Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge - Season 1 Episodes 1-3

How to Train Your Dragon has been a great success for Dreamworks and whilst the latest film is to bring the film trilogy to a close, there may still be life for it on Television. Dreamworks’ Dragons began as 2 20-episode series, the first titled Riders of Berk and the second Defenders of Berk. I would have covered these but I don’t have copies of them and they’re not on Netflix, but the follow-up: Race to the Edge is, so we will be covering that. Whilst there are a few story beats that carry over between the series, there’s nothing that makes the show difficult to follow so without further ado, let’s begin this Retrospective on Dragons: Race to the Edge.

Pixar Playlist #1 - Toy Story

Ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not: The Pixar Playlist

Whatever happens behind the scenes (and for the purposes of this review series, I’m going to ignore that) there’s one thing you can’t deny. Pixar have become pioneers in the animation industry. The dream of having computer generated animated pictures seemed a long way away back when the foundation of Pixar was being built, but today CG animation is everywhere, using computers to animate is practically the norm and hand drawn is saved for only the rarest of Japanese anime and some bits in Mary Poppins Returns.

Pixar’s first film is Toy Story, released in 1995, this film was made with a relatively small $30m budget. Disney handled marketing and distribution in return for profits and design rights. And boy was that a lucrative deal for Disney as Toy Story is an international phenomenon, making over 10 times its budget at the box office spilling into billions of dollars of merchandise, theme park attractions and sequels.

It’s well acclaimed, with a rare 100% Rotten Tomatoes Rating, so what do I think?

Netflix Retrospective - ReBoot: The Guardian Code Season 1 Episodes 7-10

Let's get season 1 over with, shall we?

Guilty Pleasures #53 - Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Certain movies take a long time to get a sequel. This can be their benefit as the old version is less likely to be compared to it (unless it’s an absolute Classic: I’ll get to you Marry Poppins Returns later) to the original. It also offers the grounds for being a reboot/sequel, where you keep only the bare minimum on common with the original.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a sequel/reboot to Jumanji, which we covered a few weeks ago. Its announcement came with some backlash as sequel/reboots such as the 2016 Ghostbusters had soured people to the idea (Ghostbusters 2016 isn't very good, but the hatred toward it can be extreme) plus the announcement came shortly after the death of Robin Williams and people noted it might’ve been in poor taste. But positive word of mouth clearly helped this grow roots, as it made an impressive $960m at the box office on a $150m budget. Bear it mind, it came out around the same time as Star Wars: The Last Jedi and the Greatest Showman, so this is an impressive feat.

It got a decent 76% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but with a caveat of only a 6.2/10 average score, with an audience rating at 87% averaging 4.3/5. Let’s take a gander and see what we’re looking at this time.

Netflix Retrospective - ReBoot: The Guardian Code Season 1 Episodes 4-6

Let’s continue this ‘show’ shall we?

Guilty Pleasures #52 - The Greatest Showman

20^th Century Fox – Just a smidge after Lunchtime

Time for the heads to hear yet another movie pitch, millions of dollars on the line for those who are successful. Next up we have producers Laurence Mark, Jenno Toppin and Peter Chernin, they want $84million dollars for their movie musical: The Greatest Showman loosely based on the life PT Barnum, who once publicly displayed the autopsy of his slave.

WHOOAAAAAAA

Ladies and Gents, this is the movie you’ve waited for

WHOOAAAAAAA

Historical accuracy, it doesn’t matter anymore

WHOOAAAAAAA

The money this makes is something you can’t ignore

Not a box office Bomb

Album Number One

And merchandise, we’re never done

Don’t fight it, it’s gonna make us all lots of money

Take a tragedy and make it into something funny

And some dancing, pad the movie out to make it longer

Don’t bother with a plot, it won’t make this stronger

Make the crowd feel like they’re watching a play

For several months in the cinema this will stay

There’s a formula for getting hands in their wallets, do you want to know?

This is how it’s gotta go!

Fill it with the songs the crowd will like

Even if the story’s kinda shite

Big box office figures

This film will deliver

THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW-MAN

Hugh Jackman in the lead

Box Office Guaranteed

Who cares what we make up

It’s just entertainment

THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW-MAN

WHOOAAAA

Who cares if Barnum really was a piece of sh*t

WHOOAAAA

If we mellow him out, this movie will be a hit

Don’t fight it, it’ll make us all lots of money

Take a tragedy and make it into something funny

Add some drama, don’t go too far off what they know

Listen carefully, this is how it’s gotta go!

Fill it with the songs the crowd will like

Even if the story’s kinda shite

Big box office figures

This film will deliver

THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW-MAN

Hugh Jackman in the lead

Box Office Guaranteed

Who cares what we make up

It’s just entertainment

THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW-MAN

It’ll make you all the cash you want

Satisfy your corporate greed

For the next few months or so

It’ll give us all you’ll ever need

It’ll make us all the cash we want

Satisfy our corporate greed

Keep your share price in the green

It’ll give us all we’ll ever need

ALL THAT WE’LL EVER NEED

Fill it with the songs the crowd will like

Even if the story’s kinda shite

Big box office figures

This film will deliver

THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW-MAN

Hugh Jackman in the lead

Box Office Guaranteed

Who cares what we make up

It’s just entertainment

THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW-MAN

Look at that dough right in front of you

May seem impossible, you know it’s true

Nothing can stop us now

THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW-MAN

And this is the Greatest Showman review

The Greatest Showman was, and there’s no doubt about this, massively successful. Making money week after week at the box office, even increasing in the US after its opening weekend. It made $435 million by combine that with licencing deals, album sales, merchandise, DVD’s, this thing was a helluva money spinner for Fox.

Critically, the response has been mixed, it currently holds a 55% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a 5.9/10 average score, it’s a big disparity with the audience rating of 87% with an 4.4/5 average score. So, do the audience see something the critics don’t, or is it the other way around? Well, you might be able to guess given my parody song lyric opening, but let’s dive in anyway.

Netflix Retrospective - ReBoot: The Guardian Code Season 1 Episodes 1-3

Today, I’m breaking all the rules because we’re looking at ReBoot: The Guardian Code

ReBoot was a series that ran from 1994-2001, it was… primitive, it was early days for CGI and this was on a television budget so it doesn’t look very good by modern standards. None the less, running for 4 seasons is commendable.

And, what are the odds, ReBoot, got a reboot, but whilst the original was about coding in video games, this one would expand on that and make it about the internet. And also include Live Action segments in the vein of Power Rangers. What could possibly go wrong?