Teaser Trailer: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

The first teaser trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales dropped last night to a mixed variety of opinions. It’s easy to see why there have been some difficulties drumming up enthusiasm for this latest (final?) entry in the series. By the time it is released in May, it will have been almost fourteen years since The Curse of the Black Pearl took audiences by storm and earned Johnny Depp an Oscar nomination, and six years since Jack Sparrow’s last outing in On Stranger Tides. Dead Men Tell No Tales has had a troubled production, between rewrites, a ballooning budget (after the box office failure of The Lone Ranger, no less), and a plethora of issues involving Depp including illegally importing his dogs into Australia during filming, an off-set injury which required surgery and a delay in filming, and now his public split from wife Amber Heard along with allegations of domestic abuse. It’s easy to see how people might be a little tired of Pirates of the Caribbean, despite the seeming popularity of the series and its characters. It is possible to love something while simultaneously not wanting it to continue, and that’s an opinion I’ve seen repeatedly online the past few years.

But before I go any farther, take a look at the new teaser and then read on for my thoughts below:

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Quote of the Day

Wesley: Xander has just illustrated something. Chances are, you’re all going to be thinking whatever you least want Buffy to hear. It’s a question, of course, of mental discipline.

Giles: He’s right. There are…

Wesley’s Thoughts: Look at Cordelia. No! Don’t look at Cordelia! She’s a student! Oh I am a bad man. I’m a bad, bad man! 

(Buffy stares knowingly at him.)

Wesley: Excuse me. (flees)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Season 3: Episode 18 — “Earshot”

Tonight’s Movie: Wreck-It Ralph

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Today’s Movie: The Magnificent Seven

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Quote of the Day

Lorelai: What’s going on?

Richard: Oh, your mother and I have just secured a place on Martha’s Vineyard.

Rory: Really, that’s great!

Lorelai: I thought you lost your old place.

Emily: We did. But this afternoon we found out that Arthur Roundtree had died.

Richard: He’d been drinking.

Emily: So we got on the phone and snatched that place up.

Richard: Oh, it’s a fine piece of property.

Emily: Much better than our usual place.

Lorelai: The both of you are going directly to hell, I hope you know that.

Richard: Well, at least we’ll be well rested.

Lorelai: Touché.

Gilmore Girls – Season 1: Episode 14 – “That Damn Donna Reed”

Tonight’s Movie: The Lion King

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Quote of the Day

Saffron: Do you know the myth of Earth-that-was?

Wash: Not so much.

Saffron: That when she was born, she had no sky, and was open, inviting. And the stars would rush into her, through the skin of her, making the oceans boil with sensation. And when she could endure no more ecstasy, she puffed up her cheeks and blew out the sky.

Wash: Whoa. Good myth.

Firefly — Episode 6 — “Our Mrs. Reynolds”

Jon Favreau is remaking The Lion King

I’m back! That’s right, after taking an unintentional hiatus for the last couple of months, I’ve returned! Hello? Anybody there? I’m sorry for the absence. It had become increasingly difficult for me to find the time and the energy to work on the blog, but hopefully I’m back for good. I’ve got some plans to make it easier for me to just sit down and write, even if it might change the tone/style of things here a little bit. I’ve been meaning to get back to writing for a while now, and thankfully today we got some big Disney news that inspired me to return to the keyboard. But rest assured (or be afraid) that I’m not done with thelovepirate.net, nor have I run out of things to say. I hope to tackle my backlog of missed reviews, as well as get into a habit of updating more frequently by perhaps posting shorter articles. I might even make some videos, who knows? But for now let’s tackle the news at hand.

So, to no one’s surprise, Disney has announced another remake of an animated classic. This time, Jon Favreau is following up his The Jungle Book success by “reimagining” The Lion King. Now, unlike many other hardcore Disney fans, I’ve largely been a supporter of their recent trend of live-action remakes of their animated catalogue. I’ve enjoyed all of them (Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, and Pete’s Dragon), though some more than others, and as a whole I see both the artistic and commercial appeal of this sort of filmmaking. I think many Disney animated films are ripe for remakes, either because the original is dated or because a filmmaker has a new or creative interpretation of the original. I may strongly disagree that animation is “just for kids” or that it is somehow a lesser form of storytelling, but there’s no denying that these remakes have reached a new and vastly different audience. And, in the end, Disney has a right to do whatever they want with their films. These new movies aren’t destroying the classics (or our childhoods), and they may in the end inspire new fans to watch the old masterpieces. I do understand the frustration and even the hatred some fans may have towards particular remakes, and the feeling that this is a frustrating trend, but I do think some of the backlash has been a little overblown.

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Tonight’s Musical: Cabaret

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Tonight’s Movie: The Iron Giant

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