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I think sombody's askin' for a heiny whoopin'!
2002-07-07 02:04:00
Saw PowerPuff Girls and Bourne Identity this weekend.
Both were fairly excellent films.
PPG was pretty good staple PPG fun, but I thought it was a wee step back from the series in a way. While the animation was slightly better in parts, I felt that the story was in a way overly simplified.
The movie re-tells (from the *very* beginning) the story of how the PPG's (and MoJo JoJo) came to be. We already *know* this, but it was fun nonetheless. It just seemed like the episodes are funnier because it's so tightly packed into 22 minutes of animation.
But don't get me wrong. The movie was great fun. I had a great time, laughed a *lot* at the jokes, and really really really enjoyed the "tag" sequence near the beginning.
Now if only I could have shot the parent who brought the two year old kid to the movie. Honestly, two year old? At the movies? The parent should go to jail for neglect just for *thinking* of bringing a kid that small to a movie theater. Crying baby? Just keep watching the movie like you would if you were in front of the VCR at home! It's the 2000's, where how you raise your kid is nobody's business but your own! Who cares if your kid is disturbing the movie for everyone else? You paid admission, damn it! You're not going home without watching the whole movie! Jesus Effing Everloving Christ people. Next time, hire a god damned baby-sitter for the little one.
Bourne ID was fairly cool as well. I enjoyed it a lot, but afterwords my friend mentioned that there needed to be more plot, which I guess it may have needed. I'm an action movie junkie, and if you can satiate me with juicy delicious action footage that has great kung-fu and quasi-realistic gunfights, I'm sold. You could hold the plot together with dental floss for all I care. I'm not there for the plot. Plot is bonus icing or whatever on the action cake.
The action scenes in Bourne are especially cool, though. The footage is ever so slightly sped up, and the only reason I know this is because I got to see some location footage of Damon duking it out with the Marines in the Embassy, and that was a *lot* slower than what I saw in the movie. I remember thinking to myself "If that's how fast these fight scenes are going to be, it's going to be laughable at best." Well, it was *much* faster in the film. Not Keystone Cops overcranked fast. Just really well done. Pretty much impossible to tell with the naked eye.
And I thought Damon was particularly convincing as a "true to life" action hero. Especially when he's fighting the [spoiler deleted].
[Rest of file truncated. There is nothing to see here. Move along.] -
Nothing new here. Move along.
2002-07-02 17:22:16
Wagner: I can't believe you're in Madison. My condolances. It's freak city up there. I used to go there for a week or two over the summer for...wait for it...BAND CAMP.
But yeah. The humidity. We've got it here, too. Nastay. And don't worry, the earwigs won't actually crawl in your ears. Urban Legend ;)
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I *knew* I had forgotten something.
2002-06-25 02:11:08
Wagner: (also read next entry). Yes, I *have* seen the Caddy and Dinosaur cartoon. I *really* was impressed with the visual style the series attempted. It was the first TV animated series that wasn't afraid to show some letterboxed glory shots (usually at the beginning and most definitely at the end) of the eps, when they'd pull out and show you the panoramic jungle/valley/mountain shot, and then roll credits.
It felt like I was watching a movie. Otherwise, I remember nothing else about the show, since I wasn't about to watch a show that I poo-poo'ed as a comic ;) Didn't it only make it for one season? 6 or 13 eps or something? -
The Skinny on da Iron Giant, Yo.
2002-06-24 19:23:19
Wagner: This dirt isn't half as interesting as the personal dirt I had on Bakshi, but it's interesting in the corporate mis-management of Warner Bros. that's been going on for the past 8 or so years.
The story starts out with Space Jam, the ill-advised marketing-driven movie about classic WB toons and one famous Michael Jordan. Honestly, it wasn't that bad of an idea for a movie, but it just seemed over-hyped and under-written. "Strike while the iron is hot!" is a marketing mantre, and MJ was H.O.T.T. hot then. So WB cranks out a movie where Bugs Bunny needs hlep. Bugs Bunny. Needing Help. Get the picture? First time in history that Bugs needs help. With anything. So who do we get to help? A bad-acting sports super-celebrity. Now, nothing against MJ the basketball star. He's the best that ever played the game. But he's no actor.
So, to summarize this period of WB film marketing: Get our classic toons out the door and tie them in with whatever's the hottest flavor of the month! Not exactly award-winning film making.
Then we move on to the little-known wonder that is called Cats Don't Dance. If you haven't seen this movie yet, RUN don't walk to the rental store near you and rent it. Hell, just buy it, because it's one of my top ten fave animated flicks. And it was in the theater for all of a week. ONE WEEK. Know why? Because about one or two months previous to the release of that movie, WB bought/merged with Turner. Cats Don't Dance was made by Turner. So WB inherits it in the merger, and I don't know if people in WB's marketing division didn't plan marketing dollars for it, felt it wasn't worth marketing, or just had their heads clear up their asses (I'm assuming it was the latter). CDD gets almost ZERO funding from WB marketing insofar as advertising and merchandising tie-ins are concerned. CDD got more "air-time" from people looking at the diorama for the Subway Sandwich toys than they did seeing commercials, because I think there were two. Not two different versions, just two timeslots were purchased to air the commercial. Two. Two commercials in a month. So Cats launches to what can only be called the *antithesis* of "sold-out" theaters. Opening day there were all of 10 people at the show that my co-workers went to go see. I didn't even bother going because I hadn't heard anything about it. I'm kicking myself today for that dumb decision. Because no one went to go see Cats, it was pulled the following weekend, and it was rushed to the video market. It was dubbed a "failure" of a film by WB marketeers.
So, to summarize so far: So-so film (Space Jam) does so-so at box-office due to incredible marketing dollars. Great film (Cats Don't Dance) does poorly at box-office due to ZERO marketing dollars.
Next in our tale of failed WB mareting is the FLOP known only as Quest for Camelot. Which should have been called Quest for Plotalot according to those who've seen it, which I haven't. This is telling, because I *worked* on this film (I also worked on Space Jam also, not that it matters). I guess I can't really say "worked" seeing as I only actually produced about 30 drawings (which incidently were cut) from a scene of a dragon flying in. But anyway, Quest.
Perhaps the *crappiest* piece of dung WB has churned out in the film market to date. Bad character designs. Bad backgrounds. Bad voice talent. Bad bad BAD. But marketing decided to get behind this one, because hooooooo-lordy, after getting burned on Cats, we've got to make sure we get behind this film! So they market the everlovingshit out of Quest, and it still does poorly at the box-office. Why? BECAUSE IT SUCKS ASS. It's not just a bad film. You can still con people to go see bad films. Quest actually sucks the life out of you (or so I'm told by those who've survived the experience). It's hard to market something that is hazardous to your film-going health.
Again, summarizing: So-so film does so-so with heavy marketing dollars. Great film does nothing with no marketing dollars. Shit film does worse than bad with great marketing dollars. With me? Because we're nearing the end of this tale o' mareting.
This brings us to the hero of the story: Iron Giant. I can't say he's the hero of the marketing story, because marketing still fucked this movie over, too. But he's the hero to the artists, writers, and directors. IG was made simply in my opinion to SPITE the marketing bozos at WB. I think I even remember the director (forget his name) talk about the woes of WB marketing, and he decided that he was going to make the film he wanted to make, and he wasn't going to listen to a word from the marketing department.
So what does he get for his efforts? Easily one of the best animated movies of all time (also in my top ten). This movie has charm, wit, and the animation ain't bad, either. It's a story that can be appreciated by both young and old, and has a lot going for it technically and artisticly. It's a gem of a movie, and it is a sincere tear-jerker for me to watch. So, what's marketing to do?
Honestly, they HAVEN'T A SINGLE CLUE. They've tried every equation but the sensible one. Average over-hyped movie with good dollars (Space Jam)? Didn't do well at box office. Incredible movie (Cats Don't Dance)(although I'm sure marketing didn't think so..."where's our flavor of the month tie-in? our demographics say kids *hate* cats! you don't have obvious video-game or toy scenes in your movie!") does zero at box office with no backing from marketing. And crap movie (Quest for Camelot) does crap even though it's well backed. The point is that WB marketing wouldn't know a gold nugget from a turd nugget. Seriously. They have NO IDEA what a good film is, or what will sell. They've failed at every possible comination they could think of, so they decide to take a non-aggressive-sit-on-the-fence stance on the marketing for Iron Giant, and it only just barely covers its production costs at the box office. Surprise!Again, they dub it a failure (or at least near-failure) and pretty much decide to go back to the Space-Jam format of movie making (since it was the only animated film that made them any money). Enter: Osmosis Jones (with live action craption! Bill Murray, anyone? He makes us money!).
WB had a BLOCKBUSTER of a summer movie on their hands with Iron Giant, and they BLEW IT. They've *always* blown it. They're 0 for 5 on successfully marketing animated movies. And to be honest, they suck at marketing *regular* movies. Look at The Matrix. WB was hedging bets on that one untill they got the first two weeks worth of ticket sales back, and word of mouth and return visits (me=3) were the only reason even *those* numbers were so high. Honestly, I saw the commercials for it and thought "well, Johnny Mnemonic wasn't all that great, and I don't like Keanu. Pass." Then my buddy called me on the phone and said "THIS MOVIE WAS MADE SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU STEVE! GET YOUR ASS TO THE THEATER NOW!" and I went. Why couldn't they successfully convey the COOLNESS of that movie in a commercial? Because they're INEPT. A monkey could have made a better commercial if you gave him a computer with Premier loaded with Matrix clips and smeared bananas on the keyboard.
I know this wasn't a very cogent thesis on Iron Giant and marketing, but I hope I've painted a clear enough picture about WB's marketing and their animated movies. I'd love to hear how Osmosis did at the B.O., but I'm now "out" of the traditional industry. Since I don't do it as the main staple of my living, I miss out on the gossipy tidbits. I'd wager it just barely made its money back, too. But, since their marketing department literally doesn't know shit from shine-ola, I'd wager that the next animated film (if they even bother to do one at all) will be more live-action madness (with Bill Murray!) and possibly bringing back the classic characters. I doubt you'll ever see an epic like Iron Giant from them ever again. -
I wanna be sedated.
2002-06-23 17:32:51
kyburg: I need to see Lilo 'n Stich, but I'm not sure when. I'd like to go see it tonight, but I need to buy groceries. We've been going weeks without them here (and I'm tired of fast food, even if it's been Subway all week).
I'm really stoked about the watercolor backgrounds, too. I was looking at one of the art books which had some interviews with the director/designers/animators/bg painters. It seems that the director/designer guy has a big thing for that Cadillacs and Dinosaurs look (speaking of the character design). I was never into that book, but I did enjoy the style. I'd keep picking it up, looking at it, thinking it was soooooo purdy, and then I'd put it down because I couldn't grasp why Cadillacs *or* dinosaurs were cool, even when put together like some sort of mutant Reeces Peanut Butter Cup concoction. Two bad things that are somehow made more confusing together.
And the design for Stich is just gorgeous. As is the rest of the characters. I'm glad that they're falling back on design principles that make the characters *appealing* rather than stylistic. Not that stylistic is bad; it just doesn't have a place with watercolor backgrounds. Watercolor = down home earthy to me, and the character design reflects that.
At any rate, I haven't even *seen* it yet and I'm gushing over it already. That's bad, because if I go into the movie thinking it's going to be the best Disney movie since Alladin, I'm just setting myself up for a big honkin' dissappointment.
I'll get back to you after I've seen it. :)
JOURNAL: Bowler
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