1. I subjected myself to the trailer for Andy Serkis’s Animal Farm, which looks incredibly bad in itself and to be a flat-out insult as an adaptation. The only joy in the experience came from looking at the video numbers:

3. The film seems to be reframing Animal Farm as a genuinely positive place where cute animals work together to create a functioning society of their own, and where the threat comes from an evil capitalist businesswoman tempting a goofy, clueless Napoleon with the lure of wealth and pleasure. Which is to say, essentially the opposite of the book.

Honestly, I feel indignant on Napoleon’s behalf. Napoleon was a brutal, ambitious, and cunning character who successfully seized power and ruled with an iron trotter. Which is to say, he’s impressive. Here, he seems to be basically a variation on Homer Simpson.

I miss my evil porcine dictator.

4. By the way, who the hell decided to cast Seth Rogan as Stalin?

I would imagine if I asked the producer that question, they would answer with a variation of “Well, of course it sounds stupid when you put it that way.”

5. On the other end of the spectrum, I finally saw K-Pop Demon Hunters this week (had to break down and make a Netflix subscription, since my VPN is currently on the…I mean, because of course there is no other legal venue to watch it). I enjoyed it a lot, even though the music isn’t my thing. The premise is imaginative, the characters are a lot of fun, and the moral compass is pretty firmly pointed in the right direction: demons are bad, friendship and music are good, cute girls like cute guys and vice-versa, and so on (I’m going to assume everyone knows the premise by now).

I particularly appreciated the that film was gutsy enough to show a cost to the battle: the K-Pop trio can’t save everyone, and have a few moments where they survey the remnants of their failure with grim horror. They are, unquestionably, fighting the good fight, and there will be a cost if they fail.

In any case, it’s a fun, refreshingly positive story with a strong premise and a cast of likable heroines.

6. That said, there are a few writing issues, like one character who seems like she ought to be present a lot more than she is, to the point I was a little surprised when she turned out to still be alive (she’d only appeared in flashbacks up until then), or a pair of side characters whose nature was more than a little confusion, since they seem at first to be demons, but then prove cute and cuddly and ultimately on the good side. Things like that, where matters are unclear or under-explained in the film itself made me feel it could have been done better. That, and the ending of the main character’s arc felt a little rushed and unsupported.

7. I found the core idea, of the demons trying to subvert the sacred art that guards against them by copying it and so tempting the ‘faithful’ away from their actual protectors to be very interesting and suggestive. I haven’t quite worked out how to apply that idea, but I feel it has possibilities.