RGTK movie - June 29

 Obligatory disclaimer: the carrion is back. Wait, what?

Let me try again. Since real life sucks, the original dead rat is gone, but there is a brand new one, either killed by some other animal, (or a human), or just drowned in the recent rains. Again, it is located on private property, where both people and their pets, (i.e., we are talking primarily dogs here), are walking by, so it is authentically curious to see how long this dead animal will last. And, moreover, the dead skunk – remember, we talked about it last time – may be gone, but not entirely: there are some pieces of it, especially the tail, remaining on the road. Fun! Looks like the public maintenance is going for a full year with it or something. Jolly good! Turkey vultures, where are you?

On a more whimsical note, let us talk about ‘Ruby Gillman, The Teenage Kraken’ film. Warning: spoilers will be done best to be avoided, but that is no guarantee!.. This movie is a partial spoof of Disney’s™ TLM, but unlike the latter, there is more subtext, and less confusion. More precisely, there are no animal sidekicks, which only distract from the main plot, and the movie does not play ‘musical chairs’ with where exactly it is located: it is located in a fictional U.S. city of Oceanside, period.

The characters… the characters are also all-American, even if they do come in all shapes and colors: the titular character, for example, is blue-skinned, (as is the rest of her family, at least on land), and no one cares about it to call them out.

Second, yes, there is a strong ‘pretty on the inside vs. pretty on the outside’ element in the film. However, since RGTK is able to keep that element subtle and in the depths, it works. On the surface, again, this is a spoof of TLM, but keep in mind that the titular character had to team up with her mother and grandmother to defeat the main villain (redacted). This is different from the TLM reboot, where Ariel does everything herself instead – in the original 1989 film the animal sidekicks helped Ariel to get to stop Eric’s wedding to ‘Vanessa’ in time, while it was Eric’s actions rather than Ariel’s that ended Ursula for good. Cthulhu ftagn!

…And as a response to Ursula going big in both Disney’s versions, practically everyone went big in RGTK – there is a feeling that the movie’s scriptwriters had fun with this one. In addition, again, we got teamwork vs. a single evil individual, something that Disney seems to have forgotten. It tried over in MCU with AoS, but that collapsed sometime after S4, really – and now MCU pretends that AoS never happens, given how SI flat-out ignores S.H.I.E.L.D. and everything else associated with it. Yes, there may be different reasons for that, but the result is the same – AoS and S.H.I.E.L.D. are gone for good from MCU.

Elsewhere, we got, yes, the PJ Masks, and in their previous incarnation they were all about teamwork – the three titular characters always worked together to defeat their opponents, who almost never worked together, and even when they did, it was never for long. Thus, the show’s audience learned about the values of teamwork… as well as any other values, and virtues of acting properly and nicely.

And then the show got ‘upgraded’ to ‘PJ Masks and Power Heroes’ that did… the same old thing albeit in a diluted version: previously it was all 3 PJ Masks helping a single new hero to become, well, more experienced and etc., and now it’s more of a one on one, with at least one of them Ivan/Ice Cub being something of a Marty-Stu instead… Where were we?

Unlike the previous two examples, RGTK manages to keep itself together and remain enjoyable. It is more substantial than the TLM-2023 film is, and is quite complex as well, for a children’s film. Quite enjoyable too, and – no one dies. This is also different from Disney films, where villain dying is almost a permanent feature. This trait has passed onto MCU, (SW – not so much), though lately they seem to be trying to buck it – as WV and the rest of MCU’s Phase 4 onwards elements showed – but at the same time, MCU has become more of a mixed bag success-wise… Anything else?

Well, until a turkey vulture arrives and eats that dead rat, nothing much. RGTK is a fun film to watch, and I recommend it, for one. Anything else is up to you.

For now, this is it. See you all soon.

Mulan 2020 first trailer - July 7

Now you may ask – and what about the first trailer of the ‘Mulan’ 2020 remake? Since we have already mentioned the upcoming ‘Little Mermaid’ remake and ‘The Lion King’ remake is coming out later this month.

Firstly, the ‘Little Mermaid’ remake. There shouldn’t be a problem having an Afro-American actress being the titular character – as MCU’s ‘Spider-Man’ movies and Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ remake have shown, race is by no means a defining feature of a movie character, but! Then there was J-Ro’s ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’, remember it? Both Hermione and Rose Weasley were played by Afro-American (Afro-British?) characters, and it didn’t work; J-Ro herself has abandoned that aspect of her HP-verse and is currently playing with Newt Scamander and co.; true, both movies had POC as actors, but if you compare it to, say, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, then you notice that J-Ro’s movies are notably underwhelming in that department. For its’ part – and that is just as important – Disney’s remakes are at their best, when they follow close the original animated movies, with just some differences, as ‘Aladdin 2019’ and the previously aired ‘Beauty and the Beast’ remake showed. When differences are much greater, as they were in the ‘Dumbo’ remake, then Disney begins to have problems. So far, TLK seems to be like the original movie; TLM, judging by the trailers and teasers that we have seen – not so much, (though they were sketchy, fair enough), so we will have to wait and see. This brings us to ‘Mulan 2020’, only not.

First, there is also the honorable mention of the Ghostbusters remake; no, Disney did not make it, but it was a remake, and it failed. It was really quite ironic – there were all those people arguing pro and contra, if the gender-flip of the original Ghostbusters film was worthwhile – and then the movie flopped on its’ own merit, and that’s the end of that aspect of the Ghostbusters franchise, as opposed to, say, the comic crossover between them and TMNT, when the Shredder had killed some rival crimelord, and the latter’s restless spirit returned as a ghost, and TMNT had to team with the Ghostbusters, because their skills aren’t really effective against a ghost… the Ghostbusters’ franchise is working out quite well, thank you very much, movie flop or no flop.

This brings us to ‘Mulan 2020’, to TLK 2019, to TLM, and the abovementioned point – racial issues do not matter, plot matters. ‘Mulan 2020’ is rumored to be very much reworked from the original 90s’ animated feature, meaning that it might have problems in 2020 when it comes to the big screen. Those problems probably will not be exclusive to racial matters or cultural appropriation, but Disney may pretend that they are, as they tried to do with their SW films, and that now will be a bad idea: Disney/SW merger may end at the end of the SW9 movie…or rather, the current incarnation of SW franchise will. The merger itself will go on for a while, as the numerous SW comics are indicating: the juggernaut is intently trying to change the public opinion regarding the rebooted SW before the SW9 film comes out…with mixed success. Of course, Disney princesses as a whole have their own comic series already, but that is different – SW, proportionally, is a much more popular and more bought franchise out of the two… but let us wait first until TLK comes out later this month (July 2019) before we make any assumptions…

This is it for now; see you all soon!