#animatedminds

I think my favorite parts of Maul - Shadow Lord are honestly those personal moments where Maul just... talks to people.

Mostly because it's been a consistent thing with the character for the last few years that he has a shocking capacity for wisdom that he's simply never internalizing, and thus he always comes so close to actualizing and breaking through to something stronger but misses the mark. Even when he himself is introducing real lessons, he often fails to understand those lessons himself.

Maul's conversation with Lawson, in particular, was one of my favorites that isn't being as noticed as the other great conversations he has in the last few episodes (those being the ones with Devon and Daki). The bit that hit me, really, was the bit where Lawson refuses his offer and Maul seems to truly understand why he made the choice, even if it's a disappointment and against his own wishes, and yet in the end it nevertheless comes down to "be controlled by me, or be dead" and nothing else - this also resonates with his conversation with Devon as well, and later it's an issue with him and Ezra Bridger. It's really compelling that Maul's respect for others and understanding towards their decisions even if they don't align with it - at least at this stage of his life - seems genuine, but yet he's still unable to truly engage with that respect whilst still in the shadow of his desire for domination.

So often he comes off as coming from a genuine place when he talks about how awful the Empire is and how similar and unfair his and the Jedi's fates have become and how working together rather than fighting each other is the only way they'll survive and succeed, it's just he can't bring himself not to use that truth as a means of manipulation rather than as grounding to build something real. He almost empathizes, but ultimately chooses manipulation. Which in his every appearance, is precisely what sabotages everything he tries to do.

Which is really leading to the big irony of this show: Maul is surrounded by people in this series that he could so easily be genuine allies with, if he just wasn't being the person he's so fixated on being. He's the thing keeping success out of his own grasp, but he never understands that. Just like with Savage. Just like - later - with Ezra.

“We have all these character designs for Cassandra and by god we’re going to use them!”

Because it’s the last episode of the bomb, naturally. General thoughts: “Be Very Afraid” is a Scarecrow episode. Everyone loves Scarecrow episodes. In non-Batman terms, it’s an episode where we get to see everyone’s greatest fears come to life. There’s always someone with a silly and non-story significant fear (Eugene, this time), while the main characters of the episode have to face character defining trials drawn from their own subconscious. We got to see the whole Kingdom react in this one, and I actually think it would’ve been nice to see more of that. Quirin is present in the episode, but yet again he doesn’t react or get involved in anything that’s going on - I feel like we should’ve gotten his take on what happened with Varian by now. Catalina and Kiera are involved in the episode, but we don’t get to see their fears (though them making everyone else’s fears worse by accident was gold). And the King and Queen are completely AWOL, though I guess that makes sense what with the lack of memories and all. But that’s not something that bugged me, just something more I thought would’ve been interesting to see.

First things first, no spoilers except implicitly, and things that you should already know from the first film. Any who, on with the story. Follow me to a place where incredible feats are routine every two hours and nine minutes or so...

Just came back from Aladdin and... pretty good. I'm planning to see it again with family, so I'll get that more discerning second look later on, but so far it's probably between this and 101 Dalmatians as my favorite live action remake.

The shining aspect of this is the characters: the characters drive the story, as they should, with strong, well written - and fun - interactions and motivations that are well acted to boot, and it's quite engaging - especially as it gets doing. The story deviates on terms of some of those motivations and character stories, but more than most cases like this knows how to adjust characters and story thus to ensure what their adapting incorporates those changes well. Particularly with Aladdin and Jasmine, who are of course the heart of the whole story, and drive it and it's themes arguably a bit more strongly than the original (see below). Especially Jasmine, who feels very different in some ways, exactly the same in others, and is the narrative MVP in terms of thematic resonance - fans of the Broadway show might especially love her characterization here.

The CGI is hit or miss, but it’s not bad so much as just... off, like a lot of CGI these days. The biggest problem is the eyes, really. One problem you get sometimes with 3D animation and animation alongside live action in general is that, if you pay attention character aren't always actually looking at the things they're supposed to be looking at, and instead kind of stare into space in that general direction. Once you notice it, you can't unnotice it, and I didn't have to try particularly hard to notice it here. Especially on Abu.

But in motion, it's great. Friend Like Me is fantastic (which was great, given how incredibly disappointing Live Action "Be Our Guest" was), and pretty perfectly captured that zaniness and versatility in ideas that the original sported. It got actual applause from the audience in my theatre.

Genie does that well in general, really: he's not full of pop culture references this time, but they do instead fill that with asides and fun dialogue - like I said, the characters were the shining point in this story. Will Smith isn't a great singer - he's far better rapping and being natural - and so he acts Genie very well.

On the topic of the musical numbers... yeah. They're probably the movie's weakest point. Like I said, Friend Like Me is great. A Whole New World is pretty good too: it's less globetrotting than the original, but there's an actual plot servicing reason for that. Prince Ali is better than the thirty second preview made it seem, but it's still not the movie's best. The new song is good too, especially the first part (it's probably the moment the audience realizes those differing motivations I mentioned before), though the pacing of the second part probably could have been workshopped better.

Which leads me to the plot. It's still the same general plot: it's got it's differences, but the heart of the story - the most crucial thing that ties it together - is still there, if even a bit more heavy handed. YMMV on whether you like it more heavily delivered or not, but imo it was fine. I think the big downside plotwise is that it's very fast paced. Scenes are streamlined - not the ones that really matter to the A-plot, but several which I think should have been retained (or replaced with something equivalent) to support that plot might have been rushed through in the process. In some ways this allowed them to present what they wanted to change in how it worked more strongly, allowing what I've lauded the movie for above to perhaps shine more through, but in other ways it feels like some things on the cutting room floor could have stood to be retained.

To give an example, Jafar. Jafar is one of my favorite things about the original film, and I think in terms of how he is engaged within the story he's up there with Gaston as one of Disney's best conceived villains. So I think the moment I realized I would like this movie is when I saw that they nailed what I felt was the essence of Jafar's character and why he works as an antagonist - his Evil Counterpart nature to Aladdin himself - who wants power because he doesn't believe he's good enough - by being an insecure narcissist who craves power because it's there and he doesn't have it (and yeah, it seems I was right about that being why he was younger: that counterpart nature is a lot more explicit here). But in streamlining they miss out on the other thing that makes him such a good counterpart: he's also a schemer who fails and succeeds on his wits, just like Aladdin. It's implied, but only comes out once or twice in the film: as much of his presence in the center of the film is cut. As a result, the latter third of the movie - which is very much Jafar's show - is weaker than it should be, even while Jasmine and Aladdin's stake in it has that much more strength due to the more direct focus.