Two New Remakes With a Twist: Splash and Rocketeer

Posted on August 1, 2016 at 3:53 pm

More remakes! Two Disney films are getting remakes and both have gender twists. I’ve always had a lot of affection for Disney’s Rocketeer, with Billy Campbell, Timothy Dalton, Alan Arkin, and Jennifer Connelly. It was not a hit when it was released, but it is stylish and smart and exciting. I’m not the only one who considers it delightful.

Disney has announced a remake, but this time the title character will be black and female. And there’s a gender switch in the other remake as well. In a new version of Splash, Channing Tatum will play the mer-man, and Jillian Bell will be in the Tom Hanks role.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrBPajPTXuY
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In Production Remake

Rocketeer

Posted on September 15, 2008 at 8:00 am

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: 4th - 6th Grades
MPAA Rating: PG
Profanity: Very mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Social drinking
Violence/ Scariness: Wartime violence, guns, explosions
Diversity Issues: None
Date Released to Theaters: 1991

In honor of my son’s birthday this week, my DVD pick is one of his childhood favorites: Rocketeer. Based on a comic book that recreated the deco feel of the pre-WWII era, this Disney movie has a 1940s feel — with 1990s special effects. Cliff Secord (Bill Campbell) is a stunt flyer who discovers a contraption designed by Howard Hughes that, when strapped to his back and combined with a helmet for steering, allows him to fly. The equipment is being sought by the U.S. government and by thugs in the employ of sleek Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton), a swashbuckling movie star and Nazi sympathizer. Not a box office success when it first opened (“Terminator 2” opened the same week), it has been more successful on DVD because of its exciting story, top-notch performances (with Bill Campbell, sometime James Bond Timothy Dalton and Oscar-winners Jennifer Connelly and Alan Arkin), and gorgeous visual design and effects. It’s is the kind of movie they say they don’t make anymore, an old-fashioned popcorn pleasure with action, adventure, romance, a zeppelin, a pretty girl, and a guy who straps a rocket on his back and soars into the sky. NOTE: The movie has some comic-book style violence and some tense and scary moments. One of the bad guys has a misshapen face that may be upsetting to younger kids.

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