Minute Seven: From Soaring Sights to Storytime

We have our first guest for our trip to Asgard! We’re joined by Ryanne Bennett from the Black Girl Nerds podcast this week. Check her and her shows out at the links below.

Ah, Asgard! In the seventh minute of Kenneth Branagh’s 2011 film Thor...

• We continue our flight through Asgard – quite the city. We talk about the general look of it, what production designer Bo Welch, producer Kevin Feige, and director Kenneth Branagh were trying to achieve with the design of this city.
• But just how do you pronounce the actual name for the royal palace, as well as the name of the church organ in Iceland from which it gets its look? Not easy to say...
• And like the Star Wars universe, why do Asgardians seem not to believe in any sort of hand railing system.
• The city is full of canyons, fantastical buildings, and enormous statues. It’s a shame we never really get to explore any of these areas in this film or later ones.

It's all been a story to young Thor and Loki in Odin's vault in the bowels of Asgard.

• We find out that Odin’s voiceover is, in fact, him telling this story to his young sons, Thor and Loki. We see that Odin looks about the same age he did during the Asgard-Jotunheim battle so how much time has passed?
• These two actors playing young Thor and Loki are great. They look the parts and carry the personas of their adult selves very well. So what’s happened to Dakota Goyo and Ted Allpress?
• Branagh really saw this story as this issue between a father and his sons. You can really get a sense his Shakespearean roots were drawn to this aspect of the story.
• But the relationship between Thor and Loki in the myths is different than what we get here.
• Speaking to production design, triquetras are everywhere in Asgard. These are also called Odin’s knots. It’s interesting how this symbol is often interchanged with the valknut. But are they technically the same thing?
• And hey – is that the eternal flame behind young Thor?
• Outside of all of this, there was a scripted scene immediately after this that revealed Odin feeling ill and in desperate need of the Allsleep. Was it cut because it would’ve been too confusing?

Our first time visiting Asgard and we’re loving it. Tune in!

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Film Sundries

• Watch this film: iTunes • Amazon • Netflix • YouTube • Disney+
• Join the conversation on Discord
• Script Transcript
• Trailer #1
• Trailer #2
• Poster artwork
• Source Material
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