Meme - "John Leguizamo Continues to Blast Chris Pratt's Super Mario Movie's Lack of Diversity
Box Office: 'Super Mario Bros. Opens to Stupendous $204.6M in US... Record $377M Globally
Strange World Is Disney's Biggest Step Toward Inclusivity - For Real, This Time
Disney's 'Strange World' to Lose $100 Million in Theatrical Run"
Actor Boycotting New ‘Super Mario Bros’ Movie Because Latino Not Cast To Voice Italian Brothers - "Actor John Leguizamo, who played Luigi in the 1993 live-action “Super Mario Bros.” movie, is boycotting the new animated adaptation of the video game series over a supposed lack of Latino diversity. Leguizamo is Colombian and suggested the new movie should have cast a Latino actor to play at least one of the brothers. Notably, the characters of Mario and Luigi are Italian... “Cast some Latin folk. Just cast some Latin folk,” the actor added. “We’re 20% of the population; the largest ‘people of color’ group, and we’re under-represented — over-represented in the worst kind of jobs, though.”"
The confusing history of how Super Mario Bros became an anti-woke symbol - "Super Marios Bros. had already generated some controversy well before Leguizamo's comments, though, when it was announced that Pratt would be voicing Mario. Critics complained the role should have gone to an Italian American instead. (Day managed to avoid the same criticism due to having some Italian heritage.) Mark Harvey, an associate professor at the University of Saint Mary and author of the book Celebrity Influence: Politics, Persuasion, and Issue-Based Advocacy, told Newsweek that Pratt's casting created "a cultural grey area." "If you get the actor you want and have him imitate an Italian dialect, would that be offensive in today's media climate? Or do you get an Italian actor who happens to have an authentic accent to play the character?" Harvey said. "Ultimately, the studio avoided the issue (or perhaps didn't give it much thought) and went with the neutral American dialect." He continued, "When the studio didn't change the film—and at this point, a reshoot would be prohibitively expensive anyway—conservative pundits can frame the argument as if the movie is making a political statement against multiculturalism." Along with the idea that the film is "anti-woke" because it—according to some—didn't give in to pressure to be more inclusive is the claim that it lacks any kind of "woke" storylines. Alt-right activist Jack Posobiec voiced this opinion on Twitter, writing that by having "as little plot as possible," the film felt "like one of the games." "It has no woke narratives and all the characters are exactly like the original games," Posobiec wrote. Posobiec's assessment aligned with Crowder's, who said of the film: "It's not even necessarily anti-woke, it just shuns the idea of trying to be woke." However, not everyone feels Super Mario Bros. is "anti-woke." In fact, some argue the exact opposite, including figures on the right. Anna Perez, the conservative host of the Wrongthink podcast, accused the film of "brainwashing" young females "to be a feminist" due to Princess Peach being portrayed as a strong protagonist not afraid to take the lead... Not everyone saw Princess Peach's prominence as negative, and several progressives on social media praised the depiction. "Super Mario is destroying the box office with its EXTREME WOKE GIRLBOSS POWERS!" The Serfs, a liberal outlet, tweeted. A member of The Serfs who identifies only as Lance, further commented on the film in an email to Newsweek. "The new Super Mario Bros was the Trojan horse of wokeness. It features not only a kickass girlboss but a drag performer as well. It will unleash the great wokening and nobody could have seen it coming," he wrote. When addressing how something as seemingly innocuous as the Super Mario Bros. became part of a heated debate, Harvey said "this 'taking sides' of celebrities and entertainment is a fairly recent phenomenon. It used to be that it was unsafe for celebrities and brands to be overtly political. Now, if a celebrity or even a film lacks political content, it is subject to potential criticism."... "People feel increasingly politically threatened because of the vilification of their political opponents," Harvey said. "They are looking for validation for their positions and evidence of the wrongdoing of the other side. "The culture wars have intensified and expanded, and no corner of the political or social universe seems immune.""
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga leans into franchise's queer traditions - "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is the prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, and contains a gender fluid plot-line that isn’t a radical departure from the franchise’s unexpectedly queer (if problematic) traditions."
Box Office: 'Furiosa' Lowest Memorial Day Opening in 41 Years, Should Hollywood Worry? - "How can a genius, George Miller-directed tentpole prequel to the multi-Oscar winning Mad Max: Fury Road with great reviews and 4 1/2 stars PostTrak exits not be working? The entire theatrical business is destined for streaming, oh, no! People will forever stay on their couches!"
‘Furiosa’ Is a Memorial Day Weekend Box Office Dud - The New York Times - "“Furiosa,” which cost $168 million to make, not including tens of millions of dollars in marketing costs, collected an estimated $25.6 million in the United States and Canada from Thursday night to Sunday. Box office analysts expected the film to take in about $5.4 million on Monday, for a holiday-weekend total of $31 million. That would be the worst Memorial Day weekend result in 43 years after adjusting for inflation — ever since “Bustin’ Loose,” a comedic drama starring Richard Pryor, collected $24 million in 1981. (Box office records exclude 2020, when most theaters were closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.) The franchise’s previous chapter, “Mad Max: Fury Road,” took in $45.4 million in 2015, or roughly $61 million in today’s dollars — and that was without the benefit of a holiday weekend. Hollywood had high expectations for “Furiosa,” which Warner Bros. premiered at the Cannes Film Festival; the movie received exceptional reviews. On Sunday, however, it was unclear whether “Furiosa” would manage even first place at the box office. Analysts said the poorly reviewed “Garfield” (Sony), which cost $60 million to make, could inch ahead. It could also be a tie."
Commie Gibberish of the Day | Facebook - "Wow I can’t believe that yet again, women did not show up for an action movie. How many copies of GIRLBOSS Part 28: The Girlbossening have to lose 200-300 million dollars before the worst era in moviemaking history ends? Nobody wants to see 90 pound women flipping multiple 260 pound bouncers around on a green screen with no worthwhile story other than “Yassss she’s tough!” for 150 minutes."
Meme - "I think part of the reason this movie flopped is that any movie that has even a whiff of the "girl boss" trope in it is going to be rejected sight-unseen. Maybe it's not fair, but can you blame fans for being suspicious at this point? Moreover, if fans were to support a movie with even a whiff of the "girl boss" trope in it Hollywood's confirmation bias would see that as a sign to commission 10 more years of "girl boss" movies before they are even willing to admit it isn't working and begin to change course again. So I say everyone should keep their collective feet on the gas pedal and not give Hollywood even an inch until the woke mind virus is completely purged, or the Hollywood industry collapses, whichever comes first."
Meme - "Little Mermaid loses 200 million"
Soyjak: "This is ra-ra-ra-cism!!!
"Miles Morales makes 4 times it's budget back in one day."
Soyjak: "You bigots can't stop us. Woke sells."
"ACOLYTE GROWING DESPERATE FOR VIEWERS."
Soyjak: "This is ra-ra-ra-cism!!!
"Bad boys 4 makes double its budget opening day."
Soyjak: "You bigots can't stop us. Woke sells."
Progressive publication blames Trump and Tucker Carlson for the plummeting popularity of professional sports - "An article published by The New Republic last week has linked the plummeting popularity of professional sports to comments made by both Tucker Carlson and former President Donald Trump. Titled Republicans have ruined sports for Republicans, they surmise that comments made by right-leaning media outlets and commentators calling these leagues "too woke, too liberal, or too tied to the Democratic Party" have led Republicans to protest watching... The New Republic fails to mention though, that a growing number Americans are fed up with sports teams becoming entwined with politics. They mention that leagues have leaned conservative in the past, citing the NFL's use of military symbolism and the MLB's aging fan base that historically leans Republican in voting. They also cite sports team owners past donations to campaigns and super PACS. These political leanings were not as overt as current displays... An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll conducted earlier in April showed a majority of Americans favored sports teams and organizations staying out of politics, with 55 percent opposing teams using their public role to influence political, cultural, or social change. While Republicans were more likely to want sports and politics separate at 84 percent, that's not to say its only Republicans. 58 percent of Independents responded saying they oppose, as well as nearly a third of Democrats, at 30 percent. "It is really the right, in this instance, that has insisted on pushing politics into professional sports. In its universe, keeping politics out of sports means pretending that a racist voting law doesn’t exist; it means insisting that there is no world outside the arena, which has never been true and is itself a political position," The New Republic article reads."
The left wing worldview is non-political. If you don't want the left wing agenda changing the world, it means you are political
Meme - I Survived the Kali Yuga: "Generally, you expect Disney animated musical features to be not your cup of tea when you're a dad. But you watch them because your kids enjoy them, and they're technically impressive if nothing else. Even the worst of them are engaging enough that you don't have to check your phone. But after about five minutes of this movie, my oldest daughter was fidgeting and my youngest daughter was telling me she wanted to watch The Shadow instead. The whole thing felt like it was written by ChatGPT, and there was something very off about the way it was animated (I can't quite put my finger on what it was). The songs were so bad and rambling, I thought they had to have been written by Lin Manuel Miranda, and I was legitimately shocked when I learned that they weren't. And the plot tripped over itself in the first few minutes by making the villain absolutely correct, then spent the second half of the movie making him over-the-top evil once they realized their mistake halfway through writing the script. Overall, this movie is proof positive that there is no greater time in history to be a creative. Because your competition from the mainstream is so absurdly inept that even your worst offerings will likely rival it for quality. I don't recommend it to anyone, as it's not even fun enough to riff on while you watch it."
Asha (Wish heroine): "Go ahead. TELL THEM MY MOVIE SUCKS. You KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN You Do *racist hammer*
Disney+ Loses 1.3 Million Subscribers in Final Quarter of 2023 - "Disney+ lost a whopping 1.3 million subscribers in the final quarter of 2023 amidst a price increase and crackdown on password sharing."
Disney Spoils Its Own Ride And Pays The Price - "Splash Mountain debuted at Disneyland in California in 1989 and set a new record for having the park's highest and steepest drop. This isn't the only reason why it broke new ground. Up to then, log flumes typically looked like scaffolding as they were formed from a weaving water channel which climbed to a height on bare steel supports before plummeting down at a steep angle. Splash Mountain changed the game as it water channel was set inside a soaring cartoony tree stump. The logs climbed up inside an old barn and then passed through indoor segments set in a faux forest. Based on the story of Br'er Rabbit, Splash Mountain immersed riders in vibrant scenes giving them the impression that they were traveling through a cartoon world. It was one of Disney's first rides to combine this kind of immersion with high thrills which came at the crescendo when two vultures wearing top hats ominously overlook a 52.5 feet fall into a cartoony version of a briar patch. The ride became a fan-favorite thanks to its iconic shape, catchy tunes, panoramic view of the Magic Kingdom before the final drop and its cast of colorful animatronic animals which also included Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear. The ride was inspired by Disney's 1946 movie Song of the South and this ultimately led to its downfall. Song Of The South tells the story of a young boy visiting his grandmother’s plantation after the Civil War and has been criticized for its racist depictions of Black people and for romanticizing the era. In 2020 Disney's chief executive Bob Iger said that the film would not be available to purchase or stream on the Disney+ platform and added that "Song of the South – even with a disclaimer – was just not appropriate in today’s world." Removing the ride based on it was not so easy but push came to shove in 2020 at the peak of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. After weeks of civil rights protests and petitions calling on Disney to change the ride it announced the end of Splash Mountain and claimed it had actually been planning this since 2019. To make it clear that a line had been drawn under the original ethos of the ride, Disney revealed that the new version would be based on 2009 animated hit The Princess and the Frog, which featured its first Black princess... Ironically, although Disney announced that Splash Mountain would be rethemed in Orlando and California, it soon came to light that the ride would remain the same at Tokyo Disneyland. The logic behind this is that the offensive origin of the underlying story has less relevance to the local audience in Japan. However, Tokyo Disney also happens to be the only Disney-branded resort which isn't owned or operated by the media giant. Instead, Disney simply provides the license to specialist leisure operator Oriental Land Co. (OLC) which runs the resort. Presumably, if OLC believed that the retheme of Splash Mountain would bring a significant benefit it would have given it the green light regardless of whether or not the subject matter was offensive to the local audience... Even by theme park ride standards, its premise is unclear and this hasn't been lost on the audience. At the time of writing, the ride-through video has has 336,000 views but has only been liked 7,600 times. Worse still, it has been deluged with negative feedback. "This video is so boring, I can't even imagine why they thought it would be a good idea. And the animatronics with the awkward arm motions...This retheme is going to go down as one of the greatest theme park blunders," wrote one viewer. Another said that "Disney once made a Haunted Mansion with 999 souls. They've now created an entire mountain without one." Not only did one viewer say "I'm so glad I'm not alone in thinking how utterly boring and visually uninteresting this is" but the comment yielded five replies from others who all agreed with it. Indeed, there has been so much negative feedback about Disney's video that WDWMagic, one of the leading authorities on Disney World developments, has produced a summary showing how the criticism picks each aspect of the attraction apart... Tiana's Bayou Adventure is the latest in a string of Disney attractions to be on the receiving end of stinging criticism. In April last year scathing reviews led to the Magic Kingdom's Disney Enchantment fireworks display being replaced with its popular predecessor Happily Ever After just 18 months after it was introduced. Likewise, in the same year, Disney's neighboring Epcot park dropped its new son et lumière show Harmonious after excoriating feedback from fans. Then, just last month, Disneyland was beset by criticism when it resumed its flagship nighttime show Fantasmic after a one-year hiatus. Fantasmic was put on hold following a fire inside the 45-feet animatronic dragon at the heart of the show but instead of repairing it, Disney has replaced it with an actor who stands atop a tall pillar. The unveiling of Tiana's Bayou Adventure casts a dark spell on the resumé of Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products"
Robby Starbuck on X - "It’s time to expose Tractor Supply. It’s one of the most beloved brands in 🇺🇸 by conservatives but what do they REALLY stand for under CEO @hallawton’s leadership?
• LGBTQIA+ training for employees
• Funding pride/drag events
• They have a DEI Council
• Funding sex changes
• Climate change activism
• Pride month decorations in the office
• DEI hiring practices
• LGBTQIA+ events at work
Hal also liked posts attacking unvaccinated people and @AllisonW_Sports when she left ESPN over the COVID vaccine. Let’s just say those likes make it appear he’s NOT fond of people who chose to skip the vaccine. I take no pleasure in bringing this all to light. I’m a Tennessean who loves to support TN companies but as a proud Tennessean I know these woke priorities don’t align with our state or @TractorSupply ’s customer base. We must make our voices heard. Hal Lawton needs to understand that we don’t want our hard earned money spent on these woke priorities. If he supports this stuff then he should spend some of his $11M salary or tens of millions in stock on it instead of using the money we spend at Tractor Supply. The kind of sex you like is not an appropriate topic for work. Events built around the kind of sex people like to have should not have kids at them and should not be funded with the money we spend at Tractor Supply. If you’re as disturbed by what you learn in this video as I am, here’s what you can do:
• Don’t take it out on your local store — the vast majority of them are conservative and hate that corporate is pushing this on them.
• Email/Call corporate to respectfully state your position as a customer after learning this information. Let them know where you stand. Here’s their corporate office number that’s listed publicly: (615) 440-4600 — here is their executive team if you’d like to write them or leave them a message at the corporate number. Again, please be respectful: https://ir.tractorsupply.com/investor-relations/governance/executive-management/default.aspx — If anyone has more info on contacting them at publicly available emails, please reply in the comments but no doxxing private info, it violates X rules and it’s not right.
• Start buying what you can from other places until Tractor Supply makes REAL changes and shows that they respect the majority of their customers enough to not spend the money we give them on causes we’re deeply opposed to. As someone with a farm, I know this isn’t easy but if we don’t show them who their customers are then they’ll just keep doing this.
Lastly I want to thank those who’ve reached out to me in distress about the direction of the company. This post is for all the workers who wish they could speak out but fear losing their jobs. That isn’t a very inclusive culture @hallawton. I think you need to get out of the Brentwood office and ask local customers how they feel about DEI/LGBTQIA+ trainings and how they feel about Tractor Supply funding pride events. I think you’ll find very quickly that you’re on the wrong side of this issue. I’m happy to discuss privately one on one as a voice for those people anytime you want off camera or on camera. That’s up to you. If you still feel strongly this is the direction you want to take Tractor Supply then I hope you at least say so publicly so all of your customers know where TSC stands. One last thing: Why are you hiding your sponsorship of pride events on Tractor Supply’s website where you proudly display events/orgs that TSC gives $$ to? Don’t want customers to know that’s where their money’s going?"
Robby Starbuck on X - "Tractor Supply VP/CFO Kurt Barton admits that CEO Hal Lawton came in a month before COVID and used the pandemic to "embed" DEI + ESG policies in every part of the company. "ESG was very purposeful to become part of our overall business strategy in 2020" "Year to date we’ve invested $630,000 into DEI organizations" "Increase hiring of POC at manager level by 50%" — This sounds like hiring based on race? "Hal Lawton chairs our DEI council" This is probably the most beloved company in the country by conservatives. If we don’t boycott and stop this woke agenda at TSC, where exactly can we stop it? Also, @TractorSupply @hallawton , there’s no use trying to scrub all the low view interviews of your execs that are floating around online, we already archived them. Customers and investors deserve to know the woke direction you’ve taken $TSCO."
Riley Gaines on X - "Huge news. Tractor Supply lost over $2 BILLION in just one week because of @robbystarbuck exposé. Suddenly, they've reversed course. This shows that corporations pledge allegiance to only one thing: money. On behalf of all sane people, thank you Robby!"
Tractor Supply ends DEI, Pride support and carbon goals - "Tractor Supply, a retail chain that sells home improvement equipment, livestock and agricultural supplies for farmers and pet owners, is eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion roles; withdrawing carbon emission goals; and walking back support for the LGBTQ community as part of sweeping changes to environmental, social and governance initiatives, the company announced this week. The retailer said in a Thursday release that it will no longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group. The company will also stop sponsoring Pride festivals and voting campaigns, the release said. The company previously earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Best Places to Work Corporate Equality Index."
Robby Starbuck on X - "Hey @HRC @GLAAD , I see you’re upset about Tractor Supply ending all DEI and donations to pride + drag shows for kids. Here’s my response: Get used to it. This is the beginning, not the end. You call me an extremist but you know what I find extreme? Expecting every company on earth to force your political + social beliefs on the entire planet. That seems sort of extreme. All my side is asking for is sanity. Let stores just be stores again. No politics, no far left social values push, just good products & service. No one is asking for discrimination, just normalcy and to not have your politics shoved down their throat. This the beginning of the end of your hold on corporate America. They’re waking up and realizing that they need US to walk in their doors. The customer will be king again. 🇺🇸"
Juicy Tolkien memes | Facebook - "Rings of Powers total lack of respect for Tolkiens work continues. The creation of the Barrow-wights was one of many evil deeds by The Witch-King during his war against Arnor. This took place 1400 years into the Third Age. RoP takes place during the Second Age. This makes about as much sense as British redcoats going to war against Roman legionaries. Don't give Amazon your money."
Empire’s World-Exclusive The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 2 Covers Revealed - "Inside, we discover Sauron’s next deception, venture on Galadriel’s new mission, probe the ongoing mystery of The Stranger, and do battle with Barrow-wights, as the show’s true narrative – and major villain – emerges from the shadows. Expect brand new interviews with showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay; stars Charlie Vickers, Morfydd Clark, Sophia Nomvete, and Daniel Weyman; director Charlotte Brändström, and more – along with brand new exclusive images and never-before-seen concept art from the upcoming season. It’s an issue forged in the fires of Mount Doom that you really won’t want to miss."
Philip Husband's answer to Why did the Rings of Power series fail? - Quora - "I tried to tell Amazon why it failed, and they notified me that they had removed my review of this disaster for being “inappropriate”. I suppose that it was “inappropriate” in the sense that Amazon hoped they would turn a profit from adapting unimaginative and banal Tolkien fan fiction, and they don’t want anyone pointing out the fact that this series is possibly the most expensive flop in history. I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, but it ended up being so bad that I “hate watched” the whole series as a form of test to see just how much boredom I could endure. To be fair, there were some funny moments, but they were unintentionally funny, such as surging orchestral climaxes for non-events, and horrible casting choices: I laughed out loud when the supposedly puissant Celebrimbor appeared on screen in the form of a middle aged actor who looked like an off brand Michael Palin.
An elf shouldn’t look like a deputy headmaster who’s just been told he has to take early retirement
An elf should look beautiful and ethereal, as Liv Tyler did in her portrayal of Arwen in LOTR
Entirely unconvincing as Galadriel, and the cheap plastic armor doesn’t help matters
The casting of this turkey was praised by virtue signalers for its “diversity”, but I fail to see what’s “diverse” about a cast that’s almost universally crap and/or inappropriate. It seems that the producers had spent so much money paying for the rights to a snippet of the Tolkien legendarium that they had almost no remaining budget to hire decent actors, many of whom look and sound like they were picked up from a random bus stop in South London. Even if they’d had the money, I suspect that decent actors would have read the script, and turned it down, not wanting to have their careers tarnished by any association with this dismal travesty. The producers probably thought they would score points by having a “strong female lead” in the form of Galadriel, but the character comes across as being merely bossy, entitled, and entirely unsympathetic. Other characters are just entirely pointless, such as the “Harfoots”, which are nomadic proto-Hobbits, who just wander around aimlessly and have silly conversations: when they are on screen, they are the most tedious part of an already tedious show, A compelling storyline and well written dialogue might have gone some way to redeem this series, but neither are present, as evinced by the fact that only 37% of people in the US who started watching it made it through all eight episodes. The decision to make a second series can only be explained by the “sunk cost fallacy”, and the fact that Jeff Bezos can throw away hundreds of millions of dollars, and still be one of the richest people on earth."
Bud Light Beer Sales Still Struggling After 2013 Dylan Mulvaney Ad - Bloomberg - "To revive Bud Light, AB InBev has plowed millions into marketing, including TV ads starring Peyton Manning and a sponsorship deal with UFC, but it’s still losing ground, according to interviews with distributors, bar owners and industry experts and data provided exclusively to Bloomberg News. In July, the brand slipped to third place in the US after rival Modelo and Michelob Ultra, another InBev brand, according to analysis of NielsenIQ data by industry consultant Bump Williams. Meanwhile, Bud Light’s market share shrunk to 6.4% in the second quarter at the more than 1,000 bars using point-of-sale software made by Union. That’s down from nearly 12% before the backlash."
Halo: Another TV Show Ruined By Identity Politics And Bad Writing
Cancellation of Halo TV show after two seasons is celebrated by fans of the game - "When it debuted in 2022, the first season was divisive among fans of the original Halo game franchise, receiving a lukewarm reception from many quarters. Critics claimed that the series strayed too far from the source material rather than being faithful to the original. Far from mourning the loss of a potential season three, many fans of the Halo game franchise celebrated its demise on social media. “I watched the garbage first season.... I stopped watching. Looks like a lot of people did,” one viewer commented on Twitter. “Paramount’s Halo is cancelled? it’s almost as if making a show about a game not for the people who like the game will backfire,” said another. Others said sarcastically said they were “so shocked” by the cancellation, while another tweet read: “No offense to the people that made it but that show is not Halo. It should be redone, rebooted, restarted, and/or made into a movie. Do not continue the current series, please.” Another stan of the game expressed gratitude that the TV version had been axed, writing: “Thank God. It had to go! The end result was s*** anyway.” One suggestion was that, if the show were to be renewed, they should “hire some actual writers who have READ the source material and love the Halo lore.”"
