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.

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.

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 1-3

The second season of Love, Victor was released not long after the first in the UK, it had been about a year in the US. The cliff-hanger of season 1 is about to be resolved, so in the series’ first exciting episode

• Isabel and Adrian play monopoly;
• Mia opens a box;
• And Armando buys a Turtle

Black Widow

Well, Endgame came and went, we got a Spider-man sequel and then COVID happened and everything got pushed back, Black Widow did eventually come out but about a year after it was intended to, its release continually delayed thanks to movie theatres being shuttered over the pandemic. Even then, the release was a partial release as a premium film on Disney+, which Scarlett Johansen, whose contract gave her a portion of box office receipts, was not happy about.

But that’s a matter for a different discussion. Black Widow is the first true film in the phase 4 slate, made up of both films and TV shows in the Disney+ Sphere. The timing though is a bit weird; Black Widow had died following Endgame and she’s been a presence in the Marvel-sphere since Iron Man 2, she was long overdue a headline role, but now it couldn’t be in a movie taking place in the present.

It's hard to attribute exactly the amount of money Black Widow made following its release, it made just shy of $400m in theatres, and $66m in its opening weekend on Disney+, though how that translates into revenue I’m not sure. But let's take a look at it and see if it holds up.

Disney+ Retrospective - High School Musical The Musical The Series Season 1

So, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, let’s take a quick look at the first season. Why am I doing a retrospective and not a breakdown, partly because I only have so much room in the schedule, and partly because season 2 felt too much like a straight comedy and doing a breakdown of the plot would be akin to telling all the jokes. But because my time has some value to me, I’ll be doing only the 10 episodes of the first season. 

Pixar Playlist #23 - Soul

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

Pixar Playlist #22 - Onward

It’s been a while since we did a Pixar Playlist, it’s time to Move Onward

This film is something to me because it’s the last film I saw before everything got shut down due to the Covid-19 outbreak. I was originally going to see the Vin Diesel outing Bloodsport when the cinemas shut.

What that means is that the film didn’t do very well at the Box Office, making $114m or thereabouts over its measly 2-week run. The film did better on Video on Demand, and helped boost a recently launched Disney Plus in the US, it took a while longer to come into the UK.

Dan Scallon is the head of this project and based the idea on his own life story and relationship with his brother. Scallon’s last Credited Pixar Film was Monsters University but we won’t hold that against him.

Disney Channel Musical Month - Descendants 2

OK, one of the rules of Disney Channel Musical month when I was pre-planning it was that it was one entry per franchise. But one of the movies that’s listed as a musical on google I’ve skimmed through and decided it doesn’t count as one. And rather than watch the Cheetah Girls movie, I’ve decided to throw the rules in the trash and do Descendants 2.

Why Descendants 2 and not Zombies 2 or Camp Rock 2? Because I actually like this one and goddamn it, I need a break from the crap. We’ve got a few new talents, China Anne McLain is in this one, she was the lead protagonist in the show ANT Farm, where she was a musical prodigy, which bodes well. Thomas Doherty had at the time been doing another Disney show called the Lodge, which also had musical elements. Dylan Playfair is also a major addition, he was in a show called Some Assembly Required, a sitcom that whilst funny often suffered from having too many comic relief idiots. He played one of them, Knox, probably the dumbest but nicest of them.

I guess I should mention the main cast too. Cameron Boyce (RIP) was in the sitcom Jessie and he was an uncomfortably creepy child in that show. Dove Cameron got the special Guest Star accreditation in Austin and Ally but had been the star of her own Disney Channel show Liv and Maddie, she played both of them.

Sofia Carson had been in an episode of Austin and Ally as well but this was her first major role in television. Bobboo Stewart had the most experiences, he was in 3 of the 4 Twilight Films, played Warpath in X-men: Days of Future Past, the last good X-men film, but no major Disney Channel appearances [he would later be one of the villains in Lab Rats: Elite Force but we don't talk about that here]. Mitchell Hope had been in a couple of shows in 2012 and I hear was on the verge of giving up acting entirely before landing this role. 

With all that completely necessary preamble out of the way, let’s take a critical look at Descendants 2.

Disney Channel Musical Month - Camp Rock

Are you ready to Rock?!!

I said ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!!

Yeah, me neither, next up is Camp Rock!

You remember the Jonas Brothers? You might do because they reformed and released tracks as recently as last year. You might remember Nick Jonas from the awful song Jealous and his appearance in the Jumanji sequels. But before all that they were in a Disney sitcom called Jonas.

Meanwhile we have then up-and-comer Demi Lovato, who was the guilty pleasure of one of my old uni friends. She’s gotten onto Disney’s radar through a short series As the Bell Rings, she later got roles in Sonny with a Chance and of course, Camp Rock.

Camp Rock was released in 2008 and according to Wikipedia, source of only the most reliable of information, is the third most watched Disney Channel Movie behind only High School Musical 2 and Wizards of Waverly Place, the movie. Is it worth the hype? I think my intro joke kinda spoiled that it isn’t.

Disney Channel Musical Month - Let it Shine

Another musical where the music is mostly diegetic? Here’s hoping it’s better than the last one. Tyler James Williams, not to be confused with his brother Tyrel Jackson Williams (of Lab Rats fame), or his other brother, Tylen Jacob Williams...  Anyway, aside from playing the older version of his younger brother at one stage, he also played the main role in sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, a show produced by and based on the life of comedian Chris Rock.

He also did a rap-based Disney Channel Musical called Let it Shine (Honestly, I just did that opening because of the confusing naming convention. Interesting choice, Williams family, also I have nothing else to say for this preamble)

Disney Channel Musical Month - Starstruck

So… I like Austin and Ally, and I even, to an extent like High School Musical. So surely one that combines the two would be something I really enjoy, right?

Starstruck was released in 2010 and was one of the most popular February Releases for the Disney Channel. It was also the first Disney Channel Original Movie from the 2010s Did they start on a high note? Let’s take a look and see why my answer is no

Disney Channel Musical Month - Z-O-M-B-I-E-S

It’s April which means, we’re a month late with the theme month!

The Disney Channel are known primarily for sitcoms, a few of which I covered last year and musicals. High School Musical is the most famous of these, with the 3^rd getting a full theatrical release but before and since there have been a whole bunch of them, some of them setting up their own little mini-franchises for better or worse. We’ve already covered the first High School Musical film and both the Teen Beach Movies but it’s time to look at a few more. Let’s start with a more recent Franchise, Z-O-M-B-I-E-S.

Based on a failed TV Pilot from 2012, Z-O-M-B-I-E-S was released in 2018, make of that what you will, and sharing the same writers of said pilot. The film was a success enough that a sequel was greenlit, Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2, maybe another time we’ll get to that but how does film stack up? Well…

Reb00t 1t - Ducktales Season 3

We’re back to the third and final season of the reboot of Ducktales, the show has been batting a really high average, most of the episodes have been great, with some real standout ones like The Last Crash of the Sunchaser! Whatever happened to Della Duck! And Raiders of the Doomsday Vault! To name a few. The show has established a vast world with a ton of supporting characters and given the antagonists a level of depth beyond simply hating scrooge. Even if they’re still over-the-top villain archetypes.

Mark Beaks has very little interest in Scrooge really, he’s mostly just a shewed but lazy tech businessman with a particular interest in Gizmoduck. He someone how managed to reclaim his company after Glomtales, maybe it was just his on-paper money he put into Glomgold’s scheme. Magika has been reduced to a wreck without her powers, and whilst still maniacally evil and hating Scrooge seems content to bide her time and get her powers back first. Glomgold was always meant to be a reflection of Scrooge and The Balad of Duke Baloney! Did a good job in realising that to its fullest whilst keeping his core attributes in-tact. Oh and the Beagle Boys and Ma Beagle have an interesting family dynamic and their beef with Scrooge is interesting.

But with season 3, we have Bradford Buzzard and F.O.W.L., easily the most effective and successful antagonists for the show. Magika had a plan of sorts that came to fruition throughout the season, but FOWL’s is a bit more intricate and complex and otherwise connects episodes they had nothing to do with.

And who better to solve a massive conspiracy and the resident nerd of the Duck triplets, Huey. Huey has been show to be smart, logical, efficient but also the least stable. When something challenges his perception of reality, he’s the first to completely break down. This happened a few times, when Dewey ended up favoured over him in The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks! And his interactions with Bubba Duck in Timephoon! To name a couple.

Let’s dive into season 3 and see how things progress.

Reb00t 1t - Ducktales Season 2

Time to take a look at the second season of Ducktales. In season one, Dewey got the bulk of the spotlight, but for season 2, the torch is passed to Louie. What will his character bring to the fold? Let’s take a look and find out.

Reb00t 1t - Ducktales Season 1

My history with the original Ducktales series is pretty limited but I watched the Treasure of the Lost Lamp and know the basic premise and some of the history. I was more a looney tunes than a Mickey Mouse guy growing up but in older age, I have grown to appreciate the wit of the Disney staple of characters as well.

But to business, Ducktales had a reboot, so welcome to Reb00t 1t

And because I’d rather not do another massive 50–100-episode retrospective I’m breaking this down by season. The Ducktales reboot premiered in 2016 and ran for 3 seasons, its finale airing in 2020. The show was a hit for Disney, making the rare jump from DisneyXD to the main Disney Channel, and has even found a life outside of the show with YouTube podcasts.

The show is primarily comedic, so we’re gonna glance over story developments that aren’t worthy of critique or contribute to character development. I may sum up some episodes in a couple of lines but I’ll give an overview of all the seasons, and break down episodes that I think are interesting or contribute to the shows overarching plot. We’ll be covering this in the intended Disney+ Order and not the original airing order.

Star Wars Month 2 - The Clone Wars Season 7 Arc 2 - Ahsoka

 It’s Star Wars Month

The rest of the 8 episodes of this series focus around the Journey of Ahsoka Tano after leaving the Jedi Order back in season 5. Her appearance as Fulcrum in Star Wars Rebels showed that she survived order 66, and has a new pair of lightsabres, white. The explanation for those came in the Ahsoka Novel, which stated that she’d won a battle with an inquisitor, unarmed, I might add.

The book also I believe introduced the concept that a sith lightsaber is red because the Khyber crystal undergoes a process known as bleeding, where you channel your hatred into it, I believe there may also be murder involved. This has made its way into the comics, in one of the recent Darth Vader runs, but I don’t think Japan got that memo in Visions. Now, the canonicity of the novel is not necessarily set in stone, as the final story arc will contradict its opening but I choose to believe until I hear otherwise that only the beginning isn’t canon and what happens from there lines up with the show.

They did this again, contradicting the original Caleb Dume origin from Greg Weisman’s Kanan comic when he shows up in the Bad Batch. But back on topic, one thing you could see from the Rebels s2 finale was that Ahsoka and Darth Maul had history. And novel implied that Ahsoka was on Mandalore at the time of Order-66 and had just beaten Maul. Now some of this has been retconned by the upcoming episodes but the core ideas are still there.

We also have some fallout on Maul’s side, after his ascension to the Throne of Mandalore, Bo-Katan and several other prominent members of Deathwatch abandoned him, forming a splinter cell of their own. This 4-parter begins the setup that will lead to the siege of Mandalore and the fallout there.

Star Wars Month 2 - The Mandalorian Season 1 Episodes 3-4

It’s Star Wars Month 2

We continue with the Mandalorian, what do the relics of the Empire want with a force-sensitive child? Let’s dig into episodes 3-4 and find out.

Star Wars Month 2 - The Clone Wars Season 7 Arc 1 - The Bad Batch

It’s Star Wars Month 2

One of my reviews from the original Star Wars Month was The Clone Wars. Whilst season 5 had a good ending and season 6 sewed a few seeds for Revenge of the Sith, there were definitely some loose ends that could be picked up on. There were a few more stories that were in production but not completed, but were released as lost stories online.

There were 2 main stories released as such, the Crisis on Utapau, featuring the location where Obi-Wan fought Grievous in revenge of the Sith, featuring the debut of Anakin’s revised hairstyle to match the aforementioned film and was the first time I’m aware of that they mentioned the plan to harvest Khyber Crystals, something that’s referenced repeatedly now. The other was the Bad Batch, which we’re going to cover as it was remastered for the Disney+ Season.

Other works related of note include Son of Dathomir which sees the revelation that Darth Maul is in fact the son of Mother Talzin and his capture at the end of the s5 episode Lawless was part of plan to finally end her, which unfortunately does happen. Something else that happens is Maul’s crime syndicate starts backing out after facing repeated separatist attacks, not sure if that part’s still canon given what happens in his story this season.

Another is Dark Disciple, which was released as a novel, probably would’ve been the show’s most ambitious storyline featuring another attempt to assassinate Count Dooku by Asajj Ventress, this time with Jedi Quilan Vos. Ventress dies in this storyline although there was some ambiguity there if they wanted to bring her back.

As for Mandalore, a lot of it was up in the air, but it was revealed in the Ahsoka novel, and hinted at during Rebels that Ahsoka was directly involved in a Siege of Mandalore by the Republic and we find out in Rebels that she saw Anakin not long before the events of the film. Ahsoka’s future in the Clone Wars was less certain, with one rough-cut animated scene of her crashing a speeder bike.

OK, but let’s get to business, I don’t know what the rights deal was with Cartoon Network, who originally hosted the show but evidently, it’s been resolved as all of The Clone Wars is available on Disney+, and, exclusive to that streaming service, a final season of 12 episodes to cap off the show’s run. 12 episodes is not massive so a few stories that were planned still didn’t make the cut. Cad Bane, a long-running antagonist of the show, wouldn’t show up again until The Bad Batch spinoff show. There was an episode planned with him and Boba Fett. Plus, we aren’t getting adaptations of Son of Dathomir or Dark Disciple. Crisis on Utapau will also remain in its current form, no upgrade for that one.

Were these episodes always planned out to be the way they were, I don’t know. Maul’s control over the underworld post the war was only ever established in Solo and I think that may have caused them to backpedal on Maul’s underworld crumbling like it was doing in Son on Dathomir. But one episode that was planned from the beginning was The Bad Batch, why did this episode get a remaster, well because it has rampant spinoff potential. As of writing this, The Bad Batch has had one season and has been renewed for a second. It’s actually occupying a fairly unique period in Star Wars history, the stage of transition between the Republic and the Empire. Most stories in this period begin with the Empire fully realised.

But I’ve just spent a whole page of my review with preamble and usually this bit is only a line or two, let’s take a look at the first of these stories and see how Star Wars bids farewell to the Clone Wars for the third time.

Disney+ Retrospective - Love, Victor Season 1 Episodes 7-10

OK, we’re a go for one last run through Love, Victor. Will Victor find himself this season? Let’s take a look.