Why I Don't Like Schaffrillas Productions

In recent years, I've come to recognize how much of a negative influence critics like Adam Johnston (YourMovieSucksDotOrg) and Alex Horton (I Hate Everything) has had on alot of people on YouTube. Many YouTube reviewers tend to be so negative and cynical, that it makes it a chore to sit through their long winded rants about whatever movie they thought sucked. Schaffrillas Productions (real name James) is one such individual.

I first came across his channel with his video on Disney "twist villains," which I found myself confused by the end of it. His problem with all the recent Disney villains just amounts to "their motivations don't make sense." The following bullet points contain spoilers for Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Coco, and Incredibles 2. If you haven't seen these movies, I recommend you do before continuing forward.

*Hans had 12 brothers and wanted to be king so bad, he was willing to lie, cheat and murder his way to the top.
*Callahan's daughter got sucked into an alternate dimension and he thought she was dead. Need I say more?
*Bellwether (as pointed out brilliantly by Giacomo Bianchi in the comments of the video) wanted to control the citizens using fear and hate. You know, the usual thing evil politicians do.
*Ernesto wanted to persevere his legacy, even if it's built on lies and murder. 'Cause hey, being famous is fun, even in the afterlife.
*Evelyn was trying to sabotage her brother's attempt to bring superheroes back because she blamed them (specifically the belief in them from people like her father) for her parents death. She's the embodiment of cynicism in a film directed and written by optimist Brad Bird.

Suffice to say, the recent trend of "twist villains" in Disney films is just an example of how times have changes and as such how we view our heroes and villains has also changed. Something that was either overlooked by James or completely ignored. Either way, the video wasn't my cup of tea.

What I also don't like about his channel are his reviews. He frequently uses the term "painfully average" which isn't a bad description for a film or tv show that falls short of its exciting premise. But the problem is he uses it to describe movies that, upon watching them for myself, are far superior than what he described. Opinions are opinions of course, but he made Incredibles 2, Captain Marvel and Ralph Breaks The Internet look bad by describing character development and bonding as "boring," surprising reveals and turns as "lazy," and characters doing bad things they're rightfully called out for in the film "a-holes." I don't bother with his "Why X is a Cinematic Disaster" videos as I don't have the time or patience to listen to him rag on for half an hour on why a film from a decade ago is a "cinematic disaster" (they are not, btw: they're just movies).

The most baffling video he has made though, is his video about Claude Frollo from Disney Hunchback Of Notre Dame and why he's "too evil." He goes on about how the stage play humanizes the character but I'm just like, he was already a humanized character. He's a judge who has a prejudice against gypsies yet he lusts after Esmeralda. He raised Quasimodo to resent gypsies as much as he, yet he can't stop thinking about one particular gypsy. Frollo is a hypocrite, but he's also one of Disney best villains because he's relatable, ruthless and prideful, yet he sees himself as in the right. James makes Frollo look like Dio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, a relentless psychopath with no redeeming qualities and takes forever before he gets his comeuppance.

Credit where credit is due, his more positive videos are well thought out and insightful. I particularly like hi Megamind video and how he celebrates it as an underrated gem.


Overall though, I'm just not a fan of Schaffrillas Productions due to him being cynical and sometime unnecessarily harsh. It's find if you like him, but I much prefer YouTubers who are optimistic, yet fair and constructive with their criticisms.

Why I stopped watching Ben 10

I remember really liking Ben 10 when it first aired. At the time it was my favorite Cartoon Network show. It's one of those shows in which the execution is just as good (or otherwise better) than it's concept. This is due to its strong writing, amazing animation, likable characters and great vocal performances. Ben 10 was indeed a good show...until it was brought back as Ben 10: Alien Force. Now, Alien Force wasn't bad, but it I never got into it the same way I did with the original series. I felt the same way about Ultimate Alien, Omniverse and I couldn't even bring myself to watch the 2 steps back reboot. For the longest time, I thought it was the network's fault for milking this franchise. Once I laid that childish mentality behind me, I realized the problem was more understandable than that. I wasn't into the subsequent series because they just weren't for me. I like the original concept of a kid being able to turn into 10 different aliens and fight bad guys all summer as opposed to a teenager. I wasn't interested in Ben becoming a teenager unless he was still a kid at heart; but he wasn't. As for the reboot, again, it looked like it was taking 2 steps backwards. Maybe kids today are getting some entertainment value out of the reboot, but I wasn't impressed with the clips I saw nor was I interested in watching it. Quality wise, Alien Force and Ultimate Alien have nice animation, the voice work is pretty good and I like the new aliens. The same can't be said about Omniverse though, because I'm not a fan of the redesigned characters. You already know how I feel about the reboot, but the point is I stopped watching because I felt the magic of the original series was lost in the subsequent series. If you enjoy them, that's perfectly fine, I just prefer the original.

My 2010s Retrospective: The Rough 10 years

The 2010s was a mixed bag when it comes to how things panned out in my life. High school wasn't that great (then again, there are very few people in this wotld who can say that it was), college was a slog, I've been in and out of churches before sticking to the one in Uncasville in 2013, and the things I wanted to do before this decade was out ended up never happening. Write a book? Didn't happen. Start a movement to drop suicide rates to 0? Didn't happen. Get a girlfriend in high school? Didn't happen. Get my license and a car? Didn't happen. The only thing I did plan that did happen was getting a job; a volunteer job, but it's still a job. But hey, at least I was healthy...until after high school. Now I'm just about 20 pounds shy of being 300lbs. Also, my eldest cat died in 2016, I've engaged in sexual activities with older men (yeah the less said about that the better), I was conned by some punk on Care.com, and I was in a car accident with my uncle in 2016. But enough about me, let's talk how after years of wishing it would never happen (even having a nightmare about it) my parents split. Yeah, alot of it was he said/she said, but the gist of it is out of the blue in 2018 my Mom decide it was best to leave Dad. I wrote a series of poems detailing my grieving process for the past year (all can be found on my Booksie profile here: https://www.booksie.com/users/benjaminfenty-157553) but to give you a general idea of how I felt, I was just one slit wrist away from going to Heaven. Yeah, I can definitely say that was my lowest point. But it's not all doom and gloom. I went to Indiana in 2017, got to meet my long lost cousin, my eldest sister gave birth to her first child this year, I graduated high school, I'm becoming more spiritual thanks to the church I'm going to, I was baptized in 2014, made a bunch of new friends and even got a dog and 3 new cats. And hey, what do you know? I'm still alive after several close encounters with death these past 10 years. I think the best I can say about this decade is that I'm smarter now than I was at the start. So, what are my hopes for the 2020s? Honestly, these are more naive wishes than hopes but: my parents reconciling, getting published, using the royalties to build my own animation studio, get a girlfriend, get married, have a kid, have another kid, and going to Paris. So, yeah, that's been my life for the past 10 years. The optimist in me wants to believe the hard part is over, but I know life is not designed to be that easy. If it was, it'd be a Disney movie.