VAMPIRES ARE SO LAST YEAR: HOLLYWOOD WANTS YOUR CHILDHOOD FAIRYTALES NOW

by **Admin** Sun Feb 24, 2013 2:32 pm

VAMPIRES ARE SO LAST YEAR: HOLLYWOOD WANTS YOUR CHILDHOOD FAIRYTALES NOW

We should have saw this trend coming when Snow White and the Huntsman made its debut in theaters. I guess the Wonderful Wizards of Hollywood decided to give the Cullen's a much needed vacation. Hey we all need to getaway from it all every now and then, but to OZ Shocked

? Is NOTHING sacred? Sarcasm aside, this may be a good thing. It's not everyday you get to see your childhood bedtime stories in HD. Even if the producers take creative license and change a few things here and there just to shake things up a bit.

I have to admit I'm a bit curious to see what Disney's done with the characters that live somewhere over that rainbow. The previews do look like they've pulled out all the stops making for some interesting twists. C'mon telling the story from the wizard's perspective---never saw that coming. To be sure, this is not our parent's fable. I'm not expecting a Judy Garland stand-in to break out in song and if I know Hollywood we're gonna get more than lions, tigers, and bears. No, if we're good and eat all our veggies we might just get some Michael Bay-esq special effects, oh my affraid

! After an hour and a half of that the kiddies will be chanting there's no place like home....there's no place like home....there's no place......

by **Admin** Sat Mar 02, 2013 11:47 pm

[img]

VAMPIRES ARE SO LAST YEAR: HOLLYWOOD WANTS YOUR CHILDHOOD FAIRYTALES NOW Oz-the10

[/img]

'OZ' A CREATIVE LEGAL WALTZ BETWEEN 2 POWERHOUSES...WB AND DISNEY: REVIEWS RAVES RAIMI'S FANCY FOOTWORK!

After sifting through various reviews on the early showing of "Oz the Great and Powerful" I feel like I barely made it through the poppy field >light-headed!< It seems the making of this film was a creative logistical legal nightmarish dance with Sam Raimi doing a jig. However, critics applaud his stylish take on the prequel to "The Wizard of Oz". This was not an intentional prequel by any means.

Apparently, Warner Brothers now owns the rights to that 1939 MGM film "The Wizard of OZ" and they are known to aggressively police their copyrights. “The MGM film presented the story in a certain way, and it’s those things — the embellishments, the creative decisions — that Disney cannot use,” explained Bonnie Eskenazi, a leading copyright lawyer with no ties to “Oz the Great and Powerful” who has successfully battled studios on behalf of theJ. R. R. Tolkien estate affraid

."-- NYtimes.com.

ENTER SAM RAIMI(who proves his creative genius)...

According to the article on NYtimes.com here are some staples that you will and won't see:

YELLOW BRICK ROAD

Disney concerned with copyright, the Yellow Brick Road will not be spiraling into a stylized point smack in the middle of Muchkinland. Said territory was a creation of the 1939 film. Raimi added his own take on the road: the mood of the road changes, in the dark forrest for instance, it's overgrown and broken. That's dark and in true Raimi style---think "Drag Me To Hell Twisted Evil

."

WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST

Even the green hue of the Wicked Witch was not off-limits. Howard Berger, an Oscar winning make-up artist, "was finally able to come up with a shade of green which satisfied Disney’s legal team,” SlashFilm.com reported after a visit to the set. Mr. Berger named his custom color "Theostein." The name was a conflation of the witch's name before she turned wicked, and Frankenstein. I pictured in my head Berger introducing the color to the Disney execs like this...

Berger: I give you THEOSTEIN! >creepy dramatic organ plays<
Disney execs: Gasps...BRAVO! BRAVO!
Berger: (ghoulish laughter) wooUUAHHHH ...(throws head back and rings fingers) Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! HAAAA!

RUBY SLIPPERS

Sorry, since this film is pre-Dorthy we won't be getting those Judy Garland-Jimmy Choo high-steppas! (Surely, a mi$$ed opportunity for brand integration).

MUNCHKINS

About 40 dwarfs were cast in "OZ the Great and Powerful" as the beloved munchkins (I won't even go there...can't help it, we do love our stereotypes, huh Disney? 85 years and the temptation is still strong affraid

).

The Munchkins have changed a bit "efforts were made to include African Americans and Asians...,"---hey this is a direct quote from NYtimes.com They still have strange hair, but Disney's lawyers nixed one style as too similar to the original movie. It was digitally altered in postproduction.

WINGED MONKEYS

The flying creatures are now baboons courtesy of Mr. Raimi. One of the simians, a friendly monkey in a bellhop suit serves as a side-kick in this film.

Ultimately, critics rave that Sam Raimi navigates the creative logistical legal land-mines in true Raimi-style offering a fresh and exciting take on an old classic. I may have to give this film a go-see What a Face

! Here are the links to the Den of Geek and NYtimes.com articles. Read them if you dare. NY times seemed more coherent while 'Den' seemed convoluted:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/movies/oz-the-great-and-powerful-disneys-wizard-of-oz-prequel.html?_r=0

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/oz-the-great-and-powerful/24654/oz-the-great-and-powerful-review