EP205: Aladdin Viewers Are Just Whelmed

This week we got the first reviews for the test screenings Aladdin...and viewers weren't too impressed. Lucasfilm killed a joke about Kylo Ren in Ralph Wrecks the Internet because it struck a little too close to home. Plus, Disney is looking to reboot the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and Captain Jack probably won't be back. That and much much on episode 205 of The Disney Movie Review

Not a Diamond, Just Rough.

Early reviews are in for Aladdin and it looks like test screeners weren't entirely impressed. The movie, which is slated to be released in 2019, is credited as being "Pretty Okay" by those in the know. Others have said it is "swell, but not super memorable."

I’ve heard it’s swell but not super memorable. https://t.co/h4l9EulDHn— ViewerAnon (@ViewerAnon) October 25, 2018

Of course, this is all hearsay at the moment and the movie has several rounds of editing to go through before it gets to a mass audience. That said, there are two things that may stand in the way of the live-action Aladdin being a great film.

First, Disney isn't breaking new ground with Aladdin. We're likely to get a movie that is closer to Cinderella than to The Jungle Book. I doubt they will change the story significantly like they did for Maleficent and judging by the early trailer the special effects won't be a talking point. That doesn't leave a whole lot for audiences to get excited about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g5knnlF7Zo&t=1s

Second, Disney has placed Aladdin in its "cursed" time period – Memorial Day Weekend. The last film to actually succeed in that time slot was Maleficent in 2014. That story that significantly changed the path of the title character and was one of the first live-action films in this new age of live-action. Unless Jafar ends up winning or Aladdin doesn't set the Genie free, this movie won't have that kind of shock value.

So right now it looks like Aladdin might be in a bit of trouble, but there's a long time left. We'll see if he can improvise his way out of this sticky situation.

Disney Censors Itself

Turns out that Kylo Ren is even more sensitive than we thought. So sensitive in fact that Lucasfilm killed off a joke about him in Ralph Wrecks the Internet. 

“At one point we had a joke about Kylo Ren being kind of a spoiled child,” said Ralph Wrecks the Internet Co-Director Rich Moore in an interview with IGN. “We went to Lucasfilm and said, here’s what we’re doing. And they said, well, we’d prefer that you don’t show him as a spoiled child. You know, he is our villain, and we’d prefer you don’t do that. So we were respectful of that.”

In general, this is a little disheartening. Knowing that Disney is about to control roughly half of Hollywood's content, it is terrifying. Disney has always been  very protective of its characters, but in recent years it has become more lighthearted in the way it references them in other movies. (I credit Marvel with that growth, but that's another story for another time.)

Now the central question becomes, what else is Disney willing to censor? Now that Disney owns Fox, there are going to be fewer places for audiences to view different ideas and fewer places for artists to express them. And now we now know Disney can't take a joke.

'Pirates' Gets Re-booty

Disney is working on rebooting the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Disney will be working with the producer that started it all – Jerry Bruckheimer – to breathe new life into a franchise that some have tired of. Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were tapped to write the script for the new franchise.

Here's the kicker, Captain Jack will not make a return in this one. Screenwriter Stuart Beattie confirmed that Johnny Depp will no longer be apart of the series. It seems odd that Disney would reboot the franchise without its most popular character, but Depp has become toxic after allegations or domestic abuse surfaced.

The Pirates series has been in rough waters since the second movie came out. Even though the second and third movie were profitable, domestic fans appeared to have abandoned the series after that. Meanwhile, Chinese fans became so enamored with the series that it warranted its own land in Shanghai Disneyland. With a new series, Disney might be able to get east and west back on the same page.