#this is a very important thing in film and shows which are Visual media

[neunhofferart]

Howdy, Heidi! You said that some fans picked up things that were done on accident… Were there more scenes like that? Also, were there scenes that you guys made on purpose but fans didn’t pick up / were aware of them? In shipping terms (hihi) and in general terms. Thanks!

I think in every type of media you will inevitably see versions of 'authorial' intent vs audience interpretation that overlap and differ from each other in many ways. (Authorial intent in quotes because in collaborative mediums like film and animation every single person on the pipeline who touches the work probably has a slightly different personal interpretation they're contributing to the final work, even under someone like a showrunner or a director).

Humans are smart and it's in our nature to look for connections and find explainations to questions, so most of the time if someone is putting something down, someone is going to pick it up, so to speak, and a lot of things ARE on purpose.

But this same phenomenon can also lead to us seeing connections in places that even the 'authors' might not have originally thought of while creating the work, and I think that can be pretty neat actually! I don't necessarily think reading alternate interpretations of works is wrong-- it can be very healthy to explore multiple reads of a narrative or a character/character dynamic. On Chaos Theory there were definitely times when we were like 'fans are probably gonna ship this even if it's not the text' haha. Sometimes fans latch onto headcanons you really have no control over. Sometimes things were animated slightly differently from how they were conceived (which is also a natural part of things).

But yes, sometimes I have seen a few other things that were interpreted in slightly different ways from how they were directed or written verbally, but I'm personally of the opinion that it's more fun to leave some things visual and open to a little interpretation rather than beating the words over the audience's head and having the characters constantly announcing 'I'm feeling this because of this!' And going 'this is the only way to interpret the show and the characters and if you don't you're wrong!'

It's usually not a huge deal. I think even as we were working sometimes I'd make connections to myself that weren't necessarily spelled out to us and go 'oh, this is a throughline for this character actually!'

Like for example- if I remember correctly, the original direction behind how Kenji reacted to Ben's apparent death was that it was supposed to the first time he'd ever seen someone he really KNEW seemingly die right front of him, and being unable to do anything about it deeply affected him. Ben is a very important turning point in his character development regardless of which way you read it.

And I think this is actually something that just continued to stack onto his character throughout both shows whenever any of his friends lives are seriously in danger. In Camp when he's still unable to do anything but comfort Sammy while she's poisoned, to deciding it's too dangerous not to trade Wu's laptop for Brooklynn, to eventually throwing himself between the spinosaurus his dad is about to kill Darius with and choosing his friends over his own father and being willing to die with/for them... and then in Chaos Theory it kind of reboots all over again with Brooklynn dying and then his dad dying right in front of him, and his complex of not wanting to be useless and trying to do whatever he can at the expense of even himself to keep the loved ones he has left safe is kicked into overdrive.

I think there are a lot of things like that where the intent is not always verbally spelled out, but the more important thing is that it's still (hopefully) making you feel something.

[queer-ragnelle]

hello..👋👋

as someone who wants to get into arthurian legends.. where do you think I should start? is there a precise canon to follow? oh and.. this might be a stupid question but.. how would you describe guinevere's and lancelot's relationship...? i personally really like them because of what I've heard online, but i got shamed for liking it a while ago from people who really hated guinevere and said gawain or galehaut(not sure if i spelled it right) would be better for lancelot..

Hello anon!

I have a Beginner’s Guide to Medieval Arthuriana pinned on my blog. There’s no precise canon to follow, but you’ll get the most bang for your buck reading the works of Chrétien de Troyes and the Vulgate Cycle. Much of what Chrétien developed ended up in the Vulgate, like Lancelot rescuing Guinevere from kidnapping, but there are more elements added from other stories, such as Lancelot’s upbringing in the lake which originated from Lanzelet by Ulrich von Zatzikoven. On the other hand, Yvain’s journey as Knight with the Lion doesn’t make it into the Vulgate, so that’s worth reading on its own.

Regarding the part about people shaming you: block them if you haven’t already and anyone else who does so in future. I’m terribly sorry those people were unwelcoming as you begin to read and learn about Arthurian Legend. Let that not reflect on the community as a whole—there’s many lovely people here that’ll be happy to help you along. I hope you’re able to cultivate a positive online experience to the best of your ability and start enjoying the legends with us! :^D

But back to the fun stuff—I also really like Guinevere/Lancelot! My favorite dynamic is when Arthur is included too, but Guin is my number one pick for Lancey. ;^) It’s hard to describe them in so few words but I think it’s important to establish that they’re friends. This is an oft overlooked aspect that really deserves attention. They care for each other deeply. She helps him out of his madness and he helps her out of danger. This is something Arthur couldn’t do for either of them, much as he wanted to. That’s what makes the pair special, to me.

As for shipping wars about medieval characters….kinda ridiculous! And shaming other people over it is just abhorrent. I’m sorry you had to deal with that! Personally I enjoy Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot and Galehaut/Lancelot. I think it’s obvious I favor Gawain with his wife Ragnelle lol but Gawain/Lancelot is fine too. Gawain can have a little Lancelot. As a treat. I even enjoy “crackship” type pairings, like Bedivere/Lancelot or Kay/Lancelot or maybe a little [unrequited] Agravaine/Lancelot, and if the author or filmmaker chooses to write her in a positive light, Elaine/Lancelot as well. But that’s just it—there’s certainly no such thing as a “better” person(s) to couple with Lancelot. It’s literally fake. It’s fiction. It’s for fun! Doesn’t sound like the people you’ve encountered were having very much fun and put that on you, which was wrong.

Here I’d like to mention I run a discord server called the Arthurian Theater Server. Every weekend I stream TV shows and movies, mostly Arthurian, sometimes random fantasy. But it’s more than visual media—my friends and I share resources, character playlists, art we made, stories we wrote, we’ll liveblog retellings or newly discovered medlit translations, and discuss anything else Arthurian! We have custom made emojis for all the knights and ladies, a variety of original art stickers of the characters provided by several members, and an array of sounds bites ripped from films and TV for the soundboard to be played while streaming. Tumblr can be a little hard to navigate with the unreliable tag system, so this server is dedicated to an organized and moderated exchange of ideas and content. You’re welcome to join us!

Let me know if you have any other questions, it’s never a bother. Take care!

[ninadove]

fav french media? (films, books, shows, games etc)

OH I LOVE THIS QUESTION THANK YOU SO MUCH 💖

I’m sure I’ll forget a lot of things and smack my own forehead in shame afterwards, but this is what comes to mind right away:

Literature:

Anything ever written by Victor Hugo is a masterpiece. This dude was a terrible human being, but he sure knew how to write, and he contributed to major changes in the social conscience of his contemporaries on many important topics (including but not limited to the death penalty and child labour). To give you a taste, here is my favourite poem ever, which he wrote, because of course he did.

My favourite piece of literature across all categories, though, is and forever will be Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand — the story of a man who convinced himself his unusually long nose makes him monstruous. The concept sounds so silly, I know, but this play is a masterpiece and a wonderful love letter to the French language.

Which brings me to my favourite comic series: De Cape et de Crocs by Alain Ayroles and Jean-Luc Masbou! Basically a twelve-volume-long fix-it fic, disguised as a tribute to French literature. Also, a beautiful bromance.

Visual arts:

Basically everyone in France can quote at least one line from Kaamelott, a comedic (?) series derived from the Arthurian legend. It is so well researched and hilarious — until it isn’t.

I’m sure there’s like, a very obvious movie choice that will come back to me in a minute, but I was raised on Disney and Scooby-Doo, so these are clogging my brain at the moment. Just give it time.

When I was very young, I would watch TV at my grandparents’ and enjoy Les Hydronautes, an animated series about an extraterrestrial explorer documenting the Earth’s marine wildlife in an effort to learn how to better protect her own planet (Aka There Are Many Benefits To Being A Marine Biologist: The Series), as well as C’est pas sorcier, a series of very fun documentaries on a plethora of subjects, from lavender farming to volcanic eruptions.

Obviously, Miraculous gets a place on the list too! 🐞🐈‍⬛

EDIT BECAUSE I FORGOT: Fantomette the animated series! This show is single-handedly responsible for my taste for smart women with amazing hair who ride motorbikes and kick ass. It even had Egytpology as a key part of the plot.

Music:

For me Formidable by Charles Aznavour is a classic, a very cute song, and a great place to start if you want to learn French!

A few other favourites include Fanny Ardant et moi by Vincent Delerm, Le Dîner by Bénabar (extremely funny to listen to while thinking about the Diamonds’ Dance) and J’ai cherché by Amir (This one is… Borderline when it comes to grammar, but cute enough that I grin and bear it. Also, it got us an honourable ranking at the Eurovision a while back, which is rare enough to be celebrated).

ALSO. I complain too much about bad translations and poor writing (see previous bullet point) not to show you kids how it’s done with Je vole from Aladdin (a genius play on words which delves into the two significations of the verb “voler”: to fly or to steal).

Video games:

Long ago, before I discovered the wonderful world of Nintendo, I would wait patiently every month for the new issue of Toboclic. This game had everything: cute animal mascots, stories, mini-games, arts-and-crafts suggestions, catchy songs, interactive documentaries… I’m sure my parents still have the CDs somewhere, but they probably don’t run anymore, which is a shame. I miss my friends.

Thank you so much for the ask, this was so fun to write!

@dragongutsixofficial please do this too so we can compare notes! 👀💖

[imagitory]

Review: Wish (2023) [SPOILERS]

Evening, everyone! Tonight my mother and I went to go see Disney's most recent film, Wish, which fortunately came to theaters in my area right before its formal American release date. I'd been very curious to see how this tribute to Disney's last 100 years of filmmaking would turn out, and now that I've seen it...well, I have to be honest, I was a little disappointed. I want to be very clear both that I was going into this with a rather sunny outlook and that there are things I really liked in this film...but overall, it felt like a lot of the good ideas it had were only half-baked, and I found myself -- forgive me -- "wishing for something more" than what we got.

For a more comprehensive deep-dive...a cut!

The Good!

+The single best element in this film for me was Chris Pine's performance as our villain, Magnifico. There are definitely some things I can critique about Magnifico's overall storyline and "character arc" further down, but Chris was clearly having a grand old time being an egotistical, sassy jerkwad, and it totally showed. Even in his villain song This is The Thanks I Get?, which just screamed "passive-aggressive abusive parent," you can hear how much fun Chris was having in the studio, recording it. I just about always enjoyed when Magnifico was on screen, and I actually did really like the idea that a lot of his villainy is rooted in him being obsessed with control over everyone and everything. In a weird way, Magnifico's turn to the Dark Side parallels Anakin Skywalker's in the sense that he lost so much in the past that he's determined to never lose anything important to him again -- especially the power he's accrued to make himself feel strong, after having felt so powerless. I find that very interesting, and I kind of wish that aspect was really highlighted more in the story, but we'll talk about that later.

+Asha was a likable enough heroine, even if I found her to be a lot like a two-way fusion of Mulan and Anna placed in a vaguely Snow-White-ish role in her clearly Seven-Dwarf-inspired friend group. Ariana DeBose portrayed her rather well, both acting and singing-wise. I also liked the "social justice" bent to Asha's character where she wants better things not just for herself and her family, but also Rosas overall -- in the French translation of her main song "This Wish," they even push this further by having Asha wish "to see the world happy again someday." We haven't seen a heroine really express this kind of desire for a positive change in the world since Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and that's cool! Plus representation in mainstream media for previously underrepresented groups is always nice. ^.^

+As much as I don't think they all got enough focus as individuals, I liked Asha's friend group! Especially the fact that it is a friend group made up of people that are around the same age as our protagonist, which -- let's be honest -- isn't that common for Disney heroines. Often with "sidekick groups," you're more likely to have situations like Cinderella with the mice (who are more like cutesy sidekicks than equals) or Snow White with the Dwarfs (who are all quite a bit older than our heroine)...so a friend group made up of peers with their own personalities and motivations was kind of fun.

+The setting of Rosas itself could be pretty. I liked a lot of the Mediterranean-inspired architecture, especially inside Magnifico's tower.

+The combination of 3D and 2D-esque animation was also interesting! It really served to give the film its own distinctive visual style that sets it apart from other Disney projects, which I always appreciate.

+Star was...cute. Obviously just designed to sell plushies and definitely reminded me way too much of Kirby, but cute enough. I do think it's kind of cool that they're never gendered at all in the entire movie, because it'd be silly to think of a sweet little androgynous ball of stardust as being specifically male or female.

+I liked the idea of Simon "betraying" Asha, only to be turned into a pawn by Magnifico in the process, but not being treated unsympathetically by the story for it. Didn't love the full execution of the idea, but hey, that's what the negative section is for.

+The idea of everyone finding the power inside of themselves to stand up against Magnifico (because they're "all stars," and presumably all have the magic needed to make their wishes come true) was a little predictable, but still sweet. I have problems with how the film wrote it (which we'll get to), but the idea itself was wholesome and fitting.

+I like several of the songs, just on their own -- I added This Wish and Knowing What I Know Now on my ITunes as soon as I first heard them prior to the film's release, and now I've added At All Costs too: it's a really pretty duet! (Gorgeous work, Chris and Ariana!) I'll leave my praise here, though, because sadly the soundtrack is going to get a lot of discussion in the less positive section.

The Not-So-Good...

+This film being "Disney's 100th anniversary film" really got in the way of this movie telling a compelling and unique story sometimes. The whole movie really twisted itself into a pretzel trying to check off all the usual Disney tropes, and there were points that certain choices made the story seem incredibly stilted. For instance, one common Disney trope is a dead parent, so of course Asha has lost her father -- but we learn so little about him and he ends up playing such a small role in Asha's arc and story that it seems like an unnecessary detail. Asha's grandfather honestly plays more of a role in Asha's motivation throughout most of the film, so it would've made just as much sense to have Asha's grandfather be the one who believed in stars having power, rather than her father. Another example is the concept of the cute animal sidekick who's just there to make jokes -- as much as Valentino the goat didn't annoy me personally, he added just about nothing of value to the story whatsoever aside from comic relief, in contrast to other funny sidekicks like Sebastian from The Little Mermaid or Olaf from Frozen, who also serve a plot purpose and have a developed relationship with the protagonists. Then there's Asha being cut from the same "naive, awkward, wide-eyed idealist" cloth as many of our Disney Revival heroines like Anna, Rapunzel, and up to a certain point even Mirabel are; Star being in a similar vein to cutesy, innocent sidekicks like Pua, Crikee, and Baymax while Valentino is more akin to sassier, comic ones like Mushu and Sisu; her friends literally being based on the Seven Dwarfs from Snow White; our heroine getting a pretty standard "I Want" song and the villain getting his own solo number that doesn't really take any risks...oh yes, and we mustn't forget the trope of the Storybook opening, which (I'm sorry) I know was supposed to be a reference to Snow White, Cinderella, and Enchanted, but just gave me Shrek vibes the entire time. I was waiting for Shrek to rip out the page and use it for toilet paper any minute. It just felt a lot of the time like the movie was very paint-by-numbers, rather than throwing in much that was surprising or different.

+This isn't even touching all of the pointless meta references to other Disney movies. Asha wearing the Fairy Godmother's cloak and getting a wand like hers at the end -- the mushrooms crowing "we love crazy!" the way Hans did in Love is an Open Door -- Asha riding the reindeer the way Kristoff did in Frozen 2 -- Magnifico using green smoke hands a la Ursula -- the ending with those obvious Wendy and Peter Pan look-alikes, come on, really??? That was just painful.

+As much as Magnifico was an awesome idea for a character and Chris Pine's performance was beyond entertaining, the movie did not always write him as well as they could've. From the very start, we see this guy is an egotistical control freak -- obsessed with his own image, incredibly hard-to-please, arrogant, vain, desperate for attention and unwavering praise and adoration from all of his subjects, and determined to keep an iron grip on everyone else's wishes because of the power it gives him. He's ALREADY a terrible person, from the start -- and yet the film tries to introduce this dark magic book that gets no explanation or backstory whatsoever and has no real characterization or presence, so it leaves no real impact on the audience corrupting him and making him a bad person, when it didn't need to! Magnifico was already the villain this film needed! Just let him fall head-first into madness without the book prompting anything! Even if Magnifico "lost everything" in the past, that doesn't make him a good person, if he takes everyone's wishes away from them and hoards them all to himself, only to grant a few now and again when it would make him look good.

+This above point actually leads nicely into one change I really, really wish the film had been ballsy enough to make -- have Asha already be Magnifico's apprentice, not trying to become it at the start of the story. Give our villain and hero a real relationship, with history that started before the events of this film! Asha lost her father at the age of 12...how interesting would it have been -- whether to make Magnifico more of an anti-villain or show how manipulative he really is -- if he'd tried to fill that fatherly role for our main character and twist her to serve his ends? What if At All Costs was rewritten to be about Magnifico not just being determined to hold onto all of the kingdom's wishes, but also this apprentice he sees as an extension of him and his legacy, while Asha is determined to protect this Star she's accidentally summoned and the suppressed wish of hers it represents? This change would've made Asha's break with Magnifico so much more powerful for both of them -- it would've both justified Magnifico's descent into madness and given Asha more reason to feel like it was her responsibility to stop Magnifico. You even could've then played more with Asha's relationship with Queen Amaya too, in this kind of a scenario.

+Oh yeah, and on that note, Queen Amaya. OOH, this really annoyed me -- okay. So this woman is supposed to be a good guy, in this story. But as I touched on earlier, Magnifico was already a pretty awful person, hoarding people's wishes away in order to make himself powerful. Was Amaya truly so blind to that? Did she truly never question anything, ever? But no, really, she only turns on Magnifico after he starts using the dark magic book and actively threatens her. Only that makes her turn from him, and it's pretty damn immediate. Now okay, I hear you saying, it's like Amaya sings in Knowing What I Know Now, right? "The good in him, I've watched it melt // I was blinded by the love I felt"? Excuse me, lady -- but Magnifico wasn't a good person, before. He was just playing a part so as to stay powerful and adored by the masses. And if the story wants to claim otherwise, and act like that dark magic book was responsible for Magnifico going bad, then why would our Queen decide to keep him locked up in his staff's crystal forever? If the book was responsible, then Magnifico would be the Frodo or Golum to the book's One Ring -- he'd be a victim, in such a scenario: one in need of help and pity, not punishment. So either Amaya is a selfish person who only cared about her husband's mistreatment of others when it affected her, or she's a needlessly cruel person who decides to punish her husband for a vice that anyone could fall prey to. Either way, I don't want this woman ruling anyone! Make this woman a straight-up villain, same as her husband, and have the whole monarchy come crashing down after she and Magnifico both go down in flames! VIVE LA RESISTANCE! (Playing into my idea with Asha being Magnifico's apprentice all along, maybe there could even be a twist on the Evil Stepmother trope with Amaya, where she's jealous of how much Magnifico has tried to groom Asha as his apprentice, rather than spending time and/or starting a family with her or something.)

+As I touched on earlier, there wasn't even close to enough time to develop all of these characters properly. Since our heroine and friends are most similar to Snow White and her friends the Seven Dwarfs, let's compare cast size. Snow White is 83 minutes long and has a cast of ten (Snow, the Prince, the Queen, and the Dwarfs) -- Wish is 95 minutes long and has a cast of fourteen (Asha, Magnifico, Star, Valentino, Amaya, Asha's mum and grandpa, and our seven Friends). This results in us getting the vague idea that "Grumpy" role Gabo is sweet on our "Bashful" role Bazeema, but no time to develop their relationship or give it any kind of conclusion; the others saying "Sneezy" role Safi apparently loves the castle chickens with no sympathetic explanation why, to the point that he gets super excited about a chicken growing to a giant size for no real reason; "Doc" role Dahlia having a crush on Magnifico that is then dropped immediately after Asha turns against him; oldest kid and "Sleepy" role Simon feeling incomplete without the dream he gave Magnifico and "betraying" Asha as a result in an attempt to get it back, only to get stabbed in the back by Magnifico, and then have no time for a proper redemption after he's unhypnotized; Asha's grandfather turning on a dime about whether or not he wants to know what his wish was if Magnifico thought it was dangerous; Magnifico getting some justification in his backstory for his bad behavior, but Amaya's backstory being a complete black hole before she married Magnifico when you'd think it'd explain all the more why she stuck with him so long; and Asha's mum having her wish crushed to dust by Magnifico and then given back without us EVER LEARNING WHAT IT EVEN WAS IN THE FIRST PLACE, even after we see just about everyone else's wishes as soon as somebody picks it up and Asha's mum's wish gets picked up multiple times!! Come on, if you're going to set up NOT showing it, you may as well have a pay-off for it!! At least give us some moment where Asha's mum hugs her in relief and acknowledges that her daughter was her wish! That would've been a nice "aww" moment for everyone!

+Okay, I said I was going to talk about my problem with the songs, so here goes. As I said before, I listened to the soundtrack before watching the movie, and even when I did, I could immediately sense a problem: these songs did not tell me much of anything about the movie, just on their own. Welcome to Rosas, which is pretty much just an exposition dump about the kingdom and how Magnifico founded it, didn't really paint a picture of our setting or characters much at all, the way opening songs like Belle or The Family Madrigal do. This Wish, although pretty, was something I could hear just as easily on the radio -- it didn't feel as tied or necessary to understanding our heroine the way something like Part of That World does. I'm a Star, quite frankly, felt like a lot of inspirational word salad, rather than anything particularly memorable or revelatory -- why else wouldn't it even be worthy of a musical salute in the reprise, where Asha remembers that she and everyone else are stars during the climax? Even after reading summaries of the plot and spoilers from the storybook for this film, I could not figure out for the life of me how At All Costs would fit organically into such a story, being sung by our villain and hero. It wasn't until I saw the film that I saw how the filmmakers decided to fit it in and honestly...the song didn't help tell that particular scene at all. It's a really pretty song and I like it a lot -- but it lacked any of the irony or contrast that kind of a scene that introduces the difference in focus between our hero and villain required. If the scene itself is needed to understand what's supposed to be going on while the song is playing, then the song is not effectively telling the story and is therefore unnecessary. There wasn't even a particularly Spanish or Mediterranean flair to the soundtrack to help set the stage, aside from the occasional flourish of castanets -- instead it sounded very contemporary, which I guess is appropriate, since it was largely written by pop composers rather than any musical theater talent.

+There were also points where the songs felt the urge to shove in a bunch of extra words just because, rather than have the words flow well and really mean something. I'm a Star is most guilty of this, of course, but even in This is the Thanks I Get?, we hear Magnifico gripe that "I let you live here for free and I don't even charge you rent" -- mate, THAT MEANS THE SAME THING! If you live somewhere for free, then you are NOT paying rent!

+Knowing What I Know Now is a bop and I like it (aside from Amaya's stupidity), but I'm sorry, all I can think when I hear it is "This is clearly trying to be Ready as I'll Ever Be from Tangled the Animated Series, but that song blows this out of the water." However fun the song can be, it would've been so much stronger if it actually addressed the contrast between the characters and revved us up for a big final battle, instead of it just being our eight underdeveloped characters psyching each other up.

+The idea of everyone being stars was a lovely idea, but the execution of Asha remembering this fact and using it to defeat Magnifico was terribly handled. First off, there was no revelatory phrase or action that prompted Asha to remember this fact, so her suddenly saying that "they're all stars" came out of nowhere. Second, even putting aside that there'd be no way any of her friends could hear Asha from all the way up on the tower if they're stuck in the courtyard below, there's no reason I can see for Asha's friends or family to know what the hell she was even TALKING about. They weren't there when the I'm a Star number happened! And the way that number made it seem, just based on the visuals, it looked like the "star" power came from a person's dream, since it's the same glow that returns to Asha's grandfather when he gets his dream back, but most of the town's dreams have been already yanked out by Magnifico at this point! I think the idea is that since everyone is a star, even with that big piece of them and the power accompanying it taken out, they still have enough stardust inside of them to be powerful enough to chase their heart's desires...but yeah, I'm sorry, for all the word salad I'm a Star threw around, this world-building aspect was really not made clear, and because of that and the lack of a proper callback to this plot turn, the climax didn't hit as strong as it should've.

Overall, this film felt a lot like a batch of unbaked chocolate chip cookies that someone decided to throw a bunch of brightly colored sprinkles on top of, just because they could. A lot of ideas just don't feel like they were fully developed, and there was a lot tossed in that didn't contribute to the overall taste or bring the disparate elements together in a cohesive whole, instead feeling more like a distraction than anything of actual substance. That doesn't mean I couldn't eat it -- I like eating cookie dough as much as the next person -- but that doesn't mean it felt like a complete, finished product worthy of great praise. Instead I'm left looking at the wasted potential and wishing the movie had carved out its own path more, one distinctive to itself, rather than just be a mashup of previous Disney concepts and tropes. I won't act like there's nothing to like here, nor that it's completely lacking in heart: I actually would love to see fandom for this movie re-imagine it in ways that could've improved the story and characters, because there were SO many good ideas here...but for me personally, this movie left me colder than it should've and -- like Asha after meeting Magnifico -- a bit disappointed.

So I make this wish...to have Disney make a film better than this.

Overall Grade: C-

[respectthepetty]

I've been wondering for a while- how did you start getting into all the colour stuff?? I would love an origin story <3 what got you into your passion for deciphering colors and how did you figure out what they mean??

sorry ik it's a lot but ever since I started following you I see colors everywhere and I'm curious of where you started noticing them ((: it's so fun and intriguing to me! I'm usually more of a "foaming at the mouth for the lighting" girlie but it's been a heap of fun figuring out colors with the lights ^^

thanks for everything you do to show us your eye for color btw ♡♡ your blog is so fascinating and I love reading all your theories and notes

@overrgrown, never apologize for asking questions, but I've actually been asked this before by bengiyo. You can find my write up HERE, but the short version of that post is I've always seen colors; therefore, I've always attached meaning to them, even if the meaning was not valid.

TLWR: Appreciate the artists who work on these shows, not me.

In bengiyo's ask, I stated that when I was younger, I thought the colors were showing me what was good and what was bad. That's it. In my defense, I was a kid, so everything really was good or bad in my book with no in-between.

Even though I've always seen colors, and it comes very naturally to me, the meaning I attached to them when I was younger was very much based on who I was rather than what was being shown to me. Five-year old me thought if someone was dressed all in red that they were the devil. Adult me now knows that isn't always the case. Adult me also knows that red in American (United States) culture means something different than other cultures.

Not a flex, just a fact, but I have several degrees in languages, linguistics, and rhetoric. What they are in is not super important, but, in general, a formal education has greatly helped me infer meaning from what I'm visually seeing in the media I consume. My degrees are not in film or communications, yet I've taken undergrad and grad-level courses like Visual Media, Multimedia and Visual Communication, Language of Film, Digital Narratives, Cinematography and Lighting, Film Theory & Criticism, Queer Cinema History, Spanish Film & Feminism, and many more all because under this great big academic umbrella of rhetoric and composition lies storytelling.

And that's what this is really about - How do we tell a story? Regardless if that story is a simple flyer for a school bake sale, a 30-second commercial advertising cleaning wipes, or a 12-episode BL series, how do we get the message across? We can't just rely on ONE thing! We have to use as many things as possible! So when I'm watching a BL series, I'm just not paying attention to the words being spoken or the acting alone. No, I'm paying to the background noise. What do the clothes tell me about the character? What does his apartment tell me about him? And what do the colors mean?! All of it is important!

I've mentioned this before but I serve on a screening committee for a queer film festival. I actually got involved with the film festival as an undergrad because of one of the film courses. This has allowed me the opportunity to speak to several filmmakers about their process, and all of them have confirmed that the colors were intentional. People who deal with props and costume design have spoken to me about trying to find very specific items that reinforce the story being told. Oh, and theater is a whole different level. Because of the nature of the stage versus film, if it is on the stage, it must have a reason for being there.

Basically, people who work in visual media work really fucking hard, which you probably know since you love lighting. Most times, 12-hour days are the average, if not longer. This video does a good job of briefly covering the work that goes into costume design, and I timestamped it to begin at the part that covers colors.

I love seeing colors. I love deciphering them. I love the story they tell.

But they wouldn't be there if the hardworking people behind them didn't do their job, and those are the people who I appreciate.

So, as always, I'm thankful that you let me know I'm helping you see the beauty is in the details, but I'm really just here to admire the beauty with you.

[pinkeoni]

Stranger Things and the Male Gaze

In the second episode of season one, Stranger Things gives us a literal example of a character employing the male gaze, when Jonathan takes a snapshot of Nancy undressing through his camera.

Following this creepy display of voyeurism (I'm sorry Jonathan, but it's what you did!) Jonathan turns his gaze to a similar yet very different subject— Barb.

And it's after Jonathan asserts his gaze on these two subjects do they experience a point of "attack" from a male presence, eg Nancy has sex with Steve and Barb is killed by the demogorgon.

The term "the male gaze" was first used in film theorist and feminist Laura Mulvey's 1973 essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema."

"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly."

The idea of the "male gaze" can be a hot topic of discussion in recent film theory and film spaces, even with its legitimacy being debatable. But it's an idea that has been known within film for half a century and, for all intents and purposes, Stranger Things is made from a male perspective. Its creators are male, its producers are male, its directors are mostly male and its cinematographers are male. There are certainly strong female voices within the show as well, but the control of the narrative, like most mainstream media, is still male.

The idea of gazing within the show is present from the very beginning to where the series is now. We see the government spy on Joyce's phone call in episode one, the Man "with a capital M," as represented through Martin "Papa"— the government itself being understood as a male presence historically, and the other great-omniscient-male gaze present in the show comes from the Mind Flayer/Vecna.

Gaze as a Weapon

The male gaze is a sexual one, and it's a dangerous one at that. In her book on gender in horror Men, Women and Chainsaws, (yes I'm still reading this, reading the final chapter actually inspired this whole post) author Carol J. Clover writes:

"This is the narrative's present and casual gaze, its "doing" gaze. It is also, of course, a predatory, assaultive gaze—in the story's own terms, a phallic gaze."

Clover writes about the 1960's film Peeping Tom, which shares the story of a filmmaker who enjoys gazing at women sexually as much as he enjoys killing them, their bodies and gruesome deaths all captured through the crosshairs of his camera, which doubles as his weapon.

The idea of gaze or sight as danger or as a weapon is prevalent in the show. Papa forces El to spy on soviets, employing her as a weapon through the power of sight, Vecna utilizes hallucinations to attack his victims, and Kali weaponizes her ability to manipulate what people see.

To control the gaze is to have power and autonomy, and to be gazed upon is to lose that power. For example, we see Will enacting his own gaze through his own lens when he brings Bob's camera trick-or-treating. When Will is scared and sent into a true-sight vision, he drops the camera and thus loses control of said gaze. We later see Joyce gaze upon Will through the television screen as she replays the tape. This is also the moment when Joyce discovers the presence of the Mind Flayer.

In a similar vein, El has been subjected to being gazed upon and gains power and autonomy through sight. This is shown most literally during NINA, when El is subjected to Papa's gaze. Not only is he watching her as an omniscient eye through this whole process, but he is using tapes that were recorded and curated by him— Papa is literally the male gaze that is manipulating the narrative.

The strongest moment for El during NINA, the one where she gains new knowledge she never knew she had, is when she has a flashback where we see the world through her eyes, her gaze, and I think it's important that in this moment the person gazing back is another woman.

And after this experience, she shifts the narrative that has been given to her by Papa.

Gaze as Knowledge and Freedom

The way that El has learned about the world has been through sight. It's significant that part of this exploration involves looking at a television screen, in both seasons 1 and 2.

In seasons 2 and 3 El picks up spying on her own, which is something she brought over from the lab. But this time, without her gaze being controlled by Papa. While it's encouraged by Max (granted a female presence) using her powers to spy is something that El chooses to do.

While the spying is indicative of El's anatomical freedom, it's inherent invasiveness of this act, especially as she spies on the boys, is something that codes it as male. The idea of a "female gaze," while sometimes debated as real or not, is something that exists in modern feminist film theory. The idea isn't that it subjugates men under the power of women, a mirror of what the male gaze is, but rather "about using the presence of a female perspective on screen to emphasize the story’s emotions and characters."

But it should still be considered what gaze the show is made under. As stated before, Stranger Things is made from a male perspective, even with a female character at the lead. And perhaps this is why El's personal freedom feels male, since it's controlled by a male perspective. If the female gaze is pervasive then it is in indie-film spaces, and mainstream and commercial projects such as this show have been dominated by men for years.

Part of the male gaze isn't just the act of how the male viewer gazes upon women (scopophilia), but how the male viewer identifies with the on-screen female presence (ego libido). If El is meant to be the hero in a show from a male perspective, and arguably for a male audience, then perhaps her personal freedom and empowerment was always going to feel male.

But still, I don't think that El's gender can necessarily be completely ignored, or that the existence of the male gaze eradicates the importance and meaning behind El's empowerment and gain of autonomy. I think about a quote that Clover used to describe the maleness of final girls. If El is a woman, then her personal freedom, autonomy, and empowerment is not completely male.

[stormywinter42]

Whatever, forever

Welcome to my intro post :3

Oh also if you like someone’s art wether is music writing or some visual media FUCKING REBLOG IT likes don’t do shit

Days in a row I’ve done skincare: 0

Im a pretty silly (not funny at all) person (not a person) who is severely addicted to this little known band called My Chemical Romance a good portion of my blog is just dedicated to them.

By the way if I ever tag you in a post and you want me to take it down lemme know and I’ll do it immediately

Basic info

Name: Winter (make sure it’s capitalized)

Deadname: [[REDACTED]]

Pronouns: she/it gendervoid transfem

Sexuality: what are you a cop?? (I like who I like and that’s that)

Age: 16 (don’t flirt with me if you’re under 15 by the way I don’t need allegations)

Relationship: poly (currently going out with the incredible, beautiful, smart, kind, and talented @razz-is-queer)(also kinda trying to figure shit out with someone else I like)

Oh also @robyntheloser and @misericordiia are my daughters be nice to them

Time zone: PST

Sandcore🏝️

Alts:

@winters-rambles (reblogging)

Tags:

#what/ever/major/loser - posts reguarding updates/previews for my indie pop Midwest emo solo project

#i make music guys - any other music stuff

#Sandcore - anything relating to the beach and/or sand

#insane shit - me being horny or saying otherwise questionable things (which are probably also horny)

#reblog on main - self explanatory (usually important)

#accidental reblog on main - self explanatory for when I’m too lazy to delete and post to my other blog

Interests

Music genres: Emo, pop-punk, Midwest emo, Electronic, Post-Punk, Ska-Punk, Indie Pop, Prog-Rock

Bands/artists: Pink Floyd, MCR, boygenius, Daft Punk, Gorillaz, Depeche Mode, Modern Baseball, Green Day, Robo Pumpkin, Ethel Cain, Dazey and the Scouts, Orange Moon @orangemoonofficial

Hobbies: Guitar, Dungeons & Dragons, Marching Band (percussion), Gerard Way, Learning new skills, Baking

Films/Shows: The Owl House, The Breakfast Club, The Matrix, Gravity Falls, Amphibia, DuckTales, Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline

Games: Celeste, Undertale, Deltarune, Terraria, Hollow Knight, Rhythm Doctor

Bad Things

DNI: Homophobes, Transphobes, Racists, People who are gonna harass me for being underweight, Pedos/MAPs, anyone who is otherwise bigoted

Triggers: [[REDACTED]]

Oh also fair warning sometimes (very rarely) I post insane horny shit because sometimes I can’t just keep it to myself

If I say something you don’t like you can block me without verbally harassing me I’ll ignore you anyways if you do

My Airbuds and Discogs to see my music :3

You should follow my insta I play guitar there :3

Will expand on/update in the future

✨Mwah!!✨ Thanks for reading! Love ya!

[sterlingarcher23]

Happy memories=Season 5: Addendum & Will foreshadowing

I already altered my previous post (link down below) a bit - I overlooked something: Lucas.

Time jump (correction)

Lucas telling Max that he's there, right in front of her, and she's kind of ignoring him is foreshadowing the scene they shot with Sadie and Caleb: Max in coma, "ignoring" Lucas who tells her that he's there. "I don't want a letter. I'm right here."

It's either that or the scene in S4 in which he reads the book. And the sequence includes Season 4.

The "I'm right here" scene in the memory corresponds with Lucas sitting at Max's bedside (but she is looking just like Sleeping Beauty because she's not in cast and Ross saying that she's in a coma - which means in this scene),and her "ignoring" him. It's possible that this is this scene. It's also possible that it refers to S4. - His watch shows Thursday 11 2 (!), so November 2nd and that's 1989.

Next is Max swallowing the red Skittle (You were wearing that yellow Benny's Burgers t-shirt and it was so big it almost swallowed you whole - like a Pac-Man swallowing the red ghost in the scene, red jacket Max enters the Arcade.), then El and Max link and we hit the time barrier...

Note how in the memory scene they cut the original moment before the linking and after the linking - that's a time jump in itself:

Season 3 mall scene = time jump in Back to the Future. (JC Penney - they used the brands without getting money for it, it's not because they want to make commercials but used them for specific reasons like KitKat, Skittles, M&Ms) The linking/vanishing and reappearing part isn't in it.

The original version is cut in three segments (not sure about the exact terminology here, so I better leave that out, in German which differ from English terminology its probably: halbnah, Totale, nah). If you see the original footage as a single sequence, the edited memory version is visually a temporal jump.

Here again the comparison between this scene (without the final shot) and Back to the Future:

So this is the time jump - it's the third element in the memory sequence (and those are completely out of chronological order) and my guess is, that there are like two jumps potentially. - There's also some contradicting Infos about the time jump, like some say "immediate" time jump but other sources say from Episode 1 to 2. It's still possible that there are multiple time jumps and the hand holding scene IS right before waking up.

(Caleb is wearing a jacket in the bts shot and we don't see what he's wearing under it but in the hand shot he's definitely in role.)

The Back to the Future time jump reference in the memory is happening right after the "I'm right here/Lucas at Max's bedside" scene - however these moments are probably much closer than I initially thought.

And these segments of Lucas touching Max, the red Skittle are connected and the BttF time jump sequence may show us the result of this.

My guess is that there's at least one scene, maybe more, before the actual jump, involving Max (that has not been filmed yet - it would need summer weather) and we get to see already a partial resolve of the jump with Lucas holding Max's hand. Still comatose but a coma is only important if and how someone wakes up.

The coma is a "time jump"

"I'm right here" is either Season 4 ending or the scene from S5. Thinking about it, both would make sense. The first one even a bit more if we think of the coma as the actual starting point for the memory sequence to foreshadow everything the follows after.

Falling in coma, swallowing the red Skittle, time jump sequence and the rest is the boys who meet the killer, the ghost trap scene, ElMax foto session, fotos (in media metaphorically) freeze people in time like:

(There are some Whovians out there that say, that some Doctor Who is also in Stranger Things. And those stasis cubes are visualized as paintings. - An endless summer skateboarding sounds very much like a stasis cube or a pocket dimension. )

.. the movie date (storytelling technique called promise gets it's payoff) ElMax hugging...ElMax & Lumax Endgames.

And they could only use existing scenes but those are very deliberately chosen (there's a scene not in this sequence that has it's own rhyme and I only just discovered it but it demands another moment like it, it involves ElMax, certain posters but most importantly: a sea shell lamp).

And it's been foreshadowed how we would react to the time jump that the JC Penney reference alludes to - I didn't make it up, the Duffers made this connection in the show by showing us the exact moment including Doc saying "The temporal displacement occurred at 1:20 am"

Yepp...these two idiots. That's us.

Conclusion?

The coma is a time jump. "I didn't disintegrate anything. The molecular structure of both Einstein and the car are completely intact. I sent him into the future.", Doc Brown.

In the memory scene, except the "coma" segment as a starting point and the Endgame (It's you and me won't be unhappy), the answer to EVERY memory sequence is ElMax, shown as inseparable after linking. That's neither queerbaiting nor is it just a "regular" relationship. This is not even slightly one of these stories.

Nonetheless is gives us some basic elements of the plot.

And it's ElMax making Lumax Endgame possible: High five. 1st place. Winners....whatever you want to call it.

Soo... The sequence foreshadows some basic elements of Season 5 in regards to the character relationships. - And ElMax appears like inseparable in these moments, either linked, very close by, hugging ...

It doesn't get more obvious. They tell it straight into our faces.

And I would say that it's obvious that they make a huge deal out of Max's coma. Just her having powers? That's it? How is this such a huge deal? The Vecna has absorbed her and stuff can easily be debunked too.

Will

And I have Will proving that they do this shit with the window and foreshadowing ...just differently. This is almost not so surprising, is it? That they show us that he has a "crowbar" in his head. - Oh, yes, people.

And while the class scene in Season 2 is about him. It's also about Max, she however has light reflections like "God rays" pointing to her head when the focus changes with Mr Clarke's words on top. Seriously, people. This is a subtle as fireworks in the middle of the towns square.

ElMax Endgame

ElMax will turn out to be a dissociative identity/multiple personality disorder system of two individual minds residing inside the same body. Max's body. They'll be together. Literally.

This way Max is healed by the cure/medicine: El. - This way ElMax and Lumax can happen and it's in line with the themes of the show. And it fits in regards to the inspo for Eleven taken from Elfen Lied - kids having supernatural powers do do some lab science MK Ultra style etc etc, why not Fringe? Because Elfen Lied has a main character that has DID.

"One skull, two tenants"

Previous post:

[maareyas]

Hello sensei i request guidance

I have recently been reminded on my packet of ohuhu markers i bought a while back. Funny thing though,

I dont know how to use them (never used markers before let alone the alcohol ones or whatever the ones i got are)

Your use of markers is majestic, if i may ask, can you bestow upon me divine wisdom and show me where to start so i can learn please? Theres a lot of stuff online and its incapacitating me

Thank you for your time O great one!

*strokes fake beard* ah yes. my divine wisdom which i most certainly have and not my haphazard "winging it" XD

in all seriousness I'm really also still pretty new to markers;;;; So I wouldn't say I'm great at them yet ahdhhedjjd. I can only give a few points of advice:

1. Paper - I'd argue this is the most important part bc 70% of the art quality WILL be based on how well your paper takes ink. The papers I use are either Ohuhu's own marker sketchbook or watercolor/mixed media paper (about 200 gsm).

I would recommend the marker paper since it's actually specialized for markers and makes the color pop more. Watercolor paper also works, but it makes the colors look a lil duller. In my experience, it's blending markers on watercolor paper dries slower, which makes it easier to blend smoothly/with less streaks. I heard it also sucks up your marker ink more, but I haven't been using markers long enough to know.

2. Blending - There should be a colorless alcohol-only marker in ur set. You use that for blending (mostly). Lay down the colorless "ink" first, AND THEN draw over it with the colors you want to blend--while the alcohol is still wet ofc.

This is difficult to explain without visuals--but, I also tend to use the lighter/fainter colors as a "blending color" also. Blending colors in the same hue or are analogous is easier. Mostly. Meanwhile I had to fight for my life trying to blend orange with blue or even just a cooler gray without looking muddy.

3. Bleeding - THESE THINGS LOVE TO BLEED FR. On both marker paper and watercolor paper, I always have to compensate for how much the ink bleeds/feathers once it actually touches the paper, especially when you're using brush tip markers. I hate it ✨

Also if Ohuhu includes this plastic? film? thingy with their markers iirc. You put that on the back of the paper you're drawing on to catch any ink that bleeding through the page.

4. swatch your markers - imo markers are WAY more rigid in terms of color and blending. Yet frustatingly, they also can look very different when wet vs. when dry. SO! it helps alot to make swatches of your markers so you can get a consistent idea of what they'll actually look like.

5. Use colored pencils instead of markers for drawing details - After doing the broad colors with marker, I like to go back in with colored pencils to add detail and for some color correction. I can't do details in marker. I'm not powerful enough for that hfhrhehe

6. Ohuhu's marker caps DON'T match the color they are. It's dumb and another reason why you should make swatches fhhdjej

Aside from that I don't think I have much else. The rest of my knowledge comes from watching other artists' tutorials:

in summary: i have no idea what im doing 👍 hope this helps! ✨

[whatiwillsay]

I'm both a longtime Beyhive and a longtime Swiftie, so I'll chime in about the Billboard list

*very long*

Honestly, comparing Beyoncé to Taylor is a disservice to Bey. This woman has not only been highly relevant but has been thriving in the vinyl, CD, and digital eras, and she is still highly relevant in the streaming era. Sure, Bey doesn't pull as many streaming numbers as Taylor does, but she still is a streaming force. Chart positions and sales aren't even the metrics by which Billboard compiled this list. Here's what they've said in their article:

And we must also issue our obligatory reminder that unlike with our Year-End Charts, these Greatest Pop Stars are NOT mathematically determined by stats like chart position, streams or sales numbers. Those play a big part in our final rankings, of course — you can’t be one of the greatest pop stars of the century without great pop hits and great pop albums — but so do things like music videos, live performances and social media presence, and more intangible factors like cultural importance, industry influence and overall omnipresence. (And we’re measuring this over all 25 years of this century so far, so if you were only heard from at the beginning or the end of that period — or only had one or two big songs, albums or eras — that’s gonna significantly hinder your ranking here as well.)

She is the blueprint for most, if not all, pop stars of the mid- to late 00s, '10s, and '20s, and they've said so themselves. Not only that, several athletes, business owners, fashion designers, architects, producers, and even professional chefs have said that her work ethic, artistry, drive, and attention to details inspire them to do better. She's transformed the industry forever. She's the first artist (correct me if I'm wrong) who's done a visual album in the form of a music video for each song (B'Day in 2006) and one of the few artists who's done a concept film for an album (Lemonade in 2016 and Black Is King in 2020). In terms of music videos, Beyoncé is far ahead of Taylor, and since it's a criteria for Billboard's list, she's got an advantage. 

Beyoncé's the real trendsetter in music, while Taylor chases what's popular at the moment and makes it a theme for each album both in terms of music and visuals. Beyoncé's also THE most versatile music artist in the industry: her range goes from gospel to rap, from disco to rock, from pop to bluegrass, from R&B to Americana, from opera to reggae. She is an exceptional artist with a unique™ vocal talent that continues to improve with age. There are such things as prime Whitney, prime Celine, and prime Mariah, but there are no such things as prime Beyoncé. Besides that, Beyoncé's also credited as the inventor of "talk-singing," which all of the modern singers and rappers use as their primary technique in music. Even Kanye has said so.

Live performances are also a criteria, and I think it doesn't even need to be discussed. Beyoncé's regarded as one of the best performers of all time. I personally would even say that she is THE best performer of all time, but it's irrelevant to this discussion. She's the first female performer to ever do an all-stadium tour (Formation Tour in 2016); her Super Bowl HT show is widely regarded as the Top-3 of all time, along with Prince and MJ. She's popularized feminine dancing in the industry; before that, the girls were basically cheerleading and jumping around the stage.

In terms of social media presence, I think it could be quite debatable. There are several viral Tik Tok Beyoncé trends going on at the moment. There's a "Lose My Breath" trend (the song came out 20 years ago), there's a "Diva" trend (the song came out 16 years ago), there's a "16 Carriages" trend, and a trend for Trump's "Dance Party with Beyoncé," to name a few. Also, everything she does or doesn't do makes headlines or is heavily discussed in online spaces. For example, her wearing a silver dress with 613 color hair, making her "look white," made rounds for weeks online. Her playing her film in Is**** made a ton of online discussion, while Taylor has also played hers there, and I've barely seen mentions of it online (both of them had nothing to do with it and couldn't stop it, imo; they signed their contract with the distributor months before Oct. 7 happened). People called Beyoncé "genocide Barbie" for being present at the Kamala rally and said that she "made" Kelly Rowland wear an oversized suit so she'd look better even though Kelly has worn those suits for a long time AND she always looks incredible in them. Don't get me started on the whole Tik Tok conspiracies and "she knows" thing. Even the false rumors of her making an appearance at the DNC have made it to mainstream news channels. There's also a phrase "The Beyoncé of..." that exists. Undoubtedly, Taylor has an immense media presence, but unfortunately, it's mostly her being at Trav's games, pap walks, or someone making up baseless rumors about her that no one outside of the Swiftie circles and pop culture nerds care about. I don't think anything outside of her excessive jet usage or new album variants makes noise outside of those circles except when the new material comes out and then it's 2 weeks of deciphering the songs. I think Taylor needs this kind of media presence to thrive, while Beyoncé does not. Taylor is a very talented writer, which has gotten her such a big following, but at the same time, it's her marketing that has gotten us to this Taylormania point. She's actively cultivated a quite parasocial relationship between herself and the Swifties by inviting them to her house, saying that she needs them to feel good about herself (I'm paraphrasing), and leaving easter eggs about her relationships and personal life in her music and music videos. She hasn't established any boundaries with her own fanbase, and that's why it's starting to feel cult-like at times. While Beyhives were and still can be quite insufferable at times, she knew when to pull back and cut the majority of the toxicity from her fandom so it doesn't impact her own life. Also, it's worth noting that the main drive of Taylor's popularity is her relatability. Beyoncé's brand has never been about relatability; in fact, it's always been the opposite, and I don't know why people are complaining about it: she's always said that she comes from an affluent family and went to private school. Because of the current state of Taylor's fame, I'm going 50/50 on this one.

Then there's the cultural importance part. I think Beyoncé's also ahead of Taylor here. Beyoncé's music has always been political, and she's made a pivot into teaching her listeners about Black history. There are multiple college courses about her artistry and image. She's also the reason why music is now being released on Fridays. She's created that silver craze last year with her tour; this year it has been cowboy attire. Black country artists are finally getting a platform: Shaboozey's song is now the longest-running Billboard Hot 100 solo #1 song of all time, and Linda Martell (a Black country artist from the 60s) just got her first Grammy nomination, and it's in a rap category (I mean, c'mon). She's at a point in her career where she is honoring her heritage and giving platforms to Black artists in predominantly white spaces (house, country, and I'm assuming Act III is going to be some sort of rock fusion). Also, to put things into perspective, at 34 years old, Beyoncé gave us Lemonade while Taylor gave us TTPD. Both of them have been recording artists since they were 15-16, so I think this comparison is valid. Bey also has way more universally recognized hits than Taylor does. Although Beyoncé doesn't write her songs alone as Taylor sometimes does, she is a prolific songwriter in her own right (the topics of discussion in their music are also incredibly different). She's also an incredible producer. I've seen multiple songwriters and producers talk about her process and praise her for having an incredible ear. Listen to the instrumental version of some of her songs (I'd say that Single Ladies is one of the best and clearest examples) and compare it to the album version. Not only does she have an incredible ear for melodies, she's also been the vocal producer for every single one of her albums, including the first Destiny's Child album. Her music, music videos, live performances, presentation, vocals, musical production, fashion, incorporation of Black culture, hair and make-up choices, and live performance arrangements (Homecoming had like 20-30 samples) are what her cultural importance is. There are generations of pop stars that took notes from her, and there will be generations of pop stars that will reference those who were inspired by Beyoncé after she retires, and that's what makes her a truly important and impactful icon that she already is.

If Billboard has any integrity left, Beyoncé should be an indisputable #1 pick. Taylor being at #2 is also higher than I would expect. I'd place her in the Top 5 for sure, but #2 seems very generous.

thank you for writing this up!

[robbinggoodfellows]

A very angry rant / personal essay about Wes Anderson parodies and the reduction of his style to just simple visual aesthetic

Recently, I became very invested in a show on Apple Tv called The Afterparty. That investment in it only grew when I learned that season 2 would be promising a “Wes Anderson style episode.” Naturally, as someone who takes a lot of inspiration from Anderson’s films I was excited to see what this episode would be like. I am no longer invested in The Afterparty and it is entirely because of this episode.

We’ve seen this before, the reduction of Wes Anderson’s entire style to just quirky characters and pastel colors. Anyone who participated in the Tiktok trend of recreating this style knows this. Of course, this is done with utter disregard for everything else that makes up his style.

This brings me to my detailed review of The Afterparty, season 2 episode 4. I believe my exact words were “I'm so disappointed.” I was legitimately infuriated with this episode, to the point where I can no longer watch The Afterparty.

First of all, just straight up copying exact things from Wes Anderson movies isn’t cool. This episode literally did the exact same montage from the beginning of Rushmore. I was pissed. Furthermore, this episode copies the easy parts of Wes Anderson without acknowledging the work the actually goes into his films. Just color grading your shots and putting text on the screen in a quirky font isn’t enough. There’s a certain cadence that Wes’ screenplays have, a certain way of speaking that this episode simply did not have. Actually I think the only character who had the line delivery down was Ulysses in his scene with Hannah. His short amount of screen time was the highlight of this episode for me.

Another thing that pissed me off is that Wes would never write lesbians like that (he would write them so much better.) Every analysis of Wes Andersons style as a whole has pointed out one thing in common between his films, they are all about relationships. Wether those relationships are platonic or romantic, maybe even familial relationships, they focus in how people interact with people. And that’s another place where I feel this episode fell short. Hannah and Grace’s relationship felt like it was on the back burner, like it wasn’t important. Of course maybe it wasn’t meant to be important, maybe the main relationship of the episode was supposed to be Hannah and Edgar. But then maybe they could have given the two more than five minutes of screen time together. It felt like they missed the mark on any of the relationships in the episode, even having Hannah be extremely manipulative towards Grace for no reason.

The part that makes the the angriest is, why didn’t they consult with Wes Anderson about his style? For non-fans of The Afterparty, you may not know that every episode is told in a different genre. This episode is actually the first one to describe its genre with the name of a specific director. That’s a big undertaking, even with a director whose style isn’t as bold as Anderson’s. The least the show could have done would be to ask Wes how he does it. Or just not make the episode.

I am very interested to know if Wes even knows about the episode or if he had any opinions on it. Especially now, with the release of Asteroid City which is now reaffirming for newer fans that Wes Anderson is not just a visual aesthetic or a quirky character. Rather, his films have deep stylistic choices that cannot be replacated . Wes is doing things that no other director is doing, and while I understand why that may make people more interested in copying his style, it is not the right thing to do. I truly don’t believe anyone except for Wes Anderson knows what Wes Anderson is doing. And that is okay. I just wish modern media would leave it alone.

[phantompeaches]

Persona 3 Reload!

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

So since the Persona 3 Reload trailer was released early, I have So Many thoughts on it! I'm both super excited for a lot of it, and a little disappointed about other parts?

Firstly, the graphics are gorgeous. Of course there's going to be improvements, the original game came out like 17 years ago now, the technology, skills and software that go into this have improved massively over the years, as well as consoles being able to handle and display much higher quality graphics.

The environment just feels so much more alive. They've put so much little detail into the areas of this game already, and I do really wish people claiming that they're Just Money Grabbing and dragging out the franchise (although usually referring to Persona 5 more) would take a minute to look at all the care that they put into these games. It's such small things, like the individual brickwork on the floor, and the faint scenes behind the windows. Even just the detailing on the fountain and how the water falls, every little detail comes together to make the environment alive. I'm also a massive fan of blue tint implying darkness, so much modern media sacrifices visibility for darkness sake, and although a small detail it feels very important to mention, as well as how it creates such a great contrast to the light sources? It's a method that was used a lot in film making specifically, although now, again, they seem to prefer to make it impossible to see rather than create an implication and more enjoyable and accessible experience.

Even the menu is incredible. It's visually stunning whilst also being well designed from a UI perspective. Seeing them side by side really gives an indication of how far the games have come. Although two very small changes, Persona 4 switched the Equip and Persona options, and Persona 5 switched the Quests (Missions in P5) and Social Link options. Both of these changes, whilst minor, do show an improvement in UI. The Equip option is going to be more used than checking your Persona is, as theoretically you will be switching out equipment regularily as you gain better gear (although I will admit I am awful at changing my gear around), and you'll (once again, theoretically) be keeping more tabs on your quests than your social links, as social links often inform you in game their level and when they're close to improving, as quests are something you will be checking perhaps even daily as you progress through the game. Moving your currency out from the bottom of the menu makes it easier to find as well, as there's not really any reason to have it there to begin with?

The character models are absolutely incredible as well! Of course, again, 17 years improvement, but what improvement it is! Aigis, my beloved, she looks stunning. I cannot get over the lighting, although this does lead a bit into the things I'm disappointed with.

The sprite art is amazing as well. They've brightened the characters' palettes, and with the higher quality graphics, it's allowed them to add subtler details (like the stitching on Yukari's choker). However, it feels like this was at the expense of some of the character the Persona 3 sprites had. The range of facial shapes seems to have been lost, and even details such as Aigis being the only character with larger pupils is no longer as clear.

A lot of the emotion in the Persona 3 sprites has been sacrificed as well, which is disappointing seeing as it's one of, in my opinion, the best features in the Persona 3 sprites. This is really present in Junpei, as along with losing his distinct chin and little beard, his sprite lacks the personality of the original.

Even in his voicelines and such, they lack the energy and personality Junpei has? Something as simple as the implication of an accent in text can give a character so much personality, can tell you about the kind of person they are or how they grew up. With Junpei, he uses 'lazy speech', where he pronounces the word in an easier way rather than the 'proper' way (using ya instead of you). It instantly gives the vibe that he's more laid back and that he isn't as strict as somebody like Mitsuru who uses full sentences with consistent, proper pronunciation. Although you could argue that him telling the player to refer to him by his first name tells you this as well, this requires prior knowledge of Japanese culture and honorifics, and how these are used in a day to day life, and therefore just doesn't have the same effect in the English localisation as a written accent.

Looking deeper at the sprites, the main reason they had so much more emotion and character was the range of motion. Although some sprites are reused with different expressions, there is a range of poses. This allows for emotion through body language, which not only helps express emotion but personality as well. Once again, the pose used most frequently tells us Junpei is this laid-back guy, and simply having such a range of head placements creates more character and emotion in these sprites.

Persona 4 was when they changed to a static base sprite with a range of emotions, rather than the differing pose and head placements in Persona 3. Looking at Yosuke's sprites, it's very clear they're one sprite with varying expressions. Although this already removes some of that character and emotion from Persona 3, the Persona 4 characters at least have a great deal of different expressions.

Looking at Ryuji's sprite in Persona 5, there's much more animation within it. Having options for eyes open and closed, and mouth movements. However, he has a total of 6 emotions, with the same base for all. Persona 5 uses cut ins for stronger emotions, however this only works for those strong emotions.

The dynamic sprites in Persona 3 really added to the game, so seeing that it seems they're carrying on with the trend of the previous two games is kind of disappointing. It is for sure something that could have been achieved with the current style of Persona, and although I understand its easier for them to go off of one base for both time and consistencies sake, it is something I wish they had, or maybe even will, adapt into this game.

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In general, I'm really excited about this game? Although the sprites really are something that disappoints me, the fact that my biggest grievance is something so small really does leave me excited about the game itself. With the only switch port we have not having any of the cutscenes, I'm really excited to be able to fully experience the game on a modern console, and one that is to me much more accessible than the PlayStation is. I do have high hopes for this game being good!

[veliseraptor]

Top 5 animated movies?

I see asks like this one for this meme and I'm like "lise what if you just wrote a short and simple response listing movies, then maybe you would actually end up answering all your meme asks" and then my brain goes "nope <3" and I end up with five paragraphs. I'm just not very good at shutting up.

anyway!

1. The Last Unicorn. This is the "no-brainer" one for me because I always feel like this is just...such an important piece of media, and it's one of those things where when I show it to new people I feel very vulnerable about it and kind of go "please understand that in sharing this with you I am showing you my vulnerable underbelly and if you hate it don't tell me." I don't even know that I could articulate why exactly, but it occupies a very particular place in my heart that few other pieces of media can claim to have. I have watched it so many times and here I am going "maybe I should rewatch it today, actually. plug in my external cd drive and pull out the dvd and everything." It's like that.

2. Princess Mononoke. Another one that came to me immediately as I was coming up with this list. I'm pretty sure I watched it a little too young and the opening scene with the boar creature vs. Ashitaka kind of scarred me a little bit but...lord, what a movie. It's beautiful visually and as a story I also love it. I feel like chronologically Spirited Away was my first Studio Ghibli I remember, but this was the one I latched onto. ngl, the fact that there are wolves in it probably helped.

3. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. It started to get a little harder here, but then I remember how I felt when I saw a caption referencing a song from this movie's soundtrack (thanks for the bangers, Bryan Adams! unexpected but I'm grateful) and went "!!!!" like my brain was lighting up like a lightbulb. So yeah, I'm going to say this is an important one. You can take the horses away from the horsegirl but you can't take the horsegirl out of the girl. or something like that. And this was one of my horsegirl movies. I also just now remembered the paint by numbers extras that were on the dvd that I was weirdly obsessed with, so that's cool.

4. Watership Down. Actually this one should've been third and I don't know how I forgot it! I joke that the fact that the animated movies I rewatched most as a kid were this one and The Last Unicorn and that probably explains a lot of things, but honestly it might. This movie has a reputation that's in some ways bigger than it deserves (though the destruction of the warren segment is pretty much as awful as everybody says it is), but it is also just legit a really good story and well-adapted into a movie, in my opinion. I watched the remake and was profoundly disappointed mostly because I felt like the animation style was boring, and one thing this movie definitely had going for it was the style.

5. Atlantis: the Lost Empire. I almost went with The Lion King but then I remembered this movie, and, yeah. What a film. Truly everyone who has talked about the brief period where things were very weird and therefore very interesting at Disney were right. Also Helga probably turned me gay (and specifically gay for female villains), I just didn't notice until later.

Honorable mentions to The Lion King, The Rescuers Down Under, and Mulan. And probably several others I'm forgetting that I'll think of as soon as I hit post.

There are definitely the animated movies I want to see, most notably Song of the Sea, because I suspect I would really like them. I am just terminally bad at watching movies, you know.

shout out to The Secret of the Seal though, which was a movie where I sort of thought one of my sisters and I shared a collective hallucination until finally I managed to track it down with something like "seal macaroni penguin animated movie." not to be confused with the 1992 anime film Tottoi, mind you.

...though considering now that I'm looking again all I can find to prove its existence is a cover, I'm beginning to wonder again. The Rotten Tomatoes page I thought was going to take me to it returns a 404 not found.

IT WAS REAL she screamed as they dragged her away. I SWEAR IT WAS A REAL MOVIE

[fandomfluffandfuck]

the more I read abt it the more I think the firing of Victoria Alonso is a bad sign, bc she wasn't just some uninvolved suit she was working on the movies from the beginning and approving all the final visuals, so hearing her as a gay Latina talking about trying to push for better representation and publicly criticizing Disney for funding the Don't Say Gay stuff is a bit chilling, along with reading the articles that she recently conflicted with marvel over refusing to blur out pride flags in the background of the newest antman & how they got mad at her for promoting an Argentinian historical film about a dictatorship in Argentina that the US sponsored during/as part of the Cold War.

feels like her firing wasn't just a lot of the mass cost-cutting going on rn, but also part of an american boy's club culture among others in power over there that was tired of her pushing for lgbt inclusion and doing projects that promoted not just non-American politics but specifically politics that questioned the US' 20th century legacy and its heavy revisionism upheld by America's history books & propagandized media. It's like the marvel brand pushing towards a uniform US-centrism that makes little room for minorities cultures or stories that can encroach against their American corporate politics too directly without being behind a bunch of opaque metaphors or being brushed away to the background or being overwritten by newer stories that do away with opportunities for representation or inclusion of other perspectives.

Ask #2:

I mean, look at the how marvel in paper and cinematic mediums treated the Winter Soldier Cap plotline. It had Steve and Bucky, 2 soldiers who served their country to fight Nazis in WW2 in an integrated transnational unit, both get dragged into the 21st century to find that the Captain America image has been turned into a propaganda tool by the government and the very same government hired and funded the Nazis they fought in WW2, who then turned Bucky into a mindcontrolled slave. That had the potential to have the most direct analogy and critique of the IRL USA, but then what happens in the fallout of that movie and how do the characters and world get affected by this revelation?

Nothing much, there's no lingering distrust in the government that funded this, even among characters who were directly affected. Characters with origins in the same Nazi organization get funny dances and memes or favorable adaptations. Even though Steve dropped the shield and Cap role, this hardly turns into a long term character development of him questioning the country he serves (as an Irish immigrant in the early 20th c who would've been other-ized already) instead Steve goes back to fighting for it under a notion of legacy and symbol and the shield is characterized as so so important to him. Bucky, the one most directly affected by the US hiring the Nazis who enslaved him, just ends up meekly serving the government itself and trying to abide by its criminal laws that deemed him a perpetrator even though reasonable minds, Steve, should be demanding reparations even if there's no hope of that actually happening. There's no reckoning to how both Bucky and Steve being treated as little else than supersoldier weapons by their own government. Instead, newer stories just focus on more ways they can serve it without ever questioning the very core of their inexplicable loyalty to an entity that took part of their exploitation, which could serve as a cathartic progression and consequence of the Winter Soldier plotline and create potential for fresher stories that deal with what if the former Cap characters said "enough of this BS," but instead marvel church's out more of the cap'n murrica: [insert name of IRL war the US has heavily propagandized the shit of and now uses for patriotic media marketing]

that really shows the limitations of what marvel does with their politics, the closest thing they got to accurate historical critique of a real life event (the Western Allies hiring Nazis post-WW2) also gave birth to the most popular take on the characters in both mediums, and yet none of it comes close to actually pushing the status quo in the fictional world or to progressing the characters into something that reflects their stances on the exploitation they underwent by "their own people." The characters involved ironically almost develop amnesia to the bombshells in the Winter Soldier plotline and regress into Generic Murrican Old White Guy #1 and #2 to serve as prop pieces within US-centric status quo stories ad infinitum

Ask #3:

to give a more specific example: marvel's newest Captain America event thing goes by "Cold War" and is about a secret shadow government that controls the entire world (gee, wonder what kind of far rightist repeats that kind of conspiracy theory) and they are also known as... The Revolution (really tossing aside all subtlety there!) and they're conveniently responsible for every bad thing the USA and its allies did for the past 200 years (way to completely render their best Cap story meaningless)

meanwhile, the IRL Cold War had the US fund fascist movements in Africa, Asia & LatAm (literally what the 1985 Argentinian film that marvel's execs got annoyed with is about) and said movements repressed grassroots movements constituted by people at the bottom of the political hierarchies there, not a secretly powerful group known as "The Revolution."

Their newest comics completely turn the "Cold War" on its head to appeal to the reactionary anxieties that America is secretly under attack by some secret shadow group, even when the IRL power dynamic was radically different. The WS stories were the closest they ever got to pulling away from regurgitating decades-old US propaganda, and it also happens to be the most popular and humanizing in fleshing out its characters into with actual emotion and connection. And yet the franchise can't help but revert back to their roots and invalidate that entire story just so they can repeatedly pumping out Murrican stories that'd make McCarthy look up and smile.

Sorry I didn't respond to this for a while, I wanted to make sure I had the time to sit down and read and appreciate what you had to say. And as far as I'm aware of Marvel stuff, I can safely say, unfortunately, I think you're right. Right on the money.

I don't think her firing was cutting costs or anything of the sort. If they could fire anyone... it seems very targeted to fire her, and it, sadly, doesn't surprise me 🙃

I hate it here.

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to write all this down because yes--you're so right, and I don't actually have much of anything to add because you explained it so well. You're being critical, and it's good. Recognizing what is happening is the first step to changing what is happening.

It's beyond shitty that huge corporations like Marvel can't be representative and diverse and kill so, so much of the actually interesting parts of their content in favor of saving face for more conservative views and people.

[doorplays]

Door Reviews: Soul of Sovereignty Prelude (2023)

There was a time when I was very much into webcomics. Don’t get me wrong, I still am into them in theory, but I have not had energy to read as voraciously as I did before. I haven’t had time to get into new ones either. I am still fond of them, however, and keep up with a couple webcomics.

It is during my webcomics phase that I discovered the works of ggdg. I found myself reading Cucumber Quest and enjoyed it a lot! When the comic went on indefinite hiatus, I kind of lost track of what they were up to, though I have faint memories of reading Lady of the Shard.

Years later, a friend of mine told me about this game. When they linked it, I realized that wait, this is from ggdg! And the memories came flooding back. It made me so excited to play this game. Well, now I have! I’m excited to talk about it :)

What’s it about?

“Soul of Sovereignty is a tale of deadly kindness and selfish virtue in a world of magic and ruin,” says the game’s itch.io page. It is a visual novel about two souls whose fates become intertwined. They go on a journey that will be of more importance than they would expect.

It should be noted that this game is just a prelude to the whole story. Not all of the questions you will find yourself asking will end up being answered here. Also! I’ll just call it SoulSov from this point on because that’s shorter lmao

STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)

SoulSov is a visual novel. It shows background art with characters in the foreground, displaying text to tell the story itself. As far as gameplay goes, it is pretty simple… but I think ggdg does some subtle things here. The layout, the way the movement of the text flows with the art, there’s a few things that help with the conveyance of the story itself. I don’t really know how common it is in the genre, as I haven’t played enough visual novels, but I appreciate these small things.

The art is beautiful. Downright ethereal at some points even! I loved seeing the old yet homey inn and the snowy woods. I loved seeing these wonderfully designed characters. They look so solid, yet soft at times.

The music, I find, is pretty good and apt. It’s nice and gentle in some places, and intense when it needs to be. The sound design is also good, shifts in the snow can be heard, creaking floorboards, the howling of the wind.

The UI is good. I like how there’s a History tab so that I can easily backtrack when I feel like I missed some words. I also like how there’s a Cast section so I can easily see descriptions of the characters. I like that the Glossary section is an external way to provide more lore to the world.

Overall, I definitely like the style of this game. Beautiful art, wonderful prose, it all combines well and lets me experience a story in a nice way.

SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)

I loved the story. I loved how the world unfolded before me, from a cold, sleepy hamlet to a sprawling empire of a city. I loved seeing all the characters, their quirks, how they interacted with each other. Most of all, I loved how the worldbuilding revealed itself. The importance of flowers, the history of certain sites, the pantheon of the world… ggdg discusses just enough to paint a picture but leaves out enough to make me want to know more.

The story takes its time. It wants you to feel the weight of each sentence, to understand each brushstroke of a painting. ggdg makes sure that each click of the mouse moves the story in an efficient and economical way, which makes for a tight story that still expresses itself well.

I have not played much graphic novels, but what I find interesting is how you can “turn the page” so to speak. When I say turn the page, I talk of how certain forms of media dictate the flow of stories. With books, you turn the page. With comics, you go from panel to panel and turn the page. With film, you frame the story with your camera and dictate the very story itself with what you choose to record with it. With games? It’s different with each genre. But for this game, each click of the mouse (or press of the spacebar) turns the page. At some points, turning the page here means it reveals each sentence when you’re ready, showing accompanying art and changes in character sprites. At other points, it reveals each block of text, revealing changes in background and introducing new areas. While describing it this way feels a bit granular, it didn’t feel too slow when I moved through the story. And I think this approach makes the important moments hit better.

Overall, the story fucks. I enjoyed it a lot!

VERDICT

I haven’t played enough graphic novels to judge this as a graphic novel, but as a game I enjoyed SoulSov immensely. The art is great. The story is great. I’m excited to experience more installments of this game and find out more about this world! I am glad to have this game be the first game I finished in 2024. I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone!

Door Rates Soul of Sovereignty Prelude: 5/5!

[leebird-simmer]

Intro to Film Studies, Ch. 10

per John Halas, animation’s key characteristics are:

symbolization of objects and human beings

picturing the invisible (sound waves, magnetism, radar, etc)

penetration (showing interior workings of the body or of a machine; showing complex inner states, like dreams or memories or fantasies)

selection, exaggeration, and transformation

showing the past and predicting the future

controlling speed and time

as early as 70 BC, there is evidence of a mechanism that projected hand-drawn moving images onto a screen, described by Lucretius in De Rerum Natura.

16th century: erotic flipbooks in Europe

1825: Peter Mark Roget’s ‘persistence of vision’ theory, explaining how human beings perceive movement (later debunked by neuroscience, but a very reasonable theory at the time)

1831: phenakistoscope developed, made up of two rotating discs which appeared to make an image move

1861: Kinematoscope developed; employed a series of sequential photographs mounted on a wheel and rotated.

1877: praxinoscope pioneered by Emile Reynaud. A strip of images were mounted in a revolving drum and reflected in mirrors, a model later revised and renamed theatre optique.

1890s: comic strips become popular in print media. This is important because comics provided some of the initial vocabulary for cartoons (characters continuing from one episode to the next, sequential narratives, visual jokes, speech ‘bubbles’)

Proto-animation: early live-action cinema demonstrated certain techniques which preceded their conscious use as a method in creating animation. This is largely in regard to stop-motion, mixed media and the use of dissolves to create the illusion of metamorphosis in early ‘trick’ films.

Incoherent cinema: influenced by the ‘Incoherents’ (artists working between 1883-1891), a movement principally led by French caricaturist Emile Cohl, this kind of animation was often surreal, anarchistic, and playful, relating seemingly unrelated forms and events in an often irrational and spontaneous fashion. Lines tumble into shapes and figures in temporary scenarios before evolving into other images.

Animated documentary: In recent years, there has been an exponential rise in the production of animated documentary. This has essentially been characterized by the fusion of documentary tropes (non-fiction subject matter, participant interviews and analysis, use of statistical and archival evidence) and animation, resulting in a reclamation of what might be termed ‘naïve histories’ in the spirit of offering alternative perspectives on the dominant grand narratives of contemporary social, cultural, and national existence.

Character animation: Many cartoons and more sophisticated adult animated films (Japanese anime, for example) are still dominated by ‘character’ or ‘personality’ animation, which prioritizes exaggerated and sometimes caricatured expressions of human traits in order to direct attention to the detail of gesture and the range of human emotion and experience. This kind of animation is related to identifiable aspects of the real world and does not readily correspond with more abstract uses of the animated medium.

Anthropomorphism: The tendency in animation to endow creatures, objects and environments with human attributes, abilities and qualities. This can redefine or merely draw attention to characteristics which are taken for granted in live action representations of these things, and literally create original ‘worlds’, which nevertheless have a high degree of familiarity and identification. {note: Bojack Horseman does an incredible job with this; the eating habits, gait, posture, mannerisms, etc. of the background characters add so much texture!}

Walt Disney remains synonymous with animation because of his radical technical & aesthetic innovations between 1928-1942, sometimes referred to as the ‘Golden Era’ of cartoon animation.

1. Walt Disney Productions founded in 1923

2. Disney premiered first synchronized sound cartoon in 1928: Steamboat Willie

3. Disney introduced Technicolor to cartoons in 1932 with Flowers and Trees (which later won an Oscar)

4. Ub Iwerks (Disney’s first and most influential animator) developed the multi-plane camera, which achieves the illusion of perspective by having the relevant image painted on a series of moveable panes of glass placed directly behind each other. Elements of the image can be painted in the foreground, other elements in the mid-spaces, and other elements in the receding background.

5. Disney releases the first full-length, Technicolor, sound-synchronized, animated cartoon feature: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Deconstruction: All media ‘texts’ are constructed. To understand all the components within each construction, it’s necessary to deconstruct the text and analyze all its elements. For example, the cartoon is made up of a number of specific aspects which define it as a unique cinematic practice (i.e. its frame-by-frame construction; its modes of representation and so on).

Synecdoche: The idea that a ‘part’ of a person, an object, a machine, may be used to represent the ‘whole’, and work as an emotive or suggestive shorthand to the viewer, who invests the ‘part’ with symbolic associations.

Iconic: The dominant signs that signify a particular person or object (Chaplin’s bowler hat, mustache, and cane; Daffy Duck’s upturned beak and lisping voice)

Ideology: a dominant set of ideas and values which inform any one society or culture, which are imbued in its social behavior and representative texts at a level that is not necessarily obvious or conscious. An ideological stance is normally politicized and historically determined.

Metamorphosis: The ability for a figure, object, shape or form to relinquish its seemingly fixed properties and mutate. This transformation is literally enacted within the animated film and acts as a model by which the process of change becomes part of the narrative of the film.

Condensation: The compression of a set of narrative or aesthetic agendas within a minimal structural framework. Essentially, achieving the maximum amount of suggested information and implication from the minimum amount of imagery used.

Squash & stretch: Many cartoon characters are constructed in a way that resembles a set of malleable and attached circles which may be elongated or compressed to achieve an effect of dynamic movement. When animators ‘squash’ and ‘stretch’ these circles, they effectively create the physical space of the character and a particular design structure within the overall pattern of the film. Interestingly, early Disney shorts had characters based on ‘ropes’ rather than circles and this significantly changes the look of those films.

Reduced animation: Animation may be literally the movement of one line which, in operating through time and space, may take on characteristics which an audience may perceive as expressive and symbolic. This form of minimalism constitutes reduced animation, which takes as its premise ‘less is more.’ Literally an eye movement or the shift of a body posture becomes enough to connote a particular feeling or meaning.