Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge Season 4 Episodes 4-6

 

Pixar Playlist #13 - Brave

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar Playlist

It’s unlucky for some, it’s number 13 and we look at Brave

Brave was Pixar’s first attempt at a fairy tale, and the brainchild of Brenda Chapman. Chapman had been working creative roles at Pixar since Cars, and had worked at Dreamworks prior to that. She had been directing the film but after creative disagreements with John Lasseter, she was replaced mid-production by Mark Andrews. Mark Andrews had directed 2 short films and was a second-unit director on John Carter, making him an odd choice for a replacement but then John Lasseter had some serious issues with women.

Usually I’d talk about some pioneering animation that really helped Pixar stand out, but I have nothing. This film had a $185m budget and made $540m at the box office. The film stands as reasonably popular with a 78% Rotten Tomatoes rating but where do I rank it, let’s take a look.

Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge Season 4 Episodes 1-3

We're back with more Dragons: Race to the Edge, last time we just passed the half way mark with the first of a 2-part episode. Yeah, stuff like that makes me believe it was initially ordered in 26-episode blocks and split down the middle. It’s not an uncommon practice with Netflix so…

When we last left off, Viggo tricked team Edge into providing a distraction so he could steal a very dangerous dragon, he’d been guarded by the ‘defenders of the wing’ with their leader Mala p*ssed off enough to draw her blade at the team.

Disney Remake Marathon - Lady and the Tramp

With Disney+ launching in the US in 2019, they needed a film to showcase it, what better than… Lady and the Tramp?

Lady and the Tramp is the 4^th Disney remake of 2019 but because it’s on a streaming service it was made on a much lower budget, it had $60m to its name, less than ¼ of that of The Lion King. That in and of itself isn’t necessarily a problem, but does have its drawbacks as we’ll get to.

The original falls into the same category in that it was made with a reasonably low animation budget, which shows in the finished product and has a few minor problematic moments. It was ripe for a remake, though I do understand why it was relegated to a streaming service, it’s not the most epic of films, it’s a fairly simple love story. There’s nothing wrong with that per-say, but I feel it’s not a story that needed an extra 30 minutes added on.

The film got a mixed reception, by this point par for the course, but we have little insight into viewing figures due to the nature of streaming.

The story of Lady and the Tramp is a cute story, but it isn’t one of my favourites.

Netflix Retrospective - Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 8 episodes 11-13

We’re gonna look at Voltron for the final time, and see if the ending is satisfying. 

Disney Remake Marathon - The Lion King

The third of the 4 remakes of 2019… I still can’t believe they released 4 of these things in 2019, was of Disney’s most popular animated movie, The Lion King. 

This really doesn’t qualify as a Live Action remake, nothing about this film is live action, it’s all computer generated. Apparently, filming began in a studio, why? Was it a recording booth… Wow, I’m making my feelings for this known early, aren’t I?

Jon Favreau is back as director, he directed the Jungle Book which is very similar, it’s also by far my favourite of the Disney remakes. Still, The Lion King is a Disney classic for a reason, so how do they remake it? Let’s take a look.

Netflix Retrospective - Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 8 episodes 7-10

Halloween is over and we’ve got a show to finish, can Voltron end on a high? 

Disney Remake Marathon - Aladdin

We continue the slew of 2019 Disney Remakes with another 90s Classic, Aladdin. And directing this one we have Guy Ritchie, who’s mostly known for action comedies, this musical feels decidedly out of his wheel. Original trailers weren’t promising as the genie looked absolutely abysmal. I think the CG was unfinished which is a great way to have a trailer look, but a lot of money later, we got the final product. 

Critics were mixed on the quality of the overall product but unlike Dumbo before it, it made over $1bn at the box office.

The original Aladdin is among my favourite Disney movies, I’m a sucker for a coming of age story in general and despite the liar revealed story being a trope that I’m quickly souring on, the performance of Robin Williams as the genie and some really good musical numbers are enough to keep me near consistently entertained.