This blog talks about movies, TV, anime and cartoons. You'll laugh with me, argue with me, disagree with me, but you'll love reading all of these. Check it out!
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.
On December 14th, New Line Cinema will release The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Audiences have already watched the previews and said, "Okay, it's the prequel to Lord of the Rings," as their movie conditioning has become over the last fifteen years since Star Wars shat out The Phantom Menace. The problem is that audiences didn't know that it's really the other way around. Lord of the Rings is the sequel (technically, LOTR was supposed to be one book) for The Hobbit. If you've read any entry of this blog, you'll know my distain for the prequel (even with Prometheus in my top films of the year). So as the build up comes to The Hobbit's release, why are people (and New Line Cinema's marketing) referring to it like a prequel... the most horrible form of any "quel".
The dwarfs on the quest to Lonely Mountain.
The tale of Bibo Baggins (Martin Freeman), the mild mannered half-ling, sought out by the grey wizard Gandolf (Ian McKellen) to join in an adventure to Lonely Mountain. Baggins always enjoyed to little things in life and never took up in any adventures or excitement. However, Gandolf represents a group of dwarfs (led by Thorin Oakensield) who look to reclaim their fortune in the Lonely Mountain that was captured by a dragon Swaug. After some convincing by Gandolf, Bilbo leaves the Shire of Hobbiton and sees the rest of Middle-Earth. He encounters Trolls, goblins, giant spiders and wolves, but the one creature he meets and changes the world forever is Gollum. If you don't know who Gollum is by now, Google him dammit. In Gollum's caves, far below the caves of Goblins that were chasing them, Biblo battles Gollum with a game of riddles with the wager: Biblo's life or directions out. When Gollum loses, he returns to the caves, hoping to find his "birthday present", but it's nowhere to be found because Bilbo picked it up earlier. This moment was shown in the intro to the series in The Fellowship of the Ring, depicting the chapter "Riddles in the Dark" from The Hobbit. As a matter of fact, McKellen's Gandolf mutters "Riddles in the dark," in Fellowship while at Bilbo's house.
Peter Jackson wavered on directing The Hobbit,
but signed on and expanded it for a trilogy.
Unlike your typical "prequel", The Hobbit makes references to events that the Lord of the Rings expands on. The most notable is the ring, which isn't referred to as the Ring of Sauron at all. It simply made Bilbo invisible. Another aspect is that The Hobbit is being split into a trilogy. It's a bit unbelievable and could stretch the plot thin, but director Peter Jackson has earned the right to try it out. Though the less-is-more approach of Lord of the Rings may have worked better here. The other issue will be where to split the movies. The Lord of the Rings had definite parts to do it as all three books had definite conclusions (though Two Towers didn't use the book's ending). Where will the splits happen and can it keep audiences engaged? The Hobbit was written and turned into an animated 90 minute movie in 1977 with John Huston as the voice of Gandolf. Can it work as three epic films over 400 minutes?
Back to the title of this article, The Hobbit was written first and LOTR took up the cue from this initial offering by Tolkien. A true prequel's story does not exist at the time of the original's creation (case and point: Alien is to Prometheus). My point is a little hindered because technically Star Wars Episodes 1-3 existed, but not the stories finally presented. The Hobbit was always a pipe dream for LOTR fans (and having Ian McKellen reprise Gandolf was a bonus), but LOTR was the right call to do first. Unfortunately, prequels aren't the best quality (save X-Men: First Class and Prometheus as the few good ones), but The Hobbit isn't trying to show audiences "where it all began". It's telling Bilbo's story that was referenced numerous times in Fellowship of the Ring. There aren't many questions from LOTR that need to be answered- after all the Lonely Mountain isn't in Mordor. Therefore, it's really not a prequel in that aspect either. It won't end with the War for the Ring that was in the open of Fellowship of the Ring. That happened long before any of the events in The Hobbit.
We'll see it soon as week's end, but one thing is for certain, The Hobbit is it's own story and not a story trying to jam information in to tell you how the characters you loved "got to" where you know them. EVERY aspect in this wondrous book can be flushed out and enjoyable for all the fans, who were let down by Lord of the Rings at some point.
In Scream 2, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie Kennedy and Timothy Olyphant argue about sequels. "A sequel is always inferior," Kennedy's character said. Olyphant argued Aliens, but was quickly smacked down as "Ridley Scott rules." Well, Scott returns to the Alien series (becoming the only director to do so) with something that's always been more inferior than sequels- the prequel. Ah, the prequel. The idea that should get George Lucas punched in the face every time someone says the word, but this series that featured two GREAT films and two eh-films with three great filmmakers (Ridley Scott, James Cameron and David Fincher and the fourth written by Josh Whedon), it stands to figure this won't be Cruel Intentions 2. By the way, who green-lit that piece of shit?
Sweden's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Noomi Rapace takes
on the lead role in Prometheus.
Now the original Alien was an outer-space horror film, that is constantly argued against it's successor- James Cameron's action film Aliens- but on top of Scott's great direction is possibly one of the best casts of all time. Top to bottom, this cast featured Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, Ian Holm and Veronica Cartwright. Scott's cast for Prometheus is along the same lines with rising star Michael Fassbender, emerging star Noomi Rapace and filling out the cast with solid actors like Guy Pierce, Idris Elba and Charlize Theron. Chances are this cast will live up to their predecessor if their past performances are any indication.
Another year, another blockbuster prequel for rising star
Michael Fassbender.
According to webisodes and inside information (no spoilers), Prometheus will explore it's own mythology and isn't directly connected to the Alien franchise. As Scott was quoted, "It has strands of Alien DNA." Maybe that's the best idea for a prequel ever. What is a prequel supposed to be? It's own story. It's not supposed to simply explain why things happened in the original movie. X-Men: First Class went that direction and it worked (even though some hardcore fans were pissed off) whereas X-Men Origins: Wolverine tried to fit everything altogether, only to make key points not fit. A prequel needs to be it's own story without destroying what the original one was. If the audience sees something it recognizes and it delighted, then the filmmakers have done their job. The second the audience says, "What the fuck?!", the jig is up. Sequels don't have that issue, because they expand on the story. Prequels have to conform to the original since we know the result. None of what Prometheus will be about Ellen Ripley or the crew of the Nostromo, now what remains to be seen is how much this will do with the mythology of the Alien series. Scott's Alien dealt with the alien and nothing more. It wasn't until Cameron's Aliens the study of the monsters organization came to be.
With this summer already delivering two quality films in Marvel's The Avengers and MIB 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises coming, it's understandable that Prometheus can be overlooked. That said, it could end up better than any prequel ever made.
