It’s Thursday morning and I’m watching the theatrical cut of George Lucas’s 1977 film Star Wars as I make my final Oscars predictions, which you can read here below. At the 50th Academy Awards in ’78, Star Wars was nominated for 10 awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and ended up taking home six: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Sound.

Back in those days, there were only five Best Picture nominees: Annie Hall, The Goodbye Girl, Julia, Star Wars, The Turning Point. Ultimately, Star Wars would lose to Woody Allen‘s neurotic romantic comedy Annie Hall, even though Lucas’s sprawling space saga had changed the film industry – and the world – forever.

Fast-forward to 2013, where the casual filmgoer may argue that the Academy Awards are irrelevant because they don’t reflect popular taste. The truth is – they never have, and that was never the purpose. Overseen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy Awards were created to maintain and celebrate a standard of excellence that is often contradictory to box-office returns and pop culture trends.

As I have discussed on Disney In Depth recently, the purchase of three key film properties – Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm – that have further realized Disney’s influence in the entertainment industry. Even the 2004 acquisition of The Muppets has forever changed the outlook for Jim Henson’s most adored faces. All of these characters unite the geek community, even those who enjoy Disney. In this edition, I will share some popular YouTube videos that spoof Marvel Studios, Pixar, Muppet, Star Wars and “regular” Disney films by featuring some famous personalities from the whole Disney universe.

Lincoln
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Written by Tony Kushner
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones, Jackie Earle Haley
DreamWorks Studios
Rated | 150 Minutes
Release Date: November 9, 2012

Director Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln focuses on the tumultuous final months of President Abraham Lincoln’s life, the abolishment of slavery, and the Union’s victory in the American Civil War.

Lincoln stars Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) as the 16th President of the United States, Sally Field (The Amazing Spider-Man) as Mary Todd Lincoln, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises) as their oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln.

In the midst of the American Civil War, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 declared the freedom of slaves in ten rebellious Confederate states. The executive order was seen as a temporary war measure, as it did not actually free any slaves in border states or make the act of slavery illegal.

In order to abolish slavery once and for all, Republicans pushed The Thirteenth Amendment through the Senate. In order for it to be ratified, the amendment had to be passed in the divided House of Representatives – which is really what Spielberg’s film chooses to explore in depth.

History tells us that the last few months of Abraham Lincoln’s life were spent trying to end the Civil War and put a stop to slavery. The 16th President of the United States was successful on both fronts, but he was tragically assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Today, we get to see a glimpse of Steven Spielberg‘s vision and see Daniel Day-Lewis reenact those last few months that changed the face of America.

Check out the trailer for Lincoln here below.

Even though that sweeping sound from John Williams’ sounds an awful a lot like War Horse, there is much to like about this trailer. For instance, the set pieces that are used in the film, they don’t look like glorified historic trinkets; they actually look like pieces of history pulled from that time.

Sometimes there’s brilliance in simplicity, and that’s what Disney and DreamWorks seem to be aiming for with their new poster for Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln.

To make the poster even more simplistic it has no tag line and it’s black and white. It just features President Lincoln in a pensive state of mind once again, much like the first image we saw a couple of weeks back.