Media consumed: August 2017

[alias_sqbr]

Animated:

Road to El Dorado: a 2000 Dreamworks cartoon about two Spanish con men who end up mistaken for gods in El Dorado during the Spanish conquest of the Americas. I was put off by the racist sounding premise at the time, especially since I'd recently been burned by Pocahontas, but people kept posting cute looking gif sets on tumblr. It was pretty fun, and while not free of racism did treat the indigenous people as Actual People more than...any other period movie I can think of(*). The production values were very 90s Disney knockoff: nice design and backgrounds but inconsistent animation, direction, songs and writing. Has a refreshing "friends with benefits develop feelings" arc for a kids film, and as tumblr promised, you can totally read the ending as m/m/f :)

(*)This is depressing. Are there any actually good movies about pre-1800-ish indigenous people of the Americas?

Voltron Season 3: I liked this more than season 2, they walked back some of the annoying characterisation choices (I don't remember a single fat joke!), even if they still seem very much focussed on Keith and Shiro (they do angst very prettily) Felt a bit limp, but I'll still happily watch season 4.

Rick and Morty: A darkly funny scifi cartoon vaguely inspired by Back to the Future for those with stronger stomachs than me. I was warned it had more adult/teen (also incest, though I didn't get that far) than I might be able to stand and it did.

Venture Brothers: A darkly funny scifi cartoon about the teenage sons of a half assed Genius Scientist in a world of superheroes and super villains. It wasn't funny enough to make up for the mean spiritedness, I'd rather watch Kim Possible.

Games:

Tacoma: This is fantastic, an exploration game on a space station by the creators of Gone Home. A nicely diverse cast in terms of gender, sexuality and ethnicity. Also a cool AI :D Engaging stories and characters. A bit short for the price.

Abzu: A gentle game about exploring the ocean. I haven't played a lot because it's on the windows machine and I keep forgetting about it, but it's very pretty.

Putt Putt Goes to the Moon: a very simple, short point and click game about a talking car figuring out how to get home from the moon. Had a lot of cute little details, like little aliens popping out if you click on things in the background. Not worth the full price but a fun way to kill an hour, and good for little kids.

Freddi Fish 5: The Creature of Coral Cove: This is from the same company as the Putt Putt
games but aimed at slightly older kids. I haven't finished it yet but it's a little more complex without being frustrating, and lots of fun. It's on special which is why I started with the end of the series.

Alphabear (hardcover edition): A desktop version of the phone game. A great, cute word game. Still a bit grindy, but not as much as the mobile version.

Books:

Ice in Sunlight by Julia Leijon: a m/m romance I got for free and found so squicky I had to skip to the end. A young bitter sex slave is slowly taught the joys of consent and kindness in a vaguely Arabic country by the prince and his happy holy prostitutes before finding love with his sweet bff. Seems popular with other people, possibly fun if you like Calm Patient Sex Mentors.

Podcasts:

Dragon Friends: a bunch of Australian comedians play Dungeons and Dragons very badly. They make a vague attempt at curbing the offensiveness of their humour but I wince a lot. I still find it hilarious and a lot of fun.

The Adventure Zone: Finished with a fantastic finale, it's now a complete and very entertaining fantasy story. This was retroactively titled "The Balance Arc" so they can create new characters and stories under the "Adventure Zone" umbrella, I'm very curious to see what they do now they have some experience with this kind of story telling.

Comments

[nextian]

Emperor's New Groove is... completely unserious in any way about the Inca, but everyone in there is a person in a pretty straightforward fashion... but it's definitely pushing it quite a bit to suggest that it's "about pre-1800 peoples in the Americas"

[alias_sqbr]

If we're going to get technical, my lawyer friend, one of the main characters actually spends most of the movie as a llama ;P

[lea_hazel]

I dread talking about my ambivalence about the TAZ finale.

[alias_sqbr]

I enjoyed it for what it was but can definitely see how it wouldn't be for everyone. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts!

[lea_hazel]

I really loved the first half. I thought the second half dragged, even though a lot of the individual elements in it were great. It had a very Scouring of the Shire feel. I loved, for example, Magnus's character development, but I didn't really feel like I needed to know what flower Samwise Gamgee named his eighteenth daughter after. And the utopian message just... came at the wrong time for me.

[alias_sqbr]

I had a moment during the previous episode where I went "Ah, it's going to be one of those feel good endings", and from then on just let it wash over me.

I'd be in more of a position to complain if I wasn't avoiding finishing Counterweight because I know it's not that kind of feel good story. Speaking of which, I feel like Friends At The Table might be your jam, I've personally only listened to the start of Season 2 (a stand alone sci-fi story called Counterweight) but I hear good things about the rest.

[lea_hazel]

The urge to write a fic about the first generation born post-Junior is only conquered by my amazing laziness.

And I think Friends at the Table might be the next thing I reach for.

[moonvoice]

Ice in Sunlight sounds like one of those books I'll either love for the tropes or hate because of the squick factor. My Id tends to like slavery fics that *don't* explore consent because then the dissonance part of my brain goes 'this is weird this is weird can't just *enjoy* it's about *slavery* FFS' and I often end up having to ditch the book. I'll keep it in mind though because I do like 'Calm Patient Sex Mentors' lol.

I have Abzu. I've had it for ages. I've never even opened it. I really should.

Rick and Morty - I hated the first episode, refused to watch it for two years, then watched the first season, and like... found some episodes really powerful, and then hated season two anyway. I like Dan Harmon, but I think Community (the TV show) is a more accessible offering than Rick & Morty by him. Also more diverse.

But yeah it's...I actually found a lot of the intentional grossness in the show deeply offputting :/

I'm glad you liked The Road to El Dorado! (Though yeah, definitely depressing that it's one of the better ones in a bunch).

[alias_sqbr]

Ice in Sunlight leans very heavily on the awfulness of the slavery, but it's all in flashback. It hit my "bad things happening to children" button a bit.

Yeah I think I'll be happiest leaving Rick and Morty be outside of like...gifsets or clips of specific scenes that might cross my way.