Falcon and Winter Soldier/Mighty Ducks: Game Changers Review

The first two episodes for Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winder Soldier (2021) are now officially streaming on Disney+. The miniseries will consist of six episodes. The pilot episode of “The Mighty Ducks,” reboot series, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (2021) officially became available to stream on Disney+ this past Friday, March 26th and it has ten episodes. Both shows are waiting to release episodes week by week.

From what the pilot episode acknowledged, both the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, (aka Sam and Bucky) are struggling without their friend Captain America (aka Steve Rogers), since he went back in time to be with his love, Peggy Carter, at the end of Avengers: Endgame (2019). Steve gave Sam his trademark shield, which Sam decided to give up to the U.S. Government to be displayed at the Smithsonian; while Bucky is still attending therapy, recovering from his days as a brainwashed assassin (aka the Winter Soldier). There’s still a great deal of unpredictability yet to come in both of their lives, with the new threat of the “Flag Smashers.” They have yet to figure out how to work as partners as they are without the rest of the Avengers and they aren’t super close.

It is great to see Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, and Don Cheadle all back in their roles from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They are all equally talented actors and they bring each of their characters to life brilliantly, as do Wyatt Russell, and in the following weeks, Daniel Bruhl and Emily VanCamp. Director Kari Skogland continues the epic look and feel that Anthony and Joe Russo created in each of the MCU movies they directed (i.e. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019)). The show features well-choreographed fight scenes and visual effects reminiscent of the movies, so there’s no reason why fans of the movies wouldn’t be fans of the series. 

“The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers,” is about how Evan (played by Brady Noon) is cut from The Mighty Ducks Junior Hockey Team. His paralegal mother, Alex, (played by Lauren Graham), encourages him to form his own new hockey team, which she will coach, along with the help of the Ducks former coach Gordon Bombay (once again portrayed by Emilio Estevez). This is interesting because the new show appears to be more about Alex and her relationship with Evan, and how she will balance her career along with coaching her son’s new ice hockey team. It will also be interesting to see what happens with Estevez’s character. In the original film he was a self-absorbed lawyer but learned to humble himself when he became coach of the original Ducks. Now, he’s more of the curmudgeon, reluctant advisor to the new “mom coach.” 

Emilio Estevez as Gordon Bombay is an interesting pairing along with Lauren Graham-who plays yet another eccentric, but caring mother (much like Lorelai Gilmore on Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) and Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2016) and Sarah Braverman on Parenthood (2010-2015)). Why Gordon has lost his passion for hockey remains a mystery, but who knows? Maybe Alex will play a role in rekindling his passion along with finding her own self-confidence. She might or might not also become his new love interest. The show has ten episodes in store, but there is the possibility it could be picked up for a Season Two. That presents curiousity whether or not the Season One cliffhanger could be return of another one of the original film’s cast members.    

I don’t know about you, but I personally am very impressed by these two shows. It’s disappointing that both show’s episodes will only be available to stream only one week at a time, whereas the full season would be available on Netflix, but they both have good potential. Let’s hope the future episodes live up to that.    

   

Lucille Ball: More than Lucy Ricardo

In honor of the fact that March is Women’s History Month, I thought in today’s blog we would acknowledge the history-making, groundbreaking career of a woman who made audiences laugh at a time when that ability was typically reserved for men. She was in entertainment for 61 years, and while she was known for portraying, on television, the role of a scheming redheaded wife of a conga drum player, in real life she was a not only a devoted wife and mother—and close friend to many other Hollywood talent—she was a force of nature in a very difficult business. She is none other than Lucille Ball!

Lucille Ball first knew that she wanted to be in show business as a twelve-year-old, when she performed in the chorus line of a stage show produced by the Shriner’s organization that her stepfather worked for. While she fell in love with being applauded, as a 17-year-old, she was deemed “too shy” by the professors of the John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts and had no chance of succeeding whatsoever in the entertainment industry while her fellow classmate, Bette Davis, received utter praise. Despite this, Ball refused to give up on her dream, and she headed for Hollywood, auditioning for and booking an uncredited appearance in the 1933 film Roman Scandals.

The Great Depression was still going on in Hollywood when she arrived, so work wasn’t exactly easy to find. Although she booked small roles in the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers films like Top Hat (1935) and Chatterbox (1936) the money she was paid wasn’t enough to make ends meet. Not only was she suffering from the impact of the depression, but Studio Head Samuel Goldwyn was quoted as having said: “Funny women don’t sell tickets. Beautiful women do.” The complicated thing about Lucille Ball was that she was beautiful, but also had an exceptional talent for physical comedy. Studio heads didn’t understand or even appreciate it, but movie audiences did, and she later earned the nickname “Queen of the B pictures.”

Lucy was cast alongside Richard Carlson and Ann Miller in a film called Too Many Girls (1940). The film also featured a young Cuban bandleader/conga-drum player named Desiderio”Desi” Arnaz who was making his debut as an actor. They fell deeply in love with each other and eloped after a 6-month courtship. Eight years later, Ball was cast in My Favorite Husband, a radio comedy series for CBS Radio in which she would portray a rather eccentric wife named Liz Cooper, opposite Richard Denning as her husband. The show was a hit, and CBS later talked to her about re-adapting the series for television. (TV was just being created at the time and was outdoing the popularity of radio.) Ball agreed, but she requested the network cast her real-life husband in the role of her television husband, as their performing schedules hadn’t allowed them to see a great deal of each other. The network was reluctant, knowing she was great deal more popular then him, but they ultimately relented, and together Ball and Arnaz formed Desilu Productions, which would produced the television show that was ultimately renamed I Love Lucy (1951-1957) for six hilarious seasons.

There were a great deal of laughs on the show, but there were touching—and groundbreaking—memories as well. When Lucille Ball became pregnant with their second child, their son Desi Arnaz Jr., she feared the show would have to be cancelled (their daughter, Lucie Arnaz, had been born six weeks before the show went on air.) “I Love Lucy,” producer Jess Oppenheimer suggested writing the pregnancy into the show. CBS execs were very opposed to this idea, but they gave in and the “Lucy Goes to the Hospital,” episode was a huge hit when it aired on January 19th, 1953, which was the same day Desi Arnaz Jr. was born. and this made her the first leading lady of television—in reality and story—to have a baby on television. 

While producing the show, Ball was also a ground-breaker. The show made use of the 3-camera technique or the “Multiple-camera setup,” a process that had been invented for film and was first used on the Russian feature Defense of Sevastopol in 1911. Desilu however, made it more unique using 35 millimeter formant rather than 16 millimeter format. 

After “I Love Lucy,” Ball and Arnaz were paired together again in The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-1960), a continuation “I Love Lucy,” which consisted of 13 episodes that ran for an hour rather than 30 minutes. Their marriage sadly ended in divorce in May 1961. After they divorced, Lucy bought out Arnaz’s share of Desilu productions to run the company herself. It was a small, but impactful decision.

As the very first female head of a television studio, Lucy gave the “green-light” to Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969) and the original Mission: Impossible (1966-1973) but she also continued to perform, starring in The Lucy Show (1962-1968) and Here’s Lucy (1968-1974), both of which were co-produced by her second husband Gary Morton. It was around this time that she became a frequent collaborator/mentor to friend Carol Burnett, guest starring numerous times on The Carol Burnett Show (1967-1978).

In addition, Lucy had the idea of “re-running” episodes of television shows. While other studio exec’s were saying “you can’t expect TV stations to run episodes a second time,” Lucy said “not only are they going to do it, I’m going to make them pay me for a privilege!” Thus, the idea of syndication was born, making many television actors/producers/directors very wealthy in the process.  

Lucille Ball was the very first female television studio head, the very first woman to become a mother on television, and the very first to be “in charge” of the laughs the audience gave. She passed away on April 26th, 1989 at the age of 77. She was an incredibly performer and left legacy in entertainment that wouldn’t be forgotten in a million years.      

   

Raya and the Last Dragon Review

Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon was released on March 5th, 2021 to select theaters and for premier access to Disney+ subscribers. The film is the 59th feature in the Walt Disney Animation Studios cannon. I had the privilege of seeing the movie in theaters this weekend and in today’s blog, I thought I would do a review of the film.

“Raya and the Last Dragon,” is the story of a young warrior named Raya who lives in the “Heart” Tribe of the fictional land of Kumandra. Kumandra has been divided into different tribes because each of its people groups fought to have control over a magical orb that would fend off evil magical creatures called Druuns who turn the people into stone. The tribes all have the names of dragon body parts, named for dragons who also fought to protect the people from the Druuns. The dragons wound up getting turned into stone themselves—all except for one: Sisu. Raya makes it her mission to find Sisu, who helps her figure out how use the orb correctly and destroy the Druuns.

During their adventures Raya has trouble knowing who she can trust, given all the tribes are at war. Sisu helps Raya learn that she can make friends of enemies, and help the other tribes trust each other. Even experiencing bullying and the loss of family and friends can be overcome by trusting those around you.

“Raya and the Last Dragon,” has extremely striking visuals. Even though the land of Kumandra is not real, as you watch this epic adventure story, it feels real. Kumandra was inspired by many of the countries in Southeast Asia (i.e. Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar,  Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines). By the time the movie is over, it feels like you’ve had a beautiful tour of each of these lands in just a little under two hours.

This movie featured a tip-top voice cast. Kelly Marie Tran, who portrayed Rose Tico in Disney’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) provided the voice of Raya, and Golden-Globe-Winner Awkwafina voiced Sisu the Dragon. The film also features the voices of Daniel Day Kim, Lucille Soong, Alan Tudyk, and two-time Golden-Globe-Winner Sandra Oh. 

The film includes a score composed by James Newton Howard, who is also known at Disney for composing the scores to Dinosaur (2000), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), and Treasure Planet (2002). Qui Nguyen made his feature film debut co-writing the film’s screenplay with Adele Lim. Lim also wrote the screenplay for Crazy Rich Asians (2018), which coincidentally starred Awkwafina. The movie was directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada and Don Hall. Estrada made his Disney debut directing the film while Hall previously directed Disney’s Winnie the Pooh (2011) and Big Hero 6 (2014).

There is also a wonderful short film that played in front of the movie called Us Again (2021), which is about an elderly couple who reminisce about being young while dancing together in the rain. The short film is an inspiration to all because it acknowledges that even when you’re old, you can always dance, especially when you have true love.

“Raya and the Last Dragon,” is a wonderful film because in addition to having beautiful visuals, a good cast and music, it acknowledges how valuable a gift trust is. Trust is a very important thing to have in your relationships with friends and family. The message of “Raya and the Last Dragon,” is that, while disappointment and loss brings pain and difficulty, one can make that journey through new relationships and the mutual trust that develops.