#kids films

[kidcore-nostalgia]

[brunhielda]

Ok- Time to review a NEW movie:

Go see IF

It may still be in theaters near you.

If not it is streaming on Amazon.

You want to see this movie.

Like, it was about childhood imaginary friends trying to live after thier kids forget them, I was already intrigued.

I was prepared for it to be a little light on any themes because they were aiming at kids, or the jokes to be super awkward because a bunch of comedians were trying to hard. Neither of those happened.

We are handed an intelligent, nuanced main character with real skills nessisary for the role she puts herself into.

We have Imaginary Friends (IFs) who are guenuinely funny. Like was laughing so hard in some moments. If you enjoy old style cartoon slapstick bafoonery, you will enjoy these guys.

We have clever writing. There are twists and delight you don’t see coming, heart warming moments you do and love anyway, and real use of music, lighting, and a clever bit with John Stewart’s Harvey (blink and you miss it, but it is my FAVORITE old black and white film, so I was squealing).

There was real peril, real stakes, real, true to life triumphs and sorrows. I was openly weeping for the last 10 minutes of this movie.

I do not wish to spoil more than that- just go see this film.

If you love Ryan Reynolds, you will love this film. We know him as a comedian and a clown, and hillariously, this is somehow him as the straight man while still some of his best comedy. All PG, it is for kids, but I swear, as an adult, you just feel his DONE vibes this whole film 😂

If you love old cartoons and black and white films, you will love this movie- If you are into the Toonkind race addition to DnD, you will love the hell out of this movie. There should be so much fan art around this film. There should be OCs out there wazoo.

If you were an imaginative kid as a child, you will love this movie.

If you have ever spent far too much time in hospitals, you will love this movie.

If you ever had a dream you let go of to grow up, you will love this movie.

If you still deal with stress, and anxiety, and depression, and disappointment, you will love this movie.

Like seriously? This film is so sweet and endearing and could not have come out at a better time.

Go watch IF. I don’t have words to explain any more than that.

[capableism]

Disney emphasizes visually impaired character’s blindness is from internalized ableism

Despite Jace's projections of his internal ableism on people during a fire drill, when Jace is struggling, John (a jock he previously antagonized) guides him out of school during a fire drill after he has lost his cane and begs for help. It is emotional because it shows how his disability affects everyday tasks. This demonstrates Jace's need for support, whether he wants it or not. He is not the visually impaired superhuman. He is a typical flawed, stubborn teenager.

The internal ableism Jace is projecting onto wrestling culminates after Jace angrily insists he's not a "charity case" and shouldn't be kept around for the "freak factor" on the team. The coach says,

"Now you listen, and you listen good. If you wanna think of yourself as a freak, go ahead. What I see  is a kid who's worked his tail off and earned his spot." 

Next, the coach confronts Jace's projection that he is treated "special" because of his disability. He lacks faith in other people to believe he is like everyone else. Again a projection of himself. That characterization is subtle and pleasing.  

Jace's character moves quickly from stubborn and self-centered to sensitive and romantic toward Mary Beth.

No film about a blind person is complete without a face-touching scene. 

This sudden romance is unexpected, given how much of a jerk Jace is to everyone. "Authors go so far as to convert the sense of touch into that of sight, for the blind stripling has "fingers" that "must almost see" (Joyce, 1922/1998, p. 173). This fixation on the sense of touch leads to the stereotype of touching faces. Audio descriptions of people are more useful and only sometimes necessary. 

The touching of faces trope depends on sighted people's want to fulfill the sense they would be missing and accustomed to. 

Disabled people adapt to their circumstances individually and cannot be so easily categorized. There is a scene where John reveals wrestling is "all his identity." Unlike Jace, he doesn't "have music." This reminds the audience that 

Jace joined the wrestling team to be like everyone else, not because he is passionate about it. 

He could pursue a musical passion that coincided with a stereotype or "fit in." By becoming a jock. He chooses the latter, which reinforces his belief he's not like other blind people. Comparing the stereotypes of visually impaired people to reality, Bolt concludes, "People with Impaired Vision is no better than the overtly negative formation, for either way an object position is being defined, the subject position is necessarily held by someone with unimpaired vision. Indeed,  beneficial blindness only benefits prejudiced people who wish to maintain the binary logic of 'the blind' and 'the sighted,' them and us." (Bolt, 27)

Sources

Bolt, D. (2006). Beneficial Blindness: Literary Representation and the So-Called Positive Stereotyping of People with Impaired Vision. Journal of Disability Studies, (12), 1-31. https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/library/bolt-Beneficial-Blindness.pdf

Joyce, J. (1998). Ulysses. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1922)

[life-in-toontown]

AMEN 🙌

[hollywoodhandle]

‘Harold And The Purple Crayon’ Review: Imagination Bursts With Colour

Have you ever felt like your imagination recently has been lacking? There’s been many points in my teenage life and adulthood where I’ve felt that way. Growing up in the real world has sort of made us forget that we are capable of dreaming big. Or maybe the world has taught us to think small? That fear of losing your childlike wonder and hopes drives the foundation behind our nostalgia. We look…

[kids-worldfun]

Spark Your Creativity: Discover the Latest Top Animated Films for Kids

Animation has been playing an increasingly important role in the entertainment of children as it has taken them to the magical arks of bright colors and strong emotions. In the past decade or so, the process of animation for kids’ movies has transformed into a rich collection of stories and visual styles that catch children’s and adults’ eyes. Whether it is the emotional basking provided by…

[edains]

Rick Riordan constantly trashing the movies for not sticking to his books then releasing a show in which he rewrites everything and loses the spirit of the books entirely

[nyctosaurid]

don bluth films occupy a weird space because he's both inarguably an auteur who directs very strange, earnest, often "ugly" films but also a guy who near exclusively made movies for 8 year olds in the home video era. so basically everything he's ever done is a grimy, dreamy rumination on death and spirituality and has a direct to video sequel called something like secret of nimh 2: mrs. brisby's holiday adventure

[huiracha]

[chloesimaginationthings]

The FNAF movie is just Mike getting bullied by animatronics

[hyunpic]

HYUNJIN | SKZ-CODE EP. 60 - FALL FIELD DAY

[frenchnewwaves]

Chloë Sevigny always serves cunt.

[fairytopea]

✧ railway 𖨂 🕷️ .

[capableism]

Disney Channel tries replacing ableist tropes with self-aware disabled protagonist

Go to the mat is slang for 

"fight until one side or another is victorious. "This term comes from wrestling and evokes the holding of an opponent  when both contestants are down on the mat, the padded floor-covering used in  matches." (Dictionary.com) 

In the Disney Channel movie Going to the Mat, Jace chooses to fight the stereotype of a blind musician to become a wrestler, literally going to the mat. Wrestling becomes his focus when a character Mary-Beth "saw a blind guy do it once." It's worth noting that 

the abilities of individual disabled people are not transferable to a whole group. 

That is a result of stereotyping. This coming-of-age sports movie is generic. It only uses the trope that blind people have heightened senses when it is plot convenient. 

The generic beats involve Jace working hard to overcome his blindness. The first and last scenes, where other characters learn about Jace's disability, is irrelevant. They do not see disability. This is problematic because it does not recognize societal shortcomings regarding minority groups.  

These scenes also fail to acknowledge the inequity of living within a minority group. Jace is a basic white guy at the top of the disability hierarchy. The simple plot beats serve their 

Purpose in presenting Going to the Mat as an after-school special about accepting yourself. 

This generic coming-of-age storyline about moving to a small town, joining a sports team to be liked, and then working hard to be the best on the team adds the extra element of Jace's disability.  "The bizarre implication is that visual impairment brings about significant  alterations in the bearer's sense of taste." (Bolt, 10) 

Bolt refers to this assumption about visually impaired people possessing "extraordinary senses." Another seemingly positive representation of blindness is demonstrating it as a disability that eliminates distractions. Along the lines of extraordinary senses, it assumes visually impaired people have an advantage in their ability to work hard and problem-solve because they have dialed in sensory input. These representations are common. 

The kernel of accuracy in these stereotypes is "People with impaired vision might well learn to use such capacities more effectively, but, far from being automatic, any compensation is the product of persistent practice" (Kirtley, 1975).  

While Going to the Mat does feature extraordinary senses and musical tropes, Jace is not more intelligent than other characters because of his disability. He is self-centered because of the assumptions he's faced throughout life. The plot involves Jace being mad about moving from NYC to Utah. He boasts to his "hillbilly" classmates that New York City is the best place to live. Jace's condescending way of treating people in Utah betrays his problem with being blind. After John meets Mary-Beth, she tells him she'll be one of his readers. Jace immediately says, "Why? Because it looks good on your college  resume?" Again, Jace thinks Mary-Beth is taking advantage of Jace's blindness.

In another scene, Mary Beth is seen reading to Jace about the oppression of colonization, and his response is, "welcome to my world." This demonstrates how self-centered Jace is. After he complains  that nobody likes him, 

Mary Beth tells him, "no one cares that you're blind; they're turned off because they think you're a total jerk."  

Sources

Bolt, D. (2006). Beneficial Blindness: Literary Representation and the So-Called Positive Stereotyping of People with Impaired Vision. Journal of Disability Studies, (12), 1-31. https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/library/bolt-Beneficial-Blindness.pdf

Kirtley, D. D. (1975). Blindness in the arts. The psychology of blindness (pp. 49-92). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.

[raycatzdraws]

Wolfie and Four friendship appreciation doodles! They're shared secrets besties! I hope Four's distrust of the shadow crystal doesn't drive anything between them. Wild found his way into this compilation with a force. It seems I can't draw Wolfie and not include him too!

[bibluebutterfly]

I’m sorry but it’s absolutely hilarious and yet adorable how the series handles Broppy’s relationship. First we get them traveling together as rivals (which was a bit more one- sided on Branch’s part) before slowing learning how to work together and to change for the other. Also it’s heavily implied Branch has an underline crush on Poppy. Then we get True Colors, and everyone thinks “okay they’re in love now”.

Some people/audience members are on board, others not so much. BUT THEN it turns out that the “I love you” they say to each other was a PLATONIC love confession. Like “you’re my friend, and I value you.” Which is still sweet, but was unexpected. (Though it does explain why the writers decided to put another platonic love confession scene between Bridget and Poppy. Yeah, I get it now)

So they just go through the journey as bffs who have feelings for each other but won’t say anything. And again, they learn how to work and grow together as a team and make the necessary changes to benefit the other. And then FINALLY we get the romantic love confession.

But it doesn’t stop there, oh no. Now we get adventure #3, this time with them as a full on couple. And they are actually really cute. Actually the film doesn’t focus that much on their relationship but we see hints of how they are as a couple.

Poppy is still all over the place but she’s much less in her own head and far more open to listening and being a good girlfriend.

Branch on the other hand is still occasionally getting exasperated by her energy but this time also has an appreciation for it. Also he learns to open up to her a little more and she’s there to listen and accept him with open arms. (Bonus points to their flirty dynamic because wow. They were adorable here.)

And it’s ONLY THEN (7 years after the first film) when they get their first on screen kiss.

Anyway. In conclusion: Trolls is the slowest slow burn I have ever seen in a Dreamworks trilogy.