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canmom · 4 years ago

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Animation Night 31 - (C)Hanuk(k)ah!

Chag chanukah semeach!

Today’s the first day of חֲנֻכָּה, usually transliterated as Hanukkah, Chanukah, or Hanukah - a Jewish holiday that’s like... afaiu, relatively low on the list in terms of “Important Jewish Holidays”, but over time became quite significant in America as a welcome alternative to that other winter holiday.

@mogsk had a great idea of making that the theme of Animation Night this week. So this week we’re going to look at some portrayals of Judaism in animation, which admittedly mostly don’t have to do with Hanukkah specifically because sadly there is not a great lot of choice there!

Our main feature will be The Prince of Egypt, one of the remarkable productions from that narrow window when Dreamworks was producing traditional animation before they hit their present CGI mould. And the narrowness of that window is honestly a tragedy, because Dreamworks made some absolutely beautiful traditional animation in their day. Like many of their films, Prince of Egypt shows off some cuts by one of my fave animators, James Baxter, who’s equally at home with subtle character animation and sweeping 3D camera movement...

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More on Dreamworks, and Prince of Egypt, in a sec.

Dreamworks aren’t the only Disney expatriates we’re going to be checking out. Don Bluth, the horny one, directed a film called An American Tail in 1986, about a Jewish refugee mouse from Imperial Russia struggling to reunite with his family in America. It was panned by critics as ‘too depressing for kids’ so it’s probably up our street :p

To introduce it all, however, we’ll be looking at one of the only animated works to explicitly deal with celebrating Hanukkah: an episode of the TV series Rugrats, which (I’m advised!) is one of the best primers on the holiday - both the story behind the event, and what it’s like to celebrate it.

In case you were wondering... the lumpy-headed babies you’re seeing were designed by Peter Chung, the Aeon Flux guy. Per TVTropes Rugrats was one of the first three original cartoons by the network/studio Nickelodeon, and thus one of the first to break the trend of merchandise-driven cartoons. It wasn’t quite as experimental as its sister show Ren and Stimpy, but it’s better remembered than Doug (seriously wtf is Doug?), portraying a group of children playing in elaborate fantasy worlds.

A Rugrats Chanukah was the second time the show portrayed a Jewish holiday; the first one portrayed Passover. It was written by two Davids, J. David Stem and David Weiss; the first has almost no information beyond his screenwriting credits, but David Weiss had recently converted to Judaism which I suspect helps add some sincerity to the episode. In any case, mogs says it’s an uncannily accurate portrayal, and a good introduction to like... what the holiday actually is about, in terms of both the history behind it and the modern, personal meanings.

Following that, we have another Don Bluth film! We didn’t have time to talk much about him on animal suffering night, so let’s remedy that now. Don Bluth was first an animator from a Mormon family who got his start in the 50s, working as an assistant to John Lounsbery, one of Disney’s esteemed “Nine Old Men”. In the old Disney animation pipeline, assistant’s job is similar to an inbetweener in anime: they use the key drawings and timing charts of the main animator, and fill in all the frames with minimal changes. The typical career of a Disney animator would be to begin as an assistant and learn drawing and animation skills, and eventually get to do their own key animations down the line.

Bluth, however, left Disney for a number of years after Sleeping Beauty was released, first to go on a Mormon mission (a rite of passage that serves a cult-indoctrination function) and then to work with Filmation, returning to Disney in the 70s to work on some of their furrier films like Robin Hood and The Rescuers. But by 1979 he had become dissatisfied; he left Disney again along with eleven other animators including long-time collaborator Gary Goldman, aiming to bring back the ‘Golden Age’ animation style.

So Bluth became something of an animation auteur. His studio’s initial first film, The Secret of NIMH, met only modest success despite a few innovations like a profit-sharing contract. As we saw, the film had lavish animation that sometimes borders on outright over-animation, with flourishes on every movement. But with the small gross and an incoming animator’s strike, they went bankrupt... like twice or something? All these financial troubles did not stop Bluth’s studio from creating the unique FMV-based animated arcade game Dragon’s Lair, which is essentially a branching path made of quicktime events and clips of the main character dying to various traps.

After the second(?) bankruptcy, Bluth didn’t give up; he founded another animation studio with a businessman called Morris Sullivan, which set up shop in Ireland (where the winds were favourable for animation) as Sullivan-Bluth productions.

This brings us to his collaboration with Steven Spielberg, on An American Tail (1987) - which I think was the first time Spielberg worked in animation, in an Executive Producer role. (I’m never quite sure what the difference between (Executive) Producers and Directors is, but I think it means Bluth had the most creative control?) The film revolves around Fievel, who lives with a Jewish family in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire in 1885. This is not a world where furries exist in place of humans, but where a family of humans (the Moskowitzes) are host to a family of Mice (the Mousekowitzes), with the life of the mice paralleling that of the humans.

While celebrating Hanukkah (see! there’s your connection to the theme!), the human family survives an antisemitic arson attack by the Cossacks, paralleled by the mice surviving a similar attack by the cats. Their house destroyed, and fearing further pogroms, the mice resolve to flee to the USA. Fievel becomes separated from his family on the trip, who presume him dead. Unfortunately, hope of a cat (antisemitism)-free USA proves rather unfounded, and the migrant mice join the political struggle against the American cats. So the movie’s twin plots concern simultaneously Fievel’s attempts to reunite with his family, and highly metaphorised antifascist struggle.

This all sounds astonishingly grim for a kids’ movie, but hey, that’s what Spielberg sentimentality is for I guess? At the time, the film was criticised for lacking confidence and downplaying the Jewishness of the mouse family, to the point that it is possible to miss that the film’s inciting incident is specifically an antisemitic attack. But I guess we’ll judge that for ourselves!

Don Bluth is known for a number of peculiarities and blatant fetishes recurring visual motifs. Cats in his films are more like bears, squash and stretch is pushed to extremes, there’s a lot of tumbling and big open mouths with dangly uvulas and oh man, the transformation sequences. I mean just check this shit out:

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As far as I know he doesn’t really indulge in these Bluth-isms in An American Tail, but idk, I’ve been wrong before. The film was, in any case, a massive success, briefly the most successful animated film; as were the next couple of Spielberg-backed animated films such as The Land Before Time (also Bluth) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (with Richard Williams as the animation director). At some point however, Bluth split from Spielberg, who took the rights to make various dubious American Tail sequels...

Bluth had a pretty huge impact in his day. Jeffrey Katzenberg, who we’re about to meet (oh boy), saw that animated films could make a lot of money and kicked off Disney’s ‘renaissance’ period. But as TVTropes write, Bluth didn’t get to share in the ‘renaissance’. Many of his later films were released against Disney films, and massive box office failures, leading to tighter restrictions on Bluth’s work by his backers that, not surprisingly, resulted in very unsuccessful film. Bluth’s studio folded, and he went to Fox, giving one small window of success in another Russian-themed project, Anastasia, based on the mythology of one of the Romanov dynasty surviving the revolutions of 1917 - but his next film, Titan AE, a rather muddled scifi film which couldn’t find an audience, was another bomb and that was basically it for him.

(it’s surprisingly hard to find gifs of this film, rather than the sequel. But this gif is p typical of Bluth style animation: the large gestures, flexible characters, highly contrasting painted backgrounds, water effects...)

Following that, we hit our other main feature: Dreamworks’s The Prince of Egypt. This film is an animated adaptation of the Exodus story, in which the Israelites, held in slavery in Egypt, are led to freedom by the prophet Moses with more than a little divine help. It’s not exactly directly relevant to Hanukkah, but there’s a joke that goes “every Jewish holiday can be summed up ‘they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat!’”, and it definitely fits that template :p

Much like Don Bluth’s studios, Dreamworks spun out of Disney. It was founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had for a long time been Disney’s feature animation director - and I guess Katzenberg makes an interesting contrast with Bluth. Don Bluth was an animator, but fairly peripheral; he left the studio for the sake of pursuing more ambitious animation in a time when wallets were very tight but maintained pretty good relationships with many of his former colleagues. Katzenberg, by contrast, was more on the business side of things, and his departure from Disney was a lot more acrimonious.

Katzenberg became head of Disney’s feature animation department in 1984, at the same time that Michael Eisner (his prior boss at Paramount) became CEO of the studio. At this time, Disney was at a relatively low point - still the classic symbol of the psychic side of American imperialism, but hardly the depressingly omnipresent media monopoly it since became. Animation was unpopular, so the feature animation department was habitually cutting corners and not expecting to make a lot of money.

Katzenberg showed up and immediately started upsetting people, cutting 12 minutes from The Black Cauldron as his very first act. But under him, Disney found a new formula for animated films which would make them a truly stupid amount of money through the 90s. Their first couple of films under Katzenberg, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, an experiment with Spielberg’s involvement in mixing live action with animation, also known for the animation work of Richard Williams), The Little Mermaid (1989), and Beauty and the Beast (1991, the year I was born!, featuring early use of CGI and some absolutely god tier James Baxter cuts) were relatively traditional: musicals based on fairy tales. But then, well, Robin Williams happened.

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The first really big Katzenberg drama, as documented by Lindsay Ellis above, was his conflict with the actor Robin Williams, who provided the voice performances of the Genie in Aladdin - introducing a new template of animated film promoted on the basis of a celebrity voice, very much against Williams’s own wishes. The use of Williams’s name as the centre of the film’s marketing so upset the actor that he basically severed ties with the studio for decades, but apparently it worked, and made Disney absolute megabucks.

Katzenberg did a bunch of other stuff, including bringing Pixar into Disney, but relationships were already fraying. Katzenberg and Eisner tried to push a darker version of Toy Story, the ‘Black Friday’ reel, which almost resulted in the film being cancelled altogether. But relations between the two were also fraying: Eisner refused to promote Katzenberg to the President position he wanted after the incumbent Frank Wells died.

“Fuck you,” said Jeffrey. “If you all hate me so much, I’ll make my own animation studio!” Thus he founded Dreamworks, in 1994, with Spielberg’s support. I’m not sure how many other people left Disney with him - obviously Baxter, presumably some other great animators. Anyway...

Nowadays Dreamworks is overwhelmingly known for making a lot of CG movies like Shrek; for a while they were derisively compared to Pixar in memes, but their reputation seems to be improving a bit in more recent years as people sour on the Mouse.

In their early years, though, Dreamworks focused on traditional animation, and their best work from this period is The Prince of Egypt (1998). I think it had already been the case that Disney animation had broadly been moving from a squashy, highly stylised approach to animation to somewhat more realistic human figures. But Prince of Egypt, wanting to treat the subject matter seriously, pushed it a lot further, with some really gorgeous elegant designs of characters like Moses at various ages and a great deal of spectacle. Despite the more complex designs, the animation is absolutely top notch, with all sorts of subtle character acting: Moses is brilliantly realised and imbued with personality at all his different ages.

And then well, the music! There are so many great songs: absolutely haunting pieces like Deliver Us (which opens the film) or the song of the plagues, but even the more comedic ones (the two Egyptian priests’ song You’re Playing With the Big Boys Now) don’t feel out of place. It’s not afraid to take some liberties to suit the arc of the story, but it nails the tone.

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(Since I only have the English version to show tonight - here’s the Hebrew version of Deliver Us. With apologies for 240p. Do give it a listen!)

The film is of course much more concerned with conveying the emotional scope of the myth than like, historical accuracy: for example, the version of Egypt portrayed is building much grander architecture, at a greater pace, than in history. It’s a mythologised version of Egypt. But as far as that emotional scope goes, it delivers so much. It’s a really good example of the power Western-style ‘full’ animation could have, if it wasn’t so shackled to kids’ movies.

Dreamworks would continue to make a few traditionally animated films through the 90s. These aren’t all that well remembered, which seems a great shame - from the clips I’ve seen, they had some really great animation as well. Like check out this clip of Sinbad, which is uh, some kinda gay pirate movie?

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In those couple of minutes we get to see detailed, anatomically-proportionate but still very expressive adult character designs, fluid, weighty motion with fantastically clean linework on every frame, some really well-choreographed action shots with complex camera motion and a ton of characters involved... the only thing that lets it down is the extremely dated looking CGI on the ships and water. It’s a good illustration of how animation can bring a kind of clarity and control over choreography which is very hard to reproduce in live action.

...and then it all ended after Spirit, because these films were incredibly expensive to produce and not especially successful, while meanwhile Shrek comes out and makes stupid amounts of money. So Katzenberg decided traditional animation was out, and Dreamworks would be a CG studio from there on. (Disney followed suit a few years later, after films like Atlantis and Treasure Planet also failed - one of the first animated films I obsessed over as a kid was Atlantis, which Disney fans tend to dismiss!). Hence: endless forgettable comedy films marketed on celebrity voices, the rise of posters with the one-eyebrow-raised ‘Dreamworks face’, etc. etc. (This took some really bizarre turns like the Bee Movie - between that and Shrek, Dreamworks has somehow become the big meme studio now.)

From that point on, American 2D animation would be heavily limited to TV, often heavily leaning on puppet animation in tools like Flash (now Adobe Animate), and almost always outsourcing most of the animation work to talented overseas studios like South Korea’s Studio Mir (the same people who made Wonderful Days, who should seriously be allowed to have more of their own creative direction instead of always providing services for Americans...) because they could be paid less than the American rate.

bluh bluh, sakuga purists going off on one again, yes - CG can be great! and of course I have to reckon with the fact that animation has always been beholden to capitalism, since it takes such a stupidly large amount of work; it’s rare for animators to get to create stories as we want without the question of ‘will it sell’ forcing certain decisions; the films animators like are not always the films people at large like. and so a big enough downturn basically killed half the medium in the west. thankfully anime is still going very strong for now, even if its actual animators aren’t seeing any of the money that the industry is raking in... but that’s another story! (art and social reproduction, coming soon to a long textpost near you)

anyway: I’ve been looking forward to the day we can check out early Dreamworks, since the studio’s later work tends to overshadow it and it’s a style of animation I respect quite a bit. (I just really like ‘full figure’ character animation with relatively realistic figures - though still stylised - which could be said to be losing out on the unique benefits of animation, but I just find this kind of drawing and animated acting really appealing. hence anime and, well, this particular era of American film animation when they tried making slightly more serious movies.)

There was actually a second Dreamworks animation of a story from the Torah, Joseph: Prince of Dreams, made direct to video but apparently not nearly as phoned0in as the average direct-to-video animated sequel. Though very much in the shadow of Prince of Egypt, I’m told it has gorgeous dream sequences that take after a Van Goph painting.

Given the runtime is just 74 minutes, I believe we will be able to slot that in before Prince and not overrun the whole night. in effect it functions as a kind of prequel: one film showing how the Jews arrived in Egypt on a hopeful note... and then PoE saying like “oh g-d, that is how it went? sorry joseph”.

so. with all that said...

happy hanukkah! I realise this post has mostly been about the animation industry rather than the background and context of the holiday itself, but that’s mostly because I don’t feel confident speaking on that. (I know these posts tend to present themselves as kind of authoritative, but honestly, I would love it if anyone ever felt like adding some details that happen to catch their special interest! with or without animation gifs!) Really grateful to @mogsk both proposing the topic and providing me recommendations, and I hope this post does them justice.

Animation Night 31 will begin in ~2 hours from posting at 7pm UK time, at the usual place of https://twitch.tv/canmom

(incidentally - yeah, an animation night will fall on the 24th in two weeks. I don’t intend to do anything specific to that other winter holiday as an incredibly meaningless and petty act of cultural spite, but I will probably keep things short since I suspect a lot of people have places to be on the 24th :p )

#animation night

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discotreque · 4 years ago

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LwD 1.10, “No Small Parts”

Well, that was the most fun I've had watching Star Trek in literally a quarter of a century.

I had high hopes for this series. I love TAS, largely because of its wacky outsized concepts that could only have worked in animation—not that they all did work, but the potential was so apparent to me, even as a kid reading the Alan Dean Foster novelizations—and as an adult, there's something about the imagination of Lower Decks's FX setpieces that transcends even the glorious CGI bonanzas of Discovery.

Pause for a confession. I've long pushed back against criticism of serialization in new Trek. That's just how TV is now, okay? Might as well complain about it being in widescreen. But I'm backing down a little, because I've realized there is something about Star Trek that's inextricable from at least a partially-episodic format. And while Picard was telling a different kind of story, I can't deny that my favourite episodes of Disco have been the ones with a mostly self-contained A-plot. After 10 delightfully episodic instalments of LwD, its focus on long-term development of characters instead of a season-spanning puzzle-plot (okay, mostly just Mariner, but we only have 10 × 22 minutes and she is the star) has been downright refreshing.

So here we are, at the end of the most consistent and well-executed Season 1 of a Star Trek series since, arguably, Those Old Scientists. And sure, if they'd had to produce another... yikes, 42 episodes? Then sure, they probably would have dropped a clunker or two—but they didn't, and winning on a technicality is still winning. I'm practically vibrating with excitement for Disco to come back next week, but damn, I'm going to miss this little show while it's on hiatus.

Spoilers below:

Something I've been keeping track of finally paid off this week! (Which never happens to me, lol.) The destruction of the USS Solvang marked the first present-day death(s) of any Starfleet officer on Lower Decks, the only other on-screen killing at all being a flashback in "Cupid's Errant Arrow". Which makes sense, being (a) a comedy, and (b) about typically "expendable" characters: it hasn't been afraid to flirt with a little darkness here and there, but killing people off at Star Trek's usual pace wouldn't just be wrong for the tone, it would be downright bizarre.

But... people die on Star Trek. That's one of the core themes of the show, really: space is full of knowledge and beauty, but also danger and terror, and believing that the former is worth the risk of the latter is (according to Trek) one of humanity's most noble traits. I'm the least bloodthirsty TV watcher I know, but the longer we went with a body count of nil—ships completely evacuated before they were destroyed, main characters hilariously maimed without permanent consequences, etc.—well, I didn't mind per se, but the absence of truly deadly stakes was definitely getting conspicuous.

Turns out they were saving it up for maximum impact. And holy fuck, I've never felt such a pit in my stomach watching a ship get destroyed that wasn't named Enterprise. It felt grim and brutal and somehow both much too quick and dreadfully inevitable—and yeah, it looked extremely fucking cool—and I'd like every other Star Trek property for the rest of time to take notes under a large bold heading labeled RESTRAINT.

Comedy doesn't need to do this, but my favourite comedy does, and in a way that few other art forms can even approach: lower my emotional defences by making me laugh, endear character(s) to me with goofy-but-relatable antics—then BAM, sucker-punch me in the motherfucking feels. M*A*S*H is probably the classic example on TV, Futurama was notorious for it, and even Archer has pulled it off a few times; it's also a staple of some of my favourite standup. I wasn't sure if Lower Decks was going to go there in Season 1—and wasn't sure if they'd earn it—but I knew if they did, that they'd nail it, and damn. Feels good to be right.

Last batch of notes for the season!!! I rambled enough already, so let's do it liveblog-style:

I fucking KNEW they were going to use "archive" visuals from TAS at some point, I KNEW IT :D

"THOSE OLD SCIENTISTS" ahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I like chill and confident Boimler a lot? You can really see—

oh bRADWARD NOOOOO

That opening shot of the Solvang tracking down to the red giant was extremely Discovery-esque... minus the motion sickness, that is

A lady captain AND a lady first officer? That's—oh hey, it's Captain Dayton's brand-new ship. Hahaha, that means they're totally fucked, right?.

Yep! They sure a—umm, wh—shit, okay, but—oh no—no, you can't—wait DON'T

...fuck

FUCK.

Narrator: "And then Amy needed a five-hour break."

[live-action Star Trek showrunner voice] "Gee, Mike! Why does CBS let you have two cold opens?"

Okay, yes, the bit with Rutherford cycling through all the different attitudes in his implant was transparently an excuse for Eugene Cardero to vamp while waiting for something to do in the story, but as far as I'm concerned they can contrive a reason for him to do a bunch of different silly Rutherfords in a row any time they damn well want, because that was classic!!!

EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP

AND THE EXOCOMP IS PAINTED LIKE THE EXOCOMP IS WEARING A LITTLE EXOCOMP-SIZED STARFLEET UNIFORM

EXOCOMP!!!!!

The slow burn and now the payoff of the Mariner-is-Freeman's-secret-daughter plot has been executed so well. I'm beyond impressed with this writer's room, y'all—they are threading a hell of a needle here

"Wolf 359 was an inside job" would have been a spit-take if I'd had anything in my mouth

...how many memos do you think Starfleet Command has had to issue asking people to stop calling the USS Sacramento "the Sac"?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW THEY'VE DECORATED THE SHUTTLECRAFT SEQUOIA THOUGH

Is, uh, is it weird if I'm starting to ship Tendi and Peanut Hamper a little? It is weird, isn't it. I knew it was weird...

Coital barbs??? I take back everything I said about wanting to know more about Shaxs/T'Ana.

The "good officer" version of Mariner is... kind of hot, tbh! But Tawny Newsome has done such a great job of building this character all season that her voice getting uncharacteristically clipped and martial and "sir! yes, sir!" is also deeply, deeply weird

Ah, so this is literally exactly like when TNG (and DS9) would bring in, and then blow up, a never-before-seen Galaxy-class ship, just to underscore that we're facing a real threat this week, baby. And hey, it fucking worked—my heart was in my throat, omg, for the reveal of the—

PAKLEDS?????????

The fucking PAKLEDS have been gluing weapons to their ships for the last 15 years. GREAT.

(We interrupt the SHIP BEING SLICED INTO SCRAP for an interesting bit of world-building: on Earth, the traditional First Contact Day meal is salmon!)

"I need a dangerous, half-baked solution that breaks Starfleet codes and totally pisses me off! That's an order." I'm starting to think Captain Freeman might actually be overqualified for the Cerritos, y'all—she's REALLY awesome

OH SHIT IT'S BADGEY, this is a TERRIBLE IDEA

"How much contraband have you hidden on my ship?" "I don't know! A lot!"

Awwww, Boims!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA, FUCK THIS, PEANUT HAMPER OUT

BADGEY NOOOOO

AUGHHHHH WHAT THE CHRIST DID HE JUST—BUT—RUTHERFORD'S IMPLANT????

RUTHERFORD!!!!!!!!!!

SHAXS!!!!!!

F U C K ! ! ! ! !

ahaIOPugdfhagntpgjrq90e5mgu90qe5;oigoqgw4ouegrw5SP;IAEHURVa IT’S THE TITAN???????????

IT'S CAPTAIN WILLIAM T. RIKER ON THE MOTHERFUCKING TITAN??????????

i'm screaming I'M SCREAMINGGGGGGTGGGTGQER;LBHAOIBVNV;OAPBIJNVagr;h;oagruipuwtnaetbaetgq35ghqet

I'M SO GLAD THIS WASN'T SPOILED FOR ME WTF

I AM WEEPING LIKE A CHILD

...

(Just a brief 20-minute pause this time)

And oh wow, seeing Will and Deanna hits different after Picard too, in a few different ways, which I may even get into later now that my heartrate is back to normal, lmao

Oh, I am always here for some jokes at the expense of the Sovereign class. The Enterprise-E sucked. They should have built a new bigger model of the D and new Galaxy-class interiors for the TNG movies, and I will die on that hill

OKAY, FINE, YOU GOT ME, RUTHERFORD × TENDI WOULD BE ADORABLE AND THIS IS ACTUALLY A PRETTY GOOD SETUP FOR IT

Awwww, Shaxs though :( Congrats on the single most badass death in Star Trek history, dude. The Prophets would—well, the actual Prophets would probably be slightly confused about most of it, but Kira Nerys would be proud of you and I feel like that probably counts for more. RIP, Papa Bear

I am here all damn DAY for the Mariner–Riker parallels, ahahahahaha

Pausing it to record my prediction that Boimler's commitment to not caring about rank anymore is going to last 3... 2...

Yep.

Bradward, how DARE YOU.

"Those guys had a long road, getting from there to here." OH FOR THE LOVE OF—

What a brilliant way to resolve and renew the various character arcs and relationships moving into Season 2! The writers could easily have brought everything back to status quo—chaotic Mariner fighting with her mom and being a bad influence on Boimler, etc.—and done another 10 just like these, but I suspect that wouldn't have been ambitious enough for these writers. What a blast. I cannot wait for more.

Thanks for following along, friends! Stay tuned for my (similarly patchy and amateur) coverage of Discovery, starting next week!

#star trek #star trek lower decks #lwd spoilers #lower decks spoilers #lower decks #amy's episode notes

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jrueships · 3 years ago

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thinking about romantic beach trips with pg and kawhi and sometimes tmann tags along too bc. they are a family…

ROManTIC BEACH TRIPs ⁉️⁉️

Photoshops these two together like a classic jack frost x Hans frozen Disney amv LMFAO

FIRST OF ALL... I wanna talk about the differences in drip here. As always, a big factor in the pg/kawhi relationship. ... we need to talk about Kawhi's floral granny shorts... wtf is that bruh KWBDKS looking like a dusty guest room mattress that got bed bugs probably. In general u can say his drip is very convenient. He just throws on whatever he can swim in. King. He doesn't really care for sunglasses, he just wants to get going on the trip. But PAUL?? Paul simply NEEDS the blue tinted shades. He doesn't understand how Stupid he looks in them yet. And the backwards cap of COURSE. He's here to take a 'hot' photo of the water behind him. Meanwhile Kawhi has some far away Observer clicking random pics that look the cleanest but no one knows what the hell he's doing. I feel like they'd Both wear their own jerseys to the beach, but for different reasons. Kawhi might just grab his because it's sleeveless and easy, while pg grabs his to show off that he's pg and he's going on a romantic trip with his 'Whi Whi' LMFAO

But anyways.. imagine them lounging on the sand (on a beach towel ofc tho) listening to Kawhi's music. His mixtapes LMAO. Pg being the first and only one to hear them, the only one to watch kawhi tap his foot to the beat and nod whenever the bass drops to his approving. Just quiet relaxation. Pg dumping some warm sand on Kawhi's knee to help it feel better and then he brushes it off to reveal a hidden sand bug now biting kawhi's knee (kawhi doesn't really react to it. He just kinda glances down at it and lays back down like 'if I die, I die' but pg freaks and has to flick it off real quick for kawhi.

Maybe a skittering crab visits them? Kawhi randomly just starts telling unknown facts about it, like it's scientific name. Pg just refers to it simply as Mr. Krabbs tho. They probably try feeding the crab, which attracts seagulls that attack the crab and make them sad LMAO

While they DO spend time lounging and staring at the waves thinking about how far they've come and how strange yet nice it is to share this spectacular view with someone they love, they're both open to fun beach activities. Maybe they try jetskiing and pg has a competition with kawhi to see who can stay upright the longest? Who can build the biggest sandcastle? Who can get the most skips with a rock? That one was more difficult because sometimes Kawhi found rocks that he felt too bad to skip away tho so finding suitable ammo was scarce.

BUT ABOUT THE FOUND FAMILY (Vin diesel voice)... I think Pg and Kawhi are definitely the kind of parents who let their kids take home like. A bucket of seashells. As long as there's no little creatures in there, they can take em. Kawhi probably helps TMann find the prettiest and coolest of shells to collect, and Pg hypes TMann up about how they could be useful fashion accessories if you save em right! Kawhi is definitely the kinda dad who's the designated carrier, so he carries the bucket and the picnic basket and the umbrella all in one hand for his family LMAO. He scoops his hand into the sand Bank for cool sand pebbles and creates a tide pool AKDNKW. Pg probably picks up a starfish and is like 'oh this is cute!' And then it tries doing that creepy starfish sucking disintegrating thing so he throws it back into the beach/ocean/salt water whatever BRUH idk.

Tmann probably isn't a big open water swimming, and especially hates the icky feeling of wet sand mush between his toes, so kawhi and pg probably have to coax him into the water a lot. Usually he gets on a floatie and they push him off to sea and everything is cool until a curious fish tries nibbling on his toes. Then he thinks he's getting attacked by JAWS and races to the shore.

Pg and tmann probably take a ton of fashionable instagram Beach pics in their extra clothes and whatever and then you just see kawhi crouched over in the background wearing some plain grandma boxers poking some seaweed with a stick LMAO. Local beach cryptid..

They're definitely the kinda parents who have like... a whistle that they blow whenever they think their kid is swimming out too far JANJDAJ. Kawhi will spot some big waves coming and he'll usher his family back onto the sand, safe and away. One time pg stayed back because he thought he could tough the waves out and then he got hit by one and like. Exploded or smthin idk LMAO the end result is just that he got sand in his trunks and that made him grumpy for the rest of the trip until they saw some dolphins

I think kawhi is kinda just. A natural creature magnet. He's just so quiet and stoic that animals are drawn to him. He'll be standing in the water and all a sudden a bunch of stingrays are swimming around him. Or suddenly he'll just take off his water shoe and they'll be a tiny octopus hiding in it. Very good for pg and tmann's instagram pics LMAO

Tmann probably feels bad for the scavenger seagulls so he feeds One (1) and they all get mobbed by squawking feathers of fury. Tmann probably cries because GETTING FLOCKED BY BIRDS IS SCARY!!! Pg probably tries reenacting that one scene in this really bad The BIRDS movie where like... the main character tries karate kicking this really bad cgi bird LMAO. Either way they end up losing half their foods to the birds and half to run into the closest building to hide from them

When they swim at the beach uhhhh pg probably jokes about like.. 'uh oh! I think I swallowed a jellyfish! Guess you'll have to pee in my mouth lol' then looks at kawhi expectantl-

ANYWAYS YEAH. BEACH FUN <3!! EXACTLY!

#me 🤝 you: FAMILY.#beach fun adventures are so cute...#ive never been to a like.. BEACH BEACH like a BOUGIE beach but...#IT IS FUN TO THINK ABOUT #thank u anon for thinking about THEM!!!!#ted asks #pg/kawhi #mann

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spaceorphan18 · 5 years ago

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Dinosaur

Well then. That was a terrible film.

So, here’s the thing... This is another one I remember the marketing push for -- everything had a dinosaur slapped on it, but it came and went without really much commentary. In fact - it wasn’t really part of the official list of Walt Disney Animation Studios films until they wanted to make Tangled no. 50 and added this on retrospectively. I kind of wish they had left it off.

The problem with this film is that the filmmakers were so preoccupied with the new CGI stuff they could do, they really didn’t put a lot of effort into the most mind-numbingly dull and derivative script. And since the CGI doesn’t hold up - at all - this whole thing falls kind of flat.

So, let’s talk about the animation first, because I just had to listen to my brother go on about it for 90 minutes (he’s in school for graphic design, so he’d know) and even I could see a lot of this just didn’t work. The CGI elements work as well as you’d expect from, maybe, a second generation Playstation or PC video game. At the beginning, when the dinosaurs are in the jungle still, it’s not so bad -- but by the time they end up out in the desert, where the dull landscape matches the dull design of the dinosaurs, it looks really terrible.

Then there are the action sequences which are -- all bad. They’re all bad, this film looks terrible. I tried to cut it a little slack -- this was the new technology at the time! But other studios were already doing much better. Pixar, for example, was doing leaps and bounds with 3D animation - I mean watch Toy Story, which came out a half a decade earlier, and then watch this....

But not helping is the script. They made the blandest and most generic story they could tell, stealing a lot from Land Before Time in tone and, well, general story, but even from themselves, a story about one animal species raising an animal from another species. They’ve done that twice already!

Anyway - the plot is -- the main dinosaur, the dreadfully boring Aladar, has to help his lemur family (ug, I’ll get to that in a second) find the mating grounds because a meteor has wiped out their home. He joins the ‘herd’, meets a generic love-interest, befriends some old lady dinosaurs, and rises to the top as leader -- when the actual leader is bad at his job, and save everyone. But mostly, this film is walking through desert. And more desert. And more desert.

And yes, I know Lord of the Rings was mostly walking, too, but at least they’re in a lovely place to look at, and are, well, not CGI! I mean, except Gollum, but whatever, you know what I mean.

Anyway - despite a decent voice cast (though the dude who voices Aladar is as boring as the character is) none of these characters are particularly interesting, hence me not writing about any of them.

And then, on top of the awkward CGI, crappy plot, and dull characters, there’s a list of things that just are dumb, so here they are...

The lemurs **headdesk** mammals at this time were little ground dwelling creatures -- that’s how they were able to survive when the meteor/climate change wiped out the dinosaurs. Lemurs weren’t around for another five million years (yes, I went and checked). After the initial beginning, the lemurs feel more like an afterthought anyway, so why even have them in the plot? It’s not like people won’t enjoy a film just about dinosaurs...

there’s an Ankylosaurus that acts like a dog. Why?

The main bad guys are a couple of Cranotaurs that don’t speak despite everything else in this film speaking. Also - the ending with them being shouted at and pushed off a cliff is hilariously anit-climatic.

And in one of my favorite WTF moments - they have a brachiosaurus, one of the largest animals to ever walk the Earth, fit into a tiny cave. I was a little ‘done’ at that point.

The only thing that doesn’t suck about this film is the score - which is by James Howard. Just wanted to throw that out there - while we were watching the credits, my brother hilariously pointed his name out, because he’s the only one who didn’t suck at his job.

Am I being too harsh? Maybe - it is more watchable than Sword in the Stone, but watching this is like watching the Star Wars Prequels -- it’s like the filmmakers were so caught up in the new technology that they forgot about how to make an actual compelling story. I don’t understand why this movie couldn’t just be a slice of life tale about dinosaurs.

Final Thoughts: I’m not sure there’s been a dud since Black Cauldron, and even that was more entertaining in that it was at least something different to take in. You’re better off digging out your VHS of Land Before Time and watching that again. It at least has a better sense of story.

#thoughts on disney

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everymovie2020 · 5 years ago

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Earthquake (1974)

Date watched: 22 February 2020

I finally fucking found this movie in my local DVD shop. I've been toying with the idea of buying it on YouTube for ages, but when I was scouring JB Hi-Fi for some new movies, it just popped out at me at the reasonable price of $7. And it has the theatrical version and extended TV version – I chose to watch the theatrical version, which clocks in at about 2 hours, and I was happy I didn't watch the extended TV version because it takes literally an hour for the actual earthquake to hit.

This is a 70s disaster movie in all its 70s glory, and it's a real humdinger.

Honestly, I would like to see a remake of this? San Andreas is similar but the thing I liked about this was following the characters on the ground immediately after the earthquake. Actually, it really made me want to watch San Andreas. I bloody enjoy that movie.

Also, the only two people in this movie recognisable to me – other than Walter Matthau, in a cameo, I think? – were Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner, and there were a lot of characters. I'm also pretty sure this is the only Charlton Heston movie I've ever seen, not including his cameo in Wayne's World 2.

Plot:

Charlton Heston is married to Ava Gardner who is a bit of a drunk, and who swans around in sheer robes with feathers on the sleeves. Very 70s, very rich lady LA 70s. He's fucking this extremely young chick, who has a son (not his son). He works as an architect in a high-rise in downtown LA. Ava Gardner's father is the owner of the architect firm. Ava Gardner also has a fake suicide attempt at the start of the movie – like, honestly, I'm team Ava Gardner here because Charlton Heston is fucking someone else and that's not cool.

There's a couple of dudes who work at a dam – I didn't realise there was a dam so close to LA? Is there one in real life? I will google maps it, okay I just did and WOW I have never looked at a map of LA before, IT IS SO HUGE! And I found West Covina on the map! And the Mulholland Dam which I'm guessing is the dam in this movie; and also, it's so weird, looking at the map of LA and recognising so many names of places and landmarks and I'VE NEVER BEEN THERE; okay sorry I looked at the map and my mind was BLOWN but I'm back now, maybe I should go to LA one day? I feel like I definitely should, I've always wanted to go to mainland USA – what the hell was I even talking about?

Okay so there's this dam and there's a small earthquake before the main earthquake one dude drowns in an elevator and they're like, wtf, how the hell has that happened? And the first hour is just basically people talking about the small earthquake but also going about their daily lives, but there is this one bit where this geologist is talking to a dude in power and he's all, "Listen, there's going to be a huge earthquake either today or tomorrow."

And the guy in power was like, "Yeah, so?"

"So we might need to evacuate the city."

"You want to evacuate a city of 4 million people? Where are they gonna go?"

IT IS SO CALLOUS

Anyway that made me laugh because they did sweet fuck all, and they were still talking about it when the actual earthquake struck! They never went back to those guys so I’m assuming they died. A lot of people did.

So the earthquake hits, and because there's hardly any CGI (it was the 70s) – I think they used a lot of shaky cam to make it look like an actual earthquake. So the camera is shaking but the building the camera is focused on isn't? If that makes sense? It's not bad but with how great CGI is now, it's not great. It's really noticeable.

At one point a block of concrete (Styrofoam) falls onto someone and bounces off, which really made me laugh.

The shaking goes on for a good ten minutes. There's mostly a lot of shots of people getting wiped out by stuff on the street, and not too many wide shots of destruction, but they do show the Capitol Records building being demolished, the freeways falling down and stuff like that.

My favourite part during the actual earthquake itself was a scene in Charlton Heston's office building, where everyone is panicking and rushing around as the building shakes – I was yelling at them to evacuate but they didn't listen to me – and a group suddenly pile into the elevator. Now, this is a bad idea. Such a bad, bad idea. One guy rushes in, grabs a lady and throws her out – thus saving her life – and they go down in the elevator.

At this point I'm puzzled like, did they not have emergency stairwell exits? Why the fuck would you take the lift?

And sure enough, because the earthquake is STILL HAPPENING, the cable breaks and they plummet to their deaths – and to signify that, the move flashes up a splatter of blood on the camera as it transitions to the next scene, like, WHAT

I laughed.

So Charlton Heston survives and then he has to stage a heroic rescue of all of his coworkers (aside from the ones who died in the elevator) by going up the stairs – there are stairs, but they're on the OUTSIDE of the building surrounded by windows? And of course half of them are missing because they fell apart during the earthquake, so then Charlton has to rescue people and it's a whole big thing but he does because he's our hero.

There's another bit with this super gorgeous woman with a big curly afro getting held captive by this army reserve guy who pretty much has intentions to rape her, but she's rescued by one of the other characters and the army reserve guy is killed. That whole bit was weird.

And then they put the survivors in an underground carpark three levels below the surface, and what happens? An aftershock. I mean.

So Charlton Heston has to now rescue these poor bastards – including his wife, girlfriend and son of girlfriend – and in the process of doing that, the dam breaks. I'd say 90% of the people in the carpark escape thanks to Charlton, but the water washes away the rest, including Ava Gardner, and instead of climbing to safety to be with his girlfriend, Charlton sacrifices himself for Ava Gardner and they both drown.

And the last shot is just the girlfriend walking away.

It's another case of the hero of the movie dying at the end, just like in The Poseidon Adventure. What is up with the 70s and their hero sacrifices in movies? I don't get it. I can't imagine The Rock going down like that.

I would rate The Poseidon Adventure higher than this, but I would recommend not watching the extended TV version and fast-forwarding to the earthquake because that's the best part.

#earthquake #1974 #movies #movie review #disaster movie #the 70s #charlton heston #ava gardner #walter matthau #aaand a bunch of other no names

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kalira · 5 years ago

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CATS movie thoughts~

(post mirrored from Pillowfort here)

I went to see the new CATS movie with @mad-madam-m yesterday (we've been planning this since the first trailer dropped) and it was actually a) better than I expected, and b) enjoyable, which was a nice surprise! (I expected us to enjoy it because it was entertainingly bad, honestly.)

I've loved CATS since I saw the Broadway version as a kid, and listened repeatedly (incessantly) to the soundtrack thereof back then - and at times even these days - and was delighted to see a production of it when it came to our city when I was small.

The movie left me with 2-3 major issues and a handful of quibbles. . . I have not organised them at all, but here are my thoughts.

. . .which I am putting under a cut because I had a lot more to say than I thought, apparently.

I am not surprised they did an outsider character to be an audience surrogate, but *SIGH*

Also . . . Victoria? Whose characterisation in the stage show is 'excellent ballerina'?

I know that's why they chose her, they could fill her in as they chose, but it was weird to have a cat who left almost no impression in the stage show as the 'main character'

Okay I admittedly missed that they apparently folded in Jemima/Sillabub to her as well, but that really doesn't make me feel any better

Did we have to have the incredibly forced romantical feeling type focus?

Not to mention we had some oddness towards that with Munkustrap initially

Then there was Misto falling tail over paws - because he bumbles through everything - at her

Then the oddness of the Munjojerrie and Rumpelteazer song which was probably not supposed to added the both of them to that list, if more briefly

Holy heckies adding a new song for the new central character was not a bad idea but literally anywhere else in the goddamn movie, and not spinning off of Memory oh my lord all the no it was so cringe

Look you cannot build off of Memory as 'but I have it worse than you so feel better'

Who has it worse is never a good game to play at all, playing it here was so cringey

'What's a Jellicle?'

Okay I know, audience surrogate, but oof

Actually let me skip back - the CGI did not bother me that much and it's like 99% of the ranting I have seen about this since the very first trailer. It never bothered me that much.

The cats were made a bit more plain; that bothered me.

Let them have ruffs, especially the toms, wtf did you remove those for it looks a) weird, and b) wrong for cats

However the show really can only be played by humanoid cats, I think, or it . . . look, the production wouldn't work with more catlike cats

The addition of dialogue stringing together the songs and adding more plot elements and freedom to work with them was really not an issue in my opinion

It strung together the slightly expanded plot in a way it really needed

It wasn't that jarring or awkward, to me

Misto, oh baby, why oh why did they do that to you~

Mister Mistoffeelees, who is an aloof, confident, and incredibly skilled magician in the stage show is made into a nervously fumbling barely-past-kitten who fails at almost every bit of magic he attempts (and falls and trips rather a lot as well, when he's a brilliantly graceful dancer in the stage show)

It was painful, oh sweetie

I can guess part of why they did it, but it was not well done and I don't think it was necessary

Misto's magic was painful; not because it was painful itself but because he was so bad at it, and everyone expected him to fail every time he tried

Misto using his magic for Gus' song, for dramatic effect? I thought it was really great and also really sweet

Actually Misto being so starry-eyed at Gus was adorable all around

That could have been put in even with Misto being his confident stage self, in fact it could have been super cute to have him be composed and confident and then go to an overexcited kitten with Gus in front of him

The absence of the Conjuring Turn was so sad, it is a star point of Misto

Look I'm not a fan of the 'awkward bumbling male finds his confidence because of the unwavering (with no reason) faith of the new female love interest' trope in general, having it wedged in here suddenly did not make me like it any more

Upon the note of Misto, the rescue of Deuteronomy . . . was very badly timed on the beats, and badly done (I felt) when it finally happened.

I didn't expect her to show up when Misto first tried

I semi-expected the second time, but okay

When she didn't show up the third time it stopped being any kind of suspense - especially since, let's be real, the plot is not really a huge mystery - and became 'okay so . . . what are we doing instead now?'

And then the fourth try, when she did appear, it was done very anticlimactically

Deuteronomy being female didn't really bother me but it left me a bit eh

Judi Dench is awesome, but Deuteronomy not really singing is weird

Also, let Judi Dench's Deuteronomy have been implied to have had 9 - or 99 - wives you cowards

. . .plus that line being altered to be another repeat of 'Old Deuteronomy's had many lives, some may say ninety-nine' . . . it was awkward/clunky and felt over repetitious

Jennyanydots . . . oof, poor hon

Jennyanydots is a mature and above all sweetly sincere queen in the stage show

She honestly wants to better the mice and the cockroaches, and it's a bit silly perhaps, but she is determined to do it - and does

And the other cats respect her and, more, they genuinely care very much for her it seems

And she's earnest

I expected her to be played more for comedy given who was cast to play her, but the extent of it felt not great, to be honest, even before the other cats began to feel like they were mocking her a bit

Not to mention - the joke about the mice being dinner and a show I could let pass despite being very different from Jennyanydots as she originally was, but actually eating cockroaches as it went was a bit too far

As I told M when we were discussing the movie after the showing, it was like, I was rolling with it, and then they rolled too far

Also on that note? The CGI mice were a bit o.O - when the CGI cockroaches started marching my thought was actually 'oh, this won't feature in my nightmares at all'

They won't actually but they were kind of horrifying

I did like the cats watching with that alert, slightly twitchy focus of a cat seeing a small moving creature

The traditional costume change looked . . . weirder and creepier with the CGI than costume work

Bustopher Jones went from a dignified figure to a ridiculous one

It was again rather terrible to watch, wince-worthy

Prancing through the rubbish bins and splatting through things instead of his usual stage show refinement and rather snobbishness? Oof

Bustopher has always been respected, even specifically so because of his size, making his weight a joke and/or something he's 'extra sensitive' about was . . . so unnecessary

The Rum Tum Tugger has always been my favourite, since I was a wee tiny Kalira

. . .he was blessedly not so bad as I feared - and even went back closer to the rocker cat (complete with flirtatious tease nature) than the rap adaptation I have heard of and been continually ohgodwhy no at

However, why did they discard the few details of his character that are not a self-important flirt?

He's not even focused at that - in the stage show I am accustomed to he is very much a determined performer, basking in being adored

he was a bit 'oo shiny' and kept ignoring his adoring audience in the movie?

In the stage show he is also around to drop in playful lines from time to time

Also he sings a good chunk of Misto's song and brags him up, as well as pieces of other songs

While he claims to be distant and aloof, and may somewhat be, he continually comes back and causes minor disruptions for his own (and others') amusement in the stage show

He also protectively shelters some of the kittens more than once

Misto's barb was kept in but sounded more like a jealous, anxious attempt to detract attention instead of a teasing barb at an egotistical friend

Along with many of the songs, Tugger's was altered so that it is entirely sung about himself, and as with many of them, I felt it was better with some of the lines from another singer

Though his is not so bad as many, perhaps because he's already talking himself up

I wasn't really surprised to find he's changed from the inspirations I remember from the stage show and when I was little (Mick Jagger and David Bowie, mother told me when I got older XD) but it was still a little bit of a disappointment

Also a bit random, when mostly the soloing cats - at least/especially the ones singing for themselves in front of all the others - were competing in the formalised 'who gets to ascend' spread, that Tugger is evidently not

Mungojerrie & Rumpleteazer were kind of fantastic and then kind of wtf for me

me, during their song, as they pulled Victoria along with them to play and cause all manner of mischief in the house: I don't think I'm intended to be shipping Victoria with both of them now, but I definitely am

me, at the end of their song, as they deliberately abandoned Victoria strangling and trapped as a dog came barrelling up after her with saucy nonchalance: . . .what the fuck?

me, when they were helping with Macavity's attack directly: excuse me no

I know they're said to be 'rumoured' to help him out in the stage show but this was very different

Yeah they said here that it was 'only a bit of fun' and they didn't know Macavity was planning to kidnap Deuteronomy, but . . . no

I did actually like their colouration redesign, making them I think the only cats I did in the entire movie

The lack of their tumbling and acrobatics was a bit sad, though their song and playful successsion of running about, Victoria in tow, was fun

Macavity was played super well considering he has no lines in the stage show so rather little to go on, and the expansion of his plot was honestly understandable - I mean, CATS has a heck of a thin plot for a musical, let alone a movie

One of the things that bothered me about him was honestly that his song where he is described he is described as ginger and poorly-combed

He's played by Idris Elba and his fur is sleek rich brown

He looks great, but alter the lines, you've already altered several, including Deuteronomy's because of the genderswap

On that note, the plot expansion in general . . . it was way better than I feared

I was afraid they were going to wedge in another plotline alongside the (very thin/hardly there, admitted) one in the stage show and it wouldn't go well

On the other hand the making the Jellicle Ball an official competition was a little eh to me

The more I think about it the less I like it even, really

I suppose it had to be, maybe, to work with expanding Macavity's plot and actions, but I don't care for it (and I think it could probably have been worked around)

I could have done without the queens being actively aggressive to Grizabella, oof that was owch

They recoil and hiss and act like she has the plague or a curse, very disdainful of her, in the stage show, and it works well

Having the queens actively attack her, not only hissing but instead of recoiling circling her and closing in on her to slash at her? It was . . . not good

So I guess the lead queen that I noticed doing that the most is . . . Cassandra? I honestly thought it was supposed to be Bombalurina

Bombalurina only showed up as Macavity's chief singer and queen underling, to distract and drug everyone

Really? Yeah some of the queens sing about Macavity in the stage show, but Bomba is even the one who comforts Demeter when Macavity's presence freaks her out (in what seems like a trauma reaction, rather) in the stage show

I have no idea who is supposed to be Demeter, the queens were all but interchangeable background, really most of the chorus cats were

Which brings up the theme of a lot of the cats being unrecognisable to me, honestly, and/or having their roles remixed a little, or straight-up lessened

Skimbleshanks was awesome, and his song/number was perhaps even better than in the stage show

The tap-dancing along the rails? Awesome

The cats playing around in the sleeper cabin was also pretty great honestly

I will say when Skimbles appeared my immediate impression was of a very specific within-the-LGBT+-community gay man stereotype

Also I am terribly amused that he's wearing half a suit of clothes and it's the opposite half that he was in the stage production I'm most familiar with

Munkustrap was rather different, still a large part of keeping things going, if not the same way

Less serious than I'm used to? Not that he's only serious, but still

He made the best faces, like, it rescued a few awkward moments

At least a handful of moments that made me go 'this is so very not the Munkustrap I know' characterisation-wise

With the battle removed and a few other things, many of the moments that make his personality shine were gone

No seeing him lunge into action as the Jellicle Protector, basically

No seeing him trying to manage the little play-within-a-play put on for Deuteronomy (even when Tugger causes mischief) although I can't blame them for cutting both of those

No seeing him shield the kittens or younger/other cats without hesitation

Instead there was mostly just the slightly silly characterisation that showed in the moments between in the movie, it seemed to me

Gus the theatre cat was another of those whose song was rewritten to be sung by themselves, though his is the most notable for that, given he barely sings at all in the stage show

I really think it worked better the other way

But they gave me Ian McKellen being awesome in that song so I am okay with this

Also, Gus using a bit of that to scare Growltiger off the ferry and into the Thames? Fabulous

Misto's song - I talked about him and about Deuteronomy's rescue, but the song

I love having it led in by Tugger in the stage show, and I love having Tugger brag him up

Tugger is good at that, honestly, it so suits his style

Misto needs a bit of bragging up, especially for this moment

First of all, changing it up so Misto sings most of it himself instead is a bit sketchy

Changing it so it becomes less of a confident, showy number and instead is Misto being so anxious he can barely sing and constantly checking reactions . . . that made it worse

Next up, changing it from Tugger - who reads as friendly to Misto, in the stage show - leading in Misto's song and encouraging the others to praise him, to Victoria who has only just met him and all the other cats being dubious as they join in. . . I did not like

My shipper heart: why would you take that away it was excellent interaction!

My non-shipper heart: why would you take that away it makes much more sense and it also makes a lovely balance with Misto teasing Tugger during his song and shows that Tugger took it in the light-hearted spirit (they're friends, they're there for each other) it seemed to be

Also that it was so sweet a bit of interplay they took it away from Tugger to give to Misto's Sudden Romantic Interest in the movie, with zero changes otherwise? I have some side-eye.

I already mentioned the rescuing Deuteronomy beats being all wrong, but it also left me thinking we'd be getting less of Misto's song and it was oddly broken-up when we did get more

The catnip usage had me a bit o.O I'll be honest, for several reasons

Erwhat with the drugging everyone in that scene?

The glowing I'm going to assume is to show that it's having an effect on the cats, but it came off a bit weird to me

There were several cats it looked like were 'trying to escape' the catnip who most definitely had/should have already been hit

Also how did the cats assisting Macavity avoid being affected? Bombalurina at first made sense, sprinkling it below herself, none of it after that did

Wow Macavity's song and climax there with the stairs right up to the 'Heaviside Layer' in his stage display? So cocky! An unwise cat

Deuteronomy smacking him down? Very nice

Continuing to do so when he disappeared them both? Even better

I was really rather surprised not to see the melee battle among the cats in the climax with Macavity

Of course that also took away some of the drama, aaand some of the chorus cats, especially the toms', chances to shine

The queens were pretty indistuingishable from each other but at least we saw them somewhat, the toms mostly seemed to be entirely background blur

Growltiger being added in as Macavity's henchcat was actually kind of great? Watching over the kidnapped cats and as a secondary (and subordinate) Bad Tom, yes

In contrast to the mischievous Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer being used that way, I am so there for it

Grizabella was . . . a little disappointing?

She was played wonderfully! But she could have been played more

Seriously, fabulous actress there for her and they did nothing with her other than her songs and crying while singing them?

The stage production I'm familiar with has more than that with her and less time

Let her be proud and trying to gather herself up

Let her be dubious of herself and/or the others

Let her stand aside as though she doesn't even want to rejoin them after being turned aside

Look there's lots more that could have been done in the space there was with her in the movie (and without involving Victoria so much as she was, which was still a bit cringey outside Victoria's song, but at least not so badly)

She 'went with Macavity'? Felt a little unnecessary and also . . . hrm, to me

The stage show doesn't explain why the Jellicles reject her or where she was

I honestly always assumed she left on her own - Grizabella the Glamour Cat? - to make her own way, and eventually fell from grace

It was also a little strange to see her so young

Deuteronomy making the choice also felt . . . a little flat to me

I'm not sure what I was expecting or what the problem was

Regardless, it felt a little lacking somehow

I was impressed with how they had Grizabella's ascension managed, since that would be necessity be rather different from the stage show

Also great for Misto keeping some of his confidence from his song and rescue for this bit

Macavity trying to leap on and hitch a ride to the Heaviside Layer was excellent, and his getting stuck and having his magic not work to get himself un-stuck? Great

I do wonder - is his magic entirely broken, or just not working to catch his ride on Grizabella's balloon again?

The Ad-Dressing of Cats feels a bit awkward in a stage production to me; having a close-up of Judi Dench staring at me in the movie screen, for an extended time, did not make it better

Also the prologue bits about the naming of cats and what a Jellicle is were both changed and so there was no semblance of something similar in the beginning

I still think it would have been awkward, but if it bracketed the movie with the fourth wall breaks it might have worked better

The faces of the three cats close around Deuteronomy as she recited the entirety of that - which felt too long - were the only things that kept it being too awful

Munkustrap was the best in that

Misto looking horrifically embarrassed a few times and hiding behind his hat once . . . oh baby, I feel

'You're a Jellicle now!'

There's a Jellicle Ball once a year, see you then

So . . . for now, goodbye to your butt that was thrown in a sack into a junkyard we immediately ran away from

Rather than it being the Jellicles' (second, in some cases) home

I know your whole arc has been please accept me, see me, give me a place to be

But run off on your own, see you in a year

Seriously Victoria could have followed Misto, or Munkustrap, or Mungojerrie & Rumpleteazer, or anyone

Even Munku's mate could have, say, come up and encouraged Victoria to come with them

Not that we saw enough to assume he had one, still don't know who was supposed to be Demeter, but beside the point

It was a rough ending there

. . .I had a lot to say, and I'm not willing to swear that I didn't repeat myself anywhere - if I did I apologise - or skip over things I might have wanted to say. I saw the movie 24 hours ago and wrote most of this when I should have been asleep.

I did enjoy the movie and will probably watch it again - I also plan to watch the Broadway version again very soon (as soon as the library brings it to me) and have been listening to the Broadway soundtrack since yesterday afternoon.

(I may also be writing more for this fandom soon, but we'll see about that.)

#CATS (movie)#CATS (musical)#by way of my rambling references and preferences #Kalira rambles #yelling at M about things #MadMadamM

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serendipitous-magic · 5 years ago

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Hey, I just wanted to ask, while we wait for the completion of the first chapter of the season we should've got, what is your primary reason for writing this project? Is is it because of the lack of certain relationship dynamics, or maybe presence of certain ships? Or is the writing quality of season 3 in gerneral just that subpar and poorly executed?

My primary reason for the fix-it rewrite is simply this: I do not believe that the S3 we got did justice to the story or characters at all. And I want the characters, the story, and the fans to have the S3 that the story should have gotten. (That sounds very pretentious, looking over this, and I’m not trying to be like, “Oh, I can write the story that we all deserved, no problem, let me just bust out my magical writing skills since I’m clearly the only one able to fix this mess (adjusts monocle and swirls a martini).” That’s not what I’m trying to say lol. I would simply like to try my damndest to give us that, whether I entirely manage it or not. And hey, shoot for the moon, right?)

Let’s just forget ships entirely for a second. Hell, let’s forget the audience entirely. Regardless of what fans wanted, let’s consider this: the canonical seasons (1 and 2) were fantastic. The characters were complex and well-developed, and they felt like real people. The plot was fascinating and the storytelling was top-tier, with enough complexity and symbolism and background details and authenticity to captivate a huge fandom. The acting was on point. The writing was great. The whole show (the canonical seasons, that is) felt real. It felt like we were watching real people struggle against real events, and that authenticity and emotional connection was, I think, a lot of what made the show so great.

My main reason for my rewrite, honestly - more than being for the fans or even for my own satisfaction - is that I feel like the characters and story that we all know and love deserved better. The characters themselves, as characters, deserved so much better than (gestures angrily) that. (I won’t go into a whole ‘nother rant, because y’all know what I’m talking about.) The story deserved better. The writing was just... bad. Like, straight-up, it was just bad writing all the way around. It all felt like an over-the-top, cheesy B-list 80s movie, and not in the good way. While the dialogue of S1 and S2 felt like we were seeing and hearing real people talk and interact and react to things, the writing of S3 felt like a stageplay written by 13 year olds. Nothing against 13 year olds - it’s just, a professional TV show that was that good in the first two seasons really should be better than that, you know? So much better.

There were so many loose ends that S1 and S2 left hanging that S3 just straight-up ignored. There were so many wonderful, authentic, intriguing relationship dynamics - positive and negative - that they could have explored. There were so many aspects to the characters and their lives and their struggles (as a result of the events of S1 and S2) that would have been so fascinating and emotionally impactful if they had taken the time to address and explore that. And they just... didn’t. S3 completely abandoned any and all emotional connection with the characters - both between us (the viewers) and the characters, and between the characters themselves. The entire plot was driven by empty drama and meaningless action, with very few moments of real emotional connection anywhere. I’ve said it a lot and I’ll say it again: S3 is not the same show as seasons 1 and 2. It’s a completely different thing. The atmosphere is different. The aesthetic is different. The themes and morals are different. The acting is different. The writing is different. The characters are completely different people (I’ve beaten the phrase “paper-thin caricatures” to death, and I shall continue to do so). The construction of the plot is different. It’s a completely different show. From a storytelling perspective, it really does seem like we never actually got a Stranger Things Season 3 - what we really got was a show of the same name, with characters loosely based off of the ones we know, but the thing we got? It wasn’t Stranger Things. It just wasn’t.

And speaking of, I’ll touch on ships now: yes, of course I’m completely dissatisfied with the treatment of... uh... all the ships in S3? I mean, that’s an entirely separate rant in and of itself, but I’ll just say: it’s not just byeler. Ofc I’m gonna be writing byeler into my rewrite, because (gestures at my blog) I’m a byeler shipper. So. Yeah, of course. But besides byeler, S3 treated all the ships so badly tbh - even the ones that were “together” during the season. Even mileven! I don’t ship mileven, but I was pretty disgusted with how S3 treated that relationship. They played mileven for empty drama, and they didn’t even do a very good job at writing their relationship. (Again: that’s another rant.) And Jopper? WTF was up with Jopper? Who wrote that? No, seriously, who wrote that script. I just want to talk. Even Lumax, who were arguably the most stable and better-written couple in S3 - even they were very snippy with each other and apparently broke up and got together like 5 times in the span of half a year, and... It just seemed like all the ships were written so poorly, even the ones we were supposed to root for.

So, yes: another reason I wanted to rewrite S3 was to give the ships what (I think) they deserved. A respectful relationship built on teamwork and friendship for Jopper (which is definitely heading towards romantic, though it’s stalled a bit by both of their stubbornness and by Joyce’s mourning for Bob). An arc for mileven which allows them to see the negative aspects of their relationship, both grow as people (especially El, who really needs space to develop as a person), and retain their (amazing!) friendship. An arc for byeler that acknowledges and addresses their lifelong friendship, the bonding they went through last season, Will’s sexuality, Mike’s sexuality, etc. And so forth.

Reason #3(ish): the plot of S3 felt sloppy, based on empty drama and action (as I’ve said repeatedly lol), and it did not address many of the interesting loose ends left by S1 and S2, and I would like to address that in my fix-it. What happened to all the (many, many) hints about Will having powers? What happened to the Mind Flayer being a terrifying and fascinating villain/monster (without turning into a goo-monster for CGI flexing)? That guy said that Brenner is alive - is he? What about that Party trying to grow up too fast to escape and leave behind what happened to them as kids (except for Will, who’s trying to cling to the childhood that was stolen from him)? (We got a little bit of that in S3 but it was like... never addressed? Never resolved??) What happened to the Upside Down - like, the physical place itself? Why did we need to introduce Russians (like, literally just “Russians,” as a vague, stereotypical concept) as a villain when they already had good, solid villains established? Why the sudden “MURICA, CAPITALISM IS GOOD, RUSSIANS AND COMMUNISM BAD, DID I MENTION MURICA??” theme? Why? Why did they drop all the interesting loose threads from the canonical seasons only to shove in completely unnecessary new villains and drama that frankly just bloated the plot and didn’t add anything to the story that had been established in seasons 1 and 2?

Look, I could go on and on and on.

TL;DR: My reasons for this re-write project are as follows:

1) I felt that the story and characters themselves deserved better, and so did we as viewers and fans. S3 did not even feel like the same show as S1 and S2, and I wanted to at least try to write a story that would do (better) justice to the story and characters.

2) All the ships were treated terribly in S3, in my opinion, mileven included, and I wanted to a) treat them better in my rewrite, and b) yes, make it gayer. A lot gayer. Because I’m gay and I can. So (throws confetti).

3) I wanted to address some of the interesting loose threads left by seasons 1 and 2, and cut out a lot of the bullshit that was shoved into the plot unnecessarily in S3.

#asks #anon #this got long sorry #i had a lot of Thoughts (TM)#the real season 3 #sts3 #season 3 spoilers

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jeanjauthor · 5 years ago

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No Fandom Flame Wars, But...

...I am prefacing this with the statement that I am NOT going to participate in any arguments over ANY of this. You have a right to your opinion, and I have a right to my own. Respect that. There is NO need for a fandom flame war of any sort (and y’all will be ignored if you try to ignite one with me). There is room for all sorts of viewpoints.

With that said...

Time for one of those Controversial Opinions™* that we keep seeing on Tumblr and Twitter, etc, ad nauseam...and here is my own (potentially very but who cares) Controversial Opinion:

I like the way The Witcher series has been plotted and filmed.

You don’t have to read any further (and I’m implementing a cut to avoid #spoilers for those who haven’t seen it yet), but that’s my take on it, and the TL;DR version of why is because The Show Is Making Me Think About All The Things In It.

This is a rare thing these days, because so much is spoon-fed to us in other shows...but I like it. And for me...it works.

The rest is behind a cut. Be warned, if you click the Keep Reading, you’ll be entering the *spoiler*-filled mists on those archaic medieval maps where cartographers usually put warnings like “Here Be Dragons” and such...

And yes, that IS a deliberate pun. *spoiler spoiler spoiler!* It was also a good episode, and yes, I want that tent. I just don’t want to have to transport it physically, yeesh...trust me, I KNOW how much tent that is to try to transport, the tent on the inside. (The one on the outside still requires a horse at the very least, but only one horse.). I’ve been playing around in the SCA, medieval society, for decades!

Anyway...on to why I like the series:

At first, I was hella confused. I literally had to rewind and repeat several time the scene where Renfri talks of Calanthe just having won her battle...when earlier, I’d seen Ciri telling Calanthe that “when you were my age”... (Which, on a side note, is what I thought was the age of 14 years old. Dunno why I stuck on that number, but apparently in the chronology she’s actually 11yo, I guess, when Ciri’s storyline takes place? Since Geralt left 12 years before, when she was still a nausea-stirring little zygote or whatever...but I digress.)

So the first episode confused me. But holy hellz ballz, the fight scene was freaking awesome! That was like...some grandmaster fight choreographer’s fightporn wetdream! Every move Geralt made in the fight against Renfri’s men was believable. Fast, realistic, hella good choreography! ...Gross, gory, and at a few points I could see hints of the CGI used, but I was actually rather grateful to see some of the CGI, because that kept me from flinching too much...though certain scenes later on definitely made me Look Away.

[Btw, for anyone watching, #spoiler for #implied #suicide #attempts. Also, magical #cannibalism, yuck.]

Anyway, that first episode was fascinatingly good in its fight choreography, Geralt was pretty to watch, and I found myself interested in what was going on.

I’ll also admit I was confused enough to go looking for spoilers, and found some comment somewhere explaining that the different scenes were being told non-sequentially. That each different main character was in a different time period. The post I read reassured the readers that, if we paid attention, we could figure out which stories were being told in which era, the more we went along.

THAT made sense to me...and I decided I’d give it a try...but to be honest, I wasn’t entirely wasn’t sure if they could pull it off.

I do think that is what has put a lot of people off, the way the story is initially being told, by the way. Some people have compared it to a (grimdark) version of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys...but I really don’t think that’s a decent comparison. Not because H:TLJ is better or worse in any way, but because it and X:WP were their own things, without consistent story-threads woven throughout each and every episode as a single tapestry.

...That’s actually a pretty good comparison. In fact, it’s so good, let’s use this as a metaphor for the difference between the two.

This is Hercules: The Legendary Journeys as tapestry art:

Here are several different tapestries. Each one is full of plantlife and people and animals. Sometimes the animals are mythical, like unicorns. Sometimes there are hunting dogs and horses. Often times there are flowers and fruits. A number of the tapestries have similar objects repeated over and over from one to the next...but for the most part, they are separate stories even if they have similar themes. This is H:TLJ. A series of separate or similar-themed tapestries. Sometimes you’ll even get some telling a progression...but for the most part, they’re a bunch of different tapestries woven by different storytellers.

This, on the other hand, is The Witcher as a tapestry:

...Most people will recognize this as the Bayeux Tapestry (Do NOT @ me about it being technically an embroidery, not an actual woven tapestry, shush!)...but what you may not realize is that I’ve taken pieces of it from the very long single image posted on Wikipedia (located here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry just click on the images on that page, click through, and find the really long super skinny horizontal version).

More than that, I’ve taken pieces from it, and mixed up where they come from in the chronology...but it is all still one and the same story.

These seemingly disconnected bits and pieces are like finding a bunch of chests in an old storage room in a cathedral somewhere, opening them up, and finding folded bits of cloth with magnificent images embroidered on them...but not knowing that you’ve opened the chest with panels 4-6 first, and that the next chest you open has panels 25-27, and the third chest you open has panels 13-15. You see these images, they’re fascinating, yet they seem disjointed and unconnected...but...they’re not.

We just have to put them into the right order to tell the full tale.

This is something we don’t get in storytelling. Not very often, at least! The storytelling invites us to put the pieces together. Now, I’ll freely admit they could’ve done a somewhat better job in the very first episode, and finding that spoiler-warning that the chronology is mixed up did help...but I do like to think I would’ve figured it out as I went along.

Yes, I only just started watching the series, after all 8 episodes were out of the first season (prequel season? whatever) so that all the spoilers were already out, yadda yadda. And yes, it’ll suck having to wait for the next season. I am not sure if they’ll keep telling the storyline in this same open-a-random-tapestry-chest fashion, but since I do know (haven’t watched it yet, but it’s next in the queue) that in the 8th episode, Geralt and Ciri finally meet (and he’s already met Yennefer), that we finally have most of the pieces spread out on the walls.

They may not be originally laid out in their proper order...but we have enough to put things in order. And that, dear readers, fans, etc, is our job to do, in the way this story is being told.

It is not for everyone. I freely admit it. But it does make those of us who stick with it invest more of ourselves in the story.

We’re the archaeologist finding these treasure chests full of these tapestry stories, and we’re just now realizing that this is a HUGE SINGLE TAPESTRY, with massively intricate details...some of which are just lending color to a scene, but others of which will be referenced later, or be a foreshadowing of something to come, or a flashback of what has already occurred.

That is why I truly like how this story is being told.

It’s not something I could enjoy within each and every story across all of creation...but I don’t need a bloody Bayeux Tapestry each and every time.

I got to puzzle out some really cool things. I got to experience several aha! moments. I had a number of wtf was that?? moments, too...and lord knows I got plenty of delicious eye-candy. (Also the scene of the half-paralyzed bard dropped into the midst of the orgy scene was freakin’ hilarious, because you know he was being tormented, heaven-and-hell all at one and the same time, the lustiest night of his life...and he could not participate, poor fellow.

Also, “Toss a coin to your Witcher” and the other songs are actually pretty decently done. I love the fact the actor playing Jaskier is the one actually singing these end-credit songs.

...One last thing. Some of the people don’t appear to age. That might give the impression that most do not...and that did lend some to the illusion of chronology confusion. In truth, most folks in this universe do age, but they’re mostly background characters. Calanthe and her husband showed signs of aging, Mousesack certainly aged, and Yennefer gets in a good crack at the bard about his crow’s feet, a common sign of aging, if not one instantly visible to most. (Since he doesn’t get many close-ups, you can’t tell he has crow’s feet...but neither can you not tell...so that and the quality & style of his clothes changing help tell you that he’s been aging.)

To be honest, your genetics does quite a lot to determine how “old” you will look. I knew a woman who looked like she was 92 (roughly the age my grandmother died) when she was actually only 62 (about a year before she died). At the same time, I knew a woman who was celebrating her 90th Birthday, but she looked like she was at most in her late 60s.

Some people don’t get grey hairs until they’re in their 60s. Some turn grey-haired in their 20s or 30s. When I think back on the differences in appearance for people like Calanthe, she did look younger in the earlier era scenes...and she did look older in the later era scenes. Plus, the better your diet and exercise are, the healthier and thus younger you’ll look...so it’s expected that a queen wouldn’t age nearly as fast as a commoner.

Additionally, when you have magically modified characters who cannot age, and they’re the main / primary characters...well, we really don’t spend nearly as much time looking at the secondary & tertiary characters. Yet they did put some effort into aging those characters appropriately.

So with that observation made, I think they did a reasonably good job...because they’re also dealing with the constraints of a production budget. Netflix took a risk on this series. They sunk a lot into the special effects, blood splatters, choreography, magic effects, etc. But I think it’s also a case of deliberately obfuscating the puzzle pieces. They didn’t go in for the overblown obviously older effects (makeup, CGI, whatever)...because they want their viewers to think about what we’re watching.

But I’ll bet that, if we go back and take a second look...we’ll see the little details of non-immortal (or at least regular lifespan) folks actually aging, if they get to appear in two different timelines. When you have a story this large and this long, however...not everyone will get to reappear.

Anyway...that’s my Controversial Opinion™. I genuinely like the way The Witcher has been told in its first season. For me, it genuinely works. I’ve had fun discovering and opening all the tapestry-boxes, and am having fun trying to fit together all the puzzle pieces of each story section so that I have the full chronology in my head.

I like the amount of time that I’ve had to invest in this story to make sense of it.

...And I especially like the use of the word “Fuck.” If you’ve watched the series, you know which one I mean. The one that was quietly said, in the very quiet room, in front of a whole bunch of very quiet people.

Very well said.

*applauds*

#*fake trademark but you gotta admit it's a common meme atm #The Witcher spoilers #mention of spoilers containing implied or off-screen attempted suicide

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kyosohmastan · 6 years ago

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FRUITS BASKET EPISODE 1 REVIEW

I just posted this but somehow there was a glitch and it got deleted. All those words...To say I’m pissed off would be an understatement. So here we go again. Forgive me if I don’t put a lot of effort into this analysis because I have to redo it again. My energy is spent.

I decided that I’d really like to start reviewing the episodes so I’ll start from the beginning with episode 1 going scene by scene.

Although not apart of the manga, I adore the opening scene with God and the animals at the banquet. It sets up the series perfectly. You’re left knowing that the zodiac applies to the story, but how does it apply to the characters? I like how the focus was on the cat since one of the main focuses of the plot is how Kyo is ostracized from the family because he is the cat. So from this, it’s clear that this will be a story that deals with betrayal and prejudice against the cat (i.e. Kyo). It’s just genius.

I wanna talk about how gorgeous Kyoko is. I’ve heard similar opinions. Such a beautiful lady taken from us too soon. :(

Yuki looks so pretty in this version. In the original, he looked kind of creepy? I appreciate that his hair is grey instead of purple now since that’s the color it is in the manga.

I didn’t expect to see Motoko so early. She doesn’t show up until a bit later in the manga so why they introduced her this soon? IDK. Maybe they wanted to establish her character early since there will probably be some episodes that focus on her. This remake did a good job with making me continue to hate the Yuki fan club. I wish they’d leave poor baby Tohru alone!

Uo and Hana are basically her parents which is funny and sweet. I like how their friendship dynamic is shown from the start. Uo crying and worrying over Tohru is adorable. She’s a tough girl, but has a soft spot for her!

One reason I don’t like Yuki: he hates the cat! The first time I watched this episode, all I could think was “No, the cat isn’t stupid. He SHOULD be apart of the zodiac!” But by episode three, I’m reminded why Yuki thinks this way. He wants out of the zodiac so he doesn’t know why Kyo, being the cat, wants to be apart of it. So I could let that go. However, it irritates me that Yuki dislikes my boy, Kyo-Kyo.

I appreciate how the flashbacks are conveyed. In the original, almost all the flashbacks were just still frames. But in this version, they’re acted out and I like that more because it gives more life and emotion to the flashbacks. Because of that, I think they’re very well done and make me feel for Tohru’s backstory more.

This version is sticking to the manga so much and I love it! One example is how Tohru’s grandpa calls her Kyoko. A lot of people think it’s because of dementia, but I actually think he does it on purpose, (I’ll explain that further in my review for episode 5). Either way, I think it’s cute that he calls her by her mom’s name!

Hmm...I wonder where you could find such a woman.

How convient.

The foreshadowing to Shigure and Yuki having something to do with the zodiac is spot on with Shigure knowing about the avalanche from the wolf’s howl and Yuki summoning the rats to help him dig up Tohru’s things. But I still saw that a lot of newcomers were surprised when they changed into animals lol.

Now for the most heartbreaking moment of the show. The great thing about Fruits Basket is every time I reread or rewatch it, I take something new from it. Tohru’s guilt over not telling her mom “See you when you get back” before she left for work and died in a car accident really resonated with me. It’s scary to think about our loved ones leaving us and not getting a chance to say “Goodbye” or “I love you” or even worse, leaving them on a bad note like saying something to them that we don’t mean and not getting the chance to apologize before they die. That’s a terrifying thought. This moved me to want to share my love with my friends and family because you never know when your last conversation with them will be your last.

It’s sad how Tohru feels so guilty over this. But it just goes along with her sweet girl personality.

I’m not going to touch much on this because I’ll talk about it more in another episode review, but all I’ll say is this...THE HAT!!!!

My first thought was that it’s so nice of Shigure to give her a place to stay. Then he follows it up with “You like doing chores right?” Sneaky dog. You just wanted a maid!

And then the legend pops in. The man of the hour. My husbando. KYO!!!! I love how vibrant his character design is. That orange hair is stunning. He was definitely my favorite part of the episode even though he was only in it for about a minute. :)

Speaking of vibrant colors, the puffs of smoke after the transformations are so pretty! Talk about some good CGI.

Finally, the funniest part of the episode. Tohru’s first thought after making Kyo change into a cat isn’t “WTF?” but “I LANDED ON HIM WRONG AND SOMEHOW TURNED HIM INTO A CAT!” The logic. Gurl, you can’t just land on someone a certain way and turn them into a cat HAHAHA.

So that’s it! I think I revived all I said in my original post. Close enough, I guess. I’ll review episode 2 soon!

#fruits basket #furuba #fruits basket review #fruits basket spoilers #anime review #review #anime #manga #fruits baseket episode 1 #tohru honda #kyo sohma #shigure sohma #yuki sohma

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totallyfrandom · 5 years ago

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I've recently watched the 2019 "The Lion King" movie online, and I'm glad I didn't pay to see it at the cinemas because it wouldn't be worth the ticket price. It was lame. (record-lengthy rant below; not really spoilers as it's basically the 1994 animated movie again with a few minor changes)

”The Lion King” from 1994 is one of my most favorite Disney animated classics from my childhood and I was interested at first when the remake was announced. I was impressed by the gorgeous realistic animation in the first previews and trailer, but the more I looked into the last trailer, the more concerned I was about one thing: the expressions. Their faces lacked emotions. My biggest concern was Timon who's the most expressive comic relief character, and Scar who is this mischievous character with a very wide range of sly expressions on his face showing his scheming. Will the scenes of emotions and comedy suffer from this realism?

So I didn't have great expectations of the movie when I started watching it but other than the impressive CGI, it's really telling if at the end of the movie I go ”Finally it's over!” which is in this case.

My concern was confirmed: the characters lack so much of the expressions and emotions, which was a huge sacrifice for the sake of realism. That was my biggest problem with the movie. Also, unlike ”Beauty and the Beast” remake and ”Maleficent” for example, it felt more like they only made this remake to cash in on people's nostalgia. It didn't fool me, I felt no nostalgia whatsoever. Just disappointment over how lame it felt.

Below are some scenes and character critiques that I particularly want to mention.

First up, Scar. I didn't like his voice. I'm not saying that Ejiofor did a bad job, it just doesn't fit his sly character. And just like the rest of the characters, the realistic animation sacrificed the facial expressions and emotions of Scar which was a huge part of his character. His voice didn't really replace that sacrifice. He didn't feel intimidating at all.

Speaking of intimidating, now we come to the hyenas. The only character who somewhat comes close to intimidating was Shenzi. She felt more of a threat than Scar was. I noticed two changes in this remake: one is the other two hyenas Banzai and Ed got a rename. Now they're called Kamari and Azizi. Ed, or now Azizi, even speaks and doesn't act as stupid and giggly as before. But none of them are any funnier, they've only become duller. None of their attempt of ”comedy” made me laugh, not even crack a smile. This change had no reasoning behind it (none that I know of) and feels pointless. I have no idea why they'd change two old fan favorites like that. But I do have to give some credit for the other change that was a bit more interesting – or it could just be my interpretation or simply a misunderstanding: Scar's alliance with the hyenas. In the original movie, Scar was portrayed as the leader of the hyenas from the start, even over Shenzi, but in this adaptation it seems more like Shenzi is the leader over the hyenas and Scar is the imposter who got them on his side because he promised them to enter the Pride Lands with food for the taking. Shenzi even dared to question Scar as if she challenged him (I would pay to see a cool backstory for remake-Shenzi instead of this movie). Shenzi is also the one who picked adult Nala as her opponent in the final fight for an actual reason. So yeah, Shenzi is good. But she didn’t save the movie, unfortunately.

While the hyenas weren't funny, the only character who are somewhat funny (despite the sad sacrifice of expressions for most comedic scenes) were Timon and Pumbaa. But I still have mixed feelings about them (which I'll mention below in the songs section) so they weren't my favorite characters in this movie, but more like they--along with Shenzi--were the better characters of the entire cast. At least the duo are the only ones that made me chuckle (which was my only close-to-laugh during the entire movie) and that was near the end of the movie. Not impressive when it took that long for me to laugh.

Then we have Rafiki. There are two things I'm bothered about this remake of him: he didn't have his iconic staff like in the original and I thought that maybe they removed the staff for the sake of realism (I would've expected that the staff would be gone anyway) but then near the end of the movie he pulls out his staff from the tree calling it ”old friend”. It feels like the staff was originally removed but then was forced in for the last scenes just as a nod to the fans, as it was a last-minute addition. That was my problem with the staff situation: first it wasn't there but then BAM! Rafiki brings it up calling it ”my old friend” as a last-minute nod to fans who'd hate to see it go, maybe to avoid a riot. It felt a bit tacky, Imo. But what made him into a less sympathetic character is that instead of mourning for the loss of his old friend Mufasa and the prince like in the original, he goes ”tsk-tsk-tsk”. Yeah, when my dad dies I'm gonna sit there during his funeral and go ”tsk-tsk-tsk”. Wtf Disney? I guess this is what they do instead of being able to show any emotions in the realistic animal faces.

I don't know what I can say about the other characters, even about the main protagonist Simba. They were just lame when they lacked the emotions and expressions that was part of the characters so I didn't feel any connection to them. They were just... there. Same name, same personality, but that's all. Even with James Earl Jones returning for voicing Mufasa didn't help (did Disney bring him back just to add to the nostalgic value hmm?), partly because I grew up with the Swedish dub so Mufasa's English voice didn't give the same impact to me as it may give to fans who grew with James Earl Jones as Mufasa.

As for scenes, we'll start with one with Rafiki and it was the most unnecessary and time-wasting scene I had to endure. I mean, I can't believe we have to watch an almost 3-minute long journey of a tuft from Simba's mane. It's the scene where Rafiki learns that Simba is still alive: Simba shakes his head, resulting in a small tuft of his mane gets loose and floats in the wind. But instead of a smooth transition and then within 15 seconds reach Rafiki like in the original, we see it be in various places and picked up by various animals that contributes to its progress, even being eaten by a giraffe before the scene fades to black... which is pointless when it just continues the journey but now we see the tuft in a ball of giraffe dung being rulled by a beetle. Eventually, which felt like ten long minutes, the tuft reaches Rafiki's tree with the help of an ant. It's almost like this prolonged scene is just there to fill more minutes of the movie. Also, that tuft of Simba's mane has been inside a giraffe and then pooped out, presumably smelling, and Rafiki was holding it so... ew.

Due to the realism in the animal faces which limits their expressions, there are a lot of emotional scenes that I used to love that lacks that emotion. No scene made me shed tears or fill me with a heavy heart, no scene made me feel that hope and warms my heart. A couple of examples:

The scene where Simba finds Mufasa’s body didn't give me any emotions, which is a disappointment as this is one of the saddest scenes in animation history. But I admit that JD McCrary who voices young Simba did a good job in delivering the sad voice and sounded legit like he was close to tears. That was the closest to real emotions in the film. Too bad the facial expression of the CGI lion cub didn't give what McCreary's performance deserves.

Another scene I find a lot of disappointed in was my favorite from the original movie; when adult Simba was talking to his father in the clouds. It always used to touch my heart because of how amazing it was with the music and the visualization in the sky and the emotions of awe in Simba' face. But this one was such a lackluster. It didn't move me in any way and I could barely see Mufasa (I guess his face appeared just with a blink of an eye a few times when lightning struck in the clouds but that was way too quick). They didn't even play one of my favorite instrumental music when Simba was running back to the Pride Lands. Sure, it's fine that they have at least one new song that wasn't in the original soundtrack before, but they did sacrifice such a motivational piece of music for it.

But the worst scene in the entire movie (if we don't count the songs) is when Scar betrays Mufasa and pushes him off the cliff. Instead of Mufasa saying "Scar! My brother! Help me!" with a pleading tone in his voice (this was a literal life and death situation), he just says "Scar! Help me!" as if it was an order. Then instead of whispering to his brother, Scar almost yells out "Long live the king!" before he literally bitch-slaps Mufasa so that he looses his grip. Why not shove him off like in the original movie when Scar was already digging his claws into Mufasa's paws like in the original movie? Also there was no zoom-in on the eyes of Mufasa when he realized the betrayal just before his death... but then again, those eyes would've been lifeless from expressions.

By the way, Scar is stupid when he's talking loudly about secrets, like before the final fight scene he gave away that he was responsible to Mufasa's death which convinced Sarabi of Simba's innocence despite Scar desperately tried to lie his way through. You really messed this up, Scar.

As for the songs in general, they were just... there. Only the opening song ”Circle of Life” is good enough for me. The rest both feel and sounded duller.

I was so disappointed in "I Just Can't Wait to be King". Due to the realism, there's no colorful background that complements the song and it feels bland (”Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and ”Hakuna Matata” suffers the similar thing). Even the song itself doesn't give any nostalgia to me. It looks kinda off to see realistic Simba sing, it's like an uncanny valley vibe. Again he lacks any expression, same with Zazu. When Timon sings ”Hakuna Matata” and ”The Lion Sleeps Tonight” with a wide-open mouth, it looks... odd. I don't see Timon singing, instead I see an animal screaming. For food or for help, either way works, but not singing.

However, the worst song in the entire movie was "Be Prepared" for so many reasons. One, I’ve already mentioned above that I think Scar's voice doesn't fit his character so his singing clearly can't top the original song (which is why I think it had to be changed a bit which I'll mention soon). Two, it doesn't have the dark and dramatic shadowing. Three, Scar's mischievous expressions are gone for the sake of realism so Scar just looks flat and awkward. Four, the song was changed and is now shorter so I was just sitting here getting confused of where it was going and thinking when the powerful chorus and the xylophone(?) instruments are gonna start and then you hear that final "Be Prepaaaaared!" from Scar before it zooms out without the echoing laughter of Scar and the hyenas, instead the last "Prepared" echoes before the scene fades to another scene. It just ends like that just as quick as the song started. Like, the heck was that? I get that they had to get rid of the army of hyenas marching, but this was just lame and lazy. This brings to the fifth reason: they just ruined one of the greatest Disney villain songs ever made. After watching the movie I've read that there was a rumor or concern that ”Be Prepared” wouldn't be in the movie. I'm kinda wishing it didn't make into the remake when they didn't even try making it look or sound great. Definitely not memorable.

...

This is just a half of everything I wanted to say about the movie, but I think I'll stop here after having said the more important bits that I wanted to rant about.

All in all, under all that gorgeous realistic CGI animation lies a lazy attempt at the remake with most scenes being shot-to-shot copies from the original, half-assed attempt at most songs when it comes to the visuals (or barely an attempt in ”Be Prepared”), lifeless expressions of the realistic animals and ruining the emotions of powerful and most memorable scenes just to cash in on people's nostalgia. Only Shenzi was the character who had some potential for something new and interesting but like I said, she didn’t save the movie for me.

At least they TRIED a lot more with ”Beauty and the Beast” remake and ”Maleficent” where they actually did good new changes that contributed more to the story. With ”The Lion King” remake they just upgraded it to look good but had to sacrifice the most important thing which is the expressions of colors and reactions in characters' faces. Even Beast's facial expressions had more emotions through all that makeup.

As for recommendation, if it wasn’t obvious enough I personally wouldn't recommend it. It's better to go back watching the 1994 animated classic instead of wasting time and money on it. Unless you’re a true nostalgic, then go ahead and enjoy it. I’m not judging anyone who likes or loves it. It was just personally a disappointment for me when it didn’t live up for my childhood favorite classic.

One final thing: you feel like reading my lengthy rant wasted your valuable time? That’s what it felt when I was watching the movie and finally came to the end, hence the “Finally it’s over!”.

#big kudos if you've read all the way to the end!#(honestly I don't think anyone has the time or patience; this is more like a script guide for a YouTube review <_<; )#(I just don't do YouTube reviews)#Char watches movies #personal

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natsumiheart · 6 years ago

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*BANGS DOOR OPEN* tell me all the reasons you love kiiruma

OH HELL YES PREPARE FOR ANOTHER LONG POST!!!

let’s start from the beginning of my story with this ship! When Ndrv3 was first released in Japan I was trying my best to avoid the fandom and anyone in it. I did not want to get spoiled, but unfortunately, while I was watching youtube suddenly in the recommended I see the maintenance scene (you know the one) and the first things that came to my mind were

1. Wtf.

2. Please don’t tell me this is a forced ship.

I knew the characters already from the trailers and I had some bias towards Kiibo, if I wanted to ship him with anyone I wanted it to be someone who deserved it and would make him happy. Not to mention I had information through friends about the ships in the game and they didn’t like oumasai or kiiruma, so obviously me being the friend that I am, wanted to be the same and have the same feelings.

That obviously changed drastically after I finally played the game, watched others play it, and spent hours analyzing and researching about it cause I’m trash. I actually ended up becoming a diehard Oumasai fan and LOVING Kiiruma.

But why did that happen?

Well, lemme tell you.

I was really looking forward to action from Kiibo, to see his personality and know about him more! But I did not expect him to have a lot of interactions with Miu! (Which I should’ve seen coming since she’s the ultimate inventor, she’s the only one which could’ve helped him when he had problems, and not to mention the CGI I was spoiled about.)

what I really love about this ship is the development between them, it did not feel forced at all and I really respect that. People tend to forget that Kiibo started off not really being a fan of Miu and her behavior, I remember him even dismissing stuff she says often in chapter 1. But that changed as chapters went on because they spent time together, she helped him with his maintenance and he learned that she’s not actually a bad person when you get to know her.

They spent a lot of time together off screen (as seen by the maintenance scene, the flashlight function and the photo function), and it just sounds adorable just to imagine the conversations they could’ve been having. Because of all the time they spent together, Kiibo got attached to her to the point of getting jealous when Miu started to spend her time with the computer instead of him.

When Miu died, even though he is a robot, I believe Kiibo had the most emotional reaction to her death. He said he wanted to cry, but he couldn’t.

Their relationship was written well, it started off with Kiibo not caring about whatever comes out of Miu’s mouth to asking Shuichi to use the electrohammer on him so he could know how Miu perceived him. And even after her death, Kiibo kept thinking about her. When they entered the hangar he said with a sad look on his face that Miu would’ve found a purpose for it, and that her love for technology was genuine. He talked in a way that showed that he missed her.

“She had a natural innocence that she kept hidden deep inside”

I ended up really loving their relationship in the killing game, and it makes me wonder if Kiibo could’ve calmed her down if she let him talk to her after she saw that flashback light.

Their interactions are honestly hilarious, they were like a comedy duo. And I believe their personalities are perfect for each other. I can see Miu protecting the hell out of her short boyfriend, and Kiibo getting worried as hell whenever something happens to her.

But that’s not all! The ACTUAL reason that made me fall in love with this ship is actually in the talent development events.

Here you actually get to see their conversations, Kiibo does not even only have one event with her oh no, they have two and it feels like a story was said because of the second event. In the first one, Miu freaking proposed giving him a crying function.

“Anyway, I’ve been doin some thinkin’ and… You don’t have the ability to cry, do you?”

If you played the game you would know that this is really important to Kiibo, so her suggesting it warmed my heart.

“Well, that settles it!!! I’m gonna give you a full-fledged crying function!”

“Really?! oh, I’m so grateful to hear that!”

*and then Miu’s nonsense starts XD*

When you’re nearing graduation as Kiibo or Miu. There’s this conversation that takes place between them, and god if it isn’t one of the most adorable things I have ever seen…

“Thank you for taking care of me… These past three years”

It starts off with Miu finishing his maintenance and Kiibo thanking her, then he is shown to be sad because he thinks he won’t see her again after graduation.

Miu, in her own way refuses that from happening and suggests that he moves in with her.

“Then why don’t you move in with me?!”

“….Really?”

And he actually accepts the offer

“Then… is it alright of me to ask of you to continue servicing me?”

“You think I’d reject you?”

“Miu… thank you so much. I look forward to your care and services in the years to come.”

“Y-yea, thanks… I’m looking forward to it… too.”

THEY ARE GOING TO LIVE TOGETHER

AND THEY LOOK FORWARD TO THEIR FUTURE TOGETHER ;;

If this isn’t adorable, I don’t know what is.

There are obviously many other reasons that make me love this ship, such as their talents going well together, how much they spend time with each other, the amazing stuff in the comic anthology, their chemistry, their aesthetic, how much they ended up caring for each other, their height difference and even the fanart and fanfictions the fandom gave to us!

but my main reason is that they may, in fact, need each other.

Miu is the person Kiibo needs not only because of his maintenance but because he needed someone who could understand him and tell him how amazing he actually is (WHICH MIU WAS THE ONLY ONE TO DO SO other than Souda in the development team AND IT WAS SHOWN AGAIN IN THE COMIC ANTHOLOGY) and Kiibo is the person Miu needs because he has come to appreciate someone like her, has enough patience for her and can understand her to an extent.

A lot of people say that Miu was the one all over Kiibo, but to me, it just seemed like Kiibo was the one that really liked Miu. And when you actually really like a character and you see that they have feelings for someone, you start unconsciously rooting for them. I think that’s what happened to me when I started realizing that Kiibo had gotten attached to her, especially after I found him standing outside the computer room when I wanted to hang out with him. I was unconsciously rooting for him until I reached the development plan event and cried tears of happiness when I saw they will live together and have a beautiful happy future. and who knows? maybe Miu was indeed really into Kiibo and her feelings were reciprocated over time.

Basically, they get along really freaking well, are adorable, have amazing interactions, and are just overall a cute beautiful VALID ship. They would make an adorable couple, adorable parents (for monotaro ahahaha) and an adorable duo.

When a ship makes me go from dislike to HELLA LOVE it means that its a really good freaking ship and I’m going to support it. And so these are the main reasons I ship them!

Sorry for rambling this much

#miu iruma #kiibo #kiiruma #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #new danganronpa v3 #ndrv3 #drv3 #ndrv3 spoilers #drv3 spoilers #long post #oof i didnt realise wrote this much #forgot to mention that i actually didnt like miu because of chapter 4 #when i started to love her too i ended up falling hard for the ship #anyway #which ship should i rant about next ehehehe #asks

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starlitsea · 7 years ago

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I’m shit at live-blogging TV/movies apparently. I pretty much gave up on doing Star Trek though I do still have that second ENT episode and drafts of 1.5 episodes of TOS that I haven’t posted. On the other hand, I did binge-watch Star Trek movies 2-9 before they expired on Hulu (I’ve watched 1 like 3 times and the only thing I can remember about it is that it’s deathly boring, and 10 is only available through Cinemax, WTF) and lemme tell you, Insurrection is waaaaaay shittier than I remember. It’s like two terrible episodes of TNG were somehow made into a movie for the big screen. Like, I don’t care about your random romance at all, Picard? Why are we spending all this time on this random kid when crew members like Riker, Troi (autocorrect changed it to Trip lololol), Crusher, and LaForge could actually be getting screentime? Why does Worf get to randomly be there and not O’Brien too? Why is Starfleet suddenly Super Evil(TM)? (The villains are also cartoonishly bad???) Also, you’re gonna spend nearly a year of leave on the youth rejuvenating planet, Picard? 🤔 Why don’t they just build a resort on the other side of the planet away from the 600 inhabitants, WTF, c’mon.

Also, when are they going to talk about Sybok in DSC? That must’ve been reaalllly awkward for everyone involved with the three kids growing up together? Like, Sarek, your first kid is a revolutionary, your second kid is a mutineer, and your third kid is Spock (which, yeah, Spock), but . . . his soul is the “most human.” 🤷🏻‍♀️

I also have -ugh- ~feelings~ about the newest Star Wars (but understand that I grew up with the EU so TLJ Luke was never gonna be the way I saw oldman!Luke). I do love the new trio but everyone was a dumbass in this movie, okay? Except for Leia, but I also have :/ feelings about that. Okay, actually, Paige is not a dumbass. And the fish nuns. Ugh, don’t wanna blog about it but prolly will end up doing it somewhere down the line. I also have no strong feelings pro or anti porgs if that’s where y’all are drawing your lines in the sand.

Other things I watched recently:

Bram Stoker’s Dracula too. It was really terrible. Like, wow, terrible? Man, could not stop thinking about Hideyuki Kikuchi during the vampire brides scene though? In Vampire Hunter D that exact scene would happen but then it would turn out that you’re turning into a dream at the same time. Dracula’s hair was also the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Mina, why are you and Dracula secret sex friends? He took you to a porno on the first date - you should’be known this was something you couldn’t sweep under the rug. You can’t have sexy times with Gary Oldman channeling Johnny Depp then run off to marry Keanu who is recovering from a BRAIN FEVER only to regret doing so immediately??? Also WHY do you have a copy of the Kama Sutra for light reading? (Okay, we know why.)

Valerian: thought it would be much worse from the reviews. Yes, the romance is super cringeworthy, and it is also concerning that almost everyone involved with our two main characters dies and they seem to feel very little remorse, but the CGI is pretty good and it gave me the alien worlds feeling I was craving from Star Wars that TFA and TLJ failed to deliver on. Also lots of cool alien designs! Extra bonus, Cara does the best wide eyes shocked face look, I need a gif. 7/10.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Full disclosure, watched this because Redbox spit out the wrong movie and immediately stopped working afterwards): Woooow, this was terrible. My brother and I actually skipped over the controversial scene because my mom was watching with us (so I can’t comment as to exactly how bad it was but I’m sure it was baaad), but as to the rest of the movie . . . WTF. My mom laughed her ass off though because she was like OMG, Mr. Darcy! So stupid! Hahahaha! Also Elton John’s part was so big???? The villains and plot and everything were so bad I can’t. I say this as someone who enjoyed the first one, JUST SAY NO.

Batman vs. Two Face: why does Burt Ward sound EXACTLY THE SAME? I actually slept through most of this because we started watching it around 11 PM and I’m old now and can’t stay up, but nice to see Harley Quinn (couldn’t they have her sound more professional as a doctor) in 60s Batman. William Shatner was also Two Face? (IT ALL COMES FULL CIRCLE.)

The only other thing I’ve been doing is binge watching Tribes and Empires: Storm of Prophecy which is a show about three idiots, their idiot fathers, and the awesome women and terrible men that surround them? I might talk more about it once I’m through the family banquet from hell episodes. 😒

#star trek dsc #star trek dsc spoilers #star trek #dracula #tribes and empires: storm of prophecy #star wars #valerian #kingsman 2 #batman vs two face

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apricjty · 7 years ago

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Unpopular opinion/review from fan on the “Death Cure”movie.

I saw Death Cure. Didn’t like it.

Acting was great but it couldn’t save it.

They butchered books. WTF.

Putting aside the books, the movie was quite boring, slow and frustrating in certain parts. It had it’s good moments, and also tried to be humours in places but nothing held any weight.

The movie runs off of action sequences then into incredibly, slow scenes. It has action for the sake of action (much pointless and just filler(everyone can tell when you do that btw). It also spews this ‘love story’ which was not needed(didnt happen in books, so why?).

It tries to be there for fans of the books, but its hard to when you completely change the whole plot and premise of the book. It has word drops from the book like “flare” “shank” “crank” along with others, but it never gets explained, feels out of place due to it never really been developed.

So, Characters’ arcs??? where are they? I cant find them.

[SPOILER from now on]

Newt’s death is a total disrespect to the actual death scene of the book that actually held weight and had a real effect on Thomas’s character. The ‘please, Tommy please’ is used earlier on. The desperation and pleading from Newt and the heartbreaking of Thomas is no near the level of the book’s. Thomas ends up killing him with a knife ‘accidentally’. It was so underdone, i wished they used the quote from the book in its rightful place. The fact that Newt could have been saved in this (shitty AU, im sorry but its true) makes it just sooo much worse, if only they didnt stand around waiting all the time or ya know brenda got cured but no sure we wont make it a priority to save newt :)))))). I wish it took the fanbase seriously, its the only reason it got this anyway.

Admittedly the Newt’s letter made me tear up, only as it did hit home as a book fan.

Yeah so basically with this whole of their actually been a ‘cure’. WHOLE PLOT out the window.

No correlation to its title once again. [sigh] Death Cure, meaning the only cure was death since no cury, also irony. But u know movie is why not make it actually have a cure for this, totally not gonna mess up the plot. *sarcasm*

As one review I saw on youtube said it “felt as though the ‘cure’ was a subplot” which yes it was in the movie. Feels weird given the title though, doesn’t it. Also that the main plot was about just getting their buddy minho back from WCKD.

YEAH.

The whole mystery aspect was sucked out of this movie. The cool plot twists parts of the book, that made it into the film the only I remember being that Gally was alive.

SO many parts of the film had useless, filler parts; minho’s dream sequence/flashback, that guy with weird face even when they made a ‘deal’ with him(pointless he dies he gives no fucks), all the WCKD scenes about the virus, and so on.

Literally just an action/zombie movie with a title of a best selling book, why is the title even there though? my aswell have not been.

Lack of Minho for final movie was sad, such a waste of potential with an amazing character.

The plot, I just- WHy

They made it into this rebellion against WCKD, SUCH A CLICHE. Seriously they take everything that made this series special against the rest of the YA dystopians and made it into a knock off, mess with zombie and sci fi. It was supposed to be an escape from WCKD while also saving others.

IT HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I dont know whether I’m mad about the movie as a whole or just downright disappointed.

Brenda? her storyline, her character and relationship with Thomas? where is it?

I know it wasn’t going to be he same as the books, the first movie wasn’t, But BY GOD did that movie do the first book justice(could have still been better but shines against the other 2). The standard didn’t hold. It was such a mess, with it being from plot holes to pacing issues to having a boring storyline.

The directing, acting, cgi was good but its not enough to carry a movie, it crumbled because of the underwhelming plot.

Theres SO MUCH wrong with this movie I could spend all day talking about, like Thomas and Teresa kissed at the end(WTF, EW JUST NO romance was complete backseat to the books, like subplot of a subplot but just no) then she just died when she so clearly had time to be saved. Also, Rat man just never seemed to die.

I have no idea how non book readers understood any of it, I was confused by it.

NOT seeing it again, not going to put myself through that torture. Even though I am a big fan of Dylan O’ Brien, through no fault of his own or any other great actors.

I feel like this is a lot hate, also a rant from me might do a proper review sometime later.

#deathcure #deathcure review #the maze runner #dylan o'brien #thomas sangster #ki hong lee #tmr #the maze runner movie #deathcure movie #the maze runner book #death cure book #tmr book

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atamascolily · 7 years ago

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Episode Review - Sinbad 1x02 - “The Return of Sinbad, Part Two”

In which we resolve all the dangling plot threads from the first episode and create some new ones to sustain us for the whole season. Also, Sinbad meets-cute, wizards are fond of practical jokes, Maeve is a total badass, Firouz's invention saves the day and Rumina acquires some motivation.

Again, there's some Early Installment Weirdness, but the main purpose is to get all our characters together and give them reasons to hang out/hate each other, which it does very well. It just looks odd in light of later developments in the series....

(Photos from Far Far Away.)

When we left off, Sinbad's ship was attacked by a badass sea serpent. Some random crew members get eaten. Such is the life of a background extra in this series.

Sinbad concocts a daring plan! He shares it with Firouz. Actual dialogue:

Firouz: "That's insane!" Sinbad: "And having my men devoured by a sea serpent isn't?" Firouz: "Good point."

I love this so, so, so much.

The plan is for Sinbad to go up to the mast and throw an improvised bomb into the serpent's mouth when it tries to eat Sinbad.

It works great!

While Sinbad is coming down, Admir starts to fiddle with the ropes. Rongar, however, is Not Amused and forces Admir to back down.

Anyway, they arrive at the Isle of Dawn at last. Sinbad takes the crew ashore in a longboat and leaves them at the beach while he goes to find Dim-Dim. Instead, he's attacked by a hawk.

When he recovers, he's staring up at a beautiful woman with a drawn sword. She's not happy to see him.

Whatever you say, ma'am, Sinbad says, trying to collect himself and generally failing.

It turns out to be her hawk that attacked Sinbad. "You can talk to dumb beasts?" exclaims Sinbad in amazement.

"Isn't that what I'm doing right now?" she rejoins. Owww. Harsh but true.

It turns out the hawk's name is Dermott and he was just "protecting his mistress" which a super-weird line in light of later plot developments, so we'll just leave it alone, okay?

She starts ranting about raiders, Sinbad cuts her off and apologizes by thanking her - which is confusing - but eventually, she shrugs and says that Dim-Dim is expecting him and leads him off through a magic circle.

Master Dim-Dim lives in an alternate dimension paradise full of roses, which is one of my favorite things ever in this entire show. He's delighted to see Sinbad - his childhood ward - and they have an emotional reunion while the woman - now revealed to be Dim-Dim's apprentice, Maeve - watches awkwardly from the side.

Okay. It's been less than five minutes, but we had a real, stumbling, fall-on-your-face meet-cute moment, some extremely tsundere bantering, and now a Shipper on Deck. If you think this show

isn

't trying to ship these two <i>hard</i> with these tropes in play... nothing's going to convince you. Nothing.

Of course, Rumina and Turok are STILL spying on Sinbad even when he's with Dim-Dim becase the master wizard has no privacy shields, WTF Dim-Dim?

Quoth Rumina, Oh, Sinbad's so dreamy. Turok is not so easily amused.

Turok does another bit of transfiguration, with the intent of destroying the Isle of Dawn completely.

Meanwhile, Dim-Dim and Doubar have a happy reunion on the beach. Maeve, however, is much less popular. "Out of my way, tubby," she says in an Irish accent that the producers of the show correctly decided to drop in later episodes. Doubar is not pleased.

Neither is Mustapha. "It's bad luck to have women aboard."

"It's bad luck to have idiots as well."

NOW SHIT IS GOING DOWN. "Ask me about my mother," he demands.

Maeve takes the bait. "She raised a loud-mouth son!"

When Mustapha tries to throw her, she decks him completely. One-handed. Holding a hawk in her other hand. HOT DAMN. This moment is so bad-ass we will see it replayed over and over again in the opening credits. It's just that good.

Look at that expression on Firouz's face in the background. Classic.

Mustapha knows when he's been beaten.

"Welcome aboard, ma'am," he concedes gallantly.

Remember, Sinbad, the fate of the whole world is on your shoulders! Dim-Dim reminds his star pupil. No pressure!

Dim-Dim also has a reunion with Prince Cassib, which is super-awkward since Cassib barely remembered who Dim-Dim was in the previous episode. But he apologizes anyway for being a jerk, Dim-Dim accepts the apology, and then starts to playfully tease the price and play jokes on him, and laughs his head off like a lunatic. Admir is Not Happy About This and glowers quietly in the background.

Oh, and as soon as they start to leave, Turok's transfigured rock destroys the Isle of Dawn completely. Dim-Dim's all fatalistic. Welp. That's the end of everything. Guess I won't be needing it anymore! Sinbad is concerned and confused by all the ominous foreshadowing.

Generic footage of Sinbad sliding down the ropes. You'll see this in the credits a lot.

Sinbad tries to chat up Maeve about their shared connections/enemies. It doesn't work. Maeve admits to wanting to kill Rumina, not Turok, won't talk about why, and stalks off in a huff when Sinbad presses further. Not his smoothest moment, I'm afraid.

Dim-Dim teaches Maeve how to throw fireballs, which is an important life skill that everyone should know.

Maeve accidently-on-purpose tosses one towards Sinbad and Doubar to freak them out.

Hey, there's that ring around the moon again! Are we going to be attacked? Hell yes! There's that ominous music again...

Rongar sneaks into Admir's cabin, a rifles through his belongings to find... a fake hand!

Admir awkwardly makes conversation with Firouz. Firouz is awkwardly pretending to be interested.

But Admir starts talking about his own "inventions," which gets Firouz interested enough to come to his cabin. That's Rongar's cue to plop Admir's trunk - which he dragged up from the cabin - in front of Firouz, because Rongar wants to make sure this display is public knowledge. Because when you can't talk, the next best thing is to make a big scene.

Admir, his cover blown, decides to admit everything - he's actually a demon named Eblus, sent by Turok to corrupt the prince and derail the mission!

Also, if the teeth didn't give it away, he eats people. I'm not sure who exactly was in the trunk - you'd think Sinbad would have noticed a crew member missing - so maybe it was some poor soul in Basra? I have no idea.

Dim-Dim tries to exorcise the demon, only to be blown away into another dimension. So much for the all-powerful wizard trope. (I wrote a fic in which this particular fact is heavily lampshaded.) Good-bye, Dim-Dim, we will never see you again except as a plot device to motivate our heroes!

Well, this sucks, everybody is clearly thinking, especially Prince Cassib, who realizes he's been totally (literally??) screwed by this demon the whole time. Cassib's dropped the awful clothing but not the eyeliner, so you can tell he's gone over to the side of good - enough to volunteer to sacrifice himself to Eblus so that everyone else can go free. Sinbad's having none of it, of course.

Eblus morphs into his Final Form, which is not as good CGI as the sea serpent, but still pretty good for the show as a whole.

Sinbad and Maeve crash into each other and have a Moment of Tense Shouting, which is movie-code for They're meant for each other/sexual tension.

Most of the actors avoid physical contact with the CGI, which makes it all the more startling when Mustapha dies. But hey, what did you expect, he wasn't in the opening credits. Rongar is devastated by his beloved friend's death, especially when the body vanishes to become a Force ghost.

Rongar screams in devastation, and goes for blood, but it's Sinbad who eventually stabs the demon and saves the day in a typically dramatic fashion.

Poor Rongar. You deserve so much better than this show gives you. I'm really sorry about that.

"Well done," Maeve says softly to Sinbad. Not, "Where the fuck is Master Dim-Dim and how are we going to get him back?" which apparently never comes up. Oh, well.

Turok decides enough is enough and it's time to kill his hostage Princess Adeenah in a dramatic fashion.

Turok decorates his whole island in a typically dramatic fashion. (It's called the Isle of Tears in this story arc, and Skull Island later on the series - both are pretty accurate.)

Welp, that looks ominous, doesn't it?

Group shot! Sinbad's on the tiller while everyone clusters round and tries to figure out what to do. Good thing Sinbad has a plan...

The entrance to Turok's cave is a skull because everything is a skull. Turok likes skulls. Got it?

Turok brings Adeenah out on the balcony to threaten her where Sinbad can see.

In case that message wasn't clear enough, Rumina uses the magic pool to put her image in the sky and talk to Sinbad directly. If Sinbad agrees to be her "special friend," then she'll let the crew go. The princess's death is non-negotiable, though.

Sinbad talks sweet nothings to distract Rumina while Firouz and Rongar get him ready to launch with the hanging glider (which Firouz admits they've never tested before on a human being).

Stop flirting and help me kill the princess, Turok admonishes his daughter, breaking off the conversation right there.

The hanging glider does work and it's awesome....

... allowing Sinbad to glide right into the cave entrance....

...grab the princess and slice Turok's head off. Rumina screams. Note the complete absence of blood, because this is Fantasy Violence, y'all, and also proof that Turok Is Really Evil.

Now just to get back to the ship...

"Hey, how's he going to land that thing?" Maeve asks of curiosity. Wow, I forgot to think about that, Firouz admits, like you do.

Fortunately, that's what oceans are for! Crash-landing!

Once on board, Sinbad gives Maeve a dramatic head-nod. Wasn't that badass of me?

Maeve nods back. Yeah, that was pretty badass, actually. Oh, you crazy kids...

A pissed Rumina sends a rock monster to destroy the ship while she sobs over the decapitated corpse of her father.

Maeve tries to throw fireballs, and fails. Sinbad decides to motivate her by slapping her ass to piss her off - and thereby give her more power. He apologizes to Dermott first, to show that he's doing it strategically instead of just being a jerk, but it still doesn't carry over well on a re-watch.

It does, however, work. Maeve hits the giant so hard he collapses and the resulting shock waves send her tumbling into Sinbad's arms AGAIN, ARE YOU SENSING A TREND HERE?

Rumina, sobbing, curses Sinbad and vows to destroy him but doesn't seem too motivated to do anything about it right now, so the crew sails away without further disturbance.

Well, that was great, we killed Turok and Rumina, Sinbad says as a way of making conversation with Maeve. This is a dumb thing for Sinbad to say, because I don't know why he assumed Rumina was dead just because they beat her rock monster. Anyway, it's all a cue for Maeve to sigh dispiritedly, and inform Sinbad that, no, Rumina is still alive.

"How can you tell?" "Just look at Dermott."

Sinbad is so confused. “He looks the same to me.“

"Exactly," Maeve says and walks off. Clearly, there's a lot of backstory she's not telling Sinbad here....

Adeenah gets to wear Prince Cassib's ugly old outfits because the prince is a gentleman now. They're so happy and in love, and grateful to Sinbad for everything. Sinbad is very magnanimous about the whole thing.

Sinbad goes and takes the tiller because All is Well in the World. Dermott lands nearby and starts chirping enthusiastically. Sinbad is having none of it and begins to monologue.

“Oh, be quiet, featherbrain! I know your mistress is unhappy. Maybe a long sea voyage will cheer you both up. The way I look at it, this world is growing a little too civilized for me. It’s growing up. Growing serious. Growing dull. But out there, who knows what worlds await? And out there is our good friend, Dim-Dim. I promise to find him, Dermott. ....Of course, I need a good crew.“

Dermott flies back to Maeve as if to relay this message. She looks back at him with apparent skepticism, then back to the sea again. Too bad, Sinbad. Well, you can't win them all...

And with that, the crew sails off into the sunset for the next adventure...

So it's never clear why Maeve stays on board after this. Certainly, it's not something that's ever talked about or discussed - Sinbad's monologue is pretty much the extent of it. Also, why the hell does Rongar stay; Mustapha is never mentioned again (with one memorable exception in the Season Two finale); why can't a powerful wizard - who we later learn binds a much stronger demon - defeat Eblus; where did he go and why; and why doesn't Rumina just up and kill our heroes then and there? Sigh.

But does it really matter? As I've said, the point of this two-part opener is to introduce you to the characters, their basic motivations, and get them pointed in the right direction. Everything else comes later or is ignored completely.

Good parts: some fun dialogue and exchanges, watching Firouz's hanging glider in action, Maeve being a badass, Dim-Dim's awesome rose garden, Cassib growing up, good CGI effects (especially the sea serpent).

Bad parts: Maeve's erratic Irish accent. (I'm so glad they dropped that in the later episodes; it just doesn't work well here because it feels so forced.) Sinbad slapping Maeve's ass as a plot device, so many obvious shipping tropes crammed into one episode that it starts to feel really forced - I think we could have done without the last two "falling into each others arms" bits and still gotten the point quite nicely, thank you.

But anyway - now that we've established everything, time to start doing stuff. Next up: one of the series' best episodes - "The Beast Within".

#advenures of sinbad #adventures of sinbad live action tv #Episode commentary #Sinbad 1x02 #maeve throwing fireballs is awesome #firouz's inventions save the day #Dermott as himself #Dermott is always judging you #rongar is a total badass #dim-dim macguffin plot #seriously goth turok #serious shipping here

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