Editorial: Current Entertainment Discourse

So, a little about myself. I love art and entertainment, so I try to keep up with all the news about these topic as I can. So, what have been the biggest news stories we have? The news that has everybody talking? Is a new movie studio gonna burst onto the scene unannounced with a smash hit? Is an new indie game gonna sweep the internet with a charming and retro styled throw-back? Are rock and roll legends gonna get together and record a one off album that will either be really cool or a total disaster that you gotta hear to believe? Well...

Okay, I may be exaggerating, the news about entertainment is not really that exciting, even when it's good, and quite frankly, so far the news has been exhausting. Not because the news itself is exhausting, but because the reactions to it are so tiring to listen to.

What are some of the biggest news stories about the entertainment media that we've gotten. Off the top of my head, there was the closure of Blue Sky, which I think was a bigger deal to people in the Animation Community, and something I also talked about on my previous Editorial about the cancelled Nimona movie. There is also, Lola Bunny's sex appeal, Mr. Potato Head's pronouns, content disclaimers on The Muppet Show, Dr. Seuss books being put out of print, and now discourse about Pepe Le Pew and Speedy Gonzalez that I guarantee we have already discussed at length, because there was a time when you could say you didn't like Pepe Le Pew and not be called a "Snowflake" or "SJW" because that was just an opinion that unwanted romantic advancements weren't funny.

This is going to be one of THOSE posts.

The thing about this kind of discourse is there is only one side that is actually opinionated about it, and those are the people that complain about them. Most people that are okay with these things spend most of their time pointing out how idiotic getting upset about these things are. I've made tweets about how people's priorities are so jacked that they get more upset about Pearl Milling Company retiring Aunt Jemima than they do about police officers abusing their power and authority to get way with murder.

Social media has taken all the fun out of discussing the mediums I hold so dear to my heart. A large reason I don't watch modern cartoons is because there is gonna be a jerk that has to have an opinion about how "Steven Universe is SJW Garbage" or the flipside that "Steven Universe is telling kids to forgive Nazis", both of which are equally garbage opinions. I can't go onto Twitter without seeing someone retweet a complaint about Aunt Jemima or Lola Bunny and with their own views on the matter, and I'm not saying having an opinion is a bad thing, I'm saying having an argument over unimportant stuff like this is exhausting.

Like, what's the big issue with Mr. Potato Head? The toys are now being called "Potato Head". So? Guess what, they can still be Mr. or Mrs. Potato Head, it's just that the kids will have to put that title on them themselves. Why does it matter what a kid's toy is called anyway? Okay, yeah the names do matter, I wouldn't want my kids playing with a toy that is named after a sex act or something, but that is a very specific situation that I'm fairly certain most people would already know, don't name a children's toy something inappropriate. Unless "Potato Head" was some kind of racist nickname, I don't think it's wrong. Is it a company trying to go "woke" to receive brownie points? Maybe, probably leaning towards yes there, since I haven't thought about Mr. Potato Head the toy since I started High School. That's kind of the thing companies do, they market based on the prevailing culture. Imagine if toys and products were just marketed in a way that didn't resonate with prevailing culture, would those toys sell? So, even if dropping the pronoun form the Potato Head toys is a marketing stunt for social brownie points or social media outrage? That is kind of the job of the marketers!

On that same note, what is the big deal with content disclaimers preceding select episodes of The Muppet Show? Yes, select episodes, of 118 episodes, not even a quarter of them have content disclaimers, according to the Muppet History Twitter, only twelve episodes have the disclaimer, punching those into an online calculator, that is only 10.17% of episodes but, don't quote me on that.

Yes, having to sit through the disclaimer is a little annoying, if I had some criticism on the system, I would think that a simple button would work better than the timer. That way, for people that have already seen the disclaimer they can just skip the disclaimer instead of wait fifteen seconds, and they can also read it at their own pace. This gives the added benefit of being able to specify what exactly is wrong in the episodes or movies. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised Disney didn't go with that idea first, but whatever.

As for Lola Bunny... All I can say is, there is more to female characters than their looks. They got to have, you know, character. Yes, good characters can also be visually attractive to the audience, but there is more important things to a movie than if you can pull the pork to it. There is a completely other form of film and animation for that, you don't need to criticize a kids movie for lack of sex appeal.

On the topic of Looney Tunes, we've already had discussions on Pepe Le Pew and Speedy Gonzalez. Yeah, opinions may have changed, but my opinion is still Pepe Le Pew cartoons were not good, Road Runner for life.

And that is all the discourse I can deal with for now. Social Media has taken something that was fun and made it tiring. However, those are my views on the matters, and I'm sticking to them. This has been an exhausting post to write and an exhausting topic to think about. Quite frankly, I find myself lucky that I am pretty much allowed to have these be my biggest problems in life. Not everyone can have this luxury.

Fantasia (1940) - Let's see how this review turns out

 

It's so fascinating to see the directions Disney went in their theatrical features. First they did a fairy-tale, then they did a book, then they did a full on artistic experiment. From two very structured, story based features, it's very interesting to see that Disney would full on ditch all of that for their third original feature. Keep in mind, this was also in 1940, it's not that the art film didn't exist at this time, but it wasn't as common as now. In fact, at the time Fantasia was hated by many, some viewing it as pretentious, and one critic even comparing it to Nazism. Of course, since then, and even at the time, the film had many fans and admirers, and has garnered the status of both a classic and a masterpiece. So... which side do I fall on?

I'll admit, sometimes you get a stupid idea in your head and you want to humour yourself. "Can I make it through art college?", "How many songs will it take to make me hate Nostalgia Critic's The Wall?", and the most recent thought, "Can I write a review on Fantasia?". Like a Saiyan warrior staring at death, the challenge excited me. Of course, March is usually the month I reserve for Disney movies as well, so this worked out perfectly. The problem is that, Fantasia is not a traditional film in the slightest. Even some of the more "out there" films I looked at like The Little Prince, Yellow Submarine or Night is Short, Walk on Girl, they all had a central plot and main characters. Fantasia has none of those, the only reoccurring character is the host, and the movie has several segments, all of which are based around classical music. It's not that they don't have a story or characters, but that really isn't the focus. I think the closest I've ever come to reviewing this kind of movie is, oddly enough my first ever review on this blog, Fun and Fancy Free. That movie was a package film of two shorts with wrap-around segments, whereas this film is seven segments and the host introducing each one. So, I'm going to look at the segments individually, so forgive me if this review is a bit longer than usual.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor opens the program. It's more or less a collection of abstract images that may come to one's head when hearing the music. It does take a while to get into the animated segment of the piece, but when it does get there, it's really cool. It starts with the parts of the instruments moving to the music, and it goes on into something even cooler, and I'm not even left wondering how we transitioned from one image to another, I guess that is how you know the abstract theme was done properly. I think this is a great way to open the movie, and if I were to nitpick, I would say they should have gotten to the animation quicker, but I'm not watching this in 1940, so that is probably hindsight and modern understanding talking.

The Nutcracker suite is next and, this one is more or less six separate segments on its own. It begins with fairies placing the morning dew on the plants and a spiderweb. I think this segment is beautifully done, and the timing that has to have gone into this bit is crazy, putting the movements of the fairies in sync with the music could not have been easy. Following this are the Dancing Mushrooms and... I'm gonna be honest they make me a little uncomfortable. I mean, kids probably won't notice it, but I can't really disassociate the images from racist caricatures of Asian people. Maybe that's just me, and the modern day sensitivities, but I found it really hard to enjoy this bit, despite the really good animation. Next, we get some twirling flowers down a river, honestly I think the segment could have ended here and been fine. This bit is okay, nice animation and timing, but it's not very interesting. Full honesty, this is usually the segment I find myself falling asleep at, so I usually forget about the next bit in the piece, the fish. It's just fish swimming around to the music. Granted it does have some classic animation foolery, like you think you're looking at some piece of aquatic plant life, but then it's revealed to be two fish, that's nice. Otherwise, it's just fish swimming around, and I like fish don't get me wrong, but again, this bit really isn't interesting.

I think the most memorable bits of this segment come in at the ending, because we get some more dancing flowers with the most iconic part of the piece, barring the opening, and then we get some more fairies changing the seasons to autumn and winter. The dancing flowers were kind of strange for me to watch, the animation on some of them didn't look quite right to me, but it was still a fun bit. The final bit was probably my favourite though, the timing, the animation and the music were all just perfect. Overall, this bit does run a bit long, and it does have some lesser moments, but it's still pretty solid.

Next we have the iconic piece The Sorcerer's Apprentice. This is what everyone knows Fantasia for, the image of the sorcerer and his red robed apprentice, played by Mickey Mouse, which would make this the first ever feature film that features the mouse in a prominent role. Which is funny, you would think they'd have one of his shorts in the Academy Award Review movie, there's a lot to explain there. Anyway, this segment feels a lot like a classic theatrical short, the kind that Disney was good at making, the shorts like The Old Mill and The Skeleton Dance. Unlike the previously reviewed movie Gulliver's Travels, this segment feeling like a theatrical short is actually a positive aspect since, well this is already a short segment. I think this segment has become iconic for good reason, it's pretty good, though I will warn you all now, there are some rapid flashing moments so be cautious if you are sensitive to that kind of thing.

Following that is the Rite of Spring, the segment that features the dinosaurs. I'm gonna be honest, this is my least favourite segment. I'm not a fan of the music and the visuals are... mostly unpleasant to look at. It's not bad on an objective level, but I found myself wanting to skip over this segment.

Before the next segment, we get a little look at the "Soundtrack" the part of the film reel where the sound is recorded. This bit is cute and charming, but I think Norman McLaren had a better look at the soundtrack. That man actually drew on the soundtrack, and it's very fascinating. The actual next segment is the Pastoral Symphony, and it is amazing. From the first image in all the bright and beautiful colours I was in love with this bit. Of course, there was some controversy because of a certain character design, but ultimately, the scene was cut. To avoid a long discussion about preservation of art and cultural sensitivity, I'll just quote The Critic and say "Nothing of value was lost."

The Dance of the Hours is a... weird segment to me. I don't know, I just don't really get why it had to be animals for this bit, but whatever. The bit as a whole isn't really bad, I think they get the theme across fairly well, and the music is brilliant. I guess there did have to be a more cartoony segment in this movie. It isn't my favourite, but I thought it was more entertaining than the Rite of Spring segment.

The final piece is the Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria bit. I just love this segment, big surprise I'm sure. My favourite kind of classical music is the more intense kind, so pieces like Night on Bald Mountain, the 1812 Overture, but I also like more energetic pieces like Entry of the Gladiators, or my personal favourite, Orpheus in the Underworld. So, immediately I'm going to be drawn to the more intense music of the segment, but barring that, I love the animation. I love how Chernabog's shadow distorts whatever looms over it. Close-ups of the demon's face and the intense music make this a much darker and scarier segment than the rest. Some of the lighting and characters look more like they were drawn with charcoal, and some of the ghosts in the beginning look more like photographs placed in rather than drawn in. The segment also doesn't stay with the dark black colours, it has some blues and oranges and other colours, and they still look sinister.

The Ave Maria bit is nice, I like how the backgrounds almost look like stained glass windows at times, and it is nice to have something like this to calm down after the intense climax of the Night on Bald Mountain. I'm just not a huge fan of the piece. The animation is beautiful though.

The whole film is structured like a live orchestral show, complete with the host introducing each piece, the band warming up, and an intermission. I like this, and I do wish more movies did something like this. The host was also alright, not a show stealer, but he fit in nicely.

Fantasia is not a movie for everyone. It will probably not be as interesting to a lot of kids watching, but then again they might get into the segments like The Sorcerer's Apprentice, or The Pastoral Symphony, or even The Night on Bald Mountain. Then again, this movie wasn't made for kids, it was for adults who could appreciate the art of music and the art of animation coming together. That being said, it does often come across like sitting through a string of music videos to songs that you're mixed on. Honestly, I don't think I can get as into Fantasia as others, but I think it's still really good. The good segments can be really good, great even, and even the segments I wasn't fond of weren't terrible. Your mileage is going to vary with this movie, it's not going to be a film you're gonna love or hate only like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. That all being said, I can definitely agree with this film being a must watch for any film or animation lover. I don't think there's been a film like this since, well there was Fantasia 2000, but I'll save that for a later day. As for the original Fantasia, I can recommend it, I don't think I got into it enough for a High Recommendation, but I can say it's worth checking out.

Editorial: Nimona

 

Okay so I'm really late to this punch but, this month has just been a fustercluck for me, what with classes, personal life stuff, and of course the excitement of both The Muppet Show and the new category "Star" coming to Disney+, I've been busy, and honestly the fact has kind of fallen out of my head for a bit, I mean what's more important, some silly animation or movie studio or making sure I don't have an emotional breakdown because I have to animate a minute and a half of animation by myself? By the way, a minute and a half of animation is over two-thousand frames, think about that next time you brush off animation as lazy work, but that fact still remains that Disney has officially shut down Blue Sky Studios.

Disney acquired Blue Sky, most likely with the Fox acquisition, the acquisition that completely screws over the entertainment business because it gives Disney an insane amount of new properties which includes, and is not limited to, "The Simpsons", "Alien", "Family Guy", "The X Files", "Firefly" and the most depressing out of all of them, "Dude, Where's My Car?". I swear, next Disney is gonna try to acquire SquareEnix or Scholastic or something. Either way, Blue Sky would have been acquired during this acquisition, and Disney has decided to shut them down, because the live action reboots make more money than the medium that Disney literally became synonymous with. Legitimately, that is the reason I talk about animated movies instead of live action movies, with the rare exception, I want people to respect the over one hundred year old artform.

Well anyway, with the news of Blue Sky turning grey also came the news that all of their current projects would be cancelled, which included the movie I was most looking forward too seeing, Nimona. So, instead of looking at one of Blue Sky's movies, spoiler, the next review is gonna be a traditional Disney movie, I thought I would write a post talking about Nimona, what it is, why I'm sad the film got cancelled and whether or not it can and should be saved. Here we go.

What is Nimona?

Nimona began as a webcomic, not unlike other famous sensations like Penny Arcade and Cyanide and Happiness. Unlike the previous though, Nimona was shocking in a different way, rather than make it's lead character a zoophile or make jokes about some dude's crotch looking like applesauce, Nimona was one of those properties that started off really cute and charming about a villain who gets a new sidekick that can shapeshift, and then Nimona turned into a monster, demolished an entire city, and everyone almost died. Also there is something in there about some kind of conspiracy, the main antagonist was forced into maiming his best friend, the government kind of wants to run tests on Nimona, and it gets dark. Don't be too surprised about that, this comic was first published in 2012, and if you know anything about 2010s TV, it's that the cartoons started off super cute and charming, but then ended with apocalypse. That was kind of the thing with the 2010s, and I wouldn't really call it "Shocking" in the same way I wouldn't call Adventure Time or Steven Universe "Shocking", but it's still in that bubble.

Later it was published into a full graphic novel by Harper-Collins, so when the great internet purge happens and every scrap of internet content is erased from existence, we'll still have Nimona, which is great because, Nimona is one of my all time favourite graphic novels. It's not that I've read a lot of them, but I've read some big ones, like V for Vendetta, Maus, I've read the Legend of Zelda mangas for a bit, and I think the only Graphic novel I like more than Nimona is Anya's Ghost, and it's mostly because of the artstyle. Seriously though, if you have yet to read Nimona, I highly recommend it, seriously, one of the best graphic novels of the last decade.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, who wrote Nimona? Well, the comics and novel were done by one Noelle Stevenson, and if you recognize that name, you may be a fan of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, because they did that too, or you might be familiar with Lumberjanes, which they also did. So, if you're fond of either of those, you might like Nimona.

Why are people bummed it has been shelved?

Well, I can tell you why I myself am bummed about it; Nimona's awesome. I think I've hit the nail on the head a lot in this blog, but I really love this book. I love how it flips the narrative on it's head, the black haired villain and the spunky girl that loves to make things explode are the protagonists while the charming and handsome blonde dude is one of the antagonists. I love the characters and their relationships, how the main guy meets another enthusiastic scientist and immediately puts them as their emergency contact, or how he starts to see Nimona as more of a family member than an accomplice, at least that's how I see it, and I think these characters would have been really good in a movie.

Now, I think most people also have the same view, they really love the story and characters and wanted to see it all on the big screen, but there is something else that some people may be bummed about; this movie may have also been massive for the LGBTQA+ crowd.

So, I am unsure if Noelle has actually said anything about this, but I do feel that the characters can appeal to the Gender Neutral audience, and Noelle is LGBTQ+ and gender neutral, so yeah, this movie would have been pretty huge for those groups. So Disney pulled the plug on a movie that would have been a big thing for them. Now, I'm not LGBTQA+, My Q stands for questioning, so I am probably not the best person to talk to about this subject, but I can see people being upset about that, honestly it is worth getting upset over, unlike a variety show from the 70s having a disclaimer attached to it because some of the material is completely wrong by the standards of today, seriously that is a disclaimer, if warnings are so offensive to you, maybe you need to chill the hell out and realize that having a panic or anxiety attack is about as fun as it sounds, so it really helps if we minimize our exposure to anything that can trigger those. No I am not getting off that soap box!

Anyway, the other big reason that people are bummed is because the film was, pretty much 90 percent done at least, give or take. Some tweets from people who worked on the film have stated that it would have had a unique animation style and I can tell you I was ready to call it the best animated movie of the year when it came out. Jumping the gun? Yes, but I was also ready to call The Lion King the worst animated movie of 2019, so I'm not always too far off on predictions like that. However, this all leads us to our final question;

Can Nimona be saved, and should it?

Now, can it be saved? Yes, it totally can. With the amount of work finished on the movie, and the fact that Disney is pretty much made out of money at this point, there is no question about Nimona's ability to be saved. The real question is, SHOULD it be saved and... that gets complicated.

On the one hand, yes I and a bunch of other fans, would love for the movie to be salvaged, in fact I made a joke about starting a hashtag campaign to save the movie, and yeah a small hashtag campaign has started, so yeah, we would love for this movie to see the light of day. On the other hand, I have doubts that the original crew is going to be brought back to finish their work. If Nimona does get another greenlight, they'll probably bring in a completely different crew and rework the entire movie, I would not be surprised if sometime later down the line Disney will take the fan backlash as a sign that they want A Nimona movie and not THE Nimona movie that was already being made.

While Noelle does have some recognition thanks to She-Ra, one show does not always net you the recognition you really need to get far. Stephen Hillenburg got that recognition because he made SpongeBob SquarePants, an icon that stands alongside Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, Nimona is not on the same level and She-Ra was a reboot, also the industry may not be as respectful towards women and LGBTQ+ people as we would like, but that's another argument. So, while Noelle does have recognition, I don't think it's enough recognition to really sway anyone at Disney.

Should Nimona be saved, well, I'm not gonna say no, but there needs to be some massive steps taken before I can say yes. That was a lot of people that were working on this movie, and some of them have probably moved on to other projects, either by choice or by being put there, it is how the industry does sometimes.

In the end, I'm sad to see my most anticipated movie since Deadpool be shelved, but maybe it's not the end of the road for Nimona. Again, the fan backlash has been vocal if nothing else, so there may be something at the end of the rainbow. So, if sometime in the future I have to eat this entire blogpost with a nice cold glass of hindsight, I won't be surprised. That being said, I also wouldn't be surprised if this was the end of the road for this particular Nimona movie.

Once Upon a Forest (1993) - The best of garbage, which is still not good.

1993 was a very... odd time for animated movies. What were the most well known releases this year? Well there were movies like Batman: mask of the Phantasm and The Nightmare Before Christmas, but there was also Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound, The Thief and the Cobbler, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, I think it says something that most of the releases this year that people might be fond of were Japanese films like Sailor Moon R and Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie. I mean, does anybody remember David Copperfield or Once Upon a Forest?

This is another one of those environmental awareness movies, like the previously reviewed FernGully: The Last Rainforest. Between the two of them, I think this movie is better, if only because I didn't feel completely preached at, but this movie still wasn't "good".

During an excursion with their teacher, four young forest animals find their forest home was destroyed by a toxic gas. After one of them gets deathly sick, the others have to find another meadow to gather some herbs, and they have to find them and return within a set time before their friend expires. Along the way, they meet incredible obstacles, strange situations and a gospel choir that makes me feel more uncomfortable than I did watching Dumbo... I'm going to chalk it up to Dumbo not having Timothy Mouse talk at the crows in their slang.

It's a basic adventure movie really. The characters move from one location to the next and deal with whatever obstacle is there. I really shouldn't be to hard on movies using this plot, it's been a standard for a long time, I mean The Divine Comedy is a classic example. The appeal of this kind of adventure story for writers is easy to understand, it can allow for interesting obstacles that the characters must stand up against, can lead to interesting locations and can lead to some good character interactions. Done right, you can get a movie like Kubo and the Two Strings or The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Of course the downside is that if you do this story type poorly, you can end up with a story where the situations and locations are more interesting than the characters. Yellow Submarine worked because the locations were bizarre and literally otherworldly, and the Beavis and Butt-Head movie worked because of the characters complete lack of understanding of what was going on.

Speaking on characters, you don't have a bad selection, just not a very interesting one. You got your headstrong tough character who does first and thinks later, you have your smart and timid but heartful nerd, and you have the big eater dum-dum. You can tell which character arcs they're gonna get, one has to learn to not lead others into danger, one has to learn to stand up for themselves and one has to have their genius idea that proves they're not an idiot. I wouldn't say the characters are awful, but much like the plot, they're really nothing special.

As an aside, it is really hard to separate modern views on subjects like this. On the one hand, I can't be too hard on movies that keep to the formula because, well there is always the chance that this will be the first time someone sees this kind of story. This is a kids movie, so simple formulas are not too unwelcome. However, it really is hard to not notice when this is getting repeated, and unless you really like this kind of thing, you're going to want to see new twists on the formula. This was a big problem I had with Klaus, which, while still a good movie, had a very formulaic plot that I could see where it was going before it got there. Whether or not this thing bothers you... well it depends on you more than anything else.

As for the technicals of this movie, the best I can say is that they're mixed. The animation is, mostly good. There were some moments that didn't sit right with me, but rather than try to explain it, I'll just say that, I can understand if someone thinks the animation is good or bad. It does look appealing, not visually stunning, but I can look at it and see that some talent was put into it. There weren't any moments that looked ugly, super bright or visually unpleasing. I can give it a pass for the animation.

Music wise, on the other hand is... a half mark. This is another example of a "pseudo-musical", a movie that only qualifies as a musical because it has more than one song in it, but no more than three. The two songs in this movie were... not good. The first song is sung by Michael Crawford, so, take that for what it's worth. Honestly I can't really decide if I disliked the song or if I just thought it was bland, and the other song was part of that scene with the gospel birds. Thankfully the background music was not too bad, but it wasn't very memorable either. I think the technicals are another aspect of this movie that are nothing special.

Really, "nothing special" perfectly summarizes the movie. The animation isn't terrible, the music isn't unlistenable, the characters aren't awful and the plot isn't a mess, but it's all nothing special. It's a harmless watch, I can see someone watching this with their kids and not hating it, or even as a morbid curiosity viewing. It's harmless, but nothing special. Even for kids, I can recommend something like Smallfoot, which is also rather safe but still offers a bit more than this movie. While I can see people watching this movie, I can't see anyone really loving it, so I can't really recommend this movie. It's better than FernGully, but that really isn't saying a whole lot.

Update: Letterbox Lists

 

So, I've been on Letterbox for a year or two now. I find it's very easy to categorize movies that you've seen or movies you put into your watch list.

Well, I've made a couple lists on there that are relevant to this blog. A list of movies I have reviewed, and a list of movies I want to review.

Mostly these are for me, it's going to be better to not have to pull up files buried in my documents folder just to look at potential reviews or whether or not I've already talked about a movie (That will be a problem later down the line). However, if anyone does wish to recommend a movie to review, these lists are here to let you know if I have already done that movie, or if I have some plans to review that movie.

The Movies I Reviewed list also has links to each review. I think it can be handy for some people.

If you want to check out each list, feel free.

Films I have Reviewed: https://letterboxd.com/dark_entity/list/films-ive-reviewed-on-my-blog/detail/

Films I Want to Review: https://letterboxd.com/dark_entity/list/films-i-may-review-on-my-blog/

With all that said, I will see you in February, not sure what I'll review yet. I'll decide on something.