My Life as a Zucchini: A Sad, Beautiful Garden

(via Film Affinity)

Here on this blog, we’ve unintentionally managed to cover just about every animation nominee for the 2017 Academy Awards in one way or another. Not that I particularly care about the Academy or their opinion, but after giving some page space to Kubo and the Two Strings, Zootopia, and Moana, it felt kind of strange to just ignore the other two films and my artsy ass can never resist delving into productions by lesser known studios. So I set out to tackle the first of these two films: My Life as a Zucchini (or Ma Vie de Courgette in the original French). Distributed by Gebeka Films and premiering at the 2016 film festival in Cannes, the quirky stop-motion film tackles a surprisingly dark subject, and does it well. However, as with most things, this doesn’t mean it was devoid of problems.

Spoilers below and trigger warning for mentions of child abuse.

How Dumbledore is Complicit in the Abuse of Others

Until rereading the series with a more adult perspective, it never occurred to me just how horrible many of the characters in Harry Potter actually are. The books are filled with numerous instances of abuse—from the way Snape treats all his students and his unhealthy relationship and obsession with Lily to James Potter committing a sex crime. A lot of the abuse is obvious, like Neville’s uncle holding him upside down out a window and letting go in order to prove that Neville had magic and his grandmother constantly belittling him for not living up to the family name. Some of it is less obvious, such as Dudley’s treatment at the hands of his parents.

It doesn’t really come as a surprise that our main character, Harry Potter himself, is also the victim of child abuse at the hands of his aunt and uncle. I don’t really need to go into detail explaining how he is abused—it should be obvious from the first two chapters of the first book alone—but what is significantly less obvious is how Dumbledore is complicit in Harry’s abuse and in the abuse of other people.

In Defense of Disney’s Cinderella

I recently enjoyed my honeymoon (which I had to wait a year after being married to actually go on). Because of our current lack of funds, my partner and I didn’t go anywhere, but rather stayed at home and enjoyed each other’s company. One of the things that we did decide to do while on our honeymoon was marathon Disney movies. And so naturally, after years of not having seen it, I re-watched Cinderella. And while the movie still is very problematic, I have to admit that I’m starting to think that maybe feminists (myself included) give Cinderella a little more shit than is really merited.

The Walking Dead: “Start to Finish” Midseason Finale Review

I’m starting to question what it is I even enjoy about this show anymore—because I do enjoy it—but I just hate so many of the characters. At the forefront of my hatred is none other than Rick, but even characters I like have started pissing me off this season. I also, until this season, never noticed how much time has, or rather hasn’t, passed in the show. The first eight episodes of Season 6 take place over the course of maybe three days, if that, and that just doesn’t seem like enough time for any of the characters to work through their emotional issues, especially while dealing with a walker-apocalypse. To top that off, some of those episodes feature numerous pointless subplots that amount to nothing.

What I’m trying to say is that Season 6 has not had The Walking Dead’s strongest storytelling. Spoilers below the jump.

Throwback Thursdays: Pete’s Dragon

Once again, this is not the Throwback I planned to write. Unfortunately, being sick for the past two weeks and being a compulsive procrastinator put a damper on playing all the way through StarCraft: Brood War, which is what I originally planned to talk about. Instead of participating in something so interactive, I decided to park my ass on the couch and watch movies. Seeing as it’s been near twenty years since I first watched Pete’s Dragon, I decided it was time for a re-watch, especially since the movie is getting remade.

Pete’s Dragon is by no means the best movie from my childhood, and watching it again in my mid-twenties really puts that into perspective. Some parts of the movie don’t make much sense at all, the editing and scene changes are fairly choppy, and the characters have a habit of doing and saying things that the plot demands, regardless of how they acted in previous scenes. Despite all that, the story is still something I hold dear and immensely enjoyed.

Sexualized Saturdays: Raised Female Killers and Pursuit of Autonomy

A while ago we had a post discussing female protagonists who are being watched over/controlled by men/patriarchal organizations. Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Orphan Black were primary examples. Today, I would like to expand on the ideas of that post and talk about a subset of this type of female characters—female characters who are not only overseen by men/organizations (often patriarchal, though perhaps not always) but are also raised to be killers and assassins against their will. I’m a bit torn when it comes to this type of character. On one hand, these women are complex and their tragic backstories allow for character development and growth. But on the other hand, the misogynistic undertones in their arcs are troubling.

Spoilers for Orphan Black, Killjoys, Firefly, and Doctor Who below the jump. Also, trigger warning for child abuse and self-harm.

In Brightest Day: Robert Arryn from A Song of Ice and Fire

I think we can all agree that Robert Arryn from A Song of Ice and Fire is one of the most obnoxious kids to ever appear in literature or television. I can find hardly anyone who doesn’t dislike him. And watching Sansa slap him in “Mockingbird” was probably one of Game of Thrones’s more satisfying occasions since Joffrey died.

Robert is not a big character in either the books or the show—we rarely see him—but even with limited appearances, he is one of those characters who can easily and very quickly leave a negative and long-lasting impression on the viewer. For me personally, whenever I see Robert in the television show or come across a book chapter he happens to be in, I don’t know who I hate more: Robert, or every person who had a hand in his upbringing. And speaking of hating Robert, I’m not even sure it’s really fair of me to hate a small child for being a horrible product of a horrible environment. In some ways, I pity him. Sadly for Robert, as entitled, spoiled, and pampered as he is, his mother—and I suspect his father as well to some extent—has abused him since the day he was born.

Thor: Son of Asgard Part 1—“The Warriors Teen”

A little while back, I reviewed the animated feature Thor: Tales of Asgard, which I had been remarkably underwhelmed by when it first came out, and have continued to be underwhelmed by every time I’ve watched it since. My biggest issue with that story is that it does nothing new. It had the exact same plot as the first live-action movie, and as such, the animated feature just seemed pointless.

Before going into Tales of Asgard, I initially thought that the film would be based on the comic Son of Asgard. However, the only thing the two stories really have in common is that they take place during Thor’s youth. This is a shame, since Son of Asgard has a far stronger plot and more likeable characters.

Son of Asgard is a twelve issue series, divided into three parts, “The Warriors Teen”, “Enchanted”, and “Worthy”. It first came out back in 2004, and was written by Akira Yoshida and illustrated by Greg Tocchini. Initially, the first part, and the longest at six issues, was originally meant to be a limited series. However, due to popular demand, it became an ongoing series and lasted for another six issues. In some ways, I’m a little disappointed that the series is over, but on the other hand, there’s only so much of teenage-Thor and teenage-Thor drama that I can take before it gets annoying.

Though I found some of the characters very likeable—such as Sif and Balder—the exact opposite can be said for some of the others. Loki is the embodiment of evil, Odin is a horrible parent, and Thor is arrogant and not yet worthy. It has the standard setup for a lot of the earlier Thor comics. Its only real unique feature is that the characters are teenagers. But even then, it’s still a better story than Tales of Asgard.

Spoilers for Son of Asgard after the jump.

Snape Apologists: Is Snape the Greatest or the Worst?

I’m not going to lie; when I was reading the Harry Potter books, I loved Snape. I even have a t-shirt that says, “I trusted Snape” on the front, and on the back it says, “Oh, the cleverness of me. *smirk*”. So yeah, I really liked Snape. I mean, I’m a self-identified Slytherin, so of course I did. But now that I’m older and consider myself a feminist (I knew nothing about feminism while reading Harry Potter), I decided to go back and look at Snape from a critical feminist lens. And now I wonder if I was too kind to Snape.

These two are not mutually exclusive.

Teen Wolf: “Anchors” Review

LOL! Stiles what are you doing in the center of this picture? You don’t go there silly.

Oh yes, Teen Wolf is back and this year I’m dedicating myself to reviewing it. So from now on we will be doing weekly reviews of Teen Wolf! Be prepared to lose your minds! 

The premiere of season 3B was actually pretty good. I have some complaints, but overall it was extremely enjoyable.

Spoilers below the cut!