{"id":2673,"date":"2017-03-27T06:04:14","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T13:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=2673"},"modified":"2017-03-27T06:04:14","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T13:04:14","slug":"more-disney-remakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2017\/03\/27\/more-disney-remakes\/","title":{"rendered":"More Disney Remakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

You all know about Russia’s plan to ban Disney<\/em>‘s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast<\/em><\/strong> because it shows LeFou (played by Josh Gad<\/strong>) dancing with another male character.\u00a0 Well, Russia backed down.\u00a0 Instead, the film was slapped with an “adults-only” rating – like it was Last Tango in Paris<\/em><\/strong>!\u00a0 I never thought I’d see the day when an NC-17 rating was given to any Disney <\/em>film – other than Song of the South<\/em><\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Hong Kong and Singapore had similar concerns.\u00a0 But it was the Malaysian censors who demanded the scene be cut because in Malaysia, it’s illegal to engage in any homosexual activity – including dancing, apparently.\u00a0 “The film has not been and will not be cut for Malaysia,” said Disney<\/em>.\u00a0 The Mouse prevailed and the film will debut on March 30th – with a PG-13 rating.\u00a0 Since the announcement, various non-government organizations have filed complaints with the Malaysian government.\u00a0 The first came from Abdul Rani Kulup Abdullah<\/strong>, the president of the Pertubuhan Martabat Jalinan Muhibbah<\/em>.\u00a0 I’m not exactly sure what he said – I’m not exactly sure I typed his (or the group’s) name right!\u00a0 But, as I always say, you’re not a success until someone is protesting you.<\/p>\n

Remember the days when the release of a new Disney <\/em>feature was a big deal?\u00a0 There was such excitement when The Little Mermaid<\/em><\/strong> came out in 1989, ushering in a new era of animation.\u00a0 Then we had to wait two years until Beauty and the Beast<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Sure, we had those lesser films like Oliver & Company<\/em><\/strong> and The Rescuers<\/em><\/strong> – far be it from me to disparage the work of Eva Gabor<\/strong>.\u00a0 But anticipation was key.\u00a0 So why is the company hell-bent on flooding the market with live-action versions of every successful animated feature?\u00a0 OK, I enjoyed seeing Angelina <\/strong>as Maleficent, but did we need The Jungle Book<\/em><\/strong>?\u00a0 Or Alice<\/em><\/strong> in Wonderland<\/em><\/strong>?\u00a0 Now there’s this Beauty and the Beast<\/em> which neither I nor Angela Lansbury <\/strong>thinks was necessary.\u00a0 And there’s more in the works.\u00a0 Call me crazy, but I don’t want to see anyone shooting a live deer for Bambi<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 If I want to watch little people dancing and singing, I’ll turn on TLC <\/em>instead of a new Snow White<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 There’s a song-free Mulan<\/em><\/strong> in the works, and a casting call for “Middle Eastern types” went out for a new Aladdin<\/em><\/strong> (to be directed by Guy Ritchie<\/strong>).\u00a0 There’s a new Lion King<\/em><\/strong> which will, inexplicably, star James Earl Jones <\/strong>again as Mufasa.\u00a0 Frankly, I think Disney <\/em>crossed a line with the upcoming live-action Dumbo<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Sure, Colin Farrell <\/strong>isn’t the picture of physical fitness – but he’s no elephant!<\/p>\n

Lindsay Lohan <\/strong>is angling to star as the live-action Little Mermaid<\/em>, and composer Alan Menken <\/strong>has his eye on an ideal villainess.\u00a0 “I’ve wanted Harvey Fierstein <\/strong>to play Ursula.\u00a0 I would kill for that!”\u00a0 He’s not alone.\u00a0 Fans have deluged Harvey with artist’s renderings of Fierstein in fish regalia.\u00a0 “Oh, Menken, what have you started?\u00a0 Ha!!!!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You all know about Russia’s plan to ban Disney‘s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast because it shows LeFou (played by Josh Gad) dancing with another male character.\u00a0 Well, Russia backed down.\u00a0 Instead, the film was slapped with an “adults-only” rating – like it was Last Tango in Paris!\u00a0 I never thought I’d see<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2674,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions\/2674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}