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The Disney Movie Review

The Disney Movie Review takes a 360 degree look at recent Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm movies to give a more complete look at what’s going on in the wonderful world of Disney. We dive into the news and rumors and tell our readers and listeners which movies are worth your time and money–and which ones aren’t.
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Now displaying: April, 2017

The Disney Movie Review is your source for news and reviews on Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm movies. If you love all-things Disney, you've found the place to geek out over Disney movies. Connect with us online on Facebook, follows us on Twitter @DSNYMovieReview, and at our website www.TheDisneyMovieReview.com.

Apr 24, 2017

This week we took a look at Disney’s slate of remakes. Ever since Alice in Wonderland raked in more than $1 billion worldwide, it seems like the Disney live-action remake machine has gone into overdrive. With the recent success of Beauty and the Beast, we can expect even more. This week we look at the current slate and evaluate the good and the bad, and we have a healthy discussion about The Song of the South. Plus we recommend a few movies that Disney should consider remaking and which ones they should never, ever touch. That and much, much more. For the week of April 24, 2017, this is Episode 128 of The Disney Movie Review.

 

SCHEDULED REMAKES

Here is the current list of remakes that we know of: Dumbo, Mulan, The Lion King, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins, Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Peter Pan, Tink, Cruella, Maleficent 2, Sword in the Stone, Jungle Book 2, Christopher Robin, and an Oliver Twist remake. See a full list here.

 

We all agreed that Disney is on the right track with a few of these movies, including Tink, Christopher Robin, and Sword in the Stone. Ed agreed that it would be nice to see an Aladdin remake, but only if James Monroe Iglehart would play the Genie. (Listen to our interview with the Tony-winning Actor here.)

 

I’d also like to see Disney try its hand at Atlantis. The movie doesn’t get a ton of love from Disney fans and I can’t figure out why. It’s very mystical with good voice acting and can be very Avatar-esq in a live action retelling. In fact, they could probably replace the world of Pandora in Florida with Atlantis if they wanted to.

 

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, would also make a great remake. We already know a lot about Quasimodo, but I’d love to know more about Phoebus, Frollo and Esmerelda. There is also a potential to move forward in the story and tell us about what the society looks like after the acceptance of Quasimodo.

 

Ed thinks Disney should look at redoing The Rescuers. We talked about how The Rescuers Down Under became Disney’s first sequel in episode 92. It’d be awesome to see if Disney could translate the magic of those two movies to the big screen and maybe make a trilogy of these mice solving cases.

 

If we’d venture outside of the movies to talk about the parks, it’d be great to get a backstory on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Disney is already working on a live action version of The Jungle Cruise and The Pirates of the Caribbean was really the first movie that brought Disney into the live action remake territory.

 

Kingdom Keepers is another parks-based story that could easily translate to the big screen. There are several books in the series and they already have a following. This could give Disney it’s own “Harry Potter” type of movie series. I’m actually shocked that they haven’t started this yet.

 

Remakes Disney Should Never Do

 

We all agreed that Disney tends to get into trouble when they remake some of their more popular films that are recent. Even if they are popular at the box office, it tends to dilute the impact of the brand. That means we all agreed that The Little Mermaid should be off the table. It’s too recent and, unless they are doing a spinoff, it will be too closely compared to the original.

 

Cruella fell into this category for me. Glenn Close was so iconic in this role that I think it’d be difficult to duplicate that. Ed felt Fantasia needs an animated sequel before we start to look at a live action version. And since flying elephants in a live action form creep me out, Dumbo was simply out of the question. Kristin has no desire to see a Pinocchio, but probably because of Johnathan Taylor Thomas’ epic portrayal.

 

WHAT REMAKES SHOULD DISNEY NEVER TOUCH?

The truth is, we disagree on almost all of what remakes Disney should not touch. Ed isn’t opposed to remakes because he falls back on the originals. That said, he doesn’t like Snow White remakes. I’d want Disney to stay away from Lady and the Tramp, Oliver and Company, and The Emperor's New Groove. Kristin wants Disney to stay away from Pocahontas and Song of the South. Specifically, we discuss three films at length.

 

Pocahontas - Pocahontas is (in my opinion) one of the worst Princess movies. In fact, it is one of the lowest performing Princess films. Disney ran into a lot of controversy by trying to produce this story as an animated film. It’s one of the reasons Kristin feels like Disney should not touch this again.

 

I’d like to see Disney try to redo this film with a little more creativity. Now that the story of Pocahontas is widely available on the internet, I don’t think Disney has to try to change it so much. They can take the same strategy they did with Saving Mr. Banks. They didn’t tell the whole story, but they didn’t change it so that it was unrecognizable. It’d be great to get a “second draft” on that from Disney.

 

The Fox and the Hound - Disney probably couldn’t remake The Fox and the Hound after putting Zootopia forward. But it’s also a movie they probably shouldn’t remake either. The story rests on two different individuals whose differences drive them apart.

Song of the South - Kristin brought up that Song of the South should never be remade, which opened a can of worms. (Really, I opened it up). Kristin felt like the movie was too racially charged to be remade. I think the movie gets a bad rap from Disney fans. Ed brought up the book, Who’s Afraid of Song of the South. If you haven’t seen the movie, here is a link where I watched it. (http://watchcartoonsonline.eu/watch-song-of-the-south-1946-full-movie-online/)

THANK YOU!

Thank you for listening! There are a lot of ways you can spend your time, but you chose to spend time with me and I am very grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it with your friends on your preferred social media site.

If you’ve listened to fewer than five episodes, welcome to Disney Movie Nation! If you like what you hear, visit the website to sign-up for our email list to get more Disney Movie News. If you aren’t a fan, that’s okay too. Find another podcast you love and support the content you love!

Contact me:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyMovieReview

Twitter: @DSNYMovieReview

Apr 17, 2017

This week, Lucasfilm Released the first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Marvel released the trailer for Thor: Ragnarok and Disney Nature got in on the fun to release their Dolphins Trailer. We ask whether Disney Animation is paying enough attention to boys, Plus a lot of people are upset about a lingerie inspired by Disney Princesses. That and much much more. For the week of April 17, 2017 episode 127

 

WARNING: While we don’t mention anything explicit, we do talk about lingerie in this episode.

 

This week Lucasfilm released the trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi (which you can see here). Ed, Cameron and Kristin felt like this was a pretty good look at the movie while I was the odd man out on this discussion. I think my expectations were a little high, given that The Force Awakens had its first teaser nearly 13 months before the release date. I was expecting a little bit more from this trailer and was a little disappointed.

 

However, we were all in agreement that the Thor: Ragnarok trailer knocked it out of the park. It was no surprise that this trailer broke Beauty and the Beast’s record, scoring more than 136 million views in just 24 hours. You can definitely see the humor floating through the trailer and it looks very similar to Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

Last week on our “Seven questions of Disney” episode, we forgot to talk about Walt Disney Animation Studios. Today we catch up on that discussion and have a question submitted by Kim M. (I’m not even going to attempt to spell your last name cause I know I’ll get it wrong). Anyway, Kim wanted to know if we though Disney Animation was doing enough to attract young boys. Typically Disney Animation has let Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm shoulder the responsibility of reaching out to boys. Even in a movie like Wreck-It Ralph, it’s easy to feel that Vanelope is more important than Ralph. I’d be interested to see Disney Animation try a Prince movie. It would hav to make financial sense though. When DisneyToon Studios tried the Planes franchise aimed at boys, they couldn’t even make it through one trilogy. But, if at first you don’t succeed, try again.

 

Speaking of attracting male attention, a new line of Disney Princess-inspired Lingerie has set the Disney world on fire. The company Yandy is responsible for the line that is not officially licensed by Disney. Each set costs no more than $35/set. This prompted People Magazine to release an article about all the ways you can dress like a Disney Princess. (Read more on that here). Some people are outraged because they think the lingerie implies that someone is having adult thoughts towards a children’s cartoon character. Personally, I see it no different than having a pair of Mickey Socks or a Goofy tie. It’s just another way to express your love of a Disney. Either way, this is a great conversation that you should listen to.

 

In fact flicks:

Beauty and the Beast passed $1 Billion and Ed expects it to move past Alice in Wonderland soon.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/beauty-and-the-beast-1-billion-box-office_us_58ef8756e4b0da2ff85eaf97

 

Even though international travel is down, Disney is working to fill more than 1000 jobs in Orlando. Click the link to apply.

https://parksjobs.disneycareers.com/

 

Pixar released a song for Cars 3 called “Ride.” Sounds pretty good to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBXTfUBapIU

 

Here’s that tribute to Carrie Fisher I talked about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE99le5FBrY

 

Oh, and Spider-Man has never seen “Empire Strikes Back.”

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/spider-man-star-tom-holland-admits-hes-never-seen-empire-strikes-back-993009

 

THANK YOU!

Thank you for listening! There are a lot of ways you can spend your time, but you chose to spend time with me and I am very grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it with your friends on your preferred social media site.

 

If you’ve listened to fewer than five episodes, welcome to Disney Movie Nation! If you like what you hear, visit the website to sign-up for our email list to get more Disney Movie News. If you aren’t a fan, that’s okay too. Find another podcast you love and support the content you love!

Contact me:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyMovieReview

Twitter: @DSNYMovieReview

Apr 10, 2017

It’s a light news week so we switch up the format a bit. We ask the seven questions facing each of the studios this week...plus one for Disney Parks. Plus we give our thoughts on who should be included as a Disney Legend and who shouldn’t be. Check out the questions and articles below.

Edit: I forgot to ask the Disney Animation Studios question so we have to catch up on that one next week.

Disney Pictures:

 

Should the live action Mulan be a musical?

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/03/20/live-action-mulan-may-not-be-a-musical

 

Disney Animation (This is the question I forgot to ask)

Disneys next Animated Feature is Ralph Breaks the Internet:  Wreck-It Ralph 2. Is Disney doing enough to cater to you young boys with their animated feature films?

 

Disney Nature

New clip of Born in China

https://youtu.be/7Wc9rTSiiu0

Why has Disney taken a decidedly younger tone with this franchise?

 

Pixar

In 2000 after James Varney died, Pixar replaced the voice of Slinky with Blake Clark.

With the passing of Don Rickles, how will Disney treat the potato head character?

Marvel

James Gunn has stated that the soundtrack to GOTG: Awsome Mix Vol. 2 will arrive on April 28th, and the track listing will be available soon?  Should the music be kept a secret until the movie opens?

Lucasfilm

Boycotts on diversity for Rogue One and TFA did nothing to make a dent in the earnings of those movies.

Do the diverse casts really make a difference?

Disney Parks

Comcast is closing the attendance gap. Is this the summer where they really threaten Disney?

https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/05/comcast-is-doing-what-disney-cant-this-week.aspx

D23

http://thedisneyblog.com/2017/04/07/2017-class-disney-legends-inducted-d23-expo/

 

THANK YOU!

Thank you for listening! There are a lot of ways you can spend your time, but you chose to spend time with me and I am very grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it with your friends on your preferred social media site.

If you’ve listened to fewer than five episodes, welcome to Disney Movie Nation! If you like what you hear, visit the website to sign-up for our email list to get more Disney Movie News. If you aren’t a fan, that’s okay too. Find another podcast you love and support the content you love!

Contact me:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyMovieReview

Twitter: @DSNYMovieReview

Apr 3, 2017

This week Sony releases a new trailer for Spider-Man and thinks they’re ready to go solo. Disney has a mysterious live-action movie set to release in three months that no one knows about, and we debate which country should be the next addition to EPCOT. For the week of April 3, 2017, this is Episode 125.

Check out Ed's site

www.disneymoviedatabase.com

Visit Disney with Kristin

www.facebook.com/kristingoofygetaways 

Spider-Man Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiTECkLZ8HM

Here is more on Sony's plan for Spidey and his friends.

http://variety.com/2017/film/box-office/venom-girl-in-the-spiders-web-1202010562/

Here's more on that live action fairytale

http://www.slashfilm.com/disney-live-action-fairy-tale-release-dates/

Disney movies through 2019

http://www.thedisneymoviereview.com/disney-movie-release-dates-announced/

Rey has started training

http://www.mobipicker.com/star-wars-episode-8-last-jedi-footage-shown-cinemacon/

What will the new EPCOT pavilion be?

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2017/03/28/new-spain-and-brazil-pavilions-rumored-for-epcot

Reactions to PoC 5

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/reactions-pirates-caribbean-cinemacon-46438975

Henry Turner!

http://elitedaily.com/entertainment/film/pirates-caribbean-five-theory-confirmed/1844292/

Crosswalk Beauty and the Beast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu4Pzsolyhg

Wreck it Ralph Sequel

http://www.chipandco.com/wreck-ralph-sequel-title-release-date-story-announced-263425/

THANK YOU!

Thank you for listening! There are a lot of ways you can spend your time, but you chose to spend time with me and I am very grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it with your friends on your preferred social media site.

If you’ve listened to fewer than five episodes, welcome to Disney Movie Nation! If you like what you hear, visit the website to sign-up for our email list to get more Disney Movie News. If you aren’t a fan, that’s okay too. Find another podcast you love and support the content you love!

Contact me:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyMovieReview

Twitter: @DSNYMovieReview

 

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