Kyle's Various Stuff

Cool thing...

In a matter of days, we're going to see a big budget animated sequel in a legacy franchise that was co-directed and co-written by a NON-BINARY person (Kenna Harris) make biiiiig bucks.

And that's a little after a compilation film of an indie animated series created, written, and directed by a trans woman surprised at the box office.

That's very nice. Happy Pride.

You wake up, you're a young(er) animation fan... The year is 2006...

CARS has just come out, the newest Pixar film, but interestingly... It is the final film from the studio to open with a Walt Disney Pictures logo, the last of the studio's films to be released by Disney...

Their next, RATATOUILLE, this really unlikely movie about a rat who wants to be a chef, is being distributed by Universal Pictures... Lots of people really think this one is going to be IT. Pixar's first flop. CARS got lucky, it seems, but a lot of people seem uninterested in this picture, and that teaser ain't doin' it any favors - though I think it looks like it could be alright. DreamWorks is actually beating them to the punch with their Aardman co-production FLUSHED AWAY, a RAT MOVIE that used to be called RATROPOLIS. This could very well be a *shudder* MADAGASCAR/THE WILD situation, but this time, the Pixar film is perceived to be the rip-off here as opposed to being the rushed cash-in. From what I know, both movies are quite different and are going to be quite good... What's more, Universal is also working on an animated rodent movie of their own, an adaptation of THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX. That recently lost its director, the great Sylvain Chomet, director of the Oscar-nominated THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE, which lost to FINDING NEMO.

Wh- What happened? You're lost, I get it. You don't remember anything happening this way at all. Don't worry, I'll fill you in.

The Walt Disney Company had completely alienated Pixar, and thus Pixar - as they said they would do - broke off from them, no renegotiating the contract. Michael Eisner remains the CEO of Disney despite Roy E. Disney's efforts, and they have full rights to the Emeryville-based studio's animated features made up until the release of CARS... And with Pixar out of the picture, production has fully commenced on TOY STORY 3 at Disney's Circle 7 Animation, a much different TOY STORY 3 involving Buzz Lightyear being shipped off to Taipei, Taiwan as part of a product-wide recall. A reverse TOY STORY 2 where Woody and the gang have to journey to find Buzz, while Buzz meets a whole new cast of characters across the Pacific. It is due out in summer 2008, probably around the same time Pixar releases their next original movie after RATATOUILLE, a film you and lots of other people don't know about yet. It's called W.A.L.-E., I believe. It's about a robot in a post-apocalyptic future. Who knows, that one could be their first flop if the rat picture isn't.

Later this year, Disney Feature Animation releases their second all-CGI film MEET THE ROBINSONS, off of the William Joyce book. The trailer of course is playing before CARS right now, but not too many people seem impressed. It's gonna compete with the likes of Warner Bros.' HAPPY FEET from MAD MAX director George Miller, and that aforementioned FLUSHED AWAY. Who knows, maybe it'll do better than CHICKEN LITTLE. It certainly can't do as badly as THE WILD and VALIANT, eh? Those are already in the rear-view mirror.

Next year, like I said, RATATOUILLE. Disney Feature Animation will then unleash Chris Sanders' new film, AMERICAN DOG, so that's something to look forward to.

And in 2008, looks like we'll be seeing Circle 7's TOY STORY 3, Pixar's W.A.L.-E., and Disney Feature Animation's RAPUNZEL UNBRAIDED. No surprise, a new fairy tale, and from what I've seen, this is going to be their answer to SHREK. Big time. I believe FRAIDY CAT, from the legendary duo of Ron Clements and John Musker, has been shelved at this point. They're pretty much out of the studio, disillusioned with how it's being run these days, and with the demise of 2D animated features there.

Beyond all of this is a little tricky, but I'll try to piece the puzzle together... I think after RAPUNZEL UNBRAIDED, Disney Feature Animation will enter the world of video games with this cool-sounding project called JOE JUMP, following a washed up video game character from an '80s arcade game trying to keep up with the modern gaming world. Going from the tried-and-true fairy tale to something like this. It really sounds like it has potential, maybe it's this cool new experiment that becomes a big hit, or it's an action flop like ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE and TREASURE PLANET were. Perhaps their animated equivalent to TRON? That could probably release in 2009, alongside... Hmmm, Pixar has a few different ideas in the race, but so far it's not known which one is a solid candidate for that year. I hear tell there's a fairy tale of their own in some form of development there, but it's too early. Pete Docter, director of MONSTERS, INC., has some ideas brewing too. They've taken years off before, as you probably know. They didn't have anything out last year because of CARS' delay, and 2002 went by without a new Pixar film as well. Word has it that Circle 7's next Pixar-less Pixar sequel MONSTERS, INC. 2 is pretty far along, so much so, that could debut a year after TOY STORY 3 does. Or maybe it opens in 2010, it depends on how things go. And I'm pretty sure TOY STORY 4 is being kicked around, and I do know that a draft of FINDING NEMO 2 was finished a few months back. There might be a desire to do something with A BUG'S LIFE, dust that one off...

So, without babbling on much longer, it looks like...

Next year: RATATOUILLE in the summer, AMERICAN DOG in the autumn, and also the live-action/animation hybrid ENCHANTED...

2008: TOY STORY 3, W.A.L.-E., and RAPUNZEL UNBRAIDED...

2009: JOE JUMP? An untitled Pixar film? Possibly MONSTERS, INC. 2?

BEYOND... TOY STORY 4, FINDING NEMO 2...

As expected, HEXED showed up finally...

I like this trailer quite a bit!

I had low expectations at first given the director change happening so late in the game, but the movie itself actually looks quite solid. I've already got the whole "it's still the WDAS house style/it was never going to have a new look to it" thoughts out of the way, the footage hints at something with solid writing and character dynamics and whatnot. It wasn't one of those trailers that just throws you around, like it sets up the story nicely and who Billie is.

And, I think it looks good, too. I quite like the Hexe world, all those squiggly trees and fun architecture and such, some of the creatures and witches look cool. Those ALICE IN WONDERLAND vibes are still somewhat there, and you can see that grinning three-eyed cat from the concept art and ZOOTOPIA 2 end credits Easter Egg on a mug in the poster:

Plus there's some Stevie Nicks in this trailer- Hey wait a minute, that's her 1981 staple 'Edge of Seventeen'. Billie voice actress Hailee Steinfeld was in a movie called THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN. Hah. Can't go wrong with a little Stevie Nicks, and it's super-fitting for a movie like this. I think the trailer is well put together overall.

Bonus points for the typography used for the "From the studio that brought you FROZEN and ZOOTOPIA", how they integrate the moons there. Good stuff.

That book and quill are voiced by Stephen Fry (who, fittingly, played the Cheshire Cat in Tim Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND) and Tracy Ullman (a big part of The Simpsons existing, who also voiced a goblin pawn shop owner in Pixar's fantasy film ONWARD) respectively. So, more cast there.

This one may just surprise... I have a good feeling about it, myself. I haven't really liked an original WDAS movie since ENCANTO back in 2021, and this trailer I think shows that they are pretty confident in this one. Disney, fantasy, witches, a more edgy and less quirky-dirky teen protagonist... Yeah, it could surprise.

Yeah I know, half of the online toon-o-sphere - who have always seemed to dislike a lot of things in general - keeps declaring HEXED is some rip-off of THE OWL HOUSE, or was made to spite THE OWL HOUSE and its creator Dana Terrace (never mind that Terrace is continuing the OWL HOUSE story with a graphic novel that Disney's Hyperion Avenue is publishing), or that it's Disney slyly giving audiences an OWL HOUSE substitute that's queer-free. A lot of that particular discourse is just giving "Sony cancelled POPEYE for THE EMOJI MOVIE?", to me. Disney Animation and Disney TV Animation are separate divisions of The Walt Disney Company, for starters.

HEXED was presumably pitched in 2019, a year before THE OWL HOUSE came out. Original director Josie Trinidad - who is still on the picture as a "co-director" - was said to have been directing an original film of her own in a November 2019 announcement from former WDAS chief Jennifer Lee, and OWL HOUSE's first episode aired in January 2020. Maybe Trinidad pitched another movie back then, and then some time in 2021-22 or whatever, she moved onto what is now HEXED? Maybe it was HEXED all along? And that some Disney upper management folks were like "Let's still make something with witches, as a movie, just not like that!" But look, not only was THE OWL HOUSE on its way out around that time, but also WANDAVISION was on the boards at Marvel Studios, which introduced the witch Agatha Harkness to the MCU, and she'd later get her own show, AGATHA ALL ALONG. Those all align with the HEXED production timeline. HEXED might as well be a thing because of that, "oh yeah, we're doing witches in the MCU now, we'll do it for an animated movie too!"

If you couldn't tell that was me being facetious... Yeah, no, I don't think HEXED was meant to be a response to either witchy project. Witches (of both good and evil) and Disney go waaaay back.

Terrace said herself in that very reddit Q&A that THE OWL HOUSE was looked at by some Disney execs as something that "didn't fit the Disney brand", not because of the LGBTQIA+ representation... But because it was serialized and aimed more towards an older audience. Not the first cartoon with a bit of an edge and that kind of storytelling to be impacted by executives, for sure. But given how Disney is often quite inadequate when it comes to rep (and how straight up anti-queer things got these past few years), it's easy to believe that the larger company nixed THE OWL HOUSE because gay. But Terrace herself said that was not the case, and, again, the graphic novel is in the works. And she's at work on something very cool elsewhere.

From the word-go, HEXED has been relentlessly compared to THE OWL HOUSE, and I honestly do not think this is - despite my issues with Disney as a company and how inadequate they can often be when it comes to queer representation - all that deep. Also, with how many Disney and Pixar films get drubbed by magpies online before release... I get burnt out. I'm like "We're mad at this one because...?" If HEXED wasn't anything like THE OWL HOUSE, I think people would *still* find something to complain about. It's the nature of the beast, and I've seen this same ol' song and dance for about two decades now. I've been pretty online since I was a preteen in the mid-2000s, so I can only just eye roll at a lot of this.

I don't like how THE OWL HOUSE was treated, yes, but I see HEXED as nothing more than a new WDAS film with similar themes and such. Plus, THE OWL HOUSE is not the first-ever "girl goes to a fantasy world" story. There are similarities to some of the specifics yes, but I want to give it a chance. WDAS has mostly had it rough this decade and I'd love for them to get back on track with original stories again... And WDAS, at their best, nail this kind of fantasy setting, so... Yeah, I'm rooting for HEXED.

Now, SHREK 5!

A full year away, but looks like a lot of it is done. I wonder if those delays from July of this year to December of this year to late June of next year bought them plenty of time.

First thing, I love that it begins with a tribute to the original SHREK! book by William Steig. The illustrations in the opening book are very much in that style.

Much like HEXED, there are complainers abound with this one, too. Ever since that first look went up showing the updated character designs and visual style? It's been Wambulence Road ever since. Criticism is fine, but some people just go way over the top on this stuff. I already talked about that, though. I don't mind the way this movie looks, because I never really dug the look of the SHREK movies in the first place. I never bought that they were these edgy ugly alternatives to Disney, when far wilder animation styles were a thing at the time of its release, but mostly in 2D.

The movie itself looks like the usual SHREK vibe, complete with a reference to FROZEN (funnily enough, FROZEN III opens the same year). Further Further Away looks like a fun environment, visually doubling down on the medieval Europe-meets-modern L.A. of Far Far Away, but going for a kind of grittier, seedier city setting. Some of those alley shots are giving that dark, shadowy industrial city seen in PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH. And given Puss' absence here, no Antonio Banderas in the cast (yet?)... Perhaps there will be a PUSS IN BOOTS 3, which picks up right where THE LAST WISH ended... He, Kitty Softpaws, and Perrito arrive in Far Far Away to see that Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, et al. have left... And maybe they all meet up in SHREK 6? Who knows!

SHREK 5 looks very SHREK 2, specifically, right down to landing the characters in prison yet again. But that was also a thing with the princesses in SHREK THE THIRD, lol. Conrad Vernon is directing on it, too. It's no surprise, really. SHREK 2 is the highest-grossing film in the series and some consider it the best one, and for many years it held the title of highest-grossing animated film ever. Both domestically ($441m) and worldwide ($919m). Like, those were **gargantuan** numbers in 2004. That put it up there with SPIDER-MAN and THE PHANTOM MENACE, the biggies that were many clicks below TITANIC.

I remember it being such a phenomenon, too. I saw it opening weekend at age 11 1/2, with my dad. Packed auditorium, several of the jokes *brought down the house*. Just guffawing all throughout.

SHREK THE THIRD made over $800m worldwide, still big in 2007, but I barely remember ANYONE in school talking about it back in the day. I distinctly remember telling someone in discussion back then, "Yeah, there will be a SHREK 4", and the person going "Ugh, another one?" Like, SHREK 2 was something else, whereas SHREK THE THIRD... Seemed like everyone went and saw it, but then forgot about it afterwards. Similar situation with SHREK FOREVER AFTER. Movie still made a lot of money back in 2010, but I barely remember anyone talking about it. Not even "Do the roar!", lol.

So, with SHREK 5 looking like SHREK 2 Redux, yeah, no surprise there. Trying to recapture what was the biggest movie in the franchise, and still DreamWorks' highest-earning movie, period. Nothing they've made since, even w/ inflation and higher ticket prices and a different international marketplace and such, ever reached SHREK 2 numbers. SHREK THE THIRD came in at $808m, SHREK FOREVER AFTER at $752m, and MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE'S MOST WANTED at $746m. No other film of theirs ever crossed $700m... KUNG FU PANDA 2 and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 came the closest, but no cigar. Kinda fascinating in a way. I think this will easily clear a billion, though.

I mean, the look of it is probably what we all expected after the CinemaCon image drop, honestly. It's a WDAS house style-looking movie. But this (and presumably the teaser itself) is only a small glimpse, really, given how this one's going to take us to a witchy world. Maybe that environment will do something cool? Who knows. Can't say it looks bad, though. Obviously the hard work is going into it despite the impacted production schedule, and I think some of the lighting/color choices in some of these are quite nice. The talking book has a fun design, too.

Worth noting, as I've said before, but after Jared Bush took over the CCO position at Disney Animation, he didn't say anything about this movie being a stylistic breakthrough for the studio's CG output. He has, however, said that the studio's 2028 release - the movie releasing after FROZEN III - will be just that. So, HEXED was never going to be the movie that would step outside the FROZEN/MOANA/RAYA/ENCANTO comfort zone. With or without its original director, Josie Trinidad, at the top.

Want to re-iterate: The box office haul of the AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS theatrical compilation film is very good for animation box office going forward.

Much in the same way theatrically-released anime films are, this show has a fanbase. And Glitch and Fathom Entertainment were smart in having the show's final hour-long episode be released theatrically, with the penultimate episode and some additional material (a recap of the show and an intro w/ one of those N64-looking fish) attached to get a roughly 90min runtime... That community *showed up*... The movie was #1 on its first day, and took #5 for the weekend overall with a $12m haul, $20m up to that point counting the Thursday grosses.

Now this past weekend, it tumbled hard. 95%. Again, everyone who was into this show and would've indeed watched something like this in a theater... Went. On opening weekend. Frontloaded. This is a unique kind of movie release, and it's nice that it happened in the first place. These are the kinds of theatrical releases that don't align with the now-traditional way a movie plays: Opening weekend, then legs determine its longevity. No, this was an event. And much of its audience immediately showed up.

When I went and saw it this past Friday (as always, I'm fashionably late to things!), there were only three other people in that theater. A family no less. I would've loved to have seen it on opening weekend, to see/hear the fan reaction firsthand. But, I snoozed I lost. I had only seen the first two episodes of the show prior to the movie's release, and then speed-ran the rest over the week and caught the finale.

Anime films do similar business. They collect a nice opening for what they are, and then drop about 70% or higher on subsequent weekends. Even record-breaker DEMON SLAYER movie INFINITY CASTLE from this past year.

But this is very important because, to paraphrase George Miller, these are the kinds of tiles that make up the larger mosaic. That it isn't just the big studios' game. Your average Disney Animation or DreamWorks or Illumination film plays the regular game, as wide-audience four-quadrant films... In that the opening weekend has to be an acceptable start, and then legs and word-of-mouth do the rest. Some things appeal to different audiences, be it a DEMON SLAYER movie or an AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS compilation film. And what's important is that they show up, make some kind of mark on the box office, and that's it. No need to prove themselves over the weeks as "successful".

This one's oddly doing it for me, off of such a short clip no less... I love the title of it... DUDLEY & THE INVASION OF THE SPACE SLUGS... It's giving a very '90s platformer game vibe. Like CRASH BANDICOOT, GEX, that 1997 reboot of FROGGER, or CROC or something, usually some kind of cartoon animal taking on things like monsters or aliens or whatever.

It's a collaboration from studios based in France, Luxembourg, India, and Belgium, and is on track for release next year. Looks close to done, if not actually done... And if some wikis are to be believed, this is actually an unmade Jim Henson company picture that was originally known as WATER WARRIORS... Dating back to... 2003. With test animation and renders made in the mid-2000s, at that. So, another RAY GUNN and HIGH IN THE CLOUDS (which also has a frog in it and comes out next year) situation where a long unmade animated movie finally gets made?

Whenever I rewatch TOY STORY 4, and how often I see it get dismissed as this really bad film that somehow ruined everything... The disc-horse, lol... I keep remembering how the movie was talked about by its filmmakers when it was in production...

The film was officially unveiled by Disney and Pixar during a shareholder conference in October 2014, some... What... Six years after writer Andrew Stanton began kicking around ideas for it? TOY STORY 4 was on the boards as far back as 2008, when TOY STORY 3 was entering full production for its June 2010 release. This was because Stanton wanted to further explore what happened to Bo Peep and where she ended up after being donated. What that meant for Woody, especially... The film just so happened to come out in... 2019... Nine years after the release of TOY STORY 3.

Animation, ya'know? And the classic case of "other movies being made at the studio were in line first".

And also... Delays. Two of them, to be exact.

TOY STORY 4 was originally penciled in for a summer 2017 release, with John Lasseter outright directing, from Andrew Stanton's early ideas and a screenplay by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones.

For a while, this movie was described as a more "standalone" adventure in the series, more so than the next major chapter... Pixar President Jim Morris said it wouldn't be a continuation... Despite literally bearing the name TOY STORY 4. And not something like, say, WOODY.

This could've been the version that was discovered a little while back, a very unusual draft where Bonnie brought Woody and Buzz over to a relative of hers that - Sid-style - took off their heads and *body swapped* them... And then Woody would start hearing Star Command, and Buzz would be thinking yee-haw! or something. Like FREAKY FRIDAY in a way, but with some really weird toy material brain-meshing? And Bo Peep was there. From the start, she was always there. The plot also involved her being in an auction. It was indeed a bizarre little story that could've possibly worked, and it seems to really line up with the "romantic comedy" direction that the announcements circa 2014-15 billed the film as. IIRC, this version of it was the one in the works when it was highlighted at the 2015 D23 Expo. It does indeed sound like a funny little standalone film, more in line with the two TV specials Pixar made: TOY STORY OF TERROR! and TOY STORY THAT TIME FORGOT. Not something that was a little more serious and higher-stakes like TOY STORY 3.

In October 2015, about a year after the first announcement and a little after the D23 Expo... The film was delayed to summer 2018. CARS 3 would end up taking its original date. This is probably where a lot of that version was thrown out, McCormack and Jones remained on the picture for the time being.

And then again, in October 2016, it got delayed. Summer 2019. INCREDIBLE 2 took its old summer 2018 date.

We didn't know back then, but co-director Josh Cooley had replaced John Lasseter as the director of the film, and had much of it redone. Cooley himself said in an interview that this where the film graduated to full-on continuation, because he didn't want to make what he felt would just be another movie in the series... But we wouldn't learn of Lasseter stepping down as director until much later...

Spring 2017, it's announced that Martin Hyne had joined as a writer, likely to help shape the new version of the story. And Don Rickles, the voice of Mr. Potato Head, had passed away. The film is then featured at the 2017 D23 Expo later that year, with it being announced that Lasseter gave the director job to Cooley, because he was too busy running three studios and more to direct a film. Much like how he was just that during the final laps of CARS 2's production...

Months later in November 2017, Lasseter was exposed by the Me Too movement and thus his prolonged departure from all divisions of The Walt Disney Company began. A process that, for whatever reason, lasted until December of 2018.

McCormack and Jones were now known to be off the project, but had seemed to step down prior to the allegations. Their reasoning was how white guy-centric Pixar was under Lasseter. They probably left that movie before the D23 presentation, maybe even earlier. Some time after Cooley assumed the director position in mid-to-late 2016 but before fall 2017.

Then some time after their departure, Stephany Folsom - who did uncredited writing for THOR: RAGNAROK - became the writer of the film. The ballpark here is early late 2017/early 2018. Reports suggested that 3/4 of the film had been thrown out by that point... About a year and a half away from its June 2019 release date.

Looking at the finished movie's credits, the screenplay is credited to Andrew Stanton and Stephany Folsom.

McCormack, Jones, and Hynes are credited as "Original Story by" alongside Folsom, Stanton, Lasseter, Cooley, and Valerie LaPointe.

That's... A lot of writers for one movie. It really indicates that this thing went through quite a few versions before it came out, and it's pretty much true that somewhere along the way, it went from "standalone comedy" to "legitimate fourth chapter in the series"...

It kind of feels torn between two of those goals...

I like the movie a lot more than most (online people) do. I think it's an overall very well-made film with some truly excellent stretches that sit right alongside the best of the franchise. I was totally okay with the way it ended, too. The new characters? All fantastic. In terms of the mainline movies, this series is for 4-for-4, possibly soon to be 5-for-5. I'm gonna try to see TOY STORY 5 on Thursday, and I'm aware of how pretty positive a lot of the reviews are. Many of them saying it's better than 4...

My issues with TOY STORY 4 were more in the structure and pacing, how it felt way too jam-packed at roughly 100 minutes. That stuff is kind of the worst of 2010s Pixar (FINDING DORY also suffers from this, IMO), the need for things to be so complicated and plot-heavy, all the coincidences and how they have to do [x] to get to [y] and all that. Too on the move to let things breathe. The film is at its absolute best when it's letting the characters exist. Woody and Forky walking down the road and having that conversation? Woody's reunion with Bo Peep? Great stuff. I'm all for action and fun, but I wish the movie was a little more like that, less running around and whatnot. I think the first three all struck a fine balance between character-driven stuff and the action/situation-y stuff.

Then there's also Buzz's side-plot. Yeah, I do agree with most folk there, I didn't really care for the whole direction they went with him in that movie. I wonder if that whole thing with him consulting his push-button phrases for ideas was a remnant of the thrown out head-swap version of the film, him hearing voices in his head and such. It just felt out of character, out of place to me. The rest of the gang feel sidelined in this too, probably partially caused by the filmmakers not recasting Mr. Potato Head. But also because the story didn't seem to have much room for them anyways. Jessie and crew's roles here almost felt like how the Radiator Springs gang took a backseat in the CARS sequels. TOY STORY 5 looks to be correcting that, with Jessie as lead character and with much of the action looking to take place at Bonnie's and/or involve most of her toys.

Looking back on all of this, I do think TOY STORY 4 seemed to be a quite troubled production. It began life as a weird sort-of addendum to the trilogy, but halfway through its journey to the big screen, it got turned into the next big chapter, retaining elements from earlier versions that may or may not have entirely fit... And it oddly kinda feels like neither, it's a little unfocused in that regard... But the filmmakers still brought the A-game when executing the material, so it's astounding that I even like it as much as I do. Woody's arc is pretty much complete I think, and how that all relates to who these toys are. TOY STORY 3 and TOY STORY 4 are very much of this era where many of its originators were middle-aged and saying goodbye to their adult-aged kids, so these films are more sentimental, nostalgic, sweet, and reflect a more mature state of mind than the more youthful edge of the first two movies... And it really becomes this story of where the toys are like parents to their kid owners. Woody even says it himself, watching Andy grow, and then Bonnie... Toys are forever, and these two films really explore that.

Which makes me even more curious about TOY STORY 5. The founding fathers who are still there, namely Stanton and Pete Docter, are pretty much past the whole "we say goodbye to our kids" phase. Lasseter's been out of Pixar for years. Lee Unkrich retired from Pixar in 2017, but did consult on projects over the years (getting a Senior Team credit on films like LUCA, TURNING RED, and ELEMENTAL), and then fully came back over a year ago to get going on COCO 2... It's really only those three guys, with new voices taking the series in different direction. Like this new film's co-director/co-writer, Kenna Harris.

Of course, I'd like to emphasize for a second that they weren't the only ones instrumental in the success of the TOY STORY movies... The first film had screenplay material from Joss Whedon, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow. Their only Pixar film, at that. TOY STORY 2 had story/script contributions from Ash Brannon, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlain, and Chris Webb. TOY STORY 3's script was written by Michael Arndt, and then you have the aforementioned writers of the fourth movie. So, they all played a huge part in these films, too. Not just that Pixar regulars from the Lasseter-Docter-Stanton-Unkrich camp, "Team TOY STORY" as I like to call them. Harris looks to have left a similar stamp on the franchise, themselves.

Long post/ramble: I caught up on THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS and went to see the finale compilation feature film yesterday afternoon.

I'm glad I am not really involved in the "fandom" or discourse or whatever. When I get all opinionated about a work that's a big deal right about now, I like to keep that part of me tucked away online, where I get to spew thoughts and not have to really argue w/ a ton of people about meaningless nonsense... Or keep it between me and some pals of mine...

I watched the show, enjoyed it, adored things about it and had issues with other things, and had a good time at the movies checking out such a cool show with a distinct visual style on the big screen. I'm at an age now where it's like, I think something is COOL, and it's like... Yeah!

Whatever criticisms I have of the show aside, I think the most important thing here is that we have a full-on animated series written, directed, and created by a trans woman. Like, Gooseworx is an auteur. This is her show, her vision, the way she saw fit. No matter how it turned out, it exists in a world where that doesn't often happen. And it became this giant phenomenon, to the point where a movie - which was composed of the last two episodes and some additional stuff - did pretty darn good at the box office for what it is. Good for her.

Which makes whatever the hell happened over these past few weeks or so even more frustrating, to me. I really dislike the idea of thinking YOU yourself own a work that you had NO part in, other than viewing and maybe even buying stuff for. Fans and viewers no doubt help something like this, criticism is good and healthy and should open conversations that open minds... But there's a fine line I think.

What we see online, whether it's this show or any other huge thing (i.e. STAR WARS), treads into nasty "the customer is always right" territory. And given that Gooseworx has/had a social media presence, it started to negatively affect her and the show itself. Criticism is always welcome, but when it becomes this, it should be ignored. This isn't like readers circa 1890-something getting really upset over the death of Sherlock Holmes, prompting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to keep writing stories about the character, nor even what Sonic was going to look like in the live-action film. I'm talking about the utter meltdowns people have, and such a sense of entitlement, how they use social media to harass the creators... When they could've just said, "It went a direction I didn't care for" or "I wish they could've done this instead". Depart the train and maybe say why you ultimately didn't like the ride, don't run up to the cab to scream like a banshee at the locomotive driver. I mean unless that driver is throttling the train full-speed towards a broken bridge over a gorge, like... Don't.

As a creator myself, I'm pretty much ready to abandon most of my socials by the time one of my books gets out. The last thing I'd want to do is deal with a bunch of mouthbreathers who think they should write MY personal stories for me because they have their own ideas of what's what. Especially people who have never created something of their own, or haven't indulged in much media beyond their few favorite things. Funny how the best REAL critics don't do that shit, and just write their reviews and talk about the things they engage in. Like, who the hell are you to tell a creator what to do? This is, of course, nothing new. It has been a problem for years... And when something gets big, inevitably there will be some very online members of the fanbase ("fandom", ewww) who will act like this. Who will form weird parasocial relationships with things they consume more so than healthily check out... They are what we call... A vocal minority. Social media is their megaphone, as they are protected behind a computer screen when squabbling like an annoying bird.

My history with this show? I saw the first episode a few months after it first got uploaded to YouTube, and liked it a lot. Then I checked out the second episode way later than it was uploaded. I have bad executive dysfunction, that's part of the reason why it took me an eternity. I liked the second episode as well, so much so that I even drew some of the characters. Then, with the movie on its way out, I figured... Other films I have on my list can wait, I gotta go see this, support a trans animation creator during Pride, plus everyone everywhere is going to spoil it anyways. And it was 100 degrees and humid yesterday, so, an excuse to sit in a cool air-conditioned room! Watching the show, largely untainted by much of the discourse and then seeing this movie in a theater that only had three other people in it (a family, at that), was fun. Whatever I didn't like about it, it's like... Okay, so what. This is Gooseworx's show, not mine. If something's not for me, I just admit that. If there are things I see as flaws, I acknowledge them w/o being some tool who thinks they're better than the creator. I try to speak more out of observation than putting something down. I'm far away from the ranty person I was in my mid-20s.

Another thing is... Gooseworx may be a trans woman, but her show - a rarity as is - isn't meant to be some grand document that speaks to EVERYBODY. Whenever a marginalized creator gets something out there, there's this weird insistence that it has to be the ultimate thing. That it speaks for the whole group and has to align with every single person's experiences... That's utterly impossible! Here's an example... When BARBIE came out, there was some discourse about how it was poor feminism or wasn't adequate in its feminism, and it's like... One single movie, written and directed by a white American woman no less, is not going to encapsulate everything about girlhood and womanhood! All the different voices within the group make up an entire experience, one single document can't just sum it ALL up. That's not how any of this works. Likewise, Gooseworx's show is not going to speak to everyone. Whether it's queer people or neurodivergent people or both. It was never going to be the Correctest of Correct Documents on the subjects. That it speaks to as much people as it does, that's great. A chunk of it aligned with my feelings and experiences, too. Even if it really didn't, I still liked being told that story. If I wasn't autistic and non-binary, I still could've liked it anyhow. That's just how solid storytelling works.

Speaking of being autistic and non-binary, yeah, what I make is also not at all meant to be THE document on what it's like to be autistic and/or queer. It's not The Bible for those two things! I'm just making a silly messy comic about an enby woman being a weirdo with aliens on another planet, very much a "characters exist" or "slice of life" story. It mirrors MY experiences as an autistic and non-binary person, which isn't everyone else's. I'm just ONE person. And it barely gets any hits, and maybe that's for the better. If I had a bunch of people reading it, a good chunk of them wanting to come after me for a storytelling decision I made? Nah, maybe it's better that it's only me and a few of my supportive pals.

And then when one of my books get out, the only thing I would want is to just keep making more, and that maybe someone else out there happens to enjoy what it is I made.

Not sure how accurate this Puck News is, but... A fifth MAD MAX movie (sixth overall in the Wasteland saga)... AND a series?? Are being pitched by originator George Miller, at age 81...

And one of the bidders will NOT be Warner Bros., which is unsurprising given how they've handled things since the release of MAD MAX: FURY ROAD. Legal crud held up the development of FURIOSA and MAD MAX: THE WASTELAND, in the mean time, Miller pursued the film THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING, released by MGM in 2022. Amazon MGM are one of the three bidders who are vying for the project, alongside Sony and Universal.

Warner also did a rather not-great job at marketing FURIOSA, and the movie lost money in Hollywood terms. Being an Australian production, it made about as much as it cost to make, and over there, apparently that's all that matters... Maybe my country should take note, lol. The Australian government seemingly invests way more in their citizens' arts more than we would ever do. Our current leaders hate the arts and have cut funding for them.

And also, this is unsurprising given who is going to absorb Warner Bros. soon... Might as well avoid that whole mess!

As a fan of the MAD MAX movies, I actually have very mixed feelings about this...

On the one hand, I love four of the five movies in this series. The odd one out for me is MAD MAX: BEYOND THUNDERDOME, which I thought was alright, nowhere near as good as the others. FURIOSA, I thought, was pretty great! Miller always wanted to make one more movie with Max himself in it, and Tom Hardy had been contracted to play him more than once. Might as well let him do one more, the one that Miller had planned for a long while at that.

On the other hand, Miller - like a lot of other artisans I once really admired - has more recently plugged generative AI as the future of filmmaking. In fact, some AI had been used in FURIOSA for Anya Taylor Joy's face to make her look like the child actress who plays kid Furiosa, and vice-versa. Like... Why? Junkie XL also apparently AI-generated a lot of the movie's score, a soundtrack I didn't remember anything about. His MAD MAX: FURY ROAD score stuck with you, this... Did not, whatsoever.

As for a show... I can only imagine where that would go.

A big part of what makes the MAD MAX sequels all unique is that they don't follow such a strict continuity. Like, FURY ROAD (released in 2015) could be set *before* BEYOND THUNDERDOME (released in 1985) for all I know. As many have said, they play out like folk tales being told around a fire. Might be half-remembered, might be a bit inaccurate, it is the recollections of long-gone past events from someone living in a decaying world that's making people's brains decay as well! That was made quite clear in MAD MAX 2 (THE ROAD WARRIOR)... So, the placement of the sequels isn't meant to bother anyone... These are legends, tales. It isn't STAR WARS, per se.

A series could take that approach, too. Scattered tales of Max, what else is going on in the wasteland, etc. Otherwise, adding some kind of continuity or connective tissue to this could only lessen some of this series' unique qualities. Maybe.

Fingers crossed, whatever inevitable success Chris Sanders sees out of live-action LILO & STITCH 2 in 2028 (who is confirmed to be the director of now) helps finally get a movie based on his webcomic KISKALOO (which uses characters/ideas from his unmade AMERICAN DOG) off the ground.

As the HEXED teaser nears, here's an idea of gaps between WDAS movie teasers and their release dates. Approximate.

TANGLED - Teaser released June 2010 w/ TOY STORY 3, movie released November 2010, five month wait

WINNIE THE POOH - Teaser released November 2010 ahead of TANGLED, movie released July 2011, eight month wait

WRECK-IT RALPH - Teaser released June 2012 ahead of BRAVE, movie released November 2012, five month wait

FROZEN - Teaser released June 2013 w/ MONSTERS UNIVERSITY, movie released November 2013, five month wait

BIG HERO 6 - Teaser released May 2014 ahead of MALEFICENT (would've been THE GOOD DINOSAUR if it hadn't been delayed), movie released November 2014, six month wait

ZOOTOPIA - Teaser released June 2015 w/ INSIDE OUT, movie released March 2016, nine month wait

MOANA - Teaser released June 2016 w/ FINDING DORY, movie released November 2016, five month wait

RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET - Teaser released February 2018 (w/ original title), movie released November 2018, nine month wait

FROZEN II - Teaser released February 2019, movie released November 2019, nine month wait

RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON - Teaser released October 2020, movie released March 2021, five month wait

ENCANTO - Teaser released July 2021, movie released November 2021, four month wait

STRANGE WORLD - Teaser released June 2022 w/ LIGHTYEAR, movie released November 2022, five month wait

WISH - Teaser released April 2023, movie released November 2023, seven month wait

MOANA 2 - "First look announcement" released February 2024, movie released November 2024, nine month wait

ZOOTOPIA 2 - Teaser released May 2025, movie released November 2025, six month wait

HEXED - Teaser releasing June 2025, movie releasing November 2025, five month wait

So, weirdly, it's all right in line with how Disney Animation rolls out most of their post-2000s movies. Especially if they're Thanksgiving-frame releases: Teaser out in the summer to coincide with a Pixar movie or some other big tentpole, then movie hits in November.

GATTO's teaser is out before HEXED's, and that movie opens March 2027, about four months afterwards... But both trailers are ready and rated, Pixar just happened to get theirs out first.

It's not dissimilar to the summer of 2015, where both the teaser for WDAS' ZOOTOPIA *and* Pixar's THE GOOD DINOSAUR (which released before ZOOTOPIA, in November) debuted in time for the release of INSIDE OUT. GOOD DINOSAUR's was out a week or so earlier, possibly so it could be attached to JURASSIC WORLD.

GATTO's first image has also been out since summer 2025, shown at Annecy. (As confirmed a little while ago, it wasn't a piece of concept art, it was an actual frame from the movie.) Given that the movie left June 2027 for this coming March (in order to avoid BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE and the rest of the summer slam), it tells me that the film - directed by LUCA's Enrico Casarosa - went by swimmingly. No real roadblocks or anything, that it could be moved up a few months without drastically affecting it...

HEXED on the other hand saw *major* changes some time between the synopsis/title reveal in August 2025 at Destination D23 and the first image release in April 2026 at CinemaCon... Major as in, the main character being changed from a boy to a girl, and I suspect the mother's design could've been changed as well given the director change. And possibly a lot of other things... I think that plays a part as well. GATTO is probably closer to completion than HEXED is, but Disney's sticking with Thanksgiving of this year for HEXED. Plus, they probably wouldn't want to bump up GATTO even more and also make that a crunch production. One being a crunch ain't great, but two is worse.

No shock, the hand-drawn animation is very nice-looking, I find the water effects (and how the sound editing and soundtrack are woven in those scenes) to be the standout here. The original book was inspired by a friend of Love's who had transitioned late in life, so it's really cool to see a small animated feature about transitioning, something that'll resonate with LGBTQIA+ audiences... At a time when many of the big studios are actively avoiding even including such characters in their work for fear of upsetting a demographic that they - quite frankly - should just ignore.

JULIAN comes from director Louise Bagnall, a long-timer at Cartoon Saloon who directed the studio's Oscar-nominated 2017 short LATE AFTERNOON, which I happened to see back when it was up for the prize (that year, a lot of the shorts were made available online for a limited time, so I didn't have to find a faraway screening of all the shorts), and really liked, so this film is sure to be a winner. It's cool to see Cartoon Saloon make other features that release in-between the Tomm Moore films. (His next, KINDRED SPIRITS, is in production and should be out by 2028.)

Looks what it promised to be: Painterly Pixar. As a WHOLE FEATURE this time.

This might be custom animation made specifically for this teaser, like the classic skit Pixar teasers of yore... Complete with an actual announcer. Feels like the late '90s-to-mid '00s, in that way.

The skit itself is kinda typical cat humor, feeling like I've been thrown back to like 2011 or something, when cats doing teh funny was all the rage online. (Or, at least, when everyone else caught up to it. I Can Has Cheezburger, to my surprise, dates back to January of 2007. Kind of in O RLY? territory there.)

It'll likely work on audiences, in the same way similar Pixar teasers did. It's Pixar, it's funny cats, it looks like a painting, it does its job. Little else to say, though, other than it's nice to see Pixar finally letting a picture like this out... And that it isn't a whole year away.

Happy 20th Anniversary, CARS!

I found this video not too long ago...

These early tests and such that seem to date from around 2003-04ish, before full production on the movie began for a tentative November 2005 release. I guess the delay to June 9, 2006 meant a movie finished well ahead of schedule.

I would honestly would love to see MORE of what this version of the movie would've looked like. Cartoonier, stretchier, even more in line with one of its inspirations - the 1952 Disney short SUSIE THE LITTLE BLUE COUPE - than the finished film was, which aimed for a little more realism in its animation. I'd imagine a lot of this approach was discarded once original director Jorgen Klubien, who pitched a talking cars movie to Pixar bosses in the first place, was removed from the film by John Lasseter in 2003. The side of the story that was never told, until Lasseter's fall from grace circa 2017-18.

Hence the bonus features for the film, the Art Of book, etc., skipping over this chapter of the film's production. How very little of it has been shown in behind-the-scenes materials...

Some the clips collected in this video were from the Blu-ray release waaaay back in 2007 (with the interactive filmmakers' commentaries) that are also in the video, while others I hadn't even seen before. Where'd they get them?

... and then there's the teaser trailer that ran before THE INCREDIBLES in November 2004...

I find it sooooo amusing that the 57 Corrosive Seal version of Lightning McQueen is the subject of fan animation and fan-art and such, lots of dissection of those early prototype version clips...

I was on that stuff back when the trailer was released, lol. I found it unusual that there were two Lightnings in it, but I guess they had to make use of the old models that were presumably just sitting around. That was more or less my guess back then, that it was an early version using a number referencing Lasseter's birth year. This was the era where Pixar teasers were made up of custom scenes, nothing from the finished film.

Like I was looking at that trailer top to bottom circa late 2004, right down to spotting all the names of the discarded food products that make up the bug city in A BUG'S LIFE being used as the cars' sponsors. Even a logo for A BUG'S LIFE can be seen on the vehicles, along with one for the CDA from MONSTERS, INC.

And McQueen is indistinguishable from the other racers, they all pretty much have the same stock bodies. Very much late '90s/early aughts NASCAR-style cars.

That first teaser is also kind of funny in how it opens with a bumblebee (not a car-ified bee), complete with some of Randy Newman's score from A BUG'S LIFE, that it was seemingly tricking audiences seated for THE INCREDIBLES into thinking a second BUG'S LIFE could've been the next Pixar film. I knew it was going to be CARS because I had seen the film listed on IMDb, but when that trailer began, I was a bit confused. I saw the Pixar logo, and thought, "This is CARS, right? Right?" And then this bumblebee appears, there's cacti- Huuuuh? Until *splat*, there we go, it's CARS. Poor bumblebee!

I'll tell a funny story... The only thing I had seen of CARS prior to seeing THE INCREDIBLES on opening weekend was a synopsis, no image or anything. It said something to the tune of "A collection of cars get their kicks on Route 66"... And for whatever reason, my mind translated that to "a collection of TOY cars". Because of "collection". And because TOY STORY 1 & 2, of course... Maybe a bunch of die-casts or whatever, driving around the streets, but nope. It was full-scale talking cars, ahhh, makes sense! I was beyond excited, because I actually love classic autos, and seeing that the next Pixar movie was all about that? Sign me up! Most people were dreading it back then, many were sooooo sure that it was going to be *it*. The first Pixar flop, truly this time. (Narrator: "It wasn't.")

That teaser was later updated a month into THE INCREDIBLES' release, when Disney had announced that the film was leaving fall 2005 for summer 2006. I remember being so disappointed back then, like nooooo, I gotta wait LONGER to see this?? Thus, a good quality upload of that trailer w/ the original November 4, 2005 release date is currently not too easy to find. Disney Animation's first all-CG movie CHICKEN LITTLE ended up taking that date, moving out of July 1, 2005. A trailer for that also ran before THE INCREDIBLES.

Anyways, I wonder if there's more footage out there of 57 Lightning and early Doc, Luigi, etc. That's the kind of rare Pixar media I often think about, the stuff I'd love to see. But, until some digging is done, it's out of my reach lol.

Nowadays, CARS is pretty well-liked. Way more than it was back in 2006, lemme tell ya. I see all sorts of people in their 20s praising it, when I worked at a cinema, a couple of my Gen Z co-workers expressed that they quite liked it, one of them even saying that he missed when Disney made movies like CARS 2... CARS 2... Typically the most-despised Pixar film, lol. First-time watching reactors on YouTube also *love* CARS and CARS 2, it's kinda surprising to me. I always loved the first CARS myself, in fact I think it's perfectly in line with the earliest Pixar films pre-NEMOish, their clever comedies, before the higher ambitions of films like THE INCREDIBLES and WALL-E... Like release that movie in 2000 or whatever, between TOY STORY 2 and MONSTERS, INC., I think it would be looked at a little differently... but it was widely accepted that it was a misstep for the studio, despite its box office success and good audience scores.

When released, it was the first Pixar film to miss the coveted 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, settling for somewhere in the 70s. I was pretty online back when it came out, when I was 13 years old, and I caught wind of it. A lot of critics echoed a similar sentiment, "It's good enough, but it's definitely Pixar's weakest film." A lot of reviews dismissed it as a DOC HOLLYWOOD rip-off. Online it was harsher, "I love Pixar films, except CARS." Like, even THE SIMPSONS made that joke once: The episode where Lisa sees employees from "Mixar", and says she loves all of their films... Except CARS. It was always "Except CARS". It was like the *one* splotch on their track record, as it was followed up with RATATOUILLE, WALL-E, UP, and TOY STORY 3... And then that streak breaks with CARS 2, the only Pixar film with a straight up Rotten score... Damn, CARS must be toxic. The motor oil spreading into the perfectly good punch bowl, eh?

I think the two PLANES movies made at Disneytoon also didn't help, creating some franchise fatigue. CARS 3 finally came out in summer 2017, some 11 years after the original film, and some critics couldn't seem to admit that they found it to be a good film. A lot of the sentiment was just "It's good and all, but it's a CARS movie, though, so it still stinks." Others felt it was the best in the series, whereas I begged to differ. The first is still tops for me, but I do like CARS 3 a great deal. It's too bad director Brian Fee didn't get to make his original movie at Pixar. I also liked the Disney+ series CARS ON THE ROAD, and would be game for a fourth movie... But I don't know if that's happening anytime soon, they probably would've said so today haha. There's seemingly little room for one on the slate anyways, seems booked all the way up to 2031. COCO 2 in 2029, a Domee Shi-directed musical, and a new MONSTERS, INC. movie... That would be really far down the, forgive the pun, road.

But yeah, where was I? CARS 1 is a bigger deal today than back then, a lot of the people who saw it as young kids in 2006 and onwards took it with them into the present, it's now seen as a bona fide Pixar classic. I don't feel so lonely in being a big fan of it anymore, lol.

And in due time, all the "bad" or "lesser" Pixar movies of the 2010s... All the films that marked their "decline" or whatever... BRAVE, MONSTERS UNIVERSITY, etc. And eventually this decade's movies that the Internet decided were all duds, indicative that the studio has lost their magic... May end up being yesterday's favorites, too.

It's about time, indeed!

SPYRO: A REALM BEYOND... Great title...

From Toys For Bob, which could be the proper 4th SPYRO game much in the same way CRASH BANDICOOT 4: IT'S ABOUT TIME was, albeit without the numeral. Confirmed to be set in the original, pre-LEGEND OF SPYRO continuity, the first game in the series to be so since... All the way back in 2005, with the DS game SPYRO: SHADOW LEGACY. New realm, more flight, new villains, and some truly cool hints at what's to come... Particularly that dark fantasy-looking environment, like WHOA...

I know it's a short, short tease, but I'm hoping the other characters show up eventually, even if it's about Spyro being lost far far away. Like do Hunter, Elora, the Professor, Sgt. Byrd, et al. form a search party or something? Or the elder dragons for that matter?

Whether it goes full-on IT'S ABOUT TIME and picks up right where YEAR OF THE DRAGON left off, or counts the games up until A HERO'S TAIL and SHADOW LEGACY as canon, is anyone's guess.

Another significant weekend box office haul here.

THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS: THE LAST ACT... For those who could possibly be living under a rock or aren't very online (I almost envy that kind of person)... A feature package combining episode 8 of the highly popular independent animated series created/directed/written by Gooseworx for Glitch Productions with its final hour-long episode (that has yet to debut elsewhere, so exclusive), came out on Thursday. For the three-day, it took in $12m, overall $20m. Estimates, of course. Fathom released this, who will be distributing Laika's WILDWOOD in a few months from now. This put it at #5.

That's big doins'. For an independent animated work, something that's aimed more at an older audience than usual, especially. I won't wade too far into that particular debate, whether it's actually "adult animation" or not. Gooseworx herself described it as, a while ago, a show for "weird people in their 20s". So, I'll go off of *that*, lol.

THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS had erupted into a phenomenon well beforehand, and I look at this performance as kind of similar to the success of anime movies, especially last year's DEMON SLAYER film INFINITY CASTLE. If there's an audience for this specific thing, and you tell them "hey, we're in theaters for a little bit!" Most likely, they'll show up as a fanbase/community.

And they did, $20m so far is not bad for this kind of thing. It's also quite nice, given that Gooseworx is trans and that her work, a personal project as she envisioned it, is seeing this kind of success on the big screen. In a time where big entertainment companies shrivel at our petty and aggressively transphobic leaders, or outright choose to be buddy-buddies with them. Well, here's a bizarre animated series created by a trans woman for weird young adults and not the usual four-quadrant/family audience, doing pretty well in theaters! And was a big deal prior to that. There's an audience for this kind of thing, and that thing that seems kinda weird is just the very thing that breaks through to the zeitgeist when things start to look same ol' same ol'. It's also particularly amusing, considering that the #1 movie this weekend proudly blew its "we're gonna be SO offensive!" horn all throughout its marketing campaign. With plenty of "jokes" about trans and non-binary people, feeling like something fished out of the darkest and ugliest bowels of 2016, or from your uncle's Facebook feed.

Really, there's kind of something for everybody in this weekend's Top 5. A spoof of horror movies, a big budget adaptation of an '80s franchise, two YouTuber horror films, and this. Then below that: STAR WARS, musician biopic, PG live-action family comedy, a WWII movie, and DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2. All of this, without a new Marvel movie.

And yeah, about that... MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. Laika founder/CEO Travis Knight directed this, making it his second live-action/VFX-heavy picture after 2018's BUMBLEBEE. Guy seems to like making big Hollywood movies based on '80s toy/cartoon franchises, huh? It's set to lose a lot of money, despite okay-ish to positive reviews. I mean, outside of some Gen X'ers who grew up with He-Man and co. circa the mid-1980s, who was rushing to see this movie, really? Like yes, the franchise has seen reboots over the last decade or so, particularly DreamWorks TV's SHE-RA AND THE PRINCESSES OF POWER from NIMONA creator ND Stevenson... But, I don't know if that was really enough to get this thing to open big. After all, the previous live-action MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE movie, made when the whole thing was arguably in its prime, didn't do so hot either either. An episode compilation stitch-job called THE SECRET OF THE SWORD, released in 1985, made its teeny-tiny budget back, but... $7m-ish in 1985? Yeah no.

Weirdly though, I think a MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE movie *could* work. After all, SHE-RA AND THE PRINCESSES OF POWER ran for about two years with 52 episodes while getting good marks, the other two streaming shows that debuted earlier this decade did okayish. It's a fun concept and universe to play around in, even if it may not be like - say - STAR WARS. Like if TRANSFORMERS could do so great back in 2007, some 23 years after the franchise was launched, who is to say a MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE movie couldn't do it? For whatever reason, few were excited for it. Or maybe Jared Leto being in it cursed it. Others may argue it's a little too niche for a wide audience, I couldn't tell ya honestly. The whole "it's too old, Gen Z doesn't want to see '80s IP movies" explanation is bunk, however. Explain the Mario movies, then.

Oh yeah, speaking of which... THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE also finally crossed the big billion this weekend. Took it about two months, but still... A billion. They're happy. $428m of that is the domestic take, which is still fantastic for an animated feature. It's about neck-and-neck with ZOOTOPIA 2's final domestic total, even if that movie soared waaaaay higher worldwide.

I always knew it wouldn't outgross THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE. Again, using my STAR WARS rule here... STAR WARS was the biggest of the Original Trilogy, neither THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK nor RETURN OF THE JEDI outgrossed it. Going strictly by original releases, none of the re-releases included. Same with the Prequels: THE PHANTOM MENACE was the biggest. And once again, same with the Sequels, nothing approached the high numbers of THE FORCE AWAKENS... Still the highest-grossing film of all-time domestically, BTW.

With some movies, there's a novelty there. STAR WARS was one of a kind in 1977, and everybody and their brother's dog went to go see it, but not all of that everybody are back for the second one. It also happened with Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN, the first one in 2002 was gargantuan. It's largely agreed that SPIDER-MAN 2 is a rare great if not *better* sequel, but it didn't outgross SPIDER-MAN. Simply because, the first one just did so great and got TONS of people to go see it. It did come close, though. Perhaps it being a 4th of July opening and later summer endeavor could've done it? SPIDER-MAN 1 & 3 were May releases. SPIDER-MAN 3 was the winner overall worldwide, but domestically it was the lowest-grossing of the Raimi trilogy. So, that's how I see MARIO GALAXY, regardless of whether it's a good sequel or not. Even if it were universally acclaimed all across the board, I still think it would've made less.

But, we have our first billion-dollar animated movie of the year. TOY STORY 5 looks to continue that, possibly MINIONS & MONSTERS as well... That would make two-for-two for Illumination. If that happens, Universal will join Disney in the league of "Released more than one animated feature that grossed a billion in a calendar year" champions. And for Illumination themselves, the first studio to achieve that. WDAS never had two billions in a year, ditto Pixar. But they don't always do two-a-year, and when they do, there's usually an original in that duo.

Disney first achieved it in 2016 with ZOOTOPIA and FINDING DORY. Then they did it again in 2019, with the triple-whammy of TOY STORY 4, the CG remake of THE LION KING, and FROZEN II. Third time's a charm, 2024 gave them billion-dollar biggies in INSIDE OUT 2 and MOANA 2. Maybe this year, Universal gets there with their two Illumination films.