#Especially those of pixar

[gamesception]

So I finally got around to seeing the new Pixar movie, Elemental, and it's pretty great actually? Like, I know the marketing made it look very generic. The trailers seem to give the whole movie away, make you feel like you've not only already seen this movie, you've seen it a dozen times. But believe me, that's not true. There's a lot more going on with the main character and her relationship to her family and her culture and the pressure she's under as a second generation immigrant trying to honor the sacrifices her parents made for her sake. And the love interest water guy who seems so deeply mediocre in the trailers actually has a lot more going for him as well, putting so much effort in and so much on the line. Like, yes, it's a different-worlds odd-couple romance with a kind of strained racial / immigrant metaphor, but it's a really good and earnest and heartwarming version of that.

And it Just Looks Breathtaking - the colors, the use of transparency, the water and fire effects especially, the way the characters are always flickering or bubbling or flowing, every part of them always in motion even when they're standing still. If you're an animation fan you'll be watching it in awe wondering 'how is that even possible', which, I mean after having the same feelings watching Spiderverse 2, it really is a rich summer for animation.

Sure, from a business perspective Elemental looks like such an obvious mistake. And maybe from that angle it was. I mean, to spend so much money on an original movie with an honestly rather subdued plot and concept - like, there's a reason romance movies are generally relatively low budget affairs - and then to throw it up against Spiderverse 2 of all things? The executives at Disney are out of their goddamn minds. But as irrational as Elemental's budget might have been, every penny of it is on display. If you're an animation fan you really shouldn't miss the chance to see it on the big screen

[fishstickfeind]

WAIT WAIT I HAVE A STORY IDEA IDK IF ITS GOOD OR NOT YOU CAN BE THE JUDGE OF THAT

so like you know how multi talked about cruz and jackson's dynamic as a ship right (sensitive x knight)

and then I talked about how mater and lightning's dynamic as a ship would be like bodyguard x person who acts like they dont care but loves the bodyguard's company

imagine if they hung out together and they have fun and stuff

(and maybe something happens where cruz and lightning have to be saved by jackson and mater or they can't see each other again 👀)

👀👀

*smacks gavel* Guilty!! Guilty of coming up with a good story idea!!!

I don’t write a lot or dabble with ideas often so I don’t have much to contribute but I love hearing yall talk about these things amansnkadjnf

Tagging @a-bored-multifandomer nffnksjf yall discuss 😌

[dedalvs]

Just saw the Dune: Part 2. What do you think of the empire and fremen languages seen on screen?

I wish they would have let us do something ourselves for the Harkonnens (we could've created a badass Harkonnen language), but we certainly can't complain, given how much screen time our Fremen language got. We translated and delivered over 500 lines of dialogue for Dune: Part Two, and MOST of it ended up on screen. That is absolutely astonishing for a film. I invite you to go through the dialogue for previous films I've worked on—including Dune: Part One—and add up all the lines we've translated, and then see how much of it ended up on screen:

There's more Castithan in Defiance than language work in all the other movies I've worked on combined. For films, in general, they ask for little and use less, and err on the side of not subtitling where possible. Dune: Part Two is extraordinary in the amount of conlang dialogue that actually appears on screen. The only thing to compare it to, honestly, is Avatar (the first one, not the second, where they decided everyone should just speak English most of the time, which is lame).

So, yeah, Jessie and I were very pleased.

Oh, and by the way, those who follow my Tumblr may remember how disappointed we were that only I was credited on Pixar's Elemental, despite the fact that my wife Jessie and I worked together to create that language. Not so with Dune: Part Two! We are both credited. Furthermore, they really treated us right—especially Jessie, as she didn't work on the first film with me. I'd understand if they were a bit hesitant, given the fact she wasn't there for part one, but they welcomed her, treated her as part of the team, credited us both, and even credited her as Jessie Peterson, despite the fact that she hadn't yet changed her name (we were engaged but not married when the credit roll was locked).

And, let me tell you, Jessie was responsible for most of the brilliant semantic work that went into translation for this second film. We've done a lot of press of late, and we often get asked what are interesting words/idioms we've come up with, and every time we find one, invariably, it was Jessie who came up with it. I may have come up with the flesh and bones of Chakobsa, but Jessie gave it the heart that pumps its blood.

[hildegardladyofbones]

I think the reason why I almost cried over the boy and the heron's animation is because it's hand drawn in a world full of 3d animation that tries to impress you at every stage.

(Minor spoilers for the boy and the heron, no plot points tho)

Encanto's animation was impressive for the first few minutes, then it looked every other animates movie from the 2020s. The boy and the heron does a lot less than western (and 3d) animated movies for most of the movie (excluding the backgrounds because those were paintings. Like, actual paintings.) But when it needs to, it can do more than you thought possible. They clearly spent more time on making the movements human than making it colourful and flashy.

This subtlety is also extended into the character designs. In anime especially, but to some extent pixar as well, they make regular people look like humans have sexual dimorphism, but I couldn’t tell what gender Kiriko was supposed to be until she started to speak and until my suspicions were confirmed that the clothes she wore were in fact the same ones she wore in the other world. I am also a big fan of old wrinkly people so I'm glad they were once again present in a ghibli film. I think they have a knack for portraying people from different stages of life realistically. Also a big fan of how Mahito had so much personality, especially for a 12 yo protagonist of an adventure movie. Those tweens are usually given the cookie cutter hero personality, but robbed of actual humanity.

[randomnoteforfuturereference]

Just getting done from watching Elemental, and I am so happy that I decided to watch it opening day. Not just because the beautiful visuals (which the promos don't do justice over; more on that later*)... or the creative concepts about the way different elements interact with each other and their environment... or the absolutely adorable interactions between Ember and Wade. But most of all the key theme of the story.

Now it'd be easy to think that this is just another fantastical star-crossed lovers story. Or another derivation of Zootopia in regards to a racism allegory. Which... again I'll get to that later.*

But honesty, while the theme of racism (interactional and structural) was interwoven through the story and the romance was the key plot driver, what really stands about that film wasn't those factors (as still as wonderfully done as they are; especially the theme of fire and water being able to touch).

What stood out was the central theme of being the child of immigrants and the expectations that come with it. Especially when those immigrants who are the vanguard and keystone of their communities. And especially when you realize that it's a personal story from Peter Sohn and many of the folks who worked on it; the same way that Turning Red is a personal story from Domee Shi (it is notable that Pixar has been really great at platforming creator stories).

*But you wouldn't know that judging by what scant marketing there was (which doesn't exactly dissuade my suspicions that Disney seems to be doing its damndest to kneecap Pixar).

Anyways, I highly recommend it. And if you're on the fence about watching it, I suggest not getting discouraged by said shitty marketing or naysayers who haven't seen it.

[a113cowgirl]

A major player in the production of the Cars Franchise, especially as Lightning McQueen’s lead animator in Cars 3, Cat Hicks, has unfortunately been laid off after 15+ years of service at Pixar.

This week’s devastating layoffs at Pixar are yet another symptom of chaos and uncertainty in the animation industry. Many of those familiar with it, myself included, agree that this is the worst state the industry has ever been in in its history… due to corporate greed, and profit-over-creativity.

Please be vocal in your support for animators and creatives. It’s likely going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

#23: “The Miraculous Ladybug Movie May Give You What You Want, but My Show Gives You What You Actually Need! You Don’t Work in Television, so You Wouldn’t Understand.”

I've been running this blog for almost three years at this point, and I've seen Astruc talk trash about various things while claiming his show is better, like Winx Club, Paw Patrol, Pokemon, and Pixar as a whole. I never thought I'd see Astruc act like his show was better than a movie based on his show though.

For those who don't know (and you'd be forgiven, seeing how Astruc has barely talked about it on his Twitter), there was recently a movie that hit theaters based on Miraculous Ladybug called Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie. Supposedly, it's meant to be a retelling of how Marinette and Adrien met as civilians and as heroes. While I haven't seen it, it seems to be getting good reception, with some saying it's better than the show it's based on.

Of course, Astruc had something to say about this.

Okay, I sort of get what he's trying to say here. It's hard to compare the experience of watching an hour and a half long movie and a TV show with five seasons under its belt, but at the same time, the way Astruc phrased it still made it seem like he was trying to say the show was the better option because it “gives you what you need”. Nobody was expecting the Love Square to be resolved in a few episodes. Most people at least wanted more stories about the two to be told that don't involve constant padding. Astruc also acts like the Love Square is the only draw for the series instead of, oh, I don't know, the superhero action? You're really telling me they couldn't have tried focusing more on that after resolving the Love Square? I'm just saying, if The Office can continue after Jim and Pam got together, you can at least try to actually write other stories after the Love Square becomes canon.

One user in particular had some things to say in response to Astruc's claims, and you can guess how well Astruc took that.

Again, nobody is saying that working in television is all sunshine and rainbows, Astruc, but just because someone isn't familiar with dealing with network constraints and test audiences, it doesn't mean that they're unable to provide any meaningful criticism.

Also, Astruc is once again using a psychology term, in this case, the Dunning-Kruger Effect, to act like he's smarter than the critics. This man took psychology as an elective in college, didn't he?

But then again, this is coming from someone who doesn't think constructive criticism is a real thing.

Funny how he once again acts like anything that isn't positive feedback of his show is delusional, isn't it?

Eventually, this devolved into Astruc posting a little tangent about how fandoms have only gotten more toxic, which would have been a decent point... it if didn't come after all the things he said about fans not being able to criticize his show.

Again, there's nothing wrong with what he's trying to say here, but it feels less like a critique of how fans have become more toxic with the advent of the internet, and more like he's complaining about how mean people have been to him lately.

And, of course, this led to the usual fare of people calling out Astruc for his close mindedness, and Astruc once again saying how people aren't allowed to criticize his show in any way that isn't blind praise.

And here's the thing. We're still not done yet. This little tangent only warranted more comments about how Astruc handles criticism, only this time, it's also about calling out the people who think they can do a better job handling the show.

First, do you mind giving us an example of what kind of constraints you have to deal with, Astruc? We all know that TV executives suck, but I think we'd have more of a reason to understand your struggles if you actually explained some things that needed to be changed because of executive meddling.

Second, nobody wants a beach episode, Astruc, especially after that one issue of the comic you're choosing to ignore. We just want a more consistent story that doesn't rely on endlessly padding out the Love Square.

And finally, did you just say you have to be French if you want to rewrite Miraculous Ladybug? What does being French have to do with any of this? I remember seeing a little tweet a few years ago suggesting you would be a good choice to write a Superman story, but last time I checked, you aren't American.

Let's review in case you got lost. Someone tweeted that they thought the Miraculous Ladybug movie did a better job at the story it set out to tell than the Miraculous Ladybug TV show, Astruc tried to explain how his show is still good in its own way while justifying how long it's been going on for, he ranted and raved at fans for daring to criticize his team's writing before going on a tangent about how the internet has made people more hostile over the years, and when people still weren't happy with him, he claimed that you could only criticize or rewrite the show if you're an experienced French TV writer like him.

So just keep that in mind, fanfic writers. Unless you're French and have experience writing for television, you don't have a chance in hell to successfully write your own version of Miraculous Ladybug.

[physalian]

8 Signs your Sequel Needs Work

Sequels, and followup seasons to TV shows, can be very tricky to get right. Most of the time, especially with the onslaught of sequels, remakes, and remake-quels over the past… 15 years? There’s a few stand-outs for sure. I hear Dune Part 2 stuck the landing. Everyone who likes John Wick also likes those sequels. Spiderverse 2 also stuck the landing.

These are less tips and more fundamental pieces of your story that may or may not factor in because every work is different, and this is coming from an audience’s perspective. Maybe some of these will be the flaws you just couldn’t put your finger on before. And, of course, these are all my opinions, for sequels and later seasons that just didn’t work for me.

1. Your vague lore becomes a gimmick

The Force, this mysterious entity that needs no further explanation… is now quantifiable with midichlorians.

In The 100, the little chip that contains the “reincarnation” of the Commanders is now the central plot to their season 6 “invasion of the bodysnatchers” villains.

In The Vampire Diaries, the existence of the “emotion switch” is explicitly disputed as even existing in the earlier seasons, then becomes a very real and physical plot point one can toggle on and off.

I love hard magic systems. I love soft magic systems, too. These two are not evolutions of each other and doing so will ruin your magic system. People fell in love with the hard magic because they liked the rules, the rules made sense, and everything you wrote fit within those rules. Don’t get wacky and suddenly start inventing new rules that break your old ones.

People fell in love with the soft magic because it needed no rules, the magic made sense without overtaking the story or creating plot holes for why it didn’t just save the day. Don’t give your audience everything they never needed to know and impose limitations that didn’t need to be there.

Solving the mystery will never be as satisfying as whatever the reader came up with in their mind. Satisfaction is the death of desire.

2. The established theme becomes un-established

I talked about this point already in this post about theme so the abridged version here: If your story has major themes you’ve set out to explore, like “the dichotomy of good and evil” and you abandon that theme either for a contradictory one, or no theme at all, your sequel will feel less polished and meaningful than its predecessor, because the new story doesn’t have as much (if anything) to say, while the original did.

Jurassic Park is a fantastic, stellar example. First movie is about the folly of human arrogance and the inherent disaster and hubris in thinking one can control forces of nature for superficial gains. The sequels, and then sequel series, never returns to this theme (and also stops remembering that dinosaurs are animals, not generic movie monsters). JP wasn’t just scary because ahhh big scary reptiles. JP was scary because the story is an easily preventable tragedy, and yes the dinosaurs are eating people, but the people only have other people to blame. Dinosaurs are just hungry, frightened animals.

Or, the most obvious example in Pixar’s history: Cars to Cars 2.

3. You focus on the wrong elements based on ‘fan feedback’

We love fans. Fans make us money. Fans do not know what they want out of a sequel. Fans will never know what they want out of a sequel, nor will studios know how to interpret those wants. Ask Star Wars. Heck, ask the last 8 books out of the Percy Jackson universe.

Going back to Cars 2 (and why I loathe the concept of comedic relief characters, truly), Disney saw dollar signs with how popular Mater was, so, logically, they gave fans more Mater. They gave us more car gimmicks, they expanded the lore that no one asked for. They did try to give us new pretty racing venues and new cool characters. The writers really did try, but some random Suit decided a car spy thriller was better and this is what we got.

The elements your sequel focuses on could be points 1 or 2, based on reception. If your audience universally hates a character for legitimate reasons, maybe listen, but if your audience is at war with itself over superficial BS like whether or not she’s a female character, or POC, ignore them and write the character you set out to write. Maybe their arc wasn’t finished yet, and they had a really cool story that never got told.

This could be side-characters, or a specific location/pocket of worldbuilding that really resonated, a romantic subplot, whatever. Point is, careening off your plan without considering the consequences doesn’t usually end well.

4. You don’t focus on the ‘right’ elements

I don’t think anyone out there will happily sit down and enjoy the entirety of Thor: The Dark World.  The only reasons I would watch that movie now are because a couple of the jokes are funny, and the whole bit in the middle with Thor and Loki. Why wasn’t this the whole movie? No one cares about the lore, but people really loved Loki, especially when there wasn’t much about him in the MCU at the time, and taking a villain fresh off his big hit with the first Avengers and throwing him in a reluctant “enemy of my enemy” plot for this entire movie would have been amazing.

Loki also refuses to stay dead because he’s too popular, thus we get a cyclical and frustrating arc where he only has development when the producers demand so they can make maximum profit off his character, but back then, in phase 2 world, the mystery around Loki was what made him so compelling and the drama around those two on screen was really good! They bounced so well off each other, they both had very different strengths and perspectives, both had real grievances to air, and in that movie, they *both* lost their mother. It’s not even that it’s a bad sequel, it’s just a plain bad movie.

The movie exists to keep establishing the Infinity Stones with the red one and I can’t remember what the red one does at this point, but it could have so easily done both. The powers that be should have known their strongest elements were Thor and Loki and their relationship, and run with it.

This isn’t “give into the demands of fans who want more Loki” it’s being smart enough to look at your own work and suss out what you think the most intriguing elements are and which have the most room and potential to grow (and also test audiences and beta readers to tell you the ugly truth). Sequels should feel more like natural continuations of the original story, not shameless cash grabs.

5. You walk back character development for ~drama~

As in, characters who got together at the end of book 1 suddenly start fighting because the “will they/won’t they” was the juiciest dynamic of their relationship and you don’t know how to write a compelling, happy couple. Or a character who overcame their snobbery, cowardice, grizzled nature, or phobia suddenly has it again because, again, that was the most compelling part of their character and you don’t know who they are without it.

To be honest, yeah, the buildup of a relationship does tend to be more entertaining in media, but that’s also because solid, respectful, healthy relationships in media are a rarity. Season 1 of Outlander remains the best, in part because of the rapid growth of the main love interest’s relationship. Every season after, they’re already married, already together, and occasionally dealing with baby shenanigans, and it’s them against the world and, yeah, I got bored.

There’s just so much you can do with a freshly established relationship: Those two are a *team* now. The drama and intrigue no longer comes from them against each other, it’s them together against a new antagonist and their different approaches to solving a problem. They can and should still have distinct personalities and perspectives on whatever story you throw them into.

6. It’s the same exact story, just Bigger

I have been sitting on a “how to scale power” post for months now because I’m still not sure on reception but here’s a little bit on what I mean.

Original: Oh no, the big bad guy wants to destroy New York

Sequel: Oh no, the big bad guy wants to destroy the planet

Threequel: Oh no, the big bad guy wants to destroy the galaxy

You knew it wasn’t going to happen the first time, you absolutely know it won’t happen on a bigger scale. Usually, when this happens, plot holes abound. You end up deleting or forgetting about characters’ convenient powers and abilities, deleting or forgetting about established relationships and new ground gained with side characters and entities, and deleting or forgetting about stakes, themes, and actually growing your characters like this isn’t the exact same story, just Bigger.

How many Bond movies are there? Thirty-something? I know some are very, very good and some are not at all good. They’re all Bond movies. People keep watching them because they’re formulaic, but there’s also been seven Bond actors and the movies aren’t one long, continuous, self-referential story about this poor, poor man who has the worst luck in the universe. These sequels aren’t “this but bigger” it’s usually “this, but different”, which is almost always better.

“This, but different now” will demand a different skillset from your hero, different rules to play by, different expectations, and different stakes. It does not just demand your hero learn to punch harder.

Example: Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2 does have more influence than Tai Lung, yes. He’s got a whole city and his backstory is further-reaching, but he’s objectively worse in close combat—so he doesn’t fistfight Po. He has cannons, very dangerous cannons, cannons designed to be so strong that kung fu doesn’t matter. Thus, he’s not necessarily “bigger” he’s just “different” and his whole story demands new perspective.

The differences between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are numerous, but the latter relies on “but bigger” and the former went in a whole new direction, while still staying faithful to the themes of the original.

7. It undermines the original by awakening a new problem too soon

I’ve already complained about the mere existence of Heroes of Olympus elsewhere because everything Luke fought and died for only bought that world about a month of peace before the gods came and ripped it all away for More Story.

I’ve also complained that the Star Wars Sequels were always going to spit in the face of a character’s six-movie legacy to bring balance to the Force by just going… nah. Ancient prophecy? Only bought us about 30 years of peace.

Whether it’s too soon, or it’s too closely related to the original, your audience is going to feel a little put-off when they realize how inconsequential this sequel makes the original, particularly in TV shows that run too many seasons and can’t keep upping the ante, like Supernatural.

Kung Fu Panda once again because these two movies are amazing. Shen is completely unrelated to Tai Lung. He’s not threatening the Valley of Peace or Shifu or Oogway or anything the heroes fought for in the original. He’s brand new.

My yearning to see these two on screen together to just watch them verbally spat over both being bratty children disappointed by their parents is unquantifiable. This movie is a damn near perfect sequel. Somebody write me fanfic with these two throwing hands over their drastically different perspectives on kung fu.

8. It’s so divorced from the original that it can barely even be called a sequel

Otherwise known as seasons 5 and 6 of Lost. Otherwise known as: This show was on a sci-fi trajectory and something catastrophic happened to cause a dramatic hairpin turn off that path and into pseudo-biblical territory. Why did it all end in a church? I’m not joking, they did actually abandon The Plan while in a mach 1 nosedive.

I also have a post I’ve been sitting on about how to handle faith in fiction, so I’ll say this: The premise of Lost was the trials and escapades of a group of 48 strangers trying to survive and find rescue off a mysterious island with some creepy, sciency shenanigans going on once they discover that the island isn’t actually uninhabited.

Season 6 is about finding “candidates” to replace the island’s Discount Jesus who serves as the ambassador-protector of the island, who is also immortal until he’s not, and the island becomes a kind of purgatory where they all actually did die in the crash and were just waiting to… die again and go to heaven. Spoiler Alert.

This is also otherwise known as: Oh sh*t, Warner Bros wants more Supernatural? But we wrapped it up so nicely with Sam and Adam in the box with Lucifer. I tried to watch one of those YouTube compilations of Cas’ funny moments because I haven’t seen every episode, and the misery on these actors’ faces as the compilation advanced through the seasons, all the joy and wit sucked from their performances, was just tragic.

I get it. Writers can’t control when the Powers That Be demand More Story so they can run their workhorse into the ground until it stops bleeding money, but if you aren’t controlled by said powers, either take it all back to basics, like Cars 3, or just stop.

—

Sometimes taking your established characters and throwing them into a completely unrecognizable story works, but those unrecongizable stories work that much harder to at least keep the characters' development and progression satisfying and familiar. See this post about timeskips that take generational gaps between the original and the sequel, and still deliver on a satisfying continuation.

TLDR: Sequels are hard and it’s never just one detail that makes them difficult to pull off. They will always be compared to their predecessors, always with the expectations to be as good as or surpass the original, when the original had no such competition. There’s also audience expectations for how they think the story, lore, and relationships should progress. Most faults of sequels, in my opinion, lie in straying too far from the fundamentals of the original without understanding why those fundamentals were so important to the original’s success.

[sarahhillips]

Thoughts I Have After Seeing Elemental For the First Time 😈🥬

Yes, there are spoilers below! If you have not seen the movie and have issues with spoilers, keep scrolling. Thank you!

That being said, let’s dive in!

🔥 Not only are her parents immigrants but they speak a made up language called Firish. As an Irish American person, I thought that was cute!

💧 The Manticore from Onward is no longer the most relatable character to service workers. That honor goes to Ember now.

🔥 Yes, customers are really this stupid and entitled. The sparkler buy one get one free scene is a gold star example of that.

💧 Wade Ripple is who more men should be like; sweet, sensitive, loving, devoted, and charming but also awkward in an adorable way.

🔥 I never laughed so hard at the death of a grandmother ever. That was definitely not written to be sad at all.

💧 Wade isn’t afraid to say how he feels about Ember in front of his entire family and that’s very ballsy but way too fast.

🔥 Their date was so precious and the song in that scene is repeating on Spotify right now.

💧 I love that they eat wood chips and drink lava coffee.

🔥 Those flowers are absolutely stunning. And so is Embers glasswork.

💧 The antics between Cinder and the Door Man were wonderful. The Door Man also looks like the most huggable water guy.

🔥 I went awwwww in my head when their hands touched for the first time. It was such a sweet moment and I didn’t like that things went south after that.

💧 Would they be able to have sex? Because from the beginning of the film, we know element women can physically get pregnant. So a water penis in a fire vagina does what? Would she evaporate it away?

🔥 The kiss they shared near the end if the film was so sweet. Honestly one of the best kissing scenes written by Pixar tbh, with apologies to Linguini and Collette.

💧 Do male earth elements grow floral pubic hair like their armpit hairs? Imagine having flowers for pubes.

🔥 What’s the wedding gonna be like? Because I bet Ember would walk down the aisle in a stained glass gown.

What if it looked something like this?? 👀🔥

💧 Ember loves her father but was trying too hard to make him proud. It was unfair for him to never ask her what she wanted out of life.

🔥 Wade saving the blue flame: 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

💧 Of course I wanted to cry when Wade started evaporating but I knew he’d come back somehow.

🔥 He went through all of that for her.

💧 They way he offers his hand 🥹🥹🥹

🔥 Hell, the way he looks at her. That’s love man.

💧 Marco and Polo are so cute!!

🔥 Love love LOVE all the chainmail and glass fire people are wearing! Especially that glass robe!

💧 If I were a fire person, I would just stand in front of a fan all day

🔥 THEIR STROLLERS ARE GRILLS 😭😭😭

💧 What if they had a baby? Would the baby be made of steam? Is it gonna be a…. Steam punk?

🔥 How much is Wades monthly rent because DAMN. This apartment is super swanky.

💧 So there is both biotic water people and abiotic water. And they can make themselves one with that water

🔥 Wades the dude that becomes everybodys best friend the second they meet him while Ember can barely talk to anybody.

💧 KISS ME IM FIRISH

🔥 This shot is cute af, look at bby Ember with dad Bernie 🥹

💧 Wade Ripple definitely eats out.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

One of the issues with disney movies lately is some of the disney female protagonists is the adorkable personality. Which worked with Rapunzel and Anna but as time passed on, it seem to be the norm which the problem came once Wish revealed. Although despite that issues, all but Asha have reasons the way they are.

Rapunzel and Anna have been isolated from everyone with Rapunzel in the tower with only a chameleon as her friend and it didn't help that Mother Gothel is abusive to her while Anna stays in the castle with her sister being distant to her. I am not sure she is close with any of the servants since they are servants. Of course, they are socially awkward but they improve with Rapunzel having to experience social interaction in her TV series while Anna no longer has this in the sequel.

Moana is mostly serious and adventurous, which overshadows her quirkiness as only shown during her time in the ocean compared to the island as she fulfilled her duty as future chief. She has some laughable moments, but it doesn't stop her to continue her goal to saved the world and she is usually the serious of the two which the other is Maui.

Mirabel's quirkiness is the way she is because of how she isolated by her family and her village didn't pay much attention to her due to her being giftless which is why she tries her best to fit in. Her main personality is being empathetic as she helps her family with Antonio being brave enough with her favorite cousin by her side, Luisa talking about pressure that Mirabel listened, and Mirabel helping Isabel to let go of perfectionist. She can also be seen sassy like how she talks about Isabel.

Whereas Asha has no reason for the need to be quirky and awkward, she seems to be accepted by her friends, family, and the kingdom before the events of the story. She could have been an introverted, graceful woman who admired the king that she wanted to fulfilled his footsteps before realizing the truth.

Raya, Judy, Elsa, and Merida are the four disney female protagonist (not counting Pixar, I only included Merida since she is a princess) to not have that personality which is why are likable. The only issues they have is the movie itself especially Raya's movie theme being the trust message that is dangerous to followed, Zootopia's twist villain, the way Elsa is handle in the movies, and the bear curse parts.

Disney TV shows also have this issues with female protagonists, but not gonna say much since I am not sure if you know or not.

I haven’t seen like 3 of the movies listed here (Moana, Raya and the Last Dragon, and Brave) 😂 but I’ll trust that you know what you’re talking about, since I’ve seen Asha being compared to previous “adorkable” female leads like Rapunzel, Anna, Moana, and Mirabel in other Wish reviews.

The other 4 can have their quirkiness justified by being extremely sheltered and/or an outlier in their respective communities. However, this is not true of Asha, who is not only well known but also loved in Rosas—by her family, her friends, and heck, even the QUEEN.

It definitely feels like Disney got too comfortable with its formula, and in trying to please both modern audiences and older fans, they ended up pleasing no one. They’re so focused on making sequels and live action remakes now (which I guess is… easier??) 😅 I don’t know why Disney doesn’t make characters that are unique yet strong in their own ways. They’re capable of innovative characters (even if the execution of the overall stories aren’t great), as we see in Frozen and Zootopia (movies I have seen).

I did hear there was a lot of executive meddling in Wish’s production, so I wonder if this is why Asha had an unexplained quirkiness to her rather than a character that makes more sense for what she is and where she comes from. With her dad being a philosopher, I could see Asha working better as a quiet and introspective type who learns to be brave and to speak up for her own dreams and the dreams of those she loves rather than being a passive stander-by. This would actually give her a stronger character arc and growth rather than remaining static as she does in the actual movie we got 😔

[fereldanwench]

i'm still holding off final judgement until the gameplay today, but seeing some stills on twitter kind of helped me solidify what i found so off-putting about the style in the companion trailer

although before i post those, a few counter arguments because i'm already tired of ppl bashing the ppl who aren't vibing with it, and my head is clear enough to put these thoughts down:

"cinematic trailers rarely look like the actual game" - true to a point. however: 1) typically cinematic trailers strive to look like a higher definition version of the game, which seems to be the opposite here. in the case of DAO and DA2, i would say the cinematic trailers actually strived for more realism, not stylization, as that was the trend at the time. 2) this is a cinematic trailer, but it is also done in the game engine so it's not unreasonable to assume that the end product is gonna look somewhat similar 3) this was supposed to be their best foot forward so suddenly going "don't worry, it's gonna look better in-game" is just a bad marketing move. it's not on the audience to give this company the benefit of the doubt (particularly in light of all the shit that has gone down there in the past decade)

"not everything has to be super realistic!" - agreed! not liking elements of this particular style doesn't mean i'm opposed to stylization in DA at all. i think DA2 is much more stylized than DAO, and not only does it look nicer, it looks more distinctly dragon age. DAO visually is also very generic, especially for its time. i still love the almost painterly look of DA2, even all these years later

and i think DAI has issues with the character models, especially the uncanny valley disconnect between the really stiff animations and realistic faces (having played it within the past year, they've aged pretty roughly), but in terms of environment and armor and whatnot, it did build off the style presented in DA2 in a way that effectively modernized it for that era. it did go for a more realistic look, but it was cohesive and still distinctly dragon age

"people reacted like this to DA2 and DAI's trailers too" - no, they did not, lmao. DA2's trailers were the reverse--they looked more realistic than the actual game. now there was some backlash against the stylistic choice in the actual game. i remember david gaider talking about it in a panel at dragon con in 2012--apparently ppl were upset that the companions looked like they were made with cosplayers in mind, which i thought was an interesting criticism. but no, the trailers did not get this sort of response.

and DAI's trailers used a lot of in-game footage, and the cinematic ones were both pretty accurate to the game and well-received by the audience. DAI's marketing was also absolutely bonkers and nonstop for like 9 months before the game was released, which in hindsight i think was way too much, but in terms of visuals, we knew exactly what we were getting.

"you guys just think anything with a style to it looks like fortnite" - lmao, okay, yeah, describing it as fornite is probably unfair and inaccurate, but i know for me, i kind of use it as a shorthand to reflect my general dissatisfaction with the way so many 3D styles (in both games and movies) just have this bland, cartoonish look to them. the pixar-ification of everything. i just don't like it.

and the logo with the bright purple and overly smooth text doesn't really help here either. i think a less saturated and darker purple paired with a grungier font would also help in making this feel like less like fornite season 3458345: dragon age avengers.

plus it was originally gonna be a live service game and i think that it still has some of that dna artistically

SO ANYWAY

these stills, which i think are also in-game engine but im not entirely sure if they're from cinematics, gameplay, or just renders but they seem to be in-line with the trailer:

and seeing emmrich and to a lesser extent neve in these pics solidified why the stylization didn't work for me on a visual level (never mind it being paired with the light-hearted planning-for-a-silly-little-heist vibes)

so when i first saw the trailer, and i saw varric, i was like "nice"

he looked like a higher definition, older version of a DA2/DAI hybrid of his model. he looked really good. i thought harding looked good, too. it did take me a minute to realize who she was, but it really wouldn't be a DA trailer if we weren't left wondering who tf a returning character was lmao (remember the confusion over alistair's appearance in one of the DAI trailers? this is actually tradition now)

but as the trailer goes on, the style doesn't even stay consistent--it just gets progressively more cartoonish right up to emmrich, which is the exact moment that made me go WHAT

he looks like a cartoon character. the hard lines in his face, the stiffness of his hair, his overall proportions--he looks like he should be a villain in a pixar movie. like i'm digging his overall vibe and as a concept of a character design, i love it. but this execution of it next to fellow old wrinkled man varric looks so off

and then we go right into davrin who is beautifully rendered and designed--he doesn't look out of place next to varric or harding

some characters have the soft, wispy hair while others have hair that looks like a hard shell with lines carve into it. some characters have finely detailed wrinkles while others have thick, cartoonish ones. some characters have realistic proportions while others have more exaggerated features.

stylization is only effective when it's purposeful and consistent, and from what i've seen so far, it's not. it's all over the place.

so there's my thesis about why i dont like the art direction in the trailer lmao

and like i've been saying since it dropped, i am reserving full judgment for the gameplay reveal, but based on the other stuff bioware has teased, i'm not expecting this aspect to change too much. i've seen other ppl who were on the fan council thing say the tone in the game is more in-line with the tone in the other games, so maybe that'll help smooth out this disconnect

[chainsxwsmile-personal]

Hi there, love your work ^^

If I may ask (and while I know it's a really cliched question lol), I was just wondering, what's your favorite thing about Johnny and what inspired you to create Ari/her story? ^^

Thank you so much for your interest and questions!

My monsters university OC was created in 2013, and looked a lot different than her current design. Jenny Larnes was her original design— this design was made into a fandomless original character a few years later (now found on @notjustalittlekid ).

Despite the design changes, my MU OC had the same backstory and exposition— curious and resilient foster kid eager to escape her situation concocts a successful plan to enter the Monster World in disguise.

I wrote with two people @johnny-thejaw-worthington and @jock-jerk-scarer who developed amazing dynamics with my MU OC, as a familial big-brother relationship between Johnny and Ari/Jenny.

Years later, Johnny Worthington returns in Monsters at Work Season 2, and I finally constructed a plot to write for a fanfiction and more art pieces. I revamped Ari/Jenny and start filling in missing pieces that I overlooked as a young creator.

As for Johnny, personally I do love his design. His design seems mistakenly simple, yet is remarkably difficult to draw— especially with his horns and head. The fact that Johnny also runs on all fours from time to time is also a treat to draw, too. Coming from an animal biologist, I’ve always favored drawing animals over humans, or even animalistic features.

Personality-wise, I appreciate that Johnny isn’t completely a flat villain. He’s not necessarily evil, just arrogant with preconceived notions of what should constitute privilege and prestige in the Monster World. But Pixar does add those little touches where you can see that Johnny does have something to lose. He’s terrified of losing, of being anything less than the best.

If Monsters at Work has anything to say about Johnny’s development (so far, at least), he definitely seems considerably more approachable and possess less of an air of arrogance. I’d be happy if he learned his lesson, and matured since his college days.

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

My sister and I are watching all Pixar movies and rating them based on our subjective opinion, we only have seven left and due to that I wanted to try and see how the first 21 compare. I wanted to see if we may have a preference for movies we saw growing up, due to nostalgia (although, we are missing those few newest movies I've seen as a teen or an adult). In chronological order, I assigned each movie a colour in such a way that the oldest movie is red and the "newest" is purple, all through the colours of the rainbow. I then arranged these colours in the order that we've so far ranked each movie, to kind of see if we have a preference for movies from any specific period. It looks like this:

A real colourful array of stripes! Perhaps green and blueish colours are favoured, but some are also lower on the list! I can't really find any other consistent theme, except a sort of general dislike of the "newer" (2015 to 2019) movies might be visible and a lot of orange hues in the middle... but these are really not the rules. Especially since we've consistently rated most movies to be at least an okay watch, like, generally a pretty good time!

[teeheepicmickey]

Regarding the Disney Boycott and Epic Mickey: Rebrushed

I was extremely excited when Epic Mickey: Rebrushed was announced- and it seemed like so many other people were ecstatic as well. But now that some time has passed, I'm realizing that the Disney boycott is a major concern for the sales of the game. Rebrushed is being released at the worst possible time. As much as I've seen people excited for the game, I've also seen people planning to pirate it so they can enjoy the game and participate in the boycott. However, I've also been witnessing evidence that Disney wouldn't profit as much from the game's sales after selling the copyrights to the developers. It'd be the developers making the most money and being supported for their efforts. Compared to the empire that is Disney, and all the things they're making money off of, Epic Mickey is a minuscule part and not going to make much of a difference at all in the boycott.  I was discussing this with a friend and they wrote: "My heart goes out to everyone suffering through and impacted by the conflict right now. It's truly atrocious for everyone involved, especially with the lives at stake, and I agree with the boycott's goal of refusing to support Disney. This is something that matters heavily. Unfortunately, to truly boycott Disney, you'd have to boycott all future Marvel projects, I'm talking not even give a second of those projects your time, all future Disney/Pixar movies, they gotta make $0, stop buying half the produce in the grocery store funded/supported/farmed by Disney, all of views on ABC and ESPN would have to drop to 0, no more sports, gotta boycott all future Star Wars projects, all of 21st Century Fox, pretty much just entertainment can't exist anymore if we want to thoroughly boycott Disney. That's why including Epic Mickey: Rebrushed of all things- especially when this post (a post I showed of an explanation that Disney sold the Epic Mickey Copyrights to the developers) is right, yeah Disney still makes money but not the bulk of it, the company making it is- is really silly. You're not going to collectively show Disney "who's boss" by not buying this game that they hardly have a hand in, that's such a childish point of view. You'd have to get the entire world on the same page to stop letting Disney profit and to no longer spend money on things they have their hand in, and unfortunately, Disney has their hand in a lot. Hollywood as a whole would have to truly shut down if you wanted to boycott Disney to send them a message. Disney is gonna make money regardless. If you truly wanna speak with your wallet, cancel your Disney Plus subscriptions. If even like 40% of those get canceled within the next week, that'll send a huge and alarming message to Disney. Stay out of theaters for the next Disney/Pixar movies. Marvel. Star Wars. Don't watch those projects, especially on their streaming services. Don't watch any videos they post to their official channels. Don't Like or give views to their Tweets and posts. To hurt them, you have to hurt where their cash cows are, and Epic Mickey is NOT their cash cow. It's barely struggling to survive as it is, and the dedicated team reviving the cult classic is doing their best to bring it to us. They have nothing to do with upper Disney's decisions. Killing something that's already down would truly be on us. Leave the game alone" (there's another paragraph to this but for some reason tumblr won't let me post it on the same post- so it'll be reblogged!! ) PLEASE CHECK THE REBLOGGED POST ON THIS ACCOUNT!!!  

[pinkpinkstarlet]

guys I have an idea for how it would got if house of mouse came back

@orchestra-of-demonic-screeching @champmorado @x0stormie0x @anemoia42 @thisismisogynoir

Imagine the house of mouse starting off with Mickey announcing to the gang that he’s rebooting the show, this time inviting not only the new Disney characters in store, but also the Pixar characters!

There’s the Toy Story gang, the Bug’s Life gang, Monster’s Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, and everyone else in the Pixar studio is invited to join this new show in the House of Mouse. The new Disney characters such as those from Wish, Encanto, Frozen, Tangled, Moana, etc is also invited.

That includes…the villains.

But we’ll get to them later.

anyways, Mickey and the gang feel overwhelmed with how many more guests there are now, with Mickey especially feeling like he isn’t doing enough and isn’t being grand enough for the “much more advanced and futuristic characters”. But Minnie reassures him and over time this inner conflict is resolved with great payoff. This will also connect with the second conflict of this:

The Pixar and Disney heroes not getting along. They have their tensions during the opening episode, but there’s a moment in the climax of it where they start arguing with each other about everything due to a big moment enacted by the villains.

Oh by the way, let me bring up those villains again!

Similar to ‘the House of Villains’, this time, The Evil Queen, Maleficent, Jafar, Chernabog along with Auto, Syndrome, Hopper, and Lotso lead the Disney and Pixar Villains into a total overthrowing of the house of mouse, getting all the protagonists kicked out while the antagonists and villains reign free in the house. We could have a little gag here where when the Disney villains are singing and they point to the Pixar villains, they just go “oh we don’t sing sorry lol” and they have an “ok whatever” moment and continue.

This makes the tensions between the Pixar and Disney characters that were previously established reach its peak. It starts off with one of the Disney characters saying that it was the Pixar characters’ fault for not stopping them since they’re so much more advanced than the Disney characters. It then blows off from there, and, at least for me, I’d wanna see a moment in this huge argument where someone shames mater for being just an idiot tow truck, with lightning defending his best friend by saying “oh so dopey and goofy are allowed to be silly but mater can’t? Give me a break!” Or maybe something where lightning or mater respond but this time making fun of the early disney princesses for just being damsels in distress who sing with animals, with the princesses gasping in shock and the sidekicks of snow, cinderella and aurora being like “how DARE you!” (Especially grumpy because. He’s Grumpy). You could only pick one to keep the consistency but both are funny ideas for this.

This argument ends abruptly with Mickey yelling “ENOUGH!” which leaves everyone silent. He starts talking about how all the fighting they’ve been having is not only pointless, but extremely damaging to any chances they have at taking back the house. He goes on saying that the Pixar and Disney villains were able to cooperate and they become stronger, and if the protagonists couldn’t do the same in time then they’d be letting the villains take over everyone’s worlds. The other Pixar characters such as (but not limited to) woody and buzz join in as well as other Disney characters talking about their stories and how they’ve had to grow to understand others to get to their goals and more importantly to not let evil prevail. There’s a little heart to heart before Carl from Up interrupts saying “well, how are we gonna defeat them together? We can’t just believe in the power of friendship to do this!” and then Mickey gets an idea. And the training montage starts.

Mickey and his gang along with Woody and his gang of friends are the leaders of the operation, and they decide to use the magic of Disney and the technology of Pixar and mix them together. Thinking of Antonio from encanto leading the bug’s life characters into battle, miguel and moana getting an epic team up with maui as they fight against tamatoa, and some other cool stuff with other characters but the thing that I’m thinking about the most (because I’m a die hard cars fan and since this probably won’t happen I don’t have to worry about the other characters) is the idea of LIGHTNING MCQUEEN MATER AND THE OTHER CARS CHARACTERS DRIVING WITH TINKERBELL’S PIXIE DUST. LIKE IMAGINE LIGHTNING ZOOMING BY AND ABSOLUTELY BESTING CHICK IN A RACE WHILE FLYING WITH TINK’S PIXIE DUST AND MATER BEATING UP THE LEMONS WHILE A BUNCH OF GLITTER IS EMITTING FROM HIM OMGGG

Also like tinker bell teaching them how to control themselves while flying with her little bell voice and them learning how to steer and stuff and lightning stumbling a bit in the beginning omggg

but the final act comes from sorcerer Mickey. There’s a moment where the villains are weakened where Maleficent decides to transforms into her dragon form as a way to finish the battle quickly. Mickey shows up in his wizard attire and they go in a final battle which ends with Mickey winning, and saying that the villains are allowed in the house of mouse, but ONLY if they don’t pull a stunt like that again, which they reluctantly agree to.

This ends the opening episode for the new house of mouse, and with the heroes from Pixar and Disney being closer now.

Now here’s some ideas for other episodes in this new house of mouse. Keep in mind this is all cars related because I am a massive fan of cars, and I’m not really thinking of the other franchises for this as it probably is not gonna happen. If you have any ideas for the other characters though, feel free to share them in the notes!

here’s the first idea:

Lightning and Mater enter the house of mouse, with lightning talking about how great Cruz has been in training and in her races, as well as both of them just being glad that they’ve found the time to be in the house of mouse again. But then, we focus our attention to the evil queen from Snow White, who has a new magic mirror after her old one quit to work as Walt Disney’s co-host (my headcanon btw LMAO). She asks her iconic question and it shows that MATER is the fairest now, due to his naturally optimistic and kind personality and how everyone enjoys his company. She then decides to try and kill mater, first using some poisoned gas to try and kill him. Lightning, who knows exactly what’s going on, kicks the can of gas away before mater can consume it. We get a whole montage of the evil queen in her hag form trying numerous ways to kill mater but failing as the episode progresses while the different cartoons are played, only with the hag having a breakdown after not being able to kill him. Mater asks what’s wrong and the queen replies saying that she just wanted to be the fairest in the land, which mater says he can help with, since “that’s what a tow truck does!” The episode ends off on a comedic note, kind of similar to that one 2013 Mickey Mouse cartoon short, where despite still being an ugly hag, the queen is much happier than she was before, and mater being proud of himself for helping someone out (while lightning is slightly uncomfortable but still happy for his best friend).

now here’s the second one:

Here we have lightning and mater in the house of mouse again, this time with lightning remarking that he hasn’t been spending much time with Sally, especially since he’s started training cruz. He goes to look for her with mater only to find her hanging out with…the Disney villains! She’s seen sitting at a table and laughing with all the female Disney villains, such as Maleficent, lady Tremaine, cruella, madame Medusa, the evil queen, and more. Lightning shows up to the table asking her why she’s hanging out with the villains of all people, with her replying that yeah sure they may be a bit eccentric, but they’re actually fun to hang around. The episode progresses with this conflict and Lightning realizes that because he has been neglecting time with Sally, she actually feels a little hurt because of it, even though she knows racing means a lot to him. Lightning convinces Sally to not hang with the villains and apologizes to her for not giving enough love to her, which Sally forgives him for. This one isn’t as strong in my head as the first one but if I think it through it can be decent.

hope yall liked this train wreck of a post though! I might add more who knows lol

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

John Musker recently spoke of his final years at Walt Disney Animation Studios, and on directing MOANA under the stewardship of John Lasseter. There's some stuff worth noting in here...

To start off, he kinda repeated the words Bob Iger said when evaluating Disney's 2023 movie releases that didn't do very well at the box office, in describing what's not working with WDAS' most recent films. Namely the box office bombs STRANGE WORLD and WISH...

We weren’t trying to be woke, although I understand the criticism. The classic Disney films didn’t start out trying to have a message. They wanted you to get involved in the characters and the story and the world, and I think that’s still the heart of it. You don’t have to exclude agendas, but you have to first create characters who you sympathize with and who are compelling. I think they need to do a course correction a bit in terms of putting the message secondary, behind entertainment and compelling story and engaging characters.

The key takeaway here is "you don't have to exclude agendas".

While I found Iger's similar statements to be confounding and toothless, seemingly catering to all the angry assholes on YouTube who call everything "woke" and think about Brie Larson 24/7/365... What John is saying is a very basic thing about storytelling, in that it's character first.

That being said, I personally don't feel the problem with WDAS' recent movies is that the messaging is front-and-center. I think that so-called messaging, like some of the character work, feels like an afterthought too. Specifically in STRANGE WORLD and WISH, not so much ENCANTO. But it is instead the rushed and hurried pacing of their over-crammed stories, the sort-of plainness of the presentations, weird dialogue choices (throughout my first viewing of WISH, I kept saying "Who talks like this?"), kinda reheated old hat tricks. It sometimes feels like the films made under CCO Jennifer Lee's watch are just trying to recapture FROZEN in some way or another... Without understanding why that film ticked with audiences and where the overall zeitgeist was in late 2013/early-to-mid 2014.

Also... Messaging. I'm not taking Musker to task specifically, because I know what he means in his words... But when others say it: All art is either political or about something, anyways. Choosing NOT to say anything is still saying something, it's still a political act to bow out or to be indifferent. Every Disney animated movie is about something, and they are indeed the works of their creators, so that means that their views on life and the world are somehow within the stories themselves. "Message" in this context, to me, reduces a work of art to a mere statement, like an after-school special or something. John and Ron Clements' Disney animated movies simply knew how to mix the themes with the character work, the storytelling, the worlds they put together, etc. You can't tell me with a straight face that something like THE LITTLE MERMAID, ALADDIN, or MOANA aren't about something or aren't political in any way, shape, or form. Especially the first of those three examples. The spirit of Howard Ashman would have a word with you if you think otherwise.

John also points out that the Lasseter years, which a lot of people online alarmingly pine for, weren't these amazing halcyon days. And this statement only confirmed the rumors I had heard about MOANA's production, how both John and Ron Clements were warded off on various things during its making:

MOANA was a very difficult project. It was our idea, but with Pixar and John Lasseter, our story kept changing hands. In the ’90s, we had Jeffrey [Katzenberg]. He was an emperor, you know. But there weren’t 10 Jeffreys. Now, you have too many people to satisfy, before we didn’t have 15 directors telling you how to make the movie. But in some ways, they were right, it was a good thing.

I feel like John's being very balanced in his words, finding the positives of that kind of environment while still calling out the not-great stuff. I love to hear these stories in former directors/animators' own words, and what the Lasseter and Lee regimes have been like. I feel that there are potentially fantastic movies buried in STRANGE WORLD and WISH, the former I rather liked still and the latter I found a fairly pleasant diversion.

I feel the fault lies in the execution, not so much the concepts, themes, or ideas. While some pockets of animation fandom online strongly feel that that earlier iteration of WISH with a younger version of Asha's grandpa being some kinda Star Boy would've been automatically better than the released film, to me it's down to the storytelling itself. Like, I think Asha, the silly goat, and the cute star thing could've been a fun trio and the movie itself a pretty fantasy flick, but it doesn't really get there. The Human-Star WISH, if made, could've also suffered from the same writing problems and similarly underwhelming songs.

STRANGE WORLD could've been this really dynamic sci-fi pulp adventure with a funny and super-enjoyable bickering family at its core, with the environmental themes intact... but it's mostly just kinda there in its execution, the characters kinda flat, the dialogue is forced a lot of the time, the dramatic beats aren't properly built up, and the film's editing makes it feel like it had been thrown into a dicer. There doesn't seem to be the hand and personality of the directors/filmmaking team, it's almost like a template is set for them. And they fill in the blanks and eke out as much personality as they can. See, I don't get that out of Pixar's recent films, all of which feel much more director-driven. And ARE about something, too, whether explicitly political or not. This current iteration of WDAS would not have made a movie like LUCA or TURNING RED.

For the forseeable future, it's sequels to favorites from last decade, who knows how those will be executed. Maybe an original or two sneaks in, I don't know, but I wonder if Lee and the leadership themselves looked at the response to WISH, STRANGE WORLD, et al. and are figuring things out. Or staying the course. But it isn't just people online saying it, nor critics. More than one Disney veteran is saying it... WDAS is in a bit of a rough spot at the moment. The solution isn't as simple as "they need to have romances and villains again" nor "they need to be less left-leaning", to me it's really... Let the filmmakers try something cool, even if it doesn't land. If it doesn't land, it'll be a cult classic thereafter. Live-action directors get to mess up all the time and make these 45%-scoring-on-RT released-by-A24 movies that later get hailed as auteur classics... Why do some animated movies have to live up to this weird nonexistent standard?

Back to Musker... In addition to this, John still expresses interest in adapting the DISCWORLD book MORT, from Terry Pratchett. He and Ron tried to get that going at Disney Animation after finishing THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, but it didn't pan out, so the pitch that morphed into MOANA happened thereafter. He feels it's a tough sell in today's "risk-averse" environment... Though somehow, the DISCWORLD book THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RATS recently happened as an animated feature. The interview seems to confirm that METAL MEN, the DC animated adaptation that he and Ron were heading up at Warner Animation, isn't a thing anymore. John's new thing is his self-made short I'M HIP, so hopefully that circulates somewhere we can all see it.