Meme day 29: Kid stuff
First off, if you want to hear the new song I wrote and recorded this past week, you can get it at the LJ community for Babylon 5 Love Month, which it was written for. I know I would normally do a post about it here too, but I'm running kind of short on time this week and I'm concerned I'll just forget about it if I don't direct you there. I hope you enjoy it!
[Current TV show obsession: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Nickelodeon, 2005-2008]
I know that I've mentioned in other prompts for this meme that good stories are my definition of good children's entertainment. I don't think a movie or a TV show should have to pander or go lowbrow in order to appeal to kids; all it should have to do is tell a great, age-appropriate tale with good characters, plenty of drama, and maybe a little humor too. Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the shows that succeeds on every one of these counts, to the point where it's completely accessible to and able to be enjoyed by adults as well.
The story of A:TLA is familiar in all the best senses of the word; what is really remarkable about it is the level of care and precision with which its stories are executed. The show takes place in an Asian-influenced world which was extensively and carefully researched to make it rich, believable, and miles ahead of the usual appropriative kung fu clichés. The "airbender" of the title refers to a person who can control the element of air through a sort of magical martial art - firebenders, earthbenders, and waterbenders also exist. The Avatar is the only person able to control all four elements, and is supposed to be reborn into each generation. However, as the show begins, the Avatar has disappeared and the evil Fire Nation has conquered much of the world. As the series begins, Katara and Sokka, a teenage brother and sister from the Inuit-esque Water Tribe, come across the long-lost Avatar in the form of a boy named Aang who has spent the past 100 years frozen in an iceberg. Aang is quickly beset by Zuko, a young exiled prince of the Fire Nation who has sworn to capture the Avatar in order to restore his honor, and must flee the Water Tribe in the company of Katara and Sokka. Thus begins Aang's quest to master the other three elements (since he had already learned airbending) so that he can defeat the Fire Lord Ozai and restore balance to the world.
There are so many great things about this show that I hardly know where to begin. I've already mentioned the depth and believability of the setting, but I haven't mentioned that the animation is also dynamic and beautiful to look at. I could talk about its incredibly perfect pacing - it's amazing how much drama, excitement, humor, and story the writers can pack into 24 minutes without any episode ever feeling rushed or padded. I could talk about the wonderful, multi-faceted characters; not only are the four I already mentioned each wonderful in their own right, I was also delighted by later arrivals such as the snarky blind earthbender Toph, or Zuko's RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME uncle/mentor/conscience/father figure Iroh. I could talk about the show's amazing sense of humor and how it's kid-appropriate but still funny to adults, or how it conveys important messages and lessons without feeling didactic. But if I go into that much detail, we will be here all day, so for now I will just tell you that everything about this show is awesome and that you should have been watching it yesterday if you haven't already.
A couple of final notes on Avatar: I'm about halfway through the third and final season of the show right now (the most recent episode I saw was "The Day of Black Sun, Part 2" - OMG so good!), so please don't spoil me in the comments! Also, I have not seen the live-action movie and have no real interest in doing so for a variety of reasons, so my fandom of the show extends to the animated series alone at this point.
[A movie from your childhood: Ghostbusters, dir. Ivan Reitman, 1984]
There's this wonderful scene in Zombieland (which also gets my recommendation - very funny and over-the-top, and containing probably the greatest unexpected A-list celebrity cameo I've ever seen) in which a bunch of 20ish characters are shocked that another character's teenage sister has never seen or heard of Ghostbusters. I laughed/winced pretty hard at that because I still find it a bit incomprehensible to think that there's a generation of kids who are old enough to have, like, language and personalities and bladder control and stuff but have never seen or heard of Ghostbusters. But for people like me who are in or around their late 20s and grew up in the USA, I don't know that there is a more universal cultural touchstone (well, okay, maybe The Goonies).
There are a number of things about Ghostbusters that should be easily remembered by anyone who has seen it - the basic plot about disgraced parapsychologists starting up a low-rent ghost-hunting business, Slimer, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. These things, along with the "Real Ghostbusters" animated series (which I would later learn was, hilariously enough, one of J. Michael Straczynski's early writing jobs, a stint which included an episode that is honest to god about Cthulhu), were the aspects that stuck out to me as a kid. I remember "ghostbusters" as being one of the most popular pretend-play scenarios in my neighborhood, sometimes re-enacting scenes from the movie but more often than not coming up with our own ghosts to bust. Probably a lot of this had to do with those aspects of the show being merchandised to death and beyond. My next-door neighbor's proton pack and ghost trap toys were the envy of our block, and after a long day of making up our own ghostbuster tales, nothing was more refreshing than to go inside for some Ecto Cooler. I suspect I'm not alone in having memories like these.
However, Ghostbusters is most notable to me because when I rewatched it as an adult, I actually liked it more than I did when I was a kid. In my childhood I could be dazzled by the special effects and entertained by the concept of ghost hunting for fun and profit, but I missed out on not only on some of the great one-liners and the raunchier humor that went right over my head, but also on the full hilarity of Bill Murray's deadpan, semi-improvised performance as Peter Venkman. This is probably still one of the most frequently quoted movies among my group of friends, even more than 25 (!) years after its release. I hope it holds up so well with other viewers, and not just because of my childhood nostalgia either.
This entry was originally posted at http://gamerchick.dreamwidth.org/568144.html. You can comment on either journal. Number of comments on Dreamwidth:
[Current TV show obsession: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Nickelodeon, 2005-2008]
I know that I've mentioned in other prompts for this meme that good stories are my definition of good children's entertainment. I don't think a movie or a TV show should have to pander or go lowbrow in order to appeal to kids; all it should have to do is tell a great, age-appropriate tale with good characters, plenty of drama, and maybe a little humor too. Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the shows that succeeds on every one of these counts, to the point where it's completely accessible to and able to be enjoyed by adults as well.
The story of A:TLA is familiar in all the best senses of the word; what is really remarkable about it is the level of care and precision with which its stories are executed. The show takes place in an Asian-influenced world which was extensively and carefully researched to make it rich, believable, and miles ahead of the usual appropriative kung fu clichés. The "airbender" of the title refers to a person who can control the element of air through a sort of magical martial art - firebenders, earthbenders, and waterbenders also exist. The Avatar is the only person able to control all four elements, and is supposed to be reborn into each generation. However, as the show begins, the Avatar has disappeared and the evil Fire Nation has conquered much of the world. As the series begins, Katara and Sokka, a teenage brother and sister from the Inuit-esque Water Tribe, come across the long-lost Avatar in the form of a boy named Aang who has spent the past 100 years frozen in an iceberg. Aang is quickly beset by Zuko, a young exiled prince of the Fire Nation who has sworn to capture the Avatar in order to restore his honor, and must flee the Water Tribe in the company of Katara and Sokka. Thus begins Aang's quest to master the other three elements (since he had already learned airbending) so that he can defeat the Fire Lord Ozai and restore balance to the world.
There are so many great things about this show that I hardly know where to begin. I've already mentioned the depth and believability of the setting, but I haven't mentioned that the animation is also dynamic and beautiful to look at. I could talk about its incredibly perfect pacing - it's amazing how much drama, excitement, humor, and story the writers can pack into 24 minutes without any episode ever feeling rushed or padded. I could talk about the wonderful, multi-faceted characters; not only are the four I already mentioned each wonderful in their own right, I was also delighted by later arrivals such as the snarky blind earthbender Toph, or Zuko's RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME uncle/mentor/conscience/father figure Iroh. I could talk about the show's amazing sense of humor and how it's kid-appropriate but still funny to adults, or how it conveys important messages and lessons without feeling didactic. But if I go into that much detail, we will be here all day, so for now I will just tell you that everything about this show is awesome and that you should have been watching it yesterday if you haven't already.
A couple of final notes on Avatar: I'm about halfway through the third and final season of the show right now (the most recent episode I saw was "The Day of Black Sun, Part 2" - OMG so good!), so please don't spoil me in the comments! Also, I have not seen the live-action movie and have no real interest in doing so for a variety of reasons, so my fandom of the show extends to the animated series alone at this point.
[A movie from your childhood: Ghostbusters, dir. Ivan Reitman, 1984]
There's this wonderful scene in Zombieland (which also gets my recommendation - very funny and over-the-top, and containing probably the greatest unexpected A-list celebrity cameo I've ever seen) in which a bunch of 20ish characters are shocked that another character's teenage sister has never seen or heard of Ghostbusters. I laughed/winced pretty hard at that because I still find it a bit incomprehensible to think that there's a generation of kids who are old enough to have, like, language and personalities and bladder control and stuff but have never seen or heard of Ghostbusters. But for people like me who are in or around their late 20s and grew up in the USA, I don't know that there is a more universal cultural touchstone (well, okay, maybe The Goonies).
There are a number of things about Ghostbusters that should be easily remembered by anyone who has seen it - the basic plot about disgraced parapsychologists starting up a low-rent ghost-hunting business, Slimer, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. These things, along with the "Real Ghostbusters" animated series (which I would later learn was, hilariously enough, one of J. Michael Straczynski's early writing jobs, a stint which included an episode that is honest to god about Cthulhu), were the aspects that stuck out to me as a kid. I remember "ghostbusters" as being one of the most popular pretend-play scenarios in my neighborhood, sometimes re-enacting scenes from the movie but more often than not coming up with our own ghosts to bust. Probably a lot of this had to do with those aspects of the show being merchandised to death and beyond. My next-door neighbor's proton pack and ghost trap toys were the envy of our block, and after a long day of making up our own ghostbuster tales, nothing was more refreshing than to go inside for some Ecto Cooler. I suspect I'm not alone in having memories like these.
However, Ghostbusters is most notable to me because when I rewatched it as an adult, I actually liked it more than I did when I was a kid. In my childhood I could be dazzled by the special effects and entertained by the concept of ghost hunting for fun and profit, but I missed out on not only on some of the great one-liners and the raunchier humor that went right over my head, but also on the full hilarity of Bill Murray's deadpan, semi-improvised performance as Peter Venkman. This is probably still one of the most frequently quoted movies among my group of friends, even more than 25 (!) years after its release. I hope it holds up so well with other viewers, and not just because of my childhood nostalgia either.
This entry was originally posted at http://gamerchick.dreamwidth.org/568144.html. You can comment on either journal. Number of comments on Dreamwidth: