I know, it's been months! I'm so sorry for the hiatus. I had job change (yay!) and between adjusting and a few minor roadblocks, I've been thinking about posts and...not posting. But here we are, reunited to talk about how Disney did this summer at the movies.
In Defense of Solo: A Star Wars Story
Let's start with the bad news. Solo did not do well at the box office during its Memorial Day weekend release date.That is NOT because the movie was bad. It was great. It was the release date. We just had a Star Wars movie six months ago, and we won't have another one until December 2019? This was just a ridiculous idea and I'm glad Bob Iger has taken responsibility for it. Bob, these are not Marvel movies you can just toss at us constantly. The canon material is technically much smaller than Marvel's. These needed to be treated carefully and this is where you screw up? I won't lie, I'm darn mad about that. But I'm glad Iger seems to have learned the lesson quickly.
That being said, I really thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and to be honest, wouldn't mind more of young Solo. OK, let's be honest, what I want is 25,000 movies of young Lando. He is not only one of my favorite characters but also, I've been watching Donald Glover since Community and there was no one else to play young Lando, and if anything, I feel he got short changed a little.
So, in case you haven't seen Solo, please do so, you won't regret it.
The Incredibles 2 and Bao
The big event of Disney's summer season was the Incredibles 2. Now, I'm in what appears to be the minority in that I wasn't really chomping at the bit for a sequel. I like the original fine, but it's not at the top of my Pixar list. Not at the bottom either, just not up top.That being said, this was a more than worthy sequel. PLEASE NOTE HOLLYWOOD, this is how you do a proper follow-up to a movie. It doesn't rehash the original story beats. It takes what made the original interesting and unique and pulled that forward. The movie is still so much about Mr. Incredible's yearning for the glory days and struggles to be a "normal family man", it just tackles a different end of the same concept.
And, having seen it with my 7 year old niece AND 73 year old grandmother, I can say with certainty that Jack Jack is the standout star of Incredibles 2. I'm dying for the short coming with the DVD, "Auntie Edna".
I would be remiss if I didn't pause a moment to speak about the short released with Incredibles 2, Bao. I saw the movie with my aunt's three children, adopted from China and Korea, and it meant a lot to watch a short about their culture with them. Not to mention the Pixar shorts crew earns every award they're going to get for this short, with all the emotion and subtlety they packed into a film with no dialogue.
Pixar, please don't ever get rid of the Shorts division. Release one with every theatrical feature! There is more than one way to tell a story and I'm so glad Pixar keeps this going. Short stories are just a different muscle from features and allowing your staff to work on and understand both is truly the step to cultural diversity behind the scenes. Plus, it's like getting 2 for 1 when you go to the movies, and Pixar also has a great sense of something contrasting to put in front of their features.
Christopher Robin
In all honesty, Christopher Robin is what held me up from doing this blog post because I hadn't had a chance to see it yet.If it's any indication the wide audience this movie had, my nephew, my Star Wars loving nephew told us this movie was his #1 priority. He couldn't wait to see it. Which struck us as funny, because there wasn't a gun shown in the entire trailer.... (he likes weapons).
I have to admit, this movie was a real surprise. And again, I have a message for Disney. KEEP DOING THIS! What I found so fascinating about this movie is that despite being about Pooh....well, it's really about Christopher Robin as a grown up. It felt a little like Bedknobs & Broomsticks or Mary Poppins, where a character is asked to remember not just his childhood but the person he was as a child, deep in his heart. It saddens me that we still live in a world where this is a necessary lesson, but it gives me hope for the Walt Disney Company that they allowed this movie to be made. And it suits the Winnie-the-Pooh franchise so well. This is what Disney can and should do if they're going to remake so many of their animated films, go ahead and take it into a new space, again, while maintaining the integrity of the themes of the franchise.
And to be honest, isn't Pooh in a way a mascot of Disney? Not just that he's a well-recognized character in the Disney company, but that the idea of being in touch with your inner child is not just a theme of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, but the philosophy of Walt Disney's life, keeping in touch with the child at heart.
Small Note: The Avengers
OK, as consistent readers know (despite my being an inconsistent writer) I'm not a Marvel fan. I'm vaguely considering doing a marathon watch of all the Marvel movies just so I understand what's coming to the Marvel land at DCA, but it's on the back burner.No one in my house likes Marvel movies. But I have a little anecdote just to share.
my grandmother loves movies, little movies, big movies, depressing movies, Star Wars Movies, animated, pretty much all of it. She loves special effects movies. We tease her because after some of those big movies she always wonders aloud, "How Do They DO That?!"
My grandmother was at my aunt's house to help her out with something. My aunt's children were trying to keep her from leaving and asked her to watch Avengers: Infinity War with them (I think it was Infinity War, she wouldn't know the difference...). She agreed to, but didn't last long....she HATED it.
And it wasn't really because she didn't understand it. I've known her to understand a movie better coming in from the middle (seriously!). She HATED the special effects. She came home and told my mother and me how awful it looked. Now, we haven't convinced her of anything, even if we did, she wouldn't remember. She just knew in that moment what she saw and she hated it.
I was surprised she said it looked so bad because, as previously mentioned, she's not averse to effects movies (really, talk to her about King Kong, she's hilarious). This is another thing that makes me think I need to see the Marvel movies. We all three enjoyed Black Panther, and it didn't look that bad. Can a Marvel movie person enlighten me? Go ahead and do so in the comments at the bottom of the page.
So, a short dip but I hope one that opens conversation. Anything to add? Disagree with? Go ahead and do so in the comments.
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Have a great day!
