Have you watched Green Eggs and Ham on Netflix yet? It’s quite hard to dis-recommend.
I could say a lot of good things about it. The animation is like the modern version of a 1993 cartoon movie. The characters rise above their cliches just enough to be endearing. The story is pretty intricate, with different perspectives getting revealed along the way of a buddy-heist journey. And it absolutely nails the whimsical Dr. Seuss atmosphere.
But I’m here just to talk about its main gimmick, its obvious gimmick. The fact that it’s adapted from a book which is exceedingly short and succinct. And how this 13-episode saga stretches the hell out of it. Sam I Am only apes the book itself with his speech once per episode. As you meet original characters, learn to love their personal struggles, and soak in the ridiculous scenery, taking the time to recite lines in the classic children’s story is absolutely delicious.
How could anybody hate it? It’s made of all the things that makes your brain hot, after all. How disconnected and connected the adaptation is to the story. The way small conflicts in the book are turned into giant escapades. Mere background characters used for the sake of rhyme turn into interesting adversaries. And the tension, oh, the damn thick tension of Guy am I against Sam I Am in his stern resolve not to consume the aforementioned Green Eggs and Ham.
Everyone wants to have the inner beauty that this show exudes. Almost anyone could watch this and feel their resolve to live, somehow, better injected into them. People who watch this will likely feel just a little more valuable as humans. Like they could fling forward into mayhem. Like they could try something absolutely new and it would turn them into something more amazing than they were the day before.
Of course, underlying that sentiment, is still the potential for rage, for disgust, for exhaustion, for dismay. Green Eggs and Ham on Netflix. What else could you have been?
You could have been more like a sitcom. You could have been too political. You could have looked cheap. You could have made your heroes just plain damn obnoxious. And worst of all, you could have had “Sam’s Friend” eat the Green Eggs and Ham at the end of Episode One! That would have killed the entire point of the show! Hot damn it would have.
Here’s the point I’m trying to make. Even at your sweetest, most inspired, most serene, and even gleeful, there’s someone ready to lash out at someone who seems to be….making a mockery of your in such a mode. This adaptation for the modern audience could have been a variety of mediocre things. So mediocre, it might even cause someone to become affection for the source material, or the previous more straightforward adaptions, that they barely even cared for or never even read or watched at all.
You’d feel hurt for something that was barely even a thing you had a fondness for. All for the sake of feeling like you were destroying that thing, whatever it is, that makes people mock the very best of you. The grateful, capable, motivated, friendly, reasonable, upright, dignified, just plain not terrible part of you. You’d be called a “hatedom”, you’d see yourself as much the opposite, your heart filled with much sincerity. But in your mind, you’d be the one fighting human ugliness.
And the ugliest thing is someone acting like they’re doing all the stuff that makes you so very beautiful inside.
Well, are you feeling vexed? Don’t be, this is your chance to understand why the internet is so ravenous with the urge to determine who’s worth appreciating and who isn’t, and why there doesn’t seem to be a finale to this sheer endeavor. Well, if you haven’t tried, how would you know it wouldn’t work? Come on, have a bite. Read some more of my recent posts. Satisfy that ravenous bite the internet puts in you. There you go, chow down.
The Found Emotion (Invoke Yourself) 