G.I. Joe Classified Series

docsilence said:
It's funny, I know the last thing anyone should do in Hollywood is adapt straightup fan fic, but so often they crank something out without any feel for where it came from and it's like you could have at least included some people who LIKED the property in the writers room...
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Worse over - I think Hollywood writers actively reject anything that even feels like it could be fanfic or fanfic-adjacent. Like they feel a NEED to actually pull away from the source material in ways fanfic never would because fanfic is, you know, written by people that already like the thing and don't think it needs to be completely different.

Weirdly, I think the He-Man movie is going to be a watershed moment in nostalgia-bait from Hollywood. The success of that movie is going to inform how Hollywood adapts material for the next decade. If it bombs, it will be because it was too close or too far from the source, and if it succeeds above expectations, it will be because of the same. A lesson, even potentially the wrong lesson, will be taken from that film.
 
yojoebro82 said:
I honestly don't remember Resolute's take on Scarlett's dating. It's been a long time.
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They had Scarlett make a big noise about having formerly been torn between Snake-Eyes and Duke but now DEFINITELY knowing she wants Duke and only Duke.
🤮
 
docsilence said:
I feel like the Snake Eyes/Tommy/Stalker/Rock n' Roll 'Nam origin story is almost like a less historically influential, but also important, tie to history as Magneto and WWII. There's ways to write around it to modernize it, but those comic panels of the chopper and the fire are haunting and almost need to happen to do it right. (Man, Larry could write, huh?)
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Yes, and I agree about it being important. I also think the whole tie between the first Joe missions and Delta Force is important... there's just a lot I wouldn't want to touch because Hama did it so well. The Soft Master, and also Wade Collins etc. The Freds in general could be really interesting on screen.
docsilence said:
It's funny, I know the last thing anyone should do in Hollywood is adapt straightup fan fic, but so often they crank something out without any feel for where it came from and it's like you could have at least included some people who LIKED the property in the writers room...
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Agreed. You used to be able to do stuff like... if you wanted to write for Star Trek, then you submit scripts you've written for three other current shows, even if they aren't sci-fi, because Trek producers never wanted to see unsolicited Trek scripts. I have no idea how things work now with streaming and cancelling everything immediately, etc. But even Transformers, which I find kinda enjoyable... but not because it tickles my nostalgia bone. At all. I'd be shocked to learn any of them were fans of the original property, but rather just took some things they liked about it and did what they thought was neat with the rest. Along with plenty of dick and fart jokes.

Anyway, I dunno. I know we're just spinning our wheels, but it's pretty fun sometimes. I guess what I'd want is a live action series that relates to the comics the same way Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes does. The comics are a very clear launching point, but the show is more like a double-album greatest hits of the plots.
 
Damien said:
True story - I regret passing on TF Outback sometimes - but I genuinely do just fucking hate his shirt.
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I have an orange shirt with a tiger face in my amazon cart right now. It's been sitting there for 5 months waiting for me to pull the tiger trigger
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Speaking of movies and TV shows, is Youtube seriously the best place to watch the MASS Device pilot and the old cartoon? Been a dog's age since I've seen either.
 
The 80s Joe cartoons are all on Tubi. Free streaming service with ads. My favorite streaming service, as their ad times are noticeably shorter than other ones.

Damien said:
Weirdly, I think the He-Man movie is going to be a watershed moment in nostalgia-bait from Hollywood. The success of that movie is going to inform how Hollywood adapts material for the next decade. If it bombs, it will be because it was too close or too far from the source, and if it succeeds above expectations, it will be because of the same. A lesson, even potentially the wrong lesson, will be taken from that film.
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I think Hollywood is adverse to learning lessons. If something makes money, keep doing it. That's about all they know. Look how terrible the Jurassic movies have become. Zero effort is made to improve the next one. Because they just keep making money.

I am interested in seeing how He-Man does. I think it's a tough nut to crack tone-wise. Hopefully, it turns out well. I love GIJoe so much, I keep hoping someone will get it right. But I think Hasbro and the film people they hire just don't know what to do with it. That Lorenzo producer guy doesn't want any military references, so there's a giant strike against it. Hopefully his association with the brand has ended. If there's a lesson to be applied to GIJoe it may be Top Gun: Maverick. Nostalgia based movie with US military as good guys. GI Joe doesn't need to be deeply entrenched with military references, but it also shouldn't be afraid or ashamed of it.

There may be a lesson to be learned from X-Men 97. A GI Joe cartoon which kinda picks up the Sunbow style but maybe makes it a slight bit less silly with some continuing story elements could be refreshing. I've been rewatching the 80s show as background comfort food, and it's such a fun show. I love the anything goes attitude to the plots. Also love how Joe members' family would feature in episodes. And Joes would interact with the public. Often these action cartoons don't even feature civilians at all and feel like everything happens in a bubble.
 
I don’t mind the potential removal of overt military references at all, although I know many people would. I’m personally way more invested in Joe as “action heroes” than specifically “army guys”. Honestly, it’s wise to get some distance between Joe and the U.S. military when making broad-appeal media, if only because the rest of the ticket-buying world beyond the U.S. doesn’t necessarily have a “heroic” view of the U.S. military (nor should they). I definitely see tying Joe to the military of one country as quite limiting.

Also, as someone who isn’t intrinsically invested in the mythology of the U.S. military, Top Gun: Maverick came off as pretty silly and absurd to me, and not just because Tom Cruise insisted on taking his shirt off and playing grab-ass with kids 30 years younger than him. I would definitely not want that very-obviously-U.S.-military-propaganda film to be a template for a Joe movie.

What I *do* mind about Lorenzo di Bonaventura is his dumbass anti-hood nonsense for Cobra Commander and how that was allowed to permeate into the brand at large.
 
I wouldn't mind if they were more veterans from several countries, so they have the military background, but GI Joe (Special Counter-Terrorist Unit Delta) isn't tied to the military as much. So you have former army guys who are not action heroes. That may be the most 80s action trope.
 
Yeah, I’m obviously fine with them being former military, and it’s not like I’m on a crusade to purge Joe of military stuff, it’s just not *important* to me that there is an active military component. I don’t “need” it. Like I was fine when that goofy Snake-Eyes movie removed the army connection for Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow, didn’t bother me in the slightest (that part, anyway).
I totally get that for some folks Joe and the real-life military are inextricable from each other, but it’s just not that way for me at all.
 
I guess to me it's a few things... their bond in the war is as important to me as their sword-brother thing after. Snake Eyes' life is riddled with tragedy, and the war feels like part of that. It's also the connection with Stalker and Wade Collins.

But beyond that, Hama's own past is such a major component of what makes GI Joe what it is, for me. And obviously that's entirely on the comic side. And lastly, I couldn't quote any off the top of my head, but my memory of the letter columns in a lot of issues is former and current (at the time) servicemen mentioning how much the comic meant to them, so having that touchstone in any GI Joe project feels important to me. I don't want it to be a recruitment video or anything, in fact having it be a post-military agency or something, a group that is removed from reality and thus someone knows they have no hope of joining this organization, let alone by enlisting, is really ideal to me.
 
Yeah, I think there's different camps in Joe collectors - stronger comics vibes vs. cartoon vibes, really into military accuracy vs. not caring about accuracy, etc. and I don't think everyone will ever be happy with the end results. (I kinda want to do a Punnett Square or personality test to determine where we fall on the Joes Scale. X axis is media preference, Y axis is military accuracy axis? Hi I'm an English major and shouldn't do these things, I'm bad at them.)

Hard to separate the team from their origins (GI is literally in the name!) but if they're looking at a worldwide audience appeal I can see why a studio would want to downplay the myth of the American military in a big budget project. (I mean, Resolute was allowed to blow up Russia but not Beijing, so we know they worry about their overseas audiences for sales).

I have a friend in Sweden who collects Classified and we often joke about how he loves the old comics and Hama's characters, but he frequently mentions "your country has no idea how much the rest of us are PERPETUALLY FUCKING TERRIFIED of your military."

I wonder if the old Action Force vibes would ever work again, or if the American Joes are too ingrained in pop culture these days. I mean, seeing Gung-Ho rebranded as Gaucho would be hilarious right? Maybe it's just me. (Changing Snake Eyes to Stalker and Stalker to Jammer feels like a crime though.)
 
@TENIME I know. It's disappointing to me as well, but I haven't been able to bring myself to watch the latest Star Wars or Marvel cartoons, even the short ones. Just not as into animation, even if it's amazing, emotion driven stuff anymore.
 
docsilence said:
Yeah, I think there's different camps in Joe collectors - stronger comics vibes vs. cartoon vibes, really into military accuracy vs. not caring about accuracy, etc. and I don't think everyone will ever be happy with the end results. (I kinda want to do a Punnett Square or personality test to determine where we fall on the Joes Scale. X axis is media preference, Y axis is military accuracy axis? Hi I'm an English major and shouldn't do these things, I'm bad at them.)
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This is a cool project for when that calendar is finished.
docsilence said:
I have a friend in Sweden who collects Classified and we often joke about how he loves the old comics and Hama's characters, but he frequently mentions "your country has no idea how much the rest of us are PERPETUALLY FUCKING TERRIFIED of your military."
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He is right... I had no idea.
docsilence said:
I wonder if the old Action Force vibes would ever work again, or if the American Joes are too ingrained in pop culture these days. I mean, seeing Gung-Ho rebranded as Gaucho would be hilarious right? Maybe it's just me. (Changing Snake Eyes to Stalker and Stalker to Jammer feels like a crime though.)
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Agreed, Snake Eyes is too great a name. But Rise of Cobra kiiiiiiinda touched on the Action Force concept a bit by making Heavy Duty British and Breaker, I'm sorry if I'm wrong, but I believe he was Moroccan? And that was the coolest thing to me about that entire movie.
 
Ru1977 said:
I know. It's disappointing to me as well, but I haven't been able to bring myself to watch the latest Star Wars or Marvel cartoons, even the short ones. Just not as into animation, even if it's amazing, emotion driven stuff anymore.
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I respect your decision and just feel bad you'll never have your heart ripped out of your chest and stomped on by the emotional damage of Rebels and Clone Wars etc.
Ru1977 said:
This is a cool project for when that calendar is finished.
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No joke, I pulled out props to do this calendar but got distracted by taking pics of the Dragonfly with its lights on the other day. Cheeky Zartan will happen.
 
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