What’s the last movie you watched?


Connie
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2 hours ago, anatess2 said:

Ugh.  I hate Merida.  It takes a special kind of nasty to do the things she did.  But I like Brave because of the Mum and Dad and their relationship.

I must disagree. Merida was not nasty, she was desperate. She and her mother learned together, her little brothers were adorable and I love the Scottish accent.

M.

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47 minutes ago, Maureen said:

I must disagree. Merida was not nasty, she was desperate. She and her mother learned together, her little brothers were adorable and I love the Scottish accent.

M.

There's a rule in storytelling (and if there isn't, there should be) that you can stretch the story to its most desperate but you can't stretch a character into its most nasty to the point of breaking that trust in the character's inner goodness.  The mother, for example, was also at her most desperate, and had a lot to learn and improve on but she retained our trust in her inner goodness as she fought her transition to Bear.  Everything else in Brave was good - the setting, the "scottishness" of the families, the antics of the triplets etc... it was Merida that was bad.

Edited by anatess2
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Merida wasn't bad, she was a typical teen, unless you really believe she was trying to turn her mother into a Bear. 

When her mother became a Bear the surprise is obvious and not feigned. Notice Merida immediately set out to right the wrong and didn't abandon her mother once. If Merida was bad there wouldn't be a story...or at least a good one.

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7 hours ago, anatess2 said:

There's a rule in storytelling (and if there isn't, there should be) that you can stretch the story to its most desperate but you can't stretch a character into its most nasty to the point of breaking that trust in the character's inner goodness.  The mother, for example, was also at her most desperate, and had a lot to learn and improve on but she retained our trust in her inner goodness as she fought her transition to Bear.  Everything else in Brave was good - the setting, the "scottishness" of the families, the antics of the triplets etc... it was Merida that was bad.

Merida was not bad. She didn't know the potion would turn her mother into a bear; but the bear situation caused Merida and her mother to become closer and it brought about the destruction of the demon bear  so that the old prince could be at peace. Anatess, you might want to watch Brave again, and remember it's an animation story, it's not real. :)

M. 

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49 minutes ago, Maureen said:

remember it's an animation story, it's not real. :) 

Yes, I think we all need to remember it's not real. 

With that said, I didn't think Merida was a very likable character. She was rude and had no respect for her parents (her mom in particular). The other thing that bothered me was the feminist message of "I don't need a husband." In fact, "I'll be shootin' for ma own hand," to quote Merida. This simply was not realistic for the time period, then again, neither was the demon bear or around 90% of the movie.  

Edited by Larry Cotrell
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12 hours ago, Maureen said:

Merida was not bad. She didn't know the potion would turn her mother into a bear; but the bear situation caused Merida and her mother to become closer and it brought about the destruction of the demon bear  so that the old prince could be at peace. Anatess, you might want to watch Brave again, and remember it's an animation story, it's not real. :)

M. 

Sigh.  Thanks for telling me I'm a moron no matter the smiley.

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9 hours ago, DoctorLemon said:

Watched Ip Man 3 tonight.  Very strange martial arts movie that is kind of all over the place and features Mike Tyson as the bad guy.

 

AWESOME MOVIE.  Have you seen Grandmaster IP Man (Ip Man 1)?  It's the best martial arts movie in my book.  Ip Man 2, I didn't like.  Ip Man 3 was good but not as good as the first.

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16 hours ago, Larry Cotrell said:

Yes, I think we all need to remember it's not real. 

With that said, I didn't think Merida was a very likable character. She was rude and had no respect for her parents (her mom in particular). The other thing that bothered me was the feminist message of "I don't need a husband." In fact, "I'll be shootin' for ma own hand," to quote Merida. This simply was not realistic for the time period, then again, neither was the demon bear or around 90% of the movie.  

You do realize that marriage in the very distant past was seen as a business transaction. Girls were the property of their fathers and then their husbands. So you think because Merida wanted to choose her own husband, which you think is a feminist action and therefore bad, that that means she was disrespecting her parents. Really? Remember it's a animated story told to a 21st century audience. Merida was feisty, tough and Brave and a girl. Oh no, a girl hero? That's just not right. You can't honestly believe that showing a girl character as brave, tough and knowing her own mind is a bad thing. For me it's a nice, funny story and I still like it more than Frozen. :)

M.

Edited by Maureen
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On 11/3/2016 at 9:21 AM, anatess2 said:

Ugh.  I hate Merida.  It takes a special kind of nasty to do the things she did.  But I like Brave because of the Mum and Dad and their relationship.

I wouldn't go so far as to call Merida "nasty".  She may even be "typical" for a teenager.  But (and maybe this is the lawyer in me talking) if you have a magical means to "change your fate"--you don't set something like that loose until you know how it will change your fate and who might get hurt. 

I wouldn't call her more likeable than Frozen's Anna--not by a long shot.  Anna was shortsighted and just plain dopey, in an endearing sort of way; but she didn't go around trying to subjugate others to her own will using a weapon she couldn't understand.

Edited by Just_A_Guy
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9 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

I wouldn't go so far as to call Merida "nasty".  She may even be "typical" for a teenager.  But (and maybe this is the lawyer in me talking) if you have a magical means to "change your fate"--you don't set something like that loose until you know how it will change your fate and who might get hurt. 

I wouldn't call her more likeable than Frozen's Anna--not by a long shot.  Anna was shortsighted and just plain dopey, in an endearing sort of way; but she didn't go around trying to subjugate others to her own will using a weapon she couldn't understand.

For me, Merida is a "smidge" more likeable than Anna. :) I guess both were naive but in different ways. I just like Merida's toughness and in the end the relationship she had with her mother became better.

M.

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My husband and I took two of our granddaughters to see Storks after the suggestion of our son.

The girls ages are 4 and 7. The movie was seriously promoted on the kids TV Channels and the oldest was especially excited.

Things were going well until the wolf pack arrived. The 7 year old has a history of nightmares and she was terrified. 

I created a shield for her and she experienced no nightmares following this movie.

 

How I wish that there were children's movies created without villains. If they must have a villain maybe there could be a new rating such as rated G-v for villain?

just my thoughts. 

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On 11/4/2016 at 2:55 PM, Maureen said:

You do realize that marriage in the very distant past was seen as a business transaction. Girls were the property of their fathers and then their husbands. So you think because Merida wanted to choose her own husband, which you think is a feminist action and therefore bad, that that means she was disrespecting her parents. Really? Remember it's a animated story told to a 21st century audience. Merida was feisty, tough and Brave and a girl. Oh no, a girl hero? That's just not right. You can't honestly believe that showing a girl character as brave, tough and knowing her own mind is a bad thing. For me it's a nice, funny story and I still like it more than Frozen. :)

M.

.I don't think his point was not that being a feminist is bad.  I think his point was that the feminist message that "I don't need a husband" (or I don't need men, in general) which is a poison that the American feminist movement has inflicted upon modern society may have been misplaced in time because in those days, that sentiment did not exist in the culture.  But, I can see that Merida doesn't have to depict the culture of the era but more like an individual aberration to promote a storyline.  Still a poison though, regardless of the time period.

 

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