Hell yeah dude this is my kinda topic as a helpless geek who spent way too much of her college time studying animated films and their craft LOOOOOL.
Do you feel like recent movies are entirely set up around the moral of the story, trying too hard to pull the heartstrings of adults or to get a message across?
Good question. There’s something to be addressed about how cartoon films follow a set piece rather than letting a narrative flow naturally where it should be taken.
However do keep in mind there’s also something to be said about the Hollywood curse and how it shaped those films to have an unwoven path.
It’s time to whoop out my tin hat cuz (apologies in advance) this is gonna get into conspiracy territory so here goes.
I believe Hollywood has an ego fear of animation.
See there’s a lot about modern cinema that centers around faces and names, not actual filmmaking.
Whenever I ask myself why those bastards Shamalon and Snyder keep making movies, it’s because they have the pull power. My dad also shared an interesting food for thought the other day.
He told me “why do you think no one’s hiring will smith in any big projects? It’s because they’re scared someone with that fame could tarnish the film’s image” and it’s true. Call this shallow on my part, but I did start retroactively hating his works, almost instinctively. I calmed down though, and started enjoying I-Robot Men in Black again (great films!!!).
How do these anecdotes tie into my conspiracies? Well… ILL TELL YOU!!
This is where we find ourselves at a paradoxical conundrum (I am somehow using these words correctly), animation is physically timeless, right? Theoretically, you could use them forever. EXCEPT, animation do cost this weird thing called money, they’re not as reproducible as, say, hiring a dude again.
Leading us to another funny thing, you can’t “own” people (much to Hollywood’s dismay). You can hire Ben stellar, but you can’t hire Shrek. So the latter is much harder to financially abuse.
Oh make no mistake, actors still get screwed like they’re slaves. John cena, in all his infinite wisdom,
consented to his name being owned by that sex trafficking racist rapist Vince McMahon, under some weird guise of nobility (when it’s more likely he just can’t pick this fight, and he’s not struggling financially either. John is probably still a chill dude if you ignore his…
weird home mannerisms)
Wait what’re we talking about again?
Ah yeah! So to summarize, since Hollywood can’t abuse animation in the same they can abuse real actors, they’re scared of animation so they put them on a leash as much as possible (not letting them win any Oscars for beat film, constantly hiring celeb voices, etc). Just to overshadow animation as a medium. This extends to forcing them down the same story beats so they continue to systematically make as much money as possible.
I am uhhh I’m already starting to forget some stuff I wanted to say.
Anyways it’s not all doom n gloom. Would you believe me if I told you that the bad guys 2 is my favorite movie in the past ten years or so?
I’m being sincere.
Oh Yeah movies! We were talking about those, right? So fun story, the reason why in superhero movies they take off masks a lot is to show the actors face.
Now… this is my final tin hatty comment. But don’t you find it… a little creepy that uhhhhh sonic has two utterly random shmucks as his “parents”? I imagine Hollywood is so insecure about a blue rat overshadowing them, maybe. To be fair sonic doesn’t deserve happiness so mayhaps this is acceptable, but I can’t accept a Hollywood W under any circumstances.
Wait was I just replying to the intro paragraph? Man I need therapy.
….back on topic.
Wreck it Ralph 2 is about insecurity after having a friend going absent for chasing their own interests
Now to comment on these artistically, I’d say I have issues with this franchise dating all the way back to Wreck1 but it’s carried by strong emotional beats so I don’t mind.
2 is too mid though.
Encanto is a musical about members of a dysfunctional family
At the risk of getting of getting overly sentimental myself, my mother loves this. It’s one of her favorite movies and I think that’s incredibly sweet and it helped me bond with her.
Raya and the Last Dragon teases having a world building at first but then every problem in the world gets solved by a single act of naive generosity
So there’s this GIANT ASS (can’t wait to see nebu see this without context and go “ass?? Where???) essay video about why this is culturally offensive to SEA people. I no longer have any SEA connections myself but if that’s true then fuck it.
Inside Out 2 and Soul gets their points across pretty well regarding anxiety and obsession with success respectively, but they feel too self-contained around that
I’ll confess I didn’t like the first so no comment.
- Toy Story 4 is the less offending of this list since it has more going for, but it still leans heavily on the theme of breaking free of existential dread after losing relevance
I’ll confess I never liked Toy Story either. Never liked the premise anyways. (I promise I’m not this much of a contrarian)
Cars 3 is about dealing with retirement and life limitations
That’s fucking hilarious description for a cars movie of all goddamn things. Please elaborate you wonderful person you.
Elemental is so blatant about the parallels with our society that the elemental aspect feels secondary. Seriously, the most remarkable comment I can make about that movie is that I want to fuck a fire now
What the heck is this?
- don't even remember what Frozen 2 was about
Who the hell would?
As a sentimental person myself I can't say I wasn't a sucker for some of this stuff, but it's starting to wear down on me. It's not that previous movies didn't had a sentimental message to them, but I'm beginning to miss old school villains, high-stakes and and plain silliness. Like, stories that are a little more grounded on their other elements rather than just the moral of the story.
HELL YEAH SENTIMENTAL BROS UNITE
