[dc]T[/dc]oday on the Friday Six: Creativity games, Primates, Kids Read Comics, Lansing Beer Week, mojito recipes, Should I Work For Free?, and babies (not mine).
And seven is RIGHT OUT
[ ] I came across Scott McCloud’s Story Machine the other day. I like the concept: you roll a four-sided die (a d4 to use the correct vernacular), and head North, South, East, or West to an icon on the ‘map.’
Rather than generating stories from scratch, it’s just for unlocking imaginations by stimulating unpredictable turns of thought. Writers and artists are very habit-driven, so this is one way of breaking those habits (the 24-hour comic is another). There’s no fixed meaning for each symbol, just whatever comes to mind: a plot turn, a character moment, a setting, a mood, an object… it’s up to you.
I like games or exercises which make me use my imagination—and McCloud is spot on about creatives and habits.
McCloud’s Story Machine reminded me of a similar game called Rory’s Story Cubes. Players roll a set of dice with different symbols and make up a story (as I recall, the rules are open to interpretation). I bought a couple sets this week, the basic set and Voyages.
[dc]I[/dc]f someone told teenager me, “One day, you’ll marry a women who will ask ‘Who is your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?”, I woulda cried. The tears would be tears of joy, and of terror, because talking to strangers was Scary. Especially strangers bearing Cassandra like news of my Future self.
Stephanie, bless her, did ask such a question over the weekend. She brought forth The Great Question on the name of my favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle while we worked on wedding invitations.
And by ‘we worked on,’ I mean I drew in my sketchbook while Stephanie cut the invitations at the local Print-Copy-Ship.¹
Stephanie: So, who is your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?
Me: Hmm. That is a difficult question to answer.
Stephanie: ::cut:: Why?
Me: Well, one must weigh several factors. Some folks might say Leonardo, because he is the leader, and it is easy to say the leader is a favorite, because everyone likes being in charge. But, from a story telling standpoint, most ‘leader characters’ are boring.
Stephanie: ::slice:: Huh?
Me: Leonardo is a goody-goody. He’s a boy scout who plays by the rules. Now, Raphael however, he’s a much more interesting character. As the theme teaches us, “Raphael is cool, but rude.” He doesn’t always follow orders, as witnessed in the first film, where his flashes of anger and loss of control give him much more depth. Michelangelo is similar—he’s the “party dude,” and has a sense of humor.
Stephanie: ::snip snip:: So. It is between Raphael or Michelangelo for your favorite?
Me: Not really. Those two are just more interesting. You have the bad boy in Raphael and the joker in Michelangelo—both rank higher than Leonardo in my book. But, you need that straight-laced person in a group—to balance the dynamic. The ‘hero’ or the ‘good guy’ isn’t always the most interesting character in a story. Star Wars taught us that—just look at the popularity of Han Solo and Darth Vader–
[dc]T[/dc]he recent video game film, Wreck-It Ralph (2012), earned the title “the best video game movie ever made” from most. On the surface, such a title sounds like a huge endorsement, but if you dig deeper, such a title doesn’t carry much weight when you look at the rest of the sample in question.
In short, it is almost like calling Rambo III (1988) “the best Rambo-goes-to-Afghanistan movie ever.”
OK, that’s an exaggeration, but not far from the mark.
The original Tron (1982) is perhaps the only other video game film worthy of battling Wreck-It Ralph for the title of “best video game ever,” because let’s be honest — most video game movies ain’t too good.
One would think, with plenty of captivating stories played out on home consoles every day, making a great video game movie would be easy. Not really.
Why? I don’t know, maybe, unlike Wreck-It Ralph, most video game films don’t embrace their video-gameness. Wreck-It Ralph doesn’t try to be something it is not, which is the Achilles’ heel of most video game films. Resident Evil (2002)? How do you screw up a special forces team fighting zombies in a spooky mansion?
Street Fighter (1994)? Worthy of its own article. Man, I waited in line on opening night to see that turkey.
And then we have thegold standard of failed video game films:Super Mario Bros. (1993).
Let’s pretend this never happened.
I confess to a) seeing Super Mario Bros. in the theater on opening weekend and b) owning the DVD.
Yes, years later, as an adult, I made the conscious decision to own the film.
Is Super Mario Bros. “good”? It depends on what one considers good. Story-wise, no, not really. It’s just strange. Entertainment-wise, yes, because it is so ridiculous. Get a few beers, call over your friends, and put on Super Mario Bros. — there is no way you don’t enjoy yourselves.
Why is Super Mario Bros.so strange? Because it didn’t embrace its video-gameness. The film tries to explain the hows and whys of the Super Mario Bros. universe, which is its biggest mistake — but it is also the reason it is so hilarious.
Let’s look at the film in a vacuum. If the screenwriters had the task of “try to explain how this universe with King Koopa and mushroom people could really happen,” they made a solid effort: An asteroid knocking dinosaurs into a parallel dimension, where they evolved into humanoids? OK.
Such a scenario is great for an episode of Star Trek or Sliders, but it doesn’t really belong in a movie about Super Mario Bros.
We don’t need realistic explanations for plumbers growing into giants or shooting fireballs at angry turtles as they try to save a princess. People accept The Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland for what it is: fantasy.
And this is how Wreck-It Ralph earned its many praises: it ups the fantasy and doesn’t try to be something it is not. There isn’t any screen time devoted to why the video game characters are “alive.”
They just are, and that is good enough for me.
Deep down, I am glad Super Mario Bros. is as serious as it is — otherwise, I may not have one of my favorite bad movies to watch with friends.
Further reading: Well in this case, listening. Check out the Super Mario Bros. episode of How Did This Get Made?
[dc]T[/dc]oday on the Friday Six: Girl Talk, my lack of pop music knowledge, the new season of Venture Brothers, color change, CommentLuv, and Man of Steel.
And seven is RIGHT OUT
[ ] For me, the Girl Talk albums are like the Reader’s Digest of hip-hop, rap, and pop music: songs distilled down to their best parts and mixed together. A single song lets me catch up on years of popular music—an entire album is like a university course in What’s Happening (the concept, not the TV show).
[ ] Speaking of popular music, I made a notable mix-up the other day. While walking past the Lugnuts’ stadium in downtown Lansing with Stephanie, I guessed at the music playing.
[ ] Season Five of Venture Bros. started this month, and I couldn’t be happier. I love the Venture Bros. brand of crazy. If anyone is feeling generous and wants to buy me a few seasons from my Amazon Wish List, by all means go for it.
[ ] Both of my regular visitors might have noticed a slight style change with clattertron.com. I decided to tweak the link colors, going from a dull red to a dull blue (an easy CSS fix to ye olde style sheet).
I also installed the CommentLuv plugin (for now). Just the free version, I’ll think about upgrading to the premium version later. CommentLuv shows a commenter’s latest website post, which is pretty neat. I get traffic from other sites using this plugin, so I thought I would give it a try.
[ ] I’m always trying to improve my writing, so this list of Words Writer Should Delete is handy. I try to keep these in mind when writing first drafts of posts (or anything), but I do a search for the words during the last edit and cut cut cut.
[ ] Are you going to see Man of Steelthis weekend? I’m interested in the film, but I’m not ‘gotta see it at Midnight!’ interested. I am curious to see what director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) did while under Christopher Nolan’s (Dark Knight trilogy) watch. My only hope is Man of Steel makes me care about Superman. He’s not my favorite superhero to begin with, so it’ll take a good story to sway me.
Still, it can’t be any worse than Superman III, right?¹
