The last week has seen a rather unprecedented development for Netflix; while mashing the streamer together with anything involving the fantasy genre tends to spell bad news, it turns out the revival of Warrior Nun was just the beginning of a positive uptick in fantasy-related Netflix news.
Nimona, the animated film axed by Disney and picked up by Netflix, is proving to be one of the Mouse House’s greatest missed opportunities as it hemorrhages viewership numbers left and right, and as if not enough salt had been rubbed into that wound, the streamer looks to be challenging Disney at its own game (namely, the fairy tale) in a markedly original fashion.
Elsewhere, the charts continue to welcome some undeserving usual suspects, and we’ve been reminded of Netflix’s astoundingly lucrative lynchpin for its take on a billion-dollar franchise.
As Nimona soars on Netflix, someone at Disney is probably getting fired for letting it go
Disney desperately needs to get with the times and recognize that it’s okay to have queer films lined up on your slate, especially if that film is Nimona, which, had things been different, just might be doing some heavy lifting for Disney rather than the streaming giant.
But alas, someone thought it was a good idea to throw Nimona to the wolves along with a fair shake of Blue Sky Studios, which Disney acquired as part of their 20th Century Fox acquisition, so instead of basking in the resulting success of a delightfully subversive animated fairy tale that’s cracked more than a few of Netflix’s Top 10 rankings, Disney is instead dog-paddling in the rather mediocre returns of Elemental, Strange World, and Lightyear, among others. Better luck next time, Walt.
Once Upon a Crime hopes to inject some sorely-missed originality into Disney’s bread and butter
When it comes to fairy tales, history is very much on the side of Disney; between The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, and countless other early animated features, the cinematic fairy tale is certainly the Mouse House’s biggest claim to fame. But, history isn’t everything, and with Disney falling back on remaking old classics with lesser and lesser effect these days, Netflix’s upcoming release just might beat Disney at its own game.
Once Upon a Crime, a Japanese film coming exclusively to Netflix, is set to drop this fall. Directed by Yuichi Fukuda, the film will chronicle the intriguing adventures of one Little Red Riding Hood, a hard-boiled detective determined to bring the fairy tale genre’s many criminals, such as Cinderella, Hansel, Gretel, and others, to justice. Do we have any idea what to expect? No, and we couldn’t be happier about that.
Greta Gerwig to mastermind a new Chronicles of Narnia franchise reboot for Netflix
It’s been a while since we’ve seen The Chronicles of Narnia show up on a screen big or small, although given the dip the Disney-helmed franchise began to take after The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, it’s perhaps for the best that it quit while it was only just ahead.
But, continuing with our theme of Netflix’s cheeky antagonization of Disney, the streamer’s incoming C.S. Lewis adaptations have shown the hand of a lifetime in Greta Gerwig, who apparently has a contract with Netflix to pen and helm at least two exclusive Chronicles of Narnia films.
Anyone with a passing interest in cinema knows that Gerwig’s creative chops aren’t to be trifled with; a truth that will only be made more clear once Barbie takes over the film world in just a few weeks. Indeed, this is one partnership that Netflix can file under the “win” tab for certain.
As its eighth installment does numbers, it doesn’t look like the Sniper franchise will be taken out any time soon
Sometimes, all you need to soar on the Netflix Top 10 is to pack your film full to the brim with the deafening drone of relentless full metal jacket action. Sniper: Assassin’s End, the eighth entry in a franchise that has long overstayed its welcome, knows this, and is enjoying its time as Netflix’s number-one film in 19 different countries because of it.
And this train is showing no sign of slowing, either; the ninth entry, Sniper: Rogue Mission just rolled out last summer, and an untitled sequel to that remains in the works at the time of writing. Its streaming success is probably reinforcing some exhausting practices, but hey, as long as audiences get their fill of adrenaline at the end of the day, right?
A heinous slight against John Carpenter proved to be quite the shock trooper for Netflix
If you happen to be a studio executive, then I’m begging you; stop remaking movies. Just stop.
I get it; the temptation with John Carpenter, in particular, is a unique one, with movies like Halloween, Big Trouble in Little China, and even In the Mouth of Madness to his name, but I’m pleading for you to resist any and all temptation so that we don’t run the risk of ending up with another The Fog.
The 2005 remake of Carpenter’s 1980 classic was dead on arrival, to put it lightly, but perhaps that’s the exact reason it’s managed to fly as high as it has on Netflix’s rankings. Indeed, when it comes to the bottom line, perhaps it doesn’t matter how malicious the viewing intentions might be, though we struggle to imagine any context where viewing The Fog is a positive experience.