July 7, 2003

What is the single stupidest story of this last weekend?

The issue of “traditional” versus computer animation in Sinbad.  I don’t know how it started.  I don’t know if it was a DreamWorks idea (they never pitched it to me) or if someone read it somewhere and it just took off.  But there are few more idiotic distinctions made in the history of entertainment journalism.

Is there a film out there with as engaging a storyline and as compelling a set of characters as Finding Nemo that was made in traditional animation and failed?  The only animated film that I know of in recent years that is considered of top quality and still failed at the box office is Warner Bros.’ Iron Giant.  It happened to be “traditional.”  To my mind’s eye, Lilo & Stitch underperformed slightly and it happened to be “traditional.” 

But the reason that Sinbad failed at the box office this weekend – I haven’t see it nor do I believe quality matters in the opening frame – is that it didn’t catch many people’s imaginations.  The macro view is the box office.  The micro is my 12-year-old niece and 14-year-old nephew who chose to stay home on a weeknight rather than go see the screening.  They just weren’t interested.  Over the weekend, when my nephew went to go see T3, my niece once again passed on the picture.  (She passed on Whale Rider too, to be fair.  We’ll get her there eventually.) 

It’s the reason why DreamWorks’ other animated failure, The Road To El Dorado, flopped.  It’s why Titan A.E. flopped.  Treasure Planet.  Anastasia.  And yes, Final Fantasy. 

Does anyone really believe that Anastasia would have been a hit if it were a CG film?  Or Iron Giant?  Does anyone really believe that Monster’s Inc. would have failed if it were made with “traditional” animation? 

Blaming a $6.8 million opening on “traditional” animation is…. blech.  The estimate puts the film $600,000 ahead of the CG-made Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie in its opening 3-day, despite Jonah being on 1461 fewer screens.  First, Jonah was seen as a success while Sinbad is seen as a failure.  Second, what does it have to do with CG?

NOTHING!

Pixar will have a slip someday.  And it will be in CG.  Aardman Studios may well deliver another huge hit for DreamWorks in 2005… in claymation.  Brother Bear is said to be in great shape, as was Lilo & Stitch… in “traditional” animation.  And DreamWorks will surely shoot the moon with the CG films, Shrek 2 and Sharkslayer.  (No, I haven’t forgotten The Incredibles or Robots or others… you get the point, right?)

The tools that were used for The Blair Witch Project, DigiBeta and 16mm film, was mistaken for a revolution of new technology.  In reality, it was a really clever idea that used technology to make itself more convincing…. just like a real movie.  Form follows function. 

WEEKEND REVIEW:  Most of what I have to say was laid out in the Friday draft of 15 Weeks Of Summer, which is right here.

I got an e-mail from a friend about weather factoring into low July 4 weekend numbers. Completely coincidentally, Ray Pride’s column brought up the heat of the weekend as a reason to get into the air conditioning.  Nonetheless, I want to reassert my position, which has grown on me as the weekend as progressed. 

It may be unpleasant – it sure is to me – but if the industry is going to treat art as product no different than canned peas, the industry should admit this reality to itself more readily.   It is far easier to jump onto this week’s “We just want it to open a little better than the original” train or to blame weather or quality of the product for a disappointing marketing result than to say, “Mistakes were made.”  2003 should be a gimme for the studio execs.  This summer is different, in density and built-in interest.   But the lessons of 2003 should not be written of as the same old same old.  There has been money left on the table and the job of studio execs is to figure out how to pick it up, excuses for former failures aside.

And the story of this July 4^th is far from over.  The pile-up we all expected going into the weekend did not happen.  But the logjam on the other side of the hill is not going to make things any easier.  Disney is shooting its second big cannon off on Wednesday, which should push both T3 and Legally Blonde 2 hard during their first and last wide open weekday runs, costing the duo as much as $5 million in business between then.  The battle next weekend should be between T3 and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen… for second place. 

A week later, Bad Boys II blasts into town.  One of the counterprogrammed titles that weekend, How to Deal, may have an open road with young women, as Legally Blonde 2 may be little more than a $6 million-weekend-grossing/$64 million total memory by then.   And the only down side for Johnny English might be that kids aren’t ready to trade eye patches in for tuxedoes quite yet.  Ironically, Universal should be rooting for a huge opening for Pirates, perhaps creating a little fatigue by Day 10. 

MEANWHILE:  I don’t know what DreamWorks’ in-house game plan was.  But I would bet that they were trying to slide one by, six weeks after Nemo, on a long weekend with a big R-rated title and a teen female skewing sequel, remembering the $25 million generated by two iffy kids’ movies (Like Mike/The Powerpuff Girls Movie) last year.  Bzzt!

That said, the risk was probably the best way to play this summer cousin of Treasure Planet.  By the time the worm turned on Pirates of the Caribbean, it was probably too late to push Sinbad until after the pirate movie whose wave they could have ridden to a better opening in August.  (Tomb Raider 2 and Spy Kids 3-D are in the way on July 25.)  If I were in their shoes, I would be considering an August 15 relaunch.  They rarely work.  But if anyone could make it work, it would be them.

READER OF THE DAY:  DA BERRIES writes:  “I find myself drawn to the endless pull of publicity in the big movies these days. I tried to avoid every commercial for the latest movie, knowing that sooner or later they would show me something I didn't want to see before hand. And I still see every trailer and commercial. Then I try to keep from reading the print reviews but I can't help but wonder what you and Ebert and that damned Harry Knowles has to think about it. And it affects me. Especially the reviews.

After a while the reviewers become like a old friend. You just have to know what they think about it. And for the most part, the reviewers I like the most tend to share my opinion on things, so I like to know what I'm getting into. And even if they disagree, I respect what they have to say by the way they say it. But then comes the part I don't want to do but I can't stop doing.

I have to know what all the other guys think.

So I go to RottenTomatoes.com and I start looking. And reading. And the chip begins to build. If I am excited by a new movie coming, If I want it to be good and the reviewers are slamming it-I get defensive. If they are singing its praises I start to build up the movie in my mind, and It usually fails to meet my expectations-not because it wasn't good, but because I began to expect too much. Sometimes I go into a movie with so much baggage that is a wonder I even enjoy it anymore.

I'm starting to think if I would be better off avoiding it all. All the reviews, Internet "scoops", commercials and even my favorite-the trailers. Some of my best move experiences have come at home (in front of my ridiculously oversized 65" widescreen television), seeing a movie I know nothing about for the first time and being totally unprepared for where it is going to take me.  I think I'll just wait for video from now on.

Yeah, right.”

E ME:  If you really want to see something, does weather effect your choice of whether to go to the theater or not?

The Matrix Reloaded. Reloaded.
Read Part One
Read Part Two