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artist-issues · 1 year ago

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About Greta Gerwig, Little Women, and Narnia

Greta Gerwig should not be in the Narnia realm at all. As anything.

The Narnia stories are inseparable from Christianity. Greta Gerwig is a Unitarian Universalist. This means she, in her own personal life, doesn’t believe in the saving work of Jesus Christ, which is a core belief of Christianity, and a core theme in Narnia. Everything in the Narnia books hinges on this, from the character motivations to the structure of the fantasy world to the way the magic in Narnia works.

Additionally, the women in Narnia do not adhere to post-modern or even antique feministic values. They are celebrated for their love and tender-heartedness and faith, all of which require self-sacrifice. Aravis of The Horse and His Boy starts out a proud warrior escaping an arranged marriage and ends up a humbled lady of Archenland court marrying the Prince. Susan Pevensie is at her best when she’s tender-hearted and at her worst when she doubts and becomes more concerned about her own identity than others. The school that Eustace and Jill go to in The Silver Chair is derided for it’s feministic views. By contrast, modern feminism is opposed to self-sacrifice, and that is the kind of thing Greta Gerwig demonstrates belief in throughout all of her works.

Am I saying that no person who isn’t a Christian or some type of conservative when it comes to feminism can ever work on Narnia? Absolutely not. I’m not saying that. Lots of people on the Walden Media Narnia movie (the first one), which was great, were not Christians and did not believe in the saving work of Christ. But they stayed faithful to the source material, even if they didn’t believe in the source material themselves. So the story retained it’s autonomy and power.

Greta Gerwig can’t do that. She has already demonstrated that she does not know how to make a story that hangs on to it’s integral source material if she, herself, doesn’t agree with that source material. She can’t be objective, and therefore, she can’t be faithful to what Narnia is.

How do I know that? Little Women.

I don’t care if you liked the Little Women movie by Greta Gerwig. I don’t care if the acting was “amazing” and I don’t care if Timothee Chalamet and Florence Pugh are great in it. I said exactly what I said. Greta Gerwig made a great movie—but she made a terrible adaptation of Little Women.

It was not Little Women. She made changes to Little Women. What changes, you ask? Changes to the specific pieces of the source material that did not reflect Greta Gerwig’s personal views.

That’s the cardinal sin for directors of adaptive stories or remakes—to make changes to the core themes of a classic tale, because you don’t agree with those core themes. That’s called mutilation, not “updates.”

Here’s how she did it in two major ways in Little Women:

She cut out Jo’s humble response to Friedrich’s gentle rebuke of sensation stories, and replaced it with a feministic self-pitying outburst from Joe and s borderline apathetic, cool piece of feminist advice from Friedrich. That takes all the continuity out of it and warps the characters. That scene is so pivotal in the book. It’s Jo, respecting a man who is much older and excellent in character than any other she’s ever known, and feeling immediately humbled by him calling her out. She’d never have responded that way if Laurie called her out. They would have argued. But this scene was supposed to show what Jo needed from a future romantic partner. She needed someone she respected, someone who could be wise and gentle—two things Laurie is not. She needed someone who would help her take her eyes off of worldly success and herself, and onto eternal benefits to mankind, specifically, the effect her stories might have on children. His gentle, respectful, wise love (and the love of characters like Beth) turns Jo from a self-absorbed writer into a selfless mother, like her own Marmee.

But Greta Gerwig never wanted Jo to be a selfless mother. She wanted, and I quote, “Jo’s love to be her work, and her romance with Friedrich secondary.” You know why?

Because that’s what Greta Gerwig believes in. Greta Gerwig’s life is her work. Watch any of her movies, you’ll see the smudge marks of that wholehearted belief all over them. She can’t even be objective when the whole point of a character is to make work secondary, as was certainly the case with the character of Jo March. No. She has to twist up one of the best American heroines ever into an automaton of herself.

The second way she mutilated source material is with Amy and Laurie. In the books, Amy and Laurie grow to love each other out of the character deficiencies that they make up for in one another. At the start of their courtship, Amy is ambitious and Laurie is lazy. Amy wants to marry for advantage, and Laurie wants to make much of his spurned love for Jo by giving up on life. And that’s it.

It’s Amy who first wakes up to feeling something romantic toward Laurie, not Laurie, and Laurie is not the first to make a move on her. Laurie does not know he is in love with Amy until well after she knows she loves him. Then, he does not make the first outward advance on Amy. They both come to the same conclusion together; when they do, she does not resist. In Greta Gerwig’s version, he’s back to falling in love with a girl who’s resisting, because that’s where Timothee Chalamet’s emotional acting shines or whatever.

But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that she adds a feminism speech from Amy, as a reason for her resistance, and she subtracts the scene where Laurie actually proposes. The scene where Laurie proposes, in the book, is so beautiful.

The two characters are in love, they know they’re in love, and neither of them is insecure about it. Amy has learned that she needs a life-partner who knows her and will protect her, like her old home-values did, and not some rich aristocrat or prince. Laurie has learned that he needs a life-partner who can stir him toward change, not through big explosive arguments and hope of conquered affection like Jo, but with gentle love and sheer inspiration, found in Amy.

So, in the most beautiful analogy for courtship that ends in marriage ever, he proposes to her while they’re rowing on a lake. She’s sitting next to him in the middle of the boat, she’s got one oar, he’s got the other, and she says, “How well we pull together, don’t we?” And he says, “so well that I wish we might always be in the same boat. Will you, Amy?” And she says “yes.”

That’s it. No argument. No big, passionate, sentimental explosion like he had with Jo. No wrenched and broken heart-strings. He didn’t have to convince her. She didn’t have to resist. Because entirely without force, and entirely without insecurity, they protected each other’s hearts and came to a conclusion that was based on something so much deeper and more eternal than fleeting passion.

Greta Gerwig cut that out and listened to Meryl Streep and put in another stormy lover’s-quarrel speech from Amy about why she couldn’t be with Laurie because she was in Jo’s shadow, and feminism and marrying for advantage, blah blah blah. It’s terrible. It’s mutilation. It ruins everything the original Little Women had.

it doesn’t matter if she got some of the characters right. It doesn’t matter if she got a lot of the quotes right. It doesn’t matter if all of Act 1 of the movie is mostly-book-accurate. If you change load-bearing themes or character motivations, you show that you can’t be objective and faithful to the source material.

It is fine if Greta Gerwig wants to make a movie about a woman who loves her work more than anything else. It is fine if she wants to make a movie about how women are under-appreciated for their minds and souls, and have characters that go on a journey to prove it. But it is not fine to use someone else’s story to say it. Make your own story, Greta Gerwig.

Oh, you already did? See: Lady Bird? See: Frances Ha? Then come up with something new. Don’t shoehorn your same beliefs into every franchise that is offered to you, like vomiting, then eating the vomit and regurgitating it over and over in new colors. Figure out how to tell someone else’s story in a faithful way, objectively, or else keep your stained hands off until you can clean them up. Especially, keep them off Narnia.

Greta Gerwig makes movies for Greta Gerwig, by Greta Gerwig. She can’t be objective, and for that, she can’t do Narnia. She can’t do it justice, she can’t do it faithfully, because she makes movies for herself, by herself.

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synergysilhouette · 2 months ago

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Plotting out "Sweetheart" (Disney movie)

Make sure to check out the original post of Disney's Revinvention Era here.

Background: During the production of "Yaksha," Disney decides they want to go back to basics and adapt more fairy tales, with "Hansel & Gretel" being suggested by a staffmember, citing how Disney has often done covered sisterly relationships (and occasionally brotherly relationships), and that a brother-sister relationship would be a nice change of pace. It's originally a tricky situation given the story's darker material, but Jennifer Lee does a story pitch for it that sells them. They bring her on to be the screenwriter and Chris Buck as the director (eventually reasoning that "Wish" was mishandled and that the Lee and Buck were a winning combination, citing "Frozen" as too successful to ignore), but decide to reach out to Stephen Schwartz for the music, realizing that if they were going for a darker, 90s-style story, they needed to have someone whose music was just as addictive. While the original plans depicted the lead characters as children, it was eventually decided to depict them as young adults to prevent alienating a significant chunk of their audience. Unlike "Yaksha," the cultural influence here was originally intended to be more vague, with the setting being Early Modern Germany, before the decision to incorporate the American audience more by setting it in a land inspired by colonial New England (LOOSELY), wanting to build on the dread of the Salem witch trials. Certain horror films--or films with horror elements--were used for original inspiration to make for a dark fantasy/psychological horror tale, but they kinda went "too far" and had to reel it back a bunch to meet company standards, including making the witch less nightmarish and making the stepmother much more comedic, akin to Drizella in "Cinderella 3." Animation-wise, they ran into a bit of a problem; some argued that 2D would help the nostalgia craving and make the film feel more classical, but others argued the realism of 3D would make the story more vivid and disturbing. In the end, they opted for something short of hybrid animation (because I personally can't stand it), going for a painting-like 2D animation, with Lisa Keane's concept art guiding them a bit. They also eventually decide to move away from the Germanic first names of the protagonists, researching names found in Colonial America and taking note of ones that stood out to them. For a brief period, Disney considered giving the leads Native American heritage (either Mohawk or Mohican-inspired) on their mother's side and Dutch on their father's side. However, despite being a fictional location, they feared the historical parallels would get them in trouble for not diving into consequences of colonization, as well as the fact that the characters' indigenous cultures would not play a role in the story. It was also considered at one point that the leads would be stepsiblings, then half-siblings, before the eventual decision to keep them as full biological siblings. Another abandoned concept (due to being seen as "too creepy") was originally having the twins portrayed as conjoined twins attached at the hip before being separated shortly in the film.

Plot

(Picture used for visual aid; Courtesy of "Ever After High." I love the idea of heavy saturated and bright colors once the leads start to be involved in magic)

Left destitute after their business fails and in the midst of a suspicious plague, a man and a woman take their twin children and flee to the woods. On their journey to find a new home, the woman dies, and the man manages to make the journey to another town with their children. However, he finds there is something disturbing about the town, something malevolent, and while he can no longer leave, he flees to the woods on the outskirts to raise his children. Eventually he marries a woman from the town for the sake of his children having a mother, but she abuses them terribly, until they are chased into town and, and they are taken in by a townswoman who offers them power beyond imagining--but what she wants may be too much to ask.

Characters

Sophronia Gosselaar--Originally named Mercy and depicted as an outgoing blonde, her name was eventually changed to sound "fairy tale-esque" and given darker hair that reaches her feet in a long braid and a shy personality (and yes, I realize both of these depictions of hair-personality are cliches). She is the older twin, and due to the abuse suffered at the hands of her stepmother and their situation in poverty in general, is reserved and somewhat pessimistic, but very clever and beautiful (though she isn't aware to the latter). When learning magic, she has found herself particularly gifted at manipulating the elements.

Amias Gosselaar--Originally named "Henry," his name was changed to be more unique. Unlike his sister, his design and character was pretty straight-forward from the start with little change. While his stepmother abuses Sophronia verbally (and sometimes physically), her abuse with Amias is much more emotional, manipulating him to a point where he doesn't realize how toxic she is and still wants a relationship with her. When developing his powers, he finds that he has a rather dangerous ability, named "duality": the power to heal and harm. It's uncertain as to whether or not Amias had created the plague occurring in his hometown, but the possibility fills him with guilt.

Kirchine--A mysterious woman who lives alone in the middle of the woods. She has been blessed with the gift of sight: she is able to see what is going on anywhere at present time. She is beautiful yet disturbing to be around, one minute a joyful and fun leader of the town, and next a silent, lurking shadow on the walls. Many have come to her town either by accident or on purpose with the desire to ask for her magical assistance, and she devours their enemies in order to maintain her gift, which was always a fickle power and never meant to be spread as far as she's used it. Hoping to devour the twins and absorb their powers, she wants to break their minds first, tricking them into navigating her seemingly endless home in order to find their her, encountering vicious truths and sifting through cruel lies in the process.

Adele--A mysterious woman who lives on the outskirts of town. Unlike the inhabitants, she does not wish ill will on the twins, nor is she controlled by Kirchine, but she is unable to challenge her directly. Instead, she trains the children in magic, and tells them that if they wish to leave Twilight Circle, they must destroy it's foundations, sacred items and fixtures around the town from which Kirchine draws her powers, before finally defeating Kirchine herself. Doing so also takes away her power, making her unable to spy on others and become almost completely blind in the human sense. There are implications that Adele is related to Amias and Sephronia.

Songs

Sunset--Elijah and his wife Hannah give birth to twins one winter, and shortly after, a plague infects the town. Blaming it on the birth of two children at once, Elijah's family is seen as the cause of the plague, and they flee into the woods. Shortly after beginning the journey, Hannah dies, and Elijah and his children eventually make their way to the town of Twilight Circle, where he eventually remarries (for his children to have someone to look after them), but his new wife Winnet only cares for herself. Elijah is unnerved by the inhabitants of the town and forces the family to relocate in the nearby woods, though Winnet warns him that once he's entered the town, he can no longer leave.

All That's Left-- Winnet bemoans the situation she's in, as Elijah's refusal to step foot back in Twilight Circle and inability to leave has made him serve as a middleman for anyone who comes to the woods, offering goods and services. However, the business is a slow one, and the family becomes destitute, with Winnet taking her frustrations out on her stepchildren. Eventually she convinces Elijah that the children can find work in town, and despite his many misgivings, she reminds him that he cannot prove that there is anything wrong with the town, and that he cannot rely on his silly intuition.

Chasing the Moon--The twins have a horrific time in Twilight Circle, finding that the townsfolk will not permit them to return to the forest. Before they can be forced to go to Kirchine's house, Adele takes them in and shelters them from the evils of the town, telling them how to break the curse on the town, defeat Kirchine, and forge a better life for themselves. She trains them in the art of magic, and tells them that in the town, the moon rises in different places each night, and that every full moon, they must follow it to find the fixtures that can destroy Kirchine's hold.

My Treat (Sweetheart)--When first being invited into Kirchine's home, she attempts to charm the young twins into figuring out more about Adele, a mysterious woman who is a thorn in her side. She also teaches them magic, but only in a destructive way,

Echoes--After having a fight about their stepmother, Amias goes to visit Kirchine, while Sophronia goes to destroy the final fixture. When at her home, Amias learns that Winett was paid by Kirchine in order to encourage the children to come into town where she would devour them, and in exchange, she would allow Winett and Elijah to leave the perimeter forever.

All That's Left (Reprise)--After weakening Kirchine and engulfing her in flames, the townspeople are freed of her grasp, and Adele disappears. The twins find their father in the woods, having searched for them after Winett revealed her deal and tried to persuade him to live in prosperity with her in a faraway village. They finally leave the woods, with Amias' positivity rubbing off on his sister, and the twins assure their father that their fortunes are about to change, magic dancing in their eyes.

Lemme know what you think! Hope you're enjoying my more fleshed-out ideas.

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