Kyle's Various Stuff

An animatic of a scene from THE NEW SIMPSONS MOVIE was shown to attendees, and the rip I saw of it, I enjoyed it a lot. A bunch of Springfieldians all chasing a baseball throughout Springfield, a lengthy chase scene at that, I found it quite similar to Bart's naked skateboard ride that goes through several parts of the titular town with multiple characters reacting.

I rewatched THE SIMPSONS MOVIE back in October, the first time I watched it all the way through in a long, long while. I do like that movie a lot, but on this rewatch, I kinda pinpointed an issue I have with it... There's really not enough Springfield in it, most of the town scenes are contained to the first half hour or so of the movie, with occasional cutbacks to what's going on there once it's sealed in the dome. Several characters, some of which are shown in the credits, don't even appear. There are deleted scenes on the Blu-ray showing some of them, others have been leaked over the years. I think a whole two hours of stuff got cut from the movie, honestly. Much of the movie is The Simpsons hiding out in Alaska, but one of the things that makes THE SIMPSONS, THE SIMPSONS, is its full cast. Springfield is a big part of what makes that show's best seasons land, an Anywhere America amalgamation with a residence as colorful as the show itself.

THE SIMPSONS MOVIE is definitely more a typical animated feature with a straightforward plot, and it definitely feels more like it was made to appeal to both regulars AND those who only casually caught the show or maybe never even saw it, only knew of it through pop cultural osmosis. I didn't watch THE SIMPSONS in its prime as a kid, by the time I was forming memories and sentences, the show's best days were arguably behind it. Funnily enough, YouTuber YungJunko's video on THE SIMPSONS MOVIE covers this through-and-through, and his experiences growing up w/ THE SIMPSONS are quite similar to mine. And I'd imagine many other Americans around our age.

I caught scenes from episodes here and there, I was indeed familiar with the whole world of THE SIMPSONS. I saw those Butterfinger and Ritz Bitz commercials and such. I had a huge Homer Pez dispenser and a talking watch from Burger King. (It was the "Are we there yet?" "No!" one.) We all quoted various things from it, as if it was just naturally embedded into our everyday casual conversation. I'd find out later in life that a certain saying originated with THE SIMPSONS. Mind blown! I don't think I even saw a full episode all the way through prior to seeing THE SIMPSONS MOVIE. At age 14. In 2007. Lol. I didn't have/rent the DVD sets, to my knowledge old episodes weren't re-run somewhere like how FUTURAMA and FAMILY GUY were, like how you could catch them on [adult swim] after hours. But the hype was real, the movie **18 years** in the making, they finally did it. Plus, it was a new 2D animated movie, so... I obviously went! And really dug it!

And I remember all of that evaporating a few months after it released. 2007 was a year jampacked with event sequel movies (SPIDER-MAN 3, SHREK 3, PIRATES 3, RUSH HOUR 3, etc.) and other blockbuster tentpoles (TRANSFORMERS). Kind of a "yeah, that was a thing I guess", and then onto the next thing. It felt quite in the rearview mirror once the Blu-ray and DVD hit stores at the end of the year. I think for a lot of fans, the whole "Springfield gets trapped in a dome, and the family flees to Alaska" plot was a real "that's it?" After 18 years of the show proper existing, and the characters themselves - as they appeared on THE TRACY ULLMAN SHOW - being around for a full 20 years by that point.

Okay, I waffled on there... That baseball scene. The rest of the movie could just be so-so, but that baseball scene is really cool, very classic Simpsons and very much Springfield. I'm excited to see more.

The OSWALD show is not too far off, too. It debuts on Disney+ in February. The 2D animation, as discovered a while ago, will be provided by Sergio Pablos Animation. A KLAUS-like take on Oswald, and it should mesh quite well with the live-action. Good to know it's not too far off.

I've never seen a full episode of BLUEY, only caught like seconds of it when my nephew had it playing a few times, but the movie's CG is a nice-enough translation of the show's visuals. That's sure to make a bit of money, too. From what I understand, that's a preschool show parents seem to love as much as their kids do, if not... More? I haven't seen a full episode, so I couldn't tell you.

KINGDOM HEARTS: THE SERIES... Looks like it'll be a Disney TV Animation production, as it's set for both Disney+ and The Disney Channel. No brainer for decades, at this point, and it's nice to see that whole concept expand beyond the games... A movie would be amazing, but would Disney take the risk? Maybe somewhere in the future. It was a very short reveal, but all you needed to say was "KINGDOM HEARTS Anything", and you're just all set.

The ICE AGE: BOILING FOOTAGE of Scrat and Baby Scrat was fun stuff, looked fine enough visually. We also got a look at a new saber-toothed squirrel.

Soooo...

The helping we got of animation stuff...

From Disney Animation: HEXED, FROZEN III, CLAY, ZOOTOPIA 3.

From Pixar: GATTO, GHOST MARKET, INCREDIBLES 3, COCO 2.

Other: ICE AGE: BOILING POINT, OSWALD, THE NEW SIMPSONS MOVIE, THE BLUEY MOVIE, KINGDOM HEARTS series.

Okay, Pixar!

If anyone had been following closely, it was no surprise that they'd officially unveil ONO GHOST MARKET... Oh wait, they dropped the ONO...

So it's just GHOST MARKET, now. Not gonna lie, I think the ONO added more character and intrigue to it. Oh well, very rarely is a Pixar movie title anything more than either a character's name or very few words describing what the movie is, on the tin. TOY STORY... GHOST MARKET...

The teaser was curiously released as a YouTube short, which makes sense considering that the protagonist, named Kyle (hah!), is a teenaged content creator. He and his family go on vacation to Hawaii, and there, he finds the titular ghost market. A "crossroads" of the living and the dead, a full-on paranormal Pixar adventure that possibly treads into horror territory. Some additional footage shown only to D23 attendees (but unsurprisingly recorded and put online) seems to promise just that. I also wonder how much of the film will be what Kyle films on his phone, like a found footage Pixar movie of sorts. Pixar's PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, if you will, lol.

And as expected, opens March 10, 2028.

Also in 2028, as we all know, INCREDIBLES 3... Biiiiig plot details here... And art, too...

So, what really interests me about INCREDIBLES 3 is this...

After the legalization of superheroes at the end of INCREDIBLES 2, there now exists an entity called Super Heroes League. A very, shall we say, corporate consortium of the superpowered humans. A lot of talk from attendees of how the Supers will be "sponsored" from here on out. Almost as if the Supers will now have to sacrifice the more independent way they did things in the past, and now just be tools for whatever corporation controls them - to ostensibly keep doing what they're supposed to do: Help people. We've seen that story before. Getting very THE BOYS vibes here, as some commentators already pointed out, but also THUNDERBOLTS*, which Marvel Studios released last year. Maybe even throw in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, what with the Sokovia Accords, and the Tony Stark-led side that agrees with the government having control of heroes.

And it looks like the villain of the picture, teased as an "extremely powerful" force that shows that maybe not all superheroes are actually good, will more than drive that point home. THE INCREDIBLES had Syndrome, who wasn't a Super, not natural-born as a superpowered being... But he builds all this tech so that he can rid the world of the Supers, and then give his tech to every non-Super person in the world, so that they can all become superheroes. "And when everyone's super... No one will be." INCREDIBLES 2 had Evelyn Deavor, who more or less put on a show with the Screenslaver, using mind control technology... But this time, we have an actual SUPERvillain here.

This is what I dig... INCREDIBLES 2 is often painted as this letdown of a movie online (contrast that w/ the critical acclaim, Oscar nomination, and ginormous box office), whereas I actually really liked that movie. And this is someone who saw THE INCREDIBLES five times on its original release back in the fall/winter of 2004 and into early 2005. If I had one issue with INCREDIBLES 2, it was that the third act's pacing was quite off, and that the resolution was a little too easy. Like all it took was them stopping a boat that they were mind-controlled to crash into the city? That's it, they're legal again? Just like that? Stopping the Omnidroid in the first movie should've done that, then! Well, INCREDIBLES 3 seems to be about how that legalization was *actually* all under some conditions... Namely, sacrificing a core part of what it really means to be a Super. I think the story will take a direction where it's about "helping people" vs. "being weapons". Actual heroes vs. Vought Corporation officers. The villain, whoever it is, sounds like a Pixar Homelander. I wonder if it'll finally be Xerek...

... who was supposed to be the villain of the first film very early on in development. A version of THE INCREDIBLES where Syndrome was some burglar in the opening act of the film (an intriguing, ominous alternate opening that was on the DVD release), Xerek would've been an ex of Helen Parr's. Pixar sequels sometimes work in unused ideas from the first film, such as TOY STORY's nightmare scene being repurposed for TOY STORY 2... So, INCREDIBLES 3 could possibly bring this guy into the fold? If he's not the bad superhero, maybe he could be the guy running the corporation/entity that controls the superheroes?

It's all speculation on my end, but THE INCREDIBLES is pretty much my favorite film from this studio, so of course I'm going to be asking a lot of questions about a sequel that's still nearly two years away.

The other big detail concerns the kids. They'll be in it more this time, and now it makes sense, why Brad Bird said in that recent interview that he didn't want to age them up. Violet and Dash want to prove that they are true superheroes, even though they had... Done just that in the first two films, but I get the sense that they want to be legitimate superheroes in their own right, and not just be under the adults' shadows. And given what's happening to Supers in this, maybe it's up to them to expose the sponsors and all that. The kids are alright, trying to make the corrupt adults see sense. The story will see them sneaking out at night to do the fun stuff, much in the same way Bob Parr and Lucius do in the first half of the original INCREDIBLES. Listening to police scanners and covertly saving people. Retreading some familiar themes. Bob will also unsurprisingly have another crisis, where he feels he's truly becoming irrelevant.

A lot to chew on.

COCO 2... By contrast, Miguel will be aged up, he'll be a teenager now.

In this story, a vengeful Ernesto de la Cruz will pull him *back* into the Land of the Dead... Uhhh, I'm pretty sure Ernesto had a second death in the afterlife? He got flattened by a bell, again. Like, the little ringer inside must've gotten him, right? I thought in COCO's sorta rulebook, death in the afterlife is permanent. Like, Chicharrón's was. Or maybe that just applies to people who were forgotten by everyone in the living? Either way, COCO 2, I'm still kinda-sorta iffy one. In Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina I trust, but, COCO has a perfect ending... I don't know what more you can do with that, but the idea of a villainous sentient skeleton with eyeballs inside the eye sockets wanting to get their revenge on someone does sound like it could be a fun ride nonetheless. Something scary, even. Some horror movie-caliber stuff, lol. This and GHOST MARKET, if they do just that, would make for a good pairing.

Aside from all of that, COCO 2 was also re-confirmed as Pixar's Thanksgiving 2029 release.

Nothing else was revealed beyond that picture. No Domee Shi musical, MONSTERS Something, etc. Movies opening next decade, the 2030s. That's a loooong way off, so no surprise there.

GATTO footage was presented to attendees, and I liked what I saw of that. Fun and a little different, a troop of pigeons protesting got a laugh out of me, and a girl playing violin (who Nero will meet up with in the movie) gave me... ONE MAN BAND vibes. The short that ran before CARS, where two street performers in old-world Europe that have all these instruments attached to them vie for the coin of a village girl. That's a classic!

Still no word on whether LOVING DORY, the new NEMO short, runs before GATTO or not. The other big news was COCO being part of KINGDOM HEARTS IV... And as for KINGDOM HEARTS, I'll save that for the next post lol.

Some CARS stuff for theme parks was shown off too, namely an area called Piston Peak National Park in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom... What really caught my eye, amongst car-ified animals like frogs and turtles, was a car-ified version of J. Audubon Woodlore:

Love those Disney deep cuts! Not the first time the CARS franchise paid homage to those '50s shorts set in Brownstone National Park, with Humphrey the Bear and the like. In CARS 3, Mater sings himself a song that sounds a lot like 'Humphrey Hop' from one of those cartoons: IN THE BAG.

Well, that wasn't a massive drop of stuff out of D23's movie/TV panel, eh?

Three hours of just back-to-back announcements, and plenty of it being animation-centric. Something about this particular expo hit different, and I don't know if that's because of a change in CEOs, or a change of leaders at Disney Animation... This has all occurred since the last D23 Expo, in late summer 2024. Jared Bush was named chief creative of Disney Animation the September after, and Josh D'Amaro assumed the CEO role this past March. It may or may not have to do with that, but yeah, something felt a little different. I was generally pretty excited for all the animation titles they've shown off tonight, and some of the Marvel stuff too for that matter. They've... Surprised me. It feels good to actually be excited for what's on the horizon from the various film divisions of Disney, even if Disney as a whole has been so up-and-down these past few years...

So... I waited 'til the end, and, yeah, thoughts... I have 'em. It's 1am on the East Coast, and, who know, I might follow up on these... To save post space, I'll just make this one about Walt Disney Animation Studios... And save Pixar for the next one, haha.

Okay... So... To my surprise, the presentation told us what the untitled original animated movie set for November 2028 is... CLAY.

Lot going on here... The lead looking like some kind of humanoid/elfy creature, Very ALICE IN WONDERLAND-looking puff flowers (bum-bum-bum-buuum), whatever that triangle-patterned tentacle-looking thing coming out of the trees is, that Morphy creature that the main character is chasing... Oh yeah, their names are Flip and Mushy.

Bush had said that this 2028 release would boast an all-new style for a WDAS picture, and given the title and this concept art, I'm going to assume this could either have a 2D-esque look (that LILO & SCRATCH is testing grounds for), or it'll be literal clay-like. A moving modelling clay animated movie. The little creature being named Mushy seems to confirm that? Sorta? Kieran Culkin, brother of Macaulay Culkin (and was, of course, brother Fuller in HOME ALONE), will be voicing Flip. Macaulay Culkin was the voice of Cattrick Lynxley in last year's ZOOTOPIA 2 from the studio. Little else was said about it, what the story is, what kind of world it's set in, etc. November 2028 is a waaaays off, I can't believe they even *announced* it. Remember how at the 2024 D23, they didn't say what this year's movie (HEXED) was? Different times!

Speaking of ZOOTOPIA... ZOOTOPIA 3 is officially *officially* a go. I think from here, it's but confirmed that this is the studio's June 2029 release. ZOOTOPIA 3 introduces flying feathered folks, 2029 is the Chinese zodiac year of the rooster, ZOOTOPIA 2 released during the Chinese zodiac year of the snake, we had a post-credits scene in ZOOTOPIA 2 teasing the birds, that logo looks very rooster-y... Top half of that 3, Rhode Island Red?

It's absolutely the June 2029 release. No two ways.

FROZEN III concept art shows a lovely Aurora Borealis scene. At this time of day, at this time of year, in this part of the country, locali- Okay, I'll stop.

It's clearly the winter movie. FROZEN was summer, FROZEN II was autumn, there's a FROZEN IV in the works, it's Disney's "Four Seasons" quadrilogy. Small plot details were dropped, such as Anna getting ready to marry Kristoff, and Olaf falling for a snow-woman named Samantha.

And of course, HEXED details. No new trailer, but some cool stuff just the same... Jodie Foster will be voicing the film's villain, a currently unnamed witch queen.

This is quite a choice, considering that Foster's movie career started with a Disney film... In 1972... You may or may not have heard of it, a live-action movie called NAPOLEON AND SAMANTHA, about two kids (her, opposite of Johnny Whittaker) and a lion. It is quite well-known that, unfortunately, Foster was severely injured by one of the lions used during the filming. That lion happened to be named "Simba", a stand-in for lead lion Zamba. Foster continued to star in live-action Disney films that decade, such as CANDLESHOE and the original FREAKY FRIDAY. HEXED looks to mark her first ever voice acting role in an animated feature, as she had done some TV roles before, voicing Maggie in an episode of THE SIMPSONS, and also playing a character in Hanna-Barbera's THE AMAZING CHAN AND THE CHAN CLAN. She had also voiced Pugsley Addams for an episode of THE NEW SCOOBY-DOO MOVIES in 1972, and again in Hanna-Barbera ADDAMS FAMILY series that debuted a year after NEW SCOOBY.

Additionally, there's a trio of bad witches in this film, who we saw in the trailer. So, it looks like HEXED has four villains total so far. People online have complained about Disney Animation films lacking obvious bad guy villains these days, so... Here's a film with multiple menaces!

Unpopular opinion for those who haven't read anything else I've ever said about the studio's output over the last 10 or so years, but... A story not having such an antagonist is not inherently a bad thing. Not every Disney animated movie absolutely HAS to have that kind of bad guy as the central antagonist, like there's no 11th Commandment that says "All Disney animated movies shall haveth that kind of villain!" Some of the all-time classic Disney animated films (and some of them being personal favorites of mine) have antagonists and villains who aren't your typical scheming evil cartoonish bad guys that the kids can easily see are the villains. A lot of people clamor for Renaissance era-style queer-coded over-the-top villains, like Jafar, Scar, Hades, etc. Me? I just like a story well-told. Don't get me wrong, I love a good over-the-top villain, but if every Disney animated movie had that, then that would be boring. It would reduce their output over the course of nearly 90 years to just stories of good guys fighting bad guys not dissimilar to some superhero epic. There's room for films like FANTASIA, DUMBO, BAMBI, LILO & STITCH, WINNIE THE POOH, and ENCANTO. Of the studio's current crop, WISH and ZOOTOPIA 2 had classic-style bad guys: I wasn't too keen on the former movie, but I really liked the latter. One film's villain wasn't all that memorable and its story felt restrained, the other film's villains showed some real threat to the characters while the story did the rest of the work. It's down to how they tell the story, and if they're allowed to work in some bite. HEXED having outright bad guys makes sense though, given Disney's history with evil witches and such.

Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah, HEXED's cast... And then there's Walton Goggins, who'll be playing the three-eyed cat creature Beef Roger Crumbchuck. What a name. I like it, though. It's just so silly and whimsical and random, fitting for a very Cheshire Cat-looking character in this fantasy setting.

Anything else? Not really. No new LILO & SCRATCH stuff, nothing on what that thing Jared Bush teased about Mickey Mouse's 100th birthday in 2028 is, and frustratingly... No PRINCESS AND THE FROG TV special news... Is that even out later this year?

But, the studio's runway is now...

11/25/2026: HEXED

11/24/2027: FROZEN III

11/21/2028: CLAY

06/15/2029: ZOOTOPIA 3 (prediction)

TBD: MOANA 3

Tidbits...

Ahead of the D23 film/TV presentation tonite... The title of the SIMPSONS MOVIE sequel is... THE NEW SIMPSONS MOVIE...

Oooookay? Having seen the logo, I do like the integration of the comic book-style "New", but if they ever made a third one... What would you call that? THE NEWEST SIMPSONS MOVIE?

The Criterion Collection physical release of KPOP DEMON HUNTERS comes out November 3rd of this year. It is up for pre-order.

Lots of cool stuff happening today.

I missed SUPERGIRL in theaters, and much of the trailers left me wanting. After SUPERMAN not only impressed me with its storytelling, but also its bright and colorful visuals that looked better than most recent CBMs, I expected the same for a more attitude-flavored DC movie with a kick-ass superheroine.

As the trailers came out, it just looked like the usual 2010s-era superhero movie muck. Especially baffling considering that the specific comic SUPERGIRL is based on, SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW, looks like this:

I'm not the first person to say it, but the movie looked like discount MAD MAX in space. That probably contributed to its pretty piss-poor box office. Also, having a man direct the movie was... A choice, on James Gunn's part. And now this director looks to have used generative AI for concept art and pre-visualization (whether Gunn knows about that or not), not dissimilar to what the crew behind GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE did in pre-production. I think much more visually good-looking Supergirl movie could've been a moderate success, but it appears they used AI and made it look as "generic superhero/blockbuster movie" as possible... And audiences didn't show up.

You probably know my stance on generative AI by now, but if you're new here and you don't... I think it shouldn't be used in any capacity in the production of a movie. Not for inspiration, even. Especially if it's a comic book movie. Those characters and stories have been around forever, google them! Pick up a comic book! Find it somewhere! Warner Bros. is a multibillion company, and Gillespie has directed big-scale movies before (his $200m-costing CRUELLA for Disney), like there is *zero* excuse here. Like generative AI already hurts the planet, but it's creative bankruptcy. Your brain can be creative, actually, in coming up with stuff. Especially if you have a lot of people working with you... And what's more? This is the OPPOSITE of punk. Punk had very DIY origins, it's arguably the bedrock of the entire movement and culture...

Like, what went so wrong here? SUPERMAN hit the ground running, James Gunn wrote and directed, the CREATURE COMMANDOS animated series is pretty cool... But SUPERGIRL is the exact opposite, some projects that were announced early on look to be fading away... On the small screen front, there's LANTERNS, which has been derided left and right for looking like a Surf Dracula take on Green Lantern, but it could be okay I suppose. CLAYFACE I think will be the pick-me-up, a gnarly R-rated body horror movie with some neat visuals as seen in the latest trailer. MAN OF TOMORROW looks to keep things afloat, being from Gunn himself. Nothing's been scheduled for release after that, though.

ICE AGE and LILO & STITCH first came out in 2002.

ICE AGE was a March release, LILO & STITCH was Disney's big summer movie later that year. I saw both in theaters, and got the DVDs of them as birthday/Christmas presents afterward.

20th Century Fox released ICE AGE, made at Blue Sky Studios, which they acquired beforehand and made into their animated movie arm going forward, following the short-lived Fox Animation Studios. The place where ANASTASIA and TITAN A.E. were made. So Blue Sky went from FX company and commercial maker and interstitial creator to Fox's answer to Pixar and PDI/DreamWorks.

... and, as you all know... Disney bought 20th Century Fox in 2019. Blue Sky was sadly a casualty of the whole merger, while the new ICE AGE movie out this coming February was animated by a vendor studio up north.

2002 was... Kind of a low year, as we were smack-dab in the middle of 2D hand-drawn's descent into the shadows, and CG's rise to dominance. ICE AGE was the highest-grossing animated movie release of that year, pocketing $375m+ worldwide, $176m of that coming from the domestic release. Good numbers. Not SHREK or MONSTERS, INC. big, but still impressive, especially for a studio's debut feature. Critical reception was pretty positive, too, but not quite glowing. I remember people really digging it back then, though. My family and I sometimes quoted "Uncle Fungus?" to one another, over the years.

LILO & STITCH, as I said before, really caught on post-theatrical. $145m domestic, $273m worldwide. Solid numbers, really good critical reception as well, and a little pick-me-up from the underwhelming grosses pulled in by FANTASIA 2000, THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE, and ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE. But it was certainly no TARZAN, or MULAN. It even made less than DINOSAUR worldwide... And worse, TREASURE PLANET opened later that year and became one of the biggest box office flops of all-time. LILO & STITCH became the phenomenon it was by the time the TV series started airing in the fall of 2003, after almost a year of being available on home video. You couldn't escape Stitch, that was for sure. I went to Walt Disney World in 2004 and 2005, and his presence was really felt.

What other animated movies went wide in 2002?

The aforementioned TREASURE PLANET... RETURN TO NEVER LAND... SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON... HEY ARNOLD! THE MOVIE... THE WILD THORNBERRYS MOVIE... EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS... We could probably count hybrid STUART LITTLE 2 to an extent? Come to think of it, ICE AGE... And JONAH: A VEGGIETALES MOVIE... Were the only all-CG movies that went into wide release that year. I'm sure there were some overseas productions here and there, but ICE AGE was like the only really big one. Pixar was at work on FINDING NEMO for a late spring 2003 release, back when the studio's output wasn't annual. But I suppose we could count MONSTERS, INC. somewhat, as the film opened in November 2001, and played all throughout the winter break and into the spring. But it had made most of its money by the end of 2001. Movies lasted in theaters way longer back then, the film was playing *somewhere* by September 2002... When the DVD was hitting stores!

I was there, I remember getting into tracking box office back in 2004, and being astounded that these movies were still playing somewhere waaaaay after their first release. They'd be out of the big multiplexes I frequented back then within weeks. For example, I saw THE INCREDIBLES five times in theaters, and the fifth time was at a then-declining 4-auditorium theater (that no longer exists) that ran the film with no trailers attached, *no* BOUNDIN' before it even! The only thing that ran before it was some theater bumper for a company I can't recall the name of, I just remember the logo being in a cloudy sky much like the Warner Bros. logo... And some bouncing ball atop the lyrics of the jingle, it was "Hollywood something"... Anyway, that's what ran before my fifth theatrical viewing of THE INCREDIBLES.

Where was I? Oh yeah, ICE AGE and LILO & STITCH... Would've never imagined in 2002... Or 2012, for that matter, that one day Disney would own the former and the two would be seen featured at their equivalent of Comic-Con.

Speaking of that... Some new photos floating around online confirm that...

Walt Disney Animation Studios is definitely showing off more of LILO & SCRATCH, and new stuff from FROZEN III, in addition to all the HEXED stuff they have prepared. There's also **this**:

It was inevitable, I think... Why wouldn't they, lol. What in the world could it be? A short? A featurette? The 2028 movie from the studio is confirmed to be an original, so I think that rules out the possibility of it being a big event Mickey Mouse feature. (Though it would be fitting.) If anything, I think it'll be a short done w/ the same 2D/CG tech that was developed for LILO & SCRATCH, and it'll be paired with whatever the movie is.

The cousin studio, what are they up to? Pixar is indeed going to feature INCREDIBLES 3 and COCO 2, in addition to GATTO. A full reveal of ONO GHOST MARKET is but confirmed, I think. Fine Tooning's latest episode suggested that Untitled MONSTERS might even be talked about tomorrow night. Even if that movie's not feasibly out 'til 2030 at the earliest. There was also a curious mention of Disney and Formula 1's collaboration including the CARS franchise, which could hint at some sorta Formula 1-inspired CARS thing... A short? CARS 4, perhaps? We did have Formula 1 racer Francesco Bernoulli in CARS 2, along w/ a similar-looking vehicle named Rip Clutchgoneski (what a name, there's a weird story behind that background character)... maybe a fourth CARS that's made w/ F1 in mind... Could mean a comeback for Francesco? And an international racing story done right this time? Who knows! I can dream, can I?

Sadly, it's not going to be Brad Bird's RAY GUNN this coming Christmas.

Instead, it'll be next autumn's CHARLIE VS. THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, announced a while ago, from directors Jared Stern and Elaine Bogan, and starring Taika Waititi as a Willy Wonka who is held accountable for what went down in the factory.

It'll begin its 45-day theatrical run November 5, 2027, which is... The same day, currently, as Warner Bros. Pictures Animation's Christmas comedy MARGIE CLAUS.

Chicken game, initiated. MARGIE CLAUS has held that date for a while, and the Thanksgiving stretch already has FROZEN III, which ain't moving.

I also wonder how this will do at the box office, considering that a few years ago we had the origin story WONKA, which did great. And a sequel is supposed to be happening, wonder if a good chunk of audiences are there for an all-new animated take on the story. Netflix seems to be confident in that being so.

Still in the Top 5, TOY STORY 5 remains. The digital release is around the corner, with the physical media release out at the end of next month... After a ton of movies opened after it, and slipped on the charts. Including family-friendly competition, like MINIONS & MONSTERS and the MOANA remake. And really, it'd be #3 this weekend if ONE NIGHT ONLY had done even weaker than it already has. There's such a huge divide between the Top 2 and everything else, much of the summer crop just didn't cut it.

And I feel, like lots of things, TOY STORY 5 is in the rear-view mirror in terms of overall discussion. Yet here it is, doing numbers still, hanging on like this. MINIONS & MONSTERS continues to leg it up great, too.

A very "the movies people really wanted to see soared" kinda year, with a few genuine surprises, like OBSESSION. A film that started a conversation, that many audiences were willing to risk their hard-earned money on. A lot of other well-reviewed movies that open in a calendar year usually aren't so lucky. If that were so, another horror movie that came out this year that I really enjoyed, and got good reviews would've been a big hit. That movie was HOKUM. That's just one example off the top of my head.

Like all things, it came down to choices. "Do we really need to see the Baby Yoda movie? Do we really need to see live-action MOANA?" If I were some casual moviegoer, I'd definitely gravitate towards THE ODYSSEY and SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY more. No fatigues on anything, "superhero fatigue" is just an overused buzzword-meal that doesn't look at the bigger picture. We could've had one or two more swords-and-sandals movies this year opposite THE ODYSSEY, would the press ever say "there's a swords-and-sandals epic fatigue?" No, they probably wouldn't.

But I fail to see what's so different about this year in comparison to, say, 2023. The year BARBIE broke out big time, as did Nolan's OPPENHEIMER, and that a number of comic book movies also underperformed while audiences flocked to the much better-received films (GUARDIANS VOL. 3, ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, MUTANT MAYHEM). Or hell, 2022, that had TOP GUN: MAVERICK and AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER doing fantastically, breaking up some of the Marvel/Star Wars/Disney remake monotony of the later 2010s.

From what I see, the big hits are a mix of reliable franchise entries and familiar things. There's biopic MICHAEL, THE ODYSSEY is not some brand new concept, and PROJECT HAIL MARY was a book first. Like by the year's end, a Marvel movie is likely the biggest 2026 movie. SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY looks to make well over $2b, and I don't think anything - not even jam-packed AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY - is gonna match that, and I think that's the only movie this year that even has a chance at matching that. Of course, BRAND NEW DAY indicates that it's all about the characters, not the movie being a superhero story. Spider-Man is so built-in as a theatrical gotta-see entity - with 20+ years of big movies to its name, whereas Supergirl... Isn't. Nor were plenty of other characters, both from Marvel and DC. Shazam, The Flash, the team that makes up The New Avengers, etc. It ain't 2016 anymore, where you could possibly score big off of a relatively obscure character because of the novelty of a connected cinematic universe that was in its prime. Funnily enough, on DC's end in the mid-to-late 2010s, it was the solo films based on iconic characters known to non-comic readers that did better than the character-crammed movies. Compare WONDER WOMAN and AQUAMAN's performances, legs and profitability-wise, to BATMAN V SUPERMAN and JUSTICE LEAGUE.

Having seen BRAND NEW DAY finally, I do see a shift back to movies that feel more "real" doing better at the box office. BRAND NEW DAY, unlike a lot of MCU movies, hit a bit different. I was reminded more of the Sam Raimi SPIDER-MAN trilogy than the previous MCU Spideys directed by Jon Watts, and I think under Destin Daniel Cretton's direction and the fact that a lot of it was filmed on-location, things felt a lot more tangible in it. Then of course, you have Nolan, who is beyond committed to making movies the old-school way: Less reliance on CGI, lots of practical effects, filming for IMAX 70MM like it's his sacred duty. Nolan means it's for BIG SCREENS, not your living room. BACKROOMS was a low-budget A24 movie, not an overstuffed Hollywood extravaganza. THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 is a sequel to a kind of movie you just don't really see anymore. I guess the people, in the age of ghastly AI-generated garbage, yearn for "real" movies again?

Well, at least until CG-fest Russo Brothers-directed DOOMSDAY comes out, haha. But I think a lot of that movie's inevitable (heh) success is down to it being an Avengers movie once more, that beloved players like Steve Rogers and Thor are back, and Robert Downey Jr. plays a completely different character this time.

I think animation stays the same, that the original/untested movies still have work to do to get audiences coming. I keep hoping that FORGOTTEN ISLAND and HEXED do good-to-great this fall.

So... This weekend is PAW PATROL 3, for the preschoolers. Looks to perform, more or less, like the last one. Should turn a profit. The movie I'll be looking out for that weekend is, funnily enough, another dino flick: THE END OF OAK STREET. I'll be curious to see if its early positive reactions can translate to leggy original hit, giving this summer box office a nice cherry on top.

I know tracking suggests a less than stellar opening for COYOTE VS. ACME. I'm just glad the film even got released, period. I wasn't really expecting it to do great, honestly. Ketchup's highest-grossing film is, what... HYPNOTIC? Made $16m worldwide. Just a pinch more than THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP, which they didn't distribute internationally. You may bring up FERRARI, but they didn't distribute that, Neon did. And that made less than $50m worldwide. This is a nearly-cancelled, completed-a-long-time-ago film getting a release and little more than that. Could at least have some word-of-mouth throughout early September and make 3x its opening or something.

(image via LaughingPlace)

If you were to time travel to 2004... And tell 12-year-old me, who watched FAMILY GUY regularly almost every night on [adult swim]... If you were to tell me back then:

"Oh yeah, one day, Disney is going to own this show. And FUTURAMA. And THE SIMPSONS."

I'd say, "You're pullin' my leg!"

Little going on, I'll predict next week's D23...

Walt Disney Animation Studios:

HEXED: More HEXED footage / possible second trailer release. Seems like a given, as we only have the teaser from June, and another trailer for the film was classified by various ratings boards.

FROZEN III: Plot details. A given, I think. Maybe an image since the movie is a little over a year away at this point.

UNTITLED 2028 MOVIE: Possibly some information on the 2028 original movie. Not a title or anything, but some idea of what it could be about, maybe an idea of what it'll look like, at that.

LILO & SCRATCH: More footage. Maybe the whole short is shown to attendees.

PRINCESS AND THE FROG TV SPECIAL: This special, which may or may not be reassembled from the cancelled TIANA Disney+ show, is fully announced here. Title, storyline, look, air date, etc.

Pixar

GATTO: New trailer. Much like HEXED, we got the teaser back in June, and GATTO isn't that far off from HEXED, release wise. This one's a maybe, they could be saving trailer #2 for HEXED in November.

LOVING DORY: Release date/release strategy for the upcoming short. It is confirmed that the short will be featured at the expo, but it'd be cool to get some clarification here: Will this run before GATTO in March 2027, or not?

ONO GHOST MARKET: Even though its existence was confirmed by a Wall Street Journal profile on CCO Pete Docter, Pixar will fully announce this movie for a spring 2028 release here.

INCREDIBLES 3: Some details on it, concept art.

COCO 2: Possibly some word on it, maybe a re-confirmation of its Thanksgiving 2029 release date. (Again, said by WSJ writer.)

Marvel

X-MEN and GHOST RIDER: Full release dates for the untitled X-MEN movie (plus the title for that) and GHOST RIDER. It's obvious that the former is the May 2028 movie, and the latter is for July 2028.

BLACK PANTHER III: More details.

Beyond: Maybe something set for 2029.

Lucasfilm

STAR WARS: STARFIGHTER: Footage, maybe first trailer.

Beyond: Possible word on what comes out, theatrically, after that.

Disney Pictures/20th Century/Other

SIMPSONS MOVIE 2: SIMPSONS MOVIE 2 is confirmed to be a part of the expo, so I'm expecting footage of some sorts, maybe even a trailer.

ICE AGE: BOILING POINT: New trailer, as the release date gets closer. Maybe some more details on that.

Other: BLUEY MOVIE trailer/footage, more remake stuff announced (likely very TANGLED-centric), little else...

Huh, I don't remember THAT scene from the movie. Since when did Pinocchio, and various puppies from 101 DALMATIANS show up in THE FOX AND THE HOUND??

All kidding aside, yeah, this is a trade ad for the 1994 video release of THE FOX AND THE HOUND (a movie which turned 45 a few weeks ago, wow-wee!), using a slightly different cover art. The background with the bear looks a bit off, and the size/centering of the "A Walt Disney Classic" isn't the same.

Compare to the final:

In the final three years of the Classics line, there would be a spring title. One that kicks off the year in sell-through releases: 101 DALMATIANS was an April release in 1992, PINOCCHIO was late March in 1993, FOX AND THE HOUND was early March 1994.

I also get a kick out of how they use FOX AND THE HOUND's $23m gross during its 1988 theatrical re-release as a way to get video store managers (I guess) hyped at the numbers they'd make off of this film on video, that it'd have chances equal to or better than PINOCCHIO's 1993 video release. PINOCCHIO's latest re-issue was in 1992, but that was after the film had come to video and subsequently vaulted. This could've played a part in that re-issue only making $18m (compare that to SNOW WHITE, not yet on video, netting another $41m a year later). But even then, in 1988 dollars, FOX AND THE HOUND didn't make that much more than PINOCCHIO did in 1992.

THE FOX AND THE HOUND ended up selling 10m or so units on its first video release, while PINOCCHIO's 1993 release sold 13m+ units. The original 1985-86 video release had sold nearly a full million back in the day, which was big for its time... so the '93 release was overall a big help to the film.

And quite something, considering that THE FOX AND THE HOUND did fine enough domestically in its first theatrical release in 1981. Not at all a big blockbuster like many of the classic Disney films of yore were, but good enough for a feature made during that era. In fact, it was the highest-earning animated film on initial release in North America, taking the crown from the studio's previous outing, THE RESCUERS. Some of the promo for the 1988 re-release even used that as a selling point, funnily enough:

Well sorta, by then they had to clarify it as Disney's biggest... Because its record was taken by someone who used to be there. Don Bluth, who left the studio during this film's tumultuous production, unleashed AN AMERICAN TAIL w/ Steven Spielberg at his side in 1986. Where FOX AND THE HOUND really shined was worldwide, though, particularly in France and West Germany, where then-new Disney animated features thrived.

The 1988 re-issue take was rather fair, with $23m. That same year, a re-issue of BAMBI took in $39m. During the holidays of 1987, CINDERELLA pocketed $34m. A re-issue of THE RESCUERS in 1989 performed similarly to FOX AND THE HOUND's. As if the '70s and '80s films just didn't have the same pull of the CINDERELLAs and DALMATIANSes, but still did okay enough. RESCUERS' okay total in 1989 was what dampened enthusiasm for THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER while it was in production. They saw the movie through to completion, but assumed it was DOA.

THE FOX AND THE HOUND really did find a new life on video in the mid-1990s.

I wonder why with that one in particular. Not every Disney animated movie on video was 10m units BIG like that. THE RESCUERS and THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER certainly weren't, nor was THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE. FOX AND THE HOUND was kinda performing in the league of the beloved films, which seems a bit unusual considering that it *seems* as if the consensus is: It's one of the minor efforts of the studio's oeuvre. Another one of those '80s "dark age" Disney films. Perhaps it being about a puppy helped? Gotta love those dog movies, eh? Maybe its similarities to BAMBI? Perhaps there was some sorta "animals in the woods" = HOMEWARD BOUND thing going on, too?

We had the VHS back in the day, for we had a small amount of Disney animated feature VHS tapes by the time FOX AND THE HOUND released in March 1994, and it was one of them. The final Classics title on VHS. Somehow, my parents picked it up for my sister and I. And not, say, THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE nor THE RESCUERS... The other ones we had at the time were PINOCCHIO ('93 release), DUMBO ('89 cover, late '91 tape inside), 101 DALMATIANS, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and ALADDIN. Every other Disney animated film I had on tape as a kid was in the Masterpiece Collection or the Gold Classic Collection. In fact, we had *two* FOX AND THE HOUNDs for some reason, and one of them came with the Copper plush. Maybe someone gifted us another, not knowing we already had it, but... We kept both, I have them still, in my collection. And funnily enough, one has the RETURN OF JAFAR preview on it, the other doesn't.

Paramount Animation is once more trying to get an animated movie that isn't Nickelodeon or Hasbro-based off the ground...

This time, it's about an Indian teen living in New Jersey who goes on an adventure in what's described as a "Bollywood musical world". Titled DIYA, I'm immediately reminded, and I'm sure someone reading this also is reminded... Of a DreamWorks film that was once known as BOLLYWOOD SUPERSTAR MONKEY, from Kevin Lima, director of A GOOFY MOVIE, TARZAN, and ENCHANTED. A film that was directly affected by DreamWorks' pre-Comcast box office troubles. January 2015, to be exact. Founder/former CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and the brass severely downsized the enterprise following a string of movies that didn't meet their expectations, completely shutting down sister studio (and pioneer) Pacific Data Images and shelving a bunch of movies. This film, along with B.O.O.: BUREAU OF OTHERWORLDLY OPERATIONS, and probably many more. PUSS IN BOOTS 2 got put into limbo, and MADAGASCAR 4 remains somewhere adrift. A lot of people within animation fan circles mourn BOLLYWOOD SUPERSTAR MONKEY's cancellation to this day. It really had potential, I think.

DIYA is set to be directed by Nitya Mehra, who directed a sci-fi romantic drama called BAAR BAAR DEHKO. A live-action director going animated, eh? Though she was "assistant director" on LIFE OF PI, and there's *plenty* of animation in that, so she has some experience with it.

Involved are writers Jaydeep Hasrajani and Jake Goldman, the former created an animated series called BOONS AND CURSES that Netflix straight up pulled the plug on while it was in production, the latter has a cartoon and comic history himself. So, it is nice to Hasrajani get another go at making something that's true to his background, though apparently he was able to shop BOONS AND CURSES around after Netflix dumped it... But nothing has come of it, yet. Also involved are Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who of course are known for writing and directing GAME NIGHT and DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES. And they have some animation cred, as well, with writing credits on CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2. Goldstein also apparently, very early on in his career, wrote episodes of the Will Vinton stop-motion series co-created by Eddie Murphy, THE PJS. All the way back in the late '90s. They'll be producing.

So, a lot of big names are already attached to this one, which makes me think it might have a chance at actually leaving the station. Something a lot of announced Paramount animated movies over the past ten years haven't been lucky to do. Outside of MUTANT MAYHEM 2, Paramount only has one other animated film scheduled for release beyond 2026, and that's the horror comedy FREDDY THE 13TH - set for 10/13/2028. So far, no dates for other recently-announced projects, like the animated animal-cast SURVIVOR movie, Robert Rodriguez's THE NAUGHTY LIST, and a few others.

Huh, soooo...

Marvel Studios cancelled WONDER MAN season 2 because of continued Disney+ fallout, which was hinted at by series director Destin Daniel Cretton, hot off the record-breaking opening of his SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY... After all, we saw other projects affected by the fallout of streaming. How these studios really thought streaming was the next big thing, only for it to not work out for them financially (I need such math explained to me, lol) and to subsequently pivot back to feature films. Outside of Marvel Studios/Television, you had... Let's see... At Disney Animation, MOANA: The Series became MOANA 2: The Movie, a TIANA series was straight-up cancelled (a TV special from some of the same crew seems to be a remaining morsel of it), Pixar saw some struggles because of all the Disney+ stuff they were churning out (and also upgraded into movies, like ONO GHOST MARKET), and you also had Lucasfilm graduating THE MANDALORIAN Season 4 into the movie THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU, to less than satisfactory results. Little by little, I think these big budget TV shows for the platform are kinda done. It honestly comes as a surprise to me whenever a new one comes out, and that some (such as VISIONQUEST) are still happening.

(And that's not even getting into what happened at other studios w/ their projects.)

Also on the Marvel Studios side, Kevin Feige himself apparently thinks THE FANTASTIC 4: FIRST STEPS underperformed ($521m worldwide against an $180-200m+ budget)... Never mind that it's the highest grossing Fantastic Four movie adaptation, apparently they were banking on this thing to go way higher than that. But honestly, it should be viewed as a moderate success in the way BATMAN BEGINS was way back in 2005. If released today and if it performed similarly, it'd be deemed an underperformer too. The Fantastic Four had three theatrically-released movies prior to FIRST STEPS - two iterations total, not a single one of them cracked over $335m worldwide. A new version played by an all-new cast that's part of the MCU still wasn't going to bring out a truly humongous gross, I feel.

Also, the antitrust trial regarding the pending Paramount-Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery merger begins March 2nd of next year, which I'm sure isn't sitting well with everyone in charge of the mountain conglomerate. By that date, Paramount-Skydance will have accrued over $1.3b in ticking fees... Remember, every day after September that the two companies AREN'T merged? Paramount's gotta pay up. Thank goodness for those few states AG who helped get things to this point. My state included.

It took a few weeks, but on the weekend SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY really sticks the landing... TOY STORY 5 and MINIONS & MONSTERS are ahead of the films that opened after it, except - of course - THE ODYSSEY... Which also held spectacularly this weekend. Christopher Nolan is totally going to be given the keys to the kingdom at Universal, isn't he?

The two animated sequels came in at #3 and #4 respectively, beating the likes of MOANA '26, THE INVITE, and more. Summer animated movie legs, y'all.

38% estimated drop for TOY STORY 5, and 41% estimated for M&M. Like, even w/ BRAND NEW DAY hogging up all the auditoriums, it's... Like, wow. Probably families going to those movies because of sold out Spidey shows. Everyone wins. I've been trying to see BND myself over the weekend, but it hasn't panned out lol.

As of now, TOY STORY 5 sits at $461m here, $1.065b everywhere. Up and close with 3 & 4's worldwide takes. Domestically, it looks to top out at around $480m, while worldwide it could still get to $1.1b.

I don't understand the internet sometimes...

My experiences in hearing about PROJECT HAIL MARY in *public* are far different from 80% of what I hear about it online.

This place, surprisingly, dug it. Likely because of protagonist Ryland Grace's ace-coding, and autism-coding as well. I saw both in him, as an autistic myself, and as someone who fluctuates between pan and ace/grey-ace/aceflux. (It's very nuanced, okay? Lol) If anything, he was just Milo Thatch from ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE. The ending is something I, and probably other autistics, sometimes fantasize about.

In public... Let's see, someone who works at a burger joint - no, not one of those brick-walled industrial-looking millennial ones - I go to quite frequently asked me if I had seen it, as she had read the book and liked the movie a lot. When I was dining out one night back in March, this family sits in the booth across from me, and they were all talking about how much they liked the movie. Lot of talk about how cool Rocky is.

Whereas on Twitter and other places? "It's slop", "it's a reddit epic bacon chungus movie", something like that.

I finally watched it a month ago, a little after it had come to Prime. I liked it quite a bit, myself. Is it indeed kind of reminiscent of a sort-of 2011-ish starry-eyed optimistic mood? Yeah, absolutely. Some of the humor is goofy, too. Well, that's the kind of movie it is, and as that... I liked it... And it seemed most of the moviegoing audience did, too. I guess the audience likes a silly, hopeful space movie, even in a year like 2026. I suppose it being based on a popular book also helps, lol.

I guess I too would dislike a movie if I had some radar that detected what movies were "reddit epic bacon chungus" or not. Is that just another fancy phrase for "something I know I'm not gonna like"? It's like walking into a movie w/ a checklist on hand. "Is this gonna do things I don't like? Will this meet MY specific and narrowly-defined bar for success?"

Weirdly, as a millennial, I don't even remember "epic bacon". And I was online quite a bit circa 2011. I first got Twitter that year, even. I didn't have Tumblr yet, and to this day I do not have a Reddit, I've only read various threads on there. I'm one of those people who, when they feel bad about something, they google it to see if anyone else goes through such feelings... and most of the time, such discussions happen to be on Reddit.

Yeah, so "epic bacon" is a no for me, while I was very much familiar with stuff like "I Can Haz Cheezburger?", Demotivational Posters, the finger mustaches, all those memes with Impact font on them... Somehow, the bacon passed me by. All of it is now referred to as some sort of "millennial" humor, therefore "cringe" and bad. And I will admit, some of it did get to a point circa 2013/14 where "omg it's so META!" and "quirky" became rather annoying, to me at least.

But it feels like, online, some people have created a scenario to get mad at.

It usually goes like this: "The early 2010s, the Obama years, were all about shallow optimism and it was all millennials' fault, them and their cringey Mumford & Sons and 'shareables', and that's how we ended up with this current nightmare"... Like, never mind that SEVERAL other things happen and have happened, and overall contribute to the nature of the era. I'm pretty sure being excited about iPhones and pseudo-hipster aesthetics and the early years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe didn't singlehandedly make the general mood of 2016-onwards a thing- Like, that's all so silly to me.

(For the record, I barely ever listened to what was popular circa 2011-13, and yeah, 'shareables' kinda bugs me as a substitute word for "appetizers". I'll give them that.)

Some people, in their praise of both PROJECT HAIL MARY as a movie and as a box office success, did indeed go a little overboard. Asking aloud if it was time for "hope" and "optimism" in the movies. Like that ever really disappeared from movies altogether? I remember similar hyperbole circa 2017, around the time THOR: RAGNAROK came out. Lots of "movies are fun again!" It's usually a roller coaster of "movies are dead!" "Movies are back!" "Why aren't movies FUN anymore?" "Movies are fun again!" Do these people only see less than four movies a year or something?

It's one thing to feel a sense of hope after finishing up PROJECT HAIL MARY, it's another for one of the entertainment trades to publish - unironically - an article about how all the latest movies are supposedly depressing and awful, when... That's not the case at all? Maybe ALL movies are depressing and pessimistic if you only want PROJECT HAIL MARY-types in your diet. Sometimes a movie doesn't have to tell you it's all going to be okay, nor does it have to tell you "things are very very bad right now"... Sometimes a movie just tells a story, and if you're engaged in it and what it's all about (granted, w/ some media literacy at your side), then that is all that matters.