There are plenty of winners & losers this summer when it comes to the entertainment industry. But only two winners and two losers make the cut when it comes to columns like this. And the following list features the topics that have made the cut so far this summer.
Winner – Warner Bros. Entertainment’s Looney Tunes Revival
There’s no doubt that the American entertainment industry has followed its news media peers in going further and further to the left. But in a refreshing twist, Warner Bros. has decided not to go this route with their revival of the iconic cartoon franchise Looney Tunes. Instead of doing a politically correct retooling of pander to millennial progressives who get offended at everything as Warners’ Cartoon Network brand did recently, the studio decided to go back to what made characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig so beloved in the first place as seen from this sneak peek:
This is the kind of humor America needs, now more than ever. And it’s good to know that the people behind these new shorts understand that changing a familiar franchise to suit the needs of the far-left is not the way to go. This revival definitely has a lot of potential, and Warner Bros. is a Winner as a result.
Loser – Men in Black International
The 1997 Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi comedy movie Men in Black was one of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s most successful releases of the year at the time of its debut, and led to the creation of a multimillion dollar franchise which includes an animated TV series and two sequels. But unfortunately, the spinoff film Men in Black International, starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, decided to go woke on its audience and bombed at the box office as a result.
Critics were brutal when writing about the film. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal referenced the classic 90’s sitcom Seinfeld and called the film a ‘movie about nothing:
If Seinfeld was a show about nothing, this sorry contrivance is less than a nullity, with an off-putting plot—there’s a mole in the Men in Black organization, but so what, since all the suspects look ready to be stuffed to begin with—and no one to care about for a single moment.
That’s a shame—not a crying shame, because it’s only a movie, but no laughing shame either, since the talented stars, Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth, have basically been given babble for dialogue; it’s painful to watch them failing to be funny.
Yikes!
As a result of those brutal reviews and said propaganda, the movie ended up bombing at the box office by earning just $28 million. Social justice pandering doesn’t do any good for an established franchise, does it?
The director of Men in Black International, F. Gary Gray, is a Loser.
Winner – Disney, Toy Story 4
Disney and its Pixar Animation Studios subsidiary are very consistent when it comes to the critical and financial success of the Toy Story franchise. Its apolitical stance always makes the entire family and people from both sides of the political spectrum go see every installment in droves. Not to mention it’s one of the few film franchises where the elites and the general public agree on something. And as seen in this trailer, the fourth installment seems to follow that tradition:
The film is set for release this weekend. Of course, judgement should be reserved for when the film is released. But rest assured, the movie will continue to consistently entertain young and old alike. As always, Disney is a Winner.
Loser – Syfy’s The Banana Splits Horror Movie
There’s a lot of nostalgia lately for classic movies and TV shows, hence one of the reasons why Warner Bros. has decided to jump into the bandwagon with their Looney Tunes revival. Unfortunately, the people behind Warners’ revival of The Banana Splits, which is being produced by NBCUniversal’s Syfy channel, has decided to make it an R-rated horror movie rather than an all-out revival of the classic series that captures the essence of what made it so beloved:
The Los Angeles Times reports the that the synopsis is similar to the popular survival horror video game Five Nights at Freddy’s. A young boy named Harley is spending his birthday with his family at a taping of the Banana Splits TV show. The trip soon involves a rising number of brutal deaths after learning that the series is canceled, resulting in the characters – who are actually robots in this movie – taking on lives of their own. What a way to continue to dishonor the legacy of feel-good kids’ TV from William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
Warners’ direct-to-video division has been struggling due to the decline of home video sales, and they should know better than to do something like this. So they’re Losers, and they need to wise up fast.
[Cross-posted from Carolina Culture Warrior.]
