Warmly received by kids and critics alike, Moana proved the perfect antidote to Frozen fever back in 2016. The long, icy shadow was strong but Musker and Clements’ sun kissed, Oceanic adventure provided both a brief thaw and the opportunity for parents to finally…let it go. You’re welcome. Decent box office returns didn’t immediately set the sequel train rolling, though. For all Disney’s market leading prowess in IP monetisation, follow ups have rarely been the animation studio’s modus operandi. Just three in a hundred years. It was the race for streaming content that commissioned Moana 2, though initially as a long-form limited series. Ostensibly, quality alone inspired the cinematic upgrade, although one suspects a financially disappointing 2023 played a hand. This one, at least, is going to be huge.
To decry Red One for its commercialist cynicism feels somewhat disingenuous. Were you expecting different? It’s Dwayne Johnson…at Christmas…with a sci-fi blaster. Captain America’s his side kick. If anything, given the cynicism fuelling most Christmas films these days, Red One’s chronic disinterest in hiding the fact almost feels honourable. Almost. The critique can but fall on deaf ears on the grounds that Red One is exactly the film it set out to be. It’s Hobbs and Shaw with silver bells on. Highly competent soullessness. Which is to say, an expensively executed evisceration of every ounce of heart that is supposed to beat within the Christmas message. The commercialised one, that is.
There’s little in Wicked, Jon M. Chu’s unjustifiably long adaptation of the eponymous musical’s first act, likely to convert the unconverted. It’s a fitfully spellbinding affair but not quite transformationally bewitching. Those who love Wicked, will embrace the film in kind. It boasts excellent performances, extravagant set pieces and frankly extraordinary attention to detail. Those who do not, take heed: in spite of a runtime almost as long as the entire Broadway show, intermission included, Chu’s Wicked only manages to reach the show’s infamous half-time banger, “Defying Gravity”, by the roll of its credits. Part Two is twelve months from release. It’s a Jacksonian split either agonising or frustrating, dependent on personal inclination. Both, really.
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