Comics, and some media reviews:
Girl Comics!
The Beat had the exclusive this morning.
I think this is a really cool project. In an industry that has frequently had sexism issues, it's nice that Marvel decided to celebrate the women who are currently making comics with these one shots. I'm looking forward to buying this. Shame about the title, though.
The ONTD_P comment thread on this made me want to tear my hair out, however.
Merlin: Meh. I guess the recent events were supposed to feel epic and groundchanging, but they don't for me, partially because I suspect this season will end with some sort of reboot. Show is far, far too attracted to its monster-of-the-week format. Also, I increasingly dislike the choices Merlin is making. Major Kira would call him a collaborator.
Princess and the Frog: Enjoyed this a lot! Lovely animation, especially in Tiana's dream sequences and surrounding the baddie. I did feel it was a tad long for the material - the frog adventures in the bayou seemed to stretch on FOREEEVER. I desperately wanted them to get back to New Orleans and to be human because it seemed as though those earlier sequences were far more interesting to me. And the songs are very slight.
Also, I'm not sure I completely buy the end conclusion of Tiana's journey. It felt like they couldn't decide if her flaw was work-a-holism or that she didn't have a place in her life for family and looove. In making Tiana a more reasonably real character - with a goal outside the usual princess-ism, I guess I found it hard to believe that she'd REALLY have picked that guy as the one. I suppose she's the first Disney Princess I could see realistically having a divorce?
I was really shocked that Ray, the firefly character, died. There was a body and everything! Despite being kind of leery of that character from the trailer, he was really very sweet and I was totally moved.
I also inexplicably liked Tiana's rich white girl bestie, Charlotte. She had all the makings of an obnoxious person, but inner heart of gold wins out.
In conclusion: there was no real race or genderfail in this that I saw, and I enjoyed it, but it is a slighter work than their previous offerings. I hope that Disney continues its newfound commitment to 2D animation, though, as this is a promising start.