Is Toy Story 4’s Teaser Symbolizing Death?

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Hey everyone, Jack Drees here! Not too long ago, we’ve gotten a recent teaser trailer for Pixar’s “Toy Story 4.” Leading up to where are at this point, I was a bit skeptical of even having “Toy Story 4” be a thing in the first place. As a matter of fact, for those of you haven’t seen “Toy Story 3,” without giving spoilers away, let’s just say the ending of that movie is like having the world’s greatest pizza, but it can only be made once. If it is ever to be made again, then it is perhaps inevitable that society will be cursed for eternity. It leaves me, as an audience member, with a sense of satisfaction and no particular need to see what’s next. But somehow, we’re getting a new chapter. I was confused on why this would be. I DID NOT think this would live up to any of the previous “Toy Story” installments, but the more I hear about it, the more I think it could live up to, or POSSIBLY surpass all three of them. It’s normal for a movie’s crew member to promote whatever he or she happens to be working on. If they say something negative about their movie, chances are there will be consequences for the crew member in terms of where they stand job-wise, or maybe the audience won’t rush out to see it. But based on some recent comments from actors Tim Allen (Last Man Standing, Home Improvement) and Tom Hanks (The Green Mile, Cast Away), I had a feeling that I should take whatever hate I had for this movie out the window, and open my eyes for whatever shall be laid upon me. Both actors have called the movie emotional and there is a scene in particular that is hard to get through. I almost want to watch “Toy Story 3” and see the difference between that and this movie when it comes out!

Nevertheless, I saw this recent teaser, and I feel like there is something I’m seeing here that needs to pointed out. All these toys might f*ckin’ die.

I know, this is a kids movie, but my mind is literally going into such a direction. Maybe I’m a little twisted and weird, but hear me out.

If you watch this teaser, maybe you’ll agree with me in saying that it’s almost something made for the druggie market. I can seriously imagine myself being convinced that I just smoked some weed before seeing all of the toys moving across the screen the way they do. I also want to talk about the way they are moving, and that is them going to their right as they are holding onto each other’s hands. Just so you know, we see each toy more than once, so unless there is some sort of advanced technology that can keep the toys infinitely moving in a straight line, this seems purely impractical.

Although, maybe they are not in a straight line, and without us noticing, they are moving in a circle. And at the serious risk of sounding like a so-called “conspiracy theorist,” it is quite possible, they are partaking in the children’s nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie.” For those who have once dived deep into the lore of “Ring Around the Rosie,” there is no one true origin behind it, but there are theories of its overall relation to plague and death. According to an article up on Snopes, scholars saw similarities from the lyrics to the nursery rhyme and the Black Death, which killed millions of Europeans during medieval times. These scholars thought “ring around the rosie” was a way of pointing out red marks that can be found in plague. Just to point out, I’m American, so we’re doing the American version of Ring Around the Rosie. When you have a song with four lines and the second to last line includes the words “Ashes! Ashes!,” how do you not compare that to an illness or dying? And, much like in a traditional go-round of Ring Around the Rosie, everyone falls down. In the teaser, all the toys manage to fall (sort of), but not in the way that everyone should be. For one thing, the characters are all floating, which does sort of fit, because we are looking at a background of a sky with clouds. Also, there’s a newcomer to the “Toy Story” universe, a spork who is referred to as “Forky.” His comment, “I don’t belong here!,” plus his departure from handholding causes Woody to get distracted, and cause a cataclysmic mess while everyone defies gravity. By the way, this comment, not to mention his next comment, “I’m not a toy!,” leads me to thinking he might be the antagonist of the film, if not having a small link to the film’s overall antagonist. And possibly, have a hand in killing toys.

Another thing outside of the trailer that could be leading to some unexpected deaths is a recent trend I’ve noticed when it comes to Pixar’s films. Since 2015, every film released by Pixar, with the exception of “Cars 3,” has gotten a PG rating. While PG may not be high on the rating spectrum, it is a minor jump compared to what “Toy Story” has seen for ratings in the past. The only other films to have gotten such a rating in regards to Pixar are “The Incredibles” (2004) and “Brave” (2012). Who knows? For all I know, “Toy Story 4” will be exclusively adult and earn a PG-13 rating. After all, the first showings are probably going to have nineties kids. Nobody’s stopping them from getting in the theater. I’m not saying that’s going to happen. If anything, it’s not, but what if it did?

I also want to bring up this poster right here. Is this Woody saying goodbye to the audience? Is this a sign that Woody will die? Here’s Woody with a hand on his hat. Is he about to walk into the depths? Never to be seen again? The one thing that will make me slightly kept from thinking that all the major toys die is that Buzz Lightyear can be seen in a poster with the same background, and he actually looks like he’s fine. He looks like his usual self, prepared for battle. That is unless he’s going against some swarm so enormous he cannot handle himself, in which case he actually happens to be totally f*cked.

Will all the major toys die in “Toy Story 4?” Based on how family-oriented films seem to work, that seems very unlikely, but this is certainly an idea I’m keeping in my back pocket. In fact, even if they do die, it probably wouldn’t be in a dark way. It could be emotional, but in a way that wouldn’t make people want to cover their eyes. But Pixar is part of the Disney family and Disney probably wants Pixar to make a “Toy Story 5” to add more stuff in their theme parks, so there is that. However, when I watched the “Toy Story 4” teaser, I couldn’t help but point out something that could be crucial to the movie as a whole.

Thanks for reading this post! I just want to wish everyone in the United States a happy Thanksgiving! Please feel free to avoid discussing politics, eat too much food, and slam the door on whatever in-law is probably going to kill you. Also, we have December coming up and I will have you all know that I have not done a countdown in a long time. It’s not that I’m not interested, but they’re not always easy to make. That is unless I happen to be processing everything on a conveyor belt like Watch Mojo. However, the year is almost coming to an end and I will be soon counting down my top 10 BEST and WORST movies of 2018. I still got plenty more movies to watch and review before the year’s end to the point where I might not even be able to cover all of them on here. I might be getting some movies on Black Friday, I’ll probably review a very small amount should I get to watching them, but at the very least, they’ll be added to my collection. Maybe I’ll do a Black Friday collection update, I might not, but we’ll see. Be sure to follow Scene Before either with an email or WordPress account so you can stay tuned for more great content! I want to know, did you watch the “Toy Story 4” teaser? What did you think about it? Or, what do you think will be the ending to “Toy Story 4?” Let me know down below! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

The Disaster Artist (2017): THIS IS ACTUALLY BEING MADE! WOO! (Plus Teaser Review)

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Hey everyone, Jack Drees here! If you have paid close attention to the title of this post, you can tell I’m really pumped about what I’m going to discuss. If you have followed this blog for awhile, occasionally you might see angry posts about certain movies being made. I did one on the “Jumanji” reboot having a video game instead of a board game back in March and during the same month I did one on an announcement going around concerning a possibility that “The Matrix” was gonna be remade. Before that, I did a post in December about the fact that “The Emoji Movie” is a thing that exists. And no, since then it has not been canceled! It’s actually coming out July 28th! I wasn’t fond of those ideas and my opinions on said ideas are represented quite clearly in my posts dedicated to them. However, today is gonna be a little more positive. Today we’re gonna be talking about an upcoming movie called “The Disaster Artist.”

If you are unaware about this film, it is about the making of “The Room,” which is considered to be highly regarded as one of the worst films ever made. I haven’t seen “The Room” from beginning to end, I know what it’s about, I’m well aware of its overall cheesiness. Nevertheless, I’m really f*cking stoked for this film. Before we dive any further into this topic, I’ll explain the overall concept of it to you right now.

“The Room” is a film from the early 2000s, it is directed by Tommy Wiseau, who also wrote the film, and played the lead character of Johnny. The plot of the film is that Johnny is a successful banker living in San Francisco with his fiancee, Lisa. However, Lisa eventually is unsatisfied with Johnny and decides to seduce Johnny’s best friend, Mark. The concept of this film is pretty simple, however, many viewers found this film’s unintentional humor to be spinning in a wheel of complexity. And it probably gave the idea to many people, when they see a movie with the word “room” as such a defining part of the title, it would probably be bad.

Oh yeah, this happened during the following decade.

There are tons of screenings for this movie around the world, in fact Tommy Wiseau is currently doing his “Love Is Blind” tour which he does screenings for this movie, people get to meet him in person at a number of them, and there’s a Q&A session. There are probably a number of things people may think of when it comes to “The Room,” one of the biggest things I personally, and perhaps a high number of other people think of is some of the dialogue. Some of the movie’s most infamous lines are listed below.

 

JOHNNY: YOU’RE TEARING ME APART LISA!

 

LISA: Did you get your promotion?

JOHNNY: Nah.

*PAUSE*

LISA: You didn’t get it, did you?

 

JOHNNY: You betrayed me! You’re not good. You, you’re just a chicken. Chip-chip-chip-chip-cheep-cheep!

But perhaps one of the most famous lines, if not THE most famous line from this movie is from the beginning of a scene that takes place on a rooftop. It goes like this:

JOHNNY: I did not hit her, it’s not true! It’s bulls*it! I did not hit hit her! (Throws water bottle on ground) I did NOT. (Turns face) Oh, hi Mark.

In fact, for the teaser of this movie, we get to see this moment of the movie as if it were just being created. Since we’re on this topic, let’s talk about the trailer.

After we see a couple of logos, we cut to Tommy Wiseau, played by James Franco (Spider-Man, 127 Hours). He’s coming out of a door onto a rooftop. You can see he’s got his wig on, and if you know about “The Room” that wig might be stuck in your mind. There’s a green screen around Tommy and you can also see a black guy holding a mic. Tommy doesn’t remember his line, and the director clarifies which line Tommy has to say, then the scene starts all over again. Believe it or not, Tommy has to ask what the line is AGAIN. Then we see the THIRTEENTH take of the same scene! Did this actually happen? I don’t know, but I’m curious to know if it actually happened. At one point, the production is BEGGING for this s*it to end, and they’re all saying what the line is. Then, they get to, I’m not kidding, TAKE 67! Tommy comes out the door, then he says “I hit her!” Just wow! The director wonders if the line should be changed, then it cuts to him saying action, repeatedly, only because Tommy can’t hear him say action! The title shows up for the movie, and we get to Tommy perfecting the line. Everybody applauds based on what happens and the trailer ends.

The vibe of this trailer is perfect and it gets me super excited for this movie. It doesn’t feel dark, it’s almost somewhat goofy although serious if you ask me, and it honestly makes me wonder what really happened behind this set of the movie. Even though this trailer does explain the concept of this film, it does leave me wondering what this film is gonna be like. Is it gonna just focus on the production of this movie? Is it gonna involve Tommy’s personal life? I don’t have a clue. As far as other compliments go, the costumes are great, James Franco is probably gonna make a good Tommy Wiseau, and whoever came up with this idea is a movie god. By the way, James Franco’s brother, Dave Franco, is also in this movie and he’s playing Greg Sestero, the guy who plays Mark in “The Room.”

Another fun fact about this movie, it actually comes out a week before the new “Star Wars” film, December 8th to be specific. So while I imagine this movie would do OK on its opening weekend, I’m apprehensive towards how it’ll do afterwards. And to be completely honest, as much as I am a huge “Star Wars” fanboy, not to mention one who is certainly hoping to go see the new “Star Wars” on opening night, I’m actually currently a bit more excited to see this film instead of the new “Star Wars.” Why? Because this movie has better marketing. I liked some aspects of the teaser for “The Last Jedi,” but ultimately, the teaser was not only painfully average, but it made me wonder if it’s just gonna rip off so many elements from “The Empire Strikes Back.”

Also, if this movie’s good, which I bet will be the case, I want to see another movie on the making of another awful movie. One story I’m curious to hear about, is possibly the making of 2015’s “Fantastic Four,” otherwise known as “Fant4stic.” I saw this movie in the theater and it wasn’t that good. Although I did like it better than a number of other people, which is saying something, because many people consider this to possibly be the worst superhero movie ever made, if not the worst Marvel movie ever made. What made this movie pop in my mind was the fact that “The Disaster Artist” could have an interesting story behind it when it comes to the movie’s production, and if that is executed well, I might want to know more about “Fant4stic,” especially when you consider this tweet from Josh Trank, the director of “Fant4stic.”

By the way, if you go to his Twitter right now, that tweet has been deleted. I want to know, what was this “fantastic version” of “Fant4stic?” This is a story I want to see, not the fantastic version of “Fantastic Four.” OK, yeah, I actually do want to see that and I think everyone else does at this point, but nevertheless, I would like to know how this movie came together and maybe if there was any studio interference when it comes to this movie. Oh, and yeah, if this movie actually comes to life, don’t ask FOX (the studio behind “Fant4stic”) to do it, they’ll probably shoot you out of a cannon towards the Pacific Ocean, leaving you to drown.

Right now “The Disaster Artist” is one of my most anticipated movies, I haven’t seen “The Room” in its entirety, but I feel like I should now before I go see this movie. Also, I want to know, what is the worst movie you’ve ever seen? Or, what is a movie you can think of that’s so bad it’s actually good? Me personally, I think of “Batman & Robin” when it comes to this topic. Also, stay tuned for more content, including an upcoming review for the movie “Dunkirk,” it has now been confirmed I’m going to see this movie next week in IMAX 70mm film, I’m super excited, look forward to my review. Also this weekend, I might go see “The Big Sick,” starring Kumail Nanjiani, stay tuned for that review as well if I get around to seeing that movie, and stay tuned for other content on this blog! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!