a99kitten's Musings

Finally watched this movie and it was cute. I didn’t think it was as good as the first Ralph but it was cute. Best part was all the Disney “cameos”. Those were fun. But not sure if the morale of the story of “the girl needs to not always be attached to friend – a male friend obvs – and search for her own thing – which in this case is rolling with a street gang that commits crime…” is the best but ok.

Altho if the internet broke…would that really be such a bad thing? Really? I mean sure – I use it daily and love the convenience in some things for sure but I tried to stay off my computer, internet and especially social media this past Fri-Mon and did a 99% decent job. And let me say – it was glorious. Social media is toxic. Humans are toxic. Allow humans on social media – ugh.

I’ll be working on leaving social media more and more. It’s clear that unity = conformity in our new magical, glorious world and I say F U to that mentality anyway. I’ll still use it (Instagram) to post happy pics of Smokey because the world always needs more pics of cute animals. And maybe pics of toys. And monitor my FinTwit lists on twitter during market hours. But that’s probably it.

I will post here as my “diary”. This allows me to vomit out my thoughts. But since I am posting no links to this blog – and not allowing comments from the unwashed masses – seems ok.

But otherwise – F y’all (I really hate the usage of y’all unless you were born and bred in the south…)

AT SDCC this year I was in Ballroom 20 all day Saturday for OUAT and the CW Hero block. They were really why I wanted to be in there. I have been in B20 for the OUAT panel almost every year because it always proceeds something else I want to see. Now, I do watch OUAT but for the past 2 years, I have not watched it during the season and then I remember that I really like the show and binge watch it through the summer. I like it but there are so many other things to watch and I have limited time to do it in (need to upload SO much content to my brain!) And sometimes the storylines get a but silly. But that’s OK – it’s fairy tales!

But, just like every other year when I sit through the panel, I walk away loving the cast and wanting to watch the show immediately! So when I got back from SDCC, I made it my mission to catch up on this season before the new eps starts in Sept. And I just finished the last episode last night. I LOVED this season! Loved it!

The thing about OUAT is it depends very hard on the “True Love Trumps All” mantra and sometimes it gets a bit goofy. And to be honest, my favorite characters are Rumple and Regina :) And they were great as usual this season!

I thought the forced lesbian storyline of Red and Dorothy was dumb. If you want to introduce a gay character/storyline, do it over time. Not just BOOM in your face in 2 episodes. Seemed forced and I think perhaps an overreaction to politics. But whatever.

Thought the Hades storyline was fun. I LOVE Arthurian tales so that was an interesting take on the whole storyline (and the nod to the Connecticut Yankee was cute.) More info on the Dark Ones was great. And I pretty much loved that Gold finally made Belle realize that she likes him BECAUSE of his dark side, not in spite of it. Because I’ve been saying that all along! When he was no longer the Dark One – he went back to being the scared weakling he was before. And no one really likes that. I don’t care what they say. And his dealing with his ex-wife – heh. Loved that.

And now I am VERY excited to watch the new season!

Today Disney (DIS) announced that they bought Lucasfilm. WHAT?!?!?! I ran into the living room to see the TV thinking that I must have misheard it. Wow. Lucasfilm has been held privately by George Lucas since creation. He, along with Copploa’s Zeotrope Studios, were created by these guys as a solution to the big studio system they felt wouldn’t understand them, let them make their films, etc etc.

Now, I have been a HUGE Star Wars fan forever. And Indiana Jones. And since touring ILM twice, I always look to see if they do the special effects on movies. George and his team truly created a new frontier. So when, in addition to the purchase, Disney announced a Star Wars episode 7 in 2015 with additional movies following every 1-2 years my head (figuratively – no Belloq action) exploded. I had given up on Episodes 7-9 after eps 1-3 and George said he was too tired.

Now, I was EXCITED. But a lot of twitter, mostly the self-confessed nerds and hipsters, were screaming NOOOOOOOO Vader-style. Some refused to even comment other than to comment that they weren’t commenting. But why? Disney bought Marvel and I have to say X-Men: First Class and Avengers have been 2 of the most enjoyable movies that I have seen in a long time. If you disagree – you just can’t enjoy fun films and probably prefer art house suicidal self portrait films. So if Disney can find some great talent and get Star Wars back into prime action – I say YAY!

I was reading some of the tweets and stories and was both annoyed and amused by their upset. I mean, you know this is mostly a group of evolutionists who can’t get their heads around their beloved childhood franchise evolving one little bit. That thought made me snicker. And all of them likely grew up loving at least one Disney (and/or Pixar depending on their age) movie, if not the entire catalog.

Now, let’s be clear – if Disney announced they were REMAKING (or even “reimagining”) the original trilogy, that would be a different blasphemous story. That. Better. Never. Happen. But they want to take the story past where it ended which is what George originally intended. And what we all grew up hoping for!

I have been collecting Star Wars (and Indy) related stuff (you know…collectibles) since I was a kid. I have quite a bit. Quite. I’m slowly getting it all out and displayed and thinking of new ways to display it. Now it seems I might need even more room. Although the original stuff will always be some of my favorites. But now I will need to get this poster (that was given to me by a friend) re-framed NOW:

I have bought a FEW Disney Star Wars weekend items over time but have tried to mostly stay away as Disneyana collectibles takes you down a long, dark road to bankruptcy. Or appearing on an episode of Hoarders. I do have Goofybacca though:

And have been on the search for a few years for Han/Donald in Carbonite:

I didn’t think I actually wanted it but then saw it in real life at ILM. Very cool. I have the action figure-sized one but I need the big one. To match Goofybacca of course :)

The fact that George wants to turn his helm over to Kathleen Kennedy and a Disney team, while remaining a “Creative Consultant”, bodes well I think. George is a genius. And he is great. But his constant monkeying with the original trilogy has been maddening. Now, I didn’t hate the prequels like some nerds or “truists”. I didn’t love them the same way as I loved the original trilogy but I can still watch them over and over and enjoy them. And the last 30 minutes of the Revenge of the Sith is pure nonstop awesome.

And let’s face it, George introduced Star Wars to an entire new generation or 3. Little kids walk around with toys and costumes because they think Anakin is a Jedi hero. And Ben is young. Yoda still kicks ass. And yes, Jar-Jar talked funny. If you want to expand your brand, you do what he did.

I JUST yesterday said out loud, after seeing a Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 billboard in San Francisco, that Twilight was probably going to be the last midnight movie I will wait in line for 2 hours for and care to stay up so late for. And now look – it seems there will be more :) OK, I can do it! Although I will still probably prefer the 10pm “midnight” show like we are doing for Breaking Dawn Part 2 :)

So to all the nay-saying geeks and fake geeks who just like to complain – I say a pox on you. Wait until we see what they give us before you have your nerdtearsattack. You might just enjoy it. You’ll probably hate to admit it though.

I am pretty sure that I will love it. And am damn sure that I will give them a chance. And will probably be as excited as I have been today until it gets here. In 2015….tick tock…tick tock…..I am about as excited as when I was a kid by this :)