Fine-Tuning: The Evolution of Jasmine's Song in Aladdin

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Integration

• 🚀 Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland features a surprising amount of animation integration, including character dialogue and figures like Hondo.
• 💡 The park successfully brings animated elements like the Loth Cat to life, making them an integrated part of the Star Wars universe.

Disney Live-Action and Animation Box Office

• 💰 Disney's live-action Aladdin performed respectably, earning $42 million in its second weekend.
• 📈 Toy Story 4 box office projections are strong, outpacing early sales for Finding Dory and Incredibles 2, though Disney's initial tracking figures are noted as potentially conservative.
• 🎬 The absence of a short film with Toy Story 4 and its shorter runtime (1 hour 40 minutes) are interesting points of discussion.

Pixar's "Onward" and "Sonic" Trailer

• 🦄 The teaser trailer for Pixar's Onward was well-received, particularly its depiction of unicorns as feral raccoons and its magical world.
• ⚠️ A minor quibble with Onward is the character designs for Tom Holland and Chris Pratt, which closely resemble the actors.
• 🐢 A fan-made reanimation of the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer by Arto Barnoff aimed to make Sonic look more like his cartoon counterpart, highlighting the challenges faced by the film's production team.

Mickey's PhilharMagic and Muppet Movie

• ✨ Mickey's PhilharMagic at Disney's California Adventure is being projected digitally, though the screen size is cropped compared to the Florida version.
• 🤔 Concerns are raised about the outdated animation in Mickey's PhilharMagic, especially the out-of-focus Mickey, despite advancements in animation technology since its 2003 debut.
• 🎬 Fathom Events is bringing The Muppet Movie back to theaters, sparking nostalgia and discussion about deleted scenes, such as one involving Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.

Live-Action Snow White and "The Boondocks"

• 🎬 The announcement of Mark Webb directing a live-action Snow White is met with skepticism due to his previous directorial work.
• 💡 Alternative concepts for Snow White, such as Snowwar (a sci-fi version) and a Shaolin monk-inspired story, are discussed as more intriguing possibilities.
• 📺 The potential revival of The Boondocks for Adult Swim, with John Witherspoon recording new dialogue, is a highly anticipated development, despite the show's protracted production history.

Aladdin: The Songwriting Journey

• 🎶 The focus shifts to Jasmine's song "Speechless" from the live-action Aladdin, noting its powerful message and its placement in the film's third act.
• 💡 The song's relevance to the Me Too movement is highlighted, contrasting with earlier concepts for Jasmine's character and songs.
• 📝 Howard Ashman's original 1987 treatment for Aladdin is explored, revealing a vastly different vision for Jasmine as a comic, spoiled character and a different narrative structure.
• 🐦 In the 2002 theme park version of Aladdin, Alan Menken wrote "To Be Free" for Jasmine, inspired by the scene of her releasing birds, but the song's theme of needing a man was deemed problematic.
• 🌟 For the 2014 Broadway production, "Beyond These Palace Walls" was written to give Jasmine more agency, focusing on her desire to explore beyond the palace, but the film's director, Guy Ritchie, was not familiar with the stage show.
• 🎯 The final song, "Speechless," was written to be contemporary and resonate with the Me Too era, representing the fourth attempt to find the perfect song for Jasmine.

Animation Directing and Series Finales

• 🎬 Tom McGrath is set to direct Boss Baby 2, marking his sixth film for DreamWorks, though he has only solo-directed three.
• 🌟 The prolific careers of directors like Willie Rythman and the directing team of Ron Clements and John Musker are examined in the context of animation production.
• 💔 The series finale of The Amazing World of Gumball is noted, with the show being praised as underrated for its animation mix and clever writing.
• 🐻 We Bare Bears is receiving a TV movie and a spin-off focusing on the characters as children.
• 🌟 The series finale of Star vs. the Forces of Evil is described as touching and well-done, despite the show becoming complicated in its later seasons.

The Lion King Marketing and "Speechless"

• 🦁 The teaser trailer for the live-action The Lion King was released, featuring Timon and Pumbaa.
• 🖼️ The 11 posters for The Lion King are criticized for being too realistic, lacking personality, and resembling Disney Nature posters rather than character-driven art.
• 🗣️ The song "Speechless" from the live-action Aladdin is discussed again, with its writers, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, known for their work on Dear Evan Hansen and The Greatest Showman.