Toy Story 4 has surpassed this significant hurdle in less than two months…
This, the fifth film already surpassing the billion dollar mark for Disney, with The Lion King, Aladdin, Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel all also passing that level earlier in 2019…
Toy Story 4 is now the 8th highest grossing animated film in history. Earning $421.8 million at the domestic box office, in addition to $579.9 million raked in overseas.
With a nine year gap since Toy Story 3, due to various production delays and release date conflicts, the delay appears not to have dampened the spirits of fans of Woody and the gang all across the globe.
Once more a Disney fan favorite is remade to record smashing box office receipts.
With a record $185M in it’s opening weekend in the US and a total Cume of $531M globally, the digital “faux” live action fantasy remake scores the highest ever domestic debut for a PG flick, and the ninth-biggest first week for any rating.
After being almost universally panned by critics for being, allegedly, to much of an exact copy of the original 1994 animated version, albeit with the technical twist, which was lauded, generally.
With overall box office performance in 2019 trailing the previous year by nine percentage points, going into the King’s inaugural weekend, it was a welcome event for industry insiders, as the feline’s performance lowered that deficit by almost two points, as the weekend tally began to emerge.
The powerful cat attracted female audience attentions by an almost 60% majority, a stat borne out by our own research.
Favreau’s recreation of the “everything the light touches’’ scene is perhaps not significantly different in content, yet is a new form of experience due to the presentation. This is the iconic scene where King Mufasa explains to his son Simba where and how they rule. Even better, James Earl Jones reprises his roll as King Mufasa, and delivers a commandingly enunciated speech once again.
For those who have not yet seen a preview of the box office wonder, the official trailer can be viewed above.
Don’t get me wrong, I am down with trips to see the Summer Blockbuster Sequels, Re-makes and Prequels, kids in tow and everyone knowing what to expect.
The Lion King, a film with huge promotion and advertising, and, in spite of the critics complaining about it being a computer generated clone, story wise, will nevertheless kill at the box office, Toy Story 4, an always skillful addition to the long and vaunted story of Toy Story, Spider-man: Far From Home, where nobody knows what number this sequel is, 6(?), by now we just pay and watch.
All of these are perfectly ok, solid summer tent pole fare, and only those living under a proverbial rock could miss seeing them at some point this season.
But an entertainingly ridiculous, and yet dark and even topical film (addressing “toxic masculinity” as a problem and a punch line at the same time), that has no superheroes and no computer generated kitty cats? That, I admit, I did not see coming.
“The Art of Self Defense”, currently in theaters, is the second film by writer / director Riley Sterns and stars Eisenberg who plays Casey Davies, an introverted, passive weakling who, after being attacked by a gang, is inspired to search for self defense methods.
After exploring the possibility of arming himself, he happens across an advertisement for a karate dojo.
This, inevitably, leads to a continuous transformation as the weakling gains not only skills of self defense, but goes on a wild ride into the universe of aggression and toxic masculinity that is at once incredible entertaining, tremendously funny and also, somehow, unsettling. It carries an altered tone in light of the recent explosion of animalistic behavior exposed from the likes of Weinstein, JefferyEpstein, and the guy in the White House.
A SEQUEL TO KARATE KID? Ha Ha, Nope
Alessandro Nivola is spot-on as the charismatic Sensei, while Imogen Poots is the perfect macho-chick foil as Anna, but the film ultimately rests on, and revolves around, it’s identity as the perfect vehicle for Eisenberg’s trademarked awkward, meekness. A meekness that belies a dark, yet thoughtful intensity beneath.
In a world of endless super hero sequels and remakes, I don’t about you, but for this scribe, a dark, intense and absoforkinglutely hilarious indie comedy is a powerfully satisfying and welcome break from all that, and some of the dire realities of our world as well.
Jon Favreau’s new reimagining of the Disney classic “The Lion King”, in spite of a spate of less than stellar reviews, looks to be positioned for a huge opening weekend. Although at CinemaCon, the press were floored by newly released footage from the faux-live-action, photo-realistic movie, the final preview of the completed film in theaters struck many as a hollow, albeit, beautiful. shell.
The expectations appear to have been so high, based on the trailer (above), and the overall powerful impression made by the advanced, computer generated, live action treatment, that an expansion of the impact of the story was highly anticipated.
Instead many reviewers panned the lack of any new pot twists or character revisions, or, at least, any surprises, once the effect of the beauty of the presentation wore off in the full length film.
In spite of any negative impact made by critics, it does seem assured that the momentum of the huge feel-good blockbuster campaign, the vast love for the original movie and the characters and the absolutely unmistakable visual quality will, nevertheless, assure a huge inital turnout.
Favreau’s recreation of the “everything the light touches’’ scene is perhaps not significantly different in content, yet is a new form of experience due to the presentation. This is the iconic scene where King Mufasa explains to his son Simba where and how they rule. Even better, James Earl Jones reprises his roll as King Mufasa, and delivers a commandingly enunciated speech once again.
Similarly, Favreau recently reimagined “The Jungle Book” in pseudo real VFX style. Jungle Book won several awards for its visual effects, including the Academy Award for Visual Effects in 2017. The award winning team returned with Favreau for “The Lion King”.
Classics reimagined
Although Disney has been recreating some of their classic animated movies in hybrid CGI / live action form, technology for a full VFX treatment seems to be catching up with the ideas and nostalgia.
The “re-boot and reimagining” isn’t an uncommon concept in Hollywood. Warner Bros. is reworking a stand-alone Joker origin story prequel, to be released in the fall, for example. But Disney’s new visual interpretations stir excitement and nostalgia all at once. This looks like a fresh and exciting take and I’m looking forward to the full experience.
The Lion King is Opening big in Theaters starting tomorrow
