays" in chords and A Chorus Line's "What I Did For Love" in emotional arc. Musical theater shares more with pop music than detractors of either admit, and "Vampire" is Rodrigo's version of Broadway's version of opera's tragic heroine arias. (So is "Praying," with which "Vampire" also shares a lot.) You've heard many of these songs; they mark their characters' final acts. They derive their power from an unspoken assumption: that one's story isn't truly real unless one sings it into existence, preferably over a recognizable ballad arrangement, with nodule-causing volume and superhuman virtuosity. The more you perform your pain, the more the audience will believe it. This triumph is always compromised, especially for a woman whose story is how she was hurt (c.f. Opera, or the Undoing of Women). But "Vampire" has another triumph, a meta-triumph: this isn't Rodrigo's final act. She may not even be done with Act 1. [7]

Frank Falisi: "Theater kid," as a moniker, exists in opposition to both its parts: not arty enough to be theater, not free enough to be kid. Posturing is expected, cliqueyness pervades, but between those obvious limitations is the opportunity provided by the grand gesture, which is to say: ascension. What makes a good dressing-room anthem? A certain sense of dramatic flamboyance, all the better for our impersonatory urges to inhabit. This accounts for "Bohemian Rhapsody," obviously, but also fare both Hot Topicier ("Welcome to the Black Parade'' dropped the year our spring musical was Sweet Charity) and more food-court block party. Do you remember the peculiar joy of hearing "Irreplaceable" drifting through the canned cleaner smells and chirpy family drama of a vast public space? The sublime is out there in the air! Reach through the fried food smells and teenage ennui! Maybe that's the key: all good dressing-room songs could get equal play at the mall. Pop has always thrived on hemi-anonymity. Making these fantasies front and center in our vast pageant of overdriven hormonal imaginings was a first step toward personal curation; I knew a kid who repped Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath" so hard that it elicited the same pre-show squeals as "Drops of Jupiter." We just wanted to know you loved it--that energy was what these hidden and unstable moments of outburst were about. "Vampire" has all the cellophane grand guignol of a theater kid unbothered by the designation, an Evanescence and Mika-biting kiss-off with a delirious chorus that keeps reaching up, pushing Rodrigo's formidable voice into the territory any songwriters hope to get an instrument; when a voice is that far and comfortably in the realm of its limit, emotion sheds right off. I don't think we should remember our puerile joys as any less honest than the ones we look for in our maturity. I wouldn't want to go back to the dressing room--I can listen to "Vampire" whenever I want--but it's nice to imagine someone from Pippin or (yuch) The Addams Family, vibrating, too much makeup: "can I show you this song?" [10]

Taylor Alatorre: A Three Minutes Hate session that's structured like a Disney villain song from the perspective of the hero -- which, as with most Disney villain songs, ends up making the designated bad guy seem more glamorous and enticing than he probably is. Fears of an aimless piano dirge are dispelled after the first third, but the steady pile-up of dramatic signifiers isn't much of an improvement. Loudness and an indistinct busyness are used as crude synonyms for emotional tumult, and the quiet-loud dynamics feel unearned in a song that begins in the same lyrical register that it ends. It's not that Rodrigo is too young or inexperienced to play the Lana-esque ingénue songwriter; it's just that, for whatever reason, she's more herself when she's doing straight-ahead power pop songs that carry the risk of an IP lawsuit. [3]

Andrew Karpan: "Vampire" is pure Olivia-core, her big tent pop-punk sound, which can be heard almost coalescing here. It also evokes her own school of soundalikes, like say Chappell Roan. [7]

Aaron Bergstrom: It's a song full of big theatrical moments (the "How do you lie?" Greek chorus, the the little glissando into the off-to-the-races bridge), but the understated epiphany comes at the end of the second verse, when the instrumentation drops out for Olivia to deliver an almost perfectly monotone "'cause girls your age know better." She has more to say, but it's already over. That's the stake to the heart right there. [8]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: In high school, I learned how much I loved to love. Blame it on my father: after seeing him tell my mom in the most mundane of circumstances--during car rides, at the dinner table--that she was "the most beautiful woman in the world," I recognized that I, too, could be the same sort of unabashedly affectionate person to those around me. None of the other Asian men I knew were like this, and none were as visibly happy, and so it only made sense that when I had my first girlfriend I'd be first to say "I love you." Two days later, a friend one year our senior convinced her to dump me. I shouldn't say stuff like this, I was told, and it was in our best interest to cut ties as to prevent my further heartbreak. My immediate reaction was confusion: All the songs we sang together felt just as emotionally severe, just as intimate. What made it worse when the words were my own? My remaining teenage years would be defined by a reticence for emotional expression. But I still had these models in my life--my 1st-generation Korean American parents, the music I spent every waking moment devouring--that convinced me to live otherwise. It's a testament to "Vampire" and its go-for-broke maximalism that I recalled all this. More than any other pop song this year, it makes a point to direct attention to its vocal delivery: every casual lilt and swerving cadence is a window into a complex web of emotions. Rodrigo's other singles hint at this through clever wordplay, but "Vampire" and its deathly serious musical theater make it actually feel consequential. Even with the devastation she feels, my main takeaway is the same I had 15 years ago: the only life worth living is one of overflowing, unwieldy passion. [10]

Stephen Eisermann: Olivia oversings this in the best way possible and wrings every possible emotion out of each note. [8]

Jonathan Bradley: Bloodletting over a bloodsucker, for which Rodrigo recreates the venom and hurt that made "Drivers License" so gripping a listen, though round two shifts the balance towards the former. It's not that rage is less compelling a mode for Rodrigo, but her logorrheic barbs speak to resentments specific to her and her target; without the granular detail that characterised "Drivers License," there's also little for we onlookers to grab a hold of. When the kick starts thumping, the song attains some get-up-and-go that's not entirely thwarted by the mushy and muffled production. The pounded piano chords can't quite crescendo with the high end filtered out. "Fame-fucker, bleeding me dry like a goddamn vampire" is a fun thing to shout, though. [6]

John S. Quinn-Puerta: Rodrigo says "fuck" the way a six-year-old wields a hammer: aimlessly and with delusions of competence. [4]

Edward Okulicz: "Make us Drivers License: The Musical Theatre Experience," asked nobody in particular. But Olivia Rodrigo obviously knew the demand was there and has given us the curtain raising (d-d-d-d-d), climax reprise (dundundundundundun) and denouement (DUN! DUN! DUN! DUN!) all in one. It's catchy, her lyrics again hit that sweet spot of authentic teen tantrum but relatable to an adult, and her performance is both angry and a little bit scared. What, you expect to see a vampire and be angry, not scared? [10]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Love the bit where it goes "DUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUN." More songs should do that! It's great every time! [8]

Crystal Leww: Earlier this year, I had to get an MRI done ahead of a surgery. At 6:45 in the morning while I was lying there, covered in nothing but a sheet and some paper shorts, freezing cold, the MRI tech found a vein in my right arm after poking around for five minutes in my left arm. The tech asked me if I wanted to listen to music while getting my MRI. I said no, I'm good, then immediately reconsidered after thinking about being kinda freaked out while lying very still in a giant magnet for like 30 minutes. The tech asked me what I wanted to listen to: Jazz? Classical? Top 40? Yeah, the last one, I told them. They put headphones over my ears, then loaded me into the machine. Turns out they can't give you real headphones because it's a giant magnet, and "Top 40" really just meant The Entire Olivia Rodrigo Album. So I just laid there listening to loud-ass MRI banging noises for 30 minutes and listening to Olivia Rodrigo through speakers that sounded like they were from the '60s, blown out, and shoved underwater, and constantly interrupted every five or six minutes with a robo-voice lady going "hold your breath for five...four...three..." I think this is one of the most boring songs on the album -- a [2] -- but I don't think that a single other American pop star in 2023 could make an album I could recognize so clearly under these conditions. [4]

Michael Hong: "vampire" is SOUR's palette made darker and sexier, the ballad rendered theatrical. Every movement is felt. The sighed "look at you, cool guy, you got it" brings the image of a sly smile, the collapsing scream of "fame fucker" carries every bit of vitriol, and the builds and drops of the piano are a nauseating rollercoaster. At the center is Rodrigo leaning both into and away from her youth. She fixates on the simple, almost juvenile metaphor but demonstrates newfound maturity: desperately attempting to ensure that self-deprecating doesn't mean self-loathing, and conceding her own faults without redirecting blame. [7]

Ian Mathers: While "Vampire" is good, it feels an awful lot like the kind of song that benefits from and/or relies on the listener being able to slot it into place in the narrative of Olivia Rodrigo, Narrator/Protagonist. Not a complaint! But while I can appreciate what's going on (the "sold me for parts" is really good, including how she performs it), I am struck by a nagging sense that I don't Get It yet, the way I suspect I will at some point. [7]

Scott Mildenhall: Is it about Chip Hunkley? Jaeden Jaxons? Esio Quaywurtz? It could even be the industry forces that would leech from them if they existed. Perish the thought and enjoy the ride, though: this wooden rollercoaster of a song thrills with its craft, character and momentum. Yes, they probably have ones with jetpacks now, but who wants to feel weightless when you have juddery? [8]

Jackie Powell: The crew at Switched on Pop introduced me to the thought that the track paints the image of the protagonist trying to escape from her antagonist (the vampire) in an old gothic castle. Imagine Rodrigo, in one of those white medieval dresses that's too long, running for her life up a tower. Not all songs have this capability -- actually, most of them do not. Rodrigo and her writing partner Dan Nigro succeed because of the way they play with the track's dynamics and how intentional they are when they introduce different sounds. Their entrances are grand but pristine. The switches from piano (literally and in the dynamic sense) in the first verse, to the slight stringy synths in the first chorus, then to the percussive bass drum in verse two, are dramatic but not overstated. By the time Rodrigo hits that second chorus, the drum kit is fully present, and the listener can imagine her jogging faster through the castle. By the bridge she's full-on running and making her damndest great escape, and by the final crash of the cymbals, she's done it. The most potent phrase in "Vampire" is obviously "fame fucker," a mature statement way beyond Rodrigo's years. If only Britney Spears had known it, she might have avoided Kevin Federline. Yes, I've been listening to The Woman in Me on audiobook. The Federline chapters were so vampiric. [8]

Nortey Dowuona: Vampires aren't real. There are plenty of greedy, selfish, and pale people in the world who are quite happy to take your days, your hours, your minutes. They quite happily crowd into your life, settle so deep, and nestle so close that even honestly engaging with them will drive you crazy. Forget trying to get them to stop hurting you, stop lying to you, stop betraying you. They just want more and more of you until you can no longer feel them drain you -- just collapse and sit, staring off into space. And once the last chorus kick-thuds painfully 16 more times, it finally collapses into silence because Olivia has shaken the man loose, but she is so depleted and uneasy she now has to keep watching around for him in the night. Vampires aren't real. Men are. [10]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[autumnmoonsurveys]

NEW YEAR’S DAY 2024 4:10 PM

(I love her bathroom!)

What's for dinner tonight?

Pork & sauerkraut with garlic mashed potatoes!

Do you prefer cold or room temperature drinking water?

Cool, not cold. So, closer to room temp. I don’t put ice in my water.

How many different things have you had to drink today?

Water with my morning pill and two mugs of instant espresso with fat-free half & half and a little sugar. About to have my third and final.

When you read a book, do you use a bookmark or simply dog ear/fold the top of the page?

USUALLY, I just remember the page number I’m on.

What's the nearest city to you with a population of at least one million?

Philadelphia is the one PA city with 1mil+.

During the pandemic, did you use reusable or disposable masks?

Both. I bought us reusable masks at first, but learned I preferred the disposables.

What is your favourite local restaurant?

There aren’t a whole lot of “local” restaurants here, but I’ll say Vince’s for their chicken salad wrap.

Have you ever been harassed while minding your own business walking down the street?

Of course.

Do you own a gun? Have you ever thought about getting one?

No; yes.

Do you know anyone who owns a gun?

Tons of people.

What year is/was your 10 year high school reunion? Will you (or did you) attend?

2020, and no.

Do you cut your sandwiches into triangles or rectangles?

Either-or.

Have you ever seen a panda in real life? Where was it?

At zoos, I’m sure.

Are there any postcards hanging around the house? If so, where are they from?

No.

Does it snow where you live?

Yes. It snowed right at midnight the big, chunky, heavy snowflakes and it was magical.

When was the last time you took a flight? Where did you go?

Aug. ‘21, to Mexico — Cancún airport. I had paid $6K (all-inclusive resort & flights) for my husband and me to travel with our friends to Punta Cana again this past August, but we had to take the loss and stay back because the house we bought that we knew we belonged in was going up for auction during our vacation. We won though! 🤍 Side note: it wasn’t a foreclosure; farm auctions are popular around here. It’s a great way to make tons of money if you’re selling a home with a farm or lots of land.

Is there a flight path over your house?

Yep.

Does your neighbourhood have a lot of hills?

We do live on a mountain.

Have you ever had covid? What was your experience like?

Just once, to my knowledge. It was mid-Jan. ‘21. I had my usual flu-like symptoms of severe body aches, headache, and feeling like I’m freezing. It was a 24-hour ailment.

Do you have any alcohol in your house right now?

Yes.

Do you tend to keep alcohol around the house for when you might want it?

I don’t drink, but my husband does.

Has a romantic partner ever given you a pet as a gift?

No.

Do you ever talk on the phone with friends?

No.

What was the last thing someone said to you in person?

My son was explaining to me how he slipped out of the trampoline since it’s wet.

Are you hungry right now? What would you like to eat?

Nah.

How far away are your parents right now?

I don’t know where my mother is, but she lives 7.5 miles away. My father is deceased.

Do you believe in aliens?

I do.

Have you ever been bitten by a spider?

I believe so.

Do you own any clothing made from animal products like leather or fur?

No.

What's the best vacation you've ever been on?

My favorite was Oct. ‘17 when my husband and I took our four little kids (and my mom for help) to Disney World for a week over my daughter’s sixth birthday. Our kids were 15 months, just shy of 4, just turning 6, and just shy of 7. 🥹 They’re now 7½, 10, 12, and 13! 😭