As we get closer to 2020, I have been thinking about my favorite and least favorite films of this decade. For the most part there were no surprises: Her (2013), Mad Max Fury Road (2015), and Before Midnight (2013) were among my favorites whereas God's Not Dead (2014), United Passions (2014), and The Emoji Movie (2017) were among my obvious worst.
It was admittedly shocking then when compiling my least favorites that one of my least favorites was none other than the live action remake of 1991's Beauty and the Beast. Surely, the film cannot be that bad? Why would I find the live action Beauty and Beast so offensively bad? I suppose it is because it is not about the movie but what the movie represents, but I am getting ahead of myself.
The remake wastes no time in wasting your time. Instantly, the film felt like a high school production but with a Hollywood budget and SFX team.
I imagine there is a side by side comparison between the remake's and the original's musical numbers on YouTube, and I imagine it is like watching the Mustafar scene from Revenge of the Sith vs. the Star Wars kid. It shows one of the great lessons that like great video games, 2-D animation and even some 3-D animation just can't be adapted to a live action film without sacrificing what made it special in the first place. The timing, the exaggeration, the animated specific camera angles are all gone from this remake. This alone is what makes the remake as well as all the Disney remakes nearly unwatchable for me.
Everything about the remake is just a worse and somehow a more cartoony version of the original. The few problems the original had such as what is essentially a kidnapper and captive relationship told romantically are accentuated as well as new problems that are plainly jaw dropping. The music feels phony and overedited. The Beast is made more unlikable even by trying to make him into a pretentious book nerd. Belle's father is more campy and therefore less sincere. The villains, thanks to no animation, don't have the gravitas they had. If I were to give the film any points, it is when LeFou makes a self aware joke. Though upon thinking about it, it just made me wish Mel Brooks, or some other great comedic filmmaker, did a proper parody of Beauty and the Beast. Then again, there is technically Shrek, so....You know what never mind. Either way, I had to take the points back.
Emma Watson felt like she was playing as Hermione Granger playing as Belle, and did I mention how the musical segments give me actual nosebleeds?
But like I said, it is what the film represents that I find so offensively bad. To me, Beauty and the Beast (2017) is a culmination of what Disney represents currently and Hollywood's cyclical obsession of remakes, reboots, and sequels.
And I like Disney. I would go as far as to say that 2013-2016 Disney was a mini Renaissance for the company. Excluding the Marvel related stuff, we had films like Moana and Inside Out. And while I don't *love* Force Awakens and Frozen, I understand their appeal and can't deny the wonderful things they have done for their franchise and Disney princesses respectively.
And now we have this Disney. A Disney that has ran Star Wars and Disney classics to a near drought. Not only that, more and more unfair practices are starting to come and go through the news cycle. Why don't I list a few right now:
1. The purchase of 21st Century Fox and the implications of Disney's increasing leverage.
2. Disney's current exploits in bullying movie theaters into deals that favor Disney.
3. Its constant queerbaiting which to be fair unfortunately started from the mini Renaissance years.
4. That time when Disney barred LA Times journalists from screenings due to its critical reports on the company.
5. The whitewashing of Toy Story 2 since one joke didn't reflect today's moral standards.
6. The firing of James Gunn after caving into outrage.
7. The Disney Plus hack.
To me Beauty and the Beast (2017) is culmination of all of this. A soulless cash grab that queerbaits, takes no risk, and ignores Disney's very history.
And it made around 1.2 billion dollars.
We need to be more vigilant of the mouse, and we can't be so forgetful of Disney's practices. And for God sake, stop watching these terrible remakes! It will be interesting to see the future of Disney within the next ten years. I just hope we see a departure of what we have been seeing these last few years.
Of course, that is some Disney princess wishful thinking for ya.
Friday, November 22, 2019
Saturday, January 12, 2019
A Poorly Written Ramble on Why I like Netflix's "A Series of Unfortunate Events"
In 2001, a little film called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone came out. I don't think I have to tell what happen to that little film. All I will say is that it raked in to a tune of $974.8 million dollars. And besides being the pilot light for JK Rowling's eventual ego trip of adding useless canon, the film was a watershed moment in blockbuster cinema in the same way ET, The Avengers, and Paranormal Activity were.
By that, I mean after the release of Harry Potter came a slew of mediocre rip offs.
After Harry Potter's success, there was a gold rush where producers were getting rights to every single children's book series they can get their hands on. One of those being "A Series of Unfortunate Events" written by Daniel Handler.
I can't tell you how much I love Daniel Handler. If you want a weird blend of Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, and the ramblings of a snobby nerd, then "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is for you.
At this point, I am getting tired of writing "A Series of Unfortunate Events." So for now on, I will be referring to it as Lemony Snicket.
Anyway, as a lad, the books were part of my nostalgia arguably more than the Harry Potter series. So as a kid, you can picture my excitement when a movie adaptation was coming out.
And then in 2004, it did. Annnnnnnd....well it was better than the Percy Jackson films.
But that didn't matter, because a sequel never came out. Despite the promise of a continuation, the second Lemony Snicket movie was stuck in pre-production hell. By the time I grew up, I made the unfortunate realization that anything beyond the Wide Window will ever see the silver screen which is a shame since my favorite books were everything after the Wide Window.
But ironically, a series of fortunate events began to occur. What happened? Well Netflix happened.
Yes, streaming services happened, and they happened big time. Streaming services brought in a Renaissance for entertainment where creators can take risks, be experimental, and resurrect shows that were thought to be dead.
Television in general was going, and is still going through, a golden era of content. Shows like the Walking Dead and Breaking Bad paved the way for even weirder shows like Atlanta.
The stars aligned. And from that, Lemony Snicket got the home it deserved giving us a show that was not only faithful to the source material but actually elevates it beyond the source material.
Though in fairness, the first season had a rocky start. Much like the original movie, the first season leaned more to the childish side than something you would see in say Prisoner of Azkaban to give an example. To put it in enigmatic and vague terms, it is not bad, but there is nothing there that takes it from good to great. This was most apparent in the new Count Olaf played by Neil Patrick Harris which leaned closer to the Jim Carrey performance than the character I pictured in the books (though Jim Carrey's performance was not bad). I wanted something evil and disgusting. I always saw Count Olaf as the Joker that you hate and love all at the same time. Like some of the best villains in story telling, Count Olaf carried the series and Jim Carrey nor Neil Patrick Harris in the first season did that.
It wasn't until a few episodes into the second season that the Lemony Snicket series went from "ehhh I'm digging it okay" to "this is the best thing ever..."
To not give the show all the credit, nostalgia and my knowledge of the books played a huge part in my enjoyment of season two and three. While I think the show is inventive and clever enough to warrant a watch regardless of your familiarity with the series, you are not going to be writing essays about it or putting it on your favorite TV shrine like I am.
I just realized that I have been writing for several paragraphs as if most of you know what I am blabbing on about. Quite frankly, it is rather difficult to explain to people what Lemony Snicket is and why it works without spoiling the surprise. I guess the best way to describe the Lemony Snicket series, much like the best children's stories, is that it feels effortless. Beyond being a weird mixture of Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, and the random ramblings of a slightly snobby nerd, it is a show that doesn't treat its audience like morons. Much like the book, it pushes its audience rather than the other way around. It's a little rare to see a children's show challenge its audience since very few children's shows, even the good ones, do.
In short, everything gets better at around season 2. Again, the apparent example is Neil Patrick Harris who becomes funnier and darker in a way that perfectly represents my vision of Count Olaf. The performance evolves much like everything else which is what I believe makes good television. The Baudelaire children are great, the seemingly jump the shark moments in the later books are represented wonderfully, and it's genuinely funny despite retaining the childish humor we saw in the first season. All of this culminating in what will probably be my favorite television episode of 2019 which is the Penultimate Peril Part 1.
The Netflix show also strays away from the books in a few creative ways which helps makes certain admittedly unsavory parts in the books more enjoyable in the TV show. Maybe I just remember the books wrong, but I remember the books not explaining things correctly or not fleshing things out as well as the television series.
It was the ending that got me to write this blog post, because it was so perfect. When I saw the final shot, I thought about everything the Lemony Snicket series went through. Not just what the Baudelaire children went through, but the story as it tried to get adapted. I thought about what I went through in that time as well and realized how much has changed. I think I cried at the ending of the Lemony Snicket series the same way I cried at the end of Toy Story 3. Not only was it a well executed conclusion, but it was a conclusion to a part of my life that I cherish so much.
By that, I mean after the release of Harry Potter came a slew of mediocre rip offs.
After Harry Potter's success, there was a gold rush where producers were getting rights to every single children's book series they can get their hands on. One of those being "A Series of Unfortunate Events" written by Daniel Handler.
I can't tell you how much I love Daniel Handler. If you want a weird blend of Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, and the ramblings of a snobby nerd, then "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is for you.
At this point, I am getting tired of writing "A Series of Unfortunate Events." So for now on, I will be referring to it as Lemony Snicket.
Anyway, as a lad, the books were part of my nostalgia arguably more than the Harry Potter series. So as a kid, you can picture my excitement when a movie adaptation was coming out.
And then in 2004, it did. Annnnnnnd....well it was better than the Percy Jackson films.
But that didn't matter, because a sequel never came out. Despite the promise of a continuation, the second Lemony Snicket movie was stuck in pre-production hell. By the time I grew up, I made the unfortunate realization that anything beyond the Wide Window will ever see the silver screen which is a shame since my favorite books were everything after the Wide Window.
But ironically, a series of fortunate events began to occur. What happened? Well Netflix happened.
Yes, streaming services happened, and they happened big time. Streaming services brought in a Renaissance for entertainment where creators can take risks, be experimental, and resurrect shows that were thought to be dead.
Television in general was going, and is still going through, a golden era of content. Shows like the Walking Dead and Breaking Bad paved the way for even weirder shows like Atlanta.
The stars aligned. And from that, Lemony Snicket got the home it deserved giving us a show that was not only faithful to the source material but actually elevates it beyond the source material.
Though in fairness, the first season had a rocky start. Much like the original movie, the first season leaned more to the childish side than something you would see in say Prisoner of Azkaban to give an example. To put it in enigmatic and vague terms, it is not bad, but there is nothing there that takes it from good to great. This was most apparent in the new Count Olaf played by Neil Patrick Harris which leaned closer to the Jim Carrey performance than the character I pictured in the books (though Jim Carrey's performance was not bad). I wanted something evil and disgusting. I always saw Count Olaf as the Joker that you hate and love all at the same time. Like some of the best villains in story telling, Count Olaf carried the series and Jim Carrey nor Neil Patrick Harris in the first season did that.
It wasn't until a few episodes into the second season that the Lemony Snicket series went from "ehhh I'm digging it okay" to "this is the best thing ever..."
To not give the show all the credit, nostalgia and my knowledge of the books played a huge part in my enjoyment of season two and three. While I think the show is inventive and clever enough to warrant a watch regardless of your familiarity with the series, you are not going to be writing essays about it or putting it on your favorite TV shrine like I am.
I just realized that I have been writing for several paragraphs as if most of you know what I am blabbing on about. Quite frankly, it is rather difficult to explain to people what Lemony Snicket is and why it works without spoiling the surprise. I guess the best way to describe the Lemony Snicket series, much like the best children's stories, is that it feels effortless. Beyond being a weird mixture of Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, and the random ramblings of a slightly snobby nerd, it is a show that doesn't treat its audience like morons. Much like the book, it pushes its audience rather than the other way around. It's a little rare to see a children's show challenge its audience since very few children's shows, even the good ones, do.
In short, everything gets better at around season 2. Again, the apparent example is Neil Patrick Harris who becomes funnier and darker in a way that perfectly represents my vision of Count Olaf. The performance evolves much like everything else which is what I believe makes good television. The Baudelaire children are great, the seemingly jump the shark moments in the later books are represented wonderfully, and it's genuinely funny despite retaining the childish humor we saw in the first season. All of this culminating in what will probably be my favorite television episode of 2019 which is the Penultimate Peril Part 1.
The Netflix show also strays away from the books in a few creative ways which helps makes certain admittedly unsavory parts in the books more enjoyable in the TV show. Maybe I just remember the books wrong, but I remember the books not explaining things correctly or not fleshing things out as well as the television series.
It was the ending that got me to write this blog post, because it was so perfect. When I saw the final shot, I thought about everything the Lemony Snicket series went through. Not just what the Baudelaire children went through, but the story as it tried to get adapted. I thought about what I went through in that time as well and realized how much has changed. I think I cried at the ending of the Lemony Snicket series the same way I cried at the end of Toy Story 3. Not only was it a well executed conclusion, but it was a conclusion to a part of my life that I cherish so much.
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