The Projector #66: The Disney Version (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

Last week, this podcast convened an emergency meeting, so alarmed were we by Warner Bros.' announcement that the company would release all 21 of its 2021 features simultaneously to theaters and the HBO Max streaming service. We probably should have waited for the next emergency. Yesterday, Disney’s investor call doubled as a chance for the company to unveil project after project featuring properties owned by the company. These included multiple films and TV series from  Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars, now all branches of the same company and, well, a lot more. So much that some items could get lost in the shuffle. (A new Willow series? Why not?) It was a blitz of information from a company that usually just doles out a few nuggets at a time.

The driving idea was pretty obvious: In a time of uncertainty at the end of the rough year, Disney attempted to project confidence in the future, specifically Disney’s ability to dominate pop culture in the years to come. It also made clear the years to come would increasingly focus on streaming, essentially throwing in with Warner Bros., a worrisome development for those of us who still like going to theaters.

But beyond that, yeesh, that’s a lot of projects from familiar names. I’m of two minds about it all. On the one hand, I like a lot of this stuff. My kid is now reading the original Chris Claremont X-Men stories, and I couldn’t be happier about that. I’m writing this a few feet away from a signed Ralph McQuarrie print. And it’s not just the past stuff. I look forward to Marvel movies, love The Mandalorian, etc., etc. But I also understand the panic and even anger that the announcement stirred in many yesterday. Is there room for anything that’s not part of existing intellectual property? Will our entertainment be forever dominated by fantastic stories set in familiar worlds and starring familiar characters at the expense of everything else? This year has been awful with few bright spots, but wasn’t it also kind of a relief not to have the cultural conversation dominated at all times by discussion of the same five or so explosion-filled movies? First blockbusters wiped away the mid-sized studio movies and pushed traditional dramas and comedies to the small screen. Now even blockbusters are getting narrower and narrower in scope.

It’s all a bit overwhelming and it’s easy to despair about what the future holds. But, at the end of even this odd year, remarkably, it’s not hard to fill out a best-of list. Actually, scratch that: it is hard because there’s so much to watch. I’m scrambling to try to see everything I should and know I won’t make it. Maybe movies are in trouble, but they’ve been in trouble for a long time. And yet that doesn’t stop good stuff from getting made anyway, and that’s always a cause for optimism.

Another movie that got made: Mank! We’d love to hear your thoughts on it. I’ve seen it twice and find discussing it actually more compelling than watching it. (Though I like it just fine.) And, if you’re looking for stuff to read:

• For The Guardian, Scott Tobias considered Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at 20.

• We all (spoiler?) love Wolfwalkers, the upcoming film from Cartoon Saloon. The New Yorker has a profile of the studio in its newest issue. And, from a bit ago, Cartoon Saloon’s Tomm Moore talked to Cartoon Brew about the legendary, unfinished The Thief and the Cobbler.

• At The Ringer, Monica Castillo attempts to figure out some of the curious choices made by Selena: The Series.

• A couple of The Godfather Part III-related pieces at The Ringer: Roxana Hadadi considers the “incest gnocchi” scene. Elsewhere, Bilge Ebiri talks to Francis Ford Coppola.