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

[conflictofinterests]

You know why playing house is boring? You're emulating your parents, why the hell would any kid wanna do that?

From an anthropological point of view, why the hell WOULDN'T you want to do that? If the culture doesn't make you want to follow tradition, it's going about its own demise.

Now that I'm into that train of thought, that's an interesting way of looking at things. The institution of the "Working Man/Dad" is no longer being supported by the institution of "Media," and this change of reinforcement occurred significantly before the institution of "House Mom" stopped being supported by the institution of "Media." However the institution of "Higher Education" has stopped supporting the institution of "House Mom" in favor of the institution of "Working Woman/Mom," but continues to support the institution of "Working Man/Dad."

Times. They are a-changing.

 

[acsoundwave]

I would think that Jem and She-ra would make good movies; heck, Jem was a superior "Hanna Montana" before Mylie Cyrus was born.

My Little Pony could make a decent kids' movie (80s version).

...yeah, the list is pretty short.

I would like a better Smurfs movie to come out than "Smurf'd". I could write a better Smurfs movie.

Ultimately: I'd make the Jem! movie and be done with it. It's the only "girls" property from the 80s that would translate well to 2010.

 

[conflictofinterests]

What someone needs to do is quit trying to draw the gender-line between the girl stuff and boy stuff and translating them exactly, and try to make them enjoyable for everyone. It's hard, I know, but it's totally possible...through COMEDY. Action and romance usually follow strict gender-lines, but comedy doesn't. Everybody likes to laugh, and both guys and girls with thick enough skin can laugh at the same jokes.

They did this with Josie and the Pussycats (female-oriented show of the bygone era) with some mixed success. I'm pretty sure the film was a flop, but I found it quite enjoyable. Because it was FUNNY. It had jokes that EVERYBODY could laugh at, and the romance was more of a subplot than anything else. The subject matter didn't follow gender lines (for the most part), and I thought they did a great job at making some jokes and throwing in lots of visual humor.

There lies your solution.
Quit making gender-films, and turn old shit into COMEDIES. Imagine how much larger an audience could be reached by making them all laugh...

THIS PERSON HAS WON ONE INTERNETS.

 

[omegawyrm]

Hmm, I don't really have any girlishness-oriented nostalgia, seeing as I'm a guy and all. The only thing I really know about to contribute are some girls anime I've seen. Escaflowne has already been mentioned, which did an excellent job of appealing across genders as it mixed a traditional boys plot of giant magical robots and reclaiming a lost kingdom with relationship building between characters and a female main character who women apparently found pretty relatable. Sailor Moon has also been mentioned, which might not be remembered fondly, but actually had some really good narrative and character arcs if you cut out the filler and ignore all of the times that characters renig on their growth. The only other one I have to add is Princess Tutu. Sounds extremely vapid when you hear the name, but the story is actually an extremely interesting meta-narrative in a sort of Brothers Grimm style fairy-tale where a dead author trys to torment all of the characters in a story he wrote because he thinks tragedy makes for better drama. Things start to get interesting when the characters decide that their traditional fairy tale archetypes are stupid and rebel against the plot.

 

[LHZA]

I don't have a point, just thought this was interesting. A prof once told me a story how toy companys noticed little girls played with toys marketed towards boys much more then boys would play with toys marketed towards girls (I know, this statement is obvious). So what did they do? They made toys marketed for girls that were the pink counterparts to so called boys toys. I mean that literaly, they made pink fire engines and such. Guess what? They didn't sell. Girls hated them. She-Ra also came around when an executive notived his daughter playing with her Barbie like she was a superhero. Also, a feminist/psychologist once took away her daughters dolls, and replaced them with toy trucks and other so called boy toys. She walked in on her daughter playing only to see her daughter had swaddled up a truck, was rocking it in her arms telling it what a nice baby truck it was.

On a side note, I read a little while ago because of the high number of women who play video games (ages 18-30 make up 40% of video game consumers or something like that, beating out males 18 or less) they decided to make more game that appeal to women. Guess who there getting to come up witht he concepts, MARTHA STEWART. This seems like another example of the pink fire engine to me.

 

[Nerf Ninja]

My sister used to love playing with the sylvanian families, which was basically a sort of dolls houses with friendly forest creature folks.

They'd proabably attempt something like this if they tried to bring most "girly" stuff into the movies these days:

 

[OceanSapphire]

I'm glad Escaflowne was mentioned! As omegawyrm said, " which did an excellent job of appealing across genders as it mixed a traditional boys plot of giant magical robots and reclaiming a lost kingdom with relationship building between characters and a female main character who women apparently found pretty relatable."

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!

Other than that, in Hayao Miyazaki's films, the main character is usually a strong female who grows through the movie. There is romance too, but it's usually secondary to the main plot/vital in a not annoying way. For example, Castle in the Sky. Sure, Pazu cared for Sheeta, but he also didn't assume she was helpless.

And I also never really played with boys toy's or a lot of girls toys, for that matter. I was reading all the time.

 

[conflictofinterests]

My sister used to love playing with the sylvanian families, which was basically a sort of dolls houses with friendly forest creature folks.

They'd proabably attempt something like this if they tried to bring most "girly" stuff into the movies these days:

This person also wins one internets.

Just for the 6 year old at the end. Priceless.

 

[conflictofinterests]

I'm glad Escaflowne was mentioned! As omegawyrm said, " which did an excellent job of appealing across genders as it mixed a traditional boys plot of giant magical robots and reclaiming a lost kingdom with relationship building between characters and a female main character who women apparently found pretty relatable."

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!

Other than that, in Hayao Miyazaki's films, the main character is usually a strong female who grows through the movie. There is romance too, but it's usually secondary to the main plot/vital in a not annoying way. For example, Castle in the Sky. Sure, Pazu cared for Sheeta, but he also didn't assume she was helpless.

And I also never really played with boys toy's or a lot of girls toys, for that matter. I was reading all the time.

Miyazaki's films are great in their own right, no live-action necessary.

 

[mykalwane]

Also, girls aren't so different from boys that boys can't hazard a guess as to why girls do and don't like things based on the merits and detriments they find in them.

That is why any show that doesn't just cator to boys or girls tends to be good. I understand there needs to be a certain basic demographic at first to aim at when starting off. Pepper Ann start out with female demographic fist and then blossomed out after having that clear focus.

I'm glad Escaflowne was mentioned! As omegawyrm said, " which did an excellent job of appealing across genders as it mixed a traditional boys plot of giant magical robots and reclaiming a lost kingdom with relationship building between characters and a female main character who women apparently found pretty relatable."

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!

Other than that, in Hayao Miyazaki's films, the main character is usually a strong female who grows through the movie. There is romance too, but it's usually secondary to the main plot/vital in a not annoying way. For example, Castle in the Sky. Sure, Pazu cared for Sheeta, but he also didn't assume she was helpless.

And I also never really played with boys toy's or a lot of girls toys, for that matter. I was reading all the time.

Card Captor Sakuria I believe wasn't mention earilier is because the dub and the sub are two seperate shows. There is a whole story arch of Sakuria and Lee are after the same guy for awhile. Another aspect might be that is anime that came from Japan. Getting the rights for a property becomes that much harder then one here in America. Which is I believe most are going with American(or atleast was shown in America) for making a movie based on the property. Since it would be easier to get the rights to.

 

[Ridergurl10]

I thought some more about what in general I am nostalgic about from my childhood, and, being the bookworm that I am, a book series stood out (aside from the one that got me into reading, Harry Potter).

The protagonist's three main qualities were as follows:
Stoicism
Perseverance
Strong Work Ethic

Now, take into consideration, the protagonist is training to become a knight, what gender is this mystery protagonist?

She's a girl, and she is, bar none, my favorite protagonist geared towards my gender. One of the main messages you get from this book is hard work and determination beat prejudice any day of the week, and that's a lesson that's pretty universal for us, I think.

The part that's geared towards girls specifically, is the fact that she's a pseudo-veterinarian. She takes care of animals, and in return, when she looks like she got in over her head, they end up lending some small hand that turns the tide of battle. This translates as "tending relationships makes you a stronger person."

Yeah macho men don't want to hear that and will probably demean people for watching a movie with that message in it, but macho men aren't the target audience. Girls are. And if you haven't noticed, that is pretty much the ONE message media geared towards girls ever has, if it has a message at all.

Also, the series is called Protector of the Small, by Tamora Pierce, if anyone cares.

First of all I LOVE Tamora Pierce, I think all girls going through their early teenage years should be required to read almost all of her books (minus the Circle ones - they weren't that great)! The series that I think is the best, and to me defined my childhood as a girl, is the Song of the Lioness quartet. Alanna, the heroine, actually paves the way for Kel in the Protector of The Small series, and she is the person I always told people I wanted to be when I grew up . . . Actually I still want to be her and I already am grown up!

The story is about Alanna, who grows up in a mideaval fantasy society, where she is supposed to go off and get married and instead she decides to become a knight! (link to more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_the_Lioness). This is one of thoes things that I would love to see made into a movie (or series of movies), but at the same time I cringe at the thought, because I'm sure they wouldn't be able to make it as good as it was in my head.

Other "girly" things from my childhood . . . hmm . . . mostly I liked shows where there was at least one girl who kicked some ass, usually she ended up being part of a group of all guys, but I was ok with that. Examples: Power Rangers, Voltron and others that I'm sure I'm forgetting, but thoes were definitely the main two. I really hope they make a Voltron movie, even if it is totally terrible I will go see it!

 

[Anacortian]

This brings us to our current situation. As a guy, I can say proudly the the Ghostbusters and TMNTs were staples of my childhood fiction diet. I know of no adult girl who will so proudly laud Gem. My wife (an exception for never apologizing for the gender of her tastes) would joyfully see a Rainbow Bright remake, but she appears to stand alone at the grave of Miss Bright.

That's Jem hehe. I miss that show so much. It was my favorite growing up. I always made sure my grandmother recorded it for me so I could watch it after I school. To this day, someone can't mention synergy without me making a Jem reference. If a Jem movie, video game, or whatever came out I would be on it just on blind nostalgia. You probably couldn't even convince me that it sucked, even if it did.

I should also mention that it's rare that I go a week without someone mentioning Rainbow Brite or Strawberry Shortcake.

I and several of my friends would totally go see a Last Unicorn remake. I was strolling through Wal-Mart, saw that movie and just had to snatch it up.

Oh! And something that should totally get a second run are Popples. I love those little fuzzballs. http://moonprincess.com/popples/

For something a little more modern, I would dig a Totally Spies movie, but the way the show ended doesn't really leave any room for continuation, so I wonder how that could be approached.

Winx Club was cute, but I don't see any room to make that into anything more than a straight up kids movie.

I think I'll be forwarding this to my wife. She would be glad to know that there are others like her out there.

 

[Criquefreak]

My best recommendation: let it die out and stay there. I think the nostalgia for men actually allows for the old toys and series to make a new round while women are generally sick of the stuff they had as girls if not burned out and having developed an intense hatred of the color pink.

As for myself, I grew up with video games more than any other kind of toy. Largely, the toys my family had about were on the neutral side of things: Legos, board games, etc. Seeing the way my adult female friends and relatives feel about toys and games marketed at a female audience, I feel I was lucky not to be overexposed to the lacking content and single-colored insanity of it all. When it comes to the video games marketed towards girls... that's when I start to take offense to this stuff as it seems to be trying to force us backwards into abolished gender roles of yore (not to mention somehow trying to keep guys out of hobbies/talents that have nothing to do with genitilia either way).

On the topic of making movies from the girly stuff, it might be better to just make something of substance loosely inspired by it but with no real affiliation or attempts at nostalgia. Just taking the concepts and untapped potential, I'm sure that some appealing stories could be told. With as many careers as Barbie's had, she practically rivals Superman's powers in deus ex machina; imagine a story about a paragon of humanity with the capacity to do anything she puts her mind to without even needing super powers, it's practically a pulp hero drama already (though it might come off as a female recasting of The Pretender).

Probably the fatal weakness of trying to adapt girl's toys to a movie is, as many have stated, the lack of an underlying plot. Shoujo anime pretty well fills the niche that those toys played: relationships; but a feature-length film would probably be lost on an audience without a more encompassing conflict.

In the end, trying to make something that would have more than a single-gender appeal is a better bet than intentionally shunning half a potential audience. Good storytelling has, time and again, shown that the original expectation of an audience can be greatly mistaken (just look at Xena and Sailor Moon, which expanded dramatically beyond such, I'm certain there are others as well, but those two were most on my mind from reading the posts here).

P.S. If you managed to read all this, you deserve a cookie.

 

[pigmy wurm]

I think one of the issues is that female centered toys and shows tended to be both anti conflict and more focused with real life. You could make a movie using creepy crawlers as a premis (a mad scientist invents an ooze that can he can use to create mutants) but what would and easy bake oven movie be about? What would a cabbage patch kids movie be about?

While not strictly "pink ale" You could argue that The Smurphs movie sort of counts as it had more crossover appeal than GIJoe or transformers (not that I am happy about it being maid).I could see Fragile Rock fitting in a similar gender "nutrual zone."

 

[vid87]

My staples were TMNT and Power Rangers, so I wasn't much for the chick stuff. I did watch Sailor Moon for a while when it was on Toonami, and I thought Power Puff Girls was fun (even though the first time I saw it I was honestly convinced it was some kind of joke instead of an actual show), but for the most part I never really knew that much about girl-centered shows until many years later. That said, here are my thought the possibilities:

-There IS a live-action Barbie movie in development, but not much is being said.
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=59406

....more later

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I don't think you're going to get too many girls in here saying their favourite "girly" toys and so forth. Why? Because you're asking kinda the wrong demographic. This website is a home for geek and gamer culture. They aren't the sort of people who played with Barbies at a young age regardless of gender.

 

[DayDark]

I used to buy toy soldiers and toy monsters, than I would clip them apart, and do transplants to make super mutants.

Today I'm studying biology...muhaHAHAHA!

 

[EmeraldGreen]

They already turned one of my favourite childhood toys into a media franchise. Littlest Pet Shop Pets. In the mid-90s, they were cutesy-kinda-realistic animal toys, with the gimmick that each had a "trick" or special function of some sort. Like a puppy with a magnetised nose, so that it could "hold" its magnetic bone. Or a pony that pawed the ground when you stroked its neck. There was a TV show back then, too, and I think some books? but I was only interested in the toys. Anyway, the franchise was killed off at some point - late 90s, early 00s? - but a few years ago it was relaunched. Now the toys are funny-looking bobble-head creatures, and they have cutesy video games and board games and I don't know what and oops, I just vomited all over my keyboard. As far as I know, there's no Littlest Pet Shop movie, but if/when there is, I will have nothing to do with it.

Honestly, I don't think I'd have any interest in a movie based on any of the girly toys/books/TV shows I used to watch as a kid, because they were all pretty stup-- actually, a movie based on the Trixie Belden books might be okay. Horses, mysteries, good-looking young people, frequent holidays (it's so nice having a best friend whose parents are richer than Croesus and who is spoilt rotten). A bit of romance, but never getting in the way of having adventures. I don't expect a movie based on Trixie's exploits would be good, but it might be entertaining. I'd see it out of curiosity, anyway...

 

[tl333s]

Holy crap, Small Wonder, I remember that.

Jem was also the first thing to pop into my mind. I never actually watched it, being a boy and all, but I always saw the end credits because it was on before something I did watch. It's an outstandingly 80's property, and it had a catchy as hell theme song. Plus, I really like movies about bands, and I might very well be willing to see it (without my girlfriend, even!) if someone did pick it up.

 

[theamazingbean]

(The big exception here is anime/manga fandom, which is quite frankly light-years ahead of any other fandom subculture in terms of its ability to both welcome and absorb fans both across racial/gender and sexual orientation lines.)

*Smiles beamingly, goes back to reading yaoi.*

Sorry I can't give any help for girls toys.