#yes I agree the Cinderella Disney live action movie was the only good one

[gch1995]

@rogue205 Yeah, I think Cinderella was the only live action Disney animated remake I actually liked too because it wasn’t just a shot for shot remake, and it actually gave more depth and realism to (Cinder)Ella and the Prince (Kit) as individual characters, as well as their relationship. In the 1950s film, it seemed like there was more focus on the animals helping Cinderella than Cinderella and her relationships with the Prince, her father, her stepmother, and her stepsisters. I actually prefer the iconic blue princess ball gown, slippers, and hairstyle that they gave to Lily James as Cinderella’s in the 2015 film over the one they gave to Cinderella in the animated Disney film. It’s brighter, bluer, frillier, and more elegant than the one she got in the 1950s Disney film. Plus, I prefer the fact that they left half her hair down in loose curls, rather than putting it in a prim and proper high bun. It gave her a more innocent and soft look than in the animated one. The only things I would have added to enhance the look in the live action remake for Cinderella a little more would be a small pair of silver diamond earrings and a necklace with a single teardrop diamond pendant.

That being said, Cinderella isn’t really a story about a heroine who faces conflict because of her character flaws. She perseveres because of her kind heart. You get a lesson about how it’s better to deal with grief and trauma by being kind, rather than stooping to the level of those who abuse you if possible. Ella does still try to exert her agency and gain freedom by going to the ball to meet the Prince, and she defies her stepmother to try on the glass slipper that she knows will only fit her foot when the Prince goes looking to find the maiden who lost it at the ball.

You could argue that Belle was a bit judgmental in the Beauty and the Beast Disney film of the people in her town, but it also does seem like the majority of them really are just as awful as she believes they are though and through. I guess, she does have a few flaws in the animated film, though. They seem more like innocent mistakes than flaws, though. She goes to look at that rose in the glass and touch it after the Beast tells her not to because she’s curious, and he gets angry with her. She’s also rather naive for believing that Gaston and the rest of her town will take her word about the kindness of the Beast when she shows him to the rest of the town in the mirror. They tried to modernize her a bit too much in the live action movie, and Emma Watson is not a very good actress or singer. In Once Upon a Time, we get a more deeply flawed Belle, who’s exceedingly conflict avoidant in her relationship with her Beast (Rumplestiltskin), impulsive, and self-righteous. However, after S3, rather than actually addressing and resolving these issues between their characters in a healthy and consistent manner, the writers destroyed their individual characters and relationship with nonsensically repetitive storytelling and character assassinating twists for the sake of Drama™️ To be fair, though, everything about the writing for every character on OUAT who lasted past S3 was a toxic shit show of melodramatic character assassinating bad writing and wasted potential in one way or another. Rumple and Belle weren’t the only ones.

Ariel really stuck out to me the most of the Disney Princesses from the Renaissance era because she was the first one who wasn’t just another too kind and selfless for her own good role model. Yes, she essentially still had a brave, kind, and protective heart. To some extent, she was dealing with an exceedingly protective father who occasionally fell into the emotionally abusive dad territory, regardless of his pure intentions, and I can understand her wanting to get away from him after he destroyed her grotto collection to punish her. However, she faced issues because of her own flaws, too. She was bossy, impulsive, inconsiderate, and rather selfish in her obsession with the human world. I actually really loved that about her character. Most good people still aren’t as pure as Belle, Cinderella, or Snow White. We can be bossy, inconsiderate, obsessive, and selfish. No, Ariel isn’t just automatically rewarded for those flaws either. She doesn’t get to be with Eric until he gets to know the truth about who she is. She ignores her initial gut instinct about Ursula being trouble to get to be human in a way that won’t allow her to be completely true to Eric or herself, and Ursula ends up interfering in their deal in ways that almost lead to the demise of everyone else.

@rogue205

And another thing.

The original The Little Mermaid is about understanding. One of the main plot devices is that the witch takes what from Ariel, ladies and gentlemen?

Her voice.

Ariel did not leave the sea “for a boy.”

Ariel left the sea to be understood. Because for the whole first part of the movie, we’re shown hints of what her life is already like, and how she’s tried to be understood but nobody’s listening or communicating.

She’s introduced by describing a ship as amazing and wonderful, while her fish friend clearly does not understand and wants to get out of there.

Even her best friend doesn’t share her love for another world.

Her first interaction with her father, count how many times he’s speaking over her.

He has this prejudice against humans, and because she’s disobeyed him, he won’t listen to any of her evidence that they may not all be bad.

Even when she has a voice and a cavern full of proof that humans aren’t all barbarians, her father won’t listen to her, so he can’t understand.

And the truth is, she doesn’t have that much proof. She knows that humans are clever and make “wonderful things,” and that’s what she bases her belief in them on. But those beautiful objects, and her pretty ideals, are not enough to make her abandon her family and culture and world.

When she sings and talks about why she wants to be Part of That World, it’s because she wants to understand it. And, subconsciously, Ariel also hopes to be understood up there. Where they make cool devices, and maybe daughters can stand instead of being reprimanded. There’s this hope for freedom and being known associated with the surface.

But it’s not until she meets Eric that those ideals are really, actually, proven true.

Ariel sees Eric out on the sea exploring instead of staying in a palace on his birthday. He gets a gift from the closest person to him, and it’s clear that even the closest person to him doesn’t understand his tastes—he doesn’t want an over-dramatic statue of himself. He sticks to his ideals in an argument that somewhere out there, is the right girl for him. But he doesn’t have to leave the argument in frustrated tears. In the end, he risks his life to not only watch out for his friend, but nearly dies going back to a burning ship to save his dog.

Eric personifies everything Ariel has always idealized about the Human World—AND he might understand her.

In her one observation of him, she finds out that he, a human, is:

A Prince, but nobody can tell him what to do.

More interested in activity and exploration than palace ceremony.

Unable to relate to his closest companions.

Handsome—beautiful, not a savage.

Criticized for “silly, romantic notions” but sticks to the idea of something wonderful out there in the great beyond.

Brave, self-sacrificial, and compassionate to animals.

Eric is, all at once, everything Ariel always hoped a human could be, and yet still so like herself. They have twin souls.

She’d rather be exploring human ships, he’d rather be out exploring the sea. She believes the surface world is good and beautiful, he believes in the girl of his dreams, no matter what anyone says. She has nobody who gets excited about new adventures, and he has nobody who gets excited about new adventures.

When she sees him, she falls in love not just with his upstanding character, or even the human world he represents—she falls in love with the hope that he might understand her in away nobody under the sea does.

Then the ironic thing is, she’s got to make him understand who she is and what she should mean to him without a voice. And unfortunately, that’s really hard because he is suddenly associating his dream girl with a voice and a magical rescue.

As close as they may get when she finally does meet him face to face and gets herself human legs, Ariel and Eric can’t be together until he knows who she is, for real. After all, how can love be true without understanding?

And we’re not DONE with understanding. Because even after he learns what and who she is and still commits to her and saves her and loves her, Ariel’s back to having a tail. She’s back to being in a world where he can’t be.

Except now, Triton is the one who understands. He finally sees what they’ll do for each other—and that Eric, ”savage, spineless, harpooning fish eater with no regard” saved his daughter. He sees that they love each other and are each worthy of the other’s love.

It’s not until Triton understands what Ariel has known and felt all along that he gives her human legs the right way.

That’s the point of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. “True love is found in understanding and sacrificing for one another.”

Triton had the sacrificing idea down, but he didn’t have understanding. Eric had understanding, but he didn’t have the chance to sacrifice for it.

Ariel has both. She understands that Eric’s world is not only barbaric, but beautiful, and she’s willing to sacrifice her tail to be understood in that world.

That is what this movie is all about. And because they’re probably willing to sacrifice critical scenes, like the Prince saving the day (which is important because it provides Triton with a new understanding of humans) or the girl leaving the ocean to be with the boy (which is important because what she really wants is to be understood) the creators of the Live Action Little Mermaid are going to miss the point and ruin the movie.

[zerozeroren]

ZeroZeroRant: let’s talk about the message of Raya and the Last Dragon

Here comes my assorted mess of thoughts about the movie and its message, kind of structured but not really

A special thank you goes to @an-aura-about-you​ for proofreading!

Also, spoiler alert. Proceed with caution if you haven’t watched the movie 

I wanna start by saying that RatLD is not… bad. It’s not a bad film. It looks pretty (the environments and backgrounds are especially beautiful). It’s a take on an action adventure road trip movie: an unusual genre for a Disney Princess flick. The characters are well designed and overall (mostly) charming and likable; and it’s found family of sorts, which is great, found family is the best trope and I’ll fight people on that! There are no songs; I personally can’t get behind that particular decision, but I do know that it made a lot of people very happy. As far as I’ve seen, critics are quite positive about this movie, praising it for its visuals (which are, let’s admit it, as unimportant as they can be here, because Disney has more than enough money to buy top tier looks for their movies), and for an adult story with complex morals and a multifaceted set of characters, among which they point out the lack of a clear villain (I mostly rely on critique and reviews I came across in my own country, but from what little I’ve seen of English-speaking critique, it pretty much lines up). But, despite all the positive things that one could say in praise of RatLD, I do think that the movie has some creepy, insidious shit in it, and it needs to be addressed. 

So… Trust, huh?

Now, anyone who’s seen Raya and The Last Dragon knows how often the theme of trust gets brought up. Heck, you can make a drinking game out of it. Take a sip every time the word is mentioned, and take a full shot every time Sisu starts preaching trust. Good luck trying not to pass out by the end. The closest comparison in terms of being heavy-handed is, surprisingly enough, another Disney film, the 2015 live-action Cinderella, and its whole “have courage and be kind” shtick. Yeah, this heavy-handed. Or an early episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. All that I’m saying is that this primary theme of trust is impossible to miss. And boy, they did NOT handle it gracefully. 

Let’s agree that trust is, generally, a good thing. In a very neutral, fluffy, UwU kind of way, trusting others is… nice. But trusting others also makes you vulnerable: trust can be broken, and people whom you trusted can abuse it and betray you. Even more importantly, trust needs to be earned. Thus, handling the theme of trust requires a lot of careful thinking and nuance, especially for a young audience. And the writers threw all nuance right out the window when they were writing RatLD. 

Let’s start with someone who’s the least nuanced character in the entire film.

The Source of the Moral: Sisu the Preaching Dragon 

Sisu the Dragon is the one character who’s the biggest trust preacher in the movie. (Her only possible rival would be Raya’s idealist of a dad Chief Benja, but he isn’t in the movie for long, so we’re not counting him.) Yes, I’m calling it “preaching” here, and will do so a lot in the rest of this rant, because… well, because that’s what it feels like. It doesn’t feel organic when Sisu starts giving pep talks to Raya; it feels like she has a weird fixation on the concept, a personal philosophy that she can’t help but bring up all the time. Her character doesn’t really have much to offer outside of this (very shallow) philosophy, quirky behaviour, and a bunch of semi-anachronistic jokes. Don’t get me wrong, I kind of enjoy Sisu: she has a puppy-like charm to her, she’s adorably ditzy, and she cares a lot. But I’d argue that her overall design that bases her appeal on her naivety clashes with her serious paragon-mentor role in the story. She’s kind of too dumb for it, that’s what I’m saying. 

But my true problem with her is that the movie does not allow her to be wrong even when she’s objectively, undeniably wrong. 

Remember that scene in the Talon port? Raya asks Sisu to stay on the boat they’re travelling in and lie down low for safety, which is integral to saving the world. And Sisu, being her dorky self, disregards all reason, goes on her stupid gift giving quest and walks right into a trap set by the new Talon Chief Granny Lady. She faces consequences for the behaviour she wants others to engage in. Her blind trust is used against her. Good. Awesome. Amazing.

But what comes of it? Big fat hairy nothing, that’s what.

After Sisu is rescued, she briefly apologizes for betraying Rayas’s trust (lol jk) and leaving, and they are starting to have a conversation about how the world Sisu lived in is in the past, how people are ready to use you, how it’s dangerous to put your trust in complete strangers, and when Sisu is juuuust about to face the realisation she needs to make, the subject is suddenly dropped in favour of showing some con baby Noi’s shenanigans. 

Later her behaviour shows no signs of change. A handful of scenes forward, she’s on another suicidal gift-giving mission in the Spine, and Raya has to save her ass yet again. 

Lesson not learned. 

At this point, Sisu’s naive idealism becomes something more akin to stubbornness. On several occasions she’s told not to trust someone, but every time, she just disregards what’s being told and does her shtick. Heck, her stubborn intention to believe in what she wants to believe in is directly responsible for her death. She’s told on and on that Namaari is dangerous, a threat to be avoided, she SEES what Namaari can do, and yet! Sisu continuously pecks at Raya’s brain that Raya needs to trust her long-time enemy. Sisu follows her on the meeting, and even with the obvious proof of Namaari’s traitorius ways (she brought a weapon to a peace meeting), Sisu is still stubborn enough to deflect. And, well, big shocker, she gets shot for it. Great job, good for you, Sisu.

My biggest problem here is that Sisu is ultimately proven right at the end. The ending warps around her and Namaari, making it so Sisu wasn’t a dumb myopic stubborn person who refused to learn from her mistakes, but instead a spiritually deep individual who was wise enough to see what others didn’t and kind enough to give someone a chance when others gave up on them.

Problem is, she’s a magical talking dragon, and being shot in the chest is just a temporary inconvenience for her. Not so much for the human people watching at home or in the theaters and learning from her words.

Raya deserved better

Raya the titular character has the most interesting relationship with trust as she, as the protagonist and the audience surrogate, gets taught the lesson the most. Baby just can't get a break. At the very beginning, the movie severely punishes her for being too trusting, and then spends ungodly amounts of time further punishing her for not being trusting enough. Her supposed character arc is re-learning how to trust people after being betrayed, and it’s a pretty sound idea for a character arc. If it wasn’t for a tiny lil thing… For someone who’s supposed to be learning trust, she’s getting new friends pretty fast, isn’t she???

In the flashback, we clearly see that Raya starts off less stubbornly idealistic than her dad, but still pretty idealistic. She thinks it’s possible to rebuild Kumandra after all, and she’s eager to be friends with Namaari from the word go. It doesn’t take her much convincing (or any, for that matter,) to show her new buddy a super sacred artifact that she’s just been named a guardian of, an artifact that her dad is ready to protect with his life, a magical, holy thing hidden in a freaking Indiana Jones style trap-riddled temple specifically to keep it safe from intruders. And then she’s all like, "There’s a cool thing I wanna show you, a girl I’ve only met 15 minutes ago, wanna see?" So, she’s pretty trusting, all right. And then Namaari betrays her, and this very betrayal results in the entire world order going haywire. The visuals and later scenes (the tears inside the wrecked ship, for example) imply to us that this experience was very traumatic for Raya. So it would be a natural progression for her to grow disillusioned, to become a hermit, a paranoid loner. The movie tries to convince us that she is. (Remember that sundried roots running joke? yes, that’s why it’s there.) But she just… isn’t???

It takes her ridiculously little time to start being comfortable around her colorful motley crew of sidekicks. Again, finding friends among members of other nations is a very solid idea, because it shows that the inner unity of Kumandra is still somewhere in them, they’re still ultimately one people. But it’s executed in an insanely twisted way. I’m guessing, when they did it, they attempted to make it so Raya is gradually nudged into being more open to trust others? Her first sidekick is Boun, who’s just a boy. He cooks and is eager to help, and Raya is very suspicious of him, thinks he might poison and rob them and steal the baby-faced Armadillo and such. She’s distrustful of him the longest, which means that it lasts… A scene. Just one scene, that’s it (the one where Boun cooks for them and Sisu tries the hottest sauce). The very next scene is the three of them (Raya, Boun, and Sisu) bonding over their stoned relatives, and then they’re 100% partners. Then comes the baby, who’s a con artist and literally starts off with robbing Raya (guess a kid did rob you after all, sweetie). And after Raya returns her stuff, she immediately offers the con baby a place in her team. Her next buddy’s introduction includes him tieing Raya and Sisu to a hook and threatening their lives with a big scary ax. Not five minutes later, he’s not only the member of the group, but is trusted by Raya to keep everyone safe while she deals with the people of Fang who came after them. And then, to top it all off, Raya’s pushed by the plot to trust Namaari, who set things in motion with her betrayal of Raya.

Do you see? Do you see how insidious this is?

Raya, the main character, the protagonist who kids are supposed to be learning from and taking after, is gradually made to trust more and more dangerous people every step of the way. First a random stranger, then a burglar, then an aggressive armed man with violent intentions, then someone who deliberately ruined her life... those who mistreated her, sometimes in a very serious way. Except for Boun, who was helpful from the beginning, these people not only did nothing to earn Raya’s trust, they actively harmed her and her cause! And with how insistent Sisu is about trusting literally everyone, this becomes a very dangerous moral for young viewers. Trust everyone. Even if they pose a threat to you. Even if they mistreat you. Even if they hurt you. Trust them nonetheless.  

I can’t even tell you how mad this makes me. This moral is literally dangerous for the biggest, most inexperienced and vulnerable part of the viewer base. It disregards all nuance and completely overlooks the very important fact that trust is something that should be earned. Fuck this. Fuck this so much. 

And then we come to Namaari.

Oh, Namaari.

Just… Just Namaari

This character deserves an entire section to herself, because she’s the one who made me go fucking. Ballistic. She and the way her character was handled is the most irresponsible, virulent bullshit I’ve seen from Disney for a long time. 

I think it won’t surprise anyone if I say that the first glimpse of her in the trailer instantly made me think “We’re going to forgive her, aren’t we?”. Yeah, she perfectly falls into this current media trend of unavoidable forgiveness. We just can’t NOT forgive our baddies these days, can we? Shitty people who stand for shitty things can lie, betray, abuse, and even kill, and they won’t face any consequence for their behaviour, not even scorn - they’ll just instantly be forgiven by the hero who’s too concerned with their own moral purity to think of the bad things the villain has the potential to continue to make. (Luckily, this time Raya isn’t driven by this, she’s just backed up into a corner, but we’ll discuss that later.) 

Anyway, my first thought of Namaari was “Redemption arc material,” but at the time I just didn’t know how despicable she would get. 

Namaari’s betrayal sets the plot in motion. Not only literally but symbolically too: the Druun are described in the opening as embodiments of discord and conflict, creatures of pure evil, and they are brought back as a result of an evil act that ignited discord and conflict. 

I’m honestly in discord myself here, because I do feel bad accusing a 10-12 year old child of something this horrible. From the visuals it is obvious that what she did was done because of her mother’s influence. But later characterisation of the mother and Namaari herself is confusing. With some minor changes, this could have actually been a pretty good Zuko knock off arc, but we got what we got.

The mother I just mentioned had a very strong villain potential: the way she talks and moves is pretty intimidating, she radiates ominous energy, and her close relationship with her daughter implies that she was the one who forged Namaari’s worldview. However, mother’s actions outside the opening are contradictory: she’s not crazy about the idea of expanding into other countries’ territory (which Namaari is all for), she doesn't want to do anything too politically aggressive because she’s afraid that the neighbours already feel strongly against her country, she’s being cautious… She’s pretty mild, that’s what I’m saying. And that mildness puts the entirety of responsibility on Namaari, who, it seems, not only inherited the worldview of her mother, but went even further, became even more single-minded. She was the one to talk her mother into giving her an army to catch Raya, she was the one who convinced her that expansion is needed… She's proactive where her mom is reactive. 

I find this very weird because I do think that the story would benefit from a good Zuko injection. Make it so Namaari betrays Raya either accidentally or reluctantly under her mother's influence. Make it so Namaari regrets her decision immediately and visibly. Make it so Raya doesn't listen to any explanations and is ready to accuse Namaari on the grounds of her being from Fang. And then, years later, make it so Mrs. Mom Chief is the one who's sending her daughter after Raya in order to harm her, and is also the one to have expansion in mind. Make it so she manipulates or pushes Namaari, who's in doubt and hesitant, and then, just like Zuko, slowly realizes that her doubts were more than legit. And then make Namaari try to AMEND. Make her work for that redemption, make her prove herself worthy of trust. If she genuinely tried to make amends, and Raya refused to trust her regardless, she'd be in the wrong (in the cartoon world anyway, here in reality no one is entitled to a second chance from a person they wronged). That still would not have been ideal, but this scenario would show that Namaari is strong enough to admit her mistakes and rise above the indoctrination she faced all her childhood. This would prove that she deserves another chance. But what did we get instead?

This scene.

This. Fucking. Scene.

If not for this scene, this rant would not even have happened, because outside of it the movie is too generic to get angry at.

But here, Namaari, who shot Sisu, SHIFTS THE BLAME FOR SISU'S DEATH AT RAYA. She accuses Raya of also being guilty of her death! Raya didn't trust hard enough - and that's why it happened!

This scene made me jump in my fucking seat. WHAT? WHAT? DID I HEARD YOU RIGHT, THE PERSON WHO BROUGHT A CROSSBOW TO A PEACEFUL MEETING AND POINTED IT AT THE LAST DRAGON IN EXISTENCE AND THEN PULLED THE TRIGGER? 

What a moment. What an iconic moment. "Look, what you made me do, Raya. Look, what you made me do".

I know what's implied here. The shooting scene is intentionally fast, messy and confusing. They're both at fault, we get it. (Still, to quote @stellamedia​, "this is very 80/20 on blame here.”) But that's unimportant.

What IS important, is that Namaari shows no signs of remorse for what she did. Wikipedia says in the summary of the movie:   "Raya prepares to kill Namaari, but after seeing her remorse…". Bitch WHERE? Where is it? Where's the REMORSE? I only see anger and sadness that mom's petrified now. No. There's no remorse. Namaari shifts the blame. She accuses someone else of the thing she is clearly responsible for. And in any other movie this act, this evil, abusive tactic would have IMMEDIATELY shot down any redemption potential. But no. We're forgiving her. And that's my fucking beef with RatLD.

It doesn't just fall into this tired, dangerous trend of forgiving horrible people who wronged you and often posed a threat to many (the Diamonds from Steven Universe as the clearest example here). No, RatLD falls even deeper, stoops to a new low: the other instantly redeemed fuckheads at least apologized! Somehow! Even briefly! I do not think it is possible to forgive someone just because they apologized and promised to be good from now on, but forgiving and trusting someone who's clearly not even fucking sorry (for causing the FUCKING APOCALYPSE, I remind you) is just pure insanity. That's who we're forgiving now, huh? It's a terrible thing to tell kids to do, and this moral taken at face value will hurt somebody.

Not to mention the HILARIOUS fact that when the characters are backed up into a corner together and surrounded by Druun at the end, they show Namaari trust, get petrified, and she, after being trusted and shit, ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE WITH THE SHARDS OF THE GEM?! Even here, after being shown this fucking ultimate trust just as Sisu insisted, her first move is to betray again, it's so dumb it's genuinely funny. She only does the right thing when she has no. Other. Option. 

Our redeemed antagonist, everybody, a round of applause please! 

I know that symbolically she's obliged to finish what she started. She has to be the one who "fixes" everything. But not like THAT, God fucking dammit!

Speaking of this culminating scene, btw. It's obviously paralleled with the scene where Sisu and her siblings fought off Druun 500 years ago. But this parallel is false and empty. Namaari is supposed to be in the role of Sisu here, right? Sisu even says so when she brings Raya to see the remains of her family. But Sisu never betrayed her siblings, goddammit! They gave her the Gem to use specifically because she was the purest most openhearted cinnamon roll of the five! But not Namaari. So this parallelism retroactively ruins a pretty good solemnly hopeful scene with Sisu and Raya in the temple and renders it completely meaningless. Great.

No other option

Another problem I find lies within the setting. We're dealing with a child friendly Mad Max Fury Road (optional: insert any of your favourite post-apocs here). It's the end of the world fast approaching, there's a time limit (until the Dragon Ball loses its power), and the stakes are constantly rising, until we are at the ultimate point where the future of the entire world depends on one person. But this crazy rush of danger clashes severely with the lesson the characters have to learn.

Trust is, by nature, gradual, and restoring broken trust especially takes time. The characters are not given any time though.

Raya is backed up into a corner here: she either trusts Namaari, or everyone dies, literally everyone, the entire world. So her decision to trust her enemy ultimately rings hollow. It's not genuine growth that brought Raya here, it's despair. She's exhausted every other option.

People generally tend to come together in trying times. But these unions are made out of necessity, not trust, they're careful, reluctant. And so setting your story about blind trust in the apocalypse is not the best decision.

Which brings me to…

The tonal problem: child friendly edgelording

RatLD is very messy when it comes to tone. Visually, it's one of the edgiest Disney movies to date, not quite The Black Cauldron, but definitely not Frozen or Tangled. The colors are relatively muted, they tend to lean towards yellows, greys and browns, character designs are on the realistic side in their proportions and movements (and they're not all perfectly beautiful models, which is great). The environments are dark and busy, with plenty of mud and dust so it doesn't look too much like a fairy tale. There are actual action scenes with chases and battles and duels, damage being done, creative, awesome-looking weapons, etc. So it's safe to say that the movie wants to appeal to an older audience. 

And if so, then why oh why are we suddenly getting into My Little Pony territory whenever it comes to morals????

We're dealing with the tonal dissonance of gargantuan size here, folks. Neither Moana, nor either of Frozens, nor Tangled, nor Ralph, Zootopia, Big Hero 6 etc etc etc went THIS hard with their message, and none of these movies are subtle about their morals.

I just don't know what to say here. The movie stubbornly preaches its shallow, childish moral fit for preschoolers, it constantly flaunts its wide-eyed naiveté, and does it via a visual style more suited for a dark fantasy a la LoTR. It shows a complicated world with a political imbalance and a cultural divide, a messy place where biases decide your impressions of others, where people are weary and suspicious, and it tells us that ages of mistrust and separation can be easily forgotten because of a single kind gesture like a greeting gift. It just… does not go together. Parts of the story are at odds with each other, and with that, we get a movie that a child would find too busy and too complicated, and an adult - suspiciously idealistic and condescending. A lose-lose situation overall.

The approach was broken from the beginning. 

And I don't even know how to fix this. 

I suppose it's the result of the messy production, but I don't want to cut Disney any slack here. They fucked it up, plain and simple. They wanted to do too many things at the same time, and did none of them justice. And that resulted in a tone-deaf, myopic film that continuously undermined its own message to the point where it became something warped, gross, and dangerous. 

And that's it.

Other things that jumped at me, in no particular order:

The necklace. I don't know why it fascinates me so, but I'm fixated on it XD Can we… can we please admit that in-universe it doesn't make any sense? Why would Raya hold onto this thing??? The framing suggests that it's somewhat of a nostalgic treasure, but why?! Not like it's a gift from a close friend with whom Raya shared plenty of happy memories. It wasn't a friend's gift, it's just some trinket that was given to her by a person she only knew for an hour or something, who backstabbed her at the end! This very trinket is directly linked to the beginning of the Druun invasion, which, I remind you, petrified Raya's dad, whom she loves dearly. It would have been more realistic for Raya to throw this thing into the nearest river and forget its existence. Why was she holding onto it and taking good care of it for 6 years and carrying it around like some treasure? Why? Because she's a dragon nerd or whatever? Ha. No. I'll tell you why, because the writers needed a convenient visual symbol. Though they only succeeded at demonstrating how easily a visual symbol like that can become ironic and bite you in the ass with its meaning. You see, the necklace ties back to Sisu, and not just because it depicts her. All throughout the film Sisu is very pushy about the idea of gift giving as a way to establish trust and show one's peaceful intentions. She mentions gifts almost as often as trust. XD And that's what Namaari does with the necklace too! It's a greeting gift that convinces Raya that she is trustworthy enough to show her the Dragon Ball. So far so good - the necklace is a symbol of trust. But once it's discovered that Namaari used and betrayed Raya, it takes on a different meaning. It becomes a symbol of deceit. XD The movie proves Sisu wrong even before she's officially introduced!

Have you noticed how weird this movie’s commentary on human nature is? It heavily implies that the natural state of humans is war and conflict! Heck, it states this outright in the opening flashback animation. As soon as dragons, who looked after humanity with their divine wisdom or whatever, got petrified, everyone immediately went at each other's throats, divided their country and started a big ol’ power struggle, a literal “war of all against all.” What kind of Thomas Hobbes bullshit is this?? (Sorry for this incredibly niche reference, but I couldn’t get it out of my head.) It tells us that people, by nature, are bad and corrupt, and they need an external influence to become good and achieve harmony.

Related to the last point: am I mad that I’m seeing some Christian undertones in this Southeast Asian inspired movie? Like, literally, one of our main characters is a too good for this world cinnamon roll with great hair who has divine powers, is prone to preaching morals, and is very into being friends with everybody, forgiving your enemies and loving thy neighbour! And this character DIES when betrayed (for the sins of humanity??? Possibly?), and is then resurrected, and after she is resurrected, humanity magically goes back to a harmonious heavenly conflict-free state of almost prehistoric times! (I admit, I know next to nothing about Southeast Asian culture, so maybe it’s all a wild misunderstanding on my part, but I couldn’t not share this observation with y’all.)

When it comes to the moral of the story and character arcs, Raya and the Last Dragon is just My Little Pony Movie but worse, fight me. (And the MLP movie isn't even that good either, so take of that what you will.)

In conclusion

Raya and the Last Dragon is an extremely confused movie that had potential. But this potential was undermined by an unfocused and uneven approach towards different parts of the movie. I don't want to attribute the dangerous message that it has to malice on part of the writers. I'd rather attribute it to inaptitude. And to the fact that Disney has basically given up on storytelling at this point. When they became too big to fail, they grew lazy. These days they can simply give $200+ million to the visual arts department, throw together some ideas so they resemble a script, and here we go, movie ready. And honestly, this is just… sad.

If I ever have kids, I would still show RatLD to them, when they get a bit older. But I would watch it with them, and at the end, I would have to explain the very nuances this film dismissed. That trusting absolutely everyone is dangerous. That it's okay to not forgive or trust those who have wronged and betrayed you.

That trust is something you earn. 

[hafanforever]

Movie trailers can certainly excite people for a movie they are anticipating, including fans of Disney movies like me. However, trailers can sometimes be very misleading on the quality of a movie, and that’s how I felt when I saw the new Pinocchio when it premiered last Thursday.

Yes, I thought the trailers made it look very good and exciting with the CG visual effects, especially with the character of Pinocchio looking identical to his animated counterpart. But come the morning of September 8, I saw that Pinocchio received mixed reviews from critics, with many saying it lacked the charm of the animated film. Of course, I still wanted to watch it for myself to decide if it was good or not, and when I finally did, I was very disappointed with it. 👎🏻 I definitely agree with the critics that it seriously lacked the charm and heart, and some of the dialogue didn’t flow well as the movie unfolded. But I was particularly drawn away because of certain changes it had from the original film...most especially the ending. 😔

In terms of being disappointed by changes from its source film, the question here is, if Disney makes live action adaptations of their animated features in this day and age, how do they decide what elements to keep and what to change if they want the film to be good and live up to peoples’ expectations? If the film is too much like its animated counterpart, it gets disliked, but if it’s much too different, then it gets disliked as well.

Cinderella and The Jungle Book were the most critically acclaimed of these films, while Beauty and the Beast got mostly positive reviews. However, Pinocchio has followed in the footsteps of the remakes of Dumbo, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Lady and the Tramp (with Aladdin being the only one of these that I actually liked, albeit with some strings attached) in terms of being a mediocre film and critical disappointment. Seeing how these most recent remakes just seem to be continuing to decline in quality, I’m beginning to lose faith in Disney making very good live action adaptations of their animated features. Now if they can prove me wrong, I’ll be very happy, but with plans for remakes of films that include Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Sword in the Stone underway (despite them not yet having film logos or official release dates set yet), I’m thinking that Disney should either make a stronger effort to make these films good or just quit making them all together while they’re ahead.

[tymime]

It’s kind of ironic how much hate was wasted on the Disney direct-to-video sequels. It seemed like everybody was raging against them, making claims that they were “cheap cash grabs” and “disrespectful to the originals”, as well as being terrible in general.

After having watched nearly all of them, I can say with absolutely certainly that two of those statements are 100% untrue. And the third, that they’re “cheap cash grabs” is only partially true.

Yes, a few of them early on were definitely produced on the cheap, using low-budget TV animation studios rather than the usual. But as time went on, the animation got better and better until it was nearly indistinguishable from theatrical animation. Heck, some of them were released at a time when Disney wasn’t doing 2D animation in theaters at all.

And as far as the other claims go, I think most if not all of them are very good films in their own right. And in some cases, I’d say they were actually better than the originals (Cinderella III comes to mind). Why they made so many sequels/midquels to movies that weren’t really that popular to begin with (Brother Bear, The Fox and the Hound, etc.) I’m not sure, but it never did any harm.

It’s sad that John Lasseter seemed to agree with the criticism when he pulled the plug on direct-to-video movies. And now that Disney’s been pumping out live-action remakes, the controversy seems so silly and pointless now. The remakes may not be cheaply-made, but they’re definitely cash grabs, and without a doubt disrespectful. (Just watch any of the direct-to-video films, and you’ll see a special thanks to the original artists in the end credits! The remakes give them diddly-squat.) But what makes things different now is that, unlike before, it feels like only a small number of people seem to think so. The box office numbers show that everyone else doesn’t seem to give a darn, and are more than willing to give the bigwigs at Disney more money to pump out more remakes.

I’ve heard the argument “it’s not made for you” and “the originals still exist, they’re not getting replaced” repeated ad nauseum, as if that really disproves the real issues these remakes have.

What happened between then and now that brought about these kind of apologists anyway? It seems like it’s been happening all over pop culture discourse in general- people who can’t see the problems with a piece of media, and will bend over backwards defending it. Sometimes it feels like you can’t criticize anything without somebody jumping on you and telling you that the people who made it can do no wrong and should be practically worshipped. (Of course, there's also the opposite type of person, who seems to think that they can do no good and that everything they make is terrible. I can’t decide which is more annoying.)

To end on a positive note, if you’re a fan of traditional animation, and Disney in particular, do yourself a favor and watch the sequels. Not all of them are great, but all of them are still worth watching in my opinion, and the ones that are great are unforgettable.

[thewickedmerman]

Zendaya STILL Can’t Act

First of all, I do NOT dislike Zendaya. She is a kind and genuine person that truly has a good heart and is the type of person that more celebrities should be like. I may not be a fan of her due to her not really being that talented, but I have a lot of respect for her as a person (Unless she does something in the future). So before any of you immature Zendaya fans come after me, just remember that you’re just making her look bad because you’re acting like a bunch of immature, annoying babies that can’t accept different opinions.

Anyway, just because she is a good person, that doesn’t mean she can’t be criticized for her work. I’m sorry, but she is NOT a good actress! Before any of you start bringing up her Emmy win, you realize that those don’t mean anything because they have been accused of being rigged and acting more as a popularity contest rather than a contest of TRUE talent, right? Some are even arguing that this year they were trying to avoid being accused of racism with the BLM movement by having most of the winners be black. I don’t agree with that because, apart from Zendaya, all the winners that are black truly did deserve their awards because they are amazingly talented people. However, if the Emmys were truly legit, Lana Parrilla would’ve been nominated and won an award for Best Supporting Actress in Once Upon a Time and Bella Thorne should’ve won an Emmy for her performance in the TV movie, Perfect High. Zendaya is a popular celebrity but popular doesn’t mean she has talent. It’s like how a lot of kids in school that are popular aren’t popular because they are a nice person that people like. Popularity isn’t always deserved. I mean, look at how Viola FREAKING Davis, the most talented actress EVER, didn’t get a nomination this year, despite receiving and winning a lot of Emmy’s over the years. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure colorism played a part there as well, but Zendaya is NO WHERE near the level of an Emmy worthy actress and did not deserve to win against the likes of the other nominations that are FAR more talented, versatile, and experienced.

However, let me explain the flaws of her acting. I’ll be fair and pretend that I acknowledge the bullshit argument that Disney Channel acting is supposed to over-the-top and bad as a “legit” argument, because critiquing that nonsense is a subject for another post on another day. Lets focus on her acting in things outside of Disney Channel. Well, her acting still sucks. While she was over-the-top in Disney Channel, she takes a new extreme by being absolutely emotionless. I know people are gonna say that her reason for acting like that in Euphoria and Spiderman is that it’s part of her character. Okay, while I think she still performs those type of characters poorly, I will be fair and accept that for now. However, what about her performance in something like The Greatest Showman?

What was her excuse in The Greatest Showman? She wasn’t playing a Daria knock-off or a drug addict there. She was playing a character that required a lot of emotion in order to make the audience feel for her struggle. I won’t mention how her being white passing (And YES, she is white passing because she’s going to be staring in a movie called A White Lie about a woman who was white passing and pretended to be white in order to attend college, so she admits she’s white passing) made her miscast for the part. I will just be talking about how bad her acting was. Ignoring the scene where she’s crying by Phillip’s bedside (Which admittedly was really good), her performance is always so wooden and emotionless. She goes around with a blank look on her face most of the time with the occasional smile and confused look on her face. Her line delivery is almost always so flat, she’s always monotone unless she’s singing, she sounds like she’s reading her lines off cue cards, and sometimes she says her lines in a hammy tone.

I’ll describe some examples of her bad acting in the movie, since I can’t show clips due to how Youtube is always taking videos down that are clips from movies. When she asks if they were all invited to see the Queen, she says it with absolutely no emotion. She comes off as though she doesn’t care and I don’t mean doesn’t care as in acting like she doesn’t care so that she doesn’t come off as vulnerable; it’s more like she just doesn’t care like how a kid in a school play just doesn’t care and is putting in no effort at all. And the way she makes a pause in the middle of the sentence makes it come off even worse. “Are we all... invited?” Come on! Put in some effort!

Another example being when Phillip touches her hand during Jenny Lind’s performance. Zendaya just has a blank look on her face and all she does is take a breath. This should be an emotional moment for Anne. The man she... loves? I mean, the character and the romance are so underwritten that it’s hard to tell how she feels about him at this point. Anyway, the man the loves finally does something to display his affection for her in public, so she should be having a surprised look on her face that grows into a smile and trying to hold back tears of joy. Unfortunately, all she’s doing is just acting the way she did before he touched her hand. We don’t see how she feels about finally holding his hand or even him touching her finger with his. At that moment, she should show some slight hope but also skepticism by brushing it off as him give trying to make her happy by doing the bare minimum, which would transition to emotional happiness as he holds her entire hand. But all we get is a slight deep breath and the same blank look she always had. When he took his hand away from her after people are whispering about them, this should be a moment where she looks shocked, as well as hurt that she let her guard down because she let him make her believe that he truly cared about her enough that there was a glimmer of hope for their love. But she just looks at him with a blank and emotionless look on her face. She’s not displaying all the many emotions that the character should be feeling. When she walks away, she doesn’t look hurt but rather looks like someone who just tooted a little. What made her or the director think she was doing a good job there? Where is the emotion? The complexity? The depth? She showed about as much emotion as the characters in that terrible “live-action” remake of The Lion King.

Another scene being where she’s at the theatre, which she ruined with her performance. The way she talks to the ticket man was so wooden and robotic. She should’ve came off as someone who was clearly trying not to be scared but you can tell that she is. Why? Because she is a black woman (Or rather is supposed to look like one) and is out of her element because someone that isn’t white wouldn’t normally be in a prestigious place like the theatre (Unless you were white passing like her, but the movie is still trying to ignore that she’s only slightly darker than Zac Efron). She should be frightening about how people will treat her but trying to be brave because of how she wants to experience this world that is like a fantasy in her mind. She’s just emotionless as always. When she sees Phillip, she should be shocked and upset because he tricked her but also is willing to be seen in public with her among all of the people from his high class world. But she just gives a blank look. When she’s looking up at the staircase leading to the theatre, she should be having a lot of emotions welling up because of how she always wanted to go to the theatre, most likely since she was a child. Now it was finally happening and what does she do? Just gives a blank expression again after biting her lips. That doesn’t come off as a young woman that is finally going to have an experience she’s always dreamed of happening. It comes off as being indifferent, especially with her monotone line delivery of “I’ve always wanted to go to the theatre.” SHOW SOME EMOTION! Imagine how bad a Cinderella movie would be if that was Cinderella’s reaction to being at the palace.

When she and Phillip run into his parents, she should be doing more than just having a blank expression on her face. She should be showing some fear because of how it felt like nothing could go wrong, but then it does. She’s being referred to as “the help” and being seen with her is considered a bigger disgrace than being associated with Barnum, who was considered to be trash to begin with. She is also giving up on her dream of going to the theatre by just leaving and doesn’t show any emotion. All of this should be having her full of emotions that she’s embarrassed that she let break through. She should be having a few tears escape, a quivering lip, and her voice whimpering and cracking as she’s running away after having a childhood dream crushed. What does she do instead? Just casually leave with a blank look on her face. She doesn’t even come off as someone trying to leave before someone sees her cry. It comes off more as just being indifferent and the speed she’s running isn’t out of desperation to leave because she was hurt but more like a “Oh! I didn’t realize how late it was. I gotta go before I’m late for being early to curfew.” It ruins the moment. She can’t even run properly in a scene! How bad at acting do you have to be to mess up running?

I won’t go into the problems of her acting in Rewrite the Stars because I covered that pretty well in my review of the movie, so I’ll just provide a link to it.

My Review of The Greatest Showman

She may be able to get away with this when she’s in Spiderman and Euphoria, but that doesn’t work for every character. It shows that she is really a one trick pony when it comes to acting. She’s not versatile and doesn’t have a wide range. Her acting is just going around with a blank look on her face with a monotone delivery, even when it doesn’t work for the scene. Until she can prove she can act outside of the types of characters she plays in Spiderman and Euphoria (And even then I think she plays the deadpan character type very poorly), she still isn’t a good actress. Maybe she’ll be able to prove herself in her movie A White Lie. I want her to improve and I wanted to love her in Euphoria but she just felt more like she was going through the motions. Playing a deadpan character isn’t as easy as people think. You need to be able to have just the right amount of being emotionless and still deliver the dry wit with a bit of smugness and sass instead of just being bored. A deadpan character is a lot more complex a character to pull off than people think. You need more than just being emotionless, monotone, and breathing to pull it off. The body language matters, which Zendaya doesn’t try to add to her characters and is just her going through the motions instead of becoming the character. In Spiderman she comes off as a stoner rather than a Daria type character, which you’d think would work in Euphoria but she really doesn’t portray that. And her eyes don’t portray Michelle as snarky, smart, introverted, or skeptical but rather just either having her eyes look relaxed or squinting like the sun is in her eyes. She feels more stiff and wooden than is necessary for the character. The emotional scenes feel half-assed. The door scene made me cringe because her voice was more whiny than desperate and and her face when she was begging felt more like she was constipated or something. I actually kind of laughed at how insanely flat her performance was in that scene, despite people praising it.

Something that is critical with a deadpan character is that, while they do have to be limited in their facial expressions, they still need to have their eyes be able to portray something. For example, Daria Morgendorffer’s eyes always showed how annoyed she was with the stupidity of her surroundings and wanted nothing to do with it (I can relate) and Raven from Teen Titans had her eyes show how she has a snarky nature and can’t express her emotions like others because her powers are dangerously driven by emotions, as well as her having a bit of mystery behind her that we learn more about in season 4. And before you say that they are animated characters so it’s easier to have them appear like that, there are actresses that manage to do that as well. Lana Parrilla managed to portray that as The Evil Queen/season 1 Mayor Mills where her facial emotions were more reserved but she managed to show how menacing she was with the look of her eyes. She made you happy that looks couldn’t kill. There was also Danai Gurira’s performance as Michonne from The Walking Dead (A show that I am NOT a fan of AT ALL) where the character had a deadpan attitude but also managed to show how serious she is with her eyes and body language instead of just having a vacant look in her eyes and uninspired body language like Zendaya did in Euphoria.

Before you say she is playing a drug addict and that’s how they act, first of all, I’ve sadly had some drug addict family members and they still didn’t have a vacant look in their eyes like she did. Her eyes were just wide open and relaxed rather than in a daze from the drugs. Secondly, and I know I shouldn’t be comparing them, but Bella Thorne has played a drug addict in Perfect High and on the show Tales in the episode “XO Tour Lif3” where she managed to come off as a genuine addict that is in a daze but still comes off as human. You can see her struggles and emotional turmoil in her facial expressions, voice, and body language that make it more believable that her character felt that she needed to turn to drugs for comfort and escape from her issues. When her character is high or drunk, she is so convincing to the point that it is flawless. Zendaya’s performance in Euphoria is just so hallow and lifeless. It also really makes me sad that Zendaya got an Emmy win at her age when Bella, who has been busting her ass in the acting business MUCH longer than Zendaya (Who didn’t start acting seriously until Shake it Up) and has dreamed of winning Oscars and Emmys, despite people saying that she would never make it as an actress because of her dyslexia and has to work extra hard just to be able to read a damn script doesn’t have even one Emmy nomination (Let alone a win). Bella is the one who has been acting since she was six-years-old! She has even shown she can play the deadpan character better in her movies Amityville: The Awakening (Mediocre movie, though) and I Still See You than Zendaya ever did in Euphoria and the Spiderman movies.

Anyway, I gave Euphoria a chance and viewed it with an open-mind that REALLY wanted to like Zendaya’s performance but she fell flat and showed that acting isn’t her strong suit. If she gets better in the future, that’s great and I wish her all the luck in the world. But I’m tired of her getting praise that isn’t deserved or earned, especially when there are actresses that are far more deserving and have worked a lot longer and harder than her but still don’t get their recognition. She has a good singing voice, is decent at modeling, and her strong suit is dancing but she’s not phenomenal at any of these things. She doesn’t deserve to be called a Queen when she doesn’t have the talent that is required to earn that title. Maybe she’d be at her best if she was exclusively a talkshow host. People mainly love her for her personality and having her own talkshow would be able to make that aspect of her truly shine.

I have also learned, thanks to following the AWESOME @angelicdiamondbabys​ that Zendaya’s new role in a movie called Dune was something that is based in Middle Eastern culture. So not only is Zendaya contributing to gingerism by taking redhead roles (Gingerism is a thing and it even a problem with white people that are non-redheads, so look up gingerism and educate yourselves) and taking the role of a full-blooded black woman in The Greatest Showman, but NOW she is taking roles from Middle Eastern actresses? But of course people are sitting on this because it’s Zendaya and people fancast her as every brown character even if it’s not racially correct! I don’t know much about Dune or the situation, so I can’t really say anything about that. But still, this might show that Zendaya isn’t as nice and mature as she appears to be. However, I still can’t say much on this.

And before you say that I’m a white guy, so I can’t have an opinion on Zendaya or call me a racist, my new friend angelicadiamondbabys is a full-blooded black woman who also shares my views on Zendaya. So take a look at her page and be warned, she is brutally honest, which makes her awesome, so if you don’t have a thick skin, be warned lol.

This is just my opinion. Be respectful.

[well-shit-im-a-morosexual-now]

I have a question for you! As it is the lovely Mammoney's birthday coming up, what would your MC give the boys for their birthday?

This actually became a lot longer than I expected because I couldn't help writing minifics whoops and ahh asks about my MC make me happy cause I rarely get to talk about them specifically

Note; despite the typical idea you'd get from their name Eliza is neither white or western or a girl. All the relationships except the one with Mammon are just platonic✌ lemme know what you think cause feedback (either good or bad) is my only fuel

Lucifer

Lucifer gets a #1 MOM mug but also the day after his bday he gets Eliza asking Diavolo if he could let Lucifer off work for the day and dragging the rest of the brothers out of the house while making Lucifer promise he'll take a nap.

"Are you ordering me?"

"Well I mean...yeah? Not - not in a," they wiggled their fingers in front of them "pacty way. Just in a concerned friend way."

"And if I don't?"

"Well Diavolo went through all the trouble of taking on your work load... He'd be terribly disappointed if nothing came of it."

Lucifer had to stamp down the twitch of fond amusement that threatened to show on his face, "Are you trying to manipulate me?"

"No, I am manipulating you. Because it's working."

He gave them a dubious look.

"It is working. Right?"

With a sigh he said, "It's working."

"Great!" They pressed forward to give him a tight brief hug whispering "Happy Birthday Lucifer" before they were moving away, running off to presumably gather his brothers. "Remember," Eliza yelled over their shoulder, "Sleep!"

Mammon

The day of Mammon's birthday he gets a scavenger hunt. He grumbles at first but the lure of the prize at each location has him solving the riddles in seconds. Eliza trots after him to each location. The gifts, though there are a lot of them aren't anything big or overly expensive, a keychain with a little crow at the end of it, a bright gold cover for his D.D.D., A tote bag just so he could put the rest of his gift in it, that one choker/collar he had been eyeing a few days ago, a few of the old Disney princess movies because he got really into Cinderella, a warm scarf and set of mittens for the colder months because they know he prefers the warmth, a new pair of sunglasses, a new pair of earrings/studs, nail polish. But it's the little notes attached to them that's killing him.

"It's cute like you!" "Ik your eyes aren't gold but I always think of shining gold when I think of them. Maybe because they are so precious?" "I love you" "I saw you staring at it. You probably thought you'd look hot in it. You're right." "Did you know meeting you made me believe in happily ever afters?" "This one's pretty selfish because seeing you happy and comfortable makes me happy" "This one's a joint gift. I'll need to borrow them because you light up the room" "You deserve the best things because you're the best" "Have I told you I love you" "Stop solving these riddles so fast! I spent a lot of time trying to find the hard ones and now you're making me look dumb! Plus my legs are hurting."

The words of the last note blurred a bit as he tried to discreetly sniff. He'd been holding back tears since the second note, not that he'd ever let the human know (they knew). He wasn't sure why this was the one that broke him.

"Mammon?"

He turns to Eliza slowly. Making sure he doesn't crush the note.

They're panting slightly, from having to run up and down the whole house after him, but they smile brightly when he meets their eyes. "Seriously man, slow down for us weaker beings yeah?"

Then Mammon does something he rarely does. He makes the first move. He shoots forward to envelope them in a hug. They yelp at the sudden movement but immediately fold their arms around him.

They're almost the same height, something Eliza loves to hold over him, so it's easy for them to shift back and press a kiss to the tip of his nose. "I love you."

That just makes him sniff harder and burrow further into their shoulder, "Said that twice already," he mumbles between hiccuping little sobs.

"Dunno what to tell you, Mammon but I love you a whole lot. Just once won't work"

"... l - love ya too dummy..."

"There's one more riddle."

The last one simply says "Happy Birthday, Mammon."

"What's the gift?" He asks, looking around his room where the last riddle had led them.

The click of the lock and the wicked look on their face says it all.

*If you think the notes were cheesy Eliza absolutely cringed while writing them and had to take breaks to go scream in their pillow because of how sappy they were, but Mammon liked this kind of cheesy and it doesn't mean they weren't 100% sincere.*

Levi

For Levi they hunt down Simeon, trailing after him begging, negotiating and making deals.

"I-is this - this isn't - h-how - there isn't any - ELIZAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" He launches himself at them, still holding the little book. "I LOVE YOU!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH ELIZA! I - " He pauses, seeming to finally register his words and jumping away, hand flying to cover his flaming face "I! That doesn't mean! I didn't mean it like -"

"Love you too," they say easily.

And that has Levi blushing even more and trying to hide his face while mumbling something about 'normies'.

"Do you like it?"

"LIKE IT!? How'd you get it! This! This isn't even supposed to exist!"

"Ah I spoke to Simeon, he wrote it just for your birthday. They're only a collection of short stories though."

"FOR MY BIRTHDAY!? A LIMITED EDITION!? NO! NOT EVEN A LIMITED EDITION, AN IMPOSSIBLE ONE THAT SHOULDN'T EVEN EXIST!"

"...happy birthday Levi?"

"I LOVE YOU!"

"Love you too."

Satan

For Satan Eliza follows both Diavolo and Lucifer around, once again begging, pleading and bargaining. Diavolo agrees pretty quickly, it's Lucifer they take a week to convince

"Where are we going exactly?"

"You'll see."

"And how exactly did you manage to convince them to let us into the human world?"

"Uhm.."

"Do I want to know?"

"Probably not."

He chuckles softly, gently bumping them with his elbow he asks, "At least tell me where we are."

"Well this is where my mother was from. She was the one who was Lilith's descendant."

"It's not the same as where you lived?"

Eliza flushes at his use of the past tense. "Nope. It's funny though... "

"What is?"

"The first people who lived, the natives, the name of their clan translated to 'Demon'. They even had a Demon King. Ah, not sure how much of that is actual history and how much has been twisted through time but. It's an odd little coincidence don't you think?"

"Amid the action and reaction of so dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be presented which may be striking and bizarre..."

"Don't quote your detective at me."

Satan laughs. "What happened to them? In your history?"

"Well it's a bit of a long story, it's not exactly a fair one either."

"History so rarely is. It's always told through the mouths of the survivors, the winners, it rarely gets a chance to be fair, to be anything more than fiction peppered with fact." His eyes are fixed firmly on the sky.

Eliza looks up with him, staring at the cloudless blue sky.

He shakes himself out of it with a chuckle, "That doesn't mean I'm not interested in hearing it. Quite the opposite actually." He smiles sweetly at them.

Eliza grins back. "I actually managed to get us a few days here. There are lots of ruins all around the country, they're not from that original clan but they're still really old and kind of amazing. We won't be able to visit all of them but it's still something."

"It is. Thank you, Eliza. It means a lot that I'd be able to learn something new and that you're sharing this with me."

Still grinning they hug him gently.

He wraps his arms around them

"Is this the part where you wish me?"

"It is. Happy Birthday, Satan."

*Anyway this is part of our actual history and even though I haven't really decided where Eliza is from this felt fitting? The detective quote is taken straight from Sherlock Holmes*

Asmo

"Elizaaa~ This is so sweet! Ahh, I love it! I love you!!"

Eliza couldn't help the soft laugh as Asmo clung on to them, rubbing their cheeks together and enveloping them in the sweet scent of his perfume.

"How did you know I needed this?"

"Well, living with six brothers anyone would need a weekend spa retreat away from them."

"You're right, Eliza! You're so right! They're the worst and it's even started to affect my skin! I needed some me time."

"Well... It's actually a coupon for two..."

Asmo blinked at them looking down at it and yes it was a coupon for two.

"You know, just in case you wanna..." they did a ridiculous eyebrow wiggle that had him giggling.

"Well then, Dear. How about a weekend spa treatment with me? Hmm?"

Eliza blushed, stumbling back and stuttering, "That's not - I - you know - I'm just - I - "

He watches them stutter, with an amused smile before he mercifully cuts in "I know you're set on that idiot brother of mine. Lord knows why, he's such a mess and I'm much prettier. You know I love you Eliza but you really do have terrible taste."

At their scowl he giggles, "But you love him, and you look out for him and you make him happy and he does all that for you too. And, well that's all that matters, isn't it?"

They're a bit red again, but they're smiling at him softly and looking at him with such love in their eyes, it makes a gentle sort of warmth spread through him.

"No, what I meant was not everyone in my family has been driving me crazy recently and you look like you could use a weekend off too. I can tell you embarrassing stories about Mammon from back in the Celestial Realm, if that sweetens the deal? Unless," now that he thought about it, "that makes you uncomfortable!? Ah! Eliza, I'm so sorry I didn't even think! I know you don't like this kind of thing, that's okay I'll ask So-"

"No, wait Asmo it's fine. I don't mind it, if it's with you."

Asmo blinked. The warmth spread. Then he flung himself at them again, "Elizaaaaa, don't say things like that and expect me not to react!"

They laughed, easily catching him in their arms, "Happy Birthday, Asmo."

Beel & Belphie

With Beel & Belphie Eliza leads them into the attic and locks the door behind them.

"Are you going to kill us here?"

"Haha. Funny."

Belphie laughed lightly, and Eliza could almost hear Beel's frown as commonplace as it was when the topic was brought up. Not wanting to keep Beel in any type of discomfort they reached out with that flicker of magic in them and a muttered spell and lit the fairy light like little lamps that hung across the room.

"You're getting better at that." Belphie said, eyes on them and looking impressed.

Beel hummed and agreed, looking proud.

"I know." Their chest puffed out a bit and the twins laughed.

Letting the moment fade they swept their hands, gesturing at the rest of the room. "So what do you think?"

The furniture had all been moved to the sides, the blankets and pillows from the room along with many, many additional ones were all piled strategically on the floor, making a large nest like structure. The outer structure of the nest was lined with various boxes and packets of different kinds of snacks and drinks. On the wooden floor in front of the nest was a large cake decorated in warm oranges and cool purples.

"I made it!" They said, proudly before deflating a second later "Well Luke made it, he wanted to do something nice for Beel's birthday but I stood around and licked the raw batter so that counts?... There's also a handheld vacuum for crumbs." They gestured at the side.

"It looks good," Beel said with a nod. "Smells good. I'm hungry."

Belphie tilted his head, "So your present for us is our sins?"

Eliza bristled, "No. That's just the setting, next is the accessories."

"Accessories?" Beel asked softly, still eyeing the cake, only held back by the firm grip that both Eliza and Belphie had on his hands.

"Accessories." Eliza moved away to a corner, returning while juggling two wrapped gift.

"It's that manga of Levi's that you like, it's the full published series so you don't need to keep borrowing it." Turning to Beel, "pyjamas. Large oversized thick and comfy pyjamas. I washed them too so that they would smell nice and wouldn't be scratchy. So this is your present: A sleepover, cuddled together under the blankets, in large comfortable clothes, eating junk food and reading manga where none of your brothers can interrupt." Eliza stopped for a breath, their proud smile dimming a bit, "I guess your presents are your sins..."

"No. They're not." Beel said firmly. Hands already unbuckling his pants and sliding them down. He changed his clothes quickly with no care for either of his audience who, to his credit, failed to react. He folded the old ones and placed them in a corner while Belphie removed his boots.

"They're not," Beel said again looking straight at Eliza, "They're quality time doing things we love with the people we love, without having to worry about anything else." He walks up to them, enfolding them in a warm, soft hug. "Thank you, Eliza."

"Right, right. Our sins are part of it because those are things we enjoy. But they're not the actual gift. Like you said it's the settings and accessories that make the actual gift. And that's spending time together without any of those idiots interrupting us for once."

"It's a good gift." Beel said, as Belphie slid into the hug. Beel lifted them both off their feet as they clung to him.

"Happy Birthday guys," Eliza said through their laughter.

"Love you," they both said in unison.

[goldenncherrybombb]

Watermelon Sugar

 hello, I haven’t spelled or grammar check so I’m sorry if there is an error. But there shouldn’t be! Anyways, enjoy :)

Series Masterlist

Masterlist 

Warning: mature content :p

Word count: 3,319

They were currently at Jeff’s house. Jeff thought it would be a good idea to throw a party since it had now officially been a month since tour ended.

But now the party is over and they are all in Jeff’s living room, watching a tour documentary Harry’s team made for him to reminisce on. Who knows, maybe someday he will let the world see? The crew, and band are here. Adam is on the couch next to Charlotte, discussing of the beer he is sipping on is better than the wine Clare nurses. Mitch is next to Sarah, his arm around her as she laughs at something Jeff and him are talking about. And Harry, well Harry has his arms wrapped around his girl who is asleep, her head on his shoulder. It’s around one am. Harry’s getting tired as well, about to head home.

He clears his throat to gain everyone’s attention.

“I’m gonna head out, I got a bit of a drive and this one is knocked out.” They all nod understandingly and say there goodbyes. Harry carries y/n bridal style out the door and to his car. He gets in and turns on the heat, knowing she gets cold when she sleeps. On the drive home he has his hand on her thigh, reminiscing his favorite past events of his missus.

***

She looked so good sitting on the kitchen counter early in the morning. Harry was cooking for them, making pancakes. When he does a cool trick she claps for him happily, a strawberry in her mouth. She wore only a white shirt. Her black glasses were on her face because she hated not being able to see Harry clearly in the morning. He would lean over and give her a few pecks on the lips. Y/n’s music played in the background at a good level to where it’s loud enough but quiet enough. Then when the pancakes were done she insisted she fed him. So there he stood with his hands on both sides of her thighs, his mouth open as she fed him a bite of the delicious pancakes he made. He hums in delight and she giggles.

“‘S good, yeah?” She nods her head and feds herself a bite, licking her lips to get the maple syrup off of them. He stares up at her with lust in his eyes, her not being clueless and noticing. She leans downs and wraps her arms around his neck, her face going close to his, so close that there lips brush, but not close enough to where the touch all the way. She turns her head and lets her nose nudge his. Harry already getting turned on from the simple action simply because it was here teasing him, leaving him on edge of what she is gonna do next. Finally she presses her lips to his, his hands going to her bum and pulling her closer to the edge of the counter.

“‘S this okay?” He questions breathlessly. She nods hastily. There lips go back together like magnets again. He begins to kiss her neck, sucking on some spots to leave marks. She bites back a moan. Her lips bruised and sore already from how rough there kiss is. He finds her sweet spot and she lets the first moan slip making him groan. Her hands in his hair, pulling lightly.

“Taste so sweet pet.” He whispers when his lips find hers again.

“Take me to bed, h.” She whispers breathlessly. He immediately picks her up from the counter, her legs going around his waist as she squeals lightly making her giggle and Harry smile at her brightly. Harry goes to his bedroom and lays her down on his bed lightly. Her hair is fanned out like a halo, the lightning making her skin glow. Harry stares at her and looks her up and down a few times making y/n squirm under his gaze.

“So, so, so beautiful.” He mumbles against her skin as he pulls her shirt down to access her cleveage are. Her fingers pull at the hem of her shirt, him helping her by taking it off for her. Her lace baby blue bra comes into view and Harry immediately attaches his lips to the new unmarked area. The sensations his giving her are like no other. He kisses down her stomach, making sure to ask her if it’s ok and to tell her how beautiful she is. He pulls down her shorts and underwear slowly, kissing from the middle of her thigh to her ankle before making his way back up. He kisses her hip bone before leading down to where she most desired him. She moans loudly, all the anticipation making her more than ready. Her hand finds his hair, pulling gently as he moves his tougne expertly, going over all the right places. His index finger teases her entrance before he enters it. She moans his name and arches her back. He finds his way back up to her, his lips attaching to her neck as he goes slow and slowly adds another one. Her hands move to push off his sweatpants but he stops her making her whine.

“I want you, please.” She pouts before moaning loudly when he finds her spot. He kisses her neck more before moving his lips to her ear.

“I know lovie. Your gonna have me. No need to rush.” She looks him in the eyes as he speaks. Her hands go to his face and she smiles.

“God I love you so much.” She laughs quietly before gasping making Harry chuckle. He pulls his fingers out and pulls his sweatpants off. “‘M on the pill by the way.” Y/n says, knowing he is wondering where a condom is. He hums and parts her legs wider.

“Are you sure about this?” He questions again. Fearing she will not want him after this. Or that he will hurt her.

“Yes, I am sure. I love you.” She whispers before kissing his lips softly.

“I love you so much.” He mumbles against her lips before entering her. She gasps at the pressure and arches her back against him. She’s not gonna lie, it did hurt. He is bigger than she imagined, and that is saying something. “Are you ok?” He questions, she bits her lip and nods before replying to him with a breathless yes, telling him to move. He obliges and does so slowly. Y/n’s music plays softly in the background due to his surround sound system he has all the way around his house. Harry begins to speed up pace as moans flow out of her mouth and his. Her ankles are hugging his back as her nails leave scratch marks down it. Her name leaves his lips as he moves his head to the crook of her neck, leaving sloppy kisses there.

The room feels hot. Like the temperature has rose thirty degrees. But they know it hasn’t and it’s just them. Sweat has formed in Harry’s hair line, his hair a little damp. Both of there skins coated with a thin layer of sweat. Y/n skin tingles wherever Harry’s touch lays. She feels like she is on cloud 9 with the way he is whispering such dirty things to her and the feelings he is making her feel.

“Feel s’good. Taking me so well pet.” He grunts in her ear making her moan and clench around him, he has to hold back from cumming then and there. She feels so good and perfect. Harry swears he has never felt more love than what he does now. He feels like nothing else matters. Everything outside the four walls of his room matter. It’s just them.

“‘M close.” Y/n whimpers against his lips, the heel of her foot digging into Harry’s back deeper and her nails clawing just a little Harry, it’s all enough to make Harry moan. With a few more thrusts y/n hits her climax with Harry following. The rest of the night is spent with wondering hands under the sheets. Both of them never able to get enough of each other.

He puts his hand on her thigh, smiling at her with loving eyes before looking back on the road. He begins to think of how far they have come in almost a year. He begins reminiscing on there past, smiling to himself.

***

“Hot! ‘S hot.” Harry playful winces when he touched y/n’s bare shoulder. She scoffs and swats his hand away before looking in the mirror. Her favorite dress she always desired to wear, but never had the confidence to or excuse to wear, was on her body.

“Do you think I look ago? Not to tight? Not to loose? Not-“ she gets cut off by Harry kissing her lips, a cue for her to stop talking and kiss the man she loves. Her eyes flutter closed, her neck turning some since Harry is to the side of her, his arm wrapped around her waist.

“‘S perfect, just like the one who wears it.” He pulls back, whispering in her ear. He kisses her cheek and slaps her butt, she squeals before giggling. “Go get em baby! You got this!” Harry cheers, walking out of the closet. Y/n smiles, Harry not knowing how much that went. She’s freaking out, was just pacing before Harry came in, trying to put in the lucky earrings Harry got her a few years ago. Surprisingly she hasn’t lost them, she looses any pair of earrings she has. But these weren’t just any earrings.

She has a meeting, a very important meeting. She could be getting a record label, it isn’t just any meeting. But she chased her dream and finally caught it.

She thought she had it, but then she wanted to be in the booth, headphones on as she serenaded the room with her words and voice, not only writing.

Harry was not nervous at all, knowing his girl had it. He was confident, relaxed. While y/n was tense, anxious, scared. He came back in the room with a glass of water and her anxiety medicine.

“Here you go, love. This will make you feel better, yeah?” After he set the glass down he grabbed her shoulders lights, leaning down slightly to look her in the eyes. “Cinderella, you got this. I believe in you, everyone does. You are so talented, look how many hits you already got for others. Now it’s your turn.” And that’s all it took to calm her nerves. Well the first word was. Cinderella

***

When y/n and Harry first met and were getting to know each other y/n wanted to have a movie marathon, specifically disney. Harry agreed, obviously, he was already falling for the girl. He would buy her all the stars and bottle them up just for her if she wanted.

The first movie y/n picked was Cinderella. It was her favorite princess movie. She doesn’t exactly know why, but it has a deep connection to her, and it’s made her love it forever. She still wants a dress just like Cinderella’s.

Harry asked if she choose the movie for a specific reason and that led her to going on about how much she loves it, and how my she hopes she gets a happy ending, but he’s not allowed to tell anyone that. And after that Harry gave her what she wanted and tried to have the most romantic “friend date” ever. He had cleaned bought black out curtains, made a hole in the ceiling trying to get the projector in the movie room, and had to run out to buy extension cords, white Christmas lights, and some ice cream, because he knew how much y/n loved ice cream. Even though it was snowing out and he felt a little odd buying ice cream he still walked out of the store with a slight skip in his step. Excited for the nights activities.

He set everything up as soon as he got home. He put the blackout curtains up first, then put the sheets up so it looked like a massive fort in his room. He tackied them to the wall, the gum like stuff sticking to him a few times. He set up the projector so they had a perfect view of the movie. Lastly he plugged in the lights, making sure they could touch fabric and not catch on fire, being throwing delicately putting them on the sheets above so it casted a pink glow under the Pantone pink sheets. It was an accident on how he got so many bedsheets. He was scrolling through amazon while he was a wee bit drunk and kept clicking ‘add to cart’, thinking it wasn’t working. He loved the color, thought they were cute so he ordered them. He was very surprised to open his door a few days later and see a large amazon package, not remembering ordering anything. Then he remembered as he started pulling out 40 sets of bed sheets. It inspired his first album cover actually.

But hey, it came in handy!

“Harry! I’m here you knob!” Y/n’s voice rang through his house and he chuckles, shaking his head. Replying to her before moving to stand in the middle of his sheet tent, waiting for her.

“Alright, I brought some face masks- oh my gosh.” She looks up and stops looking at the label on the masks, trying to read them. “Harry!” She cheers before running into his arms, her legs circling around his waist. She had never done that, too caught up in the moment to realize what she did. But Harry was well aware, and he wanted her to do this to him everyday. “This- this is beautiful. Oh my gosh. Is that the projector from the movie room? Oh my gosh this is beautiful. I can not believe it.” She intertwined her hands together and raises them to her chest as she looks around, her eyes finally landing on Harry’s. Harry’s breath is taking away as he looks at her, she looks like an angel. The way the dull light is making her skin almost glow, her smile as she rests her chin on her intertwined hands.

Once they got settled on the makeshift bed Harry made on the floor out of all of his blankets and comforters he has. Then he put pillows where there backs would be resting. They both were propped up by the pillows as Harry skips the credits. Y/n closing her eyes and smiling before putting her head on Harry’s chest, he smiles down at her and presses play, the movie finally starting. His fingers comb through her hair as Disney’s iconic intro play. It’s not till the first beat of the main title begins to play that her head pops up and her eyes open. She gasps and sits up hurriedly.

“OH MY GOSH! HARRY!” She turns around and throws herself on him with an oof, her arms going around his neck. “Could you be anymore perfect? This is crazy” she whispers silently, almost as though if she raised her voice another decibel it would shatter the invisible bubble they have built. The music from the movie playing quietly in the background, making the moment even more perfect, if possible. Harry’s hands rub and down her back, his head tilting so he could whisper in her ear.

“‘Course pet. ‘D do anything for yeh.” She smiles into his shoulder, a silent tear running down her cheek. No one has done anything like this. No one has put the time and the effort to do anything more magical than this. Y/n thought the first time her song she wrote went number was the most magical, but man was she wrong. She just wished he loved her back.

As they watched the movie y/n had her head on his chest, her arm around his waist as she watches the movie with a smile on her face. Her pointing out her favorite parts to Harry, like he doesn’t already know them. Then the ballroom part came up. Cinderella and Prince Charming just met and are about to dance. All the sudden she stands up, holding out a hand to Harry.

(I recommend play “so this is love” its magical with this part. Promise me;) it’s on Apple Music btw! )

“Dance with me, please. I know every move to this part embarrassingly.” Harry doesn’t fail to notice as she admits a little talent of hers.

“Alright. But you have to help me out.” She smiles shyly at him and nod. The music starts and she starts to move, Harry following, looking down and watching his feet.

Mm-mm-mm

“‘M a bit clumsy, I tend to trip a lot. You remember that, right, pet?” Harry questions, a sly smile on his face. She giggles and nods, relaxing almost completely. She ends up laying her head on his chest as they sway in a small circle to the music. His head lays on top of hers shortly after, both of them humming and harmonizing to the song.

So this is love

“Yes, h, I do remember.” There laughs die down and they go back to paying attention to dancing.

So this is what makes life Devine

I’m all aglow

And now I know

And I know I know

Y/n sings quietly with the music, amazing Harry. He’s only ever heard her sing jokingly, never seriously. And to say he is amazed would be an understatement. There’s salting about how sultry her voice sounds that pulls him in so quickly. How she hits every now. How her voice sounds dreamy, heavenly.

The key to heaven is mine

Harry joins her, making her look up and smile at him as she sings.

My heart has wings

They look straight into each other’s eyes. Singing and swaying through the love filled atmosphere.

Mm-mm-mm

And I can fly

Harry listens as she sings, smiling before joining her again.

I’ll touch every star in the sky

So this is a miracle

That I’ve been dreaming of

Mm-mm-mm

So this is love

The music comes to an end, but they still dance anyways. Her head goes back to his chest. He kisses the top of it as she speaks quietly.

“Yes my Cinderella.” He questions just as quietly as she did. But her head pops up at the new nickname he called her, a confused look on her face before asking him what he said. “Cinderella.” He repeats

“Then that makes you my Prince Charming.” He smiles, and nods his head.

“I’m ok with that.” He says slowly, so slow and quiet she could barley hear him.

***

“Love, we’re home.” He lightly whispers in her ear while unbuckling her seat belt. She groans and sleepily opens her eyes.

“‘M too tired. Carry me price charming?” So that’s what Harry does. He carries her inside, unzips her dress and puts his shirt over her before she gets in bed. He even wipes the little bit of makeup she had on off of her. When he’s done she puckers her lips and he chuckles before kissing her.

“Tastes like strawberries.” Y/n hums. Harry chuckles and kisses her lips quickly before standing so he can undress. “Ugh, I want more watermelon vodkas. Now those, were good.” She flops back in her pillow as she talks, groaning.

“Mm, when I can taste it on ya tongue is when I know y’ve had enough, Cinderella.” She giggles at the nickname and sits up, laying her arms around his neck.

“I love you.” She kisses his lips and lays him back down. His hands roam her body before staying put on her bum as she straddles him.

[mysaldate]

Late night thoughts #1 — KnY demons and Disney

It's currently 6am here and I haven't been able to fall asleep yet so this still counts as late night thoughts, right? Well, even if not, just enjoy the crack please.

Also, when talking about movies that have been remade, I'm taking the old versions, I haven't seen any of the remakes yet and I'm not exactly planning on it either.

Muzan

Honestly prefers Dreamworks over Disney, especially their earlier works.

Probably still enjoyed Great Mouse Detective or The Black Cauldron. Oh right, and Hunchback of Notre Dame had its good moments for him.

Has that one book that ends every story before the villain gets defeated so it's like they won.

Kokushibou

Genuinely believes Mulan is the only valid Disney film. And that's really only thanks to Li Shang.

Will cut you up if you mention the sequel tho.

One he really hates is Lion King. It just hits too close to home for him.

Douma

HUGE Frozen fan. Emotionally constipated orphaned princess with ice powers who's lived her whole life in isolation and doesn't get people? Come on.

He felt a little called out at first but then he learnt Let It Go by heart.

Saw the sequel at 50 times at the cinema before letting someone talk him into buying the DVD. Cried every time.

Akaza

Really likes Mulan too. And for some reason The Little Mermaid and Hercules too but Mulan is his no. 1.

Won't admit it but he can lip-sync every single song in those movies. Ok, let's be fair, he can lip-sync the whole Mulan movie.

Also enjoyed the Hercules spin-off series even if he rarely got any of the refferences.

Hantengu (and his chaotic boy band)

Actually have Disney movie night marathons. Usually only Yoroko and Karaku make it till morning.

Every single one of them loves Lion King. Sometimes it's on twice in one night. The sequels not so much but Yoroko digs the Hakuna Matata one.

Sekido sometimes does Scar impressions when they act out. Some of them are actually scared of him (and Zira too).

Nakime

The Little Mermaid or Hunchback of Notre Dame are really the only two she enjoyed.

Still can play just about every Disney song EVER on her biwa. She can also sing but usually doesn't.

Yes, that includes songs from sequels and spin-offs. She has lots of time in the Fortress.

Gyokko

Not all that much into Disney, prefers japanese animation most of the time. And japanese movies in general.

Heard of the Ao Oni live action movies? He sent a couple letters to Disney, asking them to adapt the other novels.

Sometimes likes a little comedy. Emperor's New Groove really fell in line with his taste.

Daki

Thinks Cinderella is a comedy. So is Snow White. So is Sleeping Beauty. Yeah, every princess story is a comedy.

Secretly cried in her pillow when she thought Snow White died but nobody can know this.

All-time favourite is Bambi because humans are disgusting.

Gyutaro

Usually just watches whatever Daki does, only rarely on his own.

Likes Pixar production more than Disney originals but it's not major.

Adores Princess and the Frog and Hunchback for obvious reasons (though the literary basis for the later one hurt him to read).

Kaigaku

Not a very big fan but he enjoys the older movies. Thinks the new ones suck and isn't afraid to say that to your face.

For some reason really likes Robin Hood. And Oliver & company.

Can and will sing rock/metal versions of every Disney song that has such a version already made. Has made children cry with this in the past and can again if desired.

Enmu

Ever heard of Great Locomotive Chase? Being based on an actual event makes it all the more appealing to him. He will watch anything tho.

Usually falls asleep within first three minutes but somehow remembers everything anyway?

Sometimes goes to cons or public reading events to share the "real stories" the Disney movies were based on. He's banned from 4 cons and 26 libraries all across Japan so far.

Rokuro

Actually really loves Disney and remembers at least one quote for every character who has at least a line.

Really likes all The Three Musketeers movies.

Sometimes a little confused about early Dreamworks production since they look so similar.

Wakuraba

Not that much of a fan but he knows the classics. Not that any of them speaks to him personally.

Sometimes gets called Banzai after that one hyena in Lion King. He hates it but at least it's not Ed.

Doesn't realize Disney doesn't only make animated movies. Maybe one day.

Mukago

Knows the Disney renessaince era and then the modern movies. Also heard of Lady and Tramp at one point.

Probably kinda likes Pocahontas and doesn't understand why are the americans so angry about it.

Paint With All the Colours of the Wind is forever his (her?) ringtone and you can't do anything about it.

Rui (and fam)

Apparently there was a movie called The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band.

He gets bored by it anyway but keeps it on for the aesthetics.

Also have movie nights but usually not Disney-only. And he's the only one allowed to pick movies anyway. Bambi or Lion King are common choices.

Kamanue

Dreamworks fan.

Used to enjoy Marvel but refuses to support Disney.

Gets stuck babysitting Enmu far too often tho so he knows all the movies anyway.

Kyogai

Underrated movies fan. Both the "dark era" of Disney animation and anything else that got lost over time.

Top favourite is, and will forever be, Treasure Planet. He squeels like a little kid when watching that one.

Thinks sequels deserve some love too even if they weren't as good as the originals.

Susamaru

Star Wars fan mostly but won't say no to some older Disney classic. Just not anything too "woke" or princessy.

Emperor's New Groove is right up her alley and she knows everything about the movie.

Also really liked the Jungle Book. Except for the ending. She just wants Mowgli to grow up to be the next Tarzan but without the girl.

Yahaba

Prefers the book originals and complains about adaptations way too much.

Kind of enjoyed Hercules because of all the refferences to old mythology, that made him feel smart. But they messed up a few things so there's that.

What do you mean Prince of Egypt is not Disney?

Tamayo

Casual fan, doesn't really get the appeal beyond "Aw, what a cute cartoon!"

Not a fan of the dirty jokes slipped in sometimes, nor the other adult refferences.

Likes Jane from Tarzan because she's a good girl who came to study animals and found love and was overall super wholesome. She also likes Belle.

Yushiro

Pretends to be annoyed but actually loves princess movies most of them all.

Has a secret collection of figurines. Everything he can get his hands on, though villains usually get burnt or otherwise creatively disposed of.

Convinced Tamayo is a princess and that birds do her hair every morning. You can't change his mind.

Swamp triplets

Princess movies preffered because the girls are really pretty (and sometimes below 16, let's be fair).

Can never agree which one is the best though. One says it's Belle, Two claims Moana is superior to any princess, Three usually goes with Snow White or Sleeping Beauty but he can't make up his mind.

All of them are kinda scared of Jafar because he reminds them of Muzan a bit.

Hand demon

Probably knows all the animated movies by heart. And all the villain songs.

Loves Brother Bear. A lot.

Still scared of the bad guys, he just thinks they have hip songs and cool style.

Nezuko

Looks up to the badass Disney girls. No, not Anna and Elsa, the actual badass Disney girls.

Sometimes jokes that Tanjiro and her are a bit like Lilo and Stitch. Tanjiro makes sure to point out she's a princess though.

Absolutely loves Big Hero Six and Zootopia. You know, obvious reasons.

[samwise-though]

Sabrina’s Top Ten

This is a little bit (a lot bit) out of my blog’s wheelhouse, but I ask you guys to bear with me! For one of my seminars, I have to do a Top Ten project, in which I talk about ten different things relating to Pop culture, music and/or theory. So, if you don’t want to read this, that’s fine! I’m putting the bulk of the post under the cut!! This is basically just me commenting on how weird pop culture is, and fangirling about Taylor Swift.

(Sorry Dr. Burke, you’re absolutely going to have to read about Taylor Swift, and I am realizing that after Adorno I’m incredibly cynical about popular culture now)

#1: Taylor Swift: Archive, Collecting and Identity

I think as I began this year, there was this feeling of necessity to blast off with the song “22” from @taylorswift​’s album Red. All the way back in 2012 little fifteen-year-old Sabrina knew that when she turned 22, she would be playing that song All. Day. Long. 

Here’s the thing though: while yes, I did listen to “22” more than any of the other songs on Red that day, I also spent a lot of time listening to the rest of the album as well. I came to the realization that I could identify with the album better than ever. There was something so profound about the way @taylorswift​​ captured that moment in time, in her life, and have it still remain so relatable. I spent a long time considering this, but it wasn’t until I encountered Jean Baudrillard’s The System of Objects that I really began to find a way in which to understand what was happening for me (and undoubtedly many others, considering Swift’s success). In chapter two: “A Marginal System: Collecting” Baudrillard references Maurice Rheims’ ideas of collecting for children, “For children, collecting is a rudimentary way of mastering the outside world, of arranging, classifying and manipulating”. Ultimately, collecting is a way in which we learn to form identity - and what is an album, if not literally a collection of music that in and of itself acts as an ultimate tool of identity construction? I’ve been listening to @taylorswift​​’s music since her official 2006 debut. That is a lot of time spent self-identifying with a musician and her music. Constructing even part of your identity from something that is a collection that is very much a large part of someone else’s identity is such a weird concept. Why do we do that? 

Even more interesting though, is the fact that Taylor has said on multiple occasions, that her albums are like diary entries (not to mention the great number of other people drawing that particular comparison). Thus making each album that she has released up until this point a small archive, collecting and ordering that point in time. Either way, @taylorswift​​ continues to find success in creating archival collections that are reflective or refractive of her own identity.

With the release of Lover and the inclusion of her diary entries as an addition to the deluxe versions of the record, it follows in the history of including controlled snippets of her life in the physical copies of her albums. From the first five albums, she included secret coded messages within the lyrics of each of the songs. In 1989, Taylor included copies of polaroids with lyrics written across the bottom of them, each numbered - so you knew you got certain ones, and not others. As well, starting from 1989 @taylorswift​​ has also included voice memo recordings from her writing and recording sessions, so that fans can have a better understanding of her creative process. 

All of these details add to the personal feeling that @taylorswift​‘s albums seem to emanate. This feeling is only magnified through the additions of the diary entries in Lover (deluxe). Each album is a carefully constructed archive of @taylorswift​‘s life, that her fans then go on to add to their own ‘Taylor Swift collections’ and continue to alter their identities through the new piece of the collection that she has created.

#2: The Reproducibility of Childhood

If there is anything in recent memory that should be considered with Benjamin and mass-reproducibility in mind, Disney and the company’s capitalizing on re-making all of their old animated films should be discussed.

They did this really clever marketing tactic in which they pretty much re-do the original trailer they released for the original movie, shot-for-shot with the new film footage:

I will admit it didn’t work quite as well with the 2015 version of Cinderella, in which they altered a greater amount of the story, as compared to The Beauty and the Beast. Obviously, the trailer that has found the most success thus far with this tactic, was the most recent release of The Lion King.

What is the most intriguing thing is that Disney is embracing the past iterations of the movie, basically just repackaging the old story in (for most of the movies) live-action acting rather than animation and selling the audience very nearly the same exact thing. And not only are they very blatantly reselling the masses the same thing, but they are also saying, with these side-by-side trailer comparisons that “hey, look, we're doing this thing exactly the same way” and without question, we buy into it because it is familiar and feels of childhood. Having read Adorno’s Culture Industry Reconsidered, I feel as though we should really be taking a moment to question why we are allowing Disney to amass so much capital from movies that we have already seen. By drawing on our cultural memory of these movies that were so fundamental to many children in Western society growing up, Disney is literally monetizing our childhood memories. It is just as Adorno says, “The culture industry fuses the old and familiar into a new quality.”

While these movies get a shiny new paint job, it is still blatantly the old and familiar.

But I guess Disney has always been about capitalizing on memory.

#3: The ��Classics’ and Aura

I have spent a lot of time over the past year, shaping my identity. I made a lot of life-changing decisions, one of which was to go to grad school. It was not a quick decision, and it more or less happened over the span of a year, during an English course I took. The class was a lecture on Victorian and Edwardian literature. I found myself really fascinated by the Victorian novels that we started the class with. When we got to Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles I was a goner.

I fell in love with Hardy’s story and my love for the Victorian and 19th-century studies only solidified further throughout the semester. However, my entire experience at the university has been plagued with serious imposter syndrome. Thoughts of how “I don’t belong here,” and that “I don’t really know what I am talking about” were the soundtrack playing in my head every single day. I was always worrying that I had grossly misunderstood the texts we were studying, my interpretations were wrong, and that I would make myself look like a fool. All of these feelings, when analyzed at a later time, were all rooted in the idea that we were studying ”The Classics,” narratives that were part of the Western Literature Canon. How could I possibly understand literature that was considered “Great”?

There is a constructed aura around the literary canon that is also extended to the place in which that canon is taught. A very elitist feeling that has been cultivated since the beginning of higher education. For me, when making the decision to continue my university education by taking the leap to apply for Grad schools, this aura only grew - to the point in which it almost feels that it will be impossible for me to get into a graduate program. It feels as though Graduate programs are meant for a specific group of people - and somehow I am evaluating myself to not fit into that group. 

But what exactly is it that still continues to be such a fundamental influence over the population that University is considered elite, and those narratives should be the ones to makeup Western Literary Canon? Is the legacy of Colonialism still so etched into our ideas that we literally still believe that the novels that a bunch of white dudes agreed were good are the be-all-and-end-all of good literature?

What’s bothersome about this is, I didn’t get to start asking those sorts of questions, and experiencing a wider array of literature until I reached my upper-level seminar courses, for my honours degree. 

Courses that you cannot take unless you are a part of the honours program.

Ironic isn’t it? The elitist aura can only be questioned from well within the elitist institution.

#4: The Avengers: [Streaming]Game

Marvel’s first cycle has now come to an end with Avengers: Endgame. It’s odd to think just how emotionally attached the fans (myself included) have become to the superheroes that, many of which will not be returning after this installment in the Avengers franchise.

(Loki Gif included because bae deserved better - and a TV show that I have to pay for absolutely does not make up for it)

Marvel is now going to capitalize on certain character deaths (see above), by giving them TV series and prequel movies to help entice the masses that have been so invested in their stories up to this point in the cinematic universe. The problem is, though, any character receiving a show, it will only be aired on the Disney + streaming service.

The Disney + streaming service comes long after Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and other streaming services have already established themselves. The issue that arises out of this system of individual streaming platforms, is that subscribers have to either subscribe to every new platform that arises or else to pick an choose which content they are willing to not have access to. It's a ridiculous system, and it will make it nearly impossible to have conversations with those around you because it should be a safe assumption at this point - ad if not now, certainly in the near future, that no, they probably haven’t watched it, because they don’t have access to it. 

This is obviously just a new way to control the products that companies produce. But it also brings to mind Benjamin and his ideas regarding mass production (”Work of Art”). Has the aura of the film been diminished because of the sort of re-producibility that come out of easy access (watching it any time you want), or, has there been a new mutated aura created for these films and tv shows because of the lack of access people may have to multiple platforms?

I guess we got what we wanted, easier way to access the tv shows and the movies we love, but at the cost of having to choose where we are willing to spend our money. It's a very Adornian thought, in that we wanted something, it was produced to the best possible economic value for the companies creating them, and then we continue to buy into the product. 

#5: Sparknotes and Memes

If you have a twitter account, and like literature, you should really check out SparkNotes’ twitter account.

They have become more and more popular over the last few years due to their use of the relatable internet language we know as memes. They, of course, are not the first company to engage with their users in such a way, many companies have been using social media to brand themselves in a very personable (and personified) way.

By doing this, they are making themselves appear more accessible to today’s youth, who are primarily influenced by what they see and interact with on the internet. 

There is something less sinister about SparkNotes utilizing the internet and memes to direct themselves to the younger audience - they are after all an educational aid group in which they are providing texts in more manageable and understandable terms. 

Other companies, however, like fast-food restaurants who utilize social media as though they are an individual rather than a company... That is quite a bit more insidious. 

 #6: Concert Movies

I want to return to music once again. But not in the traditional sense. I want to discuss concert movies.

There is something so weird about concert movies! They seem to exist in a separate space from actually attending a concert with live music and listening to the album. There is something very artificial in the sense that most of the time it feels very engineered, because of camera cuts and camera changes, and the difference in going from a front-row perspective to the camera shot cutting away to a wide shot so that the stadium is in full view. But then it also fulfils its purpose as “live music”. There is this sense in which it feels like you can’t look away, in case you miss something, even though you can pause it! 

It is a heavily controlled, or perhaps, curated experience. Realistically, there are so many different cameras that are recording the same moments, that in post-production they are able to choose the best possible moments to cut together to provide to the viewers (I avoid the word audience here, because there is, in fact, a physical audience that we as viewers of the movie, are separated from). 

I looked into the history of concert movies, and a quick google search led me to Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii a concert movie in which Pink Floyd played a short set of songs to no audience and recorded it.

Which is an odd concept, especially when you think about how it inspired other artists to film concerts. 

That they played. 

To no one.

I could see with Pink Floyd it being more of an artistic venture, but more recent concert movies like: Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, Reputation Stadium Tour and Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids all are more framed as giving the viewers the opportunity to experience the show, but still having them remain apart from it. Some of these concert movies feel as though they were produced to allow those who did not have the opportunity to attend the show in person the chance to experience what that might have been like, others are made with the intent to give the viewer a little bit more of the backstage/behind the scenes experience. What all of them have in common, however, is the opportunity for the artists to profit once again off of the shows that they have already played. 

Whatever the purpose is behind the movies being produced, they all are this weird experience of not-actually-being-there and knowing exactly what it would have been like to have attended. 

#7: Instagram: Curating the Self (Definitely inspired by Sophia’s Presentation) 

The Instagrams of popular artists are heavily curated to really emphasize their brands (”that’s very on-brand for you”), and who they are trying to portray themselves as. I feel as though no one really does this better than @taylorswift​. 

Shortly before she released reputation she wiped her Insta clean and started sharing gifs of different parts of a snake - a motif that she fully embraced for that particular era in her career. It was a practice she embraced again, leading up to the release of the first single of Lover. While she didn’t wipe her Instagram clean again, she did lead up to the release with little hints and teaser images that were all very inspired by the colour scheme and feel of the new album:

If you look at any artist’s Insta account you will find at least some of this curatorial work.

This brings us once again, back to the class on collecting, archiving and how collecting plays into identity construction. Each artist is curating their identity that they want to show the world (not unlike the discussion that we had involving Lana Del Rey and the front that she presents to the world, instead of her true self).

The work that goes into the Instagram account is mirrored in every public appearance, every show they play, and every interview they give. It is an odd concept when considering it in regards to the artist, but it becomes even weirder when we consider it in terms of just everyday people. We curate our lives on social media platforms to present ourselves in the best way possible. And we don’t have millions of people watching us while we do. Perhaps the hope is that the ideal that we portray could someday be reached, and that's why we continue to collect the images and videos to construct the ideal identity for ourselves.

While my life certainly isn’t very glamorous, I definitely do at least some curatorial work on my own Insta.

#8: Nostalgic Television

There has been a resurgence in the love of some older series like Friends and Gilmore Girls through the access to the full series on streaming platforms. Some of these shows have not aged very well (see: a good deal of Friends’ jokes), but the love for them continues anyway. 

Recently, tv shows such as those named above, have been branded as “nostalgic television” and has been slated to be psychologically beneficial to help with anxiety. 

But why do we remain so attached to TV shows such as these? Well, supposedly, just like the way we are drawn to watching the remakes of Disney’s movies as I mentioned earlier, it reminds us of our childhoods:

Will Meyerhofer, a New York-based psychotherapist and author, says watching our favourite old shows can be a useful tool for dealing with anxiety and mild depression.

"For my clients, these old shows are like the food they grew up with. 'The Brady Bunch' or 'The Facts of Life' or 'The Jeffersons' is like that beloved baloney sandwich on Wonder Bread with just enough mayo the way mom used to make,” he told TODAY.

 A recent Facebook post on The Mighty health community got hundreds of responses to the question: "What TV show from your childhood would you want to marathon-watch on a bad flare day?" The answers ranged from "The Waltons" to "Barney Miller."

That's because television from yesteryear can make us feel safe and secure in a world that feels increasingly chaotic.

“In therapy terms, it's an instant — and for the most part healthy — regression in the service of the ego,” Meyerhofer said, adding that he unwinds with old episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

We long for a time when we felt safer, less stressed and when we were able to really enjoy the things we liked. TV shows that we watched as we were growing up provide us with the nostalgic fulfillment that we need to feel happy - even if it is just for the length of a thirty-minute Friends episode.

#9: Screen TIme 

 Something I noticed when I was watching Reputation Stadium Tour... for research... there was very few people who were actually just watching the show. There were many screens visible in the crowd at all times. 

Something that has become very prevalent in concert culture, is that you don’t actually experience the concert first hand, you view it through your phone screen, as you record. 

It is something that I have noticed myself doing, and have set the limitation of only allowing myself to record two songs out of the entire concert.

By viewing the concert through the recording, the actual experience of the concert is altered, and even though you are standing there in the room, you are participating at a distance, rather than being involved in the moment.

The need to record and to photograph, I would argue, comes out of the feeling of necessity to archive and sort every memory that we have. Concerts are special occasions and we don’t want to forget them - and if we don’t have a video or photo, did it really happen? We need to archive every moment so that we can go back to it later and remember how great it was. 

But how great was it really if you were staring at your phone screen the entire time?

#10: The Rise of KPop in Canada and the US

There seems to have been a shift lately in Western popular culture in which Kpop (Korean Popular Music) is now being considered more mainstream.

Groups like BTS have found success on Western pop charts, their collaboration with Halsey, Boy with Luv, peaked at #10 on Billboard’s hot 100. Other Korean groups like Blackpink and Twice are also making a name for themselves on Western pop music charts.

What is interesting is that Kpop doesn’t really follow the same frame that most of the Western pop does. A lot of Kpop seems to be more dance-influenced, thus influencing the music stylistically and opening a lot more interesting opportunities for music videos.

Kpop is something different and separate from what Western Pop is comfortable with, and what influence it will have on the framework of the norm will be very interesting to see. I do wonder what Joshua Clover would have to say about Kpop groups and their involvement in popular music, and whether or not he would classify them in with the “Abject, feminized, and inauthentic: *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears...[who] dominate the list of best first-week sales”(103). There is, after all, something about the rhythm-based and often synthesized melodies that are prominent in Kpop that feels like a call-back to boy bands and pop stars of the late 90′s and early 00′s

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Well, that is it for my top ten! If you made it to the end, and are not my Prof [who does have to read it all the way to the end - Hi Dr. Burke! You made it! ] Thanks for reading!! 

[lornrocks]

Okay look, I agree these are all largely pointless, but at least the live action Disney movies up until now (not counting movies like Pete’s dragon, because...what???) have tried to do something. I’m even if it’s something weird like giant King Louie singing and chasing Mowgli, or adding more characterization to people like Ella and her Prince, or even just trying to be uh, sort of more culturally sensitive with Dumbo and Aladdin (mostly). But I’m going to be real with you, I do not see the appeal of the new Lion King. And this is coming from someone who is whole heartedly and ridiculously into Disney.

I thought Maleficent was interesting and reminded me of Wicked in a way. Cinderella was actually gorgeous and yes, I cried a lot. Jungle Book was surprisingly good and this is coming from someone who has zero nostalgia for the original. Beauty and the Beast was excellent, idgaf, I liked the new songs and I could watch Luke Evans and Josh Gad riff off each other for hours. Aladdin, which I only saw because my nephew wanted to, was a fun time. I liked the dancing scenes a lot and I think they actively were trying something. (I saw the end of Dumbo, although my dad tells me “this has been pretty good, idk why they hate it so much”)

But this is like...dude. It’s one thing to remake Aladdin, Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, you know? It’s entirely another thing to remake Lion King, the greatest animated Disney film and possibly greatest animated film of all time. This movie is flawless. Great voice work. Fucking phenomenal animation. Iconic songs and score. To remake it as something that is virtually the same but in hyper realistic cgi is essentially Disney’s version of Avatar: nice to look at, but nothing to call home about. Ultimately skipoable. Forgettable. Meh. Disney can and has done better.

Hell, the new Mulan trailer proves they can! I like Jon Favreau but dude, why? I’m not sure it will make quite as much money as beauty and the beast did, that movie blew up the box office.

[mermaidsirennikita]

I need to hear your opinion about that Alladin teaser ASAP!!!!!

It is................. not great, Bob.

I think that Aladdin really emphasizes how redundant these remakes are.  (And yes, I will see The Lion King 2.0.  But I’ll be real--if the teaser comes out and is this much of a mockery to the original?  Never mind.)  Aladdin is certainly not going to be made any better by a remake.  And the fact is that much of what made Aladdin so enjoyable is impossible to remake in a live action film.

For one thing, the animation in Aladdin and general tone was so purposefully exaggerated and anachronistic--it’s impossible to translate onscreen without completely changing the tone.  And the tone is the thing people love so much about Aladdin.  

And what does that tone rely upon?  Robin fucking Williams.  He made that movie, undeniably.  I’ve said this before, but it’s kind of ridiculous that everyone is ignoring how much of a “fuck you” this movie is to Robin’s memory.  Robin took a big pay cut to be in Aladdin, and in exchange Disney agreed that they wouldn’t use him in the marketing campaign.  He put a lot into the movie!  Tons of content we never got to see, off-script original material that was adapted into the film.  Aladdin is NOTHING without the Genie, as much as I love Aladdin and Jasmine.  And Disney knows that--they used the fuck out of Robin the marketing, which pissed him off A LOT.

For them to think that they can just spray paint Will Smith, tack on some shitty CG (and it doesn’t look good throughout what we’ve seen so far--the Genie isn’t the only issue) and call it Aladdin...  It devalues how much work Robin Williams put into that movie.  It devalues his unique and individual talent.  And yeah, I find that pretty fucking shitty.

I also find it interesting that very little like... acting.... has been shown so far.  They probably aren’t all that confident in it and are relying on the visuals.  I mean, this is being marketed purely as a movie that’s expected to succeed on nostalgia.  It’s not doing anything stylistically beautiful, as the Cinderella remake did.  It’s not actually bringing anything new or artistic to the table, like The Jungle Book remake did.  This will be a Beauty and the Beast effort that basically just capitalizes on nostalgia.  I’m beyond unimpressed.

[tornrose24]

What the animation rivalries must have been for 2017 in a nutshell

Disney: We got two of our movies nominated for an Oscar and one of them won! We don’t have any films lined up for this year, but our live action Beauty and the Beast is going to make a KILLING!

Dreamworks Animation: LOL. But thanks to the success of Trolls–which also got nominated–we now have a franchise that appeals to most of our girl consumers to rival your stupid ‘Frozen’ franchise.

Pixar: Well, we have Cars 3 coming out–

Most everyone: LAME!

Pixar: But we want to tell a story about how it’s good to pass on the torch, rather than say ‘Oh these new youngsters are going to destroy everything as we know it!’

Illumination: DESPICABLE ME 3, YO!

Most everyone: Yeaaaaaaah, wasn’t that the Minion Movie?

Dreamworks Animation: Well we’re releasing the Boss Baby–

Most everyone: WTF is this? Is this a joke, Dreamworks? We don’t want another film that’s only good for memes and YTPs!

Dreamworks Animation: But we are also doing a film adaption of Captain Underpants! See this image from the film? We are honoring the art style and–

CU fans: *Screams of joy and happy childhood nostalgia* SHUT UP AND TAKE OUR MONEY!

Dreamworks Animation:–and good cast. BUT we gave it a budget of under 40 million and we decided to release it on the same day as Wonder Woman instead of in March. The Boss Baby is taking the March slot.

CU fans:.... Are you kidding me?

Someone in Disney: The live action Beauty and the Beast is going to have our first official gay character!

A bunch of dumb complainers: HATE! BAN IT! GIVE IT AN R RATING!

Dreamworks Animation: *Recalls that one of the characters in Captain Underpants is canonically gay and decides to keep mouth shut about that while trusting more intelligent people to discover that on their own.* Yeah, we don’t want to take that risk. Also–HOLY CRUD! BOSS BABY BEAT BEAUTY AND THE BEAST AT THE BOX OFFICE IN IT’S THIRD OR FOURTH WEEK!

CU fans: Why aren’t you advertising CU as much as Boss Baby?

Random viewer: Actually, the film was surprisingly better than I thought. Not Dreamworks’ best, but still good.

Kids at local book fairs and Barnes and Noble, or access to internet: OMG! CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS MOVIE! HECK YES!

Sony: OMG GUYZ! EMOJIS AND PHONES ARE POPULAR! WE’RE GOING TO MAKE A MOVIE OFF OF IT FOR A SHAMELESS CASH GRAB!

Disney and Pixar:... We recognize plot points from our films, Sony.

Everyone: HATE! HATE! HAAAAAAATE!

Someone: Why is it required to have one animated film that sucks every year?

DIsney: Well, for our Wreck It Ralph sequel next year, we are going to have EVERY Disney princess we ever made in one scene.

Everyone: *minds explode five times over*

Disney: ....And our Jack and the Beanstalk film is dead now. Sorry.

Those who wanted to see Gigantic:..... *grabs the pitchforks*

Then come summer....

CU fans: THIS WAS AWESOME! :D :D :D Thank you Dreamworks, even though your sense of timing was awful! You actually gave us a film adaption that stayed faithful to the soul of the books and took the best parts to help weave a good, funny and heartfelt story! Unlike MOST book to film adaptions.

Dreamworks Animation: You’re welcome ;)

CU fans: You’ll give us a sequel, right? :D Or at least an animated show on netflix? :D :D

Dreamworks Animation: Uh... well, we ARE planning on making a Boss Baby 2... a Trolls 2... a Croods 2.... Not anytime soon, even though you are demanding it, sorry.

Viewers: Hey, Cars 3 was actually pretty good! It redeems Cars 2 and it was visually beautiful!

Other Viewers: Despicable Me 3 was actually pretty good too!

South Park fan: Though I couldn’t stop hearing Cartman through Trey Parker’s voice.

*Only few people watch the Emoji Movie. Those who do, do as a joke and give money to Sony to make more instantly hated films*

Certain people: WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT POP-EYE FILM?! DARN YOU SONY FOR RUINING A PROMISING MOVIE!

Disney: Well, most of the other animated films are ‘eh’–

Dreamworks Animation: Unless they go see that one film with the bull because of John Cena.

Pixar: Well, we have until next year to finally release The Incredibles 2.

Incredibles fans: *screams of joy and delight*

Pixar: Also, we are happy to release Coco this November. We really want to honor the culture that is being represented and we are happy to see that it is doing well in Mexico. It makes us feel proud of what we have accomplished–

Disney: Great! Now you’re going to tack on this ‘Frozen’ short which will make more money through it’s merch than your film’s merch! Pretty sure most people will see your film just for that like when we did it to the live action Cinderella!

Pixar:…. *not happy about this* Great. Ok. 

*and, if the Coco novel is to believe, they get revenge by making a commentary about how a song can get overused to the point that it’s annoying as heck. I should not have to explain this one.*

Dreamworks Animation: Well, we got both our films submitted for Oscar nominations!

Pixar: Us too for both films!

Illumination: Huh... us too. Neat!

Sony: EMOJI MOVIE GOT SUBMITTED!

Disney:....

Pixar:....

Dreamworks Animation:....

Illumination:....

Pixar: Well, it was hated by all, so I think we can agree that we don’t have to compete with THAT!

[rhetorical-ink]

Rhetorical Ink: My Top 10 Animated Disney Films

NOTE: These are mainly my personal favorites for a number of reasons, and I’ve left Pixar films off the list for two reasons: 1.) I haven’t seen all of the Pixar films yet, like Cocoa or Inside Out I know, I know, I’ve brought ultimate shame to my house and 2.) If I included Pixar, it might mostly be a Pixar list, haha! I’ll have to make a Top Ten Pixar films in the future once I see those other two -- in the meantime -- 

My Top 10 Animated Disney Films:

10. Tangled:

I would be lying if I said that Tangled was perfect -- one of the reasons it’s so low on this list is because the climax of the film basically borrows for one of my top picks. However, I put this on the list because it was the first animated Disney film to get me excited again in Disney post-Rennaisance Era. I did see Prince and the Frog, and while I liked it, this film just had better music, more charisma, and two lead characters that stole the show and you could be invested in. Zachary Levi as “Eugene” and Mandy Moore as Rapunzel were perfect in their roles and if you look at Disney now, Rapunzel is part of the Disney Princess canon as if she’s always been there. Now if only she kept her short hair for the television show...

9. Oliver and Company:

I’m a sucker for a many things, but this film has two in one: an adaptation of a classic story (Oliver Twist), and a cast of adorable animals. I didn’t include 101 Dalmatians on this list, though it should get an honorable mention, because I love that movie -- but I think that this film has both the aesthetic style of 101 Dalmatians, that realistic, sketchy art, but also has protagonists and characters that have personality and are compelling. Don’t get me wrong, Cruella DeVil is one of the all time GREAT Disney villains, but the other characters in the story? They are sort of one-note and flat. Not here, everyone has a distinct personality, great voice acting, and expression -- even the twin Doberman henchdogs. Plus, Billy Joel is one of my favorite singers, and him playing Dodger is fantastic.

8. The Jungle Book:

It would be a crime not to include a pre-Disney Renaissance film on here. I thought about Sleeping Beauty, since Maleficent is one of the all time great Disney villains as well -- but in the end, I had to go with The Jungle Book, sheerly because of its combination of again, a great adapted story -- which I prefer actually more than Rudyard Kipling’s version (which had its own faults for another post), the incredible music and catchy songs, and the host of characters who all stand out and create a compelling story. Plus, Sher Khan was one of the scarier villains as a kid. A tiger slashing you to bits? Consider child me terrified and not going on a jungle cruise anytime soon.

7. Mulan:

This movie was a staple at my Grade School when it came out. We watched this over and over again, quoted all of the lines and karaoked “You’ll Bring Honor to Us All” and “Be a Man” until our lungs collapsed. While this movie was definitely curtailing off of Aladdin’s pop-culture-modern humor within its style, the aesthetic of the film was distinct and beautiful. Mulan was definitely ahead of her time in being a fleshed-out, realistic protagonist that even other Disney Princesses like Belle can admittedly not claim to be -- though I love Belle -- and while the film overall didn’t seem to have the “staying power” as other Disney films -- the recent excitement about the live action remake may prove me wrong.

6. The Little Mermaid: 

Making this list was hard, because there are so many films that I like parts of incredibly, but not the whole to such an extent. Of all those films, The Little Mermaid surfaces to the top because the parts I like are SO STRONG.

I will be the first to admit that The Little Mermaid isn’t a go-to movie for me. Is Ariel an ideal protagonist? She’s not the greatest, though she is endearing in several ways. Prince Eric? Well -- in the same vein as Cinderella -- he has a lot of trouble distinguishing the love of his life. However, the animation? Beautiful. The side characters? Fantastic. The villain? Ursula may be in the Top 3 villains of Disney history -- her design is flawless and she is easily the most distinct and creative in her design of the villains. But it’s the music that climbs this one above the others that I only like parts of. The music MAKES this movie. Every song is sing-a-long worthy -- even down to Ursula’s “triumphant” reprise using Ariel’s voice while in her “human” form, Vanessa. The music is perfect, which makes The Little Mermaid, despite some not-so-grand parts, make this list.

And now we are in the Top Five. #6-10, if you argued to change out one movie for another, I would not argue with you. But these five are my favorites -- hands down -- and I will defend them to the ends of the Earth! So, to start it off: 

5. A Goofy Movie:

Is this movie a complete product of the 90′s? Yes. Is the movie more of a realistic coming-of-age story than the grand epic fairy tale? Also, yes. But is this story also completely original and underrated? DOUBLE Yes!

As a child growing up in the 90′s, this movie just hit me, and hit me hard. Every teenager wanting to “stand out” could relate to Max’s inability to relate to his dad, and every kid needs a parental figure like Goofy, who wasn’t afraid to be angry at times, but also talked with his son to figure out what was going on in his life -- granted, it took a wacky road trip and near-death to do so.

A Goofy Movie has great music, underrated animation (seriously, go back and watch -- it’s well-done!), an original, funny, and touching story, and enough 90′s nostalgia and fun to keep you entertained. It’s a gem of its time and one that has stuck with me since it first came out.

4. The Lion King:

I mentioned earlier that I am a sucker for animal-cast movies and those based on classic Literature. And...The Lion King is the best of that sub-genre. I remember seeing this movie with my late Grandmother in theaters. We both bawled our eyes out when Mufasa died, and cheered at the end, when the music swelled and Simba reclaimed the throne.

This movie is simply EPIC. From the soundtrack that I listen to constantly on its own, to the gorgeous animation, to the compelling adaptation of Hamlet...The Lion King is definitely worthy of the #4 spot and for many, I’m sure, it’s #1. There’s just SO much to love. I can’t wait to see the live action adaptation -- ESPECIALLY since James Earl Jones is returning as Mufasa.

3. Wreck-It Ralph: 

I know a lot of people like Zootopia -- and I agree, it’s great! It’s topical, modern, realistic, while still being clever and combining that animal cast I clearly like in my Disney films...but...something about it just kept it from being on my Top 10 list. I didn’t realize it until last night, though, as I sat down to watch Wreck-It Ralph...and then...when it was over...I went back and watched it again.

It’s “staying power” that I think gives it the edge over Zootopia, and also puts it so high on this list. While I liked the former, Zootopia left me feeling as if all the characters had their arcs and that the story was “complete.” Every time I watch Wreck-It Ralph, I want to see more from these characters. I want Vanellope and Ralph to go on adventures in other games, I want to see the adventures of now-married Felix and Calhoun; the characters are fleshed-out, real, but above all live in such an imaginative world. Ever since I’ve seen the film, I have wanted to play Sugar Rush! I have plated Fix-It Felix on Disney’s site!

As someone that loves to draw and be inspired by visual wonderment, Wreck-It Ralph has honestly some of the most fleshed out world-building of any film I’ve seen -- and it’s in multiple worlds! Yeah, there’s a Rhianna song in there that keeps it from perhaps being “timeless,” but that’s it. The rest of the film is a love letter to gaming, to classic storytelling, and despite it being so modern, it has this old-school “charm” in its characters that I just love. Easily my favorite “New Disney” film. 

2. Beauty and the Beast:

This movie was my #1 for a LONG time, and it still is, in a lot of ways, my favorite Disney film. I was in love with this movie from the moment it came out -- Belle has always been my favorite female character in Disney and one that this bookworm could relate to as a kid SO much and looked up to!

The animation is some of the best in the Disney filmography and the story is just so simple, and yet perfect, from start to finish. It’s a movie I can turn on over and over again and enjoy on a rainy day. The music? Perfect, from start to finish. It’s as if the perfect score of The Lion King melded with the perfect sing-a-long capability of The Little Mermaid. The story? A much better adaptation of the original, in my opinion. The characters? They are some of the most fun and distinct in the entire Disney canon as well! It’s simply perfect. 

So...why is it that Beauty and the Beast is #2? Well, the live action remake can take a tiny chunk of the blame, pointing out some inconsistencies that after watching the live action make more pronounced, you can’t quite ignore in the original -- like how did the village not know this entire kingdom didn’t exist? -- but honestly, that’s super nitpicky!

The main reason is why this is #2 and #1 is ...

1. Aladdin:

...is Legacy. Beauty and the Beast is a perfect film in itself. But that’s it. Every time Disney has tried to create a sequel or spin-off...it just doesn’t work, because it’s such a self-contained small story.

Aladdin, though, rose to #1 on this list for a lot of combined reasons, but one of them is that these characters can go beyond the original movie and it still be good. The sequels, while flawed, still work and the television show that spun-off was a success as well.

But besides that, re-watching Aladdin as an adult is just more and more rewarding each time I go back to it. The humor that Robin Williams, and only Robin Williams can provide, is more funny to me now than ever. The animation, like Beauty and the Beast -- is FLAWLESS. This film may actually be better and more richly animated than Beauty and the Beast, and that is saying something!

The characters? SO fleshed out, real, fun, dynamic -- while some can complain that Belle is a Mary Sue, or that Gaston is a one-note villain -- you can’t say that about these characters! They are so three-dimensional and relatable, from both sides of the protagonist-antagonist roster. The music? Much like Beauty and the Beast, the score and songs are so iconic and catchy -- the story, too, borrows from classic fairy tales, but is adapted so cleverly and well here! When audiences now think of Arabian Nights -- we often think of this movie, and not the original tale -- which can’t be said for other movies such as The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty.

For a long time, Beauty and the Beast has been my #1, but the more I think about it, Aladdin just fills that slot so well. It’s probably why I’m terrified of a live action remake....the tone, cast, and pretty much everything about this film is perfect....Disney, it’s not broke. You don’t have to fix this.

[furederiko]

Time for November's 1st Random-News-Digest! And specially released on November 17th, 2017... despite being several hours late. LOL.

(Images courtesy of Nintendo, Warner Bros, 20th Century FOX, Square Enix, and The Pokemon Company/GameFreak. Taken from Official Trailers and/or Official Sites)

Super Mario Bros

Hold on to your Yoshis, because Mario Mario is coming back (yes, after that dreadful live action attempt in 1993) to Hollywood. This time, in an animated movie created by Illumination. If the report is to be believed, then Nintendo will be partnering with Universal to produce and release this movie. In case you live under a rock and doesn't know Illumination, that's the studio in charge of the "Despicable Me" and "The Secret Life of Pets" series. I know what you're thinking, I can already see the Toads being treated as the new Minions. LOL.

This project is said to be just in early stages, so it might take a few more years before it is ready for release. The average process to develop a big screen animated movie takes roughly 3 to 5 years, so if the deal moves on this month then we can expect the movie to arrive in... 2020. Which is the year of the Japan Olympics!!! Aaaaah, I see what you did there Nintendo. Honestly, I'm not expecting much of this project. As long as it's as entertaining as SONY's "The Angry Birds Movie", and unlike those numerous dull live action attempts... then I'll be okay. I'm pretty much sold by the word ANIMATED anyway, because forcing a live action adaptation to Mario and Luigi would be... a HUGE NO.

Metal Gear Solid

Now for this one, I'm... NOT so sure. Not just because I'm not big on KONAMI's "Metal Gear Solid" franchise as a game, but because it's live action. And we all know there's an eerie curse looming over live action adaptations for video games title. Look no further than "Assassin's Creed"... among many others.

The good news is, Derek Connolly is writing the script, and Jordan Vogt-Roberts is directing. The former has worked on "Jurassic World" and "Star Wars", while the latter is determined to make a watchable video game movie. LOL. Vogt-Roberts is most definitely a unique and seemingly fun guy, I'll give you that. This pair has worked together creating "Kong: Skull Island", which was an entertaining movie. Hmmm... now that I think about it, the whole espionage Special Forces theme would be somewhat similar to what Vogt-Roberts did in that King Kong movie. I genuinely think he actually CAN pull this off! Let's just hope the project moves on to higher stages, and not fizzles out like... it has always been.

Disney Animation

This was actually a news from last month. Yeah, I got pretty caught up with many personal ordeals, that I've completely missed out on mentioning this movie on my previous R-N-D. "Gigantic", Disney's version of the classic "Jack and the Beanstalk" story had been cancelled.

Said news was quite startling, considering the title was still part of their D23 Event... even if it was in a very minor way. It also has been in development by co-directors Meg LeFauve and Nathan Greno for quite some time, with a fixed 2020 release window. 'Creative process' was mentioned as reason for its cancellation, with Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studio president Ed Catmull calling the movie as 'not working'. The studio has moved on to another original project, that is expected to open in Thanksgiving 2020. Will we be getting another Disney Princess movie, following last year's "Moana"? Here's hoping. For now, the studio still has "Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2" set to open on November 21st, 2018, and the sequel to their hit title "Frozen" on November 27th, 2019. We can still look forward to those ones...

Disney Live Action

The live action department also hit a bump. Director Sam Mendes has departed his live action re-telling/adaptation for "Pinocchio". This is the second time he has walked out from a Disney project, with "James and the Giant Peach" being the first one. There's a rumor that Mendes might be moving to the franchise he worked on before, but that's the topic for a different category.

It's unclear if Disney will continue to work on this title by finding another director, or take a completely different approach and shelves it like what they just did to "Gigantic". Right now, two titles that are in active production is Guy Ritchie's "Aladdin", and Jon Favreau's "The Lion King" that will open on July 19th, 2019. If I'm not mistaken, Niki Caro's "Mulan" is still in pre-production, along with other titles.

We can also add a new title "Prince Charming", that is set to be written and directed by Stephen Chbosky. Chbosky is famous for his recent work "Wonder" that is set to be released this weekend, as well as the critically acclaimed "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". As the title suggests, it will focus on a young Prince and all the struggle he faces to live up to the family name. Of course, since the name Prince Charming typically refers to the one from... "Snow White" and/or "Cinderella", I can't help but wonder if this will be connected as prequel or some sort to either. It doesn't sound like it, but who knows, right? Let's just wait for more information in the near future...

Star Wars

Remember the time when many people speculated Rian Johnson would take over Collin Trevorrow's directorial seat for the tentatively titled "Star Wars - Episode IX"? Lucasfilm had expressed positive response to the director, and he himself was genuinely excited, giddy, and extremmely passionate about his love to experience in the franchise. It felt like a sure if not most plausible thing. But then we all knew that didn't happen, because it's J.J. Abrams instead who returned for the job.

But why didn't Johnson take the movie? Surprise surprise, turns out, he has other BIGGER project planned... for the franchise. Yes, he's not leaving the franchise anytime soon. Lucasfilm indeed had a great mutual time with Johnson, that they not only want him to work on another "Star Wars" movie, but to set up an entirely NEW non-Skywalker trilogy for them! The word 'bigger' would be an understatement now, right? He will be writing and directing at least the first one of this trilogy, while long time collaborator Ram Bergman is producing.

We can safely assume that this means the Skywalker-focused storyline will be wrapped up in "Episode IX", and afterwards, we'll be seeing a new route for the franchise in the foreseeable future. This new trilogy might not be episodic in nature, and will introduce entirely new characters from the universe. A "blank canvas" as Kathleen Kennedy said. Many fans have expressed both praises, and approval, as well as concerns, and disapproval for this approach, but if you ask me, I'm welcoming this with open arms. I've never been an avid fan of this space opera before, so this could be my official entry point. Without the need to explore previous movies, that is! LOL. I wonder if this new trilogy will be connected to the newly announced live action TV series?

Of course, this means that his work on "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" has completely left Lucasfilm VERY satisfied. Johnson himself might be REALLY anxious about it (a humble response, by the way), but this is by all means an expression of HIGH confidence from the studio. As evidenced by the departure of Trevorrow, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and others, they wouldn't give Johnson such massive responsibility if they are not overly pleased collaborating with him. He might be such a good polite and down to earth guy, eh? If you're curious about his work, then you only need to wait a bit longer. "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" arrives in less than a month on December 15th, 2017!

James Bond

Yep, thanks to walking out of the Disney live action project, Sam Mendes has immediately been rumored to direct the untitled "Bond 25". This naturally makes sense. Mendes worked on "Skyfall" and also "Specter", and the next movie might very well be Daniel Craig's last foray. Would be nice to see Mendes returning to deliver Craig's swan song as well as to wrap it up as his final 007 trilogy. Christoph Waltz had stated that he's not coming back as Blofeld though, so I wonder if that might affect Mendes' decision. Sure, Waltz teased that the role could be re-cast, but who can really tell what the future, I mean James Bond holds. Also, MGM announced earlier this month that Annapurna will help bring the franchise to the theatre. Does this mean the studio has won the bidding war? It's unconfirmed for now, but that seems to be the case. Quite surprising too, because it felt like a lesser entity when compared to other bigger names on the mix. But I guess as long as the franchise can still hit theatres, it's a victory for Bond's devoted fans nonetheless.

Dark Universe

Sad to say, this could be the LAST time for this category to be featured in my R-N-D. According to recent report, Universal has pulled the plug on its ambitious Dark Universe. At the very least, it's in critical condition.

All signs have totally led to this. Tom Cruise's "The Mummy" was a big failure that didn't make enough good impression (could you imagine what would have happened had Tom Cruise agreed to play Tony Stark in the first "Iron Man"? Marvel Studios dodged an bullet right there). And then production for Bill Condon's "Bride of Frankenstein" was halted not long after it begun, and the movie had since been removed from the planned release date. None of the other projects like "Invisible Man", "Wolf Man", or some others showed real progress. Next thing that happened, both Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan who seem... (or to be precise USED) to be the overseer to this Monster-based universe, have each moved on to other projects. That pretty much sealed the deal, don't you think? For the record, this isn't the first time Kurtzman abandons a cinematic universe. Don't ever forget Paramount's Transformers and also SONY's Amazing Spider-Man series.

Of course, it doesn't mean that the idea is gone for good. Universal can still pull off a soft reboot or some sort, simply by planning more properly before jumping towards another dark waters. President of production Peter Cramer even stated, "We are not rushing to meet a release date and will move forward with these films when we feel they are the best versions of themselves.". This implied that at least, Condon's movie might still become a reality sometime in the future.

I'm personally feeling VERY disappointed to hear this, knowing the probability of seeing Russell Crowe reprising his Dr. Jekyll is now close to zero. I really want to see him 'Hulk Out' and becomes a massive monstrous Edward Hyde... which we didn't really fully get in "The Mummy". But who am I to say, right? All I can say is, I hope Universal will inspire other studios to think ahead and NOT just try to snobbishly copy Marvel Studios' success without analyzing what makes their universe works. Heck, they have even proved that it's never to late to course-correct things. So don't give up Universal, and just do it one step at a time, okay!

DC Films

Uhmm... so yeah, embargo for critics reviews (both social media on November 10th, and full essays on November 14th) for Warner Bros' "Justice League" has been uplifted earlier this week. And well, true to the nature of DC Films (at least its first three movies, with "Wonder Woman" being the not-that-surprising exception), the response is a mixed-bag. Immediately, it has divided critics both fans and non-fans of DC Comics alike with polarizing opinions. Some said that Joss Whedon's clear influence doesn't gel well with the 85% done by Zack Snyder, but others said it worked just fine to elevate the movie. If you visit one entertainment site, you'd likely stumble on a review that paints the movie in a moderate-to-good light by calling it 'Pretty Good', while elsewhere you'll be greeted by review that sees it as bad-to-awful by calling it 'Pretty Bad'. Suffice to say, despite leaning to positive, things do not look completely 'PRETTY' for WB and DC.

By the way, RottenTomatoes deliberately delayed their aggregated score for the movie. My initial assumption when I saw the headline? "Ain't this cheating, huh?". Those who think RT is being paid by Marvel Studios... looks like WB is the one paying them instead, am I right? After all, this studio is infamous for constantly blaming RT for their movies' own critical failures. Of course, despite the fact that WB DOES have a stake in this site (feel free to make your own conclusion with that), that is NOT the actual reason. It's more inline with the site's Facebook show, or something like that. Of course, said score have been officially (it was leaked before hand) released now, and no surprise... as of writing (October 17th, 08:50PM local time), it's currently sitting at 37%. That is already a tad lower than its initial number. YIKES!

General consensus is calling the movie as fun but flawed. A narrative mess, but at least it gets the characters correctly now. An entertaining spectacle, but visually it's ugly and tacky. So at the very least, it's not a trainwreck and is still BETTER than the dreadful "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" nor the abominable snowma-... er, "Suicide Squad".

Ironically, WB tried to be boastfully 'different' three times, and failed miserably. Eventhough, in a way they WERE mimicking or parroting Marvel Studios. Just admit it, "Batman v Superman" was consciously made to rival Captain America 3, and "Suicide Squad" was their version of Guardians of the Galaxy. This year, they blatantly and openly COPY that 'competitor' movies. "Wonder Woman" was an amalgam of the first Captain America with elements of Thor, while "Justice League" is clearly DC's version of the 2nd Avengers. And my oh my, look what they've gotten! Good to POSITIVE responses!!! The morale of the day, if you can't compete, just follow suit. Oh, and also... use talented people who have worked on the opposite side. I mean, duh... Patty Jenkins, Joss Whedon, and Brian Michael Bendis? "Justice League" opens today on November 17th, so let's hope it will perform better financially than critically.

David F. Sandberg's "Shazam!" is moving along nicely as the movie next to be seen after next year's "Aquaman" (to be released in... *drumrolls* December 2018). After casting Disney Prince Zachary Levi as the heroic version, the movie obviously needs the human version, the little kid named Billy Batson. Remember when acclaimed young actor Jacob Tremblay (who similar to his Oscar-winner BFF, deserves BETTER roles) was said to be in contention? Well, the role ended up on young Asher Angel's hand instead. Name doesn't sound familiar? Well... he is one of the leads of "Andi Mack" on... Disney Channel. See? If you can't beat them, snatch their actors too. Grace Fulton is said to be portraying the female lead, and actor Mark Strong was said to be in negotiation to play the antagonist Dr. Sivana... whoever that is. Should he decide to take the job, this would be Strong's second DC character for WB after his short turn as Sinestro.

Interestingly, WB desperately wants this franchise to be noticed. Why is that? Just think about it, the movie is set to open in Spring 2019, so it's going to be released not far behind a particular Marvel Studios movie called... "Captain Marvel". I'm sure you know where I'm leading to with this, right? Yes... because Shazam used to be called by the same name. Coincidence? Highly UNLIKELY. It's another game of chicken by good'ol always-competitive WB (no matter how many try to scoff it off, their rivalry to Marvel is apparently REAL), folks! And a rather ballsy albeit rude one too. I mean for crying out loud, in this kind of political situation that sees a president continuously provoking people to hate a previous female opponent like a sore loser, and numerous reports of mistreatments of women by Hollywood top names... WB wants to use a testosterone-manchild-themed movie to directly challenge a FEMALE-led movie just because the two shared the same name? I call that suicide.

How about Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam then? That character is the nemesis of Shazam, so it's natural if we get to see him too in the movie. But noooope, apparently WB is planning to put him in another movie instead. And surprise surprise, it's not his own solo movie as the studio repeatedly promised, but Gavin O'Connor's "Suicide Squad 2". I literally slapped myself in the face when I read this, because dang it... wasn't it enough to throw a sexist Enchantress, that they just HAD to pit the broken Squad against another supernatural character? This is not confirmed for now, but since the movie still has a long way before starting production in October 2018... let's just hope WB has a more sane way for combining the "Suicide Squad" and "Shazam!" franchise. Hold on... did they just confirm that "Shazam!" is part of the current continuity then? Then I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that... (read: there goes half of my interest in seeing the movie.). I really want this to be its own separate thing, and not boggled in the failed universe. I guess I expected too much too soon, huh?

About "The Batman", there's a hint that Ben Affleck might be stepping out the Matt Reeves movie after all. Though he was singing a different tune during this year's San Diego Comic-Con International, the actor has since been saying a complete opposite. In a press junket for "Justice League" in London, he even openly said that he does NOT know what the future holds. That sounds like a guy who's thinking of gracefully bowing out from the DC Films... as soon as possible. He even mentioned the exact same thing to USA Today not long after. Quite surprisingly, the internet also expressed their agreement to see him leave. Some already even fancasting and speculating a replacement (that one actor, I hope its NOT true). OUUCH! Looks like what once a bright star, is slowly fading away like a comet that visits a solar system every hundred of years. Hmmm... I wonder if Henry Cavill will follow suit after this...

Last but not least, Patty Jenkins' much anticipated "Wonder Woman 2" has vacated its December 13th release date to arrive 6 weeks earlier. CALLED IT! Yep, I knew WB would end up doing this because competing directly with "Star Wars" would be waaaay too risky. I'm just surprised that it took this long for the studio to announce the shift. I guess they were waiting for Marvel Studios to prove that early November is a good spot for comic book adaptation, huh? Don't worry, Gal Gadot is expected to reprise her role, because WB had said that the report of her 'refusal' (originated at PageSix) is NOT true. "Wonder Woman 2" will now open in November 1st, 2019.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Would you look at that?! I can't believe this, but WB has mischievously prepared a contingency plan for the negative response to "Justice League". I assume based on past experiences, WB is aware that critics would still be divisive (no different situation, a bit worse than "Man of Steel" even) about their DC movies, so they immediately releases official synopsis and cast photo for the "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" sequel. Come on, releasing this on the same day the DC ensemble movie is released? Can't be a coincidence. A pretty darn good distraction, if I should add! Not to mention, this comes on the heels of that recently announced Niantic AR game.

The new official title has immediately generated mixed response. After all, "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" OBVIOUSLY put the focus on Johnny Depp's villainous character Gellert Grindelwald. It could be a good thing, if his name was still as big as it used to be in the past, but we all know that the world has changed. Thankfully, one character stood out the most among the confirmed cast members. It's none other than Jude Law's young Albus Dumbledore. I must say, he doesn't look the way I expected to be, but I'm definitely not complaining. Hey, a charming dashing Dumbledore would be a great selling point for the new franchise that hasn't been able to be on par with its "Harry Potter"... sequel.

We got FIVE couples now. The four core characters from the first movie are here, hopefully in a bigger and more memorable inclusion. We have Claudia Kim's cursed 'Maledictus' character, who seems to be pairing up with Ezra Miller's Credence and could very well be serving as an antagonist. And then there's Zoe Kravitz's Leta Estrange who is engaged with Callum Turner's Theseus Scamander. Indeed, Theseus is Newt's big brother, so here's hoping Eddie Redmayne isn't sidelined completely and get to showcase actual dramatic involvement in this sequel.

Say what you will about the first movie, but it was surprisingly entertaining enough to make me see more. It might be not at the heights of the "Harry Potter" series, but I'd gladly take this over the DC Films anytime. Directed by David Yates based on a screenplay from J.K. Rowling, this movie is set to arrive precisely one year from now on November 16th, 2018. Aaaah, I get it now.

X-Men Universe

Let's address the elephant in the room first. When we talk about Marvel character owned by 20th Century FOX nowadays, then you should be aware of a recent report that has taken the world by storm. That's right, the House of Mouse Disney is in negotiation to purchase FOX's film and TV division, because the other company wants to focus on news and sport. That literally means, all the movie rights for X-Men and Fantastic Four will be reverted back to Marvel! Yes, every characters from those faction might be returning home in the foreseeable future, because despite the report that talk has ended, the possibility is still very much high. Assuming Comcast or Verizon doesn't suddenly come out of left field and snatches this opportunity instead, of course.

If you ask me how I feel if FOX and Marvel Studios arrange an agreement similar to what the latter did with SONY and Spider-Man? Then I would not hesitate to say "No Thanks". Combining Marvel Studios' movie universe with FOX's sloppy, botched, and well... generally uninspiring one would be a disaster. FOX tend to disregard good characters, and treat them badly more often than not. But if this deal DOES become a reality, then I'd be REALLY happy. That means we WILL be getting the much-needed reboot that the X-Men and Fantastic Four are desperate for, and not just a soft-reboot that producer Simon Kinberg had been boasting out and about... that ended up with his "X-Men: Dark Phoenix". I don't know about you, but Kinberg clearly doesn't know what he is doing, so I want to see him OUT of and AWAY from any Marvel stories for good. Of course, there's a downside to all things. Through FOX movie division, we were able to get more comic adaptations in a yearly basis. Not just that, we also got titles like "Logan" or the upcoming "The New Mutants" that run in R-rated route, one that Marvel Studios or Disney in general would be highly unlikely to explore. That might be an outcome that many fans might be hard to swallow...

Anyways, amidst that rumbling news, Deadpool kept on walking proudly, as if it doesn't care about what would happen to its own crumbling universe. After all, one comment on social media said that Wade Wilson is the only Marvel character who could easily address the change casually without the need to mind its own continuity. Don't forget, this is the guy who is consciously confused which Professor X he should report to. LOL. "The Untitled Deadpool Sequel" (that's the placeholder title, which I hope would be the official title because it just fits the character so much) movie released a holiday-themed first official poster, as well as a Bob Ross inspired second teaser that well... if you ask me, pretty much stole a bit of buzz from WB's movie premiere. LOL.

This teaser suggests that despite the change in director, the movie still retains the same idiosyncratic atmosphere. I'm glad that the returning characters aren't forgotten in this one, and if some people catch this one theory right, we might be getting a rather 'sinister' antagonist as the super villain. WOW. "The Untitled Deadpool Sequel" (I'm still laughing here!) arrives on June 1st, 2018, so if you're a fan of the first movie, make sure you mark your date.

One more thing, would you like to see a movie featuring... a mutant character called "Multiple Man"? Well, James Franco might be starring in one. So whether you want it or not, it's still probably coming in the future. Who's behind this bizarre and preposterous idea? Duuuh... Kinberg of course. Who else? LOL.

SONY Marvel Universe

Situation in the SONY side, is a 'little' different. Not content with "Venom" (showing us a first look of Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock after just 2 weeks of production) and "Silver & Black", the studio is already moving forward with another title. This time, "Morbius the Living Vampire". Earlier this week, it was revealed that the writers of this year's "Power Rangers" Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama had submitted their script to the studio. The two previously worked on several underwhelming movies like "Dracula Untold" and "Gods of Egypt".

To be honest, I'm actually surprised when I found out that Dr. Michael Morbius belongs to SONY. He's a long time antagonist of Blade, and as far as I know, that character has reverted back to Marvel. Of course, I just discovered that the Roy Thomas and Gil Kane's creation debuted in "Amazing Spider-Man" #101. It makes sense now, because it's almost the same situation to the character Kingpin. Problem is, similar to Venom and other Spider-Man related characters, the BIG question is will these character work without Spidey himself... Or in Morbius case, without Blade? I seriously doubt it. I believe just the fact that these characters will not interact with the ones from Marvel Studios, is already strongly pessimistic. Let's just wait and see if SONY can prove that it DOES have what it takes to jumpstart their own Spidey-less Marvel Universe.

Marvel Studios

Let's talk about "Thor: Ragnarok" first! Eventhough this weekend the movie's might would likely be overthrown by DC's first ensemble movie, Taika Waititi's comedy has managed to at least stay on number 1 for two consecutive weeks. It's making huge money, even more than Chris Hemsworth's first two solo movies. Seriously though, should we even be surprised? This buddy comedy is genuinely FUN and hilarious, and plenty of its memorable scenes will be etched into your brain... forcing you to laugh or giggle whenever the memory strikes. Like a lunatic? Well, if you say so. LOL. Really though, you couldn't see me now but I'm currently cackling upon remembering that... uhm, naked scene. LOL.

By the way, Waititi has openly expressed his desire to make another Thor movie with Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo. What do you think? Should he get his second Ragnarok movie? If it means we'll get another 'Get Help' moment, or more of Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster? Waititi might not have a vast or deep knowledge of comic book, but since "Ragnarok" pretty much creates a clean slate for Thor Odinson and the Asgardians... he can pretty much do anything. And I honestly look forward to see that.

Disney has begun campaigning the movie and James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" for Oscar race too. Since many of the Award's regular players have been lambasted with various kinds of sexual misconduct allegations, can we expect members of the Academy to turn towards comic book adaptations now? I certainly hope so. We know that 'Best Visual Effects' and in some cases 'Best Make Up' will be the usual entry, but I sure hope these movies get a chance in other categories too. 'Best Score' or 'Sound Editing' perhaps? I do think Mark Mothersbaugh deserves an appreciation for his work in "Ragnarok".

"Black Panther" is now officially three months away from release! Well, for the US region at least... because several other countries (like yours truly) usually get it earlier. To celebrate this, Marvel Studios have released a batch of single character posters that includes Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa, his royal family members, up to Andy Serkis' Ulysees Klaue. As far as I recall, we haven't had one for Michael B. Jordan's Erik Killmonger... or did I miss anything? The movie also have tested positively in early screenings according to report, so we're in for another Marvelous time. "Black Panther" arrives on February 16th, 2018.

Fans have been actively demanding the D23/SDCC trailer for "Avengers: Infinity War", to the point that people started doing illegal stuff like posting leaked images and all. We got the first look for Proxima Midnight, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow's new hairdo and costume that resembled another Marvel character, as well as Paul Bettany's Vision and Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch looking in despair. These pictures are great, but HOW we get them is the morale question here. I'm not particularly fond of this attitude, because it only shows the dark and negative side of fandom.

Obviously there are VALID reasons why Marvel Studios is withholding that trailer, thus is it so hard to just WAIT until it is released officially? The reason can be a simple one, like the need to add quality Visual Effects to it, or a bigger one like... the potential of spoilering other movies. In particular, "Ragnarok" and "Black Panther". I'll use "Ragnarok" for example. Thor's appearance in the trailer shown exclusively last Summer was INCONSISTENT compared to how he ended up in "Ragnarok". In the end of "Ragnarok", we know that he got a 'permanent scar', and he didn't look like that at all in the "Infinity War" trailer. And then there's that scene with Loki holding the Tesseract. Also, Thor ran into a gigantic vessel, that Marvel Studios President has confirmed to be the Sanctuary II. The owner? Josh Brolin's Thanos. See? It's a massive spoiler already. Who knows what kind of secret from "Black Panther" it would spoil in advance!

I personally feel what we all need to know, is that the movie will undoubtedly be HUGE. Like Ruffalo himself hyped stated, it has "all of the Marvel characters in it. All nine franchises. I mean, it’s mind-boggling. Everyone has their moment to shine. Everyone is still their characters.". Feige admitted that even the filming felt overwhelming and surprisingly emotional everyday. And also, that the movie is some kind of a... heist movie? HUH? Yeah, co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo specifically said so to CNET, which honestly made me wonder. They were pretty specific that the heist would be Thanos' play, as he collects all 6 Infinity Stones. Hmmm... let's just stop right here, because now I've become curious to see the trailer. LOL. But nope, I know for sure that I'm going to be watching this movie. At least, ONCE. That's why Marvel Studios can even delay the trailer forever or not release it at all, and I won't mind. Because I don't really need any more convincing to see it.

As far as I know, "Ant-Man and the Wasp" has completed production. I'm not really sure about this though, but I think I did see like some kind of celebration for it on Twitter. Regardless, both Walton Goggins and David Dastmalchian have completed their parts earlier this week. Dastmalchian even gave us a look for Randall Park's Agent Jimmy Woo. Here's hoping we'll be getting a teaser trailer soon.

Laurence Fishburne who would soon be seen as Bill 'Goliath' Foster in the movie, opened up to Collider that because he grew up with Marvel, he actually pitched himself to Marvel Studios! Intriguingly, he also came with several ideas, and has been developing one secretly with Marvel. He hoped that "It’s gonna change the world". Hmmm.... this is intriguing. Fishburne didn't specifically say movie, so it could very well be a comic series, or even a TV one. Something related to Blade perhaps? or some others? Hmmmm...

Recent report by Variety claimed that Ben Mendelsohn has been approached to play the antagonist in "Captain Marvel". If his interview with Collider was any indication, it seems he might have officially come onboard the movie... or at least in final talks. His response reminded me greatly to when Paul Rudd, Benedict Cumberbatch, and also Carol Danvers herself Brie Larson tried to play coy about their roles. These are obviously polite and sincere actors, so they couldn't really hide that big of a secret. Since this is feeling like a dejavu, let's just say we shouldn't be surprised if Mendelsohn ends up antagonist-ing Larson in the movie when it arrives on March 8th, 2019.

This is the last one for the category folks! More SPOILER-ish (as usual, you might want to skip to the next category if you avoid one) information surrounding "Avengers 4" has been flying over the internet. One particular bit teased the reenactment, a flashback, or perhaps a time travel twist involving "The Avengers". Not only because Robert Downey Jr. was spotted wearing the exact same shirt from the 2012 movie, Hemsworth himself posted a photo (with his daughter) wearing a costume precisely from the same movie. Actor Frank Grillo and Maximiliano Hernández were also suspiciously present in Atlanta. Does this mean Crossbones and Agent Jasper Sitwell are alive in the movie? Hmmm. Could we be seeing a reality alteration here? Especially if we consider the ability of the Reality Stone. According to report that can't really be considered credible, these will all be scenes generated by Tony Stark using his B.A.R.F. simulation that we saw in "Captain America: Civil War". To who? Ty Simpkins' Harley Keener, who has been confirmed to appear in the movie. Hmmmm... now I'm really curious about this movie too. But let's just focus on "Infinity War" first, shall we?! One day... I mean one movie at a time.

Marvel TV

Oh hey, Marvel's "Inhumans" has officially ended with its eight episode. I think it was last Friday, if I'm not mistaken. How would I know, if I couldn't even care less about it. Personal preference aside, that means the 5th season of Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." is about to air very soon. And if you're among devoted Marvel fans who are already counting days, then the show has released an official trailer to wet your appetite for this new season.

The trailer was... uhmm, okay I guess? I'm still on the fence to follow this season, so I can't really tell if this manages to persuade me or not. One thing for sure, it's action packed and filled with creepy aliens. It's really nice to see Henry Simmons' Mack and Natalia Cordova-Buckley's Yo-Yo get more presence and involved in more action. We also see bits of the new characters: Jeff Ward's ambiguous Deke, Eve Harlow's Tess, Pruitt Taylor Vince's commander Grill, and Coy Stewart's possible-Nuhuman Flint.

And then there's that confirmed report of Nick Blood returning in some capacity as Lance Hunter. What about Adrienne Palicki's Bobby Morse? Last we heard, she won't be making an appearance due to her tight schedule in the equally space-themed alien-filled "The Orville". That doesn't mean she's not open to reprise her role though, because she has had a great time and is still in touch with the cast. Here's hoping the stars will align somehow, and we get to see her official return in the series. "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." will begin the new season on Friday, December 1st, 2017, with a two-episode premiere entitled "Orientation Part 1 & 2".

Marvel's "Runaways" is set to premiere next week, on November 21st. Its first three episode will hit the streaming platform Hulu on the same day. To prepare for this, Entertainment Weekly has released official posters and banners for each of the six lead characters, while IGN dropped additional ones showcasing their super-powered abilities. They looked neat, and teased the teenager's signature skillset. Currently being praised as the teenage soap-opera side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, let's just hope that this series attracts enough viewers and good rating to warrant another season.

Meanwhile, Marvel's "New Warriors" has departed Freeform... even before it is even aired. Although Kevin Biegel's 10-episodes first season was initially meant to debut in the network, the pilot was so well-received to the point it attracted several high-level Disney execs. Freeform was unable to set a time slot for this show (I guess they prefer Marvel's "Cloak and Dagger" more?). Thus Marvel Entertainment pulled it out, and has been actively searching for a partner that can launch it next year as planned... as a direct two-seasons package! Surely it won't land on Netflix, given Disney's plan to launch their very own streaming service in 2019. This is just a wild guess, but I think Hulu would end up becoming its new home.

Speaking of Disney's upcoming new service, CEO Bob Iger confirmed that it will feature at least one new Marvel series among others. I wonder what that is? I just hope, and sincerely hope that it is not concerning Kamala Khan's Ms. Marvel. It would be such a waste to utilize that massively popular character in a TV setting, when it would make the most in movie format. She's an Avenger, so she's better of to be with the other members, right? Not to mention, Marvel TV doesn't exactly have a good track record to pull their projects off properly (Inhumans, anyone?). I prefer that rumored "Power Pack" movie to switch places if that's indeed the case. Crossing my fingers!

Netflix

Eventhough Marvel's "The Punisher" is catching everyone's attention, and receiving mostly positive response from entertainment critics (general drawbacks are inevitably concerning the gun violence), Marvel fans need to be prepared with the possibility of it being the final Marvel title on Netflix. As has been widely reported, Disney is intent on creating their own streaming service. One that will include new live action show for "Star Wars", animated series based on "Monsters Inc.", and also Marvel series.

It's unlikely if the service will ONLY have one series. So it makes perfect sense for Disney to end their contract with Netflix, and pull out movies and shows like Marvel's "Daredevil", Marvel's "Jessica Jones", Marvel's "Luke Cage", Marvel's "Iron Fist", and Marvel's "The Defenders" from the platform to be exclusives alongside their 'future family'. After all, Disney had openly stated that Netflix would end up becoming their competitor when the time come. I doubt Netflix would be threatened, with a vast library of original series and movies in their pockets. But this might have a bitter result to fans of the series. Sure, this might not be as bad as many fans are worrying about, because these shows might simply move to a different place. Then again, we also need to remember that Netlfix co-financed these series, so the most likelihood is that these series will be put to a close. Can fans handle that? I don't think so.

For now, "Daredevil" begins filming Season 3 this week. I think the 2nd seasons of "Jessica Jones" and "Luke Cage" had wrapped, while the one for "Iron Fist" will start next month. At the very least, these shows are still set to air in 2018 since Disney won't be launching their service until the following year. Come 2019? Come what may. All episodes of "The Punisher" should already be available today, so you might want to enjoy it as much as possible... while you still can.

Final Fantasy

"Episode of Ignis", the third character DLC for "Final Fantasy XV" has received an official release date. Square Enix announced at the Paris Games Week 2017, that it will be available on December 13th, 2017. The storyline will take place after the "Trial of Leviathan", where Ignis is tasked to protect the unconscious Noctis as they make their way to safety. Ravus will also join forces with Ignis, likely to protect his sister Lunafreya. The story will have multiple endings, and feature new music from "Chrono Trigger" composer Yasunori Mitsuda. You can check out the official trailer for this DLC on Youtube.

Noctis himself, is set to have his own... uhmmm, 'adventure'. As in, he will be guest starring as a playable DLC character in... "Tekken 7". Yes, I know I should've put this in a separate "Tekken" category, but moreso than Geese Howard who came from "The King of Fighters" series, Noctis IS the LEAD of "Final Fantasy XV". It would be more appropriate to feature him here in his own turf, right? Ahahaha... good excuse, eh. Noctis will be available in Spring 2018. The announcement trailer sees him receiving an in-game invitation/request from Lars Alexandersson, and features his three travelling companions too (who unfortunately are only present as cameo). Go check it out, it's a fun video...

Dynasty Warriors

KOEI Tecmo has announced the release date of the English version of "Dynasty Warriors 9". While the original Japanese version will arrive for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on February 8th, 2018, countries in North America and Europe will have to wait a few days later for a release on February 13th, 2018. I doubt this will spark complaints though, because unlike previous titles, this one only sees a delay that is only less than a week away.

Pre-ordering the game will reward players with a set of extra costumes for the character Zhao Yun, Guan Yinping, Diaochan, Sun Shangxiang, Lu Lingqi, Wang Yi, and Wang Yuanji. I know what you're thinking, Zhao Yun's the only male on the list! I guess that's because he's the unofficial poster boy for the franchise, so he gets the privilege to be surrounded by the ladies. Fans of the series can already book their copy of the game right away, whether in physical or digital version.

Ace Attorney

Nintendo Switch has taken the world by storm, and rightfully so. While its launch lineup was pretty scarce, third party developers have begun noticing the potential and strong selling point of the hybrid console. One of them, is of course CAPCOM.

According to recent report, they are preparing THREE... yes, not one or two, but three titles from the "Ace Attorney" franchise to be released in 2018. The first two, are compilation titles set to be released between April and October 2018. The first one compiles the first three games (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Trials and Tribulations), and the second compiles the next three (Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice). All those titles have been exclusively available or re-released for Nintendo 3DS, so I doubt it will take long for them to be transferred into a Switch version.

The third title, is going to be an entirely new title that features Phoenix Wright as the lead protagonist once again. This is good because the latest title released was the 19th century setting "The Great Ace Attorney 2: Ryunosuke Naruhodo’s Resolution", and just like its prequel, it didn't get an English-language version. Having Phoenix at the spotlight means fans might get an international version, albeit via digital services. This news is still regarded 'rumor' for now, but as I said, Switch is getting all the buzz, so I won't be surprised if it ends up becoming actual fact and not just fan fiction.

ARIKA

The company's so-called 'Mysterious Fighting Game' has been given an official title. It's "Fighter EX Layer".... Whooaa--HUH? Hold on, Layer? Why Layer, what's the point? I wonder why they don't just call it "Fighter EX Arena" or something. Japan and their Engrish sometimes throws you for a loop, huh? LOL.

ARIKA will start beta testing on December 11th, with six playable characters: Kairi, Garuda, Skullomania, Darun Mister, Allen Snider, and Shirase. Those who attend PlayStation Experience 2017 on December 9th and 10th, will also be able to play a demo version. The game will utilize a system called 'Gougi', which sounds a little hard to describe or comprehend. Apparently, this will allow players to have different ways to play, so the flow of matches will be changed. To put it simple... it's difficult to make sense of until I can get my hands on it. LOL. "Fighting EX Layer" will arrive next year, so for the time being, check out the new trailer to get more... uhm, understanding about it.

Pocket Monsters

DC fans have gotten a "Justice League" movie, while Marvel fans received "The Punisher" series this very day. There's still one more, and this one is dedicated for Pokemon fans worldwide. Yes, the high-scored "Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon" is now officially available in market! Yaaaay...

Since the start of the month, The Pokemon Company has been releasing new promotional materials to convince gamers to grab the new and final adventure on Alola Region. Did you know that every Legendary Pokemon and their alternate forms are set to appear via Ultra Wormhole? Make sense, because this would be the last title for Nintendo 3DS. Some of them are version exclusives (like Ho-Oh is Ultra Sun while Lugia is in Ultra Moon), and some even requires special conditions (Giratina can only appear if version exclusives Dialga and Palkia are present), but all the Legendaries from Generation I to VII is here.

What about Team Rainbow Rocket? It's a villainous organization created by... previous bosses from past games. Yes, Team Rocket's Giovanni is bringing Team Magma's Maxie, Team Aqua's Archie, Team Galactic's Cyrus, Team Plasma's Ghetsis, and Team Flare's Lysandre to challenge the protagonist. There's also The Battle Agency that allows players to use Rental Pokemon, and also Totem Stickers that enable them to obtain totem-sized Pokemon. You can check out the details on these features on Gematsu, or check out the official trailer.

The latest one focuses on Necrozma, because the so-called 'Strange Evil' contains another enlightening "Secret". This refers to a report that the poster Pokemon/Ultra Beast will have a new form in these games, and not just the Dusk Mane or Dawn Wings. Read the details of this news on Gematsu.

Those who don't have a 3DS, has no other choice but to rely on "Pokemon GO" your Smartphone. Hey, there's a free Alolan costume now... to make it seem like we're also playing "Ultra Sun & Moon". LOL. Problem is, what would happen now that Niantic is actively developing a new title? Should casual and devoted players alike be nervous? Well... if Niantic's statement could be hold accountable (they... generally do, by the way), then players should NOT be worried. The company openly promised that inspite of "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite", "Pokemon GO" will still be continuously improved and updated. They even say that the team is 'doubling down' on new improvements, particularly in the year 2018. Hmmm... that means we won't be getting the rest of Generation III until at least January, huh? Bummer.

With a new 'copycat' app already 'stealing' the buzz by implementing most-requested features that "Pokemon GO" has been sorely lacking, it looks like Niantic will be pushed to step up their game much faster. Producing updates in a slow pace simply won't cut it anymore, unless they are planning on losing more and more players by relying on the same gameplay that... well, ends up becoming tedious and boring after a while. So yeah, let's just keep a close tab on this 'promise' and whether the company will be able to be true to their words or the opposite. That's when the judgement will be strike down. Am I right? *wink*

[cryptoriawebb]

My extensive, expansive Wonder Woman review

So I’ve been working on this for about a week now, and I’m pleased to say I’ve finally finished. 

I didn’t expect this movie to resonate so deeply, so please, bare with me. I’ve got a lot to say.

Wow.

Just wow.

I am beyond blown away by Wonder Woman. I wanted so badly for it to be a good movie, beyond the reasons floating around on the internet. Yes, she is a female super hero, yes, she’s the first one in this modern era to receive a solo film and yes, and yes, in many ways, and yes, she’s the most well-known female hero, dating back to the Second World War. Those are all impressive and important things to recognize…but Wonder Woman, Diana, is so much more than simply an icon with impressive credentials. Going into this movie, I wanted to get to know her as a character, follow her along her journey; experience what she did and feel what she felt as she evolved from Amazonian princess into the wise and worldly hero protecting our modern world. I wanted to like her, vouch for her, the way I never did beyond my own cultural nostalgia. She was one of the few highlights in the train wreck that was Batman v Superman; I wanted more of that.

Needless to say, this movie delivered and more.  Diana not only stood on her own, offering in my opinion a protagonist everyone could root for and relate to in some way, but she also existed harmoniously with her co-stars, forming real, heartwarming (and heartbreaking) relationships that evolved in what I believe was a natural way as she did as a character. There were so so many ways this movie could have gone wrong because of the socio-political environment in which it came to fruition; instead, we received a beautiful awe-inspiring piece of art. Perhaps it is my Greek blood speaking here, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a super-hero film delivered with such elegance. I’m not sure if it was the director, the script, Gadot herself or perhaps a combination…everything just worked…and for this new DC Universe, that’s really, almost impossibly impressive.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoyed Suicide Squad and parts of Batman v Superman; it goes without saying, however, neither were enough to survive for long in this age of Super Hero cinema. For Suicide Squad, there just wasn’t enough even or original momentum, and B v S…well, that should’ve stayed a little longer on the editing table. Even Man of Steel, one exhausting fight sequence aside, isn’t praised or remembered like Marvel Studios and even some of the X-men films are. I think Wonder Woman is different. I think it will stand the test of time. Not just because she’s the first female with a solo film…but because there really is a film here. A fluid finished picture with an even pace, balanced tone and as much heart as there is action.

I thought opening the film with narration worked very well. It’s such an iffy tactic in any genre, and so far I’ve only really seen it in the X-men films. Sometimes it’s worked (X1, Days of Future Past) and sometimes, not quite as efficiently (X-men Apocalypse.) Overall though, they’ve done a decent example; some movies, like Disney’s more recent Cinderella film I felt relied far too heavily on narration, ‘telling’ where ‘showing’ would have done the job just fine. One could argue perhaps this was done intentionally, adhering to the ‘fairy tale’ technique; I disagree. I found it distracting. I thought Wonder Woman’s use enhanced the film. It presented us with tone of voice, foreboding the pending tone of the film as well as who she was to become. In contrast to the X-men films, which use the technique to warn of heartbreak and disaster, Diana’s voice contained a hint of pain grounded in an almost maternal knowledge, a teacher from antiquity’s time preparing a lesson for her student viewers. This was all done without stating too much or sounding cliché. My attention held and I looked forward to the next scene.

I’d also like to point out I thought the visual choices to accompany this audio worked as well. We see a glimpse of present-day Diana in BvS, and we know she’s lived a very long time (I still maintain that revelation should have remained a post-credits scene, and Wonder Woman herself, however cool she was, should not have appeared beyond the photograph.)   It almost adds to the excitement, at least in my case, knowing her origins would take us back not only to 20th century wartime, but to the ancient world as well. Not only because, again, I am Greek, but because I love the idea of heroes existing before the modern era, seeing how they affect an older world and their importance. World War I is something of an area of fascination for me, although I admit I’d thought at first they’d have set the film during the 1940s. I wonder if that was to separate from Captain America. I’m only familiar with her basic information and backstory; recent comic history and adjustments are beyond me.

I loved the architectural choices for Themyscira. Very clearly Greek-inspired but with an exotic flair all its own. I will say, as someone who has studied Greek art over the years, technically, the synonymous white should have historically been painted…but this is fiction, and as fiction, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited by how very in line with antiquity it was as it was. I’m not sure what I was expecting; Diana’s armor contains notable Greek accents…perhaps it’s simply how I’ve seen her and her Island portrayed before, drawing from Mythology by name and character without doing so historically. We all want to see our roots up there on the screen, and this was the first time in a long time I really felt like I was outside of a loose adaption or certain romantic comedies. As someone with a strong affinity for Super heroes, well, this means a lot to me. But moving on.

I’m also impressed by how well the Amazons blended the lines of beauty and ferocity (or is it sex-appeal and practicality?)  They were sexy, unmistakably, but to me it did not appear as though they were designed with that as the primary thought. They were sexy because they were fierce, beautiful because of the natural, historical sense in their design—or what I imagine as much history one can put into a mythological race. They weren’t super-model skinny or movie-star-glamorous, and yet these women carried about them a fearsome power I personally felt unworthy of. This of course extends to Diana and her iconic armor. None of her accessories felt corny or outdated to me, even the lasso, which I was a tad wary about. My association with it comes from dated comics and cartoons; I wasn’t sure it would translate seriously into this modern era. I think the director handled its inclusion perfectly, adding humor whenever as Pine’s character struggled to resist (or prove himself honest) and demonstrating its later use as a weapon against Ares. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’m so relieved Diana’s true purpose remained a secret until the end. I know some more learned fans than I have complains about the chosen direction, but I’ll get into that later. I’ve seen a lot of movies reveal far too much before needed and it really hurts the film. X-men Apocalypse, for example. However it pains me to talk down about my beloved X-men films, so many scenes talked through too much too early on, harming the pace and suspense of the film. If they had been removed I know for certain the movie would have done much better. Wonder Woman did none of this…which is actually very embarrassing for both Singer and Kinberg in comparison. In hindsight, it’s very, very impressive for both a lesser-known director and a character who hasn’t been given a fair (or successful, if we count that one pilot) solo screen-time venture since the 1970s.

To go along with her purpose, I loved that the Mythology/ancestry/storytime sequence resembled Renaissance art. I’m sure at this point it goes without saying but so many Greek Myths were illustrated and interpreted during the Renaissance period; in this particular case, I thought of Michaelangelo’s work on the Sistine Chapel, specifically the Creation of Adam and the Last Judgment. I know neither of them feature Greek mythology, but the style and articulation in the film really felt reminisce of Michelangelo. I like this artistic choice in direction; shooting a live action sequence would have felt grittier and clunky while none at all might have dragged and failed to grip the viewer’s attention in the same way. Plus, Diana is a child, and one from antiquity; choosing to illustrate the story like a story, as well as in a style reminisce of a time period that heavily featured antiquity as its subject fit perfectly.

Before I move ahead to the second half of Diana’s journey, I’d like to say I’m glad Hippolyta and her sister were close. They did not agree with everything, but there were no signs of dangerous tension (a la Thor and Loki, Charles and Raven, or taking it back to the 90s with Scar and Mufasa.) I’ve seen enough sibling drama in the movies; it was nice to see their conflict presented in a mature way that did not push their relationship past a breaking point. I loved that Antiope genuinely loved Diana and did not train her for personal or selfish gain. I will say her death didn’t resonate as deeply with me as it might have if she’d played a larger role in the movie but returning to Themyscira would have bogged down the pace. This is an origin film and if someone isn’t betrayed, they’ve got to lose a loved one; I wasn’t happy of course, but I guess if I had to pick I would rather Diana’s mentor go because a) it illustrates the importance of different bonds and b) I am tired of the whole ‘death of a parent kickstarts a hero on their journey.’ I know Antiope was Diana’s aunt but it wasn’t quite the same thing. I also like how this tragic ‘passing of the torch’ didn’t hang over Diana’s head the way it could have; she wasn’t a hardened, brooding heroine. Antiope died for love, and was in many ways the first step (unless you count the tale of Zeus protecting the Amazons) to her eventual drive to protect and fight for love. I know saying it like that sounds like a magical girl but I in no way think anything about this movie falls within that realm. There’s nothing pop culture or cliché in Diana’s character and I’ll get to that in a minute.

I thought Diana was the right amount of naïve, if that makes any sense. She wasn’t ditzy and the mistakes and little embarrassments she caused Steve and Etta were cute and quirky as opposed to cringe-worthy. I didn’t expect her to know of men, being the only Amazon born on Themyscira; I’m really glad she and the others weren’t treated like archaic idiots by the director or Chris Pine. I guess I was expecting something a little more similar to Thor’s treatment in his first film, which, while funny, earned him this ‘dopey puppy’ stereotype that’s really overshadowed any depth he’s gained in the MCU. I was also pleased to see Hippolyta was able to see Diana’s side of things, or rather, place her bond with her daughter over fear for her safety. I’ve seen so many films and TV shows where the rigid, overprotective parent becomes unlikeable.

On the flipside, I’m also glad her intellectual and physical abilities did not corrupt her view of man. She never once held herself in a pretentious, superior manner. This is something I’ve unfortunately seen in a lot of media of late…I adore this influx of female protagonists beyond the realm of…well, I guess Diana is a princess but she’s also a warrior and superhero. That said, it’s a personal turn-off when they’re treated above their male co-stars and see themselves as such. I want a good female protagonist as I said, but not if they’re going to act like they’re better than everyone else. There’s nothing, at least not to me, relatable or likeable in that. I’m not stupid; don’t pander to me like I am.

Diana, fortunately, breaks the mold yet again. There was only one moment I can recall that might be taken as intended superiority; when she was discussing her knowledge of men with Steve, how they were necessary for procreation but not so much for pleasure. While she seemed to know he probably wouldn’t like the consensus it came more from a courteous (if not somewhat humorous) place, rather than haughty superiority. That and much of what Diana said in that regard she likely took from not only her reading but her elders, growing up. Which in itself might be a form of naïveté but I’ll take it over a high-and-mighty attitude. I will say I found the ‘slave’ comment a bit out of place and (going out on a limb here) deliberately for the audience. It was like ‘and now we’re going to step away from ‘Diana-vision’ and insert ‘21st century activism. Please stand-by.’ I know why they threw it in, and I’m sure Diana said it with the same honesty she did everything else, but that one thing specifically didn’t work for me.

Another example superiority could have infiltrated her character: reading Doctor Poison’s stolen book. Diana seemed genuinely surprised no one else could read it, and given her origins, it wasn’t surprising. This evolved into a more amusing scene later on, using her language to elude the flirtatious Sammy. By then (kudos, character development) she’s gotten some idea not everyone has this skill, so it makes sense, as she grows more familiar in her surroundings, that she’d want to stop him in his tracks by literally making him eat his words. Yet again, there’s no malice or pretentiousness. Instead, a playful challenge ensues, with Diana emerging the victor. I admit, when Diana started speaking ancient Greek (provided that was, of course, ancient Greek) I squealed a little bit. It really is a personal thing but I just love how much this version of Wonder Woman and Themyscira embody their mythological/historical roots. Even though she wasn’t at the top of my superheroine list before (but damn, that’s definitely changing) I’ve always had an affinity for Wonder Woman because of her origins. She’s the beautiful, powerful and empathic Greek heroine I’d love to be, if only in essence.

But I digress.

I was a little worried about Chris Pine’s character, going into this. As noted above, I was afraid both Diana and the director would use this movie as an opportunity to belittle his importance, as well as the role of the ‘standard male protagonist.’ Thank Hera that wasn’t the case. Steve Trevor had his faults and humorous quirks but he was equally important and well-rounded. I admit, I take the first World War very seriously (well, all wars, but the First was such an unnecessary, heartbreaking mess I’m a little defensive in its regard.) So with that said, I was so, so impressed by him. He reminded me a lot of Steve Rogers, except of course, without the excessive stubbornness. He was stubborn, but it didn’t transcend into the comic book realm which is an odd thing to say, I know for a comic book movie. I guess I mean that I could have seen him star in a period piece without Amazons and Greek gods and still felt the same about his performance. He was a man, a man of the times, but a good, honest man who’d seen a lot and would do anything to stop even some of the senseless killing. He saw mankind for what it was, the good and bad—his speech about wanting one individual to blame really resonated. I think a lot of us in life believe we could blame the bad things on one particular individual…and I’m sure so many people during the Great War thought that as well. I’ve been trying to articulate just how Steve helped Diana become who she is; it’s so simple but complicated at the same time, so unlike any relationship I’ve seen in a superhero film. He didn’t transcend time to speak with an elder version of himself, didn’t banish her to Earth and shatter any familial bond…he just loved her. Believed in her. And in the end, sacrificed himself for both. I may not be one for the love interest sub-plot but my gosh, it played out so beautifully here.

When I first jotted down my initial thoughts about the movie, I kept drawing comparisons to Tarzan, only in reverse, with Time separating Diana from the rest of the world, as well as remote location. I can see now that was a very, very trimmed down comparison and almost…not insulting but simplified their characters and the bond they shared. Steve and Diana might be from different worlds, and Diana, as I said, was a little naïve, but Steve, too, underestimated her; they grew together as the film progressed, as equals. Only instead of Jane returning to the jungle with Tarzan, Diana remains in Steve’s world, fighting for the people he found so important, and who she believes are worth protecting, too.

I really liked the supporting cast as well. As I said, I’m a little sensitive about World War I and I think having such a diverse cast of characters really helped emphasize how encompassing it was, and how many different people suffered, because. Sammy was probably my favorite, but Charlie especially pulled at my heartstrings. I don’t know anything about these characters, if they exist outside the DC Expanded Universe or if they were specifically crafted for the film; correct me if I’m wrong but it seemed implied that Charlie’s character was once a soldier, perhaps earlier in the war, but trauma, like it did to so many at the time, shook his core. I’ve read and researched a lot about this war; it was the first ‘modern’ war with ‘modern’ weapons…and the first where Shell shock/PTSD really gained professional attention. I wish we’d learned more about Charlie, it isn’t often you see the staple ‘comic relief’ character backed by such tragedy. All of them, I’d have liked to spend more time with. For that reason I almost wish in some way the franchise in itself could stay in this time period. Alas, it’s not to be.

Oh, there is something else I’d like to point out, although I’m not sure where to fit it, exactly: the scene Diana reads from Doctor Poison’s journal illustrates, at least I think, the divide between the soldiers at the time and those from whom they took orders. Disregarding Ares for a second, I was really happy, although that’s not quite the right word, to see this included. So many people died precisely because those in higher power rarely set foot on the battle field. They remained in large part oblivious to trench conditions; to them, soldiers were expendable pawns in a political game.

Now then.

Diana’s run through No Man’s Land has to be my favorite scene. Not only is it the first time we really see ‘Wonder Woman’ in action but there’s so much power behind it because of the history I actually cried. I couldn’t help but wonder what might have happened out there, a hundred year ago in the trenches, if a brave Amazonian warrior had stormed No Man’s Land and ceased the gunfire so expertly. It does pain me a little to say that; I don’t believe any soldier on either side should take the blame for what happened a hundred years ago. Nonetheless, the Germans were painted as the enemy for most of the film (until you consider Ares trying to stall their armistice from the opposing side) so in lieu of that, I did cry when the soldiers rallied behind Diana.

My personal feelings about this period aside, she looked amazing. And by amazing, I mean badass. Deflecting bullets, braving fire with her shield, the way she just maneuvered on the field…I know she’s named after Artemis but she reminded me strongly of Athena, at least, how I envision her. It was just so…cool, to see her out there, see how far her character has come in media. While I am not an activist, nor do I seek political refuge in my movies I couldn’t help but like, feel a sense of pride, watching this female super hero take charge, watching everyone follow her lead and depend on her. It was like…I was seeing everything I wanted in a heroine. With the exception of X-men’s Rogue, who has always been my favorite female hero (disregarding the movie interpretation.) Not only that, but in that moment I really felt like I finally connected to Wonder Woman herself. I know I’ve emphasized my heritage and her redesign before, so I won’t go into that. There’s more to it, personal things I’m not comfortable discussing…but this incarnation is a big deal to me for so, so many reasons. I can’t thank Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins enough for bringing her to life.

Okay…let’s get back into this.

There is one little thing I wasn’t super thrilled with, but for this movie and in this context, it worked wonderfully. I’ve said my piece about the love interest and why I don’t mind Steve and Diana falling in love, I just…have issues with implied sex scenes. And it isn’t a political thing or a religious thing, it’s more...at least I think it’s along the lines of things I’d, at least for now, prefer not to discuss. So I’ll say in general I don’t care for it but it does work and I can’t fault the film because I know it worked. Just a personal thing.

I’m going to talk about Ares now.

I did not see that revelation coming. Maybe I should have, but I expected something along the lines of ‘Ares has been watching silently the entire time and suddenly booming laughter erupts and the ground parts and glows like lava; suddenly the god of war appears, sinister approval hanging from his lips.’

I much prefer how things actually played out. I’ve seen and read a lot of media featuring the Greek Gods and not once was Ares ever portrayed as a ‘posh British man.’ I think there’s a lot of symbolism in that; both in regards to the war itself and, if you want to go there, perhaps in this modern era itself. I’m going to talk about this in context of WWI because again, I want no part of modern political activism. In the war, as I said, the Elites controlled the strings. They gave orders their army had little choice but to carry out and rarely did they involve themselves directly. Some of them, upon realizing what was actually going on, were struck with horror. Others didn’t understand or care. Ares falls under the latter. I mentioned it before but the history fan in me would have liked to see more of this interpretation of the war itself, the people—civilians, soldiers and even the elites—and seen the struggle inflicted by Ares’ influence, how the armistice stalled and all. The super hero fan in me is more than okay with how the film played out. This is Diana’s movie, after all.

It was a teeny bit difficult to see this prim and proper man in full battle gear, only because, apart from maybe Ian McKellen’s Magneto (and even then, it’s not the same) I’ve never seen a live-action comic book villain portrayed that way. It’s jarring, but fascinating, too. It also fits into the overall elegance of the film. I wouldn’t expect someone like Loki or Apocalypse to show up in Wonder Woman’s world. Not to say she couldn’t handle them, because let’s be honest, that would be one badass fight. It’s more like…I don’t know. Historical context. Perhaps their ancient, otherworldly blood. Anything else would have hampered the tone and created a clunky feeling. Besides, we got to see his indirect brutality in the form of Doctor Poison’s gas. This Ares, until the end it seemed, was the puppeteer who kept his hands behind his back, free of blood. I loved it. Alternative interpretations rock the boat and keep things fresh. Even the final battle felt different, as odd as it was to see this Englishmen throwing punches in his blocky armor. Their representation also served to illustrate that ‘ancient elder figure’ trying to teach or tame the ‘reckless younger.’ That I have seen a lot in this genre, saw it recently in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Diana, however, is such a different character from Peter Quill, and Ares, while on similar lines to his father whose name escapes me right now, is his own kind of destructive, with his own brand of motive that, like his half-sister, distinguish him from Marvel’s Celestial Kurt Russell.

There are two small qualms I have with the climax. The first is Ares’ revelation: Diana is the god-killer, not the sword. I don’t know why, but the impact failed to stick the way I wanted it to. Maybe because I’m unfamiliar with her New 52 origins, and I actually expected her to be Ares’ daughter (fun Mythological fact, the Amazons were actually Ares’ children, but I know that’s not the case in DC.) I thought perhaps Hippolyta kept the truth from her because she knew if Ares discovered he had a child he would try to corrupt her. Which I guess played out in some form anyway, even if she wound up being Zeus’ daughter instead. I’m okay with that; as I said before, Diana reminds me of Athena, also a child of Zeus, and came to be through unconventional means. I guess it’s just strange to me, to see so compassionate a character without the same tragedy circling Bruce and Clark…then again, I do primarily watch Marvel (and X-men) films and they practically wrote the book on character heartache. I mean, discovering the horrors of the mortal world and losing Steve are tragic, I guess I just expected something more? Perhaps more emphasis on the god-killer itself, or for greater impact when Diana found out. Did she know Zeus was her father? Or did she take her mother’s story in a more figurative sense? I know (the nurse?) was surprised to see her injuries so quickly healed, so I’m going to guess Diana herself wasn’t aware. That may be why I didn’t feel the same punch I was supposed to; I got a bit confused. Either way, I love Diana the way she is; we don’t need another jaded DC hero.

Before I forget, I want to give a shout-out to the human villains, too. Perhaps it was the era or the tone of the film but I personally felt that Doctor Poison and Ludendorff belonged in a German Expressionist film from the 1920s and 1930s—in a good way. I’ve seen a lot of old ‘mad science experiments gone awry’ films, some American, some British and some, of course, German. Doctor Poison especially, with her mask, and characterization felt very reminisce of Doctor Mabusa or Caligari. Again, it could have been the setting of the film, but I don’t know…their motives mixed with the overall elegance of the film felt very close to that old school horror I so love. I really wanted to know more about Poison’s mask, what happened to her face (although I’m assuming we’re to imply her work damaged her, physically, at some point.) Ludendorff was more the standard villain, something you might find out of SHIELD, but that they worked together, that he sort of…not spoke for her, but seemed to run the operation coincided with that same horror; two sides of the brain; the mad and the meticulous. Together, a fluid recipe for chaos.

I thought the final fight was awesome. Diana goes all out and we really get to see just how this twenty-first century Wonder Woman stands apart from her previous interpretations (movie and TV specifically.) As I stated earlier, I used to think Diana’s accessories and costume were, admittedly, a little cheesy and gimmicky. I don’t have the same nostalgic fondness for Diana that a lot of people do, I’m sure. I was too young to watch the live-action series and as I also said I never really connected with her animated version. This film for me rewrote my previous opinions. Her bracelets, and especially her lasso are awesome and the perfect aid for her. Of course BvS helped, but she was hardly in that movie and shoe-horned additions aren’t the same as a solo journey. On Ares’ end, there was also an appropriate amount of lightning. BvS completely overdid the lightning, to such a point it gave me a headache. Here, such effects felt appropriate for each character. With one tiny little exception: Diana’s grief.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the direction they took Steve’s final moments, and his death hit so many poignant marks. Even though I kind of expected him to die, because he was so prevalent throughout the film part of me almost thought he might survive at the last moment, spared by Zeus or something. I’m glad he didn’t. A hundred years have passed, and I just don’t see her living with Steve until he died of old age.  I do, however, feel like I missed something when it came to Diana’s grief. It felt almost too sudden, too explosive and while it didn’t go over my head, it was like preparing for an undertow that failed to carry me all the way under. I’d like to see this movie again, see if I can figure out why that failed to strike. The DCEU is known for their flimsy editing choices; to find it in an otherwise well-done film is surprising. So perhaps it isn’t a creative choice, but something I personally missed. I’ll have to go back and watch it.

The only other gripe I have, and it is a small one, is the CGI. At least 95% of it translated successfully, from the lighting to the slow-motion (which isn’t really CGI but an effect nonetheless.) Kudos to the slow-motion, by the way. While used more than it probably ought to be, Diana looked so damn cool I don’t care. I was, however, bothered a bit by how evident the computer generated effects came into play whenever she was thrown or jumped into the air. It’s a small thing, but bothered me no less. I love watching these super beings call upon their powers. It’s something I’ve always wished I could do, so the noticeable imagery took me out of the moment. To go along with that, the last shot of the film lingered for far too long. I’m not sure what alternative might have fixed it, I just know it lingered because it felt long, and when some portion of a film feels long to the audience it’s generally a sign something’s got to be reworked or cut. Maybe fading to black and then having Diana’s voice linger instead…I’m not sure.

There is one last thing I’d like to talk about: Diana’s declaration she believed in love. I didn’t intend to leave it until the end, things just sort of unfolded that way. It is important though, so perhaps discussing it now is a good note to end on. I have seen so, so many movies, read so many books and watched enough TV I know how overused that concept is for a character’s turning point. Whether it be someone like Chris Eccleston’s Doctor, who may not believe in love necessarily but learned how to embraced it enough to die for it, or Kiara’s understanding of ‘we are one,’ or even the overall presiding theme of classic films like the Princess Bride. It’s everywhere, it’s been everywhere for a long, long time. So how this movie managed to use it, say it point blank, and avoid the expectant groan is beyond me. It’s so fitting, right? Female heroine falls in love and becomes a stronger individual for it. I hate that concept (I’m sorry, I do) but it works so well here. So well in fact that a small part of me cheered and a part of my heart hurt. It’s been nearly a week and I’m still baffled by my reaction. Maybe it’s this new connection I have with Diana, or something about her character and the little details in her journey that stand her apart from other heroes. Maybe I’ve become so embittered by my own life that finding someone like her (someone, again, I’ve learned to connect with) understanding at last these flawed humans through her lost love and his sacrifice instead of seeing this world strictly as good vs bad…or perhaps it is the world I live in now. A world so stirred by blind, rigid hatred with no room for that deeper understanding. Whatever it is, again I say, kudos to Patty Jenkins and kudos to Gal Gadot. You’ve successfully recruited me aboard the Wonder Woman fanboat. Never in a million years did I see that coming.

I’m sorry everyone, I didn’t expect this to be so long: this movie just hit so many buttons for me, both nerdy and emotional…which I guess sums up Wonder Woman’s overall appeal. She’s ancient and brazen, feminine and empathic: she’s a woman in every sense of the word and that is her greatest strength.

[81scorp]

More thoughts on Frozen

(Originally posted as an editorial on Deviantart Apr 18 2015. It has not been changed from how I originally wrote it.)

A while ago I wrote an editorial that I think summed up my thoughts about Frozen nicely and I didn`t think it was necessary to go back and write any more things about it. But then I read some comments and other deviants`s editorials on Frozen that I felt had a point. This lead to some new thoughts, and some old that I had forgotten, popping up in my head. So I figured I`d get these thoughts out as well. Hopefully I wont have to revisit this topic again in the future, but I can`t guarantee anything. SPOILERS never bothered me anyway The good the bad and the subjective A word that I used often in my previous editorial was "like" and words that I tried to use as little as possible was "good" or "bad". If I say that something is good you will have an image in your head of what you think good is and it is likely that it will be different from my defenition of it. Just because something is good it doesn`t mean that everyone likes it and just because you like something it doesn`t mean that it is objectively good, the only thing that you can know for certain is if you like the thing in question or not. Take this for example: I like James Cameron`s Avatar. Hey! Wait! Where are you going? Come back! Anyway. The feeling I remember having when watching Avatar in the cinema (IN 3-D!!) was positive. After a while, people started to point out the movie`s flaws and at closer inspection I realized that they were right. But I can`t deny what I felt when I first saw it, and after repeated viewings, even being aware of it`s flaws, I still like it. Is the story old, borrowed, unoriginal, a bit predictable, going more for emotion than logic and is "Unobtainium" a terribly lazy name for a macguffin? Yes. (Hell, even the first time I watched it I thought it was a stupid name. Here are a few of my own suggestions: Makinium [based on "macguffin"], Onatnium, [based on "unobtainable"] and Xanatnium [based on "Xeno"]). But hey, it has great visuals, and... well... the visuals are nice. That is something that both sides agree on when it comes to Avatar: Weak story, great visuals. Is it great? No. Good? Kinda. Likeable? For some people yes. Did I like it? Yes. Movie Critic Roger Ebert has said that what is worse than a bad movie is a movie that`s bad and boring (those were not his exact words but it is pretty much the gist of it). And to me Avatar was at least entertaining. I think that Frozen works better than Avatar. The tone in Frozen is different so it`s more acceptable for it to rely on emotional stuff than Avatar, a movie that shows a world with a tone closer to our own with more (what is mostly considered to be) mature elements like death, war, blood and getting jiggy with blue cat-aliens. At closer inspection I have to admit that the story of Frozen has a few holes of its own, I will get to them later. So, with that said: I like Frozen. Though not as much as I like Tangled. Conceal don`t feel If you have seen HiSHE`s Frozen video you might remember this and wonder "Good point. Why didn`t her parents teach her to not fear her powers instead of bottling it all up inside?" Well, it must be hard to teach someone to not be afraid of something if you, the teacher, are afraid of it. It`s hard to learn to not be afraid of a big spider if you notice that your cognitive behavioral therapist is also afraid of it.  And no, I don`t mean that they were afraid of Elsa, but, if not her powers per se, then at least the potential for harm that her powers had. "Conceal don`t feel" was, I admit, not a good idea but hopefully it was only gonna be temporary till they could come up with someting better. I would also like to point out that it was the trolls themselves that told the parents and Elsa that Elsa should hide her powers, so it`s not all the parents`s fault. But, yes, I agree, they could have handled this better. Characters VS story I remember watching an episode of Sibling Rivalry on Channel Awesome where Doug and Rob Walker talked about the new Cinderella movie and at one point compaired it to the old, animated version. They said that even if the animated one had a very dated portrayal of women they (Doug and Rob) were at least emotionally invested in the characters. They felt bad for Cinderella when the stepsisters tore apart her dress but not so much when it happened in the live action version. That is probably the reason for this movie`s popularity. The story, while trying something new at some places (like sister saving sister), has a few flaws (like the earlier mentioned "conceal don`t feel"). But part of the appeal is the characters. We have the optimistic and determined Anna, who`s not gonna let a snowstorm stop her from talking to her sister. Kristoff, an antisocial loner who later turns out to be very reliable and a loyal friend. The innocent, dimwitted, kind and wellmeaning Olaf, and Elsa, sophisticated, calm and reserved but deep down, a tragic, hurting woobie. Then there`s Hans. And no, I`m not saying that he`s likeable like the other characters, but you can like him for being an interesting bad guy, kinda like how people like the Joker. He is (for Disney at least) a new, subtle kind of bad guy who`s really good at what he`s doing. I`m not saying that it`s A OK to have characters work as a crutch for the story (like the CGI did in the Star Wars prequels) because it`s not.   But with this blueprint of how the chararacters behave, we fans can take them and make our own, more complex stories where we explore and take these characters in different directions while still being true to their core. Good characters in a story with a few flaws are still good characters. The Actual flaws

NOT the actual flaws In my previous editorial I wrote why I didn´t think Frozen was "Teh Greatest Disneymovie Evar". I feel that my arguments to why I felt the way I did were lazily written so I decided to revisit and elaborate them more here. What I wrote was more a criticism of the hype than the movie itself. This is not a change of opinion, like I said: I like Frozen. These are just my old thoughts better explained. The things that seem new but have been done before, both by Disney and other animation studios: girl doesn´t need to end up with a man: Mulan. "You can`t marry a guy you just met!": Enchanted."But Enchanted isn`t Disney animated canon." you say. True, but it has fairytale-ish elements and a female lead, is a musical and is at least partly animated. This, plus being made under Disney`s roof, technically makes it a Disney movie that can be compaired to Frozen. (Heck, there was even talk about making Giselle a Disney princess, the reason it didn`t happen was because Disney didn`t want to pay royalties to Amy Adams for using her likeness.) However: Enchanted was more of an open subversion (You could tell from the trailer that they were gonna take some liberties with the Disney formula.) while Frozen was an animated Disney movie played straight... with subversions. And unlike Mulan it is the deuteragonist that stays single instead of the protagonist. But I digress. Is my definition of a Disney movie a little broad? Maybe, but still, it bugs me a little when I hear "This is the first time that a Disney movie has the message that you can`t fall in love with a guy you`ve just met." when Enchanted is not exactly an obscure movie. So, Frozen was not the first Disney movie with these two twists but does that make it less good? No. Toy Story was not first with the "Toys coming to life when you`re not looking" thing (The Christmas Toy came out 1986) but it was still a great movie. (And Frozen didn`t borrow a basic idea, at least not from these two movies, just a few tropes. The basic idea was borrowed from Wicked.) What makes Frozen good is not that it uses these two twists, but that it is (to my knowledge) the first movie in the Disney animated canon to use them and a couple of other new twists to the classic Disney formula in one and the same film. Using the old classical Disney tropes: Why did I bring this up? Tangled is just as guilty of using them and not all the tropes in the Disney formula are inherently bad and can be good if used correctly. And technically it didn`t make the movie worse.The parents dying. Formulaic? Sure, but at least it helped move the plot forward. Coming back to life thanks to the power of love. Done before, yes, but this time it was done with sibling love for a change and not the big romantic love that we`ve seen so many times before. And like Tangled, where it is established that Rapunzel has healing powers, it makes sense that Elsa, with her ice powers, was the one to save Anna from her icy fate. So why did I bring this up? When I kept hearing "It`s so different from other Disney movies", it made me think that it was gonna be more different than it actually was. With that expectation I held it to a different standard and it made the old Disney tropes stick out even more for me everytime I saw them. Sometimes I wish I could`ve gone into the movie a little bit more blind.

The ACTUAL flaws So while Frozen undeniably does use some of the old Disney tropes they are not really the actual flaws. And yes, it`s not all because of me having high expectations, Frozen DOES have a few actual flaws and they lie in the narrative flow. The backstory is a little rushed and not well thought out. Most of the songs are used up in the first act leaving us with only three in the second act, and only one of those three songs helps move the plot forward (The reprise of "For the first time in forever") the two others are just musical deadweight. Elsa and Anna`s relationship is the most interesting part of the movie but more screentime is spent on Anna`s relationship with Kristoff who, while still likable, is not as interesting as Elsa. The sequel So... they`re making a sequel to Frozen. My feelings? Cautious optimism. It may not be as successful in the box office as the first. Sure, people are still gonna see it because it`s frickin Frozen (kinda like with Phantom Menace), but it still may not be as successful, and it may not be as good as the first one either (quality doesn`t necessarily follow popularity after all), even if the team that made the first one is involved in it. The keyword here is may. It could be good. Does Frozen have material for a sequel? Well, the original fairytale had a woman of royalty who represented cold, winter and ice and was an important part of the story. Frozen, even if it has been changed a bit, still have those elements, so, yeah it could work. Unlike Tangled which was based on the fairytale "Rapunzel" where the plot is built on a woman with insanely long hair. Because of how well it did in the box office there were thoughts of a sequel, but when the writers and directors got together to develop one they realized: "She cut her hair... it`s over." When Lasseter started to work on Disney animation, things were changed so it is the filmmakers who decide wether they are ready to make a sequel, not marketing or merchandizing. And I like that decision, only continue the story if there is a story to tell. So what more kind of stories can you tell with Frozen? Maybe the origin of Elsa`s powers? Maybe she`s adopted? Personally I don`t need an explanation for it. The supernatural stuff that happened in old Twilight Zone episodes sometimes just happened because the universe liked to screw with people. Or you can do some kind of "mutant thing", I mean, Disney and Marvel after all. But I like the adoption angle now that I think about it. Elsa`s search to find out more about her past can lead to a journey with adventures. It can also have the message that family isn`t just the people you`re biologically related to. This still doesn`t change my views on ElsAnna shipping though. (Unless of course it`s platonic.) Should Elsa be paired up with someone in the sequel? No, I don`t think so. Like I said in my earlier editorial: by having  two heroines Disney could have it`s cake and eat it too. If one of the girls is a princess who ends up with a romantic, opposite sex love interest in the end, there`s no reason why the other can`t be a queen and single (...and possibly [but not necessarily] a lesbian). I just hope that, when it is nominated at a future academy award, the jury members take their job seriously and actually look at it and the other nominees before they give the Oscar to Frozen 2 simply because it`s Disney. Speaking of more Frozen movies: My thoughts on Frozen fever? It sounds cute. Like the kind of small project you`d do between bigger projects. I haven`t actually seen it. To do that I´d have to go and see that live-action Cinderella movie, and I don`t feel like it. Small constructive critcism Like I mentioned earlier it has a few flaws. It`s a bit of a fixer upper. Conceal don`t feel/ Elsa`s childhood In a way I defended this earlier (mostly because I couldn`t come up with a better idea myself) but I think I have an idea now on how it could have been done differently. The whole "Conceal don`t feel" could be something that Elsa herself came up with in her grown up years. Her parents could try to teach her to use it responsibly instead of bottling it all up. In the scene where Elsa is given her gloves they could first be lying on a book. Elsa`s fathers hands picks them up and we see that the book the gloves were lying on is called "The magic feather" (a subtle reference to Dumbo, hinting that the gloves are just placebos). and then later in "Do you want to build a snowman": The King is looking out through a window, rubbing his hand as if it is hurt, worrying about Elsa. The Queen is looking through a book and reacts as if she`s found the answer. She shows the book to the king. Both of them have expressions of joy in their faces. (she found the solution to Elsa`s problem in an ancient text in the book, which leads to them going away on a travel to find it which leads to their ship capsizing in the storm). Later in the movie, before she wakes up in her cell in Arendelle, Elsa could have a flashback to a day where she was 12-years old. Her father is touching the palm of her hand with his own as a form of trust exercise. Ice starts forming on his hand. He keeps holding on as a way to say: "It`s just ice, there`s nothing wrong with your gift, it`s not evil." Elsa allows herself to smile. Then she has a moment of doubt, her ice gets colder, it`s hurting her father but he refuses to let go and says in a calm voice:"It`s OK Elsa, don`t be afraid. You can control it". But the cold becomes too strong and he pulls back his hand in pain. The Queen wants to comfort Elsa but Elsa is afraid and distances herself from her, fearing that she`ll hurt her. Still wanting to comfort her daughter the Queen tells Elsa: "It`s not your fault." But Elsa is too afraid, too afraid of her own powers and backs into the shadows (figuratively AND literally). Their parents dying may be sad but seeing them trying their hardest to help her before they die would be even sadder. It`s the Joss Whedon method: make us emotionally invested in the characters before they`re killed off. On the fence: The yoiking Here`s another thing mentioned in the HiSHE video. "This style of music doesn`t fit anywhere else in the movie." That kind of music is called Yoiking and is common in the Sami culture. Sami people live in the most northern part of Sweden, Norway and Finland, and since the movie takes place in an scandinavian-ish country I can see what the film makers were thinking. However, I saw much more 19th century western-european scandinavian style and culture than Sami culture. And you only hear the yoik two times: opening credits and end credits. Lion King had at least one african choir song in the movie itself (when Simba is running back to his homeland for example). They could have shown more Sami culture and/or have at least one yoiking song within the movie itself. (Like when Kristoff is riding on Sven back to Arendelle with a sick Anna in his arms there could be some dramatic, ominous yoiking.) Sami culture is not completely absent from this movie though. Kristoff shows signs of it by being a man who spends a lot of time in out in the nature with his trusty reindeer. Not much but it`s more than nothing. On the fence: Lack of music in the last part Fellow deviant Rabbette pointed out that there was no more musical numbers in the last quarter of the movie. Aladdin ended with a short reprise of "A whole new world", Beauty and the beast ended with a short reprise of "Beauty and the beast", so it could have been nice if this movie ended with Elsa and Anna singing a short reprise of "For the first time in forever" as they are ice skating around together. Just sayin`. Fan art In my previous editorial I wrote: "I like it, I`m just not onboard the hype-train" It means that I don`t think it`s "The greatest Disney movie EVAR!" It doesn`t mean that I`m not gonna do fan art of it. Because like I said: I like the characters, and I see opportunities for some fan spoofs that are too good to pass up. Most of them involve chocolate.