Film This Chick Stuff! Part Two: Film It!

Xanian

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Nocturnal Gentleman said:
Xanian said:
Ugh...just...ugh. This is why girls grow up quickly...our childhood toys stink.
I know right? It's like when they get to girls toys they don't even try. Look at the boys section with their shape-shifting robots, monster vehicles, castles, space sets, underwater adventure sets, creatures of all kinds, and all sorts of super heroes. Then you look at the girls section with our kitchen appliances, fashion dolls, baby dolls, baby-looking animals, and cleaning supplies. What about putting in some effort? What about barbie undersea mansion, shape-shifting magical creatures,or a magical potion/mad science kit for girls?
This is why I shopped in the Imaginarium and bought Fossil/ Chemistry kits. At least I looked like I wasn't some easily pleased moron who would buy anything pink.
 

Nocturnal Gentleman

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Xanian said:
This is why I shopped in the Imaginarium and bought Fossil/ Chemistry kits. At least I looked like I wasn't some easily pleased moron who would buy anything pink.
Aww man I loved those specialty science and hobby stores as a kid. Did all sorts of crazy experiment kits with raising animals, making catapults (not a wise buy), making clay creatures and creating dioramas of impossible places. In fact, that's probably the greatest play scenario of all a combined hobby project and toy set.

I remember when I was young my dad taught me to make dioramas of buildings and landscapes. I combined that with lego sets and people to make a miniature city with underground superhero facility. The city and center were populated by lego men and they had a super hero force on stand by to protect them from giant monster attacks (I had a serious thing for gatchaman and voltron as a kid. Leave me alone). I then used transformers as their hero's battle vehicles and kaiju figures I made or owned as monsters. I also had a giant mutant barbie that would sometimes show up at random (with a laughably bad homemade outfit) and no one ever knew who side she was on. Her eye beams were devastating though, and whoever she joined always won.

Looking back, it was like a variety of kid shows mashed together and on drugs.
 

naughtydoggus

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Dec 21, 2009
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Hmm. No one's mentioned Kim Possible yet, so I'd like to recomend that. It's something that I think would translate well while we're still in this generation. Yeah the show is full of cliche's, but it's funny because the show is completely aware it's full of cliche's.

Dr. Draken: I hope you all have come to stay-
Kim: -For lunch?
Dr. Draken: I wasn't going to say that.
Ron: Oh dude, come on. You were so 'For lunch.'"
Dr. Draken: FINE! Then stay for lunch!
 

Feste

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Jul 14, 2009
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RaphaelsRedemption said:
I'm a girl, born in 1987, and I didn't know half the stuff on that list, except Rainbow Brite and My Little Pony.
I'm in the same boat. I'd heard of a few of these, but Sailor Moon is the only thing I actually watched. And I'd never heard of Jem.

Honestly, the only things mentioned in this article that I geeked out over were Carmen SanDiego and Tamora Pierce's books. Especially the books. I freaking LOVED those as a teenager. I'm going to go re-read them all now.
 

mykalwane

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Furrama said:
So, I'm also dated 1987. When do the 90's kids, (I am a girl, but this goes for boys too), get their decade of remakes and nostalgia movies? The 80's kids got the 00's, I thought the teens were going to be our years? Why does it look like this is going to be another 80's decade with remakes of the 00's remakes? Heck, I even remember the 70's kids getting their stuff in the 90's, if we don't get a turn are we going to be skipped?

It's like Hollywood is afraid of all the anime we had circa 1996- and here's a hint guys, you film it in the setting it was designed to have. If Americans can get blue 'naturistic' cat people they can grasp Shintoism and Japan. If the main characters are set specifically in Japan then they should be Asian. If not then anything goes.
Keep in mind that most of the anime stuff did well they got a movie. That was it, then the guys would tend to go on to another thing. Cowboy Bebop did well so it got a movie, and was pretty good. Though Hollywood in general hasn't made many good movies when it has tried to do so. Dragonball movie comes to mind as a bad movie because the people making it didn't really get the content of the original.

Another point I like to bring up is most of people making stuff that most people see tends to be about 30 or so. It being about 30 years from the 80s it makes sense the people working want to work on stuff they feel nastaglic on and love. Yes I know this isn't always true and going with a generality here.
 

kementari

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Mar 18, 2008
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Jem and the Holograms, Sailor Moon, My Little Pony, The Sylvanian Families, Rainbow Brite, She-Ra, Strawberry Shortcake, and Barbie?

So in other words, two that have already been done (Hannah Montana isn't just LIKE Jem, it IS Jem), two that by virtue of their animal leads won't result in the type of "live-action" film we're discussing here (and catering to the furry community is supposed to be a selling point?), lady-centric Lantern Corps, a token-little-sister franchise, a zero-premise IP, and a character whose owners have repeatedly turned down overtures for a live-action?

Good work done here. As much as I despise Rainbow Brite, that actually sounds like it'd be the least terrible on the list... IF it was done in an actiony-macho G.I. Joe style, which sort of negates the whole point of trying to make "girl" movies to begin with.

This experiment was apparently intended to determine whether there were 80s/90s cartoon franchises aimed at girls that would make good live-action blockbusters circa 2015, and I think the answer is clear: No.


Edit: Lest we forget, there ARE "chick stuff" movies in the works. Three of them are coming out in the next twelve months. They're called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows parts I and II, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Edit again: Yes, I would totally dig a Carmen Sandiego movie. However... I don't think that really qualifies as "pink-aisle" per the last post's explanation. It was a very masculine show, featuring a masculine female doing a masculine job, and I don't believe for a second that anyone thinks it was "targeted at girls," with boys only coincidentally becoming interested. At best, it was a coed-interest show, but I always thought of it as a boys' show.
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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With the exception of Jem and Sailor Moon I think that list would be somewhat counter productive to the stated purpose. Sailor Moon has the issue of being a comedy as well, something that a lot of people don't "get" is that it's supposed to also be a comedy, and part of the humor is how it's a bunch of girls doing these things, and how it looks.

I've done a lot of reading on, and research on Anime, and while there are a lot of strong female characters that are intended to be taken entirely seriously, Sailor Moon itself arguably can't be despite some attempts to get more serious in it's later days (so to speak).

On the bright side, I don't think you'd wind up upsetting Japan by casting a blonde haired caucasian girl in the role. To be entirely honest girls of all varieties, and blondes in paticular are considered kind of hot down there, and to be frank when she was created (even with a Japanese name) that was probably the offhanded intent.

According to other things I've read, when people ask "what ethnicity is this character" the answer is usually Japanese, however if a character looks like they should be from another Ethnicity (white, black, hispanic, etc...) chances are the similarity was intentional and that is how the character is being treated but the creator wanted to keep things Japan-O-Centric. There is apparently less focus on this, and a gradual shift towards having non-Japanese characters, so just coming out and casting some hot blonde Jailbait as Usagi
would probably work just fine, 10-15 years ago it probably wouldn't have.

I'm not sure if "She-Ra" would work, looking at the previous He-Man movies, and the simple fact that I've never been entirely sure that it was actually directed at girls. I can't think of many girls who got into "She-Ra", most of the people who watched it were guys in my experience who watched it as an extension of "He-Man".


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If I had to look at characters to appeal to girls, with the intended messages here, I'd honestly look later on down the pipe. Simply put I think the 80s era (where most of this is from) was among the last generation with a more traditional focus in targeting gender roles. I don't think a lot of the classic charaters for girls from that time period would translate well into a real "girl power" movie, and what's more most of the concepts are silly enough where I don't think they would appeal to adults. I mean you can sort of sell Giant Robots beating the crud out of each other, because action appeals to all ages, and science fiction in general goes cross generational. I don't think a girl on the other hand is going to be all excited about "Strawberry Shortcake" baking stuff and then trying to protect it from "The Purple Pieman".

I think most of the good properties simply aren't quite old enough to be recycled for nostolgia factor yet.

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As far as gender roles go, well I'm going to again be that "worst kind of person".

Right now I think one of the biggest problems with society is that gender equality, for all it's fairness, has lead to a situation where there is nobody around to raise or take care of the children. A lot of issues related to the youth, bad parenting, and similar things come from nobody being at home, or when someone is with both parents being so exhausted physically and mentally that they can't do the job "right".

Kids are increasingly being raised in daycare centers, or grow up as "latchkey kids" who spend a lot of time home alone, taking care of themselves, even at a relatively early age.

When it comes to isses like video games, dear to those here at The Escapist, people talk about parental responsibility, and I agree, but rarely look at why parents are failing so much today when it comes to reviewing material for their kids and so on. There are parents out there who have made things work despite both working, but it's not easy, and not everyone can do it. Parenting is one of those things that nobody can be fully prepared for, and luck always plays a factor as especially in today's job market people can't adjust their schedules around family, you either work the company's set time, or they replace you.

I don't believe women are mentally inferior to men, or anything of the sort. I do however believe women are naturally better at raising children, nestbuilding, and similar behaviors. Men and women are just wired differantly. Men CAN raise children, but women are better at it. Ideally of course both parents need to have a strong prescence.

Normally I would say that I think more women need to be encouraged to stay home and take care of children for societal reasons (and truthfully based on relative capabilities and the profitability of jobs, this could be reversed in some cases), as opposed to the current "run out and get a career, Grrrrl power" attitude you see expressed today. Unfortunatly we can't do this because the economy has adjusted to the idea of two income families, and most families without both adults working would be unable to meet the financial responsbilities.

I know lots of people are going to say this is sexist and mysogynistic, or whatever else. While not politically correct I don't think dismissing what I'm saying entirely is wise however.

We will probably find a way to make things work, and despite how it sounds I'm a big fan of equality, but right now I don't think someone can really consider pointing out the benefits of having one parent being a home maker to be a bad thing. What's more I think most people would generally agree that women tend to be far better at doing that kind of thing than guys are, even if it's not an absolute truth (as in certain pairings things can work out in the opposite fashion).

I very much thing dealing with this is one of the major obstacles facing society. Either we need to find some way to "turn back the clock" and make it practical and desirable for one parent to stay at home (without resulting to oppression), or the problems we're dealing with now are just going to get worse.
 

MB202

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Sep 14, 2008
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I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but did anyone else the My Little Pony movie, featuring those three witches and the purple Smooze? I saw half of it as a kid, and watched the rest of it later on on YouTube. It's pretty... bad... The witches are by FAR the most entertaining part of the movie.

Either way, I'd watch a movie based on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!