3 ms·

I would too. that said, the article conflates "messaging" with "storytelling". What's the difference? Genuinely curious, not trying to start a politically-in

I would too. that said, the article conflates "messaging" with "storytelling". What's the difference? Genuinely curious, not trying to start a politically-inclined flame war. I would think that some would find that Disney is trying to push a specific message via a story versus telling a story and letting the viewer come to a conclusion on their own, but that to me means there's a grey area, because Disney has been doing the former for a long time, but maybe some feel it's too overt? I don't know. Would love to get other perspectives here.

houseatrielah 3y ago
One thing frequently complained about by Nerdrotic and company, is that the main female characters have no character-arc and no love interest. They start out awesome and they continue to be awesome. The Problematic 'Strong Female Character' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G3VSkZ4H7o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G3VSkZ4H7o Hollywood can't write male characters anymore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL6H8CuCdjk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL6H8CuCdjk
- mcphage 3y ago
  I don’t know if that’s Disney’s problem, overall—Turning Red, Elemental, Encanto, and Raya and the last Dragon are all recent Disney movies with female leads who had interesting character arcs. Not all had love interests, but most the main character was too young. Raya could have, but she lives in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and anyway I don’t think the movie had room for another subplot.
engineer_22 3y ago
Storytelling is the plot. Messaging is the moral.
wharvle 3y ago
Plot v. Content, as Johnstone put it in Impro. The plot’s a sequence of things happening that connect back to earlier events and elements (without the latter, it’s not a plot, it’s just… stuff happening) that has a plain beginning, middle, and end, the flow of which most people can sense—he relates that children can usually tell when a story being made up on the fly is “over” and doesn’t demand to continue. “Content” is theme and message. You don’t necessarily need narrative to have it, but it tends to exist in narrative also. Johnstone advises, when writing or improvising, to worry about the plot, and that the content can take care of itself—it’ll just be there, like magic, when you look back on what you’ve created. Putting “content” first can weaken the narrative, and make one less creative, and anyway the content doesn’t need help to appear. Of course, his advice is also explicitly for beginners, and he repeatedly mentions as an aside that of course one may take a more active hand in guiding these sorts of things as one gets good enough at the basic techniques that they become effortless.

houseatrielah 3y ago

One thing frequently complained about by Nerdrotic and company, is that the main female characters have no character-arc and no love interest. They start out awesome and they continue to be awesome. The Problematic 'Strong Female Character' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G3VSkZ4H7o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G3VSkZ4H7o Hollywood can't write male characters anymore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL6H8CuCdjk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL6H8CuCdjk

mcphage 3y ago
I don’t know if that’s Disney’s problem, overall—Turning Red, Elemental, Encanto, and Raya and the last Dragon are all recent Disney movies with female leads who had interesting character arcs. Not all had love interests, but most the main character was too young. Raya could have, but she lives in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and anyway I don’t think the movie had room for another subplot.

engineer_22 3y ago

Storytelling is the plot. Messaging is the moral.

wharvle 3y ago

Plot v. Content, as Johnstone put it in Impro. The plot’s a sequence of things happening that connect back to earlier events and elements (without the latter, it’s not a plot, it’s just… stuff happening) that has a plain beginning, middle, and end, the flow of which most people can sense—he relates that children can usually tell when a story being made up on the fly is “over” and doesn’t demand to continue. “Content” is theme and message. You don’t necessarily need narrative to have it, but it tends to exist in narrative also. Johnstone advises, when writing or improvising, to worry about the plot, and that the content can take care of itself—it’ll just be there, like magic, when you look back on what you’ve created. Putting “content” first can weaken the narrative, and make one less creative, and anyway the content doesn’t need help to appear. Of course, his advice is also explicitly for beginners, and he repeatedly mentions as an aside that of course one may take a more active hand in guiding these sorts of things as one gets good enough at the basic techniques that they become effortless.