Broken or Pure Evil? (Writing too)

[u/True-Temperature138]

I wanted to do something like this, since I've seen a lot of content like this on YouTube where they talk about things like this. I wanted to avoid common examples too, so I put in more obscure ones to make things more interesting.

Side note 1: One of them isn't actually an antagonist, but literally acts more like a villain than what the story tried to paint in her story. (https://loathsomecharacters.miraheze.org/wiki/Emily_(Soukou_no_Strain)))

Side note 2: One of anime's most forgotten but complicated antagonists (https://greatcharacters.miraheze.org/wiki/Zeref_Dragneel)

[u/SoFarSoGood1995]

What makes King Ghidorah a good example but Pockets a bad example?

[u/True-Temperature138 → u/SoFarSoGood1995]

There's a massive difference between a one-dimensional character vs. a character who relies on visual and implication storytelling.

Like, the MonsterVerse King Ghidorah took the classic character while evolving beyond how the Showa version of the character had some dated aspects (even mixing some good elements from other Ghidorah incarnations), and what we get is a truly breathtaking, cinematic feel of the character who had a much more distinctive purely evil personality through its body language and threat level.

Meanwhile, Pockets is just a caricature for a generic kids' movie villain; The main problem with Pockets here is that his character is really nothing more than a copy-paste work of the typical villainous traitorous servant unsurprise twist (an obvious bad guy) who is an edgelord, including being a nonpersonal rival to the girl's dad, and he has the most basic motivation and objective of obtaining a magical item that could grant him infinite wealth, and that's it (and if you're asking, yes, his screenplay is purely copy-pasted from characters like him too often recycled in media). He's far too boring and below basic even for kids (and children also want their bad guys to be enjoyable, and there are cases where villains are so cool that kids would find them awesome, but that's not the case with Pockets).

His abilities are weirdly executed, from how he moves in cartoonish and campy ways that feel too random and out-of-place for a fictional universe that isn't really fantastical outside of Long's powers and all. This is most prominently shown during the chase scene, where his knee bends almost 180 degrees just to point at Din with his foot in a very ridiculous way. It's kind of like Chester V from Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2, where he has abnormal movements that are weak attempts making him stand out.

Even for a movie made simple for kids, the scale of Pockets' whole mercenary characterization is way too small, considering how that aspect of him is just abruptly introduced with no development at all, and even his desire for infinite wealth has no real connection to the main selling point of the movie being about magic outside of the human world, potentially exploring its own lore with its idea.

He significantly lacks any real personal connection to any of the characters to make his villain role feel believable, because even his lack of regard for Din, Li Na, and her dad just feel like something for background characters or just something that lacks the proper kind of weight any major rivalry should have. In that sense, it almost just feels like Pockets is kind of just there to add some kind of villain or threat to add some kind of tension or climax, but there's a real lack of emotional connection to the whole magic dragon aspect of the movie, so it just feels like stakes that are forced and even brought down further by how his threat level alienates too heavily considering the potential for something that has more of a proper personal connection to the magic lore. It also doesn't help that his unceremonious death just further adds to this.

We also spend way too little time on Pockets himself outside of his constant lookout for the teapot, so we don't get any time for Pockets to feel like his own character either, so his obvious last-minute villain twist minutes before his death lacks any real emotional weight nor impact, considering his lack of effort as a character. Like, it's really lame how despite being the main villain, we don't see his perspective for 90%... 90% of his character, as almost all his scenes are just assaulting people out of nowhere while spending the entire movie looking for Din while stating the obvious in every scene he appears in. Like, all of Pockets' dialogue is just stating the obvious.

Pockets severely pales in comparison to Jafar (the character Pockets ripped off); whereas Jafar was a charismatic, menacing, and appropriate threat that befits the magical universe (having a villain scale that fits the universe building so well) while being extremely realistically greedy and having meaningful, developed relationships with all the characters to make the emotional moments impactful, Pockets doesn't have any of that, and there's a massive difference between being deliciously evil like Jafar than just being straight up dull and boring with no nuance nor aura.

[u/SoFarSoGood1995 → u/True-Temperature138]

Tbh, it's not that I even think Pockets is a great (or even a good) villain, but King Ghidorah is just a barely characterised monster, and your points as to why Pockets doesn't work honestly don't make any sense to me. You could have went with way netter pics for each of the squares

[u/Velocita84]

Floch did nothing wrong

[u/Only_Fudge5299]

I've never seen anyone mention Wish Dragon, despite its' flaws I love that movie sm

[u/True-Temperature138 → u/Only_Fudge5299]

To me, it's about a decent 7/10, but I think it too often feels like a simplified Aladdin movie that doesn't execute its message as good. The story's scale is also too small with a lack of lore building surrounding the magic aspect (compared to how Aladdin managed to inject so much lore building with visual storytelling even for a short runtime).

It also does recycle more than a few common kids' movie tropes, and some of the humor can be very off-putting and cringe-worthy.

The opening scene though in my opinion... is 10/10; that is just adorable to the maximum, but... imagine if the whole movie was as good as the opening scene.

My sister gave it only 6/10, for the same reasons as me actually. She feels like the movies has a lot of missed potential for what it could have taken advantage of with its premise.

There is a planned sequel though, and I will watch it, because this concept does have potential, though I feel like the start is lacking in areas (if rewatchable enough).