Because my wife really wanted to, I went with her to see the sequel to Mamma Mia last night. She'd already seen it once with my daughter. It's a testament to the phenomenal skill and talent of the foursome that their music is so charismatic. There is hardly an ABBA song that I don't like (although I don't pretend to have listened to everything that they've ever recorded, of course) and the songwriting skill of the boys as well as the performance talent of the girls simply is hard to overstate. ABBA was one of the most talented groups of an entire generation. My wife and I have had lively debates about the merits of some of the individual songs (she's convinced that "Dancing Queen" is clearly their best number, while I think that "Take a Chance on Me" and even "Mamma Mia" itself are better. By better, I mean more fun to listen to, of course—songs like "Fernando" or "One of Us" or some others show more musical complexity and maturity and are thus arguably "better" in an objective sense, although that doesn't make them any more fun or memorable to listen to, of course. We've also had rather lively debates about how well the songs have penetrated the popular consciousness. I tell you, I knew all but one of the songs in the first movie, but had only ever heard half of the songs in the second movie. She doesn't believe that I haven't heard them before, especially "Andante, Andante" which she claims that I introduced to her. Even though I've never heard it before.)
So making a musical using their songs wasn't a bad idea, by any means. Although a handful of songs feel forced, most of them work pretty well given the story structure. And the movies themselves are fairly charismatic and charming most of the time too. I laughed. I felt emotionally tugged. I had a good time.
Which is why, of course, the Mamma Mia movies are so dangerous. Because underneath that charming, likable surface is a grab bag of civilization destroying content. All of the characters are broken and dysfunctional, engaging in behavior that is irresponsible, immature, depraved, debauched, frankly kind of retarded, and to make it all worse, the movie romanticizes exactly all of those things. I've flippantly (although completely accurately) summarized the first movie by saying that it's the story of a washed up older ho and her bratty princess syndrome daughter jerking around a whole bunch of different men, who for reasons that are completely inexplicable to the audience, they put up with. The story is awash with r-selected feminism (but I repeat myself) tropes, including the "empowered" women who, like I said, always come off more as bratty and bitchy than powerful. As always, feminists covet the alleged social and political power that they think men have, but haven't the foggiest notion of the responsibility that that power entails, or where it comes from, or how to maintain it. It's nothing more than the ability to indulge their narcissistic fantasies, which ultimately, this movie is.
The men are all inexplicably beta, and pine after women in a way that makes no sense, especially because these women make no effort to be attractive, really—in fact, they go quite a long way towards trying to make themselves off-putting and unlikable. Everybody gives up their dreams to go chase after women that, in many cases, they haven't seen in years or even decades. Somehow these men still cling to romantic notions after decades—which is clearly nothing more than projection on the part of the women writers (actually, I notice that out of three writing credits two of them are men. Biologically, at least.)
Nobody should ever watch this film and feel that the characters are anything other than pitiable, broken people, engaging in ridiculous behavior. As much as I thought the movie was kind of charming, I most certainly do not recommend it. Do yourself a favor and just go buy ABBA's Gold and More Gold collections on Amazon and listen to them instead.
Now, a more interesting development, of course, was the announcement that Star Wars: The Clone Wars is going to be revived. Lucasfilm made a major mistake when they cancelled it in the first place, and replaced it with the much less compelling Star Wars: Rebels. And hey, it's a great idea to actually try and do something that the fans have been really wanting for a change, after the flaming bag of crap that was The Last Jedi. Now, of course, it's hardly enough to stem the hemorrhaging of fans that Rian Johnson, Kathleen Kennedy and even Jar Jar Abrams have caused, but it's still an encouraging sign that at least someone with some pull at Lucasfilm isn't a total idiot. I have no confidence that they won't screw it up, though. In fact, the distribution is already causing me to roll my eyes; it's going to be the flagship content of the new Disney Streaming service that's supposed to launch at some point to compete head to head with Netflix and Amazon Prime. Just what I wanted; to get a whole 'nother streaming service. Just so I can watch Clone Wars and Marvel movies that I'll either buy on blu-ray or not worry about watching again anyway. Sigh.
Meanwhile, Galaxy's Edge continues to go from strength to strength and Vox Day has already hinted at work to bring not only books and comics (which he's already done) but even visual content—movies and TV shows—that turn their backs on the traditional industry and ignore it entirely. That can't come fast enough.
My son thinks that for sure it's going to tank. After all, all of his half dozen or so friends that he talks to about it have no interest in Disney Streaming, and he's kind of a Debbie Downer anyway who always finds something negative to say about whatever is going on around him, so we don't take his prognostications of doom for every new venture all that seriously.
But I admit that I'm both wary and cynical about this venture myself.
That same son also swears that he's seen evidence that the old Teen Titans TV show is going to be revived too. I haven't seen any evidence of this myself, but why not? That's a relatively engaging show too, and one of the early ones that proved that even being targeted towards kids, it can gain a broader audience by simply being good material, good stories, engaging characters, etc.
It used to be for most of Western civilization that there wasn't really a difference between entertainment aimed at children and entertainment for others. It's long past time that we get past that false dichotomy, which is another legacy of the nannying, totalitarian Puritans and their attempts to purge Western civilization of everything of any real virtue. Let's just make good stuff that appeals to everyone. If that means its animated because it's easier to do some thing in animation, that's fine. I think in the era of mainstreamization of anime, whatever stigma there is attached to animation is long gone except for the relict Boomers still kicking around trying to tell everyone else what they should do.
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