Episode 629 - Reevaluation cast
Apr 3, 2023
Have you ever watched a series devotedly then lost touch with it for some reason for a while and then gone back to it a couple of years later and tried to get into again but this time you look at it with a very different perspective? Or maybe you loved a movie when you were young and decided to watch it again as an adult to see if it holds up?
Topics and Show Notes
Reevaluation can be quite interesting! You see stuff with new eyes. Sometimes it holds up fine, sometimes you see new things and appreciate it in a whole new way, and sometimes you just see it as trash…
One example I give in the Quackcast was Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer, those two Arnold Schwarzenegger fantasy movies from the 80s. When I first saw Conan the Barbarian as a kid I thought it was trash; it was dark, overly sexy, gory, stodgy, way too serious, had clunky effects, it was just too slow and the climactic scene wasn't satisfying. When I first saw Conan the Destroyer I loved it; it was brash, bold, exaggerated, fun, funny, completely over the top, and the ending was amazing. However watching them both as an adult I saw them very differently, I saw Conan the Barbarian as a clever and beautifully told story, almost an opera with a rumination on nihilism and Nietzsche with many interesting themes and an absolutely perfect ending, while Conan the Destroyer is completely silly and cartoonish with no themes, just whacky foolishness with some good fight scenes and Grace Jones.
Do things hold up when you revisit them? Do you change your opinions, or does nostalgia protect you against seeing them with new eyes?
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Blank Galaxy - A pastel pink and white star field. A void, void of detail… quickly invaded by throbbing pixels glowing brightly and filling the world with scintillating detail. This is a pulsing, trancy, electronica sound.
Topics and shownotes
Links
Inspired by Em's newspost here - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2023/mar/30/crazy-ex-girlfriend-uses-genre-tropes-against-you/
Featured comic:
Guardians of Man - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2023/mar/28/featured-comic-guardians-of-man/
Featured music:
Blank Galaxy - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Blank_Galaxy/ - by EA_Espino_Comics, rated T.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
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Episode 617 - Adventuring we go!
Jan 8, 2023
Adventure is a fun genre! Not as many things get made for it these days but it used to be hugely popular in the past. It's one of my favourite genres and this is what we're chatting about for the Quackcast. What IS adventure? I think it usually involves a whole lot of different things like exploration, action, discovery, heroic protagonists, rivals, travel, exotic places, fights etc. It can be set in the past or in the modern day. Good examples are The Mummy, Indiana Jones, the original Tomb Raider, the two new Jumanji films, Strange World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Ducktales, Tailspin, Jungle Cruise, Uncharted and so much more. I'd love to know your faves!
Episode 605 - Myth of Freedom
Oct 17, 2022
“Freedom” is the catch cry in so much historical fiction but it's usually an anachronistic piece of nationalist fantasy. You fought for your lord, for pay, your honour, your small region, etc, not for “Scotland” (i.e. Bravehert). Even today it's generally propaganda: e.g. The Invasion of Iraq being called “Operation Iraqi Freedom” and Russia's invasion of Ukraine being all about “freeing” the Russian speaking areas from “oppression”. We alter historical stories to fit with contemporary ideas about ourselves and to give us some form of foundation for our prejudices, motivations and identity. Good examples are the Arthurian legends, Gladiator, Braveheart, The Patriot, Robin Hood, The stories about Christopher Columbus, The 300, and The Woman King.
Episode 604 - Stylised reality
Oct 10, 2022
When creating fiction we always have to stylise experience in many and various ways in order to communicate with the viewer in a way that's meaningful to them because it's usually impossible to simply show them the exact reality of something and expect that same meaning to carry through.
Episode 599 - Badaptations
Sep 5, 2022
Source material is something that we can love and respect, but it's just as often disregarded, degenerated, and denigrated, especially these days where it seems like everything you see is an adaptation or even an adaptation OF an adaptation or worse. I think it's important to go back to the sources so you can see what was truly great about the original to begin with. It can help you see what was lost in the adaptations and to discover new and important meanings and ideas that you never would have guessed at.
Episode 594 - Grow up! Or don't...
Jul 31, 2022
The Manchild can be a fun character or they can be pathetic. They're a staple of comedies because they're an adult that gets to act immature and childish, without the restraint and responsibilities imposed by adulthood. This can make a great contrast; “The adult man acting like an immature child”, John C Riley and Will Farrel have always done that extremely well, as did Chris Farley back in the 90s. It can be be portrayed as pathetic and sad when the person can't seem to be able grow up or take on any responsibilities. They're often characterised by people with “childish” interests, like the cast of the Big Bang Theory, or with a childlike love of something like sports like Kevin in Kevin can F Himself.
Episode 592 - Back in MY day!
Jul 18, 2022
History is happening faster now. With the growth of universal high speed communication and cheap world travel, culture and technology move at unprecedented speeds. Because of these factors the rate of change is different to what it was at any time in the past. This is an objective and verifiable truth rather than subjective perception: the current speed and quality of global communication has never been possible before and that has ramifications for how the world changes.
Episode 590 - Fave Superhero Movies?
Jul 4, 2022
I wanted to do an easy and fun one this week and just chat about our fave superhero movies, starting with our firsts! For me and Banes it was Superman with Christopher Reeve. It's a real classic, full of positivity, hope, and optimism, all with bright colours and classic iconic imagery… In that way it's a bit like many of the Marvel films and the more popular DC offerings like Aquaman and WonderWoman, but without the overbuilt and over-defined muscles!
