Next up and probably the last Disney title for a bit, is Star vs the Forces of Evil.
In recent years, the rise and continuing rise of Disney Princess often leads to criticism about how Disney chooses it's female characters to market to young girls, understandable when your selections are Frozen, Sofia the First or the Disney Princesses that wear the big poofy dresses, often ignoring the fact that there are some female characters who could use it bit more love, Mulan comes to mind. So how about a Princess more geared towards adventure? Well this is how Star vs the Forces of Evil was born.
Star Butterfly is the Magical Princess of the Magic Dimension of Mewni, but on her 14th birthday she sets fire to the castle after receiving the family heirloom, a Sailor Moon style Magic Wand. This prompts her parents to send her to Earth on a Foreign Exchange program staying with her new friend Marco Diaz. However seeing Star outside her Dimension prompts many evil beings to chase down Star and retrieve the wand for themselves but unfortunately for them, Star is no damsel in distress as she sees no problem resorting to gratuitous magical violence to save the day.
Star is probably the most realistic acting princess Disney has ever made, and that's saying a lot considering she gets very little in the merchandising department. To describe her I'd say she's the forbidden love child of Mabel Pines and Steven Universe, insanely hyper with emphasis on enjoying life and very eager to use magic because, well it's magic that's how it should be used, and that's not only a bold move but a welcome change from the diabetes inducing Sofia the First.
The episodes are fun to watch and make the most out of Star's personality and the obvious references to Sailor Moon are welcomed with open arms as the anime of the 90s make their way into American cartoons as pop culture references.
Disney need to give this show more love because it would save them from a lot of criticism about it's TV Channels recently especially when it considers Star Wars, Nickelodeon teen sitcom ripoffs, more Star Wars, Marvel cartoons, even more Star Wars, cartoons about retarded food stuffs and oh no more friggin Star Wars as the best it has to offer.
Cartoons have gone through a surprise renaissance in recent years and we have these ten creators to thank for it. Give some applause to these individuals. (Updated with Honorable Mentions)
Honorable Mentions
Daniel Chong
Creator of We Bare Bears
A simple premise of three bears trying to function in normal society is one of the better attempts at incorporating modern day humor into cartoons. Hope to see more from this one.
Daron Nefcy
Creator of Star vs the Forces of Evil
I really wanted Amethyst Princess of Gemworld to become a series but I'll settle for Star vs the Forces of Evil, living proof that you can make a female lead interesting without the need for vomits of pink.
Disqualified: Skyler Page
Creator of Clarence
Skyler Page Disgraced himself by committing an act of Sexual Assault on another employee and has since been sacked by Cartoon Network.
10. Kyle A. Carrozza
Creator of Mighty Magiswords
This show only came out last week and already I'm hooked, this guy is a refugee from Nickelodeon's failed Random Cartoons project that came from the same stable as Adventure Time. While Mighty Magiswords is only a web cartoon at the moment there is hope of more to come from this show.
9. Sean Szeles
Creator of Long Live the Royals
A prominent writer of Regular Show, Sean Szeles has graduated into making his own show that hopes to carry on the same humor that Regular Show produced.
8. Rebecca Sugar
Creator of Steven Universe
A prominent writer of Adventure Time, Rebecca Sugar's show about a boy inheriting gem powers has all the dimensions found from her time working on Adventure Time and is one of the best female cartoon creators since Lauren Faust.
7. Peter Browngardt
Creator of Uncle Grandpa
A major writer on Flapjack, and creator of Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, Peter Browngardt took out what didn't work in Fort Awesome and made Uncle Grandpa which did work.
6. Patrick McHale
Creator of Over the Garden Wall
Another writer from Flapjack and a contributor to Adventure Time, Patrick McHale created the biggest surprise of last year, the dark and mysterious Over the Garden Wall which set a new standard in story writing and atmosphere.
5. Benjamin Bocquelet
Creator of Amazing World of Gumball
A French born British animator who used to work in advertisement and the only one on this list without previous cartoon history. Ben's ability to blend his unique creations into an impressive and hilarious show makes him Europe's finest cartoon maker to date and one to watch for the future.
4. Pendleton Ward
Creator of Adventure Time
This guy put Cartoon Network back on the map along with the number 3 entry. A talented writer that Nickelodeon was stupid enough to ignore, is now regarded as the creator of Cartoon Network's most successful show.
3. J.G. Quintel
Creator of Regular Show
J.G. Quintel is a man who I can relate to, he successfully crafted a cartoon suitable for people of my Generation, basically anyone born in the 80s and made sure that the old Cartoon Network fan wasn't ignored.
2. Alex Hirsch
Creator of Gravity Falls
Alex Hirsch is a reminder that Disney haven't completely abandoned cartoons and can still create classics. Gravity Falls is the cleverest show on TV in all forms, not just cartoons, here's hoping he creates more.
1. Thurop Van Orman
Creator of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
But over half this list owe their pay checks to Thurop Van Orman who gave them their big break. Sean Szeles, Peter Browngardt, Alex Hirsch, J.G. Quintel, Pendleton Ward and Patrick McHale were all credited writers of Flapjack, the show wasn't the most fondly remembered in Cartoon Network's history but you all had to start somewhere and Flapjack is the Forefather of the Modern Cartoon Network.
Note: Nothing from Nickelodeon?
Kind of says a lot about their shows at the moment.
Okay back to cartoon reviews and I did promise more Disney so here is Quack Pack.
In the 90s Disney tried all sorts of different cartoons in order to keep up with the changing trends of the decade leading to the whole teenage rebellion phase which allowed this cartoon to exist, which followed on from the success of very similar program Goof Troop.
In this series, Donald and Daisy work as a cameraman and reporter respectively but also have to deal with teenage versions of the triplets Huey, Dewey & Louie as they pretty much act as more "extreme" versions of what they were portrayed in the Duck Tales cartoon. I use the term "extreme" loosely as it's more the 90s lingo over actual plot and development as you can copy and paste the triplets into several other cartoons of the era and get exactly the same cartoon.
To put it into perspective it's like the Ninja Turtles but all of them are Michelangelo, sure they do display a lot more noticeable personality traits that seem to separate them more but it never lasts any longer than a few minutes per episode and then they return to being their normal annoying selves, not made any easier by the whole super hero thing which seems like a forced decision on the directors part.
So to conclude I can say that this show had good intentions but ultimately tried to cash in on a trend that had already out stayed it's welcome and because of it, it has aged poorly, the only thing I can really salvage from this show is that this is probably the best version of Daisy Duck in cartoon and comic strip form that you'll ever see.
This week will feature some shows from the current Disney cartoon range, this isn't an official week of reviews per say rather the next three or four reviews will consist of Disney made cartoons, starting with Wander Over Yonder.
Wander is a nomadic and overly-optimistic intergalactic traveler along with his Zbornak best friend and steed Sylvia, travel the galaxy spreading his philosophy of fun and freedom all the while avoiding the evil Lord Hater and his Watchdog army. A typical episode would feature Wander being his usual optimistic self while Sylvia tries to talk him out of the dangers he seemingly drags them into or moments when Wander is oblivious to the dangers around him and Sylvia while Lord Hater is seemingly defeated countless times by the duo usually by dumb luck on Wander's part.
This show was made by Craig McCracken of Powerpuff Girls fame and it shows in the humor which is pretty good for a relatively average show with a very basic story. While some people may not like the antics of Wander or the fact that he's too close in design to Spongebob, but Wander is easy on the ears, and while he may be annoying in some episodes, I would consider him quite low on the spectrum next to Spongebob and the rest of the current Nickelodeon for that matter.
In an age where copying each other seems to be the way cartoon channels work these days it's hard to find something good and Wander Over Yonder while certainly not the best cartoon from Disney it's no where near the worst either.
Now for some cultural lessons with Disney's Cinderella, and mainly because it's just had a live action makeover.
I shouldn't need to tell this story but for the uninformed, Cinderella is about a downtrodden girl who gets a chance to go to the ball with the help of her Fairy Godmother. In this Disney version, it maintains the setting depicted by Charles Perrault and includes it's own whimsical charm through the talking mice and the beautiful animation of the famous Dress Transformation scene, a personal favorite of Walt Disney himself.
And 65 years later, the live action version gives us more of the same but many feel that Cinderella is outdated due to the fact that it paints an unrealistic depiction of romance and doesn't speak with the same Quasi-Feminist views that Elsa of Frozen championed. Well lets stop this crap right now.
If the 1950s film did anything wrong, it was the lack of character development for the Prince, the screen time is taken up more by the mice than any other character including Cinderella herself and finally there could've been more story from all sides, there's enough interesting characters to pad the story a bit and actually give the Prince some actual background. A lot of criticism is still aimed at Cinderella and it plagues the 2015 live action version as well seeing as every female lead is expected to act like Elsa but it's not the end of the world if the lead female doesn't.
1. There's not really much you can change from Cinderella.
2. Attempting to make it like Frozen would seem like a forced decision and will likely ruin it.
As popular as Frozen is, girls are still very diverse in their interests, more so than boys, for every girl who likes Elsa, there's a girl who likes Cinderella but you maybe surprised by the reasons why.
For Elsa it's her ability to accept her faults as part of who she is and the importance of reconnecting to your family.
For Cinderella it's karma giving her a reward for tolerating the hardships that life throws at you with the kindest of hearts and trust me that's a more valuable life lesson, but there are mundane reasons as well such as good singing voices and having a pimping dress, so don't expect a revolution.
Despite the direction Hollywood thinks the female lead roles should go, there is still a place for the traditional heroine even if the film is 65 years old, it shows that a timeless story can still entertain a modern audience.
