Lilo and Stitch question: What do you think Nani's best and worst quality is?
I think Nani's best quality is to get up and keep going, even if things are hard, because that decision is motivated by others, not by herself. Their new dog is an alien? He probably knows how to get Lilo back from that other alien up there, don't freak out, Lilo needs help. She loses her job? Keep trying to get a new one, even without experience. She ruined dinner? Order pizza. The family isn't seeing eye to eye? Family Fun Night incoming, just like mom used to do, even if it takes every ounce of energy Nani has left for the week. Lilo got in trouble at school? Lilo got in trouble at hula? Lilo got in trouble at the shore, the donut shop, the market? She'll be right over, and please give Lilo another chance! Cobra is coming to take Lilo away? Because the house blew up? Because Nani couldn't find a job until the very last possible moment? Nani is begging Cobra to let Lilo stay even as he's putting her in the car. She got a job this morning, she'll do better, you are not taking her.
Nani never gives up. Nani could give up, but she chooses not to, and she does it out of love for others.
I think Nani's worst quality is her temper (which isn't saying much because her better qualities fully outshine this one). She and Lilo both have really sharp tongues and really hot tempers, and Nani probably lands herself in more trouble than is necessary just by not controlling how she talks or reacts when she's angry or tired enough. I can relate; I have the exact same problem.
Respect Nani. Respect Nani's selflessness. Give me a flawed young lady who has responsibilities and difficulties forced upon her due to circumstances beyond her control, who decides to love her little sister no matter how hard it gets and provide for her and cheer her up and get her a very ugly dog just because she wants a friend. Give me a young lady who puts other people first every time, not some "strong, independent" nothing girl who decides her wants and needs are more important and should take priority.
Bite me, modern Disney.
Has Stitch learned to speak English fluently over this years?
He could if he wanted to. He does have a brain like a supercomputer. But half of Stitch’s charm is Tantalog (his alien language) and that he’s always learning new things. So in Stitch and Ani, he speaks his own language as usual, apart from a few phrases.
I just realized: One good demonstration of CS Lewis's "Humility isn't thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less" is P&F's episode Thaddeus and Thor.
In that one, Thaddeus and Thor use their insane builds as a way of showing off and making themselves look better. Phineas and Ferb do theirs strictly for the love of building and/or to give themselves and their friends a fun time.
Phineas and Ferb do not falsely put themselves down (which would absolutely insult everyone else), they're just not thinking about themselves at all. They just want to make something cool and then share how cool it is with others (plus Phineas is a natural showman).
Heck, despite blowing those two out of the water, they go out of their way to compliment Thaddeus and Thor on the licorice dispenser because they think it's a cool idea.
100% correct. It's one of my favorite episodes. It shows how Phineas and Ferb could be, and how they are not that way, not just in action but in dialogue. It never occurs to them to compete with Thaddeus and Thor, or argue with Thaddeus when he starts baiting them. Security is silent.
Thaddeus and Thor's talents are only remarkable in a realistic setting. Because in real life, boys their age could probably, with prodigy-level brains, build the fort that they built. They could. But the thing about Phineas and Ferb's success is, not only can they build that, they can build things that defy logic, budget, and nature - at age 9. (Because they're cartoons.) In real life, if you were to pit them against Thaddeus and Thor, you would be watching two sets of kids - one set builds an actual fort with a licorice dispenser, and it's structurally sound and everything, and that's amazing. But then the other set builds not only that, but extra - something you wouldn't have believed of adults, funding or no funding. In the universe of the show, that's what you're looking at, essentially.
Phineas and Ferb create for the joy of creating, most often to benefit others; they never do it just for themselves. Everything they make is made to be shared. They're just that good at it. And do they boast? Do they challenge other creatives? Never once. They love to think and build and create and help, and it literally does not come into their heads to talk about their talents, choose themselves over others, or decide not to help someone who needs it. If you have a need and they hear about it, boom - they're already halfway done fixing your problem before you've finished speaking. Even if it does nothing for them.
Candace wants her mother to see the boys at work. She doesn't think very far ahead about what that looks like, because she's not doing it to hurt them, she's doing it to keep them safe, to prove it can be done, and that she's not crazy. She doesn't consider that this would mean they would be punished. Phineas and Ferb, more than once, attempt to help Candace bust them because it will make her happy. When they hear her summer's been a series of failures and she feels alone and defeated, they go out of their way to get her to see it differently and make her feel better.
Phineas saying things like "Can we cook or can't we?" is not bragging. It's him being excited and satisfied with his work, and he's almost always saying that kind of thing to Ferb, who also worked hard. And like you said, when Thaddeus and Thor are standing open-mouthed at the foot of the boys' architectural anomaly, Phineas and Ferb's disclaimer at the end of the tour is that Thaddeus and Thor's licorice dispenser was cool to them and they liked it. They showed what they'd done, and then they ended it by complimenting the other boys' creativity. Because it doesn't even occur to them to think about themselves or put themselves on any kind of pedestal or into any kind of spotlight. 90% of the time, Phineas and Ferb are thinking about other people, not themselves.
Funny idea for that Mabel x Ferb ship is that while they're doing romance stuff, Phineas and Dipper are on an adventure. Because it'd be hilarious to see the high-strung Dipper Pines interacting with the nearly unfazable Phineas Flynn.
Also, Doofenshmirtz is trying to attack McGuckett for allegedly ripping off his Inator. While he's stopped by Perry, the offending invention is destroyed. Fortunately, that's a completely legal way of handling disputes in Gravity Falls since its founding.
Oh and maybe later Dipper is paranoid about Perry but finds nothing.
This is super cute!
I can't imagine Ferb going off and doing anything romantic with Mabel when there's a day to be seized with Phineas (if this crossover happens when they're still kids), but I can imagine Mabel repeatedly flirting with Ferb during the adventure and Ferb accepting all hints by literally going along with whatever she's doing. Because he does reciprocate but he's Ferb.
Brings him a treat? He eats it with a thumbs-up. Falls from a crazy height due to a grappling hook error? He catches her. Grabs him by the arm and volun-tells him they're gonna go get supplies/hunt for clues together? ("You know who'd make a great team? Me and this guy! Am I right? Who else can feel this? I can feel this.") Ferb's in. That kind of thing, definitely!
Phineas and Dipper would be amazing together for exactly your reasoning. Phineas is so confident and capable and easy. Dipper is so not.
I don't think Dipper would even suspect anything about Perry - I think he'd be way more interested in the statistical probabilities of the boys' contraption both working like a dream and disappearing before Candace's mom can see it every day. But I can also see him wanting to find/prove something and marveling at how easy it is for Phineas and the gang to do just that - everything always works out for them. Not something Dipper's ever experienced, really!
And your idea for Doof made me think of an alternative, but maybe not as funny idea where he and Fiddleford work together on building an inator and Perry has to fight both a mad genius and a mad homeless man. In bare feet.
I just - the idea of a summer in Gravity Falls and a summer in Danville intersecting is too easy and too funny and too wonderful. No matter how you slice it. Dwampy and Alex, where is the crossover, I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR US-
It's crap. It's garbage. Disney took one of the most original stories I've ever read and scribbled all over it with a fruit-scented Crayola marker. I am going to rant, thank you for the outlet-
If you've never read the books, read them. If you have, read them again. If you still haven't yet, it's okay, I'll explain why the movie's garbage (apart from bad writing, bad acting, and bad leadership). I'll explain by telling you what the source material is like and how Disney glanced at it, laughed, and then used it for kindling so they could roast hot dogs for Josh Gad on set or something-
Let me start with the lead. In the books, Artemis Fowl is the villain. He is an Irish twelve-year-old genius with the world's most efficient bodyguard protecting him and his family's fortune at his fingertips at all times. Butler is the only guardian in his life, and even then, he is specifically an employee for Artemis; he has to obey him. Arty's criminal father has been missing for years and his angelic mother is insane with grief upstairs. He can do whatever he wants. Most kids dream of that, albeit without one or both of your parents being in major peril in order to obtain that freedom.
Artemis is a stellar, dynamic character. He has a cool life and cool skills, yes, (big intellect, big bank account, big backlog of snarky retorts), but all of that comes with with very specific flaws.
Artemis is smart, but he's arrogant. Artemis is witty, but he can't connect to his peers. Artemis has freedom, but he's lonely. Artemis can break into the world's most secure vault, but he cannot ride a bike. He can't jump long distances. He can't even run for more than fifteen minutes without getting embarrassingly winded. The idea that he would be in any way physically average at something like kickball, let alone surfing, is ludicrous, and yet in the film, he's smart, cute, and athletic. He can't be good at everything! He can't be cool all the time. The books go out of their way to humble Artemis, forcing him to look or feel or sound ridiculous, because otherwise he's just on top of the world and that's boring. Embarrassment and regrettable actions endear you to a character. You can't relate to someone who never loses.
And it's very, very important that Artemis be clearly in the wrong, especially if you're adapting the very first book. Artemis tricks and steals his way into sacred knowledge of an underground culture, an entirely separate species, an entirely separate world full of living things, and uses this knowledge to exploit those creatures for profit. He wants money. It is fun for this conceited little boy to emotionally and physically manipulate the fairies he's discovered, and he is doing it for selfish reasons. Does he want the money to fund the search for his long-lost daddy? A little bit - but he also just wants to expand the family fortune and make a name for himself. And he's okay with violating living creatures to get that done; he almost views the fairies as lesser lifeforms.
Artemis is the villain. The fairies are the good guys. The fairies respect every form of life they come into contact with, and love the planet, and even the most headstrong, stubborn fairies with the biggest personal prejudices against humankind and the damage they can do (Holly Short, my beloved) can't ignore it when a little human toddler starts crying for help and she's right there, able to help.
Fowl didn't just capture any fairy to hold for ransom, he captured a girl fairy, and a police officer in the fairy world. He captured a lady (a lady, like his mom, like Butler's little sister Juliet), who is in the role of protecting and defending her community (a police officer, giving her time and life up for everyone other than herself). Holly is compassionate and selfless and full of justice, athletically dazzling, Artemis's total freaking opposite.
The movie butchered Artemis and Holly. Artemis is not nice. Artemis is not sweet. Artemis doesn't even act like a little boy - the only thing that makes us endeared to the villain of the story is the fact that he is a child, and it only shows when he is upstairs with his crazy mother and she does not recognize him. Holly does not look like a child; she is the height of a human child, but she is a full-grown fairy woman. She has no surviving relatives, so jot that down - no familial ties to anything going on in the story, no Beechwood, no Aculos. The Aculos doesn't exist in the books. Holly got kidnapped by Artemis by chance, and she wouldn't even have been aboveground to be kidnapped if she hadn't been trying to do something she should have done a long time ago and had been putting off out of sheer immaturity and laziness - replenishing her magic up top.
As to Holly's characterization, in the books, she's just as dynamic as Artemis. She is kind and impressive and innovative, but she also has a horrible temper and is impulsive and vindictive. She holds grudges. She's constantly growing and changing into someone who trusts more easily and leans on her friends, rather than on her own skills. Someone who forgives. And she's a natural-born leader!
There's none of that in the movie; she's just a cutesy elfin girl with an Irish accent (why? she's not Irish, she's not even human) and fairy ears, who sometimes gets tossed into action sequences.
I digress. Artemis and Holly are the two main characters in the books, so I ranted more about them than anything else. They drive the stories. Their relationship and character arcs are why you keep reading those books, but Arty especially. Artemis goes from snarky rich genius twelve-year-old who thinks he's untouchable, determined to be the greatest criminal in his family line at any cost, to being a fifteen-year-old hero who would rather die and have his family's wealthy ancestral home destroyed than see any one of his friends - or his planet - hurt. He starts out kidnapping and manipulating Holly and ends up trusting her and loving her more than anyone else in his life, including himself. He starts out taking advantage of the fairies and then ends up becoming their greatest ally, trusted and revered.
I keep getting off the subject because I love these books and these characters so much rrrghhhh - I'll talk about them more another time, maybe if asked, but I DIGRESS -
The point is, the movie ruined the characters first, and then that subsequently ruined the rest of the adaptation. In the film, Artemis isn't evil or even self-centered, he's just a genius with a high lifestyle (who can surf, what), and his father's disappearance forces him into exploiting fairies. In the film, Holly has no defining traits. She's not even the first female police officer for fairykind, the way she is in the books - and that is a huge part of what makes her who she is, so of course, in the film she could be any girl fairy. Anyone, literally. She's got nothing to prove; of course they had to make it personal for her by fabricating some nonsense about a big Aculos resource item and toss her apparently-still-living father into the mix. As if she didn't already have enough in common with Artemis, now we're gonna let them both have daddy issues? Because you stripped away all personality from both characters, so they don't mesh well onscreen? You wouldn't have to do that if you were faithful to the source material, you leeches-
Juliet Butler does not have to be Artemis's age, please don't do that. Artemis being the only child in the room elevates the surreality of his being in control of every situation while the adult characters try to catch up. We don't need the Aculos, Opal Koboi isn't supposed to be a threat until Artemis is older, his father is a criminal who gets home and wants to turn good, Artemis is the first of his family to discover the existence of fairies because he's that smart, so we don't need your secret Spy Kids museum of fairy stuff in Fowl Manor, and he is a selfish intelligent brat who has to learn that he's in the wrong and that some things are more important than money and himself.
All of this to say, since this is getting too long: Disney got off on the wrong foot immediately with this movie; it was doomed from the start. I waited twelve years for this film and wanted to do physical damage to the nearest wall when I finally saw it. That first book is practically made for television; if anything, all you had to do was trim it a little bit and it was good to go for the big screen. But no, you had to take away everything that made it unique. Stay away from my childhood from now on, Disney. And tell Judi Dench I'll meet her in the parking lot.
Why do you think Lilo is obsessed with creepy, dead things?
Because she's already bent toward the eccentric, like her mother before her.
Because Chris Sanders wanted to craft a character who would compliment a blue, destruction-inclined genetic mutation from another galaxy.
Because Chris Sanders described her as existing a little bit "on the dark side".
Because the movie takes place shortly after her parents' death.
Because she sees life differently.
Lilo's interests have switched from odd and funny things to macabre and impossible things. She's creative and imaginative already, and she's just 5 or 6 years old. Her parents died.
Now a fish has to control the weather, specifically so that he can be appeased, and when a kid needs appeasing, food usually does the trick. Now voodoo is not only possible, it's practical, and who better to use it on than the girls who play with dolls that look like themselves, but won't play with her? Now Scrump is recovering from surgery, not just a homemade mistake. Now the nasty talking dog she just adopted surely used to be a collie before he got ran over. She'd like to know if Cobra killed anyone. She thinks Nani's boss wants her to join his legion of the undead.
The only way she knows how to respond to a massive, devastating change in her world is to make death an interactive part of that world.
How are you handling the season 15 finale mass crash out?
isn’t it remarkable that I know exactly what you’re talking about-
and if I’m way off let’s laugh together-
Simultaneously nauseated and resigned. I stopped watching Doctor Who when Peter Capaldi left, but I do like to keep tabs on it; I saw Russell T. Davies’ return trilogy when it came out, and I saw Ncuti’s first full episode. Those were okay.
And then Russell ran the show directly into the ground and kept digging until he hit magma, and now you can smell the show burning from continents away.
It’s sad, because I really admired his writing, and it looks like the older he gets, the more often (and more stubbornly) he chooses to do exactly what he always said was bad for storytelling, and Doctor Who, of all things, is suffering for it.
This show is 60+ years old. It should not be this difficult to do it right. But they’re not thinking about what makes a story good; they’re thinking about themselves and they’re thinking about money-
I’ll say this right now: Doctor Who needs to be cancelled. It needs a break. If it’s ever going to be what it was, it has to be set back in the toy box for a little bit, and rediscovered by someone new, or else they’ll just keep ruining everything.
Russell do you hear me you put that down-
And the very last person they should have gotten for Ncuti to regenerate into was Billie Piper. *loud sounds of dry heaving* don’t get me started-
Rose? Rose Tyler? The Moment? Arguably the person that made this show as we know it today? You picked that actress? To play a different character? Possibly the title role? Do you really think people are that stupid? They see a familiar face and they’re hooked right back in, never mind the bad plot, never mind the inconsistent companions, never mind that every decision you’ve made for this show since you signed back on has been so self-indulgent you can’t let five minutes go by without some sort of cultural wisecrack, Russell-
In 2005 Billie Piper portrayed a character that really resonated with everyone, whether it was negative or positive. A character that reshaped a generations-old story. Rose was written with so much excitement and intentionality and Billie played her with so much depth and heart. Love her or hate her, Rose is Doctor Who. To this generation, that’s the face of Doctor Who. The Doctor changes now and then, but everyone remembers Rose.
And now they’re using that very earned affection in this cheap trick to boost their numbers. It’s disrespectful and it makes me feel like they think very little of their audience.
Let go of the old actors and actresses. Let go of the old lore. Write something new, and just keep the things that made Doctor Who wonderful in the past. That’s what made it work again in 2005, when nobody thought it could come back.
It’s not that hard. Just stop trying to make it something it’s not.
I don’t want to see Billie Piper as “the Doctor”. I don’t care if it’s Rose somehow teleported in, switched places with him or something (it’s not, and that wouldn’t be fair to Ncuti). The former is silly, and the latter screws up the ending the character got years ago.
(don’t get me started on Susan or the Rani or Omega or any of that nonsense, either)
I’ll be fine, because I have 60+ years of great content to go back to, and I can ignore the current events of the show. I don’t have to watch it. It’s not Doctor Who anymore. It’s a fever dream that’s making a lot of people a lot of money, and I’m not here for that. I like good stories.
