Inside The Mouse Castle 01-26-2016 - New 'Star Wars' and 'Pirates' Release Dates and Josh Gad's Surprise

By Tim Callaway

Star Wars and Pirates get shuffled in 2017.

Disney is juggling its movie release schedule in 2017, which means you're going to have to wait an extra seven months before you get to see Star Wars: Episode VIII. Like the massively successful The Force Awakens. Episode VIII will open during the Christmas holiday season in 2017, moving from its previously announced Memorial Day weekend release. Sailing into that prime May slot will be Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the fifth installment of Captain Jack Sparrow's epic adventures. Even with Star Wars' December shift, Disney will still have a pretty busy summer 2017 slate. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 will open on May 5 and Pixar's Cars 3 will hit the streets on June 16.

Anthony and I grab our popcorn and Red Vines and settle in for this week's edition of Inside The Mouse Castle:

• At Disneyland, you can now get an up-close look at the Disneyland Railroad trains and the old Frontierland train depot. Meanwhile, Kylo Ren has started putting in appearances at the Star Wars Launch Bay. We're also happy to learn that the Pope House, the historic former residence next to Disneyland's backstage Circle D Corral, has been preserved and relocated beyond the berm on Disney property. Its previous location will become part of Star Wars Land.

Are we getting a teaser trailer this week for Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast?

• Josh Gad (Frozen) will host an episode of The Wonderful World of Disney, celebrating Disneyland's diamond anniversary. Disneyland 60 will air on February 21 at 8:00 p.m. We're also intrigued by a "surprise" Gad promised this week via Twitter.
  

  Big surprise coming this Thursday

  — Josh Gad (@joshgad) January 25, 2016

  We're really hoping it's a teaser trailer for Disney's live action Beauty and the Beast, set to open March 2017. Gad will play Gaston's (Luke Evans') loyal and dimwitted sidekick Lefou. Emma Watson (Belle) and Dan Stevens (Beast) also star in the highly-anticipated reboot of the tale as old as time.
  
• Building those virtual replicas of Disney theme parks (or Universal or Six Flags) will get easier with two new roller coaster video games coming out this year. We can't wait to get our hands on Atari's Roller Coaster Tycoon World and Frontier's Planet Coaster, which both promise levels of theming and immersion never seen before in a roller coaster sim.
  

Enjoy!

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Yo Ho, Yo Ho....Yawn

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides avoids the excesses of the last two movies, but also sucks the life out of the franchise.

Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and
Angelica (Penelope Cruz) search for the
Fountain of Youth.

By their own admissions, both Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski were confused by the numerous plot twists in the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean films. Depp explained to Entetainment Weekly that he told Verbinski on several occasions, "I don't really know what this means," to which Verbinski would reply, "Neither do I, but let's just shoot it." This resulted in two movies that, although entertaining, had needlessly over-the-top visuals and horribly convoluted plots. Their sole purpose was to keep hurtling forward, even if they had no idea where they were going.

Breaking free of the wretched excess of Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides focuses more on characters, cutting down on the subplots and special effects. It's the right idea, but director Rob Marshall and screen writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio take it way too far, removing most of the excitement audiences demand from a Pirates flick. On Stranger Tides is a snore.

Oh sure, there are plenty of sword fights, chases and explosions as Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) goes in search of the Fountain of Youth, encountering his old flame (Penelope Cruz) and the vicious pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane) along the way. The problem is there's never any real sense of peril to the action, never a moment when we think, "Wow, how's Jack going to get out of this one?" The movie just plods along from mild cliffhanger to mild cliffhanger with Jack effortlessly extricating himself every step of the way. It wants to be Pirates of the Lost Ark (complete with a scrappy ex-girlfriend and religious subtext), but it doesn't have the energy or heart to pull it off.

Ian McShane's Blackbeard is a bad man.

Which is an even bigger shame because the performances are pretty good. By now we've become very familiar with Johnny Depp's twitchy pirate captain, but in On Stranger Tides, he doesn't use the flamboyant gestures as a crutch like he did in Dead Man's Chest. Here, they're more subtle, the basic extension of a character Depp's become very comfortable with. Also effectively dialing it down a bit is Geoffrey Rush as Sparrow's longtime frenemy Barbossa, who's now sold his services as a privateer to the British navy and may have his own score to settle with Blackbeard. Rush has always channeled Robert Newton in his portrayals in the past, but this time he keeps the "ARRRGGHH's" to a minimum, making Barbossa less campy.

Cruz is smart and sexy as Capt Jack's former conquest Angelica. Even better is McShane, dark and menacing as Blackbeard, a "bad man" who will kill for sport and sacrifice others for his own self-interest.

If only they weren't all scuttled by Marshall's controlled, lazy direction and a tired storyline. Say what you will about Verbinski's bombastic approach to the first three Pirates movies. At least they were never boring.

Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush)

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