Not The M-Word!!

My buddy Jeff dragged me to the movies the other day, and I ended up having a really nice time.  However, I was even more vexed than usual about the trailers that played before it (and I recognize that I am pretty easily vexed).  Last year, we saw a couple of musical movies coming out with the ad campaigns hiding that they were musicals, but dude . . . on this particular screening, there were four.

First up was a TV trailer for "Agatha All Along," which holds absolutely no appeal to me except that it's a Musical.  But ah well, they don't care about me, since I've seen everything Marvel already, and ain't about to change no matter how much I loathed QUANTUMANIA and the villain in THE MARVELS.  But I get that the majority (if not the vast majority) of MCU fans are straight males, who are notoriously averse to see Musicals (especially the young ones, that most-valuable demographic, so they're not about to say, "Say folks, you remember the show about Wanda Maximoff that a lot of you liked?  Well, here's a show kind of like that, just with way more singing!"

Second on the roster was MUFASA: THE LION KING.  So, the first movie was tremendously successful, despite no adults liking it, and it was a Musical.  But why hide it for this second one?  I mean, it has an echoed line in the newest trailer that strikes me as a kind of beat poetry, if not an outright intro to a song, but still, heaven forfend you let people know that there are new songs by Lin-Manuel Fricking Miranda.  Perhaps you can no longer feel the love tonight, kids.

Third up is going to be trouble.  JOKER 2 is just weeks from coming out and they're still hiding its musical nature, despite them casting Lady Gaga as Harley . . . and why else would you cast a singer in that part?  I mean, come on.

But this one I at least understand.  The legions of outspoken, rage-fueled internet troll bastards that loved the first movie would absolutely refuse to see the sequel if they knew it was a musical, and the people who like musicals aren't going to want to go see a dour R-rated exploration of mental illness, especially after that joyless first film.  It is going to be like watching a train derailment when the film comes out . . . but the good kind of train derailment.**

And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention WICKED, which is simply baffling to me.  This was a new trailer promoting the flick that comes out at Christmas.  They played an orchestral version of Defying Gravity in the first trailer, and a bit of the lyrics in the second trailer . . . which will be a fun selling point to the fans of the play (of whom there are many), but Disney is clearly afraid of alienating the rest of us, that either aren't familiar with the play or loathe Musicals, like my buddy Jeff*.  And it's ironic to me, since Disney single-handedly kept the Musical alive during my youth (well, them and Andrew Lloyd Webber, I suppose), and has made billions of dollars every year from the audiences' embrace of those Musicals (yet, they consistently hide the songs in their animated film trailers, as though teenage boys would simply die of revulsion were they to know that Disney Princesses sing, and hopefully will continue to sing until the end of time).

WICKED is doubly-egregious because it a) could and should wear as a badge of honor that it's based on a hugely successful Broadway musical, and still cowardly hides it, but b) is PART ONE of a two-part film that, understandably, they are terrified of the world knowing, because why would anyone go see a movie that's been split in two?  That too will be very interesting to see play out.

So, I found it strange that it wasn't one or two trailers doing it, and if you don't consider "Agatha All Along" to qualify, then three is still a pretty shocking number to see either way.

Cue the music.

*Who was on the train to see WONKA last year when he first learned it was a Musical . . . from me.  He still went to the film, but very likely would not have had he known the true nature of the film.  Which, I suppose, totally excuses the dishonest ad campaign for movies like that and THE COLOR PURPLE and MEAN GIRLS musical remakes.

**There could be good kinds.  Maybe a derailment for a movie, or during wartime, or the kind where the people onboard the train don't believe in precisely the god you believe in.  You know what I mean.