Well, it looks as though Pixar is finally running out of ideas. Of the four films it's set to release within the next two years, only one, Brave, is an original idea. Everything else is a sequel; Toy Story 3, Cars 2 and Monsters Inc. 2 (the latter of which being scheduled for release in late November 2012, so close to the apocalypse!). Now, don't get me wrong, I think most of Pixar's films are utterly brilliant (aside from Finding Nemo, but don't get me started on why I hate that), but Pixar has been the driving force behind Disney's creative and original output for over ten years now. Surely it's the beginning of the end when they have to start putting out sequels because they can't think of a unique story? This means all hopes of Disney's originality rest on the new hand-drawn animated features they've promised to deliver every two years, which could kill Disney as we all remember it for good.
As soon as Disney said they were returning to their hand-drawn roots, there was an uproar of delight from my generation, the generation that grew up during the infamous Disney Renaissance. With a string of below-average box office failures under his belt, Michael Eisner knew he had to produce something spectacular to send Disney flying back to the throne they deserved. And so they produced The Little Mermaid, and the renaissance had begun. Forget the boring renaissance that started in the 14th Century, statues and paintings and the like can't hold a candle to The Lion King and Aladdin. After years of disappointment, in the space of 10 years Disney managed to prove to the world why it was so universally loved, and everything was good. But what about now?
The problem with modern day Disney is that they've forgotten who they're appealing to. Sure, the kids all love this Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana tripe they keep churning out, but that's because those kids weren't there. They have no idea how awesome Disney can be, and end up settling for this gangrenous swill because it's all they've got to go on. So our generation is left disgusted and alienated, wondering where it all went wrong. If only Disney had done more to appeal to us than fart out sub-par, direct-to-DVD sequels to all our favourite films, things might be different. They seem to forget that we're the generation that's going to produce the children watching their stuff and giving them money in the next five, ten or fifteen years. Which is probably why this animated surge has suddenly come about.
But what if it fails? What if these animated films stay to the same quality as the barely average The Princess And The Frog? We'll be even more disillusioned than before, and we certainly won't allow our kids to watch their output. "Daddy, can I watch the Disney channel?" "WHAT? And put me through the ordeal of watching High School Musical 15? I think not! I'd rather spread Marmite all over my eyeballs!" (This example doesn't have the same effect if you like Marmite, so 50% of you will, statistically, 'not get it') Disney are playing a risky game here, with everything to gain and even more to lose. But if it works out, things might be just as good as they ever were! Which is something I can't say the same about for other well-loved animated productions...
South Park's 200th episode was a great episode, but I also hated it immensely. Going into it, I knew they were going to refer a lot to their glorious back catalogue of hilarious and offensive episodes, but it just turned out looking like a massive ego-stroking session. Matt and Trey have every idea how brilliant their show is, so they shamelessly filled this episode with references to older episodes, most of which had no bearing on the plot, they were just time fillers, which really annoyed the fans. The episode itself was great, but what we wanted was an original story with various significant call-backs justified by the plot. Instead we were given a story quite clearly scrapped together in two minutes, loosely referred to in a two-episode long clip-show of all their favourite South Park moments.
The main background to the episode was clearly the creators doing their best to not-so-subtly voice their opinions on free speech and censorship, while offending as many Muslims as possible for good measure. Well done guys, but I'm quite sure your opinions were pretty well interpreted during the Cartoon Wars episodes - you don't think this should be a 'one rule for one, another rule for another' world. I'm inclined to agree with them though, the free speech in this world is ridiculous. Apparently it's ok for South Park to show Buddha snorting coke or Jesus looking at porn, but we must avoid showing Mohammed at all costs, lest the Muslims bomb us! Just because various extremist (I can't emphasise that word enough) Muslim groups have acted violently towards the West doesn't mean they're all like that. And I'm quite sure the Crusades proved that Christians can be rather violent if they want to be.
I hate to use the phrase "it's political correctness gone mad", but I just have. The problem is it's not the political correctness of the common people that's the problem, it's the executives, all sat in their shiny offices, wearing suits more expensive than my house and trying to control the world. Sure, they'll let us make fun of Buddhists and Christians because they can take it and won't do anything about it, except maybe write a strongly worded letter. But watch out lads! Don't piss off the 'Muzzos', because they're all super violent, yeah? And they'll, like, totally blow us up, man! And that's, like, totally bad for business!
So yes, I agree with Matt and Trey about their message about censorship, but it doesn't make the 200th episode any better because they just repeated the exact same message they made in Cartoon Wars, except taking it to a higher and grander level. Even jokes were reused again and again, signifying that maybe Parker and Stone have run out of ideas as well. Is this what the "impending" 2012 apocalypse is all about? Are we all going to run out of original thoughts until we end up repeating history itself, causing the world to get confused as to what year it is and implode? Or perhaps will the multitude of offended Muslims kill us all for taking things "too far"?
I'll tell you one thing though; if the world is going to end in December 2012, Monster's Inc. 2 had better be good. I don't want to die disappointed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment