#anime 2019 autumn

[onthisday]

September 20, 2019

[rollingthunderpouringrain]

🐱🐾🌈🐶

[monmorgandy]

The Deer Never Get Old by Denise Powers Fabian Via Flickr: Blackwater Falls State Park, Davis, Tucker County, West Virginia

[frozen10fanzine]

Frozen Through the Years

Yearly Spotlight: 2019

Written by @toriofthetrees

After six long years, 2019 saw the release of the long-anticipated sequel, Frozen II.

The lead-up up to the release was intense to say the least.

The first teaser trailer premiered in February, opening with Elsa on a black-sand beach stripped down to her bare essentials, barefoot, ready to take on a raging sea. She attempted twice to cross the torrential waters before the trailer turned to Anna’s shock of hundreds of diamond-shaped glass covered in strange symbols, taking over Arendelle. Following closely behind were several moments of Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff, and Anna taking on dangerous challenges, and a show of strange, foreign magic. All of this was centered around this new, mysterious setting known only at the time as an autumnal forest.

It gave just enough of a preview to hook millions.

The trailer was viewed and downloaded several million times on Twitter and YouTube within a short amount of time. In the fandom, a storm of news, posts, speculation, and discussions broke out over several platforms, too chaotic to keep track of. The months that followed the teaser were absolutely brimming with excitement! Across cinemas, television, and the internet—both in the US and internationally—came many trailers, sneak peaks, and posters about the upcoming movie. Alongside this came leaks as well, all of it sparking speculation in the fandom over what the plot of the movie could be.

Countless books about Frozen II came onto the market before the film was even released, notably without the end of the film printed within their pages. This lead to fans in many locations to protest the shops selling these books, wanting their money back.

Most of these protests lead to no results.

Success for Disney Studios, specifically. contributed to the exposure for Frozen II. ~In March, Disney invested billions of US dollars in company acquisitions across the film and TV industry, creating the most powerful media company in the world in the USA. ~This was the year of the 6th Disney D23 Expo, the biggest Disney fan event of the year! It was held on August 23–25 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, showcasing news and pictures around all the new Disney parks, resorts—and movies! Including Frozen II! ~On November 12, 2019, Disney launched its streaming platform Disney+ in several countries ~2019 ultimately proved to be Disney's most successful cinema year to date, regardless of which new film was released!

All of this led up to the release of Frozen II on November 20, 2019 in most countries (unfortunately some countries had to wait until the beginning of January).

This new installment to Elsa and Anna’s story saw the sisters and their found family making a long trek away from Arendelle… in order to save it. Mysterious magics send them up north to the Enchanted Forest, that is covered in an impenetrable mist. Yet, it parts for them. The deeper they go into the forest, the more they discover about themselves, their family, the spirits, Arendelle… so that only one thing can be said for certain: Nothing will ever be the same again.

This film was polarizing.

In the cultural zeitgeist, it was a massive success like its predecessor, exceeding Frozen as the highest grossing animated film of all time. It received mostly positive reviews and it would go on to be nominated for multiple awards, including an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. The Disney merchandising machinery was running at full speed and earned the company many more millions within a short amount of time. The limited edition dolls were sold out on the same day as release! However, it notably did not have the same cultural reach that its predecessor had. “Into the Unknown,” to many, was not comparable to “Let it Go.” And the film was nominated aplenty, but never actually received any awards.

However, it was within the fandom that this polarization was seen the clearest.

Frozen II made good on its promise that nothing would ever be the same for these characters. The sisters, though still as close as ever, no longer lived under the same roof by the end of the film. Elsa abdicated her crown for her duties as the Fifth Spirit and Guardian of the Enchanted Forest, while Anna took over as Queen of Arendelle. This separation, whilst to some was a step-up for the sisters, others saw as a step back. This debate rages in the fandom to this day, and many, many fans on Tumblr, Reddit, and other social media prefer Frozen to its sequel.

The fandom did gain some new content, including the addition of multiple ships. There were two that were rather popular. The first was Agduna (Agnarr/Iduna), which came about because of the major focus Frozen II had on them, the sisters’ parents. The second was Elsamaren (Elsa/Honeymaren), which came about because Honeymaren had a minor, but important interaction with Elsa in the film that sent her on the right path to Ahtohallan.

Just as Frozen II’s main theme—change—impacted the sisters, so to it did the fandom. The polarizing effect of the film lead to quite passionate arguments over its content. However, the fandom did not get any smaller or lose any passion. People continued to create, debate, discuss, and post about Frozen and Frozen II. In interviews, the cast and crew said that Frozen II was made to grow up with the audience who were there when the first film was released in theaters. With that in mind, the fandom no longer looked like it did when Frozen first came out.

Things change.

But we can still all agree on one thing: We love Frozen 💕

Stay Tuned For More

👆🏻 Click above if you want to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Frozen. The due date is April 12, 2024.

We look forward to seeing your memories ❄️

[odditiesnoctobermidnightroad]

"Mouse the Witching Cat" ebook

Mouse is a Witching Cat (familiar; a witches companion) but would rather be her own witch instead. With her friends Fluffy, Cavity, Monty Cristo, and Crooner she embarks on a journey to build up enough magic and cast a spell that will make her outsides look more like her insides. But, is it possible there’s more to being a witch than just looking like one? -------------- “Mouse the Witching Cat” is a story of discovery and learning to value what you are instead of what you aren’t. It’s a story born out of a struggle for self-worth, but also born out of a love for animals, monster mashes, spooky stories and all matter of Autumnal media.

When I published “Mouse” in 2019, it was without much thought or direction into really making a book and so is very amateur. I’ve since accepted that this book will always be in an experimental limbo of sorts and so the next stop is this polished, updated ebook version. This ebook has new art made specifically for it and future reprintings, from redraws to extra scenes. It has more fun messing around with text and it’s been thoroughly scrubbed of it’s original cursed typos from the Beta edition.

Because of its style, “Mouse” is a better book for adults to read to their children rather than a tool to teach kids proper grammar, but for those that know what they’re in for, it’s an interesting read. I live and breathe off your support and your purchasing of Mouse is one of the biggest gifts you can give me as an artist. I could never be more thankful!

[llovelymoonn]

favourite poems of january

tony hoagland note to reality

henri cole middle earth: “myself and cats”

minerva s.m. kamra chronic

stacie cassarino zero at the bone: “in the kitchen”

bonnie jo stufflebeam barking dog nocturnal

ron silliman the alphabet: “you, part i”

sara borjas a heart can only be broken once, like a window

karen an-hwei lee song of the oyamel

louise glück afterword

kai nham follow the moon

elisabeth houston standard american english: “re-peat! re-verse! re-hearse!”

victoria stitt the carolina quarterly: “autumn convalescence”

noor ibn najam you smelled like an animal

ben still concept pest control

ray dipalma obediant laughter: “after midnight”

sasha pimentel cats

thanh-tam nguyen a lit match to burn what your country doesn’t remember

sarah abbas collecting words in attempt to keep them the same

julia wong kcomt (tr. jennifer shyue) woman eaten by cats

lisa jarnot ring of fire: “the bridge”

torrin a. greathouse i am beginning to mistake the locust’s song for silence

siaara freeman when i speak of hunger

vandana khanna train to agra: “evening prayer”

ouyang jianghe (tr. austin woerner) mother, kitchen

kayleb rae candrilli sand & silt

antony hecht an offering for patricia

sara ellen fowler shed project notes, august 30, 2019 - la madera, nm 

vincent hiscock voice in the air: afterthought

margie piercy mars & her children: “the cat’s song”

eva chen how to bleed a ghost

sayuri ayers cordella magazine: “in the season of pink ladies”

buy me a coffee

[jewishdainix]

Its autumn everyone go listen to bestiary by the forgetmenauts!!

[otrtbs]

✧˖°. get to know me game .°˖✧

thank you for tagging me!! <3 @prongsxsluv

rule: name 1 of your favorite movie, character, animal, drink, song, season, book, color, hobby

Movie: Little Women (2019) Character: Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson Animal: I want a black poodle so badly, they're so swagalicious. Drink: Iced. Latte. Plain, simple, amazing every time. My wife. Has never let me down. Song: This Feeling by Alabama Shakes. The best song of all time ever. Season: Autumn 5ever. Book: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 5ever. (No one is surprised.) Color: Almost any shade of green really, but I like the deep greens! Hobby: Looking at art. always always always!

no pressure tags!! : @messrsage @inevitablestars @nevvaraven @twisted-tales-told @wdcmaxy (also anyone else who wants to join please feel free to say I tagged you!! <33 I wanna see your personal moodboards 😋)

[marimoscorner]

Welcome!🌿

MINORS DNI

Welcome to Marimo's Corner—your corner for chaotic, queer, mindful magic and paganism. This blog is meant as sort of a public grimoire of our path as well as a reference for other witches and pagans who wish to view it. We are by no means the authority on any subject nor perfect, but we want to contribute our small voice to the pot and hope it can help someone out. We want to foster community and find other like-minded souls to befriend! 🌿✨

Blog Content

This blog will widely cover what it is we study on our shared path. We study the following, but branch out as well.

Mythos: Celtic, Hellenic

Deities: Cernunnos, Pan, Danu, Dionysus, the Dagda, Apollo, among others.

Topics: Druidry, Celtic Magic, Hellenic Magic, Ancestral Magic, Green Magic, Kitchen & Home Magic, Knot Magic, Osteomancy, Tasseomancy, Bardism, Queer Inclusion in Magic, Animism, Ecclectic/Chaos Magic, Wheel of the Year, Convergence of Science & Magic, among others.

This blog will also be a sort of journal for us, so please do not expect perfection. We are excited to share with you!

About Us

We are a diagnosed DID system, so you'll see posts from a few of us! We'll do our best to remember to tag who writes what. Here are our primary spiritual alters.

Marimo he/they 🌿

Autumn she/her 🍁

Aekian he/they/she 🐏

Moss they/she 🍀

Bear he/they/it 🌲

Caleb he/him 📙

Gale he/they/she 🔮

Olive she/they🗡️

Rosie she/her ☕️

Jo she/they 🪻

Zephyr he/they 🦴

We all have slightly different interests, and are excited to share with you. We hope to see you again soon! Feel free to follow along on our journey. Thank you!

References

In an effort to make this blog a better resource, we will do our best to remember to log resources we’ve read here for your own research. Most will be directly witchy in nature, but others are simply lifestyle.

Irish Fairytales & Folklore by Y.B. Yeats (1888)

The Spirit of the Celtic Gods & Goddesses by Carl McColman & Kathryn Hines (2005)

The Book of Celtic Myths by Jennifer Emick (2017)

Celtic Mysticism by Tracie Long (2023)

The Book of Hedge Druidry by Joanna Van Der Hoeven (2019)

Queering your Craft by Cassandra Snow (2020)

Feral Self Care by Mandi Em (2023)

Etc. (Others I’ve sold, given, or borrowed)

[trigonomaly]

hello!

this is my main blog. my side blogs are @descent-into-autumn (studyblr, aesthetic, etc) and @the-long-shadowed-forest (digital camera photography)

as the blog title suggests, this is my weird pretty anonymous sounding board/diary. this post will serve as a little biography for you.

tryg trivia:

my name is tryg (he/him)

i'm a high school senior from minnesota

i'm queer (aroace-spec, gay? bi?) with a lovely boyfriend

planning to study biology in college

hoping to attend uw-madison next fall

choir nerd

fandoms:

i'm into..

doctor who (specifically 2005-present)

law & order: svu (1999-present)

good omens (2019-present)

daredevil (2015-2018)

house md (2004-2012)

smosh + the try guys

non-fandom interests:

fountain pens (I have a pilot vp, 2 twsbi ecos, a kaweco sport, and a pilot metropolitan)

digital cameras (i have a nikon coolpix L29, nikon coolpix AW100, and a kodak easyshare cx7430 I got for $29 in steven's point, wi. all cameras are secondhand)

animals! specifically cats, herps, and freshwater fish

sexual education

childhood development

music:

90s/00s rock (nickelback, butch walker, they might be giants, etc.)

60s/70s folk (peter, paul & mary, simon & garfunkel, etc.)

whatever pop and country i grew up hearing

thank you! see you around!

i'm new to doing more than browsing tumblr, so be gentle with me lol

[percytheturkey]

Intro post!! :) ☆彡

I’ve been on here for a while but have never done an intro whoopsies :]

Fandoms

Books/movies/series:

•The hobbit (book & Triology)

• Dead Boy Detectives (Neil Gaiman characters & TV series)

•The Lord of the Rings (books & film triology)

• Good omens (TV Series & book by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman)

•IT (2017 & 2019) and IT (original Steven King)

•Shadow & Bone and Six of Crows (both book trilogies and Shadow & Bone series)

• Hazbin Hotel (2024 series)

•Doctor who :))

•Our Flag Means Death (HBO series)

• Labyrinth

• A lot of different Horror movies ehehehe :)

• Any Simon James green book :))

(I might make a separate one of these just for books Tehehe)

Musicals/music:

• Be more chill (Two river theatre production & Broadway production)

•The Rocky Horror Picture Show

• David Bowie

•Queen

•NOAHFINNCE

• And so so so many more Musicals and Musicians :))) I can’t list all of them tbh haha!

____________________________________

My likes and Interests

Likes:

• Old cheesy movies

• 2000s British romcoms :)

• My boyfriend <3

•My amazing friends!! :))

• My two cats :) Lucy and Myrtle

• FESTIVE MOVIES!! My soft spot :))

• Really good music (ranging from literally 50s-now)

•fanfiction haha :)

•The movie Paddington and specifically when people tell me that I am Paddington tehe

•Forests!! And flowers and fields (I get such bad allergies tho sometimes)

• When people call me specific characters (Aziraphale, Paddington, Jeremy Heere, etc.)

•binging really good horrors

Interests/Hobbies:

• Musical theatre!! I’m definitely a singer first haha :))

• Singing solo! I’ve been training since I was 5/6 <33

• Reading (my joy in life)

• writing ofcourse :) (usually fanfics hehe)

• playing bass! :)

• Sometimes I write music <3

• Any form of Literature or History!! :)

______________________________________

Personal

My name is Percy :) - He/him/his

I am very much on the neurodivergent spectrum :)) - ADHD and possibly autism

I’m very queer/bi/gay/whatevafloatsyaboat

I’m pretty openly trans :) I’ve been out for 4 years and am staring HRT soon!

I’m a Leo (16th august)

My favorite animals are penguins and cats <3

I speak two languages :) More fluently English but also German! :)

I’m really British. I’m English, welsh, and Czech :)

My favorite seasons are autumn and spring :)

______________________________________

Other accounts

My Instagram account (private)

My TikTok (private)

My AO3 :))

That’s basically it!! Feel free to Dm or ask to be moots!! I will start posting more <3 it will mainly be just stuff to do with fandoms I’m in but maybe other stuff too! :)

[ugh-yoongi]

favorite kpop group(s): tag game edition

tysm for tagging me @highvern, @cordiallyfuturedwight, & @hvseoks!

who is your favorite k-pop group?

bts, ateez, seventeen, the boyz

which member sparked your interest first?

bts: i'm pretty sure it was taegi? my best friend texted me this thesis-length primer and all i could remember later on were the ones named suga and v, lol.

ateez: mingi

seventeen: jeonghan

the boyz: kevin

who was your first bias?

bts: seokjin

ateez: mingi

seventeen: jeonghan

the boyz: kevin

who is your current bias?

bts: seokjin

ateez: seonghwa

seventeen: jeonghan

the boyz: younghoon

what makes them your current bias?

seokjin: just my number one boy. my comfort human. someone who is kind and takes care of others, who always tries his best and perseveres, who will be the first one to make a fool of himself to lighten the mood and make others more comfortable.

seonghwa: a lot??? like seokjin??? just a sweetheart. makes his little animal crossing sounds. isn't afraid to be himself. takes care of his members. insane duality.

jeonghan: chaotic. a schemer. makes his own rules and follows those instead. but also very sweet and subdued. takes care of his members.

younghoon: i honestly do not know how this happened. i went into watching content a staunch kevin bias and now i'm not. idk. maybe when i re-watched kingdom and he got in the water tank with sunwoo because he was scared. bee will say it's bc he's a leo.

who is your bias wrecker?

bts: yoongi; namjoon & hobi

ateez: hongjoong & mingi

seventeen: seungcheol, jun, & seungkwan

the boyz: kevin, chanhee, changmin, juhak

which members are you currently obsessing over that aren't your bias/bias wrecker?

bts: jungkook

ateez: yeosang

seventeen: mingyu

the boyz: sangyeon

when did you first discover this group?

bts: 2017. my best friend was into them first and sent me the mic drop mv. texted me the aforementioned primer. i kept up with them since then but didn't know kpop was... like this? like, the entire culture. was very unaware and thought it was just kinda like western groups.

ateez: 2019

seventeen: 2021

the boyz: 2021. it was either getting into them or seventeen and i went down the seventeen route first.

have you ever been to one of their concerts?

bts: twice as a group and d-day tour twice

ateez: three times

seventeen: twice

the boyz: no

what are some of your favorite songs by the group?

bts: best of me, blood sweat & tears, save me, ugh!, heartbeat, spine breaker, intro: never mind, intro: what am i to you, all of the cyphers, all of jin's solos, mikrokosmos, black swan, 2nd grade, the stars, spring day, autumn leaves, love maze, louder than bombs, 21st century girl, war of hormone. idk they have a massive discography how do you choose????

ateez: still here, twilight, say my name, hala hala, utopia, wave, wonderland, mist, answer, thanxx, fever, the leaders, take me home, dreamers, deja vu, turbulence, the real, don't stop, the king, cyberpunk, guerrilla, halazia, duna, matz, django

seventeen: fear, lie again, light a flame, super, i don't understand but i luv u, monster, lilili yabbay, trauma, highlight, march, ash, cheers, fallin' flower, don't wanna cry, my i, our dawn is hotter than day, good to me, getting closer, anyone, gam3 bo1, to you, run to you, 24h, a-teen

the boyz: ego, crying&laughter, no air, whiplash, b.o.y, bump & love, roar, breaking dawn, lip sync, eyes on me, d.d.d, drink it, echo, scar, 4ever, russian roulette, shine shine, tattoo, c.o.d.e, kiss me if you can, closer, levitating

no pressure tags: @the-boy-meets-evil @hot-soop @effortandmore @moni-logues @tbzhub & anyone else who wants to! do it and say i tagged ya :)

[roosterteethwatchdog]

This is Cricket who was the community manager for RT from 2018-2019 talking about her experience. The screenshot that she posted was from a former animator which you can read here. You can also read the animator's experience here. This is also not the first time that management was informed of things like sexual harassment and didn't do anything. Last week someone came forward about Adam Kovic of Funhaus. After this Autumn Farrell confirmed that Adam was the person she was referring to in her twitlonger which you can read here. Bruce Greene also came out and said he left Funhaus because HR did nothing about Adam.

[frozen10fanzine]

Frozen Through the Years

Yearly Spotlight: 2018

Written by @secretsofthestorymakers

For the Frozen Fandom, 2018 was mostly a year of looking forward to Frozen II. From casting announcements to character leaks, 2018 was the first time fans were actually given more information about the long-awaited sequel!

To name a few examples...

~There were several announcements of new cast members that excited fans as they tried to work out who the new actors would play. ~On Instagram, one of the animators announced that the character designs for Frozen II were finalized. ~In an interview with Variety, Jennifer Lee said that Frozen II would focus on Elsa and Anna again, but would be “bigger (and) more epic,” as they were “going to go far out of Arendelle.” ~There was the appearance of a new image on Instagram that showed Elsa and Anna in new outfits in front of an autumnal forest along with text that translated from Russian to “Frozen Heart II.” This particularly excited fans, but many people also dismissed it as fanart at first. Luckily, it was eventually revealed to be a leak from a Russian 2019 calendar where each month featured a Disney film that was scheduled to be released that month.

In addition to all the Frozen II excitement, Frozen: The Broadway Musical premiered in March! It featured 21 songs, 13 of which were not in the original film. The show ran for 26 previews and 825 regular shows on Broadway before closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Several new books and comics came out throughout this year as well. They expanded the lore of the Frozen universe, particularly with stories about the kingdoms surrounding Arendelle.

Lastly, in November, Ralph Breaks the Internet was released in theaters. It featured Elsa and Anna in modern attire along with all of the Disney Princesses! After the credits of the movie, there was a screen that promised a sneak peek of Frozen II. It played a second of footage from the beginning of Frozen before Ralph took over the screen again, singing Rick Astley’s "Never Gonna Give You Up," effectively Rickrolling the viewers.

Overall 2018 was a big year for the Frozen fandom as fans looked forward to 2019 and the release of Frozen II.

Stay Tuned For More

👆🏻 Click above if you want to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Frozen. The due date is April 12, 2024.

We look forward to seeing your memories ❄️

[vocalsynthbdays]

happy birthday to flower(vocaloid 3) and fuiro(vocaloid 6) !!!!!!!!! [may 9]

flower

fuiro

flower is a japanese synth developed by YAMAHA in collaboration with Gynoid co for vocaloid, the later liscenced out to INCS Toenter Co., Ltd. and Techno-Speech for her cevio ai version . her v3 illustration was drawn by Yamako, and her v4 and gynoid talk by △○□×/miwasiba,  her character design was done by Rocoru. her v4 design was based off of "shota" fanart of flower drawn by miwasiba i guess ??? (???????), her cevio was illustratited and designed by Oguchi.  rocoru and yamako are both part of honeyworks ("a circle consisting mainly of the composers Gom and shito, and the illustrator Yamako, along with many support members"*).  her design inspired that of the meika twins. 

 she was initially released in 2014 just for download,  then got a physical release on 16 july 2014.  she later got a v4 bank on 16 july 2015.  her addition to gyndoid talk was announced on 26 july 2019,  on twitter her design was released on 11 feb 2020, and the bank itself was released on 3 apr 2020.  she is also has a vocaloid neo release which came out on the same day as her initial v3.  after great delay, her cevio bank released on 10 mar 2023. she was initially supposed to get here cevio bank in autumn to winter of 2022, then around new years, then it released in march. she also has a vocaloid mobile editor bank, called "v for flower". 

 "flower" is the name of the character mascot, while "vflower" and "ciflower" are the names of the software itself.  in vocaloid, she was said to have an androgynous voice which is designed to specialise in rock music. her voice provider has never been revealed and she has no canon age. 

 due to the general lack of androgyny (and purple), as well as the move towards the design and voice of a more generic anime girl, ciflower was negatively received by a large number of fans.

Chinozo's song "Goodbye Declaration" featuring flower surpassed 100 million views on youtube in july 2021, making it the most viewed song in vocaloid history and the most viewed song sung by a vocal synth in history. 

 the honeyworks song called "inokori sensei"/ "detained teacher" (with Gom doing music and lyrics, Oji guitar, Rocuro the illustration, Yamako the illustration, video, and encoding, and drm the bass) released on 17 apr 2014. this song features flower and was used as a debut demo for her. at this time the character rights for flower belonged to gynoid co, despite the company not being fully established until aug 2014.

fuiro is an ai bank who released on 9 may 2023 (today). they themself are designed by ORIHARA, but their logo is designed by iga_kitty. their vp is philo, who is the winner of a contest which was held on nana (?) (a music sharing platform (?)) in 2022

*straight from vocaloid fandom wiki (edited)

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

This weekend’s MCU developments, fresh out of Comic-Con and on DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE's massive opening weekend, seem to indicate that Disney's trying to make the year 2026 - as I've mentioned before - into their proverbial next 2019.

A repeat of a year where they just dominated with billion dollar smashes, with few valleys in-between... They made *bank* with CAPTAIN MARVEL, AVENGERS: ENDGAME, ALADDIN, TOY STORY 4, THE LION KING, FROZEN II, and STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.

Of course, that was a rare occasion where the planets pretty much aligned for them... CAPTAIN MARVEL directly preceded ENDGAME, and of course ENDGAME was the big climax to the entire "Infinity Saga" of the MCU: Three phases, 11 years of movies, all down to that one big battle. ALADDIN and LION KING were remakes of some of Disney's most iconic and beloved animated films. TOY STORY 4, following up the huge smash that was TOY STORY 3 by almost a decade, almost as long of a wait between 2 & 3. FROZEN II, sequel to their animated phenomenon. RISE OF SKYWALKER was the end of the entire Skywalker Saga, 9 movies across five decades...

I think they keep wanting to recreate that, even though the 2020s are a much different time from this past decade, and some of those "brands" are now kinda stale...

So they revealed at Comic-Con that AVENGERS 5 has dropped the Kang stuff altogether, the Russo Brothers have returned to direct (along with SECRET WARS, arriving 2027), Dr. Doom is now the main villain and is played by none other than Robert Downey Jr., and it's called AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY. A lot of fans, from what I understand, are very mixed on this. Some feel it's desperation at this point, after their Kang/multiverse plans for phases 4-6 just didn't seem to pan out, and arguably weren't planned too well in advance - Majors accusations or no Majors accusations. So, go to an iconic villain who has been portrayed in live-action before, and get the beloved actor who played Tony Stark to make his grand return as this all-time Marvel villain that could very well be a thinly-written portrayal that strips the character of what makes him compelling and richly-written in the comics... Maybe, we don't know, the movie's far from being done... But the announcement definitely caught me off guard.

But yeah, add that to 2026... A year with, tentatively, two new STAR WARS movies: THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU, and an untitled movie about Rey 15 years after the events of RISE OF SKYWALKER. Familiar faces. Also TOY STORY 5. And a live-action remake of the beloved MOANA... Though, somewhat differentiating 2026 from 2019 is the possibility of new original movies from the two animation studios: A Pixar in the spring, and a WDAS in the autumn. In 2019, both studios only offered up sequels. There are a couple other slots Disney has for 2026 as well, which will likely go to some 20th Century/Searchlight movies. 2019 was when Disney finished their acquisition of 20th Century, and... The line-up that year was either movies they didn't give a damn about, or just didn't cut it. That was the year of... DARK PHOENIX, STUBER, THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN... Movies that didn't get greenlit under Disney's watch, but these 2026 movies will be, so maybe those will do better for them.

So yes, I can kinda tell that Iger's Disney is still chasing that 2019 high. Surefire hits based on old favorites, but I think in the case of the MCU, it really isn't - say - 2017 anymore. Announce both DOOMSDAY and SECRET WARS back then, and the roof is blown off the joint. But we're in 2024 now, and while Deadpool teaming up with Hugh Jackman's iconic go as Wolverine is expectedly doing amazing business, Captain Marvel joining forces with Ms. Marvel and Rambeau (two characters largely established in two Disney+ shows) did horribly, as did a third Ant-Man movie. CAPTAIN AMERICA 4 without Chris Evans, this THUNDERBOLTS* thing, and another go at Marvel's First Family could reverse this, maybe not... Tellingly, BLADE - still ostensibly scheduled for November of next year - didn't get a mention at all during the presentation. We know it has been held up, that they just can't seem to crack what was already done w/o pools full of Disney money back in the 1990s... Maybe it goes to show that something as neat as Blade falls apart when you try to force it into the fractured framework of the MCU. BLADE would've had a much easier time, I feel, if it were being developed during the first two phases w/o Ike Perlmutter around.

I guess at this point, it either opens in fall 2026 after DOOMSDAY releases, or it'll debut after SECRET WARS. I don't know anymore. The MCU was certainly imperfect from the word-go, but the character interactions and dynamics, the fun soap opera-like tricks, and often memorable moments got us through the big tangle of it all. The novelty of this big cinematic universe with all these characters from multiple movies crossing over was just such a real novelty circa 2010-2019, it was done on a scale that no one really saw beforehand. But that has now worn off, what with many of the OGs having died or left. It's not too late to reinvent it, and go a new direction after SECRET WARS. One that doesn't recreate what came before.

I think audiences have gravitated towards that kind of superhero movie now... The likes of the SPIDER-VERSE movies, THE BATMAN, etc. Both a handful of recent MCUs and the last of the old DC movie-verse films largely got rejected, so the tricks of the 2010s no longer work. It's about personal stakes and distinct style and a vision now. Unless it's a pre-established portrayal of a character that audiences love (like Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool and Jackman's Wolverine), you gotta be more than just a garden variety CG spectacle. It's why I'm curious as to how James Gunn and Peter Safran will launch the live-action end of their new DC Universe. Do SUPERMAN, SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW, THE AUTHORITY, BRAVE AND THE BOLD, etc. all stand out on their own? Or do they feel like episodes with little to no visual/storytelling differences?

Either Marvel Studios are onto something, or this is some last-ditch attempt to drum up a lot of interest again and make the end of Phase 5 and all of Phase 6 flop-less. Less MARVELS, more GUARDIANS/DEADPOOL 3-sized stuff.

What caught **my** interest the most were the details revealed about their new Fantastic Four film, now titled THE FANTASTIC 4: FIRST STEPS. Continuing their little way of differentiating their movies from the adaptations that came before. Fantastic Four already had two* iterations (*not counting the unreleased 1994 Roger Corman film), the 2005 movie was called FANTASTIC FOUR, as was the 2015 movie, though everyone calls it FANT4STIC. This tells you it's the Marvel Studios MCU F4 movie! Just like how their Hulk movie was THE INCREDIBLE HULK, five years after the release of the 2003 movie HULK. And how their first Spider-Man solo movie added the subtitle HOMECOMING. Also, it's like we get an F4 every 10 years now. The Tim Story-directed movie with Chris Evans in 2005, the next version in 2015, and now this version. Next year. 2025.

It had been teased that this film would have a more '60s flavor to it, which always made sense, given that the Fantastic Four debuted in the early 1960s and directly correlated with space age exploration. The setting of this film is described as a sort-of '60s retro future, and the first look at it certainly confirms it... And what's more, Michael Giacchino is doing the score.

This is literally THE INCREDIBLES!

I remember for many years, some people joked that they didn't need to make a "good" Fantastic Four movie. One already existed: THE INCREDIBLES. And of course, THE INCREDIBLES is highly inspired by the same space age aesthetics that inform the original F4 comics and most superhero/sci-fi stuff of that era. They both have stretchy and invisible characters. And Giacchino did the score for that film. Brad Bird grew up during that period, and it's all over his animated classic. Tim Story's FANTASTIC FOUR was in post-production when THE INCREDIBLES came out, and he had made changes to his movie, fearing similarities that were always inevitable.

So maybe this 2025 movie, part of the MCU, finally works. That Marvel's First Family finally works as a live-action movie, and can stand on its own in a world where an amazing animated equivalent exists. Matt Shakman directs, who helmed WANDAVISION, which had three episodes heavily patterned after sitcoms made in the '50s, '60s, and '70s, so maybe I'll quite like this movie. It's the one future MCU movie, outside of BLADE, that actually has my interest.