Review of Lockwood’s Screen Siren
by SealWyf, HSM Editor
We recognize this dress the moment we see it. It’s iconic — the distinctive side-slit sparkly evening gown of Jessica Rabbit, from the 1988 film, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”.
Despite her seductive appearance, Jessica is a good woman, a loyal and loving wife to the manic cartoon character Roger Rabbit, who is based very loosely on Bugs Bunny. When questioned about her morals, Jessica drops the classic line, “I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.” Jessica’s contradictory appearance and behavior are one of the major subtexts of the film, and a biting commentary on the assumptions people make about each other, based on appearance.
Still, you can’t blame people for making those assumptions. As a voluptuous cartoon, Jessica’s appearance is a blatant caricature of sexuality. And her performance as a night club singer is even more over-the-top:
Jessica Rabbit is the ultimate abstraction of a sexual female — all breasts and buttocks, like the Venus of of Willendorf, but with a wasp-thin waistline. (Obviously taste in women has changed significantly since the Stone Age.) Her shape says “female”, the way two dots and a line in a circle says “face”. It hits us in the reptile brain, and we unconsciously salivate, and imagine… all sorts of things. It’s not that we’re bad — she’s just drawn that way.
So what is a costume like this doing in PlayStation Home?
I might have been inclined to resent this dress and see it as yet another example of the selling of sexuality in Home. However, the fact that it’s Jessica Rabbit’s dress makes it all right. I loved that movie, with its clever mix of live action and animation. The world-building was wonderful — having the Toon universe coexisting with normal reality was simply brilliant, and let to many hilarious sight gags. And the back-story, the plot to sabotage public transportation in Los Angeles to benefit the fledgling auto industry (a true story, by the way), appeals to me. I grew up in the LA area, and I remember taking street cars as a child, and being puzzled when the tracks were torn up a few years later.
In many ways, the Screen Siren resembles Heavy Water’s Pinup avatars, which are also blatantly sexual. And I’m sure that many people will see them as too similar. But, for me, the Screen Siren has three distinct advantages.
I have already mentioned the first — this dress is a quote of a famous movie costume, which was worn by a sympathetic character. By contrast, the Heavy Water avatars are quotes of anonymous calendar pinup girls; they may have some nostalgic appeal, but for me, the reference is much less appealing.
The second advantage of the Screen Siren is a major one — this is a costume, not a full-body avatar. It consists of a hairstyle (the “Screen Siren”), and a combined torso, leg and foot outfit. You can’t mix and match the garment parts, but you can add your own arm treatment, and you can use your own face. You can even substitute another hair style, but the Screen Siren hair is so perfect for this dress that you probably will not want to.
The third advantage of the Screen Siren over the Pinups is its locomotion. Since this is a costume, it uses the standard avatar locomotion, while the Heavy Water Pinups have custom animations. The Pinup locomotion is extreme to the point of being embarrassing. To put it bluntly, they walk like cartoon hookers, which is exactly what they resemble.
While the orginal Jessica Rabbit also has a distinctive sexy sashay, this is not transferred to the costume. In a way it’s a pity that the shoes are included, because it means you can’t use the nDreams “high heels” locomotion without creating the ridiculous spectacle of a high heel balanced precariously on another high heel. However, the poses in the Lockwood Drey Supermodel animation pack work very well for Jessica, and they don’t make her walk like a tramp.
The Lockwood Screen Siren dress comes in two colors — “cerise” (a sort of magenta pink), and black. This may be a way to avoid copyright violations, since Jessica Rabbit’s dress is definitely red. Each dress has matching high-heeled shoes. Since the arms are not included, you can add any of Home’s long gloves to create Jessica’s distinctive look, or take her in another direction with bracelets or hand items, such as a microphone. The Screen Siren hair shows up under hairstyles instead of head items. You set its color in the normal way, using the hair color palette.
I expect this outfit will attract quite a bit of trolling if you wear it in public spaces, since it is so provocative. And I’m willing to bet that many of the purchasers will be male. Young males seem to enjoy sporting overly-sexualized female outfits in Home, often as part of trolling behavior.
But that’s okay. For those of us who love “Roger Rabbit”, this dress is a welcome addition to Home’s fantasy wardrobe. Since you are using your own face and the normal character animations, it’s far less provocative than the Pinups. In fact, this outfit is all you’ll need in Home to play a good-hearted girl who is not really bad — she’s just drawn that way.
February 13th, 2013 by SealWyf_ | 10 comments
SealWyf is a museum database programmer, who has been active in online communities since before the Internet, and in console gaming since the PS1. In games, she prefers the beautiful and quirky, and anything with a strong storyline. She is obsessed with creating new aesthetic experiences in PlayStation Home.
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Absolutely LOVED the Roger Rabbit Movie, It certainly was way ahead of it’s time and you could be right that this may generate an unnecessary amount of trolling. Again this raises the question as to the general age group Playstation home is geared toward.
Great Article!
Cheeky x
That’s good. The article that is. But so is the upcoming avatar as is Jessica Rabbit. So what if she’s bad? Years ago someone on the internet told me I was bad. I said, “Huh?” and it was explained that bad is good. oh my! So the avatar and Jessica is bad which is good. That’s nice, I think anyway.
As to what to wear, use your own face and any hairstyle you choose. Be yourself cus that’s bad… which is good.
LOL! Fleetfoot, you be crazy!!!
Anyway, I have to say that I love this dress. I was about 7 years old when Roger Rabbit came out and I was really into drawing Warner Bros cartoons at the time, so I drew a LOT of Roger. Jessica and her dress though, that was a VERY different thing! I guess she showed me at a very young age that a woman can ooze sexyness while still wearing a full-length dress. But that particular dress ingrained itself into my mind, and anytime I see something similar I instantly think of Jessica. Like she says herself, it’s no bad thing, she’s just drawn that way. And MAN! What a drawing! ; )
Great Write Seal,
I love this dress. While it is Jessica’s dress, it is the dress of Old Hollywood Glamour Stars, stars like Heady Lamar,Rita Heywood and Veronica Lake (who Jessica was loosely based off). These women were True Screen Sirens, sex appeal personified. This costume stands out with the same qualities, glamour and sex appeal. It fits in with some of the more retro looks of Home.
A great article and a great costume.
A nice article, indeed.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is my all-time favorite animated movie. When I saw this Dress, I immediately went into nostalgic heaven.
Thanks for providing your point of view on this design.
Hey I resemble this remark! I too am also captured by men that make me laugh… It really makes me want to play paddy cake with them… A bit of a miniature version but you know the dress does have it’s perks- much easier to cross a street when you can stop traffic
Though I like the dress it isn’t for me. I don’t really care for over the top clothing in Home, I would have bought the dress in a heartbeat if it didn’t have the exaggerated body parts attached to the design. Nice article Seal.
I’m actually surprised how much I like it. I’m looking forward to taking “Jessica” for a spin in the Casino.
Ya had plenty money 1922…
Who can forget that great scene? Everything about it was perfect and I’ve been singing that song ever since I got this great costume.