Disney, the studio who loves to lecture us about greed, is at the center of the destruction of original Hollywood cinema as an art form.

First, they bought Marvel and turned Feige’s already well-oiled machine into a sausage factory which will soon be embracing diversity, instead of quality, as a marketing strategy.

Then they bought Star Wars and turned Lucas’ personal ATM into a disrespectful, social-soapbox franchise that deeply divided the fanbase.

Finally, they decided to remake all of their classic animated catalog into live-action movies starting with 2016 The Jungle Book and 2018’s Beauty and The Beast. This year we will see Dumbo, The Lion King and Aladdin reach the big screen with actors and a ton of CGI animals.

These franchises represent billions of dollars in production costs that will never be spent on original concepts or new adaptations. It’s not just Disney, every studio is pursuing — with mixed results — franchises and shared universes that they can use to create, nurture and monetize a fanbase around.

And it’s not just studios, look at what James Cameron is going with his five Avatar movies.

Where Is The Innovation? Where Is The Courage? 

I know, i know, clones: “Go watch an Academy Award movie, hater! Go watch Moonlight!”

I don’t want or need that political and identity filmmaking in my life. I want medium to big-budget mainstream Hollywood movies that are original.

Go back 20+ years ago and look at the movies that were released.

Pick any year! 1997, let’s say.

Where is a Starship Troopers today?

Where is a The Game? Boogie Nights? Fifth Element? LA Confidential?

I will take a fucking Face/Off at this point!

Just Shut Up And Buy The Wafflemaker, Pleb

That brings us to these lame photoshop mock-up character posters. 

Why are the actors’ names on here and not the character names? Or the archetype names? You know: The Ringmaster, The Trapeze Artist, The Industrialist, etc?

Why are all the characters except Farrell’s looking at the viewer? Isn’t this supposed to be about the wonder of a flying elephant? 

Because they don’t give a damn.

I don’t know. I saw the Jungle Book on a date, it was OK, mainly because I had never seen the original. I would have never gone alone. I did not see Beauty and The Beast

I most likely will not see Dumbo. Not based on the trailer:

It seems like a good opportunity for low-T male feminists — creeps, abusers, rapists — to trick women into believing they have real human emotions by talking about how much they cried during Dumbo.

Maybe Tim Burton can pull off something magical. But it will still just be another remake. 

Dumbo flaps around pointless in theaters March 29, 2019.