Daily post 18 Sep 2009 08:23 am
Cloudy/Holland/POE/
- Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs came with a lot of advance on-line promotion. However, it opened today, and I didn’t have a clue. The film seems to have snuck into town on tip toe. Not even bus and subway ads in NY. I’ve seen one ad – two weeks ago – on TV. Even Ponyo had 2 commercials on broadcast TV (that I saw). There were NO newspaper ads.
So the film opens in NY officially unannounced, and the newspapers gave back in kind. All of the reviewers who reviewed the film were not the lead critics; as a matter of fact most weren’t even the seconds. The Village Voice hasn’t even reviewed the film yet!
Don’t these marketing experts, hired by the big studios, realize they could make a buck with these films! Two of the last year’s biggest money making movies were animated. Ice Age III and UP. Half a billion dollar potential is worth a few ads!
Surprise! surprise! It so happens that the majority of them actually liked the film. That has something to do with the good will Judy and Ron Barrett‘s book brings with it, but the film has to stand on its own. Actually, it doesn’t even resemble the book anymore – except for the book’s main story. (As a matter of fact, it looks very ho hum – like 90% of the other cg features dumped on us.
Hopefully, the film will do well and more attention will be paid in the future. Here are some links to the NY papers:
- The third tier writer at The NY Times, Daniel M. Gold, said: In a year in which Hollywood’s 3-D animated films have seemed to set the genius of Pixar’s “Up†against the dubious best of everything else, the impulse to take a break from computer-generated family fare is understandable. (Any urge to see “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs†again? I thought not.)
What! No slide show on the Times for this one?
- The second string reviewer for The NY Daily News, Elizabeth Weitzman, gave it Four Stars and said: “Unless you’re on your way to Disney World by way of Hersheypark, ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ is very likely the most fun your family will have this month.
- Even The NY Post doesn’t put up their lead critic. Kyle Smith wrote the only negative review – Two Stars:”The animated movie greatly expands on the kids’ book on which it’s based in a clever and engaging first half. But the second half leaves a foul aftertaste. Slapdash action scenes play against dreary warnings to fear wealth and beauty. “
Congratulations to those who made it into the Holland Animation Festival scheduled to take place in Utrecht from the 4th to 8th of November. Americans in competition include:
- Non-Sponsored Films:
Chris Ware – Quimby the Mouse
Alex Budovsky – Royal Nightmare
Elliot Cowan – The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead
Sponsored Films:
Michael Jantze – Hilton Hotels: Mr. Lux in ‘At your Service’
George Griffin – Lorraine Feather: You’re Outa HereBoxhead and Roundhead in a stressful situation
.
For the complete lists of films in competition go here.
- For those who were not aware of it, I have a site designed to showcase the feature we’re putting together, Poe.
This site is called PoeStory.net and it contains clips, artwork and production updates about a long-in-process film. I hope to see it moving sooner rather than later, and this site allows me to keep in touch with it.
You can also find the some of the same material on my studio website at MichaelSpornAnimation.com. Once on the home page click the black cat which links to POE.
By the way, that site – on the Home Page – gives the scheduled times many of my films run on HBO (they repeat monthly.)
on 18 Sep 2009 at 9:53 am 1.Elliot Cowan said …
Thanks for the shout out Michael.
A pleasure to be mentioned on your blog.
The stressful adventure is the one called Brothers In Arms.
I suspect they didn’t have the space for the entire title.
Perhaps we have the telly on more in our home, but I’ve seen several million commercials for Cloudy WACOF.
on 18 Sep 2009 at 9:57 am 2.George Griffin said …
Utrecht is also showing my music video, which is listed in their Commissioned Films category as “Lorraine Feather: You’re Outa Here.” That’s how “clips” are entitled: to brand the musical talent. YOH is in fact Lorraine’s baby: she wrote the lyrics based on a tune by Fats Waller, hired the band (including the legendary Dick Hyman on stride piano), sang in her signature motor mouth style and hired me to do a kind of animated “neo-soundie.” It was lots of fun.
Allow for some download time:
http://www.geogrif.com/data/qts/YOH/YOHdv21.mp4
on 18 Sep 2009 at 10:11 am 3.Michael said …
Sorry, George. I missed it when looking over the list of entries. I’ve added it to the post, appropriately.
Elliot, Your film is deserving of the attention. I did miss the ads for “Cloudy” but if you say they’re there, I’m pleased. The film looks so mediocre, perhaps I was just blocking them out. I hope it has a good weekend.
on 18 Sep 2009 at 10:16 am 4.John R. Dilworth said …
Congratulations on the Poe site. I love this idea and the immediate
access into the process of developing a large format production.
on 18 Sep 2009 at 11:51 am 5.Liesje Kraai said …
Fear not. I’ve seen loads of buses driving about with Cloudy signs pasted to their sides. I plan on seeing it as much as possible.
on 18 Sep 2009 at 12:33 pm 6.Pierre Fontaine said …
The Poe project looks really fantastic. It’s a bit like an old lithograph come to life. I’ll be following the progress of this project with great interest!
Pierre
on 18 Sep 2009 at 3:14 pm 7.Stephen Worth said …
ASIFA-Hollywood had a screening of Meatballs last night at the Academy theater. The unrelenting manic pace and arbitrary gags and Saturday morning writing formulas did me in after about an hour, I spent the last 20 minutes of it on a couch in the lobby.
I’m a big Poe fan. Have you ever heard the radio adaptation of The Black Cat with Peter Lorre? It’s amazing.