you asked for it...
At long last, we can finally put to bed the mystery of why Disney's Hercules was kind of eh.
Following up on the (brief) discussion in the Hercules video about how three act structures create a conventional narrative in Hollywood movies.
An overview of some alien creature designs from popular movies over the last few decades, and what information those designs impart to the audience.
RENT is terrible and I hate it.
Sometimes in order to understand narrative, you need to start simple and state the obvious.
Disney Animation Studios has seen an uptick in quality and consistency in the last five years... as well as an uptick in red herrings and plot twists replacing the traditional villain narrative. Did the era of the Disney villain end a long time ago?
No. The answer is no.
You're not Mel Brooks.
But there's a benefit to losing... you get to learn from your mistake. So don't worry, we're gonna fix colonialism, y'all!
why I felt a feel
Disney's way of framing culture, history and stories may filter out a lot, but there is a reason why sometimes people need that Disney magic.
Hunchback is the metaphorical Quasimodo of the disney animated feature film canon--weird, hidden away, and relegated to its master's hairshirt. Some common and consistent criticisms of the film have cropped up over the years, but they often miss crucial context and the original goal of Victor Hugo's dark tale of human brutality.
yo-ho yo-ho, Eisner/King Lear analogy
Let's take a look at the idea of the 30-year cycle, and why 80's themed media is suddenly so lucrative.
It's time to re-examine the decade-old culture surrounding Twilight-bashing.
We're broken people now.
Some have called The Shape of Water ... gimmicky, shall we say, but the desire to get down and dirty with monsters is (wait for it) a tale as old as time.
In which we look back at The Hobbit trilogy and try to give it a fair shake.
So we've looked into what the problems were with these movies, the question now is... why? What happened, Peter Jackson? WHAT HAPPENED?
Nothing is pure.
Are you sick of Star Wars video essays? Yeah, me too. I'm sorry but it's my turn to talk about a Star War.
Thanks, I hate it.
“Roadshows command premium prices and the exclusive firstruns presumably whet appetites for the subsequent runs at regular prices. And they justify financially the greater length, high costs, starrier casts, and whatever else is big about bigness. The roadshow contagion is now so epidemic that almost any picture deal which comes along is very carefully mined for its intermission potential.”--Charles Champlin, The Los Angeles Times, 1967
What is brand can never die.
A comparison of alien invasion movies from two very different cultures.
"After all, you've lied to everyone else, I was starting to feel left out."
Themes are for eighth grade book reports.
Power doesn't corrupt; power reveals.
So glad they finally made Jasmine a #girlboss.
Tom Hooper is bad and should feel bad.
"WHYYYYYYY" Supercut from one of the most infamous songs in all of Andrew Lloyd Webberdom - Gethsemene, from Jesus Christ Superstar. Why? because he is risen (in that he can hit that high note [some of the time]). Yes, I know there was already a JCS supercut on YouTube - it was time for a new one.
All of the ways the resistance resisted The Man using the power of song in the early 2000's (or… didn’t).
Thing Good (except Pearl Harbor).
The romance novel nightmare that didn’t exactly rock the courts but was a hot mess regardless.
This week we apply John G Cawelti’s concept of generic transformation in film to Ben Stiller’s 2008 classic, Tropic Thunder, a movie which marks a change in Hollywood current, but what (if anything) did it actually change?)
now you can stop asking me about the big dumb amazon show
It’s been 40 years since Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial was released in movie theaters. And whether you think it’s an earnest science-fiction masterpiece or a huge cringefest, one thing is certain: we don’t talk about it nearly enough.
Guy Fieri was America’s most loved cooking personality until, suddenly, he wasn’t. Then, like a miracle, he quickly became everyone’s favorite Smol Bean. Lindsay Ellis asks “why” in this new examination of the Mayor of Flavor Town’s notoriety.
Steven Spielberg’s classic film Jurassic Park is 30, and no 30th birthday would be complete without pondering one’s existence. Lindsay Ellis is here to break down the movie, the book, its impact on culture, and whether life truly finds a way.
a look into a period of history where las vegas thought it could steal disneyland’s market, and failed (or did they???)
The breakup of the Beatles and other things Yoko Ono was not responsible for (and also some things that she was.)
The release of Deadpool and Wolverine (probably) marks the end of the 24-year run of the X-men cinematic universe, the longest-running single superhero movie continuity to date. Since it is all (technically) supposed to take place in the same timeline (?), Lindsay uses her (admittedly very out of date) X-men expertise to work with Angelina to try to make some sense of the whole thing.
What do you do when your theme park needs some fresh new rides but you don’t want to pay to build them?
Tori Amos is a singular voice, unique in her generation, beloved by millions, a cult act synonymous with the 90’s and revered to this day — so why has she never had a hit song?
Is the Disney company the Katy Perry of Fortune 500 companies? Let’s take a trip through history.
The biggest threat to Western Civilization: compassion. Makes perfect sense.
Bluey was the most streamed TV show of 2024, but it was not because of The Children.
The American proliferation of body cams hasn’t netted us improved relations with the police, but at least it gave us a whole lot of content.
Do we, in fact, gotta hand it to them?
Balls.
Eleven drinks. Eleven "countries." One massive hangover. Let's do this.
Your mileage may vary, but here are some techniques on how to talk to (or avoid altogether) unsympathetic family members with whom you... *differ* politically.
So I get asked this question a lot - and (spoilers) I don't know, because I don't know you and what you want. But Dan-O and I share our personal experiences and discuss some of the shit-million options you have before you if you are trying to decide which (and whether) to go to film school. Do you want to go to one of the giant elite big name ones and incur an insurmountable level of debt, like Lindsay? Or would you prefer to go to a more practical vocational school like Dan-O? Or maybe you'd like to just not go at all and dive right into the industry? Or maybe you just want to watch us ramble on about our opinions on the whole film school thing and have no interest and half an hour to kill. All options are viable, but some are more difficult than others.
Writer/director David McCracken joins me (as well as every bird and airplane in California) to talk about his new feature BULLITT COUNTY, as well as the challenges of low budget indie filmmaking.
There. I did one.
