Marvel Studios has had a heck of a year. When movie theatres starting opening back up, they came roaring back to the big screen. Black Widow, Shang-Chi, and Eternals were doing the kind of business they thought would take a few years after the pandemic to do again. And it's not over yet, as the hype for Spider-Man: No Way Home has reached a fever pitch.
But it started way before the theatres started opening up, as Marvel Studios' first TV offerings for Disney+ started popping up. Folks pointed out that WandaVision had more screen time for Wanda and Vision than in all the Avengers movies. That led to what was essentially a buddy cop drama with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. We got our first real taste of what the multiverse was going to bring us with Loki, and then we first started exploring that multiverse with their first animated offering, What If...?
And now, the year on Disney+ closes out with the premiere of Hawkeye. Apparently, Marvel Studios was originally developing this as a movie before they decided to expand it into a series. I was lucky enough to see the first two episodes, and I have some thoughts.
Now that he has his family back, Clint Barton is trying to make up for lost time. He's taken his kids to New York City for a Christmas outing. First on the agenda, seeing the new hit Broadway musical Rogers, which is a musical retelling of the Battle of New York. (That's the events of The Avengers.) Needless to say, Clint finds people playing his friends -- especially his dear fallen friend Natasha Romanov -- a little bit triggering. On top of that, we see he's uncomfortable. Turns out he never really adjusted to his celebrity status as a superhero, unlike his fellow Avengers.
But as the day goes on, Clint turns on the TV and is horrified. As you may recall from Avengers: Endgame, seeing his family get snapped out of existence by Thanos drove Clint to a dark place. He took on the new masked identity of Ronin and started slaughtering crime lords. What Clint sees on TV is that someone adopted his old identity of Ronin. Clint figures he's got to find this new Ronin and shut them down before a whole bunch of skeletons come out of his closet and hunt them both down.
So who is this new Ronin? Kate Bishop. She lost her father in the Battle of New York, and was also witness to Hawkeye's heroics. She then spent her young life training with a bow, working to protect her family like Hawkeye would. Now, fresh out of college and ready to take on the world, there's something not right. She's home for Christmas and sees that her mother is getting ready to re-marry. Her future stepfather is hiding something, but she's not sure what. And it's her investigation that leads her to the Ronin mantle.
Now with New York's underworld gunning for vengeance against Ronin, and Kate's future stepfather somehow connected to it, Clint Barton and Kate Bishop become unlikely partners to get to the bottom of it.
My first reaction to these first two episodes is this is reminding me a lot of Daredevil. It just has to do with the the New York setting and the criminal underworld as our main villains. In the first episode, Clint has an unarmed battle with a group of thugs that made me think I was watching Daredevil in his black track suit costume from season 1 of Daredevil. Makes me hope that the rumours that Vincent D'Onofrio coming back as Kingpin pan out.
Unlike Daredevil, though, this has a much bigger budget and is much more polished, greatly resembling the Marvel Studios films. The quips and wisecracks are there as well. One of my favourite bits has to do with Kate realizing that Clint now wears hearing aids and asks how he got them.
CUT TO a montage of all the explosions that Clint has been close to.
Clint: Ah, who knows?
Of course, the performances are what keep bringing us back. Jeremey Renner again is great as Clint Barton, the world-weary everyman of the Avengers. He's thrilled to have his family back, uncomfortable with being recognized, and even more so when Kate Bishop shows up with her hero worship.
But the star of the show is Hailee Steinfeld as the young Kate Bishop. She is just utterly charming as she's coming into this world. She's got a nose for trouble as she tries to figure out her future stepdad, and she's got stars in her eyes when she finally comes face to face with Clint. Steinfeld just sells it.
Based on the first two episodes, Hawkeye looks like it's going to be a fun romp to finish out the year with Marvel Studios. I am eagerly anticipating the next episodes, to see how this all pans out.
Well, Marvel Studios just isn't stopping with cranking out the TV shows this year. Their fourth series, and their first foray into animation drops this Wednesday, What If...?
The original Marvel comic of What If...? would revisit key events in the Marvel Universe and simply ask, "What if A happened instead of B?" For example, the one I had when I was a kid that I remember was What If Uncle Ben Had Lived? In this retelling of the Spider-Man story, it was Aunt May who was killed by that burglar, and having Uncle Ben as Peter Parker's lone parent figure changed things in significant ways. Uncle Ben found out that Peter Parker was Spider-Man, forced him to confess to J. Jonah Jameson, and Jameson then began blackmailing Spider-Man to do his dirty work.
So, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe now a thing, why not use a TV series to similarly revisit key moments in the MCU? And that brings us to What If...?
I was lucky enough to see the first three episodes, and I have some thoughts.
I think you know what Episode I is, and it's been all over the advertising. Episode I goes back to Captain America: The First Avenger and asks, "What if Agent Carter took the super-soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers?" With a Union Jack emblazoned uniform, Captain Carter takes on the Red Skull and HYDRA. But, Steve Rogers still gets into the fight, as Howard Stark builds him a World War II-era Iron Man-style armor dubbed the HYRDA Stomper. It's Captain Carter and the HYDRA Stomper fighting for freedom across the European theatre!
Firstly, as episodes are only a half-hour long, this is a very fast-paced episode, as it feels like Captain America: The First Avenger condensed down to a half-hour. This is the one that takes the least amount of deviation from its source material, as it does feel a lot like a Coles Notes version of The First Avenger. But it was a very solid, action-filled outing.
Episode II has also been all over the pre-release hype. This one swaps out one Marvel hero for another, asking, "What if T'Challa Became Star Lord?" A frustrated young T'Challa wanders away from the Wakanda capital city one night...the same night that the Ravagers were sent to abduct young Peter Quill. But, Yondu didn't exactly assign his best and brightest to the task, and they abduct T'Challa instead. We then flash forward 20 years, and we find that, under T'Challa's mentorship, the Ravagers have become galactic Robin Hoods...robbing from the rich, and giving to the poor.
This episode is just spectacular. I know some people complained that Black Panther was a little too stoic, but here, Chadwick Boseman gets to quip with the best of them. Feels like a real shame that we never got to see him do much comedy. It takes some hilarious turns, like finding out how T'Challa defeated Thanos.
I was just roaring with laughter throughout this one, as we learn that, no matter where he ends up, T'Challa is destined to be a king.
Episode III was the one where I went in with no prior knowledge. I was completely flying blind, and it's an episode that completely blew my mind. I don't want to say too much, because it's got a real twisty turny plot, and it'd be very easy to drop spoilers. Set during Phase I, specifically that two-week period that Iron Man 2 and Thor takes place in. Someone is murdering the candidates for the Avengers Initiative, and Nick Fury is desperate to find out who and why. The episode evolves into a very solid whodunit.
The animation is spectacular. They use that "cel shading" technique to make everything look more like it's hand drawn. You know, it's the technique that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse turned up to 11.
The voice cast is amazing, as well. Whenever possible, they brought back the same actors from the films to reprise their roles. As already mentioned, it is a treat to hear Chadwick Boseman one last time as T'Challa. I think this is going down in history as his final role. I read somewhere that T'Challa variants pop up in a total of four episodes across this first season, so we're going to get to enjoy him a few more times still. Josh Brolin doing a new twist on Thanos was, like most of the T'Challa episode, somewhat hilarious.
The only notable absences in the first three episodes were Chris Evans as Captain America, Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow. Didn't catch who filled in for Downey. Veteran voice actor Josh Keaton does Steve Rogers, and it's a pretty agreeable Chris Evan impression. Actress/filmmaker Lake Bell takes over the role of Black Widow. It's not a straight up Scarlett Johansson impression, but she's able to put her own spin on it, which is great.
And it's all anchored by Jeffrey Wright as the Watcher, who serves as our narrator. He brings just the right amount of gravitas to the role. Crank up that subwoofer, because his voice echoes throughout your room.
What If...? is going to be another winner for Marvel Studios and Disney+, and continue their dominance of the streaming wars. Definitely worth a watch.
What If...? premieres on Disney+ on Wednesday, August 11, with new episodes every Wednesday after.
I grew up in that era when The Wonderful World of Disney was event television. Every Sunday night at 6, the family would gather around the TV to watch Disney. And one thing that always stuck out in my mind were episodes that would take you behind the scenes at the Disney theme parks. Seemed there was always an episode showcasing how they made the animatronic in Pirates of the Caribbean. Heck, I remember when Splash Mountain opened up in the late 1980s. Splash Mountain was a really big deal when it first opened.
So that's been one of my disappointments so far with Disney+. There hasn't been a lot of that "behind the scenes at the theme parks" stuff yet. Yeah, we got The Imagineering Story, which was great, but it was more about the parks in general. I want to see deep dives on the history of the Haunted Mansion. I want the inside scoop on Star Tours. Heck, I want those classic episodes of The Wonderful World of Disney to binge.
Enter Behind the Attraction.
This was announced a year ago, as one of their big tie-ins to Jungle Cruise. They even got Jungle Cruise star Dwayne Johnson on board as a producer. But like a lot of things in our pandemic world, it got delayed. It's finally dropping on Disney+, and my interest was piqued when I heard that they even had Brian Volk-Weiss on board as a producer. Volk-Weiss was the man behind the Netflix sleeper hit The Toys That Made Us...the documentary series all about the history of your favourite action figure lines. Volk-Weiss brought this wonderful, slightly irreverent tone to the proceedings, which made the end product fun and breezy, yet still educational. So I went into Behind the Attraction thinking it was going to be The Toys That Made Us for Disney rides.
And that's exactly what Behind the Attraction is.
The same playful tone that Volk-Weiss brought to The Toys That Made Us is here in full force. The same use of stock footage, the same kind of graphics, and the same kind of quippy narration (here provided by Della Duck herself, Paget Brewster).
But, true to the show's name, this is more than just turning on the lights in the Haunted Mansion and showing you how the animatronics work. This show really does take a step back and show you how the attraction fits into the Disney parks and it's history as a whole. A great example is the episode on Star Tours. Yeah, we get to hear it's well-known origins as a ride to tie in with the Disney film The Black Hole, but when that flopped, it was shelved until Disney CEO Michael Eisner reached out to George Lucas about getting the Star Wars license. But then we start following the whole design lineage of how Star Tours eventually leads to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, and how it all ties together.
Another new aspect that those Wonderful World of Disney episodes of yore could never get into was localization. We've got Disneylands in Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai now. So they also go in to how these rides had to be adapted for other cultures. The more famous example is the Haunted Mansion. They knew that the Haunted Mansion couldn't compete in France with things like the Paris Catacombs, so at Disneyland Paris, they put it in Fronteirland and gave it a Wild West makeover. The Chinese people have an entirely different concept of ghosts and spirits, so at Hong Kong Disneyland, it's called Mystic Manor and has more to do with playful spirits than spooky ghosts.
But the lesser known example comes from the episode on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Well, The Twilight Zone never made it to Japan, so when they opened it up at Tokyo DisneySea, they had to remove all connections to The Twilight Zone and make a completely original story. And then the episode ends with another kind of localization...they go into how the Tower of Terror at Disney's California Adventure was refurbished into Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout.
But it's not just the rides, oh no! There's an episode that's all about Walt Disney's fascination with trains, so you think it's about the steam train at Disneyland and Walt Disney World's famous monorail. But that eventually springboards into an analysis of Walt Disney World's mass transit system and Walt Disney's fascination with the subject. Remember: Walt Disney World consists of four theme parks, twenty seven hotels, a bunch of water parks and golf courses, and tons more stuff. People need to get to all these places. One of the imagineeers they talk to says Walt Disney World has a mass transit system comparable to the city of Atlanta. It's one of those things that you think is going to be boring, but winds up being utterly fascinating.
Behind the Attraction is a wonderful series that will scratch that "behind the scenes at the parks" itch that you might be having at Disney+. I didn't have a chance to watch every episode in advance, but I can hardly wait to binge the whole thing.
The first five episodes of Behind the Attraction drop on Disney+ this Wednesday, July 21.
It's here! Another one of the very first Disney+ originals has finally made it the streaming service. And that's what was once hyped as Pixar's first original half-hour series for the streamer, Monsters at Work.
I don't know what kind of politicking happened behind the scenes at Disney, but this is no longer branded as a Pixar production. It's now listed as being produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Regardless, I'm still a Pixar junkie and anything that they're even tangentially related to gets my interest. And when you're developing a series, the Monsters, Inc universe is just ripe for development, especially when you're getting into the workings of a power plant like Monsters, Inc works.
Our main character is Tyler Tuskmon, the purple guy with the big horns you see in the picture there. He just graduated top of his class at Monsters University and is all ready to become the next top scarer at Monsters, Inc. Just one problem: this takes place just a couple of days after the events of Monsters, Inc. The Monster world is now switching gears to generating power by getting kids to laugh, and Tyler now has the completely wrong skillset. When he shows up for his first day of work at Monsters, Inc, he's assigned to MIFT: the Monsters Inc Facilities Team. They're the maintenance crew, who spends most of their days in the basement waiting for the call to come fix something.
So who are the wacky misfits that Tyler is now stuck working with? We've got:
Fitz, the grey guy with the big nose. He's the head of MIFT and just desperate to be liked.
Duncan is the green guy with bat wings and multiple eyes. He's second in command and has his eyes on Fitz's job if/when Fitz retires. He instantly sees Tyler as a threat and makes it his mission to destroy Tyler.
Cutter is the green one in safety gear. Always has a morbid story about how a previous MIFT member was killed on the job.
Val is the orange, furry one. She's an old college friend of Tyler's and is always cheerful and perky. She's voiced by Mindy Kaling, so, yeah, it's Mindy Kaling being Mindy Kaling.
But that's not all. Also coming back from the Monsters Inc films are Billy Crystal and John Goodman as Mike and Sully. Sully is now running Monsters Inc, and Mike is helping out the scarers become jokesters by teaching courses at Monsters Inc. Of course, Tyler takes those courses, because he's desperate to adapt to this new world and get out of the basement.
Also coming back from the films are Jennifer Tilly as Mike's girlfriend Cecile, Bonnie Hunt as Ms. Flint (the person running the simulator in the film), and John Ratzenburger as the Yeti. Although, Yeti wasn't in the first two episodes.
Got to see the first two episodes for review purposes. The first deals with Tyler showing up at Monsters, Inc and coming to terms with the new situation. The second one follows his first day on the job as he realizes that MIFT has a pretty important role. We also get to see Mike and Sully in their parallel journey as they adjust to being the ones in charge now. There's a bit of a story arc that they're setting up as well, as there are mysterious power outages at Monsters Inc that they're trying to get to the bottom of.
There's still a bit of Pixar charm in there. One thing I really liked about Monsters University is how it's about the death of dreams. Mike comes to the terrible realization that he'll never be scary enough to be a scarer, so has to adjust to the real world accordingly. Monsters at Work very much continues that theme. Tyler's journey is all about realizing that the real world isn't what you thought it'd be, and learning to adjust accordingly. Even though it's colourful monsters in a fantasy world, it is still a very relatable story.
With our cast of characters, it's easy to make comparisons to The Office. Fitz is Michael Scott, desperate to be loved by his employees. Duncan is Dwight, a stickler for the rules and desperate to advance. And, well, Mindy Kaling is Mindy Kaling. But just as A Bug's Life took its cues from Three Amigos and Cars took its cues from Doc Hollywood, it'll be interesting to see what new direction they can take these characters in.
I think Monsters at Work has lots of potential. I'll be tuning to see where this goes. The first season is 10 episodes long. The first two episodes drop on Disney+ on July 7, with new episodes every Wednesday after.
It's been a pretty good year for Marvel. Over on Disney+, they've given us two fantastic TV shows so far with WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. And now, their third offering for the streamer drops tomorrow, Loki.
Loki was the first Marvel Studios series announced for Disney+, way back when they first announced Disney+. And it made sense. Loki was one of the most unexpected breakout characters from the MCU, particularly with his villainous turn in The Avengers, and his redemption arc over Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok. So why not gift the world with more Loki?
I've been lucky enough to see the first two episodes, so I thought I'd share my thoughts.
It all starts as we all predicted after seeing the events of Avengers: Endgame. With the time heist to 2012 going sideways, Loki swiped the Tesseract and was able to escape. But he doesn't get too far, as he's promptly captured by the TVA: the Time Variance Authority. The TVA are a police force that exist outside of time and make sure the the timeline stays pure, lest any alternate timelines be created that could destroy the multiverse.
While awaiting his trial, Loki captures the attention of TVA Agent Mobius. There's a variant on the loose ("variants" are what the TVA calls folks who are mucking about with the timeline) who's killing TVA agents, and Mobius believes that Loki is just the Hannibal Lecter-type who can provide insights into the variant's motives. So Loki gets drafted as Mobius's reluctant partner, and he's off to save the timeline.
Episode 1 is very exposition-heavy, as they lay out the rules of the TVA and who they are, and also bringing us up to speed on Loki. There's some great character stuff for Loki. Remember: this is not the Loki who died in Endgame. This is a Loki who escaped at the end of The Avengers, so he's still a bit of a villainous bastard. Tom Hiddleston gets some great stuff to do, as Loki comes to grips with his new reality. Owen Wilson is great, too, as Mobius. I don't think I've ever seen Wilson this subdued, and it works great for the character.
And I just love the whole look of the TVA, as you've seen in the trailers. It's very much stuck in the 1970s...a 1970s vision of the future. But it's a vision that's lasted well into the 90s, making it look very run down. It's a bit of a soul-crushing bureaucracy, but I just love the whole aesthetic. The music even compliments it well, with some 70s synths and even a hint of Theremin.
Episode 2 is where we're off to the races, as Loki and Mobius get down to business hunting down our variant. And this is just spectacular. I felt a dash of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, in the way our heroes have such a lack of reverence for what they're doing to the timeline. It also felt a bit like Doctor Who. Can't quite place it. They go back to one historical and, well, it just felt like Doctor Who. But don't worry...it still felt like Marvel through and through.
Episode 2 has a spectacular ending, with the revelation of who the variant is. I won't say who, but I just smiled and said, "Aw man, that's great." And now I've gotta wait two weeks for episode 3!
All in all, with Loki, it looks like Marvel Studios has another winner for Disney+.
Don't forget, with Loki, Disney+ is trying something new. Rather than drop new episodes every Friday, they're dropping every Wednesday. Loki premieres on Wednesday, June 9, with new episodes every Wednesday after.
So with Star Wars Day being back on Tuesday, they gave us a new Star Wars animated series, The Bad Batch. And I was lucky enough to see the first two episodes beforehand! And I am now free to give you my thoughts on Episode 2.
Happy Star Wars Day, everybody! And what better way to celebrate than with a brand-new Star Wars series dropping on Disney+? Yes, today we get the 70-minute premiere of the new animated series, Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
Let me bring you back up to speed. Introduced in the final season of The Clone Wars, the Bad Batch are a squad of clone troopers who emerged from their cloning chamber defective. Well, they call them defective, but the truth is, they were gifted with certain enhancements. I'll have to back and re-watch their Clone Wars episodes, because I can't remember if their enhancements were accidental or intentional. Anyway, on our squad we've got:
Hunter - The one who looks like Rambo, and the leader of the bunch. He's got enhanced senses, making him an excellent tracker.
Wrecker - The Hulk of the group. He's got enhanced strength, and likes to smash things.
Tech - The one who looks like Brains from Thunderbirds. He's got enhanced intelligence, making him the team's tactician and hacker.
Crosshair - The one who looks like Clint Eastwood. He's got enhanced vision and a huge ass sniper rifle, making him the team's sharpshooter.
And joining them after their appearance on The Clone Wars is Echo, the former colleague of Captain Rex. He's capture by the separatist droids and violated with cybernetic enhancements so the droids could mine his mind of his knowledge. Now, on the battlefield, his cybernetic parts make him a formidable fighter.
Their own series kicks off with their debut episode, Aftermath. It starts at a very logical place: about partway through Revenge of the Sith, where we see what the Bad Batch were up to when that very fateful Order 66 was issued. We then follow the Bad Batch as they try to find their place in the new order...the order of the Empire.
Don't want to say too much, because I don't want to spoil anything. First thing I'll say is, if you were a fan of the The Clone Wars, you'll totally dig this. It really does feel like a continuation of The Clone Wars in its tone and style. And this is a much better introduction to the series than the The Clone Wars movie was.
With what we've seen in The Mandalorian, Disney seems to be getting a formula in place for their Star Wars series. As the episode progresses, we eventually meet a Baby Yoda type that the Bad Batch takes in and eventually becomes guardian/surrogate father to. It'll be interesting to see how the show progresses and how this character will play into the greater plot.
This is taking place at a very interesting place in the Star Wars timeline. While we've seen the years between the prequels and the original trilogy in shows like Rebels and movies like Solo, we've never seen the immediate days after Revenge of the Sith. Turns out a lot of people were mistrustful of Emperor Palpatine from day one and the seeds of rebellion were planted quite early on. It's going to be fun to see the Empire's first steps to cement their hold on the galaxy.
Naturally there's a few cameos from beloved Star Wars characters in order to help place the Bad Batch in the grander mythology. In fact, it opens with a surprise cameo from a certain character, and it was thrilling to see how the Bad Batch plays into their backstory. (Their voice doesn't really match with the younger character design, but hey, it was fun to see them back.)
The first episode of The Bad Batch does everything a great first episode is supposed to do: introduces our heroes, introduces the big bad for the season, and lays out what our heroes need to do. And I think we're going to have fun with the Bad Batch.
Episode 1 hits Disney+ today, with Episode 2 this Friday, and new episodes every Friday after that.
Hey! So I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy of the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I have some thoughts.
The first thought is: it's fantastic.
If you're one of those that complained that WandaVision started too slowly, you'll have no complaints here. It opens with an action scene straight out of a James Bond movie as we see the Falcon doing his best to live up to the legacy of Captain America. It's pretty much the only big action set piece in the episode, though. I mean, hey, it's the first episode. They've got to take their time setting up the series.
Most of Falcon's story takes place down in Louisiana. He's helping his sister save the family business. While you may remember that Falcon was one of the many that Thanos snapped out of existence, his sister wasn't, and the five years made it a rough go for the family fishing boat. Meanwhile, in his superhero-ing, he's keeping an eye on a new terrorist organization called the Flag-Smashers. Their manifesto is straight out of #ThanosDidNothingWrong. They feel the world was a better place when the population was reduced by half, and want to put it back to that way.
Then we catch up with Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier. His journey very much mirrors Captain America's in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Bucky's been pardoned for the crimes he committed over the decades as a brainwashed HYDRA assassin. However, that doesn't change the fact that he helped to put a lot of very bad people in positions of power. So now, as part of his pardon, he's helping law enforcement take down those very bad people. He's still got PTSD from his time, and he, too, is very much a man out of time.
This first episode is very much about setting up our two heroes and where they are right now, helping to establish more of our post-blip word. Which is one of the great things about these shows. We have the time to let our characters breath and really get to know them. In this first episode, we've also got a great cameo from another MCU vet. (I knew they were in it, but you might not. In fact, I forgot they were in it, and seeing them was a delightful surprise.)
All in all, I was very delighted with the first episode, and I think you're going to like it, too.
Over on the official Ghostbusters YouTube channel, they've begun doing something wonderful. Every Saturday, they post an old episode of the classic 1980s cartoon, The Real Ghostbusters. But that's not all! They also announced that, every Wednesday, they're going to start posting an episode of the 1990s cartoon, Extreme Ghostbusters. I see lots of people nerding out about this. One of my best friends, a huge Ghostbusters fan, even expressed his excitement because he had barely heard of it, let alone watched it.
So that encouraged me to copy this over to my blog. Back when this pandemic began, one of the projects I began doing with all my extra free time was a series of blog entries called "My Best Remembered History of the Ghostbusters in Animation." Loving cartoons and loving Ghostbusters, I've googled a lot about the various animated series over the years, and I was going to compile them all into a kinda complete history of Ghostbusters cartoons. I eventually lost interest and moved on to other things. But, if you're like my friend, curious about this Extreme Ghostbusters, I figured I'd post what little I wrote on the Extreme Ghostbusters as a primer for you, before you dive in.
A popular fan theory for a reboot is to have one of the original Ghostbusters mentoring a new team, and that's exactly the direction this 1990s reboot went.
Another downtick in paranormal activity has caused the Ghostbusters to go their separate ways. Egon is keeping the dream alive by living in the firehouse, monitoring the Ecto containment unity, and teaching courses on the paranormal over at the local community college. About the only friends he still has from the old days are Slimer, who still haunts the firehouse, and Janine, who still carries a torch for him and comes by to check on him once in a while. But when a new spike in ghost activity comes along, Egon recruits a new team from his top students! Well, his only students, and given the time this was made, they're as 90s as you can get:
Roland - Our level-headed nerd.
Eduardo - Our sarcastic Gen X slacker
Kylie - Our goth GF
Garrett - Our TOTALLY EXTREME! sports dude.
To give voice to these new Ghostbusters, Sony gathered a phenomenal roster of talent. Roland was voiced by Alfonso Ribero Jr, fresh from playing Carlton on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Eduardo was voiced by Rino Romano, who I believe still holds the distinction of being the only person who's ever voiced both Spider-Man and Batman. Kylie was Tara Strong, in one of her first big Hollywood roles. And Garrett was Jason Marsden, currently Disney's official voice of Max Goof, a.k.a Goofy's son.
The whole show was designed to take place in-continuity with The Real Ghostbusters (indeed, producer Richard Raynis worked on The Real Ghostbusters back in the day), so it just made sense to invite the original cast back to reprise their roles. The only one who answered the called was Maurice LaMarche, the original voice of Egon. Of course, LaMarche's most famous role is the Brain on Pinky and the Brain. In an interview I read with LaMarche years ago, he said that voice acting legend Frank Welker was offered the chance to reprise his role of Slimer, but Welker turned it down, saying the recording sessions interfered with his regular tee time. So, taking over for Slimer, we had the voice of Ren and Stimpy and Fry from Futurama, Billy West. Welker, however, did reprise the role of Ray Stanz for their epic 2-part final episode, which also brought back Dave Coulier as Venkman and Buster Jones as Winston for the Real Ghostbusters and the Extreme Ghostbusters to team up. It was the biggest of many callbacks to The Real Ghostbusters.
The show didn't last long, but it did have its lasting impact on the greater Ghostbusters universe. Fans really took a liking to Kylie. She had, perhaps, the most fleshed-out backstory. We learn that she was once every stereotype the blonde and bubbly cheerleader, but she went goth following the death of her grandmother. That led to her fascination with the paranormal, and she just wants to know that her grandma is OK on "the other side." In the premiere episode, she's the only one of the new team who's in awe of Egon, as, needless to say, the Ghostbusters became legends in the paranormal community. She's been worked into some of the newer Ghostbusters comics. For comics continuity, she starts as a regular at Ray's Occult Books before the Ghostbusters hire her on as an intern.
The show also managed to pick up several awards for representation. Garrett was in a wheelchair, and many disabled advocates at the time called Garrett one of the most positive representations on television. The chair didn't dominate his character, and they never did any "very special episodes" detailing how he overcame his disability. He was just always accepted as one of the crew. That's not to say it was outright ignored. The show was on Amazon Prime a couple of years back, and I revisited a few episodes. In one, Garrett is getting ready to charge into a haunted house, proton packs blazing. Kylie stops him, urging caution. Garrett dryly, sarcastically responds, "Yes. I might hurt myself and never walk again."
Extreme Ghostbusters premiered in the fall of 1997 and ran for just one season of 40 episodes. While it wasn't around long, it did make its mark on the Ghostbusters fandom.
Well, not really. Sony still technically owns the movie rights to Spider-Man. Sony still has financial and creative control over the character, and will handle all production and marketing and distribution of any Spider-Man solo films.
But, under this new deal that's been signed between Sony and Marvel, Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios and grand czar of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is now in charge of the Spider-Man film franchise, and Spider-Man and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are now free to interact with each other.
So how did we get here? Well, way back before they formed their own movie studio, Marvel did what any other comic book company would do: sell off the movie rights. The movie rights to Spider-Man were sold off ages ago, and after a court battle that lasted for most of the 1990s, the rights were granted to Sony, and thus the Spider-Man film franchise that we know was born.
However, the turning point was this past summer and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Granted, it made $700 million worldwide, but it was the lowest-grossing Spider-Man movie ever. That, coupled with the critical drubbing it got, had fans everywhere screaming, "Give Spider-Man back to Marvel!"
Meanwhile, ever since Marvel formed their own movie studio, they have been trying to re-aquired all their properties. As we learned during the Sony hacks, it turns out Marvel and Sony were having some deep negotiations about Marvel regaining Spider-Man. And some 11th hour shenanigans must have taken place for Marvel to get their way, because rather than the big splashy media events they like to do to announce this stuff, it was mentioned in a news release sent out just before midnight on Monday.
So, with Marvel now running the Spider-Man film franchise for Sony, and Spider-Man now free to interact with the Avengers, Marvel's been shuffling around their release schedule. The first Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man film is coming in July 2017, and the release dates for Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and The Inhumans are all being shuffled around to make room. Spider-Man is also allowed to appear in one Marvel film before his first solo film. It's all but confirmed now that that appearance will be in Captain America: Civil War, because Spidey was a big part of the original comic storyline.
New franchise-runners also means a new Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield, who I thought did a stellar job despite mediocre stories, is being show the door. Apparently, Marvel wants a younger Spider-Man, more like the teenager that Spidey is always known to be. (Garfield just turned 31 in real life.) Marvel apparently wants an actual teenager to play the teenaged Spider-Man.
And Sony has also announced that, despite these developments, their still soldiering on with their Sinister Six, Venom and TBD Female Character spinoffs. Of course, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 has been canceled in favour of the Marvel reboot.
And out of all this, all I can think is, "Is it too late to film a new post-credit stinger for Avengers: Age of Ultron, one featuring Spider-Man?" I was always more of a DC guy when I was a kid, but the only Avengers comic I had was one where Spidey tried to join the Avengers. Alarms were going off in Avengers Mansion, the Avengers assembled to track down the intruder, and they eventually found Spider-Man, who had made a web hammock beneath the QuinJet's wing, where he just casually said, "C'mon, guys, let me join."
I SO WANT THAT TO BE MY POST-CREDITS STINGER IN AGE OF ULTRON!!!
Meanwhile, over on the DC side of the street, we just had the epic 2-part episode of Gotham showing us the secret origin of the Scarecrow.
Yes, everyone I went to college with, I know the Scarecrow was on Gotham. For those just joining us, Scarecrow has always been my favourite Batman villain. So much so, that back in my college radio days, Scarecrow was my on-air name.
I'm enjoying Gotham for the most part right now. I'm just a little afraid they'll fall into the Smallville trap. On Smallville, it was always fun to see these hints and secret origins of various Superman characters, but by season 6, you're screaming at the TV in frustration. "GET ON WITH IT!"
So for Scarecrow's secret origin, we met the Scarecrow's father, Dr. Gerald Crane, and the Scarecrow proper, Johnathon Crane, is just a teenager. The elder Dr. Crane lost his wife in a house fire, and he blames himself for her death because he was too afraid to go back in and save her. Thus leading to his obsession with phobias and fears. Dr. Crane has been torturing people by literally scaring them to death, in an attempt to find a cure for fear. And of course, he experiments on his son. The final scene is the future Scarecrow, having received an overdose of his father's cure, cowering in fear as he hallucinates being harassed by terrifying scarecrows.
It was OK. I'm not sure I like this idea of the Scarecrow being a legacy villain, taking the mantle from his father. But you can see some motivations. Maybe now the Scarecrow becomes obsessed with fears and phobias because he's trying to cure his condition.
What can I say? I always kind of hoped they'd do young Scarecrow much like how they're doing young Riddler. Have Prof. Johnathon Crane be this brilliant, yet slightly off, professor of psychology over at Gotham University who's called in as a profiler on a couple of cases. And, since it's been established that Harley Quinn studied psychology at Gotham University, I always had this idea that maybe Harley Quinn studied under Prof. Crane. So you can introduce young Harley Quinn by having Harlene Quinzel be one of Prof. Crane's grad students.
In other news, I'm on vacation again this week, burning off more vacation time. Decided to head into the city, because I always enjoy how wonderfully uncrowded West Edmonton Mall is on a weekday morning. Swung by HMV, and I stunned myself. I finally bought Brazil on Blu-Ray.
Brazil. Terry Gilliam's legendary dystopian tale. Rather than anything malicious on the part of the state to crush your will and bring you under control, it's the relentless bureaucracy. I have actually never seen it. I've been wanting to see if for ages. Way, way back in high school English, when we were studying 1984, it was a film that my teacher would reference and name-check a lot. I knew a girl in college who cited it as her favourite movie. With that pedigree, I knew I must see it some day. And besides, it's a Criterion edition. The Brazil Criterion has long been held up as one of THE Criterion editions, and the reason why Criterion does what they do.
Since I got my first DVD player in 2001, I've been eying the Criterion of Brazil, but I always stopped myself because Criterion editions get pricey. But, that day, I looked at the $39.99 price tag, and said, "Screw it. Let's get it." And then I got to the till, and when the clerk rang it up, it came up at $32.99. Clerk said, "Huh. The computer says it's $7 cheaper. I won't tell if you won't." And I got it for the lower price.
With a new Blu-Ray in hand, it was then upstairs to see Jupiter Ascending.
Yay! The Wachowskis are back with a new sci-fi epic! Always curious to sew what else the creators of The Matrix are creating. And I know I'm a minority here, but I love, love, LOVE Speed Racer. So what did they concoct for us this time?
Jupiter Jones. The daughter of Russian immigrants. Makes her living as a cleaning lady, scrubbing the toilets of Chicago's elite. Inspired by stories of her astronomer father, who died before she was born, she gazes up at the stars and dreams of something more. "Something more" falls in her lap one day when aliens try to kill her at a medial clinic, and Caine, the half-human/half-wolf bounty hunter rescues her. Turns out Jupiter has the exact same genetic make-up as the recently deceased Queen of the Galaxy, and under the rules of ascension of the galaxy, this makes her next in line for the throne. Of course, this makes her a target for the Queen's children, because her existence is a threat to their claims to the throne.
I got strong John Carter vibe from Jupiter Ascending. They focus a little too much on world-building than plot and character development. And despite being our protagonist, Jupiter isn't very proactive, just kind of going along with the flow of this new world she's been thrust into. And, as such, the plot gets rather repetitive, as Caine is always charging to her rescue, as she gets swept up down the wrong path.
That being said, it is pretty funny in some places. While most of the characters speak in that faux-Shakespearean that's common to sci-fi/fantasy films, Jupiter keeps acting all commoner like and reacts to all these unbelievable situations with the same, "Holy crap." And there's a great scene halfway through showing us the galactic bureaucracy. Who knew that laying a claim to the throne had so much paperwork?
All in all, maybe I'm getting old and have seen too many space operas, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that I'd seen it all before. 2 out of 4 Nibs. Complete review is over on the website.
And before I wrap this up, just one little side quest.
My new routine when coming home from the city is to take the long way through Spruce Grove, where I'll stop for supper at one of the two new burger chains making inroads into Canada: Carl's Jr or Fatburger. Yesterday, Carl's Jr won the coin toss. What can I say? I'm still enjoying the novelty of how new they are. Same way in the late 1990s when Burger King finally came to Alberta.
Anyway, on my parka, I've got a Doctor Who button. Just the smiling face of the Tenth Doctor. A friend of mine brought it back for me after a vacation in London. I'm sure he paid no more than £1 for it. But that button has become the best icebreaker ever.
Case in point, the clerk at Carl's Jr. She saw the button, let out a shriek of glee, and began extolling the virtues of Doctor Who and how it's like every great science fiction and superhero franchise rolled into one. I was pretty into it, but after about 10 minutes, I started thinking, "I'm really hungry. Can I place my order now, please?"
But still, it's great time to be a geek. Cute girls are reveling in the fandom, and not recoiling in horror, like they did when I was in high school. I just like not feeling alone anymore.
At the start of January, I was elated to discover Jem and the Hologramson Netflix, and began cherry-picking my favourite episodes. Then, I was crushed to learn that it was being removed from Netflix by the end of January. I missed my chance to watch every episode when I missed Amazon's lightening deal to get the complete series for dirt cheap...never again! Luckily, I had already booked the last week of January off to use up some leftover vacation time from last year. My plan was to sit back, relax and watch every episode of Jem.
It was announced that DC Comics had commissioned two brand new animated shorts to commemorate the fact that 2014 is the 75th anniversary of Batman. The second short went online over the weekend, so may I present, Darwyn Cooke's Batman Beyond.
You might be wondering who Darwyn Cooke is. Cooke got his start at Warner Brothers as a storyboard artist on Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and yes, Batman Beyond. From there, he was able to break into comic books, where his graphic novel DC: The New Frontierwas a critical darling and sales success.
Now that I've established his cred, onto the short!
Wow. This is great. My one complaint is it's too short. I want to know who sent the army of Batman robots after Batman. That's the best Easter Egg in this whole thing: that army of Batman robots at the end is every incarnation of Batman in animation...and a couple from live-action. This is so good, and makes me want more of an official return to the Batman Beyond universe.
While we're on the subject, let's go back and take a second look at the first 75th anniversary short, Batman: Strange Days, which was conceived by Bruce Timm. Timm, of course, has been the main creative force behind most DC Comics animation projects over the past 20 years, having been the showrunner for Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Green Lantern: The Animated Series and the series of straight-to-DVD animated films. Actually, he stepped down as head of the straight-to-DVD animated films a little over a year ago so he could pursue other projects...such as this.
Yeah...I'm still kind of "meh" towards this one. I can see they were going for an early Batman adventure, using a Batman design reminscient of his first appearance in the late 1930s, but it just comes across as a deleted scene from an episode of Batman: The Animated Series.
And while we're going through all this Batman animated goodness, may as well share the first trailer for the next DC straight-to-DVD animated film, Batman: Assault on Arkham. Rather than a popular story line in the comics, this one is based on the best-selling Arkham series of video games.
I like that the Suicide Squad is featured so prominently. I made the same observation about Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. DC is stuck on doing films that focus on Batman and Superman, because, according to their research, those are the only ones that sell well. So I guess the only way we're going to get films that focus on other characters is to give those other characters really prominent supporting roles. So if this is the only way we get a Suicide Squad movie, so be it.
That being said, though, I'm really tiring of Batman and Superman adventures. Come on. Give us another Wonder Woman movie. Give us a true Flash movie. Give Batman and Superman a rest.
No word on an official release date. Following the official pattern, and with the next one, Son of Batman coming out next month, I'd wager this one is coming in the fall.
So, here we are. We've now had the awesomeness that was the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor. So I felt like taking to the blog to just share my thoughts.
I should issue a spoiler warning. As I began live-tweeting my reactions yesterday, had quite a few friends tweet back "SHUT UP! I'm doing stuff today and I'm recording it!" So for those who have lives and such and haven't watched it yet, turn away now.
Still here? Good.
To borrow the Ninth Doctor's catchphrase: fantastic. I thought it was a little slow to get going at the outset, but once we got halfway through and started ramping up the emotion, it was so great.
So wonderful seeing David Tennant back as the Tenth Doctor. (Or is he the Eleventh now? I see the debate is raging as to how/if they should be renumbered.) And the interplay between him and the Eleventh Doctor was great. They bickered like brothers, which was a great way to take it.
John Hurt, as the mysterious War Doctor. As briefly alluded to in the end of Series 7, this Doctor is the one that ended the Time War by annihilating both the Time Lords and the Daleks. And when we meet him in this special, he's made the decision to do it, but he hasn't yet. He knows he's turned his back on the name and concept of the Doctor, but he hasn't just yet, so he still has that twinkle in his eye.
And it was very interesting how they brought back Rose. Well, not really Rose. See, the doomsday weapon that the War Doctor uses to end the war has never been used, because it gained sentience. As the one Time Lord general said about it, "No one wants to use a weapon that will judge you for having used it." So as the War Doctor goes to activate the weapon, it's sentience takes the form of Rose. Well, actually, it takes the form of Bad Wolf, the omnipotent form of Rose from the end of Series One. Very clever, and such a tease that she wound up being in scenes with the Tenth Doctor, but there's no interaction between them. (She's projected telepathically into the War Doctor's mind, so only he can see her.)
It was just so much fun. I enjoyed it immensely. As our three Doctors team up to stop an alien invasion on Earth, and in doing so, help the War Doctor make his terrible decision to end the great Time War.
But not. Thanks to that wibbly wobbley timey wimey stuff, they determine a way to end the war and save the Time Lords. As the Eleventh Doctor eventually realizes, he's had 400 years to think about how he would have done things differently. And now he has the chance to. Leading to one spectacular climax where the Doctor finally saves Gallifrey, thus earning a spot of redemption.
But of course, the Easter Eggs and callbacks to other aspects of the franchise. My top 5:
5) The donor of the Vortex Manipulator
4) The retro opening, which re-creates the opening of the very first episode
3) The blink-and-you'll-miss-it brief appearance by the forthcoming Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi
2) The Tenth Doctor's final words in the special.
1) The identity of the Curator.
I do kind of wish I did pay the money to go to the theatre and see it in 3D. Something tells me the effects of the 3D oil paintings were probably pretty spectacular.
I'm still kind of sad that Christopher Eccleston chose not to be a part of it, and therefore no Ninth Doctor, but why lament the awesomeness we could have had? It was pretty damn spectacular as it was.
And while I'm on the subject, I may as well offer up my thoughts on the other 50th anniversary special, An Adventure in Space and Time, the docudrama which told the tale of the show's creation back in the 1960s.
Again, it was good, if a little...perfunctory. When you do a project like this, one of the traps you can fall into is getting too wrapped up in recreating the time, place and events, and thus you really don't get to know the people involved. This definitely fell into that trap. You never got sense of why these people believed in this project so much.
For example, Sydney Newman, the head of the BBC Drama department at the time, who created the general concept for Doctor Who. Brian Cox plays him like a big cartoon character of a Hollywood producer. It feels a little...out-of-place.
We do get to meet Verity Lambert, Newman's former personal assistant whom he promotes to being the first producer of Doctor Who. She was a bit better character, as she battled both her nervousness at being given her first show, and the sexism in the BBC offices, as her role producing Doctor Who made her the BBC's first female producer. But again, her character arc quickly fades into the background as the show takes off, and the movie becomes more wrapped up in recreating how the show was made back then. The coda tells us that, upon her death in 2007, she'd become revered in the British television industry as a bona fide legend. I'd almost like to see a movie purely about her.
But still, it is great watching her transform and start really, truly becoming a producer. There is the one scene where she's battling with Newman about the first Dalek storyline. Newman wants to axe it because killer robots is one of the sci-fi tropes he really wanted to avoid with the show. But Lambert fights for it because it's a very good, very thoughtful, sci-fi script with meaty concepts. Newman does get this strange mix of pride and fear seeing his protege turn into this tough-as-nails producer he knew she could be...and all of her new found skills and confidence are being unleashed on him.
On the other side, a character that could have gotten a little more attention, I feel, is Waris Hussien, who was the first director of Doctor Who. As they show in the film, he also had hurdles to face as the BBC's first Indian director. He and Lambert form a fast friendship, as they both battle the racist and sexist old guard. I would have liked to have seen a little more of him.
But the heart and soul of the film was David Bradley, who played William Hartnell, who played the First Doctor. It was fun seeing him transform. When we meet him, he's a gruff old actor who's getting typecast as gruff old soldiers. But when Lambert and Hussien pitch this new TV series to him, it does catch his attention. And as the show becomes popular, and he sees how he's becoming a hero to children everywhere, it really does start to soften him up. He begins taking his role as hero to millions of children quite seriously. It's fun watching him change, and thus makes it all the more heartbreaking when his ailing health eventually forces him to quit the show.
Which leads to my objection about the film's end. It ends with Hartnell filming his final scene, and as he wonders if the show will go on without him, he looks to his side and sees a vision of...the Eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith in a cameo, just looking back at him and smiling, thus assuring Hartnell that the show ill go on. Something about this whole scene just felt awkward. Because Smith does nothing more than stand there and twitch, I can't tell if he really did film the cameo, or if it was digital footage of Smith awkwardly inserted. Definitely feels like the latter.
That being said, though, I'm glad it shone a light on the bumpy road the show had in its beginnings.
And before I wrap this up, I have to share this bit of hilariousness. There was a third 50th anniversary special. I mean, lots of fans were upset that the other classic Doctors didn't make an appearance. And we weren't the only ones.
Peter Davison, who played the Fifth Doctor, wrote and directed this special called The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, in which he, Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor) and Sylvester McCoy (The Seventh Doctor) launch their campaign to appear in The Day of the Doctor.
Oh my God, you guys, this is so funny. I don't know how many of the cameos I should spoil for you. But trust me, this is just a nice way to cap things off.
Another late night at work, so while I've got some free time on my supper break, I may as well take to the blog and blog about some recent news items that caught my eye.
This is a few weeks old now, but it sure got tongues wagging. Marvel Studios recently announced a huge deal with Netflix to start producing original TV series based on Marvel characters exclusively for Netflix! The four characters getting their own shows are:
Following the model of the Marvel movies, this will all build up to a Defenders mini-series, featuring these characters teaming up. I don't know much about The Defenders...they're usually assembled by Dr. Strange to combat supernatural threats. And they were widely mocked in Twisted ToyFare Theatre back in the day for being the low-rent Avengers.
Each hero's series is going to run 13 episodes. And they've already announced some of the talent. Daredevil is going to be overseen by Drew Goddard. Goddard is a frequent Joss Whedon collaborator, having written episodes of Buffy and Angel back in the day. On the big screen, he co-wrote (with Whedon) and directed the horror film deconstruction The Cabin in the Woods.
For Jessica Jones, they're talking with Melissa Rosenberg. Rosenberg is a veteran television writer, who was responsible for some of the better episodes of Dexter. On the big screen, she wrote the screenplay for every Twilight movie. Apparently, back in 2010, she attempted to get a Jessica Jones series up and running, so she's already familiar with the character.
It's all slated to premiere in 2015.
I think this is a great idea. Obviously, the Marvel Universe is so big, that they can't adapt every character into a movie. So why not give some of the B-listers a TV series? Netflix is widely becoming the place for new, original content, with such hits as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. Because each series is going to run 13 episodes, we can have a definite story arc running for those episodes, which will really give them an opportunity to tell an epic story. Might be finally time to sign up for Netflix!
And there was a news story that broke on Friday night that caught my eye. The producers of the James Bond films have finally reacquired the movie rights to the character of Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
For those who aren't familiar with Bond lore, Blofeld is James Bond's arch-enemy, head of the terrorist organization known as SPECTRE. Blofeld and SPECTRE were the villains in pretty much all the James Bond movies of the 1960s. They were always stirring up Cold War tensions between The Western Powers and the Soviet Bloc in the hopes of starting World War III, and then building a new world order from the ashes. For the first few films, he was shown only from the back, stroking his white, long-haired cat, thus establishing that supervillain cliche.
How the Bond producers lost the rights to the Moriarty to Bond's Sherlock Holmes is a long and sordid tale. This is as best I understand it. Back in the late 1950s, when Bond was starting to take the literary world by storm, Bond's creator Ian Fleming partnered with a young writer named Kevin McClory to write a James Bond screenplay to shop around to movie producers. Somewhere along the way, Fleming and McClory had a falling out, and went their separate ways. Not wanting to let a good story go to waste, Fleming published the unused screenplay as the Bond novel Thunderball.
Needless to say, when Thunderball hit bookstore shelves, McClory was pissed, and sued to get his due credit and royalties for co-writing Thunderball. The judge sided with McClory, and as part of his settlement, McClory was granted the movie rights to Thunderball. As the movie version of Thunderball was already in production by the time this settlement was reached, McClory got a co-producer credit on the film, and was barred from exercising his film rights until 10 years after Thunderball's release.
Flash forward 10 years. As the Bond producers are getting ready to do a gritty reboot of Blofeld and reintroduce SPECTRE on the big screen, McClory launched a second lawsuit. The lawsuit said, since Blofeld made his first appearance in the novels in Thunderball, McClory also owned the rights to the character of Blofeld. Once again, the judge ruled in favour of McClory, and the Bond producers could no longer have Bond fight his arch-enemy.
All throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, McClory tried to use his ownership of the movie rights to Thunderball and Blofeld and mount a rival Bond film franchise. The only fruit of those labours was the 1983 Bond film Never Say Never Again, which is considered non-cannonical because it wasn't made by the true Bond film producers. And all throughout that time, McClory and the Bond producers filed several nasty lawsuits against each other, all over who owned what aspects of the Bond mythology.
McClory passed away in 2006, and this settlement was finally reached through years of negotiations between the Bond producers and McClory's estate. Now, all the film rights to every aspect of James Bond is now, finally, owned by the producers of the James Bond films.
And again, I think this is fantastic news. As I blogged before, Skyfall left me feeling that this Bond reboot is complete. With our new M, Q and Moneypenny back in place, all the elements are back for some classic Bond adventures. And now that Bond's arch-enemy is back, they can truly reboot the franchise. I wonder what SPECTRE would be like in this present day. Would they make it like the terrorist cells that we see in the War on Terror? Who knows?
Hopefully, like the Bond films of the 1960s, this'll give Bond a recurring villain to fight over several films. It would be neat to see a hero/villain relationship evolve over several films, truly developing Blofeld into Bond's equal. The next Bond film is slated for 2015...no word yet on how this might change plans for the next Bond film. But it's just nice that Bond finally has his arch-enemy again.
So we have eight days to go until The Day of the Doctor, the big 50th anniversary special for Doctor Who. It's kind of sneaking up on me, as things are starting to get pretty busy. But then I was absolutely tickled when I saw this yesterday.
As has become the way with Moffat run of Doctor Who, for specials and such, he likes to put together a little 5-minute prequel and post it online. Yesterday, we got the prequel for The Day of the Doctor, appropriately titled The Night of the Doctor, and I was over the moon when I saw who it starred.
It's an Eighth Doctor adventure, starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor.
So my first exposure to Doctor Who was in the early 1990s. Back then, with a lot of hype and ballyhoo, YTV became the official home of Doctor Who in Canada, and started showing the adventures of Doctors 1 - 7 in reruns. I remember reading in the paper that there was a huge kerfuffle between YTV and the Canadian chapter of the Official Doctor Who Fan Club. In all their promotional materials, YTV referred to the main character as "Doctor Who." The Official Doctor Who Fan Club angrily pointed out that he's known as simply "The Doctor," so YTV eventually caved and adjusted their promotional materials.
I remember watching the odd episode back then and being...unimpressed. I'd always catch the last five minutes, and it'd always be the First Doctor sitting in the TARDIS control room, giving a speech about the day's events, and I'd think, "This is it? This is the famous Doctor Who? Just some old guy standing around pontificating? Get this over with so I can watch Ninja Turtles!" (Ninja Turtles was on right after, you see.)
But the first time I opened my heart and gave Doctor Who a chance was for the American-made TV movie, which wound up being the Eighth Doctor's only adventure. I watched it in the spring of 1996 when it first aired. And I loved it. Finally, with a big budget, and in colour, I got what it was all about! YTV had stopped showing it by then, so I couldn't go back and give the regular series another chance.
When I did my Fishing in the Discount Bin on the Doctor Who TV movie, I mentioned that you could see the seeds being planted for the 2005 re-launch. I mean, with a big budget behind it, there were some things that just made sense to do, so the 1996 TV movie and the current series do have some notable similarities.
But sadly, it was not to be, and so I had to wait for the re-launch in 2005 for more Doctor Who, and it looked like I wouldn't see any further Eighth Doctor adventures.
Until today.
When the revival started, many fans wondered if we'd ever see the Eighth Doctor regenerate into the Ninth, and I guess Moffat figured it would make a good subject for the online prequel.
So let's enjoy The Night of The Doctor, featuring the final hours of the Eighth Doctor!
Hopefully, you just finished watching it, because I'm about to get spoilery.
So I guess this finally confirms what many suspected...that the John Hurt Doctor (referred to as "The War Doctor" in the end credits) is the true Ninth Doctor, as #8 regenerates into him. Actually, I think this kind of provides a sad end to the Eighth Doctor. With the Time War raging, and the universe turning to hate the Time Lords, he realizes that his time is at an end and he can no longer walk the universe and help people. When takes that potion at the end to regenerate into a warrior, and says that the universe doesn't need a Doctor anymore, it's like he's suicidal.
It's a sad end, but it's so good seeing the Eighth Doctor again!
A little trivia note. I've discovered this outfit called Big Finish, and what they do is they produce these big budget Doctor Who radio plays. They've even managed to procure the services of all the classic Doctors to play the Doctor in them. When the Eighth Doctor mutters the names of his previous companions before taking the potion, those are all his companions from the Eighth Doctor Big Finish productions! I've been tempted to download some of the Big Finish adventures to get more of the Eighth Doctor...despite his short tenure on the TV screen, the Eighth Doctor has apparently had the most expansive adventures in the Doctor Who expanded universe.
Oh, look. In celebration of The Night of the Doctor and the Eighth Doctor's return, Big Finish has put all their Eighth Doctor tales on special!
I maintain what I originally said in my Fishing in the Discount Bin. I'm sure Paul McGann would have been a brilliant Eighth Doctor. And I'm sure he is on the Big Finish plays. But, come on, how about a 6-episode mini-series of Eighth Doctor adventures? Please? Pretty please?
One thing I love about my new cable company is it does time shifting, so I can watch Saturday Night Live at the relative comfort at 9:30PM on a Saturday, just like when I first discovered it. And watching this past Saturday's show just made me go nuts when they did this bit.
With Halloween right around the corner, they brought us...the Wes Anderson horror film.
I wouldn't call myself a Wes Anderson fanboy. I enjoyed The Royal Tennenbaums. I enjoyed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zisou. I got a kick out of Fantastic Mr. Fox...and that's about all I've ever seen of his stuff.
Speaking of, last week, they also unveiled the trailer for Anderson's next film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. I might actually make the time for this one, because this trailer actually had me laughing.
What better place than Saturday morning to kick back and finally go through the cartoons I'd PVR'd throughout the week?
Actually, there's just one cartoon on my PVR that's been waiting for me, and that's Pixar's first ever TV special, Toy Story of Terror!
See, when John Lasseter took charge of Disney animation in the great Disney/Pixar merger of 2006, he noticed that one field of animation that Disney had never really participated in was the animated holiday special. So, he had Disney Animation get to work on Christmas specials, and we got their Prep & Landing trilogy. Over at Pixar, he had them get to work on a Halloween special, and the result was this year's Toy Story of Terror! And of course, with my lover for all things Pixar, I just had to check out.
I think I did mention that using the Toy Story characters like this does give me a sense of unease. I mean, Toy Story 3 was such a phenomenal end to the franchise, that these revisits are all kinds of unnecessary. With the trilogy of Toy Story shorts that have been released, I thought that Hawaiian Vacation and Partysaurus Rex were cute, but Small Fry was actually a dollop of unexpected brilliance. And on top of that, Pixar's track record just hasn't been that good as of late. (See the dismal Cars 2, the "meh" Brave, and the "good, but not Pixar great" Monsters University.)
So I fired up my PVR this morning, sat down for Toy Story of Terror, and was pleasantly surprised. Our familiar toys are on a road trip with their young owner Bonnie, when their car gets a flat tire, forcing them to spend the night in a roadside motel. Of course, the character of Mr. Pricklepants begins the running commentary on how this seems to be following every horror movie cliche, as Woody warns that a motel is a common place for toys to get lost and left behind. But of course, Mr. Potato Head goes missing, the toys go in search of him, and the horror movie spoofs start piling up.
Until about the halfway point. At the halfway point, it turns into a variation on Toy Story 2. Turns out the manager of this motel has been stealing some of the more valuable toys from guests, and selling them online. Our heroes are captured, Woody is about to be shipped off, and our true hero rises...Jessie.
That's what was really neat to see. Jessie really is the protagonist in this story of toys. When she was first introduced to us in Toy Story 2, it was revealed that she's cursed with claustrophobia...an effect of being abandoned and boxed up for many years. Needless to say, all those dark, cramped corners common to horror films leave her just a little panicked. But of course, it's soon up to her to face her fears to save the day.
This was better than I expected. There's some sprinkling of the ol' Pixar charm in there that just makes it really good. Much like Small Fry, I found some unexpected brilliance in it. Shouldn't surprise me, then, that this had the same director as Small Fry, Angus MacLane. This guy just might go on to great things at Pixar...that is, if Pixar doesn't turf him for colouring outside the lines too much. Pixar seems to be doing that a lot lately.
And while I'm blogging about cartoons, I should also take a minute to pass along some sad news. One of the greats behind my childhood passed away a few days ago. Lou Scheimer, one of the founders of the animation studio Filmation, passed away at the age of 85.
Of course, Scheimer had his hand in many of Filmation's productions, such as the 1970s Batman cartoon, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Fat Albert, and of course, the one I know him best for, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
Scheimer also did voices in many of his productions. For example, on He-Man, he did the voices of King Randor, Orko, and Trap Jaw.
A lot of great cartoons from my childhood were courtesy of that guy. I think I'll fire up some He-Man DVDs, in memoriam.
Well, back on Saturday, I sat down and started going through my PVR, watching and re-watching some of the season premieres I had recorded. It's an exciting time, as it's season premiere season and all the new shows are premiering, so I thought I'd take a moment to just jot down some of my thoughts on all the stuff.
First up, had to watch one of the most anticipated new shows of the fall, Agents of SHIELD. Disney/Marvel looks to expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the small screen, as we follow this series about an elite team of SHIELD agents as they jet across the globe, investigating all manner of superhuman threats. Led by Agent Phil Coulson, whom we all thought died in The Avengers. According to Coulson, when he makes his return, he was clinically dead for 43 seconds, but the SHIELD medics brought him back from the brink, and he's spent the past year recovering in Tahiti.
But, eventually, we learned that this is NOT the case, and his resurrection is SHIELD top secret. No doubt the circumstances of his resurrection will eventually evolve into some kind of myth-arc.
But we see Coulson's team is the usual bunch. We've got our gung-ho soldier, we've got the combat veteran who was traumatized for some reason and is reluctant to go back into the field, there's a pair of socially awkward scientists, and a quirky girl hacker. Can they overcome their differences and become an ace team of secret agents? Of course, or else it'd be a very short series.
The series is masterminded by Avengers director Joss Whedon. Now, I wouldn't really call myself a Whedonite. I mean, I enjoyed Firefly, but I'm pretty sure that's because when I first got Space, Space was showing it non-stop. Nothing gets you into a TV show like when it's the only thing on for 18 hours straight. And despite assurances that I would love Buffy, I always found myself wandering away bored after a few episodes.
With all that in mind, I did enjoy Agents of SHIELD. It successfully transferred to the small screen that sense of fun that I've enjoyed in all the Marvel films. However, it did have a familiar vibe to it. I must agree with one online critic I read that said it look and felt a lot like the Knight Rider reboot from a few years ago. It was similarly slick, polished, and too clever for its own good. I'm certain, though, that they'll find their footing, and it'll be a fun series.
I just kind of hope they'll follow Arrow's lead and occasionally bring in some well-known C-list heroes and villains from the comics for team-ups.
And speaking of the Marvel universe, I also picked up the Iron Man 3 Blu-Ray last week. (Look for a review on Fishing in the Discount Bin in about 6 months or so.) And I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the latest Marvel one-shot, Agent Carter. For those just joining us, Marvel's been doing this thing called "One-Shots" starting with the Thor Blu-Ray, where they include a little universe-expanding short film. And the latest, Agent Carter, is probably the best.
It picks up a year after the end of Captain America, and we catch up with Agent Peggy Carter, the WW2 secret agent who was Steve Roger's girlfriend. Needless to say, she's a little bitter about her new desk job, as she pretty much saved the world, and with the sexism at the time from "The men are coming back from war, head back to the kitchen, ladies," she's now being treated as a glorified secretary. So, she goes rogue one night and kicks some ass. It's fun, it's exciting, Bradly Whitford plays Carter's CO, and I forgot that he can play a really good sleazeball. Definitely worth checking out.
And lastly on the PVR we had the season premiere of Elementary. I kind of like Elementary, but my only disappointment with it is that I find it very...conventional for a detective show. The season premiere dealt with one of the bigger elephants in the room, as our modern day Sherlock Holmes learns that his old colleague Inspector Lestrade is in a spot of trouble, so he and Watson go home to London to help Lestrade.
Also notable is when they return to London, they run into Sherlock's brother Mycroft. I thought it would be hilarious and blow the minds of Elementary/Sherlock fans if they got Benedict Cumberbatch to play Mycroft, but instead they went with Rhys Ifans, who played the Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man. How they changed Mycroft for the series is, rather than being Sherlock's smarter brother and working for the government in some vague capacity, he's now a highly successful London restauranteur. So, yeah. Mycroft is now Gordon Ramsay, only with less swearing.
But that was Elementary. Just my usual complaint with the rest of the series...so very conventional for a detective show. I wish with a franchise as historical as Sherlock Holmes, they'd go a little above and beyond, but they haven't.
