The "other" Good Dinosaur

The Good Dinosaur, a sweet little story with some nice character moments and both beautiful visuals and music (I'm listening to the score as I'm writing this). Despite being the lowest ever grossing Pixar film, it's by no means terrible, but it clearly didn't quite hit the mark with a lot of people. Pixar films set the bar pretty high, but with a simple story about overcoming fear and hardship the film ended up being somewhat cliché. I think most audiences expected more, especially with the "what if" question that was used to market the film.

The Good Dinosaur was originally pitched with one question in mind, "What if the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs missed?". This question was also present in movie trailers, even after many changes had been made to the film throughout production (I'll get to those in a bit). Audiences would have gone into the film with the "what if" question in mind, but due to the changes, the question doesn't really hold that much relevance in the final film. The Good Dinosaur  kind of ended up being a western where the characters just so happen to be dinosaurs... I'm not saying that doesn't still work, but imagine what kind of world we could have seen had the original "what if" stayed relevant.

The film was first pitched by Bob Peterson, and he imagined that the dinosaurs would have developed into farming communities (accuracy pending). This decision was influenced by Peterson's experiences growing up in Ohio, he would often see Amish farmers and decided this would be his basis for the dinosaur society in the film. The film would've seen the dinosaurs living and farming together collectively, serving a specific function based on their species. So a large dinosaur would be good at clearing fields and carrying harvest, whereas a smaller dinosaur would gather stray seeds and plant new ones. I assume it would have been an all herbivore community, carnivores would have most likely been cattle ranchers like the T.rex's in the final film. There was more world building with this early idea compared to the finished product, which is mostly restricted to just Arlo's family. Speaking of Arlo, he still had just as much of a role to play in the early version of the film. Take a look at this poster that was revealed at the Disney convention D23 back in 2013.

(Is it me or did Arlo get taller?)

Having seen this back in 2013, I was a little confused when the trailer came out. I think you can see why. Early in production, Arlo was a young adult as opposed to a child. This was mainly changed due to scaling issues; the team working on the film were having a hard time making a relationship between a fully grown Apatosaurus and a tiny child work on screen. You'll also notice the beetles. Arlo was going to have an interest in studying the insects on his community's farm. This probably wouldn't have made him all that popular considering it wouldn't be beneficial, especially if the bugs were pests. Another notable point on the poster is Spot. When observing the insects, Arlo was going to discover that one beetle was actually a human child in disguise, complete with spots painted on his forehead to mimic eyes, hence the name Spot. It also doesn't look like he would have acted as much like a dog.

Arlo's discovery of Spot was supposed to set him off on an adventure to explore more of the world outside of his little community. Like in the final version, the other dinosaurs may have just considered Spot another pest to be gotten rid of, whereas Arlo would have developed an understanding of him. This is where things get a little blurry, the reason the film went through the changes it did was because the writers were having trouble getting the story to work. The final act of this early version of the film was never finished, so there'll be some speculation here. 

The film would have needed a larger threat, maybe something like a famine caused by pests on the farm, possibly more humans in disguise (or beetles Arlo collected?). There may have been a whole human civilisation that were stealing the dinosaur crops due their own hardships. Arlo could have found himself needing to stand up against his own community to protect the humans, or maybe there was an even bigger pest that was eating both of their food. If it were some kind of insect, Arlo's knowledge of the beetles that he studied may have been the only way to resolve the situation. I figure he'd have enough respect for the ecosystem to not just exterminate them, they seem like they could have been a food source for humans. Either way, I feel like the film would have ended with Arlo creating an understanding between the dinosaurs and the humans, either by resolving a larger pest issue that affected them both, or by uniting them in having them all work collectively on the farms just as the dinosaurs did on their own. They would have found a way to coexist, and Arlo would have found his place.

(Some early concept art)

That's just a vague (somewhat crappy) interpretation, and you can start to see why the story was changed. There were probably a lot of ideas they wanted to try, but the plot was getting too complicated. Arlo's age had already been changed due to him being too big, so they needed a story more suitable to surround a child. It eventually became simplified to point of it being a "boy and his dog" story, along with there being fewer side characters. It's a shame the earlier ideas didn't work out, I always like seeing what almost made it in to a finished film, but you can still see a lot of the influences they had on the final product.

You can see the early cast list here. You'll also find you can buy merchandise of unused characters. Hope you enjoyed this entry, even if I'm about a year or so too late writing about it...

The Lion King remake

No, it's not live action. I Needed to get that out of the way seeing as virtually every source reporting the remake has said that it will be... Though it definitely rolls off the tongue better than "photorealisticly animated", so I get why. 

Let's not pretend we don't know why Disney is doing this. It's all about cashing in on nostalgia, and I guess introducing a new audience to the film... but mostly the cash part. Film is an art, but it's also a business, and with Lion king being one of Disney's biggest films, a remake was inevitable. Of course original ideas will always still be around, but there's more money to be made in a project that has a preexisting audience. We may be bored with the lack of more original content, but at least there's some originality in reworking existing stories... kind of. They're more like alternate versions with extra details that aren't all that necessary, but it's not like Hamlet with lions was necessary either... I'm honestly curious as to what the remake will be like.

I don't usually like watching live action adaptions of animated movies, and I feel kind of the same about photorealistic animation. It can be very beautiful, but it just seems a little boring and limited in comparison when animation can usually be so unrestricted. I haven't yet seen the Jungle book remake (again, not live action, everything is animated apart from Mowgli), but from what I've heard it has a little more going on than the original, so I'm willing to put my prejudice aside to check it out. I also know there's a stampede scene in there, which has to be a contributing factor to the Lion king remake, doesn't it? Well, that and Shere Khan, he's set the standard for realistic animated big cats, I guess. 

(He's got a kind of scar thing going on...)

This Lion king remake could be beautiful, think of some of the visuals from the original and how those could translate to a realistic style. It'll be interesting to see what the characters look like too, even if animals with human expressions can look a little strange. I'm interested in what might be added the this version of the Lion king. It's already been announced that some of the original songs will be in the film, I hear it's a bit misplaced in Jungle book, but it's still just singing animated animals. I feel like the remake could show more of a society in the Pridelands. The whole circle of life thing is always going to be strange when you humanise it, but it would be cool to see what that does to interactions between the different animals, especially hyenas as they're ostracised so much. I'm hoping the film will do more of it's own thing, but it might take influences from other content like the musical. We might see more of Nala dealing with Scar's rule and finding help, or maybe we'll see more of Simba fighting his guilt. I mean, "I just can't wait to be king" does seem incriminating when you think about it...

There might even be a perspective shift. Probably not the whole film, but we might see more of what motivates Scar. We know he wants to be king, but we may even see just how deep that goes. There's a series of short Lion King stories that was only released in the US, and it reveals that Scar essentially attempted to murder Mufasa once before... and got his scar in the process. That could work, it definitely makes him more evil, though I'd like to see if they come up with anything else. 

I'm actually looking forward to this remake. I could hate it, but I just want to see what it will be like. Our nostalgia fuels our love for the original despite its flaws, so maybe a remake could have a place in our hearts too. 

...And if not we have the original.

Let's talk about Mune

I'm conflicted about this movie. It has quite a few problems, but there's still so much to be admired in it. The film I'm talking about is "Mune: Guardian of the Moon". It's a French film (although it had input from big names all over) that was released throughout Europe over the past couple of years, but so far the UK and US have only seen screenings at festivals. Despite having an English original audio track, without a star cast I don't know what kind of wider release the film may get, which is why I felt the need to write this entry. It also suffers from a bad trailer. This film may end up going straight to DVD like so many other hybrid CGI films, but I feel Mune stands apart from them. 

The animation is of a higher quality, the performances are better and overall it feels much more polished. Honestly, it could almost be mistaken for a Dreamworks film if not for the art style, it uses both CGI and 2D animation. "Guardian of the Moon" was created to have a simple story to be understood across as wide an audience as possible, and where it is fairly cliché as a result, the designs and ideas of the world the film takes place in are incredibly creative. The film sees a world where the sun and moon are protected by guardians who walk them around the planet atop giant titans, and keep harmony in the world. Mune finds himself chosen as a guardian and has to find a way to restore peace after accidentally severing the moon from its titan. There's actually quite a lot at stake in this film, the entire planet starts dying at one point... Light spoiler.

I'll start with an issue in the film, the characters. Like the story, they're a little cliché too. Mune is kind of the every man type, but he's mischievous and irresponsible. Sohone is the selfish strong guy, but he's got a heart. And Glim is the smart sheltered one who can still fend for herself (Glim is actually the most interesting character of the three, but I'll get back to that). Their personalities are all fine, but they don't have much more depth to them. They all have the same arc of realising their full potential. This works fine, but I can't help but wonder what more could have been explored. The character designs, however, clearly had a lot of thought put in to them. 

The aesthetic of day and night is used wonderfully throughout the film, and the character designs help reflect this in two distinct races. Sohone is from the day, his race being made up of rock people. Mune is from the night, his race is made up of fauns. The day people's designs can be fairly creative with the way each individual is formed differently, and Sohone himself is made of amber, meaning he stands out and is more colourful than most of the others. But the night designs in this film are what I really love. Mune is the protagonist, so it makes sense we'd spend more time in the night environment, and there's more of a separate culture from the more human day people. The fauns are furred and blue, their shades seemingly darkening with age. They are more reserved, move animalistically and make little chirps and whistles as they breath life into bio-luminescent plants in the night. I adore Mune's design, even if it's simple. I love the shades of blue, his big expressive eyes and ears, and he's a all fluffy. He's adorable and I want to hug him.

(Prrrr?)

And just look at the design of the moon titan. It's much more intricate than the sun titan and in my opinion, more interesting. It's a like an emu/camel thing with what looks like fur, but when you see it close up it's covered in leaves and plants. On the inside, it's driven by a giant harp strung by fluffy owl-spiders. Tell me that's not cool and imaginative as hell!

 (Look at this thing!)

(Look at those things!)

A lot of designs in the film take influence from elements such as rock, water, plants or fire; but this also leads to some confusing choices. There are some characters in the film who appear to be the only ones of their design. The moon guardian before Mune, Yule, is a kind of plant creature, there's another random plant guy who gets a couple of lines, but he's mostly pointless. I mean, it's mentioned that the guardians had been doing their jobs for hundreds of years, and the moon guardians before Yule seem to have all been plants... so I guess the plant people just live a long time, but there's fewer of them? Little things like that are kind of distracting in the film, but at the same time, they're really not that important. It's best not to over think it, I guess.

There's a similar situation with Yule's original successor, Leyoon. He's a fish creature. There's at least one other in the film, but he's the only one of his particular design; that being to look specifically evil. Well, that's another thing I like about this film, no one is really evil, just corrupted. Leyoon himself is the lesser of two bad guys in the film, but even so he still has more of a motive. He trained for years to be he next guardian of the moon, then Mune gets chosen at random instead. I'd be mad too. 

(No, I didn't mean it!)

Now back to talking about Glim. I mentioned the whole thing with day and night in the film. Glim is from in between, dawn and dusk. It's another situation with only her and her father being designed the way they are, but that's also what's interesting about Glim. She's made of wax. She can only comfortably live in the shadows, at dusk or at dawn (or at night with a torch). If she gets too cold she freezes, too hot and she melts. From what I've read, this is supposed to be portrayed like a disability, and it works for the most part. She's got the cliché overprotective father, but given how literally fragile she is, you understand why. Plus it's not like she sits around feeling sorry for herself. Glim is as capable as the other characters in the film despite occasional difficulties, and the film doesn't get patronising about it. I actually think it would have been more interesting if Glim somehow became a guardian instead of Mune or Sohone, she's just got a little more going on and more to prove.

The main downside with Glim though, is that she's virtually the only female character in the entire film. There are female background characters and the passing mention of Glim's dead mother, but she's the only female character who really has lines, even if they're sometimes purely expositional. This isn't a problem specific to this film, but still.

Clearly this film has issues. It's writing could be more refined, there are tiny but distracting choices and overall it's nothing too original. But the execution of the ideas in the film are definitely what make it stand out for me. The designs, the colours, and the entire mythos of this film are so inventive and gorgeous, it's hard not to admire them. The film score is beautiful too, giving unique sounds to day and night and complimenting the film perfectly.

Despite all it's flaws, I still enjoy this film, and highly recommend it to any animation fans out there. 

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GIFs and images sourced from Google images. 

Wreck it Ralph 2: what will it be?

Earlier this year Disney announced that they will be making a sequel to "Wreck-It Ralph". One thing that has been confirmed so far is that the sequel will see the characters interacting with the internet, or in John C. Reilly's words; "Ralph leaves the arcade and wrecks the internet". The film will also take place six years after the original and it's been confirmed that King candy/Turbo is definitely dead, so no return from him.

Based on the information we have so far, I have some predictions for what may happen in the sequel. I think we can assume that Ralph will gain access to the internet via a router that is plugged in in the arcade, allowing him to travel through the wires the same way he enters other game cabinets. Well, that or he wrecks his way in, it's what he does, after all. And if we've learned anything from the first film, it's that Ralph is not a bad guy. I mean, he's a badguy but he's not, you know, a bad guy, so we'll most likely see Ralph wrecking things for good. So when he "Wrecks the internet", what exactly might he do? 

Taking place six years later, it could be that the arcade just isn't as popular anymore and Ralph literally tries to destroy the internet to bring popularity back to the arcade... but that's unlikely. Surely the film would have a more meaningful message than "get off the internet and play more video games". Plus, there's a lot more the creators want to explore. Another thing that's been discussed is the exploration of different versions of the games in the arcade across other platforms; so what would happen if Ralph met other versions of himself from a mobile game? What about a smash brothers style fighting game? Ralph might end up having an identity crisis and become jealous of the other Ralphs... I mean, it would work into one of those modern day bitter sweet Disney messages we've been getting. Something along the lines of "You're not special, but you're you and that's not bad, I guess."... Hooray?

(I'm not special, and that's not bad...)

The director of Wreck-It Ralph, Rich Moore, has said that the film will see Vanellope and Ralph's relationship "tested by the getting to the internet". The two may stumble across fandoms for their games and things turn into a popularity contest. Maybe Ralph goes wrecking the obnoxious amount of memes there may be about him. I'm joking. I'm hoping the writers are above using too much internet humour, but admittedly Ralph's short fuse would make seeing him deal with trolls quite interesting... Anyway, going back to the MultiRalph theory, I'm assuming Ralph's interactions with other versions of himself may be the very thing that tests his friendship with Vanellope. He and Vanellope may even find versions of each other they like better, eventually playing into the not so sugar coated moral I previously mentioned. Or what if Ralph wrecks the internet to protect the others from a bad Ralph (or a virus?) that tries to replace him? I feel like if Ralph had to wreck something this time around, he'd need a good reason for doing it and protecting the arcade would fit the bill. This could also play into Vanellope and Ralph being stuck in the internet if the router is removed, assuming they manage to reach another device before the plug is pulled. This would open a lot of possibilities for the film as they traverse the internet to try and get back to the arcade.

So, for the moment I'm leaning towards them getting trapped in the internet and the possibility of an impostor Ralph, but what about the other characters? Not much has been mentioned about Fix-it Felix or Sgt. Calhoun for the moment, even Jack McBrayer doesn't know about the situation with his character yet, but it's more than likely that Felix and Calhoun will return. Plus, the game Ralph and Felix are from is Fix-It Felix Jr (suggesting it's a sequel like Donkey Kong Jr, though it may just be a reference), so maybe they'll come across their predecessors. Felix got his magic hammer from his father, suggesting his father is the original Fix-it Felix. The origin of Felix Jr's hammer is in his code, so does Felix Senior know he exists? That could be interesting... Personally, I'd like to see the characters encounter a modded version of Fix-It Felix where everything is Gene. Felix, Ralph, even the bricks. All Gene. 

(A Geneius joke)

Well, that's all I've got without rambling more or repeating myself too much. It'll be interesting to see where the sequel will take the characters. The movie is said to be released in 2018.

Cartoons waving the rainbow flag

My God it's been a while since I wrote a blog post...

So, here I am, talking about what I usually do: Cartoons. Specifically in this post, gay cartoons. Let me clarify...

In terms of the representation of gay people in the media, things are getting better. There are fewer stereotypes and more portrayals of them as, you know, people. More and more homosexual characters have been popping up in casual viewing and family films and TV shows. The best part of this is that impressionable children, or even teens for that matter, can see homosexuality being treated as something normal and possibly grow up with a more accepting view of their own and others sexuality; there's less distance now. Or here's something even better, if they were raised to see otherwise, they could see a harmless representation that would make them question the people who demonized it; we shouldn't force anybody's beliefs, but at least let them understand that not everyone shares the same view of the world. 

Shows intended for children are dealing with more adult issues in general, too. They're treating kids more maturely and acknowledging that they aren't stupid... there's still garbage out there, I know, but that's nothing new. Kids can take a lot more than people think, understanding sexuality included. Obviously, sexuality, like a lot of things, is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but whilst there's still a lack of representation and acceptance, it's good to bring attention to it. For this blog entry, I have listed four cartoons (there are more out there, I'm aware) that all canonically present homosexuality in some form (though most on this list specifically present lesbian characters). I'll be starting with the least prominent and continue to the most open example. Cartoon fans, ya'll probably already know what show that is!

Gravity falls:
I have to write another Gravity falls entry at some point, but for now let's talk about one particular episode: "The Love God". For starters, the original story-boarded opening for the episode, boarded by Sabrina Cotugno, is used in the final version of the episode and can be found here (see around slide 50). The love God bursts in to the diner, pairs couples up and gets weird with people's faces. The only big difference from the opening used in the episode and the storyboard is the old couple he hooks up. In the show, it's a man and a woman. In the storyboard, it's two women.

Two sweet little old ladies!

When things like this are changed in shows, it's easy to assume that it's because the networks have some kind of problem with it. And while we can't avoid the fact that it's an obvious possibility, it could also be done just to avoid angry parents. Parents would be the ones to voice complaints about something in a TV show, not the kids watching, and if it prevents a negative backlash against a show or company and lowers the risk of losing ratings, it could be interpreted as just having been a strategic decision. You can make that argument either way for all the shows in this list, but times are a'changing considering I have a list to write here at all, so that's something. And remember, this was just what was in the story-boarded opening of this episode, what's in the episode itself is equally as relevant.

If you're familiar with Gravity falls, it's no secret that Mabel has a different colourful sweater for virtually every episode, and sometimes the images on them will be significant to the plot of that episode. There is no visible design in the storyboard, but in the episode Mabel is wearing a rainbow sweater. That is no coincidence, we know why that is. The episode is about love and she's wearing a rainbow. This is obvious support of the LGBT community. Mabel is pro love, baby, even if you're like... a snake and badger or something. Mabel also spends this episode acting as a match maker for the always angsty Robbie. At one point in the episode, Mabel sets up little models of people Robbie could date in Gravity falls, including male characters. I'm sure it was mainly meant to just be a joke considering those male characters also happen to be terrible choices (Grunkle stan? Multibear? Even Dipper?), but what's important is that we saw Mabel take them in to consideration in the first place. Obviously, none of those male characters end up being paired with Robbie (We'll leave that to disturbing fanfiction), but we do get a "wedding" between Mabel's pet pig Waddles and Gompers the goat, and I don't think we even know if Gompers is female... I might be reaching with that one.

Toby Determined is among the possibilities, I see.

Adventure time:
Though not that explicitly mentioned in the show, Adventure time characters Marceline and Princess Bubblegum are said to have been in a relationship together in the past. Their relationship has been said to have been officially stated by the shows creator, Pendleton Ward, though it was Marceline's voice actor, Olivia Olson, who mentioned it at a convention. It's been considered as something blown out of proportion, but there's a fair amount here and there in the show that presents evidence of the characters having been in a relationship. For instance, they know some very specific things about each other, it's Marceline who reveals Bubblegum's first name as being Bonnabelle, and Bubblegum even owns a shirt that once belonged to Marceline... She straight up sniffs it one time... Like really sniffs. There's plenty of other little nods to their past together too, from the lyrics to some of Marceline's songs, to Marceline dreaming about growing old with Bubblegum in the spin off, Stakes.

So that's two little old lady couples, now.

The relationship between these two was also suggested in the now scrapped previews, "Mathematical!", that used to show on Frederator's youtube channel. The video didn't just hint at the two's relationship, it contained fan art of the characters together. I never actually saw this video to my memory, but you know how fan art can get. I'm sure they didn't post anything too explicit, but obviously some people still didn't agree with it, so again, for either complainy parent reasons or otherwise, the video was taken down and Mathematical was discontinued. Despite that though, the relationship between the two is often referred to and generally favored among fans.

The Legend of Korra:
Considering the writers of "The Legend of Korra" didn't even know how many seasons their show was going to get in the first place, there's room to wonder how much was planned from the very beginning. When writing a show, creators will usually have some idea of where they want to go with it, and with Korra being a sequel there was plenty to build on. But one thing we can work out, and this doesn't take away from its relevance, is that a lesbian/ bi relationship between Korra and Asami probably wasn't planned from the beginning.

I think this actually makes it more interesting. Shows nowadays have more instantaneous sources of feedback from their fans and the creators generally have more connection to their fan bases than shows of the past, mainly due to the internet and social media. Creators can interact with fans and see what they are creating themselves and what they want to see. Something fans wanted to see was Korra and Asami as a couple, not just because of mindless shipping, but because people just weren't big fans of Korra and Mako being together (Poor Mako, he ain't so bad). Fans even said that Korra and Asami had better chemistry than the former, and so the writers went with it. On the surface, It can seem a little like fan pandering, there must be every nonsensical pairing you could think of out there, I mean, Unnalok and Amon are probably a thing somewhere, but what's great about Asami and Korra is they really did work. We saw them getting closer, we saw them sharing moments, and we saw that they really cared about each other. Korra always spoke to Asami when she was feeling small, and when she was far away, Asami was the one she sent her letters to over Mako and Bolin. Yes, if you really wanted to you could say they're just super duper besties, just gals bein' pals, but lets not dance around it, we know whats going on here. There's a wedding at the end of the series too, it's not between Korra and Asami, but I can't help but think it was supposed to be. Also, they're an interracial couple, so that's two boxes ticked.

Totes just friends, guys!

Steven Universe:
Like Korra, Steven Universe in general is a gem (excuse the pun) for representation. There's characters of all body types, races, ages and most of the main characters are female... or presented that way... let me go in to detail for those of you who don't know. The main characters of the show are a team who call themselves "The crystal gems", they are literally gems from another planet (apart from Steven who is only half, his mother was a crystal gem), but have physical human-like forms; those forms are presented as female. Now, the idea that the gems are, you know, gems, may help the shows creator, Rebecca sugar, get around anything working against her in a representation of homosexuality in the show. I mean, they're freakin' rocks. On what grounds can anybody complain about seeing two rocks together? Geological incompatibility? Either way, the show has faced some minor censorship, but the fact that the show exists as it does and is being recognized for it is an achievement within itself. 

With all the crystal gems being presented as female, any relationships between a pair of crystal gems seems to be a lesbian one. One crystal gem, Pearl, was clearly in love with her old leader and Steven's mother, Rose Quartz. I adore Pearl as a character, and one thing I love is just how strong Pearl's feelings were for Rose; it's dealt with in such a genuine and mature way. Pearl deals with a whole bunch of left over feelings in Rose's absence; I don't really feel I can find the words to describe their relationship as I would like, but I've found a compilation of some significant moments here. Pearl's devotion is in line with her role as a pearl, on their home planet pearls were servants, though Pearl's relationship with Rose was clearly more than a formality. If I can't convince you with this pairing, perhaps I can with another. 

In the world of Steven Universe, the gems have an ability called fusion; it is what it sounds like. Two or more gems connect and fuse to make a new form, though the experience is supposed to be on a kind of spiritual level, like a relationship (and yeah, Pearl loved her some fusion fun with Rose). Fusion itself is one thing the crystal gems fight for, on their home planet fusion between different gems is looked down upon. Hmmm, a certain kind of relationship between two gems is ostracized... GET IT?! Anyway, one of the shows main characters, Garnet, is revealed to be a fusion; she is made up of Ruby and Sapphire who are undeniably in love. There is literally no other way to see this. We see their relationship, we see them kiss. Look, look right here: 

Proof.

So yeah, basically Garnet is a giant lesbian who's actually made up of two smaller lesbians... Even Garnet's song "Stronger than you" works along with the whole fusion allegory thing, defying the counter views of Jasper, a villainous home planet gem. She's allowed to disagree with it, sure, but she didn't have to be a clod about it. Fusion is also seen as something a little more special than what it seems; it's a functioning relationship based on love and hard work. You can't force a fusion, the same way you can't just force a relationship. It ends up all malformed and gross otherwise...

So that's it for this entry. Hope you enjoyed reading and as always, I have no real idea how to end this properly. Until next time, I guess.