#this post was inspired by Scar in the Live Action Lion King movie

[angel-of-hunky-doryness]

The Conflicts of Disney's Hercules (Part 2): Hercules vs Hades

Or as I like to call it: why Hercules and Hades are the best example of a literary foil muddled and lost in its own movie.

LONG POST, sorry not sorry.

The hero vs villain dynamic is a Disney staple inspired by the many fairy tales and folklore from which Disney has long based their movies on. However, this dynamic went through a glow-up when Disney started their Renaissance period kicking off with The Little Mermaid (1989).

This era of Disney brought in much more personality and character to their protagonists, but also bringing in a new type of villain. Now this was a sharp departure from your atypical evil stepmothers and wicked villainesses that Disney was known from in their early days.

That's why when Disney decided to adapt Hercules (1997) the writers needed a formidable foe for Hercules to throws hands with to fit in to this new era where you had the likes of Ariel vs Ursula, Aladdin vs Jafar, Simba vs Scar, etc.

And in the Renaissance, Disney started leaning more into their Shakespearean influences. Nowhere is this more evident then Lion King (1994) and to a lesser extent- based on deleted scenes, the broadway version, and live action remake- Little Mermaid.

The reason I'm bringing this up is b/c, my dear reader, now we're getting to the Evil Uncle Trope.

Or at least a failed execution of it, b/c Disney did not utilize it well in Hercules. It's just barely touched upon.

Yes, yes, I know who the real villain is in the original myth of Herakles and that could be a reason it doesn't work. But Herakles vs Hera doesn't work well on paper when you remember that Herk was the affair baby and Hera is actively trying to smite him and this is a film meant for children. And something, something, she doesn't carry the kind of raw emo goth energy a walking-talking Bunsen burner can provide.

Jokes aside and the accuracy of the Greek Mythology presented, I think Disney Hercules was adapted well to a modern audience.

HOWEVER!

Now I've made it no secret in the past that I don't really view this hero/villain pair as the central conflict of Disney's Hercules.

That is mostly because whatever antagonism Hades and Hercules had going on it's very one-sided, and almost surface-level. Hades is over here having the biggest blow to his ego with a little bit of existential crisis thrown in for good measure.

While Hercules is absolutely vibing to the Muses singing the greatest mind-melting musical number of the film.

Not once do we get a character moment where this corn-fed farm boy ever stops to think, "Hey, Phil, I know Thebes is a bad place and all, but where do these mildly inconveniencing monsters keep coming from?"

In all two of his interactions with Hades(I'm not counting the opening scene, Hercules is a baby, fight me), Hercules never realizes in the entire movie how he was wronged by this tall glass of daddy issues.

Which are:

Flambe man kidnapped Baby

Lil sun spot is mortal now for plot relevance or smth

Attempted murder via the goon squad

Monsters keep coming out of nowhere after Herc saves the sassy lady from the Centaur(TM).

And Hades, to his credit, really doesn't care enough to tell him.

Why?

Because it literally never bothered Hercules. Hades is the obligatory monster of the week to Wonder breath. That kind of revelation wouldn't bother him, Hercules doesn't even know there's a prophecy about him. Hecc, home boy barely struggles with the Titans at the climax.

This is basically the Wanda-Thanos meme but the roles are reversed.

And I would like to emphasize, Hercules isn't bothered by the monsters Hades sends at all. He gets over it fairly quickly once he gets over his first battle jitters. If anything, the biggest issue Hercules is facing post-Hydra is that even though society has finally embraced him for his strength, he's still extremely lonely.

Which leads to this pivotal moment in the film:

What is the point?

He's still a freak, but this time after years of training he's finally useful. My pal Rudolph the Red-nose reindeer understands this predicament rather well. And the loneliness that Hercules feels b/c of his superhuman abilities is such a fascinating angle the writers of Disney Hercules go with that isn't emphasized enough.

And I can't stress this enough: The internal war Hercules grapples with, of being caught between two worlds, struggling with something he was born with and of doing everything in his power to fit into both of these worlds? Now that makes for a compelling demigod.

What's more, the strange shift in how society view his strength is such a interesting element that could have made a better antagonist than Hades was and I bet if this movie was made in this new era of Disney films (2015-Present) it would've executed it with this premise in mind. Since Disney has moved away from mustache-twirling villains and focusing on things like generational trauma and internal issues.

The fear and scorn Hercules once felt is now being turned to adoration, but wait, that's not what he wanted!

He just wanted to be treated like a person.

Take the discus scene, Hercules tries to play frisbee with the other teens in his neighborhood, but he immediately gets told to buzz off.

His goal of reaching Olympus isn't to reunite with his real family it's to finally be around others who are just as powerful as him, somewhere he wouldn't be out of place.

And the funny part about all of this is how well it ties in to Hades. Because Hercules upholding his duty as a hero is essentially what Hades did in his respective career until the moment he had his very own What's the point? moment.

Now first and foremost, I'm here to say Hades did his job. Regardless of how respectfully he did that in his later years....

No zombie apocalypses as far as I can tell, so kudos to you babe.

And that kind of job isolated him pretty badly when you consider Hades is with the dead instead of the other gods, almost making Hercules' dream the same as Hades'. However that dream has long since distorted and twisted from centuries of bitterness and anger.

Which adds another layer to their similarities. The dedication they had for their jobs isolated them even further.

And funnily enough, Hades and Herc were both assigned to this task by Zeus.

Now that we've established how similar H&H are let's see if we can glean how it played out for Hades by looking at Hercules' beginning. Hercules started out with so much determination and hope as can be seen in I Can Go the Distance (reprise). And as we follow Hercules to seek a teacher, to undergo years of training, and to follow through with all that he had been taught, Hercules never lost hope that he would finally be with people like him.

Well that is until Hercules' talk with Zeus.

And we learn Hercules has been putting himself through tons of risks and labors for nothing...?

He could've accomplished being a true hero back in his old farm town, and before you argue Zeus never explicitly told him to walk the path of a hero- then why did he send him to Danny DeVito???

And I'd like to make it clear I adore that Herc is being told off by his dad. Being Superman in Metropolis can go to one's head at his age especially now that he has proven time and time again how useful his strength is. Hubris is a major character flaw associated with greek mythology even if it isn't the flaw Herakles has in myth, keep this in mind for later as I explain what his flaw really is and how we see instances of it in the Disney film.

With that kind of journey mapped out, I bet about two drachmas and my 4 pound sponsor that Hades did the same as Herc. And as a result invested too much in his job for him to realize that he became disconnected to Olympus as a result.

Yeah, okay this is more conjecture and veering into fanfiction territory here and since I've been writing a fanfic on this guy for the past 6 years I tend to do that w/o meaning to. So if I ever start being a little too sympathetic on Mr. Brimstone Breath over there, take it with a grain of salt.

However, it is my personal headcanon since Hades did help Zeus in the original Titanomachy that my mans became extremely distant in his attempt to become a feared and respected god of the underworld.

And that came with its own reputation as mentioned in Gospel Truth Part II. Hades can get one-track minded and that applies very well to Hercules too.

So in the end, everything Herc and Hades were doing wasn't getting them any closer to what they really wanted: social acceptance.

And this was a big thing in Ancient Greece. The worst punishment a person could receive in those times was being exiled. Outcast. Permanent hermitage.

Let that sink in.

It can be argued that Hades always vied for Zeus' position, but I personally believe he did so because every other attempt he's made to change his circumstances after his What's the Point moment he kept hitting a road block either from Zeus or his arrogance to continue ruling a kingdom even if it isn't the underworld. Until he basically reasons, yup gotta take down the resident thunder dunder head.

And I think it's this factor of loneliness that both these guys share that really exemplifies or differentiates why each one is a great foil to each other. Hades is the dark reflection of what Hercules could be if he continued to toil after godhood/accepted into Mount Olympus to no avail for years and years and years.

It's a very similar trope we see in Kung Fu Panda with Tai Lung vs Po. And where Zeus fits into the role of Shifu.

Remember, both these two were serving their people, but Hades has been around far longer. After centuries, Hades grew sick and tired of serving ppl for basically nothing so he decided to put all his anger and frustration to force the world to bend to him instead.

But this is all hidden in between the lines so it doesn't hit home to the audience unless you take a deeper look into these two characters.

And all that I've talked about above is not even what we see in the film.

So, let's talk about what we do see.

Exhibit Alpha: All Hades Breaks Loose

As always, Hades is a showstopper. Don't tell him that btw he doesn't deserve it.

After executing a perfect 9.8/10 gymnastic spectacle, Hades shows up ready to pounce and do what he does best: Wheel and Deal with a trick ace up his sleeve.

It's so funny seeing Hercules talk to this guy, b/c he just had a falling out with his mentor and he's absolutely not in the mood to talk to this fast-talking flame head.

And Hades was ready to mop the floor with the guy, but b/c he can't get Wonder Bread's attention he has to whip out Meg a lot faster then he wanted to. He couldn't even savor the moment- it's like wasting a fine cigar.

But Hades doesn't skip a beat and like any mob boss, snaps his fingers, does a bit of blackmailing, and my beautiful boy catches on that if he loses his powers for 24 hours- talk about the confidence on Hades' part here- ppl will get hurt.

Hades, naturally, assures him things will be fine. I mean it's not like they're living in Greek mythology or anything. And after all, Hades assures him, Meg will be safe from harm.

They even shake on it. With left hands.....

And as soon as the two break apart, Hades doesn't hold back on telling his nephew how badly he screwed up.

Leave it to your estranged uncle to sucker you into a terrible deal and then outline why that was the worst mistake of your lifetime. Grade A uncle-ing I say. Wonder if he learned that from centuries of putting up with Zeus' offspring.

And while I have discussed this scene before in Meg vs Hades, we see here the same betrayal Meg had gone through with her ex, but now Meg is taking on the role of her ex. So let's look at it from Herc's perspective.

Anyone else feel their heart breaking when Hercules accuses Hades of lying????

But this is what makes the scene for me:

Despite everything, Hercules still chooses to fight.

You can really see the strength of Hercules' character here. Cuz despite his stupid decision, he still bares the weight of his responsibility even without his god-like strength.

Hercules faces the Cyclops as a normie. Hades would never.

This is the moment where Hercules rises above Hades in humility and upholds his duty despite the odds against him. This moment cements Hercules as a hero.

Finally the cycle of similarities is broken by Hercules' unselfish act. And it should've been in my opinion the moment he gained godhood and not the one below:

Yes, I know how important it is for Meg's redemption and to show how pure and true their relationship is. They're my emotional support OTP, okay, but what's more compelling?

Hercules being saved by the woman who just betrayed him, or Hercules risking his life to save the city of Thebes now that he's just like everybody else? He doesn't have his plot armor anymore, he's facing a giant that's already going ham destroying the populace while everyone is trying to escape. Isn't that true hero material? To stand and face the threat and buy the people time to escape?

But I digress.

And oh man, when Meg gets crushed we see a side of Hercules that was hinted at after Phil called out Meg for being a fraud:

We see Hercules' flaw.

In fact, the same flaw that Hades has as well:

Wrath.

Exhibit Beta: A Swell Consolation Prize

Hades loses. Big surprise there. I'm not covering the Titan scene since Hades and Herc just trade frowns and smirks, so imma leave that one be for this post.

But Hades really does sign his death certificate when he starts running away and reminds Johnny Beefcakes that he still managed to get him where it hurts:

And boy oh boy, when Meg died in his arms, Hercules has murder on his mind.

This is the first time Hercules has a vendetta against Hades (with 10 minutes left). A true, true vendetta. He was willing to let go tricking him by using Meg, but now b/c Hades knocked over the domino that led to Meg's death and the job title he holds, he's ready to go kick ass.

And Lord, the writers knock a home run to the impulsiveness that sits at this central character flaw of Herakles.

Hercules, our Disney version, is ready to cheat death, beat Hades to a pulp and do anything to get Meg back. Alcestis and Admetus style, baby.

So Herc grabs Cerberus and forces the bloodthirsty puppy to take him to his master.

And now realizing that he still has a chance of pulling one over on Zeus, Hades is willing to look over the abuse upon his pet and gets ready to use the wheeling and dealing technique.

And while Hercules does *convince*, and I use that word very loosely, to trade places with Meg, Hades agrees. While some have pointed out to me how clever Hercules can be this was not one of those moments.

Wow the son of my greatest rival??? Hercules made a really easy bargain that Hades was gonna propose anyway. Meg is insignificant in the grand scheme of things so who cares if she got a 'Get out of Jail' free card.

But, Hades messed up. Dude should've had his cake and eaten it too and just fished Meg out so Herc could take that dip and avoid what was coming to him.

Y'see Hades wasn't aware of the true hero clause Zeus randomly made up just like how Hades randomly made up a god-to-mortal potion.

So we get this ending with Herc's debt remaining unpaid.

I joked to myself as I was writing this post to include a post in my Hercules Conflicts series where it's Hades vs Hades b/c let's be real, Hades caused all of Hades' problems.

Self-fulfilling prophecies babyyyyy

Oy... Can you believe that now that Herc and Meg are alive and kicking as mortals they still owe a debt to Hades? Not the best ending, mind you. Sure, Hades isn't getting out anytime soon, so does it matter in the grand scheme of things?

But it is a sweet and well-deserved ending for our boy Hercules. Bc despite everything, Hercules realizes that the ppl who love him and know him for who he is: his adopted parents, his coach, and his girl that he would rather live out a mortal life with them instead of one with his bio parents. He knows now that the acceptance he has always been longing for has been realized and he'd rather have the life he knows than risk it all for a life that might make him all the more miserable.

And just like Hercules, Hades is now permanently stuck in the world he was forced into. Funny how they both ended up in the place they were actively trying to leave. It's a well-deserved punishment even if the dead are screwed without someone to keep the underworld in tip-top shape.

It's a shame Hades didn't meet Hercules sooner in the film because there is tons of material here that could've really had them be a formidable villain/hero pair up there with the likes of Aladdin vs Jafar. To have them actively oppose each other and force Hercules to grapple with the knowledge that this god is doing everything in his power to keep him off balance. imagine if Hades showed up early on just to gloat and mock the kid and confirm everything Zeus had told him?

Hercules could've grown up with that chip on his shoulder, wanting to be a fighter and a warrior just so he could take Hades on for realzies and take on the hoard of monsters he's sending to doom humanity. Just so it culminates in the classic: We're not so different conversation to mentally mess with the hero about his morals and life choices.

Could've been great.

Regardless, thanks for making it to the end, dear reader.

Till next time.

#disney #disney hades #disney hercules #hercules #my rambles #disney villains #disney megara #greek myth #greek mythology

[nellysketchesnstuff]

#Disney #villain #queer coding #lgbt #lgbtq+ #happy pride 🌈 #I am half joking #but only half #this post was inspired by Scar in the Live Action Lion King movie

[twstheadcanons]

Self-Indulgent TWST Geography

A long post of generalised geography headcanons for the world of TWST complete with continents for my own personal needs.  The post divides locations by Continent.

Anyway why is there a homeland whose name is just the definition of a desert.

Continents (and ocean)

Errant - a western continent in Twisted Wonderland. Mzunguko - the second largest continent in Twisted Wonderland.   Yalmae - the largest continent in Twisted Wonderland.   Abíní - a continent West of Errant. Tridente Ocean - the largest ocean in Twisted Wonderland.

Errant

Rose Kingdom – a country in the western region of Errant. It isn’t a particularly large country, and traveling from it to its neighbouring countries is possible via buses or car. Crownsshire – a county in Rose Kingdom Crowns – the capital  of Crownsshire. It is the town Riddle, Trey, and Che’nya live in.  

Land of Pyroxene – a large country in Errant.  Known for its cold, snowy winters and history with legends pertaining to five of the Great Seven. Waldburg – province Vil’s family is from.  Largely influenced by another country within Errant. Argent – a province in Land of Pyroxene.   Verre – a city in Argent.  Trein and Cater are from here.  Félicité Cosmetics originates here. Miroir – a province in Land of Pyroxene.  Has a large outlet mall popular with fashion-lovers and shopaholics.  The Ténèbres brand originates here. Enchantée – a town in Miroir. Jack and Vargas live here, whilst Vil and his father move here. Scharlachrot - a province in Land of Pyroxene. Epel’s Village of Harvest resides here, and is famous for its widespread organic produce.

Isle of Lamentation – island country, its popularised global name is a translation from the isle’s original Nísos Thrínos.  It has robust technological advancements and is the homeland of the popular idol group On the Edge, known for having concerts with elaborate imagery and visual effects from some of the best technicians available.  Due to legends of the God of the Underworld,  dogs are extremely popular on the Isle of Lamentation. Kapnós – capital of the Isle of Lamentations where the Shroud family resides.  

Valley of Thorns – an isolated country small in population, largely consisting of a large mountain range.  The closer one is to where its Queen resides, the colder it gets.  It is said the Valley of Thorns can go weeks with nothing but moonlight. Geimhreadh - technically the name of the forest near the Valley of Thorns’ mountain range, where the Queen makes her home at its peak.  Its name spread to the residential areas nearby.

Mzunguko

Afterglow Savannah – country in Mzunguko,  ‘Afterglow’ acts as a loose translation of its name, Baadaye.  It lies in eastern Mzunguko.  Famous for its royal guards and leading role in nature conservation. Kiburi – a county in the east of the Afterglow Savannah. Mwamba – capital of Kiburi, where the Kingscholar royal family lives. Maisha – a county in Afterglow Savannah, with its capital sharing the same name.   Jioni – a town in Maisha.  Ruggie and his family live here.

Manyoya – county in Afterglow Savannah.  Well-known for a famously expansive library and a high population of avian beastfolk. Uzuri  – a city in Manyoya, where Rook is from.

Yalmae

Land of Hot Sands – one of many countries in the continent of Yalmae,.  Within the country, it’s referred to as Aldif’.  Rich with its magical history and origins of astrology, Aldif’ nurtures Magicians skilled in divination.  It has a vivid musical scene as well. Misbah - governate of Aldif’. Yatamanaa – capital of Misbah, a largely lucrative city within Aldif’ and city where Kalim and Jamil live.

Abíní

Port of Jubilee - a diverse nation where Sam’s family lives, owning an extensive emporium.  A vast amount of cultures reside in Port of Jubilee, many sharing common ancestors and languages with one another. Nanm - province in Port of Jubilee. Sekrè - port town in Nanm that Sam is from.  His family owns an impressive emporium popular with locals.

Tridente Ocean

Coral Sea - a sea within the Tridente Ocean.  Many of coastlines range across countries within Errant, Mzunguko, and Yalmae.  Beneath its waters lies a kingdom sharing the same name as the sea.  

Name Trivia

Continents (and ocean)

Errant - the continent of Errant has the homelands based off movies such as Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, Hercules, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and Cinderella.  The name stems from certain scenes in the movie marking a particular moment the protagonists feel out of place or stray off the expected course.

Alice in Wonderland: Alice’s misadventures begin when she makes the decision to follow a strange rabbit, straying off the course of simply reading and studying as her sister wished, where the curious and at worst annoying strange creatures and nature of Wonderland take a turn when she meets the Caterpillar, who questions Alice’s place and identity, and the stress of her situation and being unable to return home overwhelms her emotionally.

Snow White - the horrific moment Snow White, in a state of panic, rushes through a dark forest, where her fears envision hidden horrors within the trees and wildlife.

Hercules - after refusing to listen to Phil’s warnings about Megara being in cahoots with Hades, Hercules faces the devastating fact that Megara (reluctantly) deceived him, and loses his superhuman strength and faith in himself.

Sleeping Beauty - shortly after meeting a man she falls for, Aurora becomes devastated and resigned to her fate being betrothed to a complete stranger out of responsibility for her future and country.

Beauty and the Beast - Maurice’s ventures through a mysterious forest consequently leads him to the Beast’s castle in a desperate attempt to escape cold, only to be imprisoned by the Beast for intruding, ultimately putting the story into motion.  After Belle makes a deal to swap places with her father and free him, Belle starts off terrified and in over her head despite saving her father’s life.

Cinderella - after the mice’s hard work creating a fitting ballgown for Cinderella to enjoy the ball, her stepsisters ruin the dress and Cinderella’s chances of leaving her oppressive family’s home.  Her distress and tears lead her to meeting the Fairy Godmother.

Mzunguko - “circle” in Swahili, the language prominent in Lion King’s names, lyrics, and Rafiki’s dialogue, as well as the official language of Kenya, where much of the movie’s settings take inspiration and blatantly feature.  Taken from the iconic “Circle of Life” song.

Tridente Ocean - “trident” in Italian.  Yes, I hear you.  The author is from Denmark.  The statue is in Denmark.  The movie references the statue in Denmark.  However the surname Ashengrotto and Azul’s mother running a ristorante screams Italian and there’s the overall edgy mafia vibe the Octatrio has going on.  I win this one.

Yalmae -  “shine” in Arabic (يلمع).  I wanted a name that illustrated the vibrant, lively diversity of the continent’s many countries, cultures, flora, and fauna.  Something akin to a name that inspires a welcoming feeling.

Abíní - “morning” in Navajo.  I wanted a name that inspires energy and enthusiasm, like a sunrise in summer.  

Homelands

Rose Kingdom

Crownsshire - just the most painfully English name I could think of.  “Crown” refers to, naturally, the crown of the Queen of Hearts.  Also decided to make the Rose Kingdom its own, smaller, more limited country, instead of allowing its apparent monarchy to leech off 20+ different countries Crowns - do you have any idea how genuinely shocking it is we don’t actually have a town here named this.

Afterglow Savannah

Baadaye - “afterglow” in Swahili.  The official and native name of the Afterglow Savannah.  Interestingly, my findings found translations of it meaning “future” as well, which I consider fitting. Kiburi - “pride” in Swahili, can refer to a ‘pride of lions’ or confidence (often overconfidence). Mwamba - “rock” in Swahili, alluding to the Pride Rock that Mufasa’s pride resides in. Maisha - “life” in Swahili. Jioni - “evening” in Swahili.  This refers to where anywhere the sun doesn’t reach, Simba shouldn’t wander, because it’s too dangerous. Originally, I wanted to go with “Kivuri”, which means “shadow”.  However when I went to double check that ‘shadowland’ was a thing in Lion King, referring to where the Elephant Graveyard is, it’s actually a song from the Broadway musica called “Shadowland”, sung by Nala (Heather Headley). It both mourns the desolate state of the Pridelands under Scar’s tyranny, and narrates Nala’s resolve to leave and find a way to save her people and their land.  The song is absolutely gorgeous, solemn, and powerful, and contributes more than any live-action CGI Disney movie could ever come up with.  Its instrumental composition features the melody lei-motif prominent in the animated film (yes, That song.  the heartbreaking one).  It’s one of my favourites in Lion King alongside “He Lives in You” and “Not One of Us” because I like the ones where the chorus goes off. Please just listen to the Lion King Broadway soundtrack it makes me cry with how gorgeous and heartfelt it is.   Anyway in their money-grubbing ways I hope Disney puts the Broadway on Disney+ so some brave soul takes one for the team to pirate it Manyoya - intended to mean “feather”, but to my understanding it also encompasses “fur”. Uzuri - “beauty” in Swahili.  Nothing too deep here, just something pertaining to Rook.

Land of Hot Sand

Aldif’ - “warmth” in Arabic (��لدفء).  Meant to allude to a comforting warmth, kind of hinting that the popularisation of “Land of Hot Sand” more or less leaves the official name lost in translation. Misbah - “lamp/light” in Arabic (مصباح), naturally referencing the magical lamp sought after throughout the movie. Yatamanaa - “wish” in Arabic (يتمنى).  Meant to be bit a bit of a cheeky play on words.  The “wish” inside the “lamp”.

Land of Pyroxene

Waldburg - Wald is "forest” in German.   References the forest that Snow White runs away into after being warned of the Evil Queen’s intentions. Argent - “silver” in French.  References Cinderella’s silver dress. Verre - “glass” in French.  References Cinderella’s glass slipper. Miroir - “mirror” in French.  References both the Mirror of Snow White and the enchanted mirror Beast gives Belle. Enchantée - “enchanted” in French.  Ties into the theme of enchantments, curses, and charms prominent in French fairy tales, and specifically makes me think of the Enchanted Rose from Beauty and the Beast.   Scharlachrot - “scarlet” in German.  References the red colour that hides the infamous green of the poison apple’s true nature.

Isle of Lamentation

Nísos Thrínos - Greek for the isle’s name. Kapnós - “smoke” in Greek.  References Hades’ iconic appearance surrounded by black smoke.

Valley of Thorns

Geimhreadh - “winter” in Irish.  References the winter court of Unseelie fae in Celtic folklore.

Port of Jubilee

Nanm - "soul” in Haiitan Creole.  References the importance of determination and drive prominent in Princess and the Frog.

Sekrè - “secret” in Haitian Creole.  References Dr Facilier’s ulterior motives.

#twisted wonderland #worldbuilding headcanons

[imagitory]

Review: The Lion King (2019) [spoilers]

NAAAAAANTS IGONYAMA BAGITI BABA -- !

Ahem. So...I just got back from seeing the new Lion King remake, and I guess it’s time to talk about it. For those of you who wish to avoid spoilers... *exhales heavily* how do I say this kindly, um -- you don’t need to go see this. Like, really, you don’t. Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but you would miss absolutely nothing watching the original instead of this one, and honestly, I think it’s fair to say you’ll have much more fun watching the original too. As much as I haven’t loved Disney’s line of recent remakes, I at least found something in most of the films I saw that I could praise, but with this one? I don’t recall ever being so utterly bored sitting in a movie theater in my life.

If you would like a more detailed opinion, here’s a cut!

The Good!

+For once, Disney decided to hire a cast full of singers that don’t require autotune, including Donald Glover, Billy Eichner, and of course Beyonce, as well as quite a few lovely people in the chorus like Brown Lidiwe Mkhize (who sang The Circle of Life). Even some of the performers with weaker singing voices like John Oliver were able to hold their own well enough.

+The voice acting overall wasn’t bad. I’ll have to leave it at that, though, since this is supposed to be the positive section.

+The Circle of Life and Can You Feel the Love Tonight? were well-performed, though I will be getting to other issues I had with them later.

+Zazu was actually given a bit more pathos rather than just exclusively being comic relief. He not only tries to protect Nala and Simba from the hyenas, but he also rushes to go get the lionesses when Simba’s in trouble, makes a distraction for Nala so she doesn’t get caught by Scar, and even helps a little more in the final battle. I won’t act like he was an improvement on the orginal exactly, as the best compromise would’ve been to have him be both funny and supportive, but at least there was an attempt to give him some depth.

+As much as I’ll critique the animation further down, I will give the animators credit for its realism. A lot of hard work was obviously put in, and it shows.

The Not-So-Good...

+The number one problem with this movie is, as I feared, the animation. I can respect that this is my opinion and many others might find some charm in how “real” everything looks, but I’m sorry -- musicals =/= realistic . Musicals are supposed to be over-the-top. They are supposed to be theatrical. Hell, even the Broadway production of The Lion King understood that to tell this story without animated lions, you had to treat it like a folktale. The story was never about lions -- it was a human story told with lions. The ideas of family -- responsibility -- duty -- leadership -- grief -- hope -- these are human values. The Lion King was inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It also has ripples of the Moses story, given that it revolves around someone running away from their home and responsibility, only to realize their true calling and go back to save their people. And you know something? I am positive that the filmmakers knew full well how ridiculous these National-Geographic-esque animated creatures would look suddenly bursting into song -- that’s why they tried at every single opportunity to depict the musical sequences in wide, impersonal shots that barely correspond to the rhythm or mood of the song at all. Unless it’s The Circle of Life, which is literally a shot-for-shot recreation of the original sequence accompanied by a song sung by none of the characters on screen, the only way that these supposedly “realistic” creatures could communicate energy or emotion during the song sequences was by running and climbing things. And in the end, it just looks lazy and dull. There’s no energy in either the shots or the editing. Hakuna Matata and I Just Can’t Wait to Be King suffer the most because of this, as those songs were so dependent on bright colors, spontaneity, and enthusiasm, but none of the songs are done justice with this animation.

+Another issue with the animation is in the characters themselves. As realistic as it looks in the textures of the fur and the way the animals move, it is utterly lifeless in practice. I swear to God, there are points where these animals looked stuffed, they’re so blank and hollow. You know those live action movies, like Cats and Dogs, where they would have real dogs and cats play the characters and then just “fix” their mouths with post-production CGI to make it look like they’re talking, even if their eyes and faces still end up looking so blank that it never looks like they’re saying what’s coming out of their mouths? THAT’S THE ENTIRE MOVIE. It didn’t matter how good the voice acting was, because it was invalidated by the lack of expression of the characters who were supposedly saying the lines. The only character in this movie who seemed to have any emotion in his eyes was Scar, and that was because his animated model was apparently given permission to narrow his eyes more, presumably to look more “eeeeeviiiiiiil~.” Even the hyenas were just given hollow black eyes that only ever looked alien and inhuman most of the time (clearly to remind you that they’re the bad guys) -- there were no emotions other than “mwehehehe we’re gonna eat you” on their faces the entire movie. But yeah, think of all the really emotional scenes in this movie. Think of Mufasa seeing Simba hanging on that tree -- the fear in his face as Simba almost loses his grip on the branch -- the pain and fear in Simba’s expression when Mufasa puts him up on a small ledge, only to get yanked backward by the wildebeest and disappear from view -- the struggle in Mufasa’s body language as he tries to climb up the edge of the gorge -- the betrayal and horror in Mufasa’s expression when Scar reveals his true colors -- the desperation, disbelief, horror, and grief in Simba’s face when he finds his father and screams at the open air for help. ...Yeah. Now imagine all of those scenes being acted out by EMOTIONLESS PUPPETS. That’s even what Mufasa looks like when he’s thrown backwards off the cliff -- a puppet. A scene that has left people in tears almost made me snort with laughter because of how bad it looked!

+The animation’s realism also, as others pointed out when the trailers first came out, made it very difficult to pick out individual characters. When Nala grew up, there wasn’t even a way to tell that she was the youngest of the lionesses -- they all looked like clones of each other. There’s a bit where one of the hyenas (I guess he’s supposed to be Banzai, but I guess he’s been renamed something else?) confuses Scar for Mufasa at a distance and I almost burst out laughing because it was like the movie characters themselves even realized how identical all of the lions look. Simba’s face “turning into Mufasa’s” in the water had no emotional impact at all because you could barely tell that anything had just happened.

+Geezus, and I thought that Beauty and the Beast took too many ideas from the original? Oh boy. This movie took so much from the original, it was like the filmmakers copied something they found on the Internet for a school assignment and then added and switched around a couple of lines just so they wouldn’t be accused of plagiarism. There were quite a few points while watching this where I was going, “Oooookay, and this is where Simba sees a lizard. ...Yup, there it is. He’s gonna try to roar twice. ...Yup, and...yup. And on the third try, he’s going to roar loud enough for it to echo, and we’ll cut to the top of the gorge. ...Called it. And wildebeest in three, two, one...” Now, of course, knowing what’s going to happen shouldn’t reduce suspense -- if anything, when something suspenseful is done well, it doesn’t matter if you know what happens, because now you’re excited to see those things happen. But in this? How could I be excited when they recycled almost every joke, almost every shot, almost every scene, only with half the energy and sincerity? Even Beauty and the Beast tried to throw in some twists now and again, even if I didn’t end up liking most of them...the only things I can think of in regards to “changes” were some extra scenes that didn’t add much of anything, such as Scar leaning even more into his “Claudius” role and trying to court Simba’s mother Sarabi. Oh, and on that note...

+...The original movie was about an hour and a half long. This one was two hours. You want to know how they stretched that run-time out? Largely by adding in extended nature sequences. Perhaps if you really like the “realistic” animation, you might enjoy the gratuity of it, but some of them just got ridiculous. Remember how in the original, Scar caught a mouse and kind of taunted it? Now we get almost a whole minute just watching the mouse running around and doing nothing before Scar even shows up. Remember how we got a short, smooth transition from Pride Rock to Rafiki’s tree with a rainfall and soothing music? Have one that’s twice as long and is devoid of any of the epic, solemn atmosphere. Remember how we got a cute little giggle when Timon and Pumbaa sang The Lion Sleeps Tonight, only for it to get interrupted by Nala’s arrival? Now that song is treated like a full musical number with lots of danc -- sorry, walking around aimlessly, because it’d be stupid if animals actually danced or something. Remember how Simba collapses into some leaves, which sets loose some dust which in a ten-second-long cut scene is blown through the wind into Rafiki’s hand? Now it lasts almost two whole minutes and involves a tuft of Simba’s fur landing in a river, being picked up by a bird, becoming stuffing in a nest, being tossed out of the nest, being accidentally eaten by a giraffe, being shat out by that giraffe, being picked up by a dung beetle -- OH, COME ON. NOW YOU’RE JUST SEARCHING FOR EXCUSES TO DRAG THIS MOVIE OUT.

+I love James Earl Jones, but he should not have reprised his role as Mufasa. I’m sorry, but the man is 88 years old now, and he just sounded so tired. He didn’t show even half of the energy and enthusiasm he had playing the part the first time. If he was Simba’s grandfather, that’d be one thing, but he’s not. Half of what makes Mufasa’s death so tragic is how alive and young he seemed and how close his bond was with his friends Rafiki and Zazu and his family Simba and Sarabi, but thanks to Jones’s low-key performance and the lack of emotion in Mufasa’s animation, all of that is lost.

+Just like with Jafar in the recent Aladdin remake, this movie tries to give Scar some depth, but the halfhearted attempt only serves to take away what made Scar a great villain in the first place -- namely, his dry wit, ruthlessness, talent for manipulation, dynamic attitude, arrogance, immaturity, and most of all passion. Combine this not-deliciously-evil-but-definitely-not-sympathetic characterization with such bland animation that neither conveys energy or intrigue, and we’re once again left with a very forgettable, uninteresting villain. Come on, Disney, you used to be so good at writing villains -- just because you’re trying to make a more “realistic” story doesn’t mean your villain can’t crack a smile every-so-often, geezus!

+If Sarabi was chasing off hyenas with the lionesses, how in the world did she and the lionesses get back to Pride Rock fast enough for them to be lounging around when Simba came to get Nala? Scar and Simba’s interaction isn’t nearly long enough to encompass Sarabi finishing up with the hyenas and returning home. This is a problem that comes from how much this remake copies from the original -- because it wants so many scenes to play out identically to the original, it gives any subtle line changes the writers do make the potential to create plot holes.

+Oh yeah, and the joke of Simba pouncing on Zazu really doesn’t work if we see Simba getting ready the entire time and Zazu makes it easy for Simba by spinning around in circles looking at nothing. One would think Zazu was trying to let Simba pounce on him.

+There’s no kind way to put this -- Timon and Pumbaa were just flat-out INSUFFERABLE in this. Not only were their deliveries of lines from the original movie pretty awful, but they also added in a bunch of new, often fourth-wall-breaking jokes that just made me hide my face in my hands and groan. In Hakuna Matata in particular, they act offended by Simba not being more excited when they first say the phrase, ruin the joke of Pumbaa farting by having him say it and Pumbaa then being upset that Timon didn’t interrupt him, AND give Simba a hard time for continuing the song until it fades out by saying that Simba’s “gained 400 pounds” since they started it! This isn’t even touching on how TERRIBLE Seth Rogen was as Pumbaa while singing -- like, I know that’s supposed to be part of the joke, but Ernie Sabella was “a bad singer” by being over-the-top, not by being off-pitch and painful to listen to! Not to mention that Sabella packed so much more characterization into his line deliveries -- the chasm of quality between Sabella and Rogen’s performances all the more highlighted to me the difference between an actor and a voice actor. You can’t just get away with speaking your lines in an ordinary voice when you’re voice acting -- you need to emote solely with your voice, as your face is not doing any of the work, and with animation this emotionless and bland, one really needed to have given 120% in their voice work for it to be even passable. (And honestly, none of the actors stood out well performance-wise...not that they should have to singlehandedly bear the burden of depicting their characters’ emotions just with their voices: this is an animated movie, not a radio drama!) As if breaking the fourth wall for no reason, telling bad jokes, and singing poorly wasn’t enough, Timon and Pumbaa also come across as infinitely more selfish and mean-spirited. They say they’re outcasts, and yet there’s a whole friggin’ community of animals in their jungle home. Simba actually hears Timon and Pumbaa selfishly decide to “keep him” because having a creature bigger than them around might help them out. Timon flat-out tells Simba to only look after himself and no one else. Whereas in the original film, Timon and Pumbaa almost raise Simba like adopted parents, having fun with him and genuinely showing concern for him -- here, Timon and Pumbaa act more like a pair of frat boys who adopted the “new kid” in college and induct him into their friend circle, even though, yeah, Simba first meets them as a cub and they’re already adults. Rather than just laugh at the thought of “royal dead guys watching them” for a quick moment, they openly roar with laughter at Simba, dragging it out even when it’s very clear Simba is hurt by their amusement and not even bothering to apologize. At least in the original, Simba acted like it was funny and then left abruptly, but here? Simba never laughed or showed any amusement, so it came across as Timon and Pumbaa bullying him. Oh yeah, and speaking of bullying, remember how there was that one-off pop culture reference where Pumbaa gets mad at being called a pig? Now that’s been replaced with Pumbaa saying he doesn’t like bullies -- seems like that would’ve been a lovely thing to set up earlier, maybe to give that line some emotional pay-off, but nope! There’s no joke AND there’s no point. But you want to know what made me hate these two beyond reason in this movie? You want to know what finally pushed me over the edge? They broke the fourth wall beyond repair by -- rather than randomly putting on a hula skirt and dancing goofily, because of course we’re a SERIOUS animated movie, one that’s so REAL -- singing Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast, French accent and all. ...Excuse me for a minute. *buries her face into a pillow and screams in rage*

+By the way, those other animals who live in the jungle Timon and Pumbaa are from and therefore invalidate their assertion of being “outcasts”? Completely pointless. They don’t even come with Timon and Pumbaa and fight for the Pridelands! You could have cut them completely and lost nothing.

+As much as Hakuna Matata was the most irritating of the numbers, I Just Can’t Wait to Be King and especially Be Prepared were just pathetic. I Just Can’t Wait to Be King largely suffered, again, due to the “realism” of the animation, but the slow editing and even the vocals slowed the whole sequence down and sucked out any energy or excitement from the piece. I’ll give credit to Nala and Simba’s voice actors for their vocal quality, but there was still none of the spontaneity and recklessness in their voices that the song requires, so it just came across as Disney karaoke, rather than anything professional. But Be Prepared was easily the worst of the lot. It would be a challenge to try to evoke the level of dread and demented thrill you get from the original song sequence, but here, the filmmakers didn’t even try. Not only do we only get part of the song, but Scar’s voice actor Chitwetel Ejiofor barely sings a word of it and brings none of the dynamic, power-hungry, conniving, almost hypnotic mania that’s supposed to define Scar in that moment. He’s mostly just shouting like an old man yelling at a kid to get off his lawn -- there’s no attempt at persuasion or temptation in his voice at all. And just like in most of the other musical numbers, the only way Scar’s character model can emote during his song is to climb on things. Even in songs that were performed well, there were notable problems. The Circle of Life was basically animated on autopilot, replicating every single shot without taking any time to show any genuine emotion anywhere, whether when Zazu and Rafiki greeted Mufasa or when Simba sneezed away the dust in his face...and Can You Feel the Love Tonight? Haha, yeah, right -- more like “Can You Feel the Love in the Mid-Afternoon”! It was absolutely comical, hearing them sing “tonight” when the entire sequence was done in daylight!

+I’ve always liked The Lion King, but...wow, after seeing this remake and how much they tried to lean into the “hyenas as outsiders” idea in this, I have to acknowledge that there are some uncomfortable elements to this story. In the original, we solely focus on Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed with other hyenas in the background, so them being outside the Pridelands could just be seen as the case of a few bad apples, rather than it being an indictment on an entire group. But here, in this version, Shenzi is depicted more seriously as the leader of all the hyenas and it’s established that the war between lions and hyenas has gone on for a long time. Basically this movie turns Shenzi into Zira from The Lion King 2...and yeah, that makes it so that the hyenas -- as the outsiders -- should theoretically be slightly sympathetic, right? You know, to show that it’s wrong to cast others out because they look or act different from you? Nope! Nope, they’re all just evil! They’re manifestations of greed and hunger with no potential for redemption whatsoever. They’re not like our good, pale-colored lionesses who all look the same -- they’re dirty, and conniving, and they seek to creep out of the shadows and leech on everything the lions hold dear. I could very, very easily see how some vile, disgusting people could embrace such a narrative in this current climate, seeing themselves in the lions trying to “take their land back” from the shadowy, evil hoard of creatures who have come from outside to tear down their way of life. I can’t act like this adaptation added something that wasn’t at all in the original movie, as, let’s be honest, it plagiarized most of it...but perhaps because of how they reused this story and in some cases leaned into some elements of that story, this remake has very, very bad timing in when it was released. Those elements of the story probably wouldn’t have been read into it back in the 90′s, given the relative stability of the political landscape, but now? Now I could see how people could read it that way. It’d be like trying to make a movie like Independence Day, where national monuments get blown up, right after 9/11.

Looking back on what I just saw, I’m still absolutely stunned. Never before have I felt like my time has been more wasted than when I decided to sit down and watch this movie. I’ve tried to find shreds of praise, but whenever I try, it feels like I’m grasping at straws, only to fall back into a big pool of “blah.” I have never been so bored by a movie in my life -- and if there’s anything Disney, and especially Disney musicals, should never be, it’s boring. I would still say Maleficent makes me the most angry of Disney’s recent remakes, considering that that one openly insulted the original it was based off and this one is just clearly so up the original’s ass that it’s obnoxious...but this one was easily the biggest disappointment. I went in with almost no expectations, and yet still came out disappointed in the result. That, I think, says a lot. I could see someone who simply wants to see some cute animals and ride a bit on the nostalgia train enjoying this...but forgive me, but that bar is way too low. Disney is capable of doing so much better -- the true Lion King, the 1994 classic that broke records and surpassed all audience expectation, is more than enough evidence of that.

Overall Grade: D-

#the lion king (2019) #the lion king #disney #the lion king spoilers #opinion #oh boy here i go #reviews #disney remakes #remakes

[that-shamrock-vibe]

Disney+ What To Watch: My Top 10 Favourite Disney Live-Action Remakes

So we’ve covered the main Walt Disney Studios animated movies, and I am trying to find categories that I can slot other Disney animated movies into, but for now we are going to follow Disney’s latest trend and jump into the live-action field with my personal favourite top 10 live-action Disney remakes.

Now of course Snow White and the Huntsman will not be on this list primarily because it is not a movie released by Walt Disney Studios and also because it took me three attempts just to get through it. But I will also not be including sequels as they are not reworking animated movies but continuing the stories of the remade live-action movies, so 102 Dalmatians, Alice Through the Looking Glass and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil are also not in contention.

Also remakes of live-action movies, even if those live-action movie are in some form animation hybrids, also will not count, largely because I am only counting those under the official Walt Disney Animated Studios banner but also because there’s no real point.

As always please remember that these rankings and opinions are purely my own, I am not saying these movies are factually worse than others or better than others I am merely saying this is how I view them.

#10. The Lion King

The reasoning for this movie being at #10 despite how well it has done compared to other live-action remakes is purely because I had to check and make sure the title gif I am using for this entry was the one from the live-action remake and not the 1994 animated movie...I should not have to do that!

The problem this movie has, as many critics and fans have pointed out and I believe as I did in my review, is that this is effectively a shot-for-shot remake of said original animated movie. That doesn’t mean it’s not good because the original was a phenominal piece of cinema for the genre and the studio, but it does leave a question as to the relevance of bothering to remake something practically identical with the only USP being that this movie is completely CGI in an attempt to give it the “live-action” treatment.

That being said, I was somewhat entertained by this movie, but by different parts than how I was in the original. For instance, in the original Rafiki was my favourite character in terms of comedy and just as personal preference, here he barely gets anything to do and instead the likes of Sarabi and the Hyenas are more fleshed out.

I did enjoy how the Hyenas showed more of a pecking order in this version, with Shenzi this time being depicted more as the clan leader who is somewhat of a left-hand to Scar in the same way that Faora was to Zod in Man of Steel.

Also Sarabi, who is somewhat forgettable in the animated movie as she’s barely in it until really the end to the point where me saying she was Simba’s mother is the only real jolt some fans may have to remembering her, and the other lionesses had that one really tense scene with Nala trying to escape Pride Rock without being detected by the Hyenas and Scar in order to find help. I can imagine that being a very hard level on the game-version of this movie because I always hated stealth levels like this particularly in the earlier Harry Potter games.

Timon and Pumbaa come in and kind of steal the show half-way through and notably there is a bit more of them raising SImba even as an adult and both Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen do respectable jobs in their respective roles, in fact some have argued they are the best part of the movie because they bring some level of excitement to an otherwise bland remake.

To be fair, one of my favourite parts is when Timon begins to sing “Be Our Guest” as a way of distracting the Hyenas as live bait along with Pumbaa, this of course is reworked from the original when it was them performing a hula-inspired performance which I still love to this day, but this reworking did make me laugh.

Outside of that though, everyone really fills their roles as they did in the original, and it comes across as simply a pale imitation in comparison. It’s not like the other remakes where there was something new enough and exciting enough to differentiate the two. Yet this movie is longer than the original because the stuff that either is new or extended from the original feels like it has just been either shoehorned in because maybe the writers or Favreau himself believed they were lacking in originality or maybe they believed what they actually had was exciting.

The biggest misstep of this type is the almost three minutes spent following a piece of Simba’s mane on its journey from falling off Simba to reaching Rafiki and thus him discovering Simba is in fact alive. In the original, this wasn’t even a 30 second segment and they played up Rafiki’s shamanism a lot more to deduce this fact, but here the hair goes from river, to birds nest, to a giraffe’s digestive system, to a ball of dung, to an ant line until finally reaching him...all the while only promoting the admittedly impressive CGI.

Another example of this is at the beginning of the movie where there is more focus on the field mouse that Scar toys with before losing the opportunity to make it lunch, we spend a good 30 seconds to a minute more than the original as the mouse makes its way up to Scar’s den rather than simply starting off there. I don’t feel this is as big an offence as I do the hair scene but the time could easily be spent elsewhere.

There’s also, I feel, a disadvantage with trying to make these animals as realistic as they did. 2019 struggled with “realistic” CGI animals from The Lion King to Cats and Sonic the Hedgehog, and while Sonic fixed itself by having the titular protagonist’s design changed to a more accurate look, it is a shame that The Lion King did not also have the same idea because giving these lions more animated features may have helped show the emotional hot points of the movie, particularly Mufasa’s death and the emotion on Simba’s face.

It’s also a shame that the voice actors are underwhelming outside of Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen. I do appreciate that they cast regionally-appropriate actors for the most part, even bringing back James Earl Jones for one of his two most famous roles, but there in lies the problem, he simply performed an almost line-for-line redo of what he originally did in the animated version. It’s great hearing him again but I could have just watched the original again to hear him not do anything different.

You also have Beyoncé who fails at both scene-stealing acting and singing performances with her new original song which is hardly in the movie. However, while Beyoncé still delivers on star quality, she also outshines the movie’s main lead Donald Glover who feels like an acting school work experience placement compared to Beyoncé.

Finally the music, forget the rolling turn of mane, this movie butchers and wastes one of the best Disney Villain songs in history by having Chiwetel Ejiofor talk his way through one chorus line of “Be Prepared”...next to that having a lackluster shot-for-shot remake of “Circle of Life” didn’t seem so bad.

Overall, this live-action remake simply felt more like fan-service or even like Jon Favreau was too scared to touch what had come before and so just decided that simply having a fully CGI version of an animated classic was enough...but aside from simply looking at it, there is nothing really wondrous about this movie.

I can see why people like the movie, but I can’t really understand why people defend the movie even from a nostalgic point of view, I mean seriously just watch the original version you’ll get the same feeling out of it.

So what do you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Disney+ What to Watch Top 10s as well as more Top 10 Lists and other posts.

#the lion king #the lion king 2019 #disney #disney+ #disney plus #disney+ what to watch top 10s #disney+ what to watch #my top 10 favourite disney live-action remakes #disney live-action #disney live-action remakes

[crystal-lillies]

So. About The Lion King (and other Disney remakes)

I'm going to preface this post by saying that I'm in no way saying you shouldn't enjoy this film and the others like it if you want to. I was firmly in the camp of hype for the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, but my feelings have changed since then towards current and future movies. That doesn't negate my legitimate excitement I felt then, so what I will say should not be taken as a slight on anyone's excitement for this movie. These are my thoughts and feelings as a lifelong Disney lover, a fiction writer, and a person with a mild background in film studies.

I really, really, dislike the new remakes of Disney's animated movies. Paying homage to the original in a new twist is one thing, unsucessfully recreating animated magic is another. Yes, I said unsuccessfully, because most if not all of Disney's animated movies are much more beautiful and cinematic as they are, and get more bland and generic when they are translated into live action or, in The Lion King's case, photorealistic CGI.

Take Beauty and the Beast (2017), for example. Be Our Guest barely holds a candle (pun intended) to its animated counterpart. The Tale as Old as Time ballroom sequence was not nearly the masterpiece of cinematography that helped win the animated movie Best Picture. Best Picture! How is it that the original animated film did so well, but the live action remake is barely in people's consciousness? Answer: It broke down a strong story into a convoluted mess and simplified everything else. The strongest bit that drew me to the film in the first place with the teaser trailer was the music, but the live action film can't take credit for that because it was composed before. Sure the instrumental themes sound incredible with the visuals of a crumbling castle and a magical rose. They're supposed to. They do no matter what. I did, in fact, enjoy the movie when it came out. I did listen and sing along to Evermore a bazillion times. But after a while it faded away. When it came on Netflix I still liked the movie, but I felt no desire to watch it. I would rather watch the original, because it was the stronger, better visual story. It's timeless in a way that the live action movie will never be. It's much more beautiful than the live action movie will ever be, no matter how impressive the CGI looks.

Regarding the CGI in The Lion King, I must admit, it is impressive. But it's something Disney has already shown us time and again. The original animated film used a blend of 2D animation and CGI, and that to me feels more impressive when you put that together with the stellar cinematography and shot compostition, the score, the voice acting, and the story. The 3D CGI Lion King is borrowing the score and the story. It's so far weakened the cinematography from the shots of Circle of Life which have been side-by-side compared with the animated film. The color is bland and washed out to look "photorealistic" which detracts from the visually pleasing element of the 2D animation. Speaking of photorealistic blandness, I'm sorry but who is who? Simba and Nala look identical as cubs, and Scar barely stands out. Adult Simba looks like a lion I would see at the zoo, or on Google images. Realistic, amazing, sure, but as far as unique character is concerned, I'm not sure if I would feel anything for him if I didn't already have a connection to the source material. can't speak on the voice acting yet, but I'm sure it'll range from "fine" to "great" notably because James Earl Jones is still in it which skews the margin. I do hope the voice acting is strong, but it can easily just be passable, like it was in Beauty and the Beast. It's looked so far like a shot for shot recreation and I'm not sorry, but that's not enough. If you're going to try to do a "new story for a new generation" it should feel different in more than just look. Take the very successful Broadway musical version for example. THAT is a legitimate live action adaptation, albeit for stage. It's still colorful and beautiful, it adds to the story in distinct ways while keeping the main structure of the movie, and it adds to the music and visual composition of the scenes. The acting has always been stellar when I've seen it, from actors with and without puppetry. *THAT* is impressive and innovative, and still feels incredible every time I see it. I *want* to see it every time it comes in a tour (and I almost always have).

Now, I don't want to be hyper critical of these remakes. You know one that I really enjoy still? 101 Dalmatians. Sure I don't watch it as often as I did the animated movie, but it feels like a different movie, inspired by the original. Roger isn't a musician, he makes video games. Yeah it's a bit dated but in a sweet nostalgic kind of way, and it's fun when at the end Cruella inspires him to make a better game because she's a stronger villain than he could think of. The dogs and other animals don't talk, but you get their feelings through their actions, and it's just as fun and sympathetic to watch. Is it perfect? No. It's a bit campy and weak in some spots but it's an enjoyable, rewatchable film. I'm not sure if it was the attitude around the film, but it doesn't try to proclaim itself as better. The general attitude around these newer remakes comes to be "live action/CGI photorealism is better and more valid of a medium than animation" which is pure and utter bullshit. Yet, how many animated movies has Disney put out in comparison to their live action ones in the past 5-10 years? Why do they need to remake great things and make them weaker when they can just create new great things? I know why, or one reason why anyway, but it's a disheartening reason. I've always looked up to Disney as storytellers because I am a writer, I want to tell beautiful and inspiring stories. I love Disney, but that's why I am critical with it as a company and a content creator. I know the incredible work it is capable of, and when it doesn't sustain that work consistently in favor of cheapness, I'm less likely to remain positive about Disney. I'm less likely to support it and its creations, because I don't feel anything behind them.

TL;DR- Disney's trend of "live action" remakes of animated classics feels *and* shows as hollow and bland, and the concept of them detracts from the legitimacy of animation as a medium of storytelling. Disney is capable of producing great, heartfelt, and intelligent content, and because of its corporate lifeless feel anymore, I dislike the projection of the company's future content in the pipeline.

#flowerspeak #long post #disney #the lion king #the lion king 2019 #beauty and the beast #beauty and the beast 2017 #musicals #the lion king musical #101 dalmatians #animation #live action #film #writing #storytelling #I'm sorry i have a lot of feelings about this

[cinema-radio]

The Lion King

Regarding the Mufasa theme, James Earl Jones will bring the majestic lion back to life as he did in the original 1994 version, but sadly in the dubbing to the Castilian the same will not happen, since Constantine Romero will not be able to impose himself as Mufasa again . And well, leaving sadness aside, it is time to go to the entertaining part of this post, because it is almost fun that I leave it to you. Since today we have to know a little more about The Lion King, I leave here the 14 curiosities that you probably did not know about the movie. Ok, maybe not all, but surely you did not know. Action!

1. Scar, the lion of Jeremy Irons The character of Scar, the evil brother of the king, is essentially inspired by the tiger Shere Khan, but the animators decided to reflect the facial features of Jeremy Irons (the actor who gives him life) in him due to how integrated the actor was in his character. Also, as well as detail, Scar is the only lion we constantly see the claws. A feature that was added in order that at all times it was known who was the bad guy in the movie. 2. The King of the Selva The original title of The Lion King, was to be "The King of the Jungle." But after performing the production team their due documentation work because ... it turns out that they realized that the lion does not live in the jungle, but in the African savanna. In addition, and here comes the interesting thing, to properly capture the behavior and movements of the lions in the drawings, the animation team took a large lion and a small lion to the studio. And if something was really difficult to draw were the whiskers, yes, because they had to be drawn on separate pages to add them later. 3. Can You Feel The Love Tonight Elton John was quite angry when in the previous screening before the premiere of The Lion King, the song "Can you feel the love tonight" had been suppressed from the love scene between Nala and Simba. So he demanded that he include the song again, and notice where he received the Oscar for Best Original Song, as well as the BSO composed by Hans Zimmer, Oscar Award for Best Original Soundtrack. 4. Names in Swahili Some of the names of the characters in the movie are inspired by words from the Swahili language: Simba means lion, Nala is a gift, Sarabi mother simba means mirage and Rafiki means friend. However we found a different case, that of Scar, which comes from English and means scar.

5. "Here comes the lion, father” How many times have you sung “the stork” at the beginning of the movie? Well, what comes to be a stork does not say, rather what it sings is "Nants Ingonyama bagithi Baba", it is in the Zulu language, a language typical of the African continent and means: "Here comes the lion, father." And as you will surely be wanting to know what the whole song is like, here I leave it. 6. Team B animation It's funny what happened to The Lion King, it turns out that the main animation team, Team A (we're not going to make jokes, okay?) Was working on Pocahontas, which promised to be the Disney star movie. And team B, those who were not the main animators, were developing The Lion King, since they had little hope that the film would be successful at the box office, and both were being made at the same time. As life has that ironic sense of humor, The Lion King turned out to be Disney's highest grossing film with a collection of 968,483,777 million, compared to the not-so-good reception of Pocahontas with 346,079,773 million raised. 7. The scene of the stampeda The realization of the Ñus stampede scene, which inevitably leads us to the death of Mufasa, cost a whopping 3 years. Getting animate hundreds of animals that run in the same direction and avoid that at the same time they collide with each other, it was an extremely complicated animation work, to the point that they developed a new animation program for the computer. 8. The death of Mufasa The toughest scene in the entire Disney Universe was undoubtedly the death of Mufasa, and although we have not yet recovered, you know it was even worse. In its origin it was much harder but they had to soften it, since after showing the scene to a few children in the study, they began to cry without comfort. 9. An army of hienas To create the parade of the army of hyenas in front of Scar the animators were inspired by Hitler and his troops. 10. Rafiki, a crazy sage character is inspired by the figure of a monk, and therefore these are wise and also serious. But the animators decided to give him a crazy personality. 

- Angie Mora

#thelionking

[taste-in-music]

if you’re looking for new music

it’s gonna be a long one. here we go!

Dua Lipa: If you like deeper, raspier vocals, you'll love her. Of course there's New Rules, but there's also IDGAF, Be the One, Hotter Than Hell, and countless others. 

Skott

Kailee Morgue

Willa: Her songs are a mix of pop and rock. Swan is my favorite song of hers, along with Hey. 

Zella Day: Every song on her album Kicker is good, and so are the singles she's released. Her music is so atmospheric and addictive. Kind of a cowgirl Lana Del Rey. 

Donna Missal: If you're drawn to powerhouse vocals, you'll adore Donna Missal. All her singles, like Keep Lying, Transformer, and Girl, (plus others,) are amazing, and she's releasing an album this year, (which I am SUPER excited for.) IF YOU TAKE NO OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THIS LIST, TAKE THIS ONE!

Bishop Briggs: If you want to feel like a warrior princess in a post apocalyptic action movie, listen to her album Church of Scars.

Ryn Weaver: Vibrato rich vocals meets a pop/folk sound? YES. 

Sigrid: She’s sunshine personified. 

Elle King: The Ex's and Oh's girl has got so many other songs. Check out her album Love Stuff, which has everything from boot stomping bangers (Last Damn Night, America's Sweetheart,) to laid back ballads (Kocaine Karolina, See You Again.) 

Lion Babe: Smooth R&B sound plus Jillian Hervey’s glorious hair. 

Madison Beer

Tove Styrke

Maggie Rogers: I have fallen in love with her EP Now That The Light Is Fading, and how she incorporates nature sounds into her style. 

Billie Eilish: I can't believe she's only 16! Her vocals are so effortlessly smooth, and her sound is distinctive to her. 

Dagny: I. LOVE. HER. SO. MUCH. Her Ultraviolet EP is a blessing to pop music. 

Astrid S

SZA

Banks

Ella Henderson

Sofi Tukker: (My guilty pleasure music.)

VÉRITÉ: A. Pop. Queen. Criminally underrated, (plus she's an independent artist.)  

Allie X: Also a pop queen. Her style's like sparkly, dark-dream-synth-electro-pop. I've seen her live, and her voice literally sounded the same as it does on the recording. She even released a song with VÉRITÉ (Casanova, certified BOP.)

CHVRCHES: Electropop perfection, just dropped their new album Love Is Dead which I've already got on repeat.

Lana Del Rey: She's got so many songs you're bound to find one you like. My favorites are Born to Die and Love.

AURORA 

Dodie

Say Lou Lou: 70′s inspired synth pop meets glittery vocals. 

Zara Larsson: Crazy good vocals. Her song Lush Life is my favorite song of all time.  

Elsa & Emilie

The Aces

Lorde: Duh. Every song by her is perfect. I swear she can do no wrong. 

Anna of the North: If you want super chill music, she's for you.

which artists do you recommend? leave them below, i’m always looking for new music to check out. 

#music recommendation #i'm not going to bother tagging all these artists #check them out #my music picks #taste in music #music #artists

[ramajmedia]

10 Hilarious Pixar Logic Memes Only True Disney Fans Will Understand

With nearly two decades of Toy Story touching kids over the years to breaking records with animated winter musical Frozen, it's no question that Disney Pixar has become one of the most successful and most beloved movie-making companies that the entertainment industry has ever seen. But even for the Disney lovers who adore nothing but the magical words created for them, a lot of Disney's characters and movie scenes have become only more and more relatable as life goes on.

RELATED: The 10 Best Pixar Movies of All Time, According to IMDB

Whether your favorite Pixar movie is a Disney classic or a princess film, here are 10 hilarious Pixar memes only true fans will understand.

10 WHAT IF FEELINGS HAD FEELINGS

From bugs to toys to cars, Disney Pixar has undoubtedly made it known of their brilliant talent to make inanimate objects - or otherwise, objects that we wouldn't normally think of having emotions and storylines and love interests - come to life.

However, in 2015 Disney Pixar's Inside Out was released to theaters, and it got the internet laughing at the fact that after having exhausted every object out there, the only thing to make a movie on now was a movie about FEELINGS themselves!

Inside Out saw great box office success and was popular among families in 2015, moving both children and their parents to tears.

9 "The Customer's Always Right"

In one of the last scenes of Disney Pixar's summer 2016 release Finding Dory, which follows Dory's solo journey across the ocean, seals Rudder and Fluke are seen yelling at their friend Gerald. This movie scene brings out a ton of laughs between audiences, and has also, consequently, just served the internet with a brand new meme.

Gerald's lost face and blatantly ignorant reaction to being yelled at by his friends have been equated many times to taking on discipline or receiving hard news in real life -- the joke is that the only response possible, is Gerald's cluelessness.

8 A live-action Ratatouille

In recent years, Disney has gotten the ball rolling in the playing field of the "live-action remake." By taking its old animated films like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Alice In Wonderland, and casting them with real-life actors and building imaginary worlds on studio sets and then releasing them to movie theaters, they've brought these classic stories to new generations.

With The Little Mermaid, The Lady and the Tramp, and other live-action Disney films right around the corner, However, one movie that the internet isn't sure they want to see is a live-remake of Ratatouille. We're not sure how well that would do at the box office.

7 Violet for your only four moods

Disney first released The Incredibles film in November of 2004, telling the story of a family of superheroes, long before Marvel's The Avengers ever hit theaters. Many lovers of the 2004 Pixar classic had to wait fourteen years to see the sequel.

RELATED: Pixar: The Highest-Grossing Films of All Time

By the time Incredibles 2 came out, many of the movie's previous target audience were not kids who had graduated from high school and even started college in that time. One thing that didn't change over the years though was everyone's relatability to Violet at the dinner table.

6 "Sorry, Dude"

First released in 2003, Finding Nemo told the story of sea creatures and the lives they lived in the ocean. Though all fiction, many of Disney Pixar's animated scenes underwater were actually inspired by sea life and plant life of The Great Barrier Reef.

Crush the sea turtle, who is also a huge fan favorite of the film is a laid back, hippie kind of character who echoes the typical characteristics of a surfer dude. His chill attitude and casual looks have led to a ton of funny internet jokes including this one.

5 The older I get, the more I understand Scar

When you watch Disney Pixar films as a child, naturally what you want to do is identify with the protagonist and root for them. Your childhood innocence blinds you from even trying to understand where any type of villains come from.

Scar in The Lion King is one of Disney audience's most hated villains, but as the internet points out, his remarks in the film aren't at all that far off from things adults say in their everyday lives today. Many people find themselves identifying with the cynicism of Disney's villains as they get older. Do you relate?

4 Idiots, Idiots everywhere

In November of 1995, Disney Pixar released Toy Story which shook the world of animation for good. Setting up the groundwork for the way Pixar approaches their storyboard and real-life looking animations today, Toy Story is known as one of the most influential animated movies ever made.

However, that doesn't mean the internet still can't joke about it. Applied to any situation where there's too many of one thing in a certain place that leads to an overwhelming feeling of annoyance, this meme of Buzz telling Woody, "Idiots, idiots everywhere," is one that people on Twitter love to use when a topic goes to the top of the trending list.

3 Put that thing back where it came from!

 While this may have a little bit of a sad undertone to it for those who are fans of both Disney's Marvel and the Avengers films, this meme has blown up on the internet over the last few days.

RELATED: 10 Voices We Forgot Were Behind Our Favorite Animated Movies

In light of the news that Spiderman is no longer part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, many MCU and Spidey fans have taken to the internet to express their sadness at the character and universe separation. Other fans, however, turned to Disney's Monster Inc., to let Mike Wazowski let them know how they felt.

2 Talking on the phone

In the world of texting and tweeting and posting, nobody ever really wants to talk on the phone anymore, right? The popularity of this meme of Ilsa from Frozen has become one of the most relatable things on the internet.

Released back in 2013, Disney's Frozen broke records when it achieved the title for the highest-grossing animated film at the box office ever, passing up Disney's own Toy Story 3. Despite the fact that its songs, its heroine driven story, and its comedic brilliance for families and kids, its popularity did make the film a little bit of a joke on the internet, but it's relatable, so it makes sense.

1 Oh, look at that.

Despite being a small character in the film, Olaf from Disney's Frozen has won the hearts of people of all ages. Voiced by Josh Gad, Olaf serves as the comic relief in the movie and his happy-go-lucky charm has been made the basis of countless internet jokes about masking real-life problems or pain with a jaded look at his optimism.

In the movie, the scene shown in the photo above actually has Olaf saying, "Oh look! I've been impaled!" in reaction to an icicle going through his snowman body. The internet takes this and applies it things that feel threatening to comfort like unwelcome feelings and anything other than happy thoughts. At least Olaf lets us know we're not alone!

NEXT: Which Pixar Character Are You Based On Your MBTI

source https://screenrant.com/10-hilarious-pixar-logic-memes-true-disney-fans-will-understand/

#screenrant

[funnythingshere0-blog]

The 20 best Marvel films – ranked!

New Post has been published on http://funnythingshere.xyz/the-20-best-marvel-films-ranked/

The 20 best Marvel films – ranked!

20. Ghost Rider (2007)

No list of Marvel films – or of any films – can be without Nicolas Cage. Here he plays the terrifying Ghost Rider. By day: stunt motorbike rider Johnny Blaze. By night: a flaming skeleton forced by Satan to ride around collecting souls for hell on his lethal chopper.

[embedded content]

19. Ant-Man (2015)

There is something funny, understated and self-deprecatory in the superpowers of Ant-Man – chiefly an ability to get really, really small – and Paul Rudd was perfectly cast in this likable Marvel movie, originally written by Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish. Like many Marvel films with a more obvious comic touch, it has grown in retrospect.

18. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were in their late 20s when they played Peter Parker, but Tom Holland was just 21 when he made his bashful Spidey debut in Captain America: Civil War. As a result, he was instantly more credible as a high-school kid, coming under the wisecracking mentorship of Tony Stark. Holland has been absolutely great in the role since, instantly getting Marvel’s verbal and physical language of dynamic, yet self-aware superheroism.

17. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Time-travel was a complicating factor in this X-Men movie – perhaps too much so – but it at least brought us Evan Peters’s Quicksilver, who features in the glorious “bullet-time” sequence, in which the lightning-fast teenager ambles around catching bullets in the air as they are shot towards Magneto and Prof Xavier, all set to Jim Croce’s yearningly melancholicTime In a Bottle.

16. Spider-Man (2002)

Sam Raimi made a splash with this, the first of his original trio, and he persuaded a new generation to love Spider-Man as the existential underdog, the winner who is also a loser. Filmed before 9/11 but released afterwards, Raimi had to junk a spectacular shot of a helicopter being caught in webbing strung between the two WTC towers, along with much contingent narrative.

15. Iron Man (2008)

Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man. Photograph: Allstar/Marvel/Sportsphoto Ltd

The casting of Robert Downey Jr as the central pillar of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was very important – his quicksilver wit and his handsomeness, salted with cynicism and bleariness, allowed the films a crucial difference in tone and feel to previous superhero movies, giving them a new kind of savvy comedy. The first Iron Man, directed by John Favreau, isn’t my favourite, but it was a vital foundation of Marvel’s filmic cosmos.

14. Thor (2011)

For sheer grandeur and a very literate, almost Shakespearean sense of cosmic power politics, director Kenneth Branagh gave us a very enjoyable drama centred on the great deity Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth. He has issues with his father, Odin, played – perhaps inevitably – by Anthony Hopkins. Tom Hiddleston played his malcontent evil brother, Loki, in the great tradition of Jeremy Irons’s Uncle Scar in The Lion King. The giant universal vistas of Asgard, Jotunheim and Earth are created with surreal brio.

13. Doctor Strange (2016)

Doctor Strange is the most avowedly, even pedantically freaky hero in the MCU: the statutory Stan Lee cameo has the great man on a city bus, chuckling over a copy of Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception – the closest a Marvel film will come to actually advocating drug abuse. Benedict Cumberbatch cemented his unique A-list status as Dr Stephen Strange, the wealthy and temperamental neurosurgeon who is terribly injured in a car crash, but then ascends to a higher level of psychokinetic mastery thanks to Tilda Swinton’s Ancient One. The landscape-folding moments of surreality are more lightly managed than in Christopher Nolan’s Inception.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange. Photograph: Marvel

12. Logan (2017)

A fascinatingly downbeat movie from the Marvel canon: superpowers are one thing, but no-one said the chracters were immortal. So, what happens when superheroes get old? This film goes some way towards an answer with this tale of Logan: X-Men’s Wolverine – seen at some stage in future, making an incognito living as a limo driver while caring for a decrepit Charles Xavier, and enduring severe pain every time his claws are unsheathed.

11. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

In the great bible of Marvel, the cataclysmic Avengers: Infinity War is the nearest to the Book of Revelations. It’s the closest the franchise comes to actually showing us the awful reality of an end to everything – that unthinkable final curtain the mighty battles between good and evil appear to have been gesturing at before now. The management of tone is expert: at one moment tragic, the next funny, and the next just exciting.

10. Deadpool (2016)

Marvel humour is at its most studenty and self-aware in this movie about the mutant mercenary assassin who first emerged on screen as a cameo in X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009. It’s also very macabre and very funny. Ryan Reynolds is once again Deadpool, the black sheep of the X-Men family.

9. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

The two great enemies of picnics get co-billing in this hilarious, charming and distinctly lovable film tackling the micro-universe, the second in the Ant-Man series. Paul Rudd is great as Ant-Man and Evangeline Lilly is formidable as the Wasp. Michael Douglas has a certain old-school aplomb as Dr Hank Pym, and Michelle Pfeiffer has a great supporting turn as the Wasp’s mother, Janet van Dyne.

[embedded content]

8. X-Men (2000)

This was the first of many X-Men films, and in Bryan Singer it had a director overtaken by controversy, although at the time, the only controversy concerned the film’s extraordinary – or crass – “concentration camp” scene set in Poland in 1944. This was the movie that brought us Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as Professor X and Magneto.

7. Iron Man 3 (2013)

Not everyone agrees, but my favourite of the Iron Man films is the third – because of the lip-smacking relish brought to the writing and directing by Shane Black, a master of action comedy. Downey Jr is on fine form as the titular mercurial mogul and, in an age when we have to endure Elon Musk and his unwieldy submarine, Stark’s persona seems charm itself.

6. Marvel Avengers Assemble (2012)

Perhaps this is the quintessential MCU film, which introduced mainstream audiences to the idea of mashing up the lives and existences of superheroes to have them work together and encroach on each other’s adventures while playing everything more or less deadpan. This one teamed Iron Man, Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor, Captain America (Chris Evans), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) – creating a virtual blood-sugar overload of superhero potency. They faced Hiddleston’s outrageously evil Loki. Johansson is superb as Black Widow.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Director James Gunn has fallen on his sword for inappropriate tweets, but this hasn’t cancelled the claim his Guardians of the Galaxy movies have on the hearts of Marvel fans. Again, the keynote of comedy is all-important. Chris Pratt plays Peter Quill, the Han-Solo-ish intergalactic freebooter, listening to his retro playlist on an old-school Sony Walkman and commanding a ragtag multi-species crew, a tree-shaped creature called Groot, a huge guy called Drax, a talking raccoon called Rocket and a green alien called Gamora. There is a rush of absurdity, but excitement as well.

4. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Sam Raimi’s second film in the original Spider-Man series is often thought the best of the trilogy, and perhaps even the best Marvel film. It’s certainly the most serious, and taps into the melancholy self-questioning of Spider-Man, while Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus is still the best Marvel supervillain.

3. Blade II (2002)

This sequel to 1998’s Blade was directed by Guillermo del Toro with a swirling, demonic energy. The story once again concerns the charismatic daywalker, played by Wesley Snipes. It is a delirious Gothic-tech martial arts movie and the fight sequences Del Toro unleashes are horribly exciting. Not a typical superhero film, in many ways, but a great one.

2. Black Panther (2018)

This superb film is a deliriously entertaining Afrofuturist adventure, with strange echoes of Rider Haggard. Black Panther was established as one of Marvel’s greatest heroes, and Ryan Coogler’s movie showed that having a nearly non-white cast was not simply a matter of diversity signalling – it was a colossal box office hit across the board, with a richer and more cultish element of fantasy than other Marvel films. (It also boasts MCU’s first woman cinematographer: the Oscar-nominated Rachel Morrison. Marvel Studios’ president, Kevin Feige, has promised to get more women writers and directors on board, with next year’s Captain Marvel co-written and co-directed by Anna Boden. So far, the only Marvel female writing credit is Nicole Perman for Guardians Of The Galaxy.)

1. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Thor: Ragnarok. Photograph: Allstar/Marvel Studios

Somehow the Marvel planets came into alignment more perfectly, more sublimely, with this film than with any other Marvel movie: it is smart, visually exciting and perhaps above all, funny. And it’s funny in a way that only Marvel movies can be, demonstrating that comedy need not undercut or send up the drama, but that it can be an integral part of it. Taika Waititi was an inspired choice as director, and Hemsworth and Cate Blanchett are tremendous as Thor and Hela, the goddess of death who also happens to be Thor’s half-sister.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/15/the-20-best-marvel-films-ranked

[that-shamrock-vibe]

Movie Review: The Lion King (Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: So I am slightly later to the party than originally intended but I will be talking about this movie in detail and am posting this review a day or so after it is released in U.K. cinemas, so if you haven’t yet seen the movie, either go and watch the original or wait until you have seen it before reading on.

General Reaction:

I have several problems with Disney’s “live-action” remake of The Lion King, not only with the choices the actual movie makes, but unfortunately also some of my ranting will be down to the live-action remake fatigue that has struck almost every Disney fan with the recent onslaught of remakes coming out. For me, The Lion King is where I have reached my  peak because up until now the live-action remakes at least brought something different from the originals for me.

Here however, if for some strange reason you haven’t seen the original animated version of this movie...as I know at least one person who hasn’t...then this may be a brand new enjoyable movie for you. However, for the rest of the world that has, this was pretty much the exact same movie scene for scene with dialogue that seems very tired and characters that lack the basic sense of emotion.

I just want to clarify something, anyone who knows me knows I do not talk follow trends when writing these reviews, so the fact that I am going to spend a lot of this review pretty much complaining about the movie is not because it seems to be the “it thing” to hate it, but instead I have actual reasons as to my disdain.

I do blame Jon Favreau for some of the problems with the movie, especially because he hit it out of the park with The Jungle Book remake back in 2016. I can remember walking out of the cinema after seeing that movie with such a sense of enjoyment from my cinema experience which was decorated in Jungle Book paraphernalia, to the actual movie which was obviously based on the original animated version but also took inspiration from the novel the original was based on.

Here though there was no decor save for one lion totem hidden away, and from the very start of the movie I was seriously underwhelmed by it all.

I don’t know if something got lost between the 2D animation and the CG animation but the movie just felt rather slow compared to the 1994 animated version. There was something so iconic and special about the original version that maybe it was simply the case that nothing could match up to it, but if that is the case then the talent behind the scenes should have at least tried to do something different with the story like Aladdin and Dumbo tried to do.

I genuinely believe that Jonny Fav blinked when tackling this compared to The Jungle Book because while The Jungle Book is a classic it isn’t as iconic or beloved as The Lion King and therefore maybe he didn’t want the backlash if he changed it and it wasn’t received well.

Also, this “live-action” version of the animated movie has 30 minutes more content in it than the original 1994 animated version, this is both a good and a bad thing. The two worst crimes of this movie, aside from it lacking originality and emotive facial expressions, as well as one particular song which I will get into, are two minor scenes that stretch-out pointless plot-points.

The first just after the “Circle of Life” opening where the movie follows the travels of the mouse that Scar eventually tries to eat. But this mouse is followed from the bottom of the cliff-face into the cave that Scar is in.

The second is after Simba begins to question everything he has been told about life and slumps down on that ledge. In the original 1994 version there are leaves and particles that originally spell out “Sex” that are now replaced by a piece of Simba’s mane flying away and going on a journey for five long minutes.

This hair lands in a lake, floats across a Savannah, is eaten and subsequently pooped out by a giraffe, rolled away in a poop ball by a dung beetle before being separated from the pile and being carried up to Rafiki’s tree by worker ants. In the original, a breeze carries leaves across Rafiki’s path which he catches and it is over in about 2 minutes.

Both scenes are dragged out, almost completely irrelevant to the plot and just took me out of the movie questioning why I’m following a mouse and a piece of hair.

Then I have to quickly talk about the stampede scene which leads to Mufasa’s death. 2-D Animation vs. photo-realistic technology is becoming a massive battle in cinema recently particularly at Disney, but there are many things that hand-drawn animation can get away with that live-action cannot. Not only did I get zero facial expressions from Simba or Mufasa in this scene but also that stampede scene in the original animated movie is so grand and has such an emotive response from audience members no matter how many times you see it whereas here, it didn’t seem as epic. It still felt grand because it’s a stampede but not on the level of the animated version.

To end this section on a positive, I do appreciate the photo-realistic CG because it does comprise the entire movie, even the scenery, because it all does make it seem like watching realistic animals for the most part.

Cast:

Alright so there are some good and bad thing about the cast and characters. For a start, the characters in “live-action” are emotionless, lack any real form of empathy and require your love of their 2D animated counterparts to gain any affection from the audience.

The best characters in this version are Timon, Pumbaa and the Hyenas, even Zazu is high-up for me...this presents another problem with the movie, the comic relief of the movie is the best part about it. But it is true, while Billy Eichner as Timon and Seth Rogen as Pumbaa may not be as strong a double act as Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella, they are still rather funny together and actually are given more of a meta humour than in the original movie. Not only with their version of “Hakuna Matata” but also the new Hyena distraction scene which in the original is the Hula scene but now starts off as the beginning of Beauty and the Beast’s “Be Our Guest”.

The hyenas meanwhile are made more formidable and fearsome in this movie, not only is Florence Kasumba as Shenzi more of a leader of her clan even opposing Scar at times, but both Keegan Michael-Kay and Eric André prove to be almost as good a double act as Kay & Peele. For this reason they’re high up on my list.

Donald Glover is an okay adult Simba. He has got that innocent youthful tone that adult Simba should have given the experiences of his life, but he does just feel like he’s reading a script rather than actually acting..

Beyoncé is, well Beyoncé in lioness form but the thing that lets her down is the lack of emotion on Nala’s face. Also I don’t understand why the back of her ears and tail were blackened aside from the fact that Favreau wanted Nala to stand out from the other lionesses.

Scar is as fierce as ever and Chiwetel Ejiofor proves once again why he is a great villain actor.

I was also pleasantly surprised by Simba’s mother Sarabi in this movie as not only did she have more to do but her backstory with Mufasa and Scar, which doesn’t necessarily make me want a prequel but adds to the Hamlet story that this story is based on, and has Scar state that she chose Mufasa over him...so does that mean she was somehow romantically involved with her now brother-in-law? Also Alfre Woodard is great in the role.

James Earl Jones is back and...it’s simply for nostalgic purposes because there is nothing really elevated in his performance. If anything his performance falls slightly flat in parts but otherwise he’s fine.

The biggest letdown for me is the character of Rafiki, who in the original 1994 version is my favourite character. I love the fact he’s a shaman, I loved his first meeting with Simba I could easily watch it over and over again. I do not understand why they effectively cut that scene and the message of morality that comes with it.

Then he only had his stick when preparing for that climactic fight. It seemed as if they were saying that point was him coming out of pacifism but it isn’t fully shown, but I wanted to see Rafiki walk around with his stick like he did in the original, they copied pretty much everything else but got rid of that?!

Also the one bit of facial emotion that any of these characters show is in the beginning “Circle of Life” sequence when Rafiki carries baby Simba to the edge of Pride Rock and Simba looks genuinely sad to be pulled away from his mother.

Speaking of young Simba, both JD McCrary and Shahadi Wright Joseph do a good job as the young versions of Simba and Nala respectively. I think McCrary tries very hard to recapture the emotion that can bring grown men to tears when Simba finds his father dead, it doesn’t quite stick but he tries.

Songs:

I don’t know if it is because the original score and soundtrack is so iconic and ingrained in popular culture, or just that reworks of the same songs don’t really work...Aladdin for all its plusses still fell into that category...but the songs from the original movie in this version do nothing good for me.

“Circle of Life” is supposed to be the energised introduction to the movie, but if you were to watch the opening to this movie and the original side-by-side, it is practically a shot for shot copy but this version is slower and therefore misses a lot of the cues. Even the shot where you first see Zazu flying over to Pride Rock is underwhelming and they screwed that up twice, first at the start and then again at the end of the movie.

“I Just Can’t Wait To Be King” was also slightly lackluster because of the fact this movie seemed to take away the fantastical elements of the performances in favour of apparently making it more grounded, but it was still a fun performance. I think the two young actors playing the two young cubs did a great job vocally and the performance of them hiding from Zazu amongst the animals was an okay alternative.

“Be Prepared” is the one time I have been actually offended in one of these Disney live-action remakes, this song is one of the greatest villain songs in history. They take a performance which fully executes the Elephant Graveyard but also turns the hyenas into the New Reich! This is Scar monologuing for a couple of minutes and the “song” lasts about maybe 30 seconds. This was my favourite song in the original and it fizzles out completely.

“Hakuna Matata” is a fun song as it was in the original, like “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” the fantastical elements are taken out of it so Pumbaa swinging on the vine swing and the use of the bugs and the diving into water are all taken out. Even so, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen do a good job singing as does JD McCrary...Donald Glover on the other hand is not a singer.

“The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is probably my favourite song in the movie, and it’s a song not original to The Lion King which is more of a problem for the revision of the soundtrack to the original 1994 version but the fact Timon and Pumbaa got essentially their own doo-wop group going of the animals that also inhabit their home, it’s just such a good rendition.

“Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”...if it wasn’t for Beyoncé would be an absolute bomb because Donald Glover, again, cannot sing. Also the song happens way too quickly. The movie is effectively a shot-for-shot remake but some scenes are cut short and Simba and Nala’s reunion is made very short before this song kicks in.

Recommendation:

I can’t say this is a perfect movie, if you love the original and want to see that again you will like this just fine, if you were wanting something different like how Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast altered themselves slightly then you won’t really get that here.

I still recommend it as a movie to see just one because it is an important movie to see just to see how stretched out these live-action remakes are becoming. However, I will agree with those that say it is one of the worst remakes.

#the lion king #lion king #disney #disney live-action #the lion king 1994 #the lion king 2019 #simba #nala #mufasa #sarabi #rafiki #zazu #timon #pumbaa #hyenas #scar #donald glover #beyoncé #beyonce knowles-carter #james earl jones #circle of life #seth rogen #hakuna matata

[funnythingshere0-blog]

The 20 best Marvel films – ranked!

New Post has been published on https://funnythingshere.xyz/the-20-best-marvel-films-ranked/

The 20 best Marvel films – ranked!

20. Ghost Rider (2007)

No list of Marvel films – or of any films – can be without Nicolas Cage. Here he plays the terrifying Ghost Rider. By day: stunt motorbike rider Johnny Blaze. By night: a flaming skeleton forced by Satan to ride around collecting souls for hell on his lethal chopper.

[embedded content]

19. Ant-Man (2015)

There is something funny, understated and self-deprecatory in the superpowers of Ant-Man – chiefly an ability to get really, really small – and Paul Rudd was perfectly cast in this likable Marvel movie, originally written by Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish. Like many Marvel films with a more obvious comic touch, it has grown in retrospect.

18. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were in their late 20s when they played Peter Parker, but Tom Holland was just 21 when he made his bashful Spidey debut in Captain America: Civil War. As a result, he was instantly more credible as a high-school kid, coming under the wisecracking mentorship of Tony Stark. Holland has been absolutely great in the role since, instantly getting Marvel’s verbal and physical language of dynamic, yet self-aware superheroism.

17. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Time-travel was a complicating factor in this X-Men movie – perhaps too much so – but it at least brought us Evan Peters’s Quicksilver, who features in the glorious “bullet-time” sequence, in which the lightning-fast teenager ambles around catching bullets in the air as they are shot towards Magneto and Prof Xavier, all set to Jim Croce’s yearningly melancholicTime In a Bottle.

16. Spider-Man (2002)

Sam Raimi made a splash with this, the first of his original trio, and he persuaded a new generation to love Spider-Man as the existential underdog, the winner who is also a loser. Filmed before 9/11 but released afterwards, Raimi had to junk a spectacular shot of a helicopter being caught in webbing strung between the two WTC towers, along with much contingent narrative.

15. Iron Man (2008)

Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man. Photograph: Allstar/Marvel/Sportsphoto Ltd

The casting of Robert Downey Jr as the central pillar of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was very important – his quicksilver wit and his handsomeness, salted with cynicism and bleariness, allowed the films a crucial difference in tone and feel to previous superhero movies, giving them a new kind of savvy comedy. The first Iron Man, directed by John Favreau, isn’t my favourite, but it was a vital foundation of Marvel’s filmic cosmos.

14. Thor (2011)

For sheer grandeur and a very literate, almost Shakespearean sense of cosmic power politics, director Kenneth Branagh gave us a very enjoyable drama centred on the great deity Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth. He has issues with his father, Odin, played – perhaps inevitably – by Anthony Hopkins. Tom Hiddleston played his malcontent evil brother, Loki, in the great tradition of Jeremy Irons’s Uncle Scar in The Lion King. The giant universal vistas of Asgard, Jotunheim and Earth are created with surreal brio.

13. Doctor Strange (2016)

Doctor Strange is the most avowedly, even pedantically freaky hero in the MCU: the statutory Stan Lee cameo has the great man on a city bus, chuckling over a copy of Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception – the closest a Marvel film will come to actually advocating drug abuse. Benedict Cumberbatch cemented his unique A-list status as Dr Stephen Strange, the wealthy and temperamental neurosurgeon who is terribly injured in a car crash, but then ascends to a higher level of psychokinetic mastery thanks to Tilda Swinton’s Ancient One. The landscape-folding moments of surreality are more lightly managed than in Christopher Nolan’s Inception.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange. Photograph: Marvel

12. Logan (2017)

A fascinatingly downbeat movie from the Marvel canon: superpowers are one thing, but no-one said the chracters were immortal. So, what happens when superheroes get old? This film goes some way towards an answer with this tale of Logan: X-Men’s Wolverine – seen at some stage in future, making an incognito living as a limo driver while caring for a decrepit Charles Xavier, and enduring severe pain every time his claws are unsheathed.

11. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

In the great bible of Marvel, the cataclysmic Avengers: Infinity War is the nearest to the Book of Revelations. It’s the closest the franchise comes to actually showing us the awful reality of an end to everything – that unthinkable final curtain the mighty battles between good and evil appear to have been gesturing at before now. The management of tone is expert: at one moment tragic, the next funny, and the next just exciting.

10. Deadpool (2016)

Marvel humour is at its most studenty and self-aware in this movie about the mutant mercenary assassin who first emerged on screen as a cameo in X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009. It’s also very macabre and very funny. Ryan Reynolds is once again Deadpool, the black sheep of the X-Men family.

9. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

The two great enemies of picnics get co-billing in this hilarious, charming and distinctly lovable film tackling the micro-universe, the second in the Ant-Man series. Paul Rudd is great as Ant-Man and Evangeline Lilly is formidable as the Wasp. Michael Douglas has a certain old-school aplomb as Dr Hank Pym, and Michelle Pfeiffer has a great supporting turn as the Wasp’s mother, Janet van Dyne.

[embedded content]

8. X-Men (2000)

This was the first of many X-Men films, and in Bryan Singer it had a director overtaken by controversy, although at the time, the only controversy concerned the film’s extraordinary – or crass – “concentration camp” scene set in Poland in 1944. This was the movie that brought us Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as Professor X and Magneto.

7. Iron Man 3 (2013)

Not everyone agrees, but my favourite of the Iron Man films is the third – because of the lip-smacking relish brought to the writing and directing by Shane Black, a master of action comedy. Downey Jr is on fine form as the titular mercurial mogul and, in an age when we have to endure Elon Musk and his unwieldy submarine, Stark’s persona seems charm itself.

6. Marvel Avengers Assemble (2012)

Perhaps this is the quintessential MCU film, which introduced mainstream audiences to the idea of mashing up the lives and existences of superheroes to have them work together and encroach on each other’s adventures while playing everything more or less deadpan. This one teamed Iron Man, Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor, Captain America (Chris Evans), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) – creating a virtual blood-sugar overload of superhero potency. They faced Hiddleston’s outrageously evil Loki. Johansson is superb as Black Widow.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Director James Gunn has fallen on his sword for inappropriate tweets, but this hasn’t cancelled the claim his Guardians of the Galaxy movies have on the hearts of Marvel fans. Again, the keynote of comedy is all-important. Chris Pratt plays Peter Quill, the Han-Solo-ish intergalactic freebooter, listening to his retro playlist on an old-school Sony Walkman and commanding a ragtag multi-species crew, a tree-shaped creature called Groot, a huge guy called Drax, a talking raccoon called Rocket and a green alien called Gamora. There is a rush of absurdity, but excitement as well.

4. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Sam Raimi’s second film in the original Spider-Man series is often thought the best of the trilogy, and perhaps even the best Marvel film. It’s certainly the most serious, and taps into the melancholy self-questioning of Spider-Man, while Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus is still the best Marvel supervillain.

3. Blade II (2002)

This sequel to 1998’s Blade was directed by Guillermo del Toro with a swirling, demonic energy. The story once again concerns the charismatic daywalker, played by Wesley Snipes. It is a delirious Gothic-tech martial arts movie and the fight sequences Del Toro unleashes are horribly exciting. Not a typical superhero film, in many ways, but a great one.

2. Black Panther (2018)

This superb film is a deliriously entertaining Afrofuturist adventure, with strange echoes of Rider Haggard. Black Panther was established as one of Marvel’s greatest heroes, and Ryan Coogler’s movie showed that having a nearly non-white cast was not simply a matter of diversity signalling – it was a colossal box office hit across the board, with a richer and more cultish element of fantasy than other Marvel films. (It also boasts MCU’s first woman cinematographer: the Oscar-nominated Rachel Morrison. Marvel Studios’ president, Kevin Feige, has promised to get more women writers and directors on board, with next year’s Captain Marvel co-written and co-directed by Anna Boden. So far, the only Marvel female writing credit is Nicole Perman for Guardians Of The Galaxy.)

1. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Thor: Ragnarok. Photograph: Allstar/Marvel Studios

Somehow the Marvel planets came into alignment more perfectly, more sublimely, with this film than with any other Marvel movie: it is smart, visually exciting and perhaps above all, funny. And it’s funny in a way that only Marvel movies can be, demonstrating that comedy need not undercut or send up the drama, but that it can be an integral part of it. Taika Waititi was an inspired choice as director, and Hemsworth and Cate Blanchett are tremendous as Thor and Hela, the goddess of death who also happens to be Thor’s half-sister.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/15/the-20-best-marvel-films-ranked