Pixar Goes the Prequel Route

Monsters University opens Friday June 21

In 1995, Pixar animated studios released the widely popular character driven film Toy Story and began arguably the greatest collection of animated films of all time. All of their films were entertaining and artsy, the public has flocked to them in droves. To call Pixar successful is an understatement. They're the envy of every studio (live action or animated). They have a formula that works- period (creative story, character development and Cliff from Cheers). All of their movies have grossed over $160 million with A Bug's Life being the "bomb" at $162 million. All but one of their films have a Rotten Tomatoes score over 74% (Cars 2 the only exception). Pixar didn't release a sequel until their third film with Toy Story 2 and now with Monsters University due for release Friday, they will unveil their first prequel (the lowest form of story telling). Will it rank with Toy Story 2 or will it be a Cars 2?
For starters, Toy Story 2 could be one of the greatest sequels of All Time. If it doesn't make your top 10, it should be in your top 20. As for the Toy Story Trilogy, it also ranks up with the greats. It told three different stories and completely followed the Pixar formula. However, if Pixar wanted to tell another Monsters Inc sequel, they had to tell it as a prequel. After the events of Monsters Inc, it would have seemed foreign to fans to have Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sully (John Goodman) just want to go back to scaring kids after growing fond of Boo and discovering that laughter is more powerful than screams. So Pixar goes back to when they were young scarers and show their growth. This story shows how the two met... which often isn't that interesting in other stories. But this is a Pixar film, they gotta get it right... right? After prequels worked for Texas Chainsaw, The Exorcist and... Cruel Intentions.

Usually prequels suck, but Pixar could be the rare group
to get it right.

Again, Pixar has earned our faith and trust. It's not like they released a terrible film or one that doesn't make money. Granted some of the money can be as simple as parents wanting to take their kids somewhere to shut up or play the DVD... so they can shut up, but when the American Film Institute ranked their Top 10 animated features, Pixar owned two of the top spots (Finding Nemo and Toy Story) and that was before Wall-E (perhaps the most underrated feature film of the 21st Century). If Pixar can make a successful prequel (and you can count on one hand the real quality prequels), then they will truly embody Buzz Lightyear's mantra. To Infinity and Beyond.

Better Be Super or DC is SCREWED!

Man of Steel opens
Friday June 14th

Once upon a time, comic book movies didn't come out every week. In fact, you wouldn't even know they existed. Then in 1978, Richard Donner made Superman: The Movie... and it was HUGE. Talk about a who's-who on the production side (Donner directing, Mario Puzzo on the story) and starring Marlon Brando? That's right. despite Marlon Brando's 20 minutes of screen time, he was the top billing over Superman himself Christopher Reeve. That didn't spawn more comic book movies (except a low budget Fantastic Four) until Warner Bros released Batman in 1989. That made more comics come out, but after awful results (like the Flash TV series) comic movies went away. It wasn't until X-Men came out in 2000 that Marvel broke through. Suddenly comic movies were everywhere and DC was second fiddle... as usual. Then DC started the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight series and broke box office records so much so that people forgot Bryan Singer's Superman Returns. This week, DC and Warner Bros releases their third incarnation of the Superman series. This time it's DC's biggest gamble and if it fails...DC will have a lot of problems.

Superman: The Movie was an enormous success in 1978.

Superman: The Movie was the lighthearted film that captured the essence of the hero that believed in Truth, Justice and the American way (still the lamest mantra). It's a film that made Christopher Reeve's career before horses were his kryptonite. Singer's Superman Returns paid an homage to the original series and inserted it as a sequel to Superman II. The results didn't work. The thought was that the story of Superman didn't needed to be covered again and that people would overlook the glaring plot hole of the kryptonite shard in Superman's side at the end. Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane was... okay and Brandon Routh certainly looked the part, but the movie lacked something and never gained momentum to a sequel. It certainly made audiences question if Superman can make a good movie.

Henry Cavill is the new Man of Steel.

The new wrinkle for DC started in 2008 from their rival Marvel Studios. When Marvel released Iron Man, the message became clear that the Marvel characters would interact- creating a Marvel Universe more than individual stories. A month after Iron Man's release, Tony Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. made cameos in The Incredible Hulk despite different studios having rights to the characters. In 2012, Marvel's The Avengers smashed box office records and made executives at Warner Brothers/DC jealous. Now DC wants to create a Justice League movie, but they want to use the existing films and blend them into one. There's a huge problem with that idea: Green Lantern has a different tone from The Dark Knight. Nevermind that the Green Lantern FLOPPED like an NBA player, but that franchise appears mired in limbo while The Flash and Wonder Woman have been rumored to be production hell. The ridiculous idea of a Justice League movie will be covered in the future, but if Man of Steel fails or underperforms, the Justice League will be right next to Sin City 2 on the perpetual rumored list. Also what else does DC really have to make? Reboot Batman...again?

When you think of Superman villains,
you think General Zod?

Back to Man of Steel, of course it will be a box office smash as fan boys got raging boners once Christopher Nolan's name was associated, but like all recent reboots (Batman Begins & The Amazing Spider-man) Man of Steel introduces a secondary villain (General Zod) while shunning the main villain (Lex Luthor). You'd have to suspect that it will follow the same reboot formula (again will be discussed in a future article) of introducing the main villain but not focusing on him. Batman Begins showed the Joker card and Amazing Spider-man discussed Norman Osbourne at length. One reason to use this tactic: keep the focus on developing the hero and no need to FULLY develop the main villain since the secondary or little known villain will be dispatched quickly. That said, Nolan brought back the League of Shadows for The Dark Knight Rises with poor results.
The good news: Man of Steel is getting rave reviews so far, but just because critics like it doesn't mean audiences will. It's reasonable to think audiences will as they have been starved for a good Superman movie for over 30 years and waits to wash away Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. DC can only hope that this movie is truly as strong as Steel (the metal... not the Shaq movie).

Star Trek Out From The Darkness

Back in 2009, Paramount Pictures rebooted their epic franchise into new films based off their original Star Trek TV series. They did everything the right way. Securing J.J. Abrams to recreate it and carefully selected a talented cast, but it wasn't without risk. The idea of it being a Star Trek origin story was an idea that didn't sit well with fans and in the era of the Superhero Origin story... did everything have to be "When Kirkie met Spockie"? Abrams found a way to carefully balance an new origin as well as pay tribute to the original series. He talked Leonard Nemoy into reprising his role as Spock and recruited writers from his TV series Fringe, who have returned to pen Star Trek Into Darkness.

The first installment of the series, Abrams casting played very well into the finished product. Some actors chose to make their characters their own (Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana and John Cho) while others chose to make their characters an homage to their predecessors (Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban and Anton Yelchin). There was always a fresh and familiar feeling about this series. Nevermind that Abrams directed the film's action sequences well, but he also brought characters from the original series like Captain Pike (Jeffrey Hunter's character from the Pilot episode). This sequel reprises other characters like Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. As long as Chris Pine never yells out, "KHAN!" this movie should be successful.

Back to the cast, Pine's James T. Kirk never conjures up imagery of William Shatner- like Quinto's Spock or Urban's McCoy- but that's a positive for both men that play the Enterprise's Captain. No need to make a comparison on who did better. Saldana's Uhura was more than just a background character- even with the switch to Spock as the love interest. Rumors has her role reduce in Darkness, but how much so?

Well, J.J. Abrams' has set a high bar after the well done first film and with Abrams splitting time between Star Trek and Star Wars, one has to wonder if one series will affect the other. Perhaps as audiences enter Darkness, so will the series. In the meantime, there's a sequel to enjoy next weekend.