#tom is still the best live-action actor for the character so far | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

catastrxblues · 4 months

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hii nadinee <3

the years coming to an end sooooo i need to sneak in atleast another ask that allows you to rant sdajhsdkjah

okay soo, i saw your posst about your rants about tbosas (Im assuming you've watched it? if not ignore this x)

soo i was thinkinggggg, if you wanttt, you can rant about it under this ask bc i love reading your rants and ily

bye noww mwah <33

HI LUCY !!!! thank you so muchh for this askjdklf 😭<33

i just finished watching it and i have some THOUGHTS. but it’s midnight here soo it’s definitely not well put AT ALL T-T

first of all, i just LOVE the fact that they added the “part x : ….” like that was such a nice touch i was so surprised for some reason

CLEM. i don’t know if it’s my memory that sucks, but i think she was a bit too confident and ambitious in this? especially that part with dr. gaul. book clemmie still fabricated the truth of course, but it was more to save herself from dr gaul’s notorious wrath. but movie clemmie did it to make a better impression on her, even went as far as claiming that she wrote it all which is just?? i don’t really understand why they had to “antagonize” her that way.

THE SINGING AT THE REAPING. like the beginning part. it actually gave me chills i love it so much

SEJANUS MY BELOVED. i love him so much. and that part of snow saying to him that he “will always protect him” throwing up because sejanus my love i’m so sorry

TIGRIS too oh my god. she’s just so everything. kind, compassionate, witty. and the part where they added the “you look like your father coriolanus” again, throwing up. i just i love her so much 😭

LUCY GRAYY. okay, don’t get me wrong, i LOVEE rachel and i think she was amazingg (and that scene when coryo was trying to convince her that she would be okay in the end thing after he killed mayfair and her voice cracked i can’t). AND LIKE THE FACT THAT SHE SANG ALL OF THEM LIVE STOP.

but i feel like they made lucy gray soo much more mature in here? as if everything she did was calculated and almost everything she said (before the games) had this ‘sneer’ in them. when, from what i remember, lucy gray wasn’t like that?

and that part at the end, when she told coryo she was going to get some katniss. they also made it seem like she suspected what was going on and was contemplating on doing something about it (which i get because of cinematic reason but). i don’t know, i think it erased the pure insanity of the moment a bit. how paranoid snow is for his safety that he could shed off trust that easily.

oh yeah SNOW 😭 tom blyth was greatt of course. watching this did make me realize how inner monologues can change and affect a story to the audience. because, no matter how good the actor is at face expression, you can never replace the running unfiltered thoughts that goes through a character’s mind.

like. honestly, if i had only watched the movie, maybe i would’ve violently shipped snowbaird too. cool if you do!! and i do get the whole appeal about doomed by the narratives, but i personally just never really liked or shipped them because of how disgustingly possessive snow is of her. how he had once thought that it’d be better to have her locked up in the capitol, his his his for like so many pages, etc.

i feel like the lack of snow’s inner monologue is definitely the reason why we now have so many people babygirling and justifying his actions. don’t know just something to think about i guess.

OH AND THE FACT THAT WE DONT HAVE THE “it’s not over until the mockingjay sings”??? jail that’s literally one of the best quotes from the book and it could’ve been SUCH a cinematic moment i don’t know why they cut that

that’s itt i think i don’t really want for this to go too long 😭 THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR GIVING ME A REASON TO DO THIS LUCY I LOVE YOU hope you’re having a wonderful holiday 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽

#💌#<3 #tbosas #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #the hunger games

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knightotoc · 10 months

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Musician Heroes

I'm such a sucker for them! Society largely ignores musicians and treats them like shit even though they are the coolest people, so it's always fantastic when we at least throw a bone to a fictional one.

Orpheus of Greek mythology, okay musical Hadestown, and dozens of sentimental Tumblr posts

I like the idea that music on its own is this otherworldly force that can do anything, but music is never on its own, and human nature will always bring us back to reality. Though usually the flaw in human nature is more like "the musician was an antisemite" or "the executives of spotify only pay musicians $0.006," not "the musician loved his wife a lot."

Link of the big medievalist video game franchise for kids

I've seen a bunch of nerds lament that the current Link is no longer left-handed, but I think the far bigger shame is that he is no longer a musician. In past incarnations, he was perhaps the most famous and important fictional musician of them all, not least because you get to push the buttons yourself. In Link's reality, music is the source of magic; in our reality, it's the hard work of genius Koji Kondo; in both realities, it's the bedrock of community and understanding, bonds that make the world worth fighting for. David Collins has an excellent 4-part podcast on Ocarina, and this comment on a video of Majora's Astral Observatory track blew my mind:

The Close Encounters aliens and their influence

The aliens in Spielberg's weird adultery masterpiece "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" initiate first contact with a bizarre but ultimately harmless (?) plan that involves addicting subliminal imagery and a flashy John Williams concert. It's a beautiful and even logical idea that music will be the thing that brings life from other planets together.

There are a ton of direct homages in subsequent works of science fiction, such as the live-action He-Man movie, which inspired this post. "The universe is made of music," Gwildor says to a young Tom Paris actor, and the Earthling teenager is able to use his perfect pitch and melody recall to calibrate the transporter-thingy and build a bridge between Earth and Eternia. The biggest fight takes place in a music store where a ton of instruments gets smashed to pieces with enthrallingly reckless abandon.

A more recent Close Encounters homage is the misunderstood villains of Discovery season 4, species 10-C; but because we can't have any fun anymore, the first-contact-light-show corresponds to hydrocarbons or primary numbers or something, not music.

NOT Cal Kestis of Jedi: Fallen Order

Speaking of musician fake-outs, I was so amped when JFO seemed to actually include music-making. For a franchise so reliant on non-diegetic music, the only musician characters we've ever really gotten have been the turtlenecked Biths in A New Hope's cantina. But Cal is yet another lonely teenage boy who leads a big-budget Star Wars project and doesn't even know how to play the guitar. In this picture, he is using psychometry, a Jedi power that lets you access memories embedded within objects, to play a song that someone else played on it before. That's so cool! But it means he's not technically playing it. It's also a microcosm of JFO's whole story, which is Cal filling in for Cere Junda, confronting people from her past, while you wonder why Cere isn't the main character herself.

Fancy Movies: "Carnival of Souls" and "Boy and the World"

These are two of the best movies about musicians who are really up against it: the nameless busker of "Boy" vs the horrors of economic exploitation, and church organist Mary Henry of "Carnival" vs the horrors of Utah. Great movies to watch while the avoiding the 4th of July fireworks.

Stupid Movies: "Cloud Atlas" and "Dungeons and Dragons"

I have beef with these movies, but that's unrelated to these put-upon, lovable musician characters. Still, Robert Frobisher is better in the book, and Edgin Darvis is better in the version of this movie in my head where death has consequences.

Sad TV Guys

Learning an instrument takes time, and Picard has more than enough of that in famously tragic TNG episode "The Inner Light." He lives an entire life through the mind-altering technology in this alien flute to become the last living memory of a dead civilization. The most musically significant thing about this episode, besides the fact that a real musician is holding the instrument to Patrick Stewart's face, is that they replaced TNG's bombastic credits music with a wistful woodwind.

Another musician who really takes the punch out of being a hero is Ishida Yamato, the bad boy of Digimon. While Yagami Taichi leads the group recklessly through the dangerous digital world, Yamato is most interested in keeping everyone safe, especially his little brother. He manifests the emotional side of their adventure by playing sad songs on his harmonica like a pint-sized cowboy.

Perhaps all this angst is exactly why there are so few Musician Heroes, and quite a few:

Musician Villains!

Tolkein's Melkor/Morgoth and Asimov's The Mule bring discord into their old-timey SFF novels; the sheer force of their free will disrupts the carefully laid plans of wiser, better men, and this free will is represented by their music. Hypnotic and miserable, they are the most interesting people in their universes, and for that the normie heroes must bring them down. Anybody else think the Devil won that fiddle contest?

Webber's Phantom and George Harvey Bone of "Hangover Square" are iconic evil incels detached from reality, exploited and despised by everyone around them, driven to murder by weird and sinister forces. As buildings go up in flames around them, they are left alone with only their music, a fate for only the most committed, and therefore most evil, of musicians.

#long post #asimov blogging #eventually

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themosleyreview · 9 months

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The Mosley Review: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

In the right hands, a franchise can go on forever. In the right hands, a franchise can grow to be more and more inventive and thrilling with each new story. This franchise has only had one misstep in its 27 year life span on the big screen and it has continued to impress me ever since. Not many can stay as consistently exciting, refreshing and somewhat terrifying as these films have consistently become. To think its been 5 years since M:I Fallout and I thought it couldn't get any better than that. These films have covered many standard tropes of betrayal, moles in the agency, a biological weapon, a mysteriously dangerous item, nuclear bombs and even the ever present Syndicate. They've all been handled in a fun and exciting way and this films handles something that is topical and so recent, that even though it may be fantastical at times, it still was terrifying. The break neck speed the film moves at was fun and I loved the visual call backs to the old school use of the Dutch tilt angle. There were one or two moments of cheese, but it is short lived. This film felt more unpredictable than the rest and way more personal as each character that has been with the series so far is in some form of danger.

Tom Cruise is still one of best actors and action stars alive today. He truly is the blueprint of how to sell ever hit, crash and emotional beat. As Ethan Hunt this time around, he continues to give the character such depth and strength. I loved that we finally get a glimpse into his past and a look into how and why he joined the IMF. The amount of pressure and love he carries for his team is on full display in a way I haven't seen since the third film. Ving Rhames returns as the one and only Luther Stickell and I loved seeing him back at the keyboard. The chemistry between him and Ethan has never stopped being a staple of the franchise and it continues here as he gives him words of wisdom and warning. Simon Pegg was fantastic and loveable again as Benji Dunn and his constant worry is always fun as he gets more into the action this time. Seeing Luther and Benji team up was a dream come true and I loved the back and forth between them on who's the better hacker. . Rebecca Ferguson returns as Ilsa Faust and she is deadlier than ever before. I almost was frustrated with her character because of her constantly finding herself mixed up in some form of international danger. She wasn't a damsel at all, but at some point I would've hoped she found a new quieter line of work. Hayley Atwell was a fun and quirky addition to the franchise as Grace. She has that wicked sense of charm and cunning as she ends up being one of the most slippery characters that you love to watch. The cat and mouse game between her and Ethan was really fun. She quickly realizes how far she is in over her head and the constant state of panic she is in for the majority of the film was hilarious at times. Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis were fun as the task force partners, Jasper Briggs and Degas, that vigorously hunt Ethan throughout the film. Cary Elwes was fun and a bit slimy as the Director of National Intelligence Denlinger. It was wonderful to see Henry Czerny return as Eugene Kittridge from the first film. I always enjoyed the tension between him and Ethan and in this film you get to the route of it.

The villains have always been a staple of the franchise and they continue to be interesting. Vanessa Kirby and Frederick Schmidt return as Alanna and Zola Mitsopolis. Vanessa delivers yet again that perfect balance of beauty, sinister brilliance and strength. I liked that Alanna felt like she entered a deal that posed a major threat. Zola was more fun this time around as he got to be apart of the business deals instead of just muscle. Pom Klementieff was terrifying and relentless as the French assassin Paris. Her viscous physicality was impressive and awesome to witness. I want to see more of her in the future. Esai Morales was awesome as the main antagonist Gabriel. He had a sort of religious zealotry to his motivation in the film. I loved that he was the direct link to Ethan and their rivalry runs deep. His calm demeanor was creepy and intense with every smirk. He might shape up to be one of the greatest villains this series has ever seen.

Composer Lorne Balfe returns and brings back some familiar themes established in M:I Fallout. This time around it is more thunderous and yet emotionally driven. From the beginning to the end the score gets your blood pumping as it becomes part of the driving force of each action scene. The Mission theme kicks in at the most epic and fun moments. The action has always delivered in this franchise and it has gone to a new level of thrilling. I've always appreciated the use of practical action set pieces and this film continues to ramp up the inventive and death defying nature of the stunts. Of course the mountain ridge jump is the stand out of the film, but my favorite was the train sequence. The use of minimal CGI is always appreciated and it was used perfectly to supplement the action. My expectations when it comes to the Mission: Impossible films is always high because of how consistently well crafted they have been. Director Christopher McQuarrie has directed yet another amazing entry in the series and I truly can't wait to see Dead Reckoning Part Two. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

#mission impossible dead reckoning part one #tom cruise #hayley atwell #simon pegg #ving rhames #rebecca ferguson #vanessa kirby #esai morales #shea whigham #cary elwes

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ultraericthered · 2 years

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Pokemon English Voice Compare/Rank, Professors

In which I rank the English dub voice actors of Pokemon characters from strongest to weakest, and sometimes throw in my 2 cents of who I think would be solid casting choices. This one is for professors.

PROFESSOR OAK: 1. Stan Hart - Original voice of Professor Oak in the main anime. Stan provided Oak with this Frank Morgan-esque voice that after only a little while of hearing it is burned into your brain as THE voice of Professor Oak. It was as perfectly fitting a voice for the character as you could ask for, and Stan Hart’s still got it down so well that he could very well play a good Professor Oak in live action too! 2. Joe J. Thomas - Voice of Professor Oak in Pokemon Masters. Let it be said now that no other VA for Oak could feel as right for the part as Stan Hart did, but Joe’s firm, eccentric, very Tom Kenny sounding voice for him in this game is probably the next best that we could get.

3. Mick Wingert - Voice of Professor Oak in the main anime taking over from James Carter Cathcart, but thus far only for two episodes at the very end of Pokemon Journeys. Boy do I ever wish Mick had been available for Oak sooner, as him doing a slightly deeper take on his Heimerdinger voice for the old professor is infinitely better than Cathcart’s beyond grating portrayal. More of him in later stuff please? 4. Kyle Hebert - Voice of Professor Oak in Pokemon Origins. This is such solid casting, as Kyle could pull off a decent Professor Oak (something closer to his Pryce voice shows that). But for whatever reason, what he ended up going with sounds incredibly boring, not old enough, and just not quite fitting. What a disappointment! 5. Keith Silverstein - Voice of Professor Oak in Pokemon Evolutions. I’ll take Kyle Hebert’s Oak over this one, though! Something about Keith’s very distinctly low and raspy voice coming out of Oak’s mouth just feels wrong. He sounds like an old mad scientist like Charon! 6. Ben Diskin - Voice of Professor Oak in the Two Professors cross-promotion for Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eevee! and Pokemon Go! OK, at least Keith sounded somewhat like an old man! Ben is woefully miscast here, sounding like a nasally, dweeby older Nigel Uno. 7. James Carter Cathcart - Voice of Professor Oak in the main anime taking over from Stan Hart, and how sad is it that the worst Oak took over from the best Oak? At first he sounded alright, and having the same VA as Gary voicing him actually made sense. But by late into Diamond & Pearl, he began to sound extremely forced, whiny, and unbearably grating to listen to, and he only kept getting worse! By Black & White, Stan Hart was available again. We really needed him back as Oak, but TPCI stupidly didn’t take that opportunity.

PROFESSOR SYCAMORE: 1. Jake Paque - Voice of Professor Sycamore in the main anime. Smooth, handsome, elegant but definitely masculine. He does it all. 2. Austin Lee Matthews - Voice of Professor Sycamore in Pokemon Evolutions. A very bit part, but he puts in a good effort all the same. 3. Ben Lepley - Voice of Professor Sycamore in Pokemon Masters EX. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is about this performance that bothers me, but there’s this effete tone to it and it just bugs the crap out of me ‘cause we know Ben could’ve done better at making the character sound more dapper and gentlemanly like he should sound.

PROFESSOR KUKUI: 1. Alejandro Saab - Voice of Professor Kukui in Pokemon Masters EX. He embodies the part perfectly, even making a light distinction between his normal Kukui voice and his Masked Royal voice. 2. Abe Goldfarm - Voice of Professor Kukui in the main anime. God, this vocal performance was as flat and painfully generic as it gets. Even in Journeys when he finally put some effort into the acting, it was far too late to fix the unfitting voice that he’s stuck with.

PROFESSOR SONIA: 1. Morgan Laurre Garrett - Voice of Sonia in Pokemon Masters EX. The tone, the accent, the line delivery, it’s all exactly what’s needed. 2. Allegra Clark - Voice of Sonia in Pokemon: Twilight Wings. Despite the lack of an accent, Allegra does great at doing something distinct from her Cynthia voice and making Sonia sound age appropriate and like the precious nerd that she is. 3. Britanny Cox - Voice of Sonia in the main anime. She does alright in Sonia’s more low-key and serious moments, but her regular voice for her just doesn’t fit very well. She sounds like a flighty teenage girl, which might suit Lisia but not Sonia! FANCAST OPTION - Abby Trott. Morgan Laurre’s voice for Sonia sounds eerily like a voice that Abby could do, accent and everything!

#Pokemon #professors #voice acting #comparison #opinion

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denimbex1986 · 10 days

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'Never has an actor had the opportunity to spend so much time in the shoes of the mysterious Tom Ripley. Certainly, there have been two film adaptations of the novel, one with Alain Delon in 1960 ( Plein soleil ) and the other with Matt Damon in 1999. But the series by Steven Zaillian (screenwriter of Schindler's List and The Irishman , in particular) , which has eight episodes in black and white, allows us to grasp the nuances of the character. However, it is impossible to fully elucidate the actions of this enigmatic man. And that's normal.

“It’s elusive, so I had to find different ways to try to understand it. One of my challenges was to admit that some questions would remain unanswered, because Tom, like many people, is a stranger to himself,” explains Andrew Scott.

Despite his shortcomings in his own identity, Tom Ripley is determined to improve his lot. Orphaned, the native Bostonian had a difficult childhood. In the books, we learn that he was raised by an aunt who didn't like him and called him a sissy . At age 20, he fled to New York in hopes of becoming an actor.

It was in this city, in the early 1960s, that Ripley got his start. Tom is not a comedian, but rather a small-time crook who deceives specialists' patients by sending them letters or calling them to demand payment by check. One day, a rich boat builder offers to pay him to go to Italy to convince his son to return home. Although the supposed friendship between Tom and Richard Greenleaf, alias Dickie, is only a vague memory for the latter, he invites him to live with him, in his splendid villa in Atrani, near Naples.

"Tom lives with the rats on the Lower East Side. He owns nothing and has no family. He is a man who has been rejected by society, who is ignored. Although he is talented, he became a criminal in order to survive and is excellent at what he does. Then he meets these people who have half his talent, but double the privileges."

“[Author] Patricia Highsmith addressed inequalities, injustices and the disparity of opportunities granted. We want Tom to succeed, because he is an underdog ” he believes.

For some viewers, the encouragement will possibly cease when Tom becomes – spoiler alert, even though the novel was published in 1955 – a murderer. As far as we're concerned, part of us still hoped that the police wouldn't catch him. We asked the question of the person who, through his game, provoked such a moral dilemma. “After all these years, this character remains fascinating because we want the best for him – even if we sometimes feel that we shouldn't want him to get away with it,” says Andrew Scott. Without saying that we consent to the murder, we wanted to reveal the Tom Ripley who hides in us all. We spend so much time with him that he becomes the protagonist rather than the antagonist we are quick to judge. »

Play more than one role

The actor seen last year in All of Us Strangers and revealed in the series Sherlock also uses the term “antihero” to describe his character. He could have added “chameleon”. Tom has a particular charisma. He is not particularly charming, but manages to get what he wants without insisting. He manipulates people with ease. At one point, he steals Dickie's identity, which forced Andrew Scott to play a role within a role.

“I found it pleasant, especially when he becomes more comfortable in Dickie's skin and displays the confidence of an international seducer in the way he behaves, the way he dresses,” says the actor .

He then discusses the inner struggle between what Tom feels and what he expresses. “His relationship with Marge – Dickie’s love interest, played by Dakota Fanning – is very coded. They are suspicious of each other, so they put on a polite facade when speaking to each other. »

So Tom Ripley is rarely himself. The only times the mask falls are when he is forced to change his plans. These, however, are common and provide some of the most memorable scenes. “It was very important to see him think and find solutions. He is a deeply intelligent person and we enjoy watching him use his brain. I also believe it was necessary to see him make mistakes. »

Beautiful Italy

Most of Ripley takes place in Atria and Rome, with stints in Naples and Palermo. The architecture and art of these cities are put to good use. The camerawork of Steven Zaillian, director of the series The Night Of and the films All the King's Men , A Civil Action and Searching for Bobby Fischer , is sublime. Cinematographer Robert Elswit, who often collaborated with Paul Thomas Anderson and who won an Oscar for There Will Be Blood , certainly had something to do with it.

For Andrew Scott, shooting in the Boot was only beneficial for his performance, in addition to being very pleasant. “Filming took place at the end of the pandemic, so we had access to a quieter Italy. I remember walking in a deserted St. Mark's Square in Venice, he says. I discovered Italy the same way as Tom. I learned the language and met amazing people. »'

#Andrew Scott #Steven Zaillian #Robert Elswit #Netflix #Ripley #Rome #Naples #Palermo #Venice #Matt Damon #Alain Delon #Patricia Highsmith #Dakota Fanning #Marge Sherwood #Dickie Greenleaf #Johnny Flynn #All of Us Strangers

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average-guy-reviews · 9 months

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Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

"Ethan Hunt and the IMF team must track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity if it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than the mission -- not even the lives of those he cares about most."

30 years is a long time in the movie business, and it is even longer in an actor's career. Yet nearly 30 years ago, Tom Cruise brought Ethan Hunt to the big screen in the first Mission Impossible film. At the age of 34 he launched an action franchise with enormous potential. It could have gone either way and, to be fair, the reception for the MI films has not always been positive or enthusiastic. But here we are 27 years later with the first part of the end of the franchise, and we are left to ponder the merits of what has become a cinematic juggernaut. Does it still have the power to thrill all these years later?

Simply put? Yes, yes it does. I had no doubt that Cruise was always going to try to make the best films he could to round out this series, but will does not always produce quality. This time, however, it has. This is a film made by people that really understand the characters and the world they inhabit. I absolutely imagine that the director, Christopher McQuarrie, had fun trying to wrangle the cast into line. I suspect he didn't always get his way though....but when working with a main cast that has lived these characters for so long, I'm sure he was more than happy for their input. Either way, he has done a great job creating what may be the best film in the franchise so far. I'll need to rewatch them all to double check though....it's a tough life.

Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, reprising their roles as Luther and Benji, are on fine form as Hunt's sidekicks. That may be an unfair descriptive though. They are very much central to the films and have formed a solid part of the emotional core of what makes this franchise as good as it is. The chemistry between the two is always fun to watch, and it feels like they have a lot of fun working together.

Hayley Atwell joins the cast as Grace. A potential antagonist to Cruise she brings a seemingly naive, yet thoroughly world worn, charm to the character. I am a fan of Atwell's work within the MCU, and it is very cool to see her keeping up the action, all the while creating a character so different to Captain Carter. I don't know right now if she'll be back for the last film, but based on this, I really hope she will.

Every M:I movie needs a bad guy. Sadly, it's sometimes the lacklustre baddy that lets down the film. Not this time. Esai Morales, as Gabriel, has a link to Hunt's past and an evil plan in place. He is a suave, controlled, somewhat charming, villain with whom you feel no emotional connection. That's not a bad thing at all. It's very clear you're not supposed to be able to relate to him, and Morales nails that with his entire performance. His use of non-verbal communication is almost masterful, and he is simply brilliant here. Along with Morales we have Pom Klementieff as the threatening 'muscle', and this is such a refreshing thing to see. I only know her as Mantis in the MCU where she is a naive, emotional, alien that comes across as mostly harmless. Here she kicks butt and genuinely comes across as a danger, and someone that you can not take even remotely lightly. I love it.

I might be a little biased here, but Cruise is utterly brilliant as Ethan Hunt. Watching him the character has evolved over the years is paet.of what makes him so fascinating in the role. One of the things I like so much about the way Cruise plays him is that there is no pretence about him being this young, almost invulnerable, super spy anymore. The character makes mistakes and misses things he would never have years ago. He's not as fast as he used to be and he's just not as strong or spry as he once was. Again, this not a bad thing and certainly not a remonstration against the actor. If anything I applaud him for aging the character appropriately. It's something that is sometimes lacking in movies. Here Tom Cruise nails his performance and I am genuinely excited to see part two to see how Ethan's journey will end.

Overall, this is an outstanding movie and is easily the top film in a franchise that has some damn fine movies in it. Knowing this was a Part One I did sit through the credits. I'll tell ya now you don't need to. There aren't any mid, or post, credits scenes setting up the next film. Honestly, I don't think it needed it anyway, but it's just a heads up so you don't have to sit through the credits. Now, I have struggled with scoring this. If the M:I filmd were the only films ever the it's an easy 10/10, but they're not and while it is a damn fine film...................fuck it......it's getting the 10/10. It deserves it, and I legitimately cannot wait for part two. Go see this immediately.

#tom cruise #action #mission impossible #franchise #hayley atwell #simon pegg #ving rhames #pom klementieff #movies #reviews #cinema #odeon

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mandaloriandragontrainer · 2 years

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I can’t believe we’re 5 years into Tom Holland’s run as Spider-Man and I still see Tobey fanboys whining “iRoN bOy Jr. ReLiEd ToO mUcH oN sTaRk’S tEcH hE wAsN’t A rEaL sPiDeR-mAn” as if the entire point of Homecoming (and Far From Home’s final battle) wasn’t that he was Spider-Man with or without any of Tony’s gear. Not to mention this Peter has been a child in all of his entries so far and is already insanely powerful.

“If you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it” anyone?

#I like tobey’s spider-man this is a dig at his fanboys not him #tom is still the best live-action actor for the character so far #though they’ve all been good in their own way #spider-man #mcu spider-man #peter parker #tony stark #tom holland #spider-man: homecoming #spider-man: far from home #mcu #mando ramblo

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the-dead-skwad · 3 years

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Maximum Effort X Tom Hiddleston X Sebastian Stan X Reader

Procrastinating writing the long awaited part 2, sorry guys

Summary: Nervous about an upcoming scene will your co star help you or an old friend.

No real warnings, mentions of sex I suppose.

Sighing you plopped down on the trailer sofa. This had to be one of the most physical jobs you had. Knowing that most of your co-stars did most of their stunts, it really pushed you to put over 100%. To make matters worse your next scene was making you nervous. You were a good actress but sex scenes always shook you. Still in full costume you made your self a coffee and got the script out.

Lost in thought a knock at the trailer door pulled you away. “Who is it?”

“Surprise!” A familiar voice rang from the other side of the door.

You leapt out your seat and ran to the door. “What are you doing here!” You practically jumped off the steps into his arms. “You’re a long way to be lost.”

“I’m filming not far from here and a little birdy told me about the newest Avenger.”

“This is amazing. Tom it’s been forever.”

He laughed “I saw you at the Premier 2 months ago.”

“Feels like longer.” You looked down at your outfit. “I have a couple more scenes, but I’m done after that.”

“Amazing darling. How about we go for drinks after?”

You smiled “Perfect, casual drinks? My wardrobe is limited living in this thing.”

“You’ll look fabulous in anything, even as a super hero.” He gave you a wink.

“Oh stop it you arse. Shall I ring you when I’m finished?”

“Sounds like a date.”

You raised an eyebrow at him “Yeah because the last date we had went so well.”

“Right,” He chuckled “I’ll speak to you later. Have fun.”

You waved him off and went back into your trailer. Finally you had something other than reading lines to look forward to. You and Tom had been on a few films together, he was an absolute gentleman but every time you tried to date work got in the way. You both decided that being friends was the best thing for both of you. You had made a deal with yourself after it not working between the two of you that you wouldn’t date and co-stars or actors for that matter. Some actors and actresses made that rule ridiculously hard, but it was for your own good. One you were about to let him rip your shirt clean off in front of the cameras. People always dream of their first kisses in the rain, they run after you and confess their love. Your reality was more scripted.

“Y/N!” Olive your assistant called through the door “Makeup!”

“Coming!” You looked in the mirror and took a deep breath in. “Maximum effort.” You told yourself as you sprayed yourself with a little perfume.

“Hey.” Sebastian raised an eyebrow at you. God he was good. “You ready?”

You did your best to act nonchalant, “Are you?” Smirking at him you walked past the cameras and on to set. He joined you standing closer than usual, the same smirk you just gave him plastered on his face.

Trying your hardest to listen to Kari you nodded along and let your nerves stay in the pit of your stomach. “Right, we cool?” Those words made you realise you had not been paying any attention.

“Yeahh.” You walked to your marker and took a deep breath. Looking down at your feet you whispered, “Maximum effort.”

“Action!”

Looking over at Daniel you bit your lip and swallowed hard, “Is that so?” You stood from the arm of the couch and pulled a knife from your side. “Why don’t you come over here and find out how dangerous I can really be?”

Sebastian put his hand on your shoulder, “Ada, that’s enough.” Ada was your character’s name.

You flicked his hand off you shoulder. “Enough? Are you really going to defend this man?”

He grabbed a hold of your arm and pulled you through the door. “Cut!” Rang through the set. “Perfect guys, right one more scene next then we’ll call it for the day.”

“Shit.” You breathed out, if you had maybe messed up a little this scene might have been put off for tomorrow. Too late now.

The makeup girl ran over with a brush and smacked a load of setting powder on your face. “Here ya go.” She passed you a mint and winked at you.

Standing on your marker you put the mint in your mouth and chewed fast, probably because of the nerves. He put his hand back on your arm, “Maximum effort.” He whispered to you whilst winking.

“Action!”

He threw you into the room, “You can’t let him anger you!”

“And what Buck? You throwing that glass was you being calm?”

He got closer to you right in your face, “You know its different for me.”

“What? Can’t control little toy soldier? Give me a break.” You made your chest rise to look like you were fuming. “That man pushes every one of my buttons in the worst way. I just want to……..” You threw the knife which landed straight into the wooden door just like you have practiced.

Sebastian took his other hand and grabbed your free one. He pulled you flush against him “I said enough.” He growled.

Both your lips collided. A wave surged through your body, even if it was a just a scene it felt so real. You pulled on each other clothes and your lips fell into a perfect rhythm. He picked you up wrapping your legs around him. He walked you to the bedroom door and kicked it open.

“Cut!”

You almost wanted to protest. Still with your legs wrapped around him you both smiled at each other, you leaned in and breathed “Maximum effort.”

“You could say that again.” He chuckled as he placed you gently on the ground.

Glancing down at Ada’s watch, which was set to the right time, you gasped, “Sorry I have a thing I gotta get to.”

“Sure.” He nodded.

Throwing clothes behind you, you were at a loss. Trailer life sucked. After a naked hissy fit and a drink you finally managed to get together and outfit consisting of a short plain black dress, a green jacket and some boots. You slapped a load of makeup on as best you could and stood in front of the mirror. To say it was very rushed it wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be.

Pouring yourself a drink a knock came from the door. “One sec Tom!” You finished your drink and grabbed your bag. You pulled the door open to not be met with who you thought.

“Tom?” Sebastian stood there looking confused.

“Yea sorry, Tom Hiddleston is picking me up for dinner. I just assumed you were him.”

“Sorry to disappoint.”

Shaking your head you smiled “You are definitely in no way disappointing. Can I help you with something?”

“Yeahh, I just had some rum and thought we could go over the script, but I caught you at a bad time.”

You stuck out your bottom lip “How did you know rum was my favourite?”

“You mentioned it when we all went to that bar..” You shook your head not remembering after the many cast bar crawls, “The first night we met. You beat Anthony at pool.”

“Ahhh yeah, can’t believe you remembered.”

He shrugged, looking like he was about to say something else as you head another voice approaching you both. “Y/N darling.”

“Hey, oh wow their beautiful.” You pulled him in for hug and took the flowers from him. “Let me just pop these in some water then we can go.”

The two men talked while you nipped into the trailer. You came back out and they both stood looking up at you. “Oh Christ.”

“Have a good evening.” Sebastian nodded to you both before turning on his heel and going back to his trailer.

Tom held his arm out for you, as you took it you couldn’t help smiling at Sebastian walking away.

Your arm still in his you turned down a dark alley. “Tom?”

“Trust me darling it’s worth it.”

You saw a dim light towards the end of the alley, you would have been a hell of a lot more uncomfortable with anyone else.

He stopped at this tiny little tea shop. You looked up at him “Tea?”

“I know it’s a cliche, but can you say you have genuinely had a good cuppa whilst being in America?”

You laughed “Not one.”

The café was beautiful, small and charming. The charm oozing off Tom didn’t help either. The waitress placed the tray on the table. “I don’t want to overstep but is there any chance I could take a picture with you both?”

“Of course sweetheart.”

You both took the photo then returned to your tea. Tom raised his cup “To good friends.”

Matching him you smiled, “Good friends.”

He sighed “It’s so good to see you, you seem a lot calmer than earlier.”

“I was nervous a bout a scene but it actually went really well.”

“You know I can always help.”

You chuckled “Maybe no with this one.”

“How so?” He picked up his glass.

“It’s a sex scene.” You said bluntly making him choke slightly.

He wiped his mouth “Yeah you’re probably right, were you that nervous for ours?”

“That was a long time ago…”

“Please, indulge me.”

There was something about him you could never say no “I was the first time but…..”

“But?” He raised an eyebrow.

“After we did it for real I was ok with it.”

You looked at each other for a long while. Looking down and sighing he took your hand in his, “We can’t do this again can we?”

“It never ends how we want it to.”

He brought your hand to his lips and placed a gentle kiss on it, “Maybe in another lifetime my darling.” You both finished your tea “And besides, you have a new admirer I see.”

“Who? Sebastian?” He had a look on his face as if to say, ‘isn’t it obvious’ You shook your head “It’s not like that.”

“You have always been terrible at reading the room.”

“Not true.” You stopped and thought for a second “Ok maybe I am but in my defense you are that charming it’s hard to tell.”

“Come on sweetheart finish your tea lets go get your super soldier.”

You pointed at him “That was terrible.”

You found yourself at the steps to your trailer far earlier than you thought you would be. Tom stood in front of you and took both your hands in his, you paused for a moment while looking into each other’s eyes. “Another lifetime princess.” He leant forward and kissed you softly on the head.

You watched him walk away. Standing between trailers you realised you had 3 options, call Tom back and offer your heart to him one more time, go to Sebastian give something new and exciting a go, or listen to your only rule and take your sorry ass to bed. But which one?

----------------

Please let me know what choice you would make ;) I'll either chalk it up to a vote or I might even post 3 short ones as the endings.

#tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston imagine #tom hiddelston x reader #tom hiddleston fic #tom hiddleston fluff #tom hiddleston fanfiction #sebastian stan imagine #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan fluff #sebastian stan fanfiction #sebastian stan fic #marvel imagine

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therealvinelle · 3 years

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What’s your fancast for the Cullens since you despise the live action casting

For this one, we must assume that the time-space continuum has collapsed and I am able to pluck any actor or model I want from the past century and stuff them in my movie. That, or I stole a TARDIS.

In order of the alphabet:

Alice: Twiggy. Emaciated but beautiful, her strange features shouldn’t come together so well but they do. An odd-looking, unconventional, tiny beauty.

Bella: Kristen Stewart was a good call, she problem was she played the wrong character. My fancast for her would be a young Jodie Foster. She has that frail, sensitive, expressive beauty going, easy to overlook at first glance but grows more beautiful the more you see her. She’s a phenomenal actress, very good at silent vulnerability.

Carlisle: I expect no one to be with me on this one, but: David Bowie. Otherworldly beautiful, something ineffably alien about the man, his face makes you drop whatever you’re doing, and there’s so much happening in those eyes. I could believe that Bella found this face blinding like the sun. As an additional plus, he looks distinctly British. (Second ref).

(Shoutout to a young Peter O’Toole for also having that certain kind of aura I would expect from Carlisle. Plus, highly attractive. He’s already my fancast for Tom Riddle, though, and it’s embarrassing to always be pointing to the same guy.)

Edward: Robert Pattinson was a great cast, though he was a bit old already in Twilight, and like Steward he did not play a character I recognize. Cedric Diggory is far more Edward than what Pattinson played in the movie. If I had to come up with an alternartive, I’d go Timothee Chalamet. Beautiful, and the kind girls flock to.

Emmett: Jean-Claude van Damme. A ruggedly handsome muscle mountain. Dudebro, but imposing. (Second ref)

Esme: Hard to cast, because not a lot of people make me think “Ah, yes, this is Snow White in the flesh”. Rachel Stirling as Caroline Crale in “Five Little Pigs” is my best suggestion for her, because I can see that in her. Caroline is older, a bit rounded, yet easily the most beautiful woman in the room. Hers is a face you write poetry about. In addition to this she is every inch the ideal woman for her time and culture, so dignified and good it hurts. (Photo ref)

Jasper: Clint Eastwood, hands down. The easiest fancast of all the Cullens, to the point where if I were casting for a Twilight reboot today I would still cast Eastwood, even though he’s in his nineties. The movie Unforgiven is the reason why. Throughout his career, Eastwood played these terrifying, badass men surrounded by violence. His life is garbage and he knows it, but he’s top dog in the dogfight. Dirty Harry especially comes to mind, Harry is a cop who’s earned his moniker because he does what others won’t, even as he hates every inch of this life. Unforgiven is the movie where he got away from it all, he’s found happiness as a humble hog farmer raising his two young children. Just, the way Eastwood plays these characters, the way he makes what would be an unremarkable action movie badass into a tired soldier powering through for reasons he doesn’t quite remember, all the while having this confident air of the top dog who’s won every fight and knows he’ll win this one as well, makes him spot on Jasper. Also the fact that he’s ridiculously good-looking.

Rosalie: Dianne Argon is painfully beautiful, she’s every ideal at once. More, her demeanor is… she’s good at the haunted thing. Those who have seen her in Glee will know that she’s extremely good at being fine on the surface, even when she’s completely unhappy - and you can tell at once glance she’s unhappy. As the inverse of Foster she’s easy to dismiss as just beautiful, then you truly look at her and she’s so much more.

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introvertguide · 3 years

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The Road Movie

Most movies follow a general script type depending on genre, and this is used to tell a story that has a satisfying ending. It is interesting when a movie mixes up type and tone and goes against genre type. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it is terrible. Great directing and acting can make the subversion of expectations less jarring (or more depending on the end goal), but the end goal and tone allows us to attach a film to a genre. But what about films that aren't about the end goal? There are many films that are in a sub-genre that focus on the journey with little regard to the end goal. These are what are called "road movies" and can fall under many different genres since the end goal doesn't really matter. Let's address some famous road movies through the years that are also classified in a variety of other genres:

Huckleberry Finn (1931)

The OG of travel films, this was the sequel to Tom Sawyer (1930) and had the same child actors. This wasn't what you would call financially successful, but this was largely due to the Great Depression. The 1939 version of the movie did a lot better and was one of the well known films of child actor Mickey Rooney. This story of travel was an early role for many actors including Rooney, Ron Howard, and Elijah Wood. Although there were threats of death and portrayals of slavery, this film was considered a family adventure in the pre-code film era. I guess a boy escaping his abusive father in the company of an adult escaped slave where people are actively attempting to rob and kill them was considered a fun family romp in the early 30s. This was the same story that came from a book that was banned in schools during the 1980s. It is a great story and I love the works of Mark Twain; I am just surprised at the genre.

Stagecoach (1939)

This is a great movie that transcends the Western genre of which it is categorized. A group of people all have different reasons for traveling from an Arizona territory over to New Mexico. There is word of vengeful thieves and angry Apaches that threaten the small band of travelers. It is actually very intense because the threat feels very real throughout the film. The entire film focuses on the journey and the relationships forged (and broken) on the way. This was the breakout role for John Wayne and was part of an amazing string of films directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne.

Easy Rider (1969)

This is a film that really spoke to the hippie movement during the Vietnam Era. It is statement on how difficult it is to truly be free and how society fears that freedom and tries to destroy it. The film might very well have the worst dialogue of any movie I have ever seen. Actors Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper were actively using drugs throughout film production, so the real draw was the sweet rides and the moving soundtrack. This is a movie where I actually want more driving montages and less character development because I don't identify with the characters at all. Maybe it is a generational gap.

Paper Moon (1973)

This film is amazing. It is the story of a traveling grifter who takes a little girl on the road with him after her mother dies. He teaches her how to make a living cheating people and they form a father-daughter type of relationship. It is a comedy drama that won the girl an Oscar for best supporting actress when she was only 10. Some nice back story, the girl is Tatum O'Neal and is the actual daughter of the grifter, played by Ryan O'Neal. It is kind of strange, but this is a "coming of age" film on the road.

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Now this is what I am talking about. Two brothers go on a trip after being released from jail because they got a message from God. I am pretty sure that this film still holds the record for most crashed vehicles in a single movie. It is also interesting that the film is technically a musical. The brothers stop at different locations and songs break out. In between stops, they are chased by the police in an almost demolition derby style chase. I really enjoy this movie and believe that it really keeps a fast pace (literally and figuratively), but, like many road films, I can't say it is good because it is more of an experience than a story.

Thelma and Louise (1991)

This was an interesting twist on the "run from the law" type of film. Two women are friends and decide go on a weekend retreat. They get in trouble after killing a man who tries to assault them and have to run from the authorities. It has a reputation for being very feminist (despite being directed by accused mesogenist Ridley Scott) because of the negative portrayal of men. It obviously wasn't that bad since it was nominated for 6 Oscars including both leads for best actress. In fact, Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon were both nominated for best actress at the Academy Awards, the BAFTAs, and the Golden Globes. It is the quintessential road film since the end goal is constantly changing and best defined as "away from here."

Natural Bork Killers (1994)

This was kind of a strange film. It is a crime drama where the audience follows two killers with traumatic childhoods as they meet and go on a murder spree. Similar to Bonnie and Clyde, but with gory murders as the focus over bank robberies. It is directed by Oliver Stone, and criticizes the glorification of violence by the media. It is most definitely a road movie because the end goal for the two is simply to be together and enjoy the rush of breaking the law. Hm. It is actually quite a bit like Bonnie and Clyde. Interesting. I would like to make a note that my mom hates this film because of the shaky cam and Dutch angles. It made her feel sick at the theater.

Road Trip (2000)

OK. This is far and away my least favorite film on this list, but it is the most famous "boner road comedy" that I am familiar with. It is a high school/college coming-of-age film that focus on the sexual pursuits of a group of young men. These types of films are marked with gross out humor, gratuitous nudity, and boys trying to have sex. There was a bunch of films like this that came out around the early 2000s and they all had to do with boys traveling some place in search of idealized sex (the plot on this one is a little different, something to do with a sex tape) and generally they find that the best girl for them was there by them all along. It takes a nice idea of character development and throws raunchy jokes and boobs at it. I was not a fan, but it was definitely a thing.

Death Proof (2007)

This is much better shlock. It is the Tarantino version of exploitation grindhouse films of the seventies, but updated to be a women empowerment film. It was part of a double feature that was paired with a horrific zombie outbreak film directed by Rod Rodriguez, but this one is much better on its own. It is the story of an old stunt man who travels around looking for unsuspecting victims whom he can run down in his indestructible car. This is a great example of what a road movie can be because Tarantino took the concept of a slasher and put it completely on the road.

Mad Max Fury Road (2015)

Here is an action revenge film in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where most of the film is driving. The producers couldn't find a director who they trusted with remaking George Miller's Mad Max franchise so the 70 year old Miller said "hold my beer" and made this masterpiece that is arguably better than any of the first three (edit: I guess Miller always intended to direct but it took so long to go into production that he joked in interviews about giving up on it). The original trilogy with Mel Gibson presents an amazing world where most people are nomadic and traveling can be a life or death proposition. Fury Road is the further adventures of the character and his interaction with one Furiosa. The use of many practical effects on moving vehicles that was garnished with CG effects made for one of the best action films in the last decade. It was more than a simple movie about traveling; it was a land were the road was life and everything surrounded the ability to be mobile enough to get supplies in a dead world.

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This is by no means all of the road movies. The Wizard of Oz is technically a road movie. The Grapes of Wrath is a critically acclaimed road movie from around the same time. Comedies like The Cannonball Run, Smokey and the Bandit, and National Lampoon's Vacation can all be classified in the genre. Rain Man is one of the best films of all time and it can be classified as a road movie. What it comes down to is that, when considering characters, a writer should think about the journey itself and think of how the leads interact with this entity. The road might be the best character in the whole story.

#road movies #thelma and louise #stagecoach #huck finn #mad max fury road #death proof #road trip #natural born killers #the blues brothers #paper moon #easy rider #introvert #introverts

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starshipsofstarlord · 3 years

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Omg thank you so much for writing my request for tom :) Can I ask for a part two where you try not to read the comments, but end up doing so, and most are good, so it's fine. Until you post a picture of you on your account, and tom's fans start calling you names, and tom's so tired of all that happening that he posts on his account a whole paragraph about how his personal life it's no one's business?

Posted

This is part two, find the first part here

Summary | previously Tom had accidentally posted a picture of the two of you, exposing your relationship. And so, you decide to purposely do the same on your Instagram, though the response is much different than what his post had received.

Warnings | hate comments, some angst, swear and demeaning words

Quick link to my masterlist, if you’re interested in reading more of my crap 😬

Tom was asleep beside you, his head tucked into the crook of your neck, you were able to feel his gentle, slumbering breathing against your skin, and it caused goose bumps to prickle upon the outer layer of your flesh.

The two of you had vastly fallen asleep upon the couch, and your phone was on the coffee table, and to say that you were itchy to reach for it was an understatement. There would be comments on the picture that Tom accidentally put online, and you were hungry to see them, whilst simultaneously nervous.

Tom was a big actor, known for his presence in the marvel cinematic universe upon many other projects, and some of his fans, whilst proven during Comic-Con panels, were borderline crazy. They’d snap if they even so much as saw something that they didn’t like, and this time, you would be on the receiving end of it.

Being motionlessly captured, with your face on show, was certain to bring much attention. You too were within the acting department, but there had been no correlation between the pair of you until now, most of the world weren’t even aware that you knew each other. And not to mention, your span of reaching an audience was smaller, although, certainly not non existent.

You had reprised fame during your appearance on Modern Family, as the friendly neighbour of Phil and Claire, and a classmate of their eldest daughter, and not to mention Luke was crushing hard on the character you played, though, with that said, your character laughed his efforts off due to the age difference, yet still found his pining weird and often uncomfortable.

Another role that you were becoming known for was your character in Netflix’s Irregulars, where you met Harrison Osterfield, Tom’s best friend. Through filming the show, you were introduced to the Spider-Man actor, and the pair of you had hit it off almost instantly, if you didn’t include Tom keeping his amorous distance, wary just in case there was something going on between you and your mutual friend. To his relief, there wasn’t.

And thus, when he received that confirmation, he was far more forward, yet respectful at the same time with his intentions. That was how you had ended up here, as he half used you as a pillow, his arms wrapped around his ribs, and his soft peaceful snores filling the void in the air.

Stretching your arm at its furthest length, your fingertips wrestled with the side of your phone, padding it closer to yourself, so that you could slide it across the small living room table, and closer to yourself. You were victorious in your efforts, and so on you unlocked your screen, going to your camera app, and leaning sideways so that you could snap a few pictures of your predicament with your loving and sweet boyfriend.

Looking at the images that you had captured, a smile arose upon your face; you truly did love this man, and you wanted the whole world to know how much you adored him. You wanted them to see that you cared about him, and that he was in good hands with you, to cool off any of his fans that were processing their hurt feelings for seeing Tom with another woman, show him that he was getting the love that he deserved.

Extreme courage coursed through your veins, focusing within your fingertips as you opened insta, gulping as you readied to post the image. There was no editing required, it was perfect just like him. And so, the caption was something to think about, you didn’t want to make it too obvious that you were dating as the online community already assumed, the priority was to show them that you cared about him.

‘He’s taking a nap, and crushing my hip a little, but I don’t mind 😌’ you typed, your finger hovering over the post button as you chewed your lip. It was easy to press your digit down, and so, taking a breath, you did just that, encouraged by the previous and kind comments on Tom’s earlier post.

Within a matter of minutes, your phone was blowing up, and you were too tempted not to glance at the growing comment section. There were various accounts, some supporting your confidence to show such a domestic version of yourself with Tom, you assumed that they were your followers, and the ones that weren’t so light hearted were those that intently watched anything on the media that involved Tom.

‘He’s too good looking for her, she should be dating someone within her league. Tom is clearly taking pity on this hoe.’

‘Aw look at him, and ew, look at the state of her. He could do sm better 😔’

‘Why doesn’t she look like his exes, they were hot af, and now he’s with some rando that is after his fame and money. Maybe she should just take better roles if she wants to get noticed so bad.’

Your eyes kept reeling through the intentionally hateful words that continued to come through beneath the image. Tears began to fall from your eyes as you tried to stifle the movements and the sound of your gentle sobbing, as to not wake Tom. Quickly, your fingers raced through the social media, and you, knowing that there would still be presence of the image somewhere online, you deleted it, muting notifications and shuffled back into Tom.

The man stirred, tugging you closer by your waist, pressing a kiss to your locks as he awoke. He noticed however the way that you refused to face him, and so he rolled you over with a gentle grip on your shoulder, frowning when he saw the recognisable redness beneath your eyes, and the sad expression floating within your eyes.

“Princess, what’s going on?” He wiped his thumb beneath your bottom lashes, collecting your tears as he worriedly looked down at you. His brown eyes searched every inch of your face for an idea, but found nothing but your broken hearted expression.

“It’s nothing Tommy.” You tried and failed to convince the man, wincing half heartedly as he sat back on his thighs, gripping your hips so that he could pull you up with him, giving him a clearer view of your face. It was clear that he did not believe you, and he hummed, trying to make you give in. Eventually, after much concerned staring, you gave in, slumping your shoulders as you tucked your arms around the back of his neck. “I posted a picture of us, the response wasn’t great.”

Instantly, Tom’s brows uplifted, surprised by your action, though he had a strong inkling of a feeling that the reaction that you had earned was not complimentary. These were not tears of joy, instead they were stricken rivers of anguish and insecurity running down the length of your face.

“Let me see.” He spoke, softly to you, but his intents towards defending you strong. You shook your head lightly, tracing circles upon his knees as you gulped, flickering your guilty gaze up to his watchful eyes.

“I deleted it. I just couldn’t deal with knowing that the longer that it was up, the more hate would be directed at me. I’m sorry.” Tom grasped your face by your tense jaw, his fingers stroking your chin as he sadly stared at you.

“Never be sorry. Now send me the picture you used so that I can give everyone a piece of my mind.” Reaching for your phone, you sent the image to him, and in a second his device pinged, revealing that it had successfully sent to him.

“Cute.” He described the picture, his hands furiously typing away on his phone, his constant unsettling of his rabidly moving fingers drawing anxiousness from you. “And some.” Tom finally breathed, closing his phone as you went to his account, checking what he had posted publicly.

‘This may concern some people, who keep sticking their noses in where it does not involve them. I appreciate you all, the support, the love, everything. But one thing that I do not stand for is people coming at my girlfriend just because they don’t approve of our relationship. If you check mate, I never asked for your opinion, I love y/n, and some online hate, that needs to stop otherwise you are not someone I want to be calling themselves a fan of me, needs to stop. It makes no one happy or feel healthy with spreading such toxicity around the internet, if you don’t like something, then keep your blood mouths shut, this has nothing to do with you, it is just me and my girlfriend. I’d think you’d want me to be happy, because I want the same for all of you, so can people please give my partner some respect, she’s done nothing wrong but bravely chose to reach out to you all, and she had that spat back in her face. It’s not on, and I want this to stop now.’

“Tom...” you were shocked by the paragraph, it came across as aggressive, and very over protective. His action, that could affect how he was cried by people that put him on a pedestal, and that made you feel guilty that he had reached out to them in such a way.

“It’s okay baby, I’d do anything for you, and you know that. No one messes with my girl.” He put his arm around your shoulders as he pulled you close placing a kiss upon your forehead. Not only was he your boyfriend, but he was your protector, your knight on a shining cell phone.

#tom holland x reader #tom holland imagine #tom holland one shot #tom holland x y/n #tom holland x you #tom holland reader insert #tom x reader #tom imagine #marvel actors x reader #mcu actors x reader #imagines #imagine #xreader

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Doctor Who: Perfect 10? How Fandom Forgets the Dark Side of David Tennant’s Doctor

https://ift.tt/2URb21b

As recently as September 2020 David Tennant topped a Radio Times poll of favourite Doctors. He beat Tom Baker in a 2006 Doctor Who Magazine poll, and was voted the best TV character of the 21st Century by the readers of Digital Spy. He was the Doctor during one of Doctor Who‘s critical and commercial peaks, bringing in consistently high ratings and a Christmas day audience of 13.31 million for ‘Voyage of the Damned’, and 12.27 million for his final episode, ‘The End of Time – Part Two’. He is the only other Doctor who challenges Tom Baker in terms of associated iconography, even being part of the Christmas idents on BBC One as his final episodes were broadcast. Put simply, the Tenth Doctor is ‘My Doctor’ for a huge swathe of people and David Tennant in a brown coat will be the image they think of when Doctor Who is mentioned.

In articles to accompany these fan polls, Tennant’s Doctor is described as ‘amiable’ in contrast to his predecessor Christopher Eccleston’s dark take on the character. Ten is ‘down-to-earth’, ‘romantic’, ‘sweeter’, ‘more light-hearted’ and the Doctor you’d most want to invite you on board the TARDIS. That’s interesting in some respects, because the Tenth Doctor is very much a Jekyll and Hyde character. He’s handsome, he’s charismatic, and travelling with him can be addictively fun, but he is also casually cruel, harshly dismissive, and lacking in self-awareness. His ego wants feeding, and once fed, can have destructive results.

That tension in the character isn’t due to bad writing or acting. Quite the contrary. Most Doctors have an element of unpleasantness to their behaviour. Ever since the First Doctor kidnapped Ian and Barbara, the character has been moving away from the entitled snob we met him as, but can never escape it completely.

Six and Twelve were both written to be especially abrasive, then soften as time went on (with Colin Baker having to do this through Big Finish audio plays rather than on telly). A significant difference between Twelve and Ten, though, is that Twelve questions himself more. Ten, to the very end, seems to believe his own hype.

The Tenth Doctor’s duality is apparent from his first full appearance in 2005’s ‘The Christmas Invasion’. Having quoted The Lion King and fearlessly ambled through the Sycorax ship in a dressing gown, he seems the picture of bonhomie, that lighter and amiable character shining through. Then he kills their leader. True, it was in self-defence, but it was lethal force that may not have been necessary. Then he immediately topples the British Prime Minister for a not dissimilar act of aggression. Immediately we see the Tenth Doctor’s potential for violence and moral grey areas. He’s still the same man who considered braining someone with a rock in ‘An Unearthly Child’.

Teamed with Rose Tyler, a companion of similar status to Tennant’s Doctor, they blazed their way through time and space with a level of confidence that bordered on entitlement, and a love that manifested itself negatively on the people surrounding them. The most obvious example in Series 2 is ‘Tooth and Claw’, where Russell T. Davies has them react to horror and carnage in the manner of excited tourists who’ve just seen a celebrity. This aloof detachment results in Queen Victoria establishing the Torchwood institute that will eventually split them apart. We see their blinkers on again in ‘Rise of the Cybermen’, when they take Mickey for granted. Rose and the Doctor skip along the dividing line between romance and hubris.

Then, in a Christmassy romp where the Doctor is grieving the loss of Rose, he commits genocide and Donna Noble sucker punches him with ‘I think you need somebody to stop you’. Well-meaning as this statement is, the Doctor treats it as a reason to reduce his next companion to a function rather than a person. Martha Jones is there to stop the Doctor, as far as he’s concerned. She’s a rebound companion. Martha is in love with him, and though he respects her, she’s also something of a prop.

This is the series in which the Doctor becomes human in order to escape the Family of Blood (adapted from a book in which he becomes human in order to understand his companion’s grief, not realising anyone is after him), and is culpable for all the death that follows in his wake. Martha puts up with a position as a servant and with regular racist abuse on her travels with this man, before finally realising at the end of the series that she needs to get out of the relationship. For a rebound companion, Martha withstands a hell of a lot, mostly caused by the Doctor’s failings.

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Series 4 develops the Doctor further, putting the Tenth’s Doctor’s flaws in the foreground more clearly. Donna is now travelling with him, and simply calls him out on his behaviour more than Rose or Martha did. Nonetheless the Doctor ploughs on, and in ‘Midnight’ we see him reduced to desperate and ugly pleas about how clever he is when he’s put in a situation he can’t talk himself out of.

Rose has also become more Doctor-like while trapped in another reality, and brutally tells Donna that she’s going to have to die in order to return to the original timeline (just as the Doctor tells Donna she’s going to have to lose her memories of travelling with him in order to live her previous life, even as she clearly asks him not to – and how long did the Doctor know he would have to do this for? It’s not like he’s surprised when Donna starts glitching). Tied into this is the Doctor’s belief in his own legend. In ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’ he holds a gun to Cobb’s head, then withdraws it and asks that they start a society based on the morals of his actions. You know, like a well-adjusted person does.

What’s interesting here is that despite presenting himself as ‘a man who never would’, the Doctor is a man who absolutely would. We’ve seen him do it. Even the Tenth Doctor, so keen to live up to the absolute moral ideals he espouses, killed the Sycorax leader and the Krillitanes, drove the Cybermen to die of despair, brought the Family of Blood to a quiet village and then disposed of them personally. But Tennant doesn’t play this as a useful lie, he plays it as something the Doctor absolutely believes in that moment, that he is a man who would not kill even as his daughter lies dead. It’s why his picking up a gun in ‘The End of Time’ has such impact. And it makes some sense that the Tenth Doctor would reject violence following a predecessor who regenerated after refusing to commit another double-genocide.

In the series finale ‘Journey’s End‘, Davros accuses the Doctor of turning his friends into weapons. This is because the Doctor’s friends have used weapons against the Daleks who – and I can’t stress this enough – are about to kill everyone in the entire universe. Fighting back against them seems pretty rational. Also – and again I can’t stress this enough – the Daleks are bad. Like, really bad. You won’t believe just how mindbogglingly bad they are. The Doctor has tried to destroy them several times by this point. Here, there isn’t the complication of double-genocide, and instead the very real threat of absolutely everyone in the universe dying. This accusation, that the Doctor turns people into weapons, should absolutely not land.

And yet, with the Tenth Doctor, it does. This is a huge distinction between him and the First Doctor, who had to persuade pacifists to fight for him in ‘The Daleks’.

In ‘The Sontaran Strategem’ Martha compares the Doctor to fire. It’s so blunt it almost seems not worth saying, but it’s the perfect analogy (especially for a show where fire is a huge part of the very first story). Yes, fire shines in dark places, yes it can be a beacon, but despite it being very much fire’s entire deal, people can forget that it burns. And fire has that mythical connection of being stolen from the gods and brought to humanity. The Time Lord Victorious concept fits the Tenth Doctor so well. Of all the Doctors, he’s the most ready to believe in himself as a semi-mythic figure.

Even when regenerating there’s a balance between hero and legend: the Tenth Doctor does ultimately save Wilfred Mott, but only after pointing out passionately how big a sacrifice he’s making. And then he goes to get his reward by meeting all his friends, only to glare at them from a distance. His last words are ‘I don’t want to go’, which works well as clearly being a poignant moment for the actor as well, but in the context of Doctor Who as a whole it renders Ten anomalous: no one else went this unwillingly. And yet, in interviews Russell T. Davies said it was important to end the story with ‘the Doctor as people have loved him: funny, the bright spark, the hero, the enthusiast’.

It’s fascinating then, that this is the Doctor who has been taken to heart by so many viewers because there’s such an extreme contrast between his good-natured front, his stated beliefs, and his actions. He clearly loves Rose and Donna, but leaves them with a compromised version of happiness. They go on extraordinary journeys only to end up somewhere that leaves them less than who they want to be, with Russell T. Davies being more brutally honest than Steven Moffat, who nearly always goes the romance route. Davies once said to Mark Lawson that he liked writing happy endings ‘because in the real world they don’t exist’, but his endings tend towards the bittersweet: Mickey and Martha end up together but this feels like they’re leftovers from the Doctor and Rose’s relationship. The Tenth Doctor doesn’t, as Nine does, go with a smile, but holding back tears.

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It’s a testament to how well written the Tenth Doctor is that the character has this light and shade, and with David Tennant’s immense likeability he can appeal to a wider audience as a result. It’s not surprise he wins all these polls, but I can’t help but feel that if the Doctor arrived and invited me on board the TARDIS, I’d want it to be anyone but Ten.

The post Doctor Who: Perfect 10? How Fandom Forgets the Dark Side of David Tennant’s Doctor appeared first on Den of Geek.

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thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 3 years

Note

Have you ever gone into the full list of reasons why the show failed as bad as it did?

I’m not sure, but I can give it a shot.

Short answer: The show doesn’t have enough budget for a live-action sci fi epic that requires exotic animals and several wildly inhuman aliens. Its attempts to get around the budget constraints are often not ideal.

Long answer:

Far and away the biggest problem is the limited budget, but there’s a second almost-as-large problem with the showrunners not knowing how to work within a limited budget to create an action-adventure show.

As an example, AniTV episode “The Forgotten” (S1E13) adapts the Rachel-gets-amnesia plot line from Megamorphs 1. It has approximately similar beats – Rachel hits her head in bird morph, demorphs partway while still concussed, wanders around the woods for a while with no idea who or what she is, encounters an ex-host who mistakes her for a controller, and eventually gets found by her friends — but on a severely limited budget that precludes grizzly bears or sentient tornadoes.

However, the way that the show conveys the tension of Rachel being lost in the woods is to have her... run and then trip over a tree root. And then to play the footage of her falling on her butt in slow motion with dramatic percussion music. And then she gets up, runs some more, and trips over a different tree root. This doesn’t appear to be a way of conveying that she’s going in circles (although she is, judging by the way they keep filming the same stretch of woods from different angles) or that she��s dizzy from the concussion. It appears to be a way to try and get tension and excitement out of a character being lost in the woods.

Eventually Rachel stumbles on Fran (the ex-host who lives in the woods) and has a whole debate with Fran about whether either one of them is a controller. The scene has a decent degree of tension, as all they have to do to amp up the creepiness factor is have Fran wave around a yeerk in a jar and rant about a conspiracy that sounds crazy to Rachel but scary to the audiencey. This scene works. Draw this scene out.

Only pretty soon Rachel breaks out of Fran’s house and is back to... running through the woods and tripping over roots. Again.

After several other close encounters with inconveniently-placed tree parts, Rachel then stumbles onto a camp of helpful volunteers — yay, she’s saved! The dramatic irony immediately kicks back in when the audience realizes that the volunteers are from The Sharing., But Rachel herself has no idea that she shouldn’t let that nice man put that thermometer in her ear. Again, the scene works and it’s relatively low-budget — it requires six or seven extras, a handful of inexpensive props, and dramatic percussion music to let us know something bad is happening.

But wait, Jake and Marco are here! Crouching behind a tree, in clear view of every single one of the controllers, because we can see them in the same camera angle. Nonetheless, Jake and Marco save the day by... turning into dogs and barking, which causes all the controllers to leave, which means they can go get Rachel because the controllers just left her there.

So there are two interlinked problems, as I said: the limited budget, and the show runners’ inability to work within a limited budget.

The limited budget is part of the reason that Rachel has to spend so much time alone. They can’t afford to have a lot of extras or props, so they can’t afford to do a scene with her running onto the highway or one with her breaking into an abandoned house. Much less have her turn into an elephant and get hit by a truck. However, there are more interesting ways to get across that she’s lost and confused that don’t rely on — dun dun dun duuunn — tree roots! Have her repeatedly attempt to morph partway, only to get grossed out and stop. Have her attempt to converse with a real bird because she was herself a bird when she woke up. Let her figure out she’s walking in circles. There are possibilities.

Same principle applies to Rachel’s actual crash. She doesn’t get mobbed by jays in an eagle morph, because no way that’d fit into the budget; she just turns into a hawk identical to the one that plays Tobias and then... flies straight into a tree. The budget’s the reason there can’t be jays, but surely there was a better way to have her hurt than for her to just smash into a tree for no reason. (Maybe all those roots from the rest of the episode are the trees’ revenge?) Have her lose control of the morph because it’s new. Have her be in a rush because she needs to get to gymnastics camp. Have her get knocked off-course by sudden wind. Find a way to explain the scene better using voiceover, even if the footage itself is necessarily limited.

Fran is cool. Keep her on screen for longer, even if you can’t afford to burn her house down.

Same goes for the Sharing controllers. “Aliens mimic humans” is the oldest sci fi movie trick in the book, for a reason. All you have to do to convey that the human-controllers are scary enemies is to pay your actors to act like aliens. What do aliens act like? Whatever the hell you want, as long as it gets the point across. Heck, if you need to save money on extras, have Tom be the one who finds Rachel. It works in-universe: “I’m your cousin, so you can trust me!” It’d use a guest star who’s already trained in the part. It’d amp up the dramatic irony because the audience already knows he’s not trustworthy. Heck, let Christopher Ralph play a controller in a giant red wig and glasses while you’re at it — goodness knows he’s wasted on providing voiceover for hawk footage the whole time. But either way, let that scene play out for longer.

And for love of Toomin let Jake and Marco be better at hiding. Half the episodes of the show have scenes with these two crouched partway behind waist-high and/or foot-thick barriers with large parts of their body clearly visible, watching controllers who stand less than five feet away and somehow don’t notice them. I understand that you can’t have them morph most of the time, but work with what you’ve got a little better than that. It cannot cost all that much money to have a sequence where a controller looks over suddenly, only to have the camera angle show us that nothing of Jake’s and Marco’s position is visible from the controllers’ perspective. Instead we get footage of the controllers talking where Jake and Marco (always those two for some reason) are clearly visible onscreen, less than 10 feet away. Heck, you could also toss some plastic spiders on the ground and add a voiceover of Jake and Marco thought-speaking.

Anyway, that episode is a microcosm of the whole show.

Problem: the show can only afford to use domestic animals (cat, dog, lizard, rat) in most episodes. Workaround: have The Gardens simply not exist in this universe and necessitate the kids needing to work with limited DNA they can find at home. What actually happens: the show does a big reveal for Jake’s tiger and Rachel’s lion and Marco’s wolf... only to have those go unused in 95% of future battles, making the kids look careless and terrible at tactical planning.

Problem: the hawk can’t act. Workaround: have Tobias get his morphing power back a lot sooner in the show. What actually happens: Tobias just isn’t there most of the time in Season 1.

Problem: there’s no budget for battle sequences. Workaround: focus on the atmospheric horror instead. What actually happens: stock footage of a tiger gets intermixed with Richard Sali (who plays Chapman) doing his best to react to a nonexistant tiger, and all conflicts resolve themselves with the controllers running away the moment the kids start to morph.

So on and so forth. There are other issues with the show — including some seriously unfortunate decisions about ethics and some cringe-inducing gender roles — but “can’t work within the limits of our budget” is at the root of most of the biggest problems.

#animorphs #anitv #long post #animorphs meta #anitv meta #budget #television shows #when i say that i could do better with 10 friends and their pets #i could do better with 10 friends and their pets #even if i do have the unfair advantage of 2021 technology #rageofkyubii #asks

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letterboxd · 3 years

Photo

Blurring the Line.

As a new Space Jam film beams down to Earth, Kambole Campbell argues that a commitment to silliness and a sincere love for the medium is what it takes to make a great live-action/animation hybrid.

The live-action and animation hybrid movie is something of a dicey prospect. It’s tricky to create believable interaction between what’s real and what’s drawn, puppeteered or rendered—and blending the live and the animated has so far resulted in wild swings in quality. It is a highly specific and technically demanding niche, one with only a select few major hits, though plenty of cult oddities. So what makes a good live-action/animation hybrid?

To borrow words from Hayao Miyazaki, “live action is becoming part of that whole soup called animation”. Characters distinct from the humans they interact with, but rendered as though they were real creatures (or ghosts), are everywhere lately; in Paddington, in Scooby Doo, in David Lowery’s (wonderful) update of Pete’s Dragon.

The original ‘Pete’s Dragon’ (1977) alongside the 2016 remake.

Lowery’s dragon is realized with highly realistic lighting and visual-effects work. By comparison, the cartoon-like characters in the 1977 Pete’s Dragon—along with other films listed in Louise’s handy compendium of Disney’s live-action animation—are far more exaggerated. That said, there’s still the occasional holdout for the classical version of these crossovers: this year’s Tom and Jerry replicating the look of 2D through 3D/CGI animation, specifically harkens back to the shorts of the 1940s and ’50s.

One type of live-action/animation hybrid focuses on seamless immersion, the other is interested in exploring the seams themselves. Elf (2003) uses the aberration of stop-motion animals to represent the eponymous character as a fish out of water. Ninjababy, a Letterboxd favorite from this year’s SXSW Festival, employs an animated doodle as a representation of the protagonist’s state of mind while she processes her unplanned pregnancy.

Meanwhile, every Muppets film ever literally tears at the seams until we’re in stitches, but, for the sake of simplicity, puppets are not invited to this particular party. What we are concerned with here is the overlap between hand-drawn animation and live-action scenes (with honorable mentions of equally valid stop-motion work), and the ways in which these hybrids have moved from whimsical confections to nod-and-wink blockbusters across a century of cinema.

Betty Boop and Koko the clown in a 1938 instalment of the Fleischer brothers’ ‘Out of the Inkwell’ series.

Early crossovers often involve animators playing with their characters, in scenarios such as the inventive Out of the Inkwell series of shorts from Rotoscope inventor Max Fleischer and his director brother Dave. Things get even more interactive mid-century, when Gene Kelly holds hands with Jerry Mouse in Anchors Aweigh.

The 1960s and ’70s deliver ever more delightful family fare involving human actors entering cartoon worlds, notably in the Robert Stevenson-directed Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Chuck Jones’ puntastic The Phantom Tollbooth.

Jerry and Gene dance off their worries in ‘Anchors Aweigh’ (1945).

Mary Poppins is one of the highest-rated live-action/animation hybrids on Letterboxd for good reason. Its sense of control in how it engages with its animated creations makes it—still!—an incredibly engaging watch. It is simply far less evil than the singin’, dancin’ glorification of slavery in Disney’s Song of the South (1946), and far more engaging than Victory Through Air Power (1943), a war-propaganda film about the benefits of long-range bombing in the fight against Hitler. The studio’s The Reluctant Dragon (1941) also serves a propagandistic function, as a behind-the-scenes studio tour made when the studio’s animators were striking.

By comparison, Mary Poppins’ excursions into the painted world—replicated in Rob Marshall’s belated, underrated 2018 sequel, Mary Poppins Returns—are full of magical whimsicality. “Films have added the gimmick of making animation and live characters interact countless times, but paradoxically none as pristine-looking as this creation,” writes Edgar in this review. “This is a visual landmark, a watershed… the effect of making everything float magically, to the detail of when a drawing should appear in front or the back of [Dick] Van Dyke is a creation beyond my comprehension.” (For Van Dyke, who played dual roles as Bert and Mr Dawes Senior, the experience sparked a lifelong love of animation and visual effects.)

Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and penguins, in ‘Mary Poppins’ (1964).

Generally speaking, and the Mary Poppins sequel aside, more contemporary efforts seek to subvert this feeling of harmony and control, instead embracing the chaos of two worlds colliding, the cartoons there to shock rather than sing. Henry Selick’s frequently nightmarish James and the Giant Peach (1996) leans into this crossover as something uncanny and macabre by combining live action with stop motion, as its young protagonist eats his way into another world, meeting mechanical sharks and man-eating rhinos. Sally Jane Black describes it as “riding the Burton-esque wave of mid-’90s mall goth trends and blending with the differently demonic Dahl story”.

Science-classroom staple Osmosis Jones (2001) finds that within the human body, the internal organs serve as cities full of drawn white-blood-cell cops. The late Stephen Hillenburg’s The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004) turns its real-life humans into living cartoons themselves, particularly in a bonkers sequence featuring David Hasselhoff basically turning into a speedboat.

David Hasselhoff picks up speed in ‘The Spongebob Squarepants Movie’ (2004).

The absurdity behind the collision of the drawn and the real is never better embodied than in another of our highest-rated live/animated hybrids. Released in 1988, Robert Zemeckis’ Who Framed Roger Rabbit shows off a deep understanding—narratively and aesthetically—of the material that it’s parodying, seeking out the impeccable craftsmanship of legends such as director of animation Richard Williams (1993’s The Thief and the Cobbler), and his close collaborator Roy Naisbitt. The forced perspectives of Naisbitt’s mind-bending layouts provide much of the rocket fuel driving the film’s madcap cartoon opening.

Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, Roger Rabbit utilizes the Disney stable of characters as well as the Looney Tunes cast to harken back to America’s golden age of animation. It continues a familiar scenario where the ’toons themselves are autonomous actors (as also seen in Friz Freleng’s 1940 short You Ought to Be in Pictures, in which Daffy Duck convinces Porky Pig to try his acting luck in the big studios).

Daffy Duck plots his rise up the acting ranks in ‘You Ought to Be in Pictures’ (1940).

Through this conceit, Zemeckis is able to celebrate the craft of animation, while pastiching both Chinatown, the noir genre, and the mercenary nature of the film industry (“the best part is… they work for peanuts!” a studio exec says of the cast of Fantasia). As Eddie Valiant, Bob Hoskins’ skepticism and disdain towards “toons” is a giant parody of Disney’s more traditional approach to matching humans and drawings.

Adult audiences are catered for with plenty of euphemistic humor and in-jokes about the history of the medium. It’s both hilarious (“they… dropped a piano on him,” one character solemnly notes of his son) and just the beginning of Hollywood toying with feature-length stories in which people co-exist with cartoons, rather than dipping in and out of fantasy sequences. It’s not just about how the cartoons appear on the screen, but how the human world reacts to them, and Zemeckis gets a lot of mileage out of applying ’toon lunacy to our world.

Bob Hoskins in ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ (1988).

The groundbreaking optical effects and compositing are excellent (and Hoskins’ amazing performance should also be credited for holding all of it together), but what makes Roger Rabbit such a hit is that sense of controlled chaos and a clever tonal weaving of violence and noirish seediness (“I’m not bad… I’m just drawn that way”) through the cartoony feel. And it is simply very, very funny.

It could be said that, with Roger Rabbit, Zemeckis unlocked the formula for how to modernize the live-action and animation hybrid, by leaning into a winking parody of what came before. It worked so perfectly well that it helped kickstart the ‘Disney renaissance' era of animation. Roger Rabbit has influenced every well-known live-action/animation hybrid produced since, proving that there is success and fun to be had by completely upending Mary Poppins-esque quirks. Even Disney’s delightful 2007 rom-com Enchanted makes comedy out of the idea of cartoons crossing that boundary.

When a cartoon character meets real-world obstacles.

Even when done well, though, hybrids are not an automatic hit. Sitting at a 2.8-star average, Joe Dante’s stealthily great Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) is considered by the righteous to be the superior live-action/animated Looney Tunes hybrid, harkening back to the world of Chuck Jones and Frank Tashlin. SilentDawn states that the film deserves the nostalgic reverence reserved for Space Jam: “From gag to gag, set piece to set piece, Back in Action is utterly bonkers in its logic-free plotting and the constant manipulation of busy frames.”

With its Tinseltown parody, Back in Action pulls from the same bag of tricks as Roger Rabbit; here, the Looney Tunes characters are famous, self-entitled actors. Dante cranks the meta comedy up to eleven, opening the film with Matthew Lillard being accosted by Shaggy for his performance in the aforementioned Scooby Doo movie (and early on throwing in backhanded jokes about the practice of films like itself as one character yells, “I was brought in to leverage your synergy!”).

Daffy Duck with more non-stop banter in ‘Looney Tunes: Back in Action’ (2003).

Back in Action is even more technically complex than Roger Rabbit, seamlessly bringing Looney Tunes physics and visual language into the real world. Don’t forget that Dante had been here before, when he had Anthony banish Ethel into a cartoon-populated television show in his segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Another key to this seamlessness is star Brendan Fraser, at the height of his powers here as “Brendan Fraser’s stunt double”.

Like Hoskins before him, Fraser brings a wholehearted commitment to playing the fed-up straight man amidst cartoon zaniness. Fraser also brought that dedication to Henry Selick's Monkeybone (2001), a Roger Rabbit-inspired sex comedy that deploys a combo of stop-motion animation and live acting in a premise amusingly close to that of 1992’s Cool World (but more on that cult anomaly shortly). A commercial flop, Back in Action was the last cinematic outing for the Looney Tunes for some time.

Nowadays, when we think of live-action animation, it’s hard not to jump straight to an image of Michael Jordan’s arm stretching to do a half-court dunk to save the Looney Tunes from slavery. There’s not a lot that can be fully rationalized about the 1996 box-office smash, Space Jam. It is a bewildering cartoon advert for Michael Jordan’s baseball career, dreamed up off the back of his basketball retirement, while also mashing together different American icons. Never forget that the soundtrack—one that, according to Benjamin, “makes you have to throw ass”—includes a song with B-Real, Coolio, Method Man and LL Cool J.

Michael Jordan and teammates in ‘Space Jam’ (1996).

Space Jam is a film inherently born to sell something, predicated on the existing success of a Nike commercial rather than any obvious passion for experimentation. But its pure strangeness, a growing nostalgia for the nineties, and meticulous compositing work from visual-effects supervisor Ed Jones and the film’s animation team (a number of whom also worked on both Roger Rabbit and Back in Action), have all kept it in the cultural memory.

The films is backwards, writes Jesse, in that it wants to distance itself from the very cartoons it leverages: “This really almost feels like a follow-up to Looney Tunes: Back in Action, rather than a predecessor, because it feels like someone watched the later movie, decided these Looney Tunes characters were a problem, and asked someone to make sure they were as secondary as possible.” That attempt to place all the agency in Jordan’s hands was a point of contention for Chuck Jones, the legendary Warner Bros cartoonist. He hated the film, stating that Bugs would never ask for help and would have dealt with the aliens in seven minutes.

Space Jam has its moments, however. Guy proclaims “there is nothing that Deadpool as a character will ever have to offer that isn’t done infinitely better by a good Bugs Bunny bit”. For some, its problems are a bit more straightforward, for others it’s a matter of safety in sport. But the overriding sentiments surrounding the film point to a sort of morbid fascination with the brazenness of its concept.

Holli Would (voiced by Kim Basinger) and Frank Harris (Brad Pitt) blur the lines in ‘Cool World’ (1992).

Existing in the same demented… space… as Space Jam, Paramount Pictures bought the idea for Cool World from Ralph Bakshi as it sought to have its own Roger Rabbit. While Brad Pitt described it as “Roger Rabbit on acid” ahead of release, Cool World itself looks like a nightmare version of Toontown. The film was universally panned at the time, caught awkwardly between being far too adult for children but too lacking in any real substance for adults (there’s something of a connective thread between Jessica Rabbit, Lola Bunny and Holli Would).

Ralph Bakshi’s risqué and calamitously horny formal experiment builds on the animator’s fascination with the relationship between the medium and the human body. Of course, he would go from the immensely detailed rotoscoping of Fire and Ice (1983) to clashing hand-drawn characters with real ones, something he had already touched upon in the seventies with Heavy Traffic and Coonskin, whose animated characters were drawn into real locations. But no one besides Bakshi quite knew what to do with the perverse concept of Brad Pitt as a noir detective trying to stop Gabriel Byrne’s cartoonist from having sex with a character that he drew—an animated Kim Basinger.

Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne) attempts to cross over to Hollie Would in ‘Cool World’ (1992).

Cool World’s awkwardness can be attributed to stilted interactions between Byrne, Pitt and the animated world, as well as studio meddling. Producer Frank Mancuso Jr (who was on the film due to his father running Paramount) demanded that the film be reworked into something PG-rated, against Bakshi’s wishes (he envisioned an R-rated horror), and the script was rewritten in secret. It went badly, so much so that Bakshi eventually punched Mancuso Jr in the face.

While Cool World averages two stars on Letterboxd, there are some enthusiastic holdouts. There are the people impressed by the insanity of it all, those who just love them a horny toon, and then there is Andrew, a five-star Cool World fan: “On the surface, it’s a Lovecraftian horror with Betty Boop as the villain, featuring a more impressive cityscape than Blade Runner and Dick Tracy combined, and multidimensional effects that make In the Mouth of Madness look like trash. The true star, however, proves to be the condensed surplus of unrelated gags clogging the arteries of the screen—in every corner is some of the silliest cel animation that will likely ever be created.”

There are even those who enjoy its “clear response to Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, with David writing that “the film presents a similar concept through the lens of the darkly comic, perverted world of the underground cartoonists”, though also noting that without Bakshi’s original script, the film is “a series of half steps and never really commits like it could”. Cool World feels both completely deranged and strangely low-energy, caught between different ideas as to how best to mix the two mediums. But it did give us a David Bowie jam.

‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ is in cinemas and on HBO Max now.

Craft is of course important, but generally speaking, maybe nowadays a commitment to silliness and a sincere love for the medium’s history is the thing that makes successful live-action/animation hybrids click. It’s an idea that doesn’t lend itself to being too cool, or even entirely palatable. The trick is to be as fully dotty as Mary Poppins, or steer into the gaucheness of the concept, à la Roger Rabbit and Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

It’s quite a tightrope to walk between good meta-comedy and a parade of references to intellectual property. The winningest strategy is to weave the characters into the tapestry of the plot and let the gags grow from there, rather than hoping their very inclusion is its own reward. Wait, you said what is coming out this week?