Edgar Rice Burroughs’ titular Tarzan has gone through a ton of botched adaptations over the last few decades. Speaking as a fan of the character and story arc, Disney’s “Tarzan” is probably my favorite adaptation of all time. Surely, it suffers from Disney tropes that make it very much a Disney movie, but damn it, it’s also a heart felt tale about a hero fighting for his unofficial family teeming with excellent performances and a haunting soundtrack. Plus, it garners the classic Disney themes of lost parents and a child being forced to grow up very quickly.
Tag Archives: Disney
Tarzan (1999)
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ titular Tarzan has gone through a ton of botched adaptations over the last few decades. Speaking as a fan of the character and story arc, Disney’s “Tarzan” is probably my favorite adaptation of all time. Surely, it suffers from Disney tropes that make it very much a Disney movie, but damn it, it’s also a heart felt tale about a hero fighting for his unofficial family teeming with excellent performances and a haunting soundtrack. Plus, it garners the classic Disney themes of lost parents and a child being forced to grow up very quickly.
The Mighty Ducks (1992)
“The Mighty Ducks” is just one in a long line of “Bad News Bears” wannabes that pits a crotchety man with a bunch of misfit athletes to use sports as a form of self realization. Thankfully “The Mighty Ducks” is one of the best of the bunch, choosing hockey this time to help a group of smart aleck kids come of age. There’s also Emilio Estevez who is a cynical businessman with the heart of a hockey player, who finds that he still loves the game despite his regrets.
Our 5 Favorite McDonald’s Movie Tie Ins
Once upon a time McDonald’s tie ins were memorable, sometimes weird, toys and prizes that came in every box of a Happy Meal. A lot of times, McDonald’s would appeal to both boys and girls, but most of the time, their toys appealed to the broader demographic and even became collectibles for some adults. McDonald’s in the past provide quality toys, which included the Halloween pails that came in three varieties, and the Michael Jordan sports toys. It’s a shock these toys were so quality considering the low price of the meals touted toward kids. Even the happy meal boxes were a good time to be had. Here, we think back to our top 5 favorite McDonald’s Movie Tie Ins, and how creative they were in their heyday.
What are some of your favorites?
Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
You have to appreciate the kind of world that “Wreck It Ralph” creates, paying homage to the vintage video games of the gamer culture, and building on that to introduce some very entertaining characters, with some complex issues about self worth, and what defines them. Though very derivative, “Wreck It Ralph” is a fun movie, especially for an ex-gamer like myself, and the director and writers really keep their target audience in view, while also giving some nods to the folks that grew up with the classics, offering endless Easter Eggs that help flesh out this rather unique tale of a bad guy seeking to show that he’s much more than a destructive force.
5 “X-Men” Properties More Deserving of Spin-Offs than Wolverine, Magneto, and Gambit
FOX is looking for anyway they can to continue the X-Men property going and not lose it to Marvel. Hopefully someday it can revert back to Marvel and we can get a fun X-Men movie series based on the entire team, but hope springs eternal. In either case, they’ve discussed giving spin offs to Magneto and Gambit, and are also going to continue the Wolverine solo movie series. Considering Wolverine is basically the center of the X-Men movies, he technically has six movies under his belt, already. Magneto also had a movie centered on him, which was called “First Class,” the movie originally penned to be the Magneto origin movie later altered in to an X-Men prequel, so the plans for his spin off feel incredibly redundant.
Gambit has potential, but who knows if they’ll actually go with his thievery background in New Orleans, and just give him a generic adventure through America (with cameos from other X-Men)? From a humongous roster of X-Men characters and spin offs, FOX is short sighted in giving spin offs to the two most prominent characters in the X-Men movie series, and we decided to list five X-Men properties much more deserving of spin offs and prequels than the three most over exposed characters of the Marvel series.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
“They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Ed Brubaker’s acclaimed source material is the basis for “The Winter Soldier,” a remarkable and incredible follow-up to 2011’s “Captain America.” I’m very secure in declaring that “The Winter Soldier” is the “Empire Strikes Back” of the Captain America trilogy thus far, as the sequel manages to not only give Captain America the much needed conflict with his American ideals, and age old views on the concept of freedom and liberty, but turns him in to a hero who is no longer fighting for America, but for the idea of America. “The Winter Soldier” picks up right after “The Avengers” where Captain America has essentially taken to SHIELD headquarters as a home base, and doesn’t really keep in touch with his old teammates.