(a random musing on the top three comic book superheroes) 


For the Comics-impaired:

Despite being born at the beginning of the Silver Age of comics, I grew up
comics impaired. OK, I watched Superman on TV (the George Reeves version). We
got one channel and it didn't carry Batman (the campy version with Adam West),
but I caught glimpses of it at my cousins' house. It wasn't until the films came
out that I finally got to truly meet the 2nd oldest modern superhero for real.
Having just seen The Dark Knight Rises, I felt the need to contemplate why
several Batman action figures lurk on my shelves. I went to wikipedia to get an
overview of seventy years of Batman (and Robin), I was basically able to skim
the massive mess, and my head is spinning. You'd spend a lifetime simply
catching up on all the real comics and films and TV shows and radio...

So here it is, in a kind of nutshell. A really big one.

The Big Three, according to the Polls:

Superman, Spiderman and Batman rank as the top three favorite comic book
superheroes in several polls. 

In this one, "Top 10 Comic Book Characters" by Aaron Albert, About.com
Guide, it's Superman, Spidey and Bats, in that order. In another on IGN, it's
Superman, Bats and Spidey. 

Superman, as the original Man in Tights, the first comic book superhero, the
icon of the genre, the... oh, you get the picture... he started it all, so he's
at the top of all lists. (First Appearance: Action Comics #1
(June 1938)) IGN says of him: "Superman is the blueprint for the modern
superhero. He’s arguably the single most important creation in the history of
superhero comics. Superman is a hero that reflects the potential in all of us
for greatness; a beacon of light in times that are grim and a glimmer of hope
for the hopeless. He’s an archetype for us to project upon; whether you consider
him a messiah or just a Big Blue Boyscout, Superman’s impact on the genre and
pop culture is undeniable. " 

Spidey, I covered in another blog. But here he is again, just for
comparison: IGN sez: "Peter Parker is
the everyman. He’s the common, average, middle-of-the-road guy that just happens
to be endowed with amazing powers when he’s bitten by a radioactive spider.
Despite Spidey’s fantastic abilities, Peter Parker still has to deal with the
woes of middle-class living. Girl problems, making ends meet, keeping his family
together, getting through school; all the tropes of our everyday normal lives
lived out through the eyes of a superhero. Despite all this, Spider-Man remains
one of the most snarky and fun heroes in existence. His cheesy banter during
combat is always appreciated, and he’s able to make light of even the most dire
of situations. There’s never a dull moment when ol’ webhead is around, and
there’s something to be said for an icon that doesn’t take himself too
seriously." (August 1962, Amazing Fantasy)

Batman: Aaron Albert's Batman blurb reads; "There is something about the
dark brooding sense of Batman that intrigues people. Or maybe its Batman’s
alter-ego, millionaire Bruce Wayne, that people wish they had more in common
with. Maybe the reason so many people identify with him is that Batman has no
truly supernatural powers. Any one of us could be Batman Whatever the case,
Batman has struck a chord with fans around the world. The Dark Knight is hugely
popular with a multiple hit movies and many different comic titles to choose
from." IGN says:

"He’s the world’s greatest detective. He’s the world’s
premier martial artist. He’s the world’s broodiest billionaire. The only human
being to stand amongst the Justice League – alongside gods like Superman and
Wonder Woman – without superpowers. Bruce is a man, for better or worse, that is
so utterly devoted to his mission that he’s sacrificed his entire existence to
fighting a never ending battle. (First Appearance: Detective Comics #27 (May
1939))
 http://www.ign.com/top/comic-book-heroes/3 
 http://comicbooks.about.com/od/characters/tp/topsuperhero.htm

Archetypes, Archetypes:

So sayeth the experts. I like all three characters for much the same reasons
they mention. 

Superman's the iconic Golden Hero, the White Knight, the Cowboy in the White
Hat. The Sky God who comes to Earth to right wrongs. This archetype has existed
in every tale told around every fire since the Dawn of Time. 

Spiderman is another archetype: a gentle trickster, using humor and trickery
rather than raw power. He also makes mistakes, and unlike Loki, atones for them.
In the myths of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota (the people mistakenly called
Sioux), Iktomi the Spiderman is the trickster figure (as Loki is in the Norse
myths). He looks human, his name means "spider", and he is (unlike Peter Parker)
mainly a negative role model behaving as socially inappropriately as possible.
"Most Sioux stories about Iktomi are consequently very funny, ranging from
light-hearted fables about buffoonish behavior to ribald jokes. But sometimes
Iktomi's misbehavior is more serious and violent, and the stories become
cautionary tales about the dangers of the world." 
http://www.native-languages.org/iktomi.htm

Batman is the Dark Hero. The one who strides the fine line between light and
shadow. Bagheera from the Jungle Books, Zorro, and Dracula. He is "a creature of
the night, black, terrible..." as he states in his origin tale, striking fear
into the hearts of evil. His look, character and gear is primarily evolved from
pop culture of the 1930s, including movies, pulp magazines, comic strips,
newspaper headlines, and even aspects of Bob Kane (Bat's creator) himself. The
Bat Whispers, Doc Savage, the Shadow, Sherlock Holmes, and yes, Zorro (who
dresses like Batman, rides a black horse, and plays the wimpy millionare by day
while battling crime by night). Zorro ("fox" in Spanish) is also a bit of a
trickster figure, like Spiderman (Fox is ever a trickster figure in myth), as
well as a dark avenging angel. Bats is driven by vengeance (bad guys killed his
parents) which brings me to...

Why Are They All Orphans???

Superman: planet blows up, parents throw him in an escape pod and he falls to
Earth. Presumeably parents blow up with planet.

Spiderman: parents mysteriously disappear in plane crash. Raised by Aunt and
Uncle. Uncle dies due to lack of intervention by a young Spidey who hasn't yet
absorbed that Great Wisdom of Uncle Ben: with great power comes great
responsibility.

Batman: parents killed by small time criminal before his very eyes.

There are other Heroes who don't seem to have parents. I can't think of what
happened to Wolverine's. Or Nightcrawler's. Or most of the X-Men's. Luke
Skywalker has no idea who his parents are and his aunt and uncle get killed by
the Bad Guys, then he finds Dad and well, that took 6 films and 20 years or so
to tell... Captain America wakes up in the wrong century and everyone he knew is
gone. Loki gets kicked out of the family. Thor does too, but he redeems himself
and gets to go back home with his parents.

Oh wait, there's always Ragnarok.

Orphans. Why does it always have to be orphans? Perhaps it is Rule #1 of
writing for kids; get the parents out of the way so the kids can have an
adventure. Or it's give the Hero the worst possible angst and obstacles so he
can look awesome overcoming them. Batman seems to have the market cornered on
angst and broodiness. Even the films are dark, noirish, full of the elventy
seven shades of grey found in cities that are under siege by villains. Full of
rain, and snow and eternal night and winter. (from Wiki): "Concept artist
Tully Summers commented on Christopher Nolan's style of cinematography when
asked about the difference between his designs for this film and fantasy-based
designs for Men in Black 3: "The difference for me was Christopher Nolan's
visual style. One of the things that makes his Batman movies so compelling is
their tone of plausibility. He will often prefer a raw, grittier design over one
that is very sleek and product design pretty. It's sort of a practical military
aesthetic. This stuff is made to work, not impress shoppers. The Dark Knight
Rises is a war film."

BRRRRRRRRRRRR! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

I prefer bright and light and Spidey cracking wise while swinging Tarzanlike
through the canyons of NY.

But wait. I love Batman. Why?

73 years of comics. 7 films. Something about Batman has resonated with a
widely varied audience for a lifetime. He's shifted and changed a bit over the
years, going from dark pulp fiction crime fighter who showed little remorse over
killing or maiming criminals, to softening a bit with the addition of Robin in
the 40s, to less social commentary and more lighthearted juvenile fantasy in the
years following WWII, to pure camp in the 60s, to Frank Miller's Dark Knight
Returns in the 80s, to Tim Burton's films (1989 etc.), and Joel Schumacher's,
and Christopher Nolan's return to the very Dark and stormy Knight. Like most
mythic figures (think Robin Hood or King Arthur) comic book superheroes that go
on for seventy years don't have a real "book canon", what consistency? There is
no consistency! You can't have umpty writers and artists over seventy years
telling one coherent story in the style of, say Harry Potter. So characters like
Batman remain what they are: archetypes, re-imagined over and over again. And
there is the concept of retcon (from Wiki): " Pannenberg's conception of retroactive continuity
ultimately means that history flows fundamentally from the future into the past,
that the future is not basically a product of the past." Comics are always
retconning storylines.

Oh yeah. Why do I love Batman? 

It's not just hunky actors. There's lots of those in awful films I can't
stand (don't even mention Twilight!). Christopher Nolan says: "We throw a lot
of things against the wall to see if it sticks. We put a lot of interesting
questions in the air, but that's simply a backdrop for the story. What we're
really trying to do is show the cracks of society, show the conflicts that
somebody would try to wedge open." Storytellers tell a story. Some use
allegory, which my favorite author, J.R.R. Tolkien loathed,
as allegory relied on the author pushing his ideas and intentions on the reader.
A equals B, so why not just write about B in the first place?
Applicability (Tolkien liked applicability) is telling a
great archetypal tale and letting the readers relate it to their own life, in
their own ways. 

We all can, in some way, relate to Batman and his struggles. We can admire
his determination to perservere in the face of impossible odds, to beat the
villainy, the monsters in the dark, his unswerving comittment to justice and
unwillingness to take life. This unyielding moral rectitude is our ideal. He
also fills that place occupied by the lone Hero; we have goverment and military
and police and various forces in our culture supposedly protecting us, but we
have a very deep need for The Hero. We realize the limits of those societal
forces of justice. We note that they are susceptible to corruption, to not being
there when we need them, to being underpaid and overworked... so we need The
Hero. 

In The Dark Knight Rises, Batman is not the only Hero. Others ranging from
Gordon to Catwoman to ordinary citizens to kids to the young man who's name is
revealed at the end of the film (yeah, I thought I recognized him) do their own
heroics. Batman does not act alone. He acts, he neutralizes villains, but he
also inspires. He inspires us too, in our non-fictional world, to rise above our
shortcomings, our obstacles, our supposed physical limitations.

Here, a review which sums it all up nicely. (Spoilers!) 
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/news/?a=64767


　


　


　


　


　


　


　


　


　


　


　


　

When I heard they were rebooting Spidey, my reaction was "What happened to
Toby Maguire?" And, "why do they have to keep telling the Origin Story again?"
Just write a new story already, there's only 50 years of comic books to draw
from. (Spidey first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15, August
1962). Oh, and TV shows, and newspaper comics, BBC radio, and fan films, and a
random bit from, yes, Turkey. Here's the lineup from Wikipedia: "Spider-Man has
been adapted to TV many times, as a short-lived live-action television series, a  Japanese
tokusatsu series, and several animated cartoon series. There were also the "Spidey Super
Stories" segments on the PBS educational series The Electric  Company, which featured a Spider-Man (played by  Danny Seagren) who did not speak out loud but instead used only word
balloons."

I missed most of this. I grew up comics-impaired. My parents listened to the
radio for the "screamin' preachers" and the news. I read books, mostly
containing sagas about girls and horses. I did watch George Reeves' Superman,
(my cousins watched Batman, because they got that channel),Star Trek, read
faerie tales, and newspaper comics. That's where I think I first saw the
web-slinger. Or maybe it was on TV; but we only got one channel of NBC until I
was in high school, then we got that and a couple of channels of snow and
blizzard (if you stuck the tin foil on the antenna just right, you'd get
slightly lighter snow). As an adult, on the heels of movie releases, I caught up
on Batman, and X-Men and a few other random comics that caught my eye. Spidey is
kind of hard to miss, being Marvel's flagship character.

In 2002, Spidey hit the big screen, played by Toby Maguire. We loved it. We
loved part 2, and I mostly forget part 3, but I know I saw it. 

Enter the Reboot.

WHAT?!?!?! Where the bleep is Toby Maguire?!?!?! And why are we retelling the
Origin Tale again? A friend once observed, of my own writing, that I had to keep
track of what was going on and not get on the Road to Inconsistencyville.

Oh, you mean like Marvel. Every time you turn around there's a new version of
the same superhero or team. A new origin story, a new reboot for this decade's
generation. There are so many storylines and versions of, say, Spiderman, that
there is no definitive story. He's become, actually, rather like King Arthur, or
the original Thor (of Norse Myth), an archetype of the collective unconcious, a
collection of tales with meaning for a very broad range of people in all times
and places. He is not at all like a character in a novel, or series of novels,
where all roads lead to Consistencyville.

Enter the Reboot.

A redhaired woman (only slightly older than Spidey himself, and somewhat
younger than Sally Field's Aunt May) walks into a theater... I opted for the
9:30 2D show, because I didn't want to wait, yawning, for an hour for the 3D
show. I work at night, so there are limited options for when to see films. I
sat, I waited... then a couple walked in pushing a baby stroller.

%*&^%*&^%!?!?!?!?! WHAT PART OF 9PM SHOWING OF SPIDERMAN DO YOU NOT
UNDERSTAND!?!?!? Really, this should be illegal. There should be baby-free zones
in theaters, either specific theaters, or specific times; like after 9, you need
to be old enough to understand that if you shriek, talk, burble or blather, I
will drop you off a cliff. If you have enough money to see a movie, you have
enough for a babysitter. Or you can shanghai a relative or friend, or trade
(cooking, laundry, shopping, driving, mowing) for sitting duties. I did not dish
out the Big Bucks to hear your kid's sound effects in my movie. And seriously,
on the kid's side of things; the kid may be sleeping now, the kid may not
actually watch the movie, but he/she will hear it, and that is way too scary for
anyone still in diapers. I walked out, smiled at the nice young men in charge in
the lobby and gave my ticket back, with the assurance I'd be back soon. I got as
far as the parking lot, and realized I'd be doing stuff like this blog the next
day, and doing battle with the privet hedge from hell, and scooping poop, and
Gawdknows what else, and i'd better just suck it up and go see the 10:30 3D. the
nice young men in the theater lobby were amused, I got a ticket, and sat
down...

Andrew Garfield (Spidey) turns out to be nearly 30, which puts him in that
interesting place spoofed so well by the Scream sendup Scary Movie, in which
30-somethings play teenagers. I would never have guessed, I thought he was,
like, 18. Oh well, once you reach a certain point, they all look alike; 18, 27,
34... all the same to me. He's a Jewish-American-Brit who... oh, and a Whovian
(appeared in several Dr. Who episodes)... was a gymnast and swimmer (hence the
chops to play the gymnastic web-slinger), and has already been nominated for a
Golden Globe and a Tony. 

The Amazing Spiderman starts with awe-inspiring visuals and keeps going. You
sort of know when it's CG, but only because you know no stunt guy could do
that.

Or did he? 

There's a lot of nifty Spidey-cam viewpoint as he's diving through the aerial
spaces of NY. There's stuff you can't do in the comics, because comics don't
move. There's stuff that works terrifically in 3D, without being really in your
face or obvious. There are background characters that are absolutely believable.
And I never realized till I read the credits that Martin Sheen and Sally Field
were Uncle Ben and Aunt May. They were that good.

This artist has seen just enough of the comics to be aware that each Marvel
character has a distinct visual style, a distinct way of moving, distinct poses
captured in comic panels. Spidey may be one of the most unique. Even the
web-impaired will note that the film captures these iconic moments as he swings
through the canyons of New York. And the end shot is the best comic book cover
ever, summing up the character on one terrific image. Andrew Garfield is nothing
like Garfield the cat... sort of the opposite actually; lean, lithe, wiry, a
gaunt gangly teenager Spidey in not-Spandex, a crouching spider chasing a hidden
mutant dragon through a fantasy framework of tunnels and skyscrapers and
bridges. In high school halls he's twitchy, quirky, unsure of himself. My first
thought about Andrew was "he's too pretty"... "he lacks the quirky, plain (but
appealing) quality of Toby Maguire". Then he started moving, talking, slouching,
hiding in his hoodie, shifting his feet trying to make words come out of his
mouth when confronted by The Girl. 

Perfect. The post-bitten by genetically altered spider moment when he's
crashed on a subway seat and awakened by a joker who's balanced a cold bottle of
beer on his forehead... let's just say a drop of water wreaks havoc... through
which Peter keeps being wildly apologetic... while wreaking more havoc...
because he doesn't yet realize who he is.

Yes, we cover the ground of the robber, Uncle Ben's demise, and Peter
wrestling with his responsibilities. But it's done from a fresh viewpoint, and
while not brushed off, we don't dwell on a story point we already know. We also
have a nod to the wrestling scene in the first Spidey film, though this Spidey
doesn't take a detour through lucha libre land. There is a funny bit where
Spidey draws his inspiration for the mask from a lucha libre wrestling poster. I
wonder how many of them were inspired by Spiderman? Certainly the variety of
winter Olympics spandexes containing spiderweb designs were inspired by
Spidey.

Which leads us to the scene in the film where Peter Parker is perusing the
web (yes, the web) searching for costuming... "Spandex... spandex... it's all
spandex!" I guess teen boys aren't too keen on spandex. What he ultimately comes
up with is the latest in a long line of superhero costuming: a sort of highly
textured stretchy Not-Spandex that looks like it might actually survive an
encounter with the Villain From Hell, and still shows off those muscles. The
original point of the Spandex Superhero, as I heard it, was that drawing anatomy
is easier than drawing the endless array of wrinkles in clothing. It also shows
off your superheroe's superness. Hence everyone in comics looking like they are
dressed for snorkelling in the Bahamas. (The diveskin is a full suit of spandex
which is very useful for snorkellers and kayakers who do not want to keep
applying sunscreen to wet skin every five minutes. I do not look as cool as
Spidey in mine).

The films necessarily are different from the comics in their continuity... or
again, I say, what continuity? The films must speak to not only the comics-savy
but to the comics impaired who just want to see a great flick. (By the way, did
you know you couldn't use the word flick in comics? the L and the I are too
close together and might form another word.) A bit of diversion here is NYCP
Detective Captain George Stacy, involved in a fight with the Lizard of Doom in
this film, he actually dies in a fight with Doc Oc in the comics. And I kept
going, "where's Mary Jane?" Seems Gwen Stacy is an early Peter Parker
girlfriend. Seems the reason we don't hear more of her is because heroes can't
always save the day: In issue #121 (June 1973), the Green Goblin throws Gwen
Stacy from a tower of either theBrooklyn Bridge (as depicted in the art) or the
George Washington Bridge (as given in the text). She dies during Spider-Man's
rescue attempt; a note on the letters page of issue #125 states: "It saddens us
to say that the whiplash effect she underwent when Spidey's webbing stopped her
so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her." An interesting nod to reality,
after all those moments when Aunt May is hanging by her cane from a ledge
(Spiderman 2, the film), or Peter Parker falls from the top of a 20 story
building (same film)(it's OK, he bounced off several clotheslines and one car
roof).

In the history of the comic, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko get credit. It is also
noted that Spiderman owes his existence to an army of writers and artists. In
the end, he is quite different from a character in one writer's novel, or one
director's film. Because he is shaped by so many, he becomes an archetype, a
character we all recognize some part of in ourselves. Our most iconic heroes are
archetypes: Superman is the Golden Hero, the Skygod, the Cowboy in the White
Hat, the Knight on the White Horse... Batman is the Dark Hero, Bagheera the cat
who walks by himself, the one striding the fine line between light and shadow,
the Hero who is always one misstep away from becoming the Villain... Spiderman
is the Trickster Hero (there is actually an ancient trickster hero in Plains,
Southwestern and Western myth called Iktomi the Spiderman, his costuming,
though, runs to buckskins and racoon). The Trickster can be dark; see Batman's
nemesis Joker, or positive; in many Native American myths Raven is a Creator's
helper, see also: Zorro (the Fox) and Robin Hood (in Norse lands, the word for
raven sounds much like robin). Spidey wears a hoodie in this film... Spidey
Hood, Spidey in the hood, Spidey in da' Hood. 

About that ancient Spiderman: from 
http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/tales/inktomi/Ant.htm 
Iktomi comes to us from the Plains, Southwestern and Western Native American
groups. Iktomi has sider-like characteristics and features. From Lakota legend,
Iktomi is "firstborn son of Inyan, the Rock, who was originally named Ksa. He
was born full grown from an egg and was the size of an ordinary human. He has a
big round body like a spider, with slender arms and legs, and powerful hands and
feet. He dresses in clothes made of bucksin and racoon." As a trickster, Iktomi
occupies the audiences of the Santee Dakota and other Dakots groups, and the
Arapaho know the Spider trickster as Nihansan. The Spider figure has many roles,
and even changes gender in tales throughout different cultures. The Navajo have
Spider Man and Spider Woman, Holy People who taught humans how to weave. They
also established the four warnings of death. The Spider appears as creator to
the Pima and Sia Pueblo Indians, and as a heplful elderly woman to the Pueblo.
The White Mountain Apache know Black Spider Woman, and the Spider Man of Taos is
a well-known and respected good medicine man. In Zitkala-Sa's tale, Iktomi meets
Coyote in her retelling of a Sioux legend. The Spider character also encounters
Coyote in another tale from the Plateau tribe known as the Coeur d'Alene. In
this tale "Spider Women are again beneficial beings; they live in the sky and
help Coyote's son drop back to earth in a box."

Archetype.

From Wiki's page on Spidey: A 1965 Esquire poll of college campuses
found that college students ranked Spider-Man and fellow Marvel hero the Hulk
alongside Bob Dylan and Che Guevara as their favorite revolutionary icons. One
interviewee selected Spider-Man because he was "beset by woes, money problems,
and the question of existence. In short, he is one of us." 

This Spidey has the eternal Spiderman issues we can relate to. This film
gives us a fresh view of those issues, a different angle on the problems that
Toby Maguire so elegantly evoked. Andrew Garfield is a younger, geekier, even
more gymnastic, awkward, incredibly graceful Spidey. I can't wait for more.

Near the end, there is a moment in a classroom when a teacher says there is
only one plot in fiction: "who am I?"  This film explores that... amazingly.　



 Oh... and then there's SpiderDan. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Goodwin) On November 21,
1980, Dan Goodwin witnessed the MGMGrand fire in Paradise, Nevada United States,
including the inability of the Clark County Fire Department and the supporting
fire departments to rescue scores of hotel guests trapped inside. His ideas
for rescue rejected by the fire depts, he donned a Spidey suit and scaled some
buildings, just to prove a point. You can learn more by googling Dan Goodwin, or
checking this: http://www.skyscraperdefense.com/building_climbs.html


　


　


　


　

a musing by members of the Longship Company on the anachronistically Brave fantasy-Scotland world of Pixar
 
A posting on our Longship Company yahoo group about Pixar's latest computer
generated faerie tale "Brave" left these comments in its wake. Be warned; we are
manaical historians, horsemen, swordsmen, blacksmiths, cookers of medieval
feasts, weavers of chainmail, descendants of Scots and Vikings... oh yeah, and we
have a 40' Viking longship on which we've road tested all the theories of  sailing, rowing, and dodging Thor's hammer in existence.

 Forthwith, our discussion;

(Teanna) Noted, on second viewing of Pixar's "Brave", that once more
Hollywood thinks you can row and sail a Viking Longship at the same time. OK,
they're coming into dock and the sails are a tiny bit on the slackish side...
comments anyone? (otherwise, it was a terrific little movie... even with the
anachronistic castle and the Clydesdale from the future (the Clyde didn't exist
until approximately the American revolution, she should have been riding a
Highland Pony or an Eriskay). 

In "Beowulf" (the CG version) we also see a Viking ship arriving in the teeth of a gale with the crew rowing... and the sail up. This would definitely cause breakage and destruction; since you can't row as fast as you sail (nooo, not even Beowulf or Thor), you'd catch a very large "crab", the water would rip the oar out of your hands, breaking things along the way; the side of the ship, your arm, your neighbor's head...

(Capn' Atli); Well, you can in light winds; but it gets very messy as soon as
the breeze picks up! Of further note- did anybody notice the steerboards on the
port side? Christi nearly punched me when I pointed it out. Her attitude is:
"Just watch the movie!" ;-)

(Jim) I had a friend who used to go out on
the bay and simultaneously motor and sail. He would do this when there was no
wind -- thus, he would be the only boat on the bay with sails up. He would motor
in reverse. The result was taut sails and, he presumed, confusion on shore.

 (Roger) Might the horse have been a "destrier," a medieval warhorse? I don't
recall anyone in the story providing a breed name. 
Steerboards on the left is a major offense. 
Rowing with slack sails...not so much. Around here they occasionally have
smugglers' races which allow the use of sail and oars both. How you juggle them
depends on your level of experience. 
As for the Viking/Scots mix. My ancestors came from the Isle of Raasay. The
first clan chief on the island, Malcolm Garbh MacLeod, was the grandson of Olaf
the Black, a norseman.

 (Teanna) Noooooooooo that was most definitely a Clydesdale. A beautifullly
cartooned Clydesdale. A beautifully cartooned, animated and anachronistic
Clydesdale... but then some other stuff was also in that vague sort of early
pre-gunpowder faerie tale Pixar time period. Exactly how I (as a kid) pictured
the time between Bible Stories and the American Revolution: that vague place in
which existed King Arthur, Vikings (with horns, of course), Robin Hood, and the
Three Musketeers. Here's to a new generation of histoically cornfused kids. 
But probably they'll be so enchanted by  the story they'll look up the actual
history.I suspect Pixar used the  Clydesdale (like the Scottish highland
Cattle, the Scottish Deerhounds and  the black faced sheep) as recognizeably
Scottish things, without regard to precise period.

(Drey) Before Teanna jumps into this one: Naw, that ain't a destrier. Its
another flub on the part of the filmmaker. Warhorses were not draft horses: but
many people seem to think so anyway.
Still a pretty movie...

(Dave, cameraman, on anachronisms in film) I was hoping to get a lot of good
footage at the 149th anniversary reenactment for stories concerning the 150th
anniversary next year, but I kept having trouble with the camera's anachronism
filter. I'd get a beautifully accurate shot lined up, and just as I'd hit the
record button something or someone from 150 years in the future would wander
through....
Since the "war horse" is, for all intents and purposes, an extinct breed
(like the "Conestoga Horse" of Lancaster County), I can't fault Pixar for going
with the best availiable reference information; and yes, no particular breed was
mentioned.
Agreed, portboards were a major faux pas--at least til an
archeologist digs up a ship with da steering thingie on the wrong side...
Since this was "Fantasy Scotland"--and one damned good flick-- I'm no more
worried about the anachronisms and what we perceive as technical errors than I
was bothered by the horned helmets in "How to Train Your Dragon". What really
worries me is that Hollywood can't seem to make anything look beautiful
anymore without running it through a computer.

 (Teanna; on the steerboard on the port side); (headsmack) DUH! (and, I uh,
saw it twice...) 

"Steerboard" became "starboard"... it's the starboard side of the boat
because that's where the steerboard is! Pixar... you flubbed bigtime! (Dyslexic
Scots?)(or computer artists?. Call us next time you do a film with Viking
ships.

(Teanna) As noted even on the dreaded WIki, the modern draft horse is not the
medieval destrier, or any other heavy horse. the draft is an exaggeration of the
earlier heavy horses, bred for pulling. Somewhere I read the medieval "warhorse"
would look more like a Friesian... Freisian... Frie fri... fro... frum... those
medium sized black hairy footed horses. Reasonably fast, agile, strong, somewhat
heavy of bone, but not a modern drafter.

It's spelled Friesian. "The Friesian horse is unique, truly a breed to be
proud of. It developed from a very old breed which was inherent to all of
western Europe. It's the only horse native to Holland. Historically speaking,
the Friesian horse has been influenced by eastern bloodlines and has often been
threatened with extinction. Thanks to the single-mindedness and dauntless
dedication of true horse lovers, one can still appreciate the many facets of the
Friesian horse today."  http://www.fhana.com

(wiki) "The word destrier does not refer to a breed, but to a
type of horse: the finest and strongest warhorse. These horses were
usually stallions, bred and raised from foalhood specifically for the needs of
war. The destrier was also considered the most suited to the joust; coursers
seem to have been preferred for other forms warfare.They had powerful
hindquarters, able to easily coil and spring to stop, spin, turn or sprint
forward. They also had a short back and well-muscled loin, strong bone, and a
well-arched neck. From medieval art, the head of the destrier appears to have
had a straight or slightly convex profile, strong, wide jaw, and good width
between the eyes. The destrier was specifically for use in battle or tournament; for everyday
riding, a knight would use a palfrey, and his baggage would be carried on a
sumpter horse (or packhorse), or possibly in wagons."

(wiki) "There are many theories as to what type and size destriers attained, but they
apparently were not enormous draft types. Recent research undertaken at the Museum of London using literary, pictorial and archeological sources, suggests war horses (including destriers) averaged 14–15 hands, and were distinguished from a riding horse by their strength, musculature and training, rather than their size. This estimate is supported by an analysis of medieval horse armour located in the Royal Armouries, which indicates the equipment was originally worn by horses of 15 to 16 hands, about the size and build of a modern field hunter or ordinary riding horse."

Actually, the modern Lippizanner is very close to this description.