Category: Entertainment Talk
-
Weird Al can help Halloween, Christmas meet halfway
Before hearing of Weird Al Yankovic or “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” I helped pull a former on the latter. Just for kicks, in October of my first-grade year, our teacher had us compose and perform “The Twelve Days of Halloween.” Only the last five gifts from the unspecified true love have stuck in my…
-
Marvel charting unexplored ground with The New Mutants
October marks the onset of autumn leaves, apple cider and, yes, a time for visiting haunted houses and binge-watching frightening movies. But even with the timing of its release, the trailer for the next X-Men installment, The New Mutants, likely surprised many Marvel fans. Last Friday, Oct. 13, 20th Century Fox started teasing what looks more like a horror…
-
Is there any future for fanimation, other crowd contribution?
Bob’s Burgers basically exercised its seniority privilege with what some dub its “fanimation” experiment for its eighth-season premiere. This decade’s defining primetime cartoon handed the drawing board to its audience and presented the work of 62 lucky viewers. As one should expect, not everyone was game for the one-off deviation in the “Brunchsquatch” episode. The…
-
Future of Netflix Original hinges on past lessons
There was a time when Netflix was best known for being widely considered the cause of Blockbuster’s death spiral. The movie-rental giant of the past is now as good as a thing of the past. Its one-time refusal to ally with the then-upstart web service has been blamed for its eventual downfall. Now Netflix Original must make sure it has the…
-
Explaining (at least some of) the Mighty Ducks movie flaws
Consider this an intramural debate among Mighty Ducks movie nerds. It is natural that Disney’s kid-targeted hockey trilogy stretches the truth. While that fact does not constitute grounds for chastising the nitpickers, there is nothing wrong with underlining the alleged blemishes that are not necessarily blemishes at all. Hockey purists should be free to explain…
-
Jake Gyllenhaal vs. Joshua Jackson
You win some, you lose some. And if you’re like Jake Gyllenhaal, you win some, only to have them revoked. Conversely, if you’re like Joshua Jackson, you win some that your Gyllenhaal counterpart won first, only to involuntarily lose. And if you are like either actor, you lose some big ones to suave, versatile British…
-
Mighty Ducks legacy at Disney World
It is easy to forget that The Mighty Ducks is a Disney movie. The three-part film franchise of the ’90s does not look or feel like the Pixar hits and live-action remakes the company has been best known for since the turn of the century. However, the popularity of the film is undeniable, especially when you look at…
-
Kenan Thompson: From knucklepucks to New York bucks
Kenan Thompson was just getting his start as an actor with the Mighty Ducks series. First appearing on the small screen on Nickelodeon’s old sketch program, All That, he established a niche that now has him becoming Saturday Night Live‘s all-time longest-tenured cast member. The 2017-18 premiere will officially begin Thompson’s 15th year at the time-honored New York City…
-
Estevez’s life, career have imitated Ducks art
As the most recognizable figure in the Mighty Ducks series, Emilio Estevez was under plenty of pressure to guide a cast of unknowns toward a memorable movie. With that said, his prior work and his own life made him the ideal fit to play Gordon Bombay, the coach who would inspire the underdog Ducks to succeed time and again.…
-
Mighty Ducks Animated Series: One-year wonder or one-year blunder?
It was as if Disney knew its Duck bubble was set to burst. Precisely three months after premiering its two-part pilot, “The First Face-off,” the Mighty Ducks Animated Series presented “The Final Face Off.” Curiously, five more episodes had their original airdate afterward. But on the morning of Dec. 7, 1996, ABC viewers saw the Ducks…