#no but I actually liked it I swear
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A Review Of Nimona
Despite some reservations, I really liked Nimona.
I open with the conclusion because this review starts off quite pessimistic and is rather long, so that way those of you who won't make it to the end will not leave with the false impression that I didn't like Nimona; I really much did.
I have a complicated relationship with 3D animation.
Well no, actually, it's a pretty simple relationship: I hate almost all of it.
It's not that there's any reason why 3D animation cannot be good in the abstract. I'm not a medium snob; you can tell good stories in live action, in 2D animation, in 3D animation, in stop-motion, with hand puppets, with shadow puppets, with paper cutouts ; in theory, it absolutely doesn't matter.
Except, in practice, most 3D animated films range from mediocre and forgetable to actively repulsive.
Visually, they almost all look the same, to the point that it's really hard to distinguish studio styles at all (without looking it up, between Coco and Encanto, which is Pixar and which is Disney?) Storywise, it's all very pain-by-numbers, hero's-journey crap with little deviation. But what gets those from merely nondescript to actively annoying is the tone. So so many of these movies revolve around "hype" and "cool" teenagers who constantly strike poses, raise their eyebrows, and talk in one-liners. Everything is manic and noisy, there's not a single moment to breathe, because if nothing stimulating happens on screen for more than three seconds, surely the audience will stop watching, so there's always someone gesticulating, dancing, singing, making faces, or all four at once. And everything has to be crammed with pop culture references and topical allusions so that the audience can relate.
Don't get me wrong, it's good to have media you can relate to, media that speak of modern problems and adress a modern audience in its own terms. But there has to be less insultingly condescending ways of doing it than shouting "HELLO FELLOW KIDS" over and over for 90 minutes.
Let's be clear: this isn't happening because the people involved are not competent or because the budgets are too tight. Very talented people work hard (routinely to the point of exploitation in fact) on these movies, and they actually get quite strong budgets reflecting the benefits they're expected to make.
And that's the actual problem: there's too much financial stake in 3D animated films, too many producers and shareholders breathing down the neck of everyone else, too many committees trying to craft the perfect crowd-pleaser, too many rewrites and re-rewrites, too much fear of failling to capture the children-and-teenager audience and losing hundreds of millions. So everything must be made to appeal to the widest, shallowest base as possible, and every second of screentime must be an attention-grabber that leaves absolutely no chance of anyone getting bored.
Mirroring this, there's no reason for 2D animated and stop-motion movies to be inherently better than 3D ones. They are so in practice because big studios see them as uncool and no longer profitable, which means that the only people who still make these kinds of movies have to actually deeply care about them and go in with the full awareness that their next project might well be a commercial flop that will set them back for a decade on the project after that or might even end their career.
So when it was announced that Nimona, a webcomic I had really liked for its quirky, original, both humorous and dark tone, was going to be adapted by Blue Sky Studios, who had afflicted the world with not one, not two, not three, but five Ice Age movies, well, I was not happy at all, because that seemed like worst possible match. It was hard to imagine them doing anything other than remove anything remotely interesting about the story and turn it into a generic seizure-inducing mess with poop jokes because that's all that they do with their movies.
I feel bad about it retrospectively, but my first instinct when I heard that the movie was cancelled was to rejoice that we had been spared from what would certainly have been a complete disaster and a terrible insult to the original comic. And the revival of the project, while it was always a positive for the actual people involved, left me largely indifferent.
Who would I have had instead to adapt this into a movie? Why, Cartoon Saloon of course! A fantasy story about a free-spirited, hyper-active, shapeshifting red-headed girl and the friendship she seeks with another outcast character, leading to a fight against the instutions of law and order that turn out to be corrupt and evil? Why, they would have loved making that movie.
Except they did make that movie. What I'm describing is not just the premise of Nimona; it's also that of Wolfwalkers, the absolutely amazing 2D animated film that Cartoon Saloon released in 2020, as the third part of their "Irish Folklore Trilogy" (following The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea).
Ok fine then, if Wolfwalkers already exists, it would be redundant for Cartoon Saloon to make it again, so I guess Nimona can be in its own thing; if it doesn't work out, I'll just rewatch Wolfwalkers.
Then I saw that ND Stevenson, the author of the original comic, was actually really enthusiastic about the project — which in itself isn't a definite proof, many times has a creator be enthusiastic about an upcoming adaptation of their work only to get burned when the actual thing came out, but at least it was a positive sign. Maybe I was going to give this movie a chance.
Then the movie came out, and I saw a lot of positive reviews from people who I trusted not to be easily swayed by any old crappy animated film just because it had some queer representation. Ok, ok, fine, y'all win, I'll watch it.
So I watched it and… I actually had quite a really good time.
I liked that there actually was a conscious stylistic choice in the animation, this sort of 3D-2D hybrid technique, like very-advanced-cel-shading seems like it's a lot more flexible when it comes to actually give an animated movie a distinct, signature style — and it blends in a lot better than pure 3D, as seen on how Ghibli has used those techniques for complex individual shots since Princess Mononoke in 1997 — a movie mostly made in 2D traditional animation, but that has a number of digitally made shots seamlessly incorporated using those 3D-painted-over-to-look-like-2D techniques. By the way if you like Princess Mononoke, you should also watch Wolfwalkers, it has a number of similar vibes!
I liked the humor! For the most part, it worked, and some jokes were actually pretty clever in their absurdity, like having Nimona pull out a polaroid picture she's somehow taken a few minutes ago just for the sake of a visual gag, even tho we've already established that this is a futuristic fantasy setting (which is also a thing I like, the worldbuilding was pretty cool) where everyone has smart phones (but it also works as a subtle early hint that Nimona is much, much older than she seems).
I liked that queer representation was front but not center: several main characters are openly, explicitely queer, but this isn't a plot point, this isn't something that they have to defend or call attention to. It's just a normal character trait, and the problems, drama and obstacles these characters face do not stem from them being queer.
I liked the story, the themes it went for and how it executed them, twisting traditional feudal fantasy and hero's-journey tropes but without being heavy handed and obnoxious about it, showing that you can play with a genre and pick apart its problematic implications without being a scatological edgelord about it (yes I loathe the Shrek franchise, why do you ask?)
It still has some of the things that make me strongly dislike modern 3D movies, but it's contained. It's here and there, but not to the point of ruining the story. Yes Nimona is an out-of-control nuclear-powered goblin, but the movie actually goes into why she is like that, and suddenly it's a lot more interesting to have a character be manic and constantly at 11 because she has a lot of pent up anger and insecurities about being alone than just because that's a quirky character trait to throw in randomly; and the movie does manage to have a few quiet and reflexive moments, and those matter a lot in the story.
I am of two minds about its qualities as an adaptation. On the one hand, even if this is a very different story from the original, the themes are there, the spirit of the original story is there; different media have different strength and what would work in comic format wouldn't necessarily work in an animated movie. Having the movie tells its own story makes it less redundant compared to the comic, more complimentary — you can know the one by heart and still get surprised and awed by discovery when you get to the other. And updating the material can be good; people always complain about Disney's track record of sanitizing fairy tales, but I can assure you that you don't want to see a faithful adaptation of Sleeping Beauty on screen. In general, an adaptation making significant changes to the story isn't a deal breaker for me, some of my favorite movies massively depart from their source material, usually for the better.
On the other hand, it seems to be almost a constant with animated adaptations that the source story is going to get discarded. It gives the feeling once again that the people involved in making these adaptations do not take the medium seriously and cannot imagine that these stories could stand on their own without needing heavy rewriting, that they can't see them as deserving a faithful adaptation. I understand why a lot of these changes happened for Nimona, but I still regret some of the stuff from the comic. Like yeah, it's very clever that in this version, Nimona has essentially no origin story and actively refuses to talk about how she came to be, but then we miss out on this absolute wham moment from the comic, Ballister telling her "Nimona, you forgot your own backstory!"
So in the end, I have to take the movie for what it is, rather than look too closely as what it is an adaptation of. Those are two different takes and stories on the same characters and themes, both with their strong points, and I think I can live with that.
So in the end, I had a pretty good time. It had some small issues, it's probably not the best version possible of that story, but it's still far, far better than anything I was expecting. I you loved it, I do still recommend checking out Wolfwalkers as soon as possible if you haven't already, you might well love that one too.
#nimona#nimona 2023#nimona movie#nd stevenson#movie review#old person yells at cloud vibes#a nimona review but actually it's propaganda for wolfwalkers#no but I actually liked it I swear#wolfwalkers#3d animation#2d animation#rant
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And then she did. Happy pride.
(Alternate versions under cut)
#an attempt was made to draw marcille and chilchuck. at one point.#izutsumi#dungeon meshi#delicious in dungeon#marcille donato#chilchuk tims#I’ll draw something serious one day I swear (lying)#also i know this isn’t actually how she won. but like. cmon.
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the threshold has been crossed, it is now springtime!!
#sergle art#artists on tumblr#illustration#body posi#fat art#body positive#stretch marks#heey it's chboy. skinny penits. i haven't killed myself i SWEAR. i'm still in my cave and i still draw#i hope you like the pieces because i really liked doing the more stylized flowers on the first two#like that actually gave me so much enjoyment doing the flowers that way on miss blue hair
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i’ll take care of everything
#mouthwashing#mouthwashing spoilers#anya mouthwashing#curly mouthwashing#cw blood#cw gore#throws up over these 2 and their absolute horror show of a friendship i guess#you know how she already had the worst shit going on. and then Someone was too big of a coward to actually help her#and then next thing you know he’s a pile of ground beef on her infirmary table and she has to worry about keeping him alive too. yeah#i swear i dont actually hate curly i like him. also if he suddenly got better i would beat the fuck out of him#anyway. parallels upon parallels and its all too horrible for words etc.
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very short comic of harrow checking ianthe's molars or whatever tf she was doing
#tumblr dont censor this it's a medical procedure i swear#what no alecto does to a mf#the locked tomb#artists on tumblr#harrowhark nonagesimus#ianthe tridentarius#art#digital art#harryanthe#i feel like i've drawn like 4 variations of this scene but never actually them kissing#i mean medical procedure
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y'know every time i feel guilty about bothering someone by singing along when i'm listening to music, i just remember that i have to tolerate my dirtbag brother screaming at his ps5 for hours every day so listening to muffled off-key fall out boy is probably preferable
#ramble#it's not loud btw it's just like. singing along in the car volume#not to get on my soapbox but there's a literal dent in his wall from his controller. and we're in the uk you CANNOT punch through walls#idk about anyone else but i've NEVER yelled at a video game?? like i'm absolute dogshit at 80% of them#and i've never had a PHYSICAL reaction beyond maybe 'ughh' then turning it off#if you're getting that angry maybe you just need to play different games because you're clearly not having fun#also added bonus that i didn't realise until adulthood. as a former daughter#cis son privileges are CRAZY#i don't even swear in front of my parents and my dude is just screaming actual slurs next door with NO consequences#like you wouldn't do that in public why is it ok to do it here#i think i've said fuck in front of my mum ONCE and i literally couldn't look at her the entire day#this is a box i am not ready to unpack yet akdhdh#is this just a my family thing or is this common
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the qualities of Bunny are
-Two Long Ears (or anything resembling ears such as horns/antennae)
-Fluffy
-Round Shape (some nuance here esp for hares)
with secondary characteristics being
-Long Feets
-Mischievous little guys
with this philosophy much more can be Bunny than just rabbits. You Too can be Bunny . open your eyes and hearts
#not heritage post#if i had an actual pet rabbit i would be normal i swear#the longer i go without petting a rabbit the more unhinged i get and its been like since april
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does anyone realize how crazy it is to have the actor of a mostly headcanoned queer ship say the fans were never crazy and they were right all along after 10+ years of everyone just absolutely going nuts over the said queerbaited ship
#supernatural#dean winchester#spn#destiel#castiel#deancas#misha collins#im 20 i have been Experiencing supernatural and johnlock since i was 12 and merthur since wayy before that i have fought Wars#this is crazy#i love u hannibal i love u 911 (if u make eddie gay)#for the love of god by 'mostly headcanoned' i dont mean that it was never intentional#i am aware that they put the subtext in on purpose#they knew what they were doing#but my focus here is on the actor actually saying it because like#if its not mostly headcanoned then y was the entire cast denying it for years AND YEARS#like do yall not remember what jared and jenesn used to say#there have been many many many instances where the cast has made us feel crazy/stupid for saying anything abt destiel#im just saying TO ME its crazy that actors and creators talk so openly about these things now !!! again i was raised on merlin and sherlock#ok also im confused on the queerbaiting part#everyones saying its queer coding and not queer baiting but cant they be true at the same time ?#im not being dumb on purpose i swear im just confused#like yes dean is very much bi coded and their relationship is queer coded but if the creators deny everything#and we only get a last minute confession after 11 years#that doesnt count as queer baiting ?#someone smart explain this to me 🙏
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"Whatever awaits us, my lady, I know only one thing--I would never have you face it alone."
#drawing my quizzy how i actually envision her which is. shorter than josie and more actual muscle#inquisitor trevelyan#josephine montilyet#josephine x inquisitor#da:i#dragon age inquisition#dragon age#art#oc art#my art#fanart#digital art#artists on tumblr#going insane bf veilguard i swear#busting out these inq drawings like im losing my mind#im so normal rn. im so#hhrhhhhghhhfjfhghh#trevelyan#josievelyan
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"Ah. Your distraction worked. Could have set it when we were farther away." / "Désolé. I didn't say it was a good plan."
#that last shot is everything to me#this is their introductory scene btw#this one is for me and the other six people who care about them so much rn. i can't wait for other people to also love them.#Evka Ivo#Antoine Dragon Age#Dragon Age: The Veilguard#Dragon Age The Veilguard#Veilguard#Dragon Age#Bioware can we give him a last name so I can tag him properly. There are two Antoines in Thedas but obviously this one is more important.#I swear to god I'm gonna tag him as Antoine Ivo if I need to.#Antoine Ivo#Gena makes stuff#Gena's gifs#dragonageedit#datvedit#gamingedit#dailygaming#datv spoilers#veilguard spoilers#datv#actually I was going to have a source but then I remembered the game is out in like 36 hours so. and it's a review I feel weird about anywa
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discowing + jaybin ! press for quality
txtless + ref under the cut
ignore my horrible art please i drew this on ibis paint x with my finger and the soft felt tip pen brush. and my crappy penmanship.
#discowing isnt actually that bad guys i swear in this essay i will-#isn’t the discowing suit mainly dark blue? no#thats actually a commen phenomenon in comics#because comics#especially older ones#tend to use blue as highlights for black#and oftentimes that leads readers into mistaking the black for blue#common examples of this are in the discowing suit#in batman’s cape#and in spider-man’s outfit#sometimes like with the discowing suit or the spider-man suit#so many people think that it’s blue that it just starts to be drawn and portrayed as blue#thank you for reading my yap session#if u did#dc#dc comics#batman#nightwing#robin#dick grayson#jason todd#discowing#jaybin#NOT A SHIP btw#please dont tag as ship#its not#i cant believe i have to say that
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the krampus incident from the book of bill if it was out of character and stupid
#gravity falls#stanford pines#ford pines#fiddleford mcgucket#the book of bill#tbob#young ford pines#turtlearts#also sorry i got the heights devastatingly wrong fidds is so damn short here im sorryyy#for the record i was thinking of when mcgucket and ford reunited at the end where he actually is much shorter and smaller so erm idk man#please dont be mad#also i KNOW this is not lore accurate or whatever and i made it so much more sappy (?) than how it actually went but my hobby is being sapp#so leave me alone <3#also i do love me a ford thats afraid of vulnerability so theres also that haha#my favorite thing to draw was the first panel of fids with the banjo and then the 2nd to last picture#everything else looks like shit sorry#but i haaadd to post it ok . i have nothing else so dont complain and eat up kids#also do NOT laugh at my piss poor comic skills. literally dont even i swear to god
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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!
#linked universe#linkeduniverse#lu four#lu twilight#lu wolfie#lu wild#lu legend#lu hyrule#fairy hyrule#I drew most of these on my weekends at camp#hence the swearing probably lol can't swear in front of the campers#man I did not leave that mountain for the whole summer and I wouldn't have it any other way#I was there 6+ weeks straight#some of the other counselors who also stayed and I would occasionally make the hour drive into town#a bunch of us went to see the Barbie movie together and like 2/3 through the film the fire alarm went off and we were evacuated ajhsgfsdf#we all held hands to not be separated in case there was an actual emergency and some guy was like 'look at the preschoolers'#AND AAAAA I won't be separated from my counselor buddies!!!! RAAAHH this is what we would have gotten the kids to do#so I guess we're just too good at our jobs lol#that one LU post with the lads lined up with their bows? It's AWESOME#but I taught a bunch of kids archery this summer and none of the lads have the right posture lol#I'm walking up and down that line readjusting all of them ahsgdsdf#Imagine Wars going to Wind though like 'remember to pull back to your smile! :D '#and Wind just deadeye staring him down like you serious rn?#caught and removed a scorpion from the lake cabin biffy this summer - that was very exciting#calmed the campers down and put them to bed and then rolled up my sleeves and asked the program staff who was staying with us#for emotional support#her only experience with scorpions was from animal crossing so she was like 'get ready to run' and I'm- I think we'll be okay#anyways it's her perched on one of the toilets with a spray bottle of bleach and me with an empty tupperware from dinner#I caught it under the tupperware but IT MOVED THE TUPPERWARE#we drowned it in bleach and it like finally died but it took a while and then we flung it into the woods BYE BUGGY
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im not american but some of you guys are just fucking stupid ong what do you MEAN youre not gna vote because you disagree with like one part of what youre voting for. like okay me when im fucking thick
#you guys are being FUCKING STUPUD#vote i actually swear to fucking god dont be THICK#“genocide joe” yeah i agree hes supporting a genocide thats a face#fact*#but hes three billion times better than trump in EVERY OTHER WAY???????#USE YOUR COMMON FUCKING SENSE#genuinely its not hard#“dont vote guys both parties are bad” ARE YOU STUUUUUUPID ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID IM GONNA BEAT YOU UP#would you rather a) have rights + disagree with one policy or b) be imprisoned for basically just being alive + disagree with every policy#YOURE FUCKING STUPID#like im not gonna force you to vote for someone or to vote at all but Jesus fucking christ#mate do you want rights or not#do you want the ENTIRE PLANET to suffer because of something you think gives you moral superiority (hint: IT DOESNT)#fucking vote#blah blah!#not 75 stuff#smart posting wow#should i tag#you know what i fucking am because youre STUPID#i dont CARE if you disagree with some of their morals. i agree the ones that you dislike are TERRIBLE but dear fucking lord#idk how to tag wait#kamala harris#joe biden#idk man#just fucking vote#us politics#election 2024#us elections#american politics
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God, the intimacy of Astarion feeding from you.
Astarion drinking from your neck as he pulls your body closer to his in bed, his chest up against your back, his arms wrapped around your waist. It's a casual thing, now, his whispered can I? and your answering nod, as much a part of your bedtime routine as your bath or his curl care. You sigh as his fangs pierce your skin and his fingers flex against your stomach. His breath hitches when the taste of you hits his tongue, and that's familiar too, the physicality of it, the noises he makes low in his throat as he drinks, the way he grows warmer against you as your blood begins to flow through his veins. Nothing else makes you feel so heady, so intoxicated- so comforted.
Astarion drinking from your wrist when he’s starving for it and can’t wait to get you more comfortable. Pulling him into an alleyway one night on the way home from the Elfsong because you can see how badly he's craving in the way he can't keep his eyes off of the pulse point in your neck. He seizes your arm with both hands (can I? Yes-), bringing the soft skin on the inside of your wrist to his lips. He has just enough presence of mind to kiss the heel of your hand distractedly before he bites, fangs sliding through your skin and into the vein. The sound he makes can only be described as a growl, something feral and possessive (and you'll never tell him that it turns you on, since he would be insufferable about it- a promise to yourself that lasts exactly as long as the space between the moment and the next time you're tipsy and want him).
(NSFW Below!)
Astarion drinking from your inner thigh, one hand holding your leg steady and the other cupping your cunt. You groan, eyes shut in pleasure, as his thumb comes to rub your clit. The pain of the bite is barely pain this way- it collides with the pleasure in your belly and sends you almost out of your mind, overwhelmed with sensation and heat. He takes you all the way there, takes just enough from you to have you relaxed and pliant and soaring somewhere above your own body, plays you like an instrument with all the knowledge of you he's gathered over the months, the years. He knows when you're close, knows to crook his fingers inside you just so, knows the reaction he's going to get when he pulls away from your thigh for just a moment and looks up at you with dark eyes and tells you to come for him, he wants to see it, you fall apart so beautifully and it's all for him, isn't it, tell him how good he makes you feel and when you climax with his voice in your ear and the scent of blood on the air he has the audacity to laugh at how well he understands you, your body.
He's soft, after, softer than he'll ever be with anyone who isn't you. He licks you clean before he takes you to the bath, carrying you with the strength your lifeblood gives him. It's the least he can do for you, with everything you've given him: not just your body, but your trust, your closeness, and he will never stop being grateful.
#astarion x you#astarion x reader#astarion smut#astarion x tav#astarion bg3#.astarion#.nsft#i'm never gonna be normal about this sorry. one day y'all are gonna get a dissertation on the incredible intimacy of sharing blood#side note but...i feel like astarion doesn't usually feed during penetrative sex because he Will just lose his mind. feral. out of control#he makes that mistake with you one (1) time right at the beginning of the romance in act 1 and swears he will NEVER do it again (lying)#anyway. my askbox is open. for like minds. and unlike minds actually
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INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE ❧ major arcana (insp.)
#interview with the vampire#iwtvedit#iwtv#the vampire armand#louis de pointe du lac#lestat de lioncourt#daniel molloy#claudia de pointe du lac#edits#this is messy but i swear it's on purpose this time#like. that's my family and they're all over the place actually
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