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twentiethcenturymoviesandtv · 4 years

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A Creepy Christmas Cultural Conundrum: The Lasting Legacy of The Nightmare Before Christmas

A request by @lcvcdbyhim.

If you traveled back in time to the year 1993 and told someone that Tim Burton’s new stop-motion animated film, The Nightmare Before Christmas, was going to be the biggest holiday movie in for the next twenty years, they wouldn’t believe me. They just wouldn’t.

Of all of the holiday films of the 90s, Christmas or Halloween, nothing comes close to the cultural giant that is The Nightmare Before Christmas. Even family favorites like The Santa Clause or Home Alone don’t get nearly the attention and praise that this film has. Every year, from Halloween through Christmas, stores are packed with shirts, wallets, keychains, sneakers, backpacks, banks, toys, clocks, jewelry, decorations and more, all covered with images of Jack Skellington, Sally, Oogie Boogie, Zero, and other characters and images from the film. Even outside of the holiday months, the more merchandise-driven stores still dedicate an entire section to The Nightmare Before Christmas, putting it on the same level as franchises like Star Wars or the various superhero films.

The question is, why?

Why has The Nightmare Before Christmas’s imagery become nearly as recognizable as images of classic monsters like Dracula and the Frankenstein monster? How is this oddball little movie fast approaching How The Grinch Stole Christmas and other classic Christmas specials in terms of popularity?

There has to be a larger reason that simply being available to be marketed for two holidays instead of one.

Today, we’re going to be taking a look at The Nightmare Before Christmas in an attempt to figure out where all the hype came from, and more specifically, why it’s still so popular.

But first, we need a little background.

When The Nightmare Before Christmas was first released in 1993, it received modest critical acclaim and a decent opening. Right in the middle of Disney’s Renaissance period, a throwback to stop-motion wasn’t really thought of as being quite on the same level as animated films like Aladdin and The Lion King. As a result, the movie did okay, but just….okay.

So what happened?

Very simply, The Nightmare Before Christmas gained a cult following. Very quickly.

In the years that followed, The Nightmare Before Christmas started being praised as one of the greats in the animated film category. People started watching it for part of their holiday tradition, around both Halloween and Christmas, and the further we are away from that mediocre opening, it seems the more people laud it as a work of art. Stores like Hot Topic started selling so much Nightmare merchandise that now the imagery from The Nightmare Before Christmas seems to be the face of a new goth/emo trend. In fact, since the film’s release, the movie has been put on a rather bizarre pedestal, with some fans lavishing enormous amounts of praise on this movie. In a way, it seems like disliking it is unheard of.

To return to our earlier question, why? It doesn’t seem like anything special. There have been other ‘weird’ stop-motion films, such as Corpse Bride or Coraline. The characters and story are simplistic, almost childish at times. The music is good, sure, but with all the hype around it, the movie can very much seem….overrated.

Once again: Why?

It all boils down to uniqueness.

In 1993, Tim Burton was still relatively new to audiences. Directing since 1985, his biggest hits had been the likes of horror-comedy Beetlejuice, superhero blockbuster Batman, and drama flick Edward Scissorhands. In other words, the world was still being introduced to the styles that we are currently familiar with: use of Johnny Depp, score by Danny Elfman, stripes, German Expressionism, and pale-skinned, dark haired, sunken-eyed outcast protagonists. Thanks to the sheer number of Signature Style Burton-esque films, The Nightmare Before Christmas no longer seems like anything all that special in terms of style of film, but at the time, it was something very new, distinct, and different.

The same goes for the stop-motion aspect.

The stop-motion ‘weird’ films that we are the most familiar with: (Corpse Bride, James and the Giant Peach, Frankenweenie, ParaNorman) have all come after The Nightmare Before Christmas. Before Nightmare, stop-motion’s biggest claim to fame were the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials. The Nightmare Before Christmas revolutionized and reawakened the style of filmmaking and started a new form of animation that is being used since. Once again, it all comes down to that uniqueness of the time, especially when it applies to the story.

The story of The Nightmare Before Christmas, despite its aforementioned simplicity, is a rather unique one. The idea came to Burton while watching Halloween decorations come down at the same time Christmas decorations were being put up, and the movie is really all about the juxtaposition between the holidays. Jack Skellington, the king of Halloweentown, is dissatisfied with the ‘same old thing’ and decides to try something new. The ‘new thing’ that captivates his interest turns out to be another huge holiday: Christmas. Full of excitement at this strange new holiday, Jack decides to get the person in charge of Christmas out of the way (Santa Claus) and take Christmas for himself, assigning the denizens of Halloweentown the tasks necessary to bring about the festive holiday.

Being from Halloweentown, of course, Jack doesn’t fully understand Christmas, despite his frantic attempts to do so, and in the end, Christmas is a disaster, thanks to his botched interpretation of what makes the holiday. In the end, Jack learns not to meddle with things he doesn’t understand, and the movie ends at around 75 minutes.

As basic as it is, the idea of one holiday trying to do another is pretty creative, as is the way it is done. The concept of holiday worlds, based on the special day is extremely interesting, and it’s executed well. In fact, when looking at the film for what and when it was, The Nightmare Before Christmas was actually very creative in everything, characters, the visual look, the way it was done, story, even the music by Danny Elfman is very fitting to the story and characters, and it’s all very catchy.

When contextualized into the time period it was made in, The Nightmare Before Christmas, for all it may seem stale and overdone now, was fresh and unique, noteworthy for being something audiences haven’t seen before.

There’s more to the intense popularity of this film than quirkiness, though.

What I said earlier about the film being basic? That is actually a point in its favor.

One of the remarkable things about The Nightmare Before Christmas is that, for having a reasonably complex concept, it’s execution is very simple. The story never makes itself more complicated than it has to be. It’s very straightforward, with no plot twists or surprises for the audience. The direction the story takes is predictable, but that’s by no means bad. Not only is the story uncomplicated, but the meaning is as well.

It isn’t hard for people to understand Jack’s predicament, nor is it difficult for even the youngest kid to know that his endeavors to make Christmas are doomed to failure, because they pick up that Jack does not understand what he is trying to do. He has the feeling right, but he has no constructive direction to take it, and with a lack of understanding, ends up creating a mess.

Jack’s enthusiasm is for the holiday spirit, and it’s contagious, no matter which holiday you consider. By never trying to ‘explain’ the good feelings of the holidays and just letting them be, The Nightmare Before Christmas actually continues a trend that one wouldn’t think it has much to do with at all.

In my opinion, the hype behind The Nightmare Before Christmas, especially in the up-and-coming generations, is much the same reason that Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is still talked about by the older generations. The holiday feeling.

Jack experiences the joy of Christmas without knowing why. Despite his best efforts, he cannot decipher the whys and wherefores of it, he just accepts that ‘just because I cannot see it doesn’t mean I can’t believe it!’. This tone, this viewpoint towards the holiday of simply enjoying it, is reminiscent of Christmas specials like How the Grinch Stole Christmas or the Rankin/Bass stop-motion productions. It evokes nostalgic feelings for the holiday. The Nightmare Before Christmas is to the post 90s generation what the other animated Christmas specials were to the ones before it: the traditional, good-feelings, familiar celebration of the holiday.

Most importantly though, it’s a film that people enjoy watching.

With a unique concept, design, and execution, nostalgic feelings and holiday warmth, and it just being a generally fun, charming movie, it’s not really a true wonder why The Nightmare Before Christmas got as popular as it did.

Is it overhyped? Yes.

Does that make the movie itself any worse? No. It just means that audience expectations are affected by the culture around it, some for the better, some for the worse.

Of course, it’s not a movie for everybody. Some will like it more than others. Some might love it, some might hate it, and some might just be okay with it. But that goes for any film.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a cultural juggernaut, that’s for certain, and I doubt we’ll be seeing any fewer Oogie Boogie coin banks in the near future, but that’s more a reflection on the commercialism of film since 1977 (Thanks, George Lucas!) and how much people are willing to buy to reflect their tastes in film. My point is, the movie is still popular enough that people buy stuff connected to it because they like it.

And that’s not a bad thing. It’s a good movie, remarkably simple, but smart enough to hold up years later and continue to emotionally resonate with audiences. It was something that no one had ever seen before at the time, and is packed full of enough distinctive style and imagery that it is still instantly recognizable as being from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s an immensely popular film for a reason, and it’s not going away anytime soon.

Thank you all so much for reading! If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, suggestions, or just want to say hi, feel free to leave them in the ask box, I’d love to hear from you. I hope you guys enjoyed this article, and I hope to see you in the next one.

#Movies #Film #Request #90s #1993 #The Nightmare Before Christmas #The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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Y’know, I’ve posted before about how important it can be to survivors to be in charge of determining when they disclose what happened to them and to whom in what ways.....and thus how the trend of Dick’s ‘secret’ (what happened with Tarantula or Mirage or both) being found out by his family or friends despite his wishes or even his active efforts to keep it secret, and he’s forced to confront it and deal with all of them knowing before he’s ready and made any kind of peace with it himself, and this is often framed as being what’s best for him and its better now that everything’s out in the open and its like....no, that’s not how it works, you can’t FORCE people to recover on YOUR time table, and it happening in a way that gives them no agency or control over it is often a SETBACK instead of like....to their benefit, because while at its heart, disclosure is a relatively simple action, it can be hugely empowering to survivors because its the first time they’re able to definitively take what happened to them and DECIDE what happens next, to take back some of the CONTROL that was ripped away from them by the event and sent their life into a tailspin ever since.....

Ahem. Anyway. Like I said, y’know how I’ve posted before about....all of...well, that?

LOL.

Yeah, so anyway, I’ve been thinking lately about an ideal ‘counter-trend’ that I think could add so much to the view of these parts of Dick’s narrative and character and to discussions about them....and it also IMO is one of the most likely and in character ways that Dick WOULD be likely to disclose what happened to him and make it known to family or friends.....WHILE letting him retain full personal agency over making that choice HIMSELF, for his OWN reasons....

And that’s like.....letting them all find out because Dick makes the personal decision to open up about that to a survivor or recent victim he sees struggling in the aftermath of their own assault.

Exposing his own vulnerabiltiies and hurt in order to HELP someone, to make something from his own pain, which is one of the key ways IMO that Dick tends to his own trauma and recovery.....using what happened to him as an opportunity to better help others, be there for them, connect with them and give them an easier time of it or more tools to help in their own recovery than he’d had himself. When he’s able to say and do the things a victim really needs to here right then and there, because he’s been there himself and he’s just saying or doing what he wishes someone had said or done for him but hadn’t known at the time he needed or wanted or even had someone available to ask even if he were able to.

I’d love to see a Dick Grayson who finds the strength and will to open up about his own secrets and traumas even if it means people close to him finding out and maybe pitying him (which he hates and I think is one of the primary reasons he doesn’t tell people when something bad happens to him oif he can help it) - and who does so because its the strength someone needs from him in that moment, and Dick’s personal call to heroism is the need, the drive, to be what someone needs in order to save them if its at all within his capabilities. That’s why he’s a hero: he doesn’t know how to NOT intervene in a situation where he knows his unique talents and skills could help protect or defend someone, save them from pain or loss or dying. He doesn’t WANT to know how.

Gimme a Dick Grayson who swallows down his fears, straightens his shoulders and defiantly tells his primal reptile brain “Fuck his secrets” - he couldn’t save this person from having this thing happen to them, but he can still be a kind of hero to them, for them, by CONNECTING with them, revealing that even he, a bonafide SUPERHERO, can and has been hurt that way, and it sucks and its painful and it wakes him up sometimes in the middle of the night, but he’s still here, he’s still the person HE chooses to be, someone who still laughs and cries and has friends and goals and dreams and bad days but good days as well....show me him being their own personal superhero by cutting straight through the shit their own demons try to convince them of - that this is their fault or they deserved this or it wouldn’t have happened if they were stronger, smarter, BETTER - because when freaking Nightwing, son of the Batman and leader of the Titans and someone superheroes the world over speak of in glowing terms....

When THAT guy looks you straight in the eye and tells you none of that is true, that he knows this because it happened to him too, and it had nothing to do with strength or weakness or deserving it or wanting it......its a HELL of a lot easier to believe coming from him. To internalize. To take in and make a mantra in your head that you can summon forth to remind yourself of whenever doubts start to sneak up on you again. That you can call to mind whenever you have a PTSD flashback or a panic attack - that memory of him standing tall and strong even as he relayed his own story of being struck low, and offering you a hand to help you up when he saw you trapped in a place he recognized, a labyrinth he’d found his own way out of.

That image of him smiling at you with no trace of the pain you’re feeling now, or so much as a hint of judgment or pity as he’d said:

“I get it. I was there once too, lying right where you are now and unable to even imagine a day when I’d be able to stand up again. But in time I did, so I could be here when you needed me to be, when you needed a hand extended from just the right height and not an inch higher. Something for you to grab onto and just use to steady yourself as you regain your feet and stand on your own, rather than a puppeteer dragging you upright by unwilling strings, legs extended but still completely incapable of supporting you on their own, ensuring dependency on that puppetmaster to prop you up from behind and move your limbs the way they think they should be moving as tell themselves they helped.”

“Maybe so I could be here keeping you company when you’re afraid to be alone, or just be here to be a mirror until you’re ready to face someone and look them in the eye.....a mirror in whose reflection you see your past behind you, and a glimpse of a possible future, one with hope. One with joy. With good days as well as any bad ones, and confidence and security in yourself and your ability to stand on your own.”

“Maybe so I could be here when you need someone to stand beside you when you’re ready to face society again, so you don’t have to depend on the kindness of strangers whose faces only reflect a pity for your past, their eyes always straying to where they expect to see it anchored around your ankle like an albatross that will only ever let you rise so high, never able to venture further from it than that anchor’s chain will allow.'”

“Or so I could be here when you need a guide who’s familiar with this road and has walked it before, can help you navigate the hidden dangers a little more safely, head in the right direction a little more confidently. Or maybe you could use a comrade in arms to back you up when you’re in the thick of that struggle, that personal war that countless others have fought their own versions of before. Each of them knowing just how hard it is and how fiercely you have to fight just when it feels most hopeless. And many of whom are ready and willing to return to the fight and battle alongside you if that’s what you need instead. Like people say, there’s strength in numbers....and there’s also strength in others’ stories of their own past victories, in knowing that people before you have won that war or found some measure of peace somewhere away from the battlefield, that its happened before and it can happen again, maybe even to you. Or hearing in their tales inspiration for your own tale of triumph, and even just a single flickering thought, there and gone in a single moment but still there, still counting....of an After where you could someday be one of the storytellers giving someone strength with your own.”

No matter how simple or eloquent the words he uses, even the prettiest words only have as much substance as the actions behind them. Anyone can say those things, anyone can coach you to say those things to yourself, but believing them is another story entirely. And if that belief isn’t there yet, won’t come when you call.....when you’re not quite ready to believe in yourself again - well, that’s when having a hero to believe in can come in quite handy.

And if you need a hero to believe in? To believe when he says he’s been where you are and where he is now is where you could be someday too....its hard to do better than Nightwing.

(This is where things kinda got away from me and turned into a very experimental thing I didn’t intend to write or realize I was writing until I finished it and I’m still not entirely sure what exactly it is. Oh, me.)

Because Nightwing flies, he soars. No matter how low a depth he launches himself from, there’s very few who can claim to ever rise to his highest heights.

They say he’s the first Boy Wonder, the laughing sprite in brilliant red and green and yellow that stood out in stark contrast to the violent backdrop of Gotham’s darkest nights. A human light source, a mortal star that shone so brightly he powered a whole city’s hope for the future by himself - a singular focus for an entire population’s belief in the strength and power and spirit of youth. Standing at the very forefront of the heroes of tomorrow, first out of even their initial vanguard, the frontrunners who unrepentantly choose a headstart to saving the world and race into the future’s unknown dangers and uncertainties well ahead of the starting gun. Even among his own peers, he was the one to launch the opening sally, to rally the others to arms, all by pitching his flag in Gotham of all places.

The first shots of the war for the future were fired in a city famous for its dead. And its’ Dark Knight’s famous antipathy to guns aside, it was his brightly laughing Robin who pulled that particular trigger. Oddly fitting, despite any initial bemusement that might raise - its those trapped in the darkest of places who need the brightest lights if they’re going to see which way they should go.

(There’s a kind of tragedy in how few will ever truly know what a fitting champion for Gotham he’d turn out to be. The worst of its villains tried to claim the hallmarks of childhood, of joy - of circuses and spectacles for his calling card. And in turn, it was a joyous child straight out of the circus who would return those to their rightful owners. Who made a hero’s covenant with an unsuspecting city the first time he stood in some forgotten alley helping up an almost victim who will never know the significance of it being the first time that boy refused to let their brush with violence be the last and most vivid memory they carried on from that night, and so who instead provided something unexpected, something memorable, something powerful - the strange miracle of a child laughing in the same shadows that only minutes earlier had hidden terrible dangers, proof positive that no matter what horrors the dark corners of Gotham hide.....there can be joy and happiness and laughter found in those same places too.

The Joker may have laughed first, taking something good and warping and twisting it into a celebration of sadism....but its the children of Gotham who will laugh last.)

But this is about the credentials of Nightwing, when offering comfort to survivors. About proof of the power backing up his words when he extends a hand and says this too shall pass.

Because Nightwing is who that boy became, grew into, the shape that promise of the future poured itself into on the day that future finally arrived. Who made himself a hero even among heroes, the Pygmalion of his own inspiration, that he in turn passed on down the line. A brand-new mythology born into a world that thinks mythologies only belong to the dead; a creation story that just so happens to double as Gotham’s ultimate success story:

Once upon a time, a monster murdered a child’s parents and innocence with a single vicious blow. That alone would definitively see to this being shelved among the Tragedies - but its not in Gotham’s nature to resist an opportunity to double down. Thus rather than help him find a new happy ending, the champions of justice who claimed to have ridden to his rescue instead just dropped him into the worst of Gotham’s filth; no way out in sight, even upon the most distant horizon.

And even when Gotham’s own darkest of angels (the only kind she’d allow past her gates) even when the Batman himself reached a hand down to help lift him out, the boy chose to stay down there at his side each night instead. Because there were others stuck in the swamp still, see. Others not so different from him. Why should he hide behind clean, austere walls when he had two hands that could help lift others out just as well? And he waded through the endless swamp for years without ever letting it drag him down. Slogging determinedly through it no matter how hard it made it to keep lifting his feet.

They say back then he was so small, even the smallest wave in that sea of corruption should have crashed far above his head rather than breaking upon him like a shore. Should have drowned him in Acheronian waters of wailing and woe with even just the sheer weight of their vastness. But he just kept forging his way forward, as if it were the Styx and the river’s violence only made him stronger instead. He was so tiny, they said, he should have succumbed to being dragged down to its depths by a Gotham that tried to sing him into eternal sleep like it was a siren with a repertoire of lullabies.

By all accounts, the boy Robin who seemed to have sprung forth fully formed from Batman’s shadow, already a warrior ready to wage war from the moment of his birth - he was a paradox, a contradiction to himself. The figure they told stories of, the height they lowered their hands to when describing him with tales twice as tall as the hero in them....well. Gotham is a graveyard for bright lights, not the wellspring that births them. It should never have produced even a grimly avenging hero like Batman, let alone the cheerful champion at his side. By all rights, the Boy Wonder’s only destiny should have been to be another statistic lost in a war of attrition against Gotham’s signature entropy. One more casualty to its chaos as it inches ever closer to its own demise: an inevitable implosion of its own making, the serpent that eats its own tail.

But the wonder of the Boy Wonder is that despite all expectations, despite all logic, despite all the reasons his only fate should have been to fall....he grew up. Rose up. Flew to heights most lack the context to even dream of. He was another Icarus, one who’d learned nothing from the fate of the first; determined to fly even higher while everyone else cried warnings of already being high enough. But he was an Icarus the sun welcomed as a kindred spirit instead of a trespasser, rejuvenating him at the apex of each flight he made rather than burning the wax from his wings.

He lasted...and that alone already made him a legend. From his first flight as Robin, everyone had expected his story to end as a mere cautionary tale. And slowly but surely Robin taught them to expect the unexpected.

(Not quite as fast as they could’ve, however. You’d think the citizens of Gotham would have taken a note from seeing their Robin live past even the longest odds that’d been laid against his longevity, bets made and never paid because he just wouldn’t die. But the stubbornness that keeps Gothammites rooted in Gotham is a double-edged sword. They made fresh bets when a new Robin took to the sky.....and again, most people defined “Robin” as an inevitable word of warning spoken to anyone who might follow But if bookies called it a nightmare when the first Robin stayed alive and a success story from the city who hated seeing an underdog succeed, they ran out of ways to curse the second Robin when he proved that Robins can double down too, and screwed their bets all to hell. But after all, what did people expect? There’s no better sequel to the boy who refused to die, than the boy who died and refused to stay dead. But that too is another story entirely.)

But in this story, the story of Robin the first - that story turned out to be just the first chapter. The Robin that sings Gotham into a new spring with nothing but his refusal to stop singing becomes the Nightwing who hunts with all the grace and strength of any bird of prey, both by day and all through the night. He’s the man that grew out of the seeds a Robin planted in the memory of his home, and then nurtured with his own light. Who blossomed thanks to roots that may have been transplanted from a far distant garden, but still took to new soil so vigorously, so firmly, it didn’t matter how much the city tried to wash away the ground beneath his feet......his footing stayed level and steady as he kept moving ever forward.

Year after year, head always held high - and only rising higher and higher as he grew taller with the passage of time. Making him all the more visible even to those further and further away, until finally he reached the end of the path he’d stuck to even through the roughest neighborhoods of a childhood done Gotham’s way. But the end of that road was no more an ending than the last page of Chapter One.

Because where others might have seen a wall, Robin saw a springboard and the possibility of any number of new roads on the other side of that wall, just hidden from sight. And so he just stepped right up to it, on it, and he bent his knees and leaped into the air and flew. High enough and bright enough he could be seen no matter where you stood below. Free as a bird, with feathers who refused to be stained by the oil and garbage that Gotham tried to paint him with, every day of the childhood it had tried its hardest to knock him off his chosen course and force him down another path. With wings that had refused to be clipped, refused to get caught and trapped by deception, by corruption, by defeat. By whatever the city could find to throw at him in its attempts to stop him in his tracks, to keep him from going any further, or better yet, to turn him around and sent in the opposite direction. Because Gotham is a city who likes its stagnancy, likes its despair. Likes having a strong brand with a clear message for the rest of the world: that Gotham is the city where even hope goes to die. That you’d best abandon hope all ye who enter here, because the city will find some way to destroy any that gets smuggled across its borders anyway.

And Nightwing. Well. Nightwing is the the proof that Gotham is a liar.

Nightwing is their child hero Robin, the embodiment of youth’s hope and potential and self-determination, now reborn in a new image and with a new name. Gone to spread his light to a new city desperately in need of illumination, but never forgetting where he came from. Never flying so far away that he couldn’t swiftly make the return journey any time Gotham’s citizens needed him once more. Needed that bright and carefree grin to again shine defiantly through the shadows like a lighthouse that stands strong and sturdy and impervious through even the worst of storms. That stays on task as it tunnels through the darkness and makes its point of origin the light at the end of the tunnel for all in desperate need of one. Confident in its walls’ ability to remain unmoved by even the most vicious and violent winds throwing themselves bodily against them. Certain the ground beneath it will remain unshaken by any attempt to erode its foundation. Trusting the worksmanship that crafted the roof to keep the pounding rain shut out and nothing but an offbeat melody overhead. Powerless to douse the life-saving, hope-birthing, reliable, consistent light.

Nightwing is a lance of light and the one hurling it like a javelin into the night, both at the same time, two parts in one. A brilliant spear that cleaves through any and all darkness, no matter how thick a blanket of it Gotham hurls over rooftops in its need to stamp out any and all light before anyone can see it and take hope. But in that it is its own undoing, because its been trying that trick since Nightwing was just a tiny little Robin, and every attempt to dial down that brilliance and reset it to dim - they’ve only ever prompted and spurred the Gotham-forged hero to shine all the brighter, refusing to be beaten down or snuffed out.

(And his flight to a new city, a second city - well, that was probably always inevitable, in hindsight. After all, in the fullness of his realized potential, the mature wings of the Robin that was once just tiny little spark - now they spread too wide to be contained by a single city. Gleam with a brightness too blinding to be focused on just one city, especially one more accustomed to living in shadow.)

And whether he called Bludhaven or Gotham home, whenever Gotham was most lost, he was always right there and ready to light that lighthouse lamp the moment the sun goes down. Its guiding, inspiring, hopeful light leaping forth with that same youthful exuberance that had stayed the signature of their Robin through all the years he grew. A brilliant arrow fired from the bow of a champion taught by the best archer in the world how to always hit his mark....unfailingly burning through any fog and confusion that tried to get in the way of that fearless beacon shining on despite the vastness and inevitability of night. As it guided people through tempest-tossed waves, no matter how distant the shore. Remaining lit for as long as it took them to reach a safe port they could take shelter in and ride out the chaos. Weather it until it was safe to come out again.

If Gotham was a crucible, Nightwing was both the weapon it forged and the flame it fueled, the inferno it unleashed. If Gotham was the city where even hope dies, Nightwing was the hope so enduring, so willful, it simply....refused to die. If Gotham was a city of men and nightmares, Nightwing was the boy who learned to fly in defiance of all physics, all the reasons mere mortals were meant to stay earth-bound. All so that all his fellow mortals could point to him in the sky and say this. This is the reason we still dream of the impossible anyway. And yet he’s also the man who still held on to his dreams despite all the times and ways life tried to convince him that dreams are meant to fade in time, to grow distant and indistinct with age. That the death of dreams was a strength, that it was freedom...rather than the very things that once convinced a boy he could fly.

Because the impossible is simply possibilities that haven’t happened just yet. Something that is only unreal until the day someone or something does it first.

And then suddenly, it turns out it was possible all along.

That’s the truth behind any words he speaks, the reason they can’t help but ring as true in your ears when you’re face to face with an ordinary man who somehow kept pace with gods when he was still waiting on growth spurts.

That’s the bedrock he’s standing on, when he’s standing beneath someone about to fall saying don’t be scared, that he’ll catch them. That’s the iron hidden beneath his frame that makes him into an Atlas prepared to hold up the sky, if that’s what needed to be sure he can keep his word, that his footing is sure and his stance won’t waver an inch.

That’s the superpower of the man with no superpowers, the paradox of being the impossible made possible and for whom no possibility is too high to reach.

Plus, you’re pretty sure he’s like, literally saved the world.

So when Nightwing stands before you and somehow feels at your level rather than like he’s looming over you right when you’re at your worst....when its Nightwing who looks you straight in the eye and you can actually see the sincerity in his eyes even though the whited-out lenses that are technically hiding his eyes from sight.

When Nightwing offers you his hand and says its just for support, for you to use to pull yourself to your own feet. When he says its not going away, that it’ll be there until you’re ready to use it, that its up to the task and so are you.

When its Nightwing who tells you that once it was him in your place and that someday it could be you in his place instead. When he says everything you’re feeling right now is real and valid and earned, but to remember that whatever those feelings are they coexist with facts and the facts are you once stood on your own using nothing but your own strength before you were knocked down, and being knocked down isn’t proof you can’t do it again when you’re ready.

When its Nightwing who spreads his arms wide and says here he is, proof of concept that there’s life after this just like there was life before this. That there were your good days and your bad days then and its no different now. That here he is existing, here he is living, here he stands as a survivor and living proof that this can and will be survived......

Well.

Its a lot easier to believe any and all of that, when its Nightwing that’s saying it to you. Its a little bit easier to imagine taking that hand and actually climbing to your feet, a little less of an impossible to picture feat when a living legend tells you that his offer of a hand only means he knows he could have used it once and so its there whether you need it or not. That everything you do here and now is entirely up to you.

When a man who has ordered around actual gods stands there and says this is entirely up to you, you call the shots here, he’s just here to play back up....you think......maybe I can do this. Maybe I can move on from this.

Clearly, stranger things have happened.

No matter how impossible it feels right now to imagine a day when everything doesn’t hurt, everything isn’t terrible, when you don’t see monsters lurking in every shadow and a knife for your back in every stranger’s hand, no matter how certain you are that if it were just you right here you’d probably just lie here forever, that you don’t even have the strength right now to sit up on your own. No matter how fake and trite and Kitten Posters on the Walls of the Guidance Counselor it feels when people tell you that you’re strong enough to do this, beat this, get past this, whatever the hell this actually is...

Sometimes the thing that can make all the difference is a hand that’s just there in case it becomes necessary or welcome. Someone saying its okay if you can’t believe in yourself right now, I’m going to do the believing in you until you’re ready to take over again.

Sometimes the who of the hero is irrelevant, and the only hero you need is someone there to tell you that you are hurting, its real. That someone hurt you and that’s why you’re hurting, that the effect of how you feel has a cause and its not in your head. That everything has a cause and effect, even if its not a step by step road map, and the road to the end effect of saying here I am living, I’m standing here now as proof I survived - all it needs to get started on that road is a cause. Even if that cause is just you saying I want to see what happens next. Maybe its better. Maybe its good.

Sometimes a hero is just the person who says I’m here solely to be a somebody who’s in your corner, and I’m going to be there while you see what happens next whether it does turn out good or not. Someone who is ready and willing to say it as often as it takes for you to believe it.

Sometimes the pain is too great and the thoughts-that-lie are too loud in your ears. You can look at a bonafide superhero standing strong and heroic in front of you, offering a hand and telling you you’re strong enough to take it, and still not buy it, still not believe a single word out of their mouth and its not because you’re broken its because the world is often good at lying and its burned you often enough that being cautious around what might turn out to be fire is not only warranted, its the very thing you need. Before you’re ready to take that next step, whether that’s taking an actual step yet or not. Maybe you think you were wrong about someone being trustworthy and that’s why this happened, and maybe now what you need is to be wrong about someone not being trustworthy and for the sky not to fall, for being wrong to come with no consequences, before you feel safe trusting someone again and hoping this time you’re right.

A hero will stand there regardless, or maybe take a seat if you prefer. Showing up when promised just so they can keep their promise and be proof that promises can be kept. The person who doesn’t dream of saving you, because they’re busy dreaming dreams where you save yourself. Who is there to be there even if all you end up needing them for is their hand and just for five seconds....and who’s still glad to have been there, to have been nothing more than a five-second hand for you to pull yourself up by. Because if its what you needed them to be, their performance as the five-second helping hand is the only starring role they needed or wanted for themselves.

They can be family or they can be a friend, they can be someone you never thought twice about before or someone you hated in third grade. They can be a professional or a total stranger to whom you’re a blank slate.

They can even be you.

Maybe the real hero all along turns out to be one of those stupid fucking Kittens Who Care calendars on the wall. A dumb cliché whose only superpower is being the exact thing you need to hear at the exact moment you need to hear it. The reminder that in the here and now, even at rock bottom, even if you’re all by yourself, that just means that your past isn’t there in that moment with you, and your future is still up to you. An awareness that the thing about rock bottom is no matter how far down you fell before hitting the floor....it is, in fact, a floor. And a floor is a thing you can stand on. A floor is what new things can be built upon.

The great thing about heroes is even the strange magic of hearing a child laughing when you can’t imagine laughing yourself, that might all you need to save you. A recipe for a brighter tomorrow, that reminds you that here you are, still alive, and with an undetermined future: the only ingredients needed to make a possibility, a chance that somewhere ahead of you there’s a day when you’ll laugh again.

The cool thing about a hero with the superpower of achieving the impossible is its the one power that doesn’t need to be a superpower to exist.

Because all the impossible is is a possibility that hasn’t happened yet, a performance still waiting backstage before making its debut. All a possibility is is anything and everything that has yet to be proven impossible.

There’s another word for that superpower. For holding onto a dream no matter how unlikely it is. For aiming for heights that are still possibly in reach until the day its proven for sure that they’re not. For believing that the memory of a time you couldn’t imagine ever being in this much pain....even that can be your tool, even that you can somehow make yours. Presenting as evidence that the flip side of that coin is none of the pain you’re feeling is proof there’s not maybe a day still to come, that’s full of more happiness and joy than you can possibly conceive of here and now, in this time and place..

Another word for that is hope.

Hope is the only power that can always claim to be the thing that saved the world again.

Because as long as it exists, you exist, life goes on....a better future, a future where the day is saved, its still a possibility. And no matter what ultimately claims credit for saving the day, it didn’t do it alone. Hope played a part too.....its the machinery of potential, the forward momentum and the reason it exists. Its the origin story of every wizard and scientist to ever try something with the sole cause of thinking they might get an effect that is new, is unexpected, that surprises.

And when you’re at your absolute lowest, one hundred percent convinced this is as good as it gets. When you can’t imagine or picture any future where things could possibly improve...

You don’t need Superman. You don’t need Wonder Woman.

You need whomever and whatever it is that you can look to, and in them, from them, because of them.....somewhere in all of that is something you can find, can see, can make into a reason to hope.

After that?

The sky’s the limit, and the only really limit is on the other side of the sky.

Its all up to you, and whatever it is that you decide to do next.

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murderslugs · 5 years

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headcanons of any pastas of your choice getting caught doing something embarrassing by their s/o and they’re like “you will never live this down”

Eyeless Jack

- You might wanna sit down this is a lot to unpack.

- So, you guys were about to go out on kind of a date. You usually take quite a but longer to get ready for a date than he does, so he usually takes his time or finds something to do in the mean time.

- Surprise, you were ready first this time. So, you went to check on him.

- From outside the door, you could here him pep-talking himself in his mirror and practicing talking to you.

- *lower voice* "Hey babe, you look puuuuurdy tonight. You. Look. DeLiCioUs." *now in a high pitch voice* "Oh thank you, don't you look manly and so muscular and haaaaaandsoooooome!" *in low voice again* "Why don't I take you dowwwwwnnnnntownnnnn for a riiiiiide? Aren't I a pretty boy? I'm the prettiest boy you'll EVER see babyyyyy!"

- You could see through the crack in the door that he was flexing dramatically and had his shirt off.

- You slowly walked in and made yourself visible behind him in the mirror. "Are you now?"

- He physically fell back out of shock and did a twist thing and ended up with a nosebleed, face down on the floor.

- "Oh, Jack. You are NEVER living this down."

Ticci Toby

- He was bored and waiting for you to come over, and decided he'd make himself a Tik-Tok account and make a few while he waited.

- So there he was, sitting on the bed in his room, making a TikTok to the new trend of the Insane Clown Possy song, "How To Catch A Predator."

- At some point, he'd borrowed one of Sally's wings for the part where he has to pretend to be a little girl.

- And that's when you walked in on Toby in a curly blonde wig in pigtails and a pink dress with white and pink striped socks, lipsyncing the phrase "Hi! Come on in! I'm puttin' on my bikini!"

- He let out an loud, girly scream when he turned around and saw you.

- "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS IS NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE---"

- He was so embarrassed he legitimately almost cried, right then and there.

- "Toby, face it, I will NEVER let you live this shit down."

Ben Drowned

- It was his birthday and he was getting ready for the day. You guys were supposed that afternoon for a birthday surprise for him. But your thought you'd surprise him and come early.

- He was in his room, his pants on and without a shirt, dancing around his room. He held a pink hairbrush to his mouth and sang to the, currently blaring on his speaker, "Wannabe" by The Spice Girls.

- He was swinging his hips side to side quickly and jumping around. He kept pushing his hair back with his other hand and pretending he was from a famous boy and or NSYNC or some shit.

- From all the way down the hallway, you could here him basically screaming "SO TELL ME WHATCHA WANT, WHATCHA REALLY REALLY WANT, I'LL TELL YOU WHAT I WANT WHAT I REALLY REALLY WANT, SO TELL ME WHATCHA WANT WHATCHA REALLY REALLY WANT, I WANNA, I WANNA, I WANNA, I WANNA REALLY REALLY REALLY WANNA ZIG-A-ZIG AHHHH!!!"

- You slowly crept down the hallway, but eventually figured you should catch him in the act.

- You walked in just as he jumped on the bed and pointed at the door. The door you walked in through.

- He then proceeded to turn blood red in the face and FALL OFF HIS BED AND ON TOP OF YOU.

- You helped him get to his feet, though he was so shaky he could hardly stand. You laughed your ass off.

- "Ben, there is no way in hell you are living this down.

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mobius-prime · 4 years

Text

177. Sonic the Hedgehog #109

I Herd It Through the Pipeline

Writer: Benny Lee Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

No, that title is not a typo. We're back to terrible puns. Also, as hilarious as that cover page is, once again it's an example of a cover that wildly misrepresents what's actually going on in the issue, for whatever reason.

Sonic walks in on Rotor being sentimental about his family, and when Rotor explains that his family is once again under a mind control spell, Sonic suggests, and Sally backs him up, that they should travel to the North Tundra to use the Sword of Acorns to free his herd. And thus, Sally heads off to retrieve the sword…

Okay, there's been something weird going on with this thing for a while. This sword seems to have an unhealthy obsession with Sally, which is odd as swords aren't even supposed to be able to think. She shakes off her bemusement, and together she, Sonic, Rotor, and Bunnie head out in Rotor's submarine in search of his family. They notice an underwater oil pipeline which they begin to follow, as it's an obvious sign Eggman has been here, but Eggman notices them and sends out his "'sea'-crete weapon" to attack them - an electric eel that begins zapping the craft.

They manage to make it to shore without any further trouble, and find the pipeline has led them to an oil rig, which Rotor's herd is being forced to work on as mindless slaves. They fight off the shadow-bots guarding the site while Eggman angrily but uselessly screams at them through a video monitor, powerless to stop them, and then Sally heads off to free the herd…

…while Rotor sets some charges on the side of the rig, blowing it up. Rotor's family is thankful that he came back for them, and they invite the Freedom Fighters away for a meal, happy to once again be free.

Now, instead of a normal character file or map, we actually have Knuckles' family tree to examine!

Most of this we already know from the many, many previous issues covering the topic, but it's kind of nice to have it all laid out for us in one place in an easy-to-read family tree. This does, however, tie in to what I brought up a while back, about whether Thunderhawk is Sojourner's father or vice-versa, and how different issues say different things. In this tree's case, Thunderhawk is depicted as Sojourner's father, which is in direct contrast to how the two were introduced in KtE#29. Kind of funny how Penders couldn't keep those two characters straight for the life of him. It's also a bit peeving that most of the characters in the tree are male - Penders, for all his anti-misogyny attitude, still finds himself stuck in more old-fashioned ways of thinking, which is ultimately probably why the Brotherhood is such a boys' club and most of the women in the tree were just gentle, loving housewives who bore the next generation's Guardian. Obviously, that's not at all the way Julie-Su carries herself, but this trend did apparently make people worry back when the comics were still coming out that Kenders would, in the future, turn Julie-Su into the loving housewife as well, where she would become just The Mom to Lara-Su. I guess we'll see if that really does happen, huh?

"…The Crush!"

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: J. Axer Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

Mina is gazing on Sonic from afar, still lost in her crush on him, and when she tries to run after him and trips on a rock, Sally shows up to catch her before she falls. To her everlasting credit, despite her obvious jealousy over Mina's supposed relationship with Sonic, Sally lets none of it show and only speaks kindly to Mina. Mina dejectedly explains how she's been trying to get Sonic's attention lately, but hasn't been very successful so far.

That has to be a relief for Sally, given her mistaken interpretation of that kiss. Mina then asks for Sally to describe Sonic to her, and though she's surprised, Sally does her best.

This is probably one of the best descriptions of not just Archie Sonic, but every Sonic, that I've ever seen. It really does sum up what defines him as a character, and why he's so well-loved by the fans as well as all the supporting cast of whatever canon he's in. Mina is pleased with Sally's breakdown, and thanks her before running off, and Sally turns away with a small smile, obviously relieved that Mina and Sonic are not in fact an item and that she still has a chance with him.

Reunification (The Conclusion)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Dawn Best Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

Lara-Su leaps at Remington as he fires his weapon, determined to stop him from hitting Knuckles, but then realizes that in actuality he was firing at someone else who was firing at Dimitri. Knuckles is struck as he jumps in front of Dimitri to protect him, and collapses motionless on the floor as the occupants of the room go into an uproar at the attempted assassination.

Oh, Lien-Da. Of course you would be the traitor. It's actually quite fascinating to see how after losing his powers, Dimitri has actually ended up as the more reasonable one, seeming to genuinely want to reunite his society, while Lien-Da, ever relegated to the background, to being second-best, has begun to scheme for power of her own. There's a reason I said before that she's one of my favorite villains of this series. The council suggests forming a committee to help bridge the differences between the two sects of echidna society, stating that Dimitri's ancient proposal was rejected originally due to the technology simply being ahead of its time, but that now their society might be able to move forward into a new technological renaissance. Lien-Da slips out a back door, determined to make sure her assassin doesn't talk when questioned by the police force, and Lara-Su also exits, devastated that she was unable to save her father's life. She's startled by the sudden appearance of Julie-Su, who has run up upon hearing the news of Knuckles' apparent death, and as she stops to examine the assassin being detained by Remington and his crew, Lien-Da realizes she has a shot to take out two of the thorns in her side with one blow, ordering her other hidden assassin to take the shot… and luckily, Lara-Su is standing right next to him, easily preventing the tragedy from occurring. She realizes that maybe, in going back in time, she was meant to save her mother instead of her father. However, she then begins to fade from sight to her horror, yelling that she wasn't meant to go back to the future yet. Julie-Su bursts into the council chambers in time to see Knuckles standing up completely unharmed, where he states that he deliberately took the blow to win Dimitri's trust, but that now they have to be careful, as there seems to be a traitor in their midst…

Julie-Su explains that in reality, she always told her daughter that Knuckles was dead because she wanted to shield her from the truth, which is that Knuckles actually went insane from the Chaos energy that he absorbed and now he's trying to take over the world with his revamped version of the Dark Legion. But now that she's old enough, and has seen the past for herself, Julie-Su thinks that Lara-Su is ready to help her face down her father for good, and begins packing up a duffel bag full of guns like some kind of Mobian Sarah Connor. And then they're just… off! No need to elaborate on anything else! The end!

Honestly, this entire section is very poorly explained, so I'll do my best. It seems that Lara-Su grew up in some kind of dystopia with her mother, who explained past events in a skewed manner to try to protect her daughter from the truth, until Lara-Su decided to take matters into her own hands to change the past and fix the future. Hey, sounds like a certain white fluffy hedgehog we know, huh? However, the implication seems to be that in some way, in a short while in our current timeline Knuckles will actually go insane from Chaos energy. This wouldn't be a problem, aside from obviously not wanting a major character of the comic to go crazy, except that this means that Julie-Su would basically already have to be pregnant with Lara-Su, since I doubt she and Knuckles would be trying for a baby after he went nuts. While teen pregnancies do happen, I'm not sure I like the implication that he's somehow already gotten Julie-Su pregnant, in the middle of everything else that's happened, and that now this fifteen year old is about to have a baby. To be clear - she does not in fact get pregnant at any point during the course of the preboot (not counting future versions of her who already had Lara-Su, obviously), but I'm genuinely not sure if Penders just didn't really think through the implications of what he wrote here, or if he did, and fully intended this to be implied by the circumstances depicted. I mean, we already know he has a history of writing really weird things about sexual relationships between teenagers (and we're not even done with those, either - yes, there's more to come), but I think this is one of the ones that more easily flies under the radar due to the confusing, garbled nature of this plotline.

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 109 #writer: benny lee #writer: karl bollers #writer: ken penders #pencils: ron lim #pencils: jeff axer #pencils: dawn best #colors: joshua d ray #colors: aimee r ray

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letterboxd · 5 years

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Ranking Little Women.

“This is a film not about a single woman’s quest for identity or independence, but about the infinite power of a woman’s community.”

Letterboxd is humming with Little Women Cinematic Universe energy, particularly since the trailer for Greta Gerwig’s new version, with its cast pulled straight from the Letterboxd Year in Review, dropped.

“I have a guttural five star type of feeling after the trailer,” writes Leia. “Bi culture is thirst-watching this for Timothée Chalamet and Florence Pugh,” Raph enthuses.

Yeah, we see you watching and re-watching all the previous film adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s landmark 1868 novel that you can fix your eyeballs on. We’re not ones to doze by the fire; we like adventures. So let us take you on a romp through past Little Women screen adaptations, in which we rank the productions based on our community’s stantastic response to each.

From left: Milton, Daisy & Ruby.

Little Women (1917) Directed by Alexander Butler

Though the March family lived in the town of Concord, Massachusetts, it was the British who got to the beloved American book first, with this silent film adaptation.

Starring Ruby Miller as Jo March and musical-comedy star Daisy Burrell as Amy March, the film is considered lost, so nobody on Letterboxd will ever be able to confirm how the prolific English actor Milton Rosmer stacked up as rich-boy-next-door Theodore ‘Laurie’ Laurence.

Letterboxd ranking: #7.

Conrad Nagel & Dorothy Bernard.

Little Women (1918) Directed by Harley Knoles, screenplay by Anne Maxwell

Also considered lost is the first American adaptation, by the brilliantly named Harley Knoles, a British director who spent the 1910s working in the US. Matinee idol Conrad Nagel played Laurie.

Letterboxd ranking: #4. Jo March was played by silent film queen Dorothy Bernard, whose father hailed from New Zealand (as does Letterboxd), therefore this version ranks highly even though there are no Letterboxd ratings or reviews to confirm this fact. Instead, check out D.W. Griffiths’ dark, march-across-the-desert film The Female of the Species, in which “only Dorothy Bernard gives a believable performance” according to Michael.

(An aside: Here’s a list of unseen silent films that actually do exist, but that nobody on Letterboxd has yet seen, apparently.)

From left: George Cukor directs Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Frances Dee and Jean Parker in ‘Little Women’ (1933). / Photo courtesy MGM

Little Women (1933) Directed by George Cukor, screenplay by Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman

Now we’re getting to the meat & potatoes of Little Women standom. Not that it’s a competition, but Katherine Hepburn is the one Saoirse Ronan needs to beat. Hepburn set the screen standard for gutsy portrayals of Jo March, and appropriately so in this first version with sound because let’s be honest, when the world got to hear Jo March speak those lines aloud for the first time, Hepburn’s voice was the perfect choice.

The prolific Cukor was nominated for the best directing Oscar (he eventually won one in 1964 for My Fair Lady), but it was the screenwriters, married couple Mason and Heerman, who won the Academy Award for their script. (Hepburn also won that year, but not for playing Jo March.)

Letterboxd ranking: #3. “A true gem of depression-era cinema,” writes Taj. “Every single scene in the first half of this film is a pure delight.”

“I’d like to personally thank Katharine Hepburn for being absolutely perfect,” writes Skylar. Morgan concurs: “Hepburn plays Jo with a rough physicality, bold confidence, and a gentle sensibility, standing out in a rather unremarkable movie.”

June Allyson and Rossano Brazzi.

Little Women (1949) Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, screenplay by Sally Benson, Victor Heerman, Sarah Y. Mason, and Andrew Solt

Why re-write a script that’s already perfect? Mervyn LeRoy’s 1949 Technicolor update lifted most of the screenplay and music from Cukor’s version, throwing in an on-trend acting line-up of June Allyson (Jo), Janet Leigh (Meg), Elizabeth Taylor (Amy) and Margaret O’Brien (Beth).

Never mind who played Laurie in this version (okay, okay, it was hunky Rat-Packing socialite Peter Lawford); the real tea here is the American film debut of Bologna-born Italian great Rossano (The Italian Job) Brazzi, as Professor Bhaer.

Letterboxd ranking: #2. “This is the best Little Women, fight me,” DylanDog declares. “I’m so impressed by the fact that they rewrote/restructured/padded out the 1933 screenplay, assembled a nearly pitch-perfect cast, and made such a fantastic Technicolor remake,” Dino reasons. “We actually see way more of the novel’s subversive gender politics play out here, and Jo’s motivations are much more palpable.”

“Although I also really like the 1933 version, the Hepburn film lacks the warmth I do find in the 1949 adaptation,” Annewithe writes. “I feel that this version conveys the true spirit of the book and is as cozy and warm and loving, and it’s in colour!”

Susan Dey and William Shatner.

Little Women (1978) Directed by David Lowell Rich, screenplay by Suzanne Clauser

Between 1949 and 1994, all we got was this seventies miniseries adaptation, which flies far under the radar of Letterboxd’s Little Women obsession with only two member reviews.

Susan Dey was a smart choice to play Jo March, given her Partridge Family profile at the time, while Meredith Baxter Birney, who played Meg, went onto huge sitcom fame as Michael J. Fox’s mom in Family Ties. The real curiosity factor here, writes LouReviews, is “the casting of one William Shatner as the Professor, and he’s rather good!”.

Letterboxd ranking: #6. “This story keeps moving me,” is all Sandra had to say, while LouReviews writes “not essential by any means, but if you like the novel, you'll want to see this”.

Winona Ryder and Christian Bale.

Little Women (1994) Directed by Gillian Armstrong, screenplay by Robin Swicord

It only took 126 years from publication for a woman to get behind the camera of a Little Women film, despite Alcott’s masterpiece long being a prime example of (white privileged) female complexity in storytelling. (Although, it’s fair to note that women have been involved in the scriptwriting for every Little Women film adaptation that we know of.)

Released—as Gerwig’s 2019 update will be—at Christmas, Gillian Armstrong’s version was as star-studded as they come, with 90s it-girl Winona Ryder—fresh off Reality Bites—as Jo March, and Christian Bale as Laurie. Also: Kirsten Dunst, Samantha Mathis and Eric Stoltz, with Susan Sarandon as Marmee.

Letterboxd ranking: #1. Sydney writes: “It’s really tough dealing with the fact that this movie is probably never going to get the respect it deserves.” Well Sydney, we’re happy to make your day. This Little Women is currently the highest-rated on Letterboxd (except for Bale’s facial hair, which is not highly rated by anyone). Thomas Newman’s score is much beloved, and the film is, in Julia’s opinion, “the definitive adaptation!”.

On a recent re-watch, Lauren “was transported back in time to my childhood and for those two hours everything felt simple and safe.” Meanwhile Sally Jane Black, in a thoughtful piece, gets right to the heart of Little Women-love: “This is a film not about a single woman’s quest for identity or independence, but about the infinite power of a woman’s community.”

Little Women (2017) Directed by Vanessa Caswill, screenplay by Heidi Thomas

Not strictly a film, but well worth a mention, this recent three-part BBC adaptation stars Thurman-Hawke offspring (and Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood flower child) Maya Hawke as Jo March. Emily Watson plays the March matriarch, and—Gerwig connection alert!—Kathryn Newton (Lady Bird’s Darlene) is Amy March.

Letterboxd ranking: #5. Alicia is a fan: “Winona will always be my Jo, but Emily Watson absolutely kills it as Marmee! Just love her FACE!!!! Her pain is your pain; her joy is your joy. Oyyy!”

Bethchestnut was slowly convinced: “A very handsome and loving production, even if there were a lot of things that bothered me about it. Doesn’t help that I watch the 90s version every year. Still made me cry twice.”

Little Women (2018) Directed by Clare Niederpruem, script by Clare Niederpruem and Kristi Shimek

Released to mark the novel’s 150th anniversary of publication, this version wins points for casting Lea Thompson (Howard the Duck, Back to the Future) as Marmee, but loses points for the weird contemporary update, in which the March sisters inexplicably lose the messy complexity of their far more adventurous 19th-century selves.

Letterboxd ranking: #8. “Who decided casting Ryan from High School Musical was a good idea?” asks Sue.

Also worth seeking out: two different Japanese anime adaptations, the 1981 series Little Women’s Four Sisters (若草の四姉妹), and the 1987 series, Tales of Little Women (愛の若草物語), which aired on HBO in 1988 and is notable for writing in a black character. Not worth a mention: this 1970 TV adaptation.

Greta Gerwig’s ‘Little Women’ opens in cinemas this December.

#little women #greta gerwig #timothee chalamet #saoirse ronan #florence pugh #meryl streep #winona ryder #katherine hepburn #letterboxd

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myharjotkaur-blog · 5 years

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Digital Marketing Communication

Digital marketing is the face of the modern business world. It is a major factor that has changed the face of the business world and which has catapulted change, and positivity in the business world. Digital marketing is the application of all the marketing efforts that are digitally or internet created to foster and promote the marketing exercise. It encompasses various platforms and elements that include the use of social media, the internet, websites, search engine, and any other digitally recreated method. Digital marketing has recreated the diverse applications in the current world, and it is a key figure of marketing that has changed how the society works, and how the customers and the business connect within the business environment.

Digital media is taking over the world today. It is one of the core methods that is currently applied by almost every business in the world. Digital marketing has continued to thrive over time. One of the significant contributors to various tenets and applications of digital media marketing is the introduction and the development of modern communication platforms. The development in the field of information technology platforms is also another great concept behind the massive developments of modern forms of communication (Dunlop et al. 41). Digital media is also becoming the best method of making purchases and important supplies that are inherent for the development and the change in the marketing structure in the present world. It is a major reason behind the developments in digital marketing platforms which has changed the entire system of digital marketing in the world today.

The success of digital marketing is largely due to the use of digital footprints. It is one of the major terms that can be developed and denoted from the application of digital media and digital marketing platform in society today. Digital footprints are also known as the digital shadow. It comprises of various things that are unique that one often leaves behind as a traceable digital activity, actions, and other communications that are left behind in the internet platforms which can either be personal computers, mobile devices among other things which shows the trend and all activities that one performs use g the internet. The digital footprints that can be associated with various businesses and other settings within the digital world include comments from the social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype, YouTube and Instagram among other social media platforms (Patrutiu-Baltes 61).

Digital footprints can take many forms. Although it is majorly the things that you can leave behind after using the internet, this whole thing can take various issues and methods which attempts to either build or destroy your ability to use the internet. Therefore, one should be careful of the traces that they leave behind after using the digital platform. This is because, if in any way one leaves behind the traceable negative things or traces on the internet, this whole thing will jeopardize the whole developments in the use of the digital platforms. The digital footprints are seen by other people who use the same social media sites as you do and hence it may have negative reviews and commends depending on the nature and the type of footprints that you leave (Fill & Sarah 97).

There are various ways that you can leave digital footprints in the digital world. The use of websites and other online marketing platforms that you can choose to buy or sell your services. In this site, some core thing that can be traced back to the user can be easily found or located from the digital media platforms. Cookies are one of the prime things that can be used to trace you, your activities, and this can act as the basis of digital footprints platforms. The social media sites is also another critical pathway that can be the prime source of digital footprints (Fill & Sarah 65).

This can be in the form of comments, reviews, and other feedbacks. These can be both negative and positive, depending on the footprints that you leave behind. Other things that may act as a lead to your digital footprints include mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and other computers. This will show the history of your browsing, and this can act as a lead through which your digital footprints make a huge impact on the real world in your business or in anything that one encompass the use of digital marketing platforms (Dunlop et al. 45).

The application of the digital footprints, therefore, has necessitated the marketing platform in various ways. Search engines such as Google and other major engines applied in browsing are now the face of modern digital marketing. People and businesses currently create customized information and context that is needed to change and develop an outlook on the digital marketing world through creating customized information that is well created and scripted to meet the needs of the people. Therefore, one is likely to get information that is based on their preferred taste and experience with ease, all through the application of the digital media platforms.

The quest to develop the most applicable system of advertisements is now a top priority for various organizations. The use of the internet and social media are some of the major sites that have changed the world of digital advertising and digital marketing. Many companies and other high end organizations are now using social media marketing to create the most deliberate way of meeting all the needs of its customers (Valos et al. 34).

The use of the internet and social media are some of the major developments that have changed the era and the application of digital technology. They are the major sites that are now applied to create robust changes in the digital marketing platforms. Nowadays, when a consumer wants to understand some specifications of a given product, say a phone, for example, he/she will go the internet and reach the product. One will be fully informed and hence can decide on whether to buy the product or not. Social media is also very instrumental in referrals. Consumers can use sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to make decision on what they want to purchase (Valos et al. 25).

Social media marketing is, perhaps, one of the most despicable sites that have numerous applications and adoptions in the world today. It is a key factor that has changed and revolutionized the scope of marketing in the modern world of trade and business. The application of this concept also helps in the development and the creation of the best way of maintaining high and profitable sales, and also creating the most active method of shaping the marketing experience in the world today.

The application of social media in marketing as a digital marketing platform is becoming the trend in the present society. It is one of the major elements that is currently applied to create a better system of understanding of the contents and the developments that are sold in the market. The connection that can be achieved with the correct use of this method is immense, and it has created various positive responses on the marketing factor and how marketing platforms can be revolutionized to meet the market needs. Many businesses now run social media and websites that are greatly applied in advertising and marketing.

Social media is currently used by millions of people across the globe, and it has helped in shaping and revolution communication and the connection between people globally. Therefore, in ascertaining the impact, and the scope of social media marketing, many people are now into developing the most active way of creating impacts, promoting their activities and business ideas across the globe and also creating the ideal way of marketing and promoting the scope of their goods in the global market. This is a major identity that is now the prime tool of marketing in the modern business environment.

Many companies have also sought the services of the outdoor media to help in promoting and sharing the advertising and the marketing exercise. Currently, multiple online marketing methods and techniques have continued to shape and develop the best system of marketing and advertising and which has created massive changes and developments in the marketing platform. Marketers and other agencies are now developing the use of these sites to help in promoting and managing the exercise and the marketing techniques for their various companies and sites with ease.

References

· Dunlop, Sally, Becky Freeman, and Sandra C. Jones. "Marketing to youth in the digital age: The promotion of unhealthy products and health promoting behaviours on social media." Media and Communication 4.3 (2016): 35-49.

· Patrutiu-Baltes, Loredana. "Inbound Marketing-the most important digital marketing strategy." Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V 9.2 (2016): 61.

· Valos, Michael John, et al. "Exploring the integration of social media within integrated marketing communication frameworks: Perspectives of services marketers." Marketing Intelligence & Planning 34.1 (2016): 19-40.

· Fill, Chris, and Sarah Louise Turnbull. Marketing communications: brands, experiences and participation. Pearson, 2016.

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theresabookforthat · 7 years

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Witch Lit!

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble…

In the spirit of Halloween we have a witch’s brew of books to offer all ages in the mood for spellbinding reading treats. Which witch tale will you put in your bag?

THE WITCHING HOUR by Anne Rice

Demonstrating her gift for spellbinding storytelling, Anne Rice makes real for us a great dynasty of four centuries of witches–a family given to poetry and incest, murder and philosophy, a family that over the ages is itself haunted by a powerful, dangerous, and seductive being called Lasher who haunts the Mayfair women.

PRACTICAL MAGIC by Alice Hoffman

For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back—almost as if by magic…

A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES: A NOVEL by Deborah Harkness

Book one of the New York Times–bestselling All Souls trilogy—”a wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter and Twilight” (People)

Deborah Harkness’s sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript.

THE WITCH: AND OTHER TALES RE-TOLD by Jean Thompson

A National Book Award finalist Jean Thompson’s new collection captures the magic and horror in everyday life as she revisits beloved fables that represent our deepest, most primeval fears and satisfy our longings for good to triumph over evil (preferably in the most gruesome way possible). “Spellbinding” (Booklist, starred review).

THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK: A NOVEL by John Updike

Toward the end of the Vietnam era, in a snug little Rhode Island seacoast town, wonderful powers have descended upon Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie, bewitching divorcées with sudden access to all that is female, fecund, and mysterious.

WHITE IS FOR WITCHING by Helen Oyeyemi

Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award

There’s something strange about the Silver family house in the closed-off town of Dover, England. Grand and cavernous with hidden passages and buried secrets, it’s been home to four generations of Silver women—Anna, Jennifer, Lily, and now Miranda, who has lived in the house with her twin brother, Eliot, ever since their father converted it to a bed-and-breakfast.

BASIC WITCHES: HOW TO SUMMON SUCCESS, BANISH DRAMA, AND RAISE HELL WITH YOUR COVEN by Jaya Saxena, Jess Zimmerman

A magical lifestyle guide for everything from powering up a stylish crystal to banishing terrible Tinder dates! Want to feel terrifyingly beautiful? Want to increase your energy? Whip up a tasty herbal “potion” to rev up your stamina. DIY projects, rituals, and spells—along with fun historical sidebars—summon the best trends of the modern witchy lifestyle.

THE PENGUIN BOOK OF WITCHES edited by Katherine Howe

Chilling real-life accounts of witches, from medieval Europe through colonial America, compiled by the New York Times bestselling author of Conversion.

FOR YOUNGER READERS

HEXED by Michelle Krys; Young Adult

It’s Bring it On meets The Craft in this spellbinding series debut. Indigo Blackwood is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend and cool friends. On the surface, her life looks perfect. But when a guy dies violently right before her eyes and an ancient family Bible is stolen, Indie’s world spirals into darkness. Turns out Indie isn’t just a normal teenager: she has a destiny. And it involves much more than pom-poms and parties. Check out the sequel Charmed!

THE WITCHES by Roald Dahl; Ages 8 to 12

This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches. Grandmamma loves to tell about witches. Real witches are the most dangerous of all living creatures on earth. There’s nothing they hate so much as children, and they work all kinds of terrifying spells to get rid of them. Her grandson listens closely to Grandmamma’s stories—but nothing can prepare him for the day he comes face-to-face with The Grand High Witch herself!

CONVERSION by Katherine Howe; Ages 12 and up

Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell. With her signature wit and passion, New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe delivers an exciting and suspenseful novel, a chilling mystery that raises the question, what’s really happening to the girls at St. Joan’s?

RAVINA THE WITCH? By Junko Mizuno

A bewitching and beautiful tale of an orphan girl who was raised by crows in a trash heap. One day, a dying witch gifts her with a mysterious magic wand and her life changes forever! Now, the human world is hers to play with…Or will this land of fear and corruption prove too much for the fledgling witch?

WITCHES: THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE TALE OF DISASTER IN SALEM by Rosalyn Schanzer, National Geographic Kids; Ages 5 to 10

In the little colonial town of Salem Village, Massachusetts, two girls began to twitch, mumble, and contort their bodies into strange shapes. The doctor tried every remedy, but nothing cured the young Puritans. He grimly announced the dire diagnosis: the girls were bewitched!

AKATA WITCH by Nnedi Okorafor; Ages 12 and up

Twelve-year-old Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born American. Her features are African, but she’s albino. She’s a terrific athlete, but can’t go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits. And then she discovers something amazing-she is a “free agent,” with latent magical powers.

HOW TO HANG A WITCH by Adriana Mather; Ages 12 and up

It’s the Salem Witch Trials meets “Mean Girls” in this New York Times bestselling novel from one of the descendants of Cotton Mather, where the trials of high school start to feel like a modern-day witch hunt for a teen with all the wrong connections to Salem’s past.

THE LITTLE WITCH by Otfried Preussler; Ages 5 to 9

“Once upon a time there was a little witch who was only a hundred and twenty-seven years old”—that’s how the story of the little witch and her talking raven Abraxas begins, and though one hundred and twenty-seven isn’t at all old for a witch, Little Witch already has a big problem. Every year, on Walpurgis Night, all the witches of the land meet to dance on Brocken Mountain. Little Witch is still too little to be invited, but this year she decided to sneak in anyway—and got caught by her evil aunt Rumpumpel!

For more on these and related titles visit Witchy Lit

#witch lit #anne rice #there's a book for that #halloween #witches #penguin random house #helen oyeyemi #otfried preussler #nnedi okorafor #junko mizuno #roald dahl #katherine howe

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