LDS Geeks Podcast #43: Disney Parks (2)

One of my favorite things about going to the Disney Parks is the character meet-and-greets. It touches part of the inner child that heals my soul (or something less cheesy perhaps). Regardless of the cheese factor, I hope you enjoy our discussion about some of our favorite characters.

--Spencer

It's Not Easy being Green

Continuing with our green theme, I want to expand on the idea that Mike wrote about in his Sailor Jupiter post-why are so many villains associated with the color green? 

Well, it depends on the villain. 

The Fires of Envy

When Maleficent unleashes her fury her flames are green. When Scar sings about how he's going to usurp Mufasa the flames around him are a bright lime green. The phylactery (Horcrux to you non-Dungeons and Dragons fans) held by Rasputin in Anastasia pulses with an eldrich green, despite being from hell itself where you think it would glow red. In the case of these charming despots and monsters green is symbolizing the burning envy they feel for the heroes and the world around them. When they need to show that they want what someone else has, they take a match to some copper sulfate and let it burn (Yes that's the actual chemical that can make a fire turn green-try it sometime!)

Envy burns. It consumes. It is a need for something that must either end in the obtaining of it or the destruction of both. Green fire here works well for the analogy since it too burns and gives the audience a decent visual representation of the villain's inner feelings. Let's take Maleficent for example. Her motivation for being the Dame of all Evil is a bit unclear at first glance. She's not invited to a party so she's going to tear the kingdom apart over it (And yes, we're going with the animated Sleeping Beauty here because Maleficent' s intentions in Maleficent are this whole other thing)? If we take her green flames into account we get a far clearer picture of her issue: She wants to be acknowledged as an equal. She's obviously powerful, probably more powerful than the gender reversed Three Stooges we're supposed to like, and yet she doesn't even get a token invite to the party. That's not only rude that's just hurtful. Maybe if she was invited Aurora would've been blessed with something useful, like a personality or basic common sense. Either way she's envious of those who were invited and acknowledged as equals without question. She deserves a seat at the table and is ticked that she didn't get it. 

The Color of Money

Accompanying envy is greed, its lovely wife and business partner. While envy is for something that someone has, greed is a bit less specific in the intention. Greed is what Ursula has when her weird watery smoky hands reach out for Ariel's voice. Greed motivates the Shadow Man as he turns his friends from the other side onto changing Prince Naveen into a frog. Greed  is the look in Lady Tremaine's emerald eyes as she looks at her daughters and imagines manipulating them onto the throne with the Prince instead of her far more qualified and deserving stepdaughter, Cinderella. The villains want something, and while certain characters may have what they want they aren't as concerned with the person as they are with the power they wield, or the person is just a stepping stone to their true goal. 

Take Ursula, who we know has an obvious beef with Triton (In the play they're brother and sister and there was this whole inheritance dispute thing but we'll go with the movie for clarity sake though totally listen to the play's soundtrack). Ursula isn't jealous of Ariel, she doesn't want to be Ariel. She's a bit more jealous of Triton, but her real goal is to take what she feels she deserves, the triton. Ariel and her father are just stepping stones to getting her hands on it, especially since the first thing she does with it is start causing widespread mayhem throughout the harbor. She could've easily killed Ariel and Triton, but just toyed with them because her ultimate goal was momentarily accomplished. 

Horrifying Power

Now we've got to talk about Bruno (You see what I did there?). His future sight is seen as green energy swirling through sand, while his eyes glow green just like a villains. If you didn't know who he was or what the plot of the movie was you could easily see his color scheme and mistake him for a villain, but instead he's not. The green here indicates that his power is dangerous magic, something that isn't fun or playful like growing flowers or making healing empanadas. It's gazing into the shifting future and trying to interpret fragments of signs before they happen. 

Here green indicates dangerous power, similarly to Maleficent' s flames and Ursula's smoky hand trick. Another more interesting example is Cruella De Vil, in the animated 101 Dalmatians. When she walks into the Darlings home she's seen smoking a cigarette with green smoke drifting around her. The smoke is sickly and is different from when Roger smokes his pipe-which has black and grey smoke. Hers is the indication that her presence is something foreign, something so different to the Darlings that she obviously doesn't belong. Even her cigarette can't behave like everyone else's because she is not like anyone else around her, especially in morale, and that makes her scary. 

Visual Shorthand

A quick technical note about why green is used so often has to do with coding. It was mentioned before that green has the connotations with greed, sickness and envy, and that's something that most Western audiences would know when they walk into the theater. Films have only so long to get across different ideas, character motivations, ideals, plot elements etc. and will often rely on visual clues to help the audience know who everyone is without having to go into a lengthy backstory if they don't need to. Is your villain envious or greedy? Give them something green to show that off, preferably flames because they look cool, especially in a dark lair or at night when they're doing evil deeds. Need to show that the magic is otherworldly and powerful? Color it lime green like the entire thing is sponsored by Cricket, that'll show that what the characters are messing with isn't of this world. 

Green: It's not just for leprechauns. 

-JOE

Cruella - Disney's Latest Darling

Here's a fun puzzle: How do you retell the story of a puppy-skinning psychopath who smokes at least a pack a day for modern audiences and make the person not only relatable but likable? 

The answer: You cast Emma Stone as the puppy-skinning psychopath. 

Beware: There be spoilers ahead. 

Sympathy for the DeVil

Cruella jumps us back to the titular character's childhood where she always had a knack for misbehaving and for extreme fashion, both of which kept her in constant trouble. Called Stella by her mother, she meets her lifelong friend Anita Darling and is forced to move to London after getting expelled from her school. After some next level Disney tragedy she becomes an orphan living on the streets of London with her two new friends, Horace and Jasper, and their dogs, Buddy and Wink. They grow up as thieves with Cruella dreaming of becoming a high fashion designer. 

Stella gets her chance to work for the Baroness, the Devil Wears Prada of 1970's London fashion, played gloriously by Emma Thompson, where she excels as a beginner designer, until she finds out that her boss killed her mom. Drama ensues as Stella plots to take revenge on the evil Baroness and embrace her true Cruella self. 

You'll notice that nowhere did I mention Dalmatians. While Dalmatians, three in fact, do play a role in the plot they are not the absolute crux of the story. They seem like they would be at one point, but more on that later. The main focus of the story is on Cruella realizing that while her inner true self may not be what society accepts, it is who she truly is, and that letting her freak flag fly is the only way to live her authentic self. 

Bad Vs. Evil

The trick to making films about villains is to frame their actions as believable and relatable, and Disney tends to go with vengeance as a good motivator (Going the slow and complete destruction of a person's psyche Joker style is probably too far from Disney's family friendly label). Cruella as a character is framed here as being bad, going against the grain but having moral lines she won't cross unless absolutely necessary. 

In a brilliant piece of cinematic writing, the audience is set up to wonder just how far Disney will come to the line of making Cruella evil by ambiguously implying that she did skin a dog to make a coat. When it's revealed that she didn't and only wore a fabulously spotted coat to egg on her enemy the sense of relief is palpable. Cruella may hint at skinning an innocent doggo, but as long as she has access to a JoAnne's Fabric the act won't be necessary. 

Worth the $30? 

The big question hanging over a lot of new releases on Disney Plus are around the Premier Access price for new movies, an extra $30 to see the movie when it's released. While I can't speak for certain on Disney's last two attempts, Mulan  and Raya and the Last Dragon, I will say that Cruella was well worth the $30. Considering that we were finally able to host a watch party with friends, the cost of tickets vs the cost of Premier Access was more than even. If you're scrolling through your Disney Plus account and wondering if it's worth it, I say it is, though watch it a couple times to feel like you got your money's worth. 

-JOE

Pokemon Nicknames: Disney (3)

It's the fourth anniversary of Pokemon Go! Other than a couple weekends that I've been out of cell service, I think I've played just about everyday since its release. So in honor of Pokemon Go, I've got a few more Disney-themed Pokemon nicknames. Since the later generations of Pokemon are less popular than the first two, I'm breezing through generations three, four, and five. So have fun!

Slakoth as Flash

Delcatty as Duchess

Kecleon as Pascal

Chimchar (or Aipom) as Abu

Abomasnow as Marshmallow

Stoutland as Colonel

Simisage as King Louie

Purrloin as Yzma

Unfezant as Kevin

7 Top Disney/Once Adaptations

With "Once Upon a Time" over (finally) we got closure to the seven years of Disney remixes. So in honor of the show that should have ended three years ago, I've got a few of my favorite adaptations of Disney characters that "Once Upon a Time" did.

Evil Queen/Regina Mills
The original Evil Queen from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was very flat. Her sole motives were about vanity and power. Now there's definitely evil in the world that appears so petty, but it's pretty one-dimensional. In constrast with our wanna-be beauty queen, Regina Mills spent seven seasons developing into a complex character. Season 1 revealed her backstory and why she had some much anger. Season 2 and Season 3 began her redemption as she fought for Henry's forgiveness. Season 4 and 5 she actively fought her dark side to find love and acceptance. Season 6 and 7 she flourished as a hero, maybe even surpassing Snow White in how she clung to hope.

Peter Pan
Disney's "Peter Pan" featured an immature little boy, who had a heart full of goodness, but also full of mischief. He brought his friends together and fought Captain Hook, mostly because he was a little boy craving buddies, but he was good. "Once Upon a Time" twisted that around 180 degrees. Instead of a fun-loving boy, we got a greedy old man (masquerading as a boy) who held more darkness in his heart than most of the villains the show featured. Each return of the Pied Piper was a chilling moment, right through until the end. All of his actions leading to power and selfishness.

Tiana/Sabine
Tiana was a Disney Princess that I was not introduced to until years later. Her strength and bravery in "The Princess and the Frog" changed her life and Naveen's life. She had to learn to chill out a bit, but she clung to hope of something better. During Season 7, while many of the new characters left me underwhelmed, Tiana/Sabine was a faithful adaptation of the New Orleans princess. I would have liked if she was fleshed out more and more complex, but I liked the role-reversal of Tiana being royal and Naveen not. While keeping the basic traits of the character the same, the original Tiana was still flipped around, both in the Enchanted Forest and Hyperion Heights, to be a new Tiana.

Pinocchio/August
The backstory of the "real boy" didn't really change from the Disney version, so there was no actual adaptation of his backstory. Instead, we got an interpretation of what happened after. I'm not aware of any other Pinocchio that got tested after becoming a real boy. Does he remain selfless, brave, and true or not? Well, in this case we got to see both. August was a "real boy" in more ways than one; he was a good Pinocchio, but he was also a real person with real reactions to real problems.

Alice
(I really liked "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland" so I had to include one of their characters. I thought about Jafar... but his Season 6 appearances left me wanting) I grew up watching "Alice in Wonderland" (my brother likes to remind me about how I watched it on repeat) so I can clearly picture the immature Alice traveling Wonderland and reacting to the fantastical world kind of naively. This new version of Alice was tough and willing to fight for her life and her love. She became a proficient swordswoman and she fought against the most evil sorcerer. In contrast, all the cartoon Alice could do was call the Queen of Hearts names.

Mad Hatter/Jefferson
Not much was seen of the silly Mad Hatter in "Alice in Wonderland" and even less substance to the character. So as much as I enjoy "Alice in Wonderland", I loved seeing the Mad Hatter brought to life as Jefferson. Even just the backstory as to why he's crazy was a nice addition. The only thing I would have changed is letting us see Jefferson more... but I also like Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, so I guess that kind of makes it okay.

Cruella De Vil
Cruella was a beastly character in Disney's "101 Dalmatians". I mean, in many ways she's probably one of the freakier and scarier Disney villains, even without any sort of power and influence, besides money and henchmen (Jasper and Horace). "Once Upon a Time" took that same darkness and evil into a character with some devious powers. Her backstory episode threw me for a loop. As they intended, I was guessing she had some tragic backstory about her mother, when instead we just a straight up sociopath.