TMW #38: Coco 2, Marvel goes indie, the best Oners and a Blumhouse quiz
From one-shots we love to a number two we’re unsure about…
Welcome, Wing-friends,
…to another Tuesday newsletter, where we offer commentary, analysis and humour and ask big questions, both rhetorically and literally (today’s quiz is on Blumhouse Productions). We lead off with some thoughts on whether the newly announced Coco 2 is really something to sing and dance about. Then we’ve got a tongue-in-cheek look at the seemingly indie-flavoured future of the MCU. And with everyone from your workmates to the Prime Minister talking about Netflix’s Adolescence, we’ve rounded up five of the best one-shot takes.
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You can also support your friendly neighbourhood Wingman by hitting those like, share and restack buttons. Go on, have a go. Felt good, didn’t it? We’ll be back on Friday with reviews of the week’s big releases, including Novocaine and The Studio. Till then, happy reading…
Matthew (Matt and Jordan)
Coco 2: loco?
Could Pixar’s recently announced sequel be the most unnecessary follow-up ever?
There was much hand-wringing about the state of creativity at Pixar last year when some comments from Pete Docter went viral. The Chief Creative Officer had said that the animation studio would focus less on extremely autobiographical stories in favour of films with mass appeal. There was also talk of an emphasis on sequels. Speaking to me last year, Docter said, “I think it'll be a balance going forward of, 'How do we still bring original stuff and find new ideas and new voices, and then also deliver on new aspects of things that people we know that people love?'"
That discourse seemed to fade faster than Bing Bong in the Memory Dump when Inside Out 2 came out and was, a) very good, and b) made so much money that the inner Joys of Pixar’s accountants must’ve been doing backflips. But while we await the next Pixar original Elio, out this summer, the announcement of Coco 2 has raised the spectre of unnecessary sequels again. It’s impossible to imagine a path for Coco 2 that doesn’t somehow cheapen the memory of the original.
At its best, any Pixar film (or film generally) will have plot and character in perfect symbiosis. The developments of the plot will be intrinsically tied to character arcs. Coco is arguably Pixar’s most finely honed story. Protagonist Miguel longs to play music and connect more deeply with his family, which leads him on a journey through the Land of the Dead. The ensuing twists and turns perfectly dovetail with another story strand relating to his titular great-gran, whose fading memory gives the films its race-against-time urgency and gut-punch emotional pay-off. It wraps up with impeccable precision.
The problem any sequel faces is feeling like an ‘and then this happened’ extension grafted on to a beautifully closed loop. It happened with Incredibles 2, a very entertaining sequel in its own right, but it was an addendum to a complete story that couldn’t find the same intertwined character/plot satisfaction. It was just a further adventure, which can be fun, but is nowhere near as holistically satisfying.
Toy Story 4 is another example of a Pixar movie that struggled to feel meaningful following a perfect resolution. When you have beloved characters and a talented team orchestrating a new story, you’re likely to end up with a film that’s plenty watchable, but does anyone think of TS4 in the same regard as the OG trilogy? It’s a footnote.
It also serves another warning for Coco 2: stretch the logic of these imaginary worlds too far and it’ll fray. Suspension of disbelief is necessary for the basic premise, but as it’s augmented and contorted for unnecessary sequels, the plot holes become harder to swallow. Toy Story 3’s lovely ending concluded on a beautiful hand-me-down moment, but continuing on means we can’t just turn a blind eye to what happens afterwards (let’s get real, toys are rarely going to be passed on more than once). It also raised the freaky thought of how many toys are eking out an existence in the wild, and also how many inanimate objects have been cursed to a life of eternal sentience because a kid stuck googly eyes on them (thanks, Forky). Coco 2 will also have these pitfalls to avoid.
We’ll have to wait until 2029 to see if director Lee Unkrich and co pull off the miracle of making Coco 2 seem worthwhile in anything other than a financial sense, and before that we’ll have had Toy Story 5, and possibly Incredibles 3. Here’s hoping that in between those films, they make films of the blazingly original sort with which they made their name. The kind of films that are so good that we’d love to revisit their worlds and characters, but won’t because we know that it would upset the balance of a perfect story. (Matt Maytum)
Marvel Phase… Indie?
Watching the trailer for Celine Song’s Materialists, I had but one takeaway: this is clearly a multiversal spin on Song’s last love-triangle drama, Past Lives. And when you consider Florence Pugh’s recent suggestion that the upcoming Thunderbolts* feels like an A24 film, the only conclusion to draw is that Marvel has entered Phase Indie. Here’s a look at what might lie ahead…
MATERIALISTS
You spotted it too, right? This is the story of Madame Web, Mister Fantastic and Captain America taking a pause from saving Earth to focus on something bigger: getting laid. The film takes many of its cues from Madame Web: the main character is an unusually successful matchmaker (i.e. obviously clairvoyant), and the trailer promises a similar amount of costumed action as last year’s Spider-flop (ie none). The dialogue, though, will be full of teasing references. Dakota Johnson: “I just don’t see a future for us. No, I mean literally.” Pedro Pascal: “I can be more flexible.” And in one brutal scene, Chris Evans reveals he was researching gifts for other women on Amazon.com right before his last relationship died…
THUNDERBOLTS*
The identity of the movie’s villain(s) is still a mystery? Duh. The A24 thing was a Galactus-sized clue. Red Guardian, get ready to meet your match in Red Rocket, the only man on the planet who’s a bigger bullshitter than you. You’ve heard of The First Avenger… now witness the might of First Cow, super-grazer (“I can chew this all day”). Problemista will hex up your day way worse than Scarlet Witch. MaXXXine is a triple-strength mutant whose heels can crush even Wolverine’s adamantium balls. Beau afraid. Beau very afraid.
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