'Stuart...' take 2 - Sep 25

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. As soon as I published my opinions on ‘Stuart…’ people began to, err, point out that this was before the S1 finale was published, and that I was wrong. I admit. I was wrong. ‘Stuart…’ isn’t about the multiverse, it is… what is it about?

The show does begin as a show about multiverse – the original Stuart finds the show’s main Stuart (and Bert) and gives her the Interferator (Whatever) for him to go and fix the universe. (An alt-Raj number 1 gives further exposition). They are joined by Denise, Stuart’s estranged ex, and Kripke, who is the dictator in the post-apocalyptic, vaguely Mad-Max-based universe, where the quartet resides. Since Stuart is incompetent, and the other three – mostly too, the foursome begins to travel the multiverse… that is it. That is the whole premise. No fixing, especially intentional one is done. The quartet is just running around, looking for something/someone or other… and if they brought any particular knowhow from their universe, it is quickly forgotten and never mentioned again. Pause.

In fact, in one of the episodes, the ‘main’ Stuart-Denise-Bert-Kripke team meets their variants – an all-scientist team – and aside from their get-up/clothing/etc., the two groups are interchangeable. The original Stuart just as well could have used AI or whatever to clone himself and the other three, and let them lose all over the multiverse – and maybe he did. We do not know. The show’s format has extra-short episodes, impossible for plot development, but wait! We do get it! Pause.

In the episode 1x09, we get to see a Flash fight Mr. Freeze. This is a sharp break away from the rest of S1, where we just saw a bunch of OC crap, and nothing more. I wonder did DC pay to have its’ characters appear on ‘Stuart…’ or were they paid to have this happen. Either way, what happened – happened, and then we got to the season finale, where we learned about the Adversary – we saw neither hide nor hair nor evidence of their activity throughout the S1 – and the team SDBK got trapped/released/stuck/etc. in ‘the real life’, by breaking through the fourth wall. What next?

If ‘Stuart…’ was done correctly and the audiences learned to feel something for the new main 4, then the S1 finale would’ve moved ‘Stuart…’ fully out of the sitcom territory, and into something else. Sci-fi drama, maybe. Instead, there’s nothing, just the epiphany that we are apparently done with the multiverse – the team SDBK appears to be vanquished for the moment – and are doing something more in line with MCU WandaVision, perhaps… or something else entirely.

Again, if ‘Stuart…’ S1 built itself correctly to the S1 finale, we would be honestly worried as to how the universe will fare now that Stuart is unable to fix it for real, but the show did not. Stuart – and his team – have neither done any fixing, and in fact might have caused some of their own damage, as when they moved ‘military Penny’ into a new universe and made her a ‘centaur Penny’ – but we never see the fallout. ‘Stuart’ created at least 6 new universes, but we spent very, very little time in each one, and it’s hard to feel anything for them. In addition, again, we know by now that the original Stuart sent many teams SDBK into the multiverse, and they are interchangeable. This team SDBK is out. Switch onto the next one! We might never know the difference! However ‘Stuart…’ is getting a S2 regardless! Eventually! Did I mention that the real life sucks? Well, ‘Stuart fails to fix the universe’ is certainly doing, and will be doing, its bit to make it even more depressing! Hurrah!

Well, this is it for now. See you all soon!

'Stuart' and 'Steps' - Sep 24

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about… what? The movies, lately, are something else – I’d my fill with Nolan’s Odyssey and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man for the moment – and the TV shows… the ‘Lanterns’ are an attempt to combine high-flung space sci-fi adventures and multicolored magic rings with ‘down and dirty’ detective work, and the result is something that seems to be satisfying no one in particular – people are watching it because it still beats real life – a low bar – and then there’s Stuart. He is failing to fix the universe, you see. Que the laugh track. Pause.

Let us start again. TBBT had its problems. It started as a sitcom, as the next version of ‘Friends’, but if ‘Friends’ were able to pull the plug and quit gracefully, TBBT didn’t, but turned into a sitcom version of a soap opera, since the regular cast allowed to achieve this through sheer size – 7+ people is a lot. Yet, nothing lasts forever, and so even TBBT ended. Hurrah!

…Well, of course not – this is real life. It sucks. TBBT branched off into ‘Young Sheldon’, (YS), which was supposed to be about the childhood of Sheldon from TBBT…but it quickly evolved into something else. The ‘adult’ Sheldon from TBBT fluctuated between a socially maladjusted and selfish man (who came to his senses with the help of not so much his friends as that of a good woman – i.e. Amy) and some sort of an autistic/’special needs’ character, (but TBBT quickly pulled the plug on this, thank you). Put otherwise, whatever the TBBT Sheldon is, conventional he is not, and not necessarily in a good way, either.

Meanwhile, what about the Sheldon in YS? Oh, he has the same problems… and he was dealing with them, and learning how to deal with them, and self-improving/improving with the help of others at a rate that the TBBT Sheldon never did. Put otherwise, if the two characters were the same one, a young and an adult version of the same Sheldon, then the adult Sheldon would never be either an entitled jerk, (if he’s conventionally sane), or a socially disturbed semi-victim (if he is not). No, he would be an ordinary person with an extraordinary IQ… i.e. not someone starred in a sitcom, but that is also important – YS was not really a sitcom, it was a family drama, delivered with a healthy dose of humor, but plenty of other emotions too. It was good, possibly better than TBBT – but it ended.

So, up came ‘The First Marriage of Georgie and Mandy’, designated to be about the first marriage of Georgie, the elder brother of Sheldon and Missy (his twin sister), to Mandy. The twist here is that Mandy is the older one – she is in her 30s, while Georgie is only in his 20s, but they are going to work it out, you will see!

…Since this is only their first marriage, clearly things won’t go as planned…but Georgie is given the ‘young Sheldon’ treatment here – he is already learning from his mistakes, making a divorce unlikely, so… welcome to the multiverse?

Ah yes, dear ole Stuart. He, his girlfriend Denise, best friend Bert, and worst enemy Kripke are travelling the multiverse, failing to fix it. Pause. In reality, they do not appear to be trying to fix anything at all – they are just lugging their huge dimension-jumping machine around the various dimensions, and that is it. Oh, sometimes they play coy by allegedly trying to find Leonard, Sheldon, or Howard, but no luck, and there is no one else that can fix it – just kidding. The original Stuart told his dimensional clones and their friends – at one point it is revealed that their multiverse is full of Stuart-Denise-Bert-Kripke teams that just run around doing diddlysquat – that only Leonard and friends can help them, and this is what they are trying to do. Given that the collective IQ of an average Stuart-Denise-Bert-Kripke team is about as high as a room temperature on a warm September day, this is not surprising. In addition, if a Stuart-Denise-Bert-Kripke (SDBK) would ask someone else for help, their collective stupidity would just create a bigger mess, as they would ask the completely wrong/inappropriate person entirely. Fun.

…Apparently, someone else thought so too for real, and now Stuart will fail to fix the universe for a second season, whenever that will air. It also means that the team SDBK will survive the S1 finale, so that is that for this intrigue. Frankly, when the bleeping Sonic Prime cartoon series (or whatever its’ name was), makes a better multiverse series than you, you really should take a pause and think it over.

In addition, speaking of the cartoons? Let us get back to ‘Steps’. We talked about it before – it is supposed to be a Netflix animated movie where the stepsisters are not wicked at all, but are quite nice to Cinderella. Well, for better or for worse we don’t see them interacting with Cinderella at all in the trailer people, but what we do see is that the movie won’t make them villains at all – a new character named Priscilla will be. In other words, this is less of a subversion, and more of a flat-out remake; it is going to be an original movie, put simply, and given that the same people who gave us K-POP Demon Hunters are making it, it just might work.

Or, it might not. Real life sucks, remember? But, for now, this is it. See you all soon!

SM: BND

 

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. So, let us talk about SM: BND instead.

I watched it. I liked it. I… feel that there is something too much, or not enough, in it.

Let us expand. In Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ we got to see an almost 3-hour-long film about Odysseus and his entourage – namely his wife Penelope, his son Telemachus, his nemesis Antinous, and his therapist, Calypso. Everyone else was an episodic character, including Athena, and some characters, like Odysseus’s parents, who played important parts in the original epic, are absent entirely.

Conversely, SM: BND is a pageant of Marvel characters, as Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films are since the very first movie, (remember it?). Here we see the friendly neighborhood you-know-who deal with the Scorpion, the Hulk, DODC, and the Hand ninjas controlled by the new Jean Grey, while dealing with his increased loneliness from Ned and MJ. Pause.

Right, this is a good point to start. In SM3, Peter parted with Ned and MJ on a tearful, powerful note. Here we see him still single, but still hanging around Ned and MJ even as they are becoming different people who have no attachment to him, no connection. So why is he not moving on?

Well, for one thing, I suspect that Tom and Zendaya are in love, and they do make more money as a package than separately. Oh, they appeared separately in all sort of films… just not Marvel ones, and so Sony/MCU did not intend to buck the trend, especially a successful one. Pause.

In the SP4 finale, we learn that PP is going into space… and without MJ and/or Ned, so there is that. Maybe PP is moving on, and outwards. After all, MCU never likes making aromantic movies, so, who knows? Maybe PP can find happiness without MJ after all.

…Given that Tom and Zendaya are in love and a successful team and Zendaya comes across as the one in charge here, I am not so sure. What else?

Jean Grey is introduced to MCU in a bright new way, since it is a ‘brand new day’. Since the upcoming Doomsday film is bringing the X-Men back as a group, this raises questions as to what happened to the other Jeans. Hey, we had several SM, Lokis, and few other characters – why not several Jeans at once? Sophie Turner might be willing to make a toehold for herself in MCU, eh?

The plot itself… it works, obviously, as do the visuals. This is important, as a plot, is well, important, and so’s the delivery. ‘Stuart fails to save the universe’, for example, has a decent plot and delivery, and… that is it. Right now, the support is highish, but people are still cautious about committing to it, it looks like.

‘Surviving Earth’, on the other hand… it was a beautiful mess whose supporters lost interest midway through. The episodes feel out of order; the season-long ode to motherhood was something else; and I really want to talk about it some other time.

For now, let us just accept that SM: BND is a good film, but not unlike Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’, it has its flaws and doubtful moments and move on. Real life sucks, eh?

However, for now, this is it. See you all soon!

Wild Zone - July 23

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but it does not stop Mr. Nolan from making an epic of a movie – but we talked about it the last time. Right now, though, I want to talk about Mr. Riordan’s franchise instead.

No, I mean yes, the 3^rd season of PJO is coming in November 2026, but so far, Disney+ and Mr. Riordan are keeping their mouths shut about what will change there from the book, so it is too early to tell as to what will happen there. What I want to mention here is ‘the wild zone’ – the latest project of the Riordan Man! Pause.

Here, I somewhat just wanted to go and rant about him, just because he turned his name and brand into an enormous moneymaking machine, but what is the point? He turned the Riordan name and brand into an enormous moneymaking machine, after all. He is a success! There are dozens of books, audiobooks, and comics claiming him as their author-

-and they are sitting on shelves, or just being sidelined otherwise. ‘Rick Riordan Presents’ has umbrella’d at least a dozen different authors under its brand, but… that is dying down too. Fewer novels are released under RRP umbrella, or are they?

Well, I have no idea – does the fact that Mr. Riordan is being a co-author more and more often lately counts? The two books dealing with Will and Nico, aka ‘The Sun and the Star’ and ‘The Court of the Dead’ are co-authored visibly, and ‘The Court’, in particular, was re-setting the Roman aspect of the PJ narrative quite subtly – but still re-setting. ‘The Wild Zone’ is being set up in the same vein, most likely. What next?

Well, the first book of the series is released at the end of September 2026, but there are still no particular details – though this time, Mr. Riordan is writing the first book with Ms. Jo Whittemore – or is it Annabelle Oh? Well, regardless of her trying to reinvent herself to become more politically correct and sellable, she is a woman of many hats – she wrote everything from fantasy to humorous contemporary, so she should have no problem in co-writing a YA/children’s fantasy novel with Mr. Riordan. It will probably be a success, who knows? Mr. Riordan will certainly make money from it.

…And all he had to do was to sell his soul (hopefully, metaphorically) to Disney. Real life feels especially sucky sometimes.

However, this is it for now. See you all soon!

Nolan's Odyssey - July 21

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks… and, apparently, Mr. Nolan feels the same way; he might be able to buy my immediate family, our expanded family, and me many, many times over, but his Odyssey-2026? Is still depressing as Tartarus.

Where to begin? The issue of controversy and Nolan pushing a progressive agenda forth in his film. Here is the thing: he does not. Oh, of course, he has minorities in his movie, both racial (Zendaya and Lupita Nyongo’o), and sexual (Elliot Page), but they are episodic characters; they come and go and while they help move the movie forward, ‘help’ is the key word: they aren’t on screen all that much, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. The actors behind the four main characters – Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus, and Antinous – are all WASPs rather than POCs, but no one seems to mind too much. Next?

Right, Nolan supposedly using Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey as his choice for the source. I read excerpts of her translation of the epic in question, and there is no more political progressive agenda than there is in Nolan’s Odyssey movie. My opinions on Natalie Haynes and her books are not very flattering, I am afraid, but if you read her books, especially the non-fiction, (such as ‘Pandora’s Jar’ and ‘Divine Might’) you quickly realize that she does push forth political progressive agenda. The question here is whether she is a latecomer who is trying to compensate with a neophyte’s zeal for being late, or if she doesn’t believe in it at all, but is just trying – and succeeding - to make money from this political progressivism instead. From Emily Wilson’s Odyssey you do not get this vibe at all; it is ‘just’ a translation/adaption of the classic – nothing more.

Oh, sure, people will argue about the details of Wilson’s translations, but this type of argument attracts only a particular group of people; for the majority, her translation is acceptable – and so’s Nolan’s film. Just like Wilson’s translations, his adaptation changes the details of Homer’s epic, but keeps the main narrative the same. Right?

No. Some plot elements are outright removed, like Aeolus and the bag of winds, or Odysseus’s own parents, who play important roles in the epic. Other elements are conflated – like Calypso, the lotus-eaters, and the Phaeacians. The third are just simplified, like Polyphemus (Nolan’s movie does not name him), or Circe. All of those changes make Nolan’s Odyssey into something else… something not unlike MCU’s ‘Thor’ or DCEU’s ‘Batman’ franchises, just kind of, sort of, less tied to a particular franchise – much less tied…

Then there is the movie’s conclusion. Not only some suitors survived, but also Odysseus and Penelope leave in self-exile. There is a remnant of an apocrypha for Odysseus had to wander even more, till he found a place that didn’t know what an oar was, and so he buried his oar and went home at last, but it’s an apocrypha for several reasons, including ones where both Odysseus and Penelope are ambitious and power-greedy people on top of whatever else they are. Odysseus is coming home; Penelope is waiting for him; but Ithaca, its’ throne, are a part of the Odyssey as well. In Nolan’s film it is rather downplayed, again – Nolan sought to modernize the Odyssey, supposedly, and what did we get?

Well, in part we already answered this – a movie not unlike those made by MCU/DCEU, but also a movie where music sometimes overwhelms the dialogue, and so it’s hard to figure out who’s saying what – but it’s not important, you know the general details and plot beforehand, and everything else can be figured out without words. The plot of Nolan’s Odyssey is quite simple. The plot and the reasoning of Nolan’s Odyssey are secondary to the emotions. The acting, the visuals, the music, they all assault the senses, and the actors’, um, acting, deals the rest. Nolan’s Odyssey is an impressive movie… and as depressing as Tartarus; the only other piece of mass media that had as much angst is… MCU’s Zombies’ mini-series, seriously! In both this show and Nolan’s Odyssey, whenever possible, wherever possible, the worst choice was enacted, and the senses, the emotions, rather than the mind, were affected. MCU’s Zombies attempted to re-introduce Riri ‘Iron Heart’ Williams, after her own show failed; this attempt did not deliver either, and so, Riri does not seem to appear in the Avengers: Doomsday trailer. However, that is another story…

In this one, Nolan’s Odyssey works, but it works because it is a one-time – there is no sequel, no threesome between Odysseus, Penelope, and Calypso, for example. Once the characters and the movie are done, they are done, and we can move on.

Real life sucks. Nolan, apparently, agrees, even though he is famous and rich. I have to admit – I did not see this coming. Ah well, see you all soon!

New Story - July 14

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so here is a story based on TBBT instead.

1.

…Watching Leonard going to the altar, where Priya is waiting for him, Penny expects her to burst into flames for some reason. Naturally, this does not happen, so Penny just pours herself another glass. She pauses. Should she drink so much? Isn’t she at a wedding? Did she drink so much? Does she love her booze so much? She looks around and realizes that she has no idea whom those people are, and why is she here – aside from the free booze, so she freely imbibes it and enjoys the buzz. She loves her booze.

“Penny. Penny. Penny.” It is Sheldon. Sheldon Cooper. Penny knows Sheldon. Sheldon is real. “I know that you’re hurting, but you shouldn’t drink so much-“

Is Sheldon for real? Penny drinks because booze is her only love; she jabs her long, pointed fingernail at Sheldon and the rubber doll deflates from the puncture, collapsing at Penny’s feet with a shriek and a stink of rubber. Penny blinks and looks around. No one noticed this; all are watching the bride and the groom.

Penny crumples the deflated rubber doll and throws it into a garbage bin, closing the lid. So much for Sheldon. He was real, a real doll, but it is time for Penny to move on.

Penny rides away to her apartment, unnoticed by anyone else.

 

2.

People across the hall are arguing. Penny’s head is hurting from the booze again. What are they arguing about? One man – Howard – is yelling at the other – Raj – that Raj does not love this Lakshmi woman, he is a free man, and Raj is yelling back that is none of Howard’s business, precisely, and then Raj’s sister joins the conversation…

Penny blinks and thinks that she is so happy that she is happy with – what? She looks at her bottle collection and thinks that either it should be bigger or there should not be one at all or that she is confused…

There is someone else in her apartment. Penny blinks and turns to face them. “Hi!” says a young woman her age. “I’m Lakshmi. Your ad said that you need a roommate-?”

“Yes please!” Penny asks nicely and does her best to win Lakshmi over without sounding too desperate.

Somehow it works. Lakshmi stays.

 

3.

Penny and Lakshmi are holding hands and giggling. Penny is so happy! In addition, sober! She is sober by default, of course, but she does not care. Her life is going places as her career takes off beyond bartender and waiter – into managerial position.

Some random thought about acting tries to flick across her mind, when who should sit next to them, but Farrah ‘call me Amy’ Fowler and her partner, What’s-Her-Name (it’s either Bernadette or Tubbo, and Penny just doesn’t care).

“…And so, lasses, we agreed,” Farrah Fowler says in that grand manner of hers. “Lakshmi and Bernadette will get pregnant first and Penelope with me – the next time!”

Penny opens her mouth to comment, when her brain realizes that it all makes perfect sense and so she agrees. She is so happy to have both a partner and friends! Squee!

 

4.

It’s Penelope ‘call me Penny’ (no one does) and Lakshmi, Farrah ‘call me Amy’ (no one does) and Bernadette ‘don’t call me Tubby’ (everyone does), and Priya and Leonard as a designated straight couple and they’re all talking about something or other, their mouths are making noises, their ears are hearing noises, everyone is buzzed, and Lakshmi is pregnant, and Bernadette is pregnant, and Priya is pregnant, and they’re talking about something or other, and-

There is a knock on the door.

“I’ll get it!” Penelope says airily, and bestrides like a colossus that she is to the door before Priya can.

The door opens. “Hi,” the man says on the other side. “I’m Stuart. I’m looking for Sheldon?”

Penelope blinks. “Excuse me?” The funny man does not make any sense. “Who are you looking for? Never mind, they are not there. Good-bye.” She closes the door.

The knocking continues.

Penelope and the others ignore it.

The knocking intensifies.

Penelope and the others still ignore the knocking.

The knocking becomes so loud that it cannot be ignored.

Penelope opens the door before anyone can stop her. She opens the door and she stands in their backyard looking up a tree where a bunch of woodpeckers is knocking on the tree trunk and other birds are waiting for scraps. It is annoying, but it is life.

“Problem?” someone asks; Penelope just points at the scene. “Just Stuart and his flock,” she elaborates and blinks. “Stuart is the local bird, not the tree.”

“No, the tree is Sheldon,” Lakshmi agrees.

A disposed deflated rubber doll comes to mind, but Penelope does not know what to think about it, and so she forgets.

The tree has a shapely trunk, anyhow.

 

5.

Penelope is lying on her bed, listening to her family sleep. The snores are musical, (in a manner of speaking), the noises outside – the cicadas and the crickets – also. The stars are twinkling, the suburbs are quiet, and Penelope is content.

The Fowlers’ house is to the left, the Hofstadters’ is to the right, and the sky is up above. Penelope tries to remember California rather than this place, and fails.

Or rather, she does succeed, for this, after all, is California – their California.

End

Comments? Criticisms?

Movies - June 20

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Moreover, it is beginning to bleed into the media too.

Look at the movies, to be more precise. They are just going down. The Jurassic franchise? Surviving on games, which is separate, (in a manner of speaking, ok), from the films or the streaming series. The Planet of the Apes franchise? Also down to the ground. The upcoming Supergirl movie? It is the usual ‘cynical anti-hero find their wings and inner goodness to become the hero they were meant to be’. Given that ‘My Adventures with Superman’ cartoon has done this to Kara in S2 much more powerfully, there is no surprise that people are not too enthusiastic about the upcoming Supergirl movie. Not that DC had many options left – the CW Arrowverse Supergirl really rode the perky good-hearted superheroine aspect of this character to the hilt, making Supergirl look good too, so now the DC movies are trying to do something else with the character.

The Flashpoint Paradox live-action movie had a dark-haired Supergirl instead of Superman, which was not a bad idea, overall, but someone in the creative team behind the DC live-action movies decided that that idea was contaminated by Ezra Miller’s toxicity, so back to the blonde hair it is. Now Supergirl curses, swears, drinks, and the like, but never fear! Once push comes to shove, Supergirl will do what is right. …Whether the audience will appreciate it is another question. Next?

Well, this brings us to my main point of my rant: ‘Steps’. Pause. Here I mean not the stairs, (that is for Po Ping the Panda), but rather the upcoming Netflix movie. In this version of the Cinderella’s story, one of Cinderella’s stepsisters, (her name is Lilith), gets the fairy godmother’s wand, makes a hash of things, and has a tyrant named Priscilla take over the kingdom, so now she and Cinderella have to team-up to save it all. Pause.

Does this sound familiar? It kind of does. No, not the Lilith bit – thanks to the team Vivziepop the name of Adam’s first wife (in some religious traditions) is well known now. I am talking about the movie’s plot – it is heavily influenced by Disney’s movie ‘Cinderella 3: the Twist in Time’. There, Cinderella’s stepfamily stole fairy godmother’s wand and almost took over the kingdom, but never fear – one of Cinderella’s stepsisters, (Anastasia), reconsidered and helped Cinderella save the day. The delivery of ‘Cinderella 3’ and ‘Steps’ is different, but the latter was clearly influenced by the former. That said, while Disney’s movies often have plot twists, the plot of ‘Steps’ does not – not apparently. Rather, from the little we have, we will have Lilith help Cinderella defeat Priscilla and become a better person. The plot of ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ did this sort of thing already. Still better than Disney. Pause.

Let me try again. Where is Disney in all of this? Making ‘The Stepsisters’, something new and edgy about Cinderella’s stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella. It is supposed to be done a la ‘Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers’ reboot too. That particular reboot with Disney’s attempt to do something a la ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ film. The original movie itself… is based on a book that has little to do with the film, and has its own fans and audience, not much more. The ‘Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers’ film – ditto; it made money, so Disney is keeping the crew busy with ‘The Stepsisters’ while it decides what to do next, and it can take a while.

Listen. Disney loves to make money. It hates losing money, and being involved in controversies and the like – even more. It wants to appeal to the sexual minorities, which is does by featuring them in various MCU properties, done in such a manner that they can be ‘cut out’ of the main MCU narrative and the latter doesn’t suffer; sexual minorities are the outlier, and the main heterosexual narrative is the main narrative.

Is Disney’s own universe, sometimes that cannot be done, as it was with ‘Raya and the last dragon’: there the same-sex relationship was plain to see. Therefore, Disney just ended that universe, the movie is a one-time, and it will remain a one-time, though Raya herself will appear in various other properties as a Disney princess. No girlfriend or anyone, though.

Conversely, there is the ‘Frozen’ franchise. The first film was quite traditional by Disney princess standards, with Hans being a traditional villain, albeit one with an open ending – he did not die, for one thing. However, ‘Frozen 2’ completely discard that story, having Elsa and her family go north, where they met Honeymaren Elsa’s not-girlfriend – right now Elsa is officially single, and as some person told us, she’ll remain single until she decides how she swings. I.e., Disney realized that they hit on something good with a blue-eyed blonde queen/princess/whoever and they do not want to ruin it by controversy. So they did not, Elsa remained conveniently single in ‘Frozen 2’, and now that the third and fourth movies of the ‘Frozen’ franchise are coming in the next few years, we will get to see what Disney does to poor Elsa next. Anything else?

Eh, ‘Cinderella 3’ made a bit of a mess itself, as it cancelled out the events in ‘Cinderella 2’. Maybe ‘The Stepsisters’ will fix it, or they may not. Netflix’s ‘Steps’ might be a fun fresh (relatively) take on the ‘Cinderella’ story, or it might just be an insipid and pointless generic piece of junk about a redemption of not quite a villain. We will just have to wait and see. Real life sucks, remember?

This is it for now. See you all soon!