#disney hires veterans

[samsdisneydiary]

Disney Supports Military Veterans with $1 Million Donation

As Disney celebrates its 100th anniversary, we are also proudly celebrating 100 years of support for our nation’s veterans and military service members. We honor our military and veterans every day, and today we reinforced that commitment with several exciting announcements. Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of Disney Experiences, with Jared Lyon, president and CEO of Student Veterans of…

[bikkue]

One thing has been bothering me a lot in many Hazbin Hotel reviews/analysis I've been seeing: the idea that Vivziepop hired "celebrities" to voice the characters and that it somehow cheapens the end product. (I don't have enough information about what went down between her and the old VAs from the 2019 pilot, so I'll refrain from commenting on that.)

This is a musical animated series backed by A24. It would not feel out of place at all for Vivziepop to cast musical theater performers as the characters in her show, as so many animated series and movies have done since Menken and Ashman changed Disney's (and other animation studios') approach to storytelling in the 90's. None of the VAs attached to the Hazbin Hotel credits can be considered "celebrities" in the normal use of that word - that is: their voices are not immediately recognizeable by the public at large and their names alone are not able to sell the show. The only performer who Viviziepop hired that fits the bill would be Kesha in Helluva Boss, the independent animated series that is not attached to this Amazon/A24 project. I think the most recognizeable name in the main cast is either Stephanie Beatriz or Keith David - and most people will remember them as "that woman from Brooklyn Nine-Nine" or "Dr. Facilier's Voice Actor", not by their own media personas.

Besides, it feels a bit dismissive when people just say they're "celebrities" and not, you know, actors who are doing the jobs they've been hired for. Keith David himself, for example, is an accomplished veteran actor, singer AND voice actor for many beloved roles - and he STILL is not recognized enough for his incredible range.

I understand that many fans are very attached to the original VAs (and that's completely valid, they are incredibly talented as well), but it feels kind of ridiculous to say that Vivziepop made the "wrong" choice here by casting a different set of performers in these roles.

Also: "Vivziepop should have saved the money she used on the Broadway VAs and given it to the animators!" I want animators to be paid fair wages just as much as anyone else, but this is not how the budget distribution for these types of projects work. You do know this is not how it works, right? Right?

[jedimaesteryoda]

The Mandalorian S3 . . . Stinks

I admit as a fan of the show I am disappointed about where it went. The first season was largely excellent, and the second season wasn't bad, but the third season to put it lightly, was a mess.

I'm usually willing to forgive a few bad or so-so episodes. The best season of the Mandalorian had a few bad episodes in middle that felt like filler, but the character had a cohesive arc and good character development, seeing him change from attacking a compound to obtain the child to defending the child in a shootout with Imperials.

The third season had plenty of bad episodes, but the problem was it felt disjointed. "The Foundling" felt pointless and didn't make much sense. "Guns for Hire" left me more disappointed, because it actually had some good ideas. Frank Lloyd's character left me wanting more, and the episode could have focused more on him. A veteran of the Confederacy of Independent Systems who still pines for the Lost Cause, feeling vindicated by the rise of the Empire and saw Dooku as a grand, romantic figure cut down by the future villainous figure of Darth Vader, there's so much they could have done with that. Especially, since Din is himself a victim of the Confederacy with the war droids Helgait prided himself on having massacred his village. They were also both victims of the Empire and pining for a world that was lost to them as a way of forming a connection.

The other issue in the episode was the celebrity cameos of Lizzo and Jack Black. I'm not opposed to cameos given we had Bill Burr in seasons 1 and 2, but the major difference is how his character was handled. Burr's character Mayfield had a role to play in the story, helping Din infiltrate a Imperial base and his character actually had depth and a character arc. They did things with his character while Lizzo and Black were purely celebrity cameos with no real contributions to the story and in a blatant manner meant draw attention to the actors rather than the characters they were playing.

Then, there is Bo-Katan. I'm sorry, but as a character she is just so boring. She is made the leader of the Mandalorians in the end in a way that feels shoehorned. She had no character arc or development. Nor did it feel like she actually earned the Darksaber and the title of Mandalore. It was all handed to her on a silver platter.

The biggest issue was with the titular character's arc. Din reuniting with Grogu after the tearful goodbye at the end of season 2 feels like a betrayal. It feels even more so when in Book of Boba Fett he goes to visit Grogu while he's training with Luke only to be told Grogu can't form attachments, and thinking that seeing Grogu at a distance will be the last glimpse he will ever get of him, he accepts the hard truth that it really is goodbye forever. The story would have been much more meaningful and powerful if that was the case.

It would have been akin to the ending of Wolf Children where after the fox dies, Ame decides that the mountain needs a new guardian and leaves with his mother tearfully telling not to go. However, when she sees him on top of the mountain, it's then that she realizes it's where he belongs.

It's Studio Ghibli's message on childhood vs Disney's. Disney's is "you can be a kid forever" while Studio Ghibli's is "childhood is fun, but it doesn't last forever." Din and Grogu go their separate ways as they both take on responsibilities needed for the good of their people with Din becoming the Mandalore to lead his people and Grogu becoming a Jedi to revive the Jedi Order and for the good of the galaxy.

The plotline of Din's difficulty in handling the Darksaber is just tossed into the bin. They could have tied his difficulty with wielding it to his reluctance to be Mandalore. At the same time, he misses Grogue and having gotten the Darksaber the last time they saw each other, it could have served as a reminder of him. He was an orphan who was rescued and taken in by Mandalorians, who in turn took in and rescued an orphaned child, and realizing he found purpose looking after Grogu, he decides to be a father to an orphaned people, the Mandalorians.

Or you could just say "fuck it" and give it to Bo. And have Grogu come back, undoing all the character development and narrative arc just because he was eye candy for viewers for gimmickification like Black and Lizzo.

I'm sorry for how much of a letdown season 3 was.

[magnificent-nerd]

Marvel Studios Veteran Victoria Alonso Exits

She has served as executive producer on its titles since the first 'Avengers' movie.

The reasons for the exit are unclear but she parted ways with Marvel Friday, sources say.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Alonso was President of Physical, Post Production, VFX and Animation at the studio.

Fans are speculating already about a post Phase 4 shakeup at Marvel Studios, with Alonso taking the first fall due to poor reception for visual effects.

My question is, will Marvel Studios be hiring more women into executive roles going forward, or will Alonso have been the only woman executive at their company?

It's worth noting she was also a vocal supporter for LGBT+ at Disney, which couldn't have gone down well given Disney's ongoing homophobia and conservative leanings.

Alonso herself is LGBT.

Something to keep an eye on.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Further FOX AND THE HOUND Observations

I watch THE FOX AND THE HOUND... Like, a lot...

Not too long ago, while scoping around Goodwill... Even though I have largely halted collecting Disney VHS tapes (something I regularly did from the early 2000s up until the late 2010s, with some additions every now and then afterwards), I couldn't help but pick up some Disney VHS tapes that I saw there...

One of them was the 2000 release of THE FOX AND THE HOUND, which was in the Gold Classic Collection. This release came in both VHS and DVD formats, but I scooped up the tape, largely for the front artwork. I never really collected the Gold Classic Collection editions, even though they were the newest releases of several Disney films when I was in my late single-digits. I had gotten a couple of them, too, back in the day, as previous editions were no longer available. I had FUN & FANCY FREE, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER circa 2000-2002. I had also gotten the GCC DVDs of THE SWORD IN THE STONE and THE BLACK CAULDRON. Many years later, when I started collecting Disney VHS tapes, I did eventually throw in at least one more GCC release. I remember being given the 2000 release of TOY STORY from a relative, and... I didn't really pick up any after that, until I got the FOX AND THE HOUND VHS the other day.

I tend to watch the movie a lot, and I wanted an excuse to the other day, so I popped in the VHS. I had never seen what this transfer of the movie looked like, I was only familiar with how it looked on the original 1994 VHS release (from "The Classics" line) and the 2011 Blu-ray... But, THE FOX AND THE HOUND fascinates me, even if it's not among my personal favorite Disney animated features...

There was a period in my life where I watched it frequently, too. Circa early 2002, I want to say? And another time around mid-to-late 2005-ish, when I was nonstop watching many of the animated classics. Studying them like the obsessed 12 3/4-year old that I was at the time! These films are like my sun and moon, even the ones that aren't regarded as the greatest, or even considered below par.

Anyways... Where was I? Yeah, THE FOX AND THE HOUND. Well-known amongst the average animation (and/or Disney) historian as the smack-dab-in-the-middle of the transitional era picture of the Disney animated feature library. The film whose production was fraught by Don Bluth's mass exodus from the studio, resulting in a half-year delay and the enterprise scrambling to hire many new animators to work on the picture, getting it to its summer 1981 release date. A film worked on by many future giants in the animation and cinema landscape, from John Musker to Chris Buck to Glen Keane to Brad Bird to Tim Burton!

Wow-wee!

THE FOX AND THE HOUND wasn't quite a beloved picture upon release in 1981, with some brushing it off as yet another Disney cartoon in the age of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. In fact, this dog picture shared the same summer with RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. It is a very compromised picture, as it is well-known that the young artists and the veterans were both at odds- not so much with each other, but with a very strict management that feared the wrath of angry letters from parents and the Bible Belt. This middle-management wouldn't allow the animated features in the works at the time (THE RESCUERS, this film) to be more in line with the films overseen by Walt Disney, films that weren't afraid to frighten young children and commit to their visual drama. Thus, you had Chief surviving a fall from a railroad bridge that was *supposed* to result in his death (thus fueling Copper with vengeance and hate for his best friend), and a general lack of oomph in other scenes. Jerry Rees, one of the animators of the film, recently revealed in an interview that the directors and executives didn't want the death of Tod's mother in the opening sequence to be explicit! They had to fight, tooth and nail, to get that gunshot sound effect in the movie!

That tells you everything you need to know...

THE FOX AND THE HOUND was in full production by the end of 1978. An inked and painted image of Tod and Copper meeting each other in the fallen log appeared in a November issue of LIFE Magazine that year, in celebration of Mickey Mouse's 50th birthday. In this issue was also some concept art done up by Mel Shaw for THE BLACK CAULDRON, which ended up being the feature film to be completed after FOX/HOUND. Not too long ago, I had read that one of the remaining bits of Don Bluth's work on the film was in the scene where Tod causes trouble in the barn while Widow Tweed is tending to Abigail the cow... and yeah, it does look like a Bluth scene!

There's a particular way Bluth does eyes, and I feel like you can see that with both Tod and the cow. Also, Tod doesn't keep his tongue in his mouth (before he takes a drink), another Bluth staple. You can see where his work is, using the tongues as your guide, in THE RESCUERS and WINNIE THE POOH AND TIGGER TOO. He has a thing for characters' tongues flopping out of their mouths.

But I definitely think that Bluth-ness can be felt in other scenes during the film's first 10 or so minutes, such as Big Mama comforting Tod after losing his mother, and Widow Tweed feeding Tod milk. And then about 20 minutes or so into the picture, once Amos, Copper, and Chief go on their lengthy hunting trip, you can see where things resumed following Bluth's September 1979 exit from the animation wing. You can see the work of the Cal-Art animators, and the vibe of the picture is slightly different. The first 10-20min of the movie have that '70s slow quietness to it, the veterans and the animators who already had ROBIN HOOD, TIGGER TOO, and THE RESCUERS under their collective belts... And then the rest of the picture, the new animators. There's a looseness to the animation and structuring of that half of the film, I feel.

I find that very, very fascinating. We have roughly a quarter of the movie that was made in 1978-79, and then the rest resumed in - presumably - early 1980. Of course, the story itself was probably locked by the end of 1978 with few major changes made afterwards (for example, the earliest iterations of THE FOX AND THE HOUND had some crow characters instead of woodpecker Boomer and the Brooklyn-accented sparrow Dinky), it's the execution of what was laid down. One team handling the first 10-20min, the other handling the rest. There's at least two schools of thought at play here, maybe a third, because Glen Keane's bear sequence feels - from a visual and staging standpoint - like it's from a completely different movie. The powerhouse sequence showcases a kind of intensity and raw pencil-drawn power that did the early Walt-era films proud, that the rest of the movie could've lived up to if the filmmakers had been allowed to just make a great family movie without the fear of upsetting someone.

Then you look at MICKEY'S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1983) and THE BLACK CAULDRON (1985), it's the new team's work through and through... THE FOX AND THE HOUND is the full bridge from the end of the Nine Old Men's lengthy careers to the "Young Turks" who would eventually be at the forefront of Disney Animation's "Renaissance"... You have a little bit of everything in it, really... Nine Old Men stuff that feels like it's from the late 1970s, Don Bluth stuff that's in line with his work on THE RESCUERS and his first feature THE SECRET OF NIMH (and also his part-time short BANJO THE WOODPILE CAT), the new animators' work that rings more CAROL and CAULDRON, and Glen Keane just absolutely going off with a scene that looks like it could've come right out of one of the '90s movies.

Kind of an eclectic collection of filmmaking choices, if you think about it, all rolled into this often-overlooked 83-minute movie.

[quotes121sworld]

Gladiator sequel starring May Calamawy, Lior Raz, Derek Jacobi and others alongside Paul Mescal

The main actors for the highly anticipated sequel to Gladiator is taking shape following recent rounds of hiring by famed director Ridley Scott and his casting team.meeting reports that May Calamawy, Lior Raz, Derek Jacobi, Peter Mensah and Matt Lucas are among the actors recently cast to star in the as yet untitled film, which stars Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix some 30 years after the original storyline should.Also, Fred Hechinger could be coming on board soon, as he and his team are currently in talks for the role of Emperor Geta after Barry Keoghan had to drop out of the race for the unspecified role due to scheduling conflicts.The new cast joins a cast that already included Irish actor Paul Mescal, 27, in the lead role of Lucius, son of Lucilla, who was played by Connie Nielsen in the original 2000 film.Like Jacobi, who is reprising his role as Gracchus, Nielson is believed to be one of the few veteran actors returning to the cast, alongside other previously announced actors such as Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal and Joseph Quinn.Considered one of the best films of the 2000s, Gladiator was a smash hit with fans. On a budget of $103 million, it grossed more than $503 million at the worldwide box office.Most critics praised the production, particularly the acting of Crowe and Phoenix, which led to twelve Oscar nominations and eventually won five, including the coveted Best Picture Oscar and Best Actress Oscar for Crowe.In the wake of the success of Gladiator, Crowe saw his star rise to the top of almost everyone's A-list in Hollywood and beyond.Last year, news broke of a sequel starring Ridley Scott, which in turn caught the attention of male actors around the world who fit the profile.Scott is producing and directing from a script by David Scarpa, who is credited with writing The Last Castle (2001), The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008) and All The Money In The World (2017) is known for the upcoming historical drama Napoleon (2023) produced and directed by Scott, due for release in November. Calamawy wanted to do a thorough search for the most important main characters and finally landed her role after several auditions.She got her big break last year in Marvel Studios' Moon Knight series, starring alongside Oscar Isaac in the Disney+ series.The Bahraini native, 36, is also known for her ongoing role in the Hulu comedy-drama series Ramy, which also stars Ramy Youssef, Hiam Abbass, Amr Waked, Dave Merheje and Mohammed Amer.

BACK ON BOARD: Ridley Scott, 85, returns as producer and director of the as yet untitled Gladiator sequel; He is pictured on the set of the original 1999 film

Starring: The new cast joins a cast that already includes Irish actor Paul Mescal, 27, in the lead role of Lucius, son of Lucilla, who was played by Connie Nielsen in the original 2000 filmAs for the other hires, 51-year-old Raz is better known to his fans in his native Israel for his roles in the political thriller series Fauda (since 2015) and Hit & Run (2021).Jacobi, 84, is an English actor with a long and distinguished career in film, television and theater dating back to 1959. He has received numerous awards over the decades including a BAFTA, two Olivier Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Tony Award.Mensah, 63, is a Ghanaian-English actor with films such as Tears Of The Sun (2003), Hildago (2004), 300 (2006) and The Incredible Hulk (2008). And Lucas, 49, has achieved acting fame with his roles in the BBC sketch comedy series Little Britain (2003-2006) and Come Fly With Me (2010-2011) and the films Alice in Wonderland. (2010) and "Bridesmaids" (2010) fame as an actor. 2011).Best known for his breakthrough role in the first season of HBO's The White Lotus, 24-year-old Hechinger made his film debut in and starred in the coming-of-age dramedy Eighth Grade (2018). Drama “Human Capital” (2019) with.

Epic hit: In January, after Russell Crowe revealed he would not be appearing in the sequel, he revealed on a podcast that the storyline takes place some 30 years after the original film; Both Crowe and his co-star Joaquin Phoenix were praised for their performances in the hit 2000 film, which also included a Best Actor Oscar for CroweEarlier this year, Russell Crowe confirmed he wouldn't be appearing in the long-awaited Gladiator sequel, but offered a few plot pointers after chatting with Scott over dinner.Although he didn't reveal much, during an appearance on the series he revealed that the story revolves around Mescal's character, Lucius Fitzy and Wippa Podcast."If you remember, there was a little boy who wanted to defeat the gladiator, which leads to the 'My name is' speech," he said of the original film, adding, "So this little boy grew up, and that he is also now.' the Emperor.' He then summed things up by declaring: “So it's not a remake. And it's not a direct sequel. It's not like the day after, you know, 30 years later or something. And then the situation arises, you know? So far, there's no official word on when filming for the Gladiator sequel will begin. Read the full article

[poorsapadvocate]

Incomplete list of things Disney could be working on other than the Lilo and Stitch live action remake:

Dubbing and officially releasing the Stitch anime

Cobra Bubbles spy-flick (probably a prequel about how he rescued earth by designating mosquitoes as an endangered species, but I could see a sequel "veteran cop goes back into the field" spin work just as well)

That Monster's Inc crossover people wrote a couple years ago

Speaking of, why didn't anyone pitch a Treasure Planet crossover? That's an idea with some legs (Lilo would destroy Silver in like a day)

And while we're at it, that Lilo goes to Galactic College spinoff TV show

A 90-minute animatic of Pleakly showing us slides from his wedding with Jumba and their honeymoon

An Oscar-bait biopic on Queen Lili’uokalani, the last sovereign of Hawaii before it was colonized by the US

Pretending to remake Lilo and Stitch, but at the premiere they just show that video of a guy husking a coconut with his bare teeth and nothing else

Rereleasing the entire movie but replacing the Alan Silvestri score with new songs written by J-Rock band the pillows (Elvis can stay)

Creating a time machine to stop itself from cutting the "mayhem at the beach" deleted scene

Producing and distributing more films made by Native Hawaiians and hiring more Native Hawaiians in both cast, crew, and park staff roles.

Actual Lilo and Stitch park representation (the name 'Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride' is rigHT THERE)

Paying it's staff a living wage

Financially supporting public works projects to improve the quality of life for Hawaiians and return Native land to Native hands

Supporting charities such as the Nature Conservancy, Kahea, and Waiwai Ola Waterkeepers that work to protect and maintain Hawaiian land

Angel

[ish0uldbeworking]

This week, Mattel announced its foray into the mobile games industry. 

The company, worth over seven billion US dollars, is best known for its range of toys and IP’s. From Barbie to Hotwheels to Uno, Mattel has over 220 brands in their portfolio, including major partnerships to produce products for companies like Disney and WWE. 

This is not Mattel's first foray into digital media, however. Mattel’s Barbie line of toys has had over a dozen animated/web series and close to 40 movies, the most recent of which (Barbie; The Movie) has grossed over a billion dollars in the box office. 

This also isn’t Mattel's first foray into gaming as a whole. Mattel has mobile and PC games, dating all the way back to the 1980’s. Mattel has also branched out into Roblox games, working on the game Vehicle Simulator by having a special event with Hot Wheels related cars and tracks as well as Barbie-based Roblox game.

The key difference is that Mattel has licensed their IP’s to these third parties. Mattel’s licensed Uno game for mobile is made by Mattel163, a joint venture between Mattel and Chinese based NetEase. 

This news comes almost a year after Mattel hired video game veteran Mike DeLaet, whose previous experiences include being the head of games at Sprint, the SVP of Global Publishing at Glu Mobile, and the SVP of Strategic Partnerships at Scopely to name a few. 

DeLaet states that he hopes to see Mattel publish at least one new game per year. While Mattel already has many tie-in products, DeLaet wants to put a “‘new spin’ on existing brands.” This, however, does not mean that Mattel will be self publishing every game. In an interview with GamesBeat, he stated that "We'll still continue to do most of our projects through licensing, and we can't do everything ourselves"

While excited, Mattel CEO Ynon Kriez is a bit weary. Issues of layoffs in the gaming sector over the past few years have been a big issue, and the chances of Mattel hitting them are still on the table. Kriez stated that, in addition to hoping the video game industry recovers quickly, he also hopes and believes that Mattel will be able to hire new heads - a statement also mirrored by DeLaet.

It is exciting to see what Mattel is able to bring to the table and expand on what they already have. 

Word count: 400

[rantelisaliveandwell]

Let's talk about comics!

The North American comic book industry has always operated mostly on a freelance, work-for-hire basis. Writers and artists do their work in their own time from their own homes, and are paid piecemeal by publishers for the pages they produce.

On the one hand, the highly decentralized work force is kind of cool. While comics were once produced almost exclusively by people who lived in the vicinity of New York City, advances in technology mean that people all around the world can now collaborate on these things!

However, because they are all freelancers, there is no health insurance, no pension plan, no sick leave, no vacation pay, no benefits of any kind. If an artist breaks their arm and can't draw for three months, they're out of luck. No income until they can start putting out pages again.

But what if there was another way?

At the turn of the millennium, tech entrepreneur and comics fan Mark Alessi and his cousin Gina Villa founded CrossGen comics, and they were determined to do things differently.

CrossGen writers and artists were salaried employees, and all worked out of a central office space in Tampa, Florida (which for most of them meant relocating, potentially uprooting families and in some cases even immigrating to a whole new country.) They were able to recruit a mix of young up-and-comers looking for a shot at the big leagues, and industry veterans who admired the vision of their new way of doing things.

CrossGen comics were set in a shared universe, like those of Marvel and DC, but unlike the Big Two, CrossGen eschewed superheroes, focusing instead on genres like fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and horror. And they took the phrase "shared universe" pretty literally, with most of their series taking place on entirely separate PLANETS with no direct crossover between them, but all connected by the mysterious "Sigils" which kicked off the plot of each book.

They had a lot of cool ideas, and received some strong fan support, but in many ways the company was mismanaged from the beginning. I won't go into detail about that here, but Ron Marz, one of the company's primary writers throughout its existence, has shared many behind-the-scenes CrossGen stories at various outlets over the years, and I encourage you to seek them out. Suffice to say, CrossGen declared bankruptcy and ceased publishing operations in 2004, less than four years after putting out their first comics.

Their assets were purchased by Disney, who then bought Marvel a few years later, essentially putting CrossGen's intellectual property under the auspices of Marvel Comics. Marvel hasn't done much with properties since then; they put out a few miniseries reimagining CrossGen titles over a decade ago, but those never really went anywhere. This year, for the first time, Marvel finally announced that they would be publishing omnibus editions of the old CrossGen comics from the early 2000s, perhaps heralding a new era of relevance for these oft-forgotten stories (we'll see.)

And this is where I come in! A few years ago, I bought a longbox of comics on ebay, which included complete runs of CrossGen's four launch titles: Sigil, Mystic, Scion, and Meridian, as well as their first expansion title, The First.

Since then, I've only read a handful of these comics. But now, I'm gonna try and read them right through, and I'm gonna write about it! It will be a journey through a fascinating blip of early 2000s pop culture. Are they any good? Did they deserve better? We'll find out!

[laresearchette]

Saturday, December 02, 2023 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: THRILLER 40 (Paramount +) LADIES OF THE 80's: A DIVAS CHRISTMAS (Lifetime Canada) 8:00pm A CHRISTMAS SERENADE (OWN Canada) 9:00pm

WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT? CHRISTMAS ON WINDMILL WAY (Premiering on December 08 on CTV Life at 8:00pm) A NOT SO ROYAL CHRISTMAS (Premiering on December 09 on CTV Life at 8:00pm)

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

CRAVE TV ALVINNN!!! AND THE CHIPMUNKS (Season 3) PAW PATROL (Seasons 4 - 5)

DISNEY + STAR DOCTOR WHO: WILD BLUE YONDER

2023 FIFA MEN'S U17 WORLD CUP (TSN4) 6:48am: Final - Germany vs. France

NHL HOCKEY (SN) 2:00pm: Lightning vs. Stars (TSN3) 3:00pm: Chicago vs. Jets (CBC/City TV) 7:00pm: Detroit vs. Habs (SN1) 7:00pm: Kraken vs. Sens (SN) 7:00pm: Bruins vs. Leafs (CBC/SN) 10:00pm: Canucks vs. Flames

NBA BASKETBALL (TSN4) 4:00pm: Warriors vs. Clippers (SN Now) 8:00pm: Hawks vs. Bucks (TSN4) 9:00pm: Thunder vs. Mavericks

A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH (CTV Life) 6:00pm: An NYC advertising executive returns to her hometown to sell the family farm but instead reconnects with her childhood friend and gets involved with organizing the yearly Winter Wonderland, which takes place on the property.

NLL LACROSSE (TSN) 7:00pm: Rush vs. Thunderbirds (TSN) 10:00pm: Panther City vs. Warriors

CTV NEWS SPECIAL: RICK HANSEN: UNBREAKABLE 50 YEARS LATER (CTV) 7:00pm

IRON MAN 3 (CTV) 8:00pm: After a malevolent enemy reduces his world to rubble, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) must rely on instinct and ingenuity to protect those he loves as he searches for a way to avenge his losses.

LETTERS TO SANTA (W Network) 8:00pm: When young siblings receive a magic pen from Santa that appears to be granting wishes, they request a Christmas gift they want more than anything -- for their separated parents to reunite.

CHRISTMAS AT THE DRIVE-IN (CTV Life) 8:00pm: A property lawyer finds romance during the holidays while trying to save her town's local drive-in from closing down.

WILD BABIES OF AMERICA'S NATIONAL PARKS (Nat Geo Wild) 8:00pm: Baby animals in the National Parks struggle through a perilous first year.

CATERING CHRISTMAS (CTV2) 9:00pm: Fledgling caterer Molly Frost is hired by perfectionist Jean Harrison for the renowned Harrison Foundation's annual Christmas Gala, but things get complicated when she falls for Jean's nephew.

TUCKED (OUT TV) 9:00pm: A veteran drag queen with a terminal illness begins a new friendship with a younger man and cleans up unfinished business with his estranged daughter.

INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR (Crave) 9:00pm: Josh Lambert heads east to drop his son, Dalton, off at school. However, Dalton's college dream soon becomes a living nightmare when the repressed demons of his past suddenly return to haunt them both.

SELENA + CHEF (HBO Canada) 9:00pm (SEASON PREMIERE): Alex Guarnaschelli and Selena prepare roast beef and "Chantilly" mashed potatoes.

JOY RIDE (Starz Canada) 9:00pm: Four unlikely friends embark on an epic, no-holds-barred journey of bonding, belonging and wild debauchery that reveals the universal truth of what it means to know and love who you are.

SNOW ANGEL (Super Channel Fuse) 9:00pm: After a fatal accident in a snowy village at the eastern tip of Quebec, a screwed-up ex-pro snowboarder decides to pack up her cabin and leave town for good, but someone -- or something -- seems intent on stopping her.

THE LITTLE THINGS (CTV) 12:35am: A deputy sheriff joins forces with a sergeant to search for a serial killer who's terrorizing Los Angeles.

[temuera-morrison-tournament]

Movies: Round 1 poll 7

Propaganda:

Revenge of the Sith

Nearly three years have passed since the beginning of the Clone Wars. The Republic, with the help of the Jedi, take on Count Dooku and the Separatists. With a new threat rising, the Jedi Council sends Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to aid the captured Chancellor. Anakin feels he is ready to be promoted to Jedi Master. Obi-Wan is hunting down the Separatist General, Grievous. When Anakin has future visions of pain and suffering coming Padmé's way, he sees Master Yoda for counsel. When Darth Sidious executes Order 66, it destroys most of all the Jedi have built. Experience the birth of Darth Vader. Feel the betrayal that leads to hatred between two brothers. And witness the power of hope. I watched it on Disney+

Tracker

An Afrikaner veteran of the Boer War has just immigrated to New Zealand and is hired to track a man accused of killing a soldier. While hunting through the countryside he captures his fugitive, only to learn that he's innocent of the crime. When faced with the life-changing decision to turn him in or set him free only, one man will walk away alive. You can watch it here

[amarriageoftrueminds]

i don't get how some ppl have such short memories for the creative decisions marvel makes

people saying that james gunn(??) should write Bucky bc of rocket's arc in gotg3... did they forget that we already know what gunn's thoughts on Bucky and his autonomy are? none of them were remotely good, and it also involved rocket and his ableist running joke of wanting to dismember amputees replacement limbs off. marvel would rather humanize a raccoon than a human who was tortured and enslaved by nazis.

or how people will rightfully criticize all the available info feige puts out re: Thunderbolts for calling Bucky a villain... but then turn around and preeptively praise that he might have "long" hair (the WS cut) so out wondering why marvel keeps putting Bucky in winter soldier style designs whenever they villainize him again. it happens in both comics and mcu consistently. obviously those in charge want to keep him as the WS villain role and not progress his character and don't care why people liked the WS story (the development it set up)

or how some complain that Sam was unkind and victimblamey towards Bucky in tfatws, I feel like those got too into fanon!Sam that made him a therapist bc of his veteran work, but Sam re: Bucky started out wanting him to be put down like a dog, and consistently complained about Steve treating Bucky with kindness and empathy. fatws Sam wasn't OOC, he was always a military man whose empathy never extended towards the POW captured by Nazis and always regarded him as a potential threat that he has to tolerate, that was in character. the actual fault is the mcu not exploring the dynamic a super patriotic US military man not extending empathy towards a a ww2 vet for fought nazis only for said nazis to be hired by the US a lá Project Paperclip, but LBR the disney-owned and USDoD-funded marvel studios is not financially incentivized to delve into those topics in any way that doesn't ultimately end with "woo, Captain Amurrica, red white and blue stars and stripes, stand for the flag wooo! ignore anything close to critical in this project and embrace patriotic centrism!"

I already hate how long the last one got but another thing:

the way that Steve's mother and his Irish heritage (during the early 1900s which makes it more significant in that point in history) are given to shine, we don't even know her maiden name, even the story of Steve's father and how it's supposed to parallel Steve going to fight European fascism in both world wars, none of that gets any attention bc marvel as a franchise cares more abt the generic patriotism to dive into the characters

There's never enough talk about how post-CATWS mcu demoted Bucky from titular character and arguable secondary protagonist as a foil and parallel for Steve, be his alternate supersoldier/superhero journey based on who the world chose to lionized and who to exploit in the seedy underbelly and shady deals w nazis, but post-CATWS mcu (specifically CACW) robbed Steve of the chance to have Steve's (not Cap's, Steve's) character be explored.

Becayse why tf does that terrorizing billionaire have more screentime on what is (nominally) a sequel to Steve and Bucky's movie? We learn more about tony's annoying ass billionaire parents in a desperate attempt for pity than we do about either Bucky or Steve's families… the most we get is a name drop of Steve and Bucky reunion scenes that were clearly cut short if you compare them to the trailers of the movie.

the russos are branded as hacks (and maybe this is me still being bitter as an OG cacw-hater) but after they revealed in interviews that they kept re-editing and re-shooting civil war until half of test audiences sided with tony, that should've been where they were forever banned from filmmaking. that's not making a movie, that's making a product to sell action figures (unfortunately true for most of marvel if we're honest)

"Captain America: the Winter Soldier" nay have listed them by their titles, but that movie is pretty much the only time we see Bucky and Steve as characters most of the time, it's literally the only own with flashbacks to their relationship before the war, before "Captain America" even existed, to where it was just Bucky and Steve.

the vast majority of the marvel franchise treats them as only "Cap" and "Winter Soldier" their actual characters get lost by "creatives" who only have a superficial understanding of them as just two types of action figures to collect, they don't know Steve or Bucky, so we get sequels constantly about "Bucky's a killer robot who must be browbeat at every turn" and "Steve's most important thing in his life is the cap shield and legacy" as if their stories weren't centered around how Bucky was NOT the killer robot and in fact Steve's damn-near guardian angel character before the war and even during (literally killing nazis before they could touch Steve) and as if Steve didn't throw away the shield and Captain America title in each of his movies in favor of what's actually important to him: his oldest protector and the one he wants to protect in return, Bucky.

marvel doesn't even understand Bucky and Steve, they treat them as WS & CA, even though their core canon never showed them caring about the "legacy" and patriotism, it was always incidental at best or an obstacle that gets in the way. the most patriotism was in catfa, but it was always a mantle forced into Steve and his hero team (Howling Commandos) were purposefully diverse and non-American majority recommended by Bucky when Steve joined Bucky in the war to fight nazis. But now marvel wants to retcon in this stuff with lines like Bucky calling Hydra "my people" instead of his oppressors and torturers like they actually were, and storylines about how the patriotic legacy and shield are Steve's whole identity instead of Bucky speaking up and pointing out that none of the other characters actually knew Steve, they only knew "Cap" and "Mr. America" and that Steve literally abandoned the shield as his last public choice with it, so none of it even is his legacy at all.

the sheer gall of (in defense of infinitywar/endgame's BS) people claimed that Bucky would finally get focus again in tfatws, but in the end, only catws gave us flashback scenes of Bucky (and Steve!) before the war before the superhero stuff, meanwhile the d+ show didn't even acknowledge that Bucky's direct family's kids are 1000% alive (he had a big family!) and heard of the real uncle Bucky, and instead the show claimed that Bucky is closest to HYDRA… the ones who tortured him into a mindslave… and he said it to a government mandated therapist (institutionalization by the state) who works for the same government who had the hydra-nazis on payroll and funded Bucky's torture…

no one at marvel even gave a thought about Bucky's family or the direct fault the gov has in his abuse.. no one on screen points out that the state that's institutionalizing him as a felon literally owes him reparations. they could've done a storyline relating to other IRL groups and family descendants who are owed reparations for the USA's domestic and international crimes and how Bucky is a similar case, but instead it's about how Bucky has no family that he was violently imprisoned from and how he's the one at fault and how the government mandated oversight says Bucky should be apologizing for what they funded

Bucky has so many blatant similarities with victims and descendants of IRL state human rights abuses that those states refuse to recognize, but marvel isn't willing to frame in a way that makes the US look bad because they're too busy being patriotic and "respecting the shield" and flag symbols and "legacy" and pretending like the shield is so so so important to Bucky or Steve and retcon out the parts where the shield and the captain america stuff was discarded easily at the emotional climax of each of the first 3 movies in favor of protecting what actually mattered more: each other….

but patriotism tho, the new Cap & WS who replaced Bucky & Steve are too patriotic to point out that the government literally owes their (cuz both ssr/shield & hydra were agencies by them) their two most famous supersoldier experimental test subjects a lot of money and apologies for a long laundry list of reasons

[xbuster]

mmm... I do think 883 had some saying in the anime style. He has sang "they killed spiderman" and sang for a disney movie (the main song of Treasure planet, Ci sono anch'io is better than the eng version imo). Recently sang with italian anime music icon Cristina D'avena. Maybe he is one of us

That would honestly make it funnier that he looked at this clearly plagiarized art and went “Yeah, this is fine.” He couldn’t have done an Interstella 5555 and hired an anime veteran like Leiji Matsumoto to design it?

[itfamilymedia]

Disney shuts down metaverse research

Ending development of the metaverse is just one part of Disney’s plan to streamline the system and lay off mass. Along with the decision to close the metaverse division , Disney will also lay off the team of about 50 people working here as part of a company-wide restructuring plan, according to the WSJ . Just a year ago, former CEO Bob Chapek hired veteran Mike White to lead the new division,…

[dr-ralph]

>HR department at Disney deliberately hires people on tumblr for the animation department for the past ~10 years for primarily cost cutting purposes, but also for DEI purposes

>HR department and diversity hires allow toxic work environment against veteran talent, usually the white+male animators

>veteran talent leaves either by quitting to escape toxic environment created by HR and the new hires, or through being phased out for future projects in favor of diversity hires

>some veteran talent gets fired publicly (Lasseter)

>(lasseter has never been shown to have done anything worse than overt flirting & long hugs, do not tell me he was sexually assaulting employees when this has never been proven)

>HR does the same thing for all other departments

>Disney animated & live action movies are now publicly viewed not only as incompetent narratively & visually uninteresting, but also produced by overtly immoral people

>only one movie from Disney from 2023 was not in the red (barely)

>Disney is now being sued for violating California labor laws for their termination practices

>Disney is now being sued for violating California labor laws for their hiring practices

>Disney currently is also vulnerable for a shareholder lawsuit & an investigation by the SEC

There was literally no benefit for doing this except for hitting that religious virtuous button in these people's brains.

After watching the latest D-Files, my absolute vitriol to most artists on here has gone up 200%