#key's bad love but he was his own creative director so lmao but they really brought his vision to life for real

[littlecafe]

!!definitely, no company operates independently if 80 something percent of it is owned by a parent company, its just basic business. and they just released a shoot video for their next boygroup trainees? the timing is just very off

oh ya i agree completely the graphics have significantly downgraded since merging, nuests last album cover was so weird (but at least there was more effort in those teasers) and it was the same with their merch too...and now this one its just black text and pixelated numbers fdhsks

i saw theories this album was supposed to be for april...but now its a a disbandment album. even the concept to me doesnt match what a goodbye album would look like from them? the blank white previews really do make it clearer that they werent ready :(

ahh youre not wrong the two who resigned had the most schedules going on as of recent, so it made sense to me at first when they said the other three didnt sign...

(thanks for ranting w me i appreciate being able to talk about it >< ♥)

exactly!! i honestly can't believe there are people that don't see or understand that, even if this is kpop it's business and business runs the same everywhere

did they really??? a new boy group...wow.....oh wait i just searched it up i've seen this group mentioned before didn't they have a show or something i remember seeing some lyrics controversy but i won't derail this anymore lol but the timing sure is...something even if it's just a coincidence it's still rubbing some salt into the wounds....

even before the merger pledis has always been lazy with design lmao either that or they just don't budget a lot for it if they're paying someone for these (but what else is new, pledis is cheap) which reminds me of a nancy unboxing i watched a while back (i had to go find it, linked to timestamp), she mentioned that a fan found out one of svt's album color version was literally a direct inverse(?) of another one aka there was zero thought being put into color scheme....

i honestly try to erase romanticize's design choice out of my head like i gasped the first time i saw their teasers come out with that pls sakjhfdksfhs it was so ugly but i feel like another group had some similar design with some atrocious font spacing but i can't remember now i can only think of svt's the ode album but that "minimalistic" design would be more in line with what they did for nu'est the nocturne album which were also both......an interesting take on minimalism, font focused design (nct did something similar with their regular irregular era posters which i found much cuter)

honestly with pledis designs there's no vision which makes them pretty unmemorable, they're lucky the boys are pretty enough to make it work lmao their best work for me would be happily ever after album along with the website they made for it

yea...i've seen people suspecting the 10 year anniversary promos were supposed to lead up to the new album in april, it's so obvious this album was still in the works and got repurposed to be a goodbye album bc you're right the concept just doesn't make sense at all and they virtually have no design shdsfsdfdsf looking at the listed album goods too it's like nonexistent compared to any of their other album releases, they were really not ready to put this out

ugh...ok i thought so....this is 100% my cynical side speaking now that i've had more time to sit on it but i really don't like how they somehow managed to keep those with higher amounts of individual schedule (and possibly individual appeal) while the others just magically decide not to renew, sounds like someone was trying to min max profits, since despite nu'est doing well in korea, there's no doubt that managing 2 successful solo acts will be easier and less costly than kpop group promotions

also i was just so shocked jr would be one of the ones to not sign like maybe i'm delusional but that was like..did i read this wrong?? i just don't believe if he was given a proper chance to stay as nu'est that he would refuse that

but yes ofc!! it's nice to have someone to talk it out with since the situation got so ridiculous so fast, we all went from shocked and sad to collective frustration practically overnight lol

[beastars-takes]

Zootopia Takes: Darker’s Not Better

The Shock Collar Draft

So, it sounds like people are largely positive on me doing some Zootopia posts on this blog, and I wanted to talk about this tweet I saw the other day:

I’ll punt on explaining why Beastars isn’t “Dark Zootopia”--that’s a great topic for another post. But I would like to talk about why this popular yet stridently uninformed tweet is so, so wrong. Why the shock collar draft was not better, actually.

And obviously, I’m not writing several pages in reply to a single tweet--this is a take that’s been around since the movie came out, that the “original version was better.” It’s been wrong the whole time.

Let’s talk about why!

Part 1: “Because Disney”

Let’s start with this--the assumption that the film’s creators wanted to make this shock collar story and “Disney” told them to change it.

That’s not how it works.

I try to keep stuff about me out of these posts as much as possible, but just for a bit of background, I’ve worked in the animation industry for about half a decade. I know people at Disney. I have a reasonable idea of how things are there.

There is this misconception about creative industries that they’re constantly this pitched battle of wills between creative auteurs trying to make incredible art and ignorant corporate suits trying to repress them.

That can happen, especially in dysfunctional studios (and boy could I tell some stories) but Walt Disney Animation Studios is not dysfunctional. It’s one of the most autonomous and well-treated parts of the Disney Company.

The director of Zootopia, Byron Howard, isn’t an edgelord. He made Bolt and Tangled. He knows what his audience is, and he’s responsible enough not to spend a year (and millions of dollars in budget) developing a grimdark Don Bluth story that leadership would never approve. It wouldn’t just be a waste of time--he would be endangering the livelihoods of the hundreds of people working under him. Meanwhile, Disney Animation’s corporate leadership trusts their talent. They don’t generally interfere with story development because they don’t need to. Because they employ people like Byron Howard.

Howard and the other creative leads of Zootopia have said a dozen times, in interviews and documentaries, that they gave up on the shock collar idea because it wasn’t working. They’ve explained their reasoning in detail. Maybe they’re leaving out some of the story, but in general? I believe them.

But Beastars Takes, you say, maybe even if Disney didn’t force them to back away from this darker version, it still would have been better?

Part 2: Why Shock Collars Seem Good

I will say this--I completely sympathize with people who see these storyboards and scenes from earlier versions of the movie and think “this seems amazing.” It does! A lot of these drawings and shots are heartbreakingly good, in isolation.

I love these boards. They make me want to cry. I literally have this drawing framed on my wall. Believe me, I get it.

But the only reason we care this much about this alternative draft of Zootopia is that the Zootopia we got made us love this world and these characters. You know what actually made me cry?

Oh, yeah.

So let’s set aside the astonishing hubris of insisting Zootopia’s story team abandoned the “good” version of the story, when the “bad version” is the most critically-acclaimed Disney animated feature in the past SIXTY YEARS.

“But Beastars Takes!” I hear you say. “Critics are idiots and just because something’s popular doesn’t make it good!”

Fair enough. Let’s talk about why the real movie is better.

Part 3: The Message (it is, in fact, like a jungle sometimes)

This type of thing is always hard to discuss, in the main--a lot of people don’t want to feel criticized or “called out” by the entertainment they consume, and they don’t want to be asked to think about their moral responsibilities. But it’s hard to deny that Zootopia is a movie with a strong point of view. Everything else--the characters, the worldbuilding, the plot, grows out from the movie’s central statement about bias.

And the movie we got, with no shock collars, makes that statement far more effectively.

To dive into the full scope of Zootopia’s worldview and politics (warts and all) would be a whole post on its own, so I’ll just summarize the key point of relevance here:

Zootopia's moral message is that you, the viewer, need to confront your own biases. Not yell at someone else. No matter how much of a good or progressive person you consider yourself to be--if you want to stand against prejudice you have to start with yourself.

That’s a tough sell! For that message to land, we need to see ourselves in the protagonist.

Judy’s a good person! She argues with her dad about foxes. She knows predators aren’t all dangerous. She’s not speciesist. Right?

Ah fuck.

Let’s fast-forward to the pivotal scene of this movie. In an unfortunate but inevitable confluence of circumstances, Judy’s own biases and prejudiced assumptions come out, and she shits the bad.

Nick, who’s already bared his soul to her (against his better instincts), is heartbroken. But not as heartbroken as he is a minute later when he tries to confront her about what she’s said, and she makes this face:

Whaaaat? Come on, Nick. I’m a good person. Why are you giving me a hard time?

People like to complain about this scene. That it’s a hackneyed “misunderstanding” trope that could be easily resolved with a discussion. They’re wrong. Nick tries to have a discussion. She blows him off.

This isn’t Judy acting out of character, this is her character. Someone who identifies as Not A Racist, and hasn’t given the issue any more thought. This is not only completely believable characterization (who hasn’t seen someone react this way when you told them they hurt you?) it’s the film’s central thesis!

Yes, Nick somewhat provokes her into reaching for her “fox spray,” and her own trauma factors in there, but she’s already made her fatal mistake before that happens.

(As an aside, people also make the criticism that the movie unrealistically deflects responsibility for racism onto Bellwether and her plot. It doesn’t. All the key expressions of prejudice in the film--Judy’s encounter with Gideon, her parents’ warnings, the elephant in the ice cream shop, Judy’s early encounters with Bogo, Judy's views on race science--exist largely outside of Bellwether’s influence. She is a demagogue who inflames existing tensions, she didn’t invent them. Bogo literally says “the world has always been broken.”)

So, anyway. But we love Judy. She’s an angel. She also kinda sucks! She’s proudly unprejudiced, and when her own prejudice is pointed out to her she argues and doesn’t take it seriously. This is bad, but it’s also a very human reaction. It’s one most of us have probably been guilty of at one point or another.

Look at Zootopia’s society, too--it’s shiny and cosmopolitan, seemingly idyllic. Anyone can be anything, on paper. But scratch too deep beneath the surface and there’s a lot of pain and resentment here, things nobody respectable would say in public but come out behind closed doors, or among family, when nobody’s watching. It’s entirely recognizable--at least to me, someone who lives in a large liberal city in the United States. Like Byron Howard.

Wow, this place is a paradise!

Wait, what’s a “NIMBY”?

Part 4: Why Shock Collars Are Bad

So, with the film’s conceit established, let’s circle back to the shock collar idea. Like I said, it’s heartbreaking. It’s dramatic. It’s affective.

It also teaches us nothing.

If I see a movie where predator animals are subjected to 24/7 electroshock therapy, I don’t think “wow, this makes me want to think about how I could do better by the people around me.” I think “damn that shit’s crazy lmao. that’d be fucked up if that happened.” At a stretch, it reminds me of something like the Jim Crow era, or the Shoah. You know, stuff in the Past. Stuff we’ve all decided couldn’t ever happen again, so why worry about it?

The directors have said this exact thing, just politely. “It didn’t feel contemporary,” they say in pressers. That’s what it means.

If anything, the shock collar draft reifies the mindset that Zootopia is trying to reject--it shows us that discrimination is blatant, and dramatic, and flagrantly cruel, and impossible to miss.

And...that’s not true. If you only look for bias at its most malicious and evil, you’re going to miss the other 95 percent.

The messaging of this “darker version” is--ironically--less mature, less insightful, less intelligent. Less useful. Darker’s not better.

Part 5: Why Shock Collars Are Still Bad

So what if you don’t care about the message? What if you have no interest in self-reflection, or critical analysis (why are you reading this blog then lmao)? What if you just really want to hear a fun story about talking animals?

Well, this is trickier, because the remaining reasons are pretty subjective and emotional.

The creators have said that the shock collar version didn’t work because the viewers hated the cruel world they’d created. They agreed with Nick--the city was beyond saving. They didn’t want to save it.

The creators have said that Judy was hard to sympathize with, not being able to recognize the shock collars for the obvious cruelty they were.

Fuck you, Judy!

But we haven’t seen the draft copies. We haven’t watched the animatics. We have to take their word for it. Anyone who’s sufficiently invested in this story is going to say “well, I disagree with them.” It doesn’t matter to them that they haven’t seen the draft and the filmmakers have. The movie they’ve imagined is great and nobody is going to convince them otherwise.

But the fact remains that the shock collar movie, as written, did not work. And, if behind the scenes material is to be believed, it continued to not work after months and months of story doctoring.

There’s even been a webcomic made out of the dystopian version of Zootopia. It’s clever and creative and well-written and entertaining and...it kind of falls apart. The creator, after more than a little shit-talk directed at Disney, abandoned the story before reaching the conclusion, but even before then the seams were beginning to show. How do you take a society that’s okay with electrocuting cute animals and bring it to a point of cathartic redemption? You can’t, really. The story doesn’t work.

Does that mean people shouldn’t make fanworks out of the cut material? That they shouldn’t be inspired and excited by it? Hell no. This drawing is cute as hell. The ideas are compelling.

But I suppose what I’d ask of you all is--if you’re weighing the hot takes of art students on Twitter against the explanations of veteran filmmakers, consider that the latter group might actually know what they’re talking about.

See you next time!

[commajade]

ok fashion snob anon im back (i had a dinner to go to lmao)

ANYWAYS! so i think key has a good sense of his own personal style/what he likes and what works for his body, aesthetic etc BUT he seems also willing and able to work with stylists to achieve that. i think, this is a really important skill to have esp when you're a performer with creative control. imo its basically being like a creative director for your image/wardrobe, as in, you work with others to produce your vision. i would put key in the same sort of category as rihanna and bad bunny who have amaaaazing personal style but also work with stylists to achieve the aesthetics they want to embody. key's style is def less...idk maximalist? (I'm not sure what the word I want here is but lets go w that) than rihanna or bad bunny which leads me into the body of my style rant:

key favors simpler/cleaner silhouettes which he then adds interest to/puts twists on with the materials, colors, and ofc accessories. like if you look at the actual silhouettes he wears in the mv it's a lot of suits & shirt and pants but, because of the materials and pattern mixing and accessorizing its elevated. like the burgundy suit + the green gloves that you noticed! its a suit but the patent/vinyl material and the bold shirt + contrasting colors make it feel totally different! also I would point to the look from the mood sampler (which i LOVED) and the shoes in particular! they're boots that call to the look of like a saddle shoe and paired with the interesting cut of the bottom of the suit jacket and the harness it creates this super modern chic high fashion look that is like "oh the Updated Suit" that calls back to the fact that its still a well-tailored grey suit under there

also in the mv he goes for a big/emphasized shoulder, nipped in/tight at the waist in a bunch of the looks which is flattering and gives him a bold, powerful silhouette to match the mv. (and ofc the big shoulder is on trend rn!)

im especially in love with the red look and the grey suit from the mood sampler like, its on trend but high fashion and different enough to show his eye for fashion and live up to his fashionista brand. theyre such good choices! (I love all the looks tho honestly) idk I can just see his vision in all these looks so clearly! (i would talk more abt the all red look but this is too long already lmao)

also I feel like this mv and the the I feel you mv are like two sides of the same sexy retro coin (i feel you is cool tone blue and bad love is dusty red orange). retro w the tv motif done soooo well

nothing I've said here is groundbreaking whatsoever but thanks for giving me space to rant!! hope u have a good night amber (and hope that this was at least a little bit fun to read??)

❤ ❤ ❤

v cool ty! ur right he always has a classic silhouette that's helpful in like orienting urself and being able to focus on the details.

oh i did not consider comparing to the i feel u mv!

[brxdys]

( nick robinson, male, he/him ) have you heard about BRADY WRIGHT? they’re a 22 year old TEAM MEMBER in the VIDEOGRAPHY team. i don’t know what their last job was, all i know is that they’re originally from DENVER, CO. carol in hr said that they’re kinda STUBBORN and DEFENSIVE but jessica in marketing insists that they are CONFIDENT and PROTECTIVE. at the end of the day, no one is worthy of the instant hype here. i just hope they get to achieve their dream of being A DIRECTOR one day. According to the latest Vibez quiz, their Disney soulmate is ALADDIN.

hi!! nicole here, and this is brady! below you’ll find some background/bullets abt him, and you can also check out his STATS PAGE for more! i also listed some connections ideas at the bottom, but i’d love to discuss anything just based on who the muses are and what would work specifically for them.

im not actually on my laptop rn for opening unfortunately, so i might not immediately see your tumblr messages. feel free to add me on discord ( john ambrose mcclaren#1627 ) to message me there for plotting etc.!! otherwise i’ll get back to you later. NOW WITHOUT FURTHER ADO:

some background (TW homophobia):

brady is the third child of colonal bradford wright, sr. and isabella wright. his father obviously comes from the military and his mom is one of those stay-at-home military moms/wives with no actual hobbies. they’re also both from well-off families so, you know. they got moneyyyy.

the family moved around a lot due to general relocation and living on different military bases and things like that. as a result, brady and his 2 older siblings were all born in a different state. brady himself was born in colorado, where he lived for the first 7 years of his life. since then, he’s never lived somewhere longer than 5 years.

because of the lifestyles isabella and the colonel both came from in their own childhoods, and then all of the people the colonel was associated with over the years, brady was raised in an environment where appearance was key. his parents have all these rich friends and each of the children had to appear polite, put together, well-mannered, etc. when they went to their fancy parties. arguments were not well-received, so brady and his siblings learned to be quiet and get through it. it was never much of a choice at all.

the relationship with his parents, and especially his dad, is complicated. they’re strict, conservative, traditional... all the things brady isn’t. they were never quiet about the political/societal opinions and ensured the kids didn’t form their own. but of course, that was kinda bullshit, and brady and his siblings learned to think what they wanted. but it was complex at home. political debates just didn’t, or really couldn’t, happen. defying authority was simply not tolerated ― and having a father in the military was no joke. so brady didn’t argue. just like when he was a kid, he’d gotten good at shutting up and dealing with the terrible things they would say at the dinner table.

needless to say, brady discovering his own bisexuality in his early teens became a closely kept secret; his parents’ extremely conservative views and family trips to church every week made sure of that. now that he’s an adult, it’s become much less of a secret. if you’re a close friend of brady’s, you probably know that he’s bi. but it’s not quite something he’s shouting from any rooftops anytime soon. as difficult as things have been with his parents over the years, he’s just not quite ready for everything that would come along with coming out yet. so being totally out and proud is a work in progress for him atm.

more fun facts/info just about brady!

his full name is actually bradford (he’s a jr. named after his dad), but he simply will never tell that to anyone. so that’s brady to you, and always will be.

brady has always been more creative than he was ever truly able to express, so he spent a lot of time in his earlier years with an old camcorder he’d been given, messing around and making movies (and forcing his siblings and childhood friends to participate). it’s hard to tell for certain when it became the most important thing to him, but at some point brady decided videography was his passion and directing was his dream. so now you’d be hard pressed to find brady without his camera.

his sister introduced him to vibez and pushed him to apply as a way to do something he loves and is good at, so... here he is!!!

he’s also an artist, but it’s more of a hobby. he likes digital art and pencil sketches but also enjoys experimenting with paint.

he loves cryptids/true crime/all things paranormal. he even has a podcast just to talk about stories like that.

he played basketball for a long time when he was young. he thought about continuing with it and improving and at some point had dreams of going pro, but an injury in middle school stopped him from playing altogether, so there went that.

he smokes weed a lot. 

he absolutely loves movies and keeps updated lists of his all-time and recent favorites.

he loves harry potter & is a gryffindor. also has a rescued black lab named draco.

he has a tattoo of an alien smoking weed on his arm that his friend gave him in their kitchen once.

he’s headstrong, sarcastic, stubborn, cocky, has daddy issues....... what more could you want, really!

we can discuss absolutely anything as far as plotting so hmu and i’ll get back to you asap!! im def quicker on discord. looking forward to writing with you all xoxo.

connections ideas just to get started:

best friends — i would love a few of these. give brady a squad pls!!

roommates — i’d love to have like 3-4 of them in the apartment. chaos

rivals — maybe someone else in the vid. department who gives brady a run for his money and they vie for a lot of the same projects!! could be friendly or genuine pettiness lmao

childhood friends — brady lived in different states constantly growing up so could apply to any muse regardless of where they’re from!!

the bad habits bro™ — he smokes weed a lot and has a horrible sleep pattern and takes too many shots of fireball sometimes so someone who doesn’t exactly help any of that sjdjdjdjw

podcast partner — has a lowkey, just for fun, not well known podcast to talk about true crime/supernatural/cryptid stories!! so anyone who likes that stuff too

mentor — someone higher up (probably in the same department) who gives him tips n tricks

exes/hookups/short flings/fwb etc. — all pretty self explanatory and there are likely quite a few in the last few years, bc brady has been Bad at romance

mutual or one sided dislike — just love the hate n angst