March 7

By Anna K

Spring brings an abundance of new things: flowers start popping up in the grass, the weather is finally warm (for some of the time anyway), and sweaty teenagers are seen running around after school. That's right, last week was tryout week for spring sports. There were four different spring sports that students could join: baseball, track and field, softball, and soccer (both girls and boys). With a variety of sports to choose from, it's no wonder many students decided to take up a new activity. Almost all sports saw an increase of athletes this year. In particular, track and field had 120 people try out. Joining a team is a great way to stay healthy and active, not to mention how fun it is to play a sport and bond with your teammates. If you didn’t try out for a sport this year, you should definitely mark your calendars for the next school year. Additionally, you can still join German teams and if you are a freshman, Child Youth Services sports are still an option. Congratulations to all of Stuttgart High Schools athletes for surviving tryouts week!

By Julia M

Beauty and the Beast is a timeless classic everyone knows and loves. It is also the first musical production the Stuttgart Drama Department has put on in quite some time. This production is different from the previous plays at SHS; instead of having only one cast and only two performances, there are two different casts that put on two performances each. The role of the Beast Many people tried out for this spring performance, more than either of the productions put on earlier this year. There is also a very large tech crew that will help in all four performances. 

So when the Stuttgart Drama Department Director, Mrs. Bagnaschi, got the terrible news that the play must be cancelled due to licensing issues, many people were devastated. Even though they were still relatively early in the production process, the cast was extremely frustrated that all of their hard work put in for auditions and costume coordination were for nothing. But not just cast members were disappointed; so was the audience! For the first time in years, the Stuttgart Drama Department would put on a beloved musical that showcased two different casts over the course of four different performances. 

But do not despair! The production is now back on! On Friday, February 28, the cast was informed that the production will go on. This time, however, Mr. Burl will be the director rather than Mrs. Bagnaschi. 

Now there is more pressure on the cast to get lines and cues right due to the audience’s familiarity with the Beauty and the Beast and the shortened rehearsal time. Another challenge this certain production faces is the expense; it is much more expensive than any other previous performance, with an expected cost of $5,000-$10,000. 

The road to the performance has been a rocky one, but hopefully it will smoothen out soon. Both the Stuttgart Insider and the Stuttgart Drama Department hope that this article has clarified some of the recent turmoil in the production process.

By Sophia B

"Dogman" is officially the first outsourced movie from DreamWorks, and continues the studio’s trend of adapting children’s novels into feature films. It is the second Dav Pilkey adaptation released by Dreamworks, following up Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie released in 2017. Dogman serves as a sort of spiritual successor to Captain Underpants, with a similar visual style and sense of humor.

Speaking of visual style, the animation is eye-catching and unique. "Dogman" takes the rough, scratchy and nostalgic art of Pilkey and brings the illustrations of the graphic novels to animation. The creators experimented with shifting frame rates, less realistic rendering used to mimic cell shading, and textures that look hand drawn. The film is also beautifully colored, and is able to show the emotion and significance of a scene or location through tone and value alone. With both the textures and colors, the animators created a world that looks like it was drawn in crayons and markers. DreamWorks took a risk, and right now, in the midst of a revolution in mainstream CG animation, this was their best time to ever do it. 

DreamWorks has recently been refining their sense of humor, and are taking a step back from their signature crudeness of their earlier films to make more distinct scripts to appeal to different audiences. In the case of "Dogman", the writers doubled down on the meta humor and self-awareness of the comics, including grammar mistakes in the script. The prop and background designers also added intentional grammatical and spelling faults into the environment. The titular Dogman is mute, and it helps him stand out as a character in the dialogue-reliant film. Dogman has his own moments of visual comedy, which are usually displays of his canine mannerisms in different situations. Although the banter between the other characters is very well written and is faithful to the novels, the writers and production should have used the wacky art style to their advantage and let some of the side characters have their own moments of slapstick comedy.

Dogman’s own characterization is handled very well. Both of his sides, dog and man, are balanced. His reasoning skills, emotional intelligence, and competency makes for a likeable protagonist. The cast has a good number of characters, focusing on Dogman and his rival, Petey the cat. Although there are emotional arcs for both the protagonist and antagonist, the film doesn’t really linger on their arcs due to the breakneck pacing. The action is entertaining with great camera work and transitions, but the fight scenes in the first and second act didn’t have plot relevance and were there just to keep the movie more exciting. Action needs purpose, and "Dogman" doesn’t deliver with the main characters’ arcs. The pace could have been slowed down in more emotional moments and should have focused on the character's relationships more. 

DreamWorks is known for their book adaptations, and they have taken creative liberties in the past to make the source material fit the medium of cinema. In the graphic novels, Dogman’s adventures are episodic in nature and have a thin linear storyline. The film adaptation excels in being faithful to the books by keeping an unserious tone and details that don't make sense in conventional storytelling. These details are what make "Dogman" a really fun watch, but what it makes up for in basic intrigue, it loses in story. DreamWorks can be called the king of adaptations, but to keep attention, they let some character development slide, and keep the script too similar to the books.

As with The "Wild Robot", "Dogman" is a book series, an expansive one at that. "Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie" never had a theatrical sequel, despite its subtitle. A continuation of "Dogman" has lots of potential, and DreamWorks arguably handles their sequels the best out of any major animation studio. A "Dogman" franchise, even just a TV series, would be a fun addition to the DreamWorks catalog. 

Overall, "Dogman" was a fun flick that delivered in its visuals and humor. Although there should have been some more story, I would definitely recommend it, especially for a great family movie night. 

By Tadek N

There has been a shift toward test-optional admissions policies among U.S. colleges driven by concerns over equity and the predictive validity of standardized tests like the SAT. Critics argue that these exams can disadvantage students from lower-income backgrounds who may lack access to expensive test preparation resources. In response, over 1,230 American universities and colleges have made the SAT and ACT optional for admissions, aiming to level the playing field, and make college accessible to people from all walks of life.

The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated this trend, as challenges in administering standardized tests led 1,600 universities to forgo these requirements temporarily. Many schools found that removing test requirements increased the diversity of their students, leading them to extend or make test-optional policies permanent. For example, the University of California system decided to eliminate standardized testing requirements altogether, citing concerns about fairness and accessibility. These developments have prompted ongoing discussions about the role of standardized testing in college admissions and its impact on diversity and access.