Friday, June 17, 2022

Bleeding Fool

Bleeding Fool

Spoiler Alert: Amazon Renews ‘The Boys’ for Season 4

Posted: 17 Jun 2022 08:45 AM PDT

 

A week after the Season 3 premiere of The Boys, Prime Video ordered a fourth season of Emmy-nominated superhero series, Deadline reports.

 

Eric Kripke's adaptation of the bestselling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson was a breakout hit when it launched in 2019. However, like most of its counterparts, Prime Video does not release ratings information for its shows. While that is still the case, Amazon has shared data on the growth in viewers for the first three episodes of each season over their first three days of release. (The entire first season of The Boys was available at launch, Seasons 2 and 3 premiered with three episodes each, followed by a weekly release of the rest.)

 

Over the first three days since Season 3's June 3 debut, the worldwide viewership for The Boys has grown by +17% from season two, and +234% from season one, Prime Video said.

 

Based on The Boys' early success, Prime Video also has ordered two spinoff series to date, eight-episode anthology animated series The Boys Presents: Diabolical, which premiered earlier this year, and the upcoming college spinoff, which is now in production.

 

The untitled Boys spinoff, set at America's only college exclusively for young-adult superheroes, went through a number of behind-the-scenes and in front of the camera changes en route to production, including bringing in new showrunners and recastings.

The post Spoiler Alert: Amazon Renews ‘The Boys’ for Season 4 appeared first on Bleeding Fool.

Black Sands Entertainment Has a Very Impressive Vision

Posted: 17 Jun 2022 06:25 AM PDT

Time published an article about the African-American-owned Black Sands Entertainment, which I’d written about earlier, and here’s the impressive part of their vision going forward:

 

In answering it, the company looks back in time to craft historical stories in which Africans and members of the African diaspora thrive. "No more slave stories. It's time for kings," says Manuel Godoy. "The media has their own idea of what's appropriate Black history to talk about. Your kids need to know they had a great past. … A white kid grows up and he has all these people who came from nothing and became the emperor. What do Black people have, according to the American school system? It's not a high standard for your life."

 

He’s right about the problems with wider media’s idea of how to approach portrayals of black characters (and also schools), which is to focus far more on victimology visions than in pursuing destiny for a positive future. If anybody truly interested in entertainment value wanted to, they’d look to the African continent and how there’s countries like Cameroon who’ve become prosperous, and build ideas based on how they manage everything to develop adventure stories. The article also says:

 

Inspired by manga and anime in Korea and Japan, Manuel Godoy—himself a huge anime fan—has built his business's relationship to its customers in a similar manner. "You're not supposed to reach everyone. Don't try to make something for 17 different audiences," he advises aspiring startups. "In the West, everyone wants to be so big. In the East, a million hyperfans are more valuable than 20 million" casual users.

[…] The business now relies on a mix of organic and paid social media, with an online presence that speaks to the political and social moment. "He doesn't sugarcoat things," Geiszel Godoy says of her husband. "That plays a big part of his marketing." Consider a Facebook post from June 2020 to promote a character the pair has been developing named Ineola, a Nigerian native trying to make her way in Brooklyn, New York, and fighting the opposition with humanity. "You ready for Ineola?" the post reads. "Black women deserve heroes that are not remade disney princesses or plug ins to comic universes … She from Brooklyn, and she ain't gonna take your shit."

 

 

On this, they may have a point in how you should first build up an audience based on what specific ingredients you mix into your product, and then try to convince more potential consumers why it’s worth it for them too. What ultimately destroyed mainstream USA comics is that, by modern standards, they’re making the severe mistake of – what else? – trying to please everyone, but in the end, all they care about is politically driven drivel. And it may be better not to use Disney princesses as a template. Certainly not with the way the whole company’s been going lately. But the talk of political/social movements is just why there could still be a mistake in the making. And then:

 

In the eternal battle of DC vs. Marvel, both comics companies have lately found common ground on one thing: the need to diversify their creators, characters, and audiences. In a television premiere last week, the Disney-owned Marvel reimagined the blonde Ms. Marvel into a Pakistani-American teen named Kamala Khan. And there are multiple projects in development devoted to "Black Superman," a new take on the most popular superhero from DC Comics, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.

The Godoys are different: Diversity isn't an afterthought or business strategy for their company. It is the company. They also remain laser-focused on retaining intellectual property for their work. Asked about whether he admires DC or Marvel more, Manuel Godoy steers the conversation to his own hero: George Lucas, whose Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises were bought by Disney a decade ago. "I always look at him for holding onto the rights for things," he says. "Because he did that, 40 years later, he gets bought out for billions."

 

Now, if the Godoys are retaining their intellectual properties, that’s good, but what the guy says is dampened when he points out how Lucas was bought out for a fortune, and look how the 3rd trilogy of movies turned out in the end, laced as they were with absurd leftist political elements. Even Lucas himself was critical of Kathleen Kennedy for spoiling the franchise, surprisingly enough. Is Godoy implying he’d like to follow suit? I’d strongly advise against it. Disney didn’t buy it out because they wanted to thank him and honor his work, as the finished products under their stewardship ought to make clear by now. And who knows? Recalling a previous report hinted they had PC positions, that’s why the talk of diversity as a structure for Black Sands is reason to worry. Also, Warner Bros may be coming off the PC pandering they were recently said to be taking with Superman (we must certainly hope), so this article is a bit out of the loop.

 

This philosophy—with the tenets of retaining ownership, centering the history and experience of Black people, and staying original—guides Black Sands. "We don't want to compete with Marvel and DC," says Manuel Godoy. "We want to tell stories people haven't seen before."

 

And that’s a good strategy. Considering how bad Marvel/DC have become since the early 2000s, that’s exactly why it doesn’t pay to be like them anymore. But if they adhere to any political correctness when it comes to diversity, they’ll be making a mistake. Particularly if they just publish their comics for the sake of moviemaking, and if they sell their business years later to a conglomerate, that’ll compound any mistakes already made in business. As recent history makes clear, there’s no point in selling one’s creations to corporations anymore, and shared universes like Marvel/DC’s shouldn’t be under such ownership either.

 

All that’s led to is corruption.

 

 

Originally published here.

The post Black Sands Entertainment Has a Very Impressive Vision appeared first on Bleeding Fool.

“To Woke and Beyond”: Will Lightyear Be Disney’s Wake-Up Call?

Posted: 17 Jun 2022 04:45 AM PDT

 

Parents who loved Toy Story and are wondering if Lightyear may be appropriate for their kids are all asking if “the kiss” is still there, and according to a recent post on ThatParkPlace.com, there are actually some things in the movie that go far further than the first lesbian display of affection in a Pixar film. Their source believes that if anyone is normally turned off by cultural themes in kids’ movies, they will hate this movie.

 

 

How could a children’s cartoon picture featuring the first LGBTQ expression of affection in a Pixar film go any further? According to their source, the film is all about toxic masculinity.

 

Did they really make a Buzz Lightyear movie that transforms the loveable Buzz into a toxic male who needs to be corrected by other characters of diverse backgrounds? Could they actually believe that would be an enjoyable kids' flick?

"Yes," was the answer.

But it gets worse. According to my friend, the movie also features changes to the bad guy, Zerg (Zurg?), which are so drastic that it completely changes the way kids and parents will look at the villain. I have no idea what that means, but I was informed it wasn't good. That means that both Buzz Lightyear and his nemesis are intrinsically altered in a negative way. For Buzz, he will now be strung through the critical race theory formula: he goes from being a hero to all and now becomes a character who has innate bias against minorities which he must overcome through shame. Imagine being a minority child playing with a Buzz Lightyear toy and watching that be the basis of your action figure.

 

How could Pixar be this divisive at a time when Disney’s stock is plummeting, parents are outraged by the leaked Reimagine Tomorrow videos, and subscriptions for Disney+ appears to be headed in the wrong direction?

 

{…}the expectation here is that families are going to hate this movie. I don't often use the word "hate." Go back and read my articles. But if you are a casual mom or dad who thinks they'll take their young son to see Lightyear, I'm told that this is not that kind of movie. Instead, this is a very serious, very dire, drab affair. This is not Toy Story. And again, I've been told that Chris Evans is a failed choice for this role. Tim Allen's ability to bring warmth and heart is sorely missing as Evans is said to essentially play Captain America in a grim space adventure.

Finally, I want to address the cultural importance of this movie. It is extreme.

We just came off of Top Gun: Maverick, a movie that is unabashedly nonpartisan and non-ideological. It follows the hero's journey, it respects its legacy characters, and it spends its runtime building up the icons of the lore. It has been so much more successful than Hollywood predicted that I believe it will change the industry thought process. On the opposite side of that spectrum, I am told that Lightyear isn't the most woke movie you could imagine, but it's perhaps more woke than you could imagine a children's movie being.

Whatever you think of "woke" and all the things associated with it, this is Pixar and Disney's giant step forward to present that world view into children's entertainment. Should it succeed at the box office or on Disney+, I see no business reason why they wouldn't continue to pursue such. But should this thing fail, the opposite of Top Gun: Maverick, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2… then surely this would be the death knell for propagandizing kids in Disney movies. It would also represent the first Pixar film in theaters after years of straight-to-streaming content and that content being an absolute theatrical bomb.

 

 

 

This weekend, Lightyear may do exceptionally well because most moviegoers attend based on brand loyalty. Or it could backfire if the audience realizes what’s going on. Never before in the history of cinema has the second weekend been as crucial as it will be in the case of this film. What will happen if everyone learns what the movie is about before taking their children to see it? The budget for this film was $200 million. That’s a lot of money to make up. And the fact that the star calls critics “idiots” if they don’t want LGBTQ indoctrination in their children’s movies isn’t going to help matters.

 

The post "To Woke and Beyond": Will Lightyear Be Disney’s Wake-Up Call? appeared first on Bleeding Fool.
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