After watching this movie this morning, the costumes and special effects were amazing, giving people the feeling of "this is a Disney fairy tale". But as a Difan, it seems that the expectations for this movie are too high. This movie does not have the same sense of surprise as Disney's animated movies such as "Frozen" and "Crazy Zoo" in the plot. See After finishing, I lack the feeling of unfulfilled meaning. Although the comparison between animation and real-life is relatively inappropriate, there is a lack of good positive teaching materials in Disney's real-life movies in recent years. Explain in advance that I am not a professional film critic. I am just a Disney fan discussing about Disney's live-action movies. Objective discussions are welcome.
Let’s talk about this movie first (spoiler alert)
The timeline looks like this: Mother Clara was adopted by Godfather Clara-Mother Clara entered the world of the Four Kingdoms-Mother Clara invented "The engine" and gave life to toys-Mother Clara became the Four Kingdoms Queen (the plot here should suggest the plot of the original "The Nutcracker")-Clara was born-Clara's mother hinted at the existence of the four kingdoms of Clara, but has realized that she cannot go to the four kingdoms with Clara The world-Clara's mother passed away-Clara received a Christmas gift from her mother, a locked metal egg (a music box)-Clara wanted to open the lock, but was brought by her father The godfather’s family attends the banquet-Clara talks to the godfather about the music box-the conflict between Clara and his father broke out-the godfather used the key as a clue to let Clara enter the world of the four kingdoms in order to fulfill Clara's mother's last wish-Cara Ra’s adventure in the world of the Four Kingdoms——Leave the Four Kingdoms and reconcile with his father
The heroine Clara, the opening of the "institutional rat trap" plot in the attic seems to be telling us the heroine's intellectual talent, and then the following plot shows that she failed to get out of the shadow of her mother's death. This kind of character with a little weird character proves that McKenzie Foy's acting skills are very good. The contradiction between Clara and her father is reflected in how to spend Christmas when she has lost her love. Her father tried to "appear to make herself a little bit happy" while Clara regarded it as "this is just for others to see". I only think of myself"; the next adventure is the process of Clara’s growth and self-discovery. She once cared too much about her mother and ignored herself. This adventure made her understand that she is as good as her mother, and finally she and her father’s Reconciliation and understanding of father’s difficulties are the result of self-discovery.
The costume of the heroine at the beginning looks very simple compared to her sister (screenshot from the trailer)
Blue dress
A dress worn as the queen of the four kingdoms
My favorite is the look of the heroine in this military uniform
The second role is Clara's godfather. It seems a bit wasteful to ask Morgan Freeman to play this role. He is the image of an inventor, which can be reflected in the institutions and gorgeous workshops in his mansion. It is he who guided Clara into the world of the four kingdoms, and Clara's mother entered the four kingdoms and worshipped him. Grant, this character should have been just like a guide, but his identity as the "hostess mother and adoptive father", "the godfather of the hostess" and "inventor" and has always known the existence of the four kingdoms (the entrance to the world of the four kingdoms) They are all in his house), and the plot of sending owls to follow Clara into the Four Kingdoms makes this character too omniscient and omnipotent. It can be regarded as a big hole in the plot, but there are too many holes in the plot of this movie. Try not to go into this kind of stuff as much as possible. The plot that he asked the heroine to help repair the music box is similar to the plot of the live-action version of "Beauty and the Beast" Riebele repairing the music box. It seems that Disney is trying to break the stereotype of "women are not suitable for machinery". ) Plot.
The third character is the Nutcracker soldier, the male lead (who is the actor). The relationship with the heroine Clara changed from being a master servant to a friend. This change is reflected in the response from seeing the hostess "Call me Clara" and replying "Is this an order?" to the latter telling the hostess "Call me Philip". Generally speaking, the role is quite satisfactory and there are no big surprises.
The fourth role is the Sugar Plum Fairy in "The Dance of Sugar Plum Fairy". Discuss her with Queen Jiang. The film implies that she is a positive role in the original story, which is the story of Clara's mother. The mother "controlled" Mother Jiang together. However, this fascinating and contrived image really complies with the "pink cut is black" law, and turned into a villain as expected. The motivation is far-fetched: since Clara's mother has passed away, then I can do whatever I want. At the same time, the corresponding Queen Mother Jiang is the image of a "betrayer" in the mouth of Fairy Sugar Plum and the other two kings. Her mouse soldiers have brought enough psychological shadows to the spectators and spectators who are afraid of mice. The clown’s subordinates had an impact on those "joker phobia" patients; but it was obvious when she came out, it was almost as if the words "I'm ugly but I'm gentle" on her face; she mentioned it with the Nutcracker soldier The pledge of "defend the four kingdoms" made by each of the kingdoms shows that in the days of Clara's mother, Queen Jiang was whitewashed once, but how the fairy sugar plum later used the other two kingdoms to discredit the mother and daughter of Jiang. Wang, and completely change the domestic public opinion (the fragments of the ballet can be seen) should not be studied, it can be attributed to the script problem.
Rough dividing line
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Next, let’s talk about the issue of Disney’s live-action movies. The source of the following information is "The Art of Disney" and the set of various Disney movies.
The most well-known in Disney’s early live-action movies should be "Happy in the World"
A movie made by Walt Disney when he was alive. The feature of this movie lies in musicals and live action + 2D animation. The 2D and real-life part of the trailer for "World 2" can arouse many people's feelings.
However, after Walt Disney's death, Disney entered a low period (70s-80s). Both movies and animations were relatively mediocre at this stage. Although during this period, the "Electronic World Contest" TRON (1982) was filmed. This kind of pioneering movie,
When the Internet was not popular at that time, the theme of "cyberspace" was too avant-garde, which caused it not to be understood by contemporary audiences, and the box office suffered a fiasco. During this period, Disney relied on TV + Disneyland + animations created during Disney’s lifetime to make money. It was not until the “Little Mermaid” brought Disney’s “Renaissance” period in 1989. In the 90s, Disney created a large number of excellent works. Animated movie, turned downturn. During this period, Disney's main features were family movies such as "Dear, I Shrink the Child" and "The Adventures of Flying Giant Peach". There is also the creation of a romantic comedy genre like "Beautiful Lady in Wind and Moon".
At the same time, Disney made some less "Disney" live-action films (including an R-rated film on the cannibal theme) through its British subsidiary, Touchstone.
But in the late 90s and 00s, with the impact of 3DCG technology, coupled with some problems from Disney’s management, first a group of Disney animation veterans were forced away (later some of them established DreamWorks and others established Blue Sky Studios. ) And then broke with Pixar Studios (sharing and IP attribution issues) leading to a trough for Disney during this period. At this time, Disney’s live-action movie revenue is in a state of gains and losses. The first is a big gamble: according to a Disneyland The amusement project made a movie-that is "Pirates of the Caribbean", which combines elements of pirates, magic, adventure, and the protagonist of both good and evil. To the children, I was kicked out by Disney for a while), this movie became a life-saving straw for Disney. If there were no Pirates of the Caribbean, I am afraid that Disney would not be so easy to acquire Marvel later.
Next, considering that the movie "The Lord of the Rings" next door has made a profit, Disney also wanted to make a magical epic based on a novel, so the film "The Chronicles of Narnia" was filmed. Due to the problem of the plot and the too young characters, the box office Not ideal
During this period, Disney began to target the youth group, and filmed "High School Musical" with youth idol film + musical elements, which received a good response from the youth group. The core of this movie is similar to Disney's "Hannah Montana" TV series. Later, Disney used a combination of more youth idol movies + musicals to shoot movies and TV shows.
In the same period of time, Disney has been pursuing fairy tale comedies that seem to be few live-action movies. Coupled with the success of the "Disney Princess" brand, Disney finally produced an influential fairy tale romantic comedy " Enchanted, this movie uses the style of a musical, arranged by Alan Mencken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin's arrangement), but the story uses an anti-routine plot, the princess in a fairy tale Falling into a "world of plots without happiness together"-Manhattan in the real world, the prince and princess were not able to be together, but the ending is still happy. At the same time, the film laughs at the elements of Disney's past fairy tale animations: The witch stepmother, the princess who can talk to animals, poisonous apples, crystal shoes, evil dragons, true love kisses and other elements are very funny in the real world. Although this is a self-criticized work by Disney, the final Happy ever after ending It shows that Disney's self-deprecation belongs to self-deprecation, and the attitude of continuing to shoot fairy tales.
Even now it seems that 2007's "Enchanted Romance" is considered very successful in Disney's fairy tale-themed live-action movies.
In 10 years and later, Disney acquired Marvel and began to activate MCU, opening the box office money-sucking model, the success of MCU films is not to mention; at the same time, Disney continues to shoot children's movies such as "Bridge to Wonderland" and family fun movies while playing live-action movies. For example, "Guinea Pig Assault Squad" seems to be heading towards the road of no return to the live-action remake of the animated film.
The first is a film with very inconspicuous remakes: "The Magician's Apprentice"
It can be understood as a remake of the part of "The Magician's Apprentice" in Disney's 1940 "Fantasia":
The most classic clip is live-action
Real-life remake effect: (This is a work photo, please use the green screen function automatically)
The film has a problem with plot cliches.
The next "Alice in Wonderland" is the creation of another routine of Disney's live-action remake: that is, the story of the remake is the follow-up story of the original film. Alice, who had entered the fairyland as a child, entered the fairyland again when she was forced to marry as an adult; this movie has Tim Burton's dark and strange style, and the costume special effects are refreshing, but the "Slaying the Dragon" plot will inevitably fall into the popcorn movie. conventional. (Digression, Walt Disney was accused of being out of reality when filming the animated film "Alice in Wonderland" in the 1940s, and was later discovered by critics that the value of this animation was beyond the time; and the live-action version The clichéd plot is very ironic in comparison), the live-action movie was later made a sequel, and the plot and word-of-mouth declined.
Then there is a live-action remake of the Disney Princess movie. The first is to subvert the original, changing the villain Marlene Fissen in the original animation to the protagonist "Sleeping Curse". The plot has a huge magic change, plus other characters in the original animation. Too low a sense of presence leads to a certain degree of polarization in the evaluation. Objectively speaking, at least this is a sufficiently interesting movie.
After learning about the consequences of the magical change of "Sleeping Curse", Disney decided to make a film that "balances classic fairy tales and modern emotions to create a warm, humanistic film that can attract audiences of all ages", "Cinderella" The live-action version adds many details to improve the character image without changing the original story frame. The soundtrack and costume design are also very attentive, but the film seems to be unable to please modern audiences according to the original plot. However, this may become a work that can withstand the test of time, after all, someone has to tell the story.
"Fantasy Forest" is also a movie adapted from Disney's animation in the 1960s. Relying on the powerful special effects and the well-behaved family drama, plus the extra points for feelings, it has achieved a relatively good box office and reputation. This kind of movie reality can be regarded as "not too bad", the key is that the special effects have larger bonus points.
In the Disney princess movies of the last century, "Beauty and the Beast" had a strong influence. Disney remade the corresponding live-action version. Since the story core of the animated version of "Beauty and the Beast" is already in line with modern values, so live-action The version seems to be incapable of doing anything, failing to jump out of the ceiling set by the animated version. Although a part of the plot has been added, it is not very impressive; coupled with the controversy caused by Emma Watson’s acting skills, the audience will instead tend to agree. Comparing the animated version in 1991, and the forced LGBT plot, it seems that this movie is not pleased. In the YouTube video about the protagonist Belle, whenever the video is about an animated version, the high praises in the comment area often have the phrase "Better than Emma Watson".
From the above summary, it can be found that in recent years, Disney has been difficult in the process of shooting fairy tales adapted to live-action movies. The mediocre plot or the law has always been the nightmare that fairy tales adapted to live-action movies cannot get rid of. But only Disney will always insist on that kind of "fairy tale sense" and let the story of "happy ever after" continue. Our expectations for Disney are also at this point. That's enough, right?
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