what did you think of Uglies?? (also, I think I gave myself my OWN brain damage making this, and it would’ve been longer, but I had to stop at some point 😅 I’d love to hear what other details you wish were included that I didn’t mention!) I still love Scott Westerfeld for writing Uglies even if the movie wasn’t what I hoped for. It was the first YA book I ever read - checked it out of my school’s library when I was 9 and thought it was so amazing I gave it to my mom to read lol it will always hold a special place in my heart. You can catch his cameo as the “elder” with the wheelbarrow at the Smoke! (he’s technically “the boss” for those of you who read the book 😉) ALSO ALSO I could’ve sworn his name was Scott WesterFIELD or am I crazy
Question 1: what are your thoughts on the Snow White trailer? Question 2: would you be willing to do a video on Prince Charming/Kit? I know you did a video on Cinderella already but I would love to hear more of your thoughts on Richard Madden’s performance (and how handsome he was).
@@anyaaa2801 Q1. I'm worried 😅 i'm reserving judgment til it's out, but I don't love the visuals so far (ex. her hair is... something). seeing as how i haven't liked most remakes except for Cinderella, i don't have much hope :( Q2: haha i don't think I'll make a separate video, but I totally agree he was so charming 🤭 probably would've fallen in love with him if i was Lily James
@@OpticalSorcerer Yes I agree totally! He’s by far my favorite male romantic lead in these remakes. I would say Eric is second but I wasn’t really feeling the actor who was playing him (and Ariel didn’t get any of her iconic outfits and I will forever be salty about that)….and I will forever be pissed how they butchered the Beast. Giving him that horrible CGI look and making him look like a complete asshole….I’ll just have to rewatch the animated movie again to soothe the pain.
It might have been better had the film been animated, since they'd be able to show how eerie the Pretties were, as opposed to simply slapping a golden filter on the actors.
@msjkramey That's not the argument here, though. Just that real people may drive the philosophy of the material home more and lead to introspection. You could also argue that animation would agree with the world of the Pretties, since they often morph realistic human traits for the sake of "beauty". Like "kawaii" anime eyes and impossible proportions for women and men. It might water down the point just like this movie did.
@@khemikims4058 im truly not trying to argue, i just find it silly to say that real people may drive the philosophy home more because it does the exact opposite for many, including myself. ive always connected with and related more to animations, so while it could water the point down, i think that would mostly be due to a bad art director. like how this film most likely had a bad director due to the outcome of it.
@@finalgirltrope I get that. I just think for animation it is hard to show the nuance of the human form. Like, a character is either overtly "ugly" to the point of comic relief, or conventionally attractive. And sometimes in order to show that attractiveness, they make the eyes bigger, the nose smaller or even non-existent, teenagers look like adults with no acne or awkward proportions, men are 6'5" with twelve packs and broad as a tank, and women are size zero with g cups (this is specifically one piece). I can't think of an animation that showcases the authentic human form and that's fine because it is an art form and we are seeing the world through the artist's vision. I'm just not sure if that is the best medium for this story in particular. Correct me if I'm wrong though.
If the movie made the pretties hit the uncanny valley like in Human Form (that korean plastic surgery movie where the people all look like a mix between Coraline characters and porcelain masks) it would have sold the message better. Like the beauty standards are clearly different and fits the books description of the pretties being so modified that they're not recognizable. Or like do it hunger games style, show how eccentric the pretties look with prosthetics, wheres the tiger lady?
I have to disagree with you and art at midnight on this one. For my personal taste, this part I think the movie nailed... I didn't watched the movie, neither read the book, but just by the video alone I find the Pretties to be very uncanny... honestly I find them ugly, like trying so hard to be beautiful that becomes repulsive.
@@hanarielgodlike9283unfortunately, the pretties aren’t that far off from what some people find beautiful. i’ve seen some discourse on plastic surgery where people who spend all day staring at these faces on tiktok and instagram say that they find the weirdly inflated lips and sunken cheeks from buccal fat removal genuinely attractive. the pretties are not even half as uncanny valley as some of the real life people alive today who think they’re attractive but really just have a plastic surgery addiction
I think tiger lady / hunger games capital style wouldn't work for the pretties, since in the book(s) I think there is a point to them all looking pretty much the same, there is only one beauty standard and everyone is made to fit it. I think that the "AI kpop group" Mave is pretty close to how I would imagine the pretties. They are supposed to be impossibly pretty, not scary
19:56 This is honestly a problem with a lot of newer work in my opinion. It’s something I noticed with the new adaption of Avatar The Last Airbender with Katara and Sokka’s characters. By getting rid of the bad decisions characters make, we are robbed of their growth throughout the story. It’s needed especially with a coming of age book/movie like in Uglies. I’m glad you made this video. I was looking for someone to put all the changes and misses into words.
This is why sometimes author need to distance themselves from random internet shittalk while writing, because I'm 100% these authors getting rid the bad decision a character made because they read online comment that goes, "why the character A did this? It's so stupid, ugh!" Although the character's mistake is fully on character and justified by the context.
the new mean girls movie too completely missed the point. the smallest example is the change from the musical line "i expect to run the world in shoes i cannot walk in" that mocks the shallow glitter liberal feminist idea that theyre dismantle the masters house while theyre reinforcing it to "im going to run the world in shoes i cannot walk in" which fully embraces that notion
I'm glad someone else pointed this out because it is so annoying. Let. Kids. See. People. Make. Mistakes. I cannot impress on people just how BAD it is for childhood development to see characters in fiction only make the right choices. It does one of two things -- either the child becomes a perfectionist who will not act unless they are 100% positive they are "right" and it will cripple them mentally if they turn out to be "wrong" OR the child will never look past the surface level of their actions and determine that because they are the "main character" in their life, their actions are always "right" and they can't make mistakes. Either way, it's horrible. You either become a nervous wreck or a narcissistic Karen. But even within the framework of a story, it robs the characters of their autonomy and agency. If a character is never allowed to make mistakes, they feel inhuman and bland. You can't relate to someone who never makes the wrong choice or who never faces the consequences of a bad decision.
If they still wanted to cast a pretty (to us) actress as Tally, they could've cast someone with horizontally long eyes like Bella Hadid has. (Not Bella herself, though, as she is not an actress.)
YESSS such a good example!!! I agree that telling the story through live action helps pull ourselves in the world, and we DEFINITELY have the technology to remodel the Pretty actor's faces to make them look eery
@@Mikelaxo Alita's budget was 170 milion dollars, not that much. But again, she was the only character made in that style. it would be expensive to make a whole movie using the same efect
It's interesting, it seems that this movie fails in a way several other hollywood dystopian adaptations have failed: it absolutely refuses to engage in any sort of structural critique in favor of a simple good guys / bad guys narrative. It's not just that Dr. Cable's view has nuance and her motivations are understandable in the book but not the movies, it's that, in the book, she (and the specials more broadly) are clearly just as much a part of the system as everyone else. They may have the ability to engage in violence and the cool gadgets with which to do so, but ultimately that power is contingent on continuing to uphold the system (which, as we're shown in Extras, extends far beyond just one city). If I recall correctly, the film adaptation of The Giver (possibly the ur-text of the the teen dystopian genre) did the *same exact thing* except more so: it took a narrative in which there is definitively no actual antagonist save society itself and created a character basically out of whole cloth simply to serve as the villain. So I suppose it's not surprise that the Hollywood adaptation Uglies, which *has* a character that serves as the avatar of the system, transforms that character into a singular "bad guy" whose defeat will, presumably, serve to take down the system as a whole. It's so frustrating, because by refusing to engage with the way systems often operate outside of the intentions of any one person, Hollywood effectively shuts down its ability to realistically portray how the world almost always actually works. There's rarely one Big Bad (or "a few bad apples"). Rather, there are systems beyond any one person that, in order to be fixed, require far more than simple taking out one figurehead. The book all but turns to the reader and says this outright during the discussions of the history of the Oliophage: Tally says something about how "there's nothing like oil that our system is dependent on and will fall apart without" and someone responds "sometimes, societies aren't built on a resource, but on an idea. Take that out, and the system begins to crumble." I guess the idea that Hollywood is built on is that you need to have a Bad Guy for the Good Guys to punch in order to make a good film.
I agree completely. I also think that Hollywood is just really opposed to showing any sort of moral grey areas whatsoever. They don't want to portray Tally as shallow in the beginning of the movie because the industry wants to be perceived as entirely "good", and if they show a character that isn't totally good and perfect all of the time, they may possibly be associated with these traits. By doing this though, they literally show no growth of characters and therefore don't actually stand for anything. They want to sell as many tickets as possible and therefore can have no actual opinions in movies whatsoever besides attractive people = good.
It’s a way to calm the masses. If only one person needs to be taken down for the system to be fixed then we should only fight that one person and overlook the flaws of the whole system. Trump for example is seen as the big bad wolf when he is just a cog in the system, and if it wasn’t him, it would have been someone else. Because the whole system is working exactly as planned.
Fr. Watching this video I also kept being reminded of the hypocrasy the hunger games movies became. I loved first Giver as a teen and the movie was so upsetting to watch. whole colour reveal in the books was amazing to me and I think alot of the reason it worked so well was becuase of the medium. In books we have to make alot of assumptions about the world unless told otherwise. U read a book and assume the sky is blue unless it tells u otherwise. So I feel like the giver movie was at an immediate disadvantage (and honestly I don't know if u could even do a giver movie that does it justice). But yeah then it doubles down by absolutely destorying any of the nuance of the book 😂
@@charlottetherat13 Hollywood got spooked by Occupy Wall Street. You'll notice blockbuster films after 2012 or so are all about fighting against Big Bad Guys who want to Destroy the Universe or whatever, there are very few messages of "together we can make a difference" like there used to be in the 1990s and early 2000s.
I think they should have casted two people, for each role that gets beutified. One teen actor and one for the pretties who is older, maybe in their 30s or late 20s, to show this transformation.
@@Zelda00Gamerif anything they wouldn't need siblings - the Pretties only having a vague resemblance to their teen selves would hammer the point home better tbh
you completely changed my outlook on this story! the movie really only shows the 2 dimensional aspects of the book, i never knew the original book had so much nuance
It’s a shame how common of a problem this can be. It happened to Artemis Fowl, too. The original books were about cunning and self-centrism, yet the movie did the first book so poorly: no one is more than their character, and it feels so dumbed down overall. I highly recommend the books, btw. They’re amazing.
When I first watched it I didn't notice the choice Dr Cable gives Tally, but once I found out I was SHOCKED. In my opinion that was what made Uglies a little bit different from other YA dystopias, to have a main character totally committed to the system and wishing to be a part of it more than anything else. I also feel the book vibe was super terrifying and unsettling, in the movie it's just emptiness. I enjoyed the movie and I want the sequel to be made, but I'm very aware of all it's flaws.
Honestly I thought the film had the same choice as the book. I'll have to go re watch to make sure as I feel like my brain must have just heard what I expected
it's funny cause when I read it, i thought "wow this would make such a good movie" and now i'm just like, nevermind ((i still think it could've been good had the right people adapted it though))
@@artatmidnight a valid point, but I still stand on the idea that some books are better off books than movies. But yes. I do believe this movie could've been better if the right people who are GENUINELY PASSIONATE about the series were in charge of it.
It would be better if anyone else than netflix made it. Netflix doesnt really have the budget to make good movies. And cant even let TV shows run for more than 3 seasons because of production costs
I think what I would have done for the Uglies/Pretties is have the uglies in no or minimal makeup, then the pretties in makeup, plus retouching, plus facial prosthetics. Really highlight that difference AND make it uncanny.
it still wouldn't work bc the uglies are so conventionally attractive they would still look better than almost everyone, even without makeup. the guy leading the ugly resistance is a literal model irl. they would need to cast normal looking people & they weren't prepared to do that
@pabloaulestia6310 personally, I think that look would be closer to the look of the Specials, the very pretty, uncanny valley, but dangerous and triggering the prey instinct
I feel like this could have been a chance to make use of good ol' prosthetic make up. The way they did with Angelina Jolie's cheek bones in Maleficent. Especially since it's based off an older book , I feel like practical effects could bring a vibe to match it.
The Twilight Zone, did it better where it was revealed the "normal" looking people were considered ugly. However, what made it even more groundbreaking was that they were treated with care and understood the "ugly" people.
IMO much more like "Number 12 looks just like you". Everyone picks a body at adulthood, the main character is concerned, they don't want to choose yet, eventually they get forced into it. When they come out they're happy about their new body and all previous concerns are forgotten. Doctor then comments about how they've made such improvements in getting people to be happy with their new self. It appears Uglies was inspired by the episode.
THANK YOU. i've watched so many reviews of this movie/book and you're maybe the first person to understand that casting conventionally attractive people as uglies is not the massive flaw everyone seems to think it is. I'm convinced you're the only reviewer who has actually read the book.
@calicoathena Yeah, in the book uglies are just normal people (and even Rusty era celebrities are considered ugly) but uglies are vividly described with pimples, discoloured skin, thin lips, messy hair, etc etc. Celebrities do not fit the bill especially when the main reason that they're here is because conventionally attractive ppl have an unfair advantage and it's crazy that a movie critiquing beauty standards feeds into it by refusing to show anyone other than the Hollywood standard on the big screen Celebs are book accurate, but casting only attractive actors waters down what the book is critiquing You can't just say people "haven't read the book" because they have a different opinion from you...
@@caramelcream8569 i feel like a good example is watching any clip from like "america's next top model" objectively beautiful women but the judges and other models are still gonna find areas to critique bc they're hyper aware of these things in their industry. now imagine that's the mindset of all of society. the uglies having acne, discolored skin, thin lips etc is not an objective fact. its how they perceive themselves/each other. i don't think the movie did a good job of conveying that idea (based on what i've seen of it from reviews). but i also don't think it was due to the casting either (and im the last person that's gonna defend joey king of all people, i can't stand her). im not defending the movie here. i literally haven't seen the movie and refuse to see it. (bc joey king) my frustration is that in focusing on "they're not ugly enough" people are warping the point of the actual books. its not meant to be that they're actually ugly. they're just insecure due to the society they've grown up in. and insecure people tend to hyper fixate on flaws that aren't really there.
As stated in the video, it’s really sad that the world building was so weak that nobody understood that part of it. They’re not ugly, they’re Uglies. Technically the pretties aren’t pretty, either: they’re “perfect” to the point of uncanniness. The first time Tally sees an ugly after her pretty surgery she’s actually revolted and disturbed by these regular faces. She says one guy’s acne “screams of disease”.
Oh, if you think that's silly, you're in for a treat with the slang made up for the books (left out of the movie, of course.) The only ones I can remember off the top of my head are Pretty slang. Something that makes you happy is "bubbly-making", and in the second book, when Tally makes pranks and mischief a popular fad with the Pretties, they start calling things "crim" (short for "criminal.") It's so ridiculous, and I love it so much.
@@melodramaticdragon5826 i actually really liked the unique jargon in the book (like "bubbly-making"), it kinda made me realize that language that seems "normal" to me might seem strange to others who are unfamiliar with it, and vice versa
Ironic that a book about shallow attractiveness with a deeper message got lost in a shallowly attractive movie… and a shame. I was never a huge fan or anything but I remember the books fondly. My kingdom for movie adaptations that actually understand the things they’re adapting PLEASE
At this point I literally can’t remember a single movie adaptation that was loyal to the book. This, Percy Jackson, Ready Player One… can Hollywood just leave my fandoms alone please 😭 one of my favorite book series (Keeper of the Lost Cities) is about to be a movie and I fear for what they’re planning
I wanna add some context to the orchid fields. Orchids are a beautiful but often rare plant. Most species do not naturally form fields. Having an endless field of them devalues part of their appeal (much like with the citizens, if everyone is the same kind of “beautiful” then the flower loses its sense of being “rare and unique”). Additionally, a monoculture of literally any plant chokes out all other species, and is very vulnerable to pests, disease, and changes to the environment. The orchid field is a mirror of the society they created, but also just an environmentally terrible idea. It can also be a good example how humans try to “positively” shape the planet, but accidentally cause more harm in the process (ex: artificial tire reef experiments in Florida or bringing cane toads to Australia).
I'll have to respectfully disagree on the animation bit. Animation is very powerful art and can send powerful messages when done right. The animation and art style doesn't even need to be that expensive for it to do all of that either. Uglies would have translated to animation much better, the stylized aesthetic everything in the world has would have fit it better. You can 100% feel a strong connection to an animated character. If the writers and actors do a good job.
Me too, if animation didn't send a message why do little kids grow up wanting to be like princesses and princes? Hell, Arcane had a great impact with the message of love, family, trauma etc.
you guys missed th point, she said it wouldn't have been as powerful because the story puts so much emphasis on normal human appearance, which would have been lost in animation.
@ley5532 i didn't miss the point. I still disagree. The message still would have been powerful. The message is already lost in the current adaptation. And the only way to achieve it like the books is with excessive use of Cgi which is basicially effects/sometimes even gull form animation. as far as I know, hardly anyone likes when it's implemented that way. Animation 100% would have worked beautifully for Uglies. And it would have had a powerful message again if done right.
oh i absolutely agree animation is emotional! i didn't mean to suggest it wouldn't work ~at all~ (if you've seen my Wish video, i literally call myself Rapunzel bc i relate to her so much). i just like the idea of live action for a story about human beauty. it could've been a great opportunity to show real "flaws" on Hollywood actors, and frame them as beautiful (this movie didn't do that unfortunately bc even the uglies look airbrushed). perhaps the stylization of animation would take away from the "real life" beauty aspect. but i also love the idea of animation for the Pretties, bc that is so hard to do in live action (as we've seen). they both have their pros and cons!
I think that the korean movie about plastic surgery “human form” might be closer to achieving what uglies couldve done with live action, but obviously more horror
as someone who has never read the books, only recently watched the movie (boy i have thoughts) and some commentary videos on it, i cannot tell you how flabbergasted i am to find out everything they changed. i really appreciate how you explained the world building so well, and now it pains me to know how much potential was truly wasted with this adaptation.
this movie would've been an amazing opportunity to showcase the insane talent of prosthetic artists in conjunction with some light cgi. give the pretties dramatic ski-slope noses, enlarged eyes, perfect teeth (like those creepy veneers all the celebs are getting nowadays), big lips and almost swollen-looking cheekbones. it should've been an easy concept to pull off.
I always imagined the Specials to look terrifyingly sharp, like a physical weapon predator. I always pictured Lady Gaga from the Born This Way poster, lol. All those jagged edges but beautiful and scary. 10/10 will look fabulous as she hunts you down. Also I loved the third book, where they force Tally to become a Special and she f's off to the Amazon rain forest where the local tribes think she is a terrifying god. That one's awesome!
Yeah, I don't think they managed to capture the specials in the movie. I would have pictured maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger as the terminator as what a special would look like. Not a kpop idol with excessive instagram filters and a bodysuit.
the choice to remove tally's shallowness really justifies her struggles with guilt in the other two books. they consistently have things happen where it can be argued that tally didnt have a choice, but she ultimately did, and those choices had consequences. her guilt is a HUGE factor in the third book. so if theyre wanting to make more movies, they literally just took the main struggle away from the main character.
yours is the only review i've watched that actually understands the real issues with the uglies movie instead of just pointing and laughing at how they expect us to think joey king or brianne tju are ugly. uglies was a book that genuinely had a lot to say and a good movie could have done that so well and brought these ideas to a new generation of kids and teens, but they just made a cash grab nonsense movie instead. personally i think it should have been animated but i also see your point. i think with animation it would just be harder to drive home that "uncanny valley" feeling we're supposed to get when looking at the pretties compared to live action, because we're a lot more willing to accept characters looking odd in animation. ideally it should work in live action but they would have to do some kind of cgi for the pretties instead of just slapping a filter on them. they needed to be unquestionably pretty but also odd and unsettling looking and that should have been juxtaposed with people we consider attractive being considered ugly. showing the city as being so horrible in all aspects was just a plain bad idea. we need to be able to understand why the people in that society see it as a utopia.
I was so excited for the movie. Specifically for the solar punk setting, for the actors with crooked teeth. But nope. Got neither. Got a pretty boy with bleach white teeth, plucked eyebrows, and a short and boring explanation about the environment. Man. That magnetic layout was awesome. The self-washing clothes, the clean air. Man. This was ridiculous. What a letdown. I couldn’t finish it beyond the archery part where pretty boy was wearing a tunic and he was not pulling it off at all, and she was wearing so much makeup, I just couldn’t anymore.
if you haven't read the book series, it goes much more in-depth with its solarpunk setting (I've never considered it that way before!) and its environmentalist themes. for some visual media, it also got a comic spin-off, Shay's Story, that's much truer to the books' worldbuilding.
And the fact that scott was a producer. was he not consulted?? the books were so interesting and the movies completely lost its cor. I havent seen the movies but judging by this review I am so upset about how it lost its meaning and character development
Interesting text you just gave us - when you write your book, make sure it comes with a warning for the damage being caused to to the universe of communication.
as someone who didn't read the books: scientific vs cultural beauty? nuanced environmentalism? the deeper coming of age angle?? def didn't get those outta the movie. enjoyed learning so much!
I haven't seen Uglies or read the book, but I was curious what it was about and got excited when I saw you'd made a video about it because your movie critiques are always so spot on and so well thought out. I had a strong suspicion that this movie would be a surface level excuse to sell a movie with sex appeal, and it looks like that's pretty much what happened. I think Hollywood and other productions in general are missing the forest for the trees not just in book adaptations, but in original movies as well. They seem to forget to have an overarching narrative and message, with distinct threads weaving through every scene. They seem to just take it one scene at a time without thinking about the bigger picture. You always have such an intelligent critique, and I absolutely love watching your videos!
in my random opinion, i feel like making the uglies realistic and the pretties more cartoony than just putting a filter would show how unrealistic their expectations seemingly are
Watch the Uglies book trailer from several years ago from the channel: escape goat pictures. The actress is average and looks like her book counterpart, but her Pretty self is actually uncanny with big eyes and lips, a frozen smile and a vapid expression.
I appreciate you giving ACTUAL criticism, I've seen so much "the actors aren't even ugly" and "seems like a knock-off hunger games" (even though it was published years before hunger games) which has been really annoying.
they tottally lost the oportunity to get Tilda Swinton and other "vampire-looking" hollywood stars for this movie, just as well as casting newr actors to play the teenagers
The entire movie I was like "I'd totally turn pretty without a second thought". I've never read the books, but like people said in the comments, I feel like if they didn't make the pretties actually pretty and did something a little more "botched plastic surgery meets coraline" the message would come across better.
An excellent Korean short film "Human Form" excellently covered the uglies vs pretties aesthetic conflict in 11 minutes by using geometrically sculpted facial prosthetics. That would have been much cheaper than fully animating or doing battle-angel-alita style touch-ups. What the film Uglies lacked was creative vision. Also lacked good writing, but I feel that the complaint "why are the uglies so pretty?" could have been easily solved by presenting the standard of beauty as being overly outlandish. Heck, The Twilight Zone did an episode on this where the standard of beauty was having a piglike face. This is a concept that has been done successfully before!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, American actors vs British/Irish/Scottish actors are so startlingly different. Lots of British and Irish tv shows that I’ve seen have actors who look NORMAL. It’s refreshing. They have birth marks, round tummies, asymmetrical features, or unique noses. And then I watch American shows and movies and everyone looks like they came from a whole other planet.
I'm gonna be honest... I loved the movie. I read the books in my childhood and didn't remember them at all, but the themes expressed in the movie were exactly what I needed to hear at that exact moment. Is simple but strongly pushed message about appearances and being yourself/independent, combined with my sense of childhood nostalgia, got me right in the heart. But, after watching this video essay - I can completely see the shortcomings, and you've inspired me to go back to my childhood bedroom and re-read the old books!!! If I loved the movie this much, I can only imagine how much more I'll love re-reading the series in all its beautiful depth ❤ thanks for making this video essay!
I thought they were gonna change the actors once they became pretty. I was like “damn that’s kinda mean to them”, then I saw it was just golden eyes filters lol.
I sincerely hope that at some point a different team tries to make movies for this series. I think if the people who work on it actually care about the source material and isn't just looking for the next hunger games, this could be and could've been such a good film franchise. I've ALWAYS wanted a movie or a show based on this series.
Perhaps it's just me, but I'm kinda tired of dystopian films. While I'd like more novel adaptations, I'd prefer (good) fantasy adaptations like in the 2000s.
personally they just feel so unoriginal at this point, especially since so many draw straight from hunger games lol. it also doesn’t help that we basically live in a dystopian right now so the bleakness found in that genre feels tone depth at times and when their social commentary flops it makes it worse 💀 i just want cute and fun fantasy movies to forget how horrible the world is currently.
@@cecizilla I feel bad for books that came out before or during THG and everyone uses it as a baseline as if no one could also come up woth a dystopian story.
It would be pretty cool to see or read a dystopian from the perspective of someone who either is supportive of the system or who lives a comfortable or good life thanks to the system that the otherwise-rebels are trying to take down.
I was really excited when I found out Uglies was getting an adaptation, but then I was thoroughly let down by the final result. It missed so many key details that I don't even know why they bothered releasing the movie in the first place. A particular aspect of the book I wished the movies had focused on more was Tally's relationship with her parents. In the books, children are separated from their parents at age twelve to live with other ugly teens. After this, the parents and children never live together again. Since getting the operation is akin to growing up and becoming an adult, new pretties live apart from their parents for the rest of their lives. The parents see their children from time to time, but they aren't really there for their kids in any ways that matter. Also, since all the parents have brain damage, the ugly kids don't know who their parents actually are, they just know the versions of them manufactured by the operation. No one finds it alarming that those kids and their parents barely know one another, because that's just how society operates for them. This is yet another type of segregation the operation creates: the separation of parents and their children. The relationship between parents and their children is so informal that in the book Tally refers to her parents by their first names. If memory serves, when Tally first hears David call his parents "Mom" and "Dad" she is taken aback by it. I think Tally's lack of true parental support and guidance plays a critical role in how easily manipulated she is by others. Growing up, ugly kids like her have no role models to look up to, and no one to help form and guide them as they enter adulthood. When Tally asks her parents for advice about what to do about Shay and her delayed operation, they aren't truly worried about their daughter and don't really try to help her out with the situation. It's a pretty integral part of the story, one that gets lost in translation from book to film.
This video reminded me why I loved the books so much, there's honestly a lot of symbolism and deeper concepts that flew over my head back then. This is the best video I've seen talking about the book vs. movie issue. Thanks for making it :)
I don't remember enough about the book to completely make this point but I do think cutting down trees = bad environmentalism isn't quite the truth, especially when we've seen how white environmentalists have (in past and in present) degraded indigenous ways of stewarding the land (which included cutting/burning trees) and used the argument that "white people do environmentalism better" to steal their land... otherwise, thanks so much for this video - it revives a lot of the book's nuance that I'd forgotten!!
wow, glad people still remember these books! it involves my favorite story building thing, where in each book we observe the same world from a different perspective
haven't read this book in 15 years & haven't seen the film, but appreciated this in-depth analysis. so insightful to see the misses as I go about crafting, well-structured strong narrative works. great work xx
Excellent analysis! I haven't seen the movie, but just read the first book out of interest and your analysis really helped bring several of the themes and ideas into focus for me, as I read it a bit fast. It is ridiculous to me that they would change, in the movie, what to me are some of the most thought-provoking aspects of the story: 1) the depth to which Tally has internalized her and her peers' ugliness and their lack of a future unless they turn pretty, and 2) the depth of her betrayal. Awesome video! :)
when i was younger, i was obsessed with dystopian books. hunger games, the selection and pretties being amongst my fave. i think one of the books biggest message was that u DON'T need surgery to look pretty at all. but most of the comments were about how 'the actors aren't ugly'. this made me realize how surface level people see things.
I loved these books so much! You made the point later in the video that leaving out the Specials surveillance would impact the rest of the series, but I think the applies to a lot of the changes. Tally and Shea’s relationship is always rocky. They bounce between friends and enemies for almost the entire series. That distrust starts in Uglies. I haven’t watched the movie, but I feel like they’d have to significantly change Pretties and Specials a lot to accommodate what was changed in the first film. Kinda sad. I would have loved to see a solid adaptation of this series.
I know neither the book nor the film, and being far from a teenager not the target demographic for either, but found this discussion of how the film failed to replicate the book really fascinating. Partly because I think the removal of moral nuance plagues an awful lot of modern entertainment in recent years and the irony, it seems to me, is the book (as described in this video) depicts a society that doesn't trust its citizens to make their own minds up and the film is made by a society that doesn't trust its citizens to make its own mind up. Maybe a dystopia adapted too late because everything warned about has already come to pass.
I think that the 'Pretties' should've been animated like the current (and awful) D-sney live action movies are animated with an extra level of CGI/photoshop/filer look to really showcase their uncanniness. The same could be said for the 'Specials,' but their eyes, teeth, nails and bone structure would be altered to resemble more predator like features. While the 'Uglies,' would just be normal teenagers.
There is something infinitely ironic about movie adaptations of YA novels/series being dumbed down and glossed up for the sake of "appealing" to the YA market that made those books popular in the first place.
I think that you really overstated how big of a deal it was that the smoke cut down trees. Not only is it something that happens today, they also had to do it to survive. So while it does harm the environment, they had no other choice
That's the point she was making in the video about being morally grey - the city's system is literally so much better for the environment that the thought of cutting down any tree or burning anything is seen as despicable behaviour that would only be performed by a stupid, selfish society - which is a core part of their propaganda teachings. So Tally arriving in the smoke, a place she had no desire to go to anyway, and seeing them doing the same things she's been taught caused the near collapse of the planet, its a huge deal to her And yes, the way the smoke lives would probably have a pretty mild impact by our standards, but they also live in a world where most people have literally 0 impact on the greater environment. Every person in the smoke except David made an active choice to pursue a lifestyle that has a substantially higher environmental impact than the average person. they had valid reasons, don't get me wrong, but it was a choice Its a simple concept that makes the opposing ways of life more nuanced
this is the video i kept hoping to see while watching other peoples' takes on this movie. it's been frustrating as a book fan to hear the same surface level jokes about bad CGI/hunger games reference/hot actors when the series has so much more going on. i haven't re-read the books in a long time (though i loved them enough to keep up with the newer sequel series as it was releasing) and i didn't revisit them before watching the movie so i could go into it with an open mind. but even though i'd forgotten most of the details you bring up here, i was still sat there every few minutes thinking "this doesn't feel right somehow" it truly feels like the producers etc just read a wikipedia summary of the first book and worked off of that instead of actually reading the books. i'm so curious how much involvement Scott Westerfeld had during the making of this movie. at least netflix' anime series have mostly been good so i can still be hopeful for the upcoming Leviathan adaptation. i'd hate to live in the universe where they tried to give that one a live action treatment 💀
I think if I was in charge of this movie, I would've had the Uglies played by regular actors (and more regular looking actors too) and the Pretties would be fully CGI. Complete uncanny valley, too perfect, close-to-human-but-not-quite
6:48 fr thank you for saying that. Like i know the writing messed it up but i was still able to understand that, yes they think they are ugly and we dont but it was so obvious its because they are constantly being told everything about them prior to surgery is ugly. Yet so many people missed that and complained.
I’ve never thought of reading uglies (only saw the memes and criticisms of the movie after it came out!) but decided to watch this today to see what everyone was talking about, the explanation and break down and how this movie failed was so interesting, next time I go to the library im gonna look for the book to see what the real experience is all about! Great vid.
Even at 12 when I first read the book and loved movie adaptations, I knew this would not be able to be translated to film. The pretties are meant to be out of this world beautiful and eerie and I think the subjectivity of real-life's view of beauty would not give that objective view. I always pictured the pretties as almost ethereal and the specials as sharp, scaringly beautiful beings. When I saw the movie was coming out I did not have high hopes and it just is such a difficult concept to actually bring alive.
Ok! so it’s been so long since I’ve read the books but i remember loving them! I related to the main character as an insecure teen who’s trying to fit into society! But when I watched the film I felt it just kinda fell flat but I couldn’t place why. You totally nailed it in this video though! It’s because Tally has no character growth, she is the same selfless perfect protagonist the whole way through. We can’t relate to her as she doesn’t make any mistakes to learn from. And by taking away the pretty cites care for the environment it leaves them feeling flat too, there is no morally gray aspect it is just pretty city bad, smoke people good. In my opinion the actors did great for the roles they were given. This falls on the screenwriters as they are responsible for putting in the themes and depth of the story that they are retelling. Retelling a story that has a completely different message feels very disingenuous and disappointing to the fans of the books. It comes off as a money grab because they know there is an audience of book readers out there who would love to watch a film adaptation.
8:56 i know it's not your intention but this view is literally the reason why people don't take animation seriously. And the fact that you're an Arcane fan would've been enough for you to realize that animation can have nuances of emotion like live action does. Sometimes animation actually do a better job than live action because you really don't have a limitation. That is also literally one of the main reasons why big companies like Disneys keep doing live actions and constantly failing.
I was waiting for someone to say this. I was really confused when she said live action is more powerful to help us connect with the characters, when that is just not true.
I don’t think she really said all animation is less powerful than live action. It’s more about this particular story being more powerful if it could properly be seen on real people since it’s about our perception of how people look.
I do fully agree that there are just so many things that animation are able to do that can’t be done in live action, but for this particular book, animation would not hit as hard as it would in live action. If the movie was animated, people would constantly be left wondering or speculating what the pretties would look like and come up with different interpretations of how the animated pretties would translate to real life. It would be a giant question mark for viewers like “do they really look that beautiful? If I were to see a face like that what would it look like??” It just removes immersion, we as a viewer would not be able to fully understand what the big deal is. For the people watching, the impact of seeing an animated pretty would just not hit as hard as seeing a genuine human face that looks too perfect and too uncanny valley to be a real person. Like alita, at first glance u r struck with a feeling of uncanny valley. Unlike the manga or anime where her face fits in just fine with the people around her, but in the live action we can clearly see the difference between a real human and her. She does not seem natural in the world around her. She is artificial and man made.
Your video is amazing. I haven't read the book or seen the movie and didn't plan to. Now I want to read the book for sure. It sounds a much smarter story than I head heard before. I subscribed because it is obvious you actually care about storytelling.
9:00 I would have to disagree at the notion that live action is more powerful than animation, or that people generally have a harder time relating to an animated character rather than a human actor. If that was the case, animation would have never had a chance to be as big as it was, and it feels like infantizing animation while deferring live action to adults/mature topics. I can see the point that with this story however, live action could be more powerful since it is centered around human beauty. It could have been a compelling piece especially in this day and age. But this is live action. And this is Netflix. Both of which have had issues over the years regarding quality, mainly from people who are adapting from other sources not understanding the works they are adapting, and some even going out of their way to change what they see as problematic without much thought. Why was Tally's selfishness was erased? I'm guessing because it was seen as an issue with no regard of her character arc. I did not even know they did that since I had no incentive to watch the movie considering I have no faith in Hollywood or much anyone else due to the ongoing track record. It is quite similar to Netflix's adaptation of ATLA in regards to Katara who also had a lot of her flaws ironed out from the animation, as well as Sokka's misogyny that was utilized as a lesson in the story but eliminated in the live action adaptation because it was seen as an issue. Honestly, it feels like there is a rule in place to erase or lessen the flaws of characters unless its for a more mature audience.
Book: Loved it. Just re-read it after watching the movie. Movie: Hated it. I literally only knew what was going on and why because I'd read the book as a teenager. How do I know? Because my dad watched the movie without reading the book, and while I was reciting the plot of the book (along with several key world mechanics and related objects like Crash Bracelets) he had more than one 'Ah!' moment. 'So +that's+ what the movie was trying to do. I get it now."
I remember LOVING this trilogy as a kid and it impacted my thoughts around attraction a lot. To this day, ive never forgotten the passage where david tells tally why he fell in love with her, how he was blown away seeing her running on a hill with her hair singed but a smile on her face. Pretty sure it went something like that. So i too was so excited when i heard this got adapted. But i walked away from the movie like meh, and i couldn't articulate why it didn't hit as hard because it's been so long since i read the books. Why does hollywood fail at adaptations so much? The first hunger games really is a rare exception, as are the harry potter movies.
An alternate concept for the Pretties I've seen suggested is having them with typical hollywood makeup, and the Uglies without. They'd have to remove the part about Rusties' beauty not looking pretty to the characters, but that's a really minor loss. It would also fit well with the modern day mindsets of beauty. The prevalence of people being unhappy with their own appearance due to constantly seeing the manufactured beauty of celebrities mirrors the way Uglies think themselves ugly in comparison to the Pretties.
Ok so after seeing so many people make fun of the casting I really appreciated your more nuanced take on that! But you are so underestimating animation! I can absolutely see how this could have worked out absolutely perfectly in animation.
Pretty sure The Twilight Zone did the Pretty / Ugly thing much much better, in far less time. Multiple times, too. If you just NEED to watch a version of this on TV, there’s Eye of the Beholder, Number 12 Looks Just Like You, maybe even The Trade-Ins, though mainly the first two. Great episodes, highly recommend.
This should have been a mini series, like 10 episodes that does the whole book series. They did not have time to flush out the concepts and build the relationships in a way that was meaningful. We don't have time enough to immerse ourself in the mindset of uglytown, to follow Tally's journey to the smoke, to fall in love with the Smoke, to understand why David fell in love with Tally (that part was super super cringe imo), why he trusted her. I loved Shay's transformation was amazing though.
Not a universal but American live action adaptations seem unable to resist casting model style looks. Even when it’s very integral to the plot that they don’t look like super models and the source material goes out of its way to emphasise they don’t look like a super model. And people can’t convince me this protagonist doesn’t fall in this category with how many YA self insert style protagonist the actor’s gotten to play
The problem with a lot of movies today is that they don't allow their female lead characters to have flaws. They are perfect, all knowing goddesses, which takes away from serious character development. Good characters are flawed and learn from their mistakes and grow because of it. If you are perfect from the beginning, where else can you go? It's sad.
Isn't it crazy tho that the book is like yeah the natural nature people are killing the planet and the totally detached clueless hierarchical whatever city cares deeply about survival and even thriving people and nature. But this was interesting
i think the difficulty with showing the pretties versus the uglies was also that most of the pretties were extras and by definition have less striking features on top of the lack of alteration from the procedure/makeup/styling/effects than the uglies/smokies cast who have dialogue.
My wife and I watched this movie on a whim, having never heard of the book series before. At a glance it looked like astoundingly bad YA dystopia schlock, and... yeah, it was. I'm positively surprised to hear that the adaptation was a botch job and that there IS something genuine and thoughtful about how the ugly/pretty dichotomy works. The first ten minutes of this video are like a nightmare reel of bad decisions in the writing room, so thank you for explaining all of that. I'm much too old to get anything real out of reading YA dystopia fiction anymore, but I'm glad the book is at least better than whatever this movie was. Let us hope none of the same people are involved with the sequels, if they ever get adapted LOL.
Honestly when I went onto Netflix and saw Uglies, (I have never read the book nor have I ever heard of the book before now) I just shrugged it off and quite literally told my sister “they’re not even ugly! Doesn’t that defeat whatever the premise of this is?” But now I might have to read the book cause it sounds fun
Was so interested to hear your take on this! I thought the movie was quite shallow but hearing all your book comparisons has really opened my eyes to how much more nuanced this could have been! ❤❤
Really great analysis of a series I loved a lot as a kid. Tally was my first real exposure to an interestingly flawed protagonist and you're absolutely right, the film explores exactly none of those themes. Additionally, looking back I can really appreciate how the story explores the often serious consequences of your actions. Tally doesn't mean to do what she does but she's ultimately still responsible for what happens to Az. Regarding your comments on the book's emphasis on biological attraction, I also think there was an opportunity to do something incredibly interesting there where the adaptation could have chosen to explore science and its relationship to Eurocentric beauty standards. I know that Westerfield didn't exactly explore that theme particularly in the series but it could have been exactly the kind of adaptational change Netflix needed to make the story hit similar depth while also making it feel (I use this phrase loosely) even more relevant to the modern viewer.
The moment from the book series that stuck through me throughout the years was the scene in Pretties where Tally, Paris, and their cohort of rebellious Pretties throw a big bonfire party. There was a line in the narrative description about how they were straining their carbon budgets for the month with all that fuel. It was this very subtle moment that acknowledged that this society did have a point, even if the methods used were morally questionable. Principles that had long been accepted as necessary for humanity’s long-term survival were being carelessly flouted in just the early stages of this counter-culture movement, hinting that far worse could happen if these same people were freed from the lesions entirely.
I feel like this would have done better as a series rather than a film because it allows them to really flush out their characters and better build this world
Great video!😁 From hearing things the books expanded on/touched upon thematicly and how they approached those themes, I'm wanting to read the book. I already understood from Bryony Claire's video on uglies, that in the book there were more infrastructure related details in the book, but I didn't hear form that video on how they movie failed in comparison to the book in conveying it's themes. I already liked the movie, and understood that people were missing the point by focousing on the 'atractiveness' of the actors in the move, but to hear, that essentially that a big part of that takeaway; was that the movie didn't make those points clear like they did in the book makes perfect sense! One of my plot related issues with the movie was that Taly didn't tell the smokes about the button/thing that they were meant to use to signify them finding their weapon. I do feel like from hearing that Taly's lies in the books for their cover story, does make me feel that in the books the not telling of the information made more sense for the character rather then whatever their reason for not doing so in the movie was. When I watched the movie I understood it's themes, and thought it was dissapointing/frustrating that it felt like other didn't, and that they were only foousing on how the actors of the movie were attractive/not ugly which meant that the movie failed it's own messaging (when it didn't) made me feel like pdople were only viewing the movie surface levely and didn't care about it, to view it any deeper 😕. I was feelling a bit (idk the word) disillusioned? That the take aways I kept hearing from people's thoughs or views of the movie was on the 'attractivness' of the actors made me feel a bit bitter, that that's what the prevailing perception of the movie was, as it made me feel like nobody was seeing or valueing what the movie was covering. I now feel less distanced from the online perceptions/take away of the movie, as I have the understanding that their perspective/view is influenced by the fact the movie didn't make the messaging/themes clear; they wau they did in the books. It's really unfortunate knowing that the movie could have been much better, now knowing how much better things were done in the book; the movies shortcomings for the portrayal and execution of the thematic elements of the book is really unfortunat!😕 I know I'll like the 2nd movie as I enjoyed the first (as long as they don't fuck up) I do hope/wish that they learn/improve on making the themes clearer and not cutting out important aspects of the books that make the messaging clear. Great video, it helped change my perspective of people's online reactions to the movie, and also I've got a renewed interest in reading the books, now knowing that the themes that I liked in the movie were better developed in the books.😁
20:01 Okay this makes so much sense. When I was watching that scene and the choice Tally is given all I was thinking was: She should to just become preatty at this point, but I know she won't. Why would they change that?
THANK YOU!! I've seen so much stupid critisism about this movie, like the casting. The problem is, like you said, the movie just didn't explain how their choices made sense. For me, who was a fan of the books since I was a kid, the movie made sense (except the parts they changed). but I can see how someone going in blind would leave confused.
what did you think of Uglies??
(also, I think I gave myself my OWN brain damage making this, and it would’ve been longer, but I had to stop at some point 😅 I’d love to hear what other details you wish were included that I didn’t mention!)
I still love Scott Westerfeld for writing Uglies even if the movie wasn’t what I hoped for. It was the first YA book I ever read - checked it out of my school’s library when I was 9 and thought it was so amazing I gave it to my mom to read lol it will always hold a special place in my heart. You can catch his cameo as the “elder” with the wheelbarrow at the Smoke! (he’s technically “the boss” for those of you who read the book 😉)
ALSO ALSO I could’ve sworn his name was Scott WesterFIELD or am I crazy
Question 1: what are your thoughts on the Snow White trailer?
Question 2: would you be willing to do a video on Prince Charming/Kit? I know you did a video on Cinderella already but I would love to hear more of your thoughts on Richard Madden’s performance (and how handsome he was).
Yoooo I also thought it was FIELD not FELD
@@anyaaa2801 Kit is the best remade Disney prince and I stand by that (love Aladdin, but his lying was always an issue for me).
@@anyaaa2801 Q1. I'm worried 😅 i'm reserving judgment til it's out, but I don't love the visuals so far (ex. her hair is... something). seeing as how i haven't liked most remakes except for Cinderella, i don't have much hope :(
Q2: haha i don't think I'll make a separate video, but I totally agree he was so charming 🤭 probably would've fallen in love with him if i was Lily James
@@OpticalSorcerer Yes I agree totally! He’s by far my favorite male romantic lead in these remakes.
I would say Eric is second but I wasn’t really feeling the actor who was playing him (and Ariel didn’t get any of her iconic outfits and I will forever be salty about that)….and I will forever be pissed how they butchered the Beast. Giving him that horrible CGI look and making him look like a complete asshole….I’ll just have to rewatch the animated movie again to soothe the pain.
It might have been better had the film been animated, since they'd be able to show how eerie the Pretties were, as opposed to simply slapping a golden filter on the actors.
"But animation is for babies!"
@msjkramey That's not the argument here, though. Just that real people may drive the philosophy of the material home more and lead to introspection. You could also argue that animation would agree with the world of the Pretties, since they often morph realistic human traits for the sake of "beauty". Like "kawaii" anime eyes and impossible proportions for women and men. It might water down the point just like this movie did.
They should've just used cgi instead of a filter
@@khemikims4058 im truly not trying to argue, i just find it silly to say that real people may drive the philosophy home more because it does the exact opposite for many, including myself. ive always connected with and related more to animations, so while it could water the point down, i think that would mostly be due to a bad art director. like how this film most likely had a bad director due to the outcome of it.
@@finalgirltrope I get that. I just think for animation it is hard to show the nuance of the human form. Like, a character is either overtly "ugly" to the point of comic relief, or conventionally attractive. And sometimes in order to show that attractiveness, they make the eyes bigger, the nose smaller or even non-existent, teenagers look like adults with no acne or awkward proportions, men are 6'5" with twelve packs and broad as a tank, and women are size zero with g cups (this is specifically one piece). I can't think of an animation that showcases the authentic human form and that's fine because it is an art form and we are seeing the world through the artist's vision. I'm just not sure if that is the best medium for this story in particular. Correct me if I'm wrong though.
If the movie made the pretties hit the uncanny valley like in Human Form (that korean plastic surgery movie where the people all look like a mix between Coraline characters and porcelain masks) it would have sold the message better. Like the beauty standards are clearly different and fits the books description of the pretties being so modified that they're not recognizable. Or like do it hunger games style, show how eccentric the pretties look with prosthetics, wheres the tiger lady?
Idk if you read the books but Tigris would fit right in with Diego or in Aya’s time, she would lead her own clique 😂
I have to disagree with you and art at midnight on this one.
For my personal taste, this part I think the movie nailed...
I didn't watched the movie, neither read the book, but just by the video alone I find the Pretties to be very uncanny... honestly I find them ugly, like trying so hard to be beautiful that becomes repulsive.
OMG I just made a comment mentioning human form haha
@@hanarielgodlike9283unfortunately, the pretties aren’t that far off from what some people find beautiful. i’ve seen some discourse on plastic surgery where people who spend all day staring at these faces on tiktok and instagram say that they find the weirdly inflated lips and sunken cheeks from buccal fat removal genuinely attractive. the pretties are not even half as uncanny valley as some of the real life people alive today who think they’re attractive but really just have a plastic surgery addiction
I think tiger lady / hunger games capital style wouldn't work for the pretties, since in the book(s) I think there is a point to them all looking pretty much the same, there is only one beauty standard and everyone is made to fit it.
I think that the "AI kpop group" Mave is pretty close to how I would imagine the pretties. They are supposed to be impossibly pretty, not scary
19:56 This is honestly a problem with a lot of newer work in my opinion. It’s something I noticed with the new adaption of Avatar The Last Airbender with Katara and Sokka’s characters. By getting rid of the bad decisions characters make, we are robbed of their growth throughout the story. It’s needed especially with a coming of age book/movie like in Uglies. I’m glad you made this video. I was looking for someone to put all the changes and misses into words.
the Avatar case is so confusing cause wasnt the live action version supposed to be the more mature version
This is why sometimes author need to distance themselves from random internet shittalk while writing, because I'm 100% these authors getting rid the bad decision a character made because they read online comment that goes, "why the character A did this? It's so stupid, ugh!" Although the character's mistake is fully on character and justified by the context.
the new mean girls movie too completely missed the point.
the smallest example is the change from the musical line "i expect to run the world in shoes i cannot walk in" that mocks the shallow glitter liberal feminist idea that theyre dismantle the masters house while theyre reinforcing it to "im going to run the world in shoes i cannot walk in" which fully embraces that notion
it also just makes the characters less relatable if they're perfect all the time.
I'm glad someone else pointed this out because it is so annoying. Let. Kids. See. People. Make. Mistakes. I cannot impress on people just how BAD it is for childhood development to see characters in fiction only make the right choices. It does one of two things -- either the child becomes a perfectionist who will not act unless they are 100% positive they are "right" and it will cripple them mentally if they turn out to be "wrong" OR the child will never look past the surface level of their actions and determine that because they are the "main character" in their life, their actions are always "right" and they can't make mistakes. Either way, it's horrible. You either become a nervous wreck or a narcissistic Karen.
But even within the framework of a story, it robs the characters of their autonomy and agency. If a character is never allowed to make mistakes, they feel inhuman and bland. You can't relate to someone who never makes the wrong choice or who never faces the consequences of a bad decision.
Them calling Tally Squint when Joey King has round eyes was ridiculous 😭
I agree, unless it was supposed to be ironic, but I don't think that the film is intelligent enough for that.
@@trinaq lol they casted the wrong person
If they still wanted to cast a pretty (to us) actress as Tally, they could've cast someone with horizontally long eyes like Bella Hadid has. (Not Bella herself, though, as she is not an actress.)
In German her name is Schielauge, which is someone who's cross-eyed or has a lazy eye for instance. Not much better but maaaybe more believable?
Also, when she's a pretty, they've put her in a cat eye/siren makeup look..... which actually makes her look like she squints
one thing about how the pretties should have looked: alita battle angel
Exactly!
YESSS such a good example!!! I agree that telling the story through live action helps pull ourselves in the world, and we DEFINITELY have the technology to remodel the Pretty actor's faces to make them look eery
@@miss-laea bold of you to assume that movie had that kind of budget
@@Mikelaxo Alita's budget was 170 milion dollars, not that much. But again, she was the only character made in that style. it would be expensive to make a whole movie using the same efect
@@Mikelaxo that’s fair but they could’ve at least used some sort of uncanny prosthesis makeup or something
It's interesting, it seems that this movie fails in a way several other hollywood dystopian adaptations have failed: it absolutely refuses to engage in any sort of structural critique in favor of a simple good guys / bad guys narrative. It's not just that Dr. Cable's view has nuance and her motivations are understandable in the book but not the movies, it's that, in the book, she (and the specials more broadly) are clearly just as much a part of the system as everyone else. They may have the ability to engage in violence and the cool gadgets with which to do so, but ultimately that power is contingent on continuing to uphold the system (which, as we're shown in Extras, extends far beyond just one city).
If I recall correctly, the film adaptation of The Giver (possibly the ur-text of the the teen dystopian genre) did the *same exact thing* except more so: it took a narrative in which there is definitively no actual antagonist save society itself and created a character basically out of whole cloth simply to serve as the villain. So I suppose it's not surprise that the Hollywood adaptation Uglies, which *has* a character that serves as the avatar of the system, transforms that character into a singular "bad guy" whose defeat will, presumably, serve to take down the system as a whole.
It's so frustrating, because by refusing to engage with the way systems often operate outside of the intentions of any one person, Hollywood effectively shuts down its ability to realistically portray how the world almost always actually works. There's rarely one Big Bad (or "a few bad apples"). Rather, there are systems beyond any one person that, in order to be fixed, require far more than simple taking out one figurehead.
The book all but turns to the reader and says this outright during the discussions of the history of the Oliophage: Tally says something about how "there's nothing like oil that our system is dependent on and will fall apart without" and someone responds "sometimes, societies aren't built on a resource, but on an idea. Take that out, and the system begins to crumble." I guess the idea that Hollywood is built on is that you need to have a Bad Guy for the Good Guys to punch in order to make a good film.
Gods i loved the giver. I never clued how influential it would have been on the teen dystopian books of the '00
I agree completely. I also think that Hollywood is just really opposed to showing any sort of moral grey areas whatsoever. They don't want to portray Tally as shallow in the beginning of the movie because the industry wants to be perceived as entirely "good", and if they show a character that isn't totally good and perfect all of the time, they may possibly be associated with these traits. By doing this though, they literally show no growth of characters and therefore don't actually stand for anything. They want to sell as many tickets as possible and therefore can have no actual opinions in movies whatsoever besides attractive people = good.
It’s a way to calm the masses. If only one person needs to be taken down for the system to be fixed then we should only fight that one person and overlook the flaws of the whole system.
Trump for example is seen as the big bad wolf when he is just a cog in the system, and if it wasn’t him, it would have been someone else. Because the whole system is working exactly as planned.
Fr. Watching this video I also kept being reminded of the hypocrasy the hunger games movies became.
I loved first Giver as a teen and the movie was so upsetting to watch. whole colour reveal in the books was amazing to me and I think alot of the reason it worked so well was becuase of the medium. In books we have to make alot of assumptions about the world unless told otherwise. U read a book and assume the sky is blue unless it tells u otherwise. So I feel like the giver movie was at an immediate disadvantage (and honestly I don't know if u could even do a giver movie that does it justice). But yeah then it doubles down by absolutely destorying any of the nuance of the book 😂
@@charlottetherat13 Hollywood got spooked by Occupy Wall Street. You'll notice blockbuster films after 2012 or so are all about fighting against Big Bad Guys who want to Destroy the Universe or whatever, there are very few messages of "together we can make a difference" like there used to be in the 1990s and early 2000s.
I think they should have casted two people, for each role that gets beutified. One teen actor and one for the pretties who is older, maybe in their 30s or late 20s, to show this transformation.
I was thinking this too. Maybe sibling duos? Lot of siblings look similar and lots of families have multiple kids who act and have an age gap
@@Zelda00Gamerif anything they wouldn't need siblings - the Pretties only having a vague resemblance to their teen selves would hammer the point home better tbh
I was thinking CGI in a Space Jam style. Uglies are normal people. Pretties are uncanny valley computer models
Either/Alongside this have them be 3d models/overly CGI'd to make it very, very clear that it's unnatural after the surgery
you completely changed my outlook on this story! the movie really only shows the 2 dimensional aspects of the book, i never knew the original book had so much nuance
Yes, the book says in a world of extreme beauty, everyone normal is ugly. And most who haven't read the book missed the point
It’s a shame how common of a problem this can be. It happened to Artemis Fowl, too. The original books were about cunning and self-centrism, yet the movie did the first book so poorly: no one is more than their character, and it feels so dumbed down overall.
I highly recommend the books, btw. They’re amazing.
@@editsxd1 righttt!!!
When I first watched it I didn't notice the choice Dr Cable gives Tally, but once I found out I was SHOCKED. In my opinion that was what made Uglies a little bit different from other YA dystopias, to have a main character totally committed to the system and wishing to be a part of it more than anything else. I also feel the book vibe was super terrifying and unsettling, in the movie it's just emptiness. I enjoyed the movie and I want the sequel to be made, but I'm very aware of all it's flaws.
Honestly I thought the film had the same choice as the book. I'll have to go re watch to make sure as I feel like my brain must have just heard what I expected
this was better as a book (hell. a concept!) than a movie.
it's funny cause when I read it, i thought "wow this would make such a good movie" and now i'm just like, nevermind
((i still think it could've been good had the right people adapted it though))
@@artatmidnight a valid point, but I still stand on the idea that some books are better off books than movies. But yes. I do believe this movie could've been better if the right people who are GENUINELY PASSIONATE about the series were in charge of it.
@@artatmidnight Maybe when we're crumbly-aged (lol), someone will make a better adaptation.
It would be better if anyone else than netflix made it. Netflix doesnt really have the budget to make good movies. And cant even let TV shows run for more than 3 seasons because of production costs
@@tados112 That is one of the many reasons why I am mainly going indie with my show/projects.
I think what I would have done for the Uglies/Pretties is have the uglies in no or minimal makeup, then the pretties in makeup, plus retouching, plus facial prosthetics. Really highlight that difference AND make it uncanny.
it still wouldn't work bc the uglies are so conventionally attractive they would still look better than almost everyone, even without makeup. the guy leading the ugly resistance is a literal model irl. they would need to cast normal looking people & they weren't prepared to do that
Like what they did with Angelina Jolie in Maleficent she looks humanish but uncany and use more cgi like in Alita Battle angel for the specials
@@pabloaulestia6310 that wouldve been perfect tbh, if only they had the budget for the Alita look
@pabloaulestia6310 personally, I think that look would be closer to the look of the Specials, the very pretty, uncanny valley, but dangerous and triggering the prey instinct
Makeup is a sin, people.
Other artificial stuff too.
I feel like this could have been a chance to make use of good ol' prosthetic make up. The way they did with Angelina Jolie's cheek bones in Maleficent. Especially since it's based off an older book , I feel like practical effects could bring a vibe to match it.
Joey King really needs to fire her agent. She's a decent actress, but doesn't always pick the best projects.
She’s in so much Netflix garbage it’s crazy
She actually produces a lot of her “bad” projects…
Fun fact, her longtime agent Dan Spilo is the actually first and only contestant ever ejected from Survivor (US) for being a creep.
She was the one who approached Netflix to have the movie adapted. :/
She was great in Bullett Train she's awesome in unhinged roles
The Twilight Zone, did it better where it was revealed the "normal" looking people were considered ugly. However, what made it even more groundbreaking was that they were treated with care and understood the "ugly" people.
Ugh and the suspense/reveal of that episode is so good!
IMO much more like "Number 12 looks just like you".
Everyone picks a body at adulthood, the main character is concerned, they don't want to choose yet, eventually they get forced into it. When they come out they're happy about their new body and all previous concerns are forgotten. Doctor then comments about how they've made such improvements in getting people to be happy with their new self.
It appears Uglies was inspired by the episode.
Uglies was inspired by that episode. Great story! I loved the nuance the book added to the concept.
THANK YOU. i've watched so many reviews of this movie/book and you're maybe the first person to understand that casting conventionally attractive people as uglies is not the massive flaw everyone seems to think it is. I'm convinced you're the only reviewer who has actually read the book.
@calicoathena Yeah, in the book uglies are just normal people (and even Rusty era celebrities are considered ugly) but uglies are vividly described with pimples, discoloured skin, thin lips, messy hair, etc etc.
Celebrities do not fit the bill especially when the main reason that they're here is because conventionally attractive ppl have an unfair advantage and it's crazy that a movie critiquing beauty standards feeds into it by refusing to show anyone other than the Hollywood standard on the big screen
Celebs are book accurate, but casting only attractive actors waters down what the book is critiquing
You can't just say people "haven't read the book" because they have a different opinion from you...
@@caramelcream8569
i feel like a good example is watching any clip from like "america's next top model" objectively beautiful women but the judges and other models are still gonna find areas to critique bc they're hyper aware of these things in their industry. now imagine that's the mindset of all of society. the uglies having acne, discolored skin, thin lips etc is not an objective fact. its how they perceive themselves/each other.
i don't think the movie did a good job of conveying that idea (based on what i've seen of it from reviews). but i also don't think it was due to the casting either (and im the last person that's gonna defend joey king of all people, i can't stand her). im not defending the movie here. i literally haven't seen the movie and refuse to see it. (bc joey king) my frustration is that in focusing on "they're not ugly enough" people are warping the point of the actual books. its not meant to be that they're actually ugly. they're just insecure due to the society they've grown up in. and insecure people tend to hyper fixate on flaws that aren't really there.
@@caramelcream8569 i really think you all need to be reminded that tally is NOT a reliable narrator
As stated in the video, it’s really sad that the world building was so weak that nobody understood that part of it.
They’re not ugly, they’re Uglies. Technically the pretties aren’t pretty, either: they’re “perfect” to the point of uncanniness. The first time Tally sees an ugly after her pretty surgery she’s actually revolted and disturbed by these regular faces. She says one guy’s acne “screams of disease”.
@@calicoathenai also can’t stand Joey king either lol
im sorry im sure the book is great but "uglyville" and "new pretty town" is fucking hilarious.
Oh, if you think that's silly, you're in for a treat with the slang made up for the books (left out of the movie, of course.)
The only ones I can remember off the top of my head are Pretty slang. Something that makes you happy is "bubbly-making", and in the second book, when Tally makes pranks and mischief a popular fad with the Pretties, they start calling things "crim" (short for "criminal.")
It's so ridiculous, and I love it so much.
@@melodramaticdragon5826 i actually really liked the unique jargon in the book (like "bubbly-making"), it kinda made me realize that language that seems "normal" to me might seem strange to others who are unfamiliar with it, and vice versa
@@digitaldritten Oh, yes, I agree!
@@digitaldritten I love it because it reminds me of the honestly weird slang teenagers come up with now.
Genuinely made me laugh out loud
Ironic that a book about shallow attractiveness with a deeper message got lost in a shallowly attractive movie… and a shame. I was never a huge fan or anything but I remember the books fondly. My kingdom for movie adaptations that actually understand the things they’re adapting PLEASE
At this point I literally can’t remember a single movie adaptation that was loyal to the book. This, Percy Jackson, Ready Player One… can Hollywood just leave my fandoms alone please 😭 one of my favorite book series (Keeper of the Lost Cities) is about to be a movie and I fear for what they’re planning
@@icecreamchatsYou see what they did to my boy Artemis Fowl??? smh
@@lcako1616 yes omg, downright rude and disrespectful
I wanna add some context to the orchid fields. Orchids are a beautiful but often rare plant. Most species do not naturally form fields. Having an endless field of them devalues part of their appeal (much like with the citizens, if everyone is the same kind of “beautiful” then the flower loses its sense of being “rare and unique”). Additionally, a monoculture of literally any plant chokes out all other species, and is very vulnerable to pests, disease, and changes to the environment. The orchid field is a mirror of the society they created, but also just an environmentally terrible idea. It can also be a good example how humans try to “positively” shape the planet, but accidentally cause more harm in the process (ex: artificial tire reef experiments in Florida or bringing cane toads to Australia).
I'll have to respectfully disagree on the animation bit.
Animation is very powerful art and can send powerful messages when done right. The animation and art style doesn't even need to be that expensive for it to do all of that either.
Uglies would have translated to animation much better, the stylized aesthetic everything in the world has would have fit it better.
You can 100% feel a strong connection to an animated character. If the writers and actors do a good job.
i also disagree, very strongly disagree
Me too, if animation didn't send a message why do little kids grow up wanting to be like princesses and princes? Hell, Arcane had a great impact with the message of love, family, trauma etc.
you guys missed th point, she said it wouldn't have been as powerful because the story puts so much emphasis on normal human appearance, which would have been lost in animation.
@ley5532 i didn't miss the point. I still disagree. The message still would have been powerful. The message is already lost in the current adaptation. And the only way to achieve it like the books is with excessive use of Cgi which is basicially effects/sometimes even gull form animation. as far as I know, hardly anyone likes when it's implemented that way.
Animation 100% would have worked beautifully for Uglies. And it would have had a powerful message again if done right.
oh i absolutely agree animation is emotional! i didn't mean to suggest it wouldn't work ~at all~ (if you've seen my Wish video, i literally call myself Rapunzel bc i relate to her so much).
i just like the idea of live action for a story about human beauty. it could've been a great opportunity to show real "flaws" on Hollywood actors, and frame them as beautiful (this movie didn't do that unfortunately bc even the uglies look airbrushed). perhaps the stylization of animation would take away from the "real life" beauty aspect.
but i also love the idea of animation for the Pretties, bc that is so hard to do in live action (as we've seen). they both have their pros and cons!
I think that the korean movie about plastic surgery “human form” might be closer to achieving what uglies couldve done with live action, but obviously more horror
as someone who has never read the books, only recently watched the movie (boy i have thoughts) and some commentary videos on it, i cannot tell you how flabbergasted i am to find out everything they changed.
i really appreciate how you explained the world building so well, and now it pains me to know how much potential was truly wasted with this adaptation.
this movie would've been an amazing opportunity to showcase the insane talent of prosthetic artists in conjunction with some light cgi. give the pretties dramatic ski-slope noses, enlarged eyes, perfect teeth (like those creepy veneers all the celebs are getting nowadays), big lips and almost swollen-looking cheekbones. it should've been an easy concept to pull off.
I really like that idea, but if they adapt the rest wouldn't it be difficult to do this kind of makeup on literally everyone in a giant city?
I always imagined the Specials to look terrifyingly sharp, like a physical weapon predator. I always pictured Lady Gaga from the Born This Way poster, lol. All those jagged edges but beautiful and scary. 10/10 will look fabulous as she hunts you down.
Also I loved the third book, where they force Tally to become a Special and she f's off to the Amazon rain forest where the local tribes think she is a terrifying god. That one's awesome!
I pictured Gal Gadot with extremely light coloured eyes and sharp teeth
Yeah, I don't think they managed to capture the specials in the movie. I would have pictured maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger as the terminator as what a special would look like. Not a kpop idol with excessive instagram filters and a bodysuit.
the choice to remove tally's shallowness really justifies her struggles with guilt in the other two books. they consistently have things happen where it can be argued that tally didnt have a choice, but she ultimately did, and those choices had consequences. her guilt is a HUGE factor in the third book. so if theyre wanting to make more movies, they literally just took the main struggle away from the main character.
its giving how movies will slap glasses onto a hot person and call them 'ugly'
Or have the nerdy character with a ponytail and glasses have their "glow-up" by wearing their hair down and taking off their glasses
@@Stardipped_Paws TBF a flattering haircut can really hellp
yours is the only review i've watched that actually understands the real issues with the uglies movie instead of just pointing and laughing at how they expect us to think joey king or brianne tju are ugly. uglies was a book that genuinely had a lot to say and a good movie could have done that so well and brought these ideas to a new generation of kids and teens, but they just made a cash grab nonsense movie instead.
personally i think it should have been animated but i also see your point. i think with animation it would just be harder to drive home that "uncanny valley" feeling we're supposed to get when looking at the pretties compared to live action, because we're a lot more willing to accept characters looking odd in animation. ideally it should work in live action but they would have to do some kind of cgi for the pretties instead of just slapping a filter on them. they needed to be unquestionably pretty but also odd and unsettling looking and that should have been juxtaposed with people we consider attractive being considered ugly.
showing the city as being so horrible in all aspects was just a plain bad idea. we need to be able to understand why the people in that society see it as a utopia.
I was so excited for the movie. Specifically for the solar punk setting, for the actors with crooked teeth. But nope. Got neither. Got a pretty boy with bleach white teeth, plucked eyebrows, and a short and boring explanation about the environment. Man. That magnetic layout was awesome. The self-washing clothes, the clean air. Man. This was ridiculous. What a letdown. I couldn’t finish it beyond the archery part where pretty boy was wearing a tunic and he was not pulling it off at all, and she was wearing so much makeup, I just couldn’t anymore.
if you haven't read the book series, it goes much more in-depth with its solarpunk setting (I've never considered it that way before!) and its environmentalist themes. for some visual media, it also got a comic spin-off, Shay's Story, that's much truer to the books' worldbuilding.
And the fact that scott was a producer. was he not consulted?? the books were so interesting and the movies completely lost its cor. I havent seen the movies but judging by this review I am so upset about how it lost its meaning and character development
Interesting text you just gave us - when you write your book, make sure it comes with a warning for the damage being caused to to the universe of communication.
My friend recommended this to me but the movie felt flat. Here are the characters, the ‘message’, kiss scene, betrayal, credits. 😭
as someone who didn't read the books: scientific vs cultural beauty? nuanced environmentalism? the deeper coming of age angle?? def didn't get those outta the movie. enjoyed learning so much!
This would be so good as a dystopian anime. I could totally see it
I usually don't even watch anime and I agree
I haven't seen Uglies or read the book, but I was curious what it was about and got excited when I saw you'd made a video about it because your movie critiques are always so spot on and so well thought out. I had a strong suspicion that this movie would be a surface level excuse to sell a movie with sex appeal, and it looks like that's pretty much what happened.
I think Hollywood and other productions in general are missing the forest for the trees not just in book adaptations, but in original movies as well. They seem to forget to have an overarching narrative and message, with distinct threads weaving through every scene. They seem to just take it one scene at a time without thinking about the bigger picture.
You always have such an intelligent critique, and I absolutely love watching your videos!
SAMES one other review i watched just focused on the pretty actors bit
in my random opinion, i feel like making the uglies realistic and the pretties more cartoony than just putting a filter would show how unrealistic their expectations seemingly are
Watch the Uglies book trailer from several years ago from the channel: escape goat pictures. The actress is average and looks like her book counterpart, but her Pretty self is actually uncanny with big eyes and lips, a frozen smile and a vapid expression.
I appreciate you giving ACTUAL criticism, I've seen so much "the actors aren't even ugly" and "seems like a knock-off hunger games" (even though it was published years before hunger games) which has been really annoying.
they tottally lost the oportunity to get Tilda Swinton and other "vampire-looking" hollywood stars for this movie, just as well as casting newr actors to play the teenagers
The entire movie I was like "I'd totally turn pretty without a second thought". I've never read the books, but like people said in the comments, I feel like if they didn't make the pretties actually pretty and did something a little more "botched plastic surgery meets coraline" the message would come across better.
Sounds like they didn't show the mental manipulation aspect
dont worry, i read all three of the books and still wanted to turn pretty lol
An excellent Korean short film "Human Form" excellently covered the uglies vs pretties aesthetic conflict in 11 minutes by using geometrically sculpted facial prosthetics. That would have been much cheaper than fully animating or doing battle-angel-alita style touch-ups. What the film Uglies lacked was creative vision. Also lacked good writing, but I feel that the complaint "why are the uglies so pretty?" could have been easily solved by presenting the standard of beauty as being overly outlandish. Heck, The Twilight Zone did an episode on this where the standard of beauty was having a piglike face. This is a concept that has been done successfully before!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, American actors vs British/Irish/Scottish actors are so startlingly different. Lots of British and Irish tv shows that I’ve seen have actors who look NORMAL. It’s refreshing. They have birth marks, round tummies, asymmetrical features, or unique noses. And then I watch American shows and movies and everyone looks like they came from a whole other planet.
I'm gonna be honest... I loved the movie. I read the books in my childhood and didn't remember them at all, but the themes expressed in the movie were exactly what I needed to hear at that exact moment. Is simple but strongly pushed message about appearances and being yourself/independent, combined with my sense of childhood nostalgia, got me right in the heart. But, after watching this video essay - I can completely see the shortcomings, and you've inspired me to go back to my childhood bedroom and re-read the old books!!! If I loved the movie this much, I can only imagine how much more I'll love re-reading the series in all its beautiful depth ❤ thanks for making this video essay!
I thought they were gonna change the actors once they became pretty. I was like “damn that’s kinda mean to them”, then I saw it was just golden eyes filters lol.
I sincerely hope that at some point a different team tries to make movies for this series. I think if the people who work on it actually care about the source material and isn't just looking for the next hunger games, this could be and could've been such a good film franchise. I've ALWAYS wanted a movie or a show based on this series.
Perhaps it's just me, but I'm kinda tired of dystopian films. While I'd like more novel adaptations, I'd prefer (good) fantasy adaptations like in the 2000s.
im sorry but i love dystopian movies so much, i will never have enough
personally they just feel so unoriginal at this point, especially since so many draw straight from hunger games lol. it also doesn’t help that we basically live in a dystopian right now so the bleakness found in that genre feels tone depth at times and when their social commentary flops it makes it worse 💀 i just want cute and fun fantasy movies to forget how horrible the world is currently.
fantasy is my favourite genre and we don't get enough of it :(
(but ngl i still love dystopias, the good ones are just so rare to find)
@@cecizilla I feel bad for books that came out before or during THG and everyone uses it as a baseline as if no one could also come up woth a dystopian story.
It would be pretty cool to see or read a dystopian from the perspective of someone who either is supportive of the system or who lives a comfortable or good life thanks to the system that the otherwise-rebels are trying to take down.
I was really excited when I found out Uglies was getting an adaptation, but then I was thoroughly let down by the final result. It missed so many key details that I don't even know why they bothered releasing the movie in the first place. A particular aspect of the book I wished the movies had focused on more was Tally's relationship with her parents. In the books, children are separated from their parents at age twelve to live with other ugly teens. After this, the parents and children never live together again. Since getting the operation is akin to growing up and becoming an adult, new pretties live apart from their parents for the rest of their lives. The parents see their children from time to time, but they aren't really there for their kids in any ways that matter.
Also, since all the parents have brain damage, the ugly kids don't know who their parents actually are, they just know the versions of them manufactured by the operation. No one finds it alarming that those kids and their parents barely know one another, because that's just how society operates for them. This is yet another type of segregation the operation creates: the separation of parents and their children.
The relationship between parents and their children is so informal that in the book Tally refers to her parents by their first names. If memory serves, when Tally first hears David call his parents "Mom" and "Dad" she is taken aback by it. I think Tally's lack of true parental support and guidance plays a critical role in how easily manipulated she is by others. Growing up, ugly kids like her have no role models to look up to, and no one to help form and guide them as they enter adulthood. When Tally asks her parents for advice about what to do about Shay and her delayed operation, they aren't truly worried about their daughter and don't really try to help her out with the situation. It's a pretty integral part of the story, one that gets lost in translation from book to film.
This video reminded me why I loved the books so much, there's honestly a lot of symbolism and deeper concepts that flew over my head back then. This is the best video I've seen talking about the book vs. movie issue. Thanks for making it :)
I don't remember enough about the book to completely make this point but I do think cutting down trees = bad environmentalism isn't quite the truth, especially when we've seen how white environmentalists have (in past and in present) degraded indigenous ways of stewarding the land (which included cutting/burning trees) and used the argument that "white people do environmentalism better" to steal their land... otherwise, thanks so much for this video - it revives a lot of the book's nuance that I'd forgotten!!
wow, glad people still remember these books! it involves my favorite story building thing, where in each book we observe the same world from a different perspective
If you read this book as a teenager, you get it.
your explanation of what the uglies and pretties meant and everything was so good
haven't read this book in 15 years & haven't seen the film, but appreciated this in-depth analysis. so insightful to see the misses as I go about crafting, well-structured strong narrative works. great work xx
Excellent analysis! I haven't seen the movie, but just read the first book out of interest and your analysis really helped bring several of the themes and ideas into focus for me, as I read it a bit fast.
It is ridiculous to me that they would change, in the movie, what to me are some of the most thought-provoking aspects of the story: 1) the depth to which Tally has internalized her and her peers' ugliness and their lack of a future unless they turn pretty, and 2) the depth of her betrayal.
Awesome video! :)
when i was younger, i was obsessed with dystopian books. hunger games, the selection and pretties being amongst my fave. i think one of the books biggest message was that u DON'T need surgery to look pretty at all. but most of the comments were about how 'the actors aren't ugly'. this made me realize how surface level people see things.
I loved these books so much! You made the point later in the video that leaving out the Specials surveillance would impact the rest of the series, but I think the applies to a lot of the changes. Tally and Shea’s relationship is always rocky. They bounce between friends and enemies for almost the entire series. That distrust starts in Uglies. I haven’t watched the movie, but I feel like they’d have to significantly change Pretties and Specials a lot to accommodate what was changed in the first film. Kinda sad. I would have loved to see a solid adaptation of this series.
I know neither the book nor the film, and being far from a teenager not the target demographic for either, but found this discussion of how the film failed to replicate the book really fascinating. Partly because I think the removal of moral nuance plagues an awful lot of modern entertainment in recent years and the irony, it seems to me, is the book (as described in this video) depicts a society that doesn't trust its citizens to make their own minds up and the film is made by a society that doesn't trust its citizens to make its own mind up. Maybe a dystopia adapted too late because everything warned about has already come to pass.
I think that the 'Pretties' should've been animated like the current (and awful) D-sney live action movies are animated with an extra level of CGI/photoshop/filer look to really showcase their uncanniness. The same could be said for the 'Specials,' but their eyes, teeth, nails and bone structure would be altered to resemble more predator like features. While the 'Uglies,' would just be normal teenagers.
I've never clicked on a video so fast
I think Scott was just excited about his book becoming adapted. He’s really kind so I don’t think he objected to alot.
There is something infinitely ironic about movie adaptations of YA novels/series being dumbed down and glossed up for the sake of "appealing" to the YA market that made those books popular in the first place.
I think that you really overstated how big of a deal it was that the smoke cut down trees. Not only is it something that happens today, they also had to do it to survive. So while it does harm the environment, they had no other choice
It was a huge deal to Tally, I don’t remember the exact scene in the books but she basically called them barbarians
That's the point she was making in the video about being morally grey - the city's system is literally so much better for the environment that the thought of cutting down any tree or burning anything is seen as despicable behaviour that would only be performed by a stupid, selfish society - which is a core part of their propaganda teachings. So Tally arriving in the smoke, a place she had no desire to go to anyway, and seeing them doing the same things she's been taught caused the near collapse of the planet, its a huge deal to her
And yes, the way the smoke lives would probably have a pretty mild impact by our standards, but they also live in a world where most people have literally 0 impact on the greater environment. Every person in the smoke except David made an active choice to pursue a lifestyle that has a substantially higher environmental impact than the average person. they had valid reasons, don't get me wrong, but it was a choice
Its a simple concept that makes the opposing ways of life more nuanced
this is the video i kept hoping to see while watching other peoples' takes on this movie. it's been frustrating as a book fan to hear the same surface level jokes about bad CGI/hunger games reference/hot actors when the series has so much more going on. i haven't re-read the books in a long time (though i loved them enough to keep up with the newer sequel series as it was releasing) and i didn't revisit them before watching the movie so i could go into it with an open mind. but even though i'd forgotten most of the details you bring up here, i was still sat there every few minutes thinking "this doesn't feel right somehow" it truly feels like the producers etc just read a wikipedia summary of the first book and worked off of that instead of actually reading the books.
i'm so curious how much involvement Scott Westerfeld had during the making of this movie. at least netflix' anime series have mostly been good so i can still be hopeful for the upcoming Leviathan adaptation. i'd hate to live in the universe where they tried to give that one a live action treatment 💀
16:57 I just love the fact that she played the part like a parody of every generic mid-2010s YA Dystopia villain.
I think if I was in charge of this movie, I would've had the Uglies played by regular actors (and more regular looking actors too) and the Pretties would be fully CGI. Complete uncanny valley, too perfect, close-to-human-but-not-quite
6:48 fr thank you for saying that. Like i know the writing messed it up but i was still able to understand that, yes they think they are ugly and we dont but it was so obvious its because they are constantly being told everything about them prior to surgery is ugly. Yet so many people missed that and complained.
I’ve never thought of reading uglies (only saw the memes and criticisms of the movie after it came out!) but decided to watch this today to see what everyone was talking about, the explanation and break down and how this movie failed was so interesting, next time I go to the library im gonna look for the book to see what the real experience is all about! Great vid.
Even at 12 when I first read the book and loved movie adaptations, I knew this would not be able to be translated to film. The pretties are meant to be out of this world beautiful and eerie and I think the subjectivity of real-life's view of beauty would not give that objective view. I always pictured the pretties as almost ethereal and the specials as sharp, scaringly beautiful beings. When I saw the movie was coming out I did not have high hopes and it just is such a difficult concept to actually bring alive.
Ok! so it’s been so long since I’ve read the books but i remember loving them! I related to the main character as an insecure teen who’s trying to fit into society!
But when I watched the film I felt it just kinda fell flat but I couldn’t place why.
You totally nailed it in this video though! It’s because Tally has no character growth, she is the same selfless perfect protagonist the whole way through. We can’t relate to her as she doesn’t make any mistakes to learn from. And by taking away the pretty cites care for the environment it leaves them feeling flat too, there is no morally gray aspect it is just pretty city bad, smoke people good.
In my opinion the actors did great for the roles they were given. This falls on the screenwriters as they are responsible for putting in the themes and depth of the story that they are retelling.
Retelling a story that has a completely different message feels very disingenuous and disappointing to the fans of the books.
It comes off as a money grab because they know there is an audience of book readers out there who would love to watch a film adaptation.
8:56 i know it's not your intention but this view is literally the reason why people don't take animation seriously. And the fact that you're an Arcane fan would've been enough for you to realize that animation can have nuances of emotion like live action does. Sometimes animation actually do a better job than live action because you really don't have a limitation. That is also literally one of the main reasons why big companies like Disneys keep doing live actions and constantly failing.
I was waiting for someone to say this. I was really confused when she said live action is more powerful to help us connect with the characters, when that is just not true.
I don’t think she really said all animation is less powerful than live action. It’s more about this particular story being more powerful if it could properly be seen on real people since it’s about our perception of how people look.
I do fully agree that there are just so many things that animation are able to do that can’t be done in live action, but for this particular book, animation would not hit as hard as it would in live action. If the movie was animated, people would constantly be left wondering or speculating what the pretties would look like and come up with different interpretations of how the animated pretties would translate to real life. It would be a giant question mark for viewers like “do they really look that beautiful? If I were to see a face like that what would it look like??” It just removes immersion, we as a viewer would not be able to fully understand what the big deal is.
For the people watching, the impact of seeing an animated pretty would just not hit as hard as seeing a genuine human face that looks too perfect and too uncanny valley to be a real person. Like alita, at first glance u r struck with a feeling of uncanny valley. Unlike the manga or anime where her face fits in just fine with the people around her, but in the live action we can clearly see the difference between a real human and her. She does not seem natural in the world around her. She is artificial and man made.
Your video is amazing. I haven't read the book or seen the movie and didn't plan to. Now I want to read the book for sure. It sounds a much smarter story than I head heard before. I subscribed because it is obvious you actually care about storytelling.
9:00 I would have to disagree at the notion that live action is more powerful than animation, or that people generally have a harder time relating to an animated character rather than a human actor. If that was the case, animation would have never had a chance to be as big as it was, and it feels like infantizing animation while deferring live action to adults/mature topics.
I can see the point that with this story however, live action could be more powerful since it is centered around human beauty. It could have been a compelling piece especially in this day and age. But this is live action. And this is Netflix. Both of which have had issues over the years regarding quality, mainly from people who are adapting from other sources not understanding the works they are adapting, and some even going out of their way to change what they see as problematic without much thought.
Why was Tally's selfishness was erased? I'm guessing because it was seen as an issue with no regard of her character arc. I did not even know they did that since I had no incentive to watch the movie considering I have no faith in Hollywood or much anyone else due to the ongoing track record. It is quite similar to Netflix's adaptation of ATLA in regards to Katara who also had a lot of her flaws ironed out from the animation, as well as Sokka's misogyny that was utilized as a lesson in the story but eliminated in the live action adaptation because it was seen as an issue. Honestly, it feels like there is a rule in place to erase or lessen the flaws of characters unless its for a more mature audience.
Book: Loved it. Just re-read it after watching the movie.
Movie: Hated it. I literally only knew what was going on and why because I'd read the book as a teenager. How do I know? Because my dad watched the movie without reading the book, and while I was reciting the plot of the book (along with several key world mechanics and related objects like Crash Bracelets) he had more than one 'Ah!' moment. 'So +that's+ what the movie was trying to do. I get it now."
I remember LOVING this trilogy as a kid and it impacted my thoughts around attraction a lot. To this day, ive never forgotten the passage where david tells tally why he fell in love with her, how he was blown away seeing her running on a hill with her hair singed but a smile on her face. Pretty sure it went something like that. So i too was so excited when i heard this got adapted. But i walked away from the movie like meh, and i couldn't articulate why it didn't hit as hard because it's been so long since i read the books. Why does hollywood fail at adaptations so much? The first hunger games really is a rare exception, as are the harry potter movies.
An alternate concept for the Pretties I've seen suggested is having them with typical hollywood makeup, and the Uglies without. They'd have to remove the part about Rusties' beauty not looking pretty to the characters, but that's a really minor loss. It would also fit well with the modern day mindsets of beauty. The prevalence of people being unhappy with their own appearance due to constantly seeing the manufactured beauty of celebrities mirrors the way Uglies think themselves ugly in comparison to the Pretties.
Ok so after seeing so many people make fun of the casting I really appreciated your more nuanced take on that!
But you are so underestimating animation! I can absolutely see how this could have worked out absolutely perfectly in animation.
never read the book nor watched the movie but thanks for explaining it all, now i know a nice story i would never have read otherwise ^^
Pretty sure The Twilight Zone did the Pretty / Ugly thing much much better, in far less time.
Multiple times, too.
If you just NEED to watch a version of this on TV, there’s
Eye of the Beholder, Number 12 Looks Just Like You, maybe even The Trade-Ins, though mainly the first two.
Great episodes, highly recommend.
This should have been a mini series, like 10 episodes that does the whole book series. They did not have time to flush out the concepts and build the relationships in a way that was meaningful. We don't have time enough to immerse ourself in the mindset of uglytown, to follow Tally's journey to the smoke, to fall in love with the Smoke, to understand why David fell in love with Tally (that part was super super cringe imo), why he trusted her. I loved Shay's transformation was amazing though.
The best review I've seen of the movie ! You did such a good job analysing the themes of the book.
4:08 It's even more apparent when tally goes from a ring to a cuff, to (arin?? I think) GETS A FUCKING *COLLAR* throughout the series
19:20 Wait, but in the movie those are the same options tally is given. She has to help shay and find the weapon to get the surgery.
Not a universal but American live action adaptations seem unable to resist casting model style looks. Even when it’s very integral to the plot that they don’t look like super models and the source material goes out of its way to emphasise they don’t look like a super model. And people can’t convince me this protagonist doesn’t fall in this category with how many YA self insert style protagonist the actor’s gotten to play
The problem with a lot of movies today is that they don't allow their female lead characters to have flaws. They are perfect, all knowing goddesses, which takes away from serious character development. Good characters are flawed and learn from their mistakes and grow because of it. If you are perfect from the beginning, where else can you go? It's sad.
Did not know this was a book. Youve convinced me to read it. I knew there was a better story in the premise
yes PLEASE read
Isn't it crazy tho that the book is like yeah the natural nature people are killing the planet and the totally detached clueless hierarchical whatever city cares deeply about survival and even thriving people and nature.
But this was interesting
i think the difficulty with showing the pretties versus the uglies was also that most of the pretties were extras and by definition have less striking features on top of the lack of alteration from the procedure/makeup/styling/effects than the uglies/smokies cast who have dialogue.
My wife and I watched this movie on a whim, having never heard of the book series before. At a glance it looked like astoundingly bad YA dystopia schlock, and... yeah, it was. I'm positively surprised to hear that the adaptation was a botch job and that there IS something genuine and thoughtful about how the ugly/pretty dichotomy works. The first ten minutes of this video are like a nightmare reel of bad decisions in the writing room, so thank you for explaining all of that.
I'm much too old to get anything real out of reading YA dystopia fiction anymore, but I'm glad the book is at least better than whatever this movie was. Let us hope none of the same people are involved with the sequels, if they ever get adapted LOL.
I wrote a whole article about how awfully mid this movie was and I’m glad I’m far from the only one that feels that way
Honestly when I went onto Netflix and saw Uglies, (I have never read the book nor have I ever heard of the book before now) I just shrugged it off and quite literally told my sister “they’re not even ugly! Doesn’t that defeat whatever the premise of this is?” But now I might have to read the book cause it sounds fun
i should read the book for this actually, since i hear it’s good ignoring the movie
Was so interested to hear your take on this! I thought the movie was quite shallow but hearing all your book comparisons has really opened my eyes to how much more nuanced this could have been! ❤❤
Really great analysis of a series I loved a lot as a kid. Tally was my first real exposure to an interestingly flawed protagonist and you're absolutely right, the film explores exactly none of those themes. Additionally, looking back I can really appreciate how the story explores the often serious consequences of your actions. Tally doesn't mean to do what she does but she's ultimately still responsible for what happens to Az.
Regarding your comments on the book's emphasis on biological attraction, I also think there was an opportunity to do something incredibly interesting there where the adaptation could have chosen to explore science and its relationship to Eurocentric beauty standards. I know that Westerfield didn't exactly explore that theme particularly in the series but it could have been exactly the kind of adaptational change Netflix needed to make the story hit similar depth while also making it feel (I use this phrase loosely) even more relevant to the modern viewer.
The moment from the book series that stuck through me throughout the years was the scene in Pretties where Tally, Paris, and their cohort of rebellious Pretties throw a big bonfire party. There was a line in the narrative description about how they were straining their carbon budgets for the month with all that fuel. It was this very subtle moment that acknowledged that this society did have a point, even if the methods used were morally questionable. Principles that had long been accepted as necessary for humanity’s long-term survival were being carelessly flouted in just the early stages of this counter-culture movement, hinting that far worse could happen if these same people were freed from the lesions entirely.
1:54 wow, i like how the author had the nuance to put that the solution was also causing problems
I feel like this would have done better as a series rather than a film because it allows them to really flush out their characters and better build this world
7:04 that's actually a good point, most people ive seen dunk on them for having attractive people
Great video!😁
From hearing things the books expanded on/touched upon thematicly and how they approached those themes, I'm wanting to read the book.
I already understood from Bryony Claire's video on uglies, that in the book there were more infrastructure related details in the book, but I didn't hear form that video on how they movie failed in comparison to the book in conveying it's themes.
I already liked the movie, and understood that people were missing the point by focousing on the 'atractiveness' of the actors in the move, but to hear, that essentially that a big part of that takeaway; was that the movie didn't make those points clear like they did in the book makes perfect sense!
One of my plot related issues with the movie was that Taly didn't tell the smokes about the button/thing that they were meant to use to signify them finding their weapon. I do feel like from hearing that Taly's lies in the books for their cover story, does make me feel that in the books the not telling of the information made more sense for the character rather then whatever their reason for not doing so in the movie was.
When I watched the movie I understood it's themes, and thought it was dissapointing/frustrating that it felt like other didn't, and that they were only foousing on how the actors of the movie were attractive/not ugly which meant that the movie failed it's own messaging (when it didn't) made me feel like pdople were only viewing the movie surface levely and didn't care about it, to view it any deeper 😕.
I was feelling a bit (idk the word) disillusioned? That the take aways I kept hearing from people's thoughs or views of the movie was on the 'attractivness' of the actors made me feel a bit bitter, that that's what the prevailing perception of the movie was, as it made me feel like nobody was seeing or valueing what the movie was covering.
I now feel less distanced from the online perceptions/take away of the movie, as I have the understanding that their perspective/view is influenced by the fact the movie didn't make the messaging/themes clear; they wau they did in the books.
It's really unfortunate knowing that the movie could have been much better, now knowing how much better things were done in the book; the movies shortcomings for the portrayal and execution of the thematic elements of the book is really unfortunat!😕
I know I'll like the 2nd movie as I enjoyed the first (as long as they don't fuck up) I do hope/wish that they learn/improve on making the themes clearer and not cutting out important aspects of the books that make the messaging clear.
Great video, it helped change my perspective of people's online reactions to the movie, and also I've got a renewed interest in reading the books, now knowing that the themes that I liked in the movie were better developed in the books.😁
i’ve watched so many reviews of this movie and this is seriously the best one!
20:01 Okay this makes so much sense. When I was watching that scene and the choice Tally is given all I was thinking was: She should to just become preatty at this point, but I know she won't. Why would they change that?
THANK YOU!! I've seen so much stupid critisism about this movie, like the casting. The problem is, like you said, the movie just didn't explain how their choices made sense. For me, who was a fan of the books since I was a kid, the movie made sense (except the parts they changed). but I can see how someone going in blind would leave confused.
best video ive watched on this as of yet (and i watched a lot of them, looking for someone to point out these exact things)!!
Thank you for this well done, nuanced, video essay explaining the difference between the book vs the movie. The book sounds much better!