Jay Tyler

I saw the original Moana on the final day of 2016, an exhausting year that proved to be a portent of things to come. In the first five minutes, a toddler Moana wanders onto the beach and sees a sea turtle struggling to make it to the ocean. She assists the turtles trek, providing it shade and fighting off birds. Her act of kindness is witnessed by the ocean itself, who chooses her for a life of adventure due to her curiosity, bravery and kindness.

It is safe to say that after over two decades of multiple superhero films a year, not only has the genre cemented its tropes and patterns, but there are definable sub-genres within the monolithic overarching genre. For example, within the Marvel Cinematic Universe itself, you have the standard bearers (IE the Avengers films), the more idiosyncratic fare (Dr. Strange) or the more artistically-divergent, auteur focused projects (my beloved Eternals.) And then there were the Guardians movies.

As a child, I watched countless hours of TV. My parents rarely would watch with me, partially because they were busy, but in no small part because they found the things I wanted to watch odd, unamusing and often just “not for them.” To this end I mostly entertained myself, and the TV guided me towards endless content I have since entirely forgotten about but meant very much to me at the time.