Hello Internet!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and are enjoying their Summer. It’s crazy to think that July is coming to an end. Summer is now coasting towards the Fall. It still feels like Summer, but it won’t be too long until we’re enjoying the falling leaves and then the snow. Right now many people are complaining about the heat, but in a few months they will be complaining about the cold. It’s a wonderful cycle. Anyway it seems like almost everyone I know is either going on vacation this weekend or attending some kind of festival or fair. If you are traveling this weekend, make sure you be safe no matter if you’re traveling by car, plane, or even boat. As for me, my time is spent writing. No big travel plans or anything in my future. But if anyone is traveling and wants to stuff me in their suitcase, just let me know! Here on the website, it was another hot one. And by that I mean we had a busy week. Last Sunday I published a Weekly Blog all about The High Rollers D&D Campaign so if you’re looking for a new Dungeons and Dragons stream to watch, give that a read and then go to their Twitch or YouTube channels. They are only four episodes in, so now’s a good place to jump in and catch up. On Wednesday I published the Poem titled Midsummer Memories which tries to reminisce about Summer during the High School years. Also it mostly rhymes which is like a new thing for me and Poetry. I really enjoyed writing it, so if you haven’t read it already, give it a look. On Friday I published a shorter Writing Prompt post titled The Lost Girl which I think is beautiful and poetic in its own right. Again check that out if you haven’t already. And finally yesterday, as in Saturday, I published the second part to the short story I wrote in college titled Garden Base M2-4 Part 2. A ton of you showed support for both Part 1 and Part 2, but if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. I was proud of it in college, but I made some much needed edits to it (especially in Part 2) and I think it makes it even better. I really hope you are enjoying these extra pieces on the weekends. I have some stuff in the works I’ll talk about soon and the plan is to go to four pieces a week instead of my regular three. I’ll give you more details as things become solidified, but if you are enjoying this bonus content, let me know using those views, likes, and comments.
Ok that was a long intro, so we should probably move on to this Week’s Weekly Blog subject in regards to nostalgia and how it blinds us to new things. This topic may or may not ruffle some feathers, I don’t know. But I hope everyone can take a deep breath and be civil. In particular I want to talk about two shows that were recently announced to be in the works: 1) A Live Action Kim Possible Movie and 2) Netflix’s She-Ra Cartoon. These have both been announced with some backlash and some support. I hope to discuss both of these shows and my opinions on taking the old and making new again. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s childhood. That’s not the point. I just want people to put all of this in perspective. So as Phillip DeFranco says, “Let’s just jump into it.”
So like I said, recently Disney announced that they are making a live action counterpart to the early 2000’s cartoon, Kim Possible (Oh My Disney). Now this was just a announcement of the cast. Nothing more. Nothing has been filmed. This wasn’t a trailer. This was just a casting announcement. But apparently that was enough to send the internet into a frenzy. People seemed to be really upset with the creation of the Disney Channel Movie and the casting of Kim Possible. I included the picture up above as the Header Photo so you could compare the cartoon Kim Possible (Left) to the live action Kim Possible (Right) played by Sadie Stanley. So go ahead and decide for yourself if you think it’s a good match. No matter if you think yes or no, there’s a group of people that support your opinion. The people outraged criticized the outfit as well as the casting choice. This new Kim Possible no longer wears a turtle-neck crop top (which seemed normal when I was a kid but sounds super strange as an adult looking back on it) and the baggy pants. Now my opinion is bleeding in here, so I might as well tell you what I think.
The first thing I’ll say is that I loved watching Kim Possible when I was a kid. I didn’t have cable so I mostly watched PBS cartoons or stuff on the Kids WB, but Kim Possible was one of the cartoons not on those networks that I watched. Now I wasn’t expecting a Kim Possible live action movie. I wasn’t demanding it, but I’m not upset it’s happening. It’s not for me. I’m not the target audience. And that’s where I think perspectives get skewed. Adults are complaining about this. Full grown people who are in their twenties and thirties are going to Twitter to attack this show and this actress even before they’ve seen a trailer for it. If you want to criticize the costume choice, I guess that’s fine. Personally I think that it’s fine that they are updating the look a decade after the last episode aired. Now, grown men and women who are attacking this actress on Twitter need a real perspective change. I don’t know anything about Stanley, but this is probably huge for her. She was probably thrilled to death to get this part, and I don’t think it’s right for the internet to attack her just because she doesn’t live up to the high regards they have for a cartoon. A CARTOON! I’m sorry if this “ruins your childhood.” Apparently you didn’t really have that great of a childhood then if this ruins it.
This whole thing reminds me of last week’s outrage when images were shown of the new Netflix/Dreamworks cartoon She-Ra and the Princess of Power (Nerdist).
And oh boy did the internet blow up. People took to Twitter to talk about how She-Ra apparently looked too boyish and not enough like the woman from the original He-Man television series from the 1980’s. I could dive into it, but really that’s what it boils down to. People are upset that She-Ra doesn’t look like the 1980’s She-Ra. Apparently people don’t have anything better to do than complain about cartoons made for children. I will say that I wasn’t alive during the 1980’s and I did not watch the original He-Man cartoon, but just look at He-Man. Seriously? Want to complain about character designs. Let’s start with that. Talk about unrealistic expectations for men everywhere. Those muscles have their own muscles. I’ll just say that I like the new look for She-Ra. She looks pretty awesome. I don’t think she looks “boyish” like some critics stated. I just really can’t find the energy to care enough to get mad about stuff like this. Like there are so many bigger things going on in the world that I think people should just leave cartoons alone. Maybe worry about natural disasters, war, poverty, politics, or literally anything else. I know that’s not very fun to think about, but fighting about children cartoons sounds pointless to me.
And all of this to say that I do think that you have the ability to criticize media no matter if it’s television shows, movies, music, books, whatever. Criticism is important to make things better. But maybe wait till these things are actually released before you tear it a part. Don’t like a particular episode of the television show or the writing of a movie, great! That’s totally acceptable. Totally dismissing a show aimed at children off a few still images. Uh…not so much.
I’ll give you an example from my own life, because I’m not perfect. I criticize children cartoons as well. But I feel like my criticisms are more legit than “this girl isn’t pretty.” Let me give you some and then you tell me. So I was a big fan of the Teen Titans cartoon that aired between 2003 and 2006. I grew up watching it and I thought it was an awesome television show and a great interpretation of The Teen Titans. I never read the comics, so for me this was my version of the Teen Titans. Then when Teen Titans Go was released in 2013, I was not happy with it. The style was more cartoonish matching Cartoon Network’s current artistic look. But for me it went further than that. I probably watched a handful of episodes and every one of them seemed very random and inconsequential. There weren’t any story lines. Just one episode followed by the next. Each episode kind of reset from the previous one. Nothing important carried over. To me, the original Teen Titans cartoon was episodic, but you could see improvements in character over many episodes. There were short story arcs for each episode but they also built to bigger things. The story line with Terra, Red X, and Slade were all big moments in the series which stand out to me. I instantly dismissed this new show and wanted more episodes of the old one.
Now whether or not you agree with my criticisms or not is kind of mute. Ultimately it doesn’t matter. Teen Titans Go continued without my viewership and even had a recently released movie. Some people enjoyed it and others were like me and did not support it, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t for me. It was for a new generation of children to watch and enjoy Teen Titans and I, as an adult, shouldn’t screw that up for them. Maybe it would be better to embrace change and go for it, because like it or not, progress happens. People will take old things and make them new again. Reboots happen and everyone has to understand that this does not tarnish your childhood memories of the old television show or movie. Both the old and new can exist in the same universe. Again it’s alright to have criticisms and not like something, but maybe everyone just needs to put down the phone or laptop for a little while and take a breather. Realize that tweeting about it using CAPS LOCK is not going to change anything. Use constructive criticism to make the things you love, better, but don’t be blinded by nostalgia. Just because you watched it when you were a kid, does not mean it was perfect by any stretch of its definition. I know we want to hold on to our childhoods and the things that make them special, but kids growing up today also want that. Don’t steal their childhoods just because it’s not identical to yours. Like the stuff you like and dislike the stuff you dislike, just do it in a respectful manner and in a way that doesn’t cause people to delete their social media accounts.
Well that’s enough for me. I’m honestly not sure how this is going to go over. I might ruffle some feathers or maybe I’m preaching to the choir here. I hope I cultivate a atmosphere where many different voices can talk respectfully to one another. If you have a comment about anything I said in this Weekly Blog or anything connected to the subjects I talked about, go ahead and leave a comment down below. Again, I ask you to be respectful to both me and the other readers on the website as you do so. If you did like this Weekly Blog, feel free to give it a like or comment letting me know you liked it. I also hope you spend some time checking out the other stuff on the website. I really appreciate all your love in the form of views, likes, comments, and shares. All of it makes me really happy and makes my day.
Thank you again for all your support and I hope you have a wonderful week!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to Deadline.com
https://deadline.com/2018/07/kim-possible-movie-first-photo-disney-channel-live-sadie-stanley-comic-con-1202431127/
Allen The Writer 