I'm Tired of Sequels, Are YOU?

TOY STORY 4: Newer but not necessarily better.

     The other day I went to see TOY STORY 4. I had enjoyed the first three TOY STORIES and was eager to see what more they could add to a wonderful trilogy. I had been warned though by my friend in China that it wasn't all that good and that his 10 year old nephew didn't like it partly because the translation on the screen moved too fast and he had no idea who all the toys we were so familiar with had come from. I found it very derivative and thought if they hadn't seen the first three it really didn't make much sense. 

Can any Aladdin compete with Robin Williams?

     This isn't the first time I noticed that Disney was capitalizing on hits from the past. One of my all time favorites from Pixar was ALADDIN. I went to see the live action version and while many of the songs and characters were there, it felt contrived. What you can do with a cartoon and CGI is very different in feel and execution. You expect a cartoon to be, well, beyond reality. It is often unsettling to see what appears to be live action react the same way. The magical charm is somehow taken away.

Can anyone real beat
Super‐cali‐fragil‐istic‐expi‐ali‐docious but
Andrews?Julie

   I finally got around to seeing the "new" MARY POPPINS and was very unhappy with it. There wasn't even one hummable song and it was shamelessly derivative of the original in just about every scene. The original may have been 55 years old but it has stood the test of time. This one will fade into oblivion.

     I thought that maybe I was alone in this until I read a commentary in TIME Magazine who pretty much came up with the same conclusion. I guess more of the cartoons will be made into live action, actions taken to milk to the last dollar amount of a prized property. I guess they think that if your kids or grandkids have never seen it, it's new to them. Pity the poor parent or grandparent who has seen the remarkable version with a milked down current version.

Same cast, more boring plot
because,well, times HAD changed

As I pondered this I began to consider how this same thing was happening on TV. "Magnum P.I.," Hawaii 5-0", "Murphy Brown" which I never liked before and liked even less 30 years later mercifully gone and "Will & Grace" also recently cut by the network. What was funny 20 years ago is no longer funny when Gay marriage is legal and gay men refer to their husbands and women talk about their wives.

     Again the movie industry talks about declining ticket sales. Have you looked at the weekly features? It's Blah Blah 3, or Remember This 5. Not many years ago they joked about ROCKY 25, HALLOWEEN 30 or SAW 15. I can remember being startled by the first FINAL DESTINATION movie but by FINAL DESTINATION 3 you knew when the next "accident" would occur. That last Avenger movie this year had such horrible ticket sales that it was pulled from all theaters in two weeks. Remember ISHTAR?

     Where are the new ideas, the new plots? It's a sad commentary when Amazon Prime or Netflix win more nominations on either TV or the Oscars than the film makers do. My recent bingeing has been on such shows as GRACE & FRANKIE, LONGMIRE, LUCIFER, STRANGER THINGS - all three seasons, TALES OF THE CITY, BLACK MIRROR. They are original and if there is another season as engaging and changing each year.

BLACK MIRROR brings back the terror of "THE
TWILIGHT ZONE" in a new 21st Century way!

       Now the one thing from the past that I have revisited just for laughs was the old CHEERS about a bar run by Sam Malone a washed up Red Sox relief pitcher. I was surprised at both the writing, how smart it was, even today, and the acting. From the first episode it was funny and as the years went by continued to be smart, sassy and relevant. There are few on "free" TV today. You have to wander to cable for Amazon or Netflix where I've discovered many of their made for shows come from England, often BBC. Are the British funnier than us? I find that hard to believe but their shows are and also far more serious and less predictable.

Suddenly Lucifer is far more sexy
and dangerous all over again

     As I wrote earlier this year, I saw 10 movies during 2019 FilmFest and while some were weird or strange at least they explored new topics. Chinas's DEAD PIGS told about the corruption of a manufacturer who made pig food that started killing the pigs around Shanghai as his sister stood against authorities trying to tear down the family home. A Danish film was downright mesmerizing and deserved better than it received. The audience was so engaged with a kidnapping that when they realized what crime had been committed nearly everyone screamed at the same time, NO! When was the last time you were in a theatre where that happened? It surely wasn't  STAR WARS 21! That we got to see and talk to the cop profiled in BLACKKLANSMAN, suddenly, white supremacy felt all to very real.

     When I was a journalism major in college my director / teacher told us you only needed three books to be successful to be a good writer; one of them being the Bible. Every story of mankind is in there he told us. And while there have been some blockbusters that came from there in the past, brought forward to modern times, maybe it's time to do a little mining there again. After all, critics say STAR WARS is nothing but a cowboy western on a planetary scale and cowboy tales come from our past and probably the past of every culture from the time of the Bible on.

Kids and adults are terrorized in STRANGER THINGS

     The studios, the directors and especially the screenwriters need to mine their own home and town and country and the world events of today. If there aren't a 100 stories after watching the nightly news each and every day, they aren't trying hard enough. I am reading Srinivashan's AMERICANA:  A 400 Year History of American Capitalism that tells the history of America through economics in a way I have never seen it before. If any book has plots and subplots of American history that needs to be told, at last I might add, this is it. 

     There are many stories out there that need to be told again and again for "those that forget history are bound to relive it." As we have seen in the movie theaters the past few years, producers, directors, screenwriters and actors think we have forgotten; we haven't. If you are going to do it again at least do it better "OR" leave it well enough alone.

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed! 

Be sure to check my ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I am adding many new and exciting, collectible birdhouses and craft items. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!