As long as I'm a new contributor on the Movie Watch, I might as well blow any reputation I might have in my first post. Yesterday I read that Ezra said that he'd rather watch the direct-to-DVD sequel to 101 Dalmatians. While I would not expect Beverly Hills Chihuahua to be the next Citizen Kane or anything after seeing the latest trailer it looks far from a throw away family film.
I'll admit it, I was as negative as everyone else when I saw the first poster for this movie. It didn't really show much besides for two chihuahuas, an Aztec temple and a large marquee bragging about the voice roles of George Lopez (ugh) and Drew Barrymore. Many felt it looked like the worst movie of the year, though with films like Meet Dave and The Love Guru (yes, I've seen them) I'd beg to differ. The second punch to this movie's face was the teaser that was attached to WALL-E. This teaser really said little what the movie was actually about and for 90% of the people in the audience it would be the only footage they'd see from the actual movie before its September release. For the seasoned movie viewer the teaser really had nothing to offer besides for poorly animated Chihuahua's playing the drums. With the inevitable pop-culture references as implied by an old DJ BOBO pop song blaring in the background with Chihuahua's singing and dancing behind it. This teaser made the offensive trailer for Madagascar seem tame. The fact that this movie also is helmed by the director of the live-action Scooby-Doo movies and Big Mamma's House didn't do much to win me over on this movie either.
However when I saw that new trailer that was posted by Disney up on YouTube more recently it was a very different movie than the gimmicky dreck I was expecting. The new trailer seemed more like Homeward Bound with a pretty inoffensive and subdued sense of humor. The trailer even did the miraculous job of putting the teaser into perspective making the little prologue about the Aztecs before the opening make a lot more sense. The trailer also had very little CGI apart from the obvious moving lips on the dogs whereas the teaser was completely 3D animated. The other surprise was that there were no pop-culture references in the full trailer either apart from that Scarface line but that's so deeply embedded into our culture I don't know if it even counts. In a world where the trailer for Madagascar Escape 2 Africa was getting an uproarious laugh in the movie theater this is a great thing. Sure, it had its share of lame jokes in the trailer but so do a lot of Disney movies. If you judged Enchanted by its trailer it would look pretty formulaic as well. Disney is concerned first and foremost with families and if showing a gang of chihuahuas playing the bongos was enough to get the kids excited, then it will ultimately be a success.
The new trailer made me develop quite a soft spot for this movie. It reminded me a lot of the movies I've been forced to sit through in elementary school just to get the mangey kids quite for an hour or so. I had no clue at that time what the general fan consensus those movies had. In fact, a lot of the films I fondly remembered received terrible reviews, such as Mouse Hunt whereas Babe was nominated for an Academy Award and I had no idea at the time. I was crushed when I saw Roger Ebert's scathing review of Home Alone when they opened up their review archive to the internet. But at the same time I agreed with a lot of his criticism. He may have missed the point of a simple dumb family movie. Roger Ebert had a point in that it would have more emotional resonance if they showed Kevin as a vulnerable and defenseless kid in the face of criminals, but it would seem entirely out of place among the various slapstick gags that were to follow. If screenwriter John Hughes were to follow Ebert's advice he'd have to retool the film entirely for something that's already become a classic family movie in its current state.
To get things straight I'm still not going to go out of my way to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua, that is unless by some weird miracle it winds up getting a Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, this is definitely something I'd watch on a lazy sunday had it been on Disney Channel or something and in comparison to other non-Disney family dreck like Fly Me to the Moon and Space Chimps this movie's looking pretty promising for its fairly young audience. At the very least prints of Salvador Dali's short film Destino will be screened before all the prints of Beverly Hills Chihuahua, that's worth the price of admission alone or it could make a better stoner film than Pineapple Express, and that's saying a lot.
2 comments:
Dude!! Do me and everyone else a favor...don't quit your day job!! I took my kids to see FLY ME TO THE MOON three times this weekend along with all my friends who love and adore this movie. Why? Well if you did your homework, you would have seen a sweet film that taught my kids a little bit about a significant historical moment of humanity, that will sadly never be experienced in my childrens lifetime, with the most amazing 3D I have ever seen. My kids walked out of this movie and said, "I want to be an astronaut" Not a baseball player or being famous...an astronaut!!! When have you ever heard that? For once a film that's not mean spirited, has a positive message and encourages dialog between generations. Don't people in your industry support these movies and the people who made them? It's a kids movie for cryin' out loud! Do you know that there's very little quality stuff out there for us parents and you guys just completely sabotage it! I guess your allegiance belongs to the big corporate guys and not the little guy. Shame on you for your ignorance to what parents have been begging for and shame on you since you obviously didn't see this film and you have the audacity to make a smarmy comment. This movie deserves better and so do the people who made it.
lol, I didn't think what I said about Fly Me to the Moon was so controversial. To get things straight I have nothing against low-budget animated movies, most of the independent animation scene is low budget.
I typically avoid movies that have a score less than a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, sure I haven't seen it but that 18% is a pretty strong case against it from people who have.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009249-fly_me_to_the_moon/
Unlike you, I view animation as the most poignant and handcrafted art form that is totally separate from film and can evoke emotions stronger than any other movie. I mean, many critics have compared WALL-E to an Inconvenient Truth and WALL-E had next to no dialogue at all. And to my credit, I saw WALL-E six times, twice as many times as you've seen Fly Me to the Moon. You should take your kids to see it, so then you can see how bad Fly Me to the Moon was in comparison.
Also, sure your kids said they wanted to be "an astronaut" but a really fascinating animated movie will make a kid want to be an animator walking out, just like the five year old version of me walking out seeing the original Toy Story.
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