Search Results for: blog disney dithering on next marvel movie hero

Joss Whedon to Direct “Avengers” Sequel

Beyond reviewing the movies, I try not to report on too much Marvel news around here. I’m a big comics geek, so I could easily talk for ages about the company. Marvel’s only owned by Disney; the news isn’t directly related to the House of Mouse, even if it is technically a member now. Yet, I just can’t resist this latest piece of news about the Marvel movie franchise. “Avengers” director/co-writer Joss Whedon is back to take up both of the same mantels for the sequel, due in 2015. For the average movie or Disney fan, this might not seem … Continue reading →

SidebySide: An Innovative New Projection Technology

When watching the Marvel film “Iron Man 2,” I was struck by something interesting. The portrayal of Tony Stark’s father Howard Stark, played by “Man Men” actor John Slatterly, reminded me of someone: Walt Disney. Within the movie Howard Stark is only seen in promotional films he made in the 1960s. He sports a sleek suit and trimmed mustache, and he addresses the audience from his private office. He leans against a large table containing a miniature model display of his latest project, which he describes to the audience. It’s all Walt Disney making his little filmed announcements about pioneering … Continue reading →

“Thor” A Mighty Addition to the Marvel Lineup

“Thor” officially kicked off the blockbuster season this past weekend. Its status as a comic book film qualifies it as the first of the summer’s big-budget, big-hype movies, and its place in the series of Marvel flicks leading up to the superpower-packed, Joss Whedon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”)-helmed “Avengers” movie only heightened the anticipation. Here’s the rub: as my husband said to me as we exited the theater, “Thor” didn’t feel like a typical comic book movie. Unlike infamous flops “Jonah Hex” and the Ang Lee “Hulk,” however, with “Thor,” this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are two reasons … Continue reading →

“Toy Story 3” Both A Relief and A Letdown

In my very first blog for families.com I bemoaned Pixar’s current penchant for making sequels, a trend I blamed on Walt Disney Corp. CEO Bob Iger. I’ve expanded, or at least reiterated, my opinions on the matter since then. Some might say, however, that I should stop criticizing the making of all of Pixar’s recent sequels if I never bother to see them, something I just haven’t felt motivated to do. Nearly a year after it came out on in theaters, I finally decided to see “Toy Story 3.” Before I get into how I felt about the movie, however, … Continue reading →

A Night at the Magic Kingdom

Many of us had the fantasy as children: we get to spend a night locked in the mall, or zoo, or our favorite amusement park. The details might have differed, but the overall wish remained the same. We wanted to live in whatever counted as our personal wonderland. Now Variety Magazine reports that the Disney Company is planning a film which would play on that very desire. Forget about rides like Pirates of the Caribbean or The Haunted Mansion, it looks like the Magic Kingdom itself might be getting its very own movie. At this point the movie exists in … Continue reading →

Disney Purchases Facebook Gaming Company

Walt Disney Corporate’s certainly busy buying up companies lately. First they officially took charge of Pixar, then Marvel, and now, according to the Washington Times, they’re preparing to buy Playdom for $563.2 million. So what’s Playdom? If you’ve ever played a game on Facebook like Sorority Life or Social City, then you’ve used a Playdom product; Playdom makes many of the little games available for play on Facebook, MySpace, or fancier cell phones. Playdom isn’t the only electronic/online property Disney’s snatched recently. Just a month ago it also purchased Tapulous, the maker of a popular iPhone music game, and in … Continue reading →

The New Tinker Bell

I caught a bit of one of Disney’s recent “Tinker Bell” movies on the Disney Channel last week. I’m not even sure which one it was, but I liked what I saw. I just got distracted from the program during the commercials, and forgot to check out the rest. I know I would have loved the movie when I was younger; just about any fantasy story appealed to me, and the few minutes of the Tinker Bell movie I saw contained an entertaining blend of fantasy, humor, action/adventure, and a good balance of time between its male and female leads. … Continue reading →

Disney Dithering on Next Marvel Movie Hero

Way back when Disney bought Marvel, a move first announced almost a year ago, a few questions immediately popped to fans’ minds. One of the most prominent: what will the movies look like? Will they take on a classy but maybe too squeaky-clean Disney shine? Will Disney keep their hands off entirely, or will the combination of Disney’s resources with the Marvel movie studio make for even bigger and better superhero films? We haven’t seen the answers to any of those questions yet. While Disney did profit from “Iron Man 2,” due to its release by Marvel Studios, now a … Continue reading →