The Joy In Revisiting Movies Part 1: Foreshadowing

 

When we watch movies, we can be enamoured for many reasons, they can have pretty visuals or environments to be in, especially in places like New York City, or the UK, we could love the characters, relate to their situations, appreciate the lessons they have to offer, see some of our favourite actors bring great performances and bringing characters to life and if well done, we can see how much love and passion is put into the projects. We might like these movies so much that we might find ourselves constantly rewatching them, which could be annoying, but there can be great things about revisiting movies, there are so many things that make revisiting a movie great that I decided to split these reasons up into 3 different articles to discuss them separately. Be prepared for 3 articles about the beauty in revisiting movies, especially ones that a lot of us saw as kids, for 3 things, foreshadowing, catching adult jokes and appreciating them as we grow up.

 

The first article is about foreshadowing, one of the things we see in movies are twists, whenever something unexpected happens, like when someone good turns out to be bad or evil, or whenever we , we the audience are bound to feel shocked about it, it can get better whenever we revisit the movies because the filmmakers would give us subtle clues that they did a great job hiding so the twist wouldn’t be predictable and once we catch the subtle clues upon rewatches, we are able to pick things up and the twists make a lot more sense, yet can still remain surprising too and that is pretty neat, some movies I loved as a kid have excellent twists and great foreshadowing that took many rewatches to be able to catch them and here they are!

 

One of my favourite examples would have to be Coraline. Once the title character enters the other world, while we along with Coraline herself are enchanted by the other world, we still are given warnings that something isn’t right about this place, as if the button eyes weren’t creepy enough. There are many lines or visuals that give us ideas, like when the other mother suggests playing hide and seek in the rain, once the lightning strikes, it’s shaped like a hand, or whenever they’re eating, the other mother’s plate is usually empty, clues to foreshadow her true nature. There also can be some disturbing lines, like the cat telling Coraline that the other mother would love something to eat, and when she meets the ghost children they tell her the other mother ate up their lives, yikes! Plus, remember how I mentioned the other mother’s plate was always empty? Well, the only thing we do see her eat are cocoa beetles, a nice and creepy foreshadowing to her true form, if you have arachnophobia you might want to cover your eyes near the end. Even in the real world, we get more clues, like Bobinsky warning Coraline not to go through the door and the retired actresses, Spink and Forcible check out her future through tea leaves, and they see the shape of a hand or a giraffe, which is tall, yet another clever foreshadow to what’s revealed later. Plus, Wybie gives some clues too, like his grandma is the owner of the Pink Palace and won’t rent to people with kids, and she also had a twin sister who disappeared when they were kids, once Coraline discovers the dark secret, she along with the audience are able to put two and two together, which make’s Grandma’s reasoning rather sad and quite haunting. Honestly, I could go on forever with this one, I would recommend seeing this movie not only with those clues in mind but to also keep your eyes and ears open for more clues.

Another movie I can think of with subtle foreshadowing, would be Shrek. The big twist in the movie is Fiona’s curse. The filmmakers did a great job hiding the truth while also giving subtle clues that can catch first time viewers off guard but when they revisit it, it will all make more sense. The first bit is when the mirror tries to warn Farquaad about what happens to her at night and even mentions sunset, but Farquaad interrupts him, not only does he not listen (that comes back to bite him later) but we aren’t supposed to know that yet. We might see that as a throwaway line, but once Fiona asks if they should stop to make camp when she notices the sun setting, as producer Aron Warner pointed out in the commentary, “This plants the seeds of suspicion” as we find it kind of odd the sunset bothers Fiona, but we then don’t pay much attention as we get to the scene where Shrek ends up opening up to Donkey about why he is the way he is, (something Shrek 4 didn’t seem to understand, which is why that movie doesn’t exist in my eyes), we get so invested we barely notice something may be different about Fiona as she overhears their talk. Plus, there are more things that make sense when you revisit, like when Shrek burps, she doesn’t get mad at him for being rude and burps herself, her cooking the eggs of the bird she blew up (I don’t see Snow White or Cinderella doing that), catching flies with a spider web, once Shrek eats some of it like cotton candy, Fiona licks some too and she blew up a snake like a balloon just like Shrek did with a frog and she was perfectly cool with eating weed rats rotisserie style, even before all that she was able to pull a huge piece of bark off a tree without any problem. So once Donkey finds out about her curse, not only are we surprised but we also find it believable from what we’ve seen, everything makes perfect sense! I remember showing clips to an online friend and we’d talk about the different ways they foreshadow Fiona’s ogress form!

Though it’s been overdone, Disney loved making twist villains, and the cool thing about revisiting movies that have twist villains, you will be able to pick up subtle clues that requires rewatching to see them.

A good example I can think of is Wreck It Ralph. When we first meet our antagonist, King Candy, we probably think he’s just an eccentric leader who seems to care about the safety of his kingdom and citizens, however we can also see he is quite hostile to Vanellope and had a bit of an ego too. He might’ve succeeded into manipulating Ralph into believing that he’s only keeping Vanellope from racing because players will think the game is broken if they see her glitching and once the game is unplugged she won’t be able to escape, he claims to only be looking out for her safety, some of the audience might’ve believed him, while others might find something fishy about that. Later when we find out that King Candy is actually the reason Vanellope is a glitch and that will change if she crosses the finish line, so now we truly know he’s a villain. However, there is another thing that is yet to be revealed about him, something hidden. Throughout the movie, we hear the phrase, “Going Turbo” when Ralph admits to not wanting to be the bad guy anymore and tries to go to a different game to gain respect from the Nicelanders. The phrase confuses viewers until Felix tells the story to Calhoun, Turbo was the name of a star of a racing game called Turbotime, the character enjoyed the attention a little too much. Then, when a new racing game got plugged in, Turbo got jealous that he left his game and tried to gain attention in the new game, only to cause the game to glitch and for both games to be put out of order and unplugged for good. At first we think that story isn’t really important because it’s just a way to explain Ralph’s game jumping, and we’re too invested in Ralph and Vanellope’s friendship, it’s only in the climax when these two things come together. Once King Candy starts fighting Vanellope so she won’t gain her true place in the game, once she starts to glitch, he ends up glitching too, and soon, Ralph and Felix see the fight on the screen and realize that King Candy is actually TURBO!! Their reactions mirror the audiences reaction to the surprise! On a side note, I love seeing people react to this movie on YouTube, just seeing their shocked and surprised reactions to King Candy’s true identity is just gold!! This also does a great twist on the twist villain cliché, the twist is not that he’s a villain but his true identity is the twist! Some have also pointed out that when you revisit the movie, you’ll notice the clues that flew over our heads, like the walls in King Candy’s throne are pink, foreshadowing the real leader of Sugar Rush, also, when King Candy’s name is announced on the roster, the voice sounds a bit strange and not as enthusiastic as the other racers’ names, especially Vanellope’s name, another bit to foreshadow that she isn’t a mistake. It’s also easy to miss how similar Turbo and King Candy sound when we hear the story of Turbo, plus when Ralph meets King Candy, and he explains he game jumped, Candy asks Ralph, “You’re not going Turbo are you?” that would seem suspicious because how would King Candy know about Turbo? Nobody else in the game seems to know, as proven in the scene when Vanellope sees him glitching, that catches her off guard and asks him who he is. This whole twist is one of the reasons Wreck It Ralph is one of Disney’s best movies along with a lot of others, and rewatching it just makes it more amazing!

Since I mentioned twist villains, let’s go to the character that started it all, Stinky Pete from Toy Story 2. When we first meet him, we think he’s a bit of a kind grandfatherly figure towards Woody and maybe, the rest of the Roundup Gang. When Woody tells the gang he has to go back home to Andy, and Jessie gets so scared, she hyperventilates, Stinky Pete tries to calm her down, plus when Al’s coming, he’s the one who orders Jessie to go in the box promising her she will come out. Also, after Woody and Jessie get into a fight when the former accuses the latter of turning the television on to keep him from leaving (since the remote was in front of her), Pete is the one who orders them to stop it (like a parent or guardian ordering their children to stop fighting) and tells them that fighting won’t help, and he’s the one who assures Woody that he should wait until morning to have his arm fixed. Plus, after the cleaner repairs and makes Woody look like a new toy (trust me that scene has to be seen to be believed, Randy Newman’s score adds to it), as he’s about to leave, Pete tries to get Woody to understand that Jessie has been through and suggests they make amends before he goes and when Woody tries to leave after doing that, Pete tells him that Andy will be growing up and their time won’t last forever, he also seems reasonable when he gives Woody the choice on what he should do, leading to Woody decide to stay. However, after Buzz talks some sense into Woody, and he decides to go home but also bring his new friends with them so they won’t go into storage, he gets 3 answers, Bullseye is more than eager, Jessie is unsure because of what happened with Emily, but Stinky Pete shocks the others along with the audience when we see, not only is he out of his box but he locks the vent to keep Woody from leaving, revealing that he was the one who turned the TV on and he framed it on Jessie, revealing his true colours. He’s not a kind grandfatherly figure, he’s a bitter old man who was never bought or played with and is determined to remain immortal at a toy museum and not be loved by a child, and is willing to do whatever it takes to get his way, even if it means betraying others, forcing his peers to do things against their will and even threatens to tear Woody in pieces if he doesn’t go with him. Luckily, all of Andy’s toys come to the rescue and they put the villain in a Barbie backpack for a little girl who loves to make over her Barbie dolls by painting their faces, giving him a sense of play time. The movie truly succeeded in shocking viewers when it’s revealed that Pete is a villain (the filmmakers confirmed that they heard audible gasps from the audience when Woody finds out that the box is empty,) and when you revisit it, you can pick up some subtle clues. For instance, when Woody tries to explain how he ended up at Al’s apartment, when he reveals he was in a yard sale, notice how Pete asks him why he was in it and even when Woody explains he was only trying to save Wheezy, notice how Pete doesn’t listen and just asks him more regarding the question he asked before. Plus, some things he says to Woody later are ways to make him feel doubtful about the future, having him listen to Jessie’s story as a way to guilt him into staying and telling him the perks of being in the museum, so he can be adored by many children, once Woody makes the choice to stay, notice how Pete smiles a bit, showing he’s satisfied the plan worked. Plus, when Woody refuses to go back with his friends, Pete is the one that congratulates him for sending them away, while Jessie doesn’t say anything and when Woody realizes he doesn’t want to miss Andy growing up, notice how Pete is the only one expressing distress over him leaving. Revisiting these moments truly make the twist more believable, he could also be a great way to teach children to be careful about who they trust, Stinky Pete is one of those guys he knows exactly what buttons to push to put doubts in your head and manipulate you into making a bad choice. Before I go to the conclusion, some fans have also pointed out a couple of other things that foreshadow Pete’s true nature. Notice how in the Woody’s Roundup show, Pete’s voice sounds different than the toy version, and also, when Pete claims the show was cancelled after the dynamite episode, notice this. When Woody explains why he’s going to Japan with his new friends, he turns the TV on and it shows the episode the gang was watching earlier, and once Buzz leaves after giving Woody a reality check telling him that going to the museum means he’ll be watching kids from behind glass and never be loved again (stay tuned for a possible future article about why this is different than what Toy Story 4 showed and why that 4^th movie is the better animated fourth movie than others including a recent fourth movie to an animated franchise, you are free to disagree with me but let’s make sure to be civil about it), as Woody contemplates what he was told notice in the background you can hear Woody and Bullseye did succeed in saving Jessie and Stinky Pete from the dynamite and you can hear Woody telling the viewers that the real treasures in life are your friends and family and on the television we see Woody singing You’ve Got A Friend In Me, and then we see a boy who looks like Andy hugging him, getting Woody to realize that going to the museum is a big mistake, some have said that Pete probably also kept them from seeing that finale that bit with the boy would’ve made them not want to go to the museum at all, showing how clever Pete is in making things go his way. Sure, he may have started a trope that has been overdone but it still Stinky Pete is a great twist villain and revisiting it helps us see why.

 

These movies to me are the perfect examples of why revisiting movies, especially ones you liked in your childhood can be fun, especially when it comes to catching subtle clues that foreshadow what’s to come later, you might feel like you’re doing some detective work while enjoying your childhood movies or even recent films you love, especially if they had a twist, be sure to keep your eyes and ears open so you can catch them, maybe it could take multiple rewatches, but whenever you do see it, no matter how many times it may take, you will be impressed and it will show you’re more smarter than you may think.