fictional cheerleaders hold a special place in my heart
jennifer check - jennifer’s body
heather mcnamara - heathers
courtney babcock - paranorman
megan bloomfield - but i’m a cheerleader
penny fitzgerald - the amazing world of gumball
clawdeen wolf, cleo de nile, draculaura, frankie stein, toralei stripe - monster high
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Wanted to clear up a little bit of lore with this comic. My headcanon has always been "Aggie is a poltergeist, therefore others can see her." But I feel like I never explained the concept before, so here it is. The last batch of comics I made were all up tying up loose ends, paying off plot points and worldbuilding. After such a long hiatus, I figured it was important.
With the publication of this comic, we're officially done with Season Nine! But don't worry, there's more coming soon. Me and my brother are working on a Halloween arc we think you guys are gonna love!
Bonus panel
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“We finally made it back”
I did this sketch art for my ParaNorman 2 AU, hope ya’ll enjoy
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I have not missed this tbh. My head was killing me by the time we got home. But dressing up as Courtney from ParaNorman was SO FUN. I painted the converse myself! I didn't feel like shaving so the beard stayed haha.
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Film Friday: Paranorman
Considering how fond of horror movies, it's odd how few of them register in the very top tier of my favorite movie lists. Something could perhaps be said about how the best-made horror movies are often not very fun, but that's a question for another day. Today I want to talk about a horror movie I love, and for that pinch of extra hipster spice, it's a stop-motion animation flick.
Norman Babcock, Age 11, is a bit of an outcast in the little suburban town of Blithe Hollow, MA. The reason? He can see and talk to ghosts. After a series of increasingly harrowing visions and a meeting with his profoundly kooky uncle, Norman sees disaster in the town's immediate future, and only he can stop it. Norman is aided on his pint-sized quest for the future of his home by his outcast friend Neil, Neil's jock brother Mitch, the school bully Alvin, and somewhat reluctantly, his older sister Courtney. Their progress is only impeded by their own profound incompetence, and the fact that the dead appear to be rising from their graves spurred on by the curse of a long-dead witch.
Paranorman is notable for a couple of things. First of all, its visual design is awesome. Real care is put into making the town of Blithe Hollow and everyone who lives in it just a little bit off, asymmetric, messy in a way that makes it all an effective caricature in the way only animation can be. And speaking of animation, it is also gorgeous. Laika has been doing puppet stop motion for a while now, and they are killing it at this point. Their use of 3D-printed modular faces gives them a surprisingly wide range of emotional expressions to their little fellas.
This increased emotional dexterity comes in handy because this movie also navigates some shockingly dark stuff for a kid's movie. The true nature of the witch's curse and what events spurred it on are some dark stuff, and the movie treats the most somber reveals with quiet contemplation rather than the all-too-common trend of playing it off with a joke to lighten the mood.
The movie also is surprisingly scary for a movie for children. Especially the initial exploration of the curse and a few moments in the movie's climax never fails to send a chill down my spine. This isn't to say the movie isn't appropriate for its intended audience, merely to suggest it'll slot nicely into the Doctor Who "Watched with a mix of fascination of fear" pantheon in that regard.
Also, as far as story goes, Paranorman has a real banger of a third act. After resolving the ongoing source of conflict, although one of the parties doubtlessly has learned nothing, Norman heads for the core of the problem to confront the witch on her home turf. It culminates in a powerful scene, both because it's thematically very powerful how Norman ends up coming out on top and because Laika decides to make a very interpersonal climax also visually stunning with enough action to keep the tempo up. In a lesser film, this confrontation would take place in a magical tornado or somesuch and it'd still be a good scene, but Laika's apocalyptic parkour therapy session is a treat for both the brain and the eyes.
In the end, Paranorman feels like a very mature movie for its target age range. Norman does take a stand against bullying and the small-mindedness of his little town, but it doesn't change all that many minds. The simple reason for that is that most people are just complacent with their views and are more than willing to add another untrue axiom to the story they tell themselves about their lives rather than confront uncomfortable truths. Still, Norman manages to change the minds of the people who matter to him, and with that in tow, he finds the strength to meet the stupidity of the world around him with a laugh.
There's just a lot going on with this movie that I don't have the column space to get into here, but I will just quickly mention: The reoccurring gag about Norman's sister hitting on Mitch and him just not getting it and how it resolves, the detail that the witch and Norman are related which isn't super important but another nice parallel, how exactly the curse works, how incredibly down the citizens of Blithe Hollow are for a Zombie situation. I could go on, but I believe my point is demonstrated. Go see Paranorman. Statistically most of you haven't gotten around to it yet.
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OMG it's so FEMININE it's so CUTE it's so GIRLYPOP
Will Riot finally bestow upon us an agent that says stuff like 'yass queen' and 'slay' and talks like Courtney Babcock??? I hope so.
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