#Monsterdon is a weekly fediverse community event (Sundays @ 9 PM ET) where a bunch of folks watch a monster/SF movie of some description in sync with each other and post about it. Partial list of past movies: https://wiki.neuromatch.social/Monsterdon#Movie_List
All are welcome! Look to the #MonsterdonAlert tag if you want to see annoucements about upcoming movies.
If you do not want to see these posts, mute the tag and/or me!
wow, 2 minutes to stop-motion
a #Monsterdon record?
already the orientalism is wearing on me but at least it's shot competently
the spinning prop treasure on a bit of string flying towards the camera while spinning is very cute, 70s core VFX for sure
we're getting truly spoiled by VFX in this first 10 min, expecting the movie to pump the brakes on us sometime here unless this budget was enormous
the budget was $982,351 dollars (1973 dollars) according to Wikipedia
ETA: that's about $7M today.
a random website tells me the average film budget in 1978 was about $5M, and Wikipedia points out that this movie coming in just shy of $1M was a small budget for the time
in light of this, I'm pleasantly surprised by how much value they're getting on their money. really effective filmmaking tbh
Wikipedia says the film grossed $11M, so as far as all movies are investment schemes that produce entertainment as a side effect, this one was a damned fine exercise, 10Xing the budget ain't nothing to sniff at
Regarding the proverb given in this movie: "Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel", it seems to be a translation of a real hadith
[terrible accents intensify]
If anybody is personally familiar with the text of "Sinbad the Sailor" I would love to know more about how this movie follows or deviates from myth.
That kind of analysis has been some of my favorite posting in this little series on ancient mythology we've got going
kid understands what's up, he doesn't want to get Harryhausen-ed and promptly splits
Meanwhile, #Monsterdon roaring with approval as the big wooden lady kills a guy
statue starts doing the backstroke
"Mandrake root and a few chemicals is all that is needed"
is a real "and now, MAXIMUM ENERGY" type line IMO
surely we've seen blood magick on #Monsterdon before, but I cannot recall another time off-hand?
anyway, this is cool
oh my god I love the little scared demon homunculus birth and training sequence so much???
when your actual power as a villain is just good creature caretaking
"Dangerous? Dangerous?! You never told me it would be dangerous!"
[with shit-eating grin] "You didn't ask"
Really impressed by the pacing so far. Bit past the halfway mark and the stakes are pretty well-established and we've had multiple bits of drama to fill out our second act, and here comes the setup for the third.
All in all I'm impressed by how well every part of this movie is functioning to draw the viewer into the drama (modulo the brownface)
Cool caverns ποΈπποΈ
this puzzle could have been an e-mail
> GO NORTH
You can't go North yet, this Guy is still yakkin'.
> LISTEN to Guy
*Sigh*. If we must.
RE: https://live.acarsdrama.com/@acarsdrama/116276012189852160
When even ACARS gets in on #Monsterdon
"Come on, men, trust in Allah!"
[pants fall down, men burst into laughter]
"β¦but tie up your camel"
I enjoy how we have a failson who is inspired to courage etc. by Adventure
underused trope IMO
tfw the thief kills your homunculus twice
and now for your federally-mandated racism interlude
Buckle your swashes, here we go now
@SnoopJ It helps that he's not overwrought in eg: a Jar-Jar way
@SnoopJ I think it's usually dressed up as being blood-scienc instead of explicitly magical
@Newpa_Hasai true!!
I have been trying to cultivate a short fiction reading habit of late, to get back to very consistent reading. I wonder how long the folktales are typically
@SnoopJ I've been on a bit of mythology kick recently, and depending on the story and tradition, anywhere from a paragraph to hundreds of pages. I want to say that ones that exist more as literature are longer. (Usually. Homer's an exception)
Also, I swear the line between folktales and fantasy is actually fuzzy.
As much as I hate AI, a comprehensive analysis of this movie script as it compares to all references to the myth of Sinbad sounds like a mission for ChatGPTβ¦
@SnoopJ wellllllll um I guess the the one eyed giant was a small callback to one of Sinbad's adventures (Also shared with Jason, same guy basically in some ways) where Sinbad and his men are trapped by a Cyclops in a cave. But in that case Sinbad, and incidentally Jason does too, blinds the Cyclops, and then escapes the cave by hiding under the Cyclops's sheep and go out when the sheep are let out to graze.
None of that here.
SnoopJ
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