8 Differences Between the Animated and Live-Action Dumbo

8 Differences Between the Animated and Live-Action Dumbo

Warning: SPOILERS for the new Dumbo are ahead!

Last weekend, Disney released the latest live-action remake of one of its classic animated films. This time the spotlight shined on Dumbo, who first appeared in 1941. Directed by Tim Burton, the new Dumbo fell short of expectations at the box office and received mixed reviews, so it hasn't caught on fire like many of Disney's other remakes. However, what sets Dumbo apart from those films is that it isn't afraid to deviate from the source material.

Not since Pete's Dragon has there been a Disney remake that changed so much from original movie. You can argue that Dumbo had to make those changes because the cartoon was only about an hour long and some of its elements haven't aged well. Regardless, the remake is really different from the original and most of the changes make it an improvement. Here are eight things that the new Dumbo did differently from its predecessor.

More Emphasis On Human Characters

1941's Dumbo was all about, well, Dumbo. Even though Dumbo never spoke, thanks to the power of animation, audiences were still able to identify with him because of how expressive he was. Plus, he had a small cast of animal characters to speak for him and to keep the plot moving. For his live-action debut, Dumbo is photo-realistic, which means its harder to base an entire movie around just him because he can't be as expressive. So, you need human characters to interpret Dumbo's feelings. Colin Farrell stars as World War I veteran Holt Farrier, who returns home to the circus to raise his two children, who become the caretakers of the newborn Dumbo. The original Dumbo only really had one human character, the ringmaster, who is played here by Danny DeVito.

No More Talking Animals

Seeing as how the remake is a mostly grounded take on Dumbo (excluding the whole flying elephant thing), the film made a decision not to include any talking animals. Dumbo never spoke anyway, but that meant no sassy elephants and no Timothy Mouse, Dumbo's sidekick. The latter is probably the most notable exclusion, but Timothy's role as Dumbo's emotional support is fulfilled by the Farrier children, so there's no real loss from a story perspective. Timothy does still have a cameo as a mouse being trained to perform in the circus. Another benefit of this approach is that the film doesn't have to deal with the talking crows, who in the 1941 version were a racial stereotype of African Americans. (The lead crow was actually named Jim Crow!)

Almost The Entire Plot

1941's Dumbo is barely over an hour long, so a modern day remake would naturally have to reenvision most of the original to fit a two-hour runtime. Additionally, most of the original is just Dumbo going through various shenanigans while trying to reunite with his mother until he learns to fly in the final five minutes(!!!) of the movie. So, a lot of the plot is entirely new to the remake. About the first 30 or so minutes of the movies are the same before the remake deviates from the path. Once Dumbo becomes an overnight sensation, theme park mogul V.A. Vandevere buys Dumbo's circus and brings it to his Dreamland amusement park so that Dumbo can be his star attraction. From there, the film is about Dumbo preparing for his debut while the Farriers hatch an escape plan after learning that Vandevere isn't such a nice guy.

Dumbo Doesn't Get Wasted

Probably the most memorable sequence in 1941's Dumbo is "Pink Elephants on Parade," in which Dumbo and Timothy (accidentally) get drunk and have a trippy hallucination of dancing pink elephants. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but no, a baby elephant doesn't get wasted in this movie. In fact, the remake makes a very quick nod to that when a clown offers to give Dumbo a celebratory drink and DeVito snaps "No champagne near the baby." However, this doesn't mean that the pink elephants don't make an appearance. In the remake, they are massive bubbles that are conjured at Dreamland before Dumbo's big act. They don't play their trumpets like horns, but it's a satisfactory sequence that doesn't leave Dumbo with a hangover.

Dumbo Is Born The Old Fashioned Way

Rather than have Mrs. Jumbo be pregnant and need to explain to kids how babies are born, the original Dumbo had a stork deliver the baby elephant to his mother. It's actually really cute, but the live-action version obviously wasn't going to go that route. Nope, Dumbo is born the old fashioned way. The actual birth isn't shown, but Dumbo shows up about 10 minutes into the movie. The movie does have another nod to the original when the pregnant Jumbo spots a stork right outside her cage the night she gives birth to Dumbo. Dumbo's father is a no-show in both versions.

Uh, Someone Dies

Dumbo is about as light of a kid's movie as you can get, though, it can be really sad in places. However, no one ever died in the original, which you can't say about the remake. Early on in the film, there's a mean circus worker who hates Holt because of... reasons, and he especially seems to hate the elephants. With Holt in charge of the elephants, the worker tries to jeopardize him during Dumbo's very first show by agitating Jumbo and setting her loose in the big top. It doesn't help that everyone was making fun of her big-eared baby, but Jumbo inadvertently knocks over one of the supporting columns during her rampage, and it crushes the worker. The movie whizzes by this and no one sheds a tear for the guy, but it's still pretty weird to say that there was death in a Dumbo movie.

Jumbo Is Sold From The Circus

The inciting incident in Dumbo is that his mother is imprisoned after she attacks people for making fun of her son. She's chained up and locked away in her own cage, which happens in both movies. However, the remake goes a step farther and sells Jumbo back to her original owner, truly separating her from Dumbo. Thus, Dumbo tries to become a circus star in the hopes that his act will raise enough money to buy back his mother. Jumbo is later sold to Vandevere and reunites with Dumbo when he arrives in Dreamland, but Vandevere decides to send her away and have her killed so that Dumbo won't have any distractions. In the original, Jumbo stays in elephant jail and is simply let go once Dumbo starts flying.

Dumbo Is Released From Captivity

Perhaps nothing highlights the differences between the two movies and the decades they were created than the ending. At the end of the original film, Dumbo learns to fly and is reunited with his mother, living a life of luxury at the circus as a superstar. The remake goes in the exact opposite direction. The Farrier family and the circus performers decide to help Dumbo and his mother escape Dreamland after learning Vandevere will kill Jumbo. Realizing that Dumbo shouldn't be forced to live a life of captivity performing, the Farrier's get Dumbo and Jumbo on a boat to East Asia, where the two can live in freedom. The film ends with Dumbo soaring above a herd of elephants and the circus flourishing with no animal captivity.

The Dumbo remake made a ton of changes to the original, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The original is less than perfect, and if Disney was gung-ho about redoing it, then a lot needed to be updated and changed. Again, Dumbo doesn't fly until the last five minutes of the original, which is INSANE. The remake has him airborne relatively fast, which is an example of a change that was for the better. While none of these changes necessarily make Dumbo a better movie, they certainly don't hurt it.

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New Toy Story 4 Trailer Shows Buzz Flying And Rex Panicking

New Toy Story 4 Trailer Shows Buzz Flying And Rex Panicking

As the summer release of Pixar’s fourth Toy Story adventure is now just under three months away, the studio is starting to give us a closer look regarding just what the beloved toys will be up to this time around. We already know we’ll meet a craft-project named Forky, the gang will go on a roadtrip with Bonnie and Woody will reunite with Bo Peep at a carnival. The new international trailer is showing us a bit more of Buzz Lightyear’s storyline, along with some memorable lines we already can’t wait to quote. Check it out:

Excited yet? The Disney UK trailer features a ton of the fun footage we have seen thanks to the release of the full Toy Story 4 trailer last week, but also has a few more tidbits to show off we have yet to see until now. First off, there’s a great Rex line that will certainly find its way into reaction gifs: “the panic is attacking me!” The plastic T-Rex looks to be talking about the toys’ upcoming road trip, but it’s a great addition to the anxious character’s other lines such as “I just don’t think I can take that kind of rejection” and “Oh, I hate all this uncertainty”. Same Rex. Same.

Another new moment seen in this new trailer is a bit more of what looks to be a hilarious exchange between Woody and Forky on the side of the road. The craft project runs away from the vacation because he doesn’t feel like he belongs there and Woody goes after him to convince him to come back to Bonnie. The new footage features Forky asking Woody to carry him before Tom Hanks’ iconic character gives him a hard “no”.

There is also more footage of what will be going on for Buzz in Toy Story 4. After Woody and Forky leave the RV, Buzz plays the hero (as always) and decides to opt for his own rescue mission and fly out the window. The character voiced by Tim Allen seems to learn nothing from the first movie, as his flight attempt turns into one big “fall with style” that gets him captured and turned into a carnival prize.

Buzz ends up next to Key and Peele’s new characters, Ducky and Bunny, who seem a little threatened by his presence in the toy lineup. Ducky makes fun of Buzz by saying “To infinity and my foot” while kicking the space cadet before it gets stuck in his helmet.

The new Toy Story 4 moments are primarily comedic ones that tease some laugh-out-loud moments between the new and old toy characters as they venture into the carnival setting that the new movie seems to largely take place in. Where will the movie take us (and our tears) this time? The movie comes out on June 21, 2019.

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How A Romantic Relationship Introduces A Big Change For Shaft

How A Romantic Relationship Introduces A Big Change For Shaft

John Shaft and his son John Shaft Jr. (evidently their familial relationship has changed) have both been known for two things: their reputations as ladies’ men and tough crime fighters who know how to get answers. With the addition of the third generation in JJ, Shaft is going to add some interesting dynamics to the world of that character. And one of the most surprising is the relationship between Samuel L. Jackson’s John Shaft Jr. and the mother of his child, Maya, played by Regina Hall.

For a man who followed in his father’s footsteps as being very social with women, John Shaft Jr. apparently found his romantic Achilles’ heel in Maya, as we’ll see in director Tim Story’s Shaft reboot. And during a set visit early last year, CinemaBlend was on hand with other journalists to learn just how that relationship will affect not only the story of the Shaft reboot, but also how it effects the legendary image of this character.

To start us off, here’s what we learned from Regina Hall, in terms of why Maya is so attractive to Shaft, but also why their relationship broke up at the beginning of Shaft:

She’s very good in bed. That’s how she got [John] Shaft. You know, Shaft has a lot of ‘em, but Maya came along, and he was like ‘That, right there.’ … His lifestyle is the problem, so when they have a child and she becomes a mother, and they get shot at by about 10 men, she decides that it’s probably safer for her to raise the baby away from Shaft.

While the trailer for Shaft showed audiences a lot of the set-up for three generations of John Shafts running around and fighting crime, we do get to see a little bit of Maya putting John Jr. in his place when confronting him about their son’s involvement in the film’s central case. And instead of the typical argument you would expect to ensue, we see Samuel L. Jackson’s second generation John take their encounters in stride.

It’s this fact that Regina Hall continued to elaborate on, as she further discussed the relationship between John Jr. and Maya as follows:

It’s good to see him in a position where he cares, so he’s not in a power position. And that’s the only time he’s not in the power position is when he’s with Maya. He’s like a man in love.

One of the core tenets of Shaft’s central character is that he is, in fact, a sex machine to all the chicks. But with JJ hot on the case of a murdered friend, and his father John Jr. helping him investigate, John Jr. and Maya get to bristle with energy

During that same day on the set visit for Shaft, we got to also talk to Samuel L. Jackson, as he walked into the room during our discussion with Regina Hall. And like any good partner, Jackson jumped in with further details about how John Jr. and Maya’s relationship is different from a typically conflicting romance. He laid down the following clues as to what we’ll see in their interactions during Shaft:

It’s not even a love/hate thing, it’s just a love/safety thing. She took him away from me, because my lifestyle is too dangerous. It had nothing to do with her falling out of love with me. But in the absence, people create and fill their space how they need to fill it. And she’s done that in those 25 years. … The separation is one thing. It’s like we literally don’t see each other, so all of a sudden when we see each other you can see, when they look at each other, this thing happens that’s almost irresistible. But it’s like, I’m not letting you pull me back in.

As there’s more of a careful mix between comedy and action in director Tim Story’s Shaft reboot, one of the binding agents that seems to balance those two factors out is this family reunion of John Jr., Maya and JJ; as well as the addition of Richard Roundtree’s original John. In a series primarily known for a single protagonist solving a crime, doing the legwork to find those responsible, and bringing them to justice, you need a strong hook to introduce such a dynamic this late in the game.

And the best description of just how the John Jr./Maya relationship balances those tones in Shaft is the one that both Samuel L. Jackson and Regina Hall gave as they discussed their on-screen romance:

Jackson: And generally, every time they’re together, something fucking dangerous happens.

Hall: Within six minutes, some shit pops off.

Jackson: Or I say something wrong.

Let’s just hope that Regina Hall’s Maya gets to be one bad mother herself, once it all hits the fan. We certainly won’t have to wait too long to find out, as Shaft is in theaters on June 14, and we’ll have more coverage available on CinemaBlend as we get closer to that film’s launch.

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Dan Aykroyd Wants A Ghostbusters Prequel To Happen

Dan Aykroyd Wants A Ghostbusters Prequel To Happen

Fans of the Ghostbusters movies are certainly looking forward to the upcoming sequel that will return the franchise to the world of the first two films, being directed by the son of Ivan Reitman. There have clearly been plans to bring the Ghostbusters brand back as a major franchise, and it seem Dan Aykroyd already has a host of ideas for follow ups to the new film, including a prequel series that would take the characters Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler, back to high school.

Yes, in case you were curious, it seems that the three original Ghostbusters first met in high school. While the idea for the project is still several years away, Dan Aykroyd has apparently written a treatment for the concept which could apparently work as either a feature film or a television project. According to Aykroyd...

I’ve written Ghostbusters High, where they meet in New Jersey in 1969 and we’re looking to do that as probably a glorified feature or pilot within the next maybe five years.

It's not exactly clear what Ghostbusters High would actually be all about. Assuming that it is supposed to act as a direct prequel to the original 1984 Ghostbusters, that film makes it clear that the trio had never come that close to an actual ghost before the opening scenes of the film, so the series wouldn't actually follow the three characters actually fighting ghosts, would it?

Still, for fans of Venkmen, Stantz, and Spengler, the concept probably sounds like a lot of fun. The new Ghostbusters film is expected to include much of the original cast, but it won't actually be about them, so fans who want another story that actually focuses on the original characters, this could be their best bet.

It seems the idea for Ghostbusters High would be to ultimately become a television series. Dan Aykroyd apparently gave the idea to Jason Reitman even before the current Ghostbusters movie idea became a reality. Aykroyd is clear that this idea is part of a long term plan so we shouldn't expect to see it anytime soon, but he's clearly excited by the concept...

And it would lead to a television project and I thought of [Jason Reitman] immediately for that. It’s on his desk but that’s years away from the current project. But it’s a neat idea for a prequel. Imagine casting the three characters as teenagers!

Dan Aykroyd tells 660 News that he actually envisions this series as a sort of finale on the current Ghostbusters plans. After the current film, the actor/writer/vodka entrepreneur says there are one or two other film projects that are planned, and he sees Ghostbusters High coming after those films, as a sort of finale. Of course, that also means that if the new Ghostbusters movie doesn't hit, it could scuttle the entire plan.

Do you want to see the Ghostbusters as teenagers? Let us know in the poll below.

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Avengers: Endgame Director Would Love To Work On Wolverine

Avengers: Endgame Director Would Love To Work On Wolverine

Right now, lovers of comic book movies are talking about nothing other than Avengers: Endgame. However, once the dust settles and the Marvel Cinematic Universe moves on to whatever it's going to be in the future, fans will certainly begin to wonder what the future has in store now that a host of new characters are potential fodder for MCU movies. Recently, Avengers: Endgame co-director Anthony Russo was asked which of the newly acquired heroes he would be most interested in telling a story with. Unsurprisingly, he's excited by the idea of Wolverine. According to Russo...

I mean, we've always been huge fans of Wolverine. We certainly haven't been thinking about if and when and how we would ever go there, but just off the top of my head, that's a character we've always been passionate about.

At this point, we have no idea what Marvel Studios has planned for the X-Men or the Fantastic Four, the characters who now have seen their film rights return to Marvel following the purchase of 20th Century Fox by Disney. We don't even know if Marvel even has a plan yet. However, if the Russo Brothers ever decide to make another Marvel movie, it seems the studio might be able to entice them by offering them a chance to tell a Wolverine story.

It's not too surprising to hear Anthony Russo tell Fandango that he and his brother love Wolverine. Who doesn't? The character is by far the most popular of the X-Men from the comics and after spending two decades with Hugh Jackman playing the role on the big screen, the character is that much more well known.

Of course, what the future holds for Wolverine is far from clear. Hugh Jackman has said that he's done with the role, and since his version of the character is dead, that seems pretty definitive. We can be sure we haven't seen the last of the character on screen. He's simply too popular to never see again, but exactly how soon we'll see him remains to be seen.

It's unlikely that we'll be getting these answers soon, Disney reportedly is still trying to decide what to do with Fox's in-development Gambit movie and while it's always possible that the project could move forward, only as an MCU movie, that's probably part of a much larger conversation about the future of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. At this point, we don't even know what's happening with the characters that we have in the next 12 months. While we know several of the Marvel films that are in development, none of them have release dates. This means we can't really know what the future has in store.

Whenever Wolverine does return to the big screen. marvel could certainly do worse than getting the Russo Brothers involved.

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The Fast And Furious Movies In Order: The Best Way To Watch The Fast And Furious Franchise

The Fast And Furious Movies In Order: The Best Way To Watch The Fast And Furious Franchise

Warning: SPOILERS for the Fast and Furious movies are in play. Just in case you haven’t seen them, you can read the order of how the films play out chronologically, and then come back later once you’ve experienced the series in its entirety.

We’re in an interesting juncture in the Fast and Furious franchise, as we won’t be seeing the ninth film in the series proper until next year. This is despite the fact that The Fate of the Furious was unleashed upon the world in 2017, and while we’re all on board with good things coming to those who wait, we’re anxious to see what happens next.

That being said, there is some excitement on the horizon in the world of this supercharged franchise, as Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw will be holding court in their own blockbuster spin-off, Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw. And while you probably won’t need to see the films that came before this one in the series proper to truly enjoy it, it’s a long wait until August, and it certainly couldn’t hurt.

It also doesn’t help that the titles to the Fast and Furious films don’t exactly spell out the proper viewing order. So once and for all, in the name of franchise fans new and old, we’d like to nail down the correct order for your next Fast and Furious movie binge. Buckle up, because not only is it time for driving puns, it’s time to live your life in the name of family, a quarter mile at a time. Let's start off by laying out the Fast and Furious movies in order of how they were released.

The Fast And The Furious (2001)

The starting line for the franchise, The Fast and the Furious was inspired by real life street races and a Vice article that covered their existence. This might come as a shock to people who tend to remember the more recent films better, but Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner and Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto started out as adversaries on opposite sides of the law.

Brian at this point is an undercover cop who's trying to send Dom and his family up the river through an extensive sting operation. However, by the end of the film, both are brothers in arms and ready to start an entire franchise of action. At least, that was the eventual intent, as there would be two sequels that would try to redefine the formula of the series without Vin Diesel’s contributions.

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

With the focus put on Brian O’Conner this time out, Paul Walker was the central lead for 2 Fast 2 Furious. As such, there was a need to explore a new setting with Miami, as well as introduce a couple new characters to aid in his investigation of a local drug lord. Which, of course, involves some fast street racing through various Florida based locations.

The second of the Fast and Furious movies, 2 Fast 2 Furious introduced two characters that would eventually return to the series fold down the line: Tyrese Gibson’s Roman Pearce, and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges’ Tej Parker. They won’t be seen for a couple more films though, as another huge shift is about to take place in the Fast and Furious universe.

The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

As if 2 Fast 2 Furious’ problem of having a lack of Vin Diesel wasn’t bad enough, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift lacked any significant participation from any of the series’ lead actors. This prompted an entirely new story to be told, through even more new characters. Introducing Lucas Black’s Sean Boswell and Sung Kang’s Han Lue into the series, the film tells the story of Sean being forced to move to Tokyo after getting into some legal trouble with some fast cars back in the U.S.

With Sean’s introduction to drift racing on the streets of Tokyo, the fast paced excitement of Fast and Furious franchise history had finally gone global, introducing new characters that would return later down the line in the series’ history. Han would become an especially crucial member to the team in subsequent films, despite his character meeting a fiery death in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. And while it wasn’t a significant role, Vin Diesel does return as Dom at the very end of the film, tying this installment even tighter to series continuity, as well as presenting another chronological problem.

Fast And Furious (2009)

Eight years after the original adventures of The Fast and the Furious, the franchise started to hit the stride that it currently enjoys with its run of films. Pretty much the entire original cast of that first film is back, though the plot of this fourth film, strangely titled Fast and Furious, sees the death of Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty kick off a quest for vengeance on the part of Dom and Brian.

Bringing back Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster for the first time since they starred in The Fast and the Furious, Sung Kang’s Han Lue is folded into the overarching group in Fast and Furious, with Gal Gadot also being brought in as Gisele, one of Dom’s substitute love interests while Letty is out of the picture. From this point on, while some characters would shift in and out of the group, the core cast of Diesel, Walker and Brewster would remain for a while, with some new friends to be added along the way.

Fast Five (2011)

After tangling with drug cartels and organized crime through the power of street racing for four straight films, the Fast and Furious movies were about to take a hard left into the heist genre. Dom, Brian, and the gang would solidify into a cohesive unit, tying together even more of the series’ rogues gallery into the team on Fast Five’s mission to rob a Brazilian crime lord blind.

Returning to the group in Fast Five are Han Lue, as well as Tyrese Gibson’s Roman, Chris Bridges’ Tej and Gal Gadot’s Gisele; and in the role of Dom’s latest romantic person of interest was Elsa Pataky’s Elena. But perhaps the greatest addition this time out was in the film’s law bound antagonist and later ally to the Toretto family team, DSS agent Luke Hobbs. With Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson making an explosive entry into the series with this film, things would truly never be the same.

Fast And Furious 6 (2013)

Remember how Letty supposedly died two films back? Surprise, she’s still alive! Michelle Rodriguez returned in Fast and Furious 6 as an associate to the film’s villain, ex-MI6 agent-turned heel Owen Shaw. Played by Luke Evans, Owen’s inclusion would allow the Fast and Furious movies to tap a new vein of antagonists that would turn teammates with the Shaw family.

Fast and Furious 6 also continued the series’ evolution from a street racing franchise into one that involved high-tech espionage and big ticket thievery. Needless to say, Dom, Brian and Mia all return, as well as Roman, Tej, Han and Hobbs. Though the mid-credits sequence of this film does put Han’s story to a final end, as his fatal accident is refolded into canon with a new assailant responsible for his death: Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw, looking for revenge after the team’s foiling of Owen’s plot in Fast and Furious 6.

Furious 7 (2015)

Properly introducing the character of Deckard Shaw into the Fast and Furious series, Furious 7 saw the brother of the now comatose Owen Shaw coming not only vengeance, but also for a rather shady piece of technology that could be a surveillance nightmare if in the wrong hands. For the last time, we see poor Han’s death through a fiery wreck, and for the first time we see Kurt Russell’s cool as ice DSS handler, code-named Mr. Nobody.

Furious 7 also ties up some loose ends with the re-introduction of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’s Sean Boswell, setting him up for further films down the line of the franchise. Sadly, this would also be the final appearance of Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner, as Walker's untimely death in an automobile accident prompted those behind the series’ story to retire the character at the end of this film.

The Fate Of The Furious (2017)

The last film in the line of proper entries to the Fast and Furious franchise, The Fate of the Furious sees Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto breaking bad, under the influence of Charlize Theron’s new baddie Cipher. Apparently the mastermind behind turning Owen Shaw in Fast and Furious 6, her efforts have been behind each major threat through the last two films, with her aim being to cause irrevocable global chaos.

Returning to fight alongside the rest of Dom’s team are Dwayne Johnson’s DSS Agent Luke Hobbs, as well as Jason Statham’s controversial addition to the hero roster, Deckard Shaw; the two members of the Fast and Furious movie team that would go on to have their own spinoff in this summer’s Hobbs and Shaw. While Dom does return to the side of good, it comes at the cost of Elsa Pataky’s Elena, who is killed in the line of duty by Cipher.

With the full rundown of the Fast and Furious movies now complete, it’s time to think real hard about what order to watch them in. Because believe it or not, with one quick alteration, the story makes so much more sense in the long run. even if the real world timing doesn’t exactly work out in its favor.

The Right Order To Watch The Fast And Furious Movies In

If you want to experience the Fast and Furious movies in the right order, there’s only one movie that needs to be shifted in place. While technically running as the third film in the chronological order, you can take The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift and slot it in before Furious 7 in your watching order. This not only puts Han’s death into proper context, it also leads straight into the seventh film’s integration of the event into its own storyline.

Alternatively, if you really wanted to, you could drop the film out of your watching order altogether. Not only would this leave Lucas Black’s Sean Boswell with a clean slate for his eventual return to the Fast and Furious movies, it wouldn’t impact the storyline all that much as all the vital components are already wound into the series’ narrative through Fast and Furious 6 and Furious 7’s storylines.

We hope that this crash course in Fast and Furious history has helped you figure out which order to watch the franchise in, as well as the correct order in terms of chronological release. Who knows, you might be quizzed on the titles and their running orders at a bar quiz in the near future. Or a friend might trust you to set them straight on how The Fast and the Furious started it all, but it took the film three sequels to get Fast and Furious.

The point is, the information you need to navigate this high velocity thrill ride of a franchise is right at your fingertips, and now you’ll never need to worry about whether or not you’re watching the Fast and Furious movies correctly.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking forward to Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, you’ll only have to wait until August 2 to see that particular end result. Though should you want to get some action into your movie watching lineup before then, take a look at our 2019 release schedule to see what else is waiting on the road to August.

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There's A Godzilla: King Of The Monsters Easter Egg No One Is Talking About

There's A Godzilla: King Of The Monsters Easter Egg No One Is Talking About

Warning: SPOILERS for Godzilla: King of the Monsters below!

Even before the release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, it was clear that director Michael Dougherty and the people involved in the sequel were fans of the property themselves and wanted to do it justice and honor it in the new film. This has been apparent from the desire not to f-up the look of the monsters to incorporating design cues from the 1954 film, to the soundtrack to the film’s Easter eggs.

On that last point, we heard that Godzilla: King of the Monsters would have a bunch of great Easter eggs for fans of the 65-year-old property, and now that the movie is out we have an idea of what some of those Easter eggs are. But there is one Easter egg in particular that no one is talking about, and with good reason because it is confusing in the moment and requires serious knowledge of the franchise’s history.

In the film, Zhang Ziyi plays Dr. Ilene Chen, one of the newer members of the exceedingly well-funded Monarch organization that researches and tracks the Titans. At one point in the movie, she is aboard Monarch’s battleship called the Argo while Godzilla and Ghidorah are engaged in battle off the coast of Mexico. The military doesn’t want to just ‘let them fight’ and launches an Oxygen Destroyer bomb to kill both Godzilla and Ghidorah.

The bomb seemingly kills Godzilla and the hydra-like Ghidorah just loses a head only to regenerate it, and Zhang Ziyi’s Dr. Ilene Chen is there, aboard the Argo, off the coast of Mexico to witness it all. Here’s where things get weird. We then see her thousands of miles away at Monarch’s base in China, where a caterpillar-stage Mothra was introduced earlier in the film.

There, Zhang Ziyi’s character witnesses Mothra emerging from the waterfall she fled to earlier in the movie, coming out of her cocoon a full grown moth titan. It’s something of a jarring moment in the film and it makes you wonder if Monarch borrowed some of the Westerosi teleportation tech used in Game of Thrones Season 7 and Season 8 to get Zhang Ziyi from Godzilla’s death near Mexico to Mothra’s rebirth in China.

But contrary to first impressions, this was not a mistake or the result of logic falling victim to plot expedience. The truth, as spotted by i09, is that in the scene where Mothra comes out of her cocoon in China, Zhang Ziyi is not playing Dr. Ilene Chen. She is instead playing a character called Ling Chen according to the film’s credits, or Dr. Ling according to IMDb.

Dr. Ling Chen is Ilene Chen’s twin sister. This isn’t really acknowledged at all in the film and audiences aren’t given much of an explanation. Later on, we find out that Zhang Ziyi’s Ilene Chen comes from a family of female Monarch employees who all bear a striking resemblance to one another and either worked, lived or were born on a place called Infant Island. Giving Ilene Chen a twin that she never interacts with might seem like an odd choice, but it is actually a deep Easter Egg into Toho History.

Mothra debuted onscreen in 1961’s Mothra, and in that film, the titular creature lives on a place called Infant Island. There, she is guarded by the Shobijin, two miniature twin priestesses that also act as translators for the creature. The fairy-like creatures have been portrayed in different ways with different backstories over the years, but the common thread is that the psychic duo (and sometimes trio) can communicate with Mothra and act as her translators and ambassadors.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters eschews any psychic powers or strange origin for the Zhang Ziyi’s twins, but by including Ling Chen, the film is clearly nodding to the Shobijin that have been tied to Mothra since her inception. It winds up playing super weird in the film, being both jarring and unexplained, but it does represent a cool deep cut for die-hard fans.

Zhang Ziyi is returning for Godzilla vs. Kong, so it will be interesting to see if she again plays two roles and if the Chen twins and their relationship to Mothra gets further fleshed out.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is now playing. Check out what ticket you should buy and keep an eye on our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of all this year’s biggest movies.

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