Film This Chick Stuff! Part One: A Call for Aid

[Yankeedoodles]

You know if you count Care Bears as a girl-oriented franchise (I always thought it was more gender neutral myself but whatever) I can actually see a decent movie being made out of it. If I remember correctly they didn't really have any big bad guy they were fighting, they were fighting despair and apathy. And that's pretty universal subject matter.

Granted, any sort of decent movie focusing on fighting despair and apathy would have to be hella depressing for it to work.

 

[movienut]

You know if you count Care Bears as a girl-oriented franchise (I always thought it was more gender neutral myself but whatever) I can actually see a decent movie being made out of it. If I remember correctly they didn't really have any big bad guy they were fighting, they were fighting despair and apathy. And that's pretty universal subject matter.

Granted, any sort of decent movie focusing on fighting despair and apathy would have to be hella depressing for it to work.

There was a bad guy in the show but I can't remember the name. I know his side kicks were Beastly and Shreiky.

 

[Jakale]

Since a lot of the comments have been talking about the older girl shows, has anyone heard of the Strawberry Shortcake reboot? If I remember my radio story correctly, they're changing out the dresses for more modern outfits. Don't know whether show content has evolved plotwise.
Huh, ok, wiki says there were two reboots http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_2009_Strawberry_Shortcake_characters#2009

In any case I'm firmly a 90s child so I know next to nothing about the shows being discussed on the first couple comment pages. Seems to me that girl shows got a bit of a boost after stuff like Sailor Moon showed up. Time-wise I know there's a pretty big gap and I'm not sure what, if anything, filled it(maybe Cardcaptors? I never thought of it as girly, though looking at the Japanese art it probably was supposed to be), but for recent girl shows that had the characters really doing stuff you have Kim Possible, Totally Spies, Winx Club(practically an American Sailor Moon if you ask me and annoyingly valley girl) W.I.T.C.H, and maybe some others that I haven't seen due to lack of cable of not watching Saturday cartoons anymore.
Well...there was that Bratz(agh, the eyes) show, but I doubt it had any plots more complex than your average live action high/middle school teen drama.

Come to think of it, about half the girl shows I listed don't feel really American in nature, more like they got a lot of anime inspiration and without it would default to schlock like Bratz. That stuff really shouldn't be the American legacy of girls.

 

[fullbleed]

Um...Bob, lack of research isn't exactly something you should be proud of.

/pointless university student bitching (what, I like people to actually INFORM themselves before they start making claims)

As a man who used to watch Gilmore Girls and loved it, I hold no judgement against people embracing media directed at both genders.

Please, someone make a Baby Laughalot movie:


She's like a Great Old One, the sight of her drives people mad.

Props for liking Gilmore Girls, and for calling Bob out on being an arrogant douche, which he kind of is in nearly all of his videos, esspecailly when he's being negative about something. And now he has an actuall soap box with which to share his opinions, which to Bob means cold hard fact in his eyes. Eh, I'll go with it until he slags something off I feel strongly about and tells me I'm wrong for feeling that way.

"Mothers and daughters, they talk so fast but they talk so true" Turk - Scrubs.
Gilmore Girls movie!

 

[Zolem]

Uhhhhhh....there was a reason I prefer Transformers to My Little Pony, stuff happened that was interesting and not a 'lesson on friendship' because one pony said something that hurt an others feelings and then having the whole episode be about that. Quite frankly, the 'Pink Aisle' is full of stuff that just wouldn't make a good movie. I mean, even Battleship has more potential than Strawberry Shortcake. It's basically the aisle of 'it looks nice, now collect the accessories'. There is no story, competition, or set-up for 'protagonist antagonist' conflict really. The only one I can think of would be Rainbow Bright, and even then only as a kids movie about Murkey and Lurky stealing colors from Rainbow Valley or whereever she lives, I just grabed that name from the Sonic universe. I don't even give enough of a crap to look up where she lives.

 

[fullbleed]

Snip

They already did a Totally Spies film, it's called Charlie's Angels and it sucks.

Kim Possible though?

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Card Captor Sakura! (seeing as anime's could be mentioned...) It was such a good show; the main character grew up and changed through out the story, as did those around her. Her powers grew reasonably (she captures a more powerful card; she can use it, she's forced to transform cards that will use her energy; general power increase) and the increase in her power is mentioned and has an effect on the story!

I was thinking CardCaptor.

 

[Yankeedoodles]

You know if you count Care Bears as a girl-oriented franchise (I always thought it was more gender neutral myself but whatever) I can actually see a decent movie being made out of it. If I remember correctly they didn't really have any big bad guy they were fighting, they were fighting despair and apathy. And that's pretty universal subject matter.

Granted, any sort of decent movie focusing on fighting despair and apathy would have to be hella depressing for it to work.

There was a bad guy in the show but I can't remember the name. I know his side kicks were Beastly and Shreiky.

Yeah I'm sure there were actual villains. But they were probably personifications of despair and apathy just like how the villains of Captain Planet represented corporate greed, overconsumption, unethical science among other things.

 

[Yowsah1]

Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but there was a whole slew of very successful "girl-themed" movies in the 80s I am surprised never got a remake, starting with with the Molly Ringwald movies SIXTEEN CANDLES and PRETTY IN PINK, through HEATHERS, and on to lesser efforts such as ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING, NIGHT OF THE COMET, and the legendarily bad LEGEND OF BILLIE JEAN.

Also, there were the female-dominated soap operas that were always premiering (and dying) on prime time TV. Perhaps the most famous is the miniseries LACE, which culminated in the shocking-for-it's-time line, "Which one of you bitches is my mother?" But there were also innumerable miniseries based on the works of Judith Krantz (bleccccch) and a so-bad-it's-good short lived TV series called PAPER DOLLS, and the so-bad-it's-just-bad even more short-lived series BARE ESSENCE starring the fresh-from-GENERAL-HOSPITAL Genie Francis.

Finally, an 80s girl-themed franchise in literature was the SWEET VALLEY HIGH series of books.

 

[movienut]

Finally, an 80s girl-themed franchise in literature was the SWEET VALLEY HIGH series of books.

Now that is a movie waiting to be made. I loved those books, they were my generation's Babysitter's Club.

 

[HentMas]

mmm... i might not be the best one, but i do remember watching "Rainbow Bright" and "My Little Pony" those shows were amazing, and i enjoyed every little bit of them (when i catch a glimpse of an episode on youtube or something like that i still recall the show and what it was all about) but for the life of me i cant remember the big pictura of them all...

She-Ra was a spin off to try and catter to girls filled to the brim of what is now the stereotypical "tough girl"

and if i remember correctly in "Tundercats" one of the coolest heroes was "Cheetara" (same for Steelheart in Silverhawks)

i mean,they actually did something other than "being female" or "being a bad ass" giving them a character that was actually really memorable (who doesnt remember Cheetara running towards Lion-O hitting people on her path and then joking with snarf and stuff like that, she was part of the team, not just an Icon)

now i want a "Lion-O" live action movie

as for "more girly stuff" sorry dude, no idea... sailor moon might be a good try (they basically wrote the book of "Magical Girls")

 

[girlfury]

The new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Developed and produced by the wife of the creator of the Powerpuff Girls, who also worked on PPG. It only premiered less than a month ago, and the /co/ community at 4chan.org can't get enough of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjl8XulH51E&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkeLzQv7Mn4&feature=related

 

[Ghengis John]

My only guess as to what you could make into a movie would be She-Ra. It has a back story full of magic and mythology and that seems to be okay with people these days. Of course you'd be telling the He-Man origin to boot in the beginning and you'd really need to get a good script writer because those were sort of silly shows. Cast a hot girl in the role of She-Ra and guys might just go see it. But then we're sort of re-aiming the audience to men aren't we?

Well all things being equal they're not equal. There's stigmas attached any way we slice it. I know that many girls didn't really like a lot of the stuff from the pink isle. I knew a girl who used to bury her Barbies in the yard then say mean kids took them from her, at which point she would pick out transformers at the toy store. And while we would think she's cool we might not think the same of a little boy who'd bury his transformers to acquire barbies. The people who make movies have to sell to as wide an audience as they can. That's all they're doing.

I must say though after seeing Scott Pilgrim vs the world people LOVED the fight between Ramona and her evil ex uh... girlfriend. The theater got quiet during that part and one guy said after "Chicks fighting is just bad-ass". So I don't know, maybe a She-Ra could work if you just took it seriously.

 

[mduncan50]

Bob, I'm thinking your reasoning is flawed as to why the "chick stuff" isn't getting the same treatment, because if a studio thought it would make money they'd make it regardless. I think it comes down to one simple fact. Women grow up, we don't. I can't think of too many girls I know that would stopping flipping through the channels if they came upon reruns of My Little Pony or Gem, but if a guys flicks to a channel playing old GI Joe, or Transformers, he instantly reverts back to 10 yrs old, for some a bigger trip than others

 

[Electrogecko]

What the hell people! Comment! I don't have an educated opinion on any subject on this article. I can honestly say that I never played with any action figures/dolls and never really watched any cartoons outside of Nickelodian. I was into K'nex and Legos and Nintendo...that's pretty much my childhood right there.....and baseball in the backyard with neighbors.
Is it insecurity that's keeping everyone away?

Some of us that would normally comment with educated opinions have decided to send e-mail instead. I know I did.

I was just excited because I was the first commenter...and it was pretty weird that it happened 40 minutes after the original post.

 

[VondeVon]

Well, thinking of the female-targeted cartoons of my youth.. nostalgic as my love for them is, I frankly wouldn't WANT to see them revived.

Lady Lovelylocks is something that wouldn't translate well to film. That volume of hair, the little magical creatures living in it... no. Maybe a CGI movie would be good, but it would either be true to form and target little kids (I'd buy it anyway. Unless maybe it looked like the Barbie movies) or they'd have to 'punk it up' for a more modern audience. FMBs would probably be involved. Gah.

On the plus side, the prince who would normally ride to the rescue was a dog.

She-Ra was obviously a glittered-up version of He-Man. Aside from those two, I can't really recall any female-aimed tv shows that I watched. The rest was Flash Gordon, TMNT etc.

Books of the age like Famous Five, Secret Seven or The Faraway Tree (all by the same author) had very gender-stereotyped characters. Only the tomboy girls were ever tough or brave and even they often had to be rescued by the boys. I'm not sure I'd be interested in seeing that in this day and age.

Trixie Belden was another 'girl detective' series which featured a primarily tomboy girl as the lead, with moments of needing male protection. Very occasionally, the other characters would remark on Trixie's unflattering tomboy-ness and occasionally Trixie herself would feel sad that she wasn't the kind of girl boys normally liked. I can't decide if I dislike this for the strong sense of only boy-like girls being tough or like it because such self-conscious and peer-pressured fears are normal to kids of that age... and Trixie inevitably continued being herself no matter what.

After looking at the kind of shows and books I liked best, I've discovered that what I really enjoyed were stories that weren't about romance. Friendship, danger, clever thinking, creativity and worlds beyond what I knew - these were what I wanted. These were what I enjoyed.

So if anything gets remade, I'll be happy if they just don't cram in a 'Mikaela'.

Seriously, how awesome would Transformers have been if she'd died?

 

[MovieBob]

Finally, an 80s girl-themed franchise in literature was the SWEET VALLEY HIGH series of books.

Now that is a movie waiting to be made. I loved those books, they were my generation's Babysitter's Club.

FWIW, Sweet Valley High actually has a movie in early pre-production, with Diablo Cody doing the first-draft screenplay.

 

[CaptainREBell]

Pound Puppies.
When I was younger, every girl was into the animal toy trend. They still had the Barbie hairdressing heads, but they also had a huge collection of adorable stuffed animals; some branded, some un-branded. One of the branded ones was Pound Puppies.
I had an episode of Pound Puppies on VHS (which I'd obviously gotten with one of my AWESOME purchases), and there was so much that could be done with it! Sure, it would probably have been tacky with awful voice actors BUT HEY, it was fun. It'd be really cool to see the animal toy trend (especially with a moral inspiration to rescue animals instead of buying them from a shop) overtake the yucky baby toy trend (which I was never into, but I've met a lot of little girls who are).
So that's my idea...ANIMALS R COOLZ.

 

[Taranaich]

There hasn't been a good fantasy action movie in a while, and there hasn't been a good one starring a female hero since... was Red Sonja any good? Ah, it doesn't matter it was basically a Conan Film with its inclusion of Ahnold anyway.

Red Sonja was part of the Conan mythos anyway, if I'm not mistaken. And was there really lesbian stuff between Xena and Gabrielle? I mean, in the actual show not in the endless halls of bad fan fiction?

*Deep breath*

Red Sonja was originally a comic character created by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith, loosely based on a character from the Robert E. Howard historical adventure "The Shadow of the Vulture." Aside from the fact both women are attractive swordswomen with red hair, there isn't much else in common between the two.

Anyway, Red Sonja became massively popular in her own right, and she got her own comic title. However, by the mid-80s, the Red Sonja trademark was no longer owned by the rights-holders of Conan, and so Conan could not appear in the Red Sonja movie for the same reason Death's Head can't appear in Michael Bay's Transformers, despite the character originating in the Transformers comics. This was compounded by the fact that a different studio made Red Sonja. Thus we have the bizarre situation where both Conan and Red Sonja occupy the same universe, but the two can never meet, unless one of them adopts a pseudonym (like Kalidor, for instance).

So yeah, Red Sonja may as well be a Conan movie, not least given how Arnold has three times the poster space that Bridgette does.

 

[Hiraeth]

I was just trying to think of things that I used to watch/read/play with and whether or not I'd like to see adaptations of them hit the movies:
Sailor Moon - No, I just don't think it would work.
Babysitters Club - No, I've grown up enough that I'm not really interested in them any more.
Barbies - Uh... I don't think so. I remembered the thing I liked about Barbie was that I could make my own stories and act them out using the dolls, watching a movie about them wouldn't be the same.
Nancy Drew - Maybe. I know this was already remade, but it was aimed at a young audience, and they didn't even try to entice us with the nostalgia value. If they made Nancy older, and made the story mature enough that someone my age would actually find it interesting, then I think it could actually work.

Other than that I don't recall being that girly when I was young - my favourite toys were Lego, my favourite books were the Animorphs series and my favourite film Star Wars: A New Hope.

One thing I might like to see though, would be a superhero film starring a heroine, like Carol Danvers for example. Especially if it was aimed at women instead of, or as well as men. It'd be difficult for it to stay out of cliche territory, but I'd really like to see what they do. Personally I think it's a bit sad for an amazing actress like Natalie Portman to be languishing as a love interest in a superhero film, when I'd much rather see her starring in one. And don't take this as a suggestion to make a Black Widow film starring Scarlett Johansen, she was one of the reasons I didn't bother seeing Iron Man 2.

One thing that I think is a problem with things aimed at young girls is the fact that what we were often exposed to is not something that we grow up and continue to admire. Take the Disney movies for example. I use to love them as a kid, and although I still love them now, when I rewatch them I take them with a pinch of salt. For example I no longer think it's romantic that Ariel was willing to undergo a drastic, and no doubt painful, physical change to meet a man that she'd never spoken to, so she could get married at sixteen. The Disney ladies I do still like are Mulan, Jasmine from Aladdin and Megara from Hercules.

 

[movienut]

Finally, an 80s girl-themed franchise in literature was the SWEET VALLEY HIGH series of books.

Now that is a movie waiting to be made. I loved those books, they were my generation's Babysitter's Club.

FWIW, Sweet Valley High actually has a movie in early pre-production, with Diablo Cody doing the first-draft screenplay.

Diablo Cody huh? Not sure how I feel about that. Lets hope it is more Juno and less Jenifer's Body.