D23 ‘24: Mando, Skeleton Crew, and beavers

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Annual Mousefest begins. Will add to things as they come up, but: 

 

Mando + Grogu: 

Very early teaser footage - it’s only been in production a couple of weeks. But already some nice shots, a side trip to Hoth(?), and a suitably grumpy looking Zeb. 
 

Skeleton Crew Trailer:

 

 

Whatever I was expecting an alien world to look like, it wasn’t that…
 

 

I think that’s a fun idea. Not sure everyone is gonna be down with it. Coming across as very Goonies, with side orders of Flight Of The Navigator and Onward.
 

All of those are high praise from me, and as an 80s kid, everything down to the fonts feels familiar and comforting…

…until Jude shows up.
 

Why do I get the feeling he ain’t no Jedi?
 

Edited August 10 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

More stuff:

- Freaky Friday sequel with JLC and Lohan got very good reception.

 

- Toy Story 5 announced - Woody returns home and finds his friends being ignored in favour of an iPad. 
 

- Daredevil series trailer, with Bernthal returning as Punisher and literally stuffing Charlie Cox in a locker

 

- Incredibles 3 announced with Brad Bird returning. Hopefully they’ve got somewhere more interesting to take this than Inc2, though there was some decently fun stuff in there…

 

- Tron: Ares didn’t get a trailer, but did get a band - Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor’s been doing solid work as a movie composer for years, but my little dark gothy heart flutters as he’s bringing the whole band this time. 
 

- Andor S2 early footage, featuring Ben Mendelsohn as Director Krennic and Alan “I’m In Everything These Days” Tudyk as K2SO.

 

- Zootopia 2: not sure how much further they can stretch the adult-Richard-Scarry schtick, but adding Ke Huy Quan as a slithery bad guy.

 

- Avatar: Fire And Ash. Meh. Smurrrrrrrrrfs.

 

- delayed Ironheart series now in production.

 

- live-action Lilo & Stitch remake gets teaser and test CGI. Stitch is suitably fluffy for selling MANY plush toys in the future, and I hope they carry on his subversive little traits now that they can rope in Marvel and/or Star Wars properties for him to mess with. One of my favourite Disneys and knocked their heads loose after a decade of overproduced worthy duds, so hoping they don’t screw it up.

 

- Moana 2 AND Moana live action upcoming.

 

- Hoppers: bodyswap beaver-related comedy. As you do.

 

- Frozen 3: well, you’re gonna need earplugs on every train and plane again for a while. Conclusion to the epic money spinner series.

 

- Dream Productions: Inside Out spinoff about the mental inner movie business.

 

- David Blaine - Do Not Attempt: mumbly magician eschews excruciatingly dull endurance stunts for a flat-out tricks series. Good. And if you can find the video from d23, I think that may be a record for the world’s biggest audience-participation card trick…

 

And One More Thing… 

 

Edited August 10 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Techwright]

4 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

 

Skeleton Crew Trailer:

 

Whatever I was expecting an alien world to look like, it wasn’t that…
 

  Reveal hidden contents

I think that’s a fun idea. Not sure everyone is gonna be down with it. Coming across as very Goonies, with side orders of Flight Of The Navigator and Onward.
 

All of those are high praise from me, and as an 80s kid, everything down to the fonts feels familiar and comforting…

…until Jude shows up.
 

Why do I get the feeling he ain’t no Jedi?
 

I know, right?  I get that a planet in Star Wars can look vastly different from others, but this smacks of putting too much 1980s into the work.  

 

Every city in Star Wars has some elements that reflect a feeling that says "Star Wars", regardless of it's look.  Even cities like the Lothal capital with it's broad highways into the grain fields (Star Wars: Rebels, Ahsoka), Niamos with its Miami-like feel (Andor), Ferrix with its brick and narrow-street Old Europe vibe, even Raxulon, capital of Separatist planet Raxus (The Bad Batch), which probably comes closest to what we see in this trailer have very distinctive looks which say they're another planet, not a 1980s Earth.  Just giving it floating cars is not going to scream "Star Wars".

 

That said, the film trailer definitely gave me Amblin Entertainment-style vibes.

 

Response to hidden comment is found within hidden comment:

4 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

  Hide contents

Why do I get the feeling he ain’t no Jedi?
 

Hmm...while I'm fine with the idea,  I'm not sure how they would execute it.  A few variables come to mind, all of which, save one, would be writing new guidebook pages in Star Wars:

1. He's a former Inquisitor on a path of redemption.  This is the one that already has a precedence, thanks to the canonical animated Tales of the Empire.
2. He's a self-taught Force sensitive.  There's many occasions in Star Wars of untrained Force sensitives having some natural ability, everything from Ezra Bridger's Aladdin-esque Force leaps to that kid with the broom at the end of The Last Jedi.  (Yes, I said the title.  Please don't hate me.  I hate myself enough for saying that already.)
3. He's something we've never seen before.  By that, I'm suggesting a school of discipline, possibly from the uncharted spaces of the galaxy, or possibly another galaxy now that Ahsoka has cracked open that nut.  Force wielding is a universal potential in Star Wars, and the disciplines of Sith, Jedi, and Night Sisters only encompass so much.  We've actually seen something like this before in Star Wars: Rebels: the grey-balanced Bendu.  As the only representative (so far) of that discipline, his name doubles as his discipline's name.  That actually would be kind of cool if Jude's character turned out to be a trained human/near-human Bendu.
4. He's a member of a forbidden offshoot of the Sith or Jedi.  This is kind of a sub-point to #3.  Let's say though that at some point in the past a Jedi disagreed with the Council, moved to unexplored space and founded his own school, completely separated from the Republic.  Or that Darth Bane did not kill every last Sith, with one escaping beyond known space freeing himself or herself to found another Sith group.

 

Do you know of any footage of Mando & Grogu available online?  I'm currently finding nothing when searching.

 

 

3 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

More stuff:

 

 

- Incredibles 3 announced with Brad Bird returning. Hopefully they’ve got somewhere more interesting to take this than Inc2, though there was some decently fun stuff in there…

 

- Tron: Ares didn’t get a trailer, but did get a band - Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor’s been doing solid work as a movie composer for years, but my little dark gothy heart flutters as he’s bringing the whole band this time. 
 

- Andor S2 early footage, featuring Ben Mendelsohn as Director Krennic and Alan “I’m In Everything These Days” Tudyk as K2SO.

 

- Zootopia 2: not sure how much further they can stretch the adult-Richard-Scarry schtick, but adding Ke Huy Quan as a slithery bad guy.

 

- delayed Ironheart series now in production.

 

 

Incredibles 3 -- Incredibles 2 was such a disappointment.  I'd been patient because Brad Bird had been saying for years that he wanted a superior story, and it just wasn't it.  I agree that there were some really good moments, though.  I wonder if they'll replace Craig T. Nelson.  He sounded tired and ancient in Incredibles 2.  Nothing against him.  He's wonderful, but the character needed a lot more energy and strength to the voice than he was able to deliver.  I really hope this is like the Indiana Jones original trilogy and that the third fully recovers from the second.  I think 3 will have very fertile ground for stories as the kids will likely be older and coming into their own, there's probably more supers coming out of hiding or enlisting for the first time and needing mentoring.

 

Tron: Ares -- I really want another TRON film, a really good one, but based on what I've heard so far, this isn't it.  The fact that Bruce Boxleitner has said he's done with the franchise and the seemingly apparent fact that Flynn and Tron are in some Schrodinger-like limbo state and not named as connected to this work doesn't encourage either.  Perhaps, though, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

Andor S2 -- Ben Mendelsohn and Alan Tudyk?!  Oh, yes, please!  And add sprinkles and a cherry, if y'all would.

 

Zootopia 2: well, they could take a very dark turn and have one or more predators that never signed up to become vegans finding the city and related countryside to be fertile hunting grounds, but it's probably not going to take such a gutsy move.  Whatever it is, be certain we'll see more of our favorite Shrew-father, Mr. Big.

 

Ironheart:  Meh.  So far, I feel like this character will be the next Mary Sue or close to it.  They may toss in a few flaws.  I've nothing against the next Iron-person being female.  I've everything against a character being groomed to be the next tentpole character by using Mary Sue tactics.   Perhaps, though, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

 

 

Edited August 10 by Techwright

[Techwright]

Forgot to ask: is the fact that they're currently shooting the film Mando & Grogu evidence that they're abandoning The Mandalorian season 4?  Or is some other condition at play like s4 already filmed, in post, and just not announced at D23 yet?  Or maybe s4 will be set after Mando & Grogu?

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Skeleton Crew's opening does feel very Amblin, and that's a good thing. (I mean, there's no reason that a suburban backwater Imperial planet couldn't look like Hill Valley, Sherman Oaks, San Dimas or Freeport. Parallel evolution and all that. I think just maybe they're hewing visually a little too close to the classics). And the way they find into adventure is very, VERY Goonies. But after that point, I think we go full-on Star Wars - they've mentioned being quite close to Andor in terms of the threat to the characters.

 

Mando & Grogu is a full-length, theatrical-release feature.

S4 may still happen at a later date but this is a standalone, summer-tentpole flick. Big swing for these characters and the Filoni-verse.

 

And yes, there are pictures.

I'm not sure how long it'll be before the Imps hunt down and remove this (very smol) teaser, so take a look while it's still up:

 

Just in case it explodes, here's a run-down so our Bothan spies didn't die in vain...

Spoiler

• 30 seconds of plaintive royalty-free piano downloaded off Extreme Music over a recap of Mando & Grogu's Story So Far.
• BAR FIGHT!
• Enter the Razor Crest Mark II... flown by Zeb.
• Imperial Snowtroopers. LOTS OF THEM.
• Mando doing a mini Hallway Scene...
• ...while Grogu crawls through some vent pipes.
• Weird floor-level attack/panic scene. Wonder if they've hijacked a RAT droid?
• Mando and Grogu riding some kind of Imperial Robo-Chocobo through snowy mountains... and running smack into a pack of AT-ATs.
• Cut to shiny new logo...
• ...and end on Grogu cramped into an ickle tiny Anzellan ship with Babu Frik and a mate.

 

Edited August 10 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

BTW… Hoppers teaser art.

Starring Jon Hamm, SNL alum and voice regular Bobby Moynihan, and Disney Channel graduate Piper Curda.

 

Well, it’s something different…

[Techwright]

32 minutes ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Skeleton Crew's opening does feel very Amblin, and that's a good thing.  Oh, I agree.  One of the things that made the 1st ten years of the MCU interesting was that several of the films followed genre styles: political espionage, heist, etc..  I suppose "Amblin" has become a genre as well.

 

they've mentioned being quite close to Andor in terms of the threat to the characters.  Oh, really?  That certainly piques my interest.

 

Responses within:

 

  Hide contents

• 30 seconds of plaintive royalty-free piano downloaded off Extreme Music over a recap of Mando & Grogu's Story So Far.
• BAR FIGHT!
• Enter the Razor Crest Mark II... flown by Zeb.  Thanks for pointing this out.  Zeb I spotted, of course, but I didn't look out the window and see the engines.  I hope this doesn't portend the demise of the Naboo fighter, but rather another ship in a small fleet.  I wonder how much Zeb will be utilized due to CGI costs?
• Imperial Snowtroopers. LOTS OF THEM.  You'd think we were back on Hoth or something.  Maybe even...Ilum?  Hmm...there's a thought.
• Mando doing a mini Hallway Scene...
• ...while Grogu crawls through some vent pipes.
• Weird floor-level attack/panic scene. Wonder if they've hijacked a RAT droid?   That was a tactic of Zeb's buddy, Callus, to spy on Thrawn.  I realize this is going way out on a limb, but of all the surviving characters from Rebels, we've not seen Callus yet in live action.  Could this be a sign?
• Mando and Grogu riding some kind of Imperial Robo-Chocobo through snowy mountains... and running smack into a pack of AT-ATs.  I'm not the most skilled in ships and weaponry, but I believe Mando is riding an AT-RT which, if so, is a nice callback to The Clone Wars animated series which is where I believe we first saw these in action. The camera does a great job here of showing scale size to create intimidation.  I'm also noticing the Imp remnants are not yet using the AT-M6 (All Terrain-MegaCalibre Six), those gorilla-fisted walkers that replaced AT-ATs in The Last Jedi.
• Cut to shiny new logo...
• ...and end on Grogu cramped into an ickle tiny Anzellan ship with Babu Frik and a mate.  Great tag to the teaser.  Is it Babu, though, or just an Anzellan?

 

 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Last day of D23 doesn't usually have any big movie announcements, because it's all about the parks and other entertainments.

 

Couple of fun things though:

• The other big-showtunes movie finally hits Broadway/West End - Hercules. Not sure if they'll be able to get Danny deVito to reprise Phil - though he's very keen on doing the live action movie).
• Massive Parks expansions - how many actually happen and when, we don't know, but...
  • New Monsters Inc. Scare Factory flying coaster at Hollywood Studios
  • New Avatar zone at California Adventure (still not sure where they'd fit it in, but...)
  • New Cars, Avengers, and Frozen-themed attractions at various locations
  • Joint Encanto/Indiana Jones Maya-themed area at Magic Kingdom
  • AND... FINALLY...
    ...THE ONE YOUR DARK, TWISTED LITTLE HEARTS HAVE ALL CRAVED...
    THE VILLAINS PARK!
    
    (Okay, it's an extension to Magic Kingdom, but a big one, with at least two new major rides, plus Maleficient's Castle. Day One, I'm moving in and that wizened old witch ain't stoppin' this b... ahem.)

Edited August 12 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Side note: priorities were chosen.

 

 

 

And now embargo is down, yes, the toy is already out, and the video gives you a nice rundown of what the Cinder can do.

 

Or if you prefer, Darth Jar Jar's Dark Falcon from Rebuild The Galaxy, which is... dammit, actually pretty cool.

 

 

PS: This is just a meme, I have other priorities. Like catfood.

And also finding some Lego shelving that's above niece height.

[Techwright]

9 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Last day of D23 doesn't usually have any big movie announcements, because it's all about the parks and other entertainments.

 

Couple of fun things though:

• The other big-showtunes movie finally hits Broadway/West End - Hercules. Not sure if they'll be able to get Danny deVito to reprise Phil - though he's very keen on doing the live action movie).
• Massive Parks expansions - how many actually happen and when, we don't know, but...
  • New Monsters Inc. Scare Factory flying coaster at Hollywood Studios
  • New Avatar zone at California Adventure (still not sure where they'd fit it in, but...)
  • New Cars, Avengers, and Frozen-themed attractions at various locations
  • Joint Encanto/Indiana Jones Maya-themed area at Magic Kingdom
  • AND... FINALLY...
    ...THE ONE YOUR DARK, TWISTED LITTLE HEARTS HAVE ALL CRAVED...
    THE VILLAINS PARK!
    
    (Okay, it's an extension to Magic Kingdom, but a big one, with at least two new major rides, plus Maleficient's Castle. Day One, I'm moving in and that wizened old witch ain't stoppin' this b... ahem.)

 

So they're finally going to do it, eh?

 

I used to work in the Disney Store in my region 30 years ago.  Just for a year, but it got me plugged into the scuttlebutt network for years.  Rumors were circulating even back then that a villains expansion was being considered.  What we got instead, at some point, was the Halloween villains event, which was very well received.  I'm not sure where they're currently going to place it, but rumors over the years were that they were looking to put a part of it overlapping the old 20,000 Leagues ride spot.

 

I speculate that this idea first came up in one of Michael Eisner's brainstorming sessions.  From what I was told, he held true brainstorming sessions with his team once per month.  By that I mean, it was forbidden to say "yes, but..." and come up with some excuse for a fresh idea being not viable.   Instead, they were instructed to think big and crazy.  Once all brainstorming ideas were exhausted, then staff was assigned to each one to do a rough feasibility study and report findings the next month.  A lot of great results came from these sessions.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

They've been doing very successful Villains merch for a very, very long time (btw, if you like your tabletop games, and want one that's kid-friendly but thoroughly twisted, get hold of the Villainous games). So I think it's got enough moxie behind it to merit the build.

 

Here's the full anno, such as it is...

 

[BrandX]

8 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Side note: priorities were chosen.

 

 

 

And now embargo is down, yes, the toy is already out, and the video gives you a nice rundown of what the Cinder can do.

 

Or if you prefer, Darth Jar Jar's Dark Falcon from Rebuild The Galaxy, which is... dammit, actually pretty cool.

 

 

PS: This is just a meme, I have other priorities. Like catfood.

And also finding some Lego shelving that's above niece height.

 

I got The Dark Falcon.  It is nice 🙂

 

It's in my collection of Imperial Shuttle, Poe's X-Wing, SWTOR: Sith Fury, and Ahsoka's T-6 Jedi Shuttle 🙂

 

Saw the Cinder but undecided if I'll go for it.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

On 8/10/2024 at 3:15 PM, Techwright said:

Andor S2 -- Ben Mendelsohn and Alan Tudyk?!  Oh, yes, please!  And add sprinkles and a cherry, if y'all would.

 

Comin' right up. And up. And up..

(via @AlanTudyk on Threads)

.

[Techwright]

A bit more info regarding Skeleton Crew.  I especially like the pun in the name of the ship's droid first officer.

 

 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Ah... if Chris Ford and Jon Watts (Spidey: Homecoming) are writing this, I'm feeling a lot more positive about the whole deal.

Spoilery stuff...

Spoiler

Jude is, handily, playing Jod. Or Jord. And force-sensitive, but not a Jedi, Jodi, Jordi or Geordie, lad. That still doesn't necessarily make him a Sith.

 

Also, Nick Frost finally gets to one-up Simon Pegg in their fandom battle by doing more than an extended cameo.

(Though Pegg is still technically in the lead, having had a named credit in SW first, a lead role in Star Trek, and getting Gillian Anderson on his pub quiz team.)