Fantasy Cons

     Hey ya’ll, last time we talked about the advantages of fantasy, so this time we’re talking about the DISADVANTAGES. This can be a bit more obvious than the pros category, because when it is bad usually it is BAD. So what is it that separates good fantasy from bad fantasy? I posit it is the mythical creature known as AUDIENCE RELEVANCE.

Fantasy Pros

          What up? I was at a screenwriting lecture this week and the subject of fantasy came up, which got me thinking. John Lasseter, the head of Pixar and Disney animation, is infamously against all things fantasy which is why he is also my mortal enemy. Sure he makes movies about talking fish and sentient cars, but minus the english these are all things in the real world, there’s nothing to speak of in the way of magic or mythical beings. Lasseter likes this because it means you don’t have to ask the audience to suspend their disbelief in the way that accepting a human can turn into a frog via makeouts does, but on this I call BULLSHIT. Yes it does take more of a leap for an audience to accept this, but if it was such a hindrance to story then how come Lord of the Rings is tatooed on the heart of every man and wo-man child the world over? How come J.K. Rowling has enough money to buy ALL OF THE THINGS? My question here is this; what are the advantages of fantasy?

Hunchback of Notre Dame Act 1

   What up home skillets??? Ok so remember last time how we talked about Treasure Planet having this weird tonal dissonance? Good because we are about to kick that shit UP TO ELEVEN. Now Disney has a habit of taking stories with some seriously dark shit in them and deciding that that shit would be perfect for a kids’ film. Little Mermaid? Girl goes around feeling like she is getting KNIVES stabbed into her feet and then DIES. Rapunzel? Prince gets straight up BLINDED. Bambi? Dude’s mom is brutally murdered WAIT THEY LEFT THAT IN?! However all these stories still have some obviously kid friendly magical elements in them, like mermaids and magic hair and cute little deer orphans, so it makes sense that they could have potential as a film that kids could enjoy. You know what story is not like that? The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Hey guys guess what SURPRISE special bonus post? I was reading kristoffbjorgman's post about Frozen's Hans and it brought up some interesting things, and since I briefly mentioned Hans in my review tonight I thought I would weigh in real quick. In the post which you should totally read because the analysis is ON POINT Kristoff B. talks about how people should in no way be surprised that Hans was evil because that shit was set up, and guess what IT TOTALLY WAS. However when I was watching the movie myself what bothered me was not the twist itself, or even the fact that he was EVIL which was actually pretty cool; it was that as soon as he turned into a villain I knew exactly how the rest of the act was going to go.

Treasure Planet

            Disney in the 2000’s was kind of going through a phase; sure, they had done an overall great job with classic fairytales in the past but now it was time for something NEW because kids these days are HIP and EDGY and IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS MOM, GOD, WHATEVER! I can try to make Hunchback of Notre Dame kid friendly if I want to, YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME! Ahem. So it was that when it came time to create a film based on Treasure Island, it was not enough to merely adapt one of the all time classic adventure books in human history. No, they had to do it…in SPACE. And thus was born, Treasure Planet.