#we do a little bit of 3D as a treat

[orionscelt]

Wanna share a non hl character cus I deleted most of my socials so he's just sittin in the void rn - he's my fave and I just wanna show the fella off yn 🤷

#won't be posting anything else non hl don't worry #orc #dnd #rambling #non hl #delete later #maybe #my art #we do a little bit of 3D as a treat #orc twitter i miss u #he's 5'8 a scouser and a bit of a himbo - the chaos #i have my twitter in purgatory rn - got a bunch of stuff just copied and pasted yn #i just log in every now and again and then deactivate #i could just make another account on here I guess but I wouldn't have the time #brain wants hl stuff now anyways

[beescake]

i am in love with your sollux i think

sollux love party :]

if you’re interested heres some of my personal fondness thoughts on him.. big warning for the mega long read ahead aye

as we alr know sollux's rejection of participation somewhat mirrors dave's rejection of heroism, but even without getting cooked to completion i still find sollux's character v compelling beyond the fourth wall

as someone who doesnt get a pinch of that Protagonist Sparkle to begin with, he can openly say he wants to leave anytime…. and unlike dave, he actually Can leave the scene anytime. but he can never be truly Free from the story via permanent character death like the other trolls.

his irrelevancy is indeed relevant - he’s there so u can point him out.

while his image is intended to be a relic of past internet subculture, his role is not only about hehehaha being a Chad or a 2000s cyberforum 2²chan haxxor ragequit gamebro.

his continued existence also happens to add a Bit to the overarching themes of homestuck! a Bit that gives him longer-lasting thematic relevance compared to the trolls who could’ve had more character potential but didnt get to survive beyond the main story.

the Bit in question:

his defiance contributes to the illusion of agency (treating characters = people with autonomy). he’s “aware” of it, and that recognition is worth noting enough to forcibly keep him alive as both reward and punishment.

considering how his personality & classpect is designed its definitely a very haha thing for hussie to do LOL. he’s made to be op asf so he's resigned to doing dirty work, gradually deteriorating along the way but never truly dying. as fans have mentioned before, him openly rejecting involvement after a while of grim tolerance is like if the sim u were controlling suddenly stopped, looked up and gave u the finger while u were step six into the walkthrough for Every Possible Sim Death Animation.

but since he’s just a sim… the more he hates it, the more you keep him around. if ur sim started complaining abt your whimsical household storyline you’d definitely keep that little fuck.

but yeah i like that sollux is just idling. the significance of his presence being that one dude who's always reliably Somewhere, root core Unchanged, no individual ambitions (possibly due to fear of consequence?), and design-wise: a staple representative product of his time.

compared to dirk's character, who has aged phenomenally well into the present (themes of control + AR + artificial intelligence, clearer exploration around navigating relationships/sexuality, infinite possibilities of self-splinterhood and trait inheritance), sollux's potential is really... contained. bitter. defeatist. limiting and frustrating in the way old tech is.

the world continues moving on to shinier, brighter, more advanced automated things - minimalist and metaverse or whatever but sollux is still here 🧍‍♂️ going woohoo redblue 3d. (tho personally i imagine his vibe similar to what the kids call cassette futurism on pinterest mixed w more grimy grunge insectoid influences eheh)

conceptually-speaking,

at the foundation of it all, the rapid pace of modern development was built off the understanding of ppl like sollux in the past, who were There actively at work while the dough was still beginning to rise

thats one of the cool things abt the idea of trolls preceding humans! the idea that trolls like sollux excelled back when lots of basic shit still needed to be discovered, building structures like networks and codes from scratch, and humans will eventually inherit and reinvent that knowledge in ways that become so optimized it makes the old manual effort seem archaic, slow, and labour-intensive.

but despite information/resources/shortcuts being more accessible now, much of the new highly-anticipated stuff released on trend still end up unfinished, inefficient, or expiring quickly due to cutting corners under severe capitalistic pressures

meanwhile, some of the old stuff frm past generations of thorough, exploratory and perfectionistic development still remains working, complete, and ever so sturdy.

those things continue to exist, just outside our periphery with either:

zero purpose left for modern needs (outdated/obsolete)

or

far too important to replace or destroy, bcs of its surprisingly essential and circumstantial usefulness in one niche specific area.

which are honestly? both points that sum up sollux pree well.

dramatic ending sorry. anw are u still on the fence or are u Sick abt him like me </3

#ask #anon #sollux captor #homestuck #hs2 spoilers #2023 #vioart #hs2 sollux explaining girls and bitches to john: 🗣️🗣️🗣️ #mr foods‚ setting up the visuals: LMAO ok pause. cool story bro theyre all gone its just u n ur sandwich bro. #now that i think abt it sol's kind of a toaster? awkwardly takes up countertop space #lacks the versatility and sociability of an air fryer/pressure cooker. unwashed and littered w crumbs! #but sometimes the clear‚ frank simplicity of the toaster is a temporary lifesaver for ppl who struggle w low appetite / decision fatigue #or ppl who just have a habit of eating toast for breakfast LOL #and eh ¯\ _(ツ)_/¯ even if u dont feel like toasting today thats ok he's still gonna be sitting there 👍👍 #a funnyman..... i curse him in my pan but root for him in my biscuit 🫶

[charmwasjess]

If there’s a legit good reason why Qui-Gon chose to specialize in form IV, Ataru, the Hawkbat lightsaber form, aside from the simple, likely fact that he did it to troll his old Master Dooku (who outright calls the acrobatics of the form “ridiculous,”) I’d like to hear it. By which I mean I’ll write you a post about it.

Ataru is fast, aggressive, and inclined to treat the battlefield as a 3D space where the air is just as comfortable a place to be as on your own two feet. A direct response to Soresu, the “defense is my attack” form, Ataru flips that into “attack is my defense.” (We won’t talk about Makashi’s contribution to the conversation: “no defense whatsoever, but think fast, I just threw a dinner fork at you so hard it stuck in your metal arm!”) 

Of course, the most recognizable and classic application of Ataru is Yoda’s; we see him whizzing around people’s heads like a little green hummingbird in his AotC and RotS duels. Qui-Gon’s version looks nothing like that. If we weren’t told, I think it would be hard to guess that those characters are using the same form. In Duel of the Fates, Qui-Gon has to move down or over those infamous walkways repeatedly. He just jumps them: no flips, no aerial maneuvers, no bouncing off the walls. And this isn’t simply a practical choice for his age and build: Jocasta Nu is running up walls and leaping out of skyscrapers at easily aged 40 years older than Qui-Gon, and for all Dooku’s bitching over Ataru acrobatics, he does more flips to simply avoid walking down a few stairs than Qui-Gon, Master of the flip form, does in his entire time on screen. 

And yet, on some level, all of that makes perfect sense for Qui-Gon. Who better to completely subvert a form? This is a character who is contrary as fuck, full of wonderful contradiction, who blends lightsaber theory centered on attack and aggression with literal meditation. While the most notable scene, actually kneeling in the pose and everything, is in TPM, he does battle meditation repeatedly on a mental level in the Master and Apprentice and Padawan novels. (And it rightfully freaks out Obi-Wan.) Qui-Gon takes Ataru’s “your whole body is a weapon” and doesn’t apply that to somersaults, but rather, to moves like punching Darth Maul off a balcony as we see him do in Duel of the Fates. He fights in a way that throws himself bodily up against obstacles. You can see the same physicality of his relationship with his weapon in the scene where he is simply burning through the blast doors in TPM. We’ve seen Jedi cut through things on screen other times, but that scene is remarkable and memorable for Qui-Gon’s level of intensity. He is the battering ram. 

And we could loop back into lineage, couldn’t we? Qui-Gon stands in a line of Jedi with unconventional relationships to their lightsaber forms; their choices are formed in context of and in conversation with each other. Those backward, momentum-gaining swings from Duel of the Fates look very familiar, but who trained Qui-Gon? (And who notoriously had a problem with Ataru and might've pushed his student on some workarounds or encouraged him to cut out bits he didn't like, such as aerials?) And speaking of, is it a stretch to think that Dooku’s own casual backflips are less a considered choice and more an old habit, being himself trained by a Master who has only a theoretical relationship with gravity? 

All this to enjoy just another example of how personal the lightsaber forms can be to specific Jedi, and what wonderful fun it is to unpack the ways they use them differently because of their unique personalities and lineage.

#lightsaber nerd stuff #lightsaber forms #qui gon jinn #count dooku #makashi #ataru #the clone wars #star wars analysis #yoda #the phantom menace #disaster lineage #master dooku

[shinyzango]

Just curious, opinions on the different nutcrackers that you know of from all kinds of media and stuff?

Sorry if anyone asked this before I wouldn't know

Love your art and characters by the way keep it up!

Hohohohohohohoho, we be opening the Pandora Box here. Not that I'm complaining~

So, this is going to be a very long post as I've seen a lot of the movies. I also have a couple books which I can give my opinion, and I'm familiar with various apparitions in videogames and such. So yeah this is going to be a loooooooong post.

So buckle up, grab a drink and enjoy the ride into my personal madness o7

[ CAREFUL, VERY LONG POST UNDER THE CUT ]

So, let's start with movies as those are easier to grab and talk about for me. I'm gonna go with their year of release ot keep things organized.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Shchelkunchik (1973)

Small silly dramatic guy, I like him! The animators did a great job animating his design and make him incredibly appealing. As for his human appearance, eeeeeh I don't really care for him. Definitely a shock the first time you see it lol But yes, adorable silly guy

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Nutcracker Fantasy (1979)

Li'l guy. It is Sanrio so it's bound to be on the cute side. The Nutcracker itself doesn't do much in the movie, but as for Fritz himself, I... honestly don't care about him. He looks pretty, but personality wise he needs to work on it pff Idk he just comes out as plain and a little arrogant... Still a fine fellow, though.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Nutcracker: The Motion Picture (1986)

One of the two ballet-based movies I've seen, and definitely the better one of the two imo. And good lord I love this guy. He may look terrifying but good lord if he's silly. And I actually don't mind his human appearance as simple as it is. Silly man, this one.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The Nutcracker Prince (1990)

HIM. MY BELOVED. THE GOOD LAD. Definitely my favorite, and not because this was my most beloved childhood movie. He is such a sweetheart with a hint of awkwardness but who can still kick your ass. And the final scene in the castle in the Italian dub is just *chef kiss* 10/10 lad.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The Nutcracker (1993)

The other ballet-based movie... it's just Macaulay Culkin. And his nutcracker costume looks hideous lol. Nothign to say. Surprisingly, he's not the worst one.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The Nuttiest Nutcracker (1999)

Ripoff Ken. He is incredibly dumb, and a tiny bit of a freak, but could be worse honestly kdjng They did Barbie before Barbie did it lol that's p much it.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Barbie in the Nutcracker (2001)

THE OTHER GOOD LAD. I love Eric so much he's such a sweetheart wanting to fix his mistakes. It's so easy to root for him. As for his human appearance... he's just Ken skjngf 10/10 lad #2

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The Nutcracker and the MouseKing (2004)

Oh boy what to say about this one. Very hateful in the first half. At least he learns and becomes bearable at the last third of the movie. But I do like the nutcracker form, they made the blocky design work as well, like later on it's actually very nice to see him move. Still, horrible personality. Needs a slap in the face.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Nutcracker in 3D / Nutcracker: The Untold Story (2010)

Hellspawn. Nightmare fuel. Abomination. Who the hell approved to that design?? And why did they pitch up his voice like that?? At least the kid playing human NC is not as bad, but good lord. 0/10 Just burn that puppet with fire, please.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)

This one just pisses me off. This one had so much potential, and the actor is actually good. It's just the way his character was written that is dog awful. They made him basically a dumb side character who barely does anything despite everyone in the movie treating him like he's a big shot. And the the fact that this was made by Disney just makes this worse. Just so much lost potential.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The Nutcracker (???)

I actually don't know who made this movie or in which year, but I do like this one. The movie is comedic so he's a bit silly, but he's still quite enjoyable. And for some reason he reminds me of Waluigi.... Still, silly guy.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

That's all for the movies. There are a bunch more that I've missed or that I can't find anymore so my list of opinions on them is not complete. But one day...

---

As for other medias, hm... I have a couple books that are just the original story by Hoffman and the retell by Duman (of which I don't have much to say) and the graphic novel by Natalie Andrewson.

He's just a li'l guy, silly kid but enjoyable.

---

Lastly, while there are no actual nutcracker based games, I do want to mention a few skins and characters I am aware of for the hell of it. I'm pretty sure I will be forgetting some but eh.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Terraria

Silly guy that speeeens. I wish I didn't have to kill them skgjfn.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Overwatch

As much as I now despise Overwatch for many reasons, I still love Zenyatta's nutcracker skin to death. Look at this silly guy. Definitely my favorite skin in the game.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Saints Row IV

SR4 had a Christmas themed DLC, and among all the xmas reskins of the enemies, one was the terminator-like enemies being turned into Nutcrackers. And their design look so sick.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Fortnite

I don't play Fortnite, but I do have to admit that the nutcracker guy looks neat. The crazy look fits the look quite well. If I would ever get in there (I doubt it but still), that would definitely be the skin I would use.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Lethal Company

I don't play LC neither but I've seen videos of the nutcracker enemy in action, and yeah he looks silly. I love how he moves around.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

That's all of the apparitions that I can think of. I'm also aware of the point-and-click game made by Big Fish Games, but I have not played it myself. I really should do that one day...

---

Aaaaaand that's a wrap. I'm definitely forgetting a nutboi or two somewhere but these are all the ones I can think of at the top of my head that are officially published and all.

If we start talking about folks in social medias I've come to know over the years... I'm gonna be here for 3 months trying to talk about them dkjfgn

Well, hope you enjoyed this personal spiraling into nut madness :V

#nutcracker #the nutcracker

[magmaaqua]

HARDENSHIPPING: A PRIMER

you’ve probably heard of hardenshipping before. even if you’re new to pokémon, the posts about maxie and archie’s hardly ambiguous relationship have probably crossed your dash before. but just who are these two old men? and how does one find out more about them? can one even get into a ship from a game that’s almost twenty years old now? (yes! please do! there will always be at least a couple people still enjoying the ship, and what with the streams of new content constantly coming out and being pulled away almost immediately, it’s a real breather to take a look back at the things that’ve come out in the past.)

the key players

hardenshipping is the ship between maxie, the leader of team magma, and archie, the leader of team aqua. they debuted in pokémon ruby and sapphire in 2003, with maxie starring as the villain of the first game, and archie starring as the villain of the latter. maxie’s goals as the leader of team magma are to expand the landmass of the world – making more room for growth and development by the humans that live there. archie, meanwhile, desires the opposite – as the leader of team aqua, archie’s sights are set on the ocean. he wants to engulf the world with water, making more room for the pokémon that dwell beneath the hoenn region’s vast seas. while in ruby and sapphire, the team not cast as the villain works as your ally, the enhanced emerald casts them both as villains and you as the intermediary.

in the remakes, omega ruby and alpha sapphire, maxie and archie’s roles are upped to eleven. while in the original games, maxie and archie were somewhat similar in terms of personality (even using the same dialogue at times), the remakes gave them more distinct personalities and loads more lore. maxie became more of a calculating, cold character – a professional with a short temper and no mercy when it comes to fighting you. on the other hand, archie’s love for the sea and pirate persona gained prominence, and although his goals are still those of a supervillain, he treats you more as a rival, even calling you a little scamp with a big grin on his face. we learn more about their backstories as well – maxie and archie used to be on the same team once upon a time, and both end up harboring a desire to make things right with one another by the end of the game. even seemingly aloof maxie keeps a telltale boat model in his hideout, with not a speck of dust to be found on it. between archie talking about maxie’s bony backside and the soft song that plays as they reconcile, there’s ample room to think that yeah, there’s definitely something going on between these two.

why are they called that?

pokémon ship names have been written differently than your typical name-fusion ship name for a while, and often the first part of the ship name will have something to do with the characters involved. (for example, jessie and james from the anime are called rocketshipping.) when lava meets water, it hardens. hence, hardenshipping. magma and aqua.

are they canon?

depends on what you mean by canon. the heart-shaped valentines’ card posted circa 2016 by the pokémon official twitter (complete with cards called “maxie’s hidden ball trick” and “archie’s ace in the hole”) certainly leaves little to the imagination. you don’t have to consider them canon, of course, but it’s safe to say there’s at least a bit of evidence pointing directly at the idea.

how do i play the games?

i would personally recommend oras first, but the original games can very easily be emulated by looking up roms and a gba emulator online (i remember there being a post with pokémon emulation resources going around a while back, so i’ll add that on if i find it). if you have a 3ds and a friend who’ll lend you a copy, you could play oras like that, but although you can find the games for their original sales price online, you can also easily watch a playthrough without commentary on youtube (there are TONS) if you can’t or are just looking to catch the story bits. (i’m not an expert on 3ds emulation, but that’s always a supported option, too. it’s a bit trickier than gba emulation but it works.) the game’s about four and a half hours through and well worth it, especially for free.

what about other stuff?

there are lots of different iterations of canon when it comes to pokémon. maxie and archie come back in ultra sun and ultra moon as their ruby and sapphire selves, pulled forward from a timeline where their plans succeeded. the manga takes a darker turn with their characters, and although i’m not personally a fan, it might be up your alley if you prefer your villains less …supervillain (and your enemies to lovers heavy on the enemies part.) i haven’t watched much of the rse anime but while it hasn’t followed the game characterization for characters like cyrus too closely, it’s always an entertaining watch. and sometimes people post screenshots from the mobile game, but i suggest looking up those on youtube as well, as they’re not too long nor hard to find. the mobile game and usum are tied to/inspired by game canon more directly, but the manga and anime are their own separate interpretations, and not generally considered part of the main “game” canon.

tldr: these two are really great! consider them if you've got the time!

#txt #pokemon #pokemon rse #pokemon oras #hardenshipping #magma leader maxie #aqua leader archie #pokemon omega ruby #pokemon alpha sapphire

[xiaq]

What was your relationship with HP in your childhood and what did it mean to you?

Warning: long answer is long.

I read the first HP book when I was 10. It felt like coming home. I was a deeply awkward, anxious kid dealing with bullying at school. I felt wrong and out of place and like everyone except for me had a manual for how they were supposed to navigate life; without the manual I was certain I would never catch up.

Books were a fucking haven. And THIS book. This book was about a kid that I empathized with so much. Except he's bullied and feels out of place because he IS out place. He's meant to be somewhere better, with people like him, who (for the most part) treat him kindly and with respect. And suddenly he's able to make friends and excel at his studies, and he settles into this fantastic world where he fits, and he's bright and likable and he has a purpose. It was just. God, it was everything I wanted for myself. AND there was magic and a train and a cool castle.

I think the first two books were already out when I started reading and I read the rest as they were released (re-reading them all multiple times in between). The friends I did manage to make also adored the books. I went from "playing Harry Potter" on the playground to writing fanfic to going to midnight book releases and meeting up with friends to see the movies as they started coming out. The final book came out shortly after I started high school, and the final movie came out when I was in college. I went to that midnight showing with a good portion of my friends and we all cried like babies at the end. Because it was over. This thing that had sustained us for so long. This thing that marked our childhoods.

You have to understand that Harry Potter-related expectation was a constant for the majority of my life. Since I was in elementary school there was always a new book to look forward to every year or so. And when the book series was completed, there was the next movie to look forward to. And then it was over (and with such an unsatisfying epilogue). That's when I really got involved in fandom (outside the fic I wrote amongst friends in a the group journal we kept and passed back and forth during studyhall, ofc). And fandom was the most accepting, glorious, place for an anxious queer kid just starting to come out of her shell as college afforded her the freedom to realize that maybe the very narrow (private Christian school k-12) concept of normalcy she'd been afforded until that point wasn't entirely accurate. And it continued to be glorious. I went to cons and got merch and put my House in my online dating profile and 3D printed custom HP cookie cutters and joked about having a HP themed wedding some day and my friends and I loved our nerdy little world that made us happy. Until Joanne ruined it.

And I'm honestly not trying to be dramatic, but when something has been so intrinsic to your life and your social circle and even, to an extent, part of your identify, it's fucking devastating when you find out the creator of that thing is a bigot and actively using her platform to target people you love. I stopped supporting her (buying books/movies/merch etc.) a couple years back, and I was content in embracing the concept of Death of the Author (or, as I've previously termed it, "we've killed the author and are now rifling through her stuff to keep the good bits and throw out the bad"). But now, in light of her continued escalations and the recent TV series announcement, and the conversations I've been having with friends (particularly Jewish and trans friends), I do mean that the very concept of Harry Potter is ruined for me. My, now decades, of nostalgia just...aren't enough to supersede what feels like an irresponsible attachment. Before, I wanted HP's social presence to live on in spite of and without JK Rowling. Now, it's becoming more and more apparent that the entertainment industry is going to squeeze as much money out of the HP world as possible which will, by extension, continue to give her a platform and money with which to actively support her shitty dogma.

So. Here I am, too sad to pick up my HP books for my annual summer re-read, or start the new fic a writer I love has just posted or open the document to work on my own HP fic. Which is not at all a condemnation of folks in fandom who ARE able to keep reading and creating and loving the world while thumbing their nose at her. I just can't right now.

So I'm stepping back and blocking the tags and ignoring the show and trying to let other worlds consume me.

Anyway. That's what it meant to me. Sorry for the tiny violin moment but your ask made me sit down and confront the fact that I'm dealing with an extremely weird sort of grief I haven't ever encountered before.

#I'll update SSS tomorrow and put it on haitus #sorry for folks following me for HP stuff #I'd love to come back some day #the tiniest of violins #jk rowling #harry potter #sigh

[stardustizuku]

Why Miraculous LadyBug Is the Worst Thing To Happen To Magical Girl Genre in All Its History.

It would be easy to sit here and tell you all the logical reasons why Ladybug is a bad show. It has horrible pacing, it has low stakes, repetitive episodes, and a dialogue that is cringe worthy enough to get its own tiktok sound.

But saying that, would be beating a dead horse at this point. Everyone knows this show is a bunch of wasted potential, only made worse by a director who keeps thinking he created gold, when in fact he messed up in a lot of areas – particularly the fact that he’s a grown man who thinks he knows what little girls want.

I’m not here for that.

Particularly, because I can be quite forgiving to shows like this. I mean, they’re kids' shows! Meant for little girls, and I haven’t been one for a few years now. But I still enjoy them.

Why? Well, cause I’m a massive fan of Magical Girl animes. I love the glitter, the sparkles, the silly adventures with friends, and the transformation sequences! Even with all its flaws, I really like them. So, stories or shows that borrow from them, get a pass in all these things. 

I mean, I have fun re-watching WINX Club, I love Star Vs The Forces of Evil despite its flaws. Steven Universe holds a deep place in my heart and She-Ra is…She-Ra is in its very own league of how amazing it is.

So, no. Be it a very dumb show or a very smart one, I can have fun. It’s very rare when a show with, you know, glitter, girly stuff and animals CAN’T hold my attention.

But, well, MLB failed at that.

It’s just, not a good show.

I mean, it could be. But the age demographic would need to drop several, several age groups just to be barely watchable – and even then, I seriously doubt that it would be good for young girls to watch it. The lessons it teaches are concerning, to say the least.

And at this point, you may be thinking,

"Why do you care so much about this show? It’s dumb and you’ve acknowledged it treats its demographic as toddlers. Why do you care so much?"

Well, because I've been here... for a very, very long time.

Listen, I started watching Miraculous Ladybug, back when I was in high school. Maybe a bit old, but, hey, a lot of unique cartoons came out around that time. (Star Vs, Steven Universe, etc). So, I was hopeful. Really hopeful.

Mainly, because I was here before it EVEN premiered. I remember it. The original PV was 2D animated and it had this vague Princess Tutu vibes that JUST I couldn’t resist. It was clear as day that it borrowed a lot of its inspiration from magical girls from the 90's, probably even 80's.

The premise looked similar enough to Kaito Jeanne, and Kaito St. Tail for me to draw those conclusions.

It had a dynamic very similar to Princess Tutu and seemed like a mix of silly and dark like that one was.

To be honest, I could even see hints of Sugar Sugar Rune with Pierre and Felix.

Not to mention, the animation was beautiful.

I will never, never forget that scene with Chat looking at Ladybug starry-eyed under the Paris Moonlight. That was so beautiful, a genuine touch of romance that rang so similar to the Magical Girl animes I grew up with.

I was thrilled, I was excited. I wanted this show to succeed, before even the premier had dropped.

This is all to say -

I never came to this show with the intention for it to fail.

And I didn’t expect nor want it to be ground-breaking or a giant of the genre. I just hoped I could have a fun time.

I didn't want subversions, I didn't want it to be dark, or deep. All I wanted, was sparkles, fun and a good time.

So, when it first aired, I tried to stay positive. I tried to like it, even when it had all these massive red flags.

I’ve never been a big fan of 3D animation, and especially not how it’s used in Magical Girl animes. (We all know the disaster the first season of Sailor Moon Crystal was).

But I swallowed it down.

The characters were different from the original PV

But I swallowed it down.

The background scenery was bland and generic and hardly felt unique.

But I swallowed it down.

I was here since day 1. I was here when Stormy Weather premiered. I was here before many of you were, and

I swallowed it all down.

Because I really, really wanted this to be good.

And I really thought it would.

But things should have been made clear, when they fucked up the one thing they shouldn't. The one thing that held this all together. The one thing that kept me here even as everything was burning to the ground, and I was too naive to realize it.

They fucked up the thing that started all this, to begin with.

MasterList >> NEXT

#miraculous ladybug #MLB #mlb salt #marinette dupain cheng #ml ladybug

[inksandpensblog]

The Box

I'm finally watching the episode! These are my stream-of-consciousness thoughts through my initial viewing. This isn't thought-out refined analysis, these are just the thoughts as I have them the moment they appear in my head.

They're getting better at the 3d running/walking animation.

Green being the one to notice details, like in The Village.

Civilization!

Green only drew one but then he just has three more? Cartoon magic or stickfigure magic? Or just saving time on a meta level.

This looks like a nice little toh that's a white-filled head, they're ALL white-filled heads (all look like freehanded circles though)

For a given value of "white," I guess, but they're all very light colors. And they all have head accessories. Interesting...

Okay it's kinda funny that nobody would talk to them and the truck is right there. Did they think the color quartet were giving handouts or something? None of them stopped to listen long enough XD

Ooh, so these are some kind of simulation chambers? Looks like they've simulated a desktop art program.

Hmm, so Orange's ability to just have whatever he wants manifest into existence with the stroke of a pencil is unique to him; these guys try the same motions and all they get are regular lines. (Also if Orange can do all that outside then why are they doing these experiments in the simulation chamber? Is it just for safety or can they not do it outside? Shady could use his toolbar outside just fine...)

Orange's drawings were alive, almost from the first line it seems. Before they even took their shape. These ones aren't.

I don't like how coldly they're treating my boy :(

you.

and then they don't even interact?? okay, so...Victim is pretty single-mindedly focused on whatever is about to happen with Chosen, and whatever it is doesn't involve Orange so Orange is irrelevant to him rn. Why bind him then? Where's he going? :(

he went in. by himself. I'm...not sure how to feel about that. surprised? it's not like the thing had a door. though looking at that control-display, it does look like there's something within the chamber itself that's also containing Chosen. Or is that just the bounding box? I think it's a bounding box actually. So this is also a simulation chamber. (this is giving me all sorts of questions about how the artboard recognizes the toolbar icons as graphics while the tools still retain their functions as tools and I'm gonna stop before I spiral)

oh, it did have a door

WAITAMINUTE why is Victim's bounding box 2d and Chosen's 3d???

...oh. so...Chosen's fire registers as a separate graphic from him, then. good to know??

wait what the- just altering the visual is enough to affect his ability in producing that power??

why did we just cut to the hunter sharpening their spear? don't like that. not while you're stealing all my boy's natural defenses.

that one lingering second after Chosen's lasers die out but before he turns around to face Victim is haunting. Bro's been trapped and depowered again.

Okay nitpick but Victim's head isn't changing shape every frame and it's driving me up the wall. Did he have some work done between the last installment and this one?

I can't tell if I'm supposed to laugh or not at Chosen just standing there and tanking all of Victim's hits, and honestly I like that I can't tell, the dissonance is fun. But putting that aside...Chosen just let the dude have at him like it was no big deal. He didn't actually fight back until he decided he'd had enough. I suppose he could've just been confused about why this guy was attacking him...but he doesn't even block or dodge. He doesn't defend himself, his hands aren't even up, he's not even really in a fighting stance, and it takes him a bit to even retaliate. Even after the first one, his body language is just "bruh why." Which. Is an interesting attitude to have when he's trapped and depowered and being punched by a stranger.

Chosen finally counters, and it cuts to the control panel outside, looks like they're about to raise some setting. I've gotta take a break for a meeting, here's my thought: Victim never left the art program, in AvA1. In a very literal sense, he spent his whole life in it. It's where he found all the things that enabled him to fight back. In a weird way, it makes sense that this is where he's powerful, that this is where he's comfortable fighting. (and I know my personal headcanons are about to get blown outta the water but I'm really glad that I was on the right track in regard to this idea. though something I hadn't ever imagined was that he'd rely on other people to supply those advantages instead of obtaining them himself)

Meeting over, back to the episode! (I wonder if the title of this episode refers to the white chamber Chosen is in or the actual bounding box. Given that the mere appearance of a bounding box in Wanted was enough for many of us to clue in to Victim's involvement, even before he appeared in-person at the end of the episode, I'm leaning that direction. Amazing that it only happened once in the series before Wanted and it was already enough of a legacy to make him recognizable. I'm now realizing that in AvA2 the first thing Chosen did even before attacking the cursor was destroy the bounding box. Also realizing that the bounding boxes in this chamber aren't visible, unlike in the test-chambers in the previous scenes.)

interesting...each of Vicitm's limbs are separate graphics with their own bounding boxes, which is how they looked in the Bloop animation course that Alan made, but it isn't how he was in AvA1. Though he was recognized as a single graphic just a few scenes ago, so that might not mean anything.

why, stop, dude we get it you're strong now you've proved your point stop beating him up-

oh good Chosen's still got his own strength, he's fighting ba- what- okay what, can't take what you dish out??

Ooh, I don't think we've seen Chosen actually throw fire like that (instead of just blasting and halting blasts) since the early episodes.

okay, nice to know that Victim actually can dodge on his own

...don't like how little time it took Chosen to start feeling exhaustion...

...don't like how much trepidation the lasso is giving me. that feels like one of the crueler things to use against Chosen; not because we've seen it used against him before (only Victim and Orange have used it themselves, and only Victim has had it used against him, and good grief Orange and Chosen still don't know how Victim is connected to Alan-) but just because...I really don't want him bound and leashed again, he's been through enough of that. still, I had predicted that we'd see him using the lasso at some point in AvA6. I'm not happy I was right. (man, back before we knew Victim would make a proper return to the series I used to love the idea of him using it again. it's like the clearest example of him outwitting the animator and taking his tools for his own use.)

NOT THE NECK- they've never gone there, I don't like this-

oh what they actually- I was not expecting that. whips haven't appeared in the series before. oh I really don't like this.

God he's crawling back- why-

I had to pause. either the group outside just did something with the controls that Victim wasn't anticipating, or...Chosen felt threatened enough to turn his powers on himself and encase himself in ice as a defense. fuck. someone get him out of there. no flight, can't fight, man was pushed far enough he literally resorted to freeze. The Chosen One. I don't think that's ever happened before.

Fuck, that's just too much, I can't even bring myself to feel excited about seeing the duplicates again. though it is good to know that my headcanon about him needing to be in an art program in order to duplicate himself ended up being accurate. we'll see if my headcanon about it being one Victim with five bodies (as opposed to being five Victims) holds up. if they even have a way to show any difference.

[sighs, pulls AvA1 up in another tab] yep, they're all there. lasso, hammer, extended thumbtack (though it doesn't look like a thumbtack here, which is interesting), whatever that chain-accordion thing is, and the ninja star. why are you doing this? man literally froze himself immobile to get you to stop torturing him, just leave him be.

...haHAHAHA! Oh that felt good, that made me smile. Hopefully this means Chosen has recuperated a bit.

the animation of Victim on fire was so nice I completely missed Chosen breaking the ice XD going back to catch that made me realize that the other Victim duplicates literally just...stood and watched the one burning...

don't let yourself get backed into a corner-

OH he escaped the hold, nice-

I didn't realize until the lasso came back that he'd gotten rid of it when he broke the ice :( but before that he actually uses his fire-breath again, which is always nice to see. interesting to see it concentrated in a thin stream instead of just roaring out like usual.

oh yikes why- him on fire-

...don't do it, man...

OH HE OWNED THAT, LET'S GO!!! Great thinking, Chosen! (heh, nothing about this situation remotely resembles that time Chosen grabbed the cursor and forced it to click him free, but I was reminded of it nonetheless. something about the tool being turned against the user, but in such a different way than Victim does it.)

OH HE- ...oh...I was gonna say oh he learned, he adapted enough that he predicted them flipping his fire and he used that- but then they just nullified it immediately...

Victim don't snap the rope like that, we don't need any more implications we already know you're planning to put him in a world of hurt, why can't you just leave him alone now, what are you trying to prove

hh, back to Orange I guess...

MATH SPOTTED, MATH SPOTTED-

oh! they're bringing him to the- okay that makes sense, if it only works when he does it then obviously the next step to figuring it out is gonna involve him.

wait was he- could he not move when the bounding box was picked up?? (also neat that he immediately got worried once he realized he's in a bounding box, dunno if that's because of what happened in the last episode or if it's just because...he spends a lot of time in an art program so he'd naturally be familiar with what they can do and what it means to be inside one)

...well, nice that they at least get his attention before picking him up

oh now you're being friendly, sure. yeah Orange ain't having it.

okay, [picks up pencil] [instant notetaking] was funny XD

aaw, it's swimming around him

oh it knows what the eraser means

...wait it wasn't an electric eel in the last episode-

hexagons- and the power flickered

okay Orange stumbling around trying to stay out of its way makes it clear that he isn't controlling this thing once he's finished drawing it, it's acting on its own. it...it really feels distressed.

hah, they're all cowering. losers.

oh, back to this.

...did you have to make it so personal, Victim?

a chair

...okay not sure why that happened, could Chosen not just...lean forward? I rewound to watch it again and realized he's exhausted again after the slow-mo ends (is that from the slow-mo itself or just his exertion from the fight before the slow-mo?) and he...doesn't even struggle when Victim lifts him by hand with a lasso to the neck. is...is he just ragdolling now? is he at the point where that's his best option for minimizing conflict?

...he is. he's ragdolling. fuck. (damn you cc!Alan for introducing ragdolling in a comedic short-)

...no? no what?? no, he doesn't know anything about the animator? (which we know isn't true, but why would he deny that?) or no, he isn't going to answer?

don't tie him up, please...

oh now he starts struggling?

...back to ragdolling. good grief, the way they animate his legs just swinging even though they can still touch the floor...

...heh, I appreciate his spirit, especially at this point, but...Chosen you kinda just put yourself in a worse position.

...oh, what is that? I don't think we've seen anything like that before. It's got the floppy disk that's used as the "save" icon in many applications, but it looks kinda like a headset.

...a VR headset specifically, I guess.

OH WHAT- okay rad animation, but WHAT

...oh fuck, I've always wondered if there was a way to see the data that would be a stick's memory. FUCK what are they gonna use this for

wait they're bring Orange here?! Or are they just passing on their way back to the cell? but why are they going back to the cell, was the eel too much for them??

...wait, what? signal lost, I assume because Chosen dislodged it enough to disconnect, and then...instead of picking up where it left off it jumps all the way back to Showdown?? was...was Showdown just on Chosen's mind? or is this the memory of him recalling it right before flying to alanspc to entreat Orange's aid? ...or...are memories from beyond the sky-barrier not compatible? that doesn't make sense...

what's with everyone's reactions to Second's powers?

...I forgot Orange's cell is in here. whoops.

oh this is how he finds out??

hands first ("I did that??") and then his eyes ("Chosen was right??")

...and of course. I expected they'd lock him down with extra security as soon as they realized, but. poor guy.

(dammit I purposefully refrained from making a "dark mode" joke, you didn't have to go and put it on the damn control screen)

...and even after that (which, judging by Victim's reaction, even he hadn't known about Second's powers), the animator is still Victim's priority.

oh, this isn't just any clip of the cursor's involvement in Showdown, this is specifically while Yellow was rendering the cursor in.

and then they immediately pan to Yellow which means that observation is actually gonna be relevant, FUCK-

OH FUCK THE WANTED POSTERS

("earnings growth," so they actually do have a business element to them)

aaand the security cameras caught them peeking out of the truck, they literally just started printing the posters and they've already located Yellow-

that fight is mesmerizing. we haven't seen one like this before, as far as direction and setting. plus it's really interesting to see how the four respond. I might look deeper into that later. also that was a cool transition.

and Yellow is dragged off. The story has never had one of the quartet singled out in-universe by the plot like this before. they aren't even apprehending the others.

...of all the sticks to have a lighter, I never thought it would be Victim.

to be continued. good grief.

I have to eat before work so I'll think on all this and say more later.

#animator vs animation #ava the box #animator vs animation spoilers #ava6 spoilers #ava 6 spoilers

[imnotoverlyobsessive]

Don’t Blame My English Blood For This American Heartache

Info, author’s note, etc

AO3 info prologue one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve

All my work is 18.

Summary: Seraphine Malfoy had been raised in California by her Squib parents with no knowledge of her family's magical heritage, though she has received lessons from a local family. When she discovers she’s the sole heir to the Malfoy family, she leaves for England to step into that role. She can handle the balls and the responsibilities and her new family members. The only thing that throws her completely off is the appearance of Death Eater turned war hero Regulus Black, who, despite being ridiculously full of himself, is far too good looking, charming—and far too persistent—for her own good.

Author’s Note:

So you may or may not be aware of this already, but I’ve been working on this for awhile. It’s not done yet, I’m just posting it in honor of Sera’s birthday, which is today. I’m currently working on chapter nine, and I suspect I’ll need at least another three. I’ll be posting every other day, I figure. Also part of the fun of writing this for me was seeing how much stuff I could put in there that would piss off JKR. So the OC is Jewish (her parents converted prior to her birth), and if anybody @s me about how I wrote it incorrectly (I don’t think I did, though) please know that I’m writing her growing up Jewish based how I grew up. You don’t need any understanding of Judaism in order to read the fic, I don’t think. Her best friend is a trans woman, too, which is fun. The trans woman in question is based on my irl best friend, who worked closely with me on “her” character.

Other things to note:

I play it fast and loose with the lore; I change what I don’t like and treat canon as fic inspo. I have indeed read the books, I’ve done tons of research, and I have a family tree made for the fic, same as I always do. I also have every outfit I describe of Sera’s as well as 3D tours of most of the houses described.

Sera was raised entirely separate from Wizarding society, British or US. She has no knowledge of it. This means she’ll use different words for things and spells (relocate instead of apparate, blue animal instead of patronus, that kind of thing). If something seems a little bit odd to you, chances are I explain it later.

Sera does not use a wand. She is not necessarily more powerful than your average witch, it’s just that she learned without one. You may be aware that canonically, Native American witches and wizards (Sera learns from one such family) didn’t use wands, and supposedly their magic was less powerful. I think that’s stupid. If a wand is a lightning rod, that doesn’t mean the lightning isn’t powerful outside of it, it’s just not as concentrated. As a result, the way Sera learned was without a wand but with more force behind each spell. She also learned in Awaswas, the native language of the Uypi tribe (historically they were a tribe living in the Santa Cruz mountains of Northern California, but unfortunately they are extinct now. However, I figure there’s no reason that magical families wouldn’t have been just fine against the colonizers), but she uses nonverbal magic almost exclusively now.

I think that’s everything. If you have any questions, please lmk.

Tag list:

@ellamaianderson @shika1200 @blackqueenstarseed1 @gatoenlaciudad @esmaada @mariaelizabeth21-blog1 @softhecreator @timolaurence @timmymyluv @oddlyenoughiamweird @leecrunchybones @s-we-e-t-t-ea @almostg @leespparker @bubblebuttwade @glizzymcguirex @starberry-cake

To be added, please ask 💗

#my writing #fanfiction #fanfic #fanfics #Harry Potter #mauraders #mauraders era #Regulus black #regulus arcturus black #regulus deserved better #regulus x you #regulus x y/n #regulus x reader #regulus black x female reader #regulus black x y/n #regulus black x reader #regulus black x you #original character #original female character #ofc #fem! OC #fem! of #OC #Regulus x original character #Regulus black x original character #Regulus x original female character #Regulus black x original female character #regulus x oc #regulus black x oc #regulus black smut

[celsmedia]

My favourite Disney movie ౨ৎ

A review written by Cel

I finally decided to write my love and thoughts about this movie after never finding enough words for it. Tangled is the first 3D animated Disney movie with a disney princess and was their animated studios' 50th movie. It is loosely based on the german fairytale "Rapunzel" by the brothers Grimm from the early 1800s. Some of Disney's previous disney princess movies had also been based on the brothers Grimm fairytales. As we can see in the animated movie we're introduced to this kingdom called Corona, this place is based on the german culture and architecture along with some characters' names. The music is written and composed by the infamous Alan Menken, whom I've admired his work for as long as I can remember, he has composed for Disney multiple times such as the soundtrack for The Little Mermaid. I officially became a fan of him earlier last year when I started watching Tangled's sequel series "Rapunzel's tangled adventure" where he had also composed the music, I definitely recommend watching it if you really enjoyed the movie. One would assume it is some type of spin-off but surprisingly it connects with all the details from the original movie.

To start off with my love for this: I was never a big fan of this movie as a little kid as I am right now. Of course I knew all the words to the songs and the storyline, but I was more of a Cinderella and Frozen kid. Even so, this movie was still on repeat on my family's TV most of my childhood and I safely assume the DVD got ruined because of how much it played.

Tangled is my favourite Disney movie and have been for a very long time. I don't remember when it really got to me, but it was always a comfort movie I could watch all the time if I felt bored or didn't have any movie choices in mind. After watching it atleast once a month (unaware of the amount of rewatches), I felt emotionally attached to it and I knew I could relate to Rapunzel. She is a witty, creative, and curious 18 yr old girl who had been trapped in a tower for most of her life without knowing the true meaning about it. My favourite relatable thing about her is the amount of hobbies she mentions in "When will my life begin?". Disney did really well showing domestic abuse and passive aggression from mother Gothel, us as the viewers already know that she's the bad guy in the story but Rapunzel doesn't which makes her relationship with her feel so natural. Her realisation is one of my favourite scenes because of the recollection of her early memories. I feel the intention of this was to help young children who watches it would maybe realise if they are actually being treated badly and neglected. Of course a young kid wouldn't pick up the bits and pieces that fast but it is easy for someone to think their treatment and relationship with their parents are natural which is the same case with Rapunzel.

Now with Rapunzel's romance that I am very fond of. If you really think about the time Rapunzel and Eugene spent together and the ending of the movie, it is quite weird how they just got married already. They met a day before her 18th birthday, he was on the run and she wanted to see the "floating lights". The fact that Eugene was canonically 26 years old in the movie which can seem pretty weird, but in the series they reveal he was 23 as he turns 26 at the end of the last season. I love how they didn't make them flirty at the start of their friendship which obviously would be natural for two strangers and especially for a girl who's never talked to another human being other than her mother. Flynn Rider, the name Eugene went by, was not happy with this trip he had to do if he wanted his satchel back. It's just wholesome to watch them progress throughout the movie and the way their feelings begins to develop. I like to think Rapunzel admired him from the start, as Eugene fell for her later on. If their relationship had a trope I would definitely say the "she fell first, but he fell harder" trope. In the sequel series, they start the story some months (i think) after Rapunzel returned to her real parents. But she and Eugene hasn't been married yet, she actually said no first because she felt insecure and was still trying to be used to her new life. Their relationship took years with complicated feelings and miscommunication which is one of the best parts of the series. Me personally would've said "yes" right away to Eugene. He is probably the most handsome and dare I say best Disney man. I mean they did put a group of women at the studio to work out his best design..

This is definitely the best animated movie among Disney for me, every scene is just satisfying to watch and it's like letting your brain rest for over an hour. They captured such beautiful moments in animation and perfected it so well with dialogue and music. One of my biggest dreams would be to watch this on a big screen with a live orchestra, and possibly Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi sing too.

I also want to address the live action of Tangled because of the current rumours about the castings. As far as I know, Disney hasn't fully confirmed that the live action is in the works and everything so far is just rumours or assumptions. Only a few days ago 1-2 articles had been found informing that Disney has reportedly casted Avantika Vandanapu and Milo Manheim as Rapunzel and Eugene. This caught a huge amount of attention and controversy on social media, and my biggest problem with this is how people actually believe it. I really thought we were past believing absolute everything we see on the internet, especially from websites we've never gotten information from. Because why would a website almost no one reads suddenly have Disney's thoughts of their cast? Worst is the people believing this and being racist about it. Avantika had never been a choice in my fancast for Rapunzel as she doesn't fit her description, but that does NOT mean she shouldn't be allowed to play her as there are plenty versions of white Rapunzels from before. The people using this casting to compare it with saying "Tiana/Moana should be played by a *white woman*" are who annoy me the most in this situation. I've had multiple arguments with different people the past couple of days because of stating how comparing those two are not fair and the inaccurate casting isn't the same difference. First of all: Tiana's appearance and storyline are based on her skin colour and culture as she's an afro-american woman from the 1920s in New Orleans. In parts of her movie her "background" even gets represented as a problem for her to achieve her dream, this movie is obviously made to represent our beautiful black people in the world. Shocked they didn't get a representation until 2009. Second: Moana is based FULLY on polynesian culture and through polynesian mythology, even her voice actor was encouraged to be a part of that. Auli'i Cravalho, her voice actor, is native Hawaiian and encourages their culture along with the music Lin Manuel Miranda wrote. At last: Comparing this rumoured Rapunzel casting to Tiana or Moana is wrong as her story isn't meant for representation of oppression and not based on her skin colour. Yes, it is loosely based on the brothers Grimm's fairytale which is German and the movie does show German details in the story but things will always change and they already are. Why not let today's children grow up with beautiful characters that can let them feel as included as every white person can with the previous characters? I can say this has never been a problem to me growing up even though none of the disney princesses looked like me, it still makes children aware of it at some point and when I realised I didn't have a disney princess that looked or was based remotely on people like ME, I began hoping Disney would make a south-east Asian princess. That's why I agree that Disney should start making new disney princess movies representing more people instead of not having an accurate casting for the character but honestly, Rapunzel's SKIN colour is not that relevant to her story at all. Anyway, my fancast for Tangled has always been Meg Donnelly and Milo Manheim after watching the Zombies movies. They have great chemistry and both of them sing perfectly! I'm excited to see how this live action movie will turn out, after Halle Bailey's "The Little Mermaid" I hope it will be as amazing.

My love for Tangled is endless but to finish my review I want to thank you for reading all the way down here. If I was only allowed to watch one movie the rest of my life I might have chosen this or a 2-3 hour long just to be entertained longer. The amount of times I've watched this has made me able to recite most of the scenes and the whole film is engraved to my mind. I think if I had enough time and peace I could literally sit still and watch the movie scene by scene in my mind. Again, thank you for reading!

Written and edited by Cel

05/04/2024 Friday.

#film review #tangled #rapunzel #flynn rider #eugene fitzherbert #tangled review #movies #letterboxd #digital journal #girlblogging #movie review #cinema #tangled live action #disney #disney movies #review

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Is It Really That Bad?

When it comes to infamous animated films, few are treated with quite as much revulsion as Mars Needs Moms. Based off of Bloom County creator Berkley Breathed’s storybook, brought to life by ImageMovers Digital (who created The Polar Express, that...beloved?… Christmas classic), distributed by Disney, and produced by Robert Zemeckis, the film really had the deck stacked in its favor… and yet, it quite infamously fumbled.

It released to become the 12th worst opening for any film in three thousand or more theaters, netting only $6 million on debut, and then proceeded to only gross $39 million dollars worldwide—and that’s including 3D theaters. With a budget of over $150 million, this cause a net loss of over $110 million dollars, which unsurprisingly led Disney to cut their losses and shut down ImageMovers Digital… which is what I would really rather say, but the depressing fact is that Disney nuked the studio before the movie even came out, as if they knew they had a massive bomb on their hand and wanted to punish the studio ahead of time.

As divisive as the studio’s animation was, it’s never really fun seeing an animation studio get scrapped like that. With its death, we lost some interesting film concepts, such as a remake of Yellow Submarine (which would have probably been even trippier with the motion capture animation), Roger Rabbit sequel, and a kaiju throwback film by Michael “Trick ‘r Treat” Dougherty called Calling All Robots. Say what you will about the studio’s output, but it’s genuinely a damn shame these ideas never came to fruition.

Over the years, just about every animation critic worth their salt has given this movie shit, from Mr Enter to the Nostalgia Critic, and Disney has largely seen fit to sweep this under the rug and pretend it never happened. But I can’t do that, can I? Y’all voted for me to watch this for the first time over a decade after it came out, and see if it’s really that bad. Did this movie manage to prove far better than its infamous reputation, or am I gonna have to put myself in a Martian memory extractor?

THE GOOD

Milo is actually pretty believable as a kid. I know some people find this character really annoying, or bratty, or obnoxious, but… that’s just how kids are. He’s a little bit of a shit and doesn’t understand the gravity of things he says sometimes, but he has a good heart and when it gets down to it he does all he can to save his mom. Like he’s just a child in need of harsh life lessons, typical of any fantastical family film. In a movie brimming with awful characters, he’s easily the least worst. Joan Cusack as the mom is pretty good, getting some funny line deliveries, and I’m sure she’s made someone’s list of “Hottest Animated MILFs.”

I think the core ideas behind the Martian society are really fascinating. Here we have a fascist, sexist dystopia. Every quarter of a century children are hatched, and females are passed off to nanny-robots to be raised while males are tossed down the garbage chutes to become feral, hairy wild men. The nanny-bots are programmed with the memories of abducted human women, memories which are forcibly extracted in a very fatal process. The women are then made to serve as the enforcers of the fascist regime, ruled over by an aging ruler who governs with an iron fist and doesn’t accept deviance from her desires, desires stemming from a deranged belief she is bettering society with her straw feminist viewpoints. On paper, it’s all very deep, dark, and intriguing.

The operating phrase, of course, being “on paper.”

THE BAD

Let me just get this out of the way: The animation is awkward, uncanny, and unpleasant. This is not a new or interesting observation, so I just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, though it does feed into a few other issues, particularly the design of Ki.

Ki is just absolutely aggressively female in her design. Like, she’s pink, she has those curvy hips, she’s just really in your face about being a girl Martian. And yeah, the girls are the ones we see a lot of because of how the society is structured, but she’s so glaringly feminine it’s kind of obnoxious. Like she’s clearly given this overly polished design because she’s the beautiful, heroic lead character; other Martians do not look nearly as pleasant as she does. That’s not even getting into the obnoxious decision to have her speak in outdated hippie slang, a decision that’s about as pleasant as jamming splinters under your fingernails.

She’s not even the most annoying character, though. That would be Gribble, played by Dan Fogler, the fat dude from Fantastic Beasts. You’d think that because he was the best part of those flaccid spinoffs he’d be the best part of this movie, but you’d be absolutely wrong. He’s every annoying comic relief trope smashed into one incredibly obnoxious character, and considering almost no one else in this movie is likable at all he really sticks out as being unpleasantly annoying. It doesn’t help that the single moment they try and give him depth—when he recounts to Milo the harrowing experience of watching his mother die as her memories were extracted, so close to saving her and yet so far—is immediately followed by Ki showing up and Fortnite dancing and spitting out some more of her obnoxious slang.

And that right there really highlights what’s wrong with this movie: It is tonally inconsistent to an absurd degree. With a title like “Mars Needs Moms” and the general atmosphere of the opening as well as the marketing really lead you to believe this will be a simple, silly family comedy where a kid learns to appreciate his parents a la Jimmy Neutron. But then we get into the Martian dystopia, the explicit mass murder of moms, the grim visuals, the constant peril, and it’s pretty obvious the film wants to be serious and say something as well… all while keeping the funny wisecracking fat guy mentor, the Fortnite dancing monkey Martian men, and the pink and perky alien hippie graffiti artist who loves to talk like she just stepped out of Woodstock. It’s not impossible to handle two wildly different tones in a film, but to say this movie bungles it is an understatement; it ultimately causes the film to lack any sort of identity and just dissolves into an ugly mess of interesting ideas and confused writing that is impossible to take seriously.

IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?

The short answer? Yes, this movie is really, truly awful. But a short answer is pretty unsatisfying, isn’t it?

I was honestly, genuinely hoping going into this that the critics were wrong and maybe there was something to like here… and yeah, there were a couple of things I thought were done pretty decently, but overall the movie is just an incredibly sloppy and tonally inconsistent mess that never really settles into what it wants to be. It actually had me thinking about another movie while watching it, and that movie is The Guyver. While I’m saving a full review of that for when I bring back Michael After Midnight, the film had the same sort of wild tonal whiplash that Mars Needs Moms does, a sort of dissonance in the story where it can’t decide if it wants to be dark and edgy or lighthearted and goofy. But while I don’t think either film is particularly good, I think the fact I find The Guyver to be infinitely more valuable as a film highlights the strength of live action cinema over animation. Jarring tonal inconsistency is just so much easier to swallow when you don’t have to look at some of the ugliest animation you’ve ever seen, y’know?

Mars Needs Moms is honestly quite a bit worse than that score would suggest. This is definitely one of the worst animated movies ever made, unlike what happened with The Emoji Movie, I don’t think the overwhelming revulsion towards the film is over-exaggerated by much. Like, yes, this isn’t the worst movie in human history, nor even the worst animated movie, but the fact that it’s not only bad but bad enough to ruin an entire studio makes it kind of legendary in terms of badness. At least Sony Animation was able to put out the two best Spider-Man movies ever made after The Emoji Movie flopped; ImageMover Digital got no such second chance, and not only went under but dragged the entire motion capture animation style down with it. I think it tarnishing an entire style alongside everything else (and thus probably being partially responsible for the lack of a Tintin sequel) really seals the deal on this being a piece of shit.

I’d honestly drop this film into the low 2s at best. It’s a bottom 100 contender for sure, and it’s far worse than some of the movies on there. Gigli? This movie is way worse than that. Cats? That movie is way campier and has far funnier use of uncanny valley animation. The Room and Trolls 2? Those are both way too funny to be worse than Mars Needs Moms. Fucking Batman & Robin? That’s an actual solid movie, how is it rated lower than this? Hell, I’d even say The Emoji Movie is better, because at least it doesn’t hurt to look at.

The thing is, while I think it’s objectively awful, I can’t say I can personally muster up too much hate for it. It’s so confused tonally that it’s almost fascinating to watch. If you’re a bad movie connoisseur like I am or just generally fascinated by bombs of this magnitude, it’s worth a watch. But outside of that, this movie is just too messy to really find even a cult audience. So if you don’t fall into that weird niche of people who watch bad movies for some reason, don’t bother. You’re not really missing anything valuable.

#is it really that bad? #IIRTB #review #movie review #Mars Needs Moms #Disney #ImageMovers Digital #animation #animated movie

[ginnyrules27]

Okay so I saw 'Once Upon a Studio' yesterday and I mean...I did not ask to be punched in the gut with emotions Disney! Spoilers under the cut in case you haven't seen it yet

-First off, just the concept of the animation studio almost being like Night at the Musem where the pictures come alive was so much fun.

-TREASURE PLANET GOT ACKNOWLEDGED! I GOT TO SEE JIM IN HIS JACKET ON HIS SOLAR SURFER!

-Dodger with Vanellope in the candy racer was adorable!

-Hearing Peter Pan say 'Here we go!' felt so weird when it wasn't followed by Jack Sparrow saying 'We have our heading', those commercials were the pinnacle of my childhood

-Did I mention Treasure Planet?!

-The 2D and the 3D animations really melded well together, especially the scene where Moana's holding Flounder!

-There's an elevator gag that made me burst out laughing when I first saw it

-ROBIN WILLIAMS' VOICE AS GENIE! And no, it's not AI! Disney got permission from Robin Williams' estate to use outtakes from Aladdin for this.

-Milo Thatch getting ready in the men's bathroom with Gaston, Chicken Little, Prince John, the Headless Horseman, Thomas O'Malley, and Doc! Oh, and the Cheshire Cat!

-Antonio Madrigal happily making his way to the photo with Pascal, Cri-ki, Pua, and Meeko and saving Jaq and Gus from being eaten by a lizard-type thing (okay I haven't seen the Rescuers Down Under so I don't know all the characters by name lol) with some help from Pluto!

-Kristoff and Sven hanging out with Ryder!

-"Come on puppies, you're going to get nightmares" is Kristoff's only line and it's to the 15 Dalmatian puppies watching Night on Bald Mountain and yet I feel that's peek Akiho energy and it may find itself into one of my fics

-ROBIN HOOD AND LITTLE JOHN STEALING MONEY FROM SCROOGE AFTER THE PUPPIES KNOCKED HIM OVER!

-Pat Caroll's voice is the voice of Ursula and I'm loving the thought that the original voice actors stay the voices of these characters after their deaths

-Also what movie is the blue blobby thing from that's following Ursula?

-Also also why did Flounder need water but Ursula can walk around in her half octopus form?

-Can't have a Cinderella cameo without someone losing a shoe

-CINDERELLA HAS THE CORRECT COLOR FOR HER DRESS!

-"Eric, get your dog!" You can pry the fact that the princes are friends out of my cold dead hands!

-"Go Max go!" Aww, I love the fact that Cinderella can be goofy when she's not living with her abusive step family!

-The moment with Mickey and Walt's photo and 'Feed the Birds' in the background...yeah it's okay, I didn't need to do anything but cry for the next seven days

-Jeremy Irons as Scar!!

-"Make it pink" "Make it blue" was such a good bit

-The classic Goofy scream!

-STITCH!

-All of them coming to sing When You Wish Upon a Star...Mirabel playing with Scat Cat, Belle singing with Beast, James Woods as Hades' voice, Jodie Benson reprising the voice of Ariel...just all of it!

-Snow White bringing Asha from Wish to stand next to her with Mulan on the other side and characters from Disney's 'Dark Age' on either side in the background

-Speaking of the Dark Age characters, how do you think they were treated during all this at the time? Especially Black Cauldron since that almost saw Disney Animation close its doors but it was nice to see all the characters be part of the short

Safe to say I loved every second!

#once upon a studio #once upon a studio spoilers

[mikhailwrites]

Waiting for Connection 1 / Ghost x Soap NerdAU

Last week was really hard for me and as much as I love the MWIII rewrite, I really needed something comforting. So I took an AU idea that was brainstormed on the Ghoap Discord and decided to go through with it.

Ghost chose to play Arma, because it offers at least a semblance of realism. A meager attempt at simulation of life he lost after the injury. He wouldn't call himself a hardcore gamer, but he supposes he can be a tad too intense at times. If only the random people he plays with could keep up with him. Then one day, a player with a handle CallMeSoap joins the game. He seems to be more than able to follow Ghost's virtual command. A little bit too well, if Ghost is being honest.

Also on AO3

“Thirty feet, I said thirty feet and no cover! Do you know what does that mean? It means you don’t toss a bloody frag!” Ghost seethes, angry enough to let go of his mouse and keyboard, afraid he might break them. Before him is a plain screen with a “Mission Failed” message.

“Hey man, chill, ‘s just a game, Ghost, don’t be a cunt,” DanDeLeon87 tries to defuse the situation. He’s not entirely wrong; of course, it is just a game. If someone should be able to tell the difference, it’s Ghost with his years of service in SAS. On the other hand, he plays this particular game precisely because it’s about the closest to the real thing without the stakes. He knows it’s not entirely healthy; hell, his therapist even said so, which is bloody hysterical, considering the military videogames were her idea in the first place. Well, Ghost supposes it simply works too well.

“I’m well aware, Leon, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do better, does it?” Ghost shoots back at his teammate. “Well, whatever, I think I’ll call it a day anyway. Thanks for the game.” He doesn’t even wait for the response before disconnecting.

Simon’s not tired enough to go to bed yet, and the weather outside is bad enough that he can’t be bothered to go to a pub. Ghost takes the headset off, taking care to tap the switch to turn off his mic before he sets it down on a custom-made stand an acquaintance 3D printed for him.

Going to the kitchen, Simon opens the fridge and scans the shelves. He knows exactly what’s in there; it’s just that standing there, basking in the yellowish light and pretending to mull over his options is comforting in a way.

In the end, he takes out a can of Guinness and a frying pan covered with plastic foil. Ghost never cooks for a single meal. It wouldn’t warrant the time, the dishes, and the effort. Today, he’s finishing the ginger beef he made yesterday.

Of course, as soon as he closes the fridge, something brushes against his legs and announces itself with a loud, demanding “meow!”

“I vividly remember giving you supper an hour ago,” Simon eyes the cat accusingly, and the stare is returned tenfold. “This is my dinner.”

“Meow!” Stripey sits as if to underline the level of his displeasure.

“Oh, piss off,” Ghost scoffs, ripping the foil from the pan and putting it on the stove. The words have no bite as he goes to a cupboard, fishing out a package of treats. “You’re gonna be fat,” he quips as he fishes out a few pieces, offering them up on his palm.

#call of duty #john soap mactavish #simon ghost riley #ghostsoap #soapghost #ghost x soap #ghoap #ghost mw2 #soap mw2 #cod fanfic #ghost has a cat change my mind #22ghost is a nerd just like 09ghost is #nerd au if it didnt exists it does now

[showtoonzfan]

For some levity, the Lackadaisy pilot is finally out! If you’ve seen it already, what are your thoughts about it? I thought it was a treat!

Yup! I’ll post my review here then!

So, overall I definitely liked it. As everyone is saying, the animation and composition is absolutely GORGEOUS, I loved the 3d props and backgrounds, I have been following this project since it was announced for an animated short so I watched a lot of sneak peeks from behind the scenes, (even becoming a patron member for Tracy for a long while) and the long wait and hard work definitely paid off. While the sketch lines being visible is very distracting at times, I will give credit that the animation and look and feel of the short is nice, since they were trying to go for an old-timey Don Bluth/Disney vibe, basically those old cartoons from the 50’s-80’s.

I will admit that while this is around 25 minutes, it feels very short, I was hoping we got to know the characters more better, mainly characters like Wick or Pepper. Like….I will say I thought there’d be a little bit more than what we got, so that was a little underwhelming for me, BUT what we got wasn’t at all bad, especially since this is a pilot. This entire time I thought it would just be an animated short, since I could have sworn the creator said that’s all it’s ganna be for now, but now it’s labeled as a “pilot”, so I can give it a pass for that. Even if you haven’t read the comic like I have, you can kinda get down most of the characters and dynamics.

Rocky is this loose canon yet sweet and can get the job done in wacky ways, Freckle is the soft cutsey wutsey one who deep down has a temper and is crazy, (and Rocky can see the potential in him) Pepper comes off as someone who wants to be an independent woman and can pull her weight around the way how rough the world is, (with Rocky respecting her and her and Freckle having somewhat of a cute relationship) Nicodeme and Serafine (two that I really enjoyed watching) are also loose canons who enjoy the battle, being paired up with my favorite character that is Mordecai, a straightforward, professional and stern person who has an infamous past and isn’t aquatinted well with the people around him. The Mitzi stuff along with the other characters at the bar I’d thought we’d dive into more, but again, this is a pilot, and they do hint at future things, how they’re trying to get Wick to help them, Mitzi being a mysterious character, and the leader of their rivalry business learning about the mishap that happens in the end credits scene.

Since this is a pilot, there are PLENTY of things to be explored, it opens a door for the characters to get more depth, and for the story to expand, something that I really want, especially since the comic (for now) seems to be on halt. I think this pilot serves as a perfect “short and sweet” scenario, it did want it wanted to do, it introduces the characters and some of the story well, and I really hope this gets a BIG following enough for the cast and crew to keep working towards this goal, I would even say I hope a studio sees this and wants to pick it up. Lackadaisy certainly isn’t for everyone, I myself have said that I had a hard time following the comic at times due to the 1920’s language, and some of the humor didn’t catch me, some of the dialogue in this pilot as well could have been better in terms of showcasing the characteristics of each character or the world, but other than everything I mentioned, I don’t have any other criticisms or nitpicks, since it’s too early.

Now that the pilot is finally out, I definitely want to reread the comic and compare the two in the near future, Lackadaisy is something I have passion for and I’m so proud of the team for what they accomplished. Here’s to hoping there’s more! 🍻

#honestly I do think this is a great start #even if you have some issues with it #I’m really hoping there’s more to see what this can turn into especially since the comic itself changed over time #begging that this gets the same cult following Hazbin did #lackadaisy webcomic #lackadaisy #review #reply #ask #animated indie short #animated short #2d animation #lackadaisy animated short #unrelated

[dashawns-world]

Escaflowne Opening Sequence

Alrighty y'all, I talked about the story, but now I wanna take a look at the opening scene. I'm curious about why I like it so much. It's easy to say, "Because the animation is sick!" 

But I wanna go a little deeper. I’ll be covering the opening sequence. Once again, the link for the movie is here. Shoutout to Neat Flicks on Dailymotion for uploading the movie. I’ll also post the vid link from the Sakugabooru site, which houses a much better quality sequence.

https://www.sakugabooru.com/post/show/170797 - I recommend checking out this site in general if you’re a fan of animation—credit to PurpleGeth for uploading this scene.

So off the jump, this sequence starts at a fair pace. We start on the stars and slowly pan down to a view of some clouds/mountains. BGs can only take you so far, and that pan is like a whopping 25 seconds, so I like that the next shot gives us some movement/animation. The goats were a nice touch because what the heck else would be this high? Birds? Amateur shit! (that I would’ve done) I do like the framing of this scene, though. 

I highlighted the foreground so that you could see the goats better. You're welcome. Something about the mountain taking up half of the frame, with the goats in the far background, sits well with me. The goat that runs in the foreground helps bridge the next cut, where the same (or possibly new) goat continues moving into the scene. Oh, what does bridge mean? Why is it highlighted? I’m glad I asked. That’s my cute little way of saying the goat’s movement helps the audience connect the dots between this scene and the next. ;) Little decisions like that help me understand we’re still on the mountain. This is a relatively benign example, but pay attention to fight scenes in action movies, and you can see how essential bridges can be. 

Let’s continue! As the camera pans up this mountain, I’m shown a giant dragon skeleton embedded inside of it. This is important for simply one reason. It’s visual storytelling! I know now that dragons (or whatever fantasy creature this could be) exist in this world/movie. It’s tempting to explain a lot when you have a fantasy story, and while the film will eventually tell you about the dragons, it’s not a “wait, there are dragons moment?” Because I saw one myself!

The fact that it’s a skeleton even adds a bit of mystery. Are they extinct? Is it just this one? I imagine one wants their audience to ask questions, so long as they’re asking the right ones and you have the answers. 

Eventually, a large shadow is cast on our mountain, and the next cut reveals a large ship passing by. Nowadays, 3D is far more accessible, and some may argue this isn’t that grand of a reveal. But I like it! The goat and mountain in the foreground give a sense of scale to the whole scene, and it’s a very economical shot choice. I work in TV animation, and shots like this are functional and attainable regarding skill level and time. 

Up until the fight starts, this entire sequence is exceptionally economical. Japan, in my opinion, are masters at the conservation of animation. They save the crazy stuff for the scenes that matter but generally tend to have pleasing compositions to supplement the rest of the show/film. If you’re wondering why they don’t just go wild like that all the time, the most straightforward answer is time. It takes a lot of it to get things looking right, and generally, it’s usually a few artists who have the skill to get it done on time in the first place. (More on that in a second)

So we’re treated to some more shots of the ship. Kudos to the director for even coming up with this many. I find it challenging to do this many non-character scenes in a row. You really have to know what you want your audience to see. Thankfully, they do. We’re treated to this wild tracking shot of something flying through the clouds. I almost called this a POV shot, thinking we were looking through Van’s eyes, but Van is the little speck with wings flying in. 

So this can’t be his POV. It’s gotta be the camera guy, lol. 

I talked already about Van’s approach in the previous post, and also, by this point, I hope you’ve watched the sequence. So Van gets on the ship and kills a soldier, yadda yadda. I do wanna take a moment to acknowledge this shot, though.

I’m partial to all of this. ^^^^

Back to my little review of this sequence, though, I LOVE the music kicking in. Those drums interrupt the dreaminess of it all. The action has begun! There’s a tiny part I’ll point out later. A small aside, this fight sequence was done by the insanely talented Yutaka Nakamura. When I started to learn about the animators I was inspired by, I found out this guy did a LOT of my favorite scenes in anime. He did stuff on Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, Soul Eater, and my absolute favorite that I will eventually talk about, Sword of the Stranger. He’s still kickin too, doing some incredibly insane stuff for My Hero Academia. The guy’s a legendary animator. You have to be… to pull off the insane scene where Van RUNS INTO THE SHIP’S HULL AND KILLS TWO GUYS. WHY DO THAT UNLESS YOU EAT PENCILS FOR BREAKFAST?? All my artists out there… y’all know. This is insane. If you can’t draw, and everything seems to be the same level of impossibly difficult, lemme tell ya. You gotta be made of sterner stuff than the average artist to pull this scene off well. 

I'm gushing, sorry. And blushing too. I’m not gonna apologize for that, though. Now let me summarize why I like this fight so much and why it’s both a good (and kinda bad) establishing scene for Van. 

So far, his kill count is three dudes. And they’ve been effortless kills, too. Remember that screenshot above where Van is on all fours? (I know, it was so long ago because of my rambling.) Very… animalistic to me. It’s for a reason. Notice how he hasn’t said a word yet. Even after dispatching those two guys, he immediately attacks the next dude. It’s so fast, the other soldiers are telling each other to stay calm when honestly, we’re beyond that now. Like, seriously, Gary? (That’s the guard’s name now.) 

“I’m getting my shit rocked over here, I can’t stay calm!”

Oh crap, I wanted to talk about this! Van then takes out this dude in the sickest way possible. Seriously, it’s my favorite kill. Van’s positioning, alongside how the artists decide to bridge between these three scenes, gives me the feeling that I was cut. I know that’s dramatic, but what I mean is: the cuts are disorienting. I can’t keep up with them. I replayed it multiple times, and I truly believe this is due to them breaking the 180 rule. For the uninformed, the 180 rule is a film principle. It’s a way to keep characters in a consistent place onscreen so that the audience does NOT get disoriented. Action scenes are usually places where the 180 rule can be broken, but it works here REALLY well here, to me. 

That guard is history.

God, I said I’d summarize. So Van gets all his kills off and confronts the general. One of the kills is timed to the music that's bumping. Oof, it's SO good. The general is unimpressed, though. Like, was he even listening? He barely reacts to most of his men dying. Either that, or he’s trying not to shit himself. He simply states that he knows who Van is: the dragon he’s heard so much about. (Remember, we saw a dragon skeleton earlier. Not too shabby, eh?) Then we get this shot of Van:

He looks SO FREAKY! I loooove it. I know I’m thinking an extra layer too deep, but Van’s off-model look really helps me see him through the eyes of the general. Van is a monster in the general’s eyes. And Van’s response to the general after all this is, “I will slay all my enemies.” I love the way this establishes Van as a killer. This is how you establish a powerful and scary character! Despite its coolness, the question must be asked: Does it serve the story? 

Well yeah, of course, but there’s one thing I thought could’ve made it better. Deleting this scene here:

Hmm.

What’s wrong with this? Well, I think it gives away too much about Van. And not even the correct information, either. His smiling made me think he enjoys doing this. Viewers of the movie, or readers of my long-ass post, know that he does not, in fact, enjoy this. This smug face of his is why I thought of Van as an antagonist at first. It’s badass, tho. I’m ngl. And I mean, come on, would all of the movie’s problems be fixed if they deleted this very short scene? Absolutely, and I’m offended that you’d even ask. Jokes aside, I love this sequence. I wish it added up to a better whole, but it’s not bad on its own. And even after all these years, I still watch it in awe. Anyway, thanks for reading this! Despite my gripes, I still enjoyed my time with this film. I think my next deep dive will be for a game. Keep an eye out for it! 

-Dashawn

#anime #2000's/2009's anime #artists on tumblr #2000s nostalgia #escaflowne #yutaka nakamura

[fuzzafterhours]

Penny's Big Breakaway

First played on February 21st 2024 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1955230/Pennys_Big_Breakaway/ I have... a lot to say about this game... I love it, I love it so so SO much, BUT it absolutely wrecks me to say that it is a little under baked. I will start off by saying I was extremely excited to play it since the words "from the team behind sonic mania" were uttered on that one Nintendo direct. I followed development closely and consumed every piece of content that was drip fed throughout the months. I was absolutely floored when the game was shadow dropped. Now, I LOVE 3D platformers, and I'm inclined to call them my favorite game genre. Despite all the flaws I do have with the Penny's I would put it firmly in my top 10. I also want to mention that I'm a little freak that plays games I like in weird ways so any strange issues I have with it might not apply to the average person. I want to talk about the movement first as it is the most important thing to me in a 3D platformer. the game is stellar... when it works... Penny's is one of the smoothest platformers I've ever played until your momentum is cut off by some random bit of jank, whether that be the roll move deciding to randomly stop, environmental hazards like water and lava having 0 grace period, and clipping into walls, which happened way more often than id like to admit. Its clear to me that the game needed a good amount of polish time before shipping. Level design in this game is largely fantastic although I think its a bit homogenized if that makes sense. excuse the dreaded act of comparison but, a similar game like super Mario 3D world for example, designs its levels with a central mechanic in mind and then elaborates on it throughout a level. Penny's does this sometimes but a majority of levels feel like a strange blend of ideas that leads them to feel kind of unfocused. this Isn't necessarily a bad thing as I think the game has free enough movement to warrant it. The game never got boring per say, but id be lying if I said it didn't lose some steam towards the end. I think another part of the game that gradually got a little stale is the art direction and environment design. again, never bad, but I noticed areas getting less creative in the last third of the game. I do however want to say, despite my gripe, this games visual direction is OUTSTANDING and like nothing I've ever seen. it starts incredibly strong and despite becoming a little uncreative it is always a treat to look at. An aspect that I can give absolutely nothing but endless praise is the soundtrack of course. Nearly every song is masterfully composed and instantly memorable. As a big fan of Tee Lopes previous work there was no doubt in my mind that this ost would knock it out of the park. although it is not a one man show, Sean Bialo was a more than welcome addition, they are responsible for some of my favorite tracks on Spark the Electric Jester 3 so it was great seeing them here. Some of my favorite tracks on the Penny ost are:

Puppet Pioneer

Jig's Up, Penny

Outside The Eidophusikon

Balearic Birds

Penny in a Pinch and my absolute favorite track in the game:

Refracting Feelings (Pengo Mix)

I want to exclaim once again, I LOVE this game, its currently a frontrunner for my game of the year and I don't want a couple of minor gripes to taint the view of what is otherwise an excellent, beautiful, and just straight up fun game. Play Penny's, listen to its soundtrack, share it around. We need more games like it. I think everyone at Evening Star should be more than proud of what they've created. I can feel this game oozing with love and passion for the medium and I don't think any minor issue I have with it could take away from that. It wants to exist and it wants YOU to play it.

#pennys big breakaway #fuzzdailygames #fuzzafterhours