Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Cinderella is an important movie for Disney

Scott Mendelson at Forbes.com posted this article about recent Disney movies.  The premise is that Cinderella represents Disney material that was not acquired by buying a company, and is therefore a potential good source of successful movies.  Tomorrowland (the movie) is apparently heading for a disappointing financial result, thus joining other movies such as John Carter and The Lone Ranger.  While Tomorrowland had some good moments, overall it was lacking what it takes to make a good movie.  At times, it struggled to make any sense and the ending seemed like the worst choice among several alternate endings.  Cinderella, according to the Forbes article, was a solid movie with a good story line.
The ability for Disney to make blockbusters based on their older animated films has given them a whole new franchise of sorts. But the surprisingly (?) robust artistic and financial success of Cinderella has given this would-be franchise a huge dose of respectability and credibility.
Now you may argue that there isn’t all-that-much to celebrate about Disney looting its animated vaults, and I’m not here to dissuade you of that notion. But the relative artistic triumph and unquestionable financial victory of Disney’s Cinderella (which earned over five times its budget just in worldwide theatrical) is the needed jolt as Disney attempts to fashion big-scale blockbusters outside of the Marvel/Star Wars universe.

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