NYer4Life

Bravo Disney! Wow! What a way for Walt Disney Animation to end the decade. Show Yourself was mind blowingly EPIC! If Disney wanted a way to fully tie up Elsa’s character arc they swung for the fences - and knocked it out of the park! There’s so much to take in during song and scene it’s overwhelming. An unforgettable- over the top - show stopping moment that only Disney could achieve - it’s why I love Walt Disney Animation so much, and it hold it close to my heart. Pure Magic. That scene could go down as the best animated sequence in Walt Disney Animation history.

I hate to see a perfectly good Christmas special like ‘Olaf’s Frozen Adventure’ be tarnished just because of how the release was handled. The short itself I thought was great! Great songs with great visuals. The story itself was nothing spectacular- though served its purpose and cleverly worked itself back to tie in to the original. A solid Christmas special and a new Christmas tradition had Disney played their cards right. I’m not sure if all the negativity is because of the length of the ‘short’ that was shoehorned in right before a full feature length movie? I hope over time people can forgive and forget how it was released and just enjoy it as a yearly Christmas tradition as a solid way to get the whole family into the Christmas spirit.

Check out the Tangled TV show on Disney Channel or Disney+. At first I blew the series off as filler fluff. But the show has proven to be really good! Great fleshed out characters with an over-arching series plot that does a great job building upon the universe the first movie created. Some of the songs in the show are also fantastic and would stand tall against any theatrical Disney musical. If that’s the only ‘Tangled 2’ we ever see I think you’d be satisfied.

As with any movie there isn’t really any one reason why a movie didn’t perform well at the box office... Though Princess and the Frog also got handed a horrible release date by Disney - scheduling it after Thanksgiving - then a horrible snow storm impacted its 2nd weekend - followed by having the Christmas family audience consumed by Alvin and the Chipmunks. I think time has been well to the movie’s soundtrack, though it was underwhelming back in 2009. The lack of the 90’s Alan Menkin showed and audiences were starving for another ‘Part of Your World’ showstopper Disney ballad that ‘Almost There’ did not provide. (Audiences would have to wait for Frozen and ‘Let it Go’ for that) Disney also freaked out (perhaps they were right?) that the movie was too ‘girls’ centric with Princess right there in the title - quickly changing the title of Rapunzel Unbraided to Tangled and The Snow Queen to Frozen. I guess the box office increases of Tangled and Frozen shows the mind-trick worked? Out of these reasons and perhaps more- I think the fact that it was a ‘throwback’ with 2D animation at the time was a factor that mattered less to the film’s box office.

Will it be a Disney Musical?

Congrats to Aladdin $1 billion! Well deserved. Out of the 3 Disney releases this summer Aladdin takes it as the best. Over 2 months later and I’m still listening to Speechless.

Did Aladdin pass the $1 billion mark? According to the-numbers.com the movie is sitting at 1.018 billion. Boxofficemojo has it at $962 million. Not sure which one is accurate?

I’ve been very happy with tracking Aladdin this past month and I think it’s getting every penny it deserves. I think credit to the casting and the addition of Speechless are what really making the movie click with audiences. Mena Massoud’s personality and portrayal is spot on, and Naomi Scott’s performance as Jasmine grabs your attention and is literally show-stopping. It’s hard to topple Robin Williams as the Genie, but the fact that Will Smith didn’t completely mess things up (like originally thought) played very well in his favor. I think Beauty & the Beast’s box-office was mostly attributed to the name/brand/nostalgia alone, even though the casting was off and Emma Watson delivered a very forgettable performance in an iconic role that was too big for her. This time Disney got it right and it shows with Disney reaping the box-office reward.

That’s the magic of Disney for you. As much as DreamWorks relished finally beating Walt Disney Animation in the box-office during the 2000’s, they are no match when it comes to Disney’s quality branding/marketing machine that is a master at creating timeless classics. I think DreamWorks got what they deserved (taking the low road with taking cheap shots at Disney movie tropes) with how their entire animated library is more or less culturally irrelevant today.

I remember the days of having to wait until 5 or 6 PM Eastern Time for boxofficemojo to update the daily numbers. To be getting them at 6 AM now is a dream come true!!! Thank you kind sir!

After a few days of thinking about the movie I have to say that this movie is solid. I actually want to see it again- something I haven’t felt about any other remake so far. With all of the debate regarding these ‘Live-Action’ remakes, I felt ‘Aladdin’ did an excellent job capturing the charm and adventure of the story, with each character’s essence still intact and shining through. Jasmine/Naomi Scott’s performance (most notably Speechless) is the real-stand out! The scene is incredible and that scene alone makes the movie worth watching. Its great to see that the movie is deservedly doing well and hopefully it bodes well for the movie’s legs in the future- considering it is going to face a lot of upcoming competition.

This. Relative to expectations of how hard the movie was going to flop on top of the Memorial Day Weekend box-office curse, a $100 million+ weekend is a success! But on the other hand this is Aladdin. One of Disney’s most popular IPs; and being 1 of the most-coveted Disney movies included in the ‘big 4’ can not be taken lightly. Aladdin could leg its way on to $250-$300 million (hopefully) and be a hit, though there was no reason why Aladdin couldn’t have rivaled Beauty & the Beast and made $500 million+. I still think Disney’s insistence on the poor Memorial Day Weekend release date is mostly to blame.

Agreed 100%. Titanic was THE Pop Culture Phenomenon movie of our lifetime. The movie was EVERYWHERE and anywhere non-stop from December 1997-1998. Talk shows, TV Shows (we’re talking about everywhere from references in Seinfeld-Friends, to children shows like Timon & Pumbaa), Documentaries, magazines, news papers, radio, MTV, Oscars, Golden Globes, People’s Choice, etc... It was a movie that people loved to love during the time and could not stop talking about it- Everybody from Grandma/Grandma right down to my school filled with 6-10 year olds. Sure, movies like Endgame, The Force Awakens, or even Avatar are/were big when they were released, though they were all forgotten fairly quickly once the next big blockbuster came out a few weeks later. Titanic obsession lasted for months and months, reflected in the 16 weeks the movie spent at number 1. It also made it to the top spot- Highest Grossing film of All-Time - in each respective country it was released. Over the years we’ve seen Titanic fall down the list, but whenever I reflect and compare Titanic to any movie that has passed it since, It’s truly still a pop culture phenomenon whose scope and scale hasn’t been matched.

I’m a sucker for animated musicals and I had a feeling from the snippet of ‘Couldn’t Be Better’ from the first trailer that the music was going to be good. I will echo someone else’s post that the soundtrack does give off a ‘Trolls’ vibe, however the music in this movie is all original, well-done, and very catchy. Couldn’t Be Better (both Pop and movie version), All Dolled Up, and Unbreakable are all solid. The performances and talent of Kelly Clarkson & Janelle Monae are also noteworthy. I’m very impressed with the music especially considering this movie isn’t from the big players in animation like Disney, DreamWorks, or BlueSky. I’m hoping that people will give this movie a chance like I did and doesn’t completely bomb, though I think oddly choosing to release the movie in May sealed its fate. This could have done ‘respectable’ numbers similar to ‘Storks’ or ‘Small Foot’ had it been released in September. In the very least I’m hoping that people will give the movie’s soundtrack some credit that it deserves.

I’m a little confused at Shazam being labeled as a ‘family film.’ I understand there’s a familial theme throughout, though there’s a lot of graphic and intense content in the film as well. Including one scene that would arguably fit well in a horror film. I also understand that a child’s maturity and what they can handle can greatly vary depending on each individual, but as a parent of 2 small children I wouldn’t feel comfortable with anyone under 10 watching the film. I’d say the film is best suited for ages 13 on up. (Appropriate for a PG-13 rated film) After watching Captain Marvel last weekend and Shazam this past weekend, the differences in between the content included is quite drastic. Captain Marvel is a Super Hero film that is easily suitable for all ages, Shazam is not.