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

[MaraJade03]

You just listed 4 of my childhood staples! Awesome, I thought I was the only person who'd ever seen the Last Unicorn! Oooh, did you ever see The Flight of the Dragons? I had it on the same tape when I was a kid...

OMG YES I remember Flight of the Dragons!! That was such a great film and beautifully animated too. I wish that came out on DVD so I finally get a copy and put it next to the Last Unicorn.

 

[walsfeo]

Scooby Doo? Fraggle Rock? I'd say those jump between the boy/girl line. The smartest character was a girl in Scooby Doo, and their is a pretty feminine example as well. In Fraggle Rock the most assertive (Red), soulful (Mokey), and wise (Trash Heap) characters were female. While I also love the Muppet Show, but I don't think it has as many strong female characters.

I'd love to see a new Fraggle rock movies developed.

 

[cathou]

being born in the late 70's my childhood was before the Simpsons existed, and back then i wasnt speaking english at all. Our local tv station was putting on air mostly france-japan anime production.

one of the tv show that i watched was this one. and it was very good

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Eye_(anime)

escaflowne (i was a teen but still) was very good too. Honestly for toys i was playing mostly boy toys and video games

 

[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

Had to step away for a bit.

-While recognizable and definite draws for both the younger crowd and female nostalgics, I can only see things like My Little Pony and Pound Puppies ending one way - horribly. You know damn well, in the modern age of cinema, that franchises like these will be made using realistic CGI in the vein of the Chipmunks and upcoming Smurfs and Yogi Bear movies. Oh, they'll successful, but they'll suck, and suck hard.

-I agree with VanityGirl about Totally Spies, especially if it could be live-action, but again only on the basis of marketability over actual quality. The show was successful enough for 5 seasons and allowed Marathon Productions to try other shows, including a spin-off with younger spies, so there's a good possibility it still holds some appeal. However, despite good animation with a vibrant color pallet, the rest of it was where logic and common sense went to die horribly.

-I was channel surfing one morning when I saw this clip of a movie, which I was astonished to find out was the live action Josie and the Pussycats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2lM6ra1p0&feature=related

It may be because they're of the same genre, but I think satire like that could make Jem or something similar a far better film.

-In the fallout from the Scott Pilgrim movie, I'm a little wary to suggest web comics as a source, but there are two I believe are worth mentioning: one is rumored to be in development, the other isn't, but I think should be.

The 1st is "Princess Lucinda," which began as a series of deviantart drawings and later became a graphic novel series. It's about a young princess from a magic-based universe who comes to Earth after dark forces invade her home. She possesses near omnipotent magical abilities and much of the series and art centers on her subjugating or destroying earthlings. The website has a video of Jolie Vanier (the mean girl from the Robert Rodriguez film "Shorts") talking about possibly playing the lead role. Far from the stereotypical "girl movie" mold, this film promises a cigarette smoking, wine drinking, all-powerful female anti-hero...and she's only 12.
http://www.princesslucinda.com/

The 2nd is a recent independent work that I don't think has gotten much attention. It's a superhero comic called "Spinnerette," about nerdy young biologist Heather Brown who, after a lab accident, grows 4 extra arms and the ability to shoot webs from her.....butt. She decides to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a superhero and divides her time between fighting crime with other heroes and trying to live a normal life with her room-mate Sahira(who knows her secret). Basically, it answers the question "what would it be like to be Spiderman in real life?" The manga art style is beautiful and Heather's progression from ditzy nerd to hero is fascinating. It also boasts a wonderful fusion of geek culture and humor, from satirizing superhero cliches' (an African American hero called "Tiger" gets pissed when people assume he's "Black Tiger"), to pop-culture name-dropping (Spinnerette's outfit was patched together from a Venom costume, and her first pick for a codename - Black Widow - was abandoned when she found about the one from Marvel); hell, she's able to help uncover a cult conspiracy with her knowledge of D&D! For a potential movie that can appeal to the "nerd girls" demographic, with a little polish I'd say this is a pretty good choice.
http://www.krakowstudios.com/spinnerette/archive.php?date=20100209

 

[conflictofinterests]

Girls toys were universally shitty. There's no getting around it. I played with barbies when I was really little, but when I did that I was imitating relationships. Girl stuff tended to be shit because no one knew how to write for girls. Chick flicks are about emotional roller coasters, or they try to be, but girl's programming was about nonsensical fluff. Boys programming got stuff done. People apparently didn't think girls could handle serious issues, when apparently they lap that shit up when it comes out for us. I hate to say it because I will never touch that damn franchise myself, but Twilight may have been so popular because girls are pretty much STARVED for youth-focused media that tugs on your heart strings, however ham-fistedly they may be doing it.

NO, SOME DAMN PONY CONTRACTING THE ICKIES FROM AN EVIL WIZARD DOES NOT COUNT AS EMOTIONALLY COMPELLING.

Don't forget, women don't like conflict.

Or so they say.

I like resolving conflict.

Can't resolve what isn't there, though.

 

[cabalistics]

I remember this show "Wildfire" which seemed to aimed at girls with an ordinary girl finding out she's a secret princess and a talking horse but it seemed to have a decent story.

When she was just a baby, Princess Sara (voiced by Georgi Irene) was saved from the clutches of a wicked sorceress named Lady Diabolyn (voiced by Jessica Walter), by a mystic talking horse named Wildfire (voiced by John Vernon), who took her away from the planet Dar-Shan and deposited her in Montana where she is taken in by a farmer named John Cavanaugh (voiced by David Ackroyd). The evil Diabolyn was a stepsister to the late Queen Sarana (voiced by Amanda McBroom), whom she always considered weak and unfit to rule. In order to gain her "rightful" throne, she allied herself with the demonic Spectres. Twelve years later when Sara was ready to fight evil, Wildfire brought her back to Dar-Shan to regain her throne. Wildfire summons Sara through her magic amulet, and transports her across dimensions to her real home in Dar-Shan. Sara joins with her friends, a sorcerer named Alvinar (voiced by René Auberjonois), a young boy named Dorin (voiced by Robert Jayne), and a cowardly colt named Brutus (voiced by Susan Blu) to confront her villainous step-aunt. John Cavanaugh and Sara's friend Ellen (voiced by Lilly Moon) provided moral support from back on planet Earth.

Diabolyn is helped by the Goons, mischievous creatures led by Dweedle (voiced by Billy Barty). They were formerly Diabolyn's guards until they gained their monstrous appearances by the Spectres upon opening the urn containing them when Diabolyn told them not to.

Each episode revealed more and more of the mythical world of Dar-Shan and gave its audience a new puzzle piece to help reason out the past events that led up to the Diabolyn's tyrannical rule.

It was later revealed that Sara's adopted father John was in fact her biological father Prince Cavan sent to Earth in order to protect him from the curse which Lady Diabolyn and the Spectres had placed on Dar-Shan (Sara and Wildfire are the only ones who know John's true identity which has been kept secret even from him).

I've seen episodes of She-Ra and He-Man recently and I've got to say She-Ra has a better story as all the main characters are fighting a rebellion because the Horde had already won.

Totally Spies was decent as it had action and gadgets and attractive protaganists but it also contained highschool shopping and them trying to get guys.

 

[swenson]

More movies about superheroines. Wonder Woman, as screwed up as her origins are, is an instantly recognizable character. SOMEONE MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT HER. And any other superheroine, I'd love to see all of them. Like a Birds of Prey movie, or a decent Supergirl one.

 

[conflictofinterests]

I partially agree with this, but I'm not so sure of the date cut-off. Here is a rough theory. Girls mature faster than boys, so isn't it possible that the reason girls toys all skew so young is that girls lose interest in toys at a younger age than boys? Aren't girls consumed by real social minutiae, while their male counterparts are still fully absorbed by hypothetical "which Jedi would win contests?"

Anecdote: I'm 31, but I have much more play in common with my nine-year-old boy than my wife. We play with our technics, or with our tower defense Starcraft 2 mods with abandon. The only thing we can all agree on is MINECRAFT. When I go out to buy a toy for my kid, I'm thinking would I like this, not would he like this.

As far as the Howdy Doody thing goes, I think you're just making the wrong correlation. Sure, the eighteen-year-old of 1978 wouldn't be caught dead at such a film, but how about a cowboy movie? Additionally, how likely would that 1978 young adult to be found playing ball with his dad, vs a similar aged female being found playing (I have no idea what) with her mom? The question doesn't even make sense, we instinctively know that females who are close with each other, talk with each other (as a higher percentage of time). Males that are close play with each other (as a higher percentage of time) well into their adult life. Example: my dad is 50 plus now, and he has friends over to play chess. Think two young married couples that are friends. How soon are the males off playing Gears of War while the females catch up?

What do you think of my theory? Admittedly I haven't got the science for it, but I'd sure like to see some.

May be that I'm just a shut-in or a tom-boy, or all my friends are guys, but I'd vastly prefer TF2'ing or D&D'ing it up over babbling over every-day minutia with my friends, mostly because when I try to small-talk, it ends up being us all sitting awkwardly waiting for someone to say something. :<

 

[ImpostorZim]

I think it would be awesome if there were like a Care Bears film, but using real people.

 

[Something Amyss]

I like resolving conflict.

Can't resolve what isn't there, though.

I know, I like playing with stereotypes and this seems an apt place. One of the major motivators was the notion that girls don't like conflict, so the shows were lighter and fluffier and without that sort of content.

I'm pretty sure it was mostly men who were making these decisions, and I don't mean to say that in a sense of "men suck," just that the perspective that filtered through doesn't seem to have much grounding. "girl" programs were either clones of "boy" programs with boobs on the main character or they were puffy substanceless shows.

It probably doesn't hurt that "boy" is still more or less the societal default. But that's another can of worms, and I'm multitasking.

Basically, though, it's the perception that girls don't do conflict that led to those shows having no conflict to resolve.

 

[conflictofinterests]

I like resolving conflict.

Can't resolve what isn't there, though.

I know, I like playing with stereotypes and this seems an apt place. One of the major motivators was the notion that girls don't like conflict, so the shows were lighter and fluffier and without that sort of content.

I'm pretty sure it was mostly men who were making these decisions, and I don't mean to say that in a sense of "men suck," just that the perspective that filtered through doesn't seem to have much grounding. "girl" programs were either clones of "boy" programs with boobs on the main character or they were puffy substanceless shows.

It probably doesn't hurt that "boy" is still more or less the societal default. But that's another can of worms, and I'm multitasking.

Basically, though, it's the perception that girls don't do conflict that led to those shows having no conflict to resolve.

I would like to add that another misconception is that putting boobs on it will make us relate to it better.

Warning: Anthropologist nonsense-tangent coming up: Most matriarchal, as in dominated by women rather than men, societies don't wear clothing that emphasize the breasts, or really any other part of the body. The emphasis is less on the shape of the person and more on color (which if you want to try to make a statement about prehistoric gender roles, might fit in with a theory that men had to distinguish similarly colored animals from one another at a distance (emphasis on shape for hunting) and women had to distinguish similarly shaped vegetation from one another(emphasis on color for gathering).)

Anyways, just saying sticking boobs on something doesn't make for good girl-centered programming either.

 

[movienut]

Not quite nostalgia or child like, but I would love to see a remake of Tank Girl on a blockbuster budget.

Actually, you know, I jsut would like to find a copy of that move again!

 

[OtherSideofSky]

- The Last Unicorn (well DUH)

Not only was that neither a toy nor a franchise, it wasn't even created primarily for a female audience. It was a fantasy novel written with (I believe) an at least slightly older audience in mind that was then adapted into a movie. I don't believe either was ever really planned as being "for" either gender.

All I can say regarding the OT is that I used to watch My Little Pony with my kid sister (I'm a guy, by the way) and I remember generally liking it although its continuity was all over the place and seemed to reboot several times without warning or explanation. I am pretty sure that at several points it had a decent narrative with recurring villains and multi-episode arcs.

I'd also like to say that while I remember things like Transformers and GI Joe, I can't say they were ever particularly good (indeed, even as a giant robot fan Transformers always struck me as dumb, although the toys were fun) and I don't think they really deserved their recent movie adaptations. The only reason I can see to bring any of this stuff back is if someone were to do a really different and much more mature (I mean actually mature, not just full of grimdark, sex and violence) interpretation.

Thinking about it more, Japan seems to do much better in terms of shows aimed at young girls (at least after the Showa 24 group). The Rose of Versailles, among others, remains absolutely fantastic to this day.

 

[k-ossuburb]

Stab in the dark:

Pepper Ann [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_Ann]


One of the most kick-ass theme tunes ever. I, like, totally loved this show dude! Word.

I miss the 90's.

EDIT:

Another stab in the dark:

Carmen Sandiego [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Sandiego]

Another kick ass theme tune for this one too:

The animated series was the better one. I think that one was "Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?" There were plenty more like "Where in the World?", "Where In Time?" and even "Where In Space?"

Fantastic series, I loved it a lot.

 

[Jacob.pederson]

I partially agree with this, but I'm not so sure of the date cut-off. Here is a rough theory. Girls mature faster than boys, so isn't it possible that the reason girls toys all skew so young is that girls lose interest in toys at a younger age than boys? Aren't girls consumed by real social minutiae, while their male counterparts are still fully absorbed by hypothetical "which Jedi would win contests?"

Anecdote: I'm 31, but I have much more play in common with my nine-year-old boy than my wife. We play with our technics, or with our tower defense Starcraft 2 mods with abandon. The only thing we can all agree on is MINECRAFT. When I go out to buy a toy for my kid, I'm thinking would I like this, not would he like this.

As far as the Howdy Doody thing goes, I think you're just making the wrong correlation. Sure, the eighteen-year-old of 1978 wouldn't be caught dead at such a film, but how about a cowboy movie? Additionally, how likely would that 1978 young adult to be found playing ball with his dad, vs a similar aged female being found playing (I have no idea what) with her mom? The question doesn't even make sense, we instinctively know that females who are close with each other, talk with each other (as a higher percentage of time). Males that are close play with each other (as a higher percentage of time) well into their adult life. Example: my dad is 50 plus now, and he has friends over to play chess. Think two young married couples that are friends. How soon are the males off playing Gears of War while the females catch up?

What do you think of my theory? Admittedly I haven't got the science for it, but I'd sure like to see some.

May be that I'm just a shut-in or a tom-boy, or all my friends are guys, but I'd vastly prefer TF2'ing or D&D'ing it up over babbling over every-day minutia with my friends, mostly because when I try to small-talk, it ends up being us all sitting awkwardly waiting for someone to say something. :<

When you come visit us, we'll keep a LAN station open for you I really would like to see a wide-ranging study of sexual dimorphism as it relates to age-of-play. I'm afraid the demographics we'd get by asking the escapist community might be a little skewed though.

 

[Formica Archonis]

I'm going to mention She-Ra, for a reason no one else has. Go watch "Secret of the Sword", the She-Ra series movie/pilot. Specifically, the scene where [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLmNAjqnBC8] Adora wakes up to take a look at the Sword of Protection, and first uses it to become She-Ra. (Starting 1:40ish in the video.) Her bedroom has three things in it. A bed. A mirror. And a laser turret with a chair bolted to it.

A LASER TURRET WITH A CHAIR BOLTED TO IT!

I know Shadow Weaver had a spell of hey-we're-the-good-guys on Adora, but still. They're in a fortress in the middle of the area with the highest concentration of Horde military power, on a planet that the Horde runs 99% of. And Adora still figured her bedroom just lacked that je ne sais quoi that can only be satisfied with target practice in your jammies.

So, two reasons to like that show: The protagonist once had a gun emplacement in her bedroom, and Shadow Weaver was awesome.

 

[sszebra]

I partially agree with this, but I'm not so sure of the date cut-off. Here is a rough theory. Girls mature faster than boys, so isn't it possible that the reason girls toys all skew so young is that girls lose interest in toys at a younger age than boys? Aren't girls consumed by real social minutiae, while their male counterparts are still fully absorbed by hypothetical "which Jedi would win contests?"

Anecdote: I'm 31, but I have much more play in common with my nine-year-old boy than my wife. We play with our technics, or with our tower defense Starcraft 2 mods with abandon. The only thing we can all agree on is MINECRAFT. When I go out to buy a toy for my kid, I'm thinking would I like this, not would he like this.

As far as the Howdy Doody thing goes, I think you're just making the wrong correlation. Sure, the eighteen-year-old of 1978 wouldn't be caught dead at such a film, but how about a cowboy movie? Additionally, how likely would that 1978 young adult to be found playing ball with his dad, vs a similar aged female being found playing (I have no idea what) with her mom? The question doesn't even make sense, we instinctively know that females who are close with each other, talk with each other (as a higher percentage of time). Males that are close play with each other (as a higher percentage of time) well into their adult life. Example: my dad is 50 plus now, and he has friends over to play chess. Think two young married couples that are friends. How soon are the males off playing Gears of War while the females catch up?

What do you think of my theory? Admittedly I haven't got the science for it, but I'd sure like to see some.

I can agree with that line of thinking. I brought up Howdy Doody because I considered GI Joe and Transformers trappings of early childhood, but it's really more comparable to Sesame Street.

It seems to me,speaking in convenient generalities, men still fantasize about being cowboys, astronauts, and super-heroes long after girls are done fantasizing about being princesses.

 

[Formica Archonis]

May be that I'm just a shut-in or a tom-boy, or all my friends are guys, but I'd vastly prefer TF2'ing or D&D'ing it up over babbling over every-day minutia with my friends, mostly because when I try to small-talk, it ends up being us all sitting awkwardly waiting for someone to say something. :<

Nothing wrong with that. My mom had a lot of guy friends when she was younger and IMHO she turned out all right, even brought up a pretty decent kid.

 

[Birthe]

I'd like to see MTV's Daria The Movie... or maybe not as this probably wouldn't work, but at least she's a strong individual character and doesn't turn my stomach like Barbie does.

 

[JunebugJuJuBee]

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!

Big time CCS fan here, and I almost mentioned it save for two major reasons.

1) zero fanbase over in the states, save nostalgic otakus. Really, the fanbase consists of 20 and older women, a few chill dudes and a whole slew of creepy guys who like loli. All of which only watched the japanese dub and are thus, already pretty hardcore anime fans to have even heard of it, let alone watch it. If anyone remembers that failure of a dub, it's probably only a fleeting memory. I don't think it would sell well.

2) Already has two movies. The whole series pretty much concluded, done and done. The second movie tied off whatever loose ends there might be.

All that being said, in a perfect world, I'd be pretty freakin' stoked to see a live action (or superbly animated) full length CCS film.