Another Live Action One: Mulan

"Did you hear we're being remade in live action?"

"I'm not being played by Jackie Chan, am I?"

It seems Disney is developing another live action remake of one of their animated classics, Mulan. This is unbelievable. Disney already has four remakes coming in the next two(!) years, and then there's Dumbo that hasn't gotten a release date yet and now Mulan. That's six remakes, plus the three that's been released in the last five years. I'm trying to think if any company has remade so many of their own movies.

What is the reason for them making remake after remake after remake? I guess money is the answer, the remakes have been grossing fairly well. But I don't want to think that the people at Disney are only in it for the money, there has to be more than that. I think a movie could be up for a remake if it's set in an older time, and you want to update the technology and set it in a present time. With all phones and Internet it could change quite a bit of the story, for example Romeo and Juliet would be quite different in present time. But here's the thing. The Disney classics are fairytales and they are being remade as fairytales, in the same time and age. Why do you update a story if you're not going to update it?

And the major thing is, we've already seen the story. We've seen Mulan, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast. We want to see something new. Let me give you Disney's upcoming live action movies: original, original, Star wars, remake, sequel to remake, remake, original, remake, Star Wars, sequel, Star Wars, Star Wars. That's three original movies, two sequels, four remakes and four Star Wars movies. And I'm not even sure how many of the Star Wars movies are sequels. And then Dumbo and Mulan which are not on the list yet.

Not everyone will agree with me now, but I think a movie studio should have more original movies than sequels/remakes. I want to see more original stories from Disney, because I know they can be great. It hasn't happened often yet but I believe they can turn that around, like they did with their animated movies.

Image from here

Big Hero 6 Review - SPOILERS!

I finally saw Big Hero 6. It's been out in Sweden for over a month and I can't believe it took me this long to see it, but now I've rectified it. And my general feeling right now, five minutes after watching it is: disappointment. I'm sad to write that because I honestly want to love this movie, but I'm not sure I do.

The main issue with this movie is probably that it's way too short, it doesn't give time for anything more than the bare minimum story elements. This is a big problem when you have a cast of seven, five of them being big secondary characters. It's only Hiro that gets any character development, at all. Since the title is Big Hero 6 you'd think this was a team movie, like Avengers and Rise of The Guardians, but it doesn't do anything to make us really care about anyone else but Hiro, Tadashi and Baymax.

The character development is really underwhelming. What do we learn about the characters? Wasabi is pedantic, Fred has a rich family. There isn't much else there. They seem to like each other somewhat, but I don't really see any love except towards Tadashi. Do they hang out outside of school? I have no idea. I saw them briefly in the Hamada home when Hiro was building the robots, but where they hanging just for fun or were they helping? I felt no connection between them and Hiro at all, despite them being very excited about his project.

Another thing they could have explored a little more was Tadashi's death, or in particular, the mourning. Since the rest of the movie is based on Hiro wanting revenge, I'd like to have seen a bit more effect on him, and stayed in the grieving face a little longer. Also the scene where Hiro orders Baymax to kill the villain was good, but could have been made a lot stronger.

The scene where they decide to be super heroes was way too fast. Almost no one is objecting (except for "we're just us", which is such a set up line), no one suggests calling the police or even discuss what's happened for very long. They just decide to be super heroes and then they do it. No one seems scared, even though they were almost killed by the villain just an hour earlier.

Finally, Baymax "sacrifice". We all know this scene, someone sacrifices him/herself, then you're sad for two minutes and then you find out they survived one way or another. I didn't mind that there was a scene like that, but I think they should either have made it longer so you really have time to start doubting the return and be sad for a while, or made it very short so it isn't such a big deal. (Robot, remember?)

Let's get onto the good things in the movie. First of all, it's beautiful! The flying scene was gorgeous, the city looks amazing and the animation is top notch. Baymax is the perfect amount of fun without being distracting, and the movie has both a lot of heart and some humor. All the main characters are likeable, and it was interesting seeing a villain that wasn't just evil.

That's where my disappointment comes from I guess. Big Hero 6 could have been a really great movie, but as it is it's only very good. And I was hoping for, and expecting, more than very good. 

The struggle is real: A nerd in Sweden

To live in Sweden, and be a huge animation nerd, it's not that easy. The amount of time we have to wait for some (and by some I mean most) animated movies from the other side of the Atlantic is ridiculous. For example, Book of Life, that came out now in October in the US, will not premiere here until April. That's six months! Let me tell you what is going to happen in those six months, in particular on the Internet. The first month is going to be a lot of hype around the movie. People will go see it, they will tweet their non-spoiler thoughts, and write reviews, most often non spoilers. The second month, people, and the companies, will start to slowly spoil the movie. They start to write more details, make and upload gifs and so on, so you start to get more insight into the movie. The third month, it's full on quotes, whole scenes in gif and reviews with spoilers. You start to get a pretty good idea about a lot of things happening in the movie. Then it's month four. Now the DVD and Blu-ray comes out. Then the companies start to release behind the scenes footage, which gives you more of the movie and now you're starting to figure most of the movie out. Month five, if you're unlucky you will read what the twist ending is because people don't write "spoiler" anymore, because now the movie has been out for ages. After that it's finally month six, and our turn to watch the movie. And no one really cares anymore. It's now time for the next animated movie to premiere over there, so if you want to write about the movie that just premiered here, it won't be current anymore. People will not care as much, and they won't participate as much and discuss it with you (they have probably forgotten what happened).

The Internet life certainly has it's up and downs, and I'm not blaming it for this. These six months of life the movies get is great, if you live where you're in the swing of things. Well okay, this is probably an extreme example, most recent movies are about two to four months. And once we even got it before the US, at least according to Imdb. Ice Age 4 came out a little more than two weeks earlier in Sweden. My question is why we always get the long wait. I understand that they need to dub and sub the movie and that takes time. But they can obviously do it faster and get it done earlier, so why don't they?

A second issue which will bug any nerd, is that it's very hard to find a showing that hasn't got a Swedish dubbing. Our dubbing, and weather it's good or not aside, I want to see the original voices, because that's the voices they have animated after. They are the people that have been part of the project for a long time, and they are the people who own these characters (in a "own the stage" kind of way.) But when I go to the cinema, I find maybe one of fifteen screenings that are in English. Most of them are in Swedish, the Swedish dubs get's the best times, the biggest screens. And it really limits my ability to go and see them in English. I know that countries like Germany and Spain has it even worse, they seem to get most things dubbed, but I still think we can get better at this. Now Sweden is a country that is pretty good at speaking and understanding English, since we learn it from early on. So I don't know why they have to force everyone to just watch things with Swedish voices. I get that small children need that, but as soon as they are pretty capable of reading, why not take them to movies with English voices? They will greatly improve their English skills, which is much needed in this day and age, and they will also be faster readers. I know it's about money, most people do go and see the Swedish version. But how can we make that choice if we're not allowed to make a fair choice?

Images: Disney

Netflix watch: The Tigger Movie

I decided to start a new category of blogposts where I recommend movies you can find on Netflix. These will be spoiler free, so you can read on safely. If you're not familiar with it, Netflix is a movie streaming service where you pay about 8 dollars a month and then you can watch all the movies they have on their site, as many times as you want. There are other sites but I think Netflix is one of the biggest, and they have quite a good selection of movies and series and constantly adding new things. Now they do have a different selection of movies based on where you're located. I'm finding my choices on the US site, so they might not exist on your netflix. But let's get into the movie.

The Tigger Movie focuses, as you may have guessed, on Tigger. When no one wants to jump with him he starts wonder if he has a family somewhere that are just like him, and decides to start looking for them. Winnie the Pooh and the rest of the friends tries to help, but sadly fail and make everything worse for Tigger.

This really is a great movie. The story is simple but powerful, dealing with family and loneliness, and how even the happiest guy in the group can have a hard time. The characters are all wonderful, you have a great time hanging with them. Even though this is Tigger's movie, all the characters get screentime and their "moment", something that can be difficult with a semi big cast but they pull it off well. But they also know where the focus should be, on Tigger. The animation is also really good, it's smooth and they manage to get a lot of expression out of the characters. The movie is heavy with emotion, so I will warn you, you might shed a tear. But it's also funny and very sweet, and if you have missed it, you should go and watch it now.

Images: Netflix.com, Disney.com

Thoughts About Big Hero 6 Trailer

Now that the second trailer for Disney's Big Hero 6 is out I think it's time I gave my two cents about it. First I have to say, the trailer looks great. It makes me really excited to see the movie, like a good trailer should. I haven't really been on the BH6 hype train so far, but with this trailer I'm carefully climbing aboard.

I think this movie is gonna be a really good one. It will probably not do as well as Frozen, or be as good, but it will keep Disney loud and proud. Disney has undeniably a good thing going on right now, everything seems to click. The movie seems like it's going to be a really fun one, but with a lot of heart and of course, action. As long as they mix those right, it'll be a joy to watch it. Baymax seems like such an enjoyable character, funny and loveable at the same time. He will also probably kick some major ass.

My one worry about the movie is that the other characters won't get enough screentime or development. Except for Baymax and Hiro, there are four other main characters, that in the trailers have looked more like sidekicks. Since it's called Big Hero 6 I would assume that there are six main characters, but it seems like Hiro and Baymax will get all the attention and character growth. Which isn't bad, it's good to focus on a few characters and give them more screen time, but it's called Big Hero 6.

I also have to mention the designs, like everyone else already has. The city and the world looks incredible. I think this movie will lend itself pretty nicely to 3D, except for the fact that the glasses will wash out and darken the colors. I don't know if it will be shown in 3D, but I'm assuming that's the case. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to watching Big Hero 6, it looks like it will be a fun and heartfilled adventure.