Tag: writing

The Most Important Movie of My Generation (and Every Other Generation also)

Okay first thing first this is my favorite movie of all time this also is a bad movie… “Eyon you mean to tell me you recognize this movie is bad but you still say it’s your favorite?” YES! duh… anyway the train wreck of a movie I’m about to talk about is “Digimon : The Movie” so I probably got two response from that, the first one being “WHAT?!?” and the second one being “what is that?” For the first people bare with me and for the second people, Digimon: The Movie is a movie released on October 6th of the year 2000 and it’s actually three Japanese mini movies that take place in the digi-verse all smashed into one american movie. They took these three movies and sorta made them two movies given that the plot is split down the middle they sorta connect but not enough to really make it feel like one story.

So now to address the elephant in the room that being the movie is kinda bad. It starts with this nightmarish short with some paper cut out characters that I still bring up to my therapist. Once that nightmare fuel is over we are introduced to some of our main characters like Tai and Kari Kamiya as young children and a slightly larger and more violent Agumon (Also this random kid from Colorado who becomes really important to the rest of the movie) this part of the film is taken from the short film Digimon Adventure (1999) then we get a huge jump in time to my favorite part of the short film taken from the movie Digimon Adventure: Children’s War Game (2000) we meet other cast members mostly Matt Ishida and best boy Izzy Izumi this part of the film they jump into a computer to fight a virus that’s taking over the internet and stop it as it barely misses them with a nuke… yeah that kind of nuke. If you are a fan of anime movies and this sounds familiar that’s because Madhouse basically put out a movie with basically the exact same plot under the title Summer Wars (2009) Also a good movie.

Finally the last bit of the movie we follow basically an entirely new set of kids from the film Digimon Adventure 02: Digimon Hurricane Landing/ Transcendent Evolution!! (2000) they actually put two exclamation marks in the title… The new Digidestined like Davis, Cody, and Yolei also T. K. and Kari are still apart of the team. That kid from Colorado is what this next part of this movie is all about throughout the film we have been hearing little bits about this kid whose name is Willis by the way he got two Digimon the first time Kari and Tai got their egg but instead of a big mean Agumon he got two very cute big-eared Digimon named Gummymon and Kokomon. He loved his friends so much he wanted to make another one and that was the villain during the Children’s war game section of the movie and even though they thought they killed him back then he actually gave Kokomon an evil virus. So this entire part of the movie is about them figuring out how to save Kokomon. It was kind of a complex and very layered story at least for the audience it was aimed at I know the first time I watched it as a child I didn’t realize the big bad from the first half sorta created the big bad in the second half.

So why was this movie hated by critics and why do I love it? Well, this was early on in anime coming to America so all of the animations it was being compared to was basically Disney and they were putting out some great stuff. A lot of the critics also said this was a movie only children would enjoy which I one disagree with and two would make sense given it was a children’s movie. Lastly, some critics thought the movie was put together in a choppy way using other movies and stitching them together but that’s another thing about this movie I really appreciate they actually make it work and I think this is one of the first things I wanna talk about as far as the influence of this movie goes. Abridge shows on youtube had some of their road paved by this movie (an abridged show on youtube is when a creator takes an anime and dubs over it with their own lines usually for comedic purposes) now other then the English dub for Ghost Stories (2005) this movie represented an important part of a lot of abridge stories and that is making the story your own even though the three movies took place in the digiverse they really shared no other story elements. Digimon: the Movie was one of the earliest examples of an abridge series even some of the jokes felt very abridge series adjacent.

The music in this movie is amazing the track is so early 2000’s it almost hurts Kids in America (Kim Wilde), One Week (Bare Naked Ladies), The Rockafeller Shank (Fatboy Slim), All My Best Friends Are Metalheads (Less Than Jake), And oh yeah SMASH MOUTH’S AllSTAR way before Shrek made it a meme and that’s just naming a few some of the original went in just as hard. This movie easily formed a lot of the music I still listen to now and the film ends to Kokomon just grooving to Allstar and the movie is worth the watch just for that. Some of the jokes in this movie are also next level my favorite being a news reporter talking about how all the phones have gone dead worldwide and he says “If your phone has gone dead please call your phone company” and I’m not sure why but that joke always gets me. But you are probably thinking sure you convinced me the movie isn’t terrible but is it really the most important film of every generation well…

No but I had to get you to read this some how.

Forever and always, Eyon (Secretly a Digimon) Palmer!

Fantasy VS Sci-fi

I love the question of which is best fantasy or sci-fi and today I plan on answering that question DEFINITIVELY!!! So first things first we need a set definition of what fantasy is and what sci-fi is. Okay let’s start with fantasy personally, I see fantasy as a person or persons on a journey through a fantastic and usually magical world (they tend to be character-driven stories.) Sci-fi, on the other hand, is a story that tends to lean more towards questioning society, most of the time about how introducing a certain piece of technology would affect it. Now, this isn’t the case for all sci-fi and fantasy take Starwars for an example I would consider that a more of a fantasy story writing wise despite taking place in a fantasy world so this is just to simplify the terms as a whole. So now that we know what each genre is boiled down to as I see them, The question becomes which do you prefer character-driven or idea-driven stories.

Character-driven stories have the potential be some of the emotionally fulfilling tails that can be weaved, however, If you don’t like the characters it is probably going to be a long and boring experience assuming you don’t stop watching, reading, or playing before the end. The same goes for an idea focused story if the idea is bad the story will be as well. For the sake of the argument, we will be assuming both the fantasy and sci-fi Story is the best it can be… Since that’s kind of hard to do I will have to use an example of my favorite versions of both. For fantasy I will be using “The Adventure Zone: Balance” and for the sci-fi side of things I will be using “Black Mirror” Both of these are episodic in very different ways!

THE ADVENTURE ZONE!!!!! Okay, this is one of my favorite podcasts with my favorite boys and of course their amazing dad. First off this is a Dungeons and Dragons podcast so they are basically working together to make a story. Lets get to the characters Magnus Burnsides a human fighter who rushes in (played by the middlest brother Travis), Merle Highchurch a cleric who might not heal you but will for sure cast zone of truth (played by their father Clint), and last but MOST DEFINITELY NOT LEAST Taako [redacted] who you probably know from TV but if you don’t he is a chef turned wizard who would take anything not nailed down (played by the eldest brother Justin.) I know what you are thinking ” but Eyon those are the main characters what about everyone else? Shut up I was getting to that, Every other side character is played by Griffin McElroy He is the Dungeon Master he is the one who also writes the overarching story.

Now I can’t spoil this podcast it is too good but I will say the story and character development is nothing more than amazing I cried three times during the final episode alone. Merle started off the game as a cleric who wouldn’t have been able to recognize his deity let alone heal his teammates but by the end of the story he had made some of the most important saves of the game and yep sometimes he actually healed someone. Magnus started out easily with the saddest backstory losing his wife and seeking revenge but slowly he goes from always rushing head first into playing smart and accepting the death of his wife. Finally, Taako a character clearly made as a joke goes through easily the biggest emotional rollercoaster of them all starting off as brash, mean-spirited, and Selfish in the end he was well… Brash, mean-spirited, and so selfless!

Okay Black Mirror, This is an amazing example of sci-fi and drawing into question our dependency on technology and many other topics. Black mirror not only tells stories warning us to be wary of technology but also has episodes that show how amazing technology can be my favorite episode like this is San Junipero an episode I also don’t want to spoil but I suggest you watch it and every other episode. This show has a tendency to make me at least a little nervous about a lot of different things but I think that just means it’s doing its job. Black Mirror does a great job of making you scared of your computer which I think might be a good thing. I think sci-fi does more than just entertain but also serves as an important commentary on society.

Fantasy is a way to escape yes it can also deal with some intense subject matter and important lessons but the reason it exists is to make us forget about our problems and stress. Sci-fi does the exact opposite instead of taking us away from our life it turns the lens of focus onto us where fantasy wants us to forget our mundane life sci-fi wants to show us it isn’t mundane at all. So which is it which is better honestly I’m not sure I came in thinking I would say sci-fi but thinking back on all the amazing experiences I’ve had through other characters I am not sure I can say it’s sci-fi but sci-fi is so important I can’t say its fantasy either… maybe the world will never know one of the great unanswerable questions.

Just kidding it’s fantasy

Lovingly yours, Eyon (The wizard cyborg) Palmer