Disney (and others) at the Box Office - Current State of Affairs

Tha Realest

Well-Known Member
Not at all, that's precisely my point. I could use the verb immigrate for this event.
-To come to a country of which one is not a native, usually for permanent residence.
-To pass or come into a new habitat or place, as an organism.

Though... refugee might be preferable as a noun?

Honestly though, it's clearly becoming a co-opted charged word in a 2025 context. I am not actually disagreeing with you, it's kind of an amusing conversation. So the simplest question would be do you have a better synonym? He is an alien, but what does Clark Kent do?

An extraplanetary humanoid refugee? Maybe an orphaned alien settler would be the least politically charged thing.
I was just formulating my view that refugee would be a more accurate term here.

Making Superman a common cause with the more, say, topical use of “immigrant” feels intellectually dishonest and grafting the character into something that doesn’t quite fit. He is the “last son of Krypton”* and had no say or volitional act in being sent to Earth.

* I can’t keep count of how many Kryptonians also escaped and survived over the years.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
The Arrowverse did not premiere until 2012, after Smallville was cancelled. And yes, Smallville was the most popular DC live action series at the time, as it cleared the low bar of beating Birds of Prey
Yes, thank you. Bad wording, I didn't mean to imply the Smallville was running at the same time as the Arrowverse, which came out a year after Smallville ended, was just adding context. Anyways the point was that Smallville has Clark reaffirm he is an immigrant and an illegal one at that two decades ago, so again is not a new take. Its always been part of the characters story even if some aren't aware of it.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Geez, how did I forget Mork & Mindy?!? :banghead: I used to watch that one religiously! Loved it!

But thank you for answering my question. As of 2025, any wacky/loveable alien in a TV or movie is now considered an "immigrant". And Tripods are mean and bad, so they aren't immigrants even though they were here long before we arrived on this planet and long predate our immigration laws on who can legally live in South Boston. I got it now! ;)
If you want to consider me telling you that I watched Alf in the 80s, and me telling you that you were wrong that he wasn't the first on TV to portray an alien as an immigrant as "answering your question", ok.

But the reality doesn't change the fact that long before this movie was being released and Gunn made his comments that the Superman/Clark Kent origin story has been and will ever be an immigrant story. It has been used and as pointed out even verbally said by the character before. So again not a new take. Just because it wants to be used in 2025 as some politically charged "new take" doesn't make it true.

Also we're talking about fantasy here. I'm sure if a real alien came down and wanted to put up permanent residence here in the US this debate would actually mean something. But until then we're still talking about fictional characters and what their origin stories mean in relation to today or rather when their respective stories were first created.

I'd challenge you that ALF was the sitcom story of a wacky/loveable space alien living with an American family. But Perfect Strangers was the sitcom story of an wacky/loveable immigrant living with an American family. See the difference?
The only difference I see there is origin of where both came from. One came from Melmac and the other came from Mypos, both fictitious places I might add.

The challenge is that some folks keep forgetting to use the words "legal immigrant" versus "illegal immigrant". I can make that distinction easily, and easily label them as such, just as easily as I can make the distinction between a shoplifter and a shopper.
No one is forgetting anything. In this context it doesn't matter "legal or illegal", as it doesn't change how its defined and being used.

In my famously pea-sized brain... an immigrant, legal or illegal, refers to a human moving from their country to live in a new country. It does not refer to alien life forms from different solar systems travelling throughout the galaxy and landing on Earth.
How about we change it to Humanoid, does that make it easier for you? As that covers any creature that looks similar to what we consider human, which would cover Superman.

So we're just glossing over the dying planet Krypton and being shot across the galaxy in a space cradle then? Seems rather relevant to the story of Superman.

We'll be losing out on a lot of fun backstory though if we're going to pretend Superman just arrived here at JFK on United and had to fly economy with the other immigrants. And the line at Customs was brutal! :(
No one is glossing over anything, I've even put it in post after post in responses to you, you ignored it.

Also where did the definition of immigrant indicate that it requires arrival by plane and going through Customs?
 

CoastalElite64

Active Member
I was just formulating my view that refugee would be a more accurate term here.

Making Superman a common cause with the more, say, topical use of “immigrant” feels intellectually dishonest and grafting the character into something that doesn’t quite fit. He is the “last son of Krypton”* and had no say or volitional act in being sent to Earth.

* I can’t keep count of how many Kryptonians also escaped and survived over the years.


Not all immigrants are refugees, but all refugees are immigrants. Refugees are a subset of immigrants.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Not all immigrants are refugees, but all refugees are immigrants. Refugees are a subset of immigrants.

Just so I know, what subset of immigrants is ALF?

alf_2.jpg
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Which is a shame, because it’s a better movie than a good chunk of the movies currently raking it in. It’s just not a safe IP sequel reboot audiences turn out for and has the added issue of being animated sci-fi
I didn't think it was very good compared to previous Pixar offerings. Its on the bottom fifth to me.
Wall*E was animated sci-fi and it did just fine.
 

Nevermore525

Well-Known Member
How to Train Your Dragon and F1 were great.
However it's kind of a pointless statement because most movies currently in theaters are mediocre at best.
I didn’t care for HTTYD because it was just HTTYD with actual people, other than the score being better it was just a ho-hum shot for shot remake. Certainly entertaining but not great

Lilo and Stitch mostly shot for shot decent but not great.

Haven’t caught F1 yet.

Jurassic Rebirth is two movies in one with no clue which way it wants to go and is messy, but hey cool dinosaurs!!

Same can be said for 28 Years Later being two movies in one which takes it down a peg for storytelling.
 

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