No Respect: Thread of Underappreciation of the Media Variety

[AerostarMonk]

I noticed that a lot of things I love get no respect, no respect at all. I think that's a damn shame because I love the things I love. However, I'm sure that's a given. My thing is, why does it seem few if any people love the things that I love?

If you've ever thought that than I believe this may be the thread for you. We shall celebrate the things in entertainment that seem to get no respect.

Well, for me, I'm going to start with Mystery Men. Back in 1999, the man who directed those Taco Bell dog commercials gave us a fantastic movie about second-string heroes protecting the Rust Belt metropolis of Champion City. Based on characters from the fringe comic, Flaming Carrot, Mystery Men featured such hilarious personalities as the Blue Raja, the cutlery throwing RP-accented hero who refused to throw knives, Mr. Furious, a man who prided himself on the ability to go off at any moment, despite the fact that most of this ability was feigned and actually more a reflection of mild impatience, the Shoveler, who's handiness with a shovel could rival any swordmaster, the Bowler, a woman out to avenge her father's death with the help of a posssesed bowling ball that contained his skull, and Invisble Boy, who could only become invisble when no one looked at him.

I happen to think this movie is one of the best superhero films ever made. The casting was absolutely perfect on all sides, and it had a script that had no illusions of the seriousness of the premise while also being quite quotable as well. However, this movie is not quite loved by too much of anyone at all. Though it's not quite hated to be brought up frequently in arguments for what's wrong with comic-based properties. I think it's fair to say that this movie is more remembered for its contribution to the Smash Mouth video, "All-Star" than anything else.

One strange thing though, is that out of all the movies in the past 20 years based on comics, this is one of the few where the creator of the property was closely involved with the making of the film. It was never lauded for this fact though. In fact unless you spent enough time to listen to the commentary of the movie and extra features you'd never know. Another fact, Ben Stiller refuses to admit to this film. He talked Janeane Garofalo into doing the flick and when it bombed it seemed like he could never live it down. For a guy who's claim to fame is suffering the most humiliating comic moments onscreen, you think playing any angry man in a failing flick wouldn't be such a big deal for him.

I still believe this to be an awesome and entertaining film with inspired casting from Paul Reubens to Tom Waits. And I think this film gets no respect.

So, what do you think gets no respect and why?

[Mr. Marshmallow]

For the record I just want to say I own Mystery Men, I loved the movie and in fact think it is one of the more creative and original comic book movie attempts around.

There are alot of other movies I actually love very much and I think gets NO respect when in fact, they should. I'm saving what I really feel is disrespected for later since I have too many movies to list I love that get no respect. These movies are:

Crank, Mind Hunters, Armageddon, Small Soldiers, Super Mario Bros, and Big Trouble (I was REALLY pissed off at how people treated that movie).

The thing I feel people don't give any credit or rightful respect to these days is cartoons, old new and whatever. People always associate such negative aspects to cartoons be it to the person who watches them, or the cartoons themselves. People these assume cartoons are either for pea brained, innocent, bambi eyed children.

Or grossly acne covered nerds who have shallow lives and think cartoons are too baby-ish and anyone who watches them past the age of 10 is a loser devoid of any kind of reality or maturity (grow up indeed). To me, I think people these days should stop being ashamed of what they watch and hiding it from others and learn to accept cartoons no matter what age you are.

I do not in any possible form of comprehension understand why people think there are "right" and "wrong" ages you can like something, I cannot fathom that. Since when did love have an expiration date? Is it really so disgusting and pathetic for a person in his/her 20's or even 30's to find enjoyment out of watching a cartoon show? Is that really such a definition of being a loser?

I think people don't give cartoons any respect and constantly write off anything that is animated and doesn't originate from a prime time or late night programming block, to be for kids. People don't think animated characters can envoke the same kind of emotion, sympathy, or inspiration as RL programming. I say I watch Kim Possible, people will look at me like I've got the plague.

I get so tired of being told or indicated what people have to do to be considered acting your own age. I think cartoons share alot of good, honest, and encouraging material that can be helpful and amusing to people even in their 50's. Not everything animated is happy sunshine cutesy baby stuff.

I've found more inspiration and stimulation from watching Darkwing Duck then I have most TV dramas. There's alot to be said about cartoons and how they are hardly becoming a kids only demographic any longer, but it still bothers me that society and norms have instilled a public "insecurity" for people who still like cartoons as they are older.

It's disgusting, degrading, and despicable to me that people can look down so easily on people who like things that are supposedly beyond their age. And how anyone who's over the age of 18 that looks at a cartoon is labeled with being either a freak or only watching the show to derive some kind of sexual pleasure from it.

I find it unfair, unjust, and unbelievable that people can have the gall or nerve to be able to tell someone else when you have to stop loving something.

[AerostarMonk]

I loved Big Trouble, though being a huge Barry fan that's no surprise. I remember when they cancelled its September '01 release date for obvious reasons. I'm glad I know someone else who likes that film, because it truly gets no respect.

[Sparky]

While there's plenty of things I could talk about here, its late and I don't really have the time. I do however, run one of the only Mystery Men fansites, and wrote out a transcript of the movie simply by watching it line by line. I also found a copy of the original script (much different from the final movie) on eBay and retyped it to post online. I saw the film about 7 times in theatres, and I roleplayed the Spleen on an online game for years - and to my surprise enjoyed it very much.

[Ditchy McAbandonpants]

Good topic idea, Aerostar.

I'm going to start with one that I've championed a few times here, and that I still feel gets a raw deal: Pixar's Cars, a wonderful, quietly uplifting and beautifully crafted little film that absolutely does not deserve the black sheep reputation it's ended up with. More than anything, I think the lukewarm reception afforded to Cars shows demonstrates how much damage the wrong expectations can inflict, because this film was saddled with an unhealthily large amount of them. Admittedly, part of that can be blamed upon Disney and Pixar themselves for their ill-judged and misleading decision to sell this slow-paced, gently comedic character piece as a wacky and action-packed racing romp, but I think the real killer was that Cars had to follow in the footsteps of The Incredibles, a creative milestone that had seen Pixar really going above and beyond what anyone might have expected from an animated movie in more or less all respects. Cars, with its sedate atmosphere, slim story and "take-it-easy" message, was never destined to be the film that topped it, but people expected it to anyway, leading to widespread disappointment with a movie that I thought was outstanding on its own, more modest terms. For starters, it's visually peerless, in more ways than people give credit for; its technical successes are well documented (six words: neon lights on a car bonnet ), but for me the outstanding achievement is how they manage to bring a mechanical world to life, with refined, subtle animation giving these cars amazing personality and expressiveness. Audio-wise, it's equally excellent - as ever, Pixar's policy of casting actors rather than star names pays dividends with some really warm performances, particularly from Owen Wilson, Paul Newman and Bonnie Hunt, whilst music-wise we get a nice mix of the familiar (Randy Newman's pleasant score and ballad) and the new (some well-chosen country/rock songs). Curiously, though, what impresses me most about the movie is its narrative; it's by far the most heavily criticised part of the film, but in its own way, I actually believe the plot of Cars is perhaps the ultimate expression of Pixar's "Story Is King" mantra. Think about it; the movie is a slow, wistful nostalgia piece about an era most of the perceived "target audience" would be unfamiliar with, with very little of the broad comedy or action set pieces expected from the cartoon blockbuster, but John Lasseter went ahead and made it anyway. Why? Because it was a story that meant something to him, the one he wanted to tell, and as a result we got a film that felt earnest and heartfelt. That's a virtue that can't be prized highly enough in Hollywood movies and it's for that reason, more than any other, that I feel that Cars is a movie to be treasured; I urge everyone to give it a chance.

Still, if I'm calling the multi-million-dollar-grossing Oscar nominee Cars underappreciated, I don't know where that puts my other choice, our mutual friend Craig McCracken's The Powerpuff Girls Movie. It honestly breaks my heart to look over at Box Office Mojo and observe the commercial ignominy suffered by PPG; $11 million domestic gross + $5million internationally = a pretty grim fate for Cartoon Network's first and to date only (not counting Aqua Teen) theatrical feature. I don't know what happened; maybe it was bad timing (the show's popularity peaked around 2000/2001, whereas this film was released in July 2002 against Men in Black II), bad marketing (it was distributed by Warner Brothers, who had previously screwed up the release of Brad Bird's The Iron Giant) or other factors (a lot of older fans felt awkward about seeing the movie in theatres, a feeling exacerbated by an apparent lack of evening screenings), but whatever the reason, the fact is that the closest thing I can find to a box office achievement for PPG is a place in the Top 20 of Biggest Theatre Drops (ie, the films which lost the most screens in their third weekends), alongside classics such as Gigli, Alone in the Dark and Pluto Nash. I can only imagine how gutted Craig, Lauren and co. must have been, because you need only watch it to see that it was clearly a labour of love. So many TV spin-offs are content to take the easy route and simply throw out something that feels like a padded extended episode, or else like two episodes stiched together; on Powerpuff, on the other hand, Craig really went the extra mile to make a genuine movie. The production values impress right off the bat, particularly for a relatively low-budget production; the already great artstyle was refined into something really striking and worthy of the big screen, whilst similarly PPG and Foster's veteran Jim Venable expanded the score's scope and depth tenfold whilst maintaining its quirkiness. What's most impressive, though, is the way that Craig was able to take a formula which had previously only been applied to 10-20 minute comedy shorts and use it to create a perfectly-formed 70-minute story with enough depth, emotional resonance and darkness to almost feel epic at times; the PPG rhythms and character dynamics are all still in place, but in a heightened, expanded form that really gives a cinematic sheen to it (movie Mojo, in particular, is a great villain with tons of presence). I remember Craig mentioning in an interview that he wanted The Powerpuff Girls Movie to be the ultimate realisation of the PPG concept, to be everything that Powerpuff had always dreamed of being; as far as I'm concerned, he succeeded totally, box office be damned, and I sincerely hope that he realises that his hard work was appreciated.

[AerostarMonk]

I think people's problems with Cars were these two reasons, many geeks couldn't separate it from the very similar Michael J Fox vehicle, Doc Hollywood, and many moviegoers, such as myself found the entire mechanized world to be kind of creepy. Many have voiced that it seemed like a world where automobiles and other machines have finished off humans and created their own world. Though you were absolutely right about the killer blow. This movie came under a lot of pressure coming hot on the heels of The Incredibles. Except for one person that I know. She adores anything to do with anthropomorphic cars, and loves all the movies about them. Though, this may only be me, I find this quite hilarious. She made it seem like there was something outside of Maximum Overdrive and Love Bug movies, and saying those were actually anthropomorphic is really stretching it. I mean I guess you can throw in Knight Rider, but once again that's a stretch. I did enjoy the movie for what it was, and recognize all the effort they've put into the movie. Though I applaud the animation on The Incredibles more. Pixar has noted the fact that they have an impossible time with people and anyone who knows anything about CGI knows how hard hair is to animate. Cars leaps in technology seem to lie more in lighting, texture, and reflection more than more obvious things. Probably the reason why it's not noted by many for its own milestones.

As for the Powerpuff Girls movie, I did quite enjoy what I've seen of that movie. I really wish to see more of it. Though in my current situation its nigh impossible to do so without some horrible ridicule I'd rather not shoulder until October. Thanksgiving probably would've been a better release date for that film. It had all the hallmarks of a decent holiday release, and as far as I can remember no one huge occupied the spot at the time, except for the Chamber of Secrets, and that still works out for WB either way.