Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Held at Caesar’s Palace, CinemaCon is the official convention of The National Association of Theatre Owners. The movie studios conduct presentations to get their exhibition partners excited about the products they will soon have to offer them.
Walt Disney Pictures had their second best year at the box office in 2017 and hope to better that mark with their roster of films, which also mines familiar territory. Audiences will get to see Christopher Robin grown up with the characters from his childhood coming back into his life after being gone for a while. Mary Poppins Returns in new story that looks great from the trailer, and I for one am happy to see Dick Van Dyke in it. Nutcracker and the Four Realms sees the classic story expanded as a young woman goes into different worlds.
In 2019, Disney is going to continue their live-action remakes with Aladdin starring Will Smith as Genie and new songs from Alan Menken and Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (of La La Land). Director Guy Ritchie amps up the action quotient from the footage. Dumbo is a new story with the flying elephant joining a failing family circus.
Disney Animation has Ralph Breaks the Internet coming up. We saw a work-in-progress sequence that was very funny scene with some great in-jokes as Penelope meets the Disney princesses. Pixar showed the Incredibles 2 opening sequence as they battle the Underminer. The villain’s digger gets loose and the family takes turns handling Baby Jak Jak.
Including Black Panther, we were informed that Marvel Studios has made $14.8 billion, an impressive figure. Disney certainly look like geniuses in that deal. From Avengers: Infinity War, a scene between the Guardians of the Galaxy meeting Thor showed great chemistry and humor between the character. It absolutely made me want more. From Antman & the Wasp offered a nice surprise that Laurence Fishburne is playing Bill Foster, and I hope we get to see him as Black Goliath in the old-school costume. Captain Marvel is set in ’90s and scheduled for March 2019
Lucasfilm presented a scene of card game between Han and Lando from Solo. Star Wars: Episode IX got an obligatory mention. Other upcoming projects that got mentioned are Artemis Fowl and Frozen 2. The presentation closed with early development work called a proof of concept from the CGI Lion King where Simba is presented to gathered animals.
