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‘Avatar 2’ Could Be a Step in the Right Direction for Disney’s Sci-Fi Issue

By George Robbins

Disney is a company that has managed over the years to stick their hands into all different forms of media. This is why Disney is a household name for just about every single household worldwide and they will stay this way for a long time coming. They have turned themselves into one of those companies which will probably end up being around longer than any company has the right to. This is mainly due to the fact that they are so heavily at the forefront of the entertainment industry and everything they produce gains some kind of attention. While most of that attention is good, there is still a fair bit of the attention that is not so good.

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Recently, the big issue they have been having is the issue of ‘Mulan‘ which is the live-action remake of the animated film of the same name. Thus far, it has been nothing but issues arising for Disney because the movie has been nothing but a center for controversy since its initial release. Not to mention the fact that the movie was released with a lot of issues behind it such as the actual releasing of the film. For instance, the film was supposed to have released initially back in March, but then the pandemic was announced which changed everything in the movie industry. Therefore a lot of release dates were forced to change.

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The movie industry as a whole was having a hard time coping with the fact that they could not figure out any proper release windows. This is how we ended up with so many films being pushed back further and further, or in this case, just released anyway. ‘Mulan’ ended up being a part of the unique camp of films which just ended up releasing to the public anyway. It was just released in a way that was different from the norm like some other movies that have recently come out. Unfortunately for Disney, the entire production for the film just ended up cursing the film, along with their full release plans for the film.

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Disney planned on releasing the film on Disney+ for a premium on top of the subscription while having a theatrical release for the film in China. This is exactly how the film ended up having its release and the movie did meet some kind of success with the Disney+ release. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the Chinese release of the film as it did horribly by comparison. This has made it the second time ‘Mulan’ has failed to make some kind of splash in the Chinese movie theater market. Then, even with the release on Disney+, there was plenty of criticism to go around due to the controversies tied to the film.

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Almost immediately after Disney released ‘Mulan’ to the public, controversy almost immediately began to ensnare the film. This generated a lot of push back from the public against Disney for a couple of reasons. First of all, one of the biggest controversial topics is that in the credits, Disney thanked a province in China where a cultural genocide is currently taking place. This has perhaps the most people upset with Disney, but it is not the only thing people are upset about as, apparently, the production crew has people upset as well. The Chinese market feels under-represented due to the fact that, even though there is no whitewashing taking place on screen, behind the scenes there was a lot of whitewashing. Much of the crew working on the movie were whitewashed.

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Despite these controversies, Disney will not be affected in the slightest and will instead be moving on with their other projects. In fact, they haven’t necessarily stopped working on any other projects and have been working hard to make sure they get done. Fortunately for crews and less fortunate for the studio, there isn’t really too much of a rush right now to get projects done because they can’t really release them. Without a proper window for movie releases, movies can’t come out in theaters because they have no guarantee of bringing in crowds. This has most recently been seen with the movie ‘Tenet.’ The movie has been out now for a month and the box office numbers are so low that a massive loss for the film almost seems inevitable.

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‘Tenet’ was the blockbuster film that many were hoping would bring people back into theaters, but this may not be the case. It actually ended up being the film the seems to have shown that people are not willing to go back out to theaters quite yet. This has given many studios pause, and they have all recently begun the process of once again moving back theatrical release dates for new films. Even though many films are either getting back to production, or have even just wrapped up production, it will be a long time before those films get to see the big screen. In a way, this just gives crews a longer opportunity to make films that will draw people in. Needless to say it is still a long time off before people are willing to go out to the movies to see new films again.

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While production crews have the time, they can work to make sure their films turn out as perfect as they hope they will. This is most certainly what director James Cameron will be doing with the extra time, even though his films are still keeping their relative release dates. His next upcoming film is the long awaited ‘Avatar 2’ film which has been over a decade in the making at this point. It is still meant to release some time near the end of next year, but we could see this change as time goes on, especially with what is happening with theaters. Cameron is known for making films that look incredible and tell pretty interesting stories so many are looking forward to the upcoming sequel.

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No one is perhaps looking forward to the sequel more than Disney as they are now the company which holds the rights to the film after buying out a huge portion of 21st Century Fox. Disney has been known for trying to make Sci-Fi films which could capture the attention of the world the same way their animated films could. Unfortunately, they have yet to have a success on that venture and the closest they came was with ‘TRON: Legacy.’ The latter mentioned film was not the best, but it was the best that Disney had produced in the live-action Sci-Fi genre, but they are hoping for more. It is likely now, given the success of the first ‘Avatar’ that the new one will be successful as well. Perhaps this will be what can finally turn Disney’s losing streak around with Sci-Fi films, or it will just be another Disney Sci-Fi disappointment.

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