Oh dear God…I have no idea how I should feel about this. A part of me wants to jump up and down like a little girl who just got a pony on Christmas…and another part of me wants to hide under a rock and cry.
Reasons for reaction 1:
-This has been my favorite story since birth. I have been waiting for Disney to touch this for YEARS.
Reasons for reaction 2:
-I’m so tired of the “What happened before Dorothy” idea that it’s not even funny. I honestly just want to see how Disney would interpert the book. That’s it. I mean, Baum wrote 13 sequals to the first Wonderful Wizard of Oz. If he wanted something mentioned, I’m sure he would have mentioned it. (And don’t worry, I’ll read every one of ‘em before I see this movie and comment on it)
-I’m still waiting for a hand-drawn animation from their studios and of all stories they could choose from: I would want this one to be it. I can handle The Snow Queen being in CGI, but :
They’ve already done Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan as such and I would like them to finish the three greats* they way they started: 2D animation.
However, I don’t think that this will be a bad film. I think that it’s kinda cool that they’ll start the film in the same black-and-white that the “original” 1939 film had used. I think it’s a fun shoutout to that early portrayal of the story.
I can’t even tell you how happy I was when I saw the china dolls. That was one of my many favorite parts of the book that the 1939 film overlooked (not that I’m arguing what they decided to do, I’m just saying that they did it :/ ).
And last of all: FLYING MONKEYS. Look awesome and all I can say is:
(*I consider Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to be the three great children’s books. I might discuss why in another post. Otherwise this post would be much longer than it needed to be. XD)
Yes, I just reblogged myself XD But I still stand by what I said. However, I’m aiming for this to be the last Disney-related post on this blog unless someone wants to discuss it. As much as I love Disney’s works, I’m certain that you can find anything Disney-related with your eyes closed and I feel that would defeat the purpose of this particular blog. But I did want to re-post this because the Wonderful Wizard of Oz is my favorite story.
I also want to reinforce that I’m not too particularly happy that they’re going on the “What happened before Dorothy came” twist. I would have much rather seen what they would have done with our favorite four and the adventures they would have chosen to keep in the film. I think that would have been FAR more interesting.
Where I think it might be an interesting film:
-The witch hunter aspect. I’m not too thrilled about this one, but here aren’t many nice witches in fairy tales who and the siblings did deal with a rather traumatic experience with a witch…so I guess it’s justified. I’m not thrilled to see this idea because I feel like it’s the go-to idea for Hansel and Gretel. It’s about as “refreshing” as the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood being a werewolf.
-The fact that Hansel and Gretel’s famous story has already happened. I think that making it a past event can make it interesting. It allows room for creative liscense, but it also leaves more room for screwing up something they didn’t have to.
Where I think they royally screwed up:
-Machine guns…just…really? This needs to be very convincing. If you’re going to modernize a fairy tale, modernize it. There are plenty of cases where fairy tales have been successfully modernized. It’s been done with Cinderella and Snow White several times. But if you set it in the olden days of yore, then at least keep it within the reality of the olden days of yore. Anyway, that would be my thought on it. Who knows? This might be able to be pulled off well…but it needs to be VERY convincing.
-The fact I’ve seen the idea on SyFy. I don’t think this helps. It makes me question if there’s any originality in the movie.
What I’m personally hoping for:
Well, they have the siblings, they have witches and most of what I would be making my judgements on would have already happened in the film. So a lot on my critique checklist has been removed. That doesn’t mean that I won’t have a list. I just need to scrounge the fairy tale to make a new one. Any suggestions?
Here’s the trailer for Jack the Giant Killer, from Bryan Singer. And I like it a lot.
Synopsis: “Jack the Giant Killer” tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittinglyopens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack, into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend–and gets the chance to become a legend himself.
The film stars Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, Bill Nighy and Ewan McGregor, and will be released everywhere on June 15th, 2012.
(via filmtrasher)
Hmm…This one looks interesting. So far I like how the adds took a witty approach to such a well known tale. Unfortunately, a preview tells me little of the movie itself.
As far as comparing what I know from the preview with the actual tale: Well, I’ll have to re-read the story. I’ll be sure to do that when I go see the movie and then provide a more rounded critique.
I did notice that certain aspects were kept (such as the beans and the giant…and thankfully, otherwise I would have extreme difficulties bringing myself to see the movie). Although from my vague memory of the story (please forgive me, it’s been several years), there are other elements that I remember that should be in there as well, but were not advertised in the trailer. Unfortunately, I cannot remember what they were at the moment…
(I just got done attempting to refresh my memory of the story and as I’m finding: There are several different versions of Jack and the Beanstalk. I’ll have to read all of them at a later date. My apologies.)
SNOWWHITE and the HUNTsMAN
The trailer is sooo captivating ! I cannot wait at all !
I love how the huntsman is given a larger role, but I’m left to wonder how they’ll pull a few things off and still keep ‘true’ to the fairy tale. I’m honestly not expecting everything to keep to a ‘T’ from the fairy tale. That would just make for a silly movie, but I am expecting certain elements from the fairy tale to show. For instance, by simply watching the trailer, the huntsman is featured as well as the magic mirror and the poisoned apple, I’m forced to believe that they’re going off of the Grimm’s version of the tale. Therefore I’m to assume that the dwarfs are going to be of some importance (perhaps the glass coffin, too). And the prince? I wouldn’t assume that they would just leave him out because of the movie’s title. How’s that going to be handled?
I’m not sure how much I’m fond of the actor choices, but I won’t let that degrade my opinion of the film. I’ll definitely go see this fillm and then give a proper critique. :)
XD Anyway, I’m quickly expressing a few simple curiosities that have popped in my head as I was watching this. :)
