Media Anatomy

 It currently seems to be the trend in media to have beloved heroes reduced to the lowest of lows. See how Luke becomes a miserable grump in The Last Jedi , how Picard feels like a washed up failure in Picard , how Batman has become a psychopath in Batman vs Superman , and how Capaldi's doctor in Dr. Who became a miserable jerk who treated everyone around him like garbage for all of what I saw of series 8. In theory, there is nothing inherently wrong with these ideas but the execution consistently fails.  The first problem is how these pieces of media seem fundamentally uninterested in establishing how the characters got to this point. Luke was always defined as someone who failed. Throughout the OT, he is failing at things, whether it be needing to be saved by the Sand People, or failing to lift the X-Wing without Yoda's assistance. Yet ultimately, he overcomes these failures to become a Jedi. What this shows is this a man who will respond with failure with a determination to

  I have been far from the biggest fan of the films from the so-called "Disney Rebirth." I probably thought Tangled   was the best as its humor felt the most organic and it boasted truly memorable characters whether they be endearing, Rapunzel and Maximus the horse, or menacing, Mother Gothel. Other films, however, like Frozen or Moana boasted exemplary animation but were hampered by meandering plots, thin characters, and often teeth grindingly bad humor. Raya of the Last Dragon definitely suffers from this last problem, while admittedly continuing the trend of absolutely gorgeous animation. Many of the humor sequences do not work because too often it feels like the film is saying "stop, let's have an extended comic sketch" and thus it feels awkward. It also feels awkward because the world of the film is a dark dystopian one so random comic intervals feel like they're there because they're expected rather than that they should be there.  Nevertheless, th