Twins in Media: The Tweedles vs Thing 1 and Thing 2

Screenshot from ‘The Cat in the Hat’ (2003) starring (from left) Danielle Ryan, Mike Myers, and Brittany Oakes. Copyright goes to Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I know this is early, but as I am planning a different post for Tuesday, I thought it would be best to be a little early. This week for twins in media, we’re going to take a look at the twins from classic literature that, if you’ve read our previous posts about them, are pretty bad at showing audiences what twins are really like. Unfortunately, these two portrayals were the most popular portrayals of twins for a long time, resulting in many pairs of twins being called Thing 1 and Thing 2 or Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee. While these are both bad portrayals, I’m here to decide which one is the most harmful. So, let’s get into it!

Tropes:

The Tweedles: As both of these sets of twins in media have started many of the twin tropes still used, it’s not a surprise that there are so many to choose from here. The Tweedles are incredibly synchronistic. When they aren’t saying the exact same things at the exact same time, they are finishing each other’s sentences instead. They also suffer from a trope that is worlds more harmful; the ever-dreaded Circus Freaks trope. This comes from the idea that twins are somehow not natural and that they are something to be ogled. Just looking at the Tweedles, it doesn’t take long to realize that they are placed in a world where everything is weird and there’s not much weird about them other than their aggressiveness. That’s because their existence as twins is supposed to be weird for some reason. Twins do not have a supernatural connection and the birth of twins is pretty common so I have no idea why people seem to be so quick in labeling all of us as an odd phenomenon. We are actual human beings who are different from each other. We are not some sort of freaks to be ogled.

The Things: In a world of humans, the Things aren’t even written to be human. They’re…well…Things. Which makes it really nice when someone inevitably refers to myself and my sister as Thing 1 and Thing 2. Obviously, they mean it all in good fun, but it still always reminds me how much this ridiculous portrayal of twins has effected the way everyone sees twins in general. They speak at the same time, they do the exact same things, and they are a perfect example of the mischievous twins trope. All they really do is create lots of chaos and then clean it up afterwards…sometimes. They aren’t even really people, so I don’t know if I should be offended or if they even count as being twins at all. Anyways…

Winner: The Things. Though these two have unfortunately been the pair of twins that my sister and I (and probably every pair of twins) are compared to the most, they aren’t nearly as harmful as the Circus Freaks trope. I personally think that Dr. Seuss didn’t necessarily mean for them to represent twins and that part of it actually came from misguided adults, but I digress.

Differences and Similarities:

The Tweedles: Hahahahahahaha. This one’s funny. Um…there are no differences, it’s pretty much the exact same character twice. Wonderful, huh? Maybe it’s lazy writing.

The Things: Same as above.

Winner: Tie. Both of these are the exact same character twice and there’s really not much else to say. Media has always been obsessed with inextricably connecting twins to the point where they are either the exact same or the exact opposite. It’s also convenient for them because it means less time writing actual characters. Like any human beings who grew up together, we have some similarities and some differences. Even in the way that we look, despite what people think. Portraying us as the exact same person twice is what causes idiots to think that it’s ok and totally monogamous to have the idea of dating both of us. It stems from this old idea that it was totally ok and monogamous to date two girls in general at the same time (Hence the old phrase “Two girls for every boy”), and people still cling to this idea in the form of twin fetishization. Again, I repeat, we are NOT the same person. We’ve never even liked the same guy. If you’ve ever had that thought at all, please both check yourself and also leave here with the knowledge that it’s a stupid and absolutely archaic thought that stems from female fetishization as a whole. In other words, you’re wrong.

Relationship:

The Tweedles: They’re close I guess. They’re always together. And they have the exact same relationships with other people because they are, again, the same character twice. They basically operate under a hive mind.

The Things: Again, they must have a good relationship because they do everything together. Just like the ones above, these are more like exact clones than they are twins. They have the same relationship with Cat and there’s no difference in their other relationships either. Another hive mind.

Winner: Tie. Both of these sets of twins are treated the same in their stories. They are the same character twice who do the exact same things at the exact same time. I wish I could say that they had complex relationships, but they don’t. Because for the longest time, twins were written to be fun, weird, things rather than actually complex human beings. Sometimes we’re still being written like that. And it has resulted in my sister and I being treated like fun and weird things rather than complex human beings by actual people in real life.

Plot:

The Tweedles: The Tweedles have the exact same plot as they are always together. Sometimes they’ll trap Alice and tell her a story, while other times they’ll both offer to slay the Jabberwocky with the Vorpal Sword. At least they weren’t counted as the same offer, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that they both still do the exact same things in the plot. At least they are given a little more in the plot.

The Things: They, again, do the exact same things in the plot. But, admittedly, they are given much less time. They appear to mess things up and then appear again to clean up their mess after everything’s all settled with the kids. They have no voices.

Winner: The Tweedles. At least they speak and have a plot. While the Things are characters on their own that are meant to be fun rather than weird, which is an upgrade from the Tweedles, they are given much less plot overall than the Tweedles.

Final Result:

There were two ties and they each won once, so I have every reason to proclaim this a tie. But I can’t do that and thinking about it, I’m not sure it’s as much of a tie for me personally. The Things take this. The Things are infinitely less problematic characters than the Tweedles and are at least portrayed in a good light. Not to mention that they are not explicitly twins and most of the horrible comparisons come from people who compare twins to these characters. They are still bad, but it’s the people who ask us which one is Thing 1 and which one is Thing 2 like it’s an actual legitimate question that make this portrayal the most unbearable. Even though the Things aren’t human and the Tweedles are, it’s the Tweedles that are treated like something weird. The Cat in the Hat book views the Things as being just as natural as the Cat, whose presence is never really questioned too much in the book. The Tweedles are consistently pointed at as a laughing stock or a weird circus act. They are dumb and they fall all over each other. At least the Things are depicted as being smart. The Things aren’t great, but the Tweedles are the most harmful literary depiction of twins I have ever seen in my life. Hopefully, writers who write twins in the future will see them as a mistake rather than something to be copied. And that kind of goes for the Things too.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Studio Ghibli: Characters That Deserve More Love Part 2

Screenshot from ‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’ (1984). Copyright goes to Topcraft and Studio Ghibli.

Hey! Hallie here!

I pretty much always have Studio Ghibli on my mind, so let’s continue this series! I’m focusing specifically on characters that I don’t see talked about. Bonus points for characters who don’t get any merch at all. The majority of movies I’ll be referencing this time around are also underrated. Unlike ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ or ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’, they aren’t as commonly enjoyed or brought up. But, as usual, every single movie referenced here is one that I highly recommend watching. There will be some light spoilers ahead. Let’s get into it!

  • Pazu. Pazu is one of the protagonists in ‘Castle in the Sky’. This movie is the first movie to be released under the name Studio Ghibli. Because of it’s age, it doesn’t seem to be as recognized as many other Studio Ghibli films. In my opinion, this is among the best of Studio Ghibli’s films and Pazu is one of the best male leads I’ve seen in any animated movie. Pazu is an orphan who lost his father when he was young. His father was looking for Laputa, a large castle floating in the sky, when he died. Because of this, Pazu has vowed to find Laputa and prove that his father’s claims of its existence were correct. However, he doesn’t have much money or resources, meaning he spends most of his time helping the miners that live in his small town. During one job he sees Sheeta floating down from the sky by her glowing necklace. From that moment on he resolves to help her. He gives her shelter for the night and immediately lends her his clothing so she can hide once he discovers she’s on the run. Anytime she attempts to tell him that helping her will be too dangerous for him, he refuses to leave her side. He offers Sheeta both comfort and emotional support, but he also trusts her to take care of herself. On top of all of that, he doesn’t have any explicit romantic feelings for her. He just wants to help her because she needs help and he enjoys her company. He’s hands-down one of the kindest characters Studio Ghibli has ever created.
  • Kushana. Here’s the first antagonist on this list. Kushana is one of the main villains in ‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’. This movie is now considered Studio Ghibli’s first film, but at the time, it wasn’t even released under the Studio Ghibli name. Because of this, a lot of people miss out on this movie. I could say all of it’s characters could justifiably be considered underrated, but for now I want to focus on Kushana. This movie spends most of it’s time setting up the Ohmu, or large bug creatures, as the villains. But as it focuses on the preservation of nature, the true villains are the humans who are attempting to wipe out the Ohmu, led by Kushana. Kushana lost her arm in an Ohmu attack when she was a young girl. She’s sworn vengeance on them since, but she isn’t senselessly violent. She expresses her admiration for Nausicaa and her pacifist nature many times. She’s simply scared of the Ohmu. She also wants to keep her men safe. Despite her violent tendencies she cares very much for the people who work for her. She may be an antagonist, but even Nausicaa has a large amount of respect for her.
  • Jiro Horikoshi. Jiro Horikoshi is yet another male protagonist, this time form ‘The Wind Rises’. ‘The Wind Rises’ is one of Studio Ghibli’s more realistic animated films. Because of that, it doesn’t get as much attention as the movies with fantasy elements. Still, it’s a very emotional film with an engaging main character. Jiro dreamed of flying planes as a young boy, but because of complications with his vision, he comes to learn that it’s impossible. He turns, instead, to spending his life designing aircrafts. During his study of airplane designs, he arrives in Tokyo during the Great Kanto Earthquake. After the disaster he meets Naoko, his future wife, and her friend who has broken her leg. Without giving his name, he carries Naoko’s friend to safety and helps them get together all of the belongings they had with them. This isn’t the first of his uncommonly sweet actions. Throughout the movie he also attempts to offer his food to two orphans, and helps Naoko as her health begins to decline. Jiro is easy to like from the first few scenes of the movie, but he isn’t above making mistakes. He struggles to believe his designs are good enough, and he morally questions himself for creating designs that will inevitably be used for war. Miyazaki wrote his struggles with his own art, as well as his pacifist nature, into the character of Jiro. His writing allows the audience to admire him and still question every move he’s making at the same time.
  • Granny. Granny is one of the side-characters from ‘My Neighbor Totoro’. I don’t have to explain this movie because you’ve probably already seen it. I still find, however, that many viewers overlook Granny. She’s introduced as the neighbor of Mei and Satsuki when they move into their new house. She helps them move in when she sees them arrive and creates a quick connection with the girls over the soot sprites they saw. Afterwards, she becomes a very helpful and kind presence in their lives. She watches Mei when her father can’t and shows her just as much kindness as she does her own grandchildren. When the girls hear that their mother is sick, she does her best to comfort them and make sure they’re alright. She’s also extremely concerned when Mei goes missing. She does all that she can to search for her and rally others to do the same, while still worrying for Satsuki’s health. Granny acts as another guardian to both Satsuki and Mei even when she doesn’t have to. For that, she deserves respect.

There are so many more characters that deserve more recognition among Studio Ghibli’s films. Several more are in my first post in this series. Studio Ghibli has created only a handful of bad characters amongst their long list of films. Their female characters are almost always excellent female representation. They’re able to hold their own without losing any of their femininity. Their male protagonists have amazing personalities and are allowed just as much emotion as their female characters. Even their antagonists are relatable characters. Studio Ghibli does a very good job of making their movies both magical and realistic, and their characters are no different. I hope that I helped you find something new to watch or a new character to obsess over. You can never like Studio Ghibli too much, after all.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Christmas: BTS Christmas

Promotional image of Park Jimin from BTS’s 2020 Holiday Greeting. Copyright goes to BigHit Entertaiment.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Because I know it’s the holidays, I’m going to keep this one short and sweet. I definitely have been and will be celebrating Christmas this year with BTS, so it’s only right that I share all of the ways I have been celebrating with them. They’ve done many a Christmas celebration, some of the new stuff just came out yesterday, and I thought I would share my favorite songs and videos from them over the years. Some of these I will be watching tomorrow! Here we go!

BTS’s Christmas Carol Medley (2019):

This is less of a performance and more of an entire skit. Jungkook descends into this little house where a little girl is sleeping. As he goes to wake her up he sings ‘O’ Holy Night’ and then becomes this adorable little girl’s guide through the rest of this amazingly cute showcase. He first takes her to a candy shop where Taehyung and Yoongi pop out to sing ‘Jingle Bell Rock’. Yes, sing. None of the rappers here are rapping, they are ALL singing. Yes, this does include Namjoon. After Taehyung and Yoongi skip around the candy shop with the girl for a bit, Jungkook takes her to a an area decorated with presents. Here Najmjoon and Jimin appear to ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’. Personally, this one was my favorite of the songs. Namjoon and Jimin are a hilarious coupling and the way they interact with the little girl is so adorable. Jungkook then takes the little girl to a clothing shop where Hobi and Jin appear to sing ‘Feliz Navidad’ as their usual absolutely chaotic selves. It all ends in them all singing ‘Silent Night’. This is seriously one of the cutest things you will ever see the boys do.

Disney Holiday Special and Holiday ‘Dynamite’:

I’m including these together because they were shot at the same time. In another rendition of ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ the boys absolutely goof off. Seriously, Jimin and Namjoon especially went crazy with this one and it’s all the better for it. But I especially loved seeing them perform ‘Dynamite’. You can see the full performance view of one of the three individual videos of a group of two holding a selfie stick on Youtube. Jimin with Jungkook, Hobi with Tae, and Jin with Namjoon. Each of these is hilarious and very high energy. The only thing missing is Yoongi, who you will miss in literally anything he isn’t in. My Yoongi stan heart has been sad. (But hopefully he’s coming back soon!)

Mistletoe by Jimin and Jungkook:

This is a cover of the Justin Bieber song and I definitely think it’s way better than the original. Jungkook and Jimin have always sung so well together (see their harmony in ‘House of Cards’) and this song is no different.

Crystal Snow:

This one is often overlooked and I can’t figure out why. It’s one of my favorite BTS songs. Jin hits an unbelievable high note that is one of the highlights of the song and it just gives you this warm fuzzy feeling. Crystal Snow is just beautiful, it’s hard to find anything else to say.

Snow Flower by V feat. Peakboy:

Tae’s warm, calm voice is absolutely perfect for Christmas songs. Literally any solo project he comes out with is beautiful and some of them, like this one, also hit the mark at sounding adorable as well. If you didn’t think a song could sound adorable, here’s your proof. Everything Tae does is art. There, I said it.

Christmas Love by Jimin:

Just like the one above, this one was just released yesterday and I love it so much. I can’t even explain to you how much I love this one. It’s probably my new favorite Christmas song. Jimin captures all the wonder and warmth of Christmas into this one song and you can’t help but feel excited for the holiday season while listening to it.

Also if you haven’t seen their holiday greeting from this year where they are all dressed up as Santa, you should. That’s what the picture of Jimin above is from. Yoongi is in it!!!! (Also, it looks like he’ll be in the New Year’s Eve Live celebration on Vlive!)

I hope you have an absolutely amazing time tomorrow and I hope it restores some of the joy and hope in your heart that may have faltered due to this year in general. The new year is just around the corner! I hope you have a fun and SAFE holiday. Merry Christmas!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Twins in Media: Jacob and Evie Frye vs. Robert and Rosalind Lutece

Screenshot of Robert and Rosalind Lutece from ‘Bioshock: Infinite’. Copyright goes to Irrational Games and 2K Games.

Hey! Hallie here!

We’re finally to this week’s Twins in Media post! For this week, I’m going to be comparing some of the most iconic representations of twins in video games. The ‘Bioshock’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series are some of the biggest video game series of all time and each have a very different approach to twins. Jacob and Evie Frye are close siblings with very different personalities. Meanwhile, Robert and Rosalind have a lot in common, mostly because they’re the same person. Literally. Before we start, I do want to acknowledge that Robert and Rosalind aren’t technically twins. But they’re referred to as twins throughout the game and view themselves as siblings. They’re also effected by various twin tropes. With all those things in mind, I have decided that they are presented as twins to the audience and should be counted. With that out of the way, let’s see which pair is better twin representation.

Tropes:

Jacob and Evie: Jacob and Evie’s main problematic trope is the ‘Opposites’ trope. Evie is the thoughtful character who prefers to do everything smartly and stealthily. Meanwhile, Jacob looks before he leaps and doesn’t care what trouble it causes. Often this leads to Evie having to clean up his messes. But, similarly, Jacob takes care of urgent problems Evie is too slow to react to. Every major piece of their personalities seems to balance out the other twin’s traits. Even the game mechanics follow this trend. The skill trees for each character give them opposite fighting styles. Evie’s skill tree is focused on stealth and discretion while Jacob’s skill tree is all about brute force. The opposites approach is a very extreme attempt at making the audience sure of the differences between twins. But it isn’t necessary. Twins aren’t generally opposites of each other. They’re just different from each other, as all siblings, and even all humans, are.

Robert and Rosalind: These two have the opposite issue. Robert and Rosalind are literally the same person. They’re just from two different realities. Rosalind is from the original reality that the player character is from. She was a lonely child, and one day dreamed that she came face to face with multiple versions of her, all different, but still basically her. The event caused her to become a scientist and seek out the dimensions where these versions of her existed so she could have a sibling. The first time she was successful she met Robert, a male version of her from a different reality. The two became very close and decided to stick together regardless of which reality they decided to hang out in. While there are some slight differences between them, their similarities are more often emphasized. They even finish each others sentences almost every time they speak, which implies they have a lot of the same thoughts. Obviously, this is a very harmful trope. Twins are very different people. It’s difficult for us to finish each others sentences because we aren’t always on the same page. We have different thoughts, beliefs, and personalities.

Winner: Jacob and Evie take this one easily. While portraying twins as opposites isn’t completely accurate, portraying twins as the same person is infinitely worse. Any piece of media that decides to show twins as individuals is on the right track, even if they make them too different. Meanwhile, introducing twin characters to an audience, only to reveal to them that these twin characters are just the same person, is horrible.

Differences and Similarities:

Jacob and Evie: I’ve already talked about their vast differences, but these two do have some similarities. For one, they both chose the same profession and are both very passionate about it. Their father taught them both to be Assassins, and though they go about their jobs in different ways, they still enjoy many of the same aspects of the job. Also, because the player has to be able to switch between the characters easily, they have friendships with a lot of the same people. Their relationships with those people are still different, too. For example, Jacob finds Henry Green to be a good friend and ally while Evie has a giant crush on him and has a bit more in common to speak with him about. But they are both close to him. This isn’t abnormal for many twins. Just because we are different people doesn’t mean we can’t share some of the same interests or that we don’t have the same friends. I enjoy that this game gives these two similarities without using it as a way to question each of their individualities.

Robert and Rosalind: Surprisingly, there are some differences between these two. Or, to be precise, one major difference. Robert has more of a moral conscience. Rosalind dedicated her life to finding an alternate version of her to be her sibling. Once she succeeded, she didn’t care about anything else. As long as she was able to enjoy her time with her brother, and attempt a few crazy experiments every once in a while, she was content. Robert, however, wasn’t like that. When he and Rosalind became caught up in a plan to kidnap a baby with the promise that they would be able to stay together at the end of it, Robert became very guilty. So guilty, in fact, that he threatened to refuse to see or speak to Rosalind again if she didn’t help him undo the damage they had done. Unfortunately there aren’t any other differences between them, but I’m glad this one does exist.

Winner: Jacob and Evie. Jacob and Evie’s plethora of small similarities are easily better than the one difference between Robert and Rosalind. They could use more obvious similarities, of course. But Robert and Rosalind get extra points knocked off because you only discover Robert is a more moral person when you get to a secret room in one of the DLCs. It isn’t even in the main game.

Relationship:

Jacob and Evie: These two have one of the most basic sibling relationships in all of media. They have a sibling rivalry. Their opposite personalities cause them to fight a lot. Evie gets increasingly frustrated that Jacob leaves messes for her to clean up, but Jacob finds her complaints ridiculous when she won’t act in the first place. That argument happens throughout the entirety of the game and comes to a head towards the end, where they decide that they should no longer work as a duo. But, of course, they realize that they care about each other and like working together at the end of the game. It’s implied they work together far into the future. Still, the sibling rivalry plot is a bit overused. It’s heartwarming to see the moments in the game where the two get along, but the plot relies on the fact that they don’t for the majority of the game.

Robert and Rosalind: These two have a very close sibling relationship. They rely on each other for comfort and for a second opinion. They care about what happens to each other. They demonstrate a pretty good sibling relationship. This type of relationship could have been portrayed as slightly romantic. This happens too often with opposite-sex twin relationships, especially ones that are close. Luckily, this isn’t true of these two. They fight on occasion and they do disagree, but their relationship doesn’t falter for it.

Winner: Robert and Rosalind. I don’t have an issue with twins fighting or not getting along with each other. It happens a lot in real life, too. But, once again, a balance between fighting and getting along is more realistic. The opposite personalities make Jacob and Evie’s sibling rivalry even more questionable. With Robert and Rosalind we get a pretty nice relationship that isn’t reliant on any overused plot devices.

Plot:

Jacob and Evie: These two have two separate storylines that converge in parts. In other words, the perfect layout for twin characters. Evie is on the search for a Piece of Eden which causes her to take a more observant position while she looks for information. She spends some of her time looking for old Assassin treasures with Henry Green, and at other times attempts to get to the Piece of Eden before the Templars misuse it. Jacob makes his mission to take down all of the major Templar officials in the area. He works closely with the police chief to find them, makes friends with many of the wrong people, and ends up making the most assassinations of the two. But, of course, both are fighting against the Templars, which means they are both fighting against the same people. Their goals are just slightly different. This causes their storylines to converge. And even when they aren’t working against the same people at the same time, there are various occasions where they need each other’s expertise in order to complete a mission. These two are not only the main characters, but they have different storylines for their personalities to grow and develop. I don’t see any issues here.

Robert and Rosalind: They have the same plotline. They show up at the same moments. You never see one without the other. The only instance you see their different personalities is through collectables you can find throughout the game. These collectables are entries in Rosalind’s audio diary, which means you get some of her on her own. But that’s about it. Their personalities are not established sperate from each other. There aren’t many differences to be found in the first place.

Winner: Jacob and Evie by quite a bit. This is really the perfect video game layout for twin characters against the worst video game layout for twin characters. There is absolutely no contest here.

Final Result:

Jacob and Evie Frye win! You probably guessed this after the first round. I have no problem with the idea of having the same person from two alternate realities interact with each other. But when you present them as twins, and even have them finishing each others sentences in a move that reflects a lot of bad representations of twins in media, you create something more harmful than entertaining. It’s even more frustrating that the major differences between Robert and Rosalind are kept to a secret room in a DLC. Meanwhile, Evie and Jacob are major characters with very different personalities. They fall into some tropes, but overall that doesn’t affect how well the game shows them as separate people. The game is even able to focus on their sibling relationship for it’s plot without pulling out too many harmful twin tropes. I wish there was more same-sex twin representation to be found in gaming, but I’ll appreciate ‘Assassin’s Creed”s fairly good attempt at general twin representation, regardless.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Christmas: Disneyland’s Christmas Parade

Image of Disneyland’s Christmas Fantasy Parade from the Disney Parks official website.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Around this time of year I would usually be at Disneyland celebrating the holidays with my family. Unfortunately, that isn’t possible considering the rightful closure of Disneyland. In my opinion it shouldn’t be the only park closed, but I digress. One of my favorite parts of the holiday season at Disneyland has always been the Christmas parade. The Christmas Fantasy Parade has been pretty similar throughout each year, but every year they do change something about it that makes it either better or worse. So because I miss this parade so much, I’m going to list all of my favorite parts of the parade, some of which are no longer there, that have made this parade something of a tradition for me and my family.

The Opening Float:

This float consists of a couple of toys that have come to life sitting on a few books. The toys depicted on this float are a ballerina in a music box who dances beautifully throughout the parade and, more importantly, an adorable teddy bear. This bear only gets cuter as the years pass and is easily one of my favorite parts of the parade. He was Duffy the Disney Bear for a while, but Duffy has nothing on the cuteness of the current teddy bear. I would even say that the teddy bear is what I think of first when I think of the Christmas Fantasy Parade now. Somehow this float, that has absolutely no Disney characters on it, is quite possibly the most iconic image from the parade.

The Tin Soldier Trumpeters:

This is the one that probably actually is the most iconic image from the parade. You can hear them coming and it always brings this feeling of excitement. Their designs haven’t changed a whole lot, and it would be a shame to completely change them. The parade would not be complete without the tin soldiers.

The Dancing Snowmen:

The amount of effort that went into these adorable snowmen is amazing. They are only ever used for this parade and each snowman has its own unique design. And that does not just include what hat or scarf they wear. The snowmen each have different facial expressions and different faces. One even has freckles while another has a beauty mark. It is clear that the design team just went to town on these snowmen and they are all the better for it.

The Gingerbread:

While playing a version of the Nutcracker, half a dozen Gingerbread men march down with the chefs who made them, each just as adorable as the next. Some have different colored icings holding them together while some of them have peppermint buttons instead of gum drop ones. The highlight of this section for me though, was Goofy dressed as a chef creating the Gingerbread house. This isn’t so much the case anymore. Though the Gingerbread house is as beautiful as usual and it’s always fun seeing Goofy make a mess of the baking, a key element is missing. The issue is that the Gingerbread house has Goofy talking to himself or to Pluto, who is fishing off of the roof for icing, who only barks back in response. Up until 2013, the Gingerbread house was a father-son project between Goofy and Max. Max was the one sitting on the roof fishing for icing. Not only was it amazing to see Max there at all, but having it be a project for the both of them was heartwarming and Goofy having someone to actually respond to him was even better. I miss the conversation that used to happen on this float. The Gingerbread house float has only been a shadow of it’s former self and former meaning since they replaced Max with the more recognizable Pluto. I love Pluto, but I wish they would have kept him on the roof of the major character float.

Mickey and Minnie Ice Skating:

This is another example of a float that isn’t there anymore that I miss. A giant ice rink float would make it’s rounds, the only inhabitants being Mickey and Minnie who ice skated on the rink while waving to guests. Obviously they weren’t actually ice skating, it was an effect, but the idea was cute. In recent years this float was replaced with a float of Anna and Elsa from Frozen. Mickey and Minnie were crammed into the main character float with all the others. The Frozen float isn’t nearly as good as the old one was and it does feel a little weird that Mickey and Minnie aren’t as featured in the parade. But I do like Olaf’s remarks, so at least there’s that.

The Princesses:

This is always headed off by Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Drizella who are hilarious in whatever parade you place them in. As the Disney princess line has grown, so has the amount of people dancing around the float, and I love seeing all of them. Especially because you don’t often see the princes and I love that the float begins with Tiana and Naveen now. (Also, can we appreciate how much better the Beast in particular has looked in recent years. He went from kind of terrifying to adorably huggable.) I still wish that more of Disney’s diverse princesses were featured in the parade though. Also, they took away the warmer clothes for the princesses in recent years, so those princesses have to be freezing!

Gepetto’s Toyshop:

Again, we’re going to have to take a trip back through memory lane. While I understand and support the decision to make the Toyshop ‘Toy Story’ themed, I do miss seeing Gepetto, Pinocchio, and Jiminy Cricket making toys. Especially because now those slots are being filled by the green army men who aren’t nearly as adorable. But I will admit that this decision to change only makes sense; unlike Max where I still don’t understand why they changed it when they already had a place for Pluto. Yes, I am salty about this.

Santa and the Reindeer:

The Reindeer are once again adorable and really have my heart in this section of the parade. But you would be remiss not to mention Santa, as no Christmas parade would be complete without him. This has also recently become one of the most memorable parts of the parade in the last couple years because of the float malfunctioning and Santa almost falling out of the sleigh. He was rigged into it, so he was safe at least. That’s what I told myself when I laughed the first time I saw it. I feel bad for saying it, but the incident was really funny to watch.

Those are the things that I love and miss about Disneyland’s Christmas Fantasy Parade. I apologize because I’m not as familiar with Disney World’s parade. I have watched it before, but it just doesn’t hold the same magic for me. Probably because I’m more nostalgic for the Disneyland one since I grew up with it. I like Vanellope in her little Gingerbread kart, but all the other floats just fall flat for me. I’m sorry! But I guess Disneyland’s parade isn’t perfect either. Hopefully they will restore Max to his rightful place on top of the Gingerbread house in years to come. Happy holidays!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Book Adaptations: Best Additions to ‘Good Omens’

Screenshot of Michael Sheen and David Tennant from ‘Good Omens’. Copyright goes to Narrativia, The Blank Corporation, Amazon Studios, and BBC Studios.

Hey! Hallie here!

Today I would usually write a Twins in Media post, but from here on out this week is going to get a little hectic with schedules. It is the week of Christmas, after all. Nevertheless, I do want to give you some geeky goodness today, and after some new merch was FINALLY announced for this series, I thought it only fitting that I talk about my favorite book adaptation of all time. Between the acting, the accuracy to the original content, and the very likable leads, there isn’t much to dislike about this show. However, there are some differences from the book. While there are some things that were added to the show some might not find favorable, I find that most of Neil Gaiman’s additions to it were fitting. He’s one of the original authors of the book so I tend to trust his judgement on most of these things. With that said, let’s go through my favorite additions to the show that were absent from the book.

Episode Three’s Cold Open:

The entire backstory of Aziraphale and Crowley is only vaguely mentioned in the book. However, my favorite part of the entire series is the detailed history of how Aziraphale and Crowley became friends shown at the beginning of episode three. In the episode we see them meet in the Garden of Eden, where Aziraphale gives Adam and Eve a flaming sword and worries he might have done the wrong thing. We see them meet again to watch Noah enter the arc and Jesus being crucified. After they become better acquainted with each other we see them starting to invite each other out for food and saving each other from some potentially dangerous situations. We also get to see their arrangement, which is an important part of their relationship. Aziraphale and Crowley agree to do each others work in every area they’re sent, preventing them both from unnecessarily having to go to the same place at the same time to negate each other’s work. Even better, they make the arrangement while watching Shakespeare direct a rehearsal at the Globe Theatre. After this we get to see them fall out over a misunderstanding involving holy water, resulting in some of their uncertainty regarding their relationship that we see throughout the series. It explains a lot about the characters, and it’s fun to see them throughout history. It’s strange to picture this story without this wonderful cold open, which is remarkable for a sequence that wasn’t in the original book.

Gabriel and Heaven:

Jon Hamm is absolutely brilliant in the role of the angel Gabriel. He balances obliviousness with self-righteousness in a way that makes you love and hate this character at the same time. He’s a douchebag, but you can’t help but enjoy watching him when he’s onscreen. Gabriel was mentioned in the book, but was never actually present. This is especially odd because all of the demons we see in the series were in the books. We received much more of Crowley’s relationship with his co-workers than we did of Aziraphale and his co-workers in the original book. The series made up for that. We get to see what Heaven looks like and the way the angels treat Aziraphale. We get a glimpse into how corrupt some of the angels in Heaven are. We also get to see what they’re capable of. But I’ll get to that in a little bit. Plus, the scene where Gabriel visits Aziraphale in his bookshop is one of the highlights of the entire series.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:

There’s a few changes with these characters. One major change that most noticed immediately is that Pollution is a woman in this series. It doesn’t change much about the character, but I do appreciate that the actress they picked for the role provided more female representation, as well as Asian representation within the cast. Another major change is the absence of the motorcyclists who followed the Four Horsemen in the books. These characters attempted to take on names of evil things to mimic the names of the Four Horsemen, which mostly ended in them picking convoluted names that described minor inconveniences. They all end up dying horrific deaths before the final battle at the end of the book. While parts of these characters were hilarious, the joke sometimes felt like it ran on too long in the book. This was especially true because, like the show, the book cuts from storyline to storyline. Sometimes it felt you were right in the middle of the action with Adam and his friends or Aziraphale and Crowley, only to be thrown back into a storyline that was comical, but not nearly as interesting. Their absence left the show’s moments leading up to the final battle feeling more concise and tense. And the deaths of the Four Horsemen in the show are a bit more powerful. Each one of The Them that takes on each of the Horsemen gets their turn to take up the Flaming Sword and deal a final blow. Pepper standing against War is an especially powerful scene that doesn’t seem as powerful in the book.

Aziraphale and Crowley Escaping Death:

The entire last part of the series doesn’t happen in the book. Once Adam defeats the Devil, it’s over for the characters. They get to go on living their lives. But why wouldn’t Heaven and Hell try to get back at Crowley and Aziraphale for ruining their plans? Neil Gaiman put this ending in the show to surprise fans, and he didn’t disappoint. Aziraphale is warned through a prophecy in Agnes Nutter’s book that his extended life might come to a horrible end if he and Crowley don’t act quickly. In the next scene we see Aziraphale and Crowley meeting up in the park, only to be kidnapped by their respective co-workers and sentenced to death. This entire scene makes the angels in particular seem terrifying. They sentence Aziraphale to stand in a tornado of hellfire, which Gabriel gets shockingly aggressive at attempting to force Aziraphale into. Meanwhile the Demons are more nonchalant about sentencing Crowley to bathe in holy water. But Crowley ends up enjoying a nice bath in his holy water and Aziraphale is not only unharmed by the hellfire, but he spits some at Gabriel just for fun. Of course, it’s revealed that Aziraphale and Crowley switched places, explaining why neither was hurt from their supernatural death sentences. The trick works, though, and Aziraphale and Crowley get an extra happy ending with the confirmation that they don’t have to worry about Heaven or Hell anymore. It’s another one of my favorite storylines in the series that feels like it belonged there in the first place.

That’s my list! ‘Good Omens’ has been out for a while, but if you haven’t watched it, you should really go do that now. It’s streaming on Amazon Prime and it deserves all the hype it gets. If you also haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it. I’ve heard some book readers refer to it as a difficult book to get through, but I don’t find that true. If you like the series, you’ll get a lot of the story you know and love. You just have to be ready for a lot of side notes, which is a trademark of Terry Pratchett’s writing. In any case, I’m glad this series is finally getting recognition from some of the bigger merchandise companies. I hope that we see more as time goes on. And who knows, maybe Neil Gaiman will give us a season two eventually.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Christmas: In Defense of ‘The Nutcracker and the Four Realms’

Promotional image of Mackenzie Foy in ‘The Nutcracker and the Four Realms’. Copyright of Walt Disney Pictures.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Yes, I do realize that this came out a couple years ago, but I actually just watched it yesterday and had some thoughts on it. I think you could say that the reaction to this movie was almost violently bad. Whether it was someone critiquing the movie for a misuse of actors, Keira Knightley’s voice for the Sugar Plum Fairy, or just the fact that it was a Nutcracker adaptation at all, people just couldn’t like this movie. And while most considered this movie forgettable, the dislike of it trended across social media platforms for a while after it came out. I have to admit, when I saw the first trailer for this I was excited. I’ve always loved seeing adaptations of the Nutcracker and Keira Knightley is one of my favorite actresses of all time. When I heard that people thought it was bad, I was disappointed and almost convinced that all the reviews were correct. I haven’t liked the majority of Disney live action films. Even if this one is, thankfully, original and not based off of one of their previous movies that really doesn’t need a remake. Recently when I looked up reviews, however, I saw many people comparing their dislike of this film to their dislike of Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’. I understand that I am one of few when I say that I actually really like that movie (Though ‘Alice: Through the Looking Glass’ was absolutely awful). So would this adaptation of the Nutcracker be as bad as everyone said it was? After watching the movie I can honestly say that I think a lot of the ire directed at this movie is misplaced. I’m going to go over all the major arguments made against this movie and try and see if I can dispute at least some of them. Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. Ready? Great!

It wasn’t enough like the Nutcracker:

I can’t as much dispute this as come up with an argument against it. Because, no it wasn’t. I almost wish that the mother would have been Clara and the main character of this would have been Clara’s daughter. This is not really the story of the Nutcracker as much as it is a story inside of that world. And believe me, the world of the Nutcracker was gorgeous. One of my favorite things about this movie was the incredibly transporting design of everything inside the Four Realms. I think you might be disappointed if you go into this movie expecting a completely faithful adaptation of the Nutcracker story, but there’s actually a bit here if you go into it with more of an open mind. If you look at it as an extension of the story, I would say that it’s probably much more believable. And most adaptations of the Nutcracker add things on anyways considering the original ballet is an hour long story told through dance and has no dialogue. This movie also has Nutcracker music playing throughout as the score, so in that way it stays true to the original ballet as well.

What was going on with the Nutcracker character?:

This is an argument I didn’t fully understand. The Nutcracker is the first friend Clara makes when she enters the Four Realms, and he stays by her side for the majority of the rest of the film. He’s given some great character moments and he’s never forgotten about, they do constantly use him for important things within the plot. He is the secondary main character. I saw a lot of people say that he was forgettable and I didn’t find this at all to be true. He was one of my favorite characters in the movie and I never found myself having to wait to hear him say something or having to look around for him in a scene. And of course the story would focus on Clara more! The Nutcracker is not just the title character in this film, he’s also the title character of the original ballet whose main character is also- guess who- Clara. I also saw a lot of people dissatisfied with the build up to a romance between him and Clara, in which I have to say that there really wasn’t one there. At the end of the movie there was a strong friendship and maybe a hint at something more if you squint, but not much else. And I don’t think there was supposed to be. The relationship ended up the way the writing seemed to want it to end up. I will admit that sometimes it’s weird to remember that he’s actually the Nutcracker, but in the original ballet the Nutcracker turns into a handsome prince almost right away. Though this guy isn’t a prince, he serves the same role as Clara’s protector throughout her journey.

Where was Misty Copeland?:

This is another argument against the movie that I don’t entirely understand. Did you fall asleep? There’s an entire segment of ballet starring Misty Copeland in this movie that is actually extremely reminiscent of the original ballet. It is a gorgeous piece that is not too short that you would say that there’s barely any ballet in this film, but isn’t so long that it detracts from the plot. It was honestly one of my favorite parts of this movie. She also dances again throughout the entirety of the end credits in a mini-story that, like traditional ballet, has no dialogue. I personally felt that she was well-used.

Why would you portray the Sugar Plum Fairy like that?:

This is something I don’t have an answer for. I honestly couldn’t decide whether I liked her character or not. Her voice in this movie was not nearly annoying as everyone made it out to be. It wasn’t great, but I didn’t think it was at all unbearable. I didn’t have a huge problem with her character being evil. I will say that it hurt me a little because the Sugar Plum Fairy is one of my favorite characters from the original story, if not my favorite. I was really excited when I heard Keira Knightley would be playing her, but that excitement went down a bit once I realized she was the main villain. In the end, I was open to this being a different adaptation, so I didn’t have a problem with it in theory. Not only that, but Keira Knightley is absolutely having fun in this role and it’s infectious. They just didn’t give this character enough reason to be evil. This could have been fine, but it felt almost like the movie needed to be longer. The film is just over an hour and a half, which is pretty short for a live action movie these days. They could have used maybe another ten minutes or so to develop this plot point a bit more.

The A-list actors were misused or phoning it in:

I didn’t really find this to be the case. To me it looked like Morgan Freeman, Mathew Macfayden, Keira Knightley, and Helen Mirren were all having the time of their lives. The movie was lighthearted, so the actors also seemed to keep it lighthearted. But not in the way where they didn’t take this seriously. They all just seemed to have fun with it. Especially Keira Knightley. I said it once, but I will say it again, it looked like she was having SO much fun. They used each of these actors’ characters well and there wasn’t one that they barely used. I thought that this was handled well. Also, seeing Mackenzie Foy hug Helen Mirren at the end of the movie was nothing short of adorable.

The story felt shallow:

If you’re looking for a deep and dark portrayal of the Nutcracker, you aren’t going to find it here. In fact, I’m not quite sure where you would find that. The Nutcracker has always been pretty lighthearted. I mean, the original ballet has the Mouse King die pretty early on and the rest of it is mostly Clara exploring the world of the Nutcracker. The original story is almost like Alice in Wonderland but if the people Alice met were pleasant and not completely insane. They didn’t really change that aspect of it for this film. It’s a lighthearted Christmas movie and probably the most cohesive version of the Nutcracker I’ve ever seen when it comes to plot.

I still had my issues with this movie, but I could see myself watching this during the Christmas season years from now. It is not the best thing I’ve ever seen by any means, but it’s a cute and enjoyable romp for Christmas. It certainly never deserved all of the hate that it got. But I also will admit that I’m biased. I have a Nutcracker ornament that it’s tradition for me to hang on the tree with my family every year since before I can remember and a strong connection to the story because of it. There are not many good film adaptations of the Nutcracker, and I was really glad to see one that I could get behind. So, if you’re anything like me and was interested in watching ‘The Nutcracker and the Four Realms’ and then didn’t because of bad reviews; just ignore them and watch it anyways. You might enjoy it, like I did.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Disney: The Best Changes to the Haunted Mansion for Haunted Mansion Holiday

Professional photograph of Haunted Mansion Holiday used for the Disneyland Resort website. Copyright goes to the Walt Disney Company.

Hey! Hallie here!

Around this time of year, I always plan to go on Haunted Mansion Holiday at least once. It’s the best time of the year to ride the Haunted Mansion, especially for a ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ fan. The premise of Haunted Mansion Holiday is Jack Skellington taking over the mansion and decorating it for his own Christmas celebration, which effects the mansion from October until the end of December. You can see his decorations, and sometimes messily scattered equipment, around the mansion. The characters from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ also make appearances throughout the ride. It’s a giant overlay for the attraction. There isn’t much they don’t decorate or replace inside the Haunted Mansion for the holidays. Because I love these decorations, I’m going to talk about some of my favorite additions to the ride. While Haunted Mansion Holiday isn’t an overlay exclusive to Disneyland in California, it’s the version I’m most familiar with. As such, I’m going to stick to the decorations that appear in California. With that out of the way, let’s get into it!

Gingerbread House:

This is exclusive to Disneyland in California, so of course I had to mention it first. Every year the Disneyland Haunted Mansion Holiday gets a new monster gingerbread house. All of them are made out of actual gingerbread and are always insanely large and insanely detailed. They also move. One year there was a massive gingerbread coffin opening to reveal a skeleton gingerbread man. Another year there was a replica of the Haunted Mansion that seemed normal, until glowing red eyes lit at the top and the mansion cracked down the middle to become a wide, jagged, mouth. Then there was a giant replica of Jack Skellington’s house from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ with a ghost train moving around it. It’s always the highlight of the ride to see what the imaginers and chefs have come up with. The effects only get bigger every year.

Stretching Room:

This room is completely different during the holidays. The usual narration is replaced with a poem from Tim Burton’s ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ book. All the paintings are replaced with various ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ paintings that reflect each line of the poem. Some show the monstrous toys Jack created while others show Jack on a sleigh or amidst presents. At the end of the rhyme, where guests would usually see the hanging man, we see Jack peeking down on us from above. The effects for this particular part of the sequence were improved a few years ago. Before the improvement, there was a giant Jack Skellington face that’s eye sockets and mouth lit from within while Jack wished the guests happy holidays. Now we have a screen that shows a fully animated Jack Skellington leaning over to deliver the line. Between the creepy music and the skeleton projections on the walls, it sets the mood for the entire ride.

Madame Leota’s Parlor:

Madame Leota has an entirely new setup for Haunted Mansion Holiday. Instead of the floating instruments surrounding her table, the room is filled with tarot cards that feature the characters from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’. Madame Leota is chanting a creepier version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, and each verse can be matched with one of the tarot cards floating above. The crystal ball her head’s within is decorated more like an ornament and surrounded by other colorful ornaments. Her table features a zombie nutcracker, a large amount of candles, and a certain mischievous presence I’ll talk about later. It’s a really gorgeous room. The music is a bit more mysterious once you enter and the art on each tarot card is delightfully adorable. Behind Madame Leota’s table you can often see another decoration lit up behind her. It’s changed through the years, but a star made out of cards has been the most recent décor. There’s always something new to notice, especially since the cards turn too fast for you to take in all of them in one go.

Graveyard:

This is the star of the show every year. (Other than the gingerbread house, of course). At the end of the ride you’ll see the graveyard is covered in snow. A full sized, animatronic Jack Skellington in full Sandy Claws gear welcomes you at the entrance. Zero is right beside him, looking adorable. Also, a few feet away, you can spot Sally leaning against a gravestone and dreamily staring at Jack. If you look behind the gravestone you’ll see one of her legs kicking up and down. The basket full of food she gives Jack in the movie can also be seen next to her. Going farther in, you’ll see most of the ghosts in Christmas hats and the singing busts have been replaced with singing pumpkins. Behind the singing pumpkins there’s a giant mass of snow with pumpkins decorating it that comes into a familiar spiral at the top. There’s also various giant pumpkin-headed angels blowing trumpets. After you exit the graveyard, you run right into Oogie Boogie, another awesome animatronic, who spins a wheel to see what gift you get. Fingers crossed you get the mystery option, Lock, Shock, and Barrel blasting you with air as you leave.

Vampire Teddy:

You’ll see a familiar mischief maker follow you throughout the entire ride. At first he’ll use a fishing line to offer guests the suspicious box Lock, Shock, and Barrel initially planned to release on Santa. Later in the ride you’ll see him sitting on top of a coffin to keep its struggling inhabitant inside, perching behind Madame Leota with a bell, and gnawing on some sparking Christmas lights. He’s both adorable and unsettling every time you spot him.

The Music:

This is slight praise and slight disappointment. Of course, on the inside of the ride you’ll hear a lot of Danny Elfman’s original music from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ done in several fun ways. Outside of the building, however, you’ll hear what sounds like a creepy music box. This is actually the music for Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris. It’s a gorgeous piece, but I also miss some of the music they used to play in the que for Haunted Mansion Holiday. For a few years you could hear the Citizens of Halloweentown attempting some Christmas carols with varying amounts of success and accuracy. It was fun to hear, and as much as I love the Phantom Manor soundtrack, I miss it.

That’s it! There are plenty more decorations to enjoy while you’re on the ride that I didn’t mention. Tokyo Disneyland also has a Haunted Mansion Holiday with different decorations for guests to enjoy. If you’re curious about either of these, there are always high quality ride-throughs you can find on YouTube. Hopefully the parks will be open for the holidays next year so more people can experience how amazing this version of the ride is. Every year there seems to be some complaint about the ride appearing around Halloween. Many feel that it’s too Christmasy, or it isn’t scary enough to put up for the Halloween season. But ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ is probably the most popular “scary” thing Disney has created, and who can blame them for wanting the detail in this overlay to be seen for a longer time during the year?

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Superheroes: The Most Frustrating Female Representation

Screenshot of Scarlet Johansson as Black Widow from the ‘Black Widow’ trailer. Copyright goes to Disney Studios and Marvel Entertainment.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I know this also isn’t a Christmas post, but I promise I’ll get back to those soon! My sister and I have recently been talking about female representation specifically because of a really good episode of ‘Inside Pixar’ on Disney + where a woman received an award for coming up with algorithm that tells her how many male lines of dialogue are spoken versus female. This really got me thinking about all the bad, or at least frustrating, female representation in media. I’ve talked a bit about the good when it come to things like ‘Little Women’ (2019), ‘Birds of Prey’, or ‘Wonder Woman’. Especially looking at those two superhero movies, which are absolutely amazing because I think we can all agree that action movies are where female representation has suffered the most historically. I could talk all day about the love interest factor in action or superhero movies and how female characters are often relegated to being useless in the plot for anything but romance. But more than that, I want to talk about female characters who are considered good and have some of the worst parts of their characters overlooked. I specifically chose two examples. I apologize if you like either of these characters, but I feel that this has to be said. So, let’s get into it!

Black Widow:

You probably guessed from the picture that I used that I would start here. I know a lot of you might be angry, but please just hear me out. I’m not doing this to destroy your favorite characters, I’m doing this to bring to light problems that continue to exist that we should work on. In recent years we’ve been given a lot of “strong women” in movies. And some of them are actually strong women. But some of these movies use the simple fact that their female characters kick ass as proof that their characters are strong and complex. That cannot be where the bar is. Yes, it’s nice to finally see women kicking ass in action films but we also need to see these women be complex and, most of all, be treated respectfully. I’m just going to come out and say now that Joss Whedon is one of the most sexist writers in Hollywood. Here’s what went wrong with Natasha Romanoff. At least in ‘Avengers’ and definitely upon her introduction in ‘Iron Man 2’ she’s written more to be desirable than anything. Yes, she kicks ass but none of her ass-kicking scenes seem to be complete without a shot of her chest. I think my sister said it best here, if the character’s signature move is to choke men out with her thighs, then personality is probably not what the writers were looking the most at. Not that that style of martial arts is bad, it’s that men use it in media to look desirable more than to be effective. It’s incredibly obvious that Natasha was written by men here. She gets better in ‘Captain America: Winter Soldier’, where the narrative actually tries to explain the complexities of her character. The issue is then she was put back into the hands of Whedon in ‘Age of Ultron’. We get his signature face in the chest joke with her and Bruce Banner, something that most people didn’t seem to notice until ‘Justice League’, and then he forced her character into a relationship. Did everyone just forget when he compared women not being able to have children to being a monster? Because that was basically that scene with her and Bruce at Clint’s house. And most recently, Natasha was fridged. For those of you who don’t know what that term means, it’s a call back to old superhero comics. Specifically one where a hero came back to find that the villain had killed his girlfriend and stuffed her body in the refrigerator. This term has come to mean, for the most part, any woman who is killed in the plot to further the storyline of a man rather than to emphasize her own storyline. Natasha is the only female original member of the Avengers, it is her death that pushed the other male Avengers to the peak of their revenge. Her death did absolutely nothing to serve her own plot. I call Natasha frustrating because she could have been good. There were hints of her being complex, like in Winter Soldier. Every time they were going somewhere with her character they used yet another female trope. And more importantly, every time I see women speaking up against her character or any wrongdoings done to her character, men pop up and tell us that we should just be happy that she kicked ass. Isn’t that enough? No. And it never will be. We’re looking for 50/50 representation, not the bare minimum. People only seemed to discover that Joss Whedon was sexist when male fans decided that we could put that onto the list of why ‘Justice League’ was so bad. After all, he did use that chest joke again and he purposely cut down the costumes of Wonder Woman and the warriors of Themyscira to make them look “sexy”. No joke, his words. But we’ve been telling you that he’s sexist for years and it kind of sucks that women are just now being listened to. I sincerely hope that the ‘Black Widow’ movie will do more for this character.

Padme Amidala:

Some of you might be looking at this one and thinking “No shit!” while others might be thinking “Oh no!”. Really, her character and likability has always been debated. We all know that she’s one of the strongest examples of women being relegated to love interests in action films. Once her storyline as the devoted love interest was over, they killed her off. After the love story was over they literally considered her so useless to the plot that they killed her off even though it contradicted the original trilogy. Way to go, Mr. Lucas. But Padme has some other scary bits of her storyline as well. Firstly, can we talk about how they thought it necessary for her to get injured in one of her main fight scenes expressly for the purpose of her showing more skin? Of course she had to get scratched in that specific area so that her shirt became more like a crop top. Once again, way to go Mr. Lucas. But that’s not the worst part. For years I’ve seen people, particularly men, talk about the black leather outfit she wore when she tried to break up with Anakin. This scene is a perfect example of Hollywood men telling other men that when a woman says “no”, she doesn’t really mean it. It’s funny that men actually think that’s true when other men tell them that. Never women. Speaking as a woman, if I tell you “no” you better take three steps back. Never once have I said something I don’t mean in a situation even close to that. Everyone should know this by now and it’s scary that the media has prevented this from being common sense. The other issue with this scene is that the conversations about this scene mostly revolve around Padme not really meaning what she says to Anakin because she “absolutely couldn’t when she’s wearing that outfit”. These people don’t seem to realize that this thought process is just the same as saying that a woman deserved some form of assault because of what she was wearing. This is not and never will be ok to say. Padme also could have been good with some female intervention. Because, yes, women should be 50/50 behind the scenes in Hollywood too. Padme is given what could arguably be the best line in the prequels; “So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause”. That line hits home now more than ever and her position as a senator that could take care of herself was interesting. But they forgot to write a complex character and instead, just like Natasha Romanoff, stuffed her so full of tropes that you can tell she was written by a man who didn’t give a shit.

Not only do we need more female writers in Hollywood, we need male writers to actually consult women before doing things like this. For ages writers have written male characters to be relatable and female characters to be desirable, especially in action movies. All of this has to stop. We do not accept women kicking ass and doing virtually nothing else for women in media as successful representation. If you think that we’ve reached equality in media, please take a look at how recent these two characters are. And believe me, I have more recent examples. Men in Hollywood do not get to tell women what kind of female representation we should be grateful for. We have a long way to go, but things are getting better little by little. Thank god for female directors finally being hired! But don’t get settled, we have more work to do.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Ghostbusters: Why Winston is Important

Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore in ‘Ghostbusters’. Copyright goes to Columbia Pictures and Black Rhino.

Hey! Hallie here!

It’s Ernie Hudson’s birthday! In honor of this acting legend, I thought it was the perfect time to dive into my love of ‘Ghostbusters’. Specifically the character of Winston Zeddemore. The truth of this character is that he is underused and underappreciated. He’s important despite the studio rather than because of it. The studio definitely pushed the character to the background because Ernie Hudson wasn’t a big-name actor at the time. Though some have denied it, the longstanding belief that the character was reduced when they couldn’t secure Eddie Murphy for the part has largely circulated. Ernie Hudson did initially read for a character that came in at the beginning of the film, only to be handed the horribly reduced script right before shooting. We also know that many lines initially written for Winston were eventually switched to Peter’s character to make him more entertaining. But Winston is absolutely essential to the film and all of the ‘Ghostbusters’ content that has been released since. Let’s get into all the reasons Winston Zeddemore deserves some love.

He’s the Straight Man:

In pretty much every comedic movie you need someone who isn’t absolutely insane. That way the audience can relate to a character and get some relief when the other characters are being too over-the-top. That is Winston. Every other character in the movie has some sort of background in the paranormal. Ray and Egon are often speaking in jargon that audiences can’t understand. While Peter isn’t quite on the level where he understands them either, Peter is being played by Bill Murray. Bill Murray plays very good sarcastic, comedic characters, but all of them, including Peter, are completely crazy. Winston is the first time in the movie where the audience is introduced to someone we can understand and relate to. Winston is sarcastic, confused, and constantly exasperated. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, but he still needs the money. He’s scared about 90% of the time, but he’s open about using his religion to cope. Winston strikes a nice balance between being the voice of the audience and an overall comforting presence. As a kid, Winston was my absolute favorite character. I was terrified by anything that was even mildly scary and ‘Ghostbusters’ was one of those things I was scared of. The way I got over my fear was through Winston. I finally found someone on screen who was just as scared as I was, but was also brave enough to face it and crack jokes while doing it. If Winston wasn’t there, I might still not like the movie.

He’s the Hero:

This trait comes out more in the comics and the cartoons, but it’s still worth talking about. Winston, of the entire group, is always the most likely to run into a dangerous situation to save someone. This often happened while the other Ghostbusters were either calculating what was best to do in the situation, or, in Peter’s case, figuring out how to save himself. The cartoons and the comics make the differences between the characters very clear. Egon focuses on statistics, Ray obsesses over the ghosts, and Peter is always looking out for himself. Winston is the only person who directly connects with the people they’re attempting to help. He worries about their needs and their safety. That isn’t to say that the other Ghostbusters don’t do anything. Every character has their own heroic moment. But Winston is credited in the comics and cartoons for bringing humanity into the group. He leaps in to save others first so that the other Ghostbusters learn how to do it too.

He’s Ernie Hudson:

Ernie is a fantastic actor and by far the most active cast member in the ‘Ghostbusters’ fandom. He’s at nearly every convention and he’s always excited to meet fans. He talks frequently about Ghostbusters and the positive experiences he’s had because of it. But, most importantly, he raises awareness about the negative experiences he had too. He talks about the way that his role was cut and how he didn’t sleep the night he found out. He talks about the betrayal he felt when they did it to him again in the second film. He talks about how it taught him the harsh truths about the industry. He’s debated whether or not the decisions were made because he is Black, as many fans theorize racism is behind his smaller role and the lack of Winston in promotional materials for the first movie. His opinions on that in particular are better to hear from his mouth than mine. But overall, he preaches kindness and resilience. He blames the industry for what happened to him and works towards making Hollywood a kinder place. It’s a powerful way to use the ‘Ghostbusters’ spotlight.

Winston Zeddemore isn’t the general answer when you ask someone who their favorite Ghostbuster is. You don’t really have to wonder why, either. Winston didn’t get nearly enough characterization compared to the other Ghostbusters. But he still deserves appreciation, whether you’re a casual watcher or a long-time fan. Ernie Hudson deserves appreciation, too. Even if this character isn’t your thing, there’s a lot to learn from him and Ernie Hudson’s experience playing him. I hope he has a happy birthday and I hope he knows just how much he’s influenced this entire fandom.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie