So, I'm now officially done with the whole "cinematic universe" thing. When Marvel started it nearly a decade ago, it was fresh and exciting. DC got in on the act because the two companies always copy each others ideas and if the Avengers can do it, why can't the Justice League. But now, ladies and gentlemen, things have gone too far.
I have just found out that there are two new cinematic universes. The first is the Universal Monsters cinematic universe, which started with 2014's Dracula Untold and is set to continue with next years Mummy reboot starring everyones absolute favourite Scientologist nut job, Tom Cruise. The series is going to include all of the classic Hammer Horror monsters, Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstien, The Wolf Man, Creature From The Black Lagoon and it just sounds oh so meh because all the movies are going to take themselves way too seriously and have terrible scripts because that's what happens when you take classic horror icons and put them into modern films (see 1999's The Mummy and it's sequel or Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing).
Next up is even worse news. Hanna-freaking-Barbera are getting into the act. HANNA-BARBERA of all people are planning to launch their own cinematic universe. It's going to be cartoon based thankfully, but that's it's only redeeming feature. The series is going to start with S.C.O.O.B (which makes me angry to type) which is a relaunch of Scooby-Doo. WHAT IS WITH THAT TITLE??? Are they trying to be cool and edgy or something, because it's not working. And can someone please tell me why they are doing this. The last time Scooby-Doo was either good or relevant was prior to the introduction of Scrappy-Doo back in the 70's. The series with Scrappy were terrible, What's New Scooby-Doo was alright but had lost a lot of the charm and the last series was an abomination, trying to force a relationship between Velma and Shaggy that was seriously cringe-worthy. It doesn't seem like Hanna-Barbera know how to make a good cartoon anymore. The new film is apparently going to see the gang working for a larger organisation, which gives them some proper reason to go around solving mysteries I guess, but sounds way too Totally Spies for my liking. If you want to know what other icons of your childhood they're going to ruin, at the moment I believe it's Yogi Bear, Top Cat and Dick Dastardly. Which makes me sad.
Ok, rant over. Back to your regularly scheduled Friday.
JR out.
Now, for the real, hard questions: Will Michael Bay be at the helm? With Shaggy as a drug addict, daphne as a barely legal prostitute, the other guy as an ex-marine, and scooby as an illegal genetic expriment by a shadowy organisation.
Or Spielberg? Because only alien technology could make a dog talk and temporarily make ev1 else forget that that doesn’t happen! Especially the genetonanites from– [all five eyes bug out for a moment]
. . . I mean, he could probably . . . come up with a fair script idea . . . [looks around worriedly] I mean, he writes alien movies, right? [scuttles up far wall and around the corner out of sight]
Yeah, the Universal Monster’s thing is kind of a stretch. Hanna Barbera has always had a shared universe though, hasn’t it? I can recall lots of cross-overs with characters from when I was a kid. And wasn’t there a series that had lots of HB characters competing against each other? … Just googled it “Laff-A-Lympics”. So yeah, HB was doing a shared universe before it was cool.
Now not to upset you or anything JR, but I’ve also heard rumors that there is talk of making the GI Joe and Transformers movies into a shared universe as well, with cross overs like they did in the comics. No idea if it will ever get off the ground.
@Arioch- You may joke, but Shaggy debuted as a teen in the 60’s with a perpetual case of the munchies and a dog that talked…
@MLS- Yeah, HB have always had a shared universe, on TV. The characters appeared together in TV movies. There’s a difference between TV movies and theatre releases. Why do you think there’s never been a theatre released cartoon Hanna Barbera movie? And why do you think that the last few HB theatre released movies (the Scooby-Doo films and Yogi Bear) sucked so badly, because they tried to change them to appeal to a theatre going audience (and made them live action).
As for the GI Joe- Transformers shared universe, well, being British I didn’t know what a GI Joe was until I was past the age I would have played with one (we don’t get them over here) so I don’t care about that franchise and going by the current Transformers franchise, the more they do to kill it off the better. Hey, maybe they could add TMNT in and literally make it the worst thing ever. That would satisfy @Arioch’s call for Michael Bay to be put in charge of a CU. 😉
Aaiiiieeeeeeee!!!! No, no, no, PLEASE No!
Ehr… I mean to say, I am NOT in favor of this particular approach… 😉
Well, he COULD go that approach… But, this is ALSO the man who gave us “Tiny Toon Adventures” and “Animaniacs”, so he might even come up with something GOOD! Though, with a name like S.C.O.O.B., and being working stiffs for a large organization, I doubt that it’s Spielberg, or ANTONE even remotely competent…
Seeing the Scoobies work with Yakko, Wakko and Dot, on the other hand, should be enough to cause the scariest Monsters around to go stark, raving Mad… 😀
JR, Please, for the love of whatever God you may hood dear…
Do NOT challenge American Corporations to come up with the ‘worst thing ever’!
You should KNOW, by now, that they are not only up to the challenge, but will reliably
come up with something that sucks FAR worse than you can begin to imagine…
“It’s Scooby Doo, okay, only with Sienkiewicz-style artwork! We’ll have Melissa McCarthy do Thelma, and Tom Cruise play Shaggy! And, the SCOOB corporation will turn out to be owned by the alien from E.T! It’ll be great!” {Cough!}
@William A. Peterson- I thought they’d already come up with the worst thing ever back in the 90’s. It involved George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger and costumes with inexplicable nipples.
I’m just going to say that it would take me a long time to explain my views on storylines, continuity, and cohesion. Especially with regards to Cinematic Universes when you factor for studio pitfalls and purist audiences.
Universal Monsters sounds like a bad idea because the movies will be in nomine not en esprit. Tom Cruise? The guy wants to get his name back out there or he’s at the stage of his career where he has enough free time and extra cash for a pet project. I would love to be at that level.
Hannah-Barbera sounds like a massive reboot rather than a gradual update or even “changing of the guard.” I have no vested interest in starting an argument with my 3 and 2 year-old grand-nieces how much cooler Hong Kong Phooey was back in my day.
Hasbro universe? The first Transformers exceeded my expectations. My major complaint is that my eyesight is horrible. The Transformers themselves just looked like shiny blobs of CGI. The first G.I. Joe movie was abhorrent. If Retaliation had been the first release, I would have been a fan. Battleship, they did it right. That was a fun movie. The way that they worked in the call system. That was pretty clever and it actually made real-world sense.
With a little long-range vision, I think Hasbro could have created a Cinematic Universe that included the three toy franchises. Maybe it can still be done. Which would require a reboot of all three. In that case, do the Transformers-G.I. Joe crossover but leave Battleship alone.
@Atomic Punk- So long as a Hasbro Cinematic Universe doesn’t include a rebooted MLP I’m fine. I like the current MLP as it is. Also, you have to be the only person I know who liked Battleship. Everyone else hates it.
Y’ah know a good idea is ONLY a good idea if it WORKS.
Let’s start but getting good Individual movies before we try for common universes!
Marvel may coin the phase “cinematic universe” and the most successful but, not the first to try to make one. Other attempts include Alien vs. Predator and Freddy vs. Jason and in a way Highlander and possibly even Star Trek.
One of earliest attempts would be The Universal Monsters with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_Meets_the_Wolf_Man follow by House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula. With Hollywood now days being so remake crazy a UM reboot doesn’t surprise me at all.
This is the first I heard about the Hanna-Barbera universe one. Since Hanna-Barbera, like DC Comics, is an asset of Time Warner Inc. it should be no-shock that TW would the HB franchies for all they worth and more. Even thou crossovers are quite comon (heck, Space Stars was a weekly crossover with Space Ghost, Herculoids, and Astro (The Jetsons dog)) I just don’t see the likes of Jonnie Quest and Yogi Bear on the same plane of existence.
As far as the “Hasbroverse” goes first of all, JR you can come down from the ledge, MlP or any other girls line is not part of it. So far only the following boys action figure lines is part of the new Hasbro sheared universe they are G.I.Joe, Micronauts, Transformers, Action Man, M.A.S.K., Rom: The Space Knight and Visionaries. In the past there have been a few G.I.Joe meets Transformers type titles from different companies and this coming September IDW Publishing is making a new title call Revolution in which the various Hasbro brands join together. Also the past couple years some Hasbro’s SDCC sets has been Joe/TF toy crossovers.
I’m sure that MLP is safe from Michael Bay… for now… Battleship was a fun ball of fluff. Well, a bunch of giant, spiky metal balls of destruction. I understand people being indifferent or dismissive but “hate?” Yow.
One Hasbro line that could use a reboot is M.A.S.K. In order to be done right, they would have to ditch Scott Trakker and T-Bob. At minimum, make them less imbecilic and bumbling. Unfortunately, that movie would most likely be a Michael Bay “vehicle.” *bad dum tss*
Micronauts would be so awesome! Hasbro entrusted Marvel to publish the comic. They could do the same with Marvel Studios. I envision a stand-alone movie that ends with them being zapped to earth. The sequel would be a crossover featuring Ant-Man to bring them fully into the MCU.
And Rom, the Space Knight? Heck yeah!
Well, so far no director has been name for the M.A.S.K movie yet. This article will give you an idea which way they headed (at least the comics) http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/revving-up-hasbros-mask-for-a-modern-comic-audience
When Marvel did the Mirconauts comic, Hasbro had no connection what so ever with anything Micronuat. Hasbro didn’t get the rights for Micronuats until about 2009. Marvel hadn’t have the rights to the Micronuts for thirty years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronauts While is true Marvel still use a few characters that they created for the series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronauts_(comics) IDW has the comic rights to the Micronuats along with Hasbro’s other stuff. (Heck, 90% of IDW’s output is the Hasbro licenses.) So there’s very little chance of a Mirco/MCU crossover.
@Wild Card: I’ve been so out of it, that I had completely forgot about IDW comics. Thanks for the info on up-coming M.A.S.K. series. The Easton and Vargas interview has me stoked.
Methinks that if Marvel wants a Micronauts movie, Marvel gets a Micronauts movie. You know – cash money!