Rage4Media: #79 Dumbo (Disney Remake Marathon)

Rage4Media: #79 Dumbo (Disney Remake Marathon): OK, of all the films to give to Tim Burton, why this one? I get giving Tim Burton another Disney remake, much as his Alice remake sucks, l...

RageLite Review - Teen Beach Movie

Guys, we’re in the dark timeline here. COVID-19 has changed everything and film and television will likely not be the same for years to come. So, I’m flashing back to a simpler time, when I was still at University and not completely wasting my life. Let’s have a look at Teen Beach Movie

I’ll freely admit, since lockdown and the launch of Disney+ I have become obsessed with Disney Teen Musicals and comedies, yes, including High School Musical (HSMTMTS is really good, despite a shaky opener) the one I want to talk about is… Well, actually it’s Teen Beach 2, but to cover that one we must first look at the first one.

Don’t have much to say about the crew, the director, Jeffrey Horanday, had directed Geek Charming for Disney prior to this and has some experience as a choreographer if nothing recent. When it comes to talent, it seems they were banking on the stars, Maia Mitchell, who had starring roles in various TV series, and Ross Lynch, who’d shown off his singing talents playing the role of Austin in the Disney Sitcom Austin and Ally, this show has become something of an obsession of mine, and I’ll be talking about that show soon.

And it worked, joining Descendants and High School Musical as the Disney Channel’s most popular films. Let’s take a look and work out why?

#76 - Mary Poppins Returns

Wow, have I really not done a Rage review in 2020 yet? (Yes, but Crimes of Grindelwald was originally planned as a 2019 review)

Let’s fix that, shall we, hello Mary Poppins Returns, aren’t you just a prime candidate

Yes, both my rage reviews this month are gonna be of Disney Films, both of which came out in December, though of different years, want to guess what the other one is?

It’s no secret that PL Travers, the writer of the Mary Poppins Books was no fan of the film. There had been talks about a sequel but Travers and Disney had very different ideas for it, so the idea laid on the shelf until well after Travers’ death. But this is Disney in the late 2010's, taking off old properties, giving them a lick of paint and then presenting them as something new is the norm, and sequels are more prevalent than they were in the early 2000's. So naturally a sequel to Mary Poppins was inevitable.

And naturally, it made money, because unless Tim Burton is involved in some capacity, all of the 2010's Disney sequels and remakes made money. No, I’m not bitter at all, why would you think that? The Tim Burton Dumbo sucked too, by the way, we’ll get to that at some point 

But why is this film the one that ignites my rage, let’s take a look

Pixar Playlist #9 - WALL-E

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar Playlist

Wall-E is the 9^th film in the Pixar library, and back in the director’s helm is Andrew Stanton, who had directed Finding Nemo as well as co-written the Toy Story films and A Bug’s Life (though we won’t hold that against him) he was also came up with the plot with Pete Docter, and wrote the screenplay with Jim Reardon, who worked on the Simpsons as well as Tiny Toon adventures.

This film presented a unique challenge, as the main characters had a bare minimum of dialogue and they’d have to other ways to convey the information through the visuals, as a result, this film was their most complex since Monsters Inc, requiring 50,000 more storyboards than the usual 75,000 for a Pixar film.

The animators used silent films as a reference for getting their characters to emote without words, but their job was made even harder given what they were animating and the limitations that came with it. R2-D2 was apparently influential in that regard.

The budget for this film was $180m, another increase and more akin to the norm as the Disney era continues, the film made $533m at the box office, less than Ratatouille did but enough to be successful, this film was applauded by critics and audiences with ratings of 95% and 90% respectively. But where does it rank on my list? Let’s take a look.

Pixar Playlist #7 - Cars

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar playlist.

 We come to the 7^th entry of the list and the final film to be produced under the original Disney/Pixar arrangements, Cars. Cars was not as successful as you might think at the box office, making $462m on it’s $120m budget, the first 9-figure Pixar budget, but it more than made up for in another lucrative area, merchandise.

There’s a reason Cars and Toy Story got their sequels first; their concepts make them exceptionally marketable and the toys sold. It’s the only Pixar movie that got Disneytoon spin-offs, that’s how marketable it was.

But let’s take a look at the film on its own, and see how it holds up.

Pixar Playlist #6 - The Incredibles

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar Playlist

The Incredibles represented a unique challenge for Pixar, as the first film that had leads that were all human, and an entirely human set of background characters, requiring new techniques for animating clothing, muscle and hair but this film presented unique challenges in animating fire, water, air, steam, explosives and dust. It had quadruple the number of the locations of other Pixar films and at the time had the longest run-time. Topping all that off, the writer and director of this film, Brad Bird was pretty new to the CGI game. His previous film was The Iron Giant, which did utilise CG, but not to this extent.

With all that in mind, it’s amazing this film ended on a $92m budget, $2m less than the much less innovative and shorter Finding Nemo. The film went onto making $633m at the box office and continues Pixar’s streak of critical hits with a 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating. But where does it rank on the Pixar Playlist, let's take a look

Adaptation Month - Mary Poppins

We conclude adaptation month with a film that’s loved by everyone, except the writer of the book. Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins is a children’s book released in 1934 and written by P L Travers, a film adaptation was released by Disney in 1964, with a screenplay by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, both of whom had previously worked with Disney, in particular in their animation department and had written Son of Flubber. The Sherman Brothers also deserve some credit for the songs in this movie, which they had written.

PL Travers objected to the use of musical numbers and animation, but Disney overruled here, so it’s not hard to see why she was sour on the project. But does it do justice to the book’s story? No, I’m not going to even pretend that it does, so here’s my thoughts on the book just as a book.

The Book

Mary Poppins is a children’s story, it’s filled with a sense of magic and weirdness that kids are likely to be drawn to but lacks any real nuance or narrative, or really much in terms of character for adults to enjoy reading on their own.

The Film

This film does have its problems, in particular in regards to the ending, but I think they did a marvellous job. Considering the technology that made this film possible was very new around this, the animation/live action integration is impressive. The songs are fantastic and the film provides wonder for kids whilst also providing the depth and narrative the book oh so desperately needed to appeal to adults.

Please note, I am only looking at the first Mary Poppins Book, if ideas are taken from its sequels, that’s great but I haven’t read those, so I’m judging this purely as an adaptation of the book it’s named after.

Adaptation Month - A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time was a book released in 1962 written Madeline L’engle. The film rights were acquired by Disney and 2 attempts of an adaptation have been released. One a TV mini-series released in 2003, and a feature film released in 2018. I’m going to be looking at the latter as that’s the most recent and frankly it’s the worst of the two. Handling the adaptation process are Jennifer Lee, a major figurehead in Disney’s animation department with works including Wreck it Ralph and Frozen and Jeff Stockman, who had previously brought Bridge to Terebithia to screen

The film was a box office Bomb for Disney, making a mere $133 million on it’s $130m budget, making the second biggest bomb of the year, we’ll be covering the biggest in due course. It holds a mixed 42% with critics but audiences were less kind, giving it a 27% rating

So quick summary of my thoughts on them as individual entities

Pixar Playlist #5 - Finding Nemo

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar Playlist

And we’re reaching the end of my Pixar Nostalgia now. Finding Nemo was released in 2003 and seemed to be the brainchild of Andrew Stanton, who used various experiences of his own, including visiting the dentist and enjoying the fish in the fish tank, and realising that he’d become an overprotective father.

I don’t have any technical innovations that came directly from this film (don’t worry, we will get to some with the Incredibles) but if you want another example of the dedication Pixar had to their craft, the artists behind this film took lessons in scuba diving so they could see the coral reef for themselves. Later, the animators would take crash-courses in marine biology to make the movements of the fish right. That is really impressive, and immediately this is superior to Shark Tale.

This movie hit it big for Pixar, making its biggest box office at the time at $940m on its $94m budget. And it has a highly impressive 99% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

But where does it rank in Pixar’s lineup, let’s take a look.

Pixar Playlist #4 - Monsters, Inc.

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar Playlist

What’s that monster hiding under your bed? Find out in Monsters Inc

Monsters Inc seems to be the Brainchild of Pete Doctor, who had had a major role in the production of all 3 of Pixar’s other films up to this point. This guy is a major talent at Pixar and made his directorial debut here, later going to make Pixar classics such as Up and Inside Out, both of which I intend to get to. He began working on the script during the Production of a Bugs’ Life, and after a lot of tweaking we got a story

Production required Pixar to step up their game, with the main character having over 2 million strands of hair, the task became about making them move correctly in accordance to the action of the character. The creation of Fizt the physics tool was a major breakthrough for them when it comes to the hair, and it also helped with another problem, clothing, although it took another algorithm to handle collision between different items of clothing.

This was Pixar’s most complex film, requiring more than double the number of micro-processors than Toy Story 2 to render.

So, do these innovations make Monsters Inc a good movie? Here are my thoughts.

Pixar Playlist #3 - Toy Story 2

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar Playlist

Well, it didn’t take long to get to the first sequel but here we are with Toy Story 2. The success of Toy Story really sparked something, and because it’s Disney and around this point in their history, if a movie made any money, it got a direct-to-DVD sequel.

The deal with Disney was at this point revised to 5 movies in 5 original franchises, so Toy Story 2 wouldn’t count towards it. Production for this film was not easy, with tight deadlines and a sudden rush for it to be theatre quality as it was changed to get a theatrical release, not to mention them nearly deleting 90% of their assets and staff members working to the point of actually getting wrist problems did put a dampener of things.

Released in 1999, the film made a respectable $497m on it’s $90m budget and is one of those rare films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so is it worth all that praise?

Well, yes and no, but I’ll get to that.

Pixar Playlist #2 - A Bug's Life

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

Goddamn it, I thought I’d gotten away from Kevin Spacey, f*ck this guy! I guess it’s time for A Bug’s Life! Released in 1998, A Bugs Life is notoriously started a spat between Disney and Dreamworks, as Disney conveniently stated the release day for A Bug’s Life on the same day as Dreamworks’ Antz film. The result of this is for another day, maybe…

But A Bugs life has a pretty positive reputation, a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an average 7.9/10 and a respectable 79% audience score with an average 3.3/5. It made $380m on its $120m budget, which is a big budget considering the first movie had ¼ of that.

I won’t lie, I don’t like this film very much, so let’s start with the narrative

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?

Guilty Pleasures #12 - Frozen

It’s one of most Disney’s most popular animated films, heralded as a classic, and the best since the Lion King. Many people also think it’s highly overrated, and I’ve seen criticisms ranging from ‘it’s too scary for children’ (it’s no scarier than the Lion King) and ‘it promotes homosexuality’ (can these people just leave the internet now, clearly you belong in a world before internet existed so...)

So, in what is in no way an attempt to maximise viewer-ship of my site, let’s dig into Disney’s Frozen, and see what charms and see what jitters are to behold.

#3 Marvel's Avengers Assemble

Today I review Marvel’s Avengers Assemble.

While I realise that it has its flaws the sceptre-ex-machina for example, it’s… Oh, wait, oh boy… Today I’ll be reviewing Marvel’s Avengers Assemble

A poster pose designed to look like a film poster