#does Disney really not have enough characters to make this actually pride themed
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Wish (2023): Movie Review
I have to start this by saying how much I hate the online discourse about this movie.
It's okay if you think this movie looks and sounds boring. It's okay if you don't want to support Disney anymore. And it's okay if you just don't want to watch it.
I see plenty of people saying you have to watch this, otherwise the studio will go back to releasing only sequels and remakes, and it's a very stupid argument. Movie executives are buttholes, and they always learn the worst lessons. Regardless of what Disney does next, it won't be because of the public.
You don't owe your time to Disney.
Said that, I loved this movie, and I struggle to see what exactly turned so many people off. I watched twice just to be sure, and I had an amazing time going through this movie.
Make no mistake, I feel like it definitely could be better. I feel like it's a weaker movie if compared with Tangled, Frozen, and Encanto, but along Encanto, it is definitely one of the most enjoyable entries in the WDAS catalogue since Moana in 2016.
The animation was great. I loved the texture and colors, especially in the night scenes. Some of the backgrounds gave me Silver Age Disney flashbacks, which is great because the Silver Age (1950 - Alice, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, etc.) is my absolute favorite era of the studio.
Keep in mind, that I had to pirate this movie because it still hasn't come out here in Brazil, and even with the image being a bootleg filmed straight from the movie theater, the animation still looks impressive and beautiful.
Asha brings nothing new to a Disney Heroine, but Ariana DeBosse enfuses this character with life and makes it pretty likable. She never failed to make me laugh at the situations Asha finds herself. I think Asha is the perfect embodiment of a human disaster.
I hate the discourse about the Adorkable Disney Heroine that ModernGurlz brought up, because it pretty much feels like the Mary Sue discourse that I had to endure from Star Wars fans. People just regurgitate the online talking points, project their own grievances on them, and add nothing new to the conversation.
Asha and Anna are the only Disney heroines that really fall into the Adorkable character archetype, and even then they have enough character circunstamces to set them apart.
King Magnifico is a absolutely delicious villain. Chris Pine chews the scenario with this one. He is one of the few characters with a real arc, and is a corruption arc. I absolutely love how we see his insecurities, his pride, his narcissism, his greedy slowly take a tool on him. I love how he is not a villain from the start, but how he succumbs to villainy over the course of the movie.
And no, Magnifico is not good or right under any circumstance. He is not a tragic hero guys.
I actually think it's funny how he has a character arc similar to Wanda Maximoff, but with fewer redeming qualities, and although people correctly called her out on it, because he is an attractive man people keep trying to find excuses for him.
The songs are bangers. I don't think the lyrics are that atrocious. I understand people not liking them, but they are meant to be playful, and the visuals during the their sequences absolutely sells them, at least for me.
On the downside, Wish's script is very underdeveloped, with some parts very rushed and not properly fleshed-out. But even with that it has very unique and original ideas that I wished had been explored better.
I love the theme of wishes and dreams being physical things that you can use to manipulation, harm, and control people. I think it has a lot of real life implications that I may explore on a different post.
The room with the wishes as magical blue orbes is the most striking scene for me.
I don't know if the original concept was better and Disney forced the team to neuter their vision, or if Jennifer Lee just doesn't know how to write sincere fairy tales.
Either of these possibilities makes complete sense, especially since I don't like Jennifer Lee's vision for the studio.
Overall, Wish is a weak Disney film, and I understand people being disappointed, especially since it is meant to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the studio, but it still has plenty of things to enjoy.
It's very sweet, full of heart, and with so many live action remakes laying around, this isn't soulless at any point.
It definitely could be better, and we should expect better coming from one of the most powerful media corporation on the planet, but Wish isn't mediocre, and it doesn't deserve the online hate.
Wish is a good movie with good ideas and concepts, that could be better developed.
I especially struggle to see why this movie was so hated when some of Disney's more recent movies were much worse and didn't got that much negative attention.
Anyway, I think Asha and her friends deserve better and I love them so much.
I just hope Disney doesn't lock up Asha and them on the vault. They totally deserve better from Disney and from the fans.
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For the Uncommon questions for OCs: 12, 35, 43, and B (if you’re willing)
12. How do they deal with an itch found in a place they can’t quite reach?
Fantasize about bitching about it, and then ignore it until something distracts her long enough to forget about it.
35. How do they treat the things their friends come to them excited about? Are they supportive?
I don't think Nellie Treat is really most people's first port of call when something cool or exciting happens, but she tries to love what the people around her love, even when she doesn't get it.
In the case of not getting it, she'll at least try to figure it out for herself, on her own time and terms, which I do think can read as coolness or disinterest to people who don't know her well (and even to those who do know her well, at times!) - she's concerned with not appearing foolish or uneducated or like she's making demands of people, asking them to explain themselves.
43. If someone asked them to explain their sexuality, how would they do so?
Serviceable. Vaguely puzzling by comparison to her observations of other people's varied sexual orientations, but not ultimately getting too much in the way of things.
B) What inspired you to create them?
There's a post that occasionally makes the rounds along the lines of Jimothy "is an Austen hero in a theme park ride movie" and I had notes about it - for me, the appeal of the character is that he does do quite a lot wrong, moral compass is pretty well shaky, but sure, I can work with (quoting P&P) him having been "given good principles*, but left to follow them in pride and conceit." as one particular manifestation of his larger character flaws.
In that vein, Elinor Coggeshall Treat came out of a vaguely Austen-heroine-shaped space in the narrative. Nellie owes no small amount of her original DNA to Elinor Dashwood (responsible older sibling to a younger sister, Mary/Marianne, emotionally locked-down, relentlessly practical, I even stole borrowed the name!), and especially in the first part of Customs, there's a lot of parlor drama (probably too much, for 1730s Boston, but ludicrous AU of a Disney Theme Park Ride Movie, I'm allowed to play a little fast and loose at times) & it's Nellie's ability to navigate it that counts towards her narrative survival. Still, she's not really that much of an Austen heroine - she's older, more established & isn't looking to (re)marry unless personally inclined to do so; she's also running a smuggling operation for reasons which include "greater profits" "it (the Molasses Act) isn't even good law" and "fuck this guy". Obviously the latter reason she comes to have some. uh. conflicted feelings about.
*: I don't actually think his principles are that good, but for the sake of argument, here: a person who has the ability to be good and even shows glimmers of it at times, but has so thoroughly twisted up (I would say entwined but people will throw things at me) his sense of self in his office that he will almost always default to what he believes he ought to do as the King's man, or what he is outright ordered to do even if he appears to personally disagree with it.
Uncommon Questions for OCs
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Why are Sam and Bucky on this ad 😂 I’m taking this as a confirmation from Disney that they’re a couple
#seriously though what is this#why not put loki on it?#why are Ricky and Nina there 😂#does Disney really not have enough characters to make this actually pride themed#sambucky#sam wilson#bucky barns#hsmtmts#the falcon and the winter soldier#pride month
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hey Kip! I’m sending asks into different writer’s askboxes, inquiring about cool themes/development facts/stuff the author wants to share about their personal favorite work of their own. What’s yours? :)
Ok so this ask is old and when I first got it I was like “dang I don’t really have a lot to talk about, what should I talk about I could those revalink headcanons the Kip Cut that turned into a working fic uhh hmm maybe I’ll just make something new to talk about real quick” and then I did and now there is a 12+ chapter Revalink fic in my drafts and I’m gonna talk about that now, whoopsie doopsie [click "j" to skip]
aHEM, OK so allow me to break out the primary school white board because yeah, I have a lot of thoughts and the oxford comma has not yet made it’s home into my brain. oh and spoilers for paraphrase. for both all of Chapter one and future events in later chapters, but it’s really nothing you couldn’t surmise from the AO3 tags
so I really wanted to tell the story of Revali and Link learning and struggling to love again after the less-than-fortunate events of Botw, but I wanted a...how you say...fresher, approach on the subject? Like I know we always say that fanfic writers writing the same tropes and stories time and time again is good because we eat that shit up--but at the same time I had asian parenting as was told never to half ass anything ever, no matter what. So now I'm gay and extra and have depression maybe and oh would you look at that @motherhyrule has dropped a beautiful revalink prompt right into my lap
Great so now that we have, that, I shall take you on the step by step process on how to make a :sparkles: story. So step one is to spend at least five to eleven business days for your white board to dismantle your genre and themes and work them around your character arcs. Luckily I have prepared one ahead of time
s*breaks out those laser pointers that uni professors use* So let's start with defining genre. As define because I HATE you, fuck you. I want you to suffer and writhe on the ground, motherfucker. How dare you think that I would give you nothing but pure predictable fluff, fuck you and yours
is the set of expectations that your audience has when consuming a piece of media
And the great thing about fanfiction is that unlike movies or book where the genres are more vague like, "oh it's a noir mystery genre. so there's a crime, maybe a murder, and a detective and a criminal." or "oh it's a teen romance. so there's some white people and a morally questionable six-pack 18 year old love interest that will be painted as desirable for some reason" BUT with fanfiction HALF of the work out the window, because as soon as you see those #revalink #aro sidon #zelpha #revali is an idiot and #found family tags you already know what's up.
Now what's so great about genre and expectation? Well the fun thing about it is that
I will use it to fucking break you.
...
...
...
<3 For example! <3
In Chapter 1: Holes, you already expect there to be revalink, you already expect them to be soulmates with the soulmarks and there's angst and yadayada ya. Revali and Link have to match because thatttss what this is all about, this is about them! This is about cute, little soulmarks and romantic words!
But whoooopsie doopsie [disney channel laugh track plays] they DON'T match anymore! Link's got a different mark! The number one rule of this entire genre has been broken whoooooooooooooooops. *ba dum tiss*
You might notice with a lot of my writing that I do this a lot, this whole..."oop but there's one little thing that's different." TebaSaki sick fic? Ok cool, but what if Teba burns an irreplaceable relic of the Rito champion to fight a wizzrobe first to characterize why his dumbass clicks with Saki. Mipha deciding to persue Link? Ok what if she chases after a dragon to externalize this conflict as she pierces it's flesh for a scale. Link fighting a Lynel? Ok but what if it's actually a sidlink angst fic in disguise and it's also world building on how Link deals with the bloodmoon that erases all of his efforts which is sort of similar to how his existence was erased from Hyrule 100 years ago mwaahahaha! Ok now that I say this outloud I think I just have a pattern of using fight scenes to externalize character growth. I like fight scenes...anyways.
I think another great thing about the realm of fanfiction is that with the tagging system, I can basically use a chekhov's gun sort of deal, without doing any writing. You know I'm gonna use that gun marked "soulmates" but you don't know when I'm gonna shoot it, and you SURE as hell don't know how.
And huzzah! One of the main points of conflict both drives the tension between Revali and Link, solidifies the unique genre and setting of this world, while also creating a new mystery that will carry over for the next few chapters.
Is Revali right in that Link's rebirth makes him destined for someone new now? What will Link do with the information that his soulmark has changed? Why did it change? Did Revali's change as well? How does anything fucking work right now?
And sure, you might be able to tell where things will end with them, but you sure as fuck will not know how because I HATE you. Fuck you. I want you to suffer and writhe on the ground, motherfucker. How dare you think that I would give you nothing but pure predictable fluff. I am not your goddamn fairy godmother, I will do as I fucking please. You will suffer as you fucking deserve, fuck you and your little tiny--
/j
Oh! But you might have noticed on my little planning whiteboard thing that there was a little T-Chart! For Revali and Link! That's because the next important thing besides plot (and in a lot of cases, including this one, it's argued to be even MORE important than plot) is
~CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT~
[to the tune of that history of the world video on youtube]
So yes, it's a little T-Chart outlining their character views in relation to the themes. And the great thing about themes is that they're not something you can necessarily predict in the same way you can with the genre and plot.
But now see, I'm very lazy so I'm just gonna plagiarize @hyrule-kingdom-updates thingy [that you should read btw] because they said my point quite clear enough
Now I don't really need to care about those points about bond and relationships and being understood, because I'm dealing with already established canon characters. I'm not some NERD who dabbles with entire casts of ocs who even cares about ocs not me that's for sure ahaahahaahahahahahaahahahahahAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH *cries in my orphaned WTTU fic* AHAHAHA*sobs*DONT FUCKING LOOK AT ME THAT WAY I SWEAR--
/j I love ocs
But the points I do wanna focus on is the idea that characters provide new perspectives on the theme, and that characters growth can be tracked based on their wants, lies, and needs.
So see, themes can be predicted the same as genre/plot because while you can have the same fanfic plots and tropes, theme will always vary!
Sometimes it's a journey of selfworth with Revali! Sometimes it's an exploration of trauma with Link. Sometimes it's about how you deal with the vulnerabilities of love with Mipha. Sometimes there's straight up NOOOO theme, and people just be fucking, and kissing, and baking, and having a good time. And that is totally fine too!
But I'm not a fucking coward.
I'm gonna weave in themes with my plot, because I fucking can.
I'm not a weakling like you.
Do you hear me, 2019 Kip? Do you hear me Demmers? Do you hear me Quill? I'm coming for your ass. You think you're so great, but I'm coming for you. Rest assured that your graves will be as deep as your sculptured pride--
Heeeere is that T-Chart again, plus more!
yyyyyYou might notice that Revali and Link are quite parallel, to paraphrase. Ayoooo, see what I did there? *dabs* I'm a genius. Anywho
They both start off the same way: 100 years ago they were in love and happy. Basically the equivalent of childish naivety. For the first time in their lives, life is whimsical and charming, and they make each other happy. In fact, it's almost a flaw with how they perceive this happiness. But don't worry! It doesn't last long!
You know what happens.
I think the chart is pretty self explanatory. Revali builds walls fast enough to give a republican a wet dream. Meanwhile Link makes every aromantic in the chat groan with his doubled down sentiments in the idea that his chances of being truly happy again are gone.
Now, I can't exactly describe the full on process of the inbetweens, and where Revali and Link are gonna go from here, because...you have to read it for yourself! Heehee...but something I did think was fun was how these character views on the themes are revealed. Because you'll notice that, I never give exposition. Ever.
Ok well, let me rephrase that. I never give exposition scenes. I will never give you a big LOTR fancy wizard scene explaining the ins and outs of a character's question or the world's magic or whatever. I'm a very impatient Kip, and I value efficiency. Nonono, it's all about multi tasking, baby!
Chapter 1: Holes is divided into three parts.
Post 100 Years - Medoh (Establishes Ghost Rev/Bonk Head Link's view)
100 Years Ago - Flight Range (Establishes old Revalink views)
Post 100 years - Mark (Develops Ghost Rev/Bonk Head Link's view in contrast to who they once were)
I think the way that you structure flashbacks is incredible vital, as it's a very quick way to characterize people without having them say stuff like "I used to be like you, until I took an arrow to the knee" or whatever.
And with the main structure of the chapters and the fic as a whole is focus on their characters, that means I can hide whatever other stuff I want in those scenes, becuase you're too busy absorbing the fun character stuff to realizing I'm giving you boring exposition. Like for example:
Post 100 Years - Medoh and Mark
Foreshadowing for the end of the fic
Set up connection to Medoh with Revali
Link has defeated Windblight
Link has been visiting Revali every night for the past few days
Link has already met Kass and presumably Teba
Link doesn't have the Mastersword
Revali's Gale is still an ability that needs master and practice on Link's end
And that's just some of the stuff.
And see, the only reason I can efficiently give all of this information regarding character, and even exposition, is because of the theme. The themes make everything relevant, and everything circles and encompasses one another, so there's absolutely no wasted space. I mean don't even get me started on how it's gonna be to characterize the other characters around this
I don't wanna talk about the other characters too much either because that's spoilers, but you can probably take a gandar based on my notes.
And oh my god this is just on the theme of the faults that come with "soulmates" and "true love" and all that, and how even magical destined relationships still require work and effort, and that no one thing or person solves all your problems. And that's not even TOUCHING the shit on trauma and scars. I didn't think it was even possible for me to talk about botw without touching on that, ha. Ah well, I've been talking for too long.
Revalink has a lot o' writing potential so das pretty cool yeah, I am excite
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Celebrate the Olympic Spirit
Sure, the Olympics aren’t a holiday, per se, but the every-four-year, or two if you count both Summer and Winter editions separately, massive international sporting events sure seems like a reason to celebrate, especially given their recent, unprecedented delay. And what better way to get into the Games mood, than by watching a sports movie?
Here are my favorite motivating, inspirational, and aspirational tales of athletic derring do…
Favorite Sports Movies
The Cutting Edge (1992) - This figure skating romance was released around the 1992 Olympics, and actually name-checks that year's winter host city, Albertville, more than once. It's not good in the traditional sense of great storytelling or athletic veracity, but I loved it so very much I saw it three times in the theater as a teen. Watching it at some point during every Winter Games is a tradition for me so, yeah, I can’t help it, I love this silly sports movie/romance, which also features a bit of holiday feels.
Wimbledon (2004) - It's a rom-com. It's a sports movie. It's a rom-com sports movie that really should be better known. Notting Hill but set at tennis' best-known event. Paul Bettany and Kristen Dunst have surprisingly great chemistry, and there's more sports-related tension than you'd think.
Friday Night Lights (2004) - A football movie for people who don't really like football. a.k.a. 🙋♀️. The TV series it spawned is also brilliant (”Clear Eyes, Full Hearts,” indeed), and well worth a watch, but the original movie, starring Billy Bob Thornton, is, honestly, a masterpiece. Definitely Peter Berg's best work and the original book, written by Berg's cousin, Buzz Bissinger, is a great read.
Muriel's Wedding (1994) - You mean you forgot this Australian export, which made Toni Collette a star, was a sports movie? Yep, one of my all-time favorite movies, of any genre, this absolutely brilliant, ABBA-soaked comedy is not only a girls-night go-to, but also a stealth Olympic sport classic.
Remember the Titans (2000) - OK, football isn't in the Olympics, but it sure does make for a good sports movie setting. Even if this early 1970s-set story is most definitely Disney-fied, Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Ryan Gosling and a baby Hayden Panettiere really sell this sort-of true story.
Invictus (2009)-Rugby isn't an Olympic sport, or even one most Americans know much about, but this Matt Damon-led, Clint Eastwood-directed, based-on-a-true-story tale made me care about a sport I'd only tangentially knew even existed before watching.
Hoosiers (1986)-I grew up in Indiana so, by law, I have to include this basketball classic on any "best of" sports movie lists. Also, it actually is really very good.
Rudy (1993)-Ditto the above. But, again, it's hard not to root for Sean Astin (and Jon Favreau!) in this love letter to the Fighting Irish. Plus, there’s no better scavenger hunt task or TikTok challenge than going into a bar and convincing a patron to allow you to put them on your shoulders and march around chanting, 'Rudy, Rudy, Rudy.'
Miracle (2004) - Given how much more popular the Summer Olympics are, it's weird that the Winter Games seem to get all the good movies made about them, but this Kurt Russell-led true tale is another Disney sports movie classic.
McFarland, USA (2015) - Disney, and Kevin Costner, just really know how to make a sports movie, damn it! This movie made me care about cross country for which it, too, could have carried the title Miracle.
A League of Their Own (1992)-The best baseball movie ever. Yeah, I said what I said. Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Lori Petty—even Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell are making it work. 1992 was a weirdly great year for sports movies.
Moneyball (2011) - A movie about baseball, and math, and yet it's also great, I swear. In addition to all of the above, it's also a stealth Christmas movie and maybe Chris Pratt's best non-Marvel, movie role.
Creed (2015) - This surprisingly effective Rocky reboot starring Michael B Jordan as Apollo Creed's illegitimate son has spawned its own movie series which, in many ways, exceeds the original Rocky franchise.
Rocky Balboa (2006) - Maybe it's because I was a toddler when the original Rocky came out, so only saw the ever-worse sequels as a kid, but this mid-aughts return to the character for Sylvester Stallone, as both writer and actor, is a triumph.
Eddie the Eagle (2016) - That Hugh Jackman features in as many movies (spoiler alert) on this list as Kevin Costner surprised me, too. This story of the English ski jumper who became infamous for being, well, less than golden, is one of those non-Olympic triumph stories that really works. If you're going to watch one underdog-at-the-Games movie, I definitely prefer this this to the more ubiquitous Cool Runnings.
Love & Basketball (2000) - Only because I'm an anglophile is this great, chemistry-filled Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps college basketball romance not my favorite sports-movie-meets-rom-com.
I, Tonya (2017) - Margot Robbie and a nearly unrecognizable Sebastian Stan are perfectly cast in this sarcastic, highly stylized look at the Tonya Harding scandal.
Pride (2007) - Apparently I like this swimming movie, which I think almost no one saw, better than critics, but I found this 1970s-set, Terrence Howard-Bernie Mac-starring story of inner city kids excelling in the pool emotional and entertaining.
Field of Dreams (1989) - This Kevin Costner magical realism baseball classic is often goofy and imminently tease-worthy and yet…It also works. Maybe it's no surprise that someone who loves cheesy Christmas movies as much as I do would have a soft spot for Field of Dreams.
42 (2013) - Chadwick Boseman is absolutely fantastic as legend Jackie Robinson. One of those movies that's ostensibly about baseball, but is really about so much more, except not in a pretentious way.
Race (2016) - Before Jason Sudeikis was Ted Lasso, he was famed track coach Larry Synder in this Jesse Owens biopic that is far from perfect, but still important. Plus, I honestly don't think Stephan James got enough credit for his relatively nuanced portrayal of Owens.
Goon (2011) - This overlooked gem starring Sean William Scott as a semi-pro hockey player whose main skill is his ability to take, and dole out, a beating, is surprisingly great.
Real Steel (2011) - This is a robot-boxing movie starring Hugh Jackman that is basically Rocky meets Over the Top—and yet it's actually really good. Yeah, I was surprised, too.
Forget Paris (1995) - OK, so maybe Billy Crystal playing an NBA referee doesn't really make this a sports movie, but it does begin and end (spoiler alert) at real NBA games, and I will die on the hill that this rom-com co-starring Debra Winger is wildly under-rated.
Bend it like Beckham (2002) - This girl-power sports movie has some highly questionable romantic dynamics (the coach is their love interest???) but this Parminder Nagra-Keira Knightley movie is also a heckuva sports movie and an inspiring immigrant story.
Bonus Pick: The Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso is one of the best things I watched in 2020, and I'm sure of that, because I watched it twice since, just to be sure. Jason Sudekis is absolutely perfect as an American college football coach taking over a UK Premier League team. This sweet show with a heart of gold is smart, funny, and absolutely impossible not to love—even for a cynic such as myself.
More Sports Movies Worth Watching
For someone not very into sports, I am, apparently, into watching movies about sports, so while not a comprehensive listing of the entire, vast genre, here are a few more suggestions I personally think are worth watching.
The Miracle Season (2018) - This movie about high school volleyball champs whose star player dies suddenly stars Helen Hunt and is a lot better than you'd think based on its tiny budget and, honestly, fairly small story. Just missed making my Top 25.
The Way Back (2020) - This Ben Affleck as a drunken high school basketball coach movie is a lot better than expected. Released just as the pandemic kicked into high gear, it was overlooked last year, but worth seeking out.
Fighting with My Family (2019) - Does it count if it's a show, not a sport? Either way (but that's why this isn't in my Top 25), this stealth Christmas movie/love letter to the WWE is a lot better than it ever needed to be thanks to some really great performances from Florence Pugh, Lena Headey and directer Stephen Merchant. Even The Rock reins it in.
Warrior (2011) - You couldn't pay me to watch an actual UFC bout, but this Tom Hardy story of (literally) battling brothers is incredibly compelling and well done.
Win Win (2011) - This movie isn't really enough about wrestling, even though its ostensibly centered around the sport, to make it into my Top 25, but it's still really good, and Amy Ryan gives an outstanding performance.
Fever Pitch (2005) - Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon star in this remake of a UK film whose ending they had to shift when the Red Sox unexpectedly won the World Series.
Fever Pitch (1997) - This Colin Firth-starring, Arsenal-centered original is much smaller, more realistic and arguably better than the big budget Barrymore-Fallon redux.
We are Marshall (2006) - A real-life sports tragedy made into a sports-movie tearjerker starring Matthew McConaughy. And my tears were very much jerked by the end.
Coach Carter (2005) - Samuel L Jackson plays real-life basketball coach Ken Carter and, because it's a Disney movie, doesn't use the F-word even once. Now that's a feat worthy of its own sports movie.
Invincible (2006) - Yes, it's Mark Wahlberg, and another based-on-a-true-story, Disney sports movie that hits all the cliches, but dang it, that works on me. It just does.
Glory Road (2006) - If you're sensing a theme with me and Disney sports movies…Well, you're not wrong. This look at the first all-Black starting lineup at the 1966 NCAA Final Four does, unfortunately, center white coach Don Haskins, played by Josh Lucas (though I always mis-remember it as Josh Charles), making the important story it tells less than what it should be, but it still mostly works.
Million Dollar Arm (2014) - Admittedly one of the lesser Disney sports movie entries, and another that centers a white guy in a film mostly about people of color (not a great look), this Jon Hamm movie about a scout seeking an Indian cricket star who can make it in the Major Leagues still mostly worked for me.
The Mighty Ducks (1992) - One of the few movies on this list aimed directly at kids, this beloved peewee hockey saga actually is cute, and mostly does hold up.
Cool Runnings (1993) - Kind of shocked this movie that is part White Savior-movie and part-wacky kids movie essentially making fun of a real group of athletes of color came out in 1993 and not 1973, but the earnest charm of John Candy and a general Disney gloss keep this from being totally unwatchable and mostly just mildly, rather than extremely, offensive. Not really recommending, but feels like it belongs on an Olympic movie list.
Nadia (1984) - This made-for-TV, mostly true biopic, starring Talia Balsam as Nadia Comaneci, was a Disney Channel staple in that network’s early days.
Munich (2005) - It's a movie with the Olympics very much at its heart—namely the 1972 Israeli athlete hostage tragedy—that isn't really about the Olympics at all, but this Steven Spielberg-directed movie about national revenge is compelling, if problematic if you think about it for too long.
American Anthem (1986) - Is this Mitch Gaylord-Mrs. Wayne Gretzky (a.k.a Janet Jones) starring movie good, realistic and/or well-written? No, no and none of the above. But did I still watch it 8,000 times as a kid on HBO? Yes. Yes, I did.
Men with Brooms (2002) - Once, on a business trip to Canada, my husband was stuck in a hotel that only got three channels, and one of them always seemed to be showing curling, which actually got him weirdly into this obscure sport. This movie wasn't quite as fun as I hoped, but it's still a mostly charming, if slight, Canadian classic.
Unbroken (2014) - The harrowing and incredible real-life story of Louis Zamperini deserved better than this Angelina Jolie-directed movie delivered, but it's still a serviceable version of a worthy tale.
Chariots of Fire (1981) - I remember being bored out of my mind by this movie trying to watch this movie on cable as a kid, but no denying that, if nothing else, the score is iconic and indelibly linked to sports-movie magic.
Without Limits (1998) - Jared Leto’s Prefontaine beat this one to the theaters, but this Billy Crudup-starring film is the better of the two movies about the life of running pioneer Steve Prefontaine. There’s also a 1995 documentary, Fire on the Track: The Steve Prefontaine Story.
Personal Best (1982) - Mariel Hemingway’s story of ambition at odds with love, is a sports and LGTBQ+ classic.
Olympic Dreams (2019) - The story of how this small, meandering movie was made during the 2018 Winter Games is, unfortunately, more interesting than the movie itself, but there is some charm in watching Nick Kroll as an Olympic dentist making his way through the real Village, while interacting with real athletes.
Foxcatcher (2015) - This excellently-acted story is more true crime than sports inspiration, but if you're seeking a look at the dark side of the Games—and don’t want to turn on a doc like Athlete A—this is very dark tale indeed.
Seabiscuit (2003) - Every great athlete deserves to have their story told.
Any Given Sunday (1999) - Oliver Stone and Al Pacino take on pro Football. 'Nuff said.
The Replacements (2000) - I mean, the movie isn't amazing, but Keanu Reeves is super charming and Gene Hackman is always worth a watch.
The Program (1993) - Another bit of a dark-side-of-football take, worth it if only for the fantastic cast: James Caan, Halle Berry, Omar Eps, Joey Lauren Adams.
Everbody’s All-American (1988) - Not a movie I particularly love, but this Dennis Quaid-Jessica Lange football story that spans decades has always stuck in my memory.
Bull Durham (1988) - Just let Kevin Costner play actual baseball already.
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Letter to blogger- An issue with Elsa's character development in Frozen
First of all, I want to say I love Elsa as a character. I truly feel the emotional struggle she had to face due to her magical powers. However, the way her character arc is resolved at the end of movie feels under-developed to me for reasons I am about to explain.
In Frozen, Elsa’s character arc is driven by two things: her concern for her sister’s well-being, and the uncertainty of how the Arendellian society would react to the fact that she has magic. The first driver is well-explored throughout. The second, however, not so much. Because both drivers are presented as equally important for Elsa’s character arc at the beginning of the movie, the lack of exploration of the second driver makes the resolution of Elsa’s character arc seems under-developed.
Despite a strong emphasis on Elsa’s concern regarding how people outside her family would think of her magic, the movie never really presented how people actually feel about Elsa’s powers in a substantial manner. There is no meaningful follow-up on the Arendellian people’s attitude towards Elsa’s powers after she accidentally revealed it at the night of her coronation day until the very end- Were they generally afraid of it like the way the villagers in Beauty and the Beast was fearful of the Beast, or were they usual to such unusual phenomenon? While we do see over-antagonistic fear shown by individuals such as the Duke of Wesselton and his guards, these individuals are not representative of the Arendellian society. The only meaningful reaction from the Arendellian people towards Elsa’s magic is at the very end, when they were amazed and excited by her magic. While this is definitely a sensible good ending by itself for Elsa, lack of any significant sentiment shown by the Arendellian people prior to the ending creates a plot hole that I find too significant to ignore- were they generally welcome Elsa’s magic all along, or was it a product of a transformation from a more antagonistic attitude aided by a major plot event?
The ambiguous nature of the Arendellian society’s attitude towards Elsa’s magic is reinforced by the fact that the movie lacks any scene involving Elsa interacting with her people immediately after the thaw. Such scene would have been perfect to start resolving the conflict between Elsa and her people, ending with a touching and satisfying act of reconciliation like the ending of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Perhaps the creators thought the act of thawing itself is good enough to convince the Arendellian people that Elsa’s magic can do them good, but does it make sense plot-wise? Looking at the whole story, the answer is clearly no, as such a good act is completely negated by the fact that Elsa caused the winter in the first place. Hence, Elsa’s act of thawing feels more like an obligation on Elsa’s part to clean up the mess she caused, rather than an opportunity to prove the worthiness of her magic to her people.
Having a clear understanding of how the Arendellian people reacted to Elsa’s magic throughout the movie is important, as it would drastically affect how we perceive Elsa- either she was overly pessimistic with how her people would react towards magic or she had successfully proven to her people that her magic could help them in ways they had never expected. I personally would have preferred the second scenario, as it would have made the ending much more fulfilling for Elsa.
In conclusion, I find the resolution of Elsa’s character arc under-developed due to absence of a coherent effort in tackling the issue of public sentiment towards magic, which is presented as a supposedly major factor of her emotional struggles. As a result, the Arendellian society’s attitude towards Elsa’s magic in the end of the movie feels unfulfilling and illogical at times. One possible way to deal with the public sentiment issue is to totally avoid it. This can be done by not making Elsa a ruler, so that only plot-relevant characters would be dragged into the conflict between the sisters, similar to The Snow Queen, resulting in less character arcs to resolve, as well as less plot holes. While this would, admittedly, force other good parts of the story to be rewritten, by having less themes competing with one another for emphasis, the story would have undoubtedly packed a bigger punch than the one that was eventually presented to us back in 2013 due to it being more compact and personal while remaining in line with the creators’ intended vision of the story.
I want to say I have to agree with the intention of this text and I can tell most people that sympathize with Elsa would agree as well. As I’ve seen others write or talk about how Elsa’s ending at the end of the first Frozen is quite under-developed. And her ending in the sequel is not any better either.
I also could say that as much as it pains me to write this, and it really does pain me, after so many years going back to watch Frozen one could say or notice or think that Elsa ends up being more a side character than a main or even secondary character. I always thought and saw Frozen as a movie with both sisters as protagonists. I thought that was Disney’s idea when they changed Elsa’s status as villain while working on the song Let It Go. But it seems I thought wrong. They still continued to make the first movie more about Anna than anything else. And adding the fact that after all these years I don’t find Anna that endearing anymore, it would appear not even the first film has aged very well with me.
Elsa and Hans still are, and will always be my favorite characters in this franchise. Doesn’t matter they clearly are the characters that suffer the worst treatment. A treatment they don’t deserve.
Now I’d like to add that I feel this text has also something to do with my dislike of the people of Arendelle. When I think about previous Disney kingdoms, I never had any problem. I love Atlantica, I’m cool with the Pride Lands, I was never super invested in Agrabah but I have no problem with them, and I can’t believe how I grew to like the kingdom of Corona. But Arendelle? I always liked the Nordic setting and the architecture. It’s one of the things that drew me to Frozen when I knew little to nothing about the movie. But Arendelle’s people?
Starting with the former King and Queen, I hate them. Anna, I don’t like her. Elsa, she’s the only one I still like. The castle staff, they’re pretty useless. The townspeople, they add nothing. Oaken, he’s kind of annoying. The only Arendellian I’m willing to cut some slack is the elder woman to whom Hans gives the blankets to. And only because I choose to believe she would see there’s good in Hans even after what happened and she would also sympathize with Elsa’s. I choose to believe this woman has a good heart. But of course, this is my headcanon. I even had her to play a small but important part in my fanon Frozen animated series. That’s how much I want to believe in this woman’s humanity and compassion. And all of that because she was the only character we saw showing Hans some gratitude for his good actions. That big is the impact this little character had on me. And she had what? Five seconds of screen time? It doesn’t take much to make an impactful impression. Sadly I can think of a couple of people who forgot about that when coming up with a worthless cameo for the worst sequel Disney has ever allowed to exist.
I truly apologize if my thoughts have little to do with your text. It's just that what I read from you made me think of issues I’ve had with this movie and franchise for quite a while now. Nothing I haven’t written about already though.
Hope you are doing well and thank you for writing this.
#frozen#elsa#queen elsa#arendelle#hans#it's sad to still find disappointment#but i expect nothing else from lee and buck#frozen character arc#submission
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It's sad that they're trying to make Lea and Isa's duo into a trio by adding Skuld because Skuld is so underdeveloped that she barely counts as a character. All she does is hang out with Ephemer and neglect her friendship with Player. Maybe if she actually did things I'd be able to muster up some excitement over the idea of her becoming friends with my two favorite characters, but with the current situation she could be replaced with a cardboard cutout and no one would notice any difference.
Yes, thank you! This is a huge reason KH3 was such a letdown for me. I’ve heard people say that fans just got themselves too hyped up and their expectations were unrealistic. Nope, that’s not the case with me nor do I think that was the reason for most of the disappointment within the fandom. I wasn’t even overly hyped. KH3 just didn’t accomplish what it was supposed to. But more than anything, the characters were NOT treated with respect. That was my biggest disappointment.
Before KH3 came out, I was actually excited about KH4 and beyond because of the fact that we now have a pretty large group of main characters and they have so much potential. We wouldn’t have to focus on just Sora, Donald, and Goofy anymore. There are so many characters to develop and they all have solid personalities. We have the Destiny Island trio, the Wayfinder trio, the Disney Castle crew, and Lea and Isa.
I have an attachment to all of them based on all the previous games and all the years they’ve been developed. I wanted to see them interact with each other once Xehanort was defeated and everyone was rescued. Not get dumped in favor of new characters. Of all the characters Lea and Isa could form a relationship with, Skuld is the WORST choice. There are sooo many more interesting characters to focus on. Lea and Isa could grow close to Sora, Riku, Kairi, Terra, Aqua, Ventus, Donald, Goofy, or Mickey! Yet, they’re getting shoved aside for Union X characters that you need to play a mobile game to be familiar with. Skuld wasn’t even included in the Back Cover movie. Even if you played all the KH remasters, you still won’t know who she is!
I’ve actually seen all the cutscenes for Union X and I agree with you wholeheartedly. The characters were inoffensive, but they all had the personality of a wet paper bag. Nomura said Kingdom Hearts X, as it was originally called, was not supposed to have a heavy focus on story. Nothing I saw gave me the impression that characters like Skuld or Ephemer were meant to be anything more than mobile game characters. They were there for the player’s avatar to interact with, to give him/her a voice, since he/she is silent. But they are ancient history and should have perished during the Keyblade War.
Ehpemer comes from the world ephemeral, meaning “lasting a very short time”. The three Norns are the Goddesses of fate in Norse mythology and are described as deciding the fates of people. Their names are Urd “What Once Was” (Old Norse “Urðr”), Verdandi “What Is Coming into Being” (Old Norse “Verðandi”) and Skuld “What Shall Be” (Old Norse “Skuld”).
My point is that these characters seem more suited as background characters. They are part of the mythology and history of the Keyblade War. They are not on par with the established characters and are not suitable to be the new protagonists. Now they are being teased as the main focus for the upcoming plot arc. I think this was a big mistake on Nomura’s part. Hardly anyone is going to be excited for them. I’m certainly not. I feel like there is very little to look forward to anymore.
You’re right. Skuld has no personality. And to add insult to injury, since she’s Subject X now, Lea and Isa had everything stripped from them in order to prop her up. Skuld isn’t interesting enough to be introduced on her own, so she has to ride on the coattails of Lea and Isa and the human experimentation subplot. This is such bullshit. New characters should NOT come at the expense of old ones. Lea needed a sad backstory as a test subject, and he needed his friendship with Isa to be properly developed so his fight at the Keyblade Graveyard felt emotionally engaging (which it didn’t).
Isa needed to be Subject X to redeem him. Saïx didn’t have much of a “personality”. This was the whole point. He was never likable the way Axel was. He was rude, condescending, cold, and vicious. According to Axel, he showed no human emotion besides sneers and snide remarks. But he was Norted, for crying out loud! Saïx was not meant to be one of the protagonists. Isa was!! They threw away two amazing characters for this flat underdeveloped Union X one. Very foolish and shortsighted. it’s definitely gonna bite them in the ass.
Lea and Isa were always meant to be a duo. For some fans, it seems like only trios are valid, but that’s not true. SRK are Sky, Land, Sea. TAV are Earth, Water, Wind. Well, Lea and Isa are Sun and Moon—complementary opposites. I’ve heard people say that Skuld would be “Stars”. Well, I think Terra, Aqua, and Ven were meant to be the stars. Skuld is redundant and not needed to “complete” Lea and Isa.
Even in canon, she is a stranger to them. They spoke to her a few times in the shadows and couldn’t even see her face. She had amnesia. They literally knew nothing about her and weren’t sure if she even existed after a while, yet now their whole backstory revolves around her. She doesn’t complement them at all or make them more interesting. She detracts from them.
On the other hand, Isa definitely complemented Lea and made him a more interesting character. That’s why I liked him. He provided Lea with someone to humanize him and to give him a poignant backstory. He gave Lea a goal while becoming a Keyblade wielder. And Isa’s chemistry with Lea was adorable. Isa was sarcastic and brought out a different side of Lea than Roxas and Xion did. They also had an actual history together. They went to school together, ate ice cream, and also played with a dog. Probably played fetch with the frisbee (aww).
Lea was closer to Isa than anyone else—period. I was much, MUCH more excited to see Lea and Isa’s past and their friendship get developed than the potential relationship they have with Skuld get teased. No, I’m not excited for them to be a trio and I’m not excited for Skuld to get in the way of Lea and Isa’s friendship and make it all about her. She seemed like she fit in better with Ephemer anyways. Also, I think Lea and Isa have waaaaay more personality than Skuld. They are both colorful characters with a lot of charm. She can’t hold a candle to them.
Leo Traits
Leo is the fifth sign of the zodiac and has the Sun as its ruling celestial body. Bold, intelligent, warm, and courageous, Leo star sign is a natural leader of the Zodiac. Leo is an adventurer, seeking to balance an intense life of social obligations and travel with plenty of downtime to relax and luxuriate.
A Leo is a typical outgoing and jovial kind of person. He has a big friend circle and likes to boss around. Appreciation and admiration are the two important things for getting close to a lion’s heart. He likes to be flattered and pampered.
Skuld just doesn’t fit in with Lea and Isa’s theme. They are Sun/Moon opposites. She’s a third wheel. In KH2, Axel didn’t have a lot of development. He was clever and cocky, but we didn’t know a lot about him, especially as a human. When they decided to flesh him out, they definitely decided to make him a typical Sun personality. I thought Lea was surprisingly cheery and positive.
Caring
At their best, the courageous Leo is strong, and has an amazing, protective attitude towards their friends. They care very deeply for those close to them.
He cares very much for his friends.
Optimistic
Leo is an optimist who is able to see the silver lining to life. They are optimists who are always able to find the positive side of any situation, and they prefer to revel in the good than dwell over the bad.
Even though Axel could be quite pessimistic, Lea was a natural optimist.
Kind
They are always willing to help out a loved one in need, and they will go to great lengths to make sure that those they care about most are happy. Leos have a compassionate heart, and they tend to be extremely kind and generous creatures.
He was always willing to help stray puppies.
Loyal
If there’s one thing that you can say about Leo with certainty, it’s that they are some of the most loyal people that you will ever meet. Leo is the bravest sign in the Zodiac, often doing whatever they are required to do despite being scared or in danger.
He is amazingly loyal. He always wanted to bring his friends back, no matter what. Even when he thought Isa tried to kill him.
Straightforwardness
Mincing words is not in the nature of a Leo. They speak their mind and like to express their thoughts clearly. Frankness is therefore, one of the biggest strengths of Leos. It is because of their straightforwardness that they are able to confront opinions and thoughts, they do not approve of, directly. This is also one of the reasons why they get things done fast.
He is very straightforward. He lied a lot to Roxas and kept secrets, but that wasn’t who he really was.
Faithful Partners and Good Friends
Leos are romantic and passionate lovers. They are faithful partners and exhibit extreme sensitivity while in a relationship. This is also the reason why they are vulnerable to getting hurt. Thus, Leos need to find someone whom they can trust before they shower their love and kindness on that person.
One of the special traits found in Leos is helping friends in need. Lending emotional support to friends in difficult times is a rare quality found in these people. It enables them to make lifelong friends. Behind all the aggression, ego and other domineering personality traits of a Leo lies a sensitive heart which cares for the dear ones. Leos take pride in protecting their close ones and would do so with all the energy and wit they possess. It is observed that the bossy exterior of Leos often eclipses their sensitive nature.
He is a wonderful friend, but has a deeper side, more sensitive side. All very accurate.
Arrogance
At times, their dominance and confidence can be seen more like arrogance and conceit. Leo individuals ooze with confidence. They think that if they are the first to arrive at some conclusion, then they are right.
Lea was arrogant in a playful way. Like when he challenged Ventus to a fight. Axel was like that, too.
Inflexibility
They’re inflexible for other people, but they’re also inflexible for themselves. When they’ve made a commitment to something, they’re going to stick with it, regardless of how much they hate it.
Basically, Lea did whatever he wanted. Even Saïx said this about him.
Laziness
Though full of ambition and enthusiasm, Leo has to admit to a lazy streak and, given the opportunity, will take the easy way out, especially when a situation offers little fun or glory.
He likes to have fun.
Pride
This sign is represented by a lion, and as such, Leos are born with all of the pride and glory of the maned creature.
Oh yes, he is very proud.
Domineering
Leos have a hard time learning when to stop ruling and start listening. For this reason, Leos are extremely domineering and tend to overpower those around them.
Lea was the accelerator and Isa was the brake. Lea never listened to Isa, though.
Impatience
Impatience is one of the negative traits exhibited by a Leo. This trait of Leos get reflected in their habit to get things done fast. Impatience may lead to development of anxiety and restlessness in these individuals.
Axel never liked waiting around.
Jealousy
Leos may exhibit a possessive nature. This trait is closely related to the jealousy they exhibit. In fact, they are jealous because of their possessive nature.
Saïx was very jealous. But Lea probably had a side like that as well. He would not like it if Isa alienated him.
Cancer Traits
Cancer, the fourth sun sign of the Zodiac, has water as its element, is feminine, and is ruled by the Moon. This sign is represented by crabs, and similar to their nature, these people can be the sweetest and most sympathetic people at one moment, and turn into the most cranky and irritable ones the next.
Even though Isa was an NPC, he was not just “Lea’s friend”. He was certainly far more deserving of character development than ANY Union X character, that’s for sure. Isa seemed like he was more of a feminine archetype. Therefore, he is unlike any other male character in the series. I thought he was very refreshing and unique. He brought something new to the table. Also, based on the way Saïx acted, Isa was not just a cardboard cutout, either. He had interesting flaws to provide him with depth. Evidence suggests he was a typical Moon personality.
Moody
Cancer individuals are also known to have a moody attitude, especially whenever they are jealous. Normally protective and courageous, Cancer signed people could become very brooding and moody if they feel that their emotional needs are not being met. Cancer is all about needing emotional security and trust in a relationship, like all of us of course. But they take it to another level.
If a Cancer feels as though he can’t trust you or if he’s just an insecure guy in general, then his possessive and jealous side is going to come out in a major way. He’ll make snide comments about what you’re wearing and ask you questions about what you’re doing and who you’re with that can rival the time of being a teenager under your parents’ roof.
Man, dos this sound like Saïx or what? He was insanely jealous. While I think Saïx was a totally different personality from Isa, I still think he reflected much of Isa’s personality in him, due to having his memories and captured heart. In the novel, when Roxas was upset he pushed the wrong button, Axel said he knew what it felt like to have something be wrong and not know the reason. Based on the way Saïx acted, Isa sounded very emotionally needy towards Lea. I definitely think he’d be jealous if Lea didn’t spend enough time with him. He might be passive aggressive about it, too.
Unpredictable
Cancer, being a water sign, is very emotional and sensitive. They are very touchy, and can get hurt at the slightest provocation. It is this sensitivity, which makes them hide in their own shell, away from the world, to protect themselves from getting hurt. When they retreat into this shell, and refuse to talk to anybody, people may find them to be moody and unpredictable.
It doesn’t take much for them to go from friendly and outgoing, to totally introverted as a way of protecting themselves. And it can prove quite confusing and unpredictable to the people in their lives. Cancer needs a strong partner who can deal with his various sides and complexity. You never know what will trigger his moods and his evasiveness and his habit of being indirect makes you question if you ever really knew him.
Saïx could also be surprisingly moody and oversensitive once he began to awaken a heart. Axel had no idea why he suddenly started berating Xion and calling her a failure all the time. He wouls walk on eggshells to avoid upsetting him. It was probably easy to push the wrong buttons with Isa and he might not tell Lea what was bothering him right away. In the novel, Axel tried to get Saïx to open up to him by putting his hand on his shoulder, but Saïx brushed it away. This upset Axel and made him think how different things were between them. This said a lot about their relationship as humans. Lea had to put effort to get Isa to open up, but Isa was receptive to it.
Negative
Cancer people are ruled by the Moon, which is ever-changing, and thus they can have moods that can grow dark and darker. It’s common for people with this zodiac sign to struggle with low self-esteem and hold a lifelong grudge against someone. They are someone who sees the glass as half empty rather than half full.
Another trait being their lack of trust in people, they tend to have a negative outlook of life. They become prone to depression, and are unable to enjoy life. They can get hurt at the drop of a hat, and rarely express their resentment and anger.
I think this was why Isa felt like a burden on Lea and was down on himself a lot. Isa needed Lea to be the upbeat optimist for him. Isa was probably snarky and nitpicky with Lea, but in a more playful way. He was the brake, while Lea was the accelerator. This is also a dynamic unique to Lea and Isa. Axel had to be the mature and responsible mentor figure with Roxas and Xion. But with Isa, he was more playful and mischievous. Isa would scold Lea, but Lea never would listen.
Clingy
Cancer is a sign of fertile imagination and deep emotional needs. Cancer individuals are sometimes over-imaginative, which can get them in trouble. They will obsess over the situation until they have all of their answers.
Cancerians are very possessive about their relationships. They can be very clingy, and try to hold on to relationships, even after they have ended it. In relationships, they give much more and expect very little in return. Being emotional and sensitive, they are very easily influenced by their loved ones.
Yep. This is exactly how I think Isa was with Lea. Isa was very attached and gave his whole heart to Lea.
Suspicious
The empathetic crab is inclined to protect themselves. They only trust when they feel safe within relationships, often resorting to their inner world when they do not feel trustful or safe. He needs his moods and anxieties to be understood and if they’re not then he will retreat to his shell and come back out when he feels safe.
Definitely sounds like Isa. He was shy and couldn’t open up to just anybody.
Cancer Traits
Cancer star sign, the fourth sign of the zodiac is all about home. They are a nurturing and maternal sign. These people love their home and family more than anything else in this world. Cancerians are blessed with strong intuitive and psychic powers that help them judge people well. These people tend to be hard on the outside and soft inside. But they also have a tougher side to their personality.
So, Saïx exhibited all of the typical Cancer flaws. So, it stands to reason that Isa would also exhibit Cancer’s positive attributes, too.
Intuitive
Cancerians are known to be psychic, and can almost guess things before they actually happen. This comes from their highly developed observational powers. They can truly understand human behavior, and rarely forget things. All these make them highly intuitive and psychic.
This is a side of Isa we definitely never saw in Saïx. His scar is on his third eye chakra, which is the center of psychic awareness. It’s why he couldn’t see Xion or understand why Axel acted the way he did. It’s sad actually. A big part of his personality was shut down.
Kind
Emotional strength and intuition will always define Cancer’s top strengths and traits. This is emotional, but kind-hearted and compassionate personality type that makes for an outstanding friend.
I’m sure Isa was very kind and a wonderful friend, which is why Axel was so desperate to have a “best friend” to fill the void.
Emotive
Cancers are known for their traits like loyalty, their emotional depth, and their parenting instincts. Cancer individuals are emotional and intense; they are also extremely intuitive and compassionate. People belonging to this zodiac sign are highly emotional. Just like the crab that represents them, they are hard from outside, but very soft and mushy from within.
Isa scolded Lea a lot, but only because he cared. He was compassionate and selfless, like the Moon Rabbit. If there’s anything KH3 got right about Isa, it’s that he’d try to comfort an imprisoned girl and want to help her.
Faithful
Cancer is the most concerned with a secure and faithful relationship. Cancer individual loves home and family and is not happy unless they have deep emotional ties. Cancer is usually very nurturing and tends to take good care of everyone they care about.
Isa was serious when he said he’d never forget Lea. I definitely think Isa was the one who first gave Lea the WINNER stick, too.
Loving
Cancer individuals are very loving and caring. As the most sensitive sign of the zodiac, a Cancer does everything with love in mind and in the heart. Because of this, they are the most tender lovers.
Yes, I do think Lea and Isa were envisioned as a couple. Isa loved Lea. His Bunnymoon weapon has a rocket being launched by a heart. Lea also loved Isa, and this is why Axel was so depressed whenever he thought about how different Saïx was compared to Isa. Axel desperately missed feeling loved by someone. They had an extraordinarily interesting relationship. I don’t think Skuld adds anything except getting in the way and watering down their bond.
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Frozen 2 has entered my top 5 worst movies list after one watch.
This is going to be a long one, so buckle up.
I don’t think I’ve seen a movie that’s made me more passionately angry than Frozen 2 has. It entered my top five worst films I’ve ever seen immediately after my first viewing. There’s a lot of reasons, but I’ll break down the aspects and concepts that I found particularly problematic, which is character, plot structure, themes, and corporate greed.
I’m going to break down each character in order of annoyance.
Olaf
Olaf is absolutely the worst part of this movie. Olaf offers nothing of thematic importance besides being the classic comic relief character that Disney will always shoehorn into their films. They did it in The Hunchback of Notre Dame with the gargoyles, they did it Moana with the chicken, and they’ve done it in countless other films.
They try to tell me that Olaf has aged since Frozen and try to show this by having his dialogue be purple prose philosophy and by saying (keyword is saying) that he’s grown up, but they undercut all this by having him sing a song about how he’s not old enough to understand why strange things are happening around him. Also, Olaf has several instances where his immaturity is in full swing. There’s several jokes that are very obviously targeted at five-year-olds that he spouts throughout the movie. The line where he says, “I don’t even know a Samantha” and then he giggles for a while is the first instance that comes to mind. There’s also the problem that at any time in the movie, Olaf can grab the camera, focus it on him, and he can do whatever he wants to. He gets a musical number, he recaps the entirety of Frozen 1, gets a fake out death scene to emotionally manipulate the audience into thinking there are stakes (and oh boy, will we get to that.)
So they establish that Olaf is more mature now, but they take that away from him as soon as the writers realize that they still have to make a movie for toddlers. He’s learned nothing and hasn’t grown since the first movie. Got it. However, the problem gets worse as you go along. And that’s a point I’ll get to later on.
But since I want to be constructive, I will also offer my two cents on how to fix the movie. Since the main idea behind the film’s production was to grow up with the audience, have Olaf actually grow up. Keep the philosophical musings and have him be one to ask questions. Question why things in the world are the way they are. He is actually a toddler, technically speaking. And when he asks questions, have him be the vehicle to have questions regarding the plot and themes directed to the audience. “Should the actions of your grandpa be reflected on you?” “Is it really worth it to abandon your family so you can pursue something out of your grasp?” “Does a kingdom built on slaughter and violence need to be torn down so we can repent for the sins they’ve committed?”
This way, the movie can actually be grown up, which I know is super important to the filmmakers.
Christoff
Why was Christoff in this movie? He made no impact on anything, he was entirely used for a plotline that stretched out for the entire movie. Olaf might have been insufferable to watch, but the handling of Christoff has tied Olaf in terms of pure agony that I sat through. Basic writing tip. If a problem can be easily solved by simple communication, then the plotline doesn’t need to be there. There’s an entire song dedicated to his mourning over the fact that he can’t propose to Anna. It adds nothing to the themes of the movie, it gets really annoying immediately, and doesn’t showcase Christoff’s positive qualities at all.
Why do sequels have to break up the love interests? Why are there so few stories that develop the chemistry of a couple after they’ve gotten together? It always revolves around the hero trying to win back the girl. Why do people always have to go back to this plotline?
I’m going to diverge from the movie slightly to go into a semi-related topic. Divorce rates are rising and so many things are being blamed for it. I’m not saying that movies where they don’t go into the relationship of characters are the ultimate cause, but as a firm believer that art is a tool used to help people understand life and to make sense of things, I think movies can help people in small ways learn to grow with their spouse. How about a movie sequel in which a newly wedded couple must now operate through life together instead of individually? Whatever the obstacle, whether it be working together as one, making sacrifices to better gel with your loved one, helping your loved one through personal flaws or tragedy, or an evil space-lord is destroying the world and the two of you need to stop him by flying a plane into the spaceship, there are plenty of avenues to explore.
But I digress.
If it were me writing the script, have Christoff and Anna spend more time together outside of Christoff’s attempts to propose. As a matter of fact, we start the movie with knowledge that Christoff has already proposed. Anna has said yes, and now they’re all giddy and excited to get hitched. I’ll admit that there’s a bit of ret-conning in here, but we realize that Christoff isn’t exactly squeaky clean. He had some shady dealings with bandits and was responsible for ruining lives and stealing from people. But he had a change of heart and helped a lot of people. He’s a better person. But when they go into the enchanted forest, Christoff meets a corrupt knight who Christoff had previously been very involved with in stealing from a lot of people. We can’t have this be PG-13, there’s a demographic of kids who are going to see this movie as well. But once Anna finds this out, she starts to doubt the marriage. Christoff struggles with whether or not he deserves to be forgiven or not, and Anna wonders if their relationship should continue. They’re forced to be together, so no going off and figuring things out on their own for most of the movie. They do have some alone time to think about it, turn it into a duet of duality, and then Anna realizes that just as Arendelle needed to be burned away and rebuilt, Christoff has adopted that philosophy and truly grown as a person. She can forgive him. This fits in with the theme of the movie, that being historical revisionism and sins of the father. Or in this case, Grandfather’s sin. Or more rather, does somebody or a group of people deserve to be forgiven despite the things they’ve done in the past.
Elsa
This movie is a really big fan of keeping their characters the exact same. Elsa is still needlessly isolated from everybody. Even though she’s now closer with her sister and has a couple new friends, she’s always dragging herself away from them. She makes Anna stay behind and watch Olaf pretend die just so she can take on self-imposed challenges for... nothing really. Just because she wants to be a strong, independent woman.
Remember when Elsa realized that connection to loved ones was the thing that she really needed to help control her powers? Frozen 2 sure doesn’t remember. I know the first movie was six years ago, but it’s not hard to find a copy and watch it again. I does hold up pretty well and would have survived fine without a sequel. But again, we’ll get to that.
Another problem I have is that Elsa’s ultimate decision to leave the kingdom to Anna and go off on her own adventures came out of nowhere. I don’t think I ever got that vibe that she didn’t want to be queen anymore. It never seemed like a concern for her, or even a big problem in the movie. Elsa was more concerned about some voice calling after her. I’m still not confident that we got an answer for what that was. But whatever. Also, the plot about Arendelle and the forest people being at odds with each other felt pointless and didn’t add anything substantial to the plot. The main reason this movie existed was to get answers for why things are the way they are and to bring new ideas to the franchise. But none of that matters to the movie. It’s brought up for nothing and goes out like a fart.
I’ll give Elsa the same treatment I gave the other two. Her problems mimic the themes. Instead of the grandfather being responsible for the fighting going on between the two kingdoms, it’s actually Elsa’s mother. She hated Arendelle for having things that she never had and she believed Arendelle was responsible for her parent’s murder. Which, it was. Arendelle saw the forest dwelling people as monsters and attempted to destroy all of them. So Elsa’s mother decided to start the fighting between both factions, but had a change of heart when she met Elsa’s father. She got amnesia and didn’t remember that she started the war. She married Elsa’s father and she forgot she had powers at all.
It’s revealed that neither faction is as squeaky clean on the surface. I’ll fully admit to stealing what Pocahontas had going on, but it’s a poignant message that doesn’t get as much attention as it should. Both factions have good points and bad points, but they’re both responsible for doing awful things. And when they are frozen (heh) in the forest, it makes us think of grudges. When you hold onto them, they stay there for a long time. You’re left in the same place, unable to let go of your pride and take a step back and recognize the wrong that you’ve done.
Elsa is also struggling with her past, wondering if she can be forgiven for almost sending the kingdom into a devastating winter. I mean, she seems to get away with it scot free and becomes the queen of Arendelle. We should at least acknowledge it. Not everybody is down for her rule, and she finds ruling a people that don’t trust her very taxing. But since she’s so deep into it, she can’t exactly abandon everything.
As Elsa attempts to be a better ruler, she does a lot of research into the past and learning about the kingdom. She even learns about the river and some more mystical things. She finds that the two factions have never gotten along, and she’s saddened about it and hopes to unite the two factions. But pretty soon, the voice calls after her and she is called onto an adventure to learn the truth about the kingdom. Not her powers. We don’t need an answer for that. It’s just something that she inherited from her mom. There’s no deeper reason. It’s a kids movie, we don’t need to have these big reasons that somebody gets their powers. Says the guy who’s trying to put historical revisionism and forgiveness topics into a kid’s movie, but Inside Out managed to condense complex psychological functions into an understandable and easily digestible format for everybody to understand, then you can simplify this for the kiddies. I digress. Elsa realizes that the only way to fix all the problems is to destroy both faction’s kingdoms and build them up from the ground up. The two kingdoms unite together, and Elsa let’s Anna rule Arendelle while she rules the kingdom with magical powers.
Anna
Make Anna less of an idiot, give her more to do than be oblivious to Christoff, have her stop telling Elsa that she’s there for her over and over again, and I��m good. I have less about her than everybody else. What do you want from me, this is getting to over 2,000 words.
PLOT
But that’s just the characters. The plot is fundamentally broken. We were supposed to be told how Elsa got her powers, where her parents were going when they died on the boat, but none of that happened. We got vague answers and nothing explicit. We got just enough information to justify more Frozen sequels for the foreseeable future.
Why was destroying Arendelle pulled out of the movie’s butt? How did that come into play except to copy Thor Ragnarok? I think it’s a good idea, but it felt like it wasn’t properly built up.
Elsa comes out of being frozen learning... nothing, I don’t think. She sees the past and present and learns that her grandfather killed a man. Man, that revealed so much that I care about...
SELF-INDULGENCE
I told my little sister that my prediction for Frozen 2 was that it was going to rely heavily on callbacks to Frozen 1. She told me that I would be surprised at how my expectations were going to be flipped on their head. And I’m proud to say that my expectations were exactly right and that my little sister is wrong.
Every character is a tool for bathing in Frozen 1’s success. Everybody points out how cool and fun Frozen 1 was, to the point where I start to think that nobody in this movie wants to be in this movie. You have to acknowledge events from previous films, but if you spend more time making callbacks to previous movies, why are you bothering making a sequel? Olaf literally recaps all of Frozen 1 for no reason just to remind us of what happened. But that’s basically pointless for both audience members and the characters who have to listen to Olaf talk. We’ve all seen the movie enough times to have the movie ingrained in our mind forever. I remember the movie backwards and forwards and I wish I had my memory erased.
Are you so insecure of your movie that you have to remind people of something that was better so you can feel good about your efforts? The screenwriter, Jennifer Lee, is a one-hit wonder, can’t recapture any kind of magic that the first movie had. I applaud her efforts to tell a new story, but she just couldn’t do it.
CORPORATE GREED
Let’s face it, the real reason Frozen 2 was made was for merchandising. It’s a tale as old as time. Marvel movies keep getting made because people keep watching and buying the merchandise. The difference between the two is that Marvel is a lot more well thought out and smart. Frozen 1 is the highest grossing animated movie of all time. It would be stupid not to capitalize on it and make more money from it. From a business perspective, it’s a smart move. I just wish the movie was better.
TL;DR: Frozen 2 is deeply flawed, its characters haven’t grown at all and are even worse than when they started. The movie could have been better with some more apropos theming and better characters, but the fact that the writer is one-hit wonder makes me think that she can’t move forward from her past victory.
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Writing Process Meme
I was tagged by @illusivesoul! Thank you ! :D
I don’t want to tag anyone because I’m not sure who’s writing right now, but if you see this and want to share, please tag me! I’d love to read your stuffs! <3
Short stories, novels, or poems?
I used to be all about novels but I have started looooooving short stories!
What genre do you prefer reading?
So many! I love fantasy and romance and horror and historical and satirical and--
What genre do you prefer writing?
Most of my non-fic work is modern fantasy or bangsian fiction! Love me some ghosts and faeries! I like writing romance too!
Are you a planner or a write-as-I-go kind of person?
Both! I start out with a great plan and then I do not follow it even a little bit. I’m bad at directions, even when the directions are my own. :/
What music do you listen to while writing?
I like all those lofi hip-hop montages because they are just enough sound to keep my brain happy and focused, but they are still quiet and soothing. I also sometimes listen to a song that inspired me on a loop for six hours while I try to figure out how to manifest that exact feeling in a paragraph. It is. The Worst.
Fave books/movies?
OH man so many.
Books: Le Petit Prince by Antoine de St Exuprey; the Harry Potter novels; White Noise by Don Delillo; Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes by Cory O'Brien; Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell; 90% of the Shakespeare Comedies and Tragedies (Histories are ok but they’re on thin ice) (fuck The Taming of the Shrew); The Outlander novels (even though they have their issues...like...so many issues)
Movies: Amelie; the 1996 BBC Miniseries version of Pride and Prejudice; the 2005 Kiera Knightly Pride and Prejudice (there’s a theme); The Adams Family movies; The Princess Bride; Clue; Moulin Rouge; literally any Disney movie ever.
Any current WIPs?
Also a lot lol. I have
Moments Between (Mass Effect: Rae Shepard and Garrus Vakarian longfic)
Another Life (Fallout 4: Cori Hart and Porter Gage longfic)
Where You Belong (Fallout 4: teen Shaun and Sole Survivor Lola fic--unreleased)
Companion One-Shots with Fallout 4 Sole Survivor Lola Clover
Under the Mojave Stars (Fallout New Vegas: Courier 6 Lulu and the companions and a whole lot of emotional constipation)
Aaaaaand then a few non-fic WIPs that I am sitting on.
If someone were to make a cartoon out of you, what would your standard outfit be?
A black dress with a cardigan over leggings, flats, and a pair of glasses! That is 75% of my outfits. I dress like a librarian.
Create a character description for yourself:
She walked into the room like a baby giraffe on roller skates. Her arms were piled high, full of books, notebooks, scraps of paper, keys, a laptop, four different pens, and a precariously placed Grande coffee. Her glasses were perched on top of her head and she squinted, eyes pinched to figure out if that person waving was waving to her? Or not? Maybe not--probably not. They drew closer and oh. They were waving to her. Oh no. She shifted her things into one arm to wave back but dropped her keys, knocked her glasses off her head, and nearly dumped the coffee.
(I’m a mess, pls send help)
Do you like incorporating people you actually know into your writing?
Nooooooooooooo! Nope! I may draw inspiration here or there, but that is a slippery slope and I try to avoid it at all costs.
Are you kill-happy with characters?
I used to be, but lately I’ve been all about happy endings. It depends, I suppose.
Coffee or tea while writing?
Both? Both. At the same time, because I got up to make a tea, forgot that I had made the tea, brewed some coffee, made it back to my desk, and then realized I had just an abundance of beverages. SOoooooo both.
Slow or fast writer?
HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA slow. As molasses.
Where/who/what do you find inspiration from?
Everything! Most often a feeling I got from something (a song, a setting, etc), but also from all over the place. Random thoughts, people at work, prompts in my classes, etc.
If you were put into a fantasy world, what would you be?
Probably a bard but...like...not a good one.
Most fave book cliche? Least fave book cliche?
Fave: They Thought They Didn’t Have Feelings for Each Other. They Totally Have Feelings for Each Other.
Least fave: sexual assault as a means of motivation (*ACHEM* OUTLANDER *ACHEM*). It is needlessly triggering, sloppy, lazy, and does a HUGE disservice to survivors.
Fave scenes to write?
Catharsis scenes. I LOVE scenes that let off steam or lighten the mood after a really dark patch. They are satisfying to write!
Most productive time of day for writing?
Midnight to 3:00 am, preferably after I have decided to go to bed and have showered. -_______-
Reason for writing:
Because.
Seriously, though, just because. There are only a few stories we can tell, but endless ways in which we can tell them, and that is magical. I write to connect to people and to explore the world we live in. I write to process and understand, but most importantly: I write just because. (And no one can stop me).
#Tag meme#Writing Process#Thank you @illusivesoul for always tagging me in these!#<3#Much love to every one of you!
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Hey I found this!
I wanted to write a post, and I found this one on my dashboard. Figured it's a fun thing to do. Especially since I’m still learning my character.
...Well, Disney’s character. I’m writing a Zootopia fanfiction where the MC is Nick Wilde
QUESTIoNS FOR YOUR OCs
What’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do? For hours! He’s a supremely lazy fox when he wants to be.
How easy is it for your character to laugh? Super easy, his dry wit is his coping mechanism for everything. A genuine laugh is harder to come by.
How do they put themselves to bed at night (reading, singing, thinking?) He watches Zootube videos. Specifically scary stuff. He likes being talked at.
How easy is it to earn their trust? Even after meeting Judy, it’s difficult for him to open up and trust other mammals. He trusts the other ZPD members because he has too but a few months of being around his little bunny friend does not erase the years of being purposely alone.
How easy is it to earn their mistrust? Easy, but earning mistrust means he trusted you in the first place. Good luck getting him to admit that.
Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable? Well, yeah. He won’t go too far though.
What triggers nostalgia for them, most often? Do they enjoy that feeling? Nostalgia isn’t really good for mammals who didn’t have good childhoods. He loves theme parks and scary stories because they were his escape from his reality during his childhood though.
What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child Probably running around and pulling pranks on his sister?
Do they swear? Do they remember their first swear word? He sees swearing as an admission of defeat (somebody got to him ) so it’s seldom. His first cuss word was f*ck. He was maybe thirteen and thought it was funny.
What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them? That he was fine being alone. Now that he knows what friendship is, he couldn’t imagine anything else.
How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)? He asks questions. A lot of questions. He has no problem making efforts to learn. his curiosity is unquenchable.
How do they deal with an itch found in a place they can’t quite reach? He finds something to scratch it with.
What color do they think they look best in? Do they actually look best in that color? Green, but he kinda looks like a Christmas tree. I prefer him in blue-but I prefer everybody in blue. Haha
What animal do they fear most? Polar Bears? Big mammals, he has a small fear of being squished.
How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first? He doesn’t really have to rehearse, but he doesn’t speak when rash. He makes sure the smart, witty, but aloof facade is what people get.
What makes their stomach turn? Strong smells, especially bad ones
Are they easily embarrassed? Not really
What embarrasses them? Getting caught having emotions, or being socially awkward. It’s a rarity that only happens when he’s already uncomfortable.
What is their favorite number? 7?
If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do so? He’s not gonna answer. He’ll flash a smirk and say they were all useless.
Why do they get up in the morning? To go make money so that he can travel.
How does jealousy manifest itself in them (they become possessive, they become aloof, etc)? Aloof.
How does envy manifest itself in them (they take what they want, they become resentful, etc)? He hauls ass and doesn’t stop until he achieved something better than whatever he was envious of. All without showing a hint of the actual emotion.
Is sex something that they’re comfortable speaking about? To whom? Completely. He doesn’t have time for modesty.
What are their thoughts on marriage? It’s as useless as a relationship.
What is their preferred mode of transportation? Walking, when it’s nice out. Driving when he wants to go fast. He hates the subway.
What causes them to feel dread? Any type of emotional vulnerability.
Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth? Tell it to him straight. Anything else is useless.
Do they usually live up to their own ideals? He thought he was, now he’s not so sure.
Who do they most regret meeting? Sam Walton.
Who are they the most glad to have met? Judy
Do they have a go-to story in conversation? Or a joke? Not really.
Could they be considered lazy? Yes, and he’s darn proud of it too.
How hard is it for them to shake a sense of guilt? On the rare occasions, he gets close enough to feel guilt, it’s hard for him to shake.
How do they treat the things their friends come to them excited about? Are they supportive? He’s supportive of Judy.
Do they actively seek romance, or do they wait for it to fall into their lap? He doesn’t want it. Period. It leads to trouble.
Do they have a system for remembering names, long lists of numbers, things that need to go in a certain order (like anagrams, putting things to melodies, etc)? He repeats the list until he commits it to memory.
What memory do they revisit the most often? He does his best to never think of his past. When his mind wanders to it he reaches for any distraction he can.
How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people? Not very, it’s like a glaring light in his face. Even if he doesn’t say anything about it.
How sensitive are they to their own flaws? He gets shocked when people are actually able to read him well enough to touch on his insecurities. He’ll sulk, but eventually, admit to it and try to work on it.
How do they feel about children? Eh...not a fan
How badly do they want to reach their end goal? He doesn’t know he wants it.
If someone asked them to explain their sexuality, how would they do so? He’s pretty much an “I like what I like” kind of guy. He like’s girls of all species. It’s not really an accepted practice, but he makes no point to hide it.
QUESTIONS FOR CREATORS
A) Why are you excited about this character? I’m excited because I love this character. He is by far one of my favorite Disney guys.
B) What inspired you to create them? I was inspired to write before him because I love making non-emotional characters have emotions. I’m evil like that.
C) Did you have trouble figuring out where they fit in their own story? I did flip between him and Judy for awhile, but I always leaned toward him.
D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look? I’m doing my best to keep as close to canon as possible while adding my own little twist.
E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you? I’d probably annoy him while I fawned over him. I like him because he’s the kind of guy I typically fall for. Go ask my man. Haha
F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)? Pride, excitement, a small twisted need to torture him?
G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most? His wit, mainly because I’m worried about writing it.
H) What trait do you admire most? His ability to stay calm and think through his emotions. It’s a character flaw but I have the opposite of his. I can’t control my emotional At.All.
I) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe? Yes, I love Zootopia.
J) Did you have to manipulate or exclude canon factors to allow them to create their character? No? What is this?
Well, that took way longer than I thought it would but it was fun nonetheless. It makes me realize where the holes are. So I won’t be too mad it took so long.
Laters <3
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Five ships I’m still not over
Beleg Cúthalion/Túrin Turambar
Universe: Middle-earth, first age
Ship name: Nothing that’s widely used in the fandom, I don’t think. But I like to think of them as ‘Black Sword (referring to Turin’s cursed weapon) and Strongbow (direct translation of Cúthalion)’
To me, there's no character more tragic than Turin son of Hurin, and no pairing more tragic than him and Beleg. And no clearer love, too. I don't know if J. R. R. Tolkien intended for them to go that far, but their emotional connection is so deep and powerful that whether you ship them or not it's undisputedly one of the most beautiful relationships in Tolkien's lore. Alas! It's not powerful enough to undo the curse placed on Turin and his clan, which ends both his and Beleg's life all too soon and all too tragically. So, yes, I count Beleg as one of the elves who die for love.
Favourite quote: 'I would lead my own men, and make war in my own way,' Turin answered. 'But in this at least my heart is changed: I repent every stroke save those dealt against the Enemy of Men and Elves. And above all else I would have you beside me. Stay with me!'
'If I stayed beside you, love would lead me not wisdom,' said Beleg.
Uh, I love this so much because it shows the difference in their temperament and maturity. Beleg's an elf who has lived through and fought in so many wars. He's an (elf)man of duty, honour and intellect, and Turin is still a young man whose pride and stubbornness can seriously get in the way of a grown-up conversation. And Beleg is so not having any of that in this scene. He’d do anything for Turin, including ditching his command to find him, but he can pull some tough-love moves, too, when Turin’s unreasonable.
Uzumaki Naruto/Uchiha Sasuke
Universe: Naruto
Ship name: sns, narusasu, sasunaru
I think Naruto and Sasuke canonically love each other, I really do, but I don’t think they are together romantically at any point in the series. And that’s by design, really. Sasuke -- the last of the Uchiha, the tragic figure of the Naruto series (still not as tragic as Turin, but let’s not do this morbid comparison) -- has too many issues to work through, and Naruto isn’t in the position to really help him through them. So as soul-deep as their bond is, they couldn’t have been together and survive each other. Although, I really want that to happen. That’s what fanfictions are for, I guess.
Favourite quote: ‘If you attack Konoha, I will have to fight you... So save up your hatred and take it all on me, I'm the only one who can take it. It's the only thing I can do. I will shoulder your hatred and die with you.’
Honestly, Naruto might just as well propose to Sasuke with that because he’s essentially saying ‘give me your worst, I’m not leaving and never will’. I know friends could be like that, too, but normally not to this degree and not with this kind of commitment. I’m not surprised at all when Sasuke has to ask Naruto why the hell he is doing all this for him. It just goes beyond reason, really.
S'chn T'gai Spock /James T. Kirk
Universe: Star Trek
Ship name: K/S, Spirk
The Daddy of all ships! Pun intended! Spock and Kirk's friendship really walks that fine line of are they/aren’t they. I personally think they aren’t (another controversial statement coming from a shipper), but they’re so cute together you just can’t help think: what if they are? They have this deep trust and affection for one another anyway; why not push it a notch further? ‘This simple feeling,’ as Spock calls it, might as well be love.
Favourite quote:
Kirk: How's our ship?
Spock: Out of danger.
Kirk: Good...
Spock: You saved the crew.
Kirk: You used what he wanted against him. That's a nice move.
Spock: It is what you would have done.
Kirk: And this... this is what you would have done. It was only logical. I'm scared, Spock. Help me not be. How do you choose not to feel?
Spock: I do not know. [tears fall] Right now, I am failing.
Kirk: I want you to know why I couldn't let you die... why I went back for you...
Spock: Because you are my friend. [Kirk places his hand against the glass and gives the Vulcan Salute as he dies]
It’s actually really hard for me to pick a quote for these two because I think every ‘Jim’ from Spock does the job except nobody else would understand it but me. (Second to that is, ‘Captian, not in front of the Klingons.’) While I love them teasing each other a lot, I think Kirk’s death scene from Star Trek Into Darkness has all the right punches to it. Spock has been unable to accept the feeling of friendship towards Kirk (actually just feelings in general) until the moment he watches Kirk dies behind the glass door. And all just comes out like BOOM! Not to mention how close Spock comes to killing Khan for revenge before Uhura tells him that Kirk can be saved but they need Khan alive. Honestly, that’s the only reason Khan’s head doesn’t go plop in Spock’s hands.
Morgoth/Sauron
Universe: Middle-earth, first age
Ship name: it just came to my attention that the fandom is calling this ship Angbang (a wordplay on the name of their home/fortress Angband). Nicely done, you naughty people. Also Melkor/Mairon if you’re going by their proper first-age names.
I think a lot of people seeing this ship would go ‘what?!’ Like, how is that even possible when Tolkien didn’t write a single scene with the two of them in it. I’d say in this case the absence is more powerful. Tolkien wrote the Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales as lore, so they necessarily come from the perspective of the tellers; i.e., humans and elves. That doesn’t mean Tolkien didn’t drop hints about the complex characters that the dark lords of Middle-earth are. He even has Elrond says that people don’t start out evil, not even Sauron. So the question becomes, what the heck happened? And the heck that starts it all out is pretty much in the first few chapters of the Silmarillion where Morgoth is clearly a powerful and inventive figure but in many ways an outcast and shunned by everyone including the very power that made him. (*cough* daddy issue *cough*) And then we are made aware of the fact Sauron, who is also powerful and creative, isn’t on Morgoth’s side from the get go but decides to join him later. The power-hungry dark lords we are later told about aren’t that at all, so it raises the question of their true characters and motives. If anything, I think the length in which Sauron would go for Morgoth thousands of years after his master is defeated and shut away says something about their bond with each other. And if I know one thing, it can’t be fear or respect. If I have to make a guess, I think it is akin to love.
Favourite quote: There isn’t anything I can quote from the source material since there hasn’t been a dialogue or anything they say to an audience that could be trusted as genuinely representing who they are. One thing I do scream about is the scene in the Return of the King movie when the black gate opened and behind there isn’t just the tower with the eye of Sauron but Mount Doom next to it in the same frame. I was like ‘I know Morgoth’s not here but isn’t that him in spirit.’ Yes, I’m a proper trash for these two.
Also, there’s this awesome comic series (unfortunately discontinued) by Suz. It’s legitimately hotter than the fire of Aule’s forge, honestly.
Beren/Lúthien
Universe: Middle-earth, first age
Ship name: I’m not aware of any ship name for these two but ‘Beren and Luthien’ is catchy enough as it is.
How else to finish this list but to dedicate the last entry to the greatest love story of Middle-earth, and, yes, I'm saying that with a straight face because, holy hell, this couple defies expectations left, right, and centre. Luthien, our elven princess, is an active participant in her own fate. She falls in love with a human who, in an act of valour, accepts her father's stupid, impossible task to steal the most treasured jewel from Morgoth the Dark Lord himself. Luthien basically runs away from home, finds her man captured and tortured, and tears the goddamn fortress down in a showdown with the-dark-lord-to-be Sauron himself (which makes you question the competency of everyone else in Middle-earth). They then proceed to steal the jewel together. They don't quite succeed in bringing it back and Beren loses his hand in the process, but hey, they could say it's in his hand, somewhere, and now could they please marry because otherwise I have a feeling that Luthien is going to elope with her boyfriend and her mom and dad won't be seeing her again ever.
And this is really just scratching the surface of Luthien’s feisty personality quite unbefitting of most princesses until the recent overhaul of attitude by Disney. And all this came from a man who was born in the Victorian era when women's autonomy wasn't given or respected. But I think Luthien's depth of character comes from the fact that she has a real-life counterpart, and so she feels more like a real woman. And the love between Beren and Luthien feels compelling because its the love the professor himself had for his wife and life-long partner, Edith. You can check out their gravestone. I'm so not making this up.
Favourite quote: The song of Lúthien before Mandos was the song most fair that ever in words was woven, and the song most sorrowful that ever the world shall ever hear. Unchanged, imperishable, it is sung still in Valinor beyond the hearing of the world, and the listening the Valar grieved. For Lúthien wove two themes of words, of the sorrow of the Eldar and the grief of Men, of the Two Kindreds that were made by Ilúvatar to dwell in Arda, the Kingdom of Earth amid the innumerable stars. And as she knelt before him her tears fell upon his feet like rain upon stones; and Mandos was moved to pity, who never before was so moved, nor has been since.
It’s not a scene between them, but this is how far Luthien’s love and badassery goes. She loses Beren in a battle to protect her father’s kingdom, and she dies grieving him. In the afterlife, she gets to meet the god of death Mandos and sings him a song of their love and her grief. Apparently, she’s so good with words and music that Mandos is like, ‘I can’t handle the feels. You can have your husband back and have a mortal life with him.’ And Luthien takes the deal, of course.
#my post#tolkien verse#naruto#star trek#beren and luthien#spirk#angbang#sns#narusasu#sasunaru#turin and beleg#shipping supreme#I'm enterprising these shit
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Epic Movie (Re)Watch #197 - The Lion King
Spoilers Below
Have I seen it before: Yes
Did I like it then: Yes.
Do I remember it: Yes.
Did I see it in theaters: Yes.
Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: Yes, #123.
Format: DVD
1) Circle of Life.
Very few films have such iconic first frames as The Lion King does, and there are three key reasons for that.
First of all: the visuals are wildly unique. That very first visual of the sun rising is visceral and memorable, not to mention just absolutely beautiful. The following images of the animals of the Pride Lands also stand out, because they are filled with such character and life as well as something else which isn’t often seen in animated films: realism. Think about the film’s of the Disney Renaissance before The Lion King: The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. All are beautifully animated and feature great animal characters, but they are largely cartoon characters. They’re anthropomorphic, which the animals in The Lion King will be. But these first animals we see aren’t. They’re realistic, natural. In some ways it’s like we’re watching an animated nature documentary. And it does well to set up the visuals of the film.
Secondly: the opening number sets up a clear sense of place among the Pride Lands. We very quickly understand the hierarchy of things, how the lions are actually kings, who’s important, who are just subjects, relationships between characters like Mufasa and Rafiki, all without any dialogue. The fact the film can do this all so elegantly speaks greatly to its craft.
Thirdly: the music. Holy cow the music here is absolutely incredible. It is grand, moving, and a perfect first song for the film. It not only represents the talents of both composer Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice - who create a soundtrack with one iconic song after the next - but also Hans Zimmer. Hans Zimmer’s score in this film isn’t discussed much among lay people (we talk about it in film classes), which is a shame because it is as important if not more so than the work done by the previously mentioned musicians. Zimmer has only won one Oscar in his entire life and it is for this film. His score and work with the wildly talented Lebo M is perfectly married with this song, so much so the animators even recognized it.:
The original opening to the film was supposed to have been a quiet dialogue-heavy sequence. When composer Hans Zimmer prepared his interpretation of Circle of Life, he made an extended version so he would have some flexibility as to what to cut for the film. The animators were so impressed with the work that they decided to change the beginning into the currently seen sequence so they could use the entire work that Zimmer prepared.
So yeah, that’s why “Circle of Life” works so well as an opening.
2) Jeremy Irons as Scar.
Scar is a delightfully evil villain in the best sense. He makes your skin crawl for a number of reasons. You understand he’s a cowardly piece of dirt, but he’s also intimidating. That’s because the animators and Irons are able to convey Scar’s intellect grandly. You understand how intelligent he is, how his power is in manipulation, and THAT’S what’s scary. Irons makes the part in much the same way James Woods makes Hades or Jonathan Pryce makes Jafar. He is one of many MANY examples of how this movie is perfectly cast.
3) I touched upon this briefly in note #1, but there are very few big budget American animated films which are animated as beautifully as The Lion King. The filmmakers take a number of brief moments to really just show off the majesty of the Pride Lands, to show off nature, which ties directly into the theme of the circle of life. Nature has an order to things, a balance, and this film shows that in the most beautiful and perfect way imaginable here and there.
4) This theme of the circle of life is perfectly explained by Mufasa to his young child Simba early in the film. The reason that scene works and why so many simple lines of dialogue are strong in the memories of children who grew up on this film is because they’re simple but not stupid. Important concepts like the order of nature are explained to young Simba while also not talking down to him (and thereby not talking down to the audience). It is simple elegance at its finest.
5) The Morning Report.
So I’m watching the DVD copy of this film which was released in 2004 I believe, which features this addition to the film. “The Morning Report” was a song which I believe was originally considered for the original release but then cut, before finding new life in the successful Broadway production of The Lion King. Although I grew up with the film including “The Morning Report”, I honestly prefer the version without it. The song is fun but doesn’t really feel necessary and I imagine it was cut from the original film for a reason. It also shortens the gap between songs by falling between “Circle of Life” and “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King” which kind of messes up the pacing for me. I like the song on its own and its not enough to ruin the film by ANY means, but I prefer this movie without “The Morning Report”.
6) I know Scar is completely evil and despicable, but there are moments where I relate to him. Case in point:
Simba: “You’re so weird!”
Scar: “You have no idea.”
7) Okay, quick question: ARE SIMBA AND NALA RELATED!? Because there’s only two lions in the whole pride and they’re both related to Simba. So who’s Nala’s dad? Is there an answer for this I don’t know?
(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know].)
8) You know how there are things you say and then you understand why you say them?
Zazu: “The sooner we get to the watering hole, the sooner we can leave.”
I have been saying for years, “The sooner we ________, the sooner we can leave,” and I was wondering where that came from. Now I know!
9) “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King”
Disney Renaissance films traditionally had a big show stopping number in them to dial up the fun. The Little Mermaid hand “Under the Sea”, Beauty and the Beast had “Be Our Guest”, Aladdin had “Friend Like Me”, and The Lion King has “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King”. The song is pure fun, with a song that infects the audience with its energy and an animation style to match. But more than being a piece of entertainment, it sets up a clear juxtaposition for Simba by the film’s end. Consider the responsible leader he is when he takes his place on Pride Rock against who he is during this song and you can see just how far he’s journeyed.
10) Simba as a character.
Honestly, the most interesting thing about Simba is the journey he goes on in 90 short minutes. You see him go from irresponsible kid to guilt ridden adult trying (and maybe failing) to deal with trauma, to a responsible leader. And it’s all so organic that you’re never taken out of the moment. It’s not like, “What, suddenly he’s this now?” I think that’s due to an excellent blend between the writing, animation, and voice over work.
Simba’s dialogue is done by two actors: Jonathan Taylor Thomas as cub Simba and Matthew Broderick as adult Simba. Both play exactly what they need to in the part, with Taylor Thomas able to portray both the cub’s more carefree nature and later grief. Broderick on the other hand is able to portray adult Simba’s grief/heartache, attempts at carefreeness, and eventual responsibility all really well. As mentioned above, it all feels right. Never jarring, never off putting, it just freaking works.
11) There are a number of scenes in this film which have a crazy good sense of place, and the elephant graveyard is one of them. As soon as you enter this territory you KNOW you’re not supposed to be there. It’s dark, forbidding, threatening, and just has a real sense of fear/dread to it. It’s freaking great.
12) Shenzi, Banzai and Ed.
This trio is another strong example of excellent casting in the film. Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, and Jim Cummings all are able to be individually funny, evil, dangerous, and stupid at the same time. As a set, though, they compliment each other nicely. No one outshines the other, they’re a great trio that just help support each other.
13) The scene between Mufasa and Simba after the elephant graveyard is amazing.
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From the moment Simba’s tiny paw is seen in Mufasa’s larger one, you understand clearly a big fear of the lion’s. He’s afraid he will never be as great a man as his father, with many of his actions compensating for this idea (going to the graveyard, for example). Both Simba and Mufasa are portrayed with heartwarming honesty in this scene. Mufasa’s anger subsides quickly and you understand (even before he says it) that his anger comes from a place of fear and concern for his son. It’s a scene which - more than anything else - gets you deeply invested in their relationship. Which makes the upcoming plot turn all the more heartbreaking.
This is also a good place to talk about James Earl Jones as Mufasa. Known primarily for his voice over work as Darth Vader, Jones is as amazing here but for different reasons. He is able to give Mufasa so much depth in his performance. The voice of the king can be threatening, angry, patient, wise, afraid, heartbroken, desperate, and kind, with no element lessening the other. And Jones just is excellent in all facets, which might be why he’s reprising the part in the 2019 reimagined version directed by Jon Favreu.
14) Remember how I said Scar can be relatable? Well, I think we’ve all had this moment:
15) Be Prepared.
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Okay, I’m a sucker for a good villain song and “Be Prepared” is wonderfully dark/evil. I have to remind myself it’s still Elton John and Tim Rice, it’s still the guys who did “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King” because it’s just got such a different character to it. The song is amazing from a storytelling standpoint because if it wasn’t clear what Scar’s motivations/goals were before, they sure are now. Like with “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King”, there’s this wonderfully fun animation style to it which pushes the boundaries of reality. It’s just wonderfully villainous and I love it.
15.1) In the song “Be Prepared”, Jeremy Irons actually threw out his voice after the line, “YOU WON’T GET A SNIFF WITHOUT ME!” So the filmmakers had Jim Cummings (legendary voice over actor who plays Ed in this film) sing the rest of the song. If you’re a fan of Anastasia, Cummings sang “In The Dark of the Night” and if you listen you can definitely hear that it’s him but otherwise he does a good job of masking his voice.
16) Wildebeest Stampede.
(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know].)
The reason the stampede scene works as well as it does is because it is so freaking epic. The scale of it, the music, the tension is just crazy high. Through the marriage of all aspects of cinema (acting, writing, visuals, sound) the audience is just on the edge of their seats. And the way Mufasa just jumps into the fray and throws Simba to safety just shows an incredible amount of personal stakes for him. It’s amazing from beginning to end.
17) Excuse me while I have a good cry.
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Okay, this never used to get to me. Never. When I was a kid, it didn’t effect me AT ALL. But now?
Simba [upon finding Mufasa’s body]: “Dad come on, you gotta get up…we gotta go home.”
Yeah, even thinking about it gets me teary eyed. I think it’s because of some personal stuff I’ve gone through the older I get, but just the raw honesty of the scene gets me. Especially the way Simba nestles under Mufasa’s paw because to him that place is safe? And he just lays close to his dad and…
18) Scar goes from fun Disney villain to someone who you’re actively rooting against (as you are against the best villains) when he decides to murder his own brother and make his nephew feel like it’s his fault even though he plans to kill him anyway. That’s like, next level evil. Suffice to say I’m cheering on Scar’s demise at the end.
19) Timon and Pumbaa.
The film’s ultimate scene stealers, Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella are great in their respective parts as the meerkat and warthog. They just bring a smile to your face whenever they appear on screen. Pumbaa is charmingly innocent and Timon is likably deviant as a trickster. They play off each other well like a classic comedy duo and are just great to watch.
20) Hakuna Matata.
One of the key reasons the song works so well in the story is because it is a welcome shift in tone from Mufasa’s death and Simba’s exile in a way which still feels organic. The number is charming, light, infectious, fun, and just a genuinely feel good song. A great anthem for anyone who stresses too much about the little things. Maybe not so much for people who could stress more about the big things, but there’s a middle ground.
21) I always wanted more of teenage Simba, who we really only get to spend like 3 seconds with. I don’t know, there’s something about that 1/2 mane which I like. But then again, I’m a fan of awkward middle child movies and tv show stuff. That’s probably a factor.
22) I love it when Disney gets meta.
Scar: “Sing something with a little bounce in it.”
(GIF originally posted by @thedailyprophet)
Scar: “NO! Anything but that!”
22.1) My mother and brother saw the Broadway version in New York in 2014 or 2015 (I can’t remember which). According to them, Zazu sang “Let it Go” instead and got the same reaction out of Scar. I dig it.
23) This is a brief but great scene that lets the audience understand Simba is NOT where he belongs, no matter how great Timon & Pumbaa are.
Simba [about stars]: “Somebody once told me that the great kings of the past are up there…”
[Timon and Pumbaa break out laughing at Simba.]
24) Okay, let’s talk about this.
According to IMDb:
There have been rumors that when Simba collapses on the cliff after talking with Timon and Pumbaa about stars, the dust that flies off the cliff forms the letters SEX. In fact it forms the letters SFX, the abbreviation of the special-effects team that worked on that portion of the film. For all subsequent releases more flowers and dust were added to the scene to avoid controversy.
25) I love how it takes Simba no time at all to recognize Nala, he recognizes her that well. It just takes her beating him in a fight.
26) In some moments, I’m Timon.
Timon: “Let me get this straight! You know her, she knows you, but she wants to eat him. And everyone’s okay with this? DID I MISS SOMETHING!?”
27) Can You Feel The Love Tonight.
Apparently at one point Disney was going to have Timon and Pumbaa sing the whole song as a gag, while at another they’d cut it entirely. Elton John campaigned that the song be featured as is, as he considered it a love song in the grand Disney tradition. Well this apparently a brilliant decision because it won the film as Oscar for Best Original Song. The song is such a sweet and beautiful piece which really just pulls at your heart strings, allowing you to actually feel the love in the air. I just love it.
28) This moment always makes me smile. Rafiki’s unbridled joy is just so infectious.
Rafiki: “Asante sana, squash banana…”
29) Remember that I said Simba’s biggest fear was not being as great a lion/king as his father was?
Rafiki: “You see: he lives in you.”
Rafiki’s words and then Simba’s communication with his father’s ghost both feed directly into this fear.
Simba has greatness in him and that greatness is represented by his father. His father’s memory lives on in him and he can do great things in that memory. The visuals of the scene where Simba communes with his father’s ghost continues the film’s streak of excellent visuals and is iconic to this day.
30) One of the wisest lines I have heard in a movie ever.
Rafiki: “Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it you can either run from it OR learn from it.”
31) Nathan Lane improvised this line and the filmmakers just rolled with it. Meanwhile I still laugh my butt off every time we get this far.
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32) This line really shows that Scar sees being king much as the immature cub Simba did (in “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King”), but that’s a much scarier reality than it is fantasy.
Scar: “I’m the king, I can do whatever I want.”
33) I would like to point out that Scar is such a freaking coward. He cowers so quickly before Simba when he returns then tries to manipulate him. He tries to sneak away from the fight before blaming the hyenas for everything. He tries to appease Simba before double-crossing him and being thrown to the hyenas (literally). It’s this cowardice, this double crossing, which leads to Scar’s death and I couldn’t be happier about it.
34) This all takes place during a skirmish between our heroes and villains, a scene which is a really great climax for a lot of reasons. It definitely has some seriousness and epic-ness to it, while also infusing it with classic cartoonish fun. It’s just got some wonderful action to it.
35) Simba’s ascension to the top of Pride Rock feels 100% earned. In the ninety minutes of the movie we’ve seen the journey he’s gone on since birth and we understand that this is not only his place but also that he’s earned this place. A truly fitting ending.
The Lion King is an iconic classic of not only animation but cinema in general. It’s wonderful sense of epic storytelling blends perfectly with characters, actors, music, and animation. It tells the story it needs in an elegant and emotional fashion, providing cinema with one of its most heartbreaking deaths ever while also giving us some of Disney’s best humor. All in all, it’s just a great film everyone should see.
#The Lion King#Disney#James Earl Jones#Matthew Broderick#Simba#Epic Movie (Re)Watch#Nathan Lane#Ernie Sabella#Jeremy Irons#Rowan Atkinson#Whoopi Goldberg#Cheech Marin#Jim Cummings#The More You Know#Elton John#Time Rice#Hans Zimmer#Lebo M#Movie#Film#GIF
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The Trouble With Disney Sequels: Garbage or Grown-Up Fairytales?
The Walt Disney Company is widely recognized as the originator of the animated film and remains one of the best storytellers in the industry. The company's retellings of traditional folk stories and fairytales are perhaps the first version of the story many of us are ever exposed to and are unquestionably the most popular. From classics such as Snow White to the more recent original films like Moana, Disney has given generations of moviegoers beloved characters and Broadway-style musical numbers which the vast majority of us recall with nostalgic fondness and joy. The sequels created by Disney, however, are quite a different story.
While original Disney films are typically showered with critical praise and awards, the sequels often fall flat in comparison. Frequently made for direct to video/DVD release sometimes decades after the original, they receive much less attention than their predecessors and (necessarily) feature different voice actors and animation styles that seem to many adults who grew up on the originals to indicate that they are cheaply made and unworthy of the label "Disney" at all. Children, of course, don't notice such things, yet while they are the primary audience, in many cases, the sequels don't seem to appeal as much to them, either. One could argue that the sequels receive less attention simply because they are not as heavily advertised and because the parents are the ones purchasing (or NOT purchasing) the DVDs; however, while that is certainly a major factor in their popularity, I believe there is more to it than that.
Let's be honest...some Disney sequels are just flat-out bad. When compared to their original films the sequels for movies such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Brother Bear, Fox and the Hound, and Mulan (seriously, guys, WHAT ON EARTH were you thinking with the Mulan sequel?!) would probably have Walt Disney shaking his head at the very least and rolling in his grave at the worst. They lack the depth of character and emotion that the first films possessed and really do feel like nothing more than just a money-making scheme to squeeze as much revenue from the well-recognized Disney icons as possible. On the other hand, though, there are several sequels which I think Walt would still be proud of yet consumers have largely ignored. Yet the question remains: If they are of good quality, why aren't they more popular? The answer, I believe, is that the storytelling and the characters themselves have grown up along with the fans of the original films, and while we ourselves have grown up, we don't always appreciate seeing the realistic side of things in what is supposed to be an escapist world of happily ever afters. For the remainder of this post, I am going to focus on some of the sequels which I think deserve a second chance.
(NOTE: The following are merely a few examples of the Disney sequels which I personally think are underrated. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list.)
1. Bambi II
This is one of those rare situations where the sequel is actually better than the original. While the original Bambi has beautiful animation, it's one of those Disney classics that was made in a time when animation itself was such an innovative concept that a complex plot and well-rounded characters weren't necessary to capture the audience's attention. As a result, the characters are rather flat and we don't get to know the characters well enough to form any deep emotional attachments. When Bambi loses his mother, it is a sad moment, to be sure, but we don't feel it as deeply as, say, Mufasa's death in The Lion King because we don't really know anything about Bambi's mother, her "husband" The Great Prince, or Bambi himself, for that matter.
The sequel remedies this nicely by fleshing out the father/son relationship that begins to form after Bambi's mother's death and realistically shows how such a tragic event affects both of them emotionally. Bambi, who has never really known his father, is suddenly forced into a world where he is totally dependent on the stoic old buck for survival, and it's quite obvious from the start that while The Great Prince may be good at doing his job as protector of the forest, he has absolutely no idea how to be a father. There are moments when things get ugly--The Great Prince puts his duty as protector over his duty as a father and Bambi calls him out on his betrayal, wishing his father had been the one to die instead of his mother. OUCH! And it takes Bambi almost dying for The Great Prince to finally admit how much his son means to him. By the end of it, of course, their shared grief allows for a bonding moment and we can see that they have both learned from each other--The Great Prince has begun to loosen up and let his emotions show and Bambi has begun to become a responsible young buck ready to take on the role of herd leadership someday. But the real, raw, emotion in this film has a genuineness to it that you don't usually see in such extremes in a children's movie. It shows a darker, sadder side to things than what we would expect from most Disney films--especially a sequel--but there is no denying its incredibly powerful and touching message of hope for a broken family.
2. The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
As one of Disney's biggest hits, the original film The Lion King raised the bar for animated storytelling and, consequently, makes any sort of retelling, sequel, or spinoff automatically seem inferior at first glance. With rather dark themes like the death of Mufasa interspersed with moments of lighthearted humor and sweet romance, The Lion King manages to keep all of these elements perfectly balanced for a story that appeals as much to adults as it does to children. The sequel, while not nearly as well-known, does a pretty good job of maintaining that balance and even takes it a step further by increasing the complexity of its characters.
In the original film, the line between heroes and villains is pretty straightforward. On the side of good, we have Mufasa, the benevolent and wise ruler of the Pridelands, and his family (minus a certain brother) and friends, including innocent young Simba who is cast out into the world to survive on his own after his father's death. On the side of evil, we have Scar, the jealous and power-hungry brother who kills Mufasa and sends his rather idiotic but loyal hyena henchmen after Simba so that he can take over as king. In the sequel, however, things are much less black and white. Simba, now grown up and with a daughter of his own, is portrayed as a well-meaning but ultimately overprotective parent who has allowed his hatred of Scar to blind him to his own prejudice against the lions of the Outlands with connections to his late uncle, including innocent cubs born into a situation which they could not possibly control. On the other hand, we have Zira, Scar's grieving widow who hates Simba and his pride so much that she literally ends up choosing death over accepting help from them--and dies with an eerie smile on her face, no less! We also have Nuka and Vitani, Scar's two biological cubs who are raised in the shadow of Kovu--the adopted son and obvious family favorite whom Scar chose as a successor. Like his parents before him, Scar's choice to show obvious favoritism really messes up his kids. Nuka is probably one of the most sympathetic villains in Disney history, apologizing to his mother with his dying breath on-screen for not living up to her standards and failing to kill Simba. Meanwhile, Vitani is forced to make the very difficult choice of doing what is right and going against her own mother in battle, and Kovu--who has been raised his whole life to believe that Simba and his family are evil--comes to realize m that the lion who he saw as a father was actually the evil one and questions whether that means the darkness that was in Scar is also within his own soul. (Though honestly, the whole concept of Kovu being adopted also begs the question...was there some goodness in Scar after all if he was capable of taking pity on an orphaned cub?) Seriously, Scar's selfishness really did a number on his kids...and Simba, for that matter. In short, while the original film is already quite complex and occasionally dark for children's movie, the sequel takes it up a notch and also keeps some great musical numbers which, while maybe not quite on par with the first film, are definitely catchy and as good as many other Disney tunes and I think deserves more praise than it receives.
3. Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World
Okay, I know I'm gonna get a lot of pushback on this one, but hear me out.... I love John Smith and Pocahontas together as much as anyone else. Heck, as a kid I had a poster of the two of them with the quote, "No matter what happens, I will always be with you, forever," on it. But realistically, even at the end of the first film there is little chance of them ending up together permanently. When Pocahontas chooses to stay behind with her people as an injured John Smith returns to England, it's just about as bittersweet of an ending as we've ever gotten in a Disney film. This very grown-up ending in which the leading lady chooses duty and responsibility over love (even though it breaks her heart to do so) is so atypical for a children's story that it should come as little surprise that the sequel is also very grown-up. Yet for some reason, the sequel is despised while the first film is considered one of the great Disney classics. Why the difference?
The ending of Pocahontas, while somewhat sad, still leaves us with the tiniest spark of hope that they will one day be together again. It's an open-ended farewell that shows the couple still very clearly has feelings for each other even if they cannot be together in the immediate future. However, while chances are slim, we are still left with the possibility that John COULD come back from England someday after healing and they MIGHT still end up in each others' arms, whether it's historically accurate or not. (Historical accuracy? Pfft. What's that? This is a Disney film, not a documentary. But I digress...) The problem many people have with the sequel is that it totally cuts off any possibility of this ever happening. But it does so in a way which I think is not only realistic but also respectful of the characters. After years of being physically separated from John Smith by an entire ocean and believing him to be dead, it's only natural that Pocahontas would be ready to move on, so when John Rolfe enters the picture and develops first a friendship and then romantic feelings for her (over what we can assume is likely several months at sea and in England), it's understandable that she falls for him. He is a good man who respects her, defends her, and ultimately ends up leaving his own homeland to be with her, and he really doesn't deserve all the hate he gets in the fandom. By the time Pocahontas realizes that John Smith is still alive, she is already in love with Rolfe. Her heart has moved on, and so, apparently, has Smith's. While they both recall their time together fondly, they have very different goals and priorities in life which would not make for a happy marriage. They realize that realistically they make better friends than a couple, and they part on good terms, wishing each other all the best in their own pursuits.
Too often people complain that Disney's portrayal of romantic relationships is unrealistic with the too perfect Prince Charming opposite an often villainous and vain competitor for the leading lady's love. Yet when a very healthy, realistic love triangle is shown in which both men are portrayed as flawed but good people who are grown-up enough to set aside their own desires and feelings of jealousy for her best interest, people still complain. John Smith is undoubtedly a good man and a good friend to Pocahontas...but he isn't a good match for her romantically. And his character isn't vilified for it. Maybe it's just because I have been through a similar situation myself in real life so I can see where Pocahontas is coming from, but I really respect Disney for how they handled this love triangle, and I think the sequel deserves more love than it gets. The music is good, the message is good, and it wraps everything up nicely, giving us the closure the end of the first film lacks.
4. Peter Pan: Return to Neverland
Last but not least, as huge Peter Pan fan, my list would be incomplete if I didn't mention Return to Neverland. The original Disney film is such an iconic work that even now, over sixty years after its debut, the characters are still wildly popular, showing up in spin-offs like the Tinkerbell movie franchise, TV series like Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and on pretty much every Disney product that features the classic villains (Hook) or the Disney castle logo (Tink). Its popularity, due largely to the appeal of magic and adventure that Neverland presents to children and the feelings of nostalgia the film evokes in adults, has not quite extended to the sequel, however. Everyone knows the story of Wendy, Michael, and John, but Jane's tale remains relatively unpopular by comparison. Part of the reason for this is quite simply that the original Peter Pan was a big hit long before Disney and has been retold so many times in so many different mediums that it is impossible NOT to recognize the characters while Jane's story is strictly limited to Disney...and a direct-to-video sequel, at that...but it is also a good bit more complex and darker/sadder than the first Disney film. However, it is one of the elite few that, in my opinion, maintains the appeal of a Disney original.
As with The Lion King, the first film presents most of its heroes and villains as pretty straightforward in their intentions and fairly black-and-white (which is not true of the characters in the novel, but I'm getting off topic). Peter is mischievous and somewhat irresponsible but generally good and kind while Hook is somewhat sympathetic and justified in his vendetta compared to other Disney baddies but still very much a villain whose first on-screen moments show him shooting a member of his own crew without hesitation or remorse. The only really morally ambiguous character here is Tinkerbell, who, though she comes around in the end, tries to kill Wendy at one point and later willingly helps Hook in his plans to kidnap the girl so that she may have Peter to herself. Wendy herself, though she is less well-developed than some later Disney ladies, shows that beneath the sweet, soft exterior she is surprisingly brave and outspoken for her time, standing up to both Peter and Hook (a reaction which neither one of them is used to) when they push her buttons, even when she faces the frightening possibility of death by drowning/crocodile. After facing such real danger in Neverland from Hook and his crew, growing up hardly seems scary to her anymore. After all, the world she is used to, despite all of its grown-up troubles and worries, is relatively safe. Thus, her trip to Neverland--a realm where she might never grow up--actually ends up helping her transition into adulthood without the fear she had prior to her visit. Peter Pan is not the story of a boy who would NOT grow up but rather of a girl who DID grow up--a coming of age story just like many other Disney films.
Return to Neverland, on the other hand, flips this traditional narrative on its head and instead shows us the story of a very grown-up girl who has forgotten how to be a child. While Pan and Hook retain their characteristics from the first film as hero and villain, the sequel is more complex in the sense that their relationships to the heroine are somewhat reversed and unusual. In the original, Peter comes to take Wendy away to Neverland with the intention of rescuing her from the grown-up world only to thrust her into the much more dangerous position of dealing with threats like vindictive pirates and hungry wild animals, leading her to eventually realize that growing up isn't so terrible a fate as she might have once imagined. In the sequel, Hook comes to kidnap Jane (believing her to be Wendy) with the intention of using her as bait to kill Pan and unintentionally ends up giving her a much needed escape from the dangers of the "real world" which have forced her to grow up too quickly. In fact, you could almost argue that the war is the main villain while Hook is only secondary. Hook was the first real danger Wendy ever faced, and she did so with incredible courage, but to Jane, who has had to live with the daily fear of her father coming home in a coffin and being blown to bits by bombs falling out of the sky, Hook is nothing in comparison. Wendy bravely faces Hook IN SPITE OF her fear of death due to her protective maternal instinct; Jane faces Hook WITHOUT much fear because the possibility of death is so familiar to her that she has become numb to it...which is incredibly sad when you think about it.
Wendy and Jane are also fundamentally different in which side of Neverland they identify with. Wendy identifies primarily with the carefree Peter and has no trouble believing in magic and fairies and flying while Jane--a natural skeptic after all she has witnessed with the war--originally identifies more with Hook, finding Peter and the boys far too silly for her taste. I always wondered why Jane was willing to make a deal with Hook even after hearing all of her mother's tales and being kidnapped by him, but I now realize that it is because, despite all this, Hook is the most comfortable and familiar face in Neverland because he is a reflection of the person she will become if she remains as bitter about life as she is at the start of the film. Additionally, Jane is used to a world where things are not always black and white and grown-ups sometimes do terrible things for the sake of the greater good. In her world, men with guns--men who have killed other men in combat out of necessity--are seen as protectors and heroes and may bring to mind thoughts of her own father, so it's understandable why she might trust Hook more easily than her mother did. Jane doesn't realize all this, but Hook does, and he takes full advantage of it by playing up their similar situations and earning her sympathy. And it takes Peter's capture and Tink's "death" for her to see that her attempt to avoid all childish things has caused her to become much too much like Hook for her own liking. Thus, in the end, whereas Wendy learned to embrace adulthood, Jane learns to hang on to a bit of the innocence of childhood--a lesson which perhaps resonates more with an adult audience than with children but a valuable lesson nonetheless.
But perhaps the biggest grown-up moment of this film happens right near the very end when we get to see a heartfelt reunion between Peter and an adult Wendy who is still young enough at heart to lift up off the floor with a pinch of Tinkerbell's pixie dust. It is an incredibly bittersweet moment to watch them say goodbye one last time, and though the children watching may not think much of it, I can guarantee you every grown-up who loved the original as a kid probably tears up at this part. As with the Pocahontas sequel, it's not quite the happy ending we have come to expect of Disney, but it's a very powerful and moving way to give us closure for the original.
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Well, that pretty much wraps up my list for underrated Disney sequels. What do you guys think? Which Disney sequels are your favorites? Least favorites?
#Disney#disney sequels#bambi#bambi 2#pocahontas#pocahontas 2#the lion king#the lion king 2#peter pan#peter pan 2#return to neverland
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Hannah Watches LOSH - Champions
AND WE RETURN ONCE AGAIN TO THE LOSH REVIEWS!
Thank you so much for waiting. Finals were a pain.
So the friend who hasn’t watched losh that i was hoping to get her reactions wasn’t able to watch the episode with me due to her schedule. I was able to stream it with @cyclone-rachel and @peskyshortcake though.
Champions
The episodes starts of with our cheery episode palette colors, indicating we have since moved on from the previous dark episode stretch we had.
We find the main characters are at a futuristic athletic event at a place called the Dodecathelon, I’m probably butchering the spelling, with Lightning Lad competing.
We’re asking the important questions.
Never change PG
And then we get the announcers talking about one of the competitors, which Lightning Lad immediately assumes is him.
HERE IT COMES
HERE IT COMES
Also a moment to appreciate PG’s face
MY FAVORITE TRASH BABY IN ALL EXISTENCE
MY SASSY PIECE OF TRASH
After the opening plays, the scene opens to Lightning Lad confronting Mekt.
WOW.
Mm. Obvious sibling rivalry.
SUCH SASS.
AND LOOK AT THE FACE HERE
BEAUTIFUL
Also our chat kept spiraling into insanity.
I love him too much
Also, give him credit for going at Lightning Lad’s biggest flaw - his pride. While pride is certainly important to have, it can also be dangerous to have too much. It’s what usually leads to his aggressive behavior towards others.
One other thing: interesting choice on making his outfit red/fire themed. Wonder why the staff went with that choice.
I LOVE HIM
As soon as he’s gone, Phantom Girl gives Lightning Lad reassurance he can win. First time we see her being the compassionate one.
I feel her.
And then we get her complaining about what she went through to get them seats.
AND WE FIND OUT WHO MOM IS. THE PRESIDENT
HO GEEZE. SO NOW WE KNOW HOW SHE’S PRIVILEGE.
I have to say that the people we see in the diplomatic skybox have nice designs.
And then we get one of the best moments
WHY WAS HE ON THE TABLE?!
PHANTOM GIRL’S FACE AND SUPERMAN’S FACE I LOVE THEM
And here she is.
And then she goes straight for her daughter.
Ho boy, nervous Supes? He can’t maintain eye contact, and keeps fumbling over his words.
She’s kinda fast to assume PG and Superman had a thing tho.
Well, it’s well spent budget at least. Disney could learn a few things.
Then we switch to the race.
Why tho???
YOU LITTLE SHIT
And then we get our first hint that something is up with the judge who looks away.
But why didn’t the other judges notice?
But despite Mekt trying to get the upper hand, Lightning Lad manages to get ahead again.
DEM LEGS
NO ONE CAN DENY IT
But Mekt denies the cheating attempt, saying the judges didn’t see anything. What a prick.
Cutting back to Superman and Phantom Girl, we see Clark is impressed by the current version of sport events. And then Winema comes in.
OH NO.
TINYA I FEEL YOU.
When Superman states that they’re just friends, Phantom Girl uses the excuse to get snacks to leave, despite the place being catered.
Strained relationship much between mom and daughter.
When the two of them are discussing moms while checking out merchandise, Phantom Girl states “She doesn’t have a clue,” indicating poor communication between mom and daughter. And then Superman comments that his mom get’s busy as well but doesn’t miss much. So clearly, despite the uncertainty on how to handle his powers we saw in the first episode, Superman thought she was trying her best to.
But then it turns out Superman has a “trouble-is-happening” sense and sees something under the Skybox, which Phantom Girl recognizes to be a bomb.
When he goes to chuck it into space, it goes off, and we get some more wonderful faces. Unfortunately, I had to lower the quality of the first gif of the scene, but golly it’s so good to see.
Wow.
Clearly this episode devoted more time to the faces than other episodes.
And then they see Tharok disguised as a pinwheel vender, prompting Superman to give chase.
When they zip by a crowd, people ask who just went by. Put on the spot, Phantom Girl starts chanting “Lightning Lad”.
Which everyone starts to chant as well.
… I want to know how offended Lightning Lad was at this.
Despite catching up with Tharok, Superman loses him after getting sticky-pinwheels on his face.
Realizing that Emerald Empress is cloaking him, it immediately confirms all 5 of the Fatal Five are at the event. And this time, their target is the President. They’re aiming big.
Back with the actual sports event, we learn about flare surfing. Which is definitely a sport. A very dangerous one too, provided it takes place in a volcano.
With the main three of this episode, they are discussing how to treat the situation of the F5’s presence. Superman suggests the SP, but Phantom Girl said it’s a bad idea that will cause more panic. And then Lightning Lad states that there won’t be enough time to evacuate the huge number of people there.
When Lightning Lad says that they will stop the F5 by themselves, PG says he can’t quit after training all year for this event. Showing that she doesn’t want him to sacrifice his hard work. Superman tells the group they can all do their bit separately, keeping Lightning Lad in the competition.
And then Trash Baby interrupts, accusing Lightning Lad of getting help from his teammates, and tells him not to think of using the flight ring to cheat. Wow. Do you have any right to say that Mekt.
AND THE ADULT MIND IMMEDIATELY GETS ANOTHER IMAGE FOR THAT SHOT
First up for flare surfing is Tenzil Kem, simply called Kem in this episode, aka the future Matter-Eater Lad. And his performance is pretty impressive. Dude has some moves
PESKY!
(the chat soon dissolved in us discussing Pesky’s life choices)
Following him is Lightning Lad, who also does a very impressive performance… which Mekt proceeds to ruin.
Cat behavior.
Simply put. Lightning Lad gets deducted points because he lands on the contestant Mekt shoved.
But this next part, Superman spots Mano. Mano, why would you go as a painter? Everyone knows that painters don't show up on game days.
Then we get socially awkward Tinya. Gotta love social awkwardness.
Followed by badass Tinya, who finds Persuader disguised as a guard.
But in all seriousness, when the ship Persuader has blows up, HOW DOES NO ONE NOTICE?!
Superman doesn’t hit kids, he tackles them.
AND THEN GETS STEPPED ON BY THE KIDS AS THEY SHAPESHIFT INTO VALIDUS.
OOF. HE GONNA BE SORE. But who was he expecting if he wasn’t prepared for that to happen??
Returning to the competition, we see that the final event is start. Dashing across lava canyons. What is it with this event and heat in deadly environments?!
Again, asking important questions.
I have to ask another thing - how did the obstacle that hit Kem NOT severely injure him? I mean he’s definitely pissed.
Dem legs can jump though, given Mekt managed to evade a sand trap several feet wide.
Also, during the group watch, I kept trying to get the video to pause on this one frame… we wasted 5 minutes trying to get to it.
The scene.
The struggle.
And the frame i wanted to show.
I’m sorry but Mekt’s face just cracks me up whenever I see it.
I’ll leave this frame up to interpretation to you guys.
However, immediately after Lightning Lad save’s Mekt, he shoves his little brother’s face into the ground.
Big brother behavior? IDK I don’t have brothers.
Furthermore, he sets off another trap that causes a column over the lava to start collapsing.
Lightning Lad manages to get out of the boobytrap easily, while another contestant, Karl (I THINK THAT’S HIS NAME? IDK I WISH THIS SHOW HAD SUBTITLES), isn’t so lucky.
But then we see a major change in behavior in Lightning Lad.
He ditches his chance to win and saves him.
Let’s go over this a bit on why it’s important. This guy was an arrogant brat when we first meet him, and his pride is so big he has to be first (“DUDE! THAT’S MY SPOT!”). And this is the event he has trained a whole year for. But he’s grown during our 5 episodes.
And back to Mekt, he wins. And I’m sorry to say this but I’m happy a wee bit for him? I mean look how happy he looks crossing that line.
As for why I’m happy, I’ll discuss that later. Cuz it goes into the dynamic of the brothers.
YOU LITTLE ****
The episode jumps forwards to the ceremony, where Lightning Lad is sulking and is being comforted by PG and Supes. It’s pretty touching.
At first.
GARTH U SORE LOSER
PG then prompts Lightning Lad to go take his medal, leading him to stand next to Mekt.
And then Mekt pulls something out.
Oh no.
I love how he says that.
With no forcefield, F5 proceed to crash the ceremony.
Two questions: WHY IS THAT EYEBALL SO BIG?? WHY FOCUS ON JUST VALIDUS’S REVEAL??
As soon as the Fatal Five reveal themselves, Lighting Lad immediately says he knew the judge had it in for him.
REALLY?! THIS IS THE BEST TIME TO WHINE ABOUT THE JUDGE?!
I LOVE HOW THE ANNOUNCERS ARE THE ONES WHO LEAD UP TO THE COMMERCIAL BREAK THO
Post commercial break, F5 and the legionnaires start going at it, while Empress goes to capture the president.
EMPRESS THIS IS NOT A TIME TO FLIRT
OUCH. THAT FACE.
Phantom Girl is not happy of the idea of having an enemy for a second mom though, swooping in to get her mom out of the stage.
Whiles Superman is dealing with Validus, Mano, and Empress (plus the eye), we get another shot of Ranzz bros.
MEKT
And then the chat dissolves into more insanity. Thank’s Pesky.
LOOK AT WHAT PG PROCEEDS TO DO THEN WHEN SHE’S BACK.
SHE GRABS MANO, PHASES HIM THROUGH THE FLOOR, THEN USES HIS HAND TO MELT THAROK’S LEG. DAMN GURL
Empress catches Superman, so he tries to fry the eye like he did the first episode. But it doesn’t work, leaving Empress commenting that she wasn’t going to let him do that twice. Give her a gold star for learning.
When it looks like Superman is doomed to the eye, Jo Nah comes to the rescue, suckerpunching that eye into space, freezes Empress, who then gets kicked by PG
And then comes a bit that i know kills my dear friend @augment-techs inside
I’m sorry, but clearly PG was looking at the booty in the last bit.
Meanwhile, the broadcasters start to tell audience what’s happening, which I continue to find amusing. They even cut away from Lighting Lad’s possible demise to advertise snacks.
They just call Superman “This Fella in Blue”. I bet Brainy called in later and started to flood their office with complaints.
But seriously. HOW ARE PEOPLE SURVIVING VALIDUS LANDING ON THEM?! VALIDUS IS SENT FLYING AND THEN HE LANDS ON EMPRESS.
Who grunts miserably for Validus to get off.
The SP are getting ready to take the F5 away, and we see our lovable trash baby again.
OBSERVATIONS ARE MADE.
Nice jump.
And then we get what is a very interesting exchange.
Dat eyeliner tho.
But I find the way he closes his eyes before laughing interesting. And in his reflection, when he does laugh, it doesn’t look as confident when he did earlier. Taking that those words left a bigger gash than expected?
Another time jump takes us to another, smaller, ceremony. And a bit of mom-daughter bonding.
And then that’s followed by Winema asking if Lightning Lad is single.
OH NO
OH GOD
MY FRIEND DIES MORE AGAIN AT THE WINK OUT OF DISGUST
She’s done. As this episode is.
So final thoughts on the episode overall.
I love it.
This had some of the best expressions, and animation, in the whole series.
We had gone through three episodes of darker plots to get some lighter plots again, which is what the main characters need/deserve right now after everything that has happened so far.
While Lightning Lad plays a huge part of the episode, so does Phantom Girl.
This is also the beginning of Lightning Lad’s growth in character. Which was needed, given he was a huge, egotistical jerk in the first episode. We see he’s willing to give up first place to save others, although he will still throw a tantrum later (the locker room). And his interactions with his brother was enjoyable to watch. He clearly is not on good terms, and it seems every interaction he does is bad. Except when he saves him from being blasted during the dash. So he still cares for him on some level. Just not a high enough level that he can have a good/positive interaction.
Phantom Girl has more character development as well. We finally know where the “privilege but misunderstood” expertise comes from. Her life as the President’s daughter. She clearly hates the political part of life, having enough of being in major spotlights of that kind. But she was still willing to do stuff to get her and Superman seats in the best spot. Plus we know that she enjoys to oogle guys, but gets annoyed when people assume she’s dating/interested in her teammates. And we get to see a bit of her softer side when she’s comforting Lightning Lad.
Although I guess she divulged off screen to Superman that her mom was the President though.
Speaking of Superman - HE FINALLY GETS A LIGHT PLOT EPISODE AFTER 3 DARK PLOT EPISODES THANK GOD. He needed this so bad. Although this episode is not Superman centric. But god, he was so funny when talking to the president.
As for the F5… once again, could have used more development. I think that eyeball can change it’s size tho. But we see Empress is clearly a good planner on these things, as she even predicted Superman using his heat vision on the eyeball again.
The other guest characters were interesting to see.
The reporters were fun to listen to. Also had cool designs.
It looks like most people in the 31st century have powers, given that some of the competitors ended up fighting against the F5. Most probably just don’t know how to use them effectively against criminals.
We get our first appearance of Matter-Eater Lad and Ultra Boy.
@augment-techs, I can hear you hurling at the mention of Ultra Boy.
Neither of them are really delved into character wise, although we do have Ultra Boy winking at PG at the end.
But when watching this episode, I noticed they were talking to each other in the background (around the part when the legion trio were discussing how to go about the F5 threat). Friends maybe?
A fair number of the background characters had pretty cool designs, but a problem with this show is how most characters the same age as the legionnaires, if humanoid, share the same body type, both guys and girls.
… And as far as I saw, there’s only one girl competing.
Sigh.
Winema is so good to see after Dr. Londo. She does care for her daughter, and tries to reach out to her. Would be the type of parent who offers a condom during sex rather than scold you. However, her ways of reaching out to her is not without flaws. First off the bat, politics. She couldn’t give her daughter a medal in the end mainly because of the political feedback. Who knows how much it affected other interactions beforehand?
And then we have her immediate assumptions that she is dating Superman, and that she’s interested in dating one of the other boys at the end. It’s uncomfortable when people assume you and someone the opposite are “more than just friends”.
Furthermore, watching this episode now that I think PG might be bi, it led to a new idea of the assumptions and how PG feels about them.
Simply put, her mom is offering only suggestions on guys. Not girls.
As a pansexual, let me say it’s annoying when people assume you are only into one gender. Even more so if they assume you are straight. And when that person is family, that’s opening another whole can of worms. Sometimes the people aren’t aware of how it’s a bad thing but can be simply told and they will get it, and then there’s the homophobic/biphobic/panphobic people.
I think Winema is probably the first of the two though. She’s the best parent on this show.
In any case though, going off on the idea that she might be bi, Phantom Girl hasn’t gone to tell her that she is interested in girls. Maybe she’s afraid how it will play out politically? Or if her mom takes it badly?
Questions, questions.
But let’s talk about my FAVORITE PART OF THIS WHOLE EPISODE.
Mekt Ranzz.
Oh my god, he’s like the fusion of Grunkle Stan and Victor Nikiforov. Willing to cheat, but clearly has athletic talents... and pretty looks.
Okay, the fact that I am able to compare him to Victor leaves enough leverage for me to justify me shiping him with Superman, who I compared to Yuuri in the first review. Everyone shush.
But as for character dissection, let’s bring something from the previous episode.
Lightning Lad’s room.
I managed to adjust the brightness/contrast in the original frame so that we can see it, unlike the way Fear Factory just made everything to dark to see.
YES I AM STILL BITTER ABOUT FEAR FACTORY BEING DARK AS ****
The shelfs has a lot of trophies. As in, filled with them.
And now recall what Mekt said after winning the dash, and then when Lightning Lad went to confront him.
“Nothing wrong with silver, little brother. You should be used to second place by now.”
“All I did was make a deal with the judge, so I’d come in first! For a change.”
Okay, those two statements seem to conflict with each other, but hear me out.
Lightning Lad was always, or usually, getting first place when they were younger in athletic events. And Mekt was probably never prided in any of his accomplishments. So when the Empress in disguise offers him that chance to get of first place, he jumps for it. Hence why he looks so friggin happy when he crosses the line.
As for the statement he makes after the race, I think he might have been making a jab at Lightning Lad with something said to him from their childhood.Or he was referring to the competition itself, given that he ruined his landing earlier (and possibly some other events we didn’t see.)
Either way, it was to rub more salt into Lightning Lad’s wounded pride.
He is capable of regret though. His expression seen when Empress addresses him when she grabs the President, and to me, the way he looked at himself in the medal and laughed. That laugh, and the expression he made, seemed less malicious than it did when I first watched the episode.
Let me make this clear really quick, I did not like Mekt when I first watched this. Everything he did seemed like a total prick move. This wasn’t the first episode I saw him in though. That was Lightning Storm. So my opinion of him was arguably ruined by that.
But in terms of stepping up to make things right, at this point in the show, he’s no where close. He runs away for crying out loud. Then again, no evidence if he has ever fought people like the F5 before.
But he did offer Lightning Lad his medal. The medal that he cheated to get. Really the most decent thing he does in the whole episode.
He clearly isn’t as angry towards Lightning Lad. Way less. Heck, he provokes him in a somewhat playful manner at times. Mekt seems more open to them having a positive relationship than Lightning Lad. Which says a lot on how he views their relationship in comparison to his brother.
Maybe my fondness of him, and actually knowing his background based on the comics, is getting in the way of me properly seeing how the staff wanted to portray him? Probably.
But I can’t deny that I love him… and making his life a nightmare.
Given Mekt ties into Lightning Lad’s backstory though, it makes more sense that Fear Factory was suppose to come out before Champions, as it was the opening act to us learning about it on this show.
Characters in this episode:
Superman gets the light-hearted plotline he deserves. Finally. In terms of development, not much happens with him though. But given that this episode wasn’t suppose to focus on him, we can let it go.
Phantom Girl gets so much more development than any other episode, and we get a better look at her personality than before, where she was a supporting character. Plus we get perhaps the best facial expressions in the show from her.
Again, I cannot stress this enough, this is a huge part on Lightning Lad’s character development. But it’s not the starting point of understanding his personality, because that was the previous episode, with his bedroom and his fears. Now I COULD delve into every bit right now. But I won’t. I will do it as the episodes go along.
And then the competitors: Matter Eater Lad/Kem was fun to see, even though not much of his personality was really explored. Zzok was endearing to see - nice to know the competitions weren’t humanoid exclusive. Ultra Boy/Jo Nah had a bit more personality than the others, given he interacted with PG - I HEAR YOU GROANING AUGMENT!! And the possibility that he and Kem are friends even before/during the competition is interesting.
Fatal Five. Again - not the most interesting villains, with Empress being the most intriguing of the 5 of them, but not enough to engage people as much as other villains.
Winema is the best parent in the 31st century on this show during the first season. Hands down. The remedy to seeing Dr. Londo’s abuse. A woman of power also. What’s not to love? Well, her assumptions on Tinya wanting to go out with only guys, particularly teammates. But hopefully she will correct that in the future.
And let me say this again, I LOVE MEKT. He’s such a trash baby, and a pretty one too. Can be one of the best villains on this show. Reason why I say can is, like Alexis, that title doesn’t seem right for him in this episode. As for the next episode we see him, he will fit that description of villain. Still curious on the staff’s choice for his outfit though.
#Hannah Watches LOSH#losh#legion of superheroes#mekt ranzz#lightning lad#phantom girl#winema wazzo#superman
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Brave and Merida in a Trumped up world
It's a little surprising to me that the Disney fandom went absolutely apeshit over the "Disneyfication" of Merida in their merchandise - something Brenda Chapman even spoke out against, calling it a cheap ploy to sell merchandise - yet there hasn't been any commentary on other Brave spin-offs.
Merida's a Disney/Pixar heroine who, in Chapman’s own words, was created to be a different kind of Princess. Now, I don’t think it makes me a good feminist to sit here and pit Disney Princess against Disney Princess; I think popular perception of the “Disney Princess” is a different beast altogether when compared with the actual source material, which has both positive and negative aspects. But when it comes to Merida the writers intentionally set out from the start to try something new. She has a fuller, rounded figure, a nuanced relationship with her mother, and romance plays no part in her story. You could argue there’s evidence of a romantic interest, but that’s not the same thing as a romantic subplot, and it’s not overt enough that you can say with any certainty. The writers admit the original idea was to have Merida walk off into the sunset with Young MacGuffin, the suitor who briefly catches her attention early in the film, but that epilogue thankfully only exists in the artbook and deleted scenes.
And let me be clear, there's nothing wrong with Merida having a romantic interest. In fact, I came to love that Merida is subtly shown to be a little interested in Young MacGuffin.
I was watching Mulan the other night with a @pale-silver-comb (who is 100% responsible for my newfound love of Disney- well, that and the fact I need bright happy escapist animation as the rest of my time is spent neck deep in miserable politics). We were cackling over the scene where Mulan ogles a shirtless Shang and later wound up ranting over how rare it is to see women checking out guys in films. When women do make their attraction known, they tend to run the risk of being framed or labelled as shameless, or worse, sluts. On the flipside, how often do we see guys ogling girls in media? Yeah, exactly. It's a shitty myth that women don't own their sexuality in the same ways men do. That's one of the things I love about Mulan and Merida as heroines - they're not "strong female characters" (god I hate that term, can we please kill it?) just because they kick large hairy man arse. They're great characters because they are so relatable. They're funny, they're giant dorks, they stuff their gobs, they check guys out, they can be crass, proud, and make mistakes. These are all things women do, but aren't shown to do nearly as often as men are in mainstream media.
I’m glad the Brave epilogue with Merida and Young MacGuffin didn't make the final cut, because the story wasn't about Merida finding romance - it was about Merida's relationship with her mother, and the two of them confronting their pride, opening their minds to new ways of thinking, and admitting their mistakes. The epilogue had no place in Brave’s narrative. To have included it would have harmed the message of the story by adding romance for the sake of romance, rather than for any narrative purpose. But at the same time I don't want to downplay Merida showing even a subtle interest because yay women owning their own sexuality. One of the things that has driven me crazy since I was a kid myself is the patronising infantilization of girls. A crush is normal, you can pretty much get them at any age, it does not mean you’re not enjoying your childhood to the fullest. Fuck that noise. I had massive crushes from the age of 4 and still managed to climb trees, get into fights and battle Captain Hook and Shredder on my T-Rex with imaginary best friend Gollum at my side (what? fuck you we had a bond). That Merida might have had a bit of a crush on Young MacGuffin reinforces for me the fact she’s a character who doesn't want to get married because she doesn’t bloody want to, not because the suitors are conveniently horrible people she vehemently dislikes. I actually find that even more inspiring. So yes, Brave is a great film with a pretty amazing heroine.
Which is why it pisses me off when spin-off writers take something so progressive and shaft it.
This isn't a ship shaming post at all - fandom is a ship & let ship space, ship Merida with her bow for all I care, it's all good. This critique is aimed at crappy spin-offs and I’m taking Once Upon a Time as an example. Now, OUAT isn’t all bad. Sometimes it takes Disney canon and transforms it into something really interesting, progressive and original. Or, well, it used to. Recent seasons not so much. The actress who plays Merida is the only good thing about OUAT's Brave arc. The rest is unbearably lazy (HA! pun.) writing. The gravest injustice has to be King Fergus, who looks like he's wearing a wig knitted from a highland cow's pubes.
Don't get me started on his accent. I’m scottish. No Scotsman sounds like that. Not unless they’re squeedging out an enormous post-curry-hangover shit. I love Fergus, but honestly I was relieved OUAT!Fergus was bumped off before my ears could go on strike.
The suitors are also sexist pigs. Dingwall and MacGuffin don't even say anything, they just play the lazy mindless followers/minions to MacIntosh who’s probably the most unlikeable aspect of the arc. Really says something about OUAT when the original animation, aimed at a younger audience, portrays its characters as more nuanced. In Brave, Young MacIntosh is all bluff- he’s a show off, a sore loser and generally a bit of a prick, but there are also glimpses of genuine empathy. He's also the suitor Merida is openly put off by in the film. So yeah, in Brave, Young MacIntosh is a bit of a lanky fucktrumpet, but he's not anywhere close to being the scabby sexist cockwomble he is in OUAT. This would be fine if it had some sort of clever narrative purpose, but who am I kidding, it’s OUAT. OUAT!MacIntosh is a proper dickhead and there’s no reason for Merida to like any of the suitors, because unlike in Brave, they’re all fucking assholes. And yet the OUAT arc still ends with Merida giving him the smitten googley eyes. Because romance or something. cool.
Another Brave novelisation published by Disney Random House ends with Merida confirming to the reader that yes, she did eventually marry. Well thank fuck for that! My frail girlish heart couldn't possibly entertain the idea of Merida never marrying. Thank you book, you've reassured conservative parents everywhere.
In addition to that bollocks is.. probably one of the worst offenders. I recently picked up a couple of the Merida chapter books by Sudipta Bardham-Quallen, again published by Disney Random House. They're for wee kids, but I wanted to see more of @gurihiru 's lovely art which I’m fully smitten with. The writing isn’t great, but the stories involve challenging enough themes for very young readers. To the author's credit there's a bit of an effort made to retain a Scottish feel to them and there’s a nice focus on female friendships as Merida encounters new characters. It’s a bit cutesy-poo BFFs!!, the kind of thing I hated as a kid, but hey, we need more female friendship stories. The new characters are even quite likeable, so thumbs up there.
Then I picked up the second book, The Fire Falls (also written by Sudipta Bardham-Quallen), and cringed. Basically bad Merida and Young MacIntosh fanfic involving some classic tropes like: 'I'm not jealous, I’m just better than all those shameless slags flirting with him' and 'arg he's such an asshole but i'm inexplicably attracted to him though there's nothing to show in the story why I should be!' and my favourite - ‘He’s a bad guy but I can change him!’
Here's my main issue: why is it when a female character shows or says she’s not interested in a guy's advances this all too often becomes a springboard for their romance? Why do these stories have such an obsession with positioning the sexist hyper-masculine asshole as the romantic lead? (I'm sure that couldn’t have any dire implications for the worl-oh fuck). And in Brave's case, when the source material and original epilogue show Merida taking an interest in the big fat guy, why don’t any of the spin-offs build on that? Young MacGuffin also happens to be the only one in the entire film to vocally stand up for Merida’s rights. That’s pretty cool! So why don’t spin-offs celebrate that? The cynic in me says we all know the answer - much like Merida had to be “sexed up” to sell Disney merchandise, the fat suitor had to be swapped out for the skinny.
Really, in a film that revolves around Merida's frustration that people aren't listening to her, it sort of amazes me that these spin-offs don't realise they AREN'T LISTENING TO HER.
And yeah, obviously I know it seems really silly picking on kids books and OUAT, neither of which are ever going to win awards for great progressive writing, but considering America just elected a vile celebrity as President and populism is on the rise, maybe it’s time we all said screw that academic snobbery and paid more attention to popular media. This stuff is common, these tropes are common, and it’s consumed mostly by young kids who internalise these crappy messages.
I make a big deal of it because these coded messages have a profound effect on us as we grow. These messages tell us to ignore a girl's decision and choice: that when she says 'I'm not interested' what we hear is 'I am'; that the most "attractive" and most "masculine" guy will always be the “natural” choice; that being fat or shy or awkward are inherently negative qualities and will always be overlooked by the loud wanker distracting everyone by waving his tiny hands around.
I'm now a published historian and I plan on publishing children's books in the near future; I work part-time in a bookshop, so I talk to kids about the stories they read, the stories they want to read, and their frustrations with the stories they HAVE read, all the time; I studied child psychology as part of my degree in Social Anthropology: this is why it matters to me and why I know all too well how much these coded messages affect us. I know it from my own experiences as a half-Moroccan kid with a dead father, growing up in a classroom of white kids who all came from middle-class households with two parents. This was all brought back to me when I rediscovered some of my old journals and stories I had written for class where I portrayed myself as being blonde/white and talked as if my dad was still alive, because I desperately wanted to be *normal*. I never got to encounter a character like Merida growing up, and I wish to god I had.
Children's authors and publishing houses have an enormous responsibility to make their readers feel included and heard. They also have a responsibility to challenge toxic ideas - not reinforce them. We have to keep pushing boundaries, not limit them.
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A Year in Review: Movies I Watched in 2016
Those of you who know me well know that I watch A LOT of movies. As a kid, going to the theatre was a family past-time, and my parents were my number one movie-watching buddies. To this day, it remains one of my favorite ways to escape reality and share time, experiences, and thoughts with those I care about most.
I started collecting ticket stubs when I was young, but it was an inconsistent endeavor and I’m pretty sure I’ve thrown all of them out by now. Only in the past couple of years have I become more strict about collecting. Now that I buy most of my tickets online, I still make sure to get them printed at the theatre when I arrive. For me, each ticket, each movie, was a memory of what I saw, who I was with, what I felt, what I thought, and what I did all throughout that day. It became a diary of sorts - that centered my life around the stories and worlds that I wanted to live in or tell myself.
It only recently occurred to me to keep an actual list of all the movies I’ve seen in one full year. I started doing so back in 2015, but like my ticket collecting, it was a half-hearted hobby, and I logged only the titles of the films I saw. So, in 2016, I set out to create a more detailed account and began tracking the theatres I attended, the date, the time, and who I saw it with. I later tacked on my own critic and enjoyment ratings, because, ya know, everyone has an opinion and I wanted to remember mine.
Anyway, pardon the self-indulgent writing, but without further ado, here’s the list, in chronological order, of all the new films I’ve watched in theatres from January to December in 2016:
The Hateful Eight: 70 mm Roadshow
The Revenant
The Danish Girl
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Deadpool
Zootopia
10 Cloverfield Lane
The Witch
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
The Jungle Book
Captain America: Civil War
X-Men: Apocalypse
WarCraft
Finding Dory
The Purge: Election Year
Ghostbusters
Start Trek Beyond
Suicide Squad
The Secret Life of Pets
Jason Bourne
Kubo and The Two Strings
Don't Breathe
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Boo! A Madea Halloween
Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back
Doctor Strange
Arrival
Moana
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
La La Land
Collateral Beauty
Assassin's Creed
And here’s a breakdown of all the films, prioritized in order from best to worst in their respective categories:
BEST 5 MOVIES (must watch, they were awe-inspiring and revelational)
La La Land
Moana
Arrival
Don’t Breathe
Kubo and The Two Strings
WORST 5 MOVIES (don’t bother, my brain was either shut off or died at some point)
Suicide Squad
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Ghostbusters
Assassin’s Creed
X-Men: Apocalypse
HONORABLE MENTIONS (perfect or not, I kinda just really like them, so...)
The Revenant
Captain America: Civil War
Zootopia
Collateral Beauty
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
The Hateful Eight: 70 mm Roadshow
10 Cloverfield Lane
Deadpool
BEST MOVIE OF 2016: La La Land
WORST MOVIE OF 2016: X-Men: Apocalypse
MISSED MOVIES (I really wanted to watch them, but didn’t get to)
Nocturnal Animals
Moonlight
The Handmaiden
Fences
The Huntsman: Winter’s War
Looking back on the year, I’ve come to realize that although I’ve become decidedly disillusioned by superhero movies and most animated films (namely Pixar’s films - sorrynotsorry), they will, most of the time, be well-produced and well-told stories, with enjoyable characters, and overall satisfying experiences. Regardless, that alone does not make them outstanding pieces of cinema.
Superhero movies have become the blockbuster, tent-pole films of our generation, and while I’m glad Marvel has figured out a way to make them popular and profitable (with the exception of Fox’s X-Men franchise and DC, who both REALLY still need to get their shit together - still holding out hope fro Wonder Woman tho...), they’ve also now raised the bar for themselves. Nothing short of a genre-breaking/redefining superhero movie will stand out in the massive and masterfully crafted cinematic universe that they’ve created. Video game movies though, apparently, still have a lot to learn (PLEASE don’t fuck up the Tomb Raider reboot!)
As far as animation goes, Pixar, for me at least, seems to be suffering the same stigma - all their movies are amazing and super well-made, but not really memorable. With that in mind, it’s ironic to me that the villain in my favorite film of theirs, The Incredibles, foreshadowed their current fate when he said: “When everyone’s super... NO ONE will be...” In contrast, although Disney’s movies aren’t exactly perfectly produced, it at least appears that they’re taking risks in the messages and themes of the stories they’re telling. They’re pushing and poking boundaries with cultural representation and social subject matter. Granted, their handling of such topics is still somewhat clunky and controversial, but I appreciate that their voice is evolving and adjusting to the modern world and diversity of people around it.
Now that I think about it, it is that clarity, freshness, and uniqueness of voice that is probably the greatest common factor shared among my top 5 moves of the year. Whether it’s through style, themes, message, character, or literal language and vocals (or lack there of), each film expresses its story with a voice so clear that it rings out, distinct above the din of drama, and echoes still, strong as ever, inside my heart and mind.
Also, as I mentioend before, movies are one of my favorite ways to spend time with those I love while enjoying something I'm passionate about. So here's a short list of my friends and loved ones who've accompanied me the most on these cinematic adventures:
TOP 5 MOVIE BUDDIES
Sean (33 times)
Raad (11 times)
David (7 times)
Stacey (7 times)
Daniel (6 times)
I don't know if I could ever thank Sean enough for basically watching every single movie with me this past year! The one film we didn't see together he still showed up to the theatre afterwards to wish me a happy birthday. THANK YOU, my Sean and stars! XOXO
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