#which is about Disney Channel Original Movies lol

[artemispanthar]

I've been into podcasts lately so I'm curious what podcasts you guys like and if anyone has any recommendations for podcasts. I like ones where you don't have to listen to every episode, you can just pick up ones that sound interesting or maybe ones where a story is told over 2 or 3 episodes. Preferably not ones with a continuous story over dozens of episodes or something you need to keep up on. I like both fiction and non-fiction. I especially like anything horror themed. However I'm open to whatever.

Also if you have something that doesn't fit my criteria but you want to recommend anyway it 'cause you love it, please feel free.

[acaplaya-musings]

I'm a day late but I still wanted to acknowledge the fact that it's now been 5 years since the release of VoicePlay's cover for Oogie Boogie's Song! It's VoicePlay's second-most-viewed video, currently sitting at 13.25 million hits(!!!), and, like the case for many other people, it was my first ever introduction to VoicePlay.

Storytime! (On my first introduction to/first experiences with VoicePlay):

So I didn't find the video immediately after its release, but the fact that I found it at all was basically due to me setting myself up as the perfect target audience. Firstly, I'm a big Disney fan, have been since I was a young kid (as to be expected), and although I didn't actually watch The Nightmare Before Christmas in full until December last year, I was still familiar with a lot of its music. I have an old Disney Christmas album which starts out with Christmassy songs, but ends with songs from various Disney movie soundtracks (idk why), and it includes What's This, Oogie Boogie's Song, and Jack's Lament. And furthermore, each October I would watch the This Is Halloween intro scene from the movie on YouTube.

Secondly, at the time, I was a fan of at least some stuff by certain acapella and acapella-adjacent groups and artists. Straight No Chaser, Pentatonix, Peter Hollens, Nick Pitera, Jon Cozart/Paint, Todrick Hall, y'know. (Although I only watched/listened to covers of songs where I already knew the originals, because why would I listen to cover artists doing songs I didn't already know? Right? (I was naive)).

So it was late October when I finally clicked on VoicePlay's Oogie Boogie's Song. It had been sitting in my Suggested Videos sidebar thing for at least a couple of days iirc before my curiosity gave in (and seriously, it's quite a unique and striking sort of video thumbnail compared to most other VoicePlay thumbnails; something that perhaps worked in its favour?) And well, here's what I had to say about it on my Discord server:

(Little did I know that that E1 was not, in fact, the lowest goddamn note I would ever hear, lol)

But actually, that wasn't the first post I made about VoicePlay/Geoff. This was:

(In my defense of the description/comparison, I had been watching a lot of Unraveled and Overboard videos on Polygon's channel and it was the best description I could think of at the time).

So yeah, I fell in love with Geoff right from that video (I do love a man with a threatrical streak, and obvious bonus points for the hair!), and that crush was further solidified with videos like Panic In 4 Minutes (which I loved), and Queen In 5 Minutes (which I adored).

Also I just have to share this post/comment of mine, because man, Apollo's Dodgeball really side-swiped if not just straight up hit me with this one huh?

(For clarification, this was about 6 or 7 months before Geoff started making his own song covers on his personal channel, where he of course typically sings with "clones" of himself)

But like what I did with other singers and acapella groups, I mostly watched/listened to songs where I knew the original, including for Geoff's channel once it began (though I did also watch Headless Horseman and Mele Kalikimaka), and so yeah, I missed out on a lot at the time! So I wasn't "fully" invested yet, and I think I stuck around till like maybe late 2021 ish? Idk I remember watching Geoff's Monster Mash video, but I can't remember whether I watched VP's Friends On The Other Side at that point or not.

But then, in late October 2023, YouTube stuck Geoff's cover of Jack's Lament in my Recommended section, and I knew even before I watched it that it would be the best thing ever, and it was, and then I came across VoicePlay's cover of Hellfire, and well, the rest is history! 😄

So yeah, Oogie Boogie's Song might not have been the video that actually pushed me "down the rabbit hole", but maybe I might not have come across Jack's Lament four years later without it, or at least I wouldn't have had those memories or that degree of familiarity that made the video extra special, which helped make me want to go catch up on everything I had been missing out on.

In summary: Oogie Boogie's Song you will always be famous <3

[chatter-crow]

please do. personally went off about the soundtrack the first time i heard it.... it's's . not good (about mean girls)

alright this is a whole lot because holy SHIT i think about this more than I should

! ! This is all my opinion ! !

If you liked it, good for you ig just dont attack me lol

They took every bit of musical theater out of the soundtrack and made it sound like generic pop. Theater kids pay WELL for good stuff, they could have made a lot of money.

Also, the complete lack of emotion is awful. Stupid With Love is meant to be Cady being absolutely thrilled, on the fucking moon with joy, but she sounds completely apathetic about her feelings for Aaron. Plus, the way they used autotune (esp on Cady) makes it feel like Disney Channel in the worst way possible.

There are some lyrics changes that really bother me. In the orignal Sexy, Karen has a line of 'I expect to run the world in shoes I cannot walk in,' while in the new line is 'Watch me as I run the world in shoes I cannot walk in', which chnages the entire meaning of the lyric from 'Karen thinks its #feminist to assert control over people because she's priveleged' to 'Karen is a girlboss who can do anything cause women are cool and smart' , which in the most respectful is *not* who Karen is as a character. There are more, but I can't name them off the top of my head so,, whatever lol

On casting, I think just about everybody but Cady were cast extremely well. Renee Rapp does such a fantastic job as Regina, really suits the character and knows how to play her. (Makes sense, she played Regina on Broadway).

Auli'i Cravalho pulls off Janis's character pretty well, but I don't think she fully captured the essence of the character. She doesn't really have the bitterness/jadedness that the orginal Janis has and I don't feel like she has the fact the Janis is in fact a mean girl down. This is no shade to her, I feel like it's more the way they rewrote Janis rather than her acting. I do like that they changed Janis's last name to reflect Auli'i's culture though. Nice detail.

Avantika and Jaquel both pulled off their characters perfectly. Avantika really has the right face for Karen, with big doe eyes and whatnot, she can really pull off the effect of being as stupid as Karen is. (That sounds mean, it's really not.) Jaquel did Damien good, and I don't really have a lot to say on his performance other than his voice is fantastic and he has Damien's character down. I do think he got type-cast a *bit* just due to how I've seen him act off screen, but he still did good. He knows his type.

Cady. Hoo boy. She is.. a look.

Angourie Rice is a fine actress on her own, but her vocals just aren't strong enough to keep up when she's surronded by people like Auli'i Cravalho and Renee Rapp, whose careers have been strongly focused on the muscial side of things, with Auli'i playing Moana for Disney and Renee having a music and broadway career alongside her movie career. Angourie just isn't able to compete with them. I'm sure she's a lovely actress on her own but she just doesn't have the muscial expiernce to be leading in a movie-musical.

Also, with representation, I appreciate that they made the cast more diverse, but it bothers me that four of the biggest MAIN CHARACTERS are still white. I can understand keeping Regina blonde because of the constant references to her blonde-ness in the musical, but Gretchen or Aaron absolutely could have been changed.

Hell, I would have loved to see Gretchen played by an asian actress, reconnecting with her culture at the end, since in the original she began to learn japanese or chinese (I don't remember which rn) as a way to connect with her new circle of friends.

On costumes, I don't think they did Janis justice, but I do like the gradual shift they have for Cady in her style and the Plastics are accurate.

I think keeping Janis emo like she was in the orignal movie and the musical would have been better. Artsy styles like hers are more widely excepted by teenagers while emos are mocked and harrassed extremely often, so keeping her emo would have added to her status as a social outcast.

I enjoy how they used social media to change the plot to be more modern, even if it isn't entirely accurate to how teenagers nowadays act. I think they were trying their best and did what they could with what knowledge they had.

I'm mad that they cut Stop, More is Better, Where Do You Belong? and Do This Thing. Stop is a fantastic chance to put the spotlight on Damian (since he has almost no solos COUGH COUGH) in and it could have absolutely been spun to have a more modern take on internet safety.

The plot. Oh my god, the plot. I HATE how they changed Regina being homophobic to Janis to 'oOOOooo Regina made it seem like Janis was an arsonist', which is.. litterally not the point. Homophobia still exists, Tina Fey, and sapphics/lesbians often do face discrimination from other women who claim to be allies. Plus, with calling Regina a lesbian and trying to set up Rejanis in the end? No! That is just not it! Regina is a fucking homophobe. Fight me y'all.

Okay I'm running out of time rn BUT i will be back later to add more onto this ,, thanks for reading through all of this if you did kudos to you

so long yall

[dumbass-tumbler-cryptid]

I recently watched Soy Luna with my younger sister and it just occurred to me that it would be a bittersweet addition to Blood Brothers. If you haven't seen it, the main character of the series has a necklace with a moon, which is the only thing from her past, because she is adopted. However, during the series she finds the missing part of the necklace - the sun and when she puts them together she discovers the truth about her biological parents. I just had the thought that it would be cool if Paz had this necklace, and after her death Quaricth gave it to the boys before they were taken away - Hunter would get the part with the moon and Spider the part with the sun. Somehow Hunter's parents would let him keep it, maybe they would convince him it was from them and Spider would wear it as a memento of his mother so both boys wouldn't take it off, they would find comfort in it but they would see that some part was missing and once they were at the Q cabin he would have another proof that they were brothers, he would simply tell them to put the necklace together.

Sorry if it's such gibberish and chaotic, but I was basically half asleep when it came to me.

I think this is really sweet. I’ve never heard of Soy Luna before but the necklaces reminded me of a Disney channel original movie from when I was a little kid called Twitches. That movie is about twin witches who are separated and hidden at birth to protect them from an evil wizard. One is given a sun necklace and one a moon and that’s what makes them realize they’re sisters when they eventually find each other.

I’m grinning just typing this because now I’m getting a little lost in the nostalgia sauce. I don’t really know what I could add to the concept you outlined. It would most definitely make the brother’s believe Quaritch much quicker because he could show them a pic of Paz wearing both halves of the necklace then both boys would just be like “oh, oh shit, this is real, this is happening.” It would hit harder for Hunter because it just adds to all his adoptive parents blatant lies. Hunter had just happened to find the necklace going through his baby stuff for a school project when he was in the second grade and he was instantly drawn to it. His parents had told him it was a gift from his late grandmother who gave it to him shortly before she passed. He’d worn it every day since in honor of the woman he never got to meet. Now he’s finding out that woman was actually his real mom. So it’s just gut punch after gut punch for that poor kid

Thank you so much for sending me this! This was really sweet for me to read so thank you for sharing your thoughts even if you were half asleep lol 💞

[marklikely]

listening to the long form story break episodes rn but do you have any recs for the short ones?

Well here's the episodes that I go back and relisten to the most. because i'm me it tends to be the horror ones but some of them also just have the funniest moments or they made a good movie.

TOP TIER BEST EPISODES:

111. What's Eating Gilbert Grape - Genuinely my fave episode and the movie i want to exist the most, where they make a gay gothic romance set in the vineyards of napa valley. tw for like child death and cannibalism and general gothic horror elements.

109. n o t h i n g - The funniest episode, i've listened to it dozens of times and still have parts that make me laugh til i can't breathe. i don't usually relisten to the actual movie part though because tw for a lot of talk about cat death, but the preamble to them settling on their final idea and their detour through weird penis and/or death related art projects are one of the funniest bits of podcasting i've ever heard and matt arnold is obviously the comedy god of this entire crew.

and then just some really good episodes that I've relistened to:

70. Heaven Heist - maybe the most iconic episode and if you're listening to the long form episodes then i assume you already know it but the one where they originally break the story is just so good that it must be listed here.

76. Tearjerker - Probably the best one for dndads fans since it 1. has Beth May as a guest and 2. tells a horror story about the cycle of bad fatherhood. tw for discussions of abuse and toxic masculinity

90. Bird Box - Them trying to crack their own version of bird box when they realize none of them have seen it. tons of funny bits and a pretty interesting final product about family. tw for child endangerment & some minor mentions of animal death

102. Sensory Deprivation Horror Movie - another one with a lot of funny bits, they try to create their own quiet place or bird box movie focused around one of the other major senses.

104. First - where they make a movie about inheriting a youtube empire because you commented first on a video, but it somehow becomes a sci-fi thriller

106. Disney Endgame - they're tasked with laying the groundwork for the next big step: an entire disney-owned cinematic universe. really wild especially the elevator pitch which is one of the funniest that they've done.

122. Pixar's Shoes - where they create an inspiring and formulaic pixar film about a random object, with some bits that almost put me in tears laughing

123. Halmark Movie Bonanza - just trying to use their hour runtime to quickly make as many hallmark christmas movies as possible which is absolute gold if youre as intimately familiar with the hallmark channel as i sadly am

139. Disney Channel Original Movie Marathon - Another one that i might just like because of my extreme familiarity with the source material, but this is a really funny one where they look at DCOM posters and try to make up the movie that it must be with no extra information. one of the movies they make is a ghost based lesbian surfing movie that i desperately wish was real.

and there's honestly a ton of other really funny episodes but these are just the ones i go back to the most. i do recommend being liberal about skipping episodes though like there is no shame in deciding to go to the next episode if they start the "full 5 act structure plan" phase of the episode and you're not into the story. that's the beauty of this being an episodic show lol

[xplrvibes]

Any book series/book recommendations?

I am so bad at reading books these days - read them all when I was a child (pre-internet, books were where I went to escape lol) and so I burned out on the whole reading thing by high school 🤣.

Weirdly enough, now that I think about it - that book burnout coincided with me discovering the internet and fanfic.

Huh.

Anyway! The last thing paperback I read was the Prince Harry book, which was kind of interesting but also a little too whiny at times for me (and I say this as someone who has nothing against Prince Harry). If you want to read pages upon pages of a man talking about how his dick was frostbitten in the Arctic and he had to go to his brother's wedding all cold dicked, then this is the book for you. 👍

As far as series are concerned - I actually watched the entire HBO Chernobyl series on my flight home from Alaska a few months ago and it was very well done. Scary as shit, kind of (very) alarming ...but well done. Would definitely recommend if you are into realistic depictions of real life events and heavy themes. Would NOT recommend if the thought of disaster makes you nervous.

For fun, lighthearted stuff - pre-Zak Bagans Halloween Wars are pretty fun.

On youtube, I watch a lot of random shit but a few people I regularly go back to are:

1, Dylan is in Trouble: if you like watching a grown man react to Disney Channel movies and really critique them as if they are Oscar contenders, this is the place for you 🤣 He does do way more than Disney Channel movies as well...he also has a series where he watches the first and last episode of a TV show ONLY and then ranks the show based on those two episodes. That's also fun!

2, Yes Theory: the original travel content/tfil type of Channel. I don't think they do too much anymore, bit their old content is good if you like random travel challenges and content.

3, Ok this one is weird, but bear with me: Hollywood Graveyards. The description basically covers what it's about - this guy goes into different graveyards in LA (and sometimes around the world), finds famous peoples' Graves, and then gives a brief background into that person's life. I don't know why I enjoy it, but I do 🤣.

Um, anyway...this was no help at all, I feel...but I hope at least something on here strikes your fancy!!

[common-grackle]

hello so my school announced today that next year's musical is freaky friday & i do tech so my job's kind of the same either way but i'm still a little worried because. why is there a freaky friday musical and what possessed my director to pick it?? anyways i looked at the freaky friday musical tag and the only recent post was from you! SO could you possibly reassure me that my director is not entirely insane and-slash-or tell me what you know about the musical since i am a little scared to look it up?

(also i accidentally unfollowed you trying to send this ask lmao)

:(((( i accidentally deleted everything i had written :((( its ok i will type it up again mostly!!

ok so freaky friday the musical is .. surprisingly a LOT better than it sounds. and my theory for this is that the music is actually incredible. the plot is pretty basic, ellie (the kid) and katherine (the mom) switch bodies and shenanigans ensue, but like.. musically it's just !! so fun!!

it's based very very loosely on 2003 freaky friday (which i believe is the most popular version ?? but yeah it's not really related at all to the original movie or the book)

the musical was written by tom kitt and brian yorkey, who also wrote one of my favorite musicals, if/then !! i don't know anything about them as people but i think they did a Good Job

coincidentally my theater is also doing freaky friday next semester!! that's why i listened to the music in the first place lol. anyway ! i think in some capacity i willed myself to like it because i already decided i was going to do the show (whatever show it ended up being) but . you know how it is

if you would like to listen to any of the music, there is an official cast recording !! my favorites are "I Got This", "Busted", "Go", and "Watch Your Back" :D

as for why your director decided to pick freaky friday - well, my mom and i put in guesses for which shows my theater would do this season, and our reasoning for this one (which we were right about !!) was -

there's only 2 principal roles that need to be played by tenors or basses ! afaik every other guy in the show either only sings like 2 lines or is a soprano (fletcher, the little kid, sings soprano i'm pretty sure)

which means YAY for lots of fun girl roles !!!

it's a disney show which is pretty convenient in terms of like. acquiring rights as far as i've heard

like i said, the music!! the music is so fun!!

the ensemble is there in like. almost every scene.

the potential for choreography is huge

it is funny and silly!

there's 2 versions of freaky friday that you can do - one is 90 minutes and the other is 2 hours, and the main difference is that the shorter one takes out any of the bad language or inappropriate jokes (of which there are ... not many) and cuts some songs. so they're not marketed that way, but essentially there's a teen version and a full version

there is also technically a movie version of the musical that disney channel did a few years ago! it's terrible. i enjoyed it greatly. however i would recommend listening to the soundtrack or watching one of the youtube recordings BEFORE watching the movie adaptation because like i said it's terrible

anyway !!! freaky friday !! yes !!! it is a very fun and silly show !! i enjoy it a lot :3

[thewistlingbadger]

My hunter headcanons ❤️

CW: Disordered eating, mentions of sexual abuse, gender expression, neurodivergency, mentions of abuse, catholicism, etc.

Most of these are pretty wholesome and the triggering ones are super light, not detailed :)

anyway enjoy my long ass list of my hunter hcs

He is low-key clumsy. For example: Luz thought it would be a good idea to go roller skating, wrong. She spent the whole night baby sitting Hunter. First, he didn't wanna skate, then, he spent 15 standing at the edge, unsure of how to get on the floor, after that Luz had to be at his side the whole time because he wouldn't let go of the wall. The only thing stopping him from screaming and crying the whole time was his pride.

Hunter absolutely lives for velcro shoes. He hates shoes with laces because they confuse him but also because he trips all the time while wearing them. The amount of times he's fallen face first at school while wearing shoes with laces is more than he'd like to admit. Velcro shoes on the other hand are reliable, a fashion statement, and some of them even light up!!

He is willing to try anything at least once and if not, he will try it after Luz peer pressures him/annoys him for long enough.

He has a terrible fashion sense. Absolutely the worst god bless him

He's very creative. Camila looks at him and he reminds her of Luz. She loves her kiddos some much ❤️

Hates animals, except wolves (he's starting to warm up to domestic animals tho). They freak him out, he sees them as nasty, plus they're no where near as cool as wolves. (Yes this includes cardinals, he's not ready yet) Maybe he'll eventually get an interest with them but for now? No.

Likes the human concept of holidays. He thinks it cool and unique.

Dislikes the outdoors. He doesn't hate it, but i think he prefers to stay inside.

Loves headphones and earmuffs. They make him feel warm and fuzzy, they add weight to his head, overall sensory joy.

Loves soft textures (sensory joy)

He will always keep his hair short because he doesn't want to look like Belos but it's also a sensory thing

Lowkey afraid of everything lol. I think he tried to put on a brave face in front of all the other kids, but once they went back home and he stayed with Luz and her mom, his uncertainty of the realm bleeds into everything he does. It's also just his severe anxiety that makes him feel afraid all the time.

Finds human music intriguing. It fascinates him. He loves learning about all different types of music and it's history and the instruments

Camila introduces him to Latine music such as bachata, salsa, merengue, etc. He loves how it sounds. Camila has some instruments at the house and they play together

All of his likes and dislikes are a combination of experiences Luz and Camila have given him and him inheriting Luz's, Manny's, and Camila's hand me downs.

Hunter spends a lot of time doing god knows what. Making clothes, goofing off, having me time, and especially going through storage. He learns stuff from their storage like human stuff and just Noceda family shit.

His music taste and a lot of other things about him are from the boxes in the basement.

He loves coffee

He doesn't go anywhere without his CD Walman (which was originally Manny's)

All tv shows and movies he's seen are bc he found DVDs in the basement. He lives off 90's sitcoms, nick jr's episode Manny made on a custom CD, and seasons of 2010's Disney channel original shows

He loves Disney channel original movies. His current favorites are invisible sister and teen beach movie. However, Luz introduces him to a new movie every week so it changes a lot.

He's fascinated with animation he finds it stunning. His favorite Disney movie is tangled. Yes he's a Rapunzel kinnie, but he ln general he loves all animation.

He decides to stay in the human realm with Luz. He could have stayed in the basement but he didn't even last a night. He went to Luz's room, and he's been staying there ever since

Being in the human realm gives him the opportunity to heal his inner child. He spends most of his time enjoying kids shit. His favorite human book so far is probably one from the kids section of the library. On his side of the room he has posters and a night light and glow in the dark stars, etc.

He loves glow in the dark things it's a marvel it's like magic to him, hence the admiration for sketchers that glow in the dark.

Lost his fucking mind when he found out playaways were a thing, he absolutely loves them.

Loves living in Connecticut. It's quiet and cold and everything he could have ever hoped for in a home.

Wants to know more about the Dominican republic. Dreams of going there

Wears sunblock religiously. Takes all earth problems seriously even tho to Luz they don't seem too dangerous. He's out here taking gummy vitamins y'all he thinks it's that serious

Likes washing his hair in warm water (sensory joy)

Only shops in the clearance part of stores

Loves learning languages (even if he's not good at it)

Loves crayons. Loves coloring books. Loves stickers.

Would probably get along well with the pines twins from gravity falls

Loves astrology, he thinks the stars are so fucking cool. He and Luz spend weekends charting constellations on the ceiling of their shared room

He's a total scene kid

He's soooo into arts and crafts skskksks

He's really insecure about his looks

He dyes his hair brown so he can look for like a Noceda.

But i think he does just dye his hair in general. I think he's a highlights and streaks kinda guy

He has a hard time eating and i think it's a combination of things. I think he definitely had eating problems before but it's really clear in the human world. Human food is weird to him. Luz assures him that they'll find something that will be good for him, whether it's meals from different cultures or liquid meals, they'll figure something out.

Camila takes a day to explain food to him, like "here's where our food comes from, here's where it was before, come help me cook this so you can see how it's made," and that not only puts his mind at ease but it's that start of cooking/baking hobby

He alternates between calling Camila her name and Mrs. Noceda. He feels more comfortable calling her Mrs. Noceda but he recognizes that she wants to be called Camila. She's not really that bothered by it anymore, she just wants him to be comfortable

He spends a lot of time with Camila at first because hunter isn't really ready to go to school and he's not on level with all the other 16 years olds. Camila's worried he'll always be really behind but she makes sure he doesn't know

Camila loves hunter. He's so different from Luz it's a different experience. With hunter she's gentle and calm. She doesn't know everything that happened, but she knows this little boy was wronged in the past and she wants to make it up to him

Hunter helps out at the vet a lot. Camila thinks it's a good experience and he'll learn things

Tries to do well at school, is probably not doing too well tho lmao. He doesn't understand the social shit of school and who's he gonna ask for help? Luz and Camila? They don't understand either. I think he does well in PE. It reminds him of the training he did for the emperor's coven. But he doesn't understand the games. Dodgeball? Capture the flag? Hunter gets a lot of weird looks.

He doesn't have any friends other than Luz, and he's ok with that. Everyone thinks he weird. Him and Luz stick together, even tho Luz is finally making friends of her own. They're inseparable. Someone tries to fuck with Luz, hunter is waging war and vise versa.

Has no rhythm. Will not dance unless Luz makes him, Camila asks, he's playing Just Dance, or he's really happy and feeling himself. Luz is the happiest when he's the later.

Thinks word searches are diabolical.

Has conflicting thoughts on board games. Hates chess but likes checkers. Likes battleship but not connect 4. Still getting the hang of dominoes.

Has a collection of stuffed animals

Watches kids cartoons

Loves feminine things. But he's slowly easing into it bc some things he's not ready for/not used to. Part of him thinks make up is cool and the other part doesn't like how it physically feels on his face. It's a process. Luckily for him, the Noceda family is patient and accepting!

Luz holds his hand figuratively and little during everything she loves him to bits and pieces

He is very emotional. He cries a lot ❤️

Luz is his #1 defender and Camila is his #1 cheerleader

Has a love hate relationship with Legos

Likes soup. Likes salad. Doesn't like pasta, but likes to cook it. Loves Dominican food tho

Is learning guitar.

Loves lady gaga. Favorite songs include Judas, paparazzi, rain on me, etc.

He's probably a swiftie

Definitely likes instrumental music

Is on anxiety medication. Should be in therapy but i don't think he is. Camila doesn't really have the funds for it, hunter isn't warm to the idea of therapy, and he wouldn't be able to tell the whole truth since he can't expose the magic realm. Luz talked him into going to a youth support group for victims of abuse. Luz goes with hunter to those meetings to help him too.

Yes i think hunter was abused by belos and i also think he is a victim of sexual abuse (at belos' hands? Idk)

Does boxing

Has a terrible singing voice but likes to sing. He's in choir at school, definitely not a band or orchestra kid

Terrified of spiders, roaches, and bee like bugs. Everything else is pretty ok

Still does parkour

Likes playgrounds

Volunteers

So petty and passive aggressive

Is initially afraid of rollar coasters and attractions at theme parks but after a few rides he likes it

Likes fruit flavored things

Doesn't like cold desserts. Coming to terms with flan. I'm not sure if he likes sweet things in general tbh

Loves pastries. Loves baking

Prefers warm over cold foods

Likes posters

Loves Disney princesses, like, so fucking much. He admires and looks up to all of them so much i can't explain it-

Not into video games. Luz tries to get him into it and all it does is make him made when he looses sksksks

He's really into self exploration at the moment.

He can ask Luz anything and she'll say yes every time

He thinks live music is cool, but he is sensitive to loud noise. He stops enjoying live music when it's so loud he can feel the vibrations in the air

He wasn't afraid of heights until he got to the human world lmao

Definitely owns wolf ears and wolf tail (I'm afraid my dear boy is slowly becoming a furry)

Loves Shakira

Luz gave him a book on wolves for his birthday it is his favorite thing ever

Has/will probably consume every single bit of wolf content to ever exist (probably not for the better). He's one of those "now that i know i like it i must have ALL of it!"

They to to a indoor trampoline place fore luz's birthday 🥺🥺🥺 he smiles so much 🥺🥺🥺

Absolutely, fucking, HATES the dentist. One fear and one fear only, and it's dentists.

Loves baggy sweaters and big jeans. If it's not loose, he's not putting it on.

Has no idea about gen z culture. Luz trying to explain it to him makes it worse

Lowkey doesn't like technology/not into it t

Loves candles and artificial air fresheners

Can sew and can knit/crochet

Tries to cover scars with makeup after awhile

Asks Camila what she would have named Luz if she were a boy. When Camila adopts him, he changes his name to that

Converts to catholicism. It starts with Camila giving hunter a golden cross necklace for his birthday. "It'll protect you." He doesn't really understand what she means. Luz has a cross above the door in her room and a rosary on her desk. She does a sign of the cross every night before she goes to bed. He asks her about it, and she tries to explain it. He goes with them to church and surprisingly, he likes it. He minds praying soothing. It puts his mind at ease. "I guess after belos, i needed a new cause"

I'm not sure if he's the best driver ever or the worst driver ever. He's very into following the rules, however, i also feel like he'd be really bad at it lmao

Very stubborn. Thinks he can do everything on his own, even when it's not safe.

Very competitive too

Learning to be impulsive and to do stupid shit for fun (yes Luz is a bad influence)

He's very lucky to have Luz as a sister. She really pushes him out of his comfort zone and she's the reason he becomes more outgoing

He likes some musicals. He thinks they're a weird idea, but he's kinda intrigued. I think he likes wicked, be more chill, and phantom of the opera. Luz is introducing him to more stuff

I do think him and Luz play a lot your honor. I do think she went "I'm no longer an only child!" And fucking ran with it and suddenly, she's a little kid again! They go to the playground to swing and play tag and chase each other and throw frisbees and balls and shit she really said "i WILL turn you into THE american poster child!"

Hunter is genuinely terrified of eda's owl form and he openly admits how horrifying she is. But over time he starts to become fascinated by it, but he's doing his best to hide it lol.

Him and Luz are taking martial arts together

Genuinely i do think that they just do everything together they're inseparable.

He doesn't really access the internet but when he does, he sure is under parental controls. I mean c'mon if this kid knew about mitski we'd all be in huge shit

Every Christmas the Nocedas have a Christmas photoshoot, in which Luz and hunter dress in formal traditional Dominican outfits/just formal Christmas outfits. You know the dress I'm talking about

He loves build a bear

He has a hard time processing audio, emperor's coven type shit. He has a hard time understanding what is being said

He sleeps on the bottom bunk

Him and Luz talk during movies. They huddle on the couch, a bowl of popcorn and a blanket, shoulders and heads touching they're so close. They have no idea what's going on and no amount of squinting is gonna fix that lmao

Where they differ: hunter is quiet and Luz is loud

Hunter will see a character that he kins, and not understand why he is so mesmerized by this character. He starts doing all these things to make him more like the character and he's like "haHA this is normal!" He starts subconsciously dressing like them, practicing their lines in the shower, he really is a silly lil guy

He keeps calling willow captain because he genuinely cannot remember her name, it's also a respect thing. Willow doesn't mind, in fact, she makes sure people don't correct him sksksksk

He's formal like that. He'll call his teachers "professors" and the school nurse "doctor", yeah skskskks

Luz will often put the blame on hunter lmao. Camila will ask why Luz go detention, and Luz will go "um... HUNTER FAILED HIS TEST TODAY!" to drastic their mom lmao

HE KINS RAPUNZEL SO FUCKING MUCH TANGLED AND BOLT ARE SOME OF HIS FAVORITE MOVIES HE RELATES TO THEM SO MUCH

Camila will tell him something, and then hunter will do it repeatedly, even when Camila has already told him to stop. It's the solider in him

Hunter 1000% thinks kissing is gross.

NGL when Amity and hunter found out germs were a think they were like "🤮 take me back TAKE ME BACK!"

Luz and hunter have watched arcane together. Luz likes vi and hunter likes jinx, they both hate silco

Luz likes the book of life hunter likes Coco

Hunter likes human history! I think he has a good grade in that class

I think he has a crush on Bowser from Mario, but is completely unaware of what a crush is. It's a silly phase that pases soon enough

Luz suggests hunter learn ASL so he can communicate when he goes nonverbal/doesn't wanna talk. They practice together and one day, Luz notices that his smile is different. She asks what's wrong, and hunter says "it's like magic" (context: the hand motions of signing reminds him of the spells mages would cast in the demon realm)

Hunter hates all the blights and they hate him. Except for Edric, who is curious about hunter. Their conversations often go like "so....where you from-" "leave me the fuck alone, blight"

Hunter and Edric rivalry when?

Doesn't like Pokémon, it's too confusing for him

But he probably likes digimon lmao

He has a book of farm animals with the voices in it sksksksk he's like "the cow goes...moo? This is so odd"

He likes cheeseburgers

OH HE LOVES THE MOVIE TURNING RED

He and Luz probably cosplay together and go to cons

Hunter still calls Luz "human"

Luz says "hunter, you're my brother" and bc hunter doesn't really understand what she means he goes "yeah, you're my brother too"

THEY'RE ADHD/AUTISM SIBLINGS!!!!

[mia-talks-toons]

(S1E5) Battle For Dream Island: The Power Of A Community

Today I'm doing something a little different, and delving into the world of indie cartoons! Instead of being aired on a big channel like Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, or even a streaming platform, Battle For Dream Island is a YouTube webseries! I’ve always had an admiration for people who find ways to do big projects like this without the support of a whole company behind them. The show was released way back in 2010, created by twin brothers Cary and Michael Huang when they were just 12 years old. It follows a cast of anthropomorphic objects competing against each other to win the titular “Dream Island”. Since its initial release, the show continued on for another 4 seasons, two of which are still going on RIGHT NOW, and they currently have an entire crew and production team to help make episodes!

While it’s an incredible success story, the reason I’m talking about BFDI isn’t because of the show itself, but the community it created. The show raked in tons of fans even when it was a small no-budget project, and it only grew as the show got bigger. Heck, I was a fan way back when the second season was coming out, back in 2013! Soon, other people got inspired by the show, and by the fact that it was made independently by two preteens, and made their own “Object Shows”, as the genre is called. Nowadays there are dozens of different shows in the category, such as Inanimate Insanity (the second object show to be created), ONE (A genre deconstruction of object shows), and Open Source Objects (a show in which every scene is animated by a different person, in their own style).

Even those who didn't go through the effort of making an entire show still made things inspired by the show. There are a lot of people (including me) who make fan art, original characters, write fanfiction and more! An especially interesting phenomenon is object “camps”, where someone will host a competition online, and other people in the object show community will join with their original characters as contestants. The host will set up a challenge, and each contestant will write their character completing said challenge. In fact, this is actually how I met my boyfriend! 

Which brings me to a personal point. The show and its community are important to me, personally. Like I said before, my boyfriend and I were both huge fans of BFDI, and we first interacted when he was hosting an object camp! He loved the way I wrote my character, and we bonded over the show. We became close friends, and a few years later, got even closer! On the non-romantic side of things, the object show community really inspired me to draw art consistently and create my own characters (even if they were just drawings of household objects with stick figure limbs), since I wanted to participate in all the fun I saw my community members having. I even tried to create my own object show (which I almost fully wrote out but never animated, but hey maybe I’ll revisit it someday)! Also, a group of my friends and I created our own little BFDI-inspired competition show multiverse called the Character Elimination Cinematic Universe. We all take characters from shows, movies, or games we enjoy and write them into our own big crossover stories, where they do fun challenges to win a prize! It’s a bit silly, but it’s a lot of fun too! Though I don’t watch Battle For Dream Island too much anymore, I cannot deny that it had a huge impact on me as a person, as it has for so many other people.

And that’s really all I have to say for this post! Honestly, I could ramble for way longer but I’m writing a blog post, not a 10-page essay! Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you in my next post (also please give me cartoons to cover I’m running out of ideas lol)

[italoniponic]

What the Bean's Day event means (part 1 - the movie/tale)

[header make by me with pngs from @/alchemivich here and background made by @AnxiAri on twitter. I felt like it would be better than using the low quality banner events lmao]

Since the EN Twst server is finally holding the Beans Day event (or Beanfest, if you will), I'm gonna have the opportunity to inform you a very interesting curiosity of where the hell those damn beans came from????

The Beans Day event is indeed a reference to that famous fairy tale of "Jack and the Beanstalk". We're split between two teams: farmers and giants/monsters. The story behind the holiday, thus also the competition Crewel created, tells us firstly about a Happy Valley that lived peacefully thanks to the beautiful voice of a golden magic harp. When the harp was kidnaped by a giant, a long time after the hunger withered the valley, a farmer came into picture. With the help of magic beans, he could go to the giant's castle in the clouds and retrieve the harp to its right place.

Nothing new, I know. But there's where the things starts to get interesting! Why would twst be interested in such a common story among other famous tales?

Well, it all begins because, on September 27 of 1947, Walt Disney produced an animated musical fantasy package film called "Fun and Fancy Free"...

"Fun and Fancy Free" is a compilation of two stories: Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk. Though the film is primarily animated, it also uses live-action segments (starring Edgar Bergen and his two creepy ventriloquist dummies and the child actress Luana Patten) to join its two stories. We have some scenes with Jimmy Cricket participation as well.

At first, I picked up this movie by chance because it was on a vintage movie youtube channel and I was bored. I didn't see much of Bongo bc the story didn't catch my eye, so I moved forward to the second part. And, to my surprise, it was an animation with our beloved classic Disney trio Mickey, Donald and Goofy being poor farmers in the Happy Valley that passed through hunger after the magic harp was stolen.

(that gif of Mickey slicing a very extremely thin slice of bread came from here)

The movie's story follows most of the narrative present in both the original tale (with some differences of pacing and details here and there) and twst's story for Bean’s Day. It may not be the trio's most famous adventure since it is a rather old film but has its charms. And it's also the second time Mickey fought against a giant lol

So yeah, the event wasn't some random idea that crossed the staff's mind. It's based on a real Disney production, as it should be expected. The film received mixed reviews stating that it's a slow paced almost boring movie (which... I kinda understand) or only the second part is more amusing and it's better to show to children who can't bear cartoon-violence.

Taking on note that these package filmes Disney made in the 1940's was mostly to save money during WWII and it actually helped finance other famous movies that they made years after, like Cinderella, Alice and Peter Pan.

That's basically the origin of the Bean’s Day. From a tale about a farmer with beans fighting a giant to school boys going through an almost "paint-ball" game of strategy with silly clothes.

Edit 1: thank you to @manifestmerlin for adding about the Setsubun festival where you throw beans at "onis" (which just goes perfectly with the Beans Day)... or at least, this is the festival's main thing. I started to read something about it but for now, I don't have the time to write a post to add those infos. It seems very interesting tho! I can't wait to write a part two to this post~

Edit 2: (03/28) now, a little bit more proof-read. I need to spot writing my posts on normal drafts. My english grammar is not that good to be so confident on.

Edit 3: (04/12) ABEMOS HEADER!!

[aimmyarrowshigh]

2022 Fic Roundup Meme

Total Fics Posted: 975 so far (two are hidden right now because they're for anonymous exchanges!) but by the end of the year, it SHOULD be 1,108. I've got three more exchanges due by the 31st, plus 40 #hanukkahbingo drabbles, and then hopefully daily drabbles are back now that the Star-Spangled Big Bang is over and my brain is being a little less eaten. We'll see if Fandom Trumps Hate starts eating my brain, though, because that's the longest of my remaining 2022 stuff!

Total Words Posted: By the end of the year, it should be ~175,000. Currently it's 150,181.

Total Words (of Anything Excluding Blogs) Written: Somewhere between 200,000-250,000, I think, which is pretty usual for me. Most of what I write I just kind of immediately post, but I do have some WIPs kicking around the ol' WIP folder. I didn't start using a comprehensive wordcount tracker until mid-October, so I don't know exactly!

My favorite fic story this year: Either Not In The Answer But The Question or Five Times Captain America Fucked A USO Girl & One Time Steve Rogers Got Fucked -- I'm proud of both, but in different ways. I think both really challenged some of my writing hang-ups and turned out well. I'm happy with all of the longer-than-a-drabble stuff that I wrote this year, though! And I mean, most of the drabbles, too, but there aren't any that necessarily stick out in my head as far and away better than the others.

My best story this year: Not In The Answer But The Question, although I do feel like I rushed the pacing on the last quarter because I had to make the BB deadline (hah). People seem to think it still sticks the landing, though!

Story most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: I'm actually going to give a real answer for this one this year, which I usually don't, but I'm going to say that I thought both a smile on your immortal face and Gee, I Hope You're Ready for a Fic About Death would get a couple more hits than they have. I know neither is a massive fandom, but Beetlejuice The Musical DOES have over a thousand fics and there ARE a lot of WLW American Girl fans, so I thought both would get a little more traction than they have. But it's okay! I had a ton of fun writing them either way, and I'm really happy with how they turned out.

Sexiest Story: Five Times Captain America Fucked A USO Girl & One Time Steve Rogers Got Fucked is the smuttiest thing I've written in YEARS and I think the sex all turned out pretty well! I don't write many E-rated drabbles because it's difficult to create sexual tension within the word limit in a way that's ~satisfying, so there isn't a ton of competition haha. I am going to attempt the MCU Kink Bingo in 2023 though!

Most fun story: Ooh, good question. I'm gonna say Gee, I Hope You're Ready for a Fic About Death because it makes me laugh and because it was a really quick writing process because I was having fun. "Fun" isn't necessarily my brand when it comes to writing? For someone who only likes bubblegum pop and Disney Channel Original Movies, I pretty much only write super thoughtsy-feelsy quiet, meditative character studies, lol.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: To coopt myself from the 2012 meme, “if I write a fic and it doesn’t change my feelings on the characters or fandom in some way, then I don’t think I wrote it correctly.”

Hardest story to write: I'm going to answer this with one that isn't posted yet and say my massive shrinkyclinks longfic that I started in 2021 and had hoped to finish and post this year! It's been a much slower writing process than I wanted it to be, just because I want to get it Exactly Right and because longfic makes me super anxious about My Value And Worth In This World Hinge On This Story And Whether People Like It.

Biggest surprise: Reiterating from last year's meme -- "Actually sticking to the drabbling! In the past when I tried Three-Line Fic Thursday and Five-Sentence Friday, I failed miserably, and I’ve failed myself at drabble challenges, too. But for some reason this time it’s stuck and is genuinely working to remind me that I can get words out, I can have ideas, and I can get those ideas out in words. Yay!"

A story I want remembered: I mean, if I wrote anything this year that anyone remembers fondly, that makes me happy. But I do have a soft spot for Not In The Answer But The Question.

Resolutions for 2023: FINISH LENT FROM TOMORROW (TODAY WAS TOO SMALL FOR US). BE A FINISHER. FINISH THE THING. Also, do Femslash February and a drabble March Madness again because they were really fun this year!

[madisonrooney]

I think Bunk’d could have had potential but i think it lost that when it didn’t have any connection to the original material or it shouldn’t have had any of the Jessie characters to begin with aside from like one of them it never felt like an actual spin off. I think seeing a Kim Possible spin off would have been fun or maybe even how My Babysitter’s A Vampire did it where the show comes after the movie, in this case the 2019 live action, but I think that or Hannah Montana but with a focus on Mikayla or something with an iconic character but more of a guest character. Although that one would be tricky because I feel like on of the binding forces of HM was lilly and miley’s friendship and I am not sure what would tie the other one together LOL

but anyway you always talk about going to Disney events in the discord, what would be the ultimate dream event put on by Disney that you would want to go to (i.e. parade, museum, live show, all of the above ect.)

take care - ❄️🎄

i do think it was weird for them to have a spinoff when you only have 3/4 of the kids from the original show. ive only seen a few eps of jessie, but im guessing all four kids are equally important more or less. if you had....8 kids in the original show and then 7/8 in the spin off that could be ok but i feel like 3/4 is a big loss relatively speaking. i also think the summer camp concept is a little random and you can only do so much with it. phineas and ferb and gravity falls managed to get summer focused shows right but i feel like thats not an inherently manageable plot.

those are some really neat ideas! i think christie would implode if there was a kp 2019 show lol. i wonder if they ever considered doing that. the idea of a show about a side character is really interesting too. i think that was what they were trying to do with alyson stoner's character in the ep of thats so raven where cory has a guest appearance on a tv show.

oh! speaking of spin offs about side characters, i shouldve mentioned this in my last answer: i know there was a spinoff about varian from tangled the series pitched that never got picked up. i feel like that doesnt entirely count as answer bc it was in fact pitched and theres info about it available online but still (while it didnt seem like the booms pilot got very far), since hes my fav i wouldve loved to have seen that!

on that note, is there a pilot that didnt get picked up in particular that you really wish had?

ive actually talked about this with some friends before, id love to see a museum exhibit dedicated to disney channel specifically! there was a disney channel section of the archives exhibit at d23 this year but i would love to see a full blown exhibit, especially bc that way you could have more variety beyond just the most popular shows and movies (they only had stuff like hsm, hannah montana, wizards, and camp rock. plus they only had costumes besides the wand used for wand IDs). ive been to some touring disney archives exhibits (some of which have included a few disney channel things), so i think that would be a really cool concept to do entirely with disney channel! they cant use any of my liv and maddie props or my stan plush tho lol. what about you?

[9w1ft]

i am writing this fully aware that things can boomerang at the drop of a hat but i haven’t blown a gasket in awhile so allow me this one gratis ☺️

over the past -*looks at watch*- counting on two years, i feel like i’ve aged twenty. and the aging process has truly come from all sides. all facets. i feel like i’ve seen it all! but the simplicity of today set me on fire lol.

and this is coming off of 2019 of all years!

2019: the year that brought forth accounts and shells that corralled newbie gaylors on discord and showered them with saccharine nicknames and had them push debunkable “intel” , and accounts with galaxybrained-only-in-aesthetics assertions that taylor and karlie are just both fucked in the head, clingy and jealous, showing up to one another’s tropical vacations with entourages of hot chicks like this is all some sort of twisted disney channel original movie, and suddenly i’ve got multiple kids in my inbox sending me pictures of flight patterns (yikes) with the wrong filters on them insisting they’re proof that taylor is having some affair with a fan of hers because taylor can never support a young lady musician without a slice of this internet assuming it’s proof she’s horny and lonely, a year where it was *insisted* in between gingham jackets that a performance now two years old was the start of tides imminently turning, a year where people refused to stay in their lanes, reblogged and added and repurposed so many things in *my* lane to their liking, called upon magical realism, likened taylor to a literally reincarnation of nikola tesla, pushed reinterpretations of core symbols that even i - the @9w1ft - the delusional one - would call reaches, a year that people somehow got the notion, thanks to scorched earth tactics, that taylor would dedicate a whole album to her lover only as a hail mary to get her back, that every time she sang the titular song it was surely sung sadly, some last gasp of air, some cry out for help, as opposed to her gunning for a grammy, a year when anything sad taylor expressed in the back half and first months of 2020 was surely a reflection of her heartbreak, that loverfest being canceled was her giving up on her lover, ****when scooter f*ing braun purchasing her masters and the novel coronavirus pandemic are **right there** staring you right in the eye****, but should be overlooked because surely taylor and karlie were a thing but broke up in… 2017. mid 2018. late 2018. early 2019. mid 2019. early 2020. just the other day. enough! enough 😂😂😂

no, somehow, against all odds, this all managed to pale in comparison to this past year. ohhhh nilly, this past years’ time really has taken the damn cake. because for all the distressing behavior that lover era brought, nothing can compare to the true hurt and distraught i felt this year with, upon given the opportunity to practice kindness and grace, temperance and patience, especially towards one another - because it’s literally all we can control - i found myself waking up in the middle of the night queasy as all hell and unable to discern if it was because of my pregnancy or because of the truly gross things people were saying. tired games of gotcha, @‘s in callout posts that people would screenshot and send to me worried, people coming into my inbox and my friends inboxes with copypasted obtuse threats all when i was basically checked out and trying to keep the zen until the pregnancy stuck (which these people surely knew about because they follow me closely enough to know where they could send me threats, but i digress, weird how they didn’t practice what they preach, sorry i was saying but i digress), and then for the pinnacle of that to be the… commodification of taylor’s queerness? the casualness of it all, the paywall of it all! so many people changing usernames and timelines it was tough for even me —resident kaylor that’s on this hell site 24/7– to keep track of. and the stuff i saw others getting sent! it’s been ridiculous! some of you anons best wash your mouths with a bar of soap… not once! two times! ya hear me!

but i’m not done! because the thing that broke my heart more than anything that broke my heart was seeing all y’all turn on karlie and positively revel in the hate. just steep in it. especially while she was pregnant (and quite frankly now that she’s a new mom too but whatever). don’t send me your justifications, i’ve read them all. the horse is high. she brought this upon herself. uhuh, sure, but my beef is not about karlie. it’s about here. it’s about us! look at this place! one cannot justify holding this much contempt, at a level where it consumes ones life and the lives of those surrounding it. i don’t know why i’m even writing this because i know the pushback and talking points as if they were seared on the back of my eyelids. but when did making a lark of the misery become toxic positivity? why’s the high crime of being hopeful deserve a subtweet? i get that everyone’s sense of wonder is tired and everyone has their opinions of which i am not under the impression i could ever change. but for the love of god please, find the joy somewhere or find other things that bring the joy because sometimes i come on here and by god, this is no way to live!

but today i just, i dunno, i see these faces from times past in my feed coming to coyly collect on the chuckles and while i’m glad they’ve found a balance that’s worked for them, i guess i just… wished more of them had been sticking around to water the flowerbeds because it’s become a goddamned dried arrangements boutique around here with a fault line in the floor splitting clear through the earth. there’s no middle ground. we used to have a garden variety! and you all know i’m not just turning it up to 11 on the daily for my own sake, right? i’m throwing boxes of baking soda at these negative PH hydrangeas but day in day out these blooms are coming up bright red. and today it feels like people came to pick them and peace out as if nothings happened here in the past two years

😮‍💨 okay. i’ve said my piece. … but one more thing.

and all the while the latest album is titled, of all things, evermore. a word meaning? what’s that? forever. forever! come on!! not to get all steve on ya but sit down in your thinking chair. i was gonna make a list of the most eye catching things just to go over them but today i don’t feel like doing the work.

things i know:

karlie had a baby

karlie is a mom

i like babies, and motherhood, and karlie, and i support karlie and her journey.

taylor and karlie are clearly still hamming it up

ipso facto, while i know nothing, i remain unbothered.

i also know that i love the people i’ve met along the way. and i always will, and as november comes close i miss that feeling of going to rep tour. what a time it was. what a feeling. and i know one day we’ll get it back. but this year, damn, this year ain’t it.

[hondagirll]

OH also in honor of your tag about the Disney channel, how about High School Musical and Princess Protection Program, which are two I've actually seen? :)

I've never seen either! Both those movies came out when I was in college and I was too cool for Disney Channel Original movies by then. (Lol)

But some of the Disney Channel Original movies I watched on repeat as a kid were Brink, Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (all three in the series), Smart House, Halloweentown and Quints.

[meadow-roses]

Hi! I hope you're doing well! I've been meaning to reach out to you for a while but I'm always so nervous! I wanted to tell you that I'm always so impressed by your animations and I wanted to ask if you had any advice? I would like to learn but I have no idea how to begin. How do you go about it and how did you start learning this process? Thank you very much and I hope all is well!

Hello!!! First off I want to apologize for it taking so long to respond to you- we had a lot of autumnal food storing to do and I was short on time. Animation is something I'm very passionate about and I wanted to give you a thorough answer because I would absolutely LOVE to help you get started in animating!! If there's anything I don't cover, or if you have a more specific question, feel free to send another ask and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. :)

I didn't really do much to get started, I just kinda jumped in with photoshop cs5 (I DON'T recommend doing that LOL 😂) I wanted to make an animated series with my brother so I just started working on the trailer which is like 30 seconds pffft. Since then I've just been learning as I go picking up stuff from watching movies closely. I've still got a lot of basics to figure out like thumbnailing a sequence before you try to animate it, and timing charts (which is what I'm trying to work on now hehe)

My biggest piece of advice for you would be to just jump into it! I think there is no advice that can get anyone started better than to just start doing it. I know that can sound daunting, but there is no better way to get better at any form of art (drawing, writing, singing, etc.) than to just start. You'll learn the best by learning from your own mistakes, as hard as that can be. XD

You can start with some simple exercises to get the hang of moving something, like animate a ball bouncing or a hamster doing a backflip- just whatever sounds most do-able to you. (Do yourself a favor and don't start with a walk/run cycle though. They seem simple but are actually one of the hardest things to animate lol Be smarter than me. XDD) Just start small and work up from there. Go from animating a ball to animating a blink, then animate something turning it's head, saying something, waving, flapping wings. The more animating the more you'll catch the hang of it and drawing the motions will become intuitive. In general, just don't be afraid to try- and if it doesn't look right, don't give up! :D

Richard Williams book, "The Animator's Survival Kit" is a wonderful resource for getting started animating. He walks the reader through the very basics, and then the fundamentals of animation and how to apply it, like squash and stretch and takes. I was able to find a copy at my library and then later bought one off Abebooks for around $12. I haven't finished the book but I did peek ahead and see lip syncing and walk cycles and other wider motions.

I've found a lot of art programs come with an animation system built in. I don't know what program you're using, but I personally love the one for Krita. I find the entire program intuitive and easy to use (that's also my drawing program XD), and the animation window is seconded only by ToonBoom (the current industry standard software which is also EXCELLENT just pricey. You can get a one month free trial for each of the three versions if you want to test it out. Unlike Krita, ToonBoom can make 2d puppets and do "flash" animation.) If you are having trouble with digital animation you can still practice with traditional sketches, I made a tutorial thing for a friend on that here. Flipbooks are something I've heard of working? Like animating on a pad of sticky notes, but I haven't been able to get that to work well for me but you could try it!

If you have any more specific questions I'd love to help you however I am able! Here are some of the resources I've found useful:

Again, I can't recommend enough Richard Williams' book "The Animator's Survival Guide" (an animator trained by Milt Kahl) if you want to understand the basics and are still confused where to start. Also Frances Glebas' (a renowned director) storyboarding book "Directing the Story". Both of those books have been immensely helpful and I can't wait for the free time to read them more and put to action the lessons! XD

Here's a link to James Baxter's (my animator hero lol) youtube account, where you can study snippets of a master animator's work: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt2iDOfRW1WWu5SxgJJpP1g

I've also found following accounts of animators on instagram has been a help, they'll often post "breakdowns" of shots explaining why they chose what shapes and how they decided to pace motions and stuff like that. jakeleeanimation this dude posts a lot of studies of disney animations kenduncan9 director of the studio that animated Tarzan and Hercules, among others pumbaaguy animator of Kronk and Pumba! framebyframe_animation this helpful account slows animations down and really walks you through the forms and pacing johnpomeroyart worked on Pocahontas and Atlantis, likes teaching people animation! theanimationart explanatory username lol XD AND OF COURSE aaronblaiseart who has retired from animating to TEACH animation and was also trained by the original disney pioneer animators. He does have a website where you can buy a course, and while it is pricey it does often go on sale. I haven't caught the chance to watch through all the episodes yet but I was able to purchase the series for $10 last year.

Also I seriously mean it, if you have any other questions feel free to ask. XD There's so much info I'm not sure where to start or what would be most helpful for you to get you started. :,)

[moonshine-nightlight]

Sorry did you tag part 22? I’d love to hear about your planning process. Do you outline the whole thing before you write?

i did! thanks for this opportunity to ramble about my writing process. See below for those interested in that and for a sneak-peek at my shorthand names for upcoming parts.

All my ideas start as like, bullet point lists in a single doc with all my thoughts stream-of-consciousness style and some stray dialogue.

I tend to do/need less outlining for shorter stories, but for longer ones i really like to do detailed outlines because it helps me remember everything and fit it all together.

In April, before I started posting Dale again, I fully outlined the entire story, breaking it down into chapters and then those chapters into 'scenes' (aka Parts 1-3 = Chapter 1). This is currently my standard outlining process since December 2020 when I won NaNoWriMo and got Scrivener since that program lends itself to this style of outlining very well, in my opinion.

According to my current outline, Dale has 10 Chapters, broken down into 34 scenes (which is why it is says on my masterlist Dale is currently at 6/34). This could change, but right now--that's the plan. Current back-of-the-envelope calc puts the story at probably being between 85-95k words, but my later chapters are almost always longer than the earlier ones so it could end up being even longer.

Dale is gonna be like, a full novel lol. The slow burn tag is no joke.

If you don't mind spoilers, see below for a screenshot from my scrivener for Dale.

The first scene in Chapter 3 = part 7

All chapter/scene titles are unofficial and mostly just so I remember what each one is about in case I have an idea for them.

6.4 is Part 22 and where some of those sentences I posted are from.

No idea how other writers do it, but this is my process for all writing I am currently working on, which has evolved a ton since I first handwrote a bad fanfic for a Disney Channel original movie in middle school.