Record-Breaking Barbie, The YouTube to Filmmaker Pipeline, and A Refreshing Take on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Barbie's box office nears $1,000,000,000, the Philippou Brothers go from YouTube To A24 with Talk To Me, and TMNT makes a comeback as animation continues to soar.

Aug 03, 2023

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has quickly become the movie of the summer. It’s current box office gross is sitting at $774 million dollars and is expected to hit $1 billion by Sunday. That’s INSANE.

As for critical feedback, it’s been mostly positive with the same old conservative voices beating the same old dead ass horse.

It’s a grift. It gets clicks and it makes money. That’s it. It has no real basis in fact as so many of these commentators completely miss the point. They watched the movie through such a particular lens and inserted elements that weren’t even there. I don’t think most of these people believe the hate they’re spewing. It’s all about $$$. In the end, it’s great free marketing for the movie. Any PR is good PR, babes. Thanks!

As for me, I absolutely loved it. The cast, the production design, the costumes, the musical numbers, Greta’s odes to old Hollywood, the emotional ending (paired beautifully with Billie’s What Was I Made For?), Margot & Ryan. It’s a lush, magical, pink fever dream.

Check out my full review of Barbie:

You know we had to turn it out for Barbie!

Aussie Twin YouTubers Make It to the Bigtime

AUSTIN, TX - MARCH 11: Michael Philippou, Sophie Wilde and Danny Philippou of 'Talk to Me' pose for a portrait at SxSW Film Festival on March 11, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Robby Klein/Getty Images)

Danny and Michael are known as RackaRacka on Youtube. They’ve been running the outrageous prank channel since 2013 and have managed to rack up over 1 billion views.

They’ve always wanted to make a feature length film and when the idea of Talk To Me came to them, they saw the chance and took it.

Talk To Me follows a group of friends who discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.

The star of the film, Sophie Wilde, joins the ranks of some of the 21st century’s greatest scream queens including Florence Pugh, Jenna Ortega, and Samara Weaving.

Danny and Michael confessed during a Letterboxd interview that they fought hard to have Sophie lead the film.

“I’m so glad we got her and because she wasn’t a name, we lost budget for casting her. We lost a million dollars out of the budget. We just knew she was worth it. She is seriously the most incredible actress, we love her so much. We too are very excited to see what she does next.”

They also fought to retain creative control over their film by producing it independently in Australia.

"I don't even know how I can direct something if I'm not understanding the notes that I'm given, or if I'm catering to someone else's vision. I wouldn't know how to convey that to my actors. So I just don't think I'd be capable of doing it."
Michael Phillipou, yahoo! news

It’s so fucking awesome to see filmmakers traverse both digital and traditional media. There’s a place for everyone in entertainment and it goes to show how truly creative people can be successful in anything they do. Companies are finally giving creators a chance and I love seeing big wins like this.

The brothers uploaded a sweet video to their channel that you gotta check out. It made me emotional seeing their film being picked up by A24 at Sundance. Watching dreams come true is the closest to real magic we can get.

Billion Dollar Toys From the 80’s Are Still Making Big Moves Decades Later

Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo have been around for almost 40 years and yet haven’t aged a day. Toys, movies, animated series, video games, and more have immersed several generations in the quirky and cool animorphic superheroes we’ve come to love.

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and Nimona have given us some of the most innovative animation styles in years. This continues with the latest entry to the TMNT franchise which has gotten a ton of love from both critics and audience members.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem follows the Turtle brothers as they work to earn the love of New York City while facing down an army of mutants.

Directed by Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears (Amphibia).

Written by teams Evan Goldberg (Sausage Party) & Seth Rogan (Superbad, Pineapple Express) & Jeff Rowe (The Mitchells vs The Machines, Gravity Falls)

and

Dan Hernandez (Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, The Addams Family 2) & Benji Samit (Koala Man, One Day at a Time).

On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s sitting at a critical score of 95% which surpurasses both Barbie and Oppenheimer.

Animation may be entering a renaissance and it’s awesome to see audiences of all ages giving flowers to such a unique kind of filmmaking.