Disney's Divinity wrote:Mooky wrote:Really? Jungle Book's episodic nature doesn't bother you? MTR's entire second act which is at odds with the rest of the movie?
Episodic doesn't automatically = bad to me. As for MTR, the only part of the film that fails is the intro. of the Robinsons in the middle of the film. I'd hardly call the
entire second act a failure.
Well, to me episodic is bad, especially when coupled with absence of any depth, emotion and sense of direction. As for MTR, you're actually the first person I've spoken to that doesn't find the entirety of second act to be too zany for its own good and too jarring compared to the rest of the movie. One of my friends actually said it was like
The Jetsons on steroids and I was inclined to agree.
Disney's Divinity wrote:Mooky wrote:Annoyance aside, I was talking about sidekicks' purpose. Flit, Meeko, Pascal, Maximus, Pegasus, Djali, Morph, and other such characters serve no other purpose other than being cute, funny (debatable), and hogging screen time away from the protagonists.
Mushu, gargoyles, B.E.N., Louis, Timon and Pumbaa, however irritating they may be, aren't just scene dressing meant to entertain kids, they actually affect the plot and their interaction with main characters has a meaning. ... And without [the gargoyles], I really can't see how they'd be able to develop Quasimodo at all.
Perhaps internally, like most movies?
Some movies, yes. Disney movies never do. Name one Disney movie that showed protagonist's internal thoughts, musings and conflicts without the significant use of sidekicks.
Disney's Divinity wrote:Personally, I think you're being very arbitrary--comic relief is all of those characters' purpose, including the gargoyles. Mushu, BEN, and Timon and Pumbaa are the only sidekicks out of those mentioned that are inextricable from the plot in some way or another (though T&P are mostly disposable, they do introduce the Hakuna Mutata philosophy that keeps Simba from returning to the Pride Lands--and they act as his foster parents while he's still a child).
I wasn't arbitrary at all, I just listed reasons why some sidekicks work and some doesn't, and I never said those characters are or should be devoid of any type of humor. Heck, all the positive examples I listed
are comic relief characters. The point here is the thing you do with those characters
other than having them as comic relief. Since you pretty much explained Timon and Pumbaa's influence on the main plot and the protagonist (which I argued for anyway), I just don't understand the issue you and everyone else have with the gargoyles when they were clearly designed with the same intention in mind.
Disney's Divinity wrote:What little the gargoyles add could easily be filled by a miscellaneous priest with one or two lines of dialogue (the Archdeacon would seem like the ideal choice, really)
Sorry, that is just silly. If archdeacon's role had been expanded at the expense of gargoyles', I can bet he would have been cracking jokes, and be voiced by, say, Michael Richards. This is a Disney movie, if the gargoyles weren't in the film, it would have been something else of the same ilk. Talking pidgeons, perhaps. Just be lucky it weren't talking bells.
Disney's Divinity wrote:or a non-speaking piece of scenery a la Flounder.
Flounder does speak. Perhaps you meant Flit/Pascal? No thanks, I've seen how Rapunzel turned out with that type of sidekick.
Disney's Divinity wrote:And, really, if any film could've worked with the protagonist simply talking to themselves without anyone else around, Hunchback would have.
Again, it's a Disney movie. Protagonists are not supposed to be deeply philosophical and unbalanced. That type of character wouldn't work even in live-action. For that to work, the character would actually have to be mute, like in the novel. I doubt Disney would have agreed to that.
Disney's Divinity wrote:And Tangled, though not one of my favorites by any means, never reaches the same lows as Hunchback.
Out of curiosity, since it's constantly being brought up here and elsewhere, what exactly is the gargoyles'
crime other than 'disrupting the tone' (a.k.a. lightening up the mood)? Other than Hugo spitting (or trying to anyway), I really can't recall any instance that would make them the lowest of the low, and by extension, bring the whole film down. Are they racist, ethnic, chauvinist stereotypes, did they swear, did they make some sexual innuendos that I wasn't aware of? Based on the sheer amount of hate for them, you'd think they came out of an
American Pie movie.
Marce82 wrote:Oh, and Mooky...I just read your posts about how to fix Tangled and TPATF.... great ideas!!! You should work in the story department at Disney!
Haha, thanks. From what I've seen and read on this forum alone, Disney would be a much better place if they employed many of the talented people here, be it for their art, concepts, story ideas or just general suggestions.
ajmrowland wrote:2 probably isnt a plothole. Neither is three. Plotholes are plot points that directly contradict prior information without resolve.
I just went by one of the definitions of a plot hole from TV tropes, that says:
Plot holes can come in many forms:
a) Characters suddenly having knowledge that was never passed to them, or vice versa; characters not knowing something they knew last week, or something that anyone in their position must know.
b) Characters acting completely out of character.
c) An event does not logically follow from what has gone before.
d) Characters ignoring or avoiding obvious solutions to their problems, provided those solutions are obvious to the characters, and not just the viewers.
e) An event occurring that, given other details present in the work, is not possible.
I think No. 2 fits e) and No. 3 fits d). Either way, it's a huge stretch of imagination.