#laika rants

[flytomy134340]

the most realistic part of She-Ra is that as soon as anyone saw Adora transform into an 8ft tall buff warrior princess with a sword, they instantly fell in love, everyone is gay what a great plot twist

[studiomkm]

If we ever get a Psychonauts movie, can we all just collectively agree that it SHOULDN’T be live action? Yes, the Tom Holland poster is funny but let’s be real. There’s only one way to cinematically do Psychonauts justice.

Laika

Thank you for coming to my random soapbox. I hope the rest of your day goes well

[charrfie]

Spamton cares so much about other people and I'm tired of pretending he doesn't

[locklylemybeloved]

hey does anyone want to read the letter i wrote laika when i learned about her in second grade?

[timelordsandkittens]

all right, maybe I'm an asshole, but I watched guardians of the galaxy 3 last night and my main takeaway is "well what was the fucking point"

[captain-crowfish]

So APPARENTLY in 2018 some random person edited the Wikipedia page for The Boxtrolls to say it was set in a fictional European country called "Norvenia" but if that was really the case you'd think it would have some sort of confirmation from the big boys up at LAIKA, right??? NO! There's nothing. Nothing that I could find, anyway. But whatever the reason, it's stuck around to this day and it's even been showing up in more recent articles about Blu-Ray reviews and stuff. Of course, I don't have 100% confirmation so maybe I'll go ask the directors or someone involved with the fil when I get the time and confidence, but until then, hold your horses, I really don't think it's legit.

[doodle17]

Have you watched any Laika films? (Coraline, Paranorman, Boxtrolls, Kubo, Missing Link)

I have actually watched all of those! And I like all of em too!

Laika films are soooo beautiful... I love them!

[patronsaint-prometheus]

Shaking hands with the narrative rn. Or maybe it’s the universe. Possibly even the veil. Because I could be quite angry with them. But they weren’t lying. It does sure as hell get easier. And a whole lot better.

[feargarten]

🎉 Introduction 🎉

🐾 * Hi! You an call me Li and I post mainly random issues/rants, my art, and then my special interests/hyperfixations!

* 🌈 Hobbies: Drawing, painting, reading, sewing, making kandi bracelets, listening to music, watching shows/youtube, LPS customizing, thrifting, decorating, walks in the woods.

🦄 * Interests or “fandoms”: Invader Zim, Creepypasta/Marble Hornets, Silent hill, Resident evil, Undertale/AUs, Furry stuff, Legos, Pokémon, Trolls, Cookie Run, MLP:FIM, The Lorax, LAIKA Studios, GLOOMY BEAR, Rick and Morty, Smiling Friends, FNAF, Regretevator, and Pressure

* 🎉 Artists I like: Lapfox Trax, 4Lung, Femtanyl, Vocaloid, Machine Girl, Vylet Pony, horsegiirL, Pastel Ghost, Vertigoaway, Joost, Glass Animals, Porter Robinson, Rory in Early 20s, Millionaires, Odetari, KawaiiKittyKore, Skrillex, PinkPantheress

🍬 ༘⋆ ࣪ My page is drama free so please don’t bring that shit around here okie? :3c જ⁀➴ 🧁

* 🍭I love making new friends so don’t be afraid to follow or DM me! 💗

🫧 * The tag “lil marcus” is for me and my friends

[thedevilsrain]

started typing a long rant about how people take the chance of talking about laika to also be anticommunist when the americans sent like eight apes that died on space and you never see people writing poems and drawing fanart abt them but i got angry so i shut up .

[dogaquarium]

Hey Laika, I saw your post about nightmares and I hope you’re doing alright :( that sounds really hard and on top of all the other stressors must be rough.

I’ve been curious about your thoughts on alien 9 recently, and was wondering your thoughts on it! If thats too much to think about right now how about some of your favorite foods or items?

Hope this helps a little 🫶 <:D

Hi star thank you so very much for the ask <3 I'm feeling a little better now, just takes a little bit of wind out of me whenever I wake up from something like that. Let me focus on answering your questions now though....

Asking me my thoughts on alien 9 in such a vague sense is a recipe for disaster, lol. I have so many thoughts and opinions on so many different elements of it. So feel free to ask for specifics later if you'd like, but I suppose I'll do a quick overview on as many things as I possibly can! Also going to try to make this as relatively spoiler free as possible since I'm pretty sure neither you nor a few other people following this blog have seen it yet, and I'm not sure if you're interested in attending movie night or not whenever I have time to plan a date for that.

Boy, where do I even start..... alien 9 is something so special to me. The entire franchise definitely does have its issues, and I do wish some moments were expanded upon or changed slightly. The pacing can be a little strange in the OVA, and even stranger in the manga (which is one reason I enjoy the anime a lot more; the manga sometimes feels almost detatched entirely). But it's something really valuable as it is regardless. It's such a foundational media for me that I came away from differently. Something I've found a lot of comfort and security in! The characters are all extremely charming, the story itself tackles such serious taboo topics in a proper sense, such a large part of it corresponds to the young queer experience, it doesn't poke fun at childhood mental illness, the core concept of the universe it exists within is endlessly compelling, the list goes on..... plus, kumi's character themes of identity (which I've already mentioned in precious posts) is something you can dig into forever. It's all so interesting. And it resonates a lot with me!

Episode 3 is one I'm especially excited for everyone to experience when I stream it. It's my personal favorite episode for a lot of reasons that I think we're masterfully tackled. It's a beach/vacation episode! Which sounds, admittedly, very frivolous and unimportant in the grand scheme of things. And to some degree it is!!! But what I personally find so compelling about episode 3 is the fact that it serves as a medium through which we can see how the main three girls function outside of a traumatic environment. It provides a baseline for us. It allows the audience to see them just be kids. I truly do not think it'd be as impactful of a series for me without that.

And now, since you can't have a general dump of my thoughts on alien 9 without mentioning the spinoffs.. prepare yourself......

I firmly believe that hitoshi tomizawa should have not been allowed to expand on this franchise any further after the original story had been wrapped up because after seeing what he's done with it you're bound to get a headache. There's two spinoffs from the original three classic volumes: namely alien 9-emulators and alien 9-next. I will not dwell on emulators (at least in this ask) because my rant on it will likely be even longer than this response, but know that with the way it handles the original subject material, it's not only incredibly insensitive, but I'd go as far as saying actively harmful. Tomizawa is a fuckin pedophile which SHINES in his later works in particular, and is very ironic considering so much of the point of the original classic series concerns the harm done by csa and how cyclical it can become (most blatantly in relation to kasumi's character). That's all I'll get into it for now because if I talk any more on it I'll get even more pissed. Idk where to even begin with Next, though.... such a strange expansion of the universe...... this spinoff takes place after the girls have all grown up and are on some kind of outer space mission.. idk how to even explain it to you and it's been far too long since I've read it but it's utter horseshit, such an anomalous entry in the series. Also the art style changed to be 3D models for no reason and it's ugly as sin.

Besides all the....... obviously glaring problems with both next and emulators..... there are also some simpler things that don't work for me in them. Namely kumi and yuri's relationship! In the classic volumes, such a major plot point is the evolution of their relationship from one that is tense, angry, and unhealthy to one that is mutually supportive and uplifting. There's a lot to be said about this change in relation to both parties- be it relaring to kumi's home life/preconceived expectations of her to yuri's mental illnesses/the way others treat her due to that. They act the way they do for a reason, is what I mean. And so when the audience finally gets the relief of them forming a genuine bond together, you expect that to be that, it's a plot point wrapped up and done with. And does stay wrapped up..... in the classic volumes, at least. In the spinoffs, kumi suddenly reverts back into someone aggressive and untrusting. Yuri reverts back into someone who has made no advances in her bravery and independence. All because fuckin tomizawa had no idea how to craft a story with meaning after he finished the first three volumes.

^ so cutes.. awwee......

I suppose this turned more into a response of why I dislike all the spinoffs rather than why I like the originals.. oh well..... easier to avoid spoilers in that way I suppose. Maybe you still found this interesting enough? Don't hesitate to ask more if I didn't answer how you'd expected!

[flytomy134340]

thinking about Izzy's mood swings and realised that this was most likely the first time that he's been allowed to process his feelings at his own pace aboard a ship.

think about it, under blackbeard he HAD to constantly be on his guard, he didn't have time to process feelings because they were constantly moving on to the next thing but now, with Stede, the crew lets him do what HE wants. spent most of his time drunk and cursing out a headless unicorn? fine by us. wanting to wallow in your own sorrow and self hatred?? knock yourself out, just do it in one of the rooms where you can't harm yourself. the crew even respects his need to be alone, thus them leaving him his new leg by the door and not sticking around to see his reaction.

no one (so far in season 2) is forcing ANYTHING of Izzy, and i think that's why Izzy has been having a better time on the ship and actually bonding with his crewmates and captain. don't mind me or the seas of tears that are coming from my eyes ;^;

[sophieswundergarten]

uno reverse! do you have any favorite fun facts/infodumps you would like to share? :D

Hoo boy, an open invitation to ramble about something that gets my brain excited? I hope you won't regret this. (Also, thank you, Milk :>)

Today we're going to be talking about Deb Cook!!!

Deborah Cook, as she is usually credited in films, is the head of LAIKA's costume department. She has worked on every LAIKA film that has been made, from Coraline (2009) to the upcoming Wildwood (2025).

The thing about stop-motion animation is that there is a massive amount of planning that needs to be worked out before the actual filming process even starts. Part of this is the costume designs for all the puppets, so that they fit into the world and can be used as vessels for a cohesive story.

Cook does a lot of research into historical elements that can be used in costumes, as well as using computers and collaborating with other people in the art department to create her own version of textiles that are perfect for the character. She takes her job very seriously, and works to consider what each character's personality is so she can create a fitting look for them.

But, the!! The thing is, these puppets are generally about eight to twelve inches tall!! So you can't just go to a craft store and buy any old fabric, because the weave might be too rough, or when a camera is focussed on a piece of clothing so small the colors are distorted. So there is a necessary level of detail that must be adhered to, otherwise the final product will be kind of disastrous. You can't just make tiny jeans out of regular denim, you have to find a fabric that looks like denim, but is light enough that it'll be flexible when placed on a tiny puppet.

Now, there are a lot of insanely talented people who create all sorts of miniatures and have come up with ingenious solutions to this that can be pointed out. HOWEVER, a great deal of these are because of how much work LAIKA has put into that field of art in the last seventeen years.

In Coraline, some of the costumes were made out of a child's sock. A sock. And it worked because Deb Cook is a fantastic and dedicated artist who works really hard to do her best in literally everything. But, now that LAIKA has had over a decade of experience and accolades and new highly clever artists joining them, they have come up with many new ways to use technology to help.

But Deb Cook is an artist and she will go out of her way to make something look as authentic as possible. For the iconic beetle crest on Kubo's clothing in Kubo and the Two Strings (2016), she dyed rice paste, painted the fabric, and then carefully washed it off to leave the image.

So, after all of that, and the meticulous attention given to every thread, you must remember that they have to animate all this. That means rigging in skirts and weighted sleeves and armature in capes. Each and every piece of clothing, in addition to needing to be replicated or else durable enough to be used for the two or so years required to make a stop-motion film, must be controlled down to the tiniest motion. In addition, the costume department she manages has to be able to make repairs or tiny alterations when something is damaged or an animator needs to get at the inner workings of a puppet.

There are so many more things that need to be considered in stop-motion versus live action, since the majority of the materials and designs are made from scratch in the studio.

And yet, despite all this, the woman hasn't won any awards

SO. That was my insane, unpolished rant about how much I love Deb Cook. Sorry and/or thank you if you made it this far, and if you want to learn more here are some resources:

> 1

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> 4

> 5

[charrfie]

Reminder that giant monopolistic corporations and subscription services and paywalls are bullshit and that at any given opportunity you should be preserving the media you love by any means possible

[locklylemybeloved]

its laika day. so yeah pardon me if i randomly burst into tears. its the hay fever.

[six-of-ravens]

daily update:

for some reason since last night my brain has decided to get Big Mad about something that happened like 6 months ago. just basically trying to Constantly Distract Myself lol. Idk why my brain is this fucked up but I blame it on the weather, the wild swings between sunny and warm spring weather and dark cold winter are brutal on the mental health lol.

also i haven't left the apartment since Monday (except a quick trip down to the mailbox today) so that might be why my brain is acting up. my anxiety gets real bad if I don't leave the house for more than 1 day in a row (lockdown was a FUN time in this brain) and I think for lack of anything real to be anxious about my brain is just going "hey remember that asshole from July? let's be mad at him again!!"

on the plus side, was actually able to be productive at work today! the past 2 days were just a lot of spinning my wheels while the PM for this project works herself into a tizzy, because I don't know what I need to do (if anything) and I can't handle her ranting anymore. Apparently the boss is getting pretty tired of her too tho so I think he had A Talk with her about not skype-spamming with her whole thought process. Also, she always intersperses her updates with "I have other things to work on too!" type comments which are driving everyone insane bc like yeah, we all do too! so just fkn get this last list of revisions sent over so we can finish this!!

so yeah, work is a...joy. right now. at least we got to work from home today too lol, we got waaaaay more snow than they predicted.

i did take a 3 hour nap after work today tho (necessary, bc last night I was up until 2am and my brain would not get off this spiral) and had those good good adventure-quest dreams, so.

oh also I finally checked the mail and my laika pin from pangur-and-grim arrived!! she is baby 🥺 she lives on the pin jacket now:

anyway, plan for tonight is to try and decompress by listening to music and maybe writing. i also *still* haven't really started Fellowship bc I just haven't been in the brainspace for it (though maybe I should try...having to intensely focus on a book with very small print might be what my brain needs)

also, going from reading children's books with like 18pt font to a dense fantasy novel with like 8pt font is quite the change. highly intimidating!

I have made progress on ToTK and FFIII though, in totk I beat Master Kogha and then finally got my purah pad upgraded with the sensor, travel medallions, etc etc. I can't believe i missed all of this stuff at the beginning of the game lol. in FFIII I'm back at the Nepto Temple, which is one of my least favourite levels due to having to use Mini which makes your weapons useless. Ah well, the quests after this are interesting at least.

oh and finally, I got some sprouts in my garden! I'm kind of amazed at how much stuff has already sprouted, most notably the lettuce (but also a half-dozen other random things):