A clip from Brave: Is This What TV Tropes Calls An Establishing Character Moment?

[espanolbot]

With Fanart, as the Imageshack Situation as pretty much rendered me incapable of posting new things from my computer for the time being.

Merida is my new favourite Disney/Pixar character!

Though her bursting her dress to show off her muscles is going to get SOOOO much of the wrong kind of fanart.

Speaking of Fanart!

Bat Girls by ~dfridolfs on deviantART

Cat on hot tin roof by *monkeymarc on deviantART

kp - kissy face by ~Tenshichan1013 on deviantART

Flame Princess VS Ice Queen by `Yamino on deviantART

Wondy All Dressed Up by *OniYon on deviantART

Steph Girl by *neko-bri-bri on deviantART

Toph -The Greatest EarthBender by *DarkKenjie on deviantART

Batgirl: Year One by *NotThePornStar on deviantART

After Watchmen by ~n8twing on deviantART

The Legend of Azula by *kelly1412 on deviantART

Red Robin and Batgirl by *shoot-o on deviantART

naughty by nature by *duss005 on deviantART

Burning Love II by `Yamino on deviantART

Vote Celestia by ~Equestria-Election on deviantART

FAIREST Cover 3 by *AdamHughes on deviantART

Dragon's Eyes by ~ZuTarart on deviantART

Cassie Cain by ~Kanish on deviantART

John F. Kennedy Alien Hunter Classified by *SharpWriter on deviantART

CAIN by *kizer180 on deviantART

Princess Mononoke by =sakimichan on deviantART

SWGTCG: Boba Fett by `ukitakumuki on deviantART

Batgirls detective squad. by ~Splittingadams on deviantART

Toph's new outfit by *kelly1412 on deviantART

Doodle_Toph vs Fire by *kelly1412 on deviantART

Sit On It by `ukitakumuki on deviantART

BRAVE by ~hakumo on deviantART

Comments

[brooms]

With Fanart, as the Imageshack Situation as pretty much rendered me incapable of posting new things from my computer for the time being.

have you tried tinypic?

[blackruzsa]

The Robin Hood shot!
Love it when that happens, and yes, it can be done. I knew an archery coach who had a couple of speared arrows in his storage.

... sort of on and also off topic, but if Disney ever wants to go with an LGBT princess, they could go for Fet Fruners. One of my greatest wishes is for a movie of that story.

[brooms]

but if Disney ever wants to go with an LGBT princess

are we placing bets? i'd like to put some money on not in the next 50 years, pls. this goes for pixar as well.

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/blogosphere-blasts-pixar-over-brave-directors-exit-21877

[blackruzsa]

Where Disney disappoints me, I look to Dreamworks.
A longshot, I know, but anything's possible. And the story is an amazing story which would make for great cinematic effects.

[baihu]

I could see Dreamworks going there. To be honest, Dreamworks has started to build themselves a name for storytelling too, while Pixar's been jumping the shark a bit lately.

Cars 2, in NO shape or form, can be said to have a more epic or well-crafted story than either How to Train your Dragon or Kung Fu Panda 2.

[mishalak]

What makes you think Dreamworks would go there while Disney or Pixar would not?

To refresh my memory and make sure I was not biased by my uncertain memory I looked up the last five years of movies from them.

Disney:
Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh

Pixar:
Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, Cars 2

Dreamworks:
Over the Hedge, Flushed Away, Shrek the Third, Bee Movie, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Monsters vs Aliens, How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek Forever After, Megamind, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots

I suspect you are right about Cars 2 having weak storytelling, though I have not seen it and I doubt I will ever bother watching it. However I think there is not a trend line there, yet. As my old math teacher said, "Two points to make a line, three to check yourself, and four because Saxon (the text book writer) is a wienie."

On the specific issue of GLBT characters, I doubt any of these companies will go there in the next decade. Someone will before I die in 2049, provided I live to the statistically average age for someone of my gender, but nothing soon. And the going there will be of the fairly mild gay/lesbian/transgendered/implied different best friend of the protagonist.

[brooms]

i'm pretty sure cars 2 was made to sell merchandise. movies like cars is what pays for pixar's other projects.

[mishalak]

I would take the other side on within 50 years. Things both change very quickly and not quickly at all. I mean look at how things seemed 15 years ago. I would not have expected gay marriage in eight states? True, gay people are a minority even moreso than blacks and how many parents would take their kids to a gay focused move even if rated "G", if such a thing is possible. On the other hand, Disney, for all its other faults, is pretty gay friendly. I think that in 25 years gay marriage will be everywhere in the United States and it is conceivable that the protagonist of a Disney movie will be LGBT if there is someone at Disney who gets enthusiastic about such a project. And given how big a portion of the Disney fanbase are gay men, I would not be surprised by a gay "princess", though somewhat more by a lesbian or transgendered one.

[brooms]

I would not be surprised by a gay "princess", though somewhat more by a lesbian or transgendered one

i would because disney's animated princess movies usually have a romantic subplot. if it was only about acknowledging a girl or a boy is queer, i could see it. but a lesbian or gay love story as the main romantic subplot? in a princess movie? i'll be surprised, yes.

[mishalak]

More on this in my journal, but 50 years is a very long time culturally. I think The Princess and the Frog would have blown a majority of the public's mind in 1959. "A black woman as a Disney Princess?!?"

I do not say that it will happen, just that I would not be surprised by it.

[mishalak]

Although, thinking about it again, Mulan is on the edge of transgender territory with the cross-dressing. Not actually in it, but close to.

Mod Note

[salinea]

Please do not equate crossdressing with transgenderism, not even as "close", as they are two completely separate things. Crossdressing is presenting as a different gender than one is, for a specific purpose, from entertainment to survival; whereas being Trans is one's gender identity being at odds with the one people assumed you were from birth, because of what one's body looked like. Trans people who present as the gender they identify with aren't crossdressing, which implies disguise and perhaps performance, they are presenting as the gender they genuinely are. Implying that the two are similar is both misrepresentative of Trans people and dismissive of other factors that lead to crossdressing.

[ravenous_raven]

Yes, I've definitely heard of a "Robin Hood" being done before though a couple is quite a feat!

[blackruzsa]

Usually that's once every few hundred tries, even if you ARE an expert marksman. He's just very well-seasoned, and one time or other he was in the zone enough to do it :)

[biod]

But the priiiiiize.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4ze_R3TevE

[beoweasel]

Best part? I'm going through a Mass Effect splurge in preparation for ME3 coming out next month. XD

[espanolbot]

Aw, what with her being a Scot you could have gone for a Highlander reference there, what with the Quickening being refered to as the Prize and all. Hee.

[halloweenjack]

Man, if I start watching ME videos I'll still be going through the ME3 launch. I especially like Advice Garrus.

[bradygirl_12]

LOVE Wondy all dressed up!

Gotta admit, the JFK one is pretty cool. ;)

[icon_uk]

Love that Wonder Woman dress!

[nefrekeptah]

While the Princess Mononoke one is cool and all, the very first thing that springs to mind when I look at it is, "You do know that 'Princess Mononoke' was the name of the movie, not the name of the character itself, right?"

Oh, and regarding the "Brave" trailer - I like how her it's her father that seems totally cool with his daughter's need to buck tradition, while her mother is heavily against it. It's a nice deviation from the norm.

[salinea]

It's a deviation? I thought that was the norm.

[espanolbot]

In Disney fare it's normally the dad that tries to enforce tradition (tradition!) on his offspring, what with there being very few to none single mothers in Disney films.

So you have, for example, Jasmine's dad trying to get her to get married as it's Tradition, there's Ariel's dad trying to stop her fangirling on the surface world because it's weird, Mufasa enforcing an ecosystem that apparently had no place for scavengers, etc. etc.

Generally the only deviations are when the parents kind of deviated from the norm too, like Belle's dad, Mulan's (curiously whole and multigenerational) family all being much less strict that the other ruling families in the story, Hercules' parents being gods etc.

[salinea]

Oh, okay. yeah, Disney usually deals with people's relationship to their father, indeed.

I was thinking of the fact that tomboys / girls who defy gender roles tend to be shown as Daddy's girl in general in most stories.

[ravenous_raven]

Isn't Tiana's mom the only single mom?

[espanolbot]

Her and the mum of Jim in Treasure Planet, I think.

[raisedbymoogles]

Well, the Disney norm is that the parents are dead or absent before the kid can go on any adventures, so.

[leoboiko]

Well mononoke means simply “monster” (usually a vengeful ghost, literally the “spirit of things”, but used more broadly here—the spirit animals of the movie are all mononoke); and mononoke-hime is the title that Iron Town towners gave San. So even though it isn’t her name, she is the Princess Mononoke in the same way that Batman is the Dark Knight etc.

[ravenous_raven]

When she couldn't get her elbow up I was a little scared that she had just went up there for kicks and couldn't actually pull her bow, but I was relieved that it was just her dress.

Actually, with the rips her dress reminded me of Susan Pevensie's green dress in the first "Chronicles of Narnia" movie. Is there a fashion reason or an archery reason that those sort of dresses were designed, anyone know?

[fifthie]

Between this and Avatar 2012 is shaping up to be a banner year for SICK GUNZ

[big_daddy_d]

Ok 1. I definitely want to see Brave now. 2, favorite artwork: Flame Princess vs. Ice Queen. that one is just beautifully drawn. Cain. Boba Fett. Batgirls Detective Squad..well..honestly I don't like how the faces are drawn but I love the costumes, especially Barbara's.

[shadowpsykie]

wow.... that almost turned me... bad ass.... still gay though :D

also was i the only one who went "Eep!" when she turned and her mother popped up? :S

Imageshack...

[glprime]

You too, huh? I was like, "what's this email...? ...No more enormous free hosting?! WHAAA!?!"

[stubbleupdate]

Not Billy Connolly...

[espanolbot]

Yes Billy Connolly. :) Also Robbie Coltrane as one of the dad's of Merida's prospective husbands.

They seem to have gone for actual Scottish people to voice the characters in this movie (though, obviously, their accents are probably all over the place geopgraphically speaking), which I think was actually neat, particularly since they were originally planning to get Reese Witherspoon in for the lead role before going with the Scottish actress from Broadwalk Empire who plays an Irish lady.

They could easily have gone the Mike Myer's fake Scot-route is all I'm saying.

I have heard people asking, presumably due to the... odd casting decision in How to Train Your Dragon, why a movie based in Scotland has so many Vikings in it, but they're stupid so I'm ignoring them.

[endis_ni]

Being fairly rubbish at archery, I have actually made all those mistakes on the line in my time. Even her waggly elbow reminded me of the time I picked up a mate's 30lb draw by mistake and went "...eeep!"

[eyz]

beautiful art!
Specially love me those Bat-girls! ~<3