The red hat Snatcher in the man-made monsters made up the rumor that "box monsters are cannibals", and then personally eliminated all box monsters in exchange for popular opinion, and forced the noble Portley-Rind to grant him a symbol of nobility White hat of status.
His method is a typical routine used by the rulers: personally create the image of an enemy (box monster), even at the expense of personally creating disasters, so as to cause panic and anger among the masses, day after day. Intensify this panic and anger (on the annual the Trubshaw baby anniversary, personally perform the story of the box monster eating people), and finally personally eliminate the fake scarecrow, and transform the people’s accumulated fear and anger year after year into a pair of rule The admiration and gratitude of the audience to consolidate or gain a dominant position (white hat).
To say a few more words, this method often has an additional benefit to the ruler, which is to shift the focus of the people, and turn the people’s anger towards the system, class contradictions, and rulers to the fake scarecrow, and the ruler can do it. Sit back and relax. Don’t worry about the danger of being overthrown. You can manipulate the people by manipulating the scarecrow. Under the guise of combating the scarecrow, you can make the people do unrighteous things for them, and control the people’s personal freedom in the name of protecting the people (such as curfews). ), the most important thing is that with a common enemy, the complex of comrades-in-arms with the same enemy makes the people more addicted to this angry life, and the people's thoughts are completely controlled by the ruler.
2. Cheese: the additional meaning of privilege
Red Hat Snatcher is allergic to cheese, and one bite of cheese will swell into an eggplant, but he does not admit his symptoms at all, and still morbidly yearns to sit in the cheese tasting room with the nobles. Not only is he allergic, but he also has no taste for cheese. Even his fat fellow can casually utter two appreciation words, but he can't think of a single sentence. This setting is to emphasize that Snatcher's pursuit of cheese appreciation is not based on his love for cheese. What he pursues is only the symbolic meaning of cheese appreciation—aristocratic privileges. What he pursues is the superiority brought to him by having privileges, and he has no need to exercise the privileges itself. Just as he buys luxury goods not for liking, but to show that he is rich, he falls asleep every time he listens to a concert but he still wants to go. , Just to show that you have taste, and so on. Even if it is unbearable, it is necessary to fill in the self-worth that has nowhere to prove through some forms that have been given additional meaning.
3. White hat: the insurmountability of class
Snatcher's character setting is quite full. His coveting the white hat is not purely out of natural vanity, but has a lot to do with his growth experience. In the scene where he was allergic to cheese and playing cheese crazy, his roar almost became the background sound, and the camera mainly showed Eggs how to rescue Fish. But this scream is very important to his image, and there are words in it:
"Father always said, if you worked hard, you'd get a white hat. And what did he ever get? Nothing!"
"What has Portley -Rind ever done? Eat some cheese, run the government? Nothing!" In the
climax part of the film, when Snatcher was tossing Eggs on top of the big robot, he also said something very pungent:
"You think you can win and live happily ever after! They'll never accept the likes of us!"
Hearing these words, I suddenly realized that Snatcher is a person who has insight into this class system. He knows There is an insurmountable gulf between nobles and commoners, even if they claim that you can obtain aristocratic status through "courage, chivalry, wealth" ("It must be earned."), but for a hardworking and courageous "natural" commoner But it can only be a fantasy-"They will never accept people like us". The upper class will always claim that they are privileged because they reserve and because they work hard. The fact is that if you are born in the lower class, no matter how hard you work, (in most cases) you won’t be able to earn that much for your entire life. Wealth/honor/achievement.
Therefore, Snatcher decided to use abnormal means to seize status, and beyond the class, his inner grievances against social injustice became his internal driving force.
The nobles themselves said that the white hat symbolized "privilege, prestige, and status." In fact, it symbolized class. In the end of the film, Portley-Rind no longer wears a white hat. A white hat was abandoned in a recyclable trash can. It was picked up by a box monster to play, but it inadvertently threw the hat away and only took it. The feathers above. What is not explained in the ending is that if the box monster is washed out, will the class be eliminated? Have the other three nobles "woke up" and no longer wear white hats? Has that children's hospital been built...
4. Puppet trio: Three kinds of villains
Snatcher has three followers (called puppets by him), and they can be regarded as typical three kinds of villains.
The short follower is a typical person who does evil for the sake of evil. He is obsessed with things related to evil, and he knows that he is doing evil and enjoys it. But since this is a comedy animation, his IQ is, um, a brain-dead...
The fat fellow is a "Chaos". He is the most literary and equal-conscious of the three. He often thinks about the justice of their actions, tries to understand the psychology of the box monster, and thinks that their puppets and Snatcher are equal cooperative relations. It's a pity that all his thoughts stop at asking questions and never come up with answers, so he is confused every day. This kind of bad guy doesn’t know that he’s doing evil, but he does it in a dazed manner. The boss does what he says, and occasionally hits his conscience and can’t wake him up, because his thinking is only a taste. Or he is in a subconscious defense mechanism, unconsciously hypnotizing himself and preventing himself from thinking.
The thin attendant also loves to think, and always asks some philosophical questions to the fat attendant, but there is no way, his brain is really not very good. One thing he often yells is, "We are good people" and "Justice will always triumph over evil." He is keen on doing bad things because he thinks he is doing good things. Although these kinds of bad guys seem the most forgivable, they are also the easiest to become fanatics, because they are easily brainwashed (by themselves), as long as they easily define a "good/bad" standard, and then take great strides. They start to do it; they often wave the banner of justice, arm themselves with a noble sense of morality, and are convinced that no matter how much evil they do, they are for higher good. As for this one in the film, I can only say that his conscience is really undiminished... Seeing Fish fought to protect Eggs, it shaken his whole worldview, until finally he was awakened by the heroine with a word = =
5 . Box: In the
first half of the film about the elusive oppressed , the box monster is arrested and taken away day after day, but he still happily plays with his usual life day after day, and even goes back underground without mourning the sacrifice. Teammates (= =). Finally, there were very few box monsters left, and even Fish was taken away. Eggs finally couldn't help but questioned:
"Why do we do this, Shoe? Carry on like everything is normal. They drag us away and we do nothing!"
Later, Eggs went to the ground to seek help to no avail, and returned to the ground to persuade the box monsters to leave here for refuge. The box monsters still looked confused and refused to leave, and happily asked Eggs to put the box on.
As Snatcher said, "they ain't gonna run. You can't change nature". Cowardice is their nature. They can live happily no matter what miserable life becomes. They are selectively blind, ignore anything that brings sadness and pain, and pretend that they are doing well. They will also hand out boxes to people around them, persuade others to close their eyes, and tell them: pain is all you think of, and as long as you don't want it, you won't be painful.
This is why they are "box" monsters, because they only know one word when encountering aggression and oppression: hide. To them, the box is ostrich sand, close your eyes and hide, at least you don't have to see how the executioner raises his butcher knife. Cowardice shields their minds, making them invisible to the world that there is still a way to escape, another way to fight with wisdom, and even less to see that there is another way to resist.
And such “happy people” are the favorites of the rulers. You can squeeze them at will. You don’t even have to bother to defend yourself, because they have already found all excuses for you. They think all the misfortunes are It is normal", "existence is reasonable", and "the system cannot be questioned."
And it turns out that no one can save them except the box monsters themselves. They don't change their nature or come out of the box, only to be beaten to death by the roller.
6. Race: the
cowardly nature of the troll is mad box monster is not only used by bad people, but also a good excuse for bad people to wash the ground for their evil deeds. Snatcher knew too much about the cowardice of box monsters, so he directly defined box monsters as low-level creatures and declared that "they can't make life choices, only humans can". The victim's non-resistance becomes an excuse for the perpetrator. "If you don't resist, it proves that you are born servile." "If you don't resist, it proves that you should be a slave." Even when Fish finally fought back to protect Eggs, all he got was a big laugh from his short follower:
"The troll is mad!"
Still don't think it is enough to insinuate? Then let’s look at it. They closed the box monsters not just for torture or a one-time massacre, but for their labor. And they are not simple labor. They are a very talented race. Every box monster. They are all born repairers and engineers. Snatcher has a strong sense of racial superiority, using the wisdom of box monsters, exploiting the labor of box monsters, using their labor results but finding them dirty, using their labor results but denying their value, and accepting them. Enslavement is their nature.
Do you think it's a bit like history?
7. The masses: turning faces is like flipping a book.
In various cartoons, the masses always seem to have such a role: they are especially good to deceive, listen to what you believe, any rumor is more powerful than throwing a bomb, and once you find that you have been What is regarded as the truth is only a rumor, turning face in minutes, without any jet lag, and start scolding the rumor makers who were regarded as gods before, as if they were afraid that they would not be smart and aware of the current affairs when they were too late, as if they could stand in line in the first time by turning their faces in an instant. , Get close to the feet of the incumbents, occupy the moral high ground, as if as long as you have a clear position now, you can wash away your identity as the rumor spreader and the perpetrator.
Compared with reality, cartoons are beautiful. In reality, the masses may never get the truth, so they jump between versions of lies, and between idols/model auras, digging their hearts every time they jump. I scolded once, convinced that this time is the truth, I was deceived because I was too kind, and the liar could not die.
8. Digression: The gradual collapse of the sexual script
is a personal relief. In recent years, the female images in many cartoons have become more and more away from gender stereotypes, and the storylines are also stepping away from the traditional "princess is used to save the prince" standard routine, from "Crazy Primitive", From "Rapunzel", "Frozen" to this "Box Monster", female images are becoming more and more "masculine".
The heroines of "Rapunzel" and "Frozen" still have a little "naive, poor logic, fuss, and road idiot" attributes, while Winnie in "Box Monster" is basically alive and well ( The so-called "boy" is not only the tone and expression, but also the insight into things and the mature and steady style of acting. She even gets excited when she tells those bloody horror stories.
This allows us to see that the traditional scripts in "mainstream" thinking are gradually disintegrating, perhaps the voice of physiological determinism is gradually dying, and perhaps we are slowly moving towards a world of zero judge.
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