3 ms·

I don't really see how the story in Wall-E is any more subtle than the one in Strange World by your measure: > The entire planet being covered in skyscrapers o

by jemmyw 3y ago

I don't really see how the story in Wall-E is any more subtle than the one in Strange World by your measure: > The entire planet being covered in skyscrapers of toxic trash may have some parallels to the present, but those are just parallels. They lived on the back of a creature that was dying as a result of an infection and they had unknowingly been using the result of the infection as their power source. It's exactly the same kind of parallel and solution in fantastic terms. Stripped down these movies have a very similar storyline and message (things are broken, we can't just fix it without transforming ourselves, and some force or people will oppose that transformation). Now, I prefer Wall-E. I think the cinematics are better. The emptiness and stillness of Earth, the serenity of space, the scene where the spacecraft docks with the Aurora and is cleaned. Films of that era and before gave you some breathing space with the spectacle without so much shit going on constantly. That said, I think if Strange World came out at the time Wall-E did instead of it then it would have been better received, I personally feel like I'm pretty tired of the style.

c_crank 3y ago
The problem in Strange World is abstract with parallels, but the solution maps more precisely to reality. We do not live on the back of a turtle, but the solution of abandoning the Brussel Sprouts is very similar to the real life message of abandoning fossil fuels. I do not think overt messaging was the main reason Strange World flopped (although it probably was the case for Turning Red), but rather, the general gross-ness of the character designs, along with the dull premise.
- mcphage 3y ago
  > I do not think overt messaging was the main reason Strange World flopped (although it probably was the case for Turning Red) What overt messaging was in Turning Red? In any event, the reason that one flopped in theaters was that it also released simultaneously on Disney+, where AFAIK it has been very popular.
  - c_crank 3y ago
    The message in Turning Red can be trivially read as a thirteen year old girl learning to prostitute herself against the wishes of her stifling and controlling mother, even if this wasn't the intent of the filmmakers. Concerned parents will probably also find it strange that a Pixar movie made for small children casually throws around words like 'degenerate' and 'stoner' and talks explicitly about pads for minutes on end. I am not sure I would take popularity on the streaming service as a sign of financial success, given something like Encanto was big in both the box offices and after the fact streaming, but who knows what the balance sheet really looks like with these big companies these days.
    - mcphage 3y ago
      > The message in Turning Red can be trivially read as a thirteen year old girl learning to prostitute herself against the wishes of her stifling and controlling mother, even if this wasn't the intent of the filmmakers. I think you'd have to work kinda hard to justify that reading—and while believe you that you can, I do wonder why you'd want to work so hard to make such a reading? > Concerned parents will probably also find it strange that a Pixar movie made for small children casually throws around words like 'degenerate' and 'stoner' and talks explicitly about pads for minutes on end. Concerned parents from the 1950s, you mean? > but who knows what the balance sheet really looks like with these big companies these days Agreed.
      - c_crank 3y ago
        The trivial reading of Turning Red as prostitution is thus: a thirteen year old girl suddenly struggles with transforming into a red panda, and this is quickly explained in such a way to heavily associate with the physical and mental changes a girl typically experiences with puberty. One of the next plot points is that, to make money, the girl decides to sell pictures of herself as the 'panda' to make money. This being contemporaneous with a popular website designed to make it easy for women to sell pictures for money. Even later on, the movie concludes with this confident thirteen year old girl declaring that she has a right to twerk, all while she hopes to end up backstage with her friends at the local boy band concert. What typically happens to underage girls backstage at concerts? I wonder. I did very little reading into the events the story presents to get to this conclusion. Turning Red is not very subtle at all. It shouts in your face about pads and how twerking is the bomb. >Concerned parents from the 1950s, you mean? To the extent that any parents today care about what their kids watch, instead of shrugging while letting their toddlers gormlessly stare at a youtube video pipeline of strangely pornographic spiderman and elsa videos, they typically care about explicit violence, references to sex, and references to drugs. Turning Red has very clear cut examples of two of these things. I cannot imagine most parents being comfortable about discussing pads with their five or six year old daughters, nor thinking that the world is a better place when those daughters decide they want to start twerking as well because they saw it in the movie.

by jemmyw 3y ago

c_crank 3y ago

The problem in Strange World is abstract with parallels, but the solution maps more precisely to reality. We do not live on the back of a turtle, but the solution of abandoning the Brussel Sprouts is very similar to the real life message of abandoning fossil fuels. I do not think overt messaging was the main reason Strange World flopped (although it probably was the case for Turning Red), but rather, the general gross-ness of the character designs, along with the dull premise.

mcphage 3y ago
> I do not think overt messaging was the main reason Strange World flopped (although it probably was the case for Turning Red) What overt messaging was in Turning Red? In any event, the reason that one flopped in theaters was that it also released simultaneously on Disney+, where AFAIK it has been very popular.
- c_crank 3y ago
  The message in Turning Red can be trivially read as a thirteen year old girl learning to prostitute herself against the wishes of her stifling and controlling mother, even if this wasn't the intent of the filmmakers. Concerned parents will probably also find it strange that a Pixar movie made for small children casually throws around words like 'degenerate' and 'stoner' and talks explicitly about pads for minutes on end. I am not sure I would take popularity on the streaming service as a sign of financial success, given something like Encanto was big in both the box offices and after the fact streaming, but who knows what the balance sheet really looks like with these big companies these days.
  - mcphage 3y ago
    > The message in Turning Red can be trivially read as a thirteen year old girl learning to prostitute herself against the wishes of her stifling and controlling mother, even if this wasn't the intent of the filmmakers. I think you'd have to work kinda hard to justify that reading—and while believe you that you can, I do wonder why you'd want to work so hard to make such a reading? > Concerned parents will probably also find it strange that a Pixar movie made for small children casually throws around words like 'degenerate' and 'stoner' and talks explicitly about pads for minutes on end. Concerned parents from the 1950s, you mean? > but who knows what the balance sheet really looks like with these big companies these days Agreed.
    - c_crank 3y ago
      The trivial reading of Turning Red as prostitution is thus: a thirteen year old girl suddenly struggles with transforming into a red panda, and this is quickly explained in such a way to heavily associate with the physical and mental changes a girl typically experiences with puberty. One of the next plot points is that, to make money, the girl decides to sell pictures of herself as the 'panda' to make money. This being contemporaneous with a popular website designed to make it easy for women to sell pictures for money. Even later on, the movie concludes with this confident thirteen year old girl declaring that she has a right to twerk, all while she hopes to end up backstage with her friends at the local boy band concert. What typically happens to underage girls backstage at concerts? I wonder. I did very little reading into the events the story presents to get to this conclusion. Turning Red is not very subtle at all. It shouts in your face about pads and how twerking is the bomb. >Concerned parents from the 1950s, you mean? To the extent that any parents today care about what their kids watch, instead of shrugging while letting their toddlers gormlessly stare at a youtube video pipeline of strangely pornographic spiderman and elsa videos, they typically care about explicit violence, references to sex, and references to drugs. Turning Red has very clear cut examples of two of these things. I cannot imagine most parents being comfortable about discussing pads with their five or six year old daughters, nor thinking that the world is a better place when those daughters decide they want to start twerking as well because they saw it in the movie.