A lot of people treat animated media as if it's lesser, childish, and not to be taken seriously. Obviously, that couldn't be further from the truth. I'm not going to pretend that I'm some sort of animation expert, but if you've seen a single Studio Ghibli film, Pixar, or even just the newest Spider-Verse flick, you know just how impressive the genre can be. Sure, there are low-effort movies aimed at the sole objective of entertaining children. But that's not exclusive to animation . Just look a…

The Mario Kart series is a magical franchise. In the decades since its inception, it has strengthened as many friendships as it has shattered. Despite being a development studio whose audience is primarily children, Nintendo sure has a knack for making the most frustratingly competitive games. Heck, the only games that top Mario Kart in terms of injecting tension into friendships are Super Smash Brothers and Mario Party. Although new entries Mario Kart franchise continue to release, we all have…

One of the first things I learned about in film studies, after Eadweard Muybridge's The Horse in Motion, and the works of the Lumiere brothers, was the Hollywood Studio System. While it was technically the creation of Jewish immigrants, which sounds progressive, it was, in fact, a very toxic empire and way of conducting business. The demands placed on actors were brutal, especially concerning body image. Despite the toxicity, my fascination with the era remains, and I was delighted this week to…