Rachel's Media Criticism Blog Posts

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  Max is a young 12 year old boy from Salem, Massachusetts who is coming to spend the summer with his grandparents on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Very much used to his life on the mainland, Max does not know much about his Hawaiian heritage nor the culture of the island. He is very much into video games, skateboarding, making his own YouTube videos and going to theme parks, like any other boy on the mainland. Also being half native Hawaiian and Irish, he has not been that exposed to the cultural foods that his father ate growing up, nor was he forced to be exposed. Being a pre-teen, with the ability to have a bit more freedom than he used to when he was young, Max was looking forward to spending time with friends this summer.  Being disappointed but excited at the same time to see his grandparents for the first time in years, his parents had bought him a camera to document his trip.When arriving in Oahu, Max experiences culture shock first hand. Feeling like an outsider, Max t...

The documentary Life, Animated, follows the story of an autistic man named Owen and his struggles from childhood to adulthood. Throughout his life, one theme remains existent; his love for Disney films. The documentary showcases the various impacts that Disney movies can have on autistic people such as Owen and many others. From a young age, there was always a language barrier between Owen’s parents, older brother and himself. Desperately trying to find ways to communicate with Owen, his parents came across what seemed to be a miracle. His father shares an intimate moment with his son, where he learns that his son communicates through movie dialogue using a Iago puppet, popular from the movie, Aladdin . From then on, Owen’s Disney obsession truly blossomed. He was taken to Disney World, Disney Broadway shows, and even part of an adult Disney club. Throughout the film, his prized Disney merchandise and experiences have been showcased in many ways. Much like his mom said early on in th...

  Disney Channel is one of the most popular children’s television channels, well known for their shows such as Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Hannah Montana, and That’s So Raven. With all shows being equally unique, Disney Channel is known for their brand in which they maintain through all their shows throughout the years. Although it may seem as if Disney Channel is diverse, they mainly include characters of different races and ethnicities as background characters,and do not seem to take the spotlight often. Although Disney Channel has included shows where the main characters are African American such as That’s So Raven, Corey in the House, and K.C undercover, they fail to often include other ethnicities as the main characters.  My suggestion to this would be to possibly create a new television show, which includes several different characters of different ethnicities and races. The place of the show could also be placed in a diverse environment such as a performing arts scho...

            In an article on usatoday.com , it explains Walmart’s gift list for Christmas 2020. This includes Walmart’s most popular sold toys broken down into categories such as popular character toys, high-tech toys, interactive toys, and more. One of the most popular character toys on the list was  Blue’s Clues & You Peek-A-Boo. Coming from the popular children’s television show, Blue’s Clues & You, the toy features the popular character, Blue, in a stuffed animal form with mechanics to make playful interaction between the toy and child.  Being one of the most popular children’s characters, Blue represents every preschooler’s best friend who is playful, imaginative, curious, and always willing to learn. Throughout the television show, Blue is always showing her curiosity and playfulness through her adventures with Josh. In the episode, “Happy Birthday Blue,” Blue sets up clues for Josh to findto figure out what Blue wants for ...

  Julie’s Greenroom is a children’s netflix series where legend Julie Andrews leads a workshop for children at a performing arts center. Here at the Wellspring Center for the Performing Arts, Miss Julie has a set agenda for her students, with different episodes focusing on different aspects of the performing arts, such as singing, acting and even stand up comedy. Not much like other children’s shows, Julie’s Greenroom showcases several different aspects of diversity and intersectionality that one may not see in other children’s shows. “Every part big or small is important” is Miss Julie’s number one saying throughout the series, explaining to her students that although one may want to be the star of the show, that without the small parts there also would not be a show at all. Miss Julie’s students are also a very diverse group of children, not often seen in one room in television shows. They are all of different races, ethnicities, and disabilities, almost always having a differen...

  Inspired by his nephew scrolling through pointless videos on YouTube, Stevin John had created an internet personality for his nephew to watch online. This of which has transformed into one of the most well known YouTube vlogs for kids, named Blippi. On this channel, Blippi goes on adventures and does activities that young children can follow through his videos and learn from experience.  The parasocial relationship between Blippi and viewers are not much different from Dora , or Blues Clues And You . Blippi is oftentimes asking children to do the activity he is doing with him, act like the animal he is learning about, or even asking them how to spell out his name. All of which he waits for them to answer the question or do the action before he himself does it. Blippi is also known for his positive attitude, his acts of kindness by sharing, recognizing how he feels and how his actions sometimes make people feel, and how to cope with situations as such. He also creates a po...

  Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhoo d is a television show on PBS, based off of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. The show utilizes observational viewing, in which Daniel Tiger provides children ages 2-6 an example of how to deal with day-to-day situations that help them develop their social and emotional skills. With the show’s popularity, one would think that reviews on Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood would be all the rage from parents and children. But to my surprise, I have found otherwise. In reviews on commonsensemedia.org , many parents and children have a bone to pick with popular Daniel Tiger.  In many of the parents reviews, it mentions that Daniel Tiger “never wears pants,” is a “spoiled brat”, or “too whiny.” While reviews written by children, mostly older siblings the age of 13, write that although the show is amusing and has some positive effects of teaching children how to deal with certain emotions in certain situations, it is absolutely nothing like Mister Rogers Neighborh...

  The series, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, is a series based off Mister Rogers Neighborhood, where young Daniel Tiger invites young preschoolers ages 2-6 to go about their day with him helping them develop social and emotional skills. Through observational viewing, young viewers and their parents get invited to the neighborhood of Make Believe, where they get to go on Adventures with Daniel, experiencing day to day situations and encounters much like how they do everyday as well. These day-to-day experiences include conflict with friends, experiencing something new, or learning how to cope with certain emotions. By watching Daniel and friends lead by example, the show’s success is mainly based off of viewers following after his example after watching the show.  In a quantitative research done by Texas Tech University , it is said that “127 preschoolers and one of each of their parents in our study. Over a two-week period, we had some of the kids watch Daniel Tiger’s Neighbor...

Sesame Street is a timeless classic children’s television series which debuted in 1969.It is a show that has been watched by generations of children, whom of which are now mostly parents and maybe even grandparents. After 50 years, it seems as if the popular children’s television show has done nothing but evolve, much like the world around us.  When thinking about the first episode, we think about how characters were first introduced, the curriculum behind it, and how differently presented the show was. Not much like other shows during this time, Sesame Street opened the show up with Gordon showing his niece or daughter around Sesame Street and introducing her to those who lived on Sesame Street . It is known that the show is known for its hidden curriculums. The show provides different commercial-like segments to indicate certain moral concerns made by parents that educate children about things such as numbers, letters, different animals, how things such as liquids move up and...

  Roblox is a free online gaming platform open to all ages . Being prominent with younger grade school aged children, Roblox is much like everything one would have wanted during the Club Penguin era and more. Users have the choice of joining an unlimited number of free games, realms, and “obbys” to interact and play with other users on one simple platform. With Roblox being a growing gaming platform for a whole new generation and industry, it must be regulated as carefully as possible. Although this popular gaming site and app has many benefits for users, the growing popularity has only raised concern for parents, especially with how open the platform is. With users as young as the age of 4 utilizing this platform, without the proper supervision, there is a risk of many things a child could run into. These problems include the access to inappropriate games for preschoolers that include violence, guns, and killing. There is also a risk for a child to be in contact with someone that ...

The Aesthetic Form of Cats

  In 2014, Disney debuted its cinematic version of the popular Broadway musical, Into the Woods. This Sondheim original is a dark satire musical featuring well known storybook characters such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack from Jack and the beanstalk. The musical intertwines the characters stories into one, showcasing each fairytale but giving them more of a realistic ending. The way Sondheim had written the musical, he utilizes the outer-directed tasks of art, which refines society and culture by offering the ideal, see into the present to reveal our world and to cope with the labors of life. He does this through showcasing fairytale stories which offers society and culture the ideal. For example, when Cinderella gets to go to the ball, or Jack gets the magical beans would be offering the ideal. When things take a turn, and these characters face reality, is when the audience can see into the present to reveal the real world. For example when Cinderella is having ...

       The Netflix film, Cuties, is known for its controversial scenes that have been brought to attention by angry viewers on social media.  The movie was originally a French film directed by Maïmouna  Doucouré who’s individual conscience of the film was not taken properly by viewers. Her true individual conscience of the film was to showcase the influence of social media on young girls, especially preteens. It is because of the provocative scenes of young girls dancing inappropriately and taking pictures of their private parts on camera that caused these scenes to become objects of moral judgement. Audiences in America are taken back by these scenes because of how uncommon it is to see things such as this on the big screen than in France where the film was first shown.       Most of these complaints came from Netflix’s financial supporters, which would be its subscribers in the United States. Although the film is not a Netflix Original...

  The famous NBC television series, Friends, is a sitcom about six twenty to thirty something year old friends living in Manhattan, going through life at that age together. Although popular during its time, Friends is well known for bringing back the nostalgic feeling of the 90’s in this binge watching of series era. But among those who stream Friends are Gen Z’ers that find the show humorous and relatable, especially within the personality traits of the characters. It’s these archetypes that make the show relatable to those of all ages that are watching the show. What makes Friends so relatable, is how each character can resonate with one person personally as well as relate to people’s friend groups. For example, Monica can be seen as the caregiver, because she is always looking after her friends, especially Rachel as viewers see in the first episode. She is always there when a character has a problem, and they always seek her for comfort or advice. Monica’s brother, Ross can b...

  The controversial Netflix film, Cuties , has not only been one of the most controversial films produced by Netflix, but one of the most analyzed because of society’s view on the film. Although the film may include some provocative shots of 11 year old girls dancing inappropriately, the film is much more than that.  The film’s storyline is originally based on society’s influence on young girls and the influence of social media. As said by a Netflix spokesperson, “Cuties is social commentary against the sexualization  of young children.” Throughout the film, 11 year old Amy is trying to figure herself out and along the way becomes friends with the fierce and outgoing group, the cuties. Seeing how the cuties seem so confident and their true selves, Amy is determined to find that confidence within herself to fit in and become a “cutie” herself. This makes her hungry for attention, whether it be from the cuties themselves, kids at school or older family members. Through her ...

  The HBO phenomenon, Euphoria , is known for its glittery makeup, Emmy award winning acting and the most popular cinematic videography. The cinematography utilized within Euphoria is best known for its storytelling capabilities. In the opening scene , we go through a montage of Rue's memory of her childhood as to how she became addicted to drugs.  The scene starts with a focused shot of Rue’s mother with the background blurry, but then gains focus on young Rue. This is to insinuate to the viewer that we are looking at things from Rue’s past from her perspective. Throughout the montage, we see scenes starting with zooming out to give more of a perspective to Rue’s state of mind during that moment of her life, as well as a series of pan shots when she is moving from one room to another. Particularly in the scene where she begins to start taking her mother's pills, the transition would be her opening and closing the cabinet on various different days, utilizing the spatial m...

       In this new age of Disney films, the main event seems to be live action remakes of Disney renaissance films such as The Jungle Book, Lion King and Cinderella. One of the most popular remakes of the Disney renaissance movies would be the Beauty and the Beast remake, featuring Emma Watson as Belle. In a review made on theatlantic.com, David Sims dives deep into how this “Tale as old as time” was told worse . The story of transformative love, and learning to see someone’s inner beauty is a tailor-made Disney movie at heart. The 1991 original film is one of Disney’s greatest animated works. But in the 2017 edition of Beauty and the Beast to Sims “feels particularly egregious, in part, because it’s so slavishly devoted to the original; every time it falls short of its predecessor (which is quite often), it’s hard not to notice” (Sims,1).      Sims mentions the added time to the remake due to extra songs which execute a little more of a back story to...

  After much discussion over the controversial Netflix film “Cuties,” the movie has been on the top ten watched today list on Netflix for the past week or two. This, bringing in many viewer reviews in regards to the film. On the IMDB page for the movie , the audience reviews seem very similar and universal, but at the same time there are also some that may differ from others. While most of the movie’s reviews seem normative by saying how disturbing and uncomfortable it was to watch the movie, the majority of those normative views were linked to empirical observations made rather than being primarily ungrounded. For example, in one of the reviews the user decided to not focus on the obvious fact about how the young girls in this movie were oversexualized, rather than how the plot was there but was not complete. He addresses almost all the plot holes, camera angles and moral of the story. Another user makes a similar review, although being short and to the point, it addresses the ...

  `Within the past week, there has been a recent uproar on social media in regards to “Cuties,” which is a french film surrounding the lives of 11 year old girls, friendship, and the social pressure of social media on young girls. In an article on The Washington Post , Monica Hesse addresses that the movie isn’t what it really seems to those who have been starting the hashtag, #boycottNetflix. The movie does include very uncomfortable scenes such as dancing and sharing intimate photos of young 11 year old girls that may seem very wrong to those who have actually not viewed the movie. In Hesse’s critique, she states the movie as “ one of the more compelling movies you’ve likely seen in months. Funny and deeply uncomfortable, sweet and sometimes sad,” which may seem normal to the traditions and experiences of the audiences on Netflix. But in this case, it seems different due to the allegations against Netflix online although these reactions were not the intentions of director Ma...