Boxoffice - May 2019

PHOTO: MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY IMAGES
20TH CENTURY FOX’S EMMA WATTS
PIXAR PRODUCER JONAS RIVERA
PHOTO: MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY IMAGES
Bale, which recounts Henry Ford’s effort to build a
new car to compete in Le Mans. All got a rousing
reception, and Watts called Ford v. Ferrari “a
triumph” and, tellingly, the kind of prestige
film that’s “on the endangered species list.”
Walt Disney Motion Picture Group
president Sean Bailey doubled down
against the initial queasy internet reaction
to Will Smith in “blueface” as the Genie in
Aladdin, showing his entire “Friend Like
Me” production number. It’s as wild and
elaborate as anything in the recent Disney
live-action/mo-cap canon.
Especially impressive was the sequence
from the new motion-capture The Lion King,
with photorealistic (but talking) lion Mufasa
teaching his young son, Simba, about the
circle of life. The reaction from the Vegas
crowd was ecstatic. It looks like this remake,
directed by The Jungle Book’s Jon Favreau, is
in very good hands.
DISNEY’S CATHLEEN TAFF
Bailey observed, “We are never simply retelling.
We ask ourselves how do we take these
timeless stories and expand and update them
to make them relevant for the times.”
Finally, producer Jonas Rivera presented
the first 17 minutes of Toy Story 4.
Acknowledging that many people felt the
Oscar-winning Toy Story 3 was the perfect
conclusion to the series, he quoted veteran
Pixar director Andrew Stanton: “It’s
not the ending.” “Woody is the protagonist,”
Rivera noted. “What if we put him
in a new situation where he is questioning his
own purpose?” Judging from those endearing
opening scenes, I’m back on board the Toy
Story train.
Unlike other studio presentations that
invariably run overtime, the Disney session
ended 40 minutes earlier than billed.
Perhaps another sign that the new Disney is
very much a work in progress.
PHOTO: MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY IMAGES
MAY 2019
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