Disconnected Adults’ Guide to Child Culture: Did TikTok Really Inspire Disney’s Next Musical?
TikTok has inspired a lot of people to do a lot of stupid things, but it’s not yet clear if we can add “creating a real-time musical adaptation of Hercules,” which references social media app culture, to this list. Plus: there were probably people in previous generations who made elaborate haunted dollhouses and squirrel obstacles, but back then they were just neighborhood weirdos unable to share their gifts with the world. Luckily, we live in the present where everyone can enjoy these niche hobbies.
Disney’s Upcoming ‘ Hercules ‘: An Experimental Musical Influenced by TikTok
Disney is remaking its animated films into live-action films – this is nothing new – The Jungle Book came out in 1994, and since then 17 other Disney cartoons have received the status of “real people”, including The Jungle Book for the second time, — but recent examples have certainly not been hits with hardcore Disney heads. The criticism is usually that they are digital copies of the originals, only degraded by not being animated. So you’d think people would be thrilled that producer Joe Russo promised that Hercules would be more experimental. But then he said that it would be a musical influenced by TikTok.
“There are questions about how you translate this as a musical, ” Russo told Variety . “The audience today is TikTok educated, right? What are their expectations for how this musical looks and feels? It can be a lot of fun and will help us push the boundaries a little bit on how you perform a contemporary musical.”
There are many reasons to think the new Hercules will be good. The film is directed by Guy Ritchie, who is known to make good films from time to time ( despite his latest Disney live-action remake ), and the source material has undoubtedly stood the test of time, but the musical is TikTok-influenced. hard to sell. As North tweeted , “Hades will make Hercules lose his power by convincing him to eat a tide pod.”
TikTok haunted dollhouses are the best ever
Sometimes TikTok hits me with a new, awesome thing that I never knew I needed in my life. Discovery this week: haunted dollhouses. There is a small TikTokers community whose hobby is to create elaborate miniature horror dioramas in the shape of a dollhouse. I spent several hours looking at the creations of the queen of art, the Southern Gothic Dollhouse , and was speechless. I mean a tiny living room with a tiny TV showing Ghosts ! Recreating this scene in Nope ! Something is hiding under the stairs! Miniature cobwebs ! A black magic ritual room the size of a dollhouse! And much more.
Lauren Dodge, southern dollhouse genius, told the Daily Dot that her work is “a COVID project gone berserk” that she hopes to pass on her creations to her grandchildren so they have “something to teach them about history, to inspire “. them to read, or perhaps just something they are proud of in the family that they might want to pass on to their grandchildren.”
All my grandmother did was read the Reader’s Digest and go to church every morning.
Get away, Florida. Ohio has swag.
I’m sure you remember the Florida Man memes that were all over the information superhighways back in the more innocent days of 2013. Well, The Florida Man isn’t good enough for today’s kids. They went to the Ohio man, the Ohio woman, and just Ohio itself. The OhioMan tag video has nearly 11 billion views on TikTok, while the more specialized #SwagLikeOhio tag mythologizes the state’s uniquely weird style with toilets , school buses , meteorologists , people and everything. There’s also #OnlyInOhio , which features videos of absurd Ohio moments like rhino attacks, crazy carnival rides , and oversized objects that are tourist attractions .
Bonus trivia no one over 20 knows but me: ” Swag like Ohio ” was written by rapper Lil B, who also created ” Ski Ski BasedGod “, the soundtrack to the previously popular and controversial Devious Licks Challenge .
Viral Video of the Week: Summer Games Backyard Squirrelympics 3.0
Youtuber Marc Robert has amassed nearly 23 million subscribers with videos that combine goofy stunts, genius humor and science. His series of videos targeting “porch pirates” with box traps are his best known, but they’re a bit sleazy in my opinion. However, his squirrel obstacle course is simply amazing. In case you’re not familiar, Robert set up an extremely difficult obstacle course in his backyard to test the ingenuity and athleticism of the neighborhood squirrels. It is equal parts funny, surprising, dramatic and instructive. Squirrels are amazing animals that we take for granted.
For the third entry in the series, Robert created an Olympic-themed course that pits squirrels against spinning logs, heavy balls, long jumps, and more. It’s all in jest, but I share the concern of YouTube commentator Taylor Winter , who writes, “Mark could accidentally create a super-intelligent squirrel bloodline in his backyard if he continues these shenanigans for generations.” We can only hope.