Why Dumbo Should Have Been A Sequel Instead Of A Remake

Why Dumbo Should Have Been A Sequel Instead Of A Remake

The following contains SPOILERS for the new live action Dumbo.

Dumbo won the box office this past weekend, but it did so with less than impressive numbers. The movie performed similarly with critics. The film has received slightly more negative reviews than positive ones, but critics are split almost in half. Either way, most positive reviews aren't glowing and most negative ones aren't too damning. As one of those who had a slightly positive view of Dumbo, I liked so many aspects of it that I wish it was better, and I think it could have been if it had followed its true calling and just been a straight sequel rather than a remake.

If you've seen Dumbo, then you know that most of the movie is essentially a sequel already. The events that cover the story of the original animated Dumbo get dispensed with in less than 30 minutes. Considering that the original movie did it in only slightly more than double that time, it makes sense not to waste too much time with it. Once Dumbo is discovered to be a flying elephant, the animated film ends, but that's just the end of Act I for the new movie.

The stuff that's worthy of praise in Dumbo almost exclusively comes from the latter two-thirds of the movie. You get the utterly insane "Evil Walt Disney" villain played by Michael Keaton. You get Eva Green, who is awesome because she's Eva Green. You get Tim Burton's take on "Pink Elephants on Parade," which is a thing I didn't even know I cared about. You get Colin Farrell being "adorable dad," which is his perfect position in Disney movies.

The biggest problem that Dumbo has is that it has trouble letting all of these ideas breathe because it has to dedicate a significant portion of its run time to the original story of Dumbo.

This is pretty much unnecessary and could have been overcome quite easily. The fact is that while Dumbo is certainly a story we all know, unless you've seen the film recently, odds are all you really remember about it is, "There's an elephant that can fly." That's actually all you need to know. If you do remember more, you certainly don't need to see it again.

Imagine if the new Dumbo opened exactly as it did, with Colin Farrell's Holt Farrier coming back from war, only this time, instead of Danny DeVito's Max Medici putting him in charge of the elephants before Dumbo is born, Medici tells Farrier that he's really happy Farrier is back, because the circus has a new star that needs to be taken care of, and Farrier is just the man to trust with the job. Dumbo flew for the crowd for the first time last night and word has already begun to spread. That's all we really need to know. Any additional info can be conveyed through dialogue with the other circus performers.

We didn't need to see anything of the original plot in this movie. I have no particular love for the original Dumbo, but there isn't anything I think the new version did better. The "Baby Mine" sequence is an emotional moment in the animated film, but it felt like it was being included in the remake simply because it was the sort of things fan expected. It was tacked on.

Now the movie can jump straight into the new material. The 20 minutes we just saved can be used to dig a little deeper into the rest of the story. We could get to know some of these characters a little better, as that was one of the big things missing from this new version of the story. Farrier's kids are important parts of Dumbo's life, but beyond, "Milly likes science," what do we really know about them?

I had a similar problem back when I first saw Disney's Maleficent. The film surprised the hell out of me by turning the story of the mistress of all evil into a rape revenge story. Needless to say, I did not see that coming. I found both the beginning and end of the movie to be quite good, but in the middle the story of Maleficent took a back seat because we had to tell the story of Sleeping Beauty, because clearly the feeling was it needed to happen. This slowed the movie to a crawl.

The idea behind these remakes is that people love these classic Disney stories, and the live-action versions allow fans to experience them in new ways that honestly weren't possible until recently. While that may be true, what if we looked at it from another angle? Because these stories are so well loved, we don't need to see them again since we know them incredibly well. However, that doesn't mean we don't need to want to see the characters again.

Because we don't need to see these movies again, but we love the characters all the same, sequels are the way to go. Take the animated original as a given, and then come up with a live action sequel that will give us something fresh and new. It won't work with every Disney property, of course. A live-action sequel to Aladdin rather than the remake we're getting would have to include somebody trying to recreate Robin Williams version of that character, and nobody wants that. But if even just a few of these movies went the sequel route, it would at least change things up a bit and let the remakes feel a bit fresher when they did happen.

Of all the live-action fairy tale movies that Disney is releasing this year, I'm actually looking forward to Maleficent: Mistress of Evil above them all. Because the film is a sequel to a movie that never had a Disney animated sequel, the story will almost certainly be entirely original. It's not going to feel like it owes anybody anything and won't need to include scenes that fans want to see new versions of, but will instead just get to tell its own story. i can only hope it's willing to take some of the same risks the previous film did.

Dumbo would have benefited greatly by simply committing to being the sequel it largely was anyway. Trying to be both things in order to make fans happy only prevented the film from being its own thing and flying on its own.

The Star Wars Franchise Will Take A Hiatus After Episode IX, According To Bob Iger

The Star Wars Franchise Will Take A Hiatus After Episode IX, According To Bob Iger

While fans are speculating what Star Wars Episode IX will have in store for fans to end the trilogiy, the second biggest question of the galaxy, far, far away, is what happens next. We were always told that we should be expecting one Star Wars movie a year going forward, but nothing had been officially announced by Lucasfilm for 2020 or beyond. Now, Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed what many had been speculating, the Star Wars franchise will be taking a bit of a break from the big screen.

Following Disney's big announcement regarding Disney+, Bob Iger sat down with Bloomberg and revealed that the plan is for Star Wars to take a break after Episode IX. While there certainly will be new Star Wars movies, they won't be coming immediately. According to Iger...

We will take a pause, some time, and reset. Because the Skywalker saga comes to an end with this ninth movie. There will be other Star Wars movies, but there will be a bit of a hiatus.

We know that there are several Star Wars projects in development. There's a trilogy by Rian Johnson as well as films being worked on by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. However, we have no idea when we'll see any of these films. It sounds like Disney is in no hurry to make any of them happen.

Instead, it seems like the plan is for Star Wars to shift off the big screen, and take up the small screen instead. Disney confirmed that The Mandalorian will be a day one release when Disney+ launches in November, and so it sounds like the plan is for that series to be the next chapter of Star Wars.

Bob Iger had previously fallen on his sword and taken the blame for moving too quickly with Star Wars and had said the franchise would slow down in some way. Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story released within six months of each other and the latter film did not do traditional Star Wars numbers at the box office. Some wondered if Star Wars was moving too quickly and Iger seemed to agree that was the case. It seems this is that slow down that Iger was talking about. The brand as a whole isn't going to disappear, but the big screen efforts will take a break.

Bob Iger didn't give any indication of how long this hiatus would be, so we don't know know if the franchise is just going to take 2020 off and be back in 2021, or if it will be even longer before we see another big screen Star Wars movie. With two Star Wars series coming to Disney+, and other potential series being rumored that could come after, it's possible we could see the franchise out of theaters for a while as Disney tries to make sure Star Wars fans are on board the new streaming service.

If one were being cynical, one might think that the reason Star Wars will take a big screen break isn't because it needs to rest and reset, but because Disney wants people looking for more Star Wars to subscribe to Disney+. If one were being cynical.

A Quiet Place 2 Has Found Its First New Star

A Quiet Place 2 Has Found Its First New Star

Last year, A Quiet Place took the world by storm. The surprise hit earned $340 million worldwide on a budget of around $17 million, and earned extremely positive reviews from critics and audiences. So, there wasn't much surprise when a sequel was green-lit! John Krasinski returns to direct and write the sequel, but this time the Abbott family will be joined by a new face: Cillian Murphy.

A Quiet Place was a horror film set in a post-apocalyptic world in which the remaining survivors of humanity had to remain in complete silence in order to hide from carnivorous creatures who hunt solely by sound. The film followed the Abbotts, who must find a way to survive and raise their family in a dangerous world. John Kransinski and real-life wife Emily Blunt starred as the patriarch and matriarch, while Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe played their children.

Blunt, Simmonds, and Jupe are all reprising their roles for the sequel, and they will be joined by a new face. The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop and they report that Cillian Murphy is in talks to join the horror sequel. Details of the role remain under wraps but he is apparently playing a man with mysterious intentions who joins the family.

Cillian Murphy is a frequent collaborator of Christopher Nolan. The actor is perhaps best known for playing the Scarecrow in the acclaimed Dark Knight Trilogy. He has also appeared in Nolan films such as Inception and 2017's war drama Dunkirk. You can currently find Murphy playing crime boss Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders, a historical crime drama from BBC.

Cillian Murphy is a very solid addition to the cast and it'll be interesting to see how he fits into the family dynamic that was the heart of the first film. There were no other characters other than the family, so I'm interested to see how the cast will expand in the sequel.

Plot details on the sequel are being kept as silent as the characters in the movie. There's no word on what the story will be, but it's being written by John Krasinski, so he must have thought up a story worthy enough to return for a sequel. I'm curious to know where things go for the surviving Abbotts. They figured out a pretty successful way to kill the monsters at the end, so are they still a source of danger or are humans the threat now?

A Quiet Place 2 is being prepped for a summer shoot, so hopefully we will start learning some more details soon! It's slated to hit theaters on May 15, 2020, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates. In the meantime, stay up to date on all the movies that are coming your way this year with our 2019 movie release guide.

A Django Unchained Sequel Is In The Works, And Zorro’s Involved

A Django Unchained Sequel Is In The Works, And Zorro’s Involved

With the exception of Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Volume 2, which were filmed simultaneously and are really just two halves of the same story, Quentin Tarantino has delivered a sequel to any of his movies. However, that could soon change, because word’s come in that Django Unchained is getting a follow-up that’s based on the comic book series where he teamed up with legendary pulp hero Zorro.

Dynamite Entertainment and DC Comics jointly published the Django/Zorro seven-issue miniseries from 2014 to 2015, which Quentin Tarantino worked on with longtime comic book writer Matt Wagner. Fast-forward to now, plans are in motion to adapt this story into a movie, as Collider reports that Tarantino has tapped Jerrod Carmichael of The Carmichael Show fame to write the script for this Django Unchained/Zorro crossover project.

Apparently Sony has been interested in tackling such a project since around the time the comic book series was being published. One of the emails in the infamous 2014 Sony hack showed that Quentin Tarantino told the studio’s then-head honcho Amy Pascal that a team-up between those characters sounded “super cool.”

While it’s unclear if the Django/Zorro movie is officially set up at Sony, the studio did handle the international release of Django Unchained, and after Quentin Tarantino cut ties with The Weinstein Company, he brought his latest movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, to Sony. So it would make sense for this movie to find a home there.

It hasn’t been clarified if Jerrod Carmichael is working on the Django/Zorro script on his own, if Quentin Tarantino is tackling it with him or if another, unidentified writer is involved. It also remains to be seen if Quentin Tarantino would direct Django/Zorro, though as the report notes, Tarantino has said many times that he plans to retire after making his tenth film, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Film #9. So it’s a good bet that he may end up simply producing Django/Zorro should it get the green light.

For those unfamiliar with the original Django/Zorro comic book, it took place several years after the events of Django Unchained and followed the Jamie Foxx-portrayed character continuing his bounty hunting and sending money from his jobs back to his wife, Hildi. During one job in the Southwest, he crosses paths with Diego de la Vega, a.k.a. Zorro, and the two join forces to the local indigenous people from slavery.

No doubt Jamie Foxx would reprise Django in this adaptation, as it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing the character. As for Zorro, it’ll be a while until we learn who will don the mask and wield the sword, but this would mark the character’s first big screen appearance since 2005’s The Legend of Zorro, where he was reprised by Antonio Banderas.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more news on how Django/Zorro is coming along. In the meantime, you can plan your trips to the movie theater this year accordingly by looking through our 2019 release schedule.

Bohemian Rhapsody Editor Drops F-Bomb Over Viral Mocked Scene

Bohemian Rhapsody Editor Drops F-Bomb Over Viral Mocked Scene

Although it has a bevy of awards to its name and made almost $1 billion at the box office, Bohemian Rhapsody has faced quite a bit of criticism. The aspect of the film that has perhaps received the most criticism is the editing, particularly in the scene where Queen first meets manager John Reid, played by Mr. Chaos is a Ladder himself, Aidan Gillen. And that scene has been held up as evidence that Bohemian Rhapsody did not deserve all of its many accolades.

The scene, which was the subject of a viral video that garnered millions of views, was mocked for the seemingly haphazard way it was edited-- with extremely rapid and jarring cuts. The film’s editor (and composer) John Ottman, who won an Oscar for his editing, is well aware of the criticism of the scene and in a recent interview he dropped an F-bomb over it. John Ottman said:

In fact, I went to Fox the other day and had them fire up the Avid and all the media. Because I wanted that scene how I originally cut it. So someday I’m going to do a fucking dissertation and show ‘here’s how I cut it originally, and now here’s what happens when too many cooks get in the kitchen and are paranoid about pace’

Wow, John Ottman might have earned an Oscar for his trouble, but he is clearly still frustrated at how that scene turned out and the ensuing backlash, which has naturally landed on him as the film’s editor. As he told Epicleff Media’s Score: The Podcast, he was so frustrated that he actually went back in the editing bay just to recut the scene and see it again how he originally intended.

That seems to be the major source of frustration for the Oscar winner. He has spoken before about how the scene makes him want to put a bag over his head and the reason for that is that it is not what he wanted it to be. He is not proud of that scene because, as he said, that is not how he originally cut it.

John Ottman may have been the editor on Bohemian Rhapsody but that doesn’t mean that he had complete and total authority on how the movie was cut. Although he went on to say that the director change was not the culprit behind the scene, John Ottman was still constantly getting notes from the studio about the edit.

John Ottman admits was the final cut of that mocked patio scene was his, the result of “too many cooks”, and notes from the studio that forced him to shave down the scene. The studio was worried that the first act was getting too long and it wanted to maintain the pace of the film without slowing down for the scene where Queen meets John Reid.

Describing the effect that had on the scene, John Ottman said:

I took the original version that I cut and all the nuggets and cool things in it we wanted to preserve…so I kept hacking it down, hacking it down, faster, faster, faster, cut things out of it. But if there’s a look or something you want to keep it in there. So what happens is by trying to keep all the old stuff in, but having the scene be half the length, it made it too fast.

So what happened was John Ottman had to take a scene that was much longer, and edit it down with quicker pacing-- all while maintaining pivotal elements of the original scene. The end result of those somewhat opposing objectives is the action-movie/montage pacing of the mocked patio conversation scene.

Around Oscar time there was talk that John Ottman basically saved Bohemian Rhapsody in the editing room and given what he said here, I’d be very curious what his ‘Editor’s Cut’ of the film would look like. It seems unlikely we’ll ever get that, but maybe one day he’ll get to do his “fucking dissertation” on the effect studio notes and too many cooks can have on a movie.

While that scene may always be a thorn in John Ottman’s side, he still was a big part of a massively successful movie and he got his first Oscar out of it, so I’d say it’s a net win.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the latest movie news and check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of the biggest movies you can look forward to this summer.

Samuel L. Jackson Admits He Made Up Captain Marvel’s Time Traveling

Samuel L. Jackson Admits He Made Up Captain Marvel’s Time Traveling

It's a very exciting time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are just two movies left in Phase Three, with over a decade of filmmaking coming to a head when Avengers: Endgame finally arrives in theaters. The surviving heroes will have to unite with some new faces in order to fight Thanos after his finger snap of death wiped out half the galaxy. Assistance will come from Ant-Man and Captain Marvel, with the latter being described as the most powerful hero in the MCU.

Captain Marvel's powers will finally be revealed in her solo movie this weekend, before she crosses over in Endgame a month later. It's unclear how the Avengers will be able to reverse Thanos' snap, although time travel has been a common theory. This was given extra wight when Samuel L. Jackson teased that Carol Danvers could time travel during press for Captain Marvel. But now he's admitting he was pulling our leg, recently saying:

I made stuff up. I said she could time travel one time. I was just blowing smoke. It was actually a mistake, we were tired, end of the day, they had a bunch of people on set... They bring reporters to set and you're working all day and they want you to stop in the middle of the day and go talk to a table full of people for no reason. It's like, ‘really?’

Well, that puts one rumor to bed. Captain Marvel isn't typically a character who could hop around time and space. So Samuel L. Jackson admitting he was messing around will no doubt help to calm the nerves of hardcore comic book fans who took umbrage with this bold change in the canon.

Samuel L. Jackson told the truth during an appearance on Kroq radio alongside Captain Marvel co-stars Brie Larson, Ben Mendelsohn, and Clark Gregg. When doing press for the upcoming Marvel blockbuster, it turns out that Jackson accidentally made his time traveling comments out of mere exhaustion. It seems to have its origin in a set visit, and then snowballed as the news hit the internet, and Marvel fans began collectively losing their minds.

Aside from making Captain Marvel even more powerful than she's already rumored to be, giving Carol Danvers time traveling abilities would have presumably had major implications for the events of Avengers: Endgame. Time travel seems all but inevitable in the upcoming ensemble film, especially as reports from the set indicated a return to The Battle of New York from The Avengers. While many believed this would be accomplished through Ant-Man's exposure to The Quantum Realm, Samuel L. Jackson's comments about Captain Marvel made things all the more confusing.

The talks about Captain Marvel’s time traveling powers dumbfounded comic book fans. Marvel Studios had already been hyping up just how incredibly overpowered Carol Danvers was, so having her be able to manipulate time and space without the Time Stone seems like it might be overkill. But it turns out that Samuel L. Jackson was messing around all along.

Samuel L. Jackson first mentioned Captain Marvel’s apparent time traveling skills during a set visit for Captain Marvel. When speaking about Carol Danver’s mass powers and influence over the greater MCU, Jackson said:

She's pretty much the strongest character -- in terms of someone with powers are able to do things -- in the Marvel universe. So, for Carol Danvers to be that person and for Brie to become that person, it's gonna be a dynamite thing. I mean, [the Avengers] are up against some really, really tough odds right now -- we saw throughout Infinity War -- so now we know that we need something that's as powerful as Thanos. And at some point, we'll find out how powerful she is and all the things that she's capable of. She's one of the few people in the Marvel universe that can time travel, so…

His final line is the one that started it all, and began endless fan theories. With Marvel Studios keeping its cards so close to the chest in the year between Infinity War and Endgame, it seemed like anything was possible. Samuel L. Jackson has a role in both Captain Marvel and Spider-Man: Far From Home, so he’s privy to more information than the average joe.

Samuel L. Jackson added more fuel to the fire in a separate interview, as the road to Captain Marvel went on. In a separate comment, Jackson once again teased Carol's ability to travel through time, and even directly teased its connection to Nick Fury's end-credits scene from Avengers: Infinity War. He expanded, saying:

I guess we might figure out that she can do things that nobody else can do. She can time travel so maybe she can get ahead or behind or whatever, and figure out what all that is. The fact I have the pager 20 years later – it gets addressed in an interesting sort of way.

With two separate quotes on the books, it seemed like Captain Marvel would be popping through various time periods throughout the MCU, possibly serving as the catalyst the heroes' victory in Endgame. But now Samuel L. Jackson has clarified his comments, revealing he was joking the whole time. That realization should illicit a variety of reactions from the fandom. Comic purists will be relived that the character wasn't being changed in such a major way, while other fans might be tiffed that they'd been sold a false bill of goods. But Jackson has been in the MCU for a long time, and he's not usually one for spoiling movie's contents. So why would he start now?

Luckily for moviegoers, answers are finally on their way. Captain Marvel will arrive in theaters this week on March 8th, and Avengers: Endgame will follow suit on April 26th. Sam Jackson will also help kickstart Phase Four with Spider-Man: Far From Home July 5th. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

The Rock Reveals New Look At Disney's Jungle Cruise As Filming Re-Wraps After Delay

The Rock Reveals New Look At Disney's Jungle Cruise As Filming Re-Wraps After Delay

The idea of transforming popular Disneyland theme park attractions into blockbuster feature films has been around for a while, but the idea has created more misses than hits overall. Only the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has been able to turn the concept into box office success. Now, another attraction found in Walt Disney World's Adventureland, the Jungle Cruise, is going to try and follow that successful formula, and the project is now one step closer to reality after wrapping up its reshoots.

Dwayne Johnson has dropped some images from the end of shooting and revealed that he's officially done with his part of making Jungle Cruise the movie come to life in front of the camera. Along with the announcement, he also heaps praise on his co-star Emily Blunt, and reveals a few details about the movie and the relationship between the two characters. Check it out below.

Originally, Jungle Cruise was given a release date of October this year, before getting pushed back to July of 2020. At the time, no reason was given for the delay and it appeared that it may have simply been done to fill a hole that was left when the next Indiana Jones movie got delayed yet again.

However, since reshoots have apparently been taking place over the last few days or weeks, barely four months before the film's original release date, it seems that the need for reshoots may have played a part in the release date being pushed back. Although, it's also possible that the reshoots could have happened sooner and were only done now because the movie had the time. Considering how busy he seems to be, one has to believe The Rock has cloned himself in order to handle all his open projects and can be anywhere he needs to be.

Reshoots are often part of the planned filming schedule, but they occasionally end up being more extensive than originally anticipated and if that happened here, it could have been part of the reason for the release date move.

At least one sequence in the reshoots does appear to have been quite involved. Dwayne Johnson shared an image of himself surrounded entirely by blue screen in what sounds like a pretty extensive effects scene based on the Rock's description of it as something he would never forget.

Whatever this scene was, it would certainly require a lot of post-production work, so there would likely be no way it would be ready by this October.

Jungle Cruise is certainly looking to follow in the footsteps of the Pirates franchise, and considering that particular film series doesn't look like it will have any new installments anytime soon, one expects that Disney is also hoping that this theme park attraction turned movie will also see similar success. We'll find out when Jungle Cruise hits theaters next summer.