Michelle and Joe discuss a week full of Disney news. They analyze the new Aladdin trailer, take a look at the incredible numbers being put up by Captain Marvel. They also discuss the release dates of Disney's new Galaxy's End Star Wars attraction and some interesting details about it's opening. Then they'll talk about the industry wide impact of Disney finalizing their acquisition of much of the 21st Century Fox assets and the ripples it will have on movies and television moving forward. They'll wrap up with a few new insightful picks of the week including another Netflix offering and our first pop culture convention/show pick of the series.
Michelle and Joe discuss a week full of Disney news. They analyze the new Aladdin trailer, take a look at the incredible numbers being put up by Captain Marvel. They also discuss the release dates of Disney's new Galaxy's End Star Wars attraction and some interesting details about it's opening. Then they'll talk about the industry wide impact of Disney finalizing their acquisition of much of the 21st Century Fox assets and the ripples it will have on movies and television moving forward. They'll wrap up with a few new insightful picks of the week including another Netflix offering and our first pop culture convention/show pick of the series.
Welcome to insights into entertainment podcast series. Taking a deeper look into entertainment and media, your host, Joseph and Michelle Waylon, a husband and wife, team of pop culture, phonetics are exploring all things from music and movies to television and fandom.
Speaker 2:Welcome to insights into entertainment. This is episode five. Disney domination.
Speaker 3:Well ha ha ha ha.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, Joseph Waylon and my lovely cohost Michelle Waylon. Hello everyone. And we're going to be diving into things such as Disney's release of their Aladdin trailer. We'll talk about how captain marvel was doing at the box office and Disney released some additional information on their new star wars expansion at their parks called Galaxy's edge. Then we will conclude with Disney's takeover of Fox, which is going to be effective March 20th so lots of great things to talk about. Let's get into it.
Speaker 4:Okay,
Speaker 2:so Disney released the first a OLED and trailer. The new Latin is going to be a live action version of what is the classic animated movie directed by Guy Ritchie. Uh, what'd you think of the trailer?
Speaker 3:I really liked it actually. I, I wasn't quite sure how he was going to feel about it. I'm a classic Disney, just new girl. Um, you know, I don't like when you mess with, you know, the originals and Aladdin happened to be, you know, one of the movies that I was very into when it came out. The music, the story. I was in high school at the time. Um, no I think I was, yeah, I think it was high school. Um, so very into it and so it's kind of like, oh, why are you messing with it? But after seeing it, I liked how they paid homage to the original but then also kind of had their own twist to it is as well. I don't think you could ever replace Robin Williams as the genie. I think that's definitely hard, you know, shoes to fill. But from what you know, we saw in the trailer will Smith definitely is, it's doing a good job in my opinion. So. Okay.
Speaker 2:And, and I would tend to agree with that. I think the toughest role you had to fill there was genie and not because will Smith is not capable of doing right, but because Robin Williams was such a beloved character. Yeah,
Speaker 3:absolutely. Absolutely. And, and he made it so much more than what, you know, what it was, you know, he put his spin on it and there was so much ad Lib to it and you know, it really, it was a reflection of him really. So to have somebody else do that, you know, it's gonna, it's gonna be hard to, to, you know, compete with,
Speaker 2:um, obviously they're bringing back some, if not many of the original songs from the original soundtrack, a whole new world, which was the first Disney song ever to win a grammy for Song of the year, uh, which also won an Oscar, um, that actually makes an appearance in the trailer itself. So we know that's going to be part of the movie, which is I think, uplifting for fans of the original.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely. And when we watched the, you know, the trailer together, I got goosebumps hearing it. It's, yeah, it's always been one of my favorite songs in general to sing and hearing it and seeing it. Also seeing, um, you know, the dance sequences and the traditional, you know, Indian dance style was very interesting to see. So it looks like it's definitely going more ethnic, you know, and in a good way. So
Speaker 2:now, now obviously it's a teaser trailer, so there they didn't reveal a lot to it. Everyone knows the plot, they know the story. You know, you got introduced to some of the characters that, you know, obviously the one big character Jeannie here we saw will Smith, uh, in a couple of different scenes in the, in the trailer. So he's not in blue in the whole movie. Right. He seems to have a much more laid back, relaxed, kind of feel to it. Jafar. So we didn't see a lot of Jafar. Okay. I didn't see Jafar in Jafar. He just didn't see evil enough.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he didn't. And unless that, unless the scenes that we saw him in, we're meant to be, I don't want to say the kinder, Gentler Jafar, but, uh, hey, I'm not a menace to society, evilness Jafar and that at some point snap
Speaker 2:and, you know, playing devil's advocate, Jafar does have a duality to the character itself where he's not supposed to look evil all the time. And I think the scenes that we saw him in, it was before he got his power and he was supposed to be evil and stuff. So maybe, maybe holding out hope that he gets a lot more ego. Cause Jafar is one of the Great Disney villains of all time.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And that's the thing is I think in the cartoon, he always looked evil to begin with. He had that menacing look about him. And then, uh, of course when he got, you know, the evil power, it, it overtook him even more. So, you know, hopefully, maybe that's what they were going for is like, oh look, Jafar is not that bad. He can help us control everything and, and you know, not be mean. So maybe, maybe that's what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Uh, one thing that I think was very tasteful, and it's tribute to the original movie, is he brought Frank Welker back to play the voice of Abdo. That's really cute. Which I think is, is this touching, I think to a lot of people, the fans of the original movie,
Speaker 3:well, I'm not to, you know, to, to jump the boat with the w. It's not on our list of things to talk about, but the lion king, right. Live action that's coming out. How James Earl Jones, cause you can't Mont exactly. You can't have mu Fossa be somebody else. But like you can't have Darth Vader without being agile girls. Cause it's such a distinctive voice. Right. So it's kind of cute. Where could you have done somebody else that as a bu probably, I don't think you'd, you'd notice it with somebody else, but that's a nice little touch. That's the thing, right? That's the Omanis that they paid to the local. Absolutely. Kudos to Disney for that. Disney.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 2:So captain marvel has been released. We actually haven't seen it yet. We're going to see it today. Yes,
Speaker 3:we see it in a few hours.
Speaker 2:Very excited to see it. I've heard nothing but good news about it. Killing it at the box office had a 61 point$3 million opening. It's first Friday,$153 million. Its opening weekend domestically. A second only to Black Panther at 202 million. Not Bad. No that's, that's, that's some serious money to, to talk about their uh, overseas. The 302 million overseas. Wow. Which includes 89 million in China. The fifth highest international opening weekend ever. So this thing's all over the, the books here
Speaker 3:and you figure it's not a holiday weekend cause that's always correct. Yeah. You know, a big thing. Oh if it's over the holiday or they can get this and this. So just the fact that, you know, it did that well on holiday. That's impressive.
Speaker 2:Oh so it's even done. 36 million an imax theater is among the top five debuts of all time in Imax theaters. Wow. Um, so people want to see this in all formats. One interesting stat that came out was big draw of this movies of the fact that it's a, you know, first female lead in a, in a marvel movie, 55% of movie goers were male just goes to show you, it doesn't matter who you stick it on the screen there, right. The, the fact that you've got 55% of your viewers being male tells me that we're breaking barriers. And that's a, that's a good thing.
Speaker 3:Well, and I think too is that marvel on a whole is just doing such an exceptional job with all of their, their movies in the franchise. And of course you're getting ready for endgame, right. You know, which is not that far away now. So, you know, here's another movie you need to watch to, you know, make it to end game and understand that. So I think you also have people that are fans of,
Speaker 2:you're in, they're invested already.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. You know, just like what another star wars movie comes out. All Star Wars fans are gonna see it. So everybody that's a marvel fan and is waiting for you. No end game to come out. Well, okay, I got to get something in. But obviously with the numbers, people are, are, you know, are enjoying it as well.
Speaker 2:What I thought was interesting with 74 74% of the movie goers were over the age of 25 clearly superheroes aren't just a kid thing anymore.
Speaker 3:Oh. And, and I think they've kind of realized that for a while now because all the people that are going to the movies or the, the people that read the comics, you have, you know, you have all of those people and then you know, other people, you know, like myself that didn't read the comics. But remember the superman movies and you know, the original Batman movies and things like that. You know, stuff that we watch when we were were kids and now we're taking our own kids to it and our own kids are fans of it, you know as well.
Speaker 2:That's a great family tradition. Absolutely. One last stat that I have to throw out there, which I just saw on Friday, is that captain marvel is currently the highest grossing movie ever with a female lead girl. That's pretty impressive. That is impressive. Especially considering the reception that wonder woman wound up getting when it, yeah. Yeah. Great movie. Um, are great reviews of the movie I should say. And hopefully, you know, we walk out of here and it's a, it's a great movie when we go to see you.
Speaker 3:Um, and, and it's funny, I just went, you know, made a comment to toward order. Hey, you know, you're going to wear your captain marvel shirt today. Well, I thought I was wearing it when we went to the movies. Well, we're seeing it today. We are, you know, she was excited, so that's too much, you know, prodding, you know, from her. She's excited to see it. So you know, that makes sure out.
Speaker 2:I'm sure we'll have a brief review or at least mentioned in next week's podcast of what we think. I'm sure we will.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:In other Disney News, Disney announced the opening dates for Galaxy's edge, the new star wars land expansion to Disney world and Disney land.
Speaker 3:What I think is really funny is like I had so many people at work come up to me because I am like the Disney aficionado at work. Everybody knows every, you know, on Facebook, everybody tags me with Disney news and things like that. So I had at least five people come up to me when they made the announcement that galaxy's edge was, hey, did you hear? Did you hear? Did you hear it? I'm like, yeah, I'm just still not go and do it right now, right? I'm not crazy, but hey, if you want to go more power to Ya.
Speaker 2:So we have two expansions, uh, one in Disneyland and we'll open May 31st and one in Disneyworld and is slated to open on August 29th. Uh, now not all rides are going to be open when it do expansion opens. So they're doing a two phased approach. Phase one will see the Millennium Falcon smuggler's run most of the shops and restaurants and then face to get you rise of the resistance ride and a, that will be later this year, Disney says,
Speaker 3:and that's, and that's typically what they've actually done for most of their new expansions is it's usually done in phases. So I don't know if they already knew they were going to do that and Kinda left it, you know, as a surprise to make it seem like, look, we need it. You know, we're opening up earlier than before because they did that with toy story land. Um, they did that with new fantasy land, you know, nothing's ever ready. Right. All it at one shot,
Speaker 2:these always under our constant state of construction too.
Speaker 3:Yeah. They always are. And in, in constant competition with, with universal these days. So, you know, so I'm sure part of it was, you know what, let's not wait. How much can we get done? How much can we open up and start getting the people in?
Speaker 2:So one of the things that did make news with this announcement was that initially to avoid overcrowding, guests will need to obtain a reservation to visit the new area. Now this was only for Disney land from what I've seen so far. Okay. They went into a little bit more detail and they basically said you'll need reservations from the time of launch until June 23rd but if you are like you're staying at one of the Disneyland resorts, resort hotels, a Disney land, you'll automatically receive a reservation. But the reservations will be at no extra charge. So to me, it almost strikes me as like I had time to entrance type thing for a museum.
Speaker 3:Honestly, I think makes the most sense because you know, that's where everybody's going to want to go. Yeah. You know, that's the whole reason why people are going at that time of year. That's what they, they really want to see and seeing how crowded certain areas get you, you need to do some sort of crowd control, you know? So, and I hope that Disneyworld does something, you know, similar cause that's just gonna be a mad house. You're going to end up having the park probably have to close for capacity issues because you're going to have so many people trying to get in. So if you do something like that, that would definitely help.
Speaker 2:Almost identical in size. So it's not even right. You could say, all right, well this one's bigger and has more capacity now they're going to have the same capacity in that area. Right? So you're not going to be able to buy much there, but it looks, certainly looks promising. Um, the, the one thing that I think the reason that they're doing this controlled entrance is that it's the first time in a Disneyland Park or Disney park where it's an immersive experience. You're not, you're not a guest coming into a section of the park. You're supposed to be part of the story itself. And I think if you get a mass population coming in, as you being part of the story itself is playing a character in this role, almost like going to a renaissance fair where you're treated like someone who is in the universe rather than treated as a guest.
Speaker 3:Right. And I think they've been trying to kind of work their way up to that because like toy story land is kind of makes you feel like you're a toy in Andy's land. Like everything is oversized
Speaker 2:from a setup standpoint. Yeah. But this is from everything they've said. This is the cat. The cast members are gonna be interacting with you.
Speaker 3:But that's what I'm saying is that they've been kind of leading you to that immersive experience. Different stages in, in Disney, Disney land with cars land, it's kind of, again, the cast members aren't being immersive with you, but from the set perspective, you feel like you are in radiator springs. There's nothing around that doesn't make you feel like that everything is sized proportion to that and whatnot. Toy Story, land, you know, the, the toys are bigger than life, you know, bigger than you are. So you feel like you're in Andy's backyard. It's, it's done to make it feel like, you know, like that as opposed to, you know, tomorrow land where it just looks like futuristic stuff. So I think this is the
Speaker 2:next level with the bug's life. Right,
Speaker 3:right. So, right. So I think this is now on a much grander scale and like you said, the cast members are going to be interacting with you, like you are on the planet, you know, visiting from where, you know, wherever else within the universe. So,
Speaker 2:and there is a story behind it. They, they're Disney. We'll be releasing several novels, did support the location, there'll be a, an overriding story that plays out throughout the whole thing that has a theme to it. So it sounds interesting. And then when you, you go that extra length, can you talk about Disney world where eventually we're going to get a themed hotel for it as well. That will again keep you inside the universe. So that looks, it looks very cool. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:So Disney is taking over Fox or at least most of Fox and that takeover is slated to go into effect March 20th after it's gotten, you know, various approval from the government. It was a$71 billion deal, uh, and which they bought and most of 20th century Fox. Um, so at the end of this deal, Disney will be getting 20th century Fox studios, a controlling stake in Hulu and a suite of channels including Fx, national geographic and others. Not so bad. No, no, I think they're going to come out well. I mean Disney doesn't really need to come out more powerful than it already is. You know, my thoughts on Disney as it is really, there are some remaining elements of 21st century Fox that we'll get spun off into a new company called Fox that includes Fox broadcasting, a fake news. I mean Fox News and Fox sports. How do you really feel? Hey, please hun. So you know, I, I, I'm not a big fan of Fox News. I'm not a big fan of Disney. I would not have, she had a tear if Disney had absorbed Fox News and just dissolved it.
Speaker 3:That w honestly that would have made probably so many people really happy and so many people really upset.
Speaker 2:I could guarantee you would have seen the government blocking it at that point in time for reasons that we won't get into in this podcast. That's for a different podcast. So the deal was originally proposed in 2017 at which time Comcast trying to counter the offer, but Disney having more money than God came back and offered a higher offer in July. Right. So the, the basic sketch of the combined companies was laid out by Disney executives. Final steps need to happen. Uh, there's some uncertainty on cutbacks, um, which are considered inevitable, right? Some analysts think that Disney will be laying off at least 5,000 employees from both sides of the merger. Wow. And they've been told to expect at least 2 billion. Uh, investors have been told to expect at least 2 billion in cost synergies by 2021 realize from the operating efficiencies of the merger, of course, the White House unable to not comment on things because you know, that's what they did. It's what they do. Um, came out and said, uh, this was, um, uh, minister of propaganda. Sarah Sanders. I'm saying, I know that the president spoke to Robert, uh, Rupert Murdoch Murdoch earlier today and congratulated him on the deal and thinks to use one of the president's favorite words. This could be great. A great thing for jobs. Yes. Anytime that you're laying on 5,000 people, it's a great thing for Josh
Speaker 3:made a crap load of money. Right?
Speaker 2:MMM, yeah. Hmm. Uh, he looks forward to seeing a lot more of those created. Yeah. Um, so this is, this is huge. I mean this is a big part of consolidation in the entertainment industry here. Yeah. One thing, this will net Disney, uh, I believe is the first three star wars movies, which they did not acquire. And the Lucas.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay. See I didn't realize that it didn't get though.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So they will have those rights and they can put the 20th century Fox Fan fare back into star wars movies, which we all miss, which will make you very happy that that's a tradition that we all miss.
Speaker 3:I wonder if they'll do that for the ninth movie.
Speaker 2:I Dunno. It'd be interesting. They certainly would be able to. Yeah. What are your thoughts on this as a Disney fan, first of all, and as a Disney stock holder second, are you okay with, well, let me ask you from a stock standpoint, are you okay with Disney spending$71 billion to buy Fox?
Speaker 3:I guess so. Um, um, you know, I have my shares of stock and honestly I've gotten decent dividends the end of the year from them, so I really can't complain there and you know, looking at my portfolio and yeah, I'm not, I'm not that big of a stock holder where, you know, I'm going to be able to retire with the money that, you know, Disney is bringing in for me.
Speaker 2:So as long as they keep trickling a few pennies back to you in dividends, you're happy. I'm not going to complain. I'm, I'm okay with that. And I kinda think that's, that's sort of the mentality Disney's going mousing we throw a little bit of change back at the people and then we go out when we take over the rest of the world. Sure.
Speaker 3:It's a much happier place that way.
Speaker 2:Um, I am kind of surprised that they got through all the regulatory stuff as quickly as they can.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I am too. Especially with how, you know, the, they don't want these big monopolies, you know, there's always somebody, oh, try never to break this monopoly apart in this one and that one, you know, I guess there's still so many other monopolies out there that it's not, yeah, they're not seen as a threat, I guess. I Dunno.
Speaker 2:Well, what do you think this is going to do to Hulu considering the Disney is about to come out with her on a streaming service? Do you think it's going to impact Hula?
Speaker 3:Because Hulu does, you know, where Disney has is planning their streaming and it's going to be mostly movies and you know, I don't even know if it's going to be any television, you know, any, uh, uh, shows or how many shows they're planning on doing. We're Hulu. The biggest thing I think that Hulu has its niche is not only their original content, which isn't as much as say, Netflix. It's kind of, you know, hey, we have a couple of things you know that are on Hulu. Hulu is a big draw I think is for people that have cut the cord and don't have broadcast TV and Hulu is that option to be able to watch stuff on regular broadcast or at least when I think of Hulu, that's what I've always seen Hulu as, oh I've missed a show, let me go and find it on Hulu.
Speaker 2:Right. You just can't watch it live on her little.
Speaker 3:Right, exactly. So you know,
Speaker 2:one of the things that I did read, I actually didn't put it in the show notes here. Disney had talked briefly about their intentions and and they were basically keeping their Disney related properties on the streaming service. As you said, they were also going to use Hulu is an opportunity to put more or less family oriented programming out there on Hulu.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay. So Disney streaming was going to be the family, right? Hulu was going to be the everything else.
Speaker 2:See the stuff that, that, that's no longer on Netflix. Some of the marvel stuff like dare devil and punisher. Some event stuff I could see moving over to Hulu where they, because it's, that's not exactly family friendly. Right,
Speaker 3:right, right. Like the Nick K, Nick Cage, Luke Cage. You know,
Speaker 2:the cage doesn't have his own show yet. Yeah. Not yet. If he does it when he would just come across as the same year as it never one of his moods. Thanks. But yeah. So, so that should be interesting to see where they go with that. So finally, we're going to ramp up as we do with our insightful picks of the week and as I always do, I yield to you my dear. You can go for it.
Speaker 3:Oh, aren't you sweet. So my insights will pick for this week is again a another Netflix show. Do you think I have a, yeah, I think you watch a little too much in that. I do. I think I do at times tend to like those darker, uh, types of shows. Um, so no, no, not at all. This week's pick is Santa Clarita Diet. Um, so it's about a husband and wife who are realtors, uh, living a quiet life in suburban California. And their world is unexpectedly changes. What changes when the wife Sheila goes through a dramatic transformation, that sensor down a road of death and destruction believes her looking and feeling better than ever. It's one of those dark comedies where, you know, it's like, Hey, I'm eating the next door neighbor, but it's totally okay because he was a jerk and uh, you know, kind of funny. They have, you know, some interesting guest stars. Right, exactly. Um, no, it's just one of those little quirky things and you know, dealing with how, um, you know, Joel, the husband, how he's dealing with his wife, who's, you know, undead now and finding out that she's not the only one out there. Other people are like her and you know, trying to, to balance everything. Um, and then the daughter has a friend who he's helping out. So it, it, it's just kind of funny and Quirky, which is usually what I like. And the new season starts up, you know, in a couple of weeks. So I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 2:So is this a horror or a comedy? It's both. It's both. That's interesting. Okay. Well. Very good. So my pick of the week is a, again, a little bit off the rails here. Um, we tend to go to a lot of conventions, toy shows, uh, that type of stuff. Uh, starting around this time of year and through the summer into the fall, my pick is actually going to be a toy show. April fools, a toy show down in Delaware at the nurse Shrine temple is on Sunday, April 7th. It's$5 to get in. Children under 12 are free. You can visit it@twitchshows.org. Uh, they build themselves as the east coast largest twoish show. They feature over 175 tables of new collectibles and unique toys. That's great place for antique toy collectors. The Stalins are collections of toys from the 1940s to the present day. If you love your classic 1980s toys, there's a ton of them down there. Uh, you don't have the oppressive crowns that are often associated with some of the more celebrity laden shows. You don't got to do a celebrity signings or anything like that. This is basically people that share the same passion as you. If you're a toy collector or an antique toy collector, they're down there. A lot of them really are down there to display their collections because some of these collections either aren't for sale or they're asking
Speaker 3:money that you're not going to pay for a little tin trained.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But, uh, you know, some of these guys display parts of their collections and they sell off all their parts and you know, they're down. They're buying themselves. So it's, it's, it's almost a meet and greet of the collector industry down there. Uh, you can browse and shop at a nice pace. Uh, you can talk with the vendors, you can, you can talk about collectibles. Uh, the guys are very friendly down there and, and really gets people that share the same passion. It's not necessarily a convention experience. This, I equate more to a collector's experience and there's almost always some kind of obscure find or a diamond in the rough down there that I always walk away. Right.
Speaker 3:Right. But those usually that one thing that, oh, I didn't even know that they made this. Yeah, no, I never saw this before. You know, is it something where it was an import items? Yup. Or, uh, we've even found a couple where it was like a test model. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so it never went into production. So there's, there's usually always that one item that like, Oh wow, that's really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Being being a big star wars fan, my shelf, one of the big scores I landed down there was a very reasonably priced decent condition. Carded Darth Vader from the empire strikes back, toy line, uh, original. Um, but you know, I also, there was a, uh, someone down there who does custom Zombie versions of action figures of dowels and I picked up a couple of Zombie, a clone troopers from star wars down there. So there's all kinds of stuff that you can find down there. There's a movie van that it's almost always down there. Video game vendor or video game vendor. If you were in a hash trucks, you've got Hess vendors down there, you've got classic 10 type toy vendors down there. There's, it's huge. I mean it's, it's a great experience. They serve refreshments down there so you can have lunch down there. Uh, and you know, it's not a full day event is probably about a half day, three, four hour event you could make of it. Yeah. Yeah. But it's reasonable to get in. Uh, it's a great environment, family friendly environment down there. Free parking, you know, it's easy to get to. It's right on dupont highway. It's at one 98 south dupont in new castle. Uh, it's open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Sunday and the day before, we don't go down for the day before. They also do a train show down there as well. Right. If you're interested in a classic model trains, so two shows.org and I think that will do it for the podcast this week. Uh, just a reminder to everyone, you can reach out to us now. You can email us@commentsatinsightsintothings.com. You can visit us on youtube at insights into things. You can visit our main webPage@insightsintothingsdotcomoryoucangodirectlytoouraudiopodcastatpodcastthatinsightsintoentertainment.com any final words, dear
Speaker 3:no, I'm just excited to see captain marvel today.
Speaker 2:Well, let's get out the door and go see it. Thanks so much guys, and we'll talk to you next week. Yeah.