#for the old teasers that were interesting and had beautiful art and the trailers that hinted at a compelling story

[ineed-to-sleep]

Honestly I'm just hatewatching the vtmb2 news at this point. Saw the new tremere teaser today and nearly puked 👍🏻

[theoatmealbowl]

Into The Pit: The Game.

I'm a bit late, but I want to talk a bit about the new game coming up.

A couple of months ago, scholastic posted an image of upcoming FNAF content, alongside a small footnote labelled "INTO THE PIT! -new game coming soon". Soon after, people found images in steam relating to a FNAF game labelled Into The Pit, and eventually through searching Mega Cat Studios website, they found a trailer for the new game.

Eventually, Scott Cawthon confirmed in a reddit comment that the leaks were indeed real, and this is a new game that has been worked on for quite a while.

So, what IS this game, and what is Into The Pit?

The trailer seems to depict a pixel art-style game based off of the Fazbear Fright's story of the same name, Fazbear Fright's: Into The Pit #1. It DOES seem to differ a bit in straight events, but it does seem to be the same general story. This is a first time for FNAF, having a game be ENTIRELY in pixel art rather than just a short segment, but I think it looks really good. Check out the trailer for yourself!

In case you have never read Into The Pit (spoilers ahead), it's a story about a young boy named Oswald who goes to a restaurant every day called Jeff's Pizza. This pizza place in question is actually a renovated version of the original Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Eventually, bored from the lack of things to do in his town during summer, Oswald crawls into a dingy old ballpit quarantined off in the corner of Jeff's Pizza, and ends up reliving the memory of the missing childrens incident that occurred many years ago. Eventually, after witnessing what the yellow rabbit had done, he attempts to escape the ballpit, only for the rabbit to follow him out, and drag his dad into the ballpit. Afterwards, he seems to replace Oswalds dad, with no one else around him noticing. After a while back at school, he gains the courage to go back to Jeff's Pizza in the dead of night and rescue his dad. He pulls his dad out, and ends up getting in a fight with the yellow rabbit, who promptly ends up tangling itself in the ballpits netting and strangling itself.

Now, that's the original story, but this version of ITP seems to have a few notable differences, mainly people finding a teaser photo of Oswald at The Mill, a location in Fright's notable for being where The Agony is formed, a trash amalgamate controlled by Eleanor and William Afton. The fact that this area is never visited in the original story, but IS visited here might imply we'll get to see more of Fright's in this game then what we see in the book.

So, that's cool and all, but what does this mean for the lore?

Honestly not much? Besides confirming that the StitchlineGames theory is canon (for those uninformed, StitchlineGames is the theory that every story in Fazbear Fright's connected to the epilogues is canon and within the games continuity). This would also confirm that all stories in Tales from the Pizzaplex are canon. Which they are... because The Mimic appears in RUIN. What's interesting to me, however, is that Oswald's house looks exceedingly like the Afton's house from FNAF 4. That would explain why in the original story, Oswald draws characters from Freddy's before he ever first goes into the ballpit. If he lived in the Afton house, then the memories of Freddy's and Fredbear's would be affecting him and his mind, and explain why he draws them.

Another notable thing is it seems likely that this will be the game releasing for the 10th anniversary of FNAF. It makes sense, ITP seems like it's one of the stories Scott thinks is the most "FNAF" like in a sense. I also do like ITP a fair bit, so I'm not complaining. It should also be noted, however, that it's not confirmed if it will just be the story of ITP, as it could easily also include the stories of To Be Beautiful and Count The Ways, both stories from Fright's #1.

And lastly, here's a look at the official banner for the game!

[mulanxiaojie]

Disney is releasing a live-action remake of its 1998 animated film "Mulan" in March 2020.

Insider asked the original "Mulan" codirector Tony Bancroft and Mushu animator Tom Bancroft their thoughts on the remake along with its first trailer.

The twin brothers said they're interested in it for the same reasons which may make some fans upset. They're happy it doesn't look like the remake will feature Mushu or be a musical.

"I want these remakes to be as unique and original as possible... It should feel reminiscent of what it's based on, but not be 'The Lion King' in CG animation that is like shot for shot," said Tony Bancroft.

Tom said while he kind of wishes Mushu was in the movie a bit, he says he probably would have been "a little disappointed."

"Mulan" is one of the next Disney movies that's getting remade for a new generation, and already has  the thumbs up of the team behind the original movie.

"I was excited about that," Tony Bancroft, the codirector of the original 1998 animated "Mulan," told Insider of the coming remake.

Tony, who worked at Disney Animation for over 12 years during its renaissance period, watched the trailer almost immediately after it came out in July. He remembers receiving a notification about it on his phone while walking to church. He stopped right then and there to watch it.

"Even though it was small and the sound wasn't great, I could see where the director was going with it," he said of his initial reaction to the teaser. "It felt like they were taking the best parts of the story — a girl who will do anything to save her father [and] bring her father and her family honor."

The 1998 film followed Hua Mulan as she took the place of her father in the Chinese army to fight the Huns. She chopped off her hair and disguised herself as a man in order to protect her father.

Production on the live-action movie started in August 2018 with Liu Yifei cast as the lead and starring Donnie Yen ("Star Wars: Rogue One") and Jet Li. The Niki Caro-directed film will be the company's 13th remake of one of its classics since 2010's "Alice in Wonderland."

When the first trailer was released, Bancroft noticed what most fans did. It didn't have any of the iconic songs people associate with the film like "Reflection" or "I'll Make a Man Out of You." That's because it won't be a musical. In 2017, Caro told Moviefone there were no songs in the movie at that time, describing it as a "martial arts epic."

More importantly, the trailer didn't have Mulan's dragon sidekick Mushu, who Bancroft's brother, Tom, animated in the 1998 film. Unlike the fans though, Tony actually liked that the trailer didn't feature either.

"All the things that a lot of fans are upset about are the things that I was happiest about because I really want them to go off and make a new version of 'Mulan.' I love that character. I love who she is," said Tony of being OK with the fact that the remake doesn't appear to have music or Mushu.

"I love what she represents and I love seeing more Chinese culture portrayed in a new different way," he said of Mulan.

Tony's brother, Tom, was also at Disney for about the same amount of time. The two started as interns before working full-time on, what became, many of the studio's classic animated fairy-tales.

Tom said his initial reaction to hearing about a "Mulan" remake was positive and made him eager to see how Caro and Disney would retell the story. After all, Tom and Tony have already seen a string of classics they worked on ("Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," and "The Lion King") remade by Disney. What's another one?

But then Tom started to have some questions.

"The fear sets in and immediately after that I'm like, 'OK, but how are they going to do Mushu? How are they going to do this sequence? Are they going to keep that really strong father-daughter relationship?" Tom told Insider of initial concerns for the remake. "When I saw the trailer, I was pleasantly relieved."

Even without Mushu? Yes, even without Mushu.

"A lot of people I know I think are surprised by that because I created Mushu, I should be really upset that Mushu's not in it. I'm really not," Tom said of people's reactions when they learn he's fine with the Eddie Murphy-voiced dragon not appearing in the trailer.  

He's afraid he would probably be disappointed if Mushu was in the live-action remake.

"While I kind of wished he was [in the movie] a little bit, just to see how that would have happened, I probably would've been a little disappointed," Tom said of an adaptation of Mushu in a remake. "In a way, I think I dodged a bullet."

While Mushu isn't expected to be in the remake (it's been reported he may be replaced by a phoenix), Tom would love to see more of Mulan's relationship with her father in the new adaptation.

"I'm hoping they're going to show a training sequence when she was very young and that her dad would sneak her off and privately train her to be a warrior because that'll make even more sense later on." he said.

Have Walt Disney Studios or Caro reached out to Tony about the remake? No.

"Nothing," said Tony, who doesn't harbor any ill will, "I kind of understand that from the standpoint of the new director. Do you really want to go back and kind of regurgitate old ideas?"

"It's almost better that they work in their own vacuum of researching on their own to try and make it as unique as possible," he added. "I understand it from their standpoint, although it would be great if there was a nod to the original and the team and the directors that worked on those original ones."

According to a press release from Disney in August 2018, the live-action "Mulan" is an adaptation of the '98 animated film, but will also be based on the narrative poem "The Ballad of Mulan." Tom said if they're going back to the original poem, and if they've have already seen the original movie, he doesn't think they need any pointers from them.

"I'm not offended by that," said Tom of not hearing from anyone about the "Mulan" remake. "I've worked for the Disney corporation for so many years that I really don't expect that. Most of the departments don't talk to each other. It's such a big conglomerate."

That seems to be the case for the majority of the remakes. When Insider spoke with "Aladdin" codirector Ron Clements earlier this year, he said he didn't consult with anyone on the live-action remake. In 2017, "The Lion King" codirector Rob Minkoff said that new director Jon Favreau had shown him some of the VR technology that was used to create that remake.

After the trailer release, Tony said he has attempted to reach out to Caro on social media. He shared an early character design of Mulan on her horse which he was reminded of by a shot from the trailer.

"I wanted to show some support for the trailer so I posted online and tagged her on my posts," Tony said of trying to connect with the new director.

"I never heard anything back, so that's kind of a bummer," said Tony. "All I can hope is she isn't online very much."

While they may not be involved with the new 'Mulan' film, the Bancrofts are plenty busy these days teaching, animating, producing, and podcasting. 

The Bancroft brothers left Disney in the early 2000s and worked on "VeggieTales." The two are passionate about 2D animation and currently teach animation at universities in California and Tennessee, go to animation expos and conventions, and cohost an animation podcast together, "The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast."

Tom is also producing a documentary called "Pencil Test" on the art of 2D animation and its future with interviews from animators like Glen Keane ("The Little Mermaid") and John Musker ("Moana"). You can watch a trailer for it here.

More than 20 years after its release, Tony's contribution to "Mulan" is still recognized worldwide as he continues to work on indie animated features.

"Most of them have connections to China," Tony said of most of his animation films being coproductions with China. "I have a lot of involvement with China these days because of 'Mulan' and they seem to be very interested in working with me on projects."

When it comes to the remake, which will hit theaters in March 2020, Tony says he's very supportive of where it's going as long as it's not a direct rehash of what has already been seen on screen.

"I want these remakes to be as unique and original as possible," said Tony of Disney's reimaginings. "It should feel reminiscent of what it's based on, but not be 'The Lion King' in CG animation that is like shot for shot."

[planetoban]

Savin’s Answers from Twitter, Part 4!

Still catching up on the backlog; this post covers tweets from May 2018 through October 2018

As always, tweets are in order from most to least recent, and answers are not 100% true/canon since things may change during production of the sequel. Text is unedited save for formatting; in a few places I added [comments] for context.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Also: If you’re going to ask Savin something, please be respectful and appropriate. He’s a person just like you and me.

@jeltezandberg1: I also hope the dutch dub would be re-released on blue ray. Because the dutch DVD version was never fully released ,except for the first volume. The reason for it was because the publisher responsible for the dutch DVD version went bankrupt.

@EiffelSavin: Not cool. We'll see what we can do but unfortunately we don't own the rights to that dub

(x)

@RedVioletPanda: I'm wondering, does Aikka have any other family besides his parents? Also does Spirit have a family or not?‏

@EiffelSavin: If we produce the spinoff you'll have your answer regarding Aikka

(x)

@GaulStg2713: I watched a few episodes back when Oban first aired, and recently I just finished binge-watching the whole thing and now I've learned about this! Awesome! (Is it too much to ask for a heroic Crog guy in this one? I love their design and was sad the only Crog we got were jerks.)‏

@EiffelSavin: I agree with you. If we do produce a sequel your wish may be granted... 😉

(x)

@ILOVE659709491: I’m curious if Maya had not died in a racing crash but had still died due to illness or in a way DW couldn’t blame himself for, would Don Wei still have abandoned Eva and have the same severe reaction to Maya’s death even if it wasn’t in a racing crash, or would DW

‏@ILOVE659709491: have raised Eva & maybe remarry and not have as severe a reaction to Maya’s death but actually move on from it sooner if Maya had not died in a racing crash?

@EiffelSavin: I don't think he would have abandonned Eva if Maya hadn't died a crash. She died while racing for his team. That made him feel directly responsible.

(x)

@Helloworld1012: Sounds interesting. Also, I have to ask regarding OSR 2 has a plotline already been decided?

@EiffelSavin: Yes. We're moving ahead very slowly, but we do have a pretty good idea of where we want to take the new show

(x)

@Dmitry14846442: I wonder if the full version of "Never say Never" exists at all.

@EiffelSavin: Not sure.... ABC family made me listen to it before they chose it but I don't remember how long it was. If it wasn't intended to be released as a single, then there's probably only the short version though.

(x)

@AshBashS_: Ever thought about setting up a type of Kickstarter or patreon? I know those who love the series would like to help out any way they can.

@EiffelSavin: That's certainly an option for a bluray release, a pilot or some early development.

@EpicLoneDreamer: Man... Still hard to understand how geniuses can be broke. The sequel is written already? OMG. What about two queens? 11 years waiting!

[note: AFAIK Savin hasn’t said anything about the sequel’s script being finished]

@EiffelSavin: I must bear the blame for some of it, with zero talent for brown nosing & for choosing projects that stand a little out of the ordinary. Another part can be put on the production system, especially in France, which tends to favor doing the same safe stuff over and over again...

(x)

@penguin_elder: the second question  why did jordan easily submit to the idea of becoming avatar,seeing from his actions he wanted to be with molly ithought he would be the first one to disagree on such a big responsibility.keep doing what your doing you're fan from the middleeast

@EiffelSavin: Jordan had sort of a predisposition as he gradually realized Eva didn't have the same feelings for him that he had. Then came a rare chance to save the galaxy, even if it meant losing all he had been. Jordan took it. Cause that's the kind of guy he is & also out of <3 for Eva...

(x)

@Helloworld1012: I’m now super curious, in ep 17 Mrs Stern said something about Eva being capable of stealing from a shop of leaving a hotel room without paying for it. So I’m curious, Is Eva actually capable of stealing or leaving a hotel room without paying for it? I had she

@Helloworld1012: actually done that before? I know Eva’s rebellious, but I can also see she’s a bit of a ”goody-two-shoes.” So I’m curious is Eva actually capable of breaking the law

‏@EiffelSavin: Well, it's the evil headmistress speaking so we can't take her words for granted. But she does hint that during previous attempts to escape from her boarding school Eva may have not always strictly stuck to the law.

(x)

@TengIlar: Hey, guys! There are no announcements, no arts, no teasers, no trailers, no news - nothing at all! Are you still alive? #OSR #OBAN #oban_star_racers

@EiffelSavin: Alive but dealing with a number of different projects, not all related in animation in my case. If you really want to know, I've just spent two weeks leaving in the streets to do research on the lifes of homeless teenagers for one of these projects.

@Helloworld1012: Out of curiosity what project is that?

@EiffelSavin: A project about young punks surviving in the streets with their dogs. But I won't say anymore for the time being. It's very much a work in progress.

(x)

@MassimoJPN: I just got to know about the Blue-Ray project of OSR and I'm incredibly excited now !! Is there any chance that there is gonna be the german voice acting on the discs as well ? I would even get it without, but the old voices are childhood memories ! :)

@EiffelSavin: We should have French, English and Japanese. German is more problematic as we don't own the rights to that version.

(x)

@LiveforOban: I’m curious, do all star race teams managers own their own race team like Don Wei does, or do most star-race managers work for someone else & don’t own their own race team? Also, the show made it clear that when he was Maya’s manager Don Wei worked with only one

@LiveforOban: racer at a time & that his team used only one star-racer at a time, so why is it that in 2082, Wei Race has several star racers?

@EiffelSavin: There are other managers/owners like Don Wei but most teams were not able to survive without the support of a larger parent company. Remaining a relatively small team in terms of funds, Don Wei has usually concentrated all his means & efforts on one top racer: Maya then Rick.

@LiveforOban: So I’m guessing Maya was his first racer.

@EiffelSavin: yes

(x)

@ILOVE659709491: I know Maya was considered to be a beautiful young woman, but I’m curious when he was younger did women consider Don Wei to be a handsome man? In 2082 is Don Wei considered attractive?‏

@EiffelSavin: Don Wei was not bad looking but was no Don Juan either. His charm came from his intelligence and well as from the power of his dream to succeed in the racing business. That's probably what touched handsome Maya.

@ILOVE659709491: What does not bad looking even mean? Does that mean he was fairly attractive? Because I need more clarification on that.‏

@EiffelSavin: I mean not ugly by any means but not someone you'd turn around to look at when his walking down the street - unlike Maya.

(x)

@LiteMorgan: What’s the plan with the theme music? Aware there were a bunch of versions - Japanese, French, Japanese remix for most of EU, and the American version.

@EiffelSavin: We should have the original Yoko Kanno version + the french version as bonus. US version is less probable as we do not own the rights.

(x)

@EiffelSavin: Today I recovered the digital copies of  #ObanStarRacers' Japanese master tapes. We'll hopefully add the Japanese language tracks to our planned #bluray release !

@firechikara: Awesome! I hope you'll include the different Opening Theme (apparently from what I've seen, there's a short and long version) as a bonus.

@EiffelSavin: yes!

(x)

@ArkantosRedwolf: Do you have by any chance the Latin American dub? That would be the mother of all nostalgia if you could added to the bluray release.

@EiffelSavin: We'll try but this may be more difficult to obtain. We do not own the latin dub and had no direct part in their recording.

(x)

@Helloworld1012: I’m still really curious, but in ep 18 Maya was wearing a traditional Chinese dress during her date with DW and I’ve noticed her racing uniform resembles a Chinese dress, so is Maya from China or at the very least Chinese?‏

@EiffelSavin: I think I already answered that. Don Wei's origins are only hinted at but for me he's of Chinese origin and Maya isn't. Regarding the dress that was just to please Don. That beeing said anyone is free to interpret the series as he likes and make it his own 😊

(x)

@LiveforOban: Why did Don Wei have such a severe reaction to Maya’s death? No matter how much he loved her & no matter how brutal her death, Don’s reaction was to severe. Considering his personality changed he abandoned his kid & tried to forget his past.

@EiffelSavin: Extreme love can lead to extreme consequences. Romeo killed himself after Juliette killed herself. Don Wei's reaction to Maya's death was a little less radical but the idea is the same. He couldn't bare to leave without her all the more as he felt responsible for her death.

@LiveforOban: Doesn’t that basically mean Don Was obsessed with Maya?

@EiffelSavin: Yes, but in a good way - at least until she died. These two really loved each other and formed a perfect family before drama struck.

(x)

@vaatil: watching Oban with the pals for the first time, we re on episode three and i loVE RICK‏

@EiffelSavin: And rightly so - Rick is the top bad ass dude! 😉

(x)

@Helloworld1012: I'm curious, since their in the concept art but Are Aikka and Eva going to return as major characters in the sequel/spinoff? Also, I'm curious but what will happen to Aikka when he returns to Nourasia? If I'm not mistaken the Crogs are still in control of his planet,

@Helloworld1012: And he's already done several things in the race to risk banishment.‏

@EiffelSavin: Yes, but there's also a new Avatar now, which should change things a bit - or do they? 🙂

(x)

@ILOVE659709491: Did Kanaletto manipulate Eva’s life from the moment she was born? In episode 26 Kanaletto States so himself that for centuries he manipulated time just so he could find Eva & use her.‏

@EiffelSavin: Correct.

(x)

@djinni0024: I know you aren't on Twitter much, but for the sequel, do you guys plan on making it have a darker theme, with more adult tones to it? Most of us (that being your original fan audience) are well in our 20s-30s.

@EiffelSavin: That would be ideal, but it depends on who will finance us

(x)

@NoelCT: Beautiful work, as always. I've been excited to see 2 Queens for years. I'm sorry it's still taking so long to come together, but thankful you haven't given up on it.

@EiffelSavin: Haven't given hope! Actually currently looking for a new character designer to start over on a slightly different direction.

(x)

@KananJarrus: Would be awesome if the #ObanStarRacers Soundtrack got a re-release, for people (like me) who missed out on it years ago. Great, high quality soundtrack @EiffelSavin‏

@EiffelSavin: One of our plans with the Bluray release is to add all existing tracks as a potential bonus (and there's around 85 of them).

(x)

@Helloworld1012: I’m curious since it got to me, that during her time in the boarding school Eva most have done things besides drawing & mechanics to pass the time, but Does Eva like to read? & if so what kind of books did she like to read? Also in ep 18 I noticed Maya wore a chinese dress during her date with Don, is Maya from china or Chinese?

@EiffelSavin: Don Wei's surname implies that he's of Chinese origin, which would make Eva half Chinese. [Implying Maya isn’t Chinese]

@RyanMoate: I can imagine that if Eva read it would be articles about her father's racing career and probably manuals considering she built the rocket seat.‏

@EiffelSavin: Yes, a mechanical geek. Plus she loves hardcore techno - the best way for her to relieve her stress and teenage angst!

(x) (x)

[In response to Catsuka posting the OSR pilot]

@copperfield42: wow, it [Molly Star Racer] looked more silly that the final product...

@EiffelSavin: All the main ideas were in the pilot, but it was a little more comedy oriented and aimed at a slightly younger target audience. As we developed the world and the characters, we fond a new and more fitting equilibrium for the show.

(x)

@ILOVE659709491: I know there are other possibilities for DW's background, but I just want to know, could the theory that Don Wei was born to a high-class family in China, but that DW turned his back on the life he knew when he eloped with Maya also be a possible background for Don?

@EiffelSavin: Choose as you prefer. But bear in mind that you don't need to have been born in the "upper class" to want to behave like someone from the "upper class".

(x)

@Alix_Mei: One question, this series going to be in Netflix?

@EiffelSavin: too soon to say

(x)

@RedVioletPanda: Now that I'm thinking of it, would the Nourasians Knights be similiar to Shaolin practictioners @EiffelSavin ?

@EiffelSavin: Not a bad comparison. They both have strong training, both physical and mental, with the addition of magical training for Nourasian Knights.

(x)

@fictionjustis: Is DW’s grey hair due to stress & grief and has nothing to do with his age? In the flashbacks where Maya is alive DW seems to be in his 20s + DW and Maya seem to be the same age. Maya was only 28 when she died, meaning Eva was born when DW was in his early 20s‏

@EiffelSavin: Don Wei is a little older than Maya and more in his forties at the start the show. But stress may have also played a part

@fictionjustis: I’m curious, a little older is so vague. So does that mean Don Wei is only 2 years older than Maya or that his 5-10 years older than Maya? How many years of an age difference did Don & Maya have?‏

@EiffelSavin: I don't have my old notes with me but it was probably around 10 years older, or something close

@fictionjustis: Really, because they don’t look that far in age.

@EiffelSavin: May have been a little less but in real life it's often hard to tell if someone is 25 or 30. In animation, with stylised designs, it's even harder. The acting and body language play a big part.

(x)

@ILOVE659709491: Maya seems to influence Don Wei the same way Eva influences Aikka. Is it possible that though she didn’t introduce him to racing Maya may have encouraged Don Wei to follow his dreams & be a race manager even though it meant going against his parents wishes & expecta- -tions of him? Also DW has a strong comparison with Aikka is it possible that like Aikka DW came from a high-class family that placed high expectations on him?

@EiffelSavin: The main point these two have in common is that they had feelings for their partner or friend. Regarding Maya, it was more her parents who were against her becoming a racer. Not exactly what any parent would have in mind for their beloved daughter

(x)

[frozenartscapes]

Story Time!

Frozen came out five years ago, as I’m sure all of you are already aware. It came out on a Wednesday, and I wasn’t able to see it until that weekend. But I still saw it within a few days of its opening because I simply couldn’t wait much longer.

I had always been a long-time Idina Menzel fan. Like pretty much since I discovered Wicked, I loved her. I loved her as Elphaba, and it was the OBC recording of that musical that got me interested in musical theatre. I am also not ashamed to admit I used to watch Glee when it first started (and hey the first two seasons were actually not that bad). But I was there when people started realizing that Lea Michelle kind of looked like Idina Menzel, and for the fandom suggesting that because Rachel had two dads, her mom could be played by Idina Menzel if they were to ever include that character, and then it happened and while that season wasn’t the best you better believe I fucking watched it because it had Idina Freaking Menzel in it.

So imagine my joy when I found out she would be voicing the Snow Queen in Disney’s long-distant animated adventure? I found out about that casting choice way before anybody really knew Frozen was a thing. Back when there was only concept art - some of which was the really old stuff from when The Snow Queen as a movie was conceived by Disney himself. This was long before anybody really knew what Frozen would be about, and likely when Elsa was still written as the main villain. That’s how they sold the casting for her: that Idina would be playing a “Wicked Witch” type character yet again. And after seeing her in Enchanted and being disappointed that she didn’t sing once (boy I bet they’re kicking themselves for that now), I was so stoked to see her as a true Disney villain where she’d likely get a kickass villain song.

It was from that point, like a good year or more before the movie came out, that I knew I had to see this movie.

So I waited and waited. Then stuff started to come out, starting with the infamous teaser featuring Olaf and Sven. And... I was worried. It reminded me too well of all the Scrat teasers for Ice Age. I had seen what happens when annoying side characters get cranked up to eleven in things like Cars 2. And to see these two - characters which are fine in small doses but not for a long time - carrying out basic slapstick without any indication of how much they’d be in the movie? I was prepared for Mater 2.0 when it came to Olaf. I was so prepared for him to be the thing I tolerated just so I could see Idina Menzel being an awesome villain.

But then... Then the trailer. The real trailer. And my faith was restored and my need to see it increased tenfold. There was personality, there was heart, there was insanely beautiful animation.

And Elsa - the Snow Queen - wasn’t a villain, but rather a misunderstood deuteragonist with a dangerous secret. And immediately that was so much more interesting to me than just having her be a bad guy.

I tried to stay away from spoilers, including Let It Go. I purposely avoided watching or listening to it because I wanted to see what it was like on the big screen first. I must have watched the trailers a million times though. And I’m still a little bitter at Disney’s marketing department for essentially revealing the entire plot of the movie through all the various trailers they released. But it still looked like an amazing story, so I wasn’t worried. And after opening night and the hype started, I caved after about two days and I watched Let It Go on youtube.

And my god was I hooked. Like even more than I was before. It was such a beautiful, powerful, amazing song. Between the lyrics, the voice, the scenery - I knew I had to fucking see this movie as soon as possible. If the rest of it was half as good as just this one song was, then it was going to be a great Disney movie.

So I got my mom, sister, and her boyfriend at the time, and we all went to the movies. We had a tradition of going to see a Disney movie and cry our eyes out in the theatre, then going out to eat our feelings at dinner somewhere. And in 2013 that movie was Frozen. My sister cried within the first ten minutes of the movie. 

And I fell in love with Elsa the moment I saw her. She was everything and then some. I couldn’t have asked for a better character. I saw myself in her right away, though I couldn’t fully explain why at the time. But her line: “Be the good girl you always have to be” spoke to me so much. It was such an overachieving, constantly under pressure Big Sister line that I could just relate to so well. And when I saw Anna, I saw my sister. Goofy, and happy, kind of clumsy, always good for a laugh. The best part of that night was leaving the theatre and the first thing we said to each other was that those two characters were scarily similar to us. They were even close to our ages at the time. I was about to turn 21, and my sister was 17. Like it was such a weird coincidence. And the best part is that since that movie, my sister and I have gotten closer than we ever were before.

I loved that movie so much. I couldn’t get enough of it. I fully blame it for being the thing that got me online, like really online. I started writing fanfic and then not long after I got a tumblr. I never really expected to meet as many people as I did, nor did I expect my blog to end up with as many followers as I now have. I might not write as much as I used to, but I still love to pick every aspect of this movie apart, to contribute to fan theories, and gush over and share gif sets and fanart. And I especially love how this fandom becomes a flurry of activity any time there’s a new thing related to the movie, be it short, to cameo in another movie, to a freaking Broadway musical. Like I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am that Frozen came full circle for me - I only found out about it because of a Broadway star and now I’m in love with a whole new set of Broadway actors because of it. Hopefully one day soon I’ll be able to see it for myself.

I love Frozen. I love its fandom. You guys seriously are some of the best people I’ve had the privilege to know over the years. I am so very excited for the next year as the hype for the sequel builds. And then for the years of fan content that will follow.

Keep it up you guys! And let the sun shine on!

[atrixfromice]

My thoughts about the incoming RR movie.

Hey howdy folks! I just write this, cos there are peeps who remember my love for the 90′s cartoon show Rescue Rangers, so they keep sending me videos of the trailers and teasers and they ask me who it doesn’t make me excited XD So I thought about doing this on a journal so you could see.

Y’know, I don't remember this online art sharing bussiness was this complicated, when I started to do it back on the 90's. 

In nowadays almost everything in cartoons is "politically incorrect" & people are always there to judge you & set you on fire due a phrase, even if you didn't mean to offend anybody. 

Recently I've heard lots of articles that say, that several cartoons are “wrong”.  For example; thumbelina is wrong, Rock-a-doodle is wrong, the little mermaid, the powerpuff girls, 90's animaniacs, Antz, Bee movie, Dumbo....The Aristocats is wrong! 

It seems like everything you would do in a cartoon to make a fun and interesting plot, every joke in the 90′s was funny and was innocent, now it’s wrong. Everything is wrong!

Everything, except making the characters gay/transexual/lesbian, etc. And further, if you don’t make your characters gay on your project, they people say your cartoon is awful and “politically incorrect”. Which it’s a silly and disrespectful way of thinking, cos, while it’s nice and cool for the LGTBQ+ community to get represented more through characters in visual media. Not EVERY movie and cartoon should include gay characters.

Not sure if you know what I mean? I mean, is not a “must”. If a creator doesn’t think that making their characters gay will add something more the story they are going to tell, then they aren’t obligated to do it, that doesn’t make them bad people. There are a lot of histories that doesn’t include romance even! And it is OK to have stories like that too.

Oh and, another problem in “what it’s correct” on the 21 century! Is the people who think that presenting intelligent, independent and beautiful female characters on cartoon shows or animated movies is “politically incorrect” now! So this is precisely why they took Hellow nurse off the new Animaniacs Reboot, and deleted Miss Bellum from the new version of The powerpuff girls.

.....WHAT THE HECK IS THIS IDEA!?!?! O_O Like...seriously... What crazy and stupid individual came up with it?

Having a strong and beautiful female character in a show or movie is not a bad thing! 

Is a good thing! 

It’s a WONDERFUL thing!!! 

And for the jokes that in the 90′s were funny and now are “politically incorrect” , well... people don't realize cartoons are cartoons. 

They are for entertaining. They were not 100% realistic, nor to be taken too seriously. 

So what I want to mean with all this, you might think?

Well, my point is this: If they are doing this new Rescue Rangers movie with the standars of what is “politically right” on this century, then the movie promises to be a really boring one! Because most of the jokes from the 90′s original show, nowadays could be easily consider “of bad taste”. So this will take away a lot of the soul and the fun moments 90′s series had. First reason I don’t seek for this movie with enthusiasm.

Also, if they’re going to take off Gadget from the new movie just cos they think (as some people have said ) "she's too beautiful and sexy for a kids movie" like they did with Miss Bellum and Hello nurse, I think this movie is going to be a boring one too. 

Cos she was one really great character! A great role model for young girls!  I liked her precisely cause of that. Cos she was beautiful, but wasn't presented as a sexual icon. And she was intelligent, but also modest, and she was a strong woman. 

Also the other thing in the trailer that makes me think I’m not going to enjoy this movie. It’s that the story plot seems weak. They look like they’re going to present a bung of famous characters to try to save the lame story, that it will be probably like another “who framed Roger rabbit”, and they are going to try too hard to make “fun jokes” by mocking the old animation in old movies/shows. Which in itself it’s very lame and disrespectful, cos there is a lot of work behind those animation works.

Animators dedicated their life to animate those works! As an animator, I feel this very disrespectful (I’d dare to say...even, offensive) cos I know all the hard work, time and effort that it’s put when you make animation. 

Many animators devoted their entire life to animate some of the first 3D animation shows like Reboot, Beast wars, Shadow raiders, and a lot of videogames, too.

In any case, these are just my first thoughts about the movie. But ok...I’m still willing to give it a chance. Let’s see if when it comes out, it turns out to be better than I excepted.

[aion-rsa]

Cobra Kai Season 3: Breaking Down the Karate Kid Part II Easter Eggs

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains spoilers for Cobra Kai season 3.

“Are you sure about that?” 

Even without seeing who said it, fans of The Karate Kid knew exactly who it was. It had to be Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto), the nemesis of Daniel (Ralph Macchio) from The Karate Kid Part II. The line whetted our appetites at the end of the season 3 teaser released back in August 2020. In December, Netflix released the full season 3 trailer which confirmed the appearance of both Chozen and Daniel’s love interest, Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita). 

Cobra Kai has made a habit of delivering heartwarming and nostalgic cameos from the cast of the original films throughout the series. In the first season, Randee Heller reprised her role as Daniel’s mom Lucille, and when Martin Kove joined the cast as the notorious Sensei Kreese, everything changed. Season 2 episode 6 reunited several of the original Cobra Kai dojomates: Tommy (Rob Garrison), Bobby (Ron Thomas), and Jimmy (Tony O’Dell). In one of the most poignant episodes of season 2 “Take a Right,” Tommy is suffering from a terminal illness, so his old Cobra Kai comrades break him out of the hospital for one final ride. Sadly, reality imitated art as this was Garrison’s final performance. He died in September of 2019 and the first episode of season 3 ended with a fitting tribute to him along with the slogan “Cobra Kai Never Dies.”

With any reboot series, it’s often the Easter Eggs that are the most endearing for longtime fans. The creators of Cobra Kai have been on point with this so Daniel’s return to Okinawa is full of homages to The Karate Kid Part II. Even that sequel had an early Easter egg, before Easter eggs were even a thing. When Daniel and Kumiko go dancing at a ‘50s retro club, the song that’s playing is “Rock Around the Clock.” That was the theme song to Happy Days – the ‘70s TV show where Pat Morita had a recurring role as the owner of the soda shop, Arnold Takahashi. Here are some ways in which Cobra Kai season 3 plays homage to The Karate Kid Part II. 

The Sequel

First, a reminder of just what went down in The Karate Kid II. The sequel was the most financially successful film of the Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) tetralogy. It reunited almost all the cast from the first film, but only for segue cameos. The story picked up immediately where the first film left off, right after Daniel’s first victory at the All-Valley Karate Tournament. Kreese (Martin Kove) was so angry about Johnny (William Zabka) losing that he starts to choke him. Choke holds are a choreographic motif echoed in later fights between Kreese and Johnny in Cobra Kai. Miyagi rescued Johnny from Kreese but instead of finishing him, he honks his nose. 

After that, Daniel and Miyagi left the rest of the cast behind and travelled to Okinawa. Ali (Elisabeth Shue) did not return for the sequel. She was replaced by Kumiko, a new love interest for Daniel. And Johnny stayed in California, so he was replaced by a new rival, Chozen. Aside from the opening scene, the cast and location of the sequel is swapped out completely except for Miyagi and Daniel. It was a bold move but it worked. 

The finale fight between Daniel and Chozen was flawed on several levels. While Kumiko performed a traditional fan dance on a moat encircled platform in the center courtyard of an ancient castle, Chozen swooped in and challenged Daniel to a fight to the death. However, Daniel tips over the bridge, the moat appears to be only about a foot deep. There was a large audience watching Kumiko’s dance recital but when Daniel and Chozen begin their death match, no one tries to break them up. Instead of intervening, Miyagi and the reformed Sensei Sato (Danny Kamekona) lead the audience in twirling their spinning hand drums (known as den-den daiko) to inspire Daniel to use the new secret hand technique that Miyagi taught him. But if it’s a Miyagi-do secret, wouldn’t Chozen know it too? He had the same grandmaster as Daniel, Miyagi’s father (Charlie Tanemoto). And if it was so secret that Chozen didn’t know, why would the audience understand that  the den-den daiko had anything to do with Karate?  The finale fight is a silly attempt to insert some poetry into the film’s climax, but it doesn’t make much sense when you step back and look at it logically. In a painfully predictable conclusion, and an important coup de grâce for the Cobra Kai Easter egg, their fight ends exactly like the one between Kreese and Miyagi at the beginning of the film. Instead of finishing Chozen, Daniel honks his nose.

Because The Karate Kid Part II was set in Okinawa, it was an outlier and challenging to weave into Cobra Kai. The den-den daiko has been shown several times, but that was as far as they could go. The only logical way for Cobra Kai to evoke The Karate Kid Part II was to have Daniel return to Okinawa. 

The Right Path

In Cobra Kai season 3, after losing distributorship of Doyona cars, Daniel is forced to return to Japan in hopes of renewing his dealership’s contract. While there he decides to visit Tomi village, Miyagi’s hometown, and the setting of The Karate Kid Part II. But what was a quaint rural fishing village thirty years ago is now Tomi Village Green, a modern shopping mall. There he finds Kumiko performing a traditional dance on the shopping mall stage. Gone is the American military base. It’s also a long way from that moat stage in the castle, which surely would’ve been converted to a tourist site. Nevertheless, seeing Kumiko again gives any Karate Kid fan the feels. We recently saw Tomita as the cold Romulan Commander Oh in Star Trek: Picard, but when she finds her character of Kumiko, her smile is as disarmingly warm as it was thirty years ago. 

As Daniel and Kumiko catch up, she tells him she achieved her dream to be a professional dancer and travelled the world. She tells him she liked London best and Daniel guesses it was because of the tea. In The Karate Kid Part II, Kumiko treated Daniel to a traditional tea ceremony which led to their first kiss. Kumiko reveals that she had many suitors but never married because “None of them fought to the death for me” like Chozen intended at Kumiko’s dance recital. 

They return to the house from The Karate Kid Part II. Kumiko inherited it from her aunt Yukie (Nobu McCarthy) who was Miyagi’s former love interest. Kumiko reads some letters from Miyagi to Daniel and it’s beautiful. The chemistry between Macchio and Tomita is still palpable, and the actors deliver an incredibly moving scene. Tomita brought tremendous grace to Kumiko. It was her first film role, and she has kept that flame burning. 

Miyagi-Do

They meet again at a bar where there is a strange rack with vertical ice block slabs. It’s a nod to the strange ice break technique that Daniel had to do in The Karate Kid Part II. As a side note, no one ever does ice breaks with the slabs lined up vertically like that. The physics of such a set up makes such a break exceedingly difficult. Ice breaks are done with horizontally stacked slabs because it is so much easier, and you’d have to make a special custom rack to hold your ice before it melts. 

Enter Chozen. Like Tomita, Okumoto has been working steadily as an actor, predominantly in television. Coincidentally, Tomita, Okumoto and Morita reunited in 2006 for the film Only the Brave, a film based on the history of 100th/442nd Combat Regiment, which was comprised of Japanese-American soldiers who served during WWII. Miyagi served in this battalion, and in The Next Karate Kid, Daniel Inouye appears in a cameo. Inouye was a genuine veteran of the 442nd, a senator for the state of Hawaii, as well as the highest ranking Asian-American government official until Kamala Harris takes office as Vice President. Only the Brave was Morita’s final film role before his death in 2005.

While Macchio has retained his boyish face, Okumoto still has guns. He was one of the few original cast members that had a genuine background in karate and it’s clear that he’s kept up with his training. Chozen takes Daniel to his dojo and tests him by combat. It sets up what everyone wants to see – Daniel versus Chozen: the rematch. Chozen is as intimidating as ever and the fight ends predictably with another throwback to The Karate Kid Part II – Chozen honks Daniel’s nose. 

Without a sensei, Chozen serves as a device for Daniel to learn some new techniques. It’s a classic cliché in martial arts shows – the student learns some technique whether it be a crane kick or hand drum spinning and then must use it to gain their final victory. In Karate Kid Part II, Chozen introduced traditional Okinawan weapons with the line “Your little teacher ever teach you how to fight with spear?” For Cobra Kai, he teaches Daniel the staff fighting methods that he passes to his daughter Sam (Mary Mouser) which will save her in her season finale fight, as well as the pressure point techniques that Daniel will use against Kreese at the end. Daniel learns all of this in a day, which is preposterous, but if we keep calling out the martial arts in Cobra Kai, that will ruin it. 

Yuna, the “Girl Bell Ringer”

The best Easter egg of all is when Kumiko introduces Daniel to Yuna, the girl he saved from the typhoon in The Karate Kid Part II. He had returned to Japan in hopes of renewing his auto distribution contract with Doyona motors, and in a wonderful piece of karma, Yuna has grown up to be the Senior Vice President of Sales for Doyona International. She saves his company. It’s also a wonderful Easter egg. Yuna is played by the original actress too – Traci Toguchi. Toguchi made her acting debut at age 12 as the ‘Girl Bell Ringer’ that Daniel saved in The Karate Kid Part II.  

The visit to Okinawa leaves the door wide open for Chozen and Kumiko to appear in season 4. It’s an exciting prospect. Cobra Kai never dies. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Cobra Kai season 3 is streaming now on Netflix.

The post Cobra Kai Season 3: Breaking Down the Karate Kid Part II Easter Eggs appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2JzNloi

[musefulstranger]

5x04 ob review - 5x05 thoughts

oh boy oh boy oh boyy...what an episode...so much information, pure mythology arc..many questions were answered and a lot more were created after that...so let’s see what we’ve got here:

1.Kira

well it was kinda foreshadowing from the previous episode that kira would cut herself..i like the fact that the writing team took advantage of Kira’s adolescence..she couldn’t have a passive role anymore..after all she’s her mother’s child, curious and radical to learn and to know about herself..

2.this episode was about famliy,family,family

it felt more like a Manning episode rather than a Sarah episode....

Your daughter is struggling on the threshold of what it means to become you

now THAT is a very powerful line, and for me it sets the core of Sarah’s developemet throughout the whole series...

and to be perfectly clear i am really REALLY  worried about Sarah cause she began as a wild self-centered con girl that tried to  take advantage of the situation for her own good and look how far she’s come

she’s gonna sacrifice herself for her family it’s crystal clear to me..that’s what Ms S would do and that’s why their relationship was so important in this episode, apart from mythology and storyline reasons...

3.Sarah-Helena

the twins will be the center of the mythology, this photoshoot wasn’t random at all

Kira and the miracle babies...the monkey stuffed animal and the scissor..the heart connection

they feel eachother

sarah, helena and on the background pictures and paintings of what it means to be a family

Apart from how beautiful this scene was there was a lot of symbolism in it

-miracle babies

-like you& me

oh god i really wish i wouldn’t worry about Sarah so much but it’s painfully obvious where all of this is going...

Helena was ‘killed’ once and i don’t think Sarah will let her get hurt ever again..Rachel and PT are after the babies..there’s possibly gonna be a confrontation in ep 7 (the rachel episode)

(i can’t get out of my head that Helena will name one of her babies after Sarah cause...you know why)

Helena writes her memoirs (which i do believe now that this is what Sarah is reading after Fee’s art exhibition in the 60secs teaser cap)

Also Felix said that his exhibition is in 3 weeks so we vaguely have a timeline for this season...s5 events happen during a month more or less

4. PT, Virginia,Susan

or the old fashioned story of Frankenstein's monster 

PT Leda Castor and moral choices...Virginia was an interesting addition to the storyline even though her survival from the explosion is a little bit absurd..

i liked the fact that Leda Clones were less dehumanized in contrast to the Castor programm..the freaky mansion (the bloody props in the laboratory gave me Bioshock vibes lol) set the atmosphere and got me hyped about the story.. the ‘monster’ on the other hand....well i was underwhelmed from the bald dude, they could have done a better job imo

PT is oblivious about Virginia , he’s not gonna be happy about it when he finds out...i wonder if Ira is gonna protect Susan or not when the time comes..the Rachel episode is gonna be chaotic that’s for sure

5. Cos-Charlotte

i love them SO much...Cosima is always so protective, she’s a natural with kids - and people in general, definitely the most extrovert clone of the basic 4- (also Tatiana is a PRO with kids, seriously i melt everytime)

i hope Charlotte survives all this mess cause i’m gonna be devastated for the poor kid :(

so all in all that was a pretty straightforward episode that was much needed.

-Some things about the MUCH ANTICIPATED episode 5

1.A lot of us (including myself ) have made theories about cosima’s parents and had the Alison centric episode as a guide to how the Cosima one will be. Having seen the 5x5 trailer and teaser i‘ll have to say:

-This episode is gonna be much more heavy case related than we imagined so what i’m gonna say is

2. lower your expectations guys.Have in mind that at least 4-5 scenes will be with Sarah/Kira, Rachel/Susan,Ira/Susan etc...there’s no time for a lot of flashbacks now that they decided to interlace plot with character evolution...Alison was the clone that was the least engaged with the mythology arc that’s why her episode was more standalone-ish. Do not expect the same now

3.Expect angst. The teaser made it clear.We knew that in relation to Delphine/Cos there’s always angst but my estimation is that now things are more tensed  than ever.

4.the fact that we didn't get to see a lot of cophine scenes on the teaser is a good thing.They keep things unseen on purpose. They have already overexposed this episode (-especially the cophine scenes) so it  make sense not to show a lot of things now.

5.Be prepared for strong performances.Keep in mind that a sex scene might be unlikely to happen.Trust me the less you expect the more rewarding the experience will be in the end.Especially if you have a wild imagination.It is way too easy to underwhelm yourself with what if scenarios.

enough with the rambling now let cophine rise XD

[saberghatz]

In which sense Angel helped you?

It took me awhile to answer this ask because every time I see it I just look at it like, “Well, my entire life changed. How am I supposed to sum that up.”

But I’ll try to do that now.

…UNDER THE CUT CAUSE THIS IS EXTREMELY LENGTHY.

Angel was my very first memory of X-Men. I remember being like 8 years old and seeing the beginning of it on TV, where baby Warren was cutting his wings away. To be totally honest, it freaked me out but I couldn’t look away and I ran into the other room after the scene was over LOLI NEVER FORGOT THAT SCENE.

Since then, I’d seen the other x-men movies on in the background, I watched Days of Future past in the theaters, I really enjoyed them but none of them really struck me. At the time, I was mostly into animated movies such as How to Train Your Dragon, Rise of the Guardians, etc;

FAST FORWARD TO 2016, X-Men Apocalypse comes out. I didn’t see as much as a TEASER trailer for that movie before going to the theater. I didn’t even know it was out until one day my dad was like “Let’s go see the new X-Men movie.” And I was like “Oh theres a new X-Men movie? Those are cool movies, okay lets go.”

When the Berlin scene came on, and The Blob fell down to reveal Angel, it was KIND OF A JAW-DROP MOMENT FOR ME TBH because the last thing I remembered 100% X-Men was that scene of kid Warren in the Last Stand, and suddenly he was just THERE all grown up, kicking ASS.

As an artist, I find myself analyzing special effects and such. I remember getting really attached to how they designed his wings, I loved the talon, and the way they were animated was so life-like, it just COMPLETELY HOOKED ME. And I was like DAYUMM I want to draw like that! 

I remember just being completely entranced throughout the whole Cage Fight. Between Angel and Nightcrawler, I was just overloaded. When they escaped, I was hoping they would escape and go to Xavier’s school together ((keep in mind I never saw a trailer, so I had no idea Archangel was going to happen LOL)) So I was disappointed when Warren just ran away on his own. I thought that was going to be the last we saw of him.

BUT SURPRISE, BITCH, CAUSE

Fast-forward again to the warehouse scene and I was like hOLY SHIT ITS HIM AGAIN, HE MADE IT OUT ALIVE. And he’s listening to Metallica???? I grew up pretty much purely on rock music, it was and is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE, so the music in that scene took me way back again. 

I just left the theater of X-Men Apocalypse, completely buzzing with excitement. The main thing I loved about that movie as a whole is how all of the characters are teenagers. Because, being 18 myself, I just find them much easier to relate to and I got attached to them very easily.

So, BOUT TIME, I then completely fell in love with the X-Men franchise.

I think I saw the movie three times in theater, and each time it just got BETTER and I noticed more and more things, and got more attached to the franchise, exclusively to Angel.

I’m always drawn to what I’d classify as tragic villains, ones with very much potential to be a hero but just get hooked on the wrong path.

We all get sucked into fandom because of that ONE character we just utterly attach to, and this is exactly what happened with me and Warren. I was drawn to him firstly because of his wings. To me, wings represent freedom, which freedom is the most important thing in my life. It’s why I hated school so much which tries to put us in a box, why I couldn’t stand growing up and being forced to work for someone else. I wanted to be free, and live by my own riles. When I was a kid, like 12 years old, I had SUCH a vivid dream that I was flying with these MASSIVE angel wings and I could just feel every stroke, the wind under my wings, the cool fresh air, and just that brief dream was just. The definition of freedom, and everything I strived to find in life. So ever since that, powerful characters with wings just take me right back to that wonderful night and give me so much joy.

After that movie, I started listening to rock music a lot more than I had been recently. Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Motley Crüe, Bon Jovi, etc etc, it was what I listened to through out my entire childhood, and getting back in touch with that music again lately has been amazing. Music can have very powerful effects on us, and rock music is what’s always made me feel alive.

X-Men Apocalypse is the first live-action movie that ever hooked me. Before then, I solely studied other artists’s work, and animated movies from Dreamworks/Disney, etc. I never used to study from life, which LOOKING BACK, was a HUGE set back on developing my art skills. X-Men Apoc inspired me so much, and last summer around July 2016, I would often grab screencaps and do speed-paints to try to capture the overall mood/motions present in the scene. 

Ex:

I was in love with how his wings moved, and just his character in general so I quickly just got ADDICTED to drawing him, I’d draw him all the time. And each time, I’d learn new things and my art skills would bump up.

I was blown away by Hardy’s acting, how the way he walked really sold the illusion of him carrying massive wings on his back. As I looked up references to draw Angel, I was steadily getting hooked on Ben as an actor, too. I found him really admirable, and started getting really interested in acting, health, and fitness because of it. Seeing for the first time how hard actors worked for their roles opened my eyes to perhaps working on films one day in the future, something I’d never even considered doing before.

Last summer, I started watching the episodes of Eastenders that Ben was in. It’s just one of those things I look back on with such a positive vibe. I hardly ever allow myself to sit down and just watch something for fun. I’m kinda a work-a-holic in a way that I always want to be working on something and not just lounging around. But I remember just relaxing with warm tea on cool summer nights and just watching Eastenders all night until I passed out.

It got me interested in London, and now it’s a huge dream of mine to go visit there. It sounds crazy, but in a way it sparked a long-lost childish sense of adventure back in my heart. Before, I just wanted to stay in one place and live out my life. Now, I want nothing more than to take my sketchbook, and travel the world to see everything our beautiful planet has to offer. The coolest thing about freelance is I’m quite literally FREE to travel wherever I want as long as I make enough money to support my travels, so that’s something I definitely plan to do in my future.

Back to Angel, I met so many amazing friends online through X-Men, people who I now couldn’t live without. @x-men-headcannons who I talk to all the time, and has impacted my life so much with her wonderful personality, support, and her artistry is just astounding! We now plan on moving in together in summer of 2019.

Warren also spared my interest in comics, which I now read and draw inspiration from all the time. I now aspire to make my own sometime, something I also had never considered doing before. I’m constantly being inspired by the iconic poses, the dynamics, and I feel that studying comic book artists have helped me expand my own library of knowledge.

In short, Angel helped me find myself. He helped me find friends, find happiness, find more dreams, and set me on track for the future I’ve always dreamed of. He may be fictional, but the effects that character has had on my life are very, very real.

[askdacast]

Rant from an ex-fan: RWBY’s Volume 5 shorts are terrible

Quick warning: if you are a huge fan of RWBY, especially of the third volume onwards, I am going to be needlessly cruel towards the series in this post. Turn back if you don't wish to hear the ramblings of a jaded ex-fan.

So I used to love RWBY, or more specifically the first two volumes of RWBY. They were far from perfect, but I enjoyed what fun action and neat fantasy and tech ideas they had to offer.

Then Volume 3 came about, in its glut of sudden edginess and shocking twists, and I came down with a case of salt poisoning.

As you can imagine, I dropped the series harder than a slab of concrete and have been very hesitant to pick up the series again since. Then I saw in my YouTube Feed that Volume 5 of RWBY was coming out, and there were character shorts and teasers, one of which was of Weiss, being released as promotions. So I thought, "Fine, why not? I might as well see if they win me over once more."

I was not won over.

Problems that I had with the series when I dropped it were somehow encapsulated in 3.5 painfully long minutes, and after some mental testing out of my hair, I decided to do the following moment-by-moment analysis of the trailer below as follows.

Please keep in mind I have sworn entirely off Volume 4 and any details I do know about it are from my friend @randomnumbers751650 who HAS watched it. Nothing first-hand.

0:00 We begin with some abstract shots of totally-not-symbolism set to yet another generically sad Casey Williams song.

Okay look, I don’t want to hate on Casey Williams. She’s an amazing singer at the age she is, and she’s got great talent! I don’t hate her work at all. The problem is she’s in EVERYTHING RWBY RELATED. No, literally, everything. RoosterTeeth has shoved her into every single vocal song for the series and I’m getting tired of it. There’s no variety in any of the vocals unless they get Jeff Williams to do some screaming or Lamar Hall to do some okay-rapping in them. Even they seem to sound overused.

Not to mention sometimes I feel like they’re forcing Casey’s vocal chords to sing certain songs that really do not lend well to her vocals (*cough* When it Falls *cough). She’s a beautiful singer, but when you just churn out song after song with her, the songs lose their magic. I don’t even wanna get started on these lyrics, but let’s rant one thing at a time, shall we?

0:12 Hey look, the moon is still broken. We ever gonna find out what that means?

Now one compliment I guess I’ll give is that the art has definitely improved. The characters still move jankily (albeit more smoothly now), but the background art has really upgraded. The shot of the manor Weiss is fighting in, the ice fountain with the Schnee logo and the snowing effects in this are actually kinda pretty!

0:25 And now we meet best girl Weiss! Well, she originally wasn’t my best girl. It was first Ruby, but unfortunately she had no personality (despite being the main character). Then there was Penny, but she was.

You know.

Dead.

Thanks RoosterTeeth, I’m still not over that. You introduced a precious cinnamon roll and killed her off for shock value. And fan theories about her being rebuilt have not been acted on.

Uh-huh. Sure. I’m totally okay with that. Not bitter at all.

Anyway, just look at those expressions. Mouth movement still looks as awkward as ever. I think enough people have probably mocked the expressions in the Volume 4 opening so I won’t harp on it, but…yeeeeah.

0:36 Oh hey look ominous snow wind out of nowhere. That sure is whacky and wacky.

And listen closely to the lyrics of this super-duper-sad song.

“And in its place is nothing, just an endless empty hall.”

GEDDIT? BECAUSE WEISS IS LONELY! SHE’S SAD AND LONELY CUZ SHE’S GOT NO FRIENDS! WE’RE SO SUBTLE AND SYMBOLIC GUYS!

Jeff Williams, or…whoever did the lyrics for these songs, the instrumental is lovely on its own. You could’ve just let the emotions speak for themselves. You don’t have to HAMMER IN THE MESSAGE THAT WEISS IS OBVIOUSLY STILL SAD AND LONELY. I THOUGHT WE GOT THREE ENTIRE SONGS FOR THAT ALREADY. Or was Mirror Mirror just not subtle enough? >_>

0:45 Oh look. Ice Beowulves. How interesting and original.

And don’t tell me they’re a different species of Grimm or whatever, those models are clearly palette-swapped Beowulves! It’s like they’ve become the Goombas of Remnant or something.

You know last I checked, one of the bigger reasons people liked this show at all was because of the fantasy setting and how not just the heroes and their weapons, but the creatures of Grimm had all sorts of creative designs. I get that this is just a teaser trailer and the fight here doesn't have any actual plot bearing, but one on, you could've at least come up with something more interesting for an ice-based Grimm. Even better, give hints of new Grimm to be introduced later in the volume or something, I dunno! Just anything more than a freaking palette swap.

0:59 ...did...did Casey just say 'Weissolation?' I hope she didn't; that's a level of goofy I think not even RT would stoop to.

Also, still piling on that reaaaally subtle lyric-work about how lonely Weiss is! Ugh.

1:01 I dunno why but that shot of the Beowulf pouncing at her just looks so goofy. “COME AND GIVE ME A HUUUUUG!”

1:12 ...okay, I admit, the change in tempo and shift in instruments for this song and the ensuing fight made me excited.

If there's one thing Jeff Williams has always done well, it's his instrumental. I complain a lot about RWBY's vocals, but the way the songs mix hard rock and more classical music has always been amazing. It's the perfect blend of instruments to get you pumped up for a fight while still getting into the different moods and settings each fight takes place in. Even better is that they don't have to constantly rely on awkward dubstep or techno beats like most other shows nowadays do with their action scenes. All things considered, if you just changed the lyrics, I would totally replay this song in my free time.

Even this initial start of the fight isn't bad at all. The violins and Casey's vocals really match up to the angles, Weiss jumping on the glyphs, shots like the pan up to when she's standing on the ledge, and oh man, those melting icicles. That was such a neat touch!

1:31 That is an adorable Weiss happy face. Can we get more of that? Please? And not all the random depressing edgy plot points?

1:40 "Forced to conform" YES WE GET IT WEISS FEELS TRAPPED, MOVE ON CASEY

You remember how the original Mirror Mirror's lyrics were about Weiss' self-doubt and fear of what's inside her? Only 2012 remembers.

1:45 Once again, more of those awkward expressions. Her face is literally OAO in this moment. A second shot of it is passable. You hold it for longer than that though, not to mention in a close-up shot, and it just looks goofy.

This, however, is probably a good time to get to one of my major complaints of this trailer. Namely that this trailer could have been stuff like foreshadowing of plot points, a quick character insight into how Weiss has been doing since the end of the last Volume, a whole number of things. But instead, what do we get?

Fighting.

Just. Fighting.

Look I get it, RWBY is an action series, fighting is kind of what it's selling. But if you would humour me, let me take you back to 2012, when RWBY just became a thing and people were fawning over the awesome trailers. Let me remind you guys that the first two trailers shown, Ruby's and Weiss', were both consisting of nothing but -you guessed it- fighting. We didn't hear their voice actors at all, we didn't get a glimpse as to what their characters like beyond their small facial expressions and song lyrics (you know, like the incredibly deep revelation that WEISS IS LONELY), or their place in the plot.

As much as I loved the fighting choreography in those old trailers, when the show was finally released, the characters suffered for it. People were wondering why Ruby was a squeaky high-pitched now girl when she looked so stoic and badass in the trailer. People were wondering why Weiss was so snooty and insufferable when once again, the trailer painted a different picture of her. My point is the original trailers for RWBY tried pushing for its awesome action scenes at the expense of the writing of its characters.

And now it's happening again.

Let me be blunt: when I first saw this Weiss short, and after the initial few cool shots of fighting, my brained tuned out and I IMMEDIATELY skipped the whole fight scene. I knew what to expect – another flashy action scene that has no bearing on the plot or Weiss as a character or what's to come.

You know guys, most of us who are anime fans safely say that most of us who enjoy action scenes and stuff like shonen anime is NOT just because of random fighting. I need to care about what I'm watching. I need to know the fight I'm seeing matters. And failing THAT, I at least want to see something new; new fighting techniques, new ways of attacking and reversing your opponent's moves onto them, rather than just the same old.

I remember when I used to enjoy the fight scenes in RWBY. It was cool seeing the fighting techniques, the crazy weapons and having some vague idea of how Dust worked. It was all fine and dandy back then. But RWBY hasn't evolved since. As much as I like Weiss, her simple sword tactics have always struck me as rather plain compared to the rest of the team. Clearly, she's designed less as a combatant focusing on power and more as the 'Mage', what with her glyphs (which we still haven't gotten an explanation of how her Semblance works btw) and her Dust usage. I could've gone for something simple like Weiss combining Dust in her attacks or something like that.

But no.

RoosterTeeth is just doing the same old action sequences over and over again. It's to the point where the fight scenes are just white noise! Congrats, RoosterTeeth. You guys made me think of an action scene as WHITE NOISE.

Mind you, I actually went to rewatch the trailer to try to see what I missed in the fight scene just to be fair, but even then I tuned out again. Nevermind the actual choreography or some weird wide-angle shots, everything just felt so generic. I honestly can't muster up any energy to even critique the fight.

So enough of my whining I guess, let's just get back to the trailer shall we...

2:48 And somehow despite Weiss being best girl, she still continues to have the weakest of the voice actresses. The way she screams Winter's name sounds more like annoyance rather than the actual fear she might have been feeling.

Also WAIT WHAT?! THOSE WOLVES WERE WINTER'S CREATION?!

...so not satisfied with giving us a dull action scene, this trailer decides to pull the rug out under us and render our investment into Weiss surviving this fight pointless. Fantastic.

3:04 Oh hey, Winter! One of the few parts of Volume 3 I actually liked!

Great to see you and your Icy Cool Big Sis self again! Boy, it sure was a good thing you...weren't important in the last Volume...or the second half of Volume 3...oh man was your great character totally utilized and not squandered in the face of the changing plot or anything...

3:15 More stilted Weiss voice acting. The way she says "I'll get better" is just so oddly rushed and lifeless.

3:26 And so we end this trailer with a reprise of Mirror Mirror, showing how even after 4 whole Volumes, Weiss has not grown as a character despite her trials with her barely-visible team, and she's still left alone with the insecurities and loneliness plaguing her, sending her back to square one!

Yay. RWBY is such a well-written satisfying show.

3:36 But ZOMG! This whole trailer was a flashback! And Weiss is still sad remembering old sad times!

...

BULL.

What was even the point of having that entire fight be a flashback? Narrative-wise, it's a slap in the face to the hope of Weiss growing as a character. Didn't she spend the last part of Volume 4 singing an entire song about how she's going to forge her own path and break away from her family? But her face when she remembers this memory of her old self and replaying Mirror Mirror in the background seems to imply this isn't the case. That she's still stuck in the same mental chains she's been in since the show started. If there's no promise of her truly overcoming herself, why would this flashback have any meaningful bearing on her arc?

Technicality-wise, this only confuses the viewer and short-changes the animators. Believe it or not, I was actually confused as to if Weiss in the trailer was from present time; thought maybe she just put on her old clothes again or something. But it's not; we are just seeing her old self fighting some of Winter's illusions. If we aren't seeing any cool new stuff about Weiss, what is the point of making this a teaser for Volume 5?

So with all that said and done, RWBY has once more proved that it’s just going to be nothing more but a swirling pot of wasted potential and eye candy with some irresponsible writers mixing it all into one big mess, and it’s only going to get more incomprehensible from here on out.

Wonderful.

Let me clarify one last thing: I did NOT drop RWBY in Volume 3 because it was ‘too dark and depressing’. I like a good serious story myself. The purpose of this rant is to show you all my real problem with RWBY: it does not handle its writing with any care whatsoever, or the responsibility to deliver a satisfying product to its audience. Volume 3’s out of nowhere shift, as much as it angers me, I feel is symptomatic of every other writing problem in this series.

It’s lazy. It’s half-baked. It’s popcorn entertainment in the end, sure, but even popcorn needs to be cooked well. I want the tastiest popcorn ever, not some cold barely-microwaved corn kernels left out in the open!

Ugh, if you guys will excuse me, I’m gonna go write my own action-packed fantasy story. With blackjack and hookers.

[wbwest]

New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/04/14/west-week-ever-pop-culture-review-41417/

West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 4/14/17

I was going to skip this week, with it being a holiday weekend and all, but then I realized that this would be the last post written from the WilliamBruceWest.com HQ of the past 6 years. So, simply to commemorate that, you get a quick post.

I didn’t watch any movies this week (dumb, since I need to clear off a 90% full DVR by Tuesday), but I did catch the HBO stand-up special Pete Holmes: Faces and Sounds. Holmes has recently become one of my favorites, as I’ve really been digging his HBO comedy Crashing, which seems to be loosely based on the early days of his stand-up career. He’s at a point now in his career where he seems to be a lot more comfortable onstage. And he cusses a lot more. Something about him reminds me of a modern-day John Ritter – it’s not the physical comedy, but it’s written all over his face. He genuinely just comes off like a good guy that you could have around your mom. I think that’s part of his appeal. Anyway, it’s a pretty good hour, so check it out if you’re looking for a new stand-up special to watch.

In movie news, Jonah Hex/Thanos will now be adding Cable to his resume. In a surprise casting move, Josh Brolin has been cast as the time-traveling hero in the Deadpool sequel. This, supposedly, won’t affect filming of Avengers: Infinity War because most of his work on that movie will be motion capture. Still, it’s odd to see another comic book movie actor jump across the studio aisle. We’ve seen two actors jump from Fox to the MCU (Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan), but you never see them go the opposite direction. I guess he’ll do OK, but I was hoping for someone like Ron Perlman or Stephen Lang. Personally, I’d be more impressed if they’d cast his father, James Brolin.

I didn’t catch the Rick & Morty 3rd season premiere when it was posted online on April Fools Day, but luckily Adult Swim aired it every night last week. It was so good to have the show back, even though I’m not entirely sure I know what was going on. As some folks have said, I really wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that was justa “bonus”episode, and not the actual premiere. If it was real, it definitely set up an interesting new family dynamic. Of course all anyone can talk about, however, is the McDonald’s Mulan Sauce. Apparently, back when Mulan came out, McDonald’s had a special Szechuan sauce for their McNuggets. It was only for a limited time, as those things are wont to be, but now it’s been thrust back into the spotlight thanks to the episode. Fans of the show are trying to get McDonald’s to bring the sauce back, to coincide with the release of the upcoming live action Mulan film (despite the fact that Disney ended their relationship with McDonald’s a few years ago in an attempt to disassociate themselves with unhealthy eating). Already, though, I’ve seen some thinkpieces about how the sauce is cultural appropriation and all that so, basically, welcome to 2017.

In comics news, the X-Men were the source of controversy this week after the artist on X-Men Gold, Ardian Syaf, snuck some incendiary references into the background of his art in the first issue of the book. I don’t have a religious studies degree, so I can’t really get into the minutiae. Basically, though, he slipped in some references to the Qua’ran that are anti-Christian and anti-Jewish. Sure, he can have his beliefs and all, but you don’t sneak that stuff into a corporate comic book. Marvel said that he was going to be disciplined, and later in the week he was fired from the book. Syaf immediately went online and basically said “My career is over”. I kinda wanted to feel bad for him ‘cause he almost seemed suicidal, and I wasn’t sure he initially understood the magnitude of what he had done. In follow up interviews, however, he didn’t really seem to back down. As controversial as he might be right now, it’ll be a major PR opportunity when some publisher, like Dynamite Entertainment, eventually gives him work again.

On the music front, it’s no secret that I’m a huge boyband guy. That said, I never really got into One Direction. It’s not that I was old when they came out, but more of a case where they didn’t have any Max Martin songs. Coming from the late 90s/early 00s era, I feel like you HAVE to have Max Martin songs in order to have hits. I mean, they still had their share of earworms, like “That’s What Makes You Beautiful”, but I never glommed onto them that much. So, when they broke up to pursue solo careers, I wasn’t expecting much – which is why I was surprised to find that I really like “The Sign of the Times”, which is the debut single from Harry Styles. I had the thing looped all day last Friday and, while I’m not sure if it’s a “hit”, I’m really digging what’s going on here. I wonder how the 1D fans are gonna take it. I mean, they’ll eat it up because they love Harry, but it’s not like the 1D songs that they’re used to. You’d expect him to bust out of the gate with something bombastic, but instead he went with something chill and melodic. Anyway, I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of the album when it hits on May 12th.

Things You Might Have Missed This Week

Grace and Frankie has been renewed by Netflix for a 4th season. And I think my wife is the only person I know who’s happy about that. Anyway, Lisa Kudrow is joining the cast.

Jude Law has been cast as young Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts sequel

There’s a Fear Factor reboot coming to MTV, which will be hosted by Ludacris

We got a new Justice League poster. Um, OK. I don’t want to hate the DCEU but they make it so easy

The Get Down’s Shameik Moore has been tapped to voice Miles Morales in the upcoming animated Spider-Man film

John Ridley produced Guerrilla, a miniseries about the Black Power movement, and included basically no Black women in it. Good luck with that, my dude.

TLC are back. Well, T and C; you’d need a necromancer to get L back. Anyway, the single “Way Back” debuted on radio this week. It’s nothing special, really.

Sam Elliott has signed on to star in The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot, which is a Must See based on the title alone

This looks fun. Not “see it in a theater” fun, but fun nonetheless.

This Fall, NBC’s Dateline will become a weekday syndicated true crime series, which will probably end up replacing former correspondent Chris Hansen’s Crime Watch Daily. Coldblooded!

Thor: Ragnarok’s teaser trailer hit this week and it was amazing. Now, keep in mind that the Thor movies are lower on the MCU scale, so it’s not like it had to do much heavy lifting to blow our minds. We’re at a point where we just don’t expect that much from the Thor films. Still, it looks like Guardians of the Galaxy 1.5, and that’s exactly what people love about it. After the departure that was Thor: The Dark World, we’re back to a Thor tale that feels epic and world-spanning. And the Hulk cameo! Anyway, I could ramble about it, or you could just watch it for yourself. All I know is that the Thor: Ragnarok teaser trailer had the West Week Ever.

And if you’re jonesing to read some more, be sure to check out my comic post from this week: Comical Thoughts: The One Where Our Hero Read 30 Marvel Comics In One Night!

[roselovesanimation]

Bolton Film Festival - 20th and 21st September 2017

I attended this event mainly because my graduate film “The Awakening” was shown in the Student Shorts section but I also attended “Industry Talk” for the short film “The Silent Child” and listened to people in industry talk about their process, Chris Lunt and Jason Wingard and the “Animation” showing, which showed 7 animations from around the world.

“The Silent Child” was a short live action film and the director, producer, associate producer and lead actress were in attendance and took audience questions. The film is about a deaf child born into a hearing family and their response to helping her learn before going to school. They emphasied how important it was to have the film be authentic so they did a nationwide search to find the 5 year old actress and got news sites involved like BBC. The main actress wrote the film herself too, as he dad is profoundly dead, so she knows how to sign (and a majority of the film shows her signing to the young girl, Maisie, whilst subtitles show what they are saying) and became best friends with the young girl by gaining her trust. They had no funding for the film and didn’t ask for money, they got it from close friends who were very generous and they feel lucky that they had those people and an incredible team. It took 6 months for them to plan the shots of the film as they focused on getting the cinematography just right, as well as focusing on certain aspects in the film to set the tone, such as lips and hands and colours. They filmed 50 scenes in 8 days because they were on a deadline to get things done and they think it is important for it to go mainstream, even though at the moment it’s on a festival run. The issues shown in the animation are very real and deaf children need support in schools. They want to make the film into a feature film as the concept works and it can be made longer and they want to use the same young girl and tell her story over a longer period of time. The main actress, Rachel Shenton, is so happy with how the deaf community has received the film, as throughout the process she was involved with charities and has been an ambassador for over 10 years. They reflected on the importance of social media and the impact it made on helping make their film a reality, through the way they built an audience and engaged them online and they feel really lucky to get noticed online on the scale they got to. They also discussed their use of drones and how they worked as they “were a low budget film with high quality shots” and they picked specific moments to use them, which reflect the isolation of the character at the end and also the journey to that point. I feel that it is a beautiful film with an important message.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL2pL1ihob8 - Behind the Scenes

Resources: IMDB / Teaser Trailer / BBC News segment

|

Jason Winggard and Chris Lunt are film makers who have worked for people like BBC Comedy and ABC amongst others. They talk about the importance of owning the rights and collaborating with equals and they have made a lot of films over the years. They are both local to the North West area and talked about their journey to where they are now. They offered advice and how it’s good to always have a collaborative attitude and sometimes you have to let go of your project and let directors do their thing.

|

In the “Animation” screening, there were 7 short films that were all really interesting and were 2D, 3D and stop motion films.

1. Spring Jam by Ned Wenlock (New Zealand, 2016) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6286744/

- This was a cute 2D animation that featured musical animals and a journey to be accepted. I really enjoyed this film as it looked so nice as the designs were textured and unique and it was very well animated.

2. Pencilless Case - Magdalena Pilecka (Poland, 2016) https://vimeo.com/152277043

- This was an interesting animation about a character who doesn’t have a pencil as part of their body, whereas on the other side of his door, everyone has a pencil and he wants to be part of that world. It was a bit odd and also pretty dark but well animated.

3. Au Revoir Balthazar - Rafael Sommerhalder (Switzerland, 2016) http://www.aurevoirbalthazar.com/

- This was a beautiful stop motion animation that had a unique style and pretty sets. The main puppet has an interesting design which fits well for the purpose. This film’s bio is “The scarecrow Balthazar hears something enticing in the seashell. A sound so wonderful that he is ready to leave everything behind.”, which is basically a summary of what happens, I really enjoyed this film. What I didn’t realise until I watched the behind the scenes video, is that this was animated on a multiplane with many different layers and they used a lot of real materials which makes this film even more amazing.

4. Perched - Liam Harris (UK, 2016) https://liamh.co.uk/2016/03/03/perched/

- Perched is a combination of 2D hand drawn animation with the exterior set being a physical thing, as you can see on the production blog (https://liamh.co.uk/2016/03/03/perched-production-stills/). The story is sweet and classic and appeals to all ages. There is no dialogue and it isn’t needed as everything is expressed well through the animation of the characters and the situation they are in.

5. Where Have The Flowers Gone - Sin Hong Chan (Hong Kong, 2016) http://augohr.de/catalogue/where-have-the-flowers-gone

- This is a CG dark animation about a pig who works in an industrial factory and his day to day life and the effects it has on him. This film is incredibly made and was created by mostly one person, which is admirable because of how much goes on in this.

6. Sore Eyes for Infinity - Elli Vourinen (Finland, 2016) 

- This animation is so interesting and unique with a nice art style. I liked the journey the main character went on and how escalated things got and what it leads to. The visuals are captivating and this film stuck with me for a while afterwards because of how different it was. I found an IndieGoGo campaign for this film from 2015, which wasn’t fully funded but it was just for the last 10% of the budget at this point anyway (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sore-eyes-for-infinity-by-elli-vuorinen-film-animation#/). The bio for the film is “The film tells a beautiful and heartfelt story about the feelings of anxiety and helplessness we all sometimes feel when trying to cope with the world around us - and about the equally familiar need to take a break from it all.”, which is basically what the film gets across very well. The video the animation director made is very good too as it mentions the studio who helped her make the film.

7. Bald Future - Paul Cabon (France, 2016) http://paulcabon.com/Le-Futur-sera-chauve-The-bald-future

- This was a humorous, interesting and well animated film. The storytelling aspect of it through the narration and matching imagery worked perfectly together. I liked the style of animation and the fluid way it flowed from scene to scene.

I am glad I attended this festival as I got to see a lot of great and inspiring films for free and also be part of it with my own film which was an honour.

[insidetheglitch]

E3 2017 - Recap Part 1: EA & Microsoft

 Just like every year in the middle of June the Electronic Entertainment Expo opened it’s gates for thousands of fans to enjoy the newest games the industry has to offer. Here is a recap of all the big press conferences and also some smaller side-announcements made at this year’s E3!

At the 10th of June EA marked the beginning of this year’s press conferences with their company’s line up:

Madden NFL 2018 Longshot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsDpZbqPFfs

I can’t say too much about Madden, since I never touched it, but it seems like one of those yearly reappearing titles similar to Fifa. The trailer seemed to focus on a story mode, which looks interesting to be fair.

Battlefield 1 - In the Name of the Tsar (DLC):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3zza3ofZ0Q

Starting out with a variety of YouTubers and Twitch Streamers praising Battlefield 1, EA announced an upcoming DLC for the game. It’s gonna be released in September and features two new “night maps”, six new maps playing in Russia and some new gear and characters.

FIFA 2018:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mEKGuqqbko

It’s FIFA ladies and gentlemen. I’m not even gonna comment on that.

A Way Out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzPFhv5S5Lo&t=58s

Damn son! This is by far the most interesting game EA showed this year. It’s by the creators of Brothers - A Tale of two Sons and it looks incredible. I’m really hyped to see more about this in the future. Do yourself a favor and watch the trailer!

Need for Speed: Payback:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-5EdHZ0hBs

And of course, there’ll be another Need for Speed game. Nothing surprising on that front. It seems to be focused on heists again, which is a good thing in my book, but it remains to be seen if it’ll actually step up the racing game or if it’ll just be filed into a seemingly endless stream of other mediocre NFS games.

Star Wars Battlefront 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MVQAwR2L8A

After the mixed to negative reviews of Dice’s first Battlefront game, it’s to be taken cautiously, but the new trailer for Battlefront 2 looks good. There’ll be droids in the game, which is cool. Dice also announced that all DLC coming for Battlefront 2 is supposedly to be free, which would be a major step, considering that the first game was missing more than half of it’s content without the 50$ season pass. We’ll see if EA actually won’t be a dick about the upcoming one.

And with that, the first press conference of E3 2017 ended. EA actually teasered another new game during their presentation, but the actual interesting part of that was shown later on during the Microsoft presentation, which is also up next due to it being held on the 11th of June:

Xbox One X:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-gp-Voq6MQ

Not a new game, but their next console; Microsoft revealed project Scorpio to be the Xbox One X, which isn’t an actual next gen console, but more like a half step, just as the PS4 Pro was on Sony’s side. It features native 4K resolution gaming and has ramped up specs in comparison to the regular Xbox One. It’s also a lot smaller! All Xbox One games are of course still playable and additionally some newer games will feature One X enhancement. The name of the new console is also a smart wordplay: X Box One X.

Forza Motorsport 7:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dokpy_KIuyA

The 7th installment of the Forza series was announced to be released on October 3rd. Yay.

Assassin’s Creed Origins:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX0fd4q0baQ

For some reason, Ubisoft was okay with giving away the reveal of their new AC title to Microsoft, even though they had their own press conference only one day later. The announcement trailer also actually consisted of gameplay, which is unusual for the Assassin’s Creed games. The new game is located in Egypt, featuring a new egyptian assassin and his falcon working together to ... well ... kill people. Who would’ve guessed? To be honest, the gameplay looked rather underwhelming to me. Even though I like the egyptian setting.

Metro Exodus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEuEOugOXcc

Next up: A make-believe gameplay trailer for the new Metro game. It looked amazing, too amazing for me to buy that that’s actual gameplay. Very promising nonetheless.

State of Decay 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ljRGIDGdwU

A second installment of the semi-popular zombie survival game State of Decay. Very brutal, very cinematic. I can’t say too much about the actual game though, it seems to be a story driven experience to some extend though.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kPSl2vyu2Y

Wow. In a beautiful, yet melancholic trailer, including live piano play, Microsoft announced a sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest. It looks emotional and stunning at the same time. There wasn’t much content information, other than the story apparently revolving around an owl. I’m really looking forward to this one!

Sea of Thieves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbE8BnO6oug

In the middle of the presentation Microsoft showed a 9+ minutes gameplay session of Rare’s upcoming game Sea of Thieves. Some shown features like shooting yourself with a cannon and being able to actually dive into the sea make the game look very promising indeed. It’s gonna be one hell of a multiplayer ride!

Crackdown 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_9fG8hPCi0

A trailer of Terry Crews talking about action for over one minute, followed by rap music of people shooting each other. Well yeah. Looks fun.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOrqEC8IoTs

A lot of shown gameplay for the upcoming sequel of Shadow of Mordor. Including funny orc accents. Nice!

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q68LGOjpRHI

YES! Dontnod announced a prequel to Life Is Strange, revolving around Chloe’s life before Max’s reappearance in Arcadia Bay. Fantastic. It’s gonna have 3 episodes, the first of which releases already on August 31th.

Cuphead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-1n15aIgsE

A very short, but completely satisfying trailer for Cuphead, announcing that the game will launch on the 29th of September. Hopefully it will work out this time, as I’m unhealthily hyped for this old-school cartoonish piece of awesomeness!

The Last Night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE8dd1bRL5E

This short teaser of a game was shown during an all-indie part of Microsoft’s presentation and looks really interesting in art style and concept. I’m looking forward for more information on it.

Anthem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVnO58s0YPU

BioWare really kicked it out of the park with this new IP they announced. Anthem is a futuristic multiplayer open world RPG, featuring exo-suits, which let you fly through it’s vast open world. It looks absolutely incredible and I can’t wait for more information about it!

And with this, Microsofts presentation came to an end. There were some smaller announcements and trailers, which I will come back to eventually, but for now I will end this part of the recap and I hope you enjoyed the ride so far!

End of Part 1

Next Up: Bethesda & Ubisoft