Why doesn’t Disney have me excited this summer? That’s the question I keep asking myself, and one to which I just can’t find the answer.
My first major shock of the summer is that I’m not interested in seeing Pixar’s newest film. For the past three or four years, one of the few trips I actually take to the movie theater is to see Pixar’s latest. As soon as I found out that 2010 meant “Toy Story 3” my enthusiasm waned.
What surprises me even more is that I still feel the same after hearing and reading the film’s rave reviews. I’m not the only person who was skeptical about the film. Every review I read, however, said that although it had its low points, it soared to new ones with its ending to become yet another special and memorable Pixar flick.
But even those reviews don’t sway me enough to make anything more than vague rental plans. I’m just having difficulty overriding my disappointment at Pixar’s slew of upcoming sequels; I’m sure they’ll all be good, but I ache for the new, original worlds that could have been from one of my current favorite storytellers.
Disney’s other major summer release, “Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” inspires even less of my opinion. I am very glad that Disney chose just to run with the concept of a sorcerer’s apprentice, and not somehow contort its famous “Fantasia” short into a feature-length modern-day film.
Early reviews say that it embraces a sort of breathless zany humor which brings some enjoyment to a movie for which no one had many expectations, and that’s a pleasant surprise. But I just don’t care.
I’m growing weary of Nicholas Cage’s scenery-chewing, as hilarious as it can be. I’ve seen the lead Jay Baruchel in a couple films as a member of the Apatow clan and found him mildly annoying. This is another I’ll probably just consider renting if I hear it’s good from people I trust.
But perhaps the biggest surprise of the summer for me personally is my ambivalence about Disney’s American distribution of a Studio Ghibli film. “Tales from Earthsea” should be everything I want. A Studio Ghibli film based on a fantasy series I love (in this case, the Earthsea books by Ursula K. LeGuin).
Unfortunately, because “Tales from Earthsea” has been out in the rest of the world for a few years, I’ve seen many reviews saying it’s not very good. The recently-released American trailer doesn’t bolster my confidence; it looks beautiful, but boring.
Even more unsettling is Hayao Miyazaki’s take on the movie. Hayao Miyazaki isn’t involved in every film to come out of the studio he co-founded, and “Tales from Earthsea” was actually directed by his son, Goro Miyazaki. Despite that, the elder Miyazaki apparently did not have good things to say about the movie.
So add that to the list as another Disney summer release I’m not interested in seeing. In fact, that makes one for each month. Sometimes I start to wonder if I’m really the Disney addict I always say I am, but then I rewatch “Beauty and the Beast” or check out the trailer for “Tangled” (though I still don’t like calling it that), and I know I’m still interested.
I think Disney’s problem is that the execs are afraid to take risks. But the company was founded for revolutionary film-making, and that’s risky business.
Plus, it’s not like Walt Disney Corp. is strapped for cash. I think it’s time for Disney to go back to art for art’s sake, and stop worrying so much about record-breaking ticket and merchandise sales.
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