Requested by a lot of people for some Rhys (more specifically season themed Rhys). In the spirit of the season I drew Rhys as Krampus based on Junkrat’s skin. Krampus Rhys loves to screw over those who are bad people throughout the year. The worse they are the more likely he’ll show up and give karma where it’s due. Guess who gives him a run for his money every year? If you know me you already know who.
I have a kofi but cannot link due to tumblr’s issues with links. If anyone would like to support I have a link on my blog ☕
Okay but seriously folks – as often as I joke about this movie stirs my loins and as weirdly popular as this text post got a while back, I wanna rap with you all about why the George of the Jungle remake is a pretty important piece of cinema.
It’s literally the only movie I can think of that is based completely around the unheard of “FEMALE gaze.” Granted, while I’m a huge movie buff I’ve not seen every movie ever made. But even so, even if there’s another example of the “female gaze” in cinema that has escaped me it’s still damn impressive that a kids movie from 1997 based on a Jay Ward cartoon from the 60’s managed to turn gender representation in media on it’s fucking ass!
First things first, let’s look at our leading lady and love interest – Ursula, played by Leslie Mann.
Let me just say that while Leslie Mann is adorable and a talented actress, she does look a little less conventional and a little more plain compared to the bombshells that Hollywood likes to churn out. Leslie, in comparison, looks much more like a real women you’d meet on the street. She dresses pretty conservatively and plain throughout the film ; Wearing outfits that are more functional than fashionable for trekking through the jungle, pulling her hair back and so forth. Not that if she was dolled up and more scantily clad it would give her character any less integrity, but can we appreciate how RARE that is in the male dominated industry of film? Just think about all the roads a film about a woman in the jungle COULD have taken but didn’t – no scenes with her clothes strategically ripped or anything! You can say this is a kids movie, intended for children and that’s why the sensuality of the female lead is so downplayed but there are PLENTY of kids movies that handle women in a very objectifying and sexualized manner despite the target audience is pre-pubescent. Like, a disgusting amount. So I don’t think “it’s a kids movie” is why the film doesn’t take ANY, let alone EVERY, opportunity to showcase the main female character’s sex appeal…
…especially considering the sex appeal of the film rests squarely on the well defined shoulders of our male lead, George of the Jungle played by Brendan Fraser in the best god damn shape of his life!
*Homer Simpson Drooling Noises*
Whenever members of the reddit community try to compare the sexualization of women in fiction to the design of characters such as Batman and Superman, I always want to just sit them down and show them this movie. Because THIS is what the female sexual fantasy looks like, and Batman and Superman are male power-fantasies. Look at him – his big blue eyes, his soft hair, his lean, chiseled physique built for dexterity rather than power. He’s wild and free, but gentle. It’s like he fell right out of that steamy romance novel your mom tried to hide from you growing up.
Hell, the whole plot seems to be designed around how damn hot he is! First, for the majority of the film, he wears only a small strip of cloth to cover the dick balls and ass. Everything else is FAIR GAME to drool over for 40 minutes. Then, after he meets Ursula she takes him with her to San Francisco just so we can enjoy him in a well-tailored suit (as seen in the gif set), running around in an open and billowy shirt along side horses while Ursula and all of her friends literally crowd around and make sexual comments about him, and my personal favorite, ditch the loincloth entirely and have him walk around naked while covering his man-bits with various objects while one of Ursula’s very lucky friends oogles him and makes a joke along the lines of “So THAT’S why they call him the ‘KING of the Jungle’…”
And yes, it’s also a very cute and funny little movie. Out of all the movies based on Jay Ward cartoons, it was the most faithful to the fast-paced humor and wit of the original source material (yes even the new Peabody and Sherman movie which honestly I thought was too cutesy-poo.) But that’s not why this movie is popular with the gay community or why we all became women in 1997. It’s just really cool that there’s a film out there where the sensuality of the female form takes a back seat for the oiled up, chiseled, physique of Brendan Fraser (in his prime that is)
One thing to add: in the scene mentioned above where the ladies are watching him in the billowy shirt running with the horses, it pans back to about 50 feet away to two guys in suits at this party looking at the women and one of the guys says, “Man, what is it with women and horses?” So not only does this movie highlight the female gaze, but it blatantly points out that western male sensibilities don’t have a clue what actually appeals to women.
ALSO
he’s non threatening
as mentioned above, he looks built for dexterity rather than power, but he’s still a 6+ foot tall extremely muscular man, and not once are you worried for Ursula when he’s with her
ALSO
let’s take a look at his rival – Lyle is a cravat-wearing trust-fund kid (who, interestingly, is into Ursula’s fortune more than her, which kind of makes this a gender-swapped gold-digger thing too). He’s blonde and Ursula’s mom LOVES him. He’s more uncomfortable and less prepared to cope with the jungle than Ursula is, in his pastels and shiny shoes.
But he talks over Ursula, insists he knows what’s best for her, ignores her autonomy. In spite of the fact that Lyle Van de Groot is a rich, educated, social climber who cares deeply about his clothing and appearances he is a point-by-point checklist of unhealthy masculinity in a way that beefy, inarticulate, uneducated George could never be. Ursula is off on her own doing her own thing and Lyle hires two FUCKING POACHERS to track her down in the middle of the jungle while she’s working (or on vacation? It’s never made clear because he interrupts her before she can explain why she went on the expedition). Lyle ignores the local guides, claiming his experience with a bridge in Maui means the bridge they’re on is safe – which leads to a significant injury for one of the guides. He then tells Ursula the guides are conspiring against him, trying to make himself and his poachers seem safe and the Africans who make up the rest of their party seem dangerous.
Check that body language! A post above points out that we’re never worried about Ursula when she’s around George. That’s because Lyle talks to her like this. Look at his aggressive lean! Look at him literally looking down at her! She’s tilted away from him in the least threatening position possible and he’s so aggressive about whatever point he’s making. When he finds her after he pushed her toward a damned lion he kisses her and she pushes him away. Want a textbook example of gaslighting? Here you go: she says “don’t get all smoochy with me! I remember what happened with that lion” and he responds “What are you talking about? I was fighting that lion the whole time – you were just so terrified you don’t remember.” Then he shoots George! And then he kidnaps Ursula and attempts to force her into marriage!
Now look at how George and Ursula interact (slightly NSFW):
Even though he’s a big strong dude and he thinks he’s doing what’s okay he lets her set the tone for their interactions. He accepts that he’s out of his wheelhouse and even if he doesn’t understand it he does what she says is culturally appropriate. He learns from her! He listens to her! Compare Lyle leaning into Ursula above to this image of George and Ursula talking:
He’s listening to her, all of his attention is on on her, but he’s totally nonthreatening. His torso is turned toward her but he’s not invading her space, his hands are clasped, he’s smiling, and she’s the one leaning into him. Look at that smile she has, look how happy she is to be listened to. Her posture in both images is vulnerable but in this one with George she’s vulnerable because she has chosen to share with him instead of because she feels threatened.
When George rescues Ursula from Lyle at the end of the film it isn’t a typical damsel situation – George doesn’t have a knock-down-drag-out fight with Lyle, he swings into a tree and offers Ursula a hand so she can reach up and save herself (and before he does it he acknowledges how much it’s going to hurt and *whimpers* and looks human and scared). And you’ve gotta remember that George rescues everybody. It’s not just Ursula – he also rescues a parasailer and gets shot rescuing Shep and Ape. He just likes helping, dammit!
AND this movie offers a perfect counter to the “nice guy” thing – Ursula starts engaged to a jerk who her mom thinks is a “nice guy” the moves on to actual nice man George who isn’t *just* nice – he’s also patient, listens to her, has his own skills and talents, is okay with being goofy, has his own social circle and isn’t totally dependent on Ursula, and looks amazing. Ursula doesn’t go with George just because he’s a *nice* guy who rescued her from an asshole, Ursula goes with George because he’s an interesting, fun person who is supportive of her different way of being an interesting, fun person. AND he’s emotionally available. Google image search George of the jungle and see how many smiles you can find, see how many open looks of confusion there are, see how much sadness you can see in George’s face. Now look for images of Lyle. His two expressions are a smirk and cartoonish fear. I know this is a cartoonish kid’s movie, but it is SO powerful that the hero shares his emotions while the villain masks every emotion but fear. Lyle doesn’t want to open up, he doesn’t want to be vulnerable, he wants CONTROL. George wants to learn, to protect people he cares about, to explore new places, to laugh when he’s happy and to be sad when he’s sad, and that he does that while being a broad-shouldered, physically powerful dude who is NOT totally self-involved is just…
Like, look, I didn’t sign on to tumblr dot com for George of the Jungle discourse, but I’m just now realizing that this movie may have done the most for destroying my conception of stoic masculinity and gender roles as a child.
Like
Damn.
2nd reblog because this is even better.
George of the Jungle discourse is definitely what I signed up to this hellsite for me thinks
All of this is true, and to it I would add that George is allowed to do something we don’t really see guys do in cinema:
Competently nurture.
Yeah, he’s kind of a doofus about a lot of things. But the one thing he’s really, really good at is taking care. Ursula faints and, if memory serves me, also has a fever. George takes her home, tucks her in, and watches over her–which is basically what any mom with a kid would do. Watch him pick up Ape’s glasses, and how tenderly he does it: he may not be able to read (we never get the chance to find out), but he knows the glasses are the reason Ape can, and he takes significant care with them. And the very last scene of the movie?
Ursula never even touches their toddler. George is cradling him in one arm and then puts him down to let him run. It’s 100% a daddy-and-son moment.
Film and TV usually show us some galoot who Just Can’t Figure Out This Caring For Other People Thing, Darnit. George actually gets it.
The gist of it is that Darling Marinette gets found out.
But it’s not her parents. It’s not Alya, it’s not Adrien.
It’s Manon. Adorable, bratty, Manon.
It can be before the Puppeteer episode or after (in my head it isn’t).
Bloody Manon.
How I see it Manon is waiting in Mari’s room to apologize for what she did while akumatized. Mme. Chammack is arranging a catering event with the Dupain-Chengs at the station as a small apology of her own to her coworkers, and they’re so busy that they don’t notice that Manon sneaks upstairs to see Mari, even though they told her not to go up because Mari had to do some studying for an important test.
But Mari isn’t there. The room is empty with Jagged Stone playing softly and the repaired dolls are sitting on the desk, with a few papers with sketches of the other akumatized forms of people. There is a quick one of her on the bottom of the stack. On a sticky note next to the dolls is the reminder to make a new pair of Chat Noir and Ladybug for Manon, but she doesn’t see that.
Manon picks up the Chat Noir and Ladybug dolls and plays with them nervously for a little while; after all just a few days ago she had used these to cause a lot of problems. Manon is sitting by the chaise, so she can’t be seen from the skylight.
Which leads to Ladybug soaring through her skylight, bouncing off her bed and popping up in the middle of her floor. Manon is stupefied, and before she can call out to her idol and rescuer, there’s a flash of red light and Marinette is standing where Ladybug once was and smiling at a red creature that was giggling happily.
Manon stands and stares.
Tiki see her, squeaks, and attempts to hide.
Marinette freezes and then slowly turns around to peek at who finally found out her secret.
After a suitable amount of Freak Out™ Manon promises to keep her secret and is the proudest seven to eight-year-old in the world when she’s told she’s the only person Mari’s ever told.
She starts to ask to spend more time at the Dupain-Chengs with Marinette, who kinda adopts her as her little sister/protégé.
She learns all about fashion at the hip of Marinette and all about duty from Ladybug.
(Manon is the only one who sees how exhausted Marinette is after her patrols as Ladybug, is the only one who knows how many injuries she’s bandaged over and the scars that mean Mari will never again wear a midriff bearing top, seen Marinette soak her twitching hands in water after hours of pinning, and sewing, and hand embroidering the clothes that will make her future.)
Manon blooms with her newfound sense of responsibility and after a few months her mother gifts her with a phone with four numbers programmed in: her mother’s, the station, the bakery, and Marinette’s personal number.
She adds Ladybug’s compact number the moment she alone with an Ladybug emoji in the name slot. It’s set as her number three speed dial.
All of a sudden Ladybug knows where all the shit is going down because Manon has her on speed dial and an alert on the Ladyblog.
Not only that but she has the schools number and she can call and get Marinette out of class by stating that she needed Marinette to come and get her, she didn’t know where she was and her mom was at work.
(She only does this if it’s really bad though.)
In an interview with Alya, she asks what the secret to her new response time to danger.
Ladybug winks, puts a finger to her lips, and declares “I have a little Ladybird helping me. She’s slowly earning her spots.”
After this Manon demands that her number be given to Chat Noir, and Marinette agrees. So the next time they get together before a patrol and before he can ask any questions she opens her compact to make a call, the only identifier a small red ladybug with no spots, before a voice chirps out a greeting and asks for his number.
After coming to terms with their off-screen sidekick, he gives her the number to his personal phone with the understanding that she was only allowed to text, and not call, that phone.
(Manon low-key ships LadyNoir, but that’s mostly from Him always saving her big sister than any real idea on their relationship.)
Adrien is a sad kitty one day and shoots a text to her on accident.
He immediately gets a response and they become bros.
Manon is now determined to play matchmaker because this guy is the perfect guy for Marinette, and much better than that Model that never pays attention to her.
Insert Classic LadyNoir love square happenings complete with Marinette getting over Adrien (painfully) and Adrien noticing that “Wait. Dis a Boss-@ss-B*tch.”
Then BLAM: Manon is being chased around Paris because if Akuma (no she was not found out, just reasons okay?) and in the midst of saving her Ladybug becomes injured and Manon is the one who directs Chat Noir (Ladybug in his arms, Ladybird-known-as-Manon on his back, no problem.)
On the roof of the Dupain-Cheng bakery.
Where Marinette lives.
Ladybug turns into Marinette right after they drop onto her bed.
While Chat gapes in stunned awe, Manon is on the move pulling the first aid kit out and after having Tikki ensure her that she could be woken “It was just the pain that knocked her out.” Mari is summarily shaken awake and handed the muscle relaxant cream that she immediately spreads on her shoulders and sides with Manon deals with the big one at the small of her back.
Chat is a sad-ashamed kitty, but Marinette is okay with it, as long as he doesn’t reveal his own identity. Her family and friends had just been put in danger, she refused to put his in danger too.
Marichat occurs intensely and mild pre-Adrienette colors school hours and group projects with adorable littlesister!Manon as a constant no matter what side of the mask.
That is all my brain has.
It is dry now.
Whyyyyyyy?!
Someone has to come and help.
Please.
most tumblr jokes are utterly embarassing to say in public but today i said to someone “bold of you to assume i have dignity” and i won’t lie it was the most powerful I’ve felt in years
I was in the car with my family and my mom was talking about how much time she thinks “our generation wastes on the internet” or whatever. And I was explaining how I use the internet to read and curate more interests and hobbies and expand my social horizons etc. and she was just like “Well fine if that’s how you want to live. You can waste all your time on the internet if that’s what you want but I beg to differ” and without thinking I just said “then beg.” and the entire car went silent until we got home. it was the biggest power move i have ever made to date
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