Breakdown of the Adventures of Calvin and Hobbes

The Adventures of Calvin and Hobbes

0:00-0:06—Why did the countdown start at 8 and end on 3? I appreciate the film aesthetic I guess; it's just an odd choice, and not just because of their unorthodox counting style. Take for example some of the symbols that appear within these few frames. What are they designating here? Some kind of remnant to allow the antiquarian projectionist to maybe align and focus the screen; distiction of film type— 35mm. I used to know someone that worked with developing film. Their hands smelled like fixer. I liked it. Why do we still associate the video with such dated visual and aural tropes? Maybe it's just that nostalgia on a collective level.

0:34— The music did not fade back in gracefully. Makes me feel like Michael Cera will be in this scene soon. I feel like any sort of non-diegetic music (not sound, necessarily) takes me out of the moment or story—and analytical endeavors like this are essentially doomed to make these things even more obvious

1:47— That got dark quick. This scene appears to be referencing a story arc within the Calvin and Hobbes mythos. TVtropes.org (think oddly specific Wikipedia-clone) does a good job of summarizing the scenario:

Calvin intentionally created a duplicate to do tasks that he doesn't want to do, like clean his room. Predictably, the duplicate doesn't want to do them either, and runs off to misbehave, knowing the original will get all the blame. A few clones later, it turns out Calvin really doesn't get along with himself, and ends up turning them all into worms (but, as Calvin knows, this makes them happy, because now they're gross).

Later, Calvin creates a good duplicate of himself that doesn't mind doing his chores, but ends up driving Calvin crazy anyway by trying to be nice to Suzie. Calvin and his good copy get so mad at each other that they get into a fight, since fighting is bad, the good duplicate self-destructs in a Logic Bomb. Hobbes comments on the irony that even Calvin's good version is prone to doing bad.

Later still, Calvin meets "duplicates" of himself through time travel, and of course gets into a fight with those past and future selves as well, because none of them want to do a creative writing homework assignment, but each of them has "good" excuses for not being the one to do it. Meanwhile Hobbes gets along perfectly well with his past version, and they actually work together to complete the homework themselves by basically writing a story about how foolish Calvin's time-travel scheme is. 

But we don't get that much context with this scene. We are simply told not to "get in the way of scientific advances with (our) stupid ethical questions." This more real version of Calvin and Hobbes, that has the questionably anthropmorphized tiger with a sad tail burdened with the realism of our reality, ironically appears less concerned with ethical reprocussions than its comic counterpart. Which I think speaks to how the world as a whole works; in the moment, in the real world, it is more difficult to structure and consider all sides of an argument, whereas in reflection—as in our writing—it is more easily accomplished.

2:07— "I weigh more than I expected." Or maybe he planned the murder himself all along to satisify some sick, pathological desire. I don't know.

2:40-2:49— Another reference I guess? You've probably seen an image similar to this before. Usually as a sticker on someone's vehicle out there somewhere, Calvin pissing on whatever object of derision they thought appropriate.

The image consists of the Calvin figure (I say "figure" with a purpose) urinating on what on something with shorts pulled down and a impish grin looking beyond his right shoulder.

I'm not sure where this came from. I said "figure" before, because it is not a licensed use of the Calvin and Hobbes franchise, and is thus not endorsed by its creator, Bill Watterson. For that reason, I'm not sure it's even fair to call him "Calvin" in that application. Maybe that's why Hobbes forcifully turns the young Calvin around here, as to not invoke the sacreligious image and receive the ire of Watterson and his fans.

3:31— There are cruxifixes hanging on the bright orange walls of that bathroom, and almost look illuminated or spotlighted due to glare from surrounding lights. I was about tha kids age when my parents first started going to church, and as a result, bringing me and my younger brother with them. I hated it so much. It just makes me wonder how things would have been if I had been raised in it since infancy.

For whatever reason, it seems like someone has impressed their ideals, their reality, upon Calvin. Or at least on the comic version. His namesake was a French theologian that developed his own system of Christianity in the 1500s, called Calvinism.

3:45— "That'll give you a head start on being a teenager!" They're kind of right. Maybe it's just the cocktail of hormones coursing through you, or maybe the increased interpersonal conflict, but sneering reminds me of being a teenager—which, even though it was not, it feels like was a long time ago.

I liked a girl in high school that was really into the Sex Pistols. She had a magazine cutout of Sid Viscious leaned back playing bass and snarling oddly to something or someone out of frame.

And I suppose in retrospect, I say "into" with the reservation that I'm not sure if she liked the music as much as she was into the image. But that's how I see the Sex Pistols now: they're not really like The Clash who came after them (whose music still pervades into us via commericialization and sampling); they're not so much appreciated for their music, like God Save the Queen; they feel more known for the iconography that is associated with the music. Which I guess for a musician, is kind of sad. You want to be known for your albums, not your album covers.

That makes me wonder if that's kind of what Watterson was trying to avoid in his own sorts of work. He didn't want Calvin and Hobbes to become a force of commercialization rather than a piece of art or creation.

4:09-4:53— It's weird that I have never seen "Chariots of Fire", and yet everytime I hear that music, I know exactly what's going to happen.

4:55— Nevermind.