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Trail Mix-Up (Roger Rabbit Short): Disney+ Talk

Disney+ Talk With Megan Williams: Trail Mix-Up (Roger Rabbit Short)

After stills from the Warner Bros. sequel ‘Space Jam: New Legacy’ were released, I wanted to dedicate this week’s article to the Disney/Warner Bros. collab classic ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’. However, after searching for it on Disney Plus, I discovered that there was a short film that was made, that revolves around Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman that is separate from the live action/animated film.

Released in 1993, five years after ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ and produced by Steven Spielberg, ‘Trail Mix-Up’ is a 9-minute short that sees the famous rabbit go on a camping trip that results in hilarious disaster.

From the start, the ‘Looney Tunes’/’Animaniacs’ influence is present, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this short was a concept test for ‘Animanics’, which came out later that same year. The slapstick humour and structure of the short is extremely reminiscent of the Buttons and Mindy skits that feature in that cartoon. The idea of an animal looking after a baby, and then a worst-case scenario is played out that puts that baby in danger is something this short and the Buttons and Mindy skits have in common and was an aspect that was recognizable immediately.

However, it also has some references to ‘Tom & Jerry’, another slapstick cartoon. An example of this was the way Roger’s owner was portrayed: the viewers never see her face; just her legs and hear her voice. This was something that ‘Tom & Jerry’ was known for. And, for this short, it works: the focus should be on the misadventures of Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman, so it doesn’t waste its short running time trying to introduce the owner. Even the introduction and title card are similar to the ‘Tom & Jerry’ cartoons, with the circular logo and similar image layouts. This does beg the question to as whether the short, then, is more of a Warner Bros. property than a Disney one, despite the fact that this short is on Disney Plus.

While Roger’s owner isn’t shown, it does happily give viewers a short cameo from Jessica Rabbit, who plays the Park Ranger. Roger’s reaction to her also lends itself to ‘Animaniacs’; it’s reminiscent of Wakko and Yakko’s reaction to the nurse.

And, if the viewer didn’t think the short could get more surreal, it does at the end, where it’s revealed that Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman were just filming another movie, and Roger had ejected them out of the set and into live-action Hollywood. It then ends with Roger accidently deflating the Earth. It’s not only surreal and strange, but it reminds me of the ending to Mel Brooks’ ‘Blazing Saddles’. This was an aspect of Roger Rabbit that I enjoyed the most: the 4^th wall breaking. And, while it’s odd to suddenly see the real world at the end, it never feels out of place because the feature film was a live action/animated hybrid 5 years earlier. So, in a sense, it’s expected, and it’s delightful.

Overall, ‘Roger Rabbit: Trail Mix-Up’ was hilarious, surreal and a crazy short that deserves to be seen by Roger Rabbit fans. The slapstick comedy and comedic timing are fantastic, and even fans of ‘Animaniacs’ and ‘Tom & Jerry’ will love this, due to the similar humour and tropes. However, while I enjoyed it, I have noticed the number of times I’ve referenced Warner Bros. properties and not Disney ones. And that’s because there isn’t anything Disney-like about this short; it feels like it should belong to Warner Bros. instead. However, it could also be argued that the feature film would carry a similar debate. Either way, ‘Trail Mix-Up’ is a fantastic short that is enjoyable and completely crazy.

16th March 2021
What To Expect From The Oscar 2021 Nominations

What To Expect From The Oscar 2021 Nominations – The Oscar nominations will be two months late this year owing to the pandemic. But after speedy preparations, the Academy will finally announce the nominations on Monday morning in Los Angeles.

2020 was a very unusual year with the lockdowns and movie theaters shut to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, the Academy adapted to this unusual situation and has made new improvements like granting eligibility to movies released online, provided they were scheduled for theatrical releases in 2020.

Things are also expected to be better this year. Oscar nominees are much likely to benefit from the Oscar bump at the box office this winter and spring. Also, 2021 will see more than one female director’s work and many extraordinary movies by black filmmakers.

The Unexpected Surprises of the Oscar 2021 Awards Nominations

Devoid of the usual round of parties, premieres, Q&As, and extravagant award ceremonies, academy members have mostly been left to their own devices. Still, we can make some intelligent guesses about the crop of nominees, which could set new records and stoke controversy simultaneously. Here are some of the expectations from various award categories.

Best Picture

Nomadland is an unrelenting entry in the best picture category. The entry has been a frontrunner all season long and has retained first place in round three. The panel expects Nomadland to continue maintaining the lead until Oscar night.

However, things are not as rosy as they appear for Nomadland. The trial of the Chicago 7 and Minari are rapidly closing the gap. The latter two hint at a closer and tighter competition than previously expected.

And what’s more? Mank, who has been the nominations leader, is now in fourth place, while Emerald’s Promising Young Woman lurks in the shadows. Let’s wait for the showdown!

Best Director

This year, Chloé Zhao has become the star to watch. She remains the forerunner for Nomadland. She is also the first Asian woman to be nominated for the award. Zhao has four nominations in 2021 including editing, producing, directing, and writing. She also becomes the first woman to earn so many nominations in a single year.

The other nominee, Emerald Fennell, has been nominated for directing, writing, and producing the Promising Young Woman. She joins Fran Walsh, Sofia Coppola, and Chloé Zhao as the first women to earn three nominations in a single year.

In the directing field, two filmmakers of Asian descent are expected to feature, including Lee Isaac Chung of Minari. Regina King, though considered the favorite with her One Night in Miami, has not been nominated.

Lead Actress

The frontrunner in this category is the famous Carey Mulligan. She runs neck to neck with Viola Davis. They have both maintained a clear lead from McDormand, who holds the second position. Singers Andra Day and Vanessa Kirby complete the list. But Julia Garner, a two-time Emmy winner, is missing from the list. Other notable omissions include actress Zendaya and Gotham star Nicole Beharie.

Supporting Actor

The supporting actor’s category has seen Judas and the Black Messiah at the top. Daniel Kaluuya has also stirred the awards circuit, while Fred Hampton, featuring as the Messiah in the film, is also on the cards.

One big surprise to expect in this category is the nomination of LaKeith Stanfield, who was proposed as the film’s lead co-star in his role as Judas. Kaluuya has also co-starred in the Black Panther, a film that has also been nominated for the Oscar Awards. His role as a friend who turned against the hero triggered his nomination as the real-life Black Panther, the betrayed hero.

You Too Can Be a Hero

Nothing brings more surprises this year than the Oscar 2021 Nominations. But you give yourself and the world around you a big surprise. Visit NetEnt top casinos and play a game of your choice. There are lots of online games that can make you rise to stardom. As we wait to celebrate the Oscar winners, we also expect to celebrate you!

What To Expect From The Oscar 2021 Nominations

16th March 2021
Mouthpiece: The BRWC Review

Freud long ago shattered the delusion that ours is a unified self. Our actions are not merely piloted by a conscious unified self, but also by an unconscious. After Freud, psychoanalysts and philosophers have even added further fractures to the conscious self. Our personalities are a strange brew made up of our internal experience of self, our external persona shown to the world, and the ideologies in culture and society that influence our personalities from the outside. Within this brew, it is nearly impossible to separate all the ingredients that make up the self.

Director Patricia Rozema’s Mouthpiece captures a fractured individual dealing with the recent loss of a parent. Cassandra is brilliantly played by both Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava. Nostbakken and Sadava are together in virtually every scene of Mouthpiece. The other characters experience Cassandra as one person. The viewer is witness to Cassandra’s internal dialogue, personified by the two Cassandras. When Nostbakken’s Cassandra acts or says something, Sadaya’s Cassandra contradicts her, doubts her, or adds an additional layer to the character.

Nostbakken and Sadaya play off each other using perfect timing—a requirement if one is to pull off such a performance. Right after learning of her mother’s (Maev Beaty) death, both actresses grieve the sudden passing. The scenes of Nostbakken and Sadaya grieving capture the reason why Mouthpiece works so well. Nostbakken’s Cassandra is a limp noodle of grief, barely capable of lifting herself out of bed. Sadaya’s Cassandra has to muster the energy to comfort her grieving brother. If that does not capture the mix of emotions inherent in the grieving process, the internal push and pull we universally feel in those moments; then nothing does.

Mouthpiece is based on a theatrical play. Rozema takes the source material and does exactly what film should do—use the visuals of film to enhance the themes in the original material. When the Cassandras bike through Toronto’s streets, we see glossy billboards of women. In a world wherein a woman is told to “be her true self” while advertising and social media set many of the ideals of how she is supposed to look and act; is it any surprise that we have two Cassandras, one that has sex with a man while the other criticizes her body? One Cassandra enjoys the pleasures of the body, the other does not allow her to enjoy those pleasures. Another scene has one Cassandra practicing a eulogy in front of a meat display in a supermarket. The commentary on death and the erosion of the body are beautifully conveyed by Rozema in the depressing supermarket lighting.

The Cassandras’s commitment to give the eulogy at their mother’s funeral makes many memories and anxieties resurface. They remember the nurture given by their mother but also why they resent her. A Christmas party in which their mother pressures the Cassandras to have a baby, in front of guests, unleashes a drunken tirade by one of the Cassandras. The problem is that their mother was also fractured. She was split between a professional writing career and fulfilling the other role she adopted, mother. She is in tune with what truly matters—art, literature, the beauty in Joni Mitchell’s lyrics—but also makes sure not to eat French fries so as to not get fat.

French fries are one of the keys to understanding the Cassandras’s split. One Cassandra does not like fries but makes sure to order them so that others see that she does not care about getting fat. This complex dynamic of not liking something but doing it so that the outside world sees us a certain way, all the while deriving internal satisfaction over knowing that we are not like our parents; this is one of the many ways in which Mouthpiece works.

There is one scene that feels out of place in Mouthpiece. The scene involves a stylized fight sequence involving the two Cassandras right before giving the eulogy. It made me think of Fight Club, a memory that should not have been conjured up in me by a movie that was up till that scene complex, beautifully acted, and subtle.

If we place a parenthesis on that scene, a separation from the rest of the film, Mouthpiece captures the difficulties women face, the roles and expectations that pull them in different directions, and the psychological toll it takes.

16th March 2021
City Of Lies: The BRWC Review

City of Lies Synopsis: Los Angeles Police Department detective Russell Poole (Johnny Depp) has spent years trying to solve his biggest case – the murders of The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur – but after two decades, the investigation remains open. Jack Jackson (Forest Whitaker), a reporter desperate to save his reputation and career, is determined to find out why. In search of the truth, the two team up and unravel a growing web of institutional corruption and lies.

Lost amidst a wave of controversy and delays (the background may be crazier than the movie itself), the long-awaited detective drama City of Lies is finally seeing the light of day after spending nearly three years on the shelf. Director Brad Furman constructs a capable procedural piece around his resonate story, but his feature lacks the dynamism and brains to convey the case’s deeper connotations.

City of Lies’ general competence does make it a marketed improvement over other delayed titles (looking at you Chaos Walking). Furman continues to excel as a sturdy craftsman of procedural narratives (Lincoln Lawyer and The Infiltrator), establishing a grimey visual aesthetic to match his hard-hitting setting. His film has a distinct sense of place, creating a sense of tense unease with dangers and distrust lurking around every dimly-lit street corner.

The film’s central stars also live up to their pedigree. Johnny Depp’s subdued take is a welcomed change-up from his typically theatric work, while Forrest Whitaker adds some much-needed gravitas to his boilerplate journalist role. When the two characters are actually allowed to connect onscreen, their easy-going rapport displays sparks of humanity under the duo’s obsessive tendencies (both are kindred spirits in a way, dedicating their livelihoods to accomplish goals few others believe in).

Furman’s film boasts a promising nucleus. It’s just a shame that much of the film’s delivery settles for the bare minimum. Christian Contreras’s adaptation of Randall Sullivan’s factual novel loses itself amidst a myriad of detective jargon. Instead of analyzing any of the integral throughlines surrounding this case (take your pick between the racial divide sprouted from the Rodney King riots to the police corruption permeating throughout the department), Contreras’s script operates more like a tired CSI episode. The narrative also lacks a perspective on the case itself, tiredly traversing through the true story’s motions without personifying the events within a finite thesis (Tupac and Biggie have no presence, only being shown to be killed off).

City of Lies ultimately offers little to latch onto. Depp and Whittaker raise the material’s floor, but their thinly-written characters are too thankless to keep the narrative afloat. Attempts to shift towards character building only offer a series of melodramatic devices, as neither Poole nor Jackson evolve into fully-developed people outside of their shared responsibilities. After the film reveals its hand an hour in, the rest of the bloated runtime sleepwalks through melodrama before reaching its flat conclusion.

Fans of procedural dramas may find some appeals within the film’s straight-forward approach, but City of Lies’ lack of identity will leave most with a stilted and blandly-flavored effort.

15th March 2021
Banks, Wheatley, Spielberg: Weekly Round Up

Banks, Wheatley, Spielberg: Weekly Round Up: Okay, let’s start with a couple of stories that I think are absolutely great. It’s not often that I get to talk about the kinds of movies I really want to talk about here, since so much of the movie news information is centered around the major studios in Hollywood. But, this week, we got confirmation of a release date for the brand-new Ben Wheatley movie, In the Earth.

Now, for those of you who may not know, Ben Wheatley is a British filmmaker and the man behind some of the most interesting, frightening, and original films of the last few years. He broke onto the scene with his gangster drama Down Terrace, and more recently made the move to Netflix with the latest adaptation of Rebecca.

As a filmmaker, though, Wheatley is perhaps best known for his work in the folk horror genre, with the likes of Kill List, Sightseers, and A Field in England all earning praise from genre fans and critics alike. He has often been named as instrumental in the so-called folk horror revival, and his movies, which are soaked in a sort of “Britishness”, really do plunge the depths of horror the history of these isles is steeped in.

This will likely come as no surprise, but I’m a fan, so you’ll understand why, when news broke in September that the director has secretly filmed a micro-budget horror movie during lockdown, I was incredibly excited. A return to the genre he has helped essentially redefine is an exciting and tantalizing prospect, and of course the assumption was that there would be some sort of folkloric aspect to this, given his previous output. This assumption was later more or less confirmed when we discovered the title.

Since then, though, all has been relatively quiet, until this week we when we got ourselves a poster and a release date following the film’s premiere at Sundance. The film is being distributed by NEON and will be released on April 30^th. It stars Joel Fry, Ellora Torchia, Hayley Squires, and Reece Shearsmith.

Anyway, if you were under the impression that the weird, psychedelic world of Ben Wheatley was going to be as strange as it got this week, I’m here to tell you just how wrong you were, because our next story is… well… let’s just get too it.

Cocaine Bear. It’s the film no one knew they wanted, but now everyone needs. And no, I didn’t make that up, that’s a real thing and this week’s next key piece of movie news, because that’s the title of Pitch Perfect 2 and Charlie’s Angels director Elizabeth Banks’ next film. That’s right. Cocaine Bear… tell me you’re not already sold?

Inspired by a story reported by the New York Times in 1985, in which a 175-lb brown bear was found dead in the woods after consuming 40 packets of cocaine that had apparently been dropped from an airplane piloted by a drug smuggler, Cocaine Bear will be produced by the team behind The LEGO Movie and the 21 Jump Street films, Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Now, if you weren’t already on board, their involvement should definitely have you chomping at the bit, since they have impeccable form when it comes to taking absurd, totally out there, definitely-shouldn’t-work concepts and delivering stone cold classics.

However, we’re not quite sure when we’ll be getting to see this insane spectacle, as Banks is still currently developing her big screen adaptation of the classic series, The Magic School Bus, which she will reportedly both direct and star in as Ms. Frizzle. Still, let’s hope she gets a move on because… well… I really, really wanna see Cocaine Bear.

And now for this week’s final piece of news, which, much like the project the news details, is all about Steve Spielberg.

It was reported this week that Spielberg has co-written a new screenplay with his Lincoln and Munich collaborator, Tony Kushner, that centers around a Jewish teenager and movie buff growing up in Arizona during the 1950s and 1960s. Spielberg was apparently working on this script while in post-production for his upcoming West Side Story remake, with an intention to begin shooting the project sometime in July, aiming for a 2022 release.

Now, it isn’t uncommon for filmmakers to draw on their own experience when making their films, indeed Spielberg himself has been known to do so from time to time (especially in relation to certain… er… father issues), but this will be the first time Spielberg has so directly tackled himself as a subject, so it could be a very interesting new challenge for the director.

15th March 2021