#KRON | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

balanceoflightanddark · 2 years

Text

So, here's a fun little factoid about me: I'm a fan of the 2000 film Dinosaur by Disney.

...surprise!

For the ones who have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, Disney's Dinosaur was a film released during their Experimental Era that followed shortly after the success of the Renaissance. It was a time when Disney took some risks and ventured out of their comfort zone in order to explore other possibilities when it comes to animation.

The results were...mixed. The Experimental Era is widely regarded as a bit of a black period for avid animation fans. While I can definitely say there is some truth to it (Disney still used some tropes like comic relief characters and played safe in some areas which prevented them from being spectacular), I still believe that even the weaker films in this era had a lot of strong moments and elements that warrant at least one watch.

Which brings us to Dinosaur. It started out life as a film idea by Paul Verhoeven of RoboCop fame, and our old friend Phil Tippett.

Naturally, the original idea for Dinosaur was...significantly different from the end product. While some basic ideas made it through to the end (the basic plot about an asteroid hitting the earth, lemurs, and a marauding predator stalking the heroes), a lot of stuff was left out on the cutting table.

For example, this was an idea:

The original idea was to focus on a Styracosaurus named Woot, who's plot involved surviving the asteroid that ended the Cretaceous Period (and the era of the dinosaur as a whole) while having to contend with a Tyrannosaurus stalking him down. It was to feature a lot of explicit material including gory battles and dinosaurs having sex.

Naturally when the film idea winded up at Disney's doorstep, a lot of elements were changed including toning down the blood, removing the sex, and replacing Woot with an Iguanodon named Aladar (though a Styracosaurus named Eema did play a major role in the final product).

In the film proper, Aladar (D.B. Sweeney) is the sole survivor of his nest being crushed in an attack by a Carnotaurus before winding up on an isolated island populated by lemurs. After being taken in by one of the lemurs called Plio (Alfre Woodard), Aladar grows up into a young adult where his world is shattered when an asteroid (not the big one in this case) completely destroys his island, leaving himself and his most immediate family as the sole survivors. After escaping an attack by a pack of starving Velociraptors, they come across a herd of Iguanodons and other dinosaurs led by Kron (Samuel E. Wright) who are heading to the supposedly untouched Nesting Grounds in a desperate bid to survive.

Naturally, things start going downhill as Aladar and the herd march across a scorching desert. Thirst and exhaustion are real dangers, not helped by the fact that Kron's leadership starts to deteoriate and he starts making decisions that threatens them all. And complicating things even further, a pair of massive Carnotaurs begin stalking the herd. In a hostile world with odds ever increasing, Aladar begins to emerge as a leader amongst the weaker members of the herd and may be the one who can save them all.

As you can tell, the story is...formulaic. It's the basic "journey to the promised land" as the hero learns what it means to lead. It...doesn't exactly help that there was another movie with this exact same premise that also featured dinosaurs.

And…yeah. No arguments here. It’s one of those things I was talking about earlier. The story is pretty basic and doesn’t really do a whole lot to venture out from that. And the majority of the characters reflects that. Aladar is your basic sarcastic nice guy hero. Kron’s the stern but flawed leader. Neera (Julianna Marguiles), Kron’s sister, is the love interest. And Zini (Max Casella), Aladar’s childhood lemur friend is the comic relief.

…not really good comic relief that wears out his welcome once we get to the desert mind you. Yeah, can’t win them all.

So, we have a pretty basic story with fairly basic characters. That’s…not a good look for our movie so far. But if the execution is good, then some of the aforementioned issues will be mitigated, right?

Actually…yes.

To begin, the animation used to bring the dinosaurs to life is beautiful. Similar to The Lion King remake, Dinosaur employs a photorealistic style, focusing on CGI and realistic animation. Unlike The Lion King remake though, the dinosaurs actually feel…real. There’s a real weight to them that makes it though they’re actually there in those real environments instead of just being an effect. Their movements are incredibly fluid and they show an impressive range of emoting for non anthropomorphized animals (with the exception being the Iguanodons who were given full lips and fleshy snouts as opposed to the hard beaks they had in real life).

Even with the non speaking dinosaurs, you can easily tell just what they’re thinking. Which becomes pretty apparent with the big predators as we’ll discuss a little later. The animation really compliments the story and elevates it to something a little beyond its basic premise.

Another thing that goes in favor of the movie are, ironically, the characters. While the main cast are a little bland as I mentioned, the supporting cast is actually a lot of fun and brings a lot to the table. In particular are Eema the Styracosaurus (Della Reese) and Baylene the Brachiosaurus (Joan Plowright), the two elderly dinosaurs lagging behind the rest of the herd along with an Euoplocephalus called Url (Frank Welker). Despite knowing that they’re lagging behind, neither of them are willing to give up and try to keep a stiff upper lip in the middle of all their hardships. Eema in particular provides a bit more appropriate dry humor compared to Zini’s zaniness and has a lot of good chemistry with Yar (Ossie Davis), Aladar’s adoptive lemur father. Baylene in comparison actually has one of the more dramatic character arcs going from timid to willing to stand for what she believes in, even kicking off arguably one of the most strongest moments in the entire film.

Baylene’s a favorite of mine actually.

Another favorite of mine happens to be Bruton (Peter Siragusa), Kron’s second in command. Like Baylene, Bruton has one of the most dramatic arcs in the film. He starts out as essentially Kron 2.0, rough around the edges and a bit of a thug. There are hints that there’s more to him though since he does try to appeal to Kron’s better nature and offers some advice whenever he’s stuck, but over all he’s not the nicest one around.

Then he gets mauled by a Carnotaur and comes limping back to Kron, who coldly leaves him behind while he musters the herd in a mad dash to get away. Wounded and exhausted, Bruton was essentially left behind to die. And in a surprising show of empathy towards somebody that he never got along with, Aladar offers to help him get back on his feet and leads the hurt dinosaur to a cave to get out of the rain. Bruton later comes around after being shown kindness and being healed by Plio, managing to fend off the Carnotaur pair and even sacrificing himself to stop them while dragging one of them to the afterlife with him.

For someone who was Kron's number two, that's a surprising amount of compassion and bravery on his part.

Speaking of Carnotaurs, they are another pair of characters I actually really like.

As mentioned before, these guys are essentially our T.rex stand in (they were originally meant to be Tyrannosaurs actually). They certainly fit the bill of big predatory dinosaur well since there's almost always an aura of dread and menace about them. Almost every encounter usually results in somebody dead. Even their design is menacing with a bloodred hide and horns giving them a demonic look.

The odd thing is though...they aren't really portrayed as monsters.

While the pair is portrayed as a legitimate threat, they're more content with following the herd and go after isolated stragglers like most predators. Plus the animation is so good that despite not speaking a single line of dialogue, they often have as much character as the protagonists.

One moment in particular sort of highlights what I'm talking about. When Bruton causes that cave in that kills one of them, the other one drags itself out of the rocks. But rather go back on the attack, they immediately wheel around to check up on its partner, only to see that they're dead. They then stagger out of the cave before wheeling around and delivering a rather menacing snarl that sounds less like a hungry predator and more a declaration of vengeance.

And little wonder either. It’s implied that the two were a mated pair and likely the only companionship they had in a new harsh world. So when one dies, the other loses it. And with it comes a radical new behavior. The survivor seems to deliberately go after Aladar and outright charges the herd instead of holding back like before. Doesn’t even try to save themselves when they go over a cliff, instead trying to drag Aladar down with them. It comes off less like the Carnotaurs are monsters and more animals doing their best to survive.

Which does work in the context of the film and works to its strengths. Even antagonistic characters like Kron are given moments to flesh them out and portray them as less evil and more being ground down by bad circumstance after bad circumstance. Hell, Kron doesn’t start out bad even if he is a little callous. Aladar certainly doesn’t try to defy him until he starts making rash decisions that threatens the entirety of the herd. Kron is less of a monster and more cracking under immeasurable pressure and is given a fair share of sympathy even at his worst moments.

That's another strength to this film. It feels...human. One of the core messages is about how empathy and compassion win out over cruelty and hardship. Which is demonstrated beautifully by Aladar who wants everybody to get to the Nesting Grounds to the point he doesn't directly challenge Kron's authority until it's clear he's gonna get them all killed. And even he has his limits since he has a breakdown and gives up all hope of survival in a cave in. Which...is actually pretty emotional. Not gonna lie.

Just because I said Aladar is kind of vanilla doesn't mean he can't stand on his own and have his moments.

That's a good way to sum up this film. It has flaws, but the flaws don't bring down the film all that much and detract from the experience. Even some of the weakness are mitigated in the film itself. Hell, Neera, the other fairly simplistic character I mentioned, does come into her own as her relationship with Aladar develops right up to trying to physically stop Kron from a fight with him and even takes Kron down to save Aladar.

It's a good way of summarizing this film, flawed but they're not enough to detract from the overall experience. Combine that with the beautiful animation and you get a pretty underrated film in my opinion.

Course, there's also the score by James Newton Howard, who was basically allowed to be creative in composing a score for the Mesozoic era. The result? An epic and almost timeless soundtrack which has almost transcended the film itself. And no wonder. "The Egg Travels" is probably one of my favorite scores from any piece of media. It's this score that helps deliver more power to many of the film's scenes.

youtube

Is this film perfect? No. But I do think there's a lot that helps this film stand as a movie and a piece of paleomedia. Which is sad since it's effect on popular culture is almost minimal. I say almost since the soundtrack is widely beloved and it made Carnotaurus into a household name. Plus we got a pretty kickass ride at Animal Kingdom out of it.

So, yeah. I'd recommend this one. And with Disney+ being a thing and more love being shown to the Experimental Era, I do think this film is worth a look.

#dinosaur #dinosaur 2000 #dinosaurs #paleomedia #carnotaurus #iguanodon #aladar #bruton #neera #kron #underrated movies #disney #Youtube

82 notes · View notes

acnelli · 2 years

Text

Nelli's Birthday Recs

All credit for this lovely idea goes to @lumosatnight. It's my Birthday today and I want to share some quality stories with you to enjoy. Especially, in those last two years fanfiction and fandom in general became a safe haven for me. A very welcome escape from reality and overall joy in general. So thank you for this 💛

Just like Lani, I'll introduce 12 stories and authors (for each day in July leading up to my Birthday). Except for one, they're all Ron-centric (no surprises there but you probably follow me for that exact reason, so...I guess it's fine ;)). I can only encourage you to read these stories as well as checking out their writer profiles for more.

And I'll never get tired of saying this: Leave Kudos & comments if you enjoyed reading a story. No matter how old the story is, no matter how many Kudos and comments there are already, your comment will make a writer happy. Always (imagine this in a Severus Snape/Alan Rickman voice)!

This is not sorted by ship at all. So, scroll through the whole list, please. Pairings: Romione, Rarry, Kron, Perciver, and a selection of many different pairings from the microfics I recommended.

Holidate by @accio-broom [M, Ron x Hermione, WIP]

Fed up with being single for the holidays, two close friends agree to be each other's platonic plus ones all year long. But will they catch real feelings along the way?

This story updates on every major holiday and finishes on Christmas 2022. If this isn't the coolest idea?

My Microfic May 2022 by @curlyy-hair-dont-care [various ratings and pairings]

Her submissions to @microficmay 2022 were such a delight to read and I was looking forward everyday to read one of these lovely stories.

The Romione, Blairon, and Marthur fics were my favs but all of them are great.

A Perfect Birthday Morning by @hillnerd [M, Ron x Hermione, 1k+]

Ron's 34th Birthday.

Hilly isn't just one of my favorite artists ( @hillnerd-art) but also a great writer. She also organized hangouts during the panini which were such a life saver, especially in 2020.

A Muggle Cliché by @cescalr [T, Ron x Harry, 8k+]

Harry Potter. The squib son of James and Lily Potter. The nephew of Sirius Black.

Ron is never going to hear the end of this from the twins, he realises, with great despair. In his defence, Harry Potter should be dead.

I can't stress enough how great of a concept this is and how well-written this story is, especially how Harry is written.

what you know about love (i got what you need) by @playitaagain [M, Ron x Harry, 6k+]

Ron shows Harry that it's okay to seek comfort, to have someone hold you. He allows Harry the space to cry while showing him how much love can be found in another person's nonjudgmental support.

Five time Ron initiates comforting Harry and one time Harry seeks out comfort.

Beautiful story with the 5 + 1 prompt. (Just as a FYI, I still get notification for this story on the @harryronfest blog almost every day :)).

Treacle Treat by @orange-peony [E, Ron x Harry, 30k+]

Fred's funeral turns out to be quite lovely, Harry thinks, in spite of how heartbroken they all feel. Everyone says something nice or funny about Fred, trying to remember the good moments. Harry can’t get the words out, but Ron is by his side, the back of his hand pressed against Harry’s, his eyebrows scrunched up as he sobs quietly.

“Stay,” Ron whispers after dinner, when everyone gets ready for bed, pale faces looking empty and wiped out. “Don’t go back to Grimmauld Place. Stay here, Harry. Please…”

Harry nods, then follows Ron upstairs, to the room where they’ve spent countless summer evenings, chatting in bed with a laugh and a cheeky grin on their faces.

They lie in the dark in silence this time, and Harry feels so cold.

So much angst, so much smut, so much love. So much of peony's beautiful writing.

A Heart So Colourful by @lumosatnight [E, Ron x Viktor, 1k+]

Rita Skeeter’s article dropped on Tuesday afternoon. By Wednesday morning, it was posted all over Hogwarts. Not even Filch’s personal quarters had been overlooked (though why a student would risk sneaking in there, Merlin only knew). By Thursday, even the professors were talking about it. By Friday, the Minister, himself, was Flooing his associates across the pond.

Viktor Krum was gay, and he had asked Ronald Weasley to the Yule Ball.

This is so cute and a really lovely idea. Also shout out to Lani for getting me into writing again with microficmay.

Perfect Strangers by @adenei [T, Ron x Hermione, 5k+]

Ron Weasley is just like any other University student: he attends his classes, plays for the football team, and spends much of his spare time working at the coffee shop that's owned by his best mate's parents. What will happen when an ordinary shift brings in a new customer?

I might have mentioned that I love Coffee Shop AUs right? This here also comes with a Jily lives bonus and adenei's amazing writing.

In Which Landon Is Accidentally Observant, and Peters Misses Quidditch for No Good Reason at All by @constitutionalweasleymonarchy [T, Percy x Oliver, 3k+]

The arguments between Percy Weasley and Oliver Wood are so legendary, a mere glare is enough to clear out the dormitory. The problem is, Landon and Peters live here, too.

(A 7th year Perciver from the POV of their dormmates.)

Usually, I recommend A Counterpoint to Working Lunches by RGF but this story made me laugh so much and I was absolutely delighted about the new ship name she came up with for Perciver.

Right Here, Right Now by @cheesyficwriter [M, Ron x Hermione, 1k+]

Ron and Hermione share a tender moment under the stars during the summer following the Battle.

This was written for the @romioneficfest 2021! As every story written for this lovely fest, cheesy's story warmed me from the inside out when I first read it.

The Handyman by @reallybeth9 [M, Ron x Hermione, 2k+]

She gave me another one of those tight-lipped smiles, and I realized that I desperately wanted to see what one of her real smiles looked like.

“It’s nice,” she said. “Or it will be once it’s decorated.”

I wanted to ask her if she could help me decorate it but I held my tongue, knowing that it would be an inappropriate thing to ask.

Smutty goodness with a twist but you have to see for yourself.

The Quiet by @be11atrixthestrange [T, Ron x Hermione, 1k+]

A father/son shopping trip turns into an understated moment of bonding.

This story will not just make your Romione shipper heart happy but you'll also find yourself shipping an entirely new pairing. My personal headcanons about Hugo's character were also shaped by this story. And Dad!Ron is always a treat, isn't it?

#nelli's fic recs #hp fic recs #romione #perciver #rarry #ronarry #kron #marthur #blairon #hp #hp fanfic #ron weasley #harry james potter #harry potter #hermione granger #percy weasley #oliver wood #viktor krum

64 notes · View notes