While I agree some characters need a backstory to flesh them out, not everything nor every character needs a complete history for why they are way they are. Some of the charm or mystery of a character is what makes them so interesting to begin with. Han Solo is a great example of a character with an interesting past, and not knowing about his past, history or upbringings made the character even more interesting in my opinon. While I do not think “Solo” was a bad film, I feel it failed because people did not like how we saw nearly everything that made the character who he is. Did we really need to see the kessel run? How he met Lando? Or how he got ships dice? Seems unnecessary and can be hurtful to the character in the long run.
I could rant on and on, but not fully explaining everything about a character, in some cases make them even more interesting. “Cruella” is out on Disney+ and I just look at this film and ask myself, why? Is Disney so creatively bankrupt that cannot make an original story? Or bring to life a novel that has not been done before? A lot of Disney films/TV have been based of older fairy tales, & novels. Why continue to milk the nostalgia cow? Why not make something new? Just boggles me sometimes. I guess the short answer is money and brand awareness. Cruella is a character most Millennials and Gen X know about to some degree and it is better to coast off that then try out an original property or a new character.
Money speaks volumes, and at its core the film industry is a business, but I feel like a lot of the Studios that can afford to take a risk, do not. Often they play it safe. I have seen Disney take risk before Treasure Planet, The Black Cauldron, & John Carter, I could go on. I think the point is not everything needs to be fleshed out for a villain, it is cool to think about what made them that way and more interesting to guess, rather than be shown. Maleficent is another good example, the back story to her was really underwhelming and cliche. She worked better just as a scary witch, who we knew nothing about. Any way I’m done, make sure to smash that “Inf” button for points and subscribe shacknews on YouTube, all that jazz. Later.
