Camera One

Have y'all watched the trailer to "Once Upon a Studio", a short film to celebrate Walt Disney's 100th anniversary? It's airing on ABC on October 15th. We should all watch it and comment here. 😀

I forgot to mention, I thought the "Daughters of the 7 Seas" concept was interesting and something that "Once" could have explored. Though it made me wonder about how Triton had a different partner in each part of the world. Yikes. We've discussed it before, but "Once" could have done so much with mythology here. Triton and his relationship with Hades could have linked the story with Hercules. "Once" did capitalize on Ariel swimming around from one part of the world to another, though.

I thought this remake was mildly entertaining. For me, it fell somewhere between the live action "Beauty and the Beast" (which felt like a pale and uninspired retread of the original) and the live action "Aladdin" (which was slightly more interesting than this one). The visuals were pretty and the casting was solid, but the first half of the movie under the sea wasn't very engaging because it just went over the same points without adding anything. I found the pacing a bit odd and it lacked the flow that the original movie had. I couldn't tell that several days had passed between the shipwreck and Sebastian finding Ariel. "Under the Sea" felt thrown in and unnecessary when it just felt natural in the original. I expected them to add more to flesh out Ariel's interest in the above world, or Triton's history with Ursula, or even Ariel's sisters, but none of this was explored. I found it more interesting once this movie diverged a bit from the animated one (basically, once the story went on land). Ariel and Eric connecting over his collection, with her wordlessly impressing him with what she knew was good. They did a solid job of showing how their friendship developed. Though Ariel not having her memory of the witch's contract made her very passive. The Caribbean setting was interesting, and I was surprised it was set in our world vs. a completely imaginary world. I always looked forward to Alan Menken's new songs, but these ones disappointed me. The musical performances were fine, but not captivating. He recycled some of the melody from Aladdin's deleted song for Eric's musical number. Overall, I found the movie likeable enough, but like the other live actions, don't really hold a candle to the animated version. I actually want these live-actions to do well in the box office/streaming, though, since I think live-action sequels might actually be more interesting. I would be more excited to see a live-action "Little Mermaid II" or "Aladdin II" to see where the characters go from here now that they have been established.

I have been dancing around when I was going to watch it, but your post made me finally take the plunge. I agree the casting was fine and it was watchable, and especially your point that it didn't add much of note. The story didn't seem to flow as well, for some reason. I thought Eric was more interesting than Ariel for most of it. I was hoping they would explore a bit more why Ariel was interested in the world above. I thought they would have a flashback of her mother taking her up to see the humans, or something to that effect. The actress did a good job with Ursula, though she was monologuing a bit too much. They got specific that she was exiled for 15 years, but did nothing to explore her backstory at all. Not that I wanted her to dominate the story but there was literally nothing new there. I really expected Ursula to announce she was behind Ariel's mother's death or something. The animated Sebastian and Flounder weren't as weird as the trailer made them out. I was surprised they cut out the crowd favourite "Les Poisson" but I think the climax actually flowed well. One thing I was looking forward to were Alan Menken's new songs, but they were surprisingly weak. Eric's new song was too talky and sounded too much like the deleted song from the "Aladdin" live action. The movie felt like a pale imitation so I wasn't really affected by most of the moments carbon copied from the film. Tritan destroying the grotto was much more devastating in the animated version. Heck, the animated shark in the shipwreck was scarier. Those copied moments of Ariel on the rock were almost hokey. I think the movie finally gained some momentum when it started to diverge a bit. For example, showing how Ariel and Eric connected over their shared love of hoarding. So I got more into it once Ariel became human. I liked how even without speaking, Ariel was able to communicate with Eric about the sea. The Caribbean island kingdom setting was interesting. I was surprised when Eric mentioned the Spanish. I was expecting the story to be set in a fictional land. Yes, I thought that was going to build up to something. That change was really frustrating and annoying. I'm not sure why they decided to change this. Maybe they didn't want to make it seem like Ariel was intentionally trying to kiss Eric out of desperation? Anyway, it didn't work. OUAT really had a lot of diamond in the rough. It was just a shame there was so much rough. Yes, I did a rewatch of them a year or two ago too. Those comic short sequences really tested my patience when I was younger. I found I appreciated them more this time around. I am curious how they are going to "fill in" more of Snow White's story. Thanks for the suggestion. I will give it a try.

That's what I was wondering too when I read Jeff Rake's tweet. This show was the definition of squeezing water from a Stone. It has reached the end of the book and then some.

I'll give it a try, but if those were the funniest lines they could find in the episode, it doesn't look that great.

With the strike, this is all happening without the showrunner/headwriter's input? Technically, they wrote/planned all these scenes being cut. Based on what we saw in Season 1, they do tend to have the problem of various story threads not coming together as they should, so I wonder what they would say about this editing debate. The weird thing is there was a lot of bloat but at the same time, both the Numenor and Elvish storylines felt incomplete and lacked substance and worldbuilding so they didn't work for me. I'm not optimistic this is any different in Season 2 based on the "lessons" the showrunners said they learned in post-Season 1 interviews.

Rumors of disagreements behind the scenes about what subplots should be cut and which should be prioritized in Season 2... editors vs producers: https://fellowshipoffans.com/news/the-faithful-vs-the-kingsmen-underway-behind-the-scenes-for-the-rings-of-power-season-2-exclusive/

Summary of Nancy Drew producer's tweets regarding to the way the series was informed of cancellation: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12446737/Nancy-Drew-producer-SLAMS-network-sh-y-way-canceled-suck.html

If anyone feels like watching 22 minutes about filming the transformation to "Mordor" (as the headline said, real physics, LOL): https://variety.com/video/lord-of-the-rings-rings-of-power-mordor-mount-doom-filming/

This interview discusses a few different topics than the previous one, including the editing and deleted scenes.

It was a decent diversion, but I was hoping to like it more. It would have helped to show and establish what Henry's life was like to properly understand his response later on. It took a long time for the characters to grow on me, and I even found the two leads to be a tad annoying for awhile. They seemed to act a lot younger than they looked. The humor wasn't very funny and I felt bad for the actors having to deliver clunky dialogue, albeit not very convincingly. The scenes with Alex and his parents were kind of stiff. The plot was a bit thin and it didn't build up much momentum. I hope the movie does well, though. In this interview with the director (interview discusses differences between book and film), it mentions that she worked with a dialect coach. It sounds like she wanted to get it right and wanted to check it with the director directly.

Interview with the executive producer, which discusses a bit about their plan from the beginning and some tidbits about how the show is planned and written: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/the-crown-executive-producer-interview-journey-netflix-1235561112/

I had always wanted to watch "Searching". I ended up watching "Missing" first and then "Searching" immediately after, and wondered why they were so similar in format. I thought both movies were engaging and well-done, though I wish:

I was watching this interview with the actresses who plays Snow White and the Evil Queen in the new live-action (beware minor spoilers ahead) and some things said: Of course it's impossible not to compare with "Once", who I thought didn't do a good job of dealing with Snow grappling with leadership. There is room for something new there, I think. Though this also reminds me of Jasmine's arc in the live-action "Aladdin" and the "fearless, fair, brave and true" reminded me of the live-action "Mulan" with its tagline "Loyal Brave True". Speaking of BRAVE, of course we can't forget Merida, but of course we already got a note-perfect live action with that one in "Once", LOL. There's also a lot of controversy with the casting and the seven "dwarves" being diverse and mostly just normal humans. I wonder how different their approach is to the dwarves in "The Hobbit" movie, who they did flesh out, though of course that adaptation could use the source material. Whereas the animated Snow White movie dwarves were each summed up with a single word. I was thinking that maybe the "dwarves" could actually be loyalists at the palace who help Snow survive on her own after she was threatened with her life, if they wanted to go a bit more with the political intrigue aspect. And then the last question is the Evil Queen, and whether she is going to get the misunderstood villain trope. Now with Snow White no longer dreaming about true love, how will the songs change? I'm wishing (I'm wishing) For my rule to come To start now (To start now) Today (Today) Someday my reign will come Someday I'll rule this land And away to my throne room I'll go To pass laws and make judgements for yo' all Someday when spring is here We'll establish a representative democracy And the birds will sing and positive polling numbers will ring Someday when the Good Queen will come......

I think I might have finished up to the end of Season 3? I'm not positive. I've always meant to finish it, but I don't remember much of it, and I think the soapiness was eventually a turn-off. Starting back from the beginning again would be a tad too exhausting, though.

Yes, and it was a bold decision to do a show that spans an individual's entire life.

Changing the cast of a long-running series is a huge risk (with most shows, even the recast of a single protagonist can doom the show), so I too wonder why they thought that was the best way to go. At the very least, they could have gone with 3 seasons with Claire Foy and then 3 with Olivia Colman. This last iteration of the characters was mostly forgettable (which was impacted by the writing, since Staunton had little to do), with the exception of Elizabeth Debicki, so I'm glad only she was nominated. Each time they changed cast, the "characters" just felt like they were different people.

That's disappointing. Feels like I wasn't getting the full experience watching on PBS.

I wasn't interested in Willy Wonka's origins, and nothing in this trailer intrigued me either. He seemed pretty jaded in the original story, but I didn't get that sense from this trailer. I would much rather see that. Hollywood loves treading the same water over and over again and/or come up with uninspired prequels, but don't have enough faith in sequels written by the actual author. I wonder if the new Narnia film reboot will get past the third book this time. Not holding my breath.

I was just joking. Danny was that guy Grace was with when the plane landed. This show has always been full of annoying triangles.

Can you imagine if the show had 6 full seasons as the showrunner planned?

I think Tarik was Grace's half brother, and he was killed there when people attacked (don't remember who).

Interview with some cast and the writer, Q&A about Season 2. It could be interesting but I'd imagine with some spoilers, so I haven't watched it (aside from the intro).

Here's the link to the first episode on Disney+'s Youtube channel. 182,000 views in 7 days. Hope it gets more widely shared than that.