YGO Uncensored- Draconmouth: The Thoughts of Jaya Lakshmi

It is really sad how Hollywood doesn’t really care about story in their movies; they want hot people, ravishing sex scenes and action sequences in order to make money. Very few people can write movies that have original and poignant stories as well as bring in dough from the box office.

It is also sad how repetitive manga and anime are. Everything seems to want to copy one another. The best animated shows, so far, are the ones that was the ones most well written, clever, and original. My favorite Disney shows are W.I.T.C.H., Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper-force Go; on Cartoon Network Code Lyoko is worth watching when an episode is important, Teen Titans, and sometimes Bobo-Bo-bo-Bobo if I get the chance to see it. I’m currently watching the pilot for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, which was a pretty original idea if you think about it. I don’t like the later episodes because they play too much for laughs, but the pilot was able to balance out the humor and the serious side, which involved a ranger “dying”, aliens losing an object that united them, a robot trying to learn but becoming a goofball, a princess not being able to save the universe because Star Command would not allow her, and Buzz vowing to work alone. For me the humor is kind of predictable, like when the Evil Emperor Zurg will enter and not one of his lackeys, but I like it because it’s written so that it’s not a bad pun but instead a really clever joke. For example, a caption read “Space”, then “Duh” when Princess Mira was in space (duh); another hilarious moment was when the LGM aliens trying to fix a robot and end up putting a chicken as well as a swimming pool inside of his circuits. The villain is mainly scary, but Zurg has his moments, as do all of his evil henchmen.

I’m talking about originality because I don’t want this to become a complete anti-Peter Pan rant. You know how Disney likes to keep on making sequels to their best movies? Well, they made a sequel to Peter Pan where Wendy’s daughter Jane gets to go. Now, in 2007, they’re making another sequel where Jane’s daughter goes to Neverland! And not only that, Captain Hook makes a bold return to defeat his foe!

I wouldn’t mind so much if the Peter Pan movies did not have Hook with the same goal and chasing after a boy whom he’ll never catch! How come Peter hasn’t banished him for good off to some lonely star? Peter Pan II, in its best moments, were not about Peter, but in the opening where Wendy and her children Jane and Danny were trying to live in a World War II London where sirens alert for bombs and supplies are hard to get. Despite what the summaries say, Jane does not appear bitter; she’s happy with herself when she is in charge. The whole story was about her trying to loosen up, have fun, and believe in a god, if Peter counts as a god.

If anything, the story would have been more interesting if the whole family had to go to Neverland, with a grown up Wendy. The original Peter Pan focused on how this adventure was Wendy’s last bout of childhood before she grows up, and if anyone notices it, she’s the only one in Neverland with a real ounce of common sense and dignity. She’s the one who convinces Peter to let John and Michael accompany her, to not to banish Tinkerbell forever, the one who reminds Peter to save Tiger-lily, the one who reminds the boys about what a real mother is (in other words she can’t be their mother because she’s only a child), the one who makes the Lost Boys feel ashamed when Hook wants new pirates for his crew, the one who remains loyal to Peter even after she thinks that he is dead, the one who tries to get Peter not to let Hook trick him, and the one who will keep on remembering Peter for the rest of her life. (That is, if you add the sequel’s continuity as well as the book’s.) Peter was nothing more than a child who forgets about someone else’s transgressions including murder and about other people’s feelings. The other boys are too immature to act in any other way except for John, and even he doesn’t respect Wendy’s feelings when he should. The other women in the movie, which are Tinkerbell, the mermaids, and Tiger-lily, are either not given enough screen time to reveal their true characters or (in Tinkerbell’s case) forgive until another girl comes along to make her jealous.

As a strange afterward, Walt Disney wasn’t satisfied with the first Peter Pan movie because he didn’t like Peter’s character. He may be the same guy who brought forth Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella, but at least he noticed that something was wrong with the infamous flyboy. Wendy, on the other hand, is supposed to be an ideal girl because, despite the fact that Peter saves her twice in the movie and she is the mermaids’ and Tinkerbell’s target when they get jealous, she is able to grow up yet retain her innocence and faith. The question then is, “What does Peter Pan represent?” Peter represents the age of childhood where you do things but don’t worry about the consequences. Growing up, I’ve figured out, is when you start trying to take responsibility for your own actions. Emerson talks about it in “Self-reliance”.

That’s why Peter Pan did not need a sequel, despite its sexism and racism. It said everything it needed to say and left it at that. Disney is simply trying to make money off a franchise, as usual. That’s why I’m really mad at them for making a sequel to a sequel. I could write a better script than what they’re giving out, an original script for an animated movie. Actually, I plan to get involved in at least one 2-d animated movie in my life before I die so that the medium doesn’t fade from existence. The novel needs a rewrite to compensate for the horrible Indians and Peter. I haven’t read the official sequel yet, but people have recommended it to me. Even so, I am going to do a rewrite of the novel and change everything so as to avoid plagiarism.

A great example of a movie rewrite would have to be The Wizard of Oz compared to Mirrormask, a film recently out on DVD written by Neil Gaiman and directed by Dave McKean. The book was worth reading because Dorothy was actually a smart and feminist girl who rarely cried and who never longed for a more interesting life. In the movie, however, she is simply a little girl who learns to appreciate her home with no real role except as a damsel-in-distress. For example, her three friends have to rescue her from the Witch and she melts the witch in trying to douse the Scarecrow. In other words, she hadn’t attacked the Witch by accident; she really meant to do it. Happily, however, the movie Mirrormask fixes this problem. There is a sequence where the main character, Helena, ends up flying with some apes with bird heads. The scene, I realize, is homage to the sequence from the Wizard of Oz movie. But I think that Mirrormask was better because the protagonist was not completely helpless, only minutely so, her bumbling friend was not too useless or well-meaning or corrupt, and the villain is, frank to say, so strong that no one can melt her by throwing water. The plot was also better, but that’s a minor detail in terms of originality.

What is it with writing sequels? If people want to make money but not take the time to come up with a good script, they could just look at the number of submissions that they receive in the mail. Despite what many believe based on the quality of movies produced, people can write good scripts, just as they can write good novels, short stories, poems, memoirs and monologues if you give them a good chance, a good education and time. It’s hard to distinguish the good from the bad when you’re an editor looking at submissions; having been part of an editorial for my school’s literary magazine, I can say that there were times when I wanted material but the majority voted no for certain reasons (too controversial, too cliché), and vice-versa. Twelve editors rejected J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, and maybe I would have rejected it because the novels in terms of plot are not particularly original. I mean, an orphan boy who’s destined to save the world form an evil wizard? Look up Timothy Hunter on Wikipedia or The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. On the other hand, I might choose to publish it because of the magical and muggle world’s complexity as well as a fast pace, detailed action sequences and occasional humor. Even less prevalent to children and more prevalent to adults is the social commentary, from house elf exploitation to briberies within the Ministry. Diana Wynne Jones does a better job with in her Dark Lord of Derkholm books, but comparing Ms. Rowling to Mrs. Jones is like comparing M. Night Shamalan to Stephen Spielberg. Editors, I understand if the book you reject today is on tomorrow’s hot list. It’s not completely your fault.

The writing contest that I’m submitting to is “looking for original plots”. How hard is that if you just let your mind go and your fingers fly across the keyboard or a notebook or whatever you use to write your stories? I mean, it’s not completely easy- if it were then everyone would do it, as the cliché goes- but if you work at it and you have fun when you write, then seriously, it should not be that hard to write a decent script. Kevin mentioned in his Pichi Pitch review on www.thecomicbookguy.com that he has seen anime fans do better art and stories than some of the garbage that’s out there.

If you can’t write a script or come up with original ideas or draw- then the best thing you can do is support the stories that are original, entertaining and enthralling. A person needs fans in order to be successful. Fans are the people who watch a show that the writers and artists create. Writers and artists are usually in the show writing and drawing until they look at their work a few weeks later and decide what’s good and what can be better. So don’t waste your money on a Peter Pan sequel.