The idea behind the film "Black Is King," which premiered on Disney+ on July 31, is "to shift the global perception of the word Black," according to its director and star, Beyoncé. (Or is that Beyoncé Knowles-Carter? She takes the last name for her director's credit, but goes first-name only for her starring credit.)
But it's unlikely that too many fans will flock to Disney+ for altered semantics. Yes, "Black Is King" is an extravagant piece of empowerment, a riff on "The Lion King" that is set in Africa and continually points to the beauty and power of the Black experience. But this visual feast based on Beyoncé's 2019 album "The Lion King: The Gift" finds its moments of glory in the strength of its images, which are more arresting than the story or the subtext.
And if the idea of "Black Is King" is to uncover something new in the concept of Blackness, it is also to restate something about Beyoncé herself — namely, that anything she tackles will be special. She released a visual album in 2016, "Lemonade," and it was a landmark that won rave reviews and a Peabody Award. She played Coachella in 2018, structuring a show around the concept of historically Black colleges and universities, and it was perhaps the most acclaimed show in that festival's history, with an accompanying documentary that landed her an Emmy nomination as a director.
And after playing a voice role in the photorealistic remake of "The Lion King," she wasn't content to provide the voice of Nala and write a new song, "Spirit," for the soundtrack. Instead, she produced and curated an Afro-pop album, "The Lion King: The Gift," that reinterpreted the film's storyline and included performances from Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z and Childish Gambino, along with a number of African musicians and many members of the "Lion King" voice cast.
That album is the basis of "Black Is King," which slightly shuffles its songs and adds a few new touches, notably the celebratory and defiant new song "Black Parade." Unlike the album, though, the movie explicitly sets this story in the human rather than the African world: While it pulls snatches of dialogue from the 2019 movie, its story follows a young prince who is forced to leave his kingdom, only to return in triumph at the end.
That story comes through in bits and pieces, but it grows increasingly incidental as "Black Is King" goes on. The film is all about the music and the visuals, from the moment a camera swoops over the waves and locates Beyoncé in a flowing white dress standing regally on the beach.
"If you feel insignificant/You better think again," she sings at the beginning of the first song, "Bigger," but who could feel insignificant in this setting? The locations are wildly varied, from African deserts and plains to opulent interiors, and the clothes are absurdly glamorous because that's the point. The template is set early: Beyoncé sings, where she is and what she's wearing changes every couple of bars, and the audience gets a lavish, fast-paced tour of the rich visual and musical traditions of the African continent.
The ties to "The Lion King" occasionally ground the story in that familiar coming-of-age story, but they just as often feel beside the point: When the young prince is taken to a enormous mansion where Jay-Z drives a leopard-print Rolls Royce and Beyoncé cavorts to the extravagant "Mood 4 Eva," we might think that he's supposed to resist the temptations in all that excess – except that there's such tactile pleasure in that excess, and such delight when Beyoncé heads for the pool and turns into a hip-hop Ester Williams, that this doesn't exactly seem like a cautionary tale.
Many of the songs play like standalone videos loosely pulled into the storyline and connected by their celebration of African culture, and that's fine: Faced with the skittering beat of "Find Your Way Back," the dramatic staging of "Already" or the debutante ball riff in "Brown Skin Girl," it makes a lot more sense to bask in the beauty and not worry about how it advances the story.
Beyoncé's guests in all of this include her children, Blue Ivy and Sir Carter, as well as her Destiny's Child bandmate Kelly Rowland, Pharrell Williams, Naomi Campbell and Lupita Nyong'o, among others who turn the film into a jubilant tribute to Black experience and Black art. And toward the end, the film shifts away from its rich flamboyance to picture ordinary families in normal homes, before easing into a lovely version of "Spirit" that begins a capella, with Beyoncé backed by a gospel choir.
The film is being released at a time when Disney is coming to terms with some of its own racist past by stripping its Splash Mountain ride of its ties to the offensive film "Song of the South," and it's the second high-profile Disney+ release this month to put Blacks and people of color at the center of the story. ("Hamilton" was the first.) "We were beautiful before they knew what beauty was," Beyoncé says in a voiceover partway through "Black is King," which is designed to make a case for those words.
She's got another key line a little earlier in the film: "You can't wear a crown with your head down." "Black Is King" doesn't exactly stand with the best of her previous work — it's a pleasure but not a landmark — but the Queen Bey goes through it with her head up and her crown intact.
All 19 Disney Live-Action Versions of Classic Animated Characters, Ranked from Worst to Best (Photos)
Over the last few decades, Disney has increasingly dipped into its own well of nostalgic favorites. Specifically, they've been taking their beloved animated classics, remaking them in live-action (or mostly live-action), and producing one blockbuster smash after another. Let's take a look at all of the live-action remakes of Disney's animated classics, going all the way back to the 1990s, to explore which films improved on the original and which ones came up short.
19. "The Jungle Book" (1994)
The first live-action Disney remake of an animated Disney classic is, somehow, still the worst. Stephen Sommers ("The Mummy") directs this frustratingly inert take on Rudyard Kipling's stories, which strips the animals of their characterizations and highlights instead the bland experiences of British colonizers, who condescend to Mowgli (Jason Scott Lee) at every turn. Some of the supporting performances, especially by Cary Elwes and Lena Headey, are noteworthy, but the rest of the movie is a sloppy throwback to a mercifully bygone era of adventure filmmaking, full of backwards mentalities and underwhelming action.
18. "Christopher Robin" (2018)
The beloved stories of A.A. Milne have been previously adapted by Disney into several beautifully animated and heartwarming motion pictures. So it's especially cloying that Marc Forster's "Christopher Robin" just plops these timeless characters into a tepid and cookie-cutter family flick about a dad who -- gasp! -- spends too much time at work, and rediscovers his inner child thanks to the return of his old, magical friends. Ewan McGregor shines as the adult version of Christopher Robin, but the melancholy cinematography, underdeveloped screenplay and creepy VFX renditions of Pooh and his friends make "Christopher Robin" a rough slog.
Disney
17. "Alice Through the Looking Glass" (2016)
James Bobin's sequel to "Alice in Wonderland" certainly looks like an improvement on the original, with vibrant production design and weird visual effects, and a tone that's mercifully less grim. But the time-travel storyline, which sends Alice back to the early days of Wonderland (sorry, "Underland") to become the cause of all its miseries (including a genocide), retroactively injures the original film, which had a boatload of problems in the first place.
Disney
16. "Beauty and the Beast" (2017)
Despite the excellent source material and a decent cast, Bill Condon's remake of "Beauty and the Beast" has the unfortunate distinction of being the only live-action Disney remake that has absolutely no new interpretation of its material. It's just the exact same story but longer, and only because of unnecessary additions that arbitrarily pad the running time, confuse the characters' motivations, and shoot holes in the already thin plot. Add in some ugly character designs and an utterly forgettable new song, and you've got a film which made Disney a lot of money, but artistically has no particular reason to exist.
Disney
15. "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" (2019)
Maleficent is back, and this time she's meeting Aurora's future mother-in-law, Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer), who frames the sorceress for an assassination attempt and tries to commit genocide against Maleficent's fairy kind. Jolie is as sharp as ever but the movie gives her precious little to do or say. The plot is a leaden bore that's just an excuse to end in a big climactic battle (which gets hastily brushed off) and at the center of it all is the dumbest pipe-organ solo in cinema history. "Mistress of Evil" alsocompletely contradicts the story and message of the original, making both films worse as a result.
Disney
14. "Alice in Wonderland" (2010)
Tim Burton's blockbuster retelling of "Alice in Wonderland" is unnecessarily murky and violent, and -- worst of all -- devoid of Lewis Carroll's signature wit. Mia Wasikowska stars as Alice, who has forgotten all about Wonderland (sorry, "Underland") and returns years later, only to find it taken over by darkness, a problem that can be solved only by more war. The film comes across like a cynical attempt to make a classic story edgy and marketable, but at least there's an interesting attempt to transform Alice into a modern and active heroine, and the film's ensemble cast boasts some real highlights, including Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, and Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat.
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13. "The Lion King" (2019)
Unlike "The Jungle Book" -- which has at least one human character -- the new "Lion King" couldn't even be considered "live-action" in the most generous use of the term, but for the sake of conversation we'll include it anyway. This is an ambitious visual spectacle, re-creating the African savanna of the original 2D-animated movie in photorealistic CG detail as it tells the story of a lion cub who avenges his father's murder and brings order back to the ecosystem. When Jon Favreau's film works, it's a visual marvel. But when it fails, which is most of the time, it's because the film's literalist animation style is directly at odds with the arch, fantastical story and characters. Style may be the selling point, but too often, it gets in the way of the substance.
Disney
12. "Mulan" (2020)
Niki Caro's adaptation of "Mulan" sands down the queer edges of the original Disney classic, transforming a tale with a distinct and relatable point of view into a generic action spectacle. The wit is absent, the commentary is rote, the protagonist's plight is more easily digestible than ever, and although the film boasts detailed art direction and costume design, the epic action is undone by humdrum editing which rarely gives the action the space it needs to impress. A frustratingly Americanized, mediocre presentation of a classic tale.
Disney
11. "Cruella" (2021)
This revisionist prequel to the "101 Dalmatians" movies reimagines attempted puppy mass-murderer Cruella de Vil into an eccentric and precocious young woman, whose journey from obscurity to fashion celebrity borrows liberally from "The Devil Wears Prada," "The Count of Monte Cristo," and "Mannequin." It should be fun -- Emma Stone and Emma Thompson sure seem to be having a lot of it -- but the film's hypocritical appropriation of 1970s punk aesthetics only calls attention to how conformist the story is. "Cruella" gives Disney characters credit for an artistic movement which couldn't be more anti-Disney if it tried, superficially evoking images of rebellion while never being anything more than mass-marketable.
Disney
10. "102 Dalmatians" (2000)
Kevin Lima's sequel to the hit "101 Dalmatians" remake is strange and cartoony but, in its defense, completely unapologetic. Glenn Close returns as the despicable Cruella de Vil, now rehabilitated via brainwashing and eager to rescue puppies instead of murdering them. When her programming wears off, she resumes her wicked ways. There's not much more to it than that, but the film's astounding costume design and Close's pitch-perfect performance make "102 Dalmatians" an amiable, if shallow, piece of children's entertainment.
Disney
9. "Maleficent" (2014)
Disney's "Maleficent" isn't so much an adaptation of "Sleeping Beauty" as it is quasi-family-friendly riff on Abel Ferrara's "Ms .45." Angelina Jolie stars as a fairy who gets betrayed and violated by her human lover and left physically and emotionally scarred, so she plots her revenge against him by cursing his daughter, played by Elle Fanning. The cinematography is hard to make out a lot of the time -- and once you do get a good look at some of the CGI creatures, you'll wish it stayed that way -- but the bold new interpretation of the source material and Jolie's exceptional performance elevate "Maleficent" above its shoddy VFX and extremely sloppy storytelling.
Disney
8. "Aladdin" (2019)
Guy Ritchie's remake of "Aladdin" sucks out all the personality the filmmaker could have possibly brought to the project, instead simply rehashing the original in a mediocre but mildly enjoyable way. Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott are wonderful as Aladdin and Jasmine, and Will Smith plays the Genie like he's the ultimate fantasy wingman. It's like watching the original "Aladdin" acted out in the middle of a parade: Cheerful, well-intentioned and fleeting.
7. "Lady and the Tramp" (2019)
Take away all the animated magic of "Lady and the Tramp," and all you've got left is two dogs making goo-goo eyes at each other. And it turns out, in Charlie Bean's modest remake, that's just fine. Tessa Thompson and Justin Theroux are amiable mismatched lead voices, the story of love crossing class divides is just as simple and effective as ever and Bean's new film makes the whole story more inclusive (and wisely jettisons one of Disney's most problematic songs). The CG animation on the dog's faces, to make them talk more like humans, is distractingly subpar, but everything else is sweet. Unambitious, but sweet.
6. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (2010)
Except for an obligatory scene with some dancing mops, Jon Turteltaub's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" has very little in common with the classic Mickey Mouse segment from "Fantasia." Jay Baruchel stars as a young science nerd who is destined to become a sorcerer, and Nicolas Cage has to train him before evil sorcerers can raise an army and take over the world. It's a perfectly watchable fantasy adventure, but nothing about "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" makes a lasting impact. It's practically the textbook definition of "average."
Disney
5. "101 Dalmatians" (1996)
Stephen Herek directed a trio of live-action Disney hits in the 1990s -- "The Mighty Ducks," "The Three Musketeers," and "101 Dalmatians" -- and they're all satisfying family-friendly romps. Jeff Daniels and Joely Richardson play humans whose dogs fall in love and have oodles of puppies, and Glenn Close portrays Cruella de Vil like a pitch-perfect 1960s "Batman" villain. The film devolves into brainless, non-stop "Home Alone" slapstick in the second half, but it's never less than fun, and Close gives such a gloriously unhinged performance that she's practically Oscar-worthy.
Disney
4. "Dumbo" (2019)
Tim Burton's second live-action remake of a Disney animated classic is more clever, more emotional and significantly more subversive than his "Alice in Wonderland." It's still the story of a baby circus elephant with giant ears that help him fly, but this time his circus is purchased by a theme-park entrepreneur played by Michael Keaton, who proceeds to lay off most of the workers after the merger and to exploit his newly acquired IP beyond reason. Disney has often turned heartless capitalists into their villains, but in "Dumbo," the studio seems to be pointing the finger at itself, giving Burton's richly realized fantasy an unexpected and impressive sting.
Disney
3. "The Jungle Book" (2016)
Jon Favreau's "The Jungle Book" uses so much CGI that calling it "live-action" is probably a misnomer; there's only one character who isn't motion-captured, and even the realistic environments were digitally rendered. But either way it's an excellent film. Favreau eschews the laidback, episodic structure of the original in favor of a more focused adventure, with Mowgli (Neel Sethi) gradually taking responsibility for rescuing the jungle from the deadly Shere Khan (Idris Elba). An all-star cast of mo-cap animal characters keeps the film lively, although Christopher Walken is a distractingly strange choice for King Louie.
Disney
2. "Pete's Dragon" (2016)
Another nebulously defined "live-action remake," since the original "Pete's Dragon" was a mostly live-action musical fantasy with one animated title character. David Lowery's remake does away with all the classic songs (which ranged from adorable to weirdly violent) and also throws out the wackier storylines. Instead he highlights the emotionally sincere story of a lost boy whose only friend is a giant dragon. When Pete is discovered and brought back to the human world, his dragon, Elliot, comes looking for him. Lowery makes room for comic shenanigans, but he's mostly interested in exploring our contemporary capacity for wonder. He transforms a formerly eccentric tale into something beautiful and, possibly, timeless.
Disney
1. "Cinderella" (2015)
Disney's original "Cinderella" is a masterpiece of animation, but it's also a narratively thin piece of wish-fulfillment. Kenneth Branagh's live-action remake keeps the original, classic storyline in place but amplifies the characters, giving the wicked stepmother (Cate Blanchett) a meaningful motivation for her treatment of Cinderella (Lily James), giving Cinderella a set of clearly-defined principles that justifies her every decision, and giving the prince (John Madden) enough time with Cinderella that they can actually fall believably in love. Romantic, beautiful and -- from a story perspective, at least -- an undeniable improvement on the original, "Cinderella" is the crown jewel of Disney's live-action remakes. For now.
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How does "Cruella" rank among the studio's remakes of its animated hits?
Over the last few decades, Disney has increasingly dipped into its own well of nostalgic favorites. Specifically, they've been taking their beloved animated classics, remaking them in live-action (or mostly live-action), and producing one blockbuster smash after another. Let's take a look at all of the live-action remakes of Disney's animated classics, going all the way back to the 1990s, to explore which films improved on the original and which ones came up short.
The launch of the collaboration with Beyoncé, the most requested artist by Peloton's global community of more than 3.6 million members, is commemorating Homecoming season, an annual fall celebration for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that honors tradition and legacy. While most of this year's Homecoming festivities shifted to virtual celebrations due to the global pandemic, Beyoncé and Peloton worked closely to create a series of themed workout experiences to help extend Homecoming to Peloton members via classes across multiple fitness categories, including indoor cycling, running, strength, bootcamp, yoga and meditation.
The two are also gifting two-year Peloton Digital memberships to students at 10 HBCUs, providing access to a full library of fitness classes through the Peloton App that can be used with or without equipment. The digital memberships will go to students at Bennett College, Clark Atlanta University, Grambling State University, Hampton University, Howard University, Morehouse College and Morehouse School of Medicine, Spelman College, Texas Southern University, and Wilberforce University, by the end of November. Additionally, Peloton will build on its relationships with each of these schools to pursue long-term recruiting partnerships at both the internship and undergraduate levels.
"Peloton and I both believe that the power of music can help uplift, motivate and inspire those on their fitness journeys," said Beyoncé. "I've been a Peloton member for several years, and I'm excited to partner with a company that helps people, young and old, be the best versions of themselves, in an innovative and adaptable way. I'm proud to celebrate the students at HBCUs with this donation, to encourage them to find and embrace their own wellness regimens."
This special content is accessible on the Peloton App, which anyone can try for free via a 30-day trial period, as well as through the Peloton Bike, Bike+ and Tread+. In the coming months, Beyoncé will continue to work closely with Peloton on various forms of class curation across all workout disciplines, touching on areas of importance to her, including music, movement, fitness and wellness. The collaboration with Beyoncé is part of Peloton's unyielding pursuit to continuously provide an engaging and motivating experience for its members and leverage its products, platform and expertise to positively impact people's health and well-being.
"Beyoncé's commitment to empowerment and artistic expression is an inspiration to the entire Peloton community," said Peloton's Head of Music Gwen Bethel Riley. "It is a privilege to be able to work closely with her and her extraordinary team to broaden access to our platform and collaborate on incredible offerings we think our Members will love."
About Peloton Peloton is the leading interactive fitness platform in the world with a loyal community of more than 3.6 million Members. The company pioneered connected, technology-enabled fitness, and the streaming of immersive, instructor-led boutique classes for its Members anytime, anywhere. Peloton makes fitness entertaining, approachable, effective, and convenient, while fostering social connections that encourage its Members to be the best versions of themselves. An innovator at the nexus of fitness, technology, and media, Peloton has reinvented the fitness industry by developing a first-of-its-kind subscription platform that seamlessly combines the best equipment, proprietary networked software, and world-class streaming digital fitness and wellness content, creating a product that its Members love. The brand's immersive content is accessible through the Peloton Bike, Peloton Bike+, Peloton Tread+, and Peloton App, which allows access to a full slate of fitness classes across disciplines, on any iOS or Android device, Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku TVs, and Chromecast and Android TV. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York City, Peloton has a growing number of retail showrooms across the US, UK, Canada and Germany. For more information, visitwww.onepeloton.com.
About Parkwood Entertainment Parkwood Entertainment is a film and production company, record label and management firm founded by entertainer and entrepreneur, Beyoncé in 2010. With offices in Los Angeles and New York City, the company houses departments in music, film, video, live-performance concert and production, management, business development, marketing, digital, creative, philanthropy, and publicity. Under its original name, Parkwood Pictures, the company released the film Cadillac Records (2008), in which Beyoncé starred and co-produced. The company has also released the films Obsessed (2009), with Beyoncé as star and executive producer, the winner of the Peabody Award for Entertainment, Lemonade (2017), the Emmy Award-winning Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé (2019), which documents Beyoncé's history-making performances at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in 2018, and Black Is King (2020). Parkwood Entertainment produced The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour (2013-2014), The Formation World Tour (2016), and the aforementioned "Homecoming" performances at Coachella (2018), and co-produced the ON THE RUN Tour (2014) and ON THE RUN II Tour (2018).
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