When my parents first told me, at the end of last summer, that they were moving to St. Paul, I looked at them curiously and asked, "Minnesota?". Turns out, there's a St. Paul in Missouri, which is a small community in the northern part of O'Fallon, a city of St. Charles county so it's still pretty close to the other homes that I grew up in.
I really enjoy walking around this area, even if it's the kind of neighborhood that doesn't have a lot of sidewalks, but I can enjoy walking through the grass instead. It's been so great getting to know this place during my short time thus far. I want to share with y'all some of the great things about my new home area, especially with those of you who do not live close by.
The city shares its name with the local Catholic Church, which is pretty much the hub of the community and luckily a short walk from my family's home. While the church may not be very large, the pews get pretty full for every Mass and there is a perpetual adoration chapel in the building so that folks have a close place to quietly pray. When driving around St. Paul, you can see the steeple from far off distance.
It looks even cooler at night with the light shining on it.
The Knights of Columbus have their hall just down the road from the church and it hosts many activities.
Though the chief activity here is Bingo, naturally.
There are soccer fields, baseball fields, and picnic grounds all right around the church as well, giving the local youth places to play and giving family members of all ages a place to enjoy spending time outside together. Surprisingly the church and its community is big enough to have its own school, which always makes for interesting Daily Mass whenever the kids file in.
One of the highlights of my walks or drives around St. Paul is that I spot many statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary outside of the homes around here. It's pretty inspiring seeing so many images of Mary, along with other statues of angels and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I think it helps to connect the community here by gathering them together not just as a neighborhood where people live but also as a faith-based community.
The close-by church and church-oriented community are not the only features of St. Paul's.
Cady-corner from my house is the local tavern, the Dog Prairie Tavern, known for their fish fridays and sand volleyball.
What "The Dog" looks like when business is slow on Mondays
There's also a small automotive repair shop across from the tavern, which is pretty reassuring having a car shop so close to the house. The city hall is almost more like a room in the same building as the local fire department, though thankfully we rarely see or hear fire trucks coming in and out of the place.
We also have what I like to call a local "Boo Radley house". It's an old, small brick house that's been abandoned, with a decrepit barn in the backyard, a fenced front porch, and a sign saying "No Trespassing", all of which makes it both creepy and cool to walk by every time.
It's just about a five minute drive down some small rural roads to the closest gas station and library. In my opinion, the only thing missing from the community is a grocery store and perhaps a fast food restaurant or two, although it really does not take long to get to either type of establishment.
Hopefully this post has given you some idea about the size of the community. It's not too big, but that's part of the charm. It's much quieter out here than in most other parts of the county. These are all things that I have found to appreciate in my new community.
Right off the bat, I'm talking about a saint that is incredibly near and dear to me. I grew up in the city of St. Charles, MO, went to Mass and received some schooling at St. Charles Borromeo parish, and I chose him as my confirmation saint. Even when I traveled to the Northwest for Reach, I still found St. Charles Borromeo following me since he has two buildings dedicated to him on the campus of Carroll College in Helena. There are so many churches and seminaries named after this Italian man who became a bishop at age 25. Let's look at why.
From the Rich to the Poor
St. Charles was born the second son of a noble family in Milan. Being noble at the time also meant being super rich. The Borromeos were also kin to the Medici family, the most powerful and wealthy family in the Italian region at the time. In fact, St. Charles' uncle, a Medici, eventually became Pope Pius IV. Even as a young boy, St. Charles was said to give most of his money and other resources to the beggars that came to his family's home and other poor people he found throughout Milan.
Eventually, after becoming bishop of the Archdiocese of Milan, St. Charles devoted his resources to serving as many poor people as possible. This was during a time when he was not only a priest, but also the head of his family (more on that later). He even went in to debt during an outbreak of the plague to feed and heal the people that had been abandoned by the city's officials and other nobles.
Natural Leadership
At 18 years old, St. Charles was asked by his uncle, the Pope, to help at the Vatican. It was pretty much office and administrative-type work, but these types of jobs involved serious responsibilities. Young Charles was known for his high intellect and soon held multiple offices before becoming bishop.
When he was bishop of Milan, the plague spread throughout the region. Many of the city's officials, including the governor, fled the city to remain safe and healthy. St. Charles, meanwhile, as a disciple of Christ, led by example. He stayed in the city and ministered to as many people as he could.
Vocational Discernment
During this period as a young man, while living and serving at the Vatican, St. Charles' parents and his older brother had passed away. This made him the 'man of the house' for his immediate family. This meant that St. Charles was receiving lots of pressure to become a married man and lead his noble family. However, he was a cardinal-deacon and served the Pope at the Vatican, meaning he was already on a path towards the priesthood. He soon discerned that the right thing to do was enter the priesthood, though St. Charles still took on the responsibilities of being the leader of his family. At the age of 25, St. Charles was named bishop of the Archdiocese of Milan (did I mention that already?).
The Council of Trent.
St. Charles may not have been there for the start of the Council of Trent, but he was there to finish it. The Council of Trent was established to respond to the Protestant Reformation, which not only questioned various Catholic doctrines but also threw Catholic-Christianity into chaos. The Council of Trent had been on hiatus for ten years before Pope Pius IV started it back up again, along with the encouragement of St. Charles.
St. Charles was almost like glue that held the council together til the end, even though he was not a part of the council itself. He still had administrative responsibilities and kept the council members on task as they established the true doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Calling Men to be Better
When St. Charles dedicated himself to the needs of his Archdiocese, he evangelized to not just the laity but to the clergy as well. He discerned that the Archdiocese needed reforming and that the clergy, as the leaders of the local church, were responsible for leading the lay peoples and therefore the clergy needed to be strong leaders. He would replace any priests that did not uphold doctrine or were just plain lazy with new priests who were zealous about the faith. Also, during that exodus of city officials during the plague, St. Charles wrote to the governor and pretty much told him (I'm paraphrasing here a little): "Hey, if you're in charge of the city, man up, get back here, and help the people you're in charge of!".
Of course, there's many other things that St. Charles did in his lifetime. However, I know that long blog posts can get boring and eventually there has to be a stopping point. These are just the main reasons why I personally look up to St. Charles Borromeo and try to apply what I learn about him to my own faith life.
So, for the summer, I wanted to plan out another series of blog posts that can be put up once a week on a set basis throughout the summer. One such topic that I could readily write about with enthusiasm is manly saints. That is to say, saints who are men and role models of masculinity. On my plane ride home from the Northwest, which was on a Monday, I even chuckled to myself at the idea of posting new additions to the series on Mondays in connection with the social media craze Man Crush Monday.
I think it's important to recognize saints who are true models of manhood. Often times when people think of saints, they automatically come up with names like St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Cecelia, St. Gianna, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta or even the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is nothing wrong with thinking of these holy women, but men cannot connect with them the way that women do just as women cannot connect with male saints like men can.
When people define a living person as a "saint", they define that person as being sweet, caring, and giving. While all of these words are good things for men to live up to, at the same time they're not the kind of words that inspire man to grow in masculinity and toughness. I think we also need to move away from the idea that being a manly saint is close to being like the guys in the Boondock Saints movies.
Sorry boys, the Cristeros and others already did the Catholic gunslinger thing long before you came along.
So, today's post is pretty brief, since this is just quick intro to the idea of the series for the summer. You can still expect other posts to be put up in between this Saints series. Please know that a lot of these saints that I am mentioning are personal role models for me with traits that I aspire to attain. Also, I will probably be mentioning Blesseds in this series as well. Blessed men and women are recognized in the Catholic Church as holy role models and people in Heaven, but have not had as many validated miraculous intercessions as recognized saints.
This is the final installment of the series, and it's pretty exciting cause it involves less info about history and more creative-thinking about the future. We can use the knowledge that we have gained from the competition over the past couple of decades in order to make an accurate guess as to what future animated movies will be like.
The Success of Frozen
I know at this point everyone is still either super excited about Frozen or sick and tired of hearing about it. However, because it has been such a phenomenon these past several months, it's worth talking about because its success will have a huge impact on what kind of animated movies we'll see in the theatres in the next couple of decades.
I think that we can thank the princess formula for a large part of the success of Frozen. After all, we had a beautiful princess fall in love with a handsome prince-like figure. We had cute animal/ snowman/ rock troll sidekicks. We had orphaned princesses. We had a villainous adult that may not have had magical powers, but in a weird strange twist magic powers played a huge part in the conflict of the story.
Frozen did also manage to poke fun and critique Disney's stereotypical moments in a princess movie. Instead of having Princess Anna and Hans get married, they had Anna take time to fall in love with Kristhoff for the right reasons. Instead of having the prince/ heroic main man save everybody, the sisters helped to save each other and in turn saved everybody else. We didn't see any wedding, but we did get a tiny glimpse at a romantic relationship between Anna and Kristhoff, which shows that they didn't have to immediately get married to be romantically involved with each other.
Besides plot, Frozen was also a highly successful computer-generated animated movie and there were a lot of beautiful animated moments that may not have worked as well with hand-drawn animation (I don't think Olaf the Snowman would have worked as well as a 2-D figure). And, of course, there was the hit soundtrack. I can't recall a Disney song ever such a huge hit on pop radio. It was a combination of all of these parts that made Frozen the most financially successful animated movie to date.
The Future
Now Dreamworks and any other animated company looking to compete against Disney has their work really cut out for them.
I think one of the main things we can expect to see is the disappearance of hand-drawn, 2-D animation in theatrical releases. We saw how Dreamworks tried to make money with that style and quickly shifted to the computer-generated movie-making where they met with more success and more money. Don Bluth's animation team was unable to be successful at creating popular hand-drawn animated movies, even with a little bit of assistance from CGI in the end.
Disney's last attempt to make a smash hit with 2-D animation with The Princess and the Frog and since that film was a minimal success, we haven't seen hand-drawn animation from Disney since. The last group to be successful at hand-drawn animation has been Studio Ghibli, but since Hayao Miyazaki is retiring from movie-making, and Disney absorbed Studio Ghibli in to their company here in the United States, not only is the competition disappearing, but so is the art of hand-drawn 2-D animation. If computers make animation easier, quicker, and cheaper, then that is the route that not only Disney is going to take, but so will the rest of their competition.
I think we will also continue to see a variety of princess movies to come. Sure, we may be running out of popular fairy tales involving princesses to adapt in to movies, but between the popularity of Tangled and Frozen, Disney would be foolish to not keep making princess movies. Especially if they continue this pattern of twisting and flipping their typical princess formula. Even Pixar, as it got absorbed in to Disney, made a princess movie (Brave) which features some of the princess formula ideas, but also twists it for the modern audience's enjoyment. Dreamworks has yet to create a princess movie, but once they do, you can bet they will make a huge franchise out of it with five sequels and a TV show.
I know I give Dreamworks a hard time for milking their hit movies for all the money they're worth, but the reason why they do them is because not only are the original movies (Shrek, Madagascar, How to Train Your Dragon) good, but they're so good that they're guaranteed to draw in an audience again if there is another movie featuring the same characters that the audience enjoyed in the original movies. This cash cow of sequels scheme is what has been keeping Dreamworks going and has allowed them to try to experiment with creative ideas until they find the next hit franchise.
We also may get pretty nostalgic with future animated movies. What I mean is that there will probably be more movies focused either on the types of movies we loved in the past or there will be more references to shows and things from the past. This may be especially marketed towards my generation, which was the first generation to grow up with easy access to all of the old, classic animated movies, played a huge part in supporting the Disney Renaissance (the 90s), and are suckers for reliving our childhoods (seriously, look at the stuff that's posted on Buzzfeed).
For example, Wreck-It Ralph was a strange movie that may not have seen the popularity of Frozen, but it was still big because of the video game, arcade nostalgia that a lot of guys around my age (and even some of the ladies) geeked over. Toy Story 3 was the most successful animated movie before Frozen because people my age loved the original movies so much and it was a way to not only relive our childhood, but then had to say a necessary though bitter goodbye to that big part of our childhood. Dreamworks just released a Mr. Peabody and Sherman movie, though it's hard to tell who it's for because it references a show that was popular in the generation before mine but it has been updated for kids in this current generation.
Pixar and Disney are going to have an interesting relationship over the next few years. It seems that whenever Pixar has success with original and creative movies, then Disney's releases suffer and lack quality (just look at the mid 2000s). However, whenever Disney has major success, then Pixar seems to rely on returning to their hit movies with sequels (ergo Cars 2 and Monsters University). I think the success of Pixar's next movies will determine the quality and success of Disney's next releases. Pixar has a couple of new, original movie ideas in the works but they also have Cars 3 and The Incredibles 2. I, for one, would rather see Pixar's new ideas make it big instead of their sequels.
Dreamworks has this opportunity to push themselves to
experiment with art and plot ideas. With the money they are making from their
successful franchises, Dreamworks can afford a couple of more artsy, creative
movies that expand the artistry of computer-generated animation and find a new
franchise. Rise of the Guardians was
an interesting idea that involved beautifully unique designs and artwork. The Croods (which I forgot to mention in
the Dreamworks Animation post) was a creative idea that allowed the artists to
experiment with design.
I think we may also see another big animation company rise
up to take on Disney competitively. This hypothetical new company may be headed
by a former Disney employee who wants to create quality artfully tasteful
movies that have not been created in recent times. Remember, Don Bluth was a former Disney
employee who wanted to return to the quality of classic Disney artwork. Jeffrey
Katzenberg was a former Disney producer who felt that the Disney films produced
during his time was not up to snuff with Disney masterpieces. Don Bluth’s
animation team lasted about 20 years. Dreamworks is coming close to having been
a movie company for 20 years. It’s close to time for another animation company
to make it big.
We will always have random animation teams making one or two
movies that make it to the big screen. They may be hand-drawn, like The Swan Princess and The Iron Giant, or it may involve
claymation like Coraline and Paranorman (the makers of those movies
are coming out with another claymation movie called Trolls pretty soon). The reason why I did not make a post about
studios like these, however, is because they do not have the same staying power
nor the same popularity as films by Disney and Dreamworks.
Disney will always be around. It has been a powerhouse for
so long, and even when the company does not release instant classics, they
still make movies that become a part of children’s movie collections.
Dreamworks will probably not go away pretty soon because they have a load of
hits under their belt and really have established franchises that take
attention and money away from Disney releases.
I had the idea of putting up my testimony, that is to say my conversion story, up on this blog ever since I established it, however I obviously put that idea on the back burner. Last Friday at Daily Mass, though, the priest challenged the whole crowd to write down their conversion story to share with present and future generations. I figured a blog post would be a little more permanent and less likely to be forgotten than if I just wrote this down on paper. Now, you may be thinking it weird that I am saying I have a conversion story since I have been raised in Catholic Church for as long as I can remember.
The way I would define "conversion" is: The choice of saying Yes to God and growing in a deep, personal relationship with Him. This is how I define it for the teens and youth whenever I share my conversion story with them. It does not matter whether someone is brand new to Catholicism or if they have been raised in the Church their whole life, at some point when that person has a conversion, it drastically affects the way they live and the way they approach their relationship with God.
Pre-Conversion
Like I said, I grew up going to a Catholic Church for as long as I can remember. One of my parents was raised Catholic and the other wasn't, but they still brought my brother and I up in the Church as best as they could. I grew up in an interesting system where, on one Sunday, I would go to Mass and then the next Sunday, my brother would go to Mass while I stayed home, and then we would switch back and forth every other Sunday of either going to Mass or staying at home. At the time, I felt like it was a win-win situation cause I would either get to sit at home and watch TV or I could expect to get a doughnut and a soda on the way home from Mass.
I was baptized in the Catholic Church as a baby. I went to Catholic grade school from Kindergarten until 5th grade, during which I first experienced the Sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation. I was Confirmed in the Catholic Church during 8th grade, after I began attending public school for a couple of years. However, none of these moments when I received the Sacraments were a big deal to me.
Even with this educational background and a somewhat regular Mass attendance (where I was hardly what you would call "focused" during Mass), I had a weak faith life. I was not taking action outside of Mass or grade school to grow in my faith. I did not read the Bible outside of Mass or Sacramental prep. I was lucky enough that we had an Advent wreath that we would pray around before Christmas time, but that was the extent of my more spiritual prayers. If I was ever praying outside of those moments, it was usually asking God for things that I desired.
Perhaps this kind of situation may be familiar to you: I would spend my mornings in the shower getting ready for school. I would start to have deep, philosophical thoughts during my morning routine. And there, in the middle of showering, I would make the sign of the cross and say "God, please make Jane Doe my girlfriend" or "God, please let me get an A on this test". That was really the extent of my prayer life during this time period.
After Confirmation, my parents decided that it was now up to me to figure out whether I wanted to continue being a Catholic or if I wanted to do something else (guess it must have been because I was at the age of reason or something). So, during high school, I began to focus on other things since I wasn't forced to go to Church anymore. My biggest focus was getting a girlfriend. A part of the reason why I got involved in the world of theatre in high school was because I noticed a bunch of attractive girls were involved in the department and so I figured I could increase my chances of getting a date by joining up (the results of which should be saved for another post).
Also during this time, I gained my first job: working at McDonalds. I'm not ashamed to admit I worked there for a long time, I learned so much and grew as an individual from my time there. However, I figured it was a smart decision to work at Mickey Ds on Sunday mornings rather than go to Mass because my other focus during high school was money, getting more money to buy more things for myself. I figured being at a place I didn't enjoy being at, getting annoyed with customers, and overall just struggling through several hours of work was a better decision than just sitting through one hour of Mass because I was focused on the paycheck. Looking back, I realize I was making the wrong decision.
So, I really didn't have much of a plan or a purpose in my life.
Conversion Time Period
The thing that turned my life around during this time was at the end of my high school career and being asked by my cousin Irene and her husband Rob to be the godfather of their first child, their son J.D. (which stands for James Douglas). At J.D.'s Baptism, I had a moment where I began to realize the responsibility that I was taking on. I was not only being partially responsible for raising this child to be a good person, but I was also responsible for helping to raise this child in the Catholic faith. This meant that I needed to take on more responsibility for my own faith in order to fulfill my role as a godfather.
So, when I went to college, I quickly found Catholic Campus Ministry. Of my own free will, I began to attend Mass on a more regular basis and I joined up Bible Study which was led by the FOCUS missionaries on campus. However, these things were still more to-do list items than priorities that truly mattered to me. However, it was enough to get me to go on my first college spiritual retreat the fall of my sophomore year.
During that retreat, I was in the chapel and looked up at the crucifix. As I saw the wooden representation of Jesus
hung up on the cross, I began to contemplate this idea.
Jesus died to save everybody, He suffered for all of us.
However, at the same time, He especially suffered and died for me in
particular. If He did that for me, then that must mean that He has some sort of
relationship with me, which therefore means that I have a relationship with
Him. Yet, I did not understand that relationship at all.
After that retreat, everything that had been part of my to-do
list spiritually became priorities in my life. I went to Mass on a
more regular basis and even started going to Mass as a daily occurrence. I
became more invested in Bible Study and eventually went to lead a small Bible
Study of my own. I began to develop a regular prayer life, going to the chapel
to pray as often as I could. All in an effort to better understand my
relationship with God.
Post-Conversion Life
All of this happened over a periods of months, even years.
My conversion story was not something that happened overnight after hitting
rock bottom. I recognize that I have been lucky and have taken my faith and my
relationship with God for granted for a long time. In fact, when I was applying
to FOCUS and Reach during my last year of college, I had a hard time piecing
together my conversion story in order to give a testimony. I felt like my life
did not have enough drama and that my change of heart was not drastic enough to
be interesting to ministry staff or to people that they ministered to.
Here’s what I have learned over time and shared with people
over this past year or so: A conversion does not have to mean that someone
became a Catholic after being some other denomination beforehand. A conversion
is a change of heart and it needs to happen for all of us, whether we are brand
new to the faith or we have been raised as cradle Catholics (born and raised in
the Church). A conversion does not have to be a lightning-flash moment after
hitting rock bottom. It can take a long period of time. A conversion is important,
however, because it helps us build our relationship with God. Not that God has
to grow closer to us, but we have to take those steps to grow closer to Him.
By growing closer to God, we better understand the purpose
that He made us for and are better able to fulfill His will for our lives. By
following God’s plan, we find a lasting joy, an eternal happiness, rather than
the temporary pleasure that comes from seeking other things whether it’s money
or sex or whatever else it may be.
Dreamworks Animation and Don Bluth's animation team, along with other companies that have competed against Disney over time, have each had unique approaches to making their own mark in the history of animated movies. However, it seems that often times, they borrow some of Disney's ideas and try to make it their own. This is not just about the princess formula, which introduced us to the idea that Disney's competition was trying to copy successful ideas, but there are many other ways that these companies have tried to copy Disney in order to make some big bucks.
This article is much more focused on the producers and the production companies that financed and created these movies rather than the animators themselves. After all, without the authority and decisions of the producers and production company, we wouldn't have as many of these movies (the good and the bad) as we do now.
Lackluster Sequels
This may be the saddest part of the competition in animation movies. Once a movie becomes popular, it's time to start the franchise, which means rolling out a bunch of crummy sequels that only feature the main characters from the last movie and none of the charm and drama of the hit classic that's based on.
It's especially sad seeing Disney stoop so low as to create sequels for movies that came out decades ago. You may not have realized these existed, so I'm sorry if I burst your bubble by showing you the following.
These are just some of a handful of the home video sequels that Disney has produced.
Don Bluth himself may not be involved with any sequels that followed his main theatrical hits, but it is sad to see companies try to make money off of his team's creation with poor follow-ups.
This is just the tip of the Land Before Time sequels iceberg
Then there's Dreamworks. I mentioned in my Dreamworks article about how as soon as they had a hit movie (Shrek, Madagascar) that they have tried their hardest to make that single hit into a cash cow franchise. Shrek somehow managed to spawn four sequels, one of which is a spinoff featuring a side character in a lead role.
Madagascar gained two sequels, a TV show, and holiday specials.
I'll just sit here and wait for Kung Fu Panda 3 and How to Train Your Dragon 4 to show upin theaters. It's bound to happen.
Do These Movies Look the Same?
A quick sidenote intro to this section. Did anyone else think that the dinosaurs in The Land Before Time looked pretty similar to the design found in Fantasia?
Those T-Rexs look way too similar.
This is mostly based on the Dreamworks vs. Disney competition, though perhaps Dreamworks' real competition was Pixar. I made a joke in the last article about how Antz, a Dreamworks production, looked an awful lot like a Disney/ Pixar movie, which is of course A Bug's Life. Both were released around the same time (1998) and focused on the lives of ants in their colony.
This is not the only time that this weird phenomenon would occur. Shark Tale (2004), an underwater comedy about fish and featuring goofy shark characters happened to come out just after Finding Nemo (2003), which was an underwater comedy about fish and featured goofy shark characters.
Flushed Away (2006), a movie starring talking rodents, was introduced to audiences just before Ratatouille (2007), a movie starring talking rodents. The Incredibles (2004) was such a hit that Dreamworks did their own unique twist on the superhero comedy genre in the form of Megamind (2010).
I think the only time that a Dreamworks Animation doppelganger became a bigger hit than the Disney counterpart was Madagascar (2005). The basic plot is that a group of animals, led by a lion, escape from the Central Park Zoo and find themselves in the wild of the big island off the African coast. Disney came out with a movie called The Wild (2006) which was about a group of animals, who are led by a lion, escaping from the Central Park Zoo and find themselves in the wild of...Africa. Now, it could be that since Pixar wasn't attached to the project that The Wild was not as good, but my point is that incredibly Dreamworks, in its attempt to copy the works of Disney/ Pixar, somehow managed to create a franchise while Disney's version just somehow fell flat and became an unknown failure.
Did you honestly know this was a thing until you read about it here?
Pop Star Writes Soundtrack:
In case you did not know this already, the main man you can thank for the catchy tunes from The Lion King soundtrack is Elton John. This majestic piano man is most directly responsible for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" staying in the finished cut of the movie, but he also helped compose the rest of this now classic music score.
Did you also know, however, that Elton John was pulled in to compose the music for a rival movie just a few years later. Dreamworks Animation managed to have the man responsible for "Tiny Dancer" also become responsible for the soundtrack to their movie Road to El Dorado. The catchiest of the tunes (i.e. the one that's hardest to get out of my head) is "The Trail We Blaze".
Elton John is not the only pop radio singer to lend his writing craft and voice to a major animation production. Barry Manilow (not to be confused with Rod Stewart) also crafted some songs for animated movies in the 90s.
Seriously these guys could be twins
The producers that controlled Don Bluth and his animation team signed on Barry Manilow to write the soundtracks for the following movies: Thumbelina and The Pebble and the Penguin. Remember these cheesy songs?
Straying Far Away From Original Story
This is a problem with a lot of movies, whether they are based on true events or if they are based on previous stories written in book form. However, we can see comparisons between the way that Disney totally changed different types of stories and how their competitors followed suit.
For the sake of keeping this short, let's just examine each studio's take on a historical tale.
We all remember Disney's Hercules right? We remember how, according to Disney, Hercules was born a complete god, who grew up an outcast among humans and his main teenage romantic crush is Megara. However, in the original myths, Hercules was only born a demigod (Hera was not his mother, but often a main antagonist because she was jealous of Zeus' relationship with Hercules' human mother). Yes, he was super strong and proved himself a hero, but a lot of the main tasks that he does (slaying the hydra, battling giant boars and harpies, etc.) come after he married Megara, had a couple of kids with her, and then was driven crazy by Hera and killed his family and his tasks are his penance for those sins.
Dreamworks created The Prince of Egypt based on the story of Moses from the Pentateuch. They readily admit in the opening that it is not an exact translation/ interpretation of the original story, which is good, because some audience members would probably be have issues with the movie otherwise In the Pentateuch, Moses is found in the river as a baby, but then in the next paragraph, he's a full grown man who is exiled after killing an Egyptian to protect a Hebrew. None of this chariot-racing brotherly love stuff that was in the Dreamworks movie. In fact, Dreamworks was so focused on the relationship between Moses and Ramses that they seem to race through the plagues and the Passover, which are very important moments in the life of Moses and the Hebrews.
Don Bluth's team may not have gone very far back in history, but they do have one historical-based movie. Anastasia. Sure, they tried to make this movie as fictional and fantasy-based as possible, but maybe they would have had an easier time doing that had they not based the plot on real events in Russian history (as well as real rumors about the Grand Duchess Anastasia). It's not just the life of Anastasia herself that's turned into fantasy, but also the portrayal of Rasputin was very far off from the real deal (who was actually creepier than the movie version). In fact, the realest moment in the movie was the revolutionaries storming the castle. Just one more part of this series to go and it should be the most fun. In the next post, we'll theorize what the future of animated movies will look like, all based on what has happened over the past two and a half decades.
The other company that has challenged Disney at the movie theaters is Dreamworks Animation. With a sixteen year run (so far) of creative movies, some good and some forgettable, Dreamworks has managed to garner more popularity and finances than Don Bluth's animation team did and has managed to last til the present time (you might remember that How to Train Your Dragon 2 is about to hit theaters).
The Start
It all starts with one man's dream of creating high quality animated movies (sounds a little familiar right?). Jeffrey Katzenberg is a movie producer who had previously worked for Disney's studio before moving on to establish his own company (again, very familiar background here).
How well did the company do starting out? Just take a look at the first movies that Dreamworks Animation created.
Wait, wasn't this made by Pixar?
Good, but the book was better
We made a movie about gold. That means box office gold, right?
BINGO!
While the first few movies did all right during their original release and have gone on to become somewhat popular on DVD, the thing that made Dreamworks a major rival to Disney was Shrek. For many reasons, this is the first major hit for Dreamworks, which means they would go on to milk this cash cow for all it's worth as we all now know, with the sequels, the Christmas special, and the stage musical all created over time.
The Plateau of Meh
From there, Dreamworks began to produce more animated features as various and creative as the early movies they produced. Some were based in classic 2-D animation style, and yet kind of fell in to obscurity over the years.
What do ya know, a fantasy pirate movie made in the 00s.
Watching people ride horses is not as fun as actually riding horses
For the record (and I guess I should have mentioned this earlier in the series) the popularity of animated films is somewhat subjective. Some of you might say that one of these movies was a classic from your childhood that you remember every detail of because of how much of classic it was while some of you might look at that same movie and go "Since when was this a thing?".
Anywho, Dreamworks also brought in some British claymation that they can't take credit for creating, but at least they can take credit for bringing them to the attention of an American audience.
Starring: Mel Gibson's fake American accent
Were-Rabbit? There-Rabbit.
After these movie releases, however, we start getting into the more forgettable and computer-generated focus of Dreamworks Animation.
"Will Smith Fish" just wasn't as catchy of a title.
Tried to make Jerry Sienfeld funny again
Dreamworks trying to flush their own company down the drain?
Don't push me cause I'm close to the hedge
Back to the Hits.
While these movies are not necessarily the worst movies ever, they were not on par with any animated classics that came before it, whether from Dreamworks or otherwise. The one Dreamworks animated movie that was able to make a huge smash at the box office during this time period was...
Filmed on location in Madagascar and at the Central Park Zoo
I think that this movie played a huge part in keeping Dreamworks Animation afloat. This portion of history for Dreamworks is similar to what happened to Don Bluth in the 90s where he had a string of moderate, mediocre movies out there with one or two huge successes here and there. The biggest, most popular animated movies from Dreamworks during this time was Madagascar and Shrek along its sequels. Had it not been for these two franchises, we may not have Dreamworks Animation today. Notice that none of the movies said "From the creators of Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and Bee Movie" or "From the creators of Antz and Flushed Away".
It was all about Shrek and Madagascar. That is, until Dreamworks knocked kid's socks off with...
For once, a Jack Black comedy that paid off.
Making kids want a pet dragon even more
I do not know how Dreamworks managed to put these two giant hits together in such a short time, but these are the movies that helped cement Dreamworks Animation as a modern animation giant with a unique style of computer-generated animation. Even Monsters vs. Aliens, which came out around this time, got some attention, though maybe not as much as the other two above.
Though I think if the whole thing had been about the Stephen Colbert-voiced President character, it would have been a mega blockbuster success of a film.
Recent Efforts and Legacy Thus Far
Because of these big successes, Dreamworks Animation has gone on to create massive amounts of sequels of their hit franchises. However, in recent time, they have continued their pattern of making uniquely creative CGI movies.
This movie will blow your mind!
It was hard to get the Tooth Fairy and the Sandman, their schedules were pretty booked
So, does Vin Diesel voice one of the snails?
From the creators of "Rocky and Bullwinkle"...wait...
So, what is the legacy of Dreamworks Animation so far? Well, they have really managed to dig in to the modern focus of computer-generated animation. Their animation style and artistry is probably only matched by Pixar. Save for Shrek, if any of the older movies that they made (the ones that came before Madagascar) are well-known, they are known because of a cult-following they received after coming out on DVD and video.
It's hard to tell the legacy of Dreamworks Animation for certain. Except for Shrek none of the movies have been around long enough to be considered animated classics like Don Bluth and company's The Secret of N.I.M.H.. I think that Dreamworks will manage to be around longer than Don Bluth's animation team, which is due to the amount of box-office successes they have had and the amount of movies that they have produced.
While I do not necessarily like the approach of turning one successful movie in to a cash-cow franchise, it has certainly been helpful for Dreamworks not only at the movie theaters, but in television as well. Movies like Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar and How to Train Your Dragon have received their own TV series, which can be seen on the Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network channels. That kind of effort has managed to keep Dreamworks Animation in the spotlight and has allowed them to experiment with many creative movies and allowed them to overcome any flops or forgettable movies along the way.
Are they the same classic quality as Disney? It's hard to tell right now. I would say that the animation quality is vastly different from the classic Disney films, but that means that Dreamworks has managed to find its own path to go, rather than copy the Disney art style and choices.
So now that we've covered who the companies are that competed against Disney, next we'll dig deeper in to the "how" they have competed before looking to the future of animation.
I think it's kind of difficult to get up on Mondays and Tuesdays and be a bright beacon of positivity to people. Maybe it's because I'm a big fan of the weekend and I realize that it's several more days until the weekend is back. Maybe it's because I suddenly put together a long To-Do list for the week and get bogged down in projects or things I may not necessarily want to do. Whatever the case, the start of the week is just not necessarily my favorite day of the week.
However, in those times when I might not be a happy-go-lucky goofy ball, I try to remind myself of the blessings in my life. I try to remember all of the gifts that I have been given, big or small. I do this to find joy in the little things. I'm surrounded by blessings and I know so many of you are to.
So today, I just wanted to put together a list of blessings that I think are blessings that many people have and also things that many people take for granted.
1) My Relationship with God
I think we often overlook our relationship with God because we find it difficult to make time to be with Him. However, He is always with us through good times as well as those times of struggle and difficulty. He is always there to guide us to becoming the best versions of ourselves and fulfill His will for our lives. It's up to us to be aware of the relationship and to make time to be with Him through prayer and Mass and the Sacraments.
This year, I have really had to build my trust and faith in God and His plan for my life. However, I have spent so much more time with Him in Mass, prayer, and the Sacraments than I have ever before. It has helped me to grow closer to Him and remember that I am created by Him. When I remember that God has a divine purpose for me and knows what's best for me (just as most fathers know what their son's needs are and gives them advice), I realize that I just need to chill and trust without worry.
2) Family
Whether we get along splendidly with our families or if it's just a constant struggle to be around them, family is an important part of our lives. Our parents help guide and support us as best as they can and we in turn have to learn from them. Our siblings help us learn how to interact with people and how to overcome struggles in our relationships. Ultimately, family shows us how to be loved and how to best love others.
I have been extremely blessed by the family that I have. My parents may be far away, yet they still give me support in various ways from gifts in the mail to advice on life issues. My brother and I have learned how to get along better over the years and I really enjoy getting to spend time with him. Plus, I have so many relatives back home, aunts and uncles, grandmother, cousins, my godson. I have received a ton of support from these people and I look forward to reuniting with them all when I return home.
3) Friends
We may not take friendships for granted as often as our other relationships, but nonetheless I do not think we always realize how powerful these friendships are. We may let disputes or distance create a rift between us. We may especially take for granted our ability to spend time and communicate with our friends and suddenly realize that in the past few months we have not maintained friendships in the way we would like to.
I have so many good friends back home in Missouri. Some friendships have existed since high school, some since the last few months of college. A major reason why I have been able to work with Reach Youth Ministry is because of the support of my friends (especially their prayers and kind words). I have been blessed with the ability to maintain communication with these people that I am far away from. I am looking forward to being back home to where I can reunite with some old friends and take trips to see friends who do not live close to me.
4) Food and Water
Because of how easily we have access to good food and clean water, it's really easy to take these things for granted. There are so many people in this world who do not have an ability to buy enough food to eat and do not have clean running water around them. When we do not see these people suffering from starvation and thirst, it's easy to forget just how easy some of us have it.
I know I take food for granted, especially when it is food that I may not necessarily enjoy eating or when I voluntarily skip a meal because I do not see food that is appetizing to me. I know I take water for granted, because I can easily waste it or I avoid drinking it because I like the taste of soda better. I'm very glad I have options to choose from and hope that I can do something to aid those who are less fortunate.
5) Clothing and Shoes
Again, because of the easy access to these things, we take them for granted. Often we just have to worry about whether our clothes match or what label we're wearing. There are some people who do not have enough clothes to keep warm from the cold or to change out of when they get too sweaty or dirty. There are also people who do not have good shoes to protect their feet.
I am very fortunate to have enough clothes (even with a limited wardrobe and budget) to keep warm when it's cold or stay cool when it's hot. In fact, I have so many clothes that I can donate some of them to nearby thrift shops for those who need clothing at a low cost. Also, I'm very grateful to have shoes, especially when I go out into nature and trek over rocky and rough terrain.
6) A Functioning Vehicle
We wouldn't really be able to travel as far or as easily if we did not have a vehicle to drive. Often people are so focused on the latest sports cars or the need to make their cars as immaculately spotless as possible that they do not just enjoy the fact that their vehicle is functioning and can take them from Point A to Point B.
On Reach, we may not have the newest vehicles or the least problematic vehicles, but at least we have a van that takes us to so many different places that are far away. At least we have something that cuts down on travel time and allows us to pack in multiple people and all of our luggage. Ever since I got my license at 16, I've had a vehicle to drive which has allowed me to help others travel as well as provide me with so many journies.
These are just six categories that I think affect majority of our lives and yet are easy for us to ignore. I know there are many many other unique blessings in our lives, whether it's the sunshine or it's the ability to go to school or whatever is personal to you. Please take some time in these next days, whether they're days of joy or sorrow, and count all of the simple things that you have that you may take for granted. I know it brings joy to my life whenever I do this.
My childhood would not be complete without the animators and filmmakers that competed against Disney. It's all about quality and art, which not only Disney provides but also its competitors provide as well. There are two main groups to talk about, so let's dig in to the first for now and get to the second one later.
Don Bluth
The man. The myth. The mustache.
Here is a quick history on Don Bluth. He grew up loving Disney's original movies and he eventually got a job to do plenty of animation work for Disney. However, as the quality of the movies and the animation began to drop during the 1970s, Don and some of his Disney buddies decided to leave in order to make animated movies of their own. They wanted to make animated classics that were at the same quality as the early great works of Disney.
The 80s Success
Don Bluth managed to fulfill his dream of creating quality animated classics. His company's first feature length movie The Secret of N.I.M.H may not have been a huge hit at first, but it has gained popularity over the years on home video and it was enough to attract the attention of Steven Spielberg.
Spielberg, and eventually George Lucas, helped in producing the next high quality movies by Don Bluth. These were An American Tail and The Land Before Time.
These first three films have kind of been childhood staples since their creation and I think it's because of not only the creativity of the stories, but the unique style of art that Don Bluth brought to the movies. That is why these movies have carried on all these year. Even the next film, All Dogs Go to Heaven, has been a somewhat popular movie that may not be as great as these earlier works, but still remains known nonetheless.
Don and company can probably count themselves not only lucky that these movies were top-notch animated-classics-in-the-making, but that these movies also happened the come out while Disney was still in a bit of a slump of sloppy, non-classic works.
What Happened in the 90s?
Disney's slump quickly came to an end with a Renaissance period part in thanks to its return to the princess formula. Meanwhile Don Bluth tried to compete, but his method of competition left something to be desired.
Apparently cutesy animals doesn't always mean box-office gold
Some of these movies above may be unfamiliar to you, or perhaps they are faint memories of the one time you saw them as a kid and then quickly forgot it about the next day (save for maybe "Thumbelina"). I think that what happened here was an interference in the production by outside sources.
The, people who put money into a product want the result to please them, right? So, most likely, investors who helped finance the productions probably wanted specific things from the movie that they were funding (for more detail on this explanation, search Don Bluth Films on Facebook and look at responses to people's questions). In order to please the people who paid to create the movies, Bluth and team scrambled together several duds.
The Grand Finale
Don Bluth ended his directorial career with two very interesting movies. Anastasia and Titan A.E.. The former introduced a little bit of computer animation to non-Disney movies, since the world of American animated filmmaking began to rely on more on computer generated images, and Bluth's ability to adapt CGI into hand-drawn animation was presented in Titan A.E.. As I said in the previous post, part of the popularity of Anastasia was that it stuck to the princess formula while Titan A.E. has kind of remained in obscurity. I actually kind of like Titan A.E. because of the creativity of the story as well as the artwork that came from that movie. However, even these two movies were not enough to keep Don Bluth in competition with Disney and so he went off to work on other projects.
Legacy
I think the fact that I recently had a random conversation about whether An American Tail or its sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West shows that Bluth, along with his animation team, has created and established movies that last. I think that a lot of people in my generation can say that they had a Don Bluth movie or two on their movie shelves next to the Disney movies, which shows that Bluth was at least doing something to attract attention.
Why was Bluth and his animation team able to compete against Disney for as long as they did? Well, they were doing things right, at least during the first few films. They made films that contained high artistic quality. Even though majority of the characters in these movies are animals, the characters moved and acted with humanistic qualities which did not detract from the films but instead gave them more depth. The animators were also not afraid of utilizing unique animation styles such as rotoscoping. Not to mention the fact that Bluth gave his movies a large scope. When we see Fievel the mouse looking at New York City from atop the Statue of Liberty or dinosaurs fighting or a space ship flying through the galaxy, we see characters in larger than life situations against grand backdrops.
I think the greatest thing that set out Bluth and his company was Disney was that the maturity of his movies was greater than majority of Disney's. These movies were darker than most Disney features and often had creepy moments, yet these films were still appropriate for kids. These are movies that treat their audience with maturity and respect, instead of thinning the plot or characters. Adults can sit through this movie without cringing from any cheesiness or silliness that comes from other cartoon features. Kids watch this movie knowing that they are risking being scared at certain scenes, but understanding that the risk is worth it because of how good the story is
In the next installment, I will examine the other company that has competed against Disney, which will bring us in to the present moment in animated movies. There's still plenty of good things to come in this series.
