Recently, a documentary called “Fursonas” was released. You may have heard about it; it’s even been advertised on FA. There’s been a lot of talk about the film, and I too want to say some things.

The first thing I want to say is this: I HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE! Nor at this point do I intend to.

This is because I have been following some of the news surrounding the movie for a while and the director’s comments about his own film have been very off-putting. In an interview published on Flayrah, the director – whose name is Dominic Rodriguez – said, “I made a movie for smart people, not dumb people,” which I cannot help but see as a way of preemptively dismissing any criticism. “Oh, you disagree with my film? It must be because you were too dumb to understand it.”

I’ve been reacting to this comment and others the same way I react to similar comments in cover letters in the Sofawolf slushpile: by going into surly editor mode. I’m already in a mood where I want to nitpick this documentary, not enjoy it. I’m not in a place where I could give the movie a fair shake.

But I’m not interested in the movie on its own, but also how the movie impacts the furry community. It has been hyped up for a while within the community, and Dominic has been going on a media blitz, talking about the film. That impact I can see. That impact I can discuss.

So are people enjoying “Fursonas”? So far as I can tell, yes. The reaction, both within and without the furry fandom, is generally positive. The portrayals of Boomer the Dog and Varka (the owner of Bad Dragon) get the most positive attention. People talk about how humanizing and lovable it makes furries. And a lot of furries are talking about what an honest portrayal of furries it is. So that’s good.

It’s not all good, however. There are two main criticisms I see frequently tossed at the film.

The first is that the movie is over-reliant on furry lifestylers and fursuiters. One non-furry reviewer even seemed perplexed that one of the furries portrayed never got into a suit even once in the entire film. (That furry was Uncle Kage.) This seems like a bad mistake on the part of the documentary because failing to acknowledge the artists and writers in the community is a common criticism of media stories about the fandom. It’s even worse because Dominic himself is a furry and should have known better. While Dominic defended this choice in his Flayrah interview as wanting to show “furry as an identity and as a community” and that he couldn’t portray everything, this still seems at odds with his media blitz. Non-furries are going to look at this film and are likely to think that furry equals fursuits.

The second criticism is the treatment of Uncle Kage. Dominic’s philosophy in the documentary is that all furries should be free to be themselves, and he treats Kage’s advice on how to deal with the media as the antithesis of this philosophy, a sanitizing of the fandom that only serves to hurt furry self-expression. This is by far the most divisive part about the movie and the source of its controversy. It seems to split people on whether or not they agree with Kage and think the treatment is unfair, or disagree with Kage and think he is finally getting his comeuppance. (For my part, I see Dominic's standpoint as strange: being who I am is not at odds with taking care of how I present myself to the media.) Regardless, I see comments form people who both agree and disagree with the treatment of Kage that this part of the film is the weakest. The most frequent comment is that Dominic comes off as too biased.

A smaller criticism I’ve seen one or two people bring up (and that I’ve had myself) is that a few of the people being interviewed for the documentary have a reputation in the fandom for... well... being rude or inconsiderate to other members of the fandom. It rather undercuts Dominic’s message that all furries should be free to be who they are, when, for some of them, who they are is a selfish boor. In the interest of not being a gossip,* no I don’t want to say who gives this impression. I will say that it seems they are the vast minority among interviewees.

With these positives and criticisms of the documentary, what do I think the impact of the movie will ultimately be? Will it be good or bad?

At this point, it’s hard to say. The documentary has only been out a few days. At a guess, I would say the impact will be good, but not extremely good. Outside the fandom, I’m already seeing a lot of articles that spend more time focusing on Kage than spend talking about how awesome the fandom itself is: I’m worried that the media narrative for the next year or two might be that furries aren’t weird, we’re just easily misled by a charismatic leader. And within the fandom, rather than starting a conversation about identity, which Dominic implied he wanted, it seems to have made people talk at one another, not with one another. But all that being said, there are a lot of good things in the film that a lot of people are liking and it appears to be good enough to beat out the bad parts of the film.


* No, really, I hate that part of the internet that wants to name names and turn people into objects of ridicule. I don't want to start a dogpile. I'm not saying who it was.