Elves and Beasts and Lightsabers

The 2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars Cartoon Network is an animated chapter of the Star Wars saga that has acquired a dedicated fanbase, and for good reason. The show is made with passion, and many elements are better done in the series than in the prequel trilogy themselves. The animated series has six seasons, with a seventh coming soon. It takes place in-between episodes 2-3, set around the Clone Wars, a rarely-seen event of the series that nonetheless has a huge impact, in the context of the Star Wars universe itself. What happens in the Clone Wars defines the political lore of the series. One benefit of being a show versus a movie means that there is an ensemble cast rather than a couple fixed protagonists. Some episodes can focus on Anakin and Ahsoka, others on Obi-Wan, others on other Jedi, others on troops, and others on politics. Because of this shifting perspective, the show can feel like an anthology. This keeps the show fresh, and it's interesting to see the different

SAO or Sword Art Online is a popular and relatively well-known anime/light novel series. It's also terrible, as many people conclude. This conclusion is not misguided, given the series's paper-thin characterization, drunken plot where things just happen for the story, copious use of deus ex machina, and complete failure to achieve the potential of the concept. The series is about our insipid 'hero' Kirito, who is one of the ten-thousand players for a revolutionary virtual-reality gaming experience. But on the first day of gaming, they are trapped within the game by the creator for mysterious reasons. They must beat the game or die, as their real bodies (in hospital beds) wither in the real world each day they stay. It's a fantastic juxtaposition, the fantasy genre reimagined, and combined with sci-fi. A fantastical land that's actually digital, about the danger of the new age. It’s almost a cautionary tale of insidious agendas placed over unfathomably sophis

Ask anyone what the scariest animated film they've seen is and they'll probably respond with Coraline. With good reason. Coraline is a 2002 novel written by Neil Gaiman, adapted into the 2009 animated film directed by Henry Selick. It's about a girl who recently moved into a new home, with busy parents, who finds a portal into another seemingly-perfect version of her world and family. But paradise has skeletons. He wrote this story initially for one daughter, but then finished it for another. Both the book and movie are great and there's a lot to talk about (which I think is important when talking about quality of media). Coraline is a juxtaposition of fears; of the supernatural and of the more realistic, earthly case of predators. These two (in some way, opposite (in that one is natural and the other is supernatural, both serving as two distinct parts of a whole)) components fuse together to create that anxious unease that doesn't go away, even when the film e

The DC/Marvel franchises have the monopoly on the superhero sub-genre. Together, they have 80% of the market. The collective franchises are both extremely massive, far beyond any singular individual. They are a tale about humanity. The hero and villain suffer similar tragedies, the difference is in their conclusion. The hero rises above it, while the villain tragically allows it to consume them. They are all or mostly outsiders; the product of society. They are not the real enemy (sometimes). However, there does exist a problem in the need to regurgitate and protect the status quo. Because it’s safe. This leads to repeating the same stories over and over again. The stories are not allowed to end. The superhero genre is invariably focused on superpowers and there’s much to note with that. Superpowers are partially a longing for something more than standard mundanity, for the power to stand above the average person. What if we could stop horrors in the world through bombastic physical st

Pixar, specifically through the Toy Story films, Finding Nemo, UP, WALL-E, and Monsters Inc, have produced masterpieces. These are stories that pushed boundaries, both technologically and storytelling-wise. They ventured away from the traditional. Disney’s fixation on fantasy is replaced here by an unconventional look at suburban life. Voices are given to those who were previously unthought-of; toys, fish, robots, dogs, monsters, etc. Disney’s use of fantasy is the result of their stories being adaptations, as opposed to Pixar creating their own stories, being wholly original.   Pixar had integrity and weight to themselves, in that some of the themes were challenging; it is mature enough to balance out the emotional weight of certain scenes with the wonder of being a children’s movie. Their stories typically follow a formula in which the protagonist attempts to journey home, in which personal experiences and epiphanies are made along the way. They show the importance of relationshi

Horror and Enlightenment From Above A lot of this particular internet-based media is dependent on personal exposure to it. It's a spooky news channel. LOCAL 58 There's a lore to this channel and all the videos propose different puzzle pieces of an eternally unsolved mystery. I appreciate the passion put into them. Each are distinct, like different genres, and introduce questions, the likes of which raise disturbing implications. The audience has to work a bit to make sense of it. "Contingency" is a 'false' public service announcement commanding all Americans to commit suicide because America has been defeated. It's horrifying, because you don't realise what it means at the start. Then everything clicks together in one swift realization. The U.S. fell? To what/who? Are they human? "Law enforcement has been ordered to ensure your compliance?" "Infants and pets, the smallest patriots?" What the fuck? Why does the US want to kil

LEGO Dimensions is a retired toys-to-life crossover LEGO video-game. Including such franchises as DC Comics Scooby-Doo Lord of the Rings Doctor Who Harry Potter Wizard of Oz Goonies BTTF ET Beetlejuice Powerpuff Girls Adventure Time Sonic Portal and even more As you can tell, that's a lot of properties and it's kind of surreal to see them interact under one LEGO umbrella. That factor is one of the major selling points of the game. LEGO Dimensions is a decent game, one that's acquired a following from LEGO fans and fans of these franchises, having also gained mild interest from the public I love this game. Though the remarkable fact of its existence must be recognized as extremely unlikely. Nobody could have predicted that LEGO would have been so impulsive to have made a game like this. It's fascinating to look at LEGO Dimensions as a game in itself, but also as a study in realising ambitious ideas, and the popularity of crossovers. The way