Media Consumption Wednesday

[firecat]

Movies

Frozen

I loved the "Let It Go" song and scene, but otherwise I didn't like it that much.

I posted to FB after watching this asking people whether they liked it and I got an extremely wide range of answers and explanations. Someone posted this article which calls the movie "false feminism (https://medium.com/@directordanic/the-problem-with-false-feminism-7c0bbc7252ef"). I think that the article does a good job of pointing out some problematic aspects of the movie and is correct that the movie doesn't count as "subversive" or "revolutionary," which some people apparently called it. But I wouldn't go so far as to call it false feminism. Also, I can't get away with saying I don't like it because of sexism or false feminism, because one of my favorite Disney movies is Beauty & The Beast, and the story of Beauty & The Beast has some pretty sexist elements.

My overall reaction to Frozen (which is admittedly colored by my own raging introversion) was to want to go write or read fanfic where (spoilers) after Elsa has ruled for a few years, she decides to abdicate in favor of Anna and go back into the mountains to create amazing ice art. Because (I'm disagreeing with the author of the article here) she did seem genuinely happy alone and creating ice art, except for the part where she was harming the rest of the countryside by doing so. And Anna is clearly an extrovert. (end spoilers)

Nicholas Brothers

We got this from YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTZXmoj4GDU

A&E documentary from 1992 about the best flash/tap dancers ever, Fayard and Harold Nicholas. Honest about the racism they faced. You get to see a lot of fabulous tap dancing, but generally not entire dances. But YouTube can hook you up with those too.

Fiction

"White Dog" by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff: This is a nifty story. It won a BSFA award. I'm gonna say it's about imposter syndrome. Yes there's some religious content but I think it is pretty subtle.

Twice Tempted by Jeaniene Frost (#2 in the Night Prince series)

Vampire romance. I like stories about vampires, but there are sometimes things that pop up in them that make no sense to me. Here are two things that popped up in this one:

1. Why do vampires so often entertain by having fancy dinners, although depending on the vampire rules being deployed, they either can't eat food or aren't very interested in it?
2. "they probably also knew that Vlad and I hadn’t had sex in a week because I’d had my period."

Games

The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief

Point-and-click adventure/puzzle game that's a tribute to Agatha Christie. It has three chapters and I've played the first one. There are some annoying bugs in the gameplay but overall I'm finding it pretty engrossing.

Comments

[pulchritude]

"they probably also knew that Vlad and I hadn’t had sex in a week because I’d had my period."
haha, I would have imagined that that wouldn't stop a vampire!

[firecat]

Exactly

[jinian]

I really like Frozen, despite the boneheadedness of the plot, because it so openly turns the "true love means a prince" thing on its head. I appreciate that Disney has been doing much more of that lately. Of course, I absolutely agree that Elsa would be happier in an arrangement where she didn't have to deal with all the humans all the time. In my mind the happy ending is her being fairly reclusive in the castle and coming out for special occasions, and Anna running interference for all the people stuff, which I think is a legitimate interpretation of what's shown.

[firecat]

I definitely appreciate that Disney has been turning that thing on its head more. And I like your happy ending.

[selki]

Ooh, I liked White Dog. Thanks for the link.

[ailbhe]

My favourite bits were where Kristof calls Anna "Feistypants," and where everyone is horrified she wants to marry someone she's just met. It's a solid contrast to other stuff my kids see.

[firecat]

Yep that doesn't suck.

[ailbhe]

I didn't enjoy it as much as the Frog one. Or Tangled. But I did enjoy it.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

I was enjoying The Raven, but got hung up in some of the gameplay bugs & haven't tried it for a while. Must check in....