Pixar Playlist #21 - Toy Story 4

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

I thought Toy Story 3 had a perfectly fine ending and that extending it further would likely result in an inferior product. I’m glad to have been proven wrong.

Toy Story 4 was not immediately greenlit after the success of Toy Story 3, they let it linger and eventually someone came back with an idea that could work and it was greenlit. Toy Story is still one of their most popular franchises and those keep the lights on.

The film stuck with the budget as the third at $200m, and was positively received, scoring an average 8.3/10 with 97% of critics reviewing it favourably. The film also grossed more than $1bn at the box office making it another success under Disney’s belt for 2019. So where do I rank it, well, let’s take a look.

Disney+ Retrospective: Love, Victor Season 1 Episodes 1-3

I have said before how much I enjoy Love, Simon both the book and the film and at the time I pointed out there was a series by the same people taking place in the same world that had my interest. It was originally going to come out on Disney+ but some content issues, apparently related to the consumption of Alcohol had Disney deem it not Family Friendly enough for the Platform and it got relocated to Hulu, Disney’s other streaming service. But the UK does not have Hulu, and Disney has a plethora of adult content that it can use to squeeze more money out of us gullible watchers, so came the launch of the STAR (not to be confused with STARZ, co-producers of the awful Torchwood: Miracle Day) the adult section for Disney Plus where Love, Victor (and for some reason not Love, Simon) eventually found its way.

I was originally going to review High School Musical: The Musical: The Series but ultimately decided that the show is more fitting for a series retrospective, as the focus is on comedy and less so a story, something I’ll touch upon when I eventually review it. But Love, Victor has the same number of episodes and a similar episode length so let’s get to it.

But before we do, a couple of pre-review bits: I have now read Leah on the Offbeat and it did, I don’t know about ‘fix’ her but it made me see Leah in a better light. The downside of this is Nick kinda got the shaft. Love, Creekwood, a recent entry that supposedly serves as a prelude to this show, (something I will get back to) barely features him at all.

Also, a few corrections from my Love, Simon review, only Bram (Blue’s) email was book accurate. The book and the film both take place between September and February, though my criticism of the Anniversary plotline still stands.

So, let’s dig into Love, Victor and see what this show does.  

RageLite review - Knives Out

I’m not going to sugarcoat this, I freaking love The Last Jedi.

After a movie that felt far too safe, it was nice to see a Star Wars film that took creative risks, the visuals are incredible and it had interesting pathos and themes. The problems, though often landing at Rian Johnson’s feet, stem from the higher ups having no idea what they’re doing and not having a creative framework in place for the story. It’s no wonder The Rise of Skywalker back-peddled so hard on it. It’s not faultless, of course, but it actually does have me excited for a film trilogy where Rian Johnson can plan it start to finish.

But of course, I know others don’t see it that way, they see Rian’s attempts to subvert expectations to be frustrating and to an extent I understand that. Still, let’s take him away from an established franchise like Star Wars and see if that method actually works.

Knives Out is a murder mystery story in the same vein as an Agatha Christie story. $40m budget, $311m at the box office, high ratings with both audiences and critics and a Netfix deal for 2 sequels worth more than the box office takings of this movie.

Netflix Retrospective - The Dragon Prince Book 2 (Sky) Chapters 7-9

We're back for one last look at The Dragon Prince as I finally catch up with all the pre-summer releases, horray? 

Pixar Playlist #20 - Incredibles 2

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

Sequels are a tricky business for Pixar, they’ve had some good ones, and some mediocre ones, and a terrible one. But this era of Pixar is continuing to pump them out and why not a sequel to a pretty popular film, the Incredibles.

The popularity of Superheroes in pop culture in the 2010s made a sequel to this feel more and more inevitable. But that is a double-edged sword as it enters into a pretty saturated market. They weren’t even safe in the animated department as Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse was due to come out in the same year, a film that would beat it to an Oscar in an uncommon loss for Disney.

But what they have to their advantage is resources. No-longer do they need to dedicate time and money for developing the physics since the technology already exists within the company, all the have to do is transfer all the models to the new software and update them. And speaking of resources, $200m is also helpful and far more than any other studio gives to their animated projects.

And the film was successful, raking in $1.2bn at the box office, this in spite of Disney swapping the schedule and losing a full year of development time. Let’s see where it fits on my list

Netflix Retrospective - The Dragon Prince Book 2 (Sky) Chapters 4-6

RageLite review - Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse

It’s the early 2000s and in an attempt to attract new readers with stories without decades of continuity, Brian Michael Bendis and a few other writers launch the Ultimate Universe, and one of the first stories to come out was Ultimate Spider-man. This Spider-man was younger, and more relatable to kids and teens, as was the original aim for Spider-man, but there came a time when this fresh start became old again, and the decision was made to kill of Peter Parker and replace him with a new Spider-man, Miles Morales. And whilst there were plenty of haters of anyone other than Peter taking up the mantle of Spider-man, Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli brought their A-game and the character was a hit with readers, so much so that when they pulled the trigger on the Ultimate Universe, he was one of maybe 2 characters spared.

Miles currently fills the void Peter once filled, whilst Peter in the comics is in his mid-late 20s, Miles is now the young Spider-man to appeal to teens. Him being bi-racial allowed him to appeal to non-white audiences who may not have seen themselves in Peter.

I have read every Miles Morales solo book, I followed him through years of Bendis, and am still following him now Bendis has moved to DC. His popularity has transcended the comics, he appeared in both Disney produced Spider-man shows, made appearances in Insomniac’s PS4 Spider-man game and got his own PS4/PS5 spinoff game. And of course, there’s Into the Spider-verse, a movie from Sony Animation Studios centred around Miles Morales.

I must admit, I was really happy to hear about a Miles Morales film coming out, but I was less ecstatic to hear that would also be a multiverse crossover with multiple spider-men and spider-women. I was concerned that with all the multiversal chaos Miles’ own story would be lost in the shuffle, but with Phil Lord and Chris Miller on board, I hoped we were in for something and, spoiler alert, we got it. This film won the Academy Award for best animated movie, and made $375m on a $90m budget, and got a pretty striking 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Is it worthy of all that praise? Well, let’s take a look