Nobody was quite sure what to expect when the R-rated superhero Deadpool made the jump into the world of PG-13 cinema. While Once Upon A Deadpool was an interesting experiment, the film's limited theatrical release means that we also won't be waiting long for the cleaner version of Deadpool 2 to arrive on Blu-Ray. Accompanying the announcement that Once Upon A Deadpool will be available on Blu-ray and Digital HD January 15, came a fantastic image from Ryan Reynolds that turns the tables on who's telling who a bedtime story.
The framing device of Once Upon A Deadpool is borrowed from the classic A Princess Bride and sees Deadpool kidnap an adult Fred Savage in order to force him to listen to a sanitized version of Deadpool 2. Ryan Reynolds shared an image from the set via Instagram that sees the book now in Savage's hands, with an adorable Deadpool curled up on his lap to hear the tale.
It's a much nicer storytime than what we get in the film, where Fred Savage is taped to the bed so that he's unable to leave.
Once Upon a Deadpool only made about $6 million in its theatrical release, but that's somewhat to be expected considering that it was ultimately just a re-edited version of Deadpool 2, a movie that had come out only a few months earlier. Still, a portion of ticket sales were donated to the charity Fudge Cancer, and a portion of the sales of Blu-ray will be as well, so if you pick up the disc, you'll be doing some good in the world.
As a proof of concept, Once Upon a Deadpool showed that the Merc with a Mouth doesn't need to use that mouth to swear in order to be funny. At the same time, the movie was clearly re-edited and it felt like it. If the movie had been filmed with a PG-13 rating in mind, it likely would have been just fine, but since they had to make a lot of cuts to make that work here, the movie feels rough with some lines that have been overdubbed about as well as your average in-flight movie.
If your family was the target audience for PG-13 Deadpool, then the ability to own the film so soon will likely be nice. As Ryan Reynolds says in his post, your kids no longer need to ask you permission to watch Once Upon a Deadpool which may get them to stop trying to see the original cut of Deadpool 2 behind your back.
Although, now I have to wonder what it would be like if you actually saw Once Upon a Deadpool first. A few years down the road, an older teen can watch the original version of Deadpool 2 and see everything they missed. That would probably be a pretty interesting experience.
