skimbledankstheradicalcat

Latest Posts by skimbledankstheradicalcat

haymitch: love is love <3

clerk carmine: yeah, but not your love. get AWAY from my niece.

After seeing all the responses to it, I decided to ☠️ the live action Lilo & Stitch to see the damage for myself. Setting aside the common criticisms (no gantu, jumbas... everything, Nani and Lilo's relationship or lack thereof, cobra bubbles/the social worker, The Ending), something that honestly killed the movie in its infancy for me is its pace and its noise.

This movie is allergic to beats of silence or introspective moments, which is bonkers, because that's one of the things that makes the original so strong. Lilo walking home alone after hula practice. Nani sneaking to hear Lilo's prayer. The quiet after the incident at the beach before Lilo says, "You ruined everything." Stitch alone in the woods before he cries out that he's lost. All of these moments so many more are cradled by silence as the movie urges us to look and listen with patience. In the live action, these moments are rushed (at least the ones that are still in it, as not all of them are) and they suffer for it. Hell, even Stitch's escape sequence is undermined by how rapid the pacing is.

So many times, I found myself just wishing for the movie to *breathe*. There are so few moments of quiet introspection, and the ones that are there are still littered with extra things that just clutter the simple, powerful story underneath it. Tack on that almost every single intimate character moment or interaction is punctuated with a joke of some kind. It's like the movie is insecure about its own sincerity, so it buries it under cheap jokes and quips.

What really gets me is that the original is funny in part because of its ability to be quiet. Lilo showing Nani Stitch's record player trick is funny as fuck in the original because of how its quiet. Lilo's deadpan face, Nani's stunned silence, and the pauses when Lilo closes his mouth all service the comedy of the scene. The scene also acts as another reinforcement of Nani's understanding of Lilo in that she simply watches to see what the fuck her weirdo little sister has figured out.

In the live action, they have Lilo talking throughout the whole bit, and Nani just offhandedly responds while only looking at her phone (the movie is so confused as to how Nani feels about Lilo in my opinion) and it just falls flat, even with the read that the scene is meant more to illustrate their strained sister relationship.

It honestly stinks cause the little girl playing Lilo is adorable and doing a great job, especially for her age and for the crappy movie she's in. Her dynamic with Stitch, while altered (she's more of a little troublemaker type in this, sneaking into resorts, freeing someone's chickens, sneaking candy to feed the shelter dogs, etc.), is still well done and very wholesome. I just wish they'd gotten a better movie to be in.

Tldr; the movie lacks dynamic pacing and the quiet moments that made the original movie's simple, grounded (lol sort of) story so impactful.

the idea that restrooms, locker rooms, etc need to be single-sex spaces in order for women to be safe is patriarchy's way of signalling to men & boys that society doesn't expect them to behave themselves around women. it is directly antifeminist. it would be antifeminist even if trans people did not exist. a feminist society would demand that women should be safe in all spaces even when there are men there.

parallel play (liking and reblogging your mutual's posts but not talking to them)

You don't have to like weed but I find people who are vehemently anti-weed but claim to be left leaning infuriating. If you go into a rage because you smelled someone smoking pot, how the fuck do you expect to form community with people addicted to meth? It's easier to say you hate smokers than to say you hate all drug users in leftist spaces because one makes you sound a bit like a square while the other is the writing on the wall. You aren't anti-weed, you're anti-drug user and anyone who uses substances is not safe around you.

(don’t mind the shit grammar I edited this right after waking up)

therapist: cunt dracula is not real and cannot fuck you.

cunt dracula:

i'm still mad about that post thats like "humans USED to be able to memoriize long epic poems, but we no longer have Bards so our memories arent as good" boy shut the fuck up. a good chunk of people i went to high school with had the entirety of hamilton memorized for fun and they weren't even autistic.

"I can't believe [media] was actually about _____ the whole time!!!"

[one possible interpretation, yep]

[literally the main theme??]

[worst take you've seen in your life]

I hate, hate, HATE the term “affordable housing.” I hate that we’ve normalized it. I hate that we just accept that the majority of housing, a basic human right, is unaffordable to much of the population. Housing should be affordable as a baseline. If rich people want to add arcades and gold-plated hot tubs on top so be it, but everyone, everyone, regardless of income level, should have access to a clean, comfortable home with enough light and space to make life worth living.

When you thought it would be easy peasy lemon squeezy but it turns out to be difficult difficult lemon difficult.

can we please please please learn to differentiate between things that are good but devalued because of their association with women (caring for children, being compassionate), things that are neutral but seen negatively because of their association with women (the colour pink, having long hair), and things that are bad but associated with women because of misogyny (being materialistic, being stupid) because otherwise we’re gonna keep getting takes like “being gender nonconforming is anti feminist” and “not studying for your classes is feminist”

Sure, boss, I’d still be ya henchman if you was a woim

Thinking about Lilo & Stitch makes me really appreciate certain things about the original + the series. Almost every single named [human] character in the movie isn’t white: the only exception being Mertle, y’know, the bratty little girl we’re not supposed to like.

Besides all of the racial representation, Lilo herself is very much a neurodivergent icon, and her portrayal as the protagonist is amazing considering how characters like her are typically either sidelined or depicted in ways to make them less sympathetic/human (modern media does at least a slightly better job at adressing that kind of thing tho).

So all of that is great, but to anyone that hasn’t seen Lilo & Stitch: The Series, it also does some extremely refreshing stuff.

Pleakley gets tons of validation to dress in drag, everyone always referring to Pleakley as “she” when dressed up as “aunt Pleakley.” There’s even an episode that tackles Pleakley dealing with the pressures of his family that wants him to marry a girl and settle down to have a “normal life.” After the episode's shenanigans, there's a realistic depiction of the misunderstanding of a heteronormative/traditional parent with their non-traditional child: Pleakley's mom says that she just wants her children to be happy, but when Pleakley says that he is happy, she thinks he's only trying to console her as she insists, "How can you be happy? You aren't even married." But Pleakley finally gets it through to his mom when he says, "I don't want to be married, mother! I'm happy just as I am."

After getting to meet all of Pleakley's ohana throughout the episode and hearing from Pleakley himself -after all of the previous misunderstandings- that he really, truly, is happy, she's finally starting to understand.

Even though his mom comments as they leave that she wants him to “try wearing men’s clothes more often,” she still does walk away accepting that she simply doesn’t understand her son's way of thinking. It’ll definitely be hard for her since she’s so much more “traditional,” but she’s finally coming to grips with the fact that her son is who he is, and likes being that way, so she’ll love him regardless. She's trying her best.

The portrayal of people with physical disabilities is also great. It’s not because there’s one recurring character with some condition, but almost because there are non-recurring characters. It isn’t in every episode, but here’s an example: they want to show someone at the park playing fetch with their dog for just one shot. They could very easily have it be any a random person, but they decided to make it a lady in a wheelchair. There's another episode where Nani's friends from highschool show up and one has forearm crutches, but not just because she had some recent accident. No one in the episode questions her condition or feels the need to point it out, the only comment on it being that the friend will use the crutches to lightly bonk the others' arms, and Nani jokes, "You are still deadly with that thing."

The fact that they include characters with disabilities when they "don't have to" makes it that much more normal. These people aren't some special case or the main highlight of the episode, they're just another person. They're normal.

There's so much that all of the original Lilo & Stitch media did right, but now the name will forever be tainted with the association of the remake, which I'm sure will have absolutely none of the tasteful writing and ideas of anything prior to it.

Btw, that idea that privilege makes you morally evil and suffering makes you morally good is just repackaged versions of the Christian concepts of the evils of luxury and the holiness of martyrdom. Hope this helps!

Ok now do NYT columnists

obsessed with the conversation around queerbaiting coming back because of 911 but pinknews still chooses to use a cover photo from a show that ended 5 years ago. her influence🩷

So which is it? Is AI useless or so effective it will destroy creatives? Is the enemy strong or weak?

Ok first of all why are you referencing Ur Fascism to debate me on AI? Secondly, AI will not take people's jobs (creative or otherwise) because it is effective, it's taking jobs because a lot of wealthy and powerful people *think* it's effective, or, at the very least, that it will be any day now and they need to get in on the ground floor. The idea of Generative AI being the future is 100% salesmanship by a few companies selling snake oil but unfortunately for the rest of us the snake oil business is booming rn

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie: “Gaza has become a mass grave for Palestinians and those helping them.”

Don't stop supporting them - they are now under bombardment and facing starvation. Israel is now demanding immediate evacuation from residents to carry out a large-scale operation. Sadly, displacement comes at a high cost- not just in money, but in lives, fear, and pain. Imagine looking at your children as they tremble from fear and hunger. This is how Sami, his two children, and his family are living at this very moment. They are waiting for your help — they could lose their lives at any second.

Remember: Every small donation can help Sami and his family stay alive. They are waiting for your support... you are their hope. Don't hesitate. Donate here.

jesus no

People who never go to a bathroom with a trans person are most upset.

People who share bathrooms don't five a fcuk.

the thing about queer tv is that every time someone says "why isn't there a queer show where XYZ happens" the reality is that 1) there is actually a queer show where XYZ happens, and 2) that show is almost always either a thai drama or black sails