Animated Impressions

Animation is one of the earliest forms of entertainment I encountered as a child. To this day, it remains an important part of my life and has influenced many aspects of who I am. I’m dedicating this blog to my love for the art form of animation.

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Rapid Fire Opinions--Go!

So....I have been totally dead in the water for a WHILE. And I do have some opinions to share but I don’t know if I have enough to say to warrant extremely long posts for everything so....opinion lighting round for animation domination of 9/20-9/27, GO!

1. South Park, “Where My Country Gone?”

OMG South Park does it again! This episode was DAMN funny! Seeing the Canadians as a stand-in for illegal immigrants, the Canadian alphabet, the adorable sub-plot with Butters and Charlotte, the shots at Caitlyn Jenner/ Bruce Jenner having killed someone...but the highlight? Garrison as a stand in for Donald Trump? Brilliant. Having an ACTUAL Canadian Donald Trump? Priceless. O. M. G. I laughed. so hard. I shook the walls! I was hoping for a more lighthearted South Park and I got it, but it did cost me seeing my favorite character in a state of constant frustration and ostracization (Don’t worry, Kyle! I still love you!). Still, AWESOMELY HILARIOUS episode! 9 out of 10!

2. Steven Universe, “Catch and Release.”

Holy ever loving shit! FINALLY! The return of Peridot! And we get to see her without her armored limbs! And being absolutely hilarious, adorable and even...vulnerable. What kind of society must Peridot be from where she fears being “harvested”, assumes anything can be used as a weapon and needs “limb enhancers”? Just about every scene of her and Steven interacting was pure, 24 karat gold! The slap fighting, the attempts at civil communication and Steven returning Peridot’s foot were just a few of the wonderful bits I remember. I have rewatched this episode at least 10 times by now and I’ll never get tired of it. Seriously, that scene where she attempts to flush herself down the toilet...I could watch it FOREVER. We also get some foreshadowing for an apparent disaster based around the fusion experiments we’ve seen twice now in what smells like a season finale baking. I’ll be looking forward to more Peridot living in a bathroom hijinks as I await  “When it Rains”. Maybe an episode where Peridot is afraid of thunderstorms? Spoil NOTHING for me!

3. My Little Pony: FiM, “Maid in Manehattan.”

A pretty harmless episode. Nothing extremely groundbreaking or deal breaking. It was nice seeing Coco Pommel again and getting a little bit of character development from her was nice and the moral of the episode has been done before but it was...nice....but that’s just it. This episode was really just sort of...okay. Not awful, not spectacular just...okay. I really don’t have much to say about it and for an episode featuring the Cutie Map it was really....meh.

4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, “Annihilation, Earth!”

OHHHHH NOOOOOO!!!!!!! EARTH IS BEING INVADED!!!!! .....Again. But OMG, Triceratons ! OMG, the Krang! OMFG! BISHOP IS A DEFECTIVE KRAANG PART OF A GROUP KNOWN AS THE UTROMS (fan of 2k3 Turtles)!!!!!! THE MUTANIMALS?!?! SHREDDER AND SPLINTER TEAM UP ENDING WITH HIM LITERALLY BEING STABBED IN THE BACK?!?! And....THE WORLD FUCKING ENDS!!!! AND THE FUGITOID SHOWS UP!!!!! AND THEY’RE ALL IN SPACE NOW?!?!?!?! Oh....*breathes heavily and collapses in chair*. Okay, I just saw this season finale today, so you’ll have to give me some time to compose my thoughts but my initial reaction is basically my “holy shit quotient” was through the Goddamn roof...More in depth thoughts to come.

5. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Friendship Games

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I’m not too sure about my thoughts on this one. It’s a “movie”, so it’ll definitely require some more in-depth thought. But for now, I think I liked it...maybe. I need to see it a few more times to be sure. I definitely liked the music though, for the most part, so there’s that at least. More in-depth thoughts soon.

The upcoming week is gonna be busy for me, so I’ll keep on bringing first impressions but I usually only say a lot when I have a lot to say, so keep that in mind. I’m not a critic, I’m not a reviewer, I’m just a girl with opinions that I like to share.

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MLP:FiM Opinions--Rarity Investigates! And I Have ALLLLL the Squees :3

I seriously have to wonder, is DHX catering to me personally? After last week’s episode and now this week’s…so many things I love within such a small space, I CAN’T TAKE IT!!! AAAHHH!!!!!! *Takes a deep breath* Okay, I gotta calm down….

Things I LOVED about the episode

Rarity and Rainbow Dash pair up!

This is a pairing I’ve been itching to see for quite some time and I figured with their personalities and interests being so divergent, the writers pairing them up would never happen. Boy, was I wrong! And what a wonderful pairing this was! Fair warning, the adorableness of this episode was merciless.  Seeing Rainbow Dash excited about Rarity appearing to support her was so sweet and the determination Rarity had towards clearing Rainbow Dash’s name? Anyone doubting the strength of their friendship can kindly shut their faces. Their interactions with each other were abundant with cute, sweet and funny moments that I’m sure will make the RariDash shippers squee with delight

A Keen Eye For Detail

I didn’t see it as a far stretch at all that Rarity had a thing for sleuth and private eye fiction. When she needed to, she took the role of a detective and wore it like a Gucci handbag. Her profession, as she mentions in the episode, requires a fine eye for the smallest details, making her a perfectly competent private eye. I feel like this is a big step up from the episode “MMMystery on the Friendship Express,” where the mystery’s solution only made up a fraction of the story and focused more on the comedy. And the mystery of that episode could only be kept if we couldn’t see the clues and that’s no fun. Since we’re seeing everything Rarity sees, there’s a chance for you to try figuring out the “mystery” yourself and I followed every bit of Rarity’s thought process without question. She wasn’t just “playing private eye”; everything she did served a purpose–even the costume changes. Speaking of which….

SO. MUCH. ATMOSPHERE PORN!!!!!!

I love film noir and grew up watching countless parodies of it. I’ve seen some genuine articles, of course, but mostly parodies. But the things consistent in every one: the black and white visual style, the bluesy/jazzy music, the low, dramatic narration from the hard-boiled private eye, every bit of them I love to tears. And this episode’s take on them was no exception. Rarity’s costume changes also helped incorporate other elements of film noir–the glamour of the film style’s 1940s era and, paired with the use of her feminine wiles, allowed her to channel the classic “femme fatale” character archetype.  That aside, as soon as I saw that burgundy, Carmen Sandiego-esque hat and trench coat, I thought “Rarity better wear that before the episode ends or I will be severely disappointed!” Also, Rarity looks super cute with her mane done up in a…“ponytail”.

Things I didn’t like about the episode

….I saw the culprit from a mile away…

….at least I half-guessed it. I was pretty sure that either Wind Rider or even Spitfire was behind the mystery. But once the actual evidence for the “crime” began to surface, I realized I gave these ponies too much credit. I thought at first maybe Rider and Spitfire collaborated to give Rainbow Dash this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because it would be good for her reputation in the Wonderbolts….but once Wind Rider turned on her, I thought….yeah, he did it. Because he was jealous of Rainbow Dash’s potential. *sarcastically* Whoo… How original.

The opening gag with Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash is a klutz… Eh, what else is new?

Rainbow Falls, why must you torment us?

After their villainization  in “Rainbow Falls”, I couldn’t help but find myself cringing at every instance Soarin mentioned things like “honor” and “loyalty” in reference to the Wonderbolts as a team. Can we just bury that episode? It’s ruining an otherwise amazing one!

That’s what this episode was overall. An absolute treat despite its shortcomings. It had so many things I love and the things I didn’t like weren’t too distracting but they are the reason this episode gets a lower score than last week’s. The bad was just enough to drag the episode down a little, but know that this episode was definitely a fun ride. Nine out of Ten.

                                Also…Rarity stop making me feel…weird. 

Is it wrong to say she looks sexy doin’ this? Probably. 

…….

I’M NOT A CLOPPER!!!!!

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Stunning and Brave: A South Park Opinion

Okay, I first wanna say this: the animated shows I’m following gave me absolutely no space to breathe. From the absolute awesomeness of action and sense of closure in Steven Universe’s “Nightmare Hospital” and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ “The Fourfold Trap” to the personal love I have for MLP: FiM’s “Canterlot Boutique”, I was already three for three and I hoped, no PRAYED that South Park, the heavy hitter of the four would deliver. The last couple of season’s openers were pretty weak in my opinion and I honestly didn’t know what I would do if that trend continued after the three examples of brilliance I witnessed. “South Park,” I said, “don’t disappoint me; I’ve got a three for three, let’s make a triple four (four for four, get it?).” And after Wednesday’s episode ended, I can say with absolute certainty....ladies and gentlemen, we have our triple four, this episode was fucking ASTOUNDING!

After I first saw this episode, I wasn’t too sure how to feel about it. By that I mean that it hit me so much in so little time that I needed a little while and 1 or 2 re-watches to verbalize my feelings. The main thing I remember when watching it, however, was literally being on the edge of my seat throughout the whole thing. I had no idea where it was going to go but it went one place I never expected---You have to be a special kind of evil to make Cartman look sympathetic. The animation of Cartman getting the crap beaten out of him had me cringing with fear of P.C. Principal. The defeated attitude that Cartman holds throughout the episode was also a big tearjerker for me. After all Cartman is my second favorite character and as he is the character that has gotten away with so many over-the-top hilarious things, seeing him throw in the towel was heartbreaking. But the biggest sympathies I had went to Kyle, our audience surrogate. By the end of the episode, this poor kid has been through so much harassment that he decided to go along with the fraternity’s ideologies. But it isn’t because he had some major epiphany or change of heart, it was just so they’d leave him alone--that is NO WAY to promote change. But people like them don’t care. As long as you agree with them, they don’t care if you’re being genuine or not. 

Thankfully, the episode was balanced with some funny moments as well. From Randy spewing the talking around, hypocritical bullshit of the PC fraternity's philosophy ending with him literally spewing, to Cartman’s personal hero being Tom Brady (move over, Hitler) to the final act against the fraternity being a slew of politically incorrect depictions of concepts and issues. The depiction of P.C. Police as a hazing fraternity was fun, and Randy getting involved was expected as it’s Randy’s way to get swept up in philosophies and wanting to fit in (BTW did anyone notice not a single person of color was in that frat?). For God’s sake, they branded his ass with “PC” at the end and gave him a pair of Oakley sunglasses. How do you not laugh at that? Also the end quote from Cartman was giggle-worthy because of how on the nose it was; the idea of having your cake and eating it too.

South Park’s “Stunning and Brave” completely exceeded my expectations. Instead of focusing on a single political or social issue going on in the world, they tackle a group that, quite frankly, has had it coming for a good long time: political correctness police. Before I go on, I want to address that anyone who looks at this episode’s targets and says “they’ve done this before” by saying...yes, they did but, no, they didn’t. There’s a difference between speaking out about censorship and what Matt and Trey did with this episode. Previous episodes (Cartoon Wars and 200 & 201) addressed the concept of censorship in the form of cautionary tales that tell what happens when dealing with humor that people of a specific group may find offensive. The lengths that an offended party will go to to prevent anyone from saying anything bad about what they believe in, i.e. threatening people with violence if they depict their prophet. This episode does something similar with the PC Bros but with a big difference. These people aren’t terrorizing others because they’re personally offended, they’re terrorizing people and justifying it with a hypocritical agenda that it’ll promote peace and open-mindedness.

People like the PC Bros are what happens when censorship is taken to its logical extreme. Some will develop an ideology that sees anything and everything as sacred and nothing is allowed to be even slightly offensive. These people, who are most often members of “privileged groups” (white, heterosexual, Christian, male, etc.), then take it upon themselves to make the world as “open-minded and tolerant” as they can. Problem is, they don’t have a sense of restraint and go into full fight-mode to combat anything they see as “offensive”, often attacking anyone with the force of an army who shows even a hint of disagreeing with them. 

Think about this: Say you have a job protecting a crop and you know a predator of crops are aphids. So you spend every minute of every day combing through the crops for any little aphids and dousing every individual one with a full bottle of poison to ensure the crop’s safety. Meanwhile, you’re so preoccupied with the aphids, you don’t even notice parts of the crop are being stolen by humans under your watch and that you’re poisoning the thing you’re trying to protect. That’s what these people do. Instead of taking the steps necessary to encourage people to change, they violently force their views on people doing small insignificant things while ignoring bigger issues that actually deserve action and discussion. This method of promoting tolerance does nothing but poison whatever good intentions you may have and makes you just as bad, if not worse than the “social injustice” you claim to be fighting against.

This episode was, above all things, powerful. The most powerful episode of South Park I’ve seen in a long time...which may have hurt more than helped. At it’s core, South Park is a comedy show and this episode had more moments that made me sad and feel scared for the characters than moments that made me laugh. It’s still an amazing episode but I’m hoping next week’s is a little more lighthearted after the massive amount of thinking this episode made me do. But making people think is far from a bad thing. I honestly have no idea how they’re going to ever top this episode but season 19 of South Park came out SWINGING. Let’s hope the comedy duo can keep it up.

                    Also.....Kyle happens to be my favorite character....

.....PC Bros, I hope you all burn in hell for what you did to him (yes, that includes you too, Randy!). Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to help him shave that hair mutilation off, get him a respectable wig and find him a good concealer for those dicks on his face. Hopefully, he’ll be better by next episode.

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Canterlot Boutique: First Impressions

*GASP* OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG RARITYGOTASTOREINCANTERLOT OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG............I’m getting ahead of myself. 

Maybe this is just my love for Rarity showing bias but Canterlot Boutique was a sterling start to the second half of season 5. Everything about this episode was just so....REAL. A lot of bronies and ponies love the hell out of “Suited for Success”, but I think this episode trumps it as a character piece for Rarity. The reason why boils down to this: It shows us the best part, she feels, of being a dressmaker--not showing off her skills as an artist but the feeling of satisfaction knowing that a piece she’s created invokes the same amount of passion and adoration in her client as it does for her. As a content creator myself (mostly writing) there is nothing that compares to that feeling, seeing the happiness you felt creating your creation reflected back 100% in a consumers’ expression--it’s unreal. 

I also liked the exploration of two often dueling perspectives that come into play when trying to have a successful business. Rarity represented creative integrity, knowing in your heart of hearts that what your giving a consumer is nothing short of your best work and catering to the individual and unique needs of every client. Sassy Saddles represented business profitability, defining a business’s success solely on how much money it makes and focused more on appealing to a common denominator demographic than treating every customer as an individual. Both approaches have their positives and pitfalls and both were showcased in the episode, which was great. With the publicity of the Princess Dress, Rarity took a risk making some changes to the dress she made for a particular customer. Although it added a lovely personal touch, it was still a risky move since the client’s reaction could’ve gone either way and it went in the unappreciative, hive-minded, “it’s not what I wanted” route. Though that pony was a bit of a brat, she did have a point in not getting what she asked for, and Rarity set herself up for more work that wouldn’t have been necessary had she stayed to the dress’s original look or at least asked the customer for permission first. As for Sassy, she was so focused on the boutique’s profit and marketability, its uniqueness and integrity began to suffer to the point where Rarity, the mare behind the shop’s opening and creations, was often shooed to the back to work as a one-mare sweat shop. An assembly line was even in the works! Sassy became so consumed by the thought of Canterlot Boutique being well-known and profitable, she began seeing herself as the sole mare responsible, even vocally renaming the store after herself. Thankfully, both parties realized that the best way to ensure a successful business is an even balance of both approaches. Rarity also allowing Sassy to continue managing the boutique was a bit “status quo is God” for me initially but then I thought a lot of famous designers don’t manage their own stores so it was all good. Rarity gets to have her cake and eat too....fabulously.

This episode was absolutely brilliant, I have pretty much nothing to complain about besides small, inconsequential nitpicks, namely Pinkie’s humor and Twilight lacking a head piece and new mane style for the Princess Dress (it’s just my opinion, but I feel these two details really would’ve made the unveiling of the dress POP). But overall, the episode is fantastic; the dresses were beautiful, the songs were great and emotional, the conflict is great and so REAL and Rarity has achieved her biggest dream. First impressions shouldn’t have scores but I feel this episode definitely deserves a perfect 10! Amy Keating Rogers, I applaud you.

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Animation Domination

Okay....so....after a slew of hiatuses starting on all different times of the year, SO MANY shows I’m a fan of have dusted themselves off and have begun airing new episodes again. To keep it short: MLP: FiM came out of a mid-season hiatus and aired a new episode today, South Park was renewed up to season 23 and it’s 19th season is premiering on Sept. 16th, Steven Universe is gracing us with another Steven Bomb which began last Thursday and will be airing new episodes every Thursday, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is FINALLY finishing it’s third season with a new episode every Sunday for the next three weeks, the third installment of Equestria Girls premieres at the end of the month and to top it all off: THE IRON GIANT, one of my favorite, if not my favorite animated movie of all time, is going to get a re-release in THEATERS.....for a limited time and only for about two days, but STILL! This all happening within a span of about 28 days and I just can’t take this Animation Domination--this is a term I use when so many big things happening with animated TV shows and movies are all happening within a small space of time. It’s overwhelming....but in a good way.

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LONG Overdue Post

My god, my god my GOD. So. Many. Things have been going on in my animation consumption since my last post, I don’t even know where to start. First off, the sweet movie Hotel Transylvania is getting a sequel slated for late September, Pixar’s Inside Out is out in theaters, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has reached and passed its 100th episode milestone, we finally have an official trailer for the Charlie Brown movie, Disney released a teaser trailer for a movie featuring exclusively anthropomorphic characters, Zootopia, Pixar released a teaser trailer for The Good Dinosaur....MAN, I’ve fallen behind. A lot of things have been going on, so I’ve really been neglecting this secondary blog of mine. But since I’ve been grounded, i.e. stuck, for the next week or so, I’ll be getting right on those posts of reactions, thoughts and such. But for now? I need a nap. -____- zzz..zzz...zzzz

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Big Hero 6 -- Flash Review

I definitely plan on giving this film a full review at some point, but since it's still only in theaters, I think this'll do for now.

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Big Hero 6 is certainly a unique entry in Disney’s animated feature-length films; it is the first animated movie to be based on a Marvel property, though with some extreme creative liberties taken with it. That being said, Disney has always been an expert when it came to re-imagining stories and this film is no exception. I found Big Hero 6 to be a fun, funny, action-packed ride with some real heart thrown in for good measure.  Though it is by no means perfect, it has many more good things going for it than bad.

For me, the heart and soul of the film was the relationship between the main human character Hiro and his robotic nurse, Baymax. After suffering a particularly heavy loss in his life, Hiro is helped out of his emotional turmoil by a robot who learns to heal not only physical wounds but emotional ones as well. Another big strength in the movie is advocating of intelligent people in more action-heavy roles. Often in superhero stories, especially ones with teams, there is one member of the team who is seen as "the smart one" and said member is put in a supporting role to whomever the de facto leader of the team is. In having a team comprised of highly intelligent people who use their heads more often than their fists, Big Hero 6 provides a unique entry in the realm of superhero movies.

Some flaws within the movie include the rushed initiation of Hiro's emotional conflict (happening only ten minutes into the film), the lack of development for the four remaining members of Big Hero 6 (excluding Hiro and Baymax), a major plot point involving the main antagonist that seemed to come completely out of left field and an ending that was very sweet but also very contrived.

Overall, Big Hero 6 was an absolute delight when I saw it in theaters and remains the only movie I've seen in theaters twice. It definitely has flaws but it strengths are enough for me to say that a third theater visit to this film may very well be in my future

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My Concerns about Disney's Moana

So, unless you're an avid follower of Disney like I am, you may be unaware that Disney plans to release another princess movie in 2016. This movie titled Moana will feature another Disney princess from an alternate walk of life than the majority of her European ancestral sisters. We've had non-Caucasian princesses who were Chinese, Middle Eastern, Native American, and African American (and Atlantean if you want to count Kida), so a new addition to this side of the Disney's Princess franchise is certainly appreciated. Disney does have fans in Hawaii after all and this won't be the first time they've ever ventured to these islands (Lilo & Stitch). That being said, I do have some concerns and most of them have to do with Disney's latest approaches to writing movies with a female protagonist.

My overall opinion on movies like Brave and Frozen is that the movies aren't bad but they suffer from a identical problem. Both movies are pushing a sort of "progressive female lead" angle with the actual story behind the character feeling like an afterthought. It seems Disney has become more concerned with making a female character a good role model for girls rather than having her grow and develop throughout a solid story. The advertising behind Brave was pretty misleading; I was tricked into thinking I was going to get something akin to a female, fantasy version of Braveheart with the final product being, in the words of Doug Walker, "...ehh..."  And as for Frozen, Disney focuses so much on trying to prove that their supposed past ideas about romance and princesses are archaic and should be mocked that the story suffers from trying more to subvert your expectations than having certain aspects of the story make sense....and forcing a romance into it anyway. Whether they succeeded in making good role model characters in Merida, Anna and Elsa is a matter left to opinion but Disney sure likes pushing them as such. I fear that Disney may fall into the same trap with Moana's title character, trying to make her as awesome and feminist-friendly as possible while forgetting to make her story good and her character more...human.  

What I hope for Moana is that it is a fantastic movie. I hope I learn more about Hawaiian history, I hope I can both relate to and respect the title character, I hope that there's no romance because....frankly we have enough of that, I hope the songs and style of the score is fitting of the setting and finally....Don't. Make. Her. Another. Recolor. It's not only lazy, I'm pretty sue it's racist.

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What It's All About

Animation is one of the earliest forms of entertainment I encountered as a child. To this day, it remains an important part of my life and has influenced many aspects of who I am. I'm dedicating this blog to my love for the art form of animation. I'll review, gush and gripe my heart out for my past, present and future loves of it's expression. Follow me if you like what you see and read.