Back Home

Unexpectedly, I find myself back at my parents home for the Thanksgiving holidays. Originally, I was only to be here for the past weekend, my roommate coming up to have an early Thanksgiving with his family that would be busy on the actual holiday, and I tagged along to get a chance to see my parents since I most likely wasn't going to be able to come up myself. Then on Saturday, the night before I was to catch the ride back, they offered to keep me here for another week and send me back on Sunday. So here I am.

Slightly annoying is that I only packed for four days and since I'm flying back I don't know how much of what I brought is going to make it back; I forget how solids/liquids hold up on airlines nowadays, and I'm going to try not to check anything. But I'll figure that out later.

Unfortunately, for those I'm betaing for, that means I don't have my computer with me to keep working on them, so those are going to be delayed from me. I am really sorry, but had I known I was going to be staying, I would've brought the laptop with me to keep working on them. As is, I'm hoping to do what I can here, but the process is slowed extremely.

It's kinda strange being back here. While I was back home back in May, it was it's own visit and my life was in a different place. Right now, I'm kinda in a headspace of not having been home, and really feeling it, for almost two years now. Fifteen months in Virginia, a little over eight months in Portland, and right now I'm out here, in the middle of the country with little ambient noise around me, surrounded by things that haven't changed much since I left and I'm not sure how exactly I'm going to go forward.

I'm still trying to figure out what exactly it is I want out of what I'm doing. And figure out what it is I'm doing, because I don't know if I could give you an answer if you asked me right now.

I'm not in a bad headspace, nor am I depressed. But being back home, almost like taking a step back, is big shift of perspective. It's entirely possible if I don't get something cemented I'll be living back here in a few months. Then it really will be a step backward, but I haven't figured out if that step is me losing my balance and falling back, or if it's just bracing for a stronger move forward.

It's snowing right now, has been on and off all day. Not heavy, and what's on the ground is pretty dry anyway, but I definitely feel the sameness and comfort of being back in my parent's house. Things I haven't thought of for years coming back like I haven't left, remembering how it was. And I don't know if I like the feeling or not. I guess that referring to it as my parent's house is pretty telling; it's not what I call "home" anymore, so that's something. But then I'm still trying to figure out if where I am is home either. With nothing I'm truely gunning for, I feel this ackward sense of existing, not living day to day but just going from day to day.

My roommate hates Spokane, hates almost everything about it. For him it's too slow, nothing really going on, not big enough, too stagnant. And he's right, it really is all those things. But, and you never know if this is a compliament or not, it is comfortable. You know how it works, and that it's not really going to get "exciting". I've described it as a place where you do really only one of two things; raise a family or retire. It's not a bad place, not like how my roommate likes to see it, but neither is it a place where you're going to be doing a whole lot.

I think I just dislike this feeling of floating. Not knowing what I want or where to go, so I'm just going to wherever it is I end up. Being very self aware means that I'm well aware of my own flaws and what it is I most likely should do. Rationale makes for wonderful advice. But right now, being aware of what I need to do doesn't mean I necessarily know what it is I need to do. And that's annoying as hell.

I think that since I had so much fun going through Disney animation, based mostly on my own knowledge of the various films and proceedure and personal opinion/tastes (most research was for dates and box office figures), that I'm gonna do my next post on the works of DreamWorks Animation. Seems like it'll be fun times.

Validation, Not Always a Good Feeling

Just ran across this article relating to Disney's new movie, Tangled, and frankly I'm a tad pissed, not surprised, and still cocking my head sideways at the going ons over at those studios.

Most of my annoyances about Disney's latest fare seem to have panned out. And it seems that the male gender is to blame. To cater to the 8 to 14 boy demographic, Disney has seen fit to change their movie and marketing style, up to and including changing the title to something less girly. Because boys don't want to watch anything with girls or princesses at the main fare, so they're going to bend over backwards to appeal to the little snots.

It's not just with Tangled either, apparently it's a wide cast Disney decree. After Tangled, Disney will not have any plans to make any new movie with any Princess specifically, or anything girly in general. This male wave also appears to be the main drive behind last year's purchase of Marvel Comics, and all associated branches, in a bid to grasp more of this demographic.

The blame seems to be riding on The Princess and the Frog, whose mid-to-good reviews and box office were also harbringers of doom to the bigwigs. Because TPatF didn't blow everything out of the water like back in the Reniassance days, that meant that the Princess trend was dead. This also lead to retooling of the Rapunzel movie in the works.

I now remember that years ago, when you went to Wikipedia, when you visited a Disney page and clicked the box at the bottom for Disney Animated Films, they usually have a couple movies that are going to come out in a few years. Rapunzel was one of them. I just now remembered that, because I had been wondering how Tangled snuck up on me. They changed the name so it wasn't so obviously a Girl. And Flynn (I still hate him) apparently got a story boost so as to carry more, if not more than, the lead female. Because, you know, guys don't want a female leading. And the action was ramped up, with some added chase scenes and more Flynn (I already suspect that she doesn't hit him enough with that frying pan).

This all seems very strange really. Disney's biggest movies, their Reniassance period, is dominated by female leads. Little Mermaid, Jasmine (not the overall lead, but still), Belle. Yeah, when you break it down the Princess line may not have the overall best messages to tell little girls, and males figured just as much as them, but they never catered to those with outside genitialia. They told good stories (within reason), and usually evened out who carried the story.

Ironically in all this, Pixar is starting to (well, they have but it's picking up steam) get called out on their lack of female leads in their movies. Not until their thriteenth film, The Bear and the Bow oh I'm sorry, Brave, will a female lead a Pixar ship.

Disney films have never been what you could consider high art. Beautiful they may be, but they're still simplified versions of much darker material, sometimes overfilled with pop culture references, and more and more playing to who they think bring in the biggest draw. But this just smacks in the face of lack of respect, towards girls and boys alike.

Basing decisions on any one film is usually stupid, especially one from Disney. So TPatF wasn't a critical darling or financial record breaker; it's a 2D, oldschool feel Disney movie, something that hasn't been made in years, of course it's not going to compare to when you were in your prime. It's a direction, a good direction I feel, that you have to slowly move back into.

But the decision has been a long time coming it seems, TPatF just gave them the excuse they wanted to say goodbye to "girly" movies. I think that, even if it had done well, not much would have changed for Tangled. There's a new reign in Disney, and they believe that boys are the key to success. So, at a time when most everything on the Disney channel, on the animated side anyway it seems, is already catering to action and male testosterone, the feature films, where girls had the advantage, are too turning to boys to carry them forward.

Forward and backward.