Defend the Indefensible: films in which gorgeous, independent, "edgy" women have nothing better to do than break uptight whiny squares out of their bubbles

Most of the work of Johnny Depp to thread.

.. "Enchanted", there you go.

Enchanted is so great tho

We're not knocking any of these films are we?

(sarcasm not intended.)

Wait, how on earth can you argue that Splash is manic pixie dream guy? It's so bloody obviously mpd girl.

Sorry, my mind wandered a bit. I was just wondering if TH had any other MPDX movies.

Ferris Buelller is your male pixie.

Oh, good choice. The odd thing is that the male pixies tend to be films from the male pixie pov, which isn't the case with female pixies. Of course, 'odd' depends on how you approach it, I guess.

FBDO is kind of a weird example. Even though Ferris is the "main character," it's actually Cameron that goes through the Screenwriting 101 character arc.

You could say that Christian Slater is the male pixie in Heathers.

Cameron is the object of Ferris' manic pixie, I guess. Which would work with the thesis that male pixies get films written from their perspective whereas female ones don't.

I'm not sure that Heathers would count - he is presented initially as a manic pixie dream boy, but the ultimate outcome is that she realises the falsehood of that MPD attraction.

how bout Jason Segel in I Love You Man

nah not really

That's part and parcel of the pixie archetype though, they liberate the hero, but always go too far into the realm of self-destruction. The hero "wins" by incorporating the "pixie within" etc, but usually ends up rejecting or being rejected by the actual pixie.

heath ledger in the batman

Interesting example is True Romance in which the hero, inspired by the pixie into a dangerous world of adventure is ultimately consumed by that world, leaving the pixie to take up the mantle of the hero alone.

The shift of POV over to the pixie symbolized by her wearing the hero's signature Elvis sunglasses. Do you see?

That's part and parcel of the pixie archetype though, they liberate the hero, but always go too far into the realm of self-destruction. The hero "wins" by incorporating the "pixie within" etc, but usually ends up rejecting or being rejected by the actual pixie.

― Ask The Answer Man (sexyDancer), Wednesday, January 23, 2013 7:53 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't think that's necessarily true. A lot of these are rom-coms with a traditional happy-ever-after ending.

saving private ryan

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Wednesday, January 23, 2013 8:47 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

drop dead fred with phoebe cates in the MPDG role instead of rik mayall would probably be much improved.

is 'jules and jim' sort of the anti-MPDG film? two happy non-uptight non-square guys living in their blissful bubble meet a gorgeous independent 'edgy' woman and it all ends in misery and suicide.

xp: might be the fault of screenwriters butthurt over Alvy not getting Annie Hall in the end.

oh yeah in sleepers, woody is the MPDG, and it has aged better than annie hall.

Peter Pan is a hard one to parse because not only does the manic pixie Peter invert the trope and help the freewheeling Wendy leave childhood and accept the uptight world of 'growing up', but Peter also has the ultimate MPDG of his own in Tinkerbell.

what do you think about the interpretation that it's actually captain hook that is the MPDG?

Nah, it's clearly the crocodile.

xp isn't that the plot of Hook?

which reminds me of the manic alien dream guy Mork

Satan as MPDG in the Garden of Eden?

Manic Pixie Demon Guy

Five Easy Pieces is kinda anti-MPDG. Quirky Karen Black unsuccessful at liberating uptight hero, gets dumped on whole film, abandoned at gas station as hero enters existential oblivion.

^^Not only that, uptight hero falls for and loses a woman more uptight than he.

He fails at being the pixie as well.
And the harsh father totem at the center of it all. Philip may be onto something with this Hook idea.

So in Pretty in Pink we have the paralyzed father at the center of the tale with pixies Ringwald and Cryer generally failing at liberation from uptight reality.

xxp Jesus as MPDG in the New Testament

Hamlet

Vertigo may be the MPDG cautionary tale.

Paralysis a big part of it too.

I thought dangerous dream girl was a whole separate thing

Manic Pixie as DDG's innocent face?

eddie furlong in T2 was oddly effeminate for this supposed macho leader dude -- this doesn't make sense until we realize he is the MPDG designed to get Ahnuld to stop being so stodgy and get in touch with his feelings.

ha!

"Lame father" archetype again with Reese spending his final minutes of screen time in T1 limping around.

is it reese or the terminator in T1 that's trying to break linda hamilton out of her square existence?

So in Pretty in Pink we have the paralyzed father at the center of the tale with pixies Ringwald and Cryer generally failing at liberation from uptight reality.

― Ask The Answer Man (sexyDancer), Wednesday, January 23, 2013 4:07 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ringwald's Hughes characters in general have too much of a tormented interior life to be MPDGs imo

angst is antithetical to the whole concept

kim novak is about as un-manic as dream girls get

well but she does have a frazzled, dim expression.

xp: Yeah, in Hughesverse, it's more Manic Nightmare.

The overlook hotel

in Breakfast Club isn't there a reverse MPDG happening? They normalize the goth with a makeover and now she's happy in a square bubbleverse with the diminutive jock.