A Strange Halloween - Netflix Retrospective - Locke and Key Season 1 Episodes 9-10

Within the sea cave, behind the black door

Lays an evil one cannot simply ignore

A lady of the well, both Lucas and Dodge

Have plans laid that are hard to dislodge

The family killer, a tragic regret

And a night that Matheson will not forget

Dodge has more keys, to use in her game

Including the one that sets things aflame

Knowing the consequence, seeing the dread

He put the Omega key inside his head

But ashes to ashes his secret’s revealed

At least the Lockes know to keep it concealed

The keys have their keepers, until they drop dead

Descendants now follow, in footsteps they tread

But another secret is yet to be seen

It will all be revealed on A Strange Halloween.

It’s our final look at Locke and Key, as both sides converge on the Black Door, who will prevail? Let’s find out.

Comic Book Lucky Dip - X-Factor Annual #9

Coming off getting a DC Universe subscription a few months back, I now have a Marvel unlimited subscription, so what does the Marvel Universe have to offer. Well, let’s take a look at this annual issue. Full disclosure, my knowledge of the X-men is limited. I’ve seen Wolverine and the X-men, and the movies. Yes, I haven’t actually seen the 90s show, sacrilege I know, but I was always more of a DC fan. I’m going into this more blind than I ever have before, lets see if this comic really does follow Stan Lee’s mantra ‘every comic is someone’s first’

A Strange Halloween - Netflix Retrospective - Locke and Key Season 1 Episodes 6-8

The family of Locke are in a new town

As long-buried secrets rise from the ground

Their father is dead, his killer roams free

But to fight this advancement, they may have the key

A magical home they’ve come to possess,

Filled with keys with powers they choose to assess,

One allows you to enter your head

Though fear is a monster you may come to dread

Kinsey has buried her fear in the ground,

Now her mind lacks restraint, not logically sound,

The keys keep calling, one gives you control,

But in drawing attention, there will come a toll

The ghost and the mirror, two powerful keys

Now in the hands of the youngest, Bode

As Dodge from her prison, the wellhouse, is free

She can go anywhere with the anywhere key.

Nina enquires to her husband’s old friends

But at every enquiry, she’s finding dead ends.

Like the death of a friend she cannot explain,

She looks at the bottle to relieve her of pain.

Memories haunting are found in some jars

Now Duncan may hold the key to the past.

More keys and answers may yet still be seen

But danger is lurking on A Strange Halloween.

We continue with Locke and Key as the mysteries have been heating up, and some of those lines from the poem are actually from the future? Let’s take a look and find out which

Rage4Media #86 - Artemis Fowl

Disney has definitely shown determination to continue to support its streaming service, whilst they don’t have the power of Netflix, which may well be a good thing given Netflix’s shaky financials, they certainly have a bunch of original films and tv shows to show off, many of them with a larger than average budget. We’ll be looking at the Marvel side of that soon, but today we’re going to look at the adaptation of Artemis Fowl, and why, despite having many of its core plot points, it's not a good adaptation.

Artemis Fowl was written by Eoin Coffer and released in 2011, it has spawned a successful series of 8 books, and a spin-off trilogy. Disney had helped publish some of the later novels, which appear to have had a bunch of different publishers over the years, so they were in a good position to vie for an adaptation. Originally intended for a theatrical release in 2020, covid changed their plans and it ended up being released on Disney+ instead. The film had a budget of $125m, that’s very expensive for a streaming film.

But the reception to the film with critics was pretty cold, with a mere 8% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. What happened here then? Let’s take a look.

A Strange Halloween Locke and Key Season 1 Episodes 3-5

The Lockes’ world is in disarray;

With Rendell’s death, there is dismay

Two face guilt, and drift apart

But the action is about to start

The well is open, Dodge is free

And in her hands, the anywhere key

Through any door, she can now pass

A power not easy to surpass

Into the mirror, a key opens the way

Another takes you inside your brain

For adults, the magic will be unseen

But the doors will open on A Strange Halloween

We’re taking another look at Locke and Key, what does the head key mean for the Locke siblings and their mother, well, let’s take a look.

Spies in Disguise

Being a spy is a dangerous game, never being sure who to trust, danger around every corner and having commit acts of malice in a crowd of enemies. But sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture, sometimes you need a… bird’s eye view

OK, it was a cheap joke but seriously, we’re looking at the last major effort of Blue-Sky Studios before it was absorbed into the House of Mouse. Blue Sky Studios is a mid-tier animation studio, most famously behind the Ice Age Films. The animation doesn’t carry the high bar of Pixar films, but bears a slightly higher prestige than say Illumination.

Anyway, Spies in disguise, based on the short film Pigeon: Impossible, though loosely from what I can tell, the film has a full-on celebrity voice cast featuring Will Smith, Tom Holland, Karen Gillen, Ben Mendelsohn and… DJ Khaled?

Anyway, the film released in December 2019 to a fairly positive reception but that didn’t translate well to money at the box office, the film received only $150m on its $100m budget. I don’t think Disney really cared whether this made money or not. Let’s dive in and see whether or not that’s a justified position.

A Strange Halloween - Netflix Retrospective - Locke and Key Season 1 Episodes 1-2

A father’s death leaves a family lost;

And grieving is not the only cost;

To start anew in a house their own;

They must face off with forces unknown 

Power lurks within this place;

Locked away without a trace;

But the keys and locks will soon be seen;

In Locke and Key on a Strange Halloween.

I'm gonna be delaying a Stranger Things retrospective until next year owing to it only being released a few weeks back [time of writing], I have something in mind for it, given the ungodly episode lengths. But instead, this Halloween, we’re looking at Locke and Key. Based on the comics written by Joe Hill with art by Gabriel Rodriguez, the series had a pilot developed for Fox, it didn’t make it past a pilot, but after a successful comic-con screening, they announced a feature film trilogy, which also didn’t make it. A pilot was made for Hulu but continuing the string of failures, Hulu also didn’t pick it up for a series. It’s at this point, Netflix came in, and gave the series a season order of 10 episodes. It dropped on February 2^nd 2020. [The Aug 10 date on the poster is for the most recent season] 

Pixar Playlist #24 - Luca

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

We’re almost caught up with Pixar’s films, only 2 remain at time of writing, Turning Red and Lightyear, the latter of which I have yet to watch. But before we get to them, we’ve got an adventure on the Italian riviera, with sea monsters. It’s Luca.

Luca is largely the brainchild of Enrico Casarosa, who loosely based the story on some of his own experiences growing up in Italy. Writing the story is Mike Jones, who was also one of the writers behind Soul and Jesse Andrews. Casarosa would direct, it’s his first directors’ credit in film, but he’d been working as at artist at Pixar since Cars, joining their senior creative team from Coco. He had also directed a short called La Luna back in 2011.

There were some roadblocks when it came to animation as COVID-19 lead to the shut-down of the Pixar Campus, so all the animators were working from home. Though not before some of the artists got some reference photos from the Italian Riviera to use as a guide for the film’s locations.

Luca was released on Disney+ in early 2021, some of the Pixar Animators were annoyed that it was released for free whilst Raya and the Last Dragon, a Disney Animation Studios Film had a premium price for 3 months. It did have a release in a few locations, but made back a mere $49m on it’s… Wikipedia doesn’t state the budget but $200m is the standard for Pixar, whilst having to adapt to working from home may have caused additional expenditure.

Disney+ Retrospective: Love, Victor Season 2 Episodes 7-10

OK, time for our final look at Love Victor season 2, starting with episode 7 and in this exciting episode:

• Adrian wonders what a lap dance is
• Felix and Lake go to an aquarium
• And Pilar watches Who Wants to be a Millionaire