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#notice there is almost no disney
thisbrilliantsky · 1 year
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brought to you by madeline's song while she's in solitary confinement in the illegal lace factory being stuck in my head at 5am
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canisalbus · 8 months
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I love the shape language for Machete and Vasco, how angular and pointy the former is VS how round and soft the other... It's so GOOD I adore that
Thank you! I like the contrast as well, it makes them very fun to draw together. I try to keep them visually distinct while still making sure that they look harmonious and complementary next to each other.
#some more design musings that I've noticed that don't really matter but I tend to think about when drawing them:#Machete's shapes have an upward direction the ears the neck fluff and even the tip of his snout has that upturned angle#while Vasco's vibe is more loose and relaxed his huge floppy ears almost make him look like he's melting#neither of them have strong markings but the positioning of the gradients they have is very similar it's just different colors#Vasco has dark almond eyes (with what I can only describe as disney eyelashes)#his irises appear nearly black but if you shone a strong light directly on them they'd reveal a honey/amber hue#Machete's eyes are big and prominent with disproportionally small pupils#lately I've been drawing him with just the faintest salmon colored irises#but if the color scheme of the piece calls for it they can be depicted more vividly red#Machete has longer untameable fur here and there while Vasco is uniformly smooth and velvety#Machete is supposed to be the serious and inhibited half of the two but his face has a lot more expressive potential than Vasco's#it's actually kind of a struggle that I can't make Vasco emote with his ears at all those are typically a huge advantage in furry art#Vasco's body language is open and casual he takes up space confidently#Machete is usually very closed and defensive he has a habit of crossing his arms and legs and keeping his hands together and close to body#in general Vasco shouldn't be wearing anything black or red and Machete can't be seen wearing blue or gold#white is neutral territory it's usually the color of sleepwear and undershirts and as a result has a more intimate tone to it#answered#ardate
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sparrowatheart · 3 months
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A stroll through Fantasyland alongside the Mistress of All Evil
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cerealmonster15 · 10 months
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Twst is so funny I literally forget it’s a Disney property and then they’re like “here look at this fever dream scene from Aladdin to help you break out of dorm jail. also literal Mickey Mouse himself is your sleep paralysis demon and lives inside your mirror. Don’t worry about it.” like wh
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willowfey · 9 months
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sometimes life is boohoo sad and then ur mom brings u back a creamy mango lemonade freeze with mango boba and hello kitty halloween spa things and suddenly u are woohoo glad
#it is not even a little bit frozen anymore but it’s SO GOOD i don’t even care#i accidentally killed a frog last night and got locked out of the house and had to throw pebbles at my window until my sister noticed#and then she teased me and called me a murderer for accidentally killing the frog and that made me feel like an EVIL PERSON#so that was traumatising#also the hot guy on hinge who said i was ‘very very cute’ & looked like i walked right out of a disney movie & was asking abt my hobbies#and almost accurately guessed my meyers briggs except for one letter i think is ghosting me#which i guess was to be expected bc we have like Nothing in common and both matched on looks alone…. still#i’d hoped to get a Little more fun out of it first#aaaand what else…… my room is a mess i have a million things to do & instead i’m sitting on the couch with my neck pillow reading fic#and i think. i THINK. i am done descending into a hole of depression. and i might have the strength to at least sit still for a minute#before attempting to climb back out#i am still very sad about a lot of things and i still feel tired and helpless and anxious and all sorts of things but#it feels like something i recognise again as opposed to some eldritch beast taking over my body#maybe it’s because i cooked yesterday that tends to help. maybe it’s experiencing emotion vicariously through little fictional guys#something like that. also the road in the neighbourhood was repaved today#a new path ahead of me it seems.#anyway if u see this pls come tell me about ur day ! i want to connect with other humans
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marklikely · 2 years
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i really do wonder if we'll see the end of the mcu soon though cause the quality of the movies has undeniably been getting worse, and ive noticed a lot of casual fans (which is what most people i know are, including myself, at least a few years ago when i would have actually considered myself a fan at all) are completely uninvested in phase 4 and havent really liked any of the movies lately. plus with how fast theyre pushing them out, overexposure could lead to a huge backlash soon
#when i say soon i mean like within 10 years because the disney project plans stretch out so far into the future#i mean idk we might get a big collapse that cancels a ton of future projects like with star wars but i doubt it#avpost#but idk i think mcu backlash is definitely a lot more common now than it was five or six years ago#but then again i think of how like all they had to do was get people from the raimi trilogy to stand on screen#and that was enough to get a ton of people to consider nwh to be great even though it sucks#not that thats necessarily proof that the movies are gonna survive either since a lot of people also didnt like nwh#i dont know it just feels like every release is either middling reviews or extremely mixed reviews. only those two options#plus they all get like almost no hype and excitement and then they leave the conversation so fast#people were talking about infinity war for MONTHS before release. like IN DEPTH talk. big major hype.#and then after it came out people were speculating and writing theories the ENTIRE time until endgame#nobody is talking about doctor strange 2 anymore and that was like two months ago#in two weeks or less nobody will be talking about love and thunder anymore im sure#nobody even noticed eternals. nobody talks about shang chi or black widow.#even the shows like the only one that left any sort of impact was wandavision.#the rest just like. air. and i dont ever see them come up in conversation or online after like the first couple episodes#(keeping in mind that im sure the most hardcore of fans are invested but im talking abt the general population)#(which is like. probably more important cause you cant keep a project this big alive on a specific fanbase alone)
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bookwormonastring · 2 years
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please tell me someone here read these books i need to know someone knows what i’m on about
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thxnks4themrms · 23 days
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Taylor swift has the cringiest most annoying fanbase istfg
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wickedghxst · 11 months
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don’t you think it’s kinda redundant to complain abt the barbie movie being an ad. of course it is. everything is an ad now. the lego movie is an ad. top gun is an ad/recruiting scheme. star wars is an ad. comic book movies are ads for comic books (not that they work. no one’s reading comics bc of the films)
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leona-hawthorne · 3 days
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mattheo riddle x pregnant reader headcanons !!
suggestive content warning— nothing too much tho, mostly fluff
masterlist
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husband!mattheo who looks at you with wide eyes as if you’d hung the stars in the sky when you tell him you’re pregnant. it’s silence for a few moment before he kisses the shit out of you and holds you for what feels like hours
husband!mattheo who almost screams when your bump starts to become more noticeable, somehow finding you to be even more beautiful than ever before
husband!mattheo who gives up smoking and drinking when you’re pregnant. if you have to quit, he’s doing it with you
husband!mattheo who won’t let you do anything yourself. the tv remote is three inches too far from you? stay right there, he’ll get it. you need to walk to the bathroom? he’s guiding you there as if you can’t walk on your own. need water? don’t you DARE get out of your seat, he’s almost got it for you. oh, and do NOT open that door on your own. that’s what he’s there for!
husband!mattheo who is practically in tears within seconds at your first ultrasound, a petulant frown on his face when you laugh at him
husband!mattheo who is borderline annoyingly overbearing when it comes to your health. “did you take all your prenatal vitamins? did you drink enough water today? what did you eat? do you need help with that?” “matty, i love you but PLEASE shut up.”
husband!mattheo who kisses every inch of you, worshipping your femininity, your beautiful hard-working body. wet hot kisses trail down your arms, linger on your round belly for a while, and eventually find their way between your thighs where he’d stay for hours if you wanted him to. he just wants to make his queen feel good while she’s growing their princess <3
husband!mattheo who snatches you up in his arms and cheers after finding out you’re having a girl. then he takes a victory lap around the backyard as he tries to process the fact that he’s gonna have a daughter
husband!mattheo who lays his head on your belly at night, half asleep and letting out soft murmurs about how beautiful your daughter is gonna be. “gonna look just like mommy, most gorgeous little girl in the world, you’ll have her eyes” “let’s just hope you’re less of a brat than mama is”
husband!mattheo who basically panics more than you when you’re going into labor “HOLY FUCK ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW??”
husband!mattheo who almost faints when he catches a glimpse of the baby’s head coming out of you. “ARE YOU OKAY?” “NO, I’M NOT FUCKING OKAY, MATTHEO!”
husband!mattheo who genuinely cries when he sees you hold your baby for the first time, the most beautiful sight in the world even if you’re exhausted and swollen. he’ll lean down to kiss the both of you on the forehead, his heart swelling with a love he didn’t know he was capable of possessing
husband!mattheo whose crying only gets worse when you let him hold the baby, sniffling and cooing at her. next to you, she’s the prettiest thing he’s ever seen, even as a newborn
husband!mattheo who’s terrified of being a dad, afraid to follow in his father’s footsteps. it was scary even with your constant reassurance, but the second your baby utters the word “dada” as she lay in his arms, his fears melt away
husband!mattheo who is the most girl dad of all the girl dads. as she grows, he’ll play dress up with her, let her do his makeup and paint his nails, and learn the name of every disney princess ever. whatever she wants, to be honest
husband!mattheo who can absolutely never get mad at your daughter. she’s perfect and can do no wrong and no one is ever allowed to make his princess feel bad!
husband!mattheo who tells you repeatedly everyday about how much of a good mother you are, about how naturally it all comes to you “you’re amazing, you know that, my love?”
husband!mattheo who would give his life for you and your baby a million times over. you are the loves of his life and he will work his ass off until the day he dies to make sure you’re happy
“we should have a boy next. i mean, i love playing fairy princess tea party, but i think it’s time for something else.”
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redbuddi · 11 months
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Moana was the last truly exceptional movie to come out of Disney/Pixar. Not that they haven't made any good movies since, because they absolutely have, but they are no longer the trailblazing powerhouses they used to be. Instead, they've mastered the art of "good enough." Existing through sheer momentum of what they've done in the past, sacrificing identity for the sake of brand cohesiveness. They would rather you watch a Disney film and know that it is a Disney film than watch a Disney film and see animation at it's finest. You will only see animation at it's fine.
Pixar is at least a little willing to play around with style, but you can almost feel them fighting against constraints in every artistic liberty they take. Disney films, on the other hand? They're kind of nothing. Not worthless, but noticeably half-baked and lacking in depth. Easily overshadowed by their peers. Not every film has to be the best film ever, but when movies from much smaller studios with far less history are running circles around them in terms of film quality, something is wrong.
New Pixar movies used to be an event. Did any of you even know that Elemental is out now? Do any of you care? I don't. A film from a studio Disney destroyed is far more engaging to me right now, and to everyone else.
Nimona is everything Disney wants to bury. And they're the ones in the dirt now. I doubt it'll stay that way forever (though I would LOVE to be proven wrong,) but if things continue the way they have been then Disney/Pixar films are going to become a joke in the very industry they built everything off of.
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shinekocreator · 2 months
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Hazbin Hotel crew watching Disney Princess And The Frog headcanons:
Lucifer cries the most during Ray's death scene
Cherri doesn't cry, but she's the most impacted by said scene, especially when you see the 2 stars together (Ray and Evangeline)
Vaggie ships Tiana and Charlotte (she's not self projecting, not at all/j)
Alastor's favourite character isn't Facilier
Don't get me wrong he kins him
And "Friends On The Other Side" is his favourite song (he forces Husk to recreate it with him)
But his favourite character is Eudora (Tiana's mother)
His second favourite is Mama Odie
Lucifer teared up when watching the scene where Tiana talks about her dad (when she breaks the pendant? Charm? Idk the correct term here)
And every other scene that featured Tiana's dad
Y'all know Nifty's favourite scene is "Almost There"
Angel never noticed, but Husk was smiling at him during the scene where Naveen practices his proposal to Tiana
Angel Dust got into an argument with Alastor regarding Tiana's wedding dress (Angel prefers the frog wedding dress, Al prefers the church wedding dress)
Vaggie notices how similar the movie setting is to Alastor's bedroom, she doesn't comment about it
Charlie wants to do a Mardi Gras in hell
She also wants beignets
She may or may not have convinced Alastor to make her some
The gumbo though? He made it out of his own will
Lucifer loved the gumbo, and the beignets, but he would obviously never admit it
Alastor was playing the soundtrack on loop on the radio, because Charlie requested, and because it pisses off Vox
Alastor also watched it later with Rosie, they were talking about creole cuisine and which meat would go best in each dish
Rosie is a romantic soul, and she adored the movie
She would never tell Alastor, but she also prefers the frog wedding dress
She definitely noticed the similarities between Charlotia and Chaggie, but she also enjoys Tiana and Naveen's romance
She dances along with Alastor to the soundtrack
She would definitely ask Alastor questions about New Orleans, the culture, the scenery, and the food
Her favourite characters are Naveen's parents
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twstowo · 4 months
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Twst/DDV AU? [OB!Characters]
Has anyone ever done a Twisted Wonderland/Disney Dreamlight Valley AU? A reader that comes from DDV, who knows and even grew up with all of the seven (I know not all of them are in the game, but they surely can be added with time), and the reader just keeps on talking about them as if they were friends. The scandal!
Riddle would collar you as soon as you dared to speak so casually of the Queen of Hearts, but once you showed him some pictures of you and the Queen going on tea parties, he would be so sorry for it. He would be fascinated with you because if the Queen was that close of a friend with you, surely it was for a good reason!
Leona would be somewhat impressed. I mean, Scar isn't one to be friendly with anyone, so you getting along with Scar would make him want to find out how interesting you truly are.
As soon as Azul hears that you are friends with Ursula, you are getting promotional coupons for Monstro Lounge. You want something that isn't on the menu? He's got you covered! Someone is annoying you? They will be taken care of! Of course, all of it comes at a cost. Azul wants to know everything about his greatest idol, Ursula!
Kalim would be fascinated to learn that you know any of the seven. He would want you to spend the day at Scarabia just so you could share all your childhood tales with them. Kalim might even host a party so that everyone could come together and listen to your stories. In the middle of all those tales, you notice that whenever you bring up Jafar, Jamil seems to be somewhat more interested in the topic.
By the Seven! Vil wants—no, he needs to know all the details. Is she as beautiful as they state in the stories? Just like Kalim, you spend most of the time telling everything to Vil like some gossip. He will be doing your makeup while you talk. Rook joins to ask you about Snow White, and you swear that you had never seen Vil roll his eyes so badly at someone.
Idia wouldn't be very interested in the subject. Or would he? He can't deny that it is kind of impressive you knowing the Seven and even being friends with all of them. He'd probably overhear some of your stories through some cameras, and soon Ortho would catch him being so enthralled in them that he would invite you over to meet his brother in person. Much to Idia's dismay.
This literally means you know Malleus's grandmother, you totally have her blessing for the two of you to get married. He would be so surprised! And when you go into full detail with various stories, he can't stop but hear them, almost as if he is looking at some gargoyles.
When you return to Dreamlight Valley and meet up with the Seven, you talk about all the boys you have met that oddly resemble each of them. Slowly, this seems to turn into a betting game between the Seven to see which one of the boys you will end up with. Each one of them will hold your attention for as long as possible to talk about their favorite, and they will sabotage everyone's ideas.
You will be having a tea party with Riddle, the two of you laughing at some silly stories you were telling him. The Queen of Hearts is so giddy and happy, and then it starts raining heavily, ruining the tea date. Maleficia grins at The Queen of Hearts for ruining her plans.
One day, you are napping with Leona in the botanical garden, enjoying such a peaceful moment. He is reaching for you, trying to take you in a hug when suddenly a bucket of water is dropped on top of him! Oops! You look at the student in question, and for a second, feel that their eyes had a weird tone of color to them but didn't question it as you watched Leona run after them. There you have Jafar mocking Scar's lazy tactics.
Eating lunch with Azul, the two of you talk about school-related stuff, his hand getting slowly closer to yours on top of the table. But before he can hold it, he starts coughing, needing to excuse himself to the bathroom. The Evil Queen laughs, having tampered with Azul's food, and Ursula can only watch as she plans her revenge.
Jamil and you are cooking; he is teaching you some of the dishes from Scalding Sands. You watch as he places his hand on top of yours, trying to demonstrate how to correctly cut the vegetables, and then a fire starts! Jamil apologizes millions of times, for this had never happened before. And Jafar rolls his eyes as he hears Hades's laugh behind him.
Helping you pick out some clothes, Vil decides that the best option would be making custom clothes for you. He takes your measurements, touching your soft skin with the excuse of getting the right fit. The intimate moment gets interrupted when a thunderbolt sounds outside, and you watch as Vil's face pales, he had nicked himself with the needle, piercing his perfect skin. He leaves you there alone for the next few moments, as The Evil Queen takes notes on how to ruin Maleficia's day.
Malleus and you are walking around the school campus at night on your typical stroll. There is a small lake next to the two of you, your hands touching from time to time as he slowly gains the courage to fully take hold of your hand. However, a fish literally spits water on him, ruining the moment. Maleficia needs to hold her own magical powers before she fries Ursula.
I didn't write about Scar and The Queen of Hearts sabotaging the dates because, to be honest, I don't know what they could do. I believe Scar would heavily focus on talking about how Leona is perfect for you in every aspect, flaunting his wealth and good looks. The Queen of Hearts would also have a similar approach, she would invite you to have some tea with her while speaking of Riddle's charm and his composed gentleman ways.
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If you liked this post check out @twisted-wonderland-but-gayer they have a whole collection of stories with the seven and they are all amazing!
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ceasarslegion · 5 months
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Whenever people criticize exploitative companies I notice that they tend to target consumers as if everybody using those services always have a choice in the matter, but im willing to bet that a massive chunk of the population that shops at walmart, orders from amazon, subscribe to disney+, etc, are poor/rural people who cant afford any of the alternatives. And what exactly do you expect them to do?
Disney+ is the cheapest option for reliable entertainment for poor parents with kids. Netflix is the cheapest option for that for most others. They still deserve to watch TV when they cant afford a cable package (and yes, pirating still has barriers attached to it. For one, you need to be able to afford the computer, just for starters). Not everyone who has a streaming service subscription is a bootlicker or supports the disney corporation or thinks netflix has the most correct working conditions.
Amazon is the cheapest option for shipping, well... almost anything. And in a lot of places, its the only thing that can reliably get there at all within the month. And when a prime subscription comes with free shipping and a streaming service? That cuts out one major expense AND the expense from the first point, too. Folks still deserve to be able to order things when they cant afford to pay for shipping fees or when they can only afford the cheapest possible option for the item they need. Not everybody with a prime subscription or who orders the occasional thing off amazon wants to personally suck jeff bezos's dick or thinks warehouse workers deserve to be worked to death.
Walmart remains the cheapest possible option for most people in north america, especially in the cost of living crisis right now where groceries cost more than your rent. Not everybody who shops at walmart thinks the workers deserve to be exploited or that unions are bad or that driving out small businesses is a good thing
And im gonna be honest, every single "alternative" ive seen from people acting these ways is WAYYY more expensive and unreliable to poor and rural people than the things theyre telling us to stop using. You absolutely should support small businesses when you can but i usually dont have small business money. I can either buy a few little things to eat that will last me maybe a week or i can get enough for the month for the same amount at walmart, and thats not MY fault.
What exactly do you want us to do here
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lackadaisycats · 1 year
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I tried to answer this succinctly, but it turned into an essay. (Sorry.)
The Princess and the Frog was not accurate, strictly speaking, but dinging it for that would be like criticizing the Lion King for not being a realistic wildlife documentary. Accuracy wasn't really the point. Given the fantastical elements and fictional nations like “Maldonia”, I suppose we're meant to understand this as a bit removed from the real New Orleans. It's more a a jazz-flavored fairy tale than a historical fiction.
But for discussion's sake....
Is it fashion-accurate to its 1926 timeframe? Ehhh, sort of. It pays homage to 20s fashion trends with cloche hats, furs and feathery headpieces, but without fully committing to it. The waistline on almost all of Tiana's clothing is too high for the 20s, and the the shapes of her fancier costumes take a lot of liberties, or deviate wildly from the style of the period.
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In the 20s, dresses (including workaday stuff) tended to have a straight up-and-down shape to it - kind of a low-waisted rectangle that de-emphasized curves instead of highlighting them. There are valid reasons to play fast and loose with that, though (something I’m definitely guilty of as well). One of those reasons is communication. 
For instance, speculatively, the filmmakers wrote Tiana as a hard-working waitress and wanted her to look the part, so they made the choice to clothe her in something familiar - that gingham dress of mid-century shape that we broadly associate with diner waitresses. Actual waitress uniforms of the 20s had a fair bit of overlap with maid uniforms at the time too, and I can see why they wouldn't want to risk the confusion. It's more important to communicate clearly with the larger audience than to appease a small faction of fashion nerds who'd notice or care about the precision.
I don't think it's a case of the designers failing to do their research - I'm sure they had piles of references, and maybe even consultants - but they also had to have priorities.
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With her hat and coat on, she looks a lot more 1920s-shaped.
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Pretty consistently, the indication of the characteristic 1920s drop waist is there, but the approach otherwise ignores the 20s silhouette. The clothes hug the body too much. This may be about appealing to a 2000s audience, visually speaking, but also could be an animation thing. Maybe both. For practical reasons, clothes in 2d animation are usually more a sort of second skin than something that wears or behaves like realistic fabric.
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These are not in the 1920s ballpark at all. Tiana's blue gown looks like your basic Disney brand invention. Strapless things would have been extremely unusual and the overall shape is far out of step. Excusable, I guess, because it's a costume in context. Charlotte looks like she’s heading for a mimosa brunch in a modern maxi dress.
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Charlotte's princess dress did seem to be calling back to the ultra-wide pannier side hoops of the 18th century - something that made a reappearance for part of the 20s, albeit in much milder form called robe de style. I'm not sure if the filmmakers were alluding to that at all, really, but either way, her dress is hilarious.
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They only went about halfway with the cloche hats. The 1920s cloche really encapsulated the cranium, almost entirely covered bobbed hair, and obscured much of the face from certain angles, so it's easy to see why they've been somewhat reined in for the film. Still, it ends up looking more 1930s, where the hats started to recede away from the face, evolving in the direction of the pillbox.
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Similarly, Tiana's hair is not very reminiscent of the bobbed, close-to-the-cranium style of the period, but I think that could legitimately be written off as characterization. She's not at all the type of person who'd fuss about going à la mode. Not everyone bobbed and finger-waved their hair.
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The clothes Prince Naveen is introduced in are very 1920s collegiate in spirit - the wide-leg oxford bags, the sleeveless pullover sweater, the flat cap, and high, stiff collar. The ukulele and banjolele were pretty trendy instruments at the time too.
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Definitely some Josephine Baker vibes here. Also, the look of this whole fantasy sequence was reportedly inspired by the works of Aaron Douglas, a luminary painter of the Harlem Renaissance known for his depictions of the lives of African-Americans. (The mural is in Topeka, Kansas.)
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They pretty much nailed the Art Deco. It's gorgeous. Looks somewhat inspired by the interiors of some of the Ralph Walker-designed NYC architecture, plus some French Quarter balcony flair for the final manifestation of Tiana's Place. Her dress here does resemble some gauzy mid-1920s looks, too.
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Culturally speaking...
New Orleans is an unusual place. Because some of the colonial Spanish and French laws and conventions that New Orleans evolved under persisted even after its inception into the United States; because it was such a heterogeneous hub of indigenous and immigrant peoples; and because it had a considerable population of free people of color (mostly Creole), it did not function quite like the rest of the South leading up to the Civil War, nor for a while after. Its particular coalescence of cultures made it its own unique sort of culture within the country, within the region, within the state of Louisiana even. By the early 20th century, though, regardless of the not-very-binary nature of New Orleans, Jim Crow laws were enforcing a literal black-and-white distinction, and not an evenhanded one, by far. In that aspect, the city had begun to resemble the rest of the South.
The film nods at the wealth disparity, but goes on to paint a pretty rosy picture of race and class relations at the time. Still it's not unbelievable that some people were exceptions to the rules. You could probably find a few compartments of old New Orleans society that resisted segregation or certain prejudicial norms, preferring to do things their own way. That aside, the film wasn't trying to confront these topics. Not every piece of media should have to. Sometimes breaking away from miserable period piece stereotypes is refreshing. I'm not sure it could have handled that meaningfully given the running time, narrow story focus, and intended audience, anyhow. (But you could perhaps also make a case that family films habitually underestimate younger audiences in this way.)
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Raymond the firefly I guess is the film's Cajun representation. There's not much to say about it, except perhaps to note that Evangeline is a reference to the heroine of a Longfellow poem of the same name. The poem is an epic romance set during the expulsion of the Acadians from the eastern provinces of Canada and the northernmost reaches of the American colonies (now Maine) by the British in the mid-1700s. Many exiled Acadians gradually migrated south to francophone-friendly Louisiana, settling into the prairies and bayous, where 'Acadian' truncated into the pronunciation 'Cajun'. Evangeline - who is only finally reunited with her love when he’s on his deathbed - has become an emblem of the heartbreak, separation and faithful hope of that cultural history, and there are parishes, statues and other landmarks named after the her throughout Louisiana.
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Voodoo does have a very historical presence in New Orleans, having arrived both directly from West Africa and by way of the Haitian diaspora (where it would more properly be called Vodou). While I don't think Disney's treatment of it was especially sensitive or serious, it also wasn't the grotesquely off-base sort of thing that media of the past has been known to do. It was largely whittled down to a magical plot component, but it wasn't so fully repurposed that it didn't resemble Voodoo at all either - and that's mostly owing to the characters, because it does appear the writers pulled from history there.
It’s apparently widely held that Dr. Facilier is a Baron Samedi caricature - and likely that's true, in part - but I have the impression he's also influenced by Doctor John. Not the 20th century funk musician, but the antebellum “Voodoo King” of New Orleans. Doctor John (also called Bayou John, Jean La Ficelle, and other aliases) claimed to be a Senegalese prince. He became well known as a potion man and romance-focused prognosticator to people from all corners of society. Though highly celebrated and financially successful at his peak, he seems ultimately remembered as an exploitative villain.
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To my recollection, the film sort of gingerly avoids referring to Facilier as a Voodoo practitioner directly (I think he's more generically called a witch doctor in the script?) but it does seem to imply his 'friends on the other side' are a consortium of loa. It's mostly abbreviated into nebulously evil-seeming special FX, glazing over any specificity or dimensionality, but it does also loop back around as a vehicle of moral justice. Loa are all very individualistic and multi-faceted, but they do have reciprocal rules for asking favors of them.
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There's also the benevolent counterpart in Mama Odie's character. Her wearing ritual whites has a definite basis in Voodoo/Vodou practice, and her depiction as a fairy godmother-like figure isn't entirely out of step with how a mambo may have been perceived...in a very general sense. They were/are ceremonial leaders and community bastions who people would seek out for help, advice and spiritual guidance. More than just emanating matronly good vibes, though, some have wielded considerable political and economic power.
(Just my opinions here. I've done a lot of reading on the subject for research but I'm no authority with any special insider understanding of Voodoo, and I really shouldn't be relied upon as an arbiter of who has or hasn't done it justice in fiction.)
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In summary--
Culturally, I think the film is respectably informed but paints a superficially genteel picture. The set pieces are gorgeous, but the story mostly delivers a sort of veneer of New Orleanishness. And as for fashion, well, it’s the 1920s run through a Disney filter. It’s very pretty, but it’s only as proximally accurate as seemed practical.
I don’t know that any of that really matters so much as whether or not it achieved what it intended, though. As a charming yarn and as a tribute to New Orleans and the Jazz age, I think it’s mostly successful. It’s also really beautifully animated!
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fans4wga · 10 months
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Writers Guild West Official: Era of Hollywood Mergers Hastened the Strike
August 10, 2023
Laura Blum-Smith, the Writers Guild of America West’s director of research and public policy, considers the strike a result of a tsunami of Hollywood mergers that has handed studios and streamers the power to its exploit workers.
“Harmful mergers and attempts to monopolize markets are a recurring theme in the history of media and entertainment, and they are a key part of what led 11,500 writers to go on strike more than 100 days ago against their employers,” Blum-Smith said on Thursday at an event with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice over new merger guidelines unveiled in July.
She pointed to Disney, Amazon and Netflix as companies that “gained power through anticompetitive consolidation and vertical integration,” allowing them to impose “more and more precarious working conditions, increasingly short term employment and lower pay for writers and other workers across the industry.” But she sees revisions to the merger guidelines that address labor concerns a key part of the solution to prevent further mergers in the entertainment industry moving forward.
“The FTC and DOJ’s new draft merger guidelines are part of a deeply necessary effort to revive antitrust enforcement,” she added. “Compared with earlier guidelines, the new ones are much more skeptical of the idea that mergers are the natural way for companies to grow. And they focus more on the various ways mergers hurt competition, including how mergers impact workers.”
In July, the FTC and DOJ jointly released a new road map for regulatory review of mergers. They require companies to consider the impact of proposed transactions on labor, signaling that the agencies intend to review whether mergers could negatively impact wages and working conditions. FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya, who was joined by agency chair Lina Khan, said in a statement about the guidelines that “a merger that may substantially lessen competition for workers will not be immunized by a prediction that predicted savings from a merger will be passed on to consumers.” Historically, transactions have been considered mostly through the lens of benefits to consumers.
The guidelines lack the force of law but influence the way in which judges consider lawsuits to block proposed transactions. They also tell the public how competition enforcers will assess the potential for a merger’s harm to competition.
Antitrust enforcers have steadily been taking notice of negative impacts to labor as a result of industry consolidation. “We’ve heard concerns that a handful of companies may now again be controlling the bulk of the entertainment supply chain from content creation to distribution,” Khan said last year during a listening forum over revisions to the guidelines, in a nod to anticompetitive conduct by studios that led to the Paramount Decrees. “We’ve heard concerns that this type of consolidation and integration can enable firms to exert market power over creators and workers alike.”
Adam Conover, writer and WGA board member, said in that April 2022 forum that his show Adam Ruins Everything was killed by AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner in 2018 when TruTV’s parent company forced the network to cut costs. He stressed that a handful of companies “now control the production and distribution of almost all entertainment content available to the American public,” allowing them to “more easily hold down our wages and set onerous terms for our employment.” It’s not just writers that are impacted by an overly consolidated Hollywood either, he explained. After Disney acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019, he said that the studios pushed the industry into ending backend participation and trapping actors in exclusive contracts preventing them from pursuing other work.
Blum-Smith said that aggressive competition enforcement is necessary as “Wall Street continues to push for more consolidation among our employers despite the industry’s history of mergers that failed to deliver any of the consumer benefits they’ve claimed that left writers and audiences worse off with less diversity of content and fewer choices.”
“More mergers will leave writers with even fewer places to sell their work and tell their stories and the remaining companies will have even more power to lower pay and worsen working conditions,” she warned. “Strong enforcement against mergers is essential to protect workers in media and workers across the country and these guidelines are an important step in the right direction.”
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