(Welcome to Out of the Disney Vault, where we explore the unsung gems and forgotten disasters currently streaming on Disney+.)
It’s impossible to comprehend exactly how popular the Walt Disney anthology TV series was back in its heyday of the 1950s and 1960s, in part because it’s still somewhat baffling to ponder what the anthology TV series was to begin with. Now, the phrase “anthology series” calls to mind images of shows like Fargo, True Detective, or American Horror Story. But anthology series that existed back in the nascent years of the televisual medium were drastically different from the splashy, star-driven cable shows of the last decade. The Walt Disney program, which has had multiple names in its decades of existence, shook things up on a weekly basis.
Such is the case with one of the two currently available episodes of the anthology show that you can stream, right now, on Disney+. (If you’re wondering, “Josh, are you ever going to use this column to talk about the other episode I can stream right now?”, don’t you worry. We’ll get there soon enough.) For anyone who loves animation, The Plausible Impossible is a genuine must-watch, because in just the span of 52 minutes, you get a glimpse at how Disney animators of the Golden Age would approach the art of animation. Now, it might seem like an hourlong description of how animation works might do well only on a niche network. At the time, The Plausible Impossible was one of the top-rated hours on television the week it aired.
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We’re exactly one week away from the arrival of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Sneak preview screenings will begin on Thursday night next week and likely go well into the early morning. But Disney and Lucasfilm are showing no signs of slowing down their marketing mayhem yet. In fact, a recently released The Rise of Skwyalker poster just might be the best of the entire campaign, and it even pays tribute to one of the most rare Star Wars posters of all time. Read More »
(Welcome to Now Scream This, a column where horror experts Chris Evangelista and Matt Donato tell you what scary, spooky, and spine-tingling movies are streaming and where you can watch them.)
Matt: Oh joy, December! A month where winter’s icy clutch sends shivers up spines, which is why I now live in Los Angeles where Jack Frost would melt. F*#k snow, keep the slushy mess it leaves behind and leave the peppermint schnapps for my cocoa while you go skiing. Why venture into frozen tundras when you can stay inside, light a roaring fire, then press play on some streaming horror movies? Sounds like the superior cozy-comfy decision to me! Allow me to thaw out some suggestions.
Chris: Rather than limit ourselves to “Christmas horror” (and also because we already did that), we’re launching into December with winter horror movies. Snow, cold weather, mittens – you get the picture. The holidays are here, and what better way to get through them than by kicking back with some violent horror movies? Read More »
One of the most-watched movies of any holiday season is undoubtedly National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. People just can’t get enough of seeing a dysfunctional family try to make it through the holidays, probably because it makes it a little easier to deal with their own family problems. And soon enough, they may be able to see The Griswolds more often, at least if they have HBO Max.
WarnerMedia’s new streaming service has announced a new half-hour comedy series called The Griswolds, based on the Vacation franchise that started with National Lampoon’s Vacation in 1983. But will it bring back any of the Vacation franchise cast members for the series or not? Read More »
Here we are in the future. Rebecca Sugar’s Steven Universe is back, not with a new season, but an epilogue limited series, Steven Universe Future, set two years after the first series.
The half-Gem, half-human boy Steven Universe (Zach Callison) has defended his beloved Earth while being raised lovingly by his three Gem guardians, Garnet (Estelle), Pearl (Deedee Magno Hall), and Amethyst (Michaela Dietz). He has finally established peace across the stars and reformed the three other Diamond Authorities, who can essentially be considered his Gem aunts, into disbanding their tyrannical and colonizing ways to improve Gem life on the Gem Homeworld and Earth for “Era 3.” Last we left off in The Steven Universe Movie, Steven realizes he still got a lot of Gem work to do, despite the relative peace on Earth since his complicated Gem mother, Rose Quartz, left plenty of centuries-old loose ends he is still cleaning up. And he creates new messes as well.
The first four episodes of Future intensely explores the idyllic and intense aftermath.
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The Witcher is a week away from working his magic on us all, which means its time for one final trailer. Henry Cavill stars in the new Netflix series based on the fantasy book series of the same name, and it’s pretty clear the streaming service is hoping that this becomes their Game of Thrones. This is certainly the biggest trailer yet, emphasizing scale, special effects, and lots of shots of Henry Cavill looking very, very serious. Watch the final The Witcher trailer below.
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(Welcome to Walt Disney Animation Ranked, a three-part series where we’re ranking all 58 feature-length animated films released by the Walt Disney Company. This is part two of three.)
What must it have been like to live in a time when feature-length animated films were perceived as folly? Growing up in the era of the Disney Renaissance means that feature animation was always just part of the family-movie landscape. But the Walt Disney Company, now one of the biggest behemoths in all of the corporate world, was once on death’s door and hoping beyond hope that a hand-drawn animated film would make a profit. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, once dubbed “Disney’s Folly”, became a massive worldwide hit, and so a new storytelling medium was born. With the arrival of Frozen II, Walt Disney Animation Studios has released 58 animated features over 82 years. Consider this the definitive, legally binding (sorry, I don’t make the rules, I just follow them) ranking of all of those 58 films.
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We all know who Lin-Manuel Miranda is: the guy from Mary Poppins Returns! Oh, he also wrote Hamilton, a billion-dollar Broadway sensation that’s become a cultural touchstone. But before there was Hamilton there was In the Heights, Miranda’s other award-winning musical. And now it’s headed to the big screen. Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu helms the film, which is set over the course of three sweltering summer days in Washington Heights in New York City. Watch the In the Heights trailer below.
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Back in February of 2017, when we were all still in the dark about Star Wars: The Last Jedi, actor Josh Gad and some of his famous friends did the best they could to get any answers they could from star Daisy Ridley. Now the Frozen star is at it again with a whole new array of actors and actresses who want to know who Rey’s parents are and so much more. But this time the video where Daisy Ridley answers Star Wars spoiler questions is much more professionally produced and it features only stars from Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars movies. Read More »
Cool Posts From Around the Web:
The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.
In this edition, Daisy Ridley revisits the throne room lightsaber battle from Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Plus, Marriage Story writer and director Noah Baumbach breaks down the opening montages focusing on the two main characters played by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, and Jumanji: The Next Level co-stars Awkwafina and Jack Black sit down to answer the web’s most searched questions about them. Read More »
