by tyler | Apr 28, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
When committing to a live-action “re-imagining” of a beloved animated classic, Disney might have dove just a bit too far in the deep end when it came to “The Little Mermaid.”
While the regal real-life lions seen in 2019’s live-action “Lion King” were easy to take, the underwater cartoon creatures from 1989’s “The Little Mermaid” – most notably Ariel’s sidekick friends Flounder and Sebastian – look strange at best as irl animals in this spring’s re-do.
The pair were briefly seen on screen at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, after Melissa McCarthy – who plays the villainous sea witch Ursula in the new movie – came onstage to present the never-before-seen “Poor Unfortunate Souls” musical sequence.
Flounder, who in the original animated film is a vivid yellow and blue fish with expressive eyes, was most probably modeled after an “angelfish or some other similar vibrantly colored reef fish,” according to oceanconservancy.org.
In Wednesday’s clip, the character was seen briefly at the top of the sequence alongside Sebastian the crab, and the immediate reaction to them speaking to warn Ariel (Halle Bailey) about Ursula’s craftiness – Flounder is voiced in the new movie by Jacob Tremblay, while Sebastian is brought to life by Daveed Diggs – was a strange disconnect between their expressive voices and small, hard-to-pinpoint eyes.
That feeling was only compounded by the movie’s character poster reveals, released on Disney’s Instagram account also on Wednesday.
In the time since, social media reception has been in kind, with one Twitter user suggesting Flounder had been put “on Ozempic.” The account for the Southlake, Texas Department of Public Safety called the visual “a crime,” and specified, “we’re just trying to find out which one.”
Certainly, there is an implicit leap that Disney is asking viewers to make when watching a live-action version of a beloved animated classic, but the end result when it comes to these aquatic animals and crustaceans may be, for some, too realistic to take in.
“The Little Mermaid” swims into theaters on May 26.
by tyler | Apr 27, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
The Kardashians have never shied away from addressing the good, the bad and the ugly parts of their (very public) life, and the new Season 3 trailer for their Hulu reality show “The Kardashians” demonstrates exactly that – with hints at what’s to come.
“Things change really quickly,” Kim Kardashian says in the opening of the trailer after a producer is heard alluding to her split from SNL alum Pete Davidson.
Kim is also seen in sobs toward the beginning of the trailer, which was released on Thursday, as she tells her sister Khloe Kardashian, “I’m having such a hard day today.” The Skims founder is then seen reflecting on the moment when her and her now ex-husband Kanye “Ye” West’s divorce was finalized in November 2022.
Younger sister Kendall Jenner then questions how Kim handles “everything with her ex-husband,” which is a question that viewers are eager to have answered this coming season.
Kim tells her mom Kris Jenner that West “has made up the most insane narrative,” and tearfully adds that “we stay silent through all the lies for the kids.”
It’s unclear exactly which West narrative Kim is referencing – whether it’s the antisemitic remarks the rapper made in 2022, or when he called out Kim’s parenting style when it came to differences of opinion on their daughter North West’s access to social media.
It does, however, seem fair to assume based on the trailer that Kim will indeed address what she’s endured with respect to West in some capacity.
The trailer also teases footage of Khloe dealing with a skin cancer scare and where she stands with former partner Tristan Thompson, with whom she shares two children. There also appears to be hints of an internal rift between eldest sister Kourtney Kardashian and Kim surrounding Kourtney’s wedding to Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker, when the Poosh founder says, “My sister used my wedding as a business opportunity.”
The trailer concludes with Kylie Jenner telling her sisters she feels they all “need to have a bigger conversation about the beauty standards that we’re setting,” a fair question for a family full of cosmetic industry titans.
“The Kardashians” Season 3 will be available to stream on Hulu on May 25.
by tyler | Apr 26, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
After a three-year break, Charlie Brooker’s satirical horror-laden anthology series “Black Mirror” are officially returning to haunt you on Netflix this June.
On Wednesday, the streamer released the first chill-bump inducing teaser trailer that shows a range of stories beginning to unfold, with a cast that includes Salma Hayek, Aaron Paul, Annie Murphy, Josh Hartnett, Kate Mara, Michael Cera and Rory Culkin, among others.
The announcement teases Season 6 “is the most unpredictable, unclassifiable and unexpected yet” for the series.
Speaking with Netflix’s Tudum, Brooker elaborated on the season’s concept, saying that even though he always felt “Black Mirror” should feature stories “entirely distinct from one another” and that it should be a series “that can’t easily be defined,” he chose to make some creative decisions for the upcoming episodes that are different than what we’ve seen.
“Partly as a challenge, and partly to keep things fresh for both me and the viewer, I began this season by deliberately upending some of my own core assumptions about what to expect,” Brooker said. “The stories are all still tonally ‘Black Mirror’ through-and-through — but with some crazy swings and more variety than ever before.”
The series has won six Emmy awards and first premiered on Channel 4 in the UK in 2011.
“Black Mirror” returns this June on Netflix.
by tyler | Apr 26, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
Comedian John Mulaney reflects on what led him to rehab in his new stand-up special for Netflix, “Baby J.” His stories about healing reminded me of a time Mulaney’s comedy helped me feel better.
The comic was for years heavily addicted to cocaine and prescription medication before seeking treatment in 2020. He even hints in his new set that his old style of comedy, with theatrical leaps and bounds across the stage, may have been due to being high at the time.
“If you’ve seen me do stand-up before, I have kind of a different vibe now,” Mulaney says near the top of “Baby J.”
He then launches into an hour-long tale of his recovery that began with a “star-studded” intervention, in a room filled with a dozen of his friends (six over Zoom, he laughs), including Seth Meyers, Fred Armison, Bill Hader and Natasha Lyonne.
“I was the best looking person at my intervention,” he tells the crowd, because he was “cocaine skinny” with a fresh haircut, one that caused him to be two hours late to his intervention.
Mulaney completed a two-month stay and rehab and says in the set that he’s now doing great. He is a relationship with actress Olivia Munn, and, together, they share a son, Malcolm.
Mulaney’s “Baby J” jokes are multilayered; when he tells a story about doing cocaine off of a Koala baby changing station in a gas station bathroom, he later does a callback when he finds himself at a museum needing to change his son’s diaper.
“Hello, old friend,” he says with a salute to the Koala.
Mulaney was testing out his new material when I saw him perform in New York in June 2021. It was my first night out since the pandemic started more than a year earlier. Working from home with my husband and young daughter, I desperately needed the laughs. Mulaney delivered a raw and vulnerable set at City Winery titled, “From Scratch.”
The stories he told were so shocking, I thought about them for days afterward. One bit about hawking a Rolex for drug money made it into “Baby J.”
I saw his show again that August, where Mulaney sang a tune about how his reputation had “changed” and he was no longer so likable, like “Bo Burnham.” He was more polished and sold out a small theater – a feat, Mulaney says, because there was a time he wasn’t sure he’d survive, let alone do standup again.
This broke my heart, because Mulaney’s comedy had once rescued me from my own darkness.
In April 2018, I was sitting in a hospital bed, having just given birth to my daughter. I was recovering from a difficult cesarean, my baby was in the NICU, and I felt confused and scared. As a distraction, I turned on Mulaney’s Netflix special, “Kid Gorgeous.” I laughed so hard, I popped two staples in my lower abdomen.
When my doctor later came to fix my wound, she asked what had possibly caused the issue.
“John Mulaney,” I responded. She nodded.
I later met Mulaney at an event the next year and recalled to him how I needed stitches after he made me laugh so hard.
“Oh wow,” he replied. “That is simultaneously the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard and the greatest compliment I’ve ever received.”
“John Mulaney: Baby J” is streaming now on Netflix.
by tyler | Apr 26, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
John Stamos and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are like family now, but that wasn’t always the case.
During a recent episode of the “Good Guys” podcast, Stamos talked to Josh Peck and Ben Soffer about his early efforts to get the twin sisters recast on “Full House.”
The Olsens shared the role of Michelle Tanner, the youngest member of the “Full House” family, and Stamos starred as Uncle Jesse Katsopolis.
He said that while filming the show’s pilot, he and costar Dave Coulier, who played Joey Gladstone, were doing a scene with one of the twins in which they were changing her diaper.
“We’re carrying the baby downstairs and I think I was holding her on the armpits and Dave was holding her little feet,” Stamos recalled. “We take her in the kitchen and we hose her down and we put a fan on her we wrapped her up in paper towels. She was screaming. Both of them. They wanted to be anywhere else but there and so did I.”
Stamos suggested that the then 11-month-old twins be replaced.
“I couldn’t deal with it,” he said. I said, ‘This is not gonna work.’ And so they got rid of them.”
Fortunately for the Olsens, Stamos said the replacement young actors weren’t up to par and the twins were brought back on the show that launched their careers.
by tyler | Apr 26, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
Nicolas Cage says he took some “crummy” movie roles to get out of debt after some poor business decisions.
In an interview with “60 Minutes,” the Oscar-winning actor said he “overinvested in real estate.”
“The real estate market crashed and I couldn’t get out in time,” he said. “I paid them all back, but it was about $6 million. I never filed for bankruptcy.”
Yet he credits the work saving him during a “dark” period in his life.
“Work was always my guardian angel,” Cage said. “It may not have been blue chip, but it was still work.”
It’s not the first time the “Moonstruck” actor has talked about taking roles for the payday.
“You have good investments and bad investments,” Cage told the New York Times in 2019.
“I can’t go into specifics or percentages or ratios, but yeah, money is a factor,” he said in response to a question about money driving his work choices. “I’m going to be completely direct about that. There’s no reason not to be.”
