Juan F. Lara wrote:
>>> "Happy Feet" caught a break. Had "Charlotte's Web" opened last weekend it
>>> would've plummetted.
>
>>Ah, but it didn't! HF got $8+ million, while [the] CW got a "measly"
>>12 mil. Guess Medved never got that huge dropoff he wanted.
>
>>I'm surprised C-Dub didn't get a bigger opening. This is the first
>>time I can recall a 5-week-old animated or family film stealing
>>business from a much-hyped opening like CW.
>
> I was totally surprised as well. I had a suspicion that CW might flop,
> but I didn't believe in that suspicion enough to predict that.
Didn't you predict that Happy Feet would flop, too? Wow, your box
office prognostication skillz are as good as mine and Medved :)
> Now I strongly
> suspect that the character design of Charlotte played a big part in that
> movie's lackluster boxoffice. I wrote a tirade about this in alt.fan.furry.:
For the record, YOU called it a tirade, not me :)
> The people who don't mind getting really close to a spider, those people who
> keep spiders as pets and/or grow up to become arachnologists, are in a
> minority. The rest of us, myself included, just couldn't STAND to get so close
> to a hideous looking thing like CGI Charlotte.
But... spiders are furry. Flies, too. And some males in my family :)
> Here's a good example of
> realism NOT being the greatest achievement of animation. And also an example
> of traditional animation having more advantages than CGI animation. The
> characters in Hanna-Barbera's "Charlotte's Web" movie look realistic at first
> glance, but they inherently have some stylization. 2D Charlotte was stylized
> to have two eyes and a "hairdo" to make her appealing, yet she still believably
> looked like a spider. Traditional animation had more room for animators to
> work in regarding appeal.
Well, the animators could have stylized her to look like a "cuter"
animal, and maintained some realism, but I'm not sure what. I'm not
sure how a "Disneyfied" spider would go over, though. James and the
Giant Peach did a decent one, however. Maybe they should've gone for
something like that.
The last time I saw Charlotte's Web was on Betamax in the mid 1980s
(sometime after Warriors of the Wind), so don't ask me for my thoughts
on that film.
>>Only Pirates of the Caribbean 2 has a longer spell at #1 this year. Of
>>course, HF won't make nearly as much money, but what can? :)
>
> I was sceptical that HF would have a bigger boxoffice than "Over the
> Hedge". But it's passing OtH this week. I still don't think it will reach the
> $200M mark though.
> And now I don't think "Cars" has a lock for the Best Animated Feature
> Oscar. It's now a tossup between "Cars" and "Happy Feet".
HF is cuter, and doesn't have the baggage of a "letdown" factor from
people expecting the next Toy Story, Finding Nemo or Incredibles.
(After the Million-Dollar Baby win two years ago, it'll also confirm
Medved's suspicions about Hollywood's ability to market agenda pics as
sentimental flicks :) )
>> Told ya. Don't these CGI flicks usually do well overseas? Even when
>> they suck? :)
>
> I didn't think they would. I didn't see what about most of these United
> States CGI cartoons could catch on with foreign audiences.
Why do you think Shrek did so well, then? Even Pixar's chatty films
kill at the international box office.
>> Maybe if it got Iron Giant-sized word-of-mouth they could justify
>> keeping it around. Apparently it had too many lame ideas that couldn't
>> be marketed. I'll judge ffor myself whent he DVD hits Redbox vending
>> machines.
>
> The Rob Reiner character had some witty lines, even if it was a talking
> baseball. :-) So he held up the movie at first, but the movie ran out of steam
> halfway in.
That's the greatest compliment I've ever read about EH. Then again, we
all know how animation-savvy mainstream film critics are :)
> And you'd think getting hit by an apple that's been thrown at you
> would hurt a lot. :-)
Maybe it was an overripe apple. Or a tomato tossed by some audience
member.
> - Juan F. Lara
Terrence Briggs, just heard fps magazine editor Emru Townsend was on
BBC's The World radio program. Let me know if they want a
sociopolitical analysis of Shaman King sometime!
Peace to you...
Peace to you...
