Me namesake gets shafted

[BobaMike]

Sorry MJ, but ---

Wow- not was I was expecting at all! And I loved that trailer. The mix of animation, the combining with live-action? That's something you don't see done well every day. And the look of the Viking at the end? Straight out of Shrek/Beowolf!

I wasn't interested at all before, but now I will check it out.

[Monterey Jack]

Just sick of this "meta" B.S. And the "hand-drawn" characters still being obviously CGI rankles me. It might be okay as a jokey thing, but I just wanted a Rescue Rangers movie, dammit.

[AndyDursin]

At least it looks like they put some effort into it even if it isn't what the hardcore fans want. Though really isn't the demographic going to be little kids who never saw the old show? That's the target.

[Monterey Jack]

Though really isn't the demographic going to be little kids who never saw the old show? That's the target.

You could say the same thing about Star Wars, and we all know your opinions on what Disney did with the series.

[AndyDursin]

The main demographic for Star Wars live action series and movies isn't strictly a Nickelodeon aged audience. It's a wider net that includes adults. The demographic for this particular show looks like kids, I dunno, grade schoolers which is who the old series was intended for mostly. They are totally different genres and sectors of entertainment.

[Monterey Jack]

Star Wars demographic is much wider than Rescue Rangers. Not even comparable.

The size of the fanbase is irrelevant...fans of the show want the show, not this pile of IP-stroking "meta" crap. It looks too dumb for adults and too jaded for kids (who would simply prefer a silly, fun adventure instead of something filled with in-jokes only their parents would understand). I realize I sound ridiculous for complaining about the sanctity of Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers, but this looks exactly like those dreadful Alvin & The Chipmunks or Smurfs movies, where the naked contempt for the source material radiates from the screen. Even if I were willing to accept the direction the filmmakers have taken, there's not one genuinely amusing joke in that entire two-minute ad, and comedy trailers generally try to have the funniest bits in them.

[AndyDursin]

It's not about the size. It's about the age and the kind of diverse audience that "the brand" attracts. There's a difference between Star Wars and The Smurfs. There are definitely some very kid specific spinoffs of Star Wars but the main line of the films and the Disney+ shows is aimed at adults (fans) as much as kids, and always has been. My point is that's a different animal than reviving some strictly kid specific show for another group of kids which is kind of what this looks like to me. Maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway I get what you are saying about the Smurfs revival and Alvin and the Chipmunks. Hopefully this Rescue Rangers doesn't ruin your enjoyment of the old show

[AndyDursin]

I read more about this and it does sound bizarre. On the other hand I'd probably be more compelled to watch this than Rescue Rangers itself like BM mentioned earlier simply because I have no connection with the source material.

[Monterey Jack]

I had low expectations for this from the start, so I can't act like I'm surprised, yet it looks FAR worse than I ever imagined. I know it's dumb for a man my age to be upset about this, but I really liked the series when it aired, and it would have been nice to just have that again, a fun little mystery/rescue adventure with hopefully enough humor that adults could smile or chuckle at. But no, like the Wreck It Ralph sequel, that gets co-opted so that Disney can shove all the things they own in your face for 90 minutes. It's depressing.

[AndyDursin]

Sort of reminds me of Rocky and Bullwinkle's failed movie. Or Disney+'s attempt to make a "cool subversive" thing for a broader audience using an IP they think has some "brand recognition" but not enough that they will face serious fan repurcussions (you and the hardcore fans of the show notwithstanding MJ). Hence the billing for Samberg and the other guy on their poster.

[Monterey Jack]

Sort of reminds me of Rocky and Bullwinkle's failed movie. Or Disney+'s attempt to make a "cool subversive" thing for a broader audience using an IP they think has some "brand recognition" but not enough that they will face serious fan repurcussions (you and the hardcore fans of the show notwithstanding MJ). Hence the billing for Samberg and the other guy on their poster.

It's hijacking someone else's IP to jam in stuff the filmmakers want to do, but wouldn't be allowed to do with an "original" project. Maybe if I had zero attachment to the source material, I wouldn't mind (I mildly enjoyed that Sonic The Hedgehog movie for what it was, probably because I never played the video games or watched the cartoon back in the day), but as a fan, this is as ghastly as the Space Jam movies taking the Looney Tunes crew to sell WB products, with no thought as to what the original cartoons were all about. Or that godawful Dark Tower movie which had fudge-all to do with Stephen King's marvelous books series aside from the character names.

[Monterey Jack]

Just watch a couple of episodes of the show on D+ with your son, Andy, then watch that trailer again and try to defend the direction they went here. The five-part "To The Rescue" pilot episode (weirdly set around the 40-episode mark on D+ ) is a good place to start. It's BAFFLING. Imagine The Force Awakens if, instead of being a straight sequel, it was about Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher playing themselves as washed-up actors in a "meta" take on the Star Wars franchise, jammed with references to other things Disney owns. It conceivably might have been funny, but it wouldn't have been a "real" sequel or follow-up. This is like the recent 5cream, which was filled with "self-aware" jabs at "legacy sequel" cliches, when the movie itself was jammed full of...legacy sequel cliches. Being aware that you're just cashing in on a popular trend doesn't excuse it, it just makes you seem desperate.

[AndyDursin]

I get it now, I hadn't read all that much about it. So they could have done what they are doing tonally etc. with any other property -- I mean, when I saw Roger Rabbit, the first thing I thought was: why not just make another Roger Rabbit like thing? But he's basically canceled now so the most they can do is trot him out for a cameo and dust off some other property as a "grounding point" for this kind of quasi-animated comedy.

[jkholm]

I've never seen the original cartoon but I totally get MJ's frustration with this new movie being a meta take instead of a straightforward adventure. It reminds me of the misguided movie versions of CHIPS and Baywatch in which the producers seemingly had no clue as to why people enjoyed those shows in the first place. Whether that's because the producers thought the source material was outdated, "problematic" or childish, the result was something that nobody liked.

[Monterey Jack]

It reminds me of the misguided movie versions of CHIPS and Baywatch in which the producers seemingly had no clue as to why people enjoyed those shows in the first place. Whether that's because the producers thought the source material was outdated, "problematic" or childish, the result was something that nobody liked.

^ This, exactly. That's why I liked the underrated Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie...it wasn't some swingin' 60s Austin Powers-style spoof of the old TV series (which I have never seen), but just a cool, slick retro spy thriller that had a sense of humor, but didn't treat the source material or period in which it was made with derision or a thick coating of "updated" sexual/racial box-ticking. The original Rescue Rangers was a fun adventure series that offered up lite mysteries for kids, with just enough clever humor to placate older viewers (and I was 15 when it started airing, so I can't quite count it as something I "grew up" on), which is why this approach to the new movie is so disheartening. They could have just set it a few years after the original series, and had the broken-up members of the team have to reconnect to help solve a new case, but no, that wouldn't let Disney shill other IPs they own...!