TALES OF INTEREST
Sep. 9th, 2009 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodyrosemccoySo my brother finally got me to watch a few episodes of There Will Be Brawl. I was operating on the principle that I don’t usually go for Grimdarkification (except when my brain gets away from me …), but then neither does he, so if he liked it I might too.*
… Okay, it’s pretty well-done. It’s the first time anyone’s struck the balance between absurd and engaging in a grimdark Nintendo story. The nods to Brawl itself—especially the suggestion that the ousted characters from previous SSMB games were outright murdered—assure me that the filmmakers really like their subject. And the minor-key Mario music’s a nice touch.
On the other hand, I am now a lot more afraid of Kirby than I ever was of Hannibal Lecter.** And I can’t unwatch it.
*Then again, if I were still an anthro nerd, I could probably do a long thesis analyzing whether fan-generated Grimdark like this is more parodying, serious, or both, or examining why people get such a kick out of subverting happy innocuous childhood stuff into Sin City. (Of course you get a kick. But examining why—now that’s an academic’s dream.)
Granted, I have a hard time believing Sin City itself isn’t a parody, so I might be a little biased.
**I honestly didn’t see it coming when they foreshadowed with the whole “eat your guts and walk around in your skin” comment there. Then I just about died laughing.
… Okay, it’s pretty well-done. It’s the first time anyone’s struck the balance between absurd and engaging in a grimdark Nintendo story. The nods to Brawl itself—especially the suggestion that the ousted characters from previous SSMB games were outright murdered—assure me that the filmmakers really like their subject. And the minor-key Mario music’s a nice touch.
On the other hand, I am now a lot more afraid of Kirby than I ever was of Hannibal Lecter.** And I can’t unwatch it.
*Then again, if I were still an anthro nerd, I could probably do a long thesis analyzing whether fan-generated Grimdark like this is more parodying, serious, or both, or examining why people get such a kick out of subverting happy innocuous childhood stuff into Sin City. (Of course you get a kick. But examining why—now that’s an academic’s dream.)
Granted, I have a hard time believing Sin City itself isn’t a parody, so I might be a little biased.
**I honestly didn’t see it coming when they foreshadowed with the whole “eat your guts and walk around in your skin” comment there. Then I just about died laughing.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-09-10 01:13 am (UTC)examining why people get such a kick out of subverting happy innocuous childhood stuff into Sin City
If you can work out why, this perpetrator would like to know!
*returns to the sexnpolitics of Golden Age Narnia*
no subject
Date: 2009-09-10 04:34 am (UTC)I WOULD share this with you, but then I would have to kill you.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-10 04:37 am (UTC)In all honesty though, why is making things more complicated and less happy fun? I wish I knew.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-10 04:58 am (UTC)I think "complicated and less happy" = "more interesting." But me, I find that if you make it TOO bleak, it's as ridiculous as if you make it too saccharine. I like a happy medium.
Also, we may like to take the idea and see what WE can do with it. Just because one person did one thing with a premise doesn't mean there aren't other possibilities!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-10 02:19 am (UTC)Amused and slightly intrigued.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-10 08:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-10 08:35 pm (UTC)