Berri's Couch

Changing social norms, expectations from our stories and the surprise entry of a disguised villain, all the ingredients that went into making the marketable ideas of femininity presented in the renaissance era princesses of Disney. There is a tangent none saw coming but the discussion of complexity when creating the new heroines must be had as we will not be just brushing over them like some pop culture commentators before us.

Allrighty people we begin our defence of the feminine with the classic trinity of bad faith criticism princess. These poor girls are dragged enough and we stand tall and defend them and their narratives, they do have value and aren't bad role models despite what pop feminism says.

The ending of a legacy and we wish it was with more of a bang. Discovering the past through the journey of Strife while a world and lore building wonder how does the story itself hold up? How do we feel about the final horseman and O.G influencer Strife? Why does this feel unsatisfying as a Darsider game? All of these questions answered and more.

So we finally talk about the only female horseman and her girl fail journey through dealing with the deadly sins of man. In true human fashion we do mostly focus on the presentation of the often treaded, duplicated and revisited personifications of mankind's sins.

We're getting into the lore now, Bee is tethering herself down to try and stay on focus as we delve into the follow-up and expansion to the small breadcrumbs set up in the first game. Did the sequel hold up as far as story or should this have been a DLC to the first game?

In a change of pace we start to look at the video game Darksiders and the story it's telling through it's medium. Bee tries to stay focused on just this first game, Jerri looks into the uniqueness of storytelling through interactive media, and why this particular game stayed in our minds and quickly won us over.

How does a stylised Irish animation studio handle short films and shorter content? Really well as it turns out. We close off the discussion of Cartoon Saloon with a look at their short films and easily accessible behind the scenes content.

We finally watch a timely (and hard to find) film that stands out amongst the Cartoon Saloon filmography, The Breadwinner. A story set in Afghanistan during the beginning of the war on terror and how a family through bravery makes it despite their circumstances. Beauty, horror and a reminder that people are not the regimes they live in all balanced in this film and we discuss it to hopefully get you to watch it.

Despite the roughness in a voice we look at the finale in the Irish mythology trilogy produced by Cartoon Saloon and how it holds up amongst the others of its pack.

Selkies, sea, parallel story beats, Bee spewing ideas out at record speeds, family drama. We have everything in this episode that we dive deep into the themes and symbolism used in Song of the Sea. No seriously this film is deeper than one may think once you start paddling out into ocean of interpretation.

Okay I'm out of swimming and ocean bits now.