Author: Robin Russell

This blog it going to be a bit different from my usual blogs. I have always had an interest with this subculture but recently I have gotten into it again. 

For those who don’t know Punk is a subculture that is a global movement that emerged in the mid 70’s in the US. UK, and a few other nations. It is a countercultural reaction against mainstream commercialism. 

Punk emphasizes non-conformity, anti-capitalism, and individualism at its core. It is a movement against authority. It stems from political, economic, and social frustrations. It also focuses on raw emotion, passion, politics, and D-I-Y ethics. It is a truly incredible movement that I don’t think gets talked about as much as it should.

Many people when they think of Punk they think of anger and aggression which is partly true but Punk is much more. It is seeing something and doing something about it. Its standing up when no one else will. It’s knowing what is going on it your world. Due to a few individuals the punk scene, to some, has been lumped in with racism and negative and harmful ideologies, but this isn’t the case. Only a very very small, rare percent of Punks have these harmful ideologies. Most are very anti-racism, anti-fascism, anti-authoritarian, anti-white supremacy. Punks have actually significantly benefited many communities. Punk communities often operate in mutual aid, meaning they establish food programs for the poor, and establish support for the homeless and disabled. The Punk scene has also created a very welcoming and inclusive safe space for those who are in marginalized groups like LGBTQ+ and women. Punks have also been a big part in activism. They have fought against racism, sexism, animal cruelty, environmental issues, and even war. They often use bands as a platform to voice their opinions and impact society.  

Most people think that Punk is just a style or music but the ideologies that go with the subculture are so much more important to the punk community. The style and music has a huge role but the ideologies have a much bigger importance. Without these the punk subculture in my opinion wouldn’t exist. Some people say they are punk and do not align with the ideologies and I think that is a problem. A much bigger problem than not looking the part. This happens in a lot of subcultures, Goth for example. I think the mindset, especially in this particular subculture, means the most. 

But music and style plays a role as well. I could go on forever about this subculture and its ideologies, concept, and how relevant it is today but I fear this blog would be too long so I shall move on to talking about style and music for the moment. I may make another blog on this topic in the near future going further in detail. 

The style. THE STYLE! I personally love the punk style. Some may see the style as too dirty or grimy, but I personally love it. Liberty spikes. Handmade pieces. Self-sown patches. Big chunky boots. Safety pins, chains, studs galore. leather in any form. Ripped band tees. It is such an art really. It is a statement. A statement that goes with the anti-establishment and non-conformity ideologies. It rejects consumerism at its core, something I think is very needed in today’s society.

The music is what really introduced this subculture. The music started it all. It is a genre defined by aggressive fast-paced songs. It started in the 1970’s and continued to grow and evolve. It now has spread into many various forms like post-punk, hardcore, Oi!, Pop-punk, etc. (there are way too many to name.) Some punk bands during the Proto-punk era include MC5, the Stooges, Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Death, the Sonics and the Seeds, the Dictators, the Monks, and Blue Cheer but these are only a few of the bands that fit into this category. Next category is the NYC scene. This was around 1974. This consisted of bands like Television, Blondie, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Dead Boys, Patti Smith, and Lydia Lunch. Many off these bands played at a venue called the CBGB club. It is what made this era the NYC scene era, seeing as it was a small legendary music club in New York that hosted some of the most influential punk bands to this day. Next is the UK scene which took place mainly in 1976. It centered in London- hence the name “UK Scene”. The key bands in this era were the Sex Pistols, The Clash, the Undertones and The Damned. It quickly split into 80’s subgenres like Anarcho-punk, Street punk (UK82), and OI!, to name a few. Many of the key venues for the UK Scene were the 100 club, the Roxy, and the Vortex. In the 90’s Punk grew even more reaching a huge audience. In the 90’s punk became a huge mainstream appeal. It was mainly through Californian pop-punk and skate punk. The bands that were most influential during this time were bands like Green day, the Offspring, Blink-182, Sum 41, Fugazi, Rancid, and NOFX.

This is getting to be a really long blog, so I am going to make a part two with some of my favorite bands, styles, and a talk about a few of the ideologies deeper. 

The Jeff Buckley Documentary finally came out. I have since watched it about 5 times now and I can say it’s an okay documentary. It definitely went into detail about his life, and I did like how they crafted it. The animations they made from his doodles was insane. They were really nice and added a lot to the documentary. It did not however change my view on his mother. 

It fortified it. I can say i9 watched it with a clear mind, but she was just off through the whole thing. The vibe she gave off was not a mother wanting to make a documentary for her son, it was more like see was doing it just to do it. She was doing it for the money, and to me that’s what isn’t good about his mother. She also seems to be holding back so much also hiding something. 

She told a story of how her and a few friends were seen by Jeff doing a bit of drugs and she told him not to tell anyone, or they would all go to prison. Almost like a threat. I feel like there is something way deeper to this story and she didn’t tell the whole thing. She told the story and didn’t spend any time on it whether to explain or talk in a bit more detail about it. She also made me really mad and dislike her when one of Jeff Buckley’s colleagues told a story about her before a show he was doing in his hometown. Jeff’s whole family came to see him, and he was about to go on when they had to hold off on the show for a moment due to his mother and one of her friends being found in the parking lot as high as a kite.  They then go to share voicemails from him calling his mother about the situation and he seems to be very angry, rightfully so, but they play if off as a funny and silly little event, but I think it paints a perfect picture of who his mother is. She is seen throughout the documentary a handful of times, and each time made it more clear of how narcissistic she was and how it seems she is only using Jeff for money.

Another thing about this documentary is how they are still trying to play off his death as normal. It isn’t normal and it certainly doesn’t add up. They say in the documentary that they believe he was mentally ill suffering from a manic-depressive disorder much like Jimi Hendrix and other artists during the time, but the disorder wasn’t well studied at the time therefore they couldn’t have known he had this disorder. I see it as playing it off trying to pin it on something that could happen and that is normal, but spoiler alert it was anything but normal.  His last girlfriend, Joan Wasser, a fellow songwriter and musician was also in the documentary and gave a few stories about jeff but one that stook out to me was a story they told about Jeff’s later years. It was maybe a couple of months before he passed. He supposedly told her that he was seeing visions of the devil and had a dream that he had a brain tumor and died but while they were telling these stories the camera cuts back to Joan Wasser who says Jeff told her about seeing visions and talking to the devil but when she says this her face curls into an unusual and odd facial expression one that seemed like she was almost happy, like a smirk but more devious and odd, especially since she was talking about the death of her boyfriend. My theory about this wasn’t really clear at first and then I found out about Duper’s Delight. It is a condition when certain people involuntarily smile, smirk, or laugh while lying. The micro expression is brief and a brief second uncontrollable movement that in turn reveals true emotion. Sometimes they feel this smile or muscle movement happen and try to hide it by biting their lips or tightening their mouth which only makes the movement look like a guilty smirk. It comes from the dopamine someone gets from lying and then in turn getting away with it. The condition is also often associated with narcissism which is an interesting correlation especially in this circumstance. 

These things make me think they still aren’t telling the truth and that something else is to blame for his death. 

When Jeff was found in the Wolf River when his body was found and what makes this interesting is where the exact spot he was found is located. He was found in the river fairly close if not across from a bar he played in weekly called the Barristers on Beale Street. Beale street is a very historical street in Memphis due to it being named “Home of the Blues”. 

All of this put together is quite odd. Jeff’s mother hiding things, his last girlfriend lying, and him being found near the “Home of the Blues”, makes an odd story, and one that needs to be addressed. He knew he was going to die. He has lyrics and journal entrees about these thoughts and predictions, even some about drowning. Also, some of his entrees were not published with the rest of his journal, which maybe they were personal but seeing the documentary the mother doesn’t care about personal things she cares about if it will hurt her image. She not only published his diary, his last album which he wished to burn, but she also allowed a few baby pictures of him in the documentary which were …… let me just say interesting. If she can put those photos in a movie about Jeff’s life I highly doubt, she is thinking about what is personal or not. So, I also think she is using the journal to set a narrative. He probably had things about her in the journal along with entrees about his death which she had removed before publishing it to the public.

He did not like his record label, nor did he trust them. He didn’t like his mom, he loved his mom due to her being his mom, but he didn’t like her. He left her and said on a few occasions he wanted nothing to do with her. He was a great writer, too great. They had to do something about it. Who “they” is, is still a mystery but one that needs to be found.

A story that needs its truth told. I do think a lot of the documentary was somewhat truthful. Not everyone in it was lying I could tell that but somewhere, and the people that were lying were important pieces to his story. So that is why I believe the documentary only partially did Jeff justice. 

This is all that I really have to say about it. It was good but could have been better. I could talk a lot more about it but for right now that’s it for this blog.  

It’s over. 

The final season finally came out.

! (Spoilers) !

I got to see the final episode in a theater near my home and it was pretty good. I’m glad I got to see it in a theatre. 

This season has been crazy but it definitely didn’t end how I thought it would end. My roommate and I before it came out came up with all these theories and what route they might take with ending the show but it definitely wasn’t what We thought. 

I did like the ending but I definitely was expecting more. I thought maybe they would go a more DnD route with the story but they didn’t. I also was hoping maybe El and Mike would have a happy ending but that didn’t happen. 

I did like the ending where Mike became a writer and wrote a DnD campaign around their story, I thought it added a nice touch. I also liked how sad and emotional the final episode was toward the VERY end. I liked how it was the end and I liked how it felt like the end of something. It had that sad emotion to it. It was also just kind of open though. 

In my opinion yes the story felt done and feels ended but at the same time not really. There is so much story that wasn’t told and wasn’t explained but played a huge role in the series. The ending felt done but not complete if that makes sense. Like why is it all connected to DnD and what happened to the storyline where Joyce, Hopper, and Henry all grew up together. They didn’t put an outfit together, they just picked clothing items. If that analogy makes any sense. 

But over all I think it was pretty good. I think the dialogue could’ve been written a bit better. I think it didn’t really feel like the Duffers wrote it. I also thought th sudden change in Will’s character was a bit odd. How they just made Will suddenly outgoing and it just made it awkward. I also didn’t understand bringing back El’s sister Kali. It just didn’t make much sense to bring her back for eight episodes just to kill her off. I think overall the  story could’ve ended in a much more cohesive way that wrapped everything up, but it was great nevertheless.  It made some sense and was an ending. That’s all it needed. 

And plus who knows if they’re planning on making more that explain it all better. 

And that’s a wrap on stranger things. 

One last adventure now complete. 

The end of beginnings. 

Winter break has come and gone so what better thing to talk about. It has been a minute since my last blog but it hasn’t been boring-trust me. 

I did a lot of self reflection while on break, since we are starting a new year and all. Not to sound corny but definitely feel like my life is kind of pivoting right now. I am getting my creative spark back little by little. I am also learning guitar, by myself. Definitely is difficult but I’m not giving up on it because it feels like I fit there if that makes sense. Me and my guitar. I learned a few new chords over break and even a scale. I tried to learn a song but I decided I wasn’t ready for all of that just yet, but I will be one day soon. 

I also decided to write a song or two and see what that’s about. I will update y’all about that later but for the rest of the blog I would like to talk about the past year. 

This past year has been amazing. I have grown a lot and I can see it in my day to day life. I have made so many friends both here (at school) and during this past summer. I have done a lot. I also don’t acknowledge my achievements often but I think with the new year rolling around it’s good to look back and reflect. Yes I could have done a lot of things better but why focus on that when last year was such a great one.  

I mean I basically lived at church camp all summer and had so much fun. I learned so much and made a lot of good friends. I then directly after camp was over came here. I have made a lot of new friends here too and i have learned a lot as well. So over all this year has been great and I can’t wait for this upcoming year. It’s gonna be a great one. 

I haven’t blogged about music in a while and due to Spotify wrapped coming out this week I feel the urge to talk about music. So that is what this blog is going to be about. I love music but I definitely haven’t been listening to music like I used to. I had a friend that I got a lot of cool music recs from but after a while I kind of just quite listening to music for myself and what I liked and I listened to music, the only way I can explain it is like a zombie. I just lost the love for it. But I have noticed this and have begun to fix it. Music is my world and I feel that I need to nurture that so I have been trying to listen to and find new songs that make me happy and fit my brain. My Spotify wrapped is pretty much all over the place so I won’t be talking a lot about that but I will say a few key things about it. I listened to 45 albums this year, 5,901 songs, and 391 genres. I listened to music for 84,578 minutes which is roughly 58 days. I think that it’s not bad, but it could be better. I also feel like wrapped this year was so random (not in content but in when they released it). Last year there was such a build up to it, which was met with, almost, disappointment by a lot. But this year it was just like whatever. But anyways this isn’t the main point of this blog. I thought since we are now in the time frame where our music isn’t really being tracked right now for wrapped, I would sort of track it here. 

So jumping into artists I’ve been listening to this week. I’ve been listening to Finn Wolfhard (not because of Stranger Things Season 5). I listen to music differently than a lot of people I think. I listen for the vibe and the feeling and what’s being said. I think that that’s what music is for. Not to say “Yeah I listen to (insert artist)”. I feel that listening to music for others approval is pretty pointless. Anyways, I’ve been listening to his “new” album. It’s great. I love the vibe and it is easy to listen to. My top song out of the songs I’ve been listening to by him is probably “Everytown there’s a darling”. Due to listening to Finn Wolfhard, you can infer I have also been listening to Calpurnia a bit (Calpurnia is a band that he is in). If I am listening to Finn Wolfhard nine times out of ten, I’m listening to Calpurnia too. They are so similar that their songs just go together well. 

I have also been listening to Malcom Todd and music like that. His music is very vibey and just easy to listen to. I think Malcom Tod’s songs that have been on repeat this week are definitely “Sweet Boy”, “Chest Pain (I Love)”, and “Roommates”. These all fit a vibe that just feels right (as I said I listen to music differently, I listen biased on feeling I guess. If it doesn’t make me feel then it’s not the song to listen to in that moment, but every moment has a feeling that can be matched with music, the right song just has to be found). But back on the topic of Malcom Tod’s music. I tried to find other artists with the same vibe and I found one that definitely is similar, Jack Murnin. The songs that I found of his were “Back N Forth”, “Terms” (my personal favorite), “Riled up”, and “IcyHot”. I definitely think that they have similar vibes, feelings, and styles. I enjoy finding new music to listen to so when I do it’s definitely a treat.  

Okay the next artist I’ve listened to a good bit is Dominic Fike. He has a new single that came out in November – “White Key” – so I’ve had that on repeat a couple of times. I really like his music. The way it flows and how the lyrics go with the beat is crazy. I think everyone’s style of lyricism is so interesting and unique. I love the lyrics in this song though. It just makes a story out of the words, the beat, the vibe and the feeling. It’s a great song. Due to this I’ve listened to a few of my other favorites from  his older stuff. 

Next is CThruRio. I don’t know how to pronounce his name or even really what it means but the way I found his music was TikTok. I listen to a range of genres as stated previously and this is a genre that I think many don’t think I listen to, hip-hop. Now my favorite song of his is a bit more of a mix of rap and rock, which I find interesting, but still hip-hop. I haven’t listened to any of his newer stuff yet but I have recently went back to his song “Before the Morning” because of the unique style it has. 

And of course I’ve listened to more than that but I listen to so many individual songs that it’s pointless to try and talk about all of them but those are – what I think are- my top artists this week. 

*I watched stranger things season 5 Volume one and will be doing a blog about it, but I feel like I want to wait until the whole season is out so until then it’ll be music and other shows or movies* 

Anyways thanks for reading and until next blog. 

It’s almost time for another season. I am so excited for the new and final season of this show. 

Stranger things is a show written by the Duffer Brothers. Stanger Things encapsulates D&D, fantasy, and 80’s in one show. It is highly thought-out, and each detail has a reason and a planned-out storyline and it’s just an incredibly made show. 

The show currently has 4 seasons and each season took about a year to film. The new season took about a year to film, making it the longest to film. The episodes of the new season are rumored to be at least an hour long each. This makes me super excited to see how they end the show. The first season was released in 2016 when most of the main cast was 10 or 11, now they are all roughly in their 20s. This has been a huge production and the new season had a huge budget, roughly $480 million. This makes it one of the most expensive TV series to ever be produced. 

They are releasing the first four episodes of the new season on the 26th and the runtime for those four episodes alone is roughly 4hrs and 30mins. this is an insane start to the finale of the show.   

I have many, many theories and thoughts about how they could end the show and wrap up the whole thing but I won’t go into all of them. One of them though i would like to talk about for a second is my theory about the character Mike Wheeler.

———–Might be spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen the show———-

I have been rewatching the series in preparation for the new season and noticed that Mike seems to be the middle of a lot of storylines, action, and conflict. He also seems to be wanted for some reason. Will before he was abducted by Vecna was best friends with mike, what if Vecna saw this and was trying to get closer to mike to get what he wanted. I also noticed that they seem to be setting up a storyline for his mother where maybe she is Vecna’s sister. I also think this theory about mike could be pretty accurate due to how fast him and El clicked. I think maybe he could be wanted due to him being the dungeon master for their party or maybe he is wanted due to him being a sort of power source. Like a regenerator for the powers both Vecna and El have. I haven’t really heard anyone else talk about this theory, so I am curious to see if it is somewhat accurate. 

Anyways this was my mini rant about stranger things due to the new season being released next week. I will be blogging about the new season once I have seen it. Anyways until next time. 

Due to Thanksgiving being next week and we are going to be out of school I wanted to do a blog about things I am thankful for. 

To start off with everything I am thankful for I am definitely thankful to be in this creativity filled environment and have the opportunity to go to such a great school. I am thankful for all of the friends I have made here as well. I am thankful for the things I have learned and areas I’ve grown in due to this school. 

I am thankful for all my friends back home and I miss all of them so much. I am thankful for every memory they have given me, good or bad lol. 

I am thankful for this past summer. I had the best opportunity to work at a summer camp. I loved it. It was a really great opportunity to help others and just be useful to others. It helped me to see how fun a summer can be. Normally my summers include staying at home a lot and I am thankful for this past summer because it showed me how great having an eventful but not busy summer can be. I am also thankful for this past summer due to how many great people and friends I made. They are all so great and I am grateful I have them as friends. 

I am also just thankful for everything. I think we take a lot for granted as not just Americans but as human beings. due to life and business, I think people often move too fast to even acknowledge their blessings.  I think it’s a very important thing to do though. It helps you see what a cool world we live in and how privileged we are in general. 

During this time many jump straight to thinking about Christmas and presents, but i think thanksgiving is so important to celebrate. We need to acknowledge our gifts not just want gifts. We as a society in today’s day in age seem to want something every day and get wants confused with needs. Which not saying wanting things is bad but putting a limit on how much you want is a great idea in my opinion. Acknowledging one’s blessings and how much you have already received makes it much easier to be content as well. 

So, this holiday break give thanks and not wish lists. 

I myself love the spider-verse saga. What is the spider-verse saga you may be asking due to there being a lot of different spiderman movies. The Spider-verse saga is a soon to be three movie series. The movies out so far are Into the Spider-verse and Across the Spider-verse. The upcoming movie is Beyond the spider-verse. It is scheduled to come out in 2027. The production of these movies has been long and strenuous.  According to many sources, Phil Lord (The writer and producer) is very creatively indecisive. He has scrapped nearly finished scenes which take weeks to finish and have great detail. This has made a lot of the animators mad and ready to give up. But I think his Creative indecisiveness shows through the films a bit which adds a nice touch. Everything has a purpose, and everything is greatly detailed. I am not siding with him by no means, but I do see how creative indecisiveness could play a positive role in some scenarios, but I will say a deadline isn’t one of them. The movies due to this have taken year and years to release. But in turn have become some of the most acclaimed animated films. 

Here’s why. The animation style isn’t confined to one specific style. Each scene showcases many different styles. This is partly due to the concept of different dimensions coming together. All of these different styles meshed together in the right way though create amazing art and animations. I won’t nerd out too much about the animation though because normally that’s all people talk about when talking about these incredible movies. The color scheme of these movies is also unmatched in my opinion. The colors flow, contrast, and just work so beautifully together in a way that speaks volumes. 

The soundtrack. Oh my gosh where do I begin. The soundtrack fits with the movies and senses to a tee. Metro Boomin did the most recent soundtrack, and it was amazing. It tells the story in and of itself. The first soundtrack is also such a masterpiece and guides you through the story as well. Each song helps you to better feel and understand Miles’s feelings (the main spiderman throughout these movies) in my opinion. This is what makes them so great. 

I think these movies are great also due to how it showcases Stan Lee’s work. It shows how many characters he made and how diverse everyone is. In recent years certain franchises have taken his characters and stories and warped them for intentions that aren’t great in my opinion. They have taken it upon themselves to try and create diverse characters and inclusive stories, but they end up ruining the stories. I feel that it’s a good thing to have diversity and inclusivity in media but why create stories out of need for money and wanting to appeal to everyone when Stan Lee already wrote some of the most diverse characters and story lines in the superhero world. They were also not stereotypical characters or stories. They are each individual and very distinct characters. I think these movies showcase this due to how many spiderman characters he made. It makes you think about how many characters he made, and how many stories he wrote for each one and how very different each one is. Of course, some of the characters they had to make up to fill the screen but overall, every spiderman seen in the movies are in Stan Lee’s comics. This is a topic I think about a lot. It is so prominent not only in superhero movies but also just in the entertainment industry. People try to be inclusive by making up stories and characters that center around race and stereotypes. This makes me mad, honestly. Don’t get me wrong I think we need individuality in entertainment but not like this. Stories that all center around the same stereotypes mesh together and aren’t original in my opinion, it’s not art, nor is it entertaining. 

Anyways back to talking about spider-verse. It is such an awesome trilogy, and it has a great story line as well. Its writing is amazing as well. I definitely think that the production process is insane due to over 150 animators alone working on the first movie and more than 1,000 animators on the second. The animation team for these movies is one of the biggest Imageworks has ever had on one project. So, you can imagine how much of a big deal these movies are. Although they have had about 100 animators quite due to the strenuous atmosphere it’s still a huge project.

In-between the release of the last movie and the upcoming movie, Beyond the spider-verse, they have announced works on another film. A new movie solely focused on Hobie Brown, a spiderman who makes a few appearances in Across the spider-verse. Most know him as Spider-punk. The new movie has some excited while others are skeptical. Hobie is very punk, as his name suggests, and due to this fans think that they might not encapsulate the punk subculture. Punk is a great and complex subculture. It goes against authority, this is what makes people skeptical of the movie. People are scared of such a big company like Sony overseeing the project and dulling the punk aspect of the character. I think though that if they do this movie in the right way it will be great.  

This was one big dump of random facts about the Spider-verse movies, but I am excited to see the new movies and can’t wait for my next blog. 

Since it’s been a minute since my last blog I thought I would do a little life recap of fall breck and last week.

Over fall break I went to my first concert. I have a list of bands/singers that I want to see live. Well I get to make the number one band off my list-Rainbow Kitten Suprise. They are/were at the top of my list due to how their music feels and is made. Their music is made to be listened to live. When i saw they were doing a show in Hattiesburg I was thrilled. My dad and I went, and it was really a great show, even the opener was amazing.

Jelani Aryeh was the opener for their tour, Thanks for coming, he toured with them and brought some musicians along with him, bennytheghost (a guitarist during the tour but he makes his own music as well), Trevor Zemtseff (a drummer for the tour), and a bass player, Cooper Holzman. They were amazingly talented and did an amazing job. Jelani’s music doesn’t really fit into just one genre but is a mix of indie rock, R&B, hip-hop, po, and sometimes post-punk. His songs are crafted in such a beautiful way, they feel almost ethereal and have a summer or travel feel. I got to meet him and get a picture as well as a signed shirt.

Jelani and his “band” were supper nice when people when meeting them as well. Some people were being really demanding of them and weren’t really in my opinion respecting them, but they were great and handled the crowd well. They have now been added to the very very very long list of musicians I listen too.

Rainbow Kitten Surprise was amazing as well. Their stage presence is so thought out, blocked, and colorful that it adds to the music. You really get to see the story of some of the songs. Their stage lights are mind blowing and were so beautiful; pictures don’t do it justice sadly. They are an alt rock indie band. RKS is made up of Ela Melo (lead vocals and writer), Darrick “Bozzy” Keller (guitar and backup vocals), Ethan Goodpaster (Electric guitar), and the great Jess Haney on drums. They played older and newer songs at this concert. 

I also went to camp this Saturday. I worked at a Christian summer camp this past summer and it was great. I loved it and can’t wait to go back. I made so many friends and was able to have such a great impact on so many kids lives. But anyways this past Saturday I got to go and help with concessions at a soccer tournament and then help with high ropes. High ropes is a tower which reaches about 30ft. up in the air. It is an obstacle course in the air basically. You are harnessed up and were helmets, so you are completely safe and it’s a great experience. It’s one of my favorite things to do at camp. 

My next blog will be back to normal and on topic. Here’s some extra pictures too. Until next blog <3

This blog, if you couldn’t tell, is going to be about Ratatouille, the movie not the food. This movie is one of my favorite Disney movies. I love how the animation is done and how the colors work so well together.  

Ratatouille is not just a cute kids movie made by Disney. It is a movie about a rat who has synesthesia(taste-to-color). Its visuals portray this due to Michel Gangne, the person who was put in charge of portraying Remy’s synesthesia in the film due to his own experience with synesthesia. He designed the colors and patterns Remy saw throughout the movie to depict what it is like to experience flavors through synesthesia. This made the film so much better. I honestly can’t imagine Ratatouille without the vivid colors, patterns, and just overall animation and cinematography. 

Ratatouille is a movie about a rat who as we have established has synesthesia and is obsessed with food due to this. He thinks that rats should steal real food rather than trash if they are going to steal. He eventually is put over smelling food, trash, for rat poison. He does good at his job but one day he goes into the house beside where they live and causes the whole population of rats to flee. Remi gets separated and inevitably finds a restaurant he used to watch at the house near his and decides to go in and try to steal food but ends up befriending a man named Alfredo Linguini, who tries to become a garbage boy for the restaurant but ends up becoming a chef thanks to Remy.

Now that you are all caught up on the overall gist of the movie let’s talk about the cinematography, I guess you would call it, of this movie. Ratatouille is a masterpiece. Its animation is beautifully done, and its subject is well portrayed.  It’s an artistic movie really. The movie consists of a very bright light color scheme throughout the majority. The movie does use darker color schemes when needed but it’s an overall pastel color scheme. The color scheme was the work of Harley Jessup (production designer) and Sharon Calahan (director of photography). They used more restrained colors in backgrounds throughout the movie to give more contrast with the bright deep colors used in the food. They used lighting as well. They used it to guide the films visual mood to evoke emotions and support the story throughout the movie. They use these aspects in such a way that the two blind together to make the movie. It flows together adding to the film in a very positive way. 

The animation also adds to the film. It was animated by Pixar. The film uses a trad frame by frame animation method rather than motion capture. It took a lot of research and time to get every detail right. The animation is a 3d computer      animation style. Its animation is slick,      precise and well developed. 

The movie was followed by a short film called “your friend the rat”. I personally have never seen this film. It is done in 2d animation and is a film where Remy and Emile (Remy’s older brother) tell the history of rats and argue the case of their species. It’s roughly 11 minutes long. 

A theory some have made about the movie is that the old women who lives in the house at the beginning of the movie is the food critic Anton Ego’s mother. They support this with the decor showing in both his childhood home and her house being the same or similar.

My favorite character in this movie is obviously Remy, but Anton Ego is a close second and Alfredo is third followed by the great Colette Tatou. The character creation and development in this movie is amazing, and the plot is so well written. The movie was released in 2007. It was pretty amazing for the time. I suggest everyone watch Ratatouille it’s a great movie with so many good themes and lessons. It shaped my childhood, and it will always be one of my favorite movies. I could go on and on about this movie, but I think this is a good stopping point. Can’t wait for next week’s blog. 

“Anyone can cook, but a great artist can come from anywhere” – Chef Gusteau