Showing posts with label Adventure Time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adventure Time. Show all posts

Friday, January 26, 2018

"I Kill Giants" Gives Us Much More Than (Just) A Female Version Of Jack the Giant Slayer

“Barbara Thorson is your new hero. A quick-witted, sharp- tongued middle-schooler who isn’t afraid of anything. As the only girl in school carrying an ancient Norse warhammer in her purse and killing giants for a living, why wouldn’t she be? I Kill Giants is the sweeping, bittersweet story of a young girl struggling to conquer monsters both real and imagined as her world crumbles at the feet of giants bigger than any one child can handle.”
Anywhere you have a child, or young person, dealing with giants, the comparison to Jack (of giant slayer and beanstalk fame), is inevitable, and with this film, and it's graphic novel source, there is some sense to that. Despite the lack of enchanted, cloud-reaching plants to climb, this world of the bunny-ear-wearing 5th-grader heroine, Barbara Thorson, is filled with all the magic and peril of Jack's, and the metaphors work too, with or without the, er, flora. And with the trailer showing the lines between reality and fantasy being more than a little blurred, the echo of "Jack themes" is stronger than ever.

Take a look at the newly-released trailer. (Note: it's followed by a pre-released scene, with Barbara showing her new friend one of her "Giant traps".):



In Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Niimura’s comic book, I Kill Giants, it’s unclear just how much of young Barbara’s giant-slaying adventures are real and how much are part of an elaborate fantasy world she’s created in her mind to escape from the emotional stresses of her actual life. The new trailer for the film adaptation does a good job of getting that point across. (iO9)
The graphic novel*, and the movie, take the nerdy outcast type and, unlike making her silent and withdrawn as is typical (especially for female characters), Barbara is outspoken, witty and takes no prisoners with her speech and humor, very much like the typical Jack of the various Jack tales (from beanstalks to giant slayings and much, much more). 

Although she's just as brash and energetic (and imaginative), it's clear that, unlike most versions of "Jack" we've seen, she is dealing with a lot of pain. Uniquely, this loner type is a character whom you can't simply pity, despite her situation and life-troubles; she requires the audience's respect as well. It's great to see and, from what we can tell, strikes a fairly rare balance in drawing a girl who is very different from, and still very like, any regular kid, and it's clear that this emotional balance has made loyal fans and readers out of many different people.

Here's a description of Barbara and the graphic novel premise by Joe Kelly, the writer & creator of the comics, and screenwriter for the movie adaptation, from an interview with CBR.com:
“The story follows Barbara Thorson, a troubled but resilient fifth grader who’s a bit of an outcast — Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy and general mopery are her hobbies. But it looks like she’s taking the fantasy thing a little too far. She’s always talking about giants, reading books on giants, setting traps for giants, getting ready to kill a giant. Almost the entire story is told from her point-of-view, so we see what she sees: pixies, critters, and a monster that lives upstairs in her house, so terrifying that Barbara only sleeps in the basement. So is she crazy, or does she know something that we don’t? Does she have an active imagination, or does she see another world? The story kicks off as this fantasy world begins to crack because of some outside forces–a bully, the school psychologist, and her first real friend.” (Joe Kelly, from an interview with CBR.com)

I Kill Giants deals with issues similar to those in A Monster Calls** (highly recommended by the way), of sickness and family concerns, as well as bullying, loneliness and friendship, anger, the very real pain children can have, and a different "coming-of-age", but it also has it's own mark to make, and, might be even more in touch with present societal concerns. In other words, Barbara may just be the heroine many people - girls in particular - are looking for right now.

Does Barbara bring to mind another modern fairy tale-type heroine as well? How about Fionna, (of Fionna and Cake) in the animated TV series Adventure Time? And it's not just the bunny ears. In the Adventure Time universe, Fionna is the hero of the time, and this version of the 'universe' in which she appears, is deliberately gender-swapped. Not only is she not Finn, (of Finn and Jake), she's not a boy. Boys are typically the loners who "go out and save the world" and have tales created around their adventures - their angst, their journey to maturation and their eventual triumphs. In the gender-swapped universe of Adventure Time, it's Fionna who fills this role, much to the delight of audiences*** and fans who loved seeing a weird-but-strong female character saving princes who needed saving, and in I Kill Giants, it's Barabara Thorson who takes it upon herself to save the town and school from impending destruction by giants. It should be noted that the town and school typically view her with either derision or concern and unlike most heroes, she's not given a pass for her quirks, let alone respect. In this respect, a female hero is often more alone than a male hero. At least boys, who are derided for their crazy ideas, are still ultimately respected for 'wanting to be a hero'. In a girl, this quality and the various manifestations of that, is just seen as "cray-cray".

It's great to see this addressed and these issue being given the respect they deserve. Using the lens of a fairy tale is playing a major part in this, and that's no coincidence. Nothing tells us the truth, quite like a fairy tale.

I Kill Giants, directed by Anders Walter and also starring Zoe Saldana and Imogen Poots, hits theaters March 23, 2018.

*The graphic novel has been nominated for a lot of different awards, including an Eisner, and received the International Manga Award in 2012.
**I Kill Giants was apparently pitched and began development around the same as A Monster Calls, but the latter, made with a bigger budget, ended up making it to the screen a year earlier.
*** The debut airing of the Fionna and Cake saw "a dramatic increase in all boy demographics" and "marked a 42% increase in viewers compared to a year earlier". (Source)

Thursday, June 21, 2012

"Adventure Time" Meets the 3 Bears

By Graham Annable
While Adventure Time episodes (on Cartoon Network) do not, as a rule, base their story lines on fairy tales, though they do have this mythic sense which pervades the series and make it fairy-tale-enthusiast-friendly, it's not unusual to see fan art of the series pop up that takes on plot elements of other popular and myth-based works (eg Star Wars, Game of Thrones etc). This is an official cover illustration by Graham Annable for an Adventure Time comic (release date unknown) so I'm very curious about the issue itself. 


It's fun to see the characters get a fairy tale makeover and while this illustration isn't very different from the Goldilocks tale (Finn is blonde underneath the ear-cap by the way) it meshes very well with his character from the series (he starts out with good intentions then tends to get sucked into Trouble - with a capital "T', usually by his mischievous magical dog). We don't have any sense of the end of this story here (ie. we're meant to buy the comic) but Finn's sense of chivalry means he goes to ridiculous lengths to make thing right again. Of course, things usually get worse (far worse!) before they get better and Finn and Jake have some rather crazy adventuring doing it all. Very fun!

What I'd dearly love to see is these characters, and their world, tackle a few fairy tale plots and see where they end up. The sensibility of the series is such that there's a good chance they'll keep a lot of the fairy tales' "essence" despite the whimsical and wacky framework it's presented in. (Hint, hint Frederator Studios!)

The picture above is of Fionna the Human (who is Finn the Human's alternate reality persona) with Marshall the Vampire (Marceline the Vampire's alternate reality persona) as envisioned by an unidentified fan (although I do see "baby churros" signed). Interestingly, although I couldn't find any reference to an episode in which Fionna acts as LRRH and is pursued/tempted by Marshall, there are many fan art pics on this subject. I guess vampire to wolf isn't such a stretch but why does it make me think of Twilight..? (I mean the book/series phenomenon even before the movie-crazy.)

Oh no.

Is THIS why Twilight* struck such a chord with teenage (and older) girls? Because Stephenie Meyer was influenced/inspired by LRRH**?? Interesting if it is, because Catherine Hardwicke flipping the Twilight elements back into an recognizable Red Riding Hood tale got kind of lost in the woods...

Hmm. I feel as if I have thought-gristle in my teeth.

Having not made it through the Twilight series, despite trying to for the sake of keeping up with pop culture, I can't do a proper comparison beyond using synopsis  and Wikipedia - *grinds teeth* - but the idea is sticking, even after a quick research-binge. As for comparison of Twilight to the LRRH fairy tale (leaving the movie well out of the equation) the internetz are rife with the obsessive idea that Harwicke "Twilight-ed" the LRRH story, rather than any hint that Ms. Meyer may have unconsciously been using LRRH elements in her books.
** Ms. Meyer does not cite fairy tales as being any part of her inspiration for the Twilight series, as far as I can find  but rather Jane Austen and Shakespeare. I find this odd since there's definitely a hint of Beauty and the Beast at least, as well as Red Riding Hood. Perhaps it's one of those "taken as a given" things but I don't see it having been discussed anywhere.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Fire Wolves and Happy Snow Golems...


... and a continuing happy holidays to all!

Since seeing the Adventure Time Thanksgiving special (title: "Thank You") with the snow golem and firewolf puppy, my son has insisted we watch it almost every day since - and I'm still not sick of it. (Neither is my son - obviously.) Now every story told here has to have a fire-wolf puppy in it. "Jack and his Fire-wolf Climb the Beanstalk (& Set A Giant's Castle On Fire)" is kind of a cute story.

Really.

Fire wolves work with everything. :)

And that includes Christmas (and whatever holiday/s you are celebrating this season), which is why I couldn't resist posting the oh-so-cute drawing at the head of the post when I found it. (Thank you Mari! It's gorgeous.)

May joy find you when you least expect it this season...
 as well as when you do...
and may you have those you love close by...
to warm your heart...
until you're a happy, happy puddle. 
;)

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Adventure Time's Snow Golem & Fire Wolves


I'm ashamed to say it has taken me A VERY LONG TIME to give the cartoon series Adventure Time a go. Initially I thought the designs were ugly*** and expected crude/cruel humor, awful/hard-to-watch animation and a high cringe factor of subject matter but I was completely wrong.  Not only was I wrong but the mythic and creative aspects have made sure Adventure Time is now being DVR'd in our house as often as possible. I now completely understand how this independent show built a strong underground following and is getting more and more popular over time.

Although Adventure Time will not be to everyone's taste I was happily surprised by the high degree of both creativity and continuous myth-based references throughout. Finn the Human and his magical dog Jake are not only decent and sweet characters but incredibly heroic and venture into all kinds of different worlds (eg. Candy Kingdom, the Underworld etc) rescuing those in need while figuring out what is good and what is not. They're also incredibly funny*. :)


Another nice surprise was seeing how the designs actually made sense when animated (commercials don't give you the correct impression at all) and how whimsical it all became.

The Thanksgiving special, titled "Thank You", shows just how sweet and mythic this show can be. (It has a snow golem and fire wolves for goodness sake! There's a summary of the episode HERE in case I can't convince you to watch and be surprised. PS. I dearly want a fire wolf pup now.) My son, along with me, has watched the episode 4 times again today and still isn't sick of it. The episode is making waves around the internet with how touching it's proven to be.

Just watch**. You'll thank me. :)



* You can expect a degree of boy humor (because that's who the main character is) and the episodes, as with all shows, differ in their appeal but personally, I have enjoyed more of them  - and found a lot of fresh mythic references throughout - than not. I think a key element in tolerating these aspects is that in this show, they are not mean spirited at all. the characters are clearly have hearts of gold. Very much like the naive yet pure-hearted Jacks of fairy tales.
** I don't know if this will be available online for very long so take advantage of the freebie viewing while you can.  
*** The design work on the show is actually top notch! The commercial-editing just doesn't do justice to the look. The pace and spirit of the show backs up the wonderfully naive-like approach to the character looks and it actually works so well, by the time you've watched an episode like "Thank You" you find yourself looking up Adventure Time Art sources on the web for hours!