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Post by savefearow on Apr 4, 2014 21:28:58 GMT -6
Personally I would like Rex to be canon. (And Randall could still have a prominent female relative if Rex's mother was Randall's sister. They could also give Randall a niece instead of or in addition to Rex.) I have absolutely no idea what direction Pixar is planning to take the Monsters franchise in, but I'm definitely hopeful for more movies. I'm not always concerned about franchises having too few female characters, I just want the ones who are included to be interesting.
LONG POST WARNING
Like, I hear MLP praised up and down for having a mostly female cast but I just don't like the show much. I actually find some of the lead characters boring (Apple family, Cheerilee, Fluttershy) and wish some of the antagonists and supporting characters get bigger roles. Spike is one of my favorites and he hardly ever gets the spotlight. (Spike's greedy and impulsive but he really does care about his friends. It's a shame how often he is left out of the group or treated like a joke.)
~about characterization in general~ I think I just have different ideas on what is interesting. All of my favorite characters, male and female, have at least one definite flaw as well as at least one strong point. My favorite characters do not 'win' every argument, they are not always 'right'. (A definite strike against Applejack whose 'flaws' are being too honest, too hardworking, too protective. Those aren't flaws, those are good qualities that are portrayed as setbacks through very specific and/or contrived circumstances.)
One of my favorite characters is Abigail Lincoln (Kids Next Door, calm leader-type normally but she has a major sweet tooth that drives her to take extreme risks, she's been shown on occasion to lose her temper or not be willing to help someone in need, she fights with her big sister but still respects Cree on some level, she's a 'cool' kid who ends up being attracted to- and marrying- a 'nerd'.) Abigail Lincoln is complex.
Other girls I liked included Helga Pataki (Hey Arnold), Tina Belcher (Bob's Burgers), Bonnie Bravo (Johnny Bravo, she's a mom but I think she still counts as an awesome female character), Oblina (Real Monsters), Dijonay Jones (Proud Family), Ashley Spinelli (Recess), Makoto/Sailor Jupiter (Sailor Moon), Toph Beilong (Avatar: The Last Airbender), and Kasumi/Misty (Pokemon).
When writers try too hard to make a girl a strong female character (Lisa Simpson), make her too much of a winner (Sam Manson, the girl who hates all sports yet is effortlessly the best at running a mile and even her super-powered best friend cannot beat her in a race; gets the boy in the end, is secretly wealthy, can speak Esperanto, masters various skills with little to no practice, claims to value individuality yet her wardrobe and hobbies are chosen specifically to annoy her parents and she tries to force her entire school/community to follow HER lifestyle anyway) or doesn't give her much of a role (Daphne Blake in the older Scooby Doo series, she bought the van and is pretty much there to look cute and pass out Scooby Snax) chances are I'm not going to like them.
~discussion summary~ So yeah, I'd like to see more Pixar girls, and more girls in media, but I'm not going to praise them simply for existing and adding to the Diversity Quota. I am critical of the personality and roles female characters have. I am also critical of the roles male characters have. (I could probly talk for hours about how much I dislike the 'bumbling dad' sitcom stereotype and wish they'd stop writing series whose only joke is 'look how stupid the father is! Ha ha!')
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2014 1:17:12 GMT -6
Personally I would like Rex to be canon. (And Randall could still have a prominent female relative if Rex's mother was Randall's sister. They could also give Randall a niece instead of or in addition to Rex.) I have absolutely no idea what direction Pixar is planning to take the Monsters franchise in, but I'm definitely hopeful for more movies. I'm not always concerned about franchises having too few female characters, I just want the ones who are included to be interesting. LONG POST WARNING Like, I hear MLP praised up and down for having a mostly female cast but I just don't like the show much. I actually find some of the lead characters boring (Apple family, Cheerilee, Fluttershy) and wish some of the antagonists and supporting characters get bigger roles. Spike is one of my favorites and he hardly ever gets the spotlight. (Spike's greedy and impulsive but he really does care about his friends. It's a shame how often he is left out of the group or treated like a joke.) ~about characterization in general~ I think I just have different ideas on what is interesting. All of my favorite characters, male and female, have at least one definite flaw as well as at least one strong point. My favorite characters do not 'win' every argument, they are not always 'right'. (A definite strike against Applejack whose 'flaws' are being too honest, too hardworking, too protective. Those aren't flaws, those are good qualities that are portrayed as setbacks through very specific and/or contrived circumstances.) One of my favorite characters is Abigail Lincoln (Kids Next Door, calm leader-type normally but she has a major sweet tooth that drives her to take extreme risks, she's been shown on occasion to lose her temper or not be willing to help someone in need, she fights with her big sister but still respects Cree on some level, she's a 'cool' kid who ends up being attracted to- and marrying- a 'nerd'.) Abigail Lincoln is complex. Other girls I liked included Helga Pataki (Hey Arnold), Tina Belcher (Bob's Burgers), Bonnie Bravo (Johnny Bravo, she's a mom but I think she still counts as an awesome female character), Oblina (Real Monsters), Dijonay Jones (Proud Family), Ashley Spinelli (Recess), Makoto/Sailor Jupiter (Sailor Moon), Toph Beilong (Avatar: The Last Airbender), and Kasumi/Misty (Pokemon). When writers try too hard to make a girl a strong female character (Lisa Simpson), make her too much of a winner (Sam Fenton, the girl who hates all sports yet is effortlessly the best at running a mile and even her super-powered best friend cannot beat her in a race; gets the boy in the end, is secretly wealthy, can speak Esperanto, masters various skills with little to no practice, claims to value individuality yet her wardrobe and hobbies are chosen specifically to annoy her parents and she tries to force her entire school/community to follow HER lifestyle anyway) or doesn't give her much of a role (Daphne Blake in the older Scooby Doo series, she bought the van and is pretty much there to look cute and pass out Scooby Snax) chances are I'm not going to like them. ~discussion summary~ So yeah, I'd like to see more Pixar girls, and more girls in media, but I'm not going to praise them simply for existing and adding to the Diversity Quota. I am critical of the personality and roles female characters have. I am also critical of the roles male characters have. (I could probly talk for hours about how much I dislike the 'bumbling dad' sitcom stereotype and wish they'd stop writing series whose only joke is 'look how stupid the father is! Ha ha!') That's a wonderful idea Rex should definitely be a canon character and so should his mom, but him having a sister wouldn't be very likely, cuz if he did, she would have made an appearance with him, unless she's an older sister.
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Post by budokai777 on Apr 7, 2014 12:58:54 GMT -6
Yeah, I mean Rex does have a fan base, which is rare for a children book exclusive character. XDD It would also be nice to see Randall having to go through the changes in the monster world and in MI, as being a amuser is against his personality. XD
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Post by derringdont on Apr 7, 2014 16:14:17 GMT -6
I would actually really like to see Randall discover that he has value aside from his ability to collect energy, because it seems to me like that's the source of a lot of his problems, that he bases his self-worth on his usefulness.
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RantingRandall
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Post by RantingRandall on Apr 7, 2014 17:33:09 GMT -6
I would actually really like to see Randall discover that he has value aside from his ability to collect energy, because it seems to me like that's the source of a lot of his problems, that he bases his self-worth on his usefulness. One of my greatest wishes ever is to see this happen with the help of Mike and Sulley (and possibly OKs now as well?). It would be the cutest thing ever!
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Post by derringdont on Apr 7, 2014 20:58:09 GMT -6
I would actually really like to see Randall discover that he has value aside from his ability to collect energy, because it seems to me like that's the source of a lot of his problems, that he bases his self-worth on his usefulness. One of my greatest wishes ever is to see this happen with the help of Mike and Sulley (and possibly OKs now as well?). It would be the cutest thing ever! *high five* Yeah, that would be great.
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Post by hopefulartist on Apr 8, 2014 0:50:43 GMT -6
One of my greatest wishes ever is to see this happen with the help of Mike and Sulley (and possibly OKs now as well?). It would be the cutest thing ever! *high five* Yeah, that would be great. Agreed!
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Post by hopefulartist on Apr 8, 2014 1:04:57 GMT -6
Also, about the female character discussion, I would like that. As long as the female characters are well written and interesting. Not for the sole purpose of being a love interest because it's tiresome. I mean like she can be a love interest but that shouldn't be all she is. (Like Sherri Squibbles for example)
But I think that for female characters as the main characters would be for a new movie like starting fresh as a whole. Like Pixar did for Brave.
But I would just focus on the Monster Trio as the main characters though for a third movie. I would love it if they added Rex in there just to see how Randall views kids being the uncle. But if the directors decide not too, I would be a little disappointed but I can live with that.
Now I wonder what they would do for Boo...would they have her appear at all again? Would she be at the age where the voiceactress is now? Or will they make her age a little and make her still a kid?
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Post by AnthroOphidian on Apr 8, 2014 7:00:12 GMT -6
I would actually really like to see Randall discover that he has value aside from his ability to collect energy, because it seems to me like that's the source of a lot of his problems, that he bases his self-worth on his usefulness. While I agree that Randall should see value in himself (and hopefully will in the sequel), I think he actually determines his self-worth based on the amount of respect he has. In MU, he made it clear that he wanted respect even if it meant joining a bad crowd, and even in MI, he calmed down a bit on the first day when he temporarily beat Sulley. But yeah, it would be nice to see him grow to realize that there's more to a good life than he seems to think there is, and I do hope that Pixar does that with him. As for Boo, hopefulartist, I'm fairly confident she'll make at least a cameo, since the MU crew DID express regret about needing to get rid of her due to MU being a prequel set before she was even born.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2014 19:39:04 GMT -6
Can you imagine a cute girl reptilian monster? So much adorable! Yeah, if only a female reptilian monster existed! Also, with the "female character focus" angle, I was kind of hoping for a female character whose plotline didn't revolve around a male character.
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Post by conteremo on Apr 8, 2014 19:52:29 GMT -6
Welp I'm not the one making the film! I merely suggested the "Randall's relative" thing as a way to mash in two common wishes: a story about Randall and a story about a female character. Though my random comment on a forum won't affect what Pixar will do anyway. And the Boo suggestion doesn't even involve a plot much less a plot centered around a male. *sigh*
And right, I forgot about Miss Flint. I haven't seen MI for awhile plus she has very little screen-time, so I never looked close enough to see that she's "reptilian."
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Post by polkadots on Apr 9, 2014 12:38:31 GMT -6
with the "female character focus" angle, I was kind of hoping for a female character whose plotline didn't revolve around a male character.Yeeaaah. I actually would like a redemptive Randall thing (though it could be handled well or utterly terribly depending) but I have to agree with this. While supporting characters can be great overall girls do have their own stories to tell and Pixar is really in need of that. It's probably a lot more likely to happen in a new franchise but yeah I'd like it if we got more focus on the girls. Overall I guess the major problem with the monster franchise is that it's just so male heavy as it is. We already had a prequel based on fraternities as previously mentioned. The most important characters which have been previously? They are guys. The two most important characters of them all are well Mike and Sulley themselves. But they could still take a previously established female character and make a story out of that. (And not just as a supportive role) They'd, probably, however, want to have Mike and Sulley as important supportive cast members to keep the franchise the way Pixar wants though. (So instead of a female character supporting their story they support hers- whoever she may be). Boo, Dean Hardscrabble and Roz are really the three most important and thus the three most likely female characters out of any of them who could probably get a film as a main character Roz could have something about the CDA. And have some of the other agents be female too. I could imagine, while perhaps it would be hard to make a movie out of it, the Dean could have a few shorts about the switchover to laughter energy or something to that effect. Older!Boo is a blank slate and would be a tempting character for someone to play around with for that reason. Heck she's a kid who as she gets older will know of the monster world's existence in a way most kids don't and it's definitely possible to make a story from that. older!Boo overall seems the most likely really I guess at the end of the day. Because there's an amount of freedom as well as potential for a storyline. Plus if they want to keep Sulley and Mike in there she is the easiest choice for that. I would like to see more of Celia though. Heck it would be great if she and an older!Boo became close.
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Post by AnthroOphidian on Apr 9, 2014 14:36:50 GMT -6
It is a good point that Pixar, with the exception of Brave, has never really emphasized female characters. Still, I do feel that the sequel would be more of the same when it comes to genders: not only is Pixar pretty traditional with their values (at least to me), but the only female character with a major role in the original movie was also Boo. While it is plausible she may return, let alone be the central character, I consider it unlikely, given how many years it's been since MI, and since Mary Gibbs is much older now, combined with Pixar's history of retaining voice actors for continuations...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2014 16:46:41 GMT -6
It is a good point that Pixar, with the exception of Brave, has never really emphasized female characters. Still, I do feel that the sequel would be more of the same when it comes to genders: not only is Pixar pretty traditional with their values (at least to me), but the only female character with a major role in the original movie was also Boo. While it is plausible she may return, let alone be the central character, I consider it unlikely, given how many years it's been since MI, and since Mary Gibbs is much older now, combined with Pixar's history of retaining voice actors for continuations... Pixar is actually in the middle of a production centered around a sixteen year old girl. I don't remember what's it's called or what it's about, but it shows that they are using more female protagonist rather than have boyz as the leading roles. So I don't see how boo or any other girl character becoming the hero in the third continuation of the Monster adventure is too unrealistic an idea. I actually think having Boo as a main character would make much more sense above any of the other woman in the previous films (could you imagine and entire hour and a half about Celia or Hardscrabble XD) Plus, I think it would be an excellent opportunity for her to patch things up with Randall, which is what I have hoped for ever since I learned that there was a second Monster movie.
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Post by AnthroOphidian on Apr 9, 2014 18:36:22 GMT -6
I fully agree when it comes to Boo being the most likely female lead in a Monsters sequel, though partially because of what I already said that she was the only female character in the original with a major role.
And yeah, that would certainly be nice, her overcoming her fear of snakes and other things that look like Randall in the true fashion: growing to at least tolerate what she was once afraid of.
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