alto92's Finals Review

[NakedEye]

This is a great review and you articulated some things I was thinking about, but couldn't quite get out, mainly in relation to Crown and Bluecoats. As you said, Crown's theme was pulled off more successfully, and that surprised me. On the surface, before seeing them it seemed that "horses" was going to be more of lightweight show than "criminals, " but because of their attention to detail and simplicity of idea, the essence of horse movement, gracefulness, and even humor came through so clearly that it was a joy to watch. The viewer became completely captivated and swept away. You didn't have to figure anything out, it all just came thorugh clearly.

Now Bluecoats suffered from overabundance of ideas. From prison break to pickpocketing to lasers to briefcases to dropping of weapons - everything in between served as a bridge to the next gag. In the meantime, a lot of the guard kids performed with big smiles..not very menacing. Sooooo...who is the bad guy here? It was a jumble. Were the cops pursuing the crooks? Well, not really, because they were all often intermixed.

They have had this problem for a few years. Connexus - are they always connected? No, just sometimes. Caravan - is it always middle-eastern/african? No, just here and there. Capture and Escape - once they're caught, the don't get away, right? No, we let them go.

The fits and starts wreak havoc with a clear message coming across. They are great peformers, if they can just edit their ideas down to one or two key points to convey, they'll really go places. Look how one idea, maxed out works for the Cavaliers (well..not this year :P )

[JFitz19]

This is a great review and you articulated some things I was thinking about, but couldn't quite get out, mainly in relation to Crown and Bluecoats. As you said, Crown's theme was pulled off more successfully, and that surprised me. On the surface, before seeing them it seemed that "horses" was going to be more of lightweight show than "criminals, " but because of their attention to detail and simplicity of idea, the essence of horse movement, gracefulness, and even humor came through so clearly that it was a joy to watch. The viewer became completely captivated and swept away. You didn't have to figure anything out, it all just came thorugh clearly.

Now Bluecoats suffered from overabundance of ideas. From prison break to pickpocketing to lasers to briefcases to dropping of weapons - everything in between served as a bridge to the next gag. In the meantime, a lot of the guard kids performed with big smiles..not very menacing. Sooooo...who is the bad guy here? It was a jumble. Were the cops pursuing the crooks? Well, not really, because they were all often intermixed.

They have had this problem for a few years. Connexus - are they always connected? No, just sometimes. Caravan - is it always middle-eastern/african? No, just here and there. Capture and Escape - once they're caught, the don't get away, right? No, we let them go.

The fits and starts wreak havoc with a clear message coming across. They are great peformers, if they can just edit their ideas down to one or two key points to convey, they'll really go places. Look how one idea, maxed out works for the Cavaliers (well..not this year :P )

I don't usually quote a whole post. However, I must say that this is a very, very insightful analysis of the Crown and Bluecoat shows. I'm quite impressed. I couldn't agree more with your analysis of each corps. The Bluecoats design flaws you point out have bothered me for years.