Nik

I scrolled into this while I was eating lunch and nearly choked, so good job.

This isn't Disney, but the villain in We're Back being FUCKING EATEN BY CROWS shook my goddamn soul.

I have literally only seen the movie once all the way through, as a kid, and that line is still seared into my memory.

It was nice for about three months when there would be at least one or two people at every press junket who would talk about it, and then presumably WWE stopped inviting those people to the media events.

YouTube video by Weekly Manga Recap Weekly Manga Recap: Neon Genesis Evangelion

www.youtube.com/watch?v=02EK...

Neither @rollot.bsky.social nor myself had watched Evangelion before reading the manga for this review. It was an odd feeling to go into this discussion knowing we had so little experience with the franchise, but I think it turned out great.

HAPPY DIGIMON DAY! Today is August 1st, which means it's time to announce my return to YouTube. I'll be launching multiple new video series this month, in better quality than I have ever been able to achieve before. Thank you to everyone who patiently supported me while I worked away at this thing.

Other people in the wrestling business have done more damage to the world due to being rich bastards, and others have committed more heinous acts, but Hogan stood apart because he was SUCH a bastard for SO long to SO many people.

In short: fuck the Hulk Hogan.

He never tried to improve himself or show remorse for his transgressions, and if he had a well-known personal feud with another wrestler, he would just wait for them to die and then afterwards claim that they had made amends at the last minute - this happened most famously with Macho Man.

He was a racist who was caught on tape admitting to being a racist, and then NEVER APOLOGIZED FOR BEING RACIST, even when it had negatively affected his public image and finances and multiple black pro wrestlers repeatedly called him on his bullshit.

I think it's difficult to quantify what a ridiculously gross and selfish person Hulk Hogan was. The dude screwed over his peers any chance he got for the sake of ensuring his own pockets were lined. He killed pro wrestling's best chance at having a union - indirectly costing people their lives.

Ozzy had to leave this mortal plane because Hell needed someone to oversee the arrival of Hulk Hogan.

When I went to see Superman yesterday, there was an older guy there, probably in his 60s, wearing a T-shirt that had the cover of Action Comics #1 printed on it. Very neat way to begin the viewing.

I get that we want to comment on the fact that the world's biggest asshole is likely hiding a serious illness, but please stop being so eager to put gross images of his skin on my timeline.

K-Pop Demon Hunters reminds me of how a decade ago Riot made K/DA.

There were legit people who K/DA caught on with that did not know it was a LoL skin line. That shit was mega popular.

And just like with KPDH, I failed to connect to the hype, since I thought K/DA was straight-up awful.

I am going to find the person who keeps giving fucking UKYO top-five cast member billing over Kohaku and I am going to shove their head in a toilet.

A ★★★½ review of KPop Demon Hunters (2025) Is it possible both to have your expectations exceeded by a film, yet still be disappointed by it? "KPop Demon Hunters" is a title that immediately makes you hope you're not going to get a helping of ...

"KPop Demon Hunters" might be the single most 'this movie isn't for me and I didn't like it, but I still think it's good and I'm glad it exists' viewing experience that I've ever had.

letterboxd.com/nikftime/fil...

Not to say that there weren't other factors (Disney-Pixar) in the shift of the entire landscape of major animated features to be almost exclusively computer-animated films, but it's wild to think that if one dude had gone "I've lost my perspective and need to step away," maybe things'd be different.

El Dorado being a financial failure, combined with Shrek being a massive success, played a big role in DreamWorks Animation shifting entirely to CG-animated movies. And in my opinion, both happened because Katzenberg was SO involved in the one and was more hands-off with the other.

This isn't to say Katzenberg didn't oversee ANYTHING in Shrek, but it was lower on his list of priorities than El Dorado, and he didn't poke his head in as often. And Shrek also benefited from having a newbie director, Andrew Adamson, who was good at talking Katzenberg into his ideas.

And if El Dorado isn't already the perennial example of why studio dudes being too hands-on in the filmmaking can be such a bad thing, there's the other side of the coin:

Katzenberg pretty much never had time to make it out to the studio where another film was being made. You might've heard of it.

People who SAW El Dorado tend remember it fondly, but the theatrical performance of a film has a lot more to do with marketing than actual quality. And if over the course of the entire production of a film you're changing your mind as to what it's supposed to be like, it makes it harder to pitch.

All this is to say that the man with the final say of what El Dorado was going to be like was constantly distracted from its production, was constantly changing his mind, and in general didn't seem to know what the hell he wanted.

So then, how was anyone supposed to market this thing successfully?

YouTube video by Special Features Archive The Making of 'The Road to El Dorado'

I don't have a precise confirmation of this, but it seems like the musical direction of the movie changed midway through as well. Making-of footage suggests that there were going to be more didactic musical numbers in the film than just the one there ended up being.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SssN...

This kind of back-and-forth was present across the board in El Dorado's production. The original directors left the project due to a creative disagreement with Katzenberg, and he refused their attempts to reconcile. One of the film's two final directors, Don Paul, had no other directing credits.

Katzenberg couldn't be a consistent presence for El Dorado as he had been for Prince of Egypt, but he was just as controlling despite not working as closely with the creative team. This led to a bunch of second-guessing on his part. (Excerpt from "The Men Who Would Be King" by Nicole LaPorte)

El Dorado had a troubled production all throughout. Katzenberg frustrated the team early on by completely changing the creative direction of the film, moving it from a more serious Prince of Egypt-like film into the goofier version it ended up as.

Pretty typical for him. Then the lawsuit came.

Nowadays, The Road to El Dorado is remembered fondly by a very passionate segment of millennials for its humor, Chel, animation, relationship between the protagonists, Chel, a bunch of very good memes, and Chel.

It also lost $20 million before considering advertising.

However then came the lawsuit. Katzenberg sued Disney over wages he claimed were owed to him, and while the suit was eventually settled in his favor, his court appearances were constantly pulling his attention away from DreamWorks' follow-up picture, The Road to El Dorado.

Katzenberg was a very present, VERY passionate leader on the project, both due to the pressure to prove the new animation studio could do what Disney Nintendidn't, and his personal connection to the story.

Prince of Egypt grossed about $200 million and made a big splash, so it all worked out.