Thursday, June 01, 2006

I created a Disney animated movie making machine

There's a reason why I'm not blogging as much as I used to. I've been working hard and trying to come up with a revolutionary new invention. And it's done now. I call it the "Disney animated movie making machine". Actually, it was very easy to make and you can make one too. In fact, let's make one right now. There's just one thing you need. An idiot. So go, catch an idiot wandering around the streets, any idiot will do, the only prerequisite being, he shouldn't be deaf or dumb. In other words, he should be able to hear as well as speak.

Ok, so you've got an idiot. Now, think of anything, living or non-living, that could exist in a colony of co-existers. For example, bugs, toys, fish, cars, anything, just think. Then, come up with an activity humans might engage in and think of the corresponding activity that animal, vegetable or mineral would also engage in and add a pun. Do it a few more times and set it to an orchestra score. And presto, you've got yourself a Disney blockbuster. Sounds complicated? Not really. Here, let me explain.

For example, take the new animated Disney film "Cars". In the movie, they show an old doped up Volkswagen van saying "Organic fuel, man, that's the way to go". And the spiffy new sports car standing next to it snaps, "Get a carwash, hippy". *Laughter*. See what I mean? Just as humans would snap at the organic "food" eating hippies in their midst and order 'em to take a bath, cars would hypothetically ask the organic "fuel" guzzling hippies in their midst to take a carwash. Oh goddamn, it is so fucking funny it's not even funny. Ha ha. And the beauty of it is that even an idiot could have come up with that line.

And that's basically the purpose of the idiot in your possession who is trying to escape from you even as we speak. Don't let him go, he is your ticket to the big money.

So now let's try this machine for ourselves, let's say we decide to make a movie about, say footwear. Why not. It's as good an idea as any. And let's say we decide to call it "Shoes". An animated motion picture about shoes. That's hot. A community of shoes and sandals and slippers living in the shoe rack in a big house and the shoes live with each other and run around with feet on their back and say amusing things to each other which is funny because they are shoes saying things to each other. Shoes usually don't speak.

So then there's this shoe who is walking around in a kinda preoccupied listless manner and he is asked by this other shoe, "hey what's wrong with you, you look like a...." and this is where you whisper into the idiot's ear and ask him what the shoe's gonna say. And the idiot replies "lost sole". He looks like a lost sole. Get it? The shoe. Looking like a lost sole.

This is where the audience will double up with laughter at the pun just like you did the day after you had too much sushi for dinner.

Ok, so we move on. Then the other shoe replies, "....", and back you go to the idiot for advice. The idiot says, "Ah put a 'sock' in it". The shoe says to the other shoe, "Put a sock in it."

*drum roll and laughter*.

God, this machine works just fine.

And then we could have a slipper as the love interest, you know, she would be flirtin' with the leading shoe and sayin' things like "......" Yo idiot, what's she gonna say? And the idiot replies, "Hey baby, let me slip into something ....lacy"

*drum roll and laughter again*

Haha lacy ... 'cause it's a shoe and it would be wearing shoelaces, fuck idiot, you're just killing me. That's half a movie right there. I'm gonna make a mint of money from this idea, to be sure.

So there. Now you know how to make a Disney animated movie. Go on, there's lots of avenues to be explored. A movie about birds, I wonder, it's kinda funny why they haven't come up with that one yet, then you could have a movie about say a grocery aisle and its residents and someone buys the soup and the ketchup goes on a mission to bring it back, or you could have a drawerful of cutlery and the couple living in the house has a fight and the husband kills the wife with the steak knife and the steak knife gets so traumatized by the experience that it goes into therapy and .. fuck it, fuck it all.

Disney should quit making any more animated movies. Disney should die and go away. Die Disney. Die and be trampled by a shoe. And "Hey", the shoe should say, "I Walt right over you". Walt. Get it?

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I found my retard... are you free sometime this week to help me with my movie?

Anonymous said...

Genius, man! That was fuckin' aewsome! :)

Gaby de Wilde said...

I think you've hacked the formula. I cant wait to see your first 50 productions.

Make one with an Apple talking to a window.

Ambar said...

Are they really that bad? Thank FSM that I haven't seen any Disney movies for ages.

But yeah Disney's cartoons have always SUCKED. Suckiest cartoons ever.

zigzackly said...

Used to love your blog, but you've just lost yourself a reader. I'm sorry if this sounds too bleeding heart, but I can't forgive the way you use the word 'retard.'

Thank you for the ride thus far.

gawker said...

vidya, gaby : Thanks
ambar : yes, they are formulaic and very predictable and the puns make you want to puke. thats what happens when you begin to mass produce a concept.

gawker said...

zigzackly : I'm sorry to hear that. I did not use the word "retard" as in a mentally challenged person per se. I used it as one would use the word in the phrase "even a retard could do it". In an abstract sense. When I wrote this post I was more than aware that I would be pushing the envelope because trust me, I am as bleeding heart as they come. But just as one could be an ardent feminist and yet use vulgarity as a form of humor, I feel one can use the word "retard", yet be sympathetic to the plight of the mentally challenged.

But that's just my opinion. Anyways, thank you for being a reader.

gawker said...

Ok I have made some adjustments.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Long time reader...

I linked to this post from my blog, and even as I was doing that I did feel that the word "retard" would raise a few eyebrows. Idiot was a subsitute that did come to my mind.

And I can see the point you made in your reply to zigzackly. But how does that make things any different? It's something that's had me confused quite a few times. You use a euphemism, but every time you use it, it's like saying "I know you're gonna be offended if I call you by the other name, so I'm just using this to keep my peace". Sometimes the euphemism itself becomes condescending. Political correctness is indeed tricky.

As for the post, couldn't agree more. I fell for the first few movies and then the "process" became evident. Genius stuff indeed!

Anonymous said...

Brilliant! But aren't disney movies mostly made with kids in mind? kids probably find it amusing to watch cars talk and trucks race. It appeals to their imagination.

gawker said...

Rajesh : I guess it also differs from person to person how offensive you find a particular word. In this case, I was more or less using it to mean an idiot and I should probably have listened to my inner voice when it told me I was being a idiot for using that word.

Sowmy : thanks. Yes, these movies are supposed to cater to kids, but even then, don't kids deserve something better than all this formulaic junk? It's like they have this software package in Disney studios that churns out all these stupid dialogs and puns and they all follow the basic rules I enumerated in this post.

RobRoy said...

FYI: Disney didn't make the movies you're referencing, they just helped distribute them. Those movies were made by Pixar. True, now Pixar is part of Disney, but that happened prior to the release of "Cars", the latest in Pixar Studio efforts.

After acquiring Pixar, Disney did away with their classic animation division. On the whole, I tend to agree with your position . . . and yet, sometimes you just have to embrace the cheese.

gawker said...

Ok then lets call it a Pixar movie making machine, but the point is still the same, create a community of organisms / inanimate objects, assign humanlike qualities to them, expect humorous situations to develop as a result, add some human-organism correlationary puns and you've got a Disney / Pixar movie.

You know, I could even learn to live with the recycled storylines if they would just quit trying to make us laugh with those puns.

Don't embrace the cheese, eat the cheese.

Anurag said...

Dude, PC or no PC, this post is hilarious. I believe in actions speaking louder than words, and I feel a healthy dose of irreverence is good for everyone.

gawker said...

Syrith : Actually, this extends to every animated motion picture studio. I just took Disney / Pixar as an example because when you think animated films, you think Disney. And it seems to me that they've long ago lost the innovativeness of script they used to display before. Now, the focus is on making a more polished, technologically high-end animation and the thought process on the storyline and the script seem to be that they can take care of themselves.

anurag : Thanks. I agree, irreverance is usually good, but here, I agree with zigzackly that I probably went too far.

ggop said...

Husband killing wife with steak knife? More like an entry for Spike and Mike's sick and twisted Festival of Animation :-)

gg