#and the cartoonish unreality of most of the effects do NOT help

[tathrin]

📽 action!: rank all six of the films (or three if you're a hater)

Answers for this LotR ask-game.

Ahh okay so at this point I have to confess something terrible: I still have not seen the third Hobbit movie. I'm sorry! I just couldn't do it. The fuckery of it all, especially in the second movie with Mirkwood and Thranduil and Legolas ("a lowly Silvan elf" what the FUCK what the fuck PJ WHAT THE FUCK), was just too much for me. Character-assassination is one thing, and I thought after Denethor I knew what I was going to be getting with Thranduil but NOPE! It was literal world building assassination and I just CANNOT.

Don't get me wrong, Lee Pace did an amazing job and actually seeing Mirkwood was amazing and it was genuinely delightful to see Orlando put those ears on again; but the OuTrAgE that filled my heart at the yeet-ing of what minimal canon we even have for the Mirkwood elves was just intolerable, and while I did mean to go see it, really I did, I just...couldn't actually get the motivation to go before it was out of theatres. I've heard the EE are better (less studio fuckery) so I'll watch them someday! Honest! I just...haven't. yet.

And as to the Lord of the Rings trilogy...man, I don't even know how to do this. In terms of which is the best film, or in terms of which one I enjoy watching most, or in terms of which on hits me in the heart hardest or...? I don't know if I can objectively rank my feelings about these movies even in my own brain because RotK ends with Into the West and I have FeelingsTM about the Undying Lands and Sea Longing okay. So the last scene of RotK at the Grey Havens is a fucking spear through the heart every time and I can't even describe the knot of feelings it engenders, and I think overall TTT may be my favorite but also it has Plot Issues that piss me off even more than the Plot Issues in RotK I think,...yeah, we're going to do this in terms of Film Crafting rather than personal favorites because I'm having too many feelings lmao. So! In order of most-well-done-movie to least:

Fellowship of the Ring

The Two Towers

Return Of The King

The Desolation of Smaug

An Unexpected Journey

[themonsterblogofmonsters]

Monsterblog Recommends: Speed Racer [Film]

Previously - Monsterblog Recommends: The Sinister Man’s Prince of Slytherin [HP Fanfic]

This is, as with Jupiter Ascending, a Wachowski production. And of course, from that, you already have a good idea of what this is likely to be: crazy, fun, and full of hatred for capitalism.

Lets go.

[a spoiler-free explanation of Speed Racer]

1. What the hell is Speed Racer?

Speed Racer was originally a Manga and Anime series made in and for Japan. It sold pretty well as did it’s various toys and in 2008 it was made into a live action film by the Wachowskis. 

Do not go “ugh” at that. 

The 2008 Speed Racer film is honestly one of the only anime/manga live action adaptations I think is any good and thats because the Wachowskis knew what they were working with. The story isn’t exactly the same, but it makes reference to the original. The setting isn’t exactly the same, but again, it makes reference to the original. And, of course, the aesthetic isn’t exactly the same... but the film aesthetic is what makes it work. I’ll explain more in the next section.

The story of Speed Racer is relatively simple. Speed Racer is a young kid when his older brother leaves home and dies racing one of the world’s most dangerous races, the Casa Cristo. Speed is devastated, but grows up to love racing as much as his brother did. He’s offered a contract with one of the world’s most prominent car manufacturers, Royalton Industries, but due to his father’s distrust of big corporations, turns it down, only to be informed that if the big corporations don’t want him to win, he will not win. Speed sticks to his decision, and things begin to go downhill for his family.

[yes the dude on the right’s name is Inspector Detector and do you see what I mean about the aesthetic yet?]

When things are in the absolute pits they’re approached by Inspector Detector, the same man who investigated Speed’s brother’s death, and told that he has suspicions that Royalton, amongst others, may be corrupt, and that he needs Speed’s help to get some information.

Things happen, races are raced, and a good ending is achieved and I will not give you details because I don’t want to ruin it for you. But its a simple fun story and its really worth a watch.

2. Why I’m recommending it

As I said above, this is possibly one of the only live action adaptations of an anime or manga I think is really any good. Its cheesy, but its cheesy in the same way that Meatloaf is cheesy - energetic, fun and enjoyable as all hell. They nail the aesthetic by going hard on the CGI; there’s this slight sense that everything in the film is a little unreal, that the world of the film is somehow more real and bright than ours - and thus, unreal, a little more like a cartoon... or an anime. 

This also serves to excuse some of the more bonkers stunts and cartoonish acts of villainy - its a cartoon world! Of course cars can jump and a mob boss keeps a tank of piranhas in his mobile office lorry. Of course race tracks involve vertical drops and deadly spiked slaloms and every car being fitted with a device that wraps the driver in shock absorbing bubbles if the car crashes.

Within the bright, colourful, cartoonish aesthetic of the film, these things all make perfect sense. 

Other things that are really good... the family dynamics like damn. Mom and Pops Racer both clearly care deeply as hell about their kids, and even about Sparky, who isn’t their kid but who, as far as they’re concerned, is a part of the family in every way that matters. Trixie, Speed’s girlfriend, is likewise considered to be effectively a part of the family and a huge weight is placed on the importance of helping and supporting one’s family.

In some of the flashbacks to before Speed’s brother left, you also see their dynamic, which is warm and affectionate and clearly full of love. When Speed is feeling down at one point its not his girlfriend who offers advice and support - Trixie does that at other points instead - but his mother. His little brother is a little shit in the way that little siblings are, but is also still there to help the family when needs be. And Pops Racer... Pops Racer has issues since the death of his elder son, and so when Speed goes to race at Casa Cristo he’s angry and upset.

At no point does he take any of this out on his family.

No shouting, no raging, no destroying. The most scolding there is would be when he and Mom Racer say how worried they are and then him gruffly asking how the car is handling before going off to fix it - taking his negative energy out on something constructive so he can continue to help protect his family and ensure everyone is safe and well.

And Trixie is great - played by Christina Ricci - and gets involved in races, in building cars... the first time we see her in a flashback she gets in a fight with another girl who’s making rude comments about Speed.

She does also at one point race. 

Alsooo... Trixie’s never treated as a prize being won. Its made clear that she and Speed have been friends from childhood, that she’s something of a petrolhead herself and that the relationship between her and Speed grew out of those similarities and mutual affection. It actually kind of ties into another aspect of the family dynamics - Pops Racer at one point says that having his kids was one of the greatest decisions of his life... after marrying his best friend.

He outright says that Mom Racer is his best friend and that their marriage is based on that as much as romance and affection.

HEALTHY FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS. 

Its also important because... like this film doesn’t allow for toxicity to go unchallenged. Mistakes are made as a direct result of toxic masculinity and in both cases they learn they have to accept the choices they made and learn to become better people and act in ways to try to prevent that toxicity repeating itself.

Its really really cool.

3. Less Good Things / Trigger Warnings

One of the mob bosses goons gets his fingers chewed off by his boss’s piranhas, though its largely off screen and cartoonified. I think the bit most likely to be emotionally devastating would be when Speed’s brother dies which happens quite early on and is really really goddamn sad because they do build up the relationship between Speed and his brother via flashbacks early on during a really well edited together backstory infodump. By and large, though, its designed to be a family film rather than peak edgelord.

You can make an argument that the film is whitewashed, as it was originally Japanese in the Manga and Anime, though my understanding is that the mangaka did have a big western influence when writing, not just for the character’s mindsets and behaviours but also when it came to appearance. The story also isn’t without characters of colour - there’s a black viking racer, and there’s Taejo Togokhan and his sister Horuko - though there definitely aren’t as many as I’d like.

There’s also quite a lot of flashing lights and weird colour stuff and visuals at a few points which may be hard for any of you with epilepsy or problems with such things. In the image above, those big lights are camera flashes and there’s a lot.

In the below well...

Lots of stunning bright colour and its definitely very effective but it is also kind of eye-hurty if you’re prone to eyestrain.

4. Spoilers and Further Points

Oh no, no, no, I am not spoiling this for you guys. I refuse. What I will tell you do though, is pay attention to the music and pay attention to how its edited, to tie past events to present and in order to explain aspects of characterisation and plot.

5. Further Reading

You could go and read the Wikipedia page on this film and I wouldn’t stop you, but then you might see how it was initially received by critics (badly) and miss the point.

Critics didn’t like this film, my dudes, and the critics, in this case, are very very wrong. Like Jupiter Ascending this is a film for you. But, where Jupiter Ascending is a film for you as a teen, young adult or adult, Speed Racer is a film for the child inside. This film is bright, it is fun, it is energetic, and it is funny. It is full of family and affection and damn nice cars and this is the glue that holds the story together. People have criticised the plot of this film, but the plot is very straightforward - people have hurt this family and, in various ways, they want to prevent that from happening again. The driving force is always family and love for one’s family and one’s art, whatever that may be, and how family should be there to support you with that and in turn you should make sure there is always space for your family when you’re done with your art.

These things need not be separate, but all part of a great and loving whole.

And that, my dears, is why you should watch Speed Racer.

[thingsireflecaut]

Post Six, Part One

For the first page, I played around with the idea of what my protagonist might look like and what their room would look like. I though setting up a portion of their room would be a great way to introduce the character and the story as this is their special place where they keep their collected items. I started off with a sketch of a part of my own childhood bedroom, as this is where I drew inspiration for the story. I knew I wanted to exaggerate this image and my belongings of the time though; I had more books than in the drawing, but not all of them were on the floor in my room, instead I had a collection of my favourites and the next to be read on my drawers, and the rest in the garage/ I put the pile of books on the floor because I thought it would add nice symmetry to the illustration; I liked the idea of the protagonist in the middle of the world of their things welcoming the reader, and being excited to share with the reader the things that were special to them. this is also why I drew the protagonist with their arms out wide as if in such excitement that they have to spread their arms out to express all the glory of their world.

My first sketch was me trying to just get the idea out of my head and have a starting point; once I was done I knew that I had relied too heavily on Quentin Blakes technique for the kid. I decided on the blob character, let’s call them Cass, because this is something I have doodled for years. I thought it would be a nice idea for Cass to be someone I was already familiar with; I’ve drawn them for years and have always enjoyed their flexibility to be whatever I needed or wanted them to be. This was always a release for me, something that never had to be perfect, and that is what I want the kid to stand for; they are fluid, they make their own rules.

I played with the idea of them having hair but it felt unnatural and a little creepy. I also played with different expressions.

I also made sure that I was exploring different routes and going out of my comfort zone, I wanted to play more with the idea of “They are all me & I am all them”, so I decided to take that literally; what if the protagonist was actually made out of one of their favourite things?

So, I started with the outline of Cass and then drew them so they were made out of books, as you can see in the top left-hand corner of the first image. I did like this effect but it felt a little forced and on the nose, I also wanted to make sure that the reader could still identify in some way with Cass, and didn’t want to make them too far from human form.

Instead, I created a mini Cass as a secret easter egg on their shelf in the first image.

In the next image, I explored another protagonist. I wanted a relatable girl character; I think selfishly because this is what could have helped me a little as a kid. I am definitely lucky to grow up in a world where my light skin color was portrayed as the more ‘beautiful’ in media, but all of the cool girls that I wanted to be like had straight blonde hair, and I was ashamed to have curly hair – obviously this is very shallow and such a small thing to be upset about, but all the same with my narrow world view, I was. So I wanted to create a cool girl that readers might want to be that had curly hair, and I love this character, but I liked Cass better; they portray an empty canvas, and aren’t something a kid would get upset about not looking like.

For the second page, I explored ideas of what each item on the list might look like. I started with the idea for the first sentence with Cass holding a huge $2 coin, as a visual representation of the epicness and importance of something as small as a $2 coin to a child. I rubbed this out as it felt that it didn’t fit the book; it was a little too comic book-y and out of place as it wasn’t fully in my style, but also wasn’t fully in comic book style. I then decided it could be interesting to have the comic book element but do it my way, so I created a vintage comic book to include in the book as a representation of the $2 element. I also liked the idea of a simple drawing with a big jar full of coins and a hand reaching in.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted the “In the middle of a tree” illustration to look like so I played around with a few ideas. The first idea was the one I had imagined when writing the story; Cass wrestling something from a squirrel’s mouth in the top of a tree. I thought this had an element of silliness that I was keen to include, but after drawing the scene, I thought it would be worthwhile to explore other routes as well. I remembered how much I loved the unreal reality that Sendak created in Where The Wild Things Are, and wanted to make something magical, so came up with the idea of Cass being privy to a secret door in the middle of trees where they could explore a whole new world, and come back with gifts. So I drew a doorway leading to this other dimension in a huge old tree.

I also imagined that another way I could portray this is in the middle on a cut down tree trunk; I thought this could be a good way to keep the drawing small so that I could have multiple drawings on the page as the verse I wrote lists multiple things I so could almost have a montage of Cass’s expeditions. I liked the drawing but felt that having a cut down tree was too much of a cynical metaphor; although it could be a metaphor for finding beauty out of destruction, the truth is that the tree is still cut down; it felt like an ending, instead of the beginning of the endless world that the doorway creates.

I thought I could include my idea from the first page “They are all me, and I am all them” and the object expressing that that’s on Cass’s drawers of a mini Cass, and illustrate Cass finding this version of themself as what they find on the bench. I mulled over the idea of them finding a good stick, or someone’s lost pocket watch, but I found the mini Cass linking to the first page to have the most meaning, and I liked the slight awkwardness and comfortable uncertainty that the drawing had between Cass and mini Cass.

For “This one was drenched” I took a toy car of mine and placed it in the rain. I was nervous that it was unclear that the car was tiny, so I added the curbside with grass to hopefully make sure that the viewer gages the proportions.

For “This one is French”, I tried to think of different classic French things that weren’t cliché or a negative / one dimensional stereotype. One of my favorite books ever is the children’s book Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and an iconic illustration from the book is the boa constructor that swallowed an elephant; the meaning behind it is that there is always more than meets the eye, and the beauty of the world is in the eye of those with an imagination. This has stayed with me since I first read it, and wanted to reference it.

I looked around my house for inspiration for this page and realized that one pile of my already read books was sitting quietly on my dresser collecting dust. Sometimes I lend one out to someone, but generally they don’t move, so this is what I drew for that stanza.

I was experimenting with different points of view for Cass to be looking at them from, but then as I looked at the page as a whole, I realized that it looked really fun as a little montage; it had movement to it and came alive a little bit.

It made sense to follow the abstract cartoonish style of Cass and draw their friends in that style as well. It also gave me freedom to create different, unique characters that didn’t have to look like anything in particular.

I also made sure to investigate different routes. So I drew a less abstract and more detailed version, but it didn’t have the same energy, and didn’t feel as cohesive.

I thought the jewels for “These are my jewels, I collect them on my walks” could be colorful autumn leaves, so drew a mockup and colored it with watercolor pencil.

The floral pages are some of my favorite planning pages, I especially like the one for “flowers are my favourites...”. The concept was easy to imagine because I could envision it when I was writing the story. I definitely took inspiration from Quentin Blakes style of watercolor and the style of the flowers, but I don’t think it was too derivative because my protagonist is quite different from his style, and the flowers were done without reference.

I wanted to make sure that I explored a few different routes and ideas with this, so I tried ideas that I didn’t necessarily think would work; some did, for example the top right drawing, and some didn’t, for example the bottom left drawing of the ink bottle and spotted flower.

The images for “This one I made, it hangs on my wall...” felt relatively obvious to me; I knew what I wanted, and it was relatively easy to execute. I wanted it to be understated that Cass could move objects with their mind; I didn’t want it to be a big scene, or dramatic, I wanted it to seem cool and underplayed, because that felt more realistic; as a child, you feel like maybe you can do these supernatural things, so you try alone in your room. You don’t expect a huge freak accident to happen, you kind of expect just a slight shudder that you notice. This is what I wanted to convey in the drawing; a sense of normality that the readers could relate to, but the undertone of magic about to happen.

“Sometimes I lose my things, in fact I do a lot... It’s usually those silly Grimbles. This is a Grimble hotspot.” I found this stanza hard to imagine, and in turn hard to illustrate. It felt like there had to be a lot of information conveyed in the image; the creature itself, the action of stealing something, and the room. I wanted the room to have a sleepy kind of atmosphere and I think I did that well through the use of color.

I was very lost on how to illustrate the Grimble; I wanted it to be strange but not intimidating, and not scary for the reader. I explored different ideas of what it might look like at the bottom of the page. 

I wanted this bed to be the most comfy bed in the world; I loved the idea of someone remembering this book years after reading it and having a nostalgic love for the warmth and coziness of bed because of it.

This meant that I had to make the bed look fluffy and soft, and make Cass look relaxed. I made sure to round out the edges of the drawing for a soft feel, and to have Cass tucked in nicely, with a big fluffy pillow.

I didn’t want it to be extravagant because that seemed unattainable to a lot of children; I wanted it to be the bed that everybody has; underrated but warm, small but soft, fluffy and cozy.

[ireflectaut]

Post Six

For the first page, I played around with the idea of what my protagonist might look like and what their room would look like. I though setting up a portion of their room would be a great way to introduce the character and the story as this is their special place where they keep their collected items. I started off with a sketch of a part of my own childhood bedroom, as this is where I drew inspiration for the story. I knew I wanted to exaggerate this image and my belongings of the time though; I had more books than in the drawing, but not all of them were on the floor in my room, instead I had a collection of my favourites and the next to be read on my drawers, and the rest in the garage/ I put the pile of books on the floor because I thought it would add nice symmetry to the illustration; I liked the idea of the protagonist in the middle of the world of their things welcoming the reader, and being excited to share with the reader the things that were special to them. this is also why I drew the protagonist with their arms out wide as if in such excitement that they have to spread their arms out to express all the glory of their world.

My first sketch was me trying to just get the idea out of my head and have a starting point; once I was done I knew that I had relied too heavily on Quentin Blakes technique for the kid. I decided on the blob character, let's call them Cass, because this is something I have doodled for years. I thought it would be a nice idea for Cass to be someone I was already familiar with; I’ve drawn them for years and have always enjoyed their flexibility to be whatever I needed or wanted them to be. This was always a release for me, something that never had to be perfect, and that is what I want the kid to stand for; they are fluid, they make their own rules.

I played with the idea of them having hair but it felt unnatural and a little creepy. I also played with different expressions.

I also made sure that I was exploring different routes and going out of my comfort zone, I wanted to play more with the idea of “They are all me & I am all them”, so I decided to take that literally; what if the protagonist was actually made out of one of their favourite things?

So, I started with the outline of Cass and then drew them so they were made out of books, as you can see in the top left-hand corner of the first image. I did like this effect but it felt a little forced and on the nose, I also wanted to make sure that the reader could still identify in some way with Cass, and didn’t want to make them too far from human form.

Instead, I created a mini Cass as a secret easter egg on their shelf in the first image.

In the next image, I explored another protagonist. I wanted a relatable girl character; I think selfishly because this is what could have helped me a little as a kid. I am definitely lucky to grow up in a world where my light skin color was portrayed as the more ‘beautiful’ in media, but all of the cool girls that I wanted to be like had straight blonde hair, and I was ashamed to have curly hair – obviously this is very shallow and such a small thing to be upset about, but all the same with my narrow world view, I was. So I wanted to create a cool girl that readers might want to be that had curly hair, and I love this character, but I liked Cass better; they portray an empty canvas, and aren’t something a kid would get upset about not looking like.

For the second page, I explored ideas of what each item on the list might look like. I started with the idea for the first sentence with Cass holding a huge $2 coin, as a visual representation of the epicness and importance of something as small as a $2 coin to a child. I rubbed this out as it felt that it didn’t fit the book; it was a little too comic book-y and out of place as it wasn’t fully in my style, but also wasn’t fully in comic book style. I then decided it could be interesting to have the comic book element but do it my way, so I created a vintage comic book to include in the book as a representation of the $2 element. I also liked the idea of a simple drawing with a big jar full of coins and a hand reaching in.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted the “In the middle of a tree” illustration to look like so I played around with a few ideas. The first idea was the one I had imagined when writing the story; Cass wrestling something from a squirrel’s mouth in the top of a tree. I thought this had an element of silliness that I was keen to include, but after drawing the scene, I thought it would be worthwhile to explore other routes as well. I remembered how much I loved the unreal reality that Sendak created in Where The Wild Things Are, and wanted to make something magical, so came up with the idea of Cass being privy to a secret door in the middle of trees where they could explore a whole new world, and come back with gifts. So I drew a doorway leading to this other dimension in a huge old tree.

I also imagined that another way I could portray this is in the middle on a cut down tree trunk; I thought this could be a good way to keep the drawing small so that I could have multiple drawings on the page as the verse I wrote lists multiple things I so could almost have a montage of Cass’s expeditions. I liked the drawing but felt that having a cut down tree was too much of a cynical metaphor; although it could be a metaphor for finding beauty out of destruction, the truth is that the tree is still cut down; it felt like an ending, instead of the beginning of the endless world that the doorway creates.

I thought I could include my idea from the first page “They are all me, and I am all them” and the object expressing that that’s on Cass’s drawers of a mini Cass, and illustrate Cass finding this version of themself as what they find on the bench. I mulled over the idea of them finding a good stick, or someone's lost pocket watch, but I found the mini Cass linking to the first page to have the most meaning, and I liked the slight awkwardness and comfortable uncertainty that the drawing had between Cass and mini Cass.

For “This one was drenched” I took a toy car of mine and placed it in the rain. I was nervous that it was unclear that the car was tiny, so I added the curbside with grass to hopefully make sure that the viewer gages the proportions.

For “This one is French”, I tried to think of different classic French things that weren't cliché or a negative / one dimensional stereotype. One of my favorite books ever is the children's book Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and an iconic illustration from the book is the boa constructor that swallowed an elephant; the meaning behind it is that there is always more than meets the eye, and the beauty of the world is in the eye of those with an imagination. This has stayed with me since I first read it, and wanted to reference it.

I looked around my house for inspiration for this page and realized that one pile of my already read books was sitting quietly on my dresser collecting dust. Sometimes I lend one out to someone, but generally they don’t move, so this is what I drew for that stanza.

I was experimenting with different points of view for Cass to be looking at them from, but then as I looked at the page as a whole, I realized that it looked really fun as a little montage; it had movement to it and came alive a little bit.

It made sense to follow the abstract cartoonish style of Cass and draw their friends in that style as well. It also gave me freedom to create different, unique characters that didn’t have to look like anything in particular.

I also made sure to investigate different routes. So I drew a less abstract and more detailed version, but it didn’t have the same energy, and didn’t feel as cohesive.

I thought the gems could be colorful autumn leaves, so drew a mockup and colored it with watercolor pencil.

These are some of my favorite planning pages. The concept was easy to imagine because I could envision it when I was writing the story. I definitely took inspiration from Quentin Blakes style of watercolor and the style of the flowers, but I don’t think it was too derivative because my protagonist is quite different from his style, and the flowers were done without reference.

I wanted to make sure that I explored a few different routes and ideas with this, so I tried ideas that I didn’t necessarily think would work; some did, for example the top right drawing, and some didn’t, for example the bottom left drawing.

This felt relatively obvious to me; I knew what I wanted, and it was relatively easy to execute. I wanted it to be understated that Cass could move objects with their mind; I didn’t want it to be a big scene, or dramatic, I wanted it to seem cool and underplayed, because that felt more realistic; as a child, you feel like maybe you can do these supernatural things, so you try alone in your room. You don’t expect a huge freak accident to happen, you kind of expect just a slight shudder that you notice. This is what I wanted to convey in the drawing; a sense of normality that the readers could relate to, but the undertone of magic about to happen.

I found this stanza hard to imagine, and in turn hard to illustrate. It felt like there had to be a lot of information conveyed in the image; the creature itself, the action of stealing something, and the room. I wanted the room to have a sleepy kind of atmosphere and I think I did that well through the use of color.

I was very lost on how to illustrate the Grimble; I wanted it to be strange but not intimidating, and not scary for the reader. I explored different ideas of what it might look like at the bottom of the page.