I caught the Clade reference, having done research in that area myself. It also just sounds like a cool name.

I did not know about pando though. Granted, I had heard of the concept of super-organisms like pando (I think there’s also a fungus that’s similar)… but didn’t know pando. And again, why pando (but not directed at the film but at the scientists who named a quaking aspen that)? I have to say though, I appreciate that aspect of the story more knowing about the real-life pando.

For me, I’m done with the “let’s throw in a gay character but not have them be a fully realized gay character” schtick. Especially in Disney properties (and all of them, Marvel and Star Wars included). I’m fine with their sexuality not being integral to the plot, but come on, let them kiss. Teenagers kiss. Let Ethan and his… darn it, he has an odd name and I can’t remember it… let them have a scene like Searcher and Miranda in the kitchen.

And again, I liked seeing the dog… just give them something to do other than be comic relief.

Bad bot

I think though the u/oneofthezedays raises some points. Yeah, we want to see representation (I’m also a progressive POC) but it just felt like they were ticking off boxes in some ways and allowing just enough on the sexual orientation front. Sure, it was nice seeing the flirting but after a year, they couldn’t have Ethan and his beau kiss?

And to be honest, the dog did not have enough to do. Again, just throwing in a disabled character to be different, yet the character was totally dispensable (Splat was the one that ultimately got them out of the storage room).

On the one hand, yay, diverse characters… on the other hand… not a great movie. Which gives more ammo to the “Go woke, go broke” crowd which then makes it harder for Hollywood to make good films with diverse characters because they don’t learn the lesson as, “Create better movies”, they learn it as, “Representation gets us nowhere at home and hurts our ticket sales abroad so why bother?”

Then again I’m a cynical bastard who thinks that the world’s been going to Hell since Reagan.

I think you could probably lay the lack of marketing of this film to the previous Disney regime, I don’t think they knew what to do with the finished product. Could this have been one of the last films that Iger green-lit when he first tenure as Disney CEO was ending (I have no idea about the production timelines of animated films)?

We just finished it. It wasn’t bad… but it dragged. It was visually stunning, but I don’t think it was well-written, compared to others in the Disney canon. And it was just weird, like something happens to a character (admittedly a very minor one) and it’s just ignored? There’s a weird heel turn followed by a face turn spurred by almost zero evidence? Pando (and how the $&%# did that name came up?) exists but… ugh, should have written this on my laptop, I don’t want to spoil anything. Let’s just say I have a lot of unresolved questions.

It was OK. Just A-OK. But not deserving of hate due to a mixed race couple with a gay son.