The premise of this new Netflix movie is ridiculous: A K-pop girl band saving the world from demons with the power of... yup, songs. (Okay, and ethereal swords... But mostly songs.)
After listening to the soundtrack on repeat for a day now, I don’t find that premise so ridiculous anymore!
It also helps that the animation is incredibly gorgeous, putting the recent, rather bland and “safe” efforts from Disney Animation and Pixar into perspective. Both seem particularly stuck in their house styles when it comes to storytelling and visuals. But here we have a movie that looks fantastic – and whose musical interludes I’d take over Disney’s any day.
Yes, the story is rather predictable. The pacing drags a bit in the middle. I wish I’d learned a bit more about the relationship of the main character and her mom.
But honestly, it all doesn’t matter. It’s a truly enjoyable, highly watchable movie with an animation style I’d love to see more often.
My favorite Danish glassware maker sells stickers now! Ok, to be fair, Studio Arhoj did always sell a lot a different things besides glassware – postcards, bricks (no, really), tote bags, you name it. But I have a soft spot for stickers, so obviously I'm getting some.
This one, for example, will look great on my laptop AND sums up my current state of mind perfectly.
The cat has no idea what’s going on. Why is it suddenly being lifted? Why can’t it just go back to whatever it was doing? But the child doesn’t care – it’s cuddle time!
I really love these soft, whimsical impressions of children and their pets by Marie Asaba, a Japanese illustrator I discovered through the Spoon & Tamago blog.
From her current show, this portrait of a girl also really stood out to me.
I’ve long believed that games are the perfect tool to figure out how to deal with all sorts of cultural problems. They are a safe space to prototype reactions to the big shifts we face as a society – like when a new technology suddenly changes how we communicate, work, or assign value.
You know, just like AI does at the moment.
In this light I enjoyed the latest episode of Post Games a lot. In it Chris Plant sits down with Frank Lantz, the creator of Universal Paperclips (the game where you play as an ever-optimizing AI determined to make as many paperclips as possible). During their conversation, Frank Lantz makes a point that I feel deeply, too:
“I think that, to me, the correct stance to have about all this stuff is one of deep confusion. I think if you're not, like, slightly confused and like, look, I'm not sure what's going on, then I think you're not paying attention. (...) You know, there's a whole bunch of obvious positions one can hold right now, where obviously these things are not living. They're just, you know, algorithms. It's just math. It's just a complicated text predictor (...) I think that's crazy. I also think it's crazy to be like, oh, no, it's obvious that this is the godhead and that we're just on the verge of being destroyed by this thing that is going to be to us the way we are to ants. I don't think it's right to have a lot of certainty. I think a kind of deep uncertainty and curiosity is the best thing to have about this stuff.”
Games can help us deal with this uncertainty. Just like they did countless times before.
I started to play the new Fanatsy Life game with a bit of hesitation. I had heard a lot of good things about it – especially from the folks at Into the Aether – but I didn't really connect with the previous installment on 3DS.
Turns out my worries were unfounded. It's a great "best of cozy games" package, full of fun characters and endless (!) distractions.
With all its charm, the game feels right at home on the Switch 2. Honestly, this could have made for a great platform exclusive launch title. For whatever reason, though, Nintendo and Level-5 didn’t go that route with this release in the series. Still, I’d always recommend playing something like this on a portable system. Being able to fish, mine and craft in between what ever life throws at you is the best way to enjoy a game like this.
