i’m approaching my mid-thirties but i still feel like such a teenager i need to cut down on the “lmfao” and “hell yea dude” and ease myself into the “That’s rich coming from you” part of my life
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Imagine being the only person alive who can say this
buzz aldrin and neil armstrong liked to do a thing where they’d tell unfunny jokes at parties about being on the moon and when people were confused they’d go “guess you had to have been there”
[ID: tweet from Linn LeBlanc reads: Where were you 49 years [ago] today when @/TheRealBuzz and Neil Armstrong made those historic first steps onto the Moon. Attached is a color photo of an astronaut on the moon. Buzz Aldrin quote tweets it and replies: I was on the Moon! #Apollo11 /]
Tolstoy was right
One of my favorite apocryphal stories of the American Revolution that I love so much is that on the morning the war started, Anna Munroe, wife of one of the soldiers, said that she kneaded her bread while crying, because she was convinced that her husband would be dead before she would have to knead it a second time.
It's poignant but easy to overlook, I think, what she's really saying there. Anna's husband walked out the door the night before, leaving her with no certainty that he would ever walk back in again. Soldiers were marching through the streets. She could hear gunshots. And through all of it, she was at home alone with three small children, with no choice but to go through the motions of a normal day. Bake the bread. Feed the baby. Milk the cow. She couldn't just curl up in a corner with her head in her hands, because despite the battle, life was still going on around her, other people depended on her, and she had to keep on living.
I want to be excited for the live action Little Mermaid so badly
The Little Mermaid is my favorite Disney movie. Anyone who knows me knows I'm obsessed with mermaids as a whole and will watch any media that has them. Hell, I own my own tails and monofins. But every time I see a gif or a video for the new Little Mermaid, I cringe
(btw, this is NOT because of the casting. If you're against this movie because Ariel is black, you're a racist piece of shit and this post isn't for you)
My issue lies with the CGI. It just looks so FAKE. We've seen through the course of movies and TV shows that use it that CGI does not age well, and that's because technology is constantly improving. What was impressive in 2005 is not impressive in 2023 (Just look at Aquamarine, another movie about mermaids). And the CGI on Ariel and her sisters already looks fake and the movie isn't even out yet!
Compare this image from the trailer
To this screenshot from H20: Just Add Water (a TV show that came out in 2006):
You can see the details of the scales in the second image
The first image is flat. Sure, it's colorful, but it's flat. It's fake. Halle herself is the most beautiful and alive part of the image, because everything else is fake
The difference?
H20 had costume designers, ones specifically trained in mermaid tail making, HAND CRAFT every tail on the show. All of the scales were hand laid, all the tails molded to fit the actors/actresses perfectly, painted by hand
Let's even look at someone with no affiliation to TV or movies:
This is Mermaid Linden, a very well known (in the mermaid community) professional mermaid. You can tell her tail is not as high quality as the ones made for H20 (though it's still a VERY expensive tail) - but it still looks like it's a part of her. You can still see the details. Because professional mermaid tails are also all handmade and molded to fit each person. Even if they don't lay every individual scale, good professional mermaid tail makers are very meticulous about what they do.
This is what happens when Disney refuses to pay practical effects artists. We could have had beautiful, handmade tails that would look real on screen for decades to come and could be reused for promotional purposes - instead, they're underpaying and overworking their non-unionized employees to make CGI tails that don't even look real now.
(to be clear, I'm not shitting on the artists. As I said, they're being underpaid and overworked. This is not their fault)
And before anyone comes and says "But swimming in those is difficult!" Absolutely it is. You should never swim in a professional level tail (or even just fabric tails) without practice and training. Which Disney could have given the cast if they were willing to PAY people (the cast of H20 [a TV SHOW] literally learned how to be mermaids on set. It's been done before)
Disney's "Live Action" needs to be rebranded as "CGI with some real people tossed in" because that's all any of these remakes have been, and it's exhausting when I look at what we could have had.
I just wanted to add some more pics of some silicone tails as another mermaid community member furious about the CGI
Mertailor Silicone tails
Finfolk silicone tails
Merbella Silicone tails
Compare these examples to the CGI tail and you can really notice the difference.
Using silicone tails, or even some of the fabric tails available (finfolks fabric tails are absolutely gorgeous) would have been a major step up.
i was thinking about that post comparing Jessica Rabbit as an asexual to Barbie and an asexual and then i thought of the Neil Gaiman post (was it a post?) about Crowley and Aziraphale being asexual and then this happened.
anyways. thoughts?
You are so brave and correct for this
If the WHOLE COUNTRY'S economy cannot work without the labor that UPS workers provide, than their labor is worth their demands and more.
No other conclusion can be rationally made from this information.
