Superhero Media: Once Upon a Deadpool

I haven't flown in quite a while, do they still edit down films for airlines, just so kids don't end up watching overly violent or sexual content? With those individual entertainment units that planes have now, I'm assuming no? If you can enlighten me in the comments, please do so. Anyway, Once Upon A Deadpool retells the story of Deadpool 2 cut down for content in such a way that it would have a "PG-13" rating in the United States, meaning a person at or above the age of 13 could see the film unaccompanied in most cinemas. By contrast, Deadpool 2 was rated "Hard R", limiting the audience to 18 and over, which was matched by the R18+ rating here in Australia. Interestingly, however, Once Upon A Deadpool got an Australian "M" rating, placing the age limit at 15, because my government is more sensitive to violence than America. Just thought that was a fun little fact to share. Because so much content has been cut from the original film to make Once Upon A Deadpool work, scenes have been added with Fred Savage, playing himself in an extended reference to The Princess Bride. How is this even a real film? 

I quite enjoy Once Upon A Deadpool, it hits a level of metafiction that delights the literature graduate in me no end, especially moments like Fred Savage being a huge Cable fan or that Deadpool is reading from a book titled "Deadpool 2 King James Edition". As Once Upon A Deadpool was put together during the negotiations for the Disney acquisition of Fox Studios, there are some jokes about the comparative quality of the X-Men and Marvel Cinematic Universe films that will likely date poorly, but should form as an interesting "time capsule" when Deadpool moves across to the MCU down the track. Despite some criticism that indicates Once Upon A Deadpool is predominantly recycled footage, there is actually plenty of new dialogue, some dubbed over the movement of Deadpool's mask and a reasonable amount in ADR, so there are new jokes for the diehard fans outside of the Fred Savage scenes. For those hoping that there would be any interesting commentary around censorship in Once Upon A Deadpool, sadly that opportunity is mostly missed, beyond Deadpool keeping a tally of the number of times "shit" is said. 

If neither Deadpool nor Deadpool 2 was your kind of film, Once Upon A Deadpool isn't really too different in terms of content and probably won't be deemed acceptable by those in your life who didn't like Deadpool the first time around. That said, you can maybe sneak the unicorn-bedecked DVD cover past your family and be the "cool uncle" at the next family gathering when putting something on for the kids to watch. I hope any future, feature-length, Deadpool outings don't get to quite the same levels of metafiction as Once Upon A Deadpool, as it's a little exhausting by the end, but I'd be in for Deadpool "reversions" of some MCU stuff if that becomes an option for quick content that Disney decides to exploit, so long as its not run into the ground. For now Once Upon A Deadpool remains an interesting little oddity that I certainly enjoy enough to go back to occasionally.