#NewDeal4Animation

[nonsensology]

Later at the wish granting ceremony, CEO Magnifico announces he’s greenlit Ice Age 6 and five more live-action remakes.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

There are so many cancelled and unrealized projects that Disney is sitting on, that they do not benefit from in any way by keeping them locked up tight. They really ought to just let them go if they don't have any intentions of doing anything with them.

Incidentally, I could never agree with the mentality of “Magnifico is actually the hero, and Asha is the TRUE villain” that a lot of people seem to have. I drew my comic based on this post. I feel like if more people had been aware of this possible interpretation, they wouldn’t have sympathized with Magnifico.

Does Wish have bad writing? Yes, it does. And it’s because of that bad writing that every single character suffers. What I think happened is that, as a result of said bad writing, Asha became a character that’s so uncompelling and lacks uniqueness that she ends up a blank slate for audiences to project their frustrations with the movie onto. King Magnifico on the other hand, is probably the most interesting and entertaining character, due in no small part to Chris Pine’s performance, and so the audience is much more sympathetic towards him and willing to ignore his flaws.

One of Asha’s problems as a character is that she doesn’t really contribute much to the story. By contrast, Magnifico’s downfall is brought about entirely as a result of his own actions. Magnifico is in fact not a good leader, because he gives in to paranoia and temptation, acts in a very unprofessional manner, and escalates the conflict to an absurd degree.

Please note, Asha does not get upset that Magnifico refuses to grant her grandfather’s wish, nor does she ever demand that Magnifico needs to grant every wish. She gets upset that he insinuates that her grandfather might have dangerous intentions, and because he does not have a convincing reason why he doesn’t return wishes that he won’t grant. Rather than calmly explaining his reasoning to her, Magnifico rudely dismisses Asha and then blows up at her.

If Magnifico were a good leader, he would have explained to each person WHY he won’t grant their wish, and given them advice on alternatives. As it stands, he knows full well that everyone expects their wish to be granted. It’s why they even came to Rosas in the first place, it is the literal reason he even built his kingdom. He clearly makes a big spectacle out of the wish granting ceremonies, which every citizen visibly goes wild for. He never elaborates to anyone his specific standards for the wishes he chooses to grant, other than a broad statement of "for the good of the kingdom". In his regard, Magnifico reminds me of bureaucratic systems that never provide every option or solution upfront, with their logic being "you didn't ask".

Not to mention, he literally tells Asha, "People think wishes are just ideas. But no, no, they are a part of your heart. The very best part." He knows, for a fact, how important wishes are to everyone. But the movie's awful writing makes him think the best solution to dealing with wishes that MIGHT have dangerous consequences, is to just hoard them. All that returning the ungranted wishes will accomplish is returning the memory of what the wish even is, that's literally it, and the people will be no better off than they were before they gave Magnifico their wish.

I dunno about you guys, but whenever I watched stories that preached “be careful what you wish for”, my takeaway was never “your desires could be dangerous and you should never pursue them for fear of disaster”, I always thought the stories were telling us, “beware of anything that promises instant gratification, because it’s usually too good to be true, and will cost you more than you will gain”. While the things you want in life may have disastrous consequences, you won’t really know until you try to pursue them through your own honest efforts, and not through “magical” shortcuts. That’s how we learn and grow, through trial and error. 

As it currently stands from my point of view, when people say "Magnifico has every right to keep ungranted wishes" it looks like they're unintentionally saying, “The Disney Corporation has every right to keep your work and ideas, because you willingly and legally handed them over. Tough luck if you regret the deal you were given. No takesies backsies!”

While I have found no evidence to confirm that the filmmakers intended for Magnifico to be a criticism of Corporate Disney, considering the inclusion of the animation sweatshop scene in Pixar's Inside Out 2, I think the probability is likely. (Not to mention, when Asha shows Magnifico her little flipbook animation, he dismissively remarks “Do we consider that a talent?”)

Please note, everyone is free to rewrite and reinterpret Magnifico however they want. He's just a fictional character after all, and fan content is supposed to be for fun. I just think it's funny how defensive people get over him a he appears in the final movie. They say he deserved better, and I agree, but we have very different ideas of what "better" means. In fact, I think every character in Wish deserved better, because again, they were all victims of bad writing. My problem isn't that they took a good man and made him arbitrarily "evil", it's that they didn't make him evil enough from the very beginning. Remember those deleted scenes featuring a villainous Magnifico with better writing, along with an evil Amaya that he can play off of? I'm fairly certain that everyone unanimously agreed these deleted scenes were much better than the final movie, and yet some still insist that Magnifico should have been a hero all along. I dunno, it's a funny dichotomy. 

EDIT: A few days after posting I came across this video essay supporting the interpretation of Magnifico as a critique of Corporate Disney and I loved it. Please go watch it!

[johan-the-unknown]

Animation is DYING, But We Can Save It 

This is getting ridiculous now, I am not happy and am getting tired of News Like this, if you feel the Same, you know what to do, spread this around as much as you can, Spread. The. Word.  #NewDeal4Animation, i don’t know if this is still a thing anymore.

[roborevolutionaryrenditionsblog]

[fae-of-the-wild]

Big names get treated like shit too. I’m horrified every time I see a shirtless male character whose supposed to be attractive and physically fit now. I don’t want them to be dehydrated so their muscle definition is better on camera! What the actual fuck is that?! How is that legal?!

Actors and Animators should go on strike next tbh. Especially cgi animators. Put the fear back into Hollywood

[hologramartgalleryblog]

[digitalartgalleryblog]

[retrovintagevibesblog]

[nikb0mh6bl]

[aleppothemushroom]

Come the fuck on!

Now you're telling me the people that actually respect animation do crunch too?

[thebrisingamen]

Huh

Do you think the fact that we've had three movies, two of which are in years back to back that talk about unrealistic expectations placed upon the shoulders of children from their parents who also experienced it but come to terms with it in the end and learn to accept themselves and their children and deals with generational trauma says something?

[johan-the-unknown]

Cartoon Network Workers Need Your Help 

Let’s show our Support,  Let’s Spread The Word and make sure as many people knows about this as possible,   let’s do this.  #NewDeal4Animation 

[letswonderspirit]

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfW1AnaClipVqr5Ur9AIZYgGRquOShhtM5Jtum9hIulf_8dGA/viewform

Animation is a labor. It’s tedious on the body and takes up a lot of physical time, it’s a skill that takes years to perfect into the industry standard, in an industry that’s constantly changing. Artist should be paid fairly and treated fairly.

Artists shouldn’t have to worry about injuring their bodies due to time constraints and impossible amounts of work, for a wage that doesn’t bring food on the table or medical care in the long run. Art is created in stable environments.

If you wanna help, sign this petition!

[hashtagloveloses]

as an FYI, the people who do computer generated effects for live action projects are called VFX (visual effects) workers, and there is an ACTIVE effort by IATSE, one of the Hollywood unions, to investigate the best way to unionize them. there are some unique difficulties involved, but they are trying.

IATSE is also investigating unionizing video game workers, which has its own difficulties.

IATSE also includes the Animation Guild, which negotiates its own contracts and has had a HOST of issues you may have heard about with #NewDeal4Animation, and also for animation writers who often have to straddle between the Animation Guild and the WGA and are treated even WORSE than the WGA are. If you want to help animation workers working for the mouse RIGHT NOW, Disney Animation production workers need signatures on their petition. Various production employees are being prevented from joining their colleagues in the union who work in other capacities, because of the mouse's union busting tactics, refusing to recognize these workers' union for over 100 days.

CGI animators should unionize next. normally, their jobs would be too precarious to strike, since studios would replace them without a second thought, but if it's part of this larger general film strike, they might finally have meaningful power to better their working conditions

[sweetdippingsauce]

Respect animation, mother fuckers!

Crazy how as soon as we get the Cuphead Show (which is a fucking blessing considering how great and well-made it is) and then Netflix wastes no time to exploit it as well as the crew behind it.

Netflix, do better. 😤

[isawiitch]

The impossible workload of storyboard artists because of job creep is leading to burnout and injury. It's time for a new deal.

If you're a fan of animation and want to support the folks who work extremely hard to make cartoons, please consider posting on social media with the tag #NewDeal4Animation in support of the Animation Guild 839 as we enter negotiations with AMPTP this week to fight for better working conditions. This week negotiations are centered on Story Artists/Story Craft, thus, #StoryCraftUnite !

Thanks- and spread the word! Most discussion of this is happening on twitter, but every bit helps!

[mollykflood]

The impossible workload of storyboard artists because of job creep is leading to burnout and injury. It's time for a new deal!

#StoryCraftUnite #NewDeal4Animation