Candyland Movie May Not Turn Out As Bad As You Think

Candyland, the iconic children’s game is coming to the big screen with even bigger behind the scenes talent. It will have an original story line, which comes as a shock amongst most of the legions of remakes being churned out in Hollywood.  I guess with an original idea it’s fairly easy to get top Hollywood talent to sign on to a film – the screenplay is being written by Tropic Thunder’s Etan Cohen and directed by Kevin Lima, the brains behind the widely loved Disney film, Enchanted.

Candyland’s executive producer and CEO of Hasbro Brian Goldner talked about his plans with MTV News:

“Imagine if you took that basic idea of going to a better place, and then allowed the audience to go to that same place together.  But then you come to find out, like every other place that’s promised to just be all better and all sweets and candy, you come to find out there’s actually some controversy there as well, that of course the stars of the movie have to solve for.”

Goldner stresses that the tale is “very human and very natural,” which I guess would make sense if we were not talking about a magical land that is made of candy.  Still, with the helming of the film story being told by Cohen there is a lot to hope for, especially, after his mega blockbuster, Tropic Thunder.  That was more than an action/comedy about Hollywood and movie making – it showed the nuances of the film industry in a way that broke things down for the viewer with little knowlodge of the “industry,” without compromising the story line or the laughs it brought.

In the same way, Lima made a film that could’ve been extremely annoying, and let’s face it animated musicals are oftentimes obnoxious and rarely relatable.  His particular ability to make the Enchanted material both refreshing and engaging drew a very wide audience.

In all honesty, I am sort of excited to see where this film goes.  Since it’s based on a children’s game I know it will have basic elements of the game, but there really isn’t much of a story associated with Candyland so I’m excited to see what Cohen comes up with and how Lima expresses his vision.  Oh and mostly, I am excited to see who they’ll be casting in the film.