And this is why we torrent
September 11, 2013 9:25 PM Subscribe
Disney has announced plans to rerelease The Little Mermaid to theaters on September 20. However, the rereleased film has been synced with an iPad app that gives users the ability to play games, sing-a-long to the movie and interact with the characters. While in the movie theatre.
For Disney, this is probably a good idea, because one of the challenges with movies (at least for us with both of our boys) is that kids cannot sit through a 90 minute movie until about the age of 5. So it's a waste of money (my memory of seeing Cars in the theatre was that our then 4-year-old wanted to go home about 30 minutes in). Now there is an incentive to take younger kids.
So adding the second-screen crap is a great way to keep younger bums in seats.
I can't imagine this would be a problem at movies aimed at adults, and most Hollywood movies these days aimed at adults are pure drivel anyway - the real reason why we Torrent.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:30 PM on September 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
So adding the second-screen crap is a great way to keep younger bums in seats.
I can't imagine this would be a problem at movies aimed at adults, and most Hollywood movies these days aimed at adults are pure drivel anyway - the real reason why we Torrent.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:30 PM on September 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
I am twenty-three and I want this to get the fuck away from my lawn.
posted by Rory Marinich at 9:30 PM on September 11, 2013 [44 favorites]
posted by Rory Marinich at 9:30 PM on September 11, 2013 [44 favorites]
And this is why we torrent
Or, y'know, wait 10 days and buy. I mean, the movie's been out 24 years, surely you can wait a week.
posted by maryr at 9:31 PM on September 11, 2013 [9 favorites]
Or, y'know, wait 10 days and buy. I mean, the movie's been out 24 years, surely you can wait a week.
posted by maryr at 9:31 PM on September 11, 2013 [9 favorites]
Seems like Disney is taking a crack at beating The OogieLoves In The Big Balloon Adventure. The audience is a little older and the brand is a lot bigger, so it seems possible that it'll stick.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:32 PM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Going To Maine at 9:32 PM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
This... could be something very important. Hrm.
posted by andreaazure at 9:36 PM on September 11, 2013
posted by andreaazure at 9:36 PM on September 11, 2013
Cue whining, entitled Android users in 3… 2… 1…
* crickets*
Guys. Guys. Don't you want this on Android too?
* crickets*
Oh, good point.
posted by schwa at 9:41 PM on September 11, 2013 [15 favorites]
* crickets*
Guys. Guys. Don't you want this on Android too?
* crickets*
Oh, good point.
posted by schwa at 9:41 PM on September 11, 2013 [15 favorites]
Cue whining, entitled Android users
LOL, after Apple's "launch" of "new" products today, I don't think we Android users have much to whine about.
Besides, who needs Little Mermaid when you can take the kids to see the Avengers?
posted by KokuRyu at 9:45 PM on September 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
LOL, after Apple's "launch" of "new" products today, I don't think we Android users have much to whine about.
Besides, who needs Little Mermaid when you can take the kids to see the Avengers?
posted by KokuRyu at 9:45 PM on September 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
I will be turning the sprinklers on anyone who shows up on my lawn with this.
posted by arcticseal at 9:47 PM on September 11, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by arcticseal at 9:47 PM on September 11, 2013 [5 favorites]
The Little Mermaid was the first movie I saw in theaters. It's one of my earliest memories, actually, when Ariel is turned human and her tail splits in two to become legs and then she nearly drowns - I remember being SO SCARED (I must have been like, five or something) and I had to look away until the music was okay again and not just HORRIBLE URSULA LAUGHING. So, yeah I can see the nostalgic appeal, and I'm not gonna speak ill of anything* cause for whatever reason I remember that bone-deep fear of being five and maybe an iPad app would've helped? Or not? Who knows. I'm a big fan of communal theatre experiences, I think I can enjoy this.
*The Protagonist of the movie is King Triton, not Ariel, natch.
posted by The Whelk at 9:56 PM on September 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
*The Protagonist of the movie is King Triton, not Ariel, natch.
posted by The Whelk at 9:56 PM on September 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
(I also remember talking to a Russian guy my age at a party a few years ago who saw The Little Mermaid on a bootleg VHS when he was a kid and how he was obsessed with it cause you never saw her tits and if it was a Russian/Soviet movie, you totally would've had and that struck little kid him as really alien and exotic.)
posted by The Whelk at 9:59 PM on September 11, 2013 [9 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 9:59 PM on September 11, 2013 [9 favorites]
I'm a big fan of communal theatre experiences
You want to be where the people are? Part of that world?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 10:12 PM on September 11, 2013 [29 favorites]
You want to be where the people are? Part of that world?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 10:12 PM on September 11, 2013 [29 favorites]
I worked in a video store in the 90s and one night the cops called me and told me the store had been broken into. I was pretty pissed because I happened to leave my laptop there that night.
So I call a cab and head into the store at 3 in the morning and take a look around while the glass people fix the door. Laptop's still there. Store computer's still there. Tomorrow's float still there. WTF?
The system we used to have was that a person would bring the empty VHS box up to the counter--the box had a number on the spine and we'd match that to the correct tape, which we kept behind the counter, which we'd then rent the customer.
On the counter that morning was an empty case. I look at the spine, punch the number into the computer... The Little Mermaid.
Some jackass smashed our door ($600), broke into the shop, left a $1500 laptop, a $1000 computer, a $300 float, and made off with The Little Mermaid.
Always wondered if he was crazy drunk and jonesing for the flick or had promised his kid the movie for her birthday and panicked when he realized it was out of print and impossible to find.
posted by dobbs at 10:14 PM on September 11, 2013 [21 favorites]
So I call a cab and head into the store at 3 in the morning and take a look around while the glass people fix the door. Laptop's still there. Store computer's still there. Tomorrow's float still there. WTF?
The system we used to have was that a person would bring the empty VHS box up to the counter--the box had a number on the spine and we'd match that to the correct tape, which we kept behind the counter, which we'd then rent the customer.
On the counter that morning was an empty case. I look at the spine, punch the number into the computer... The Little Mermaid.
Some jackass smashed our door ($600), broke into the shop, left a $1500 laptop, a $1000 computer, a $300 float, and made off with The Little Mermaid.
Always wondered if he was crazy drunk and jonesing for the flick or had promised his kid the movie for her birthday and panicked when he realized it was out of print and impossible to find.
posted by dobbs at 10:14 PM on September 11, 2013 [21 favorites]
Honestly, this looks like a lot of fun and if I was a kid, I'd be desperate to go. It reminds me of descriptions of weekend matinee sessions in the forties and fifties, with kids running amok; booing at the screen and having lolly wars. We shouldn't expect, or even encourage, children to sit in a dark room and quietly watch a screen. This seems more like a pantomime or concert experience and I hope they have an Aladdin one ready by the time my daughter is old enough for it.
posted by Wantok at 10:15 PM on September 11, 2013 [8 favorites]
posted by Wantok at 10:15 PM on September 11, 2013 [8 favorites]
Or, y'know, wait 10 days and buy. I mean, the movie's been out 24 years, surely you can wait a week.
Or I can torrent it now and watch it when I want on a device I actually own (it's not available on iTunes either). Or I can torrent it because I don't want to spend $27 on a movie that's 24 years old. Or I can torrent it because spending $27 on a movie made for an audience who spends half the time the movie's playing taking the cushions off the couch and asking for ice cream seems ridiculous.
There are a million good reasons to torrent The Little Mermaid instead of buying it for $27.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:15 PM on September 11, 2013 [5 favorites]
Or I can torrent it now and watch it when I want on a device I actually own (it's not available on iTunes either). Or I can torrent it because I don't want to spend $27 on a movie that's 24 years old. Or I can torrent it because spending $27 on a movie made for an audience who spends half the time the movie's playing taking the cushions off the couch and asking for ice cream seems ridiculous.
There are a million good reasons to torrent The Little Mermaid instead of buying it for $27.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:15 PM on September 11, 2013 [5 favorites]
I'd love it to be an ACTUAL communal experience, like a proper movie singalong. I love those. Throw the lyrics up on the big screen and let's all keep our heads up and follow the bouncing starfish together.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:20 PM on September 11, 2013 [14 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:20 PM on September 11, 2013 [14 favorites]
It reminds me of descriptions of weekend matinee sessions in the forties and fifties, with kids running amok; booing at the screen and having lolly wars.
*popcorn throwing*
Nobody takes a fall like Goofy! Such genius such panache!
*cue kids creaming*
Oh wait...another stupid newsreel. I hate the news.
(I'm totally fine if crazy screaming kid showings where scheduled as an actual thing like the "Mothers and babies" screenings I see occasionally cause that means they don't bleed out into other showings, but the other hand, I'm a sucker for a sing-a-long and if it was on the screen itself it wouldn't feel so income exclusion-y)
posted by The Whelk at 10:27 PM on September 11, 2013 [6 favorites]
*popcorn throwing*
Nobody takes a fall like Goofy! Such genius such panache!
*cue kids creaming*
Oh wait...another stupid newsreel. I hate the news.
(I'm totally fine if crazy screaming kid showings where scheduled as an actual thing like the "Mothers and babies" screenings I see occasionally cause that means they don't bleed out into other showings, but the other hand, I'm a sucker for a sing-a-long and if it was on the screen itself it wouldn't feel so income exclusion-y)
posted by The Whelk at 10:27 PM on September 11, 2013 [6 favorites]
(the Wizard Of Oz sing-a-long at the Castro Theater was SO CHARMING YOU GUYS, full house, families, kids dressed in costume, adults in costume, lots of candy, there's nothing like an entire theater singing "if I Only Had A Brain" totally out of time with each other. SO yeah I support this if it creates more of that.)
posted by The Whelk at 10:32 PM on September 11, 2013 [6 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 10:32 PM on September 11, 2013 [6 favorites]
Yeah, a sing-along or kids-only screening sounds fine. It's the prospect of a whole lot of tired-looking mums (or dads) with multiple-children families with child:iPad ratio >1 so that poor mum (or dad) has to negotiate who gets to waggle the iPad in the air this time all the way through the movie that sounds horrifying.
That and the suspicion that the noise levels will be brain-melting.
posted by gingerest at 11:00 PM on September 11, 2013
That and the suspicion that the noise levels will be brain-melting.
posted by gingerest at 11:00 PM on September 11, 2013
Mod note: Just a note that despite the title, this isn't actually a torrenting and copyright thread, and we've had hundreds of those, so let's not repeat it all here. Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 11:09 PM on September 11, 2013
posted by taz (staff) at 11:09 PM on September 11, 2013
Yeah, there are child-friendly screenings of movies here in the UK. The volume is down a bit, the lights are up, they're mid-afternoon. Lots of noise, children, running around. This sounds perfect for that. Evening showings of the latest art-house movie? Not really relevant.
But if you habituate to using your mobile as a child, why not keep doing it as a teenager and adult? We need some clear social etiquette on mobile use in the cinema, whether for or against (I'm against personally, but I'm old, nearly forty...)
posted by alasdair at 11:28 PM on September 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
But if you habituate to using your mobile as a child, why not keep doing it as a teenager and adult? We need some clear social etiquette on mobile use in the cinema, whether for or against (I'm against personally, but I'm old, nearly forty...)
posted by alasdair at 11:28 PM on September 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
he was obsessed with it cause you never saw her tits and if it was a Russian/Soviet movie, you totally would've had and that struck little kid him as really alien and exotic.
I've long suspected that this is the real reason for nudity taboos. If you see it every day, so what? If it's a big deal when you see gasp TITS, the sheer power of the female breast can drive teenage boys mad.
posted by JHarris at 11:57 PM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
I've long suspected that this is the real reason for nudity taboos. If you see it every day, so what? If it's a big deal when you see gasp TITS, the sheer power of the female breast can drive teenage boys mad.
posted by JHarris at 11:57 PM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'm fine with people using their second screens for whatever they like during a movie. That genie is out of the bottle. 30 years ago I remember adults thinking it was 'rude' for kids to wear Sony Walkmans in public.
What's more mystifying is the huge amount of pent-up rage and violent fantasising that always surfaces on threads about people using cameras/phones/second screens at gigs or movies. I knew there would be jokey comments about violent revenge or smashing up someone's phone, and hey ho it's the very first one.
It's some sort of 'authenticity in consumption of art' fetish that finds a way to the surface.
posted by colie at 12:25 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
What's more mystifying is the huge amount of pent-up rage and violent fantasising that always surfaces on threads about people using cameras/phones/second screens at gigs or movies. I knew there would be jokey comments about violent revenge or smashing up someone's phone, and hey ho it's the very first one.
It's some sort of 'authenticity in consumption of art' fetish that finds a way to the surface.
posted by colie at 12:25 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
I'm all for communal sing alongs. Heck, Disney themselves released a whole series of sing along VHS tapes.
You don't need an iPad. You just follow the bouncing ball onscreen.
posted by mikelieman at 12:27 AM on September 12, 2013
You don't need an iPad. You just follow the bouncing ball onscreen.
posted by mikelieman at 12:27 AM on September 12, 2013
Not to derail, but damn. The Ooglieloves in Big Balloon Adventure. I had never heard of it before this thread, and it's-- wow. I can't begin to-- well, just watch this.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 12:56 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 12:56 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
So if I want to film my kids having a great time doing this in a cinema on their portable devices, on my portable device, am I being a thoughtful parent, a diligent consumer, an evil copyright thief, or a potential paedophile? I just can't tell. Let's hope the ushers have good legal training on border cases, and aren't too trigger-happy with their tasers.
posted by Devonian at 12:59 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by Devonian at 12:59 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
It's some sort of 'authenticity in consumption of art' fetish that finds a way to the surface.
I really doubt that's the case. It's pretty distracting when you're in a dark theater and your eyes are glued to the screen and then *pop* someone turns on their phone and now you have this new bright screen distracting you. Sure it's usually only momentarily obnoxious, but an entire theater full of hundreds of bright screens that are not the silver screen? DO NOT WANT.
that's where the bloodlust is coming from, really
posted by Doleful Creature at 1:01 AM on September 12, 2013 [11 favorites]
I really doubt that's the case. It's pretty distracting when you're in a dark theater and your eyes are glued to the screen and then *pop* someone turns on their phone and now you have this new bright screen distracting you. Sure it's usually only momentarily obnoxious, but an entire theater full of hundreds of bright screens that are not the silver screen? DO NOT WANT.
that's where the bloodlust is coming from, really
posted by Doleful Creature at 1:01 AM on September 12, 2013 [11 favorites]
an entire theater full of hundreds of bright screens that are not the silver screen?
You'll get used to it. More modern phones will have screens that dim automatically to account for darker situations, or perhaps a selectable screen mode that means only the person looking directly at the screen can see the brightness (a bit like old LCD screens used to be).
Not to labour the comparison too much, but people used to say it was unbearable to sit next to someone on the bus who had a Walkman on because of the tinny noise. You don't hear that complaint any more.
posted by colie at 1:16 AM on September 12, 2013
You'll get used to it. More modern phones will have screens that dim automatically to account for darker situations, or perhaps a selectable screen mode that means only the person looking directly at the screen can see the brightness (a bit like old LCD screens used to be).
Not to labour the comparison too much, but people used to say it was unbearable to sit next to someone on the bus who had a Walkman on because of the tinny noise. You don't hear that complaint any more.
posted by colie at 1:16 AM on September 12, 2013
We shouldn't expect, or even encourage, children to sit in a dark room and quietly watch a screen.
For generations, that's what the movies were supposed to be. Kids actually sat in dark rooms, in rapt attention, watching Chaplin, Pinocchio, Forbidden Planet, Star Wars, et al. Sure, the really little, dopey kids talked during the movies sometimes, but they were shushed, as they should have been. Even during the days when kids would spend entire afternoons taking in cartoons and serials and a couple of B-movies, I doubt they were making a lot of noise during the movie. They were there to see the show, not be the show.
There's a place for kiddie screenings where toddlers shriek and stomp and carry on. But the danger of a show like this is that the idea may escape into the wider movie ecosystem, and spread. Going to the movies in 2013 can already feel like an ordeal. I don't even want to think about what movie-going may be in 5-10 years, when these kids take it for granted that all movies are an entirely interactive experience.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:20 AM on September 12, 2013 [10 favorites]
For generations, that's what the movies were supposed to be. Kids actually sat in dark rooms, in rapt attention, watching Chaplin, Pinocchio, Forbidden Planet, Star Wars, et al. Sure, the really little, dopey kids talked during the movies sometimes, but they were shushed, as they should have been. Even during the days when kids would spend entire afternoons taking in cartoons and serials and a couple of B-movies, I doubt they were making a lot of noise during the movie. They were there to see the show, not be the show.
There's a place for kiddie screenings where toddlers shriek and stomp and carry on. But the danger of a show like this is that the idea may escape into the wider movie ecosystem, and spread. Going to the movies in 2013 can already feel like an ordeal. I don't even want to think about what movie-going may be in 5-10 years, when these kids take it for granted that all movies are an entirely interactive experience.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:20 AM on September 12, 2013 [10 favorites]
but people used to say it was unbearable to sit next to someone on the bus who had a Walkman on because of the tinny noise. You don't hear that complaint any more.
Well, not about walkmen, sure, but personally I consider the incredible leakiness of the stock iPod/iPhone earphones to be one of Apple's biggest Crimes Against Humanity. They're like the fucking TARDIS of earphones, they're somehow louder on the outside than the inside.
Of course, people seem to be gradually acquiring the idea that playing music/TV directly through the awful speakers in their phones like hilarious/shrunken boomboxes is an OK thing to do on the bus, which is worse since they don't even have the excuse of pretending they don't know what it sounds like to everyone else.
While I'm complaining: The inventor of the curious, atonal 5-note whistle ringtone found on Samsung phones is the devil.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 2:01 AM on September 12, 2013 [13 favorites]
Well, not about walkmen, sure, but personally I consider the incredible leakiness of the stock iPod/iPhone earphones to be one of Apple's biggest Crimes Against Humanity. They're like the fucking TARDIS of earphones, they're somehow louder on the outside than the inside.
Of course, people seem to be gradually acquiring the idea that playing music/TV directly through the awful speakers in their phones like hilarious/shrunken boomboxes is an OK thing to do on the bus, which is worse since they don't even have the excuse of pretending they don't know what it sounds like to everyone else.
While I'm complaining: The inventor of the curious, atonal 5-note whistle ringtone found on Samsung phones is the devil.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 2:01 AM on September 12, 2013 [13 favorites]
When I first read this, I hoped this would not become a trend.
If the re-((re-)re-)release of Bladerunner/Total Recall/Hot Dog is done is this fashion, I will officially withdraw from the human race.
posted by chemoboy at 2:21 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
If the re-((re-)re-)release of Bladerunner/Total Recall/Hot Dog is done is this fashion, I will officially withdraw from the human race.
posted by chemoboy at 2:21 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
If the re-((re-)re-)release of Bladerunner/Total Recall/Hot Dog is done is this fashion, I will officially withdraw from the human race.
That's pretty much what concerns me. A generation that grows up finding iPads and the like acceptable, and in some cases encouraged, in the movie theatre. So more movies are made, pitched, marketed towards some kind of interactive, crowd, experience.
Heck, there's a reason why I don't take my MacBook Pro to the theater and turn it on as soon as the movie starts. Because I want to watch the goddam movie, on a big movie screen and through a theater sound system, uninterrupted and without distraction.
posted by Wordshore at 3:11 AM on September 12, 2013 [5 favorites]
That's pretty much what concerns me. A generation that grows up finding iPads and the like acceptable, and in some cases encouraged, in the movie theatre. So more movies are made, pitched, marketed towards some kind of interactive, crowd, experience.
Heck, there's a reason why I don't take my MacBook Pro to the theater and turn it on as soon as the movie starts. Because I want to watch the goddam movie, on a big movie screen and through a theater sound system, uninterrupted and without distraction.
posted by Wordshore at 3:11 AM on September 12, 2013 [5 favorites]
The special hell.
posted by stevis23 at 3:45 AM on September 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by stevis23 at 3:45 AM on September 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
You'll get used to it.
The hell I will.
posted by Spatch at 3:53 AM on September 12, 2013 [16 favorites]
The hell I will.
posted by Spatch at 3:53 AM on September 12, 2013 [16 favorites]
I've been to more than one "audience participation" showing of the Rocky Horror Picture show. People were heckling the screen and singing the songs. Would anyone here get snarky about the merit of that experience?
I go to the Kids screenings all the time with my young 'uns, they're ace. £1 each (about $1.60), you can take your own food and no one cares if our baby makes a lot of noise so we don't have to arrange child care. The also do Autism friendly screenings where the lights are on and the sound is equalized so there are no sudden bursts in volume.
Sure its a bit anarchic at these things, but we all know that going in. Its fun.
So sure - I'd go to a sing-a-long disney screening as long as it was clearly marked as such. Why not? Singing along is fun. They did sing-a-long versions of Mama Mia when that was out and several people I know went to them more than once. Not for me, but if you like it then go for it.
Not sure why you need an iPad though. At the Mama Mia sing-a-longs they just put the subtitles on.
posted by samworm at 3:57 AM on September 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
You'll get used to it.
I won't. I used to be an usher for the show Stomp and we were trained to watch for people taking flash photos during the show, so we could tell them to a) knock it off or b) confiscate the camera and expose that exposure (lots of reasons why). So a bright light in a dark performance space - whether from a flash, a camera, or a cell phone - sends me into a practically Pavlovian "find the source" response.
More modern phones will have screens that dim automatically to account for darker situations, or perhaps a selectable screen mode that means only the person looking directly at the screen can see the brightness (a bit like old LCD screens used to be).
And that would be fine. Until that day comes, I will not get used to this.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:16 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
I won't. I used to be an usher for the show Stomp and we were trained to watch for people taking flash photos during the show, so we could tell them to a) knock it off or b) confiscate the camera and expose that exposure (lots of reasons why). So a bright light in a dark performance space - whether from a flash, a camera, or a cell phone - sends me into a practically Pavlovian "find the source" response.
More modern phones will have screens that dim automatically to account for darker situations, or perhaps a selectable screen mode that means only the person looking directly at the screen can see the brightness (a bit like old LCD screens used to be).
And that would be fine. Until that day comes, I will not get used to this.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:16 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
Flash photography is something altogether different. It's easy to discreetly look at your phone in a cinema and usually less disturbing to those around you than eating crisps.
People also used to smoke in cinemas. Things have got better.
posted by colie at 4:27 AM on September 12, 2013
People also used to smoke in cinemas. Things have got better.
posted by colie at 4:27 AM on September 12, 2013
It may be easy to be discreet about it, but that doesn't mean everyone is being discreet about it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:38 AM on September 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:38 AM on September 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
I want to be where the people aren't.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:38 AM on September 12, 2013 [8 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:38 AM on September 12, 2013 [8 favorites]
that doesn't mean everyone is being discreet about it.
This is where you get to when the rage in these threads subsides: people can be anti-social dicks in all sorts of ways whether with a phone or not, and hopefully you aren't sitting next to that guy. But there's nothing uniquely evil about phones in cinemas or the people that use them.
posted by colie at 4:44 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
This is where you get to when the rage in these threads subsides: people can be anti-social dicks in all sorts of ways whether with a phone or not, and hopefully you aren't sitting next to that guy. But there's nothing uniquely evil about phones in cinemas or the people that use them.
posted by colie at 4:44 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
I think it is an attempt to make cinema more apppealing than home viewing. It will fail. I am part of the lost generation of UK cinema users. I am surpised the industry has survived. Prioritising home viewing would be no bad thing as with a more diverse audience we can expect better film making. I cant be the only one bored with most of the output.
posted by BenPens at 4:45 AM on September 12, 2013
posted by BenPens at 4:45 AM on September 12, 2013
I'm old and curmudgeonly and I think this is pretty awesome.
If the showing is well-labelled, I think this could be great fun for people. But then again, I like going to sing-along showings of musicals, too.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:00 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
If the showing is well-labelled, I think this could be great fun for people. But then again, I like going to sing-along showings of musicals, too.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:00 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
I don't get the hate. This isn't a case of being distracting by fapping about rather than watching the show, it's an enhanced experience of the show that you can feel free to stay home from since it's no secret it's going on.
posted by phearlez at 5:17 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by phearlez at 5:17 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
This is where you get to when the rage in these threads subsides: people can be anti-social dicks in all sorts of ways whether with a phone or not, and hopefully you aren't sitting next to that guy. But there's nothing uniquely evil about phones in cinemas or the people that use them.
Sure, people can be dicks without the electronic devices. The devices just make it many times easier for them, and amplify the effects of their dickishness.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:20 AM on September 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
Sure, people can be dicks without the electronic devices. The devices just make it many times easier for them, and amplify the effects of their dickishness.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:20 AM on September 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
I don't understand the problem. If everyone knows what it is before they buy their ticket, then it's okay. We all have the option not to buy the ticket.
posted by inturnaround at 5:26 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by inturnaround at 5:26 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
I'm just glad Roger Ebert isn't around to see this.
posted by TedW at 5:43 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by TedW at 5:43 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
I don't understand the problem. If everyone knows what it is before they buy their ticket, then it's okay. We all have the option not to buy the ticket.
Leave the lawn.
posted by Going To Maine at 5:56 AM on September 12, 2013
Leave the lawn.
posted by Going To Maine at 5:56 AM on September 12, 2013
(the Wizard Of Oz sing-a-long at the Castro Theater was SO CHARMING YOU GUYS, full house, families, kids dressed in costume, adults in costume, lots of candy, there's nothing like an entire theater singing "if I Only Had A Brain" totally out of time with each other. SO yeah I support this if it creates more of that.)
In theory this sounds really cute and fun.
But I have severe Wizard of Oz PTSD from when my sister was 4 and demanded to watch it every day.
Every.
Day.
posted by Fleebnork at 6:18 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
In theory this sounds really cute and fun.
But I have severe Wizard of Oz PTSD from when my sister was 4 and demanded to watch it every day.
Every.
Day.
posted by Fleebnork at 6:18 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
I've been to more than one "audience participation" showing of the Rocky Horror Picture show.
Yes please let's do the Rocky Horror thing with the Little Mermaid. Everyone can bring forks to comb their hair and pipes to blow bubbles out of and yell "Mermaid off the port bow!" while looking through their telescopes and oh my god this will be so much fun.
posted by solotoro at 6:34 AM on September 12, 2013 [9 favorites]
Yes please let's do the Rocky Horror thing with the Little Mermaid. Everyone can bring forks to comb their hair and pipes to blow bubbles out of and yell "Mermaid off the port bow!" while looking through their telescopes and oh my god this will be so much fun.
posted by solotoro at 6:34 AM on September 12, 2013 [9 favorites]
colie: "It's easy to discreetly look at your phone in a cinema and usually less disturbing to those around you than eating crisps."
I have to argue this point, you're introducing a light source into an essentially black room-- you might think you're being discreet about it (and compared to some more egregious examples, you might be) but anyone sitting behind and to the left, or right of you will suddenly in their peripheral vision, see a little light pop on, and it'll take them out of the immersion of the screen.
Down here it's terrible-- people not only think, like you, it's acceptable to text, even when the cinema makes a point of asking everyone to be respectful and turn off their phones (but that's just for other people, right?), they actually seem to think it's acceptable to talk on their phones, actually take, or unbelievably *make* a call, while in the theatre-- I'm sure they think they're being discreet too.
Surprise, you're not!
I'm one of those people that really tries to be polite-- to the point I won't open a chocolate bar, or snarf a big handful of popcorn at a quiet point during a movie, I'll wait for the music or action to kick in. Watching someone use their phone in the cinema gives me the same feeling as watching someone littering on the street.
posted by Static Vagabond at 6:38 AM on September 12, 2013 [8 favorites]
I have to argue this point, you're introducing a light source into an essentially black room-- you might think you're being discreet about it (and compared to some more egregious examples, you might be) but anyone sitting behind and to the left, or right of you will suddenly in their peripheral vision, see a little light pop on, and it'll take them out of the immersion of the screen.
Down here it's terrible-- people not only think, like you, it's acceptable to text, even when the cinema makes a point of asking everyone to be respectful and turn off their phones (but that's just for other people, right?), they actually seem to think it's acceptable to talk on their phones, actually take, or unbelievably *make* a call, while in the theatre-- I'm sure they think they're being discreet too.
Surprise, you're not!
I'm one of those people that really tries to be polite-- to the point I won't open a chocolate bar, or snarf a big handful of popcorn at a quiet point during a movie, I'll wait for the music or action to kick in. Watching someone use their phone in the cinema gives me the same feeling as watching someone littering on the street.
posted by Static Vagabond at 6:38 AM on September 12, 2013 [8 favorites]
"HI! SPEAK UP, I'M AT THE OPERA! YEAH, IT'S THAT ONE ABOUTTHE PROSTITUTE. LET ME TELL YOU WHAT'S HAPPENING..."
What's your problem? It's noisy in here, so I'm totally being discrete.
posted by happyroach at 6:56 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
What's your problem? It's noisy in here, so I'm totally being discrete.
posted by happyroach at 6:56 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
This is more than about just politeness towards other patrons in movie theaters.
It's about teaching children to watch movies attentively, gaining an understanding of the story, receiving the full force of its impact, recognizing that a film is a carefully-constructed whole with the power to impress and move the audience, instead of treating it like a bunch of moving images on-screen that's entertaining if you happen to be looking at it.
Watching and appreciating movies is not an automatic thing. It is a skill that has to be learned.
posted by JHarris at 6:56 AM on September 12, 2013 [12 favorites]
It's about teaching children to watch movies attentively, gaining an understanding of the story, receiving the full force of its impact, recognizing that a film is a carefully-constructed whole with the power to impress and move the audience, instead of treating it like a bunch of moving images on-screen that's entertaining if you happen to be looking at it.
Watching and appreciating movies is not an automatic thing. It is a skill that has to be learned.
posted by JHarris at 6:56 AM on September 12, 2013 [12 favorites]
(Communal sing-alongs are great in theory, but in practice, I find the experience varies considerably. Trained choirs, singing familiar songs, yes. A marching band, used to being in sync, and following pitches, sure. A bunch of geeks in a room, singing through a Whedonverse production, out of tune asynchronously, drives me up the wall.)
Training people to use tablets in theaters can come to no good end.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:57 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
Training people to use tablets in theaters can come to no good end.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:57 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
Not sure if you guys caught that bit... but they're INTERACTIVE MOVIES. I swear to god if this doesn't happen my five year old self will go on a rampage.
Also: I'm pretty sure the dissenting opinions in this thread are why we don't currently have flying cars too. Don't want to fly into the future with the rest of us? Stay at home, or, you know, just go to the showtime that's advertised as "Non Interactive" or whatever they opt to call it.
posted by Blue_Villain at 7:03 AM on September 12, 2013
Also: I'm pretty sure the dissenting opinions in this thread are why we don't currently have flying cars too. Don't want to fly into the future with the rest of us? Stay at home, or, you know, just go to the showtime that's advertised as "Non Interactive" or whatever they opt to call it.
posted by Blue_Villain at 7:03 AM on September 12, 2013
Not to labour the comparison too much, but people used to say it was unbearable to sit next to someone on the bus who had a Walkman on because of the tinny noise. You don't hear that complaint any more.
. . . you can't hear it because of the noise of people on their cell phones or listening to music out of their cell phones with no headphones or with shitty headphones, but that doesn't mean people have quit complaining.
posted by jeather at 7:05 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
. . . you can't hear it because of the noise of people on their cell phones or listening to music out of their cell phones with no headphones or with shitty headphones, but that doesn't mean people have quit complaining.
posted by jeather at 7:05 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
You'll get used to it. More modern phones will have screens that dim automatically to account for darker situations, or perhaps a selectable screen mode that means only the person looking directly at the screen can see the brightness (a bit like old LCD screens used to be).
I will not get used to it. Phones can auto-adjust brightness, but people disable it. It's incredibly distracting, as was the ultra-bright blue LED on the back of the guy's bluetooth earpiece that he left on for the entire movie that one time (can't even remember the movie, but I sure do remember that asshole).
Not to labour the comparison too much, but people used to say it was unbearable to sit next to someone on the bus who had a Walkman on because of the tinny noise. You don't hear that complaint any more.
Then let me go ahead and have you hear it. I don't want to hear your music. Turn it down; your ears will thank you. As far as the "crisps" comparison, light travels a hell of a lot farther than sound , and the movie can usually much more easily mask the latter (although I admit, I do get irritated by the crinkling noise of someone repeatedly going into their candy to stuff their maw during a movie, too).
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 7:12 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
I will not get used to it. Phones can auto-adjust brightness, but people disable it. It's incredibly distracting, as was the ultra-bright blue LED on the back of the guy's bluetooth earpiece that he left on for the entire movie that one time (can't even remember the movie, but I sure do remember that asshole).
Not to labour the comparison too much, but people used to say it was unbearable to sit next to someone on the bus who had a Walkman on because of the tinny noise. You don't hear that complaint any more.
Then let me go ahead and have you hear it. I don't want to hear your music. Turn it down; your ears will thank you. As far as the "crisps" comparison, light travels a hell of a lot farther than sound , and the movie can usually much more easily mask the latter (although I admit, I do get irritated by the crinkling noise of someone repeatedly going into their candy to stuff their maw during a movie, too).
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 7:12 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
So it's a waste of money (my memory of seeing Cars in the theatre was that our then 4-year-old wanted to go home about 30 minutes in)
You blame your 4-year-old's attention span, but honestly, I'd just blame Cars. Your child clearly exhibits better taste than most children of that age.
posted by explosion at 7:20 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
You blame your 4-year-old's attention span, but honestly, I'd just blame Cars. Your child clearly exhibits better taste than most children of that age.
posted by explosion at 7:20 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
Not sure if you guys caught that bit... but they're INTERACTIVE MOVIES. I swear to god if this doesn't happen my five year old self will go on a rampage.
Also: I'm pretty sure the dissenting opinions in this thread are why we don't currently have flying cars too. Don't want to fly into the future with the rest of us? Stay at home, or, you know, just go to the showtime that's advertised as "Non Interactive" or whatever they opt to call it.
Er the dissenters did see that it was interactive, thanks.
The problem we're seeing is that the actual five-year-olds who go see it may start expecting everything to be interactive, and then grow up into people whose inner-five-year-olds will act as if everything is interactive, even when it isn't.
And no one said that interactive movies is "the future". Rather than us being the ones to stay home, maybe the "future" is supposed to be the eternal-five-year-olds staying home in your own houses where you can customize your own viewing experience with everything and even watch naked if that's what you want.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:21 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
Also: I'm pretty sure the dissenting opinions in this thread are why we don't currently have flying cars too. Don't want to fly into the future with the rest of us? Stay at home, or, you know, just go to the showtime that's advertised as "Non Interactive" or whatever they opt to call it.
Er the dissenters did see that it was interactive, thanks.
The problem we're seeing is that the actual five-year-olds who go see it may start expecting everything to be interactive, and then grow up into people whose inner-five-year-olds will act as if everything is interactive, even when it isn't.
And no one said that interactive movies is "the future". Rather than us being the ones to stay home, maybe the "future" is supposed to be the eternal-five-year-olds staying home in your own houses where you can customize your own viewing experience with everything and even watch naked if that's what you want.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:21 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
Not sure if you guys caught that bit... but they're INTERACTIVE MOVIES.
We already have interactive movies. They're called video games.
posted by MsVader at 7:23 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
We already have interactive movies. They're called video games.
posted by MsVader at 7:23 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
Actually, that's probably a bigger source of the ire in threads like this - the insinuation that the people who don't like iPad/texting during movies are all fuddy-duddy Luddites who are old-fashioned and set in their ways and should just get with the program already.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:24 AM on September 12, 2013 [10 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:24 AM on September 12, 2013 [10 favorites]
The problem we're seeing is that the actual five-year-olds who go see it may start expecting everything to be interactive,
Sorry... but how exactly are interactive movies a problem? That's the part that is still befuddling. If you don't like the other people in the theatre using their "devices", don't go.
The same as you would NOT go to the 3D showing of Sharknado, or whatever it is they show in those places now.
posted by Blue_Villain at 7:31 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
Sorry... but how exactly are interactive movies a problem? That's the part that is still befuddling. If you don't like the other people in the theatre using their "devices", don't go.
The same as you would NOT go to the 3D showing of Sharknado, or whatever it is they show in those places now.
posted by Blue_Villain at 7:31 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
The problem we're seeing is that the actual five-year-olds who go see it may start expecting everything to be interactive
Dora the Explorer.
Clapping to save Tinkerbell.
Pantomime.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:31 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
Dora the Explorer.
Clapping to save Tinkerbell.
Pantomime.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:31 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
Watching and appreciating movies is not an automatic thing. It is a skill that has to be learned.
... and The Little Mermaid is an important part of any rigorous media-appreciation regimen! CONSTANT VIGILANCE.
More seriously, I know for a fact that most of the stuffy old people getting upset about the sanctity of moviegoing in this thread would throw their precious arguments on the ground and dance around them in gold underpants doing The Time Warp if we were talking about a different movie. Instead of this children's movie none of them are going to go to anyway.
There is a quantity of hypocrisy in this thread, and it's just a jump to the left.
posted by mhoye at 7:32 AM on September 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
... and The Little Mermaid is an important part of any rigorous media-appreciation regimen! CONSTANT VIGILANCE.
More seriously, I know for a fact that most of the stuffy old people getting upset about the sanctity of moviegoing in this thread would throw their precious arguments on the ground and dance around them in gold underpants doing The Time Warp if we were talking about a different movie. Instead of this children's movie none of them are going to go to anyway.
There is a quantity of hypocrisy in this thread, and it's just a jump to the left.
posted by mhoye at 7:32 AM on September 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
If you don't like the other people in the theatre using their "devices", don't go.
I try not to. But somehow I end up sitting two rows behind the kid who keeps Tweeting outh is favorite lines from The Worlds' End to his buddies throughout the first hour of the film.
Dora the Explorer.
Clapping to save Tinkerbell.
Pantomime.
Those are kids' shows where these things are accepted. If a kid turned up at a production of Romeo and Juliet and tried clapping to save Romeo, they'd be stopped. But kids who try to Tweet during movies? Y'all are saying to just let 'em do it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:38 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
I try not to. But somehow I end up sitting two rows behind the kid who keeps Tweeting outh is favorite lines from The Worlds' End to his buddies throughout the first hour of the film.
Dora the Explorer.
Clapping to save Tinkerbell.
Pantomime.
Those are kids' shows where these things are accepted. If a kid turned up at a production of Romeo and Juliet and tried clapping to save Romeo, they'd be stopped. But kids who try to Tweet during movies? Y'all are saying to just let 'em do it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:38 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
Singing along isn't the problem. Teaching the kids to be bad multitaskers when they should learn that undivided attention is needed IS the problem.
posted by hellslinger at 7:41 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by hellslinger at 7:41 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
I know for a fact that most of the stuffy old people getting upset about the sanctity of moviegoing in this thread would throw their precious arguments on the ground and dance around them in gold underpants doing The Time Warp if we were talking about a different movie. Instead of this children's movie none of them are going to go to anyway.
Time.
And.
Place.
Enforce the time and place aspect and I have no problem. Crack down on texting/iPhoining during non-interactive movies and I have no problem. But when I speak up for that one "keep it out of regular movies" point, everyone tells me I'm just overreacting and that it can't possibly be that distracting and what's the big deal and I should get used to it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:41 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
Time.
And.
Place.
Enforce the time and place aspect and I have no problem. Crack down on texting/iPhoining during non-interactive movies and I have no problem. But when I speak up for that one "keep it out of regular movies" point, everyone tells me I'm just overreacting and that it can't possibly be that distracting and what's the big deal and I should get used to it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:41 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
. If a kid turned up at a production of Romeo and Juliet and tried clapping to save Romeo
.....I kind of want to see this in the same way that I want to see the whole Romeo And Juliet production from Hot Fuzz.
posted by The Whelk at 7:43 AM on September 12, 2013 [5 favorites]
.....I kind of want to see this in the same way that I want to see the whole Romeo And Juliet production from Hot Fuzz.
posted by The Whelk at 7:43 AM on September 12, 2013 [5 favorites]
If a kid turned up at a production of Romeo and Juliet and tried clapping to save Romeo, they'd be stopped.
When it was originally performed there would have been people in the audience shouting, throwing fruit, and picking up hookers.
posted by colie at 7:49 AM on September 12, 2013 [5 favorites]
When it was originally performed there would have been people in the audience shouting, throwing fruit, and picking up hookers.
posted by colie at 7:49 AM on September 12, 2013 [5 favorites]
.....I kind of want to see this in the same way that I want to see the whole Romeo And Juliet production from Hot Fuzz.
I actually did go to a Romeo and Juliet production that got "interactive" on me for a second - I was in the front row during a college production and Mercrutio accidentally swung his sword wrong and almost hit me.
Those things are made, not given.
What does this even mean?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:50 AM on September 12, 2013
I actually did go to a Romeo and Juliet production that got "interactive" on me for a second - I was in the front row during a college production and Mercrutio accidentally swung his sword wrong and almost hit me.
Those things are made, not given.
What does this even mean?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:50 AM on September 12, 2013
When it was originally performed there would have been people in the audience shouting, throwing fruit, and picking up hookers.
Yes, I'm aware of that, thanks. When it was originally performed people also avoided regular bathing, but I'm not seeing anyone advocating a return to the tradition of one-bath-a-year.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:52 AM on September 12, 2013 [5 favorites]
Yes, I'm aware of that, thanks. When it was originally performed people also avoided regular bathing, but I'm not seeing anyone advocating a return to the tradition of one-bath-a-year.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:52 AM on September 12, 2013 [5 favorites]
a return to the tradition of one-bath-a-year
No... we're talking about movies here, and the rise of technology as it relates to the stubbornness of the previous generation.
Not sure what any of that has to do with the bathing habits of anybody.
posted by Blue_Villain at 7:57 AM on September 12, 2013
No... we're talking about movies here, and the rise of technology as it relates to the stubbornness of the previous generation.
Not sure what any of that has to do with the bathing habits of anybody.
posted by Blue_Villain at 7:57 AM on September 12, 2013
Thinking more, I'm starting to see the precedent problem here. I mean, I remember how many movies my dad ruined for the entire family when he insisted on wearing his ratty old coonskin cap and bringing a toy musket to the theatre just like he did when he saw Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier in 1955. "Dad," we'd say, "Please be quiet." "Pew pew pew, Darth Vader!" he'd reply shortly before the usher escorted us out.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:59 AM on September 12, 2013 [10 favorites]
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:59 AM on September 12, 2013 [10 favorites]
It's really obvious from the lame trailer that the "interactivity" is going to be a paint-shallow gimmick. How could it possibly be anything else, really? What happens on the big screen happens for everyone, by definition, so it can't in principle be customized for individuals regardless of how much technology you've got to throw at the problem.
The sing-along idea is the only one that has any appeal at all, but there are older, cheaper, simpler, lower-tech ways of encouraging the audience to sing along. Ways which wouldn't divide the audience into classes of the gadget-haves and the gadget-have-nots.
Just like 3D, the "Second Screen Live" showings will probably have higher ticket prices justified by the "enhanced" experience, yes? I think that's really all that's going on here; an excuse to get revenues-per-screen up.
Time will tell if its successful or not, but it seems to me that if you've already got a tablet computer and you're after an interactive experience, the whole movie theater aspect is just a big expensive distraction. You could engage with a genuinely interactive "Little Mermaid" movie/video game hybrid from your living room, from the back seat of the car, from the doctor's waiting room, etc. This looks to me like a backfire in the making: "Let's teach kids that movies are dull and video games are engaging!" Smooth move there, Hollywood.
posted by Western Infidels at 8:00 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
The sing-along idea is the only one that has any appeal at all, but there are older, cheaper, simpler, lower-tech ways of encouraging the audience to sing along. Ways which wouldn't divide the audience into classes of the gadget-haves and the gadget-have-nots.
Just like 3D, the "Second Screen Live" showings will probably have higher ticket prices justified by the "enhanced" experience, yes? I think that's really all that's going on here; an excuse to get revenues-per-screen up.
Time will tell if its successful or not, but it seems to me that if you've already got a tablet computer and you're after an interactive experience, the whole movie theater aspect is just a big expensive distraction. You could engage with a genuinely interactive "Little Mermaid" movie/video game hybrid from your living room, from the back seat of the car, from the doctor's waiting room, etc. This looks to me like a backfire in the making: "Let's teach kids that movies are dull and video games are engaging!" Smooth move there, Hollywood.
posted by Western Infidels at 8:00 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
More seriously, I know for a fact that most of the stuffy old people getting upset about the sanctity of moviegoing in this thread would throw their precious arguments on the ground and dance around them in gold underpants doing The Time Warp if we were talking about a different movie.
Incorrect, I hate both of them with equal passion. Your facts are WRONG AND BAD.
posted by elizardbits at 8:01 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
Incorrect, I hate both of them with equal passion. Your facts are WRONG AND BAD.
posted by elizardbits at 8:01 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
I think I like this. But then again Disney's The Little Mermaid© is everything awful and wonderful about our modern world rolled into a singular work.
posted by Annika Cicada at 8:05 AM on September 12, 2013
posted by Annika Cicada at 8:05 AM on September 12, 2013
The last film I went to see was the One Direction movie and I was genuinely disappointed at the more or less total lack of singing, screaming, dancing, tweeting, texting, bootlegging or whatever else. A lot of kids are actually pretty crushed by adults telling them how to behave, even in their leisure activities, it would seem.
posted by colie at 8:12 AM on September 12, 2013
posted by colie at 8:12 AM on September 12, 2013
No... we're talking about movies here, and the rise of technology as it relates to the stubbornness of the previous generation.
We're not talking about "the rise of technology". Technology is not some neverending aspiration straight out of apes reaching for the obelisk on 2001. We're talking specifically about the fact that interactivity, AKA "letting people do shit other than pay attention", is always going to be more surface-level engaging than requiring people to focus on anything ever. And about how "engaging" is what makes companies like Disney money. And about how "focus" is what allows works of art to do inspiring and wonderful things.
Fuck singing in movie theaters. Sing in a car. Sing at home with your best friends and your bottle of cheap red wine. That's fine and great. But don't take your fucking stupid interactive fucking bullshit and inflict it on people that aren't you. Because some people, when they see a movie, are actually there to watch the fucking movie, and that means paying it enough attention that you're able to be affected by, like, what's happening on screen.
It's not "technology", it's Disney's complete lack of respect for artistry, and their love for the sort of cheap "communal experience" that can be mass-produced and easily repeated and has no depth or significance to it whatsoever. Disney's the company that's completely anti-people making other art with their characters—even the ones which existed long before Disney slapped a copyright on them. They don't support the REAL interesting development in technology, which is how easy it is to repurpose and remix art, turn it into something new, become a creator simply by playing with the things you once loved. They shut down Pogo's excellent song tributes to their films until some marketer came to his senses and hired Pogo as an official promotor. Disney is a brilliantly-run corporation, which means it specializes in generating as much drivel and lowest-common-denominator bullshit as it can and saying "fuck it" to anything that doesn't immediately add to their astonishing bottom line.
Technology is great. It allows for the sorts of unique experiences that people could never have before, by offering tools to people which never existed before. But singing along to Disney movies? That's not fucking technology. That's something people've been able to do since before Disney started making movies. And now Disney's realized that they make more money out of you if you go into a movie theatre and pay for your ticket instead of putting on a DVD that you already grossly overpaid for. It's crass and it's cynical, much like the rest of Disney's oeuvre.
I'm part of the "current generation", as opposed to the "previous" one you're sneering at. I love technology. I love open-source game engines and modding communities; I love fanfiction and remixes; I love that it's possible for me to turn my love of somebody else's art into new expressions of love that enrich the original piece. I love Intensive Gaston Unit and Dragonball Z Abridged and everything in between. I love technology! All hail its rise!
This is cheap gimmickry, crude exploitation, disguised as "all hail technology" for the idiot fucking parents and don't-know-better children who aren't well-versed enough in the 21st century to know the difference between an awful non-innovation that just serves as an excuse for a company to bring back practices which theatre and film have been fighting against for decades and the sort of innovation that actually leads to exciting new things, of the sort which Disney will fervently oppose because it interferes with their policy of total control and complete submission on the part of its audience. It's nothing new. This is pretty much the only thing Disney's any good at anymore.
posted by Rory Marinich at 8:18 AM on September 12, 2013 [6 favorites]
We're not talking about "the rise of technology". Technology is not some neverending aspiration straight out of apes reaching for the obelisk on 2001. We're talking specifically about the fact that interactivity, AKA "letting people do shit other than pay attention", is always going to be more surface-level engaging than requiring people to focus on anything ever. And about how "engaging" is what makes companies like Disney money. And about how "focus" is what allows works of art to do inspiring and wonderful things.
Fuck singing in movie theaters. Sing in a car. Sing at home with your best friends and your bottle of cheap red wine. That's fine and great. But don't take your fucking stupid interactive fucking bullshit and inflict it on people that aren't you. Because some people, when they see a movie, are actually there to watch the fucking movie, and that means paying it enough attention that you're able to be affected by, like, what's happening on screen.
It's not "technology", it's Disney's complete lack of respect for artistry, and their love for the sort of cheap "communal experience" that can be mass-produced and easily repeated and has no depth or significance to it whatsoever. Disney's the company that's completely anti-people making other art with their characters—even the ones which existed long before Disney slapped a copyright on them. They don't support the REAL interesting development in technology, which is how easy it is to repurpose and remix art, turn it into something new, become a creator simply by playing with the things you once loved. They shut down Pogo's excellent song tributes to their films until some marketer came to his senses and hired Pogo as an official promotor. Disney is a brilliantly-run corporation, which means it specializes in generating as much drivel and lowest-common-denominator bullshit as it can and saying "fuck it" to anything that doesn't immediately add to their astonishing bottom line.
Technology is great. It allows for the sorts of unique experiences that people could never have before, by offering tools to people which never existed before. But singing along to Disney movies? That's not fucking technology. That's something people've been able to do since before Disney started making movies. And now Disney's realized that they make more money out of you if you go into a movie theatre and pay for your ticket instead of putting on a DVD that you already grossly overpaid for. It's crass and it's cynical, much like the rest of Disney's oeuvre.
I'm part of the "current generation", as opposed to the "previous" one you're sneering at. I love technology. I love open-source game engines and modding communities; I love fanfiction and remixes; I love that it's possible for me to turn my love of somebody else's art into new expressions of love that enrich the original piece. I love Intensive Gaston Unit and Dragonball Z Abridged and everything in between. I love technology! All hail its rise!
This is cheap gimmickry, crude exploitation, disguised as "all hail technology" for the idiot fucking parents and don't-know-better children who aren't well-versed enough in the 21st century to know the difference between an awful non-innovation that just serves as an excuse for a company to bring back practices which theatre and film have been fighting against for decades and the sort of innovation that actually leads to exciting new things, of the sort which Disney will fervently oppose because it interferes with their policy of total control and complete submission on the part of its audience. It's nothing new. This is pretty much the only thing Disney's any good at anymore.
posted by Rory Marinich at 8:18 AM on September 12, 2013 [6 favorites]
Cell phone photography is a perfect example of why "the rise of technology" is such a bullshit fucking nonsense idea, and it's worth bringing up because it's the exact opposite of the phenomenon happening here. When you go to a Lady Gaga concert and nobody on the floor is dancing because they're all determined to shoot a hundred photos of every single song before they leave the stadium and buy the same goddamn photos as shot by the actual professionals, it makes you want to murder somebody. The point of a concert is to DANCE, you fucking asshole narcissist kids.
Surprisingly few people jabber on excitedly about how people being awful at concerts is proof that technology is on the rise, and now we should "get used to" all concerts being geared towards providing as many photo ops as possible. Because that would be stupid as shit.
posted by Rory Marinich at 8:22 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
Surprisingly few people jabber on excitedly about how people being awful at concerts is proof that technology is on the rise, and now we should "get used to" all concerts being geared towards providing as many photo ops as possible. Because that would be stupid as shit.
posted by Rory Marinich at 8:22 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
I love technology. Preceded by a Fuck singing in movie theaters.
So this isn't for you. Don't go.
But don't ruin it for those of us who still think this is an advancement in movie technology.
posted by Blue_Villain at 8:26 AM on September 12, 2013
So this isn't for you. Don't go.
But don't ruin it for those of us who still think this is an advancement in movie technology.
posted by Blue_Villain at 8:26 AM on September 12, 2013
Disney's complete lack of respect for artistry, and their love for the sort of cheap "communal experience" that can be mass-produced
I haven't seen the app, but isn't it theoretically possible for an app to be created that includes 'artistry', just like all that cell animation that Disney has been doing for decades (that absolutely nobody thought was 'artistry' in the 40s or 50s)?
posted by colie at 8:28 AM on September 12, 2013
I haven't seen the app, but isn't it theoretically possible for an app to be created that includes 'artistry', just like all that cell animation that Disney has been doing for decades (that absolutely nobody thought was 'artistry' in the 40s or 50s)?
posted by colie at 8:28 AM on September 12, 2013
From what I've heard, the issue isn't so much that people are interacting with the movie as it is they're interacting with their ipads and ignoring the movie. Sing-alongs are one thing (and I'm all for that sort of thing, as long as I know beforehand that's what it is), but this is playing games while the movie plays in the background. Apparently, audience response to this has been pretty negative. You'll notice the Youtube link above has its comments disabled. Cartoon Brew has a very Cartoon Brewy article about it.
posted by cottoncandybeard at 8:39 AM on September 12, 2013
posted by cottoncandybeard at 8:39 AM on September 12, 2013
> This is where you get to when the rage in these threads subsides: people can be anti-social dicks in all sorts of ways whether with a phone or not, and hopefully you aren't sitting next to that guy. But there's nothing uniquely evil about phones in cinemas or the people that use them.
Not to pick on you, colie, but this is something that happens a lot, and I don't really get it:
1) lots of people complaining (often hyperbolically) about some dickish behavior
2) contrarian comes in to say (my hyperbolic paraphrase) "ha, you pathetic fools, complaining about this perfectly normal behavior! get over yourselves!"
3) lots of people point out exactly why dickish behavior is dickish
4) contrarian responds "well, sure, it's dickish, but people can be dicks in lots of ways, not just this."
What's the point? Nobody's claiming this is the only dickish behavior humanity has ever displayed; people are complaining about one particular form of dickish behavior, as is their right. Why is it so important to establish the general principle that people are frequently dickish? If someone complains that the guy next to them at the ballgame dumped beer on them, would you say "get over it, that's normal behavior"? (If so, I'm not sitting next to you at the ballgame.)
posted by languagehat at 8:40 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
Not to pick on you, colie, but this is something that happens a lot, and I don't really get it:
1) lots of people complaining (often hyperbolically) about some dickish behavior
2) contrarian comes in to say (my hyperbolic paraphrase) "ha, you pathetic fools, complaining about this perfectly normal behavior! get over yourselves!"
3) lots of people point out exactly why dickish behavior is dickish
4) contrarian responds "well, sure, it's dickish, but people can be dicks in lots of ways, not just this."
What's the point? Nobody's claiming this is the only dickish behavior humanity has ever displayed; people are complaining about one particular form of dickish behavior, as is their right. Why is it so important to establish the general principle that people are frequently dickish? If someone complains that the guy next to them at the ballgame dumped beer on them, would you say "get over it, that's normal behavior"? (If so, I'm not sitting next to you at the ballgame.)
posted by languagehat at 8:40 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
If someone complains that the guy next to them at the ballgame dumped beer on them, would you say "get over it, that's normal behavior"?
No - but neither would you call for beer to be banned at ballgames, lament that people who drink beer at ballgames are 'not doing it right', and indulge violent fantasies about killing people who drink beer at ballgames.
posted by colie at 8:45 AM on September 12, 2013
No - but neither would you call for beer to be banned at ballgames, lament that people who drink beer at ballgames are 'not doing it right', and indulge violent fantasies about killing people who drink beer at ballgames.
posted by colie at 8:45 AM on September 12, 2013
You underestimate us, sir.
posted by elizardbits at 8:47 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by elizardbits at 8:47 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
I've been to more than one "audience participation" showing of the Rocky Horror Picture show. People were heckling the screen and singing the songs. Would anyone here get snarky about the merit of that experience?
Having worked in a rep cinema for much of my misspent youth, I have seen every possible range of reaction by audience members in reaction to Rocky Horror. When it first played in my part of the world around 1980, it was in the now-defunct Upper Canada Place Cinemas, six minuscule auditoriums attached to a tiny mall so sad that it makes you want to burst into tears to walk through it. I had never seen RHPS before that night and I knew vaguely that there was some audience participation. The auditorium had a capacity of ~100 and there were perhaps twenty-five people there that night, of whom maybe a cluster of a half dozen were there to bellow "Asshole!" and "Slut!" at the right moments, to throw toast at the screen, and to bray along with the musical numbers. My companion and I were there as interested onlookers, eager to see what happened. The rest were conservative middle-aged moviegoers in this sleepy bedroom community who were pleased to learn that a musical was playing at the cinema, I can only imagine they were thinking of something pleasant like The Music Man or Gidget Goes Hawaiian, and they were confused and angry that the ushers weren't coming to put a stop to this shocking behaviour by the young hooodlums.
Years later it was played two weekends a year at the rep place I worked at, and I recall a similarly out-of-place lovey who had come to see what it was all about. Her research did not extend to the rain and the confetti, and she had worn a hilariously expensive silver fox coat which was ruined in a spectacular fashion. The owner laughed her complaints away. The staff were pretty much all twentysomething vegetarians and activists, so we had little sympathy for her jacket crisis. Good times.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:48 AM on September 12, 2013
Having worked in a rep cinema for much of my misspent youth, I have seen every possible range of reaction by audience members in reaction to Rocky Horror. When it first played in my part of the world around 1980, it was in the now-defunct Upper Canada Place Cinemas, six minuscule auditoriums attached to a tiny mall so sad that it makes you want to burst into tears to walk through it. I had never seen RHPS before that night and I knew vaguely that there was some audience participation. The auditorium had a capacity of ~100 and there were perhaps twenty-five people there that night, of whom maybe a cluster of a half dozen were there to bellow "Asshole!" and "Slut!" at the right moments, to throw toast at the screen, and to bray along with the musical numbers. My companion and I were there as interested onlookers, eager to see what happened. The rest were conservative middle-aged moviegoers in this sleepy bedroom community who were pleased to learn that a musical was playing at the cinema, I can only imagine they were thinking of something pleasant like The Music Man or Gidget Goes Hawaiian, and they were confused and angry that the ushers weren't coming to put a stop to this shocking behaviour by the young hooodlums.
Years later it was played two weekends a year at the rep place I worked at, and I recall a similarly out-of-place lovey who had come to see what it was all about. Her research did not extend to the rain and the confetti, and she had worn a hilariously expensive silver fox coat which was ruined in a spectacular fashion. The owner laughed her complaints away. The staff were pretty much all twentysomething vegetarians and activists, so we had little sympathy for her jacket crisis. Good times.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:48 AM on September 12, 2013
It's easy to discreetly look at your phone in a cinema and usually less disturbing to those around you than eating crisps.
How are you qualified to tell what's more or less disturbing to other people? It's like I was saying in the Debrett's cell phone etiquette thread, "My phone screen doesn't bother people at the movies" is a lot like "I don't drive any worse when I'm drunk," or "I'm not obnoxious with the PDA's when I first start dating someone." It's one of those things that one is simply not qualified to judge for one's self.
Are you assuming people aren't bothered because they're not repeatedly asking you to shut it off? People are saying here that the screens DO bother them and you're not taking them seriously. They're probably not going to approach you in the cinema to complain because they've been blown off, or worse, too many times by stubborn users. Silence is weariness or self-protection more than it is assent.
Not caring whether people are bothered is another thing altogether. It may be more antisocial, but it seems more ingenuous.
Not to labour the comparison too much, but people used to say it was unbearable to sit next to someone on the bus who had a Walkman on because of the tinny noise. You don't hear that complaint any more.
Of course you don't hear it. You can't hear ANYTHING through music that loud.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:50 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
How are you qualified to tell what's more or less disturbing to other people? It's like I was saying in the Debrett's cell phone etiquette thread, "My phone screen doesn't bother people at the movies" is a lot like "I don't drive any worse when I'm drunk," or "I'm not obnoxious with the PDA's when I first start dating someone." It's one of those things that one is simply not qualified to judge for one's self.
Are you assuming people aren't bothered because they're not repeatedly asking you to shut it off? People are saying here that the screens DO bother them and you're not taking them seriously. They're probably not going to approach you in the cinema to complain because they've been blown off, or worse, too many times by stubborn users. Silence is weariness or self-protection more than it is assent.
Not caring whether people are bothered is another thing altogether. It may be more antisocial, but it seems more ingenuous.
Not to labour the comparison too much, but people used to say it was unbearable to sit next to someone on the bus who had a Walkman on because of the tinny noise. You don't hear that complaint any more.
Of course you don't hear it. You can't hear ANYTHING through music that loud.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:50 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
...Okay, but there are going to be regular screenings too, right? I can see The Little Mermaid on a big screen? That's what I'm taking from this, mostly.
(On the drive to Dragoncon a couple of weeks ago, we cued up the soundtrack and all four of us in the car found, to our surprise, that we were all still word-perfect on every song. Poor Unfortunate Souls is SO GREAT.)
posted by nonasuch at 8:56 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
(On the drive to Dragoncon a couple of weeks ago, we cued up the soundtrack and all four of us in the car found, to our surprise, that we were all still word-perfect on every song. Poor Unfortunate Souls is SO GREAT.)
posted by nonasuch at 8:56 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
...for whatever reason I remember that bone-deep fear of being five and maybe an iPad app would've helped? Or not? Who knows.
I think part of the issue that people have with this app is that bone-chilling fear when Ariel nearly drowns or Ursula zaps Triton or Eric stabs Ursula? That's important. That's part of the movie going experience. As sanitized as the Disney Little Mermaid is, there are still scary bits. And being scared sometimes is OK. You *remember* sitting in that theatre, disbelief totally suspended, afraid that the mermaid was going to drown. That was an experience. I'm not saying it made you the fine whelk that you are today, but I can't think that you're the worse for it. I mean, you certainly retained your love of sea creatures.
posted by maryr at 9:02 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
I think part of the issue that people have with this app is that bone-chilling fear when Ariel nearly drowns or Ursula zaps Triton or Eric stabs Ursula? That's important. That's part of the movie going experience. As sanitized as the Disney Little Mermaid is, there are still scary bits. And being scared sometimes is OK. You *remember* sitting in that theatre, disbelief totally suspended, afraid that the mermaid was going to drown. That was an experience. I'm not saying it made you the fine whelk that you are today, but I can't think that you're the worse for it. I mean, you certainly retained your love of sea creatures.
posted by maryr at 9:02 AM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
I've long suspected that this is the real reason for nudity taboos. If you see it every day, so what? If it's a big deal when you see gasp TITS, the sheer power of the female breast can drive teenage boys mad.
Don't underestimate the importance of body language.
This whole thread comes down to "The men up there don't like a lot of chatter."
posted by maryr at 9:04 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
Don't underestimate the importance of body language.
This whole thread comes down to "The men up there don't like a lot of chatter."
posted by maryr at 9:04 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
they think a guy who texts is a boor
In the theater it's much preferred
for patrons not to say a word
after all dear isn't that the movies are for?
posted by The Whelk at 9:08 AM on September 12, 2013 [5 favorites]
In the theater it's much preferred
for patrons not to say a word
after all dear isn't that the movies are for?
posted by The Whelk at 9:08 AM on September 12, 2013 [5 favorites]
Yeah, a sing-along or kids-only screening sounds fine
Let me get this straight: we need to have "kids-only" screenings of "The Little Mermaid"? I was unaware that this movie draws a large number of adult moviegoers who must watch it in silence.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:13 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
Let me get this straight: we need to have "kids-only" screenings of "The Little Mermaid"? I was unaware that this movie draws a large number of adult moviegoers who must watch it in silence.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:13 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
I hope to god one of those people is Werner Herzog.
posted by elizardbits at 9:15 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by elizardbits at 9:15 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
For everyone getting fighty about this, these are special screenings. If you don't wanna go, don't buy a ticket.
posted by Annika Cicada at 9:20 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Annika Cicada at 9:20 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
You *remember* sitting in that theatre, disbelief totally suspended, afraid that the mermaid was going to drown.
They're aiming at kids who've seen the movie 100 times already. Like the Rocky Horror, it's a celebration of communal love for the movie.
posted by colie at 9:30 AM on September 12, 2013
They're aiming at kids who've seen the movie 100 times already. Like the Rocky Horror, it's a celebration of communal love for the movie.
posted by colie at 9:30 AM on September 12, 2013
This thread is reminding me how much I love the little mermaid soundtrack.
posted by Annika Cicada at 9:32 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Annika Cicada at 9:32 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
Having worked in a rep cinema for much of my misspent youth, I have seen every possible range of reaction by audience members in reaction to Rocky Horror.
I'm a piker compared to some, but we must have gone to see Rocky at the Coconut Grove theater for the midnight show 40+ times during the late 80s. This was past the point where the Grove was really counter-culture but the Rocky crowd was still somewhat fringe by comparison to the generalized boozy crowd around the rest of the area.
So not many of the 'norms' came in, but it did happen on occasion. One night a group of three or four came amongst the costumed crowd and plopped themselves down, one of them a lot farther along in his cups than the others. He seemed to be the one who had no experience with Rocky.
But he started to get it. Janet's name would be said and everyone would yell SLUT! Brad's would be said and people would yell ASSHOLE! Either it got said a little more often or it made more of an impression on him, because after the third or fourth time a few seconds passed and he joined the chorus, somewhat delayed.
"asshole"
A few more lines would be hollered out and he joined in, a little more forcefully but with slightly poorer accuracy.
"asshole!"
A few more and he was really into it.
"ASSHOLE!"
And then for the first time I heard these words in a Rocky screening: "Dude, shut up."
"AAASSSHOOOLLLEEE! AAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSHOOOOOOLEEEEEEEE"
Left-over toast and croutons were thrown. More people yelled shut up, even as a few others stayed on target. We remembered/doing the time warp/kick kick ASSSSSSHOOOOOLEEEEEEE.
Eventually, for what was probably the first and last time in Rocky history, someone from the theater came out and ordered the dude to leave. People applauded. Then went back to yelling at the screen.
posted by phearlez at 9:36 AM on September 12, 2013 [5 favorites]
I'm a piker compared to some, but we must have gone to see Rocky at the Coconut Grove theater for the midnight show 40+ times during the late 80s. This was past the point where the Grove was really counter-culture but the Rocky crowd was still somewhat fringe by comparison to the generalized boozy crowd around the rest of the area.
So not many of the 'norms' came in, but it did happen on occasion. One night a group of three or four came amongst the costumed crowd and plopped themselves down, one of them a lot farther along in his cups than the others. He seemed to be the one who had no experience with Rocky.
But he started to get it. Janet's name would be said and everyone would yell SLUT! Brad's would be said and people would yell ASSHOLE! Either it got said a little more often or it made more of an impression on him, because after the third or fourth time a few seconds passed and he joined the chorus, somewhat delayed.
"asshole"
A few more lines would be hollered out and he joined in, a little more forcefully but with slightly poorer accuracy.
"asshole!"
A few more and he was really into it.
"ASSHOLE!"
And then for the first time I heard these words in a Rocky screening: "Dude, shut up."
"AAASSSHOOOLLLEEE! AAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSHOOOOOOLEEEEEEEE"
Left-over toast and croutons were thrown. More people yelled shut up, even as a few others stayed on target. We remembered/doing the time warp/kick kick ASSSSSSHOOOOOLEEEEEEE.
Eventually, for what was probably the first and last time in Rocky history, someone from the theater came out and ordered the dude to leave. People applauded. Then went back to yelling at the screen.
posted by phearlez at 9:36 AM on September 12, 2013 [5 favorites]
"...for whatever reason I remember that bone-deep fear of being five and maybe an iPad app would've helped? Or not? Who knows."
I think part of the issue that people have with this app is that bone-chilling fear when Ariel nearly drowns or Ursula zaps Triton or Eric stabs Ursula? That's important. That's part of the movie going experience. As sanitized as the Disney Little Mermaid is, there are still scary bits. And being scared sometimes is OK. You *remember* sitting in that theatre, disbelief totally suspended, afraid that the mermaid was going to drown. That was an experience. I'm not saying it made you the fine whelk that you are today, but I can't think that you're the worse for it. I mean, you certainly retained your love of sea creatures.
OMG YES!
This was something Disney the storyteller understood so well, and passed on to the writers he managed and the best of those who came after him. Kids need to learn how to be scared, how to feel those emotions and them release them. Not only is is good for them, the release feels good, too. If kids get to try out feeling sadness, loss, and fear in a safe place, they may not be so unafamiliar in real life. It's kiddie katharsis.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:37 AM on September 12, 2013
I think part of the issue that people have with this app is that bone-chilling fear when Ariel nearly drowns or Ursula zaps Triton or Eric stabs Ursula? That's important. That's part of the movie going experience. As sanitized as the Disney Little Mermaid is, there are still scary bits. And being scared sometimes is OK. You *remember* sitting in that theatre, disbelief totally suspended, afraid that the mermaid was going to drown. That was an experience. I'm not saying it made you the fine whelk that you are today, but I can't think that you're the worse for it. I mean, you certainly retained your love of sea creatures.
OMG YES!
This was something Disney the storyteller understood so well, and passed on to the writers he managed and the best of those who came after him. Kids need to learn how to be scared, how to feel those emotions and them release them. Not only is is good for them, the release feels good, too. If kids get to try out feeling sadness, loss, and fear in a safe place, they may not be so unafamiliar in real life. It's kiddie katharsis.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:37 AM on September 12, 2013
"Dad," we'd say, "Please be quiet." "Pew pew pew, Darth Vader!" he'd reply shortly before the usher escorted us out.
I would like to hear more about your Dad.
posted by arcticseal at 10:13 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
I would like to hear more about your Dad.
posted by arcticseal at 10:13 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
They should do an iPad second screen app for 'Inception', with a whole different movie going on simultaneously inside your iPad brain in the past or future or something.
posted by colie at 10:31 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by colie at 10:31 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'm thinking about this from the perspective of the kids it will be marketed to, and it makes me angry, because it's another fun thing that only relatively wealthy kids will get to enjoy. Lower income households are much less likely to own a tablet (or any computer at all, for that matter).
It's just one more thing ... this year, our state fair added something truly despicable, something that I understand amusement parks have had for a while: For an extra $15 per child, you get a special wristband that lets you cut to the front of the line for any ride. Unlimited use.
This pisses me off so much. Imagine you're the kid whose parents both work two jobs, and going to the fair (or amusement park or whatever) is the event of the year for you. And you're waiting in line for that ride, when the rich kid with the wristband cuts right in front of you. It's demoralizing. Yeah, sure, it's just a couple of extra minutes you have to wait, but it's the signal it sends: That kid is more important than you, because of how much money his family has relative to how much you have. It's one more constant reminder that you're poor. That Disney movie that some kids in your class are going to, and are going to be talking about? You can't go to that, because mom and dad don't have an iPad.
Fuck all of this.
posted by jbickers at 10:36 AM on September 12, 2013 [11 favorites]
It's just one more thing ... this year, our state fair added something truly despicable, something that I understand amusement parks have had for a while: For an extra $15 per child, you get a special wristband that lets you cut to the front of the line for any ride. Unlimited use.
This pisses me off so much. Imagine you're the kid whose parents both work two jobs, and going to the fair (or amusement park or whatever) is the event of the year for you. And you're waiting in line for that ride, when the rich kid with the wristband cuts right in front of you. It's demoralizing. Yeah, sure, it's just a couple of extra minutes you have to wait, but it's the signal it sends: That kid is more important than you, because of how much money his family has relative to how much you have. It's one more constant reminder that you're poor. That Disney movie that some kids in your class are going to, and are going to be talking about? You can't go to that, because mom and dad don't have an iPad.
Fuck all of this.
posted by jbickers at 10:36 AM on September 12, 2013 [11 favorites]
jbickers: I don't own an iPad, I have three kids, we make decent money now, but from they time they were born up until the very recent past we all struggled financially through some really, really, tough circumstances (lack of food, foreclosure, camping because we had nowhere to live, that shit going on for years on end with no relief in sight). My children who have lived through some really shitty circumstances that were, and still are to this day, completely unfair to them, saw the youtube video *from this post* and thought it was the coolest thing they had ever seen. They didn't appear to feel bad about themselves, or underprivileged, they laughed their asses off and wondered whose iPad we could borrow to go watch it.
posted by Annika Cicada at 12:01 PM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Annika Cicada at 12:01 PM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
They should do an iPad second screen app for 'Inception', with a whole different movie going on simultaneously inside your iPad brain in the past or future or something.
I would happily attend an Inception showing where each viewer has an iPad app which just triggers the BWAAAAAARM through the movie speakers.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:34 PM on September 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
I would happily attend an Inception showing where each viewer has an iPad app which just triggers the BWAAAAAARM through the movie speakers.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:34 PM on September 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
I'm with Rory on this one. This movie wasn't made with this in mind, on the horizon or in the neighborhood. It's being grafted on the top. It's a literal afterthought, and I'll be surprised if it is anything but a feature-length advertisement that's designed to sell merchandise or cross-promote other Disney stuff through direct scene tie-ins.
Kids get very attached to tablets very quickly, and Disney probably understands that the kids who are already habituated are likely to be the same ones who watch a lot of TV and take advertising to heart, and whose parents go along to get along. I expect Disney will be running advertisements on kids channels to instruct them to ask to go to the iPad version of movie.
And regarding phones in the movies generally, I disagree that it should become normal. When just a few screens in the audience can be distracting, imagine what a theater full would be like, flickering on and off, all around you. Intensifying during slower moments. Infuriating, and missing the point of being there even more than the people who try and video concerts in giant venues using a smartphone and digital zoom.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:42 PM on September 12, 2013
Kids get very attached to tablets very quickly, and Disney probably understands that the kids who are already habituated are likely to be the same ones who watch a lot of TV and take advertising to heart, and whose parents go along to get along. I expect Disney will be running advertisements on kids channels to instruct them to ask to go to the iPad version of movie.
And regarding phones in the movies generally, I disagree that it should become normal. When just a few screens in the audience can be distracting, imagine what a theater full would be like, flickering on and off, all around you. Intensifying during slower moments. Infuriating, and missing the point of being there even more than the people who try and video concerts in giant venues using a smartphone and digital zoom.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:42 PM on September 12, 2013
>Watching and appreciating movies is not an automatic thing. It is a skill that has to be learned.
... and The Little Mermaid is an important part of any rigorous media-appreciation regimen! CONSTANT VIGILANCE.
I didn't say it because of some airy theory. My statement came from personal experience, I had really never watched a movie solidly until I was probably in my early 20s. It's not that kids can't see The Little Mermaid unadorned. But there's not an awful lot of incentive among kids to see movies the proper way, what with companies clamoring to distract them. This is a contributing factor.
Hell, even now some of my favorite ways to experience movies involve distracting, in the form of riffing. But it is important that kids eventually come to realize that movies have things to offer them that they will have to sit and focus to acquire.
posted by JHarris at 7:31 PM on September 12, 2013
... and The Little Mermaid is an important part of any rigorous media-appreciation regimen! CONSTANT VIGILANCE.
I didn't say it because of some airy theory. My statement came from personal experience, I had really never watched a movie solidly until I was probably in my early 20s. It's not that kids can't see The Little Mermaid unadorned. But there's not an awful lot of incentive among kids to see movies the proper way, what with companies clamoring to distract them. This is a contributing factor.
Hell, even now some of my favorite ways to experience movies involve distracting, in the form of riffing. But it is important that kids eventually come to realize that movies have things to offer them that they will have to sit and focus to acquire.
posted by JHarris at 7:31 PM on September 12, 2013
To everyone in this thread, and the person who wrote this post in particular: for the love of god, please don't turn Metafilter into Reddit.
posted by huron at 10:36 PM on September 13, 2013
posted by huron at 10:36 PM on September 13, 2013
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I'm sure Anil'll be happy.
posted by dobbs at 9:28 PM on September 11, 2013 [14 favorites]