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Happy day after Thanksgiving. Hopefully, no one in your household wore a T-shirt that read, “I made the stuffing.“ In today’s Internet Insider:
- The Netflix Christmas film universe is very confusing
- This first look at the Clifford the Big Red Dog movie is…horrifying
- Why Supernatural fans are freaking out about the show’s Spanish dub
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The Netflix Christmas film universe does not make any sense
If you’re spending this holiday weekend at home, you’re likely going to end up watching a cheesy made-for-streaming-service movie where all the characters end up together on Christmas. We expect them to be comforting and unrealistic—with everyone happy at the conclusion—but we also expect the rules of the movie universe to be consistent.
That did not happen in Netflix’s The Princess Switch: Switched Again, its sequel to the 2018 film starring Vanessa Hudgens. In the film, which was released on Nov. 19, Hudgens plays three different characters who all look the same—and one of them is about to become the queen of a fictional country. The film (spoiler alert!) ends on Queen Margaret Delacourt’s coronation. In the scene, the camera quickly pans to the Queen and King of Aldovia, Amber and Richard (Rose McIver and Ben Lamb), and their baby girl—characters from Netflix’s A Christmas Prince trilogy. (The caption on the Netflix media photo of this scene confirms that it is indeed the Christmas Prince characters.)
The crossover of characters from multiple Netflix Christmas films got people excited about a multiverse like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it was also very confusing. First, two characters in the first Princess Switch are looking for a Christmas movie to watch in one scene and stumble upon A Christmas Prince on Netflix. If A Christmas Prince is a fictional film on Netflix in this world, like it is for us, then how do the characters appear in Queen Margaret’s ceremony as real royalty?
To add another level of confusion, The Knight Before Christmas, a 2019 Netflix film that also stars Vanessa Hudgens, appears to be in the same universe as A Christmas Prince because one of the characters mentions Aldovia. So if A Christmas Prince and The Knight Before Christmas are in the same universe, and Princess Switch and A Christmas Prince are also connected, that means….Vanessa Hudgens is playing (at least!) four characters in this universe of Christmas film.
—Tiffany Kelly, culture editor
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TRAILERS
Live-action ‘Clifford’ became an instant meme this week
This week, Paramount Pictures dropped a teaser for the Clifford the Big Red Dog movie, set for a November 2021 release. The project has reportedly been in development hell since 2012, which seems like the least of its worries.
Honestly, there was probably no reality in which a giant, red, CGI dog wouldn’t come across as horrifying. Let’s all just agree here that this movie should probably not have been made in the first place. (There’s probably also a good reason that Paramount also decided to indefinitely shelve the Rugrats live-action that had been pushed back to January 2021.)
As the first glimpses of Clifford began to make their way around the internet, people reacted pretty much how you might expect—with jokes and horror, but mostly horror. And it certainly doesn’t help that it looks like Clifford is literally covered in blood. At least a few people defended Clifford. They’re not wrong! If the goal was to create a “big red dog,” then consider that mission accomplished.
Previous Clifford adaptations
Comic artist Jon Rosenberg evoked the far superior Clifford the Big Red Dog animated series on PBS Kids, in which the titular character was voiced by John Ritter until his death in 2003.
—Stacey Ritzen, contributing writer
RECOMMENDED
- The lesbian Christmas romcom starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis is, luckily, an absolute delight!
- Steve McQueen’s film anthology, Small Axe, is astounding. And it’s now streaming on Amazon Prime.
FANDOM
Why ‘Supernatural’ fans are freaking out
Appropriately enough, the TV show Supernatural is managing to cause drama from beyond the grave. Although the series finale aired last week, the fandom is exploding once again due to a Spanish-language version of an earlier (extremely spoilery) episode. It offered a very different interpretation of a pivotal scene: the angel Castiel confessing his love to Dean Winchester. In English, Dean doesn’t reciprocate. But in Spanish, he seemingly does.
In the English version, Castiel says “I love you,” and Dean replies with, “Don’t do this, Cas.” Meanwhile, in Spanish, Castiel says “Te amo,” (“I love you.”) while Dean says “Y yo a ti,” (“And I you.”) This puts a completely different spin on the scene.
The story behind Destiel
For over a decade, fans have campaigned for Destiel (Dean and Castiel) to become a couple, causing friction with the showrunners’ image of Dean as a staunchly heterosexual man. Two episodes before the finale, Supernatural answered that question in the most controversial way possible. Castiel confessed his love to Dean before immediately dying and being sucked into a hell dimension—a narrative choice that many people felt was comically homophobic, tying into the “bury your gays” trope.
Misha Collins, who played Castiel in the series, took to Twitter on Wednesday night to comment on the conspiracy that there was a different English-language version of the show that showed Dean reciprocating his feelings. “There was no conspiracy within the network, staff, or cast of #SPN to minimize or erase representation from the narrative & there was no alternate ending to 15.18,” Collins said. “Dean was always too stunned in the moment to reply. (Apparently a rogue translator penned their own dialogue.)”
He also said he was proud that Castiel’s final message was one of love and self-expression.
—Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, staff writer
The blockbuster costumes of Pacific Rim
In this week’s episode of Behind the Seams, we dig into the brilliant costume design of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim. For one thing, they’re extraordinarily distinctive. Each character has their own specific style, making them memorable from their very first scenes. Their clothes truly tell a story, from Idris Elba’s rigid military uniform to Rinko Kikuchi’s chic-yet-practical tailored wardrobe.
Subscribe to Behind the Seams so you never miss an episode.
MEME OF THE WEEK
The Weeknd’s fake injuries at the AMAs were quickly memed.
WORK SLACK
“My biggest vice is that I have 3-4 daily pieces of Halloween candy two months straight every year.”
—Ramón Ramirez, news director
Whispers from the office
Now playing: Joni Mitchell—”River”
