Stupid User Reviews of Princess and the Frog
By swenson | January 3, 2010
I was not planning on seeing a Disney movie this last weekend until I read a user review at Moviefone.com that convinced me I had to see it: VERY DISAPPOINTED! This movie is not just bad, it is evil. The premise of the movie is based on voodoo. Disney should have more discretion in selecting content for a movie with such a young audience. Had I known, I would not have taken my children.
In other words, this person is a conservative Christian who thinks stories about magic are evil unless you slap the name C.S. Lewis on it.
I paid the outrageous ticket price and dragged my wife with me so I didn’t look like a lonely, old child molester scouting for victims in the dark. The Princess and the Frog was an absolute delight, an old-fashioned fairy tale with a twist–yes, it’s the first black princess and the first Disney movie besides possibly the now buried Song of the South that primarily features an animated black cast.
While not perfect, it hit all the right spots and for this reviewer who thought the movie was evil because it had a bad guy using voodoo–just because a cartoon features villainous magic doesn’t mean the entire story is evil, otherwise you can throw your Bible in that category too.
Here’s one more idiot comment, one which I figured would pop up somewhere: The animation was great with the music..but I thought the movie had racist…..I mean the white frog catchers chasing the frogs of a different color….Cant we get past this?
The movie was hardly racist, in fact, it had the guts to have a poor black woman trying to overcome the odds in–much like the very white Cinderella. This reviewer is reading way too much into that scene and besides, those “white” frog catchers were the racist depiction if any–they were drawn like redneck hillbilly swamp stereotypes.
Large media companies putting out popular entertainment are often fearful to depict a “poor” black person for fear of contributing to stereotypes, that’s why we get inaccurate period pieces with everyone thinking the races got along. That scene of white frog catchers trying to nab “black” frogs was one of funniest in the movies and the kids loved it. And the frogs prevailed.
The main character Tiana is black and wonderful and she believes in hard work even when the white dominated landscape is apathetic to her dreams. Isn’t it time we had a black fairytale from Disney? And the music was such a refreshing change with New Orleans inspired jazz. Let’s just enjoy it for what it is, old fashioned animation fun.
Lastly there was this user comment: word to the wise that movie wasnt good at all i dont no why it was so bad but it just was i am very sorry
Word to the wise, punctuation is still necessary and I don’t know why you’re an idiot, you just are–sorry!
I can’t stand people who review something as “bad” but can’t give a reason. Reflect a little first. Maybe it will come to you. You don’t have to like the movie, but you should know yourself enough to know why you don’t like something.
Topics: Life Of A Cartoonist, Random WTF | No Comments »
So I’m back to being a starving cartoonist…
By swenson | December 28, 2009
About 2 and half years ago, I bought a townhome with a mortage and then had one of my largest clients for cartoons cancel on me. I had had enough. There had to be a better way to make a living than drawing cartoons and animation because I never seemed to get paid what the work was worth. It turns out that life outside of cartooning is no better.
Okay to be fair there are winners and losers in every game, but I gave it a shot. I tried working my way up in a mortgage branch, starting in compliance then moving to office manager and then training to be a loan officer, and for awhile I thought I was actually headed “up” for once as far as income even though the work scared me shitless (sales is never fun). Piff! Housing crisis crushed that avenue. Lost my job after the company investor pulled out.
Then I figured, well, with all of the article writing on the web I could maybe find a way to write for money–at least part time. So I did get a crappy call center job and started to write for pay per post blogs like Associated Content, Today.com and Examiner.com (where I tried posting cartoons as well).
Associated Content is the only site I believe treats its writers decently. Today.com kept changing the rules and after I left they removed the header graphic and placed in a bunch of ads. They also treat their writers like kids in a grade school with “special rewards” instead of monetary compensation (which is what they originally offered). Examiner.com buried me after a little while by constantly dividing every writer up into sections and new categories and then even duplicated my title for ”Horror Movie Examiner” by giving it to another writer. So to hell with that.
In theory, Examiner.com is a great place to write–but they have so many writers now you only get a small piece of the action. It’s like thinking you’ll get paid well at a newspaper when there are 100 other people writing for the editorial page and maybe you’ll get seen and maybe you won’t. A paper has to believe in a writer and then promote them which is why they put money on the line first. Examiner.com just makes sure you can write and then it’s all about boosting content, not the name value of their writers. If you already have name value you might be able to exploit their system since their pay per view rates were quite good.
Then I took an internship with CDInsight.com where it was pitched that they hire off of internships. That doesn’t seem to be the case, because I now believe they sucker interns in to get free article writing. I will say, to be fair, the editor did give me some feedback and tips to improve my writing, but there was no further opportunity and I never received a thank you from the owner of the site for participating or a recommendation/referral for my writing resume/portfolio even though I was told I did a good job (unless they were lying to me).
All of the CDInsight.com interns helped boost the site content up and push for images and videos to be added–the site was in the dark ages and still is to some extent (and I thought my old school HTML was bad!). The parent site is TheCelebrityCafe.com which has since relaunched with a more professional layout. Three months of free work and I was at another dead end.
Then I tried partnering up with a colleague from my old job at the mortgage company which looked promising. I would take care of the marketing while he sold the loans. Unfortunately, I think he bit off more than he could chew. He just got married and his wife gave birth to a son. I never heard back from him after doing a database setup and then had to call the whole thing off.
So I’m back to cartooning because I’m sick of chasing money. Originally I burned out on doing it fulltime because I was always stressing out about getting payments, having a check bounce, or having a project take forever because there were so many changes needed. This time around I plan to keep a parttime job of some sort to alleviate the stress and then aim for projects I want to do and manage them better. My problems in the past resulted from not setting proper expectations with clients and I believe I’ve learned quite a bit from my mistakes.
And really my goal this year is to get several book collections done. I have 3 done now and I’m working on a fourth one. Then I’m drawing new material for several collections with exclusive material. I’ll be showing previews of the work on the homepage.
For this New Year I realize what I want and that is to return to my creative efforts. I am a cartoonist, whether it makes financial sense or not. When I worked in the mortgage biz I saw the brutality of the business–people who wore nice suits and ties and then came to me to vouch for them to get a loan from the Advanced Checking store because they couldn’t make their car payment. I mean I saw grown men cry because they had to go home and tell their wives they got laid off for not meeting their sales quota. On the flipside I saw guys earning 7000 a month. Winners and losers, but even those making it in the game didn’t seem very happy about the work and wanted to switch careers.
Sales is an ugly profession, but even I as a cartoonist have to sell my work. You put yourself on the line and wait for somebody to either say “Yes!” or crush you with a rejection. I don’t judge salespeople too harshly for sometimes being annoying–it’s either that or they can be under someone’s thumb in a regular desk job (which is where I’m at now). There isn’t much escape from the grind unless you’re a Hilton.
True freedom really is if you can be paid for your own artwork, a rare gift indeed.
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So this is a Christian Band? S.O.B.?
By swenson | September 16, 2009
I don’t mean to pick on Christian Rock this week but you have to take a look at this. I found it on Emusic.com by accident and did a double take. Saints of Bliss? Did anyone think to say something before they released this? Or are they trying to put one over on Christian Rock?
Ignorance is bliss I guess…
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So Why are Christian Rock Fans Jacking Up the Price on “Rare” CDs?
By swenson | September 13, 2009
I admit it, I’m a former all out Christian metal fan who then said to hell with it. But when you grow up in that environment you always do long for the music of your childhood, so recently I’ve been trying to collect some of it in CD form since all I have are cassettes from the the late eighties to early nineties.
The trend I’ve noticed, though, when trying to locate some of these old CDs is that the Christians selling them are raising the prices fairly high. Now normally this would make sense, but cynical me remembers when I was into that movement and I gave away numerous cassettes to friends and strangers in order to promote Jesus–for free! I thought that was the idea. I didn’t think Christian rock was about money.
My naive sensibilties were shed along with my faith. I came to realize that “The Church” is just as much of a business as any commercial venture–only they’re tax exempt. Sales, customer service and entertainment value gets a pastor more parishioners which means more donations which increases his take home pay, as an example.
The one CD I’ve been looking for is the first Vengeance Rising release called “Human Sacrifice.” It is one of the first Christian thrash releases done back in 1988. I consider it a classic along with Slayer, Metallica, and other thrash/speed metal releases of that time period. The evangelistic nature of it doesn’t bother me because it’s either God or Satan in a lot of the early thrash music and I treat it like fantasy literature. I also like it because there was so much controversy about the lead singer getting pissed off about financial debt resulting from a band squabble and then he became an atheist.
So why is it that Christian metal fans are putting that CD up for auction on Ebay so that it goes up as much as 60.00? I just lost one bid that was a bargain for 25 bucks. On Amazon.com you can find the same prices.
Unless these are not Christians selling the album, I would say there’s a moral dilemma here. The original intent of the album was to proselytize and convert, not to generate revenue with auctions or “rare CD” prices. The other part of the dilemma is a Christian willing to pay 60.00 for an album when maybe that money should go to the poor.
I hate to be nitpicking on Christian Rock fans, because I believe you can be both charitable and maintain your hobbies, but I’m not so sure the religion itself is compatible with that kind of thinking? Jesus was about self-sacrifice to the point of wandering without a home and early Christians were put to death. The only Christians that come close to that in modern times are either Christians stuck in fanatical Islamic communities or monks and nuns–and we always get cute NPR stories about how nuns don’t obey the Pope and aren’t the fuddy-duddies we think they are.
I will eventually get my hands on Vengeance Rising’s “Human Sacrifice,” but I refuse to pay sixty bucks for it. I’m not sure why it hasn’t been reissued? Some of the later albums have. And by the way, all of the former band members with the exception of now atheist Roger Martinez have come together under the band name Once Dead which was taken from the second album title. Once Dead put out a pretty good album, but it still doesn’t compare to that original “Human Sacrifice” release.
It’s too bad Christian Rock takes itself seriously, otherwise we could use a Christian music tabloid. There is so much “unChristian” activity that goes on behind the scenes that would shock fans. Christian Rock is most definitely an entertainment business and not a ministry.
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I like Jehovah’s Witnesses
By swenson | August 30, 2009
Well, not all Jehovah’s Witnesses, but I was just interrupted from my work by two of them knocking on the door. Most people wouldn’t bother answering or would shut the door in their faces, but I tend to be a little more empathetic and polite. Plus I like to debate religous issues. JWs are essentially door to door salesmen and it has to be the most emotionally draining job in the world to do. Plus I figure my brilliant arguments will make them see the light–and turn them to a life of Rock and Roll and loose women.
Now if anyone knows some of my work on religious parodies they might be surprised by my attitude. The thing is, generally speaking, I like religious people. I think they’re wrong, but for the most part they’re nice individuals. I just feel they’re wasting their time, though I know where they’re coming from because I used to be the same way at one point in my life.
And so this time around we got to talking about how bad things are getting in the world, because that’s the sales pitch. I said that actually I believe things are getting better which always throws the evangelistic angle off. And I mean it. I’m an optimist who thinks that while we always have ups and downs progress is inevitable, even if it is slow sometimes.
I’ll take slow and steady progress over the empty promises of religion any day.
Life is unfair, obviously we all can’t be rich and famous. I was born to look funny by the second grade because I had to wear glassess that seemed to get thicker by the year. However, progress now gives me the option to have lightweight glasses or get lasik surgery. A simple example, but a very telling one because I don’t think progress is always dramatic–we tend to take the little things for granted.
What religion really exploits is violence or the idea of that our world is going to shit because of it. There’s no doubt that we live in a violent world, but again, things are getting better. Every time we go through something as horrific as genocide the world has to eventually face it’s own “evils” and find a better way to get along. It is going to be a long and difficult road but we are safer now then we have ever been. There’s a nice video lecture on the subject if you want to check out a summary on the subject of decreasing violence at Ted.com by Steven Pinker.
Even the societies that are still bigoted to the point of violence against those of another race, religion or gender are now being stirred up because we are becoming a global community. Blame the internet. It is bringing new ideas in to stomp on old traditions. I belive the west, as imperfect as it is, provides many social models that work, like allowing women to do whatever the hell they want and allowing for the co-existence of all religions. Sure we have dumbass politicians, but all countries have that and at the very least our media can question them publicly without getting hanged.
While I don’t agree with a one world government, which is the apocalyptic doom of fundamentalist Christians, I do believe strongly in a global community. One that feeds off of each other and finds ways to cope with everyone’s differences. The more individual freedom the better because freedom brings wealth–also greed, scandal and bad hairdos (Trump!)–but the money means better living for all.
With that said, I still hate my goddamn morning job I’m keeping to pay my pricey mortgage–but I do love my freelancing, my cartooning gigs and getting to write about trivial matters such as my favorite horror movies. It’s a pleasant life overall, or at least so far.
So if a Jehovah’s Witness knocks at your door, tell them to cheer up. Life is getting better and that we don’t need their god. Offer them a beer and a smile.
Topics: Life Of A Cartoonist | No Comments »
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