Yearly Archives - 2023

Arkhaven Spotlight: Gorgo

No. It's not about the wife of Leonidas of Sparta. Go away, you make me sad.For some peculiar reason Godzilla is only popular in Japan and America. Other countries are aware of him but they never took the interest in him that America did. Japan is one of those countries the US has a special relationship with, it pretty much began with Commodore Perry. It was a relationship that definitely had some love/hate vibes going on. We...

Read more...

What Disney Is Not Selling… And Why

Pixar was at the time an excellent acquisition for Disney. Sure computer animated characters were new but there was no real problem fitting them into Disney's existing pantheon. In the last Wreck-It Ralph movie there was a gag with a Disney princess's green room and no one could understand Merida's accent because "she is from the other studio." But Merida, Woody, and Lightening have no trouble fitting into the Disney-shared universe.And there effectively is a Disney-shared universe....

Read more...

Bob’s Big Fire Sale

Disney employees are in panic mode.Or perhaps I should say more in panic mode than usual. Bob Iger is now openly admitting that he's looking for buyers for some of Disney's properties. Specifically, it's cable networks and ABC, although not all of it. A week ago Iger gave an "unusually candid interview" on CNBC's The Squawk Box. Where he discussed the possible sale of Disney's linear assets ABC, Freeform, FX, and the rest of the cable networks Disney...

Read more...

Heavy Metal is Canceled

Way back in the Before Internet Times, meaning the Seventies and Eighties because who cares about the seriously Before Internet Times that proceeded that, if you were a comic book fan and you were curious about European comics your options were:Pretend there was no such thing as European comics Try to get a semester overseas thing. Join the military and hope you didn’t get posted in New Mexico Buy a copy of Heavy Metal.There is an internet rumor that Heavy Metal magazine was...

Read more...

Sound of Freedom: Why the Hate?

This weekend’s box office was underpowered as opposed to the gaping maw of utter fail we’ve gotten used to seeing this summer. Mission Impossible 7 has opened with a reasonably solid $235 million worldwide. When adjusted for inflation this is a slightly weaker first weekend than Mission Impossible: Fallout.  MI:7 is a much better movie than Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.  A lot less CG and a lot more traditional heroism.  It has its weaknesses but a lot of that is from...

Read more...

Arkhaven Spotlight: Black 5

Normally, I have to wait for a new Arktoon to find its footing before I can do a spotlight on it. Before that point there just isn't enough going on for me to comment on.There are exceptions of course. Black 5 is just out of the gate and taking a very early lead. This one is talking my language.The killing of Osama Bin Laden sets into motion a nightmarish retaliation plan to kill Pope Benedict XVI during his visit...

Read more...

It’s Gonna Suck: The Haunted Mansion (2023)

I've got to say, somebody at Disney's marketing department knows what they are doing.https://www.zillow.com/house/disney-haunted-mansion/It's a Zillow listing for the Disneyland Haunted Mansion. Yep, Disney is trying to make another Haunted Mansion again and it is a fundamentally terrible idea.Pirates of the Caribbean was easier to work with because the ride was a macabre adventure with a few gags thrown in to break what little tension there was. It has no real characters, no fixed setting, and no real...

Read more...

RE:View – Blood Sport

Recently a friendly acquaintance of mine posed a question on Twitter.  Has there ever been a movie that was better than the book it was based on?I offered the original Mark of Zorro (1920). While that was an accurate answer because the Curse of Capistrano was nothing but a standard pulp and the Mark of Zorro invented the superhero, it was too truncated to be any kind of in-depth answer. Some books that have been made into movies are so different they...

Read more...

Bob Iger’s Contracted Extended

And now for something completely expected.Robert Iger's contract as the CEO of the Walt Disney Company has been extended through 2026.For those of you asking, "What the fuck?" I understand well your consternation but I saw this one coming a mile off. Yes, I understand. Bob Iger is the one that has put Disney in the disastrous position it's in today. He overpaid drastically for Fox Entertainment by a factor of 100%, he let Kevin Fiege dismantle the...

Read more...