thisrandomstuff

[thisrandomstuff]

You know for a moment I thought I'd seen him in Ragnarok, but, silly me, I must have been hallucinating. Or having a fever dream. Or maybe Ragnarok was the fever dream.

It's such a shame that loki never made an appearance after the dark world:/

[thisrandomstuff]

Unlike some people, I actually DO blame families (and general audiences) who take their kids to watch live-action slop.

In the 21st century they have the option to:

Wait for something that's not a live-action remake to come out;

Watch something at home;

Search for indie animation online and watch that;

Buy popcorn, milkshakes, sodas, etc. outside of theaters/cinemas and just consume it at home while watching something at home

Wait for a screening of the older films in theaters, because those DO return to the big screen every now and again.

Adults aren't helpless children with no options; least of all those who can afford to go to the cinemas for this shit. Y'all just need to let go of your learned helplessness and start putting some respect on the creative process and animators.

Elio is coming out soon. So if you so badly want to watch something in theaters... there you go.

And DreamWorks movies DO return to the big screen from time to time. I've seen it happen with Kung Fu Panda 2 years back.

I also never got to watch the animated How to Train Your Dragon in cinemas when I was a kid. My family were also varying levels of broke back then. But I'm not here going to see the live-action remake just because "this might be the only time I get to do watch httyd in the cinemas".

This isn't a MUST. This isn't like needing to buy clothes, or food, or anything like that. You can go without watching movies in the cinema. That's a privilege, one some people are clearly keen on abusing to support this soulless plague of live-action remakes.

You know, there are people out there that went to school for animation in hopes it'd be their full-time job one day.

It's bad enough that these studios far too often underpay or exploit people. But for them to completely cut them out, or stomp over their works, or barely include animation so they can avoid paying for it?

Those of you who pay to see this sort of live-action stuff that only pushed studios away from animation pay to encourage studios to keep avoiding better treatment and more respect for their animators. You pay to keep the disrespect going and you pay to keep this a thing...

Remember how 2D got phased out of studios like Disney and DreamWorks?

So, no, you don't get to keep making cheap excuses. Learn from history, learn from the other remakes, and learn to control your urge to see everything on the big screen.

The great thing about those animated movies that got remade (not because there was much to be "improved", but because they were a commercial success, therefore presumed "safe") is that you could come out of it loving it without that cinema hype to build them up. You could fall in love with them long after they've stopped being the IT thing, because they're THAT good.

For the record: I DO also blame corporations. But you support these corporations when you don't HAVE to. You're all acting like Disney/DreamWorks has a gun to your head and is whispering "watch the live-action remake or you'll never get to see another movie again" into your ear.

[thisrandomstuff]

No, no, no, this guy's right.

But also, bunny x pitch in that fandom is just called "rotten eggs", which is the standard tag for that.

Even if it's "just a picture", a picture can do a lot.

Please, please, please use the mainstream ship tag for your ships. I'm not interested in several of the ships in the rotg fandom, I probably never will be, and some ships make me feel nauseous and cause me physical pain (that's not a joke or an exaggeration) when I see them pop up. This goes for ships of various orientations, including Jelsa, blacksand, elsanna and Gothitch, so please respect those who don't care for this by tagging your posts accurately and not screwing with the tags just so you can get around people's filters. It's disrespectful and genuinely hurtful, especially considering we already have dedicated tags for the major rotg ships.

For those who do not know the main tags:

Pitch x Sandy - blacksand

Pitch x Jack - blackice

Jack x Elsa - jelsa

Jack x Rapunzel - jackunzel

Hiccup x Jack - hijack

Gothel x Pitch - gothitch

Pitch x North (er, because the ship name clashes with a completely separate fandom, just go with Pitch x North or North x Pitch on this one)

Pitch x Bunny - rotten eggs

Elsa x Anna - elsanna

Pitch x Turbo - nightmare racer

Additionally, I may block those blogs whose main ships seem to be among those that make me uncomfortable based on reblogs/posts. That's nothing against those blogs personally, I just want to minimise the risk of coming across ships and ship tags that are a problem for me. I want to remind people that inclusivity sometimes means allowing people to avoid things that make them uncomfortable, trigger them or make them feel ill. Which is made easier when people use universal tags for things. Universal, reliable and consistent ship tags mean that every shipper can ship to their heart's content without causing anyone else upset. They also mean people who don't like romantic ships, or are made uncomfortable by romantic/sexual relationships and gestures for instance, can avoid such content.

P.S.- Because Tumblr is sensitive to spaces in its tags, you can't just add an additional space and think the filtering system will still work.

[thisrandomstuff]

I do genuinely appreciate the effort, the sacrifice and the time put into this warning post. While I understand reviewers/critics might pay to go see this, the average person does not need to — there are other ways —, so I agree, I can't respect people who continue to financially support these live-action remakes despite being shown time and time again that they result in inferior products that lack the creative spirit of the original. Besides, we could all see in the trailers this wasn't going to live up to the original. Like, you did see how inferior Toothless and the others looked.

This could've been an AU. This could've been an adaptation of the books. This could've been anything, but they chose a shot-for-shot remake and didn't even have the respect for the animated version or understanding of why the original shots worked.

Alright I'm gonna watch the travesty that is the live action httyd. So I'm taking notes like for Lilo and Stitch, and I have the original script, and the original movie pulled up, just to be sure I'm not forgetting anything despite the original httyd being seared into my retinas since age 10

TL;DR written post-watch cause this became like 2,000 words, It's bad, it's horrendous. Pretty much everyone is slightly to horribly out of character, they're all mean and/or stupid. It's mostly the same movie, but every change is for the worse, and everything that's stayed the same is acted and directed MUCH worse.

Berk isn't their home anymore it's just some random island close to the nest, the Red Death isn't fireproof, they still fire into her mouth but there's no reason for it now unless you've seen the original, Astrid is emotionless through the whole thing, none of her anger, passion or any other emotion is here.

Toothless and the other dragons are much less intelligent. The CGI looks like a mobile game ad most of the time. Overall, not a single good thing here, don't bother watching it, let alone giving it money. Go watch the original, or read the books and ignore this fucking insult to animation and to How to train your dragon.

Right off the bat:

"This, is Berk" no the fuck it isn't, that's a moldy pride rock. It's so ugly and, small.

Oh, the sheep isn't even real. What too pussy to use a real sheep? It's a fake one attached to a bell like someone wouldn't notice a real sheep bleating or THE GIANT FUCKING DRAGON TAKING IT. I guess the point was they're keeping the sheep safe from the dragons, then why put out bait? If the dragons don't see sheep they won't attack? Probably? Man idk, it's stupid

The opening monologue too, is just. Soulless. More brief and not an ounce of sarcasm or dry humor. Y'know, a big part of Hiccup's way of speaking

Stoick so far is alright. He's not NEARLY as imposing as his animated counterpart, didn't even recognize him at first. Even with real human proportion limitations, still think they could've done more in the costuming department, at least added some height to him cause rn Hiccup is like, up to his shoulder which just feels wrong

CGI so far looks horrendous, a shot of the dragons setting fire to the village looks like a fucking mobile game ad

Hiccup going to Gobber and that whole little scene is much more clunky here. They've removed basically all the sass and jokes from the scene, from BOTH sides. "They need toothpicks don't they" and "little-er" are gone The latter probably because they knew they severely miscast Hiccup cause this guy doesn't look like the scrawny little loser Hiccup is at the beginning of movie 1

Astrid coming out from smoke instead of walking in front of an explosion is just lame and screams "we didn't have the budget"

And on Astrid, Hiccup going on about how cool she is instead of just the delivery of her name letting us know he has a thing for her, is keeping up the trend of these fuckass remakes really struggling with subtlety and visual storytelling

Alright so Hiccup is a straight up moron now

First of all they're putting WAY too much emphasis on the Astrid thing, it wasn't acknowledged at all until a couple teasing comments from the CHILDREN in the arena, NOT Gobber Second of all, the launcher thing he built. Why the fuck does he firemit twice on purpose, at his fellow vikings? In the original it was an accident, he patted it, the mechanism was too sensitive and fired and hit a viking ON ACCIDENT

All the acting is so incredibly, and I hate using the word but there's no better one I can think of, cringe. It feels like a youtube skit more than a movie

And the delivery is horrible, especially on Gobber. In the original you could tell him and Hiccup were at odds but they still liked each other, Gobber came across as a silly uncle figure, who was still protective, and only became serious when he saw Hiccup was a danger to either himself(running out into a fight he wasn't ready for) or others(accidentally knocking a guy out with his launcher) here, Gobber seems to barely stand Hiccup and Hiccup is no better towards him

Okay just don't tell us the Monstrous Nightmare sets itself on fire, alright, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THEN?? (I know because I'm me, but for general audiences it's a weird omission, if I didn't know, I'd assume it was just, accidentally on fire, not something it deliberately did) they didn't bother introducing the rest of the teens either, Hiccup calls them the fire brigade and focuses solely on Astrid, we don't learn the others names till later

The whole dragon attack is so slow and anticlimactc, and this is the last time I'm mentioning Hiccup's delivery, because it's awful. End of story, slow, over-exagerated, not an ounce of the charm and sass Jay Baruchel brought to the role

No talking fishbone rant and Hiccup imitating Stoick. 0/10

So, Berk is no longer their home. BERK IS NOT THEIR HOME. It's just, close to where a "key dragons nest" is… They're setting up for the 3rd movie where they just ditch Berk so it's not a plot hole aren't they? It just, gives so much less weight to everything. They're not defending their generational home they're just, camping out to kill dragons

This was no doubt done to explain the POC vikings, as "the best warriors from all around the world" but. They didn't need to do that. It's a fucking fantasy dragon movie, especially for the background characters, cast whoever you damn well please, you don't need an in-universe explanation that ruins the lore and significance of the main location

The great hall is also tiny and cramped now

Gobber doesn't stay to talk to Stoick, Stoick has to stop him from leaving the hall. Gobber is just an ass here. Fuck this whole movie, bury the script with some C4 and light it up

Okay they mention Valka, by name, that's a good thing, but it's the least I'd expect now that they know exactly where the story is headed

WHY IS EVERYTHING SO BRIGHTLY LIT THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST TENSE SCENES IN THE WHOLE STORY AND IT LOOKS LIKE THE GODDAMN TELETUBBIES HILL UP IN HERE

Overzealous, excited teenager "I have slain this mighty beast!" VS generic protag guy "I DID IT!"

The shot of the reveal of Toothless' open eye gives me goosebumps, every single time. The atmosphere, the score, the slow camera movement and angle. None of that is here, it's just, oh, it's open btw here he is

Okay more of every character being meaner for no reason, why did Hiccup start to leave? In the og he immediately went to cut Toothless loose. Here he has to hear a whine then go back. Jackass

And Toothless doesn't pin Hiccup because the CGI characters interacting with the live humans is expensive and hard to pull off. Also GOD he's so SLOW and just. He feels like he shouldn't be able to lift off the ground, all his speed and agility are gone, and BCAUSE of said sluggishness we linger long enough on his tail to SEE IT MISSING HALF OF THE TAIL FIN BEFORE THE ACTUAL REVEAL. FUCK THIS MOVIES' COMPOSITION AND DIRECTION IS ASS

He doesn't even faint, he doesn't even stumble he just kinda. Looks at Toothless flying away, and sighs. He doesn't look like a guy who got attacked by the scariest dragon they've never even seen, he looks like a guy who saw his car getting towed

The conversation between Stoick and Hiccup is alright I guess, just a worse clunkier version of the original with worse delivery, not much more to say

Ooookay, dragon training, dunno what "trial of flame" is, dumb, will be ignoring it. They seem to be cause they call it dragon training half the time, anyway. Banter is OK, however, "daddy pulled some strings" is such a dumb line. Second, Tuffnut sounds so whiny and him and Ruffnut being held back, 4 years, makes them 19-20. That's. A pointless, mildly weird inclusion

They act childish as ever but they're that much older than the other teens. Again, utterly pointless

"Will you stop that?! You big bag of wool." And so, insulting Fishlegs, for his weight, was absolutely necessary apparently? Isn't this supposed to be the modern progressive remake that "fixes" and "improves" aspects of the original??

As far as I remember, Fishlegs was never made fun of for his weight, not in the first move at least. I don't wanna say with certainty without checking. But in this moment he definitely wasn't, and it further makes Gobber just, a jackass in this version

So. Gobber takes Hiccup's axe, emphasizing how important a shield is. Then Hiccup has to awkwardly tap his shield with his hand to make noise while everyone else still has their weapons?? Why??

Yet again I find myself, asking WHY. Why did we need the dragon manual scene to go on for so long just so Hiccup can simp for Astrid some more? So Astrid can further emphasize how Berk isn't their home and they don't care about it? So we can learn Hiccup and Stoick's house, their home, the home they lost Valka in, the home they cherished. Is like the viking white house and if one of them isn't chief they get kicked out?? The fuck is wrong with this movie??

Unsurprisingly the scene of Hiccup reading the manual is short, lame and without a fraction of the atmosphere and creepiness of the original. It's like he's reading a damn instruction manual and skipping to the part he needs to read

Seeing the ships get attacked is pretty neat, alright that one is a plus

They put the hesitation before the nose touch back, good. But forbidden friendship just, doesn't hit the way it does in the original, it's kinda. Boring, didn't make me feel a damn thing

Okay all the "us girls gotta stick together" is so fucking annoying YOU CAN SHOW THEM BEING FRIENDS WITHOUT POINTING IT OUT WITH OVERUSED MODERN TERMS. Show don't tell, dammit

Gothi standing there moving beads is also stupid and pointless, and her design isn't nowhere near as charming as the original(design being casting and costume)

Exchanging dragon nip for dandelions is also stupid

"Who's a good boy??" Ah so Toothless is in fact, a dog now. Good to fucking know. He seems so much less intelligent here as a whole

Test flight is just bad, bad camera work, bad cgi, bad everything. And no Toothless accidentally running Hiccup through fire in the end. Why remove it it was such a fun little gag

If I don't directly mention a scene, assume it's the same, but worse. That's how a majority of them are, same script with minor alterations and worse acting and animation I just don't have anything to say on those

Not faulting Nico Parker, she's doing the best with what she's got, but what she's got is a bad script and bad direction. Because Astrid seems so cold, and emotionless. Seeing the Red Death and saying "what is that" wtih a complteltly nerutral expression, she sounds like she's asking about an ugly shirt her friend is wearing

Also how do you manage to make the northern lights ugly? How is that possible? Beautiful blues teams and purples vs puke green

"Don't get inloved, my dad respects you too much" VS "make sure they don't find Toothless" So this Hiccup cares more about Astrid's reputation, not her, her REPUTATION, than he does about Toothless' life. Got it. SIMP. FAILTHY FUCKING SIMP What have they done to my boy.

Okay there was one neat shot of Hiccup's hand matching Toothless' paw when they're trying to climb up

"ASTRID GET BACK HERE. THAT'S AN ORDER." So, he's concerned about flaunting power and being right, not just, getting a kid out of danger. He's upset they're not listening to him, not that they could get hurt

Fight between Toothless and Hookfang is extended and I guess it's decently cool, but that, and the longer fight between Toothless and Stoick, just makes everything slower and more anticlimactic. The original was quick and snappy, this is just "we're filling time"

"You're not one of us. You're not my son." Cannot BEGIN to compare to "You're not a viking. You're not my son." Seriously the delivery, the line itself, hits nowhere as hard. I guess bringing up Valka is alright but feels a bit forced ngl

WHY DOES TOOTHLESS HAVE A FUCKING AMERICAN FOOTBALL CROTCH GUARD ON HIS FACE LMAO WHAT IS THAT

Alright final battle, mostly the same but worse, HOWEVER, The occupational hazard line was removed, this one and the setup for it earlier

And Stoick, doesn't say "I'm sorry" nor does he tell Hiccup he doesn't have to go. No no he says he was "just trying to protect him" and that whatever happens up there he's proud. He doesn't apologize, he doesn't take accountability for being wrong

They got rid of "not fireproof on the inside" with the terrible terrors, and therefore, no explanation as to how or why Hiccup decided to fire inside the Red Death's mouth. Especially considering SHE'S NOT FIREPROOF. THEY BLEW HOLES IN HER WINGS AND FLEW THROUGH THEM FOR A COOL VISUAL, COMPLETELY FUCKING RUINING THEIR WHOLE LORE

Stoick apologizing and waiting to see Hiccup alive is alright, but they really should've kept it a father son moment, Astrid doesn't need to be there. Also, just he's alive. No "you brought him back alive" he still thanks Toothless later but that line was a nice acknowledgement to what he did

Well, the rest of it, is just the same, but worse. They acknowledge that Stoick and the others rode back on dragons, I guess that makes sense, it's alright

Snotlout has a non-subplot with his dad which was done much better in the show, not much else to say on that

And that was it. The live action How to train your dragon remake. In a word. Soulless. The same but worse. What they do change is for the worse, not a single person aside from Gerard Butler was cast appropriately, nor designed as far as costuming goes, they bend over backwards justifying the changes they've made and the movie is much worse for it

Every single character is also, meaner for some reason. Only Fishlegs is about the same but more whiny somehow. It's just. Bad, no other way to say it, it's bad. Gobber is the worst offender, he's an asshole to Hiccup, to the other kids, everyone. Hiccup is also so unlikeable and a genetic protagonist with bad delivery. By the end I couldn't give less of a shit if he made it or not cause he was annoying more than anything

Toothless is significantly less intelligent, agile and cool than in the original. Same goes for all the dragons honestly. Trash heap with bad cgi, bad acting and a bad script. I'll be happy when it's forgotten. And I hope the sequel gets canceled, but general audiences will make this at least an 800mil movie so that probably won't happen

[thisrandomstuff]

What they did to Toothless in the Live action and how he was sidelined as a character and his friendship with Hiccup being secondary to his arc is actually criminal and people praising this movie piss me off so much….

Toothless was barely shown to have emotions or even intelligence. Not to mention that horrible design and CGI did him no favors in showing emotions and charisma. This is why in animation this sentiment is portrayed perfectly. He NEEDS to be shown as this intelligent character that makes choices and has depth….

In the Kill Ring scene it was especially apparent that they just wanted to portray Toothless as just this wild animal, not this intelligent and emotional creature. He legit GROWLED AT HICCUP for telling him to go away (to escape) and he SEPARATED HIMSELF from Hiccup when in that scene the whole ass point is that Toothless was trying to protect him and put himself between Hiccup and the others! But in the live action he GROWLS AT HICCUP! Like he’s mad at Hiccup for telling him to escape… The person Toothless is trying to protect?!?! This whole scene from top to bottom is so horrible starting with that Hiccstrid conversation….

And considering Dean wrote the movie AND HTTYD3 it feels especially sinister…….. that whole message that they’re just wild beasts with no emotions hits home far harder and it’s lowkey justifying the abhorrent message and view of the third movie like I legit just wanted to barf….

What a depressing situation indeed.

[thisrandomstuff]

Am I seriously the only one who would've loved to see Star Boy, yes, but as a platonic soulmate/friend/found family of Asha? Like, give a girl some actual guy friends in movies. Disney doesn't do a lot of that. (I wouldn't count Maui, because the age gap and the way he talks to Moana honestly makes him come off as a mentor, or like a way older brother figure). But a same-aged male friend or found family member would've been great.

I would've also kind of liked her finding love with a member in the existing friend group. A long-time friends to lovers couple would feel refreshing and demisexual/romantic-coded, which is a part of the spectrum that tends to get overlooked because people assume that's just the norm because the difference isn't really understood. Demisexual/Demiromantic people need a connection first, before they even have a chance at feeling romantic/sexual attraction. Which a lot of people clearly don't need since hook-ups and strangers-to-lovers arcs spanning just a few days are really common in movies. (There's also the whole love-at-first sight trope, and people having hundreds of crushes in their childhoods... which I think is less common in people on the aroace-spectrum...)

My point being that Asha has this opportunity to have this sort of romantic arc form where many Disney Princesses do not, because she's not exactly meeting a guy her age (or a few years older) for the first time in that particular movie (unlike Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Tangled, Little Mermaid, BatB, or even Frozen) which already means they've got an established platonic relationship which allows for the movie to really have that slow-burn, friends-to-lovers, connection-first-then-love feel. And since increasingly often women and girls in movies are getting with the guy they met second, the best friend's brother, the guy critiquing her first relationship, etc., this sort of shake-up might be refreshing...?

That way, we have the romance, but that romance would also require an emphasis on the preexisting and newly formed male-female friendships which I think is kind of lacking in movies.

(Or hell, maybe the movie could've even included Asha being in an existing relationship being affected by the plot to create that tension and keep things within the relationship interesting in an organic way. Sort of like Pixar's Incredible's, but Disneyfied.)

And like, Disney gals do have build up in their relationships, but the point at which they meet the guy and then get with him (even though they don't marry "at first sight" the way Buzzfeed and Frozen made it out to be) is by the end of the movie... which doesn't leave as much room for much variety in relationships and how they develop or how fast they develop.

Edit: okay, so my bad, there are some people who are also fully for a platonic thing between starboy and Asha, but on You Tube it admittedly felt like most if not all people were like: "it should've been a romance between Starboy and Asha". But as you can see from the screenshot below, someone clearly did consider the male friend idea.

-_-'' I should check Tumblr more often before posting. :/

[thisrandomstuff]

I am once again begging y’all not to support the HTTYD live action remake in theaters. The more these remakes succeed, the longer we’ll be stuck in this story-recycling era of Hollywood, in which studio execs think their animated stories need to ‘graduate’ to live action.

[thisrandomstuff]

I can't believe that unnecessary rehash of a "live-action" movie is getting tens on IMDB. I could get sixes — they did steal most of the basic plot beats of the original, after all and some people are dying for any kind of content involving their favourite movies/shows —, but tens? The audience must've been blind and deaf for this.

How does it get a ten, when some of their original movies barely get a seven? I hope that with time that rating will take a plunge, because it does not deserve a ten. It fails as an adaptation, it fails as its own movie and it fails because it doesn't understand the basic, technical aspects of film-making. This movie is fails on a technical level.

So those ten star reviews? Are completely inaccurate.

It currently sits at an 8.2 rating (overall). Admittedly early days, but it shouldn't start off at over 8 on the scale, a movie should work to get there. Otherwise temporary hype is going to keep the ratings off for the long time.

And some of the 10 star reviews include lines like "better than I thought" which alone doesn't explain why the hell you'd rate it ten. Isn't the agreement that generally 10 stars means masterpiece? That the flaws are so minimal that it doesn't matter? That the thing basically changed your life? I don't see how a remake is going to do that considering the vast majority of us have probably seen the original, animated version... unless, of course, you're the kind of person who looks down upon animation (you do realise the dragons in the la are animated, though, right? Just worse... right?), but this should not be rated 10 stars. Or even nine, I mean, it didn't bother changing the plot, but then changed everything around it that made it really, truly work... and they changed it for the worse.

Also, tell my why is this live-action rehash higher rated than any of DreamWorks animated movies? Why is Bluesky not even allowed to have a single movie (not even the first Ice Age movie) sit at an 8.0, but this soulless thing sit at an 8.2?

Let me show you how this compares to the other DreamWorks movies, btw (I'll do you a solid and only include the firsts in a franchise):

Abominable - 7.0

How to Train Your Dragon (animated) - 8.1

Kung Fu Panda - 7.6

Megamind - 7.3

Over the Hedge - 6.7

Penguins of Madagascar - 6.8

Puss in Boots - 6.6

Rise of the Guardians - 7.2

Shrek - 7.9

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron - 7.2 (this one was 2D, which is rare)

The Bad Guys - 6.8 (what the hell is wrong with people???)

The Croods - 7.1

The Prince of Egypt - 7.2 (Again, 2D movie, underrated.)

And yeah, okay, Bee Movie gets like a 6.1, which is fair enough, however, even that is more creative and more interesting than the live-action How to Train Your Dragon.

The Wild Robot is the only one who makes it to an 8.2 rating... which infuriatingly places it at the same level as that live-action movie. You know people look at these ratings when they wanna decide what to watch, right? I mean, not always, but often, especially if they're undecided. You know how unhelpful it is to have a rehash rated the exact same as a visually stunning, stand out movie which actually tries and understands the medium and does something different? Also, the fact that just based on that rating alone, someone could very likely choose la httyd over Spirit, TPoE, The Bad Guys, Megamind, RotG and PoM is just saddening. On the bright side, I suppose once they've watched that insult of movie and they come across the original — supposing they haven't watched it yet — they'll be mind-blown and maybe, just maybe, they'll raise their standards a little higher and stop listening to IMDB.

The fact that most of these don't even get to sit at 8.0, but somehow audiences have already decided this thing was worth an 8.2. That's an entire star more than The Prince of Egypt, which is THE Dreamworks 2D animated movie everyone talks about. It has powerful music, gorgeous light and shadow, stunning art and animation... but somehow, the worse knock off another movie is rated more? For what reason exactly? Originality? It's not remotely original. And as far as the "remake" part of it goes, it doesn't even remake the thing it was supposed to well, nor does it truly try to do something different. It's this lukewarm middling thing that never needed to exist, which at best should put it at a 6.0, since even the Bee Movie at least did something different. (Yes, the bar is that low.)

Really, it deserves more of 4.0-5.0 rating, because it's a slap in the face of everything that came before (kinda' like the live-action Snow White)... and because it wasn't needed or even really asked for? People certainly would've loved more HTTYD content, but, really, are we so desperate we'll settle for a remake?

C'mon, just re-watch the original.

Also, if you even just visually compare any of these movies — even the ones that aged less well — to the live-action you will see a downgrade, not an upgrade.

And yes, even the bloody bee movie:

(Ngl, some of these might've come from the wrong movies, but they're still DreamWorks animates, so...)

And, again, are you guys seriously going to sit there and try to tell me the live action How to Train Your Dragon deserves a much higher rating than any and all of the ice age movies?

On the bright side, I kinda had fun looking for those gifs. Reminds me how much fun DreamWorks USED to be back when they did what they could to spite Disney, not just copy it. (Though they admittedly did do some of that too, but usually with more effort and a much more creative spin on things.)

Small edit to clarify things: This is not me shitting on Disney's movies. DreamWorks very much started out as the company that made movies basically to spite Disney and it worked for them. I enjoyed a lot of what Disney had to offer before they basically defaulted to live-actions and the occasionally poorly thought out and rushed non-remake. I grew up on and even in adulthood watched a lot of Disney, from animated to live-action. Even the earlier "reboots/remakes" weren't all that bad. Some of them actually did something with the whole idea, like Maleficent. But this re-make trend Disney started, which only seems to get worse with each movie, and now DreamWorks is following? It's a disappointment and humorlessly ironic coming from the studio who acted like it wanted to be the furthest thing to Disney.

[thisrandomstuff]

"The HTTYD remake is bad, but at least Toothless' design looks good!"

Are we even looking at the same dragon?

[thisrandomstuff]

Hookfang what have they done to you!? 😭

This isn't the Monstrous Nightmare I know and love! This is a generic-looking dragon with Monstrous Nightmare traits crudely slapped onto it, and it looks so fucking bad (especially the horns, they look like really bad paper mache)! It preserves absolutely none of the charm of the original design, and if I didn't know this was a screenshot from the live-action HTTYD trailer, I probably wouldn't even recognize it as a Monstrous Nightmare.

And It's totally possible to make a realistic Monstrous Nightmare design that's still easily recognizable as a Monstrous Nightmare! Like take a look at this design (by Rasa88 on Deviantart):

Notice how it manages to convert the design to a more realistic reptilian anatomy while still keeping the features of the original Monstrous Nightmare design that make it unique and charming. The team behind the HTTYD remake could have similarly balanced the iconic features of the Monstrous Nightmare design with the realism needed for a live-action film, but they didn't even try.

[thisrandomstuff]

This... might be just me overthinking things, but you know how Trump insisted on having America and Russia be very chummy?

And you know how live-action Jumba no longer has a Russian accent and is a villain?

What if they didn't want to step on the toes of the man that basically owns Trump by now (Putin), by making the villain have a Russian accent. Or what if the people behind the Lilo and Stitch Live Action Remake (at least those in charge) are pro-Russia in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Like, sure, it's a pretty big logical leap, but it's a bit weird taking away the Russian accent. Most see European accents as fair game, so even if the actor would've had to fake it, and terribly, it's not like there'd be much fuss made. Because, tbh, even Europeans make a little bit of fun of their own accents... and, well, it's especially prominent with Brits, but really you wouldn't see anyone cancel Disney over a villainous character, or even THE villainous character, having a Russian accent.

And it would have been loyal to the OG Jumba. (Of course, OG Jumba also didn't remain a villain, so I guess the loyalty isn't wholly necessary at that point, since they couldn't even keep his arc the same or put in the effort to do something more creative with him.) Besides, had the kept his redemption arc, there wouldn't be that vilifying component. Yet, they decided to have him be the villain, and also take away the accent.

It's weird. Especially now that Trump has decided he doesn't want to ally himself with Ukraine and has made it clear over the years that he has great admiration for Putin. Which wouldn't be relevant, if Lilo and Stitch weren't an American-made movie by a corporation that's always felt centre-right, even at its most progressive, clumsy with its messaging when it was appealing to the more progressive masses and therefore alienating towards the more conservative ones, and more than willing to use its POC actors as a meat-shield as if in a roundabout way it was actually trying to push for conservatism. How much Disney was supportive of Trump is not known to me personally, but they would surely have to somewhat answer to him as an American company, who has to abide by American rules and laws and with Trump (and his project 2025 cronies) deciding he can just re-do the laws as he wants. So Disney would at least feel the pressure.

And I wonder if it's reflective of that. Or if it was Disney who decided that entirely of their own accord as some kind of support of Trump. (I mean, the movie would've been in production for at least 2-4 years, and Trump only took office in January, I believe. (Although, maybe they suspected something, or re-shot things...)

Again, might be a shot in the dark.

But films are often reflective of their times.

And relative to how times have been before, America's taken a darker turn, so it's entirely possible we'll see a worsening treatment of indigenous people and that this is a sort of show of what will happen, under the guise of "Make America Great Again".

[thisrandomstuff]

What the fuck, bookstores? Where the hell is your plants, herbs and fungi section?

I went through six shops (some with books, some bookstores) and found absolutely no, proper books on plants. The vast majority of them were purely biographical, focused a lot more on people than plants.

None of them had detailed illustrations as reference points, and the only one with images at all was a book on individual trees, where the photos weren't particularly help for identification at all, and didn't really say much about the actual species of trees.

And what I wanna know is how the hell do you omit such a sizeable chunk of literature from your stores? We have roughly 380,000 known species of plants, yet somehow none of them are important enough for you guys to actually dedicate even a single shelf of your shops? Do you know how useful it can be to be able to differentiate between plants? Do you know how little people actually get taught about plants in high school, even though plants are all around them, with some being pretty dangerous and others being very useful to us and other animals?

That said, I get it... supply depends on demand.

So, next, I want to ask the readers out there why the fuck don't you pay more attention to plants? They're everywhere and without them, you wouldn't even have your books, your erasers, your pencils... hell, you wouldn't have shit, because without plants, coal wouldn't have been produced, and without coal there would've been no industrial revolution, but also, without plants, we probably wouldn't be here.

Start putting some respect on plants, people. If you're gonna keep using them to make your books, or buying books made from them, you might as well make and read some books on plants.

Anyway, since you've sat through this rant so patiently, here, I found you a picture of one of my favourite plants:

Feel free to share your own favourite plants.

[thisrandomstuff]

No, the term "smut" did not originate on the internet. Smut was already a common term when Tom Lehrer was at peak popularity (in like the 50s/60s), my dudes! This is a, no thee historic word for sexual material of any kind. It's just that in the fanfiction space it primarily refers to explicit written depictions of sex.

Honestly, people. Stop assuming everything is modern and censorship just because it sounds funny/different to you. Tiffany is an old name, and smut is an old word. (And I have it on Google's authority that it originated from somewhere back in the 17th century.)

However, even without further Googling it, here's your proof that it's an old. hecking. word.

Also here's the Oxford Dictionary definitions of "smut":

noun noun: smut; plural noun: smuts 1. a small flake of soot or other dirt or a mark left by one. "all those black smuts from the engine" 2. a fungal disease of cereals in which parts of the ear change to black powder. "a few bad crop years with smut and drought and frost" 3. obscene or lascivious talk, writing, or pictures. "porn, in his view, is far from being harmless smut"

Sorry for the rant. I'm just tired of seeing people misrepresent this word in comments and on posts. :/

[thisrandomstuff]

I hope if the HTTYD fandom makes a resurgence, that it's in protest of the soulless live-action slop movie that's about to come out.

[thisrandomstuff]

Bob the Cancer Cell: How do you do fellow normal cells?

Betty the Red Blood Cell, after losing sight of cancer cell: Don't you think Bob was acting a bit weird?

Benny the White Blood Cell: Bob's always acting weird.

Betty: Fair enough.

Meanwhile with Bob: [ Hijacking complete. Heist commencing in 3, 2, 1... ]

[thisrandomstuff]

Thank you to all creators of fiction - writers, artists, etc. - who allow your magical races to be more than just tools and villains. Who allow individuals of said races to be just that, individuals. Individuals capable of doing both good and bad. Individuals with different motivations and personalities. Individuals who aren't all just monsters because they're of a particular race.

It soothes the scared little child inside of me that wandered the hallways at night, crying out that "I'm not a witch", unable to break out of my nightmare, because most if not all fictional witches I was exposed to as a child were evil.

[thisrandomstuff]

Okay, but what the heck tumblr? Could you not just NOT show any posts with tags that I blocked/filtered? I did it for the specific reason that they make me deeply uncomfortable, but no matter how much I try to make my life easier -- and not get into shit -- there's always something that gets through and it literally makes me sick (because I get nauseous and my stomach gets sore everytime I see something that makes me uncomfortable. It's literally a painful experience).

I just want to get through the fandom experience while having a good time. But ofc every fandom will have it's upsides and downsides and I try to just avoid looking at the downsides because I don't want to just leave the fandom because of this or that ship, this or that genre or theme or something else, and it'd be nice if I therefore didn't have to see any of that. That's what the tags are there for, right? But it doesn't work if I have to see the post with the tag on it, or when people don't use at least one same tag for everything that falls under said tag.

And I don't really care for what people ship if it's fictional and no real person gets hurt, but there will be ships that will make me uncomfortable and I don't want to see. They don't even have to be overly problematic, just for some reason they make me deeply uncomfortable. And I want those ships out of my feed so that I can just get on with my day without starting something. But istg it gets more difficult each and every time I see this stuff.

So yeah, I'm starting something now, and if anyone would like a better filtering system and for Tumblr and its users to adhere to it better, feel free to like, reblog, whatever you feel comfortable with.