Netflix’s Kpop Demon Hunters took the world by storm when it dropped last year, and months on the hype is still going strong. It came as an unexpected shock to the animation world, previously dominated by top dogs Disney and Pixar, but it turns out the latter could’ve had its very own Kpop Demon Hunters moment (if only it hadn’t slept on this film).
As the studio behind some of the most influential animated films of the 2000s, Pixar doesn’t exactly need to prove itself these days. But with such a big reputation, its focus has mostly been on preserving its legacy with sequels like Toy Story 5 and Incredibles 3. If only they’d taken a second to consider this tale of two galaxy-hopping besties on a quest to save the world…
(Image credit: Netflix)
Kristen Lester’s Be Fri tells the story of a pair of childhood best friends who begin to drift apart. Upon discovering that their favourite show (a Sailor Moon-style anime) is in fact real, the pair are dropped into an out-of-this-world adventure, traversing the galaxy to save the world.
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“The comparisons to KPop Demon Hunters are pretty undeniable because there were musical aspects to it, and it was a rip-roaring time,” a source explained to the Hollywood Reporter. “I can imagine that whoever at Disney denied Be Fri to exist looks at KPop and is kicking themselves like, ‘Shit, I can’t believe Netflix is doing exactly what we wanted to do.’”
(Image credit: Netflix)
All seemed well with production until Disney-Pixar began firing back with feedback, which led the production team to request a mere 6 weeks to (essentially) redo the film. “It befuddles me why they passed on it, but with each round of notes, Disney just didn’t feel like little boys could see themselves in the film enough. Basically, Disney reps were like, ‘We can’t have a girl power movie.’”
With the global success of Kpop Demon Hunters proving that there’s undeniably a market for “girl power” movies, it’s a crying shame that Be Fri was scrapped. I, for one, feel slightly robbed, but with new Pixar releases like Hoppers proving that non-legacy animation can still be successful, I’m hopeful that Be Fri may rise from the ashes yet.
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