Puppy Dog Eyes

[tealin]

Dear Internet,

Please please please please please go see Bolt this weekend. I could mention the blood, sweat, and tears that went into it, I could tell its long and troubled history, I could list names of people to see it for, but I am going to forgo the heartstrings and stick to business.

Bolt is the first movie coming out that has been made entirely under the Pixar governorship. It's being seen as a test of how the Pixar alliance is working and whether or not the slow, baggage-ridden money pit that is Disney Feature Animation can pull its own weight. Opening against Twilight is, to paraphrase, a damned unfortunate business, albeit better than opening within a week of Harry Potter as was originally planned. Even so, Twilight is sure to cut into its success, and you can bet that when the money people look at the numbers at the end of the year they won't adjust for 'if we'd opened on a different weekend.' It's the numbers that matter in the end, and for that matter it's the opening weekend that matters most of all. The question 'do people want to see Disney animated movies?' will be answered by how many people bother to show up when one is released. I know it's kind of dumb that so much rides on opening weekend and not on what word-of-mouth can do, but that is the way the business works, and with the quick turnaround from theatres to DVD these days there really isn't time for word-of-mouth to work its magic if the film doesn't have a strong headstart. If you wait until it's on DVD, this tells the money people that the theatrical run is a waste of time and money, which can lead to straight-to-DVD movies and the attendant slide in story and artistic standards that results from a reduced budget and production schedule.

My main point here is consequences: The main thing riding on Twilight's success is the possibility of another Twilight movie. The reaction to Bolt will affect unrelated Disney Feature Animation projects all the way down the pipeline. Your money is your vote: if you buy a ticket for Bolt, you are saying 'yes, I enjoy Disney animation, please keep making it for many years to come.'

In case you're wondering if it's any good, my short answer is 'yes.' My long answer is: I enjoyed it, and the people I know who've seen it and haven't been surrounded by it for the last nine months really enjoyed it. It's been getting good reviews from critics as well. I haven't reviewed it here because I am coming at it from completely the wrong direction to do any objective commentary or even judge its entertainment value.

So GO SEE IT, okay?

Thanks,

Tealin

P.S. I may post some of the in-jokes this weekend.

Comments

[septentrio.livejournal.com]

Well... I'll go see it, because it's Disney, but I feel a little conflicted about it because I am/was a pretty big Chris Sanders fan and I was very bothered by American Dog going belly up and becoming this. I'm not saying Sanders wasn't at fault, because I don't know the whole story and when I mentioned it to him at Comic Con he gave a very clean, kind story about how he was totally okay with what happened because he got to keep a single character for himself (that cat in his Kiskaloo comic now), and he didn't seem bothered by what happened at all. But I really like John Lasseter, too, and the stories about how much he dislikes Lilo and Stitch and how much he disliked what he saw of American Dog make me really sad because... I like Chris Sanders' stuff AND John Lasseter's stuff.

ANYWAY. Visually, Bolt doesn't do a single thing for me. I think the design is kind of vanilla, and I have trouble thinking of 3D as true Disney Animation, and unfortunately I bet a lot of other people (non-fans) do, too. BUT.

(And really, this is the only important part...) I love Disney and what they stand for as a company, no matter how confused things get, just because the company is SO massive, I still believe in what Disney can be at its best. So, because of that, I will make a real effort to see Bolt opening weekend, even though I'm kinda swamped with school.

I know, I didn't need to say all that stuff about being conflicted but I just wish I could have seen American Dog and decided for myself whether or not it was any good. :\

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I only ever saw a tiny tiny bit of American Dog (ironically it was a bit boarded by one of the guys who became a director on Bolt) and some of the concept art. I have to say, it looked pretty cool, but the consensus from people who actually saw it was that it was full of cool things but didn't work very well as a whole – like if you made a salad with everything you liked but forgot that tuna and jellybeans didn't actually go together. And Bolt does work. So there is that small bit of consolation. As for the Lasseter/Sanders politics, well, I have a number of opinions on the matter but all the information I have is second- or third-hand and gossiping is not in my job description no matter how much it is central to the life of an animation studio.

I agree the design is a bit blah (I have especial disdain for Mittens' model, alas) but keep in mind that at this time last year they hadn't even finished redesigning and modelling the characters. The fact that they finished at all is mindblowing, much less that they did such a good job.

[septentrio.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I forget just how quickly they "threw together" (though not really) the design on this, so in this case it's understandable. I think Bolt looks cute but the rest of the characters look really familiar.

My boyfriend is always asking if they got the idea from Thunderbolt in 101 Dalmations since I made him watch that a few months ago. I wouldn't be surprised, heh.

Well it's weird, I love Lilo and Stitch but so far his other work has left me kinda cold. I mean, his art is always wonderful but sometimes his jokes are hard to follow, so if American Dog was like that, I could see that being a problem. I heard somewhere that the other director on Lilo and Stitch maybe deserved more credit than he got, the idea being that he was the one that made L&S so good. (Dean DeBlois or something? I can't remember off-hand.)

Anyway, what really sucks is Chris Sanders was really nice to me at Comic Con last year and was really friendly, and this year I don't know what was going on but my boyfriend and I stood at his booth for like 15 or 20 minutes waiting for him to say hello or acknowledge us or something, and he wouldn't. At first he was talking to someone else but then he was just "working on something," and the other people at his booth were just kind of conveniently not paying attention. It really rubbed me the wrong way, and it's a shame because before that he was my favorite artist.

So, I guess, moral of the story... If you ever have a booth at a convention and want to have fans, be nice to them? ;) Because I went so far as to take his RSS feed off my friends list after that, cause it kinda made me feel like a sucker for buying a figure of his last year. :\

With that in mind, I'm even more likely to see Bolt this weekend. XD