Month: May 2019

These days, Disney is seemingly building its reputation on live-action remakes, animated sequels and basically by slowly conquering the world. I’ve already spoken about my upset over the studios newfound hesitance to release anything animated and original, and how this has actually ended production on promising projects such as the Jack and the Beanstalk adaptation Gigantic. And for a moment, I feared that Pixar was following in a similar path, with the studio only producing The Incredibles 2 in 2018 alone – a shame considering that before then they produced one of the best movies of 2017, Coco.

The end of last year saw the release of a movie that defied expectations. The film was a small film based around the ups and downs of an iconic British performer, who struggled in life with depression, drugs and alcohol, this film was called Bohemian Rhapsody. The film of course went on to be a roaring success, becoming one of the highest grossing films of the year and even bagging a few Academy awards in the process. But that doesn’t mean the film didn’t have its own ups and downs behind the camera. In the earliest stages of its development, a little-known British actor/director named Dexter Fletcher was chosen to head the project, with Fletcher himself viewing the film as his creative baby. However, Fletcher soon found himself booted from the project, with infamous Hollywood director, Bryan Singer being brought in instead. Of course Singer is a controversial figure in any conversation, and although he did direct portions of the final product, it was Fletcher who actually completed the principal filming, basically saving the film from combusting.

There has always been something engaging about Disney’s Aladdin, the third picture to be directed by Disney duo, Musker and Clements, the film did something that no Disney film had really done before – it took a non-western culture and made it into animated magic. Although now there may be some issue taken with that statement, seeing as Disney’s relationship with race and culture is definitely a turbulent one, Aladdin still remains one of the studio’s best.

Ten years ago, the very notion of a cinematic universe was laughable. Another huge gambit made by Hollywood to make a quick buck. But, above all sense and reason, Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios were able to pull it off. Inadvertently creating the most lucrative and ground-breaking cinematic franchise of the 21^st Century. And now with twenty-two releases to its name, as well as a handful of Oscar nominations, it would seem that the MCU has reached its climax. And yet, in some ways, Avengers: Endgame feels more like a beginning than any of the previous Marvel instalments.