Month: February 2020

Rather than comparing all current assets to the current liabilities, the quick ratio only includes the most liquid of assets. The quick ratio measures a company’s ability to meet its short-term obligations with its most liquid assets. It considers cash and equivalents, marketable securities, and accounts receivable against the current liabilities.

The investment in marketable securities for Apple Inc. decreased from $ 53,892 Mn to $ 40,388 Mn from 2017 to 2018, respectively. The cash and cash equivalents in the case of Apple Inc. increased from $ 20,289 Mn to $ 25,913 Mn from 2017 to 2018, respectively. In that case, the company will record a $10 million prepaid expense to account for the insurance expense it will show in the month that it already paid for.

However, care should be taken to include only the qualifying assets that are capable of being liquidated at a fair price over the next one-year period. For instance, there is a strong likelihood that many commonly used fast-moving consumer goods goods produced by a company can be easily sold over the next year. Inventory is included in the current assets, but it may be difficult to sell land or heavy machinery, so these are excluded from the current assets. Growing cash reserves often signal strong company performance; dwindling cash can indicate potential difficulties in paying its debt . However, if large cash figures are typical of a company’s balance sheet over time, it could be a red flag that management is too shortsighted to know what to do with the money. Current liabilities include accounts payable, notes payable, accrued expenses such as wages and salaries, taxes payable, and the portion of long-term debts due within one year from the date of the balance sheet. These assets may include patents, royalty arrangements, copyrights, goodwill, and life insurance on officers and key employees.

Business Finances

Certificate Of DepositsA certificate of deposit is an investment instrument mostly issued by banks, requiring investors to lock in funds for a fixed term to earn high returns. CDs essentially require investors to set aside their savings and leave them untouched for a fixed period. Paper MoneyPaper money is a country’s currency in banknotes that have a specific value and pay for goods and services. Paper money holds a country’s government backing while the central bank controls the note’s printing and circulation.

As monthly bills and loans become due, management must convert enough current resources into cash to pay its obligations. Understanding what types of assets you have will give you a clearer idea of which ones can be converted to cash to fund your business endeavors. Sometimes, they may have non-current components such as the accounts receivable and notes receivable we have in this example. Accounts receivable that have a term of more than a year are not current assets. Along with that, we will also be discussing the different types of current assets a business typically holds.

Assets

$1,724,000As you can see, Acme Manufacturing’s 2020 assets are not financed equally. Shareholder’s Equity represents 67.6% of their assets while Liabilities represent 32.4% of their assets. Working capital simply shows whether a company is making or losing money, and is used by lenders to evaluate whether a company can survive hard times. Loan agreements often specify how much working capital the borrower must maintain.

And to pay for these short-term obligations, your business needs “current assets”. Rather, the current assets balance sheet account is compiled from several smaller accounts. Use your balance sheet to help find the amounts you need to compute total current assets. Liquid assets are assets that you can quickly turn into cash, like stocks. When it comes to your business, keeping up with your finances is a must. And to know where you stand financially, understand how to calculate certain figures, like current assets. Get the scoop on how to calculate current assets for your business and how to use them to evaluate your company’s finances.

• Investopedia does not include all offers available in the marketplace.
• Noncurrent assets are not depreciated in order to represent a new value or a replacement value but simply to allocate the cost of the asset over a period of time.
• Certificate Of DepositsA certificate of deposit is an investment instrument mostly issued by banks, requiring investors to lock in funds for a fixed term to earn high returns.
• So to ensure that the business can collect on most if not all of its accounts receivables, it needs to have proper credit and collection policies in place.

Accounts receivable are usually incurred when buyers pay a company for its products or services with credit. If a company elects to pay for, say, three years of rent in advance, then the remaining 24 months of rent are not counted as a current asset.

Key Components Of Current Assets

Asset management makes the process of identifying and tracking the assets stolen by employees or customers easier. Although large, non-current assets such as vehicles and machinery are difficult to remove, tools and current assets like cash and inventory can be stolen. Asset management enables you to detect when items disappear and prevent loss in the first instance. The company’s total current assets increased by 2.09% from $ 128,645 Mn to $ 131,339 Mn in 2017 and 2018, respectively. It is important to note that the current ratio can overstate liquidity. This is because the current ratio uses inventory, which may or may not be easily converted to cash within a year (this is the case for many retailers and other inventory-intensive businesses).

He has worked more than 13 years in both public and private accounting jobs and more than four years licensed as an insurance producer. His background in tax accounting has served as a solid base supporting his current book of business. Liquidity refers to the ease with which an asset, or security, can be converted into ready cash without affecting its market price.

Current Assets Vs Current Liabilities

current assets are categorized as “liquid” or “more liquid” depending on how quickly you can convert them into cash. The current ratio is calculated by dividing total current assets by total current liabilities. It is frequently used as an indicator of a company’s liquidity, which is its ability to meet short-term obligations. The difference between current assets and current liability is referred to as trade working capital. Marketable SecuritiesMarketable securities are liquid assets that can be converted into cash quickly and are classified as current assets on a company’s balance sheet.

When a company is not able to generate enough profits, it may borrow money from the bank, which means the money sitting on its balance sheet as cash is actually debt. To find out, you will have to look at the amount of debt the company has, which is shown in its balance sheet liabilities section. A decent amount of cash on hand gives management the ability to pay dividends and repurchase shares, but more importantly, it can provide extra wiggle room if the company runs into any financial difficulties. Current Assetsmeans, at any time, the consolidated current assets of the Borrower and the Subsidiaries. Current Assetsmeans cash or other assets or resources commonly identified as those which are reasonably expected to be realized in cash or sold or consumed during the normal operating cycle of the business. Inventories form all kinds of inventories, whether raw material, work-in-progress stock, or finished goods.

Using Current Assets

Assets differ from business to business depending on what those businesses do, how they operate, and their position in the supply chain. Across industries, understanding what type of assets you have and knowing how to track them is crucial. Harold Averkamp has worked as a university accounting instructor, accountant, and consultant for more than 25 years. Last Day Of The Month In ExcelThe EOMONTH function can be used to find the last day of the month. This function’s functionality is not limited to knowing the current month’s last day; we may also choose to know the previous and next month’s last days. Free Financial Modeling Guide A Complete Guide to Financial Modeling This resource is designed to be the best free guide to financial modeling!

The raw material is direct material inventory, work in progress inventory is partially completed inventory, and finished goods inventory is stock that has completed all stages of production. Shareholder equity is a company’s owner’s claim after subtracting total liabilities from total assets. Marketable securities include assets such as stocks, Treasuries, commercial paper, exchange traded funds , and other money market instruments. Quick assets are those owned by a company with a commercial or exchange value that can easily be converted into cash or that is already in a cash form. Cash and cash equivalents, which might consist of cash accounts, money markets, and certificates of deposit . Current assets are all the assets of a company that are expected to be sold or used as a result of standard business operations over the next year.

It would not be too wrong to assume working capital management is as good as current asset management due to two reasons. One is that the investment in current assets is a substantial part of the company’s total asset. Secondly, the current liabilities are created only because the firm wants to create current assets. Current assets are a category on the asset side of the balance sheet, which majorly comprises of cash and bank balance, inventories, and account receivables/debtors. Key features of the current asset are their short-lived existence, fast conversion into other assets, recurring and quick decisions, and, lastly, interlinked.

For retailers or wholesalers of goods, inventory refers to unsold goods. Having less than 1.5 might mean that the business wouldn’t be able to answer https://www.bookstime.com/ to unexpected expenses. A business asset is any item or resource that your business owns, has a monetary value, and helps the business function.

What Are Some Examples Of Current Assets?

The information in this site does not contain investment advice or an investment recommendation, or an offer of or solicitation for transaction in any financial instrument. IG accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result.

This is calculated by taking the final value from the initial value, and dividing the result by the lifespan of the asset ([£2 million – £200,000] divided by 10). At the end of the machine’s useful life, it will be accounted for by the company using the salvage value of £200,000. Are also called circulating assets, circulating capital, or floating assets. There are many different assets that can be included in this category, but I will only discuss the most common ones.

Barstool Sports is a famous and well known sports and pop culture blog founded by David Portnoy in 2003. Within Barstool Sports is also Barstool Smokeshows, a page and blog dedicated to posting, praising, and sexualizing skinny and pretty college aged women. Around many college campuses, it is not hard to find a barstool “Saturday’s are for the boys” flag proudly billowing or an embarrassing drunken video taken from a party being shared on platforms such as these. Although the company began as a way to discuss college life and sports, it has snowballed into a sexist and unfunny company which promotes and pokes fun at sexual harassment, racism, cyber bullying, drunkenness, and idiocy. Barstool creates a culture of toxic masculinity by sharing and praising men taking advantage of woman, making sexual comments, becoming physical with others, or drinking and doing drugs.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/barstool-sports/7800558#

A large reason for why Barstool is both unfunny and cruel towards women and minority groups is the lack of female representation on the writing and creating teams. Very few women work or write for Barstool and those that do are often harassed sexually or verbally. Little action is taken against the assaulted and those in positions of power, creating a sense of fear to discuss such attacks and disregard for those that are reported or occur. For example….

Welcome to the ESPN family @BarstoolBigCat (& welcome to all ur minions who will respond to this so kindly) pic.twitter.com/AzgfdDx2FK

— Sam Ponder (@sam_ponder) October 16, 2017

Because the writers and creators of Barstool’s content are one dimensional, often white, hyper masculine men, the content that is created is geared towards the same audience. There is little respect or room for non offensive, racist, or sexist humor and commentary. The woman that do work for this company often serve as visual props or objects to lure more men into viewing this content, rather than working alongside their male counterparts to rebrand the companies culture and image (even the merchandise Barstool creates is sexist, as seen by their misogynistic tops and tapestry’s). If women however were given a voice within this company, it would be extremely beneficial to barstool. Being more inclusive of different genders, races, sexualities, and cultures would increase Barstool’s views and fanbase. Jokes would be funny and relatable without being sexist or offensive. Barstool has a large influence on the young men who consume it, and thus should make sure to post content that does not reinforce rape culture and toxic masculinity.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-barstool-sports-culture-of-online-hate-they-treat-sexual-harassment-and-cyberbullying-as-a-game

Generally this method of accounting may be used by contractors and manufacturers averaging less than $10 million in annual revenues if it is initially elected as their tax accounting method. By deferring the recognition of revenue and expenses until the end of the project, the company might put itself at risk of higher tax liabilities. For example, let’s say a project is estimated to take three years to complete and tax laws change, leading to an increase in the business tax rate.

Because the CCM allows the deferral of taxes, a large contractor must usually choose the PCM, but a small contractor can choose CCM if the estimated life of the contract is 2 years or less. If you’re unsure which accounting method is right for your business, the Construction Services group at Corrigan Krause can help. Email more information andsign up for our Construction Services newsletter here.

• It helps the company in avoiding the errors which can be caused when estimation is made on various aspects like in case of the percentage completion method.
• On assets, cash decreases by Rp220 in the first year because the company spends it on construction costs.
• So, for example, contracts and construction are completed in the same period; for instance, in one year, this method will be the same as the percentage completion method.
• Deferment can have a negative or positive effect on the working capital.
• Accrual accounting is an accounting method where revenue or expenses are recorded when a transaction occurs versus when payment is received or made.
• Complicating matters, you may want – or be required – to change methods as your business grows.

Contractors use this method only when there is uncertainty about the completion of the contract. Everything gets postpone until the contractor finishes off the contract & gets confirmation from the customer. If there is a loss during the completion of the project, then such losses are deductible only after project completion. While joint checks and joint check agreements are common in the construction business, these agreements can actually be entered into… With a proper dispute resolution clause in place, contractors, subs, and suppliers can avoid taking their disputes into litigation. We envision a world where no one in construction loses a night’s sleep over payment.

What Is A Construction Schedule Of Values?

Cash Collected is the amount of money StrongBridges Ltd. received for the construction of the bridge. The variation in billings and cash collected is due to timing differences. To complete a project – all costs are known at the completion of the project.

The only difference is that the completed contract method recognizes revenues and expenses only at the end of the project. Before project completion, this method usually has no useful information to the reader, especially on the financial statements. The main advantage of EPCM is that income is reported over the life of the contract and any losses will be recognized based on the percentage of the contract completed, called the completion factor. The completion factor is the amount of work that has been completed compared to the estimated amount remaining.

However, under the GAAP method, the income statement may see a sudden surge in revenue and expenses, especially if the company completes a large number of contracts in the same period. Because it recognizes both revenue and expenses at the end of the contract. In case the company is expecting to incur the loss on the contract, then it is to be recognized as and when such expectation arises. Under the completed contract approach, companies have to report the cost and revenue incurred based on the actual results.

A Resurgence Of The Accumulated Earnings Tax?

In year two, the contractor might have a strong fourth quarter and close out most of their contracts that they started in the second year. In this scenario, the contractor could and up paying two years of tax in one year because they closed out all of year one contracts in progress AND closed out most of their contracts started in year two. The completed contract method can be back-breaking for an entity that didn’t plan accordingly. In one sense, it is a benefit for the company as its profits do not appear until the project is complete, meaning it can delay paying the relevant taxes. In another sense, it can be a drawback as the company is unable to count its expenditure while the project is still underway, meaning it can’t use this expenditure to reduce its overall tax liability. Cash basis is a major accounting method by which revenues and expenses are only acknowledged when the payment occurs. Cash basis accounting is less accurate than accrual accounting in the short term.

In regards to down payment law in California, can the company request higher than the 10% down-… We design and build energy projects for home owners like pv, storage, generators. Supply chain struggles dictate that we have to purchase from many vendors now.

Therefore, you must use the lookback method to calculate the amount of interest to pay, based on what should have been reported minus what actually was reported. This method is generally the required method of larger construction companies for long-term contracts. The percentage of completion method matches revenue from long-term contracts with their respective costs, calculating estimated revenue and gross profit at various stages of construction. GAAP allows revenue recognition based on the cost-to-cost method, but only in certain applications, including construction projects. In this method, the completion factor equals the project costs already incurred divided by the total estimated project costs. The contractor should disregard startup costs that don’t relate to contract performance. For example, the contractor doesn’t count the costs of buying and storing materials at the job site until the materials are actually used on the project.

What Is Completed Contract Method

Under the completed contract method revenue from contracts are not matched with their respective costs. As a result this method of accounting can pose some risks, one of which is a volatile bottom line. It may be great to defer revenue from a tax standpoint, but this can pose a challenge for a company seeking financing, bonding or a potential investor. The completed contract method is an accounting technique that allows companies to postpone the reporting of income and expenses until after a contract is completed. Using CCM accounting, revenue and expenses are not recognized on a company’s income statement even if cash payments were issued or received during the contract period.

• Meanwhile, in both years, the recognition of cash position and construction-in-progress accounts is the same as the US GAAP standard.
• We envision a world where no one in construction loses a night’s sleep over payment.
• Your actual costs for the 1st year turned out to be $300,000, which is less than 10% of the total estimated costs, so you did not report income or deduct expenses for that 1st year.
• A “long-term contract” is defined as any contract for the manufacture, building, installation or construction of property if such contract is not completed within the taxable year in which such contract is entered into.
• For small contractors, the best method for reporting long-term contract activity is specific to the business strategy of individual entities.

Once the percentage of completion is calculated through the costs-to-costs method, the earned revenue for the long-term contract can be determined. The revenue is determined by applying the percentage of completion percent to the total estimated revenues of the contract in question. Completed contract method is an approach used for construction contract accounting in which the revenue is recognized only when the contract is 100% complete.

For C corporations, the repeal of the corporate AMT eliminated this consideration. However, unlike the Percentage-of-Completion Method, no entry is made at the end of year 1 to reflect the gross revenues, expenses, and gross profit earned and incurred during the current year. Any excess in total amount of Progress Billings over Construction in Process would be reflected on the company’s balance sheet as a liability.

Corrigan Krause Specializes In Construction Accounting

The company obtained a building construction contract worth Rp400 for two years. Assume, the company incurs a cost of Rp220 in the first year and Rp80 in the second year. Under US GAAP and IFRS, companies can use this method when results cannot be measured reliably. However, both differ in recognizing revenue and expenses related to the contract. Completed contract methods are often used with long term projects, such as the construction of sports stadiums, because the proprietors know that revenues will not come in until the end of the project.

There are a variety of methods to choose from, so most businesses do a lot of research before selecting the method that benefits them the most. To use the completed contract method, all a company needs to do is inform the IRS that it intends to use this method. Once the company selects the completed contract method, it may not change its accounting practices without special permission from the IRS.

Tax Benefits Of The Percentage Of The Completed Contract Accounting Method

A method of recognizing revenues and costs from a long-term project in which profit is recorded only when the project has been completed. Even if payments are received while the project is in progress, https://www.bookstime.com/ no revenues are recorded until its completion. The completed-contract method is a conservative way of accounting for long-term undertakings and is used for certain types of construction projects.

The Completed Contract method states that all revenues, costs and income are only recognized upon the completion of the construction project. Home construction contracts have obvious tax advantages, in that the recognition of income can be deferred for years, especially for large projects involving the construction of many housing units.

Completed Contract Method Ccm

However, not that the actual total cost for the project was $4.5 million. So, since XYX was able to complete the project successfully, the revenue that John will recognize in this case is $5 million, including the constructions actual cost of $4.5 million. Note that if in this contract the percentage of the completed method was the one being used, the company would have been forced to make some adjustments to entries to rectify the extended month and the extra costs. Under this reporting method, revenue is recognized and reported for tax purposes as it is earned. In actuality, revenue is recognized using either an input or output measure of performance. The majority of contractors use the costs-to-costs input method, whereby the costs incurred through the taxable year are compared to the estimated total costs of the long-term contract.

Therefore, the GAAP and IRS project profits might differ in a contract period, although they should coincide by the end of the project. Construction and engineering contracts normally use the percentage of completion method for revenue recognition. Under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, the PCM is the preferred method for contract accounting, and GAAP places a number of conditions and restrictions upon its use. GAAP also allows the completed contract method, in which a contractor don’t recognize expenses or revenues until the contract is finished. The completed contract methodis also known as the contract completion method. It is a form of revenue recognition used for project based accounting such as construction.

The Accounting Percentage Completion Method For Billing

Since it hasn’t recorded any income for the past two years, it must now pay taxes on this final amount all at once. Another key advantage of this method is that, since there’s a delay in revenue, the company doesn’t need to report its profits to the IRS. This means that certain tax liabilities the income creates can also wait. If a business is working with a small budget and doesn’t want taxes to interfere with its operating costs, the Completed Contract Method provides an attractive solution. In most cases, the completed contract method is more advantageous for small contractors. This method gives small contractors the ability to defer taxes on long-term contracts until the job is complete. At year-end, a contract can be 90% complete, but if it is not deemed complete by IRS standards, the contractor does not have to pay tax on any of the contract profit and proceeds received through the tax-reporting year.

Accrual Accounting Vs Cash Basis Accounting: What’s The Difference?

With this method revenue, expenses and gross profit are deferred until the completion of the contract. The advantage of using this method is that it allows for the maximum deferral of income taxes as revenue is not taxable until the job is completed.

Accounting Methods For Long

In contrast to the percentage of completion method, which records estimated revenue in each period based on the percentage of completion of the contract, the completed contract method defers contract revenue. However, even the completed contract method does not defer recognition of related costs and expenses. The completed contract method is an accounting practice that allows you to report all the earnings and expenses of a project once it’s been completed. Most traditional accounting methods list the company’s income and expenditures as they occur, but the completed contract method tracks these numbers at the end of a project.

Animation is an amazing medium to communicate stories and human experience through. Animated films can have a major impact on the people who watch them. With all of this potential reach animation has, you might think the people who create these films think about the audiences they are putting their content out to; however, this is not always the case. While there are fantastic stories created with animation that portray minorities well, or touch on serious topics, one major area is often overlooked when it comes to animated film and tv. There is a lack of representation of disabled persons, specifically deaf people, in animation.

Disabled Character roles?

People with disabilities are usually not shown in animation, and when they are, it is often not a main character. This lack of representation is upsetting because children who watch these shows will not have a character to look up to who is like them. It is important that companies who make far reaching film and tv start pushing for more diverse content that normalizes these disabilities to show these children they can have a great life like anyone else. Quasimodo (shown below) is one of the very few disabled characters in any animated film or show that is not only a main character, but is portrayed in a way that shows how human he is and the kindness in his heart.

Even in modern film, there is a lack of representation. The recent movie The Peanut Butter Falcon was a major step in the right direction. The main character and actor has down syndrome and the actor was able to present at the oscars, which was the first in history.

Is being Deaf a disability?

There is controversy about whether or not being deaf is an actual disability. Due to the physical difference, it is categorized as one because most people can hear. The Deaf Community does not always agree with this. Studies show that deaf people can grow up and be just as socially mature, intelligent, and well-adjusted as their hearing peers because the disability does not have to do with cognitive ability. Deaf people see this “disability” more as a difference and protest that they are just as capable as any hearing person. The way deaf people are taught and treated also has an impact on this. Deaf people who grow up learning sign language learn the same as hearing people, just in a different way. A deaf person who grows up being forced to learn oral skills and lip reading can often struggle being in hearing schools and feel ostracized or left out. This video about a girl in hearing school is a great example of this how animation can tell a story like hers in a way other mediums couldn’t.

Lack of Representation

Whether or not you as an individual consider deafness as a disability, it is still underrepresented in animation. Watchmojo.com put out a list of the top 10 deaf animated characters in tv on their website, and almost all of them were minor characters on shows that are not well known at all. Not only does it make deaf people seem weird to hearing children or children who do not have direct experiences with disabled people, but it can communicate to those children who have disabilities, or are deaf, that they can only be side characters in life. Even when researching about deaf representation for this blog, there was a severe lack in information and research. Most of the articles were written by upset mothers or college students in papers for their classes. It is clear that this issue is not really being considered or looked into. It is sad to see such an important topic to be overlooked. When searching on the internet about Sign Language specifically in animation, the only topics that came back were about technology, not stories.

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Animation is currently being used to teach sign language. Apps, such as Mimix3D, and technological advances (shown below) have allowed people to create various ways of capturing ASL in a 3D space that people can use to learn the language. This is an amazing tool, but unfortunately is not well known. The information on these technologies can only be found easily if you are looking for it. While this is great, it is still upsetting that the stories behind deaf people are not portrayed. The apps do not teach about the vast culture or individual experiences like animation could.

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Companies need to make a change

If major companies, such as Disney or Dreamwork’s Animation, started creating more content that featured disabled people, the industry would start to change. Right now due to the lack on representation, people are not really thinking about the issue or considering it. If a company with power made a compelling story about someone with a disability, it would bring light to the issue and might help motivate people to discuss these topics more, normalizing the content and creating a real difference. It is disappointing at this point in the current state of the world that there is still such a lack of representation for minorities or people with disabilities. Animation has endless possibilities and should be used in that, pushing the envelope on storytelling instead of retelling basic stories without representation.

Sources: –

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-apes/201802/is-deafness-really-disability

https://www.ocweekly.com/disney-urged-to-animate-disabled-characters-so-disabled-children-have-role-models-6475623/

https://watchmojo.com/suggest/Top+10+Animated+Deaf+TV+Characters

By Christian Boggs, Senior Animation Major at Loyola Marymount University.

On Sunday, February 9, the short film, “Hair Love ” won best animated short film at the Oscars. Former NFL player, Matthew A. Cherry, accepted the award stating, “‘‘Hair Love’ was done because we wanted to see more representation in animation, and because we wanted to normalize black hair,’ Cherry said from the Dolby stage on Sunday.’” (TheWrap)

https://www.thewrap.com/oscars-matthew-cherry-wins-best-animated-short-hair-love/

However, as beautiful and tender the animated film is, it sheds an important light on a big issue that has prevalent in America for some time– the discrimination and and hatred based on hairstyles of black men and women, young and old.

Cherry utilizes his voice and platform to bring attention to the Crown Act, a law in California, New York, Montgomery County, Maryland and New Jersey that protects against discrimination based on hairstyle by extending statutory protection to hair texture and protective styles in the Fair Employment and Housing Act and state Education Codes.

https://www.thecrownact.com/

The CROWN Act,which stands for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is a law that prohibits discrimination based on hair style and hair texture.

Across America, both full and part time working black employees and students face discrimination based on their ethnic hairstyles. It affects their ability to work and study in order to make a contribution to the growing workforce and education system in the U.S. The discrimination that they face unfortunately proves that racism did not suddenly end after the anti-discrimination acts in the 1970s. It continues to occur in both schools and workplaces for many black people. The style that they choose to use for their hair unfortunately dictates whether or not they are capable of working, studying, and even raise a distraction for their white counterparts.

The Sony produced short film brings attention to this issue at an event that is watched by millions of people all over America. This proves the power that animation has in spreading an important and impactful message to viewers in the United States. Animated films are not made only for the purpose of entertaining children, but to focus on pressing issues in both the U.S. and every other country in the world. The possibilities are endless with animation. Matthew A. Cherry and Sony utilized this power to spread an important message about the ever prevalent issue that is currently happening in the U.S.. 

It is with their hope and mine that audiences take away the significant issue that can be resolved by Congress. Currently, it is legal to discriminate against a person in the workplace or in schools because of their natural or protective hairstyle in all states except for California, New York, and New Jersey. Hair discrimination remains a source of racial injustice with serious economic consequences for Black people. A petition was created by the CROWN Coalition to help end this discrimination in the Workplace and Schools.

https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/help-make-hair-discrimination-illegal

Access to the full short film on Youtube:

You’ve probably heard of the movie Cats, and might have even had the unfortunate opportunity to see it in theaters. But for those who haven’t it’s essentially the story of a group of cats who compete through song for the coveted prize of dying first.

So in more depth, every year at the Jellicle ball, Old Deuteronomy (Judi Dench) has to make the Jellicle choice. The Jellicle choice is basically which cat gets to die so they can be reincarnated into a better life. So throughout the movie the cats perform musical numbers about themselves to show why they should be picked. Theres also a villian cat named Macavity (Idris Elba) who tries to sabatoge the other cats so he can die first instead. In the end the cat who wins is Grisabella (Jennifer Hudson), a cat that used to be popular but is now old, washed up, and sad winning through her song “memory” where she reminisces about the old days. As such Grisabella gets to ascend into the Heaviside Layer (Cat Heaven).

I think when they were making this movie, they were also reminiscing about the old days. Cats the movie is a spin off the widely successful broadway musical Cats. The musical for Cats is estimated to have grossed around 3.5 billion by now. The musical and the movie both share the same plot but the musical has been around since 1981. The pull of the musical was its strangeness, it was praised for costume and set design, its ability to send the audience into a fantasy world, and also for the constant action that the musical performances brought. Cats is a good indicator that to do a successful remake, it takes more than just switching out the stage costumes for uncanny valley CGI.

Despite the star cast and successful musical predecessor Cats the movie was a flop. And a spectacular one at that with the currently estimated loss being around 100 million at the box office and a 20% on Rotten Tomatoes. Cats the movie has different layers of bad, too many to unpack. From the song that Rebel Wilson cat does where she eats roaches with CGI human faces, to the song that Jason Derulo cat does about being sexy in a “milk bar” since cats don’t drink beer. Here is perhaps maybe the most cursed moment in the film where not only does Rebel Wilson eat a roach but also peels off her skin to reveal clothes underneath.

we live in a world where people decided to spend money to make cat rebel wilson eating human cockroaches a reality https://t.co/hOX44ktvSt

— ً (@saintmauds) December 25, 2019

Also with the CGI fur some critics did think that it was a bit strange that some of the cats wear clothes for their regular outfits (i.e coats, pants, etc) while others do not. Stranger still that most of the cats not wearing clothes were those played primarily by the younger actresses.

Another one of the interesting things to come out of it was the fact that the movie was patched while in the theaters. Patching a movie is rare but not uncommon, so if you were lucky enough to see Cats when it first came out you might have caught Judi Dench’s human hand.

It is believed that they did not want to delay the release because they wanted to be Oscar nomination eligible, as if releasing an unfinished version of the film would somehow make them eligible. There was a bit of worry that at least for CGI animated films, other movies might try to something similar where they release unfinished versions as well. But hopefully, no other animated film will try to follow in the steps of Cats.

If anything we can only hope that Cats can serve as a warning as what NOT to do for a CGI remake.

Sources:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/23/21034843/cats-film-updated-digital-fur-technology

https://www.vox.com/2019/7/19/20700223/cats-movie-musical-explained-remake-why-what-is-a-jellicle-cat

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-12-24/cats-movie-taylor-swift-francesca-hayward-idris-elba

In 2019, leading animation films had more female characters than ever. An article from variety discusses the different leading characters from animated films that were released the past year.

Female Characters Dominated Animated Movies in 2019

Films with unforgettable characters include “Toy Story 4”, “Frozen 2”, “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”, and “Missing Link.”

The field of animation has finally recognized that both boys and girls show up to watch animated films. When girls used watch these films and saw a lack of representation of themselves in the top rated films, it was discouraging and heartbreaking. However, boys saw plenty male superheroes and leading characters, which was great for them. However, it is realistic to add more female characters because just as many girls watch animated films as boys.

It is progress to see more animated films showcase powerful female characters, such as Anna and Elsa from “Frozen 2”. It is empowering for females to see themselves on a big screen, which is exactly what we need in today’s generation. More and more women are becoming involved in the entertainment industry, in hopes to make a strong impact on the community.