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by Moviefan
A Look at Disney Howls at The Moon: Villains Profile: The Wolf (Into The Woods)
October 25, 2022 in A Look at Disney, Blogs
Content warning: discussions of rape and sexual/child predators will follow in this blog.
This article was originally going to be up on Halloween but I felt it thematically better coming after yesterday’s entry as this deals with another story of subverting fairy tales. I am looking at how the film adaption of Into The Woods handled The Wolf. If you’ll recall years ago, I looked at this film handled the character of The Witch, and came away saying it wasn’t fair to label her a villain or rather that I had complicated feelings using that label with her. Â
With The Wolf, I have no problem saying about the character or the actor playing The Wolf.  Yeah, let me get this out of the way right now, I don’t think Johnny Depp is a good person.  Abd that’s about all I’ll say on that front. You can just Google his name and how he’s mistreated some of his exes to learn why I think this.
This movie made some interesting choices concerning the character of The Wolf, the first being the zoot suit look which was inspired by The Wolf from Tex Avery’s Red Hot Riding Hood.
The look of The Wolf’s outfit being based on the Tex Avery Wolf was something Depp himself requested. Interesting choice and it does make The Wolf stand out more compared to other characters in the musical. There’s also something else about Depp’s casting as The Wolf that bugs me and that was long before I learned who he truly was.
Depp playing The Wolf for all intents and purposes is stunt casting because, in the stage musical, The Wolf is typically played by the same actor that plays Cinderella’s Prince.
by Moviefan
A Look at Disney Howls at The Moon: Red-Handed (Once Upon A Time Episode Review)
October 24, 2022 in A Look at Disney, Blogs
Little Red Riding Hood is one of the most well-known fairy tales there is and of course, The Wolf is an iconic part of that story.  The ABC fantasy drama in its first couple of seasons played around with this classic story and presented a tale where Red and The Wolf were the same. Now, they aren’t the first to present an idea such as this.
Some historians believe that the wolf of the Little Red Riding Hood story was initially a werewolf and that the story first formed during the 16th and 17th centuries when a large number of trials were held throughout Europe in which men were accused of being werewolves who had molested or killed and eaten young children
I wouldn’t be shocked if this was meant to serve as a callback to that and heck one year before this episode aired, there was a horror movie with a similar premise.
The idea of combining werewolves and the story of Little Red Riding Hood is appealing to many and I can see why as it brings in another fun element. And I must admit I do love what OUAT did with Red as the Wolf except for the fact that she didn’t get many episodes truly dedicated to what being the Wolf meant. Alas for that, you’d have to go to extended material such as this book.
by Moviefan
Halloween In Stoneybrook: Dawn and The Halloween Mystery
October 23, 2022 in Blogs
We come to our second BSC review of the Halloween season and despite the title, this book takes place in California. Dawn is a child of divorce and her dad lives in California in the book, Farewell, Dawn, moves back to CA. She does eventually return to Stoneybrook, but CA becomes more of a home for her after a while.
Dawn’s time in California would lead to a spinoff series that focused less on babysitting and more on Dawn and her friends in high school.
by Moviefan
On The Halloween Case: The Haunting On Heliotrope Lane
October 22, 2022 in Blogs
I mentioned in my Hardy Boys Halloween review, that I’d love to look at some more material featuring my favorite detectives for around this time of year, and having covered something Hardy Boys related, I thought it made sense to look at something featuring Nancy Drew. I didn’t feel like looking at something from The CW show as there is almost too much to work with there.
And as popular as they may be, I’ve never played any of the Nancy Drew PC games. And I wouldn’t be very good at reviewing a game either. Shoutout to YouTuber WizardKitten who covers the Nancy Drew games.
by Moviefan
A Look at Disney Howls at The Moon: Friends Don’t Fade Away (Power Rangers Jungle Fury Episode Review) with Jim Bevan
October 21, 2022 in A Look at Disney, Blogs
Moviefan12: As I mentioned when I looked at the Hulk and Spider-Man episodes during this event, I wasn’t quite done with superheroes and werewolves. That brings us to the Disney Era of Power Rangers and notably the 16th season, Jungle Fury.
This is a fun season and one of the biggest things that make it work is the mentor, RJ. RJ is a different type of mentor compared to what we had seen for other PR teams before, he’s a bit more laid back and comes across as a slacker-type appearance but that contrast works. And RJ is the subject of today’s blog as he had to deal with his animal spirit that was a wolf almost taking over. However, I will not be looking at this episode alone as Jim Bevan has agreed to join me.
Jim: Thanks for inviting me to another collab blog, Moviefan. I have to admit up front that Jungle Fury isn’t one of my favorite seasons. Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from awful, but it never really clicked with me that much. I chalk that up to it being in development during the 2007 television writer’s strike, which led to some inconsistencies in characterization and plot lines.
by Moviefan
A Look at Disney Howls at The Moon: Werewolf By Night In Ultimate Spider-Man/Hulk and The Agents of S.M.A.S.H
October 20, 2022 in A Look at Disney, Blogs
This was originally going to be a blog looking at Werewolf by Night’s appearance in Hulk’s Disney XD show but considering how little he does in the episode, I decided to combine his appearance in that episode with a look at his appearance in Ultimate Spider-Man, which unfortunately means looking at something with Drake Bell. Both of these episodes feature a bit more of an obscure Marvel team, The Howling Commandos.
From what I understand, the monstrous form of The Howling Commandos didn’t come about until the early 2000s but that is the version of the team these episodes seem to have based their teams off of. A bit different than what we saw in the MCU.
by Moviefan
A Look at Disney Howls at The Moon: Halloween Moon (Spider-Man (2017) Episode Review)
October 19, 2022 in A Look at Disney, Blogs
Marvel has quite a bit of horror characters in their line-up. When looking at werewolves from Marvel, there are two prominent characters from The House of Ideas. The first is Werewolf By Night who debuted in 1972 and he will make his MCU debut in an upcoming Halloween special for Disney+
This Marvel Werewolf has made quite a few appearances in animated Marvel shows and may look at his MCU special in the future but there is something else that ties more into this review considering the guest hero in this episode. However today, we are looking at a different Marvel werewolf, one that is more attached to Spider-Man, The Man-Wolf
by Moviefan
A Look at Disney Howls At The Moon: Werewolf (So Weird Episode Review)
October 18, 2022 in A Look at Disney, Blogs
So Weird was a cult favorite Disney Channel from the late ’90s and rare for Disney Channel nowadays, not a sitcom. Granted, we are starting to see that again with Secrets of Sulphur Springs.
by Moviefan
Trotting Towards Nightmare Night: Villains Profile: Gloriosa Daisy
October 17, 2022 in Blogs, Trotting Through Life
At a certain point, the EQG villain ideas started to feel repetitive as, by the fourth Equestria Girls movie, they returned to the well of person takes on a monstrous form. As stated in the Cinch entry, we saw this both with Sunset and Sci-Twi.
It just started to feel samey after a while and while this may be the last movie, I’ll look this was not the last time that this was used. As this was seen once again with the character of Juniper Montage in the Mirror Magic short.
This is just the spinoff, the main show even kicked off with this type of villain in a way of Nightmare Moon could fall under this category as well.
It is interesting how often this well is returned in this franchise as we even see in the comics with my favorite take on this type of villain with Nightmare Rarity.
Do understand that it’s not so much I hate this trope or idea but rather how often G4 and EQG used this idea was a bit much.
by Moviefan
Halloween In Stoneybrook: The Ghost at Dawn’s House
October 16, 2022 in Blogs
Last year I started doing reviews of media related to The Baby-Sitters Club franchise. So far, there have only been three reviews, a Halloween review of the first book in the Super Mystery series, a review of the Christmas episode from the ’90s TV show, and a review of my favorite episode of the now sadly canceled Netflix series. It’s such a shame that the series was canceled as that is what led to me becoming a fan of this franchise in the first place. I loved the first season of that show so much that I dove in and checked out copies of the books, whether in original novel format or the graphic novel adaptions, which to this day is my favorite version of the BSC.  Being a newer fan of this franchise means that I’m always on the lookout for material to absorb. Admittedly, the BSC Wiki isn’t the greatest resource but it did have a section on Halloween books, and well the first option I wanted to look at, a graphic novel adaption of Mary Anne’s Bad Luck Mystery isn’t coming out until December of this year.
by Moviefan
Who You Gonna Call?: No One Comes to Lupusville
October 15, 2022 in Blogs
This Halloween on my main blog, I’ve been taking a look at media starring werewolves from The House of Mouse. I have plenty of interests where this comes up as well including Scooby-Doo but his werewolf movie has been covered to death on the internet.
That’s why I’ve decided to head to NYC and see what happens when the Boys in Beige (or rather multicolored jumpsuits in the cartoon) go up against vampires and werewolves.  Yep, the Ghostbusters once faced off against vampires. It’s a fun but simple episode as the team is tricked to partake in a war between two different groups of vampires and both are quick to pin the blame for taking the town on one another.
by Moviefan
Trotting Towards Nightmare Night: Villians Profile: Principal Cinch
October 14, 2022 in Blogs, Trotting Through Life
Every year around this time here on Trotting Through Life, I like to dedicate a series to one of the MLP villains and I may return to this idea in the future but I am doing something a bit different partly because I wanted to and partly because now that G4 is done, it’s a bit harder finding expanded material that explores its villains. That’s why this year I’m dedicating this event to MLP movie villains. A couple of stipulations, however, I will be not covering the original G1 movie as my experience with MLP begins at G4. In the future that could change if I ever watch the G1 movie.
Also, certain movie villains will be excluded as they have already been topics of their Nightmare Night series, this includes Sunset Shimmer, Tempest Shadow, and The Dazzlings. Â
There are a few more things to clarify before carrying on with this as you will see, I am starting with the last two Equestria Girls films and that is an important distinction as everything EQG-wise after Legends of Everfree was either a special or a series of shorts.  And while G4 is where my fandom began, that is not where this series will end as I will also look at the villain of the movie that kicked off G5.
I mentioned what villains I will and won’t be covering for this series but there is one other that will not get a full blog from this movie.
Midnight Sparkle aka Sci-Twi is an antagonist and what happened with Midnight Sparkle does linger with Sci-Twi in the following movie, Legends of Everfree in the same vein that Sunset did in the first EQG movie lingered over her in Rainbow Rocks but there are a couple of key differences between the two, Sci-Twi was pressured by her school most notably Principal Cinch to use Equestrian magic whereas Sunset became the raging she-demon of her own volition.
I will agree with the MLP forum that Midnight Sparkle does have a better design though. And as I’ll discuss during this series, what happened to Sci-Twi is tragic.
