Batson's Blog

I'll give Dumbo credit. While Aladdin made unnecessary changes from the 90s version and The Lion King was pretty much an awkward, lesser CGI'd version from that 90s version, Dumbo told an original story. The problem is: that it just wasn't very good. To me, there's still no better live action movie than Maleficent . It reminded me of 'The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs.' It told the story from the opposite perspective. Dumbo added several characters that weren't in Disney's classic animated version, but most of them weren't that exciting. The movie had some predictable greedy characters and some dull heroes. Michael Keaton , Danny Devito , Colin Farrell and Eva Green weren't bad casting choices, but their characters weren't that exciting. The children meant nothing to me. I had zero cares for them. They had way too much screen time. The writers actually gave one of the kids a line in the movie where she said, ...

I'm torn on the Disney live action movies. There are a couple ( Maleficent , The Jungle Book ) that have been surprisingly good. Some ( Cinderella , Beauty & The Beast ) that have been just OK. Then there are some ( Aladdin , Maleficent 2 ) that haven't been that impressive at all. The Lion King falls into the 'OK' category. While those in charge of this movie didn't make the same mistakes that Aladdin did in deviating much from the original script, they had mistakes of their own. If you're not telling a new story (like in Maleficent or Dumbo ), then why exactly are you making the movie? If I want to watch The Lion King , then wouldn't I just watch the 90's version? What's the point? So that I can see overdone CGI instead of colorful animation? Sure, I guess it has the 3-D aspect going for it, but I couldn't care less about that. Disney is really in a no win situation. They can make a live action version of the same 90s cl...

Disney is capitalizing on the large set of characters that have become icons through their various projects over the last 50 years. Maleficent , featuring Angelina Jolie in the title role, is set to be released next year on May 30. Disney describes the movie as "the untold story" of "a beautiful, pure-hearted young woman" who has "an idyllic life growing up in the peaceable forest kingdom" until an evil army invades the land. " Maleficent rises to be the land’s fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal—an act that begins to turn her pure heart to stone. Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading king’s successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom—and perhaps to Maleficent’s true happiness as well." Ever since I read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs , I've enjoy...