The “BAD” MOVIE Trend

This is something I’ve discovered with my Mom. I tried to show her Arcane recently, mainly because she’s the type that disregards all animation as ‘for kids’ and I thought she would appreciate something that broke that mold. But she couldn’t follow it to save her life. She couldn’t distinguish between shimmer and hextech, she couldn’t remember anybody’s name, she kept mixing up plot points, she was just completely lost. That’s when it hit me that we look to entertainment for totally different purposes. I use it for emotional investment and appreciation of art, she uses it to relax and relate to the ‘real world.’ She’s not looking for depth or story, she wants easy hits of dopamine to float on while she drifts between tasks. Apparently she’s not alone, if she’s become the target demographic of streaming giants.

"Oops, accidentally made a good movie! Time to make it bad so kids like it!" That reminds me of the process Kung Fu Panda went through. Basically, at first, the writers and director wanted to make a goofy animal movie starring Jack Black as a martial arts obsessed panda, but then, somewhere along the way, they went "what if we.... make it good?", and then it turned into one of Dreamworks' best movies.

Sometimes everyone is excited about stuff cuz it’s fun, and sometimes your the only one who doesn’t like it cuz it’s stupid

I believe the Mario movie is good in the sense that it doesn't pretend to have great writing or excellent storytelling, focusing more on its relationship with the games it is based on. I doubt that people liked the Rainbow Road scene just because it looks cool... at least for me, that scene is intertwined with hours of races with friends, laughter, and amusing moments. The movie simply pays homage to its source material, without pretending to be anything more or less. For my part, I appreciate the honesty and simplicity once in a while.

As a writer myself who's currently creating his own manga, I like to think i've currently got a fair amount of knowledge due to intensive studying ( And your video's, thank you, Schnee! ) on creating well structured, organized stories. And what i often find myself experiencing ever since i took writing a lot more seriously, is something i like to call: ''The Writers Curse'' Where it becomes very difficult for me to simply enjoy bad shows and films. But even well written ones at times. Rather than taking it all in and emerging myself like child me would do. it's like my mind is constantly scanning and searching for bad pacing, Plot holes and contrivances. So when i sat there watching the Mario movie with my buddy, i began to feel like Anton Ego from Ratatouille. while all the children and even some adults were having a blast. it's like i suddenly remembered that the Movie was trying to make the audience have a huge amount of fun. And in a way, the ''Bad writing'' kind of helped it do that. It's like the writers wanted to fill the cup with 100 percent Fun. no space for ''Deep emotional moments.'' or ''complex arcs''. All fun. it was one big mario themed rollercoaster. That was it's goal. And that's when i understood the division in how the film was recieved. Writing wise, It might not have been a very good movie. But it was a great Mario Movie.

This reminds me of something Roger Ebert once said about how people go to see bad movies because they are comfortable with the idea they won't be disappointed, but can be apprehensive about seeing good movies, because they worry they'll be wasting their time.

My wife is very empathetic, she really has a hard time not investing in characters’ turmoil regardless of the context. I mean, I’ve seen her cry during a radio commercial. This is a huge superpower irl because she can extend a level of understanding and mercy to hurting people that I’ll just never have access to. I think what you are describing is essentially the way “empaths” experience most everything in their world.

To add to the Emily in Paris thing: When pitching a kids cartoon to Netflix, many animators said that Netflix asks it to be "more like the Boss Baby"

I really appreciate how you actually spent time trying to understand this phenomena, and not simply dismissing it explaining why you didn’t like it. It’s very easy to pick things apart, and it’s easy to mention a few things you like. I love that you never get hung up in details when analysing movies and series, but rather discuss the broad themes. And if you discuss details, you do it deep and thoroughly. I especially dislike when people hate on music for being bad. “Oh all of the popular music nowadays is trash”. No, it’s not inherently bad, you simply don’t like it. People can enjoy songs because of the lyrics, the rhythm, the melody, the beat, the feelings it invokes or for its genius composition. Few songs are objectively bad in all of these aspects.

You nailed it on the identification thing. I'm a really empathetic person and I am completely unable to distinguish good movies from bad movies. And a lot of that comes down to the fact that I am simply unable to see a character as a "badly-written" or "unrealistic" character. I see them as people, I see them as "maybe they're a little weird but some people are a little weird" and I empathize with all their experiences even if they are contrived. Especially if they're suffering. I see Anakin say "I hate sand" and I'm like "I'm so sorry you had to grow up on a sand planet and that you have so many terrible memories there, I can't imagine what that's like" etc.

Number 5 is quite evolutionary, we get a spike of "happy hormones" when we predict something because not so long ago our very survival depended how well we can predict the weather, possible predator attacks, how much food to store for the winter and so on. That's also why people like to listen to the same songs over and over again (oh the chorus is about to start! it started! nailed it!).

Personally, I didn't walk into the Mario Movie expecting a cinematic masterpiece. I came looking for a fun time with a bunch of references that I coukd just turn my brain off for an hour and a half to pretty colors and at least decent music. And that's about what I got to be honest. The music was better than expected (the orchestral version of the Super Star theme at the end was shockingly good), the plot didn't have any glaringly obvious plotholes as far as I could tell, the references, while a bit forced, never got obnoxious, Donkey Kong was fun, the Luma was fun, Jack Black's Bowser was fun-ny. It was definitely a family movie that parents and older siblings wouldn't have to grin and bear through, and that's all it needed to be.

Some movies are for story some movies like HP, Uper Mario, pixel, etc. are a celebration of a shared cultural experience (ie video game you played or book you read growing up). It's enjoyable to watch Mario kart bc you sunk hours into rainbow road and you are celebrating that shared experience

Them: 'You're overthinking it; you can't analyze our bad movies and get anything out of it." Schnee: "Hold my beer."

Using story as a secondary movie element is such a surprisingly good take. I had a sudden flashback to so many movies I liked for some reason, that this helped me understand better

In the case of Mario, I would say it's because people appreciate a movie that clearly was made with love for the fans and the franchise it was working with. Similar to Top Gun: Maverick and Hogwarts Legacy. When you don't insult the fans and show respect for the IP you are working with, then you earn the respect of the audience and make bank. Your average person doesn't put value into what critics have to say anymore.

As the person that gets hit with the "oh, you. You're over thinking it," I 100% agree with your conclusion here. I like stories and I like all the nuance and depth that comes from a story so after I finish a movie, part of my fun is reflecting on the story. That is NOT that case for a lot of movie goers. They want to relive a scene by talking about the explosions or the twist or the reveal or whatever. It's about the scenes. Not the storyline. I watched Enchanted with a few friends who are big fans of the disney/pixar kids genre. As soon as the movie was over I explained my confusion with the plot and how the grandmother's backstory feels like something is missing. OR did the pursuers just not continue through the mountains? Did the mountains forming kill them? What happened? AND WHY? Why were they fleeing the bad guys? Who were they? All of which got me slapped with the "oh so it wasn't violent enough for you? You wanted more of the violent scene?" We also watched Coco (new to me - not my friends who were rewatching it). My friend threw her pillow at me when I called the plot twist within 30 mins. If you're a writer or a story nerd who enjoys picking apart narratives, figuring out the plot and reflecting on it is part of your fun. For most other viewers, they want to just sit down and let the movie take the reigns. What's awesome about this phenomena is it demonstrates how different we all are and how we experience things differently.

that 6th category literally just blew my mind- it explains why my family gets physically upsset at things like action scenes even though they know it's about to happen and have seen scenes like that multiple times before (i.e. a car crash or stabbing). they're putting themselves in that situation and that's why it annoys me when they "overreact" lol. really great video, a lot of the movies you showed here i really enjoyed and now im thinking about why i actually liked them!

I think you are a unique YouTuber. Since the awesome analysis of Arcane to this. You could simply could have done a video explaining why is bad (a lot of other content creators have done this…), but you sincerely tried to understand why people genuinely like this movie. I understood more about this with this video so thank you so much! Your speculative part I think that also has to do with the actors capacity of deliver a performance that is believable to some people, and the thing about identifying with the characters themselves. And also, some people are more empathetic than others, I see an actor crying in some context and that immediately puts me emotional even in a bad story. But in some movies that the actors are not so good in deliver the emotions or the script is too bad (like in rings of Power) I don’t feel anything at all, and I don’t care about the characters. I think that the performance of the actors, voice actors and even the animation when it is animation has to do with this.

Im really proud of you for actively trying to understand people you disagree with. We need more of that nowadays. For that, you have +1 sub