#i may do dreamworks couples at some point | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nilusanimationworld · 1 year

Text

Since we're close now to get KFP4 updates soon...hoping next month (or april) I wanna talk/discuss about something(s)

So I was re-watching all the 3 movies & the shorts I actually realized & noticed couple of things

Since we all know Oogway in the third movie tells Po about how he saw the future of Kung Fu the day they met right? And we see both Po & Tigress in his vision right?

Followed by Oogway passing the torch (which is the staff in this case) saying Po is his true successor

Firstly let me start of by saying I love Po okay? Besides being Oogway's successor Po is definitely Shifu's golden student by achieving the Dragon Warrior title and all BUT here's the big question. Does Po also deserve to become Shifu's successor? Yes BUT ALSO NO! Po has got enough titles & credits at this point. Besides Po there is also one more character that deserves at least one title & that is none other than TIGRESS!!!

TIGRESS (DESERVES) SHOULD BECOME SHIFU'S TRUE SUCCESSOR!!

Before anyone decides to attack me let me just point out couple of hints given in the movies itself why Tigress should have Shifu's true successor title

Shawls & Clothing pattern.

Remember the whole drama & discussion we all had & still having about Tigress outfit suddenly being changed? I think I might've figured that reason out too. Both Oogway & Shifu have a similar green shawls right? Which for some strange reason I always thought it was the same shawl just passed down to Shifu after Oogway's death. But turns out both have very different pattern design at the back of their shawls

And SURPRISE BEHOLD it actually matches Po & Tigress. Oogway has almost a Yin Yang pattern which is Po who represents Black & White warrior which Oogway himself tells Po that he represents both sides of yin & yang.

As for Shifu & Tigress's case its the floral & vine patterns. What does the floral & vine pattern has connection to do with Tigress? Well if you watch all the movies including the the shorts her vine patterns actually are representing 'growth'

You'll notice carefully you see no patterns on her vest when she was a kid PLUS also on the brown robe which she used to wear as a teen which also closely represents Shifu's way of dressing since Tigress was desperate to become just like Shifu

But once she finally decides to unleash her real true strength after ripping the robe you finally spot a sapling like pattern on her vest indicating & representing she's finally growing & is out of her shell which later one as she grows older you notice her vine patterns also keep growing & finally her golden hanfu also has a little Lilly/Lotus pattern fully bloomed representing Tigress is a fully grown warrior of her own. Plus the whole growth theme fits very well for both Shifu & Tigress since both have come out from their cold shells & are showing more warmer & compassion sides

Po & Tigress are literally the next Oogway & Shifu

Even their relationships!!

Despite Shifu & Tigress both question Oogway’s & Po’s decisions or plans they still remain extremely loyal & trust their masters.

Heck! Not to mention BOTH Shifu & Tigress has watched Oogway & Po (sorta) dying into petals!!

Shifu passing the staff to Tigress

Okay let’s just say GOD FORBID Shifu’s time comes to end there’s 70% chances Tigress could get his staff since Po has already got Oogway’s special yin yang one. Plus it would actually mean a lot for Tigress & something really special to cherish. Not only it would mean Tigress being the next master of the Jade Palace but also a way of Shifu finally able to express his feelings to Tigress as a father since both Shifu & Tigress aren’t too good in expressing in openly about it.

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DREAMWORKS GIVE US ONE GOOD HEART WARMING FATHER-DAUGHTER MOMENT BETWEEN SHIFU & TIGRESS! PLEASE I BEG YOU!!

Plus if you watch the third movie Shifu actually looks completely shocked not expecting Po to get gand looking staff from Oogway. There could be chances that Shifu may have thought of passing his current staff to Po but after seeing the staff given by Oogway himself to Po Shifu might change his mind to give to Tigress? Or at least I’m hoping!!

Also Fun fact the original storyline for KFP3 besides Mr. Ping & Li Shan fighting over Po whether he should become a noodle master & run his goose dad’s restaurant or choosing becoming a farmer & returning back to secret panda village with his biological dad. Shifu was also included in the fatherly fight as he wanted Po to be the next master to run the Jade Palace but the idea was completely scraped off! So fingers crossed Tigress is in the line on getting to be master to run the Jade Palace since Po already has enough titles & responsibilities to handle as Dragon Warrior & a Teacher

And lastly Po & Tigress both have grown as warriors under Shifu’s training & Oogway’s wisdom. They’re both are perfect balance

In conclusion! There is still hope for Tigress to also play a very important role in the franchise & I am PRAYING EVERYDAY KFP4 does justice to the franchise!!

Anyways what are your thoughts? Feel free to discuss y’all! I really missed the whole pandom discussions!! :)

#kung fu panda #kung fu panda 2 #kung fu panda 3 #kfp #kfp2 #kfp3 #dreamworks #po #master tigress #master shifu #master oogway #po and tigress #pandom #WHEW #THIS IS LONG ASS POST #SO MUCH TYPING #YIKES!!#I'V NEVER DONE SO MUCH OF TYPING IN ONE POST #dragon warrior

375 notes · View notes

kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 4 months

Text

I'm gonna need the current animation-twitter-blogosphere-youtube-content-mill to understand something... Or at least, listen for a bit. I'm no expert, but as someone who has watched box office - particularly animation box office - for nearly two decades now, I wanna talk about what's going on with a lot of animated features nowadays in a post-outbreak world that's still actually dealing with COVID-19.

Box office, the way Hollywood measures it, is already archaic beyond belief at this point. Success and the movie's justification for existence being determined by a thing's opening weekend and not the legs, the longevity beyond theaters, etc. etc. It's created this weird culture of deeming things "flops" and also creating this weird obsession with marketing.

And apparently more than one of the YouTube Toon Opinion Industrial Complex content mills are already calling a movie like MIGRATION, which is currently legging it up in a way that Illumination's SING movies did during the holiday frame in their respective release years, a money-loser... Like, pump the brakes, will ya?

I don't care if it's clickbait or whatever, like, c'mon... We're reducing the hard work of animators and filmmakers to how much the movie makes in its first weeks of existence.

The way I see it, we're in an era now where...

Theater trips are goddamn expensive and are kind of a gamble. Over $50-70 for a family to see a movie, with concessions added, and your experience may SUCK. (Take it from me, 8-year movie theater employee and loooong-time moviegoer here who has had plenty a shit experience.) It's a gamble each and every time.

And the same applies to maybe a friend group, or a dating couple, or even older adults looking to watch something.

So, either the movie has to be something audiences are familiar with AND know what they're going to get out of it (i.e. MARIO, certain Marvel movies, etc.), or it's lucky to hit audiences in the right place at the right time (OPPENHEIMER, etc.) and luckily tap into the zeitgeist- if not change the zeitgeist singlehandedly.

Box office alone is a gamble. When you start a movie 4 years before release, how the hell do you know what the world is going to look like by the time the thing is completed?

I'm repeating myself, like a broken mp3, I know I know.

But, that's how I see it... Thus, animated family movies and their usual family audiences are in a unique position at the moment. A pretty solid-looking, more original animated family film from Pixar or DreamWorks or Sony had more chances of opening with $40m than they do now. Say, a movie that's not based on a pre-existing IP or is based on one that was never before adapted into a movie or TV series (think something like THE BAD GUYS).

Of course, you have your MARIOs and SPIDER-VERSEs. Those were guaranteed big openers. Films like ELEMENTAL and MIGRATION weren't so clear-cut. Even TROLLS 3 opened fine-ish, significantly below what TROLLS took in some 7 years ago. PUSS IN BOOTS 2 was hampered by bad weather on the East Coast, yeah, but its opening wasn't going to be anything special either. Legs... Or wings in MIGRATION's case, cat claws in PUSS's case... Make all the difference.

They always have, actually. Animated family features usually relied on strong word-of-mouth if they had some kind of adult appeal. It's something similar to what Walt Disney had once "realized" in the late 1950s. Something to the tune of "If the film really appealed to mom... Then mom takes the whole family... And then tells all her friends, and they go, and everyone goes."

So I feel we're in an era where the success of an animated feature can NOT be determined too early. Remember how ELEMENTAL was written off as a big ol' flop, immediately? And that Pixar was toast? And that they needed to bring the Hawaiian shirt pervert control freak back in order to get a box office hit again?

Weeks later, everyone was singing a different tune. ELEMENTAL was an underdog, it had a "comeback" story. No folks, that's just classic animation legs. People liked the movie after hearing from the few people who saw it... That it was actually worth checking out.

But these films need the legs more than ever before, now. Especially in a competitive marketplace where stuff is coming out every week, and there's always something just as good at home to put on. (Some people are trying to suggest that Netflix's LEO cut into Disney's WISH... Because it's at home, right there, no overpriced snacks or disruptive strangers next to you.)

Luckily, TROLLS 3 and MIGRATION were lower with their budgets. Cost in the sub-$100m regions, weren't required to make half a billion like the $200m-costing ELEMENTAL and WISH were expected to do. Which is kinda unfair to begin with, but I digress. Pixar is sure to blow $175m+ on their future features, and WDAS too, while DreamWorks, Illumination, and Sony try to keep it below $100m. Even if it's through dubious means, like outsourcing and shitty pay.

So, nowadays with animated family movies, it's a waiting game. MIGRATION, as of now, is currently at $77m domestically. That's already 6.4x its opening weekend, a fantastic multiplier for any film. By the time it wraps up, it'll likely make over 8x its opening weekend, landing amongst the biggest multipliers for a post-90s animated feature. That Christmas-to-winter break-to-boredom season slot does wonders, doesn't it? And of course, the movie being liked by those who saw it. WISH could've been a leggy Thanksgiving/Christmas movie - like TANGLED and FROZEN and MOANA were, but audiences clearly weren't digging it much.

Of course, it's not easy to do that, either. Sometimes a thing just won't land. LIGHTYEAR, for example. That's also part of the gamble. More often than not, though, these kinds of movies usually get a good audience grade, MIGRATION's no different... So, it's leggin' it up, winging it.

Which is why we should maybe... Wait a few weeks on these kinds of things? I know these "content creators" have bills to pay and have to crank-crank-crank stuff out, but still-

5 notes · View notes

agentnico · 1 month

Text

Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) review

Jack Black’s new version of “Hit Me Baby One More Time” is great. In all honestly all of Tenacious D’s covers are superb. Their take on “I Think I Love You” for Croods 2 slaps as hard as Will Smith’s palm against Chris Rock’s face. Apologies, I just watched the new Bad Boys trailer so that momentary awards moment has sprung back into my mind.

Plot: After Po is tapped to become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace, he needs to find and train a new Dragon Warrior, while a wicked sorceress plans to re-summon all the master villains whom Po has vanquished to the spirit realm.

For some reason I presumed Kung Fu Panda 3 was the ending to the trilogy and the story was over. Then again Hollywood wants to keep making more money and this animated franchise has been highly successful for DreamWorks till now, so of course it was only a matter of time. To give them props though, DreamWorks has been on a bit of a hot streak recently with The Bad Guys - a visually-pleasing heist flick; Croods 2 - hilarious riot; this year’s Orion and the Dark - a fun concept with a mind-bending ending; and of course Puss in Boots: The Last Wish which is an animated masterpiece. There, I said it. The Puss in Boots sequel is fantastic and I won’t hear otherwise! As such even though the trailers weren’t showing too much promise, I went into Kung Fu Panda 4 optimistically, hoping it’s not just a needless cash-grab.

Right, yep, it’s a cash-grab through and through. You can tell the writers were really trying to milk some kind of an idea for a plot, and all they could come up with is Po needing to find a new Dragon Warrior in his place. Not the most original concept as is, and one that in the end feels really rushed, and his choice for his replacement is one that feels unsatisfying. The main villain also is really weak. A chameleon voiced by Viola Davis, and though visually the shape-shifting gimmick works really well, narratively this character has hardly anything to do, let alone be in any way intimidating. I recall in one of the previous films the villain was Lord Shen, who was introduced as someone who has killed Dragon Warriors before. What’s the scariest thing this chameleon now does, you may ask? She lightly pushes someone down the stairs. That’s it.

Another rushed aspect of the movie is that many voice actors from the previous films are needlessly ditched either with a lame excuse for their absence, or not giving them any lines and the characters appearing in silence. Like a big selling point in the marketing is that we get to see all the villains from the previous entries come back. A fun idea, however aside from Ian McShane as Tai Lung the other villains only appear as if they’re in a silent movie. Are you telling me that DreamWorks really couldn’t afford to get Gary Oldman to record a couple of lines on his phone and send them over? It’s like if Spider-Man: No Way Home had all the old Spidey villains from previous films come back, but they just stand about silently doing nothing. How crap would that have been? So yes, this really cheapens the movie.

Visually the film looks great. It’s mad to see how the animation has progressed as this series of movies has gone further. Particular attention has been given to the background environments that look gorgeous! Great use of colours and detail. A chase sequence through a city of thieves is a particular eye-popping set piece, that even gives Hans Zimmer the small opportunity to have some fun with the music score during it.

As for the voice cast - Jack Black is a charisma machine! He’s an icon and of course Po is just Jack Black being himself, but he has so much energy in his line delivery that he carries this movie fully on his shoulders. Awkwafina is also in this movie. Look, the reason I’m pointing that out is that if one looks at her filmography since 2019 she’s voiced characters in Little Mermaid, Migration, Kung Fu Panda 4, Bad Guys, SpongeBob: The Movie, Raya and the Last Dragon, The Dark Crystal Netflix series, Angry Birds Movie 2…. That’s so much!! What does she have on these animation studios that they keep hiring her? She’s not the only female voice actor out there. And I’m sorry, she’s not even that great of a voice actress, and I wasn’t a fan of her here either. Dustin Hoffman kind of just lingers about questioning his life, Bryan Cranston and James Hong have some amusing co-dads banter, Ian McShane being back as Tai Lung was lovely, and Ke Huy Quan is the usual ball of excitable energy that he always is.

Unlike Puss in Boots where the wait for the sequel was more than worth it, Kung Fu Panda 4 feels as if the franchise may have run its course and the writers have simply ran out of ideas. There’s a “been there done that” aura surrounding this whole movie, and again it’s not terrible, but more so just passable. There’s nothing new here, simply retreading old territory. I’m sure if you take your kids with you to see it though they’ll probably have a good time. Probably. That “Hit Me Baby One More Time” cover though - hell yeah!

Overall score: 5/10

3 notes · View notes

theunknownofficial · 10 days

Text

ACCEPTING PROMPTS

Hey all, long time no see. It’s been a while since I updated anything and I feel bad leaving for so long. The reasons for this are:

1) I ran out of time to work on it and when I had time I was doing other things. I just lost my job but was previously working 40+ hours a week and running errands on weekends. I was physically and mentally exhausted.

2) What is motivation anymore? Seriously, I’d sit down to work on my WIPs and end up reading on my phone instead until I had to go to sleep.

3) I’m kinda stuck on how to proceed with The New World Orders. Some people have pointed out that I’ve fallen into the “woah is me,” “problematic main character,” trope and I agree. But I also don’t know how to fix it 😂. I have no idea how to finish writing it. Like I know where I’m going with the story and I have everything planned out (like really planned out. Talking my Tism and Hyper-focused obsessiveness made me create a whole ass family tree with personalities and houses and a bunch of other shit for this gen and the next two gens and going back like 4. I seriously have a tree website with 3,000 people on it all for this story. It’s nuts. I have no intention of going into past generations in this and I won’t be expanding past their kids but the fact that my brain could pull that shit and can’t write the next chapter is scary and fucking annoying at the same time). Where I was going with that tangent is I have the big picture, but it’s the individual chapters that are messing me up.

So, having said that, I am obviously in a bit of a slump. I haven’t written anything in what feels like ages and I need to do something a little smaller scaled to get back into things. I will eventually finish my WIP - I have no idea when but I will do it or be damned 😠 ✊🏻👊🏻. I am taking requests right now for one shots. Here’s the specs if you’re interested;

Couples I’m willing to write:

1) Anyone paired in my WIP or if you go to Chapter 6: Chapter 5 there’s an authors note where I list alternative partners, I’m willing to write those as well.

2) Steve x Bucky (MCU), Nat x Clint (MCU), Peter x Deadpool (MCU)

3) Rey x Kylo (Star Wars), Rose x Hux (Star Wars), Finn x Poe (Star Wars), Padme x Anikan/Darth Vader (Star Wars)

4) Kellin Quinn x Vic Fuentes (Sleeping With Sirens and Pierce the Veil), Alex Gaskarth x Jack Barakat (All Time Low), Hyunjin Hwang x Lee Felix (Stray Kids)

5) Evan Hansen x Connor Murphy (Dear Evan Hansen), Zoe Murphy x Alana Beck (Dear Evan Hansen), Michael Mell x Jeremy Heere (Be More Chill), Phantom x Christine (Phantom of the Opera), Veronica x JD (Heathers)

6) Marinette x Adrien (Miraculous Lady Bug), Sam x Dean (Supernatural), Rapunzel x Jack Frost (Disney / Dreamworks), Hiccup x Merida (Disney / Dreamworks), Carly Shay x Freddie Bensen (ICarly), Percy x Nico (Percy Jackson)

I’m not hard-set on these being the only couples I’ll write but these are 100% something I’ll write. You’re welcome to request additional pairs but I can’t guarantee I’ll know any other pairs or be comfortable writing them if I only know them in passing.

Situations I’m willing to write:

Pretty open to any situation but I won’t write anything with kid smut. I like lots of AU’s (Mafia, Hurt/Comfort, Meet Cute, Song fics, Reunions, Pinning, Omegaverse (my personal favorite at the moment), Harry Potter, I’m even open to angst). I will say I’m not much of a switch fan so I won’t write switch smut and I’m pretty set on who tops and bottoms with some of these couples so I may not accept every smut ask for those two reasons.

Feel free to comment on this or send me a messgae. And please share, if you have friends who may not read Dramione but read any other couples I posted above share with them! I wanna do as many of these as possible. I don’t plan on doing any long prompts, I’m not trying to turn these into more fics, but I really want to get back into writing and I think this may be the way to do it. If I get enough requests I’ll separate the one shots by genre (or universe? Not sure how to fraise that but like all Harry Potter in one and Marvel in a different fic) otherwise I’ll just put them all in a one and differentiate in the chapter titles. I’m really hoping I get some responses for this because my head is empty right now and I need someone to tell me what to write 😂. Thanks all! Love you and hope life is treating you well right now.

4 notes · View notes

92-guy · 2 years

Text

Did you know that there is a hashtag where you only talk about why hate jelsa? Look, I'm not the biggest fan of jelsa as a couple, I prefer them as "siblings in magic" and it would be something like this:

Elsa the eldest

Jack the middle one

Anna the youngest

So I can't believe I'm going to do this, but it's time to defend the ridiculous Jelsa ship

I know that many of those who use this hashtag talk about their bad experiences with that fandom, but toxic fans exist everywhere, the only thing we can do is ignore them, and continue with your favorite ship.

Another point they use is that Jack is a child, which is not true, according to the same DreamWorks Jack is 18 years old, which although he is still young and with a child attitude, he is of legal age and can make his own decisions and be with the person he wants, with consent.

They also talk about Jack not being from the same era, to which I say "It's a ship, not a work project, it doesn't have to make complete sense" , because then we would have problems with Elsa's powers and many inconsistencies.

Other people say that it is an overrated ship, to which I do not have many arguments to deny it, I literally looked for "jack Frost" in the Tumblr search engine and without lying I saw more Jelsa post than Jack alone, and although it is annoying it is at some point understandable, the first time you see them you do not think and only see two objects of the same color, although they have different dimensions and textures, first you only associate it by the color or in this case hair color and powers

Now, after we saw some reasons why Jelsa is not as terrible as they say, I want to tell you that I understand that we have different tastes, and although I prefer Hiccelsa, I know that another group of people may not like it, and it is acceptable and that is not a reason to me to try to change their opinion or create a new hashtsg to complain about another ship that is not the one I like,

So you know, if you don't like a ship just don't see it and continue with your favorite ship, trust me it's the best you can do

I also want to tell you that this is not a post to change your mind, it would be very hypocritical on my part, just do not become what you criticize, don't be toxic

#anti jelsa #Don't be toxic #elsa frozen #dreamworks #disney #jack frost #jelsa #shipping #toxic

14 notes · View notes

true-blue-megamind · 2 years

Text

FAN THEORY THURSDAY – Why Did Megamind Choose Hal?

Yes, yes, I know, I'm late again. So sue me. (Don't really do that; you'll only be disappointed.) But at last, I am back!

If you are that one person who still insists reading these posts without having ever watched one of DreamWorks’ best animated movies, well, firstly, I have questions. Secondly, SPOILER WARNING!

Special thanks to Berry Marais for suggesting this, and I quote: “wickedly bad idea for the greater good of bad.” You’re amazing!

During yet another interesting discussion on the Megamind’s Evil Lair Discord, a fellow fan, Berry Marais, brought up an interesting point: if our favorite blue alien is supposed to be so incredibly smart, how did he not notice that Hal was literally the worst person in Metro City he could possibly imbue with superpowers? “I mean,” she went on to say. “Minion realized it at once and wanted to diffuse Hal as soon as possible. This was a serious case of not reading people.”

Is that all that it was? Could Megamind be a true super-genius yet also a completely inept judge of character? If so, why? Let’s take a look at what the evidence can tell us!

Initially, the blue man’s failure to recognize Hal’s obvious lack of heroic qualities seems oxymoronic, completely at odds with other aspects of Megamind’s character. This is not only because of his genius but also due to his background. Consider for a moment how the former villain was raised; as a child, he survived and even thrived while living in a high-security prison filled with adult criminals. As I’ve mentioned before in other posts, the alien child may have had the protection of some of those inmates—his “prison uncles,” as the fandom has charmingly named them, who we see teaching him when he is an infant—but by the time he was old enough to enter grade school, he had already been separated into a lonely cell.

Why does that matter? It may indicate that Megamind often had to rely on his own methods to keep both he and Minion safe. His success was likely based in part upon forming a terrifying reputation from a young age, (you can read more about that in The Warden,) but there was almost certainly more to it. In order to identify possible threats as well as potential allies, he would have needed to become an excellent judge of fellow prisoners’ characters. Although this is never stated outright, it’s difficult to imagine that the blue man would have protected himself and even climbed to the top of the criminal world without such insights. So why did that same skill fail him where Hal was concerned?

Perhaps the most obvious fan theory is that Megamind simply didn’t know Hal. As far as we know, he’d never interacted with the creepy cameraman before the latter was infused with Metroman’s DNA. (Many fans point to Megamind’s obvious attraction to Roxanne Ritchi coupled with the fact that he did not rain villainous wrath down upon her harassing stalker as possible evidence of this.) Indeed, in the original film script, Hal accidentally “saves” a mother and her baby, thus leading Megamind to assume he is a quintessentially Good Guy. Of course, that part was cut from the final version, but it nonetheless illustrates that the blue man clearly knew little or nothing about his homemade nemesis.

The next conjecture finds far more notable support in the movie itself. Starting during his school days, Megamind appears to develop a near-obsession with the concept of Good Versus Evil as well as with that of Destiny. These ideas help form his worldview and remain a driving force for the character throughout much of the film.

Two things render those facts vital to this examination. Firstly, the blue man firmly believes that Hal has been chosen as his new nemesis by fate—he even says as much when Minion suggests it was a mere mistake—and he seems to possess an almost zealous conviction where destiny is concerned. Thus he might not only fail to question what he viewed as a predetermined outcome but also ignore any evidence contradicting it. Secondly, Megamind seems, throughout much of the movie, to have a nearly binary understanding of society. Many argue that it’s likely he feels people must fall into one of two categories: Good or Bad. Therefore, if he and other criminals are bad, then supposedly “normal” citizens must, by the process of elimination, be good. This concept may be combined with the previous hypothesis; although Megamind was probably adept at reading fellow lawbreakers, he may have lacked equal insight into regular people.

Indeed, the rules governing interactions within a prison or a criminal organization differ vastly from those dictating ordinary interactions on, for example, a city street. This brings us to our next supposition: it’s possible that, while he perfectly comprehended how to read other Bad Guys, the blue man may have been so unfamiliar with normal social norms that they were nearly alien to him. It’s not a far leap. Having been raised in prison and ostracized for the majority of his life, Megamind is unlikely to have ever been fully socialized. This means that the only cultural norms, so to speak, he would be deeply familiar with are those of the prison subculture. Judging the character of anyone outside of that group would be nearly as difficult for him as it would be for us to read a stranger in an unknown country.

There is a problem with this theory, however. Megamind and Minion were raised together, in the same circumstances, so why would Minion be better able to see Hal for what he was? Aside from the concepts already discussed, such as Megamind’s preoccupation with fate, there is another possible answer. The fishy henchman may have had more opportunity to observe ordinary society. One reason for this is that, while they did both spend a significant portion of their childhoods incarcerated, Megamind is the only one we ever see in jail as an adult. Whether because he was Metroman’s sole focus, because he regularly bought his friend time to escape, or, as some fans theorize, because he made it abundantly clear that messing with Minion would be extremely bad for a person’s health, the blue man alone seems to have endured punishment following his plots.

This means that his henchfish may have had more time and opportunity to experience society. Furthermore, we know that Megamind and Minion both have holowatches—two of the disguise generators are used during the final battle with Titan—and we know that Minion likely donned his to go out in society more often. During the film, when Megamind lies about his date with Roxanne, claiming that he needs to “run a quick errand,” Minion reminds him that he doesn’t run errands. Yet someone must have taken care of such chores, and the most likely candidate is the fishy henchman himself. Therefore he may have had regular interactions with the people of Metro City while Megamind did not, giving Minion far better insight into humanity in general.

Both the film and other sources support this. According to The Analytical Couch Potato, an online entertainment magazine, director Tom McGrath described Megamind as “a villain who is really naive to the ways of the world, who never had a decent childhood.” He goes on to explain that this is why “everything’s new to this guy outside of his darkened Lair.” However, there are several times during the movie when Minion appears to have superior insight to the society around them. For example, when Megamind is enthused by the windows of the mayor’s office, Minion tells him what they are. Although a bit absurd—the blue man has to have seen windows before; even the Evil Lair has them, albeit old, thickly grimed ones—this scene and others like it were apparently intended to illustrate just how unfamiliar with normal life Megamind really is. However, Minion seems to be a good deal more knowledgeable, suggesting once more that he has greater experience with social interaction.

So, Minion may have been better able to recognize Hal’s unsuitability as a hero simply because he had spent more time among ordinary people and therefore had better comparative data. There is one more reason, however, why our favorite villain-turned-hero may not have easily seen what sort of person Hal really was. Surprisingly, it has to do with Megamind’s intellect. That’s right. While many would naturally assume that a genius should be better able to read people, there is some evidence that the opposite may be true.

According to an article by Dr. Roberta B. Ness in Psychology Today, geniuses are more likely to have difficulty relating to people, and can often even be antisocial. Interestingly, this piece focused specifically on inventive geniuses, which could certainly describe the blue alien, and stated that they can often become so focused on ideas and pursuits that they sometimes overlook people. “In the case of some geniuses, the most radically original thinking may have the greatest blind spot for human interactions,” Dr. Ness explained. Indeed, another article on Learning Mind takes it a step further, stating that highly intelligent people often have poor social skills and difficulty understanding other people. Due to tendencies such as overthinking everything, focusing on cerebral interests rather than social ones, and becoming disinterested in anyone who seems dull, geniuses can sometimes have a hard time comprehending and interacting with other individuals. This could be another reason why Megamind didn’t see that Hal was clearly a terrible choice for a new hero.

Interestingly, that might also help explain how the blue man could have been able to read people well enough to survive a childhood in prison yet have been completely blind to Hal’s faults. If you consider the issues discussed above, it becomes obvious that many of them are connected with focus. Ideas and curiosity will often hold a genius’s attention better than people—especially if they find those people too ordinary and boring—and even when they do socialize, their minds are likely to be engaged by overthinking their own responses rather than listening to others. However, this suggests that a genius can focus on reading people if that task becomes important enough to be prioritized.

In fact, we may actually see this occurring in the movie. While the former supervillain seems to have been entirely oblivious to Hal’s negative qualities at first, the more problematic the creepy cameraman becomes the better Megamind seems to be able to read him. After his supposed new nemesis fails to accept his public challenge, Megamind recognizes fairly quickly how best to enrage Hal, prompting him into their first battle. During their final fight, he comprehends his enemy even faster. Consider the scene during which Megamind is trying to run for the invisible car when Titan picks him up by the collar. It takes the blue man a mere second to not only formulate a plan, but judge exactly what he can say to make Hal propel him toward the unseen vehicle. If he had angered Titan too much, Megamind might have been incapacitated or ever killed; too little and his plan might not have worked. Yet he was able to pick the perfect balance to achieve his goal. It seems that because Hal had become a threat, he had become worthy of attention, and because he was worthy of attention, Megamind was able to focus on him and accurately predict his reaction.

So, why did Megamind not initially see, as was so obvious to Minion, that Hal was decidedly not hero material? It may well have been a combination of nature—the predisposition of highly intelligent people to have poor social skills—along with nurture—the lack of experience interacting with people outside of criminal groups leading to false assumptions. Considering all of the proverbial cards stacked against him, it’s little wonder that the alien genius had difficulty understanding his short-term nemesis at first. However, it appears that our favorite blue hero does have the capacity to read people very well once they gain his full attention. That concludes this Fan Theory Thursday post! I hope you enjoyed it!

356 notes · View notes

jurassicparkpodcast · 3 years

Text

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Season 3 Provides A Welcome Treat For More Mature Jurassic Fans (Non-Spoiler Review)

The third season of Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous is just around the corner – with a debut date of the 21st of May 2021. The DreamWorks Animations and Universal Pictures teams were kind enough to give The Jurassic Park Podcast a look at the series ahead of its debut, so we wanted to share a non-spoiler review of the series. We will share one spoiler, however – this season was AWESOME!

If you caught my review of the second season of the show, then you will know that I was a little apprehensive about the direction which the series appeared to be taking – but, I was open to the team working on the project to prove me wrong and put my doubts to rest. I am happy to report that the third season of the show did exactly that. It took the time to explore new areas of Isla Nublar, brought in some additional lore which will have wider influences on the Jurassic universe as a whole, and also explored some darker and much grittier story threads throughout the season which I think adult fans are likely to enjoy. The story of the third season is one of desperation – as the Campers plan to escape the island whilst attempting to avoid a new threat which is making its presence felt across Isla Nublar.

The third season’s story really takes the opportunity to explore some fundamental elements of the Jurassic franchise – allowing us to explore certain events and things which may have been happening off-screen during or before the events of the films. I really enjoyed how these sequences added extra context and meaning to moments which we are already familiar with as Jurassic fans, allowing us to revisit these moments and appreciate the extra depth which Camp Cretaceous adds to them. One of my biggest concerns with the third season was how the plot would be handled in terms of its wider implications for the larger story which is taking place as we approach Jurassic World Dominion. I’m happy to report that serious thought has been put into the writing here – finding a way for the story to fit happily within its confines whilst making sense in terms of the wider canon. I was really delighted to see just how hard the team worked to make this fit, and apart from a couple of small moments which contradict smaller elements of the canon, the story itself works really well and feels like a return to the great storytelling present throughout the first season.

The Campers also get the opportunity to see some fantastic growth throughout the third season – with some moments which put them in genuinely challenging and deadly situations that allow for some meaningful growth. The story manages to factor in some of the key elements which many of us face when we are growing up – including things like discovering our own identity – but it does this in a way which complements the story which is unfolding on screen. It’s also worth noting that the growth in the characters isn’t only psychological and emotional in this season. As you can see in the trailers, the assets have been updated to reflect the amount of time which the campers have spent on the island – meaning unkempt hair and dirty clothes are present throughout. The added detail, combined with the emotional development many of these characters undergo in the third season, means that the show helps to provide a snapshot of the real impact that being trapped on Isla Nublar has had.

There is also a lot of variety in Dinosaurs here – with several different animals seen throughout the season, which we really appreciated. As we saw in the trailer, the Dimorphodon from Jurassic World appears in the season for the first time and has some fun sequences which help to remind us of why aerial animals are so terrifying. An assortment of familiar carnivores and herbivores also return throughout the third season – helping to remind us of just how diverse the ecosystem present on the island really is. Alongside all of these expected animals, we also have a couple of surprises which I wasn’t expecting, one of which made me shout out loud with excitement. The show does a really good job of balancing our expectations with new and diverse elements – even if they always don’t make the most sense in the wider context of the confines of the park.

Alongside good variety in Dinosaurs, we also get a good assortment of different locations throughout the season – as well as familiar locations, too. One thing I appreciated was the different weathers and times of day which we got to use to explore some locations, as this meant that some locations got to feel a lot more authentic and therefore complimented them feeling a lot more new, too. It’s safe to say that Isla Nublar is a huge island with lots of unique areas dotted across it, so I really appreciated the opportunity to explore more of that, and to get some insight into the ways in which Simon Masrani opted to run the park. Whilst there are a couple of locations which perhaps feel a little exaggerated due to their location on Nublar, they do provide a welcome change of pace and tone to the story, something which only benefits it as we continue to get deeper into the depth of the real plot points here.

Overall, I am absolutely delighted with Camp Cretaceous Season 3. This season felt like it reigned in some of the more grandiose aspects of the second season – something which felt a lot more grounded, and therefore a lot more appropriate tonally when compared to the other projects within the Jurassic universe. There were plenty of moments when I laughed out loud and had a huge grin on my face watching the show – and I think this is a testament to the amount of passion and love which clearly went into getting this right. There is something for everyone here – from classic call-backs, to action-packed moments and even some subtle nods to the novel – all of which helps to create a season which I am confident will be just as pleasing for adult fans as it will for the younger fans who are growing up with this era of Jurassic content.

Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Season 3 is exciting, energetic, scary and nostalgia-driven in many of the best ways – and I can’t wait to see how the creative team behind this season continue to build on it in the future.

Written by: Tom Jurassic

#article #camp cretaceous #camp cretaceous season three #camp cretaceous season 3 #camp cretaceous season three non spoiler #camp cretaceous season three review #season 3 review #camp cretaceous season 3 review #tom jurassic

33 notes · View notes

mst3kproject · 3 years

Photo

The Monster of Piedras Blancas

At some point I realized that I'd done an awful lot of fishman movies on this blog, so I decided I needed a tag for them. I chose #it's beginning to look a lot like fishmen, after a rather amusing musical version of The Shadow over Innsmouth that you can find on YouTube. Most of them are less fun than said video, and this one very much so. It qualifies itself for MST3King by featuring Forrest Lewis from The Thing that Couldn't Die, Don Sullivan from The Giant Gila Monster, and Jeanne Carmen from Untamed Youth.

Some lonely people feed the birds or stray cats in their neighbourhood. The lighthouse keeper of Piedras Blancas doesn't have any of those, so he feeds the fish monster that lives below the rocks. As long as he does this, it only occasionally kills people when they wander into its territory, but trouble begins when the grocer fails to save enough meat scraps to satisfy it. Soon the hungry beast is lopping heads off right and left and draining the bodies of blood! The local constable thinks he may have a homicidal maniac on his hands, but marine biologist Fred identifies a shed scale at the scene as belonging to a Diplovertebron, a beast thought to be long-extinct.

Diplovertebron is an actual creature with its own Wikipedia article and everything. According to said article, it was a lizardy sort of a thing that lived in what is now the Czech Republic three hundred million years ago, and was around half a meter long. It's a very obscure and not terribly threatening animal, and I have a hard time imagining why the writers chose it, of all extinct creepy-crawlies, to be their monster's ancestor. It doesn't even have a very interesting name. 'Diplovertebron' is quite technical-sounding and has too many syllables to roll nicely off the tongue. Why not pick something that at least sounds scary?

The Monster of Piedras Blancas is a bloated, sedate movie. It knows that movies need breaks between the actiony bits... but its actiony bits have no real action, and the talky scenes it inserts to space them out are deathly dull and contribute almost nothing. There's a bit where two characters discuss a victim's time of death in great detail, taking into account things like a spilled bottle of ink, that would have reduced Joel to tears. It almost becomes a joke when Fred and the Doctor discuss the minutiae of Diplovertebron scales, while the constable sits there growling impatiently at them. When even your characters think the movie is too slow, you have a problem.

Everything that might possibly be exciting takes place off-screen. This is fine and even expected during the 'building suspense' parts – of course we don't see the deaths of the fishermen or the grocer. The bit where we first see the entire monster, when characters open a walk-in fridge and it lumbers out holding a severed head, is honestly pretty well-done. After that, however, we should finally get to see some monster-eating-people scenes... but since this is yet another stupid rubber fishman suit a la the She-Creature, all it's actually capable of is slapping a few guys and then fleeing. It supposedly kills a couple of gun-toting rednecks, but the fight happens elsewhere while the audience watches Fred and the doctor fart around in a cave. We don't see the monster again until it inevitably kidnaps the lighthouse-keeper's cute daughter at the climax.

The severed head is pretty plasticky and looks nothing like the guy it supposedly came from, but an effort was made and I respect that. There are veins sticking out the bottom of it and a really creepy bit where we find it in the monster's lair with crabs crawling over it.

As the movie draws closer to its climax, the men in the town sit down and have a good think about how they're going to defeat it. They know they can't overpower it, and it seems to be reasonably intelligent, so they've decided they're going to have to outwit it. Their big plan for doing so is... throw a net over it.

I expected this to fail spectacularly, but what actually happened was even dumber. I will not spoil the last thirty seconds of this movie for you, because it's funny as hell, but let's just say that fishmen are like pumas – if you ever meet one in real life, you can just push it the hell over.

As you might have guessed, Lucy is only in this movie so that she can be saved from the monster and can kiss Fred as the words the end appear on the screen. The only interesting thing about her is a brief moment of stunning misogyny. She comes running to the doctor to tell him her father has had an accident and needs help – and before going to do so, the doctor makes Lucy take a sedative. Her behaviour was not in any way hysterical or unreasonable. A little reassurance would have done the job just fine!

This scene suggests that the townspeople don't think very highly of Lucy, and there are other bits that tell us she's probably supposed to be at least ten years younger than twenty-nine-year-old actress Jeanne Carmen. On the other hand, they seem to think she's capable enough to look after her injured father alone and with only a locked door to protect her from the marauding monster. Then again, if they didn't, it couldn't carry her off to be menaced. Yet again, a movie's leading lady is a plot device rather than a character. This seems particularly true of fishman movies. Think of the Creature from the Black Lagoon series.

As I mentioned upfront, I have seen a lot of fishman movies. This is the fifteenth since this blog's inception! I thought there were a lot of bigfoot movies around, but if you check the tags you'll see that fishmen outnumber him two to one! This brings up an interesting question – namely, why?

Why fishmen? Sea Monsters have a long and fascinating history that includes not just the classic serpent and kraken but such things as savage merpeople, scaly pig-fish covered with eyes, and according to one sixteenth-century map, very large Yorkshire terriers. Then along came the 1930s and the popularization of the Loch Ness Monster as plesiosaur, opening up the range to prehistoric sea beasties. Why not one of those?

I'm guessing the answer is 'because they're expensive'. Those would require puppets and stop motion and other special effects. A guy in a costume is much cheaper to build and operate.

Okay, but even if you have to restrict yourself to human-shaped monsters, there are plenty of those, too! There's the aforementioned merpeople, but also vampires, werewolves, zombies, mummies, and their ilk! Dracula and Frankenstein are both in the public domain! And make no mistake, people have made lots of movies about those... but they have also made a whole lot of movies about fishmen! Why fishmen?

The answer, most likely, is that Creature from the Black Lagoon came out in 1954 and it was huge, being one of those movies that requires an entire separate Wikipedia article for its cultural impact! The tidal wave of other fishman movies that followed it are like the glut of monster-on-a-spaceship movies that followed Alien, or the fad for teenage slasher movies in the 1980s, or those cheaply animated direct-to-DVD movies that cluster around every Disney and Dreamworks release. A fishman movie had made money, and now everybody was lining up to milk the scaly, mucus-coated cash cow!

That was a terrible mix of metaphors right there. Yuck.

There's also something uniquely horrifying about one of the genre's major tropes – the fishman's interest in human women. This, too, began with Creature from the Black Lagoon but as we've seen it carried over into other films – Bog and Creatures from the Abyss are notable examples (and then there's The Shape of Water). In The Monster from Piedras Blancas this idea is present in that the monster kidnaps Lucy instead of just killing her like it did every other human it met, but it's not emphasized the way the monster's interest in Kay was in Black Lagoon. Fish are proverbially cold and slimy, and the idea of sexual contact with one is almost reminiscent of necrophilia unless you have some very specific interests (see previous parentheses). The fishman's lack of genitals make it that much more disturbing.

So now that we've sorted that out, my final question about fishman movies is this: could a fishman beat bigfoot in a fight? They're both big, broad-chested creatures that movies like to outfit with claws, teeth, superhuman strength, and bad tempers. I think it would depend on where the battle happened. If they're in the water, then the fishman has a clear advantage – bigfoot can drown. If they're on land, things are a little more even. The fishman's slime would make him difficult to hang onto, but if his gills dry out he'll have a hard time breathing. Bigfoot's fur gives the fishman something to yank, but his large feet make him hard to knock down. It might depend on whether or not the fishman is venomous.

Why hasn't anybody made that movie? Picture it – dozens of fishmen swimming upstream to spawn, and bigfoot dragging them out of the water to eat like bears with salmon! I'd absolutely pay for exorbitantly expensive theatre popcorn if it meant I got to see that on screen!

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #the monster of piedras blancas #50s #it's beginning to look a lot like fishmen

21 notes · View notes

toaheadcanons · 3 years

Text

General reaction time! Again, this will contain HEAVY SPOILERS FOR TALES OF ARCADIA AND RISE OF THE TITANS. SKIP THIS IF IT GOT THROUGH YOUR FILTER.

So, let's begin. Firstly, as beautifully visually executed as the movie was, I think we all could tell the full original team wasn't working on this part of the TOA project. Setting that aside for a moment though. Trust me on this.

I was SHOCKED at the animation quality this time around. TOA has almost always had pristine graphics, and a movie budget took things to a while new level. Well done, TOA animation team!! 🥰🥰🥰

The MagiScience Camelot. Can I live there? Also, do they live there?? It's sort of unclear, did everyone just decide after the end of Wizards to form their own little bubble or???

I'm curious as to whether the time loop could result in a sort of 'duplication glitch' for the Amulet. I'm putting my speculative stuff in yet another post, because WOW that ending gave my lil' brain a lot to work with

There were so many fantastic scenes intermixed with the not-so-great points. The Best Man scene. That whole sequence in which there's some Blaaarghy hinting sandwiched into the scene between the couples comforting each other. I just 🥺 I know there are a few dull points here, but that whole ten minute span is just so on point. I really wish that accuracy to the characterizations carried all the way through.

I really, REALLY need to know how much time passed between Wizards and ROTT. Really really. Like I know the kids were 15-16 at the start of season 1, and 16-17 by the end of season two, but from there time becomes quite nebulous. I'm speaking in age specifically for our human characters here, as we still have no idea about how the Akiridion, Wizard-Immortal and Trollish life cycles actually work. Like I get that now they're later teens to early adults in age, but considering some of the err, plot choices, I think it's important to know?

I'd love a series, a comic, hell a set of shorts even, where Steve gets some main character time. I really wasn't a fan of him being sidelined the whole time. Give me my Creepslayerz please, Mr. Netflix.

I've started to look at this less like a movie and more like Predacons Rising, a made-for-TV movie/special finale episode. Except, knowing DreamWorks, we also may be seeing the beginnig iteration of another "[name here] of Berk" style of different series, set in different points in time. ESPECIALLY with that ending.

Speaking of, I know a lot of folks were quite upset with the end. I was too for a while, but those braincells just keep on bouncing around, and I have an inkling that however they decide to show us the potential/alternate timeliness, we'll see them somehow.

I'm actually quite excited about the idea of Trollhunter!Toby. From the beginning, I always thought he'd turn out to unknowingly be half-Troll or a changeling or something. Boy has a natural inclination for stones and crystals, the teeth issues, his stature and body-shape, hell, he seems at home in the scenes in Trollmarket throughout the series.

Please, Mr. Netflix, show us what his armor looks like? 👉👈🥺

Okay, picking back up on this not being the original creative team. There were some significant missed opportunities here, not only to draw on previous character development [Steve is a knight, Toby could have used his hammer instead of the glowing sticky-magic, etc.] but also to draw on ideas from The Book that would have gone REALLY well here! Lol and here I was hoping for the "what counts as a bridge" scene. 🤡

For those who don't know, Trollhunters in its original form is a book that reads much like a movie. It features a much different Jim, a much different many characters in fact. There were actually a few references I did catch! If you haven't had a chance to read it and you'd like a palate cleanser, READ IT. Oh it's so good I so wish more people read the book-

Aaaaanyway, back to the topic. The reason I'm looking at this more like a special than a movie is because is feels like it should have been a special. Or a miniseries even, like Wizards. This was a bit much to pack into a <2h timeframe.

BUT, I also feel like they could have waited to spring a plot like this on us until they had a concrete "next steps" plan. If they had, say, separated the beginning of the loop from the film, and used it as the beginning of a Trollhunter!Toby [Insert media type here] teaser/trailer, I have a feeling I'd be more happy with it. Also, why replace Anton's voicework for the audition speech? That I am truly upset with. The loop itself is actually quite intriguing, though.

All in all, I'm honestly pretty satisfied with the film. It was brutal, don't get me wrong, and for future reference I'd like to know how much it cost Netflix to get it a Y7 rating. That said, the parts that were done well were done VERY well. Im interested to see, when the series crops back up, what the true plan is moving forward, but until then my name is my bond. I make TOA headcanons, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. Thank you all for getting on this roller coaster, it was one hell of a ride and I hope we get to do it again soon 😁

#rott #trollhunters #rise of the titans spoilers #rise of the titans #tales of arcadia spoilers #toa #tales of arcadia

12 notes · View notes

harley-style · 4 years

Text

@hiccups-peg-leg, this is for you (your fuckin username man, its glorious)

HI AND WELCOME TO 100 + 1 REASONS I'M BEGINNING NOT TO LIKE HTTYD:THW

Disclaimer: It might not actually reach 50 reasons because I have a healthy amount of concern for my fingers

It makes sense as the final part of a trilogy, for them to separate, but the whole set up of how the separation goes was...blargh.

Hiccup was not acting like himself.

Neither was Toothless, actually.

Astrid was weaker in supporting Hiccup. I mean, don't get me wrong, she was still as badass as always, but never have I been more uncomfortable with her way of "supporting" Hiccup throughout this entire movie.

"You gave him his freedom, what did you expect?" BITCH WHAT

THIS IS NOT SOME CALL OF THE WILD BULLSHIT WHAT THE FUCK

part of the reason Toothless STAYED even when Hiccup presented him with an automated tail was because he preferred BERK. you know, a civilised, NOT WILD settlement even if Toothless himself was a wild dragon prior

in fact NONE of the dragons were being forced to stay there. Which means they CHOSE to stay with humans.

Why was there no internal conflict between Berk? Why are they all just following Hiccup after some discussion about "Berk is not a place, its the people and our dragons!"??? Just???? They didn't feel like a village at all, is what I'm saying.

For the record, I think Valka and Cloudjumper would have been harder to separate because these two were together for like twenty years why wouldn't they stick together???

Toothless should not have been the King of the Hidden world. there are several reasons.

1 - he was already a bad fucking leader when it came to priorities. he chose his MATE over his FLOCK. what the absolute fuck. 2- in coming to the hidden world, he promptly forgot about the BERKIAN FLOCK THAT HE HAD RESPONSIBILITIES TO. 3- it just doesnt make sense for all dragons to have bowed to him accepting him as their king. Night Furies are deadly, but they are not of the Dragon king breed. Toothless only managed that title because he FOUGHT a fucking dragon of that SPECIFIC breed. 4- he's horny as fuck. I'm sorry, it had to be said. He and the Light Fury have met for, what, a week at most? And already he's in love? Give me a fucking break. but anyways, my point is, if he dropped EVERYTHING HE KNEW AND LOVED for a person he BARELY GOT TO KNOW, then he should not have been made leader in the first place. 5- this is more personal, but fuck the fucking fact that he left hiccup for this unknown stranger. its like his human didnt even MATTER to him at all. which brings me to my next point.

why the ever loving FUCK did the team EVER imply that hiccup and toothless were SOULMATES if all they were gonna do is separate them and have toothless forget hiccup entirely.

are the dragons intelligent, sentient creatures

or are they just wild animals capable of replicating human behavior without understanding the deeper implications of it

because if the latter was true, then what the FUCK was the first two movies for?

the hidden world cannot exist in a geological scale. it cannot sustain itself either. if toothless did somehow recall EVERY dragon, then the ecosystem of the hidden world is suddenly shot to fucking hell.

the movie basically spat to our faces that romantic love is stronger than the power of friendship. and family.

im pretty sure GOTNF was canon, and THW just spits all over its message and story.

what happened to my badass dragon riders, dreamworks?

okay ill be honest A LOT of my issues with this movie are centered around toothless and hiccup

berk did not need to be separated from its dragons. in fact, dragons leaving berk, realistically speaking, would actually be detrimental to berk.

for one thing, theyd be totally cut off from the rest of the world -- they suddenly relocated without any warning, to a place where no one had actually explored thus far. traders would not have known where to find them and, if they were in the merchant thinking mode, would cut their losses and find some other village to trade to. so new berk isnt gonna get any support for a long while.

berk chose an island than can only be safely accessed via dragons. do you see where im going with this?

by choosing to LET DRAGONS GO, hiccup and toothless have now condemned Berk into a generation of hardship, one that will make its people struggle with getting supplies, rebuild their homes, and basically a lot of their basic survival needs.

and MIGHT I ADD, hiccup has REVOLUTIONIZED the viking way of life by INCORPORATING dragons into it. what happens when that system suddenly loses a big chunk of what made that system work?

may i also add that hiccup has also REVOLUTIONIZED the term BIG DUMBASS when referring to decisions that were made.

im also salty about how quickly toothless forgot about hiccup when entering the hidden world. like, holy fuck, i cannot even begin to explain how dreadful i felt when toothless was just "oh fuck yeah" in that glowing neon underground while poor hiccup was like "do you think he's okay?"

if it were me, toothless would at least be having a moment to himself, looking at his tail, and you can clearly see in his eyes, "what about my human? what about berk?" before getting distracted. I would have accepted at LEAST that.

nope. we get a toothless reluctantly going back to hiccup and new berk, resentful and somber as he longs for, what, a home?

goddamn it i hate the hidden world in the movie the hidden world. i like the movie, i really really do, but that fucking plot device grates my fucking brain.

RTTE handled a dragon haven a lot better.

Vanaheim was a perfect place for wild dragons to settle but dreamworks fucking abolished that idea

i KNOW vanaheim is like a resting place for sick dragons but like

if hiccup was half as smart as he was the first two movies thw wouldnt have been a thing in the first place.

its really, really hard for me to defend a movie i liked the first time i watched it when the only things i can see from it are toothless not caring enough about hiccup and hiccup making the niggest mistake of his life.

this movie honestly felt like emotional manipulation. watching it i always remembered the other two movies, which should NOT have happened. when i watched the second movie (and may i add i barely remembered a thing about the first movie at the time) i was so MOVED to the point of TEARS. i had no context and i was moved to tears anyway. THW constantly pulled at my nostalgia strings and indirectly and directly called back to the first two movies and that just....what???

and that's it.

i mean if youd like to add more feel free to, probably missed some there

and there are a couple of ao3 essays that depict the same reasons i have. just put the tag "the hidden world" in your filters uwu

one last thing: despite the reasons i mentioned above i did enjoy watching thw, im just sayin it took me a long time and a lot of reading to figure out that, no, thw wasnt as great as the hype made it seem.

this isnt meant as an attack to people who like THW. i understand that this movie is special to you and I have no right to take enjoyment from you. im just laying out the reasons of why I personally don't agree with what happened in THW.

#httyd #the hidden world #hiccup horrendous haddock iii #toothless #httyd thw #how to train your dragon #the salt of the hidden world

148 notes · View notes

fandomshatelgbtqpeople · 4 years

Text

Legend of Korra is going up on Netflix in four days now. I’ve seen a lot of misconceptions about the show floating around, and since I was in the fandom back in 2014, I thought I would clear them up.

1. The last few episodes of Legend of Korra were streaming only because execs didn’t want the Korrasami endgame to air on Nickelodeon

Legend of Korra became online-only starting five episodes from the end of Book 3, more than a full season before the show ended. In his post-finale statement, Bryan Konietzko suggests that they didn’t seek approval from Nickelodeon to make Korrasami canon until they were almost finished writing the finale. I haven’t been able to track down a timeline for what episodes would have been airing at the time and Books 3 and 4 aired almost back to back, so it’s possible that the decision to take LoK off the air was made after they’d already had that conversation. That said, the last five episodes of Book 3 are easily the most brutal in the entire series, including several on screen deaths and a pretty rough sequence involving a character being poisoned, so I think it’s more likely that the show was taken off the air because of that. Bryan Konietzko also described Nickelodeon’s reaction as “supportive” but with limitations, which doesn’t really jive with the idea of taking the show off the air as a punishment, although it’s possible he sugar-coated things because they still have a working relationship.

2. The showrunners were pressured into doing Korrasami by the fandom

Bryan Konietzko says in his statement that the writers had discussed Korrasami as a romantic pairing as early as during production for Book 1 but assumed they’d never be allowed to do it. Janet Varney (Korra) and Seychelle Gabriel (Asami) also discussed this on Janet Varney’s podcast in 2015. They speculated that fan interpretation of the relationship may have been what caused the showrunners to see the potential there, but said unequivocally that no one working on the show ever felt pressured to do Korrasami. This is a myth that was started by the more unreasonable members of the Makorra fandom in the aftermath of the finale because they were upset that they’d “lost” what was a pretty brutal ship war and were looking to invalidate the relationship in any way they could.

3. The fandom was shocked when Korrasami happened because it didn’t have any build-up

This is another one that started with the worst parts of the Makorra fandom in an attempt to prove that Korrasami wasn’t the endgame the showrunners really wanted to do. The fact is that while the ship tease is mostly subtextual, the Korrasami fandom saw a huge increase in size over the course of Book 3 because LoK fans were noticing it, and most of the Korrasami fandom had started to suspect that the writers were intentionally taking the relationship in a romantic direction by the end of Book 3. We were surprised that it happened, but only because LoK was a kids’ show, and no major character on a kids’ show had ever been shown in a same-gender relationship before. The general consensus was that there was intentional romantic subtext between Korra and Asami that was unlikely to become text because Nickelodeon would never allow it. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to see this myth being repeated by queer fans who are apparently unaware of its homophobic (Yes.) origin.

4. The Korrasami endgame is so subtle that no one would have known it was canon if it hadn’t been confirmed by the showrunners

Lo and behold, another myth that started in the Makorra fandom as an attempt to prove that Korrasami was forced and shouldn’t have happened. I don’t know what to tell you other than that there were three days between when the finale dropped and when Korra and Asami’s relationship was confirmed by the showrunners and we all knew it was canon during that time. The only people who were denying it were, again, the worst parts of the Makorra fandom. Here are some articles and reviews that talk about Korrasami becoming canon that predate the confirmation by the showrunners (one is linked above, the other is here). Going back to the previous point, several of those articles also discuss how fans had long suspected they were hinting at a romantic relationship.

5. The showrunners shoehorned Korrasami in at the last minute to get “representation points”

I’ve already addressed the myth that Korrasami wasn’t the intended endgame until the last minute, so I’ll move on to the myth that it was done for “representation points.” Neither of the showrunners ever capitalized on Korrasami. I know we’re all primed to expect this now because of the shit Dreamworks and Disney have been pulling for the past couple of years, but the Korrasami endgame was not publicized at all prior to the finale. Nickelodeon never did press around it, and the showrunners didn’t really participate in the publicity it got after it aired. If you look at articles about the Korrasami endgame that were published in 2014, none of them even have quotes from the showrunners other than the ones taken from their confirmation statements. Bryan Konietzko admitted in his statement that, due to corporate censoring, he thought the final product fell short of a “slam dunk” for queer representation and apologized for not having queer representation in the Avatar universe sooner. Those are not the words of someone who’s patting themselves on the back. Additionally, the Legend of Korra comics and Kyoshi novels, which the showrunners are directly involved in (the comics are written by Michael Dante DiMartino himself) and which don’t receive much if any oversight from Nickelodeon, are both unflinching in their depictions of same-gender relationships, which speaks to the idea that having that representation in the Avatar universe is something the showrunners deeply care about.

6. Korrasami was queerbaiting

This myth actually just comes from as misconception about what queerbaiting is. Queerbaiting is a phenomena in which creators of a piece of media intentionally lead queer fans to believe they can expect queer representation that the creators have no intention of ever delivering, just to get them to consume the media. Not being able to make a relationship as overt as you want to because of network censors is not queerbaiting, nor is intentionally queercoding a character in order to try to get around censorship (this was once the only way we ever got representation, and accusing older shows of queerbaiting because they were doing their best within the rules they were given is a bad look). By definition, The Legend of Korra cannot queerbait because the characters are canonically bisexual. Even if the network had put the kibosh on the Korrasami ending altogether, Legend of Korra couldn’t have queerbaited because Korra and Asami were genuinely intended to be queer.

Thanks for reading. I hope you all learned something that will make you less likely to buy into myths that started during a ship war with origins that were more than a little homophobic. I can’t tell you how trying it is to see this stuff get spread around in queer fandom as a queer fan who (1) knows where it came from and (2) knows that it’s factually wrong.

mod k

#mod k #the legend of korra #lok #korrasami

48 notes · View notes

eriklivesinmybasement · 4 years

Text

Rise of the Guardians: Is it as good as we remember?

(Oof! I’ve been working on this one for a long while! Buckle up buttercup, this is gonna be a long one!)

(Before I get into this, I want everyone to know that I’m not claiming anything to be fact. This is just my personal opinion).

Back in November of 2012, we were greeted with Rise of the Guardians. This movie, based on the books entitled The Guardians of Childhood, written by William Joyce, gave us a new and unique take on our favorite childhood characters. This included Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost, and more.

While it didn’t do so well at the box office, it seemed to explode in popularity. It spawned a fandom fairly quickly, even spawning a couple fandoms that branched off of it. For a long while there it seemed that, wherever you looked, you saw cosplays, fanart, tribute videos, fanfiction, etc. Loads of people seemed to absolutely love this movie, and I, as a twelve-year-old at the time and thus a part of the target audience, was no exception.

Even now eight years later, I still claim to love this movie. Even though I haven’t seen it in a long while, it left a huge impact on me as a writer and artist, which is why I am sad to see the fanbase slowly dwindling away. So I went back and watched it again, and as I sat there ready to press the ‘play’ button, I began to wonder.

Will this movie be as good as I remember it?

And the answer? Yes and no.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still really like this movie, and I still stand by it being one of my favorites. But just like everything else in life, nothing is perfect. And while still amazing, this movie does indeed have some flaws.

And as I like to save the best for last, I’ll start off by diving into some of the movies flaws.

Flaw #1 - Pacing

The pacing in this movie can be a little awkward from time to time. Nothing super jarring, but enough to make me go, “I’m sorry, what?”.

Some scenes seemed to just jump from one to the other without much warning. Either that, or the transition from one scene to the next seemed a little off. One example of this is when North, Bunny, Sandman, and Jack Frost set off to the Tooth Palace. There was nothing inherently wrong with these scenes, but the transition between the two seemed a little awkward. One minute we were having a nice, calm moment between North and Jack, and then all of a sudden we get a quick, action-like sequence with the sleigh.

Another moment that felt awkwardly paced was the introduction of the movies villain, Pitch Black. It seemed like there should’ve been more buildup to him. We got a bit, but moments of buildup seemed quite few and far between. When he was introduced it felt almost a little random, him just appearing for a few moments and disappearing just as quick didn’t seem to work or do him justice.

There are other scenes, but I won’t go over those now, as I guess I’m probably already bugging some hardcore RotG fans.

Flaw #2 - Unexplored Questions and Backstories

Alright, before I get people shouting me down about how, “If I want backstory and questions answered I should read the books”, hear me out.

When you make a story, whether it be in the form of a movie or book, you’re going to want it to make sense. You’re going to want everything to tie together. It’s true that the original books do this, but it’s not seen in the movie. So for those who watch the movie, they may walk out confused about some aspects of it. The two parts I’m going to focus on here are Pitch Black’s backstory, and how Sandman came back to life.

Every story needs a good villain, and Pitch Black is certainly a well-defined villain. But here’s the problem. We get no backstory or explanation as to how he came to be. We do get a quick flashback to Pitch during the ‘Dark Ages’, which gives us his motivation as to why he’s doing what he’s doing. But that’s it. We get no other real backstory to how he came to be. Actually, we don’t get that for any of the other Guardians besides Jack Frost. But again, the other Guardians lack of backstory could be forgiven, as none of them are the main characters. But it’s important to tell a villains backstory because it gives the audience something to connect with.

Onto the next question. How exactly did Sandman come back to life?

This is a question that’s actually been on my mind for a while now. How exactly did Sandy come back? In the movie we clearly see him die, so how did he come back from the dead? The only lead I got is that maybe the kids somehow brought him back. During the final confrontation with Pitch, Jamie touches some of the black nightmare sand and it turns gold. It’s later on after that that he looks to the other kids and says, “I know what we have to do,” and they run offscreen for a little while, only for Sandy to show up soon after. Did Sandy come back through the kids believing in him again? Did they preform some sort of ritual to call him back from the dead? Who knows. It’s a dumb nitpick, I know, but I still wonder.

Well, now that I got that out of the way, and the RotG fandom is probably coming after my head, I’ll go over the strengths of this movie. And trust me, these really help the movie stand out.

Strength #1 - The Characters

All the characters in this movie are phenomenal! But to be honest, Jack Frost was the reason I originally wanted to watch this film when it first came out. Growing up I never really heard any stories about Jack Frost, and the only Jack Frost I ever saw in the media was of a withered old man. So seeing him portrayed as a teenager seemed pretty interesting. And the character was handled and written very well. His backstory was intriguing, he had a fun and enjoyable personality, but that’s not all.

One thing that was really great about Jack Frost’s character was his struggle throughout the story, and it’s actually a pretty relatable struggle as well. In the story, Jack Frost starts out not knowing who he really is or why he’s even alive. Not only that, but it seems that no mortals can see him, effectively making him invisible to the entire world. The story follows him as he looks for answers to his identity.

This can be a very relatable situation, especially for preteens and early teenagers who are still trying to figure themselves out. And most all of us get to this point. We reach a time in our lives, often in our youth, where we start to wonder exactly who/what kind of person we are. Along with the desire to discover ourselves, there is also the fear/feeling of being invisible and isolated, not understanding where we exactly fit in. Again, everyone reaches a place like that as well, where we feel invisible to the world. Just a passerby. Like we have something amazing to share, if only we could get someone to see it.

The other characters don’t come off as deep or complex as Jack, but that doesn’t make them any less enjoyable. Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and Sandman were all very creatively designed and portrayed. A lot of the fun from this movie actually came from all these strong, drastically different personalities clashing with and bouncing off of one another. It made for some fun dialogue and hilarious moments which had me laughing off and on throughout the beginning of the film.

Strength #2 - The Villain

Pitch Black is, without a doubt, one of my favorite DreamWorks villains. I loved everything about this character. From the voice, the design, the aesthetic, it’s all wonderful! But the one thing that set this villain up above many others was that he straight up killed an important character onscreen.

Reminder, I was twelve when this movie came out, and up until then, I wasn’t often exposed to death scenes like this in animated films. I grew up majorly on Disney animated movies and shows, and when a character died, it was usually offscreen. And on the occasion it was onscreen? The villain only indirectly killed a character. For example, in the Lion King, Scar pushed Mufasa into a gorge where a stampede was taking place. Scar killed him indirectly, as he’s the one who put him there, but the stampede is what really did the work.

But in this case it was much different. It’s not like Pitch took Sandy off to the side and killed him there. No, we legit saw this whole scene happen and play out on screen. When I first saw it, it blew my mind! This was actually kind of new for me! We saw Pitch take that shot at Sandy, and we actually saw Sandy’s final moments as he died. When you have a villain physically kill off a beloved character on screen, it sends a message. It sends the message that this villain isn’t all talk. That this villain really does have great power of their own, and that they are serious about getting what they want. That they aren’t going to let anyone get in their way. They mean business. And that was perfectly executed in this scene. (No pun intended).

Strength #3 - The Creativity and Art

I think it goes without saying that this movie is unbelievably creative! Everything from the locations, animation, and the characters themselves in both personality and design are just bursting with creative energy! The animation is incredibly detailed, and for DreamWorks as an animation studio, I think this has to be some of their best work. The colors, textures, details, and everything in between are just so beautifully done. In terms of creativity, two of the locations I want to talk about are the Tooth Palace and Pitch Black’s lair.

When it comes to the Tooth Palace, the artists and creators were given a lot of creative freedom. In media there is no set idea of a place where the Tooth Fairy lives or operates. We all know Santa lives in a workshop, and it makes sense to think that the Easter Bunny lives in a Warren, but no one really knows what to expect when it comes to the Tooth Fairy. When we saw the Tooth Palace, we were treated to some highly detailed and stunning imagery, all with a lovely color scheme of soft pinks, purples, and blues with accents of gold. Not to mention the design of the structural design was a spectacle itself to behold.

And then we have Pitch Black’s lair. As a lowkey goth at twelve years old in the early 2010s, the aesthetic here made it one of my favorite parts of the movie. This set here is similar to the Tooth Palace in that, the creators had a greater level of creative freedom, as we never really think about where exactly the Boogeyman lives. I mean, we know he kinda lives under beds, but that doesn’t sound as cool as living in a spooky, gothic underground secret lair. (But in all honesty, I do really enjoy the detail of the entrance of his lair being under an old, broken down bedframe. It’s a very good nod to the old stories).

It’s like a maze. A labyrinth full of shadows, and looks like the interior of an old, gothic castle that’s somewhat tilting into an abyss. It’s color scheme is predominantly full of grays and blacks, and the surprisingly elegant-looking cages hanging from an invisible ceiling really helps to establish a more gothic look. And since the lair is very dark and shadowed, it fits and aids Pitch black perfectly, in that he can morph in and out of shadows as he pleases. This gives him plenty of places to hide as he’s making an effort to mess with and get into Jack’s head.

The last piece of creativity I want to touch on is how the characters are presented. And holy crap after this movie this is the only way I can view Santa, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, etc.!

They take these beloved characters that we are already familiar with, and, while still somewhat showing them as we know them, present them in an entirely different way.

We all see Santa Claus as this huge, lovable man with a big belly who’s always jolly. And while that is what we get from this Santa, or North, as they call him, it’s very much flipped on its head. While still jolly, North is very eccentric, high-energy, and is strong-armed, duel broadsword wielding Russian warrior with tattoos. Seriously, who thinks of a Russian warrior when they think of Santa?! Well, now I do! Also the fact that he’s not always super happy like other incarnations of the character. We get to see that he’s very capable of getting both upset and frustrated. It’s a pretty interesting way to humanize such a beloved character.

We then have the Easter Bunny, who is played by Hugh Jackman. Say that out loud. The Easter Bunny is being played by Hugh Jackman. Growing up, me and many other kids saw the Easter Bunny as a small, cute little critter who hopped around the world leaving baskets and painting eggs. Not a tall, boomerang wielding fighter from the Australian outback. Not only that, but giving him a small rivalry with North was interesting, and snot something I ever really thought about. As well as the idea of a the Easter Bunny having somewhat of a temper.

In terms of character design, I feel like both the Tooth Fairy and Sandman had the most creative freedom. We don’t see these two characters often portrayed in media, so they were able to receive some really cool and unique-looking designs. Especially the Tooth Fairy. Did you ever think of the Tooth Fairy looking a like an elegant cross between a beautiful woman and a hummingbird? No, of course you didn’t. But Rise of the Guardians gave us just that, and it truly set its place for it’s own individual take on this childhood legend.

Pitch Black is a fairy creative villain as well. When you hear about the Boogeyman, you don’t get very scared. The name actually sounds a little silly when you say it out loud. And even then, because of the success of The Nightmare Before Christmas, you usually think of their incarnation of the character when you hear that name. But this version of the character is actually much different. He’s not this weird, in-your-face kind of monster. He’s a very subtle, yet terrifying character. When I first saw the movie in theaters, there were kids in the room crying at moments when Pitch Black came on screen. It’s also interesting the way his powers work. We all grew up knowing the Boogeyman as someone who just hid under beds. We had no idea what magical powers he may or may not have had. So giving him the ability to morph into the darkness and into shadows was a pretty cool concept, but also solidified that he had a weakness. Light.

So, In Conclusion...

As I have gotten older, I admit that this movie does look a little different to me now, versus when I saw it as a preteen. I’ve noticed some interesting flaws here and there, but I’ve also been able to remember why I fell in love with it in the first place. It’s a very different kind of movie, but that’s part of what makes it so much fun and interesting.

The characters are delightful, the villain is intimidating, the story, while awkwardly paced, is still pretty solid, and is all tied together with a great lead character. And as you get invested in the story, you’ll find yourself getting really into the all artistry that went into creating this movie.

At the end of the day, it makes me sad to see the fanbase for this movie slowly dwindling away. But I feel there are always going to be people out there who enjoy this movie. And you know what? You never know what the future holds. Perhaps there will be a movie in the distant future. Or more likely a animated series on either TV or Netflix. And for the hardcore fans, go and read the original books.

All I can say here is that, every now and again when it starts to get a little nippy outside, I’ll sit in my living room with hot chocolate and give this movie another watch.

#rotg #rotg fandom #rise of the guardians #rise of the guardians fandom #rotg review #rise of the guardians review #rotg jack frost #jack frost #rotg north #north #santa claus #rotg bunnymund #bunymund #rotg tooth fairy #tooth fairy #toothiana #rotg pitch black #pitch black

71 notes · View notes

bi-bi-want-dragon · 4 years

Text

So... I think I found New Berk?

(long post warning. so so long. and lots of pictures so sorry mobile users...) I don’t know if anyone else had pinpointed a possible place that New Berk exists in relation to Hiccup’s map, but I might have somewhat of an answer.

I was doing a bit of extremely major minor world building trying to figure out where the Hidden World and other places are in relation to Old Berk. @redkiteslike actually pointed me to a couple posts she made or added to here that pinpointed a possible area for the Hidden World’s location. And that was incredibly helpful (thanks again, Reddie!)

But then I did more digging and dug back out that interactive map, you know the one dreamworks had on their website and then took down, the Race to the Edge one, the one I’m sure we all have at least seen a reference to before?

Yeah that one :) (ignore the funky looking places, it’s pieces I edited together) ANYWAY

My little nerd butt was trying to calculate some travel timing both by boat and dragon between Old Berk and the Wingmaidens or Old Berk and Berserker Island or Outcast Island to blah blah blah you get the picture.

And then I got to New Berk. And I couldn’t find any point of reference for that. So in trying to figure out how long it would take to get from, say, Old Berk to New Berk, went back to the third movie and took some clues from there. From context clues the Hooligans were able to get to the location that would become New Berk in less than a day. They went west and it wasn’t a previously discovered island, so it would have to be west of the edge of Hiccups current map (above). Dragon’s Edge was also about a day’s flight from Old Berk. So I just drew an imaginary line directly west of Old Berk about the same distance away as Dragon’s Edge but in the opposite direction, and said “Yeah, that good enough!”

And then it wasn’t.

So back to the third movie I go for the umpteenth time to see if I somehow missed something after combing through it over and over and over and...

I skipped straight to the part where they’re en route for New-Berk-to-be, but this time I paid more attention to the things Grimmel was saying. Which I hadn’t done before, because although he got lucky, he incorrectly guessed the reasoning behind Hiccup’s decisions about which direction exactly to go.

And then I saw his map.

Now I never paid a whole lot of attention to it before because it was a lot scarcer than Hiccup’s map so I didn’t really think it accurate. And then I noticed this little guy. (Apologies in advance for the awful photo quality, I’m a writer not a digital artist.)

Kinda looks like the shape of Dark Deep on Hiccup’s map. And then this guy...

Not too bad for Berk. And these look a lot like the Rookery and Scauldron Island.

So then this little line of islands here...

Must be Dragon, Thor Rock, Crescent, and Sunstone Islands.

Grimmel’s are slanted differently just because of the angle of the shot. And they’re not exact, but that would make sense because I think it’s safe to assume that Grimmel made this map himself, just like Hiccup made his. So they wouldn’t be exact, they would potentially be skewed by perspective and be dependent on the skill of the creator.

So Grimmel basically says that the Berkians would have to follow the line of Dragon, Thor Rock, Sunstone, and Crescent islands on their path away from Berk. We can assume he’s right because, well, he found them not long after they left. And we know New Berk is northwest of Old Berk as well. So looking at that northwestern corner of Hiccup’s RTTE map...

We’ve got a pretty good view of where they may have been flying.

Now.

I wanna talk about this guy.

It’s not named, and I don’t recall it existing anywhere in RTTE or HTTYD2; after all, if it was, we’d have a name for it. It’s directly in line with the islands the Berkians followed. And the shape especially peaked my interest.

We don’t have a clear shot of the entirety of New Berk, but the two views we do get of the side of the island show that it doesn’t seem to have many irregular outcroppings, and almost a corner on the side they approach from (i.e. the southeastern side of the island).

Which is consistent with the shape of the island on Hiccup’s map.

Now, I will say that going off of distance, I wouldn’t have placed New Berk quite that far out from Old Berk. But we all know there’s enough inconsistencies between RTTE and THW (or the movies in general) that I’m not too concerned about it. And the fact that it does already exist on Hiccup’s map makes me a little hesitant. However, Hiccup never said whether or not it was a known island. Just that “this place is very nice, but it’s not the Hidden World,” and that “it’s defensible, hidden.” Which, to be fair, there’s not exactly much else adjacent to that island both in the movie or on Hiccup’s map.

This also fits fairly well with what Reddie said about the location of the Hidden World. Hiccup says its “nine days east of the Edge of the World” which would be the Hidden World, and I would assume nine days would be by ship. So the Hidden World would either be directly west of New Berk... Or directly west of Old Berk. Aka southwest of New Berk. Which there is plenty of space there for the Hidden World to possibly be. That could even place the Hidden World fairly close to the Rookery by dragon-flight standards.

So... Welcome to New Berk?

#I'm going to feel like such an idiot if someone already noticed this #or if it's already common knowledge #but here you go anyway #sorry for the long post #new berk #httyd3 #the hidden world #httyd analysis #movie analysis #this is what happens when you stay up until 4 am world building #i might have lost my mind its okay #old berk #grimmel's map #hiccup's map #randis fics

68 notes · View notes

horde-princess · 4 years

Note

I honestly can see a very korrasami-esque ending for Catra and Adora. It’s totally obvious by now that Noelle meant for them to be romantic and that she would like to end with them on a romantic route. Unfortunately, I don’t know if DW will be onboard for something very “in your face”. So I can totally see them doing a korrasami ending but making it a bit more obvious that it’s romantic.

i know ive always said “they will definitely absolutely kiss no doubt in mind” but now that we’re at the end i think i should actually take the time to discuss this more… i’m what you might a call a realistic optimist because i choose to have faith but i’m not ignorant to the realities of the situation you know? so buckle up this is going to be a long and probably unpleasant ride lmao

to be real, going into the last season I’m trying to not let myself have too many expectations with catradora. I do 100% fully expect that their relationship will be shown to be explicitly romantic by the end, but unfortunately, yes, its possible that they may not kiss. i’m at peace with that and i hope this post helps you guys see my thinking and come to terms with it too

obviously i dont understand all the underlying mechanisms of producing a tv show. i do know that dreamworks has hardly been a progressive studio in terms of lgbt representation. there are a lot of factors that would go into a decision about whether to allow a lesbian kiss in one of their projects, not least the fact that She-Ra is a reboot. having said all that, i’m still optimistic and there IS evidence in favor of a kiss that i think is worth talking about!

thinking about where to start with this discussion on Dreamworks vs. lgbt representation, Voltron came to mind. i’ve never seen the show but a quick google search brought me to this Geekdad article from an interviewer who did an investigation into Voltron’s lgbt rep failure and Dreamworks’ role in that. he argues that a lot of the blame belongs with the showrunners, because Dreamworks does at least provide resources and diversity consultants to help showrunners make respectful lgbt content, but the Voltron crew didn’t make use of them. the issue was not that Dreamworks actively blocked lgbt rep but rather that the studio did not work to ensure quality representation from the showrunners. which is a huge difference.

i dug a little deeper and found a transcript of an interview with the showrunners where they talk about the red tape they encountered, and what they say seems to implicate Voltron’s intellectual property holder as opposed to the Dreamworks studio itself. it sounds like Dreamworks’ hands were tied because the showrunners did not hold all the legal rights to the story.

of course we know IP is also an issue with She-Ra. however, correct me if i’m wrong, but I believe Mattel (the Masters of the Universe toy line) sold its property rights to NBCUniversal (Dreamworks’ parent company) a couple of years ago. this doesn’t mean all ties are cut with the original IP holder, but i think its safe to assume that She-Ra has some more wiggle room than Voltron did when it comes to the showrunners’ vision/creativity. especially because Mattel has been known to be pro-lgbt.

an interesting quote from Joaquim Dos Santos (voltron producer) was that after season 7, “She-Ra was in development within the studio and I think the studio was just sort of beginning to open its eyes to the possibilities of there being [lgbt] representation in their shows and there not being a huge public backlash for it.”

Also, in a different interview they said “to Dreamworks’ credit, I think the tide started changing internally” regarding the studio’s outlook on lgbt rep around the time that seasons 7/8 were in production.

so in addition to potential IP issues, Dreamworks is obviously concerned about their reputation and losing money. however we can gather from these quotations that (due to recent cultural shifts in the U.S.) Dreamworks has felt comfortable making efforts in the last few years to distribute more/better lgbt rep.

you also have to consider that Dreamworks KNEW what they were getting into with hiring Noelle. it’s hard to know whether lgbt representation was the vision for the show from the beginning or whether Noelle brought it with her (tho it seems like the latter). but either way, the studio must have been actively seeking to improve their lgbt representation because i’m sure she made her vision clear from the very beginning.

There’s a great article where Noelle talks about the fight to include lgbt rep in She-Ra:

“When you’re aiming to tell a story like that, you have to get everyone who’s working on the show, whether on the crew, or at the executive level, to believe in that world as well. It’s all part of trying to create the type of world in real life that you’re creating in the show. While I hope it comes across in a natural way in the show, it’s something you have to constantly fight for. You can’t take it for granted. I never take it for granted. It’s a really important thing to fight for, and a lot of it is just, “Trust me, this is gonna work. Believe in me. I can pull this off.” I am really fortunate to work with executives who do believe in me and who have allowed me to do a lot with this show. I’m very fortunate for that.”

So that is awesome to hear!! It wasn’t a tug-of-war situation with Noelle having to make concessions for execs who didn’t believe in her vision. She says the studio was supportive. But I think only time will tell us what the definition of “a lot” is.

Okay so, whew, that was a lot of information. i’ll be amazed if anyone actually reads this far lmaoo 😂 anyway i wanna move away from logistical stuff and talk about some other things Noelle has said about her show.

geekdad did another great interview with Noelle (and a Dreamworks PR representative!! it’s a good read) where he asked “if you wanted to depict a same gender relationship with foreground characters, do you think we’re at that stage yet in children’s animation where you could? Or do you think we still have a ways to go?”

Noelle replies “I think that remains to be seen, and I think… that’s something that–you should watch the show. You should see the storylines that we pursue in the future.”

When asked about catradora’s romantic undertones, “just keep watching” is something Noelle has said repeatedly in many different interviews. She wouldn’t say that if there wasn’t going to be a payoff at the end. It’s obvious she’s not at liberty to discuss the ending of the show, you can tell she’s always extremely careful with her wording when she’s faced with questions like this. But she consistently expresses, as a lesbian herself, that she has created a show she expects her own community will be excited about. Whatever actually happens, Noelle doesn’t believe that She-Ra will let us down 😌

Shes also mentioned that she’s grateful for shows like Steven Universe and Adventure Time that were trailblazers before She-Ra, because every successive show has the opportunity to be a little bit more progressive than the shows that came before it. We all have to continually strive to push the envelope and demand more inclusivity. If it turns out that that’s all She-Ra is–a small step towards quality representation–then yes of course it will feel like a massive waste (just because this story Noelle created is so incredible), but we’ll have to remember that the show is still playing a very important role in the history of children’s media. Even without a kiss, She-Ra has made incredible strides in lgbt rep. what i would hate to see is people complaining (god forbid calling it “queer baiting”) if there isn’t a kiss. Noelle and the crew have worked on this show tirelessly and passionately and we can’t yell at them for something they had no control over. the only people we should hold accountable are Dreamworks/Mattel. so i agree with you there anon.

Personally, at this point, I’m just here for the ride because i trust Noelle Stevenson with my life and She-Ra is the best show i’ve EVER seen. and i’m gonna keep talking about catradora kissing because

#she ra #asks/replies #this actually turned into a whole ass research article i'm insane for writing this lakjdlfs #no one can EVER doubt how seriously i take catradora

97 notes · View notes

true-blue-megamind · 3 years

Text

FAN THEORY THURSDAY – Are There MORE Hidden Details in Megamind?

That’s right! It’s that time again! SPOILER WARNING!

Also, this post is not going to be nearly as long as the two preceding it. Promise. LOL!

Megamind is an awesome movie. We’re all aware of that. However, it’s even more amazing than some may initially realize. If you’ve read previous posts… Well, then, you’re clearly a masochist of some kind. (I’m joking.) But you’re also probably already aware that the DreamWorks animation team behind the film put a lot of effort into incredible hidden details. (If you missed it, you can read What’s Hidden in the Animation for more on that.) This week, I’d like to look at a few more of those, specifically at those connected to foreshadowing. So buckle up and let’s get started!

Megamind’s Heel-Turn Was Hinted At

One of my personal favorite bits of foreshadowing in this movie was the moment when the fact Megamind is going to become the hero was alluded to by one small, clever detail in the animation. What am I referring to? When Megamind, disguised as Space Dad, is convincing Hal/Titan that he is supposedly destined to be a hero, he rips the top from a magazine and holds it up. Hal is able to see his own face above the cover image of Metro Man carrying a newly-rescued Roxanne Ritchi, a bit like one of those novelty photo booth prop boards common to fairs and festivals.

What does have to do with Megamind’s change from villain to hero? Well, later in the movie, we see something interesting happen. Around the same moment when the blue alien, along with the audience, realizes that Titan is turning toward evil, using his new powers for theft, we see the same scene but reversed. Again, the setting is the same—Hal’s apartment—but this time Titan is the one holding the same magazine up, and we can see Megamind’s face above the image for just a moment before the former uses his laser vision to burn the periodical away to ashes. We can also see the words "Game Over" displayed on the TV behind the blue man. (That's meaningful because, as I've mentioned before, Megamind seemed to treat his battles like he was merely playing.) All of this offers hints that the protagonist is, in fact, going to stop his "game" of villainy and become a serious hero by the end.

MegaRox was Foreshadowed, Too

Given the flirtatious banter during their first scene together and the sweet romance between “Bernard” and Roxanne Ritchi, I think it’s safe to say that none of us were particularly surprised when Megamind and the reporter become clearly attached by the end of the film. However, the same detail mentioned above may have further alluded to this relationship.

Of course, true to his character, Hal’s reaction is a rather creepy one. Upon seeing himself over the cover image, he looks with longing down at Roxanne’s face, drawing a clear connection between the incident and a desire to be with woman. Although when it’s Megamind’s turn to be integrated into the image, he’s more concerned with the situation, he does mention Roxanne by name, reinforcing the aforementioned parallel.

Interestingly, at the end of the film, when the reporter jumps into her new blue boyfriend’s arms, he ends up cradling her bridal-style in a manner very similar to his appearance in the previous magazine-related scene. This makes it clear that that moment was not only foreshadowing his turn to heroism but also his eventual romance with the “girl of his dreams.”

The Breakup Was Even More Inevitable Than You Think

Okay, just like their eventual love, I think it’s safe to say that we all knew that Megamind’s dating Roxanne while pretending to be someone else was bound to be a problem. A person can’t lie to a significant other about something that huge and expect everything to be okay. (Well, I mean, technically they could, but like the blue man, they’re going to be sorely disappointed.) However, the breakup was directly foreshadowed just before it happened.

How? At a couple of different points during the restaurant scene, we can see menus displaying the name of the establishment: Le Coeur Brisé. This is significant because, in English, that translates to The Broken Heart. Beyond that there are a sconces lighting the walls with what look vaguely like hearts, but they do not appear to be whole. All of this hints at the rather sad event about to unfold. Maybe Megamind should have chosen a different spot for his date?

Names Are Significant

One last significant piece of foreshadowing comes in the form of characters names—or, more specifically, in their first letter. Megamind, Minion, and Metro Man all begin with the letter M. That might not seem like much, but hear me out. By the end of the film we see several instances of one pretending to another. Minion disguises himself as Megamind to rescue Roxanne and buy his boss time. Megamind then appears disguised as Metro Man to save the day. Indeed, Metro Man is the only one who doesn’t take on someone else’s image during the film. However, he does change careers to become Music Man, sticking with the thematic letter.

We can even take it a step further. Megamind, Metro Man, and Minion all have dynamic character archs to one extent or another. By contrast, Hal and Roxanne both remain essentially the same. Of course, Hal gains superpowers, but he remains the same creepy incel as ever, experiencing no internal alterations. Roxanne, of course, is the same bold, spunky, intelligent reporter throughout the movie. Only those characters whose names begin with M actually change. The blue hero and his former nemesis, of course, experience the most dramatic alterations, with one going from feared Bad Guy to beloved Good Guy and the other going from hero to wannabe rock star.

However, Minion is dynamic as well, although in a less obvious way. At the beginning, he is quite literally Megamind’s, well, minion, doing his boss’s bidding without hesitation or question. In the middle of the film, however, he has a blowout argument with Megamind and leaves only to later return and help save the day. In the end, we see him up on stage with his boss, piloting a big, attention-grabbing mech. If you look closely, he's even featured in Megamind's statue, inside the globe.

This is all significant because when Megamind first takes over the city, Minion says that “when the give out the awards,” he’s going to be beside his friend. This in itself was foreshadowing as well because, although the blue alien scoffs at the idea in that moment, in the end that is exactly what occurs. This along with the fact that, after taking over Metro City, Megamind says “I did it” while after saving the city he says “we did it, thanks to you” all indicates that Minion has become less a henchman and more a partner.

And that’s it! Four examples of ingenious foreshadowing hidden in the animation of the movie! With so much attention to detail and the plot, it’s clear the DreamWorks team truly cared about creating this film. No wonder Megamind is has so many fans that it is fast becoming a cult classic. Now the biggest question is when this amazing movie will finally get it’s well-deserved sequel.

#Megamind #megamind #megarox #dreamworks animation #dreamworks #Megamind movie #megamind movie #roxanne ritchi #roxanne #megamind fan theory #megamind fan theories #fan theories #fan theory thursday #fan theory #DWA #minion

114 notes · View notes