Reaction to James Parris Guest Speaker

I really enjoyed James Parris’s talk today, and how a lot of our discussion stayed within the vein of social justice through animation. His film “Pink and Blue” was interesting to watch, as a lot of the message about relearning behavior is stuff and I’ve been relearning these past few years. Hearing James talk about it so openly and honestly made me excited and hopeful as the sigma is these ideas are only popular with the younger generation. When we opened it to discussion, I was expecting for us to talk more about the industry, and the challenges within it. However, we continued to talk about gender roles, and our own experiences growing up with those expectations. It was interesting to hear how so many of my peers have had similar experiences with gender roles, and how they felt at the time and now about those experiences. I liked how James was always excited to hear what we had to say, and engaged in the content we were talking about, as well as adding his own experiences to it. I feel like the overall talk went very well, and pleasantly surprised me. I feel that when we have people from the industry come in, we can feel pressured to only talk about animation. I’m happy that it wasn’t the case for this talk, and excited to hear this type of discussion taking place across generations.

Harvie Krumpet and Normalizing Mental Illness

I was honestly very surprised by how much i enjoyed watching Harvie Krumpet. I went in expecting a story about a main character that is never able to be completely “happy” because of how different his mental illness made him from society. Instead, I got a story about a man who is trying to find happiness and fulfillment out of life just like everyone else. I was very happy to this type of portrayal because I feel that this doesn’t happen nearly enough in mainstream media. Mental illness is often wielded as an unspoken fear in media. It seems that a mentally ill character is always defined first most by their illness, and nothing else. It’s frustrating to see, as it doesn’t offer up any positive images for mental illness or help audience members understand what mental illness is. In Harvie Krumpet, there is a very conscious effort to not simply define Harvey by his illness, but not ignore it either. It’s only once in the beginning of the film that the narrator even acknowledges that Harvey has Tourette Syndrome. For the rest of the film, Harvey appears to be just like any other person, one who simply wants to find happiness and live a fulfilling life. This doesn’t mean Harvie is flawless, he still makes mistakes and get upset. However, the difference is Harvie’s behavior is treated a simply a part of who he is. I especially like how the filmmakers used his fact book as a way to show the audience how Harvie sees the world. It felt like the filmmakers respected Harvie as a character and wanted to show the audience how Harvie’s views of the world was different from what we typically see. I feel that having that type of respect for mental illness is what’s needed to better represent it in the media. A current example is the introduction of a autistic character to Sesame Street. The character, Julia, has been in the works for the last two years, and is now being revealed on the television series. The series worked with several different specialists to help bring the most genuine representation to the show. I feel that with this care and attention has helped create a more genuine character that will be able to be a positive role model to children with autism. Overall, I really enjoyed Harvie Krumpet and only wish that this type of representation for mental illness would be used more in mainstream media.

Simpsons Predictions and How the Writers

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/simpsons-writer-who-predicted-trump-876295

 

This short article looks at The Simpsons episode “Bart to the Future (2000) and the now famous line about Trump being president. The article looks at how people are now calling attention to it, with Trump’s own presidency just starting, as well as some insight on the episode from Dan Greaney, one of the episode’s writers. Greaney states how he doesn’t remember who pitched the idea, but rather how the line was used intentionally to paint a picture of where America was going.

I really enjoyed this article because it’s an opinion from the creator about their content and the reaction it has gained from the audience. I also felt that Greaney’s explanation on the line was interesting, as it shows how America has always been going towards this odd insanity, and it was so apparent that even people from the early 2000s could see the decline. I feel that the critique is still relevant today, as evident from The Simpsons having “predicted” Trump’s presidency. The Simpsons are meant to provide satire to help check the American people when things get out of hand. Even with knowing that, it’s good to see the writing team is intentional in these jokes, and how they impact the audience.

Gretchen Intro

Hello Everyone!

My name is Gretchen and I am a junior animation major, computer science minor. I recently joined the class, so I look forward to meeting everyone and learning more about you all. A little bit about me, I’m originally from Minnesota, my favorite food is curry, and I enjoy playing video games and doodling in my spare time.  I don’t have a nickname I go by, but I do use they/them pronouns for myself.

I look forward learning more about everyone over the course of this semester, and I’ll see people Monday!

Thanks for reading!