To be fair Paramount has been almost as open about fan creations as Lucas, and in fact provided the model. Oh, now and then they'll try and reign things in and exert more control, but you only have to look at Star Trek Phase II to see what they'll allow so long as you're not charging (they just released their 5th episode, and have 3 or 4 already filmed ones post production will supposedly finish this year including The Child and Kitumba)

It's not uncommon for me to rent movies just for the commentary

Your movie idea for a film set in the world of the logo, with people running in terror as the logo drops down on them, has already been done There's an anime anthology movie (which never made it to DVD in the US) called Robot Carnival. A bunch of directors were given money and told to do whatever they wanted so long as it had a robot in it. The opening and closings were done by the creator of Akira, and involved a huge mechanical clockwork Robot Carnival title rolling into a small village, firing off fireworks and rockets which destroy the town and kill most of the people. The end sequence shows it continuing on its journey as the few survivors look at their destroyed homes and wonder what the fuck just happened.

About the only thing I have against him is his treatment of the non-special edition originals, but I know of authors who have done similar re-writes and not kept the originals in print and I don't hate them. Hmm, I think maybe for me what can be ignored doesn't have to be hated

Also, I wouldn't call new Batman, Spiderman, or Superman movies remakes unless they're reusing the exact same plots as the earlier ones. They're just a new version of the characters. Some people see no difference, I know, but it'd be like saying each time they change the James Bond actor that they're remaking the first movie.

I also get annoyed when a new adaptation of a book is called a remake of an earlier adaptation, but that's just me

And with the ad now gone, it now looks like you really misread Maul2's post

I don't see the fact character arcs stopped as a totally bad thing, but maybe having them stop in the middle of the film and not in an interesting place isn't a good idea Ideally they'd have gone into the first film thinking about a franchise and brought the characters in that one to a nice state at the end from which they could go into the next movies without having to worry about much baggage.

Like everyone I had avoided this film, but now plan on going back and watching without the commentary as it is good And, with regard to the whole nerd beauty subplot, I have to post this comic:

Ah, yes....

I want to take everyone back in time, to 1997. You're in a meeting of Disney executives, about to see the first footage from Princess Mononoke. Disney is riding high on the new generation of Disney animation, and they want to use this clout to partner with their kindred studio in Japan, Ghibli. They have acquired all video distribution rights to Ghibli films in Japan, and the right to bring them to the US uncut. To start off this amazing partnership, then are helping to fund master animator Miyaziki's brand new film, which based on all his previous films like Kiki's Delivery Service and Laputa Castle in the Sky should be an amazing movie for the whole family and will get a wide US theatrical release.

The lights dim, the movie starts... and they see the scene you describe above.

Laughter was NOT the sound heard in that room

Reminds me of the Japanese live action mecha movie GUNHED. It was filmed with half the cast speaking Japanese and the other half speaking English, with each side understanding the other perfectly and subtitles for the audiences benefit. For the US release they did a dub version so everyone spoke English, which not only ruined the mood but destroyed the the one big laugh out loud moment when the Japanese lead says a line in English.

Going in the other direction, in a couple anime dubs the better American VA directors have been known to translate dialog from English into another language if in the original the intent was for the Japanese audience to not know what was being said unless they happened to know English.

Yes, a fairytale movie was aimed at the non-kids market All ages toons that draw in adults has been done, many times, but animated movies that don't even try for the kids demographic? We didn't exactly see tons of them, let along good or successful ones, after Beauty and the Beast.

(on the other hand, TV exploded with great animation for teens and adults despite the greater limitations on content. Maybe because they didn't have to have that big opening weekend but could grow an audience)