Let's Talk About the Current State of "Star Wars"

I am a big “Star Wars” fan. I am the right age to have experienced the original trilogy as a kid, the prequel trilogy as a cynical young adult, and the sequel trilogy as a father approaching middle age. I have seen all nine movies during their original theatrical runs, and I have watched every Disney + shows related to all things a galaxy far, far away. I guess what I’m saying is that I am a self proclaimed expert on “Star Wars” and I want to talk about my concerns of my favorite pop culture property.

The pre Disney days of Star Wars is filled with home runs and strikeouts. The originally trilogy, even Jedi, are all timeless classics. The Holiday Special is a special kind of crap that is a must see to believe. The Ewok adventure movies are unwatchable. The re-releases of the original movies are better than they are bad. Once the prequel trilogy came out, Star Wars was already a cultural juggernaut. I will address the prequels in another post, but the short story is that I do not hate them. The prequel era did lead to incredible Star Wars content with great video games and the “Clone Wars” and “Rebels” cartoon shows. I am going to forget about the “Clone Wars” movie as we should all forget that piece of Star Wars.

When Disney purchased Star Wars and announced plans for a sequel trilogy, I was very excited. My favorite pop culture property was in a good spot. I will discuss my thoughts on the sequel trilogy another time, spoiler - I hated The Rise of Skywalker. Along with the sequel trilogy we were give “Rogue One”, great, and “Solo”, better than it’s reputation. Many moviegoers seemed to be getting less and less excited for Star Wars in their movie theaters. Disney’s new cash cow looked to be drying up.

The launch of Disney + brought the first live action Star Wars show with “The Mandalorian” For over a year the public knew very little about this new Star Wars project. Once “The Mandalorian” premiered, and we all were introduced to Baby Yoda, Star Wars was back on top. Everyone loved “The Mandalorian”. The second season further cemented the new age of Star Wars. What seemed to not be working in the theaters, Disney had found a winning Star Wars formula on the small screen.

“The Mandalorian” was followed on Disney + with the last season of “The Clone Wars”, my favorite Star Wars thing ever, “The Bad Batch”, also awesome, “Visions”, go watch it now, and other small one off specials. We started to hear of new Star Wars movies being cancelled or delayed, and new Star Wars shows were being greenlit daily.

Speaking of the new shows, this year we have already seen two, “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi”. This is where I am starting to ask questions about the future of Star Wars. Both shows I enjoyed, but I felt like they were both not really part of a larger Star Wars universe. I saw a meme when “Book of Boba Fett” was out that showed two kids playing with their Star Wars toys and it said “Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau writing the next Star Wars show”. It was cool, but also very true. “Book of Boba Fett” started with a story of redemption and then midway through it took a sharp turn into The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda are back show. It did end with Fett riding a Rancor so that was cool, but cool is not always good. “Obi-Wan Kenobi” seemed to go no where meaningful until the last two episodes. That last fight is awesome, but what were the five hours leading up to it for?

I know that I am being the typical comic book guy and complaining about something that has given me joy for years, but I am a big fan and want to see that fandom continue. I love G.I. Joe and am very sad that my son’s generation doesn’t even know what it is. Right now G.I. Joe only exists as a form of nostalgia, Star Wars looks to be going down that same path. The sequel movies leaned heavily on feeding that nostalgia, and shows like “The Mandalorian”, “Book of Boba Fett”, and “Obi-Wan Kenobi” are just continuing to add to our “remember this” buffet. If you only try to appeal to your aging fans, you will miss out on the next generation.

I do see a new hope on the horizon. “The Clone Wars” invented new exciting characters like Ahsoka Tano, and gave individual personalities to the clone troopers. “The Bad Batch” is telling stories away from the Luke, Reys, and Darth Vaders of the galaxy far, far, away. “Rogue One” took a minor plot point and created iconic characters and moments never seen in a Star Wars. I am thankful for the Dave Filonis and Jon Favreaus of the Star Wars world, but I am also hopeful that the Deborah Chows Taika Waititis get to put their unique marks on Star Wars. I will be there to watch it all, I just hope the next generation is on the couch with me and enjoying it as I have.

RD

RD is the founder and Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Frozen 2"

This past weekend my wife and I took our kids to see “Frozen 2”. This was more for our daughter, who loves Anna and Elsa, but our son loved the original “Frozen”, my wife LOVES the music and I think the animation and imagery is very beautiful. We bought tickets to an early-ish evening show on Friday, and the theater was filled with kids and parents. That’s usually a good sign.

I want to get the cynical stuff out of the way first, I did not really care for this movie. It felt like an unnecessary sequel. I think the people behind it had such a big hit with the original one, they just assumed everyone would want a sequel. And while I think the fans may have wanted it, I don’t think the average movie goer, or parent that takes their kids to see this, necessarily needed, or wanted it. I didn’t think the story was totally thought out. The sad stuff that Disney does so well was undone in this movie. The animation, while still pretty, wasn’t updated or made to look sleeker. The songs do not have the staying power of the original. There is nothing close to “Let it Go” in this one. And it just felt kind of long and boring, to me. Again, this is the critical side of me. I’m writing on this site to review movies, and this is my honest review. I’d much, much rather watch a movie like “Moana” 10 times out of 10 over “Frozen 2”. It’s a far superior movie.

When I take off my critic hat, and put on my dad and husband hat, I can see the draw of this movie. My wife, as I said, loves the whole ethos of “Frozen”. She’s bought into the whole created universe, loves the music and digs the story. And I can see why. She likes movies like this. “Frozen 2” is, at its core, a musical. There is much, much more singing in the sequel than was in the original. The dialogue is there to set up songs, and she adores that stuff in movies. And she really likes the songs. We listened to the soundtrack right after the movie, I gave my opinion, and she couldn’t have disagreed more. She’s now almost memorized all the songs, and I can hear her humming them around the house. This was exactly what she wanted to see out of this movie.

As for my kids, putting the dad hat on now, they both liked it fit different reasons. My son loves him some Olaf, and boy oh boy, was he heavily involved and goofy as ever. He also likes Christoph, and he has moments solely given to his character, so much so that he does a weird, 90’s esque music video song. It was weird and seemed out of place, and my son loved it. He was cracking up the whole time. My daughter loves loves loves Elsa, and she is front and center in this one. This “story” is all hers, and she is all over this movie. When she was on screen at the very beginning, my daughter screamed, “yeah!!!!! There’s Elsa!!!!”. That was worth it. She was so amped and invested whenever she was on screen. She fell in an ocean at one point and my daughter screamed with terror, as did most of the kids in the theater. Whenever Elsa would sing, my daughter sat as quiet and focused as I’ve seen her in her four years on Earth. She was more in than my wife. It was pretty cool to see. I wonder if this is how they see me when I watch Michigan football games.

So, when I get my critical mind out of the gutter, the movie was worth the price. The three other people i was with, my family, all enjoyed the hell out of themselves. This was what they wanted, and they had an absolute blast.

While I wasn’t much of a fan, I’d still recommend this movie because 75 percent of my family loved it, and are still talking about it and singing the songs. Oh, and we now have to buy some merchandise for the holidays. So, Disney truly accomplished what they wanted out of this movie, good for them. If you’re on the fence, take your whole family to see “Frozen 2”. Their joy will make it more than worth the time and money.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. In Ty’s world, if you want to make a sequal to a beloved kids movie, make “Babe 2: Pig in the City”. Do that and you will never have to make another film in the series. (BTW - Babe 2 rules)

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Ty Watches "The Lion King"

I have spent the last 2 weeks talking about football, so today, I want to take a break from that and write about the new "Lion King" movie.

My wife and I decided to take our kids to see it last weekend, along with some of her family, and I was excited. I love the original, it is one of my all time favorite movies. And when I saw the cast for this new one, I got my hopes up very high. I know other critics have come out lately and said some negative things, calling it pointless and saying it looks weird and the songs are odd.

I disagree. I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. I thought it was fun, sad, looked cool and I really enjoyed the music. The fact that they got these animals to look so real with CGI work is stunning to me. It legitimately felt like I was watching real life animals speak to one another and sing songs. It looked like something that could have been on the National Geographic Network. It felt so real. I almost immediately forgot that it was CGI, until the animals started to speak. And the voice actors, for the most part, I thought were great. I'm a big time James Earl Jones fan, and he nailed it this second go round with Mufasa. It was comforting to hear a familiar voice right off the bat. He was excellent. Alfre Woodard as Sirabi was great as well. She empowered the loyalty, yet fierceness that the character brings in the movie. Young Simba and Young Nala, the actors escape me right now, were cute and fun and when they sang "I Just Can't Wait to be King", it brought me right back to childhood. Chiwetel Ejiofor, as Scar, was scary and menacing and made me forget that Jeremy Irons was the same guy in the animated "Lion King". Donald Glover was a perfect choice for grown Simba. He has a unique, well known voice, and he can sing. His renditions of some of the classic songs were great. Billy Eichner, as Timon, and Seth Rogen, as Pumba, were the best for me. They were funny and witty and charming and really brought on the essence of the original Timon and Pumba, with a little updated flair. Billy Eichner was truly wonderful. He was the best one in the movie in my opinion. John Oliver as Zazu was a good choice. They kept the character British which I liked. Keegan Michael Key and Eric Andre, along with Florence Kasumba, were frightening and funny as the hyenas. My only minor criticism would actually be for Beyoncé. She was the only one I didn't really let myself get lost into like I did with the other animals. I love Beyoncé, but this role, and her performance, felt kind of forced. It almost seemed like she didn't really want to be there. I felt like she was reading her lines off the script as they recorded her lines. She is wonderful, but acting just may not be her thing.

Outside of the cast and the look, the music was all good. They had all the classics, along with a refurbished "Be Prepared", which I was appreciative of because I didn't need my kids to be as freaked out as I was as a kid.

I do want to point out that, in a movie where CGI is used to make the animals appear real, it does get violent. But, imagine what would really happen if some lions got into a fight, or there was a stampede, or if some hyenas had you trapped. It would be scary, and this movie showed that.

All in all though, I found myself really enjoying the movie, and the experience of sharing it with my kids. My wife and I loved it, and we were glad that our kids had a good time with it too. I'd say, ignore the critics that are saying mean things about the movie. The critics trashing it, for the most part, are clichéd , hackey critics that only like Oscar bait. If you liked the movie as a kid, and you have kids of your own, or just a grown up kid, I'd highly recommend seeing it. It was great.

Ty