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spongeguyandlelouchvibridankia · 4 years

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SpongeGuy Reviews Every Disney Cartoon Ever!: Big City Greens (1.1 and 1.2): “Space Chicken” and “Steak Night”

This is easily one of the most underrated cartoons ever because it focuses on comedy. Jesus Christ. That, and Cricket has an arc, and I’m gonna prove it here.

Big City Greens is a comedy oriented show that is sort of a sleeper hit for the network, at least, in ratings. Fan reception has been mostly positive, but not the best, and the reason seems to be a lack of story, because the 2010′s have been dominated by this, and apparently only Loud House and maybe We Bare Bears can truly succeed with such a formula (maybe Clarence? I don’t think it succeeded as well).

The show is about the green family moving to the big city, each Green slowly improving each episode while retaining their core characteristics so that jokes can still be told at rapid fire succession. And I’m gonna show you how (specifically with MC Cricket, who gets too much hate imo. Yes, this is a slightly personal review because I really like this show and I hope to work on it one day).

SUMMERIES: Cricket enlists the help of Tilly and new friend Remy when he comes up with a plan to impress his new neighbors by launching a chicken into space.

The Green's traditional Steak Night is threatened when Cricket accidentally leaves the steaks behind on the subway.

COMEDY: 3 Out of 5 (”Space Chicken” and “Steak Night”)

While not the first chronological episode, this is very much a pilot of sorts, so you can see that just like the voices are still getting fitted for the characters, so are the jokes. The fact that they are still good jokes is pretty impressive to say the least!

As the trend of character focused jokes is at its height here, most of the jokes derive from characters being themselves and how they interact with each other and their enviorment. This leads to Cricket causing shenanigans (we’ll get to that), Bill stressing over everything, Tilly being herself (always a good thing) and Alice mostly complaining and being paranoid.

And like all comedy, execution is key; These are good character types, one just has to make them click.

And again, while the comedy isn’t yet at full strength, it’s still really funny! There are lots of great incorrect quote fodder material, lots of great voice acting, lots of exaggeration, and it makes it feel like a cartoony jumble of fun! And this is BEFORE it gets really sharp and crazy!

But, tbh, comedy isn’t the best thing in these episodes. Arguably the show’s greatest strength is that even when the episodes aren’t the show’s best, the characters shine.

CHARACTERS: 4 Out of 5 (”Space Chicken”) and 5 Out of 5 (”Steak Night”)

Again, as I said, these are the first episodes, they’re not gonna be perfect, but the characters are already almost fully realized and likable, that is an ACHIEVEMENT.

To prove this, I’m gonna go through each one and show you how the show knows with what quantity and in what role each one should inhabit in every episode!

Let’s start with the least important character for now: Alice, the grandma. Alice is right now serving only as a comedy tool, and most of the time she is just a comedy tool, as it’s rare for an episode to show other, more fragile and lonely sides to her (but since this show rules, we do get those). The show knows that right now Alice can’t impose since she isn’t important to the main story, so unlike a lot of shows who basically mandate a character must have a big role in every episode regardless of importance to the actual plot, Alice features just as much as she should, quickly showing us who she is (a crabby but deep down loving old woman) and supplying some laughs with her core personality, endearing us to her while she serves no real role.

Then there’s Bill, here really to serve as Cricket’s Superego. If Cricket is the flawed MC with leanings towards good and bad, and Tilly is his soul, Bill is his nagging concious, always worrying, stressing and disappointed. Bill is an understandably nervous man, post divorce, two wild kids, a mother who is very tough on him, things just don’t go well for him. Like Cricket he also wants to be loved, but he has a different way of doing things. In fact, one could argue that Bill is what Cricket could become if he lost his core, and Nancy, the mom (who we WILL GET TO) is what Cricket could become if he never learned a lesson (not that Nancy is a bad person, but she too is a mess). Bill is a great character since his role is the least fun, but he still gets to tell jokes and be an entertaining presence (but trust me we get to see that later in a way better way).

Tilly is the cutest character in the show and an absolute treat. But unlike other “cute” characters, Tilly has a personality, an edge, and flaws. She is a fully realized character, and she serves a special role. Tilly is Cricket’s big sister, but only in name, as she operates more as a younger sister. This is due to her childlike innocence, which culminates in amazing lines and ideas like saying “I have seen danger... And I love it” and wanting to be the queen of rats.

But Tilly’s real role is as Cricket’s soul. Nearly every character in the show reflects or contrasts with Cricket in one way or another (as said before, Bill is Cricket without his fun core, Nancy is Cricket if he never changed, and to add to that, Alice is Cricket if he was only selfish, and Remy is Cricket’s fanboy, almost enabling him and proving his good and bad sides by still showing that Cricket cares). But it is Tilly that serves as Crickey’s soul. She both appreciates his wilder, more troublesome nature, and his risk taking caring side, but she knows that balance must be maintained. She is not perfect: She screws up a lot, and can get selfish and lost. But when it comes to Cricket, she knows what he needs. The world keeps wanting to change him or to love him, but Cricket’s problem is that he needs balance most of all.

And so we get to Cricket. The fandom is quite split on him at times, seeing him either as a lovable scamp or a troublesome jerk. The fact of the matter is: That’s the POINT. He’s not perfect, or horrible, he’s both. Cricket is a boy learning how to balance childhood and adulthood, how to be fun and serious, caring and selfish in a good way, risky and cautious. He tries to launch a chicken into space because he wants attention and love, but also because his dad wants to make a good first impression and Cricket truly cares. He wants to hold the steaks to get praise for being responsible and to perserve family tradition, but he tries his best to save the steaks because again, he cares. He both thinks of himself and of others. He can be malicious and self serving at one point and genrous and loving at the other.

We as viewers love to criticize characters for being callous the moment they make a mistake. But when said character is like, 10, we need to be more forgiving. And slowly slowly, episode after episode, one can see that Cricket is learning (Season 2 will be a prime example for that, can’t wait to show you).

So yeah, Big City Greens is a show about growing up, disguised as a funny hillbilly show. Pretty impressive ;)

STORY AND HEART: 3 Out of 5 (”Space Chicken”) and 4 Out of 5 (”Steak Night”)

DAMN IT I always sum up in characters! God, what do I say now, outside of these being slow but still fun pilots with good story ideas on how to introduce the characters that manage to show contrast, fun dynamics and a loving but edgy family despite everything without sacrificing humor or fun, and that these are only the first ones and we get way better episodes after this and Big City Greens will have a way higher ranking soon?

..Oh, that might do it.

Thank you @chrishoughton i hope this review satisfies you! :D

FINAL SCORES: 10 Out of 15 (”Space Chicken”) and 12 Out of 5 (”Steak Night”)

Bingo bango.

Next time we have Sofia The First? OOHHH! CRAIG GERBER IS A GOD THIS SHOULD BE FUN!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/194d3gsPrhlOsFPYsXU-lJirY4sWncrBl/edit#

#Disney #disney channel #disney cartoons #big city greens #spongeguy #every Disney Animated Show Reviewed

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talkingstarwars · 6 years

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Last Jedi positives and negatives, plus predictions for Episode IX!

Alright, enough time has passed and I think it’s okay for me to finally give my spoiler thoughts on The Last Jedi and predictions for the future (plus I haven’t had time to write something here specifically until now!)

Right out of the gate: I like The Last Jedi. I think I like it as much as The Force Awakens, but I like each film for very different reasons. TLJ took way more chances and was much more subversive than TFA, which I greatly appreciated. However, there are so many problems that I have with this movie. I know that sounds really negative, but here me out! I love Star Wars, but I also love movies. Upon first viewing I watched The Last Jedi as a Star Wars fan, and the second time I looked at it with a more critical eye.

Let’s get the problems I had with the movie out of the way first.

1) I hated everything that had to do with Canto Bight. Like, legitimately hated. It dragged upon the pacing and every time they cut back to it, I found myself checking my watch and hoping they’d go back to something more interesting. I thought its “message” was too on-the-nose and delivered poorly. It felt so prequelish and cartoony to me that I rolled my eyes more than once. I like Finn. I kinda like Rose. They were not serviced properly at all. Finn was one of my favorite characters and I felt like he was reduced to an ultimately meaningless side quest. Honestly, I look forward to fast forwarding through all the Canto Bight sequences once I get my hands on the Blu-Ray. And before you tell me the deeper meaning of the sequence, listen: I got it. I got everything that they were trying to say, but the execution didn’t work for me. It was too long, too. 45 minutes on that dumb planet felt like 90. Also, some of the effects look a little wonky, especially when Finn and Rose were riding those horse things through the city streets.

2) Leia’s Superman moment. It really pains me to say this because I miss Carrie Fisher with my whole heart and she gave a hell of a performance in this movie. But it was just to weird for me, seeing her fly through the stars like that using the Force. I’m glad that she used the Force but jeez, it was strange and took me out of the moment.

3) Snoke’s death. Alright, so this is a tough one. I love, love, love the manner in which Snoke died (more on that later), but I can’t help but worry about what this really means. The Force Awakens told the audience which questions to ask and what questions were important; one of those being “who is Snoke?” He was set up as this Big Bad™️ and was killed by almost nothing. Look, I know this whole movie’s deal was “subverting expectations” and being “unexpected”, but this is a mistake that the prequels had. Killing off your villains too early doesn’t give your main character a good motivation to keep fighting. Think about it: if Darth Maul hadn’t died and was the ancillary villain throughout the prequels, there would have been more emotional weight in Obi Wan’s journey (don’t @ me with that “but Maul was in the Clone Wars TV show!” Let’s keep the talk to movies, but I do love TCW a lot.) I think Snoke needed to be a driving force for Kylo Ren in his struggle with both the Dark and Light Sides. Clearly I don’t know what is going to happen in Episode IX, it could be the greatest story ever for all we know, but for now I thought the character of Snoke was, quite frankly, wasted. I felt no impact when he died, other than the impact that came with the rest of the scene. I wish we had known more about him, that’s all! One line of dialogue about who Snoke was or “he’s like, super crazy powerful with the Force because of X, Y, and Z.” I needed more from Snoke to feel any weight/impact when he was killed. What had already been presented to me about Snoke (which wasn’t a lot, I think we can all agree) was not enough for me. Maybe we’ll learn more about him in a book or a comic or in Episode IX.

4) Right, so where the hell were the Knights of Ren? Again, something that was presented as important to the audience in The Force Awakens and was not elaborated on. I think this- coupled with my previous ramblings on Snoke, the revelations about Rey’s parents, and some other story beats- show that there is a lack of a complete vision with this story. I appreciate the fact that Lucasfilm is letting storytellers tell their stories, and have creative freedom over projects (for the saga films, not the stand alones apparently). That being said, it didn’t feel like JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson collaborated and compromised as much as they should have. Look at Marvel; each story can stand alone but there is clearly an overarching story. I understand that this is “Rey’s journey”, but it would be nice if there was a supervisor (à la Kevin Feige) overseeing this saga. Yes, I understand that many feel as if the Marvel films are formulaic, but one must see that they’re still letting filmmakers tell their stories (see Thor: Ragnarok. That was 100% a Taika Watiti film.) It felt like there was a large disconnect between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. If the Marvel analogy didn’t satisfy you, let’s look at the original Star Wars trilogy. George Lucas did not direct all of those movies. He did not write all of them. But he was the head of story development, and they all felt connected and like there was one overarching narrative. These are just my opinions, mind you! For me, I wish that there was more connective tissue between 7 and 8 and that certain story threads weren’t dropped/disregarded.

5) This is a slippery slope, and not completely a negative, but sometimes...sometimes Rose didn’t work for me. Overall, I thought she was a good addition to the saga and Kelly Marie Tran is a DELIGHT, but her line delivery was a little rough and her one-sided affection for Finn fell completely flat. This was a super minor issue! Don’t hate me, please. If you loved everything about Rose, awesome! This movie is yours to enjoy and pick apart, and you should never change your opinions based on those of others. Live your life.

6) Ah, Luke Skywalker. One thing: I don’t believe for a second, based solely off of what we know about Luke’s character, that he’d ever consider killing his nephew. Just hear me out, please, I know this is a iffy subject for most fans. Specifically, I don’t think Luke would have ever turned on that damn lightsaber, even for a moment. I know we’ve seen Luke straight up MURDER fools (see Jabba’s sail barge) and we’ve seen him tempted by the Dark Side (see when he was tempted to kill the Emperor or when he was tempted to kill Darth Vader.) Almost killing Vader and thinking about murdering Ben Solo are completely different. Vader had actually done all those horrible things; Luke only saw a glimpse into the future of Ben Solo. One of Yoda’s chief lessons to Luke was that the future is always in motion. Luke would have had hope, he wouldn’t have thought (even for a second!) that killing the son of his sister and best friend would be a good idea. Luke would have spoken to him, Luke would have tried to make amends. Vader, Ben Solo, the Emperor, those drunk idiots on Jabba’s barge; all different scenarios. All in all, I didn’t agree with this decision with Luke’s character. Oh well, it’s not my choice, it’s not my story, as much as I would like it to be. I’m a Star Wars fan, and I love these characters so so much. Still, it’s okay to formulate opinions about things you care about.

7) I could live without DJ. Honestly I thought they wasted Benicio Del Toro’s talents. I think he was much more suited for either a Resistance official or Knight of Ren, not some stuttering Lando Calrissian antithesis. I get the lesson he taught to Finn about arms dealing, but his character got on my nerves. Maybe it was just intensified by my dislike for Canto Bight.

8) The plot device of “the characters didn’t communicate” is cheap. I am, of course, referring to Holdo not informing Poe about what she was up to. Was Poe a lower ranking official? Yes. Still, Holdo must’ve known that he was still one of Leia’s most valuable soldiers. She could have told him something! This could have avoided Canto Bight and cut down on the film’s long run time. This would have given a stronger relationship between Holdo and Poe, further showing how he will be trusted with the future of the Resistance.

Here’s a quick run-down of other things I had a problem with:

Hux was even more of a cartoon character, and it was annoying

The fact that Rose stopped Finn from sacrificing himself! It could've been a really powerful moment but she came in with an out-of-left-field message that doesn't mean anything because they had no chemistry! (And I'm not referring to the purposeful awkwardness; this is just them together in general.)

The fact that Poe said “big ass door”

Final Finn/Phasma confrontation, mostly because Phasma was still grossly underdeveloped and showing part of her face did very little to humanize her.

Luke throwing the lightsaber over his shoulder like the legacy of his father and his past meant nothing! I understand that Luke wanted to be left alone, but even he still had a heart. He should've taken it and grumpily walked away instead of throwing the damn thing so nonchalantly.

GEEZ, DID YOU ACTUALLY LIKE ANYTHING FROM THIS FILM?! Yes, yes, I like so much about this film! Let me explain all my positives!

1) That Luke and Yoda scene put the biggest smile on my face. That was bonafide Empire Strikes Back puppet Yoda! I love the message Yoda gave to Luke, I love how he bopped his former trainee on the head with his walking stick, and I loved how they burned the Force tree. Honestly, it’s one of my favorite Star Wars scenes of all time, I think. It felt so organic and genuine, and I loved every minute of it. That was the kind of moment and dialogue that makes me love Star Wars!

2) I loved that Rian Johnson TOOK CHANCES. He managed to keep my guessing through the movie and presented us with situations that expanded the Star Wars story. One of my biggest complaints with The Force Awakens (which is shared with many) was that it felt so familiar. I appreciate the Rian Johnson made this film his own. And yes, I liked the Force-projection that Luke did at the end (aka Force doppelgänger or whatever.) I lost it when Luke brushed his shoulder in his confrontation with Ben Solo. Gold. Pure gold.

3) The Rey/Kylo Ren team up fight is a top-five Star Wars moment for me. What a battle. Especially in a filmmaking perspective; the fight choreography was exquisite and the wide shots of them back-to-back taking on the Praetorian guards looked SO GOOD. Also, I was tricked into think that this was Ben’s turn to the light side, and was promptly misdirected. Nice job, Rian; you got me. What an emotional, rage-fueled battle. It shows us the obvious compatibility of the two, their interconnectedness, and the sad truth of their separation. You cannot have light without darkness. Somehow, in some way, those two- they complete each other.

4) Porgs. I am pro-porg. Porgs are friends, not food. Thank god they did not go the way of the Gungan.

5) We got a force-bond, people. Not gonna lie, this might be one of my largest positives with the film because it was one of my predictions that came true... Anyways, I loved every interaction of Rey and Kylo Ren. Even the shirtless scene, which was obviously just to show the audience that Rey could see him- it was only for this, nothing more, clearly. Still, these two are the heart of our story; our Skywalker and our Scavenger. The light and the dark. Yin and yang. Peanut butter and jelly. The dynamic duo, if you will.

6) There were some damn good space battles. This includes: the opening bombing run, Kylo Ren almost blowing up the Resistance bridge, the outmatched Resistance fleet trying to flee to Crait, Holdo sacrificing herself for the Resistance. I like my space battles. (Although, to be fair, the bombs “dropping” in space bothered me a bit. Oh well, screw physics.)

7) Amilyn Holdo is a good character. This is because I am bringing outside knowledge about her with me when I view this film, which makes her death more impactful. I do think it’s unfair to the audience at large when people say “if you only read the book this moment in the movie would be better.” I think that’s a little annoying; you shouldn’t have to read a book/comic to understand a character. The film should give them their due. Was Holdo, in terms of the film, a little underdeveloped? Yes. That doesn’t take away from the impact of her sacrifice and devotion to the cause.

8) There were a lot of good lessons in this film, including, but not limited to:

Failure is the greatest teacher

You can come from nothing and still be something

Your worth does not lie in your past

Forge your own destiny

Don’t drink green milk from strange aliens

9) This movie made me excited for Rian Johnson’s trilogy and Episode IX. It was, like I said, effective in expanding lore and making the universe feel bigger! I mean, it’s also not like Lucasfilm doesn’t already own my soul. I will see everything they put out.

10) I liked the circumstances surrounding the reveal of Rey’s true lineage. Would I have liked her to be a descendant of Obi Wan Kenobi? Of course. Would the story be elevated by the parallel of a Skywalker training a Kenobi vs a Kenobi training a Skywalker? Possibly. Was I a tad bit disappointed when Rey actually turned out to be a nobody. Yes, and I won’t deny that, but the more I dwell on it the more I like the decision. I read some article that summed it all up perfectly: not only was that the hardest thing for Rey to hear at the moment, it was the hardest thing for the audience to hear as well. Considering the circumstances, this was a critical point in the bonding of Rey and Ben. It also further develops the theme that you can come from anywhere and still be a hero (just look at Broom Kid at the end.) I also think this moment revealed the dangers of speculation; we, as dedicated Star Wars fans, sometimes need to take a step back and realize that this story is not in our hands. I know a lot of the disappointment that stemmed from this movie came from the fact that people’s theories were not made a reality. This is not healthy film going! I am a victim to it. Still, all that being said, The Force Awakens and JJ Abrams pretty much told us to speculate about where Rey came from; she was important, her lineage was important. How could her strength with the Force be explained otherwise? Well, Rian Johnson took over and he gave us the answer; just not the one we were expecting.

11) Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill were so good in this movie. I miss Carrie so so much, and Mark brought such a good energy to the film as a beaten down, tired Luke Skywalker. Their “reunion” made me smile so much. Love you, Carrie.

12) Kylo Ren is a complex, compelling, and damaged character portrayed impeccably by Adam Driver. Every time Kylo Ren came on screen we pulled back a layer of his psyche and got to understand why he is the way that he is. I soaked up every minute of his screen time. If you still think he’s a whiny kid not worthy to be amongst the likes of Vader, the Emperor, and Maul as a great Star Wars villain, I respect your opinion but I'd have to politely disagree. Driver, once again, gives a great performance.

Alright, so I'm just going to spare you from reading anymore and do a quick list of the rest of the things I liked:

battle of Crait

Resistance ship going through Snoke’s ship at lightspeed

Chewie cooking a porg

Luke and R2 in the Falcon

Kylo Ren force-slamming Hux against a wall

Hux getting force-choked by Snoke

Hux getting taunted by Poe

Poe Dameron, in general

Billie Lourd as Connix

Droids!

References to other movies (palapatine reference specifically)!

Everything about the Luke/Kylo fight: the brushing of the shoulder, the fake-out, the dialogue, everything

Luke ended where he began: with twin suns. Beautiful imagery.

And much more!

So, thanks TLJ for making the last month or so of my life consumed by Star Wars debate (which, if I'm being honest, isn't new.) I had a ton of fun at the movies, and now we throw ourselves right back into speculation time! So, here are my predictions for Star Wars Episode IX: Legacy of the Force (lol just a filler title don't have a hot scoop here):

Ghost Luke will guide Rey. Other ghost appearances to be aware of are: Yoda, Obi Wan, and Anakin Skywalker (who will appear as a man/machine hybrid and talk to Kylo Ren, not Rey.)

Kylo Ren will be redeemed.

Rey will start a new order of Jedi

Poe will take over the Resistance

Rose will become a pilot

The Knights of Ren will come out to play, one might be planning to betray Kylo, which might help him be pushed towards the Light Side

Ben Solo will die, but die a redeemed man, probably whilst trying to protect Rey

Chewie will die.

Leia’s funeral will be at the start of the movie, I will be crying my eyes out.

The Resistance will emerge victorious, but it won't be a...happy victory, per se.

We’ll learn more about Snoke

Rey will eventually build her own saberstaff using the crystal of Anakin’s saber

Resolution on Rey’s force vision from TFA

Rey will use the Dark Side but not give in to full temptation

The minds of Rey and Ben will be linked once more. Probably if Rey ha to track Ben down, she’ll open her mind to him or something like that

Lando Calrissian will come back

We will visit at least one planet from the Original Trilogy, because this is JJ Abrams were talking about and he doesn't want a lot of change. I think it’ll probably be Endor because that's where Luke cremated Vader, and I’d imagine that's a very important place for Kylo Ren

Is that too much to pack into one film? Absolutely! Did I already warn about the dangers of over speculation? Hell yeah, but like I do all the time I'm going to ignore my own advice! Speculation is all a part of the fun.

So, I hope you enjoyed The Last Jedi. And if you didn't like it, cool. I hope we can all just get along. Still, I’d be happy to duke it out. Meet me on Crait, where salt is more plentiful than it is in the voices of legions of angry fans.

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akamaru01 · 5 years

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Ya know what I didn’t want to really get into the shit show that is the discussion on the Sonic movie but here we are

I’m gonna try and make this like an analysis, what it looks like happened in chronological order, and what the hell is going on and maybe a bit on how people are reacting

For a bit more info on me I am currently a studying 3D artist because I will get a bit technical at times

I’ll also put it under a read more because not everyone wants to see it so HERE WE GO starting off with where I think shit went wrong in production (Spoiler: People high up on the food chain probably fucked up big time and interfered too much)

(Note: This will be mainly about the design, not about story)

So obviously as with everything it begins with the original designs made by a character designer. Now from what I have seen the studio actually doing all the CG work for the movie also worked on the cinematics for Sonic Unleashed that released back in 2008. Love or hate the game, you can’t deny that it looked and felt like Sonic. So clearly the studio itself knows what it’s doing.

However, the movie might be made with Sega helping (maybe) on the sideline but the production is controlled by Paramount. That means everything goes through Hollywood Big Wig Executives who probably don’t care about source material and also have no creative abilities and also don’t listen to anyone besides themselves and their investors. SO here is a very short, exaggerated idea of the conversations surrounding the design.

Exec: Hey we’re making a Sonic the Hedgehog movie so make us a Sonic that can fit in a live action movie.

Designer: Okay here you go he looks like regular Sonic but with some texture/material/fur touch ups to look more real

Exec: Too cartoony/Not real enough/Something something make it more like humanoid

Designer: But if we do that it wont look like Sonic, might be too creepy or weird, just looks weird/bad in general

Exec: I can have you fired

Designer: Here it is but people won’t like it

Exec: Yes they will, now get to work and make some posters people will love it (or not, it’s hard to say if they would really care as long as people see the movie and it makes money)

You get the idea. This probably continues all throughout production, maybe eventually they give up trying to change minds or they’re just too tired or it’s too late who knows.

So the posters come out and oh boy they were a thing that exists now

And so people do the thing and dunk on the look of it, get in their criticisms, which I think criticising or not liking something is well within peoples rights ya know?

At this point maybe the conversation comes back something like this

Artists: Yo we told you people wouldn’t like this let’s change it while we’re still relatively early in production (mabey) and can adjust it and not spend months with actual animating/lighting,post production

Execs: No no this is fine who cares it’s not even moving yet it’ll be fine

Artists: No it won’t

Execs: Jobs

Artists: Fuck, alright

So nothing changes, time passes, and here we are and by the way

Trailer editor: Hey for the background music I am thinking something upbeat and fun like the Sonic music from the games

Execs: No no make it edgy and cool like Gangsters Paradise

Editor: .... fucking why

So we got the Sonic trailer drop and guess what everyone dunked on like this isn’t even a shock at this point people analyze and criticise fucking everything (especially 3D) this time it just so happened to be on a massive fucking scale

So from a personal note my reaction was “This looks like shit I ain’t gonna bother with it”. From what I saw the general consensus’ were either basically what I said or “This looks like shit I’m gonna watch it anyway”. Absolutely no one I saw said “This needs to be fixed before the movie comes out” from what I saw people basically were just ready for it to flop and we’ll try again later. Even if some people were calling for a redesign I doubt even they expected what was coming next

So, this seems to be what ended up happening

Execs: -trailer release-

Internet: Yo this looks like shit wtf

Execs: Oh shit we fucked up

Internet: Yeah you did

Execs: Don’t worry we’ll fix this

Internet & Artists: What

Execs: We’ll overhaul and redesign him before the movie releases as scheduled

Everyone else: WHAT

Because here is what that means. The artists and animators will have to redesign (or maybe go back to an old design), adjust the model or maybe worse completely redo it, change textures, possibly adjust or recreate the rig, REANIMATE ALMOST IF NOT EVERYTHING, adjust lighting, re combine the new CG footage with the live action, make sure it all looks good and no clipping

What’s most likely is that this is gonna be hell for the studio leading up to release if they don’t delay the movie, which they have not said anything about yet and that’s not a good sign.

But now here is where the biggest variable comes in: How much will change?

Minor changes that don’t affect overall proportions and placement of details means they could keep the same rig and animations and just check for touch ups. HOWEVER these kind of minor changes probably won’t help much, if at all. Honestly besides textures and small changes to fur the only thing that can really be adjusted without much worry is the teeth because they can be the same size and they don’t have to deform or do a lot of crazy movement.

But in order to fix any of the actual problems with it, besides teeth, will require a crap ton more work. Any changes to the eye shapes, sizes or placement, and any changes to the mouth and surrounding areas will require a new or heavily adjusted face rig, which will completely throw off eye movements and lip syncs and those will need to be redone.

Any changes to proportions of any kind will require an adjustment of the rig, which could throw off the animations already set and need to rework them almost everywhere, and maybe redo them completely in a worst case scenario. If the hands change at all they have to adjust every single shot where he is holding or touching something, same with his feet, and really same with his head, quills, freaking everything.

All this in 6 months? Doable, but not without a fuck ton of unnecessary sacrifice.

But we don’t know what this redesign will look like, so it’s impossible to speculate on how much these artists and workers are going to be fucked over and pushed and destroyed for this.

Basically, odds are the artists are gonna be the ones paying for the mistake of those higher up on the food chain, and if the movie does well then, similar to what recently happened with game studio Bioware, they’re going to think “Oh it’s okay that it’s all shit for so long and then we push and destroy our artists at the last minute because it works” which it fucking doesn’t. If they had listened to their people at the beginning, this could have been avoided. No matter what some people still would have been like “ew 3D sonic live action” but no where near this degree.

So the final thing to touch on is some of the reactions after the announcement of redesign. Because I have seen... a lot. All across the spectrum.

I am going to try and talk about some of the more basic groups that these reactions fall under that I’ve seen.

Before we get into those though I want to say something that kind of applies to all of them: I think criticizing the design and look is okay. Talking about how you don’t like it and why and how it could be better is good, outside of ya know the extreme stuff like death threats or whatever, not that I’ve seen those really around this project but they probably exist.

So the first one is basically where I stand on the issue personally. The design sucked, they should have listened more and let it be more stylized and it still would have fit (because suspension of disbelief is a thing and what they have now certainly doesn’t fit in any more than regular Sonic would). I expected them to release it, it flops, no more Sonic movies for a while. If they were gonna fix it they should have done it a long time ago. I am not happy that they are going to punish their staff and artists for their own mistakes and now they’re trying to cover it up.

Now the next argument is one I have seen around here and there, and I understand it, but don’t completely agree. It’s the argument that we, as a collective group, complained about the design, and now we are at fault that the artists have to redo it. There is some truth that if the internet did not go “This sucks” then it would be over and it would have gone on to release as planned. Personally though, I feel like this takes away 2 things: 1) The right of consumers to dislike a thing and 2) The blame away from the executives who made the decisions not only about the initial design but also to change it so late in production. Should they not be held accountable as well? There is a piece that occasionally goes along with this along the lines of “You’re getting so wrapped in a kids movie” or something like that but like: This might (?) be a kids movie but really the target audience is largely the adults who grew up with Sonic. Also bad is bad and kids movies can be great they don’t have to be trash and also kids movies can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

There are smaller sections of discussion, usually quickly stamped out, about how “They fucked it up this is their fault” placing blame on the artists, but this usually comes from a place of ignorance and not knowing how the process works and who makes all the final decisions. The other side of that is “Whatever it’s gonna be shit no matter what I am/am not gonna watch it regardless” or “Idk looks fun I’ll watch it either way”.

To basically sum it up The people in charge probably fucked up, people rightly were like “Lol look at this shit” and now those same higher ups are gonna overwork the artists to fix their own mistake

#Sonic #Sonic Movie #Sonic the Hedgehog #fuck that was more than i expected to type #the end

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