#i also need to get cartoonier....sillier... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dana-chan-the-control-brain · 3 months

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Saw you were thinking of doing more point and click adventure games and I have a few suggestions!

Primordia : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YvWQi_5fsw

Honestly I think it would be right up your alley.

On the more horror side

Excavation of Hob’s barrow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-1C_9RQJb8

Kathy Rain : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aW1YcrEc0M

A little more on the fantasy fanciful side

Beyond The Edge of Owlsgard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXeHb_dN9qo

Wytchwood : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufvmbqHVbLY

Though that one is a little closer to a crafting game.

Enjoy :D

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THANK YOU!

Sorry it took me awhile to read this submission. I’ve been adding a lot of Adventure Games to my “to play” list lately. Mainly cause of PushingupRoses and their new Podcast “Save Your Game” so I recommend giving that a listen if you’re up for any game recommendations, Modern or Old.

So I’ll go down this line and look at the trailers to see if I’m interested.

Primordia:

OH GOD! Primordia’s art style reminds me of like Dark Seed. Which is appropriate cus I think Geiger did the artwork on that game. (darkseed not this) but it also reminds me of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with it’s art direction. I might just check it out for the Bug, Goth Steampunk style alone.

Excavation of Hob’s barrow:

I’ve heard of this game! It was actually brought up and Discussed in the “Save your Game” podcast and I looked up the art and thought about giving this one the old college try. I love me a good mystery and gothic horror intrigue. Definitely one to keep in mind.

Kathy Rain:

I actually did play this one! Well, I played it once, and it was the original, not the Directors Cut. I don’t know what changes the Directors Cut made, and since I only played it once, I don’t really remember a lot of the puzzles or how it concluded. But I loved the atmosphere and I just love that the 90s was so long ago, that modern Adventure Games can like use it for a retro setting now. I want to see a lot more games take place in the 90s. Like the 80s had their turn, and I love scifi and the future, but we just need more games set in that weird era of leaking out of the 80s and dissolving to grunge. I think a small town community in the 90s is a good setting for a game in general. I should give Kathy Rain another go, it’s still in my steam library untouched.

Beyond the Edge of Owlsguard:

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!! My little inner furry absolutely LOVES this. Like the juxtaposition of a somewhat realistic Pixel art background, blended in with the super cartoony look of Anthro animals just has me instantly hooked on the artstyle alone. Like it looks like one of the more sillier games in tone of Monkey Island or Sam and Max hit the Road and that is fine by me! The graphic interface is very old school and it seems to be very self aware of the adventure game genre. I don’t doubt things will get dark and serious by how they introduced the main threat but... Like I will probably just pick this up for the art style alone!

Wytchwood:

Ah this looks really interesting. It really reminds me of Cult of the lamb weirdly. With crafting and dungeon elements. I might give it a go, but it doesn’t capture my interest immediately like some others.

Also, I’ll drop a recommendation I’ve heard of:

Perfect Tides

The year is 2000. You’re a teenager. You only have online friends and you’re trying to navigate puberty and the world of sex. Some people might not like that kind of thing, especially if they cringe hard at second hand embarrassment, but from what I’ve heard, this whole thing is like a mix of “Night in the Woods” and “Watamote” more the later then the former. I heard that this game isn’t afraid to make it’s main character utterly unlikeable and it’s a real coming of age story. And like, what it’s like to be alone as a teenager only having online friends to seek companionship with. I honestly can’t wait to try out this one. It looks like an existential time and a half.

#Adventure Games #Point and Click adventure games #Game recommendations #danachan's rants #submissions

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kirinda-ondo · 2 years

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For the art meme, 1, 10, and 29?

1. Art programs you have but don't use

Uhhh, MS Paint--

I used to be a much more prolific user of it for my shitposting and coloring but now I pretty much do all my shitposting and like any other digital art on my phone with the Sketch app lmao

Other than that though I've never really been much of a digital artist so my forays into it are pretty recent and also few and far between--

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

Oh boy, that is an interesting question and honestly I think the answer largely depends on the design of whatever article of clothing I'm drawing it happens to be.

Like there are a lot of different types of shirts and jackets that I think are fun to draw, but also there are different kinds of pants or skirts or dresses that I think are fun to draw (though that might just largely because I like to draw legs lmao)

Not hats or shoes though. Hats are a bitch that I only suffer through for their comedic potential and I find shoes to be incredibly boring to design and tedious to draw lmao

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

I love Junji Ito. I would give that man all of my money if I ever ran into him on the street. It's not enough to enjoy his manga I need to eat it.

But that being said I never really get any kind of artistic inspiration from the guy outside of like stealing his eye shading thing when shit gets serious (though when I do it it tends to be more for comedic effect)

And speaking of that, I think a lot of it is just that we are in two very different genres where he is doing like a lot of body horror in like a heavily realistic style whereas I'm drawing things that are a lot sillier or like slice of life in a more cartoony style and it doesn't really mesh well (even if it would be fun to get into some darker subject material)

I absolutely respect and admire the man's artistic skills and creativity and just absolute fucking Bonkers shit he can come up with though. I need to inject his art into my bloodstream.

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sparklegemstone · 5 years

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San Diego Comic Con 2019 -- Sat. Marvel Studios Panel

Got back from a long weekend at SDCC Sunday night and wanted to post my reactions. This first post will be about the Saturday Marvel Studios panel since that is what has captured most people’s interest. Fair warning, half of this is going to be my own personal waffling and stream-of-consciousness that you may not care a wink about.

I've been trying to get a SDCC badge for, what, 4-5 years now? Year after year, the lottery did not look kindly on me. So towards the end of 2018 when I finally succeeded in getting a badge for 2019, not only was I excited to have gotten a badge at all, but I thought I was extra lucky and that, if I were to be able to attend any year, this would be the year to attend because 1) it would likely be the concluding Game of Thrones panel, which after almost a decade would be a monumental event and 2) under the impression that the Loki series was going to be some of the first content available for Disney+ released late 2019/early 2020, without really having any expectations I was daydreaming about how great it would be if Hiddleston were to be there promoting Loki+ as well. Turns out both of these were true!

So flash forward to the weekend of SDCC. Since we'd learned that Loki+ was still on the far horizon I'd completely forgotten about any wistful idea of Hiddleston being at the con. In the aftermath of Endgame, I was not feeling interested in the upcoming Marvel Studios content, but still my love for Phase 1 and 2 and completionist tendencies were compelling me to try and get into Hall H on Saturday for the Marvel Studios panel regardless. If only 50-100 more Star Trek fans hadn't felt it worth sticking around for Marvel, I would have gotten in, it was very close, but I didn't quite make it. But I did get to see the official recording of the full panel sans promotional videos Saturday night 3 hours after the live event as part of the "playback" programming at the con.

So! Feige's introducing movies and bringing their casts onto the stage, but my brain's so comfortably seated in my prior belief not expecting Hiddleston to be here that the possibility didn't even dawn on me. I was so dense you guys, it did not dawn on me until literally 5 seconds before Hiddleston came out on stage, even after Feige had started talking about Loki+, lol. But what a delightful surprise!

People are talking about the bit of music that played while Tom walked onto stage. There's another piece of music, though. In the playback of the Hall H panel that I watched, there was some introductory video for the Loki+ bit of the panel for which the video itself was redacted but the sound for the video still played. For that piece of music, whimsical is the wrong word, I don't want to bring people's minds to the cartoony/whimsical character of the first Loki+ logo we saw because the music wasn't of that nature, but it kind of felt quirky and unearthly, not heavy, grounded, and driving like a lot of the powerful MCU themes. I thought it had to be for Dr. Strange 2 until it became clear it was for Loki+.

I was delighted that the audience started chanting "Loki! Loki!" in callback to his previous SDCC appearances. That's a good group of fans there.

Also, seeing these huge groups of casts and creative teams coming on stage for 10 minutes at a time to introduce each of their movies, and then seeing Hiddleston up there by himself to introduce his own show, given equal weight and importance among the other MCU announcements at the panel, it just uniquely dawned on me then how proud and happy I felt that Hiddleston now had a front and center role carrying his own show and was getting the recognition for it, no longer a supporting character in a larger ensemble film. He was the only one that had the stage all to himself during the panel. Coming close would be things like Falcon & The Winter Soldier, which featured Mackie and Stan, but it's unclear to me how much that show is going to be about their characters vs. just featuring their characters, being about their interaction and the situations that arise when you throw them together. I have hope that Loki+ is going to be specifically about Loki as a character.

I enjoy the fandom content featuring Strange, Wanda, and Loki together as the trifecta of powerful magic users, and so when they announced Wanda would be making an appearance in Dr. Strange 2 I was lightly miffed that Loki was left out. In practice, though, I'm not sure how challenging it would be / how likely it would be that the creative team would execute such a Loki appearance well so I'm not going to focus on it.

And then Thor 4. Despite having negative interest in anything Thor-related at this point and agreeing that Loki as a character is not well-served by the sensibilities of another Waititi film, the thing I was most interested in was seeing if Hiddleston was going to join them on stage for that one, and when he didn't, I will admit that I felt a juvenile, knee-jerk reaction of irrational and undeserved resentment on Hiddleston's behalf, as if he was being excluded and deemed not good enough to be in another Thor film after all that he's brought to the Thor franchise, but of course it made no sense to feel that way when my brain kicked in. I'm not going to touch any of the 'behind the scenes relationship' wank, but in the most general possible sense, different stories have different needs. Either a character furthers a specific story or they don't, and for a piece of work where service to the story comes first, it should be as simple as that and needn't be about the character at all. Plus in this case logistically I don't even know if Hiddleston would have the time to act in both Loki+ and Thor 4.

With how Jane was carelessly brushed aside in Ragnarok, and not being aware of anyone in Marvel Studios having talked about Portman since TDW, I was very surprised about the announcement that Thor 4 was going to feature Jane again, and intrigued as well at her larger role, just not enough to actually see the film. Maybe there's hope for Betsy yet (I don't actually believe that). What's interesting is that the Marvel comics and Marvel Studios exhibit that was in Seattle earlier this year featured artwork of Jane-as-Thor (if I remember correctly, it was created specifically for the exhibit) next to Hemsworth's costume, and now looking back I wonder if that was deliberately added to the exhibit by someone that had knowledge of Thor 4 or whether it was just a coincidence.

I cannot decide which has the sillier name: "Thor: Love and Thunder" or "Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness". Oh wait, yes I can. 😋

#marvel studios #sdcc 2019 #san diego comic con #loki

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years

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Episode 104: Kindergarten Kid

“I'm smarter than your average Peridot.”

Oof. I need a break. Do you need a break? Let’s take a break.

When I was a kindergarten kid, my family had a firm policy against “commercial TV,” as in any children’s television programming that included commercials. Our house didn’t get Cartoon Network until 2003-ish regardless, but this meant pretty much everything that wasn’t PBS (and later Disney Channel, which had commercials but not for toys) was restricted to friends’ houses until I was about eight. I was born in 1990, so the ban lift came right on time for Digimon and Pokémon to debut (in that order, fight me), but until then my access to cartoons was largely limited.

So yeah, unlike others of my age group, I didn’t grow up with Rugrats or Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and due to the continued lack of Cartoon Network I also missed out on Dexter’s Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls until reruns in the aughts. But I did have The Tapes, and The Tapes had Looney Tunes, so I was more than satisfied.

I still remember sitting up straighter when I first realized what Kindergarten Kid was doing back in 2016. The southwestern setting is a pretty big hint from the start, but we were cleverly introduced to the area in Beta and Earthlings and aren’t primed to see the Road Runner and Coyote connection until the plot revs up. And yes, these rivals are the clearest inspiration for Peridot’s futile attempts to outsmart a faster, “dumber” foe with intricate traps. But with an exception here or there for comic relief, Messrs. Coyote and Runner are silent, while Peridot is anything but. And as much fun as it would’ve been to go full throttle and make the entire sequence silent, I’m so glad to see Raven Molisee and Paul Villeco instead have Peridot emulate another icon from the Looney Tunes roster. And no, it’s not Porky Pig.

It’s ironic, because his best work sees him fail to come out on top, but I legitimately can’t think of a better cartoon character than Daffy Duck. Like, out of all cartoons, from every country, from any time period, period. Bugs Bunny is no slouch—he follows the legacy of Loki, Anansi, Reynard, and Maui as modern America’s most notable trickster deity—but Daffy perfected an archetype that’s largely unrepresented in myths of yore, and stands head and shoulders above all other examples, including Wile E. Coyote himself (and Daffy’s fun but better-in-the-comics counterpart, Donald Duck). Aptly referred to in Babylon 5 as “an ancient Egyptian god of frustration,” Daffy evolved from a perfectly good screwball character (Daffy Doodles is the best of this era) to the embodiment of self-inflicted pain.

I’ve already compared Peridot and Ruby to the little black duck before (seriously, stop what you’re doing and watch Daffy Doodles if that weird nickname doesn’t ring a bell), but Kindergarten Kid seems to go out of its way to evoke the essence of Daffy. Wile E. Coyote’s ploys may have the same convoluted detail as the Peri-Plans we see, but going on at length about how a scheme is going to work only for it to immediately fail? That’s Daffy Duck. Puffing up in confidence at the infallibility of said plan, and having it collapse in the middle of a smug victory lap? That’s Daffy Duck. This episode pulls its pacing straight out of the Hunting Trilogy (from which we get the famous “Rabbit Season!” “Duck Season!” debate), with Steven subbing in for both Elmer Fudd and Bugs depending on who Daffy is allied with at any given time, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch.

We even get variations of classic gags to keep things fresh. It would’ve been acceptable for Peridot to slowly dismantle an injector to crush Gem Runner, only for it to not fall until she’s right beneath it. But no, she realizes the risk, takes a step back, then gets crushed by falling rocks. I still would’ve laughed if her cannon refused to fire until she stepped in front of it, launching her over the horizon. But the recoil launches her backwards, crushing her with more rocks. Rehashing the exact same classic gags would’ve been an easy way out, but the gags are classic for a reason and I would’ve appreciated the tribute; that we see actual creative changes instead brings Kindergarten Kid to even higher heights. Yes, the final plummet is directly based on Wile E. Coyote’s own falls (sadly without the sound effect), but there’s a level of innovation here that’s compelling for an episode referencing the past so vividly.

Still, the biggest difference between Kindergarten Kid and vintage Looney Tunes is that unlike Daffy or Coyote, Peridot can make a change. The episode is similar to Barn Mates, in that both are a series of sketches that show Peridot and Steven trying and failing to accomplish a goal (which is perhaps the most clinical way to describe the standard Looney Tunes short). Both episodes end with a victory for Peridot when she realizes she must rethink the core problem, but Kindergarten Kid works better by halving the number of characters that need to grow. Barn Mates is by no means bad, but it’s hard to balance the story of its two leads, so Lapis is left without much focus behind her actions. This time the opponent is something of a force of nature, so we can spend more time digging into why Peridot’s plans aren’t working.

Peridot has already changed quite a bit, but her superiority complex remains a central tenet of her personality. It’s been tempered when Steven is involved, but she still treats most other Gems as intellectual inferiors even when she gets along with them. So of course she sees outbraining a Corrupted Gem as a cakewalk, and of course Steven teaches her the error of her ways with a lesson in empathy. These are obvious story beats, but old habits die hard, and I like that Peridot still has issues with her ego despite how far she’s come as a Crystal Gem.

It’s hard to compare any voice actor to Mel Blanc, in the same way it’s hard to compare any English-speaking playwright to Shakespeare, so I’m not gonna give praise that lofty, but Shelby Rabara still nails the fury of a gremlin who's smart but thinks she’s way smarter. It’s not easy on the throat to shout this much, and in such specific nonverbal ways, but I still think her best moment is when her confident front falters, and she yells that she’s doing the best she can. She’s as angry as ever, but that glimpse of vulnerability shows that she’s not a lost cause like Coyote.

Steven also returns to old habits, focusing all his energy on helping Peridot and not mentioning his mother once. I can see how this might make Kindergarten Kid seem too flippant, but as we’ll confirm in Mindful Education, our hero is pushing down the bad feelings instead of dealing with them. I think it’s crucial to have a few episodes where he seems okay to lull us into the sense of security that his breakdown destroys, and just like Bubbled, it’s clear that his coping mechanism is putting others before himself. He never complains about the physical injuries caused by Peridot’s poor planning, instead making sure his friend is okay.

Like Log Date 7 15 2, the show leans into Peridot’s brand of comic relief to cool us down from a major event. This is an even sillier episode, to the point that the other Crystal Gems are watching it for entertainment value, but it comes after an even more harrowing Diamond reveal. And because this one has more to do with Steven, he gets more to do in the episode: he’s not reliving a Peridot montage, he’s participating in her adventure, and the episode is stronger for it.

I understand that comedy is subjective. For instance, I’m not huge on meta humor in the style of our next episode; I acknowledge that it’s done well, but it’s not for me. So I don’t expect everyone to be huge on this episode, especially if you tragically lack a childhood full of ducks getting their beaks blown off and rabbits dancing up to bulls to slap them in the face. But hopefully folks who were let down in their first viewing, expecting more drama and lore in our post-shattering reality, can give Kindergarten Kid another look, perhaps after downing some classic cartoons, and enjoy it for the outstanding love letter that it is.

(I still don’t know why she references Yogi Bear, that’s a whole other era of cartoon, but nobody’s perfect.)

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

I know it’s absurd to nitpick unrealistic elements of such a cartoony episode, but Steven’s endless bag of marshmallows bugs me. At least it gives us another Peridot-as-raccoon reaction.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

It barely misses the cut, but boy do I love this episode. Like any great Looney Tunes short, I can watch it and laugh no matter how many times I’ve seen it; the gags are so pure that rather than getting bored of them, I now chuckle in anticipation before the hits even come.

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

When It Rains

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

5. Horror Club 4. Fusion Cuisine 3. House Guest 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

(I’m almost happy there’s no promo art for this one, because hot damn do I love this pic from Dark Tarou.)

#kindergarten kid #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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thefilmsimps · 2 years

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Diamonds Are Forever (dir. Guy Hamilton)

-Jere Pilapil-

Tomatometer: 64%

I remember this being: 5/10 Theme: “Diamonds Are Forever” by Shirley Bassey (For my generation, this is iconic because Kanye West sampled it on his second album (still my favorite one, tbh). The theme itself still slaps, though I find it jarring when it gets to anything that West didn’t use. 8/10)

After watching the debut of Pierce Brosnan’s Bond for this series, we snap back to Sean Connery’s final (canonical) turn in the role. Diamonds Are Forever points towards the future of the series - the sillier Roger Moore adventures - but throws Connery’s suave, relaxed style as Bond into the center of it. It’s a jarring combination. For his part, it’s sometimes hard to tell if Connery is necessarily sleepwalking through the role, or if this kind of Bond is just so natural to him at this point that his effortlessness is bouncing up against a movie desperate to keep a profitable thing going. There was always a risk that the Bond series would get crazier and cartoonier as they went on - for awhile, at least - because the need to scale up each adventure, and this one still feels kind of grounded compared some some in the series, even if it’s a long shot from Dr. No. But that’s relative.

This time, the movie opens with Bond murdering Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of the terrorist group Spectre who murdered his wife in the previous movie. Bond was played by George Lazenby for that one, and in this cold open Blofeld (also played by an actor different from previous appearances) is working on getting plastic surgery on some body doubles. Cute gag, I guess. It’s interesting to see that, even in this instance, they obscure Bond’s face before revealing Connery’s familiar half smirk (I guess so anyone who bought a ticket but didn’t look at the poster or see the trailer can breathe a sigh of relief). After that business is settled, M tasks Bond with investigating some diamonds that got smuggled out of South Africa. He says it’s enough of a stash that, if the market were to be flooded with these unaccounted for diamonds, it would be global financial chaos. Fair enough.

This sends Bond globetrotting, to chase and impersonate a known diamond smuggler, and to meet Jill St. John’s Tiffany Case, another smuggler who sticks around for the rest of the movie. She’s the kind of female character you’d be very unlikely to see in a modern Bond - incapable and stupid - though, to be fair, this is another abnormal day for another woman caught in Bond’s orbit. Still, her incompetence reads as a plot device, to create complications, more than anything. And maybe the movie could have done away with some of the complications.

It’s an oddly paced movie, where the first half moves briskly, Bond traveling around the world to chase these diamonds and the mastermind behind them. But we frequently check in with Bruce Glover and Putter Smith’s Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint, two assassins who you assume are working for the villain, but they share no scenes and honestly, could be a coincidence! I prefer to think that, honestly, it’s a bit of extra fun for a movie that is, if nothing else, trying to have some fun. But ultimately the second half winds up dragging as we get the villain reveal, and Bond tangles with some tedious terrorist organization middle management bullshit. By the end, it becomes clear that maybe we didn’t need to spend so much time with Case wandering around a circus (between this and Octopussy, we are so far 0 for 2 for “movies where James Bond goes to a circus”. Preferring one over the other might come down to liking Bond dressing as an ape or a clown or not.)

There’s still some fun stuff here: an elevator fight is an early highlight, and it’s always fun to see Connery in his element (even if, even at a relatively young 41, his age is starting to show: gray hairs, hunched posture, a vague resemblance to Nixon). And hey, I don’t think even Moonraker has Bond stealing a moon buggy. I don’t remember much else of this chase scene, but that’s kind of neat. Diamonds Are Forever is, in its way, a nice transitional movie for the series in that way. It’s clear that everything was about to get a lot more cartoonish, and it subtly makes the case that Sean Connery could not be the lead going forward. His strengths are in lending a kind of gravitas to some silly situations, but you can feel that brushing up against, say, this weirdo duo of assassins or in the way his Bond doesn’t stick around for the circus sequence. No, the next stage in the evolution of Bond needs a guy who will dress as an ape. Roger Moore makes a lot more sense after watching Diamonds Are Forever

5/10

#movie review #shakenstirred #bond #007 #spy

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mrmallardsmobileposts · 4 years

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2 Fast 2 Furious and the nature of sequels

Preface: I'll be calling the movie Fast 2 because 2 Fast is stupid. Also, I've covered spoilers with strike marks, like so, and the movies I spoil are Smokey and the Bandit II and Mission Impossible 2. The MI2 spoilers are miniscule, but the Smokey II spoilers are substantial - but for the record, that movie sucks ass and imo you're probably better off not seeing it. Regardless, consider this a spoiler warning for those movies.

To sum up my opinion of 2 Fast 2 Furious - while it's emblematic of the nature of forced sequels, in good and bad aspects, I would say that ultimately it is one of the better examples of a shoehorned sequel that I've ever seen.

I saw The Fast and the Furious 1 last week, and while I thought it was corny and dated - the f-slur gets used twice, there's a mesh tank top on a dude considered to be the height of badassitude, the dialogue is pretty dumb and the acting isn't great - I was very entertained. I've seen Fast Five, so I know how corny and over the top the series gets, and I'm approaching this series from an emotional standpoint - are the characters compelling, is the action good, how much am I invested in the stakes. The first movie was pretty good - I felt like it was kind of reserved, even, though that's because the budget was low and because I have unrealistic standards due to my knowledge of the franchise as a whole.

So going into Fast 2, I knew to keep my expectations level. It's a sequel that lacks a major star of the first one, it's set in an entirely new environment with an entirely new supporting cast, it's dripping in excess since the first movie did so well, and all of this is going to affect the story's plot in a way that will significantly deviate from what fans liked about the first movie.

But for a movie with those elements, Fast 2 actually managed to keep the essence of what makes this franchise so enjoyable. It's still fast - though the CGI and other car effects have aged like milk - there's still a focus on community and "family" in a way - Brian reconnects with Roman, he's made connections with Ludacris' character and he gets in good with the wider racing community in Miami - and while the villain is cartoonishly evil and the last act of the movie is basically a giant cartoon with the s***ty villain and the stunts, the series as a whole has steered towards crazy cartoony s*** ever since. And also, you can see the stupid cartoony s*** in the first movie - using grapple guns to hijack trucks, for example.

Of course, two of those are retroactive connections to the franchise. That last one applies to the franchise going forward, as it became a franchise zombie. So it's totally understandable that for its day, Fast 2 was controversial. I still maintain that for a sequel that could be characterised as an unneeded cash-grab and potential reboot, Fast 2 has actually aged pretty decently.

There are two unnecessary sequels I want to compare Fast 2 to - Smokey and the Bandit II, and Mission Impossible II.

Smokey and the Bandit II is bloated and full of itself. The first movie was a straightforward caper movie - bootleg a truck full of Coors across state lines and evade the police. There's a little bit of backstory and character development, but it's a lean, functional movie at the end of the day.

Yet despite sharing the exact same cast as the last movie, sans one additional character, the characters feel outlandish and full of themselves - which reflects in the entire product. The Bandit has drunk himself into a pit over Frog, so Cledus has to give him a pep talk and push him through a training montage to lose his beer weight - it's padding, and it's trying to build a greater emotional arc based on a character who feels more like an archetype who works well in the moment. There's an unnecessary target shooting scene with Buford T. Justice that feels like padding, the Dom DeLuise character is grating, and the cargo of a baby elephant - along with its accompanying ethical dilemma, seeing Bandit take a more altruistic, heroic position rather than being the lovable scoundrel of the first movie - is such a self-serving cop-out. And that finale of all those truck drivers coming to the rescue - while awesome in concept - comes in after a majority of the movie has been a stinking turd and is the biggest example of unnecessary excess and bloat in the entire movie.

Smokey and the Bandit II took itself so seriously that it lost sight of what made the first movie so good. The Bandit has a heart of gold, but the movie doesn't have to give him an ethical dilemma to make him an objectively decent person. While the idea of the team losing the bet in the end is an alright ending, they didn't need a moral victory on the level of preventing an elephant from a life of circus work/misery to paint them in such a good light. And worst of all, the caper sucks. It's so up its own ass that it doesn't know how to emulate the first movie's appeal at all.

Quick note: I spoilered plot details, but I genuinely think this movie is one of the biggest pieces of dogs*** I've ever seen and you're really not missing out on much by not seeing it. People seem to hate the third one, but even that was a fun watch compared to the second one imo. If you're never gonna watch Smokey and the Bandit II, by all means, disregard the spoiler tags.

Then you have Mission Impossible II, which I saw for the first time less than a month ago. And while the first movie was a goofy, self-indulgent romp, the second movie is filled to the brim with unnecessary excess, bloat and unearned emotional weight. It feels longer than it actually is, the cinematography is all style and no substance, the acting is grating and full of itself, the acting sucks and it feels so dated and out of place on almost every level.

Like Smokey and the Bandit II, it feels much longer than it really is. Sequences like Tom Cruise flirting with the main girl for the first half hour of the movie really make the movie drag, especially after the punchy and functional approach to the first movie. It's overly convoluted, even for Mission Impossible - at one point the bad guy basically nails Tom Cruise's plan down to the T, and the heist focuses more on his deduction than it does on the heist itself. Then the last act, with the main girl being infected with the supervirus, has some of the most self-indulgent and needlessly stylised action in the series to date, and it jams the forced love story into the forefront even more. Mission Impossible II is a rough watch, even today - it's a wanky mess.

What these movies share is that they're entirely detached from the movies that came before them in tone, plot and/or stakes. Smokey II has a dogs*** tone, the plot is needlessly padded and the stakes suck. MI2 has an over-stylized and melodramatic tone, the plot is poorly acted despite having the building blocks of a decent MI plot, and the stakes are kinda f***ed due to the forced romance being directly connected to the mega-threat of the movie. Smokey II bastardises previously established characters, while MI2 brings in a mostly new cast to ruin specifically for that movie - though the variable team has stuck around in the franchise at large.

Here's what Fast 2 does to stand out.

The plot - another caper involving the feds, with a new character and locale in place of a returning one. The stakes are less personal than the first movie, but they're bigger and they're supplemented by Brian and Roman reconnecting over the course of the movie. Brian and Roman's relationship reflects the values established in the first movie - community, or family if that's your bag. Ride or die.

The tone - gratuitous driving, gaudy colours, a bit more ambitious with the bad guy compared to the first movie - true to the first movie, and reflective of the later sequels. Arguably less actiony in some aspects. A bit sillier than the first movie.

The stakes - Brian and Roman's freedom, the safety of Brian's love interest and eliminating a violent criminal. More dramatic than the first movie - that movie was character-driven from beginning to end, while Fast 2 is more of a standard action movie with an unambiguous villain - but reminiscent of the first movie's values.

Smokey and the Bandit II extended a great movie past the point it needed to exist, and MI2 was a stumbling point in a widely celebrated action franchise that no-one likes to bring up. Fast 2 - while undoubtedly dated, corny and a deviation from the first movie's focus - reiterates values that the first movie shared, and which became more prominent as the series continued. It also, bizarrely, aligns with the crazy action s*** that later movies spiral into - just on a lower scale. In comparison to the first movie, the wilder, dumber action is a departure, but it's almost restrained in comparison to what the franchise becomes.

Roman isn't the best character for most of the movie - he might be my second least favorite next to the Miami cop - but I found his relationship arc with Brian over the course of the movie to be pretty solid, and it paid off near the end in a really great, personal way. And while it's not the same as Brian and Dom, it is still a strong "friends to enemies to friends" arc in the end. Complement that with some gratuitous racing action, and you have the basic formula for a good Fast and Furious movie.

And the thing about Fast 2 is that it reminds me directly of Smokey II and MI2. Near the end, there's a scene where the good guys intervene with the bad guys with a bunch of cars to help the good guys escape - the whole cavalry idea reminded me a lot of the ending of Smokey and the Bandit II, with the fleet of trucks that face off with the police force. And much like MI2, the main character has a fling with a woman on the inside of the villain's lair, and endeavours to save her life near the end of the movie. The former felt bloated in Smokey II after an absolute s***pile of a movie, while it appealed to the series' sense of style and whimsy in Fast 2. The latter felt shoehorned in MI2, with the character basically being a damsel and macguffin with entirely too much screentime dedicated to getting together with Tom Cruise, while the character in Fast 2 is a character who is intriguing and who feels essential, whose functions as a character aren't overshadowed by Paul Walker's massive boner for her.

Ultimately, the Fast and the Furious franchise is a flashy, speedy spectacle franchise. The worst thing you could do is botching the driving and making it feel slow and inessential. Ultimately, while Fast 2 isn't as good as the first one - and may or may not still go down as the worst movie in the franchise - it still feels like a Fast and Furious movie. And it's retroactively made better by basically being The Incredible Hulk to Fast Five's Avengers - the Fast and Furious movies are basically a cinematic universe unto themselves, and even the bad ones gain some entertainment points by factoring into the wider narrative. By the sheer nature of the Fast and Furious movies being pandering schlock at the end of the day, Fast 2 really isn't that bad. It feels congruent with the past and future of the franchise, even if it isn't necessarily as entertaining as the rest of the franchise. Other unnecessary cash-grab sequels gut the characters, skimp on their development and make stories that really don't need to exist - Fast 2 has main characters who gel well with each other (even if one of them kinda sucks), gives them a solid arc that plays into the wider theme of the franchise and introduces characters and plot elements which further movies build on.

Fast 2 is not a bad sequel. It's not amazing, and it might still be the worst movie in the franchise for all I know, but my genuine opinion is that as far as sequels go, it does hold up in several key aspects that make it an entertaining spectacle on par with the broader franchise. As far as unnecessary cash-grab sequels go, this is actually a pretty good one.

#the fast and the furious #fast and furious #the fast saga

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pinksalsa · 7 years

Text

I have a problem.

But before I get into that, a few things are in order. First off, I’m Rana Dorada, preferably RD for short. You may also know me as PinkSalsa, which I mainly use for kink silliness. I’m the author of the paranormal investigation web serial Minu ga Hana and sideblog, Ask MgH. If you’re familiar with those, you may recognize the handsome fella above. If you’ve never heard of them and are interested in LGBT+ fluff mixed with paranormal adventures, go ahead and have a read. I appreciate any support you give, since I’m strongly doubting that I even have readers at this point.

So what’s the problem, you may ask? Simply put, I needed a place to post my kink art. Lucas in the picture above didn’t end up stuffed with cake just for laughs. Some art replies I made on my ask blog inspired me to make more chub and/or weight gain pictures, especially because I finally feel confident enough to post them.

As outlined in my intro post here, Minu ga Hana features many characters from my past RPs and such. Given my long-standing fondness for chubby dudes, that means there’ll be plenty of big guys showing up as major and minor characters. Even now (at the time of this post, anyway) there’s the aforementioned Lucas, Torres, Torres’ boyfriend Rubin, and Bruno. And trust me, there’ll be more.

That said, this blog will feature all the kinky things I hesitate to include in the main story. For example, you probabaly won’t see it mentioned in the main story that Torres has an epic feedism fetish, while his boyfriend Rubin is trying to get used to it. Bruno is a huge glutton and loves trying to fatten up cute guys. One character who appears later is a gainer, even though it’s not outright stated in the story. A common setting is the Stronghold, a gay bar catering to chubs and feedists (thanks to Bruno reeling them in). Other chubby male characters (such as Lucas) aren’t necessarily into feedism and whatnot, but will probably be subject to belly kinkery eventually. Anyway, kink themes that appear in the main story will be subtle, but those of you with a sharp eye and similar interests may spot them.

Occasionally I’ll also share concept art and character details relating to kinkery and whatnot. I might do a few reblogs of photos or art I think are sexy just because. I’ll also do art replies like I do on the ask blog, but generally only for kinkier questions.

When it comes to my art itself, it’ll be entirely digital and will probably remain fairly simplistic/cartoony. This, of course, may change if I feel adventurous. Usually I’ll draw characters from the story, but who knows what else I’ll throw in just for fun? And (in case it wasn’t already crystal clear) as far as what you may see me draw or post?

Fat guys and/or generally masculine individuals of various sizes

Weight gain (realistic and otherwise)

Feeding (male feedees only)

Mild slob (gluttony, messy eating, stains, sweating, etc.)

Mild BDSM

Minor anthro traits (satyrs, merfolk, kemonomimi, etc.)

Possible non-WG expansion (air/water inflation, etc.)

What won’t you see here?

Frontal nudity

Actual sex

Underage characters

Full-on furries (other than what’s mentioned above- no hate, I just suck at drawing them)

Excessive gore

Excessive slob

Hard vore

My sillier characters (sorry, the llama in a wig is too pure for this sinful blog!)

That’s all. I’m pretty vanilla, the more I think about it. I might be adding or deleting from either of these lists at some point, if I can think of anything else. I’ll try to be flexible.

So with my intro out of the way, I hope you enjoy my stuff. If you have any questions, my inbox is always open.

Thanks for stopping by!

#distraction belly #my art #gawd #my tags suck #oc lucas

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