(Note: Brian and I recorded an accompanying podcast to this post, in which I addressed some of the points of this article.) I’ll get this out of the way first: Avatar: The Last Airbender is a cartoon marketed to kids, but it’s not a “kids show.” More accurately, it’s not JUST a kids show. Some of…
Introduction Disney 1989-1999 Pixar 1995-2006 Dreamworks 1998-2006
If you’ve been reading Earn This, you’ve known from the start that I have a minor obsession with this trio from La Crescenta-Montrose. The second article I ever wrote for Earn This was a (poorly written) review of It’s All In Your Head, which is still one of my ten or fifteen favorite albums in…
Some shows, like Parks and Recreation and Game of Thrones, remind me of summer storms. You know exactly what you’re in for as soon as you see the first gray clouds: First it’ll become overcast, then rainy, then windy, then you’ll get a few minutes of heavy thunder and lightning, then a pleasant post-precipitation humidity…
Parks and Recreation had all sorts of warning signs around it when it debuted in 2009. It was pitched as a spinoff of The Office, which was currently at the end of its peak in Season 5. This was an idea that seemed like a really bad one at the time (and seemed even worse…
When it came time to come up with a third and final thing to suffer the wrath of my quarterly “BOTTOM Everything” post, I tried to single out the thing that most DISAPPOINTED me. And the one that hurt me the most, I think, was Dragon Age II. It’s not that DA2 is strictly a BAD game.…
This past April, I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo, an online writing challenge to set and meet a monthly writing word count goal with the support and encouragement of some fellow “campers.” My group — or “cabin” — of writers included several fascinating people and talented writers I’m now happy to call my friends. One of my…
Since 2009, Earn This has written in-depth retrospectives of some of our favorite musical artists, TV shows, and movie series. We’ve collected them on this page under the banner of “Thistory” (Earn This + History? Get it?). These critical narratives explore the history and development of distinct creative voices. We love learning all about our favorite…
In Colton’s post about the time Dave Elkins performed in his living room, I wrote a little bit about Marilyn Auza, Dave’s opening act, who sings and plays acoustic guitar. In the article, I praised her guitarwork, but I wanted to take a chance to expand a little bit on her charming performance. Beyond her…
I could have included this in my Disney Renaissance post, but I chose to give A Goofy Movie it’s own post — ranked directly ahead of the other Disney Renaissance movies. It’s not because A Goofy Movie is BETTER than the other Disney movies. I can objectively accept that Beauty and the Beast has more…