Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Now onto the home stretch of the X-Men ’97 season?
…Well, rather not, because by now we got the gist of
the conflict in this season: it is the X-Men and most other mutants against yet
another sentinel version – the Prime Sentinels. As far as Sentinels go, they
are the X-Men version of the Mindless Ones, complete with glowing eyes. They
can hardly be stopped, they can barely be reasoned with, they are yet another
incarnation of the ‘evil mob’ kind of foe, and as such they cannot be sympathized,
not really – and (the now dead) Gyrich is behind them. Of course he is. He is
the mastermind behind the mob, (not to be confused with the actual X-Men
character named the Mastermind). It was said before and it is said now, the
X-Men ’97 franchise is going around in a circle like a snake in a wheel and
going nowhere.
…Ok, this was uncalled for – with Magneto’s help the
Prime Sentinels are defeated, but since the season’s finale is a 3-parter, and
this was only the first part, so more excitement is ahead, really. Hell, even
Jubilee and Roberto will be given something to do! Back in the 90s, Jubilee was
all but written out of the main narrative, because it was no longer obvious
what she was needed for in a show with a big cast, and the same is happening
now, her and Roberto’s adventure in Mojo-land notwithstanding. This time she
and Roberto are being dragged along for the ride like a couple of accessories
to the main suit, and-
-and yes, Jubilee may grow up into a formidable
warrior if she doesn’t die, and Morph is used as a prop to showcase various
other Marvel mutant characters without them being actually around, and
professor X is back, and everyone is excited, and the audiences are eating the
show up, and there’s no specific background, unlike what is shaping up in the ‘Deadpool
3’ movie, and we’ve been here before, remember? Therefore, instead of beating
up a (existential status undetermined) Deadpool, let us briefly talk about the
upcoming ‘Mufasa’ film.
This is a spin-off of the ‘Lion King’ films, focusing
on the childhood of Simba’s father instead. In this trailer, we see that 1) the
(spotted) hyenas might be present, but they are playing a smaller role than they
did in the original movie (both incarnations), which is good, because they need
more good PR (the hyenas do). 2) Is that Mufasa’s brother Scar is not very
prominent in the trailer either, but there are scenes of two lions of different
ages fighting each other. In one scene, the background is on fire, and we get a
glimpse of a small creature attacking the (enemy?) lion – perhaps it is Timon,
who, alongside Pumba, is also supposed to be appear in the film. In the second
fight, the background is icy, so either we are going to have a flashback into
the past, into lives of cave lions instead, or Mufasa is going to get onto the
Mt. Kilimanjaro or somewhere similar.
…The geography in the ‘Lion King’ franchise is just
as bad as zoology is – in RL Africa has deserts at the ends, the jungle in the
middle, and the savanna in-between, broadly speaking. In the world of Mufasa,
Scar and Simba, we get the desert between the savanna and the jungle instead,
therefore, an ice and snow covered mountain could fit quite well into this
ensemble.
3) – in another scene, we have a lion cub, or cubs, having
a misadventure with at least one Nile crocodile. In RL, this reptile is the only
challenger to the saltwater crocodile in size and strength; the royal lion can
defeat it, however – on land, and preferably in a pride. One on one, and especially
in the water, the Nile crocodile has the upper hand, however. Since Mufasa (and
his companions) are just cubs, they are in big trouble.
Finally, 4) – Rafiki. He is a mandrill, and this
monkey, as well as its’ only true relative the drill, are not baboons, nor are
particularly close cousins to them; rather, their closest relatives are the
crested mangabeys, a group of guenon-like monkeys that don’t look anything like
the drill/mandrill duo, as the latter look much more like the baboons and the
geladas instead. Moreover, unlike the latter, the drill and the mandrill live
in the African jungle, and as such, they appeared in Disney’s animated
Tarzan-verse, and avoid the savannahs instead. Disney is certainly playing fast
and loose with Africa in the ‘Lion King’ franchise; it will certainly be
interesting to see how the movie will come out in winter of 2024.
For now, however, this is it. See you all soon!
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