Daria thinks this is all so typical; image courtesy of doree.tumblr.com
So, Daria is coming out on DVD next year. This is very exciting news. My only hope is that it comes out on my birthday, like The State did this year. Is it weird that I’m stoked about the future sick day that will enable marathon viewing? I’m also excited at the prospects of having friends over to watch it. I might even have to dress up as Ms. Morgendorffer for Halloween. Yes, I’m that excited.
Daria came into my life thanks to Beavis and Butthead (the one show my mother wouldn’t let me watch so I had to follow it obsessively). She was the bored, rebellious girl who hung out with them when she needed amusement. But I really fell in love with her when she got her own whip-smart show in 1997, created by Beavis alum Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn. In it, our titular heroine plotted schemes with like-minded best friend Jane Lane, clashed with her popular sister Quinn, and rebelled feminist-style against the high school machine. Often, Daria and Jane would work together, thus exhibiting that girls could have subversive, productive, supportive homosocial friendships. Remember the episode when they made a provocative, darkly comic school spirit poster about popularity, female body image, and eating disorders? Love it. Daria also clashed with a hip female magazine editor who is clearly modeled after Jane Pratt. I’ll have to watch that one again too.
Jane and Daria, having none of it; image courtesy of listal.com
Kathy M. Newman reminded me why I loved this show when I read her essay in Prime Time Animation: Television Animation and American Culture while chilling in the Nasher Sculpture Center garden this weekend. Newman brings up Daria’s primarily harmonious relationship with Jane, which I wonder if it is queerable upon reviewing. I also like her discussion about how the show uses irony in a myriad of ways — it employed a movement-based form like animation to convey suburban high school stasis, it used animation to create a rare girl character who was often desexualized, it suggested nihilism in a teenage character who was actually quite politically motivated and proactive, and it showcased socially marginalized characters who were often empowered and more interesting than their more popular counterparts. It even suggested that characters could grow, mature, or deviate in ways that belied its flat, outlined visual style. Witness moments when Quinn wanted to be more than just pretty and popular. Or any closing credit sequence, when the characters were usually configured in tableaux that often referenced figures and/or moments in popular culture that seemingly had little in common with the characters in those poses.
In addition, I wonder how popular music and sound will play in all of this. For one, there are legal issues at stake. Will the DVDs contain the same once-timely pop songs that were used in the original series, or will sound-alikes be employed like they were to expedite the release of The State? In addition, I wonder how my theory-head will process the diegetic use of pop songs written and performed by real people being listened to and commented on by un-real characters. Hmmm.
One song that better be kept intact is “You’re Standing On My Neck” by Splendora, the show’s very rad theme song. If they don’t, I might go pop. Unfortunately, I cannot find the original opening credit sequence, which features a delicious scene where Daria misses a volleyball spike in gym class on purpose. Until the DVDs become available, enjoy this fan-made montage that features the original song in its entirety plus several closing credit tableaux.
