The Big Hero Experience

Allen Manalili

HCOM 214

Blake Roger

The Big Hero Experience

            The Movie Night assignment was like no other assignment that I have ever taken part in throughout my whole academic career. Movies are great on its own, but watching it with a group of friends makes the movie exponentially better. I feel that enjoying good and/ or relaxing time by yourself is fun and alright to an extent. But, when you add in the catalyst of friends, the experience is so much more rich and heart- warming by spending time with others.

             I typically do not watch too many movies by myself or with friends, probably no more than five movies a year, Big Hero 6 was a fantastic movie. It would not make my top five favorite movies, but I still have great regards for this movie. Due to the fact that we had to complete an assignment regarding a movie was a little odd for me. Partially because I do not really watch too many movies and the fact that we were assigned a group assignment to analyze conflict concepts within a movie. I think this assignment was a little less intimidating because the movie we watched was animated and not an actual movie with real people in it. Also, I feel that I was urged to pay more attention watching the movie and thinking about all the little details. Sometimes, I fell that I had over- thought certain aspects of the movie to an extent. For example, there was a minor plot twist when the actual antagonist was revealed to the audience and I had over- thought all the little details and the main antagonist was not who I have previously presumed who it would be.

            By making the power point for this movie, I feel that by analyzing all the data and each group members' perspectives regarding the movie, important themes and messages were brought up. Personally, I did not think that an animated movie targeted for kids would contain significant life lessons in them. Because I already knew my group members for this assignment, I feel that we functioned more fluidly than if it had been the first time I had met my teammates. Fortunately, my group did not procrastinate so this movie night assignment was not one bit stressful for me because we had paced out our work and also even split up and shared responsibilities. Throughout my first year of college, I have done quite a satisfactory job in not procrastinating when doing individual and/ or group projects. Preparing for the presentation was potentially the most stressful part of this assignment, but it was not too stressful. I feel that thinking about presenting for your class is just stressful in general.

            Taking this whole movie night experience into retrospect, I did not know what to expect throughout the whole process as everything would eventually jubilate to the twenty minute presentation because this was a very unique assignment which I have nothing to compare to from the rest of my life. Overall, I had a quite satisfactory experience doing this assignment.

The Lion King Interpersonal Conflicts

The Lion King is a classic Disney film that shows the triumph of a young king. Mufasa, King of Pride Rock, is the father of Simba. Since Mufasa gave birth to a son, the chances of his younger brother to become king are no longer there. Scar has hatred towards Simba for he wants to be King. Scar becomes envious and becomes the leader of an angry pack of hyenas. When Scar purposely kills Mufasa, Scar blames Simba for his death since Mufasa was trying to save Simba from a stampede. Simba does not know that Mufasa was hanging from a cliff where he was reaching for Scar’s hand for help. Scar makes Simba feel as if everyone will never forgive him and runs him out of Pride Rock which leads to Scar’s evil ways becoming king. Simba then meets Timon and Pumba who become his very close friends and companion during Simba’s growth to an adult. Nala, Simba’s childhood friend finds Simba and tells him about all the chaos that is happening in their land that Scar is putting them through.

 This is where we encounter Simba’s interpersonal conflict. He is afraid of his path and he does not believe in himself to be the King his father knew he could be. He has all this fear from his friends and family which cause him to have self-doubt. Since he had alienated himself from everyone, he became more tempered and defensive. After feeling the presence of his father, he has the courage to be himself and be the person that he was meant to be, which the King of Pride Rock is. He overcame his fear and had the courage to do what his father would have wanted to do for him. This caused himself to be a part of the family he once was after years of hiding away.

Another interpersonal conflict in this movie has to do with Scar. Scar becomes envious of Mufasa’s son, Simba. Instead of working things out with his family issues, he becomes an evil lion instead of someone that could be trusted and there for his people. Scar’s jealousy caused him to kill his own brother and chase away his nephew so that he can have power. He wanted to be in control and have authority over somewhere that could never be his until he kills his brother and scares away his nephew.       

Spanglish (Flor's Conflict Tactics)

Flor’s Conflict Tactics

                Flor is usually quite stubborn and set in her ways.  She has her notions of what should and should not be done and has very little leeway in terms of swaying and listening towards different schools of thought.  For example she is quite adamant that no one should be involved in her daughter’s life and that others do not have any place interfering with her and her family’s affairs.  I feel that there is nothing wrong with this in and of itself but I couldn’t help but think that there were other ways in which Flor could have went about resolving the issues at hand. 

                For example Deborah one day decided to take Flor’s daughter out to get her hair done without Flor’s knowledge or consent due to Flor being asleep at the time of the excursion.  Deborah had left a note which notified Flor that Deborah had taken out her child but Flor found herself enraged and felt quite compelled to notify Deborah and the family of her harshly stern feelings.  Due to her English and subsequent communicative limitations she had asked her daughter to draft a stern letter on her behalf and to promptly deliver it to Deborah.  Instead of initiating a collaborative and mutually beneficial discourse in which both parties voiced their concerns Flor instead opted to broadcast the whole of her negative emotions and turmoil.  Deborah was admittedly somewhat indignant but was apologetic nonetheless.  She told Flor she was sorry and would not let it happen again but one was able to tell from future gossip that Deborah was somewhat irked at Flor’s forthcoming and abrasive approach towards conflict resolution.

                Personally I believe that the previously delineated conflict could have been resolved through collaboration. That is Flor could have instead chosen to remain calm and not let her angry feelings blind her.  She could have let go of any ill will and instead voiced her concerns and opinions while letting Deborah do the same.  Together they could have worked towards a resolution without the anger or turbulence. 

                Another example is Flor’s rage at John going over her head and issuing sums of money to his daughter in exchange for collecting sea glass.  Upon discovering this financial arrangement Flor becomes quite ornery and enraged.  She then in a flurry of anger once again utilizes the services of her daughter in order to convey the full depths of her indignation and sour feelings towards John for his actions.  I feel that this was a detrimental way to initiate a discourse in that it established a negative setting and base for reconciliation and resolution.  With that being said Flor proceeds to let John know how abominable it was that he did so without firstly contacting her and I believe she felt that doing so subverted her role as a mother of her daughter.  Flor continues to transmit her feelings of rage through her daughter and then storms up the stairs at which point John calls her a hypocrite for interfering with the affairs of his daughter.  Flor is slightly taken aback and to John’s surprise concedes his point and acknowledges her fault in the issue.  They then reach an agreement.

                I believe that this conflict could have been handled through more collaborative means.  Flor could have calmly voiced her concerns about Johns Behavior and allotted John his time to convey his feelings so that they both could have worked towards a resolution.

                I personally believe that Flor could be taught collaborative techniques.  She should learn to let go of her ill will and instead to calmly voice her concerns and feelings. Instead of lashing out at those who anger her.  This would poster herself and all other involved parties to be successful and allow true resolution to be reached. 

                This would ultimately lead to a less confrontational and abrasive Flor who would face her conflicts with a calm and efficient method of collaboration with her and the other parties involved.

Spanglish Interpersonal Conflict

Deborah's Infidelity

Conflicts abounded within the Movie "Spanglish".  All the occupants of the residence seemed to be at odds with each other at some point or another.  Usually this resulted in comic relief for the viewer but more often than not the cast member’s characters were left feeling unsatisfied with the actions of their family and friends. Moreover the aforementioned conflicts were replete with ineffectual resolution tactics which usually only exacerbated the issues at hand.

One of the most salient conflict concepts that I observed within the Movie "Spanglish" was the concept of avoidance. Specifically this pertained to John and Deborah's conflict about Deborah's infidelity. Deborah chose to come out and reveal her extramarital rendezvous to John after much deliberation and weighing of options with her mother.  After reaching the decision to reveal her unfaithfulness she decides to tell John at night once they are alone.

Initially Deborah tries to sugarcoat what had transpired and John seems to catch on but remains quite evasive and despite seeming to know what had happened steers the conversation in another direction and avoids addressing the issue head on.  Deborah burst into tears and while sobbing continuously attempted to convince John of her tryst’s veracity. She continued to drone on and unfurl a litany of apologies despite John turning the other way.  She domineered the conversation and initially gave little opportunity for John to speak his mind.   I believe that this was ineffective since she gave little leeway for John to maneuver with within the context of the conversation.  Furthermore while alluding and heavily implying that infidelity had occurred Deborah does little to explicitly state just how far she had taken the affair.  She conveniently leaves off vital details and instead of explaining her behavior as she should have in order to engender collaboration she merely continues her never-ending tirade of apologetic and imploring remarks.  She has to surpass the breadth of the conflict before she finds the courage to let John know that she had done the deed and been intimidate with the other man.  I find this tactic to be mostly futile since it took the majority of the conversation for her to address the elephant in the room and let John know what she had done so that they both could commence collaboration.

As John Bears witness to Deborah’s tirade he insistently tries to avoid the subject and shirk any means of addressing the issue at hand.  If he truly wished to resolve the issue, I believe that this approach could only prove to be inimical towards their relationship as he is only forestalling the inevitable conflict and thereby straining the relationship as it was bereft of collaboration.  Once recognition rears its ugly head and John comes to full grips with what has happened John pleads with Deborah to reveal the full extent of her infidelity.  Once he becomes cognizant of her sexual intimacy with another man a distraught look of resignation washes over his face and he chooses to completely avoid the conflict by vacating the premises.  Soon after he finds himself in the arms of Flor.

In conclusion I feel that neither party really wished to collaborate and resolve the issue at hand.  I believe that what had transpired was too severe and in cheating on John Deborah had mortally wounded their relationship and crushed any chance at their marriage’s reconciliation.  Moreover their tactics were rife with inadequacies.  For example John’s avoidance and unwillingness to address the issue conflated with Deborah’s domineering and then shirksome attitude spelled disaster for not only that conflict but the relationship at large.

"Stay Gold!"

        “They grew up on the outside of society. They weren't looking for a fight. They were looking to belong.”  The outsiders is a oldie classic coming from the era of greasers, it's a favorite to the movie fans who love a good rivalry between classes that struggle with money vs. the classes that come from money. The Outsiders is a story that portrays the relationship between all the greasers as a group, individually, and the hatred that continues to grow with the annoying, rich attitude, show off gang of students that go by the name of The Socs. The two groups never get along being that the greasers come from the east side, and the Socs come from the west side, and there alone brings the differences between to the two groups, realizing that east side is where people with lower money live and the west side is home to the classy rich people. The greasers don't like to start trouble unless they feel it's necessary to protect themselves or anyone in the group but the Socs don't see that, they are pushers, because they annoy the greasers and harass them until they'll do something about it but that is when trouble always starts. Seeing greasers around always gets the Socs worked up, especially when they see them with one of their girls with them.            
          Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally go to a drive-in movie where they run into two girls enjoying a night out, but they just so happen to be some of the Socs girlfriends, and that is when the mistake is made. Ponyboy and Johnny are the youngest of all the greasers and they are the ones that offer to walk the girls home after the movies; being that Dally ran off because he couldn't get to one of the Soc girls, but that is when the Socs come up and tell them to back off and for her to go with them which she does. This creates an uproar later in the movie, messing with the two greasers eventually goes in an upward spiral of trouble for both groups. Things get real bloody and messy (literally!), after it is somewhat cleaned up, the two gangs come together for a "rumble" to prove who is the better group and to prove a point: not to mess with them again, being that the Greasers won, doesn't fix what they lost as a gang.  

         The first analysis of The outsiders was there was many conflicts that seemed to happen because so many situations take drastic measures; rather than being worked out in a more reasonable matter. A lot of events took different tolls on the characters, leading to more conflicts that could have been avoided in some ways. Being that this movie has been watched, we see that some of the characters have conflicts such as avoiding, attentive listening, anger issues, and lacking in the communication methods. The Outsiders really opened our eyes to know that without learning how to deal with conflicts; whether personal or public, things can get really bad really fast and it can be hard to fix the problem once the damage is too deep of a wound  to stitch up. Having the characters take a class of HCOM 214 would be really beneficial considering that all the problems that rose to the surface left a trail of sticky outcomes. 
         If Dally, Ponyboy, and Johnny saw their interpersonal conflicts from the bigger conflicts at hand, I'm postitive things would not have happened the way they did. For example they could have had a better way of handling situations like family issues,  friend issues, rivarly issues, self issues, and they also could have controlled their emotions in a better way. Having a plan of how to handle or take on situation would have been very beneficial to to boys and all the characters. If they had better skills such as listening, communication, getting in touch with their emotion, then they could have had better results in their and everyone else's lives (short term and long term). Signing these characters up for a course of HCOM 214 would have changed their lives.

"Stay Golden Ponyboy"

The Outsiders, directed by Francis Ford Cappola, is a 1983 drama film that was an adaptation of the novel written by S. E. Hilton. In the film, there are two rival teen gangs, the Greasers and the Socs, who have great conflict with each other. The Greasers consist of low-income, working class teens while the Socs consist of wealthier kids who live on the other side of town.

            The conflicts between the two gangs begin when Dally (a Greaser) tries to pick up Cherry (one of the Soc’s girlfriends). While they are at the drive-in, Dally repeatedly flirts with Cherry even after she angrily tells him to stop. When Ponyboy and Johnny (the two youngest Greasers) see Dally being inconsiderate to Cherry, they both interrupt and try to get him to stop. Cherry and her friend thank Ponyboy and Johnny and begin to walk home with them. Bob and the other Socs find the four of them walking together and pull over to the side of the road and begin to argue with Ponyboy and Johnny. Cherry ends up leaving with the Socs to prevent a brawl.

            When Ponyboy finally gets home, his older brother Daryl—who has been taking care of his two younger brothers since their parents died—begins to scold Ponyboy for being out so late. They keep arguing until Daryl hits him and Ponyboy runs off to find Johnny again. The two boys go to the local park where the Socs find them and jump Ponyboy. Scared that Ponyboy is going to die, Johnny pulls out a switchblade to stab Bob (the Soc jumping Ponyboy) and accidentally kills him. Everyone flees the scene so they don’t get caught. Johnny and Ponyboy run to Dally for advice on how to skip town and avoid the murder. A few days after they run away, Dally goes to find the boys. While driving, they all see a group of kids trapped inside of a burning building. Each of them went in to rescue the kids and were then named town heroes; unfortunately, Johnny was severely burned and eventually died in the hospital from a broken back. Before he died, Ponyboy and Dally went to see Johnny to tell him that they won the big brawl against the Socs. Johnny tells them that fighting doesn’t solve anything; his last words were “Stay golden Ponyboy.”

            Although there were many conflicts between the two gangs, the Greasers also had interpersonal conflicts. For example, Dally always has a guard up due to his bad past and relationship issues. Ponyboy and Johnny share a lot of the same interpersonal conflicts. They both have family relationship issues and avoidant problems.  Ponyboy’s family issues come from all the hardships that came after his parents’ death. It’s hard on his oldest brother to take care of him and Soda Pop so there always seems to be problems in the house. Ponyboy avoids these problems by running away after each argument. Johnny’s family relationship issues come from a lifetime of parental arguments which took their attention away from him. He avoids those issues by never confronting his parents and telling them how he feels. Both of them avoid the murder at the park by skipping town as well.

            If Dally, Ponyboy, and Johnny tried to improve these interpersonal conflicts by using dialogue, better listening skills, aggressive and collaborative systems, etc., they would have had different long-term outcomes. For example, Dally wouldn’t have died because he would have been able to talk to someone about how he felt after Johnny’s death. Ponyboy would have a better relationship with his brothers and wouldn’t run out after arguments. Johnny wouldn’t have died because he never would have killed a Soc; instead he would have had a non-violent discussion with the gang. If the Greasers would have taken HCOM 214, their lives would have been much better off. 

Interpersonal Conflict in the Movie Spanglish

           The movie "Spanglish" is a very good movie to watch for HCOM 214 because of the many interpersonal conflicts between all of the characters in the movie, and it teaches people how to resolve conflicts in the real world and what conflict styles and tactics are the best to use. The film starts with a young girl named Cristina who is applying to Princeton University. She tells the story of her childhood in her college essay. Flor Moreno is a poor, Mexican single mother who is hired as the housekeeper for John and Deborah Clasky, their kids Bernice and Georgie and Deborah's alcoholic mother Evelyn Wright, who are all classified as a rich family in Los Angeles. Flor has a daughter named Cristina, who helps helps her translate at the Clasky's house because Flor speaks very little English. While at the Clasky's house though however, there are many interpersonal conflicts that arise between both families.
            One of the conflicts that arise is between Flor and Deborah. Deborah takes Flor's daughter out shopping for the day without Flor's consent. Deborah leaves a note for Flor to read so that when she woke up in the morning, she would know where they were. She leaves the note saying that she is stealing her daughter for a while. When Flor wakes up and reads the note, she becomes both furious and worried. When Deborah and Cristina return later that day, Flor instructs her daughter to translate a written message to give to Deborah. The  message basically tells Deborah to not do anything with Cristina without her consent first. We can infer that Flor's conflict style is very aggressive. She chooses to engage herself in the conflict. She uses her aggressive tone to try and win the argument over Deborah by giving her own beliefs and values in the situation. However, Deborah's conflict style is very understanding and collaborative. She represents this by listening to the needs of the other person and agreeing to not do it again without her consent first.
            Another conflict that arose in the movie, was between Cristina and her mother Flor. At the end of the movie, Flor tells Cristina that she cannot go to the private school anymore and that is all Cristina was looking forward to do and wanting to accomplish in life. Cristina screams in the middle of the street at her mother saying that she cannot do this to her and that her life is ruined. She evens says that she will never be able to forgive her. She scorns her mother in the street where everyone can hear. Flor could have improved her conflict style and tactics by being more understanding of her daughter's concerns and listening to what she has to say. Flor needed to listen to the needs of the other person before coming to a conclusion. Cristina however uses a very aggressive tone toward her mother to explain her side in the conflict. She could have improved her conflict style and tactics by remaining calm and listening to what her mother has to say, before she started yelling and causing a scene.
        Another conflict that arose was Flor and John's money conflict. John had an agreement with Cristina without her mother knowing. John would give Cristina a monetary award in exchange for a number of seaglass. When Flor found out, she became outraged and angry toward John. Again, Flor's conflict style was very aggressive and chooses to engage in the conflict. John however, is trying to use the avoidant conflict style and tries to avoid the situation as much as he can. He tries to not engage in the conflict and is letting Flor have her way, but toward the end, Flor and John both start yelling at each other. He calls her a hypocrite for interfering with the exchange between him and her daughter. Even though there are many more conflicts that arose in the movie from beginning to end, those were the three most important ones. I believe that all three concepts in the movie were applied effectively by teaching the viewers how to resolve and handle conflict in their lives. It shows us that conflict does occur anywhere and between anyone, and we have to learn how to resolve it effectively in our lives.