Did we really need a movie about Paint?
Scrolling through my feed this morning, I saw a trailer (embedded below) that jumped out at me for a movie called “Paint” starring Owen Wilson. At first, I thought - great, we are getting a dramatical adaptation of the life of Bob Ross, must like we have had with Al Yankovik (Daniel Radcliff) and Mr. Rogers (Tom Hanks) - both of which are fantastic. If you have been living under a rock, Bob Ross was the person who could take a blank piece of canvas and, over an hour, transform it into a mystical landscape - teaching YOU how to do it as he went along. Needless to say, he has a special place in my heart. Hell, I have been watching “The Joy of Painting” since 1983 when his show transferred from WNVC to WIPB (Channel 49) in Muncie pre-cable, where I had to pick it off arial. For many of us “Old School” guys - he introduced us to painting, showed us how to mix and layer colors, and on top of it all……he promoted our imagination. I would go so far as to say that Bob Ross is a gaming icon, right up there with Gygax, Elmore and Cook.
Needless to say, I was shocked when I watched it and learned this -
The film centers on Carl Nargle, who has hosted Vermont's number one painting show for nearly three decades. While Carl's signature whisper has long kept viewers from Pittsfield to St. Albans breathlessly hanging on his every stroke, the station eventually hires a younger, better painter who steals everything (and everyone) Carl loves.
Why? Why? Why? Bob’s life was already crazy as it was. Why do a parody piece that is so obviously ripped off of his persona, when you could have done either a touching or over the top version either way? My personal belief is this is all about rights and money. I suspect the Bob Ross estate didn’t like the script or casting, but Hollywood pushed forward anyway. This brings me to why I am blogging about this. You see - we as gamers are going through this exact same thing in D&D.
Hasbro/WotC had a great thing going with D&D. Popularity was through the roof (with thanks to Stranger Things), they were riding high financially and the future was bright. Then you have the obvious shift of pandering to a niche audience (Strixhaven), ignoring the established base that has kept them afloat all these years (high cost books vs adventure modules) and greed with the OGL Fiasco. It took the fan push back to right that (and will we ever truly trust WotC again? I doubt it), but still they have not learned. Recently WotC’s Executive Producer, Kyle Brink, made this statement:
There is a lot to unpackage there, but I think the key is - We do not care what YOU think, we are going to tell you what to think….and you are going to like it. This mindset is permeating the entertainment industry (hmmm…just as WotC is about to release a D&D movie), and we should not take it. Already, players are leaving D&D in droves for other systems such as Pathfinder. The exodus from D&DBeyond was so bad that WotC walked back their OGL assertions and are trying to placate players. Now is the chance to tell IFC Films and Hulu that we do not need history re-written (because you know there are young people who will see this and attribute the whole thing to Bob) history just so they can focus on it being a comedy. In fact, in this particular case, there already is a fantastic Netflix show called “Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed” ……hmmmm, kinda a sums it all up doesn’t it?
Me - I will be giving this a hard pass.
