#i haven’t seen the movie in so so long but that one scene where Nani is like ‘’You can’t take her I’m the only one who understands her!’’-

[solargeist]

I keep Thinking about that one person who said Grian and Xelqua remind them of Lilo and Stitch because that’s literally so yes

pfhhhh yeah Xelqua and Grian are kinda like Lilo and Nani, sometimes, especially in the beginning when Grian was more stressed abt it.

Sometimes when I draw Xelqua, I think of Lilo, like in this drawing I was thinking abt how her arms/hand ratio is drawn

Tho—grown Watcher Xelqua behaving like Stitch is a funny idea.

[popculturebuffet]

Lilo and Stitch Crossovers: “Morpholomew” (American Dragon Long): Stop Trying to Make Am Drag a Thing (Commisson Done For WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! And welcome to a brand new retrospective/story arc/thing from yours truly, comissoned directly by WeirdKev27. If you’d like to comission your own review or set of reviews like this one, it’s 5 bucks. Just contact me via my ask box or direct messages on this very blog or my discord technicolormuk#6550.

With Shadow Into Light in the books, Kev decided he wanted to comission something not duck related and a bit smaller as a buffer before the next big arc, ALL of three arcs from season 2 of Ducktales, and decided to go with something he suggested to be a while back as a possible future retrospective: The Lilo and Stitch Crossover episodes! 

That’s right for the next three weeks, with TWO reviews this week since I had a spot open up and Kev paid for this one in full and way in advance, we’ll be taking a trip to Hawaii to visit everyone’s faviorte little girl, her best friend/pet/killing machine as they try to find homes for his 625 cousins. 

I loved Lilo and Stitch when I was a kid: Disney admitely got their hooks in me on that one with their cool prequel comics in disney adventures. These comics set up the movie, showing Jumba creating Stitch and the events leading up to both getting captured. The movie did not disapoint with cool character designs, a drop dead gorgeous recreation of Hawaii, and a really heartfelt, heartbreaking and heartpumping story of loss, family, and ving rahmes voicing one of the few heroic child services workers i’ve seen in a medium, a refreshing change of pace. The film is a masterpiece and I really do need to watch it again sometime. 

Given the series was a huge hit and that thsi was before the big lull in the late 2000′s and early 2010′s where Disney refused to make any tv shows based on their movies, a series followed, given a lead in by the direct to video movie Stitch.

The movie set up the basic premise; 624 capsules containing Jumba’s previous experiments, cousins as Stitch calls them, ended up raining over Kauai, awakening when dropped into water or any other liquid. Lilo and Stitch, with help from Jumba, his live in boyfriend Pleakley, her tought but fair sister Nani, and her boyfriend David, who dosen’t show up as much as i’d like but is my boy so he gets a mention here. But anyways our heroes try to reform the various engines of distructoin who all have unique powers and find them their one place they truly belong. 

So yes the show was a Mons-type show clearly captalizing off pokemon.. but the slice of life setting as opposed to the shonen style of most shows following in pokemon’s wake, gave it it’s own unique feel: while our heroes did fight, it was more about shenanigans, adventures and what not with these unique creatures and the purpose is very heartflet: Lilo simply wants to give these guys the same kind of love and support she’s given Stitch and a chance to do good. 

Opposing them is Gantu, the shark bounty hunter from the first film who, now out of a job, is working for Dr. Hamstervile, an imprisoned sceintest and a character I really don’t like that much as he’s not funny or a genuine threat or both and feels like a waste of time. Thankfully he’s not the focus and Gantu is instead partnered with 625, my faviorite Lilo and Stitch character. 625, as the name suggests, is stitch’s immediate prototype.. but unlike Stitch is too lazy and peaceful to be a real threat and isn’t even really a villian despite being on Gantu’s side. He’s busy making samwitches, his calling to the point when he gets a name in the finale movie it’s naturally Ruben, and snarking at gantu. He’s sadly not in this one but hopefully it’s JUST this one. 

As you can tell I liked this show a LOT at the time. I haven’t watched it since, mostly because disney scarely replayed it after it’s run, but it was vibrant, fun and intresting and a nicely laidback and creative take. The fact I came into the franchise with the comics and thus 625, who was introduced there in fact, and had a hunger to know more about the other experiments certainly helped. It was great fun. 

But while I grew up with the show and the four shows it teamed up with, i’ve never seen these episodes before these reviews. I wondered why for years as I caught the tail end of the kim possible one and saw images ocasionally, but never saw them. 

Turns out it’s because in general Season 2 got screwed over. While Season 1 was pushed out the door fast and aired at a rapid pace Season 2.. was portioned out over several years, and the Recess crossover one, the last one aired and the last one i’ll be covering never even got to Disney channel, only airing on ABC kids, DIsney’s saturday morning block at the time I rarely watched. I did watch it’s predecessor one saturday morning though. Good stuff. 

Since I couldn’t find any making of stuff for why these episodes happened, my best guess is DIsney wanted some cross promotion, and the shows used were chosen because they were the most popular at the time and honestly all 4 represent some of disney’s best, with Recess being in heavy reruns at the time, hence i’ts conclusion despite the show being finished before Lilo And Stitch the movie came out, let alone the series. 

So yeah i’m taking this ride for the first time.. but I was happy to. While Kev pays for a lot of my work, I still have to accept the idea.. and this was a great one. It allows me to cover 5 amazing series and gage how much people would want to see reviews of said series on this blog in one fell swoop.

So to kick us off we have American Dragon: Jake Long, a series I waited forever to come to Disney + as I loved it at the time, badly need to rewatch it (Been busy ), and find it genuinely great: It’s a great teen superhero story about the magical protector of new york, with a charming lead, a great setting and horrifcally great villians in the violently racist magic creature hunting huntsclan.. and their top agent who happens to be jake’s love intrest Rose. It’s really excellent and i’m glad it’s now widely avaliable for all to see. I will say ahead that all four shows in this crossover arc are excellent, and were fine choices for this. 

So what happens when an action comedy about a hip hop teenage dragon meets a slice of life show about aliens? Find out under the cut. 

So we open at a fancy hotel where Lilo’s bringing lunch to her sister Nani when she runs into.. Keoni Jameson. 

The second I remembered this kid all the hate just came flooding back, coursing through my veigns. Just pure liquid hatred for this little perosnalitiless little punk. Keoni is Lilo’s crush and local “stupid white audience stand in”. He has no real personality other than “generic cool kid” and “likes skating”, and just sucks the air out of the room anytime he’s in an episode. Keoni is part of a recurring problem in cartoons across the ages, one that’s slowly going away: the bland love intrest. Intorducing a character whose only traits are being cool for the lead to fawn over with usually no intent of either getting the two togehter or just ending it. IT’s annoying, it was in a good chunk of my childhood, I wish it’d stop. I cannot tell you how many shows used this trope. There were exceptions, American Dragon Jake Long actually used it well by not only making Rose a fleshed out character..  but making her jake’s nemisis in their other lives, and thus making things increidbly difficult on both once the truth comes out, with Jake grappling with if he can trust her or not and Rose grappling with the slow relization eveyrthing she was taught her whole life was wrong.

And again I have seen GOOD storylines using this as a tool: Dipper and Wendy ended with her having been aware teh whole time, but simply not knowing how to let him down given the age gap, and Regular Show rebounded the best from it: it turned the stop and start relatoinshpi of Mordecai and Margret’s relationship into a character flaw for him, openly explored it.. and ended up having him work past it and actually date her for a bit. Before she moved away, he got an even better love interest, then they destoryed the relationship in the worst way posisble and I wil lbe getting to that at some point. Some point. 

So yeah even at the time it was done better, hindsight haas only made it worse and it made watching the first few minutes tough because I had to keep pasuing because I hate him so damn much. He just adds NOTHING to the show and is a blank yanwing void from which no good came out of and I was terrified he’d be in the rest of the episode. Thankfully while he drives the plot he’s only in this scene.. but it’s still one more scene than both 625 and Pleakly got. yeah both are missing, as is nani. 

I did uncover one fun fact that made things a bit easier though: The crew ALSO hated Keoni. No really. Disney forced the character on them as they wanted an audience surrogate, and this abomination is what popped out. They DID NOT want him here and likely only used him as mcuh as they did because Disney forced it on them. And Disney would NOT learn from this as Star Vs got saddled with Alphonso and Ferguson soley because of network mandate. The two aren’t TERRIBLE characters but they aren’t great and feel as tacked on as they were. And part of this does fall on the crew: you CAN twist a stupid mandate like this to work well: Joe Murray was asked to add “A female character with a hook”, as in some sort of dumb gimmick to Rocko. He used those words, meant to create a superfical girl power cardboard cutout.. and created the wonderful Dr. Hutchenson, a bright cheery doctor, the series best sidecharacter.. and someone with a hook hand. But I won’t go too hard on them: they probably didn’t have as much room to manuver and the fact Keoni was sitll being shoved into episodes in season 2 tells me they likely had a set number of episodes he had to show up. I’m suprised they didn’t demand they have characters ask “Where’s Keonie?” any time he wasn’t in an episode. He was unecessary and it comes across with a massive chunk of unforutnate implications: that they didn’t think a series with a mostly hawaiann cast would work, that they wanted at least one other “nice” white character to offset myrtle instead of having the only major white character be a bully and antagonist, and that they thought tehir mostly white audience coudln’t enjoy a series without a white character, which as someone who was in the target demo at the time, I call bullshit on. As I said I hated him then, I hate him now and his involvement is the worst aspect of this episode. 

So after Lilo fawns over him for a bit we find out this chonk of wood’s purpose in the episode: to set up the plot. There’s a massive Skate Competition coming to town with the prize being a really cool skateboard.  This plot point itself.. I don’t mind. Jake is a skater, it’s part of his character and one of the things he loves doing in what minsicule spare time he has. And while it was a common trope at the time having a character skateboard really dosen’t harm most works. We’ve gotten great characters like Jake, Jackie Lynn Thomas, Branwen and Ronnie Anne Santiago out of it, and it feels like natural parts of the character, and frankly An Extremley Goofy Movie wouldn’t be NEARLY as awesome without having skateboarding bizzarley attached to the plot via the college x-games. Granted somtimes you get Rocket Power out of the deal but that’s the price you pay for the good stuff. I only regret it’s involved because Keoni has to be there and I had to pause multiple times to get through his scene. He’s just a sampler platter of terrible decisions made in 2000′s cartoons and he irritates me more than this guy. 

And anyone whose read my Loud House reviews can tell you that is a high bar to clear. 

So naturally Lilo wants to enter the Hawiann X-Games to get the board for Keoni. Though I will give the writers credit for having Stitch voice their thoughts and the audiences thoughts by having him take Keoni’s picture and throw it in the garbage. Where he belongs. 

Lilo’s not great at it as they practice.. and said practice naturally ends up waking up a new experiment, 316.. who i’m just going to go ahead and call Morpholomew. Stitch eventually catches him though like many of the experiments he’s not actively malevelolent and is easy enough to get home. 

Jumba gets to his schitck of breaking down what the experiment of the week does: In this case Morpholomew is  a shapeshifter though he has a VERY intresting twist on those powers: while he can naturally morph himself into anything he’s seen or has a picture of, he can do the same to anyone he touches. It dosen’t effect their voices, but otherwise it’s a perfect recreation. 

So Lilo instead of finding him a home right away.. decides to wait until after the compettition because we need him for the plot. 

So at the Skateboard Competittion Lilo tries to enter, but finds she’s too young.. but since she has a picture of Keoni, which is a nice way to use her photo hobby from the movie for plot reasons and thus dosen’t feel like an ass pull. Why Keoni’s not in town to skate is as his dad left because it’d be too crowded.. even though the event is at the resort he owns. 

So while Lilo commits identtity theft, our guest star appears. He’s cool, he’s hot like a frozen son, he’s young and fast he’s the chosen one, people i’m not braggin, i’ts the American Dragon. Jake is here for two reasons: the first is that Grandpa Long got reports of magical creatures out in the open, so naturally they need to look into that. It’s a clever way to get him, along with Grandpa, Fu, Trixie and Spud, over to Hawaii. The Dragon Council would defintely be suspcious hearing about this, and my guess to why they hadn’t sent another dragon over is they simply dont’ have one on the islands. As for why the Huntsclan didn’t get involved in any way, it’s simply too public for them.  With the magical community in new york, they don’t have to worry about exposure because neither side wants it, so neither side can out the other. Here with a bunch of creatures out in the open it runs the risk of the Hunstclan being dragged into the light.. and given the populace dosne’t care about the “magical creatures” alongside them, it would make them look like the monsters they are. 

Spud and Trixie tagging along also makes sense besides “they needed them for the plot”: While they’d obviously want to come to Hawaii, the skate competition is likely Jake’s cover for why he’s there, as well as one for why it’s just him and grandpa going with a couple of his friends so they don’t have to deal with manuvering around jake’s dad. That sad them never TELLING jake’s Dad is it’s own can of worms as it feels cruel, made things harder for jake and there was no real reason not to. At worst he’d want Jake to stop for his own saftey but given ther’es an active threat in  the huntsclan for the first season and a half, NOT helping people would be the right thing and I feel he’s a sensible enough man to understand eventually. 

And it’s stuff like this that already makes this crossover really work for me: they don’t really have to strain to get Jake over there or tell the audience heavily, the blanks fill in themslves. Or I am but that’s because it’s my job and I love doin it. 

So everyone goes off to their corners; Jake to do a few practice runs, Foo Dog to bet on his friend because of course, Trixie and Spud to go to the beach (even though Spud’s terrified of sharks so I question why Trixie needs him for this), and in a delightfully adorable subplot, finds a lady to woo: local fruit stand vendoer and crankly old lady Mrs. Hasagawa. 

I am here for this subplot: While Grandpa not focusing on the mission is weird for him that’s the entire point.. and their just really cute together. He’s smitten with her entirely because he sees her chewing out one of the people running the contest for making her sign too small. And he performs one hell of a romantic gesture by, while everyone’s back is turned, using his dragon fire to make an add for her on the skate ramp itself, and they have a lovely montage of their time together.. which also weirdly includes grandpa using his dragon fire on stage inf ront of everyone which makes no sense for his charcter but is so cute and does feature david I really don’t care. The writers of Lilo and Stitch probably weren’t deeply familiar with the show and likely just wanted a fun gag. Could be wrong there but it’s cute. He continues to act grossly out of character by trying to avoid going home at the end.. but again I find it simply because he’s in love, they have genuine chemstiry and I like to think they stayed in touch and he retired out there at some point once Jake was old enough to handle things himself. This may not be a ship I expected to support going in but I will die for it going out. 

So back to the main plot, Lilo uses Keoni’s body to imitate him which... she’s only loosely called out on and realizes is bad by the end only because she gets stuck in another body. And that’s not even getting into the fact she BREAKS UP WITH KEONI’S GIRLFRIEND. Yes really.. she just does that to get her out of the way. She comes around and realizes she was wrong and tries to fix it which would be fine.. if hte episode didn’t try to cop it out by revealing “Oh she’s not his girlfriend, she’s just someone who keeps telling people that”. It just feels lazy and dumb and a way to keep Lilo’s crush on Keoni for reasons I DO. NOT. GET. But the identity theft is just brushed aside by everyone: Keoni never finds out, and Jake just brushes it off. The real issue is more her trying to bribe keoni into likng her which while something kids need to learn is not the only thing she did wrong here. It feels like they didn’t think all the implications out here and it hampers the episode

Speaking of which as Gantu captures Jake, he sees him transform into dragon mode and assumes he’s the experiment, Jake’s charactization is pretty shallow.  And why yes it DOES feel weird writing sentences about a character with the same name thank you for asking. I wasn’t expecting a deep character piece or anything: This is a guest spot, the writers here are not the same normal ones for American Dragon. That’s fine. The problem.. is that they clearly did not get Jake. Grandpa being partly out of character is half the joke, Trixie actually gets a really nice moment towards the end, and Spud.. is eh. But out of them Jake just feels like a basic character description: He likes hip hop, he likes skateboards, he calls himself Am Drag despite that sounding like a good name for a drag act but a terrible name to shorten your title, he fights.. that’s it. 

While jake is all of that in the main series, he’s also a kind young man who while sometimes irresponsible does the right thing when the chips are down.  He’s someone weighed down by a responsiblity he didn’t ask for, often makes his life more difficult and often finds himself in trouble because his mother and grandfather won’t bother to tell his dad he’s a dragon. Yes that part still bothers me, and I don’t see why we couldn’t just have a superhero show where both parents know. But regardless this just dosen’t feel like Jake , like they just watched the intro and that was it. Jake feels more like a plot device in his own crossover. 

That being said there is some good stuff: The minute Jake realizes some Sci Fi stuff is going on instead of hte normal magic stuff he tells him “The am drag’s show isn’t about sci fi” a nice meta bit and then breaks out. Meanwhile Lilo takes on his form.. and ends up stuck after badly botching her run again, as Gantu finds the real shapeshifter. 

We get the best stretch of the episode from here though: Lilo awkardly tries to play jake and like jake we get a nice meta nod to how diffrent their show is as she’s worried about his belief in magical creatures.. and is startled out of her charade when Foo Dog talks, a really nice bit especially since it’s tame compared to the weirdness he deals with. Spud and Trixie have questions... only for Jake to show up and his agressive behavior leads to the best bit of the episode: Jake Vs Stitch. The catlyst is understandable: jake has no idea why Lilo’s taken his identity and Sttich is just protecting his best friend from harm. The animation is fluid, the fight is fun and quick and uses both’s powers stellarl. Whle “two heroes get into a misunderstanding and then fight” is a well worn cliche at this point, it’s moments like this that show why: you get to see two heroes who in this case never have interacted before or sense, duke it out, why each is special and it’s fun to watch. 

Lilo breaks it up, and admits to the whole thing.. including the whole give Keani the board stuff. While Jake and Spud, being awkard with girls and a loveable moron don’t see the problem with that Trixie gets a moment to shine. As far as I can remember she really didn’t get much on the show proper so it was a nice suprise to see her mentor lilo her, telling her trying to give someone gifts to love you is not okay, she should just be herself all that good stuff. It’s a nice character stuff and tha’ts the kind of character interaction this episode needed more of. 

With the misunderstandings washed away our heroes team up and storm gantu’s ship leading to another great sequence as Stitch rides on Jake’s back while the two keep him busy and Lilo gets turned back, Trixie complimenting her dress “Thanks I have 10 just like it at home”. It’s such a sweet and genuine moment” They head back out and gantu semeingly grabs morpholmew from where they hide.. only to find out when he gets back it’s spud, our adorable little blob monster transforming Gantu into a bunny and our heroes leaving. How does Gantu get out of being a bunny?

But it’s a nice enough gag. So we end the episode. We get another nice gag as grandpa had himself and his lady transformed to try and avoid going home, and Jake is fine with having lost out on the board what matters is he made a friend. Sadly we did not get a followup in ADJL., but spud does name our experiment, Morpholomew. 

We end on Morph getting his home: a costume shop where he gets paid in fried chicken, he was shown to enjoy it throughtout the episode and changes people into things. It’s a nice little button to the episode and one of the funnest parts of the show was figuring out where the experiment would end up at the end. 

Final Thoughts:

This episode is a really mixed bag. There is some good character interactions, two tremendous fight scens and Trixie gets a chance to shine for once if only for a scene or two, and the clashing genres end up making for some great jokes> The shows do go well together as while Lilo and Stitch is more laid back both have slice of life elements. And hasgawa X Grandpa is just oto cute for words. 

The episode is held back by Jake and Lilo’s lackluster characterizatons: Jake is simply the theme song as a character, which in theory is awesome because that theme song slaps but in practice is pretty lame, and Lilo is selfish and irresponsible even for her in a way that dosen’t feel at all convincing. It drags down what’s otherwise a fun crossover and Morpholomew is truly a unique and wonderful experiment. Still if you like either show it’s worth a watch even if you have to suffer through Keoni for it. It’s worth it.. I just wish it was better and hopefully the next 3 will keep the good parts but take out the bad. Granted this was produced last so I could be wrong, but here’s hoping.  Oh this episode also featured Miranda Cosgrove as the girl who claims to be Keoni’s girlfriend. This is also Keoni’s last episode meaning I do NOT have to worry about accidently running into him. Thank fucking christ. 

Next Time On American Dragon Jake Long: Jake’s dad drags him and his friends on a camping trip and Jake ends up encountering the Jersey Devil. Now all they need is a sexy lady devil cake to lure it out... what it worked for the Cake Boss. And yes that happened, Allison Pregler did an episode on that episode. Check it out. 

Next Time On Lilo and Stitch Crossovers: It’s the family, the family, proud familllyyy as the Prouds take a vacation at Peakly and Jumbas bed but not breakfast and we get some kind of squirrel demon for our experiment of the week. We also get Wizard Kelly appearing...

See you at the next rainbow. 

[homunculusalphonse]

so i noticed a lot of ppl in lilo and stitch videos argue that cobra had no reason to take lilo away. i have... thoughts on this.

before anything, i don’t mean to shit on nani because she really did try her best, she was the older sister who suddenly needed to become lilo’s legal guardian after losing both of her parents. nani had a lot in her plate, she couldn’t really do anything for herself. that’s completely fair.

but honestly? that still doesn’t change the fact lilo was indeed left alone for a long time.

[ID: lilo’s drawing of herself alone, with big obvious text “Me alone” /End ID]

rewatching lilo and stitch again made me realize this: lilo is a 6-7 year old child, but for most of the movie she’s really seen on her own. i would get it if she was 10 or older - and arguably where she lives is a smaller, safe place to live, but in my experience, an at least 7 year old child shouldn’t be left alone.

lilo is alone at the beach giving pudge food, then she hurries to hula class, her peers and her teacher leave her alone at school, and while she is told to wait for nani, lilo would’ve waited on her own; otherwise she could’ve been with the other girls but they rejected her and left her talking to herself.

obviously AGAIN i’m not shitting on nani, but given the environment lilo lives in, it’s no wonder that child services called cobra bubbles. he says “i’m the one they call when things go wrong. and things have INDEED gone wrong”. i mean, is he really wrong (not intended)? lilo’s home is a mess of objects lying around everywhere, and since nani needs to go to work to even financially sustain lilo, that’s still a clear indicative that lilo is alone the entire day. that’s why nani decides to take a dog home, so lilo wouldn’t be alone, because nani can’t just stop working, obviously, but she knows her little sister is lonely and she needs to do something about it.

and i mean... lilo still had access to the hammer and nails in that first scene. lilo had total access to the house. i don’t doubt that wasn’t the first time lilo locked nani outside, but of course this last time is worse because cobra is going to visit and nani knows that the social workers haven’t been entirely sure that lilo should stay with her. the other visits probably didn’t go well considering their entire house is a mess. things are obviously not okay.

[ID: cobra yelling “IS THIS WHAT SHE NEEDS?” to nani. stitch watches in the distance. /End ID]

nani is right on one thing, that she’s the only one who gets lilo. no one understands lilo, no one bothers to understand her. nani never shuts lilo’s child wonder down, and she encourages other people to do so (like the lady at the dog kennel). nani knows how to be emotionally supportive, at least. but cobra has every reason to call her out - lilo doesn’t deserve to be alone, and while nani is trying, she still left lilo on her own again at the end of the movie, and their house was destroyed. no adult was there to at least protect lilo besides two aliens - and yeah, at least lilo called cobra, i bet he was the one who called the firemen, but it was too late.

you could argue that there were too many bad coincidences that convinced cobra lilo shouldn’t be with nani; stitch of course is aware he lashes out and he did ruin everything, but most of these things still happened. cobra, despite looking scary, is the one that stands up for lilo the most in the film. he’s a child services agent, he cares about his job, he’s not actually harsh to nani, he gets nani is trying, that nani loves lilo more than anything, but he cares about lilo’s safety and he knows that lilo is not safe most of the time.

lilo is still a child and she deserves a safer and stable home, and someone who stays with her, someone who protects her. lilo cannot handle things on her own anymore. she shouldn’t even to begin with.

[astro-ocean]

11 Questions

RULES Always post the rules Answer the questions given by the person who tagged you Write 11 questions of your own Tag 11 people (or however many you want)

I was tagged by @beckettsthoughts !! this was fun to do, so thanks, lol

Ok so I know that this might take a while to answer so to those I’m tagging i totally don’t blame you if you don’t feel like doing this lol, @venterry @peridapple @penguin2024 @kitty-divine @hesitantollie @high-metafive @momomomoomoo @itsthevoiid @girl-nese @dominicunt-republic @anathemic-hearts

The questions you guys answer are at the bottom btw

Questions I’m answering

1. Do you remember your dreams? If so, what’s the weirdest dream you can remember?

THIS IS LONG SO SKIP THIS IF YOU DONT LIKE READING. 

Yes, bc most of my dreams are very vivid. Ok so in my dream, my family and I were going to visit Willy Wonka’s factory. We parked in this extremely large parking lot, right in front of the factory (which looked like the one from the 2005 movie even though we were visiting the one from the 70′s and is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forests), but in order to get to the it we had to cross under a fence made out of electricity. So we all had to like shimmy underneath it, only when I went I got electrocuted, and I remember that I felt actual physical pain when this happened??? So we go inside and have a good time. Willy Wonka is there (the Gene Wilder one), theres a huge ass chocolate funnel, and a ball pit for some reason (???) and everyone was having fun. The weird thing though is the factory looked like a McDonalds play land place bc everything was made out of plastic and no one else was there for some reason. Anyway after what felt like a couple of hours, we decide to leave. The parking lot electricity fence is down, so we don’t have to risk electrocution, but, however, we find that there are around 20 race cars with angry oompa loompas in them, surrounding the parking lot. My family thinks this is weird and they all naruto run to the car (???) and leave without me?? So in this fucking blue minivan they ram into the race cars and escape, leaving me behind. I then am suddenly aware that Wonka’s factory is in the state of Kentucky, and realize that I have a long walk home to Maryland. I grab my phone out of my pocket, which is this, and try to call my parents, who do not pick up. After this, I literally have a movie montage of me walking home through suburban roads, only when it ends, I”m only on the road that leads to Wonka’s factory. Suddenly, a white van pulls up and the door opens to reveal 20 boy scouts who tell me i’m an honorary member and pull me in. They speed down the road, only for the oompa loompa race cars to appear out of the forest and chase us. We swerve off the road and die from being crushed under the van. The end.

2. Describe your favourite cinema. Is it nearby, or hard to get to? Why is it better than the others?

My favorite cinema is 15 minutes away and I only go to it bc its not that far. Idk how to spell it, its called like, Lietersburg or something. IT has a really big parking lot that I use to practice driving.

3. What was your favourite class in school? In terms of atmosphere, classmates, teacher, anything.

My favorite class in school was my junior year of high school english class with Ms. Mattu. I was friends with everyone in the class, which by the end of the year only had around 7 or 8 kids, and we spent class joking around and writing stupid messages and memes on the board, which, most of the time our teach would let us leave up there. Ms. Mattu was (and is) an excellent teacher who would push us to the limit in terms of our ability, and really helped me improve my writing skills A LOT which is great for someone who’s gonna major in something that might need a bunch of writing ability. We also had food days which were cool and watched some really good movies like, The Help or The Shawshank Redemption.

4. What’s one hair colour, piercing or tattoo you’d love to get someday but probably never will?

I would really love to get a septum piercing bc I think they look awesome, but knowing me I would probably get tired of it and want to take it out after a while. So sometimes I just wear a fake one lol. I’d also really love to get a tattoo of No-Face from Spirited Away, bc that movie is very close to my heart.

5. Describe one person who you’d love to be friends with, but only know as an acquaintance through work, school or other friends. What about them makes you want to know them better?

Oh jeez, there was this girl at school (who I absolutely will not name bc some of u went to school with me) who was like really cool??? Amazing fashion sense, super funny, and really cute. We had only talked a couple times, but I would literally be so starstruck by seeing her that I would stumble on my words. Everything she did was just so effortlessly cool, and I probably definitely had a small crush on her lol. She pulled off stuff that I could only dream of doing. I really wanted to learn more about her, but I don’t think we would have had a lot in common rip.

6. What is your personal “white whale”? Something you encountered in the the past and have never been able to find since, no matter how hard you try?

Honestly, I don’t think I have one? While I do enjoy obsessing over things, I always will let go of something after a while, whether it be a thought, idea, or thing, bc truthfully I just get bored with it. Like, if I want something, the longest that feeling will last is probably at most a couple years before I go, “well i guess I’m not getting it. Better move on”. I don’t like to chase after or they to find things that I deem as too hard or bothersome.

7. What was your favourite movie when you were a child? Does it still hold up now that you’re older?

SPIRITED AWAY AND LILO AND STITCH. Both are tied as my favorite movies ever. I’ve been watching Spirited Away since I was like a fetus, i watch it at least once or twice a year now, but as a kid i’d probably watch once every two weeks. It was my first anime, I loved how it was drawn differently than Disney, how it took place in Japan, a place i had several friends from, and how everything. Looked. So. Delicious. Not to mention how funny it was. It definitely still holds up today, and now as an artist I appreciate it even more. Meanwhile, I love Lilo and Stitch bc I’m a pacific islander! At the time, it was the only movie I’d ever seen about someone else who grew up on an island, and I really connected with Lilo. It was and is still SUPER hilarious. And now I actually connect with Nani a lot because I have a little sister. The bond is portrayed so well, which I couldn’t understand as a kid because I was an only child at the time. Even the way the characters speak and act is in such a relatable way that i can’t help but feel homesick. Also, i cry when i watch the movie during the scene where Nani sings. Super sad.

8. Do you have a favourite ‘local’ food? It could be a local delicacy unique to your town, but it could just be a particular snack from a particular shop. A favourite meal from your favourite restaurant, maybe, because nobody else makes it the same way that they do?

There’s this local donut shop called Krumpe’s which everyone in town goes to. Their donuts are pretty good, and even better warm. During New Year’s Eve they hand out free donuts during a “Donut Drop” (mocks the ball drop) we have every year. My brother is friends with the family’s son and i quite like the mother, who I once had a long talk with while we were sitting on a bench overlooking a pond.

9. Have you ever skipped school or work to hang out with your friends or to go to a particular event?

Haha, NO. I could never get away with leaving school, and honestly, I don’’t really have any friends I could ever do something like that with. My school calls our parents if were absent and attendance is really hard to get out of. The only thing I’ve ever missed school for was a field trip or college visit. When i was a sophomore however, I did tend to leave my last period class 15 minutes early to walk around and talk to the janitor (he’s really nice) bc we had a long term sub who was really cool.

10. What is something you’d love to collect but haven’t yet?

Sweatshirts i guess? I’d love to have sweatshirts from all over the world and places i’d visit. With how often I wear them I think i’d be pretty useful too.

11. Are you the kind of person who saves tickets from travelling? If not, what’s your favourite type of souvenir to collect?

Yup, always. I never really get to travel because of costs, so whenever i have a field trip i keep the ticket. So far, I have some Pentatonix and Two Cellos band tickets, and one from the MOMA and a couple other art museums.

Questions to answer

1. Is there a celebrity you often are said to look like? If not, then who is someone you wish you did?

2. What is one of your favorite bands or musicians? Why do you like them?

3. Who inspired your sense of style? Who is someone you look up to in terms of  fashion?

4. If you could get rid of any one emotion, what would it be and why?

5. How do you see yourself versus how you think people perceive you? What are someone’s first impressions of you?

6. What’s your phone case and background? Why did you pick them?

7. What is something you’ve done that you’re very proud of? What is something about yourself that you’re very proud of?

8. What is your favorite climate and season? What’s your favorite thing to do in that weather?

9. What is something you own or have a lot of and why?

10. Have you ever gone through a “phase”? What is the worst/funniest one you’ve gone through?

11. What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the middle of the night? If nothing, whats something you’ve always wanted to do?

[0poole]

Man, Netflix is a godly invention

Seriously. Once my generation takes over, the only TVs will exist in restaurants. Once subscription on-demand services take over (assuming they haven’t already) then cable TV will be done for. Literally the only benefit of cable is that, if you’re punctual enough, and have enough free time, you can “technically” watch whatever you want. On the other hand, you could pay less to access a slightly more limited (when it comes to new stuff) catalogue of shows to watch whenever or wherever you want. Obviously, though, you can’t always find the old stuff you’ve never seen before on cable. That’s what this stuff is good for. 

I’ve watched so many great movies that I’ve definitely heard of time and time again, but either never watched, or watched so long ago that I don’t actually remember any of it. Basically, since I have nothing else to do, I’m just gonna talk about the old stuff I’ve watched so far.

Lilo & Stitch: Just finished this one, and it’s the one that made me want to talk about this. OH MY GOD Lilo deserves so many hugs. It was almost bizarre, like this character that, to me, has only existed in merchandise is now... actually... moving? How peculiar, it had feelings all along! 

Seriously, though. I thought I saw this movie once, but it really didn’t feel like I did. I definitely had McDonalds toys of discount Wazowski once, but I don’t really remember anything from the movie. It was surprisingly real. I can definitely see how people can appreciate Nani for being the most real and respectable character in all of animation (and also for being sexy despite not having a beautiful™ face). 

Also, aliens. When are aliens ever bad? I say, only when they’re mindless, killing lizards (excluding el Xenomorph, I can still like him (still need to see his movie tho)). But, I can always love the classic, bulbous alien designs ala. retro sci-fi. My god, they animated discount Wazowski so well... He looked so boneless and floppy. Not to mention Jumbo being so soft and squishy looking. Stitch himself is such an icon that it’s hard to see him as anything other than Stitch, if you know what I mean. 

Anyways, the only Lilo and Stitch derivative I remember was what I remember as a sort of monster-of-the-week series where they had to go around capturing and cataloging the other experiments. It definitely seems like a fitting idea, but of course I really don’t remember any of it. I do remember the yellow stitch-like guy who had a very normal-guy voice and had a thing for sandwiches, though. He was like the comical sidekick to the main baddy.

Bolt: The movie I definitely remember the most of, but wanted to watch again anyways, because I definitely remember liking it. Most of my movie re-watchings are just to solidify my memories of these movies in my current mind, because my past self seriously had a habit of living in the moment so much that I just didn’t bother to remember what I just experienced. 

Anyways, I’m just gonna be honest... I’m not a dog person... but when a dog makes a cute girl happy, I’m happy. Also, I have a habit of never crying at the sad parts, and always at the happy resolutions to the sad parts. Oh my god, I remembered the ending, but I still cried my eyes out. The superbark may not actually be super, but it’s super to him, dammit! Seriously, though. Emotions are always at stake when kids movies get real. That was a real fire, and a real risk of death, and he saved the girl. 

Also, why are so many cute girls named Penny? In animations, that is. Not that... no, not happening. 

I honestly can’t remember any other cute Penny’s (apart from my own Penny) but for some reason that name is eternally one of the cutest girl names out there.

Looking it up though, I can see why. There’s the main girl from the Proud Family (never watched it), the girl sidekick from the Inspector Gadget cartoon (never watched it), and the girl from the Peabody and Sherman movie (watched it and enjoyed it. She was almost a human sacrifice tho). All cute girls.

Atlantis: One of those too-good-for-its-own-good movies. It was seriously cool, but got a criminally low amount of attention. 

Really, the movie stands on visuals alone. The scene with Kida walking across the water to the giant floating carvings of past kings... That was some seriously amazing animation. Then, when she was walking back to shore with an invisible forcefield around her, which you could only see because of the water splashing off of it... That was amazing. 

I’m 0 for 2 in mentioning cute girls so far, so let’s keep going. Kida’s a big one I’ve seen around in, well, art... Meanwhile, Audrey was right there! How come I haven’t seen this chick anywhere? Did Kida steal her spotlight? I’ll tell ya, ancient technology as a whole is totally my style, but Kida herself isn’t pushing any buttons. But, a sun-kissed girl with bushy hair in overalls is my weakness.

Road to El Dorado: Okay, I actually can’t avoid talking about cute girls in this one. Chel is actually criminally sexy. This level of sexiness should be illegal. I’ve already drawn her. I can’t get enough.

You know, sometimes, when I draw or mention cute/sexy girls, I always have a thought in the back of my head: God, some people are gonna think I’m a creep because of this...

No fuckin shame here dog. She LITERALLY FUCKS ONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS TO GET HER WAY. Sexy is one of her character traits, and the designers, animators, writers... they know it. How is this a kid’s movie? 

Anyways, the movie... I’ll be honest, I only remembered to watch this one because of the “Both? Both? Both is good.” meme. Being a part of the “artists who draw cute girls” circle, I can’t avoid that meme. Whenever someone says “Boobs or butts?” I see it. Whenever I see “Which of these cute girls should I draw?” I see it. Seriously, that gif has probably been posted more times than the number of people who actually went to see this movie. Then, there’s the gif of Chel bumping her armadillo pal with her hips... Like, come on. She’s hardly even wearing pants. You can’t do this to me.

I did actually enjoy the movie though. I definitely think the concept of “normal people visit ancient society and are believed to be Gods” has a lot of potential in it, and I love the idea that the king of El Dorado doesn’t actually think they’re Gods, and is just playing along pretty much... That’s really fun. I definitely prefer it to the wholly ignorant, possibly also stupid primitives that are 100% sure that the person is their God. It makes a nice dynamic. 

The Emperor's New Groove: Come on, what else is there to say? It’s the the-teacher-is-letting-us-watch-a-movie-on-the-last-day-of-school classic. It’s hilarious. It’s fun. It’s got the heckin PACHA MEME BROOOS AMIRITE FELLOW INTERNETERS?

I love the nonsense humor in the movie. I LOVE it. I love it when movies don’t take themselves seriously. It’s the time of the Aztecs, and yet they (didn’t) order a giant trampoline. Rollercoasters. Boy scouts. For some movies, it’s lame, but this one was probably the originator of the idea. Oh my god, the cut outs to Kuzco’s narration? I love it. I love it all.

Cute girls? Uhhh... I mean, Pacha’s daughter was pretty cute, but not the soul-wrenching kinda cute. What about ol’ Vexus? God, I rarely look up voice actors, but Eartha Kitt kills it both as Yzma and as Vexus. It’s the absolute perfect evil voice. It matches the stereotypical “evil” people know, but toys with it the perfect amount to make it super fun. Also, whenever I can relate something back to MLaaTR I’m happy. Cute girls, and all...

Song of the Sea: cute cute cute cute Cute CUTE CUTE. 

This is why I watch all movies with subtitles whenever I can. What’s the name of that adorable little girl? Surf-shuh? Shur-suh? It’s Saoirse. I’m honestly surprised I remembered how to spell it. 

Remember when I said I cry at happy resolutions? Well, I ALSO cry at scenes that are so impossibly pure, wholesome, and/or cute that it just pours out of my eyes. An example being Colette’s song in the Les Miserables movie. Gets me every time... Anyways, watch the movie, but also spoilers-that-aren’t-spoilers-because-it-was-obviously-going-to-happen: She gets her voice back, and hoooo boy... I nearly died from dehydration. Not much more can be said without actual spoilers...

Aside from the overflowing levels of cuteness in this movie (there are seals btw), I’d die for the mythical elements in this movie. It scratched every itch that The Book of Kells missed. Watched that one on Netflix too, but the ending was so... Bible-ish that I had a hard time feeling satisfied. Obviously it’s for a good reason, since, you know... It’s about the Book of Kells... But for a movie it wasn’t satisfying.

The animation couldn’t possibly fit the subject matter more, though. It has such a stylized stain-glass painting vibe to it. Isn’t there also another one by these guys coming out soon about a wolf girl? I’ll watch the hell out of that one when it comes out. It’s like Laika, but 2D. You watch it just for the animation, if not for anything else.

Monsters vs Aliens: Again, we’ve got aliens. Also, the birth of the giantess fetish, probably. Seriously, though... how did that dress hold up in that first scene? I’m just sayin

If I’m into retro-sci-fi aliens, then I have to also be in classic retro horror trope references. I should really watch the actual The Fly some time. It’s a creepy idea that I really want to indulge in.

I mean, that’s it for that movie. But, the original BLOB? Holy shit, I wanted to watch that movie just to make fun of it, and turns out the theme song did that for me. Hey, this giant alien monster is swallowing up Earth, what kind of a theme should we give it? Jazz with a touch of Surfer? Sure, why not. I love it. I’m a sucker for slimes, and I swear, if I ever manage to write a story about one of my slime characters, I will make a blood pact to reference that song in the story at some point. It’s so good.

Mune, Guardian of the Moon: I don’t usually rewatch movies, but I’m feeling like watching this one again.

Also, I spilled out my guts on this one a long time ago when I first watched it, and I loved it so much I posted it to Tumblr AND Facebook. Since my Tumblr got deleted, I’ll just link to the Facebook post, so I can give it the full respect it deserves: https://www.facebook.com/0poole/posts/967898463366639

Don’t even think about friending me there, though. Facebook is reserved for family matters only. No pesky tumblrs allowed!

There are also a good few I still need to watch. I’d put them in a different post, but since this blog is really just for me to rant, I’ll just keep going:

Shrek: I mean, I know how it starts for sure. Kinda... hard to forget, ya know? Yeah, “forget.” That’s the word. I really just need a refresher on this one. 

Astro Boy: Hey, what? There’s an Astro Boy movie? Well, if I’m ever going to understand this franchise, It’ll definitely have to be in movie form. I like MLaaTR and to a lesser extent Robotboy, so why not?

The Prince of Egypt: Remember when I knocked Bible-ish movies? Well, apparently it’s not a problem for this one. It’s clearly has great animation, so why not? 

Escape from Planet Earth: I forgot this existed. Everyone did. I saw a trailer for it ages ago, and that’s only how I know it. It’s got aliens, so why not? I remember seeing that Planet 51 was on Netflix too. It’s exactly the same movie but on the other side. I also remember there being an overt penis joke in that one, so...

The Guardian Brothers: What even is this? I don’t know. It’s animation, and not one of those cheap kids shows, so let’s do it.

April and the Extraordinary World: Also don’t really know what this is. It’s 2D animation, and therefore instantly puts it a step above 3D movies in instant interest.

Phantom Boy: I watched A Cat in Paris, and at least didn’t hate the artstyle. It’s a strange look, but unique, so I want to see more.

Look Who’s Back: A story about Hitler being revived in modern times. What could go wrong? Apparently something intriguing enough for people to review this movie well. Or, at least, well enough...

Gnome Alone: Technically these movies aren’t supposed to be Netflix Originals, but, you know... I see cute girl, I click. Looks kinda lame tho

Leap!: I heard that this is a movie with a generic plot, so I kinda left it out of sight. But, might I remind you... I see cute girl, I click. This’ll be my last resort if I’ve exhausted all other cute girl supplies. She is seriously adorable, though.

The Emoji Movie: haha jk we have fun here

There are way too many movies on Netlfix, so there’s obviously more than that. And, that’s not even counting the series... Might separate that into a different post tho

Also, Neflix, my boy... Can we talk about these synopsises of all these great movies? They make each and every one sound like the most generic, pandering bullshit you can think of. Also, I hate how the thumbnails change for some of the movies/shows. To an outsider, it makes it impossible to discern who’s the main character and who’s the bad guy if you don’t already know the content. People make title cards for a reason, you know!